Les the Wimp gets owned again, this time by Funky, who has usurped Les’ triumph on behalf of all Westviewvians.
What is with the staging of today’s scene? Funky asks a question from behind the counter, Les replies, and Funky races around the counter to exult? Susan is so startled that in panel 2, she retracts her head like a turtle.
Sure, she’s mentally unstable, but there is a method to Station Wagon Susan’s madness: allow her rival to reply first, and then give the exact opposite response, knowing that Cayla will sheepishly concur.
It was Memorial Day when TB left off with the Les/Cayla/Susan triangle, and after a summer of time-travel and PTSD-afflicted dating (but ironically, no Summer), he picks it up again. The top-right panel is quite well-drawn, and portends much drama. Taken by itself, there are many ways one can go with it: is Cayla driving past Montoni’s when she happens to spy Susan walking in? Or is she parked outside, lying in wait? In the next panel we learn that both ladies have been summoned to the pizzeria by Les, “The Man”. Of course, Susan has made it a point to arrive first.
Note the ladies’ astonished expressions in the penultimate panel at Les’ un-ironic use of the phrase “long and hard”.
I guess getting detention on the last day of school means the poor kid is going to have to sit in the classroom for the next three months? Susan appears so baffled by this turn of events that in panel 2, she momentarily develops a Jay Leno-esque jaw.
“It’s Susan Smith, grown up and pretty! She’s winning Les away from me by reminding him that he saved her life when she attempted suicide!”
I think today’s space would have been put to much better use depicting a wild cafeteria catfight to the death between Cayla “the Crusher” and Susan “the Snake”, as Les appreciatively looks on, wearing that smug smirk we see on his disembodied head at the top of today’s comic.
Son of Stuck Funky 