This sequence is so dense, it seems a little gratuitous that I posted it all together. Then again, these Eve + Will scenes are like popcorn, the body races anxiously for the next bite with little satisfaction in between. I think I recognized how far it needed to go, but I had a lot to do. I'd been holding onto the "this dick" gag for years with no place to, y'know, put it in. The camouflage is an ambitious little effect but my instinct says it was just a lot.
Some readers took Hanna's disapproval as a sign that she might be jealous of Eve, but that was never my intention. I think as the series wound down the readership got more conspiracy-minded, looking for friendship-imploding deceptions, secret pregnancies and illnesses, the sort of tricks a series turns to when it's forced to continue beyond its natural life. And I guess that all could've been fun, but it was never my interest. Octopus Pie was a kind of an old fucker, sure, but there was some life to it yet.
The scene ends in sort of a throwback to another time Will came to Eve's work to kiss her, reinforcing their perpetual stasis of in-love-but-not-together while their material and emotional worlds shift under their feet. Are they in a better place now?
24 thoughts on “#927-929 – one of these days”
Mason
I’ve always wondered if “gross grapes” is just some grocery store humor or if it’s meant to reference Hannah’s disapproval of the Will and Eve shenanigans, since grapes is an inside joke between them. I know that’s a hell of a stretch, but it always crosses my mind when I read this strip.
Rezmason
It's worth comparing this page to the very first page. Eve has transformed a lot, and she's worked here at Olly's, hard, this whole time. Hope it pays off! 😉
Also I just realized dressing Eve as Santa in Chapter 36 was another name pun, "Christmas Eve"
Tangerine
CHRISTMAS EVE OMG
please tell me
But then, what was her disapproval about? was it just because she thought it was a bad idea?
Ryan
Will setting his hand on the mop handle and using it to pull Eve into the kiss is the slickest fucking thing I've seen anyone do in this dang comic full of dufuses and it honestly makes me want to air-punch every time I see it.
Wingéd Elf Girl
Saaaame!! Good job, improved-and-smooth Will 😀
Rezmason
This from a guy who inherited his mom's bad skiing genes and skied right into a mailbox 😀
http://www.octopuspie.com/246
Saga
Well, they say you can`t cross the same river twice, so hope springs eternally for Will and Eve. Always just took Hannah`s disgust as her natural reaction to anything schmalzy and romantic. What is more romantic than an almost-maybe-possibly-partner visiting you at your workplace without a date? "I just came by to see you" has always been very romatic sentiment to me…
cwbuecheler
I always interpreted it as Hanna not believing Will had really done the work on himself that he needed to do to actually fit with Eve, while simultaneously believing that Eve wasn't ready even if he had, all sprinkled with a healthy dose of "my serious, long-term relationship blew up and I'm still processing it". Basically "you idiots, this is just gonna end poorly."
Which is true of all relationships until the one where it isn't, I suppose.
Anyway, "Are they in a better place now?" … I think Will is, and I think he, combined with the fire at Olly's, helps drag Eve there as well.
cwbuecheler
Oh, PS: it's not as show-y as some of the other excellent examples, but I've always really liked the color work in this one. It's just a very pleasant set of tones that help set the mood.
Mauricio Lemos
It looks to me like Hanna used to have control of these sort of situations and now is painfully learning to let go and let people make their own mistakes (or what she believes are mistakes).
Tragus
Eve briefly going chameleon is a really nice visual gag on the desire to turn invisible when you're caught being weird! 🙂
Tangerine
I could not parse what was going on there, even with Meredith's reference to 'camouflage'. I had studied the coloring,but I was trying to figure out what was going on with the store's lighting all of a sudden.
But now that you've explained it this way I see it: the line of the top bar of the fridge as a shadow-stripe across the top of her head, how above it her head blends in with the wall and below it the cartons are casting fuzzy shadows through her semi-transparent body.
In fact now that I'm noticing, the return is gradual–in the next panel she's still camouflaged on the bottom half. Nice colorist detail. I assume Meredith proposed it to Valerie since it's referenced in the dialogue.
The line "That was purely instinctual" makes sense now, too.
Franki
Lizard eyes too. I loved this gag.
Amelie W.
Who among us has never chameleonized out of pure embarrassment sometimes
Kat
I always felt confused by this page (even though I love it) I guess because I failed to understand the extent to which Eve and Will are Friends with Benefits. She takes the kiss so much in stride, while I as the reader am flipping out over such a bold declaration of Will’s feelings contained in that kiss. She doesn’t seem to realize it’s a gesture that’s different from their earlier interactions as FWB, I suppose because she’s used to hooking up with him. It makes me wonder what Eve has been thinking about Will this whole time. She’s been hung up on Park for so long, and clearly feels an emotional and physical attraction to Will, but even her final encounter with Park isn’t enough to get her to immediately think of Will as a replacement for her daydreams about finding the One. She still just seems to think of him as her cute fuck buddy. Does the thought of being with him not seem viable because of her past rejections of him? Does she just not have that depth of feeling for him yet? What do y’all think??
cwbuecheler
I think she's had the depth of feeling for him for a while but a) may not fully realize it because of all the ups and downs they've been through and b) may not actually know how to act on it – the stuff coming up, where Will is trying to do the "early stages of dating" thing and Eve's like "dude why?" explains some of that. She feels like they know each other, but they don't, at least not that way, and when Will admits that and makes Eve inspect it in herself, it changes things for her – makes her realize she DOES want what he wants. It's part of why right afterwards is the first time she's able to say she loves him (and once she says it she can't stop, which is fucking adorable, but this comment is also WAY ahead of things now, so I'll move on!)
Kath
I want to say the 3rd panel where Eve just fades from existence from a moment is so perfectly depicted and is simply the best. I have gone back to this panel many times I find it hilarious
'Drew Bergy
It occurs to me that after this run of re-running the webcomic I'd really like to see you revisit the characters for another run, even a short run to show where you see them today. These characters became your reader's 'Friends' in a way, and just as I would love to see a reunion of favorite TV show episodes I think that it would be really great. Of course, anything like that would have to be enjoyable and workable with Meredith Gran and her life today.
Tangerine
While it might be outside the scope of the project, I agree this could be really charming.
I mean, *I* want to know.
I also want life to be good for them–Will and Eve together and happy.
I'll confess I want Hanna with either Larry or Marek. Larry, probably, since Meredith has repeatedly telegraphed in her commentary that Hanna changing her mind about kids would not be enough for fix what didn't work for her and Marek (that reference to how Hanna does all the talking in their dynamic and that it's not what Marek needs, which is the kind of thing that is really unlikely to change). And we've seen Hanna and Marek already. I'd love to see Larry's chillness envelope Hanna. They'd have a really cool opposites-attract relational dynamic where sometimes it would be bringing out the best in both of them and sometimes they'd be totally out of sync with each other.
And then it's like, well isn't that maybe just too cute? Besties and besties, double-dating forever! There's a candy-colored haze around that that doesn't have human authenticity to it.
Then again if Eve were to participate in Hanna's business in some way (running a storefront perhaps) the dynamics could be realistic and intense and adult and interesting.
I'd just want it not to explode, and with work and personal life all in one basket like that, it would very much be a risk.
Oh, and I also want Jane and Marigold to be happy together–but with Marigold's breakups with Will and Hanna, they are permanently on a separate offshoot of the story. Friend groups just don't come back together again like that.
If I was going to give someone a dramatic character arc or change for the revisit, it would be Hanna. In that candy-colored dream world I've had her have an epiphany that she screwed up with Marigold and come around to respect her and make a sincere apology. I wouldn't have the friendship resume, but they would be able to cross paths with general good wishes and mild fondness for each other and who they were as close friends once.
. . .You know what would be fun (if it didn't pretty much guarantee that Hanna's business was collapsing *again*)?–Hanna & Larry and Will & Eve (with a kid in the mix or maybe as many as 3 total) in a quarantine pod. I mean, it'd cease to be escapism but there'd be some cathartic humor in there for sure.
If it was here in the now, which of these characters would be involved in BLM? Almost certainly not Eve or Hanna, given their reactions to Occupy.
'Drew Bergy
That was a really well thought out answer! However, it might also be that Meredith might pair off the characters with entirely new ones, and have them appear with children from such relationships that might contradict all previous notions. Perhaps Eve never had children, but Hannah had? Larry might have married a man and adopted? Will and Hanna might have given up recreational drugs for the sake of their family, with maybe an occasional drink or toke in private or at small gatherings, but no longer for the escape of being high? People change over the years, and those changes can be even more interesting to explore than just following the past behaviors to an inevitable conclusion.
WOLF
I'm a workaholic, so I totally read Hannah as being mad Will was gonna mess up her work retreat. Nothing else even crossed my mind.
Tangerine
Hanna's also pretty self-centered, and she doesn't really do the protectiveness thing much (Marigold seemed to me to be an exception to that). So my take was yours, very much just "This is annoying for MEEEEEEEEEEE!"
Also I am deeply amused by how quickly she devolves from a quasi-mom role ("30 seconds", with sardonic eyelids–something Will by posture and wide-eyedness seems startled by) and then as it's clear he's shaken her off, to the expression of that of a bored, annoyed 4-year-old: HOW LONG IS SHE GOING TO HAVE TO WAIT WHILE THE GROWNUPS HAVE THEIR BORING TALK UGH IT'S TIME TO GOOOOOO
I might do this–well, not exactly, I'd be too caught up in the romance/risk of the situation. . . but I do act like this sometimes for fun. When I do it I'm hamming it up and being a goofball, so I tend to project that onto Hanna and find what she's doing funnier. But probably she's basically playing it straight here, which is funny in a different way but also really speaks to her strengths and deficits as a friend.
joseph
there'a a lot to love on this page, Meredith really dished out the popcorn for this scene. But my fav touch is the swirly mophead in the kiss panel… just v pleasing.