Oh man, I so called it yesterday.
Compliments to Willis for yesterday’s comic – I knew from Billie’s face that, when she looked at Chester, she was looking at someone she knew committed sexual assault. I know that face.
Maybe not sexual assault, but definitely got her pregnant and pressured her into getting an abortion.
Arianod
Never mind, I’d somehow skipped the “cover your drinks” part. Definitely SA.
Zaxares
Ah, is that what the “drive Alice across state lines” was referring to? I suspected that might be what it meant, but I wasn’t sure since I’m not from the US.
Abel Undercity
She had to take Alice to the nearest abortion clinic, which presumably was in anther state. Even in states where it’s still legal, a lot of effort has been put in by anti-abortion politicians and activists to close clinics.
Plaaaaaa
Or the comic takes place in a future after abortion gets banned in Indiana.
thejeff
That future is now. And it was even now a year or so ago when this flashback takes place.
Michael Steamweed
Even back when the medical procedures were legal in all US states, states had varying requirements for parental consent or informing them. Alice may not have wanted her parents to know. Going across state lines: abortion procedures are now illegal in Indiana, but still legal in neighboring states Illinois and Michigan.
Rose by Any other Name
Different states have different laws concerning abortions, so at times, it becomes necessary to drive to a different state to get a necessary medical procedure that can, at times, take several days, requiring expensive hotel stays.
Also, this comic right here is why I still have a Billie gravitar. While I’ve never been much of a drinker, the rest of this *waves at comic* is all too familiar. I’ve lived this – except without the satisfying punch.
Rose by Any other Name
Oh. Also no sash. I was not Prom Queen – not even in the running.
Yep, jumping straight to murder is totally you being the good person here, taking the high ground and all. No trials, no concerns about justice or rehabilitation or debts to society being paid. Judge, jury, and executioner in one godlike person is really the efficient system, after all.
How do you want to kill him? Clearly you’ve thought it out.
I recommend for you own good that you dispense with any notion that Due Process in the United States is some gold standard for morality itself or some machine which will eventually give everyone what they deserve as a matter of course.
History proves this to be nothing more than wishful thinking.
thejeff
That’s true, but bad as it is, vigilante or mob justice is worse.
Of course, this is fiction and there’s nothing wrong with wanting some retributive justice with your fiction.
“the ends justifies the means” is certainly a shitty moral philosophy,
but at the same time, we shouldn’t overcorrect to the point to which thinking about the ends at *all* becomes treated as inherently immoral in practice, as is unfortunately the case today with government officials who claim to represent the interests of women and vulnerable minorities
given the situation of rapists seldom seeing actual jail time in a red state like Indiana, as ugly as vigilante justice is, it is often unfortunately the most realistic way of preventing them from doing further harm
cuz lets face it — if the goal is to see the most ethical outcome, and all your most realistic options for doing so are terrible, the most moral thing to do is pick whichever will mitigate the damage
Someone saying “death’s too good for him” in the comment section, about a character in a comic, is not worth excoriating that someone. If Ana had said that about a real person, I’d get where you were coming from. But we don’t need to go so far as to police each other’s expression of hate toward fictional characters in some attempt to make a moral point of our own.
Jammy
This isn’t ‘The Punisher’ or ‘Invincible.’ Human life kind of matters in this slice-of-life comic and the characters you love have already been traumatized by death of even bad people. Use that brain, friend. Hating a comic character to the point that you want to kill him after 3 strips isn’t healthy.
That’s such a painful and reasonable response, and would be SO human. I want this to be the case, it would be such great storytelling.
Kelibath
Yes. I want to see this now.
Even if she was drunk, likely drinking was a reaction to this moment, and/or upcoming fallout with Alice, clearly – but how intentional it was to go that route is VERY painfully interesting.
I love that she stuck with that advice despite everything.
Jennifer’s best moment in college might honestly still be the times she comes through in trying to look after her “squad”.
Kelibath
She needs some looking after too, though. And a bit less automatic assumption of the automatic moral high ground.
But I can see why Alice ended their friendship / relationship after that. Even before the car crash.
Not great to announce your friend’s unlawful (in Indiana) abortion to the whole graduating class, on microphone, without said friend’s advance permission. Nor their r***.
I wouldn’t be cool with that AT ALL, if I were Alice.
We see Alice distraught over a passed-out Billie in the flashback — maybe Alice told Billie off and that’s why Billie got so drunk?
That’s not a passed out Billie, that is a car crashed Billie. Alice was in the car with her.
I definitely think it’s likely that Creatrix is right and Billie was roofied by this asshole or his friends and wasn’t drunk at all, she just leaned into the drunk thing for some reason we’ll probably find out.
Charles Phipps
I dunno, I think Jennifer is leaving immediately. That wouldn’t give time for a roofie in response to the punch.
Nymph
I think what I think, we’ll find out as the story goes on, but it would make a lot of depressing sense and I like the idea. Also not sure why Billie would leave immediately, but again I guess we’ll find out!
Charles Phipps
I think she’d want to get Alice away from Chester and any follow up questions but that’s just my thought.
We definitely will find out the truth of Jennifer’s DUI tonight, though.
BorkBorkBork
When we heard of Billie describe herself as “Head Cheerleader, Problem Solver,” I think that’s what she used to be. This Billie drinks, sure, but she looks out for people. She’s not yet descended into alcoholism. This isn’t self-destructive; it’s self-affirming.
I also agree there’s a high chance of the crash happened because of revenge. There’s a zero percent chance that Chester and the people who voted him Prom King are going to be, “Oh, snap, she called out my SA, I guess she got me good!”
Roofie is possible. Drunk, but not planning on driving until she suddenly realizes she has to get *away* is possible. Buzzed, but trying to flee persuers is possible.
The fact that Alice is in the car with Billie, and not with Chester, alone says volumes.
Also. With this context, the entire Billie – Alice conversation in fall semester hits WAY differently. Alice’s weird reaction, then sudden angry reaction. How she didn’t talk to Billie at all all summer. Either she was being fed some BS, or chose to believe a version of the truth that had Billie as the villain, because she couldn’t accept Chester as the villain.
Laura
Not being able to wrap one’s head around one’s abuser as the villain…
Yup. Been there.
Laura
“wrap one’s head around” = comprehend.
Sorry. Poor choice of metaphor.
thejeff
I don’t see this as that different. There are definite indications she was already a self-destructive alcoholic and even in first semester she’s still got the looking out for her people thing going on.
I think she’s got more self-loathing and awareness now and that’s probably linked to DUI
cbwroses
Considering that she just ended the strip with “cover your drinks” I’d be very surprised that she was roofied, revenge or otherwise.
UNLESS she was roofied by someone she trusted.
Since Alice was eventually okay with it, so Chester the Molester claims, and she may in fact be very upset that her sexual assault and abortion was outed to the entire school, if she convinced herself (or was convinced by someone else) to roofie Jennifer, I would find it more believable (and more messed up).
Ten years ago IRL. I can feel my youth escaping my body.
Joy
Omg I was still a teen back then
Matthew Davis
It could be that Alice had a fight with her due to the revelation, she drank because she was upset, and that lead to the crash.
Michael Steamweed
That’s what I’m expecting. Billie did drink a lot of alcohol. They do leave the party and drive away. They do talk a lot, intensely, and argue. Alice remains defending her rapist (“boyfriend”) maybe due to denial or fear of social stigma? They do crash into the tree.
The Blueprint System
Alternate theory: Chester takes revenge on Billie by roofie-ing her but somehow convinces Alice to give Billie the drink feigning good intentions, so Alice doesn’t know it’s roofied, and Billie doesn’t know it’s from Chester, so she doesn’t suspect anything about the drink. Billie hits the tree, destroying both her life and her relationship with Alice. Billie wonders if she could have been roofied but given her speech here is too ashamed to ever admit that she had allowed that to happen, so Alice is allowed to continue believing that Billie was the problem.
Yumi
If Alice had known she was roofied, I don’t think she would have gotten into the car with her.
Her being drunk might not have stopped that because, unfortunately, drinking and driving isn’t that uncommon. Often it does not end in car crashes. It’s possible Alice has been driven by an intoxicated Billie before and been fine. She might have been more drunk than Alice thought tonight, or she messed up while driving in a way she just hadn’t before.
I do think it could have been that Billie was drinking AND was drugged, so when she crashed, all Alice knew was that she had been drinking. I assume paramedics came, and Billie would have been tested for other substances, so Billie might end up knowing but not telling anyone.
thejeff
It’s possible, but even Billie seems to think she was drunk. She could still be hiding it for some unknown reason, but she’s talked about it a few times and it’s always been about her drinking.
Yumi
Yeah, I do think it’s most likely she was only drunk. I was thinking she also might not have realized that she was roofied, but then I thought about the tests that they run. There are different “unless…” that could be added, but I think drunk is the most likely option.
381 thoughts on “State lines”
Ana Chronistic
“eventually”
Death’s too good for him
Nymph
Absolutely.
Rose by Any other Name
Oh man, I so called it yesterday.
Compliments to Willis for yesterday’s comic – I knew from Billie’s face that, when she looked at Chester, she was looking at someone she knew committed sexual assault. I know that face.
Charles Phipps
I am fully of the mind that he did commit SA.
But did it say that he did or just imply he got her pregnant?
Charles Phipps
Oh, right, the last line.
Ugh.
Nevermind.
Thag Simmons
Technically the last line is him in pain from getting a mic dropped on his head.
Taffy
The strip is at the top of the page, you can see what it says.
Charles Phipps
Yeah, I wasn’t putting 2 and 2 together.
Arianod
Maybe not sexual assault, but definitely got her pregnant and pressured her into getting an abortion.
Arianod
Never mind, I’d somehow skipped the “cover your drinks” part. Definitely SA.
Zaxares
Ah, is that what the “drive Alice across state lines” was referring to? I suspected that might be what it meant, but I wasn’t sure since I’m not from the US.
Abel Undercity
She had to take Alice to the nearest abortion clinic, which presumably was in anther state. Even in states where it’s still legal, a lot of effort has been put in by anti-abortion politicians and activists to close clinics.
Plaaaaaa
Or the comic takes place in a future after abortion gets banned in Indiana.
thejeff
That future is now. And it was even now a year or so ago when this flashback takes place.
Michael Steamweed
Even back when the medical procedures were legal in all US states, states had varying requirements for parental consent or informing them. Alice may not have wanted her parents to know. Going across state lines: abortion procedures are now illegal in Indiana, but still legal in neighboring states Illinois and Michigan.
Rose by Any other Name
Different states have different laws concerning abortions, so at times, it becomes necessary to drive to a different state to get a necessary medical procedure that can, at times, take several days, requiring expensive hotel stays.
Also, this comic right here is why I still have a Billie gravitar. While I’ve never been much of a drinker, the rest of this *waves at comic* is all too familiar. I’ve lived this – except without the satisfying punch.
Rose by Any other Name
Oh. Also no sash. I was not Prom Queen – not even in the running.
Banana Slamma
Yep, jumping straight to murder is totally you being the good person here, taking the high ground and all. No trials, no concerns about justice or rehabilitation or debts to society being paid. Judge, jury, and executioner in one godlike person is really the efficient system, after all.
How do you want to kill him? Clearly you’ve thought it out.
wilddeath
Slowly, with rusty implements so i can savor his screams.
Dana W
^
thejeff
“To the pain.”
Ninjazaku
This is a very strange hill to die on, my dude.
NGPZ
Oh you sweet summer child.
I recommend for you own good that you dispense with any notion that Due Process in the United States is some gold standard for morality itself or some machine which will eventually give everyone what they deserve as a matter of course.
History proves this to be nothing more than wishful thinking.
thejeff
That’s true, but bad as it is, vigilante or mob justice is worse.
Of course, this is fiction and there’s nothing wrong with wanting some retributive justice with your fiction.
NGPZ
“the ends justifies the means” is certainly a shitty moral philosophy,
but at the same time, we shouldn’t overcorrect to the point to which thinking about the ends at *all* becomes treated as inherently immoral in practice, as is unfortunately the case today with government officials who claim to represent the interests of women and vulnerable minorities
given the situation of rapists seldom seeing actual jail time in a red state like Indiana, as ugly as vigilante justice is, it is often unfortunately the most realistic way of preventing them from doing further harm
cuz lets face it — if the goal is to see the most ethical outcome, and all your most realistic options for doing so are terrible, the most moral thing to do is pick whichever will mitigate the damage
Olav
Someone saying “death’s too good for him” in the comment section, about a character in a comic, is not worth excoriating that someone. If Ana had said that about a real person, I’d get where you were coming from. But we don’t need to go so far as to police each other’s expression of hate toward fictional characters in some attempt to make a moral point of our own.
Jammy
This isn’t ‘The Punisher’ or ‘Invincible.’ Human life kind of matters in this slice-of-life comic and the characters you love have already been traumatized by death of even bad people. Use that brain, friend. Hating a comic character to the point that you want to kill him after 3 strips isn’t healthy.
NGPZ
Jennifer, why did you STOP???
WHOOP. HIS. ASS!!! D:<
*plays “Boondocks Remix” by Metaphor The Great on dance floor speakers*
Stephen Bierce
And IRON MIKE makes his last stand.
Clif
Well done, alt text.
DJTsurugi
oh good, I’m not the only one that got the alt-text… damn you Willis. ~<3
Darkmelody42
It wasn’t until I read your comment that I realized. Willis this was cold lol.
BorkBorkBork
I know it’s been five years, but for some of us it’s only been three months, and for others it’s been -8 months. Way too soon.
Raven
I am now 100% on board with her kicking his ass
Bluesnake463
These last 3 pannels have been a rollercoaster
Matrix
FUCK YOU CHESTER
Lingo
Appropriate gravatar is appropriate
Slartibeast Button, BIA
Telling the Truth?
This won’t end well.
Sirksome
I never trusted Chester!
Lingo
I trusted him up until Saturday! He has betrayed us all!
Creatrix Tiara
Oh shoot I just realised
What if Jennifer wasn’t drunk at prom and that led to the car crash
What if Jennifer was revenge-roofiex
Grimey
Oh.
Is everything we’ve seen of Jennifer, of Billie all a plea for getting back to this moment where she felt at her most powerful, her strongest?
Nymph
That’s such a painful and reasonable response, and would be SO human. I want this to be the case, it would be such great storytelling.
Kelibath
Yes. I want to see this now.
Even if she was drunk, likely drinking was a reaction to this moment, and/or upcoming fallout with Alice, clearly – but how intentional it was to go that route is VERY painfully interesting.
Kelibath
Hrm, gone from Sal to Asher. Not a great look.
Nono
When she had an offer for THREE McNuggets for Chester’s sash, she had never felt such power, and that’s when she knew what she had to do.
butting
Three McNuggets, right?! That’ll go to anybody’s head.
Just look at what they’ve done to Walky over the years.
SarahTerra
As we know, the human limit is 412 McNuggets, but that guy never got a chance to exercise his might. Walky’s power limits are inconceivable!
RassilonTDavros
Oh. Ooooh no. Oh, shit
Nono
“Trust, but verify.”
Her words right before going to the party in the first week where Joyce got roofied.
Needfuldoer
She reiterates her drink-covering advice, too.
Kelibath
I love that she stuck with that advice despite everything.
Jennifer’s best moment in college might honestly still be the times she comes through in trying to look after her “squad”.
Kelibath
She needs some looking after too, though. And a bit less automatic assumption of the automatic moral high ground.
Nymph
I think you’re right.
Laura
Oh, snap
…
But I can see why Alice ended their friendship / relationship after that. Even before the car crash.
Not great to announce your friend’s unlawful (in Indiana) abortion to the whole graduating class, on microphone, without said friend’s advance permission. Nor their r***.
I wouldn’t be cool with that AT ALL, if I were Alice.
We see Alice distraught over a passed-out Billie in the flashback — maybe Alice told Billie off and that’s why Billie got so drunk?
Gaaah…
Nymph
That’s not a passed out Billie, that is a car crashed Billie. Alice was in the car with her.
I definitely think it’s likely that Creatrix is right and Billie was roofied by this asshole or his friends and wasn’t drunk at all, she just leaned into the drunk thing for some reason we’ll probably find out.
Charles Phipps
I dunno, I think Jennifer is leaving immediately. That wouldn’t give time for a roofie in response to the punch.
Nymph
I think what I think, we’ll find out as the story goes on, but it would make a lot of depressing sense and I like the idea. Also not sure why Billie would leave immediately, but again I guess we’ll find out!
Charles Phipps
I think she’d want to get Alice away from Chester and any follow up questions but that’s just my thought.
We definitely will find out the truth of Jennifer’s DUI tonight, though.
BorkBorkBork
When we heard of Billie describe herself as “Head Cheerleader, Problem Solver,” I think that’s what she used to be. This Billie drinks, sure, but she looks out for people. She’s not yet descended into alcoholism. This isn’t self-destructive; it’s self-affirming.
I also agree there’s a high chance of the crash happened because of revenge. There’s a zero percent chance that Chester and the people who voted him Prom King are going to be, “Oh, snap, she called out my SA, I guess she got me good!”
Roofie is possible. Drunk, but not planning on driving until she suddenly realizes she has to get *away* is possible. Buzzed, but trying to flee persuers is possible.
The fact that Alice is in the car with Billie, and not with Chester, alone says volumes.
Also. With this context, the entire Billie – Alice conversation in fall semester hits WAY differently. Alice’s weird reaction, then sudden angry reaction. How she didn’t talk to Billie at all all summer. Either she was being fed some BS, or chose to believe a version of the truth that had Billie as the villain, because she couldn’t accept Chester as the villain.
Laura
Not being able to wrap one’s head around one’s abuser as the villain…
Yup. Been there.
Laura
“wrap one’s head around” = comprehend.
Sorry. Poor choice of metaphor.
thejeff
I don’t see this as that different. There are definite indications she was already a self-destructive alcoholic and even in first semester she’s still got the looking out for her people thing going on.
I think she’s got more self-loathing and awareness now and that’s probably linked to DUI
cbwroses
Considering that she just ended the strip with “cover your drinks” I’d be very surprised that she was roofied, revenge or otherwise.
UNLESS she was roofied by someone she trusted.
Since Alice was eventually okay with it, so Chester the Molester claims, and she may in fact be very upset that her sexual assault and abortion was outed to the entire school, if she convinced herself (or was convinced by someone else) to roofie Jennifer, I would find it more believable (and more messed up).
Tan
Alice seems to genuinely believe Billie just got drunk from their more recent encounter: https://www.dumbingofage.com/2014/comic/book-4/04-the-whiteboard-dong-bandit/dramahurricane/
Mr D phone posting
Ten years ago IRL. I can feel my youth escaping my body.
Joy
Omg I was still a teen back then
Matthew Davis
It could be that Alice had a fight with her due to the revelation, she drank because she was upset, and that lead to the crash.
Michael Steamweed
That’s what I’m expecting. Billie did drink a lot of alcohol. They do leave the party and drive away. They do talk a lot, intensely, and argue. Alice remains defending her rapist (“boyfriend”) maybe due to denial or fear of social stigma? They do crash into the tree.
The Blueprint System
Alternate theory: Chester takes revenge on Billie by roofie-ing her but somehow convinces Alice to give Billie the drink feigning good intentions, so Alice doesn’t know it’s roofied, and Billie doesn’t know it’s from Chester, so she doesn’t suspect anything about the drink. Billie hits the tree, destroying both her life and her relationship with Alice. Billie wonders if she could have been roofied but given her speech here is too ashamed to ever admit that she had allowed that to happen, so Alice is allowed to continue believing that Billie was the problem.
Yumi
If Alice had known she was roofied, I don’t think she would have gotten into the car with her.
Her being drunk might not have stopped that because, unfortunately, drinking and driving isn’t that uncommon. Often it does not end in car crashes. It’s possible Alice has been driven by an intoxicated Billie before and been fine. She might have been more drunk than Alice thought tonight, or she messed up while driving in a way she just hadn’t before.
I do think it could have been that Billie was drinking AND was drugged, so when she crashed, all Alice knew was that she had been drinking. I assume paramedics came, and Billie would have been tested for other substances, so Billie might end up knowing but not telling anyone.
thejeff
It’s possible, but even Billie seems to think she was drunk. She could still be hiding it for some unknown reason, but she’s talked about it a few times and it’s always been about her drinking.
Yumi
Yeah, I do think it’s most likely she was only drunk. I was thinking she also might not have realized that she was roofied, but then I thought about the tests that they run. There are different “unless…” that could be added, but I think drunk is the most likely option.