Chapter: Chapter 15: Cracks and Breaks
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TRANSCRIPT
Panel 1 (Alex looks pleadingly (?) up at Imogen)
Alex: I don’t want you to drop everything for me.
Imogen: I’m just trying to help!
Alex: Not everyone needs your help!
Panel 2 (Alex, gesturing angrily)
Alex: You can’t just go through life serving other people and hoping for the best! Of course you got taken advantage of! I’m literally telling you to stop and you won’t! I don’t need a sweet little housewife to take care of me! You need to stand up for yourself!
Panels 3-4 (Imogen reacting in surprise, then deadpan)
Imogen: Geez. Tell me how you really feel.
Hey Alex, how has lashing out at everyone around you worked out in the past? Oh it worked great? Cool, cool cool cool. You do you. But you still need to apologize to your kid.
(That said I’m dying to know what Imogen’s actual reaction is and how self-aware she is of her “serve others” approach to life.)
thank you for this chap <3
YO
Eeesh, Alex… Victim blaming is very unbecoming, but it’s encouraging(?) to see that Imogen’s reacting more with sarcasm than hurt or betrayal.
Super interested in seeing how this conversation goes! ( •̀ ω •́ )✧
I am trying to be fair here, Alex’s life got upended, but stop being a douchebag, please. You already yelled at your kid, did you also need to bite your friend’s head off?
i love how Imogen’s face is just deadpan like she already saw this ans isn’t having it
That doesn’t make any sense, Alex, and you’re probably about to figure out it doesn’t make any sense and feel REAAAAL guilty.
Alex really needs to stop now! First she took out her frustration on her kid, now she’s going after Imogen! I get that she’s frustrated with her situation, but that doesn’t make it okay for her to lash out.
I still don’t appreciate how Alex lashed out at her kid. Well, people did warn Imogen about Alex, but something tells me Imogen prepared for this. I highly doubt this is a case of “sweet housewife”.
Alex, you have been *getting* Imogen standing up for herself, and right now you are about to get a *double dose*.
🤦🏻♀️ Okay yes, obviously Imogen has been known to get a tad over-enthusiastic about tending to the needs of others while neglecting her own. And maybe she came on slightly strong in her attempts to make Alex comfortable when they got home. Sure, maybe.
But she hasn’t suggested dropping out of school to “serve” Alex 24/7. She’s getting the hang of prioritizing herself alongside others. And honestly, I only say she might’ve “came on slightly strong” because Alex seems to interpret the slightest amount of assistance as overbearing. This isn’t sweet housewife behavior, this is “common decency from a housemate” behavior. AND! This is what Imogen wants to do for a living! She wants to be a nurse! This is pretty much a trial run in how to deal with an ornery patient!
So enough with the low blows, Alex. If you really don’t want help, fine, it’s genuinely your choice. You can tell her gently yet firmly that you want to make a go of convalescing completely on your own. But to say she’s been culpable in her own mistreatment, and that she needs to stand up for herself (which, ???, how does that even apply here), ENOUGH.
Compassion is not control. Accepting help is not surrendering agency. Being seen as injured *when you are in fact injured* and therefore operating at less than 100% is not a rejection of the fiercely independent identity you’ve cultivated for yourself since getting out from underneath your parents’ thumb.
You’re clearly traumatized by… rather a lot of things, probably. So your reaction isn’t necessarily unexpected. But that doesn’t make your reaction fair or appropriate, either. And I don’t know how you’re gonna learn and grow in this regard, but I’m very much looking forward to finding out, since the story is clearly ramping up to bonk you over the head with the clue stick.
You can do it. You can get there. (And then you can apologize to both Imogen and your daughter 😝)
I think it really helped Imogen that she has an Eris from whom she can gain context and history for Alex’s rotten behaviour. Forewarned is fore-armed, as they say. Meanwhile, Alex has to learn that sometimes, getting help when you literally can’t physically do anything is not a bad thing. I know where she’s coming from – had a similar (tho not quite as bad) upbringing with similar (tho quite as bad) parents, and I know why she sees depending on others as opening oneself up for abuse… but let’s just say I’m really looking forward to her Come-To-Jesus moment.
Oh hey look, Alex is completely justifying Sparrow’s criticisms and her warnings to to Imogen. Being a raging asshole at all her loved ones is NOT a good look and kinda makes her completely undeserving of their help.
Not how you lovingly tell a friend they need some boundaries around how they care for people. At the risk of sounding like I’m excusing her behavior (I am not), I understand the panicked feelings that make people lash out due to trauma. I’m not saying it’s right, but it’s in context. As much as it sucks to watch, I appreciate female characters that are allowed to have a character arc that includes being straight up mean without being irredeemable. It’s part of a lot of people’s life story, we are not all one thing our whole lives, sometimes we are the asshole and we must learn from that. It doesn’t mean actions don’t have consequences, it doesn’t mean treating people badly is okay, it doesn’t mean your actions aren’t your responsibility.
Imogen has changed so much and grown a lot, now it’s Alex’s turn.