FBOFW -- Are they engaged or just friends?

Cafe Society
#1

Maybe I’m a bit confused here. After reading yesterday’s strip, it seemed to me that Liz and Anthony were engaged (or at least seriously leaning toward marriage) by virtue of the fact that she said seemed to agree with Anthony when he mentioned “is willing to make a lifelong commitment.”

But now, in today’s strip, Liz describes the relationship to Candace as “just friendship.”

So, color me confused. And yes, I understand that the Sunday strips aren’t read by the same population as the dailies, but they still usually follow chronology pretty closely in this strip.

Zev Steinhardt

#2

Liz also says she’s “into recycling,” so I think they are definitely a couple, with plans for the future.

#3

IMO there are two explanations:

First, Liz as a character has always played things close to the vest. She downplays her relationship with Anthony to her friends and family, just like she downplayed her relationship with Warren and, at least at first, Paul. She is the Queen of “We are taking it slow.” But I think Liz and Anthony know where the relationship is going. So its not out of character IMO for Liz to be more honest with Anthony when it’s just the two of them, than she would be with Candace.

But, second, if Johnston allowed Liz’s inscrutibility to be the only POV the audience saw, there would be some question as to whether she and Anthony really will get together in the end. Johnston is scheduled to end the strip in its current on-going form in September, and if she really still intends to do that, she needs to get the “Liz’s Lovelife” plot tied up so that she doesn’t leave the audience dangling. So we are allowed to know that, yes, L&A will walk off into the sunset together, even if we don’t get to see it.

#4

Oh, please…most of us haven’t been dangling for at least the last two years. I knew it was going to come to this back when Shawna-Marie was whispering vicious rumors about Therese in Liz’s ear at the New Year’s party…

#5

They’re not formally engaged. However, any sensible couple would be planning such after the Sunday strip, and since when do people declare a lifetime commitment and cut their restaurant dinner short to… go be friends? So a “real” couple in that setting would’ve done more than friend-stuff, but in this bizarro-world situation, Liz can probably easily convince herself that it’s just friendship for now, blah blah.

#6

It may just be that the Sunday strip takes place at a later point in the timeline than Monday’s strip. Since various newspapers publish the weekday and Sunday strips in different sequences, some cartoonists don’t feel a need to keep Sunday in synch with Monday.

#7

Wow. Didn’t know this. But she says it will continue in “hybrid” form – new plot lines mixed with “remembrances” of Patterson family life. Does that mean new stuff mixed with re-runs (semi-retirement)? Or new stuff in the present mixed with new stuff about a previous time?

#8

Re tying off various plotlines: I wondered if the recent strips about the grandfather were supposed to hint that he hasn’t got long. IOW, don’t be surprised if he dies soon.

#9

Lynn said in an interview that no characters are going to die. I gather that she thinks her portrayal of stroke-ravaged Jim and overwhelmed Iris is another of her triumphs. She’s not shying away from an honest portrayal of the elderly afflicted, and it’s touching the hearts of people all over the world who had friends and family members in Jim’s situation.

Except that if she really wanted to send a message, she could have Elly offering to help out in a constructive way, not just bringing over a greasy casserole and saying, “Iris, you’re crying! Why would you be crying? Is your life difficult or something?”

#10

The thing that gets me about Elly’s father is how Johnson seems to portray his foul mood as being unfair to everyone else. Even though he can’t talk, perhaps his wife and daughter shouldn’t be treating him like a child.

#11

Yeah, well, that’s you. The fact remains that Johnston has gotten a lot of mileage in the last few years out of the soap opera that is Liz’s love life, and if she didn’t resolve that before ending the strip, plenty of people would be pissed. Sure, she’s telegraphed loud and clear that Granthony is Liz’s destiny, but that is still a story she has an obligation to finish and if she doesn’t then yes, people are left dangling.

And I hate the Iris and Jim strips these days. I wish someone would take Grandpa Jim out back and give him the Old Yeller treatment.

#12

I just want to make sure you realize that the snarky tone in my post you quoted wasn’t really aimed at you, Jodi. I may be spending too much time at the Curmudgeon…

#13

Oh, please. We’re good. :wink:

#14

Probably on Liz’s wedding day.

#15

… saving April from a flood…

#16

Is it wrong that this made me laugh? I can’t wait until this strip is done. OK, finished, since it seems to be long past done.

#17

Here’s what that Sunday strip should have looked like…

#18

I’ve kept my promise to myself–as soon as the damn couple hooked up at the wedding I stopped reading the strip. BOYCOTT!
The helicopter pilot was awesome!

#19

Minister:“if anyone knows of a reason why the couple should not wed, speak now or forever hold your peace…”
Grandad: “BOSCO!” :collapses and beheads self on folding chair:
Minister:" Hmmm…"

#20

Indeed.