What’s Going On In Mary Worth? Why did Eve freak out at the mannequin? November 2020 – February 2021

I need to give a content warning about for this Mary Worth plot recap. The currently ongoing story is about a person who’s suffered abuse from a spouse. If you don’t need that in your recreational reading, you’re right, and you may want to skip that bit. But Eve Lourd, who’s the center of that story, had an anxiety attack when she noticed the suit on a mannequin.

This should get you up to speed on Karen Moy and June Brigman’s Mary Worth for mid-February 2021. If you’re reading this much
after May 2021, or any news about Mary Worth breaks out, you might find a more useful post at this link. And, over on my mathematics blog, I’ve been taking on smaller topics since the conclusion of last year’s A-to-Z project. You might like something there.

Mary Worth.

22 November 2020 – 6 February 2021.

Tommy Beedie was not handling well Brandy’s decision to break up, last we checked. Brandy saw Tommy with one of his old Drugs buddies, and thought he was on the Drugs again. He wasn’t, but she had a drug-abusing father and can’t take the chance.

Karen Moy and June Brigman’s Mary Worth for the 25th of November, 2020. The reason this is a sick joke is that the back pain from a work-caused injury is what got Tommy on the Drugs in the first place, so he’s the person for lifting heavy stuff.

So Tommy throws himself into being a better person. Sharing his experience with schoolkids. I hope after getting their teacher’s approval. Doing more at work, to the point the manager notices. As a way of coping with a breakup, that’s pretty good. There’s no reason to think it’ll win back your lost love, but it puts you in a better spot for the next love. And, you know, you get to enjoy being better off too. Less good is that Tommy also mentions to Brandy every 105 minutes that he’s not an addict and loves her.

Still, Brandy does notice how hard he’s working at bettering himself. And she’s been talking to a therapist, and decided she does believe him. So they’re back on. She’s still not ready to marry, by the way, but she’s open to becoming ready, in case you worried about that plot thread. Tommy visits Mary Worth for the ritual thanking Mary Worth for her advice, and to accept blueberry cobbler foodstuff. And, Tommy even gets a new job for Christmas: part-time school monitor.

The 27th of December we have a moment of Mary Worth and Doctor Jeff acknowledging how hard a year it’s been. Dr Jeff had knee surgery, for example, and Drew had some problem with his ex, and a good friend had business losses. I don’t know who Drew is and I don’t know about this good friend business. The last good friend of Dr Jeff’s I noticed was muffin enthusiast Ted Miller, a plot from early 2018 that I’m still angry about. I guess it’s nice that the characters have problems going on that don’t make it on-screen. Still, I’d have taken that year.

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The current story started the 28th of December. It’s about Saul Wynter and Eve Lourd, a new Charterstone resident and dog-owner. And she’s dealing with the aftermath of a physically abusive relationship. So I’m putting the recap of that behind a cut.

Saul and Eve met walking dogs at the quite long tail end of the Saul-and-Madi story. Since then they’ve been walking together a lot and enjoying the experience. But while walking through the Santa Royale Mall she freezes, and tears up, and has to sit and recover.

Karen Moy and June Brigman’s Mary Worth for the 7th of January, 2021. Oh, she’s one of the people who want the mannequins with the smooth, featureless alien orb heads. Well, defensible choice. I remember one store had the orb heads and a fake wood veneer, to let people imagine themselves as well-dressed anonymous dryads.

She insists she doesn’t need a doctor, and they go home. She stops responding to Saul, who worries that it’s something he said or did. He finally sees her while dog-walking again, and she apologizes, explaining she’s had anxiety attacks for years, and had one then.

They resume dog-walking together. And then, once, Eve’s dog runs after a bird, tripping her. And this causes another anxiety attack. As she cries she opens up about what’s behind this. And why she moved from Philadelphia. Her abusive husband used to deliberately trip her. And why the anxiety attack at the mall? He husband would often wear business suits; passing the men’s clothing store wrecked her. Saul asks why she stayed with a man who abused her so, which isn’t a great question for a person who’s been abused.

But it is the sort of clumsy question people do, because this stuff is hard to be ready for. Also, Saul didn’t even like his wife and has only enjoyed people at all for about eighteen months now. Still, he does say that love must be kind, and I can’t argue that. All she can say for her past is that problems are easier to see in hindsight.

And that gets us caught up with the comic. We’ll see where this gets by May.

Dubiously Sourced Mary Worth Sunday Panel Quotes!

The car place up the road continues to thank the local economic council for help getting through the pandemic. So I’ll limit myself here to looking at the Sunday quotes of the actual comic strip.

• “You gain nothing from giving up.” — Robert Kubica, 22 November 2020.
• “The reward of a thing well done is having done it” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 29 November 2020.
• “Love is like a faucet. It turns off and on” — Billie Holiday, 6 December 2020.
• “May the flowers remind us why the rain was so necessary” — Xan Oku, 13 December 2020.
• “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance” — Oscar Wilde, 20 December 2020.
• “Don’t go through life, grow through life” — Eric Butterworth, 27 December 2020.
• “And now we welcome the new year full of things that have never been.” — Rainer Maria Rilke, 1 January 2021. Bonus Friday quote!
• “Friends are the sunshine of life.” — John Hay, 3 January 2021.
• “True compassion means not only feeling another’s pain but also being moved to help relieve it.” — Daniel Goleman, 10 January 2021.
• “Let go of the past. Empty hands are easier to hold.” — Caroline White, 17 January 2021.
• “Every life is a mystery. There is nobody whose life is normal and boring.” — Frank McCourt, 24 January 2021.
• “It’s an art to live with pain … mix the light into the gray” — Eddie Vedder, 31 January 2021.
• “To love at all is to be vulnerable.” — C S Lewis, 7 February 2021.

Next Week!

At last! Why have I been holding off on recapping Jim Scancarelli’s Gasoline Alley until after the 14th of February, 2021? Come back and we’ll see.

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