What’s Going On In Gil Thorp? What’s this great idea you have for this essay? June – August 2023

My realization was that Henry Barajas and Rod Whigham’s Gil Thorp is more narratively complex than, oh, Mary Worth. Not to diss Mary, just to compare to a comic strip with a strong single-story tradition. The strip has gone to a more fragmented narrative, often with two or more characters having their stories advance every week. My recap will be more coherent if I separate it out by character, then, and note how these lives interact.

Will it work? You’ll know in 800 words. Will I do it again? You’ll know probably about November 2023, when my next plot recap should appear here.

Last time I checked in we were getting to the end of the school year, and the baseball/softball season. Now back to Team Milford.

Gil Thorp.

5 June – 26 August 2023.

Gil Thorp finished his first year in Henry Barajas’s tenure pretty strong. The boys baseball team won the championship in fine, riotous form. Hold that thought. Gil is named the Jack Berril Coach of the Year again, and this time his family is at the dinner for the awards. Missing from Gil Thorp’s acceptance speech is Mimi Thorp, who’s out at the bar with new golfing best friend Ericka Carter. Mimi and Ericka have been spending a lot of time together. One late night Gil Thorp asks Mimi whether she and Ericka are in love. We haven’t heard that answer.

Henry Barajas and Rod Whigham’s Rex Morgan, M.D. for the 12th of July, 2023. This summer also saw Gil Thorp and Ericka meet for the first time, and seem to get along well. I’m not sure what to take of Ericka warning that they were missing Gil Thorp’s speech, rather than Mimi. The Thorps do seem to be getting along enormously better than they were last year this time.

Also at the banquet? Ex-Coach Luke Martinez, there to declare his surrender to Gil Thorp. Thorp notes that he never accepted Martinez’s bet, last year, to have the Coach of the Year run the other out of town. And, come to it, has a coaching position Martinez might be able to fill. Everyone else thinks that’s a terrible idea. Emmett Tays asks whether Martinez can be worth this much trouble. Characters from other comic strips come in to tell him this is gonna be a disaster. “Fair dinkum onya innit,” asks Ginger Meggs, who could use a job himself. “Blooming Perth!” But why should this be a disaster other than Martinez’s inability to be even a little bit normal about Gil Thorp?

And that comes to the final baseball match between Milford and Valley Tech, the championship. Martinez’s Korean exchange student, Kwan Tak, had five solid innings. Pedro Martinez, having surrendered to his father’s demands that he play obediently, relieves. He also lets two runners on base. Martinez goes out to demand to know if his son, his son, is throwing the game. The question is received as well as you might think. As the fight grows more heated the rest of Valley Tech’s team walks off the field. Whether they forfeited or simply forced the coach to leave doesn’t matter. Milford won and Valley Tech fired Martinez. (Valley Tech hired assistant coach Kim as athletic director.)

Henry Barajas and Rod Whigham’s Rex Morgan, M.D. for the 27th of June, 2023. Later in the summer we see Luke Martinez sleeping on the sofa in the living room and admitting he’d done something stupid. It seems independent of this, although his wife does warn he’s on strike two. I don’t know who that is recording this to be a viral video about a coach going nuts on his own son. But I know it’s someone recording correctly, in landscape format, so it’s probably someone old.

But Gil Thorp likes fixing up people. And he got to know what it’s like working with Martinez over several weeks coaching kids at Milford Juvenile Detention. This lead up to a streamed, charity football match that between donations and sports betting raised $150,000. A fraction of it’s even going toward paying kids’ restitution fines. Gil Thorp is glad people might benefit, but ever-angrier that the jail was profiting off the kids. Tobias Gordon offers a touch of wisdom straight from the heart of my Generation X. He’s “just preparing us to play college ball”.

Also, Toby Gordon and Rodney Barnes are in juvenile detention for several weeks. Marty Moon finally ran that story, supported with his pictures, of Toby and Rodney selling vape sticks. While they keep socializing it’s the tense way that friends who are justifiably pissed do. Toby is angry he gave in to Rodney’s plea to sell “one last case” of vape sticks, the one that got them caught. Rodney is angry Toby told school principal Dr Pearl they were saving to buy a car, rather than athletics fundraising. As Jacob Mattingly picked up, before I did, no sense dragging the sports teams into their scandal.

Henry Barajas and Rod Whigham’s Rex Morgan, M.D. for the 21st of July, 2023. We also haven’t yet seen who won, and who told Gil Thorp, if that’s happened yet. But as you can see from this, there’s a lot of threads going around.

Over on the side of things where I’m not sure who’s coaching, girls softball also did great in the playdowns. They went to state championships thanks to a hit the bottom of the last inning by Keri Thorp’s bully/crush Dorothy Wolfe.

---

The new school year started, our time, the 7th of August. Kwan Tak is staying in exchange another year. And talking with Inma, who probably has a last name, about how she’s the first person he could come out to. Her parents are way overdoing Inma’s birthday party, renting out the museum for a sleepover. Luke Hernandez Jr and Jami Thorp look forward to have time to continue their Dungeons and Dragons campaign sometime. They’re young. They’ll learn. Mimi Thorp is off on the golf circuit.

And Luke Hernandez shows up for his first day as Milford wrestling coach. In the suspiciously well-funded athletic department he spots a photo of a random old guy hung in a spot of reverence. Commenter Charks explained Pop was the school custodian, from 1958, the original storyline. Pop welcomed Gil to Milford, and encouraged his rebuilding of the team, the year its only win was against unbeaten Valley Tech. It’s where Gil Thorp learned to be okay with losing.

And now I think you’re all caught up.

Milford Sports Watch!

One thing I know I am doing is keeping track of what other schools Milford is facing down. This gets easier over the summer. The season as I make it out looks like this.

• Cosinchaus High (12 June)
• Cromwell High (14 June)
• New Haven (15 June)
• Valley Tech (21 – 22, 26 – 27 June, 1, 5 July)
• Madison (23 – 24, 28 – 30 June)
• Valley Tech (26 August) I know, that seems like a long gap to me too, but most of the interim was purely Milford or Juvenile Detention stuff. Summer, you know?

Next Week!

Abbey Spencer accepted Sam Driver’s offer for a romantic getaway and see if their relationship can survive his suspicions. I’m sure that’s all worked out great for them. Off now to read three months’ worth of Francesco Marciuliano and Mike Manley’s Judge Parker and summarize it for you, next week, all going well.