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[Volume Five: Jakob’s Ladder (Issues 293-400)]

Volume Five: Jakob’s Ladder (Issues 293-400)

At Princess Pink, Kanti and Q reclothe themselves and are informed by Yves that township PD has called. Q wonders if it has something to do with his probation, but Yves surprises them by saying that they were asking for Kanti and that they need to get to Vik’s townhouse. We don’t see Kanti and Q again this Volume, but we do see Katie and Alex several issues later in the hospital being treated for exhaustion and hypothermia, so it is likely that Vik split after his confrontation with Julian and Adrian and left them behind.

At the Infirmary, the revelation of Jakob’s survival sends shockwaves through the main cast. Dani protests it is impossible while Marliese helps Mallory recover from the trying ordeal of calling upon the Baron. Erin and Adrian discuss her abilities, during which Erin is playful but evasive. She does however mention that Cherry apparently has a very particular, very dangerous power of her own. After examining flight paths along Jakob’s last known trajectory, the group comes to the conclusion that Jakob could have secretly landed his plane, which had been reported to have crashed. For safety, everyone at the Infirmary stays there for the evening, leading to passionate nights had by all. As Amy lies sleeping during the night, Dani notices that the crystal fitted into the ring Vik had given her bears a striking resemblance to the scallops.

Across town, on the same evening, Miriam spends several hours masturbating with a hitachi wand, seemingly very worked up and unable to sleep. The next morning, she gets coffee at Over Roasted and overhears Raven discussing Erin with Reka and Weston. She discusses the unusual relationship Jacqui has found herself in with the two, and they invite her back to their place. She accepts and nearly has sex with Weston, but cries out in protest as he is preparing to enter her. She explains to them she has some psychological block to having intercourse with a man, but she does have join in as Reka and Weston have sex, offering oral and accepting it from Reka in turn.

Hitomi, who has been exploring with Imani and Coates, finally meets Coates’ wife Astrid, still a nebulous figure even in the comic’s present run. However, given what we know about Astrid, it is likely this is the first time Astrid sinks her hooks into the cheerleader, which will lead to further shenanigans down the road.

Miriam drops in on fencing lessons with Reka and Erin, accepting a challenge from Erin and dueling her. She protests to Erin throughout the match that someone must have done something to her and the other members of Adrian’s harem. She suggests that Pink Clouds might be involved, thinking someone has used it on Jacqui, but when Erin informs her of Jacqui’s immunity to the formula, she breaks down suddenly. As they wash afterward, she explains she has memories of Q using PC on Jacqui, which is the only reason she informed on her mother. Erin asks Miriam if she trusts her, claiming that she can help Miriam remember what actually happened, and begins heading to the Infirmary with Miriam and Reka in tow.

At work, Dani calls Adrian and informs him that the ring crystal Vik had contains the same circuits as the scallops. She is interrupted from her call when she suddenly sees Kuppler company deliveries being unloaded in the hanger. She goes outside and begins to call her father, but eventually changes her mind and tearfully hangs up before she can be connected to him. She then calls someone and asks to speak with Johannes Kuppler, Jakob’s brother, to inform him of her survival.

As mentioned previously, Marliese looks over Alex and Katie at the hospital after their abandonment by Vik. She prepares to call Laura so the girls can be given the antidote, but Rain appears and stops her, saying they can use Alex and Katie to find Vik.

Johannes, taken utterly off guard by Dani’s call, decides to fly into Wilmot to meet her in person. He informs his secretary Angela to search for a plane for him. As he leaves, she pulls out a phone and calls someone, eventually revealed to be Jakob, that Johannes has been told of his survival by Dani.

As she heads to the Infirmary, Erin is called by a panicking Danielle, who doesn’t know how to react to the news of Johannes’ imminent arrival. Miriam overhears the name Kuppler and reveals she knows Jakob as a client of her lawyer father’s. Erin abruptly changes course and drags Miriam to the record store. Despite the awkward atmosphere, she drags Adrian and Jacqui into the back room and begins having sex with them to charge herself up for a ritual to recover Miriam’s missing memories. Dani arrives, and the group persuades a skeptical Miriam to join them in the back and strip for the ritual. As they do, Jacqui calls her ex-husband, Ezra, and informs him he needs to come to Kearsarge due to Jakob’s reappearance.

Cherry and Julian stop for gas at a gas station. At the station, Julian uses a crystal pendant to hypnotize the attendant into not having to pay for gas and supplies. He leaves her on her knees with a card for a “free blowjob with purchase” beside her, because he’s terrible.

At her safe house, Claudia is shocked to hear that Johannes Kuppler has called for her, having thought the family did not even know of their existence. She wonders, if Johannes knows about them, if there might be a way out of their situation, and summons Derek, ordering him to intercept Johannes when he lands at the airport and to check on Zenon, who has stopped answering her calls.

In the mindscape brought on by the ritual, Erin helps Miriam recover her memories. While she believed that she and Q had had sex, in reality, she had caught Q with a PC-dosed Katie and had been dosed herself. At some point, she had met both Jakob and Dani, and Jakob had used one of the crystals on her. Contrary to her original story, Jacqui didn’t see anyone distributing PC, but was rather told by Yves about the distribution. She was then programmed by Jakob to keep her from revealing the truth. He sent Miriam to find one of the scallops for him, while Yves removed her memories that he and Sawyer were the ones dealing in PC, replacing those memories with Jacqui. Dani says that Jakob sent her to find another scallop as well, claiming he only had one whole one. Miriam claims Jakob had programmed her to save her cunt for him, hence her earlier freakout when attempting to have sex with Weston, and that he used a scallop fragment to make the pendant. Dani reveals (though without much explanation), that she sabotaged the Watch, and the ritual ends.

Dani now remembers that she found the scallop in the Wilmot steam tunnels, and she, Erin, and Adrian head there to recover the others; Adrian calls Caitlyn to meet with Johannes at the airport in Dani’s place. Miriam explains her false memories to Jacqui, and the two tearfully reconcile. When the reach the tunnels, Erin comments that Dani’s accent had changed; for her part in the ritual, Dani has recovered her own suppressed memories of her time as Jakob’s possession as well. They prepare to disassemble the mechanism containing the scallops, but stop to have sex first. Afterward, they discover that of a possible twelve scallops, four are still present in the device, much to their alarm.

While Miriam and Reka take a spin in the back room to work off the excess arousal lingering from Erin’s ritual, Ezra arrives and exchanges greetings with Jacqui. Afterward, they and Miriam go to Over Roasted, where Ezra eventually agrees to violate attorney-client privilege and tell them what he knew about Jakob, giving in when Miriam reveals that she was one of his victims.

Caitlyn awaits the arrival of Johannes at the airport but sees Cherry and Julian also there. She arms herself with a pistol and approaches, and when they claim they work for Johannes, she asks if they are certain they don’t actually work for Jakob. Julian cuts her off by brandishing the pendant. When Derek arrives and accosts them, they offer him a pliant Caitlyn to distract him as they prepare to intercept Johannes; Julian reveals that his pendant was Zenon’s, meaning he and Cherry were the ones responsible for the break-in a few Volumes ago rather than Marliese and Rain. They greet Johannes and his pilot, Einfríður, and prepare to escort them away. Caitlyn, due to the priority of the Watch programming, is able to shake off the crystal’s influence and holds Derek at gunpoint before tying him up. When she reappears and Julian tries to subdue her, she kicks him in the face. He attempts to draw his gun but is held at gunpoint by Einfríður. They confiscate Zenon’s pendant and are preparing to restrain the two before Cherry lashes out with some sort of power and summons a red being of energy, which wounds Einfríður. Caitlyn and Johannes find that guns seem ineffective against it, so Caitlyn refocuses and fires for Cherry herself, striking her in the torso. They manage to flee before the creature can recover, though it is seen active in spite of Cherry’s incapacitated condition, meaning it is now out in the wild. For their part, Julian attempts to get Cherry to a hospital as she loses consciousness. Sidenote: This marks the last time that Derek has been seen in the story other than a flashback. While Claudia does call him when he finally escapes his bindings, he has not been seen in the flesh since.

Adrian, Erin, and Danielle discuss the scallops. According to Dani, they act as both power source and filter, able to lock into and change a person’s thoughts when properly focused in such forms as the crystal or the Watch. In spite of Cherry’s previous claims that he knew nothing, Dani says that he understood the scientific theory behind the scallops very well, but needed someone like her to realize the ideas.

Between Ezra, Johannes, Dani, and some narrative magic, we get a short glimpse behind the curtain as Jakob himself breaks the fourth wall to reveal some of his history. He apparently taught at Wilmot, which is where he discovered the scallops and began using them to take advantage of female students and faculty. We see that, for some reason, Rain at one point gave him the shattered fragments of one of the scallops, implying she is the one who made him first aware of their existence. Following his teaching career ending in a coverup of some scandal (hushed up by his father’s money), Jakob went into the family business of jewelry with a focus on timepieces. Simultaneously, he was researching the scallops and used one of the fragments to create the crystal, which we see him using to build his original harem. Among their number is Claudia, her maid Meghan, and Dani herself, whom he uses to create the Watch. Apparently, however, eventually his behavior became bad enough that his father’s money could not continue to cover up his dalliances, so he moved on. His narrative ends here, but it seems this is the point where he faked his death and went into hiding, his current precise whereabouts unknown.

At the Infirmary, Dani and Einfríður try to pinpoint Jakob’s possible location while Johannes speaks of Jakob with Erin, Mallory, and Adrian. He claims he needs proof of his brother’s faked death beyond Danielle, which they do not currently have. He does say that Julian has a history with the Kuppler family and expresses slight bemusement at the harem situation. Ezra, Miriam, and Jacqui arrive, and Ez and Johannes begin to discuss the potential fallout of Jakob’s survival. Johannes and the group identify a potential shell company in Claudia’s name which Jakob may be using to launder his funds while “dead.”
Dani eventually uses the crystal on Einfríður in secret, wishing to coax her into having sex with Adrian. Adrian offers to walk Miriam home, and she heads upstairs to get her coat, walking in on Dani and Erin using the crystal. They turn its power upon her without hesitation, priming her to make a move on Adrian as well. Sidenote: From the beginning, girls affected by the Watch’s programming seem to have an affinity for not only serving Adrian, but expanding the harem to as many other women as possible. Perhaps a lingering recruitment strategy for Jakob to swell his ranks? Who is to say?

Adrian walks Miriam home as Johannes and Einfríður settle in to stay in the Infirmary for the evening. Despite her protests to Jacqui’s relationship, Miriam seems willing to accept that Adrian may not be bad for her mother. She also, in spite of not wanting to invite Adrian in, aggressively kisses him on her front porch in accordance with the suggestions Dani and Erin laid in her mind. She begins to proposition him, but Adrian gently turns her down. Embarrassed, she apologizes, while he assures her it is fine, blaming her actions on the memory ritual (which linked the physical sensations of its users for a time afterward). He asks if someone can stay with her, and she prepares to text Reka.

Claudia is called by Derek and, upon being informed that the crystal did not work on Caitlyn, realizes with horror that the Watch is in the wild. She frantically orders him to recover it from Adrian, but as previously mentioned, we do not see Derek again, so he may have simply skipped town.

At the Infirmary, the girls prepare an orgy as they wait for Adrian to return, inviting Laura, Hayley, and Marliese to come and join the fun. When Jacqui double penetrates Dani, Erin, Adrian, and Miriam all react, their arousal linked to hers via the ritual. This results in Adrian and Miriam, in spite of their previous reluctance, throwing themselves at each other and frantically disrobing within Miriam’s apartment. Inside, Miriam enthusiastically consents to sex with Adrian, and right on cue, Reka appears with condoms handy. She calls Weston and gets his permission to participate in the festivities, and then Miriam and Adrian prepare for intercourse. Despite her warning that it has never worked for her before, Adrian successfully penetrates Miriam, claiming her virginity; whatever happened during the ritual seems to have broken Jakob’s restriction on her having sex, and she throws herself into it with gusto. The Infirmary crew is informed by Erin and Dani, who sense the moment through the link, of Miriam’s cherry being popped. Jacqui reveals (surprise surprise) that technically, this is an act of incest, as she had sex with Adrian’s father in college, making him and Miriam half-siblings. She swears them to secrecy, and the orgy continues, Einfríður descending the stairs and joining the fun.

Eventually, Adrian must leave. On his way home, Rain approaches him and sardonically comments that “Zeus would have approved.” He informs her of Jakob’s survival, of which she seems aware (in retrospect, it is likely the Atlas clock was some sort of message from Jakob to Rain that he was alive, though how that might have been communicated is unclear). She walks Adrian home and talks with him about “Odysseus, and how to win impossible battles.” She tells him of the sin of hubris, punished by the gods themselves for the arrogance displayed therein, and informs him it is his duty to keep Jakob’s hubris from being repeated. Adrian vulnerably asks her if he and Erin would have been together in spite of the Watch, and Rain confirms she had feelings for him before the fateful night. Adrian bids her good night and returns home, to find his harem of eight (plus Hayley, who is noncommittal, and Einfríður, who is eager thanks to Dani) awaiting his selection.

STOP

Cherry’s wound at the hospital will result in her being stuck in an extended coma, which leads to much of her remaining screentime being in the hospital before the events of issues 770ish-920ish. Julian, in desperation to save her, will eventually approach Adrian and his women with a possible deal, to be covered in subsequent Volumes.

Johannes and Einfríður’s entry signifies the heightening of the stakes. Jakob is alive, and now people to whom that information would greatly matter are privy to it. The investigation into his whereabouts will persist into the modern day in the real world, as he has yet to be located, and will involve all the players, from Adrian, to the Kuppler family, to Julian, to Claudia.

The recovery of Zenon’s pendant by Caitlyn from Julian at the airport will also lead to more shenanigans, especially when Hitomi’s exposure to Astrid’s currently mysterious powers eventually leads her to rope in Caitlyn, and possibly Danielle and the twins, into reconditioning all of Zenon’s former patients. The SJI women do so under the pretense of gifting Adrian more sexually obsessed women, though Astrid’s own goals are currently far less clear.

It kinda did feel like a panel was skipped

It's unclear whether this was intended to be 1536 or if 1536 was skipped. I could see the previous page leading directly into this, I could also see one page in between of Adrian solidifying influence over Miriam. I'm pretty sure the title "In the Zonev" contains a typo, though.

What happened to issue 1536?

yes what happened with 1536 ? I'm with you

What happened to issue 1536?

Script: Daphne • Line Art: Plutonian Knight • Colors and Lettering: Octavia Moon

I tried to buy something on the other side and got my account locked for too many card failures.

Eventually got back in and made my purchase.  Deleted all the "upset about it at the time" stuff.

[STOP]

At the Infirmary, Cherry begins to introduce herself. She reveals she has read one of Marliese’s published books and discusses Caitlyn’s future political aspirations post-graduation. In the background, Laura speaks first with Amy and then with Adrian about the missing Hayley, eventually coming to think that Vik might have abducted Hayley in bitterness over Adrian “stealing” her from him. He thanks her and asks her to tell Dani to give him a call. Dani does so as he reaches the twins’ apartment, and he asks her if she could rebuild the Watch if he asked her to. She reluctantly says she could and would, and he thanks her before lovingly bidding her goodbye. Dani expresses bitterness to Cherry that Jakob (the name of her employer, which she has now remembered, never acted lovingly toward her the way Adrian does. Cherry said he was incapable of love, claiming she did not know him personally but that she’d seen his impact. She and Dani discuss her past; Dani tells her Jakob only used her for sex, but Cherry coaxes her to admit that Danielle was the one who truly made the Watch, on Jakob’s orders. She displays the scallop when Cherry asks if she still has the Watch, and as Cherry asks to see it, Erin coldly rebukes her and tells Dani to put the scallop away. Cherry greets her, glad she and Erin finally have the chance to talk.

Q and Kanti have been working to devise an antidote to Pink Clouds, but they are confronted by Yves when Q enters the Princess Pink lab late that evening to work on the formula. Yves is highly suspicious of Q, believing him to be the person who dosed Alex and later abducted her and Katie from Sawyer’s. Q protests his innocence and tells Yves about his plan to synthesize an antidote; Yves is skeptical and still suspicious but agrees to let Q work, saying he wants Vik there to assist as well.

Adrian convinces Hayley to come with him to Vik’s in their search for Amy. She agrees, though she is still suspicious and distasteful of Adrian. Adrian warns her to be ready for someone to attempt to dose her with PC as they open the door. The door opens and Amy steps out in a pink robe, dosing her sister with the spray bottle. Thinking fast, Adrian grabs both of them and attempts to leave. However, a tuxedo-clad Vik emerges and accosts him with a gun. Adrian says he knows Vik has been using #49, but Vik counters spitefully that Adrian broke up his engagement and has been enslaving women himself. He then prepares to shoot Adrian, saying he’ll simply make the girls forget about it, before Julian shoots the gun out of Vik’s hand from long-range. Vik’s gun discharges, grazing Amy in the arm, and Adrian and the girls run for it. Vik ducks back inside when he sees the laser painted across his chest, and Julian ruefully congratulates Adrian on his clever move.

At the Infirmary, Cherry and Erin talk. Cherry is surprised neither Rain nor Marliese (again, I am still uncertain as to her specific involvement in all this), never told Erin about the Watch. She reveals Jakob Kuppler used Dani to build it and, contrary to what she told Dani, says she was one of Jakob’s girls. She also says the only good thing about being Jakob’s was that she could forget what Erin did to her. In their past, Erin and Cherry had apparently attempted some sort of ritual which was extremely dangerous, so dangerous even their mentor Aiken could not have attempted it. The ritual nearly killed Cherry, who blames Erin for leaving her for dead. Erin counters that she healed Cherry, but Cherry responds in turn that Erin ran, and that Jakob only claimed Cherry in search of her. She also claims that, while his incompetence hindered the execution, Jakob sent Dani to Wilmot with the Watch in order to claim Erin and her mysterious powers for himself. Cherry claims they can use the Watch, rebuilt by Dani, to undo all of the artificial conditioning either Jakob or Adrian has implanted in them, contrary to Rain’s statement that the Watch’s changes are irreversible. She claims Erin owes her this, piling on about Erin’s abandonment of her and inability to admit she loved Cherry. She asks why Erin was okay with healing Danielle after the hit-and-run, but not willing to help her. She brings up that Echo, Adrian’s former girlfriend, is still in New York and under the control of Jakob, and Erin, unable to take any more, rushes upstairs. However, in her passion, Cherry has made an error, as Dani asks how she knew about the hit-and-run.

Fumbling, Cherry admits Julian was at the wheel that night and only struck Danielle thinking she was Mallory, as Mallory is apparently far more dangerous. Laura leaves to meet Q and Kanti (who called her after being unable to get ahold of Vikram), and Caitlyn flies into a rage when she hears about Cherry’s confession from the kitchen. Cherry dismisses Caitlyn’s vitriol, claiming that Mallory has several deaths on her head, and begs Dani to free them all from Jakob. When Dani refuses, Cherry asks her when she last spoke with her father, but Dani replies that her father hates her. Cherry says that he rather hates the puppet Jakob made of her, and claims that she can help and share more knowledge if she will just fix the Watch. Dani seems on the verge of agreeing, before Jacqui (who had been called by Marliese as the situation began to devolve) arrives and throws Cherry out of the house. Cherry leaves and joins Julian in the car, saying the evening did not go as well as she’d hoped. Julian says they have the crystal and formula, but Cherry says they need to lie low and switch vehicles.
Upstairs, Jacqui and the others burst into the bathroom to find Erin attempting to slit her wrists with her shaving razor, but they stop her, Jacqui saying she will not lose another daughter even as Erin claims everyone will be happier with her gone. Cherry’s presence has dangerously deteriorated her mental state. Due to her powers, she heals quickly, and the girls reassure her that Adrian loves her and will marry her.

Laura calls Adrian to tell him about Q and Kanti’s intentions while Hayley bandages up Amy’s wound. Adrian brings the girls to Princess Pink, where Laura, Q, Kanti, and Yves are at work synthesizing the PC antidote. Amy wants to call Vik, but Adrian shuts the idea down. Kanti expresses disapproval at such insistence, doubting Adrian’s claim that her brother was the one who abducted Hayley. However, after she sniffs the antidote, she emerges from her PC-induced haze and thanks them for saving them. She then becomes incredibly turned on, as the side effect of Laura’s concoction seems to be an aphrodisiacal horniness which overtakes both sisters, who drag Adrian into a nearby room for sex. Kanti and Q sample the antidote themselves and follow suit, leaving Laura to play cards with Yves. She eventually joins Adrian and the twins after the small exposure she received without a mask gets to her. They leave after agreeing to dispose of the remaining PC for Yves. Sidenote: From this point forward, Kanti and Q seem satisfied that, whatever happened with Adrian’s women, it was not Pink Clouds, as there is no further mention of their schemes to break into the Infirmary to swipe his supposed stash.

When Adrian and co. arrive back to the Infirmary, Mallory suddenly bursts in from her evening rendezvous with an earth-shattering revelation: Jakob Kuppler is, in fact, alive, contrary to what every character had expressed to believe before.

STOP

And on that cliffhanger, Volume Four ends. Technically, the reveal of Jakob’s survival is something which occurs at the beginning of Volume Five, but it fits neatly here as a conclusion to V4 regardless, and who really cares about the organization? While it is something of a surprise to the characters themselves, the survival of Jakob from his supposed death in a plane crash had been subtly hinted at by Claudia’s fears of him not truly being dead, as well as Rain’s cryptic language regarding him.

Julian and Cherry will eventually be revealed to be working for Jakob during this time, though events in Volume Five will quickly cause their paths and his to diverge. For now, however, both seem rather antagonistic forces who are desperate to recover the Watch, or at least the scallop crystal which seemed to make it function.

This volume is also the first time that the history of Pink Clouds as a substance is spelled out in detail, being invented by Q and causing no shortage of trouble for Jacqui due to Miriam’s NARCing. However, as will be seen in Volume Five, Miriam’s memories of the situation are not 100% in accordance with reality, and the suspicion with which Adrian now views Yves will be shown to be justified.

[Volume Four: All the Devils (Issues 192-292)]

Volume Four: All the Devils (Issues 192-292)

Adrian speaks with a doctor about the injuries of Erin, who is unconscious in a hospital bed. The doctor informs Adrian that while her injuries are fairly serious, they are not life-threatening and that things could have easily been worse. While alone, Adrian asks her unconscious body what she did back on the road. Jacqui and Mallory are waiting in the lobby with Danielle, who is inexplicably not only alive but unscathed by the hit-and-run. Her sweatshirt, however, is bloodstained and torn, indicating she was indeed hit by the car. When Adrian returns and Mallory and Jacqui demand an explanation, he describes what he saw: through unknown means, Erin seemed to transfer the injuries Dani sustained to herself (along with the pain the injuries caused). She then weakly told them to call for help, with Adrian finding Dani cradling Erin in her arms when he returned.

An indeterminate amount of time later, Mallory seems to have returned home, but Jacqui, Adrian, and Dani are awoken by a nurse wheeling out a conscious and mostly-recovered Erin. Erin jokes about Adrian calling himself her fiance but agrees to eventually marry him. Raven arrives at roughly the same time in a panic. Soon after, Erin is discharged from the hospital. The group heads back to the Infirmary, and a seemingly-cured Erin emerges from her room clad in a sheer, silken robe and her pentagram pendant, wielding a long, jagged knife and claiming she has something to do.

At the store, Raven runs into Caitlyn, who asks her about Dani. Raven expresses confusion, having believed Erin to be the victim of the hit-and-run, and the two leave for the Infirmary together. Meanwhile, cashier Alexandra steps out back and greets someone driving a Princess Pink truck. When she returns inside with a box, she is rubbing her head, indicating someone likely dosed her with Pink Clouds. Her coworker asks why they were delivering so late, but she shrugs off the question. She opens the box and withdraws several tubes, asking if Sawyer’s is still open and planning to go see someone named Katie dance. Her coworker asks if she thinks that is a good idea and seems generally confused by Alex’s shift in behavior, but she claims to be fine and says she’ll see him tomorrow.

Outside of Saint James Infirmary, Erin has made some sort of blood crest with her own blood and the dagger. Based on her conversation with Adrian, she seems to have some sort of powers in addition to her ability to save Dani’s life. When they reenter, they see Mallory, Dani, and Jacqui with coffee and firearms… many, many firearms. Jacqui says that whoever tried to kill Danielle will likely try again and that they need to speak to Sawyer. Mallory claims she has someone she can ask as to the perpetrator’s identity, but before she can say who, Raven arrives and freaks out at the sight of all the guns. Erin eventually interrupts her frantic babbling and drags her upstairs and aggressively fucks her, while Adrian and Jacqui head to Sawyer’s and Caitlyn (who arrived with Raven) tags along. As they pass by the place where the accident occurred, they fail to notice a parked car with its lights off. Someone gets out and, after digging through the brush by the roadside, discovers the broken mechanism of the Watch.

At Sawyer’s, Jacqui pays for Katie to give Caitlyn a lapdance. Sawyer speaks with Alex and orders her, “No drama,” before meeting with Jacqui and Adrian. Jacqui tells Sawyer the details of the car, who promises to find out what she can. Alex is seen pulling back the curtain of Katie and Caitlyn’s booth, brandishing a spray bottle. When we next see Katie, she is holding her head, indicating she’s been sprayed with PC. Alex brings her to another booth and they begin to feel each other up, while Yves discovers Caitlyn stripped down to her panties and dazed by Pink Clouds. He feels her up and eventually pays her both for a blowjob and for sex, donning a condom before fucking her. After, he offers to get a bite to eat with her, and Caitlyn, still suggestible due to the lingering exposure, agrees. Adrian and Jacqui argue as to whether or not the hit-and-run was purposeful, and when Jacqui checks on Caitlyn on her way to the bathroom, she finds her missing.

At the Infirmary, Mallory and Dani walk the perimeter of the house to check for weak security points. They look at Erin’s blood crest and muse on the secrets each of them keeps. Mallory is alarmed to hear that Danielle does not have the watch but Dani produces a glowing red scallop and claims that it is what is important. The scallop looks reminiscent of those previously seen in the steam tunnels of Wilmot University during Volume Two.

The two turn in, and Erin and Raven cuddle after their intense intimacy. Danielle is seen sleeping while Mallory sits cross-legged on her bed with a photo and various rocks and bones strewn across her mattress. Outside, the dark car sits with the lights off. Late in the evening, a man emerges from the car and begins ominously walking up the walkway of the house, but something red and glowing reaches for him and scares him off, making him run for the vehicle and speed away. Erin watches from the window and assures a sleeping Raven everything is okay.

A lipstick smeared Alex and Katie run into Yves on the way out of the strip club, who is preparing to leave with Caitlyn. Alex thanks Yves for the sample he delivered, but Yves claims there were no deliveries tonight. Alex bails, dragging Katie along with her. Inside the club, Jacqui searches for Caitlyn, asking Sawyer where Katie got to. She and Adrian pass Katie and Alex as they dash back inside, and Adrian recognizes Yves’ car. He stands in front of it and demands Yves return what belongs to Adrian. Caitlyn jumps from the vehicle, apologizing frantically, and Adrian tells Yves to meet them at Sullivan’s to talk. Katie and Alex watch from a distance, and Alex searches for her dropped spray bottle. An unknown person hoists it from where Alex had dropped it and doses both Alex and Katie with Pink Clouds, covering their faces with masks and claiming everything will be fine before driving them away in a yellow car.

At Sullivan’s, Caitlyn recalls Alex pulling Katie away from her and the scent of burnt rubber and oranges. Yves facepalms and claims it is Pink Clouds; Jacqui responds hotly, but Yves denies having anything to do with this. For a confused Adrian, Yves gives the first proper explanation of what PC is: a substance developed by Q which induces a state of high suggestibility in a female subject (Q had earlier theorized that PC doesn’t work on men because of its interaction with testosterone). Yves explains that the duration and intensity of suggestions given while under the influence vary depending on the person. Jacqui fills in that Q got caught because Miriam tipped off the feds, and that while they couldn’t pin anything on him besides “improper disposal of hazardous materials,” it forever ruined the relationship she had with her daughter. Yves lets Caitlyn keep the money he gave her and tells Adrian that the only way to know someone is using PC is for them to do something public and stupid, “Like having a Wilmot cheerleader call him ‘Master.’”

Caitlyn, shaken up from the night, asks if she can come home with them. Adrian says he mostly believes Yves, but that both Yves and Jacqui were not being entirely honest about what they knew. At the Infirmary, Jacqui fills in the missing details regarding her relationship with Q and Miriam’s interference; Miriam, according to her, claimed to the police that Jacqui had been handling distribution, nearly costing her everything if not for Q’s family lawyers. Adrian asks if he came between Q and Jacqui, as she had planned to wait for him to get out of prison, but Jacqui assures him of her devotion. With Caitlyn, the three spend a tender night together.

Erin and Raven leave together the next morning and discuss the upcoming productions of Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet, in both of which Erin is starring. Raven accompanies her to rehearsal and watches as she and Reka spar, rehearsing the fight between Tybalt and Mercutio from R&J. They and Weston head for coffee afterwards so Raven can get to work. As Wes and Reka begin walking Erin back to rehearsal, she seems to pause at the sight of an approaching woman clad in a pink coat. They speak, with Erin referring to her as Cherry and seeming shaken at her appearance. When they part, Cherry gets into the dark car which struck Danielle and claims to the driver that it went “very well.”

With Rain, Adrian laments his lack of a path forward, claiming he does not know how to fight, his parents being hippies, and that he doesn’t have any weapons. Rain counters that he has eight very dangerous weapons in the form of his women. After Adrian departs, Rain laments to an image of John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester and founder of Wilmot College, that Adrian may not be strong enough to endure what is coming. She receives a delivery, and upon opening it, sees it is a clock fashioned after Atlas holding up the world, along with a short written note (which I have tried without success to decipher). In a fury, she either drops or smashes the clock, which shatters into pieces on the ground. This is a piece of the lore which I confess to not understanding entirely, as Rochester and his lover Polly are shown in issues 139-140 during 1679 AD. Polly seems to possibly be either Rain herself or an ancestor of Rain, and Rain addresses the painting of Wilmot as “my love,” but I am currently uncertain as to Wilmot and Polly’s precise impact on Rain and the plot. The implication of the clock is also one which is currently lost on me. I have seen others comment before on possible allusions between SJI and the Titanomachy of Greek myth, but I am uncertain as to how it precisely maps onto the serial and what the significance of the Atlas clock would then be.

Mallory and Marliese lounge together, and Marliese notices that Mallory has a box of cigarettes on her bedside table. When asked, she claims they are for a friend.

At the store, Caitlyn argues with her mom over the phone about her new boyfriend, before spotting Alex and Katie walking inside. She moves to confront Katie about being drugged, but Alex comes up from behind and presses a cloth laced with PC to her mouth. They quickly drag her outside and shove her into the same car that picked them up the night prior, arguing about whether or not to bring her with them. Danielle appears, however, and pulls a gun on Katie as she prepares to get into the driver’s seat. Alex pulls Dani’s hair back when she goes to check on Caitlyn and nearly sprays her with PC, but Caitlyn recovers and kicks Dani back, the spray missing her. She strikes again, kicking the bottle from Alex’s hand, and both she and Dani prepare for a fight. Alex bails, however, and dives into the door of the car, which Katie quickly puts in reverse and uses to escape.

As Amy leaves her place, she calls Zenon, who informs her of the break-in at his office. As she hangs up, someone she seems to know approaches her and sprays her with Pink Clouds. Later, in his first actual appearance up to this point, Zenon and Hayley see that someone has trashed the place, security informing them that the burglars used the janitorial code. Zenon hesitates when asked if anything is missing and asks Hayley if there are any appointments. She says he is clear, and he says he needs to make a call. Hayley says she can clean up, not having to be anywhere until 7. Despite the only people we had previously seen breaking into the office being Marliese and Rain, I have reason to suspect this break-in is a separate incident caused by different characters whom we will meet later in the Volume. Interestingly, among the scattered mess is a book bearing three red scallops on its cover. The iconography seems associated with the school, causing one to wonder once again just how far back all this nonsense goes.

Erin gets home from her rehearsal and asks Adrian what the deal with Rain is, but he responds with his own general lack of knowledge. She asks Adrian what the worst thing he’s ever done is, seeming severely depressed after her encounter with Cherry. Later, while Adrian and Marliese enjoy each other’s company, Erin gets into the bath to shave. Danielle enters while Adrian and Marliese are fucking and informs him about her and Caitlyn’s wild day at the store, showing off the spray bottle they recovered. Adrian breaks off with Marliese to see about getting more details.

Laura is invited over when the story is spilled, and Adrian tries and fails to get in touch with Hayley, leaving Amy a message to call him back. Jacqui decides to test the bottle on herself and confirms it is Pink Clouds, saying that the mix has never worked on her. The door rings, and Dani opens it to welcome Cherry inside, dressed in vibrant purple and asking if Erin is there. Amy calls Adrian and informs him Hayley is not at their house. She decides to go to the clinic to see if she is there, and Adrian, after being assured by Dani it will be fine, leaves to meet her.

Earlier in the evening, Mallory has a video call with her sister, Laurel, to check in on the family. While the rest of the crew is discussing PC and meeting Cherry at the Infirmary, Mallory goes out into the woods and calls upon Baron Le Croix, a demigod of the voodoo tradition, brandishing rum and the box of cigarettes from earlier as an offering. The Baron appears and expresses familiarity with Mallory, indicating he has had dealings with her before. She offers him the offerings she has brought, which he accepts, and then asks him to show her the face of her enemy. While the Baron is seen as her patron, it is also clear there is some sort of sexual element to their bond as well, as we do see Mallory and him entangled in a passionate embrace in later panels. We later see Mallory running back to the Infirmary with an expression of horror on her face.

In an unknown apartment, a nude Katie presents a nude and dosed Hayley to an unknown man, bearing a ring on her finger and clearly being controlled to think he is her husband, while a nude Alex hangs decorations in the background.

While walking to meet Amy, Adrian dwells on his earlier conversation with Rain, in which she informed him the Watchmaker is believed to have died in an airplane crash but that his lingering legacy is still a threat. She tells him to be very careful, and as he nears the clinic, he is stopped by a bald man in a black coat. This is Julian, and though Adrian does not yet know it, he is Cherry’s compatriot and was the driver of the car that nearly killed Danielle. He offers Adrian the destroyed Watch lattice and tells him to give it to Danielle to repair. Adrian is confused as to why Dani would know how to do so, and Julian tells him not to underestimate his women. He claims he will return for the Watch, and when Adrian asks why he would just give it back, Julian replies that he thinks Adrian will decide it is his best course of action.

[Volume Three: Don’t Let Her Go (Issues 129-191)]

Volume Three: Don’t Let Her Go (Issues 129-191)

Upon their return home, the girls congratulate Danielle on her new job. Adrian turns right back around, having promised Amy a date that evening, and warns Erin not to break Raven for her first time around. Erin seems to ask Adrian if he is interested in Raven, to which he says no but thanks her for asking. Erin and Raven have their date, Raven increasingly flustered and blundering until Erin takes initiative and shuts her up with a kiss. The two enjoy each other for the evening as Raven fulfills a longtime crush.

At his home, Q gets out of the shower and shaves. He considers the pink vial of perfume, still in his possession since his last date with Kanti, and seems prepared to dump it down his sink drain before the doorbell rings. He quickly dresses and opens it to see Kanti, likely under the effects of previous suggestions of his, dressed in an elaborate sari and bidding him “Namaste.” He eagerly welcomes her, his earlier temptation to ditch the perfume forgotten.

Vik calls Amy, only to see her and Adrian and realize he’s been stood up. Dejected, he attempts to make himself feel better, only to trail off as he sees Kanti and Q on their own date. Following their date, Kanti and Q begin walking home, Kanti wondering as to her own actions, claiming she’d intended to never wear a sari. At Q’s urging, she reveals she is pantyless beneath the dress, and he passionately pulls her into an alley and bends her over. Later, after their date, Kanti asks him what landed him in prison, and he reluctantly agrees to share, saying he will understand if she doesn’t want to continue their relationship afterward.
On their way home from their own date, Adrian and Amy discuss Zenon. Amy reveals he was obsessively getting all the Wilmot females into his office and hypnotizing him after a trip to New York. She mentions a woman he was calling, but cannot recall the name. Later, however, as they have sex (after shamelessly flaunting her Master in front of her disapproving twin sister, Hayley), she recalls the woman’s name as Claudia Coulbeck. Adrian reacts, recognizing the name as a friend of Echo’s, and suggests they discuss more later. Sidenote: This is the first direct link given between Zenon and Claudia, as well as between Claudia and Echo, implying that what has happened to befall Adrian may have been far less accidental and more purposeful than originally theorized.

Speaking of Echo, while putting Raven to bed, Erin discovers a picture of her taped to the inside of Adrian’s nightstand, along with an engagement ring which he never got the chance to give her. They discuss the next day, and while Erin expresses sympathy for Echo’s sudden breakup with him, both she and Adrian are happy to be together. Jacqui arrives, and he shares his history with Echo. Afterwards, he plays music for them both at the record shop, impressing them with his ability, while Rain listens from outside with a smile.

The History: Adrian and Echo were at Juilliard for music and ended up together. However, she dropped out and moved back to England, the news being communicated to him by Claudia, Echo’s roommate at the time.

At her townhouse, Claudia receives a letter. She calls Derek and gives him an address on Wall Street, urging him not to “fuck this one up.”

At Student Health, Marliese gives a checkup to Hitomi, a busty Asian cheerleader and roommate of Caitlyn, who has been complaining of headaches. She prescribes her some medication and sends her away; after Hitomi’s departure, she looks wonderingly at her recent charts, all marked by Diagnostic Code 339.82 - headache associated with sexual activity. Later that evening, Caitlyn looks after Hitomi and offers to skip class to watch over her. As she does, she sheds her bathrobe, and Hitomi ogles her nude body.

Q, the perfume bottle in hand, asks Yves for lab access at Princess Pink, the beauty supply distributor they both work for. Yves agrees, later asking Q as he plans to head out for delivery if he’s alright. Q admits that he thinks Vikram has created something called “Pink Clouds,” to which Yves visibly reacts. He advises Q to stay clean.

At work, Dani sees a flash of herself in getup similar to the maid outfit she’d worn the night she had been triggered by Derek and cries out in fright.
This will not be the last time that Dani seems frightened of flashes to her past, and more and more clarity will be revealed with each one. She later sees another flash when admiring one of the owner’s pet birds, this flash taking her to a skyline apartment with a much expensive bird in a cage and a nude woman.

In New York, Derek uses a proxy to confirm that the room information given to him by Claudia is accurate and to scope out the building. The next day, he uses the proxy as cover to break into the room, which seems to have a strong odor. Once inside, he calls Claudia, remarking that her boss is sick. However, he confirms to Claudia that he’s found Danielle and is seen holding a pair of her panties. It is unclear what specifically Claudia is seeking or why she is having Derek look for Danielle in New York when he theoretically knows she is still at Wilmot. It could be, however, that she is really looking for information about her boss, and Dani’s article merely confirms she had been in the apartment at one time.

Vikram confronts Laura about her relationship with Adrian, displeased to learn he is also dating Amy and wondering what it is about Adrian. Laura tries to calm him, but upon both Adrian and Kanti arriving, Vik seems to be overwhelmed and excuses himself awkwardly. Afterward, Laura and Adrian go on a date to get to know one another better, and Kanti and Vik talk; despite his begrudgement of her dating Q, he is at least glad to know that she has not also fallen under Adrian’s spell. Unnoticed by anyone, as Vik and Kanti discuss #49 while leaving and closing up the laboratory, an unknown person picks the lock, sneaks inside, and photographs Laura and Vik’s chemistry notes.

At student health, Amy’s twin sister Hayley seems to be suffering from the same sexual headaches as the slew of other women. She imagines her sister nude and pauses, seeming perturbed and yet intrigued by the idea.

After their date, Adrian and Laura go home and prepare for anal sex. Dani enters and disrobes, showing her pilot logbook. She reveals as they romp that she learned to fly from her father while in Mons, as well as revealing that she was originally schooled in Paris before moving straight to Wilmot. This is in direct contradiction to her earlier profession whilst under trance to Zenon that she was an English exchange student, which Adrian also seems to notice. Following Laura’s departure, he brings Mallory Dani’s flightbook, surprising Mallory, who claims that Dani was not a pilot but had expressed interest in becoming one in the past. Dani’s statements to Laura seem irreconcilable with what the Infirmary tenants know of her, so Mallory and Adrian retire together after resolving to discuss the matter with Danielle in the morning.

Claudia reconvenes with Derek and says she wants Zenon to handle the next phase of their plan, instructing Derek to leave the Wall Street address alone. When Derek wonders what will happen if her boss returns, she tells him that is impossible, as her boss is dead. However, after Derek leaves Claudia sinks into her chair and puts her head in her hands, whispering to herself, “Please let him be dead.”

Erin returns from her rehearsal, walked home by her friends Reka and Weston. She returns to her room and withdraws a pentagram locket from a drawer, donning it with a smile. She then slips into bed with Adrian and Mallory. The next morning, Adrian leaves early to meet with Rain for music lessons as well as further conversation.

Laura is awoken by a call from Vik, who informs her of the laboratory break-in. She arrives to find Kanti and Q there as well, and the three chemists discuss the chemical composition of Laura’s concoction, the aforementioned Pink Clouds. Q says that they would be able to tell if someone was using the formula if they engaged in a foolish public display of collecting women, which inspires a sudden bout of worry in Laura as to her relationship with Adrian. She attempts to convince herself that her feelings are genuine, but the others imply that Adrian might have dosed Laura without her knowledge to gain access to #49. Laura spitefully responds to Kanti’s suggestion of the sort that Adrian is not like Q and storms away, leaving Kanti to conclude Adrian is the likely culprit. Laura calls Amy, asking if she’s had any headaches recently, as they are a symptom of extended exposure to Pink Clouds. Amy confirms she hasn’t but says Hayley had one the previous day, sparking Laura’s fears. She abruptly hangs up.

Amy subsequently checks on Hayley, whose headache is gone. Hayley, seemingly throwing caution to the wind, propositions Amy to sleep with her, recalling a previous time when they were drunk when Amy had suggested it. Haltingly, Amy agrees, ignoring a call from Zenon as she and Hayley have sex.
At the Infirmary, Erin and Mallory discuss some of Erin’s insecurities about their new relationship, only to be interrupted by a scream from Danielle upstairs. Danielle has a nightmare in which she is told to take steps closer and closer to the open skyline window from her flashbacks, finally stepping off of the edge and falling when the voice instructing her fails to catch her. Mallory and Erin comfort her. When prompted by Mallory, Danielle claims she was in New York in the dream and that “he” was being cruel to her. Laura arrives and informs Erin that she desperately needs to speak with Adrian.

In her room, Hitomi does her makeup and dresses herself in a slutty schoolgirl outfit, preparing to hit the campus and get laid. Passing by a fairly ridiculous amount of public displays of affection, she eventually finds Imani, another cheerleader on the squad, and Coates, who are currently heavily petting on a lounge couch. Biting her lip, she asks to join them. Hitomi learns that Coates is married to an archaeology student who is okay with him and Imani’s affair. The two assure Hitomi she is under no obligations, but when she finally boils over and demands they take advantage of her, they eagerly comply.

As Kanti and Q leave Vik at the lab, Kanti asks if Q used #49 on her. When he admits he did notice the symptoms, she asks if he took advantage of her suggestibility, and he lies, saying he did not. The two plan how to get inside the Infirmary and recover Adrian’s imagined stash of Pink Clouds.
Adrian has several messages as he departs from Rain’s tutoring. Erin is complaining he didn't wake her up with sex, Laura is calling with her frantic concerns, and Mallory is calling to inform him of both Laura and Dani’s distress. He shows up at work to find a distraught Laura, with whom he departs to explain matters. He promises to explain to her what Rain has told him and what happened on the Night of the Watch.

While we do not get the full scoop on the Watch, the characters are now aware of what we will eventually know. The Watch is capable of making deep and permanent changes to an individual through its influence, meaning that the suggestions it made on the minds of Erin, Dani, Mallory, Jacqui, Laura, Caitlyn, Marliese, and Amy are irreversible. According to Rain, Dani’s old boss, whom she calls the Watchmaker, was its inventor. When Laura asks if they can just use the Watch to undo the original commands, Adrian admits that, according to Rain, that would leave even more damaging effects, and Laura herself admits it wouldn’t even work. She does warn him that they need to keep close track of the Watch, as Dani may misplace it in her absentmindedness, but overall, Laura seems put at some measure of ease.

Adrian and Erin take a break from work with Jacqui’s permission to have sex at the Infirmary. Alone in her shop, Jacqui curses Rain for unknown reasons, likely simply frustrated at her continued interference in her life (the two women were previously established to be on rocky terms due to history between them). At the Infirmary, Adrian recalls mid-coitus that he needs to check on the Watch, and he and Erin are alarmed to see its box pulled out from beneath Dani’s bed and empty. They rush back to work and have Jacqui drive them to the hangar to warn Dani about the stolen Watch. However, much to their relieved chagrin, she reveals that she is carrying it on her person.

On the way home, Dani discusses her dreams and flashbacks with Adrian and Erin. She has conflicting memories of her boss as sexy and kind, but her dreams and flashbacks indicate a cruelty at odds with her memories. She does not know what became of him, or even why she is at Wilmot, but turns down the idea of using the Watch to recover her memories fully, never wanting to look into it again.

Abruptly a car swerves down the road behind them and strikes Dani, from behind, grievously wounding her. Desperately, Adrian tries to call for help, but Erin orders him to take her hand. She seizes Dani’s other hand and seems to brace herself for some dreadful undertaking, urging him to not let her go.

STOP

Volume Three begins to properly introduce Pink Clouds, though we won’t fully understand the compound’s capabilities and history until Volume Four. Q seems to be a character of two minds, struggling not to give into the temptation to use Pink Clouds and instead trying to do the right thing by neutralizing Adrian. His and Kanti’s aspirations are noble, if mistaken, as the Watch is the true source of Adrian’s harem.

Danielle’s past continues to unfurl, revealing contradictory memories of her history with le boss and increasingly implying a sinister origin. Dubbed the Watchmaker by Rain in her conversation with Adrian, he appears to be at the root of most of the madness that has unfolded thus far.

The climactic moment of Volume Three is, of course, the hit and run of Danielle, which will function as the inciting incident for Erin’s own mysterious background and abilities to begin creeping into the story, revealing her to be as complicated and mysterious a character as Danielle, if not moreso.