Saint James Infirmary #1100: “Happy #1100!”

[Daphne]

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

[SDPunk]

I’ll be honest, I’ve kind of lost the thread at this point. I know Jacquie is telling Erin, Miriam, and Adrian (who has heard this story already) about something that happened when his parents were at Wilmot, but there is a lot of information Jacquie would only know second or third hand, we know Jacob was there and doing his first experiments with the red crystals, we know Patrick Cavanaugh was around, has some sort of mind control/power of suggestion that is an ability rather than a technology (as we have seen it so far, it appears to be the only Mind Control in the story that isn’t technology based), and we know Jacquie was influenced as part of all this.

How would anyone but Jacob know about his first experiments with the red crystal? Miel couldn’t communicate it to anyone.

I just can’t figure out what the point is. I keep expecting some big reveal beyond Pat is as much of a sociopath as Jacob, which is about all I’ve gotten so far. I’ve even reread the entire run a couple more times looking for clues, promises, hints, anything, and I’m lost.

Hell, I’m even starting to doubt that Adrian has any moral compass at all because he certainly didn’t have anything resembling guidance growing up, and it is entirely possible we are seeing this entire story from the perspective of the women enslaved to him by the watch and therefore, as Laura said ages ago, he could have done something terrible to them, and they wouldn’t care.

As I write this I see one path through, I’m sure there are more, but the one that occurs to me is:

Pat, using his ability, which I theorized earlier could be superior to the crystals and perhaps to the watch, discovers what Jacob has done to Miel and Jacquie, and it serves as a wake up call that makes him less of a complete psycho, and he turns his life around.

But so far that isn’t the vibe I’m getting.

[caseyx]

If we assume that there is internal consistency then the only conclusion is that Miel was able to communicate what happened later.  Whether that's because Patrick overcomes it or just that Jakob's powers aren't well developed yet (or something else) we'll have to see.

So far this storyline has seemed like just an excuse to draw different characters in 80's outfits. Hopefully the climax of the tale will reveal some important character development or something specific that ties into the Jakob plot thread that is still hanging out there. At least this diversion has been more sex focused than the last one (pink clouds). I'm looking forward to getting back to the plot lines in the present.

What's it been, 10 years since we were teased with Mallory's birthday performance at the strip club?  We'll probably make it to January 28th sometime in 2030.  :-P

[SDPunk]

Pink Clouds isn’t even wrapped yet, we know the strip club owner/manager is using pink clouds on his employees and it was provided by Yves. I have been waiting for him to try to use it on Jacquie, Malory, and Danielle since that little reveal. Based on Yves using it on Caitlyn and Adrian using it on Danielle, it will temporarily overpower the control of The Watch.

Considering Jacquie first mentions doing amateur night in vol 2 or right at the end of Night of the Watch, that means we have another roughly 1,000 pages that have happened, detailing the evens of maybe two weeks? Because Malory’s birthday is still a week or so away.

Part of me is convinced if I were so obsessive as to go back through and count all the day/night cycles we have seen in those 1,000 pages more time has passed which would tend to support my unreliable narrator hypothesis.

Ugh, curse my brain, now I may wind up doing it.

[caseyx]

I meant the summoned Pink (Red?) Monster, not pink clouds. Sorry.

Last time I looked it I decided it was about January 21.  That was 300 pages ago.

[Daphne]

Part of me is convinced if I were so obsessive as to go back through and count all the day/night cycles we have seen in those 1,000 pages more time has passed which would tend to support my unreliable narrator hypothesis.

That way madness lies.

[GodWilling]

How would anyone but Jacob know about his first experiments with the red crystal? Miel couldn’t communicate it to anyone.

I'm assuming for now that what we're seeing is what really happened, and that that does not necessarily tally with the story Jacqui is telling. We don't at this point have any reason to think that Jacqui would know the details of Patrick's evening with Klara, for example.

Last time I looked it I decided it was about January 21.  That was 300 pages ago.

The day/night cycles, plus Raven's first date with Erin being on a Thursday evening (most likely "Laura Dinner" on January 12 on Mallory's calendar) would make the day that started on page 991 Sunday January 22. But time is impressionistic in SJI.

Pink Clouds isn’t even wrapped yet, we know the strip club owner/manager is using pink clouds on his employees and it was provided by Yves.

I don't think we know it was provided by Yves.

So far this storyline has seemed like just an excuse to draw different characters in 80's outfits. Hopefully the climax of the tale will reveal some important character development or something specific that ties into the Jakob plot thread that is still hanging out there. At least this diversion has been more sex focused than the last one (pink clouds). I'm looking forward to getting back to the plot lines in the present.

I'm enjoying the 80s thread a great deal, not least because there appear to be more active mind controllers who are using it for their own pleasure. And it has already told us things we didn't know, such as that Miel was subjected to Jakob's experiments. It would seem to me that there must be a fair amount of this still to come.

[SDPunk]

We know Julian got it from Vik and Julian was in Yves’s warehouse the night they were trying to find Vik.

Occam’s Razor suggests Yves as the most likely source. He already has business dealing with the club owner/manager. He knows about Pink Clouds from the first time around and he had no problems whatsoever using it on Caitlyn.

[mns_95125]

He knows about Pink Clouds from the first time around and he had no problems whatsoever using it on Caitlyn.

It's been a while, but if memory serves me correctly it was Alex who used Pink Clouds on Caitlyn in the strip club.  Yves found her afterwards and had sex with her, but it wasn't clear that he realized she was under the influence at the time.

[SDPunk]

Possible with three qualifiers:

1. Yves is the person who explained Pink Clouds to Adrian after those events, and there is nothing suggesting he has any idea the watch, the crystal, or the red crystals exist. He goes so far as to express an assumption that Adrian must be using pink clouds on Caitlyn. This may or may not be true.

2. Quentin Tarbox told Yves someone else had hit on pink clouds and was using it the next day(iirc, might have been earlier that day)

3. It is revealed in one of the flashbacks (Jacquie’s I think) that Yves was Quentin’s backer when he was making pink clouds the first time around. That suggests a much more complete knowledge than just being aware of its existence.

[GodWilling]

Someone using a Princess Pink van delivered some Pink Clouds into Alex's system at Valu-Mart(?). She then decided to go to Sawyer's to see Katie, with whom she evidently had some history. Sawyer spoke to Alex just before she left the bar to go (it would seem) to burst in on Katie and Caitlyn - a trigger? Alex then had Katie how she wanted her, while Caitlyn got to put on Katie's clothes (or clothe) and become the new dancer at Sawyer's.

Yves certainly got a dance from Caitlyn with all the trimmings. But he paid her for it.

In the ensuing discussion with Adrian, Yves sniffed out that Pink Clouds had been used on Caitlyn, something he could have kept to himself.

Alex and Katie were picked up at Sawyer's using Pink Clouds and driven away in what appears to be Vik's car. (I suppose it could belong to one of them, but it's the car Vik was using subsequently.) We then saw them living at Vik's place when Amy came to live there and become Vik's wife under the influence of Pink Clouds.

Alex and Katie were armed with Pink Clouds. Vik got Amy to use Pink Clouds on Hayley. He subsequently used Pink Clouds on a traffic cop, on Kanti, and on Amy and Laura.

Just before the blood monster got him, Vik was on the phone with someone discussing delivering Laura. Vik didn't know about the antidote, and that Amy and Laura had taken it. Yves did know.

We know that Vik was aware of Julian and vice versa. Vik tried to use the motel receptionist to kill Julian (using Pink Clouds, naturally). It's not clear what was going on between the two. But Julian knew Adrian would be going to the medical centre when Amy had disappeared. And he knew Adrian and Hayley would be going to Vik's place. So he seems to have been keeping tabs on Vik.

I think it's true that they found Kanti, Alex, and Katie at Yves's warehouse. But Julian was there. Isn't it likely that he paid Vik for them? Might he and Vik have met up before at the same spot on the night of the delivery to Alex?

Also, when Sawyer is on the phone to someone discussing his new supplier of Pink Clouds in 411, he says over the last panel that his man would be back in touch in a day or two because he has something to do first. That panel shows an empty hospital bed - presumably recently vacated by Alex or Katie. And we know that they were next seen with Vik.