Saint James Infirmary #1376: “Prescribed Behavior”

I shouldn't let this page pass without saying how much I like it. Ostensibly the same thing happens in this scene as in the previous one with the doctor. (Erin keeps dreaming scenes that end with her having a cock in her mouth. Indeed, the same thing happens in the latest round of Aiken's dream.) But last time she was a woman who was accepting of her duties, accepting of the idea that many of her memories were delusions, and who was engaging in an affair with her doctor, in which her behaviour was almost that of a seductress. This time around (as if we didn't know already) we've seen (and she has seen) that she has been hypnotized by the doctor into being his sex-slave. And here, though she doesn't appear to be unhappy about it, she undresses upon command and then goes straight to the position expected of her. She is more clearly subservient to him now.

I can't help thinking that her smile in the second panel is simply triggered by the sight of her huge breasts, which are an asset to her in her role as a sexual object. But her apparent happiness is one thing that makes me question whether the doctor is supposed to be Jakob. Jakob is cruel, and his women are not supposed to be happy. I'm still thinking that since Aiken is dreaming specifically about Erin, it would make sense for his new role to be either that of the doctor or the husband. And his position in relation to Erin in his dream is closer to that of the doctor.