Saint James Infirmary 333: Jakob's Ladder.

[Daphne]

Friday, September 26th.

[jmundt29]

This could be how Jakob survived, where he's living now, or some sort of construct in Pearl's memory.

Maybe I have this wrong, but...are there supposed to be three Kuppler brothers?

Is Jakob the eldest?  Why does he look four decades older than Johannes?  Hard living like The Prisoner of Zenda, or is Johannes the child of their father's old age?

[GodWilling]

It's hard to judge from the few drawings we have, but it doesn't look impossible to me that Johannes and Jakob could be twins. I don't think we're aware of a third brother. Maybe Joachim stayed dead.

[GodWilling]

Another fantastic page - great concept brilliantly realized.

[jmundt29]

I'm glad this is early because

What...The...Hell?

Why is there some unwritten law that all men in the SJI-verse except Adrian (and his father) must be complete douchebags?   Well, unless they're completely blind papas (here's lookin' at you, Cantor).

I was looking forward to Jacqui and Dani performing at Sawyer's club...it's been the longest standing carrot in the strip...and now, it's tainted.  Unless, of course, there's another level of programming that Pearl has yet to break through.

And now, I'm confused about our sideview.  Is that Jakob giving raw material to Dani to mold into something (in the past)?  Jakob giving raw material to Cherry (in the present)?  Johannes showing stuff to Claudia (in the present/near future)?  Or Jakob showing stuff to Pearl (in the past) before he gave it to Dani to work with?  Why does his hand look younger than the rest of him?

More important--this is the second person to say that Jakob couldn't make anything himself.  Why not?  Is he a mechanical klutz?  Is this to give us the impression that he could be a weak villain, a Dark Helmet-type if he faced real opposition?  Can only women work with the shells?  What ARE the shells?  Did they once all belong to Rain or her sisters...or her cousins?

What??? 

[GodWilling]

Just... am I the only one crossing my legs when I look at rung/panel 4? I suppose it's panel 3 if you read it from the bottom... And it certainly makes a lot more sense that way.

And it makes more sense if Dani is taking part in this conversation, and the speech bubble attributed to her is actually her "speaking". And if she is, then is the unattributed bubble saying Jakob could not make anything coming from her as well? And is it her saying there's something he didn't know?

Anyway, do we have an explanation for the "crystal" confusion now? We saw Jakob using something that looked like Zenon's "hypnotic crystal" (ep 8 pop-up text) on Pearl in 331. That presumably is "the pendant" referred to here. And it's powered by the same red crystal that the scallops are made from - but only a small piece of one. Once he'd got the watch, did he leave the pendant behind? Did Claudia pass it on to Zenon to help him find the little watch girl? Did Cherry and Julian break in and steal it on behalf of Johannes? Or are there several of these pendant things knocking about?

[jmundt29]

So, the scallops are crystals.  Of what substance?

So, did Dani make both the pendant and the Watch?  We have The Watch attributed to her, the only whole crystal that Jakob ever possessed.  While the double nude shot on rung three is distracting, I confess I'm confused by Dani's costume change from maid's outfit to pale dress from one rung to the next.

I can't tell if Zenon's pendant originally belonged to Jakob, or if first Dani and then Cherry were sent to steal it.  I think Cherry and Julian are working for Jakob.  Most of the shots we have of Jakob are of a guy with gray-to-white hair.  I can't remember if there's a beard or not.  Johannes looks like a gym rat/Bowflex model in his early 30s.  That's quite a disparity.

[mns_95125]

I suppose it's panel 3 if you read it from the bottom... And it certainly makes a lot more sense that way.

Yes, it really does.  I'm pretty sure that's the intent.

And it makes more sense if Dani is taking part in this conversation, and the speech bubble attributed to her is actually her "speaking". And if she is, then is the unattributed bubble saying Jakob could not make anything coming from her as well? And is it her saying there's something he didn't know?

I think all of the dialog in this one is commentary; none of it makes sense if said by people in the past.  For that matter, the backdrops make a kind of allegorical sense if the panels are read from bottom to top.  Erin is helping Miriam climb over a wall, a metaphor for a block in her memory.  Dialog in the second rung suggests that Jakob's programming is responsible for Miriam's sexual dysfunction.  Third rung, they're over the wall and seeing a representation of what's behind the block -- the pendant Jakob used to program her.  Fourth rung, Dani explains why Jakob sent her to Kearsage.  (Does this imply that Erin's memory spell is helping Dani recover her memories too?  And why did Jakob think more crystals could be found in Kearsage?)  Fifth and sixth rungs are Erin and Miriam exploring the mental territory 'behind the block'.

If Jakob wanted Miriam to join in the hunt for crystals, I wonder if that's why she 'decided' to go to college there?

Once he'd got the watch, did he leave the pendant behind? Did Claudia pass it on to Zenon to help him find the little watch girl? Did Cherry and Julian break in and steal it on behalf of Johannes? Or are there several of these pendant things knocking about?

My assumption is that the Watch is more powerful than the crystal because it's built around a full scallop, not a broken one.  Once he had the Watch he probably just set the pendant aside.  For all we know it was sitting unused in what later because Claudia's desk drawer.  Claudia's motivation seems to be freeing herself from Jakob's control.  If the pendant isn't strong enough to break Watch programming she might have given it to Zenon to help find the missing harem girl and the Watch she had with her.

Cherry and Julian's motivations depend on who they're working for.  They might be trying to collect Jakob's old mind control tools to prevent them from being used against other people, or they might be trying to get them so that Jakob can get back in the game now that he's no longer playing dead.

[Haight]

Some exposition, finally. Mind control *and* plot, my two major kinks!

What didn't he know? 

[laguna85]

I'm happy is not the electric  Jacob ladder that will shocking

let start bottom of the ladder
First we see that Erin is help Miriam over the well and break the memory block
He have piece of scallop and had lady made the pendant like Danielle did with the watch.
the Who made the ring that Vikram had and give it to Amy?

Next rung
Now we in the sex rose garden  
so that why Miriam (SJI 304) Can not be done up ass.
another block open up ? can she be fuck?
so Jakob want to be only one to do her and have her as sex slave.

Next rung p Pink cloud
So Yves and sawyer was use the Pink Cloud to control the ladies in or out the club.
(Quentin - Q tarbox or Q) use to put mental block all sex he had with Miriam(SJI 329)
This tell us why Jacquelyn and Miriam Break up

Next step
answer Why Danielle was sent by Jakob to Kearsage to find more of scallop.
We know more that where they are and Who can find them (SJI 102)

next two step the Mental block open up
Why the Pink cloud and who use it
Why Miriam was sent to help find more  Scallops.

This Clear up a lot history of question

We know from Cherry that Jakob is also look for Erin to stop her using her power.

Is there more parts of Scallop out and into think and use to control minds?

I know everyone have said it I just need type in my self to clear my mind




 

[GodWilling]

I think all of the dialog in this one is commentary; none of it makes sense if said by people in the past.

I agree with that. The commentary appears to be a conversation taking place presumably in some mind-space of Erin and Miriam. But to this point I didn't think we'd had any contributions from Adrian and Dani, yet it seems like Dani is chipping in here. It's also odd that reading from the bottom, panels 1, 2, 4, and 6 seem to form a continuous conversation about Jakob, while 3 and 5 are about Pink Clouds. (Numbering from the top down, Jakob's panels are 1, 3, 5, and 6. And of course 135 is the house number of the SJI. Let's move on.)

The oddity in the choice of direction is that the top panel appears to show Erin and Miriam somewhere much like where we left them. And then they appear to be running up the mountain towards the big gonad, which they then arrive at. Is the first panel a reference to something, btw? It looks really familiar but I can't place it.

The gonad is kind of pink. It accompanied the revelation that Yves told Pearl that Jacqui was helping Q to sell Pink Clouds, and that Q made her forget what she saw. I've taken this to mean that it represents Pink Clouds and that in its presence Miriam can see the lies she's been told under that influence. If Miriam knows in this space that Yves told her about Jacqui, she didn't know it when she was talking to Erin in the changing room (unless she really was lying). Indeed, in the changing room she didn't seem to know that she'd reported Jacqui to the authorities. So I'm assuming Pink Clouds was involved when Yves told her this.

If Jakob wanted Miriam to join in the hunt for crystals, I wonder if that's why she 'decided' to go to college there?

Miriam is only recently arrived in Kearsarge for the purposes of studying. As far as Ezra was concerned, Jakob died getting on for a year ago. So if she's come now looking for a crystal then either she's been in contact with Jakob since he disappeared or she's left it a bit late. But she may be referring back to her earlier visit in the guest pages - or some other visit. Or maybe he sent her somewhere else.

I'm puzzled about exactly when Jakob sent Dani to find another scallop, given that she's supposed to have disappeared in the plane crash with him and didn't know he was still alive.

Cherry and Julian's motivations depend on who they're working for.

Well their boss is flying in to Concord, so if it's Jakob then perhaps there'll be a happy chance meeting with Johannes at the airport.

[Daphne]

The "gonad" is a cotton ball.

[GodWilling]

Tom Waits again...?

Thank you. That makes a lot more sense. I hadn't made that connection with the real world events.

[mns_95125]

The "gonad" is a cotton ball.

Ah.  One infused with Pink Clouds, I suppose.  I'd actually assumed it was the pendant infused by the red light of a scallop, but cotton ball works too.

[GodWilling]

One infused with Pink Clouds, I suppose.

I'm seeing it as the one Miriam has just inhaled from, which was pink even though logically it would have been the antidote. As I say, it seems to accompany Miriam seeing the truth where previously there were Pink Clouds inspired lies.