Maybe dog ears pick up what’s not explicit; the plaintive notes of “There should be an earth-shattering love boom!” as meaning “Let’s not have sex until there is an earth-shattering love boom.”
I think Sweetheart is savvy enough about office politics to figure out that she, and her team, had been set up to fail. And Ira blowing his cover and kidnapping Nick meant that the “fail” part of things was in progress.
Not so much that they were set up to fail, since they did – after a fashion – succeed in their prescribed task. But she realizes that their prescribed task, and thereby the team itself, has outlived its usefulness (if it was truly useful in the first place – as opposed to just being used).
Learning that Nick had become expendable has made it quite apparent that the rest of them are now also expendable. So she is quite reasonable to be indifferent to who is in charge. And while they may not yet know that Virginia had been extirpated, they have undoubtedly realized that she was no longer in contact, meaning that she has very likely also become expendable.
I’d say rather that she knows that Anasigma has taken over the “official” office, and her team is effectively cut off and operating independently. With herself as pack leader….
Currently, she’s Sweetheart’s erstwhile assistant at Anasigma’s office. Previously she was a student at the Institute for the study of Mad Science, put in charge of maintaining control over rogue Mads if they went on a rampage. Whether due to the Institutes teachings or close contact with said Mads, she was going over the edge herself. Actually, she was responsible for ordering a bombing run, so she might have flown over said edge some time ago.
In short, it could be argued she was a perfect fit for this series.
Don’t know that she was ever a student at the Institute. I was not aware that the Institute was an educational facility at all. It was more like a mental institution. Near as I could tell, Dr. Englebright was in charge of the Institute. She was the one who brought Tigerlily to Annex One to repair Moustachio, and the one responsible for apprehending “Dr. Darling” – the Violet drone when Sweetheart was running it.
She was first introduced as the representative of the Institute for the Sane Study of Mad Science who brought Tigerlily to Skin Horse. She’s not very nice.
More recently, she was transferred to Skin Horse when they expanded. Sweetheart went along with this, apparently just to make her suffer, despite evidence she was empire-building.
Damn, it happened again. This time I’ll just copy-paste.
—-
We see them leaving an irradiated lobster near the cafeteria kitchen during “The Hundred Dresses”. Horribly irresponsible.
Marcy shows up in one panel during “Angry with the Sky”, clearly addressing Nick, but that might be a flashback.
I think reality-blind versions of themselves probably would have stopped irradiating random things. “Why did we think this was so great? I mean, radiation just causes burns, sickness, and cancer. It’s not like it does comic-book nonsense like transformations or enlargements.”
Anyway, I think it’s just implicit that they’ve seen so much Weird Shit that it’s part of their worldview, and they’re immune to the reality plague, just like Jonah and Vera.
When Sweetheart was put in charge of the new Skin Horse, she rejected the option of firing Englebright, apparently for the mere lulz of being able to give her vaguely-worded but critical orders.
I wonder now if she had tried firing Englebright, she would have found that she couldn’t. “Shadowy overboss: If she’s not under you in the org chart, she’ll be off to one side in the org chart, and if you press the matter, I’ll be tempted to put her over you in the org chart. She stays, no matter what.”
And more to the point, way back when Dr. Englebright sent Virginia, et al, on the mission to the Jersey safehouse, I think Sweetheart was already beginning to realize that she was only a figurehead. It didn’t matter back then who was “in charge” – Englebright was the one who was really running things in the office. She saw that she didn’t have as much control over Skin Horse as she thought she was going to, so learning now that there’s been an all-out coup isn’t really a surprise, and really doesn’t make any difference.
Even more to the point, I don’t think Sweetheart ever really forgot how she got the job (infiltrating the Institute to find out about the Cure and being stuck in an Anasigma VR). She knew the job offer was some kind of manipulative plot going in, and I suspect that a lot of her time was spent wondering when the next phase of the plot be sprung.
So I think she knew going in that Englebright was more in control than the org chart said, and that firing her would be pointless anyway.
A coup seems like pointless drama, really. All there needed to be was an announcement that Englebright had been promoted. Why even have Englebright call for Sweetheart’s dismissal, when the dismissal could simply just happen? Maybe Englebright just likes pointless drama, with a helping of vengeful sadism.
Englebright (with bullhorn, because of course she would): I HAVE RECORDED MULTIPLE VIOLATIONS OF CORPORATE POLICY BY AGENT FANCY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO USING RESTROOM SINKS TO BRUSH HER TEETH, AND I DEMAND HER IMMEDIATE DISMISSAL!!!!!
[and so on and so forth]
We see them leaving an irradiated lobster near the cafeteria kitchen during “The Hundred Dresses”. Horribly irresponsible.
Marcy shows up in one panel during “Angry with the Sky”, clearly addressing Nick, but that might be a flashback.
I think reality-blind versions of themselves probably would have stopped irradiating random things. “Why did we think this was so great? I mean, radiation just causes burns, sickness, and cancer. It’s not like it does comic-book nonsense like transformations or enlargements.”
Anyway, I think it’s just implicit that they’ve seen so much Weird Shit that it’s part of their worldview, and they’re immune to the reality plague, just like Jonah and Vera.
Hm. That hasn’t been what Tip has been saying.
Or is it?
Maybe dog ears pick up what’s not explicit; the plaintive notes of “There should be an earth-shattering love boom!” as meaning “Let’s not have sex until there is an earth-shattering love boom.”
The alpha canine wannabe must know something we don’t, else Chris is right.
I think Sweetheart is savvy enough about office politics to figure out that she, and her team, had been set up to fail. And Ira blowing his cover and kidnapping Nick meant that the “fail” part of things was in progress.
Not so much that they were set up to fail, since they did – after a fashion – succeed in their prescribed task. But she realizes that their prescribed task, and thereby the team itself, has outlived its usefulness (if it was truly useful in the first place – as opposed to just being used).
Learning that Nick had become expendable has made it quite apparent that the rest of them are now also expendable. So she is quite reasonable to be indifferent to who is in charge. And while they may not yet know that Virginia had been extirpated, they have undoubtedly realized that she was no longer in contact, meaning that she has very likely also become expendable.
I’d say rather that she knows that Anasigma has taken over the “official” office, and her team is effectively cut off and operating independently. With herself as pack leader….
I really wish I could up-vote this comment.
It might be time for the original staff to go rogue. Everyone but Nick seems to have been freed. Hey guys, we’re getting the band back together.
Remind me who Dr. Engelbright is
Currently, she’s Sweetheart’s erstwhile assistant at Anasigma’s office. Previously she was a student at the Institute for the study of Mad Science, put in charge of maintaining control over rogue Mads if they went on a rampage. Whether due to the Institutes teachings or close contact with said Mads, she was going over the edge herself. Actually, she was responsible for ordering a bombing run, so she might have flown over said edge some time ago.
In short, it could be argued she was a perfect fit for this series.
Don’t know that she was ever a student at the Institute. I was not aware that the Institute was an educational facility at all. It was more like a mental institution. Near as I could tell, Dr. Englebright was in charge of the Institute. She was the one who brought Tigerlily to Annex One to repair Moustachio, and the one responsible for apprehending “Dr. Darling” – the Violet drone when Sweetheart was running it.
This comment was supposed to be under here. Second time that’s happened; not sure why.
She was first introduced as the representative of the Institute for the Sane Study of Mad Science who brought Tigerlily to Skin Horse. She’s not very nice.
More recently, she was transferred to Skin Horse when they expanded. Sweetheart went along with this, apparently just to make her suffer, despite evidence she was empire-building.
(I hope all those links work…)
Didn’t Chris and Marcie used to be reality-blind?
That would be a bit weird, considering that they play games with a battle helicopter
I mean after the Great Reality Blindness Plague.
Damn, it happened again. This time I’ll just copy-paste.
—-
We see them leaving an irradiated lobster near the cafeteria kitchen during “The Hundred Dresses”. Horribly irresponsible.
Marcy shows up in one panel during “Angry with the Sky”, clearly addressing Nick, but that might be a flashback.
I think reality-blind versions of themselves probably would have stopped irradiating random things. “Why did we think this was so great? I mean, radiation just causes burns, sickness, and cancer. It’s not like it does comic-book nonsense like transformations or enlargements.”
Anyway, I think it’s just implicit that they’ve seen so much Weird Shit that it’s part of their worldview, and they’re immune to the reality plague, just like Jonah and Vera.
No. I distinctly wondered about that at the time but all the main characters seem to be immune.
(I actually thiink it’d be funnier if the main characters got reality blind as well, but I’m apparently in the minority of that.)
When Sweetheart was put in charge of the new Skin Horse, she rejected the option of firing Englebright, apparently for the mere lulz of being able to give her vaguely-worded but critical orders.
I wonder now if she had tried firing Englebright, she would have found that she couldn’t. “Shadowy overboss: If she’s not under you in the org chart, she’ll be off to one side in the org chart, and if you press the matter, I’ll be tempted to put her over you in the org chart. She stays, no matter what.”
And more to the point, way back when Dr. Englebright sent Virginia, et al, on the mission to the Jersey safehouse, I think Sweetheart was already beginning to realize that she was only a figurehead. It didn’t matter back then who was “in charge” – Englebright was the one who was really running things in the office. She saw that she didn’t have as much control over Skin Horse as she thought she was going to, so learning now that there’s been an all-out coup isn’t really a surprise, and really doesn’t make any difference.
Even more to the point, I don’t think Sweetheart ever really forgot how she got the job (infiltrating the Institute to find out about the Cure and being stuck in an Anasigma VR). She knew the job offer was some kind of manipulative plot going in, and I suspect that a lot of her time was spent wondering when the next phase of the plot be sprung.
So I think she knew going in that Englebright was more in control than the org chart said, and that firing her would be pointless anyway.
A coup seems like pointless drama, really. All there needed to be was an announcement that Englebright had been promoted. Why even have Englebright call for Sweetheart’s dismissal, when the dismissal could simply just happen? Maybe Englebright just likes pointless drama, with a helping of vengeful sadism.
Englebright (with bullhorn, because of course she would): I HAVE RECORDED MULTIPLE VIOLATIONS OF CORPORATE POLICY BY AGENT FANCY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO USING RESTROOM SINKS TO BRUSH HER TEETH, AND I DEMAND HER IMMEDIATE DISMISSAL!!!!!
[and so on and so forth]
I think Chris’ observation might have been a shout out to the cancelled CBS show, Brain Dead.” I liked the premise but it just didn’t quite work.
If they had hired Shaenon and Jeff as creative consultants, the show would have had an Emmy by now.
We see them leaving an irradiated lobster near the cafeteria kitchen during “The Hundred Dresses”. Horribly irresponsible.
Marcy shows up in one panel during “Angry with the Sky”, clearly addressing Nick, but that might be a flashback.
I think reality-blind versions of themselves probably would have stopped irradiating random things. “Why did we think this was so great? I mean, radiation just causes burns, sickness, and cancer. It’s not like it does comic-book nonsense like transformations or enlargements.”
Anyway, I think it’s just implicit that they’ve seen so much Weird Shit that it’s part of their worldview, and they’re immune to the reality plague, just like Jonah and Vera.
Posting a last minute prediction under the wire: Chris and Marcie will go to see Tip. They will study him silently.
Chris will say: “Makeover?”
Marcie will say: “Makeover!” in tones of excited glee.
While I’m waiting for the site to refresh, one last prediction for a scene to occur soon, if not now:
Chris and Marcie go to see Tip. They study him silently.
Chris to Marcie: Makeover?
Marcie to Chris, in tones of excited glee: Makeover!
. . . Dammit. First time I posted, it said there was a server DNS timeout. I figured it hadn’t made it.
Aaah, the one thing Sweetheart can’t resist more than office work
Office gossip.