Felt so exhausted yesterday. Thought I slept well, woke up and was immediately disabused of that notion. Usually takes until the back half of the work week to feel like that. Don't know if it's the lack of sunlight setting in, workload, or some other shit. At this stage, being turned into a vampire or even a locust creature might be an improvement. Not sure about being dead at the bottom of a cliff in Scotland, though.
The locusts swarm out of the fires of NYC and attack the camp of the people holding Max. Max wisely uses this opportunity to take off, and Alice, the woman he found a couple of issues ago guides him into Ford's base before turning into a locust herself and attacking Ford's followers. Then the rest of the locusts attack the base as well, to the apparent shock of Ford and his guys.
Max finds Stella, just as Ford, well on his way to fully transforming, finds Max. They fight, with Max taking some damage, although the colors are so murky it's not always easy to see, while Ford rambles about being punished by God for his sins. Max and Stella make it out, make it north, but Stella is slowly changing as well. Max keeps her with him right to the end, and the tones do lighten up a bit, or at least they're outside during daytime, so everything is tinged grey-blue instead black.
It's a sad ending, but the way Rosi writes most of the characters, it feels like what they deserve. Ford is sure that he's changing because he's failed to carry out God's will, but of course, it's other people who have to die to fix things. Rosa and her group, having lost a lot of people to the locust attack, decides the best thing to do is go attack Ford's base and kill them all. Maybe that's the right call, because they don't know Max killed Ford, and so they expect Ford will keep hunting them, but it reeks of self-destruction. Your numbers are already reduced, so go pick another fight and get more of your people killed.
In contrast, Max has never been focused on killing. He's certainly killed, but his goal was always to get to safety with a person her cared about. First his mother, then Stella. When Ford's dead, and Stella's with Max, he leaves. There are a bunch of guy in creepy red Klan hoods standing there, and he doesn't take revenge, doesn't even harm them (I'm less clear on why they let he and Stella go, however). If one were inclined to think there was a purposeful mind behind the transformations, that might be the difference. Although it wouldn't explain why Stella changed, so maybe Max has just been lucky somehow. He isn't thinking he can stop anything, he's just trying to do something good for a kid while he has the chance.
Brenda, convinced by the lure of $350/hour to babysit a century-and-a-half old vampire, takes Elsie to the mall. Where they explore such '90s things as CDs and Hot Topic (or a slightly altered equivalent). Brenda keeps trying to make conversation, seemingly very interested in Elsie and her life, but is repeatedly rebuffed. Brenda does share her plan to use the money from this gig to fly to Scotland and throw herself off a cliff, and Elsie doesn't entirely crap on the notion.
Brenda has a couple of run-ins with a long-running bully, and the second time around, takes Elsie's advice and tells her off. That whole sequence also explains at least part of why Brenda is depressed. It's also the only scene where Hernandez draws Brenda in a somewhat aggressive posture. She walks away with her back straight (and middle finger extended), and when she's yelling, she's leaning in and jabbing her finger at Amber. Throughout the rest of the issue, Brenda's hunched over, like she's waiting to be hit. Even when she's trying to connect with Elsie in the music store, she has a wary, beaten-down posture.
Amber is angry enough to follow her into the changing room and start shouting threats, so Elsie kills her. Both issues now have ended with Elsie in front of a mirror, so it appears someone is interacting with nothing. It was Brenda shaking her hand in issue 1, and it's Amber's corpse being held up by Elsie here. Although Elsie does appear in photographs, as they use one of those mall photo booths during their fun montage.
I feel like some of Elsie's cursing is over-the-top, like Hale really likes the idea of having what appears to be a child call people twats, but Hale also makes it clear Elsie likes getting a reaction. So part of it meant to be performative on her part. I do enjoy some of her interactions with Brenda, the sarcastic comments that seem playful. Hernandez can show with posture and expressions when Elsie is actually angry or annoyed, so it's clear when she's just messing with Brenda and when she isn't.
I'm curious to see how this is going to end. It's hard for me to picture Brenda's troubles being solved by this one night with Elsie, but it doesn't feel like a story that will end with them parting ways so Brenda can buy that plane ticket to Scotland, either.
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