Penny and Aggie/Communion/Recap

"You...You ever wonder what you'd be like if you stript, stripped away all the surface? Might find you're not as nice as ever'body thought. As you thought."

Jack, while performing with Katy-Ann in a lipdub for Stan, recalls her praising him for having stopped drinking, and hopes to be a better man for her, to at least "get close to her level." Shortly afterward, Katy-Ann comes by his house for a date, just as his mother's heading out, and makes herself at home while waiting for him to return. Entering his room, she discovers an unopened six-pack of beer. When his father comes home unexpectedly, she lies about having to cancel on Jack and takes off, sneaking the beer out with her. Once in her car, she weeps and shouts, "He has me!"

The next day, she phones Lisa and Brandi, asking them to meet her in the woods. There she tells him that Jack has apparently started drinking again, and that in order to understand his dependency, she intends to get drunk on the six-pack she took from him. When Lisa asks why she and Brandi are there, Katy-Ann explains they're to keep her from doing anything stupid once she's drunk, and also because of all her friends she can trust them not to judge her.

Going through the pack as a first-time drinker, Katy-Ann swings through a number of moods: fear that the alcohol will reveal an ugly inner self, disgust at herself for being a "tease" to Jack by not having sex with him, skepticism about her religion's moral code (while still showing contempt for what happened between Rich and Penny, and between Stan and Michelle), comically over-the-top horniness (leading her to try taking off her pants while screaming for Jack) and back to skepticism about her faith. Brandi having denied her the last beer, she gets sick and lets her friends take her home to bed.

That night, a concerned Jack comes to visit his sober, but still sick, girlfriend. She tells him she found the beer in his room and admits to having stolen it, even apologizing for not having trusted him, while asking why he failed to earn her trust. Jack calmly explains that he hasn't in fact resumed drinking. The six-pack was one he, Rich and Stan had stolen from a wealthy teen's party they'd crashed. As they never got around to sharing it, Jack, after Rich left town, decided to keep it unopened as a memento. Katy-Ann doesn't quite trust his story, so he explains that beer spoils...and it'd been in his unrefrigerated room for over a year.

Katy-Ann, relieved, regrets not having confronting him instead of acting hastily, then bursts out laughing. She tells the confused Jack she's realized the problem between them: he still feels he's on a lower moral level than her. So in order to disabuse him of that, she begins to tell him what she did with the beer. (The arc ends before we find out how much she told him.)

Tropes:
"What's it matter, anyway? What's anything matter? We're all just wires on a mouse in a maze. Part of God's plan. The plan."
 * Binge Montage: Katy-Ann goes from mildly intoxicated to "loud, horny drunk" over the course of a single nine-panel strip.
 * Can't Hold Her Liquor: Justified, as Katy-Ann, who has never drunk alcohol before (and is female and slim), drinks most of a six-pack in one sitting. Also played with, in that the beer was in fact spoiled, and therefore would've made even a seasoned drinker ill.
 * Fan Disservice: One panel depicts Katy-Ann at home from behind, clad only in panties. However, she's throwing up into the toilet.
 * The Fatalist: Katy-Ann is momentarily this when drunk:


 * Gosh Dang It to Heck: When Brandi (who's "lying low" after the Xena incident) says she's reluctant to get involved in others' relationship conflicts, Katy-Ann shouts, "Brandi, just get the heck over here!" Brandi thinks, "Holy f#$%, she just cursed at me."
 * Hangover Sensitivity: Katy-Ann keeps the lights off when Jack comes to visit her in her room.
 * Informed Judaism: Jack's mother mentions the family's "Jewish guilt". No other reference to Jack's Jewish religion or ethnicity has appeared in the comic before or since.
 * In Vino Veritas: Both played straight, Played for Laughs, and discussed (see page quote). Even Lisa is concerned that alcohol could reveal an unwanted side of herself (note that she, like Penny, Aggie and several other characters, doesn't drink).
 * Mood Whiplash: The nine-panel strip in which Katy-Ann goes through the beer starts out ominously ("I'm scared"), passes through ethical reflection, and ends in comedy ("I'M COMING, JACK! COME HERE AND COME!", said while unbuttoning her pants).
 * No Matter How Much I Beg: Played for Laughs. Katy-Ann has Lisa and Brandi act as sitters as she drinks, so that they'll keep her from doing "anything else stupid." This proves wise, as she not only gets so drunk that she starts to take off her pants, before Brandi stops her, but subsequently tries to drink even more, despite having started out hating the beer's taste. And, as Brandi withholds the last beer from her, beg she does, reaching for the can and repeating "Are you sure I'm drunk?" several times.
 * Not So Different: The point that Katy-Ann tries to drive home to Jack at the end of the arc.
 * Off the Wagon: Subverted.
 * Skyward Scream: Katy-Ann does this in her car.
 * Splash of Color: Although the comic is normally in greyscale, Katy-Ann's bloodshot eyes, in the last three strips, are colored red.
 * To Know Him I Must Become Him
 * Vomit Discretion Shot