You know those bathrooms which don’t have doors? Apparently the Pattersons have one of those for their kids.
Panel 1: Since last week, Michael came home from work and told at least Elizabeth he was going out on a boat, because Elizabeth has decided to go into full-on annoying younger sister mode. Michael adjusts his hair using what appears to be a bottle saying, “Water H2O” on it. Beside it is a jar that says, “Gel” on it. Michael seems to get his hair products from the “extremely generic” section. I am surprised he doesn’t have a comb labeled “comb” or a brush labeled “brush.” Elizabeth asks what is actually a pretty reasonable question, but she may not realize that Michael is probably going for the JTT long-hair middle part style and does not care.
Panel 2: Elizabeth’s questions in this panel are not so reasonable:
- Is that gel you’re puttin’ on? – Just read the giant letters on the jar, Elizabeth.
- Why are you wearing that shirt? - Because the shirt he wore at work probably stinks of hot dogs.
- You tryin’ to impress Martha? - Not with that shirt. It looks like a plain t-shirt, except in Panel 4 where it mysteriously grows half a collar.
Panel 3: At this point it becomes clear just why Michael has the water bottle instead of hair spray. Since Liz does not ask him about the water bottle as she does the gel, it makes me wonder if the “Water and H2O” were on the bottle when Lynn Johnston originally drew this. Most hair care products would not feel very good squirted in someone’s face. I wonder if someone pointed that out to Lynn, so she reluctantly added the words “Water H2O” on the bottle to eliminate complaints. The spray is so vigorous, it looks a lot like a clown squirting seltzer water instead of one of those hair water bottles that lightly spritzes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD7PhvulZ2E
Panel 4:
Michael walks away completely expressionless and thinks, “Summer would be great if it weren’t for the bugs.” You would think he would have a big smile on his face as he usually does when he gets the best of his sister, but this Michael looks as though someone put him in a hypnotic trance and forced him to think a terrible pun. That may not be far from the truth.
Summary:
Michael does not realize the horrible mistake he just made. With his terrible fashion sense he will need all the help he can get and he just squirted away the only person in the house qualified to help him. You know he doesn’t respect Elly’s fashion sense, and the less said about John’s the better.