(Original Publication Date, 12 October 1990)
Panel 1: Having left the inside to look for someone who'll agree that she is a cruelly beset victim instead of a tiresome monomaniac with an addiction to being pitied, we find Elly in the garden watching Keith boast about his pumpkin again. It amazes him that in the space of a few weeks, a tiny seed grew into the orange behemoth he's grinning at. He is, of course, unaware of an obvious parallel about something tiny growing huge too fast and becoming a tomato.
Panel 2: Like all men, he does nothing 'constructive' but waters it, tends it and watches it grow.
Panel 3: Every day, it grows a little bigger, a little rounder and a little heavier. This is akin to how every day, Elly gets a little stupider, a little angrier and a little more filled with crippling self-pity.
Panel 4: Since Elly is desperate for someone to vent to, she asks the pumpkin if they can talk about things. The idea is that they have in common helplessly growing larger as a man delights in their suffering.
Summary: We switch from self-pity (for now) to panic so that we might transition to a previous plot thread: Elly having a conniption fit because Mike is TOO CLOSE to THAT GIRL!!!!
This allows us to transition from Elly whining about something she won't do anything about to Elly slowly freaking out and not actually saying why. Monday, Mike sees through her bullshit and as punishment, curfew is moved up thirty minutes.