(Original Publication Date, 29 December 1990)
Panel 1: As Elly takes her bath, John takes it upon himself to address the screaming fit she just had about what an ugly, worthless pig she is. He tells her that she worries far too much because she's too self-conscious. He then invites her to see the good-looking woman he and everyone who isn't her pig of a son sees.
This cannot have the desired results because the joyless lunatic is going to believe that she's just been told that she's a hysterical idiot who is too female to understand what she feels.
Panel 2: When he says that she's being too tough on herself because she hasn't put on THAT much weight, her reaction to his bald statement of fact is to go goggle-eyed in horrified anger.
This is because she never reacts well to being told that she exaggerates how much she weighs because it implies that he thinks she's obese but not as much.
Panel 3: Fool that John is, he expects her to save him some bath water.
Panel 4: We find him staring at the empty tub everyone but him would expect him to find.
Summary: Elly is not helping her own case here because her reaction to reassurance is a peevish, petty and childish act of vengeance. John is going to think that she's a crazy person who wants crazy things because having a child is giving her temporary insanity. Temporary. Yeah. RIGHT.