Panel 1: As we pick up from where we left off, we find out what the big disaster is: someone spilled all of Farley's dry food on the floor. As Elly and Annie look at the spill with a look of horror, Mike says that Lizzie (who, along with Christichard, is staring at it stupidly) did it; he told her not to pull on the kibble bag but she did it anyway.
Panel 2: As Farley starts to chow down, Mike, who's holding the bag open for Elly, who's all pissed off as she puts as much as she can back in the bag, says that he told her that it would fall over and all the kibble would fall out but she wouldn't listen.
Panel 3: Elly sets up the stupid punchline by asking a stupid question instead of giving her son a reality check; instead of reminding him that Lizzie doesn't really understand English, she asks him that if he knew it was going to happen, why didn't he stop her.
Panel 4: His answering her by saying that he wasn't sure leaves her as gobsmacked as telling her that he didn't want to have to get pummeled by an angry, screaming toddler and/or blamed for making her cry would have.
Summary: What bothers me is that Elly will draw a stupid conclusion from this. You and I would realize that Mike is an amazingly average dumb kid trying to do something that shouldn't have been asked of him; Elly will see it as an omen that her family needs her useless presence more than the world needs a great novel.
