Mike The Foob Comes Clean

Since I first outed Mike Patterson as a closeted gay man leading a desperate life of lies, his situation has become even more pathetic. Since the mysterious fire that was sparked by his smoking some of Weed's finer namesake herb, his whole family has moved back in with his mother.

Here, back under the secure arms of the only woman that has ever understood him, Mike has undertaken a series of passive-aggressive actions to stay under her roof. He spurns any help from his mother-in-law. He half-heartedly looks for apartments but rejects them all as being too far from work. When faced with a managerial decision commensurate with his position as a fashion magazine editor, he uses the opportunity as an excuse to rashly quit. His secret lover, now going as Jo, even gives him a celebratory party where he can meet new men.

Unfortunately, his wife who has a steady income and his father, both eager to get Mike out of the care of Elly, have conspired to buy a house. Faced with the threat of a mortgage that would quash his hopes of ever escaping the Foob Closet, he finally confesses that his loveless marriage is just a sham.

Well, that's how I read today's strip. With the Lynnions you have to read between the lines, but I know that is what they are getting at. Just look at the shock on Dee's face and the John's shame at the pathetic husk of a man that is his son.

Run, Dee, run. Get out while you can still raise your kids out from under the shadow of this family that makes the collected works of Eugene O'Neill and Tennesee Williams look like a Father Knows Best boxset.