Morning Glories #15

Zoe. Come on, stop hiding in the shadows. Stop falling back into your naturally assumed bitch position and make friends the normal way. Unlike Ike, I want to not hate you. Ike is a magnificent bastard, and Zoe is Miss Queen Bitch. But we all know what happened last time she did something selfless. Zoe's past is explored even more, giving her the lead in terms of backstory information revealed. But it only tells us more about her as a person, not much about whatever it is that makes her special. But we touch touch upon what makes Hunter special, but with a bizarre twist to that. In fact, this issue really doesn't do a whole lot with the bigger mysteries. Even when the flag for Woodrun is in a laboratory looking room that shoots a laser beam, and Hunter starts babbling and vomiting after seeing a clock that really DOES say 8:13.... a lot of it feels like almost distractions in the background. This is a very character driven issue, and I appreciate that to a surprising extent.

You see, I was bothered by Casey at the beginning. Not so much her, as it was Hunter falling in love with her at first sight after bumping into her. I've felt an intense connection with Hunter, but since the start of the series the character I'd most wanted to give a big hug to and never let go of was the fragile and damaged Jade. That's the type of girl I always think I'll fall in love with. But Casey grew on me because she represented a lot of the qualities in the girls I generally actually date. But Hunter meets someone else here, a nerdy girl with an obvious crush on him; and I couldn't be happier for my proxy. They got chatting and I lost myself in how downright adorable it was to see both of them struggle with awkwardness.

But Zoe has to spoil my mood. I honestly can't tell where her speech is coming from. She essentially tells Hunter that Casey is literally too good for him, in some weird ways that made me a mix of angry and uncomfortable to read. I couldn't accept all of her words at face value, she doesn't magically know everything about everyone right? But there was a sting of truth to at least some of what she said, but I can't tell if she's bitter and lashing out at Hunter for what she said, jealous of Casey's easy ability to craft genuine friendship, is developing feelings for Hunter, or just stating the facts from an outside perspective. But still, I refuse to believe everything that bitch says. But it speaks volumes to Spencer's writing that I can focus so heavily on hating dialogue and directing my hatred towards the character and not the writer. I think she's wrong, but that's because I think she's mislead or being misleading; I'm not saying Spencer is wrong. But how can he be wrong anyways, its his own characters. Maybe I refuse to see Casey in such a bad light because Hunter refuses to. But she's not even on our minds right now, it's more about Maggie and the DVD's we're going to watch later. She seems normal for someone who's been here a while, maybe she'll shed some light on some things from a different perspective......

Oh wait.

Zoe you absolute bitch. I will never forgive you.

In Conclusion: 4/5

This score is absolutely personal. I'm not sure if it was really Zoe, considering the conflicting accounts of her accountability in all her stabbings, but god dammit, I'm really pissed about what happened at the end. The final moments of the issue made it painfully obvious, and I had to simply sit there and let events unfold. Seeing it coming made it a little more annoying though, because I felt it was a little too obvious. But there's a distinct possibility that I'm just taking it hard due to my powerful connection with Hunter. The writing and the synch are so strong that I frequently lose myself in Hunter, the lines blurring into a cloud of emotions that clouds my judgement. But that's one way that actually proves how excellent this series is.