Had to be done
I’m very sorry to announce that Dean is not going to be on the boat. In the original draft of the script, he was. The poor fellow was ejected overboard on the first morning of writing week. I needed the pages for something else and I’m not sorry. Lottie’s flash-forward shows you the future that almost was.
Now I’m imagining the whole cut story of Dean and the Red Trousers (playing out something like The Red Shoes).
The return of the red trousers! It’s a good thing this isn’t a Steeple crossover, considering Maggie’s history with these aristocratic garments.
I sure hope these “old boys” aren’t associated with Trident!
The smiley face on Lottie’s case is a nice touch
Yes, it is. And it has been for a while. c:
Bring that Brasso!
They left in a rush, but she still managed to pack a suitcase… or does she keep an emergency bag packed at all times for last minute overnight trips?
Having a Go Bag ready at all times seems like the sort of thing a well-prepared Solver would do
In this page Lottie specifically tells Claire they must grab their go-bags:
https://badmachinery.com/comic/2026-03-06/
Hate to say it but hanging about with a load of codgers rather than these two infernal engines sounds dandy.
I wouldn’t be seen dead in the red trousers, but the lifestyle itself sounds… agreeable.
I’m assuming the Red Trouser Club is based on the Red Shoe Club of our own timeline…and in that case, the rumor is, it’s not so much that you’d be seen dead in the red trousers as you would be seen dead AS the red trousers (because the trousers would be made of you).
Andrew, colourfully-trousered British men on the piss abroad are a semi-known phenomenon and are regularly regarded as a psychic menance of the first water. See https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/pigeon-ireland-dublin-protest-bristol-2038988
It’s very fortunate that Dean has a traditional job to go back to after his misadventure stress leave is over.
I’m also on the bandwagon for seeing Solver: Dean vs The Red Trousered Old Boys sometime in the future.
I’m not sure I was emotionally prepared for Wistful Dean.
I would’ve wanted to see the demonic shadowy old boy
I’m sure Dean will have others possibilities to be taken by an evil elite with a weird sense of fashion. Now Glenn needs all the help Lottie and Claire can gave him!
Did we just hear Lottie pronouce Glymph’s true name? Is this a sign of the end of times?
How would you like to sail in the watery footsteps of the Solvers! Last minute ferry tickets from Hull to Rotterdam can be yours for low low low prices! Does £200 per person sound like a steal? What would you say to £195.95?? [+ an additional surcharge for vehicles, children, and unaccompanied fishmen]
— post sponsored by Cash Gurgler Rail and Sailways®
Did you say £195.95? A steal!
Indeed, but who exactly is doing the stealing?
Beat the traffic jam! Hull to Rotterdam!
What’s the charge per fishman?
Asking for a bos’un friend?
Loitering and public indecency, for starters
And trespassing in private sheds.
Heh, used to be £20 return on the student union noticeboard. Was a while ago though.
She said his name, correctly!! Huzzah!
So we all agree that we don´t mind an alternative storyline being told after the first one is finished?!
Alas, poor Dean. Wants desperately to be part of the team, keeps getting shut out.
Come to think of it, “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” sounds more like something penned by Lottie than T.S.Eliot. Red trousers by the sea.
Poor Dean. I would read a multi-year epic of a drunken Dean riding the ferry back and forth. Solving mysteries, breaking hearts. I’m picturing a cross between Lovejoy and Jack Taylor. But on a boat. It could have been legendary.
They’d have to lash Dean to the mast to stop him following the siren call of the red trousers.
I was going to say, It’s just a quick nip across the Channel, how much troubl… ELEVEN AND A HALF HOURS!
It seems Lottie is at least tangentially acquainted with Steely Dan’s Home At Last.
Or Greek/Roman mythology?
I had not heard Home At Last before, and since I knew tying Dean to the mast was clearly referring to the siren song of mythology, I surmised from Tarmaque’s comment that Steely Dan had made a song about red-trousered old boys for some reason.
Thanks, Katherine, for revising my guess, and giving me the push, I guess, to listen to that song for the first time.
I am reminded of my favourite in the Classic Albums series – Steely Dan’s Aja. Here’s the segment on Home At Last https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9mX_-kRKnA
The synchronicity of this is delightful – I’m about to go on a ferry! A two-hour trip across a strait not a channel. There will be ferry breakfast and blustery open-deck whale spotting. (But will likely see just some sea gulls, seals and/or otters.) No red-trousered old boys, unfortunately.
All these pages are making me smile and smile. I love this comic.