It’s complicated, isn’t it?
The Japanese embassy! What can this mean? Claire’s had a haircut, it must be important. Detective Inspector Dennison appeared in Wicked Things, drawn brilliantly by Max Sarin, every issue, but has not been seen since. I did draw him once or twice though (see below)…
I just checked images of the Japanese embassy building in Piccadilly and was not at all surprised to see John has accurately rendered it in panel 1
I’m sure the interior is a close approximation…
But the main comment I have is that shy Claire is soooo cute!
Come now Ms. Grote, you know the rules.
No body? Well, you know who your nemesis is NOW…
Heck, Shelley came back even with her body being found. We’ve not seen the last of Beate and/or Skelottie.
Plenty of opportunity for an unexpected reappearance…
And the chance that distinguishing between Lottie and the not-actually-dead ringer will come down to Chekhov’s tattoo!
Beate’s remains will infect the eels like cortycep fungi and force the them to merge and become EeLottie.
This is such a distrustful day and age: Nobody believes no body.
…
I’ll see myself out…
Of course, we may just get a Die Hard/Agents of SHIELD āEvil lives! (Briefly)ā ending next strip, as Beate crashes through the embassy door with a flamethrower – only to be taken down by Dean, who was standing off to one side and whoās mastered the art of chopstick throwing.
First read chopstick as slapstick (and seeing one more word my mind filled in “comedy” before reading it).
Dean mastering slapstick comedy would be fun to see, too.
I don’t imagine Dean would be there since he’s not part of the Solver crew and wasn’t instrumental in uncovering the famous Japanese detective’s killer
Also he’s probably still sulking and wouldn’t attend even if he was invited
You’d sulk too if your first fitful forays back into being a social animal again landed you in Lottie Grote’s patented brand of High Nonsense.
What, that would be awesome. I’d be a lot more social if it resulted in Lottie Grote High Nonsenseā¢ more often.
When the story merely fails to show direct evidence of a body, then we MAY see that character again, but if the lack of a body is explicitly pointed out in the dialog, it’s a certainty. (Or so goes my reasoning.)
Chekhov’s Cadaver.
I assume that they are at the embassy to attend a memorial for Lottie’s mentor. Or Lottie has been asked to crack the champagne bottle on the prow of a crime-solving giant robot.
Two wheels to corner faster! WHAT PRICE CRIME SOLUTION?
They could just borrow Reverend Penrose’s car.
There’s just a lot of paperwork for that Japanese digital perm. https://badmachinery.com/comic/2021-01-11/
Oh no! Claire is sorta-cheating on Ygln!
It’s just a sudden crush. Everything will be fine.
Glad to see Denisson again and Claire’s reaction is too cute. The problem with Skelottie is that probably she’s an evil spirit possessing Bea’s body, able to survive even in the most extreme condition, or to possess someone else. She will return. Angrier than ever.
Not an impossible outcome in the Bobbinsverse. See my Eelottie comment.
She was floating around disembodied well before she took up with Beate, after all.
Do we know that?
I suspect John may be being deliberately ambiguous about that. We may never know.
I still mostly favor the mundane explanation that Skelottie is simply a fragment of Beate’s troubled mind, but I am open to practically anything. Demonic possession? Alien mind control? Sentient smoke? Sure, why not.
With those cheeks and a new speaking font, I think Beate might have had another face lift!
Now I’m afraid that “Claire” could stab Lottie in the next page.
Small detail but itās just nice to see Dennison firmly on Lottieās side after how much tension there was between her and the police force during Wicked Things
Same here. Despite their friction you can tell that Dennison really wanted to give Lottie a second chance.
They couldn’t find the body? You don’t say! Interesting.
Oh no.
New haircut! I wonder if Claire got Jack’s dad to do it.
Somebody talented did it because it suits her so well.
Now whilst the purple puffer will always be number 1 in Lottieās wardrobe, her business attire I think deserves an honorable second or third place entry.
A few points South of chic?
Just look at the style radiating from Claire! Lottie should be taking lessons from her.
Her numerous plaid pantsuits slay me every time.
Fantastic art on this one.
Just shrugging off the absence of a body? Lottie seems to have forgotten how her life works. And not long after she spelled it out to Beate, too.
I think Lottie would see this as a perfect EXAMPLE of how her life works. No body. Most of her adversaries never came back. If this one does, that’s in the future, and Lottie’s living in the present.
I feel I should point out that the Wikipedia page for the river Don is an absolute joy, with paragraphs for all the bridges and a tube style may showing the bridges, weirs and reservoirs running down the right hand side.
tube style *map* dammit
No body? To quote Dr Sivana “That’s a “We haven’t seen the last of him” if I ever saw one”
I know this is incredibly unlikely- the normal speech balloons, Lottie’s knowledge of her plans with Bitsy and Sandra, the lack of makeup, the difficulty of changing clothes while floundering around in a reservoir- but imagine if the story ends like this: As everyone at the embassy is celebrating whatever there ends up being to be celebrated, we zoom in on Lottie’s upper back, and… no tattoo!!! The final page is a tribute to the iconic ending of X-Men #132- we see a tributary of the River Don. A pale hand reaches out and grabs a nearby branch, and a figure pulls herself out of the water. In the final, larger panel, we see Lottie, dressed in the tattered remains of what Beate was wearing (but without the skeleton makeup), waste-deep in the water, posed with her pointing finger and “j’accuse” in front and to the side, saying “Okay, sucker, you’ve taken your BEST SHOT! Now it’s MY turn!”
Yeah, I don’t think so, either.
Waste deep? Is the Don so polluted?
In my defense, the original scene took place in a sewer.
Oh I’ve seen MacGuyver, I know what “They never found a body, but there’s no way anyone could’ve survived that” means.
They never found a body, Beate is known to impersonate people, and “Claire” has a new haircut.
HMMMMM…
Looks like several of the Commentariat are thinking along those lines. And notice the font…
I THINK that font’s just an indication that Claire’s whispering, but I could be wrong.
I think you’re right.
And Beate wouldn’t think of copying Claire’s *lisp*, I believe.
It seems wildly out of character for Skelottie to act shy. Her MO has always been to be the extreme opposite of shy, usually to the point where she gets the person she is impersonating into trouble.
I never realized how much Fartzilla changed the course of mystery. https://scarygoround.com/badmachinery/index.html?pg=381#showComic
The world owes a lot to Fartzilla.
Including 0.5 C of global warming from all that methane.
anyone else clock the Detective Inspector as being played by Idris Elba?
Panel 2: What could Claire be looking at?
She is looking at us (but slightly to the left) — quite a glamour shot!
Kudos to Ms. Grote on her watershed savvy. If Beate has succumbed to this fate and does indeed reach the Humber, she’ll pass within a few kilometres of a sleepy little bedroom community off the A164 that just happens to be named Cottingham.