Penny and Aggie/Recap/Hunger: Difference between revisions

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This brief arc focuses on Michelle's character, as it stands several months into her recovery from an eating disorder. An unseen narrator observes that Michelle isn't "deep," and seeks only "unconditional approval," even being willing at times to fake being someone she isn't, for that purpose. The scene shifts to Penny, at the mall with Michelle and Aggie, trying to enlist Aggie's help in getting out of her promise to volunteer with her at the eating disorder clinic, but Aggie won't have it. So, as the narrator observes that being "not deep" has its advantages (see page quote), Penny keeps her promise, albeit with obvious discomfort around the patients.

 

=== Tropes ===

* [[Flat Character]]: [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]]. Walper describes Michelle as "not [[The Silent Bob|Silent Bob]]" and "not deep." However, the arc, by noting the potential strengths and advantages of such a personality, and showing them in Michelle's selfless volunteering and acceptance of responsibility for her own actions, renders her an even [[Hidden Depths|deeper]], more relatable and [[Rounded Character|human]] character than before.

* [[Guilt Complex]]: Penny blames herself for her friend's disorder, when in fact, as Michelle puts it, "You...''saved'' me."

* [[Irony]]: Aggie uses verbal irony in response to Penny telling her to stop judging her for her reluctance to visit the clinic. "I'd never judge you," she says, followed by a sly half-smile, because they both know Aggie ''used'' to judge Penny all the time when they were enemies.

* [[It's All About Me]]: [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]]. Michelle, with gentle humour, disabuses Penny of the notion that she's to blame for her illness:

* [[Narrator All Along]]: Dr. Edith Walper, Michelle's therapist.

 

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[[Category:Recap]]