… unless, of course, you don’t have a grave, because you gave up your humanity to become a horrible magic undead creature.
You know what they say:
Liches get stitches
Is it bad that every time I imagine being any kind of undead one of the perks is that I’d be ‘living’ t my grave? Like, sleeping in a coffin and spending time in a tomb sounds like a goth dream come true.
“Liches get stitches” is what the protagonist of The Sword Interval wears on the back of her jacket. TSI is a really good comic that I can’t recommend enough. Completely different genre from DOA though. It’s on
I think Amber might make the associations that if he hadn’t called the cops she never woulda taken Ethan hostage and escalated the whole stand up situation. If so, I’m more inclined to worry about amber flying into a rage and murdering Asher, rather than Sal at any rate.
Honestly, I think she’s less likely to explode on him than Walky might be. Like, I doubt she’s going to be thrilled, but I wonder. I imagine she’s going to want to know the *why*, in any case.
Probably to throw the cops at someone still committing a robbery as an active crime to give himself and his cronies more time to get away and cover up their involvement in the first one. And like, it did end up with both robberies pinned on Sal, so looks like it worked.
What does that have to do with anything? Smoking doesn’t say anything about someone’s intelligence or ability to plan. It’s hard to quit, specially if you started that young.
Not really. The second robbery wasn’t planned. And it doesn’t take much thought to come up with a plan of essentially ‘wasn’t me, she did it!’ when the opportunity arises. And even if you want to insist a 13 year old wouldn’t think of that, his older brother was there too and could have been the one who convinced him to do it.
This whole thing relies on sal not giving the police the namens of those who did the first robbery. I mean, a twelve year old facing prison might react unexpectedly.
Plus, there’s a chance that there still were fingerprints of one of them on the knife (it was a present). There definitely are fingerprints on the money they passed her.
I’m really really curious about the why part. This seems to be an unnecessary risk for me.
Yup. Seems really weird. Sal wouldn’t be obviously linked to the first robbery – didn’t go in, wasn’t seen by anyone there, wouldn’t be on camera, the second was solo while the first had multiple people.
Any attempt to pin the first on her would lead to a lot of pressure to identify the other parties.
Asher didn’t know about the second robbery I think. She didn’t say what she wanted to do and they probably didn’t stay around to find out. So the cops were most likely called because of the first robbery. Plus, two crimes at the same time in the same area and the one who commited the second robbery had a whole lot of cash with them. Cash she definitely shouldn’t have. Wonder how those two are connected.
Since walky knew about both robberies, her involvement in the first robbery probably became known somehow. It would have been a miracle if not.
But Asher called the cops on Sal during the second robbery. That’s why they showed up while she was trying to rob it. Him calling them about the first one doesn’t fit what happened or what he said.
The cash is an interesting point, but it just makes it weirder. The cops will want to know where the rest of the cash is, which will make it harder for them to pretend she acted alone in the first robbery and thus more likely for her to roll over on the rest of the gang.
Hm. Perhaps asher actually did watch and had enough human decency to call for help as soon as a life was in danger? That threatening a child was a red line for him?
Or he just called the cops and the second robbery was just a coincidence? And he just added that for clarification?
Or he called the cops on the second robbery because he recognized the signs that she was plotting it when she asked to be let off at the other store. He has been shown to be perceptive.
He knew her situation, and knew that getting into crime wouldn’t help Marcie. He probably called the cops before Sal even started the robbery, which is how they showed up so quickly.
The question is, why did he do it though, considering they robbed the first one? Not to mention he must have known to some level that Sal would be doing it for benevolent reasons (re:Marcie).
Or y’know, he got a sudden flash of conscience after he dropped Sal off.
Got paranoid that the rest of them would be caught and figured that, no matter how much she might complain about her mother, a rich kid like Sal was significantly more likely to walk away from being caught without facing seriously repercussions than the rest of them?
(I’m wondering if this is only a shocking twist to Walky, hitting him in his resolution to be a better brother, and if it might be old news to Sal; just asking to pass on an apology without any further detail until it’s asked for implies that he expects her to know just what he felt sorry for.)
Walky knew asher so their parents probably knew him, too. His name is likely to pop up when her parents get asked about possible associates. And then there is the money. I didn’t see gloves when they passed sal on the truck so there probably are fingerprints in the shop and definitely on the money they passed her. Possibly on the knife they gave her. Giving the police a clue to where to search for the matching person for said fingerprints is dumb.
I’m really curious about the why.
That is assuming the police will keep looking even when they caught a single suspect red-handed. They may ask whether others assisted but if Sal doesn’t tell – which is likely as they were friends and Sal has a sense of honour – the police likely won’t spend time and resources to get an answer from fingerprints.
She only had at most a fourth of the missing money from the first place and she travelled to the second place pretty fast but does not have a car. Also, she’s twelve.
So yes, I’m definitely assuming that they will look for other suspects. And there is a possibility that they were involved in the hostage thing as well. A child being held at knife point usually leads to a whole lot more effort than a bit of money.
I mean, asher is innocent regarding that specifc crime, but he could have been involved from the investigators point of view. So they have to check.
No problem. Sal WAS 12 when Marcie lost her voice, and 13 during the robberies (she told Joyce “rob convenience stores at 13 and see how many [therapists] you meet’.
I assume you’re referring to the Tampa Bay Lightning, but ironically enough, there is a minor league hockey team in Evansville, the Thunderbolts (aka the Bolts).
(It’s ironic because Evansville is where Asher and Sal and Walky are from.)
Not punished. Amber was hating herself because she attacked Sal after she was already restrained. She wanted a fair fight to prove she would have won after all, lessening the guilt of what she did.
And eventually it morphed into wanting HERSELF punished.
The differences being A) Sal WAS punished for the robbery while Asher (so far as we know) was not, B) Amber stabbed Sal while she was being arrested and restrained at the prompting of her shithead dad – Sal possibly wanting Asher to face consequences for backstabbing her is different because she never did anything to Asher, and C) Ethan very explicitly wanted to let Sal be. We don’t know how Sal would feel about this. It could go either way, but assuming she would decide ‘it’s on now’, that would also be important to take into consideration as the person who was screwed over.
Did we know they weren’t punished? Because if they got caught that evening, this would make more sense. They might have cooperated with the police and told them where to find sal.
Anyway, I suspect sal knows about this. Would explain her dislike for snitches
Though he says “called the police on her”, which implies he contacted them and given the timeline, it would have to have been right after they dropped her off.
I Wonder what asher’s motivation was for calling the cops? Did sal take it too far with the hostage taking of ethan? Did asher freak out early on, or was he just feeling guilty? Is amber going to freak out yet again? Will amazi-girl do a hostile takeover? How will that play out with walky there?
I was trying to figure out what his motivation could have been, and I think I found it.
Scapegoat.
If two stores are robbed, and the cops catch one black kid acting alone at the second store, they’re probably less likely to keep searching for the first robbers. So since he knew what she was doing, and also that she was trying to get a cut all to herself, he called the cops.
The second bit there is something I came up while writing this. Bit of an abusive thing, either she’s with him, or she gets nothing. No good running around being a thug if your underlings figure they can do easier without you.
Maybe he got immunity or something for the first robbery? Or it at least helped his case? Like, he pinned the first one on Sal after he called the second one in and it helped his case somehow?
Everyone is the same as the worst thing they did when they were 13, right?
People do change. We’ve seen plenty of it in this comic. We don’t know why Asher was involved in the robbery or why he called the cops on Sal. We don’t know what he’s been though since.
I’m in the cautiously optimistic camp at this point, but something makes me wary of him.
I’m not saying people don’t change. I’m saying you don’t stop being you at any point. Maybe I’m taking the phrase too literally, but he’s talking in a way I’ve seen before, and it’s never been from someone decent.
Sal held a knife to the throat a child and traumatized his friend for life. Asher called the cops. In no way shape or form do either deserve to be treated as anything other than kids who made terrible mistakes.
Does Sal know? When did she find out?
If she knew at the time, did she still not tell the cops about the rest of the group for the first robbery? That seems to be taking not narcing a little too far.
Sal already had her coming-to-terms moment with the whole incident three storylines ago. She gave up being angry. If she can forgive Amber, she probably already forgave Asher.
Holy shit, I am so torn right now. On the one hand, he is directly responsible for so much of what happened to Sal, Amber and Ethan. On the other hand, he is a completely different person from back then, and he has no way of knowing just how much of an impact he had.
OTOH, the clerk seemed to be talking her down. She couldn’t get through the bulletproof glass and she didn’t grab Ethan until she panicked when the cops showed.
It might have all ended then anyway.
“On the other hand, he is a completely different person from back then”
… as far as we know. That is not the kind of shit someone who feels guilt would just say outloud. At least, not to the sibling of the person he sent to jail.
That would make sense if he had any reason to know Sal even went to this school. As far as he knows she’s not even going to college. Hell, even Walky was like “OH Sal! Nice to see you after all this time!” on the first day of school.
I don’t know, searching for someone to insert yourself on their life when they may not want you there just to apologize always seemed selfish to me, if you have to interact with them or do run jnto them, sure, but if they haven’t tried to seek you out odds are they aren’t interested in your apology, and you’re just looking for forgiveness to feel better.
Yeah, I disagree too. Guilt makes people hide stuff. If he’s openly and casually admitting it, it means he’s not scared to acknowledge his actions i.e. not trying to hide them and get away with it.
I don’t get the sense that he is a different person. He committed crimes and got away with them then, what evidence do we have that he’s changed?
For starters, he wouldn’t have dropped that bit of information in such a cavalier way if he was genuinely sorry. It reads more like he intends to hurt Sal. Why? Who knows, but it ain’t good.
Indirectly responsible.
He couldn’t have known calling the police would result in Sal taking a hostage, or that would escalate to someone stabbing Sal due to an abuse parent. Those aren’t reasonably predictable outcomes.
Ooh, that would be interesting. So far we’ve only seen Sal’s perspective on the events. Walky most likely got the slanted, Linda approved version. He can be more perceptive than he lets on. Maybe his flippant interjections into fights between Linda and Sal (here, for example) were misguided attempts at defusing conflict that backfired?
I know the comment section consensus is that he is Hottie McHotterson, but he keeps making my skin just slightly crawl. There is something slimy about his smoothness.
Oh. Well, that’s timing. Sal and Amber just made all this progress learning not to blame each other for causing the worst day of their lives, after all. Now they have someone else to blame!
… So, uh, Asher’s darn lucky they’re working to end the cycle of violence and all that. Imagine if they’d run into him and learned all this earlier in the comic.
A few people are saying this, but how does Amber have him to blame?
As a thought experiment, what might have happened if he *hadn’t* called the cops?
The clerk behind the glass would probably have just called the cops and they might have arrived later, when things were even more escalated…maybe Sal would have had time to make an even bigger mistake of actually cutting Ethan, perhaps accidentally.
Or are you imagining that if the sirens weren’t heard in the distance, she would never have taken Ethan hostage, and just ran off? I’m not sure those things directly correlate, if so.
Or perhaps you think the clerk would have just given her the money to save Ethan, and then she would have gotten away before the police got there, and helped Marcie to boot? Perhaps, perhaps…
I still don’t see how it would have necessarily made things turn out better for Amber though. He sent “help” coming for Ethan and Amber sooner.
Sal didn’t grab Ethan until the cops showed up. I don’t doubt the clerk would have called them, but I think they would have tried to talk her down more first.
I mean… yeah, the basic idea is that Sal took Ethan hostage because the cops showed up early and caused her to panic. And you’re not wrong, we don’t know for sure that things would’ve played out differently. I dunno, I’m really bad with these kinds of situations. Don’t really know how they go.
It does seems pretty safe to say that the cops showing up early only escalated things, though. Sal had no intentions of running away, but that clerk could’ve had more time to try to defuse the situation. They seemed like they would’ve made a good effort of it, at least.
Still, that’s not all I’m wondering. I’m more wondering how Sal and Amber will see it. I wanna have faith in the progress they’re both making, but I don’t think either of them need to be certain it’s his fault in order to blame him for what happened.
Walkerton used to say, “You shouldn’t have robbed that store.” As an explanation for all the preferential treatment he gets over Sal and acted like her being in another place was justice.
He’s only now realizing how awful she was abused and how much he’s missed from their relationship.
Y’know, I’m gonna give Asher the benefit of the doubt. He doesn’t pretend he wasn’t a criminal and a shitbag back then, he openly acknowledged that he was a bad person before and I’m personally taking the “law abiding citizen doing legitimate business” as flippant humor. I’ll believe he’s no longer a bad guy until he does something actually shady.
I say this to qualify how bad I feel that one of Amber, Walky or Sal is gonna punch him.
Could have been an anonymous call.
And there was plenty of evidence – eyewitnesses to the hold up, the knife, likely video footage. She was apprehended at the scene.
No need for testimony from the guy who tipped the cops to something happening in the first place.
And if she knew then, I can’t imagine she would have stayed quiet about him doing the first robbery.
Even on someone who set her up and tipped off the cops? That’s extreme levels of “not a narc”.
Since she apparently didn’t narc, I think that’s a good clue she didn’t know then – and probably still doesn’t today.
Hell I didn’t narc when someone framed me- it was for a much much more minor thing (spraying so much bug spray at a camp that the target’s stuff was ruined and no one could safely enter the whole (enormous, many roomed) cabin until it was aired out for like ten hours) but the thought in my head was that if I narced, I’d then have to go to school with these people for the next 6ish years, and they’d retaliate, whereas if I just talked the camp out of telling my parents, that would be the end of it.
So if Sal didn’t yet know she was going to be sent to juvie/boarding school, I could see her letting it go so as to not also get on everyone else’s shit list (and not lose the only friends outside Marcie who give her a reprieve from her parents), and then it being too late to fix anything by the time she knew what was happening.
Also, I personally think Sal didn’t know, but probably guessed (or thinks he’s one of the most likely), and that Walky’s going to be way more mad than her (and not just in that Sal’s quieter about emotions).
Questions over questions. He comes off as a total sleasebag no matter he claims to be legit nowadays. Why would he have done all of that?
And his seemingly flipping comments about calling the cops could be meant to rile Amber up – if he were working for Blaine.
When we first saw the events of the robbery unfold, I wondered if Asher had called the cops on Sal, and I called him a piece of shit.
It was (rightly) pointed out to me that I was making an accusation without sufficient evidence, and so I withdraw the nomination of Asher as a piece of shit, although with the reservation of the right to re-implement said accusation should future event validate it.
WELL, I’D SAID THIS COUNT AS A FUDGING VALIDATION.
So, without further ado: ASHER, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!
Did he endanger a girl’s life twice – once for no better reason than shits and giggles and once because he knew it would hurt the only person who dared react to his bullying – and then steal her skateboard to boot? No?
Manipulate his connections to force his suicidal, unqualified charge into being RA against everyone’s wishes including her own? Step up from Clint, then. (I think that one’s the only real difference between Clint and Blaine, at least as far as we know.)
My first hope is that he made the call as a “get this kid out of the game before it’s too late for them” kind of situation, but given this comic likes to go for the gut-heart punches I’m afraid it won’t be as ‘altruistic’ as that.
The timeline based on the cops almost immediate arrival suggests that Asher called the cops not in response in Sal’s robbery, but just on a hunch that she was going to rob the convenience store. It’s also implied that her robbery was spur of the moment, and thus Asher knew that Sal was going to rob the store before Sal did…
Almost before. It’s pretty clear that she had them drop her off by the store so that she could rob it. Then she took a bit to psych herself up to actually do it.
I’d be interested in knowing Asher’s motives before passing judgement. Did he suddenly think that Sal was going too far and needed to be stopped before someone was hurt? Or did he just see an ambitious potential rival and decide that she needed to be taken out of circulation?:
I mean, you aren’t wrong. In this moment, with Asher making that confession, let’s all just hope Amber doesn’t thing too much about how those events unfolded.
I mean, he did a really shitty thing five years ago as a kid. I’m going off the assumption that he thinks sal already knows, and it’s still too soon to judge if he’s a bad person now or not. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt here
I’m curious as to his motives. Putting her in her place for trying to go solo on robbery? For her own good before she gets in over her head? Stopping her form living a life of crime by nipping it in the bud? Makes her the patsy and taking interest and prosecution from his own previous robberies? Because calling the cops is technically the right thing to do if one sees a crime in progress, if we ignore his own involvement in teaching her about the exact crime being committed? Because he was a punk teenager and they do dick things for no particular reason?
Sal could have implicated him by explaining his role in the previous robberies and testifying about them. We can infer she refused to do so and fell on the grenade herself. Which she would probably annoying given the revelation he showed zero such honor among thieves in kind.
What’s done is done, it’s not like she can reveal his juvenile crimes to any meaningful end now. It’s just annoying.
1) He knew nothing about the hostage.
2) Sal’d let Ethan go before the cops showed up. The situation was already de-escalating.
3) No one else knew about it other than those directly involved, who couldn’t have done so until after the fact. Likely it would have been reported and she might have been identified from the footage, but who knows.
Actually I partly take back #2: I was remembering the initial flashbacks, where it seemed like grabbing Ethan was a threat to make the clerk hand over money.
She took Ethan hostage after the cops showed up. Which suggests it was Asher calling them on her that escalated things.
So… This just me, but I wouldn’t tell Sal the whole “sorry I called the cops on you”. I’d probably paraphrase it as “sorry about how it all went down”. If you tell her you stalked her ex-partner in crime at all. Interested to see how it all goes down.
More I think about it, the more I think his motives are less likely to be a mwah ha ha evil one, since if that was the case, why tell Walky this at all? Unless Sal already knows he called, but has not been apologized to as of yet, which is a possibility. Like, there’s a lot Walky doesn’t know about Sal, certainly, but he does seem to be versed enough in the facts of the case, given it’d have been difficult not to be, living through that. Still, I could see him not knowing Asher called even if Sal was aware of it.
That being said, this seems more like he’s knowingly dropping a revelation on Walky, which would imply he’d know Sal was in the dark on his involvement, which seems more likely to be some kind of “for her own good” reasoning, unless he’s just a huge dick or something, which is also certainly possible.
I dunno, his throw away comment in panel 6 rankles for some reason. Maybe I’m just naturally trusting type. Anyway, panel six, anyone else think it looks like his using his fingers as the lighter to light the cig he’s holding?
Duh, he called the cops on her so she’d take the fall for the first robbery – that’s why he handed her the knife with which said robbery was performed.
That he’s needlessly coming clean does lend credence that he’s trying to do better, though.
For a guy who’s maybe 18 or 19, he looks and talks like he’s 30.
Enjoy him now, Amber … he’s one of those guys who peaked before turning twenty and will be a worn-out, balding, toothless old dude with a raspy cough and a limp long before age 45.
I’m still betting that Sal comes racing over to Asher to confront him. They both get into a conversation about how dumb they were as kids. In time, they’re laughing about it. At the end of the conversation, Asher asks Sal on a date. She says yes.
Yeah, that’s one of the big reasons I was assuming before now that he was going to turn out bad. Seemed the obvious route to drama. This gives an opportunity for conflict without him still being a baddie.
Hm, what if asher did it to tell the cops that the black girl robbing a store doesn’t have a gun? Like, he realized she can’t possibly succeed on her own and then figured that was the best way to go? Really, there are many options for his level of evilness…
I see Asher calling the police to make Sal the fall girl for both jobs. Two robberies, one gets solved immediately. Perp in custody, hostage saved. Big win for the police. Then is goes south and the perp gets stabbed. It all gets hushed up. Nothing to see here. It worked out even better than he planned. There is no honor among thieves. Sal was naive and Asher wasn’t. This wasn’t his first robbery.
I also see Asher hanging out to watch Sal get burned when the police arrive, like an arsonist watching the fire burn.
That said, Asher was being tutored by his older brother, who may have ordered him to do this. Growing up surrounded by criminals would make all this seem normal and just part of life.
So – Pity the child, but not forever, not if they stay that way. Which is kinda the theme of DOA. (Been wondering when I could use a favorite but obscure show tune as a reference.)
“When I was nine I learned survival, Taught myself not to care.” Yeah, that couldn’t be relevant.
I f ind the “fall girl” theory odd. The chances that Sal would roll over on them are far too high and it doesn’t seem at all reasonable that she could be blamed for the first job, at least not as the sole perpetrator. If there were any witnesses at all, none of them would identify her and they’d all describe multiple male robbers.
Could be, but how do they know about the knife?
If they have witnesses that can identify the knife, those witnesses will not recognize Sal. There’s no way anyone can actually think Sal alone did the first robbery. Any such case would fall apart in court.
Any vaguely competent defense lawyer – even a court appointed one would tell her that and tell her to get a deal by rolling over on the older guys that actually pulled the real job. Sal might not do that, but why would Asher be sure of it. The biggest thing trying to make her a fall girl does is hand the cops a witness who can identify him and his other friends.
Granted he was a kid himself and could have done it anyway, but that doesn’t make it any less of a bad idea.
The witnesses can’t identify ANYONE – it was a bunch of kids wearing full head-covering masks, at night. Sal isn’t particularly busty now, let alone back then, so no witness is gonna go “oh, she clearly wasn’t there because they were all dudes.”
Of course, Asher knew Sal (relatively?) well, so he might just have known that she wouldn’t turn them in regardless.
Also, think about the cops’ perspective: what they have is two convenience store robberies at knife point taking place close together both geographically and temporally, and they’ve just been handed someone who is MOST DEFINITELY the author of one of them with some of the cash from the other one. And she’s BLACK.
Of course, this is dependent on Asher being really confident that Sal wouldn’t roll over on them, but he knew her well enough to know she was going for the second robbery, so I presume he also knew that Sal doesn’t roll over on people she considers her friends.
Yeah, it’s not like they’re not going to bust her, but they’re also not going to go “Oh well it was just her.”
Setting her up doesn’t do anything to take the heat off the rest of them, because busting her obviously doesn’t bust the whole gang. Setting her up as the fall girl doesn’t make sense.
Something else is going on here.
Hold on, I thought that the Cops were alerted when the Cashier hit a silent alarm. I thought that is how Sal described it, in flashback. Is Willis retconning this?
Yeah, I’ve read through the flashbacks and didn’t see anything, but it could also just have been a casual comment somewhere else. Or even something Walky said about the robbery early on.
Grown up and into honest work…… like working for the Korean mob that Ambers Dad works with! (Probably not, just trying to think of the most dramatic twist)
He still seems suspicious but why admit what he did it he isn’t actually trying to not be that kid?
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A law-abiding citizen who clearly doesn’t want to live anymore, huh
Yeah seriously. That’s the kind of secret you take to your grave.
… unless, of course, you don’t have a grave, because you gave up your humanity to become a horrible magic undead creature.
You know what they say:
Liches get stitches
Is it bad that every time I imagine being any kind of undead one of the perks is that I’d be ‘living’ t my grave? Like, sleeping in a coffin and spending time in a tomb sounds like a goth dream come true.
Surely you can achieve that without becoming undead, though. let the Inner Goth out into the moonlight to make sweet music of the night!
I imagine it gets boring after a few years, unless there’s wifi down there
Most liches don’t particularly care for the eternal undying life, they’re mostly in it to justify their spooky aesthetic.
You. I like you.
That was truly brilliant. How long did it take you to come up with that?
“Liches get stitches” is what the protagonist of The Sword Interval wears on the back of her jacket. TSI is a really good comic that I can’t recommend enough. Completely different genre from DOA though. It’s on
Or he assumes Sal knows he called the cops
I don’t think Sal is going to hurt him. She just got back in Marcie’s good graces.
First time Marcie leaves town though, Asher? Run. Like. Hell.
I think Amber might make the associations that if he hadn’t called the cops she never woulda taken Ethan hostage and escalated the whole stand up situation. If so, I’m more inclined to worry about amber flying into a rage and murdering Asher, rather than Sal at any rate.
I think she’d be like “things have already played out how they played out. Still, dick move.”
I’m being 95% facetious. Sal’s trying to stay out of the punching game.
Unless he thought she knew
….Oh, shiznit
Hmmm… interesting.
There’s a big chance that Sal will want to take it out on him… throwing her own progress back a lot.
But it’s curious why he did that in the first place.
Honestly, I think she’s less likely to explode on him than Walky might be. Like, I doubt she’s going to be thrilled, but I wonder. I imagine she’s going to want to know the *why*, in any case.
Probably to throw the cops at someone still committing a robbery as an active crime to give himself and his cronies more time to get away and cover up their involvement in the first one. And like, it did end up with both robberies pinned on Sal, so looks like it worked.
That seems like a lot of planning for a 13 year old.
Specially one that still smokes several years later.
What does that have to do with anything? Smoking doesn’t say anything about someone’s intelligence or ability to plan. It’s hard to quit, specially if you started that young.
Not really. The second robbery wasn’t planned. And it doesn’t take much thought to come up with a plan of essentially ‘wasn’t me, she did it!’ when the opportunity arises. And even if you want to insist a 13 year old wouldn’t think of that, his older brother was there too and could have been the one who convinced him to do it.
This whole thing relies on sal not giving the police the namens of those who did the first robbery. I mean, a twelve year old facing prison might react unexpectedly.
Plus, there’s a chance that there still were fingerprints of one of them on the knife (it was a present). There definitely are fingerprints on the money they passed her.
I’m really really curious about the why part. This seems to be an unnecessary risk for me.
Yup. Seems really weird. Sal wouldn’t be obviously linked to the first robbery – didn’t go in, wasn’t seen by anyone there, wouldn’t be on camera, the second was solo while the first had multiple people.
Any attempt to pin the first on her would lead to a lot of pressure to identify the other parties.
Asher didn’t know about the second robbery I think. She didn’t say what she wanted to do and they probably didn’t stay around to find out. So the cops were most likely called because of the first robbery. Plus, two crimes at the same time in the same area and the one who commited the second robbery had a whole lot of cash with them. Cash she definitely shouldn’t have. Wonder how those two are connected.
Since walky knew about both robberies, her involvement in the first robbery probably became known somehow. It would have been a miracle if not.
But Asher called the cops on Sal during the second robbery. That’s why they showed up while she was trying to rob it. Him calling them about the first one doesn’t fit what happened or what he said.
The cash is an interesting point, but it just makes it weirder. The cops will want to know where the rest of the cash is, which will make it harder for them to pretend she acted alone in the first robbery and thus more likely for her to roll over on the rest of the gang.
Hm. Perhaps asher actually did watch and had enough human decency to call for help as soon as a life was in danger? That threatening a child was a red line for him?
Or he just called the cops and the second robbery was just a coincidence? And he just added that for clarification?
The police showed up before Sal took Ethan hostage.
Or he called the cops on the second robbery because he recognized the signs that she was plotting it when she asked to be let off at the other store. He has been shown to be perceptive.
He knew her situation, and knew that getting into crime wouldn’t help Marcie. He probably called the cops before Sal even started the robbery, which is how they showed up so quickly.
Congratulations to the people who guessed it. Wowzers…
It doesn’t count as me guessing it unless it turns out that Mike talked him into it.
I, uhh, well, oof. Here’s hoping Walky doesn’t flip. (he might very well flip)
The question is, why did he do it though, considering they robbed the first one? Not to mention he must have known to some level that Sal would be doing it for benevolent reasons (re:Marcie).
Or y’know, he got a sudden flash of conscience after he dropped Sal off.
I get the impression he’d have known about Marcie’s situation, yeah.
Got paranoid that the rest of them would be caught and figured that, no matter how much she might complain about her mother, a rich kid like Sal was significantly more likely to walk away from being caught without facing seriously repercussions than the rest of them?
(I’m wondering if this is only a shocking twist to Walky, hitting him in his resolution to be a better brother, and if it might be old news to Sal; just asking to pass on an apology without any further detail until it’s asked for implies that he expects her to know just what he felt sorry for.)
Walky knew asher so their parents probably knew him, too. His name is likely to pop up when her parents get asked about possible associates. And then there is the money. I didn’t see gloves when they passed sal on the truck so there probably are fingerprints in the shop and definitely on the money they passed her. Possibly on the knife they gave her. Giving the police a clue to where to search for the matching person for said fingerprints is dumb.
I’m really curious about the why.
That is assuming the police will keep looking even when they caught a single suspect red-handed. They may ask whether others assisted but if Sal doesn’t tell – which is likely as they were friends and Sal has a sense of honour – the police likely won’t spend time and resources to get an answer from fingerprints.
The why is a really big question though.
Except that any witness testimony from the first place will be about multiple male robbers, not one little girl. Or video evidence.
She only had at most a fourth of the missing money from the first place and she travelled to the second place pretty fast but does not have a car. Also, she’s twelve.
So yes, I’m definitely assuming that they will look for other suspects. And there is a possibility that they were involved in the hostage thing as well. A child being held at knife point usually leads to a whole lot more effort than a bit of money.
I mean, asher is innocent regarding that specifc crime, but he could have been involved from the investigators point of view. So they have to check.
Thirteen.
Oh. Yeah. Right. Thanks^^
No problem. Sal WAS 12 when Marcie lost her voice, and 13 during the robberies (she told Joyce “rob convenience stores at 13 and see how many [therapists] you meet’.
if you strike him down, he’ll become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. for example, he’ll be able to cause the Maple Leafs to win.
I dunno, that’d take a lot of goddamn power.
the dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some would consider to be…unnatural.
Is it possible to learn this power?
Not from a Jedi.
Look for a wall with strange glowing letters engraved in it. Be careful though, they tend to be guarded by dragons.
The blues and the caps won, i think the world is effectively broken
Can the Bolts win now? I’m willing to sacrifice as many Timbits as needed
I assume you’re referring to the Tampa Bay Lightning, but ironically enough, there is a minor league hockey team in Evansville, the Thunderbolts (aka the Bolts).
(It’s ironic because Evansville is where Asher and Sal and Walky are from.)
Did you know that kiais can actually help stress levels in real life? It’s not just for anime or video games.
I did get weird looks from my flatmate when I used one before cleaning the kitchen, though.
Oh, it’s on now, motherf****r.
I feel like that attitude is like Amber wanting to have Sal punished for what she did to Ethan a decade later.
Not punished. Amber was hating herself because she attacked Sal after she was already restrained. She wanted a fair fight to prove she would have won after all, lessening the guilt of what she did.
And eventually it morphed into wanting HERSELF punished.
The differences being A) Sal WAS punished for the robbery while Asher (so far as we know) was not, B) Amber stabbed Sal while she was being arrested and restrained at the prompting of her shithead dad – Sal possibly wanting Asher to face consequences for backstabbing her is different because she never did anything to Asher, and C) Ethan very explicitly wanted to let Sal be. We don’t know how Sal would feel about this. It could go either way, but assuming she would decide ‘it’s on now’, that would also be important to take into consideration as the person who was screwed over.
Did we know they weren’t punished? Because if they got caught that evening, this would make more sense. They might have cooperated with the police and told them where to find sal.
Anyway, I suspect sal knows about this. Would explain her dislike for snitches
Though he says “called the police on her”, which implies he contacted them and given the timeline, it would have to have been right after they dropped her off.
True.
BOOM THERE IT IS
I Wonder what asher’s motivation was for calling the cops? Did sal take it too far with the hostage taking of ethan? Did asher freak out early on, or was he just feeling guilty? Is amber going to freak out yet again? Will amazi-girl do a hostile takeover? How will that play out with walky there?
Sal only took Ethan hostage *after* the cops showed up, so it couldn’t have been that first one.
I have no idea what Asher was thinking. Getting Sal caught risked her exposing the whole gang.
I was trying to figure out what his motivation could have been, and I think I found it.
Scapegoat.
If two stores are robbed, and the cops catch one black kid acting alone at the second store, they’re probably less likely to keep searching for the first robbers. So since he knew what she was doing, and also that she was trying to get a cut all to herself, he called the cops.
The second bit there is something I came up while writing this. Bit of an abusive thing, either she’s with him, or she gets nothing. No good running around being a thug if your underlings figure they can do easier without you.
yep
…Shouldn’t you tell her that yourself? I get that it’s an awkward situation, but it seems pretty shitty of you to dump it on Walky.
Yo why’d he do that tho
Maybe he got immunity or something for the first robbery? Or it at least helped his case? Like, he pinned the first one on Sal after he called the second one in and it helped his case somehow?
Nah, they probably just saw an opportunity to disappear into the night and let Sal take the fall for both robberies.
This one makes the most sense to me.
DAMN.
I foresee an epic @$$-hole duel between Asher and Mike in the future. I’m glad I bought popcorn! Who wants some?
Duh DUh DUUHHHHHH!!!
Amber, you need to grab Walky right the fuck now before he gets himself arrested.
Or Walky needs to grab Amber for the same reason.
[ENDGAME SPOILERS]
They’re going to fight Hawkeye/Widow style to see who gets to sacrifice their lives (to prison).
Looks like somebody’s been huffin’ his own farts. He’s still the same person, but since it’s in the past, it doesn’t matter anymore, right?
Wh- how is he the same person? You seem to really hate him off the bat
Hate is a strong word. I just don’t buy what he’s selling.
Everyone is the same as the worst thing they did when they were 13, right?
People do change. We’ve seen plenty of it in this comic. We don’t know why Asher was involved in the robbery or why he called the cops on Sal. We don’t know what he’s been though since.
I’m in the cautiously optimistic camp at this point, but something makes me wary of him.
I’m not saying people don’t change. I’m saying you don’t stop being you at any point. Maybe I’m taking the phrase too literally, but he’s talking in a way I’ve seen before, and it’s never been from someone decent.
Asher is my new favorite character
I’m getting Julian vibes from him tbh
Wally is under no obligation to tell her and it’s probably best he doesn’t
Sorry that was for Lacuna, also this comment section sucks on mobile
No, I get that. I’m wondering why Asher doesn’t just tell Sal himself if he’s really sorry.
Unless the point is that he’s not really sorry, in which case, carry on.
Or, he’s really sorry but has a healthy desire to keep living.
My guess is he assumed she already knew
My “law-abiding citizen doing legitimate business” T-shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt
“I am a legitimate businessman” is a pop euphemism for the mafia, after all…
Vito Corleone was in the olive oil importing business, a completely legitimate enterprise. Just ask Frank Pentangeli.
Sal held a knife to the throat a child and traumatized his friend for life. Asher called the cops. In no way shape or form do either deserve to be treated as anything other than kids who made terrible mistakes.
Agreed, but what you deserve and what life hands you are often very different things.
Welp, that answers THAT about whether Asher threw Sal under the bus.
I gotta go pick up that phone, since Bagge fucking CALLED IT. Bagge, have a cookie.
No wonder Sal is so dead set against narcing.
*noms cokkie*
‘ure did!
I’d rather not have been right about this one, though. Sal deserves nice things, even in her past.
Does Sal know? When did she find out?
If she knew at the time, did she still not tell the cops about the rest of the group for the first robbery? That seems to be taking not narcing a little too far.
I still don’t trust that guy.
As for the reveal… huh. I wonder what Sal will do now.
I be unsurprised if Sal knew and made her peace with it years ago.
Sal unlike Walky would probably understand continuing to commit robberies would not have helped her situation.
Sal already had her coming-to-terms moment with the whole incident three storylines ago. She gave up being angry. If she can forgive Amber, she probably already forgave Asher.
This is Walky’s story.
Walky has only recently realized he should have been upset about her being sent away to Hogwarts.
I dunno, not being Petunia isn’t that bad a thing.
Oh fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-
So that’s how the cops got there… like instantly.
That last panel is a fricking gut-punch. Oof.
Holy shit, I am so torn right now. On the one hand, he is directly responsible for so much of what happened to Sal, Amber and Ethan. On the other hand, he is a completely different person from back then, and he has no way of knowing just how much of an impact he had.
I don’t know if I like him anymore or not.
I think it’s probably also good to think about the fact that Sal could have had much much worse happen to her if it hadn’t all collapsed early.
A different situation, different cops, and she could have been on a morgue slab or facing life in prison.
OTOH, the clerk seemed to be talking her down. She couldn’t get through the bulletproof glass and she didn’t grab Ethan until she panicked when the cops showed.
It might have all ended then anyway.
He’s the kind of guy you hate, but gnash your teeth at because you can’t do anything about it anymore
I mean, you can ask him ‘What the fuck, you asshole, why’d you do that?’ I guess.
“On the other hand, he is a completely different person from back then”
… as far as we know. That is not the kind of shit someone who feels guilt would just say outloud. At least, not to the sibling of the person he sent to jail.
Uh, I believe apologizing usually is the kind of thing you say when you feel guilty about something.
“I am sorry I did that.”
If he was really sorry, he would say it to the person he did it to, not to her sibling.
Furthermore it’s not the fact he’s supposedly sorry – it’s the way he said it. So… casually.
That would make sense if he had any reason to know Sal even went to this school. As far as he knows she’s not even going to college. Hell, even Walky was like “OH Sal! Nice to see you after all this time!” on the first day of school.
I don’t know, searching for someone to insert yourself on their life when they may not want you there just to apologize always seemed selfish to me, if you have to interact with them or do run jnto them, sure, but if they haven’t tried to seek you out odds are they aren’t interested in your apology, and you’re just looking for forgiveness to feel better.
Yeah, I disagree too. Guilt makes people hide stuff. If he’s openly and casually admitting it, it means he’s not scared to acknowledge his actions i.e. not trying to hide them and get away with it.
Guilt can also make people want to be better people, and sometimes that means not hiding whatever you’re feeling guilty for.
I don’t get the sense that he is a different person. He committed crimes and got away with them then, what evidence do we have that he’s changed?
For starters, he wouldn’t have dropped that bit of information in such a cavalier way if he was genuinely sorry. It reads more like he intends to hurt Sal. Why? Who knows, but it ain’t good.
Indirectly responsible.
He couldn’t have known calling the police would result in Sal taking a hostage, or that would escalate to someone stabbing Sal due to an abuse parent. Those aren’t reasonably predictable outcomes.
can we please get Walky flashbacks of when Sal was banished
can they be red
Ooh, that would be interesting. So far we’ve only seen Sal’s perspective on the events. Walky most likely got the slanted, Linda approved version. He can be more perceptive than he lets on. Maybe his flippant interjections into fights between Linda and Sal (here, for example) were misguided attempts at defusing conflict that backfired?
That’s what I was saying even back then. Good to know I’m not the only one who considers that a possibility.
It’s basically Walky’s default mode, so it wouldn’t be surprising. He’s not very good at it even now, so likely worse back then.
I know the comment section consensus is that he is Hottie McHotterson, but he keeps making my skin just slightly crawl. There is something slimy about his smoothness.
That’s an essential component of his “legitimate business”, you see.
“I called the cops 35 minutes ago.”
So, he’s NOT a Republic serial villain? I thought he was at least auditioning for the part. Or already had it locked down.
Asher what the fuck man
Oh. Well, that’s timing. Sal and Amber just made all this progress learning not to blame each other for causing the worst day of their lives, after all. Now they have someone else to blame!
… So, uh, Asher’s darn lucky they’re working to end the cycle of violence and all that. Imagine if they’d run into him and learned all this earlier in the comic.
A few people are saying this, but how does Amber have him to blame?
As a thought experiment, what might have happened if he *hadn’t* called the cops?
The clerk behind the glass would probably have just called the cops and they might have arrived later, when things were even more escalated…maybe Sal would have had time to make an even bigger mistake of actually cutting Ethan, perhaps accidentally.
Or are you imagining that if the sirens weren’t heard in the distance, she would never have taken Ethan hostage, and just ran off? I’m not sure those things directly correlate, if so.
Or perhaps you think the clerk would have just given her the money to save Ethan, and then she would have gotten away before the police got there, and helped Marcie to boot? Perhaps, perhaps…
I still don’t see how it would have necessarily made things turn out better for Amber though. He sent “help” coming for Ethan and Amber sooner.
Sal didn’t grab Ethan until the cops showed up. I don’t doubt the clerk would have called them, but I think they would have tried to talk her down more first.
The clerk was trying to talk Sal down, and might well have succeeded. Not that Amber necessarily realizes that.
I mean… yeah, the basic idea is that Sal took Ethan hostage because the cops showed up early and caused her to panic. And you’re not wrong, we don’t know for sure that things would’ve played out differently. I dunno, I’m really bad with these kinds of situations. Don’t really know how they go.
It does seems pretty safe to say that the cops showing up early only escalated things, though. Sal had no intentions of running away, but that clerk could’ve had more time to try to defuse the situation. They seemed like they would’ve made a good effort of it, at least.
Still, that’s not all I’m wondering. I’m more wondering how Sal and Amber will see it. I wanna have faith in the progress they’re both making, but I don’t think either of them need to be certain it’s his fault in order to blame him for what happened.
Walkerton used to say, “You shouldn’t have robbed that store.” As an explanation for all the preferential treatment he gets over Sal and acted like her being in another place was justice.
He’s only now realizing how awful she was abused and how much he’s missed from their relationship.
I predict that Walky’s gonna freak out… but Amber is going to lose her cool.
There is no way Asher is getting out of this unscathed.
Oh yes, ‘law abiding citizen doing legitimate business’ sounds totally legit and not at all suspicious! …Waitasec.
I was suspicious too, but then he said it was legitimate. You need to learn to listen to people.
Holy shit. But on the other hand, shocked he admitted it.
(that doesn’t make it better, just more surprising)
Y’know, I’m gonna give Asher the benefit of the doubt. He doesn’t pretend he wasn’t a criminal and a shitbag back then, he openly acknowledged that he was a bad person before and I’m personally taking the “law abiding citizen doing legitimate business” as flippant humor. I’ll believe he’s no longer a bad guy until he does something actually shady.
I say this to qualify how bad I feel that one of Amber, Walky or Sal is gonna punch him.
I agree, without hearing his tone we can’t say for sure if he was being facetious or sketchy.
Looks like Sal gonna commit one more crime.
“I do enjoy me some murderin'” — Faye Whitaker, Questionable Content
does it seem like he thinks Sal already knows?
It does to me. Wouldn’t that have come out at Sal’s juvie hearing? Doesn’t Sal have to be confronted with the evidence against her?
But I’m not confident of my interpretation.
Could have been an anonymous call.
And there was plenty of evidence – eyewitnesses to the hold up, the knife, likely video footage. She was apprehended at the scene.
No need for testimony from the guy who tipped the cops to something happening in the first place.
And if she knew then, I can’t imagine she would have stayed quiet about him doing the first robbery.
She’s not a narc though
Even on someone who set her up and tipped off the cops? That’s extreme levels of “not a narc”.
Since she apparently didn’t narc, I think that’s a good clue she didn’t know then – and probably still doesn’t today.
Hell I didn’t narc when someone framed me- it was for a much much more minor thing (spraying so much bug spray at a camp that the target’s stuff was ruined and no one could safely enter the whole (enormous, many roomed) cabin until it was aired out for like ten hours) but the thought in my head was that if I narced, I’d then have to go to school with these people for the next 6ish years, and they’d retaliate, whereas if I just talked the camp out of telling my parents, that would be the end of it.
So if Sal didn’t yet know she was going to be sent to juvie/boarding school, I could see her letting it go so as to not also get on everyone else’s shit list (and not lose the only friends outside Marcie who give her a reprieve from her parents), and then it being too late to fix anything by the time she knew what was happening.
Also, I personally think Sal didn’t know, but probably guessed (or thinks he’s one of the most likely), and that Walky’s going to be way more mad than her (and not just in that Sal’s quieter about emotions).
oooooh Asher, you were so close
Questions over questions. He comes off as a total sleasebag no matter he claims to be legit nowadays. Why would he have done all of that?
And his seemingly flipping comments about calling the cops could be meant to rile Amber up – if he were working for Blaine.
When we first saw the events of the robbery unfold, I wondered if Asher had called the cops on Sal, and I called him a piece of shit.
It was (rightly) pointed out to me that I was making an accusation without sufficient evidence, and so I withdraw the nomination of Asher as a piece of shit, although with the reservation of the right to re-implement said accusation should future event validate it.
WELL, I’D SAID THIS COUNT AS A FUDGING VALIDATION.
So, without further ado: ASHER, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!
You, sir, has been piece-of-shit-ified!
I thought of your old comment about this when I saw today’s comic! Haha.
Sal, when told:
“Yeah, Ah figgered.”
Asher no
And even with this revelation Asher is still a better person than Leland, Ryan, Blaine, and a few others whose names elude me.
I mean. This doesnt make him a bas person. Just a bad friend
Let’s check the scorecard: Did he hunt his child with a gun? No? Then he’s a better person than Toedad.
It’s a pretty low bar.
Did he endanger a girl’s life twice – once for no better reason than shits and giggles and once because he knew it would hurt the only person who dared react to his bullying – and then steal her skateboard to boot? No?
Better than Leland.
Rapist? No?
Better than Ryan.
Does he…
eh, you know what, I’ll just take a stab in the dark and guess that he is a better person than Blaine. Statistically, almost anyone is.
Manipulate his connections to force his suicidal, unqualified charge into being RA against everyone’s wishes including her own? Step up from Clint, then. (I think that one’s the only real difference between Clint and Blaine, at least as far as we know.)
I’m glad Asher is trying to be a better person now, but damn that last panel hits you like a truck doesn’t it?
Nah, Ruth isn’t there.
Point.
Woah, you can’t just say that and leave.
I don’t think, dramatically speaking, you can say that and not leave. It’s a perfect exit line.
My first hope is that he made the call as a “get this kid out of the game before it’s too late for them” kind of situation, but given this comic likes to go for the gut-heart punches I’m afraid it won’t be as ‘altruistic’ as that.
The timeline based on the cops almost immediate arrival suggests that Asher called the cops not in response in Sal’s robbery, but just on a hunch that she was going to rob the convenience store. It’s also implied that her robbery was spur of the moment, and thus Asher knew that Sal was going to rob the store before Sal did…
Almost before. It’s pretty clear that she had them drop her off by the store so that she could rob it. Then she took a bit to psych herself up to actually do it.
EVIL! EEEEEEEEVIL!!!!!
WILLIS NO
I’d be interested in knowing Asher’s motives before passing judgement. Did he suddenly think that Sal was going too far and needed to be stopped before someone was hurt? Or did he just see an ambitious potential rival and decide that she needed to be taken out of circulation?:
Holy Schmeckels!
If Asher hadn’t called the cops, Sal wouldn’t have taken Ethan hostage. Amber would never have been goaded by her father into stabbing Sal.
Right now, I’d be more worried about Amber than either Sal or Walky.
OR . . Sal learns from the failure, gets a gun, then gets shot by the police while robbing another store later.
I mean, you aren’t wrong. In this moment, with Asher making that confession, let’s all just hope Amber doesn’t thing too much about how those events unfolded.
think* ffs
damn typo fairies
Everybody in today’s comic has the same number of letters in their name.
Good comment
Makes me wonder…
WHERE IS JOYCE HIDING?
Away from church… 🙂
Oh yeah, we just went through an entire storyline answering that specific question.
Go me for paying attention 🙂
Also Becky, Sarah, Jacob, Ethan, Danny. THEY’RE ALL HIDING IN THE BUSHES!
I maintain the headcanon that anytime we see a tree in autumn colors, Becky is using it as camouflage.
Much like Dina is behind any door (and Amazi-girl behind any speech boubble) unless proven otherwise.
TBH I’m surprised anyone here thinks Asher is actually a decent person now after making that comment in the last panel…
Depends on his motive, no?
I mean, he just needs to be petting a cat to look like The Big Bad Villain, but appearances can be deceiving.
I will probably be running all my comments through the Urban Dictionary after that one.
I mean, he did a really shitty thing five years ago as a kid. I’m going off the assumption that he thinks sal already knows, and it’s still too soon to judge if he’s a bad person now or not. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt here
I always suspected. Didn’t think he’d come clean out and say it though.
He’s kind of shady, but at least he’s sorry for something.
inb4 Walky Performs a Violence.
“Legitimate business” Is that a euphemism for racketeering?
Is Asher dealing?
Sounds fishy to me, too.
ASHER: “And since that day, I have been… Amazi-Guy!”
AMBER: “Expect to hear from my attorney.”
I’m curious as to his motives. Putting her in her place for trying to go solo on robbery? For her own good before she gets in over her head? Stopping her form living a life of crime by nipping it in the bud? Makes her the patsy and taking interest and prosecution from his own previous robberies? Because calling the cops is technically the right thing to do if one sees a crime in progress, if we ignore his own involvement in teaching her about the exact crime being committed? Because he was a punk teenager and they do dick things for no particular reason?
Sal could have implicated him by explaining his role in the previous robberies and testifying about them. We can infer she refused to do so and fell on the grenade herself. Which she would probably annoying given the revelation he showed zero such honor among thieves in kind.
What’s done is done, it’s not like she can reveal his juvenile crimes to any meaningful end now. It’s just annoying.
What an a-hole
On the one hand, that’s good.
On the other hand, that’s. That’s one helluva thing to say. Wonder what the motivation was…
If he hadn’t called, someone else would have. She took someone hostage with a knife, and his actions may have stopped a further escalation.
1) He knew nothing about the hostage.
2) Sal’d let Ethan go before the cops showed up. The situation was already de-escalating.
3) No one else knew about it other than those directly involved, who couldn’t have done so until after the fact. Likely it would have been reported and she might have been identified from the footage, but who knows.
Actually I partly take back #2: I was remembering the initial flashbacks, where it seemed like grabbing Ethan was a threat to make the clerk hand over money.
She took Ethan hostage after the cops showed up. Which suggests it was Asher calling them on her that escalated things.
So… This just me, but I wouldn’t tell Sal the whole “sorry I called the cops on you”. I’d probably paraphrase it as “sorry about how it all went down”. If you tell her you stalked her ex-partner in crime at all. Interested to see how it all goes down.
I don’t think he should tell Sal about any of this. It was a bad idea to begin with.
Yeah, I agree an edited but true version. “Amber and I met Asher on the stairs. He says he’s sorry and trying to be a better person now” All true.
More I think about it, the more I think his motives are less likely to be a mwah ha ha evil one, since if that was the case, why tell Walky this at all? Unless Sal already knows he called, but has not been apologized to as of yet, which is a possibility. Like, there’s a lot Walky doesn’t know about Sal, certainly, but he does seem to be versed enough in the facts of the case, given it’d have been difficult not to be, living through that. Still, I could see him not knowing Asher called even if Sal was aware of it.
That being said, this seems more like he’s knowingly dropping a revelation on Walky, which would imply he’d know Sal was in the dark on his involvement, which seems more likely to be some kind of “for her own good” reasoning, unless he’s just a huge dick or something, which is also certainly possible.
DUN DUN DUUUUN!!!
I dunno, his throw away comment in panel 6 rankles for some reason. Maybe I’m just naturally trusting type. Anyway, panel six, anyone else think it looks like his using his fingers as the lighter to light the cig he’s holding?
Duh, he called the cops on her so she’d take the fall for the first robbery – that’s why he handed her the knife with which said robbery was performed.
That he’s needlessly coming clean does lend credence that he’s trying to do better, though.
For a guy who’s maybe 18 or 19, he looks and talks like he’s 30.
Enjoy him now, Amber … he’s one of those guys who peaked before turning twenty and will be a worn-out, balding, toothless old dude with a raspy cough and a limp long before age 45.
Or he’s like Matt LeBlanc and just gets better with age
Oh.
Well.
Try trying to rest easy when Walky tells Sal that.
I’m still betting that Sal comes racing over to Asher to confront him. They both get into a conversation about how dumb they were as kids. In time, they’re laughing about it. At the end of the conversation, Asher asks Sal on a date. She says yes.
A part of me wishes that happened.
Ah. There’s the drama. I was wondering.
Yeah, that’s one of the big reasons I was assuming before now that he was going to turn out bad. Seemed the obvious route to drama. This gives an opportunity for conflict without him still being a baddie.
Hm, what if asher did it to tell the cops that the black girl robbing a store doesn’t have a gun? Like, he realized she can’t possibly succeed on her own and then figured that was the best way to go? Really, there are many options for his level of evilness…
This is either going to be a demonstration of Sal’s growth and maturity through confronting past trauma, or her supervillain origin.
I see Asher calling the police to make Sal the fall girl for both jobs. Two robberies, one gets solved immediately. Perp in custody, hostage saved. Big win for the police. Then is goes south and the perp gets stabbed. It all gets hushed up. Nothing to see here. It worked out even better than he planned. There is no honor among thieves. Sal was naive and Asher wasn’t. This wasn’t his first robbery.
I also see Asher hanging out to watch Sal get burned when the police arrive, like an arsonist watching the fire burn.
That said, Asher was being tutored by his older brother, who may have ordered him to do this. Growing up surrounded by criminals would make all this seem normal and just part of life.
So – Pity the child, but not forever, not if they stay that way. Which is kinda the theme of DOA. (Been wondering when I could use a favorite but obscure show tune as a reference.)
“When I was nine I learned survival, Taught myself not to care.” Yeah, that couldn’t be relevant.
I f ind the “fall girl” theory odd. The chances that Sal would roll over on them are far too high and it doesn’t seem at all reasonable that she could be blamed for the first job, at least not as the sole perpetrator. If there were any witnesses at all, none of them would identify her and they’d all describe multiple male robbers.
She was holding the knife from the first robbery, and if she accused Asher it could be spun as she trying to get payback for him calling the cops.
Could be, but how do they know about the knife?
If they have witnesses that can identify the knife, those witnesses will not recognize Sal. There’s no way anyone can actually think Sal alone did the first robbery. Any such case would fall apart in court.
Any vaguely competent defense lawyer – even a court appointed one would tell her that and tell her to get a deal by rolling over on the older guys that actually pulled the real job. Sal might not do that, but why would Asher be sure of it. The biggest thing trying to make her a fall girl does is hand the cops a witness who can identify him and his other friends.
Granted he was a kid himself and could have done it anyway, but that doesn’t make it any less of a bad idea.
The witnesses can’t identify ANYONE – it was a bunch of kids wearing full head-covering masks, at night. Sal isn’t particularly busty now, let alone back then, so no witness is gonna go “oh, she clearly wasn’t there because they were all dudes.”
Of course, Asher knew Sal (relatively?) well, so he might just have known that she wouldn’t turn them in regardless.
Also, think about the cops’ perspective: what they have is two convenience store robberies at knife point taking place close together both geographically and temporally, and they’ve just been handed someone who is MOST DEFINITELY the author of one of them with some of the cash from the other one. And she’s BLACK.
Of course, this is dependent on Asher being really confident that Sal wouldn’t roll over on them, but he knew her well enough to know she was going for the second robbery, so I presume he also knew that Sal doesn’t roll over on people she considers her friends.
Yeah, it’s not like they’re not going to bust her, but they’re also not going to go “Oh well it was just her.”
Setting her up doesn’t do anything to take the heat off the rest of them, because busting her obviously doesn’t bust the whole gang. Setting her up as the fall girl doesn’t make sense.
Something else is going on here.
Chess quote! Obscure?
I had the pleasure of seeing Philip Casnoff perform as Freddie on Broadway. (And Judy Kuhn was incredible.)
Ruth is gonna be so pissed at him . . .
(Collects jaw from floor)
Yeah my bet is Sal already knows but Walky didn’t. Seems like the best drama outlet to me.
Hold on, I thought that the Cops were alerted when the Cashier hit a silent alarm. I thought that is how Sal described it, in flashback. Is Willis retconning this?
It’s always possible Sal was mistaken.
Now I’ve got some vague memory of that, but no idea where to look to check for it.
I just checked Sal’s memory of the flashback from before she went to apologize to Ethan and I don’t see any silent alarm
Yeah, I’ve read through the flashbacks and didn’t see anything, but it could also just have been a casual comment somewhere else. Or even something Walky said about the robbery early on.
Good gods, he freakin’ snitched.
Uh oh
Grown up and into honest work…… like working for the Korean mob that Ambers Dad works with! (Probably not, just trying to think of the most dramatic twist)
He still seems suspicious but why admit what he did it he isn’t actually trying to not be that kid?
Who controls the British Crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
Asher! Asher!
+1
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