Atta girl, Faye! Now get yer ass back over there and into the fray! Screw Marigold—can't make an omelet and all that.
Okay, I'm not that heartless. But, as I said some time ago, Marigold, like almost every person I know of, is almost guaranteed to miss with her first foray into romance, and bound to get hurt. Lots of reasons for this, none of them all that good, really. But 'tis the way it goes, and, having experienced both, I'd say risking getting hurt or even getting hurt, no matter the goal, beats sitting in your room alone all day*. That's the one I have to give Hanners—she knows that and goes at it the best she can, falling down and getting up over and over again, even though she seems to be sure she'll never actually get there. Faye's been learning it (her 'room' is figurative, but it's there), possibly all over again, ever since 'The Talk'; now it's Marigold's turn.
For those who have been complaining about Jeph 'fixating' on romance, I observe that this risk, to me, seems to be what he's actually getting at, from Hanners to Marigold, Faye to Dora, Marten to Wil, Penelope to, yes, Sven. All of them have to, at some point, get out of their 'room,' or not and lose thereby. Romance happens to be a pretty good means by which to draw an audience into this concept, as it's one of the more universal risks, one almost all of us have or haven't, as the case may be, taken, but experienced, nonetheless. As opposed to various job problems, working for the CIA, getting on or off medication, etc. Jeph isn't the first artist to attack one idea over and over again, looking at it from ever so slightly different angles, in his case, amidst various pop culture references and, of course, fart jokes, and he won't be the last. Or so I hope. To me, that's how you find all the truly interesting and meaningful shit.
*Not at the time, of course. But later…