That’s not Maggie.

This is a world with nanobots and superpower duplication via blood analysis. Someone at the lab got her blood and built a simulacrum of Margaret Lee, one that can recreate clown-tech materials out of thin air – or, more likely, reusing matter from around her (though the designs themselves are coming from the mole). It was never teleportation, Echo’s just this world’s version of Cutey Honey.

Then was it her encounter with McBell that broke the spell, like with Oats? And she could’ve picked up her sense of the dramatic from McBell, based on her quips at the lab. She might be trying to base her sense of self on McBell – who, faced with a more powerful opponent, has resorted to quipping to gain an edge. All those flashbacks are Morgan’s, and would have to be because Echo doesn’t actually have Maggie’s memories, just descriptions of them at best. She may have even just torn out Gilborn’s tongue/jaw just because he let her think they were at the arcade for fun and she’s pissed at him for lying.

So Echo’s emotions and understanding are just starting out, and it’s why she reacts so strongly to Morgan’s “Love” attack 14 pages down. Her sense of self is, what, a month old at this point? And being an echo of Maggie, it hurts to know she has to wear the mask of a dead girl to be loved.

What to make of her relationship with McBell, who’s the totally free person Echo wants to be? Echo doesn’t seem to hate her (or anyone besides Gilborn, if this whole thing with Morgan is a psy-op) and, not having the baggage of knowing who she looks like under the mask/makeup – nothing’s stopping them from being friends! They already operate on the same wavelength. In fact, going by this whole fight here, there’s a whole ‘nother angle where Mustard saw a lot of Maggie in McBell originally.

Doot doot doot dah dah dah dah dah dah dah
https://youtu.be/51B55OQysj8?si=w90jftTDfBr3kxze

I really had to look up Harry Dread! Shame on me! I was tired…

You’re right! Thank you! I am not ready for the curtain call (and probably never will be, well…)

I mean there’s a lot that hasn’t been resolved. Who is the mole, will Oats ask a girl out? If so, who? What will the clowns we’ve seen in Squeeky’s office do? What’s the deal with the captain? What’s the deal with angel? Why is Echo alive? What’s the bigger target Echo set her eyes on? Why did mcbell want to be a clown? This chapter’s running real long, and I don’t see it crossing all those items off. If we believe Echo (chapter 6 page 128), there’s yet to be a final showdown, and mcbell isn’t gonna have one tonight.

This isn’t even a “the world has mistreated me and I will prove myself its foe” or “evil makes me feel good” scenario; We’re headed way past Shakepeare (Richard III and Shylock), past the genre saviness of things like Tarquin from OOtS and even past the Discworld’s Harry Dread into layers of Meta hereto only probed by the most postmodernist of essays and bad fanfiction, here.

That’s a really good question actually. It would add extra drama to the situation for sure. If McBell is thinking of quitting. That’s just a personal theory. She could do anything.

Can McBell just quit, though? She’s with the corps through Court order, not choice; so quitting might mean jail time

Bout can be doing the right thing and it can still be a sign of the Clown Corps corruption. They’re supposed to be firemen and Burke has used them as personal security so he can antagonize homicidal billionaires with impunity. I’m still wondering if there will be a real emergency tonight since a number of significant clowns have been distracted because of Burke.