Phan, I'm shocked that you seemingly missed the reference to Gilbert and Sullivan in this one. There's also a nod to RinkChat Archives of days gone by.

Anyway, this is the first strip that gets into the heart of the movie and starts changing the plot around. In the movie, this scene occurs a ways in, but here it's a flashback. (I loved the chance to play with flowery language. The "busticate in twain" line is my favorite of the early strips.)

One frustrating thing, though, is that we basically never see Ali's face head-on in this scene. The camera's on Alina a lot here, but the side-view in panel 5 is the best I could get for Ali. That made creating a true two-sided conversation a real challenge. (In the movie, the scene doesn't have any dialogue at all, so I couldn't even get "speaking" expressions out.)

I'll talk more later about working under those kinds of constraints. For now, though, best to let this comic stay fresh as it rolls out.