433: Journal 5

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Journal 5

Title text: 'Pick you up at eight?' 'Nine. I've got to re-mine the driveway.'

Explanation

In Journal, Black Hat explains to Cueball that a hobby of his is to pretend to write in a journal while on the subway, acting embarrassed if anyone sees. He then proceeds to silently scorn the person once they give him any kind of reassurance.

In Journal 2, however, Danish sees through his ruse. She counteracts it by proving that she understands him, and attempts to resign him to the fact that he will never see her again, thus robbing him of the satisfaction of a proper social connection. She leaves, taking his hat in the process.

Initially stunned, he at last regained his hat in Journal 3, the trademark of his personality and attitude, leaving him with the upper hand.

(In 412: Startled he's shown more easily startled than usual, possibly due to Danish setting him on edge and cracking his façade.)

In Journal 4, however, he is overcome with emotions, to the extent that he has even taken his black hat off while sitting head in hand on a bench, wondering in the title text why he would feel any emotions when he has a hat.

Now, in Journal 5, Black Hat parks his car and soon finds himself on the doorstep of Danish's house. He comes to tell her that he gives up and that she wins, because he just has to know who she is. This is very uncharacteristic of Black Hat. He then tries to tell her that he thinks they understand each other's personalities and that this means something to him. He is obviously smitten with her on some level. But all she does about this initially is use her remote control to set off the mines she installed in the driveway where Black Hat's car is parked.

But, even in his state of love, Black Hat had spotted these mines and moved them to her garage. So when Danish sets them off, she destroys her own garage (and possibly her car) instead of Black Hat's car. When he tells her about moving them, she is impressed and acknowledges this by saying Touché. Maybe this is when she also begins to respect him in her own weird manner.

Black Hat can foresee that it will be a tricky relationship with their sadistic personalities crashing together, but when Danish gives him the option to go find a non-crazy girl, he promptly states that this doesn't interest him at all.

In the title text, it seems that neither of them is deterred by this obstacle, and their relationship begins when Black Hat tells her that he will pick her up at eight, although she does ask for one more hour, so she can booby-trap the driveway again before he comes back at nine. This did not seem to harm their future relationship, as in most of the later comics with Danish she is mainly shown together with Black Hat, sometimes even in a clearly romantic setting, like in 515: No One Must Know, from where she got her name. And thus the relationship is born between Black Hat and Danish.

The whole "Journal" story is:

• 374: Journal
• 377: Journal 2
• 405: Journal 3
• 432: Journal 4
• 433: Journal 5

Transcript

[Black Hat parks his car.]

PARK

[Black Hat knocks at door.]

KNOCK KNOCK

Black Hat: Hi.

Danish: Hi.

Black Hat: I give up. You win. I have to know who you are.

Black Hat: We understand each other. I can't let that slip away—

beep [from device in Danish's hand.]

BOOM

Black Hat: What was that?!

Danish: Remote mines under your car.

Black Hat: Oh, those? I moved them to your garage before knocking.

Danish: Touché.

Black Hat: ...This relationship is going to be tricky.

Danish: There's still time to leave and find a non-crazy girl.

Black Hat: Not even slightly interested.

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Discussion

At least he didn't same "remotely" 99.102.154.28 03:03, 13 August 2013 (UTC)

Saying "remotely" would have been such a bad play on words. lol. 184.66.160.91 01:48, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

Are the remote mines a reference to THE remote mines? 173.245.53.198 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

Not probably. Remote mines are real world items, some of them are even capable of moving. STEN (talk) 10:59, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

That car doesn't seem like something Black Hat would drive. --flewk (talk) 17:09, 28 December 2015 (UTC)

Perhaps Black Hat took a precaution and borrowed a car so his own wouldn't get destroyed, considering who he was approaching. --162.158.63.82 20:53, 13 July 2018 (UTC)