Review Session
| Review Session | |
|---|---|
| (Intermission) | |
 | |
| Chapter | “122.1” of 129 (list of chapters) |
| Published | January 20, 2025 |
| Page count | 10 |
| Major characters | Paulo, Daisy |
| Locations | Roseville High School |
| Chapter navigation | |
| ← Rain Check | Third Wheel → |
| Read chapter | |
Paulo and Daisy have been boyfriend and girlfriend for all of one rainy evening, and already there’s fine print: he isn’t going to college, she’s never not studying, and Abbey absolutely cannot find out. Over one library study session, the new couple hammers out the ground rules of dating each other.
Synopsis
Paulo opens the study session by announcing, with maximum melodrama, that “our beautiful new relationship must come to an end”.[1] Daisy isn’t having any of it. She orders the drama queen to pick up his book and vows to raise every one of his grades. After all, he’s the one who said he wanted to take care of her.[1][2]
Paulo then tells Daisy plainly that he isn’t going to college. He is taking a new job over the summer, and if she wants to date him, she will have to accept that they are “taking different paths”.[3] Though flustered, Daisy agrees to respect his decision. She also points out that around 60% of her spare time is spent in front of books, so he may as well study alongside her.[4]
Abbey is a thornier problem. Paulo doubts he’ll take the news well, so the two agree to keep things professional at school for a while. Paulo’s joke about not making out in front of Abbey promptly earns him a punch and a shouted “WE ARE NOT MAKING OUT, PERIOD!!”[5]
Daisy then asks, a little nervously, whether he would really want to make out with someone like her. Paulo says yes and deadpans an offer to go right now, which nearly finishes her off.[6] Then Daisy realizes that she can make out with her boyfriend any time she wants. She can hardly believe her luck. She kicks the table, giggles into her arms, and squeals “You’re my boyfriend!! You picked ME!”[7]
Once Daisy remembers this is all supposed to be a secret, Paulo reassures her that whatever speed she wants to take things is fine by him, “As long as I’m yours.”[8] They agree, more soberly, to keep it chill until they are ready to tell Abbey, then sit in glum silence over their books.[9] Daisy decides that does not mean they cannot do anything right now, though. By the end, Paulo and Daisy are reading side by side, with their chairs pulled together and their hands clasped between them.[10]
Character dynamics
- Paulo and Daisy: Paulo and Daisy got together in the previous chapter, and during this study session they start agreeing on what each expects from the relationship. Daisy respects Paulo’s plan to take a summer job instead of going to college.[3] Dating Daisy, meanwhile, means joining her during the many hours she spends studying.[4] When they discuss physical affection, Paulo lets her choose the pace: “Whatever speed you want to take it, I’m good.”[8] Daisy bosses him through his studying, but hesitates when she asks whether he would really want to make out with someone like her. Paulo says he would. Soon she is kicking the table, giggling, and exclaiming that he picked her.[6][7]
- Paulo, Daisy, and Abbey: Abbey never appears in the library, but Paulo and Daisy plan how they will behave at school around his possible reaction. He broke up with Daisy back in September because he suspected she and Paulo were having a thing.[11] Now that they really are together, Paulo is sure Abbey will not take the news well. They agree to hide the relationship and behave strictly as friends at school until they are ready to tell him.[5][9]
Trivia & observations
- Veronica said on Tumblr that “Review Session” was scripted as a six-page intermission and grew to ten pages because she didn’t like the pacing. In her words, “whenever I don’t like the pacing I make the comic longer”.[12]
- Veronica has also stood up for Paulo’s college decision, saying the comic only feels pro-college because the cast are “a bunch of nerds”. She relates to Paulo on this one, having dropped out of college after her first year herself.[13]
- Veronica’s commentary under page 5 vouches for Paulo’s monk credentials, noting that he never made out with Jasmine and “is capable of taking it very slow!”[14]
Related chapters
- Rain Check: Paulo and Daisy became boyfriend and girlfriend at the very end of the previous chapter, in the rain outside Burger-Tron. When Daisy reminds him here that he wants to take care of her, she’s quoting his confession from that night almost word for word.[2]
- Third Wheel: In the very next chapter, Paulo and Daisy spend a school day performing the “just classmates” act agreed here.[15] Lucy starts getting suspicious almost immediately.[16]
- Study Buddy: This isn’t the pair’s first library study session together. Back then, Daisy offered to help Paulo get started and got waved off with “It’s fine, I got it”.[17] This time she isn’t offering so much as ordering.[1]
- College Material: Miranda offered Paulo a real summer job at her dad’s company in this chapter, which Veronica’s commentary under page 2 confirms is the “new job” Paulo is banking on here.[18][3] Daisy also offered him SAT tutoring back then, and he waved her off with “You got cancers to cure. Not hopeless cases like me.”[19]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Review Session, page 1
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chapter 122: Rain Check, page 32
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Review Session, page 2
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Review Session, page 3
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Review Session, page 4
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Review Session, page 6
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Review Session, page 7
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Review Session, page 8
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Review Session, page 9
- ↑ Review Session, page 10
- ↑ Chapter 123: Third Wheel, page 3
- ↑ “Ask response on intermission pacing”. 2026-03-29.
- ↑ “Ask response on Paulo and college”. 2026-06-06.
- ↑ Review Session, page 5
- ↑ Chapter 123: Third Wheel, page 1
- ↑ Chapter 123: Third Wheel, page 2
- ↑ Chapter 77: Study Buddy, page 4
- ↑ Chapter 106: College Material, page 17
- ↑ Chapter 106: College Material, page 14