the way i can talk about happy birthday vera (HBV) for HOURS, because it is a literal masterpiece...

and especially about how joan's revenge on juice was JUST, *artful*, iconic and among the very, very best scenes of the show

(thread)

joan could have done *anything* to her in that dentist chair, so the choice of cutting out the tongue is very meaningful

she took something juice was deathly afraid of already - the dentist, and made it into *such* a traumatic experience that she effectively branded her for life

lucy's whole personality was centred around being cheeky & crass - they emphasised this on purpose in HBV with her comments about boomer helping a wheelchair-bound sonia:

"wiping greta garbo's arse"

"do you have to trim her vagitation too? polish the pearl while you're at it"

joan's punishment is always tailored to the crime and emphasises *suffering*

by cutting out lucy's tongue, joan prevented her from spewing her vile "rape-thoric", condemned her to a lifetime of silence when being (unnecessarily) loud was *all* she had ever been before...

AND, most importantly, *forever* denied her the most pleasurable and intimate sexual act, whose vile antithesis juice had previously committed against joan. an eye for an eye.

"you've licked your last pussy" is *the* most iconic revenge line for a female character

joan took lucy's phobia & twisted it into a traumatic experience of monstrous proportions, stole her entire personality AND denied her *forever* the sexual act she found most pleasurable, thus also effectively taking away her *power* as the leader of a rapist gang

ARTFUL
ICONIC