truly outrageous jem primer

This essay was original published at Roxy Reviews and is reprinted here with permission.

STORMER

Stormer, Stormer, Stormer. The nice one. Right. The good little Misfit with the heart. Sure.

She does seem to have some self-esteem issues, and she's the most personable of the Misfits, definitely. Still...is Stormer goaded along? I don't think so. The girl enjoys being a Misfit. She laughs and participates in most of the Misfits' pranks without a whimper. Even though she doesn't want to see Jem go to jail in "Truly Outrageous," she has no problem locking Aja in a bus and sending her off to New York. Similarly, in "Last Resorts," "In Stitches," "Presidential Dilemma" and other episodes, she's one of the gang...literally. She gets in people's faces in "Mardi Gras" and although she worries about the millionaire maniac in "The Fan," she sees no problem with messing with Jem's head. Even in "Rock N' Roll Express," when she is stressing, she's still picking apart Jem's mike.

Although Stormer is usually the one to say "yeah!" and back up her fellow Misfits, she's not exactly an innocent. When she encounters Kimber for the first time in "The Bands Break Up," for instance, she has quite a mouth on her. She's also the first to knock Jem in the "Glitter and Gold" interview.

At the same time, Stormer does show more of a heart than her bandmates. Perhaps it is fair to say that, unlike Pizzazz or Jetta, she has a conscience; and unlike Roxy, she fully understands the magnitude of her actions. Unlike the others, she has been shown compassion and love in her life, and she understands that.

Why is Stormer a Misfit? See above. There's some reason the Misfits recruit her to begin with, and I don't think it's just the music. If that were the case, I don't think they would hang out with her, nor would they accept her as one of the pack. They never conceal their plans from Stormer, so they obviously don't think she will rat them out.

ROXY AND STORMER

I tend to go with the idea that Roxy and Stormer have a good friendship. It's not exactly an equal partnership, but I'd still say they were close. Perhaps they are more 'sisterly' than anything else--they depend on each other.

Little Stormer and Roxy friendship bits are everywhere in the series. When Stormer pulls Roxy out of the canal in "In Stitches," she has her arm around her. The two walk closely, arm in arm, to get out of the jungle in "Aztec Enchantment." Roxy and Stormer share a snowmobile in "Last Resorts", leaving Clash with her own vehicle. They are often depicted sitting together, apart from Pizzazz and later Jetta, both in "offical" settings (eg, on the Linzi PIerce show) and at leisure. They work well as a team on pranks ("Truly Outrageous" and "Last Resorts" are good examples) and on occasion team up against Pizzazz ("The Jem Jam"). In the Misfits videos, Stormer and Roxy also appear to have a lot of fun. In both the early and later episodes they are often shown together--not scowling Misfit-style, but smiling and having a ball. Roxy even gives Stormer a piggyback ride at the end of "Gimmie a Gimmick" in "The Jem Jam."

The friendship doesn't seem one-sided to me. When Stormer falls in the wild boar stampede in "Last Resorts", Roxy freaks out. She sometimes seems to snap at Stormer (for instance during the "We're off and Running" video) but she very rarely really goes after her the way she does Pizzazz or Jetta. Even in "The Talent Seach," when band relationships are at their most contentious, Roxy seems to be on Stormer's side. She doesn't make fun of Stormer's real name, and most notably, she doesn't say a word to back Pizzazz or Jetta up when they threaten to kick Stormer out. When Stormer leaves in "The Bands Break Up," she is the only one who doesn't knock Stormer personally. She ridicules Stormer's music, but not the girl herself. Later, she is the only one who doesn't say she hates Stormer, and the first to admit they need her back.

Stormer, by all accounts not a physical character, comes to Roxy's defense at least twice in the series--once during "Rock N' Roll Express" when she hits Jetta with food, and again in "Roxy Rumbles," during the fight in the television studio. If you look closely, she seems to be trying to separate Pizzazz and Roxy, and she's on Roxy's side.

The most telling scenes to me are those in "Roxy Rumbles." Roxy has confided to Stormer that she is illiterate, and Stormer has kept the secret well. Who helped Roxy learn all the Misfits lyrics? It must have been Stormer, unless she learned them by ear after everyone else (which would have blown her cover). The fact that Roxy felt comfortable enough to tell Stormer such a deep secret speaks of a certain level of trust between the two. In the same episode, Stormer is visibly upset when Roxy walks out, and she's also the only one that truly believes Roxy is serious about leaving. She's angry with Pizzazz about it, and she worries that they won't be able to convince Roxy to return.

STORMER AND KIMBER

OK. Are they...or aren't they lovers? I don't know. On the one hand, they could simply be kindred spirits. After all, they are both the babies of their respective bands; the misunderstood wunderkinder who control the music but nothing else. It's entirely possible that they simply understand each other.

It's notable that both before and after "The Bands Break Up," Stormer is still just as bad to the Holograms as the others--excepting a few specific instances like "Rock N' Roll Express" where she halfway apologizes for sabotaging the concert. It's also interesting that although she hands out Cool Trash magazines along with the others in "The Scandal," she doesn't appear at the restaurant for the Sean Harrison interview. Apart from that, though, it's mostly situation normal for Stormer. Even when the bands get together in "The Day the Music Died" we don't see any scenes of Kimber and Stormer actively hanging out.

On the other hand, in "The Bands Break Up," why does Stormer have a photo of her and Kimber on her bedside table? Why are they so touchy feely? And why does Jerrica react so strangely to Stormer? There's definitely a way to regard the friendship as a relationship, based in part on the other band members' reactions (Pizzazz telling Stormer "she'll break your heart" in "Bad Influence" for one thing!). I really think this is one piece of canon that can go either way.