The context of this strip goes back a relatively short time to the latter part of Episode Six, when Alice Donovan had been brought aboard Westward for observation after a brief disappearance of billions of years. Having woken from her stasis, she somehow vanished from medical quarantine to be found in the detainment cell adjacent to that of Doctor Faust, who had been possessed by an ancient alien entity. This was enough to convince Rosemary that Alice had been the entity’s goal all along. But since no definite method of detecting these nefarious beings has been established, there continues to be a question of whether the entity stayed in its host or jumped to a new one. Further, we don’t yet know exactly what happened to Alice after this. Keep in mind that Alice is a polarity, having a counterpart on Earth that we are currently following in Westward’s sister strip, Arizona.

Speaking of which, you can follow those adventures yourself by becoming a Westward patron. Patrons–we call them Pioneers–enjoy bonus content like Arizona along with exclusive behind-the-scenes content and sneak peeks. More importantly, they know that their small contributions make a big difference in helping to ensure that Westward remains viable as a long-term, ongoing project. Thanks, Pioneers! -e