Deanna: the mystery revealed.

It mat seems at first blush that the 'Deanna' character is solely an expression of Lynn's desire to see her son settle down. That hope, strong as is may be, isn't the only mental itch our creator is scratching, however. Another, more insightful, commentator reminded me that Michael is only parenthetically a stand-in for Aaron. His REAL function is to represent Lynn as an artist, which also explains his otherwise baffling centrality to the strip. This, of course, means that Deanna is not merely a pastiche of all the young woman Lynn thought Aaron should have married; she's also a stand-in for Lynn's husband, Rod. The reason Deanna seems to happily enduring Mike's irritating shit is a baffled expression of her unconscious contempt for her husband. Remember, her fetishistic worship of fifties mores lead her to believe a man who earns less than his wife is a failure. She therefore takes his lack of visible resentment as a sign of weakness.