The Pattersons and their Sibling Complex.

As we know from a cursory reading of the strip, one of the things that Mike found most appealing about Deanna was that she bears a striking similarity to Liz; granted, his conscious self was repulsed but, since he got over the discovery in a hurry, his subconscious self only wanted Deanna even more. That's because he's been acculturated to, on some level or another, to want to keep sex within the family. We also know that Anthony's selling point is that he's a safe version of Mike and John and that April is looked at funny because she finds people who don't look like relatives attractive. What we tend to lose sight of is that the same thing applies to John and Elly. Were I Elly, I really wouldn't care one way or another who Phil dated as long as it didn't complicate my day-to-day life; the problem is that her fantasy men all tend to look like Phil so we can safely say that she did the same thing that Liz did by finding a legal surrogate for the longed-for brother and-or father. It should also be noted that both Elly and Connie bear striking resemblances to members of John's family; the fact that Connie and his sister Bev could be twins goes a long way towards explaining why John is so interested in her comings and goings.