The in crowd and Lizardbreath.

The interesting thing about both Peeping Mike arcs is that while he does have something of a fascination with the illicit unclothed female form (as evidenced by Elly screaming her fucking head off upon discovering his being in the possession of a copy of Penthouse), what truly animates him is his horrible need to be the center of attention and its equally horrible companion called wanting to fit in and be popular. What Michael never manages to piece together is that these two trends leave him on the outside looking in because it never seems to sink in that playing the fool might get him attention but it doesn't get him respect. If he didn't have this stupid, limiting belief that he's the Best Kid Ever and that everyone wants to tear him down because they're jealous, he might actually have friends that respect him for who he is.

The reason that I mention this is that Mike's raison d'etre for being a jerk to Lizzie shifted during the Middle Years. While his original motive was inspired by his fear of displacement and his active resentment that everyone was so busy fussing over what he saw as a cooing lump of nothing who couldn't do all the stuff he does that no one wanted to praise because it hurt HER feelings that they forgot he existed. What's obvious is that as the Middle Years progressed, the same need that made him give Martha a gross-out Valentine that implied that she was stupid because the GUYS would have teased him if he'd behaved intelligently meshed with his being a resentful git to make him a worse git. Not only did she hurt his feelings by deliberately asking to be born in order to take things away from him, the guys would have mocked him cruelly if he'd been pleasant to her. Where it falls down is that it's likely that the same guys who probably laughed their asses off because he shot himself in the foot on Valentine's Day with his perfecto barfola card more than likely love that the stupid clown gets himself into shit he doesn't need by being an abusive and antagonistic creep to his inoffensive kid sister.

How to build Daddy's Little Girls: a primer.

Watching Mike wale on Lizzie and watching Elly do nothing constructive to protect Lizzie from the looming shape of imbecile malice that warped her personality reminds us that Elly set herself up to fail when trying to form a connection with Liz and April by demonstrating a refusal to be for them when it counted. Elly did nothing but wring her hands feebly and whine about something she was never going to do anything to fix when Mike physically and emotionally abused Elizabeth and her reaction to the Jeremy phenomenon was to make pious noise about being nice to an angry lunatic who needed to be locked up and forgotten so it's kind of hard to sympathize with her when they turn to anyone but the mother who only thinks that she's supportive.

It's equally not hard to see why they'd turn to John for help. In Lizzie's case, she can exploit his hatred of Mike for being a slow-witted jerk who doesn't understand what he's doing to piss people off in order to have someone who'll barge in one fine day and cold wreck the Delicate Genius for being a raging shithead with the brain damage. In April's case, it's obvious that both of them have bonded over the realization that Elly ain't living in the real world. Granted, John becomes useless when they're adolescents because he doesn't understand that teenaged alienation shouldn't be taken personally but now that they're grown, he can revert to running interference when Elly witlessly counsels genuflecting to moron tormentors.