Foobonia and Points West.

As we know, Lynn seems to have an anti-formality stance when it comes to weddings. She thinks that mothers-of-the-bride who succumb to the need to micromanage are monsters who forget that it's supposed to be about the bride and she generally seems to see the whole affair as a pointless and showy waste of time that leaves those that prepare for it overworked and underappreciated. This is possibly because her refusal to admit that her mother should have any other role than "blubbering heap apologizing for having an opinion of her own when she should mindlessly obey DADDY" and "emetic, twinkling freak mindlessly praising every stupid thing Lindy does and letting personal initiative spiral down the crapper so a basically gutless idiot doesn't have to hear the terrible and awful character building words 'you can do better.'"

This makes Elly's mindless enthusiasm for Phil and Georgia's wedding seem to be something of an anomaly. It really isn't if you stop and consider some facts. First off, when Deanna and Shawna-Marie were dealing with their horrible monster mothers, we were dealing with Lynn's mother issues and refusal to understand that the big fancy wedding is pretty much the only shot either woman had at making a big public display of themselves. Traditionally, they slaved away in anonymity and the only occasion they had to make an impression on the masses WAS by being the mother of the bride. This means that we were meant to cheer Lynn on as she punished her mother for failure to admit that she should pay her compliments to make her feel like she's worth the effort of keeping alive. Since Joan Ridgway's family are distant nothings to Lynn, she doesn't have to deal with her mother issues and can get behind the wedding machine. This is why Georgia's family seems to consist of an unnamed father, an uncle and various other silhouettes.

It occurs to me that while Elly was making a gaudy and destructive spectacle of herself intruding into a situation she still doesn't properly understand, things that would affect her life were going on in the background that she also never fully understood. One of the things that was going on was Georgia finally getting Phil to get over his reluctance and propose to her. While his Liography had him bleat piteously about how his freedom to be an immature, feckless manchild was being taken away by a manipulative female, his blinkered vision of events blinds HIM to a reality he also still does not understand especially well. A fact that Phil either does not know or doesn't take seriously is the following point of Canadian law:

Common-law spouses do not inherit any of their spouse's property unless it was left to them in a will. If your common-law spouse dies without leaving a will, the intestacy rules will give their property to their children or other relatives, not to you. So if you are in a common-law relationship each of you must make a will if you want to choose what you want done with your property when you die.

He also ignores the fact that despite feeling like a widow, Georgia would have been treated like a girlfriend had he managed to get John and himself killed playing at being Ranger Dorkface. While he might have stood a chance of delaying the inevitable if it were just Geo reminding him of this, his fate was sealed by two people who were in her corner: parents who were mighty sick of his fannying about like a great big immature, insensitive and entitled clod. What Elly doesn't know and what Phil ain't telling her is that Jim attached that there ball and chain to his legbone and Marian ate the key. Since his parents' response to licking Hitler and Tojo was to give birth to an endless array of soft, weak, stupid and entitled imbeciles like him and Elly, he still vaguely feels as if he got trapped.