Original Commentary
Yes, it's your favorite - the first comic that establishes a setting (Patrick's shower) and a question (why isn't the water running?), but doesn't do much else - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Is that body wash or shampoo? - Terrence

Original Commentary
Water shutoffs have been a semi-regular occurance here. Because of pipe maintenance, they've shut the water down during business hours. Unfortunately, I work the night shift and wake up during business hours. You don't realize how much you miss running water until it's gone, or how poor a substitute a bucket of cold water is for a hot shower - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Note that the showerhead has fully detached. That's not the full point of failure, just one of many symptoms - Terrence

Original Commentary
Why Sandra? Not just because she's his sister, but because she's good in an emergency, has a decent chance of knowing it, and, as importantly, because she's one of the few people that he'd admit vulnerability around. She lacks that killer instinct that the rest of their family probably has - Terrence

Modern Commentary
The showerhead detaching is just one piece of this multi-point failure. There's burst pipes. There's flooding. It's a whole mess. Hence the waterline in the third panel - Terrence

Original Commentary
The maintenance guy bears a mild resemblance to Al Fletcher. As far as I'm concerned, they're cousins. It's the attitude, you know. The underappreciated specialist who demands the respect from people who don't understand what he does - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Yes, Patrick had time to dress. Dude is going to take an hour or two to get around to anything after ten PM - Terrence

Original Commentary
Yes, I used that line a few times in Minervacon, so it's kind of a reference to it. Or at least it's a line good enough to get reused - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Eh. Dude kinda dominates the scene and doesn't leave Patrick to do much. It's funny how my attention is more on the guy who fixes stuff rather than the guy whose apartment had plumbing issues, despite being both of those guys at varying points - Terrence

Original Commentary
I have, I must admit, called maintenance about a blown fuse after hours. In my defense, it didn't look blown and it was only 10 PM. Anyhow, Patrick is a difficult customer, and the last line was almost "Well, somebody did" - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Patrick is both a fussy customer and a condescending jerk. This is no way to go through life, as seen here. - Terrence

Original Commentary
Now, Isabel wrote most of the previous comics. I wrote this one. I mention that because the First Rule of Improv is "Don't contradict the other guy." If he says "How do you feel to be the first astronaut to go to Mars?", you don't say "Astronaut? I'm a pole vaulter. And why are you interviewing me? You're the welterweight boxing champion!". You can't build a scene like that. That's why I have the "Repaired but not fixed" line in there, so that we have a little more justification as to why Patrick has to stay somewhere else, and it feels more like an elaboration than a contradiction

Anyhow, I spent half an hour researching plumbing supplies to find a suitable part. Then I remembered Reaper Man, which went with a fictional piece of equipment - a three-eights Gripley to be exact. I call it a homage - Terrence

Modern Commentary
The building has lousy pipes. I don't know what else to tell you - Terrence