No Exit

See it here.

If life's a journey, then family are the jerks in the back seat deliberately trying to ruin the trip.

Witness the kerfuffle which occurs when Joy attempts to make small talk about the object hanging from Verl's rear-view mirror. Verl's response, as indicated by the ellipses setting apart the frustrated "no" from the rest of the sentence, is probably intended to be read as unnecessarily exasperated, especially given the minor nature of Verl's offense.

Which is not to say that confusing a dreamcatcher with God's Eyes is anything other than a fairly incredible mistake. But, for Verl's exasperation to be warranted the reader must assume Joy's question represents a maddening pattern of stupidity on her part or perhaps a deliberate closed-minded refusal to recognize symbols of a non-Christian nature. Neither of which is beyond the realm of possibility, given what we know about Joy. Though it assumes facts not in evidence, as the saying goes.

And if Verl's response leaves room for doubt about her intentions, the responses from Patty and Ma do not.

Patty has clearly been seething in the back seat ever since the trip commenced, just waiting for an opportunity, any opportunity, to erupt into a tirade. How else to explain her non-sequitur response which equates the dreamcatcher's protection against bad dreams with a sedative. Patty resents being along for the ride, resents being a part of this family. She inhabits a fantasy world in which a sedated driver is only a menace to the driver themselves and, despite her protestation, actively wishes for a fiery crash which will claim selected victims, delivering her from torment while leaving her unscathed.

Ma, as previously seen, is a demented septuagenarian with only the most tenuous grasp on reality. She chooses to sit in the back seat for reasons which defy understanding, despite her assertion that the choice is intended to protect her. In truth, Ma chooses her location only to afford her the best vantage point from which to complain bitterly while keeping a wary eye on her family. No doubt she believes the entire purpose of this trip is to take her deep into the woods and forever abandon her.

With this metaphor, the panel asks the reader to consider the bleakness of a future in which the next respite is over 700 miles away.

The following marginalia were caught in the dreamcatcher:

• Should any of them want to actually protect themselves in case of accident, might I suggest a seat belt?
  
• If they just passed the last rest stop, doesn't that imply there is no next rest stop.
• Joy's face appears to be pressed up against the windshield and her seat within inches of the dashboard. While we're looking at the front seat, those head rests make it look more like a divan than a car's front seat.