I think it might actually be a tradition in stories for people to undergo significant personality shifts while under the effects of alcohol. Part of this admittingly is truth in advertising; alcohol is a depressant which can loosen the inhibitions of those affected (which doesn’t necessarily mean that every drunk person will be silly and light-hearted; stories of otherwise good-natured people becoming “mean drunks” are as often seen as serious people becoming airheads). Early into the latest chapter of the contemporary fantasy Footloose, one character stated she was going to get Keti’s friends, the twin werewolves Jin and Daniel, drunk. Thus while Keti might have been dumbfounded to see Daniel behaving much like his sister (affectionate, expressive, and flighty), it seemed to be par for the course. Yet even knowing the tropes and traditions behind drunken antics, I wasn’t prepared to see a serious and sardonic Jin.
What’s more interesting than Jin taking her brother’s place personality-wise is in Jin’s wording in responding to Keti’s complaint over Daniel trying to set her up with another girl (An, whom Keti had a huge crush on while she thought An was a guy, and who now is causing some rather conflicted emotions in Keti that haven’t been fully expressed). Rather than snarking about boys wanting to see two girls together, Jin instead comments on her brother is “picking up on lesbian subtext.” This suggests to me that Jin likewise has “picked up on” Keti’s own conflicted feelings over An, and feels these feelings are romantic in nature. I’m left to wonder if Keti is whimpering in that last panel out of shock of seeing her best friend as a mean drunk… or because of what Jin just hinted: that she too sees “lesbian context” in Keti’s repressed feelings about An.
This isn’t just wishful thinking on a drunk Daniel’s part either. I suspect that subconsciously, part of Keti still “thinks” of An as a guy; while I don’t recall any scenes with Keti showering with her classmates, her reaction when she runs into An in the showers seems to be more than just body-shyness. Considering An was already fairly androgynous even when she was pretending to be a boy, it’s likely Keti will be struggling with feelings for An for some time to come. What’s more, writer Alice Nuttall once stated for the record that Footloose was going to be more ambiguous about sexuality than other stories (citing Willow’s 180 degree flip in sexual preference in Buffy the Vampire Slayer as an example of what she wanted to avoid). Also, it’s a sign of good storytelling that Keti’s feelings didn’t vanish the second An was revealed (literally) to be female… and for her friends to pick up on those emotions.