About the Strip
#1452: Maybe a bold decorative gift basket?
Honestly I think the main reason lackeys or loyal servants exist in fictional settings is to simply give the main baddie someone to talk out loud at so it doesn't seem like they are talking to themselves all the time.
Of course this leads into the problem from time to time where characters will have a conversation and the author pauses and goes "Wait...why would they talk about this? They both already know this information?" but at the same time the audience needs to know this information. It's one of those things that I have found has taken me a lot of practice and I still goof on quite often.