You can think of that as a conversation between to people, where one can do a lot of things and the other decides which of those matter.

The view knows how to do stuff and asks the model if it wants to provide any input on those matters:

View: Hi there, what do you want me to draw in cell 0/0?
Model: (column+3 -> 3) 3!
View: Right. Any specific font I should use?
Model: No
View: Ok, will use the standard font. Any wishes regarding the text color?
Model: No
View: Excellent, I hate it when models mess up the colors. Just in case, does this cell have a check state, i.e. do you want me to draw a checkbox?
.....

View: All right! Lets move on to cell 0/1....

Cheers,
_