Oh, careful there, Mark.  That touch to your unshaven (but who would know since you don’t grow whiskers) chin spells trouble.  If Chris Dyer sees that gesture, without the words, he could easily misconstrue and have his fears confirmed… That Lori has fallen for you!!

But seriously, Mr. James Allen, do we really want our hero dishing out relationship advice?  What Mark knows about love one could fit into an eye-dropper…  Where are the baddies?  Where are those evil poachers?  C’mon let’s dispense with the “As the Trail turns” and get on with something that will require Mark to Punch a Poacher and save a White Rhino!

And thank you, Lori Tompkins, for using the objective form of the first person pronoun, “me,” instead of “I.”

Is it because you maintain the veneer of caring?  When in fact people confuse and bore you?  Especially when they are want to share with you all their tawdry history?  So you raise your glass at the prospect of having Lori tell you something in private, only to respond with a confused and shocked look in panel two… are you reacting to the fact that Lori has “known Chris for several years,” or that she feels like she has “made a mistake?” that is the greatest “oh crap” look I have ever seen…

But Lori, let’s get real here…  Are you and Chris “Friends with Benefits” or are you merely “Safari Buddies?”  We need to define terms here…  And how could he not fall in love with you?  You of the raven hair and impossibly small waist…

This has GOT to be a first!  I don’t think I have ever seen Mark with an adult beverage…  And I will give Chris credit, if it’s due him, he really knows how to entertain!  What a spread- fine dining al fresco with the Springbok noshing on the foliage in the foreground…

Given Chris’ 180-degree turn of attitude, he seems to almost be setting Mark up… Leaving him alone with Lori!  Has Mark even bothered to tell Lori that he is married?  Well, that would just spoil the fun, I suppose…  I do like this, though, much better than Mark getting into trouble in his own back yard (albeit a BIG  back yard) and having Cherry come to the rescue…

OK, a couple of thoughts:  first, this installment almost seems out of sequence…  The conversation would have been had right after the “Mark saves Taurus from the marauding Hippo” scene… but apparently they are want to re-live Mark’s heroics and cleverness long after they happened…  and second, who is “leading” this safari?  Apparently it is Chris Dyer… my assumption that Lori Tompkins was behind this- sort of a bucket list thing- was wrong…  So in addition to having a chronic gambling problem and being in hawk up to his eyeballs, Chris Dyer is also experienced in the ways of the Savanna?  I am starting to hear his voice- Afrikaans…  Deep South African roots.  White supremacist.  Oh, this is getting interesting…  He isn’t in love with Lori, he sees her as a “Mark,”  ha!  Get it??

Nice Aryan buzz-cut, Chris…  sort of a Dolph Lundren special… And again with the gambling references- “I would’ve laid odds…”  Do chronic gamblers really think like that and speak these tired, hackneyed phrases?  I think they do…

Our party does not waste any time…  last we knew it was night-time, a full moon and Chris Dyer was professing his longings for Lori Tompkins.  But now the truck is packed and Mark and Lori are once again commanding the best views while Chris simpers and molders riding shotgun with Taurus, or one of the other (at least) 3 porters, since these vehicles don’t drive themselves!!  I wonder if one of them is named George?

And, true to form, Mark remains oblivious to the “drama” that unfolds and involves him…  Good to know that Mark’s obtuse nature and relative position on the autism spectrum remains unchallenged…

And how it sucks to be one of the cloven hooved denizens of the African savanna…  You are born to run, to become some apex predator’s meal, only to be converted to carrion and picked over by hyena and vulture…  not very dignified, now is it?  I am guessing wildebeest… aka the Gnu…

James Allen has them.  Elrod did not.  Still adjusting to this new world where people have hearts and such… And also where people, even the men are not afraid to show them, or a world where men bleach their hair and leave their big, thick, dense black eyebrows untouched…  or is it the other way around?  Does Chris Dyer color his brows and leave his blonde mane au naturale?

Again, I say, it’s just plain weird, if not cruel, to lead a man on…  to bring him on safari only to break his heart…  I mean, how long have these two known each other?  Do they have history?  Did they at one time play on a level field??  Are they sharing a tent but that’s all?  Lori Tompkins, you are an evil and wicked temptress!  But then the look on your face in panel two, out of view of your frustrated former lover, says it all…