In the words of Inigo Montoya, “I do not think it means what you think it means…“
With Foxy Lady checking in on Mark’s progress, and strangely no mention of the boat-splosions that were no doubt all over the social media, Mark gets back to what? Work?
Have to admit I have never seen a green wood-sided station wagon…
Like I said, the story of the prodigal son (and I’m not scholar, I assure you) has to do with competition between sons for their father’s affections- one staying home and doing his duty, the other (prodigal) going off in the world to sow his oats, only to return, where his arrival is greeted with great joy, fatted calf, etc… Is there another son? Mark’s Brother that we haven’t met?
OK, now this is getting all meta… The ‘Mark Trail’ we knew and loved is now ‘Happy Trail’ and his son (with Cherry, Andy, Rusty and Doc) is now Mark Trail? Is this an episode of “Lost?”
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For sure! It may even be more like “The Twilight Zone”, where some terrible mishmash of generations occurs: Mark (Jr), married to his “mother”? Rusty is both his son and half-brother? Maybe Doc Davis is something more than a mere country veterinarian and has a secret lab in the basement of Lost Forest. Maybe this Mark is an automaton! Maybe THAT is the ugly truth he fears Rusty will discover.
In other news, this is really going off the proverbial rails at this point. I mean, what would NEW readers get out of this, having no understanding of the strip’s prior content or makeup. So these ghost images of the traditional Mark Trail serve what/whose purpose? It seems more and more that Jules is simply using the strip for her own enjoyment, though I’d be terribly disappointed if that was actually so.
On the other hand, what with the “talking animals” that I believe exist as metaphors of Mark’s own inner thinking, and these other aberrations, I’m hoping that this will actually turn out to be some long drawn out dream sequence, where we’ll find Cherry waking up Mark, who fell asleep in front of his computer at home: “Mark! Get up! You have a flight to Florida this afternoon. Get going!”
And what ever happened with the police? How come there isn’t an APB out for Mark? Why isn’t he yet in jail?
How long will we see the tic tak toe on the side of Mark’s face? I agree with the comments previous to mine by the way. George nailed it. This is getting beyond pathetic.
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