When Jules Rivera first started on Mark Trail 2.0, I figured Cherry would be the one truly grounded in strength, reality, and reason. And she has been, now and then. I think she is not in that orbit at the moment. She seems to be living in the same irrational, emotional, and transactional world of hubby, Mark.

The rampaging elephant buildup has been going on since Mark arrived in Texas, with no sign of abatement. Never mind that, in the real world, the notion that an elephant could elude capture or destruction for more than a day is ludicrous. Never mind that an elephant halfway across a strange country could no more hone in on the Tiger Touch Center in Texas than Garfield could be a genuinely funny comic strip.

As Mark Trail 1.0 was a simple world of black-and-white morality, predictable events, and two-bit baddies, Mark Trail 2.0 is a more complicated, colorful world of surprise, outrageousness, inconsistency, and unpredictable behavior. With two-bit weird baddies.

Well, maybe that rampaging elephant will buck reality and, somehow, suddenly show up to trample Tess’s dreams of fame and wealth. It might wind up doing something similar to what Mark Trail 1.0 used to do: Employ its Flying Tusks of Justice to shut things down.