I’m not a fan of how this story is evolving. If Rex wants to do what seems on the surface to be an idiotic and possibly dangerous activity, it’s his business, just like he says. After all, Tess might be a tigress in more than just name. As we can see, there’s no evidence Rex is being held against his will or even under the influence of a drug. And this is clearly just a psychological test, not a test of actual danger.

Mark, just do your job! Set up the camera, press the red button, and contemplate your next award for hard-hitting nature reporting. And Jules, Mark is not a social worker. Stop it!

So, what do you think?

Well, let’s look at this situation positively:  If the lion mauls Rex, Mark knows that the place is truly corrupt, as is Tess. Furthermore, he no longer has to fret over Rex’s mental stability. So, my advice to Mark is “Find whoever is handling bets and place your money on the lion. Afterward, go write your blasted article.” At the very least, Mark should be filming this spectacle. Might be the catalyst for a new Reality Show.

On the other hand, the alleged “rampaging elephant” could show up in the nick of time and stomp the tiger, just before it bites Rex’s head off. I mean, it just has to show up at some point, don’t you think?

And I thought for sure that the prior time Mark had a 3-week run was a fluke, as the tradition has been 2 weeks of Mark to every 1 week of Cherry. So why the change to three weeks? Inflation?

In any event, some time has passed and yet another odd twist to the story appears. The Tiger Truth Ceremony, is it? I have a pretty good idea where this is going. But I’m surprised the retaining walls here are so low. Certainly tigers can jump those heights with ease. In fact, all reports I’ve found state tigers can jump heights greater than ten feet.

But poor Rex. He’s hooked on a woman—without qualification—who yet insists he satisfies her own qualification test with some kind of Neolithic “Survivor” ceremony to see if he is worthy. Unless this is a scam, of course. I wonder how Diana Daggers is taking all of this? As I projected several weeks ago, she has become less of a meaningful character/opponent and more of a scene conductor, somebody to just help Mark get from one phase of the story to the next.

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.

Rivera adds some emotional complexity to the story, but the two plot elements strike me as disparate. (1) There is the Tiger Touch Center and the alleged disappearance of mama tigers. There seems to be some evidence of neglect and bad management, but Mark’s estimate of the tiger cubs-to-mama tigers ratio has not been demonstrated. (2) There is the issue of Rex’s infatuation for Tess that Mark finds troublesome. Of course, whether Rex wants to stay with Tess is none of Mark’s business (nor Diana’s for that matter). How do disappearing tigers impact Rex’s status? Dunno! Perhaps it is Rex’s reputation that Mark is concerned about, or Rex’s legal status if he is around when the proper authorities ultimately show up to shut down the Center and start arresting people.

I don’t think Rivera needs to exaggerate the drama through the expressions and reactions of Mark and Cherry; it seems too close to the scripted drama of Reality TV.

Who the hell is that old geezer in panel 1? Did Mark get stuck in Kurt Vonnegut’s chrono-synclastic infundibulum?  So, this is hard times, huh? Compared to living in the Sudan, for example? Sure, there might be some bad things going on, but Mark:  Did you think that maybe Tess could be buying some of the cubs? Or that she might donate some tigers to another zoo after a while? Well, it’s a possibility.

By the way, what was in that isolated trailer that caused Mark to exclaim “Yikes!” in last Saturday’s strip? Or was that exclamation from discovering Tess and Rex coming back? Alas, it seems we will continue with the Pity Party.

Sage advice, Mary “Marky” Worth. But now that you two moralists have done your righteous duty, can we get back to the actual story and leave this tripe for another comic strip, such as Blondie?

Well, it’s only Wednesday, so for the next three days, let’s hope Rivera gets back to some actual plot. His or hers; it doesn’t much matter, as long as we move on.

Bobcats running wild around the Tiger Touch Center!? What next, rampaging elephants?

I’m not sure we really need or want this interlude.  It’s like those painful-to-read vintage strips of Mark and Cherry discussing modern comic strips, technology, and social media in between Mark’s adventures.

I predict we’ll have six days of this useless nattering. Perhaps Rivera does not want to extend Mark’s story another week because it would have to be interrupted at a less advantageous point. If that is truly the case, wouldn’t it have been better to just jump back into Cherry’s story? Sure, keeping in touch is valuable and helpful, but let’s not drag it out, okay?