Hoo-boy, you almost missed real drama! It seemed for a moment that Rivera had taken a turn for the serious. But no worries, she quickly spun back to her tried-and-true habit of absurdity and jokes.

The week began with Cherry, her two sisters, brother Dirk, and Rusty sitting at dinner. Afterwards, Peach took out the garbage. Here we learned for the first time that the Trail cabin sits on a plot of land with a small descent behind it, resulting in the cabin having a raised stone foundation with a rear deck and steps! Just think of all those Trail cookouts we missed seeing.

So this is the point where things got serious:  As Peach walked down the steps, she saw Rick, standing at the bottom, his car parked beside him, in the backyard. Yet, nobody heard it drive up. When Peach told Rick once again to leave, he displayed his gun and shoulder holster and threatened everybody inside. As a terrified Peach was being forced into the car, Cherry came out to see what was keeping Peach.

The hoped-for serious drama gave way at this point: While Cherry faced Rick and urged Peach to move back, Dirk suddenly appeared. Quickly scoping the situation, Dirk whistled and his “feral hog friends” suddenly  appeared and started ramming Rick’s car before he could drive away. Of course, Rick’s escape attempt failed as his car was heavily battered and he was knocked senseless. The gang pondered calling the police, as Dirk offered some of his homespun hillbilly wisdom.

Are we at the end of Cherry’s story? Once again, it has that feel. I bet that next week we’ll see Cherry drop Olive and Peach off at the airport as Mark arrives to get picked up, symmetrical bookends to the start and end of both stories. As for Brother Dirk, he will likely just disappear on his own and maybe change his phone number.

Okay, I usually appreciate Rivera’s customized Sunday title panels, and today’s contribution is almost there. At the very least, it is creative. As is common, Rivera’s Sunday topic links, geographically, to Mark’s current storyline. That makes the Sunday strips more interesting than just reading about random animals or locations.

I have no major issues with this content, though panel 3 is redundant. Rivera could have used that panel to show us another mating example. And then there is the weak, forced humor in Mark’s asides. <Sigh!> He’ll never have a future hosting late night TV shows, so Mark should leave the jokes to the professionals.