Okay, Rivera got me! I took her seriously that the “To be continued” message was meant to signal the change to Cherry’s ongoing life. Instead, we get another week of Mark. So, is that what the message box was for, to let us know Mark’s story was continuing now?

Anyway, when I saw panel 1, I immediately thought Rivera is riffing off of The Phantom.  I mean, what’s with that big, white chair? And why is Mark sitting in it? Why are there no other chairs? What a bizarre scene, like some cheapo science fiction show.

Taking all this at face value, it is hardly surprising that Cricket Bro uses this opportunity to ham it up and indulge in the kind of schoolyard insults we normally associate with politicians. Well, one or two of them. But all of this is non sequitur blather. What does it have to do with the conference? Was that just a sham, too? Or is it that Cricket Bro is such a narcissist that he can’t resist rubbing it in. Actually, I’m wondering whether this is all charade and that Cricket Bro’s “hot bod” is really only fake prosthetics or the result of steroid injections. Or maybe, just maybe … this is some kind of AI prank. Maybe the image of Cricket Bro is a faked and jazzed up AI image. So why not? This is a comic strip, right?

Art Dept. Getting back to panel 1, we are left with a mystery: Why is Rivera showing us this large, sparsely furnished room, with the characters drawn in the background? Was it to fit in the message box and dialog balloons? I can’t believe it is for to showcase the room, as the drawing is rather slapdash.