And there we are: the sometimes arrogant, overconfident Mark Trail who thought watching YouTube videos of cave disasters would help prepare him for his secondary job of “Cave Rescue Man” at least has enough integrity to realize he is in over his head. Instead of bluffing through it, he decided maybe the professionals would be the better call. I’m guessing this retreat by Mark won’t improve Diana Daggers’s reputation with Cricket Bro. Perhaps Mark should spend more time watching videos on how to be a better nature journalist and photographer.

Still, aren’t there enough tools on hand? They have ropes to tie around Cricket Bro to prevent him from falling farther down. Then it would be a matter of chipping around his torso a bit to pull him out. But did Mark bring a shovel or pickaxe as I had earlier hoped? No? Oh, Mark, you didn’t watch enough videos, I reckon.

I think today’s installment is something of a disconnect: The dialog that Mark delivers is even-toned and mostly unemotional. But it is in direct contrast to the panicked expressions I see on his face. In fact, panel 4 shows us a Mark Trail that is on the verge of flipping out, which is not the kind of reaction you want to present to people expecting you to help them.

This contrast just seems strange to me. One theory may be that Mark noticed the cave crisis is being recorded, so he’s hamming it up, just like the people he sees on Reality TV shows. Or maybe the comics syndicate didn’t like the dialog that Jules Rivera had originally added, so they toned it down for family consumption.