I think we can all agree that there are some aspects to this “feel-good story of inspiration and hope” that don’t make a lot of sense (at this point). And I’m not referring to the fact that Rita and Skeeter immediately reintroduce themselves to Mark, after having just done so a moment before.

Skeeter and Rita claim their lives have been upended as a result of raising funds to transport Max back into the ocean. So …
1. Who put these two civilians in charge of arranging transportation? Are they qualified?
2. Wouldn’t the first people you turn to for a project like this be actual marine biologists and other specialists? (I think I mentioned this point, previously.)
3. Where the heck is Max right now? According to Bill Ellis (see the December 6 strip), Max had already been removed from the freshwater pool and put into a van (“Oh The Hu-Manatee! Manatee Movers”) apparently containing sufficient ocean water to keep it healthy and alive. So why wasn’t Max immediately driven to the ocean and put back? Did they have to put up a GoFundMe page to buy gas?

The needs of the story outweigh the needs of logic and reality.

4. Still, why contrive the context of two aspirational meteorological educators working in underprivileged schools when Rivera could have fashioned a more plausible setting by making them members of an underfunded marine biology research center, a zoo, or the Department of Natural Resources? Heck, any of these positions would be even more likely to receive threats and harassment from conspiracy theorists and other nut jobs.