Jules Rivera continues to take her story into new territory as Rusty’s behavior becomes more focused on his new persona and “friends.” Rusty acts both patronizingly (panel 2) and disdainfully (panel 4) to his fellow scouts, even as Rob’s own cynicism seems to dismiss the entire scene. Again we see the ominous orange sky continuing to flavor the stressful situation, until it suddenly gets replaced by a normal and more familiar featureless light blue sky (panel 4). Is there a symbolic intent to all of this? It seems out of character to the strip to start thinking along this line.

Ian’s apology about being ignorant of the photo’s authorship is undone by the fact that Rusty had originally sent the photo to him and Rusty’s other friends, as we see in this lookback on January 26, 2026:

It’s little wonder that Rusty is not gushing with happiness at their apology and lack of faith. He seems to enjoy rubbing it in their faces, as well. It’s so unlike the Rusty we all know, right?

But is this real or is it Memorex? That is, is Rusty really winding up his friends (to borrow a useful British phrase) to get even for their behavior? It sure looks like Rusty’s getting his money’s worth out of seeing most of them freaked out and distraught. There are three days left to finish this chapter of the story. But there is still the issue of Robbie and the stolen photo, the hoodwinked scoutmaster, and the merit badge. We should need another week to resolve all of that and conclude the story. But it will have to wait for a few weeks following our return to Mark, Happy, and gorillas.

I’m not sure what to make of this orange sky we’ve been seeing for two straight days. Is Jules Rivera pulling out the classic “forest fire” plot device from the old days? But Mark isn’t around to save the boys, if that’s the case. Maybe it could be that the colorist just has a lot of extra orange ink. I dunno!

Anyway, I’m on board with Ian taking lead on the search, since it’s clear that Ernie doesn’t know how to hold a compass (panel 1). But that scene in panel 3 should give the boys the willies. Here is Rusty, sitting Buddha-like under some trees, with a collection of sticks stuck in his head like some kind of animal spirit. Even his face looks oddly transfixed. His response to Ian’s observation in panel 3 is unnerving and a bit scary. I’d almost expect to see dramatic lighting and tiki torches on either side of Rusty. Frankly, I didn’t realize Rivera had it in her!

Rusty is surrounded by a bunch (a “gaze”) of raccoons. They aren’t exactly worshipping him, but look like they are searching for something; perhaps bits of food Emperor Rusty has thrown out to his “subjects.” This all reminds me of scenes from some horror film where a kid has been taken over by a malevolent demon. In this setting, that demon kid would maniacally laugh and then order his raccoon subjects to attack the scouts to satisfy his lust for revenge! Well, I could be wrong, of course.