This could be kind of sweet, if we liked these characters even slightly. Since they have been deliberately fashioned to be as unlikable as possible, instead this is just three panels of wasted space.
It’s interesting how the viewpoint shifts–in panel one, Les starts with “I’m,” meaning he (as usual) only cares about his own feelings. In panel three, Cayla goes for the “We’ll,” somehow hoping to include herself. Does she really think she’ll ever be included in Les’ world?
I can’t really think of anything else to say about this one, so on to the comment section wi’ ye!
Son of Stuck Funky 
I knew a stump would somehow be involved. Les/Batom and those leaves, man. I mean I get it, it’s the most wistful time of year and all, but it’s just overkill now.
I know I’m going to regret saying this, but maybe this signals that we’ve seen the exorcism of Dead St. Lisa from the strip. The last of the videos have been played, the tree has been cut down. The leaf fetish seems to have been transferred to Cory. Cayla actually gets a line of her own. Reason for hope or are we being trolled like we were with the time pool?
“That ain’t the firggen Christmas star, Griz. It’s a light on the sewage treatment plant.”
Even if this is Les moving on, isn’t moving on three years into his second marriage a bit too little, too late?
Lisa’s picture was left at the summit of Kilimanjaro for some reason or other, who can say?
Next week: Les trades quips with the stump grinding guy.
Gerard Plourde: He’ll never entirely stop with the Lisa stuff, ever. At times it’s looked that way but she always returns with a vengeance. It’s what he does. Lisa will be his muse until the day he retires, he’ll never let that cancer arc go.
Based on Les’s facial expression in the second panel I’m pretty sure he doesn’t realize Cayla’s even there.
Epicus Doomus: You’re right. That means he’s trolling us again.
It’s sort of pathetic that Les is so damned self-involved and stupid. He’s got a good woman next to him and all he can think about is the dead idiot who kinda committed suicide in an attempt to out-theatric JJ Doonesbury. Also, the skies being clear allows SDL to get a better view of something that’s sure to outrage her: a world and family getting along just fine without her. How dare people move on and live their lives when she just upped and quit?
She means Lisa. We all know it.
Cayla: “Well, I’LL be able to look at the stars. You’ll be sobbing into your pillow as usual.”
If there is a way for Batiuk to make this tree magically reappear so as to keep flogging his precious cancer execution arc, he will do just that.
It’s also not a coincidence that he silently gave Cayla a makeover so she looked like… well, Dead St. Lisa the Cancer Chew Toy of the Misdiagnosed Mammogram Who Was Cremated.
Lisa can never go away. It’s Batty’s faint memory of the time he almost achieved his Pulitzer. Unlike Watterson and Breathed, who were mindful of their audience, Batty just does whatever he wants and he expects his audience to accept it.
Next week: THE WRATH OF ST. LISA!! Watch as how Lisa devastates the entire city of Westview via superstorm as punishment for chopping down the tree.
Speaking of St. Lisa, does anybody else find it sick that Batiuk names the Lisa’s Legacy fun runs after a fictional character instead of, say, a REAL woman who died of breast cancer? Just sayin’.
If only today’s boatplosion in Mark Trail were to serve as a fourth panel…
Doug Puthoff – Yes, I find it odd that Batiuk’s run (which, to his credit, benefits a good cause) is named for his creation. Garry Trudeau has done plenty of charitable work for AIDS foundations and veteran’s organizations, but he never conflates the suffering of his characters Andy and BD with that of actual living human beings in the way Batik does.
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