This week is pretty cut and dry as far as annotations go -- the action is pretty clear. But, gotta keep up appearances here.

Monday, Strip 51 -- We all know what mynocks are, thanks to Empire, and I would say Kestrel's description is pretty accurate. Here, we again see the importance of the adjoining bays. Though it's not fully clear here, they're not directly connected. There's an alleyway that runs between the two -- the shadowed segment on panel 2 that's sandwiched between two doorframes.

This alleyway will soon get a lot of traffic.

Tuesday, Strip 52 -- I forget who first coined "kriffing" as SW slang, but it has enjoyed a lot of vitality on message boards that frown on profanity. And, yeah, Raal's single track mind switches paths very easily.

Wednesday, Strip 53 -- This is the Seinfeld moment when all the plot threads laid out earlier in the episode suddenly and finally cross paths. Skorr's pursuit of Kestrel, which began 53 strips ago, finally resumes.

Thursday, Strip 54 -- And so, fittingly, the internal narration that began the strip also resumes.

And the strip, which had weeks and weeks of talky characterization finally gets some action back into it.

Friday, Strip 55 -- "Son of a jumpin'" is a reference to the Empire Strikes Back shooting script. It was a line that Luke was supposed to say before being cloppered by the wampa. It survived in the comics adaptation and the novel.

And the "blasted bird" is a double reference. While Kestrel is specifically talking about Raal's ship, given her name, it also becomes an inadvertant reference to herself.

Not far to go now...

ph