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10 thoughts on “540 – Trick Hello”

  1. Scarsdale

    Called it, she figured he’d do this, if by choice or by zombie voodoo. I’m sure the “friendlier” questioning will start soon, if she doesn’t just kill him out-right. Or just add him to the herd.

  2. Crazyman

    Gotcha! 😉

  3. Zombatar

    This turn of events is a surprise only to Eustace. And, maybe, Eustace’s subconscious. After all, this way he doesn’t have to actually risk actually attacking Suzie, which gives him a greater chance of survival than actually attacking her. I wonder what he was promised/threatened with?

  4. ConcordBob

    Not to nit-pick, but since sights are on target, finger should be on the trigger. Especially this close.
    The usual rule is “keep finger straight and off trigger until sights are on target”.

  5. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Not to nit-pick, but since that was current philosophies regarding trigger discipline have evolved.
    Of course, it will depend on who you get/got your training from.
    Experiments have determined that the fraction of a second to go from finger off the trigger to finger firing when appropriate is insignificant, and the risk of firing unintended is greatly reduced.

  6. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    I did the google thing and I believe I saw how you reached this conclusion … but there are two parts to it – One should not omit the second part.
    “Trigger Finger Discipline: · The practice of keeping your finger “off the trigger” until your sights are on target AND YOU ARE READY TO DISCHARGE THE FIREARM.” (Caps are my own)

  7. Crazyman

    She wants him alive so she can question him; otherwise, he’d already be dead. 💀

  8. ConcordBob

    Good discussion on trigger discipline!
    His skin is very pale / gray. Is this malnourishment, or has he been poisoned with a mind-control drug? I would have to go back and look a t all various of skin tone.

    1. TKG

      On a prior page we discussed what he’s likely got running in his system. I suggested that it’s probably Borrochero (Brugmansia arbora) which is already used by Colombian cartels to eradicate the free will of their victims.

  9. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Now can we satisfy my curiosity? Colt, Smith & Wesson, Ruger, or other timeline variant?

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540 – Trick Hello
Posted on February 26, 2025 by Dawn

Suzie hearkening back to the last time Eustace was faked out. She probably regrets not being able to sneak the Lawn Ranger into the bedcovers to be the victim of the stabbing.

And with that, it's Episode 23 time! Welcome back to the Ranch, everyone!

The art of the whiplash

Posted on September 13, 2017 by Clint
A couple of weeks ago I talked up the praises of inserting the occasional stoicism in your absurdity, and vice-versa. I brought up the TV trope phenomenon of Mood Whiplash, where the tone shifts abruptly, and how when done right it enhances emotion and storytelling. One famous example of this is arguably the biggest scream moment in the movie Jaws, where Brody is crankily shoveling chum into the ocean, mumbling a disgruntled laugh line just before the giant shark surges out of the water, clearly showing us (and him) its titular pearly whites for the first time. It’s a shocking moment and any laughter chokes immediately into stunned horror. And then it’s right back to a laugh line, but a much more somber one, clearly one delivered because Brody’s mind just can’t think of any goddamn thing else to say as he backs up slowly to the false safety of the wheelhouse: “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.” Another prime example that has stuck with me comes from the pages of Alan Moore’s run on Swamp Thing. Moore retooled the origin story into something existentially horrific: up until those moments, the Swamp Thing was a mutated Alec Holland, a human being still under all that plant matter. Then Moore flipped the script, using the analysis of a cold-hearted scientist discussing the once-held belief that living flatworms seemed to absorb the knowledge and memories of a dead one that they ate (heck that’s been the premise of some zombie stories, too). The reveal of all this is that the Swamp Thing was not, indeed, ever Alec Holland, but a product of mystical/mutant plant matter that fed upon Alec Holland’s murdered remains and regenerated itself based on a memory, a lie that it had lived as a man. The swamp thing does not take this well and has brutally murdered the scientist by the end of the issue. Where’s the whiplash? The barbecue. In truth I can’t remember if it was the same issue or the next, but ST suffers what can only be classed as either a dream or a psychotic break, if plants-that-think-like-men can be said to be capable of such. What he sees is a backyard grill manned by human-sized flatworms, one of which is wearing a chef’s hat and a “KISS THE COOK”-style apron as he looks at ST and enthusiastically shouts, “Eats! Come getcha eats!” It’s a height of absurdity, something that made me laugh out loud at the time, and a brilliant example of wielding that whiplash to great effect because it’s happening smack in the middle of all that aforementioned existential and physical horror. Much like Martin Brody couldn’t wrap his mind around the size of the shark and the realization of what deep shit the three men on the Orca were in, the Swamp Thing’s consciousness is trying to process a concept of absolute madness, and so resorts to absolute madness to visualize such. And here we are with Zombie Ranch, where this current run of the “cartoon dramatization” is perhaps my most ambitious attempt yet to intermix absurdity with what is in actually a deeply disturbing, defining, and tragic moment of the past. Time to see if I can get that whipcrack to work, or if I just end up hitting myself in the eye.