August 23, 2009: Sunday Showdown!

(Click to enlarge)

Clockwise from the bottom left:

• Leroy fights back against the deplorably long wait times of his long time doctor, Dr. Blog, the only way he knows how: through exaggerated insults. This may be a small victory for Leroy in his containing struggles with the medical profession, but in the end after receiving appallingly negligent medical care at an unconscionably unreasonable cost, it will definitely be Dr. Blog who will have the last word. It's a push.
• Leroy starts the evening off right by bashing Loretta about her looks. It's just as much a part Leroy's routine for an evening out as putting on formal clothes or having a shave. Just as he cannot leave for a party without being properly dressed or groomed, he can't leave without Loretta seething with anger. Now the Lockhorns are ready for another night of gin soaked back and forth snipping and alienating their friends. Leroy gets the point.
• Since when did Loretta turn into Cathy? Now that I think about it, I can see the some of the striking similarities: the loser husbands, the nagging mother, the lack of domestic skills, the constant dieting and body image issues, the complete lack of sexual appeal. Perhaps the Lockhorns are a sort of future version of Cathy and Irving's relatively young marriage. Aack, indeed! The dual look of contempt and disdain on Leroy and the mustachioed waiter speak volumes; another point for Leroy.
• Once again, Leroy's poor navigation skills and gender based inability to ask for directions have doomed the Lockhorns to being lost amid the rolling hills of some unknown road. These are the situations where Loretta can really stick it to Leroy. With Leroy trapped in a small confined space, for an extended period of time, and completely liable for their situation, it becomes a all out free for all for Loretta to unleash a sustained barrage of spite bombs. Loretta gets the emphatic point.
• In one of the more surreal panels from the Lockhorns, we learn that they seem to be friends with a bizarre mime couple. Judging by the wary look on Leroy's face, the odds are good that Leroy will have finished that mystery bottle of liquor by himself by the end of the night. Perhaps the Lockhorns have burned bridges with so many of their friends and neighbors that they now only get invitations from the freakiest ends of their social network. It's a push, which means that Leroy takes the day 2 to 1 and breaks the recent Sunday Showdown push streak.

Official Count:

Leroy - 70
Loretta - 86
Push - 79