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  • The Lowdown Season-Finale Recap: Chapter One

    The Lowdown

    The Sensitive Kind

    Season 1

    Episode 8

    Editor’s Rating

    4 stars

    After putting the final pieces together, Lee finally submits the story he promised Elijah weeks ago, but his personal life remains less resolved.
    Photo: Shane Brown/FX

    Late in “The Sensitive Kind,” Lee and Marty are laughing at the Sweet Emily’s counter, the assault course of the past few weeks safely behind them. Sally pauses her work as Marty holds court, sharing war stories from his decades as a private eye. Lee insists that Marty write a novel on the subject, but Marty’s been mulling a different medium: “Individual stories — each chapter about a new investigation.”

    There was much left for The Lowdown’s season finale to resolve, but it’s no exaggeration to say that an unexplained title card from the series premiere has been slowly eroding my brain, consuming me more than the mystery of Dale Washberg’s killer ever did. If you’ll remember, it read, “Chapter 1: The Sensitive Kind.” At the time, I carelessly assumed each episode would have its own title, maybe lifted from a different J.J. Cale song. When the second episode carried no such title, I fought to make sense of the discrepancy — maybe every two episodes equals one chapter? And when the third episode bore no such title, I grumpily surrendered to my belief in Sterlin Harjo. He’ll let me know what it means when I’m ready to know.

    I’m not always down for a last-minute reinterpretation of events. For every Primal Fear, there’s a North. But this one is fun. We thought The Lowdown was an exciting neo-noir fueled by one bedraggled man’s delusions of grandeur. And it is! But perhaps it’s something else, too. Solving Dale’s murder is the apotheosis of Lee’s truthstorian career, but it’s another closed case for a man who’s made a life of exposing secrets. Lee drove the action in Chapter 1, but what if it was Marty’s retelling all along? The finale suggests that he’s the tissue that will connect season one to The Lowdown’s Chapter 2, provided the series is justly renewed. This makes perfect sense to me. My appetite for more Lee is low, but Harjo’s Tulsa — cynical and lively at the same time — simmers with more to say.

    It’s fitting that, as the end credits roll, we zoom out to the city block that connects Sweet Emily’s to Lee’s Hoot Owl Books with Dan Kane’s dodgy law practice and the vinyl store in between. This is our Sesame Street. “Anything for the Deadly Natives,” Dan calls to Hoot Owl security guard Waylon, who needs legal advice after a brief lockup. This is where real stories happen, and the big city that looms to the south is only a backdrop. (Incidentally, on the pitch reel for Sesame Street, Kermit explains that show’s funny name: “You know, like ‘Open Sesame’? It kind of gives the idea of a street where neat stuff happens.” He could just as soon be talking about this tiny patch of Tulsa.)

    Now, I do understand that other viewers may have been more concerned with Lee’s predicament — we last left him attempting a citizen’s arrest in a church full of Nazis — than the episode-title conundrum. Harjo comes through for you guys, too. Frank laughably claims to the congregation that he was standing his ground when he killed Arthur with a concealed weapon that he brought into the man’s home, which he entered under false pretenses. But these people don’t care one way or the other. When Pastor Mark says “Shoot,” they say “How high?” Fortunately, Marty, posing as a federal agent here to arrest Lee for harassment, bursts through the One Well doors in the nick of time.

    The preposterous scheme gives the skinheads just enough pause that Marty and Lee make it back to the van before it starts raining bullets. They head to Hoot Owl, where Waylon could theoretically stand guard, except he’s AWOL. Before long, a brick sails through the window, but it’s not the skinheads. It’s Chutto, enraged at having lost his only family. “You don’t think about anyone but yourself,” Chutto tells Lee. It’s what lots of people have been telling Lee all season long, including Wendell and Ray and Cyrus and Elijah and Marty. At first, Lee really seems to hear it. On the moonlit street, he tells the grieving man that he’s sorry. He repeats the claim in a whisper even after Chutto leaves.

    By sunup, though, he reverts to the same old Lee, complaining that he was only trying to help Arthur in the first place. He can’t let go of his own idea of what’s right: getting Indian Head Hills back from the Washbergs for Chutto, a man who Lee cannot believe does not want to own a few hundred acres of undeveloped land that sits adjacent to the compound of a racist, violent religious cult.

    Marty works his connections to learn that Frank won’t be charged for Arthur’s murder — the official verdict is that accidents happen when confused old men own guns. If I were the Tulsa DA, I’d be wondering why Frank was at Whispering Pines in the first place. Then again, if I was the Tulsa district attorney, I would be more afraid of gabillionaires like Trip Keating than of bereaved family members like Chutto. Incensed, Lee delivers Dale’s notes to Pearl, hoping to smoke out the only other person who can finger Frank for the murder: Betty Jo.

    I’m not entirely sure why this gambit works. Once Pearl knows that Dale was suspicious of Betty Jo, the damage to their relationship is done. Perhaps Betty Jo simply wants to confront the man who took away the last person she had left. They meet on neutral territory — the grand Philbrook Museum of Art — and make asinine accusations. “You turned my daughter against me,” Betty Jo spits at a man who was only the messenger. “If you do something good and it ends badly every time, is that really good?” she asks Lee, who responds nonsensically, “I could ask you the same thing.” Except he couldn’t ask her that because Betty Jo’s never tried to do something good? She’s always been looking out for herself. Eventually, Betty Jo explains to Lee that all she did to help Frank was unlock the kitchen door so his goons could scare Dale in his study that night. Everything that followed was an accident.

    Armed with Betty Jo’s partial confession, Lee revisits his murder wall, ready to write the article he promised Elijah weeks ago. He pulls an all-nighter at Sweet Emily’s, drinking bottomless filter coffee, hunting and pecking across his stickered MacBook. Sally stops by Lee’s stool to remind him that Tulsa needs men like him. Personally, I wasn’t convinced by her pep talk, but Rachel Crowl’s voice is so alluringly throaty that I’d listen to her read the Yellow Pages. I guess the point is that for every person like me and Chutto and Betty Jo, who thinks Lee is a dangerous egomaniac, there are people like Marty and Francis and Sally, who believe he’s holding a mirror up to the man. There’s room for everyone to be right.

    With his story drafted, Lee finally confronts Donald, laying out everything that we already know. Yes, Donald was right that Dale was obsessed with a Native street artist. That’s why his mistress threw in with Frank to intimidate Dale into a land deal that would have ruined any chance of Chutto’s family ever getting their land back. Frank tasked the intimidation out to Allen, who tasked it out to Blackie and Berta, who screwed it all up. The first time they came to scare Dale, Dale ended up shooting at them. The second time, with Betty Jo’s help, they made it into Dale’s office, where they killed him. Scared, Betty Jo staged the suicide. And just in case Donald doesn’t believe she would do such a thing, Lee plays him a recording. (Oklahoma is a one-party consent state.) Lee was right not to buy Dale’s suicide, but Marty was right, too: Donald had no idea what was going on. To his credit, Donald holds himself to a higher standard: “I didn’t want to know,” he comes clean to Lee.

    Interestingly, when given half a chance, Lee refrains from telling Donald about the time Dale came into Hoot Owl, which we learn about in a flashback at the top of the episode. It was about a year prior, back when Lee had time for tasks as quotidian as manning the till. Dale tells Lee that he’s read his “brave” articles, and the two get to talking. When Lee calls himself a “truthstorian,” Dale doesn’t roll his eyes dismissively. He asks Lee what the word means to him. “You know how they say there’s more to every story?” Lee says. “Well, that’s what I try to find.”

    The men are very different, but they’re also kindred. Dale responds with a Jim Thompson quote that may as well be the first bread crumb in this whole investigation. “There’s only one plot: Things are not as they seem.” What eventually gets printed in the Heartland Press is less of a Washberg hit piece than a tribute. Lee writes that Dale believed in freedom, personal expression, and that the choices we make in life matter. It is, in large measure, Lee’s tribute to what Lee likes about Lee. The word “sensitive” was hurled at Dale as an insult, but Lee redefines it in a way that flatters them both — “quick to perceive things.” The article runs with Chutto’s sketch of Dale as a standalone image dominating the front page and a familiar headline: “The Sensitive Kind.”

    In exchange for Lee burying the Indian Head Hills land-deal story — which, on paper, looked like a candidate taking a bribe from Trip and the Nazis — Donald agrees to give up the land. At a press conference alongside tribal leaders, he announces that the family of Arthur Williams has deeded the plot back to the Osage Nation. In their middle-of-the-night, middle-of-the street confrontation, Lee told Chutto that his grandfather wanted to claim the land. No, Chutto insisted, a little cryptically: “He knew who it belonged to.” Donald loses the money, but he still wins the governor’s race.

    When poor Bonnie learns what really happened to Blackie, she shoots Frank in broad daylight. Pastor Mark gets arrested, thereby avoiding an eventual Waco. There’s no punishment for Betty Jo, but also no hope. The next time we see Pearl, she’s standing by her uncle-father’s side. The next time we see Pearl’s mother, she’s singing tearful karaoke. It’s not tidy, but the end of The Lowdown resembles something like justice.

    Lee’s personal life is less successfully resolved than his murder investigation, which is unsatisfying even if it is also, to some extent, the point. When Francis performs at an open-mic poetry event, Lee swings by just in time for his daughter’s go. Her poem is about her broken home, literal and figurative. Her dad planted a redbud tree, in bad soil, outside her bedroom window. “After he left, it grew.” The poem is littered with gut punches that would destroy me as a parent; Lee sees the poem’s beauty and appears to feel appropriate shame. But when a better father would stick around to order a round of hot drinks for everyone, Lee bolts for the door. After hearing that poem, how does he not worry what takes root every time he leaves?

    One of Lee’s principal virtues as a dad is that, even if he doesn’t stay too long, he eventually shows up. In episode two, he doesn’t bail on his weekend. Last week, Lee made it to Francis’s parent-teacher conference, however briefly. And at the end of the finale episode, he even shows up at Dr. and Mrs. Johnny’s wedding, which means we’re back at the Philbrook. (Cherokee Nation singer Kalyn Fay plays the reception.) Along with a controversial present — the Joe Brainard sketch he stole in episode one — Lee brings self-serving disdain for the event’s expensive bouquets and caviar, emblems of the life he couldn’t give Samantha even if he wanted to, which he doesn’t.

    As he makes an understandably early exit, Lee and his daughter share something of a full-circle moment. Early in the season, Francis suggests it might be easier for Lee if she lives full time with her mom and Johnny. Here, Lee suggests it would be easier for Francis to do the very thing she offered episodes ago. It’s Francis’s turn to affirm her dad that he’s still her dad, even if her mom has married someone new. “It’s offensive to pretend I’m not smart enough to see that you’re good,” she pleads — a generous sentiment from a girl who shouldn’t have to think this much about her dad’s feelings. Just let your daughter enjoy this emotional, complicated day as best she can.

    When Lee’s pedo van craps out for good in the parking lot of the stately museum, I couldn’t help feeling it was karma catching up to him. But it’s honestly not much of a problem for Lee. He’s not in a rush. No one’s really counting on him, which makes it that much more stunning when he makes good. He ambles back to his Sesame Street, which probably doesn’t take that long because Tulsa’s not that big a place. Lee’s a big personality on a short block.

    It’s so short, in fact, that Lee’s liable to turn up again in various ways across the other chapters of Marty’s story, which I hope we get to see.

    Amanda Whiting

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  • The Diplomat Season-Finale Recap: Unprincipled Uncertainty

    The Diplomat

    Schrodinger’s Wife

    Season 3

    Episode 8

    Editor’s Rating

    4 stars

    The finale is a fun, sexy time for just about everyone … if you ignore all the personal and political betrayals.
    Photo: Clifton Prescod/Netflix

    There are so many flavors of betrayal to sample in “Schrodinger’s Wife”. We’ve got Trowbridge’s grievances, whatever it is Todd imagines is going on between Grace and Hal, Hal’s supreme annoyance with Kate’s inability to just enjoy her new relationship, Stuart’s difficulty processing what Billie knew about Rayburn (and when she knew it), and Kate’s horror at Grace and Hal’s betrayal (once again!) of Trowbridge when she figures out that they’re the ones who made off with the incredibly dangerous Poseidon drone. Whew!

    The only people having a relatively normal time of it at the U.K./U.S. summit being held at Chequers (the formal residence for the Prime Minister to use as a country retreat or for entertaining on a large scale) are Austin Dennison and his wife (!!), Thema Aseidu-Dennison (Tracy Ifeachor, late of The Pitt). Somehow, they’ve been married for a month, but Kate hadn’t heard a word about it until now? Their backstory is really lovely, too, a second chance at love after having been married to other people previously. Dennison is such a decent person and a true friend to Kate. That’s wonderful, but as a plot twist sicko, I can’t help feeling a little wistful about how much more bonkers this episode would be if the Wylers were fully broken up and Kate were with Dennison. I’m not saying that it’s suffering from any kind of bonkersness deficiency, but if we’re going to be hanging on a massive nuclear drone-shaped cliff for the next 12-15 months as we await season four, why not go fully maximalist?

    This is the third consecutive season finale for The Diplomat where Hal Wyler is the sun around which wild things rotate. His actions have led, so far, to a deadly car bombing in central London, the death of a U.S. President, and now, the theft of the Poseidon. While Kate has been coming to grips with the notion that she is the common denominator in her troubled romantic relationships, now might be a good moment for Hal to reflect on what internationally significant dangers his usually well-intended schemes bring into the world. I’m chuckling at myself now; this is never going to happen!

    Elsewhere in White House couples, Todd Penn sees marital betrayal where it doesn’t exist, while Kate fails to see political and personal betrayal where it does, only perceiving it after Todd confides in her about his insecurity regarding Grace and Hal’s apparently rock-solid working relationship. I love that this episode finally gives us the degree of Grace and Todd content I’ve been expecting; while I haven’t thought of CJ Cregg and Josh Lyman once this season, there’s still a bit of glow from The West Wing shining on Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford that is always going to be irresistible to me. I’d like to see more real conversations between them, like the one we get early in the episode — they’re funny, snuggly, sexy, pissy, all in the space of one scene.

    Let’s pause here for a moment, because I have questions about this scene, specifically about the moment when Todd, trying to get Grace to put down the phone, nuzzles all over her torso, murmuring sweet nothings, comparing her to a fresh focaccia. A! Fresh! Focaccia! What? Now, far be it from me to kink-shame anyone, particularly about something so benign and kind of adorable, but I want to know some specifics. How many baked goods were considered prior to settling on focaccia? Were they all savory, or were some sweet options in the mix? Were all candidates for the oddest wholesome sex metaphor all in the yeasted dough category, or did chemical leaveners get some representation? How many takes did this scene require? Janney and Whitford are capital-p Professionals, but I imagine the focaccia line might have elicited some particularly loud and uncontrollable giggles, even from them. Also, this is the second scene of the season in which a male love interest professes an intense and specific oral fixation with his female partner. In the fourth episode, Dennison announced his desire to lick Kate until she screamed (and don’t think we aren’t still baffled by the failure of that plan to come to fruition), and now we have focaccia.

    The Penns’ almost-sex scene segueing into the one big sex scene of the season, between the Trowbridges is quite something. It’s great to have Pandora Colin back as Lydia Trowbridge, and I hope we get more time with her next season. It’s fun to see married couples cast as married couples, and Colin makes the most of her minimal screen time, investing the word vigorous with degrees of boredom and impatience unmeasurable by any device in existence.

    Following that betrayal of sorts, we have the relative palate cleansers of PM Trowbridge vs. President Penn. They go two rounds in formal negotiations, with a third in the form of an excruciatingly awkward fancy dinner for both delegations. What’s most interesting to me is how quickly and totally Trowbridge’s advantage over Grace has evaporated. Even before he stomps out of the room in round one, she manages to get him over a barrel largely by weaponizing his own beliefs about etiquette against him. It’s bad enough that he trumpeted Rayburn’s involvement in the HMS Courageous bomb attack at all, but to do so at her vacation home? That’s just not cricket, is it, Nicol? Tsk tsk, you naughty boy, we are very disappointed with you.

    The second round is a bigger swing, a bolder gambit all the way around, really, and not just because it’s based on a high-stakes example of the adage about asking for forgiveness being better than waiting for permission. Grace makes a convincing show of being shocked by Trowbridge’s initial refusal to accept help in retrieving the Russian submarine and Poseidon drone, but I think she and Hal were always counting on Kate to intervene with a solution everyone can live with. Sealing the submarine and its dangerous weapon in concrete elegantly solves several problems at once: the danger of radiation leakage will be contained, and no one will have access to Poseidon. Well, they won’t have access to this particular Poseidon — who even knows what kind of stockpile the Russians have ready to deploy? — but they’re going to take the win now and worry about the rest later.

    Well done, everyone! The dynamic duo of Kate and Hal have pulled off one more Hail Mary pass, and seemingly, a romantic reconciliation, too. I’m a little fuzzy on what leads her to beg him to take her back, and have concluded that there’s no singular thing that brings about this change of heart. Instead, I think the combination of her fight and post-fight conversations with Callum, Hal’s “why can’t you be happy?” outburst, Dennison’s incredibly generous perspective on the Wylers’ relationship and urging to be patient with herself and with Hal all combined to point Kate in this direction. Maybe the moment that sealed it was the concrete gambit — nothing is sexier to these two than a successful international relations moment — even Callum noticed Kate’s face as Hal winked at her across the table and she looked down, smiling and blushing. (Now that I think of it a bit more, it’s also possible that Hal describing Callum as having a full ah-matization-ready “resplendent, gallows-bound cock” may have helped, too. Having a partner who makes you laugh, especially when you’re mad at each other, is so important.)

    For Kate to have her moment of joy blown to smithereens by her deduction that Hal and Grace must have cooked up a plan under the plan (a sub-plan?) to steal the Poseidon before the submarine could be sealed in concrete is a cruel, dizzying experience. If anything, Todd Penn is thinking too small in his jealousy over Hal and Grace’s working relationship. Why fret over a nonexistent betrayal of marriage vows when an international betrayal is right in front of his face?

    For my money, though, the most profound betrayals are the ones Stuart is trying to process. The president he thought was so decent, so worthy of Stuart’s decision to sacrifice time with his dying father, is now known the world over as the architect of a plot that killed 41 British Navy personnel? His closest friend lying to his face for months about it, and possibly setting him up to face questioning under oath as a result? Who is telling him the truth? Is anyone telling him the truth? How can he continue to work for these people? He probably needs a lawyer, but as Eidra points out, doing so may ruin his career and livelihood! Everything is a mess! Everything except Eidra, who asks him not to leave and crawls into his arms. One item from my season three wishlist, delivered at last! I’ll take it.

    • The grand country house standing in for Chequers in this episode looks more like Balmoral thanks to its dark gray stone facing. The real Chequers — which is a beautiful red brick pile — was donated to Great Britain in 1917 by Conservative MP Arthur Lee and his wife Ruth. You can hear Trowbridge explaining its history in the background conversation during this episode’s fancy dinner scene.

    • Yes, I am still thinking about focaccia. It’s incredibly easy to make, and so delicious that everyone will think you labored over it for hours and hours. Claire Saffitz’s recipe is my standby.

    Sophie Brookover

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  • Below Deck Season-Finale Recap: Out with a Bang

    Below Deck

    Over the Rainbeau

    Season 12

    Episode 16

    Editor’s Rating

    3 stars

    Photo: Bravo

    Every insane season of reality television must come to an end, and Below Deck’s season-12 finale could not have been more season 12 if it tried. This week, we get a little of everything that has defined the chaos of the past six weeks: Solène and Rainbeau fighting; everyone kissing everybody; feelings getting hurt; Anthony freaking out and then apologizing. Of course, we couldn’t say good-bye to Sint Maarten without crossing the bridge at port one last time. “The deck team this season is the best deck team I’ve had,” Kerry says, with a smile on his face. He is simply “tickled pink.”

    It’s true that the deck team pulled it together, especially after Kerry fired Caio, the season’s first bosun and my melancholy compatriot. Hugo kept his cool as his crew became increasingly ensnared in Solène’s machinations and managed to keep a respectable distance from the interpersonal drama of the boat. At times, this approach rippled through the interior department, as was the case with the Solène-embargo fiasco. But mostly it served him well: The deck crew worked steadily. Save from isolated slip-ups, all addressed by and mended with the captain, there were no big issues.

    You couldn’t say the same for the interior team. They were doomed from day one. Rainbeau fought to maintain her dignity and sanity on late-night shifts with Solène throughout the entire season. It seems never to have occurred to Fraser to switch Solène and Bárbara’s shifts, or to rotate the stews in general. I have never stepped foot on a yacht, and Fraser surely knows better than me how to run a team, but it gives a person vertigo to watch the same fight time and again.

    On the last night shift of the charter, after pouring herself a glass of wine for her hard work, Solène announces to Rainbeau that she “decided [they’re] not going to fight.” Upstairs on the sun deck, Damo flirts with the guests and works for his tip. He suggests that they bring out the “shot deluge” for the ladies. The shot deluge is a curved dispenser with a spout with which to deposit alcohol straight into a guest’s mouth. One of the women asks Solène to do a shot with her, and Solène complies. Damo doesn’t say anything about how the crew is not supposed to drink with the guests. In fact, he pours the shot.

    You can almost see smoke coming out of Rainbeau’s ears when she walks into this frat-party tableau. Things only get worse when, after the guests go to bed, a tipsy Solène does cheerleading stunts with Damo by the Jacuzzi instead of working. Rainbeau asks her to focus so that they all can go to bed; Damo, in la-la land, chases Solène. No one mentions Kyle at all, though not hours before, Solène cuddled him in his cabin and kissed him goodnight. When Damo wraps up, he asks Rainbeau if he can help her with anything. She’s already done and waiting for Solène to clear out her tasks before going to bed; the camera cuts to Solène doing handstands in the main salon. “She’s not a yachtie,” Damo says to Rainbeau about Solène. “She’s a socialite.” Damo is not, like Kyle or Jess before him, fooled by Solène’s attentions: He knows that she wants notoriety, and her actions have nothing to do with affection or yachting. This clarity allows him to detach from her in such a way that his involvement with her becomes inconsequential, spur of the moment. It’s admirable and frustrating at the same time. He knows he shouldn’t enable her, yet he washes his hands of responsibility when he acts like none of it is his business.

    After Damo goes to bed, Solène tells herself: “I’ll do what I have to do — it’s three o’clock, almost.” But then she finds a half-drunk glass of wine by the Jacuzzi and gets distracted. She brings the glass of wine to the main salon, then promptly tries to hide it when she sees Rainbeau is there. At first there are tears of frustration in Rainbeau’s eyes when she reminds Solène that they are not supposed to drink. She pleads: “The only reason I am still awake is that you’re taking so long to finish.” Then, unbelievably, Solène laughs in Rainbeau’s face. It’s so crass that it’s hard to watch. Rainbeau goes red from head to toe as she says that Solène is the worst, most selfish person to work with and that she is thankful they never have to work together again. Solène tries to follow her around, saying she doesn’t have to get so worked up, but Rainbeau is done. She texts Fraser everything that happened, including the drinking, while Solène clocks out at 4 a.m. It’s unclear whether or not she finished her tasks.

    When he wakes up and sees the texts, Fraser shrugs his shoulders: “What am I supposed to do?” It’s the last day of the season, the final drop-off day. He tells Rainbeau that he is sorry she had a rough night and leaves it at that. I think there was an opportunity for Fraser to sit them down and clear the air, as well as validate Rainbeau’s frustration. It’s one of the boat’s top rules that you are not supposed to drink on charter, and Solène broke it with zero consequence. Besides, left to their own devices, Rainbeau and Solène can’t make amends. Before they leave, Solène remembers something her mother said: that the way you treat people is more important than how well you do your job (I can’t even begin to unpack the levels of irony in such a statement coming out of Solène’s mouth). Solène apologizes and expects Rainbeau to apologize, too, but when she doesn’t — she doesn’t have anything to apologize for — Solène takes it back and says she’s not sorry anymore. An evaluation performance for Solène would be a waste of time, since there’s no way she’ll pursue non-Bravo yachting, but it seems unfair that she got away with … all of it. If nothing else, it isn’t good for the boat’s reputation. There may be a number of prospective stews watching and thinking they can get away with murder as long as they kiss every mouth onboard.

    Before all that happened, though, there was the eight-course dinner, which went totally fine as predicted. Anthony was feeling okay again by the time he introduced the first course. He flambéd a number of things, from steak au poivre to baked Alaska. His most mind-boggling concoction was a “spicy cucumber-bell-pepper cappuccino,” the taste and texture of which I had a really hard time imagining. When the after-dinner fireworks were set off, it felt, as Fraser had planned, like a celebration of the whole season. The guests were delighted by the surprise fireworks show. Throughout the sequence, slightly ominous music played, which made me wonder if the boat was going to catch on fire.

    The captain was so happy with Anthony’s performance that he stopped by the galley to shake his hand. Anthony got emotional and said, “This one is for you, Daddy,” which I thought was really sweet. That is a guy with very intense emotions. By the end of the charter, his relationship with Fraser is totally repaired. It seems like forever ago now, but Anthony returned to the St. David with a personal vendetta against Fraser, and their friendship only ended up stronger. We know now to take Anthony’s outbursts of frustration with a grain of salt. In a double confessional, he tells Fraser: “Without you, I would never be at this level.” Fraser encourages him to have more confidence. They hug and kiss and say how much they love each other three more times before the end of the episode.

    Not everyone’s bond is similarly strengthened. While the last guests were still onboard, Jess and Bárbara made loose plans for the off-season: Jess would come to New York to visit in August, once Bárbara was off, so they could spend quality time together. But as much as Bárbara likes Jess, the prospect of a long-distance relationship worries her, and she’s not confident their romance can survive it. Over drinks before dinner, she tells Jess she wants to prioritize her career — it’s the first time she has enough money to save up for her future. Besides, she has too many trust issues to date long-distance. Jess is compassionate and understanding. They end their fling like true caring adults.

    At the last tip meeting, Kerry congratulates his crew on a job well done. They get a big, fat tip: $28,000, which comes out to $2,153 each for the charter and $15,037 each for the season. Would you put up with Solène’s antics for 15 grand? I feel like I could do it. The captain takes them on a hike to a fort at St. Louie, where Solène flashes the camera for a group photo. No one even bats an eye. Kerry laughs. If that’s not enough to make you feel like you’re going crazy, watch Solène’s behavior toward Kyle and Damo for the rest of the night. It goes like this: First, she kisses Kyle on the way back to the boat. Then, at dinner, Kyle says that he would like to see her again and asks what she would like. She says she doesn’t know; in two days, she might want someone else. They hold hands.

    At the club, everyone besides Hugo and Anthony kisses one another in various combinations. Even Fraser makes out with Rainbeau and Damo. Solène tells Kyle that they should feel free to kiss whoever they want, but they’ll sleep together that night. He says he doesn’t want to kiss anyone else, but she makes out with Damo. At least she warned him? “I’m not a good person,” Damo says in a confessional. “Everything I do is motivated by myself.” I don’t like this sleazy, half-baked “honesty.” Damo is not a bad person; he is just being a jerk. In the vans going back to the boat, Anthony asks Solène, who is sitting next to Kyle, “Why do you do this to him? You’re not married, but it’s not fair.”

    Back on the St. David, Solène asks Kyle if he’s mad at her, then makes out with Damo some more. Before we see an uncomfortably close shot of her sticking her tongue down his throat, she wonders if they are being “fair to Scottish,” which is crazy since she did not consider the same question when kissing Damo right in front of his face at the club. Meanwhile, Kyle sends her texts to the tune of, “You just played me so bad, it’s horrible.” Wrapping up with Damo, she asks Kyle to meet her in a guest cabin to spend the night together. It’s far from me to slut-shame anyone. I think women having sex with as many men as they want is good for society. But this ping-ponging gives me whiplash, and besides, it doesn’t reflect well on anyone. Kyle is so deeply entrenched in this mess that this is how he describes his inability to stay away from Solène: “If somebody dropped a sack of ten grand in front of you and it was covered in cow shit, would you pass it up?” That is a messed-up way to describe an experience with a woman. And I can’t even get that worked up about it because Solène didn’t treat Kyle as anything more than a sack of money covered in dung, either.

    The next morning, in the galley with Bárbara, Fraser draws a diagram of the boatmance dynamics, coming to the conclusion that all lines lead to Solène. Rainbeau cries saying good-bye to Fraser — she’s the MVP of the season. She stood her ground, killed at her job, and didn’t lose her head. Jess and Bárbara say bye to each other, and Jess skateboards away. Before he leaves, Kerry tells Kyle to focus on his potential rather than his partying; we can only hope he’ll take the advice to heart. He and Damo leave together, buddies after all, with nothing to say sorry for. Anthony and Hugo both leave happy with themselves and in outfits that make them look like they’re in 2003. Fraser gets emotional as he says good-bye to Kerry and reflects on a hard, but ultimately rewarding, season. His one goal was to keep his interior team intact from start to finish, and he did, whether or not it was the wisest choice. Kerry signs the logbook, and we’re officially off. It was fun watching this unhinged season with you all — thanks for keeping me real. Until next time!

    Rafaela Bassili

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  • Three Takeaways From the Finale of ‘Agatha All Along’

    Three Takeaways From the Finale of ‘Agatha All Along’

    Just in time for Halloween, Agatha All Along concluded its nine-episode run with a two-part finale that featured dueling witches, Death incarnate, and one sarcastic, purple ghost.

    On Wednesday night, the WandaVision spinoff released its eighth and ninth episodes simultaneously, as Agatha Harkness and the remnants of her coven reach the end of the Witches’ Road at last. And almost all of them get what they desired the most when they first set off on their perilous journey: Jen reclaims her powers after discovering that it was Agatha who bound her 100 years earlier; with Agatha’s help, Billy locates Tommy’s soul and places it in the body of a drowning boy. Only Agatha is left empty-handed, as she returns to her home in Westview as powerless as ever, demanding her “prize” from Rio as if she’s just been cheated in a carnival game.

    Instead of an action-packed final episode, as per MCU tradition, it’s the penultimate installment that features a climactic final battle between Agatha and Rio, the latter of whom is the very personification of Death. Billy, wearing his full Wiccan costume for the first time, arrives to save Agatha from Rio just in time, and he even lends her a bit of his power. But Agatha ultimately gives herself up to her former lover with a literal kiss of Death in order to allow Billy his second chance at life.

    More crucial than the war of the witches is the series-altering twist that the eighth episode offers: Billy creates the Witches’ Road. Much like Wanda Maximoff, Billy can use his Chaos Magic to turn his fantasies into a reality. Although he didn’t realize what he was doing at the time, Billy transformed the imagery that decorates his bedroom—much of it composed of famous witches from pop culture—into an actual Witches’ Road, bringing the ballad to life.

    While the penultimate episode is a standout in an entertaining season of MCU TV, the finale itself is disappointing by comparison. “Maiden Mother Crone” goes all the way back to 1750 to tell the tale of Agatha Harkness and how her son, Nicholas Scratch, was taken from her. The finale shows a softer side of Agatha as she loves and cares for her only child during his brief time on Earth, but it also skips some of the more interesting aspects of her backstory, such as how she became lovers with Death, how she obtained the Darkhold, and even how she became pregnant with Nick in the first place, the last of which remains an untold story in the comics as well. (Really, it feels like we were robbed of a meet-cute between Agatha and Death. Aubrey Plaza is left mostly on the sideline in the finale, as Agatha All Along fails to expand on her character in any compelling way after revealing Rio to be as important a figure as Death.)

    Agatha All Along ultimately sacrifices a deeper look into Agatha’s origins and her relationship with Rio in order to allow enough time to set up the next step in Billy Maximoff’s journey, with the ghost of Agatha Harkness now serving as his guide. But creator Jac Schaeffer still pulled off another strong MCU series to build off of the success of WandaVision and carve out a new corner of the cinematic universe that revolved around magic and witchcraft.

    As the last live-action Marvel Studios project of 2024 comes to a close, let’s break down some of the biggest moments from the show’s two-part finale and examine how Agatha All Along sets up the future of magic in the MCU.

    The Truth about the Witches’ Road

    At the end of the eighth episode, Agatha All Along reveals the truth about the Witches’ Road and its creator, Billy. When Wiccan returns home after a very eventful 24 hours, he looks around his bedroom and begins to recognize objects that represent the trials that he and the rest of Agatha’s coven faced on the Witches’ Road. He sees a poster of Lorna Wu, a figurine of the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz (and the upcoming Wicked), a Ouija board, and other pieces of evidence that signify that his interests served as the inspiration for the Witches’ Road’s designs. And to drive the point home, Agatha All Along weaves in brief flashbacks from the preceding episodes, in which Agatha drew attention to the fact that she already knew that Billy was responsible for creating the Road.

    In WandaVision, Wanda turned the sitcoms she watched as a child with her family into a safe haven for her to cope with her grief as an adult. In Agatha All Along, Billy was desperate to both find his brother Tommy and escape the clutches of the Salem Seven, and so he used Chaos Magic to create a world of his own without any real intention or formal training in witchcraft—just as his mother did.

    The (presumed) series finale goes a step further to explore the origins of the famed “Ballad of the Witches’ Road” and its original songwriters: Nicholas and Agatha. (Not to be confused with the song’s actual Oscar-winning songwriters, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who cowrote the “Agatha All Along” bop in WandaVision as well.) Back in the 18th century, the duo would lure witches into Agatha’s web, allowing her to both feast off of their power and pile up bodies for Death as she tried to buy as much time with her son as possible. All the while, they would sing and develop the song that would grow into the ballad. And when Nick finally died of natural causes, Agatha kept the tradition alive for centuries, using the song—and the fable of the Witches’ Road—to prey on other witches.

    In the series finale, Agatha returns in spirit form to explain all this to the confused Billy, who is just coming to terms with the fact that he’s essentially responsible for the deaths of Alice, Lilia, and Sharon Davis (even if Agatha will never remember the latter’s name). “Unlike your mother … sorry. Wanda … You actually did something interesting with your power,” Agatha tells Billy.

    “You’re making fun of me,” he replies. “This is just one of your tricks.”

    “The ballad was the trick,” Agatha says. “It was just a con to lure other gullible witches. The song doesn’t mean anything, it never did. The Road wasn’t real until you made it real.”

    The reveal of the Witches’ Road’s true nature stands as the biggest twist of the season, while also creating a clever thematic connection to WandaVision that echoes that series’ narrative structure without simply recycling it. WandaVision was a mystery box of a series that forced the viewer to question everything from the pilot’s opening moments, whereas Agatha All Along packaged its greatest mystery in secret, using Teen’s (not-so-mysterious) identity as a smokescreen. And just as WandaVision paid homage to decades of sitcom history by switching its TV inspirations from week to week, Agatha All Along used its various trials to celebrate classic fantasy and horror films. In the end, the Witches’ Road was Billy’s version of the Westview Hex, as the fledgling superhero continues to take after his mother without even realizing it.

    Agatha the (Unfriendly) Ghost

    Agatha Harkness is no more. But her spirit is very much alive.

    After showing up in Billy’s room in the final moments of the eighth episode, Agatha returns in the finale in all her ghostly glory. True to form, one of her first moves as a specter is to try to slap Billy across the face. Twice. Even in death, Agatha is one of the most unserious protagonists ever to grace the MCU. And, thankfully, her story isn’t over quite yet.

    While the silliness of her return dampens the dramatic impact of her death, Agatha now assumes a role her character has often held in the comics: spirit guide to a powerful witch. (And her brown hair has even turned a silverish white to match her comic book look in full.) In the comics, Agatha has died, become a ghost, returned to life, and died again. And just as she does in life, in death she trains the Scarlet Witch in the ways of witchcraft.

    Vision and the Scarlet Witch (1985) no. 3
    Marvel Comics

    In Agatha All Along, Billy attempts to banish Agatha’s spirit before sealing off the door to the Witches’ Road that remains in Agatha’s basement in Westview. (It’s hard to blame him for wanting to get rid of a sassy ghost who’s trying to spirit slap him.) But Billy submits to Agatha’s pleas to spare her when she finally confesses that she isn’t prepared to enter the afterlife and face her son. And so the pair agree to form a new coven of two and embark on a quest to find Tommy.

    It’s always possible that Agatha will eventually find a way to return to life, giving Kathryn Hahn’s purple witch another chance to shine in the spotlight. But at least for now, she returns to the supporting role that she often plays for Wanda in the comics, accompanying Wanda’s son as his much-needed mentor and witchcraft teacher. It feels as if Agatha All Along left a lot on the table with a character whose layers were only just beginning to be peeled back, but as long as Hahn is fine reprising her role in its new, ghostly form, there may still be time to learn more about the notorious Agatha Harkness.

    Finding Tommy and the Future of Billy Maximoff

    As Agatha All Along revealed at the end of Episode 6, Billy’s decision to travel the Witches’ Road—and, really, to create it—was driven by his desire to find his long-lost brother Tommy. In the penultimate episode, Agatha helps Billy use his powers to finally locate Tommy’s soul and find it a new home, just as Billy did with William Kaplan on the day he died in the car crash. Billy finds a boy who’s been pushed into a pool in a prank taken too far, moments away from drowning to death. He can sense that “there’s no one to love him” and that “he’s got no one,” possibly alluding to the character’s fractured home life and experience growing up in juvenile halls in the comics, in stark contrast to Billy’s upbringing with two loving parents. Now, Billy and Agatha just need to find the boy who will soon become Tommy Shepherd.

    In true MCU fashion, Agatha All Along ends with Agatha providing the audience with a tease: “Let’s go find Tommy.” Without any official announcement of a direct follow-up to Agatha All Along, it remains to be seen when or how the continuation of this story will take shape, but the path has been laid for it—starting even before this series began.

    Marvel Studios has been slowly assembling its team of Young Avengers across its TV shows and films for years, with 2023’s The Marvels finally confirming the upcoming project’s existence and the teen supergroup’s first three members: Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani), Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld), and Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton). Wiccan and Speed (Tommy’s superhero alter-ego) are prominent members of the Young Avengers in the comics, and it seems like only a matter of time before they join the rest of the MCU’s next generation of superheroes.

    Given the trajectory of Billy’s story in the MCU, it appears increasingly likely that Marvel Studios could adapt a popular storyline in the comics, Avengers: The Children’s Crusade. While the 2010-2012 miniseries by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung bears the name of the Young Avengers’ parent group in its title, it’s really a story about the Young Avengers, with Billy at its center as he struggles to control his powerful, reality-altering abilities. Billy, Tommy, and Co. search for Wanda Maximoff, who had been missing since she lost control of her powers and who rewrote the entire Marvel universe in the House of M series, not unlike what she did to Westview in WandaVision. In Children’s Crusade, Billy and Tommy reunite with their mother for the first time since their souls occupied new bodies and they became superheroes.

    Avengers: The Children’s Crusade (2010) no. 6
    Marvel Comics

    While the context would have to be significantly changed to fit within the greater MCU narrative, Marvel Studios could adapt elements of The Children’s Crusade to center either on Billy searching for Tommy, or on the Young Avengers as they attempt to resurrect Wanda after her apparent death in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. What with Wanda’s obvious connections to the world of Agatha All Along and its leading characters, many viewers expected that Elizabeth Olsen would reprise her role as the Scarlet Witch for the show’s grand finale. But such a star-studded return would have surely overshadowed a story that belonged to Agatha and her pet-turned-student Billy, and Marvel can now save that tale for when the timing is right.

    Whatever journey lies ahead for Billy and the soon-to-be-reborn Tommy, it’s also unclear whether Schaeffer will have a direct part in shaping it. With Schaeffer busy with Agatha All Along, Marvel Studios tapped another showrunner to lead the second WandaVision spinoff, Vision Quest, across the finish line. And Schaeffer recently told Deadline that there isn’t anything else in development with her and the powerhouse studio: “I’m not working on anything right now for Marvel, but it is my hope that there will be more for [Billy], both because I’m such an admirer of Joe [Locke], and because I think the character is really interesting.”

    Given the success of Agatha All Along, which received strong reviews and promising viewership numbers that increased as the series went on, it would be a mistake on Marvel’s part to simply let Schaeffer go after she created two of Marvel’s most popular streaming titles, especially considering the scarcity of consistency and creative direction across the vast majority of Marvel Television’s shows. Schaeffer has proven that she is exactly the kind of filmmaker that the studio needs to lean on as it continues to revamp its approach to storytelling on the small screen.

    Agatha All Along may not have had the most satisfying conclusion when it came to its protagonist, but by repackaging much of what worked in WandaVision in a clever way, Marvel added another quality entry to its TV library. And by expanding on the untapped world of witchcraft, using some incredible practical sets and effects to capture it, Agatha All Along became the latest Marvel project to demonstrate that not every MCU project has to look or feel the same in style or substance. Including Billy, the ghost of Agatha, and Jen Kale—who’s flying off into the sunset somewhere—there are now even more witches in a world full of superheroes, as the supernatural continues to find a place in a multiverse that is still (somehow) only scratching the surface of how dynamic and diverse it is in the comics.

    Although nostalgia may be in for now, Marvel Studios will need to continue to innovate if it hopes to survive the superhero fatigue that has contributed to its dwindling box office and streaming numbers in recent years, especially as James Gunn’s DCU reboot looms. If Schaeffer and Hahn can turn a minor comic book character like Agatha—and one catchy jingle—into another streaming hit, there are still plenty of narrative avenues Marvel can capitalize on that don’t rely on a mutant or returning star to carry the company.

    Daniel Chin

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  • ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 4 Finale: MVPs, Fit Lords, and More Murders

    ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 4 Finale: MVPs, Fit Lords, and More Murders

    Mallory Rubin and Ben Lindbergh crack the case to recap the Only Murders in the Building Season 4 finale. They discuss how this season’s central mystery measures up to past seasons, the (at times overly) self-referential aspects of the series, and how it sets up Season 5 (1:46). Later, they award a handful of superlatives, including favorite episode, smartest red herring, best (or worst!) podcasting moment, the season’s fit lord, and much more (22:54).

    Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Ben Lindbergh
    Producer: Kai Grady
    Additional Production Support: Justin Sayles

    Subscribe: Spotify

    Mallory Rubin

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  • ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale Breakdown: Has ‘House of the Dragon’ Spoiled Itself?

    ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale Breakdown: Has ‘House of the Dragon’ Spoiled Itself?

    Back in May, House of the Dragon writer Sara Hess said that the decision to scale back Season 2 from 10 to eight episodes “wasn’t really our choice.” Dragon’s audience didn’t have a choice either, but viewers have had their say since Sunday, and most seem to have sided with Hess. This season didn’t quite get to where book readers estimated it might end; Episode 8 would have worked great as the setup for a final couple of episodes, but it had way too many loose threads and half-fulfilled plot points to feel satisfying as a season finale. All in all, this was one of the more bizarrely structured seasons of TV I can remember—and unfortunately, the odd ending puts a damper on what had at one point been looking like a strong season.

    Nevertheless, we’re here to take a look at all the lore, big questions, and book implications we can. Here are my thoughts on “The Queen Who Ever Was.”

    Deep Dive of the Week: Everything Daemon’s Final Vision Tells Us About the Future of House of the Dragon

    I must admit to a growing fatigue about the extent to which House of the Dragon has used prophecy to create character growth and move the story forward. In a 2000 interview, George R.R. Martin explained his own philosophy regarding the use of prophecy in storytelling, saying, “Prophecy is one of those tropes of Fantasy that is fun to play with, but it can easily turn into a straightjacket if you’re not careful.” He continued: “One of the themes of my fiction, since the very beginning, is that the characters must make their choices, for good or ill. And making choices is hard.”

    But House of the Dragon is all-in on prophecy, and I’m grateful, at least, for the fodder it provides for this column. This week, we reach the culmination of Daemon’s Harrenhal arc, resulting in a rich vision in the godswood. Daemon gets glimpses of the future and even communes with Helaena, who herself has been rattled by visions from a young age. Let’s break down what it all means.

    Before Daemon’s vision even begins, he sees an antlered figure disappear behind Harrenhal’s heart tree:

    All images via HBO

    This is a deep cut. Harrenhal lies on the north bank of the Gods Eye, the largest lake in Westeros. In the center of that lake is a mysterious island known as the Isle of Faces. This island has ancient significance. It’s where, many thousands of years prior to the events of House of the Dragon, the First Men and the children of the forest signed the Pact, ending a long war between the two. Faces were carved into the many weirwood trees on the island so that the gods could witness the pact, giving the island its name. It’s said that, in the current day, the Isle of Faces is the only place in the south of Westeros where a significant population of weirwoods still exists (there’s actually a very clear shot of the island and its trees in this episode when Rhaenyra and Addam arrive at Harrenhal). All the rest in the south have been cut down or burned.

    In more recent times, a group known as the green men keep a “silent watch” over the island, per Catelyn in A Game of Thrones. “No one visits the Isle of Faces,” Bran tells us in A Storm of Swords. Thus, the green men are incredibly secretive to the point of possibly being apocryphal. Nursery tales claim that the green men have horns and dark green skin, though most maesters would say that they just wear headdresses of antlers and green garments.

    We don’t even know what the green men do. There are rumors that some children of the forest still live on the Isle of Faces, and are protected by the green men. But no one knows for sure.

    This particular green man is gone before Daemon—or we—can get too good a look at him. But for readers who’ve bought into the theory that Daemon may precede Brynden Rivers as the three-eyed crow, Westeros’s foremost greenseer, this sighting could cause a red alert. We’re very much in fan theory territory here, but this hypothesis seems much less far-fetched after “The Queen That Ever Was.”

    Speaking of Brynden, this is where Daemon’s vision really begins: with a silver-haired figure encased in a tree. His wine stain birthmark gives him away: This is Brynden Rivers, the same greenseer who mentors Bran Stark in Season 6 of Game of Thrones (though Thrones omitted the birthmark). The birthmark is what gives him the moniker Bloodraven.

    This is a vision of the future, as Brynden hasn’t actually been born yet. (He is also supposed to be missing an eye, a detail I imagine House of the Dragon omitted because it’d prompt some viewers to mistake him for Aemond). Bloodraven is actually Daemon’s great-grandson, and should appear in HBO’s forthcoming A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which is set about 100 years after House of the Dragon.

    Next up, a three-eyed bird flies in front of Bloodraven’s face:

    I’m not much of a bird watcher, but to my eye this is a crow. That’s a neat detail—Thrones changed the bird to a raven, probably to avoid confusion when the Night’s Watch is so frequently referred to as “crows.” But in the books, Brynden appears to Bran as the three-eyed crow, not the three-eyed raven, and this is a nod to that.

    Next up, a White Walker with an army of wights:

    I don’t think that one needs much explanation. I do wonder if this is more or less what Aegon the Conqueror saw in his vision. I’m surprised this wasn’t the Night King himself.

    Then, a couple of dragons lie dead on a battlefield:

    These two are difficult to identify. Book readers could guess, but then we’d get into spoiler territory. And there is more than one potential explanation, especially if the show tweaks some things from the books.

    Now, a figure walks through a battlefield littered with bodies:

    As with the dragons, there are many explanations here. I’m almost certain this figure is Daemon, given that the character falls through the battlefield as a transition to the next scene, where Daemon is drowning in a black abyss:

    Next up, the comet from Season 2 of Game of Thrones:

    This comet, which also plays a big role in A Clash of Kings, is one of my favorite features in A Song of Ice and Fire. In that second novel in the series, everyone has their own explanation for what the comet means; at least a dozen different interpretations are given. Some are flat-out wrong (I don’t think the comet honored the new king Joffrey, who would go on to die in the very next novel), but others are left ambiguous. Maybe the comet really did herald the return of dragons—Daenerys’s were born shortly before its appearance. Maybe it really was sent by the Undying Ones to guide Daenerys to Qarth—Dany did follow its path there. Or maybe it’s a complete coincidence. Comets just show up sometimes.

    We’ll never know for sure. But as a literary device, it provides a great signifier of how symbols and prophecies can be read in many different ways. It all depends on the character doing the interpreting.

    Next up, Daenerys’s eggs in a bed of fire:

    And then the dragon queen herself, emerging with her dragon hatchlings:

    Now back to the present day, and the current dragon queen. Rhaenyra sits the throne:

    And then, the trippiest part of this whole scene for me, when Daemon turns and comes face-to-face with Helaena. “It’s all a story, and you are but one part of it,” she says. “You know your part. You know what you must do.”

    At this point, it’s revealed that Daemon isn’t just having a vision of Helaena as she exists in his head: Helaena herself is communicating with Daemon in real time from King’s Landing. Here the scene shifts to Helaena, as Aemond emerges to once again try to convince his sister to fly Dreamfyre into battle. She reveals that she knows that Aemond burned Aegon and let him fall from his dragon, essentially leaving him to die.

    “Aegon will be king again,” she says. “He’s yet to see victory. He sits on a wooden throne. And you … you’ll be dead. You were swallowed up in the Gods Eye, and you were never seen again.”

    Aemond says he could have Helaena killed. “It wouldn’t change anything,” she spits back.

    Even casual viewers probably realize that Helaena has been right about pretty much everything she’s seen in her visions. Remember when she says in Season 1 that young Aemond will have to “close an eye” to claim a dragon? Yeah, she knows the future. And based on his facial expressions during this conversation, I think Aemond knows this about his sister.

    There’s a whole free-will dilemma being cracked open by Daemon and Helaena here. Maybe part of the reason Helaena has been so passive is that, in seeing the future, she’s resigned herself to it. Maybe something similar has happened with Daemon: When Rhaenyra warns him not to leave her again, he answers, “I could not. I have tried.” (Rhaenyra notes that her own lot in life was “decided for me long ago.”) That’d largely violate Martin’s philosophy—that prophecies must remain vague enough that characters can be free to make difficult choices—but it seems to be the direction the show is heading in.

    But let’s set the philosophy aside and ask a more straightforward question: Is the show straight up spoiling itself with these visions?

    I’ll let showrunner Ryan Condal answer that. In a virtual Q&A with press on Monday, he explained that spoilers aren’t at the top of his mind as he writes the show:

    “We’re not pretending that nobody has read Fire & Blood, and that there’s not a Wikipedia that’s there one Google link away if you want to find out what happened,” Condal said. “We dispensed with the idea that there were going to be surprises on that level right at the beginning and writing the series.”

    He also noted that it would have been silly to pretend that Viserys wouldn’t die at the end of Season 1—every viewer could see that coming from miles away. Granted, there’s a difference between the audience knowing the fate of the current king on a show that is clearly about a succession crisis, and the audience knowing the fates of characters who could potentially resolve that crisis. Still, Condal continued: “I will just say that, just because a thing is told to you doesn’t mean it’s going to happen exactly that way. And we’ve seen obviously in history and all that be misinterpreted before, both in the world of Fire & Blood, and in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire.”

    So maybe these visions will come to pass exactly as Daemon and Helaena have seen them, and this story will turn out to be about the journey and not the destination. Or maybe the visions aren’t as set in stone as we may think.

    Quick Hits

    Is this it for Nettles?

    After multiple episodes of teasing, Rhaena … still hasn’t claimed Sheepstealer, the dragon that has left Dragonstone to seek fresh mutton in the Vale. But it seems very likely that she’ll do so—and that she was probably meant to do so this season before the episode count was reduced—which surely has book readers curious and sad about a fan favorite character from Fire & Blood: Nettles.

    Nearly a month ago, Martin published a particularly cranky blog post. The post contained various thoughts on dragons, including a long defense of some of his dragon-related literary decisions. For example, Martin gave his dragons two legs and two wings because “no animal that has ever lived on Earth has six limbs. Birds have two legs and two wings, bats the same, ditto pteranodons and other flying dinosaurs, etc.”

    He also wrote a long paragraph detailing how his dragons are not nomadic and would never be found outside Dragonstone. He specifically said that they wouldn’t be found in the Vale. Here’s the relevant paragraph:

    My dragons are creatures of the sky. They fly, and can cross mountains and plains, cover hundreds of miles … but they don’t, unless their riders take them there. They are not nomadic. During the heyday of Valyria there were forty dragon-riding families with hundreds of dragons amongst them … but (aside from our Targaryens) all of them stayed close to the Freehold and the Lands of the Long Summer. From time to time a dragonrider might visit Volantis or another Valyrian colony, even settle there for a few years, but never permanently. Think about it. If dragons were nomadic, they would have overrun half of Essos, and the Doom would only have killed a few of them. Similarly, the dragons of Westeros seldom wander far from Dragonstone. Elsewise, after three hundred years, we would have dragons all over the realm and every noble house would have a few. The three wild dragons mentioned in Fire & Blood have lairs on Dragonstone. The rest can be found in the Dragonpit of King’s Landing, or in deep caverns under the Dragonmont. Luke flies Arrax to Storm’s End and Jace to Winterfell, yes, but the dragons would not have flown there on their own, save under very special circumstances. You won’t find dragons hunting the riverlands or the Reach or the Vale, or roaming the northlands or the mountains of Dorne.

    This commentary is so pointed that I have to think Martin had a heads-up about where House of the Dragon was going. In Episode 6, Sheepstealer showed up in the Vale and presented a deviation from Martin’s source material—and book readers started speculating that the show was replacing Nettles with Rhaena.

    In Martin’s book, a vagabond girl named Nettles claims Sheepstealer. All of the recent Rhaena action from the Vale has been a show invention, which seems to telegraph the direction the show is moving in. This is all a bit of a shame, as Nettles is unlike any other dragonrider in A Song of Ice and Fire. She’s a bastard girl born to a dockside sex worker in Driftmark. The book describes her as “black-haired, brown-eyed, brown-skinned, skinny, foul-mouthed, fearless.” And remember, in the books the Velaryons are not Black—they have typical Valyrian features: pale skin, silver hair, purple eyes. Nettles has no known Valyrian ancestry and no Valyrian features whatsoever—the only rider in all of A Song of Ice and Fire without so much as a hint of “the blood of the dragon.”

    Nettles is, apparently, one of Martin’s favorite characters. A couple of years ago, a fan asked Martin whether there were characters from Fire & Blood that he’d like to write more about. He answered Nettles, rhetorically asking, “Where does she come from? Where does she go to? What is her life like?”

    I have to stop here to avoid spoiling Nettles’s story, which will likely become Rhaena’s story next season. This decision is prudent in some ways—combining characters is a classic book-to-screen adaptation move for a reason, and Rhaena is underused and often forgotten in Fire & Blood. But it does represent a dramatic shift in how each medium views dragonriders. House of the Dragon is taking Fire & Blood’s Broom Boy—its promise that dragonriding isn’t just for Valyrians—and is dashing it in favor of a character whose last name is literally Targaryen.

    Will this cause problems down the line? Not that I can tell based on how the plot unfolds in the book. But Martin ended his blog post by writing, “Ignore canon, and the world you’ve created comes apart like tissue paper.”

    Meet Sharako Lohar

    We knew that Sharako would appear this season thanks to casting news, and in the finale she finally makes her debut. Tyland and the greens think the Triarchy could be key to winning this war, and Lohar leads their fleet. So who is this mud-loving, polygamous admiral?

    Well, Sharako isn’t fleshed out much in the books. Dragon’s creators have swapped Sharako’s gender for the show, but in the books the character commands a fleet of 90 warships. It’s not clear exactly how many Corlys Velaryon has at his disposal, but as is made clear on both the page and the screen, Sharako’s fleet is powerful enough to at least challenge the Sea Snake’s.

    It also appears that the show is merging Lohar with another character, Racallio Ryndoon, who was part of the force that fought Daemon in the Stepstones many years earlier. The tip-off that these two characters are being merged is the detail that Sharako keeps multiple wives—an attribute that the book ascribes to Racallio. In fact, Racallio is one of the wildest characters in all of A Song of Ice and Fire. I just have to let Fire & Blood’s description do the character justice:

    Surprisingly little is known of his youth, and much of what we believe we know is false or contradictory. He was six-and-a-half feet tall, supposedly, with one shoulder higher than another, giving him a stooped posture and a rolling gait. He spoke a dozen dialects of Valyrian, suggesting that he was highborn, but he was infamously foul-mouthed too, suggesting that he came from the gutters. In the fashion of many Tyroshi, he was wont to dye his hair and beard. Purple was his favorite color (hinting at the possibility of a tie to Braavos), and most accounts of him make mention of long curling purple hair, oft streaked with orange. He liked sweet scents and would bathe in lavender or rosewater.

    That he was a man of enormous ambition and enormous appetites seems clear. He was a glutton and a drunkard when at leisure, a demon when in battle. He could wield a sword with either hand, and sometimes fought with two at once. He honored the gods: all gods, everywhere. When battle threatened, he would throw the bones to choose which god to placate with a sacrifice. Though Tyrosh was a slave city, he hated slavery, suggesting that perhaps he himself had come from bondage. When wealthy (he gained and lost several fortunes) he would buy any slave girl who caught his eye, kiss her, and set her free. He was open-handed with his men, claiming a share of plunder no greater than the least of them. In Tyrosh, he was known to toss gold coins to beggars. If a man admired something of his, be it a pair of boots, an emerald ring, or a wife, Racallio would press it on him as a gift.

    He had a dozen wives and never beat them, but would sometimes command them to beat him. He loved kittens and hated cats. He loved pregnant women, but loathed children. From time to time he would dress in women’s clothes and play the whore, though his height and crooked back and purple beard made him more grotesque than female to the eye. Sometimes he would burst out laughing in the thick of battle. Sometimes he would sing bawdy songs instead.

    Racallio Ryndoon was mad. Yet his men loved him, fought for him, died for him. And for a few short years, they made him a king.

    So yeah, get ready for more Sharako in Season 3!

    Where is Otto?

    For the first time since Episode 2, we get a glimpse of the man who did more than any other to put this entire war into motion. Way back at the beginning of the season, Otto, who’d been dismissed as Aegon’s hand, was supposed to head to Highgarden to rally the Tyrells to the greens’ side, as they had yet to formally declare for either faction. Then he disappeared, and we later learn that Alicent’s letters to him went unanswered.

    Now we know the reason for Otto’s silence: He’s in prison … somewhere.

    There are no book insights—and no book spoilers—to be had here. In Fire & Blood, Otto remains in King’s Landing after Aegon fires him. And he’s instrumental in winning the Triarchy over to the greens, though he does so by way of raven, not by mud fight. If the showrunners were determined to give Otto more to do, the obvious decision would have been to send him to Essos. At his age, he might not have been able to wrestle in the muck, but he could have been given some interesting scenes. Sending him somewhere unknown instead, and revealing he’s locked away, creates a big mystery. Color me intrigued!

    Total speculation: The most likely location for Otto is Honeyholt, the seat of House Beesbury in the Reach. We know that the Beesburys declared for the blacks after their lord Lyman Beesbury was killed back in Season 1. If he passed through Beesbury lands on his way through the Reach, they would have been inclined to take him prisoner.

    The problem with that theory? Honeyholt lies west of Highgarden. So if Otto met with the Tyrells first, he would have had to continue to Oldtown to cross paths with the Beesburys. And if he made it to the Tyrells, why not give him a scene or two at Highgarden?

    The other problem: Otto should be much too smart to get himself captured this way. It’d be out of character for him to attempt to march through territories that are openly at war with him. In the “Inside the Episode” video that aired after the finale, Condal remained tight-lipped about Otto, saying, “We don’t know quite where he is or what happened to him.”

    Finally, justice for the Tyroshis

    Book readers have long had a bit of a sore spot about how Game of Thrones muted Martin’s lively world. Especially in later seasons, a world that is full of color became a mess of grays and blacks. I’m talking about literal wardrobe choices and how Thrones slowly moved away from the bright sigils and eccentric outfits described in Martin’s writing in exchange for a dreary palette that was supposed to convey how dark and serious the story was becoming.

    Nowhere was this sort of change more stark than in the depiction of Daario Naharis, the Tyroshi sellsword who accompanies Daenerys for a few seasons. Here’s how Daario was described in A Storm of Swords:

    Daario Naharis was flamboyant even for a Tyroshi. His beard was cut into three prongs and dyed blue, the same color as his eyes and the curly hair that fell to his collar. His pointed mustachios were painted gold. His clothes were all shades of yellow; a foam of Myrish lace the color of butter spilled from his collar and cuffs, his doublet was sewn with brass medallions in the shape of dandelions, and ornamental goldwork crawled up his high leather boots to his thighs. Gloves of soft yellow suede were tucked into a belt of gilded rings, and his fingernails were enameled blue.

    And in the show, we got … two pretty-looking generic dudes (thanks to an actor change), one clean-shaven, one bearded:

    Well, the blue-hair enthusiasts got their wish this week. With Tyland in Essos, we see quite a few people who bear a striking resemblance to book Daario. I mean, just look at this guy:

    Heck, we got two blue-haired Tyroshis:

    Big episode for blue-haired representation and for everyone who enjoys a good splash of primary color.

    The Board Before Us

    The Triarchy is on the board thanks to Tyland’s prowess in the mud-fighting pit. That’s the biggest change to the map in a while, and it gives the greens the naval power to match the blacks. Though Aemond and Co. still have a major dragon deficit (and are facing a reunified Daemon and Rhaenyra), the greens made up some significant ground. Here’s how it all looks:

    Next Time On …

    That’s it for House of the Dragon Season 2. But we did get a full seven-second look at A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, coming next year:

    I encourage you to read Tales of Dunk and Egg, the three novellas that will serve as the basis for this next series. They’re possibly my favorite bit of writing in all of A Song of Ice and Fire. Just absolute delights. And they’re short.

    Riley McAtee

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  • The House of the Dragon finale was more disappointing than I am to my dad (44 Photos)

    The House of the Dragon finale was more disappointing than I am to my dad (44 Photos)

    Oh, brother, where to start? Last night was the season finale of House of the Dragon and, well, the only word that comes to mind is ‘underwhelmed.’ I think pretty much everyone can agree on that description but I’m being much less harsh than some. Sue me for not wanting to wait 2 years for the fighting dragons show to finally show us fighting dragons. This episode would’ve been a fantastic penultimate one, but as a season finale, we all got short-changed. Anyway, SPOILERS FOR THE HOUSE OF THE DRAGON SEASON 2 FINALE AHEAD so scroll these memes at your own risk.

    Camry

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  • ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale Reactions

    ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale Reactions

    The season finale of House of the Dragon is here, and Chris Ryan, Joanna Robinson, and Mallory Rubin are here to give you their instant reactions to all of the drama in Westeros. From Ulf’s courtly faux pas to Daemon coming through in Harrenhal to another unexpected reunion, Talk the Thrones will be there!

    Hosts: Chris Ryan, Joanna Robinson, and Mallory Rubin
    Production: Jack Wilson, Felipe Guilhermino, Nick Kosut, Tony Perry, Bobby Gibbons, John Richter, Ryan Todd, Chia Hao, Aleya Zenieris, Arjuna Ramgopal, Steve Ahlman, Jomi Adeniran, Abreanna Corrales, and Yvonne Wang

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Pandora / Google Podcasts

    Chris Ryan

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  • ‘Presumed Innocent’ Season 1 Finale: Closing Arguments

    ‘Presumed Innocent’ Season 1 Finale: Closing Arguments

    Jo and Rob await the jury’s decision to recap the Season 1 finale of Presumed Innocent. They open by discussing why the episode felt unsatisfying, the shocking revelation that [redacted] is the killer, and how the ending affects the season as a whole (8:39). Along the way, they talk about what they want out of Season 2 (16:45). Later, they compare the show’s conclusion to that of its cinematic and literary counterparts (24:19).

    Hosts: Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney
    Producer: Kai Grady
    Additional Production Support: Justin Sayles

    Subscribe: Spotify

    Joanna Robinson

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  • Hawk Tuah Girl, ‘Clipped’ Finale, and the Karen Read Trial

    Hawk Tuah Girl, ‘Clipped’ Finale, and the Karen Read Trial

    Jodi and Chelsea are going all over the worldwide web this week, starting with updates on TikTok’s favorite courtroom drama, the Karen Read trial (5:50), before finally being ready to talk about the international implications of Hawk Tuah Girl (16:20). Then, Jodi tells Chelsea what she’s looking forward to this year, like the potential of Gladiator II and Wicked: Part One becoming 2024’s Barbenheimer (32:24), and a very Josh Hartnett summer (39:24). Finally, they talk about the last two episodes of Clipped, the portrayal of the notorious “silly rabbit” interview, and how the finale left them feeling (46:15), before sharing their personal obsessions of the week (1:0 0:15).

    Hosts: Jodi Walker and Chelsea Stark-Jones
    Producer: Sasha Ashall

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Stitcher

    Jodi Walker

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  • The Worst TV Series Finale—Live!

    The Worst TV Series Finale—Live!

    This week, Dave, Neil, and Joanna are live from the ATX TV Festival, and they are debating the worst TV series finale! They start by reading bad reviews of good finales (7:08). Then, they go through pretrial awards and dismissals (13:22) before revealing their picks for the worst TV series finale (28:58). Later, they hear a few suggestions from the audience and pick one to be added to the final poll (44:00).

    Now it’s up to you to decide! What is the worst TV series finale? You can vote for the winner at ⁠TheRinger.com⁠, on The Ringer’s X feed, and in the Spotify app, where you’ll find Trial by Content. The winner will be announced on the next episode!

    You can send your picks for the next topic and a few sentences to support your pick to ⁠TrialByContent@gmail.com⁠. You can also submit suggestions for future Trial by Content topics. Is there a great pop culture debate that you’d like us to settle? Send it on over!

    For a list of all the TV shows discussed on this week’s episode and a preview of what is to come on Trial by Content, head on over to ⁠Letterboxd.com/TrialByContent⁠ and follow us there!

    Poll

    What is the worst TV series finale?

    • 16%

      Joanna: ‘Dexter’

      (50 votes)

    • 37%

      Neil: ‘Game of Thrones’

      (113 votes)

    • 42%

      Dave: ‘How I Met Your Mother’

      (126 votes)

    • 3%

      Listener: ‘Pretty Little Liars’

      (9 votes)



    298 votes total

    Vote Now

    Hosts: Dave Gonzales, Joanna Robinson, and Neil Miller
    Associate Producer: Carlos Chiriboga
    Additional Production Supervision: Arjuna Ramgopal
    Theme Song and Other Music Credits: Devon Renaldo

    Subscribe: Spotify

    Joanna Robinson

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  • Prestige TV Hall of Fame: The ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ Season 4 Finale, “Mr. Walsh Goes to Washington,” With Bill Simmons and Juliet Litman

    Prestige TV Hall of Fame: The ‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ Season 4 Finale, “Mr. Walsh Goes to Washington,” With Bill Simmons and Juliet Litman

    Bill and Juliet share their insights on the most pivotal episodes throughout Brenda and Brandon’s season-long MVP run before breaking down the tumultuous Mardi Gras finale in full

    Share this story

    Bill Simmons

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  • The Achievement of the ‘X-Men ‘97’ Finale and Season 1

    The Achievement of the ‘X-Men ‘97’ Finale and Season 1

    It’s House of R, mon amis. Mal and Jo are here to give you their thoughts on the season finale, and the season as a whole, of the highly regarded X-Men ’97 (00:00), and what their hopes for the new season may be!

    Be sure to check out tickets for the Ringer Residency in Los Angeles this summer!

    Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson
    Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman
    Additional Production: Arjuna Ramgopal
    Social: Jomi Adeniran

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Pandora / Google Podcasts

    Mallory Rubin

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  • Palm Royale Finale Recap: Is That All There Is?

    Palm Royale Finale Recap: Is That All There Is?

    Palm Royale

    Maxine Throws a Party

    Season 1

    Episode 10

    Editor’s Rating

    4 stars

    Photo: Apple TV+

    It’s finally the night of the much-talked-about Beach Ball — and even in the midst of it, there’s still a power struggle over who exactly is hosting it. Technically, Maxine and Evelyn are co-hosting, but Norma looms. “This was supposed to be my night,” she confides in Robert, complaining to him about growing old and the humiliation of being treated like a helpless child. Despite her scheming, it’s clear that this makes him feel for her. Furious at watching her supposed family steal her fortune, she proposes a plan to Robert … literally. She tells him that after the gala, they should go to the courthouse and get married, so when she dies, her money will go to him. “This is the only thing that will protect us both,” she says.

    But my big question for this finale isn’t about Norma’s money, it’s if Mary will successfully assassinate President Richard Nixon? Had you told me when this show started that that’s where it would lead, I’d have been even more excited to watch. In fact, I think the whole series should have been marketed as such. The Secret Service searches Mary’s bag upon entry, not wanting another grassy knoll situation, to which Mary responds, “Lucky for you, this is a beach.” She makes it into the event without issue, which bodes well for her eventually earning a spot in Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins in this universe. Evelyn is happy to see that Mary has seemingly left the hippies behind, but she explains that they were all taken away — which, to Evelyn, means that her former home is empty and waiting for her once more. “Good to know,” she says.

    With Maxine’s astronaut MIA, she begs Robert to impersonate him by donning the space suit, insisting that nobody would be the wiser. He’s initially reluctant, but realizing that accompanying Norma in the suit could be a good way to give her back some of her shine, he agrees. But Norma doesn’t see it that way, she considers it another example of him doing Maxine’s bidding, and warns him that if they’re to get married, he’ll have to choose between the two of them. It’s a bold ultimatum for Norma to be giving because if it were to truly come down to it, I don’t know that Robert would make the choice she would want.

    Nonetheless, she gets to work at the gala to set things right. Firstly, she has her sights set on a clearly distraught Mitzi, telling her, “If you’ve got something on your mind, I’m a good listener.” It gives us the chance to see her in action like an artist at work, methodically collecting gossip and tucking it away as ammunition — a skill that she’s been cultivating for decades, which has led us here. Sure, we all know about the affair, but according to Mitzi, that’s not the half of it.

    Her next stop is to Evelyn, who is equally surprised to hear her talking and furious when she says that she’s not getting a cent from the gala. “You’ll get half of my money over my dead body,” she says, telling her that she will always be an outsider to this world. And at this point, who isn’t? With money off the table, Evelyn has no incentive to be there anymore, so she grabs her boy toy and storms home — or rather, to the apparently vacant mansion she used to call home. But not before telling Maxine about Norma’s ruse: “She’s been playing possum.”

    When Maxine hears this, the pieces start to come together. Her spill off the boat, Ann getting poisoned with insulin … and she realizes that Norma has been trying to kill her. After confronting her, Norma tells Maxine that she’s not a part of the Dellacorte family, no matter how hard she tries. But Maxine is still the one in power as Norma’s conservator — and knowing it will destroy her, she tells her about their reinstated plans to turn the Dellacorte mansion into a club. It’s a plan that Maxine was originally against, but agreed to after Douglas guilted her into it, saying it was the childless couple’s only shot at a legacy.

    A second blow to Norma’s plan comes while Ann — thankfully back on her feet — delivers a presentation on her storied life. But the real intel is being shared in the audience, when Robert sidles up to Norma’s supposed former-flame Axel to ask about their history. He shares that everything changed between them when Norma went to boarding school, where her diabetic roommate Agnes was found dead at the bottom of the stairs. It sounds like we might have a Talented Mr. Ripley situation on our hands because when “Norma” returned, it was like she was a totally different person, Axel says, in case we needed it spelled out for us.

    Speaking of conspiracies, Richard Nixon has arrived. The series shows him mostly in shadow or from behind, much like the pope in Sister Act. But let’s focus less on how he’s being shot and more on if he’s being shot … by Mary. His only hope is locked away at the Rollins mansion, but luckily for Linda and Virginia, Evelyn arrives to have sex with Eddie and finds them. But let’s backtrack: why are Linda and Virginia so intent on stopping Mary? Why are they suddenly so intent on saving an evil man that they’ve been organizing against all season? And who are Virginia’s “friends in high places” that got her out of jail in the first place? We start to lose the thread here, but nonetheless, our two feminists beg Evelyn to free them so they can save Richard Nixon. Evelyn, not one to ever miss a money-making opportunity, tells them she’ll only release them if Linda pinky promises to give back the house and half of her trust fund. Who would have thought at the beginning of this show that Linda would be the one trying to save Nixon and Evelyn would be happy to let him die? Anyway, Linda agrees to Evelyn’s terms, so they’re off to save Tricky Dick.

    Meanwhile, Norma’s grand flourish happens just before Maxine is set to take the stage for her big performance. She brings Mitzi to her, encouraging her to come clean to Maxine about her pregnancy. “Do you know what you’re going to do? It’s your choice,” Maxine tells her, proving yet again that she’s more of a feminist than she’d ever admit. When Mitzi says she wants to be a mother, a feeling Maxine can sadly relate to, she tells her to go demand that the baby’s father marry her — thinking that the father is Perry. But when she’s out on stage, she sees Mitzi doing just that — but to Douglas, not Perry.

    Realizing what’s going on, we start to see Maxine fall apart under the lights, despite trying to keep the show together like the pageant queen she is. She sings “Is That All There Is?” through tears, and between verses, talks about her orphanage upbringing and her big dreams of making it somewhere, but then veers off script to call out all of the members of this high society she so desperately wanted to join — concluding her rant by exposing Douglas’s affair to the whole room. She thought she was destroying everybody’s secrets by burning the Rolodex, but it turns out that the only true way of robbing them of their power is airing them all out.

    As Norma revels in this breakdown, Robert approaches her, and says, “I can’t believe I considered spending my life with you … Agnes.” It’s a death blow to Norma, who in one fell swoop loses Robert and has her deepest secret revealed. Even the grand dame of this high society faked her way in, just as Maxine did. At this point is there anybody who didn’t?

    It’s during Maxine’s onstage breakdown that Nixon decides he’s had enough cottage cheese and starts to leave. As Maxine tries to stop him, we see Mary retrieve a gun from inside her wig, but as she fires, Linda rushes over and pushes her, diverting the bullet. Instead of Nixon, the bullet hits Robert. If you thought a NASA space suit might be bulletproof, you’re sadly mistaken — at least in this case. The bullet takes Robert down, sending Maxine into hysterics. He was her only true friend, and would have been all she had left in the aftermath of the gala. Now she has nobody, likely not even Linda, who the federal agent finds on the balcony with the gun. Presumably, she will go to jail for a shooting after all, just not the one she was actually behind. An awestruck Norma also roams into the havoc as it plays out, now in the complicated position of losing her life’s one love, but also the one person who found out her life was a lie. It’s the most complex, tangled, and interesting spot this show has been in all season — and it ends right in the thick of it. Limited series, my ass.

    However, I’m not angry at it ending like this; in fact, I think it’s the most interesting choice the show has made in the whole season. This entire story was about Maxine accidentally breaking this world in her attempt to join it — like a child who plays with their favorite toy too hard. And now it’s broken. And we’re meant to look at the pieces — not to glue them back together. The glossy, perfect world that we were presented in episode one was not only deconstructed as the series played out, but now it was shattered beyond repair, and we’re left sitting in the wreckage. Plenty of questions remain, but the biggest of all: is that all there is?

    Tom Smyth

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  • ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Trailer, ‘Shogun’ Finale, and ‘X-Men ’97’

    ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Trailer, ‘Shogun’ Finale, and ‘X-Men ’97’

    Marvel Studios

    The Midnight Boys also chat about the festivities from Van’s birthday party

    The Midnight Boys are back to give you another jam-packed episode. First, they take a look at the latest Deadpool & Wolverine trailer (11:45). Then, they talk about the beautiful finale of Shogun (26:33) as well as the latest episode of X-Men ’97 (67:06). All before finally talking about some of the goings-on that happened at Van’s birthday party (82:03).

    Hosts: Charles Holmes, Van Lathan, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman
    Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman
    Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal
    Social: Jomi Adeniran

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts

    Charles Holmes

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  • ‘Invincible’ Season 2 Finale, ‘Shogun’ Episode 7, and More ‘X-Men ’97’

    ‘Invincible’ Season 2 Finale, ‘Shogun’ Episode 7, and More ‘X-Men ’97’

    It’s time to tap into the animation sensation that is Invincible for its Season 2 finale! The Midnight Boys talk about what made the season overall a little different this time around (14:08). Then they tap back into the captivating Shogun and what they think may happen leading into the finale (55:38). And finally, they take on the drama between Storm and Forge in this week’s X-Men ’97 (88:55).

    Hosts: Charles Holmes, Van Lathan, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman
    Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman
    Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal
    Social: Jomi Adeniran

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts

    Charles Holmes

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  • Eight Important Questions to Ask Ahead of the ‘True Detective: Night Country’ Finale

    Eight Important Questions to Ask Ahead of the ‘True Detective: Night Country’ Finale

    The running bit in True Detective: Night Country has been Liz Danvers repeatedly telling her protégé Pete Prior to ask the right questions if they’re going to solve the case. (“ASK ME QUESTIONS. QUESTION ME. ASK ME QUESTIONS. YOU WANTED TO KNOW. ASK ME THE FUCKING QUESTIONS. ASK THE QUESTIONS, PRIOR.”) Well, I’ll do my best with that. Here are eight crucial questions to ask ahead of the Night Country finale.

    If Kate McKittrick and Silver Sky Mining are behind the killings, why are they so gruesome?

    We are first introduced to Kate McKittrick as “mine bitch” in Episode 2, when Danvers asks McKittrick to thaw the corpsicle of naked Tsalal scientists stashed at the Ennis hockey rink (which is owned by McKittrick’s company, Silver Sky Mining). McKittrick doesn’t make many appearances beyond that until Episode 5, when she very conveniently spins the story that the root cause for the Tsalal scientists’ deaths was a “weather event.” She then tells Hank Prior to kill Ennis drifter Otis Heiss to keep him from leading Danvers and her partner, Evangeline Navarro, to Ennis’s subterranean ice caves—dubbed “night country” by the locals. It’s a bit of an awkwardly sudden reveal, but it’s still a reveal, which forces us to ask: If McKittrick is the kingpin behind all of this, why is she stabbing people—or at least ordering these stabbings—32-plus times, cutting out tongues, and stripping scientists naked in the freezing cold? Does she have an even darker side that will be revealed to us in a snappy conversation between her and Captain Connelly in the cold open of the finale?

    (It just can’t be Kate McKittrick who killed all these people. We’ll get to more on this later.)

    Will Pete Prior, the epitome of innocence, be able to rally after killing his own dad (and then cleaning up the body)?

    It’s over, Petey. The story about you blowing a hockey game for a kid whose father just suffered a stroke is cute and all, but the knight-in-shining-armor schtick wears thin when you kill your own father and agree to dispose of his body without much hesitation.

    Look at the positioning of Hank’s gun when Pete fired a bullet square into his dad’s temple at point-blank range:

    Screenshots via HBO

    That’s a little too quick and a bit too accurate for my taste. Yes, Hank was raising his gun to shoot Danvers minutes after shooting and killing Heiss, but convince me Pete can’t adjust the aim just a tad to rock his dad with a shoulder or even a chest shot. Is there some risk that middle-aged Hank takes either of those gunshots in stride and still shoots Danvers? Maybe! But even if he does, he’s hitting her in the hip or thigh at best with that gun positioning. I know a killer when I see one. (Hank literally said he wasn’t one, even if that’s technically no longer true.) Even if Pete was a choirboy before all of this, the soft, pillowy exterior propped up by his youth and relatable juggling of an overdemanding boss, a marriage, and a child died with Hank that night. I’m not saying the next installment of True Detective—let’s call it Day Country—will have an Episode 5 reveal that Pete is a serial killer who targets anyone that reminds him of his dad, but I’m not not saying it.

    Kidding aside, the arc of Pete trying his best to not be Danvers just to end up in a worse place than she ever could be is a nice touch from the show’s creators. In the same episode in which Pete scolds Liz for covering up the William Wheeler murder, Pete in turn murders his dad and jumps at the opportunity to cover it up. Do I think this would realistically have some pretty gnarly permanent effects on my boy’s psyche beyond the occasional one-eyed polar bear flashback? Yes. Do I also think the show will tie it up a bit prettier than that to the point that killing his dad actually somehow throws him back into a healthy marriage and work-life balance? Probably.

    Will Navarro survive? If so, will Mr. SpongeBob Toothbrush (Qavvik) ever have a healthy relationship?

    With her haunting visions growing in frequency, I realize Navarro is getting dangerously close to following her sister’s literal path into the frozen sea. Still, I’m going to venture to guess that Eve comes out of this alive. Navarro at times feels like the true protagonist of the show, and her arc is destined for a much softer landing, one that pushes her away from continually throwing fists at the world and instead into the arms of her sweetheart, Qavvik.

    The first time we see Navarro and Qavvik together is when she physically submits him into having an orgasm and subsequently steals his SpongeBob toothbrush. Not even the best couples therapist in the world will be able to handle that kind of power dynamic. Cracking this case—and finally knowing who killed Annie Kowtok—has to distance Navarro enough from her demons to pursue a healthy relationship with our boy Qavvik. (And it better! He’s a good-looking dude with a legit job in a tiny rural town. Ask Danvers how Tinder is going in Bumfuck, Alaska; I don’t think we’ve heard a notification pop up since the first couple of episodes.)

    What’s the deal with the oranges and the one-eyed polar bears? Do they actually matter?

    OK, this probably doesn’t fit in as the right question to ask; Danvers would not approve. We know the oranges following Navarro around throughout the series and the consistent run-ins she and Danvers have with one-eyed polar bears are both heavy-handed, inescapable symbols for our troubled duo. Surely, what they represent is infinitely more important than their potential connection to the murders of Annie Kowtok and the Tsalal scientists.

    The oranges are a recurring symbol of the connection between Navarro, the living, and the dead. We don’t need anything more than the scene where Navarro throws an orange into the darkness and something dead or alive (or made-up) throws it right back.

    The one-eyed polar bear stuffed animal is probably just a real-life reminder of Danvers’s son, Holden, who we know is dead due to context clues from recurring flashbacks. (But we also still don’t fully know that story … who was Holden’s dad? How did they both die? Are these the right questions, Danvers?!) However, when Navarro gets a visit from a real-life one-eyed polar bear in Episode 1, it suggests that there’s a connection between it and each of the detectives’ haunted pasts. That, and the one eye could represent that the pair might not be seeing the full picture or might be seeing only one half of the story.

    I can hear Danvers screaming “WRONG QUESTION” already. But I don’t care. You can’t vehemently mix in citrus, real and stuffed one-eyed polar bears, the Carcosa spiral, a Rust Cohle family tree, and a potpourri of dead people walking around town and then expect people not to ask questions. When every inch of detail could be used as evidence in a murder case, it’s important to know whether any of this is real or not.

    Where does Liz’s boy toy Ted Connelly fit into everything?

    I know McKittrick has a low opinion of Connelly. She calls him a “political animal” and “weak” during her conversation with Hank right before the two form a plan to kill Heiss. But does that mean he’s completely innocent? Does he actually believe the very coincidental report that the cause of death for the Tsalal scientists was just a freak weather event? Or is McKittrick also greasing Connelly to pay him off or move him up the ladder as part of the cover-up? Navarro was pretty adamant in the closing scenes of Episode 5 that roping in Connelly would “bury” them all, but I guess it doesn’t matter to Danvers. She said the last time she and Connelly hooked up was the last time (actually this time), and her Tinder notifications are bound to heat up after she cracks the case.

    How does Raymond Clark actually fit into all of this?

    The leading suspect for most of the series, Raymond Clark, simply has to play a role in all of this, right? We know he’s the only living Tsalal scientist hiding in the “night country.” We also know he was the one convulsing in the opening scene of Episode 1 and who uttered the first mention of “she’s awake.” And we know that he had a “let’s get matching tattoos”–level relationship with Annie Kowtok. But when Danvers and Navarro eventually confront Clark in the caves Hank died trying to keep hidden from them, what will they learn?

    My guess is Clark somehow escaped whatever killed his colleagues and has been too afraid to venture out of the caves ever since. If he was actually one of the bad guys in all of this, Clark would have run to McKittrick for protection a long time ago rather than freeze his ass off in the night country. Instead, Danvers and Navarro will find Clark in the caves scared shitless, and he’ll deliver the long-awaited “aha” moment of the series. I don’t want it to be a late-game spill of nearly all the relevant information to the case from a single source, but I think that’s what this is shaping up to be. (I blame all the time we spent chasing flat subplots!)

    Have Night Country’s creators laid enough crumbs for a satisfying final twist?

    OK, I’ll say it again: It can’t be McKittrick. If the series’ big reveal was actually in the penultimate episode when McKittrick and Hank talked in the car about wanting to hide the caves from Navarro and Danvers, I will riot in the streets of Ennis. We know McKittrick and Silver Sky funded the Tsalal station. We know McKittrick paid Hank to move Annie’s body and asked him to kill Heiss to help hide the cave entrance’s whereabouts. If that also means McKittrick was the ringleader in killing the scientists and Kowtok, I will be baffled in the worst way.

    It just can’t happen. Someone, anyone else had to have killed them. Such an early reveal would run counter to everything True Detective diehards loved about previous seasons. That said, we must have missed something. McKittrick, Connelly, and Hank all played a part, but none of them killed anybody (outside of Heiss). They probably know who killed Kowtok and/or the scientists, but they didn’t make the order or deliver the final blow(s). There are enough loose ends (e.g., Sedna, Oliver Tagaq, Ryan Kowtok) for there to be a big reveal, but whether or not it’s satisfying comes down to whether it’s a key piece of evidence we all overlooked in the moment—like the kid’s drawing of the green-eared spaghetti monster in the first season of True Detective—or simply new information spilled out during one of the final conversations with Clark or McKittrick. (We’re all hoping for the former.)

    For the final time, who done it?

    It’s her. Whoever this scary woman Pete’s kid drew in the first episode is the killer. No, I’m not saying Sedna, the Inuit goddess of the sea and ruler of the underworld (though my colleague Ben Lindbergh’s deep dive into her lore is spectacular). I’m saying someone who looks like this!

    Whoever killed Kowtok and/or the Tsalal scientists looked like this, which admittedly brings McKittrick into the fold again, but I’m ruling her out anyway. It could be Pete’s wife or her grandma or one of the women at the protests with Leah. I don’t know who she is exactly, but I know she’s awake.

    Austin Gayle

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  • ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Season Finale Deep Dive

    ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Season Finale Deep Dive


    The Gods are among us as Joanna and Mal return to dive deep into the season finale of Percy Jackson and the Olympians (08:10). They take an extended look at the season’s final episode and break down all of the significant story elements of the show (15:41). Later, they talk about book spoilers to see what may happen next in a potential Season 2 (02:03:42).

    Hosts: Mallory Rubin and Joanna Robinson
    Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman
    Additional Production: Arjuna Ramgopal
    Social: Jomi Adeniran

    Subscribe: Spotify / Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Pandora / Google Podcasts



    Mallory Rubin

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  • ‘Fargo’ Season 5 Finale Recap With Noah Hawley

    ‘Fargo’ Season 5 Finale Recap With Noah Hawley

    Jo and Rob break down the Fargo Season 5 finale. They discuss their personal feelings on the final episode, how the characters of Indira Olmstead and Witt Farr fall flat in the end, and the conclusion to Gator’s redemption arc. Along the way, they briefly talk about the intense prison scene between Lorraine and Roy. Later, they’re joined by the creator and showrunner of Fargo, Noah Hawley, to talk about how this season grapples with the symptoms of a divided America, the final confrontation between Dot and Ole Munch, how he goes about creating likable family characters, Witt Farr’s demise, and much more.

    Hosts: Joanna Robinson and Rob Mahoney
    Guest: Noah Hawley
    Producer: Kai Grady

    Subscribe: Spotify

    Joanna Robinson

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  • ‘The Curse’ Season 1 Finale Recap

    ‘The Curse’ Season 1 Finale Recap

    Sean and Jo return to break down the Season 1 finale of The Curse. They discuss the extremely bold conclusion, whether or not the final episode has a deeper meaning beneath it, and the subsequent provocation of critics and viewers alike. Along the way, they debate whether Asher was actually cursed and his final attempt to win over Whitney’s approval. Later, they talk through similarities (and differences) between the Showtime series and Twin Peaks.

    Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Joanna Robinson
    Producer: Kai Grady

    Subscribe: Spotify

    Sean Fennessey

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