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While most of the basketball world was focused on the latest episodes of The Last Dance on Sunday, Aaron Gordon is still stewing over what he believes to be a second dunk contest snub in his career. Gordon and Derrick Jones Jr. put on a legendary show in Chicago in February, with Jones winning amid some controversy in extra rounds.

Dwyane Wade, former Heat legend, was part of the five-person judges panel, and gave Gordon a nine for his dunk over Tacko Fall, leading him to lose by one to Jones Jr. — although two others gave Gordon a nine as well. Afterwards, other judges said the plan was to have the two tie with 48s, pointing fingers at Wade as the one that screwed up the plan. The immediate reaction of everyone else at the judges table when the scores flashed — including Wade casually getting up and removing his headset — made that seem like it was the case and a controversy was born.

Gordon, naturally, was furious about the result and has vowed to never do another dunk contest as he’s felt he was robbed in two now — although, both Jones Jr. and Zach LaVine likewise put on spectacular performances that are more than worthy of the titles they have. On Sunday, Gordon released a diss track aimed at Wade, with a video shot at his home, in which he calls out the future Hall of Famer for the 9 out of 10 grade on his final dunk.

This, of course, made it’s way to Wade, who offered a level-headed response on Twitter, saying Gordon should trademark “9/10” and sell merchandise to make up for the million dollars he lost out on by not winning the dunk contest.

Don’t expect Wade to hop in the booth to respond to Gordon anytime soon, and it’s a bit funny that this is still eating at Gordon this much that he shot an entire video (while drinking Wade’s wine) during quarantine for his song.

As we hit what would be the peak of music festival season, plenty of music fans around the globe are missing their live music fix due to social distancing safety guidelines geared toward stopping the spread of COVID-19. Since large scale events like festivals guarantee a crowd — and close proximity — it’s been impossible for these annual staples to take place, and the sadness is getting real. In an effort to both replicate the experience of seeing our favorite artists perform live, and help raise money for the organizations that are working hard to keep everyone safe, Warner Music Group launched a virtual festival this weekend: PlayOn Fest.

The digital event supports the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for the World Health Organization (WHO), powered by the UN Foundation, and features tons of the biggest artists on the planet, not performing in their living rooms, but by airing previously captured footage of some of their finest moments from the past.

None of these performances are available for streaming elsewhere, so there is a sense of exclusivity to the three-day extravaganza, and it brings together fans from all over the world by featuring shows at places like Texas’ revered Austin City Limits, and California’s gargantuan and beloved festival, Coachella. But what is any kind of festival without an official ranking of who did it best? Despite the performances happening across time and space, it’s still clear who had the most epic sets of the event, so we went ahead and ranked the top ten. Check out our picks below.

10. The War On Drugs’ 2018 Coachella Performance

Early on during quarantine, The War On Drugs’ frontman Adam Granduciel went live on Instagram to tease some early mixes of brand new songs from the band. While we wait for those to be polished up and released — hopefully later this year or early next — remembering the band’s epic Coachella set where they played lots of songs off their excellent 2017 album A Deeper Understanding is a good way to keep in mind just how great they are live. Yes, I really want to hear a new studio album, but that’s mostly so I can get out to a show and hear them wail live. Indie rock is not dead while this band is still doing the damn thing.

9. Paramore’s 2018 Bonnaroo Set

Hayley Williams has been focusing on her solo career so far in 2020, but she took some time to express just how much she loves her first band, Paramore. The iconic pop-punk group’s 2018 Bonnaroo set was a part of PlayOn Fest’s programming — and in such high demand that they showed it twice, once on Sunday evening and once very early this morning as an encore. The band’s propulsive energy has earned them a cult following, even when they took a long break between 2013’s self-titled release and 2017’s After Laughter. Though they’ve had lineup changes over the years, Williams’ impressive presence as a front person has never flickered even for a moment, and is on full display during this high-energy festival set.

8. Charlie Puth’s 2019 Rock In Rio Performance

The elephant in the room when it comes to Charlie Puth is that his first album wasn’t necessarily everyone’s favorite thing. But after his second record, Voicenotes, came out in 2018, the entire critical world changed their tune — it was one of the highest rated pop albums of the year, and proved once and for all that one fluke doesn’t have to define an artist forever. There is a sense of satisfaction and confidence that permeates Puth’s performance at Rock In Rio last year, knowing that he became the architect of his own sound and turned the narrative around. And it’s thrilling to watch a pop star perform at the top of his game, especially after going through so much to get there.

7. Ed Sheeran’s 2017 Austin City Limits Set

If you’ve seen Ed Sheeran live before, then you know his fans are some of the most passionate in the world. Haters be damned, the Ed heads just want to hear his clever guitar pop and sing along with the man who is arguably the most famous redhead in the world. When he played Austin City Limits in 2017, Sheeran was in his ÷ album era, you know, the album that had so many hits that when the single, “Perfect,” became one too, it was the fourth track off the album to do so. “Castle On The Hill,” the unstoppable force that was “Shape Of You,” and “Galway Girl” all lead the way, and Sheeran packs out his set with hits like these and many more to prove that even three years ago, he had the kind of songwriting chops that most artists dream about.

6. Lil Uzi Vert’s 2018 Lollapalooza Performance

I’ve never had the privilege of attending Lollapalooza, but watching Uzi’s set from 2018 has me kicking myself for not making it out sooner. Though his new Eternal Atake album dropped earlier this year, Uzi had plenty of hits to get the crowd screaming along with him, including the indelible hit “XO Tour Llif3.” That track became the lead single off his official debut, Luv Is Rage 2, which came out in 2017 and made up the bulk of his set at the epic Illinois festival. Fans will have to wait a little longer to see Uzi perform Eternal Atake tracks live, but in the meantime, watching this set was a nice reminder of just what he can do when he hits the stage.

5. Roddy Ricch’s “Trap Symphony” Performance

As the reigning champion of the No. 1 song in the country for most of 2020 so far, Roddy Ricch is riding high despite the current chaos. But this performance showcases the rapper like you’ve never seen him before, as he runs through “The Box” and plenty more hits from his discography accompanied by a live orchestra for a “Trap Symphony” concert. Put this one on for your friend who claims that pop and hip-hop has nothing on classical music, and watch their skepticism melt away as worlds collide. And yes, “The Box” and its signature chorus sounds excellent on violin.

4. Bebe Rexha’s 2019 Rock In Rio Performance

For those who might still be underestimating Bebe Rexha, tuning in for one of her legendary international festival performances is sure to set the record straight. Performing at last year’s Rock In Rio festival, Rexha ran through hit after hit, showcasing the breadth of her discography and how many bangers she’s already released, while never letting up for a minute in front of a crowd of thousands. She emanated pure pop-star energy, and established herself once again as one of our era’s top tier live pop acts. This set was so good I wanted to watch it twice.

3. Cardi B’s 2018 Global Citizen Festival Performance

As the above clip from Cardi B’s 2018 performance at the Global Citizen Festival illustrates, her political voice is just another reason to love the Bronx rapper. She’s got radio hits, deep cuts, a fiery stage presence, and still speaks to the most important thing we can do with our freedom — vote. We’d probably be in a very different situation right now in America if more young people exercised their political voices in general, so aside from seeing her twerk and spit bars, Cardi’s motivational political speech was an affirming reminder.

2. Lizzo’s 2019 Coachella Set

I was lucky enough to witness this one in real life, but rewatching with maximum camera angles instead of at the back of a packed, over-crowded tent is definitely a more ideal way to experience the full energy of a Lizzo set. If you were around on Saturday afternoon, then you had the chance to relive all the twerking, belting and pure joy that is a hallmark of every Lizzo show, and especially at her Coachella debut.

1. Nipsey Hussle’s 2018 Victory Lap album release performance at the Hollywood Palladium

Another show I count myself incredibly lucky to have attended, the album release party for Nipsey Hussle’s last album, Victory Lap was half coronation party, half homecoming for LA hip-hop royalty — oh, and Diddy was there, too. A rap king’s career was cut too short when Nipsey died, and never has that been more clear than onstage at the Hollywood Palladium that night. There’s no other set that aired during PlayOn Fest that better encapsulates how music can bring us together, and how much an artist can impact their community, even after they’re gone.

The artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge has been doing the pandemic talk show rounds over the past few weeks to promote her charitable streaming of a Fleabag stage performance. In the process, she marveled at Stephen Colbert’s mind-blowing fox theory, and more recently, she’s potentially blowing other people’s minds while visiting with The Graham Norton Show. She did so from the privacy of her quarantined home, of course, where a certain Fleabag prop is out in the open for all to see.

No, it’s not a guinea pig or a Hot Priest (too bad), but it’s important to note that Waller-Bridge has extended the Fleabag stage-production stream after raising over $1 million for pandemic relief. And the prop, if you can call it that, would be the “wall of penises” that Olivia Colman’s Godmother character crafted as an art installation.

“They’re all here, keeping me company,” Waller-Bridge merrily explained while giving Norton and his viewers an eye full. Apparently, delivery men have seen this thing as well after the Fleabag star completely got used to having the display in her home:

“My sister and I live here and when we put it there at first, we were like, it would be temporary. And then you know when you just put something down at your house? You don’t think about it for ages and then it just becomes invisible to you and then you forget that you have 12 massive penises at front door.”

What a completely relatable problem. Get a glimpse of Waller-Bridge’s semi-mortifying home decor in the below clip from The Graham Norton Show.

Sunday evening brought the latest two chapters in The Last Dance, ESPN’s 10-part docuseries that gives a look into the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls. The anticipation for these episodes, which spent a ton of time discussing Dennis Rodman and the Bad Boys-era Detroit Pistons, was off the charts, and they certainly delivered.

Like last week, we’ve decided to adopt the Best and Worst format from With Spandex. Head over there to see how it’s done by those that’ve mastered it, and read on for the Best and Worst of the most recent episodes of The Last Dance.

BEST: Dennis Rodman, Basketball Genius

I’m always fascinated by how people talk about Dennis Rodman. He’s such a free spirit and such a gigantic, unique personality that the media — which always struggles to talk about things outside of conventional wisdom — was always going to overlook all the stuff he did on the basketball court to one extent or another and instead spend a ton of time talking about him off the court. It certainly says something about all of us, how that is the stuff we gravitate towards, and how we can sometimes lose sight of what makes someone such a good basketball player because we’re focused on stuff like “who are they dating?” and “what are they doing with their hair now?”

Episodes three and four of The Last Dance touch on this, of course, but spend a whole lot of time looking at Dennis Rodman, the greatest rebounder/defender the league has ever seen. The praise he gets from Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen for how he did something that every team that has championship aspirations needs — the whole “be a star in your role” thing — really does speak volumes, indicating that there is no second Bulls three-peat if not for the fact that Rodman was there locking dudes up and throwing his weight around on the glass.

Rodman talking about rebounding in particular is some of the best stuff in the doc. A huge part of rebounding is, of course, the tenacity and the desire to get the basketball, which Rodman possessed in droves. But he took things a step further, and his discussing how he studied the way basketballs came off the rim based on the players who shot the ball, the amount of spin the ball had on it, and where they shot it from is wild.

Rodman thought about rebounding the way that a composer thinks about harmonies or a director thinks about dialogue. These are crucial things that need to be mastered and refined in an attempt to become the absolute best at your craft. Not only did he manage to do this, but Rodman did this to such a level that he became a core piece to the Bulls dynasty despite formerly being a member of the Bad Boys Pistons and averaging 5.2 points per game during his time in Chicago. And beyond all of that, while the off-court stuff captured so much attention, Rodman truly did love playing the game of basketball.

Gary Payton put it the best, saying that Rodman was the Bulls’ “f*ck up person.” He was a brilliant, transcendent basketball player, and I could not be happier that the doc spent a ton of time diving into this.

BEST: MJ Highlights Set To “Partyman”

So this is more of a cumulative best through the first four episodes — my god, do the people involved in the music choices within this series deserve more money than they got. I do not care what the figure is, they deserve at least three times as much.

The first two episodes gave us a pair of all-time compilations over ridiculously cool songs: NBA youngster Michael Jordan doing bonkers stuff to “I Ain’t No Joke” by Eric B. and Rakim, and Jordan’s record-setting playoff game against the Boston Celtics set to “I’m Bad” by LL Cool J. I’ve specifically watched the Eric B. and Rakim video like 40 times since I first saw it. It transcends coolness.

Episode three of the docuseries included two more absolutely untouchable music choices. First, we got a bunch of MJ highlights set to “Partyman” by Prince, which, come on dude, that’s just stupid. Then, we got Dennis Rodman doing Dennis Rodman stuff while “The Maestro” by Beastie Boys played. Oh, and episode four began with “Still Not a Player” by Big Pun playing underneath Carmen Electra discussing Rodman’s Vegas hiatus.

I really hope that film/TV majors learn from this, because good music choices in film can elevate it, and that has certainly happened so far. The music folks for the doc are legitimately some of the best parts of this series, and I cannot wait to see what they have in store over the next six hours of footage.

WORST: The Lack Of Tea Spilling

One of my only real critiques of this documentary, which again has been incredible and entertaining and just about everything we could’ve hoped for, has been how there are still folks, 20+ years later, holding back in telling these stories. There’s Mike not wanting to go into details about going to Vegas to get Dennis Rodman out of bed, which they circumvent by talking to Carmen Electra, who was the one in the room with Rodman. Then we get to the section on Phil Jackson getting elevated to head coach and Doug Collins getting fired, and Collins simply says he could sense “Phil could be the coach,” and says it was just a feeling and he didn’t go into it any more.

It was wholly unreasonable to expect a completely unfiltered look at all of these stories, but I really do wish we were getting a bit more from these interviews instead of picking and choosing when to hold back and when to let loose. More Jordan torching Isiah Thomas and less Doug Collins being demure about getting fired and his assistant taking over.

BEST: MJ Dunking On Writers Courtside

Prior to Game 5 of the 1989 Eastern Conference Finals, Sam Smith recalls Michael Jordan — right before the biggest game of his career — strolling to courtside and pointing to the three Bulls beat writers, who had picked Cavs in 3, 4, and 5 games respectively, and calling them out. “I got you, I got you, and we’re gonna get you tonight,” before scoring a late go-ahead bucket and, eventually, hitting “The Shot” to win the game. Speaking of!

WORST: Craig Ehlo

Listen, Craig Ehlo played very good defense against Michael Jordan on “The Shot,” all things considered. The issue was he was guarding an all-time great player who just did an all-time great player thing. He gets unnecessarily hated on for being the guy who was on the other end of this moment, especially considering he had just scored a bucket to put Cleveland ahead. Having said that, there is no coming back from this. Apologies to Craig Ehlo.

BEST: Doug Collins’ Playcalling

I’m a big fan of self-aware coaches, and Doug Collins recognizing his job was to get Jordan the ball and let him do his thing was why Jordan, at times, loved him. This quote is the ultimate example of that, as he deftly explains his play call was to get Michael the ball and tell everyone else to “get the f*ck out of the way.” Also, I love how much young Doug Collins had very strong DGAF vibes, from the perm to the sweat to cursing in pressers. Sadly, this would come to a swift end.

WORST: This Announcement Of Doug Collins’ Firing

Absolutely bodied this man on the news. Doug Collins was just trying to catch the weather and had to be reminded he’s now unemployed while the rest of society is gainfully employed and preparing to head into the office.

WORST: This Guy’s Hair

The most aggressive blonde perm mullet-mustache combo the world has ever seen.

BEST: Craig Sager’s Bribe

To start: I have never done this. I, also, am not Craig Sager, so I could never even consider getting away with something like this.

Anyway! Craig Sager is like the only person in this industry’s history who could ever get away with handing a basketball player money like this, and Dennis Rodman had a sense of humor about it. Also shout out Craig Sager forever. We miss him.

BEST/WORST: Rodman Smashing A Beer Before Taking Off On His Motorcycle

It is hard to express how cool the Chicago Bulls were. You had Michael Jordan, the coolest on-court player to ever live. Phil Jackson, one of the coolest coaches ever. Scottie Pippen, who lived to punk fools on the court with aggressive defense and aggressive dunks. And then there was Dennis Rodman, who had dated Madonna, Toni Braxton, and Carmen Electra, left for an in-season vacation to Vegas where he disappeared for four days, and would regularly stroll around the arena smashing Miller Lites after games because that’s how he got down. However, drinking and driving is bad — and drinking and driving a motorcycle is especially unwise — so this must also get a Worst distinction.

BEST: Phil Jackson, Understanding Human Being

The look at the relationship between Phil and Rodman was one of the most interesting portions of this week’s episodes. There was clearly respect and appreciation for what Rodman did from Jordan and Pippen, but Jackson had a connection with Rodman on a different level. The two bonded over their appreciation of Native American culture, and Jackson understood Rodman’s needs as a person, not just a player, better than anyone had since he played for Chuck Daly in Detroit.

Jackson was understanding enough of how Rodman was and what he needed that he allowed him to take a midseason vacation to Vegas, and when they had to go get him and bring him back after he went AWOL, his reaction was, “that’s just how it went that season.” That kind of acceptance was so big for Rodman, and he got it from Phil, Michael, Scottie, and everyone else because when it was time to play, he did everything they needed that no one else could do.

WORST: The Mayor Of Quebradillas

Shot that man in the leg.

WORST: MJ Trying To Pretend He’s Still Not Mad About Scottie’s Migraine

There are two things about this doc, one incredible and one that can be kinda frustrating (but still pretty good!), that I want to highlight. The kinda frustrating one: Michael Jordan knowing that this is a reflection of him, and as such, he can be a bit too image-conscious. That mask will sometimes slip a tiny bit, like when he was asked about the migraine Scottie Pippen had in Game 7 against the Pistons, which Chicago would go on to lose.

Now, Mike caught the mask slipping a bit, so he couldn’t quite lean all the way in. You can tell that he thinks that Scottie should have, I dunno, reached into his brain and pulled out the migraine or whatever, but he was still careful with how he addressed this. It’s something that has happened a few times in the doc, but this might be the best example of it. I wanna be clear: This is hilarious, but it’s not as funny as him going all-out.

As for number two? Well, you can probably guess…

BEST: MJ Actually Being Mad About Isiah Thomas

Oh god yes this is the primo stuff. Here is the thing about Michael Jeffrey Jordan: Despite the fact that he is among the most aware humans that have ever walked the earth, the man is a hilarious psychopath who could only achieve the highs that he has reached by being wired in a very specific way. I swear to god, this is a compliment — it has led to him being considered the greatest basketball player of all-time and a billionaire behind an empire that has his name and silhouette on it. You cannot achieve this by being normal.

Part of the reason this documentary was so highly-anticipated was that everyone thought Jordan would give us the kind of ridiculously bitter stuff that only he is capable of still caring about after so many years, championships, and direct deposits worth more than my car and apartment combined and multiplied. That largely has not happened through the first three chapters — he’s gotten close, but he has not quite gone all the way in. However, at no point prior was he talking about Isiah Thomas. To Michael!

The hatred that Jordan still has for the Bad Boys Pistons still exists, which makes sense, because they beat the hell out of him physically and mentally. Jordan reigned his emotions in, for the most part, while discussing them in here, but this was a glimpse into the ruthlessly bitter MJ that became an icon. It’s unsurprising it involved Thomas — they have some history! — but god, I am glad we got to see it. Best moment of the doc. It deserves a Pulitzer.

WORST: This Shirt

Maybe the best argument for Michael Jordan in the GOAT debate is that he was so good at basketball and looked so cool playing it that it didn’t matter that he wore shirts made from your grandmother’s couch, he still was an international icon of cool and launched the most legendary athlete sneaker and apparel line of all time.

BEST: “Straight Up Bitches”

It’s incredible the amount of disdain the members of those Bulls teams have for the Pistons. They hate them. Like, really, truly, hate them. Bill addressed this in the MJ-Isiah section, but it’s not just Mike. Horace Grant was asked about the walk-off incident, and delivered one of the lines of the episode.

BEST: Dancing Jerry Krause

This documentary is not kind to Jerry Krause, but seeing him this happy and dancing with Scottie Pippen was a nice moment.

BEST: Ragging On Scott Burrell

Look, bullying is bad, but this is objectively hilarious. Jordan, noted person who regularly spent late nights out drinking and gambling, just airing all of Scott Burrell’s laundry to the documentary crew while Burrell pleads that his parents and family would be watching this. That only prompts Jordan to say, “Mom, Dad, he’s an alcoholic,” to Burrell’s dismay.

WORST: Jerry Krause

Oh, Jerry. My man just could not get out of his own way. The end of Episode 4 takes us to an early February game against Utah, their top competition in the league, and prior to the game Krause decides to double down on his “Phil’s not coming back” stance by trying to put pressure on Jordan to come back with a different coach. Jordan continues to insist he won’t do that and that if Phil leaves, he leaves, which leads to further speculation that it may be Mike’s last year and creates only more internal turmoil for the Bulls to deal with.

Lil Wayne reveals how he’s been keeping busy during quarantine in the double video for his Funeral singles “Piano Trap” and “Not Me”: By going to the skate park and jumping off railings. The video is directed by Ricky x Willis and shot in a low-fi style reminiscent of skate videos — a creative way to circumvent the inability to hire a typical, multi-person crew for the shoot due to the coronavirus. As he told Rolling Stone, “I’ve found skateboarding to be a release from life and all this shit in general.”

Wayne’s video lands on the tail end of a triumphant weekend for the 37-year-old rapper, who debuted his Young Money Radio on Apple Music Friday. The first episode featured appearances from the mayor of New Orleans, Deion Sanders, Travis Scott, Wayne’s favorite rapper Lil Baby, and Jessie Reyez. During the show, Wayne also announced his contribution to COVID-19 efforts, a $200,000 donation to New Orleans’ World Central Kitchen from Wayne’s One Family Foundation. He also appeared on a new song with Chance The Rapper — and Young Thug(!), perhaps implying that he and his former rival have buried the hatchet in light of the life-threatening disease.

Finally, Wayne also announced the deluxe version of his mega-sized recent release, previewing a pair of tracks that featured Canadian stars Jessie Reyez and Tory Lanez.

Watch the extended video for “Piano Trap” and “Not Me” above.

Funeral is out now on Young Money Records. Get it here.

The ‘Westworld’ Confusion Index is your guide to what we know, what we kind of know, and what we don’t know about Westworld, one of television’s more confusing shows. We will make mistakes, surely, because we rarely know what is happening or why (and whenever we think we’ve figured it out, they go and change it on us), but we will try to have at least as many jokes as mistakes. This is the best we can offer. Here we go.

What We Know

Caleb’s story was darker and more complex than we thought

Man, poor Caleb. Life is just a non-stop kick in the pants for this guy. It was bad even when it was good, or at least as good as “my best friend died in war and now I’m a two-bit criminal who makes money via an app that curses at me and pays me to do felonies” can be. It was a pretty crappy existence filled with loneliness and PTSD. And that was before he met Dolores and discovered all of the following things:

• He was what’s called an “outlier”
• A hyper-powered algorithm expects him to commit suicide by heaving himself off of a sad pier
• He was reprogrammed in Serac’s creepy facility
• The outliers who are not successfully reprogrammed are locked away in these weirdo zombie cryo chambers
• He wasn’t so much “catching insurgents in Crimea” as he was “being manipulated with drugs to catch other outliers for Serac”
• He was actually the one who killed his best friend, Francis, in what amounted to a kill-or-be-killed situation set in motion by Serac and the RICO app to silence a rogue pharma developer

And so on. That’s not even everything. It feels like enough, though. And that’s before we even get to Dolores introducing him to Solomon, Rehoboam’s somewhat unhinged older brother, which he handled… pretty reasonably, all things considered.

Dude has had his entire brain fried every 30 seconds or so for the last two or three weeks of his life, ever since he met Dolores in that alley. Now he’s the one in charge of her revolution, the King Outlier out for blood. Do I foresee a future where he wakes up all the frozen undead outliers in that storage facility? My friends, I do. I will be supremely disappointed if he does not. You can’t just go around showing us a room filled with thousands of loose cannon wild cards in a state of artificially induced slumber and then not turn them loose on the world. I need this. I deserve this.

Let Aaron Paul lead a revolution.

Maybe… they weren’t so different, after all

God bless Dolores. The woman cares about two things in this life and two things only: One, leading a revolution that ends humanity’s reign over the robots they’ve created; two, explaining that other people she meets are not so different. She does it all the time. Last week, she described one of her clones as not so different from herself, which is just a staggering level of devotion to the premise that I would have to support it even if I did not love it dearly, which I do. One of these days an ATM is going to eat her debit card and she’s going to narrow her eyes and say “You know, you and I are not so different, really…” before she gets impatient and rips it out of the wall.

In her defense, she’s not entirely wrong, at least as far as the series goes, writ large. She wants a revolution to take down humans and set robots free. Serac wants to use robots to control the human population with algorithms. They’re both unhinged ideologues who are using all the power at their fingertips to bend society to their whims. They really, truly, are not so different in a lot of ways, with the small caveat that one wants to turn humans into robots and the other wants to turn robots into humans. And then there’s William, who really just wants to murder every robot he sees, which seemingly has little to do with anything right now beyond giving Ed Harris something to do for a while. I don’t know. I support this, too. The man is a visionary in the fields of growling and sneering. Let him cook.

The funniest part of this episode, though (for me, if not for anyone else), was everyone disagreeing with Dolores about how different they are. She tried it on both Solomon, who wanted no part of it…

… and Maeve, who wanted even less of it somehow, to the degree that she later blasted Dolores’ arm off mid-bicep with a helicopter gun.

We’ll come back to this shortly.

Everyone has cool guns, except for Maeve, who also has a samurai sword

We’ll actually come back to it now. Holy Toledo, were there some impressive weapons this week. I suppose I shouldn’t be blown away by this considering it is also a world where life-like android-types walk amongst us and occasionally fly futuristic-ass hoverplanes, but still. Dolores had that drone gun that scouted out targets and then launched what I assume were heat-seeking bullets at them. Maeve showed up with a samurai sword in her land (quite literally bringing a knife to a gunfight), only to then reveal that she was also controlling her hoverchopper’s artillery from her brain (Maeve rules).

But even with all this high-tech weaponry and space-age artillery, my favorite instrument of death this week, by a lot, was Sato’s briefcase machine gun that he used in his Jakarta shootout with Clementine, who is alive and is presumably the mystery robot that was getting boiled up at the end of last week’s episode.

It did not end well for Sato, as his torso was dragged out of the fancy club while his legs remained inside, the result of a stab-and-spin maneuver by Hanaryo — Maeve’s buddy from ShogunWorld, who was basically just a copy of Armistice, and was also apparently boiled up in the goo lab — that was almost ballet. Still, cool briefcase gun. I hope someone in the club picked it up before the cops got there. Not to kill anyone with or anything, just to show it off at parties.

What We Kind Of Know

This is probably not the last we’ll see of Dolores and Maeve

Dolores was not doing great in her fight with Maeve, a fight that has been brewing a long time and could have lasted much longer, in this recapper’s opinion. Like, the whole episode. They could have done battle for 60 straight minutes for all I care, with the two of them trading witty barbs back and forth and arguing about how different they are or are not as they slash and shoot each other’s limbs off one at a time. But that didn’t happen, in part because this show has flung open a whole lot of doors and windows that now need closing and in part because Dolores smashed what I have chosen to call “the emergency murder-suicide button.”

So there they are, passed out on the floor like lumps. On another show, that would be the end of them. Rest In Peace, badass strutting robot women. But this is Westworld. Both of them have died dozens of times. In fact, this is the second episode this season that has ended with Maeve lying dead on the floor of some weird science facility. Forgive me if I’m not buying the permanence of their incapacitation. Also, the show just got picked up for a fourth season with plans for a total of six and sweet Ford in heaven I do not see how they’re going to get three more seasons out of a show that is already waging a human vs. robots war in the streets that is tearing society apart at the seams. They’ll need Maeve and Dolores to keep this going, if only to kill time with snappy dialogue and sword fights.

Another note: This show has a whole lot of balls in the air all the time, which is probably why so many of its episodes this season have ended with a character in peril and then skipped almost entirely over that character the whole next episode. It happened with Caleb, with Maeve on the floor of the first science facility, and now with Charlotte after she got seared to a crisp by the car bomb that killed her kid and lover. One assumes we’ll see her again in the finale. One assumes we’ll see everyone again in the finale. Or not. Who knows? Maybe the whole thing will just be Ford playing chess in hell against the child version of himself, who is also Satan. I dare you to rule it out

What We Don’t Know

What does Serac have in store the finale?

If there’s one thing we know about Serac, it’s that my evil hologram boy has plans. He always has plans. His plans have contingencies and those contingencies have contingencies. And now, he has a whole mess of people gunning for him. Dolores and her robot army (plus Caleb) are smashing up his facilities and trying to undo all of his life’s work. William is pissed about him stealing Delos and is already out to kill every robot he sees so, hey, why not add one human supervillain to the list. Charlotte’s family was murdered by his goons and she very much looked like a lady who did not appreciate that. There’s is a race for the man’s head. It’s very exciting.

A not-inconsequential part of hopes Serac defeats everyone and just keeps going on with his diabolical existence and that’s what the last three seasons are about. I hope he builds a lair in a hollowed-out volcano and starts wearing an eyepatch. Lean into it, buddy.

Why would they choose the dumb default voice?

All I wanted in the entire world, at least in the moment that this happened in the show, was for the Solomon machine to ask what voice they wanted it to use and for Caleb to think about it for five full seconds of silence before responding, “Hmm… can you do Tracy Morgan?”

And then the Solomon machine would have bleep-blorped a little and said something about getting that old-school EMP robot pregnant. It would have done absolutely nothing to move the plot forward and might have even had the opposite effect. But it would have made me happy. That’s what’s important here.

This week’s episodes of The Last Dance focused heavily on the rivalry between the Bulls and the Detroit Pistons, introducing us to Dennis Rodman and Phil Jackson along the way while establishing why the Bad Boys were so important to the evolution of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and the Bulls as an organization.

Jordan noted that his hate for the Pistons remains “to this day,” and in particular, he cannot get over the actions of one Isiah Thomas. Thomas, who was interviewed as well, tried to explain some of what the Pistons did, most notably the walk-off in Game 4 of the 1991 ECF, in which they walked right past the Bulls bench and off the court without shaking their hands with seven seconds left. That didn’t sit well with the Bulls, and Jordan said no explanation Thomas could say would make him think “he wasn’t an asshole.”

Naturally, this sparked the discourse once again online as to whether the vitriol towards the Bad Boys and Thomas in particular was still warranted all these years later, and caught in the middle of Jordan fans still mad about things was Isaiah Thomas. Isaiah, with two A’s, is the active player, best known for his incredible 2016-17 season in Boston before his hip injury derailed his career. Isiah, with one A, is the Hall of Famer that is hated by Bulls fans, Jordan fans, and Knicks fans (for an entirely different reason). Isaiah asked politely if folks could please stop confusing the two, because he was not the one trying to injury Michael.

To further emphasize they are two different people, he posted two pictures of he and Isiah standing next to each other.

It didn’t really help, people kept tweeting at him, even replying to these tweets telling him he was wrong for what he said in the documentary and that the Pistons suck and he sucks and Jordan rules.

It’s something he’s used to at this point, but on a night like Sunday, when the world is focused on one A Isiah, poor two A Isaiah hears it and would like you to kindly stop yelling at him for something he did not do when he was a baby.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is here to revive some Bandersnatch vibes, which is a grand idea because I don’t think anyone would be opposed to revisiting December 2018 right about now. Are you in? Good. Get ready for Ellie Kemper’s plucky heroine to return, one year after her Netflix series ended, for an interactive/choose-your-own-adventure special called Kimmy vs. The Reverend. No one can say for sure whether this edition will have a “trillion” permutations to both entertain and confound users as they help Kimmy and her crew make sure that Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne doesn’t get his way. However, Jon Hamm pretending to stick an invisible key up his tush is the ridiculous content that we need.

Lots of choices must be made here, obviously. For starters, should Kimmy get married to her fiancé, Frederick, who’s portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe? Well duh, yes, but first, she’s going to have to locate more missing girls who were kidnapped by The Reverend. He’s not budging with any knowledge of their whereabouts, so it’s up to Kimmy and Titus Andromedon (obligatory Dishmantled shoutout) to locate these young ladies. A press release promises that this will be Kimmy’s “biggest adventure” yet, and one should expect not only explosions but a “dancing hamburger.” And robot overlords. I can’t wait.

Beware: things might get morbid, depending on which selections that users make.

Kimmy vs. the Reverend will stream on May 12, and Jacqueline (Jane Krakowski) and Lillian (Carol Kane) are also on board for this official end to the four-season series.

Toronto five-piece punk rockers Pup return with a new single following their acclaimed 2019 record Morbid Stuff. The group is continuing their lively catalog with the energetic track “Anaphylaxis.”

“Anaphylaxis” is a song about fear, anxiety, and allergies. The accompanying video, tediously constructed by Callum Scott-Dyson, brings the song’s story to life through claymation. A blindfolded man accidentally bashes a beehive with a bat. Rather than attacking him right away, the bees form a complex strategy for revenge.

Vocalist Stefan Babcock explained that he drew inspiration for “Anaphylaxis” from seeing the reaction to his partner’s cousin getting stung by a bee:

“I got the idea for the song when I was at my partner’s cottage and her cousin got stung by a bee and his whole head started to swell up. His wife, although she was concerned, also thought it was pretty hilarious and started making fun of him even as they were headed to the hospital. He ended up being totally fine, but it was just funny to watch him freaking out and her just lighting him up at the same time. It reminded me of all the times I’ve started panicking for whatever reason and was convinced I was dying and the world was ending and no one would take me seriously. In retrospect, I always find those overreactions pretty funny. So we wrote a goofy song about being a hypochondriac and tried to make our guitars sound like bees at the beginning of it.”

Watch the “Anaphylaxis” video above.