Month: April 2022

Is Kim Wexler okay? The sixth and final season of Better Call Saul premieres on Monday, April 18 on AMC, considering the brutal final season of Breaking Bad, the final season of Better Call Saul is sure to come with deadly surprises. Or not? Maybe it will be nice and peaceful and everyone will walk hand in hand into the Albuquerque sunset and a title card will reveal that Breaking Bad was all a dream.

The fate of many characters on Better Call Saul has always been in question, considering these characters do not appear on Breaking Bad. What we do know leading up to the final season of Better Call Saul is that Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston will reprise their roles as Jesse Pinkman and Walter White. Gustavo Fring will survive because (spoiler alert) his face gets blown off by Hector Salamanca with the help of Walter White on Breaking Bad. While Mike Ehrmantraut lasts longer than Gus, he’ll also die at the hands of Walter White.

It’s been a long, painful two-year wait, but now that it’s here, I’m kind of mad that the adventures of Slippin’ Jimmy and Kim Wexler, the kinkiest couple on television, are almost over. Here is a guide to who will live and who will die on Better Call Saul season six.

Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman/Gene Takavic

Survival rate: It’s not all good, man

Jimmy McGill will die metaphorically speaking as he gets more absorbed in his criminal lawyer persona Saul Goodman. Saul Goodman’s impact on Jimmy’s personal life is the fate we’re most interested in watching unfold, considering it’s the entire premise of the show. After all these years of seeing Gene, the Omaha shopping mall Cinnabon manager who is paranoid about getting caught, chances are the end of the series won’t be smooth sailing for him. A fairy tale ending for Jimmy and Kim would be personally satisfying to me, but for Jimmy/Saul/Gene survival is not looking good, as Saul Goodman’s past could come to haunt Gene with characters from his past coming to get him. Or, alternatively, the law could find him and lock him up for his many, many crimes. And as a lowly Cinnabon manager on the run, he’s more powerless than ever.

Kim Wexler

Survival rate: Calm but cautious

Kim Wexler’s unknown fate is one of the most compelling mysteries Better Call Saul has always taken advantage of quite cruelly. Kim Wexler is a no-nonsense lawyer but is lured into nonsense when she’s with Jimmy McGill, her bestie, his on-and-off-again girlfriend, literal partner in crime, and eventual wife. While her complete absence from Breaking Bad doesn’t bode well for Kim, if she was going to die, she’d probably be dead already. In season five, the writers treated the audience cruelly by putting Kim face to face with dangerous people like Lalo Salamanca, but she proved she can handle it just as smoothly – perhaps even more smoothly – than her husband. The best argument for Kim’s death in Better Call Saul is her absence from Breaking Bad. The best argument for her survival is that Saul Goodman’s personal life is barely seen on Breaking Bad, so he could be married to Kim and thus, at the end of Breaking Bad, has to abandon her to start over. Personally, my toxic hope for Kim is that we discover she was married to Saul throughout the entire run of Breaking Bad, and that they have some sort of reunion in the future at Cinnabon.

Ignacio “Nacho” Varga

Survival rate: Screaming, crying, throwing up

Oh, sweet, sweet Nacho. There is little hope for the cunning right-hand man to cartel crime lords in the Salamanca family. Everything is always working against Nacho: he longs for a peaceful life free of crime, but just when he gets close to getting out, he’s pulled back in (very Italian of him!). Nacho has been in a vulnerable position for a while as a mole within the Salamanca family on behalf of Gustavo Fring. Nacho left season five in a precarious position: escaping Lalo’s house, where he had let assassins in to kill him. There’s a slim chance Nacho survives the season, let alone makes it back to Albuquerque. I am personally rooting for Nacho to grab the fake IDs in his safe so he and his father can live a peaceful life together far, far, away from all this. Nacho is mentioned on Breaking Bad in passing by Saul in his first episode, but it’s possible Saul is unaware of Nacho’s fate. Unfortunately, Nacho’s survival is about as likely as me marrying Oscar Isaac.

Lalo Salamanca

Survival rate: Looking good

Even in death, Lalo Salamanca – and Tony Dalton’s extraordinary performance – will live in our hearts and minds forever. At this point, things are coming up Lalo, so his fate seems pretty secure: he just escaped an assassination attempt and like Nacho, Lalo is mentioned by Saul on Breaking Bad, who is relieved when he finds out that Walter and Jesse aren’t working for Lalo. This line suggests that Lalo is alive, and it’s unlikely that the writers would rewrite their own history. The biggest question with Lalo is the biggest question with Kim Wexler: why is this character completely absent from Breaking Bad?

Howard Hamlin

Survival rate: 50/50

Howard Hamlin will most likely sail through the final season smoothly, but he could be a goner as a result of collateral damage or getting embroiled in something he doesn’t understand, such as Jimmy’s involvement with the cartel. Howard has always been an antagonist to Jimmy throughout the series, but a death — especially if it’s an indirect result of Jimmy’s involvement with the cartel and the Salamancas — could be the ultimate, unexpected gut punch.

Manuel Varga

Survival rate: Not looking good!

Hate to do this to you, hate to have this thought, but Nacho is not safe. If Nacho is not safe, neither is anyone close to him, including his innocent father Manuel who just wants to run his upholstery store in peace after being terrorized by the likes of Hector and Lalo Salamanca for years.

Following the release of the first Thor: Love and Thunder trailer, Marvel fans have one big question on their minds: Will Tom Hiddleston return as Loki in the film? Thanks to the time traveling events of Avengers: Endgame, and Loki’s own multiverse adventures in his ongoing Disney+ series, the answer to that question is… messy, but we’ll break it down for you.

Love and Thunder takes place after the events of Endgame, which saw the Avengers bring back everyone Thanos snapped out of existence in Avengers: Infinity War. However, that did not include Loki, who was killed by Thanos in the opening scene of Infinity War. So, as far as the MCU timeline is concerned, Loki is dead going into Love and Thunder. That would make the chance of him appearing in the fourth film pretty low, and Hiddleston said in an interview that the first three Thor movies have already explored all that needs to be explored about Loki and Thor’s brotherhood.

That said, these are comic book characters, so here’s where things go bananas.

Before Spider-Man: No Way Home brought the Marvel multiverse to the big screen, the Loki series on Disney+ was already toying with alternate realities by plucking Loki from his timeline and setting him on a reality-bending quest. Loki catches up with the Trickster God after he uses the Cosmic Cube to escape shortly after losing the Battle of New York in the first The Avengers film. Instead of going on to die at the hands of Thanos, this Loki joins the Time Variance Authority where he eventually bears witness to the multiverse breaking loose thanks to a female Loki variant named Sylvie seeking revenge. Long story short, time and space is completely borked now, which leaves things wide open for some version of Loki to appear in Love and Thunder.

Speaking of…

Matt Damon has confirmed that he will, once again, be playing a version of Loki in Love and Thunder. The actor previously appeared in a brief cameo for Thor: Ragnarok where he played Loki in an Asgardian play heralding the Trickster God’s “death” in Thor: The Dark World. Presumably, Damon will be reprising his Asgardian actor role, but with the reality hijinks going down in the Loki series, anything is possible.

As for Tom Hiddleston coming back, Marvel is obviously going to play that one close to their chests until the very last minute, but we would not be surprised to see him pop up either in the film or an end-credits scene where the sky is the limit. Don’t quote us on that because Marvel is all about defying expectations, but we’re feeling pretty good about Hiddleston having at least some sort of cameo.

Thor: Love and Thunder opens in theaters on July 8, 2022.

Exploding Kittens, the preferred game of your cool younger cousins in the year 2015, is getting its own Netflix show. The game, which is known for its confusing rules but cute kitten artwork, will have a new series from animation legends Greg Daniels and Mike Judge of King Of The Hill fame.

The adult animation series is based on the best-selling card game which follows God and the devil reincarnated as kittens who are sent to Earth, naturally. Exploding Kittens started as a crowdfunded project which then became a record-setting card game.

The show will feature voice acting by Tom Ellis, Abraham Lim, Lucy Liu, Ally Maki, Mark Proksch, and Sasheer Zamta. It’s expected to debut on Netflix in 2023. Matthew Inman and Shane Kosakowski will serve as showrunners.

The iconic kittens will also get a mobile game which is expected to drop in May. “The co-development of a game and animated series breaks new ground for Netflix,” Mike Moon, head of adult animation at Netflix, said in a statement. “And we couldn’t think of a better game to build a universe around than Exploding Kittens, one of the most inventive, iconic and original games of this century! Netflix is the perfect place to explore this growing franchise and we are so fortunate to be working with this incredible team.”

Netflix has been diving into the world of adult animation as of late. Earlier this year, they ordered Bad Crimes also from Daniels and Judge, and the Big Mouth spinoff Human Resources premiered last month.

Piers Morgan takes his job as the Queen’s number one hype-man so seriously, that we’re not entirely sure he’s not being paid to get pissed off at her expense on national television. Really, how else do you explain the many (many) times he’s defended Her Majesty over the smallest of insults or stormed off of one of Britain’s most popular morning TV shows because he didn’t like the fact that a member of the royal family was being painted as racist for possibly saying racist things.

Morgan sat down with comedian Bill Maher recently for an episode of Maher’s podcast Club Random, to talk about the incident that led to his exit from ITV’s Good Morning Britain and, once again, the TV personality became visibly upset over a fairly tame joke Maher made about Queen Elizabeth II. The interview started with Maher bringing up Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s infamous Oprah interview — something Morgan has fixated on quite a bit over the years thanks to his weird obsession with the former Suits actress. Maher was trying to make the point that the publicized sit-down was unnecessary, but he just had to sneak in a dig at the Queen and Morgan wasn’t having it.

“Meghan and Harry, they go on Oprah, which itself, you know, why do you need to do that. Ok, so the royal family is accused of racism. I’m sure the old bag’s gotta be 100 …” Maher began before Morgan quickly cut him off.

“Can you not call Her Majesty ‘the old bag’?” he asked, clearly annoyed over the slight. Morgan’s response was so out of left field that a shocked Maher responded, “Really?”

“The Queen has been on that throne 70 years and actually I would say of all leaders of any kind in the world, probably, despite everything, remains the most respected leader of all of the world,” Morgan explained. “You can’t call her offensive names in my presence without me calling you out on it.”

The interview only grew more awkward and contentious from there as Maher compared Britain’s strange loyalty to a group of aging nepo babies that force their subjects to refer to them with weird titles like, “Your Highness” to his own experience with Catholicism.

“Is this a good time to say I’m a Catholic?” Morgan eventually asked before the pair sparred over the difference between calling Queen Elizabeth II “Your Majesty” and the leader of the American government, “Mr. President.” One is a job title, one is a mere formality imposed by a group of individuals who inherited their rank and wealth and have done little to actually earn it, but sure. The argument eventually ended with Morgan once again trying to convince Maher that old Lizzie isn’t really that bad. How? By explaining how funny and “whip-smart” she is with a story about a royal garden party at Windsor Castle where the Queen lamented that thousands of peasants were trampling on the lawns of her immaculate gardens.

Look, anyone who’s seen The Crown knows these people are not worth this much faux outrage.

You can watch the full interview below (or just skip to the five-minute mark where all the drama starts).

Kendrick Lamar has finally delivered a due date for his new album. Titled Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, Lamar posted the official album announcement via his oklama.com website, but he let the world know in extremely eccentric (and very Kendrick Lamar) fashion that shows he’s been listening to all of the Twitter stans demanding an album update for months.

Lamar quote retweeted a two-month-old tweet saying, “Kendrick Lamar is officially retired,” with just the link to his website.

On the website’s landing page, there are two old-school Microsoft Windows folder icons. The first one labeled “nuthoughts” takes you to his statement from last August where he indicated that his next album would be “my final TDE album.” But the new folder, marked by an all black Windows folder takes you to a statement printed on official pgLang letterhead (the media company/label founded by Lamar and Dave Free in 2020) and it reads simply:

“Los Angeles, CA (April 18, 2022) – the following statement was released today by oklama through his company pgLang at 11:00am PT in Los Angeles, CA:

Album: “Mr Morale & The Big Steppers”
Release date: 5/13/2022

All factual information for this release will come directly from this source only.”

So there it is. Kendrick Lamar has finally announced Mr Morale & The Big Steppers. Let the countdown to May 13th begin.

While discussing her new memoir “Finding Me” with People magazine, Viola Davis hinted at one of the book’s main themes: the power of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is loosely defined as releasing resentment toward those who have harmed us. Most of us are at least somewhat familiar with how healing it can be. But what does forgiveness actually look like? What does it feel like? What do we do once we have forgiven?

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During the interview, Davis shared a lot about her childhood: growing up in poverty, enduring bullying and even having an abusive parent.

Davis witnessed her father, Dan, regularly beat her mother Mae Alice during their 48 years of marriage.

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However, before dying of pancreatic cancer in 2006, something changed within him. “My mom said he apologized to her every single day. Every single day, he rubbed her feet.”

And in that act of absolution between her parents, Davis realized that “forgiveness is not pretty … life is not a Thursday-night lineup on ABC. It is messy.”

Indeed, forgiveness does not equate to a fairytale ending. It doesn’t guarantee an end to pain. And it rarely happens effortlessly, or even quickly. It takes work, which can be seen as further unfairness.

Accepting the messiness allowed Davis to accept both realities. “He did hurt me then, but love and forgiveness can operate on the same plane as anger.”

Davis chose to see her father not as a villain, but as a human, flawed and imperfect but also willing and loving. She chose to embrace it all with empathy.

“My dad loved me. I saw it. I felt it. I received it, and I took it,” Davis told People. “For me, that’s a much better gift and less of a burden than going through my entire life carrying that big, heavy weight of who he used to be and what he used to be and what he used to do.

“That’s my legacy: forgiving my dad,” she added.

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Forgiveness is just as much about what we gain as what we give up. By shedding our identity as victim, life can once again be a series of choices. And in the process, we remember that now—in the present moment—we are free to make our own decisions. For those suffering from childhood trauma and seeking to break toxic generational patterns, this can be an invaluable gift.

“It’s given me an extraordinary sense of compassion. It’s reconciling that young girl in me and healing from the past—and finding home.”

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Davis, now happily married for nearly 20 years, has learned to cherish every part of her journey.

“I count it all as joy. I do. All of those things happened to me, but I own it. And it’s a part of who I am.”

Power and strength are attributes the award-winning actress is often associated with in her work, but after hearing her life story, it sounds like these qualities were also learned and developed through daunting challenges.

It takes courage to forgive, but as Davis exemplifies, it can fortify our spirit in profound ways. We might not all go on to star on the stage and screen, but perhaps we can all stand to live our own lives a bit more untethered.

Viral videos come and go. The best ones warm your heart and leave you smiling and feeling like your faith in humanity is restored. That’s what many people felt as they watched the video of a weightlifter for Bruce High School in Mississippi, whose teammates and competitors helped remove her hair beads so she could qualify to lift. The powerlifting competition was a state championship, and after the lifter finished her first lift squat, a judge informed her coach them that she could not compete in the next lift with beads in her hair, according to Holly Preston Wilkes, who shared the story to her Facebook page.

The action of the girls watching this unfold is heartwarming. These fellow weightlifters didn’t hesitate to jump in and help the soon-to-be disqualified student when they saw her begin to take her beads out of her hair. Eventually there were so many hands in her head that she had to stop helping, and in the end all of the beads were out before she took the platform for her next lift. When reading the viral post, which now has more than 34,000 shares, it appears the weightlifter was singled out due to a rule about “jewelry etc.” but beads are not jewelry. Beads actually serve a functional purpose outside of some beauty aesthetic.

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It’s no secret that the majority of Black people have a different hair texture than other ethnicities, and even within the Black community hair texture can vary from person to person. Hair textures within the same family can also differ, just like any other feature, and for the majority of Black people, our hair defies gravity. Little Black girls grew up wearing ballies, barrettes and beads on the ends of their hair, and others misunderstood their use, assuming they served one purpose, to be pretty. In fact, the use of these items helps weigh the hair down so it doesn’t stick up, which can be seen as unkempt by societal standards (thankfully this is quickly changing with more people embracing their natural hair).

This is why the video that was viewed as a sweet moment serves as a troubling reminder to some Black people. Our hair is somehow inappropriate, even when it’s neatly placed in a protective hairstyle as this weightlifter’s hair was styled. As the video plays, the high schooler’s braids begin to slowly raise as the beads are removed from the ends. There’s no clip showing the end result, but it’s obvious that the beads are there for more than decorative purposes. If there was concern about the hair possibly being in the eyes of the competing weightlifter, then a borrowed headband or ponytail holder would have sufficed. The idea that she was singled out due to a questionable rule that would deem beads in the hair as jewelry simply prove why the CROWN Act is needed.

Representation of different cultures is needed when sweeping rules are made for sports, workplaces and other areas, because no small group of people can know what is culturally significant of all cultures. We can’t grow unless we ask questions and listen to people that may look different than us. This is especially true when we are writing laws and rules that are to be applied generally without cultural considerations that may not align with what was written. The passing of the CROWN Act will help eliminate rules that may be unintentionally harmful to Black people, who are simply attempting to care for their hair in a way that is not only pleasing to their own eye, but protected from damage.

After releasing and re-releasing quite a few albums the past couple of years, Taylor Swift is laying low so far this year. However, last month, NYU announced that they would be awarding the pop star an honorary doctorate of fine arts and that she will be speaking at commencement at Yankee Stadium on May 18. Now, she’s being championed by the science community who are naming a newly discovered species of millipede after her.

According to Phys.org, 16 new species of millipede were found in the Appalachian Mountains. Thanks to the “All Too Well” singer, one species goes by Nannaria swiftae. Virginia Tech scientists announced the species in a paper, in which one author named Derek Hennen wrote: “Her music helped me get through the highs and lows of graduate school, so naming a new millipede species after her is my way of saying thanks.”

Though Swift has been laying low, she recently shared some kind words in support of her collaborator Phoebe Bridgers in a recent interview. “I think that the specificity of Phoebe’s lyrics and the vulnerability she expresses in her voice when she delivers them is what makes her music so deeply impactful and moving for me as a fan,” she said. “You feel like she’s reliving a precise memory or delivering a secret message to someone and you get the privilege to read it or hear about it.”

The partnership between Rocket League and NASCAR that began in 2021 was a perfect crossover opportunity between brand and game. Every car in NASCAR is designed to reach the highest speeds possible as they race one another, so why not take some of these same cars and give them rocket boosters so they can play soccer.

Now, the two sides are continuing this partnership into 2022 with Rocket League introducing a NASCAR themed Fan Pass. The NASCAR Fan Pass will give players cars, items, and more from some of their favorite NASCAR drivers, cars, and teams. Starting April 20, fans will be able to purchase the Fan Pass and gain access to the NASCAR Next Gen Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, and Toyota Camry. Alongside this they will also be able to choose from nine different decals including:

• Front Row Motorsports #34 (NASCAR Next Gen Ford Mustang Decal)
• RFK Racing #17 (NASCAR Next Gen Ford Mustang Decal)
• Stewart-Haas Racing #4 (NASCAR Next Gen Ford Mustang Decal)
• Team Penske #12 (NASCAR Next Gen Ford Mustang Decal)
• Hendrick Motorsports #5 (NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro Decal)
• Spire Motorsports #7 (NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro Decal)
• Trackhouse Racing #1 (NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro Decal)
• Richard Childress Racing #8 (NASCAR Next Gen Chevrolet Camaro Decal)
• Joe Gibbs Racing #19 (NASCAR Next Gen Toyota Camry Decal)

More information can be found in a Rocket League blog post explaining the fan pass and how it works.

The 2022 NASCAR Fan Pass will be available for 1100 Credits from April 20 through April 26. Throughout the year more NASCAR-themed items will be added automatically to players’ inventories thanks to the pass. Content drops can be expected around upcoming races and this first one will coincide with the GEICO 500 Race at Talladega.

This Easter’s the first one in years where gathering has really been possible, but that didn’t discourage or distract any of the usual far-right suspects from tweeting unfortunate messages. Lauren Boebert received a Bible-school lesson while Rudy Giuliani melted down. Ex-President Trump nodded towards the “radical left maniacs” in his own way, but what of Don Jr? You know he had one locked and loaded.

Don Jr., he of the glassy-eyed rants that inspires “Motel 6” jokes and the amped-up Fox News sightings and who (not too terribly long ago) appeared to snag a right-wing meme that pulled the “come and take it” card with a trio of gun and ammo-brandishing human-bunny rabbits.

It was, to be certain, a very bizarre way to mark the religious holiday that often goes the way of Easter egg hunts and too much potato salad. These bunnies look even less enjoyable to hang with than a box of Peeps, and of course, people couldn’t resist reacting. Not only did Don Jr. share this violent-bunny meme during a weekend with multiple mass shootings, but naturally, people couldn’t resist making some jokes about furries and and commenting upon the WTF nature of it all.

And onto the next holiday, which may or may not involve Don Jr. singing karaoke near Mount Rushmore.