Category: News

The Fargo Frozen Five is Uproxx’s weekly collection of thoughts, observations, and goofball screencaps from each new episode the FX limited series’ fourth season. We do not guarantee that there will be five items every week. There could be four, or six, or a dozen. Who knows? This show doesn’t follow the rules. We shouldn’t have to either.

EPISODE 5 — “The Birthplace of Civilization” (or, “Ice Cream Sundaes And Questionable Theology”)

5b. Really just a terrible time for Loy Cannon and anyone associated with him. His oldest son, Limuel, got busted at a jazz bar and got busted in his head by the cops and found himself blabbering nonsense in a jail cell with the rest of the Cannon gang, who all got busted and tossed in the clink, too, this time by Odis Weff, although both turned out to be the doing of Josto Fadda, in his attempts to acquire power without all-out war. Added to this, Loy Cannon got into an ugly argument with his wife over their children and their lifestyle and whether you can get off of a roller coaster before it stops. And on top of it all, his youngest son was being forced to learn long division (under the tutelage of Rabbi Milligan), which might honestly be worse than getting walloped in the head by a nightstick. The only real bright spot for the man was tracking down Zelmare and Swanee and putting them to work for him, which was quickly undercut by the worst news of all…

5a. Rest In Peace to Dr. Doctor Senator, Esquire, the number two in the Cannon organization and the brains of the operation and a man who could give a hell of a speech, on a show filled with characters who can give some good speeches. This bummed me out spectacularly, in part because I really liked the character (I’m a sucker for the calm brilliant criminals) and in part because there are not enough characters on television named Doctor Senator these days (I have always said this). One imagines the events of this episode will be the thing that tips the Cannon/Fadda war from simmering to boiling, between the stuff with the children and the assassination, even if it may not be clear yet that the Cannons will be fighting an organization that’s at war with itself. This brings us to my large furious prince.

4. Gaetano was at it again, in a number of ways, starting with, well, this…

… which was delightful. The biggest surprise in all of it wasn’t that he killed the kid who laughed at him when he wiped out while dancing/sauntering across the street, it’s that he waited as long as he did to kill the kid. And then he and Calamita took out Doctor Senator without Josto’s knowledge, which a) will not go over well with just about anyone, and b) lends credence to what Milligan was saying at the beginning about Gaetano planning to stay and maybe bringing some goons from the old country to build an army. Josto is a doofus, an insecure baby who wants nothing more than to be seen as powerful, but at least he thinks things through. Gaetano just smashes stuff, often with his eyes bulging out of his head and his mustache trying to twirl itself into little points at the end. It’s gonna be a whole thing.

4b. Most of my knowledge of the Roman Catholic Church comes from watching The Young/New Pope, so I could be wrong on the theology of all of this, but I’m fairly certain that Gaetano’s interpretation of Italian Jesus as a murderous John Wick who would have killed everyone in Jerusalem had they not nailed him to the cross is… questionable. I’ll have to flip through the New Testament again. Maybe I missed something.

4a. Perhaps all of this can sort itself out for Josto without violence, though. A couple more ice cream sundaes like this and diabetes might take Gaetano before a bullet gets to him.

3. Happy 17th birthday to Ethelrida Pearl Smutny, student of anthropology and the world, the good kind of troublemaker, and, as she asserted, correctly, one of a kind. Things could have worked out better for her on her big day, as her party was interrupted by an angry Loy Cannon who was there to take her family’s business, and her beloved Aunt and her outlaw partner were taken away, and a U.S. Marshal showed up at her high school to question her, which is rarely a good thing. On the other hand:

• She appears to be writing a letter to Doctor Harvard, in character as a former coworker of Oraetta Mayflower, to spill the dirt on the things she found in the murder closet, including the laudanum, all of which toes a very fun line between devious and righteous
• When Deafy started to question her, he reached into his jacket and pulled out his carrot sticks and offered her one, which was both nice and very weird because, like, you don’t often get offered a carrot stick, you know?
• She got to deliver the line, “Well, I’m here. What’s the rumpus?” which a) is how I’m going to start every conversation I have from now on, and b) marks the second use of the word “rumpus” this season, and yes, I am officially on #RumpusWatch now

Not the best birthday, all things considered, but a few small silver linings. To quote one of our greatest philosophers…

2. A very good week for those of us with conspiracy walls covered with pictures and charts connected by strings of red yarn, especially as it relates to the possibility that the youngest Cannon, the one being raised by the Rabbi in the Fadda household, grows up to be certified badass Mike Milligan from Season 2 of Fargo. The evidence is all circumstantial, of course, but when has anyone on the internet ever needed more than that to fly off the handle? All I have from this episode are: Rabbi Milligan promising to keep the boy safe with a sincerity that stretches into an almost familial level of care; Rabbi Milligan saying of the impending war, “When the shooting starts, we vanish”; and Rabbi Milligan’s last name being Milligan. My working theory is that the Faddas and Cannons wipe each other out and Rabbi Milligan — the twice-traded son who murdered his own father in a double-cross as an act of revenge — becomes the crime king of Kansas City, with the young Cannon changing his name out of respect for the only person who truly cared for him. Or not! Who knows?! Anything can happen on this show. There was an alien attack one time. I’m just throwing stuff against the wall over here.

1. Yes, sure, Josto is getting outflanked and undermined by his large and ill-tempered brother, but say this for the man: He knows how to make an entrance.

President Trump’s last few weeks have been extraordinarily full of bombastic behavior, even by his standards. The COVID-stricken president literally went into a “ROID RAGE” while tweeting on steroids, fired a shot at the Lincoln Project, and shook his butt at a rally. Then he shredded the NIAID director, Dr. Anthony Fauci, by taking a nasty swing at his competence. This happened after Fauci dared to publicly request that Trump remove a campaign ad that quotes him out of context — all for the purpose of making it look like Fauci praised Trump’s (botching of his) pandemic response.

In the aftermath, Fauci has all-but disappeared from public view, but that’s by not his choice. On Sunday night’s edition of CBS’ 60 Minutes, the immunologist revealed that he’s had enough of Trump’s shenanigans. Why did Fauci do so during primetime? As he told Jon LaPook, Trump has put the brakes on his media appearances regarding the White House Coronavirus Task Force. In the above video, Fauci discusses how he wasn’t at all surprised that Trump became infected, and he took off the gloves at the 4:00 minute mark. Here’s his reaction to Trump twisting his words out of context for a campaign commercial: “Quite frankly, I got really ticked off.”

Here’s more of what ticked-off Fauci had to offer about the ad that’s still running in certain battleground states:

“I do not and nor will I ever, publicly endorse any political candidate. And here I am, they’re sticking me right in the middle of a campaign ad. Which I thought was outrageous. I was referring to something entirely different. I was referring to the grueling work of the task force that, ‘God, we were knocking ourselves out seven days a week. I don’t think we could have possibly have done any more than that.’”

Here are Fauci’s actual words that are being taken out of context: “I can’t imagine that anybody could be doing more.” And as Fauci told LaPook of the twisting, it’s “stunning.” Trump also referenced Fauci’s baseball arm while attacking his competence adding several made-up claims about how “Trump was right” and saved millions of lives.

As one can imagine, Fauci’s receiving support on Twitter. And maybe a little bit of fear.

As one of the best-selling and most impactful rappers in music today, Kendrick Lamar has touched many fans’ lives. In some cases, though, that can lead fans to overshare when they meet him in real life, even if they have good intentions. In a conversation with his cousin and budding artist Baby Keem for Vice, the Pulitzer Prize winner warns the younger artist about the one kind of fan interaction that will give him “some real therapy.”

When Keem reveals that he doesn’t “want to do anything the common way,” Kendrick counsels that his “interesting story” will make fans relate to him. When that happens, he says, “There’s no pressure when you arrive at that place.” However, Kendrick warns that once pandemic conditions are over and Keem begins to meet fans in person things may change: “When you do, it’s gonna give you some real therapy because you’ll know how many people you touch.”

“Because of all this shit going on, you’ve not been able to experience a fan walking over to you, telling you, ‘You stopped me from killing myself,’” he advises. “It can be emotionally draining as well as rewarding, that’s part of the game. You’re a voice for a lot of young people, a lot of older people too.”

Keem seems to take his advice in stride, though, citing a “mini-tour” he took before the COVID outbreak that helped him put things in perspective before he really took off this year with placement on XXL‘s Freshman Class cover. “I feel my thing now is to detach myself from the wrong things and attach myself to the right things, things that I should feel,” he says.

Read the full conversation between Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem here.

Keeping up with the best new music can be exhausting, even impossible. From the weekly album releases to standalone singles dropping on a daily basis, the amount of music is so vast it’s easy for something to slip through the cracks. Even following along with the Uproxx recommendations on a daily basis can be a lot to ask, so every Monday we’re offering up this rundown of the best new music this week.

This week saw Nicki Minaj and Drake contribute some guest verses and Lana Del Rey teasing her anticipated new album. Yeah, it was a great week for new music. Check out the highlights below.

Sada Baby — “Whole Lotta Choppas” Feat. Nicki Minaj

Sada Baby has a viral hit on his hands with “Whole Lotta Choppas,” and he just blew the song up even more by getting Nicki Minaj on a remix. Minaj took the opportunity with her verse to set up a play date between her son and Drake’s, and he happily accepted the invitation.

Benny The Butcher — Burden Of Proof

The Griselda Records crew has been on fire as of late, and now Benny The Butcher joins his label peers with a new record, Burden Of Proof. It doesn’t look like lining up guests was a problem, as he got Rick Ross, Lil Wayne, Freddie Gibbs, Big Sean, Westside Gunn, and others.

Yung Bleu — “You’re Mines Still (Remix)” Feat. Drake

Lately, it has felt like Drake has hopped on somebody else’s song every week, and he was back with another last week. This time, it was Yung Bleu who got the honor of a Drake guest appearance, on a remix of “You’re Still Mine.”

Lana Del Rey — “Let Me Love You Like A Woman”

Between her poetry, accompanying audiobook, and guest appearances, Lana Del Rey has been busy in 2020. She also has a new album, Chemtrails Over The Country Club, on the way, and she offered what is likely a preview of it last week, the yearning “Let Me Love You Like A Woman.”

Beabadoobee — Fake It Flowers

Beabadoobee recently spoke with Uproxx about the new album and more, saying of Fake It Flowers, “I felt like I had to write an album just for my mental health even, because I just needed to get things off my chest.”

Matt Berninger — Serpentine Prison

The National leader also chatted with Uproxx about his new release and told us of working with Booker T. Jones, “I wasn’t worrying about any of these songs working together dramatically or anything. I just knew that Booker would be able to make them all feel part of the same family once we got them into the studio. I knew all these songs were children of all these different partners I had written new songs with, and how do I make all of these orphans feel like we’re all part of the same family? That’s a lot of what Booker was able to do.”

Kevin Morby — Sundowner

Morby left Los Angeles for his hometown of Kansas City, Kansas to record his new album, resulting in an outdoorsy-sounding release. As a bonus, Katie Crutchfield (aka Waxahatchee) has a heavy presence on the record.

Ozuna, Doja Cat, and Sia — “Del Mar”

Ozuna is one of the world’s biggest stars, and he got a pair of other powerful figures to join him on his latest, “Del Mar.” He also dropped a video for the track, which seems him enjoying the sights of an aquatic wonderland.

Sturgill Simpson — Cuttin’ Grass Vol. 1: The Butcher Shoppe Sessions

Sturgill Simpson tried to have fun and give his fans a surprise album, but some online listings ruined the surprise, so he just announced Cuttin’ Grass and dropped it a few days later. It’s a departure from the rock of his last album, as it’s full of bluegrass reinterpretations of some of his older material.

Omar Apollo — Apolonio

Omar Apollo has proven himself a genre-spanning rising pop star in recent months, and finally, he has dropped his new album, which includes a Kali Uchis feature. Additionally, he’s also gonna be offering a behind-the-scenes look at his recent Paisley Park performance with the documentary Live From Paisley Park, which premieres later this month.

James Blake — Before

James Blake announced a new EP, and the next day, it had arrived. As opposed to the mostly piano-driven material Blake has offered in recent days, this collection gets back to his more dance-ready influences.

Dorian Electra — My Agenda

Dorian Electra is pop at its weirdest, and now the artist is back with an album that features contributions from an eclectic roster including Village People, Pussy Riot, and Rebecca Black. A co-worker recently described Electra as a pop star version of 100 Gecs, and that’s fitting (they’ve also worked together before).

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

Billie Eilish has given fans some new music during quarantine, like when she dropped “My Future” in July. Now Eilish has declared that more fresh material is on the way soon.

During a Q&A session on Instagram over the weekend, a fan asked Eilish when she would be releasing a new song. Eilish shared her response on her Instagram story, writing in tiny text, “november,” followed by a “shh” emoji. Somebody else asked for a color that matches the new song, and Eilish shared the question on an orange background.

Eilish has previously offered some updates about how she has been handling the pandemic. in May, she told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe that she was really enjoying some aspects of social distancing: “Honestly, I feel great. […] I feel like there’s this kind of thing that I feel like is floating around of like you’re supposed to be missing people. You’re supposed to be missing this person and be missing people in general. I kind of have this feeling of like, I miss my really close friends, I miss people, of course I do, but I also at the same time am liking the space.”

Finneas also recently shared insight about Eilish’s album, saying that his hope is for it to come out after the pandemic is over, saying, “Billie’s album, and my album, they won’t be a bummer COVID record. I have a desperate desire not to release them during COVID-19. It’s the vaccine record! I want it to be the album everyone’s out dancing in the streets to. […] Billie and I are full steam ahead on her next record. I’m working on my own album, too. I haven’t suffered at all because of my set-up. Billie and I can work one-on-one, and I’m working remotely with other artists who FaceTime me and ask if I want to work on a song.”

The third season of Netflix’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman doesn’t premiere until this Wednesday, the 21st, but details from the Kim Kardashian episode have been released online. You’ll have to wait for the smoking weed stuff.

In the conversation, which was filmed before the pandemic (otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten this photo), Letterman sort-of apologized to Kardashian for mocking her during his Late Show days (“Here we are and we’re not laughing now”) and asked for her thoughts on the O.J. Simpson trial (it “tore our family apart,” but she refused to share her feelings on the verdict out of respect for his children). Her sex tape with then-boyfriend Ray J was also brought up, with Kardashian telling Letterman that her family standing by her side “meant everything to me. When we had our first big, public scandal, that is how we always got through things, is with each other. I have my family, that’s all that matters.”

The episode later turned to her ties with the Trump administration.

There’s the Kanye of it all, of course, but Kim has also worked with the White House on criminal justice reform issues. “Hopefully, for the next multiple administrations, I’ll be working with the White House, helping them with clemencies,” Kardashian explained, causing Letterman to ask, “But do you feel that what is being done on behalf of sentencing reform now via this current administration in any way allows the balance of democracy back in a corridor of viability?” If you have no idea what the hell that means, you’re not the only one: “Well, I have no idea what you just said,” Kardashian replied with a laugh, so Letterman rephrased his general point. “I’m grateful for what you’re doing, but it doesn’t make me feel any better about the current administration,” he said.

Kardashian still wouldn’t say anything bad about Trump, or even divulge who she’s voting her — all she would offer is that she’s been told, “Don’t you dare step foot in that White House or your reputation is done.” Letterman praised her “overwhelming” good work, including helping get Alice Johnson released from prison, but “it’s a positive force that diminishes what I consider to be unacceptable behavior by the president.”

Letterman is a famously great interviewer, but even he couldn’t Kim to crack.

On the Billboard 200 chart dated July 18, Pop Smoke’s debut posthumous album Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon, made its debut in the top spot. Its reign was short-lived, though, as it was quickly bounced from No. 1 the following week. Now, three months later, the album has returned to the top spot on the chart.

Shoot For The Stars knocked 21 Savage and Metro Boomin’s Savage Mode II from No. 1 and has now spent two total weeks atop the Billboard 200. Its second week at No. 1 comes after it spent the previous thirteen weeks bouncing around between the second, third, and fourth positions. Interestingly, Lil Baby’s My Turn had a strikingly similar journey: It too debuted at No. 1 and then left the top spot for 13 weeks before returning to the top.

This news comes shortly after Lil Wayne hopped on a remix of Smoke’s “Iced Out Audemars.” Smoke and Lil Tjay’s collaboration “Mood Swings” also got new contributions from Summer Walker. Meanwhile, there was a bit of an indication earlier this month that Shoot For The Stars could return to the top of the Billboard 200: Spotify introduced a slew of new charts, and leading the inaugural Top 50 Global Albums chart was Shoot For The Stars.

Those of us who continued to watch Showtime’s Dexter well into its unremarkable, disappointing final season (back in 2013) all knew — as soon as Dexter showed up in Alaska as a lumberjack — that it was only a matter of time before the network brought it back. The biggest surprise here is not that Showtime is reviving Dexter as a limited series, but that it took this long.

The best news of all, however, is that — though we didn’t necessarily ask for its return — at least it is the show’s original showrunner, Clyde Phillips, who is resurrecting the series. Phillips ran the show for its first four seasons, and while Seasons 2 and 3 were not perfect, the series fell off a cliff after Phillips left, ending its run with Scott Buck as showrunner, and all that need be said about Scott Buck is that his next two shows were Inhumans and Iron Fist. In other words, his work on Dexter was not an aberration.

Knowing that Phillips is returning, we can also assume, then, that the revival will make logical sense (unlike that final season). That means we can expect Phillips to right some wrongs, and before we get to those wrongs, let me just quickly remind you how the original series ended: Debra dies in spectacularly anticlimactic fashion when she is shot by a serial killer and survives it, only to succumb to a massive stroke and fall into a coma. Before she dies, Debra confesses her love to Quinn (a terrible character by the end of the series), and it is Dexter who removes Debra from life support as a hurricane is bearing down on them. Meanwhile, Dexter’s on-again, off-again serial-killer girlfriend, Hannah, takes Dexter’s son, Harrison, and flees to Argentina, while Dexter takes a boat out into the sea in the midst of a hurricane. The waves should have killed Dexter, but instead, he relocates to Alaska and starts his life over again as a lumberjack.

With that in mind, there are three things that hardcore fans of Dexter probably insist upon fairly unanimously:

(1) Notwithstanding the ridiculous incestuous storyline between adopted brother and sister Dexter and Debra (all the weirder because Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter were going through a divorce in real life at the time), Debra obviously must return to the series. However, because Debra is dead, and because Clyde Phillips is smart enough not to try and put that toothpaste back in the tube, the only way to make that happen is for Debra to be Dexter’s dark passenger, the devil on his shoulder telling him what to do. She would be very well suited to that role.

(2) That brings us to the second thing that needs to happen: Hannah has to die. In fact, this can even be the main storyline. She continues to kill people, putting Harrison’s life in danger (or doing something that gets Harrison killed), and Dexter returns to avenge Harrison’s death. This works well with Debra as his dark passenger, because no one hated Hannah more than Debra (who was once poisoned by Hannah). She’ll be happy to encourage Dexter to kill Hannah, although I’m sure that Dexter will continue to wrestle with his sexual feelings toward her (Hannah was a terrible character, but Yvonne Strahovski, who played her, was terrific, and I’d love to see her return if she can schedule around Handmaid’s Tale).

(3) Meanwhile, the biggest mistake that Clyde Phillips must clean up is this: the revival must remain a limited series, and Dexter must be caught or killed. If they want to revive it again in a decade with Harrison (who would be in his early 20s by then), that’s fine. But Dexter must die. That was the single biggest problem with the way that the original series ended. Dexter had a code: yes, he was a serial-killing vigilante, but he only killed bad people. By the end of the series, he’d broken that code more than a few times, and by then, he deserved to be captured or killed. We wanted to see justice brought to Dexter.

Now, if they want to capture Dexter and bring the series back in the future with him as a sort of Hannibal Lector type character who helps the cops capture other serial killers, I’d be fine with that. But Dexter must finally face some consequences for all his ill actions. The blood slides must be found. There needs to be a manhunt, and he needs to be arrested and/or killed. If Masuka arrests and/or kills him, all the better!

That’s it. That’s all we ask: Debra needs to be Dexter’s Dark Passenger, Hannah must die, and we need to close the book on Dexter as a serial killer, either by arresting him or killing him. Don’t let us down, Showtime.

HBO’s ‘Lovecraft Country’ is ambitious and astounding and will undoubtedly blow your expectations away. Created by Misha Green, who’s working with Matt Ruff’s 1950s-set dark-fantasy novel as source material, the show counts horror visionary Jordan Peele and sci-fi maestro J.J. Abrams as executive producers. The show is full of literary and musical references, along with monsters, both in-your-face and figurative; we’ll discuss the resulting symbolism on a weekly basis.

Lovecraft Country‘s penultimate first-season episode performed its own retelling of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre. The show went operatic, as opposed to the cinematic approach that Damon Lindelof took with the burning of Black Wall Street in Watchmen, and the journey not only unearthed the Book of Names, but it allowed Montrose to gain some much-needed closure. Tic ended up being the “mysterious stranger” who had bashed racists with a baseball bat, Jackie Robinson-style, and the episode reinforced how Black history and horror are often interchangeable terms. My only complaint about last week’s episode was that Tic didn’t get to haul his new pet monster (conjured by Tic’s first successful spell) through the time portal. Yet the good news is that the creature came back for the season finale, “Full Circle.”

This episode felt strangely… simple. It’s the only Lovecraft Country installment that wasn’t jam-packed with arcs flying everywhere, but it did leave threads loose for the future. Mostly, it came down to Tic’s black-skinned shoggoth doing Dee’s bidding while she took out Christina. No longer immortal, the ultimate Karen’s number was finally up.

It’s a scene that reminds me of another recent season finale of an incredibly popular TV series, which I shall not spoil, but if you’ve seen it, you know what I’m talking about. I will also say that it’s awfully satisfying to see racists incoherently babbling while realizing that their grand designs have fallen apart. Leti informing Christina that all white people are now bound from magic was quite a flourish from this show.

Yep, Leti harnessed a spell more powerful than Christina could manage with the help of Tic and generations of women from Tic’s family — all the way back to Hanna, Tic’s ancestor who had swiped the Book of Names from Ardham manner back in the day. Yet another Karen goes down, with Christina representing the woman who used her white privilege to liberate herself from her patriarchial family (and society at large) while not giving a damn that she’s quite the oppressor herself.

So, we’ve got ourselves what appears to be a concrete ending for Christina, but we don’t really know some other fates. Someone’s mysteriously acquired a bionic arm, Ji-ah’s now joined the family, and uh, it’s a heck of a bold move to end the season with a dead leading man. Is Tic truly gone? I sure don’t doubt that he could be resurrected by magic. That would actually be one of the least batsh*t-crazy things this show has done.

Will Lovecraft Country receive another rodeo to tie up those loose ends? Ratings have been comparable to Watchmen, and even though the book’s source material has been exhausted, a Season 2 could very well happen. Jurnee Smollett’s pushing for this to come true, and creator-showrunner Misha Green told Alan Sepinwall that she’s in talks for Season 2 and has plans on where to go from here.

Fingers crossed on that note, but let’s check in on where everyone (other than Atticus and Christina) ended up, as far as we know.

Leti: It sure wasn’t looking good for the mother of the George Freeman 2.0 in this ^^^ scene, but Christina muttered a spell to reinstate Leti’s invulnerability (though the Mark of Cain), and she only did so to keep a lingering promise to Ruby. That was a big mistake on Christina’s behalf, although she was convinced by her own god complex at that point that nothing could destroy her. Little did Ms. Braithwhite know that a sex-tentacle monster had been hanging on the sidelines and was about to join the party.

Ji-ah: Seeing Atticus’ ex-lover pack up with the rest of the gang for the Ardham road trip? That was mildly surprising, but she ended up being the deus ex machina. Not everyone will love this, since Ji-ah was a peripheral character, and one who did not endure the horrors of the other characters in this scene, but Dee got the finishing move, so that helps. Anyhoodle, Ji-ah’s foxy tentacles helped incapacitate Christina long enough for Leti to finish screaming the climactic incarnation. In the process, Ji-ah came full circle back to that moment with Atticus in South Korea, where she told him, “We could be monsters or heroes.” At that point, Tic wasn’t yet aware that she killed men during sex, but as we saw earlier in the finale, she’s given up that habit for good. From here, I hope she becomes a full-on, sex-tentacle superhero.

Dee: After she’d been let down by all the damn grownups in this season, Atticus’ cousin got to do the final honors upon Christina with a newly acquired robot arm. Do I fully understand how the wacky spells during this episode resulted in Dee being able to command the black-skinned shaggoth now? Nope, but I’m pretty sure no one will be a better adoptive monster-mom than Dee will be. She’ll be fine. More on Dee in a moment.

Ruby: A very sad development went down for Leti’s sister. She’d finally gotten on board with Leti’s insistence that Christina must be stopped, but as we find out, Ruby ended up dead with Christina whipping up a potion to take over her body. Yeah, Ruby got the rawest deal of the season, it seems. She fell in lust with William, only to find out that she’d actually been having sex with Christina. And Ruby, unfortunately, bought into Christina’s bullsh*t to the degree that she couldn’t fully break free, though it does appear that the two felt genuine emotion toward one another. I’m not sorry to see Christina go, but I wish Ruby would have survived.

Hippolyta: Tic’s aunt has a lot of work to do at home to mend the damage she helped do to Dee by evaporating mid-season. Yes, we got a wild space travel episode (move over Vin Diesel and Tom Cruise) out of the deal, along with time portals, but damn lady, get it together with your daughter. I hope that Hippolyta teaches Dee everything about Hiram’s orrery, and then they can bond over a nice, ladies-only road trip to wherever Dee wants to go. Give the girl some ice cream, too. She’s been through a lot, and seeing mom learn to effortlessly draw the Orithya Blue Asteri character ain’t enough. Hopefully, Dee’s all-powerful arm can help get them past any road-bound obstacles.

Montrose: Yep, I sure am using a photo of Tic’s dad from early in the season, but he’s taken the most powerful journey of all. We saw him locked up by the Braithwhites and used as bait to lure Atticus to Ardham Manor. He heartbreakingly wrestled with his alcoholism while attempting to cope with George’s death and reckon with an estranged father-son relationship. Montrose came out, as well, and he made the journey back to 1921 Tulsa, where he tearfully delivered the monologue of the season. Michael K. Williams crushed this whole performance, and I truly feel like he’s the most deserving cast member when awards season rears its head.

Montrose ended the season in grief after (supposedly) losing his son, but he has a shot at being a “father” all over again when Leti’s baby is born. His reconciliation with Tic last week was beautiful, and Tic’s farewell note quoted a parting letter from a character in Montrose’s favorite book, The Count Of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas:

“There is neither happiness nor misery in the world; there is only the comparison of one state with another, nothing more. He who has felt the deepest grief is best able to experience supreme happiness.”

Since Atticus previously verbalized his suspicions that Montrose loved The Count Of Monte Cristo because the protagonist successfully pursued revenge, I gotta wonder if a Season 2 will see Montrose pursuing some form of revenge for Tic’s death. You might be asking: revenge against whom? He’ll figure something out, no doubt.

Tic’s ancestors: Did Hanna, Hattie, and Dora all really disappear with a puff of smoke during a spell, or are they simply hanging out and waiting for more action? For that matter, did Tic actually kill Titus Braithwhite during that heart-extracting ritual? The dude was already dead, after all, and ghosts can always come back for more haunting. So many questions. We’ve got to have a Season 2 to answer them all. Let’s do this, HBO.

There was a lot for John Oliver to cover during Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, including Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation hearings (“She dodged almost everything she was asked, and partly because this hearing was preordained by the Republicans”) and Donald Trump’s town hall (Trump’s creepy smile looks “like someone dropped their dentures into a jack-o’-lantern on November 14”). But the majority episode was centered on something Trump did back in July, when his administration notified Congress and the United Nations that the U.S. is withdrawing from the World Health Organization.

Trump has called the WHO “literally a pipe organ for China,” which, as Oliver pointed out, is not “literally” true, “because the only thing that is literally a pipe organ for China is a pipe organ because that’s what the word ‘literally’ means.” He continued, “Over the last six months, Trump has constantly tried to deflect blame for his handing of the coronavirus onto the WHO, China, and the close relationship that he claims the two have.” The WHO — which is made up of 194 member states, or “nearly every country on Earth” — coordinates “global responses to a wide range of health issues, including altering the world to threats, fighting diseases, developing policy, and improving access to care.” It can also declare a “health emergency of international concern and issue recommendations” on how to respond to a crisis… like the one we’re facing now.

But all Trump sees is “something that involves shared sacrifice, trade-offs, and complexity, and [he] decided to just blow it up because he either doesn’t understand it, doesn’t care, or both,” Oliver said. The WHO isn’t perfect, but “the solution clearly isn’t to walk away. It’s to try and fix them but the only way for the U.S. to have a say in how that happens is to have a seat at the table and we’re about to give that up.” Oliver called called abandoning the organization, especially “in the midst of pandemic that has killed over 200,000 Americans and a million people around the world, one of the most ill-advised, dumbest things we can possibly do — and I mean that f*cking literally.”

Watch the segment above.