In one of the clips, Drake said to 21, “You know a lot of people are like, ‘You’re the pride of London.’ That’s why that London O2 night has to happen. That’s some real homecoming sh*t. I’m excited for that.” Well, over the weekend, 21 Savage confirmed he has finally been cleared to travel internationally after a years-long limbo in his immigration status, and the London-born, Atlanta-based artist will stage his inaugural hometown show at London’s The O2 on Thursday, November 30.
“Now a permanent US resident and free to travel internationally, 21 Savage made a triumphant first international performance on Saturday evening [October 7] in Toronto, joining Drake on stage at his highly anticipated It’s All A Blur Tour stop giving fans a taste of what’s to come overseas in the UK next month,” a press release relayed.
The pre-sale begins Wednesday, October 11, at 9 a.m. local time, followed by a general sale on Friday, October 13, at 9 a.m. local time, per Live Nation.
Courtesy Of Epic Records/Live Nation
While the billed supporting artists are 21 Lil Harold and Baby Drill, Drake will likely fulfill his own prophecy and make an appearance. 21 Savage posted an Instagram Reel soundtracked by Skylar Grey’s “Coming Home,” the hook of which is “I’m coming home,” and Drake commented, “*we’re.”
Last week, Drake tipped everyone off that 21 Savage had finally earned permanent US residential status in his For All The Dogs single, “8AM In Charlotte.” In it, Drake raps, “Savage got a green card straight out of the consulate / Where I go, you go, brother, we Yugoslavian.”
In February 2019, 21 Savage was arrested by Immigration And Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Atlanta, citing “he is unlawfully present in the US and also a convicted felon.” It was the first public disclosure that 21 had been born in London. The ICE deportation case stemmed from vacated felony drug charges and an expired visa.
No one pulls off a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference better than John Oliver on Last Week Tonight. No one is immune, not even viewers of fine HBO shows like The White Lotus and less fine shows like And Just Like That…. Since his return following the writer’s strike, Oliver is back to his old cadence of peppering little shots into the mix here and there, and that included a review of Lauren Boebert’s Beetlejuice performance and a new nickname for Tucker Carlson.
One unexpected name popped up in this week’s episode, however. That would be funnyman/actor Patton Oswalt, who was probably not expecting to see his name in reference to a lawmaker — especially not on the subject of Kevin McCarthy’s historical ouster from the Speaker of the House position. The current pinch hitter (before the far-right MAGA crowd installs one of their faves) would be Rep. Patrick McHenry, or as Oliver described him, “Patton Oswalt as a ventriloquist dummy” who happens to be “dressed like a 4-year-old who’s going to f*ck up the whole wedding.”
Oswalt is taking the reference in stride. He even posted a clip from the HBO series while tweeting, “Harsh but accurate.”
Maybe it’s time to send in Justified‘s Constable Bob Sweeney to show Oliver that not everything is funny. Although that, in and of itself, would be pretty amusing to watch.
Cheerios might just be the greatest breakfast cereal of all time. Hold on, don’t come for me. Seriously, abandon your nostalgic feelings toward your favorite sugary cereal for one second, if you’re actually going to supplement a meal with a bowl of cereal are you going to reach for the Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch? Or are you going to grab Cheerios and maybe slice up some banana in the bowl?
What makes Cheerios such a near-perfect cereal is that it serves as a neutral base; a canvas for you to build on. Looking to amp up the protein? Throw some chia seeds in the bowl. Looking for a salty component? Peanut butter is a natural pairing. Looking for more protein and flavor? Yogurt that sh*t right up! A bowl of Cheerios serves as a great foundation for more adventurous flavors and you don’t have to worry about turning the result into a clash of awful flavors (nothing pairs well with Captain Crunch or Froot Loops).
If you’re a mid-level Cheerios fan or a single-flavor loyalist, you’ve probably wondered, “What’s with all those other flavors? Are they any good?” We… honestly don’t know. Or didn’t. That’s why we headed out on a quest to taste every Cheerio flavor nationwide. We were surprised to find that there are 18 different varieties of Cheerios in grocery stores now!
Can anything top the original? How sweet does this cereal get? We’re going to answer all these questions. Let’s pour a bowl and eat!
18. Strawberry Banana
Dane Rivera
Tasting Notes & Thoughts
I don’t like this one. Not even a little bit. There is an overwhelming artificial fruit smell to the whole thing that makes my stomach turn. The strawberry gives the fruit a sweet and slightly tangy flavor that is stained with a weird floral aftertaste from the banana.
Remember the Runts candy? Imagine chewing the strawberry and banana shape at the same time in cereal form and you’ve got Cheerios Strawberry Banana. If you’re thinking that’s a good thing, add milk and oats into the equation. Still sound good? Candy plus milk?
Lots of clashing flavors here. The Oat Crunch Cheerios line features a heavy emphasis on oat flavors and that bitter earthiness clashes with the tart flavors of raspberry and blueberry. Once combined, the fruity flavors finish with a bitter aftertaste that… just isn’t complementary.
It tastes like a cereal that is trying to be healthy and sensible but fruity and sweet at the same time and it just can’t stick the landing.
With 15 grams of sugar, you’d expect this flavor to be sweeter. Instead, it’s heavy on the oat flavors. Off-puttingly so. There are apparently almond shavings in this flavor, and while I can see them, they don’t add much to the overall flavor. If you strain to taste it you can taste just a bit of nuttiness on the backend but not enough to matter to the overall experience.
The Bottom Line:
If you’re picking a box of this stuff up because you love almonds, you’re going to be disappointed. The flavor barely cuts through all the bland oat notes.
As I mentioned before, I’m not a fan of the Cheerios Oat Crunch line. Each iteration of the flavor has 15 grams of sugar per serving, which is a lot, and worse than that, it doesn’t really taste all that sweet thanks to the bland oats which tamp down the flavor. This flavor has a nice crunch, but most of it ends up stuck in your teeth. The cinnamon flavor is not that prominent and fails to cut through the heavy oat flavor.
The Bottom Line:
Tastes better as a dry cereal than anything you’d mix with milk.
As far as I’m concerned, this is a throwaway flavor. It tastes like you might expect, a hint of cinnamon, a hint of nutmeg, and an oaty flavor that actually manages to work harmoniously with the flavors of pumpkin spice. It’s a seasonal cereal which isn’t a thing anyone needs or asked for.
The Bottom Line:
If you want to spice things up — pun very much intended — I guess this is an okay way to do it, but it’s not something worth getting excited over.
On its own, Vanilla Spice is a fine flavor. It has a soft vanilla quality that is complemented with a mix of cinnamon and sugar. It’s dessert-like, but not so sweet that it tastes like candy in a bowl. Unfortunately, considering other flavors that Cheerios makes, this one tastes a bit redundant to me.
There are flavors in the Cheerio family that cover this same territory but offer more, so for that reason, we have to keep this one in the middle of the list.
The Bottom Line:
Gentle vanilla notes kissed with cinnamon and sugar. A good flavor, but other Cheerios flavors cover similar ground better.
Very Berry? More like “toooooooo much berry PLEASE EASE OFF A TAD!”
Seriously, this flavor is a bit too overwhelming to be a favorite for me. The artificial strawberry smell comes across like strawberry ice cream or a strawberry milkshake and the flavor has strong sweet berry notes with a slightly tangy aftertaste that I find particularly off-putting. It’s not as all over the place as the Strawberry Banana flavor, but it’s not much better either.
The Bottom Line:
Sweet and tangy on the aftertaste. A bit too overwhelming and artificial tasting to be crave-worthy.
This is another one of those flavors that tastes better dry than with milk. The smell is heavily perfumed, which I don’t like, with a strong sweet floral aroma and a delicate flavor. Then everything intensifies the second you add milk — making that delicate sweetness too intense and too similar to the natural flavor of milk.
I can see this working with chocolate milk, but with regular milk, or something plant-based, it’s too sweet to be palatable.
The Bottom Line:
Better dry than with milk. And even dry… not all that great.
If you’re hoping this is Cheerio’s answer to Cinnamon Toast Crunch, we’re sorry to break it to you — it’s not. The cinnamon is represented much more naturally here, focusing on the spicier qualities of cinnamon and less on the sugar. There is still a hint of sweetness, but it’s very gentle.
It’s a great flavor, but it tastes so plain that I wonder if adding your own cinnamon into a bowl of standard Cheerios wouldn’t yield better results.
The Bottom Line:
Definitely has cinnamon but this is not Cinnamon Toast Crunch in Cheerio form. Expect gentle flavors and mild sweetness here.
This cereal is Cheerios’ version of Apple Jacks but with a tamer flavor that doesn’t turn your milk into candy. The cereal has a strong cinnamon smell which dominates the overall flavor with a gentle crispy green apple flavor on the aftertaste. A single serving packs 12 grams of sugar which puts it on the sweet cereal side of the spectrum, but the flavor never comes across as overwhelming thanks to the balance from the spicy cinnamon.
The Bottom Line:
A gentler version of Apple Jacks with a focus on spicy cinnamon flavors.
What’s this? An Oat Crunch flavor that I actually like?
I didn’t think it was possible but the Oats and Honey Oat Crunch is easily the best flavor in the Oat Crunch Family. The rustic earthy and bland oat flavor matches perfectly with the floral sweetness of honey, resulting in a cereal with a great flavor and an even better texture. It’s audibly crunch, smells like fresh oatmeal, and tastes delicious!
The Bottom Line:
A flavor that justifies the entire Cheerios Oat Crunch line’s existence.
I was fully expecting to dislike this one due to the very strong artificial lemon smell it has, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that this flavor is pretty, pretty good. Unlike most flavors it’s frosted, which gives it more of a dessert-like quality. But the light citrus flavor keeps the flavors balanced, offering something that is sweet but delicately so.
It has echoes of a lemon meringue pie, but it’s not nearly as sweet as the real thing.
The Bottom Line:
The smell is off-putting but this gently sweetened flavor offers a lot of interesting complexity that makes you forget you’re eating something as bland as Cheerios.
At first glance, I wrote this flavor off as your typical chocolate cereal in the vein of Cocoa Pebbles or Cocoa Puffs but it’s less intensely sweet than those options. The cocoa has an addicting earthy and slightly bitter flavor that dominates the overall flavor and pairs nicely with the oat flavor, though there is some sweetness on the backend that keeps it from tasting like straight-up dark chocolate.
It’s a sweet cereal that still comes across as healthy. It’s not, it has 10 grams of sugar per serving, the same as Cocoa Pebbles and Cocoa Puffs, but it tastes more sophisticated… if that’s important to you.
The Bottom Line:
Delicious, Cheerio’s Chocolate has a strong natural cocoa flavor and the perfect amount of sweetness to make it all palatable. For true breakfast cereal complexity, reach for the Real Cocoa and Peanut Butter flavor which is a marked improvement over this.
A strong sweet blueberry smell jumps from the bowl, intensifying once milk is added. The flavor is a lot more tame than the smell would suggest though, there is still a prominent neutral oat flavor to it kissed by a light slightly sweet blueberry aftertaste. At 10 grams of sugar per serving, Blueberry Cheerios are right in line with the more sugary options on the shelves but don’t taste as candy-sweet.
The Bottom Line:
A pretty solid flavor. Equal parts oaty and sweet with a dark fruity finish.
Simply one of the best flavors in the whole Cheerio family. The smell comes across as earthy and natural, almost like homemade trail mix. The chocolate flavor is very natural, almost bitter — leaning on the dark chocolate side while the peanut butter adds a hint of sweetness and a nutty aftertaste that pairs harmoniously with the cocoa.
This is one of the flavors in which the oat notes of the Cheerio base are less apparent, so if you like the cholesterol-lowering qualities of Cheerios but can’t stand the taste, this is the flavor for you.
The Bottom Line:
Natural cocoa and peanut butter flavors combine for one of the all-time best Cheerio flavors.
Ahh the OG, what’s not to love? A lot actually. This is one of those love-it-or-hate-it cereals, either you think Cheerios are great or it’s one of the blandest cereals in existence. Both can be true! Personally, I like to slice up a banana in every bowl of Cheerios I eat. Is that cheating? I don’t think so because I wouldn’t do that in a superior flavor like Honey Nut Cheerios, the blandest of this flavor is its strength!
Each serving of Cheerios only has two grams of sugar, which means most of what you taste here is the natural flavor of oat which… sort of tastes like wet cardboard. I’m not going to pretend Cheerios have a naturally delicious flavor, but this is still a cereal worth keeping stocked in your pantry, especially if you like to add fruit to your cereal but don’t want to go overboard on the added sugars.
Multigrain Cheerios are the perfect middle ground between OG and Honey Nut. There is a bit more sugar here (8 grams) but not quite as much as what you get from Honey Nut Cheerios. Multigrain smartly relies on some mixed grains (corn, rice, and rice) to add sweetness and an overall more complex character than the bland flavor of the OG.
This is my go-to bowl when I want a cereal that is healthy, easy on the sugar, but still has that neutral oat flavor that I can build upon with extra ingredients like banana, real strawberries, or blueberries.
The Bottom Line:
A touch of sweetness, but not overwhelmingly so. Imagine Cheerios, but elevated and more complex.
Are you surprised? In the opening of this piece, I mentioned that the major strength of Cheerios is that it’s a canvas that you can build upon, and the best flavor of Cheerios is the one that does exactly that. Taking the neutral oat flavor of the original, and adding sweet sugary honey to the equation, resulted in not only the best flavor in the Cheerios family but quite possibly the best cereal of all time.
I won’t sugarcoat — pun intended — what makes this cereal so delicious. A single bowl is 12 grams of sugar, that’s 10 more grams than the Original flavor. Those 10 grams go a long way to make this cereal perfect. That earthy oat flavor is still present on the aftertaste, but the majority of what you’re getting here is sweet floral almost nutty honey, a natural complement to the bland flavor of oats.
The Bottom Line:
The greatest Cheerios flavor of all time. Is it healthy? Not really, but with flavors this good, who cares?
Over the summer, a devastating wildfire destroyed homes and damaged several Hawaiian communities, Many celebrities took to their social media accounts to share images and resources, though that didn’t sit well with many of us normal folks who aren’t worth several million.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johson, who often has good intentions (he did star in The Scorpion King after all) launched a fund alongside Oprah Winfrey (net worth $2.8 billion) and fans were not happy about the two celebrities asking their followers to give money to those in need when said celebrities have more than your average Instagram user. The Rock, a man of the people, has decided to apologize.
Johnson/Mr. Rock posted a video on his Instagram account apologizing for the ordeal. “When we first launched the fund, there was some backlash that came with launching the fund. I get it, and I completely understand, and I could have been better. And next time, I will be better.” Johnson added, before mentioning that “money ain’t falling out of the sky, and it’s not growing on trees,” unless you star in Fast and Furious franchise, of course. “The last thing you want to hear when you are living from paycheck to paycheck is someone asking you for money, especially when the person asking you for money already has a lot of money,” he added. At least he’s aware of the fact that “The Rock Net Worth” is something that most people know how to Google.
Johnson commented on the post with another note to his fans: “You always tell me the truth – good or bad – I’ll always appreciate and protect that straight talk between us – you have my word to always listen, learn, grow and do better I’ve never launched a fund before – trust me, I’m a quick study and learn my lessons fast.” This is why we will probably never get another Black Adam film, too.
Even though Mr. Rock learned his lesson, Oprah, on the other hand, is still receiving backlash for other reasons. Maybe it’s time for her to read a book in a tree and keep quiet for a little bit.
Every Monday, Billboard unveils the top 10 songs on the latest Hot 100 chart. The most recent rankings, for the chart dated October 14, are out now, so let’s run down who had this week’s biggest hits.
10. Rema and Selena Gomez — “Calm Down”
Rema and Gomez’s “Calm Down” is starting to do just that, as their pair’s hit fell from No. 9 to rounding out the top 10 this week. It previously peaked at No. 3.
9. Olivia Rodrigo — “Vampire”
Rodrigo’s “Vampire” is also cooling off some, as it was No. 7 this week but now finds itself at No. 9. What’s red-hot, though, is the buzz surrounding her exclusive concert tonight.
8. Gunna — “F*kumean”
Gunna recently joked about his weight loss, but he’s not losing on the Hot 100, where “F*kumean” is No. 8 just like it was last week.
7. Morgan Wallen — “Last Night”
After a record 16 weeks at No. 1 (the most ever for a non-collaboration), Wallen’s “Last Night” is still hanging around the top 10, dropping from 6 to 7 this week.
“I Remember Everything” had a one-spot dip this week, but it’s currently atop the Streaming Songs, Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, and Hot Rock Songs charts.
5. Jung Kook — “3D” Feat. Jack Harlow
This week’s biggest debut belongs to Jung Kook and Harlow. With the first week on the Hot 100 for “3D,” Jung Kook becomes the first BTS member with multiple top-10 solo songs.
4. Luke Combs — “Fast Car”
Combs’ Tracy Chapman cover is still bobbing around the top 10: It peaked at No. 2, it was No. 3 last week, and now it’s taken a slight dip to No. 4.
3. Taylor Swift — “Cruel Summer”
Summer’s over but Swiftie season never really seems to be: “Cruel Summer” had a bit of a rebound this week, jumping from No. 4 to No. 3.
2. SZA — “Snooze”
“Snooze” achieved a new Hot 100 best at No. 2 last week and it’s continuing to ride that high by holding down the silver-medal spot for a second consecutive week.
1. Doja Cat — “Paint The Town Red”
Last week, “Paint The Town Red” became Doja’s first song to spend multiple weeks at No. 1, and now it continues to increase Doja’s duration record with a third nonconsecutive week on top.
This week’s #Hot100 top 10 (chart dated Oct. 14, 2023).
Just the thought of Arnold Schwarzenegger being your dad is scary, right? You scratched the car or got a D in Chemistry and now the Terminator is bounding up the stairs to your room. Absolutely terrifying.
Turns out, the reality isn’t far off from that description. According to an excerpt from Schwarzenegger’s new book, Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life, the muscle-bound actor was not shy about using shows of strength to get his kids to act right. Case in point: He once threw his son Patrick’s mattress out the window because he didn’t make his bed in the morning.
On Monday morning, he stopped by The View to regale the panel with another tale of his parenting methods, and this one involved copious amounts of fire.
“Katherine would leave her shoes there by the fireplace. I would say, ‘Katherine, if you leave your shoes there one more time and don’t put it in the mudroom or your room, I’m gonna throw them in the fireplace,’” he recalled. “Sure enough, the next time she left them there, I took the shoes and threw them in the fire. They burned and she was crying but she never left her shoes there again.”
According to Schwarzenegger, those parenting skills have been passed down, and he’s proud to see his daughter Katherine and husband Chris Pratt lay down the law.
“Chris Pratt — he’s a very strict father and he’s a really good father and a good husband,” Arnold said. “And my daughter’s fantastic. She uses all the rules that my wife used to use. Maria [Shriver] was a fantastic mother always and still is. And also the rules that I used.”
However, now that he’s older, Arnold gets to enjoy the parenting delight of letting his grandkids do “anything they want” and then hand them back to mom and dad.
“The bottom line is, now I don’t have to be strict,” the actor said. “The grandchildren can come over. I play with them, they play with the animals, I let them ride on the donkey and the pony, I let them play with the horses and with the pig, feed the dogs and all this kind of stuff.”
I’m desperate for the day when we no longer have to write explainer articles about terrorist attacks, but unfortunately and tragically, today is not that day. More than 260 bodies have been recovered so far from the site of the Tribe Of Nova trance music festival in Re’im, a village in southern Israel, after “Palestinian militants stormed the festival and opened fire as part of a huge surprise attack on Israel” on Saturday, October 7, as BBC News relayed — citing a rescue agency called Zaka.
As per The New York Times, Hamas is “the Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip,” and it “launched its largest surprise attack in decades,” and as of this morning, October 9, “more than 1,100 people have been killed in Israel and Gaza […] with the death roll expected to rise.”
According to multiple reports from such reputed sources as The Washington Postand The New Yorker, the Nova festival (also referred to as Supernova Sukkot) “was one of the first sites targeted.” CNN described the festival grounds as being “in a rural farmland area near the Gaza-Israel border.”
“We sing for our brothers and sisters, who they themselves were singing at the Supernova Sukkot festival in Israel,” Bono said in the below clip. “We sing for those. Our people. Our kind of people. Music people. Playful, experimental people. Our kind of people. We sing for them.”
WATCH: Bono and @U2 take a moment during a concert in Las Vegas on Sunday to pay respects to the over 260 Israelis and foreign nationals who were murdered at the Nova music festival by Hamas terrorists on Saturday
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is back and with it comes a slew of musical guests. Now that the Writer’s Guild of America’s strike is officially over, those recording artists who have new projects to promote are able to once again bring their talents to the late-night TV audience.
Here Are The Musical Guests For The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon This Week
Monday, October 9
There is no musical guest listed for Monday.
Tuesday, October 10 — Rod Wave
Tuesday’s musical guest is Tallahasee rapper/crooner Rod Wave. Rod is currently promoting his fifth studio album, Nostalgia, which came out on September 15, 2023 and features appearances from 21 Savage, Sadie Jean, and Wet. He’s released five singles thus far, including “Fight The Feeling,” “Call Your Friends,” “Come See Me,” “Boyz Don’t Cry,” and “Checkmate.”
Wednesday, October 11 — Bailey Zimmerman
Louisville, Illinois singer-songwriter Bailey Zimmerman is the guest on Wednesday. The 23-year-old country and rock singer is best known for his songs “Fall in Love” and “Rock and a Hard Place”, which both reached No. 1 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart. He released his debut album, Religiously. The Album., on May 12 via Warner Nashville.
Thursday, October 12 — Raye
On Thursday, Tooting, London pop-R&B singer Raye will bring songs from her debut studio album My 21st Century Blues to the Tonight Show stage. Despite only turning 26 years old later this month, Raye has already been nominated for numerous awards, including four Brit Awards and a Mercury Prize.
Friday, October 13 —Kelly Clarkson
You know her, you love her; Kelly Clarkson will do double duty on The Tonight Show, where she’ll be the guest and the musical guest, taking the hot seat opposite her fellow talk show host, Jimmy Fallon. She’s been in all three positions — guest, singer, and host — a bunch over the course of her career, so she should be comfortable with however it turns out.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The Exorcist: Believer was the number one movie at the box office this weekend and a lot was made out of Ellen Burstyn’s return to the franchise as Chris MacNeil for the first time since since William Friedkin’s original film in 1973. Leslie Odom Jr’s Victor Fielding enlists Chris’s help after his own daughter is possessed, just as Chris’s daughter, Reagan, had been possessed in the first film.
[Spoilers ahead.]
So, Burstyn isn’t in the film all that long when she confronts a possessed child. As a viewer, we are thinking, oh, here we go. Chris MacNeil is going to show this demon who’s boss. Instead, the possessed child jumps onto Chris MacNeil’s face and stabs both of her eyes out with a crucifix, leaving her blind and confined to a hospital for the rest of the film. It’s pretty shocking! At the very end, Chris is reunited with Reagan (Linda Blair) after the two had been estranged since shortly after the events of the first film.
So why did David Gordon Green convince Burstyn to come back and then have her character’s eyes stabbed out? I asked him just that.
“When I was pitching it to her for the first time, before she’d read the script, I was telling her,” said Green. “She’s like, ‘David, you’re not going to kill Chris, are you?’ But I wanted her character…. I worked backwards.”
“I wanted her character and Regan to reconnect,” he explains. “I wanted there to be warmth, and I wanted the good guys to win. But I wanted the bad guys to get a mark on the board.”
What’s interesting about the way David Gordon Green works is he’s not necessarily trying to make a crowd-pleasing story. Which, yes, sometimes frustrates viewers. And here, Green admits that’s exactly what he was trying to come up with, a frustrating conclusion.
“And I thought, what more frustrating ending could there be than to have this reunion, but not be able to see your daughter?” Green continues, “And the last thing she says is, ‘I wonder if I’ll ever see her again.’ And then the answer is no. You’re blind for that moment. And so I want it to be life-affirming in some ways. But I also feel like you can’t make it too clean cut for an audience to acknowledge that connection without some of the frustration that accompanies it.”
It is unknown if we’ll see Chris or Reagan return in the rest of Green’s planned trilogy.
The Exorcist: Believer was the number one movie at the box office this weekend and a lot was made out of Ellen Burstyn’s return to the franchise as Chris MacNeil for the first time since since William Friedkin’s original film in 1973. Leslie Odom Jr’s Victor Fielding enlists Chris’s help after his own daughter is possessed, just as Chris’s daughter, Reagan, had been possessed in the first film.
[Spoilers ahead.]
So, Burstyn isn’t in the film all that long when she confronts a possessed child. As a viewer, we are thinking, oh, here we go. Chris MacNeil is going to show this demon who’s boss. Instead, the possessed child jumps onto Chris MacNeil’s face and stabs both of her eyes out with a crucifix, leaving her blind and confined to a hospital for the rest of the film. It’s pretty shocking! At the very end, Chris is reunited with Reagan (Linda Blair) after the two had been estranged since shortly after the events of the first film.
So why did David Gordon Green convince Burstyn to come back and then have her character’s eyes stabbed out? I asked him just that.
“When I was pitching it to her for the first time, before she’d read the script, I was telling her,” said Green. “She’s like, ‘David, you’re not going to kill Chris, are you?’ But I wanted her character…. I worked backwards.”
“I wanted her character and Regan to reconnect,” he explains. “I wanted there to be warmth, and I wanted the good guys to win. But I wanted the bad guys to get a mark on the board.”
What’s interesting about the way David Gordon Green works is he’s not necessarily trying to make a crowd-pleasing story. Which, yes, sometimes frustrates viewers. And here, Green admits that’s exactly what he was trying to come up with, a frustrating conclusion.
“And I thought, what more frustrating ending could there be than to have this reunion, but not be able to see your daughter?” Green continues, “And the last thing she says is, ‘I wonder if I’ll ever see her again.’ And then the answer is no. You’re blind for that moment. And so I want it to be life-affirming in some ways. But I also feel like you can’t make it too clean cut for an audience to acknowledge that connection without some of the frustration that accompanies it.”
It is unknown if we’ll see Chris or Reagan return in the rest of Green’s planned trilogy.
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