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When the first John Wick film hit theaters, it was a modest hit that made $86 million at the box office on a roughly $30 million budget. Not exactly blockbuster numbers, but still a very solid return. However, a funny thing happened. The film hit home video where audiences couldn’t get enough of Keanu Reeves creatively murdering everyone to avenge his dead pup.

A sequel was greenlit, and it nearly doubled the box office of the original with a $174.3 million haul. Not long after, John Wick: Parabellum smashed into theaters and continued the trend of almost doubling the box office of its predecessor. That film brought in $328.3 million globally.

Which brings us to John Wick: Chapter 4. While the latest film did not double the box office take of Parabellum, it certainly surpassed it with $425 million in ticket sales, making it the highest grossing John Wick film to date. It also pushed the box office total for the entire franchise past the $1 billion mark, which is pretty impressive for a series that started as a small little revenge movie about a dead dog.

Via Variety:

“This milestone is a testament to the incredible work of Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves, alongside Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee, who have made it their mission to outdo themselves with each successive film in this franchise,” Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Joe Drake said. “We could not be more grateful to global moviegoers for bringing us to this incredible achievement.”

Of course, the big question is will Reeves and Stahelski try to top themselves again with a fifth movie. As of right now, John Wick 5 is not officially greenlit, or even hashed out, and they ending of the fourth did seem to put a wrench in future plans. However, the star and director have teased that after Chapter 4 debuts in Japan later this year, they’ll have a bottle of whiskey and decide if there are more bodies for John Wick to drop.

(Via Variety)

For months, there has been speculation that James Harden could leave the Philadelphia 76ers in free agency this summer and return to the Houston Rockets. Harden has never explicitly shot down any rumors linking him with his old squad, instead opting to focus on what was going on this season.

While the regular season went well for Philly, the team was unable to get past the Eastern Conference Semifinals, which once again proved to be their biggest hurdle. Now, the Harden to Houston rumors are back by way of Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, who brings word that the expectation in Houston is that a reunion with Harden is in the cards.

Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta “loves” the 76ers point guard. The franchise expects to reunite with him, sources say. Before hiring Ime Udoka on April 25, head coaching candidates were asked for their opinion on coaching Harden during the interview process, according to sources.

A logical guess is that this is a ploy by Harden to get a better deal from the Sixers, which can offer him a larger deal than anyone else on the open market. Despite that, Pompey reports that Harden’s interest in rejoining the Rockets “is mutual and not a ploy to get a lucrative deal out of the Sixers.”

After spending the first three years of his career as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Rockets traded for Harden in 2012. He spent a little more than eight years with the franchise, where he turned into one of the most productive offensive players in the history of the game and a league MVP. During his end of season press availability this week, Sixers GM Daryl Morey addressed Harden’s potential free agency, telling the press that “Scenario A would be to bring James back. Scenario B, if he’s not back, will be we’ll have to get creative. And we feel good about the tools available to us if that happens.”

Aespa is on a roll. In February, the group gave a memorable performance at their debut concerts in Seoul, which prepared them for their upcoming slot at Governors Ball. Earlier this month, they shared their new mini-album called My World. Now, even more is to come.

It looks like fans have other opportunities to catch them live this year. Aespa announced today (May 19) that they’ll be hitting stages in Europe, the United States, and Latin America on the SYNK: Hyper Line World Tour. The run will kick off in Los Angeles in the middle of August and finish in Paris at the end of September.

Find the full tour dates below.

08/13 — Los Angeles, CA @ Crypto.com Arena
08/18 — Dallas, TX @ The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory
08/22 — Miami, FL @ James L. Knight Center
08/25 — Atlanta, GA @ Fox Theatre
08/27 — Washington, DC @ The Theater at MGM National Harbor
08/30 — Chicago, IL @ Rosemont Theatre
09/02 — Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall
09/05 — New York, NY @ Barclays Center
09/08 — Mexico City, Mexico @ Palacio de los Deportes
09/11 — Sao Paolo, Brazil @ Espaço Unimed
09/14 — Santiago, Chile @ Teatro Caupolican
09/25 — Berlin, Germany @ Columbiahalle
09/28 — London, UK @ The O2
09/30 — Paris, France @ Dôme de Paris

aespa is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

After sharing early singles of Halle Bailey‘s take of “Part Of Your World” from The Little Mermaid upcoming live action movie, the full soundtrack has arrived — giving fans and film lovers an idea of what Bailey’s Ariel performance will sound like.

Other tracks previewed from the soundtrack included NewJeans’ Danielle performing a Korean version of the same song, as well as Daveed Diggs (who plays Sebastian in the movie) performing “Under The Sea” and “Kiss The Girl,” two more fan favorites from the original.

The rest of the newly-released album includes Melissa McCarthy (as Ursula) performing “Poor Unfortunate Souls” and Jonah Hauer-King (as Prince Eric) doing “Wild Uncharted Waters,” as well as other fun tracks.

“It just makes me cry,” Bailey previously said about her role and impact as the movie’s lead, according to Billboard. “The fact that all these little Black and Brown babies are going to be able to feel like they’re being represented is really special to me. I know that if I had that when I was younger, it would have changed a whole lot for me and my perspective on who I am as an individual.”

The movie hits theaters starting May 26, but fans have the tunes to hold them over until then.

Listen to the full The Little Mermaid soundtrack below.

It’s not often that show in its final season is the best thing on TV. Barry might be the exception. Bill Hader’s Breaking Bad-like (jk) series has been doing some incredible stuff in its final season, including shoot outs that manage to be both hilarious and horrifying, unexpected guest stars, and whatever NoHo Hank is wearing here. But the star and creator recently learned that Larry David thinks Barry should have ended after last season because the story was (to quote a show that actually should have ended awhile ago) wrapped up into a neat little package.

“I saw Larry,” Hader said on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast (as obtained by the Daily Beast), “and he was, like ‘I saw Barry. That’s it, right?’ I said, ‘No, we have a whole new season. And he went, ‘Why?’ I go, ‘Well, I think there’s more story to tell.’ And he’s like, ‘But it’s done.’”

In the season three finale, Barry is arrested for murdering Janice Moss, his acting teacher Gene Cousineau’s girlfriend. It could have ended there, with Barry getting some level of comeuppance, but considering how great season four has been, Hader was right to continue the story.

You would think David, of all people, would know better than to send the titular character to prison in the series finale…

(Via the Daily Beast)

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny made its world premiere at Cannes, and the first batch of reviews are pretty synonymous: This franchise belongs in a museum. While Harrison Ford‘s age is the obvious elephant of the room (there were concerns he was too old for the part when 2008’s Kingdom of the Crystal Skull whipped into theaters), the biggest issue is making an Indy adventure that doesn’t feel outdated even with today’s CGI advances. These are films that were a product of their time, and it’s hard to recapture that magic.

Director James Mangold helmed this fifth and probably final installment, and for the most part, he appears to have at least cleared the low bar set by Crystal Skull. However, anyone expecting Mangold to deliver a Logan-esque finale for the swashbuckling archaeologist are going to be in for a disappointment.

Here’s what the critics are saying:

Owen Gleiberman, Variety:

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” is a dutifully eager but ultimately rather joyless piece of nostalgic hokum. It’s the fifth installment of the “Indiana Jones” franchise, and though it has its quota of “relentless” action, it rarely tries to match (let alone top) the ingeniously staged kinetic bravura of “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” How could it?

David Ehrlich, IndieWire:

It goes without saying that James Mangold is no Steven Spielberg, just as it would be wildly unfair to hold any Hollywood director to that standard. On the contrary, there’s something kind of admirable about the fact that Mangold found the chutzpah to close the book on the Bearded One’s signature franchise. What he didn’t find was a compelling reason to re-open that book in the first place. Not only is “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” an almost complete waste of time, it’s also a belabored reminder that some relics are better left where and when they belong.

Stephanie Bunbury, Deadline:

The latest Indiana Jones is also anything but artisanal: it could give late-vintage Fast and Furious a very, very speedy run for its money when it comes to spectacular (and spectacularly ludicrous) SFX stunts. It serves them up, however, in the same gleeful spirit that Steven Spielberg brought to Raiders of the Lost Ark way back in 1981, when CGI was just a pup, with a satisfying sprinkling of call-backs to moments in the earlier films. Where new tech really comes into its own, however, is undoing the weathering of the years on Ford’s handsomely old face.

Nicholas Barber, BBC:

The good news is that it isn’t a disaster. It’s a respectable, competent addition to the series. The bad news is that a disaster might have been more worthwhile. The Dial of Destiny takes a sudden, bold and sure-to-be divisive swerve into wacky uncharted territory in its last half-hour, but otherwise it’s like fan fiction, a tie-in video game, or a branded theme-park ride, in that it’s content to tick off everything you’ve seen in other Indiana Jones films already, but with little of Spielberg’s sparkle.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian:

It’s the first Indiana Jones film not to be directed by Steven Spielberg – James Mangold is now at the helm – but despite that, this one has quite a bit of zip and fun and narrative ingenuity with all its MacGuffiny silliness that the last one (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull) really didn’t.

David Fear, Rolling Stone:

There are needs being met here, but they aren’t storytelling-based so much as stoking-the-fanbase and meeting-the-bottom-line ones. Ford still has the fortitude to play the part. But just having him show up to crack whips and crack wise in the name of bringing back that old Indy thrills-spills-chills magic isn’t enough of an excuse to have him don the fedora one last time. “Things move forward,” one character tells Jones. “And sometimes, they move backward.” Someone may have turned the dial a little too much on the latter’s side this time around.

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter:

This is a big, bombastic movie that goes through the motions but never finds much joy in the process, despite John Williams’ hard-working score continuously pushing our nostalgia buttons and trying to convince us we’re on a wild ride. Indy ignores the inevitable jokes about his age and proves he can still handle himself in a tight spot. But Ford often seems disengaged, as if he’s weighing up whether this will restore the tarnished luster to his iconic action hero or reveal that he’s past his expiration date. Both the actor and the audience get a raw deal with this empty exercise in brand redemption.

John Nugent, Empire:

For this first Spielberg-less outing, all the hallmarks of the series are there as you’d hope them to be, lovingly preserved like archaeological treasures: there is an ingenious and elaborate booby-trapped cave system, there is a throwback map sequence, and there are plenty of Nazis, ready for the punching. But there is also some sadness and regret, a man out of time, finally running out of time, and surveying the ruins of his life; a tone that sometimes feels unusually sombre for this kind of blockbuster.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny whips into theaters on June 30.

It’s the playoffs and the Nuggets are up 2-0 over the Lakers, but it seems all anyone can talk about this week is Ja Morant and his ongoing inability to avoid being caught on camera showing off guns. Not only are sports commentators weighing in (that’s their job, after all), but even rappers like GloRilla and Vic Mensa are also sharing their thoughts. The latest hip-hop artist to contribute to the discussion is Lil Wayne, who had a much more patient outlook than many observers.

Appearing on Showtime’s All The Smoke podcast hosted by Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson (two of Morant’s finest forebears in the “NBA troublemaker” category), Wayne gave a considered, empathetic take, putting himself in Ja’s shoes and lending him the benefit of the doubt. Here’s the blockquote:

The best I could do is remember when I was younger and my homies, my squad, my n****s around me, at the age where they don’t have money. I’m the one with the money, and I don’t even know how much money I’ll end up with, but I’m the one with some money in my pocket — I know I got a bright future.

My homies, they ain’t on a payroll. They my homies, they live good when they with me. When I gotta go to work and all that, they gotta go back to being who they gotta be. So I’m saying that to say, they in them streets and I was aware of that. So if I was going through something at that point in time, something public what slime going through, I could imagine the rebellious attitude I would have if my homies is egging that attitude on.

In response to the oft-made point that Ja comes from a decent family, not the gritty streets he appears to want so desperately to appeal to, Wayne had one question: “Do y’all know that boy? ‘Cause I don’t.”

I know him from dunking and jumping, and I only started knowing him when I started paying attention to him in his last year of college. He come from a town with 3,000 people. Like, what? What y’all expect? Y’all gave him $200 million. I just said, a town with 3,000 people. You expect him to be responsible? Now we tripping. That’s magic. ‘Cause I could tell you now, I come from a real well-raised, beautiful mother, nice, you know what I mean? My mama would bust her ass to make sure everything around me was nice, and I still was a knucklehead. I shot myself. And that young man, I could imagine if I came from a f*cking place with 3,000 people and I became who I am.

Morant himself issued a statement earlier this week, saying, “I know I’ve disappointed a lot of people who have supported me. This is a journey & I recognize there is more work to do. My words may not mean much right now, but I take full accountability for my actions. I’m committed to continuing to work on myself.”

And while folks blame everything from Ja’s choice of friends to his love for rap music, let us not forget that the US is a nation with more guns than people, where many states continue to refuse common-sense legislation to prevent the frighteningly common mass shooting incidents that have plagued us since a national ban on assault weapons was repealed. So, let’s keep some perspective, yeah?

Joel Edgerton really has become one of the most fearless actors working today. Not just that he goes for it in every performance, but also in that he takes on roles that a lot of actors might balk at. (Which is why it was almost jarring to see him back as Uncle Owen in Obi-Wan Kenobi, a character without a deranged past who just wants to protect Luke.) Paul Schrader’s Master Gardener is a perfect example of this, and. frankly the perfect kind of director for an actor like Edgerton.

In Master Gardener, Edgerton plays Narvel Roth, a man who is obsessed with gardening, to the point that when he finds perfect soil he will smother himself in it just to get a better smell. He works on a Louisiana estate run by Norma (Sigourney Weaver), who expects Narvel to make sure the garden is tended, to train others to take care of the garden, and to have sex with her. Narvel is put in charge of training Norma’s niece, who has a Black father, Maya (Quintessa Swindell), who is battling a heroin addiction. And, despite the age difference, Narvel and Maya develop a relationship. But, Narvel is hiding a secret about his past: that he used to be in a white supremacist militia and acted as their assassin. And the only reason he’s not currently in prison is because he testified against his former gang. As he tells Maya, he was taught at a young age to hate people not like him and he was really good at it. The way Paul Schrader frames this character, it’s not what you usually see in a story like this. It’s not a story about redemption. It’s unclear if Narvel even wants redemption.

Playing a character as heavy as Narvel Roth, it makes sense why Edgerton enjoyed playing Owen Lars again so much for Obi-Wan Kenobi. Seriously, he seemed absolutely delighted talking about his experience going back to Star Wars. And he maintains, without being cast as Owen way back in 2002’s Attack of the Clones, he doesn’t think the two of us would be talking on this day.

So, does Paul Schrader call you? Do you call him? How does this happen?

I have no idea, to be honest. I’d love to find out! But I remember getting a phone call from someone saying that Paul wanted to talk about it. And I was like, “Are you sure, man? You really want to talk to me?”

Well, why wouldn’t he want to talk to you? He’s like a gutsy director and writer and you’re a gutsy actor. You do these parts a lot of people wouldn’t do.

I think it sort of made sense once I started talking to Paul because he was looking for someone that you would believe had a white nationalist, violent background. I think he perhaps saw me as sort of a masculine figure but also had a sympathetic enough aspect that we would start to wrestle with our questions of whether we feel like this person’s evolved into the softer second aspect of his life. Which is hiding away as a horticulturist and for, excuse the pun, turning over a new leaf. I did think, okay, yeah, I am a suitable person for this.

The last time I talked to you was for The Underground Railroad, and we talked about this then, too, but a lot of actors wouldn’t have taken that role. With this one, a lot of actors wouldn’t want to have to wear the tattoos that Narvel has. You seem rather fearless as an actor.

Yeah, it was interesting because I really thought a lot about Underground Railroad when I was doing this because you start to really question or research the idea of racism and white nationalism, or white supremacy, or whatever you want to label it, and look at the different aspects of it. In Underground Railroad, part of the questioning was about the economics of the slave trade, the trade aspect where Ridgeway fit into that. There’s a really key moment in the Master Gardener where Paul has my character say to Maya, young Maya, who she gets entangled in a relationship with, where he expresses that he grew up with people who had certain ideas.

Right, that he was taught to be racist at a very young age. Basically, if parents are teaching a kid to be this way, they will think that.

It’s true. I’m very much a believer in that we are blank canvases and other people paint their ideas on us and we question them or not. Even if we don’t question them, and then later we come to a point of questioning, I think that’s valid. So, I was really interested in the character being complex in that regard. So, I don’t see it as a kind of thing I’m reluctant to do at all. In fact, it gives me something to really think about and to challenge myself with. I will say that even I’m challenged, as an actor, challenged by the evolution of Narvel’s character and whether or not he deserves…

Oh, I’m sure a lot of people are thinking, “Does this guy deserve retribution at all?”

And Paul Schrader loves to rock the boat, or shake the tree, or chastise, or provoke.

Yes, he has a tendency to do that.

I remember asking him in our initial conversations, “How do you see the relationship with Maya and Narvel? Is it there to be enticing and exciting for the audience?” He said, “Absolutely not.” He wanted the audience to be as challenged and confronted by both my relationship with Sigourney’s character and with Quintessa’s character. That made me more excited. I kind of knew that that would be his answer, anyway.

Had you ever met Paul Schrader before?

No. Never.

What movies of his made you want to work with him?

Well, the big one for me, and cause it really relates to this is First Reformed.

Oh, that movie’s incredible.

Every now and then I’ll see something written about a movie or a trailer for a film that’s coming up on the horizon. I don’t know about you, but it’s very rare that I’m like, “Wow, can’t wait for that movie to come out. Can’t wait.” I was living just around the corner from where I am now on Lafayette Street (in NYC), and the Angelica Cinema is right around the corner. So, First Reformed was about to come out and I would’ve been one of the first people to go to one of the first sessions when it opened. I was so impressed by that movie. No offense to other directors, but maybe there’s an assumption that directors get to a certain age, or actors get to a certain age, and they stop being as challenging or as kind of thought-provoking. Not that a lot of directors never even start their careers provoking…

Because isn’t that Tarantino’s argument why he wants to stop after his next movie? He doesn’t want to lose his fastball? I don’t think Schrader has.

No. I remember reading an article about Bob Dylan when he talked about he felt like some of his greater creative ideas came when he was younger. But it’s not necessarily true. I definitely don’t think it’s true with Schrader. Dylan was recognizing potentially that something we all maybe feel is that you do your best stuff when you are younger. Maybe it’s also because I think that when you are young, you’re in touch with the real world. When you get successful, you start to move up into the hills of Hollywood, or you hide away behind the gates of your house. Wealth puts you in a different place away from regular human beings. Right?

Like comedians who aren’t as funny anymore after they become millionaires.

Also, the struggle, the life, the school of hard knocks creates great creativity out of people, too. Once you’ve got the Porsches, and the money, and things to boot, staff on payroll? Maybe there’s not the hustle anymore. I don’t know what it is, but Schrader certainly hasn’t lost it. And this is interesting, it was an event that happened to him about four or five movies ago where he got the cut taken away from him by a studio and he was like, “I’m never going to let that happen again.” He started making movies out of budget. Nobody could wrestle the edit off him, that he could say whatever he wanted to say. I think ever since that moment, he’s been happy again.

I really enjoyed you coming back as Uncle Owen in Obi-Wan Kenobi. You didn’t have to play a deranged guy. But that seems challenging, too, because the audience still needs to like you, even though you hate the main character and we like him.

Well, I really wanted to use that opportunity, because I think everybody frowns on Uncle Owen for being this sort of guy that’s just like, “No, no, no, no, no. You can’t do this and you can’t do that.” But I’m a parent, now. How do you hold it against anybody who wants to protect a child? Now, if you are the child, you feel like you’re being constrained. But as a parent you would never, ever live down the regret of not being a protector. I think that’s worth saying “no” for. Being frowned upon.

He makes a lot of sense. In real life if a priest kept coming over to your house saying your 10-year-old kid needed to go to war, “Absolutely not. What are you talking about?”

Yeah. It’s just like the movie. We need him to go to war because the movie’s going to be fun, it’s not fun if you stay on this moisture farm. We’re not sticking around for the credits. But also, part of the fun of going back to Star Wars was, also, I felt like when I did Star Wars when I was 25 or whatever, I had no idea what I was doing. I was nervous. I was scared that I’d get fired. I felt like I was just lucky to get the job because they happened to be shooting in Australia. Now, after all these years, I thought, who am I to frown upon this? Sort of going back to do a couple of episodes in this series when it’s a reunion.

It’s a reunion with a company that essentially kind of let me open a bunch of doors that led to the fact that I’m even having this conversation with you now. It’s like the stepping stones of an actor are that way leads onto way, and there’s a randomness to it along with a bit of hard work and intelligence and whatever. But the pure chance aspect of it, and the luck that you have along the way, and the people that help you onto the next step, that very significantly is Lucasfilm for me. So, I was like, of course I’m going to go back. Of course I had the best time and I remember thinking that, even though it wasn’t necessarily the greatest challenge for me, there are other things that you get to do as an actor, which are like, you don’t always have to bend your brain in a press. That was a wonderful experience and I’m really happy that I did it.

It’s funny you say you were lucky that you got that role in Attack of the Clones, but I feel now they’re lucky. Lucasfilm is lucky because now, “Oh, we hired Joel Edgerton way back then.” So, everyone got lucky.

Well, I think they created me and in a way I was happy that I’ve gone on to continue working and that I could then come back and feel more confident as an actor to fit back into that puzzle.

‘Master Gardener’ opens in theaters on Friday, May 19th. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Welcome to our Yellowjackets Sting Meter. We’ll measure the erratic, unexplainable behavior of the show’s main lineup, ranking them according to how dangerous, deadly, and certifiably insane they appear in each episode. Who’s a whacky worker bee, and who gets crowned Mad Queen of episode eight’s “It Chooses”? Let’s find out.

“Does a hunt that has no violence feed anyone?”

It’s the question left lingering in Lottie’s brain at the end of this season’s seventh episode, and one that finds its answer in episode eight’s “It Chooses.” We’ve seen Yellowjackets‘ group of teenage castaways go to great lengths in order to survive. They’ve killed animals, feasted on a dead teammate, and invented deities to pray to. But until now, their choices were passive and reactive. They made the most of what little luck they had and picked the best of some bad options.

What happens though when these girls wield their sacrificial mysticism and starvation-fueled depravity against each other? In this week’s episode, we find out. And while the survivors go on their first group hunt in the past, their adult selves are unearthing some harsh truths in the present — in Lottie’s sharing shack of all places.

Queen Bee — Lottie Matthews

Charlotte Matthews is not well, in the past or in the present. After inviting Shauna to use her face like her own personal punching bag, Lottie’s tenure as the group’s sole woo-woo witch doctor is in jeopardy. She’s peeing blood and rambling about making use of her corpse should she die. She doesn’t; obviously, but her sorry state forces the rest of the girls to embrace the darkness that’s been lingering just outside the cabin walls all winter. In the present, Lottie’s gone full Jim Jones. She’s ignoring her own problems — vivid hallucinations and imaginary therapists — and instead, offering a deadly solution to the issues plaguing her old friends, though Shauna, Van, Tai, Misty, and Nat aren’t super receptive to her methods. (We can’t imagine why.)

Nat

Juliette Lewis still feels a bit lost in the present timeline. Her older Nat seems to be a more devout follower of Lottie’s cult than even Lottie herself at this point, but to what end, we’re still not sure. Perhaps Adult Natalie will be the one to make the shocking decision to drink the Kool-Aid, thus completing the sacrificial cycle she started in the past. We’ll let that chilling thought rest and instead praise Sophie Thatcher’s performance in this episode. Nat’s been stuck in limbo as an antagonist to Lottie’s spiritualist leadership and as a love interest for a sidelined character but in “It Chooses,” she finally breaks free of both. Forced to sacrifice herself for the good of the group, she escapes into the wilderness, finds help from Javi, and ends up offering his life in exchange for her own. It’s a brutal twist made all the more heartbreaking because of the bond Nat and Javi shared, not to mention Travis’ early-in-the-episode declaration that she’s a good person.” Is anyone a good person on this show?

Shauna

In the present, Shauna’s understandably spooked about the whole “police found the dismembered body of my ex-lover” development and her paranoia triggers a sharing shack confessional that upends the careful truce the adult Yellowjackets have struck. There’s an epiphany that happens in this episode: Shauna isn’t a very good criminal. Sure, she can butcher a body like it’s her business, but everything that comes after — the secrecy, deception, and evasion necessary to get away with a crime isn’t her strong suit. She’s all pent-up rage and spontaneous decision-making and her sloppiness is endangering the people she cares about most. In the past, the physical manifestation of her anger has cost the group its leader and tempted them to embrace their own sinister natures. Someone cue up Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” because hi, it’s her, Shauna Shipman is the problem.

Akilah

So much happened in this episode. Teen girls went hunting one of their own. A young boy tragically drowned. A cult leader invited her friends to play Russian Roulette with freshly-brewed euthanasia medication. And yet, the revelation that poor Akilah has been carrying a dead mouse in her pocket all season still felt like the most shocking bombshell of the night. This is what Ratatouille would look like as a horror movie.

Misty

You can either give specific instructions for how deep to dig a grave in order to bury the body of a friend’s f*ck buddy, or you can pick up a shovel and do it yourself. Misty learned this week which option is guaranteed to keep her out of jail. While she’s dealing with the incompetence and performative morality of her fellow murderers in the present, in the past, Misty is nursing Lottie back to health. It’s not her fault Lottie suggested cannibalism as a means of survival, thus setting the group on their current path of eating each other in order to survive. But, it’s not not her fault either … What was that? Javi’s death you say? Yeah, that was all her.

Van

In the past, the cracks start showing when Van (a seething, almost rabid-looking Liv Hewson) leads the charge to hunt and kill Natalie. In the present, Van’s pissed no one told her about the murder party – although to be fair, she hasn’t sent out her terminal cancer invitations yet either – so she tosses Shauna’s keys into the woods which kicks off this whole Jonestown reenactment. Lottie might be right. Something is broken in Van and she probably doesn’t have enough time to fix it, so doing what she can to help the friends she’ll leave behind is the next best thing.

Tai

Tai’s sleepwalking episodes are back and personally, we blame the belt soup.

Coach Ben

Coach Ben goes on a walkabout at just the right time and manages to find a cave system Javi likely used to stay alive during the coldest months of the winter. Whatever you do, Ben, stay there!

Jeff

Poor Jeff. He took one look at Adam’s dismembered body and hallucinated Shauna with electric carving knives for hands musing about grating someone’s skin off like a rind of pecorino. He’s too soft for this world.

Citizen Detective Thread

• Is Walter going to help Misty, or turn her into the police? To that end, how much are we betting that Walter becomes the group’s next sacrifice to the wilderness?
• Is the cave system natural, or some kind of man-made structure?
• The hunt’s definitely going to end up splitting the group into factions, right?
• Just how deep did Natalie dig that hole?

In a truly wild twist this week, it turns out that Ukraine’s social media manager for their Defense account is a huge Busta Rhymes fan. The new update gave people a breakdown of how they’re handling the Russians in their ongoing war — taking down three new tanks, twelve armored combat vehicles, thirteen artillery, and 520 more “eliminated personnel.”

“‘Woo-hah, got you all in check!’ -Busta Rhymes,” the post read. “Total combat losses of the enemy from February 24, 2022, to May 16, 2023.”

While the majority of those in the replies were others from Ukraine following the updates, some scattered fans tagged Busta to get his attention for the reference to his 1996 song, also called “Woo-Hah!! Got You All In Check.” It was also the rapper’s debut solo single, which could possibly add to why the country chose that reference… Like, there’s more defense to come, or something?

Others pointed out that it was also interestingly timed. “Should have waited a few more days for @BustaRhymes birthday,” another user wrote.

Upon a deeper dive, the account usually accompanies their updates with some sort of pop culture quote. They’ve recently included everything from How I Met Your Mother‘s “Legendary” line to Babe Ruth. There’s even one of “Now I have a machine gun ho-ho-ho” from Die Hard.

Check out Ukraine’s Busta-themed post above.