Boruto Two Blue Vortex Chapter 2 Manga Online

KBS’s upcoming drama “Youth of May” released a four-minute highlight teaser ahead of its premiere! “Youth of May” is a melodrama about the romance between Hwang Hee Tae (Lee Do Hyun) and Kim Myung Hee (Go Min Si) set against the turbulent background of May 1980, a historically significant time period in South Korea. Lee Sang Yi and Geum Sae Rok co-star as Lee Soo Chan and Lee Soo Ryun, siblings from a wealthy family background who have different goals in life. The highlight teaser begins with Lee Soo Chan and Kim Myung Hee’s surprise reunion. They’re thrilled to see each other, and he sweetly tells her to contact him if she needs anything. The clip shows Kim Myung Hee being accepted to a university in Germany. However, she isn’t able to go because she’s too busy taking care of her family. She can’t even afford a plane ticket, and that’s when her friend Lee Soo Ryun comes up with a brilliant idea. If Kim Myung Hee goes on a blind date on behalf of her, she’ll buy the plane ticket for her. That’s how Hwang Hee Tae ends up mistaking Kim Myung Hee as Lee Soo Ryun, and their love story is tugged in unpredictable directions by fate itself. Eventually, the truth comes out, but Hwang Hee Tae still chases after Kim Myung Hee. Kim Myung Hee lists various reasons why he shouldn’t be with her, such as being from a poor family and not being able to graduate high school. In response, Hwang Hee Tae names a “bad” quality about him, saying, “I’m an illegitimate child. Is that wrong?” Their love story blossoms with sweetness, and Hwang Hee Tae even goes to her house to introduce himself to her family. Just when their relationship is becoming serious, his father Hwang Ki Nam (Oh Man Seok) gets in the way, and everything starts to go downhill. Lee Soo Chan warns Hwang Hee Tae to not cross the line, and Lee Soo Ryun gets angry at Kim Myung Hee for taking things too far with Hwang Hee Tae. Will Hwang Hee Tae and Kim Myung Hee get their happily ever after? Watch the highlight reel below!

Sometimes when a K-pop song is released, it becomes a hit and instantly goes viral. However, some songs don’t see a spike in their popularity until some time passes after their release for various reasons. This phenomenon is known in Korean as 역주행 “Yeokjoohaeng” which literally means driving in reverse. In the music industry, this word is used when old songs gain popularity on the charts. Many songs that fit this description immediately come to mind, so here are six K-pop songs that entered the charts long after their release, subsequently going viral.Sometimes when a K-pop song is released, it becomes a hit and instantly goes viral. However, some songs don’t see a spike in their popularity until some time passes after their release for various reasons. This phenomenon is known in Korean as 역주행 “Yeokjoohaeng” which literally means driving in reverse. In the music industry, this word is used when old songs gain popularity on the charts. Many songs that fit this description immediately come to mind, so here are six K-pop songs that entered the charts long after their release, subsequently going viral. 1. EXID – “Up & Down” The rise of “Up & Down” after its initial ratings has saved EXID’s career. Thanks to a Hani-focused fancam showing the song’s choreography, the group progressively climbed the music charts shortly afterwards and even won several music show awards five months after the song’s original release date. 2. IU – “Hold My Hand” Being IU’s first penned and composed song, “Hold My Hand” knew major success back then during its initial release for the drama “The Greatest Love” in 2011. 10 years later, the OST witnessed a major climb in Korean major charts. This is due to IU’s live performance of the song from her 2019 tour concert that was uploaded on YouTube in late 2020, which drew attention to it once again. 3. Oh My Girl – “Dolphin” While title tracks are the ones that are usually in the spotlight, sometimes b-side tracks sneak up behind them and claim recognition. Such is the case of this cheerful tune that put Oh My Girl back on the map thanks to an Instagram story that IU posted. The soloist also released a brief cover of “Dolphin” which led to the song reentering the charts. In 2020, “Dolphin” was the longest charting b-side track on Gaon Digital Chart Top 10 for a girl group. 4. LABOUM – “Journey to Atlantis” LABOUM’s journey is rebooted! While “Journey to Atlantis” has always been loved by fans and soldiers serving in the military alike, it remained unknown to the general public. But when it suddenly resurfaced on Korean music charts, it led to discussions about the girl group performing this resurging hit on music shows. 5. PENTAGON – “Shine” While being slept on when it first came out, “Shine” eventually received the attention it deserved a month after its original release. This lively bop finally made its way into Melon’s top 100 real-time chart thanks to idols reprising the “hammer dance” key dance point. 6. Brave Girls – “Rollin'” “Rollin'” is another career-saving song that put Brave Girls back in the spotlight. Four years after its original release, the song has skyrocketed on various Korean music charts thanks to a YouTube video showing a compilation of the group’s various performances of the song, along with comments – most of them written by men who finished their military service.

The stars of SBS’s “Master in the House” are in for a scare next week! On May 2, “Master in the House” aired an entertaining sneak peek of its upcoming episode, which will feature the cast meeting a brand-new master. The clip begins with the “Master in the House” cast freaking out in a pitch-black room as they get ready to meet their latest master. As their master watches in amusement from another room, the members shriek hysterically while holding hands and clinging to one another for dear life. When a mystery figure approaches the members, Lee Seung Gi and ASTRO’s Cha Eun Woo collapse to the ground while clutching each other and screaming in fear. Afterwards, Lee Seung Gi exclaims, “When they came towards me, I nearly hit them. I’m not even kidding.” The next episode of “Master in the House” will air on May 9 at 6:25 p.m. KST. In the meantime, check out the new preview below!

KBS has released new stills of Jang Nara in the drama “Sell Your Haunted House”! “Sell Your Haunted House” is about a real estate agent and a con artist who team up to exorcise ghosts and evil auras from haunted properties. Jang Nara stars as Hong Ji Ah, a hot-tempered exorcist and the boss of Daebak Real Estate. CNBLUE’s Jung Yong Hwa stars as Oh In Bum, a conman who doesn’t believe in ghosts but pretends to be an exorcist to make a living. Spoilers Previously, Hong Ji Ah and Oh In Bum worked together to solve the murder case of the ghost who had been murdered in the sauna of Cheonha Building. They got kidnapped by Do Hak Sung (Ahn Kil Kang), and Oh In Bum, who lost his necklace and got possessed by a ghost, started to demand Do Hak Sung for an apartment. The new stills show Hong Ji Ah facing danger in a dark alley. She is on her way home with dumplings when she is confronted by a gang. Her peaceful expression swiftly darkens, and she sharply gazes at someone with a sensitive expression. Why are they blocking her way, and how will she deal with this situation? This scene was filmed back in mid-February. Jang Nara, who gets cold easily, heated up her body with a heat pack, but as soon as she started preparing for filming, she put on a firm gaze and immersed into her charismatic character. She rehearsed with the actors several times and meticulously monitored her acting once she was done filming. Her thoroughness helped her complete the shooting with coolness and extraordinary aura. The production crew stated, “Jang Nara is a natural actress who portrays the scene with astonishing vigor. The staff was automatically in awe of this scene, and please watch the seventh episode to see what this moment is about.” Episode 7 of “Sell Your Haunted House” will air on May 5 at 9:30 p.m. KST.

Top 10 facts about Bambam are definitely an interesting topic to deal with. The birthday boy Bambam holds a huge reputation in South Korea and Thailand. Not only is he famous in particularly these countries but also in several parts of Asia. From being a member of a boy group to being part of the k-pop industry, Bambam enjoys quite a lot of popularity. Bambam is apparently his stage name, and his birth name is Kunpimook Bhuwaku. Born in Bangkok, Thailand, he is now a part of the South Korean boy’s group Got7. The 24-year-old Bambam has his own huge fan following as well. He currently has a whopping 13.3m followers on Instagram. Also, he has now made a place for him in the industry. Since it’s been a while, he joined k-pop. He officially joined the boy’s group in 2014 and has been active since then. Even before that, he was a part of a dance group that BLACKPINK’s Lisa was a part of too. After his debut with got7, his life changed completely, and he is also one of the most loved members of the group. He is also popularly known as Double B, and his attractive personality stands him out in the crowd. Bambam is also extremely charming and has a fun and lively personality. His good relationship with his group members is well known. He is, in fact on good terms with the members of other k-pop groups as well. He and BLACKPINK’S Lisa are known to be good friends for a long. Before going any further, let’s take a peek at some of Bambam’s facts. Top 10 facts about Bambam Bambams dad died when he was very young, and currently, his family consists of his mother, his little sister, and two older brothers. He was born in Bangkok, Thailand, and is also a Thai rapper and singer. Before entering k-pop, he won 1st place in a “Rain Cover Dance” competition in Thailand in the year 2007. He has been talented in this genre since his childhood. In 2012 he also appeared in the Hong Kong movie “Fairy Tale Killer”. He also participated in a dance group in his childhood where Blackpink’s Lisa was also a part of. So, Bambam and Lisa are actually childhood friends, and they later debuted with GOT7 and Blackpink respectively. To date, the two are in touch with each other and also on good terms. While he was very young, at the age of just 13, he passed JYP World Tour Audition in Thailand and came to South Korea as a trainee. Before debuting under the JYP entertainment, he practiced a lot as a trainee for more than 3years and also made a pre-debut appearance in 2013 in Mnet’s reality survival program. He holds a good grip amongst the popularity between his fans. His group got7 already has a huge fan base, but adding to that, he also enjoys a huge Instagram fan following as well. His personality is really loved and cherished by his fans. It also seems like the talented rapper and singer also has a knack for acting. In 2015 he acted in the web-drama “Dream Knight” alongside the other GOT7 members and also had a small role in a drama named jealousy incarnate in 2016. Bambam can actually speak more than one language. Born in Thailand, he is fluent in the language Thai along with Korean and English. Bambam, till now, has been extremely active and took active participation in many reality shows. He also participated in writing few songs for got7’s album and also has his own Thai rap named the seventh heaven. Bambam having quite a fan base, is considered to have a great influence in both the advertising and social media fields in Thailand. He is even the 4th Thai artist to debut in South Korea. He shares a great bond with his band members and debuted with the group in 2014 with the debut song “Girls Girls Girls”. Their debut was quite a hit and also peaked at number two on the Gaon album chart. The entertainment company with whom he has been a part for so long he left the company in 2021. After the expiration of his contract on 19th January 2021, he left JYP Entertainment and joined Abyss Company on 5th March 2021. So, these a few facts about the birthday boy Bambam hope you will like it. Till then, stay tuned, and any other new information will be shared here as a priority.

This Batwoman article contains spoilers through Season 2, Episode 12. Following the revelation earlier this season that Kate Kane is, in fact, very much alive, Batwoman fans have been wondering how, exactly, the former Scarlet Knight might return to a show that has largely moved on without her. After all, Ryan Wilder is fully Batwoman in her own right now and the show has recalibrated itself accordingly. Her unique perspective as both a Black woman and a product of Gotham’s failed justice system has allowed Batwoman to tell the kinds of radically different stories that most superhero series aren’t even attempting. And Ryan is building her own relationships with Luke, Mary, Sophie, and even Alice (sort of). Is this a world that even has room for Kate Kane – let alone still needs her? According to Wallis Day, the answer to that question is a resounding yes. The former Krypton star made her official debut as Kate Kane in Season 2 episode “Initiate Self Destruct,” and spoke to Den of Geek about the excitement and challenges that have come with taking over the role. “There’s always going to be a place for Kate in Gotham,” Day says. “I genuinely believe that she’s so integral to all these other characters in the show – if you look at Alice and you look at Jacob and Mary, they orbit around Kate.” Day teases that the actor behind the character won’t be the only change we see in Kate Kane when she returns to Gotham in Season 2: “I think the main difference is the Kate that we see now, post-season one, has had so much more happen to her. There’s so much more depth to her. I think that’s probably the main difference, and it’s very exciting.” Day herself, who starred for two seasons as Nyssa-Vex in Syfy’s Krypton, is over the moon about returning to the world of DC Comics and its characters. “I absolutely love it,” Day says. “I love the DC universe so much. And I think having the chance to play you know, more of a hero instead of a villain is so exciting. But then again Nyssa sort of flipped and I feel like this could as well. Oh, my goodness. I am just really excited for her, [to play her].” Of course, at the moment, Kate’s return probably doesn’t look the way most of us Batwoman fans might expect. She’s not only clearly been damaged physically and mentally – she also doesn’t even really know she’s Kate. Thanks to the hypnotist Enigma, she now believes herself to be Circe Sionis, the daughter of False Face Society leader Roman, who is also the infamous Black Mask. “The Circe thing is amazing. That is a whole different element,” Day says. “And I don’t play Circe as Kate who believes she’s Circe, because that’s not what Circe would believe. But then you see fragments of [Kate’s] memories that come back, and you’ll see that I incorporate more of Kate as we journey through this season. There’s just such an incredible storyline with her.” Day, who spends her first episode wearing a wooden mask that hides her face, had to rely on her physicality not just to initially define her Kate, but also to differentiate her from Circe, the woman she believes herself to be. “I’m such a physical person. I work with a movement coach before everything I do. And obviously, your face is your main form of expression, with acting,” Day explains. “So, we had to basically we had to amp up the physicality of it. [Just] really hone in on how Circe moves in comparison to how Kate moves her body. And then I put a lot of the emphasis in the eyes because obviously, [that’s what] you can see through the mask.” “[But] Kate is still in there,” she insists. “I think it’s going to take core memories and key moments and key people in Kate’s life to be able to bring back [her] memories and personality and overpower Enigma has been able to do.” It’s also not an accident that Day’s first major scenes as Kate occur opposite Rachel Skarsten’s Alice, a character who has admittedly floundered a bit in the wake of Ryan’s arrival, spending most of her time isolated from the rest of the series’ cast. And though Batwoman gave Ryan a perfectly justifiable reason to despise Alice, their antagonistic relationship has really never felt that compelling. Of course – as “Initiate Self Destruct” proves – Ryan is never going to go out of her way to save or help the woman that killed her mother. “I think the thing I’m most excited about is for Kate to reconnect with Alice/Beth,” Day says. “Obviously, the whole twin storyline is so powerful anyway, and I feel like they have so much potential as one kind of villain twin sister and one hero twin sister. It’s just so exciting for me that they can do so much with it.” “Rachel was one of the first people that reached out to me,” she elaborates. “And I know how important this recast has been for [her]. It was so important for me and Rach to get the chemistry right between our characters and to do this the right way. We had so many conversations before I even got to Vancouver – speak on the phone, FaceTime, and just really get down to the nitty-gritty of who Beth is and who Kate is, what Beth has been through [on her own], and what they’ve been through together.” Of course, Kate’s long-awaited return to Gotham does raise an important question – how will Batwoman navigate the balance between its former leading lady and its current one? The show has really put in the work to center Ryan’s Batwoman as a new and different kind of hero with a uniquely interesting story in her own right. But it’s still true that many of Batwoman’s supporting characters still have strong, deep ties to Kate. “I think Kate is so concentrated right now on trying to find out who she is and what’s happened to her in the last year that there’s definitely, definitely space for both Kate and Ryan on this show,” Day said. At the moment, it certainly seems possible that Kate may never take up a vigilante mantle of any type again. That’s more than her right, after everything she’s been through. Maybe she doesn’t want to be Batwoman anymore if she doesn’t have to be – or maybe she’d rather take up a different mantle within the Bat Team since Ryan seems to be doing fine in the cowl on her own. There’s certainly plenty of story to explore – in a way that could, should the show decide to do so, keep both women around. But it sounds as though we may have to wait a while to find out either way. “Whether we see Kate step up or not, I don’t know yet. But there is definitely room for them [both] in this show. And I think the answer to your question [about how Kate will fit back into the world she left behind] is probably going a story to be told next season.”

This Fear the Walking Dead review contains spoilers. Fear the Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 11 After months of careful buildup that began back in season 5, Fear the Walking Dead finally brings the mysterious THE END IS THE BEGINNING doomsday cult into focus. Penned by Channing Powell (who has multiple The Walking Dead writing credits to her name), “The Holding” answers a lot of questions about this mysterious group. By the end, Alicia will even meet the cult’s enigmatic leader, Teddy. But before that fateful encounter, Teddy’s underground paradise will go up in flames, as demanded by a myriad of Walking Dead universe tropes and bylaws. I have to say, as far as post-apocalyptic doomsday cults go, the Holding actually seems like a pretty nice place to ride out the end of the world. Situated in a converted underground parking garage, the group has everything it needs, from electricity to water to an abundance of fresh game and produce. Seriously, this is the sort of self-sustaining utopia that Morgan aspires to with his own fledgling settlement. Outsiders aren’t allowed to bring weapons inside the Holding, either—something new visitors Alicia, Wes, Al, and Luciana learn from cult liaison Riley (Nick Stahl). Except our band of interlopers aren’t visitors. No, in the cult’s eyes, they’re fresh recruits. Indeed, their jaded skepticism is actually welcomed! Because once cynics buy into Teddy’s message, it means they’re true converts to his “circle of life” teachings. What’s interesting about the introduction of yet another zealous faction is not its predictably rotten underbelly. Rather, what’s fascinating is that to the indoctrinated, their group is always in the right. Think about it: whether they’re following Teddy, or following Virginia, or Jeremiah Otto, or Celia Flores—in the end, it’s all the same. After all, everyone is a hero in their own story, as the saying goes. Luciana has been here before, of course. Except Alejandro leveraged a would-be miracle to build his walled-in La Colonia. Despite their collective cynicism, Riley is still able to reach past their defenses to open up old wounds. Alicia, Luciana, Al, and Wes have each lost someone important to them. (Until this episode, it never occurred to me that they each lost a sibling.) In Wes’s case, it’s this loss that shapes Alicia’s first encounter with him in season 5’s excellent “You’re Still Here.” As I said at the time, Colby Hollman’s Wes was a welcome breath of fresh air and an antidote to that season’s relentless altruism. He didn’t need healing, and he didn’t want to be saved. Rather than be inspired by Team Morgan’s feel-good recruitment videos, he retreated further into his own skepticism. And why wouldn’t he after losing his brother Derek early on in the apocalypse? In a season full of interesting twists and turns, revealing that Derek has actually been alive the whole time is quite a sucker punch. As embodied by Chinaza Uche (whom you may know from Apple TV+’s Dickinson), Derek is all warmth and brotherly love. But while his survival makes for an unexpected (and tearful) reunion with his brother, it also raises a lot of questions for Wes. And the more he and Al and the rest continue to dig for answers, the more questions are raised in the process. Wes wants to believe the best of his brother, even as his doubts continue to mount—and especially even as it becomes clear Derek is responsible for sabotaging Tank Town. If you recall, in this season’s “Bury Her Next to Jasper’s Leg,” Wes was at the oil fields that day, and was nearly killed by shrapnel. While not my favorite episode of the season, “Jasper” proves to be an important piece of the bigger puzzle that comprises Teddy’s doomsday cult. While the group may be underground, they have eyes and ears everywhere. So for Wes it stands to reason that Derek must have known his brother was at Tank Town that day. Derek’s reply, “People are people,” is a chilling non-answer—unless you remember that Wes himself said this to Alicia in “You’re Still Here” as a way of explaining away the darker, predictable side of human nature. That Derek would offer his brother such noncommittal platitude troubles Wes greatly. This is someone he idolized in life and lionized in death. As I said, his brother’s very absence informed so much of Wes’s worldview, and not in a good way. Wes has come such a long way since meeting Alicia and becoming part of Morgan’s crew. He understands that people are capable of change—himself included. This lesson isn’t mawkish, isn’t forced, it’s part of Wes’ moral reawakening. If he can change, so can Derek. That is, if Wes can get his brother to stop chugging the Kool-Aid. Derek, though, is so firmly entrenched in Teddy’s teachings, so fully invested in the destruction of the outside world, that he would kill his own brother. Unfortunately, as we’ve witnessed in the real world, conspiracy theories can poison minds and tear families apart. I’ll admit, as Derek and Wes grappled over the gun, I really thought we’d be saying goodbye to Colby Hollman this week. Which would have been a shame, as I really like Wes a lot—at least when he’s given something to do. This is also the point in the story where the Holding’s ugliness is finally brought to light. Not only are skeptics not welcome, they’re secretly embalmed and chained up in a hidden room. And wouldn’t you know it, embalming fluid happens to be flammable. Alicia chooses to stay behind while her friends escape so she can personally (and single-handedly) torch the place. It’s not until we meet Teddy in the flesh that “The Holding” goes from a good episode to a great one. Hearing Teddy’s recorded pronouncements piped endlessly through speakers is one thing, but John Glover commands the screen the moment he appears, looking every bit like the charismatic leader of a doomsday cult. Glover does wonders with the few minutes he’s onscreen, wielding words like weapons, cutting Alicia deeply with canny insights about her friends—and Madison, too. She may not want to admit it, but Alicia has met her match. Truly, Teddy is the villain that Fear deserves. And it must be said, season 6 is steadily shaping up to be one of the show’s best.

This Legends of Tomorrow review contains spoilers. Legends of Tomorrow Season 6 Episode 1 There’s a bit in the sixth season premiere of Legends of Tomorrow, “Ground Control to Sara Lance,” that made me furious. Gary, the comic relief sidekick who gets retconned this episode to have been an alien infiltrator, has explained his whole backstory to the abducted Sara Lance, who wakes up on an alien spaceship just in time to see it hyperdrive away from Earth from a rear window. Sara wants to get home, so she tells Gary, “Give me everything you know about this ship.” Gary’s response is to start to explain how she and Ava first started dating. When I heard this, I got so mad. It’s completely unfair that the cast and crew of Legends is so good that they can hand in a B+ episode for this show that contains within it the single best Muppets joke in over a decade. Legends returns to airwaves with its first episode in almost a year, and it continues to amaze how this show just can’t miss. This cast is so obviously comfortable with each other, and the crew so in touch with what makes the characters so entertaining, that Legends’ floor is better than many shows at their best, and good episodes turn great because of those strengths. There’s a confidence and efficiency in the storytelling that lets the show dispense with a lot of setup and exposition quickly,to give the characters space to breathe and the jokes time to set. Case in point: “Ground Control to Sara Lance.” At the end of last season, Sara was abducted by aliens, setting the stage for this season’s space and alien-themed adventures. The purpose of this episode was to reintroduce the characters and setting, and set up the conflict for the rest of the season. This was done mostly with two sequences: one that showed how deeply comic book-y this show can be, and one that showed how efficient it is. The reintroduction of the team was done largely through Ava’s eyes. She’s flushed awake by Mick after passing out drunk on the Waverider’s toilet, where she realizes Sara never brought her to bed the night before. So they head out to find everyone. Constantine and Zari just finished hooking up; Astra is card sharping an entire poker room dry; Behrad’s getting the munchies out of his system with a Buckingham Palace Guard; and Nate’s explaining his extremely convoluted love life to David Bowie. When Bowie shows the team that Sara was ready to propose to Ava before being abducted by aliens, Ava springs into action. I’m 85% certain she used time travel to clean up her hangover, and came back with a checklist for how to deal with the problem, one that had specific, character-by-character instructions on how each would respond and how to get them to serve the mission despite that. This whole thing is extremely similar to how Bronze Age and earlier comic issues worked – each issue was treated like someone’s first, so the storytellers had to take the first 3 pages of the 22 page story to reintroduce and recap, but the effective, elegant ones would do it without you ever noticing. Ava’s checklist and hunt for her teammates performed the same function just as effectively. Incidentally, while this show is extremely comic book-y, it’s also straight up disrespectful to the concept of comic book shows in an utterly delightful way. Legends continues to interact with the rest of the Arrowverse – the DEO is referenced as destroyed here, in a nod to Supergirl’s fifth season – but this show feels like it’s taking the tics of comic book shows and poking fun at them. When you’ve spent years watching every show with an ear for potential easter eggs, your first instinct when you hear a character on a DC TV show say “he’s with Starman” is to clap and wonder if it’s Jack, Ted, Mikaal, or Prince Gavyn. Then and only then does a David Bowie cameo feel like a cop out. The same goes for Ava referencing Sara’s pre-her love life by saying “swing a dead cat…” I had to stop myself from looking up if Sara and Roy Harper hooked up. The episode ended with that same efficiency that made the opening so effective. Sara battles the tentacly captain of the ship while Gary tries to open a wormhole home, and Sara wins the fight with a move straight out of Alien: she opens an airlock to throw him out. And when he doesn’t get all the way out the door, she releases pods of other kidnapees from their alcoves to knock him into the wormhole behind the ship. The captain, along with the aliens in the pods, fall into the Bleed and eventually travel through time, setting up the Legends to hunt them down last season, while Sara and Gary figure out how to get home. Legends is a show that shouldn’t work. It’s ridiculous and earnest and geeky and could so easily slide into terminally cheesy and corny. But it never does, even for a minute, because the cast and crew are so joyful and confident and talented that they sell every bit of the emotional stakes. The only complaint I have is that this show is so consistently good that it almost demands being graded on a curve. “Ground Control to Sara Lance” would be a 9.5 or a 10 on any other TV show, but because Legends of Tomorrow routinely does so much bananapants shit, it’s only an 8. But praise Beebo, it’s a high 8.

Christopher Nolan has a reputation for making complicated, hard to understand movies, but in all honesty, that reputation is unearned. In Memento, the scenes filmed in color are running in reverse order, the scenes filmed in black and white are running forwards, and the film ends when they meet in the middle. Inception is a pretty straight forward heist once you get your head round the idea that the dreams are nested inside each other like Russian dolls, each running a little faster than the one inside of it. Even Tenet isn’t as complex as it’s made out to be. There are no branching timelines, just an awful lot of bootstrap paradoxes and loops. However, while the film as a whole has a fairly easy to understand plot after a viewing or two, one part of the movie really lives up to Nolan’s reputation. The opening. A lot happens, zero context is given for any of it, and most if it is never referred to in the film again. So what the hell was going on? Tenet Opening Recap Let’s start by taking it step by step. Please pay attention, and remember the hand is quicker than the eye. The film opens on a concert hall, and just as the musicians finish tuning up, a bunch of terrorists with machine guns come barging in shooting people and taking everyone hostage. The police arrive on the scene. However, there is another party of armed men—not the police or the terrorists—already there, waiting in a black van in SWAT uniforms. One of the men in SWAT uniforms is John David Washington’s Peter Rotagonist—or the Protagonist for short. Pete is one of this team. As they see the police arrive, they slap on Velcro patches to match the incoming fuzz. Then they burst out of the van, merging seamlessly with the incoming SWAT team as they storm the concert hall (which it turns out is an opera house because Nolan is too damn clever for his own good). The police (the real police) pump sleeping gas into the vents of the concert hall, successfully knocking out all the hostages but, presciently, the terrorists understand the importance of wearing a mask at public gatherings. At around this time we cut back to the box over the concert hall and a man who the script only refers to as “Well-Dressed Man,” even though he’s wearing a pretty non-descript suit to the opera. The person next to him, wearing a really much smarter looking military dress uniform, pulls a gun. At this moment, the SWAT teams start busting into the concert hall, and Pete and his team storm up to the boxes, busting into the one where the Well-Dressed Man is sitting. They kill his military friend and anyone else in the room. Then Pete addresses the Well-Dressed Man, saying, “We live in a twilight world,” to which Well-Dressed Man responds, “And there are no friends at dusk.” Then the Pete tells him, “You’ve been made. This siege is a blind for them to vanish you.” The Well-Dressed Man complains that he has already established contact, but Pete insists that he has to either bring the Well-Dressed Man in or kill him. While this conversation is going on some of the Real Cops are coming down the corridor, shooting terrorists. Who is “Them?” What’s the significance of “We live in a twilight world?” Who has the Well-Dressed made contact with? Shhh. Save your questions until the end, because right now we’re jumping out of this window to escape from the Real Cops. But not before Pete can ask where “the package” is and be told “coat check,” and given a ticket. We are three minutes and thirty-five seconds into the movie. The Pete and Well-Dressed New Friend run and hide from the Real Cops among the audience, because if someone’s shooting at you there’s no better place to hide than a crowd of unconscious innocent by-standers. At the same time, the Real Cops come in and murder the last of the terrorists. At this point the Pete notices the people in SWAT uniforms are planting bombs around the concert hall. One of the Bomb Planting Cops tells Pete to grab a bomb from a dead cop’s bag. Pete stops to stare at the bomb for a few seconds, and then another cop sees him, thinks he’s sus, leading him to rip off Pete’s Velcro patch. Only then does Suspicious Cop gets shot by a Fake Cop who says, “No friends at dusk, huh?” Pete tells Friendly Fake Cop to get Well-Dressed Man to the rally point, then runs to the coat room to pick up Well-Dressed Man’s bag. The bag contains a strange metal object that, if you’re watching this for the second time, you will immediately recognize as part of the Algorithm (a secret formula for inverting the flow of entropy on a global scale, bringing past and future crashing together and ending the universe as we know it). Then Pete hoofs it to the rally point to meet up with Well-Dressed Man and the rest of the Fake Cops. Pete says the Ukrainians are expecting a passenger. This is a Ukrainian opera house, so presumably he’s talking about the cops. Is the Ukrainian government behind this? No time to discuss that because we’reswapping outfits! Well-Dressed Man, who I guess now is just Regularly-Dressed Man, puts on a SWAT uniform while a Fake Cop puts on the suit, presumably meaning he is now the Well-Dressed Man, and I’m sorry I may be making this more complicated than it needs to be, but please give your characters actual names in the future, Chris. Pete tells the Regularly Dressed, Formerly Known as the Well-Dressed Man that he’s “never seen an encapsulation like this,” referring to the bit of Algorithm. “Encapsulation” is a term that often refers to the storage of nuclear waste, so Pete clearly thinks he’s there to retrieve parts of a nuclear bomb. RDFKATWDM says, “We don’t know how old it is, but it’s the real deal.” Pete wants to know if RDFKATWDM has an out, he does, the sewer, so Pete tells him to take that route, because he doesn’t trust the one they had planned. Pete also asks if the bomb (the cop bombs, not the nuclear one) can be defused. It can’t, and there are more among the audience. So even though it isn’t his mission, Pete goes back to rescue all of the audience members who didn’t get killed by stray bullets when he was climbing over them earlier. He collects all of the bombs in a big bag, but as he picks up the last one a Cop (we think a Fake Cop) pulls a gun on him. Pete says, “Walk away, you don’t have to kill these people.” We know this because of the script. Until that became available there was a lot of debate online about who said that, because that’s a risk when everyone is wearing masks and delivers their lines in the same low-key tone of voice. Then a bullet shoots backwards out of a bullet hole, through the Fake Cop, killing him, and into the gun of someone standing behind him. Even on first viewing, this was the moment that made the most sense in the entire scene for me. Pete has time to see his savior jogging away with a distinctive orange tag hanging off his bag. This is because he has just been rescued by Neil, the posh, trashy Robert Pattinson-portrayed English agent who we later learn has a timey-wimey River Song-esque relationships with Pete. Fake Cop in Well-Dressed Man’s Clothes notices this and points out he’s not part of the Fake Cop club, but Pete isn’t fussed. They run out, lobbing the bombs up somewhere I hope nobody else was hiding, and they explode behind them. Pete and Fake Cop in Well-Dressed Man’s Clothes get back to the van, and as soon as they open the door, someone in the van says in Russian, “That’s not the guy!” presumably referring to the Fake Cop Who is Not the Well-Dressed Man, and shoots him in the gun. Then they knock out Pete. On second thought, maybe these are the Ukrainians? Pete wakes up tied to a chair between some train tracks where the driver of the Fake Cops van tells him a man can be trained to hold out for 18 hours, so Pete’s colleagues will by free by seven. He points to Pete’s colleague to boast he didn’t last 18 minutes and knew nothing. The torturer confiscates Pete’s suicide pill, and tells him the clock is fast and turns it back an hour. This is called “Foreshadowing.” There are also trains running backwards and forwards either side of the torture scene. This is also “Foreshadowing.” There’s some nasty implied torture, but in a moment of opportunity, Pete lunges forward and swallows the suicide pill that Fake Cop in Well-Dressed Man’s Clothes was smuggling behind his back. Pete wakes up in bed to discover it was a test, despite the fact they pulled his teeth out for real and apparently it’s taken a lot of reconstructive surgery to put them back. Also despite it being a test, Pete’s team are all dead and the bit of algorithm is lost. This all took eight minutes, and then we launch into the film proper. What Was the Plan? So questions. First, what was the actual plan here? Near as we can tell, the once Well-Dressed Man works for the organization run by Kenneth Branagh’s Sator (the “Private Russians” mentioned during Pete’s post-death debriefing). Sator had the Well-Dresed Man infiltrating the Ukrainian government to make contact with someone (if you want to go down that rabbit hole of who, the mystery third party could be the Protagonist’s future, Tenet-running self). The siege was executed by a senior Ukrainian military officer and apparently enough of the Ukrainian police force that Pete’s team didn’t know which unit would respond to the terrorist attack. The police also very clearly shoot a lot of the terrorists dead. So on discovering the Well-Dressed Man is a mole, the Ukrainian government decide to vanish him and either get a hold of or retrieve the piece of Algorithm in his possession. The corrupt personnel decide the best thing to do is take him to the opera with one of their senior military officials. They then pay some mercenaries to act as terrorists and take the audience of the concert hostage. Some of the civilians, or the terrorists, must have informed the police, so that a SWAT team made up of what must be real police turn up. The police gas the concert hall, and a team of real cops go up to the box where Well-Dressed Man is. Along the way they shoot some of the mercenaries they share an employer with. At this point, Plan A is that Ukrainian Military Official will shoot Well-Dressed Man. Plan B is that if somehow the Military Official slips and lands on his own gun, a SWAT team will burst in and kill Well-Dressed Man. Sator’s team knows about this, and have their own fake SWAT team ready, not knowing that their fake SWAT team has also been infiltrated by Pete and his CIA friends. Sator’s team plans to extract the well-dressed man and steal the bit of Algorithm, then plant a bunch of bombs in the concert hall the blow it up and destroy any evidence. Pete extracts the Well-Dressed Man, hands him over to his undercover CIA pals, but dresses up his friend as the Well-Dressed Man to take back to Sator’s people. Sator’s people don’t fall for it. They kidnap Pete, torture him, and when he takes a pill and drops unconscious, they think “Well, we’ll leave this body somewhere it can be easily retrieved by his colleagues” and call it a day. Alternatively: The torturers are on Tenet’s payroll, and Future Pete has instructed them to go back, kidnap and torture him, then let him commit fake suicide so he can be recruited. This plan means Pete gives the order to have his own teeth ripped out, which you have to admit is pretty hardcore. Meanwhile Pete’s friends, the Algorithm piece, and the Well-Dressed Man all run into some more of Sator’s team as they escape through the sewer, and are killed. Having watched the same eight minutes of film over more times than I care to count, this scenario is the best explanation I can come up with. Feel free to offer your own theory in the comments.

In case you haven’t heard, Returnal is one of the best games of 2021, one of the PlayStation team’s most original supported projects in years, and one of the best reasons to be angry that you still can’t find a PlayStation 5. Returnal is also the source of one of the most compelling and confusing video game stories in recent memory. Much like Hades, Returnal uses its roguelike gameplay as the basis for a complicated time loop narrative that leads to multiple endings that have so far left many scratching their heads. So what exactly happens at the end of Returnal? While it seems like the game’s writers intended for the exact events and their implications to be left open for a healthy degree of interpretation, here’s a brief rundown of the major moments in Returnal‘s two endings as well as a couple of popular interpretations of what it all means: Returnal Ending Explained After you beat Ophion in Act 2, you’ll enter a crater and dive to the bottom of a large body of water. There, you’ll strangely encounter a car that looks like it’s been underwater for quite some time as well as what appears to be a globe that soon morphs into a kind of sea creature. Things soon get stranger as Selene flashes back to a time when a mother and a child were driving in the car you’ve just seen. The mother certainly looks like Selene. “Don’t Fear the Reaper” plays on the radio as the child asks if the mother sees the “White Shadow.” Soon thereafter, the radio starts to cut out, which distracts the mother long enough to ensure she doesn’t see a strange figure dressed in a vintage astronaut suit standing in the middle of the road. The mother swerves at the last minute to try to avoid the figure, but she crashes through the side of the bridge and into the water below. The mother is not able to pull the child from the wreckage and is soon pulled away (possibly by the creature). We see someone swimming away from the wreckage, but since it’s in first-person, we can’t quite tell who it is. In any case, fog soon fills the screen. The implication here seems to be that Selene is being pulled through the time loop once more. One of the more popular early interpretations of this ending suggests that the events of Returnal are all a dream. The idea behind that explanation is that Selene was obsessed with her work, was in a terrible car accident partially caused by fatigue, and has essentially imagined her journey through Returnal as either a dream formed in her dying moments or some way to cope with what really happened by replacing the events of this accident in her mind with a grand adventure. There is some evidence to support that theory. We know that Selene was obsessed with her work and that her own mother was also consumed by her profession. We’ve also seen glimpses of that astronaut figure throughout the game, and the mysterious signal that inspired Selene to explore Atropos was simply known as the “White Shadow.” Put it all together, and you’ve certainly got a compelling case for some kind of dream scenario. However, aspects of that story don’t quite seem to add up. If this was all a dream, then how do you explain the other “false” endings we saw throughout the title which saw Selene return to Earth only to be thrown into the loop again? If she’s imagining all of this, then what was the trigger that eventually caused her to discover what “really” happened? Also, how do you explain the radio cutting out so strangely, the true identity of the figure in the road, and the timeline of when Selene is supposedly having this dream? Could it be that the accident threw Selene into a kind of purgatory where she is forced to confront her final moments as a form of punishment? That would certainly help to explain the theme of the game’s difficulty and cover up a couple of other loose ends. However, it turns out there’s another ending in Returnal which opens up some new possibilities… How to Unlock Returnal’s Secret Ending If you want to unlock Returnal’s secret (and possible “true”) ending, you’ll need to complete the following steps: Beat Act 2 once and access the base ending. Find the six Sunface Fragments spread across each Biome in the game. Their locations are somewhat randomized relative to when you’ll find them, but they do appear in specific rooms in each Biome you can eventually encounter. You also don’t need to collect them all in one run. Complete all “House Sequences” across Act 1 and Act 2. These must be completed in order, and you won’t be able to finish them if you don’t have all of the Sunface Fragments. The final House Sequence should take you to a room where you find a Car Key. Take that item. Complete Returnal’s second Act again, defeat Ophion, and use the Car Key on the sedan you find at the bottom of the crater. This will trigger the secret ending. Returnal Secret Ending Explained Returnal’s secret ending sees Selene confront a strange figure in a wheelchair. The figure soon jumps up and grabs Selene by the throat, but Selene is able to fight them off. It’s then that we see that the creature’s name is Theia: the name of Selene’s mother. From here, Selene is transported to another world. She soon finds herself standing in the middle of a bridge in her spacesuit as a car swerves to avoid her and crashes into the water below. After that, we move to the perspective of one of the car’s survivors as they swim to the surface. We don’t see them reach the surface, but we do hear Selene cry “Helios” (the name of her ship) just before the credits roll. Wow. Well, it’s obvious enough that this ending implies that Selene was transported back in time and was the astronaut that caused the car accident. This ending (and the house sequence events that precede it) also seem to confirm that Selene wasn’t the one driving the car in the original ending and that she was the child. The real driver was her mom, Theia. If that’s true, then it seems like we have to reinterpret the events of the other ending and the game itself. My theory is that Selene’s time paradox is both literal and metaphorical. Along with the idea that Selene was the figure that caused the car crash years ago, an earlier scene suggests that Selene paradoxically shot down her own ship. This would imply that Selene does have control over her situation (to a degree) and that not everything we’re seeing is a dream or metaphor. Metaphorically speaking, though, the thematic implication is that Selene was caught in a time loop in her own life by trying to live out the dreams of space exploration that her mother couldn’t as a result of potentially being paralyzed after that car accident (although the wheelchair could again be a metaphor). We even see a letter during one of the house sequences that suggest her mother was rejected for such a program due to physical condition. In fact, one of the biggest implications of those house sequences is that Selene became obsessed with the idea of exploring space at an early age partially because it was her own mother’s obsession and seemed to be a way that they could occasionally bond. It’s possible that obsession grew as Selene did and that she ignored other parts of her life (possibly her own child) in pursuit of her goal. It’s sometimes a little tough to tell whether or not the child we see in the flashbacks is Selene, Selene’s child, or a combination of both, but the fact it’s hard to always tell could strengthen the argument that Selene and her child lived similar lives. I also believe the game’s secret ending is its “real” ending if for no other reason than most stories have more than two acts. The fact this ending is found in the third act seems to suggest it is the canonical conclusion. That being the case, it appears that this ending implies that Selene does eventually escape the time loop after mechanically finding the pieces required to break the cycle and escapes her own hereditary time loop by realizing the full implication of some of the events that led her here. There’s also the possibility that the person we see escape the car in this ending is young Selene who can now choose a different life from a young age, but hearing Selene shout “Helios” suggests to me that she has returned to her ship and can go back home. Speaking of Helios, there’s also the historical significance of all of the names in the game. Helios is the god of the sun in Greek mythology, Selene is the goddess of the moon, and Theia is the mother of Helios and Selene. There’s also the matter of the planet’s name: Atropos. In Greek mythology, Atropos was the oldest of the three fates of destiny and the one responsible for “cutting the thread” and ending mortal lives. Yes, Atropos kills Selene over and over, but given that a new thread is measured each time, is it possible that one of them avoided that fate or that Selene was paradoxically able to reshape her circumstances? Does the scene in which Selene grabs the car keys imply that she’s now in control? Basically, I’m willing to accept the purgatory explanation as it covers a lot of narrative ground and seems to be the simplest solution available, but it feels much more likely to me that whatever we’re seeing at the end of Returnal is designed to suggest that Selene has broken both a literal time loop and a more thematic one that was quietly haunting her life. Given how weird this whole thing is, though, be sure to share your interpretations and suggestions in the comments below.

It seems like a universal experience with Justice Society: World War II is to come into it excited about seeing characters like Jay Garrick and Wonder Woman in action during the war, and to walk away from it stunned at how amazing Black Canary was. This isn’t just an experience for the film’s viewers: it’s one held by the movie’s creators, too. “[Black Canary was] such an example of when you’re writing something and the character is like, ‘Hello I am present!’ She just continued to persevere through the entire script,” says Justice Society:World War II co-writer Meghan Fitzmartin. She wasn’t alone. “When I saw the movie, the thing that rocked my world was Elysia [Rotaru]’s portrayal of Black Canary,” co-writer Jeremy Adams agrees. It’s a very slight reinvention for Black Canary, and it’s one that really helps cement her as a central figure in this version of the JSA. “The take that Meghan and Jeremy did with her by making her more of a tough chick from Brooklyn was definitely great, and her character arc with Hawkman was excellent,” says supervising producer Butch Lukic. “Once [we] put the actors in and visualized it, it really came together.” This isn’t to say that Wonder Woman has been short changed. The point of view character of the movie may be Barry Allen’s Flash, but Wonder Woman is unquestionably its heart. “We built the movie around Wonder Woman,” Lukic says. She’s functionally the leader of the team, and the steely spine of the movie. Pieces of her story were adapted from an older pitch Lukic had for a World War II Wonder Woman animated series, with Fitzmartin and Adams helping build this new world, and the actors filling in the lines. “Stana (Katic, voice of Wonder Woman) knocked it out of the park,” Fitzmartin tells us. The film sees Barry Allen (Matt Bomer) early in his superhero career, having his first run in with the Speed Force, which flings him back in time to World War II, where he meets the Justice Society in the European Theater for wartime adventuring. It’s obviously deeply influenced by old adventure serials and their descendants, like Raiders of the Lost Ark, with that core of DC’s classic (and arguably best) superhero team standing it up. Lukic, a bit of a war buff, knew how he wanted it to feel. “Obviously this is a fantasy version of World War II,” he says. “But I wanted to see accurate tanks and vehicles and planes, how they should sound.” Lukic’s attention to detail paid off. “You can tell that [Butch] is a lover of classic cinema and World War II cinema,” says Adams. “He and Jeff [Wamester, Justice Society:World War II’s director] put that polish on there and from the credits you just felt wow, they really leaned into it.” That adventurous energy enables the JSA to shine as a team. That team – Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Jay Garrick’s Flash, Hourman, and Black Canary – have lived-in relationships when Barry first meets them that make the viewer feel as if they’re picking up a long-running comic. These are timeless classic characters: there’s a reason DC and DC fans keep coming back to the Justice Society as a touchstone era. “I grew up learning to read with values and morals in large part because of superheroes,” says Fitzmartin. “I think the JSA represents so much of the backbone of all the comics we have.” That drove some of the movie’s big moments: “To have them all sit around that table that has the symbol of Justice Society, that was a big thing,” says Lukic. Of course, Justice Society:World War II isn’t just about emotional resonance. It’s also about punching – the latest wave of DC animated features have had some of the most impressive action sequences of any of their recent projects, and this movie is no different. The fluidity of movement, scope, and scale of some of the fights are among the best in any DC movie, animated or live action. Lukic says that’s in part because of the continuity of staff. “A lot of these guys on the crew worked on Superman: Man of Tomorrow,” he tells us. “They continued on with this and got into the characters and environment. If you don’t keep giving board guys something different to do, they’ll get bored and go nuts.” With DC animated continuity undergoing a reset after the events of Justice League Dark: Apokalips War, it’s no longer a given that we’ll get a chance to revisit the universes of particularly resonant movies. Should that opportunity arise, these creators tell us they’re ready. Lukic would love to explore the characters who ended up cut for time and space. Fitzmartin would just be happy to get this team back. “I would love to play in this world forever. I would love to tell every story about the JSA because I think that they’re great,” she says. Justice Society: World War II is now available.