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'Tiger King' Star John Finlay's New Look Was The Highlight Of The Bonus Episode

by Kristine Cannon
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tiger king bonus episode
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Joel McHale hosted the eighth episode of ‘Tiger King,’ which premiered on Easter Sunday

Netflix dropped the new, much-anticipated episode of Tiger King today — which was basically a reunion episode hosted and moderated by Joel McHale and featuring a handful of familiar faces from the wild documentary about convicted felon and former G.W. Zoo operator Joe Exotic — and all anyone can talk about is how great John Finlay looks.

“Hey, all you cool cats and kittens,” McHale starts the bonus eighth episode titled “The Tiger Kind and I.” “As you’re all aware, we’re currently in the midst of a global pandemic: Tiger King fever! Like you, I’ve devoured all seven episodes, and I’m still craving more. So, I called up Netflix and insisted on hosting a glitzy follow-up special with the highest possible production quality.”

Video chatting in from their respective homes were Erik Cowie, G.W. Zoo head keeper; Lauren and Jeff Lowe, the current owners of the zoo; John Reinke, former manager; Kelci “Saff” Saffery, former animal keeper; Joshua Dial, Joe’s ex-campaign manager; and, of course, John Finaley, Joe’s ex-husband.

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“When I’m looking at you, there’s something different looking about you… you’re wearing a shirt,” McHale jokes. “I’m kidding; your teeth look amazing.”

“Thank you, it took a while to get ’em, but once I actually got ’em, it took a while to get ’em to where I able to really wear ’em, and now I wear ’em all the time,” Finlay responded.

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As a reminder, here’s what Finlay looked like before:

Netflix

Finlay then gave an update on the “Privately Owned by Joe Exotic” tattoo he had covered up. He told McHale that it now looks “100 times better” and “it will be revealed” but he doesn’t know when.

Though Finlay was the highlight of the episode, there were a few other revelations, including Cowie telling McHale that he thinks Joe will die in prison and that he deserves to be there.

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Kirkham revealed that Joe is actually terrified of big cats. “‘It’s idiotic to think he’s become famous as ‘The Tiger King’ when he’s so terrified of big cats,” he said, adding that the white tiger Joe often posed with was blind and another tiger was on tranquilizers.

Dial said he’s raising money to go to counseling after witnessing Joe’s late husband Travis Maldonado kill himself. And once he’s done that, he said he wants to “jump back into campaigning, for sure.”

And, Saffery, who was attacked on-site, said the zoo used footage of the attack as a safety video. “There was a time and place where we actually used it as a safety video,” he said. “We didn’t even have any further of a conversation than, ‘This should be the one thing people need to see before they decide if this is a career move they wanna make.'”

“The Tiger King and I” episode is currently available to watch on Netflix.

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