'The Tiger King and I': Jeff Lowe says 'there's no question' Carole Baskin killed her ex-husband
Spoilers for 'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness'
The scandalous story of Joe Exotic and his enmity with Carole Baskin has made Netflix's new documentary 'Tiger King' a roaring success. The popularity has risen to a whole new level and even amid the global coronavirus pandemic, Joel McHale came to host an after-show titled 'The Tiger King and I' that serves as an update to the recent docuseries.
The first question that the new episode serves to answer is: What is it like outside the mulleted realm of Joe Exotic? He talks to several people that featured in the documentary, including Jeff and Lauren Lowe, current owners of the GW Zoo, Erik Cowie, the head keeper, Jon Finlay, John Reinke, Kelci 'Saff' Saffery, campaign manager Josh Dial, and former producer Rick Kirkman.
Spilling the beans on Joe Exotic's atrocious realities, they all have a set of bizarre stories to tell. When Erik is asked what his biggest regret is, he says, "They used me to put the cat down to give them tranquilizers. And he adds, he hated how the cats' eyes would say, "Dude you let me down." Talking about Joe Exotic, he adds, "You couldn't talk to him for 20 minutes without being yelled at. And he had absurdly crass things coming out of his mouth."
Jeff Lowe also admitted how "Joe Exotic was his own worst enemy," and shed light on the videotapes concerning Carole Baskin's murder plot as well as how he "admitted to killing tigers from jail." Moreover, when the couple is asked if they feel Carole killed her ex-husband, Lauren is quick to say, "Abso-f**king-lutely," to which Jeff adds, "There's no question in my mind that she did it." John Reinke, meanwhile, talks about how Joe said numerous times that he "couldn't manage the zoo," and blew up his golf cart and cabin.
Saff highlights how Joe was good at explaining why he killed the animals. "They were old, they were injured, they were suffering... is what we got." Moreover, he also says that the "reality" is that the tigers "cannot be returned to the wild and there's not much of a wild to return to."
Shedding light on his horrible injury, he says, "It just took 15-20 seconds from the time he bit me to the time he let me go," and adds, "This should be the one thing people see before they decide if this is career move they wanna make."
A lot of people feel they were misrepresented in the documentary. While Carole Baskin has already said the makers broke her trust, Josh Dial clarifies "he doesn't do drugs." He says, "People were mean to me because they thought I do meth and stuff. That really hurt me." Moreover, John Finlay says the same thing. "I was portrayed as a drugged-out hillbilly and that was not me then." Apparently, he vowed never to do drugs once his daughter was born. Shedding light on his polygamous marriage and the relationships at the zoo, he says "yes," when asked if "a lot of people were hooking up at the zoo."
When asked if Joe should be freed, Erik says, "F**k no," and even calls him "good riddance." Jeff Lowe says it is ironic how he got so famous and is locked up in a cage himself. But Josh Dial is pretty sure that "Joe is communicating with his fans and having them run Facebook pages."
Fans are pretty taken aback by the interviews. "Oh, I’m six minutes in, first interview down - and I’m sold! This is brilliant stuff, and @joelmchale is absolutely the right person to host this, only he could come at it the way he does! What a way to start my day! #TigerKing," one posted and another said, "I'm finishing it now. It's fascinating storytelling; production team escalated interest each program. Sad state of affairs with big cats; glossed over in the series. The personalities involved are what hooked me. This is these folks 'normal'."
One said, "This Tiger King show on Netflix is whacky. Quite hard to stop watching these Trump supporters," and another posted, "Thank you @netflix for more tiger king but there are still so many questions and things we want to know. #TigerKing." Even with eight episodes already out, people have more questions. Only time will tell if they will get all the answers. For now, if you haven't watched the documentary yet, stream all eight episodes on Netflix.