The federal charges were made public Wednesday, naming five executives who are accused of bribing one employee - Patrick Briones, a lead wine buyer for the company that also owns Vons - to control which wines appeared on grocery store shelves in California as part of an eight-year scheme from 2016 to 2024.
He's been blissfully unaware, but now he has to reckon with the consequences. It's been fun to suddenly place his character right in the middle of the mystery and squarely under investigation. That escalation culminates in one of the season's most surreal moments, when I walked onto set to find Julian literally mapped out on a conspiracy board.
I don't think I was supposed to feel emotional during The Toxic Avenger, a movie in which the title character pulls someone's intestines out through their asshole. But the truth is that I genuinely did get a little teary the first time Toxie triumphantly enters the scene of a hostage situation wielding his radioactive mop and preparing to dole out justice in generous gouts of red-dyed Karo syrup and fake viscera.