Joe Exotic, the eccentric zoo owner serving a 22-year sentence for animal cruelty and an attempted murder-for-hire plot, is back in the spotlight as Netflix releases Tiger King 2. The new series reveals a fresh twist: a murder plot to kill Joe himself.
The first season of Tiger King became a lockdown sensation, drawing 64 million households in its first month. It followed Joe at his Oklahoma roadside zoo, home to over 230 lions and tigers, and delved into a world of black market animal trading, feuds, and bizarre characters.
Now, despite his global fame, Joe remains furious that others are profiting from the Tiger King brand while he languishes in jail. “I’m fed up with the whole mess. Why am I in here?” he rants, seen only from the blurry top half of his face during phone calls from prison.
The five-episode series revisits the cold case of Carole Baskin’s missing ex-husband, Don Lewis, and introduces new villain Tim Stark, who took over Joe’s zoo with Jeff Lowe. However, the biggest revelation comes from alleged hitman Allen Glover, who claims he and Jeff plotted to kill Joe. “I wanted Joe’s head on a spike,” Glover says, describing a plan to decapitate Joe with a wire strung between trees.
While the series sometimes feels directionless, it ends with the possibility that Joe may have been wronged, hinting at more to come in this headline-grabbing saga.
