‘Tiger King 2’: The 7 Most Shocking Revelations

The first episode of Tiger King 2 takes a deep dive into Joe Exotic’s past, and that journey is as wild as you think it is. Exotic’s estranged brother, Yarri Schreibvogel, reveals that Exotic used to shoot animals and nurse them back to health and that their father was abusive both to them and their animals. But the most surprising detail comes from Exotic’s former fiancé, Kimberly Craft.

While Exotic was a cop for the state of Texas, he was paid to strip for the local mayor. Even more bizarre, that stripping was to fund a fire truck. Exotic eventually broke off the engagement after coming out to Craft, and the two have remained close.

Remember how there was a campaign to pardon Joe Exotic? Apparently, that organization was more than just a niche interest. At one point, the heads of this campaign were supposed to meet with Donald Trump Jr. about securing a possible pardon for the big cat enthusiast. That meeting was cancelled once former President Trump contracted COVID-19. But that didn’t stop Joe Exotic from calling the President.

“President Trump, this is Joseph Maldonado-Passage. The world knows me as Joe Exotic,” Exotic can be heard saying. “For the last over a decade, I have be harassed and chased by a woman by the name of Carole Baskin, which would be the same thing as a Nancy Pelosi for you. My legal team can prove to you the convictions that I got was unwarranted for anything that I’ve done wrong. So I’m asking you please, as an American citizen, to sign my pardon.” Leave it to this team to randomly drag Nancy Pelosi into this mess.

If you’ve spent this past year keeping tabs on all things Tiger King, you probably already know about Joe Exotic’s heartbreak. Dillon Passage, Exotic’s ex-husband, ended things with him and is now with a man named John. According to Exotic, Passage didn’t tell him he was ending things, leaving Exotic to learn about his own breakup from other people and the media. But don’t feel too bad for the Tiger King.

At some point Exotic created “The Bachelor King”, a dating website that allowed men to apply to be Exotic’s new partner. And it worked. Exotic currently has a boyfriend named Seth, and they talk multiple times a day.

What happened to Don Lewis? This was the big question Tiger King 2 promised it would answer but fumbled time and time again. The fact of the matter is Tiger King 2 gives so much information about Carole Baskin’s former husband that literally all or none of it feels equally plausible.

It’s incredibly difficult to sort fact from fiction when it comes to this show’s spaghetti-on-the-wall approach to the truth, so here’s a collection of things Tiger King 2’s various subjects claim about Don Lewis: Carole Baskin fed her ex-husband to tigers. Lewis was abusive to Baskin. Baskin sang Lewis’ praises around the same time he filed a restraining order against her. Lewis ran money through various companies in Costa Rica so that Baskin wouldn’t get anything if they divorced. Lewis paid child prostitutes, and his favorite was 15 years old. In Costa Rica, he may have been known as “El Gringo” and his house was known as “The Cursed House.” Don Lewis may still be alive in Costa Rica. A psychic claimed that Don Lewis died in America next to a Porta Potty.

What’s true? What’s a lie? Tiger King certainly doesn’t know, and it seems to care even less.

Joe Exotic and Jeff Lowe aren’t the only eccentric big cat owners around. Much of Tiger King 2‘s fourth and fifth episodes revolve around Tim Stark. The former owner and operator of Wildlife in Need, Stark can best be described as Joe Exotic if you replaced his country music aspirations with endless threats and the f-bomb. Much like with Exotic and Lowe, Stark made most of his money through one-on-one interactions with his animals. When it was revealed that Stark declawed his cats to make these group sessions easier, PETA sued him.

The final two episodes of the series follow that lawsuit. As Stark is forced to stand outside the gates, police officers and wildlife experts took control of his zoo due to reports of abuse. Stark has since been held in contempt of court. As of October, his hearing is set to take place on December 16.

A great example of how volatile Stark is comes when he’s talking to one of Tiger King‘s directors, Eric Goode. When asked who he blames for the government taking control of his zoo, Stark listed Carole Baskin, PETA, and Goode himself. Stark argued that ever since Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin became involved in this industry, his life has gotten worse and his colleagues, like Joe Exotic ,have faced jail time.

“If one negative thing comes out about me from here on out, whether it be in Tiger King 2 or any of this kind of shit, I’ll slice your fucking throat, bitch,” Stark tells Goode. That’s one of many, many, many threats Stark makes during his limited time on screen.

This is the biggest revelation in Tiger King 2, and fittingly it’s left until the very end. It’s also the kind of evidence that could justify Exotic’s call for a retrial. According to a sworn affidavit from Allen Glover, Jeff Lowe was going to pay him to kill Joe Exotic.

“I was going to have Joe’s head cut the fuck off,” Glover says in the docuseries.

The plan was for Glover to string some barbed wire up between two trees. Then, when Exotic drove by on his four wheeler, the barbed wire was supposed to decapitate him. For a second, let’s set aside the question of whether or not this would actually work or how a random piece of barbed wire in a zoo filled with barbed wire verifies Glover’s claims. This very specific and very questionable scheme is exactly the one they were planning to use on Baskin. Add that to Ashley Webster’s claim that Jeff Lowe was just as involved in the murder attempt as Exotic, and this story becomes far more complicated.

Watch Tiger King on Netflix