Sexy get spicy with another five Hot Ones Versus challenges, all featuring genuinely lovely and talented celebrities. The First We Feast crew has great taste in talent, so everyone likes their competitors, who are often romantic partners or co-workers, and they’re all funny as hell. There are men who love women, women who love men, and women who love women in this batch of Truth or Dare scenarios with increasingly spicy chicken wings that stimulate, motivate, and challenge their taste buds. The ultimate winner in each competition will receive the prestigious Golden Chicken Wing trophy and as much ice water, ice cream, cow milk, or almond milk as their suffering tongues and throats desire.
It’s great to see a grown-up Christina Ricci to remind us that there is a grown-up Christina Ricci. She’s dressed in black and is still willow thin despite her claim that she’s lost her waist from pregnancy. I’m still wrapping my head around the idea of a pregnant Christina Ricci. In friendly competition with her is fellow Yellowjackets’ star, Kiwi Melanie Lynskey, who was somehow convinced that an ugly brown jacket would look good on her.
They ask each other questions like which co-star to eat first if stranded (Melanie is a vegan), how Christina rates her various fashion looks, and makes her fellow thespian guess who her favorite Beatle was. Melanie fights back by asking Christina to identify New Zealand slang. They both create goth looks for cosmetology heads and then get fresh wings because Melanie’s doll wig shed on the first ones. The banter is hilarious, Christina looks haunted but sexy, and Melanie looks kind and accessible. In the end, both real and faux hot wings are eaten, and much laughter ensues.
Doechii and DJ Miss Milan have toured the world together and have a lot of inside jokes between them. Both women are dressed modestly in gender bending styles but are very clearly womanly women with amazing hair. After declining to offer advice to Doechii, her sexy DJ chooses to eat a wing. Convinced she has conquered it, she proclaims that she is Caribbean, so the spice does not affect her. Then the spice affects her. No wing is eaten after Doechii reads her poetically phrased life goals, but then the Jack in the Box clown gives them some wings, one of which is super spicy. All are slathered in Jack sauce, which sounds dirty. Doechii finds the hot one and insists that “I center myself and relax into the pain,” as she realizes there’s pain to relax into.
We learn her biggest dating red flag (sorry, guys, it’s guys), she guesses Miss Milan’s biggest fear wrong, eats gristle, drinks water, suffers, competes in an Alligator Bites Never Heal inspired two-person game, and then freaks out. “Stop talking,” she shouts. “Why does it matter? What is happening? I don’t give a fuck about this! Nothing stops me! Nothing fucking blocks me! Nothing is stopping me… except for this. I am not taking another dab.” The competition for the Golden Chicken Wing trophy ends with a compliment battle so sweet and femme-for-femme that they both eat a mega spicy wing in solidarity. Miss Milan concludes that “They all lied! Everything was a lie!” Good times.
Hailee Steinfeld looks classy as hell in a blue crop jacket and matching skirt. Michael B. Jordan looks stylishly casual in a black hoodie with a silver zipper and dark slacks. He chooses diplomacy rather than criticize friend and director Ryan Cubler, so it’s a hot wing for him. Coughing, he admits, does not make the heat less eye-watering. Hailee then ranks his movies from best to worst, calling The Wire “Terrible. Awful.” A Wild Card leads the two into a lively Rock ‘em Sock ‘em Robot boxing match that she wins. “I love this game,” she assures, boosting the sexy as he suffers. Two Friendship Tests test their friendship. First, Michael guesses what superpower his MCU co-inhabitant would like. It’s another loss for him.
Hailee finds that his biggest pet peeve is being talked over, so she talks over him. He feels shame at how much he enjoys her wing-eating pain, which only grows until he makes her laugh like he did on the set of Sinners. A pause for soothing milkshakes precedes the recently engaged Hailee’s three lame compliments of the Kansas City Chiefs. “What’s the point?” she asks. “Trauma bonding,” he replies before watching her fail at shooting a suction cup arrow at a target. Good thing Hawkeye is a better shot. “We in this together,” he assures as they each nibble on wings. As the ultimate winner, Hailee is grateful. “This is a really great moment for me, having done absolutely nothing and being rewarded for it.” We should all be so lucky.
Kathryn Hahn is already drinking water when a slim and sexy The Studio co-star, Seth Rogen, asks what her worst IMDB listed project was. Naturally, she eats a wing instead, knowing it will be better for her career. He does the same thing for the same reason when asked what studio head wrote the worst note to him, and who brought it. “Oh, wow. Very spicy. I’m okay,” he says, not looking okay. Things improve for him during a hand puppet improv scene in homage of her career start on Hickory Hideout, but it leaves her in tears, which she foolishly wipes with her spicy hand.
Back-to-back Friendship Tests reveal that Seth and his spouse love Vanderpump Rules. Since she’s never seen it, she can’t guess the character he identifies with most. Unhappy, she asks for ice cream, then eats and tosses the wing away. “No big deal,” she insists. Seth is likewise ignorant about Kathryn’s favorite Bjork song, so he eats a spicy wing while she savors her ice cream. Both their jobs are on the line during the final challenge: a cold read for the same part. Of course, each audition is rife with humor. Soon Seth shouts “I hate you, you fucking dick! I wanted that role! I wanted Walter! Don’t do this. This is humiliating,” before he stuffs a spicier chicken wing into his gob. They make up, she insists it was easy, and then they discuss puke. Talk about a niche fetish!
Are you ready to rumble with what announcers Jackie Redmond and Peter Rosenberg call the “best and most classless superstars” of WWE, plump-lipped Liv Morgan and her sweetie, Dominik Mysterio? Feel free to boo because sexy bad boy Dominik points out that “Our group, The Judgment Day, gets booted out of every city’s arena. Which city has the worst crowds, he asks Liv?” Ironically, it’s the KFC Center in Kentucky. He rates his various “looks” throughout the years, which earns much laughter, as does the scandalous story of their first kiss. They prove that neither can tie a cherry stem with their tongue, so they each eat a wing. Things get serious when the ongoing feud between Dominik and his dad. Liv wants him to apologize. “Fuck you, guys,” is the response. “You’re just wasting my time.” The cool taste of Ranch dip would make his wing more tolerable, but he's too lost in the feud to remember.
To retaliate, Dominick asks the very sexy Liv who the most famous person to unsuccessfully slide into her DMs is. It’s chicken wing time for Liv, who knows which side her bread is buttered. In fact, he offers her bread to ease her pain, which slams against the back of her throat. She knows he’s a chicken tender with Ranch dressing fanatic, so he’s blindfolded and must identify dips by their smell and taste. The finale has them add sauce to each other’s wings and compete in what proves to be a fun and unexpected thumb war that sees them bicker sweetly. “Don’t fuck with The Judgment Day,” the staff is told before being guilted into their own hot and spicy mouth torture.