Historian Roel Konijnendijk reviews ancient warfare scenes and battle tactics in movies and TV shows.

He looks at the naval battle and gladiator fights depicted in "Gladiator II," starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, and Denzel Washington. He talks about how armies would signal attacks in season two of "House of the Dragon," starring Matt Smith, Emma D'Arcy, and Olivia Cooke. He breaks down the many siege warfare methods in "Prince of Persia," starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley, and Gemma Arterton; and season two of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power." He discusses the purposes behind cavalry charges in "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," starring Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, and Viggo Mortensen; and "Kingdom of Heaven," starring Orlando Bloom, Liam Neeson, and Edward Norton. He explains the ancient Greek shock tactics in "300: Rise of an Empire," starring Eva Green and Lena Headey. He points out how line formations operate in "Rome," starring Tobias Menzies and Kerry Condon. Finally, he examines the strengths and weaknesses of Kublai Khan's army in "Marco Polo," starring Benedict Wong.

Roel Konijnendijk is a historian of ancient warfare at Lincoln College, University of Oxford. He specializes in classical Greek warfare.

You can find Roel on social media here on Bluesky or X (formerly Twitter).

• The Front Man in "Squid Game" is Hwang In-ho, detective Hwang Jun-ho's brother.
• One fan theory suggests that In-ho could be related to another character in the series.
• It's not impossible, but the evidence isn't overwhelming.

In season two of "Squid Game," the game's steward — known as the Front Man, or Hwang In-ho under the mask — enters the game himself. Though he's already related to one other character in the show, a new theory suggests he could be further tied to the games.

In season one, detective Hwang Jun-ho (Wi Ha-jun) infiltrated the games in search of his older brother In-ho (Lee Byung-hun). In-ho wasn't a player in the games with Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), however — he was the one running them. But in season two, In-ho infiltrates the games as player 001 using the name Oh Young-il.

In-ho mostly seems to be there to break Gi-hun's spirit, treating him like a comrade until he sabotages Gi-hun's rebellion in the season finale. He's not the first player 001 to betray Gi-hun's trust: In season one, the game's creator Oh Il-nam plays alongside Gi-hun as well before revealing his true identity in the outside world.

One moment in season two has fans thinking that In-ho and Il-nam may be further connected — but it's far from conclusive.

Fans speculate that Il-nam is In-ho's father — because of two lines about milk

In season one, episode three, Gi-hun asks one of the guards distributing snacks to players if he could trade his regular milk for chocolate milk, saying that he's never been able to digest plain milk. The guard refuses, but Il-nam remarks on Gi-hun's preferences.

"I bet your father spanked you a lot when you were young," Il-nam says.

"How did you know?" Gi-hun asks.

"My son was just like you," Il-nam replies.

In season two, episode five, In-ho doesn't drink his plain milk either. After the guards serve the players a similar bread and milk snack, In-ho passes his milk to the pregnant Jun-hee instead of drinking it.

"I don't drink plain milk," he tells her.

The "milk theory" has proliferated on social media platforms like Reddit and X. However, one image in support of the theory being circulated online includes inaccurate dialogue.

The above screenshot, which was also posted to the r/squidgame subreddit, simplifies the dialogue in both scenes. Il-nam never tells Gi-hun, "you are just like my son he couldn't drink milk too," and In-ho never says, "here, I can't drink it anyway."

To be fair, the original dialogue in each respective scene isn't that different — but it is slightly more nuanced.

The 'milk theory' raises some other questions

A twist like this would feel a bit out of character for "Squid Game," particularly given that the show has already pulled a secret-family-member twist with the Front Man already. That doesn't necessarily mean it couldn't happen, but the evidence isn't overwhelming.

First, Il-nam says several times in season one that he has a son, singular. In the season finale, he tells Gi-hun on his deathbed that "long ago, I once lived in a house in an alley just like that one with my wife and son."

However, in season two, we learn that In-ho and Jun-ho are half brothers who share a father because Jun-ho's mother refers to In-ho as her stepson. If Il-nam was In-ho's father, he should be Jun-ho's as well.

That doesn't fully rule out the theory: it's possible that Il-nam abandoned In-ho with Jun-ho's mother, and that he didn't raise Jun-ho or consider him a son. Still, there's not much to go on.

If In-ho were Il-nam's son, the implications would be severe depending on the strength of their relationship as adults and if they knew of the others' existence before In-ho entered the games. At worst, it would mean that Il-nam didn't provide his son the money to save his wife's life, and knowingly let him participate in the games. At best, it would mean that they reunited after In-ho joined, and won, the games in 2015.

Furthermore, Il-nam and In-ho give the same surname, Oh, in the games, but they don't share one in real life. Il-nam tells Gi-hun in the season one finale that he didn't lie about his name in the games, but as far as we know, In-ho is lying about his: In-ho's true last name, which he shares with his brother, is Hwang.

Ultimately, it's not impossible that In-ho is Il-nam's son, but the evidence is far from conclusive. The milk thing is weird, sure — but lactose intolerance does not a paternal relationship make. After that cliffhanger ending, we'll have to wait for season three to see if the show goes any further with this particular thread.

"Squid Game" is streaming on Netflix.

• In "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter," Natalia moves away from her adoptive parents.
• The DePaul family, who were interested in adopting Natalia when she was a child, took her in.
• Natalia now lives with the DePaul family in New York.

In "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter," Natalia Grace Mans leaves her adoptive parents to live with a new family — the DePauls.

In the second episode of the documentary series, which premiered on Investigation Discovery and Max on Monday, Nicole DePaul, 49, and her daughter Mackenzie, 19, travel to Nashville to pick Natalia up from church without her parents' knowledge. They then bring her to live with them in upstate New York where Nicole lives with her husband Vince DePaul, 51.

The DePauls are a family of little people, and Nicole and Natalia both have the same form of dwarfism, producer Shannon Evangelista told The Hollywood Reporter. They also have a connection dating back to Natalia's childhood, when the family considered adopting her.

Here's everything you need to know about the DePauls, and where Natalia lives now.

The DePaul family tried to adopt Natalia as a child

The DePauls were one of three families interested in adopting Natalia Grace in 2009. As part of that process, they met with Natalia at a museum and had her over to their home several times.

Natalia and Mackenzie got along well as children and bonded when Natalia visited for holidays. After Christmas, however, the adoption fell through and they weren't able to see each other again.

"Things just got really messy with the attorneys. It had nothing to do with Natalia. It was heartbreaking," Nicole said in "Natalia Speaks," the second installment of the series that aired in 2024.

Nicole says in a confessional in episode one of "The Final Chapter" that she still thought about the adoption not going through. She even kept a picture of Natalia and her daughter as kids, as well as Natalia's Christmas stocking.

"There's a lot of guilt because, well, maybe there was something we could have fought harder when we tried to adopt Natalia," she says in episode one of "The Final Chapter."

As the two previous seasons of "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace" recounted, after the DePauls' adoption attempt fell through, Natalia ultimately wound up being adopted by Kristine and Michael Barnett, the Indiana couple who later claimed she was really an adult posing as a child, legally re-aged her, and then left her on her own in an apartment when they moved away to Canada. Natalia went to live with Cynthia and Antwon Mans, another Indiana couple who had fostered and adopted multiple children, while the Barnetts were charged with neglect in relation to her abandonment (Michael was eventually acquitted, and the case against Kristine was dropped).

Nicole DePaul helped Natalia leave the Mans family

In "The Final Chapter," Natalia Grace's boyfriend Neil contacts Nicole on Natalia's behalf, asking her to help Natalia leave the Mans family, who had formally adopted her in 2023 after she'd lived with them for a decade. Though Nicole's husband, Vince, was hesitant about bringing Natalia into their home, Nicole agreed to help Natalia.

In episode two of "The Final Chapter," Nicole and Mackenzie pick Natalia up from her church without the Mans family's knowledge and bring her to live with them in upstate New York. Despite leaving her parents, Natalia's attachment to them led to some friction between herself and Nicole.

In the show, Nicole and Mackenzie also speak about the effect that Natalia being in their home had on the family. Nicole said in a confessional that she saw her daughter "a lot less" than she previously had, and Mackenzie said that Natalia's presence made the "environment kind of stressful."

Now, Shannon Evangelista, one of the docuseries' producers, says that the DePauls are Natalia's "No. 1 advocates." Nicole told People that she has no plans to adopt Natalia, who is now legally an adult, and though their relationship hasn't always been smooth, she trusts her.

"Did she probably do weird things in the past? Yeah," Nicole told People. "[But] when you take in a child, you take that child as your own. You don't just get rid of them when they don't fit into your puzzle."

Natalia says in "The Final Chapter" that while she regretted the manner in which she left her parents, she appreciated that living with the DePauls allowed her to "explore."

"Learning everything that I have about how to live with my dwarfism — it's been a great experience," she told People. "I love it. I mean, of course, I still miss my siblings and everything. But I love it. I feel free."

Nicole and Vince DePaul did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter" will finish airing on Investigation Discovery and Max on January 7.

• Natalia Grace Mans speaks about her boyfriend Neil in "The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter."
• Natalia and Neil met online, and he helped her leave her home with the Mans family.
• Neil is from the United Kingdom, and his identity is concealed in the docuseries.

"The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter" recounts how Natalia Grace Mans ultimately left the Mans family to live with Nicole and Vince DePaul, a couple with dwarfism who previously tried to adopt her when she was a child.

She does so with the assistance of her boyfriend Neil, who lives in the UK and is not shown onscreen or fully identified in "The Final Chapter." In the docuseries, Nicole DePaul says Neil contacted her via social media and told her that Natalia needed help leaving the Mans family, who adopted her in 2023. As a result, Nicole and her daughter Mackenzie traveled to Nashville, where the Mans family had relocated, to pick her up and bring her to their home in New York.

Natalia's saga was first publicized in 2019, when it was reported that her first set of adoptive parents, Kristine and Michael Barnett, had moved away to Canada and left Natalia on her own in an apartment after coming to believe that the Ukrainian orphan was really an adult woman posing as a child. They alleged that Natalia was disturbed and had threatened their family, which Natalia has repeatedly denied.

Neil is a relatively new addition to the story that's been unfolding on the Investigation Discovery docuseries since the first of its three seasons premiered in 2023. He's an off-screen presence in "The Final Chapter," which premiered Monday, but Natalia, Nicole, and Natalia's adoptive parents, Cynthia and Antwon Mans, all speak about him. Here's everything we know about Neil.

Neil and Natalia met over social media, and their relationship prompted conflict with her adoptive parents

Neil and Natalia first came into contact via social media while she was living with Antwon and Cynthia Mans, she recalls in "The Final Chapter."

"At first it was just like a small message, and then I grew feelings," Natalia says in the series. "He claimed he grew feelings, and I just opened my heart. It felt really good."

In December 2023, Antwon and Cynthia called producers to say that they were "done" with Natalia and that she wanted to live alone. Producers traveled to Tennessee, but when they arrived, Antwon and Cynthia told them that they had "come to an understanding" with Natalia and she had decided to stay at home.

During an interview with producers at that time, Antwon and Cynthia said that Natalia had "trashed" them in messages and that Neil had framed them as an "enemy" who sought to "control" her.

"I think it's definitely important to put parameters in place with the internet so these things won't happen again," Antwon said during the interview. "Look, we gotta cut the internet off. We can't allow this to happen. It's just got to be cut."

Natalia said during the interview that she believed she was in love with Neil, "but it wasn't right" and she wasn't "thinking clearly." However, she eventually did decide to leave her adoptive family to live with the DePauls in New York.

Antwon and Cynthia Mans did not immediately respond to BI's requests for comment sent to their personal Facebook profiles, their family Facebook page, and an email listed on the Facebook page.

Neil contacted Nicole so she could help Natalia leave the Mans

Neil reached out to Nicole DePaul over social media to request that she help Natalia leave the Mans family. "The Final Chapter" executive producer Eric Evangelista says in a confessional that Neil also contacted producers to say that she needed to leave.

"It was like, out of the blue," Nicole said. "At first, I didn't even believe him. I didn't even know if he was legit, or if I should trust him."

Natalia was still able to stay in contact with Neil, who in turn relayed information to Nicole. Eventually, he put Natalia and Nicole into contact, and they coordinated a pick-up.

After Nicole and her daughter Mackenzie retrieved Natalia in Tennessee, Natalia was able to speak on the phone with Neil.

"I am so, so thankful you found me. I love you so much," Natalia told Neil.

Neil and Natalia finally met in person while she was living with the DePauls

Natalia continued her long-distance relationship with Neil while living with Nicole and Vince DePaul. Natalia told People she was in love, and that she and Neil had met in person.

Now, Natalia tells the publication that she hopes to have a family of her own one day.

"I'm a girl who loves kids and wants to get married and have children," she said. "But one of my biggest things is not making promises I can't keep. I've had too many promises that have been broken. I'm just ready to move on."

"The Curious Case of Natalia Grace: The Final Chapter" premieres on Investigation Discovery and Max on January 6.

HBO released a new one-minute teaser for the second season of its post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us during CES last night, along with a release date of April 2025. Based on developer Naughty Dog's hugely popular video game franchise, S2 is set five years after the events of the first season and finds the bond beginning to fray between plucky survivors Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) while introducing several new characters.

(Spoilers for S1 below.)

The series takes place in the 20-year aftermath of a deadly outbreak of mutant fungus (Cordyceps) that turns humans into monstrous zombie-like creatures (the Infected, or Clickers). The world has become a series of separate totalitarian quarantine zones and independent settlements, with a thriving black market and a rebel militia known as the Fireflies making life complicated for the survivors. Joel is a hardened smuggler tasked with escorting the teenage Ellie across the devastated US, battling hostile forces and hordes of zombies, to a Fireflies unit outside the quarantine zone. Ellie is special: She is immune to the deadly fungus, and the hope is that her immunity holds the key to beating the disease.

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• Warning: This post contains spoilers for the second "The Last of Us" game — and potentially season two.
• HBO released a season two teaser trailer that shows Kaitlyn Dever as Abby.
• It will cover at least some of 2020's sequel game and will air on HBO in 2025.

In 2023, HBO turned the narrative-driven video game "The Last of Us" into one of the year's biggest television hits.

Starring Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal, the show primarily takes place 20 years after the cordyceps fungus evolves to infect humans, generating hordes of aggressive creatures. Joel (Pascal), a smuggler whose daughter died during the initial outbreak, is tasked with escorting Ellie (Ramsey), an orphan who's seemingly immune to the fungus, across the country in hopes of developing a cure.

The show earned both Pascal and Ramsey nominations at the Golden Globes and Emmy Awards and turned them into household names. It also featured an award-winning performance from Nick Offerman, who stars alongside Murray Bartlett in the season's acclaimed third episode "Long, Long Time."

A second season of the HBO hit is on the way, and it's set to adapt at least part of the game "The Last of Us Part II." Here's everything we know about the new season.

Kirsten Acuna contributed to a previous version of this article, which was first published in January 2024.

'The Last of Us' season 2 will premiere in April 2025

A sizzle reel released in December 2023 confirmed that season two would be released in 2025, and the CEO of HBO Casey Bloys confirmed at the Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront presentation in May 2024 that the series would air on HBO and stream on Max.

On January 6, HBO released a minute-long teaser that announced season two will premiere in April 2025, although it did not confirm an exact airdate. The new footage gives fans a better look at Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) as she makes her way through a hospital.

It also includes shots of Ellie in distress, Joel looking troubled, and hordes of the infected.

There will likely be a time jump — and the game probably won't cover all of 'The Last of Us Part II'

In an interview with Josh Horowitz on the "Happy Sad Confused" podcast in February 2023, Ramsey said that while they were playing a 14-year-old Ellie in the first season of "The Last of Us," Ellie would be closer to their own age in season two.

"I'll be 20, probably by the time we shoot that, and I'll be playing 19," Ramsey said. "So yeah, I will be closer to my age."

Showrunner Craig Mazin also spoke about the possibility of a time jump with Collider, and said that there won't be any recasting as a result.

"Obviously, the time jump is important, to some extent," Mazin said. "It reflects the changing nature of Ellie's relationship with Joel, as she gets older."

While "TLOU" season one covered the events of the 2013 game, the second season will not cover all of its 2020 sequel.

Series co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann, who also created the game series, told GQ in March 2023 that the events of the second game will take place over "more than one season."

There are new cast members in season 2

In January 2024, HBO announced three major season two castings.

Dever will play Abby, the second protagonist of "The Last of Us Part II" and a playable character in the game. She's a member of the Fireflies and driven by her desire for revenge.

Isabela Merced was cast as Dina, Ellie's love interest and eventual traveling companion who she gets to know in the Jackson settlement.

And Young Mazino, a breakout star of the Netflix limited series "Beef," will play Jesse, Dina's ex and a community leader in Jackson.

In March 2024, Max announced four more additions to the cast. Danny Ramirez will play Manny, Ariela Barer will play Mel, Tati Gabrielle will play Nora, and Spencer Lord will play Owen. The four characters are friends of Abby's from the Seattle settlement. Catherine O'Hara of "Schitt's Creek" is also set to appear in the new season in an undisclosed guest role.

HBO also announced in May 2024 that Jeffrey Wright ("American Fiction") would reprise his role from the games and play Isaac, the leader of the Washington Liberation Front, in season two. Per Entertainment Weekly, HBO describes Isaac as "the quietly powerful leader of a large militia group who sought liberty but instead has become mired in an endless war against a surprisingly resourceful enemy."

Another major character in the sequel game is Lev, a transgender teen who escapes a cult.

In February 2023, Ian Alexander, who voiced and performed the character through motion capture, told Business Insider they would love to reprise their role on the live-action series.

At the time, Alexander hadn't had any conversations about the role.

HBO hasn't announced casting for the character and it's not yet known if Lev will appear in season two. After the game's initial release in 2020, the game's developer Naughty Dog received some backlash for its handling of Lev's story.

HBO released a season 2 teaser that shows Joel and Ellie going through it

On "The Last of Us" day in 2024— September 26, the date of the cordyceps outbreak in the original video game — HBO released a teaser trailer for season two.

The trailer gave the first look at some of the new additions to season two, including Dever as Abby, Merced as Dina, Mazino as Jesse, and Wright as Isaac.

In the teaser, Joel and Ellie appear to be living a somewhat peaceful life in Jackson, hinting at Ellie's relationship with Dina. But things obviously take a turn for the worse: There are plenty of infected, glimpses of likely antagonists, and a few shots of both Joel and Ellie in distress.

Which leads us to…

Fans are concerned Joel could die in season 2

"The Last of Us Part II" video game is controversial among fans because Joel is unexpectedly and brutally murdered by Abby toward the start of the sequel when his past catches up with him.

In addition to playing as Ellie, gamers are forced to play as Joel's killer leading up to and after his death in the sequel. As a result, some players harassed and threatened the developers, Druckmann, and voice actors for its story.

Will Joel die in 'The Last of Us' season two? It's likely

Joel's fate is the question on every fan's mind, since it's the major jumping-off point of the sequel game. Even Pascal has said his character's death is a possibility in season two.

"It wouldn't make sense to follow the first game so faithfully only to stray severely from the path," Pascal told Esquire in April 2023.

"If that does take place in the show, I don't know that I'm emotionally ready for it," he added.

However, Mazin told Entertainment Weekly in 2023 that fans can expect some changes from the sequel game in season two, saying, "It's going to be different, and it will be its own thing. It won't be exactly like the game."

Maybe that means there's a chance Joel could live, or at least make it to the end of season two, due to Pascal's immense popularity.

Since the second game became controversial, it's likely the show may flesh out Abby's character more before killing Joel off, if the show decides to go that route. But it would be difficult to envision season two straying from Joel's death since it's the key motivation for Ellie's path in the sequel game.

There will be more infected

In the game, players are constantly outmaneuvering and killing a large number of the people who have been infected and taken over by the cordyceps virus. Though the infected showed up in a few key scenes, they weren't a main fixture of season one, which placed a large emphasis on character relationships and world-building.

"It's quite possible that there will be a lot more infected later. And perhaps different kinds," Mazin said during a press conference for the finale in 2023.

On HBO's "The Last of Us" podcast in 2023, Mazin added that season two will likely further explore the idea of the Cordyceps hive mind and how they can be a major threat together.

"I think this next season, the interconnectivity of them, and the risk of stepping on the wrong thing, that stuff is going to be brought forward more for sure," Mazin said.