What’s up #CircleFam? The big finale of “The Circle” season 3 — which we would describe as “50% filler, but perfectly pleasant to watch” — dropped on Wednesday, so now we’re dropping our subscriber-only recap of the last five episodes. Writer Mychal Denzel Smith joined us to unpack the events of the final third of the season, and to weigh in on the elements of a good catfish, emoji selection, and the eternal question: Is he a strategic genius, or is he just a tall white guy?

This batch of episodes brings to a close a particularly calculated season dominated by gameplay and strategic alliance-building rather than emotional connections. The Circle crew has sorted into two opposing forces battling it out for dominance. Who will triumph, Team Nick or Team Kai? Will one of our stalwart alliance generals take the crown, or will a wily foot soldier sneak into the lead at the opportune moment? Will Nick ever learn how to be friends with a woman who isn’t down to get her flirt on with him? Let’s find out!

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We’ve been watching…

The second season of “The Other Two,” on HBO Max, which is that rare sitcom that actually packs in 10 perfectly delivered jokes a minute. The first season follows the attempts of Cary and Brooke, washed-up millennials struggling to establish footholds in the acting world (Cary) and adulthood generally (both of them), to ride the coattails of their Internet-famous teeny-bopper little brother, Chase. Season two is, somehow, funnier. Ken Marino and Molly Shannon are the mom and almost-stepdad I’d rather not have to imagine having, and, like early “Schitt’s Creek,” the show balances a ruthless cynicism about its greedy, mediocre characters with a genuine core of humanity at the center of each.

Also, “Reservation Dogs,” the new FX comedy about four teenagers on an Oklahoma reservation who turn to, uh, extralegal methods to scrounge together the money they need to escape to California. I just started this, and the first episode was masterful. -Claire

The triumphant return of Bravo classic, “Vanderpump Rules.” What can I say? I love some good good trash. -Emma

We’ve been reading…

Yes, I’m still reading “Great Circle.” -Claire

I read and keep re-reading Chris Hayes’ New Yorker essay, “On The Internet, We’re Always Famous.” It hit home on so many levels. This passage in particular has really stayed with me: “Everyone is losing their minds online because the combination of mass fame and mass surveillance increasingly channels our most basic impulses—toward loving and being loved, caring for and being cared for, getting the people we know to laugh at our jokes—into the project of impressing strangers, a project that cannot, by definition, sate our desires but feels close enough to real human connection that we cannot but pursue it in ever more compulsive ways.” -Emma

We’ve been listening to…

“Suspect,” Wondery’s deep dive into the unsolved 2008 murder of 24-year-old Arpana Jinaga. It starts off as a straightforward true crime mini-series and then morphs into a look at policing, race, and the limits of DNA evidence. -Emma

The first episode of “This Is Critical,” a cultural criticism podcast hosted by Virginia Heffernan, the newest project of Producer Harry (of “Love To See It”). He actually appears on it, discussing trash talk (perfect topic), and it would be derelict of us not to suggest everyone go check it out! -Claire

We’ve been buying…

This perfect blazer from the Nili Lotan x Target collection, and these Schutz bright pink mules for an upcoming wedding. -Emma

I saw Michelle Zauner wearing a cropped faux-cardigan from Madewell, so I… refreshed that cropped faux-cardigan page for 36 hours until my size showed up in stock. This is more a humiliating confession than a recommendation.

Also, can anyone tell me where to get cute, reasonably priced, not aggressively-gendered clothes for an almost 2-year-old? I just want some cute sweaters and stretchy pants that don’t have trucks or pink unicorns all over them, thank you! (Neither trucks or unicorns should necessarily be “gendered” but it’s beyond obvious why they’re on the clothes, and also, I hate them.) -Claire