Puzzle Notes

Dear solvers,

We're so pleased to bring back Hoang-Kim Vu, who has provided mentorship and guidance to so many newer constructors of standard American crosswords, for his second cryptic with AVCX. In his own words:

Hoang-Kim Vu (he/him) works on a global malaria research project in Washington, D.C. You might be thinking it's too soon to see another cryptic from him ' and you'd be right ' but with cryptics on the brain, a weeklong Netflix binge session sparked the idea for the seed entry for this grid.

We disagree ' we think it's high time for another round of twists and turns from Hoang-Kim's tricky cluing. This one's harder than some we've put out before, but we believe in you. You've got this. Enjoy!

Be well,
The AVCX Cryptic team