rozen

Wow, that was too real. Who hasn't met a Molly, who swears up and down that they are ready and willing to talk but always treats you like a bug in their ice cream? She's finally achieved in a little success in the only area she felt herself lacking (relationships) and promptly gassed herself up as unable to do any wrong. It'll be interesting to see what Tiffany and Kelli do, because I can totally see Molly trying to stake her claim that they are "her" friends and that Issa needs to roll on. Nathan was salty, but it was a honest reminder that Lawrence has historically been trash. I'm not even convinced he properly cut things off with Corolla. He's gotten over his pride just enough to go back to what Lawrence always does, seek out something comfortable and unchallenging. Andrew spends most of his screentime wincing or raising his eyebrows, doesn't seem like a good sign for their relationship. At this point, I am shocked Molly's therapist hasn't fired herself rather than deal with Molly's bs. Her rates must be stupendous!

Food on international flights is surprisingly good, especially the curries. I thought Melissa's idea was very smart, easy to reheat and eat in your seat. She's finishing strong, I'm excited to see what she puts together in Italy! Also was cheering for Stephanie for not letting nervousness keep her from blowing the socks off so many well-known chefs! I bet a bunch of wealthy people will keep her booked up for the foreseeable future. I like how she doesn't play off how excited she is about getting international travel prizes. Padma slamming down that little snack container and slurring "what's your favorite nut?" to Waxman made me crack up so hard. Gregory's gotten the wind up about presenting to people he's a big fan of twice in a row. I hope he chills a bit before the finale, which will almost assuredly have an even more star-studded final table.

I interpreted that very differently, Molly expends all her "points" on restraining her temper at work and has none left for IRL. Should Molly have been nicer? Yes. But it is very common in that kind of high-pace, high-stress job for prioritize your limited bandwidth for client-facing activities. Her assistant 100% set her up to look like a total idiot in front of people being charged hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars an hour for her alleged "expertise" on a brief she didn't even know about until the night before. So when she's outside of work, she's on a hair trigger from restraining herself all the time. Andrew seems to really get Molly and helps her grow in a very non-confrontational way. But I honestly don't know how she makes him better? Meeting the family seems like a big step, yet they hardly seem to know each other. It seems like all they've been doing is having sex yet they still don't know what the other person prefers? Molly being proud of her little panty set felt too cheesy. I can't imagine that Dro the Polyamorous Lothario wouldn't have taught her some tricks. I would not stay in a relationship with someone that cussed out my brother, insulted my race, and dragged my bestie with mental health issues because of her confidence that she is Always Right. That she felt comfortable sitting there and acting like Nathan was trash on her shoe when she knows he is living at Andrew's house and is one of his best friends...who does that?! The towel thing was a classic microaggression and the employee started blinking furiously and loudly stating "I don't know what you are trying to say" when Molly called her out. She could have just said "yes I did ask for the card," but she didn't...because she had not. They got the acting for that scene down pat, I was clenching my teeth because I've experienced it so many times. I bet Lawrence found a job in a different part of CA. He'll be officially "exiting" Issa's social orbit and wants to say his final goodbyes.

At least it wasn't recovering ingredients from an ice block using a pick, but this was so gimmicky. If I were a chef, I'd be pissed to get eliminated over a dumb challenge like this one. And then having to get up so early after listening to wine moms scream at karaoke all night...no wonder some folks were kind of snappy. Malarkey getting shafted and throwing a tantrum which resulted in..the prettiest station of the whole crew was hilarious. He was fed up with everyone this episode, it was a nice change up from his admirable California Sunshine persona. That was an impressively undiverse group of moms. And they all looked so hungover, but were still trying to bat their eyelashes at Bryan and Tom 🤣🤣. Karen's despair at everyone giggling around the school QB was the highlight of the episode for me.

Wow, Molly literally ruined Issa's event and for what? She ran up on Issa like that woman screwed her man. Issa knew Andrew before Molly was ever in the picture! Now Molly thinks she owns and can police all communications with him however she likes? And the manager *thanked* Andrew for the opportunity, meaning that Issa didn't just do a good job, she killed it. One thing that Issa said that was rude but true, Molly is always looking for an issue. Molly was salty that whole event that it was well run and Issa wasn't desperate for her approval or validation. Issa has done a lot of garbage things and Molly had every right to be upset, but this action is beyond the pale for me. I could never forgive anyone for ruining something so professionally important for something so trivial. Oh no, looks like Tiff may have PPD. Hope the friends can come together to support her and don't let this fall through the cracks because of this argument. Edit: It's also very telling that Molly immediately snapped at Andrew, "you know we aren't cool" upon hearing he helped out. Not "omg I'm so angry because she violated my boundaries". This was about punishing Issa, period.

Making Ru laugh is the cardinal rule of RPDR, if you succeed other failings will be overlooked. I just don't know why Sh*rry refused to close. If she'd taken the final slot and proceeded to mop the floor with everyone for 20 minutes, she probably would have won, actually. Again, trash human being, but damn she painted for filth on the runway. That eyeliner was spectacular. Jackie putting Jaida in last was Naomi level "life's not fair" and I would have preferred if she'd just owned it instead of acting aggrieved. Using the two pairs of glasses to delineate her characters was a cute trick, something like that would have benefited Heidi immensely. Gigi had such a great idea, I'm so sad she was too nervous to go all in. There are so many blonde leggy mega-bitch archetypes that she is perfectly suited to lean in to, just go for it! "F*ck you Garry" was a hilarious running gag. Heidi is a national treasure and even got an semi-authentic Ru stamp of approval. She's going to do big things! Crystal could put water in a bottle, and I'd buy it. Luv x infinity

Wow, I think that's the first restaurant wars with such diametrically opposed approaches to running their pop-up. Both had homey, family-oriented spiels for their cuisine, and Gregory stuck with that while Kevin tried to "chef it up". I think Gregory was smart to avoid the gunners, who would want and demand to heavily influence his dishes. While a lot of The Country Captain's failures landed on Kevin, I bet a lot of the lack of cohesion came from having him, Bryan V and Melissa all in the same kitchen. If you lined up all 12 (!!) dishes, I think we could accurately guess who cooked what. In contrast, Team Kann was sending out food that looked like Gregory's alone. Karen was...flustered. But Kevin was a shit expediter, and you can't exactly come down hard on your own team leader for making everyone refire dishes over and over because he can't count. Especially as FOH. Imo, Karen was also valid in being pissed that her mushroom dish was clearly neglected. No one else was told their dish was literal garbage, and while Karen may not be top tier on Top Chef, the woman is an accomplished and respected chef. I don't think being blunt and honest is a bad FOH strategy. Malarkey's tap dancing was impressive, but if I'd been sitting for 40 min w/o a snack in sight I'd rather have Karen come by and pour me a drink while being empathetic. Stephanie was excellent, but I suspect having Leanne play bad cop for the first part of service helped a bit. I'm happy Leanne's two dishes were successful, that rum raisin pineapple side down cake looked amazing!

Issa has been super self-absorbed this season and the timing of that ask to Molly was terrible considering she's blown off more serious talks multiple times now. However...I kind of think think this is a justifiable time to be obnoxious? Issa is trying to make an enormous life change, beginning with a huge social event that will make or break her brand. If that's not a time to be stressed and self-involved, I don't know when is. Issa also has little bandwidth or interest in being Molly's emotional therapist, which has been her historical role. I think Molly resents that change a little. Molly just shot herself in the foot, because waiting to turn down Issa is going to look extremely vindictive. She's been pulling a Tiffany and (falsely) bragging about how solid her relationship with Andrew is, so Issa is absolutely going to interpret this as a huge snub. Realistic, but blah, at Derek's patriarchal fear of boys touching his daughter. God forbid he focus on raising a woman with a strong sense of self and sexual agency.

I didn't say anything about white chefs fangirling over slavery. They just ignore the horrific process by which African cuisine was colonized and re-appropriated. Kevin's food was clearly tasty, well-executed, and had a clear point of view and he is an excellent chef. It doesn't take away from his success to point out that his cultural narrative is the preferred one and provides him with the vocabulary to argue for that point of view, something which Eric very much lacked.

Yup, exactly how I thought. This is not the first time a black chef has pushed cuisine that celebrates the diversity of food born of tragedy while a white southern chef goes "whee, look at our Cool. Neat. Culinary Heritage!" while eliding the underlying genocidal colonialism. It is gross and tiresome.

This season is only going to get more and more awkward, because it looks like (imo) Gigi is starting to fade and only so much editing can spin an underdog storyline for Crystal. Sherry Pie is *so clearly* a solid contender and it will only become more obvious the fewer queens there are. Too bad he's a literal garbage human being, because he is putting on a clinic on how to optimize your drag for a successful RPDR run. I was worried for Jaida's drag daughter for a minute, she was so cautious and introverted I couldn't see how she could transform into an Essence Hall. But Jaida cleverly played it up as the overbearing mother escorting her child to their drag debutante ball, loved it! I am super disappointed that Heidi appears to have thrown her hands up at the idea of customizing an outfit for her drag daughter. No excuse. To not even think about painting a gap when she's been playing it up all season...I agree with Ru, what did Heidi spend so much time doing? Do they film the confessionals before the main stage? Because I swear Jackie's beard is less obvious in the talking heads than on the main stage. It reminds me of Willam and his beard denial.

I'm sorry, but I can totally understand not wanting to have an emotionally draining argument with a practicing lawyer on Thanksgiving. And their previous attempts at hashing out their feelings have been extremely unpleasant, which adds on the decision to hardpass. Condola's friends did not like Lawrence or take him very seriously. They acted like he was some cute puppy she picked up from a shelter to foster. And all of them (Condola included) are several levels above him professionally, which probably had him feeling more insecure and defensive. Condola basically saying she didn't even want his ass there was...interesting. Looks like Lawrence is getting Tasha'd this season, and I am here for it. Issa better reply with a 'lol, I hope u & Condola had a great tday!' and keep it moving. That man does not deserve an easy landing into what is comfortable and easy.

The audacity to call the challenge "Choices 2020" and have Raven come to the workroom instead of Tatianna. I don't know how I went from "Jackie Cox is a decent queen" to being ready to marry Jackie Cox, but here we are. Jaida and Crystal were so refreshingly ridiculous during the debate, I loved it. I'm sorry, but Jeff Goldblum is creepy AF. Def wanted more Rachel Bloom enthusiasm and less Jeff staring at people's crotches.

Wow, so they are setting up for workplace romance with Taurean? Their relationship had so much acrimony and vitriol last season that I never considered him as the next potential SO. That scene made me realize how much I miss seeing scenes of Molly at work, I hope we get more of them! Lawrence's relationship with Condola is going to fizzle out fast. They already hinted that she's *super* paranoid when she immediately leapt to Issa being a creepy ex-girlfriend/stalker. The more compatible Condola is with Issa, the more she's going to assume Lawrence is into her because she reminds him of Issa. Lawrence going behind her back to talk to his ex will def come back to shoot him in the foot. Also, where does this dude get off forbidding Issa from discussing him? Boy, shut up. Talk to your gf if you are uncomfortable with the idea of her finding out how raggedy you were before your revenge glowup. Issa shouldn't even be entertaining his bs.

Fair, but they didn't even coach her on how to present herself. They let her make messaging 101 level mistakes that could have been fixed with a round of mock pitches over margaritas. That's trash behavior from alleged friends.

Literally why would Andrew waste his time to being exclusive to Molly? She's been hot and cold while leading him around by the nose since they met. Molly has always been jealous that Issa managed to snag Lawrence, I'm sure she's projecting that onto Condola as well. Molly can't stand women who are doing better than her, so Condola having a high-powered career and Lawrence 2.0 while getting chummy with Issa is probably her worst nightmare. I'm truly raising an eyebrow at all these *friends* Issa allegedly has. Every single one of these women have extensive experience working with affluent clients and soliciting them for work, but not a one helped coach Issa. Just let her stumble out and make a fool of herself and barely manage to salvage the situation at the last moment. Did any of them even bring clients, or was Condola the only one putting her reputation on the line for Issa? It's like all of them truly expected their bestie to fail and were just there for the booze and snacks.

Yea, but the whole shebang only lasted three or four weeks? She spent a week or two talking to Barnett 19 hours a day while he gushed about how he could marry her tomorrow, and then spent the next couple weeks hung up over it. I really don't think her behavior would be that shocking IRL. It's garbage behavior, yes, but regular person garbage. Not "worthy of dedicated hate sites and death threats" garbage.

The Lacheys are so opposite and non-complementary in their hosting approach. Nick is fully aware of the cameras and is full of platitudes, and Vanessa chats with them as if there were no cameras at all. I liked Vanessa more because she acknowledged how awkward this all was. I did not enjoy Amber's moment, at all. Hearing Miss "I'm not like other girls, I'm so coooool and only hang with boys!" ream Jessica out for not following girl-code was a bit hypocritical. Yes, it was disrespectful but is it really that big of a *scandal*? She briefly chased Barnett like she's probably chased every other emotionally unavailable f**kboy in her life. Amber seemed very brittle about her marriage in general. The blonde hair and racy clothes along with her hints at Barnett being frustrated w/ her lack of income and her being frustrated w/ his flirtatiousness...seems like they had a rough year. And her awkward apology to Mama Barnett after pointing out her beloved son was not perfect. Amber is clearly feeling a little boxed in, and maybe thumping a clear "villain" like Jessica let her get her frustrations out. I still can't tell if Lauren is actually all in w/ her marriage or if she just realizes this is an *excellent* opportunity to launch her social media career. Her and Camerons' body language is just so odd! Maybe she just really hates PDA, but in that case I don't know why Cameron insists on having at least one hand 2mm from a boob at all times. There were some raised eyebrows about Amber's enthusiasm to enjoy Barnett's economic status, but not a whisper about Mark. Jessica's assets clearly outstripped even Barnett's and Mark was young and broke. She kept saying he was too young, but I think she meant he was too big a liability to marry when she hardly knew him.

I think the spoiler instagram said Diamond & Carlton were one of the first to be sent to Mexico and they had to send their "backup" boring couples. I wouldn't be shocked if they didn't put enormous pressure on Jessica to hang in there. She's also such a mess and easily manipulated so I'm sure the entire production team put in every effort to keep her on the show. I really don't believe that Mark was so blindly oblivious and Kenny is the Right Reasons Bachelor we've always wanted. They were given a great edit for the story bc the women gave better footage. Cameron legitimately creeps me out. That level of intensity *all the time* is just way too much.

Based on Charles' reactions throughout the episode, I think they were trying to communicate that he is used to being ostracized and alone. His father forced into a miserable primary school experience because of nostalgia, and he was just snatched from the one place he was somewhat happy to be re-deployed in the middle of nowhere surrounded by more people who dislike him. I thought it was very realistic that he would mostly retreat under those circumstances. The dinner conversation was comical, you'd think he would have training to more graciously exit a conversation where he doesn't understand the topic. Not just go "lol, what nonsense is this?" Then again Philip is his father so who knows. The Queen went full "seen but not heard" in that closing argument. He so desperately refuses being a puppet that it makes her resentful at the implication that *she* is a puppet and how he fails to understand how much more leeway he already has compared to when she was being trained for the role. "No one wants to hear it" was savage, but to me it was a direct rebuttal to his accusation that she's a heartless mannequin.

Exactly this. The pacing was all wrong, bc they needed to keep Dany reasonable enough to not make Jon look bad for following her around like a puppy. But they also needed her to go over the top tyrant immediately so Jon looks good for promptly murdering her. The producer's obsession with making Jon into naive boy scout who means no wrong really screwed up the plot. I literally started laughing at the sudden desaturation and staging to make Dany look like every Sith/Nazi stereotype while she gave her "conquer the world" speech. And the fact that everyone and their mother apparently knows Tyrion & Jon are traitors yet they are allowed to wander to and fro however they wish. Grey Worm and the Unsullied should have closed ranks on Jon immediately when he tried to go after Dany. Kylo Ren, I mean Dany, offering to rule the multiverse together with Jon was so cheesy and makes no sense as Jon couldn't even fake getting it up just last episode. They truly made her into an unhinged marionette, making nonsensical and out-of-character decisions left and right. Wow, they really picked the most useless person in Westeros to make king. They'll be conquered in under a century, while pop pop Bran uselessly watches his time traveling showtunes. Also wtf happened to Meera Reed? She drug his ass across the entire North and she got...an awkward sendoff and probable death to white walkers? At this point I assume Bran is actually Emperor Palpatine.

Agreed, this felt like Dany unshackled. The two people that constantly urged her to make concessions, at the cost of her own progress, are also the two people who betrayed her most deeply. She has no reason to take their wishes into consideration anymore. Instead, she prioritized her and Grey Worm's rage and dedication to executing Missandei's last words. Was it awful and bloody and terrible? Yes. All wars of conquest have been.

Pretty much. They took an ounce of flesh, she demanded a pound in return. Ringing some bells after roasting a few crossbows was never going to be enough. Not for Dany, not for Grey Worm, and not even, apparently, for Drogon. His animation was *salty* when he swaggered forward to roast Varys. This is literally a case of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Everyone was so worried about Dany maybe going crazy that they actively went out of their way to undermine her, playing right into her paranoia. Jon is apparently the only person on earth that realized what she needed were people who loved and respected her. Tyrion & Varys are like the wire moms researchers put baby monkeys with to see if nature or nurture were more important. Dany literally had no chance to thrive under these two idiots' care, because she was never either's first priority. All the people who prioritized her have sacrificed themselves for her cause, the rest sat back, drank wine, and were like "yea, but maybe, eventually, she'll be crazy. I dunno man, you know how women are."

Wouldn't work. Dany feels like she's put more skin in the game to claim the throne in the first place and Jon always feel justified making unilateral decisions. After the honeymoon lovebug period wears off they would be at loggerheads with one another. Honestly, I think that's what they both want, deep down. They fear her because if she wins she'll have too much firepower and too much willpower to be easily manipulated. Varys especially doesn't want a great ruler, he wants a non-psychopath that is malleable and easily manipulated. Hence his immediate switch to Team Jon.

Agreed. If there is one thing Team Stark excels at, it's Pyrrhic vengeance. And how did *no one* notice or inform the approaching army that there were an awful lot of anti-dragon crossbow things surrounding home base? The (lack of) military strategy in this season makes literally no sense.