Jobiska

Well, I'm not fond of either Laurel or Nicole, but I think that while she's a strong competitor, Laurel has never been sure of herself in relationships, and has been easily hurt a lot of times (Even with Horacio, one of the sweetest guys that's ever been on the show). Whether Nicole is abusive, or is even a small percentage genuine in her "boundary" talk (I agree that the timing was convenient, to say the least), I don't know enough of their personal relationship to judge. But I do know they are both a mess relationship wise and should not be together!

On another subject--interesting re Nicole telling Laurel (the next day) that coming to her bed was crossing a boundary. Laurel seemed to be intentionally trying not to "get" it. Like the other Challengers, I'd hate to be witnessing that whole mess in person! I don't remember the challenge from before--I wish they would pause longer on the silly helmets so I could truly appreciate them.

Cara is definitely somewhat emotionally--I don't know if insecure is the right word--labile, I guess. I think from my personal life of dealing with emotionally labile people I am inured and it sort of rolls off my back, though I can see why it would be annoying. On the other hand, what gets my goat is that Kam presented their situation as Cara "not having her back" while IIRC Cara's vote didn't make any difference at all--kind of like Tina voting for Rachel this time. Rachel was all "Tina is not a very good political player" in her talking head, but with a sort of fondly exasperated "whatcha gonna do?" (Especially since, again, Tina's vote wouldn't have mattered). Another example of Rachel's maturing. I think what frustrates me (and I normally like Kam) is how she sort of presented it as "well the only logical thing to do would have been to support ME" when it. didn't. make. a. difference. It was nowhere near gaslighting, but it gave me the same icky feeling, like she was mentally superior or something. In other words, if you are going to act as if you are being logical, then you have to be logical, and if Cara's vote didn't matter, then your objection is not logical. And on the flip side, if you are going to approach things from pure emotion, well, prepare for people to be annoyed, because tantrums are super-annoying but they are just a release of emotion by someone that doesn't do it very maturely--and Cara's blew over by the time she was in the arena. But I totally get how they might not be the favorite thing for some viewers. Or some Challengers! So--mileage varies! no judgment!

This is where I come down too. Kam really acts like people should be playing for her and Leroy's game. Rachel was a good sport (I didn't like her in the past, mainly because she was awful to Sarah Greyson on their RR season). I enjoyed the elimination--at least it was something different. Here I was thinking that if you hit "stand on one leg" it would mean your opponent had to do so! And they both sailed stars over the top of the board, which was funny. The unbraiding ropes was interesting but we didn't really get the full effect--all we saw was a tangle of Challenger-grapes hanging on the vine. It's interesting what is easier or harder to make exciting on film. Was Tina implying that TJ's blue shirt was er, what is the new word, dripp?, or that he looked awful, when she said "who's your stylist?" Considering it was a short sleeved blue button down, I'd say this time Jeff Probst was his stylist!

If you don't count the despised Family Edition, where they camped on Belmont Plateau in West Fairmount Park early in the race. (my preferred association with that spot is lying out there at night to watch meteor showers, which my child then reported in his 2nd grade "weekend news" as "Mee-tee-ers." I was disappointed at how little Philly featured in S8, and excited to see Gritty in the season previews (though I see him interacting with a team of a certain composition, which means I have some guesses as to final 3 placement, sigh). "Gritty: he may be a hideous, deformed monster, but he's our hideous, deformed monster!" --Philadelphians

To be fair, she was the last woman standing (hanging) (clinging) and nobody was going to beat Hunter, as we could see when he hung upside down with only the strength of his thighs--and women often do win that one IIRC. I was quite impressed with her performance, actually, of being the 3rd to last out.

So Cara Maria is supposed to play Kam's game for her now? It was okay for others to say "I can never vote against Rachel so..." [Flora, whomever] but not for Cara to throw her vote away (if the order they voted in was shown correctly, it was obvious Rachel was going in)....I like Kam and Leroy, but that was a bit much! Amused at Jasmine's talking head about playing dominoes at her HBCU. How can Ayanna not tell that Kam is not going to out the people who told what they'd overheard? I am so glad she's gone. I am enjoying Kefla, whom I don't remember, but sorry that Syrus' gorgeous grin is gone from my screen. I liked their "old man buddy buddy" chat.

I forget who it was, but one of the guys said something like "Gracias, mujera!" to the clue-giver at the rope-block, which IIRC means, "Thanks, woman!", when it probably should have been "Senora" or "Senorita." (sorry no tildas) It was funny on half the cluebox-arrivals to see the voladores climbing wearily back up for yet another round, probably thinking "when will the rest of these dinguses get here so we can finally go home and take a nap?" I mean, I'm sure they enjoy vol-ing, but there's a limit to how many times you can have the blood rush to your head in a day, no? (And I would much rather do the hanging/spinning than be the person at the top playing an instrument--the first shot where he was actually standing on top of the pole freaked me out--even later when he was sitting!) Because my brain loves to classify things, I was intrigued at the different ways the teams described the wrestling masks, either by color or by symbol or whatever. It all went too fast for me to decide what I myself would call them! My progeny was sitting on the couch quoting Anna Leigh (disparagingly) every time Mary said something sweet to her dad! I like the two same-sex couples; I think we saw more of the guys (sweet for the one to make his partner's dream his own), and I think the half-Mexican one from the women looks like a brown-eyed Parvati Shallow (from Survivor).

What, you don't enjoy his fashion sense? ;-)

Yeah. His eyes getting beadier and meaner with every second (Jay's, that is, not Kyland's or even Asaf's) and his mouth getting more and more clenched into a straight line were just so telling. And they replayed that bit in the deliberations where he pulls a childish face when Kyland is...just talking. I wouldn't mind seeing Michele without Jay just to see if (as Laurel suggested she hasn't yet) she learns from her mistakes. And at least she owns her mistakes and flaws. Jay is such a hypocrite. "You bring too much drama," said to Big T and Melissa by the guy wearing a marching band uniform. Corey should keep the non-mushroom 'do. James gets the manspreading award. Sounds like the physical distance did him and Moriah in? Whatever, they don't seem too bothered. I agree that Colleen didn't come off that well, but in her clip, neither did Berna, going on and on and on about how horrible Colleen was. Like with Jay, I find Berna a hypocrite and would be happy not to see her again. Awww, Horatio saying he was the most overrated....

I don't like to be meanspirited, but I couldn't help smirking every time Berna's balancing thingies fell down. Her whining was just too much, and her hypocrisy (still not over her bullying Amber B. back in the day, and then whining about being bullied herself). Emmanuel did earn it physically, and I'm happy for his family, and happy for Nurys. I wonder if they weren't allowed to scooch along on hands and knees on the balance beam, like some end up doing on Survivor.

Well, she has dark brown hair--and just seeing her from afar, it could look black. Only one blonde woman this time--I will have a much easier time differentiating!

And it was so obviously planned. They started their dance immediately (with Emmanuel, almost before the words were out of their mouths) and how would Jay and Moriah know when to chest bump? I know there's a "thing" on Big Brother that after one alliance gets someone out, or wins a comp, or whatever, they meet up in the kitchen and do a little dance. I bet Jay thought this would be oh-so-cute to do here. It wasn't. I did wonder if he would accidentally pop Moriah in the nose with his flailing, though.

I'd be happy if Nurys won; Colleen would be okay because she kind of had the short end of the stick with whatever alliance she went with, and she has not been mean; and I'd grudgingly say that Michele deserves it, for pulling all the social strings and doing damage control for Jay's asshattery. That's it.

We just caught up on our saved episodes (I think we were saving them and spreading them out!) So I assume if you're a local (like me) that your friend's daughter is local? I was wondering if they hired Philly kids on location. I called the CPAP machine but I thought surely they would kiss in the Heart--but I was glad it was unpredictable.

Well, I figured, but I don't recall reading them then, and I don't have the brainpower to go back over old seasons, but I figure your posts probably give one the flavor of your recaps, so!

Of course it does. Well, I for one always appreciate your take, even though I value Wes and Devin more than you do, and I watch Big Brother also (but you seem to agree with me that TAR is the pinnacle of reality shows....). I like when you post Erik's cartoons on Survivor threads. It would be fun to see his take on the Challenge eps, but I think he'd better reserve his talents for other things.

At the very least, I think TJ hates it when people throw challenges almost as much as he hates quitters, and I'm sure he could tell that Jay et al. were throwing that one in the soggy truck with the letters, and poor pure Horacio was just too innocent to notice. Teeje sees who tried hard and who throws things. Kyland may go off on the wrong track (when Jay tied knots in the chain vs. whatever Kyland did, for example), but he always tries. So based on that alone Teeje is going to like them better than he does Jay!

And I'm sure if it were Jay and Asaf in the lead at the final, Jay would surely step aside on behal of Asaf's wife and child, right? right? [crickets] He is such a hypocrite. Follows the usual path (for me) of people going downhill in my esteem from one season to the next. Kyland has gone up slightly, Horacio was already pretty high, Ed has stayed pretty level. Interestingly, Nurys has gone up, but I didn't really have a big take on her before. I was prepared to extend a lot of credit towards Moriah because she was done so dirty by Fessy (whom I don't like), but meh. ETA: LOL at TJ being amused by Zara writing that James was dead to her in her journal.

No criticism intended for the accomplishments you listed. He was good, eventually, at pulling in help and getting the support he needed to take his creative idea to a business. But whether it was him not dealing well with ADD, or whatever, the person that was shown at the beginning of the development of the business on camera (which is all I have seen), who frittered around and didn't make deadlines even for a friend and possible supporter in Patricia, didn't really seem to listen to his organizational coach, etc. etc., could not have developed the business into the major company it is without strong support. I have no idea who Amanda is nor do I have any idea of the company's structure. I go by what is shown on the show. He was smart enough to figure out what he needed and smart enough to listen to those who offered it, eventually (after the frittering scenes from a few years ago). I just feel it's obvious that the actual design skills and organizational skills, even if he changed medication and trained for attentional support, could not have grown into the pillows I see. I think other people design the pillows now, and we have not seen anything showing him actually creating the art, or if we have, I have missed it. I do recognize (from last season's dinner for his company plus apparently for yelling at Leva, etc.) that he has developed a functional, successful business, and that some skills of his had to have been brought to bear. You're right, he is not just the face of it, and I didn't mean to pooh-pooh his contributions. I just don't think he did it alone, and some vibes from the show and from some comments (I don't necessarily mean yours, since I don't remember anything you might have said) seem to imply that he did. I'm just balancing the "Craig is so amazing with his pillow business!!" vibes with "Craig is amazing to have gotten past some major obstacles by finding others to deal with those obstacles, which is a skill in itself, who all together created this business!" Good for him and glad it's not just mailbox money. But just....he's not some Edison or whatever. All I'm saying is his skills for getting help and meshing the helpers appear to me to be his primary skills. I just don't really like the guy that much more than any of the rest of them, and the whole conspiracy theory situation really turns me off. I'm allowed not to like him.

Thank you! I thought I was the only one who felt this way! He could never have gone from the stuff he was making for friends (sweet and goofy) and then his disaster when Patricia asked him for some pillows (both in design and in delay) without other people as the creatives and as the organizers (and as the "this is what pillows look like on HGTV shows where they always have a scene of the designers fluffing and karate chopping them right before the reveal). The face, indeed, with a tinfoil hat on top. He's funny, but I don't think he's all that. Speaking of hats, can you imagine the production assistants all sitting down together with several rolls of Reynolds Wrap making all those hats? There was definitely some creativity shown there! I don't hate JT because I still find him somewhat amusing, especially when he throws in big words (correctly, I'll give him that) and odd references, but I don't enjoy seeing people punching down on someone for being short, and I think he's in a weird box where his only story line is Love Taylor, Hate Austen. I'd rather see him managing diabetes (though not sticking himself thru his boxers or whatever), falling over in streams, and especially, as noted during the reunion, interacting with his mom. She's the only parent I've really liked at all on the show (I guess Cameran's mom was fine but that's ancient history). And I'd rather watch a show of Venita doing stuff with her dog, picking out outfits, and having fun with Manny.

Challenge wiki says he has an Ivy League degree in engineering; his Instagram says he's an "entrepreneur."

Episode thread had me looking to see if I could find out exactly where Ed works (not yet), but I found this instead. Sweet! awww!

That water that they were pulling the chests out of looked so pretty. I am getting so sick of Jay. Not as much Michele, though I'm not keen on her, but she speaks more intelligently and doesn't gloat quite as much. How the heck old is Jay, who made a mocking face when Kyland was speaking? So immature. Jay also is starting to remind me of a howler monkey with how he extends his lips while "wooo"-ing. Did Horacio get a cut on the side of his head (where the hair is shaved close) in one of the challenges? there are bare/scabbed spots (I think maybe things have been shown out of filming order--shocking, I know--because today at the pool it looked scabby and at some other time it looked paler, like it was further healed). But who knows. I was sure there'd be a height component when Horacio said he did the high jump. "What's a prime number?" hoo boy. The faces on Kyland and Ed when they realized that nothing they had called out to Asaf made any sense to him at all. I'd seen the promos with CT holding the mace before, and I didn't realize it would actually be pertinent to his episode. Producers: "Hey, CT! Open your eyes a little wider! Stare like a maniac! Great!"

I guess these count as media? I was gobsmacked to be idly watching house hunters and see that Julie (the Mormon), husband, and kids were looking for a house! I didn't watch all the way through but recorded it and will watch later--will update this post with the season/ep info if I have that. Second: these PSA/commercials for ASK, with Darrell, Horacio, Olivia, and Cara Maria. I guess that (among those willing to do it) those are the people MTV etc. thought most appealing. Anyway, good for them, I suppose, but the acronym annoys me: A--Acknowledge [edited to correct from "ask" because I saw it again today. I thought that wasn't quite right!] S--Support K--Keep-in-touch because those hyphens in keep-in-touch drive me batty! Also, I keep thinking it could as easily be stay-in-touch, which of course would make the acronym ASS.