Sir RaiderDuck OMS

Did anyone else think Yash was enjoying himself a little too much? Given his level of English proficiency, he likely knows a typical American would be repulsed at ever handling cow dung, let burning it in an indoor kitchen. His obvious disdain of Kimberly is coming through loud and clear. And the mom is similarly done coddling her. The Scream of Doom™ comes closer with each episode. The Sarper and Shekinah storyline is a waste of time. He wants Shekinah to bear his child and is unwilling to compromise. She doesn't want to bear another child and is unwilling to compromise. There's no getting around this. Danielle and Yohan continue to be mutually awful. I just hope this season is either's final appearance on my TV.

She thought she and Jared would split $750K prize, then Jared would go onto a successful reality TV career. Instead, she didn't even make the Top 4, and Jared was an arrogant nimrod who didn't even make the jury and likely has no future in the network (i.e. big money) reality shows.

Mrs. RaiderDuck and I were surprised by Jag's win. Given both Matt's popularity during the season and Jag's arrogance during the Jury segment, we'd thought it'd be unanimous for Matt. Wrong. Good for him for winning the right way, though (i.e. not screwing over the guy who saved his ass two months ago). Yes Julie, we get it. You and the producers have been waiting with great anticipation and unimaginable glee for 100 days to tell everyone Cirie and Jared were related. Hope you guys got your little thrill from The Big Reveal™, because it was boring as hell for the rest of us. Interesting how they missed an opportunity to get Izzy's reaction when Cameron (who she bizarrely hated) was voted AFP. (Disclosure: My ten votes were split evenly between America and Cameron.) What was with Felicia's Urkel glasses? I only watched the first season of BB, then resumed from Season 21 (Jackson Michie's win) onward, so I have a question for those who have watched the whole series: Has anyone else been unpersoned the way Luke was this year? It's like he was never on the show: Picture gone from the website, no sighting or mention during the finale, etc. Someone tuning in after the first few weeks would literally not know he existed. Finally, do let us hope they bury this stupid Multiverse thing forever. The final Multiverse segment was just as insulting and cringeworthy as the first.

They say that hard drug users stop emotionally maturing at whatever age they begin using. We're seeing that with Holly. She acts like a whiny teenager who has to be told to take a bleeping shower. And after working a 12-hour day, the last thing Wayne wants is to come home to her moaning and groaning about how much she hates it there and how her street drugs were so much easier to score back in the US (she doesn't actually say that last part out loud, but we all know she's thinking it). As always, Brandan's mom needs to STFU. She was a crappy excuse for a mother who had a choice of getting high and sleeping around to score drugs or raising her kids, and chose the former. She doesn't get to jet back in and play Mommy now. She's lucky Brandan even gives her the time of day. How in the blue hell does Sarper stay with someone for a entire week-long boinkfest and never even learn her last name??? The only thing that makes sense is his renouncing his parental rights to get out of paying child support (or her leaving his name off the Birth Certificate), and her marrying someone else who eventually adopted the child. Even then, a good PI could probably track them both down. And once again, people: DODGING THE CHILDREN QUESTION DOES NOT WORK. If Sarper's dead-set on having a biological child and Shekinah's dead-set on not having (another) one, that's an insurmountable hill to climb. I love how the show had Kenny & Armando's potential surrogate talk about "giving a gift of love" when we all know she's doing this for the $$$. And there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with that, mind you, but the show should at least be honest about what's going on. (Disclosure: We know a gay couple who decided to start a family using an egg donor and separate surrogate mother. Each child cost them upwards of $100K by the time they paid both the egg donor and surrogate.)

Asphalt Tester must pay more than I thought. Or they're raking in the Pillow Talk $$$.

There's something more going on here. An ovarian cyst should not make it physically dangerous to have a child. If they had to remove an ovary, you'd have less chance of becoming pregnant, but once you were pregnant, the ovaries are no longer directly involved (except possibly for your hormone levels, which could be supplemented with medications) and the pregnancy should proceed normally.

Sounds like Jasmine needs an allergy test so she can figure out what she might be reacting to. If you've never had one, it's a simple outpatient procedure: They lay you down on your stomach (topless) and prick your back and upper arms with needles containing a bunch of different known allergens. You lay there for 15-20 minutes when they're done, then they come back and see which tiny holes have developed into big red welts. The ones with the welts are the substances you're allergic to. In my case, it came back Negative on everything except dust and grass, the latter being problematic because I lived in Eugene, which is widely considered the unofficial grass capital of the world. But Jasmine could figure out real fast exactly what she is and is not allergic to, then make the necessary adjustments to her and Gino's lifestyles. That aside, this season has been really boring. There's not one single couple to root for. They're all varying degrees of trainwrecks.

I think it comes down to them assuming that while there was a small chance Cirie would win the Veto comp, there's an even smaller chance Felicia will. And remember that real power this week is in the Veto comp, not the HoH comp. All the HoH win gives you is a pass into the Final 3. The person not nominated (i.e. the Veto winner if it's not the HoH) will decide who goes home by a 1-0 vote. And assuming Felicia goes home, nobody will miss her undeservedly smug ass. Cirie and Jared had the enormous advantage of being mother and son when nobody knew about it (save Izzy and Blue, neither of whom ever told anyone), and neither even made the final four. Jared didn't even make the jury, for that matter.

Assuming she's from Eugene like Brandan is, it wouldn't be crack. It would be either methamphetamine, cocaine or heroin. And her teeth look real, so it likely wouldn't be meth (which notoriously destroys your teeth). There was also a TON of pot in Eugene even before legalization, but that wouldn't cause the addiction issues Brandan's mom had. (Disclaimer: I mostly lived in the Eugene/Springfield area from the time I was a toddler into my mid-30s. To the best of my knowledge, I never met Brandan or any of his family.) Her total bitchiness about Mary's family's house was beyond rude, though. Not every place is like America. She needs to chill the fuck out and actually Google a foreign land before she goes there. She was a shit mom whose son is a basket case, and therefore has ZERO right to criticize the way anyone else lives. Meanwhile, Holly looks more strung out than ever. Whatever she's taking is doing a number on her lymphatic system. Notice how swollen her neck was? And you're in your 40s. Quit with the daily Zoom chats with Mommy. Everyone in the TJ/Kimberly storyline continues to be awful except Kimberly's very nice parents. TJ has done a nice job gaslighting Kimberly about what her duties will be, and the fact that getting up at 5:30AM will soon be considered "sleeping in" for her. We'll all have fun watching when this blows up in his face. Danielle and Yohan are both terrible people. She's a manipulative liar and he's a gaslighting thief.

Anyone else find it obnoxious how people (such as, oh I don't know, CIRIE AND FELICIA) spend all season stabbing everyone in the back when it suits them, then whine about the "snakes and vipers" surrounding them and how they can't trust anyone? Pot, meet Kettle. I'm not sure, but I think that backlot street they were on for the comp is part of the Paramount Studios tour. Barring a major surprise in the next week and 1/2 (such as Bowie Jane winning the Final Three comp), we're looking at a Matt/Jag final two. As much as I loathed the thought of Cirie cackling her way to a victory with Jared and Izzy as her caporegimes, this is even more boring.

I figured out who Manuel reminds me of: A really bad impression of the wrestler Razor Ramon (aka Scott Hall). I showed my wife a Razor Ramon vignette on YouTube right after the ep and she agreed with the similarity. The difference, of course, is that Ramon was deliberately written to be arrogant and obnoxious. Manuel's just acting that way naturally. Does Devin seem a little...slow to anyone? Or maybe she's just really shy and self-conscious? Nikki's mind must be blown. In America, guys literally pay $500 an hour to have sex with her, but her boyfriend can't even pretend to be interested. Rob's sister was right: the child conversation should have been had a long time ago. So did Gino give Jasmine $4K or $10K for the wedding dress? They've said two different amounts.

I'm pretty sure GR has the chefs baste the cooking steaks with butter in a hot pan lifted off the heat for a minute or two (probably so the butter doesn't burn). His problem was Jason smearing cold butter on almost-cooked steaks. That may be the way Jason likes to do it, but it's not his restaurant. It's Gordon Ramsay's restaurant, and if you want to work as a chef in GR's restaurant, you're damn well going to cook steaks the way he wants. Methinks this is building up to a big throwdown where Jason tells Ramsay "I know better than you" to his face. I wouldn't be surprised to see him fired mid-service at some point (possibly with a Humiliation Walk through the dining room and out the front door, which GR has done before when he was especially furious with someone). Meanwhile, I would have saved the Punishment Pass for either Garbage Day, or the day when they have to lug boxes full of raw meat through the dining room and into the kitchen. And that Hotel Milo they visited should have been named Hotel Meh.

The eagle-eyed Mrs. RaiderDuck noticed that the "shampoo" was labeled "Palmolive."

I looked up the dish in Wikipedia using the Turkish name Sarper gave (which I have now forgotten) and it literally means "Raw Meatball." It's basically prepared the way Sarper was preparing it. There's also a vegetarian variety with scrambled eggs and a vegan option. But it's all mashed together and served raw. No thank you.

He's in love with the idea of marrying an American. Has he told her yet exactly what will be required of her (i.e. getting up before dawn to brew everyone's Chai, cooking all the meals, doing everyone's laundry, etc)? If she's this unpleasant now, wait until the other shoe drops. Shekinah's sister was awful, but that meal looked disgusting. Raw meat and grains mixed with someone's ungloved hand? Yecccch. Having said that, it obviously was deeply personal to Sarper and you see his growing frustration with the way he was being cross-examined. I'd be willing to bet Shekinah or her sister wouldn't want him dancing through their DMs (unless they'd already scrubbed theirs beforehand).

Gotta disagree here. My wife works in B2B commission sales and spends a lot of time (i.e. over half the year and sometimes as many as 38 weeks out of 52) on the road. She LOVES that life, and when she's off and home, she doesn't have to worry about any work obligations. She's told me more than once that she'd hate having to go into the office every single weekday. Jovi may be be the same way. (Disclosure: We were together for years before we were married, and were friends before we began dating. She's had this career and this life the whole time, was very upfront that she's not going to change to a 9-5 career, and I would never ask her to do so. The fact that we're both only children and very independent people may have something do with the way we make it work.) Asuelu's no prize, but it is SERIOUSLY messed up for Kalani to skip out on Couples Therapy to have a one-night stand with her new boyfriend. She's treating both men dishonestly right now. Also: If someone cheats WITH you, there's a very good chance they'll cheat ON you. Dallas isn't in this because he cares about Kalani, but rather to say he banged her. All three are horrible people. Michael was in a no-win situation. If he tells Angela about being called from the strip club, she'll go ballistic. If he doesn't tell her, she'll go ballistic when she finds out from Ed or whoever. Yara is way better-looking than any of the strip club skanks we saw on this ep. What the F is Jovi's problem? Does he not understand how far out of his league he scored?

Why doesn't Jasmine simply train her dog to not go on people's carpets? Or, even better, just not have a dog in the first place?

Ramsay always talks up the "celebrities" who appear on HK. I've been a football fan for most of my life and while the name "Victor Cruz" was familiar, I'd forgotten what position he played until I looked it up. Mattias was a total screwup but he's at least taking everything seriously. Claudia appeared to be treating this as a lark, which is a guaranteed way to get on Ramsay's bad side. Raneisha was trying to play the Scolding Mom character, but a little bit of that goes a long way when you're dealing with twentysomethings who aren't related to you. As for the blue steaks, it's simple: YOUR GRILL TEMP IS TOO DAMN HIGH. After you've seared the outside, you need to turn the heat down. Continued cooking at high temps will give you what we saw: an outside that's well-done (or even slightly burned) with a near-cold interior. To get a more even heat distribution, you turn down the heat and cook it longer. That's why a lot of chefs will sear the steaks on the grill and finish them in the oven. It takes a little longer, but you get a great steak that way. Taking shortcuts when cooking thick steaks just doesn't work. On a slightly unrelated note: My wife and I recently bought some of the Hexclad pans they use on the show and GR relentlessly touts on social media. They're really, REALLY good pans, by far the best we've ever owned. They heat super-evenly, have a non-stick finish you can scrub if necessary without ruining it (the instructions say you can clean them with everything up to and including Comet and steel wool without ruining the finish), and they're dishwasher-safe and induction-compatible. Seriously: They're the bomb. (And no, I'm not getting any $$$ for posting this, but if the Hexclad people want to send us a free pan to expand our collection, we wouldn't turn it down.)

He probably does a lot of swimming and running for his exercise. Can't really do either in the house. I know the house has some exercise equipment, but using an exercise bike or running on a treadmill can be really boring, especially when you don't have a TV or something to take your mind off it. There's not much to do in the house except talk and eat. The stupid multiverse "twists" this season have all been lame and insulted our intelligence.

Maybe her stylist was cosplaying as Helen Keller again? It seems to happen once a month or so. At this point, I assume America is telling him what to wear. She personally finds it attractive, and Cory (who's smart enough to know how far out of his league she is) wants to please her. He doesn't give a damn what anyone else thinks. FWIW, I seem to remember Larry Dallas of Three's Company wearing a blue denim version of that same jumpsuit decades ago.

Zingbot/OTEV was as aggressively annoying as always. Cameron's not nearly as smart or popular as he thinks he is. Loved the DR quick cuts to everyone else agreeing with Zingbot's assessment of him as a "tool." Good on Felicia for getting out of a horrid DV situation by choosing to serve her country. And Cirie continues to be indignant that her master plan blew up in her face before she could claim the $750K she assumed was rightfully hers (and/or Jared's). Whatevs.

I don't pretend to know anything about Panamanian custodial law, but wouldn't the children's father have some say in this, especially if he and Jasmine have some kind of Joint Custody arrangement? Meanwhile, the problem with Nikki is not that she's trans. The problem is that she's taken the Darcey/Stacey route of surgically altering her face until she barely looks human. The pictures of her from 15 years ago show a normal-looking woman. Now? Not so much. Sophie's mom likes to say "Rob the Knob." I was totally waiting for her to call him a "wanker." I can't even deal with Witch Lady. I have a friend into this Tarot garbage too, and she will literally post stuff on Facebook like "What does it mean if one of my Tarot cards falls out of the deck while I'm shuffling it?" and her nuttier friends will respond with some hidden meaning the universe is trying to convey. No, it just means you're a sloppy shuffler. Not everything has deep significance. /rant

So many owners are obviously in this for a publicity boost and don't actually want to change anything. IIRC, Ramsay's stated reason for ending the original Kitchen Nightmares was his frustration at putting in the time and effort to turn things around, only for the idiot owners to ignore everything he said, revert all his menu changes, go out of business, then blame him. And I would have laughed in Chef Bobby's face the minute he came at me with his faux Tony Soprano shtick. The people who make a big deal out of being "tough guys" never are.

Methinks Ramsay was more than a little annoyed at Tad describing himself as "A professional Quidditch player." (Chef, please. Nobody's paying you to hop around with a broom clenched between your legs, pretending you're soaring around Hogwarts. And if nobody's paying you, you're not a professional. You just have an eccentric hobby.) Notice how when Tad waited a beat after elimination, GR sarcastically asked if he was waiting for a broom, then slammed Quidditch in his closing remarks. Jason is a byproduct of our litigious culture. Many employers are afraid of being sued for Defamation if they give a bad reference, so few even give references anymore (they'll give your starting and ending dates, but that's it). Without anyone saying "This dude's a total screwup who can't even poach goddamn lobster meat", his resume looks impressive, so he keeps getting hired until people figure out he's hopeless and can him. Rinse and repeat.

My daughter (born in the mid-1990s) was diagnosed with Amblyopia when she was a toddler. Amblyopia is NOT caused by weak eye muscles, although the crossed eyes (Strabismus) may be. Amblyopia is what happens when your brain starts ignoring the crossed eye altogether. If it goes on too long, your brain will eventually forget how to use that eye and you'll be more or less blind in one eye permanently. When my daughter was diagnosed at four years old, she couldn't even read the top letter (the huge "E") on the eye chart with her bad eye. Fortunately, patching and glasses worked wonders for her, and her vision with glasses is fine today. Remember that a lot of these entrepreneurs come onto the show both to find a shark to partner with, AND for the free 10-minute prime-time advertisement for their product. They win either way as long as the Sharks like the product. It sounds like Candace may be developing some kind of Lush competitor (i.e. high-end, all-natural body products). If so, this soap would fit in perfectly. As someone who's suffered from intermittent eczema for most of his life, I was interested in her story, but I don't use bar soaps. I agree with the other posters that Dr. Bronner's soaps are awesome.