TD3000

I'm still catching up on the last few seasons, so I'm just now watching this. With the initial "crime", I was thinking it could be headed a couple ways. 1. I think we were all thinking the bike guy wasn't really involved, but I was wondering if they were going to have a different unsavory character nearby abduct the girl. 2. Not sure if anyone else thought this, but with the accidental gym death thing, I had thoughts of the Kendrick Johnson death, but with different demographics and outcomes among the chief players as shows often do. But all that went out the window when the episode turned into "Something Else", which can be hit-or-miss. I do agree that no matter the emotions and sentimental feelings involved, the doctor was wrong and was rightfully punished (at least I'm pretty sure she was, as the episode ended before a sentence was handed out).

Let's play a little game called "SVU brings in loose cannon outside detective to show that they (*cough cough Stabler*) aren't so bad!" Redemption: It was covered earlier here, but the synopsis even says "Detective Stabler is paired with John "Hawk" Hawkins (David Keith), an unstable, "cowboy" cop, much to Benson's chagrin." Pandora: The homicide detective working with Elliot was quite harsh while interviewing a young girl and later roughed up a suspect in interrogation. Dominance: We've seen Det. Dave Duthorne (sp?) a couple times; in this instance he really blows his stack after arresting one of the suspected brothers and holding a gun to his head (Fin has to call him off). Also roughs up the other brother later on in interrogation, but that was "only" standard, run-of-the-mill stuff. Escape: The deputy marshal Olivia worked with (and used to date) had some cowboy moments. Fat: Anthony Anderson's detective from Queens SVU (before he joined the mothership as a different character) was quite animated, tried to lie to a teenage girl to get her to talk, and even physically fought Stabler. Cragen later says that he paired the two because he wanted Stabler to get a glimpse of someone who crosses the line like he does. Baggage: Victor Moran doesn't play well with others and also repeatedly kicks the perp once he's finally caught for good. Semi-understandable because he was dealing with the turmoil of losing his wife and eventually his daughter, but still. Unstable: Maybe the most appropriate example, as even the title feels like a nod to the "Unstabler" moniker some fans placed on Elliot. Anyways, after being introduced to Officer Nate Kendall as he's shoving a pistol down a suspect's throat, he gets dragged into a SVU case. Kendall barrels through it like a bull in a china shop, all while not exactly following standard SVU protocol. At the end, he may or may not have tossed the real rapist out the window (a later episode acknowledged it as a suicide). Feel free to add more.

Let's show some love (or hate) for the fine folks on SVU who show up every so often but don't get the proper recognition. This includes, but is not limited to: Attorneys (other than regulars like Cabot, Novak, Barba, etc.) Judges Medical Examiners (other than Warner) Crime Scene Techs Law Enforcers (feds, other detectives, higher-ups) Allies/Resources (think Sister Peg) Family of the main characters Anyone else you can think of who might apply here Regarding the quote in the topic title, how about Judge Petrovskey (sp)? Sure, she was justified in ripping into Alex on Guilt, but man, she always came across cold as ice. I always like Barry Murdoch; he had a charm about him. I know, I know, the less said about Dale Stuckey, the better. But did anyone else besides me feel that his treatment by Elliot and especially O'Halloran was a teensy-bit unfair at times? Regardless, he was still very annoying. I'll contribute more later.

Bit of a side note, but for some reason I couldn't buy the blonde from Lost Traveler being an evil sociopath at the end (maybe it was the actress). I was irritated with her more than horrified. Contrast that with Missy from Damaged, who I totally bought as a legit monster. She says to Cabot at the end "you can't kill me, I'm already dead". I agree about Jake from Conscious being insincere and hiding that devious smile. When Kyle MacLachlan's character confronted him in the court hallway, Jake turned around and made this gesture like he was saying "yeah, I killed your son, WHAT?". I'll add some different children to the thread later.

Watching the first Lewis episode now, and it's just one long reminder of how angry I was about virtually this entire arc. This smug character had nine lives, either by outsmarting someone, or just getting plain lucky. Even when his time was up, he got to end his life on his own terms, further traumatizing Olivia, and maybe the little girl too (can't remember if she saw it or not). The only semi-redeeming moment was when Olivia beat Lewis half to death. Even then, it seemed like he was impervious to pain, so how satisfying was it really?

I still dislike Bananas less than certain others (*cough cough* Zach), but he showed during the reunion why I can never like him. All the backstabbing and shady backroom dealing are good and fine, until it doesn't benefit you. After winning five Challenges and placing in a few others, you'd think Bananas could take the occasional loss in stride. But as others have pointed out, these things are basically his only source of income, so he becomes extra sour when he misses out on a big check. I'm glad Sarah didn't engage him more than she had to. After briefly being on Theresa's side in the Nany feud, I'm back on Team Nany. The reason I never liked Theresa was because she always seemed catty, always starting these petty beefs with other women. Also her performances never stood out to me until recently. Zach got off easy as far as I'm concerned. That was the least convincing apology I've seen in awhile (although Nia's wasn't much better), and he didn't really get called out as hard as he should have. He really seems to have embraced his dickish ways lately. Having said that, I did think his feelings towards Knight were genuine. For all the bad things Nia said and did, I thought she had a point w/r/t Jay and certain people not being cut out for this type of environment. We've seen people who actually won Challenges disappear forever afterwards. Also, we've seen some of the same people serve as cannon fodder in these things over and over again. I will say that Jay owned up to his pathetic showing reasonably well. I also agree that Jenna got off easy.

The only reason I can come up with as to why Jay and Jenna weren't granted a pass after 30 minutes on the drinking challenge is because they didn't even try. They got a pass for the rock puzzle; the difference is that they were actually competing for the duration (same with the other two teams on the rock throw). Speaking of the "layups", yeah Jay embarrassed himself on national TV, but I'm not convinced Jenna would've made it through the rest of the final. She did seem more willing to consume whatever liquid was put in front of her, but she wasn't exactly hustling in the run leading up to it. I actually believe Jay would've probably finished (albeit still in 3rd) if he got past he food and drink portions. It's hard for me to compare the difficulty in the recent Challenge finals. I do think the drink and the caviar was easier to handle than previous finals (Rivals II anyone?). On the other hand, I think this had by far the hardest mountain to scale. That thing was dangerously steep, even more so when you have tired, dehydrated players climbing up it. Ultimately, I am happy with the winners. This was probably Sarah's last best chance, so she pretty much had to win this one. I've found Jordan a lot more tolerable on the Challenge than Real World, although he had a couple sketchy moments this season. Almost forgot to add: Is this the first season where they ran the shitshow, final, and reunion all in the same night? I feel like that speaks to the belief that the producers wanted to bury this season and get through it as quick as possible.

I respect Nicole for making her decision, but it was still tough for me to watch because I felt her and Jason really had a good thing going. I wanted to see them work things out but again, I can't knock Nicole for cutting things off. I wish we would've been shown a better shot of the altercation though. Also, I don't want to go all "boards on boards" but I have heard a number of opinions that are actually down on Nicole for her role in this situation. As for Jason's "father", yeah I didn't see enough contrition for my liking. He seemed like quite the slickster. Maybe the reason Jason was relatively restrained was because he just came off that situation with Nicole and didn't want to pop off again. Like I said before, Violetta looked a lot better by simply staying out of things. Still don't love her, but maybe she really did learn something.

Rule #1: You never, EVER, willingly place your fate in someone else's hands. I don't understand why Nia was so scared when she already did other missions involving heights. Unfortunately, Leroy reverted back to "skate by" mode and his team got burned for it. This next dome is a physical challenge, which should favor them though. Theresa was way too emotional throughout the whole episode, but I do understand her frustration with a losing team coming back, especially considering she's never won a challenge (I'm pretty sure she's never been to a final either). Wes executed his plan perfectly up to this point, and now it all gets shot to hell thanks to a new twist in the game. C'est la vie. Regarding the final exile, I was SO glad to see Bananas and Nany win. I'm not in love with them, but it beats seeing more of Zach treating Jonna like a piece of dog dung. If there's some deeper reason why he has such vitriol towards her, I have yet to hear it.

Look, I know I have to give Bananas and Nany credit for winning three exiles in a row. But come on, the level of resistance they received was not very high. The only point where they really had to grind out a victory was when Bananas wrestled the stick away from Adam. And even then, that was only half the competition! Having said that, I'd much rather see them come back than Zach and Jonna (mainly because of Zach).

I'm probably forgetting someone, but Tonya and Robin were the ones that stuck out to me as people who became too fragile to be on these Challenges. They both did a couple too many. But yeah, this was a terrible season mostly because of who ended up winning. We all know about JEK, but Susie kinda stayed under the radar during her Challenge run. I could never stand her; she just benefited from other people being around who were worse than her. I really though Sarah and Kellyanne had that final, but instead they got hung up by a friggin' balance beam. Wasn't this Veronica's last Challenge? IIRC, she had been away from the show for a couple years. When she had her last hurrah on The Ruins, there were a lot of new faces, and she never had the run of the house like she used to. Even though I never liked Veronica's attitude (but was very much attracted to her), I sorta felt bad that the tables were turned on her.

This final was far from a cakewalk, but I'd much rather do that one than the treacherous mountain-climbing and lengthy water activity (swimming/kayaking) that we've seen in more recent finals. I was happy that Brad finally got the challenge monkey off his back, but I hated that he became a dick during that process. Also, a rare Bananas-free final! Side-note: Whatever happened to Jenn? She was on practically on every challenge at one point (often skating to finals but finishing dead last in them), but then she just disappeared forever. For some reason, the way Brittany from BOTE2 speaks reminds me of Jenn.

I'm glad you referred to The Challenge as a whole. This misogyny has gone on for years, from "trimming the fat", Bananas saying heinous things to Evelyn on The Island, Vinny ripping Mandi's top off, Zach and Frank treating Sam like dog dung, etc. And I don't want to hear a single soul say that these guys are just "playing a role". Nah, this is who they really are. I understand that with exes, there can and will be bitter feelings. But a lot of these guys treat their partners like pieces of gum on the bottom of their shoes.

One more thing (I swear!): I think Madison's been in fights before, despite what she said. She seems like she can really scrap if you piss her off enough.

I did know about the father thing, although I didn't know about him having a child on the way until the show started. I think I just misread something earlier in regards to his sexuality. And I should've elaborated; the reason I didn't care to see Jason hook up with Alyssa was because I didn't care to see the ensuing drama between him and Tony, which I believe would've happened. Also, with him courting Sylvia, that wouldn't have been a good look.