jsm1125

Why aren't the producers automatically wiping out winners and people who have played in at least two previous seasons? As much as I like Sandra and Malcolm, I liked Season 31's format and criteria. I think Hali had a lot of potential and a remarkably good edit, given that she only made it to eleventh place on her season.

Is this Mike the one from Redemption Island or Worlds Apart? Is the Alexis the one from Micronesia or from Cagayan? Is the Monica from Samoa or One world?

Why wasn't Cathy Durant in any of the Situation Room scenes? Or was she there and I didn't notice her? I'm a bit surprised that Doug hasn't thought about Rachel this season. Did Leann even get a line in this episode?

Have any characters other than Hope wondered why Aiden tried to kill her, and how/why he went from seemingly normal and charming to murderous?

Does dating a writer really warrant being propped as much as Kate Mansi has been? How has this writer been able to keep his job, when it could be a conflict of interest?

I could have sworn they showed us that meeting in season 2, hence why Agent Greene came to Janine's mother's house to coerce her into signing that affidavit? They really are bringing everyone back from past seasons, aren't they? We can add Janine and former President Walker to the list. I half-expect to see Linda Vasquez (she did get a mention in this episode, after all) and Yates sometime soon. It seems like they're not doing much of anything with Remy and Jackie this season. I hope that changes.

I kind of want to see Cathy and Jackie team up and try to take down Frank and Claire. I'm not sure we have ever seen the former two interact with each other, but it would be a nice twist. The press and/or Dunbar being the latter two's downfall would be too obvious to me. I'm not sure how Cathy hasn't had a stroke in her Secretary of State role, as both the Underwoods make cringe-inducing decisions. I'm trying to figure out if Doug did some research and had someone else, a psychiatrist or counselor, violate HIPAA and blab the names of his or her patients who have tried to commit suicide, gas lighting one of those patients into finishing the job.

I find it very interesting that Blythe is the only person to whom Claire has explicitly told that she feels nothing when she thinks about Frank. She has expressed her dislike for him to her mother and to Leann, but never in those terms. What should we make of this, if anything?

I'm not spoiled past this episode, but I believe that the show won't make this a genius move on Claire's part. I think we were supposed to infer that Claire wants this operation to tank, in order to spite Frank. I'm a bit surprised that we didn't hear what Dunbar had to say about the assassination attempt on Frank. I think this is the first time we have seen Doug look crestfallen. It really is sad how devoted he is to Frank.

It's my understanding that while Seth is officially Frank's Press Secretary, he is not loyal to anyone in particular, hence his communications with Dunbar this season and with Remy in previous seasons. The second picture I believe is the one of Frank with that Civil War actor. As to how he got that photo? Your guess is as good as mine.

How has Doug not suspected that Leann was involved in some way with leaking at least one of those photos, given their standoff in the season premiere? I noticed that when Frank was enraged at Claire for wanting to be his running mate, one of his lines was something along the lines of "I would rather have a spineless Donald Blythe than a woman who has never held elected office as my Vice President." Will we find out that Frank has sexist viewpoints? He could have easily substituted the word "person" or "individual" for woman. I did like how we saw some socioeconomic tension explicitly addressed between Claire and Frank in this episode, as he mentioned that Claire has no idea what it means to have nothing. So I take it we won't see Yates or Kate Baldwin this season?

I think Eli's class kind of got the shaft. None of them were on the show for more than 3 seasons, so with the exception of Eli, Bianca and possibly Katie, I don't think any of them were particularly well-developed. I especially wanted to see more from Jake, Marisol, Mo and Owen, even if I didn't like all of them. Even Fiona was largely sidelined in her final season. As for Claire's class, I'm still pissed that Wesley and Dave fell into the black hole without so much as a mention and that Jenna's friendship with Becky was forgotten about after season 12. Keeping them friends would have given something for Jenna to do in her final two seasons, as she was given virtually nothing to do besides be Alli's constantly disappearing sound board after she got together with Connor. Was it ever explained why Toby got so little screen time after season 2?

I agree with those who think that there is not enough evidence to convict Stephen. Was Rhonda's father in the picture at all? I wonder what he thinks, assuming he is still alive, about Stephen. I also wonder why Julia/Rhonda's mother ended up moving out of Stephen's condo.

It's definitely Lucas. I noticed the recap's error (or at least what I consider to be an error) as well. I don't think Yates looks or sounds anything like Lucas.

Pleasantly surprised to see Lucas return. Was I the only one who didn't quite figure out that it was him at first? I thought for a few seconds in that initial scene that Yates the writer had committed a crime off screen and was the one reading sex stories to his cell mate. I thought that the front desk woman at Doug's hotel looked a lot like Christina from the first two seasons. I'm hoping that there is at least a mention of Rachel this season.

Couldn't the same be said though for MacKenzie Bourg?

This is stretching back a few weeks, but I wonder why Shelbie Z was the only person who got a decent amount of airtime during the audition/Hollywood stages who didn't make it to the top 14? She didn't blow it during the top 24, unlike Emily, so I'm wondering what happened behind the scenes. I wasn't a huge fan of hers but am left a bit puzzled about this. Even Stephany, who I thought was unfairly booted, didn't really get that much airtime in Hollywood.

I think Ali had a pregnancy scare but was never actually pregnant.

The friendship trio of Alli, Clare and Jenna was one of my favorites on the show. I didn't always love any of them individually, though I liked Jenna more than most people her do, but they had a fun dynamic when they were all finally friends. I think Leia had a lot of potential at the beginning of season 10. Though i really like Shay, I miss Keisha. I could never warm to Peter, after emailing Manny's photos and putting Darcy in danger with her online perv, without giving a somewhat cogent rationale for doing either of those things. Though Alli went way too far with cyber bullying Holly J, I was uncomfortable with Holly J (who I love as much as most people do) never apologizing or at least regretting treating Alli poorly herself. I preferred Sean's relationship with Ellie to his relationship with Emma. I didn't really care for Zane, as he seemed condescending and overly pushy to Riley. I feel like he pretty much outed him in that LGBT round-table discussion by telling everyone that he had a football teammate in the closet, given that Riley was his only teammate at the meeting, and he had little understanding or empathy for Riley's conflict with Drew or with his mother. I wonder if the show tried to imply as much, given that the only people Zane regularly talked to were Riley and Anya, and that we rarely saw Zane having other friends. I like Maya's mother overall but have a hard time getting past her essentially condoning Zoe cyber-bullying her daughter for kicks. The first Next Class season was one of my favorites in quite some time, as it had a nice combination of serious and lighthearted storylines and provided a relatively equal amount of airtime to all of the returning cast members.

She is my early winner pick. She has gotten at least one confessional in both episodes, despite not having a significant story involving her. Plus, she was one of the puzzle solvers in the first episode. Now watch her go home next episode...

Hey, Jason and Scot, "blondie" has a name. Given how little air time Brawn received prior to the immunity challenge, I was sure they were safe for this week. I don't even know what to say about Jenny. Probst is probably shitting himself that Brawn has lost the first two immunity challenges.

He also said in his pre-show bio that he is more socially intelligent than Courtney Yates and Penner. Hmmm.

My guess is that both Cydney and Kyle both switched their vote to Darnell on the revote. Otherwise, I feel like we would have seen any votes for Alecia on the revote.

I don't think Jennifer and Aubry received confessionals that didn't center around their ear bug and their dehydration, respectively. I don't imagine this bodes well for either of their chances to win. I won't be surprised if Caleb's mentioning of Tai being Asian in his confusion of his inclusion on the Beauty tribe will piss off a lot of people.

They put CT and Diem on both versions of Battle of the Exes.