vibeology

That's because Kody, who sticks his nose in everything, stayed out of the Christmas exchange drama completely. I think that its because he knows Robyn was in the wrong and can't defend her but won't say so on camera. It was 9pm eastern. And they had to open nearly 20 gifts. That would have been hours. Way too big of an ask of adults with their own families and commitments. Even at a different time, who has two or more hours to sit on a zoom call at the holidays? Of course, Robyn took that reasonable pushback as an attack and rejection of her as an authority figure (because she cares about that way more than she cares about mother) and of her place in the family. So she said "my little ones don't even know who you are anymore" to try to manipulate and guilt them into doing what she wants and Garrison shot back with "One zoom call won't fix that" and the fight was on. I imagine Garrison's comment got many of those thumbs up or ha ha reactions like was described and every one of those was taken as a personal slight. I would love to see the text thread but I feel like we've gotten enough hints to piece most of it together. And she clearly sent her adult kids to fight for her the same way she put Aurora and Brianna on the couch this season to defend her. She is an awful mother. I'm fine saying it. All the parents failed because they wanted and needed the money that would come from the show. They're never going to say it on the show, but Robyn joining the family was clearly the hook that got TLC to sign a contract with them in the first place. They were not doing well financially before the show money started to come in. Janelle's car was held together with duct tape. Janelle and Christine were shopping in bulk to try to make their budget stretch far enough to feed their kids. Christine was watching the kids all day and working a job at night while pregnant just to survive. They'd been through multiple bankruptcies. And on Robyn's end we know about the debt that was building up. They didn't consider the kids because they needed the money. They probably believed that any emotional turmoil was still better than the kids starving or losing a home. Plus, for all their bluster about everyone being equal, Kody was the head of the family and he wanted Robyn. Nothing Janelle, Christine or Meri could have said would have stopped him.

The thing that Xochitl had that appeals to the dedicated fanbase of this show is Val. He is likely the most popular pro and being paired with him is probably a huge boon in votes. As a team, they spanned the whole demo of potential voters which probably was the reason she won since the dancing was pretty equal across the top four for most of the season.

I also think Meri's leaving timed out with her mom passing. I think Meri felt a lot of family pressure to stay in the marriage. With her mom gone, Meri felt there was one less obstacle to leaving.

I would argue that Meri running her B&B is a real job and genuine work. Investing in the B&B without the rest of the family is probably the very best thing Meri has ever done financially. I'm sure a great deal of her B&B success (especially starting out) is tied directly to the fact that she is a famous host and people come to see her but it is an established business and the property itself has a value. If Meri wanted to retire, she could just live in that home. She also shills the MLM leggings but if that went away she has an income stream that she controls.

I suspected Mo would be good but Amanda was also very good and I'm sad that she wasn't in one of the weaker games because she could have easily moved to the semi-finals as well. Kyra did not have a great game but even still, she didn't finish in the negative like a few other players. The later games have been stronger overall.

No. At the very least Jennifer Grey would have been older. She never shut up about it.

Consistently viewers have expressed wanting a minute or two after the winner is announced to enjoy the moment. Why can they not time this show out better?

So I don't believe for a second that Bobby really changed. He played along for the cameras but I bet if someone went to Diwan today, he'd be in that kitchen. I just don't believe Gordon making him sit down to one dinner with his wife changed him. Gordon should have scooped up Fernandes and ran out the back door. Fernandes is the only positive about that restaurant and his rough edges could be smoothed out. The hot dog restaurant was a more fixable mess. Jen, her ex husband who was so bland and quiet that I've already forgotten his name and MK all need to work in separate restaurants. And Jen is a bad owner. MK was right about so many things. The restaurant should use a rotation so that all the servers have roughly the same number of people in their section and all have the same opportunity for tips. Payroll shouldn't be done on paper in 2023! And yes, if you're scheduling yourself a shift as a server, you should be wrapping your silverware! Jen acted like she was above that but I do wonder if Jen was above the tips she got while filling that position or whatever it was she said. But MK was wrong for taking the job in that environment, she's wrong that it's Jen's job to build the ex up when he's fucking up basic cooking and her tone was at times so passive aggressive that I wanted to smack her through the screen. Jen is a restaurant nepo baby who seemed to skip out on so many lessons along the way. She doesn't know the food, she doesn't know how to do payroll, she doesn't understand how to be fair to her servers. She probably had a theft issue if she had to fire several people suddenly but she should be able to hire someone who isn't the younger girlfriend of her ex husband. And her logic that she'd rather pay her ex than a chef who would run the kitchen is very dumb. With the amount of food that we saw go in the garbage because he can't cook it he's costing her money.

I thought that was a great game. All three players knew their stuff and while they had a few stumbles, no one was giving bad answers the whole time. Even in third for most of the game, Cedric got so many right. I think he just couldn't master the buzzer.

Good for her. I hope Kody is pissed.

But they have said that. Mykelti said when they were younger they were dirt poor. They ate the bakery discards from the Wyoming bakery. They ate the MREs. She said they were lucky to get hot dogs, which I would classify as a relatively cheap food. Things changed once the TLC money started coming in but for a long time, they struggled to have enough food. There was another point where Janelle or Christine mentioned having to save up to buy the kids new shoes in a rotation because there was never enough money to get more than one kid new shoes. Janelle also called the family poor when they made the move to Vegas. It just would have made more sense to do assets by wife, expenses by person.

Xochitl is still in school though, right? It's just possible she has a full plate and Val isn't going to push her beyond what she can take on right now. They don't really talk about school but she's 17. If she's got a senior year type of workload on top of the show; there may only be so much she has the mental energy for. Val does have a tendency to coast on his fanbase but I do think Xochitl has accomplished quite a lot and grown over the season even if there are still things to correct.

Not that anyone asked me, but they should have not used the same system for assets and expenses. Assets should have been equal between wives. Each wife should have had the same budget for their homes so that, if they left, they wouldn't be rich or poor based on how many kids they had. Same with if they ever had any money to invest in their retirements. That should have been by wife. And land should have been equal by wife. But food isn't an asset and the food budget should have been by person. Meri literally needed less money to feed herself and her child than Janelle did who had six kids to feed. Same with clothing, same with school supplies. It's still not a perfect system but it would have been closer to fair, IMO.

I think the producers have a pretty good sense about halfway through the season of who is going to make the finale and some seasons who is going to win. By then, the voting patterns are fairly established. I don't think they decided in the commercial break to save everyone; but I do think they have stars and pros they want in the finale and knew a few weeks ago roughly how voting would shake out and made the change at that point to try to protect someone. I think five is a ridiculous number in the finale. Three is my ideal. I can live with four. With two it feels like there is too much filler in the episode. I think there's something off about Jason's posture and have thought so since the beginning. It was noticeable to me in the Paso. Maybe his butt is out just a touch. If he refined whatever it is that seems to be just a bit off, I think he'd be spectacular. As it is, he's really great. I'm glad Carrie Ann asked about Ariana's injury because I too could see something was off in her movements. Being injured right at the end when there are multiple long dances each week and the freestyle is coming up really sucks. Alyson has no business in the finale and it's not like Sasha is really going to deliver on the freestyle choreography. I don't think of him as one of the stronger choreographers so she's kind of wasted space but I assume we will get to see hot husband Alexis Denisof again so totally worth it.

Why does Kelly co-own a restaurant? She admitted to knowing nothing about inventory or food pricing or much of anything related to the business, she doesn't cook and the restaurant concept came from Ray. Why did she decide to open a restaurant? And how did she and Ray connect in the first place to come up with this plan? I feel like so much backstory is missing. I think I'll just never be satisfied with what we get in 42 minutes. I assume the sous chef quit because Kelly announced the restaurant would likely close. Get out and away from the drama and get a new job before the money runs out. The servers should be doing the same.

He's moving for the shopping. Every expensive piece of crap they own seems to come from the Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace. That intense art, the horse rings, Robyn's Tory Burch flip flops. There's even a Victoria's Secret for Robyn's long legs. Sadly no Diesel Jeans.

Even if she sincerely wanted to go to Christine's rental (which I don't believe for a second) Kody wasn't going to go and she would never, ever go against her best customer. He very clearly expected everyone to come to him, treat him like a king and apologize before there would be any fun. Robyn just saying yes and there being zero follow-up on everything we saw around the holidays was wild. I hope, in the other parts, they dig in more on the text thread and fallout. I would never give Kody a pass but I would respect him more if he said he became a polygamist to impress and fit in with his family. He wanted respect and admiration from his dad and from the AUB at large and that was what drove his original decisions more than the idea that he was madly in love with three women. I don't know if he was in love with any of the OG3. But we saw that his behaviour changed for Robyn. He was driven to do things he had never done for any other wife for Robyn. I don't know if that's love or a desire to wet his pencil or what but it was a big enough change that Christine knew right away that is was different.

And she's naturally a pretty person with striking eyes. She looks her age, unlike these pictures but she is pretty and she doesn't need to go crazy with the filters.

This is exactly it. Kody wanted everyone to shun the people who left him and anyone who didn't wasn't loyal and obedient. Janelle stayed close to Christine and even became a better friend so Kody was upset. Then Janelle refused to shun her children and that only made Kody's issues worse. It's why he refused to see the kids for a belated Christmas; they were going to see Christine so he didn't want to see them. It probably also explains why he didn't see Savannah. She didn't disown her own mother so she's as bad as Janelle in his eyes. I also think it's why Meri was so anti-Christine last season. She thought that playing by Kody's rules might bring them closer. Of course, it never could because Kody is an asshole who was stringing her along for money.

I'm so pleased with the results because I couldn't stomach the idea of him hoisting the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy. And Harry, in that dance-off, finally did a dance worthy of this show. Week one of the show, but it was something. I genuinely believe that anyone who wants to learn to dance can. I can't speak to the pace of that learning but eventually, everyone gets there. Harry is just the slowest learning to ever be on the show. I did think it was unfair that Ariana got the part of the song with barely any music while Xotchil got the meat of the song and ceiling confetti. A very telegraphed result. There was a moment in Charity's AT where she did that flip and as she landed you could see her face in full cheer mode. She has to break that completely if she's got any real shot at this. It was so jarring. I'm glad Jason had a strong night. I liked Ariana and Xochi's work. I'm glad Alyson had fun and brought her hot husband Alexis for me to look at.

I'm not really sure how they matched up these pairs. If it was based on cumulative scores it should have been Xochitl & Val v. Jason & Daniella, Charity & Artem v. Alyson & Sasha and Barry & Peta v. Harry & Rylee. And if it had been based on last weeks scores it should have been Xochitl & Val v. Charity & Artem, Jason & Daniella v. Alyson & Sasha and Harry & Rylee v. Barry & Peta. There's no scoring I can come up with that puts Jason against Barry. And I know it wasn't random because the producers wouldn't risk having something as uneven as Xochitl v Harry because that's not suspenseful.

Billy Porter earned his spot at the judges table when he called Harry a tree trunk. Unfortunately, I think it may just galvanize his fanbase to vote harder.

It occurred to me that its already Wednesday in New Zealand and we have a winner.

I feel the exact same. The restaurant may be gone but he'll find another "source of stress" to use as as excuse to bully and abuse Tess. It'll be wedding planning, having kids, whatever job he has. Anything. Her only hope is to get away. Their dynamic is too established at this point that I don't think therapy will help. And over the years we've seen disgusting walk-ins, rotting food, deplorable conditions but nothing has grossed me out more than Chris dry-heaving over the food he was about to serve people. The concept of "person who dreamed of owning a restaurant finding out he doesn't have the personality type for it and getting in way over his head" was a much needed change from the rest of the assholes who thought restaurants would be easy money machines but I did not like Chris. Still an asshole just in a different way. Even when everything was running smoothly he manufactured a problem just so he could abuse the people around him. There must not be many restaurants in that town for them to be so busy while the food was bad and the yelling could be heard throughout the restaurant.

At least Harry got a song that kind of works for a Viennese Waltz. I have no idea how Artem and Charity will make I Will Always Love You work. Its both the wrong time signature and way too slow. It feels like sabotage.