Mooncake76

I would never want to marry someone after knowing them for a few weeks either. But I'm not signing up to be on a show where that is an outcome that is expected and encouraged.

I agree mostly with you - I don't hate or dislike anyone either. What I don't like, is the feeling I got that Peter was never that into Rachel, but he stayed around to get a shot at being The Bachelor. I don't think he's despicable for not wanting to propose because I don't think he should have. Cuz he wasn't that into her! But I would respect him more if he had left earlier when he knew he was never going to develop strong enough feelings for Rachel to propose. I value Eric's input because he always came across as pretty perceptive as to what was going on. I can definitely see his take on Rachel becoming more torn after the home town visits when her family seemed to prefer Peter. Even though she defended Bryan to them, it probably has to play on her mind a bit because these are people whose opinions she respects.

Asian Bachelorette - Saw this on YouTube and thought it was pretty funny. https://youtu.be/ag1IisyP1ak

This is where I'm at too. It's hard for me to reconcile my feeling that it was obviously going to be Bryan all along to what happened during the "breakup" with Peter. I was wondering why she was pushing so hard if she was going to just dump him the next day. I'm still not sure what to make of it cuz I'm not of the mind that she settled for Bryan. Can she be so cruel as to get someone to propose with the knowledge she would say no? She doesn't strike me as that type of person. I don't understand it, other than she was undecided until the very end.

Now I'm even more convinced Rachel and Eric had an honest discussion about where he stood in her affections. Neither of them seemed that emotional about his departure - because they both knew it was coming. Contrast that with her outpouring of emotions when she sent Matt home. I'm still annoyed that they didn't show us more of their interactions because her reaction felt like it came out of nowhere. There had to be something deeper between them and I believe her when she said that in a different setting, things could have been different for them. Tonight was the most emotion I've seen from Peter and it made me wonder if he really did have deeper feelings for her. But the cynical part of me can't get over the idea that he just wants The Bacheor gig. Speaking of which, I absolutely think Rachel attempted to sabotage his chance of being the next bachelor by pointing out that this show isn't the right place for him to find love given his preference for taking things slow. Which on the one hand is kinda a bitchy thing to do, but on the other hand, I really don't want to see him as the next Bachelor so I was more than happy to have her repeat it a few times. Despite not liking Bryan initially, I did feel bad for him in the end because I actually do believe his feelings are genuine. Or as genuine as they could be in a situation like this. He strikes me as the type of person who falls "in love" quickly, but on the flip side, can lose interest just as quickly. But when he's "in love", he's the sweep-you-off-your-feet guy. Not my thing but I can see why that is appealing to Rachel, especially in this particular situation. I've never watched BIP and was kind of considering giving it a shot this season because of Dean, but that promo turned me off to it. Is it always that trashy? Why Dean??

I can believe this. Mid season we saw a very neurotic Eric questioning anyone within earshot what Rachel is feeling and generally over-analyzing every decision she makes, while now he seems more Zen calm. It's quite a dramatic difference at a time when the stakes seem to be getting higher. I also remember a scene where he seemed almost blasé about it being obvious who the favorites are, and he clearly knew he wasn't included in that group. Either Rachel had a very honest discussion with him or he has correctly assessed the situation, has accepted the inevitable outcome, and is just enjoying the ride.

I'm a pretty reserved myself and wouldn't be kissing on everyone on national television. It wasn't that. It was the whole thing, when they were sitting on the porch steps and he said (very unconvincingly) how happy he was. It was all just very lukewarm. Even if someone is reserved, usually you can still tell how into someone they are by the the way they look at the other person, by how giddy they smile, and other little clues. Peter likes Rachel well enough as a person, but I don't sense that he's that into her romantically.

I think I fell a little in love with Dean tonight. Or maybe it's just my penchant for broken things, but his emotions while lying on those pillows with Rachel felt the most raw and genuine out of any guy from this whole season. I do think he meant what he said ("I think I'm falling in love with you") in that moment because he was at his most vulnerable and Rachel was the person who was there for him. Although I do think those feelings of love is likely transferred from a more general sense of feeling grateful that someone was there, especially after he was essentially abandoned/rejected all over again when his father walked away from him and was unwilling to mend the relationship. But to him, I believe it probably felt like love. Which makes me really sad for him. I also think Rachel's final pick is Bryan. She clearly likes Peter, but that goodbye was pretty cold, void of any affection even for someone who has his walls up. To me, that wasn't a walls sitiatuon, it's a he's-just-not-that-into-you situation.

My favorite line from the episode: "If he's all-powerful, why doesn't he just tell you what the fuck he wants." - Sandor Clegane, on the Lord of Light I need to rewatch the episode, or the Hound scenes at the very least; I forgot he had been to that farm house before with Arya, so the emotional impact of the scene escaped me. I realize this is the first episode of the season and they need to set up the pieces, but it felt slow moving to me. They only have 6 more episodes and I don't know how they're going to manage to tie everything together in a satisfying way. As much as I like Arya getting her revenge, the way she dispatched Walder and the rest of the Freys felt too easy and abrupt. I hope they'll do more justice for the other events they spent seasonsss setting up.

I'm Asian (Taiwanese)-American and I absolutely understand where a Shirley or Sheldon comes from in their passion for the food they grew up with. Taiwanese food isn't something you can find in mainstream America, so I associate it very strongly with "home", cuz that's the only place I got to eat it. I can't cook my way out of a ramen package, but if I could, I would very much love to be able to stitch some of the food experiences from my background with something more ubiquitous to the average American; it would be a way to put "myself" into a new dish. Maybe they're fooling me and they are cynically using their heritage to win a cooking competition, but my personal sense is that it feels genuine and I have no problem with it. Plus both their dishes looked super yummy. I would love to see Sheldon win this. Is it a fix? I don't know, but I'm okay with a talented likable person winning.

The culinary world is dominated by male chefs so I can see why a female chef/cook would be all too aware of the imbalance, not just in a competition but as the reality of their chosen profession. To be able to rise to the top of an industry dominated by men would be worth noting and I don't blame Mei at all for commenting or focusing on it. Same with Melissa for wanting to be a "role model" for female chefs. They both have said that if they can't win, they would want the other one to win. I don't see anything wrong with that, any more than Gregory or Doug saying they want to "represent" Portland. Presumably, Doug is rooting for Gregory because of the Portland connection, not because he dislikes Mei.

I realized how much I loved this final 3 when halfway through the episode, I was dreading the moment someone would get eliminated. Glad Mei stayed over Doug though, just cuz all else being equal, he had already been eliminated before and was only back because of LCK. I would watch a show with just Doug and Katsuji. They're so cute together. Next episode looks exciting with all the praise the final 2 were getting! I think Gregory is going to win, but I'm pulling for Mei.

I think Gregory kinda got spooked when he landed in the bottom for taking a risk during the Thanksgiving challenge and he's been playing it safe ever since then. It must be tough winning all the time and then suddenly be put in a position of getting kicked off. Melissa is on the opposite trajectory; she had been in the bottom multiple times early on and throughout the competition, but she has really picked up her game despite her past missteps. She talked about challenging herself a lot in these last couple of episodes and how that was her goal in this competition. It appears to me that that's a healthier attitude to adopt than one where the focus is simply to not get kicked off. In any case, I thought I would have been upset with the possibility of Melissa becoming Top Chef, but now I think she would be deserving of it. Still want Mei to win though. Like others, I didn't like George for a long time because of the Isabella connection, but he turned out to be a pretty decent guy. I don't think it was fair he got to come back the way he did, so for that reason alone, I'm glad Gregory is moving on. But I do feel bad for him going on a challenge where he really embraced the theme of the challenge and ended up being penalized for it. I also liked that he was good-natured about it, telling Gregory that he basically knocked him out twice. I wouldn't mind seeing him back in an all-star season, but for the same reason I wanted Gregory to move on, I hope Dougie comes back from LCK instead of him.

All the posts about Jeremy having to play with people who don't know how to play and how it affected his game is interesting. I think playing with people who don't know how to play is part of the game. I remember from the first season I started watching (Cook Islands), that Yul and Jonathan seemed to want to play with other "rational" players. IIrc, Yul was into game theory and he wanted to get rid of all the unpredictable elements. I think he would have targeted the Keiths from the get-go because they're wild cards. At least playing with other "rational" players (i.e. someone who knows how to play the game), you can predict to some degree what their moves will be. He wanted to get rid of Cao Boi and that other girl whose name escapes me, who was there just for "the experience", before the more strategic players (Jonathan, Candice). Unfortunately for Yul, Candice did something based on emotions that he didn't see coming! ETA: Everything is season specific obviously. Jeremy didn't want to play with people who were also strategizing; based on the interview with Reed, the reason he didn't want him as an ally is because he knew that Reed was doing exactly what he was doing. This idea of getting rid of the strategists first is very Boston Rob-esque. He didn't like others out there thinking for themselves. I think both paths can be taken depending on the mix of people. I also liked that little gesture, and after watching Ponderosa, I think it's because he sees Josh as his equal. He trusts Josh's perception of what happened, but he said something like he'll have to wait to know what is really going on because he doesn't trust Reed and Alec's take on what was happening. I don't blame him.

I loved the eyebrow raising from Baylor when Jon (and Jaclyn?) said he was thinking about his jury speech. Even if he truly believed that he would make it to the end, it wasn't wise for him to broadcast that to everyone else. It's presumptuous, arrogant, and it gives other players extra satisfaction from taking him out. I don't think Nadiya and Natalie had a toxic relationship, but it was obviously unhealthy (that constant yelling and screeching at each other for stupid little things). It's nice that they always had each other, it's comforting and feels safe, but I think it's also important to spend time apart to develop as an individual. I think that's what we're seeing with Natalie. She doesn't have someone to rant at whenever she felt frustrated, she had to get along with other people without her sister to fall back on, and more importantly, she had to think for herself and make her own decisions. If they genuinely did spend all their time together and essentially experienced the same things, she now has something significant that is her's alone. I do wonder how all of this would change the dynamic of their relationship, but that's OT. I'm just glad that I can see them as separate entities now.

I'm also bothered that they randomly let some eliminated chef back in, not based on any culinary skill, but what amounted to a popularity contest. I don't doubt that George would have lasted longer than many of the chefs already eliminated had he stayed in the competition, but it was his own stupid ego that caused him to choose Gregory - arguably the strongest chef this season - as his cook-off opponent. He might not have deserved to go based on his culinary skill, but he definitely deserved to go based on making a dumb decision. Sure, he didn't know the skills of the other chefs yet, but he knew what kind of experience everyone had. He should have gone for a Keriann. As to the Melissa thing, I kinda forgot about it until I started reading the posts here. I felt like the show basically glossed over it. They should have made her put the clams back or disqualified her dish because taking ingredients from other chefs without their permission is BS. It would be chaos and become a free-for-all atmosphere if they let things like that slide. I'm actually really surprised they allowed it. The only thing I can think of is that when Adam shouted "share share share!!" when Mei grabbed the clams and she agreed to let him take some, Melissa took that as an invitation to grab whatever she wanted also.

That's because she coached Keith on how to act at TC. Reed overestimated Keith's ability to dissemble. I was on the fence about Natalie's move last week to oust Alec over Keith, but it turns out that it was probably the right move; it would have been harder for her to convince Alec to go along with her plans.

I guess that's something that didn't occur to me. I rewatched that part (I have no life) and what she said was, "I actually want to step into that role as executive chef, but we all know women are better line cooks." From the way it was phrased and without the knowledge about the badass reputation of line cooks, it seem to me like she's saying that she, a woman, would be better as a line cook than an EC even though she would prefer to be EC. I couldn't square that with how she has conducted herself so far, which is a strong woman and fierce competitor. In any case, whether sarcasm or joke, how they ended up settling on Doug as EC would have been nice to see.

Yes!! I was just thinking this to myself today. I was watching some of the Ponderosa videos where Jeremy and Reed were lamenting over how skinny they looked and I was thinking, but you look goood! All those defined muscles. Then I felt ashamed that I like the look of starving people. I'm fine with liking scruff though.

I have no problem with Gregory taking a backseat to protect himself, but I hate hypocrisy, so I am annoyed that he gave a brazen smack down at judge's table a few weeks ago to the team that didn't somehow force Aaron to change his dish, but then did absolutely nothing except watch his team go up in flames. He might have felt like it wasn't his place in this situation because he wasn't EC, but what happened to stepping up to make sure your team puts out their best effort? I wasn't a fan of either Katie or Keriann and I think they're two of the weaker contestants left, so I was fine with either one going. I'm glad some of you mentioned Mei's line about "everyone knows that women make better line cooks" because it bothered me when she said that. She always struck me as a strong woman so I didn't know what to think. But given everything that was brought up here, with her repeating the question about being EC but not shown answering it (weird editing), and her "everyone knows" part of the comment, it now seems obviously sarcastic. I think my sarcasm detector is broken. It was interesting that Melissa picked Doug instead of Gregory first. I wonder if she knew that Katie would pick up Gregory, which then meant she could get Mei, and then have two top contenders instead of the standout top contender. Or I'm giving her too much credit. In any case, Doug, Mei, and Adam have worked well together before (and had spontaneously picked each other in a previous challenge) so I was pretty sure their team would work pretty smoothly. It wasn't really a surprise that their team won.

I also came around on Natalie after starting the season with a negative perception of the twinnies. Part of what I've been enjoying are her over-the-top confessionals - in this episode, something about wanting to kill herself (or Jon) if she had to listen to him talk about wine again. I also admire that she is able to abide by the wisdom of keeping your enemies closer, unlike Missy. She has shown a lot more social awareness of the game out of everyone left. Although I also think Jaclyn, when she isn't throwing a tantrum, is decently perceptive about people also - picking up on how she and Jon are probably down on the totem pole of their alliance and how things felt off at camp after Natalie talked to Baylor about voting out Jon next. I think people who truly excel at this game would take a Jaclyn into account when they choose who to go to rewards with and to be able to act normally when they're about to stab someone in the back.

I also didn't think Jaclyn and Alec were flirting with each other. They were being more overtly friendly than typical, but nothing that crossed the line as far as I could tell. He also pointedly included Jon in his invitation to hang out and get drinks outside of the game. I was surprised by his style of "flirting" with Baylor though, because I was expecting him to be equally bad at it as he is at Survivor, but I think he actually hit all the right notes to pique Baylor's interest. It's obvious to us what he's doing, but he came across relatively sincere when talking about "his feelings" and showing his vulnerability. I feel like Reed finally started playing the game after Josh left, which is too bad because I think he might have gotten further if he had started from the very beginning.

I was so distracted by everyone's faces this episode. Kyle and Camille were on the subtler end of the scale, with Adrienne being the worst. I was actually vicariously embarrassed for her. STOP IT! Maybe they can look younger with all that crap in their faces (which is debatable), but trying to act like you're still in your 20's when you're over 40 is just so pathetic.