Trixie Belden

I think it's difficult to demand respect from a junior deckhand or stew when you've just been out the night before making a fool of yourself in a bar on your night off. The entire crew goes out together, get ridiculously drunk, grind up on each other, cry, throw temper tantrums etc. and then a couple hours later start bitching about "respect my position". (I'm looking at you Hannah and Conrad).

Asa used to be my favorite, even though she sometimes annoyed me with her artsy, hippy, mother earth BS. Then she was the only one I wasn't hate watching. Now, she's barely a smidge above MJ for me (and I LOATHE MJ). Even when she makes good points, like Jermaine won't sign the contract to be on the show, but everyone else's SO's will-she's just coming across as super above it all. I think about halfway through filming last night's episode she realized that her being on the show isn't a sure thing anymore, she began saying small, supportive statements to everyone like "that's great". If she didn't throw those out there, she basically had nothing else to say. Her storyline all summer has had this song running through my head. All that said, every year they gang up on one person, that person gets a shitty edit* and at the reunion it's a cliffhanger if they'll return or not. I think it was just Asa's turn and it wasn't much fun for her, so she turned up the "I'm so much more adult than you all-look at me being the only adult" attitude she (usually) was able to keep in check. She'll be back, I'm sure of it. * Except MJ. Her edits are accurate and true, she really is that sloppy and dirty. And a massive massive liar.

I just caught this on TLC tonight and I'm going to devil's advocate the Josh/Aleks situation. My son is white, his father and I are both white and everyone on both sides of our families are white as far as we know. He has super fair, burn in 10 minutes skin with light brown hair and blue eyes. My daughter in law has black hair, blue eyes and tan skin. Her parents are both blonde and blue eyed and fair skinned. Until shortly before they got married, I had no idea that both her parents are biracial; her maternal grandparents are black and white while her paternal grandparents are white/black/American Indian. Her mother's sister (full sister, not half or step) is black. You wouldn't ever guess that these two women were even distantly related, much less had the same parents because they look absolutely and completely different, with different hair texture, facial features and skin color. My daughter in law got a crazy combination of genes from her parents so that she looks like a different race than both her parents. My grandson has the same exact hair, eye and skin colors as my son, but he tans immediately in the sun and rarely burns. A close friend of mine is blonde, brown eyed and fair skinned and her husband was black with very dark skin. They have 3 children and every single one of those children look like a different race from each other. One looks black, one looks Hispanic and one looks white. All have the same parents. All this overly long post to say that while it's definitely a strong possibility that Josh isn't the baby's bio father, there's also a possibility that he could be if Aleks does have a black father. I can't tell whether her BFF is the baby's father or not based on the pictures I've seen because her features don't really resemble him OR Josh OR Aleks.

Welp, I don't really care who wins now as long as it's not Brooke. I like LoLo and Tara/Joey ok, Matt's ok, Redmond-well I wouldn't want him to date my daughter but as far as the show goes he's ok. I don't really care about any of them. Floyd and Becca were fantastic. They never fought, they treated every leg as if it was a huge adventure that they were on, they seemed like they truly liked each other and made sure that no matter what the task, they had fun doing it. I didn't see Becca's reaction as being critical of Floyd, I thought she was genuinely worried about him (she said she'd never seen anyone get sick like that) and kicking herself for not doing that one herself. I really really hope they come back another season. I thought Rachel (of Brenchel fame) was the whiniest, cryingest contestant so far on TAR. But I've never seen anyone on tv that's as rage inducing as Brooke, unless it was a character written that way. She doesn't talk, she screeches. She whines constantly. Her mouth goes non stop. Everything is the worst catastrophe ever-her cabs are the slowest, she can't find anyone that speaks English, the heat is hotter for her, Scott is still breathing. I can't even imagine she dates, or keeps a job for long or that people even answer the phone when she calls. She is a thoroughly thoroughly unpleasant person.

Wow. Steven has to have a serious mental disorder and it doesn't really matter what happened to him as a child-some people are just born sick. He completely creeped me out and I don't get freaked out by people very easily. His video where he smears the pie all over himself seemed like it could have been some sort of fetish video. His dad also has some sort of weirdness to him as well, gallows humor is normal for a lot of people but he seemed like he actually hated both his kids. He screamed and cussed at Steven (but really, who wouldn't?) and then treated Justin just as badly. I don't see any way this can end well for Steven. Justin, on the other hand, seemed like he might have a decent shot at things IF he was away from his dad and brother. He came across as gentle, but completely detached from everything going on. I think he probably lives in his head a lot. If all the parenting resources were taken up with Steven from early childhood then Justin probably wasn't even taught how to do much more than feed himself and basic hygiene. He needs to be around supportive people (that don't make any sudden moves lol) and have a lot of therapy and probably a life coach along with the WLS.

Wrong. People that are well off cover the spectrum of weights and sizes.

I have so many mixed feelings about this girl. There was something super off about her dynamic with her parents. She said she was a daddy's girl and honestly, her mom seemed to almost hate her sometimes. There's no doubt at all that her parents are still active addicts and rely on Nicole and her (oh so sad) bf for financial support. They most likely took the kids back to Ohio for the WIC, AFCD and food stamp benefits. Her mom didn't seem to even care about the babies. The fact that her parents wouldn't consider getting a job in Houston but sat around in the hotel room (not cleaning, not doing laundry, not potty training the kids) and complained constantly made me want to scream. Seriously, her mom just decided they would be homeless while her dad was in jail. What kind of parenting lessons do you think Nicole learned from them? Also, no they didn't "make" her eat fast food, and she could have been more assertive about what they brought in for meals, especially if they were buying food daily. I'm sure that she wasn't complaining too much whenever they brought the fast comfort food she liked in for them. She could have worked harder at just walking around the parking lot with the kids. I guess I just keep going back to her shitty shitty parents that brought her up so chaotically and without boundaries, so without having some intensive social work interventions/therapy she probably doesn't really know HOW to be an adult/parent/accept responsibility. After all, neither of her parents seem to be able to accept responsibility. She needs to cut herself completely off from them and work on things with her bf and kids. That's the only way I can see any long term change for her. I've been in therapy and I can promise you that a competent therapist will call you out on your crap. It doesn't happen right at first though, a rapport has to be built so that the patient trusts the therapist's opinion and is mentally/emotionally in a place where they can take the commentary in, reflect and act on it. I think we see mostly the 1st "getting to know you" appts, where the therapist is mainly just trying to get information and make the patient feel like they want to come back. If you get tough on a person who is invested in being the victim right away, they aren't going to continue. It's a little bit of a necessary bait and switch.

Oh I am ALL in for this show!! The clothes, hats, furniture, houses, cars - all. of. it. I lost Jessica Lange into the JC character, but somehow I only saw Susan Sarandon playing BD and not terribly convincingly. I think it's the lack of BD voice, that was such a huge part of her persona (but she does have the big round BD eyes thing). I'm hoping that they get a little into some BD dirt, I felt like they showed her in a better light than JC last night. Also, I swear the character Mamacita kept reminding me of Ruth Buzzi.

I'm having SUCH a hard time watching this after having read the novel a couple years ago. Everyone is perfectly cast except for Nicole Kidman. There is a key difference in her character between the book and this show and it changes her whole story. Oddly enough, when I read the book I pictured the Renata character I pictured in my head was Laura Dern. She is absolutely amazing in her role and she's fascinating to watch, especially when you know how everything ends.

Amen to that padded belly! Kevin is going to take it out on Randall because he most likely doesn't even realize he's actually mad at his mother. And if he did get that, he may not even want to go there with her since their relationship is fragile at best, he doesn't want to do anything to damage it further. Kevin wants more than anything to feel like his mom loves him as much as she loves Randall. He's not a terribly introspective kind of guy, so he would need a good therapist to help him unpack all these feelings and untangle them so he could get a clearer picture of what he feels. Then they'd need a great therapist to work with him and Rebecca to sort it all out.

Oddly enough, my 29 year old son was over last night and we had a serious/deep talk about some family things, feelings and the total estrangement between him and his 30 year old brother. Part of what we talked about was the parallels between their relationship and the one I have with my 2 siblings. And then he leaves and our conversation was played out on tv. Childhood wounds are deep and if left long enough, the scar tissue takes a long time to get through. As a kid/teenager, Randall could reach out to Kevin all day and night but Kevin would still shut him down, so eventually what's the point (in Randall's pov). They had Kate as a buffer as well as physical distance, but now Kate is across the country and they are Kevin is physically in Randall's space; he's hanging out with the family and moved himself in without really asking. Now that Kevin is reaching out, Randall is the one being cautious. The recap mentioned being worried that the scene showing them watching tv together indicated that the show was going to go on like everything was solved. I really don't think it will, because it has been SO on point with these relationships so far. Healing childhood relationships in adulthood is a very up and down path that takes time. One slapfight and tv binge makeup doesn't make all the hurt and resentment built up over years go away. We'll see more friction between them, I'm sure of it. I think Rebecca and Jack's shock at the football game when Kevin and Randall fought just showed how involved they are mentally in their own stuff that they hadn't even noticed the relationship between the boys has gotten that bad. As far as Rebecca favoring Randall, remember she initially couldn't bond with him and went to talk to Major Dad about it. She likely has some guilt over that which, along with the racial difference/poor abandoned baby stuff caused her to overcompensate with him. Kate embarrasses her because of her weight and she just figures Kevin is always going to be ok. I think the whole washing machine theme was to show how even while life is moving on and kids are growing up and you're getting older, less fulfilled with your life/marriage, the mundane things are constant; doing laundry never changes while everything else does.

Oh please no. Gleb comes off as a sleazy guy hitting on the drunk coeds at a bar. He's not sexy at all, he's skeevy.

It might be just me, but it's weird that Dr. Pepper seems to always put blame on the wives in these marriages. She lectures Lilly on work/life balance and curbing her electronic use without also telling Tom that he has to understand that this is Lilly's job. She tells Sonia she has to move back in with Nick without also addressing the behavior that caused her to leave in the first place. It seems to me that in the past seasons she's usually been harsh on the women without uttering a word against the men. Tom can eat a bag of dicks for his bullshit "road trip" in his hoopty bus. There was NOTHING to accomodate Lilly on that trip, he almost went out of his way to do things that made her uncomfortable and then said she was "ignorant" because she didn't want to explore alternative medicine for an injury that can't be healed without surgery. They want fundamentally different things in their life and he tries to shame her for not being just like him. I just want Sonia to divorce Nick and then I can introduce her to my son.

They're in Puerto Rico. Guaranteed he was approached while at baggage claim. I really think that there's a difference between a medical and recreational user. Medical use for pain/nausea/glaucoma can be either edible or smoked and is (usually) taken on an as needed basis. Recreational use can (sometimes) lead to dependence. Think of people who use adderall for ADHD v. people who just take it for fun. It feels different. Derek is a heavy dependent user. If you've been around a person who smokes it like cigarettes, all day every day, you recognize the signs quickly. I don't think smoking pot makes him a bad guy, but maybe it makes him a bad guy for Heather.

I told my husband last night that I can see where Nick has a hard time getting a second date. He seems to not be sure what to say at any given time, so either he's silent or he blurts out stupid comments about dogs v. horses. He's probably mentally kicked himself for saying stupid things so many times that he just stays quiet until he gets to know a person fairly well. He's not smooth and doesn't have any game, and he knows that. As for why they matched this guy and put him on tv, that's a conversation we have every season about at least one participant. Here's one drama guarantee: pair an awkward introvert with a needy extrovert. They'll absolutely make each other happy!