Lingo

Yeah. It does hurt to watch this show. Hopefully the season will end on a high note, some way that Jimmy can turn the tables on HHM and Chuck in the end. I was just reading tonight an article on msn.com about a convicted felon, a woman, who has been out of prison for 25 years and yet cannot hold down a job because her employers find out about her history and won't give her a chance. The parallels are obvious. Chuck deserves to be given a second chance. You guys who are saying Chuck is kind of right, that Jimmy keeps slipping back to his Slippin' Jimmy ways: well he wouldn't have had to if his brother had been willing to give him a real chance! People keep prejudging him and he can't catch a break. And we've seen him cook up a couple of shady schemes this season (the skateboarders, the billboard rescue), but most of the time, and definitely since he's started his elder law practice, he's worked his tail off and he's trying to stay "clean" and he deserves respect for that.

She really did have his back this episode, though. I'm not sure what else she could do, aside from quitting the firm in protest. Which would be a huge, life-changing decision for her. It's true, we know she works for at least 2 dicks now, and we would like to see her quit and make a firm with Jimmy. But that's such a huge decision. And she says she literally owes them. If she quit, maybe they can go after her for what she owes. But hopefully we'll see her quit next season.

Wow, I was so wrong. Last week I said that Chuck didn't respect Jimmy but that I didn't think that Chuck would intentionally screw him over -- just fail to stand up for him. I was wrong. It was him all along! It certainly puts into a new light Chuck's suggestion in the premiere that Jimmy change his name. Do you think that Chuck is so ashamed of him that he doesn't even want to share the name McGill with him?? It also puts Hamlin in a new light, to some extent. Now I'm not entirely sure how much of a dick he is. He did show considerable restraint tonight, except when he lost his temper with Kim (who deserves a Badge of Courage for sticking up for Jimmy). If you think about it, he's probably had to endure Jimmy's misdirected ire for some time, so he's bound to have developed some hard feelings in reciprocation. But I'm sure he's still something of a dick as well. He probably feels the same way about the U. of American Samoa, and let's not forget that he took some of Jimmy's cake, and he banished Kim when she lost the Kettleman case, and of course Hamlindigo. So are we supposed to assume that Jimmy's only two options are to either give the case to HHM or do it all himself? I would think there must be another high-resource, high-prestige law firm somewhere close enough who could handle this case and would be happy to hire Jimmy for bringing it to them (after all, the retirement home company has branches in 5 states). Do you think we're supposed to ignore this option? Or does the fact that Chuck's involved make this impossible -- or the fact that they used HHM's resources in the last episode? I'm surprised that plot point did not factor into this episode, though maybe it will next week. P.S. to Chuck: you're a rich lawyer -- hire someone to bring your damn food to your house!!

That big blue building with the 'SCIENTOLOGY' sign is real and not a movie set?? It looks like something straight out of 'Brazil' or 'Joe vs. the Volcano'.

The deaf lady already voted out.

I just remembered that Probst has said in EW interviews that there's a new twist this season, a "new advantage", that he said would play out in an entertaining and satisfying manner. I'm betting that this twist will be introduced or at least alluded to at the merge (like the "Tyler Perry" Idol last year). I can't even imagine what kind of advantage it could be if it's not a minor variation on a HII.

It's true, neither left-to-right or right-to-left are intrinsically "forwards" (Westerners are just biased to think that L-to-R is forwards)...but in this challenge, there was a small advantage in going L-to-R, because the players were supposed to step on a mat on the right after finishing.

This is the thread in which we're allowed to talk about the previews, right? You even mention them in your own post. Preview spoiler: A merge would definitely happen before an immunity challenge. (I don't even know how they could do it after the IC but before tribal council -- would everyone go to TC, or just the team that lost??) In previous seasons, they've sometimes had the merge after a reward challenge, but most often there isn't a reward challenge in the merge episode. I don't see Tyler and Carolyn joining the BCs without a lot of additional persuasion. The BCs just voted off one of their closest allies, and Carolyn has made inroads with the NCs.

Actually, it's typically 8 members on the jury with 3 finalists. Remember John Rocker's girlfriend Julie? She made the merge but not the jury.

In the media thread there's another recent article (from January or so, on some website's 30th season celebration of the show) in which Jeff lists 9 people he thinks are overall very good players -- and not just winners this time, he also includes the likes of Spencer and Rob Cesternino (although there's a lot of overlap with his winner list). And once again he lists Kim. So I think he's at least gotten the message that a lot of fans love her.

I was under the impression it was a show-by-show thing. Smart. I'm beginning to appreciate her more and Carolyn less. I still think it was fine of her to vote off Max but she shouldn't have antagonized Shirin afterwards.

Thanks. But even though there are visual clues in the pictures of different ages -- the different clothing, and the fact that she's playing with preschooler toys in the first picture -- they still LOOK the same age to me. Then again I don't hang out with children much.

Here you go: http://previously.tv/television/welcome-to-dick-week/ They posted this article on Monday.

Well from Tyler and Joaquin's perspective, they don't know who voted for whom, and they probably think that the No Collars aligned with Kelly to vote out Max. Kelly was the swing vote so she was never in any real danger. And even if they find out Carolyn voted Max out, they may not care because they didn't like him either. You know, I sympathize with Rodney's confusion just a little bit, because I think from his perspective, Mike's decision to take out Joaquin, who was an apparent ally, instead of Joe who's an obvious threat, makes no sense at all. From Rod's perspective, his alliance with the White Collars was a major boon to the Blue Collars and he probably think he was doing the Blue Collars a favor. Because of Mike's decision, the White Collars are now much more likely to align with the No Collars to take out the Blues. Next week he's going to rant constantly that Mike's decision doesn't make any sense. Or he may come to understand that Mike was trying to curb Rodney's power but think it was much too early for that. I can't say I'd blame him. But I dislike Rodney intensely so I'm still glad it went down that way!

Come to think of it, it IS surprising we didn't see any votes for "Wakeen"! Surprised you didn't recommend this one, Jessica. I thought it was easily the most entertaining episode of the season so far.

First of all, when Probst said that last week's episode was the best of the season, surely he was confused and meant this one? Because this one left me with a stupid grin on my face. The reward challenge was THRILLING and I was SO happy when the girls won it. Then, all the comedy with Rodney and Joaquin getting blindsided and Dan being an idiot and Jenn calling Rodney a tool (and she hasn't even met him yet!). This episode just hit all the right buttons for me. Did anyone notice Rodney calling himself and Joaquin "apples and oranges"? LOL, that's not what that means, Rodney. Oh, definitely, they cut out a lot of that challenge, as they regularly do when these challenges go long. I even noticed that Jeff's "first team to get 3 points wins" was overdubbed. It was probably at least a best-of-seven, maybe even 9, but they cut out some rounds since Mike and Kelly's round went so long. (And those two apparently had to go several times because they had to play until one of them won the point.) I'm definitely feeling a bit of a winner's edit with Mike (but also Jenn). He's okay I guess. I'm worried that Lindsey's prediction that a Blue-Collar will win will come true, though I guess as long as it's not Rodney or Dan I could live with it. I'm definitely loving the 3-tribe format because it's really hard to figure out how's it gonna shake out next week. Here's what I see: --The No-Collars are a strong four. Joe will go back to the girls and they'll stick together. Will is the only possible defector but I think he'll stick with them too. --The Blue Collars have the most members but are fractured. Mike, Dan, and Kelly will definitely stick together. Rodney and Sierra are floating in opposite directions. --The White Collars are in trouble. Tyler and Carolyn are together, but they've lost Joaquin, and Carolyn's alienated Shirin. Some people are predicting that some Red-Blue alliances from the last 2 episodes will stick together (Kelly with the girls, Joe with the Blues) but I don't see that happening. I expect it'll come down to a Red vs. Blue divide with White stuck in the middle. And I think the Blues have a chance of sticking together in spite of everything. I think Mike and Kelly may convince Sierra that she's better off sticking with them than at the bottom of the Red team. Rodney will be super-pissed but he'll also realize that he has little choice but sticking with the Blues for the short term...unless he sticks with Tyler, who having made no other allies will definitely do whatever Carolyn suggests. Carolyn may stick with the Reds but maybe not--she'll keep her options open. Shirin has absolutely no allies right now, but she may also stick with the Reds just due to the small bit of courtesy Hali gave her. We'll see. It'll be interesting for sure! (Red = No-Collar)

Anyone else think Kaylee looks too old on this show? She looks about the same age as she does on BB 6-7 years later, IIRC.

Yeah, this is how I see it too. Chuck just fails to stand up for Jimmy, because he doesn't really have faith in Jimmy.

I couldn't quite see what happened in that last shot. I heard a thump--I'm presuming Chuck dropped the box. Did anything else happen? He didn't collapse or anything, did he? I actually thought this was one of the slower episodes. There was no big Aha! or Gotcha! moment like most of the other ones had ... but I'm still invested nonetheless. I can't help but feel a little sad whenever I see Jimmy and Chuck interact. Forgive me for stating what may be obvious, but in that interaction, I see in Jimmy a guy who's desperate to earn the respect of his brother. And sadly, in Chuck I see someone who in unwilling to completely give that respect -- he is always looking down on Jimmy, subtly or sometimes unsubtly. He can't get past seeing his brother as the little criminal screw-up. And that lack of respect manifests itself in a hundred little ways. He undermined Jimmy in the first episode when Jimmy was trying to get him his HHM payout. He's always grouchy when Jimmy is making a mess in his house, even though he was completely dependent on Jimmy to live through his "illness." He hasn't really shown any gratitude toward Jimmy for helping him at all; in fact, his basically acts as if he's owed it. Sure, we've seen that in the past Chuck bailed Jimmy out of major legal problems and probably got him his job at HHM, but since then Jimmy's worked his ass off to turn his life around and earn Chuck's respect and Chuck can't quite see it. Sadly, I would not be the least bit surprised if we find out that Chuck did not completely go to bat for Jimmy behind the scenes at HHM to get him a job as a lawyer there. He just doesn't see Jimmy as an equal. And I wouldn't be surprised to see Jimmy finally lose his patience with Chuck sometime soon. ETA: someone said they were worried that the shady lawyers were going to put a hit on Chuck in the last scene. But that's what I keep expecting Nacho to do! He said there'd be "consequences" and I've been worried for Chuck (and Kim) ever since.

No, that's Eric, the skinny guy with the rolled (?) ankle.

Yeah...although I think that outcome could by and large be avoided by having 3 tribes at the beginning. In fact I used to wish that they would keep 3 tribes all the way to the merge (even though that would make it very difficult to plan the later challenges, not knowing for sure how many players would be left on each tribe). But even when they get reshuffled into two tribes, that original 3-tribe composition keeps things pretty complicated after the merge (though no one seemed to notice that they practically voted out all of the Beauties immediately after merging last spring).

I still think it's sarcasm, but that's another possible reading. :) I'm just worried about what he says for Seasons 31/32: "we’re contemplating doing another evolution in the game." If it's anything like Redemption Island then count me out!

Do you mean BvW One (27) or Two (29)? There were no returnees on S29. I don't remember how they did the shuffles on either season but I can believe they did it that way.

Well that was maybe the only part of that video I agreed with. :)

Yeah, that's the other problem: producers wouldn't go for a true One World where they're all living together because it would be hard to learn everyone's names -- not to mention impossible to keep track of the interpersonal dynamics (with 3 tribes, each person only has 5 possible partnerships; with one tribe, it would be 17!). But I don't see how it would "get rid of the goats earlier", unless you mean some people are so obnoxious everyone would agree to vote them out quickly. But to spell out more what I said before, the game has a certain balance. Before the merge, if you're stuck in a tribe and depend on team challenge wins to avoid TC, then you have an incentive to vote out the weak and keep the strong. After the merge, when you're competing for individual immunity, it's the opposite. The institution of semi-regular, semi-predictable tribe swaps (the swap has happened in the 5th episode of every 3-tribe season IIRC) has somewhat weakened that balance to the detriment of the strong a little bit. But if you have just one tribe from the get-go, then it becomes completely unbalanced. I couldn't tell you which one exactly, but it's one of his interviews with Dalton Ross on ew.com. Every week he answers a few questions from Dalton and I think it was the latest one.