Lingo

Congrats to Drew Dreschel for being this season's "winner"! He made it farther than anyone else. It was interesting that that accomplishment didn't seem to console him much. It was really touching to see him break down. I've really liked him for at least the last 2 seasons, so I'm happy he won. He seems to be really great with the kids. Daniel Gil seems like an okay guy too, so I'm happy for him as well. But I'm glad he didn't beat Drew. It must burn up a guy like Drew, who's dedicated his life to this show, to see a young talented near-rookie like Daniel to nearly beat him in just 2 short seasons. On the other hand, I'm SO glad Jake Murray fell. "You've got wacky antics. I HATE wacky antics!" [/Lou Grant] I was SO worried that all the camera-time and focus on this guy I don't even remember from last year was foreshadowing he was going to win. Blech. The legend Jessie Graf got exactly as far as the legend Joe Moravsky. Never thought I'd see the day! They are both favorites of mine, so I'm bummed they didn't get farther. They seemed to place in the middle of the pack. I'd like to know exactly where they placed. I guess I just need to wait an hour for Wikipedia to be updated. This stage 2 was unbelievably hard, BUT it definitely seems like Jessie has the skills to beat it. She just needs one good run. I feel so bad for Flip. It felt like it was going to be his year. I wish they had shown his run in its entirety -- that would have made good TV drama. And count me in as another person wondering who Nicholas Coolridge pissed off. He seemed to be one of their big stars last year, so it's so odd that they completely glossed over ALL of his runs this year. What's up with that??

If I knew nothing about GoT ... that video wouldn't have helped me. It's like that annoying coworker you know who thinks he knows how to tell a good story and gets all worked up telling but just goes on and on without getting anywhere ... and you're standing there, nodding quietly, shifting your weight from foot to foot, wondering how you can politely get out of this conversation.

SMURF?!?

ALSO also, I knew as soon as I saw that guy bragging about his abs that he'd wipe out spectacularly. Talk about a bad edit!

It's no illusion. Brett and Kacy were each the top American ninjas at some point, getting to their respective peaks before anyone else. That their skills may have declined a bit since then or that their competition has stepped up its game doesn't diminish that. They don't have to stay at the front of the pack to keep getting respect, or clients. Also, this is the first I'd even heard to Team Ninja Warrior. I hate not having a cable package that includes Esquire!

Zev was definitely there. There was someone there with him dressed very similarly, but the name on his tag looked like "Evan" so I don't think it was Justin. Natalie Anderson (the Twinnie) actually WON Survivor (uh, spoiler alert) so it makes sense she would be on that one instead of this one. I was obsessed with identifying all the racers (and Survivors) in the box. Every time they showed the box I paused the show to try to identify everybody! I had to google Misa and Maiya, and Ashley and Allie -- I couldn't remember them. Besides the aforementioned Evan (?), there were a few other people I couldn't recognize. One was a lady whose name was something like "Pasha" who was sitting next to Jaymes at one point. Maybe she's his wife, or a date? Then there was a lady who was sitting alone next to Tim and TeJay the whole time (she never stood). She looked kind of like Sheri, but older. I think her name tag said "Michelle". I wanted to believe she was a past racer because she looked really familiar. But maybe she was just reminding me of Michelle Duggar! Or maybe S10 Mary from Kentucky? I watched both this one and the Survivor one, but other than trying to identify the contestants (much harder with the survivor folk) I kinda felt it was a waste of time. Even the contestants who got on stage barely got a chance to speak, so as a fan I felt disappointed. Mostly we just saw them whispering to the regular contestants. Jeff and Phil didn't get to say much either. Even in the Showcase Showdowns, Drew didn't let the celebs speak. Instead of asking them about their charities, he just mentioned the charities himself. Disappointing. I really wanted to see Brooke and Claire go crazy on stage!

Scot sounded bitter. Then again he always sounds bitter. I don't even remember what Jason said. Earlier you said that Michele just "played a better social game", just made the personal connections that Aubrey and Tai couldn't. Which sounds very plausible, considering their 3 personalities. I just wish we saw evidence of that in the game. I don't remember anyone saying they didn't like Aubrey much, and i don't remember any of Michele's interactions with people on the jury besides Cydney, Nick (who she backstabbed) and Julia (ditto, kinda). You say they felt Michele "deserved to win." That is at once obvious and completely nonspecific. What we're trying to figure out is why.

Honestly I'm just as confused as Daisy. I just don't fathom how most of the jury votes for Michele when Aubry (or even Tai maybe) is sitting there. The "bitter jury" doesn't make sense to me -- it's not like Aubry was aligned with most of the people she voted off. The person who was closest to her and thus most "justified" in being bitter was Debbie -- and she apparently voted for her! Julia was ostensibly in her alliance but she was obviously a double agent. And Cydney, of course, but Cydney was voting Aubrey so she has no room to complain (and she seemed cool with it when it happened). Aubrey wasn't aligned with any of the three guys so I can't see how they would be mad at her for voting them off. If anything, that's a reason for Nick NOT to vote for Michele. Is it that the bullies blamed Aubry for flipping Tai? Did they just see Aubrey and Tai as two sides of the same terrible coin? Did they feel Aubrey had an unfair advantage in Joe's loyalty? This idea that Aubrey and Tai "faded" while Michele's game "got stronger" doesn't make much sense to me either. Sure Michele won more challenges at the end, but I don't feel like that should get so much weight. TBH neither Aubrey nor Tai nor Cydney had complete control of the game throughout the season like obvious winners often do (like Jeremy or Kim). But Michele never controlled the game. The only reason I've read that makes sense to me is that the boys have some chauvinistic bias against non-crying "assertive" girls like Aubrey (though I don't remember Aubrey ever getting in their face about it). But that sure is a sucky reason not to vote for her. I don't have anything against Michele. I'm one of those who felt beforehand that any of the 3 girls would be a better winner than Tai (though even now I think Tai deserves more credit than I gave him). Michele made the strategic decision to cut her ally Nick loose, when she and Julia could have told the boys about the vote-Nick-off plan and stopped it. And she chose to vote off Julia, though that was not much of a choice. And she .. won challenges. She was okay.

I agree that Michele is not an undeserving winner. It's just that almost everything you said about Michele could equally be said about Aubry, if not more so. I think the thing that is most confusing for us is that Michele didn't have a clear narrative arc. Aubry had her transformation arc, from s****** nervous nelly to confident leader. Tai had his personality and his apparently inner turmoil, and Cydney was just awesome in body and in spirit. I didn't see a story for Michele other than the "underestimated for being a Beauty" BS they tried to foist on her at the last minute.

OH MY GOD Jason's Ponderosa video. Just watch it.

I don't think Tai "wasted" his extra vote -- he was just outvoted. I think next Tribal is the last time he could use it, but basically its only value is in breaking ties. Even if he ends up in a 2-to-3 voting minority next week, an extra vote would just force a tie, but that would just trigger a revote, and since he wouldn't get to vote twice in the revote (I assume), he'd lose the vote anyway. And players really try to avoid ties (understandably), so the extra vote is not much of an advantage (as compared to Stephen's stolen vote, which is much better). Mostly it just paints a target on your back. I loved the immunity challenge so much I watched it 3 times! So much back and forth (very reminiscent of the "domino" challenge). Cydney was awesome. I noticed she was the only one trying to hold the rope completely taut most of the time. I think she deserves to win as much as Aubrey or Tai. She's shaken up the game and obviously she's not a follower. Michele has made some hard decisions too but I'm not as convinced of her leadership in the game. Most of her votes seem about proving her loyalty. I also thought the reward challenge was a nice new twist on the old ball maze challenge. Shame that it was a blowout.

1999...I thought he might open and close with Prince references, but I guess that'd be too depressing?

I want to point out that from what I heard in the extra videos, Kurt can't do any more roadblocks "until the final leg", which will undoubtedly be another double-RB leg. I think there's only 3 legs left, so Brodie only has to do 2 more RBs, and survive 2 eliminations, until the final leg where they'll each do one. I'm guessing this was our best shot at eliminating them (except maybe at a U-Turn). Too bad!!

You picked a fine time to leave us hanging, Lucille.

Yeah, I noticed that in the interviews she keeps saying she was down to 92 pounds at one point. I'm not convinced she's a compulsive liar but I do think she misremembers things. Either that or she's talking about the weight she lost AFTER being voted out. She did say "no comment" when one interviewer asked if she stayed healthy.

I just rewatched the episode. Watching Chuck lose control in that meeting with the Arizona State Regulator -- especially when the regulator told him to "maybe double-check next time" -- It felt like Chuck was two steps away from turning into the Clock King. [/batman reference] Also, the moment that *Kim* really sold it to me that she believed Chuck made a mistake is when he yelled at her "I don't make mistakes!" and she cocks her head back in shock and retorts, "I believe you did." She really sold it in that moment. And then she told Chuck off with real conviction and sadness in her eyes. Great acting my KIM there (and of course by Rhea).

Sherry67, thank you for your legal insight, even though you are not a lawyer. There is a whole lot of speculation in here, but without the input of actual lawyers or people in that field, I have no idea what is really in the realm of possibility as to the possible consequences for Jimmy and the rest. The on-screen evidence suggests that Chuck doesn't have much of a case against Jimmy and he knows it, and that is why his FIRST reaction was to arrange a meeting with Kim and hope to convince her. He knows she prides herself on her integrity and was counting on her to recuse herself from MV's employ as he demanded (and maybe he hoped that this would cause MV to switch back to HHM again). If he really felt that he had a good chance of getting Jimmy in legal trouble, we would have gone about his investigation surreptitiously, without ever letting Kim and Jimmy know he had any suspicions. And yet, after Kim rejected his demands, he carried on in his investigation anyway...because he's desperate to regain his reputation, I guess. I feel bad for Kim because she'd fought hard to maintain that integrity up till this point, but ultimately abandoned it for Jimmy's sake. After she refused to talk to Jimmy about it I thought maybe she'd try to hide from the truth, to try to convince herself that Jimmy really was innocent, to maintain a shadow of a doubt within her own mind. But then she basically told Jimmy to cover his tracks and he responded, and she's can't deny that it happened.

You guys listed a whole bunch of things that bothered me, but what bugged me most was the almost complete lack of action, and the nonstop talking. Supergirl is facing the biggest threat she's ever seen -- a really good one for a season finale -- and she does nothing but sit around and MOPE for like 40 minutes of screentime. There's an admittedly good, fun but short fight scene at the beginning, then 40 minutes of moping, then a fight at the end (MM vs. Indigo) that was total bullshit thanks to Alex. Argh, I WANT to like this show but it makes it so hard sometimes. Oh and it was hilarious to see Non stroll into CatCo on foot, like he just came off the elevator or something. I guess the show didn't have the budget for him to bust through a wall or even fly in through a window. (Also, how long have Alex and MM been away? Where are they going? And if MM can just fly himself and Alex back to National City at a moment's notice, why is it taking them so long to get where they're going? Why are they taking a bus for gawd's sake?)

Actually, according to this article, it was a real stunt performed by Michael McKean with some sort of hidden wire: https://www.yahoo.com/tv/39-better-call-saul-39-postmortem-showrunner-1405755296841782.html ETA: or maybe it was a not-so-hidden wire removed digitally in post -- it's hard to tell from the article.

On the other hand, it must be difficult to pull a sharp spiky thing across asphalt.

I thought the hose was just lying on the opposite side of the road, and then he pulled it across with a rope when the truck came. No?

Kim might feel as guilty as Jimmy will feel. She's the one who told him to go cover his tracks. I don't think she'll blame Jimmy at all -- it's not like Jimmy actually caused Chuck's injury. Well I was talking about her thinking Chuck made a simple mistake. I almost bought that she believed that. I DO believe the rest.

Kim's speech in this episode was great! And I almost believed that she believed what she was saying, right up until it cut to outside. Rhea Seehorn has been amazing this season. I feel everything she is feeling. I feel sorry for her to be stuck with these two schmucks (well 3 with Howard).

They still have to ration their money, but it's just rarely an issue these days. It's occasionally mentioned in the online videos. I think the French Alps leg was one of their notorious $1 legs.

Here's a nice video that shows Dana's Georgian Ballet in its entirety, followed by some commentary from the dancers, e.g. differences between ballet and hip-hop (I think she also mentions she's been to Georgia before!):