Apocalypso

I thought "Text me back" would have been a good title for the episode. I liked it as a metaphor for preliminary selection of potential allies. Sami's solution to the brain teaser impressed me. I thought it was a much harder group teaser than the previous season's. I really liked the extra time spent on character introduction, and found a lot of people to like. That would be pretty much everybody except the sales rep who can't wait for the chance to bad-mouth the other sales rep he just made an alliance with.

This was what I thought was the important point about all the TC whispering. It did go awfully fast, I mean I personally couldn't keep track of who all conferred with whom in what order, but for the actual contestants, familiar with everyone, it should have been easier to evaluate these interactions and get vital information. I think some were caught off guard by events and might have betrayed their relationships - if the right people noticed.

If Erika simply explained, "it was the only way I could guarantee my own safety from being voted out", they should all certainly understand - her name was mentioned by virtually everybody. But I suppose they will still hold it against her if she overturns the challenge.

I think that the Brad eavesdropping thing had to be reenacted and I dislike that! I presume they are used to camera crew all over the place, so I am willing to accept that an extra camera operator (and maybe a sound tech), that wasn't following you before but is now at the well, might not necessarily arouse your suspicions that there's another tribe member in the vicinity. But I'm kind of dubious just the same. I don't see how that closeup of Brad on the ground with his eyes closed could have been taken during the actual conversation without the talkers noticing and wondering about the additional crew and the camera angle. So if that was reenacted, what other stuff might be? (aside from challenge runthroughs) I kind of don't even want to think about it, at the same time my skepticism is now aroused.

That second dress of Tyra's actually was painful to look at. Every time they showed the whole thing I recoiled my head, like I had been swatted. Then they put eyes on her like I don't know, Emperor Palpatine? The dark shading was like a diseased serial killer in a comic book. After that unfortunate elimination she probably went home and cried. I enjoyed Anne's dance and her wild costume and sorry she had to go. Johnny looked great and evidently felt so too. Good dance. I thought he resembled Loki with his hair like that. Also really enjoying Justine Machado. There are a number of contenders, I think.

Her own t-shirts make her look better than her dowdy dancing costumes so far.

I was startled because I thought the last thing he had said before racing for the bridge was "freeze program." I think that was a continuity error.

Despite not caring for the main plot, I was still into it enough to exclaim out loud when Gordon said "Delete Greg."

Enjoyed the episode but I had to smile at using the vents to escape and fight back, as that was the favorite solution in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (about every other week ), about 5 decades ago.

I can't remember a year in which there were so many colorful tuxes! After purple, pink, blue and maroon, camo for heaven's sake - it was actually a shock when men in black came up to accept an award! I don't object, I've always thought it a pity that men have had to adhere to the same boring conventional suits for the last century or so.

There's an old movie "A Guide for the Married Man" in which in one scene, "Charlie" (Joey Bishop) is caught by his wife with a girl in their bedroom. While the wife squawks and splutters, Charlie keeps saying "What girl?" "What do you mean?" while he and the girl calmly and efficiently dress, make the bed, get rid of the glasses and ashtray, the girl leaves, Charlie nonchalantly takes up the newspaper, and the wife is left going wha? - Totally reminded me of Des sticking to her story. But you can't try to gaslight five people at once. All she did was demonstrate she was untrustworthy to every last person there. So she had to go.

I believe it's common for ships' companies to have similar celebrations for crossing the equator. Obviously they weren't going anywhere near the equator (and were even way above the Arctic Circle), but they WERE planning to be gone for years, and I could see Sir John just routinely loading the chest of costumes on his ship as a morale kit in case needed.

The animation on the creature's face was interesting. It looked like it was angry and about to attack but then mollified as Lady Silent took the knife to her tongue. Earlier it seemed that she was singing or praying to it, so what does she do now? - I suppose it's not impossible to use just your throat to make ritual songs or sounds. Perhaps the creature only responds to the sounds from a mutilated mouth - there's probably a vocal "signature" that it can tell means no tongue - ugh, grossing myself out. That horrifying carnival! Even from the first moment when Fitzjames looked in the chest ("Leave it to Sir John") at all the masks and paraphernalia, so deliciously creepy and incongruous.

I can’t remember who is or was Naviti or Malolo. It has become truly frustrating not to be able to understand the basis for their voting strategy. I don't think I've ever been so totally lost. Wendell! Never confide about your idol to gain trust! For some crazy reason this particular confidence always results in making your confidant more suspicious of you! And they always tell somebody else as soon as they think it’s to their advantage. I mean, if you can’t keep your own secret – why would you think someone else would. The impulse to divulge such a juicy piece of info is just too strong. (Props to Laurel this time for not ratting him out; it’s only a matter of time.) Wendell was so great in that reward challenge that I wondered if he regretted shining so obviously and took the opportunity to balk at the IC to reduce his perceived threat magnitude. (Though his reaction seemed pretty spontaneous.) I agree with others that this Gross Food challenge was particularly hard to watch; I actually physically gagged for a moment (Michael at the very end), which has never happened to me before. Laurel running was so beautiful to watch.

The book was thrilling, a favorite of mine in a genre which is NOT my favorite. So far I find the cast excellent and the production amazing: the long shots, the aerials of the deck, the vastness of their icebound environment, all supply details which were shortchanged in my imagination. I didn't anticipate that with the characters portrayed by actors, I find myself becoming a little more attached to some of them than I would like, knowing their fates.