pamplemousse

Ah, yes, along with that brilliant argument of not understanding how hard life can be for beautiful people. I'm sure it's just hell on earth.

I just remember Lauren making her evil plotting phone calls right in the hallways of the CIA office, practically right outside the meeting room doors. It was pretty funny (and facepalm-worthy).

According to Zeke in his profile, Harvard recruited him because he was one of the top high school debaters in the United States. I don't know where David went to school, but Adam graduated from Stanford. And Hannah went to Northwestern. So academically speaking, there's quite a few this season with the elite school pedigree.

You can snap and say mean things without purposefully hitting out at something you *know* (because the person has told you) is the source of most of a person's inner turmoil, their absolute most vulnerable spot -- I absolutely think if you do choose to go there, then that is a big red flag that you are actually an awful person. I don't know about others around here, but when I'm mad, I certainly have snapped on occasion but I would absolutely never mock someone for having crippling anxiety, or having depression, or other psychological issues that they are struggling with that I *know* they are struggling with and I had previously openly supported them in. To me, that's pretty indefensible and I find it gross how people are trying to be like ehhh, they just got mad and said some stuff, no big deal. I think what they did takes it to another level that is really ugly and nothing that Michaela was ever shown doing to Hannah or Jay or anyone else even slightly compares. Also, David literally wasn't saying or doing anything at that moment at TC to trigger those reactions from Brett and Zeke.

I agree with all of this. I see a difference between how Ken is playing and how Brett/Sunday are playing. Ken is very good at insinuating and, like you said, putting ideas into people's minds and then having them think that it was their idea all along. I like his style much better than the lead from the top, tell your soldiers what to do, arrogant and kind of dictatorial "playing hard and making big moves" style that most people seem to favor which is how Jay, Zeke, and Chris ran things when they felt like they were in control and had the numbers. Ken plays from the bottom in a very effective way. He's not sitting on his ass and just going along with what others tell him to do, from what I've seen. IMO, it was mostly him who orchestrated the ousting of Paul and Jess did a lot of the work by getting the other women on board (which she later got blamed for by, like, everyone including the women she got on board such as Lucy and Sunday). He played a big role in firmly planting the seed that Figgy needed to go asap and I think he's got David, Hannah, and Adam very much on his side (he had Jess too, but we all saw how that went). To me, all that does not signify a weak, do-nothing player who doesn't deserve to sit at final tribal.

Maybe that person thought you are me because I said it and I stand by it 100%. Sunday and Brett are goats and I think so not because I hate them (well, I kind of liked Brett even though I already thought he was about 92% useless as a player on his own merits up until last night and Sunday was stupid with her Jess paranoia but I never hated her, she was just there like a lump on a log or a soldier to whoever was willing to take her along), it's because they are shitty players. I totally do not think that just because you are still in the game automatically means you are a good player by virtue of that. Nor do I think that just because you happened to end up on some winning reward teams by doing very little to contribute, or the base amount that pretty much anyone else would do, and you ended up there because other people on your team are good at puzzles or good at physical games means you're not a goat. They're shitty goaty players because they do not think for themselves other than to hitch their wagon to someone trying to mastermind and then ride as far as they can get. They were ready to throw in the towel and vote each other until Jay approached them and told them to vote for Michaela (something that happened offscreen, but it wasn't their idea, they didn't come up with it, it was Jay's because he was threatened by her). And I don't think for a moment that Sunday or Brett came up with the idea to throw Ken's name out there to muddy the waters, Zeke probably told them to beforehand -- if David or his group got the wind up that it was going to be Hannah, throw out a name of someone else in his alliance who speaks up. I don't think I'm giving Zeke too much credit and Brett and Sunday too little. The former is smart and went to Harvard as a recruit for the debate team (manipulating people with his words is kind of a forte of his) and is incredibly good at puzzles, the latter two are numbskulls of the highest order. The only positive thing I can say about Brett and Sunday is that they are some of the best goats who ever goated, they've very good at following directions. I'm not surprised that Zeke and Brett weren't too broken up about Chris getting voted off. I think Chris overestimated how much value he had to Zeke. Zeke already knew that Chris would be a threat to him if he let Chris get too far in the game because Chris was trying to run the game too, Chris was playing from the top and Zeke recognized that. I think Zeke is fundamentally ruthless and everyone in his alliance is dispensable to him -- aside from Hannah being a bad liar (and I think she was trying to keep both options open), I think Zeke at that point already suspected she had turned on him and he had just asked her to get confirmation of it. As for Brett, he knew Chris had to go eventually and it didn't matter to him because he could always offer himself as pawn (I'm sure he doesn't see it that way) to someone else playing from the top who wants to drag him along, doesn't matter if that's Chris, Zeke, or the bug that attached itself to Taylor's shirt, as long as he gets to sit on his ass and drink beer and just vote how he's told to vote. I'm not as worried about Ken as I was last night. I thought Jess was his main ally, but I think his #1 is still David and he is still David's #1. I think that's why David made the kind of dopey move to take Adam's word based on something Sunday said and put up his immunity idol for Ken instead of Hannah. I think David panicked at the chance that Sunday wasn't bluffing and they really were going to switch their vote to Ken. Still kind of sad, though, because I sort of saw Ken and Jess as the dad and mom of the group.

Same here. I feel like that would be one of the most likeable final 2 contestants we've had in a while.

David wasn't. They were desperate and lashed out because they felt thwarted and threatened by him. Says a lot about what kind of people they truly are. And then to turn it on Ken and mock him too (Ken and David were calm and sane about it, it was Brett and Zeke that were being fuckwits doing the most by running their nasty mouths and trash talking), utter lack of class. Someone else pointed out that everything we're shown is edited and maybe David could've pissed them off by his regular behavior that we weren't shown because Survivor wants to present him as the hero underdog. Um no, if that's how we view this show, that everything we're shown isn't mostly what is actually going on and we believe with utter skepticism that black is white and white is black then why even watch the show at all? What's the point if David is actually a dick and Brett and Zeke are good guys and Ken is a jerk and Brett/Sunday/Will are actually strategic masterminds? Sorry but lolfuckingno, that stretches the imagination way too much. Occam's razor and all that and it was very obvious that Brett and Zeke were joining up and going off practically frothing at the mouths because they felt threatened. Just like what Jay and Taylor pulled on Adam last TC, there's no way Adam deserved that treatment last week and there's no way Ken and David deserved what they got at TC this week.

Sure, Sunday and Brett (and Will) are playing. They're playing the goat game, they hitch themselves to a player who tries to mastermind the game and gleefully let themselves get dragged along for the ride until they can't ride it out anymore. That's like the definition of playing the goat game and unless they've never watched a single episode of Survivor before, the goat gets to the end and never wins because it's gameplay that no one respects. We've already been through how many iterations of this with Sunday and Brett? First Paul, then Chris, now Zeke, and they would've glommed on to David too had Zeke gone home tonight but they were just stupid and cowardly enough -- like goats always are -- to insist on keeping Zeke in the game even though there is no way in frosty Hell frozen over that they will ever win over him because they're too chickenshit to make real moves and battle their way to the end on their own merits having earned enough respect from the jury, however grudging, to win at FTC. They still want to get dragged along by Zeke and used as his pawns. So, yes, they are eminently hateable for how they are playing because they're playing a proven loser's game if we're talking about winning the ultimate prize of a million dollars. Or, IDK, maybe they are playing just to win consolation money, in which case, I'm irritated that they're going to continue to pollute this season until the very end.

Zeke and Brett were so rude to David and then Ken at TC, screw them both. I hope David and Ken can find a way to annihilate Zeke (he proved himself to be a real asshole by mocking David along with Brett) and his evil flying monkeys Brett, Sunday (she is the worst with her irrational nutcase Jess paranoia), and Jay. Come on, guys, do it for Jess. I'm sad and worried for Ken that he lost his main ally in such a way, at one point he had his face turned and looked like he was choking back tears. I think Adam's a really sweet guy the way he cried for Jess, but dammit Adam! How could you believe anything that nasty little twit Sunday says?! If Adam hadn't believed her bluff that they were voting for Ken and told David, then David wouldn't have used his idol on Ken and maybe used it for Hannah and we wouldn't be in this position.

Agree that Jay's playing hard but not well. I find him more offensive than Taylor (who is mostly just dumb as hell). With that said, I wouldn't mind him sticking around for a couple more episodes (but not longer than that) because his pissy entitled machinations are entertaining to watch. I think Adam's fatal flaw so far was in thinking that Taylor would make a good, controllable (because he's so dumb) ally for him and continuing to pursue that while failing to see how much Taylor disdains him. And I totally think Taylor and Jay disdain Adam far beyond anything that he's done in the game like vote off Figgy and Michelle. Speaking of Michelle, not a fan of her laughing in apparent appreciation when Jay and Taylor were being ridiculous fuckwits at tribal council. The mean girl stench is strong off her IMO. Dour, grouchy Ken for the win. And barring that, I guess anyone out of the Chris/David/Zeke camp would be ok.

Asian hair can be physically lightened beyond yellow. I've seen many Asians with pale blond or even platinum/nearly white blond hair with no brassiness. It just takes several processes and a judicious use of toner./OT

I was raised in England, continue to live there at least 5-6 months out of the year due to work, and I still maintain that her English accent sounds odd and unconvincing. :)

I'm not taken in by Figgy's joie de vivre and big toothy sunshiny smile. She seemed to beam and be most joyful when she was threatening other players she perceived as weaker (such as Adam), reminding them that they crossed her, making smug pronouncements about how if you vote for her then you go home and how she's part of this awesome power couple who will send you home if you don't vote with them. Adam absolutely did the right thing. I was nervous as hell that Ken was going home when Adam said that the person he was voting for was someone he genuinely liked. Figgy's bouncy, giggly, happy-go-lucky act is just that to me -- an act covering up a manipulative phony. She's good at it, though, I bet she gets through life very well being like that. Michaela is blunt as hell but I don't get any meanness or malice from it and I don't find her manipulative in the slightest -- probably will be a downfall of hers in this game. I get that from Figgy despite all her grinning, giggling, and ~sparkly~ personality.

And I think it speaks well of Michaela that the first thing she did after they won was to grab Hannah in a hug and apologize. I think Michaela is awesome, like Bret said, there's nothing she can't do, and she can say sorry too. I think it might end up being her downfall, but she's such a straight-shooter as well, her remark about there being three Millenials and if they couldn't figure out how to stick together then they deserve to go home made me laugh a lot given it was in response to Tayls's whiny pouty complaint about how there are Millenials on the purple tribe too. Happy to see Figgy leave. Not because I hate attractive women who are adored by men or I'm a bitter loser still mentally stuck in high school or I can't understand the pain of the pretty athletic people, because she is annoying as fuck and would be just as much so if she were an ugly loser man. See ya and your ginormous wart-mole that was all I could see when you were onscreen, Prom Queen! Ken seems to trust David a lot by mentioning him to Adam and wanting Adam to trust in people he's never spent time with before. I hope it doesn't come back to bite him because David is so oily and sneaky I'm surprised he's not slithering and sliding down the beach. I don't even know what Bret and Sunday are doing in this game, they seem to do so little in the way of strategizing or gameplay. On a positive note...they seem nice?

Being in investment banking, you'd think that RC had already met her fair share of extreme sociopaths, but then again, who could possibly be prepared for the Godzilla of Batshit Crazy Gaslighting F-ed Upness that is Abi-Maria? According to some posters around here, Abi-Maria is actually nice and sweet. I'm sure, unless you happen to look up at the sky and she thinks you are looking for instructions in the clouds on how to backstab her so she must destroy you first.

I can't be bothered to google it, but probably in a higher position of authority. That's what tends to happen to ignoramuses in public office -- they just keep moving on up. Perfect example is Alex Hunter, the DA with an allergy of going to court.

That's my impression of him too. He may have an "old man" soul with his professed love for language and vinyl (or he's just a hipster at heart), but he's really a millenial through-and-through. He got stuck on the wrong tribe. Hopefully, Ken won't be mad at David for not letting him in on the idol play beforehand. I think David did it to long-term help himself by short-term shielding Ken rather than to gain favor with Jessica (although he probably thought that was a good bonus). I think David thought that if Lucy's plan was successful and Jessica left, then Lucy would go after Ken -- David's closest ally -- next.

Yeah, I think her name is Melanie. Haha, doooo it! I think her internship was/is at some vet clinic called Red Bank in New Jersey. I found her sniffling, sniveling, and self-aggrandizing so off-putting. And yes what was up with her continuing to insist that she wanted to teach, one would think that she'd need work experience first but I guess she's such a special snowflake, so maybe not. What I found really funny was how she said something like "I'm being very picky" when she was talking on the phone to a place that had an open internship -- I was thinking um, you're the one scrambling because you didn't match, maybe telling a place that could potentially help you that you're very picky comes off as a bit...lacking in humility or awareness of the situation? She comes across as such a tone-deaf arrogant prat. I wonder how she even got into Penn, which is an Ivy...oh wait, being a tone-deaf arrogant prat might actually be a pre-requisite there.

I'm not saying he's a complete sociopath, but if he did do it I don't think that it weighs heavily on his conscience. I remember several years ago, a mag rag like the dailymail or another of its ilk dug up pictures from Burke's myspace page and it showed some pictures of him in college at Purdue with girls in his lap and him sticking out his tongue as though to touch it to one girl's breast. And there were other pictures of him partying with his friends. He looked like a normal "frat boy" type guy boozing and partying it up in college and he seemed to have quite a number of friends. He's married now and has, by all accounts, a good job. He seems to be able to function fine despite his bizarre behavior in the Dr. Phil interview. Sociopaths are often quite socially and economically successful despite being off-putting cold conscience-less liars because they are so good at manipulating others and faking at being a good contributing member of society. Again, not saying he's a sociopath, but it makes me wonder. As do his parents, apple...tree and all that.

Yes, I mean I appreciate that long-distance relationships are quite difficult and often don't survive, but with the way those two students were acting, you'd think they were going off to fight separate wars where they had about a 1% chance of surviving. The dramatics just made them seem very immature and silly. It's a year, my lord, you'd think it was a death sentence. I guess I'm just cold at heart, but I was hoping that the guy would've been sent across the country to Colorado, just because they were being so Romeo&Juliet about it all. That one woman who didn't match had a voice-over monologue that came across as so egotistical, I rolled my eyes so hard my head started to pound. If that's how she came across when applying for match, it's no wonder she didn't get a match at any of her four choices. I appreciate that the students depicted in Life at Vet U are studying hard towards a very worthwhile career doing truly good work, but so many of them seem really spoiled and unpleasant to me. And most of them have incredibly annoying voices.

Oh my god, that was the worst. I admit I started laughing and then muttering at my screen "get on with it, you slow bint!" What I don't get is...what was the point of that entire prolonged scene, from the lovingly slow shot of her getting out of a taxi in front of the hotel, the sloooow pan-up her body from her high heels all the way up her entire outfit as she walked up the stairs and entered the hotel, all throughout the seeming eons that it took her to straighten up the notes (she didn't even find out anything interesting from them as it seems she barely looked at them) and pick out clothes -- what was up with the obsessively loving shot of the inside of Stella's wardrobe. What. is. the. bloody. point.

I agree. I think David Leon is very talented and underrated. I must admit I stopped watching Vera after he left, I was very disappointed to lose him and his character from that show. So much of the draw of that show for me was his easy chemistry with Brenda Blethyn -- I thought they played one of the best cop duos in recent memory; mismatched to be sure, but it just worked. He would have been fantastic as Spector. Instead we get the equivalent of a walking, mumbling Ambien tablet. You bring up a good point. I think in the hands of a better actress, Katie would be interesting. Instead, she just comes across as deeply stupid and basically her motivation seems to be "he's well fit and the ultimate bad boy coz he kills girls, tee hee!"

I love the naked gay brother. And I love Jenna Thiam -- so beautiful. I'm meh so far on everything else (especially that annoying pipsqueak photographer).

Yes, that is exactly my main problem with this show. Paul Spector is very dull in that extra not-so-special way that many serial killers in real life are. I guess that makes him realistic, soporifically so. I wonder if we're supposed to be fascinated with him, since everyone in the show and the writers seem to be, because he is so very handsome (I don't see it, but ehhh) and doesn't look like your typical snaggly-toothed, crazy-eyed, pockmarked, shambling white male serial killer. I remember how when the show first came out, a big to-do was made in media coverage about how producers were hesitant to cast Dornan because he was too pretty to be a serial killer, which I found rather ridiculous. He's certainly boring and charisma-less, though. I loathe the Katie character. I burst out laughing when she was freaking out at her friend about Spector possibly dying in hospital (I wish, but it isn't Christmas yet unfortunately) over FaceTime or whatever. It was hilarious. I knew I said I'd give the show one more episode, but the second episode is out and I still have no desire to watch it. Loading the dishwasher seems like a more entertaining prospect.