tennisgurl

Interesting episode, it had some aspects of the early episode where Aang wandered through the spirit world but is also very different. I think that the creepy more horror focused aspects of the episode were really well done, but I continue to feel what I did in the last episode, that this show might be too dramatic for its own good. I love that the show is taking its characters and the conflicts so seriously and its all well done, but I miss the more wacky silly parts of the cartoon. The show certainly has some fun comedic scenes which they also do a good job with, like the introduction where Sokka apparently had some bad luck with a fire nation girl, but I miss that perfect mix of comedy and tragedy that made the first show stand out, especially for a kids show. Those flashbacks were impressively depressing, no wonder Katara and Sokka got sucked into Koh's sadness fog. Katara's backstory was pretty much what we saw in the cartoon, but even worse in that Katara's attempt at water bending sealed her moms fate, and, while the cartoon played coy in how Kya died, in this one the poor woman was full on incinerated while Katara watched, which is presumably what happened in the cartoon too but damn. This addition to Sokka's backstory is certainly a change, their father in the cartoon was pretty much the perfect dad, in contrast to Ozai, even if he couldn't be with his kids the way he wanted to due to the war, I can never see that version of him being so harsh on Sokka behind his back. Its probably more of the show trying to be more honest about the effects this war has had on people, that losing his wife and the stress of trying to protect his people has made Hakoda a harsher wearier person, but its still a jarring change. It certainly adds a lot to Sokka's insecurity over his abilities as a leader and warrior and need to live up to his fathers expectations. At least we got to see Gyatso again, who's such a great guy, alive or dead. Aang really needed to hear that everything that has happened isn't on him, and to be reminded of who he is. The actor who plays him has such warmth, seeing him really does feel like feeling warm after freezing. Oh Zuko, the kid just cannot go a day without pissing people off, he's just a bull in a china shop who also has super powers. He and Iroh provided some much needed fun in such a dark episode, plus we got to see June, who looks like she walked right out of the cartoon. She's already way too cool and I love that in this one she's the one flirting with Iroh, I cant blame her! The shout outs in the bar to episodes that were cut from the show, the pirates, the canyon, were a lot of fun, a nice treat for the fans. This might be controversial, but I think I like this version of Ozai more than the cartoon, he's a lot more complex. Not in that he's in any way more sympathetic, he's just as much of a piece of shit as ever, but he's much more manipulative, calculating, superficially charming, and the way he plays his kids against each other so much more in this version makes their family dynamic more interesting. You can see so much of how his terrible parenting has messed his kids up, its so tragic how he had these ridiculously talented promising kids who he just treated as tools.

Maria really played that one poorly, that was hard to watch. Its hard to tell if this was all a play to get a quick rose or if it was her insecurities coming out to cause problems, or some combination of both, but she was lucky to get a rose after that mess. I really applaud Joey for having the backbone to push back on what seemed like a half assed ultimatum and politely but firmly called Maria out on trying to force him to proclaim her as his one and only. I have no idea if Maria really has always been a manipulative mean girl all along or if all of the drama has just flared her insecurities up, but either way its not a great look. It was funny seeing her come back after her big dramatic "I must go!" exit to be all shrinking violet, "sorry, don't know what came over me, I am so silly..." Joey really is one of the best bachelors we've had in ages, Joey not only seems like a nice guy he's fun to watch on camera but never feels like he's performing. We've had entertaining guys who came off as jerks, and nice guys who weren't very interesting on camera, its great to have both. I really do think I have a decent handle on him as a person, its not just saying Bachelor lines or waiting for the women to stop talking so they can make out, he really does seem to be here to make a connection. I previously thought that Maria might take the whole thing home but she seriously knocked herself down this week, Joey is not the kind of guy who likes games, so maybe its Kelsey? He also seems very into Daisy but they might mutually agree that its not the right time. I was truly shocked when Joey gave Daisy the rose after she said she wasn't falling in love with him yet, that's normally always a deal breaker, they usually require at least a "I'm falling for you" before home towns. That really says a lot about Joey and Daisy.

*Secret Tunnel! Secret Tunnel!!* This is definitely the biggest change so far from the original show, their version of Bumi is a major change from the cartoon, and I am torn on it. On the one hand, I like how much this episode in particular dealt with the consequences of this devastating 100 years war has had on so many people and everything with Bumi fit into that really well. I can easily see a version of Bumi that isn't all wacky and silly but has become weary and angry after 100 years of holding a city against an invading army and blames Aang for being gone, even if its not rational. Obviously there is nothing that Aang could have done, its not his fault he was sealed in an iceberg, but it feels like an understandable reaction and the ending where Aang manages to help Bumi find the hope and kid in him again was really nice. On the other hand, I really hope that the show doesn't go too dark and angsty as we move forward. The cartoon did such an amazing job of balancing very real dark themes with lighthearted comedy, it would feel off balance if it went too far in either direction. Everything between Iroh and the Earthbender was brutal, there has been so much death and misery on every side, its all just heartbreaking. Then we get to even more heart crushing at Lu Ten's funeral, which was just like getting punched in the stomach with sadness. I really loved that addition to the story, especially Zuko coming to him not with "so great that your son died gloriously" but with a really sweet story of how much he cared about his cousin, it set up so much so quickly about how much they mean to each other. Very glad they kept the whole plot where Zuko turned down a chance to chase down the Avatar to save his uncle, its a big moment for him as a character. Making the Tale of Two Lovers/tunnel story about the sibling love between Katara and Sokka is interesting, although it certainly makes sense if the show wants to downplay any romantic bits between Aang and Katara. Katara has sadly been the least developed of the three kids so I am glad that she got a bit more development here. I was so not expecting the Hippies to show up, and I could not have been happier! *Secret Tunnel!* Poor Cabbage Merchant, he can never catch a break.

They really threw everything into this one, this is like four episodes mixed up into one with extra sauce. They streamlined so many characters and plots into this episode, I'm shocked it worked out as well as it did. Omashu! The Mechanist and Teo! Jet! AZULA! Plus so many easter eggs/bits of foreshadowing like the Yu Yang archer and the White Lotus tile! They're throwing everything in here, I almost wonder if the show is worried that they might not get a second season and want to get in as much stuff as possible. I quite like that we're basically getting a remix instead of a remake, its an interesting thing to watch as a fan of the original. Omashu looks amazing, I love that we get to explore it a bit more! I really liked this introduction to Azula, my very favorite baby psycho, it set up so much in this one scene. We find out that there is an active resistance against the Fire Lord among fire nation citizens, we get introduced to Azula's manipulative and psychotic nature, and we see more of Ozai both as a king and as a father. Shockingly, he's awful at both. He's the kind of guy who not only has his teenage daughter lead people to their deaths, but roasts them alive as she watches before throwing some shitty comments towards her about how her brother might be pulling ahead in the favorite child race. The actress did a great job, she had to know that she had big shoes to fill after Grey DeLisle's iconic performance, her creepy smirk while those rebels were burned alive was very worthy of Azula, especially with the fire reflected in her eyes. I also liked seeing a glimpse of her besties Mai and Ty Lee, cant wait to hopefully see them more in the future. They're like the Plastics if Regina's father was a genocidal dictator. The Freedom Fighters and Jet are actually even worse here than they were in the cartoon! I wish that Sokka had more time with them like he did in the cartoon, but I get why they wanted him to be in his subplot with The Mechanist while Katara got to learn more about moral greyness in the war. Even more than in the cartoon they get you with the bait and switch, these guys with their quirky personalities and fun lost boys tree house seems like classic Robin Hood style lovable rogues, until you find out that they're actually terrorists who are willing to kill innocent people and make things even worse in Omashu to get what they think is a victory. Katara must be pissed that her brother got the cute warrior to flirt with while she got the domestic terrorist with the boyband hair. Zuko losing his shit over Aang stealing his journal is sort of hilarious, especially as Iroh just watched like a long suffering parent dealing with a moody teenager. Its sad that Zuko stull seems to think of his obviously terrible dad as being the sort of leader who would never fight an enemy in dishonorable ways, he might have standards but I don't think the Fire Lord does. The non bending Zuko VS Aang fight was really fun, too bad it ended with Iroh having to sacrifice himself so that Zuko could escape the city. Poor Iroh, he really just wanted to find some tea and do some shopping! I totally forgot that Danny Pudi was going to be here, its so hard for me to see him as anyone who isn't Abed but by the end of the episode I was past it. I am glad that they are already setting up Sokka's interest in science and mechanics, its a really interesting aspect of his character. And of course, our true hero... MY CABBAGES!!

Poor Jay, his feelings were so hurt when he realized what Sass was up to. I think its interesting that he was less upset about the obvious violation of his privacy and the creepy manipulations, and more that he and Sass could have actually gotten to know each other but instead he was just manipulated. Jay really does put up with a lot and is a really good sport about the whole weird situation, he deserves more consideration from the ghosts and Sam. Being able to explore people's dreams is a really cool ghost power and it fits perfectly with Sass being a storyteller. I hope that we see more of it being explored, especially now that he and Jay can hang out via dreams! Pete was the episodes MVP, he's a great friend.

I did not see Janine smoking weed coming, but honestly it makes a ton of sense to me. A lot of people smoke weed or do gummies to deal with anxiety and Janine is very tightly wound, I can see her doing that as a kind of stress relief. As long as she was smoking the day before it wouldn't affect her the next day. In my head I am going to say that Aparna Nancherla was playing her same role from what We Do in the Shadows here, a cringe elementary school anti drug assembly must be an absolute feast for an energy vampire. I need to know more about Ava and Jacob watching Saltburn together.

I'm so glad that we got to spend so much time with the Kyoshi Warriors, I was grinning for the whole episode! I love this version of Suki, I like that they expanded on her a bit more than in the show, wanting to leave home and explore the world even if her mom doesn't approve, plus she and Sokka are ridiculously cute. This was a great follow up from the first episode, its a bit of an island of the week episode that allows us to get to know the characters more and start their character arcs, and gives us some fun world building. I know that the show got some flack early on for removing Sokka's sexism, but I never thought it was that important, especially in relation to his relationship with Suki, they still got the basic point here. Sokka is clearly full of blustery teenage self importance at being their villages protector and leader which is obviously all poorly masked insecurity, Suki and the Kyoshi Warriors humble him a bit and he grows as a person. Suki and Sokka were super cute, I found their awkward teenage flirting to be ridiculously adorable. They both had this vibe of "I have basically never seen a boy/girl my own age who I think is cute and now I don't know what to do with my hands" which was just so very endearing. The Kyoshi makeup looked great, I was a bit worried about how that would translate into live action but it looked awesome. It was great to see Yvonne Chapman as Avatar Kyoshi, she's such a badass, nailing that mix of inner calm and Don't Fuck With Me. Having her actually show up to fight the soldiers was a great change from the source material, I hope that we see more of it at other Avatar temples. And we have Fire Lord Ozai everyone!

Put it at the top of your list ASAP, the whole series is on Netflix! Its an absolute classic and so lives up to the hype. I have been excited/nervous about this show since they first announced it, especially after the movie that shall not be mentioned, and while I am sure nothing will beat the original, I think that this is off to a strong start. You can tell the people behind the show were really using that sweet Netflix money, the costumes, sets, and effects all look amazing, and if they keep it up its just going to get better. There were some definite changes, some of which I was sort of meh on and others I really liked, we will just wait and see what happens this season and what they end up using and what they cut. The casting is solid all around, already leaps and bounds above most of the cast of the movie of which we do not speak of, I especially like the kid they cast as Prince Zuko, my very favorite angsty boy. He's just boiling with rage and desperation almost every second he's on screen. With this not being a kids cartoon they are clearly free to get way more bloody and violent in this one, no hiding how nasty it is to fight people who can burn you alive by waving a hand. I was surprised to see them starting out with the massacre of the Air Nomads, if I remember right that was never actually shown on the show, we just saw the aftermath when Aang came back 100 years later. It reminds me a lot of how in the One Piece Netflix adaptation what seemed much more cartoon-y in an anime becomes shockingly brutal when its in live action. I got such chills when Gram Gram started doing the famous introduction that we got in every episode of the cartoon.

Its like the someone in the writers room pointed out that this whole feud seems extremally one sided, Truman betrays his friends because of his own creative slump, so they had to show us the Swans being petty racist mean girls so that Truman can be at least slightly justified in what he did. All of that might be true, but I don't think that's why Truman threw their dirty laundry all over the worlds lawn, he wanted something spicy to get his career back on track and this what what he decided to use. There might have been more to it, frustration that he was more of their sassy gay best friend instead of a friendship between equals where they both had each others back, but it was mostly because it was what he thought he needed to do to get back into the public eye. This was a weird episode, helped by the great performances, but for a dialog heavy episode it had an unfortunately weak script. We're pretty far into the season and despite being a character driven show I feel like I still hardly know any of the characters and why they do the things that they do. We get pieces here and there but its a lot of telling and not showing, and not even telling a lot of the best parts. Its really interesting to hear about Truman's relationship with Kate Harrington and I'm glad that they showed some of that in the show. People really do contain multitudes. The guy playing James Baldwin was excellent, it makes me sad that he is only going to be in this one episode (presumably) and that he pretty much just spent the whole episode giving Truman a pep talk about how he totally did the right thing throwing his friends under the bus because they suck anyway. I know that this all did happen (in the show, probably not in real life) but it makes way more sense for Truman to imagine in a booze filled haze that an imaginary James Baldwin justified everything he did and made him feel less like the bad guy. It was also another one of those episodes that was filled with a lot of modern terms and discussions, most of the conversations between Truman and James Baldwin sound like a conversation people would have today, not in the 70s. I get it, these shows from the house of Murphy use the past for mostly aesthetic reasons, but it still takes me out of the story.

Nice to have the show back, even if its bittersweet given its the last season. Still, its been a good run and while the show has had its ups and downs I'm glad its not going out after a really steep decline in quality like some long runners. This was a pretty solid episode, obviously both of the babies would live, no way would this show start its final season with a dead baby, but the tension was still pretty good and I like how it tied into Shaun leaning to be a father. Shaun treating changing diapers like a surgery was inevitable but funny. I'm glad that Shaun has decided to chill out with the schedule and let Leah breath, even though I do get why he wanted everything so regimented. I also apricate that Lim was like "Maybe its not the best idea to let a guy who has a two week old baby work on the sick baby case" but it actually seemed to help Shaun show empathy to the parents and calm them. Although, it does seem like having a baby has affected him more than he thinks when it comes to cases, especially when it comes to kids. I know that on shows like this the main characters are inevitably going to do everything and are going to be involved in everything no matter what, but I do really wonder why a pediatrician wasn't even consulted in this case, and Lim really should have kicked Morgan and Park out of that room while they were discussing Eden. Even if they don't say anything your still making your co-workers and friends look you in the face as you decide the fate of their baby, no way could anyone be totally objective in those circumstances. Thank god Glassman took a break from being grumpy to be a grandpa, he needs to stop pouting and be with his family. Did he learn nothing from losing out on time with his daughter before she died? Who wouldn't want to spend time with cute baby Steve, who is an impressively expressive little guy. I did enjoy his scenes with Lim, them running the hospital should be interesting. He remembers rotary phones! Not an episode that is going to keep me on the edge of my chair or anything, but a good start and, like Jordan said, sometimes you just need a case of the week.

I would normally make a terrible "this season started out with a bang" joke, but that feels like its in poor taste considering poor Cricket. Damn it, I liked her so much and she and Will were so cute, so of course she has to die. Will's been through a lot lately (and in general) cant he have something nice? Looks like the bomb plot will be more than just a case of the week, especially now that its personal. Wasn't expecting to see Clark Gregg here but he did a good job as always, and the whole prison hostage scheme is interesting. So why the bombs if the relatives were going to pay? Were both the almost bomb victims late on their payments? Then why not kill their relatives in jail? Should be interesting going forward. Ormewood has a lot of nerve getting upset about his wife having an affair and basically stalking her considering his own affairs. No wonder his son is mad at him, and while I don't condone anyone having affairs, two wrongs don't make a right, I can get why his wife might find finding "company" with someone else appealing. At least the cats are alright, and Betty continues to be the cutest cutie. That opener was adorable, I about melted along with everyone in that class.

Joey out here cleaning house tonight, I love to see it! two mean girls gone one after the next! Goodbye Lea, I wont miss your smug smirks at all. I do almost wish Jess could have stuck around to see Maria get the princess date, he head might have actually exploded. I'm worried that the producers will try to rile up trouble with someone else and create a new villain now that the mean girls are all gone, I am really excited about going forward with minimal pointless drama. I continue to really like Joey, he's very sweet and actually seems sincere. like others have said, you can tell he is really listening to the women when he talks to them and actually seems to want to have a conversation with them, he reacts in ways that don't seem as scripted as previous bachelors/ettes. He and Maria really have strong chemistry, they were both beaming throughout their date, and probably not just because Maria got to go on the annual shopping spree! I feel for Lexi, she feels like its now or never for getting pregnant but its just not the right time for Joey, which is extremely fair considering this is hardly a normal way to "date", I think they both handled that with a shocking amount of maturity. This is why people have to have real conversations about things like kids, engagement length, religion, etc instead of just light flirty talk and sob stories, know what your getting into before that last rose is nearby. Did Kelsey;s dad want her to be a nun or something? The way she kept saying "do a religion" and not wanting her to go to college makes it sound like something bigger than differences in religion.

As a part of my job I am, in fact, a mandatory reporter and had to take a whole seminar about what that means. So all I could think the whole episode was "you keep using those words. I don't think they mean what you think they mean."

Its not even that these movies cant be good without Spider-Man, its that these movies aren't good and they're picking really weird characters to build movies around. I saw Madam Webb this weekend and not only was it truly terrible, it felt like either a prequel to an already existing franchise or like it was setting up a franchise, which it is clearly not.

That was a hilarious episode, so many great lines. I like them getting back to Beef's dating life, he's spent so much time being heartbroken over Kathleen, its really time he goes for something more than fisherwomen monthly. Judy's silent screams were killing me, watching her throughout was a delight. I also really love the animation of this show, the characters are so expressive and the locations are all so bright and full of atmosphere. The subplot with Moon and Jerry was cute, of course it ends up involving killer party clowns. "I've always wanted to double team with my dad." "I hope to God you don't know what your saying."

Things ended up playing out somewhat the way I expected, more or less. We have a logical (if pretty wild) explanation as to why Annie and the scientists died and they were just human stories about cover ups and revenge, but a lot of ambiguity of whether more supernatural things are happening as well. The crimes themselves were pretty crazy but mundane, while the ghosts were more attached to the characterization stuff. The episode, like the whole season, was something of a mixed bag, but overall I still liked it and found it to be very interesting. It could be because I really enjoy a lot of the things this season focused on, ghosts, stories about ingenious people, creepy things happening in super cold places that drive people a bit crazy, its a lot of stuff that I am inevitably going to like. No matter what conversations have been started by society at large, American TV will really never give up on cops who go outside the law and torture suspects because "Its the Right Thing Damn It" or on vigilante justice as the best way to just real justice. The spirals really came back with a vengeance, the imagine of the frozen ancient fish swirling around the top of the creepy ice lab was my favorite of the show. I don't see this season as being literally connected to the first season but I do see a more philosophical connection about how people who are too isolated for too long in the wilderness can spiral into madness, whether its in rural Louisiana or in an isolated scientific base in Alaska. I also think that the spirals connect to the ghosts we keep seeing and Ennis being a sort of thin place between the living and the dead, so you have Navarro finding connection with her dead mom and making peace with her sister through visions of her deceased mother and Danvers possibly seeing her deceased son giving her closure and finding a way to be happy again knowing that he's watching her. It did remind me a lot of the end of the first season where, after nearly dying, Rust found his daughter in the stars which gave him a sense of peace and found purpose in existence again, while Danvers found that in seeing her son in the ice and feeling his prescience again. It really is sad to me that the scientists felt like they had to go along with the mines pollution to continue their research and that they lost it and murdered Annie, not only because of the tragedy of Annie's murder but because they really could have done something great with their findings if things had been different. Poor Prior, at least he managed to make up with his family even if he is clearly not even close to ok after what happened. It wasn't as focused on as the living and the dead connection, but another way to look at the spiral is at generational trauma, both in families and in the town at large. We have the history of Navarro's family, with mental health and with their possible connections with the dead, and the Prior's history of abuse, Hank's father was abusive and he was abusive to Peter, and in his last scene spending time with his son, hopefully breaking the cycle even after everything he's been through. I can totally get why this wasn't everyone's cup of tea and it was certainly flawed, but I would rank it somewhere in the middle of the seasons, not as good as the first season but certainly much better than the second, probably about as good as the third season. I liked the ambiguity and the atmosphere, not knowing quite what happened to Navarro and if she went out and died, joining the spirits, or if she's just off the grid, and overall I enjoyed unpacking all of this.

Missy stepping up was fun, who would have thought that she would become her mother while Mary would be off getting drunk in Germany. Reminded me a bit of that alternate universe episode with party girl Mary and super religious George. I appreciate Mary wanting to go home but staying was the right call. There wasn't exactly anything they could do and Sheldon really would have been losing out on a really great opportunity, one of the few times his fit was probably justified. Pastor Jeff's wife is pretty awful, I bet she was also leading the charge to throw Mary out of the church after the pregnancy. WAY too soon Dale, but come on. You live in Texas, get tornado insurance!

It's so great to have this show back, it feels like its been way too long. I really thought that it would be a more minor ghosts that got sucked off like Stephanie or Nancy or even Crash, having it be one of the core eight really was surprising. It really wouldn't surprise me to find out that Flower just wandered off chasing that butterfly again, maybe even that she found a way to leave the property totally by accident, but if she really did get sucked off (never gets old) this was at least a nice tribute to her. I would have expected a bit more sadness from everyone but it is certainly more bittersweet to move onto the next life than "just" dying. If she really is gone, I'll miss her a lot, hopefully she reunited with her fiancé and family up in heaven. But if she just wandered in one day after getting stuck in the plumbing, I wouldn't be at all surprised. It was nice seeing Crash briefly and the basement ghosts wandering around grossing everyone out was hilarious, they almost look like a totally different ghost species. I loved the running joke of the basement ghosts trying to insert themselves into Sam and Jay's lives and Trevor getting possessive and annoyed. To be fair to Isaac, he's had a crush on Nigel since the 1700's, I can see why he wants to get moving. Imagine, being sucked off on the night of your engagement! The horror! Jay's attempts at being supportive even when he cant see the ghosts is always so endearing. "Do you really believe that" "No, I just really want Thor to keep dating an owl"

I cant with Dex dressed like the most 1990 person on the planet on his TRL show, I about dropped dead. My sister who lives in London always complains about the utter lack of Mexican food in the UK so the terrible Mexican place made me laugh a lot.

"You cannot allow the Parent Tariq Alliance to happen" Very glad that Janine managed to get the ASL translator, and that she is still managing to dress like an actual adult! It does seem like the district people are genuine in wanting to help, but hampered by red tape, which is where I suspected that this was going to go. I have been stuck navigating massive amounts of bureaucracy before and, oh yeah, I know the feeling of not getting the thing you want done completed because someone lost their stamp. Tariq and Barbara are truly the scene partners I never knew I needed. Tariq does have a weird kind of charisma but how he manages to get so many women is truly beyond me. Tons of bits between them cracked me up, but I think my absolute favorite was when Barbara just starred at him in disbelief of his stupidity and walked away. Still so happy to see this show back, it always makes me smile.

I've heard of the book but never read it, I like this so far though. The leads are both very likable, the characters and the actors.

Interesting start to the show, very curious to see what direction this goes in. War time drama? Bio pic? Darkly inspiring story about finding creativity in dark times? Spy thriller?

I know that Bill was famous for his affairs, but I never heard of anything between him and Slim, I feel pretty positive that it was made up for the show. What a hypocrite she is, going on about how she wants to protect Babe's feelings while banging her husband behind her back, again, in the show presumably not in the real world. This episode was very slow but very touching, great performances by everyone. Knowing that this was Treat Williams last role really made the episode even more bittersweet. Obviously this show plays fast and loose with history so I can see them giving Babe and Truman this last moment of closure, but I think it was just in Babe's head as she lay on the couch, imagining what she would say to her former best friend to give herself that closure before she passed. Truman taking John's daughter under his wing is also probably made up for the show, but I still really liked it, it was a much needed way to humanize Truman after so many scenes of him being self destructive and bitchy.

It sucks that we are left with so many annoying mean girls like Lea but we lose much nicer women left and right. I don't really blame Joey, he really doesn't seem to be too aware of the details of the ongoing drama, but its still frustrating. He can only not know for so long and Joey doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would appreciate high school cattiness, I can only assume this is all a Paradise audition not any actual attempt to be with Joey. Joey really does seem like a nice guy, he has plenty of time to show some inner tool but as of now he seems like a caring person who is also pretty funny and charismatic. He does really seem to care about every woman he talks to and makes a lot of eye contact, you can tell when a bachelor/ette is just waiting to bring a conversation back to themselves. He seems to really vibe with Rachel, Daisy, and Maria so far, although its sort of hard to tell who he is much attached to when we spend so much time on a few girls and their drama, its hard to get to know the other women. I can see why Maria would be off-putting or at least a bit "much". She has a very intense take charge sort of personality and I can see how she could rub people the wrong way, but she hasn't done anything to deserve the amount of bullying she is getting from a few girls who have just decided she's their enemy out of nowhere. The worst thing she's done is "steal" Joey for a bit at the cocktail party when she already had a rose, which is hardly anything, especially compared to the shit some of the people throwing shade have done. She really hasn't been mean to anyone that we have seen so far and has done nothing to justify this vendetta. Lea suddenly becoming Sydney 2.0 the second she leaves just reeks of producer manipulation.

Imagine if Sydney was the one chosen and the Opera singer still started singing Ava Maria, she would feel like the heavens themselves were casting judgement upon her. Obviously the show knew that he was picking Maria, because what else could he do. Even if he said that it was because he had more of a connection with Maria, I bet that he could sense bullshit coming off of Sidney, she was clearly the instigator who kept taking shots at Maria with her sour face, he seemed to lighten up the second she was gone. Sydney is such a bratty mean girl, I'm sure she is already already painting herself as the victim of "evil" Maria all over social media, even though we have not seen a single one of these supposed bullying incidents she is going on about. Seriously, if this is the worst thing to ever happen to Sydney and the most cruelty she has ever dealt with, she has lived a very peaceful happy life and has no reason to be such a gaslighting asshole. Such drama, the amount of times she called Maria "evil" or "the devil" oh yeah Sidney sure. Its Stalin, Hitler, and...MARIA! Histories greatest monsters! Poor Maria, she really was just trying to be chill and keep her head down, but then Lea apparently picked up the mean girl baton and started going after her too. I'm disappointed, she quickly went from one of my favorites to another petty mean girl. Malta sure is pretty.