jaigurudeva

Glad Yanu finally won a challenge (not just for them, but because we finally got to see more gameplay from other tribes). They're really playing with a handicap, since the other tribes have been resting their players on rotation for each challenge, while Yanu's been going through it giving their all with each one. I'm sure those muffins tasted amazing even with all the fly-nibbles (can production maybe put a net over the food? even if they swap out the display food from the challenge for what they give the contestants, it kind of turns my stomach watching insects crawling all over it). Not sure how fire is going to help with their food situation, it's not like they have fishing gear or they're given rice to cook. I guess now they can each have a COOKED coconut a day? It's interesting that there's different challenges for each beware advantage to crack, since Tiff had to decipher some code instead of measuring lengths with the machete. I wonder what Hunter's beware advantage will be (especially since there's the "clause" about how to do it if their individual tribe never loses before merge). Can't believe she's still salty 9 months later, nor any more self-aware. She has nobody to blame but herself, playing games with the whole tribe is what sent her packing. Tim was the only one we saw confront her about it, but she is a TERRIBLE liar, if she thought the best response to "You planted the beware advantage, didn't you?" was "What beware advantage?" (you know, the beware advantage that literally the WHOLE TRIBE knew about and was making such a big deal about). Which meant she was either OBVIOUSLY lying, or had another advantage/idol of her own. Tim probably brought that back to Ben, who spread it back around, and it became clear that Jem (who was suddenly acting like the big fish in the pond strutting around with a machete and interrogating people) obviously had the idol. If she had a rock-solid alliance, then she should have trusted those machinations rather than going on the over-playing warpath (plus antagonizing Ben and Tim). And the whole idol scheme also needlessly created drama, she played even her own alliance, so if she wants to talk about trust and loyalty, that's not how you win it. Of course "Charlie's Angels" they wouldn't want to keep her in their fold going forward. I have a feeling Maria burned her extra vote for threat management, because she knows a merge is coming up, many people knew she had the extra vote, so that could paint a target on her back. I also have a feeling (even though we don't see this) that, with Charlie and her being close, and Charlie and Ben being close, there was an idea to hide the fact that Ben didn't have a vote by playing her extra vote and making it look like two different people (she used two different handwritings and name spellings). This would solidify her alliance with Charlie, and Ben is so charismatic and socially-forward that he becomes a "meat shield" for them (without actually saying it to his face like Venus did to Hunter, lmao)

Another week, another Yanu loss. Still don't know half of the other players on the other tribes, because I think a solid 30 minutes of the show's run-time was on Bhanu's despairing: "This is it! This is the end for me!" Does he think that Jeff takes the castaways 'round back behind the voting hut and shoots them? It's Survivor, not Squid Game. Goodbye Randan, we hardly knew you. Too bad he didn't give Venus his beware advantage, but it was also kind of a millstone around the neck unless the conditions could be met (which may be never? is it null and void if the tribe never loses before merge?). Kind of gross of Yanu to be celebrating the debilitating medical issue of another contestant. Probst sneaking out of the Fijian forest like a cryptid to ambush Tiff and Bhanu in the middle of some actual turns in the gameplay just so they can rejoice, "One man's loss (of nerve function) is another's gain (in a gameshow)!" 100% two tribes are more balanced than three, physically and socially, plus there's more opportunities for complicated alliance-making, splitting the votes, early scheming, actual blindsides. Instead, each group of 6 breaks down into a core 4 with 2 on the bottom, and each vote is basically a steam-roll. Then the inevitable team of losers gets to the merge down on the numbers, and again it's another dogpile of votes. Yawn.

RIP Jess. RIP my affection for several early favorites (Soda, Tevin, Bhanu). RIP my eardrums listening to Liz's "cheerleading." Warming up to Venus, even though she really is putting her own foot it in at times, she doesn't deserve getting so cold shouldered by the whole tribe (except Randan? who I learned existed today apparently?) I agree with commenters up thread, the three-tribe set-up tends to just set one tribe up for early, punishing failure, and not only is that not very fun to watch, but we get so little of the other tribes that aren't constantly losing and going to tribal. What little we got from Ben and Charlie's little music-off was cute. We should get more moments like that from the other tribes so we can actually start to recognize half of these people before the merge. Are we not talking about Bhanu anointing himself with his blood? Dude's wildin and it's not even been a week.

The last thing I want to be is the devil's advocate for Jelinsky (who also folded immediately in the cards challenge and seems physically incapable of owning up to his decisions), and I know that Survivor allegedly (maybe is even legally obligated to?) tested these challenges to ensure they're doable, but it just didn't seem possible within the timeframe of the challenge. Even without the holes in the buckets, they looked like one gallon buckets, to fill about 40 gallon barrels. At around 10 minutes per trip back-and-forth (unless it was a shorter distance than that, but it looked a bit of a walk), that's 400 minutes or 6 hours (so, close to several seven!). And that's with no breaks and without losing any water due to the holes in the bucket! I wonder if there wasn't some kind of "trick" they missed to the challenge, like if they dug around there'd be a bag of corks or something? I think Jeff only spoke up because they were more likely to break an element of the challenge (either tear the gecko straps or crush the structure) trying to just pull the head down over it. I think he mentioned the lizard was 500 lbs, and adding another 200+ lbs. with multiple contestants yanking/dangling on the head with all their bodyweight definitely wasn't going to get it anywhere! I can forgive it if they were two weeks into being starved and sleep deprived, but it seems too early in the game for them to be failing this hard at critical thinking. I can't even remember all their names right now (it takes me at least 5 episodes and a thinner herd), but I do have favorites in Soda, Q, Maria, and Charlie, and there's a soft spot for Jess and friendless glasses girl. They might being struggling socially right now (being neurodivergent and/or just awkward), but I hope they can still turn it around and go far like Emily did last season. It looks like an overall interesting cast of characters without too many awful or over-the-top people.

Wow looks like Bhanu loses his nana. It's one thing to get frustrated but that scream at her while throwing the block aside just looked crazy harsh. Maybe it's out of context, Bhanu was an early favorite of mine this episode, but that's no way to communicate or react in a challenge.

This would've been the better show. The confrontation/show-down between Maya and Joe would've been the emotional climax, killing him in self-defense would've made Maya less unlikeable (why were her family/friends and the random policeman still so dedicated to her at the end even after revealing she's a serial murderer?), plus it would've cut down on some inconsistences in the plot and characters, which others have already pointed out but I still need to get off my chest: first and foremost, why would Maya use the same gun to kill Joe, connecting their murders and further implicating her? And why do it in a public park where of course there'd be witnesses? Maya only had other suspects (the bike kids) to spin some of the suspicion off her by pure coincidence, too. And how could it be that there's "no way to prove" Joe killed Claire, when Joe is literally the only person who could have had access to the murder weapon in the safe at the time? That's pretty open-and-shut if you ask me, especially if the cops did even a little more digging into Joe. How could the granny and nanny rig up the deep fake within a day after Maya put it up? I'll chock the cop going rogue at the end up to his crazy pills, but it was still dumb for his partner to enable him and it still made me roll my eyes.

Whelp, this could've been a movie. Darby's "happy ending" is that she has a more successful book, and it's definitely not weird and gross for Darby to air her new BFF and son's dirty laundry to the world and risk their safety and security while they're in hiding. And why did Lee have to risk her and her son's lives crossing the tundra to the little dingy (as if the police literally at the doorstep wouldn't notice two figures crossing the white landscape) and go into hiding for the rest of their lives anyway? If Lee divorces Andy and Andy sues for paternity, DNA would prove he's not the father anyway, plus Lee could make public his abusive nature and tarnish his reputation further. It really just felt like a hackneyed attempt to squeeze out some unnecessary drama for the climax (the same with burning down "Ray"). And all the other billionaires are at the reading clapping and smiling like they're also happy to have Darby publish about their personal lives, as if Andy and the rest surely wouldn't have buried her book under a thousand lawsuits for libel. Are we going to just hand-wave away the lady running authoritarian "smart cities"? Was the robot hive just like a little moment to make the setting more futuristic and say "the future is mole people!"

The problem is in that position your legs will get quickly start to feel Not Great from the compression in your nerves and blood vessels. It's like intensive kneeling, all of your bodyweight squishing your thighs and your calves together with a ton of leverage pressing on your knees, that's just as tough to bear for an extended length of time as using only your upper body, which is why all the contestants were constantly wriggling trying to balance between the two positions in the first rungs. Not only did that completely go out the window anyway in the last rung of the challenge, but all the platforms seemed identical, yet the men have longer arms, so they had not only the advantage in upper body strength, but in reach and leverage in their arms as well. I don't know how Survivor seeks out these personal letters, but even if it wasn't an intentional ploy for drama and just an honest mistake from Survivor production, I sincerely hope that moving forward Survivor production specifically ASKS contestants who they'd want a letter from, or at least who they are and aren't in contact with. Going no-contact with close family is incredibly difficult and often a last-resort just for your own mental/emotional survival. Of course that would shake anyone to the core to get a letter like that, it's a violation of your privacy and the safety you created away from that person, on top of that in a stressful situation and broadcast on national television. It's completely understandable that she'd be emotionally fraught going into the challenge. I'm pretty disappointed in this season overall, between the quitters, the terrible play (or lack thereof) of idols, the overall lack of really any alliance working or strategy as the Reba 4 (and their coattail-riders) coasts through each vote while the rest of the players just sat and spun on their thumbs. I'm not holding my breath that there will be any significant shakeup, no matter what they promise us for every "next week" vignette. Even Caleb saw the completely predictable vote outcome this week, as Kendra and Kellie were first "shocked" (why?) by the Jake votes and he was like "Lol wait, it's never the first votes that get the boot."

The math isn't mathing because it was way more embarrassing than trying to stay in the game and at least playing his shot in the dark, which Jeff pulled out of his ass just for situations like these so the odd person out still has a fighting chance. But quitting is quitting, it's lame even if you try to wax poetic about your loved ones being your "real adventure." Bro, this isn't "Up," it's a game show you applied to be on, so play the game. I think Jeff is partly to blame, though, he has to stop trying to push the conversation at TC towards, "Who is definitely on the outs here?" and "What do you have to say if this is your last time here?" Like he's trying to get soundbites of how ~transformative~ the Survivor experience is, but it basically puts the bottom contestants in that "loser" mindset, and they just start looking for a way to bow out instead of scrambling to stick around. The worst part is I don't think it was even a sure thing that Sean was going home walking into TC. D and J still seemed to be leaning towards Sifu until Sean started begging to be voted out. He should've leveraged being that extra vote, the same way Emily did when she swapped over in order to get into a new alliance. I wonder if the producers can put some kind of stipulation that if you quit (including soft quitting/asking people to vote you out) it's considered breaking the contract and you gotta pay x amount in damages or something. At least then if you want out without having to pay for your own ticket outta there, you have to start pissing people off and put a target on your own back, which would be much more entertaining than just listening to one more contestant whine at TC, "This isn't fun anymore, can I go home now?"

I liked Brandon's enthusiasm, and he seemed like a kind-hearted and genuine person, but it's kind of hard to feel bad for coming so short on his "lifelong dream" when it seems he'd done absolutely nothing to prepare. I feel like production took on Brandon expecting another Carson who will do a ton of puzzle study and hit the gym, and come onto Survivor as another superfan success story. And pressure and adrenaline is one thing, I can see how easy it would be mixing up the close match pairs in the first puzzle on such a time crunch, but bruh. Brandon was also trying to fit coral pieces on upside down like he'd never touched a jigsaw puzzle in his life, and has all the bodily function of a minute old foal. If Survivor is your number one bucket list item, wouldn't you do everything you could to improve your chances in the game? The Lulus better keep one eye on Emily if she lasts to the merge. She's definitely trying to be more pleasant (strange that she seemed aware she was coming in aggressive and is now showing she can control it...why didn't she do that in the first place before immediately alienating her tribe? did she think it was big girlboss behavior that would win her kudos?) but she seems like the sort to hold a grudge and jump ship to the majority tribe come merge. I kind of hope Lulu turns it around and they all make it to merge just to see the other tribes' reactions to her unfiltered persecution complex. I love both Sabiyah and Katurah both calling out the dipsticks on their respective tribes. Does the rest of the tribe really think Bruce is that hilarious, or are they all just trying to humor him and keep the peace? Feels like his "crazy uncle" antics would be cringe for anyone over the age of 8. Drew describes himself as "slimy Napoleon Dynamite" and...yeah. At least he's self-aware of his vibe, even if he's deluded to think he's "the smartest person to ever play Survivor." He fluffs up his Ivy League status but he's an undergrad at UPenn, majoring in English and Philosophy, so he's not exactly "A Beautiful Mind" cracking mathematics and quantum physics here. I feel like if they both make it to the merge, Drew and Emily will either gravitate to one another or become mortal nemeses over-playing against one another in their imaginary 4D-chess.

I'm so glad Maryanne won! She and Lyndsey were my favorites to win in the final 5, though it makes sense for Maryanne to get Lyndsey out when she did to secure her win. She played it perfectly, a great mix of social game and strategy to make it to the end and win over the jury. This is the second time Jonathan has used tone policing to shut down women in a conversation when they are rightfully agitated. He's never faulted any of his bros for being too "aggressive," that's just being a macho alpha. Like tracyscott76 said, men have been putting women down for being "too emotional" and "hysterical" for centuries.

I would so love this! Just imagine the paranoia of the players searching for idols and unable to find any, and believing that someone else must have found one and isn't saying. Or taking them on field trips or exile islands but the prisoner's dilemma is just getting food instead of an idol/amulet/extra vote, I imagine the tribe also wouldn't believe it when they come back.

Maxpro: Good product, but $900 seems too expensive for basically adjustable resistance bands. It doesn't really solve the problems causing obesity like he started the pitch with (lack of time, motivation, accessibility, etc.) and the whole kit and kaboodle looked like it would take up half your suitcase if you traveled with it, which he said was the inspiration to his idea. Seems like he's trying to blow up the brand too hard, too fast, and he's basically burning down the company to keep the pilot light on. Banana Loca: Oh, great, more useless plastic garbage to throw into our landfills. I spread peanut butter on bananas all the time, somehow I haven't killed myself or anyone else in the process so it's not quite the disaster they think they're solving. Pure novelty, and Daymond said it best: you're going to use this thing once or twice to be cute, and then it'll sit around collecting dust until you toss it. Liberate: Loved Kevin's grim delivery of "That's not a lot, Liv." I don't remember if she even said she had any education or credentials for this line of work, it sounds like it would just be vague suggestions about mindfulness you could get from any bargain bin self-help book. Tentikle: I like this product, actually. They looked well-designed, fun and multi-functional. I would probably buy one if they were $29.99 instead of $45, I think he said. Hope the price-point comes down, it should probably help with his sales. Does Mark Cuban have any self-awareness, actually? "It's easy to go viral, my videos get 20 million views!"

Well, my theory that Theo would kill Joe pettered out. I was also briefly subscribed to the idea that Love would prevail (ha) over Joe because the show was giving her similar voice over narration for a few episodes there and she could've easily taken over completely. Except her murders are generally so impulsive she probably wouldn't get away with it for long without someone there to clean it up and keep her on track with the cover up. That was her fatal flaw in the end: she wasn't good at the long-con murder, since Joe (a meticulous murderer himself) saw it coming a mile away. I thought for a minute that Marienne was going to kill Love in self-defense. Then Joe would help clean it up (so she doesn't risk custody of Juliette), and Marienne would be kind of forced to stick with Joe because he can hang that over her head. Then the next season would be a corruption arc of Marianne, resulting in her killing Joe to be free. Maybe that's still possible for next season, if Joe doesn't get distracted by some new victim. So, season 1 dealt with Joe's daddy issues (the little neighbor kid with the abusive dad that he saw himself in) and this season uncovered his mommy issues. Did anyone else expect Joe to push his mother into traffic after she gave him the "fresh start" speech? I really thought that would be Joe's first murder right then and there. We definitely haven't seen the last of his brother, my money is on little bro eventually killing Joe and taking over, or Joe having to kill him after he's horrified to discover that his little bro ended up just like him despite having a more stable and loving upbringing, so he can't blame his parents or circumstances for turning out the way he is. I really liked this season, I loved the supporting cast (especially Sherry, Cary, Dante, and Lansing) and the critique of the upper middle class and all it's privileged, wacky antics. The crumbling relationship between Love and Joe was fascinating to watch, too. But the finale felt a little anticlimactic. Season one was like a subversion of the "final girl" trope and it was surprising when Beck was killed. Season two had the twist of Love also being a serial killer. This season by comparison just ended fairly predictably and with a few too many deus ex machinae in Joe's pocket to wrap it all up in a nice little bow. Even when Joe was wrapping up all the side characters' "happily ever afters" at the end it felt a little weird. For one, I barely remembered half of the more minor characters and I feel like Joe himself wouldn't care about who most were and what happened to them in the end, much less that they were all happy (he's mostly just concerned with Henry I think). Here's hoping season 4 gives us more twists and shockers.

"Ryan seems like the kind of nut-job who thinks taking the stairs will make you live longer. ... wait, taking the elevator?? You lazy fuck." I lol'd so hard, this is Joe's personality in a nutshell, no matter what anyone does Joe's always ready with his hypocritical, holier-than-thou judgement. It's a little hard to believe that tech-mogul Matthew, after pouring over the footage for how many days/weeks, and the face-recognition AI doesn't notice the blatantly obvious and clear image of Joe getting into Natalie's car. Then again, it's also a stretch that the CEO of a major technological company would live in a upper-middle class suburb instead of in a mega-mansion compound, but this show wouldn't survive without suspending the disbelief somewhere around cruising altitude. Up until getting conked on the head, I thought Theo was going to kill Joe and become the next possessive stalker, since he seemed to be veering into obsessive and deluded territory towards Love. Turns out he's just love-blinded and dumb to not take the footage to the police or even his dad (despite the fact that they were recently fighting) instead of taking it to the woman who you believe is at best aiding and abetting a her murderer husband.

I think it's a total set-up and Bunny was already stabbed by Mabel's knitting needle before she even showed up.

I just found out about this show and watched the first five episodes in two days, what a trip. There's definitely a lot of stretching to be done for the sake of drama on the show (like Lani thinking she's in pre-mature labor but continuing to work her shift, the Mossbachers only getting a one-bedroom suite for a party of five, or Rachel not recognizing what a dick Shane was until their honeymoon) but the clash of all these assholes, each an asshole in their own way, is so entertaining. Olivia and Paula seem a little too old to be acting full-on "Mean Girls," but their weaponized wokeness (at the same time taking ableist digs at Quinn) against their neolib parents is honestly pretty spot on with the tension between a lot of Gen X parents and their Gen Z kids now. Paula definitely planned the burglary more as a way to get back at the Mossbachers and especially Olivia, than it was about actually righting the wrongs against Kai. Even if those bracelets could be fenced for their full retail value of 75-150K, that's nothing compared to the team of lawyers and the millions of dollars the resort corporation can throw back against him. And as far as I'm concerned, Kai dug his own grave. Instead of aborting the burglary and tossing the bracelets into the closet or setting them on the nightstand (Nicole could think they fell out of the safe or she forgot to put them in - either way, as long as they're not on his person it's hard to prove he was trying to steal them) and making an excuse that he's there to restock the minifridge or do maintenance or something, he escalated the situation and assaulted two people. Either he's not the sharpest tack, or he was just that desperate, but way to really make a bad situation worse. My heart went out to Belinda as she deflated when she finally recognized how flaky and unreliable Tanya is, but also she really should've seen it coming. Tanya definitely comes across as a little screwy right from the get-go (and also often seems heavily medicated, though they've never shown her popping pills so maybe that's just her demeanor). I hope her business proposal wasn't saved to the company computer or printer, some businesses (at least that I've worked for) have a code of conduct where employees cannot engage in any work that's in competition against the business, and that intellectual rights to business ideas that employees come up with on the clock belong to the business, that kind of thing. Hopefully the resort corporation gets more preoccupied with Armand's misconduct and the death on their resort. Best case scenario she can take her proposal to a professional investing group to start her own business completely free of Tanya's influence. I also agree that the feud between Shane and Armand is not over, and he's going to try to get the last laugh next episode and attempt to get Armand fired. That definitely seems like the kind of thing he'd do, in order to ultimately win their perceived pissing contest. I wish Rachel had made some comment either to Shane or her mother on the phone about his behavior being different from when they were dating/engaged. It's hard to care about her plight if she was just self-deluded instead of conned by Shane. I wonder if Kitty is on drugs of her own, considering how she "can't remember" her son's wedding, or maybe it's a neurological condition. I think she's the one who's dead in the coffin. I don't think it would be Armand, unless he has family on that same island, I imagine they would first have to come from Australia to make arrangements about transporting his body to the final resting place - I can't imagine he'd be immediately shipped out on the same flight as the rest of the tourists. And it would explain Rachel's absence if she's the one in jail. He wouldn't be as shaken as he was at the start of the series if it's any other tourist.

Just gonna jump in on that terrible beard (and wig!) convo, cause holy cow. They're clearly spending most of their time on base, so there's no reason for his beard (and hair) to get so long and out of regulation, he looked like he wandered out of the Appalachians in 1879 or something. If they wanted to cover his scar, they should've used skin wax to cover it and then a lighter stubbly beard over that (best case scenario, depending on time constraints, should be to let the actor grow in his own beard for a week, and patch in whatever his scar won't grow). From my understanding, given that they said the insurgents (counter-insurgents? double agents? it was pretty hand-wavy saying that this particular group was working with the CIA on something, maybe it'll come back later) were working with the US in some capacity I imagine they wouldn't fire upon US soldiers and would try to explain that they weren't enemy combatants, but Beneventi in his rage killed them before they had a chance. If that's the case, it's definitely something that could get him court martialed (USMJ article 119 probably). More likely it would probably get shoved under a rug and Beneventi would get shipped out somewhere else, but maybe the CIA might've been pissed enough to make a stink with top brass. Definitely weird that the CIA would take Beneventi into their ranks after screwing up so bad in the Marines, though, specifically on a CIA op. There's definitely more going on there. Interesting that the credits audio referred to him as "Agent Beneventi" and not "Sargeant Beneventi," it means that the incident in question happened when he was in the CIA, not the Marines. Maybe it was relatively recent, around the time of the first Debris shower, and a microscopic piece of Debris shrapnel is in his face? Could the injections be meant to control or counter it's effects or something? Maddox is definitely the kind of person to use somebody as a guinea pig for that kind of thing. The set-up for next episode has me very worried they're going to stumble into "Magical Native American/Noble Savage" tropes. I really hope they do it right and got a Native writer or sensitivity reader to go over their upcoming material, or it can get bad.

I didn't mind the supernatural elements. I thought they worked to metaphorically demonstrate different aspects of what's figuratively (and in the Emorys' case, literally) "haunting" Black people in a white nationalist America: Henry is haunted by the minstrel "Tap Dancing Man" because that's how America expect him to be, this servile and farcical caricature that lives to oblige and entertain white people in order to be "nonthreatening" and allowed to exist within white society, if only on the lower rungs. He'll never be truly seen or accepted, much less respected or allowed upward mobility, like his white colleagues. Lucky is haunted by the representation of white supremacist interpretations of the Bible that Preacher Epps espoused, which are used to justify slavery and poor treatment of Black people (even today). For Lucky, Western religion and God have failed her, evidenced in how she reacts when the people around her say it was "God's will" that she was raped and her baby murdered. Ruby is haunted by white beauty standards, and never able to feel beautiful as a Black girl. She's shown in the first episode going through a magazine with only white models featured, and she's bullied and terrorized at school for her race, even her "friend" belittles her beauty through microaggressive "for a [Black] girl..." compliments. So all she wants is to be white in order to feel beautiful by white America standards and be accepted. Her story gave me Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eye" vibes. Gracie is haunted by white/Euro-centric education pedagogy through Miss Vera. Black students often also face more persecution from school administration (singled out, harsher punishments, etc). I wish they'd given more time and depth to this, though, Gracie seems to be in class for only 15 minutes of screen-time. She's too young to be taught the more advanced white-washed histories, but they probably could've shown the teacher using all-white "Dick and Jane" examples for the class to kind of mirror her sister's own exposure to non-diverse media. I also didn't mind getting the backstory with Betty. I think it was meant to demonstrate that out of all of Betty's problems (her financial problems, her loveless marriage, getting kidnapped by the milkman) - none of it had anything to do with the Black family moving in next door. Much of it was the result of living in a patriarchal society (the bank won't let her individually take out the money from their account, but let's her husband unilaterally drain it; her husband used her as a beard to protect himself from homophobia, which is itself a manifestation of the patriarchy; the milkman's kidnapping was to show that white women are more likely to be targets of sexual assault by other white men, especially someone they know (like her father, too), than by menacing Black strangers a la "The Birth of a Nation" - it also symbolized being literally "trapped" in domesticity, living and dying amongst the other "domesticated animals"). And yet the Emorys become the center of her rage even though they've done nothing to her, and are later scapegoated for her disappearance by the other neighbors despite having nothing to do with any of it. I agree that it's weird for a Black family who has already faced such tremendous trauma due to a hate crime by white people would move directly into an all-white neighborhood. It takes incredible bravery and fortitude to break those barriers - and those barriers should be broken -- (like the Little Rock Nine who faced so much terrorization and abuse for daring to be the first students integrated into formerly all-white schools), but it seemed like this family wouldn't have chosen to be the ones to do it after what they'd already faced. Honestly, Lucky's rape and Chester's murder didn't even add much to the story, given that we later see at the end of the series further horrendous violence against the family, it really only seemed like they wanted that shock value from sexual assault and baby murder. I feel like their move to the all-white neighborhood would've made more sense if Chester died as the result of the institutionalized racism of the Jim Crow South, instead of a random hate crime. Maybe Chester is dying from some kind of illness, he's got a tremendous fever but the family only has one car and the rest of the family is away (or Henry is at work). Lucky has to get to the hospital. She waits at the bus-stop, but the bus-driver denies her - the front of the bus is barely seated, but the back of the bus is fully packed. She begs for help and one of the back passengers gets off to let her have a spot, but once she gets to the hospital she's one of the last to be seen (the doctors would triage white patients first) and by then her crying, feverish baby has gone quiet in her arms. In an effort to escape this systemized racism that has already cost them one child - and to try to give their other children a better quality of life (the other family members should have also had flashbacks to their own experiences in Jim Crow south - we only see them in the segregated theater having a relatively good time, but they could've also shown Gracie forced to drink from a disgusting segregated drinking fountain, Ruby's terribly-funded all-Black schools falling apart, the family getting kicked out of a diner under new management that now has "whites only" in the window). Hoping for a better life and future, Lucky and Henry agree to go move West, where there's no Jim Crow laws and where they wrongly believe they won't face the same kind of racism of the South. They chose the all-white neighborhood because they think they'll be able to put their daughters in better schools, get better healthcare treatment in that richer area, etc. It would make more sense. The backstory of the town with the Preacher Epps and the two escaped slaves was unnecessary, super weird, and detracted from the pacing and message of the series. It would've been better to just suggest that the ghosts haunting the family are manifestations of their neighbor's and nation's hatred, or projections of the Emorys' fractured psychological states after facing so much vitriol and racism no matter where they go. There didn't need to be a "reason" for why that specific suburb was "cursed" - all of white America would be similarly "cursed" for the Emorys wherever they went. Racism was built into the culture in order to justify slavery, and persists through socioeconomic scapegoating and cultural indoctrination. Having the Devil turn Preacher Epps all the villagers violently racist almost lets actual racists off the hook - it's not their own unexamined prejudice and hate, the Devil just made them do it. The Emorys would likely face this same vitriol anywhere in white America, so trying to make a "reason" that this specific area is "cursed" with that backstory of the Amish village getting fooled by the Devil into killing those two Black people totally muddled the message of the series. I did like the idea that racism is wholly destructive, both for the victims of racism (who unjustly bear the brunt of it of course) but also its perpetrators are poisoned and harmed by their own hate (since the whole village is burned alive because they were so focused on murdering the Black couple). But they could've had that message at the end where instead the modern-day suburbanites try to burn down the Black family's house in a fit of mob violence, but the fire spreads and they accidentally burn down their entire neighborhood. I feel like that would've been a more satisfying ending: at least then the neighbors get some comeuppance, and if you want to get really hopeful and optimistic the family could have escaped somehow. Though on the other hand I can see why they wanted to go with the "Get Out" original "bad ending," where there usually is no conveniently happy ending for a Black man facing the police, or a Black family facing down a hateful mob in the throes of a racist frenzy.

You're right about bringing them both in, it would be pretty unlikely that Beth wouldn't have any idea at all about the scheme, they're running the business jointly, and she wouldn't notice her husband literally laundering money in their own home? (Assuming she's not as dense as Dean, who legitimately didn't know even though he knew his wife has been in shady business for a while). She was even a suspect/person of interest in a previous FBI case! I think they're trying to make a statement of the sexism the female FBI agent is dealing with, she's tried to tell her superiors multiple times that it's a female counterfeiter, but they blow her off and assume it's a man instead. Too bad the only reason FBI lady thinks it's a woman is for her own implicitly sexist reasons (because only a woman would use nail polish pigment and know how to do laundry, apparently). Annie's "therapy" (a.k.a her weekly session of sexually harassing a children's therapist) is clearly making her a worse maladapted person. She was too embarrassed to go alone to the fancy charity gala, so she brought an old hobo hook-up? Whom she didn't provide with a rented suit or even let shower (and eat) at her place before hand? She would've been better off hiring a male escort to pretend to be her boyfriend, maybe conjure some other source of hijinks by revealing that several of the other moms at the gala have already been "intimately acquainted" with the escort, which would raise more of a scandal, and Ben could be like "omg mom you hired a gigolo to be your date?!?" Like at least it would show Annie trying to make a good impression but in a horribly awry away, as opposed to being either really stupid and/or outright self-destructive (again). I feel for Ben, I'm sure Annie would've felt like a "cool mom" when you're young and more carefree, Annie seemed to be immature and have no boundaries and that can feel like having another child friend rather than a parent. But now as a teenager Ben has basically outgrown/out-matured his own mom, and is looking for more stability that his dad and stepmom provide. Sure wish Annie's therapist might actually say something like this to really wake Annie up and get her life together and repair her relationship with her son, but he's a terrible therapist and she's a terrible patient so I don't see that happening. They're really spinning their wheels with Ruby's subplot, I hope they get rid of those sketchy "donor" parents soon (to reiterate several other comments, those people continue to raise all kinds of red flags and why Ruby and especially Stan don't see through them is so frustrating). It's weird that the teacher automatically assumed their son had ADHD just because he was acting out in class. If he's a genius, wouldn't he be acing all his courses? And ADHD tends to make it more difficult to focus in school and thus interferes with broad academic success? Seems like there'd be more signs of a genius kid who can skip five grades (like straight A's, hyperlexia, advanced vocabulary, immediate mental math, etc.) than just fart jokes and penis drawings. This season so far feels like it's mostly been Beth doing her own thing with Dean and the jacuzzis, and Ruby and Annie are mostly out of the main plotline dealing with their own random and rehashed problems. This show shines when the women are working as a team (their brief scene together at the start of the episode was hilarious - give Retta more screentime, show!), so hopefully as the stakes are raised from Dean's arrest they can come back together to come up with a solution.

So much awesome stuff happened in this episode, I can hardly wrap my mind around it! Monica becoming Spectrum! Darcy and Vision team-up! Wanda is breaking down! Agnes/Agatha's big reveal! The time between fridays keeps growing longer! I also agree that it really was Wanda dragging that drone out. She snapped. She broke into the SWORD facility and took Vision's body. She blasted Monica out of the Hex (although Monica later says that the only reason she didn't die was because Wanda shielded her from most of the damage of busting through walls and stuff), and she threw "Pietro/Peter" (last episode) and Monica (this episode) around with her powers. She knows she's all but holding an entire town hostage. She's stopped short of physical damage and killing, which Monica all but dared her to do this episode and Wanda showed her true colors by backing off, but she's a woman not just on the edge but over it, just fortunately not past the point of no return. With regards to what Agatha's book is, I don't think it's the Darkhold, which looked different (it kind of had "Darkhold" written on the cover in fancy two-sided script), and when Feige was promoted as the head honcho of the MCU, he declared that "Agents of Shield" wasn't in the MCU canon anymore (along with all the other network TV Marvel shows, e.g. Agent Carter, The Inhumans, The Gifted, etc.). Only the Disney+ shows ("WandaVision" and the upcoming "Falcon and the Winter Soldier") are MCU canon now. Anyway, the book is more likely the tome missing from the Old One's library in the "Masters Only" section, from the "Doctor Strange" movie. It has the same aesthetic as the other books in the library, and it would tie Agatha and her powers to the "Mystic Arts/Sorcerer Supreme" side of things. The book is also glowing with the orange light like the magic Strange uses has. Although Agatha herself uses a dark purple sort of magic, maybe almost like the Power Infinity Stone...?

"Now my baby's back on keto!" I choked on my avocado toast. (this episode made me crave avocado toast, lol)

The revelation that the people on the outskirts of town are just kind of "stuck" was horrifying. I know time works a little differently inside the Hex, it seems like been at least several days inside (putting aside all the decades passing and the kids aging up), while Darcy or Woo said it had only been a day or two outside at some point (maybe?). I wonder if Wanda's magic is sustaining the people or if they're at risk of exhaustion or dehydration. Definitely more of an immediate problem beyond just the ethical ramifications of hijacking the lives of a whole town to play out sit-coms. I know "Pietro" said that she was running her bubble as "ethically" as possible, but like a lot of people here I don't trust him and definitely get the vibe that he's not who he says he is. Loved seeing little Wiccan and Speed getting their powers, they're so adorable and hope to see them really shine when more conflict inevitably arrives. Kick ass, little hellspawn! This seems pretty significant, it might mean that Vision is still "dead" and "decaying/degrading" as a "corpse" (as much as any corpse of pure vibranium would, I imagine) even when he's in the Hex, and that Wanda's dreamland was never really sustainable. It's still an unknown how he's "alive" in the Hex, why he has his personality but not his memories, etc. I half-expected him to revert to his "crushed head corpse" form and drop immediately after leaving the magical boundaries, but seems his body was still mostly "whole" (including the "Mind Stone," most likely just a replicate?) albeit intrinsically tied to to the Hex and unable to leave. I really hope there's a happy ending to this, where the town is freed but Vision can still live. Just let Wanda and Vision and their babies be happy, Feige, please I'm begging. 😭

Cheery's actor, Jo Eaton-Kent, is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns. I still quite like the show myself, and will miss the show when it's over next week. The show seems to devote its focus more on the world-building and character arcs (and I love the world and characters), so it's not exactly boring or spinning its wheels in my opinion, but the story seems to lack narrative complexity, the entire plot has never really evolved from "find the McGuffins before Carcer, because Carcer wants to use the McGuffins to summon a dragon for Reasons" and beyond the revelation that Carcer's Reasons are on behalf of those multidimensional beings in Locker Land, there hasn't been a lot of depth to the plot. But, I'm still here for it.

Yikes, that frat-house work environment looked insufferable, not only were they goofing off all the time (Leif admitted that he was basically doing the work of the whole team), but some of the other games were hazardous and borderline sexual harassment, it's a miracle that HR never caught wind of it. It's one thing to take a break over foosball, even the bottle flipping game is harmless enough (maybe 109 times is a little much, though), but playing with urinal cakes, eating old yogurt, and punching each other in the nuts? How old are these guys, 17? And they were constantly hazing each other while the company was in the midst of a serious PR disaster (and legal disaster, too, they are definitely going to get hit with lawsuits over this, no matter how Simon spins it) and they needed to get a fix/patch ASAP for their watch problem that was physically harming people. Heads would have been rolling if Joan were still in charge. Yeah, how do you explain that you need a way to "train" your thoughts so your girlfriend doesn't read your mind in song-and-dance form while you're having sex, and not walk out of that office with a prescription for an anti-psychotic?