Turtle

Vince is so mature now, he isn't ruled by hormones. No sirrree... His whole "I need some acknowledgement" and "I felt that you were driven by ego" to Joe was possibly the most hilarious, hypocritical, and self unaware thing I have ever heard. I am pretty sure that Jenn has no idea what "compassion" means. I'm no expert, but I don't think it is in any way related to "get over it." And her mouth at tribal - is trying to Keith it? I was disappointed with her tonight because I liked her in the premiere. I'm a little confused about what happened with the vote. Even knowing who voted for whom, I cannot figure it out. Did someone change votes at the last minute? Why was Joe the only one to vote for Nina - is he out of the loop? I like Nina, and I understand why she got so upset. The younger women were being kind of shitty to her, and being marginalized is tough. I think people tend to struggle in the first few days (her, Will) because they haven't really adjusted to the setting yet and so they're hungry and tired and stressed but aren't "used to it" like they may be later in the season. I've always that days 4 through 10 would be the hardest to me. Oh, so that's her name! Probably just me, but she was only one who's name I couldn't remember. When they are sitting side by side, his mouth is in direct line to her ear/ implant, and there isn't a lot of ambient noise, especially in between them. In those circumstances, the implants should make it relatively easy for her to understand him. In the other settings, people were behind her or they were walking and possibly making noise with stepping on sticks and such or it was in a group setting (or all three). Background noise makes it tough to hear an individual voice, and not having a direct line between speaker's mouth and listener's implants also complicates it. It's also possible that she turned them down on occasion when ambient noise was too loud, and I thought that at one point she had them out altogether, possibly because she'd been swimming.

Brace yourselves, folks - I was away from the board for a bit and y'all move fast, I've tapped the box o' wine, and I am feeling woooorrrrrdddddddy. Okay, fine, Nik wants ELQ. But WHY??? Nik is not in need of money, and he has no general ill will toward the Qs, and the company most likely is sort of a disaster right now. Even Helena wouldn't logically have any interest in ELQ, so her pressuring him doesn't explain it. And her threats to expose Nik should be empty now that he's shut her away somewhere. It just makes no sense, and I still don't understand (Front/back t-shirt possibility?). I kind of buy it. Tracy was always secretly about the family, she just didn't show it, and now that she's lost so many people I think she's softened and is more willing to express her feelings. Plus, she hates Sonny more than I hate Sonny. That's a lot. I'm pretty sure that they're not getting rid of NB. There's really no way they could have him not recover, because of the Shriner's connection. I'm okay with that because I mostly like Spencer, but I know the rest of you will hate it! That's not exactly how it works. Well, it is, but the implication that Michael would have to show actual and imminent danger to Avery is not correct. A history of Sonny being involved in dangerous activity that has affected, currently affects, or *could* affect his children is enough. Same reason that a drug addict can have her children taken even if nothing bad has happened to the kids, and the same reason mentioned above that spousal abuse and mental evaluations are important to custody cases - once a concern is raised, the courts are focused on ensuring that the child is not in a position where it is likely the child will be harmed, and parents' rights are secondary to the right of the child to be safe. This is a great question. Nothing AJ ever did was as dangerous to his kids as the crap Sonny as done over the years. That's sort of Michael's point, though. Michael was raised in an environment where ordering people to be killed was a-okay, and now that he's grown up and gotten out of that environment, he realizes how dangerous and misguided that environment is. Little Michael was indeed a stupid little shit, but he was also a child who had been surrounded by violence his entire life. I can't really hold that against adult Michael. Question: when I am this chatty (type-y?), is it better to do a long post like this, or to break it up in to a few posts over an hour or two? Or would you all prefer that I just shut the hell up occasionally? ;-)

I think that Sonny *has* been shown to be an unfit parent in court. Ric has just been trying to show that Michael is also unfit. So they definitely haven't brought it up? I asked about it the other day because I figured I must have missed it. It is absolutely ridiculous and unbelievable that Michael hasn't mentioned it, especially because Michael stopped Sonny and so is the only reason that Avery is even alive. Why wasn't this the very first thing Alexis asked him about? I also think that's it totally insane that Michael doesn't have, or at least isn't shown as having, anyone in his corner. The list of people in this town and especially in his family who hate Sonny is long. Even. If someone like Tracy didn't care about Michael having Avery, she would jump at the chance to go to court and talk about how awful Sonny is. I just really wish that this show would at least make an attempt to make it all make sense. Actually, It's more Sonny's style to order Shawn to kill the judge, Shawn misses and accidentally shoots Avery in the spleen, and Sonny is the only one who is a blood match and so he saves her and gets to keep her.

Alexis, please kindly SHUT THE HELL UP. Her telling Michael that one day he's going to want Sonny's amazing and wonderful love absolutely infuriated me. I agree that no way would Nik keep this Jason secret just for business. I still don't understand why Nik cares about ELQ at all, especially now that Helena isn't there to put pressure on him (and I still don't understand how or why she did that). I need to make a keyboard shortcut for "I still don't understand."

It didn't bother me because I thought it represented something that happens a lot- a lot of women when young are sure they don't ever want to be pregnant/ have kids, and often that changes when they mature, fall in love, and/or just get a different perspective. Often it doesn't change too, but I think April has always been portrayed as using her I Hate Everything schtick as a defense mechanism rather than representative of her true feelings. I like to think that Leslie is VP and spends a lot of time calling Joe Biden to talk about "their job."

I won't go so far as to say Nina and Franco were hot, but I was much less irritated by them today than I usually am. The whole "we know we're a little off and rightfully hated, but I still like you, and let's plan our next ridiculous shenanigans" thing kind of worked for me. Jason staying a good guy (or even semi decent guy) is my dream.

I wish *everyone* had shot her. (Really did not care for Connie, at all.)

Well, guess I was wrong about Ric having some secret plan to help Michael. I really do not understand what Ric is doing or why he's doing it. Other trial stuff: They actually sorted out the "she's not Michaels's sister" crap we've been discussing ad nauseam, thank god. I hated the "Soony is a hero!" bullshit Ric was spouting. Why didn't Michael chime in with "I did,out of the work!!!"? Remind me, did Michael talk about Sonny almost killing Ava while she was pregnant with the baby in question? Seems to me, that'd be a deal breaker for the judge. "Oh, you almost murdered the Child you want to keep custody of? Well, that settles it! (Gavel bang, court dismissed.). Michaels better not even consider compromising- Sonny threatening him should strengthen his resolve though. That was weird to me, though- guess I'll have to wait until to tomorrow to see how that "make an enemy out of me" plays out. It just seems bizarre to me that Somny would turn on Michael, no matter what's he done, and even weirder if Carly stays with him after that. After all their bleating about their love for their children and how they would do anything for them and how Sonny is such a wonderful father, I just can't see either one of them becoming his enemies. But if they do, it'd be really interesting if either of them realized or at least had that very special kind of hypocrisy pointed out to them. Won't happen, though, I know.

I forgot about the NYC hospital, that makes sense. But how did Silas *find* Ava? Or Ava find Silas, I guess. She had a gunshot wound and landed in whatever water is between Pentonville and Port Charles (the Pacific Ocean? Mississippi River? Nile? Erie Lake? Red Sea? This show has given me so much confusing geographical information that I'm really not sure), but I can't figure out how she ended up in any hospital with Silas keeping her secret. Here comes a rant, so look away if you're not interested: You know what else Michael could bring up at the hearing? The reason Morgan used the name Benson in private school was because SONNY FUCKING ADMITTED that any child of his was not safe. He knows it. Sonny tried to kill Jax, a man who was the actual father of Joss and a father figure to Morgan and an uncle figure to Michael, someone they had known and loved for much of their lives, because Sonny was mad. When Michael was a child, he was able to get a gun from (I think) Sonny's and he tried to order a hit because he had been raised to believe that's how you got things done. And all of the adults in his life didn't think that was really a problem. Sonny killed that Russian guy in cold blood, and I'm pretty sure Michael knew about that. Maybe witnessed it? When and after Michael was in a coma because someone wanted to kill Sonny and Sonny chose to protect his girlfriend instead of his child, Sonny admitted to several people, including Michael, that it was all Sonny's fault because of his business. (Sidetone: How did Michael ever forgive Sonny for protecting Kate/Connie over him?) Obviously, Sonny killed AJ. Jason, who Michael loved, is dead because of Sonny. Lily and clink-boom are dead because of Sonny. Brenda, who Michael was close to, was shot up in the shower because of Sonny. I feel like there must be at least a hundred more examples, and we could do this all day. Michael killing Claudia to protect his sister and killing that goon to save his own life does not compare at all.

I apologize for how long this is. I just couldn't stop talking badly about this show, but it's not my fault because the show is so terrible that I had no choice but to abuse it. You know how it is. I missed the first 15 minutes because my (adorable, but grabby) one year old niece loves remotes and somehow stopped the recording - do I care at all why Olivia went to visit Franco? What are the theories about how Silas got Ava? I cannot for the life of me figure out how that happened. Does he scuba dive at night? Why would Franco wait until now to tell Nina he was faking? What in the hell is the point of that? I really need to stop trying to make sense of any of this. I think Ric has a plan to help Michael get custody. The Ric that used to curry Sonny's favor has been gone for a while (hasn't he?), and this Ric is trying to convince Liz that he's a changed man, so I don't believe he would really be supporting Sonny at this point. At least I hope. Some of that stuff Michael has firsthand or independent knowledge of, and so it wouldn't be hearsay. Most of the rest of it would fall under an exception to the hearsay rule - statement against interest, excited utterance, and most importantly, reputation concerning character. Hate to rehash this, but Avery *is* Michael's sister. Michael changing his last name did not affect his legal relationship to anyone. Legally, Carly is his mother, Sonny is his father, Morgan and Dante and Kristina and Avery are his siblings, Molly is his cousin, and so on and so forth. Non-legally but true nonetheless, when he was Michael Corinthos, he still called Monica his grandmother and hell, even called AJ his dad. He could legally change his name to John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, and Avery would still be his sister. Moreover, it is not a chain reaction situation - disavowing one member of your family doesn't sever ties with every other member of your family, legally or otherwise.

I do not get what is happening with Sonny's hair and beard. What is the show trying to communicate with the constant changes? Why are they doing it? It's driving me little batty. I think New Kiki makes some odd facial expressions, as did the former Kiki. I give him a pass on this because they said some great things about Shriner's and showed a commercial with some of the kids they've helped. It's a really good organization and I'd much rather they promote that than Campbell's soup. Definitely does not erase all the bullshit of course, but I think it was a genuinely good thing to do. Spencer and Nik are going to be gone for a while, right? Is it possible they'll use this time to SORAS the kids? I wouldn't mind that, but I really can't imagine this regime letting go the actors who play Spencer and Emma especially. They should do something though because we're only a few months from summer and Molly and TJ are out our teens, and we haven't seen them in months.

Isn't that exactly what she did with Dan tonight? So, yell away!

. I think it technically was "easier" in that it didn't seem to really require a lot of puzzle skills - each line of words was in a different color, and the pieces seemed to break mid-letter, and the border was pretty obvious. That said, it was A LOT of pieces, and was going to take a lot of time to first sort out, and then to assemble. I think the 5 piece puzzle could have been harder than it looked because it was all one color with no patterns or designs, and some of the pieces looked like they could appear to fit together in a few ways. It could take a few minutes to figure out how to put those together, but I do think it would be faster than the 50 pieces. I think the 10 piece puzzle was the best choice, especially because they could see what they were going to have to put together rather than going in to the other two blind. I admit, though, that this opinion is based on my own puzzle strengths and weaknesses. I expect the view of the difficulty of the puzzles varies a lot. That said, I think White Collar's ego got the best of them and they thought "Of course we're going to pick the one with the most pieces." I suspect that attitude is what's going to bring them down again and again.

I wasn't bothered by the pairing because I assume all the couples were matched up based on somewhat in-depth profiles (or at least a comprehensive questionnaire), and so it wasn't race-based. It's likely some of them expressed a preference for certain racial, ethnic, religious, or other backgrounds (or even blonde or tall or lean), or expressed no preference in any of those categories. That kind of thing is not at all unusual for matchmakers or dating websites, and it's not unusual for people to have preferences, and so I really don't think the show would match that couple up just because Minority and Minority! I did side-eye that there weren't more non-whites overall, however. Surely a fair amount of people who aren't white want to be on this show, but it seems it's usually only one or two teams who aren't white (while we know that is not reflective of the general population), and maybe another team who is "different" such as being deaf or a little person. I don't mean that to sound derogatory - I really just wasn't sure how else to express it. I was also confused about the sake task. At first I thought they were going to have to deliver all the bottles to different tables, based on what the tables ordered, but it really did seem like they only had to find one bottle. The longest it could possibly take is 10 trips to the bar in that case, which seems poorly designed. This show usually designs these things so well, this seemed like the rare misstep.

My first thought when hearing that was: You know who makes employees cry? Terrible bosses. You know who brags about that? Terrible human beings.

Sam doesn't really need to earn money - Jason made a lot of money over the years, and spent very little, according to the story. Sam inherited a lot of money when he "died." Hmmm...it could be really interesting to see a story where they try to figure that out. Jason, even if he doesn't remember loving Sam, would probably not want to take the money back especially because of Danny, but he's also really really broke and so he need some money. Sure, financial spreadsheets don't make for good tv, but seeing Sam and Jason have discussions with each other and other people while they figure it out could be interesting to watch. So of course we won't see it. Very good point about Lucky's story being more relatable to the child actor playing him. Not so much true for Robin's story, I would argue, because of all the spies and international intrigue and mom's fake face scar, but she could have just been that good of a young actress. NB probably can't relate at all to the character he's playing, because the kid doesn't seem like a complete douchebag and does seem to have decent adults looking out for him. His character, on the other hand... (Because I feel obligated to say it in any post about Spencer, I mostly like him.) You'll enjoy (or tolerate) this show much more if you don't try to make sense of things like this. It's better not to overthink it. Short answer: many of us suspect that the folks in charge of this show never had any idea where this story was going, and so a lot of what's happened doesn't make any sense now that we have at least a partial reveal. Also possible: The Luke that was interacting with people in Port Charles while one Luke was in the psych ward could have been Faison, who was wearing a Luke mask up until he was arrested. I don't remember the timing and I'm sure as hell not going to look it up, but someone else can probably tell you. None of it has really made a lot sense though.

I thought it was a great premiere. I was expecting to hate the blind date aspect, but now I think it very well may be very interesting to watch. And the blind date teams could have an advantage because they're not going to have to deal with any of the relationship baggage that so often causes teams to blow up at some point, and most of us are usually nicer to strangers than to people close to us. Although, Hayley really needs to maybe talk a little less; I think she's driving Blair nuts. I was screaming at people during the dance task. How in the world do you see teams from the second flight get there and not even consider changing tasks?? Especially when you're in a situation where only one team can go at a time and it's taking everyone a lot of tries to succeed, and so you do a ton of waiting. Once you're over 10 tries and still struggling, I think you really have to consider swapping. Although, I really don't get choosing the dance task at all. Over and over again, those tasks have proven to be really subjective and to take many teams a very long time to complete. Sure, memorizing stuff in a foreign language whose written words do not resemble English words in any way is going to be difficult, but if you've ever watched this show, you should know that it's not going to be impossible, that there will be clues - you don't have to learn Japanese to pass the task. I just thought some teams made terrible decisions with this.

I loved the "make a choice" parts of the challenge - something new and it adds a really interesting aspect to not only the challenge itself, but also to the team dynamics. Overall, a pretty good start! I can't believe So announced her alliance of four at tribal. So dumb - who is she, Keith?? You'd think that someone who is presumably good at sales would be a little better at reading a room (and maybe at lying). After seeing Carolyn not trust several people, I was really surprised she didn't play the idol- I'm curious about what went down at camp that convinced her she was safe. Carolyn seems to have some good Survivor sense, but I found her talking heads so grating. Maybe once she settles in, she's calm down a little; otherwise, she's going to drive me crazy. Joaquin is annoying in just about every possible way. Vince is an early front-runner for entertainment value, but he's an awful human being that I would never want to be in a room with. I suspect he's Coach/ Phillip levels of cuckoo, but way more frightening. I think I like Jenn and Joe on that tribe. For the blue collars, Dan unfortunately did not read the room right, but Lindsay is terrible. Just mean all around. Mike was dumb to eat the scorpion, but I like him. The guy from Boston? Just because of his hair, I am against him.​ I think it goes along with what a lot of contestants (and forum posters!) have said - a lot of Survivor success depends on who is in your tribe (and luck about the idol and challenges). Being the best strategist or knowing a lot about the game can actually be a disadvantage if you're playing with people who don't really know the game and/or who are incapable of understanding strategy. But I think his knowledge will help him make the best of it, rather than imploding or making stupid impulsive decisions. He voted with the majority and stayed quiet at tribal, two super important things this early in the game.

I agree that JJ and KMc were great in their stories, but I think they were also written as pretty unbelievable as children the age they were supposed to be. I think their characters were likable, which made it easier to overlook some of the clunky language and the dialogue that was not realistic to kids their age. Robin was just about the most precocious 5-8 old that ever lived, having these long conversations with her mom and Robert and Sean about adult topics, in quasi-adult language. Lucky traveled halfway across the country on his own when he was, I think, about 11 years old, and he was always ridiculously savvy. Writing unrealistic dialogue for kids or having them do things that don't really fit with their age isn't a new thing for this show, in my opinion. But Spencer is written to be such a little d-bag (although I do like him) that the crappy writing stands out that much more. To me, it continues to be the same kind of unrealistic writing for children, but it's just a lot less palatable to people when the child in question is a jerk. JJ and KMc also were usually in scenes with other characters that were really popular and well-acted, which helped. Spencer gets Nik (I like him, but he goes back and forth), Sonny (don't even get me started), Helena (fun to watch, but not really loved), and the other kids. I guess my point is that I get that people think all the love stuff is not at all realistic to 10 year olds, and it may not be. But I think Robin and Lucky said and did a lot of things that were not realistic for kids their ages either, they just were about different things.

Going back a couple of days, today was a great example of why I dislike Spinelli, especially with Maxie, so much. He has no regard for her feelings, and does shit like trying to tell her that she doesn't know her own feelings, trying to make her feel guilty for things she should not feel guilty about, and generally doing everything he can to manipulate her. I was so proud of her for shutting him down. That clip, ulkis - I can't even say "thanks" for posting it, it brought back so many terrible memories! Awful second Morgan, that hair of Dante's, how totally fucked up it was that everyone blamed Dante for Michael going to prison even though it was 100% the fault of his parents and everyone else who thought that covering up self-defense was such a brilliant idea and that Sonny going to prison to "save" Michael wouldn't scar that poor kid for life. So so so dumb.

It's infuriating that Spinelli doesn't have any money. Spinelli can't possibly spend that much money, what with not having to hire lawyers all the time, not giving Liz a house and trust fund, not owning a penthouse, not buying a lot of leather jackets and black t-shirts, and not spending any money on haircuts or hair dye and grease. He really shouldn't need to mooch off of anyone. I was so annoyed at him saying "what if all the hotels are full?" Shut up, Spinelli - the Metro Court always have lots of extra rooms, as evidenced by how quickly Carly and Olivia hand out keys to serial killers, mobsters, and teenagers wanting to have sex. It also makes no sense that Tracy would hire him over Sam or really anyone else - Tracy always hated him and his stupid nicknames and overall exhausting personality. I hate this Pat shit because it can only mean that we're going to exposed to significantly more days of godawful crazy Luke. I've been over it for months, and I'm pissed that we're apparently entering chapter 3 of it. That whole conversation with Anna was insane. I know all of these people are hypocrites, but that was just dumb - "He's doing exactly what I'm doing, and so you must put him in jail." It just makes no sense. By the way, "it just makes no sense" is my vote for the t-shirts. Maybe put "as usual" on the back. Ah, thank you - didn't even think of that!

I think TC did a great job today. Nik really seemed to be in anguish and feeling guilty. Nik isn't the greatest dad in the world, but I think TC generally plays him as really caring about Spencer, which isn't always the case on this show (see: Carly and Joss. Or Michael. Or Morgan). But Alexis said that Nik and Patrick were in the next room, so I remain annoyed that they apparently didn't hear any of the noise Spencer, Emma, and the fire were making. No. No no no. I will not tolerate. For those of you wished Spencer actually did DIAF, it's going to be unbearable torture for you if this happens. Lulu also knows that Johnny is a criminal and has done horrible things, and she knows he hasn't really changed (he didn't need Maxie's help because he's an upstanding citizen, after all), so I doubt she'd be all that surprised. Exactly. I've always hated Spinelli and Maxie together because of this side of him. Today he was trying to manipulate Maxie once again by telling her how to feel and making her doubt herself. I was so happy when she didn't cave and kicked him out, and I thought it showed her actually thinking for herself and thinking *about* someone else (Nathan). One thing that was dumb- doesn't that apartment have two bedrooms? Lulu used to live there too. It's not a detail that is hard to get right, and it wouldn't have changed the story at all - Maxie didn't want him in the apartment at all.

I think it gets better every time I watch it! The silence really adds to it. Sonny would still be trying to remember how to dial 9-1-1.

It made me happy that it was Sonny's gift that almost got Spencer killed (I'll be ridiculously surprised if he's dead, although that preview seems to want me to think he is). Let that be a lesson to you, Spencer. The whole fire thing was so so dumb. How far away where Nik and Patrick that they didn't hear the screaming and crashing? Emma's voice was shrill enough to shatter glass, for pete's sake. Why didn't a smoke alarm go off more quickly, and in the whole house? Is there really not one single servant in the house, as if Nik was going to clean up all that party stuff himself? I'm willing to suspend disbelief for a show, but I do wish they would at least try. Although, if Spencer is dead, I wonder how it would affect Nik - would he turn full-on evil, or full-on good, not care at all, or just try to impregnate the next woman he comes across? Oh no - what if he and Liz commiserate over what it's like to lose a child and fall for each other again? Then we'd end up with Carly, Sam, & Liz interested in Jake; Jake & Patrick interested in Sam; Sonny & Jake interested in Carly; and Ric, Jake, and Nik interested in Liz. I can't decide if that will infuriate me, or if it will be an amazing train wreck to watch. One thing I do know, the majority of you are going to celebrate if Spencer really is dead. I don't think I heard a word of Alexis & Julian's conversation. I just focused on his shoulders and chest, and it was an enjoyable scene for me.

I'm drinking all of the boxed wine as a prophylactic. But, Sonny telling Spencer "your dad would do the same" makes me think that maybe Nik is going to be the "hero" this time. That's marginally more acceptable because Nik doesn't make me want to jam red hot branding irons in my eyes.