PhoneCop

Jelinsky. Bhanu. Q. This cast is a relay team of exhausting people.

This is not Top Croquette! I'm also surprised Kaleena didn't get dinged for store-bought pasta, especially since she initially described it as more of an Alfredo. She must've really killed it on the flavors. Feeling like the wheat is starting to separate from the (relative) chaff. I guess after bombing in both Quickfires and being B3 in two of three elimination challenges, Kenny didn't have a lot of road left in him anyway.

Nice start for Soo, but why wasn't he just thrown in the pool along with the others? Was his application delayed by a technicality that the producers decided to waive at the last minute? If he makes it to the main competition, people who don't watch LCK will question his presence and have no reason to invest in him. If he doesn't, then this whole exercise was pointless. It just seems so sketchy. That said, I didn't miss David either, ha!

Maybe it was meant in a sabotage-y way? Don't interrupt your competition when they're making a mistake, and all that. "Yeah, cool out-of-the-box thinking, bro, you roll with that. Sounds sexy." That said, it's always nice when an obnoxious one goes home first; it's like a freebie that gives us a chance to get to know everyone else a little better. (Sure, he could bounce back from LCK, but nobody's taking that bet.) Got halfway through the episode before realizing I didn't miss Padma after all. Which isn't a knock on her but a seamless changing of the guard.

QFT. One more vote for keeping separate threads. I don't know why the Amazing Race ones got consolidated, but: not a fan. Sometimes I enjoy live reactions, sometimes I just want the post-game analysis and don't want to dig through 158 posts to find where it begins in #159.

Woo comes to mind... IDK—from casually scanning this list, I feel like we've seen the full spectrum of gameplay, same as any other group. (And somehow I'm still bitter about Michelle from OG Fiji getting totally screwed by a tribal swap.)

Gamers can guess from my profile pic that I could barely focus on tonight's premiere, what with the long-awaited release of Final Fantasy Several tomorrow. What a fucking doofus. Cheers to Q for leading the charge on getting him out. How dim do you have to be to consider that tribal a blindside? On names: Jelinsky's first name is David. Soda's full name is Sodasia. Q's full name is Quintavius.

Interesting—I also had the impression (as an American) that it was only in recent decades that people started using the two more interchangeably. Same with Father Christmas/Santa Claus, but maybe I'm wrong there as well.

He mentioned being married in passing several weeks back. That's when he officially became my second favorite. Totally unrelated, of course. I will miss the accent, though. A work thing came up last night, so I haven't watched the finale yet; I just came here to see which Not Dahmere won. Debating whether I want to take two hours out of my schedule to see it or if I can just assume it was the usual Gordon tropes with zero surprises.

We finally get rid of Jason, and suddenly the edit positions Johnathan as the resident dickhead. Not sure we needed a villain at this stage, but whatever. Dahmere will go down as one of the bullshittiest eliminations in the show's history, but I suppose this clears the path for Ryan, who best fits the whole American Dream narrative they've been pushing anyway.

"This...is a hidden immunity idol."

There's basically zero hope for actual surprises tonight, right? The bros bro down to the very end. Frank Eudy, Jr....I mean, Matt wins handily because Jag perfectly replicated Paul's game. The jury has probably been advised that there's one secret twist that's gone unrevealed until now, and coached to act more shocked about whatever it might be than they actually are. Matt or Cirie wins AFP. See you for the special winter edition, love one another. It's sad that the thing I'm most intrigued about is the reaction to the revelation of Bowie's age/background. ("Shouldn't you be smarter, then...?")

Stockholm syndrome? You're stuck in a house with strangers (...usually), you form bonds with them, and even though you're ostensibly still jockeying for position, the connections you make muddy those waters and it's harder to keep your eye on the goal because on some level you may be rooting for others as well. That's one reason I'd be reluctant to go on the show—by the time I reached the jury stage, it could be hard to keep cutthroat focus on the money because I might actually like or at least sympathize with some of these people.

Well, ya know, that's just the kind of 3D chess those of us with a mere one or two majors can't possibly comprehend...

Well, this season’s been withering on the vine since Zombie Week, but I’m glad we all stuck it out anyway—it’s the people you meet along the way who make the journey suck less. I don’t even know why I go into the episode threads, all the cool people are here. Thanks as always to the feed watchers for keeping us apprised on every bit of in-house stupidity and I look forward to y’all’s thoughts as we march toward that final disappointment.