snarktini

Yes, I think that's right. Isaac made two of the favorite dishes plus excelled as Executive Chef. RW wins/losses often hinge on the role of EC, and he knocked it out so that was likely the deciding factor. I might have given it to Marjorie for being an all-around contributor and enabling Karen's FOH success, but the judges may not have seen that and they rarely weight value desserts / sides / FOH as much as mains / EC.

I’m seriously dismayed by all the comments about Marjorie and Karen’s appearances. Why is makeup critical to “taking pride” in oneself? And why would tattoos need to be covered? Karen’s dress wasn’t a great style for her, but it was appropriate, not to mention a dress, and her hair was neatly back. For someone who’d spent the last 7 hours or so in a hot kitchen and only had minutes to prepare she looked good enough. Marjorie didn’t bother me either. Yes, she was casual. But a blouse over jeans didn’t strike me as out of place. Her hair could have been neater, but whatever. My hair would look like hell, too, and there would be little I could do without a shower. I thought they looked like cooks who didn’t have the luxury of going home to shower and get pretty and were doing the best they could in a chaotic, hot environment. But even if I did think they looked like "crap", coming at women for how they look still disturbs me. All that said, my opinions are colored by living outside of San Francisco, where a hipster dude in a man bun and a white T covered with visible tats is likely showing me to my very expensive table.

Worse, the guy at the host stand said: "We have your table ready, but Phillip Lee would like you to try his cocktail." We COULD seat you, but we'd rather make you stand around awkwardly first! Giving it to them at the table would have made much more sense.

I liked the mature Jess (and liked him as a match for Rory) so I am really glad he'll be back. Less positive towards Matt Czuchry -- I feel like his story was over and fitting him in doesn't feel organic. While my inner fan girl likes the idea of seeing absolutely everyone, can they write a story that packs in all these people without it feeling like overstuffed fan service?

For those asking why she'd have her brother's full name in her phone, that's normal to me. My phone is linked to my desktop contacts application which has whole names for everyone I know, down to a Jr if needed to differentiate. In Bill's case, the Jr is probably overkill considering there's no longer a Sr -- was probably a directorial decision to visually confirm "brother" for casual viewers, not to be confused with Scully's dad or son.

After all the crap that Wesley got for putting his tasting spoon back in, I hope everyone saw Jeremy do the same with his wooden risotto spoon in this episode. He may be eye candy, but it's diminishing every week with the bro-douche behavior. I thought Isaac offered up corn bread because Marjorie suggested a bread basket. For that you'd want a couple of types. I've mostly liked her to this point, but her acting like he didn't exist when they were planning was painful.

I was bracing for a Samantha win, and was so relieved it was Maya. I didn't love Maya's on the runway, it felt repetitious. (I thought all except Peytie's were a bit one-dimensional.) Where she shined is in the structural details, the cages and harnesses, which are harder to see from a distance. I appreciate that creativity. They are great kids with tremendous potential -- I'd love to see what they could do if they had one more round to revise their collections. I don't mean this to bash what they presented. The collections were good, especially for kids! But I genuinely want to see what they could do with some additional time and space. Give them tough love creative feedback and another few weeks, and I think they'd knock us out. In almost every season I've been underwhelmed by final collections, so this isn't a new thought. It's amplified here because I like them better than the grown ups. :)

IIRC, the part to me that was overt falsification was him changing instances in her story of "Wilkes" to "the commie". As in "I saw the commie go into the building" or something like that. Wilkes being suspected and having evidence found in his home should be in the report, color commentary prior to an actual conviction shouldn't be.

Agreed. Also, there are many different definitions of healthy food. Some people have a "back to nature" POV -- you know, the kind of household that only has sprouted wheat bread and if there was a dessert it had carob instead of chocolate -- that has nothing to do with weight. It's about whole, organic, non-processed food, no sugars or junk. That's would be consistent with Marjorie's description. Frankly, for many it's easy to be fat on healthy food just like it would be on junk food. You can eat too much of either.

It was Amar, right? I was surprised he did that after being excited to get the only whole one the store had. But guessing it was due to how the 100 servings had to be plated. Didn't he only get one $600 fish? They couldn't put out one giant fish (or side of beef) -- they had to send out multiple platters for multiple tables. They'd need a fish for each platter. Across the board, it seems like they bought meats that were too expensive to put out in mass quantities. (If WF could even have supplied mass.) Something like game hens could have been interesting, if WF had 100 of those lying around. Individual, but satisfying to rip apart by hand.

That moment bothered me. Same when she dismissed Tim's concerns, saying something like "We both know I can do this" in her TH. I've gotten so used them acting older their years that an eye-rolling teen moment took me by surprise.

Those were pretty bad across the board! A few good pieces, but damn. Occurs to me that Samantha basically gets 4 extra days over Zachary and Peytie, who had to fly home, back, home, and back again. For Maya it's about a half the travel time. Samantha's collection does not do it for me. The colors and the POV are good, but it's too one-note and puffy. Of course she'll win because she's the one I don't get. And because she has so much to do, that means we haven't actually seen her collection. Hard to say what we'll actually be seeing. I love Peytie's aesthetic, but how she got a pass on that orange shower curtain I'll never know. Her family is ridiculously good looking. And her sister! That she painted freehand is phenomenal. Zachary's two looks did not go together at all. Curious to see if he can salvage the prom dress. His Mom is a friend of a friend and she's mentioned online how brutal it was to watch him be in the bottom & be eliminated. You could really see her stress and appreciation when she was with Tim. Awww.

I felt for the chefs tonight. The way it was emphasized how there are no napkins & plates made me assume they needed to create food that could be easily picked up as single servings. And that they should elevate it, as they are always asked to. I would never have thought full-caveman was what the judges wanted. Clearly the ideal way to elevate caveman was what Phillip did, something with a bone handle like a chop or leg. Even I thought of that. Otherwise, they were really expecting to just rip off pieces of roast? Eesh. OTOH, they really did go too dainty with little garnishes and bits. Those choices were baffling. Wonder what the judging really came down to. It sounded like Isaac got the challenge but not the food and Chad got the food but not the challenge. Was Chad's really worse? I'm not saying it's unfair judging or anything, just that it sounded like Isaac's was universally panned and they at least thought Chad's food was good. Usually food wins. Maybe this time past performance broke the tie.

It didn't occur to me to suspect Violet until I read it here. (I don't always watch very closely, even when I mean to. Darn attention span!) On rewatch I suspect her, too. As has been mentioned, the grandfather bit sounds like a back story tailored to Peggy. She's trying way too hard to befriend Peggy. And also to be the cool girl who not only doesn't mind being stood up but gives him the full-on ILY & passionate kiss treatment on the way out. (Which to be fair could also be read as a "this is what you'd be missing" kiss if she's legit.) I also see better why Jack acted like such a dumbass with Dottie. I see how the dominoes set up. First, the two agents say this is like watching a prize fight and that the only one in their office who could crack Dottie is Carter. Hearing this, he dismisses them, telling them to get back to work. Then he gets the call from Sousa and he sees his opportunity. When he tells Peggy, she asks who'll do the interrogating and says plainly that Dottie isn't afraid of him. So I can see where his ego took over and he felt he had to prove himself by making Dottie fear him and confess. Still epically dumb, but I see how he arrived there.

Y'all have covered most of the funny dialogue: who's a good boy...don't want to be a disembodied voice...I get confused around books. The other one that made me laugh: "From the pharmacy get me some saline solution and some sterilized water. From the lab get me some silver halide and some ammonium thiosulfate. And pick up any heavy metal you can find, just in case. Oh and from the market get me some of that cheese I like, you know, that yellow one." "Velveeta. I'll get two bricks." Velveeta: The perfect cheese for a scientist.

Wow, I did not enjoy this episode. Bennett is ridiculous -- an injured, scenery-chewing, mustache-twirling, teenage genius who's apparently on the spectrum. I assume the tics are intentional and we'll learn why she's driven to torture Echo, but for now it's more off-putting than intriguing. We'll see how they are able to integrate a new big bad and Dollhouse team.

Wait, they keep Sierra after finding out she came to the Dollhouse against her will?! Why wouldn't they erase this bit and let her go? I'm horrified. (For sure, every Doll is coerced / misled in some way. I don't believe anyone can legally consent to a Dollhouse contract. This is obviously different. There is no gray area here.) Poor Sierra. At least she has sweet Victor. So, question: Why doesn't "blank" Sierra have an Australian accent? I assumed they stripped out what they didn't need -- memory, personality, sex drive, intellect, etc. -- but left basic functions. Do they instead "reformat" the Dolls entirely and load a brand new OS template that includes speech and swimming?

My word, Jamie Bamber is a beautiful man. Damn. Did we learn how much time has passed? She was in this imprint long enough to meet & marry, so at least a few months but could have been longer. At the risk of sounding super pervy, I've been distracted by Dushku's chest in the last few eps. Did she get implants or are they just padding the hell out of her? Vastly different look from the first few episodes, when we saw Echo braless in her jammies. Dushku does best in three modes -- badass (Faith), blank (Echo), and happy (male-fantasy girlfriend Doll). She doesn't have a lot of range or complexity. Now that I've seen Tatiana Maslany in Orphan Black, I can imagine what might have been with a stronger lead.

I've forgotten so much about what happens on Dollhouse it's almost like watching it for the first time! Almost everything is a surprise. (May have been a voluntary mind wipe -- by the end I was pissed about squandered potential. Frankly, I'm a little afraid to watch S2. I don't remember what's going to happen, but I remember I loathed it the first time.) Did not remember Dominic working for the NSA. And I would have assumed he was being framed to get rid of the threat, as Adelle implied, if he hadn't so explicitly confessed. I think the revelation does make some sense. It's not the inside man we viewers have been looking for -- who's feeding info to Ballard -- but a different one. A spy, not a saboteur. He said he's not there to take down the Dollhouse. The NSA just wants it watched, and protected so the Dollhouse isn't revealed publicly (presumably until the government decides what to do with it themselves). His actions against Echo make more sense in this context. As security head it was logical he'd want to prevent another Alpha, but murdering a top money-making asset behind his boss's back didn't feel quite right if his only loyalty was to the Dollhouse. That he was worried about exposure makes it fit better for me. The Adelle / Victor story made me sad. She can't share her life with anyone, given what she does. To be clear, that doesn't mean it's okay to turn a human into a sex toy! Loved the moment when she said it was "ironic" that he was the most real person she knew, and he unknowingly corrected her that she used the word wrong. Ha.

I feel for Tom Wopat. He must badly want to be in the TV game if he was willing to take that teeny, tiny part. I have no idea what shooting they're theorizing Morland was hurt in. No recall on that event / episode at all -- shows how much I'm paying attention. Was hoping someone here would already have asked & answered!

That scene felt odd to me. Jack couldn't even conceive that he should be afraid of her, or that she wouldn't be intimidated by a little pain? I mean, seriously. It was so obvious she was going to eat him for lunch. I think they're having a hard time nailing his characterization. They want him to be unrepentantly sexist and self-serving, while not making him one-dimensionally stupid or bad. They've shown him go one step forward, and two steps back. But then underestimating Dot was too stupid even for him. You'd think his self-preservation would have kicked in there a tiny bit, after what he's seen. For now I'll hope that this is intentional, setting him up for a big fall and a learning moment.

I thought this one was obvious, despite not recognizing the brother. I don't try to solve the whodunnit because it's more fun for me to just let the story reveal itself. But in this case, it was screaming at me. It seemed like she probably had a tubal ligation young, which immediately tipped me to not wanting to pass on the serial killer genes and I figured she and her brother would have made a pact. I expected that to be addressed in dialogue when they talked to the brother, and when no one remarked on that it jumped out at me. But guessing never ruins anything for me, except to be impatient that Sherlock wasn't getting it. (I really shouldn't be smarter than Sherlock.) I enjoyed Bell's story. He's such a believable, low-key character, very likable. And such a cutie! Short, smart, and a little intense and brooding is my type I guess. I was thankful we didn't see too much of Sherlock's well-intentioned-but-annoying tutoring. Speaking of, if I'm going by MaryHedwig's Best-Looking Face metric, it would have been the realtor all the way for me. I looked up Noah Bean because he was totally unfamiliar -- turns out I do know his face, I just didn't recognize him because he looked rough!

This is a really good point. To use the save would be dramatic for the show and ideal for one designer -- and I think Zach is worth saving -- but it would be destructive for the group. They've bonded as a community and Tim is a mentor to all of them, and for him to pick a "favorite" would be heartbreaking. I hadn't thought about it from that point of view.

Pretty sure the mockery ship -- if there ever was one -- sailed once you could get married same-day by an Elvis impersonator at a drive-thru chapel! Even Padma can't touch that. I kinda like all the carrots! Only recently discovered they can be good, because most are prepared poorly. But it is weird that apparently California had no other vegetables during show taping. I live here, there's always something else. (Ok, to be fair, we just saw sad asparagus, the veggie I personally loathe. There is no good asparagus.) I'll have to start watching restaurant menus, maybe carrots are in fashion the way endive and kale have been in the past.

For real! In that scene, my respect for him as an actor grew. As Charlie he's a nice-enough looking guy, but there? Hot. He's actually changing his face -- by working the crazy eyes & slightly bewildered expression he effectively turns down his attractiveness a few notches. Since Black-ish is the first thing I've ever seen him in, I figured that's just how he looks. But instead he's ACTING (read that in Jon Lovitz's voice).