Eolivet

That I got. mvgx had the best family visit of the 30s (in part due to its role in the already existing reward steal plot arc) and I'll fight anyone on that point. Before Adam became an anxious ball of one-liner energy this season, this was what he was known for. In addition, Adam's dad was slated to go to Fiji in mvgx and couldn't because his mom's illness was too advanced, so I could see why the show revisited that, even if they understandably skimmed over that point last night.

Here's the thing: I don't mind the whispering if it's a truly live tribal like last night, with two distinct factions trying to guess each other's plans. And if that's the only time we saw it, I get it. But they also used it in last episode, an 8-2-1 vote. So, what were they whispering about then? "Are you voting out Adam? Yes, I am. Are you? Okay, so we're for sure voting out Adam. Yes, but let's just whisper about it for five more minutes."

Oh my god, as someone who's loved Jay's heart, his wit, his drive on Survivor and beyond: that. was. amazing. Jay never played scared on Survivor (ask Michaela!), always wanted to throw in the big players, and people so rarely would go with him. I'm so thrilled he got to swing for the fences here and show off why he was such a dynamic player on his season. (the only dim spot is he fell for Dee's antics. Argh, but still.) I still hate Jay will never be on Survivor again, but damn, if I can see more eliminations like that, he might have a nice home on this ridiculous trash fire of a show. Good for him. Okay, I'm completely biased as I adore Millennials vs Gen X, but seriously watch it. The game play is so-so, but the characters are top notch and Jay has the closest thing to a character arc in a scripted drama I've ever seen on reality TV: starts out as this stereotype and gains so much nuance, and I'm getting emotional thinking about it for reasons. Anyway. I love that season. I'm done now.

Family visits with one family member = oh god, here we go again, quit yer whining, jeez, you'll see them again in a month, get control of yourself. Family visits with family members and kids = Awww, so CUTE!!! Look at their little faces!!! Oh, they miss their mommies and daddies so much, the sweet things!! This is wonderful. ::shrugs:: I can't explain it.

Yeah, from the guys' perspective, why wouldn't you throw Jay in there again? People not only want to go into elimination not only against someone you can beat, but so you eliminate as few allies as possible. The red skull seems to have made elimination "King of the Mountain" in a way. Jay has a red skull, he's "king of the mountain." The object is to knock him off, and take his red skull for yourself. It makes the girls look ridiculous, because the guys weren't aware of this twist, while the girls were. And yet, the girls chose not to throw in two rookies. They can't play "Queen of the Mountain" with Jenny. They have to wait until someone wants to take her on to get rid of her. But again, that's advanced math, and these aren't the brightest bulbs.

I've given Adam a lot of grief for his move, mainly because he doesn't appear to be a Tyson-type moron who can't do math. He won his initial season by laying low and being allergic to big moves. But if, per the episode thread, he was convinced of an idol at tribal council by something he saw on Survivor South Africa? For a self-dubbed super-duper fan to go out on an all-winners' season by overthinking, by watching too much Survivor, in essence by being too big of a fan? I could not think of a more glorious downfall.

Adam could've easily proved his trustworthiness by keeping. his. mouth. shut. He was in a decent position at the merge in that every ally Rob had talked to about him (Michele, Jeremy, Denise) still seemed open to working with Adam. He also still had Ben as an uneasy ally. Adam could've easily filled the role of "I'm a number, use me," and laid low. But by opening his mouth and trying to change the target from Sophie to Sarah, he assumed he had power he didn't have. And the fact he tried to switch the target to the ally of his ally (Ben) again! After doing the same thing earlier in the season with Rob and Parvati! After doing the same thing at the mvgx merge with Taylor and Will! It's like a compulsion. If insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, then I can see why many thought Adam a little off this season. What did he expect? He needed to go write on the blackboard, a la Bart Simpson: "I will not target the allies of my allies" a hundred times, and maybe it would sink in. Come on, man!

It was worth a shot to see if that medallion could be removed, I agree. Once it was clear it could not be removed, trying to play the podium for himself was, to me, nearly as stupid as Erik's giving up immunity. Erik's move at least relied on the idea maybe you could trust other people. Adam's move relied on ... principles of reality that heretofore never existed in Survivor (The Immunity Podium! Point to it and immunity is yours!) That turned the move from "why not, Adam, what do you have to lose?" to "Adam, were you dropped on your head as a small child?", which I think Erik captured perfectly here.

I keep going back over that tribal council in my head and while I can marginally figure out why Adam thought an idol would be hiding in plain sight, given it was the shape of the other idols, I can't figure out why he didn't give up after he realized it would not come off the table/podium/lecturn? Because it's one thing to think that medallion is an idol and can be pried free and handed over as an idol. Even the "effing stick" was something that could be handed to Jeff. It's an entire level of disconnect-from-reality to think the medallion has idol-like powers when it cannot be physically picked up. Survivor might hide an idol in plain sight, but never one you couldn't pick up and hand to Jeff. I partially blame Jeff for encouraging it, but I don't know why it didn't click in Adam's brain once he couldn't physically pick up the idol, that "what if the idol is the entire set piece and all you have to do is point to it and that's the idol equivalent" is a bridge many, many, many steps too far, even for Survivor production.

I encourage everyone to read the recap of this week's episode and relive it again, some more, but I do take issue with this: Not ... exactly. Adam got into a huge post-merge alliance and sat back while they picked each other off, mostly laying low and (presumably) working his social game with those not in his alliance. Ultimately, his core alliance group dominated, and he ended up being able to siphon off who he needed to in order to win. I do agree he landed in a group of players who took nothing personally, and lucked out in that sense. And when you look at even this episode, he still had people who had his back. However koo-koo bananas Adam was, he had both Jeremy and Ben speaking up to shift the target from Adam to Michele in the split vote. The editing implies had he kept his mouth shut when the group brought up Sophie, he could've been fine. But he knew better: Sarah was a threat, and he had to speak up. Which sealed his fate. Adam had his torch snuffed because even after the Ethan blindside, even after the mvgx merge, he could not stop reverting to gamebot mode. Because while he would -- and has -- cut off the head of his best friend to win the game, most people would rather keep their friends in, regardless of threat level, and vote somebody else out until it comes down to the end. And that, more than the insane fake idol attempted play, is Adam's legacy this season for me.

I wouldn't say the finale left me cold, but I think it tried to do too much. I lost track of who was leaving who where and when. Did we know Jay was going to Colombia with Gloria? To me, the learning Spanish made no sense without that knowledge. Oddly enough, my favorite moment was Haley, Alex and Luke after the "Woofie" video. It was the kind of "make a comedic moment sentimental" timing this show used to excel at, and that instant where it sunk in that the siblings were leaving each other rang true to me. Claire and Mitchell at the skating rink was great, too. Otherwise, it felt overstuffed. I couldn't really say a proper goodbye to the characters without trying to remember where exactly they all were going. I will remember all the times the show made me cry with laughter, or choke up unexpectedly. Those memories of a better show kept me hanging on til the end. Fare thee well, Modern Family. And the circle of life continues ...

Honestly, between tonight's tribal council uh ... display on Survivor and Jenn's speech, penned by Wes and Bananas, I'm not sure which was more embarrassing. That's quite the aura of entitlement coming from Jordan and Tori there. Dee isn't my favorite, and Jordan earned my respect last season with his competitive drive, but ... yikes. Not a good look for him or his fiancee. I feel like "win an elimination to go to a final" should've injected another layer of strategy into the game, but with these Mensa candidates, it was like giving them a particularly difficult math problem. And math is hard, you guys.

Well, if Adam wanted to show that he was so much more than his tragic backstory that gave him a unanimous win in his season ... mission accomplished?

As a part of this shady Twitch poker channel in the Virgin Islands producing poker and "lifestyle content," Adam went on a trip around the world (presumably paid for by the shady Twitch poker channel) with several other poker players/shady Twitch channel "hosts," which was filmed and put on YouTube. The "premise" of this trip was they would flip an oversized coin every day to decide whether they got a lot of money or a little money in a given city that day. It was dubbed the "Coin Flip Trip." Now I know where he got (or stole) the idea.

And no surprise this was the most hustle we've ever seen out of the designers. As other posters remarked before, what gives Project Runway its urgency is the deadline, the responsibility on the designers to rise and fall based on their own skill set. That's what drives Project Runway, and it's what I thought this snooze-fest was in desperate need of. Sabato snapping at Troy over a sewing machine. Will making pants for the first time. Troy making a dress in less than an hour. Thank goodness the show realized -- for one week anyway -- there's no conflict, no story in "oh, my seamstress shall sew it for me." That reality competition shows are supposed to be full of adrenaline. I feel the same way about excess Tim and Heidi as I did about Boston Rob and Sandra on Survivor last season: they're only there because your contestants are dull. If the show hadn't cast so poorly, it wouldn't be leaning so heavily on its existing "personalities." Or maybe it would, but it wouldn't have to. As it was, I had a moment of "there's a Troy?" last episode and "there's a Rinat?" this one. Maybe that's part of the problem: it's hard to develop strong rooting interests in mostly unremarkable characters. And therefore, much harder to invest fully in the show that features them.

I failed at arts and crafts, so I have no clue how someone would tie two dish towels around their face and makes them stay put. My only thought about how a buff differs from a bandana is it goes over the head, and does the fact it's not open in the back make any difference? Although the data that came out yesterday indicates these viral particles are small, so maybe thickness is the key.

I also had a COVID-19 question for the more medically minded among us @Nashville among others: given the recent recommendation in the U.S. for universal masking with homemade masks in public, how "effective" are Survivor buffs as these kind of masks? My kids have them at home, and they do fit over the head and can cover the nose and mouth, but I didn't know if the material would be comparable to cotton (it's more synthetic, right?) Is it similar to a cloth mask? Is it so thin, it's pointless? Or does the fitting over the head provide any kind of protection?

Yeah, Adam's "90% of Survivor winners are in the majority in the first vote at the merge" statistic is going to have a large margin of error in lopsided votes like this one. Still, if you take it at face value, winners' candidates remain: Adam (lol no) Ben Denise Jeremy Kim Sarah Sophie Tony Tyson Which means only Nick and Michele aren't winners' candidates, based on that statistic alone. First time I realized nu-Dakal and Yara plus Tyson, teamed up against nu-Sele.

Me neither! I remember Bryan, Kevin, Jen, Angelo, Brian Malarkey, Lisa (sort of) and (sort of) Lee Anne. I fell out of interest in Top Chef when I kept disliking the winner, but I was pleasantly surprised when I recognized so many old faces (couldn't get Carla Hall back? Kidding. Sending it out with love!) Like this season's Survivor, I'm dubbing this "oldschoolers versus newschoolers." And like Survivor, it was interesting that a team based entirely of (what I am dubbing) newschoolers came out with the win. These All Star seasons of any reality show seem to exist to prove the game has passed the oldschoolers by. So, I hope we're not looking at that here, or I will have nobody to root for who I recognize and will have to start going on personality. But this was fun. Like a family reunion where you know only your side of the family, and are then introduced to the other distant cousins you never knew existed.

I think Kitty is Amanda Seyfried, based on the "I love Christmas" clue, with Ana Gasteyer's tree. Didn't she say "Jingle bell rock," like the famous Mean Girls scene? I have no idea how that fits in with the other clues, but Amanda Seyfried played Cosette in Les Miserables, so she has to be able to sing well. I can't remember if L'il Romeo/Romeo (the current host of MTV's Ex on the Beach?) was a viable guess for Frog. I would die if it's true. While Rhino said nothing about baseball in his clue packages or to the judges, his post-judging narration talked about the "big leagues." So Barry Zito is a good guess, to me.

Adam's IG post (private, so no links) wishing Jay good luck on The Challenge last night with a photo of the two of them from Taylor's wedding reaffirms why I liked Adam as a person, even as his game play leaves much to be desired.

So, the entire three weeks they spent with Michele and Wendell's "Ex on the Beach" storyline was basically for nothing. Served no point in the narrative, other than providing a reason why she didn't vote him out. That story ate at least twenty-five minutes of screen time only for him to be the first merge boot? I want that twenty-five minutes of my life back.

Excuse me while I go cry that Jay's C-level Survivor strategic game has become an A-level Challenge strategic game. Revealing you have a working brain doesn't seem like the best move on this show, but still. Great episode for him. #TeamRookies* The skulls and the daggers, my goodness, this show is extra. But we're sort of all living "total madness" right now, so maybe it's fitting. *except Bailey, who's clearly channeling Big Brother's Rachel Reilly: "Nobody comes between me and my man!"

Adam is afraid of the challenge. Okay, he's afraid of heights. He's afraid of going home. (what?) He's afraid of the Edge of Extinction? To the point where he starts crying? Is he afraid of the dark? Monsters? Oldschoolers? At least he's not afraid of rain ...?

Here's my problem with that: part of what makes Survivor special is these are ordinary people. They're not famous, except for being on Survivor. They have real jobs, for the most part. After the game is over, most of them go back to real life. I doubt many of them get recognized anymore (except among fans). So, these stories end up being stories about anybody. Not that I wouldn't love an hour-long special about all the former Survivor contestants who wound up as roommates, but ... Australian Survivor aired its finale and offered a potential preview of things to come: the host was in Los Angeles, while one of the finalists was also not in the studio. Australia clearly doesn't have as stringent guidelines about gatherings of more than 10 people, because they had the cast and the other finalist, plus family, and a substitute host. No audience, and no hugging among contestants (though they sat too close together). It was bizarre, and I kept thinking about how much they were failing at social distancing. I maintain there's absolutely no way they will have a live finale here, but it will be interesting if Jeff goes live from LA (or if he's in his house in Fiji? Can he even get back to the U.S.?), and then has the finalists onscreen. I would think the logistics would be too much to do a full reunion show, but I guess we'll see. Conventional wisdom is these guidelines could be extended another month through May.