Eolivet

If Devin was as smart as he thinks he is, he'd stop chirping at Josh and Fessy and start paying attention to Kaycee. How she subtly worked over Amber B., capitalizing on Amber B.'s self-doubt about Theresa, to get herself thrown in. She's not just "a number for Big Brother," she's the glue holding that alliance together. And the last basic white boy to underestimate Kaycee lost $500,000 to her.

I was not expecting this Cody redemption arc, but I'm not mad about it. It's the kind of thing Survivor would include if the guy was the winner, but this is Hell's Kitchen, so for all I know, they were trying to kill time. Now I'm wondering if Declan is the decoy winner. Stop, brain, stop. It's Hell's Kitchen. It's edited by trained monkeys. There are no story arcs, no character growth. Next week, Ramsay will be back to flinging plates of uncooked food onto the floor and you'll forget this pleasant detour about a potentially multi-dimensional character.

I'm guessing that was obviously dramatic effect, but I found it interesting Kyle fell right in line with Kam's plan. What I don't get is how Kyle didn't see Kam is obviously loosely aligned with Big Brother, given Leroy and Kaycee are partners (or didn't comment on it). So, it was very clear who was calling the shots on that team, and it's not "K-Dog" and his blood feud against Fessy and Aneesa. Kyle was good for his Josh imitation, thanking his neighbor's cat Mittens for his first elimination win in four years, though.

Josh: With this money, I'll be able to give my mom and dad a better life and-- Me: YOU LITERALLY WON FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS THREE YEARS AGO.

Congrats to The Mandalorian for its Golden Globe nomination for Best Drama series. And nothing else, because I guess it had no star, no writers and directed itself.

The episode was called Wedding Bells in Hell? When "Hell's Bells" was RIGHT THERE?

I don't know, I think that was clever editing. Jay is short and small, so he's going to have to work twice as hard at those challenges as someone bigger and taller, I think. I noticed Leroy's clips were slowed down, while Jay's were played at normal speed. I think that was to give the illusion it was closer than it was. Here's the thing: Jay will never make a final. Maybe I'll go back and eat my words in a couple years, but not with this system. He would've been perfectly positioned for pre-skull Challenges, where it seems you could fly under-the-radar on the strength of your social game and maneuver not to get thrown into elimination if you had numbers. But once Jay has to see elimination, he's toast. Even if he wins one or two, he's going to be far too tempting a target for bigger guys who need skulls in a physical challenge. So, TJ can like him all he wants, but TJ's rule changes (if they were in fact TJ's rule changes) that people can't just "skate by" and get to a final mean that undersized competitors like Jay will likely never see one. Don't get me wrong, I like this new system and I really didn't like people coasting through a season. But it does mean Jay may keep getting invited back, only to be an early, easy boot every season whenever a physical elimination rears its head.

Nah, Jeff pretty much had nothing but contempt for Jay. He won two immunity challenges, but wasn't the season's challenge beast, and went out on a series of bone-headed moves and unforced errors. His last two episodes are him being led around by the nose and tricked over and over. He basically ended up as the season's court jester. So, I think Jeff disliked him for ironically the exact opposite reason TJ likes him so much: Jeff thought he didn't take it seriously. And compared to others on that season, he didn't. He wasn't a gamebot who ate, slept and breathed Survivor and he did have a pretty laid-back strategy. The thing is, Jay is not great at strategy, but he's a competitor and he excels at reading people. Which he did here. He read his own demise perfectly. And I guess not a lot of people can say that.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, Jay. The editing on this show is not subtle, but it was extra not-subtle tonight. There was no way Leroy The Lion-Hearted in His Final Challenge Season was going down against the second season layup who pissed off three-quarters of the house. Not with the Hero (tm) music and build-up anyway. I love how much Devin hates Big Brother contestants. He's like a grumpy old man yelling at overgrown man-children to get off his lawn.

Fabiola clearly had some kind of medical issue, if the guy's hand she was clutching to do her final confessional outside Hell's Kitchen was any indication. She seemed to have a little clique protecting her. I was amazed Ramsay didn't even bring up the fact she brought the wrong meat to the pass (New York strip instead of Beef Wellington). Josh on the blue team has a very punchable face. There's a lot of cannon fodder on the blue team, too, but I hope he goes soon. He looks like the high school quarterback who never grew up.

That's it, basically. Blatantly lying to supposed allies. The show made the point of including Kyle talking to Jay and saying, "hey, if you're going to throw me in, give me a heads up" and Jay saying, "no dude, you're safe" and Cory talking about the elimination and Jay sitting there, saying nothing (and then apparently winking at him on the bus). For anyone who watched Survivor, Kyle and Cory played the role of Michaela here. Genuinely shocked to be stabbed in the back by someone they were aligned with. Theresa sounds like she had some success in prior eliminations (with Nany, for example). And now she has Ashley out of the house and Kam has a gold skull. But @Jillibean nailed it when she said the elimination did nothing for Jay, who's pissed off two former allies, one who needs a gold skull and an easy match-up. I mean, even JOSH had Jay in his sights for a physical elimination, and Jay was able to wiggle out of it through his social game. That's all gone now. And if Josh knows Jay is a layup for an easy gold skull, then everyone does. Jay's shown the whole house he has no loyalty to any side (so he can't benefit your numbers) and he's an easy match-up ... so why wouldn't you vote him in? Jay made such a bad move, he made Josh look insightful. JOSH!

Jay basically reenacted his entire Survivor game last night: stabbing an ally in the back who would've furthered his game, and blind loyalty to someone because he liked them as a person, where he refused to take the hint they had no interest in helping him in the game.

Well, that was right up there with "trying to play the podium as an immunity idol" in terms of strategy there, Jay. I know nothing about Theresa, but she had what Big Brother would call HoH-itis. Big T made it into a joke last week, but Theresa didn't have many people laughing this week. On the other hand, I will say how refreshing it's been to have all the drama from game-related moves and rivalries, and not who's hooking up with whom. I feel like a prior season would've followed that Fessy/Gabby flirtation to its conclusion. Has anyone else mentioned how distracting Kyle's veneers are this season? Maybe it's my HD. They're like Ross' glow-in-the-dark teeth from Friends.

I sort of agree with the poster who said there's kind of a meanness to this show, in that you're rooting for people to lose money, but it didn't bother me this week, because that first contestant was so obnoxious with his "I used my gut" and his hogging all the questions on the final round and getting half of them wrong. I was annoyed the much smarter monkey-loving woman was saddled with him. It occurred to me last week that Ken might have been throwing the last part of the competition, because he didn't seem altogether comfortable with looking people in the eye and taking money from those who could really use it. James I believed he wanted to beat those contestants, and I was especially happy when the guy lost. It wasn't clear if the contestants competing for the amount of money they won for the pot or an even split? Because if it's the latter, that's not fair at all. The guy won 50 grand less than the woman, and he would've taken some of her money? If you're playing for the money you banked, that's fine. This is a fun midseason replacement (and eons better than The Hustle afterwards), but the idea of wealthy trivia geniuses looking people in the eye and taking their money doesn't quite sit right with me. So, I hope the contestants are obnoxious, to make it easier to root against them. Otherwise, this show is kind of mean.

The reign of Big T was delightful. She and CT are a hilarious odd coupling. And that challenge was made for them, too. Aneesa going back with Fessy proves he needs a woman to do the thinking for him. Now they both have skulls, and aren't exactly "easy" match-ups for the skull-less, they can perhaps coast to the final. Kaycee trying to keep her coalition, which includes Josh and Fessy, together reminded me of the guy crying behind the smiley mask meme. Sorry, Kaycee, Level 6 is not walking through that door.

When the Doctor was going on and on, using every adjective under the sun, to describe what a Dalek is and why they're bad, all I could think of was how Russell T. Davies communicated those exact sentiments in "Dalek" using one look from Christopher Eccleston as Nine. Or the amazing way he used the Daleks to reveal more about the Doctor's character. I miss the days when Doctor Who was well-written. Jodie Whittaker deserves better.

I half-think that, and I half-think Josh has this weird "if you're not with me, you're against me" mentality left over from BB19, and because Jay is floating, he sees Jay as not "with" him. And Josh is sort of not wrong there. I think Jay senses the hierarchy in Kaycee's coalition and knows he'd be close to the bottom, plus he has a MTV vet partner. Since all Jay wants to do is not get thrown in, he's going to lean on his social game and jump ship whenever he senses he's becoming a target. So, oddly enough, Josh is probably right in that Jay will not stick with their alliance, but Jay is also probably right not to do so.

Kaycee suddenly remembering, with startling clarity, why she didn't align with Fessy during BB20.

Between last season and this one, Wes is really playing the role of the wizened veteran. "In my day, we didn't stab people in the back when we were walking ten miles uphill in the snow." I hope Kam realizes she cannot trust the Big Brother alliance, and they will stab her in the back the first chance they get. She'd be smart to realize her pre-determined role in that hierarchy and stick with the "MTV vet" side of the house.

If anyone else has said this, I apologize, but anyone find it kind of funny/sad that Koracik was talking to Meredith about how neurosurgeons make the best lovers, when Meredith was married to a neurosurgeon? And neither of them commented on that? I absolutely adored that conversation, it was vintage Grey's: two doctors having a witty, inappropriate conversation about sex. While I'm not "happy" that Meredith has to be intubated, I am mollified because I did not want Grey's going down the "she got the miracle cure!" route (especially given monoclonal antibodies are not indicated for severe patients like Meredith). As they seem to be progressing along the timeline (explaining the cytokine storm in severe COVID patients, activating surge capacity), dexamethasone may be in her future. This was a decent episode, but it was missing that extra emotional "something" the show has had since the season started. The beach adds a lot of atmosphere, and I found myself missing it. Bailey's storyline was a good substitute last episode, but this one was ... lacking, to me. Maybe because all the other subplots (human trafficking, Teddy's sexuality) seem so small in comparison to COVID. Have a safe and happy holiday season, everyone!

This is sort of where I'm at, although I appreciated the reveal at the time. But it was less of a "main course" and more of a "cherry on top of the sundae." I did not think it was even close to the best part of the show. As someone whose knowledge of Star Wars until very recently was "I saw the original triology and liked it," this show feels accessible, and not intimidating. I can follow along, despite not knowing all the mythology. And I am hopeful the creators are aware they've attracted more than Star Wars fans (especially with a POV character so unfamiliar with the world) and not go too far "inside baseball" into the Star Wars universe in the future. Because I thought the finale itself was outstanding. All the thematic elements of the season coming home to roost. The culmination of a cohesive character and story arc for the show and its titular character. I was on the edge of my seat, cheering and crying and feeling so much, it was almost cathartic. Others have commented on how perfect that final scene was, and I adored it, too. The perfect amount of repressed emotion spilling over. So quiet and heartfelt, it was as if we were interrupting a private conversation. The acting, directing, music-- everything was top notch. This show not only deserves to be nominated for Emmys, but deserves to win them. Or at least Golden Globes. To me, The Mandalorian was the perfect show for 2020: the bonds we form through trauma, the things we do that were unthinkable a short time ago, and everything we're willing to give up to keep the ones we love safe.

If that was Will and James' winner's edit ... what would their loser's edit have looked like? THIS. I never understood why the alliance all went along with keeping the strongest teams in the race, giving them all tougher competition in the end. For all the Survivor/Big Brother strategies these teams adopted, "drag a goat to the end" was not one of them.

I'm with Kyle: Fessy seriously saw one ring, a giant arena and thought, "I don't know if that's a physical challenge?" Fessy is a wuss. Free Aneesa! However, I'm watching Vendettas now, so I got a kick out of the Rookie Class of (Season) 31 team-up of Kyle and Kam. Plus, it made Josh so annoyed, and that's always good TV. Can they retire these Survivor-type "reveal the hierarchy" challenges on these shows, since they were broken by none other than Natalie in her first Survivor season? (Also, I continue to lodge my objection to the idea that "winning a daily challenge" is at all equivalent to being a "double agent." It's like ... words have meaning, MTV. You can't just declare someone a double agent because it sounds cool.)

I agree with others who understood why Gary and D'Angelo took the penalty. And give the other three teams the satisfaction of watching them stagger to the mat in last place? Nah. Opt out of the whole corrupted task. I also think the way they were cutting back and forth between the mat exchange and their confessionals was confusing. For example, I didn't think Gary said, "The race sucked," to Phil, but in a confessional. I could be wrong, though -- it seemed the camera angles changed and you very pointedly did not see Phil at certain times. Hopefully, Will and James' decision to align with the two most consistent teams, one who is faster and by far better athletes than them, and one with far more patience and attention to detail than them, over the inconsistent, older, slower team, bites them in the rear end.

I've watched newschoolers gang up on oldschoolers in Survivor and Big Brother within a few months of each other, so yeah, I'm kind of over it. I'd even settle for Leroy/Kam to realize the Josh/Kaycee/Fessy/Amber core alliance is going to turn on them, and stab them in the back first. I'm over newschooler mega-alliances waltzing to the end simply because they build them too big to fail and they're all literally best friends so they don't turn on each other. I would give my eye teeth to see one of these newschooler alliances stab each other in the back. Play to win. Not "get out all the big players, and then initiate a pre-determined suballiance pecking order." Mega-alliances suck the joy out of reality TV, as nobody thinks for themselves. It's all for the "alliance." Most recently Big Brother, but Survivor had overtones of it in the last couple seasons, too. So yeah, I'd love to see The Challenge break out of that mold. I'd give anything to see a newschooler "we're all besties" alliance implode, even if it means the people who run this show for years keep running it. Maybe it would force the newer people to change up their strategy again, and that might be something worth watching.