NutMeg

makes total sense given how spot on the voice was (and voice don;t change that much once you're an adult, do they). I still felt bad for Steve Buscemi, who looked better than that in his youth, although if he was in on the joke that makes it all right.

Is it the first time that the "next time on" had so clearly given us the last two teams?

He's still a moron for losing the flint and being overall dumb when he wants to make his father proud. Methinks this guy might be a sweetheart but also not very smart. Hopefully his Survivor fan dad is a fan of the likes or Terry and doesn't care about the strategic parts of these games. (I'll eat my headband if Jon turns out to be a mastermind and wins the game. I might even use that headband eating as my pic - that's how save I feel it won't happen).

Jeff has become another hurdle that contestants has to contend with. At this stage, if they've seen previous seasons, they know that. And they should know how to say very little at TC - unless their goal is less to win that to be memorable enough for a call back - and that's where I think these repeated appearances (or I should) say the potential of) have become detrimental. Contestants this season are very careful about what they say about each other - no surprise, they know they might have to be the best of friends/allies in a future season, so why muddy the pool?

Whatever her like had been and whatever her (obviously bad) choices of men, I felt for her in that challenge.

I wish all the RC weren't recycled RI challenges and we had actual tribal reward challenges wit the whole tribe involved. If the season was indeed supposed to have RI and the challenges are predetermined, I wish the rock-paper-scissor winning team at least chooses a free electron, although I fear it might not be allowed.

oh dear... never heard of that show before but if they had to go on an other reality show they should have at least tried for The Amazing Race - where the pickings are so slim that they would have a real chance. Then again, the article says they have been together for six years and Tyson has cold feet while Rachel is eager - oh vey, not promising, unless he's playing it up for show - which I wouldn't put past him .

Ooooh, cannot wait to see that...

Seconding Apollo 13, and adding The whole soundtrack of Belly of an architect, The whole soundtrack of any Kusturica's movie - Times of the gypsies' still give goose bumps, Arizona dream is great too, Iggy Pop and Johnny Deep are wonderfully used, Queen Margot's, The Talented Mr. Ripley's, has both classical, jazz and folkloric Italian songs, all excellent, Breakfast club's Don't you forget about me (quoted on Pitch perfect for those who missed it the first time) Movies from all of Tim Burton's Batman movies - I love the gravitas... And while I'm not a fan of these movies, I really like the theme song of Mission impossible, Eye of the Tiger (Rocky plus many reuses), James Bond movies. And sappy as it is, and I don't really like the song, but in the context of Toy Story movies "you have a friend in me" always makes me misty eyed.

Yeah, you both raise valid points. My understanding was initially put on a titillating show, but it could have been meet and greet also. I still don't see prostitution as such based on Freya's reaction, but it's possible that she has no idea what "entertainment" would have meant back then.

As to the first question, I agree with Marceline above. Plus that allows people to run or play basket ball during lunchtime or late afternoon and still be able to cleanly function afterwards if they need to be back at the office. As for the last question, a resounding yes in ordinary life, but a weak maybe in a soap ;-)

Oh, thanks choclatechip, for a while there I though we almost had had a winner to this little contest! I'm remembering Whitney quite well in her season of Survivor, and she was very well positioned to go far if her team hadn't gotten Pagonged (which not was a drawn out conclusion at the merge), and interesting that she was the one to initiate 3 teams taking the 4 hour penalty (these Survivor people, pff, much all the TAR-not-Survivor-watchers be thinking...).

Watching the Amazing race, I got an idea for a second kind of Idol, let's call it "Express Idol". It would allow the one who finds it to play it either: 1) to win the Reward challenge for the team; or 2) to sit out the Immunity Challenge and be immune if the team loses the challenge. I see a lot of potential team vs. individual dilemma, as well as potential use by savvy strategists who feel they may be on the chopping block. I'm tired of HIIs but think this one could have potential. Any thoughts?

Disregarding the outcome of the character he's based on, our Nucky could well become fucking rich, but that doesn't mean he'd be happy. He was more than well off when we first met him, but I never thought he was happy. He's a tragic character and happiness does not look like it's in the cards for him. Hope I'm wrong, but not holding my breath. I think it's more likely that we see him dead than happy. But I think we'll see him rich or on the verge of becoming mega rich.

I liked them well enough in the first episode but started having my doubts about them when they collapsed in seemingly total exhaustion after (what was it, 1 min 15?) each pancake race. Didn't seem to bode well. And then at the mat he says I STILL love her? why "still"? love her would have been super sweet but still love her?

Thank you for this post, Green, I already kind of knew production was prodding teams but had no idea it was to that extant. Ugg. Otherwise, my only beef with this episode was that the Express pass could be gotten so easily. If there was ever a time to stage a needle in the hay task, that would have been when, I think. Balancing potential of Express Pass with certainty of placement could have been gold.

I think Jon showed his youth and lack of like experience there - this "owing up to it and say you're sorry, sorry, a million time sorry" works well with parents or with a newly wed wife, not so well in the real world outside of close friends. Try that with your boss, and unless you're the golden child, it could backfire big time. I guess maybe he is the golden child in his life and hasn't learned some lessons the hard way yes. I have to say I found J'Tia absolutely hilarious and liked her a lot in her interview with Parvati, and would now be happy to see her again. I know YMMV etc. And I just realized that I may be using Jon's tactic here as she's disliked by most, so that makes me look like a big hypocrite. Feel free to vote for me anytime, I have two idols in my pocket :-)

Maybe Baylor was targeted because Josh put her on the board last week. Me as a player - at least someone wants her out, good, at least it's not me on the chopping board (may be more to it, but at this stage of the game I think it would be enough reason).

Cooksdelight, can you tell us more about these contracts? BTW and OT, does the "badge" near your name mean you're a moderator? that you write recaps? that you're an insider? something else? I'm sorry if here is not the right place to ask, it's not about you specifically but I don't recall seeing anything about it in the general questions thread, and I keep seeing these half golden thingies popping up in forums I post in, so...

I'm sure Julie would agree with this.

Agree. Dale, or Baylor, or even Jaclyn. Anyone-but-me-is 1) a sound strategy, 2) one that the tribe embraced at lat TC. I am repeating myself but before Val told the tale of her 2 idols I don't think she was at risk (and I have the feeling she did so in a mistaken attempt to save Jaclyn in order to keep an ally, which was myopic if not idiotic at this stage of the game and got her eliminated).

Thanks editorlgrrl, I was also hazy about this but your info was helpful.

One more thing - would Val even had been targeted in she hadn't started the whole two-idol charade? Based on talking heads, I got the feeling she was trying to save Jaclyn, her last ally. But then again why save your only alliance partner if it's a case of her or you? Sure, she didn't see it this way at the time, but then why not build up her challenge potential to steer some guys instead of this 2-idol nonsense and talking smack about Baylor because she voted with the guys!!!? Val is very bad at Survivor - and that's too bad, I was looking forward to seeing more of her.

I don't. Any false sense of security she might have gotten from him derived from her telling him she had two idols. I may not like John, but in his place, if I wanted to protect someone and they told me they had two idols, I'd think warning them to be sure to play one idol was enough. In what scenario would Val pretending to the guy that was trying to (secretly) work with her that she had idols when she did not ever had a positive outcome for her? Once again, not liking John, but he wanted to hide the alliance (not a bad idea, even if Josh kind of figured it out), making her play an idol if she still had one to spare is ok in my book. Of course, not being a Survivor fan, he didn't know that you don't have so many laying around so early in the game - why would he? he found one easily enough, so in his book anyone else could have, I guess.

In the first episode, didn't Jeremy make alliances with all the women in his tribe? So that probably includes Julie, right? (I admit my memory is a bit fuzzy on that). An thus, as this point, she might well think he's her closest ally. With the blue tribe not having gone to TC yet, it's difficult to know what's what and who's with whom on that tribe :-) Based on other players' talking heads, it doesn't seem that they are aware of idol clues on EI (of course, it's only this episode that we got to see that pretty much all of them know John is Rocker, so take that with a grain of salt). The only one who knew for sure was Val. So Julie sent her potential closest ally to spent time with her boyfriend - not a bad decision in my book, in theory. And the guys made a deal to protect each other's "women" [soooo condescending...]. Of course, seeing the execution and Jeremy's claiming that she/Julie would go next if Val was gone, the outcome looks bad, but the original theory wasn't unsound.