fishcakes

I’m starting to hate all of them.

I thought they were talking about Roxy and Aimee, but maybe it was Roxy and Shannon? He had the date with Roxy two nights ago and then another conversation with her last night and he seemed interested, but not moreso than he did with Cash. And then he had one conversation with Aimee, which seemed like a lot of nothing to me, although sometimes I get distracted by her teeth and don't pay attention to what they're actually talking about. Shannon was definitely trying to shit-stir there. When she was all breathlessly ratting out Isaiah, I was wondering why she was even involved in that conversation, but I'd forgotten that he'd shown some interest in her at the beginning, so she's probably mad that he backed away. I also agree about Kyra and Shannon when they were talking to Trina. They could see Cash was right there and had to have known from how upset she looked that she knew what was happening. Then at last night's recoupling they were both smiling adoringly at Trina and Cinco snuggling on the couch together while Cash was still hanging in line. Similarly, I don't know why Florita went to Aimee and said that Jeremy said they were "just friends" when what he said was that they were best friends. (Incorrect either way, you can tell she's grown to hate him.) If he'd said it once, I could think maybe she misheard him, but he said it at least twice, maybe even three times so she was just trying to cause some trouble. I have no love for Jeremy and think he's as dumb and dull as a box of his own hair, but I don't get why the women seem to hate him so much. I haven't seen him do anything that bad; it seems like they're just going off what Trina told them, and I wouldn't believe anything she says. In general, this group seems to love drama.

Cinco thinks Trina has been "nothing but honest." Ha ha. Good luck with all that. Javonny was such a sweetheart with Cash. I don't understand though how Cash has become convinced that she's everyone's second choice and that she was the "other woman" in the triangle. She and Trina met and showed in interest in Cinco at the exact same time. She was Cinco's first choice, and Trina was the other woman. As for Isaiah saying, "you're the one I've been thinking about" to three of the women, I don't make too much of that. It's just flirting, and as I've already complained about, all of the people there only seem to know five different sentences that they repeat over and over again. The faces when Isaiah chose her were something. Trina and Cinco looked unhappy, no surprise since her being there is a reminder to them of their heinousness, but Aimee's face was the picture of murderous rage. I'm hoping she gets distracted by one of the new guys and leaves Cash and Isaiah alone. I've noticed that Aimee likes to lie down when she's having her CHATS with THE BOYS. I'm not sure indicating that you're not even interested enough to sit up is a great tactic, but maybe she thinks it's a sexy look. I don't believe that Olivia and Javonny are really starting to have feelings for each other; I think they've figured out that they are very much under-the-radar and if they stick together, they've got another couple weeks of free Hawaiian vacation and can go home to a few thousand more Instagram followers. It's not a bad spot to be in for them, really. The new guys are not only better looking than anyone there, they've also got better jobs. Wes: Financial Planner. Slade: Advertising Agency Owner. Contrast with Cinco: Has Upcoming Interview at a Hardware Store and Jeremy: Can Run Pretty Fast.

Unhinging her jaw and trying to eat their faces is bad enough, but the way Shannon whips her hair and writhes around while she’s kissing is hard to look at. Girl thinks she’s in a Whitesnake video.

Cinco: I want us to stay friends. Cash: No, I don't want that. Cash is the hero we didn't know we needed. Cinco was 100% wrong in not telling Cash first that he was choosing Trina, but I'm willing to cut him the tiniest bit of slack only because he still thought he could talk to her before she found out, but by the time he tried, it was too late. He's just a dumb mfer and has no idea who Trina is and that she would make sure Cash heard about it immediately. She went directly from Cinco to 15 feet away from Cash with that smug smile and "I'm so happy!"-ing to Shannon and Kyra, then was all wide-eyed innocence to Cinco, saying "I didn't say anything to her." Which technically is correct, but she knew what she was doing. They're both pretty awful, but he's just stupid-awful, whereas Trina is malicious-awful. The setting for the new women's dates was so beautiful; those blues and greens looked unreal. But it was spoiled for me by six morons having the same boring conversation three times over. "We have such good chats." "Our chats just ... flow." "I hope you'll pull me for more chats." "I hope we can chat more again." Oh yes please, talk some more in front of the cameras. It's so interesting. Then cut back to Cash and Korey talking about how they were each born with 12 fingers and comparing their nubs, which by comparison seemed like a university lecture by a prominent visiting professor. I'm rooting for Cash/Isaiah and Korey/Florita, but if Cash and Korey want to get together and have some 14-fingered babies, that would be fine too. I just want them both to be happy. That was what won me over too. He was so understanding about the whole thing when he knew it was coming, and then when it happened, you could tell he was pretty hurt nonetheless. But it looks like he's been nothing but mature and kind to everyone involved. He seems like a really good guy.

This is the first time in three seasons that I've thought the producers were manipulating the couples to create more drama. For days, we've seen Cinco and Cash talking and laughing and having fun and Cinco and Trina sitting uncomfortably talking about Trina's feelings. When Cinco told Trina she was the one last night, he could not have been more reluctant. Staring at his lap, barely audible, "the person ... I want to ... focus ... on ... is ................ you ..." I'm wondering if a Production Assistant hasn't been in his ear for a week, saying, "what about Trina? Trina's hot! Trina is into you! Don't you want to give Trina a chance?" Not telling him what to do, but letting him know what they'd like to see happen and trying to make it seem like his idea. They might be trying to manipulate Isaiah in the same way to pursue Shannon. He pulled her away from the private conversation with Josh in front of the hollowed-out heart (Narrator: "AKA Shannon") so that he could talk to her and even though he tells her how interested he is, he doesn't seem that way when he's talking about her to the other guys and has mentioned all the red flags she's throwing up. On the other hand, I think this is equally possible and Cinco is thinking with his dick. In that case, if he chooses Trina I expect it to end badly and I hope that happens during the season so that we can watch it. I like all three of the new women. I'm kind of hoping for pairings of Korey/Florita and Javonny/Roxy because those are two guys who've been undeservedly neglected so far, and Lei-Yen/Cinco because that would be hilarious. With two extra women, does this mean that two women will go at the next recoupling? I would hate to lose Cash, but since she and Cinco have looked so solid, none of the other guys seem to have thought about her as a potential match. She'll have to try to change that fast if she's going to stay in.

It seems like Cash is okay with Trina and Cinco talking and getting to know each other to see if there's anything there, even though she's obviously hoping there's not, but what she didn't like was Trina being aggressive with Cinco, as if he were still uncoupled. Honestly, it seems like Cinco doesn't love that either because both Cinco and Trina said that she tried to kiss him, not that she actually kissed him, so he had to have stopped her. Then he told Cash about it the next morning. After that we saw Cash telling the other women, minus Trina, what Cinco told her, and only then did Trina talk to her and apologize. So I'm 99% sure that one of the women went to Trina and said, "Cinco told Cash what you did!" which is what prompted her (fake, imo) apology and promise to respect boundaries while still trying to get to know Cinco. Then, like an hour later, she's got her hand on his thigh and is feeding him berries and saying, "I have to take care of you before myself!" Oh, well, that's not suggestive at all. 🤨 The only thing I remember about Yamen is that when Alana left, she gave him this big goodbye kiss that he clearly didn't want, and then when she walked away he wiped his mouth. Not in a mean way, just sort of automatic. Still that had to hurt when she saw it on TV. I thought the newbies were watching the show before coming into the villa and were up to speed on who everyone is, who they're with, and who's a dirty liar and whatnot. Last season, the Casa Amor people, at least, seemed to be well-informed. But Isaiah has talked to Shannon twice about what her story is with Josh and if he's been watching up until now, he has to know that her claim of being "nothing but loyal since day one" is ... fictional? He doesn't seem to care that much though.

Me last year watching the challenge where they transfer food mouth to mouth: This is the most disgusting challenge ever! Last night's challenge: Hold my beer. I was surprised Shannon got such high scores on her kissing. That looked painful. I love Cash. Her confessional where she essentially said, "I don't compete for men" was glorious. I hope Cinco chooses her, but if he drops her for Trina, then he deserves that mess. Putting extra content on Paramount Plus is annoying to me, but it sounds like it's a raunchier version of what's airing, so I'm fine with not seeing it. Even if we miss a few things, it's okay since I assume it's mostly more dumb conversations about vibing and connections. I think CBS is testing the waters to see if people will abandon a show if there's extra streaming content they have to pay for, and if enough people drop the show, then they'll stop. I can't imagine too many people watch Love Island to begin with, but it will be interesting to see if they try to do this with Survivor or even their scripted shows.

I can't help noticing how thin he is. He looks like he looked after season 3, when he picked up a parasite in Africa and was underweight for about a year. I hope he's not sick.

I don't think I ever noticed Kevin before last night, but I felt really sorry for him. He just seemed so hapless and terrified.

LOL. "You could call it Survivor 2.0! You can call it Survivor: Dawn of a New Era! Which it is! You could call it Survivor 41! Drop the 4, keep the 1 because it's a brand new game!" Translation: It's mostly the same but we added some stuff. The last time they radically changed the game was Edge of Extinction and we see how great that worked out. The season won by Who's That's Guy.

VO guy said it would cover the aftermath of the recoupling, and the previews showed a lot of crying, so maybe it's everyone rehashing what just happened. Since so much is repetitive in the normal episodes, I'm sure it's fine to miss it, but it's an annoying tactic for CBS to use to get people to sign up for Paramount Plus. In the past, full episodes have been up on YouTube the next morning (but not last night's yet, for some reason), so I'm thinking the extra episode might end up there as well, or more likely, that they'll stop putting the episodes on YouTube altogether.

Kyra, Trina, and Shannon don't seem to get the premise of the show, at least when a new woman arrives. They understood it just fine when Will and Cinco showed up. I don't feel bad for any of them. Shannon and Trina talked about how they were losing interest in Josh and Jeremy and were hoping they were going to be chosen by Will and Cinco at the first recoupling, and Kyra left Korey to recouple with Will, so I'm not sure why they're now either screaming about being disrespected or crying about losing their deep committed relationships of [checks calendar] three days. Kyra seems to like Will a lot, but Shannon and Trina just got their egos bruised. They're going to ditch Josh and Korey at the first opportunity. And Trina's going to continue to pursue Cinco, even though Cash has been a good friend to her. That's the game, but since she made such a big deal about Aimee going after Jeremy without talking to her first, I don't see how she justifies continuing to try to get Cinco away from Cash. Really, the only person I feel bad for in the whole thing is Korey. Maybe Aimee because those three were staring daggers at her for a day, although they all seem to have calmed down about that. It's funny that the three new women coming in have already expressed their interest in Cinco, Cinco, and Will, and the rest of the guys will be like: I will miss Christian and his yenta ways. So no episode tonight unless we sign up for Paramount Plus? See, now I feel disrespected.

Thank you! That makes so much more sense.

Were the women talking about Jeremy's dick? I couldn't make it out and I even rewatched on YouTube with the closed captioning on and it's like ????? too. This is in the morning when they're getting ready and she starts off all, "did you hear us? He just started making out with me!" Oh okay. But then it gets very murky. It sounded like: Trina: And then he's saying, fuck on lie ... Cash: His thing is dangin'? Trina: Yes, yeah. Shannon [covers her crotch, whispers]: Did you touch his wiener? Trina: Yeah, I did. Fair hands. Shannon: I think I'm blacking out. Obviously, that can't be an accurate transcription unless I am super old like Olivia and can't speak young person language. What the hell is "dangin'"? Did she say "bangin'" or "hangin'"? Did he take it out? If he took it out, those make more sense. I am pretty sure Shannon did call it his wiener, which confirms my suspicion that she might only be 12. Anyway, the conversation starts here, if anyone else can make better sense of it. Oh, and also my prediction is that Trina is going to be this year's crazypants woman. There's always one every season, and she's starting to give off some strange vibes. Olivia was also wearing huge sunglasses and they were big rectangular things, but to be fair, she probably picked those up at the eye doctor when she had her age-related glaucoma checked. Speaking of Olivia, I liked her better when she was silent. Those were mostly imaginary women.

Does Olivia have the power of speech or no? Maybe it's just because she's so old and can't find anyone who wants to have conversations about osteoporosis and AM radio. Korey seems like the sweetest guy. He was so understanding in his conversations with Kyra and Will about how he was about to be aced out. And then his face when it did happen was so sad. I hope he sticks around for a while and finds someone else to couple with. I'm glad Cinco chose Cash. Their conversations just seemed so much more natural and easy than his with Trina. I don't like her either. Her secrets being she watches videos of herself having sex and got paid thousands of dollars by a pedophile so he could "talk" to her are not really material for what should be a lighthearted game. She just seems more impressed with herself than she should be. But I don't like Josh either (although his attempt at making Shannon suspicious of Will has hilariously inept especially because she had a "blah blah blah" look on her face while he was talking), so I'm fine with them staying together. There is something strange about her lips. I haven't figured out if it's too much filler or if she's just making weird faces.

I'm so glad this show is back! That coupling up ceremony was super uncomfortable. It was a series of, "okay, I guess I'll settle for you" pairings. I don't think any of those couples will last to the end. Overall, this is a less attractive group than earlier seasons. The women are pretty, but the men are ... yikes. Jeremy was the only guy in the original group who I would find attractive, but then, oh HELLO Cinco. So mean to keep him until the end. I was looking at the photos last week and Christian reminded me so much of someone but I couldn't figure out who until last night when I saw that blond hair flopping around and I realized who he reminds me of is one of these little dudes:

I always love the demonstrations by Gordon or the guest chefs, and he and Michael Mina have such a nice rapport that I could have watched a whole hour of that. I did have to laugh at Gordon talking up his sweetbreads, "it's not from the throat area; it's pancreas." Oh yes please, give me a double helping of pancreas. I like Abe so I was happy for him, but he put raisins in the coleslaw! That is literally a joke from SNL's Black Jeopardy.

Payton was the right choice to go, but I hate that Brynn got her way. She's got this teacher's pet/center of attention neediness that bugs, even when she's not sobbing angrily about something. She always looks like she just got slapped. But I don't think she's ever been called out for messing up, so it seems like she's got good skills in the kitchen; if she'd just tone the drama way down and work, she'd go far. As it is, I think she's going to melt down and get herself eliminated. What was Sam's appetizer? ONE scallop? If that had been my birthday party, Antonio could have put up Stouffer's Mac and Cheese and still beat Sam.

Abe's tart looked really good and you couldn't tell it wasn't set until you cut into it, so I wonder how the judges knew to call him up for bottom 3. Do they make two of everything and the judges sample one before they make their picks? Other than not being set, the judges seemed to be straining for bad things to say about it; Aaron claiming pomegranate is too acidic for a dessert (what?), and Sherry Yard saying she had bits of it stuck in her teeth, which seems more like a personal problem to me. I wanted to see what Suu made with the yam, but I don't think we got even a quick shot of it. Is Mary Jayne going to say "flippin' doodah" every week? So annoying.

Brynn is the annoying kid who reminds teacher that she forgot to assign homework. Gordon says to the entire team, "tell Payton this is the garnish for the strip not the Wellington," and while everyone else either mumbles or just stands there, Brynn yells out, "PAYTON, THIS IS THE GARNISH FOR THE STRIP NOT THE WELLINGTON." And she took a little too much tattletale satisfaction out of later telling Gordon that Payton doesn't know the menu. Payton knows the menu; he just doesn't pay attention to what's been ordered. Funniest line of the night goes to voiceover guy claiming that Hell's Kitchen dinner reservations are the most coveted in all of Las Vegas. Ha ha, see, but no.

They telegraphed that Kelsey was winning the monkfish challenge when they had her do all those talking heads about the common mistakes people make in a challenge like this intercut with shots of the other contestants making those mistakes. If you didn't know better, based on the authoritative way she was talking, you'd have thought she was one of the judges. Nothing against Kelsey, but I was kind of hoping for a twist ending with them tasting her dish and throwing it in the trash. When Autumn said she was doing a teriyaki monkfish, I immediately thought she'd be bottom 3. In Japan, teriyaki is more a home-cooked easy dinner and in the US it's pretty much fast food, although you can get it in the more homey sit-down restaurants here too. But then she talked about her many trips to Japan and busted out at least a passing ability to speak Japanese, and I thought maybe she had enough familiarity with Japanese food to elevate a teriyaki and would be okay. But I did not expect top 3 at all. Her plate did look good, though. I wonder if there would have been a way to save the sandwich Tay started out with. Like if there was a way to cook the fish so that it wouldn't still be losing water when done. It seems like if you could put it in a taco, you could put it in a sandwich. Then again, both tacos were bottom 3, so maybe watery fish was a factor and they didn't mention it because of all the other issues. Either way, I thought fish banh mi sounded better than what he ended up making, and his final plate didn't look all that great, but I think they're partially judged on how well they take instruction from the judges, so he probably got points for listening to Gordon when he told him to regroup, whereas Alejandro and his insistence that they eat burned cucumber knocked him down a few. I loved Morimoto's understated, "I ate the cucumber. I didn't understand it." So far, I'm liking Suu, Autumn, Tay, and maybe Michael (the vegan). Pretty neutral on everyone else, most of whom I couldn't pick out of a line-up. I haven't watched in a few years, but I remember it being the way @Chicago Redshirt described. Last night would have been only half the show, and the bottom 3 would have had to compete in a pressure test, so you would see less of the preparation. Could be the first competition episode is always this drawn out and I've just forgotten.

I remember that in the very early seasons, Jeff would say to the jury something like, "and you haven't discussed your vote with anyone else?" and they'd all say they hadn't. But I don't remember if she said that before they voted, or if it was at the reunion before he read the votes. I kind of think it was the latter because they didn't want spoilers getting out. I know that there have been unconfirmed stories about Ponderosa people lobbying for votes for someone in the F2 or F3, so it seems like they do talk about how they're going to vote. Probably the only rule is that they can't talk about it after the fact.

Ohhhh. I completely missed that. Yeah, that's not a good sign.

I wasn't going to watch (partly) because of her (and partly because handing out aprons is so boring), but then I did, and I was sorry. She makes my skin crawl. There's this wrong-headed idea that when older women sexualize younger men, it's somehow empowering for the women and therefore okay, but it's actually just as gross as when men do it to women. And knowing what a terrible person Deen is and how she's treated people who work for her makes it horrifying to watch. Maybe she figures that predatory old broad is a better image for her than racist sack of shit, not realizing that we can see her as both simultaneously. It was interesting that they brought her out to talk to a couple of the Black contestants as they were cooking, and I am 100% certain that those contestants were told they had to flatter her and call her the Queen. It was a bad, "See! Black people like her so she couldn't possibly be racist!" skit. The only person who seemed genuinely impressed with her was the older lady (who'll "bless your heart" and "kick your ass"), so I already don't like her on that basis, although I'm willing to have my mind changed if she turns out not to be heinous. That was really nice, but I got the impression it wasn't a surprise to the kid or his family. When he walked out and told them they were going to New York, they were like, "oh that's great!" and not, "wait, what does that mean? We can't just move to New York!"