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Cmon, Lauren have some dignity. Don’t throw your arms around the guy and act giddy to see him after he dumped you to propose to someone else. Even if you are still in love with him. Make him sweat it out, just a tad. Maybe they really will make it since Lauren seems pretty passive and forgiving. He can always explore his options with other girls and she’ll always take him back. I hopped into the spoiler thread last night not realizing there were still more spoilers to come. I saw they were supposedly engaged but it seems like the proposal was at the beach and I assumed filmed. When they didn’t show the video package I thought, “Okay, they realize the world hates him right now and this will not be well received.” But I guess you can’t keep the Neil Lane ring unless millions witness your proposal with these contracts so they plowed on. I cannot believe they got engaged on the show. Like others have said, read the room, y’all. Folks are not cheering for you right now. Yikes. I always liked Becca and it seems like she will do well as the lead based on those first initial meetings. Bachelorettes have had a pretty good track record these last few seasons so let’s see if she keeps up the trend. I’m pulling for her. Banjo guy’s shtick was pretty hokey but reminded me physically of Josh Bowman (from Revenge) so he has my vote at the moment.

Arie is a complete ass. Did the producers tell him he’d get a second ring for Lauren’s proposal if he got Becca to scream and yell at him? Becca has more self restraint than me. I was yelling at my tv for him to just get out. He just kept sitting there like a bump on a log. He didn’t even look remorseful. Now we see why he made out with everyone. He literally doesn’t know what to say in tough/ serious situations. He and Lauren will be perfect robots together. But seriously. If Lauren is still with him after he dumped her and proposed to someone else, I’ll have no respect for her (let’s be real. I don’t have any anyway). But most “winners” have a tough time after seeing everything their now fiancée went through with other contestants. If she was that doubtful the entire time and he was constantly reassuring her about their relationship, HOW CAN HIM PROPOSING TO ANOTHER GIRL CALM HER FEARS?!? Becca’s the real winner tonight. She doesn’t have to marry that jackass.

I hope it gets another season. If nothing else, I need more Jason Ritter and puppies! They’re so fluffy! :)

Oh man. If that’s the first time Evan found out that Henry had it right but didn’t get a check... they are most likely not a couple anymore (and Henry might not be in this world anymore... I kid. I kid.) I was cheering for the skiers. I thought Jen was the stronger of the two so that sucks she’s the “reason” they lost. I wish the memory tasks were super difficult but could involve both team members. Or at least let them write down as they go! That had to be maddening with all of the stress and pressure they were feeling anyway knowing they were so close to the finish line. Oh and that sign task seemed IMPOSSIBLE. And the answers weren’t even in red and yellow. I was hoping Phil was going to be a rule stickler and say if they couldn’t identify the signs that gave them the numbers, they had a time penalty. Otherwise it probably would have been just as fast to stand in one spot and spin through combinations once you had a number or two as opposed to racing around exhausting yourself. All in all... a solid season. I didn’t hate anyone but definitely cared for some teams more than others. Hoping we see the skiers and Indy again in the future.

The elimination between Derrick and Joss was crazy. Amazing how long they both lasted but what an underwhelming way for Joss to go out after putting up a fight for so long. Speaking of Derrick... is there a solid timeline on him, britni, and Brad? D&B were making out at the dirty 30 reunion. Was that filmed before this show started? It’s sad that I care but I want to know. What idiot producer came up with that challenge? Did they at least successfully test it (with multiple people completing all five cars) before running it? The cars being above water seemed tricky enough. No need to add rain! Or maybe over the middle car at most. Not all of them! And Zach broke that rear window and glass went everywhere. I would have not gone past the first car either (if I even made it off the start platform). I admit I’ve never been a Marie fan. She is pretty lookswise if you’ve never heard her open her mouth but the second she does... ugh. Her personality just makes her so unattractive. Hoping she goes next week. I’m enjoying devin and jemmye’s commentary this season. If only they could back up all of the smack talk in the challenges.

Jessica got some serious side eye from a local when she was rolling the tire. She basically barked “out of the way” (or something similar) as she tried to move past him and you could tell he did NOT appreciate it (and I can’t blame him). I don’t watch BB but she’s definitely not my favorite (or even in my top five) based on what I’m seeing. Re: partners splitting up. I believe I read an interview with a previous contestant that the pairings always have to be within a certain number of yards of each other AND their camera crew. Not sure if there’s a penalty (that they would show on tv) if they disobey but I think they are definitely managed and corrected by someone if they get too far from each other. Sad it wasn’t a NEL for the firefighters. They weren’t the best team but they tried their best and always seemed to keep their cool and enjoy themselves/the experience. I wonder how close they were to beating Team BB to the mat. If it was just a couple of minutes and they hadn’t stopped to help Evan and Henry could that have made a difference? This is why you don’t help other teams. At the very least don’t give explicit directions! Just a general hand wave in the direction they need to go if you must help. It’s for a million dollars people! C’mon! Someone pleeeeeease tell me who Jen (brown hair skier) looks like. I can’t even pay attention to the episode half of the time because I’m trying to figure it out! It’s some actress or maybe someone who was on Survivor? It’s driving me insane. My roommate said Jennifer Garner but that’s not it. Ugh. It’s just like with Devon last season on Survivor. Never figured out his doppelgänger either. Someone please solve this for me!

This is long and I am going to apologize in advance... Maybe I'm naive but I choose to believe that the producers map out the season in advance and stick to it. Sure, a challenge might have to change depending on weather conditions or if a castaway is medically evacuated and it affects the numbers for a challenge, the jury, etc. but I think they stick to the plan (said in Keith Nale's voice). Otherwise, if someone found out TPTB were manipulating things there would be real-world consequences (like the girl who sued them from S1 because the producer encouraged the guy to keep voting alphabetically and she was next alphabetically so she was voted out... I feel like that is how it went). I admit that might make me a sheep. I think the true manipulation lies in the editing. Exhibit A: Producers LOVED Russell finding idols without looking but neglected to show he was a TROLL and everyone was dragging him to the end. He was A goat not the GOAT (as the kids say) like they wanted us to think. As for Ben (or whoever desperately needs it) always finding the idol. ...Maybe because they are always looking? If he looked for it from the moment they got back from TC (let's pretend it's midnight) until the sun starts to rise (let's say 5 am), that's 5 hours no one else was even trying (and most likely there is only so big an area they are allowed to explore so that also decreases the needle in the haystack odds). I say more power to him. I get what they are trying to do with fire-making at the final four. The reasoning from the producers seems to be "Look at how many of your favorites got voted out at final 4 because the other 3 knew they were huge threats and banded together: Malcolm! Kelly Wentworth! Spencer! Yau-Man! Cydney! What if they had had a chance to make it to the end?" I think it's the same as any time they introduce a new twist (Final 3 vs. Final 2, the hidden immunity idol, fire-making at F4 instead of pulling rocks (Pascal!)) They have to introduce it SOMETIME if that is the plan to keep the show interesting (and I don't remember if the contestants knew about those changes from the beginning of their seasons). How often have we gone into a final episode knowing who the final 5 are said, "I hope that combination is not the final 3... it would be the worst one ever!" Just last season, if it had been Brad, Tai, and Troyzan how bad would that have been? But TPTB are playing with fire here (pardon the pun) because if this is now the status quo, good players might get voted out even earlier to prevent situations like that from happening. I still like the show even with all of the twists and turns. I am happy Ben won (partly because him being the underdog at the end, and then partly because once that bamboo exploded and he had his moment, I knew the winner's edit had begun for him and I wanted to be right). I think this season was full of thin-skinned players (Ben included) who got unusually angry when things didn't go according to their plan (Ryan, Chrissy, Devon also come to mind). I feel like TPTB have gotten somewhat back on the right track by casting FANS of the show instead of pretty looking people they come across in a bar but they keep tweaking the game to keep it interesting. I think they are learning their lesson with the secret advantages being a one-time use so another Cirie doesn't get screwed over by everything being played at once and getting kicked off by default. I'm still not a huge fan of the new FTC format. I know the old format had become stale but this just... isn't working. Plus I don't really agree with Jeff's definitions of outwit, outplay, and outlast. If they really wanna hammer home those phrases, why can't they divide challenges like that? Have outlast be endurance-based, have outwit be puzzle-based, and outplay be more physical and rotate the three so it is not puzzle, after puzzle, after puzzle which gets old even if it has a physical element in the beginning stages. Have y'all watched old seasons recently? My teenage nieces have become big fans of the show so we've watched old seasons over the past few years. The seasons without HII can be a bit... dull. Yes, they focused more on relationships and survival but a lot of the time it was majority alliances systematically voting out those not in their alliance. Remember how we would get 2 vote-offs in one episode because it would be the dwindling members of an alliance getting picked off and it was obviously happening so let's just get it over with. So I think that's why they've added idols and advantages to keep it interesting. The Ghost Island concept sounds...interesting... and I'll be along for the ride. See y'all next season!

I need a gif of Befuddled Tyler during his conversation with Catelynn as the website crashed. I don’t know if I’ve ever laughed so hard at this show. He was just SILENT (and you know that’s a feat itself) since she said something supportive but in a really hostile tone and he didn’t know how to respond. Leah is the sweetest. Bentley is also the sweetest. And Sophia was pretty cute hiding the note in Farrah’s suitcase. But the number of times they had to talk about how she wouldn’t play hide and seek while Farrah was gone was TOO MANY. There’s a story there. Catelynn you’ve been on TV too long to be pulling some of the faces you did tonight. Yikes...

It’s appropriate it ended in a sewer cause this show is circling the drain.

Ugh. Sweet Leah asking Amber to go to the restroom with her so she could spend as much time as possible with her. Breaks my heart. And Gary, Kristina and co. are going to be in some serious pain based on those sunburns. Yikes! Ryan being incredulous that Maci makes Bentley do chores. “Can you imagine if you did that crap with me?” Ryan says to his mom as we watch her life filled with pain and regret flash before her eyes while she chats with her son WHO JUST LEFT REHAB FOR A DRUG ADDICTION. Farrah, here’s my two cents about your new realtor friend: You in danger girl.

I too assumed Ben’s secret agent gig was over with the Joe vote (and we’ll quickly find out in the next episode) but I guess he could say he thought they were splitting the votes between him and Joe and rather than have a tie, he voted for Joe. Maybe? The math probably isn’t right on that. But I want the double agent dynamic to continue since it adds some mystery to the game. Did Ryan tell everyone about his idol? I thought when Devon told him he was upset he told other people, Ryan would catch on to the fact that meant Devon and Ben had talked. Because he told Devon, Ben, and Chrissy, right? JP probably knew since he walked by him digging it up. But all of those people weren’t voting with Devon, so how did he know? Obviously, we the audience know Ben and Devon are working together. But shouldn’t Ryan wonder who the blabbermouth was? I think Chrissy had two advantages in the change she won II. 1) She’s pretty smart. 2) she got to see everyone else’s letters up on the pegs. I assume the rules are you have to work out the puzzle where the viewers can see as opposed to on the floor/ground where there is more space. That’s why they’re always up on a table or pegs like this one, ready for all the camera angles. So she already got to see folks’ letters in different combinations. I think someone (maybe Lauren) had “near” and another person had “vul”. It was a dumb word though and if I ever plan to go on survivor, I’m looking up all synonyms for safe, immune, etc and memorizing the longest ones.

The second JP talked during TC I knew he was a goner since that’s the first time he’s done so since the merge. That’s assuming he talked when the tribes were smaller. I’m sure he did but I have no memory of it. The guy truly got an invisible edit. That was pretty brilliant to have Mike be a double agent AND he did a pretty convincing job of acting like he was left out too. Devon is more than a pretty face! Someone said on Twitter: “Did Lauren just listen to all 6000 hours of The Evolution of Strategy (podcast Rob Cesternino did on all 30+ seasons) on a loop on her fishing boat” I’m seriously impressed by her game play!! You wouldn’t think she’d have it in her in the first few episodes but she’s proving to be a challenge beast and a strategic player. But I do think wanting to vote out Ben in the second episode was premature. They had to secure the majority. If they voted him out, they risked Chrissy + Ryan and Joe + Mike teaming up to be the new majority and picking them off. I LOVED seeing Chrissy and Ryan get knocked down a few pegs. Survivor masterminds you two are not. @Ms Blue Jay your comparison of Dr. Mike being Michael Scott is absolutely dead on. You win the internet tonight. How the guy is so genuine in his delusional thinking is mind boggling!! I still think Ben is getting the winner’s edit.

This show is just terrible. Everyone seems miserable and are just there to collect a paycheck from MTV. But it’s SUCH a train wreck that I can’t look away. Somewhat in popular opinion here but I liked seeing Mac immediately get put in her place after stomping off the reunion show. Sucks that it was Amber so it was pretty much pot meeting kettle but Mac deserved it. She’s delusional and a liar. And I cannot believe she is in her early 20s. She looks late thirties/early forties at best. My second UO is David is right that they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t when it comes to Farrah. He didn’t sign the card, she bitches about it. He shows up to the party, she bitches about it. Ugh. I feel awful that I’m agreeing with him. Thanks a lot Farrah. In the words of T.Swift: Look what you made me do. Caitlin is so excited to braid the horse’s tail yet she has a daughter at home that she basically ignores. I get that the animals are probably her way of trying to fill a void from Carly but please pay attention to your little girl and not the goat, chickens, and horse. Ugh. Breaks my heart for Nova. And while this show is already a colossal train wreck, social media and gossip mags have pretty much ruined the show. We already know everything that’s going to happen because these girls call it in to US Weekly or post it on Instagram. Yet I just can’t look away. *hangs head in shame while being followed around by a nun ringing a bell*

Yay!!! I’m so happy for Lindsay!! It’s nice to finally see her win it all because she just seems like a nice, sweet person and she’s clearly a great dancer and amazing choreographer! When the season started, I had no idea who Jordan was (assumed he was a Disney kid) so I was sad that Lindsay probably wouldn’t have a good chance. Then I saw the kid dance. He is great. He seems like a nice kid who seems very grateful for everything that has come his way. He deserved it. Happy for him Now can we have an all-stars season so we can get James Hinchcliffe back and he can win??

Oh, I do also care about Quinn but I feel like this kidnapping is just to accommodate her real life pregnancy so I’m not quite as worried as I could be. I don’t think they’d really kill her. Buuuuuut maybe they could since it’s so close to being over anyway. It did cross my mind Quinn and Papa Pope could be working together. Maybe not initially but they both see how far gone Olivia is so they teamed up. Glad I’m not the only one who thought the candle gift to Cyrus (and how much they focused on it) was weird. Something is going on there. You don’t hire Hank Schrader just to play Cyrus’s love interest.

Has Kerry Washington lost a ton of weight? I feel like her face is almost gaunt. Which makes the mouth acting even more distracting than usual. But seriously, I hope she’s okay. She looks teeny in the waist too. Maybe I’m just used to her hiding the pregnancies? I think the writers have made too many mistakes with Olivia. I don’t really care what happens to her so putting her in harm’s way doesn’t do much to me. This first half of the season hasn’t been great. I think... Charlie?... is the one I’ve started to care about the most (and let’s face it. That’s residual Brian McKenzie love). Let’s hope they finish it off well. Because I’m really just limping along to the end because I don’t want to give up when it’s so close to being finished. But I do find myself hoping it’s a shorter season.

The pacing on this season SUCKSSSSSSSS. Why are they dragging this out? Can Camilla win if she’s not there? That will be super anticlimactic if she did win. So I feel like Cara will win (maybe by default aka they messed with the times so Camilla cannot win). I think it’s weird they aren’t acknowledging why she’s not there. I mean we all know why, so just say it. I did not loathe Tori this season. Yes, she’s animated but she can compete and I respect the fact that she owned up to everything on the stage in front of everyone. Come on MTV. Pony up the money to trace the IP address so we can know who sent the screenshots. I immediately assumed Johnny because we know he likes to meddle in relationships. Disappointed for CT but glad Derrick still has a chance!

Y’all. I apologize if this has been mentioned in a previous season with a Scrub Daddy update. But. Did you SEE the inventor wears a gold blinged out necklace with the scrub daddy smiley face logo on it?? I could not believe it. I had to pause and get up and get five inches away from my tv to be sure. Amazing. Kevin and Mark absolutely losing it laughing at the fish dip guys’ pitch had me dying laughing. It’s fun to see real moments like that with them. And each time Kevin mentioned his special wine society and everyone toasted. So fun. I saw nothing special about the stuffed animals. The creators acted like because they were long that made them but different. But it looked pretty similar to my dog’s chew toy (minus the squeaker). The fact they could sell them for 50 bucks+ blew my mind. I’m glad they did not get a deal.

Welp. So much for that winner’s edit I thought Ali was getting. But that’s okay, I like for the editors to mix it up and not always have a contestant say, “I’m definitely not getting voted off” right before they get voted off because they love #irony. I think Ryan is pretty delusional if he think his social game is his strongest aspect. When he was arguing with Ali after the tribal, he looked like a petulant child. I think he and Chrissy are playing the same exact game. Each thinks they have the other in their pocket and will beat them handily at the end of game. Not realizing both of their social games suck and if they get taken to the end, the 3rd person will win in a landslide. But I hope they get blindsided before then because that will be delicious. I liked the immunity challenge. I thought it was pretty creative to turn what was previously an individual challenge into a tribe challenge. It’s amazing how they go from winning to losing in a split second. Devon makes me think of... someone famous... and I cannot put my finger on it. The closest my brain can come up with is Aladdin and that’s just not quite right.

I loved it. Will is the MVP of the season in my book. And Steve the babysitter is something I didn’t know I needed in my life but I loved every minute of it and want more. I was worried this show would suffer a sophomore slump (especially after the first season was such a success) but I have faith in the Duffer brothers continuing this story for two more seasons.

I completely agree that it is an overused trope on television, but I can give this one an exception. Sterling K. Brown actually delivered his first son at home! That was a story he told in several interviews when he was doing a lot of press for the first season (and maybe the OJ mini series too). He’s a really captivating storyteller, I recommend giving it a listen! But Randall is my favorite so I might be biased. :) I really liked this one. I did not expect to cry so many tears at a Halloween episode! I haven’t been the biggest Mandy Moore enthusiast but I think she did a really great job. Yeah, the long speeches can get schmatzly but I really loved the mirroring of her talking to both baby Randall and baby Tess. That Tess was a cute baby! Even if she was named after a ceiling fan (a line that actually made me laugh out loud).

Oh, Bob. I’m so sorry I doubted you. I’m sorry I thought you had bad intentions. You died a hero’s death. And I hate that you knew he was a goner the second he said he knew the computer program. But he escaped a few close calls and made it all the way to the lobby, giving you hope that he’ll make it and then wham. Sigh. I’m also sad my guess of Max and Billy being the doctor’s kids was wrong. But man does Will Chase look different!! It took me a minute to place him as the dad. I loved seeing the whole gang united and ready to fight together. Especially Lucas with his slingshot. Will continues to break my heart. If Barb can get an Emmy nom for five minutes of screen time, I really hope Noah gets some love next award season. Last thing: For a split second I thought Billy was the one to kill the demo-dog because he had wandered over there looking for Max. Why I thought this, I’m not sure. I think my brain is just desperately searching for a purpose for his character!

So are Max and the (step?) brother, the kids of Paul Reiser? I’m just not seeing the whole purpose of them (especially the brother) beyond adding a girl to the four boys since Eleven needs to be separated from them. That’s my shot in the dark since Paul’s character said he was brought in to fix things and the kids just moved from California. *shrugs*

Will just breaks my heart. I just hope the kid is happy and normal at the end of all of this. Kudos to the actor.

I definitely thought that too. I still think it’s a possibility. Maybe not with the government, just a minder (like in Orphan Black). Gotta have a cover, right? He was just a little too “golly gee whiz”. We’ll see! And soon since we can watch all the episodes at once! ;)