strippedhalo

I don't remember Paul saying anything, but I think Mary said she actually thought they were too much, or something along those lines. I was distracted for a good portion of the episode trying to get a good look at Cathryn's sweater to see if it was hand-knit (I think so, and very pretty).

(Full disclosure: I'm white.) I really love Doc/Wynonna, but I also liked Dolls and Wynonna, and ALSO think that Dolls and Doc together have had some of the best chemistry. (What I'm saying is that I was hoping for a Dolls/Wynonna/Doc endgame, even though I knew I was never going to get it.) However, I don't need the romance angle to feel attached to a story/show or to the characters. There are SO MANY things that they could have done with Dolls besides hooking him up with Wynonna (if they had decided not to go that route). Hell, they set a few of them up in this episode. I was NOT expecting Dolls to be killed off, and was extremely dismayed when I realized that was what we were getting. I'm not great at picking up subtext, so I didn't catch any of the foreshadowing anvils, and only understood Dolls was a goner at the same time Wynonna did. I saw the promo stuff about "changing the team forever" but for some reason I assumed that meant that one of the team would go evil - it never occurred to me that someone would be killed off. a) WTF. b) If you're going to kill off a main character, give him a proper send-off! Make him the focus of the episode so that people remember that they love him before you yank him away from them. (I re-watched S1 recently, but S2 isn't on Canadian Netflix yet so I haven't seen it since I watched it live last summer/fall.) I mean, even I might have picked up on the impending exit if there had been more of Dolls in the episode, which I guess would ruin the shock factor, but come on. c) I feel like everyone working in TV/movies at this point should at least be aware of what the perception will be if you kill off your only POC lead. If you have to write that character off of your show (in this case, for the valid reason that the actor is leaving to pursue other opportunities), then you need to really carefully consider whether the character actually needs to be killed off instead of another type of exit. Dolls' death wasn't the sort of gut punch to me that it sounds like it was for some of you, but I still winced at the implications. I will continue to watch the show, because I love it and I love the remaining characters, but I'm disappointed that Dolls is gone, and I'm disappointed in the way he went.

Huh, I assumed he did it to save Tyler in case Kaitlyn came back (b/c she would believe Tyler was the lone vote to save her). Why JC would do that when it doesn't benefit him, I don't know, but people seem to do stuff like that for Tyler.

Same (except I'm watching in Canada), If I knew for sure that this season would show up on PBS at some point, I could quit watching this hollowed-out version, but I don't, so I can't. So far, I'm pulling for the girls, I think. I like Julia a lot, and Yan, and Kate. Oh, and Sophie. I keep getting Stacey on this series confused with Danny from the series currently running on PBS. For the guys, I think I like Tom best. And also Noel, but he doesn't count. :)

I fell asleep a little bit during the judging, but meh. I will be shocked if anyone other than Matt wins the finale, and that lack of tension is boring. I don't even dislike Matt! Some of his THs are funny, and he seems as competent as anyone. But he doesn't seem like the brilliant artistry wizard that Glenn wants us to believe he is. Maybe the finished pieces look really different in person. Maybe my taste level is just not up to the judge's standards. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ In any case, I'm pulling for Jordan. I think Walter is super talented, but I have a hard time liking him for some reason.

Walter definitely should have beaten Matt in that match-up. I didn't like Matt's at ALL, and I think on a normal season any other contestant would have gotten a comment from the judges about the anatomy being "arbitrary". Jordan's was good, and his model did a lot to sell it in the tank. Very creepy. If Damien had gotten to finish his paint job and if it had... not fallen apart, I think it could have been good. I liked his sculpt, anyway. Mel's was unfortunate, and I can't remember Derek's at all.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. This bugs me so much. Just because someone is a waitress in one place does not mean they are a waitress at any other establishment they happen to enter.

Kevon and Graham.

Damien remains my favourite of this bunch, so I'm glad he didn't get sent home, but I hope he learns his lesson about listening to Michael Westmore. He TOLD you not to cover up Megan's face, dude. Even with the face-covering, I still liked his makeup better than a lot of the others for the simple fact that he didn't feel the need to do tree-boobs. I'm starting to think that winning the help from a professional is actually a curse. I think everyone who has had the help has lost their battle that week. Matt's was so bad. I'm assuming the reason he didn't land in the bottom three was either because he had won two in a row immediately before this challenge or (more likely) the judges didn't want to negatively critique the work of an "expert" who they brought in to "help". (The unfortunate paint job was all Matt, but they showed us the expert insisting that the cowl should be bigger, BIGGER, and they also showed him sculpting the face that the judges hated so much.) I'm not generally a fan of Walter, but I did think he deserved the win this week.

Yes. Between Matt winning with out-of-mouth teeth (twice in a row!), and the rough edges around the mouth on Graham's Death also going unremarked upon, I wonder what these makeups look like through the judges' eyes. I didn't think Kevon's was bad, but I was struck by how last episode he made a conscious decision to pare back and concentrate on doing fewer things really well, to great success, and this episode he was back to SCULPT ALL THE THINGS. I know Damien's pink monster Death wasn't great, but Damien is my favourite, so I hope he pulls it together in the next challenge.

Not to defend Drake, because that was pretty sad, but I don't think Kailah's position on the box was helping. She was too far forward, making the box harder to lift. Everyone else (including Drake, once they switched places) had their knees almost at the far end of the box, but Kailah was squarely in the middle.

Fingers crossed that it means Bananas is retiring!

Yeah, I was immediately done with Graham when he started in on that. I don't mind people expressing apprehension about challenges if they just straight up say that they're nervous because something is out of their comfort zone. That's honest! But a lot of times when contestants complain about "whimsical" challenges they seem to shoot for an "I'm too cool and edgy for this *coughgirlycough* challenge," which (to me) makes them sound childish. Pink is dumb! Monsters are cool! Girls have cooties! I liked Jordan's dentist and Damien's judge the best. I know people are glad not to see Jo's ear gauges anymore (me, too, but I was more distracted by the blocky tattoo that goes from ear to ear under her chin), but I was sad that she went because she seemed like a nice, fun person. Not that Mel isn't!

I hate Paulie C. with a passion, but Paul A. would be the thing that could actually make me quit The Challenge.

That was the midseason finale - the second half of the season starts airing August 14th.

Yes. I love CT, but there is no point in continuing to harp on something that can't be changed. Make your point, make your peace, and be done with it.

I really agree. I thought the actress was maybe 10 years older than me, so to find out that she's almost two years younger than me is shocking. Maybe I just internalized her being Crowley's mother, plus her hair, makeup, and wardrobe. Geez.

Tony was the MVP, so he got to pick who on his team went in. There might have been a conversation with the team about who he was going to pick, but they didn't show it (that I recall), which made Tony's surprise that Casper was mad about it seem weird.

Reunion Brad was way more enjoyable than Show Brad. He put himself in time-out! I often have issues with Cara Maria, but I ended up being really happy that she won. I think she certainly can be entitled, but no more than most of the guys (shut UP, Jordan), and I thought it was shitty of the Miz to pile on when everyone else was already on the attack. I still don't like Shane, but I did find his explanation about the Natalie situation really funny. "What I meant to say was that you're not as devious as you think you are, but what I actually said was that you're stupid and nobody likes you." (paraphrased)

I love Alexis SO MUCH. She has come a long way since the start of the show. I was really afraid they were going to leave the Ted situation up in the air, so glad they didn't! The reveal that Jocelyn was driving the car with Moira in the back seat was hilarious, but WHY did they bring Mutt back last week if he's not going to be any help to his mother? I didn't love the David and Ted scene or the David and Patrick scenes as much as I could have, because I was distracted by Dan Levy's constant nervous smile, but I DID snort-laugh when he ate the dog treat and huffed out, "What am I supposed to do now?" (or whatever it was).

Wow, they have really gone all out on making Trish an unsympathetic character this season. I get that it is a combination of her crappy childhood and her addiction issues and her inferiority issues, but geez. She's fully in "ends justify the means" territory, and I hate that she's probably going to wind up with powers. They're setting Jessica up to have to choose between Alisa and Trish, and neither of them deserve her right now.

Not that Jeri has done a lot to earn anyone's sympathy, but that was a cold, calculated move on Inez's part. (When Jeri first met Shane in the prison, I was yelling at the TV for her to just scratch herself across the back of the hand and test Shane's healing powers that way, but I didn't actually think he was a fraud until the doctor guy said he'd never heard of him.)

Why is MTV not showing us more of the Leroy and Kam show? The brief interaction we got between them in this episode was cute and made both of them WAY more interesting to me. Maybe now that the drama factories of Bananas/Natalie and Brad/Britni have been split up, some of the more low-key friendships can get some airtime. I just love Laurel, the maladjusted killbot weirdo. I love that TJ didn't even pretend Britni had a chance against her, and that Britni was so whiny about the whole thing. I don't know what happened between Laurel and Nicole, but their weird little conversation made it sound like it was Nicole's fault. (Related: "If you really loved me, you would have fought harder," is bullshit code for "If you really loved me, you would be able to get over my crappy behaviour.") Team Laurel!

I really love David and Patrick (together and as individuals), but I can see this. I found it weird that David would view it as SUCH a betrayal that Patrick wouldn't have told him about an engagement that ended before David and Patrick even met. Maybe they were going for the betrayal being about the fact that his ex was still texting him, but it seemed to me like they made it clear that Patrick wasn't interested in Rachel anymore and had not been leading her on. Maybe my betrayal threshold is just set really high, IDK. Was there something in a previous episode (the one where they borrowed Stevie's apartment for the night) where David asked about Patrick's previous relationships and Patrick either brushed it off or said they'd talk about it later? I feel like there might have been but can't remember. In any case, David is our main character (of the two) and he's clearly an oddball with an unfortunate relationship history, so I don't mind seeing Patrick adore him, but I would also like to see some evidence of the reverse - David doing sweet things for Patrick would be really cute, and I'm sure David's definition of "sweet things" would be amusing.

I really liked this show, I thought it was very well done. I graduated high school in 1996, and didn't feel hit over the head by the 90s references. I ended up liking most of the characters by the end, but I especially got attached to Luke, Kate's dad, and Tyler (someone give that kid a hug!). I feel like I'm alone in not loving the Kate/Emaline relationship? It was definitely cute, and I liked the turnaround from Emaline being so terrible in the beginning, but I also feel like they were really foreshadowing some issues with Emaline. Her complete transformation from Oliver's girlfriend to Kate's girlfriend (different hair, different clothes, matching nose piercings) struck me as more obsessive than sweet, if also suuuuuper true to the high school experience. Me, too! I had to look up to see if they were siblings (they aren't). Tyler also reminds me of someone, but I'm not sure who. (Maybe a young Max Perlich?)