HurricaneVal

Wow. I mean ... OMG. Wow. Fantastic episode. Just so much packed into it that I have so much to say that my commenter is just jammed stuck. Everybody was awesome, every character had a moment, the writers deserve a raise and awards, Rebecca Wisocky knocked it outta the park, but everyone else was a rising tide that lifted that boat so give 'em all Emmys, but make Rebecca's bigger for this ep. This is so my favorite show.

This episode was the cast and writers clicking along on all cylinders. As always, the Marty and Malcolm scenes are the best part, but the whole episode was great. I also love how the writers were smart enough to only imply that though it appeared Gemma and Calvin were teaming up, and Tina and Dave were teaming up, it was really Calvin and Dave who had teamed up and schemed off camera to fix the situation. The end with Gemma baiting everyone as she sat in the dunk tank at the carnival was classic Gemma, but then when the ball went to Malcolm, the look of horror on her face paired with the knowing smile on Malcolm's face was truly awesome as he casually tossed the baseball in the air, then pitched it straight at the target. Loved the callback to Malcolm's baseball career and expertise.

I nearly shouted "Hodgins! Who's the King of the Lab!" when that actor showed up as the Elon Musk stand-in. I also loved that the nerds really won the day, since the IT Troll proved to be pivotal in the investigation, and his shot at interrogation was awkward actorly gold, and Tim McGeek gets to be interim director--a role he took with zero dissembling and great confidence. Loved the callback to the original episode with Air Force One. Nicely done. The montage of former NCIS players was missing a few....no Abby? No Ducky? No Jenny Shepard? No Gerald?

The seed for Goodwin to buy the company was nicely planted in a prior episode where he mentioned that he would take his portion of the money from the sale of MaxDot and start his own business. I thought right there, why doesn't he just buy MaxDot and run it? He already knows the business and has relationships with the suppliers and vendors...but then I shrugged and thought "Maybe making compression socks isn't exactly Goodwin's dream." Abishola was utterly charming when she was swanning about, all happy to be rich with that big smile on her face and the inability to feel her toes.

Hunter gives me weird vibes too. I mean, it is perfectly fine to choose a different path in life because you found your passion. I applaud that, in fact. However.....it appears to me from the glimpse we got inside his house where it is less of a home and more of a storage facility for all his Survivor challenge props, methinks his change in careers was more about picking a job which could accommodate his Survivor obsession. I think the high demand and high stress career as a doctor wouldn't leave Hunter much time to reproduce and train on the challenge props, and he probably couldn't get his colleagues or patients to try them out with him. In teaching, he can use his Survivor obsession and his props and mock challenges as a way to engage the kids. Win-win for Hunter! Actually, this is also a win for Hunters hypothetical and now nonexistent patients. All I can think about is that Phoebe's replacement OB/GYN on Friends who was obsessed with Fonzie, and how Hunter would have been like that, only with Survivor.

I got curious, so I googled and found By-the-Bucket, an Arizona restaurant chain that serves spaghetti, uh, by the bucket. The follow-ups where everybody seemed to have leftover spaghetti in their fridge cracked me up. Georgie is so sweet with Mandy that it makes me sad for him that the inevitable divorce is coming in the future. He seems genuinely happy--but honestly, Mandy doesn't. Mandy taking a moment for her dad to walk her down the aisle was sweet.

I think that Tim turned a little contemplative focus on himself when he stood there in the challenge and started doing shout-outs and mentioning other players family members. That's the point when folks realized that Tim is not only a physical threat, but he is a major social threat. He has made relationships with people to the point that he knows their families. We certainly hadn't seen much of that in the broadcast episodes, but evidently he made connections. Though, we really haven't seen much of Tim up to now. I'm kind of sorry to see him go, I didn't realize how connected he was. That was also a bit of a nasty smile that Liz got on her face when Tevan floated a Soda vote. I don't really like Liz, and I can't really put my finger on why, but that smile was creepy. Q has really become completely insufferable. I used to like him when he was trying to coach Bhanu, but something about making the merge has gone to his head. Kenzie--to me--has had a turnaround since the merge too. Before, I was kind of tired of her, and thought she was annoying. She seems to have calmed down and grounded herself since then, and is starting to look like a contender. This season has been all over the place. I can't really get a handle on it.

@Katy M....I think you mean Mandy and Georgie here. Unless this show is taking a really outre and risque turn. She did lust after Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing, who greatly resembles Georgie, sooooo...... 😆🤣😂 I liked the little interactions between Georgie and Sheldon, both of them feeling violated by the actions of others who thought they were doing things for their own good. Mandy's dad cracks me up.

I love Hettie. She was killing me last night. So was Sass. And Isaac, and Thor, and Pete. Oh heck. That was a great episode. The part I loved best was how Trevor absolutely couldn't help himself and gave his little brother the wet willie that caused Jeremy to lose the game, and thus evict him from the B&B, even though Trevor was so happy to see him.

I'm totally cracking up at the +1 Alliance. Tiffany and Maria as two of the +1s are all like "Oh. OK. Huh." I'd actually really like to see Tiffany and Maria and Kenzie get together as a power trio. Maria's reaction, in particular, just about made me spit out my wine. It was actually almost a recoil, so methinks she doesn't really care for Tim, and doesn't want to be associated with him. I run hot and cold on Venus. I think her assertiveness is fantastic, but I also find her a bit snotty. She's young though, she's got time to learn how to read a room and temper that attitude from snotty superiority to confident authority. Q is getting a big head. That's too bad. I was hoping he was going o be an exception to the rule that strong males get a taste of success and become raging assholes on Survivor.

It wasn't a good look for Jem when she was grinning and giggling a little when watching her tribemates being stung by ants while digging for a non-existent Beware advantage she planted.

That is going to backfire on Jem. You can count on it. Bhanu, Bhanu, Bhanu ... Your brand of drama is no good on Survivor. You should have tried out for Big Brother. I sure hope medical is helping Moriah's face situation. It's like her whole upper lip area between her nose and lips is completely chapped and raw, and she's got sores on her chin. It looks painful, and I hope it isn't some sort of tropical skin infection. I kind of like that Q us such a coach that he can't help himself from offering help to Bhanu, even though he knows it is literally hopeless. It is truly his calling. I hope Q stays a decent guy, I'm tired of being disappointed by promising Survivor strong men becoming arrogant assholes once their challenge dominance has been established. Looking at you, Hunter. Speaking of, I thought the little sing-along bit was nice. Apparently Hunter didn't, he looked so angry and sour at that bit of fun. I don't understand what his deal was about that. Should they have been building replica puzzles, or practicing swimming, or toughening their feet for the inevitable barefoot endurance challenges?

Yeah, my TV schedule app from Xfinity has a very confusing entry for tonight's episode. It is identified as S5.E7: Worth the Cooties, but the episode description is for the pilot. Same as for The Neighborhood. Very confusing!

I think that only works with glasses made from real glass? Most lenses today are made from plastic so it is lighter on the nose and ears, and it doesn't quite have the same intensity of sunlight focus as real glass. If I were going in Survivor, though, I might have special spectacles made just for this. Won't help me at the penultimate final council where I might need to make fire, so I'd still practice with a flint and machete.

I think the rule is if you have to have medical intervention beyond a check over and basic first aid--like you'd get in the school nurse's office, from a the team trainer, or an EMT in the field--then you're out. Bandages, splints, braces, antibiotic cream are all fine. A little time sitting in the shade with ice packs on pulse points and bottles of water type stuff. That year when that one tribe was on bacteria beach and several (not seven) tribe members had bad infections, I think the rules were stretched to give them prescription antibiotics. As I recall, that one guy ended up going home on a medical that season because there was a bad infection very close to his knee that could have compromised his long term mobility. He was given a choice of staying and risking his leg and/or blood poisoning, or going home, and he chose to go home. I would hope that if the risk of sepsis truly was nigh, he would have been involuntarily removed from the game by the doc, but they gave him the choice for the dramatic moment.