Lady Calypso

What is wrong with me this episode? Am I actually kind of liking Drew? I'm intrigued to see who wins out: Dee or Julie? I do have to say, as much as Dee is annoying me, I LOVE her being the true leader of their tribe. Unfortunately, like most women in these games, she's a target over the men in her alliance, but I love that she's being the vocal one and dominating the game.

Oh, I love Julie not wanting to do Kendra. There are cracks in the four!

Why is Austin lying about not having a vote? They're gonna find out at Tribal Council. This is such a stupid ass move from Austin. It's just another point against him at the end.

I get that Austin powered through that, but another week where the Reba 4 are in control and have no adversity toward them kind of annoys me.

Julie's a badass at these challenges. I will say, it's great to see older women like Julie kick ass on this show.

Not Bruce again! He's basically guaranteed F7, at this stage.

Jeff's new favourite catch phrase is "THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT ON SURVIVOR!" Yes, Jeff, let's watch Kendra dislocate her shoulders for this win. Because THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT ON SURVIVOR!

Julie looks strong for now. Kendra and Bruce are wobbling.

Bruce, Kendra and Julie win the second part, so looks like we have a potential Bruce win again.

Oh, and Austin, Emily and Katurah lose.

Wow, even with Jake's imbalance, Red team was able to catch up and finish the first part.

There we go, another twist. First group out will lose their vote. Fuck off, Jeff. We don't need this shit at this stage of the game.

I miss individual immunity challenges.

We're already at the immunity challenge, which means we have a HUGE twist coming beyond this tribe twist.

Yeah, Jeff needs to stop with this split tribe bullshit. It's hella annoying.

I was about to make fun of Drew's confessional and bemoan about it but....then he brings up a potentially good point about Bruce and his game. Damnit, Drew!

Katurah, how does that make sense? "I'm gonna be fifth with Belo, passing them info!" Ok, but then they're gonna knock you out next? Granted, I think Reba could turn on each other instead and Katurah could slip by, but...

This was certainly a shocking elimination for me, but obviously in the best possible way. I really did think Harry was at LEAST locked in for semis, so seeing him go now is relieving. I can now be truly happy with whatever outcome, because I like all five left and think they all have something to offer. Despite this being Alyson's weakest week since the first one, she's come a LONG way and even her weakest dances are a step up from her first couple of weeks. I blame Sasha's choreography and the slowed down tempo of You Belong With Me. I feel confident to now say that Alyson can do SO MUCH better than what she was given. And listen, I like that Alyson did that handstand, but Sasha did NOT have to have her hold it for as long as she did. We get it, she can now live up to your gymnastic standards, Sasha! I now expect a cartwheel in next week's dance! But still, I am very glad Alyson survived this week. I really thought she was going home. Ariana is very technically good but there are some weeks I don't quite connect. She really is a beautiful dancer and she did lovely work with Pasha this week. I'm glad Pasha's gotten the chance to prove himself with Ariana. Jason's comeback week! Hooray! I loved his dances this week. I'm very glad he's finding his rhythm again. I could really see him putting in the work on stage. He was really focused on making sure each move was correct. Harry did marginally better, but 8s were a bit much. At least he got some ok'ish scores for his final week. I will say, he has really improved. Week 1 Harry, hell, even Week 6 Harry couldn't have moved the way he did tonight. I do think the Team Dance was his breakout dance. Ever since then, it seems like he at least improved in a couple of areas. I do think that, with him having ZERO musicality, he did what he absolutely could and I'll take any sort of improvement....along with his elimination, obviously. Charity is very technically good but, yeah, there's really no performance when she dances, so there's no connection whatsoever. That's her issue and I think it's safe to say she's not going to get it. It's a shame, because she performs the dances very well and she's great to watch when zoomed out, but she seems so disconnected when she dances, it's as if she's not there. She's the one who I WANT to love but I feel like she has walls up. She had a couple of dances in the past where it felt like she was connecting, but then she goes back into Pageant Presence. Xochitl is such a joy to watch; she has such a spirit when she dances that is infectious. She can truly perform and it's always so much fun to watch her add her own flair in each dance. Val has also been killing it in the choreography this season. He's obviously had past partners, even just last season, who have done well. But he seems to have a different spark with Xochitl that has awakened a new side to him with his choreography. His dances this season have been consistently filled with content. I agreed with the choices for the dance relay winners. Overall, besides bad covers and Alyson having bad choreography, it was a great night.

Well, I will admit to have been fully wrong on who would win the Mike vs Kuzie war that was clearly incoming. Mike just struck first, and I think Kuzie's gameplay was TOO suspicious since everyone was on to her. I don't blame Mike for going all in on getting Kuzie out, but does it make him a good Traitor or does it make him a Traitor who was backed into a corner and had no choice? Smart move from Mike to strike now, but he didn't make his position THAT much better since he's still the next target. I think he meant for this move to completely clear his name, but I don't think it did. Now he has to be VERY careful on who he decides to recruit. Picking the wrong person ends his game before F5. I still feel like Mike can't get to the end, but he certainly is playing hard so maybe he can. I will speak on the Faithfuls. It took them a long time, but they're FINALLY figuring it out. I won't give them too much credit due to their poor gameplay before now, but at least they've finally gotten on the right track. I think it speaks to how poor Kuzie and Mike have done in terms of their Murders. They kept picking the loud people to get rid of so now they have nowhere to hide with the quieter players. They NEEDED a couple of those loud players to stay and hide behind. But now they have sloppy players finally figuring it out because all the more suspicious people have gone home.. I didn't like the Feast twist. I mean, it felt like a loaded choice between Banishment and Murder. Even with their piss poor record in challenges, of course nobody would dare to vote to Murder. I feel like there was really only one right answer for both sides, but it ultimately screwed the Traitors even more. They had no chance here, even with Mike turning on Kuzie. Surprisingly, Kuzie IS taken out because she was TOO loyal to Mike. The fact that she didn't strike first and even was pushing Mickey while Mike was pushing her was a huge surprise. I don't think we'll see Kuzie be that loyal in future reality shows she appears in, that's for sure. I get why Kuzie left and it really was her own undoing, and good for Mike for recognizing when he needed to strike, but damn, that betrayal. I don't think I want Mike to win, though. This was his only good move thus far but I wouldn't say it was necessarily a brilliant move just due to the sloppiness of his game before this. He knew he was a target since his name was constantly being brought up, so he went for Kuzie to take some heat off him. But I guess the next episode will tell if it REALLY works for him or if his name is still on the chopping block. And, like I said earlier, Mike has only one chance to recruit the right person to get to the end. I personally think Mike needs to recruit Gurleen or Leroy, but I don't think Mike wiggles his way to a win. I think, had he been the first person to ever bring up Kuzie, he MIGHT have a case to stick around. But because others had brought it up publicly before, I don't see this getting him the win. And with the Faithfuls finally growing a brain, can Mike deflect? So, in my opinion, either a recruited Traitor will win or the Faithfuls will. But since I was wrong about Mike leaving before Kuzie, I could very well be wrong about Mike's chances of winning. I mean, of the players left, there aren't any standout Faithfuls. There's definitely a way where Mike could deflect to someone like Mickey or even Gurleen. Maybe Mike's best move is keeping Donna and Travon close, and getting rid of Mickey, Leroy and Gurleen. Recruit one to frame them. It would work on Travon and Donna if he pushes the narrative of quieter players being potential Traitors. This Canadian version, thus far, hasn't been very good. The editing is terrible. the gameplay has mostly been really bad on both sides (the gameplay getting better NOW doesn't make these players suddenly great at the game) and the challenges have been boring or useless. Karine's wardrobe has certainly made her stand out as a host.

So, I fell extremely behind and only got around to finishing this series this weekend. It's a shame, because it's currently the best series of The Traitors that I've seen. A great cast with some genuinely interesting drama and fun twists and turns made this a very solid series to watch. First off, Claudia as a host was fantastic. She wasn't too over the top, and I absolutely loved her getting MORE involved during the challenges as the series went on. By the end, she was basically a cheerleader for the players and almost an active participant as well. I kind of love how invested she got with these players throughout. I actually thought the Traitors themselves were pretty good. I think they all explained why they were playing the games they were fairly well. I even didn't hate Wilf, besides being annoyed with him in the final episode. I do think he needed to own his game more and not make a big show out of lying to the Faithfuls at the end when Kieran turned on him, but I appreciate that he was so passionate about the game that he DID feel guilt when he turned on people. And I'm glad he was a good sport when Hannah/Aaron chose to banish him. I think Wilf's biggest obstacle was being blinded by his own selfishness to take the pot for himself. He was already an emotional player so him backstabbing people while feeling such big emotions caused him to completely fall apart by the end. Amanda was such a great Traitor. Had Wilf not gotten paranoid about Amanda's intentions and turned on her so soon, they both could have gotten to the end and then decided to turn on each other. Alas, Wilf turned on her probably two rounds too early and caused his own demise. Had he not done that, he wouldn't have been forced to recruit Kieran, who was clearly not happy by being forced to be a Traitor and then turned on by Wilf. I think the series needs to change the rules to the Blackmail portion of the Traitors' task. Once it gets down to a specific number of people and one Traitor left, give them the OPTION to blackmail or not. I think Wilf actually could have won if he was the solo Traitor at 7. Forcing him to still recruit and blackmail didn't help his game. I think the only person he could have forced to recruit that would have still allowed him the win would have been Meryl, who I don't think would have sold him out. I get the thought process from Wilf (the theory that it HAD to be a guy) but I think Kieran was too upset by the forced recruit to have NOT turned on him. Alyssa was a solid Traitor as well, she just got unlucky with being a quieter personality (even though she got Nicky out for an unfortunate reason). I would have liked to see what Alyssa could have accomplished with more time, but I guess I get why Wilf turned on her, as well as Amanda. There were a lot of solid players this season as well. Aaron was very likeable and I'm glad he got the win at the end. I felt bad for him when John went in on him for basically being "too emotional". That's the reason why John went after him; Aaron dared to show emotion and John got, I guess, paranoid that the emotion was fake OR he just didn't like Aaron taking the game personally (even though that's exactly what John himself did the next morning at breakfast when he got placed on Trial). The way he spoke to Aaron was pretty gross. There's a difference between recognizing game stuff even in an emotional moment (like when Maddy was insistent that Aaron could STILL be a Traitor after the Imran banishment) and being downright cruel and unempathetic (how John behaved with Aaron). Like, men have emotions, John, just like you. Get over it. Let Aaron cry if he wants to. I get the paranoia, but John really seemed to hold a grudge toward Aaron showing any type of emotion toward anybody. Alex could have been a great player without her stupid ass boyfriend ruining both of their games. Although I didn't love her strategy of leading Matt on, I think Tom was a bit worse in ways, since he single handedly destroyed both of their games by spilling their secret without her permission. Although Alex turning down recruitment didn't help her game; she had a chance to recover before that. I would have loved to see Wilf, Amanda and Alex as Traitors. All three could have done some real damage in the game together. Amos was also a great player, just couldn't tone it down enough to be undetected by the Traitors. Andrea was a delight to watch and I'm very glad she lasted until nearly the end. It was really great to see all the diversity in this series. Seeing multiple older players and seeing many of them get super far is such a different vibe from a series like the US, who seems to be allergic to cast people over 50. Hannah had her ups and downs but I didn't really hate her. She made bad decisions, but she also had some ok reads and made the right choice at the end. I didn't love her winning, but I think she had some real potential and I did like her, overall. I also liked Maddy a lot; she had the right reads, just the complete wrong reasoning on Wilf. She obviously read Aaron and Meryl wrong so she wasn't perfect at figuring out the Traitors, but her insistence on Wilf the entire game was correct. Her issue was never being able to fully convince anyone. And I think her spilling her actress secret destroyed any chance of having anyone trust her word. There were some great twists here. The Dinner Party was phenomenally fun AND a great strategic way to challenge both Faithfuls and Traitors alike. I actually would love to see the Dinner Party make appearances in other series, with some alterations on the party game. The one twist I wouldn't want to see again is the banishment five minutes into the game. I think that made it unfair to have two contestants temporarily leave the game and come back several days in, when others have made bonds but ALSO giving the two banished players less time. Although Claudia reiterated that one of them could still be a Traitor, I think it would have made it unfair, either way. At the very least, having them return several eliminations later made it unfair. Overall, huge fan of this first season of the UK version. I just feel bad that I didn't get around to the series earlier. I think I love that these players were so passionate about the game and no matter the good or bad gameplay, the point is that they all CARED about the game enough to get fully invested. So we got to see a lot of passionate Roundtables and game talk throughout the season and got to see these players fight to stay. Now, onto the AUS version!

I think it's because of all the post production they have to do with this show, trying to push for a March airdate is not going to be possible and they don't want the show running into summer, as ratings will be down. So, holding it for Fall because of the strikes is the better bet. And I don't disagree; as much as waiting another 11 months is going to suck, it's better for them to not try to rush and throw something together just to get it out. We already see from this show what happens when they HAVE the time to write and film episodes. Which is why I suspect the OG 9-1-1, now on ABC, will be pushed to fall as well.

It could be a simple situation where Kendra's biological parents had their relationship end badly and he chose to stay away or Kendra's mom kept him away. We won't ever really know, which is fine, as that wasn't the point of Kendra sharing her backstory. Clearly meeting her biological father was enough for her. It did make me think Kendra was going this episode, though. Giving a backstory like that in a way that made it seem out of place was a choice, for sure. I don't see her being an idiot for that. None of those women have really given Emily the time of day beyond a vote. And, although I really don't like Drew or Drew/Austin, they've manipulated Emily well into thinking she's with them and they're a tight alliance. Obviously she doesn't know that, at least, Drew views her as an easy number until he can toss her aside for Reba, but they've put in the work to make her feel included with them. So, in her mind, as she explained, logically it makes sense to stick with the two people who have brought her into votes and made her feel like she's had a voice while the women have made her feel only like a number to them. As much as I want to shake Emily for trusting Drew/Austin, they seem to be putting in the work.

I also want to speak on Emily here. I feel really bad for her being manipulated by Drew/Austin. I fully think she's making the wrong move by trusting Austin/Drew that much, but I see why she's doing what she's doing. She was on a tribe where she had a rough start and, thus, nobody ended up trusting her except for Kaleb. But she even voiced it in an earlier episode that she felt used and only as a number and nothing more. Then, we see Drew/Austin including her and for the first time, she felt hope that she was in an alliance with people who wanted her. She lost Kaleb, the only person she fully trusted, so she had to turn to the only two people who made her feel included. Of course she would align with them, since she knows she started the game off on a really bad foot and has been clinging to anyone that takes her in and makes her feel included. It really sucks that she can't see that Drew/Austin couldn't care less about her, at least compared to Dee/Julie, and that they'll drop her the moment she's useless to them. I feel so bad if/when she's blindsided by the two of them. With Kellie's blindside and a potential Emily blindside, we could end up with some pissed off jurors. Emily is a logical person so she might see why Drew/Austin did it, but we've ALSO seen her be very matter of fact and see things as statistics, so if they blindside her too early, she'll see that and call them out.

Well, that was certainly a blindside. Reba+ Emily decided to take Kellie out, I guess. Not a terrible decision, given how rocky Jake's game has been, but damn, did they maybe burn a vote already from the blindside. As much as Kellie tried to be a good sport ("good move, I guess"), you can tell she's EXTREMELY pissed off. She did not look happy at Emily when she confessed to voting her out, but I wonder if Kellie assumes that Emily led that vote against her. That could be very bad for her or very good, depending on Kellie's mindset at the end of the game AND if Emily makes it to F3. Jake's grown on me. He may not be a good player, but I appreciate his reasoning for making the moves he has. Saying he made a mistake with voting for Julie with the hindsight of Kaleb still going, but also recognizing that he doesn't want to follow the herd of votes because that's boring is great insight from him. I did like his gameplay as well on pretending to slip up about an idol to cause a little bit of panic. I think, whether or not Reba 4 + Emily were flipping already, it was a good way to sew some doubt. And I love that Jake decided to blatantly idol hunt. Some great material from Jake this week, even if it wasn't all good for him in the game. He did point out to the other bottom players that they're gonna be next after him. I hope it put things into perspective, especially since he's still there. Of course Bruce wins immunity AND still has his idol. They are giving him a terrible edit, though. It's almost funny to watch how bad of an edit they're giving him, at this point. Even if he won out to the end, I don't see him winning; people really hate him that much. He'd be a zero vote finalist, even with having to win out. I really dislike Drew in this game. He may be a fine person outside of it, but game Drew is really slimy but also, to me, really obvious? Even without the knowledge of him wanting to get Katurah on his side, the way he went about manipulating her "we'll take YOUR lead, Katurah!", seemed really obvious to me. I get it's good gameplay and all, but it felt really icky to watch. But I think Drew presents himself as some leader but it comes across as smug and condescending. Seeing the Survivor auction was fun and seeing the changes they made were great. No advantages, hooray! Seeing most people get good stuff was fantastic, but the fish eyes were gross. Never again show that on TV and never again play it BACK. The women are doing well, so that's a positive. I really loved seeing Julie outlast several people to be against Bruce; that challenge looked TOUGH.

I love that we went to a new country; Slovenia looks absolutely beautiful. It was somewhat of a gruelling leg, at least for the two older men of the cast. Poor Rob and poor Steve, having to climb multiple stairs. Granted, Steve didn't even need to climb that first set of stairs had him or Anna Leigh seen the very blatant sign of the Express Pass being taken or put any thought into them being in last and someone else likely having gotten it, but still. I'll start with the negatives and work my way to the positives. Steve/Anna Leigh were a disaster. Yes, more Anna Leigh than Steve, but neither in the team were working well this leg. Anna Leigh had a couple of breakdowns and went back to whining and pushing her father, so that wasn't fun to watch. Anna Leigh is very annoying when she's stressed in any way. That being said, I don't think she's the worst type of racer we see from this show. I can take comfort in watching her and knowing that, although she's rude to her dad, at least she's not rude to the locals (she's been one of the more pleasant people with the locals) AND she doesn't give up at tasks. If we had her be both rude to her partner AND then one or both of the other things, then THAT would be a worse racer. So Anna Leigh, albeit annoying, is on the mild side of bad racers. Robbin/Chelsea were also annoying, but just in a different way. I think I see why teams are likely not fond of them and they're 100% justified in feeling that way. This is now the SECOND and THIRD time Robbin/Chelsea have decided to just outright follow another team to the next task instead of asking for directions themselves. After all their bemoaning about racing their own race and never ever ever helping another team ever, they choose to take the easy way out when things are tough, first with the coin task (which, to be fair, I think IS fine if it's allowed; loopholes are totally fine in my book if it's allowed and not harming anyone else) and now with slacking on the actual navigation. They may suck at navigation, but outright following another team while also going out of their way to not help other teams when they ask is just hypocritical from them. I'm fine overall with the idea to race your own race, but when Greg/John are pointing out that they ARE noticing Robbin/Chelsea following other teams instead of asking for their own directions, it's frustrating. Morgan/Lena being eliminated sucks. They had their ups and downs for sure but they're the rare team where the bickering WASN'T annoying when it absolutely should have been. But I think, coming from a very similar sibling-esque relationship with my own sister, I could only laugh as I place me and my sister in their shoes and realize we'd probably be about the same. Rob/Corey are one of the best teams this show has ever had. They're competent racers, they're great partners to each other, and they're really funny and compassionate to boot. They take everything in stride and even their frustration at times isn't for very long. Rob was so excited to do that roadblock and I loved seeing him jump up and down to go up in that tiny plane. Corey checking in on his father several times about the Express Pass was also very good. AND they managed to jump from fourth to second to third! The train drama at the start was super fun to watch. The three teams tried to take a risk, even though they wouldn't have been able to start the roadblock anyway until morning, but they probably would have gotten a bit better of a sleep. But, alas, it didn't pay off. I would have liked to see it pay off but totally get why they all decided to bail on the plan and go back to their original train station. Decent leg, overall. Some tougher tasks depending on if a team went for the Express Pass and you could definitely see teams struggle with the navigation again.