Lady Calypso

Yeah, there have been more spoilers pointing toward Soda going next than anything, and they planted the seeds fairly well for a Soda boot. It's a bad plan for Tevin/Hunter, I think (Soda would be more loyal to them at merge than Venus would), but whatever floats their boat, if they feel Soda's that dangerous for merge, then I think she's gone. I do think it's possible Q could be the mergatory boot, but I also think Jem could be. I have to imagine her fake planting of the beware advantage will come back to bite her (like the ants did). But I think the only clear person gone in the next episode or two is Soda. Charlie's edit feels like he'll get pretty far, just because he's gotten the most airtime out of everyone on his tribe and it's been a positive edit. But seeing as Bhanu got the most airtime out of Yanu and was an early boot, maybe it's this season's uneven editing choices where characters are prioritized over good gameplayers and Charlie will be a merge boot.

I believe it was to separate the chats happening in real time (so reactions in the moment) vs people discussing the episode after, once they had time to sit and digest. Activity has certainly decreased over the years, but I think the live chat threads have been still active enough where two threads are warranted. The fact that the episode threads are still getting to two pages is still REALLY good. A lot of forums have episode threads that don't get to a second page, and only a select few have an active live chat thread. Also, the reason why live chat threads aren't locked anymore is because moderators are the only ones who can unlock/lock them and there aren't any moderators anymore to do that. Thus, the threads are left open. I'm glad Bhanu left. I think this season has gone back to being very poorly edited and characters are being favoured more than actual gameplay. There's been way too much focus on Bhanu in these four episodes. No, I have no interest in seeing him whine and complain and cry about his position while expecting everyone else to solve his problems for him. He's just a terrible Survivor player, probably one of the worst I've seen, quite frankly. He was ok physically but his social and strategic game are pretty much at the bottom of a well. People seemed annoyed to coddle him the entire time, and people seemed annoyed to have him ask them to solve his game issues. Kenzie wasn't wrong in being annoyed that she has to waste time apologizing to Bhanu when she didn't say anything wrong. And Tiffany telling him to get off his knees and stop begging was a great scene. I was less impressed with Q. He was trying to pull a Kaleb to Bhanu's Emily, but the biggest difference is that Emily was able to pivot the game on her own once she had a good standing, and she didn't need to lean solely on Kaleb to figure out how to turn her game around. Kaleb gave her advice, but Emily was also a decent Survivor player under the right circumstances. Bhanu would be hopelessly bad in ANY scenario of the game, even if he had tribemates who bonded with him. I had to laugh at Soda's attempt at a song session, Tevin joining in, but Venus, Hunter and Liz looking like they'd rather be anywhere else. But Hunter's getting himself into tricky water if he keeps beasting these comps. Unlike 42's Jonathan, he doesn't have a solid alliance beyond Tevin to get him super far, especially since he already wants Soda out. Siga's a solid tribe, but I don't get the point of Jem's excitement in tricking the tribe with the advantage. It's fun to watch, but does she realize that could easily backfire on her? They may assume Tim for now but Jem would need to have an excellent standing with her tribe to keep it that way. Plus, she still needs to get the idol. Back to Yanu tribe, I'm glad they basically just said "yeah, Bhanu's going, we aren't changing our minds." I'm less impressed with Jeff not just skipping the vote, presumably to spare Bhanu's feelings, but he gave him a hug afterward. Jeff, you need to be more informed about what's going on at the different camps. Because Bhanu solely caused his own demise. He could have turned it on Kenzie, as Q was interested in voting Kenzie out and so was Tiffany. But Bhanu ensured he was gone, no matter what. He might be a decent guy, but he was a terrible player and also very fake with the way he presented himself. It was clear he was there for fame, not for the game. I mean, he was the one uttering that he wanted to win a million hearts. He did not succeed in that.

I've accepted the fact that 95% of any reality show player, competitive or even just a general reality TV show, are looking for some degree of fame or attention. So there's going to be plenty who do anchor for a reality tv career. Some are in it for the experience, sure, and some will likely be a one and done player, but most are doing these shows in hopes that they can appear elsewhere. Some are just more obvious about it than others. Bhanu is one of those people who's just outright admitting he's there for the fame and attention, not about the experience or winning.

It does feel like this plot of Athena hiding from Bobby because of her insecurities about the stability of their relationship without danger or drama is coming two seasons too late. This feels like a plot that should have been earlier on in their marriage, not four years in. Especially given the fact that it's not like every day is non-stop danger and drama. They have days off. I presume they have days where they can just hang out and chill. I get they both have very stressful jobs and, in hindsight, I get what they mean (take away the days of their jobs, have them on vacation for a couple of weeks and now it's just them being themselves), but it still didn't quite work because of the extremes Athena went to. Plus, Athena was being very obvious so of course Bobby would figure it out. And they also completely undermined Athena's issue BY introducing the maximum amount of drama and danger. So what, is Athena going to come to the conclusion that their lives are filled with danger and drama and that's all good for them? I did like the Buck/Eddie/Christopher stuff. Christopher being a player is really great and the reasoning for it makes so much sense. I didn't even hate the Shannon cameo because clearly, Christopher has unresolved issues with his mother. I really like how Eddie handled that. Also, yay to Buck and Natalia breaking up! Boo to Eddie and Marisol being together still. I did like the Chimney/Maddie plot. I think they did a good job at establishing the true problem and solving it, for the most part. The cruise stuff was decent, I enjoyed seeing Lola and Norman again, but I think the kidnapper stuff was a bit too much. But will I enjoy it? For sure, yes. It'll be fun mindless drama.

It does suck to see Nick leaving. He had such a great rapport with all of the interns and was probably one of the only truly competent doctors in that hospital to lead them. Bailey's changed a lot since the early years where she'd lead interns. I hope she can recapture that early series Bailey. Hopefully, this Director role does her better than the Chief role. It looks like they're just completely embracing a villainous Catherine. They really went all out with her this episode, so I suspect it will get much worse with her. I also assume, at some point, Catherine's cancer will be her karmatic downfall. The premiere was overall just fine. Good to see Winston leading in a way that works. I'm glad he outright kicked out the people who weren't supposed to be in the room and focused on the medical aspect of his job. Mika standing up to Jo was great to see. She wasn't wrong; this is why interns have gotten away with so much in the past. They have incompetent residents and attendings who choose their romcom drama over teaching the interns. I mean, the interns also choose the romcom drama too but they're not leading themselves. Self driving car case was annoying to watch but hey, it's no operating on a deer kind of stupid. So, Blue and Jules basically call things off because Jules can't get past what Blue did. And Simone/Lucas are already arguing about their romance drama. I mean, this does feel very early Greys still, so they are attempting to recapture those early years. I did like all the references they made, such as with Derek and the LVAD wire, so that's nice.

I don't think he will. Yam Yam could be a lot but he seemed extremely well liked and he was good at the game. Everyone seems annoyed with Bhanu. He cannot win, even if he does get (dragged) to the end.

I felt so bad for Randen. I was very up and down on him in these few episodes, but he seems like a great guy and I think him and Venus would have provided some great opposition against Tevin/Hunter. Alas, we not only get minimal Randen, we get 300% more Bhanu, which is not a good thing. Bhanu's a good character, he seems nice enough but he's definitely a terrible Survivor player. For all that Jelinsky and Jess did wrong, they at least tried (somewhat). Bhanu spent the entire episode not just crying (I can handle the crying) but whining about his position while expecting someone else to solve his problem for him. I was ok with him breaking down to Liz/Ben, but that scene went on forever and he just showed how weak of a player he was. He had Ben and Liz spend the entire time comforting him and then he just gave them the entire tribe info. The other issue is how performative Bhanu feels. A lot of them are doing this with the analogies, and it's no different than the mermaid/dragon analogy Bhanu made about Kenzie. So when he does that and then spends the entire journey whining to Ben and Liz about how bad his position was on his tribe, it did feel a bit manipulative. Bhanu seems to wear his heart on his sleeve so it was likely genuine, but part of it felt like he did that with them for a reason. But it's not going to help when Bhanu is voted out at some point, either pre-merge or right at merge. He can't be trusted as an ally. He's too reactive. The cast is a complete trainwreck. Siga may be the only competent tribe, but that may be because they all seem to get along. I like Ben and Maria and will just enjoy the downfall of everyone else. I hope Ben/Maria make it far.

I think next week it's supposed to be Bhanu, at least according to spoilers that Yanu loses again. But I think the week after it's Soda and then merge starts? If I'm doing the math correctly. Or there will be someone else after Soda and then merge.

So, some things I've read on the subreddit: A very reliable source on there does confirm that a woman does win and it's not of the F3 hinted at from the boot list in this thread. It is nice to finally see so many female winners in this new era, especially after the dude-geddon of the 30s, where only two women out of 10 won. And the pool is narrowed to: Kenzie, Liz, Maria, Moriah, Sodasia, or Tiffany. Kenzie has gotten a weird edit even this early on so I don't think she wins. She's gotten the "played too hard, too fast and now is suspicious" edit. Tiffany also has a weird edit but unsure about her chances since it's better than Kenzie's. Liz is not winning with the way she's been bragging about her wealth. Soda also hasn't gotten a good edit. So, for me, it leaves it to either Maria or Moriah who win with a chance that Tiffany could win. For me, Maria has the best shot to win because she's gotten a fantastic edit AND I feel like I read pre-season at some point that Maria was a contender to win. Moriah had a decent edit episode 1 and nothing in episode 2, but we'll have to see on her.

Well, that would line up with the speculation that Bhanu goes pre-merge. Q and Tiffany probably go back and forth between Bhanu vs Kenzie but if Bhanu behaves like he did in the last Tribal, it's very clear why they'd vote Bhanu out despite not trusting Kenzie. I think the speculation on a tribe swap was based off of a couple of players in previews seemingly wearing different coloured buffs (Kenzie wearing a green buff, for example). Still unclear, but possible. It would need to be after Randen's boot, unsure if it could be right after that or if it would be after Bhanu's potential boot.

Apparently, Randen sits out during the third episode's Immunity Challenge so unless there's a Reward thrown in to episode 4, with the "sit out" rule, it's very likely Randen. Which makes sense, given they've set up the fact that Randen and Venus have been the odd ones out, and Randen will not have a vote during the next Tribal Council without that idol. I have a feeling, unlike with Tiffany, that he won't solve it before Tribal. Oh, why am I reading spoilers? I told myself I wasn't going to. But it does look like the spoilers that have been out there are somewhat false.

It's hard, because I do think Jess made some blunders but it really does seem like her ADHD just made it harder for her to concentrate. She even said at one point that she wasn't getting any sleep. Factor all that in and I don't think it's being dumb, it's being sleep deprived and being unable to concentrate. Would she have been able to adjust with a couple more days? That part is unclear, but she was trying. I think the issue was that the tribe basically gave up on her day 1 or day 2. Kenzie even said she tried on the first day, got nowhere and then gave up and tried getting her out from there on. Everyone but Q was ready to vote her out on day 3 but it was Q's insistence that Jelinsky had to go. I don't think Jess was dumb; she clearly was smart enough to recognize what Kenzie was doing and she was smart enough to clock the fake idol (I assume she still played it in a 'just in case it was real' scenario) and she seemed to try to turn the tides on Kenzie, but there really wasn't anything she could do once she was seen as the weakest link for the challenge and perceptions from the first day were already set in stone against her.

Honestly, it made me sad to see how Jess was treated. Sure, not all of it was to her face, and maybe part of it was strategic for the tribe, but the way they talked about Jess all episode, the way they played with her just because her ADHD was causing her to be more spaced out than what I assume she usually is, the way they mocked her for not daring to find the fake idol planted in the fake location, the way they compared her and Bhanu to clown school or whatever, all of it felt more mean spirited than it should have been. I may understand that Jess didn't fit in, I understand that she wasn't doing well socially and someone had to go. I may understand that the fake idol play was to prevent a SITD play. But it felt so unnecessary and extra, all for more camera time, at the expense of another player being humiliated, or an attempt at being humiliated. I'm trying to separate feelings from objectivity but I still come out of the episode, feeling like Kenzie, Tiff and Q blamed the challenge loss on Jess (it was all of their faults equally), blamed Jess for being too stupid at Survivor "but she's SUCH A NICE PERSON!", and then laughed at the idea that she didn't buy the ugly fake idol Q handed her. There was just a lot there that made me uneasy. And now Bhanu will be the next scapegoat for that tribe because he had a full on meltdown. Not that I'm happy with Bhanu, either. His "passion" was really just angry screaming and being frustrated. Don't mistake passion for outright anger, Bhanu. Similar to Venus, who has been consistently talking about being on the outs, being ostracized, and we're actively seeing that in small clips (not just Soda, but Tevin was rolling his eyes at Venus at one point). I know that she got way too obsessed with the challenge and the cart running over her foot and she absolutely should not have brought that up back at camp the way she did, but she's expressed feeling on the outs (as has Randen), and it's clear that it's gotten to her. Though, can she be more on the outs as Liz, who is almost guaranteed to either be an early boot or a goat dragged to the end? Bragging about her wealth, then nonstop cheering loudly during the challenge? I like Venus but she's definitely a sloppy player. She's going to talk herself off the island if she keeps it up, but at the same time, I don't think she's done anything horrible to warrant not just the ostracization, but Soda trying to rip the immunity idol out of her hands twice. It makes me not like Soda at all. Venus may also want the attention, but Soda's definitely gravitating toward it as well. I think the only tribe I marginally like is the green tribe. I really like Maria, and I love Ben. I'm on the outs on everyone else but at least their tribe seems to like each other. I don't know, I'm all for villains and catty and sneaky behaviour but I think the episode was sloppily edited, so something made it very awkward to watch.

It's interesting because when they first started doing Sweat vs Savvy, none of the tribes actually failed. It's only, I believe, 45 where we've started to see tribes fail and that's due to the changes in how the tasks work. 45 had the tribes fail the challenges for the first time because they changed things up. In 45, both tribes had to do BOTH tasks in a specific amount of time. Both tribes were so tired from Sweat that they had no time left to even attempt to finish Savvy, if I remember correctly. They seem to have increased the difficulty on Sweat. Obviously, it's possible to complete it, but with the holes in the bucket, I think it made it very, very difficult and the closest to impossible that you could have gotten it, especially filling up both large urns. Even just one hole might have made it a bit easier, but multiple holes and 4 hours and two extremely large urns meant Q and Jelinsky had to basically not stop at all in order to finish. We saw that, at the 1 hour 15 mark, they weren't even a quarter of the way done (or maybe they had just hit that). Knowing that they'd grow more and more tired, AND having holes in their buckets, I do think that they would have depleted all of their energy by the time they finished, even if they had kept going. I think it would have been wiser to keep going a little bit longer but the ultimate decision to quit was the correct one. They'd need to go 4 straight hours with very few breaks to complete the task, and it was clear at least Jelinsky knew that was never going to happen. On the topic of Savvy, I am surprised because the challenge didn't seem too hard, no harder than Tiffany's visual puzzle, yet Ben and Charlie weren't able to figure it out. But depending on how much time they had, they just didn't see the word scramble within the word puzzle.

Honestly, after thought about it, I got Jelinsky's decision and I agree that it's better to recognize if a task is outright impossible (which it seemed like it was with the holes in the bucket; it would have been just as challenging without the holes). I don't blame him for deciding to opt out. But the edit didn't do him any favours, and him smashing the hourglass (unless production told him to) was annoying. Like, buddy, someone has to now clean that glass up and it's not going to be you. Jelinsky annoyed me in other areas but I did like him personally. I just think he wasn't a very good player, overall. I still think his worse blunder was telling his tribe about what happened on the journey.

Honestly, I wanted to like the premiere more than I did. I thought it was a step down from last season's. I'm not sure whether it's the cast or the editing choices or what, but although it wasn't terrible, I felt like the episode dragged on and on. Jelinsky was the right call to get out. He made bad choice after bad choice. He first decided to quit the Sweat challenge just over an hour into it (he said there were 4 hours to complete the challenge and I believe Q said they quit with 2 hours 45 minutes left). He basically gave up 1/4 of the way in. He forced Q to quit with him, because why would Q take on the brunt of the work and not complete it? I get that he believed they couldn't succeed, and maybe they couldn't. Those holes in the bucket made it harder and I think they would have had to both go nonstop to get close to finishing. But still, he makes the decision to quit because they definitely can't do it, and then he breaks the hourglass. Ok, that sucks but hey, could just be a moment where he realized conserving energy was better than using it all up and still not finishing. Maybe he thought he was too weak to do it and wanted to save the inevitable from happening. But then he volunteers immediately to go on the journey. He joins up with Tevin/Maria and he gets the skull. So now he has to lie to Maria about not having the skull. Maria does a smart thing in giving him and Tevin a chance to be truthful by threatening trust. Jelinsky folds IMMEDIATELY. Ok, fine, he realizes he can't lie his way out and would rather leverage a relationship with these two than anything. But, first off, he should have realized lying off the bat was never going to get him anywhere good. Even if he had made it to merge, Maria and Tevin weren't going to trust him. But then he stupidly runs to tell his tribe the entire truth, INCLUDING his plan to earn Maria and Tevin's trust long-term, give them extra votes, and because he couldn't lie to them or whatever. So now he's lost the trust in his tribe. But then, during the immunity challenge, he not only decides to do the puzzle when they're super far behind, he decides to just....not do the puzzle at all. He starts stacking the pieces and then has Jess doing the entire thing on her own. No wonder they didn't get close to finishing; Jess was solo'ing the puzzle! He made mistake after mistake, but I think how he handled it at Tribal is why he got unanimously voted out. With how he blamed Q for both of them quitting (no, Jelinsky quit and Q had to follow) and how he handled the discussion on the journey, there was no way he could have recovered. And it's not like Jess was good at Tribal either; she was also floundering her answers. I felt bad for Jess. Being neurodivergent on a show like Survivor is tough. It makes you a target almost immediately because of how much you stand out. I hope Jess can recover from this, once she kind of gets a more normal sleeping pattern. I'm sure the first few days were rough for her, but she has a chance to recover from this because her issues stem from being too overwhelmed in a new environment and her ADHD causing some issues. My overall impressions other than the above? Maria's fantastic and I can see her doing very, very well. She's likeable, she's athletically capable of doing well in challenges, and she's strategic. I really like Tiffany and loved her beasting through the clue to the immunity idol. She solved that likely within minutes. I really liked Tevin and I liked his alliance with Hunter. Hunter felt very much like how I'd be on the island, and I loved the Andy Griffith connection. Kenzie's great but her edit basically screams her getting taken out before the finale. She's getting too good of an edit too early on. She's likely hitting merge and could get a bit farther in but I don't see her in F3. I liked Q a lot and appreciate him fighting to get Jelinsky out over Jess. I liked Jem, Moriah and Maria's alliance. I get why Tim clocked the women's alliance BUT I hate how fast he clocked it and the way he spoke about it. I mean, who says "I have a wife and grandmother, I know what THEY are like"? It really bothers me when men clock women grouping together within hours, but men grouping just fly under the radar for weeks with no mention of needing them out. Even though Tim is right, it's super frustrating the way he voiced his concerns. Venus is already clocked as a threat. I didn't love the way Randen went about it but I do think he could be correct on Venus being a threat. Or maybe not, she was a bit sloppy already and she seems close to Soda but nobody else yet. Charlie was fine but could become annoying down the road, Ben was a lot more likeable than I initially thought he'd be, and Liz being allergic to everything is going to be an issue where she's likely to be taken out early. Challenge was boring, yawn, next. Overall, rooting for Maria, Kenzie, Tevin, Q and Tiffany, am lukewarm on most others and am on the fence on Randen, Liz, Tim and Charlie.

It's interesting because back when Emily was giving confessionals such as "Drew and Austin brought me in to this vote. This means they must want to work with me!", I thought she was an idiot for trusting them as they would never actually choose her over the Reba 4 and they were only using her as a number like literally everyone else (even Kaleb initially used her as a number before they got close). But I think Drew/Austin really DID like Emily, Drew in particular, and really did consider her a number for them and also liked working with her at the same time. Now, Dee/Julie obviously did not feel the same way so Emily was always a number for the men there, but at the time for Emily, it DID make sense to work with them. Nobody else really wanted to work with Emily while Drew/Austin did, which is a testament to the relationship they took the time to build with her. I don't blame Emily for working with the people who gave her an actual shot. I think, had Kaleb actually stayed, she would have turned on Reba 4 sooner, though. Emily's no idiot; she worked with Reba 4 because, let's face it, Belo was a mess even early on. I'd gamble my life on the tribe that isn't falling apart, even for a bit. But I think Emily had leverage to break up the Reba 4 by the time she WAS voted out. She had Drew who would have voted with her and they would have likely gotten Katurah/Jake since Emily ALSO put in the time with them. I think the only mistake Emily possibly made WAS not taking out Julie the Tribal Kellie went home. I think that would have been the only shot to make a move. But, again, at that point, Belo was a mess. Bruce/Katurah were still at each other's throats, Kellie was in an extremely strong position, Kendra was all over the place, and Jake was showing how bad he was at the game. I think, had Emily turned, Reba would have turned on her sooner since they were able to control Belo's votes still, at that time. So the next best time to turn was probably the Tribal that Bruce went. Had Emily found a way to convince Katurah to stick with Bruce a little bit longer, they would have had the majority. But, again, the issue is Katurah hated Bruce and never wanted to really work with him. So had she jumped on that bandwagon, that was a sinking ship. Emily was in no real good position with a strong Reba 4 and a messy Belo tribe. Kellie was the only good player on Belo but at the time of Kellie's departure, had she taken out Julie instead, Emily was 100% next on the chopping block. Katurah, on the other hand, had actual chances to work with Belo and chose not to. That's on her. Katurah literally said that she'd rather work with Reba to get out her Belo tribe, but she had to know she formed a relationship with Reba way too late for it to matter. She didn't have the relationship with even one Reba member the way Emily did. I think that's the difference.

Like I said, it didn't REALLY matter that much in the end since the result still was Dee targeting Katurah, but had Katurah been the only one to write Dee's name down, her plan fails and now Dee/Austin have their eyes set on her for trying to take Dee out. Again, in hindsight, before everything else the next day played out, I could see Katurah's worry that Jake wouldn't vote Dee and her hoping that she could push Jake ahead of her as a target once Julie's gone and maybe she could convince Dee to take her to F3, or Austin could. We know now the result would have been somewhat the same in Dee targeting Katurah no matter what and, actually, she WOULD have gotten Dee out, leaving her in a much better spot going into F4, but at the time, Katurah's mistrust in Jake caused her to think "well, if he writes Julie's name down instead, Dee's still here and Dee/Austin are better at comps than I am and I will 100% be thrown up." She got too paranoid, sure, but I don't think it was ever something that was dumb of her to do, just way too risky. Had Jake told her that he was going to use his idol on her, I wonder if that really would have changed things. Maybe, maybe not. We don't know.

For me, how I interpreted their relationship was that it always was a fun thing for both of them, but the fact of the matter is that they only knew each other for 26 days by FTC. They likely did try something after the season but realized it was nothing more than a fun flirting thing between them. And, as it happens all the time in real life, that's ok. It doesn't mean either were pretending to like each other or were playing it each other; more that they got to know each other and realized it wasn't serious for them. Personally, I was annoyed that Jeff kept hammering in the showmance stuff over and over again. Regardless if it was something that benefitted Dee/Austin, it became such a vocal point in the reunion. Similarly how he took jabs at Jake the entire finale for no good reason, other to rub it in that Jake sucked at the game. Jeff needs to be more unbiased and objective instead of trying to insert himself as a Survivor player. He asks leading questions all the time and it's annoying.

So, a pretty predictable ending to a mostly ok season. I think Dee winning was the right call. I've mentioned this before, but what I love about Dee is how dominant she was all season. We see men time and time again dominate the game. We don't often get to see the women take that role because either they're seen as threats the moment they start vocalizing what they want and are taken out, or they don't get in the right alliances and are taken out. We've seen it even in the new era; the moment even two women pair up, they're seen as immediate threats that need to be split up, so they never get the chance to dominate since the men get to often slide by. So it was nice to see Dee dominate, and have her close alliance with Julie and not seen as a threat that needed to be split up. Julie was even seen as a threat but couldn't be taken out until F5. It's just a nice change from what typically happens on Survivor. I know Dee wasn't the most interesting player and she definitely made some blunders in this FTC (her initial answers were really weak and Austin did a slightly better job answering questions), but it was nice to see a dominant woman get rewarded and her moves not being credited to Austin or anything. Of course, it was on Dee to explain that, and good thing she managed to do that by the end. Austin still got the three votes from Bruce (no surprise), Drew (no surprise) and Kendra (no surprise). Shame that Jake was a zero vote finalist, but I think he lost the game a couple of episodes ago once he couldn't make a move to split up Reba before they became the majority. I know Katurah made a HUGE mistake in switching her vote from Dee to Julie at the end but I think I understand why. It boils down to the simple fact that, in the end, she couldn't trust Jake to follow through with voting Dee. Had she trusted him, she would have kept her vote on Dee. But if Jake had gone with voting Julie out, she'd be the odd one out on voting Dee, which puts a target immediately on her back and then she's targeted. Now, it happened anyway, but at the time of her vote switch, I saw her thought process. Either way, Jake/Katurah were in a losing battle the moment they allowed Reba to take control of the game. Overall, a decent season, maybe filled with not so great gameplay BUT it has the most players I've liked in a long time. I came out loving Kaleb, Emily, Jake, Kellie and Julie, and really enjoying Dee, Austin (sort of), Katurah, Sabiyah and even Kendra. I wish there was better gameplay, but it was an entertaining enough season, and the 90 minute episodes worked WAY better than I expected. The only thing they need to absolutely get rid of is the constant split tribes in merge. We don't need to see people lose their votes or the players being split up for two separate votes. That made the season worse since it halted actual gameplay at times.

So, what I didn't expect to ever happen actually happened: the women beat the men and got to be the final 2! Obviously, Reindeer Games is not even part of the regular show, but even thinking about it, the last time the Big Brother Universe had a female F2 was BB13. 12 years ago, 12 years to get a F2 with women in it. Now, Nicole winning was not something I was jumping up and down for, but I'm not upset that she won. Maybe it is editing that helped a lot, maybe Nicole actually hasn't changed much from her previous appearances, but she's been extremely tolerable this spinoff, similar to how I remembered her from BB16 (when I really liked her). And I think her working with the women for the first time in her Big Brother career was a huge help. I think this spinoff really gave her SOME redemption. Actually, same with nearly every other controversial player, besides Cameron. Josh and Frankie also redeemed themselves in a lot of ways. Plus, it's hard to say that Nicole didn't earn her win. Not only did she get Taylor to take her to the F4, she destroyed Xavier in their match-up with a smart strategy, and she fought for her win against Taylor. That final challenge looked difficult. The first two parts seemed like Taylor was running away with it, but that final challenge with the stacking snowflakes really evened things out. It looked like both women were there for at least an hour. But it was well earned, and I think it did help that both women were there and not Frankie or Xavier. It made this spinoff extremely satisfying to watch. Xavier isn't as good at comps as he appears to be. He's barely scraped by to get to the finale. He's done well enough, and I think the first Showdown was his most impressive challenge in this game, but he's really struggled and almost lost several times before this. He's gotten lucky that he was always good ENOUGH to get through, but at least Nicole beat him. His strategy with the gears was absolutely terrible; why was he starting with gears placed randomly? Frankie losing at what was actually a really easy comp was a surprise. The mental portion was probably one of the easiest I've seen in a bit. The only difficult part was aiming the balls at the target, but those targets were also fairly large. They could have upped the difficulty on that by making the mental portion more difficult and making the targets half as big as they were. Alas, Taylor won against him and it worked for me. The look on everyone's faces when they realized Taylor and Nicole beat Frankie and Xavier was priceless. I don't blame them for being shocked; Big Brother has been male-dominated when it came to comps. So to find out not just one but two women beat the comp beasts? Amazing reaction, just another plus to this show. Cody and Britney looked the most shocked. Overall, what a fun holiday event. The fact that the comps were equitable was the highlight of the series, and these comps absolutely have to be carried over to the regular show. Women on the regular show need a chance to be able to save themselves and not have to continue to rely on men and their social game to do so. I hope this is them testing the waters with new comps and that we'll see many of these comps in BB26, because this event has proved that the comps can be equitable and a woman can do well when given an actual chance.

It's a shame that Britney went out here, but at least we got her for five episodes. It's better than no Britney at all. I think she also did so well here; she won some comps, she had the best DRs and proved why she's the best confessionalist in the history of Big Brother, and she got to have some memorable moments, such as her kicking ass at the hamster wheel Showdown. I don't really get why Taylor chose to take Nicole instead of Britney. Unless she thought she could use Nicole to beat the men in the finale, I don't get her thought process. Or maybe that's a testament to Nicole's social game because, goddamn, what does Nicole do to get people to trust her so much? I'd be more upset about Santa's Showdown's challenge but we HAVE gotten the most equitable comps here than we have in modern Big Brother, so one comp like this isn't the end of the world. Plus, there was a clear strategy to knock the blocks down, it just took Britney longer to figure it out. On the other hand, Xavier needed no strategy because he's so tall, so what it took him in two tries to knock everything down, it took Britney probably about ten-twelve tries. She got lucky that Xavier almost bombed the puzzle portion. Had she been able to figure out the strategy even 5 minutes faster, she would have beaten Xavier. This type of comp would need to be tweaked to help the people who are disadvantaged, but it is clearly a comp that can work. I can't be too mad, though, since they have had equitable comps and Britney almost did tie with Frankie on the quiz portion. Alas, it's not meant to be and we're probably heading to a Frankie win. Eh, it would be a partial shame but I don't think it would take away from the positives of this spinoff show, which has been showcasing that Big Brother IS capable of creating equitable comps, they just literally chose not to for years. Thanks Big Brother for showing your true colours; you can do it, you just don't care to. My preferences to win would be Nicole, Taylor, then Frankie and then Xavier, but other than Xavier, I would be fine with anyone winning. I also wouldn't hate an Xavier win since he DID have to work for it, but I'd be bored by it.

So, how I see it is that Taylor was in no true winning position. Nicole and Xavier both felt like they were close to Taylor and deserved to be saved by her. I think what the difference was, in this case, is outside stuff. Taylor's closer to Xavier outside of the game while she's likely to not talk to Nicole outside of Big Brother-related events (that Nicole doesn't attend, anyway). Taylor already pissed off Xavier once before; if she did it again, I think she knew Xavier would turn on her, probably join Frankie, and potentially Nicole/Britney had he beaten Josh, and Taylor would have been a target anyway. Now, if Taylor had put Xavier down in the Showdown and he won, I think Nicole/Britney might have still stuck with Taylor. There's definitely a chance things would have worked out better, game-wise. Nicole isn't wrong; putting her in instead of X was a bad game move. That's why I think it was more personally-driven, since Taylor still will run into Xavier more than Nicole out of the game, and Xavier has shown that he probably can hold a grudge. He was already pissed off at Taylor at the team decision two episodes ago, and that was a team decision. Had she done it again, that relationship would have likely been severed. Xavier's a terrible player, so holding a grudge for a game move seems pretty on par with him. But Taylor would have to face the consequences outside of the show, which I don't think she wanted to do. I do think it could have been a bad decision, but I don't think it was a fatal one. I do think Taylor can beat Xavier should they be thrown into the last Santa's Showdown, and Xavier isn't as great with challenges as people make him out to be. He's good, sure, but he can be beaten. She already missed her shot in taking out Frankie; the most she can hope for is pushing for Frankie to be put into Santa's Showdown next because of how well he's been doing in comps. She will have to face Nicole's wrath, which could get tricky, and Britney is also not happy with her, but Taylor was pissing people off anyway. I think, for Taylor's outside connections, it was the right move. In game, it might have cost her.

Dee isn't playing Austin. She had her segment with the producer that proves that she also has feelings for him. She got giddy just talking about him. What separates her and Austin is that she has the ability to separate gameplay from personal feelings. She's able to recognize that she's still only just met Austin, so even though she may like him, she's there to win. If she was actively playing him, we'd hear it in a confessional. She's said that she likes Austin. But they also only just met. Austin got blinded by his feelings; that's not on Dee. It's not her fault that Austin's decided to throw away his whole game for a woman he met less than a month prior.

This spinoff continues to be highly entertaining, even when someone I was enjoying goes. It just feels more equitable compared to regular Big Brother, and I think that's a nice feeling. Even when there's a comp like this hamster wheel puzzle that is more strength-based, it feels doable. And I loved the Santa's Showdown twist with Nicole picking one person to complete the puzzle, and then the next person goes by with less time. It's strategical, mental AND physical all in one. I liked Danielle but I think there was always a chance of her going early. But she did well, she beat out Cameron and Cody and honestly, just looking at how far she made it INTO the Santa's Showdown Hamster Wheel Puzzle, she was slated to do better than Xavier did. So I'd call that a personal win. Xavier is no true comp beast, as it turns out. 4 minute and 16 seconds on the puzzle? And Britney completed it in far less time? She finished in half the time it took Xavier (and she also completed it faster than Frankie, I believe). I'm glad the edit was a bit misleading. Even though it became obvious that she'd finish it with the time left in the episode, it was still tense and nervewracking. I get why Britney turned on Danielle. Xavier opened his mouth and Britney read things wrong. It sucks, but it happened. Plus, Britney/Danielle were probably both secretly hoping the other would go next and lose. I also put blame on Frankie for what happened. Britney AND Nicole both outright told him "don't put Xavier next, Britney will be picked to go". And what does he do? He picks Xavier to go to "protect himself". Granted, Xavier very nearly left because he sucked ass at the comp, but Frankie almost gave Xavier an easy out. I'm guessing Frankie wants to work with Xavier, or else he would have chosen someone else instead. Good on Nicole for winning the Brawl. I did laugh at her early celebration, only to have two pieces swapped and having to redo it before getting the win. I guess the Tiny Gingerbread Man comp IS difficult; it's all we hear whenever they do this comp. This Reindeer Games has had such equitable comps, I'm going to be pissed off when regular Big Brother DOESN'T learn from this and transfer these comps over. And, let me just say, as others have pointed out before, you mean to tell me they've HAD these comps ready to go and they DIDN'T implement even one of them in BB25? Really?