Pallida

The Storm Front comparison is perfection. While the implicit bias of assuming Adam was head boy over Jackson was pretty obvious to me and hopefully most people, I appreciate that this was a "show, don't tell" storytelling even if some of the audience might not see it immediately.

This was my biggest problem with Journey of My Heart. I read so many comments on their Facebook page about people enjoying learning about Native Americans and I just kept shaking my head.

Nutria are obnoxious, invasive jerks with no fear of things much bigger than them.

Considering the word “wunderkind” literally translates to wonder kid, I wanted to throat punch the reporter.

In general, I agree with this, but we have seen in previous seasons that some teams relied a lot on pre-processed foods (frozen tater tots, frozen fries, etc.) as critical components of their dishes. If they had stuck with "fresh and quality" rather than this "fine dining" narrative, I would have found them far less annoying.

Sometimes I get bogged down into practicality. The mushroom was beautiful, but as far as I know, there's no way to make that weather proof to make it be a community library (unless it was housed inside a community center or something - which would be awesome!). The tool lending library was well constructed, even if it wasn't very aesthetically pleasing, and I'm impressed that he got so much completed during the time. But then again, I feel like we don't get a real impression of how much work the helpers do and how much the contestants do.

I wish the show had Jane learning about being an editor (not editor in chief) under Jacqueline’s mentorship leading to her taking on the editor in chief position at an independent Don’t Look Away. Sutton would stay at Scarlet and keep receiving actual guidance and advancement.

I think the microdosing on a whim story is totally in character for Kat - she has an idea, doesn't take time to think about nuance or variety of experiences, and goes for it. I'm intrigued by the idea of microdosing/psychedelics, but I also know I can easily get super far into my head that I want a controlled environment to see how I'd react especially at different doses. I don't really want to compare myself to Jane, but I think she's similarly far into her head. Finding the right dose seems to be a process, not something to do on a workday!

Maybe I’m just trying to handwave some things, but I take the “shootout” to be a “first on the scene” news story that had a reporter make assumptions without details. The cops would not have known yet how Martin died - at least not with enough certainty to tell the public. I don’t think we’ve ever heard shootout from anybody other than the news report (correct me if I’m wrong!), and I think it’s kind of a neat detail on how we make assumptions and stick with it from small details. So, the audience might keep thinking shootout, but none of the characters did. I think it’s also reasonable that everybody knows Kate shot Martin while also acknowledging that it’s traumatizing so they don’t talk about it. For Kate, remembering Annabelle is reliving the experience of shooting someone for whom she still has conflicting feelings. Seems reasonable to suppress that.

I think that makes sense. I think Jamie is also a subtle example of "what you're supposed to be" versus "what you want to be" and the conflicting emotions that emerge from that.

I had a bit of a spoiler for FJ with my brother sending me a clip of my 3-year-old niece singing "Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay" with think music in the background. I think I would have picked up on the lyric references in the clue, but I definitely had an extra hint :)

Jane has never shown a natural ability to mentor (if such a thing exists!), so I feel like Jacqueline is partially to blame for not guiding her in leadership from the beginning. That pitch meeting was seriously painful to watch. What's the point of a team if they aren't encouraged to riff off of each other? @ZeeEnnui, I agree with you that Kat's activism is performative. She hears one snippet of someone's experience in a system and reacts rather than trying to understand the system that creates the circumstances and the cogs that need to be shifted to change the system. It's like she has this "privileged savior" (like white savior) complex. Changing Zuri's life is great, but there is also so much work to be done upstream. Changing the public stigma (and employment-sector stigma) against the formerly incarcerated is absolutely important, but you'd think that the organizations who have been advocating on this for decades might know a bit more about what's going on than someone who has listened to a couple people's experiences.

I enjoy the speculating and theories, regardless of whether or not any are correct! I think it’s very intentional and telling that the show never said Martin was shot by the police. The way the news report was given makes it seem unlikely the police shot him, but it also keeps us guessing.

All of this discussion is making me wonder if either Kate or Annabelle (assuming that’s an alter) was allowed free range of the house while the other was combative and wanted to leave - leading to basement time. If she has awareness of each alter, perhaps she was able to fool Martin into giving her free range, shoot him, and then she slipped into the other alter who needed to cope with the death before leaving the house.

I started this show late - marathoning it last week and now regretting not waiting a few more weeks because I want to see all the pieces tied together. I keep thinking about the subtly of Cindy implanting ideas into Jeanette's head that she deserves status and that she'll come into her own. I forget which episode that happened in, but there was one comment that Cindy made that was basically "you will become beautiful and everybody will love you!" and I wanted to throttle her for the possibility of implanting insecurity that Jeanette wasn't currently good enough. Maybe I just don't like the frantic nature of the portrayal and I'm biased against Cindy, but I also got the feeling that she thought Mallory was several rungs beneath Jeanette - not just because of her general attitude and interactions with peers, but because of her home life and/or socioeconomic status. In 1993, Jeanette seems to have this awkward sense of entitlement and expectation, and after Kate disappeared, it manifested - perhaps reinforcing the sense of entitlement. It's quite the nice contrast to Kate who has social status but is not obsessed with social climbing (like her mother). By 1995, I think both Jeanette and Kate have learned just how much "appearances" can damage you and the precariousness of social status.

Texas has a high rate of private tiger ownership, so I wasn't surprised by Tom's appearance. https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/houston-tiger-population-texas-pets-16170908.php#:~:text=According to the World Wildlife,making them an endangered species.&text=The state requires owners to,tigers or other exotic animals. I think my most tense moment in the show was worrying about his life though.

Here in Oregon, he narrates a defensible space/wildfire protection commercial. I skip fast forwarding it because of his voice.

My brother and I basically thought to text about Ryan’s persona at the same time. The unsportsmanlike conduct of “going for the kill” took competitiveness to a gross place.

I really want to like Gottmik. I am glad a trans man drag queen is getting representation and I understand the barriers broken by this, but I just struggle with the vapid persona. I find a lot of Gottmik's drag to be similar, including makeup. I'm not inherently against one note looks (I rooted for Bianca who showed way less variation - Gottmik at least has a few silhouettes), but the persona with the looks irks me. Maybe part of it is that I can't reconcile the "punk" aesthetic with the vapid Paris Hilton persona. I'd be okay with a Gottmik win though. So maybe this season is mostly just inspiring apathy?

Agreed on frozen tots being the norm. And I can't remember what show I was watching, but I've heard that the process to make good tots from scratch is pretty tedious and not worth it. I don't have a problem with them doing that, especially since they aren't just plopping some cheese on them or something basic.

I think I’m rooting for Derek because I like his shirts, he works in a public high school (while doing a bunch of awesome other things), and seems to be a good dude who bakes good things. But, I generally like all the bakers so I’m not rooting against anybody. I don’t think this show really lets me judge people on their baking though.

I really hate when the twist is some flavor that doesn't work with everything. I'm glad Derek basically said "screw your twist, it is what it is" and I wish Jahmal had done the same thing. Jahmal redoing so many things hurt his time, and I'm sure that's what kept him from finishing on time.

I try to compartmentalize my like/dislike for a personality from performance, especially when there are horrible shenanigans like the Pork Chop group at the start. I’m not good at it, but I try. I don’t understand why the judges gushed over Kandy’s runway makeup. I thought it was way too orange on the main stage. There was a later shot under different lights where it looked better though. I think Tina needs to work on proportionizing. There are times her outfits make her look like she’s 50 pounds more than she is. Her MC outfit worked well for her and then her taxi outfit doubled the size of her legs. Mr Pallida made a comment about Ru’s nose makeup looking like an attempt to make it disappear on the main stage. Now I’m going to have to watch for it.

After reading a few people mention small town, I'm confused and maybe I need to do a rewatch. I thought the show takes place in Helena, the capital of Montana? (Sure, it's still not that big, but I wouldn't call it a small town.)

I blame you all for my purchase of Ghirardelli brownie mix yesterday. I walked by a display of it, and it's like this forum was haunting me. I'm not really complaining.