blackwing
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Euro 2024 and Copa America tournaments at the same time. Not sure about Copa America, but I know Fox has the rights to Euro 2024. And I am reminded again of how much I loathe Landon Donovan as a commentator.
He is truly terrible. He hardly ever adds any value. It's like he feels like he hasn't said anything in a while so has to open his mouth and say something. And it's almost always some useless comment.
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I hated this episode. The preacher and his "Sister" were beyond irritating. I was surprised to see Margaret so taken with them, it seems sometimes she is depicted as wise and astute and other times as a complete gullible fool.
I did appreciate that George showed up but I find it jarring that there was absolutely no conversation between him and the team. "Hey George, welcome back, how were your travels?" Instead, they pretend like he's been around the whole time.
I noticed that Higgins was absent... is this budget cuts? Can't afford to pay everyone so someone has to always be absent?
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Does it bode well that this show is now on its fifth title? Seems odd to have been retitled so many times.
I'm curious to see what they do with this show. I will openly admit that I'm not an Agatha fan. I found her amusing when she was just the nosy neighbor, but I am not sure if she can carry her own show. And I really really loathe that wink that she does and the GIF that has been made out of it.
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I forget how these books ended up on my list to read but I think it must have been some article in Book Page about fantastic voyages in interesting settings.
I read Voyage of the Damned by Frances White. This book is set in a fantasy world divided into twelve dukedoms, all of which are named after animals. The heir of each dukedom is called a Blessed and is gifted a Blessing in the form of a magical power. All twelve are on a ship on an annual voyage to visit the Goddess Mother to renew her strength so she can keep up the mystical barrier at the southern end of the land to keep out the unwanted invaders. Then one by one they start dying.
This book was fun. I liked the world building, even if I found it confusing at first. I actually thought the heirs were actually anthropomorphic animals... it wasn't very clear. The mystery was interesting. I have always wanted to read more mysteries set in a fantasy world, and I liked the addition of the magical element to the mystery.
I read Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis. Set in the 28th century aboard a spaceship hotel that travels the galaxies like a space cruise ship. There are various guests and employees on board. There's some element of a mystery... who is sending these messages decrying the galactic emperor? We meet various people and learn about them.
This was an odd book and I'm not sure if I would recommend it. It's more like a series of vignettes about individual characters, loosely connected by their ties to the floating hotel and in some cases, the mystery of the identity of the revolutionary. I don't think I was the right audience for this book. It's a bit lyrical and poetic and philosophical. I was expecting more of a concrete plot-driven story.
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I just finished this book called Escape Velocity by Victor Manibo.
Goodreads summary:
QuoteSpace Habitat Altaire is the premier luxury resort in low Earth orbit, playground of the privileged and the perfect location to host reunions for the Rochford Institute. Rochford boasts only the best: the wealthiest, most promising students with the most impressive pedigrees. Complete with space walks, these lavish reunions are a prime opportunity for alumni to jockey for power with old friends and rivals—and crucially, to advance their applications to live in an exclusive Mars settlement. Earth is dying, and only the best deserve to save themselves.
Aboard the Altaire for a 25th reunion, finance magnate Ava pursues the truth about her brother’s murder during their senior year. Laz, ambassador and political scion, hopes to finally win Ava’s heart. Sloane, collecting secrets to conceal his family’s decline, angles for a key client. And Henry, heir to a healthcare empire, creates an unorthodox opportunity to get to Mars in a last-ditch effort to outrun a childhood secret.
While these erstwhile friends settle scores and rack up points, they fail to notice the other agendas developing at the Space Habitat Altaire. Their own futures aren’t the only ones at stake—“the best” will soon regret underestimating those they would leave behind on Earth.I was drawn to this book by the promise of a murder mystery set in the future in a science fiction setting. The book is set in the year 2089 and is billed as "Knives Out with a Parasite twist". People who attended an exclusive high school are meeting in a floating orbital space station for their 25th reunion. 25 years ago, the twin of one of the main characters was murdered. Her girlfriend was convicted of the murder, but she has never believed that the girlfriend was guilty.
Not sure what to make of this book. I liked the space station setting. What I didn't like were the characters. I found almost all of them to be highly unlikeable. None of them are good people. All of them are obsessed with obtaining enough "points" to qualify to be chosen to live in the new colony on Mars, and don't care who they hurt in the process to get there.
For a book set on a space station, we get surprisingly little detail about what life is like onboard. With the exception of highly graphic detail of a naked pool party / orgy, and a detailed S&M session. And here I thought I was reading a sci-fi murder mystery!
The ending was also really abrupt, strange, disappointing and depressing. It's like the author decided he fulfilled the minimum word count, wanted to end the book ASAP, so he responded by [WARNING: SPOILER ABOUT THE ENDING]
Spoilerkilling off all the main characters. Seriously, every single one of the reunion guests die in various ways at the hands of a mutiny by the servants/employees.
I wish I had read reviews of this book before reading it.
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1 hour ago, DEL901 said:
The Sia award is no more. https://ew.com/the-sia-survivor-prize-has-finally-come-to-end-8653952
So generous of her to give away all this money over the years. She doesn’t seem to be as popular as she once was so maybe money is getting tight.
I wonder if Bhanu thought he was a shoo in for the Sia award. Haha Bhanu, no money for you!
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36 minutes ago, eel2178 said:
In the past they have strayed out of their own sections in order to look at someone else's puzzle which Jeff always announces but never condones.
I had wondered if once Liz had realized she needed her plank to open the lock and decided not to finish her own puzzle but just get her own plank and get the code for her own lock, would that have been considered an acceptable win even though she never finished the puzzle portion of the challenge?
I agree that many have wandered over to look at other's puzzles in the past, but that was on the final end stage where they were all on the puzzles, not on the actual course itself.
If Liz had just gotten the numbers from Kenzie's puzzle and solved the combo, I don't think she would have gotten the win, as I think you have to complete each step before advancing to the next step. Jeffy would have said she didn't finish her puzzle so she wouldn't have been able to advance to the combination lock.
6 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:I think that there has been past challenges where the combination locks were customized to individual Survivors. I don't think that there would be anything inherently unfair about the boards having different numbers as long as they were roughly in the same ballpark. Like if one had 4 holes and another had 137, that's a fairly large difference in the time to count. But if they all were 30ish, then everyone would have had an equal shake.
By selling herself as a millionaire and someone who didn't need the money, I suppose she could have expected "People will goat me to the FTC thinking that no one would vote for a current millionaire to get yet another million. And upon making the FTC, I will reveal, 'Surprise, I lied to you all about how rich I am so you would not see me as a threat,' but I actually COULD use the money so vote for me. because my lying strategery was so awesome."
It's just so crazy it might have worked.
Regarding boards with different number of holes, I think they were all the same here because of the rope that went through them. If one board had 30 holes and one had 33, there is a slight disadvantage to the person who had 33. And as we have seen in this game many times, seconds matter. I suppose it could be argued that the spots are randomly drawn, but still. Not fair to have chance determine who gets a slight advantage in an immunity challenge.
I think after Liz's helping, for sure the rules about helping are going to be clarified (likely off camera) for the next season.
The only issue with Liz's lying about being a millionaire is that of course everybody lies. But that would be a lie not necessarily as part of game strategy (e.g. lying to someone about who you are voting out and blindsiding them) but it would a lie aimed at emotional manipulation (e.g. "dude... Grandma died").
If she had lied about being rich so people would drag her to the final three thinking nobody would vote for her because she is rich, and then she said "surprise, I'm actually on welfare, I desperately need the money" I would hope that she gets zero votes because of the emotional manipulation and the fakeness. Like Hunter said, people want to feel good about who they are giving a million dollars to. And I would think people wouldn't feel good about giving money to someone whose entire persona was fake.
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Regarding Liz helping Kenzie at the challenge, as soon as it was apparent that this was happening, my question was whether everyone's boards were the same or whether they all had the same number of geckos on their puzzle. I thought about it for a second and then decided that they all had to be the same with the same order for the combination, otherwise it wouldn't be fair.
When Liz ran back to get the board, I thought that was a good way to ensure that Maria would lose. As long as Jeffy didn't say it was prohibited. However, I was shocked when Liz came back with Kenzie's board. I thought Liz was going to come back with her own board and count the holes on her board and assume they were the same as Kenzie's.
I would have thought there was always a rule against straying outside of your own section of the course, or against touching someone else's stuff. In team competitions, it's different. We've seen challenges like rolling the huge Indiana Jones ball where one team is blocking the path of the other and the other team just has to wait for them to pass or move. But in individual competitions, I don't think I've ever seen anyone cross to someone else's. Otherwise, Liz and Ben could have immediately gone to Maria's lane and tackled her or impeded her progress.
When Liz came back with Kenzie's board, I thought she was going to get disqualified. As soon as she left her lane, I thought Jeffy would have disqualified her. But he didn't. I think he didn't anticipate this happening, and knowing Jeffy, it made for "good TV" so he allowed it. Last season, when Jake stepped on the thing and broke it, Jeffy immediately disqualified him, so it does seem that Jeffy has some leeway in making decisions when something unexpected happens.
In any event, I disliked Maria, so I was fine with Liz helping Kenzie. Much has been said about Maria being bittercakes at Charlie and voting against him out of spite. Charlie was the one that pulled off the Q vote and got Liz and Kenzie to support him. Maria is a competitive person and would be the type to recognise and reward good game play. So for her in the end to say that she voted for Kenzie as a woman and because Kenzie wanted money for herself to have a baby, that doesn't ring true to me at all.
In the beginning of the game I really liked Maria, I thought it was great to see an older woman who was actually competent at challenges and strategy. But I grew to intensely dislike her smugness. I'm heartened to see that Maria is revealed as a huge vindictive witch. If she had been in the finals and Charlie was on the jury, I have no doubt that Charlie would have voted for Maria to win, even if she had been the one to get him out.
On 5/23/2024 at 2:29 AM, surfgirl said:I feel like we were watching a different show because Charlie clearly explained how he got to the final three, and Kenzie just admitted she road coattails and was told whom to vote for. That's not really better examining, it's just admitting she wasn't a mastermind on any vote.
I like Kenzie, but between Charlie and Kenzie, I think Charlie by far had the better game play. He shouldn't have said he was in the shadow of Maria, he should have said they were a pair that made decisions together. But on the whole, he explained himself quite well, especially when he said getting Hunter out was a big move.
Kenzie flat out admitted that she didn't have any big moves. She won on emotion. The emotion of her being a poor salon owner who was getting married and wanted money to start a family.
On 5/23/2024 at 7:25 AM, seacliffsal said:Because of the shorter season, do players really not care about the aspect of survival?
The only person I remember doing any kind of fishing was Hunter. After Hunter was out, no more fish. The crew loves filming these underwater scenes of contestants spearing fish underwater. How come nobody else bothered? Even with the rewards, there were still people saying they hadn't gotten to go on any (Ben). Why didn't anybody fish?
On 5/23/2024 at 12:35 PM, Tachi Rocinante said:Did Liz actually tell Ben she was a millionaire?
She has said in post-game interviews that she was exaggerating her wealth. What? I have no idea what to think about whether she does or does not have money. Was it her strategy to overinflate her prowess at owning and selling various companies? How would that help her?
On 5/23/2024 at 2:48 PM, eel2178 said:I was waiting for Jeff to decide to burst her bubble and ask the jury if she had been in the final 3, who would have voted for her just to see no one raise a hand.
I sat through the entire reunion show waiting for this. I think Ben absolutely should have taken Liz to the final three. I have no idea why she and he thought that she was such a threat. When she said she would have beat everyone, the incredulous look and sideeye from Venus said everything.
Charlie and Kenzie would have battled at fire and the winner of that duel would have won unanimously. Every season, Jeff always does a "what if". I would have loved for him to ask for votes in a Charlie/Ben/Liz and Kenzie/Ben/Liz scenario.
17 hours ago, WatcherUp2 said:I just realized that Ben and the guy from last season who was in the final three but got no votes (so unmemorable that i cant remember his name) were nearly identical in their time on Survivor: both nice guys, both way too emotional for the show, both ultimately forgettable.
I liked Jake. Jake was always on the outs, but he survived. He survived by forming social bonds and because others kept trying to get others out instead of him. He cried a lot as well but I think Jake played a better game than Ben. Ben was absolutely useless and I hope we never have to hear about his "night terrors" ever again.
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Has anyone seen the awful Tatler portrait of Kate Middleton that doesn't look anything like Kate Middleton? Does anyone else think that the person depicted looks an amazingly lot like Jackie Wood?
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I read Every Time I Go On Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack. The main character is an author who has written a series of mysteries. In the author's books, the main character is based on and shares the same name as her ex-boyfriend. The author is sent by her publicist on a book tour in the Amalfi Coast (where the latest book is set) and those accompanying her include the ex-boyfriend, another recent ex-boyfriend, her sister, and other authors. The ex-boyfriend believes that someone is trying to kill him and asks her for help. She doesn't believe him. But then people start dying.
This book was a lot of fun. It is told in the first person from the author's perspective, and there is a lot of meta stuff going on like breaking the fourth wall and hinting to readers about clues. It's really funny and suspenseful at the same time.
I read Extinction by Douglas Preston (a solo effort, without his usual writing partner Lincoln Child). A company has used genetic cloning techniques to bring back various ancient species to life, including the wooly mammoth and the giant ground sloth, in a process it calls "de-extinction". These animals reside in the Erebus Resort located in a valley in the Colorado Rockies, where tourists pay for the opportunity to stay in a luxury resort and hire guides to take them on extended camping trips throughout the resort where they can observe these species in the natural habitat. The scientists have removed the gene that causes aggression from these animals. But two hikers on their honeymoon disappear overnight. Their guide heard the sounds of their tent ripping and screaming. What did this? Weren't all the species supposed to be non-aggressive?
This was a fast-paced and suspenseful book. Think Jurassic Park but with ancient species. The twist of who was doing this which is revealed midway through the book caught me completely by surprise.
Some of the science doesn't make a lot of sense, but if I handwave over that, this was overall a very entertaining book. It sounds like there could be more books in this series forthcoming.
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It's sad when your favourite authors die. John Jakes, author of "North and South" and other historical fiction, died a year ago in March 2023 at the age of 90. His last book was published in 2006. In the intervening years, I always assumed he had retired but was always secretly hoping he would finally have written the third book in the Crown Family Saga series.
C.J. Sansom, author of the celebrated Matthew Shardlake books (of which the first book has been adapted as a series on Disney Plus) died a few weeks ago of cancer. Very sad because fans have been hoping for the in-progress eighth book, which will never be finished by him.
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It was always Goldfish's trophy to lose. Even the Direct TV photo for this show this season is a picture of Goldfish.
I thought Gumball sounded fairly rough on his first song. There were times throughout the season where he sounds like a guy doing karaoke. But good for him to make it so far. I never watched Friday Night Lights so I have no idea who this guy is, but he sounds like the kind of person I think is great for this show. Someone who is not a singer but can sing fairly well.
However, I still think a Clock/Goldfish final would have been better. After looking back at the season, I think Thelma Houston got robbed. Clay/Ruben also deserved to make it farther.
Why did the show stop doing a final three? So they can get one more episode with a finale with just two? My final three would have been Clock, Goldfish, Beets.
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17 hours ago, fastiller said:
If they're looking to change things up next season, they could have Robin (Robyn?) relocate to LA.
I was thinking that too. This will be the 5th season of the show, I think it would be interesting to see Robyn in L.A. Dee can go to boarding school or college soon. Viola can move with her.
But the show films in New York and all the cast and crew live in the New York area, so that would be a huge disruption to production to have to find new crew.
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10 hours ago, Trini said:
The main plot with Mel: Well, yikes to that ending! I know they were the kidnappers, but dang- things don't usually end so bleakly. They watched their father "die", then the father had to watch them die -- what are we doing, show?
Of course Mel will be pulled back into equalizing jobs sooner or later.
And yeah, while I'd love for M.E.L. to be dead, I also think it'll show up to cause trouble later.
8 hours ago, andromeda331 said:I hate that the dad turned out to be alive. I wish they had stuck with brothers seeing their father died and wanted revenge. It undermines their story, her talk with Eric and Mel doesn't have to feel bad about that turns out she didn't kill him. It was better when she was confronted by a mistake she made in the past.
Now she thinks that she was helping others with PTSD to avoid dealing with her own? Helping others with it can also be a way to help herself. Talking to others who went through the same crap can be a real big help.
The whole business with the dad being alive was utter crap. Did the U.S. government intend all along to have him fake his death? If so, they would have had him wear a vest. This makes zero sense.
More likely, after Mel shot him, the U.S. government swooped in and saved him. They used him for intelligence and information. He said he didn't tell his boys he was alive because he wanted to protect them.
This doesn't really make sense either. He got shot twice in the chest, those wounds must not have been as fatal as they looked. By not telling his sons he was alive, he pretty much encouraged them to hate the United States. They moved to the United States and for the past 15 years they have been plotting to kill Mel?
The younger boy, Eric / Bihhad, looked to be about 8 or 10. The older one slightly older. How did they find Mel? Any records regarding who was on the mission team would have been sealed.
The government did Mel a huge disservice by not telling her that the innocent man she thought she killed was in fact alive and living in the United States. For years she has been living with guilt and it has caused her lots of issues and PTSD of her own.
The brothers were innocent victims but that changed when they decided to kidnap and kill Mel. The father could have prevented their deaths by revealing himself to them years early. I don't understand what there is to "protect", they are all refugees of war. Perhaps he thought the Afghan government or combatants would hunt down the sons, but that doesn't ring true. Now he has two dead sons.
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3 hours ago, milkyaqua said:
Yes, no way M.E.L. doesn't somehow pop-up next season. How very POI except not as well done.
I could care less about Robyn and Marcus but yes that was an abrupt end to that relationship. Couldn't Marcus' captain just transfer him to another burrough? And yes, he had a day to get his kids situated with their mom and what about this house? Unless the actor is leaving the show, how will he get back to NYC? A major crime kingpin who his new team has to follow to NYC?
She didn't want to transfer him to another borough, then he would still be in New York and still working with Robyn. And then when this was discovered, there would still be some heat on the captain for not taking care of this. She wanted him out of New York permanently and as far away from Robyn as she could make it.
Robyn must not be independently wealthy otherwise I think she would have offered him a job with her team.
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I thought this was a great season finale. As soon as Mel mentioned she did something in Afghanistan, I knew right away that the vet was going to turn out to be the son of the guy she killed.
I would be surprised if either Mel or Dante left. But the possibility of them leaving made me dredge up my lingering questions:
1) Where does Robyn get her money? Is it from the divorce settlement? She used to be CIA but then she was out. She devoted her life to "equalizing" but there's never been any mention of money so I don't think she charges people for her services. She doesn't seem to have any kind of day job. Yet she has fancy clothes and can afford to fly to Europe for a night on her own dime. She supports her aunt (who I think might work as a volunteer art teacher?) and daughter and lives in a nice large single family house in Brooklyn or Queens (?) Must have been a great settlement.
If all of her money comes from a divorce settlement, wouldn't having a relationship with Marcus be problematic? Most alimony agreements state that if the recipient gets remarried then the alimony ends. I would think that would at least have come up during the past two episodes.
2) Where are Harry and Mel getting their money? That bar can't generate enough income to fund their lifestyle and the fact that neither of them seem to have day jobs.
3) How is the team even authorised to do what they do? They've definitely killed people. Some of it gets handwaved as part of some CIA investigation. And Dante surely gets some of the rest taken care of. But Hardass Captain is on to him so surely wouldn't look the other way. Is it the DA? Captain said in this episode that DA wouldn't let her fire Dante.
4) When did Harry get weapons and combat training? He is a lifelong computer desk jock. He seems awfully comfortable with guns and hand to hand fighting now.
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On 2/7/2024 at 12:49 PM, Trey said:
Season 17, Ep. 14 - The Smell of Alarm Jan. 29 2024
This was such a great episode, probably the best of the season so far.
Too bad the site was down last week so I didn't get to post anything then and now I've forgotten what I wanted to say.
I was surprised that Crabtree wasn't there; I thought he was back for good in the previous episode.
On 2/8/2024 at 9:57 AM, Grundoon59 said:Season 17, Ep. 14 - The Smell of Alarm Jan. 29 2024
I agree @Trey, I thoroughly enjoyed this episode even as I got creeped out by the bees. Missed George, but loved the Higgins moments - he has always been good but this season (at least for me) he has been knocking it out of the park with his material. I agree also that I feel like I am missing some comments I meant to make but maybe a rewatch will spark a memory.
Just watched this episode on Ovation. I was surprised George wasn't back. He found his father and he was headed home, and there wasn't even a mention of him.
I loved this episode. As I was watching it, I was thinking it was more and more like one of the old Batman episodes with Adam West. The newspaper headlines, the music, etc. When we saw Miss Sweet in her lair dressed in her costume, I thought even more that she would have been a good ridiculous classic Batman villain called the Beekeeper. She even had gadgets that helped her in her crimes.
Then to have Murdoch and Higgins talk about how they were a great pair, and Murdoch all but said "dynamic duo" confirmed for me that the writers intended to write it like a Batman ep. So much fun. I'll have to watch it again.
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On 5/17/2024 at 12:51 PM, surfgirl said:
Yeah, Peachy has always exuded this sweat of desperation, that weird thing that aging adults do when they were unpopular as kids and suddenly are given a spot light as an adult. He lost me when he made a BFD over saying "Come in guys!" It's such a common phrase and he made it into a 'Look how woke I am' moment. And since then he hasn't stopped dragging down this show with his idiotic comments - particularly when contestants are in the middle of a difficult challenge. 🙄 I'd just be ignoring his ass if I was on that shoe. Not answering his stupid distracting questions, nope. Giving one word answers in TC. Can you tell that hi is annoying me greatly these days?
And not fir nothing but other than having no rice at the start and it s quite a bit shorter (which IMO ruins the game), how is the NEW ERA all that different from the old era? They were always trying new things, some stuck for a few seasons then were put away, like banishing folks to the island. But its just not radically different to me.
22 hours ago, iMonrey said:No thanks. I'm not that interested.
As a casual viewer, there does not appear to be any difference between "New Era" and "Old Era." It's the same show and the same number of episodes. I'm sure there are differences from the perspective of the players, but not so much from my POV watching the thing every week. Same number of contestants, same worn-out obstacle course and puzzle challenges, same old tribal councils. I'd be hard pressed to say what's different about it if I didn't know they're there fewer days now.
I have loathed Jeffy for YEARS and YEARS. I've always hated how intrusive he is and I can't understand how he won so many Emmys for reality show host when Phil Keoghan has struck out. He has this insatiable need to hear his own voice. I get that he thinks there has to be some talking during an endurance challenge or an obstacle course, but I think viewers would enjoy just watching the competition. He seems to take particular glee in announcing that someone is "DEAD LAST".
Now as he has visibly aged (which is to be expected since the show has been on the air for 24 years), he does come across to me as someone who is desperately trying to stay relevant. I'm just so tired of his mannerisms and his stupid catchphrases. I would love if for the 25th year of the show, we get a fresh new host (as long as it's not Rob Mariano).
And I agree that to a viewer at home, we know that the number of days have been shortened from 39 to 26. But that just means tribal every second day instead of every third. It's the same sitting around, the same competitions, the same tribal councils, the same whispering.
The only significant difference to me as a viewer is the lack of rice. But the reward competitions are more compacted so there are more opportunities to earn food. I don't understand why Jeffy keeps going on and on about the "New Era" like he personally invented it.
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The character of Carrie Baxter was played by Tony Goldwyn's real life daughter Tess. She's apparently an actress but has almost zero credits to her name. I wonder if she will have more guest appearances next season.
40 minutes ago, gesundheit said:I wonder if she will be back for an episode that actually writes her off.
I hope they take this opportunity to promote Connie Shi to series regular. Cast a lesser-known, lower-fee actor for the Lieutenant and let Yee shine!
Baxter's wife didn't exactly prove herself to be that much of a protective mother given that she dramatically stormed out while her vulnerable daughter was going through it on the stand. So supportive! Definitely putting her daughter first! (Also I guess the daughter's not going to pass the bar now?)
It would be nice if Manheim got a proper goodbye in next season's premiere. But given the way they treated the exits of Anthony Anderson and Jeffrey Donovan and the fact that they already announced she has left the show, I'm assuming not.
I agree that Connie Shi should be promoted to series regular. I know it's always been the L&O formula to have senior detective, junior detective, lieutenant, executive ADA, junior ADA, DA as the six regular cast members. But why? Can't we have three detectives? Yee's role seems to be that of computer jockey who reviews surveillance footage, but I'd like to see her in the field. The lieutenant character can be in the "also starring" billing that Connie Shi gets right now.
I still am puzzled by how Baxter and Carrie acted like her drunk driving manslaughter incident was a big secret that was only going to be discovered if she testified. I still think that the campaign manager or supporters of Baxter's opponent would have dug this dirt up ages ago. I also wonder how this escaped the notice of Columbia Law School, you would think they would ask on the application about any convictions. Baxter got the charges reduced but they still would have been on her record.
And yes, there's no way she ever gets her law license now, she shouldn't be able to pass the character and fitness test.
37 minutes ago, Madding crowd said:I thought it was an odd choice to have the victim be a sports star with a dark beard dating a pop star. Obviously they were going for a Travis Kelci thing but made him a baseball player instead. Still, having the person shot in the head was kind of in poor taste especially since the target was Baxter and it could have been anyone who was shot.
I didn't understand the point of having this Taylor Swift / Travis Kelce-like couple on the show at all. Considering that the episode didn't involve these characters. Sure, there was speculation that a fan tried to kill Matt out of jealousy, but it wasn't needed. It could just as well have been a random stranger or some other notable guest at that event (president of XYZ company that is doing controverial environmental damage or something like that) that was accidentally killed. The police very quickly determined that the target was Baxter and not the baseball player. And then the stardom of the singer and the baseball player really didn't figure into the story at all, so I'm wondering why the show bothered in the first place instead of just using a random victim.
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5 minutes ago, dubbel zout said:
The bullets proved that the community gun was the murder gun.
So the gun pulled from the drain was the community/murder gun that belonged to Eddie Aguilar who had said that his gun was a community gun? He was going to testify that he loaned the gun to defendant. Then he was killed.
So they had the gun. They had the bullets which belonged to the gun which were the same type used in the murder. Why coudn't Price have put Shaw or Riley on the stand to testify that Aguilar said he gave the gun to defendant? I'm pretty sure there's some kind of hearsay exception for an unavailable (dead) witness. I would hope that if this were a case in real life that had a lot more time than 42 minutes that the police would have gotten surveillance video from Aguilar's apartment building and connected his killer to the gang. Seems sloppy that all of them were just like "oh well, Eddie's dead, too bad".
Defendant was wearing the exact same coat as the shooter in the library murder. Why didn't the police test the coat for gunshot residue?
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I didn't find out until afterwards that Camryn Manheim was leaving the show. I wonder if she is going to another show. She was always underused here. If they could write episodes in which the DA has a lot more to do than the five minutes that Jack had in each episode in the past three years, then why couldn't they write stories where the Lieutenant had more to do?
I don't blame her for leaving, but she must not have decided before the episode was filmed, because her final episode doesn't say anything about her leaving. So she went out the way she has been the past three seasons, woefully underused.
No doubt there will be a throwaway line in next season's premiere stating where she went. And since the two detectives are men, they'll surely replace her with another older woman. I hope they use her better. I know a paycheck is a paycheck, but still, five minutes max of screen time per episode isn't particularly fulfilling.
As to the case, how come they didn't introduce the video of the shooting at trial? I know the guy who took the footage didn't see the shooter clearly. But why didn't they put a forensics expert on the stand to testify that analysis shows the bullet trajectory was meant for Baxter?
I kept waiting for news throughout the whole episode that either the wife or the daughter had been killed. I know that Baxter has a security detail, and he said they would hire private security for the daughter and the son, but why wasn't the security detail with all of them at all times? At the campaign headquarters, I imagine credentials would have been checked for guests but I was waiting for one of the caterers to be one of the gang members looking for revenge. After having been shot at at the library and almost shot at the pier, I would have thought Baxter would have a bodyguard within 10 feet of him at all times.
I doubt he loses the election. They wouldn't bring Tony Goldwyn in just for half a season. And the show won't replace both the Lieutenant and the DA at the same time. I wish Maroun was leaving. I was happy to see she had almost nothing to do in this episode.
I would assume that Baxter's wife left him. She didn't want him to take the DA job in the first place. She was pissed about the decision to have the daughter testify and the information about her past getting revealed. But I'm wondering why it wouldn't have been known already? So the first time anyone heard of this was because the defence counsel did some digging? Has nobody dug for dirt on Baxter before? I would have thought that during the campaign, someone for the opponent would have been assigned to dig up any kind of dirt on him or his family. This info seemed to be publicly available since the defence attorney easily found it.
10 hours ago, Xeliou66 said:That was a different gun than the murder weapon - they recovered the murder weapon and sent it to the forensics lab and that’s what led Shaw/Riley to the shooter. The shooter had gotten another gun when he went to the piers, so the gun that he threw in the river wasn’t the one used in the murder.
I completely missed this as well and I was wondering why they weren't dragging the river looking for the gun. Now I recall that they found a gun in a storm drain. So why was there so much effort to tie the bullets in the apartment with the girlfriend to the shooter if they already had the murder weapon? Were the bullets for the gun used in the murder or were they bullets for the "community gun"?
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10 hours ago, Shermie said:
Can someone refresh my memory on the origin of the term “goat”? I thought goat meant greatest of all time, or it’s a demonic symbol. How did it become a Survivor term for an unlikable person you intentionally take to the final?
10 hours ago, North of Eden said:As far as I am concerned it originates all the way back to the PEANUTS comic strip where Charlie Brown was labelled as goat who has no chance of leading his baseball team to victory in particular and in general not being able to win anything in life over all. That's where I first heard the term goat anyway.
It's really interesting to me how "goat" without capitals means a loser while "GOAT" with capitals means a winner, Greatest of All Time. I believe that the all capitals GOAT was used first to refer to Muhammad Ali. I think LL Cool J also helped to popularise the term when he used it for one of his album titles.
Lowercase "goat" has been around long before Survivor. It either derives from "scapegoat" or from the so-called "goat curse" on the Chicago Cubs. The owner of the Billy Goat Tavern wasn't allowed to bring his goat into Wrigley Field and he cursed the Cubs and said they wouldn't ever win the World Series again.
The term "goat" has been connected to sports for a long time, used often to refer to the individual player who blunders and causes his team to lose the game. I first heard it years ago in the mid-80s when Bill Buckner had a ground ball go through his legs and it cost his team the World Series.
I'm not sure when the term "goat" started being used in Survivor, but it's easy to see how a term used to refer to a useless, hapless, worthless athlete who made a mistake was adopted by fans of this show to refer to a contestant who has done nothing.
5 hours ago, SVNBob said:I have a scenario in which it makes sense to play both. Lone player with totally secret idol versus unbreakable alliance all voting for loner. Loner plays SITD, fails, then plays idol. All the votes get nullified. Time for a revote. Loner is immune and cannot vote, so the alliance must turn on each other. Loner has no blood on their hands; but Peachy has a stain in his shorts.
That doesn't make much sense to me at all... if lone player knows he is all alone up against the unbreakable alliance, he is absolutely going to play the idol and cast his vote and singlehandedly dictate who goes home. Why would he also play SITD and give up the power to take out the alliance's strongest player? It doesn't make sense to me that a player in this situation would allow the alliance to decide who to sacrifice.
Especially in the era of "power moves", a player in this position would absolutely want the jury to know who took out the king or queen of that alliance. I don't know if he would be concerned about blood on his hands at that point, he would just be worried about surviving. And the remaining members of that alliance might even be grateful because at some point, the ones on the bottom would have thought about taking out the king or queen.
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26 minutes ago, WatcherUp2 said:
Does anyone remember Kenzie's full list of dysfunctional family members she assigned to each player? I laughed so hard about Liz being the cranky grandma that it knocked the other comparisons out of my head. I thought she referred to Maria as an aunt, which may have annoyed Maria since she seems to think she's a goddess earth mother who is in charge of everyone else there.
She said that Q and Ben are like her brothers who don't speak and pick on her. Maria is the aunt who cooks everything. Liz is the cynical grandma who is losing it, but they love her. And Charlie is the dependable dog.
Nobody seemed really offended except for Liz who had a shocked face but I have to wonder if Charlie was ticked to learn that she viewed him as a loyal dog. That means she doesn't think much of his game.
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20 minutes ago, Katrina Kate said:
I saw it and thought he was going to sneak it over to Maria because the jig was up.
Of course, that would not be allowed either. If he tried, because Q is all about changing the way Survivor is played, surely someone would see it and call an audible.
I thought the same. I thought either he was trying to sneak it to Maria or he was just going to show it to everyone as a final "well, at least I found it and you didn't". Obviously passing it to Maria wouldn't be allowed. And it does no good to him or Maria to announce to everyone that he had it.
I think the fact that Maria and Q didn't even consider the fact that people would target Q was a huge miscalculation by Maria. I would say it discredits her immensely. If I was up against her in the final three, I would point to this move as supreme arrogance and overconfidence and say that she doesn't deserve to win.
They must have known that Charlie would vote for Q. Did they not even consider that Charlie would anticipate a move against him?
Maria was safe because of the necklace. What she and Q should have done was to have Maria hold Q's idol just in case on the rare chance that Q was going home. If they sensed during the two hour tribal council that there was any indication that things were going against Q, then Q just signals to Maria and she plays the idol for him.
And since the jury doesn't get to ask questions, it would look like Maria was the one with the idol and she chose to save Q. The jury might find out three days later that Q actually found the idol and merely had Maria hold it, but for three days they are solidifying in their head the idea that it was a great move by Maria.
The issue is we have seen in the past where an idol was given to someone for safekeeping and they kept it for themselves. But if the trust between Maria and Q was there, this is something she should have proposed. She's not as great as she thinks she is.
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Soccer (or Football, if you prefer) in the US
in Sports
It's not just the fact that he has nothing to say or that he always has to relate some story from his own playing days. It's that everything is said in the same flat monotone. Painful to listen to.