hendersonrocks

I am one episode in and HOOKED. What a gorgeous and smart episode of television.

I thought the clue said upfront that the six beignets would need to be eaten after finding the baby - am I misremembering that? Will and James are A Lot of personality, and they would have been my third choice out of the final three to win, but I appreciated that there was never any suspense in the episode. I had a solid 52 minutes to get comfortable with them winning. There's no question I'd feel better about their win if it felt like it was an actual contest. This felt like the team that found the baby first wins the race - there was really little else to shake things up, and I was shocked at how little complexity there was to the bridge task and globe assembly. It was fun to watch people race around the world in before times and I will always love this show, I just wish the conclusion felt more satisfying. In that way, it's very on brand for 2020.

Gary seems like an A+ human.

I think these are quite different circumstances. Aparna was pissed that DeAngelo and Gary used an actual, legit mechanism of the race against them. DeAngelo was pissed that other racers worked together to keep them out by sharing answers with each other, *after* he thought the alliance they all agreed to (and yes, benefitted from) had ended. He and Gary asked other teams to work with them at the challenge and they said no, and then proceeded to work with each other against Gary and DeAngelo. It was personal *and* outside the existing strategy mechanisms of the race. The Aparna and Eswar move was neither.

The main thing I am struggling with right now is that it feels like she is rage or sad whispering about 78% of her lines. Just TALK, woman. And all I really want for Christmas is Prime Tilly's teal eye shadow.

They did a good job of editing out how miserable DeAngelo was up until that last moment; I wouldn't have guessed that he wanted to bail from that very early leg. My crush on Gary still feels well placed - I think it's understandable to be a little pissed in the moment that three teams entirely conspired against you, while his attitude about the race overall still seemed good.

This feels unnecessarily cruel and derogatory to both women and gay men. I think Hung is smart, capable, and it seems like she and Chee have a strong relationship that is doing just fine in the rigors of the race. I also think the boyfriends seem quite happy in their relationship!

Phew, I have *such* a crush on Gary. If he and DeAngelo can't win, I sure hope Hung and Chee do.

I just watched two of them in the last few days! Wait For It and Losing My Religion. I absolutely love both songs, and while I was incredibly entranced by both episodes I am glad I watched Wait For It first because I thought the Losing My Religion episode was significantly better. Michael Stipe was just an incredible interview and the whole thing was incredibly compelling. (I'm still raw they didn't include the 90210 pop culture moment in the ways that the song had a big impact!) Season 2 drops on December 15th, so I'm super curious to see what the next round of songs will be.

I would like *both* Leo/Alana and Will/James to be off my screen as soon as possible, as I am strongly over all four of them after this episode.

Every time Gaetano and/or Josto are on screen I just lose interest. Neither the characters nor their actors are doing it for me, while everyone else I am at least mildly intrigued by and want to see where they're going. I'd watch an entire show just about Doctor Senator's life.

The bottle said Ipecac Syrup on it. (My brain went to wondering why would she do something so obviously as far as inciting sickness - especially with that quantity of syrup - when she had already told Ethelrida she was making her a pie?!)

Two long episodes back-to-back was probably about 30 more minutes than ideal, but I still enjoyed the heck out of this. Maybe it's just because it feels both smart and familiar but still NEW! in a way very few things do right now, but I am still all-in. Ethelrida was the real highlight for me; anything involving Jason Schwartzman's character the opposite. I love that the nurse is from Minnesota and probably has some connection to other Fargo stories that we may/may not ever learn more about, and ditto Mike Milligan from S2 and the Milligan family. I was having a hard time following the dialogue of the bank escapee that ISN'T related to Ethelrida but I think she mentioned being from a reservation (?) and that also made me wonder if there could be a S2 Hanzee connection. (Maybe a leap but probably not a surprise my mind went there, as S2 is my favorite by far and Hanzee & Mike Milligan are my two favorite characters to date.)

I meant it would be easier to send Stephanie home because Gregory has been the stronger chef all season, notwithstanding their food in Lucca - I think that's pretty clear, no? And it also seems like they adore him and his food while she's been a totally charming but very dark horse the entire season up until these last two episodes. I was honestly convinced that Padma's gleeful "You're Top Chef" announcement from the teaser they've been showing all season was to Gregory because it seems like she genuinely loves him that much.

Lucca is probably my favorite city in all of Italy so this entire episode was a treat. It seemed like Gregory was barely hanging in there for most of this - he seemed to be in a lot of pain and/or pretty out of it. I am still shocked he went home, though. One of the strongest, most consistent chefs all season and I thought there was zero chance he'd be out before the end. If anything, it makes me respect the judges for what I'm guessing is not the decision they wanted to make. I'm sure it would have been MUCH easier for the to let Stephanie go. Bryan has grown on me so much. I live for his laugh (and how he laughs at himself and his own awkwardness). Finally: Team Melissa. 100%.