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The show continues to be hit or miss. They really need to sit down and decide which games are working and which aren't instead of trying to come up with new games all the time. I've yet to see one work where they come out from behind their podiums and try to act something out. This last one where they did improv Cameo messages was really bad. Also, trying to guess the Vine clips was pointless because they were so obscure nobody could ever guess them.

Mostly for out benefit. But also to spell out what each department head has in store for himself or herself. At the end of the day, food is the chef's responsibility, period. It's not his responsibility to call the provisioner for party supplies, or decorate the tables, or organize outings. Nor is it the bosun's. Everyone has their own job to do. I don't know, I'm just skeptical that things would be fixed or even significantly better if more people were helping the chef. Why hasn't Captain Kerry asked the crew to pitch in and help more? Kerry is borderline micromanaging every aspect of these charters, and even he puts the blame squarely on Anthony. I know they often go over menus together, and Fraser has done this with Anthony too. My point is that it's not the chief stew's responsibility to double check what the chef is planning against the preference sheets. That literally would be like holding his hand and questioning his every move. Mostly the chief stew is just going over what is going to be served so they know what they are serving. If they have to stop at every dish, go look at the guest's preference sheet and check to make sure it's ok, then the food is always going to be cold once it's up there. And they would be doing the chef's job for him. From what I could tell, Brandon invited this guy to a club or bar where there was a drag show and the guy didn't know that until he walked in. He argued he should have been given a heads up about what he was walking into. Brandon argued he wouldn't need to be told ahead of time if he were being invited to sort of venue or event where there were black people. Which . . . apples and oranges but this guy is there solely to cause drama. Brandon is in fact the same drama queen we suffered with on Below Deck Down Under. This dude is way too thirsty to be a reality show star.

The word "poltergeist" is German for "noisy ghost." But poltergeists are, in fact, commonly associated with being attached to a specific person rather than a place. So moving to a different house, for example, won't rid you of the poltergeist if you have one.

The talking peach and other vegetables was hilarious. But at $2.23 a pop those are some pretty high priced peaches! I also loved the one teardrop from the cicada after the newscasters got finished shitting all over them. I think something will come of it in Arizona.

No. Which is why I don't understand the point of them. We've never had one pupil midwife before much less four of them. So if only two of them are ever going to get to talk, why have the other two? Last week I commented that the two non-speakers were different than the ones we started out with this season but I was mistaken. Which goes to show how little we see of them and how superfluous they are.

Ben's excuse for promoting Sunny over Dylan was that she "knows the boat." But how much does Dylan really have to know about the boat aside that it's a boat? He's been on lots more boats than Sunny, and as the editors pointed out, he seems to know specific things on this boat that she doesn't know. He was showing her how to do stuff just two weeks ago. So "she knows the boat" doesn't really fly. Did he make misogynistic comments about Sunny? I only remember him pointing out that he had to show her how to do things. Which is true. When has the chief stew ever planned menus with the chef? I don't remember Kate ever doing that with Ben, or anyone doing that with Rachel. That's not really the chief stew's job, it's the chef's. The chief stew has to do all the party planning and picnic planning, etc. At most the chef goes over what's being served when it's being served, so the stews know how to pronounce the dishes. Keeping track of food preferences is the chef's job. And we've seen plenty of times in past seasons when a guest has complained, and the stew and chef together go back to the preference sheets and realize something was missed. I know it's tempting to lay part of the blame for this on Fraser because he's being such an asshole this season, but this is not his fault. Anthony seems sweet and apparently makes wonderful food but, as Kerry said himself, "how many times does he have to be reminded to read the damn preference sheets?" If someone like the chief stew has to hold his hand and help plan every meal then he's simply not cut out for this job.

Captain Kerry hit the nail on the head when he said Fraser is putting his own agenda ahead of the boat's agenda WRT Barbie. That said, I'm not convinced this is entirely on Fraser. I trust Xandi's judgment and even she seems to think Barbie is at the root of a lot of the drama. Barbie came across as very fake when she was talking to both Kerry and Fraser, and even Kerry admitted her delivery isn't great. And that "toast" at dinner was definitely a bitch move. Ben promoting Sunny as lead was a dumb move. The optics are terrible. LOL at the editors showing Ben's hypocrisy complaining about Dylan talking to other crew members when he did the same thing with Jared. The only right decision in this case was to promote no one to lead. They don't really need one. Bosun and lead deckhand were interchangeable in the early seasons. And I think this was mostly about Ben being afraid to piss Sunny off more than Dylan. These new guests might be worse than the last ones. And what's up with the guest who doesn't want seafood or vegetables. WTH does she eat? Brandon seems very familiar. Hasn't he been on this show before? Wasn't he the one who went swimming at night after the stew told him not to? And Captain Jason had to be woken up and pull him and another guest (a buxom black woman who was swimming topless) out of the water and threaten to put them off the boat? If that wasn't him, it was his doppelgänger. Cheffy's gotta go. He's sweet but he's a mess and just not cut out for this. Getting help from the crew wouldn't fix it. They could organize that whole galley for him and then he still wouldn't be able to find anything. And he consistently ignores the preference sheets to his own detriment. It's not Fraser's job or anyone else's job to keep pointing that out to him.

I don't remember where she came from either. Was she Christopher's teacher? Or am I mixing her up with someone else?

I'm frustrated with the writing. All season long Matthew has made it obvious there are money problems and Trixie remains oblivious despite his obvious distress every time the topic comes up. It makes them both look like idiots. We're five episodes in already and the writers are still dragging this out, without explaining what's going on. The shots from the shoreline made it look like May wasn't very far out. I know currents can be strong, but Cyril and Joyce could have probably stood up where May was and only be waist deep in the water.

Can someone remind me where Denny came from? I seem to recall it had something to do with Hen's ex, who went to prison. And that's about all I can remember.

Yes, but it's a continuity issue and/or plot point that seems to have been dropped. Sass did say they could have sex, but they couldn't "finish," which was very frustrating. However, since that time, Hetty had an orgasm on the washing machine then regularly dallied with Trevor. And just this episode, Alberta and Saul did it three times in one night. Which strongly suggests . . . "finishing." Trying to reconcile, I assume that Sass was just messing with Sam. She walked away and he called after her "Sam come back. I want to tell Jay about ghost sex." Sass has been known to mess with her before.

Justice for Joy - was there justice? I'm skeptical about April Atkins, the murderer's wife. I don't altogether buy she was innocent in all of this and had to keep quiet because she was so afraid of her husband. She sat on this for years, she could have gone to the police and asked for protection at any time. (And good Lord she had a scary looking mug shot, she looked like she was possessed by a demon.) The fact that the police shielded a murderer because he was an informant is disgusting, but what's even worse is telling Joy's son they believed his father was responsible. It's one thing to ignore evidence, it's another to accuse an innocent man to his own child. During one of her interviews she was wearing earrings that looked like two paper clips. Andrea would be appalled!

At this point we don't know but it might turn out to be smart strategy on Danny's part, helping other teams. At some point, you know that Angie is going to have problems with a Roadblock. And because Danny has helped so many other teams, it's more likely than not another team would help Angie in that situation. It's still early days. I don't see Danny making alliances as being detrimental at this point in the race. Now if he and Angie make it to the final five or six and are still doing it? Yeah, that's too far.

OMG. The requisite Company Softball Game episode. No sitcom should be without one, huh? Talk about your tired, over-used plots. The writing is just awful. I don't get it either.

Sure - when he blurted out to Eddie and Marisol that they were going to go find some "hot chicks" that was certainly a moment of panic. But there's a distinction between that and what's typically meant by the words "gay panic." Buck wasn't panicking about being gay (or bi or pan or whatever). He wasn't freaking out about his own feelings and running away from them or trying to deny them or beating up a gay guy because he was aware he felt an attraction to him. That's what's typically called gay panic. Buck just wasn't ready to tell anybody. That didn't change the way he felt about Tommy. He still wanted to continue on the date.

I hate to say it but I really don't miss her. It's not that I dislike the character or anything but the season has been just fine without her. I don't feel like I'm missing anything. It might not be the worst thing in the world for them to shake up the cast now and then. It's always interesting when there are new ghosts to meet. Two really good bits this episode I wanted to point out. One, when Trevor is telling Nigel and Isaac about bachelor parties, he raises his hands over his head to say "party!" and we get a reaction shot from Isaac and Nigel, clearly recoiling at the exposure of Trevor's nethers. Also, after Alberta learns that Sam and Jay tried to convince Saul to go to Italy she starts to storm out of the kitchen with Saul in tow. But then she has to turn around and say to Sam "Will you tell Jay to leave, I want Saul to storm out with me."

Not on a Toyota. I know there are stick-shift devotees, convinced they are superior to automatics in every way that matters. My father was such a person, and declared that anyone who drove an automatic was simply "lazy." Then one day he had to buy a van for his business and couldn't find one with manual transmission and had to buy an automatic. And afterwards never went back to driving a stick shift again. Also, while manual transmissions used to be more fuel efficient than automatics, that really isn't true anymore of the newer cars. I get that there will always be people who want stick shifts because they are just used to them and they feel like they have better control or like pretending they are race car drivers or whatever. But I can't believe in this day and age the show can't provide the teams with automatics. I think they make them drive stick just for our amusement.

First of all, we don't know whether or not one of the deckies is helping. They just haven't shown any. Also, at most, all they ever do is wash dishes. It's not like they're going to help cook the food. And we haven't seen Anthony asking for help, either. I think it's tempting to put the blame on the rest of the crew because Anthony seems like such a sweet guy. But the reality is that this is his responsibility - not the crew's. He is clearly disorganized and isn't properly planning the meals. Granted, these guests were more of a handful than usual, but making things that were clearly marked as no-no's on the preference sheets and having to make substitutions on the fly is nobody's fault but the chefs. Having someone help wash dishes or maybe chop carrots wouldn't change that.

True, but it was still funny. Especially the way everyone was responding to it and how invested Victoria was. Having Ken Jeong as a guest star was a little bit of a Community reunion.

This was a fun episode, and Jenifer Lewis was "pitch perfect" as Jacqueline. Superb casting choice there. I loved the whole bit where she was convinced Allison was a ghost. My only quibble was that I knew right away Magda the assistant was the real murderer. The TV guy was way too obviously a red herring. I don't get where they are going with Beverly and Susan either. What exactly is Beverly grooming Susan for? I'm thinking maybe she plans to start a new firm herself and bring Susan with her? What I hope is that Susan is secretly going along with it just to bring Beverly down and oust her from the company so she can become the new partner herself. Or at least get that promotion she wants.

Not only that, they should have first met her in some neutral place. Their first meeting with her shouldn't have been when she's being dropped off at their house! Geez, no wonder the kid was traumatized, she's being dropped off with complete strangers. She ended up confessing to Eddie that once a guy found out about her past they either freaked out and left, or liked it a little too much. Yet when Eddie found the picture she was way casual about it, like "Oh yeah, that's when I was a nun." And went back to drying her hair. If it's been a big issue in the past she should have addressed it more directly and earlier.

Sam has to put up with a lot of ghost shenanigans, I don't envy her. Notice when Hetty was trying to pin down the wedding details with Nigel and Isaac she said "There's a lot of things we have to tell Sam to do!" Yeah, Jay does have to put up with a lot but Sam has to put up with a whole lot more. I agree she should put her foot down more often but it's just her, versus eight or nine ghosts on a daily basis. That can't be easy.

As someone who learned how to drive on a stick and whose first three cars were sticks, I can unequivocally say, "maybe, no, and definitely not." I can't tell you how many clutches I've gone through.

Yeah, when he first told his story I felt there was something just off about it. I can't really get a read on him.

Camilla Luddington is pregnant in real life . . . no? Either that or she has gained a lot of weight. Her face seems wider and fuller and she's thicker around the middle. I figured that's why they wrote a pregnancy story into the show, but then it turned out she wasn't pregnant, so WTF. I get that the suicide attempt story was meant to be all serious, but whenever they do these kinds of stories where someone is standing on the edge of the roof, I just want someone to sneak up behind them and yank them down. There were so many opportunities for that to happen. And I know, I know, you're not supposed to do that. But I can't help yelling "just grab him while his back is turned!"