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I don't think it's fair to say they got themselves banned. It was Bear's behavior, not hers. I don't even know why she has been banned - I don't see where she's done anything wrong. (Unless I've missed something - the only thing I know about is him recording them having sex and releasing the tape online, without her consent.) I'm not enjoying the later episodes as much as I did the first two. There's just not much "untold" in these episodes, and a lot of what they are mining is more recent so I haven't even had a chance to forget things yet. I also think they chose a lot of their underdogs and champs based on who was doing interviews. And a lot of the folks doing the talking heads are the same ones showing up season after season, so I'm not getting anything new there either. Still watchable.

I rarely thing MTV/BM got much right, but I really do when it comes to TJ. It was apparent during his first season back he just wasn't himself, and seeing the unaired footage from his recovery showed just how not himself he really was. It was clear to me he was off back then, but I never suspected anything like what I saw in those videos. But during that season, and for few after, if you noticed, a LOT of TJ's scenes were shot from behind with voiceovers. I think the producers really worked with TJ to have him continue hosting. When the one producer came up asked him if he was tired, and TJ said, "yeah - my voice starts slurring, doesn't it?" my heart just broke for him, more than any other footage of his recovery (the other parts were more shocking - I had no idea, but TJ's face when he said that, he just looked abashed and that gutted me). I think in a sea of treating people like garbage on this franchise, they did right by TJ. I'm really glad that he made such a full recovery. It was also heartbreaking to hear the self-doubt Dave Mirra had on the show as well. Sometimes you just want to reach through time and the tv screen to give someone a hug.

Sarah wanting to go in against Enzo was beyond stupid, just like Dom a few episodes back. You don't go into an elimination with nothing to gain. Dom won his elimination, but he still didn't get his money for the final. He still needs to win a daily or another elimination. Stupidity. And then humorless Sarah being an even bigger idiot wanting to go against Enzo because she thought it would make her look bad ass and prove something to little girls everywhere. Prove WHAT? Prove that women can serve up toxic masculinity as good as anyone? Prove that you should needlessly put yourself in danger to because you're worried about what people think of you? I don't think Sarah realizes what is painfully obvious to the rest of us, it's her total and utter INsecurity that made her want to go down. I'm not an Angela fan, and she certainly got a leg up from the get-go being paired with Tyson and winning the first challenge. But while I think Angela is boring and bland (and GOD do I think she's boring and bland), I don't think she's insecure. I think if she heard me call her boring and bland, she'd shrug her shoulders and keep it moving. And I think it's that smug/serene mix that is driving Sarah completely fucking nuts. I think Sarah thinks (and probably correctly, lol) that Angela sees her as a gnat not to be bothered with. Again, Angela got her money on day one, but I still can't see her needlessly throwing herself into an elimination just so everyone would oooooh and aaaaah over what a billy badass she is. I'd rather not be stuck with either of them, but I'd take boring and bland over humorless and self serious every time. At least with Angela I could just ask her to teach me yoga and we could be boring and bland and smugly serene together in cow's pose.

Both the daily and the elimination challenges were awesome. I agree the daily could be executed a little better (perhaps remove barrels and other obstacles to make it more of a derby), but I really liked the concept. And I'm with TJ, that was one of my favorite eliminations ever. I liked that it was a balance of "brain" and brawn. I hope to see both of these challenges again. I also was really confused about what was going on with Leo. His girlfriend came off like an ass. It sounded like the problem was that the credit card machines weren't working? Why TF would Leo need to go home to call customer service? Either he really did poor planning in being away for six weeks without someone competent to handle things, or his girlfriend is a drama queen. Do you think there's a rule on this version? Have we seen anyone be helped so far? I can't remember.

First, I'm sorry your dad isn't getting great treatment and I can certainly understand how frustrating it is to watch. But please know that suffering from depression or being addicted aren't the only two options. It can be really tough sometimes, which is especially daunting if you already have depression (depression and anxiety's entire goal seems to be to keep you depressed and anxious), but sometimes medicine can be wonderful. I'll fully admit that I've been lucky that the very first anti-depressant I ever tried worked perfectly for me, and I know that's a rarity. But my medicine doesn't give me a "buzz" or anything like that; it allows me to feel like myself. My prescription has not become less effective in nearly 20 years (though I do increase my dosage in the winter months and drop it back down again in the spring). I know you didn't say this, but many people see antidepressants as a crutch, but it's not. It's a tool to use against depression, the same way insulin is a tool for diabetes. I promise I don't mean this as a lecture, but we usually hear about people's bad experiences and it leads to so many people having negative opinions about and an unwillingness to try antidepressants - I just wanted to share it's not always like that.

At this point she needs to change the name to "Shhhhh by Sheree" and never speak of it again.

In the book, Chase's dad also bought his bike from the Western Auto in Asheville. The fact that Asheville is involved in this at all is utter stupidity. You would not take an overnight trip to Asheville. With today's highway system, it would take 7 hours in one direction, much less how long it would have taken before major highways. To put this in perspective, I live in Raleigh, and it would me about the same amount of time to drive to NYC as it would to get from OBX to Asheville. Dumb.

God, Sarah is so humorless and self-serious. It's players like her who make me appreciate players like Tyler who don't seem to take any of this too seriously. Like, he's there to win money and he's clearly taking that seriously, but he seems to also understand that there isn't anything personal about trying to eliminate your competition. Sarah looked like a lunatic, and I sincerely hope she was playing up a character, though nothing about her suggests that.

Thank you. That is so much more reasonable.

My heart is just so full finding my fellow haters. I have been on a terror about this book since I read it. I have no desire to sit through the movie, but can anyone tell me if they leave Asheville out of it? That was one of my biggest problems is that the author clearly had absolutely no idea about North Carolina geography or bothered to look at a freakin' map, because she had the characters just jaunting all willy nilly from OBX to Asheville like it's not a SEVEN HOUR DRIVE with today's interstate system. It's just such a dumb, dumb detail to get wrong, it drove me absolutely nuts. I would like to think someone at least fixed this stupidity for the movie.

When Kenya and Marlo had their confrontation at dinner, did Marlo admit to having formerly been a prostitute?? For a different perspective on “needing a break,” I was raised by a single dad, just the two of us. My dad never told me he needed a break from me, not ever, not even once. But he had a regularly scheduled babysitter on Wednesday nights. I went to sleepover camps in the summer. My maternal grandmother retired from teaching to be helpful to my dad, and the second I got a sniffle, I spent a week at my grandparents so my dad didn’t have to miss work while I was out of school. I also spent a couple of weeks there in the summer, another week with my aunt, another week with my other grandparents in Florida. Let’s just say, my dad managed to get legit breaks! Dude was constantly shipping me off, lol. I just always saw these as MY vacations, and always knew where my home was. It never even occurred to me until I was an adult that maybe the vacation was just as much for my dad, and I have no problem with that. What bothers me about the way Marlo has handled this is that she is on one hand presenting as a mental health break, but she’s also been pretty clear this is a punishment for the boys. Children shouldn’t fear losing their homes as a punishment for misbehavior. I also caught that while Marlo said she got her sister out of the foster care system, she also alluded to it not working out with them either, so there was something there too. There’s no question Marlo didn’t have role models for stable parenting, and I don’t think she sees that bouncing the boys between family members is only fractionally better than being in the actual foster system. The loss of stability is there either way. Plus they have even moved homes during this 30 day exile, which I’m sure was also stressful. I cannot believe Marlo took them there, making it SEVEN people in a two-bedroom apartment. I get that Marlo isn’t their parent and should be commended, but she took this break at her sister's expense. Someone asked above if the courts would have been involved, or if social workers would have been assigned to the boys, and I think it’s highly unlikely. I may be misremembering, but I think Marlo took custody of the boys before her sister went to jail. So it’s not much different than if I had moved in with my aunt as a kid. It’s family business. Unless someone called in child welfare, it’s not likely “the system” would get involved. Which, even though I said being bounced around family members is only fractionally better than the foster care system, it is still better. But it’s unfortunate that this cycle seems to be repeating itself. Also, DID MARLO ADMIT TO BEING A PROSTITUTE??

Thank you. These were the steps I was missing. I live alone so I can leave things in the dryer until the end of time, and I'm allowed to declare myself "DONE!" anytime I feel like it.

Also, I just googled myself and apparently I have 5 aliases, six if you include MY FATHER'S NAME, which would give me a male alias. Y'all probably shouldn't trust me.

I'd be really shocked if Marlo doesn't have a w/d in her home. My thought was that the boys had so much dirty laundry, she was going to make them do it at the laundry mat, so they could use multiple washers and dryers at one time. That doesn't explain how they ended up with wet clothes souring back in their room, but neither does a laundry room in their complex. I've screwed up and left clothes in the washer that needed to be rewashed, but I've never taken wet, heavy clothes away from where the dryer is and dumped them on my floor. That's just odd. I will say, I 100% thought there was Bravo editing going on in the previews and that the "I told them to get the fuck out" would have been taken out of context. I thought Marlo's one real redeeming value was taking care of her nephews, and it seemed to be something she actually took pride in. I understand she's not their mom and should be commended for taking care of them for the past three years. And I can understand feeling overwhelmed. But these were boys who were acting out after the rejection from their mom's phone call. The last thing they needed was MORE rejection. Kids often will act out and test boundaries because they are proving to themselves you will love them and take care of them no matter what. I'd have so much more sympathy for Marlo if she A) wasn't prancing around the furniture store having a grand ol' time picking out furniture and just seems fine going on with her life all la tee da, and B) hadn't shown the footage of their dirty room to shame them on national tv. I think she broke her trust with them twice. I hope she can (and will choose to) work on reestablishing that trust with them. It will make such a difference if they believe there is even ONE person who gives a shit about them and will stand by them.

Does this Ronald Richards lawyer person have ANYthing to do with this case? He reeeeally seems to like having his name in the mix.

As I've mentioned before, I personally haaaaaaate the eating challenges. I'm a sympathetic puker, so I just can't do it. I miss the days when they wouldn't actually show vomit on the screen. I swear though, I thought they had finally figured out how to make me go fetal - when I just caught a glimpse of the preview showing the scales and vomiting sequence, I honestly thought they were going to have to throw up a certain amount of weight. **shudders** But it is one of my absolutely favorite uses of my firetv. As soon as this segment started: Alexa, skip two minutes. There was still puking. Alexa, skip one minute. And it was over. All that said, I like the CONCEPT of an eating challenge, because allergies/religious restrictions aside, an eating challenge doesn't require brains OR brawn. It's nothing but mental. If they are going to replace the eating challenge, I'd like to see it replaced with something that fits that category, but I don't know what. I think being locked in a box with bugs or something like that does the same thing, but I find that just as difficult to watch. I don't know - I just like the idea of there being part of the final that literally anyone can do, if they can just handle it mentally. I'm really disappointed this has become just another version of the flagship. You need to be just as in shape for this as you do for the flagship, though you may be competing in an older age group. But we are back to my original complaint, which is no one who isn't in great shape should come on this show. I'm picking Coral out of a hat, I literally have NO idea what's she's up to in life. But say she's had a couple of kids and is in just regular near middle age mom-shape. Why come on this show, make a fool of yourself because you're not a super athlete, knowing you have no chance of making it to, much less finishing, the final. (I love TJ, but I'll never call it "TJ's final." Nope.) Unless the appearance fees are insane, there's no point, especially when you add the incredibly real possibility of being injured. So at the point, to come on even this version of the show, you need to be able to take time away from your family for filming PLUS have tons of time to train and get in stellar shape PLUS know you might need more time on the back end to recover from an injury. That's a lot. I'd murder for even one season of All Star: Summer Camp edition. Come up with fun and funny challenges that your average 40 year old could do. Make them goofball challenges, but not ones where the challengers are likely to be embarrassed about not having the same bodies they did 20 years ago. I think if they specifically did a season where they stressed to the contestants athletic ability wasn't going to be the main focus, they might get more old schoolers. Oh well.

Have we talked about Go Ask Alice here? I think we have. I 100% believed this book was true as a middle schooler in the late 80s, but it served mostly to make me WANT to try drugs. I don't know what that says about me. But! While it's been long known that book is a fakey fake, there is now a book about it being fakey fake: Unmask Alice. I'm looking forward to reading this.

Let me start by saying I absolutely think Dorit is a drama queen and is milking this for all it's worth (though I do believe the break in happened). But for those questioning why on earth she would be afraid to drive a car, trauma can manifest itself in insane ways. A few years ago, I was in a really bad accident from a fall. About two months after, I went to the beach with my then boyfriend. We stayed at a rental community, and one night, left just to go to the gas station to pick up a few things. I had a full on panic attack and just wanted to get back on the grounds of the community we were staying at. How does that make sense? I was in no danger of falling, but I felt incredibly unsafe. It made no sense, just like Dorit being afraid to drive a car makes no sense, but trauma comes out in weird ass ways. I don't care that people don't believe the break in was real (I do think it was real, but I also wouldn't be dead with shock if I found it was staged), but it does bother me when the way a victim reacts to trauma as evidence they are lying about the traumatic event. It happens ALL THE TIME to women who have been raped or abused. Just something to think about. Also, probably fuck Rinna the most. She didn't even pretend to hear Sutton's side of things, just acted like Sutton walked up to Diana and was like, "I'VE HAD MORE MISCARRIAGES THAN YOU AND YOU HAVE NO SOUL." Fuck Rinna the most, but also get Diana off my screen. I would look forward to her getting ripped at the reunion, but I feel like nothing will penetrate the vapidness. To paraphrase Atlanta, one of the privileges of being super rich is you don't have to learn the lesson if you don't want to.

My impression was that Kailah looked at Nia's board to see what they had different and then made changes based on that. It's like if you were sitting next to me during a math test, and you didn't know the answer but guessed. Then I copy off of your paper and get it right as well. Sure they are all guesses, but I cheated; you didn't. Though I still would find this cheating-lite. My bigger problem with Kailah in this is that (in my opinion) she lied about looking at Kailah's board.

I'm not a Nia fan*, but I did a bark of laughter when Kailah was trying to say how much she valued her friendship and Nia was just, "I met you four weeks ago." I think Kailah did get answers off of Nia's board, but I think it was only cheating in spirit, not technically against the rules. If it had been explicitly against the rules to look at another board, I don't think the ones who finished would have been wiping their boards clean. But it was a lame thing to do, especially if you're not going to be like, "yeah, I fucking did it and that's why I didn't come in last." *I think Nia was mostly fine on this show and does seem to have grown up. She seems like she's probably fine as a person, and I think people can grow and learn from their mistakes. That said, I don't think she should have been allowed back on the show, which is really more what I'm not a fan of, rather than Nia herself. And I've said this before, she is just gorgeous and hasn't aged a day. I couldn't be more jealous!

Oh, thank you! I usually just lurk because I'm so far behind of episodes, but I really do read everything here. Sometimes I'm really bummed when I see I'm too late to jump in a particularly good conversation!

Just for the flip side, I used to be the office manager for a local chapter of Habitat for Humanity, and sometimes people would get PISSED that we didn't take used donations to use in house builds. I would try to explain that they could donate to the ReUse store, which would benefit those houses, but we used all new stuff in every house. It was an equity thing because you built houses in clusters to create community, and a good way to lose community is to give 4 houses brand new dishwashers and one a used dishwasher. I once tried to tell this to a woman who wanted to donate her sink. She had apparently just remodeled and didn't want to donate her old sink to the Ru-Use store, and told me I was being wasteful by insisting on putting in new sinks in the houses. She kept debating me that I wasn't being a good steward by wasting money when she was offering me a perfectly good sink. I kept it cool, but finally I was like, ma'am, how am I the one being wasteful when you apparently replaced a perfectly good sink? She hung up on me. Logic really upsets some people. While I really have don't think it's important for these girls to have brand name designer clothes at ALL, I do think eating in 5 star restaurants will serve them well. Sure they could eat Outback, nothing wrong with that either, but it's educational to learn how to move and behave in certain spaces. Eating in fancy places now will help them feel more comfortable in the future. I fully support that portion of things.

Early Survivor had quite a few eating challenges, but I don't remember seeing one for ages. I both like and hate the eating challenges. I like them because, barring a few exceptions, most people are physically able to eat any of the things presented. It's just a mental thing (which I understand!) if you can't do it. But I also hate them because they're gross and I cannot watch people vomit. I can remember when they wouldn't show actual vomit on the shows, and I sincerely miss that. Now days, eating challenges are one of the only things I just straight up fast forward. Even violence on other shows, I just look away, but I'm a sympathetic puker, so there's just no way.

I agree with this, except I think she'll regret having TWO kids with him. Also, I'm not correcting my misspelling of his name. Fuck him.

Say what you will about the inappropriateness of Kandi's vibrating panties, which I agree with, she's still got us talking in almost every post about her products. She's wily, that one. Funny story, maybe about 10 years ago, I randomly discovered that vibrating panties with cordless remotes existed. We talked about them at my book club, in what would become an epic wine-filled evening. The same evening, we talked about running a 5K, which I was opposed to. Somehow these two subjects meshed, and we came up with the idea of running the 5K while wearing these panties and giving each other the remotes. Then if someone started falling behind in the race, someone else would ZAP them. We laughed until we cried and abs hurt that night, and while we never, ever, ever had any intention of actually doing this, that's how my book club got its official name of Sisterhood of the Vibrating Panties. (For anyone wondering, I finally agreed to do the 5K, but it was agreed by all I would fake an injury within the first five minutes. I'm not running unless it's a murder situation.)