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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.)

I mean...how do you know if the episode was unoriginal and predictable if you fast forwarded it? I didn't find it preachy, but very thought provoking. I didn't agree with the way reparations were handled, but it definitely got me thinking. Even if the other guy put them in Marshall's pocket, it wouldn't change the fact he got to enjoy something he didn't pay for without consequence. His shoplifting might have been accidental, but he felt comfortable keeping and enjoying the cookies, rather than returning them or paying for them. He didn't even think twice. I wouldn't say this is entitled as much as privileged, because he never for a second thought about the possible ramifications of having stolen something, even if it wasn't on purpose. I think the contrast is that a person of color A) would be more cognizant and not put it in their pocket in the first place, but B) if they did, their first reaction probably wouldn't have been delight at free cookies, it probably would have been a moment of horror at how badly that mistake could have cost them.

I sincerely read this at first as "Anticipate Hate!" and I was like, "I do!"

Last episode, wasn't Brad crying about MJ playing a scared game? Yet in this episode, he was too scared to use something that would have given himself an advantage, and instead gave himself a disadvantage. What could be more "scared" than that? It's amazing how when someone else makes a strategic move to, y'know, NOT GO HOME, it's seen as playing scared, but when YOU do it, it's playing a smart political game. Jordan was fine this season (say what you want about him, no one could say he's playing a scared game. He's also out, but, whatever), but I really didn't enjoy watching two people who have been very problematic towards each other hook up. I really hope it was purely mercenary to rehab their images. I think it might have been on Jordan's part, tbh, especially since this is his first season post Tori. But there's a weird neediness in Nia that I think is genuine. And weird. But I will I thought she was drop dead gorgeous on her season of Real World, and I think she may have taken the lead on the least aged. She looks exactly the fucking same. Has anyone noticed if she's doing that goofy thumbsucking nonsense anymore? I honestly don't know what to think about MJ and Jonna. I've always had a soft spot for Jonna, especially after watching her go through that humiliation with that douchebag Whatshisguts. Zak. Damn, I actually kind of proud I forgot his name for a second. Fuck him. MJ certainly has come a long way since his season, and it seems mostly for the better. It looks like he's not dipping anymore, which is a huge bonus.

I wish them nothing but the absolute best.

I'd have to see Drew outside of this marriage to know what I think about her. Ralph - he's told me everything I need to know about him. Drew, overall, seems fairly nice and fairly dim. She's not smart enough to combat Ralph's nonsense. And she's being told at every turn that SHE'S the one who is wrong. Obviously Ralph is gaslighting the fuck out of her. Then that idiot doctor basically called her a bitch for not accepting Ralph's Grand Gesture Meant to Distract From Fuckery. All Drew did was say she didn't want high highs that come after low lows. I get that. Then Kenya had Ralph dead to rights (Ralph and Drew are the same as Kenya and Mark, just the dumbed down version. Although I don't see the malice from Ralph that I did Mark. I don't think Ralph is out to hurt Drew, he just doesn't want to be held accountable for anything he does), but then she remembered Drew is her enemy and basically said, Drew does the same shit so **shrug**. I honestly hope there is someone in Drew's life who is telling her this shit is NOT ok. ETA: And all the women who were saying you teach a man how to love you. Once again putting Ralph's abusive behavior on Drew and her responsibility.

I just binged this entire series, and thoroughly enjoyed it. So while I'm late to comment, I took Jeff's speech in the car completely differently than the other takes I've seen on here. I think he was meant to be genuine and sincere, but when he was saying that Jackie would have broken up with him and gone on to lead a life where he was nothing more than a high school flame, I thought he was describing what Shauna's life would have been if it hadn't been for the accident. Jackie seemed to very much be into the high school thing, and even if she was overall ambivalent about Jeff, she'd gone back to him numerous times as her "safe" choice. I don't think it's unlikely to think that if the crash hadn't happened, Jackie and Jeff would have ended up being married. Shauna "should" have been the one to go off and have great adventures, and merely remembered Jeff as the dude she lost her virginity to back in high school.

Does anyone know if there is any truth to the Jonna/MJ rumors? I hope not on a lot of levels, obviously that's she's married with kids, but also it's nice to see a man and a woman just be sincerely supportive of each other. I've normally teetered between enjoying Beth's villain façade, and feeling badly for her because I feel like she has that façade to hide her vulnerability at being disliked. It's easier to be disliked if you feel you are the one orchestrating it. That said, fuck her for saying Jonna is having an affair with MJ. If it's true, I certainly don't consider it Beth's responsibility to lie or cover it up, but that's a world of difference between actually outing her. It was a dick thing to do, and I can't excuse it. Again, I hope it's not true, though it would make things even shittier from Beth. On many levels, I hope that's it for Beth. (Unless they give me a true Old Stars season.)

I came across that article as well, and really thought it explained a lot about what this season was about, and the choices they made. I also really liked the Prestige TV podcast on Ringer; the guys on it are hilarious, for me (as a white person), it helped me understand a lot.

I'm honestly surprised to see Johnny on this one. I thought he would "graduate" to All Stars, and be done with this one. Although apparently you can move back and forth, which I'm not personally a fan of, but they forgot to call and ask my opinion. There are a lot of "friends of" and "boyfriend of". The only way I'm cool with this is if it's a partnered game and they are all separated from the person they know. But regardless, it's so watered down at this point, I don't know how much I really care. I mean, I'll still watch it, but I'll be shocked if I actually get invested.

If I'm following correctly, things happened in the opposite order. Yes heard a podcast with Johnny and Wes, and didn't like Wes's style of play. THEN he reached out to Wes to say hi, without ever giving any indication he didn't like Wes, until they were on the game and Yes was trying to get him in elimination. Which would be a bit of a skeevy thing to do while claiming integrity the whole time. That said, I love Wes's dumbass. Of course he's going to love using sabotages, duh. Wes is unapologetically gleeful in his love of this game, and it makes him fun for me to watch, not in small part because his plans almost always backfire and get him out of the game. Also not loving the ageist comments. I'm guessing the viewing demographic of this show versus Original Flavor skews a wee bit older than she thinks. Tina probably had her best edit ever. She came off very likeable and self aware, and I was sorry to see her go due to injury. Which, final thought, this isn't the direction I was hoping this show would go. I wanted something that might lure back some oldies who know they aren't going to be able to compete on Original Flavor. Too many people are getting injured, and who wants to deal with that when they have no shot of actually winning, and now they have to go home and add rehabbing their bodies to already full schedules? I've said it before, I didn't want All Stars, I wanted Old Stars.

FWIW, Kelley did say something at the end of the meeting about Julie "creating a tv show." She's getting talked over, but she does say it. And I think she was correct to speak up, because she heard the same conversation with Julie as Melissa. There is a debate, in my opinion, on whether or not one adult should use physical force in such a situation on another adult. It does bother me a little bit, simply because I'm someone who in at least 95% of situations can be outpowered. I think IN THE MOMENT I would have been extremely resistant to what Tokyo did. I get very freaked out at being constrained. You never know what someone has had happen in their past that could get triggered by such actions. And to be clear, no matter what, in a case such as Tokyo's, it definitely wouldn't be what I focused on the next day. Even if I was upset still about it, I would know I had most of the culpability by getting that drunk, and my appreciation for all that Tokyo did would have FAR outweighed any negative feelings I had. Danny wasn't wrong that it wasn't JUST about keeping Julie safe; the group wanted to go home and they had to have everyone. I don't want to in ANY way seem like I'm blaming Tokyo, because I think Julie is dead wrong and a Dangerous White Woman, but I'd be interested in knowing his thought process. This is a man who thinks far enough ahead to cover his bases when he might be accidentally opening the suitcase of someone he actually knows, but put his hands (IN A NON VIOLENT WAY) on a white woman who has already shown herself to be problematic with people of color. Were producers refusing to step in, letting the drama play out on camera? Danny was DEAD WRONG in saying Tokyo was violent, and he absolutely should retract and apologize for that. Even if you think under no circumstances should one adult use force on another, there's no way to describe Tokyo's actions as anything more than "forceful." There was absolutely nothing "violent" about what Tokyo did. Especially with Julie at the time and even now after having seen all the footage still saying WELL IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN THE BLACK MAN NOT THE TREE, Danny should retract what he said. Julie is never going to get it, but Danny should. I'm also really intrigued by the idea another poster put forth that Julie's phone call was actually damage control for her husband. That she's not really trying to mastermind a tv show, but that she was trying to make it sound to her husband that being out of control was a purposeful choice for the role she is playing, rather than she just got super fucked up and had no idea what happened. It's interesting, because even the things she said about y'all take the mantle and how didn't want to be the center of attention could have been her saying, please, someone do something more fucked up than me. All in all, I'm really enjoying this series. It reminds of what the best parts of old Real World were like. Even though Melissa is right that the show was filtered through the white lens (you can really see in retrospect how the protagonist in each season is the wide-eyed innocent white girl), it used to be a pretty progressive show.

I think this is a pretty old commercial (I'd guess it's a super bowl ad), but it just made it to one of my streaming platforms, and I freakin' adore it. I love how spot on it is about instagramers without making the couple in it the butt of the joke. I find the couple and the commercial completely adorable.

It sounds based on everyone else's comments that I'm WAY off base, but I swear I thought this might have been a backwards Get Out situation in which Sylvia took a white boy (who's going to grow up to be a white cis male - cha-ching!)'s body. I think I was just looking for too much, but there seemed to be a bit of a sinister vibe to the episode, and the way the package kept showing up with no apparent person or reason behind it. And the way they both looked in that picture, both a bit smug and spooky.