Chicago Redshirt

Emphasis on "nigh." It's possible to get blood from Bruce Banner while he's Hulked out. I believe we have been shown/told in the MCU that he has bled as Hulk. We also have the miracle metal vibranium, which can do whatever the plot needs it to do, so it's possible that someone crafted a needle of it and took a sample from Hulk. But it is also possible that they took a sample of Bruce's blood when he was in "puny Banner" form. It still would be Hulk blood and possible to experiment on it.

The potential upsides for Grandmaster: 1. He gets to win Tony's shiny new armor 2. He doesn't seem a coward in front of his entire planet, and crushes a possible rallying point, thus potentially staving off a revolution and remaining in power. Remember, in this episode, it's clear that he's having trouble keeping people fed. The games are part of a bread-and-circuses strategy that are more important when there's not enough bread. 3. Beating the newly hyped Metal Mojo Man is in itself something that he'd want as an ego boost in general 4. Grandmaster is (classically in the comics, and at least hinted in the MCU) basically addicted to gambling and games. As one of the Elders of the Universe, he has spent millennia on contests of chance. Asking why he would accept the challenge is like asking why a fat kid would want an extra slice of pie. 5. There are no downsides he would perceive, because he would control the course, the cars and pretty much everything. He shouldn't have been able to lose.

Personal hygiene is irrelevant. :) More seriously, since sonic showers are things, I imagine that if they thought such a thing would be useful, they could probably have a built-in device that would allow such a shower.

I would first say that given the utopian nature of the Federation, it's certainly not the given that Mariner's presence in either the Academy or Starfleet prevented anyone who wanted to join either and was qualified to do so from joining. In our present, there are economic constraints and ideological constraints that prevent people from pursuing any given dream. In the Star Trek future, those have largely been removed. In any case, I think the show has made clear prior to this episode that Mariner was eager and ambitious when she was in Starfleet Academy. Her Academy classmate remembers her as such. So even if we were to operate under the notion that there are only limited placements at the Academy, Mariner wanted to be there back then. It's also been clear that somehow she got jaded/frightened/experienced some things, and that contributed to her issues about promotion and Starfleet. Yet at the same time she has criticized Starfleet, she has made clear that she values most aspects of it and wants to be there.

Although doubtful, it's possible that T'Lyn has had a firsthand encounter with the Borg, or a Borg. We do know from a previous season of LD that there are holodeck scenarios programmed with Borg (Boimler kept running a scenario to try to perfect score it), so that may have given her knowledge. Finally, she could have just read up on previous encounters with the Borg, and the survivors described how Borg smell. I would imagine that there would be a lot written by the TNG crew about their encounters with the Borg that would be available to members of the general public and even more to Starfleet officers.

I wonder if the singing goblin was called Janice/Janis as a tribute to Janis Joplin, the Muppet singer from Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem or if it was just a coincidence. (Don't eat me, goblins!) I also wonder if they are going to have Ncuti's Doctor have real romantic/sexual adventures. Yes, I know that River was a thing and the Doctor had eyes for Rose. But Ncuti's Doctor seems like the first who actually both makes people randy and himself seems that way. I wonder if Mrs. Flood is the one who took baby Ruby to the church in the first place and/or Ruby's bio-mom? (time travel shenanigans)

I would say that it'd be reductionist to say either that the Boys was originally about "What if superheroes were assholes?" or that Gen V has changed that premise to a looming civil war like in X-Men. The Boys always had Vought at the center and had as factors the influences of pop culture, corporate greed, and political power of humans. That continues with Gen V, which instead of focusing on the apex predators of supes, the Seven, is looking at people lower on the food chain, people less mature and less cynical. In three seasons of the Boys, we encountered Starlight and maybe one or two other supes who could be said to truly want to be heroic and walk the walk. All of our Core Four actually (so far) actually want to be traditional heroes. We'll see if they stay the course. The notion that there's a looming Supes vs humans battle is not all that widespread at this point. The Boys and just a handful of others want to kill supes. Most humans admire them. The most we've generally seen is people be critical of individual supes, like whether Homelander was right to kill a person in cold blood, Blue Hawk was racist, etc. The most vocal anti-supe person other than the Boys that we've seen is a supe herself, and even she's not really pretending to advocate supes being jailed, killed or anything akin to what the antagonists in the X-men universe have in mind for mutants. Vought wants to continue controlling them, and is continuing to cover up supes' misdeeds and manage their PR. I don't know if there is a lot more to delve into re: parents' motivations. It's been touched on in both series that they've wanted money, power, fame that agreeing to have their kids dosed would/might give them. I think that's pretty real-worldy: I'm sure if there was an injection that could give kids super-powers a lot of parents would inject their kids with it even if there were risks and even without the infusion of Vought cash, because they might be inspired by their kid potentially being the next Supe, and them getting set for life. Almost by definition, the actual Supes themselves would be more interesting characters than their parents because they have superpowers, and because the parents' motivations are likely to be the basic things that have been already mentioned. I don't know if Gen V or the Boys is going to have time or interest to develop a parent into a more three-dimensional character.

It's not just bragging about smarts, if you want to call it that. Especially when there is at least some basis that people might take that information and reach the conclusion "that person is smart, let me vote against them." It's trying to manage whether people think you are smart, trustworthy, and/or wealthy. Contestants try to manipulate how they are perceived for all sorts of reasons. Gabler IIRC hid that he's a doctor in part because he was concerned that if people knew that they would use it against him by arguing or concluding that someone else "needed"/deserved the million more than he did. Sometimes it matters, sometimes it doesn't. Jake probably related to Katurah better thinking she was an office manager who was toying with the idea of going to law school than he would have if he knew that she was a lawyer with years of experience over him, let alone one that probably has a dim view of prosecutors generally. People though generally picked up on her having stereotypically positive qualities of a lawyer like being persuasive

I attribute at least part of his telling Austin to wanting to make a Big Move. As someone who has watched enough Survivor to have used various winners as mnemonics for numbers, Jake has to know that it's best to keep one's mouth shut about idols. But just having people vote for him and him producing an idol to nullify their votes probably wasn't flashy or good enough in his mind. He wanted so badly to try to next level the Reba Three by getting them to think he was going to play his idol so that they make Katurah the target and then nullify their votes. Because that would have been splashier with the jury.

In fairness, it's easier to envision/make a change from cynical womanizer to whipped family man than it is from dedicated military investigator who served with honor and integrity to sellout who is complicit in the murder of three of his friends and the agonizing dehydration death of his dog and a terrorist plot. As others have posted, I think Reacher's gut is supposed to be basically infallible, so I tend to doubt that Swan is guilty. But it would potentially take the series in a new direction if Reacher were able to make mistaken deductions/assumptions.

Heck, even most trial lawyers don't do a ton of public speaking, since most cases end up with settlements and plea bargains. For those cases that do go to trial, in many cases the lawyers will have lived with them for at least a year and will have ample prep time to prepare questions and arguments, which is easier than spontaneously being articulate on the spot when faced with potential curveball questions. And of course, real-world jurors are supposed to be objective and follow a set of court instructions, which makes trying to come up with arguments to appeal to them somewhat easier. Survivor jurors get to decide who gets their vote based on whatever the heck criteria that they want, and in some cases, what might resonate with Juror A might alienate Juror B, and in some cases there is just no way Juror C is ever going to vote for you. Like I doubt that Jake would have gotten any more votes even if Dee and Austin were to have responded to every jury question with the finger, and Jake channeled the spirits of Johnnie Cochran and Cochran the Survivor winner.

My guess as to why Dee/Austin were adamant about not wanting Katurah in the F3: 1. Jury management. You can't tell someone about to be on the jury "You're no real threat to pick up votes, so yeah I'm going to bring you along." You massage their ego and tell them like Dee did "You're a huge threat, I like you, you're good enough, smart enough and gosh darn it people like you." 2. When the choice is between Jake and Katurah, Katurah's easily the bigger threat. Katurah was well-liked and didn't get anybody to write her name down. Although she couldn't really take credit for any impact on the game other than as a lackey to the Reba Four. she didn't bungle any moves other than the F5 vote. Whereas Jake was repeatedly on the outs, repeatedly tried things that didn't work, and fumbled an idol. But her being a bigger threat for votes than Jake doesn't mean that she's an actual big threat for win. I am struggling to think of how she could get four votes in any combination of F3. She is never getting a single Reba vote, and almost certainly never getting Kaleb or Emily's. I guess it's possible that Katurah runs the table with former Belo voters and has Kellie, Kendra, Bruce and Jake all vote for her, either forcing a tie, or running into an actual win where Dee and Austin split the remaining votes 2-2 or 3-1. (I assume if all the other votes go to either Dee or Austin, whatever the tiebreaker in such a procedure would favor Dee/Austin. It seems that Jake talked about him possibly having to cast a vote, so I'm assuming third place casts a vote in such a scenario. Anyone know for sure?) But I think it extremely doubtful that superfan Jake would vote Katurah against the performances that Dee, Austin and Julie had. I also think it doubtful that Bruce would vote for Katurah, although maybe he didn't ever pick up on her animosity toward him. I could see Kellie potentially voting Katurah if she remained bitter, but her time in Ponderosa seemingly cured her of that. Kendra is goofy enough that I could see her saying that Katurah should win because she's a Pisces (or whatever)

Katurah works/worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. So she basically advocates policy changes rather than does trial work. For instance, here is her testifying for the repeal of a NY law that she believes will hide info about police officers' allegations of misconduct. Jake is the only trial attorney of the three that were cast this season. Interestingly enough, he pretended he was a public defender but it turns out that he is really a prosecutor. There are stereotypes (or maybe it's just my experience) that go with prosecutors and public defenders that may not be as common among non-lawyers. Prosecutors tend to be more conservative, more stick-in-the-mud, more black-and-white, more entitled, more religious, and public defenders tend to be more liberal, more flexible, more willing to see gray, more creative, more cynical. It makes way more sense to me that Jake is a prosecutor in reality. I would think that Katurah and Jake probably had some interesting discussions about their views of the criminal justice system when they both outed themselves. Oh, and in an exit interview, Katurah said she spent a lot of time trying to get Jake off of voting Julie -- like hours. But that makes her decision to switch more baffling to me, not less.

In a world where Jake kept his idol a secret to all and played it on himself (as he should have, and as someone who is apparently a superfan should have known he should -- I think it's crazy that he chose to use as a mnemonic previous Survivor winners' seasons), he probably would have had his choice of Julie or Dee out, as everyone but Austin would have likely voted Jake. If he got Dee out then it might have opened the door a crack. Jurors might have been impressed with his getting Dee out. Probably in that alternate universe, Austin takes Katurah or Jake and leaves Julie to try to make fire. I think in an Austin/Katurah/Jake F3, Austin still wins, but Jake is likeable enough and with One Big Move on his resume, maybe it's good enough, though I doubt it. But if Jake votes Julie or Katurah (his only non-Dee options), Katurah's voting Julie doesn't really help Katurah, and her voting Dee doesn't really harm her. If Jake votes Katurah, chances are it's because Katurah's toast at that tribal. At least one, if not multiple of the Reba 3 are voting Katurah. As played, they had been shown pretty much that Jake had an idol that he could only play at this tribal council. He literally showed Austin the idol rather than brag about it. (Why the Reba 3 didn't then switch at least some of the votes to Katurah suggests bad game play to me....did they think Jake's idol was a fake, or that he just wouldn't play it, or what?) If Jake flips to vote Julie, and that results in Julie going, it's not like Dee can do anything to Katurah at this point. If this was a F6 vote, I could see Dee campaigning to get rid of katurah at the subsequent F5 vote in retaliation for trying to get her out. But at F4, there are no more votes and writing or not writing Dee's name down then is immaterial. If Dee is in a position to shape the final tribal, she's going to put Katurah in (or not) as it suits her.

Voting Julie doesn't help any of Katurah's primary goals: staying alive and getting Dee out. If there are already going to be enough votes on Julie to get her out, piling on doesn't help. If Katurah's the target of all Belo or two of the Belo votes instead of Jake and Jake plays the idol on himself, Katurah likely still goes home by switching. She either straight up loses with 3/2 votes to 1 for Julie and 1 for Dee (if Jake's swearing on Nana is to be trusted and she has foolishly split the minority vote). By staying on Dee, there is at least a chance of a 2-2 tie, and someone flipping to get Dee out. I guess if her thought process is "come at the queen, best not miss...and this is likely to miss." that sort of makes sense. Only, there are really no more opportunities to come at the queen after this tribal and a limit to what the queen could possibly do to you for writing her name down that wouldn't happen anyway. I know that Emily sounded harsh, but I didn't see what she was saying as a dig at Austin. I saw it more as a sign that Dee had heart eyes as big as Austin's, and Emily thought Dee needed a reality check that if she won the million, she shouldn't act like it was community property (unless or until he puts a ring on it.) I think "lazy" is the wrong word here because I don't see what else she needed to do that she didn't do. Yes, this season was largely her playing on easy mode. But It's not her fault things lined up so nicely for her, by being part of a dominant alliance with none of her allies even considering as far as we saw stabbing her in the back or perceiving that she'd engaged in a little light-backstabbing. I would like to see Dee come back and compete against a better cast to see how she fares then. But a) she could have always brought up him playing the idol for her if she was so concerned that she was going to be the target b) if she fundamentally didn't trust Jake to vote Dee after making him swear on his nana, how is him promising that he would give up his idol going to do any good? How can she trust him to make a move that might result in him getting booted if the Reba 3 vote entirely for him? c) Switching her vote to Julie doesn't seem helpful to her game in either the long or short term.

I've been trying with no success to try to understand what Katurah was trying to accomplish by switching her vote from Dee to Julie. I'm not having any luck other than two: Katurah is a dummy (which I'm pretty sure she's not) or Katurah tanked the vote at the behest of the Survivor PTB who wanted to avoid a Dee elimination and to have their Rob/Amber 2.0 (which I'm perhaps naive about but tend to doubt that the producers would manipulate things like that). Assuming Jake is untrustworthy, and is voting for someone else other than Dee, how does her voting Julie change things in her favor?

Sorry but I don't see Katurah winning as a likely scenario. Had she voted Dee out, she is still at the mercy of the challenge winner. Based on her performance in reality, there's no way she beats out Jake, Julie and Austin. She was a distant third until Jake DQed himself by breaking the challenge apparatus. I tend to think that none of the winners bring her in, because they do respect her being able to talk and make connections. Jake's main hope is that Julie and Austin split the Reba vote and leave some room for him to sneak in. I could see Julie/Austin wanting to be the solo Reba member. But they also don't want to give the other an additional line on their resume; fought my way to get here by making fire. If she is made to make fire, she probably loses. She had the most pathetic firemaking attempt in my memory. But let's say she lives in the world where she gets to the end, somehow. What's her pitch? I got rid of Dee. I faced my fear with the water. Anything else? Is that good enough against any of the others? How does she defend her game? She failed to see that Reba was running things, failed to rally Belo to counteract things, failed to make any strong alliances, was basically a toady till the 5 vote. In the hypothetical world where she arranged to vote Dee off, Jake probably gets and deserves more credit for it. Where are Katurah's potentially winning votes coming from? If Austin is the only Reba option, one has to assume anyone who voted Austin would vote for him this go around, and that without Dee to vote for, several of those people would also vote Austin. If Austin is not an option, one would think that Julie gets the votes of the Reba 3 on the jury, plus Caleb, plus Emily. I dare say Julie wins a Julie/Katurah/Jake F3 with 6+ votes, and possibly she wins a unanimous vote.

People's mileage may vary, but even putting aside Dee's being hot (which I think she is), it seems to me that Dee is smart and funny, which goes a long way. She's got riz, as the kids today apparently call charisma. Yes, she has been (probably correctly) labeled a mean girl, but I would guess that when a mean girl allows you in her inner circle, it is a pretty big ego boost. And I do not think that the emotions in the showmance are a one-way street. I think Dee feels something for Austin too...it's just that she is not going to let li'l Dee get in the way of big Dee's thinking, or $1 million. It's not her fault that Austin is -- also in the parlance of kids today -- a total simp so far. The question is whether he's going to wake up at the 11th hour and realize that a) Dee has played him a couple times and b) his chances of winning in a F3 with Dee are probably non-existent.

It's funny because in real life, I would tend to agree with you. People care about their pets as much as flesh-and-blood children. But in Hollywood, somebody who is hypothetically OK with his buddies getting killed to facilitate some sort of major drug/terrorism transaction might be cold-blooded enough to let their dog dehydrate to death as part of a scheme to make people think he was dead. I hope the show surprises me and has no traitors, but I wouldn't put any money on it.

It would seem to me based on genre conventions: 1. At least one of the special investigators is a double-agent or is in some way working for the bad guys 2. At least one of the special investigators is going to be killed by the end of the season. 3. Reacher can't die or be arrested despite his multiple homicides, obviously 4. Neagley can't die or be arrested My money has been on O'Donnell being dirty and dying in a redemption arc. I would find it interesting if Dixon was dirty, but I don't see that happening. But with the introduction of Swan as a New Age employee who was posing next to the bad guy in a company photo, it's possible/probable that he is responsible for whatever is going on. Have they bothered to say anything about the black guy marksman? Is it just me, or shouldn't they have figured out Robert Patrick's character has something to do with this without the cowboy shit? I mean they are looking for something that happened over the course of seven months and is connected to $65 million. You have to suspect people at the top are involved, and that's where Robert Patrick is (presumably)

To my way of thinking, things hinge on Julie and Austin realizing that their path to winning is easier without Dee than with Dee. I think Julie could potentially win against Dee, but I don't think Austin can.

I think he knew or at least should have suspected that Julie was gunning for Drew. He may have explicitly talked about there being war between Julie and Drew. He took Katurah on reward rather than his boy Drew specifically so he would be in a position to babysat Julie. Austin knew (or should have known) that Dee and Julie were tight and should therefore have suspected Dee of lying to him when she said she didn't tell Julie about the plan to oust Julie. If Julie is taking on Drew, so might Dee be, so that's possibly two votes to go after Drew. All it then takes are Katurah and Jake to flip to mean Drew goes bye-bye. Maybe Austin thought through the scenarios and decided that there also was a chance he might be blindsided, or maybe he doesn't value Drew's safety that highly. But I think it's fair game when you're talking about "who's the most deserving" to point out that despite having the physical talents, two idols and a strong alliance, Austin never initiated anything, never thought for himself (besides wanting a sandwich) and has gotten outmaneuvered a couple of times.

So to take a look at each remaining player's Survivor resume: Dee -Won two individual immunities, one reward -Had a hand in pretty much every vote out since the merge (I think?) -Formed tight bonds with Reba 4 and with them controlled the game -Got basically everyone to simultaneously trust her since the Merge except Kaleb, who correctly assessed that she was the most dangerous person early on but got no one to listen -Instrumental in saving Julie Austin -Won one individual immunity, one reward -Part of the Reba 4 who has controlled the game since the Merge But made several tactical errors -Gave his idol to Julie for not-particularly good reasons, apparently never asked for it back -Targeted Julie prematurely -Told Dee that he was targeting Julie, allowing them to scheme to save Julie -Fell for Dee's obvious lie that she had not told Julie about her being targeted -Played idol for himself when he didn't have any particular reason to think he was in danger and when he could have used it to save his close ally Drew Julie -Runner-up in a couple of challenges -Well loved by all players as "Mama J" and thought of as a FTC threat -Survived an attempt to boot her thanks to an Idol -Part of the Reba 4 that ran things since the Merge Jake -Survived a couple attempts to boot him -Found an idol which he may now play to some effect -Funny and seemingly likeable Katurah -Outlasted Bruce -Overcame her fear of water through Survivor Am I missing anything?

Drew, you Napoleon Dynamite looking MF, they didn't vote for Pedro, they voted for you! Gosh! I am here for some bitter jury speech from Drew. Things I knew as I was watching for 100 percent sure: Dee was going to win this feet-related challenge. Drew was going home if he didn't win immunity. Things I did not know: That people not named Austin would apparently buy that Dee didn't tell Julie she was in danger, girl. Dee is making it look like it's Patrick Mahomes up against some Pee Wee Football players. I wonder if Julie realizes that she should be trying to get Dee and Austin out. I also wonder if, despite having no Survivor accomplishments worth listing, Katurah could possibly run a perfect game.

I'd forgotten that Johnathan had the punishment pass. It absolutely was not a punishment worth getting out of or a reward worth seeking, even with the free kitchen stuff.