Hera

In France, it would definitely get them through customs faster. The citizen line always moves faster than the foreign travelers' line. I don't know if it would be the same for other EU countries. This is interesting because if they do go to France, Anthony and Spencer will need to enter on their French passports—countries always require their citizens to enter (and leave) on the passport of that country, even if they have other nationalities. This is an advantage they have over other teams that the producers of the show can do nothing about (except by making renunciation of their French citizenship a requirement of being cast, which they clearly didn't do). However, I don't know if that holds for the whole of the EU—that a citizen of an EU country cannot travel to a different EU country on a non-EU passport. They'd be smart to keep using their French passports within the EU, unless the show intervenes and insists that they travel on their US passports when they're not in France.

Totally agree. I thought it was mean of him to bring up the fact that she used to be an athlete. I don't believe for a moment that he didn't know what her current athletic ability was and didn't understand why it had atrophied (for good reason) in the intervening decades. I also get the sense that he's focussed on being an example of perseverance (and whatever else) to his students. That's great, but it's not the kind of racer I tend to enjoy watching, even when I think their cause or moral crusade is worthy, as I do with him. The teams I like best aren't necessarily paragons of humanity, but people who seem to enjoy and appreciate being on the race and the places that they get to go. To that end, I liked the flight attendants just fine—they seemed to be having fun and had a sense of humor about themselves. They're also off to a surprisingly strong start. We'll see if they can sustain it. I didn't enjoy the twins at all and wished that they had been the first boot instead of Michael and Moe, though the cops certainly earned their elimination fair and square. I agree that the detours were imbalanced time-wise. If the producers had wanted to, they probably could have evened up the Ben detour by making everyone go to Piccadilly station on foot instead of giving them the option to go back cab, which—predictably—everyone took. As for the darts one, each of the teams that did it had one person who could reliably hit the bullseye early on, so I wonder if that made it seem faster than it actually would have been for a team where both members were totally new to throwing darts. But on the other hand, I don't necessarily think detour tasks need to take the same amount of time. I think as long as both sides of the detour see a few teams (at least when it's this early in the race), I'm happy. I don't like it when there's side of the detour that gets one team or is ignored altogether. I think it's interesting to see which task teams think will be faster for them. For the first detour in particular, I imagine that it wouldn't have been clear to the racers that the Ben task would be faster than the art one. I don't think the art task mentioned that racers would essentially have to solve a puzzle before attaching the pieces to the wall, and I doubt the Ben task said how far apart the different checkpoints were or that taking a cab to one of them would be an option. I totally agree with this. At minimum, I wish the clue had been harder to find (maybe sealed in an envelope with a name and address given to the racer at the start of the task?). While it was painful watching Penn and Taylor overthink it (and not believe Anthony when he told them they were done), it's also hard for me to blame them because tasks on The Amazing Race generally are not and shouldn't be able to be completed that quickly. It reminded me of season 29, when Tara and Joey were doing a needle in a haystack challenge in a kayak in Norway and found the clue in the second place they looked and Tara struggled to believe that it was over that fast, but at least that was due to pure dumb luck. In this case, all of the clues were at the bottom of the mail sacks, so anyone who pursued a strategy of dumping out all the mail was going to complete the task really fast. But really, I wish the train had been a necessary part of the task—maybe something like forcing the racers to a specific (or set of letters) and deliver it to specific stops on the train's route.

My guess is that it's easier for the camera operators, since cabs will always have space to allow them to film the teams, while the Tube might not. Plus, they like to have teams give talking head interviews while they're en route somewhere, but on public transport, you're not only forcing unsuspecting locals to listen to those interviews, but you might have to contend with background noise (for instance, if someone else nearby in the metro car is having a conversation) that makes it hard to hear what the teams are saying. In recent seasons when racers are filmed on mass transit of any kind, it's noticeably empty. The flight attendants did—one of them hugged the woman who told them.

I had never heard of them, so I looked up some of their videos. The music parodies aren't for me, but I did enjoy some of their vlogs. In general, couples who have been together for over a decade and who aren't trying to use the race as relationship therapy tend to be pretty solid teammates to one another. They both seem reasonably bright and they seem like they'd be savvy enough to know to prepare (I don't know if they actually did—it's just my guess that they did). I don't know if I think they'll win it, but I don't think they'll be first out unless they have horrendous taxi luck.

Looks like her Patreon peaked in late March 2021, and has been steadily losing support since then: https://graphtreon.com/creator/shantelsmith I am surprised it didn't get a bump from being on the show. Then again, she has over 100k followers on Instagram (which doesn't link to her Patreon, but does to her cameo account), so I suspect that's her primary stream of income.

I agree with everything @After7Only said, and want to add that I don't really see how she could be accused of living his life instead of hers based on what we were shown. She clearly still had her career and friends, which exist outside of Lawrence. Yeah, his kid was there, but that's part of being with someone who has kids. It would be unpleasant and out of character for Issa to be an evil stepmother cliché. And anyway, the show made it clear that they were going to have a babysitter so that Lawrence could take her out for her birthday, so you can't even accuse Lawrence of insisting that their shared life must revolve around Elijah.

As a single episode, I enjoyed the finale. In the context of the whole season, I wondered why did what they did for the nine previous episodes—why spend so long on Issa's angst around dating Nathan if they're going to end it in such an unsatisfying way and she's going to end up with Lawrence? Why show us Molly dealing with the immediate aftermath of her mother's stroke, but not the immediate aftermath of her death? Why cram all of Kelli's major life milestones (career move, finding a partner, having a kid) into the very last episode? I'm glad they decided to let everyone have a happy ending, and I liked the framing of checking in on everyone on each of the four friends' birthdays; I just wish the pacing had been steadier throughout the season.

Speaking of that fight in "Keg! Max!", it was far better choreographed than it needed to be. This was not a show anyone was watching for its fight sequences, and yet, they threw in a gratuitously good one, seemingly for the hell of it. Also, I love that Chauncey Leopardi, who played Alan the bully on Freaks and Geeks, turns up in that episode as Kyle, the mild mannered guy who throws a kegger and then tells the guests to use coasters and pick up the chips they drop.

Yeah, rewatching those episodes as an adult Lorelai's age, I really want to shake her. No one who is not in high school should care that much about a high school relationship. By all means, make sure Rory doesn't do anything to jeopardize her future, but outside of that, don't get involved. Really, Lorelai screwed up before Jess ever got to Stars Hollow. She never should have gotten so attached to Dean or to the idea of Dean and Rory's love.

If I were Derek and Tiffany's other friends, I'd almost look forward to the drama that erupts whenever Lawrence and Issa are both there. First of all, Nathan is too short to be able to win a fistfight with Lawrence. His swings looked absurd. I thought it was interesting that even though Issa make an initial effort to comfort Nathan, she didn't really go after either guy once the fight way broken up. It's hard to root for either love interest. As for Molly and Taurean, while I agree with whoever said last week that Taurean doesn't really show growth for Molly (except in that she's much less tightly wound than she was in previous seasons), I will say that the show is making a reasonable case for the two of them anyway. While the "stoned people get the munchies" story line was cliché, I did love stoned Taurean trying to order barbecue on Postmates while Lawrence and Nathan had their passive-aggressive LA barbecue argument. Boo to having Ahmal there and not having him and Kelli exchange dialogue. At least we got Chad—although I want to echo everyone who said that Lawrence should really know better than to listen to him by now. As much as we're sick of Nathan vs. Lawrence, the best way to make them both look better is by having Dro there. Another point in favor of the Molly/Taurean ship is the way they totally shut down whatever fuckery Dro was aiming for by having Molly lay out their messy history for Taurean and then Taurean taking it in stride. Notice how quickly Dro fled the scene once that happened. Good riddance.

The best I can reason it is that it let Logan get to Caroline before their kids did. Caroline might not have been so ready to roll over on the relevant aspects of the divorce settlement as quickly as she did if her kids had spoken to her first. But they didn't think to do that. And for Logan's part, he probably didn't need as large a bribe as he might have if Caroline had known how important that clause was to everyone involved.

Rory's idol, Christiane Amanpour, made her name covering different wars: Iran-Iraq, the Gulf War, and the Bosnian War. So wanting to be a journalist "like Christiane Amanpour" would generally be understood as wanting to be war correspondent in some form or another—or at least being open to that as part of her career. When she first meets Headmaster Charleston at Chilton, he suggests Cokie Roberts (NPR political reporter) as another possible role model and Rory says no.

I suppose my UO about Rory's career prospects is that I think editor is actually a good fit for her. She's organized, she has broad interests (so would probably be okay reading a variety of articles), and has reasonable people skills. Being handed editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News was obviously ridiculous, but her becoming an editor made far more sense than her being a foreign correspondent. It's too bad the writers never took the out they gave themselves.

I'm happy with Erika's win, but I wish she and Heather hadn't been so underedited in the first half of the game. They found time to show us Sydney, Deshawn, Danny, and Naseer on Luvu—they absolutely could have found time to show Erika and Heather as well. The finale in particular made me realize that Heather almost certainly had a good grip on the social dynamics. It would have been nice if she had been given credit for that throughout the game. As Erika pointed out, she and Heather were a tight pair who made it all the way to Final Four, which rarely happens. That should have been a storyline given the same amount of time that the Shan/Ricard and Deshawn/Danny pairings got. I had wondered if she was sandbagging not being able to start a fire as well. It would have made sense. I think Erika's ideal final three was her, Xander, and Heather, and she would have good reason to think she could beat Deshawn at making fire. But if she had been, surely we would have seen a confessional to that effect—instead, I'm pretty sure we got one saying almost the opposite. Speaking of that fire challenge, I felt bad for Heather. It seemed like the wind whipped her fire around the string (and sometimes away from it), while Deshawn was sitting in a calmer spot, so his fire could hit that same part of the string. Now that fire-making is a permanent part of Final Four, it seems like the least the producers could do is figure out how to screen or shelter the fire makers so that the effect of the wind is minimized (or at least somewhat equalized). Even if this is true (and I don't think it is) - is it not possible that the jury looked at the resume and performances of all three finalists and thought Erika did play the best game? Exactly. The subjectivity of who deserves to win is what makes the end game and the final so interesting. If it were possible to assess someone's résumé and performance in the game objectively, then there wouldn't be any need for a jury at all. You'd just tally up the Sole Survivor points and whoever has the most is the winner. Xander and Deshawn both got to the end by burning their allies (except for Danny, in Deshawn's case). They both gave various jurors the impression that they would work with them, and then didn't. That's actually not such a bad way to get to the end, but it significantly increases the difficulty of winning. Some people think it's unfair; I do not. Erika lasted just as long as Deshawn and Xander, and managed to burn fewer bridges in doing so. Why shouldn't she be rewarded for it? To be honest, I think Ricard should have known not to get his hopes up at that point. I can kind of understand why Xander didn't save Tiffany (he also got votes at that Tribal Council, though if he, Tiffany, and Evvie had stuck together to vote Heather, it wouldn't have mattered), but letting Evvie get voted out was an inexcusable move if you assume he was ever willing to use the idol to save an ally. I think it was clear in that moment that Xander was never going to use his idol to save anyone else. Honestly, I'm surprised he bothered to play it for himself.

I've never heard this expression ("bashing on front street but want to apologize in the alley") before, but I love it and am totally going to use it. I agree with everyone that Crenshawn needs to go back on social media to apologize to Issa. I didn't think his in person apology was all that amazing either. And while I don't think Issa should work with him again, I could see why she might. If they're not dealing with sponsors this time, then there's less chance for a repeat of the last time they collaborated. From what I can tell, Issa doesn't tell artists or vendors what to do or sell, except when the sponsor wants her to. If it's just the two of them working together, Crenshawn can have all the drummers and bikers he wants. I don't think they planned it, tbh. I know we are supposed to see Taurean as a symbol of Molly's growth and maturity in relationships as compared to her other high drama romances, but to me Taurean is an easy out and doesn't actually represent growth. He is exactly what Molly wanted in the very beginning, he checks all her perfect boxes… I agree with this. It wasn't planned and it's being done because there isn't time to introduce a new love interest for Molly. I think real growth would have been her falling for someone like the guy who worked at Enterprise whom she rejected a couple of seasons ago because she couldn't handle that (among other things) he once had sex with a man. Because it's Molly, I could see an argument for someone who's more ambitious than Enterprise Guy—in my head, it's someone who built his own business but didn't necessarily go to college—or at least not a fancy one like Stanford.

Exactly. Why bother going on Survivor if you don't believe you can win it? Which is part of what makes Shan's reaction to being voted out so off-putting. Everyone was there to win and everyone thought they could. Shan seems to have absolutely no perspective on this. I also think she's pissed at Ricard specifically because she told him people were gunning for him "as a courtesy to her number one", but he didn't return the favor when the vote shifted to her (because he was the one doing the shifting). Then he teamed up with two people she thought she was allied with and flipped the game on the alliance she helped build. Basically, she underestimated him and it bit her in the ass, but instead of saying, "I got outplayed. Good game, Ricard," she's sulking. I generally don't mind players needing some time to get over their losses, and I appreciate the timeline of this season is truncated, but Shan should really be over it by now. No one wronged her. She got voted out fair and square, just like fourteen other people this season.

Shan is really unbelievable. Once again, I feel very sorry for the other people who have to be in Ponderosa with her. I agreed with most of Ricard's takes on past players—I wouldn't go so far as to say that Michele Fitzgerald is one of my favorite winners and I wouldn't rate Ricard above Jeremy Collins (but that was clearly done half tongue-in-cheek), but other than that, I think my picks would have been all the same as his.

That's the first thing I read this morning and it literally gave me cold chills. We're well into the 21st Century and some people are still judging every single person by the amount of pigment in their skin, labelling them, and passing judgement accordingly. What judgment was passed in the original quote? It looked to me like @Chicago Redshirt was simply listing the ethnicities of past non-white winners within the larger context of trying to determine if Black players were truly underrepresented among winners. What am I missing?

Well, I take it back—apparently people do have nice things to say about Jeremy Strong that aren't just about his dress sense. You'd never have known it from the profile. I normally think Aaron Sorkin is kind of a blowhard, but that was a thoroughly decent thing to do.

Exactly this. We have seen Erika influence how votes go down: Ricard's idea was to vote out Shan, while Erika made sure it was a split vote; then in this episode, Ricard wanted to vote out Deshawn, while Erika managed to change the target to Danny. Erika was also the swing vote people were worried about when Liana was voted out. We have not seen the same for Xander. Apparently the scheme to give the idol to Tiffany to get Liana to waste her advantage was Evvie's and Tiffany's idea (and I'm sure they're making sure the other jurors know that), so his one big move in the game isn't something he can take sole credit for. He played his extra vote to ensure that Liana was voted out rather than Ricard, but that was muted by the fact that Erika voted with him, and I suspect if she hadn't, then she and Heather would have voted together for Ricard, and Xander's extra vote would still have been wasted. Erika and Heather have always voted the same way, and the narrative we're getting is that it's Erika calling the shots for the two of them. I also don't think immunity wins are that important to a jury—and I don't see this particular jury caring that much. Of all of them, I think Danny would be the one to respect challenge prowess the most, but I also think Deshawn has Danny's vote locked up if he's makes it to the end, regardless of whether or not he ever wins an individual immunity. I'm sure jurors like it when their favorite player left in the game is safe from a vote, but I don't think that a player at Final Tribal Council with no immunity wins is at a significant disadvantage to one with multiple wins, all other things being equal.

Those demographics also do not take into account the age distribution of the country and within each ethnic group. Each successive generation in the US is proportionally less white than the one that preceded it, and Survivor casts have never matched the age distribution of the US. There was a discussion about this in the media thread over a year ago, when it was first announced that CBS reality shows wouldn't allow their casts to be more than 50% white. I stand by my belief that this announcement was a cynical attempt to look progressive about something that was almost inevitable due to the age groups that these shows tend to cast from in the first place.

Speaking of Condola, someone mentioned in a different episode thread that it's a shame that her involvement with Lawrence basically wrecked her friendship and working relationship with Issa. I enjoyed the few Condola/Issa scenes we had and I thought the actresses had good chemistry. It's shame that the focus of the show seems to be on Issa's unresolved feelings towards Lawrence and not the fact that she lost a business partner and the possibility of another friend. I've really missed the show within a show—I was looking forward to seeing what they'd come up with for this season. I was hoping for an American version of "The Drugs" (for context, this is barely a parody of BBC Scotland dramas, which tend to be low budget compared to other BBC output, and are always this heavy-handed).

Shan appears to be ruining the atmosphere at Ponderosa for everyone else, especially as her former allies come in. It's also annoying because it's clear that her beef is with Deshawn, but since he's not there, Liana and Danny are the ones getting the earful. I will give her that it has been a lot less time for her than it has been for us (in the game, she's only four days out from getting voted out, while for us it's been two weeks), but still. That level of bitterness is very unappealing and I can't imagine it's fun for Tiffany, Evvie, and Naseer to sit there and listen to someone who was in the game longer than they were bitch about how she didn't get as far as she felt she deserved to. I loved the segment of Danny learning rugby. I think the guy teaching him was as delighted to be there as Danny was—from my own personal observation, there seems to be a lot of mutual curiosity between rugby players and American football players. It's a shame there weren't more people so that he could try playing a game.

I agree that Xander's arc has been unexpected. I think that people must have decided that he's not a threat to anyone's game. Thinking about the jury, it's hard to see where his votes would come from. Possibly Evvie and Tiffany (and I think they're long-shots), and that's it. I don't think Shan votes for him, and I don't think any of the original Luvus will vote for him either. Yeah, this would have made sense, although it would have just delayed the inevitable. I'm curious about how the show would handle a three way tie. In normal ties, the two people who were voted for aren't allowed to vote because their votes would cancel each other out. But that wouldn't be true in a three-way tie. Danny and Deshawn's discussion with each other about how dumb the Liana vote showed me that that neither one of them is very good at strategy. Voting out Liana instead of Ricard was bad for their games, but for everyone else, it made perfect sense. Erika/Heather/Xander/Ricard knew that Deshawn/Danny/Liana were a tight three. If Erika/Heather/Xander had joined with the Black Alliance to vote out Ricard, they would have been faced with a 3-3 split at this Tribal Council. I fully believe that Erika/Heather/Xander would have voted for Ricard this time if he hadn't won immunity, because that would still leave them up in numbers against Danny and Deshawn. The fact that neither one could understand the move might explain why they haven't been able to control a vote. If you can't understand other people's motivations, then you can't convince them to do what you want. I thought Erika handled Deshawn's "truth kamikaze" (Xander might not be a strong player, but his is a quote machine) fairly well, and I'm confident she'll be able to smooth it over with Heather anyway. All she needs to say is that she was blowing smoke up Deshawn's ass and of course it's Erika, Heather, and Xander for the final three. Though this tribal council might have solidified Deshawn as Erika's goat. If she ends up with him at the end, she can point out that he's only there because she saved him. Ricard wanted Deshawn out and Erika managed to switch the target to the person she didn't have an alliance with. This also demonstrates the weakness in Ricard's game: Ricard sees the right move for himself, but can't always get the people he needs on board to execute it. This is what made Shan such a good ally for him. I would have loved to have seen Shan and Erika go head-to-head in arguing the case for voting out Deshawn vs. voting out Danny. I don't know who would have won.

It was telling to me that none of the quotes they got from people who knew him seemed especially positive about him personally.