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Yeah the first episode really drew me in. Baptiste finds some runaway, takes a picture of him, says he doesn't care if he goes back to his parents. Then sees a TV news report about the disappearance and just jumps on a plane and then drives to some resort in the Hungarian forest. Looks like they will show some beautiful shots of Budapest at night in future episodes. Obviously there's a big story about Baptiste's daughter passing away and a new adult son he didn't know about, as well as the falling out with his wife. Emma's lost almost her entire family but wants to find her other son, abducted the possible suspect. I didn't entirely buy how quickly Baptiste deduces that the guy was cheating with the nanny or that the hotel worker who said she saw Emma's husband got turned around so she was mistaken about the direction he was headed and Baptiste finds the body by going in the opposite direction from where the police had searched. But I guess it moved the story along, that he's finding things that the Hungarian police didn't, probably causing friction with them. Kind of annoyed that PBS is beeping out the profanity. Come on, French actor speaks English dialog, throws in some words and they have to beep it out.

They underplayed the whole Lexi thing though I guess they didn’t want to say much since she wasn’t there. But looked like Andy wanted to move on. makes Sandy look bad that she kept her so long, not to mention saying she’s a good person even as she let Lexi go. Malia said they have Lexi a good edit because it was much worse and production had to intervene. So yeah the producers wanted her around and it didn’t matter whether Sandy knew how bad it was. She was going to stay for the time being because production decided it wasn’t bad enough. As for Katie not wanting to keep on Delaney, she was sure she made the right decision and Malia backed her. So the talking heads during the season of them saying they could have used Delaney on those last couple of charters was all fake. They probably prompted Katie to repeatedly say “did I make a mistake?” in those talking heads did not represent how she felt. She thought Delaney was a mistake and Delaney claims she was misled about what she’d be doing on the show.

Notice though that he kept cutting off the PR women, not let them pitch or express their ideas? He hired names, but not clear he's got a good idea of what he wants from them. For one thing, he should let them know about the dead guy in the UK so that they would either tell him how they would try to do damage control on that if and when Logan plays that card. As for Kendall and Greg, the Slate Money podcast, which is discussing every episode, pointed out that in S01, when they were in the UK for Shiv's wedding, Kendall was looking for coke and Greg just told him off the cuff that he had incriminating papers. So either Kendall remembered or Greg reminded him. The fact that Greg told him about the papers means he's chosen his team. Maybe Kendall has been more friendly to him or so Greg though, while Tom was hazing him like a frat pledge and Shiv was indifferent and Roman was snarky to him.

There were 5 episodes.

In the first season, Logan changed the will or the family trust to give Marcia more share of the company or some powers. Children were kind of salty about that as well as her son getting some position in the company. We never saw him again. But you'd assume she still has some interests in the company. Logan might have made her sign a prenup but it seems like they've been together a long time, so she might have a claim on significant assets. There was no divorce settlement of any kind but she's credited in at least two episodes this season on IMDB. Then again she was credited in the season 2 season finale and she wasn't on that at all. So they will at least talk about her but she should make an appearance, unless the actress is filming another season of Ramy or something.

You know it would be nice if they stretched to 20 episodes, like the regular Challenge. They're giving out the same in prize money right? Plus they're getting Paramount + subscription money as well as commercials since you can get the $5 a month plan with commercials. Or you pay $10 a month to get the shows without any commercials. In some ways, the All Star may be more attractive to some challengers because it's a shorter time commitment but potential for more money. In this season's Challenge, they are testing the players more physically in the daily challenges, so some of the old vets who have only been doing the regular challenge may move to the "seniors tour" because it's less time for them for potentially the same money. Plus they're competing against older vets, rather than all the young cast that MTV is recruiting from other shows around the world. Some of the new players are behemoths.

Did they ever mention Conor's mother?

Yeah Kendall had to psych himself up, sitting in the tub in that luxurious hotel bathroom, breathing heavily. Still a bit shellshocked from the Chappaquiiddick episode, then being crushed most of last season, especially visiting the parents of the guy who died and then the resignation with which he accepted Logan's decision to sacrifice him. So the press conference he gave was mostly show. Then he snapped out of his funk and came out of the bathroom yelling "Action Stations!" (like battle stations! in some war movie or show?). Logan also said "Action Stations!" to snap his team to action.

I re-watched season 2. Marcia confronted Rhea about whether she was tested for STDs, quite salty about it. Then in the finale, she wasn't on the yacht and Logan says at one point he misses her. I don't think Marcia was in the next to last episode either, which is when Rhea spent the night in London with Logan or she quit when the news story about cruises came out.

So Kendall is once again the would-be Logan killer. He talked about Logan's malignant's presence but he doesn't just want to rat out Logan but take his job. He's back to the CEO jargons of season 1, then kind of cocky around Rava, which didn't end well in season 1. Yet he has to have Naomi around, who as Logan told him, is a stand-in for his drug dependency. He's hired a PR firm and he's going to be selling himself to the shareholders and the world. But has he cleaned himself up or is he going to keep using and think he can pull it off?

(Paraphrasing) Greg: Internet is really large and I haven't read all of it. Kendall: Because I don't like to drop a deuce where the staff go. Kendall: I don't give you enough money for gender-appropriate razors?

Kendall is not only going to whistleblow but vie for the throne with the shareholders? Wouldn't the credibility of his allegations against Logan be undermined by the fact that he's also going for Logan's job? That's why he's hiring the two women who are some kind of PR and social media wizards. Dramatically, Kendall can't just go expose on Logan and then sit down, like his job's done. He's always been one of the contenders for taking over the newspaper/media/entertainment/cruises/them parks empire -- the Paper Throne? Or that's how the show has presented the 3 children. But his odds are really worse than in S1, when he had teamed up with Sandy and Stewy and all the shares they represented. Now he's going in cold and he's going to try to win over shareholders from both Logan and Stewy/Sandy? Though it sounds like Shiv may join him after Logan named Gerri as the puppet-CEO. Plus, in season 2, he was beaten down and was resigned to the fact that it was never going to be him. Especially with what Logan held over him, the NRPI faux Chappaquiddick incident. Why wouldn't Logan play that card? It wouldn't necessarily help him but it could instantly knock out Kendall. Is Ken going to tell Lisa Arthur and the PR wizards about that incident? Rava is really being patient, when Naomi has Greg open her precious wine. She can at least buy razors for women now. Greg has cast his lot with Kendall or has he? He has the papers but looks like he's going to have to answer to Logan at some point. He could have had $250 million from his grandfather if he quit! These people have to be really greedy to stick with Waystar Royco, the empire that tech is going to chew up and spit out. Is the Paper Throne worth that much? If they took the buyout, they'd have walked away with $10 billion. Greg is hoping for more and the kids must as well. They were all raised with privilege yet they all want the kingdom. None of them are like Conor, who'd just be content with a "bridge" of $100 million or salvage a return from Willa's play with a hate-watch marketing campaign. OK, Ken would stand to get much more but he's already stinking rich. He may not be able to buy his own yacht yet but he's flying his girlfriends on private jets all over the world. So it didn't make sense when Rava told him he either goes for the throne or he goes off to some remote monastery. I think it would have been interesting to see the Roy kids grow up, how Ken got into drugs, how Shiv ended up in politics and then ended up with Tom, how Roman got screwed up and developed his Mrs. Robinson thing for Gerri.

Didn't even see this coming, my Tivo is set to record tonight. Heard this is probably it, the end of the road for the Baptiste character. Well it will have to wait until after Succession, which is what people are going to be discussing.

Grammar said in June that they could have it ready by early 2022 but they didn’t have a filming schedule, just a story that they were “polishing.” he said he hoped to have as much of the original cast reprise their roles but that they’d have stories for all the characters, whether all the actors agree to return or not.

Paramount + plans to bring a RR reboot some time in 2022. It won’t be a reunion like the RW Reunion shows or the abbreviated All-Stars Challenge season with some OG cast that PP has done. Interesting time to launch a show about traveling through the country. Still in a pandemic and depending on when they shoot, some places may still be dealing with rising cases. Then you have the whole #vanlife thing with twenty somethings going around living in makeshift RVs, even before the Gabby Petito case, which is still ongoing. In the original RR these were people barely out of college so I don’t recall what kind of jobs they were doing on the show. Certainly could be an interesting sociological experiment, about how people roaming the country might do odd jobs. Now, people are quitting jobs, some burned out because of the pandemic, while some are flush with cash and taking time out from the grind. But by the time RW ended, B-M had turned it into a drunken party hookup show, plying the cast, with emotionally unstable people, with booze and regular outings to clubs to capture drunken bad behavior. So instead of trying to earn money to fund their trip from place to place, learn about different parts of the country, maybe they just drop them off at clubs with opportunities for getting loaded, hooking up, etc.

Maybe she came from a well to do Malaysian family so she went to English schools or traveled. She said she had never set foot in Europe yet it sounded like she visited his family in the UK previously. Husband said now they could do more weekend trips instead of longer trips back to the UK from Malaysia. So she didn't consider the UK part of Europe? If not the UK she probably spent some time in an English-speaking country, maybe the US, maybe Australia, because she's not only very fluent but very chatty. She talked about the "monstrosity" construction site by the second apartment was it? But her mouth was going incessantly. Producers must have loved her because she carried the dialog and gave them ideas to show the construction site multiple times or the light well in House #3 or the small kitchen, the pillar in the middle of the living room, etc. The houses were okay but certainly not too European. They were away from the center so they were recent construction. I'd have liked to have seen some old building, like 19th century or older, but fully renovated inside, which we've seen in France and even Italy episodes.

What veteran yacht workers do on BD and what they do in their real jobs are two different things. It seems like Katie and Malia plan to go back to real charter jobs, without the artificial stresses that BD imposes on them. Katie is used to working in larger crews. I wonder if she even has the power to hire and fire anyone. She may be more in a daily supervisory role but doesn't have too much say in actually hiring the staff she supervises. Also you wonder if some of the people who come on the show decide to do TV hoping it lands them other opportunities outside of yachting. Obviously that has been the case with Kate, she got out of the drudgery and grunt work and now she gets to snark on TV and maybe Bravo has made it worth her while. But there aren't too many such positions, so anyone else coming onto BD may have to seek other reality TV.

Gladstone, Australia. He decided to splurge to get a nicer home for themselves. I thought the first choice was nice enough too. Town looked nice but there was a factory of some kind with 3 long stacks.

Emma Kenney being diplomatic about working with Emmy Rossum over the years. https://deadline.com/2021/10/shameless-star-emma-kenney-emmy-rossum-1234855751/ From the mouth of babes, considering that Kenney was 9 when the show started.

Yeah Amanda played the "I got to feed my kid" card really hard. Thing is, traveling nurses during the pandemic are earning several time what they normally make. And some nurses, depending on what kind of credentials they have, were earning like $200k before the pandemic. But having that kid, as a single mother, obviously limits her options. Honestly, coming onto the Challenge is not a high-percentage way to make a lot of money. Cory has never won big money and he's got two kids to feed. Unless MTV pays them just for appearing, she might have been able to make more money getting a lot of OT as a nurse. She's never gotten close to winning a season so it's not a high-probability decision. When she first came on, her father was sick or something and she wanted to win the money to help her family. Now it's the kid. I wonder if the producers encourage some of the cast to play up how much they need the money, how they will help their family or change their life for the better. Certainly makes for some good talking heads. But the prize money is so top loaded, almost winner-take-all, that except for the best competitors, most Challenge players have little chances of winning that big pot.

Was the daily challenge all 3 stages or just the third stage? Seems like the first two stages were about forming the teams, which appear to be the way they're going to do daily challenges for awhile. If the daily for this episode was just the last stage, then the design is just "eh" not too elaborate, though Devin came up with the good idea to weigh down the box so that the whole team could transport the broken pieces rather than just one team member standing on a stool. It is interesting the way they sorted into the teams. Kyle considers him and Cory to be enemies so he decided to be in the same cell? Then he obviously came to regret being in the Ruby cell. The teams obviously tried to recruit CT and some of the others. As for the elimination, yeah Pricilla let her previous win get to her head. Or maybe she didn't want to choose one of her friends, even though they'd have been easier to defeat. Ashley figured out the easiest way to remove enough sand that she could reach down and pull out the tires without digging too much more. Priscilla was burning herself out and she didn't think to copy what Ashley was doing. Her friends didn't spot what Ashley was doing and think to tell Priscilla to copy the tactic. Looked like Ashley finished the task before Priscilla even started reassembling the tires. Great wrinkle letting the compromised agent choose his or her enemy and also letting the victor of the elimination choose teams. The advantage of winning the daily challenge and being in the Agency is lessened. You can't get eliminated that day but you might lose your place in your team and end up on a weaker team. Also I never noticed before but the did the agency vote in previous nominations? Or maybe they voted for the first time this episode because the compromised agent was going to choose her opponent.

Wow quick turnaround, less than a year. maybe not even 6 months? But odds are it's likely 10 episodes, which seems to be on the longer end of season lengths on streaming shows.

Some countries, particularly in Europe, are offering 1-year digital nomad visas. Otherwise, Americans can only stay in Europe 90 days out of any 180-day period. But it seems a lot of Australians and some Americans go to Asia for extended periods, because of the low cost of living there which allows them to do a lot of traveling. Or teach basic English, which has a low-barrier to entry for native speakers. It seems like these countries have rather permissive visa policies, though a lot has probably changed with the pandemic. Just in the last week, Singapore and Thailand have announced some loosening of travel restrictions for Westerners to enter their country and not face onerous quarantine requirements (like 14 days at your expense, with high health insurance coverage requirements and a lot of testing). Generally though HHI is pretending that the pandemic and especially travel restrictions don't exist. Maybe if they acknowledged it, they might come in for criticism for depicting people traveling during this time, contributing to spread.

Yeah I don't know how much people would pay for say a hosted Airbnb on that island. Maybe $100-150 a night? It's a nice place but I think there were only two bathrooms so if they rent out the second and third bedrooms, the renters would have to share a bathroom. Otherwise, I know people go to these SE Asian countries and do things like yoga but I don't know about meditation and how much people are willing to pay for such sessions. So she may have a undisclosed source of income.

I think it was editing. He could have exchanged some pleasantries with Luka and then went off to his cabin but they make it seem like he was all triggered. For what? Charters are OVER at that point. FAKE drama. Fake, fake, fake, fake, fake.