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Kyle the Texas boy seems to be this season's Benny from BDDU. Has his own agenda, which doesn't coincide with work. Again I suspect he's being encouraged to play up the rebel role, as Benny seems to have been, being defiant against his superiors. I don't know about this captain. Sounds like he got his job being a golfing buddy of Lee so he may mainly be interested in getting the sweet TV money that Lee got. Doesn't mean he's not competent or even good at the job but maybe he's going to play for the cameras a bit too much. Was it this episode or another BD show where the guests are asking the stews which male crew members they like? That's a central preoccupation with all BD shows and now they're getting "guests" to move that plot along. Yes Norway is beautiful, but they're more likely to run into bad weather, even in the summer, than say Malta. Wonder how much of it they will show and whether some charters they don't get to do all the extreme sports like zip lining off a fjord 2000 feet or something. I don't know if they have things like paragliding or zip lining up there. Seems like more popular things are like climbing up to the Troll's Tongue. But they're setting off from Alesund which is more to the north. Also, the yacht was docked but the guest boarded to the rear of the yacht by tender while still in port? What's up with that?

Not much happens in real time. They're on the trawler going up some gorgeous river valley. The tracking shot from a drone follow the valley into the dawn with birds flying low to the water until they come up on the trawler that the Foxes escaped on at the end of last season. They start telling the kids why they're on the run. So it's a big backstory episode, going back 13 years, when Dina is like 3 or 4 while Charlie is an infant. Allie has a corporate job, is a brilliant software engineer who's written code that could be used for good, such as tracking the impact of bird migration due to climate change. But there's no money in that so his employers have sold the software to the NSA, which uses the software for "predictive intelligence." Allie and Margot are separated. But he's hacked her phone -- remember these are the days before the modern smart phone -- so that he can track it with GPS. He spies on her going out to dinner with another man. Next morning, Allie goes to Margot's to pick up the kids but while waiting, he sees schematics for a bomb. Turns out Margot's date is some climate activist and Margot herself has a history of "direct action" doing things like spiking trees to prevent logging. So despite having two young children to take care of, she is plotting to bomb some biotech company. You can guess the rest, unintentionally, they kill someone with that bomb while Allie gets himself in trouble with the NSA and the FBI by hacking into his software used as a database for illegal surveillance of US citizens to spy on Margot and her paramour/partner in crime. Margot is ready to give up, feeling guilty for the unintended killing of a lab worker but Allie convinces her to run. So Mosquito Coast was released as a movie in 1986 with River Phoenix playing the role of Charlie Fox, the son to the crazy father Allie played by Harrison Ford. But in 1988, he played a key role in Running on Empty, a movie about a couple who were radicals in the '60s and their children. River Phoenix plays the son of the couple, who take their family on the run because they also bombed a laboratory to stop animal testing but killed people -- they don't show the bombing but that's the big reveal in that movie.. Their son is like 17 or 18 and the couple struggle with not giving their children a chance at a normal life. In the end they tell their son to leave them, find his own way. It's interesting that the writers and show runners of this show decided to do a mashup of two River Phoenix movies from the late '80s as a driving plot for this show now. The backstory depicted on this show takes place in the 2000s, maybe early 2000s. I don't think it's quite convincing that Margot would take such action, with two young children to care for. The profile of a well-intentioned activist driven to potentially fatal acts fits more in the '60s than in the 2000s. It is a bit of a jump from spiking trees to bombing a lab which takes all kinds of planning and sustained energy. It's not something that could be done impulsively. Interesting that they don't show the NSA couple from season 1 at all. The FBI agents who interrogate Allie are new so maybe they make a reappearance if they get an idea of where the Foxes are. After those NSA agents died in Mexico City, maybe the US govt. is more motivated to capture them. The entirety of the first season was about them trying to reach this place, this hideout of radicals who had invited Allie. Well they make a brief appearance, someone video chats Allie and pleads with him to come help them build infrastructure. Video chat wouldn't have been so good 13 years ago but this woman knows that Allie and Margot were separated at the time. I'm hoping they get to this place with the new group and some other things happen. They better not use the whole season -- I believe there are 10 episodes in season 2 -- to show them trying to reach this Xanadu or whatever Allie called it in season 1.

Yikes!

Darrell said of Veronica that they've known each other a long time, won a Challenge together, explaining why Veronica is his Ride or Die. Then "she gets the job done." What a ringing endorsement.😄 The thing is, the people holding onto the bar were tethered and when they let the bar go, they dropped maybe a foot. That might have helped with Veronica jumping if Darrell was a half foot to a foot lower.

I gather most of what happens after season 3 or so is well beyond the events of the book?

I don't know if it's the case in The Hague but in the Netherlands, they taxed those tall canal homes by their width. That is why they built the homes so tall and narrow, which meant these steep, narrow staircases. But I recall one Amsterdam episode where they had a modern building well outside the canal ring and it still had those steep, narrow stairs. I guess the Dutch got used to it.

I've never stayed in a resort. I'm not the most active but I try to always do something each day of the trip unless the weather is bad. But some people are not interested in being active, want to be pampered and don't mind paying for places which have all these on-site amenities and service. Yeah they can certainly get that in Hawaii, the Caribbean or even Mexico. They wouldn't need to fly all the way from California to Sicily as some of these characters have this season. I've been to Sicily a couple of times flying from CA. There's a town above Taormina called Castelmola which has great views. Some people hike up to it or you could take a bus up and down to it. I took a bus up and hiked down and even the hike down isn't that easy because the terrain is uneven and there was a lot of brush when I went. I don't think these characters, even the young ones, in designer clothes would bother with something like that. Another popular activity, which I haven't done, is to go on these guided tours where they take you on a 4x4 up towards the top of Etna. The terrain is dirty as you have this ash-like soil and the visibility may not be great. Usually Etna is shrouded in clouds and the emissions form the volcano so while the rest of the horizon may be clear, you have this big plume hanging over it when viewed from Taormina. Maybe these characters will be taken up there during the season, because it's a thing to do.

Rookies in the Challenge may as well be wearing red shirts all the time. The few who make it past 1 or 2 seasons can wear other colors.

Naomi may not want to sleep with Lawrence but that goofy, Alfred E. Neuman ears Spiros is preferable? Also I thought Lawrence wasn't interested in sex, at least when June was his Handmaid. Seems like the marriage would be one of convenience, for a top commander to have a wife and child. But he himself doesn't believe in the Ceremony.

Speaking of Tanya and Greg, what to make of their sex scene, Tanya grimacing. She asked him to stop? She suggested they have sex, Greg had to wash up because of swamp crotch. Is it suppose to reflect on their relationship or are they just playing their relationship for laughs?

That’s the other thing, China, Russia and North Korea all congratulated Gilead for shooting down the jets. Guess those are rogue nations while the rest of the world shun Gilead. But there must be some other authoritarian nations which gravitate towards what Gilead is doing. Mckenzie seemed proud that these nations were friendly while Lawrence cast shade at being associated with them.

I don't buy that the American govt. in exile nor Gilead have advanced military equipment. Like that situation room where they have a satellite view of the wife school. If they could see the wife school in real time, why wouldn't they see the anti-aircraft? Also if a plane is shot down. most military jets can eject the pilots. In any event, if they'd been successful, there would be no reason for June to ever bother with Gilead again. They have another season of the show so we know that wasn't going to happen. My guess, is the way McKenzie talked, if they can't lure June to New Bethlehem, Gilead will just go in and abduct her to get her back into Gilead for the final season. Because all of a sudden, you have these anti-American protesters as well as tons of Gilead sympathizers in Canada. I guess they're going to use them somehow to get June back into Gilead. Even in this country, the most anti-immigrant people don't go and confront people like that. They might do it at the border but they don't go into communities where these people live and work. Or even target them with guns as this episode depicted. This show keeps getting more ridiculous. The way they get June back is probably going to be more absurd.

The Daily looked cool. However, was it only two teams which had the female hang and the male jump and those were the only two teams which retrieved the flag? If only two teams did it that way, it would be suspicious. Also of course we don't see the timer on screen so we have to accept that the team they name as the winner did in fact win. As for the elimination, little guy gets a physical challenge requiring upper body strength. Everyone knew Tommy and Analyse were going in no matter what, so the choice of the game basically determined that they were going to be eliminated. And I wouldn't put it past the producers to secretly tie up the board so Tommy couldn't life his partner at all.😄

Well people who can afford homes in high-demand areas will likely have money for spending on things like restaurant meals. So if one can allocate $20-30 per person for a simple meal one or more times a day, every day -- talking burgers or maybe salads with chicken, no alcoholic beverages -- then it would be convenient to be near all those establishments, to offer variety. It's like going on vacation all the time. I don't know if the wife in The Hague episode envisioned that kind of lifestyle or talked it up for the sake of the show.

That might be Mike White's revenge for Enlightened, which didn't have great ratings, so he is giving them the soap opera viewers respond more to, along with some subversive social commentary on the rich. Because these resorts probably cost high 3-figures or into 4-figures a day. Then you add meals on the premises and it really adds up. When you could get good meals in other places in Taormina. The real hotel on where they filmed this is high-end but I don't think they're all-inclusive like the resorts in Hawaii. Or maybe you don't want a multi course meal every day or for every lunch and dinner. So anyways, the people who travel far to resorts like these don't care about the locality or the people, other than it's beautiful. And they probably don't venture often from the resort. Considering that Harper is a lawyer specializing in sexual harassment, you wouldn't think that would happen. But she's definitely intrigued about Cameron.

I think by now the cast recognize their scripted roles and recognize that without drama, the show probably doesn't get the same ratings compared to if they were all peaceful and one happy family. So to keep the gravy train going, there will always be friction of some kind.

The city center Hague home was probably too expensive for them. Between what they chose and the city center one, it was $1500 a month in difference. Maybe the wife really didn't care about the hustle and bustle but maybe she doesn't want to fix herself breakfast or lunch, just go out to a cafe, though that could be expensive to do for every meal. They must wait for sunny days in places like The Netherlands to film. Or at least it can't be raining. The one they chose was the best value, not only the cheapest but the most roomy. Still I get the appeal of the city center of a European city, especially for younger families.

Anyone remember Cameran did GGW back in the day? She was like a guest host along with some other Real World cast members.

Wow didn't recognize Dern at all.

Harper and Ethan are paying their own way right? Not like Cameron and Daphne inviting them means they're paying for Harper and Ethan as well? So if Harper doesn't like Cameron, why go on holiday with them? Especially if it means adjoining rooms, having meals with them, going out on excursions and laying around the pool or the beach with them?

All TV shows have recurring cast members. Is that a foreign concept?

How are the football players related to the other guests? They're friends? Seems unlikely friends. I thought Courtney was American but she said she didn't know anything about American football. Someone said they were expecting rugby players. In any case, they were struggling with the steep spiral stairs, because of football knee injuries. But I wonder if some random guests weren't thrown together by the producers for this charter, given the mismatch of backgrounds, ethnicity, age, etc. Yeah I suspect the chain was some fake story and the pancakes are as well. They filmed a lot about the stupid pancakes and aired a lot of it That's how boring this charter was, much of the crew was preoccupied with giving the guy American pancakes in Malta? Ellie speaks all these language but apparently when nervous or excited she speaks with the high pitch? But her voice settled down. Either that or for some reason she wanted to meet her crew mates with that voice for some reason. And she just happens to carry on a couple of Playboy bunny costumes? She says she has limited experience working on yachts but says there are always costumes on the yachts she worked on. This gave Courtney and her a chance to dress up like Playboy bunnies. Magda on BD Down Under had previously worked on a yacht as the yoga instructor whee she wore tight outfits? Maybe some yachts hire young women who are willing to dress a certain way for the guests. They don't necessarily have great experience with all the tasks that stews must perform but they keep getting hired on crews?

More on Ligurian cuisine, but they don't have the What's on the Menu page updated for the episode, showing the places he visited. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/liguria-italy-food-genoa/index.html

He dressed younger and wore his hair like an unkempt college kid. Aubrey is a lawyer so even though she's on holiday, she's not just throwing on shorts and t-shirts like he is.

Could be CNN, could be Stanley, could be both. 16 episodes total.