Silver-hyren

I'm going to miss this show. Knowing it's not coming back made the wacky prank hijinks bittersweet.

Do the eliminated teams still run decoy? That adds to the number of vehicles needed.

I think someone upthread mentioned vehicle size. Those jeeps were adorably cute and not big enough to fit four people + camera equipment safely/comfortably. Wouldn't surprise me at all if all the locals were instructed to go easy on the racers. Otherwise there's no way they could ever hope to score 11 points and at some point the racers need to keep going. Either that or have Phil do a Phield Philimination on the teams in order of arrival at the Roadblock.

I'm torn on Marty encouraging Malcolm to use AI to write his paper - seemed both in and out of character. On the one hand, he's a huge nerd that of course would be all over using the shiny new technology. But on the other, he's such a rule follower that it's hard to believe he'd encourage his brother to essentially cheat on an assignment. Glad Malcolm wrote the paper himself in the end, subverting the "dumb jock" looking for an easy out cliche (and he got an A!).

Serena is *really bad* at undercover work.

I mean, Coulter can put a shirt on in the time it takes to blink so . . . I was facepalming so hard when Gollum walked into the office, asked about a client, and Gus just immediately started blurting out all of Victim of the Week's details without at least attempting to confirm this very strange man's identity first. Not sure to what degree Gus' clients expect their privacy to be protected but that just seems like a massive safety issue.

And from a purely banal logistical reason, Rose is pregnant so she has to hide behind tables and computers. My head canon is Sam doesn't leave the manor very often because she sees ghosts everywhere so Jay does all the shopping.

I feel like if this was a normal season, this would have been the Halloween episode. Coulter being so unfazed by the kids' Blair Witch found footage video in the old hospital was hilarious. Though I had to question why he and the detective went back to investigate the scene in the middle of the night. Why not wait until the next morning (except atmosphere)? Really glad they had the info dump ending at the end because I was really confused about what the sister's deal was. Still not entirely sure it all made sense, but the whole episode kept my attention, so that's a plus. What?! Uh, noo!!

I always got the impression Hetty was more impressed with owning the thing rather than actually using it or knowing how it works so it's believable she wouldn't connect the dots that the thing that receives calls can also make them. Layer on her depression and not knowing how to ask for help and her comment about "not knowing it could be used to make calls" becomes even more tragic.

I twigged to it when she casually mentioned accidentally OD'ing. My immediate thought was it was not so accidental. Turns out I was wrong about manner of death. And the well becoming a metaphor for depression - *this* was the amazing writing that's been missing all season long! On a lighter note, the show is really going out of its way to hide Rose's pregnancy - except when it's not. Hidden behind the car door to buried under a fluffy comforter to standing in the middle of the room with nothing blocking her.

Danny said at the beginning of the episode that their plan for the day was to have her do both Roadblocks to knock hers out of the way early and if they do that and survive the Mega Leg they'll win the whole Race. Or something. In previous Mega Legs haven't they stipulated that each team member has to take a Roadblock? The racers were reeeaaly over thinking the race track roadblock, trying so hard to remember the route instead of treating it like a puzzle. It looked like Pilot Guy (I don't know all names) figured it out once he looked at the pieces and that's why he aced it. Totally agree with Yellow Teammate's bafflement seeing the finished puzzle ("Really? That's what you had trouble with??").

I laughed so hard when she walked by the door carrying that huge laundry basket, then next scene she's behind the front desk. If you didn't already know, well, now it's obvious.

That was driving me nuts! That is not what ohm looks like!

Ah, thank you. Granted I wasn't paying much attention but I couldn't understand what the rush to have the baby baptized had to do with the feud over Mandy and Georgie getting married in a Church. Unless there's something about the whole out of wedlock thing, I didn't think her not being baptized would prevent her parents from being married in a church. They're two different sacraments, two different ceremonies. And agree, the spite wedding was the only way to resolve the issue.

At this point I think the only likable character they have is Max, and that's only because she does her best to stay above all the nonsense the rest of the cast gets into. I get that they had to demonstrate for the audience to understand how the victim asphyxiated but Catherine making such a big deal about needing to go look at a sawhorse only to stand beside it while expositing was lame. Bad writing? Bad directing? Both?

I'm very glad they had Beau say who the drag queen was impersonating because I was definitely not getting Dolly Parton. There was no way Josh was getting fired but it strains so much credulity I don't think it'll ever recover. Were they not expecting to get renewed and now faced with the impossible job of writing themselves out of this corner?

When the sister fell and hurt her wrist, I thought for sure it was a way of bringing the doctor back in for a reveal that she was in on the disappearance. So, good job in that red herring I guess, show. All three episodes so far have felt really disjointed. They start off well with the mystery investigation then take some weird turn. It’s like CBS mandated all episodes must end with an action set piece.

Yes he mispronounced it. Margaret gets words and names mixed up all the time, so it was probably to show it's a family trait.

So did they transfer Chuck's personality onto Margaret's husband? Guess that explains why she was so eager for Allison to marry Chuck. Literally groaned at the Love Never Dies reference but also appreciate that by that point they were going all in on the Phantom parallels. This show is always the most fun when it dives feet-first into its silliness.

Anyone else feel like yelling "The dog has a name!!" at the screen repeatedly? I think that was the only complaint I had about this episode. The scene with Sally and Poseidon at the end was heartbreaking and beautiful. Had to go back and rewatch parts of it because it was just so good.

The casino is a modern reinterpretation of the Isle of the Lotus Eaters in the Odyssey. Odysseus and his men end up on and island where the inhabitants live a life of idyl pleasure. They've forgotten who they are because of the lotus flowers they've eaten and so can't/won't ever leave. Casinos are literally designed to keep people inside them playing the games (and losing money). In the book, the kids don't piece that together until after they escape the casino. They find Ferdinand at Medusa's in the book, so there's being faithful to the source material at work there. In terms of the show, it was used for character development. Percy and Annabeth had been fighting all day over petty things. Grover points to Ferdinand to show them there are much bigger things at stake than their egos. After that, they start to warm up to each other and are on much friendlier terms in the next episode. So yes, narratively Ferdinand hasn't had an impact on the plot, but character-wise he has. Also from what I've seen since my original post, Augustus was created for the show. Given that he doesn't remember who he is, they could have gotten away with Grover flat out telling him (and the audience) who he is without it being forced. "Uncle Augustus, don't you remember, you left to find Ferdinand after he didn't return" or something like that.

The first thing I ever saw Timmothy Omundson in was Xena and his character uh set in motion a sequence of events that led to the end of the Greek gods. So seeing him here now playing a god was . . . something. Loved the casting for Ares. He just nailed the petty dangerousness of the character.

So much telling, not enough showing! I seriously feel like chunks of this episode got chopped off. Percy info dumping that Hermes told him about the lotus flowers being pumped into the air of the casino was painful. And when was that supposed to have happened? During the jump cut between the cafe and the main lobby? That's . . . a lot for a little jump cut to handle. But then on the other side of things, Grover recognizes the satyr but it's never explained who he is. He's also searching for Pan, great - but what is he to Grover? Relying on the audience to have read the book to fill in blanks isn't fair either. I have, but it's been years and I don't remember much and didn't want to re-read before watching the series so I could rediscover the story. Overall so far I have to say the show is . . . frustrating.

I was rooting for Jake to win simply because he has to be the worst Survivor player ever. Every move he tried to make blew up spectacularly in his face, he was everyone's target to vote out, and he made a bunch of boneheaded mistakes in the final challenges. Yet despite it all, he made it to F3. Would have loved it if the jury voted for him for the sheer audacity of him getting to the end in spite of himself. Jeff would have been angrier about that outcome than he was when Jake broke his toy at the final IC.

Never read Ulysses but read some other Joyce works. If you have the patience to crack through the dense prose it's very rewarding, but it's hard. After about the third recitation I finally started to understand the two snippets and how they related to each other. Sounds like code for Sales.