shura

Ah, now I see. Thank you for taking the time to analyze and break down who voted for whom. I could not figure out what strategy would be reasonable with a U-turn when you have cannot possibly know who is behind you. Reading this, though, it makes total sense that it depends on one's aspirations in the leg. If you feel confident that you are strong enough to be safe from elimination and hopinig for first place in the leg, you vote for your competition for the win. If you feel that you have been circling the drain and want to make sure you survive the leg, you vote for your competition in the race to stay alive. (And then there are Joel and Garrett thinking they are voting for their competition in the finale. Finale?!) Loved Todd's description of the judge's actions at the Roadblock. "He stamps this giant X on the prints that do not pass, then he goes away and you think the rest are good - but no, he just needs more paint for the X!"

Also, showing their true colors usually means that “they” have been pretending to be something they are not, but now we see who they really are. I don’t think anyone had been pretending that they would never do anything Steve and Anna Leigh would find upsetting, had they? The colors you see now are the colors everyone has been showing all along, really. Points to Steve for referencing the Pinta, the Niña and the Santa Maria. And I don’t really have a problem with Anna Leigh. She got upset unnecessarily, but I thought she was civil enough about it when she was talking to people at the peacock task. Frankly, I find it rather bland when there is no drama at all. I loved Liam and Yeremi’s easygoing attitude. Sure, our driver is totally not the driver we need to have a chance to win anything, but we are not going to be all Anna Leigh about it. We will be positive, joke about it and just enjoy the experience. I love people who keep things in perspective and have that kind of sense of humor. If TAR does another second-chance edition (or whatever they call it, I forget), I’d love to see these two again.

My favorite part was that Morgan claimed that she “was only trying to help” and got all upset that she was nearly stabbed in return. How is placing your face near the needle helpful exactly? I am glad she didn’t lose an eye there. You really should be aware that nobody expects your face to be that close to the sewing and they are not going to be watching out for your safety. Although I must say, it kind of looked like Lena did make an extra effort to throw her needle-holding hand waaaay out there during that particular stitch.

Is there a reason there are just a handful of slightly different unique tile among thousands of identical ones at that temple? Is one supposed to walk around looking for them while contemplating something, is that normal practice there rather than just a TAR ask? Every time someone found their tile and ran off to get the judge, I was thinking I hope you remember where it is and can find it again. “I think it’s that way?..”

Come to think of it, if keeping fresh eggs unrefrigerated were a problem that led to spoilage, would any chick hatch out of them after weeks of being kept warm by the hen (or duck or whatever)?

Yeah, I am not sure 90 minutes is working for me. I understand the point that it allows us to get to know the teams better and enjoy more details of a challenge instead of just being given an short summary of things, but I felt like watching the teams do the same thing at the lotus task for a good 40 minutes was a little extreme. And that’s when we have 12 different teams. Now imagine that we are spending 40 minutes to watch a task when only four teams remain. Followed by a 15-minute coverage of a taxi ride. I have never heard the word “pomelo” stressed on the second syllable, only the first. The teams pronounced it both ways though. Cool task, I liked the imagery of all those pomelos bobbing around in canals.

You are right, the “winner” of the vote can be ahead of you, of course. I was just thinking that you may want them to be behind you - if they are ahead, slowing them down might not help you survive the leg. Just thinking about what I would base my U-turn vote on if I had to vote.

That would be pretty interesting, I like it. Who would one vote for? You could U-turn the team that’s been the strongest so far - but chances are that a U-turn won’t eliminate them nor help you avoid being eliminated. Or you could vote for the weakest team hoping that they will be behind you when they get to the U-turn and that will increase your safety cushion. No guarantee that they won’t be ahead of you in any particular leg though. Or you could just spite a team you don’t like, for no strategic reason. The only thing is, this voting U-turn opens a new possibility of alliances against someone, which might be ugly.

I saw the ""TY" at the end of that letter string and my mind goes "Sea of Tranquility! Wait, that's on the Moon..." Right? You'd think one would need a sense of urgency to be on TAR, and discussing for 5 minutes who is going to do the challenge is not it. They didn't seem like serious people, between this and the way they went to attempt the sword dance after clearly not learning enough during practice. But it would have been entertaining to watch them for a few episodes. I am not sure about the 90-minute episodes, it could become tedious to watch when there are fewer teams left. I suppose they have all the footage already and feel that it won't be a problem. Also, how exactly is the voting on the U-turn going to work? You can only U-turn a team that is behind you, right? (meaning that only a team that gets to the U-turn later can be forced to do it.) Are the teams going to have an idea of who is behind them or are they going to vote blind and inadvertently try to U-turn teams that are ahead? And wouldn't the results of this voting only be known after the last team gets to the U-turn? About Thai massage, is it safe for everybody? I am quite convinced my body cannot bend that way without breaking or spraining something. The father and son have the friendliest faces ever. Very bright-eyed, open and smiley. When they look at you (well, at the camera, but you see them looking at you), you feel that they are super happy to see you and cant' wait to know what you have to say.

This is very true. I have met quite a few Germans (enough to start thinking about stereotyping) who were not shy at all about speaking up about things they don’t like, in situations where a typical American would consider it impolite to bring it up or at least would phrase it in a much softer way. So yes, I agree that he would fit right in in that regard. But the other part of Sheldon’s personality, his disregard for what others want and his insistence that what he wants is more important, is not going to fly there. Nobody likes that.

I don't thinthey have to explain it. They asked for an independent DNA test, and Dan and Kelly confessed to committing fraud. It should be enough for an investigation, even if Jay said he had some evidence and now is not willing to explain where he got it, shouldn't it? Dan really needs to be punished more severely than with a "get out of my house." It's not really necessary to set up an actor's potential exit (that may or may not happen) like that. They can always film the same scene for the first episode of the next season when they know they need it. I think it has to be more of a planned plot development for the next season than a "just in case we lose a cast member over the summer." I'm sure they are aware. At the same time, I cannot help but take Isaac's line "if Sam doesn't give us the guest room, I will tell her she is being homophobic. It gets things done" as a pushback on the idea that one shouldn't do something just because they might be accused of being homophobic. It's a very interesting line, quite a social commentary, really. Another interesting line was Flower's "Not every conversation has to make sense." It made me think about the discussions about why some posters like to analyze things and point out inconsistencies in TV shows, while others say they just watch TV to relax and it doesn't matter to them whether the writers did not think things through. I am not trying to start an argument, just saying I liked getting food for thought like that. I wonder if the writers meant anything by it, like trying to claim the right to write things that don't have to make sense?

Well, he acts like an entitled and inconsiderate jerk. I doubt very much the Germans are going to love him.

Sorry, I didn't phase that clearly. I meant that Hetty's son's relationship with Earl was ending, not that he was the one ending it. I guess Earl (he wasn't her manager, just her boyfriend? my mistake) must be bisexual if both Thomas and Alberta had a relashionship with him. It's just that none of this - Earl's bisexuality, Thomas' relationship with him, etc. - had been introduced previously, so I didn't find it gasp-worthy. It felt like a totally random resolution of Alberta's murder that we had no way of figuring out for ourselves. So that Alberta's sister could tell him to pay his taxes. If you think about Al Capone's story in this episode, it's going to fall apart. Ok, fine, it's not completely impossible that a drunk Al Capone would decide to off himself right then and there when a woman rejected him. But deciding to do it by going to the basement and getting rat poison there? How does he know where to look for the rat poison at a mansion where he is attending a party? Was he Thomas' close friend and knew what's where at the mansion? Would Thomas himself even know where his staff keeps rat poison? I don't know, I would have enjoyed it more if they had written something more thought-out.

Meh, the episode didn’t work for me. It felt like the writers themselves were forced at the last moment to wrap up the storyline in one single episode, so they had to cram everything in. Including things completely out of left field like Al Capone being in love with Alberta and wanting to kill himself, or Hetty’s son’s ending relationship with Alberta’s manager who was not gay. And then we find out that Alberta has been suffering so much from not knowing who murdered her that she absolutely cannot forgive Hetty for not telling her earlier. While it is in Alberta’s character to react to something this way, I don’t think we have seen any sign that this has been such a burden for her. She didn’t even know she had been murdered up until a year ago and then she kept waltzing around all excited about it (like when Nancy congratulated her on the Al Capone revelation).

In the world of the show he does, I don’t know about real life. He had a Halloween party on the same night Sam and Jay had theirs.

Oh, I have no doubt there are people there who would want to spend unreasonable amounts of money in a "destination restaurant." The question is only whether there are enough of them within driving distance to sustain a restaurant like that. Because if you have to make it an overnight trip to partake in the experience, then the restaurant better have a reputation that is way more of a must than Sippr's "visit them before they go out of business." Until they develop such reputation, they might be just wasting money running the restaurant. Well, it's Mark's money, I suppose. Maybe he did his market research. They already have Liam Neeson, he had a movie about ghosts at some point.

That’s actually not such a bad deal. She is not really someone you want to be around all the time, personality-wise. Twenty minutes into the episode and no sign of Sas, I was starting to get worried. But they made up for it with Thor’s acting like Sas never had a girlfriend and is making it up. That was hilarious. Can it be a successful restaurant though? How far out in the wilderness are they exactly? Blue Hill at Stone Barns is right outside of NYC, so it is easily within reach of all the hipsters willing to pay $400 per meal (plus drinks or $90 BYOB corkage fee, plus tax and 22% administrative fee). Would Jay’s restaurant have clientele like that?

Yeah, I felt the same way. He's not a bad person at all, just a bit off the deep end, at least as far as Alberta is concerned (though I admit I can't get past the toenail thing). A bit? The guy is just this side of Misery. She probably looked more normal than Todd until she met the object of her obsession. I really hope Todd never succeeds at cloning Alberta. Did Nigel have time to really room with Thor in the TV room? If he just spent a part of the day there, then Thor probably didn't realize that NIgel was now his roommate and not just someone watching all those reality shows with him. Hetty's remarks to Nigel may have been something that was supposed to be discreet and just between them, something the rest of the group did not really hear. I admit, I didn't gasp at the great-grandma Reese reveal, but that's probably because I had never heard of her before. Alicia probably should have been more shocked. To add to the missteps, it was off for Pete not to know what kind of app Alicia and Jay were talking about, not after they all witnessed the Trevor-Bela romance. And then to start explaining to Sam that dinner is the most romatic kind of date where people eat indoors etc.

You cannot give in to a blackmailer, Hetty. It won’t work. He will only come back for more. What was with all the urgency about “codblocking” Todd? The guy has a certain tattoo on his back, his relationship with Alicia can only go so far, even if she doesn’t pick up on the rest of his weirdness on her own.

For all we know, she pulled them over for erratic driving and then Missy spilled the beans as soon as she rolled down the window. The cop never said that she was looking for them specifically. ”At least none of my kids stole my truck or had a baby out of wedlock.” Right, your kid only stole your credit card and almost went to Hawaii. As far as babies, check back in a few years. No Cooper had a baby at 13 either. Sheldon really needed to be told to shut up more often when he was younger. Now it’s too late.

That doesn’t sound right. It would make Sam a stalker who keeps reading other people’s correspondence not intended for her, which might actually be illegal. I hope the show didn’t write it this way. On the other hand, it’s not clear exactly why Pete’s daughter would start sending her family newsletter to a woman she met only once, no matter how nice or respectful of her father Sam was. Feels like a family newsletter should be for closer friends than that. I completely missed Jay’s line acknowledging to the Menu Hunter that made lamb chops even though she had come to try the chicken. I thought he writers dropped the ball there, but no, those people know what they are doing. I guess Trevor’s plan to get Jay in the same mindset didn’t work after all. “He also wrote a rock opera and finished an adult coloring book.” Boy, did I misunderstand the adult coloring book part… “Jay is making a port wine reduction.” - “Uh, bro, it’s a demi-glace.” - “It was a demi-glace, and then he added port wine, bro. Keep up!” I bet Sass absorbs absolutely everything he hears and he knows all about the Special Relationship, and probably about modern medicine too.

Both Sam and Pete are too gullible though. They are the kind of people who would totally buy Apple gift cards to send to the IRS and to the boss who is stuck in a meeting. I guess that is why "the boys in the home office" chose to scam them this way here. It is an interesting point about what the ghosts would or wouldn't know about things that happened after they died. They didn't get removed from the world, they were still around to see and hear things. I am sure they read every newspaper that happened to be read by someone in the house. New ghosts with more recent knowledge to share have joined them with time. Now they watch all kinds of TV and can learn everything there is to know about the modern world. And yet the show does use it as a plot device that they died before something happened and so they don't know about it. Like the time Sam had to tell Isaac that the US and Britain are not enemies anymore. I'm sure Isaac would have picked up on that during the last two hundred years. Especially considering that she was coming to try the chicken her friend had told her about. Jay must be an amazing chef to cook chicken like that.

What happened was, Brenda suggested they go to her place, George said nothing, she said she shouldn’t have said that, and he had a heart attack. I suppose this can be described as discussing going home together, but at the same time, it doesn’t have to be described that way. I do believe George when he says that nothing has happened between him and Brenda. On a different note, how awesome is Georgie? That man is a rock. Btw, why are they calling the baby Ceecee? Is that short for Constance Cooper? Did they make her last name Copper and not McAllister after all?

Yeah, I did not buy that. First, Little Pete has an emergency and is rushed to the hospital, and his family immediately emails… Sam? I don’t think so. Second, there is modern medicine, just hearing that someone is in the ER is no reason to go and sell your soul to the devil. And third, I was not convinced that Elias would be somehow authorized to accept that kind of deal from Pete and make assurances anyway. I do agree though, most zooms and in-person meetings can absolutely be handled via email.

That’s not what happened though. Let’s go to Instant Replay (courtesy of TV Show Transcripts): Mary: I would miss having you around, but I think you need to follow your heart. Rob: What if my heart doesn't know what it wants? Mary: I don't know. Pick a different organ. Rob: Mary Cooper! Mary: Oh, grow up. ( laughs ) That's not what I meant. ( snickers )