Rodney

The teams have landed in Hong Kong and are beginning the first leg proper. The first stop: Lantau Island.

Leg one is Hong Kong!

Wrong. Five women's teams, four coed teams.

And the one move that he tried to make he nearly blew to smithereens by thinking that he had to tell Maria about it. He got very lucky that Maria got cocky and didn't buy what he said.

Honestly, I give Q's blindside to Kenzie and Liz a lot more than Charlie since they actually did what they could to soothe Q into thinking that he was safe enough to not play his idol. I actually give it to Charlie the least for overthinking the whole thing and nearly ruining the blindside by telling Maria about it. I think that his playing the middle and working at both sides is going to come back to bite him if he keeps this up.

I get that people hate Liz, but she does have something. She has Tevin's blindside under her belt. Now, Ben, OTOH? Definitely has nothing.

Honestly, I think that this last episode didn't look good for Charlie. It was important to blindside Maria and Q, but instead, Charlie went and ruined the blindside, and he almost got his ass voted out in the process. If Q had played that idol, then he would've. They gave the full credit to Kenzie (and, to a lesser extent, Liz) for knowing the importance of keeping it quiet. I actually think that Charlie wanting to keep so many options open to himself is actually going to kill him more than help him, which would be a first.

Five -- Jem, Hunter, Tiffany, Venus, and Q. And the latter four were all in a row.

What gets me is that Q said that he was playing the idol no matter what, depending on who lost between himself and Maria. Kenzie and Liz must've really made him feel comfortable enough not to play it.

It is. Venus broke it last week. Q was just the icing on the cake.

Jem, Hunter, Tiffany, Venus, and now Q. FIVE hidden Immunity Idols go out in the pockets of their holders! Wow! Oh, well! At least Q is gone!

Part of me is hoping that, just because it's Q, we're heading for pocket idol number five.

They don't start taping seasons till the summer. Of course they're not ready now.

We're losing a fall season of TAR for it. Stupid CBS.

The first part is kind of contradictory. She does blame herself (rightfully so) for being too coy with Charlie and not playing her idol . . . but also blames him for her ouster? The second part, as harsh as this is going to sound, I do agree with, though. I've never seen Maria willing to work long-term with any woman this season. Jem and Moriah don't count due to the ease with which she flipped on them to vote out the former. She seems to like surrounding herself with men. She's like Elie and Karla from 43, in a way -- claiming to want to work with women, and then flipping on them on a dime and voting them out.

I have to call foul. While it's good to see a set for Salem High for the first time in well over a decade, they can't possibly be going to school on a Sunday. It's apparently still Mother's Day in Salem?! Really?!

All the mentions of not only Clyde but Goldman make think that whenever he's caught, she's going to be, too. But the old ones to whom she did anything really horrible were Tripp and Wendy, and until they return, I don't see the point of having her resurface. I guess that maybe Steve and Ava could confront her about Tripp, but that's about it.

I can actually see Nicole admitting that it's probably karma for the whole thing with Sydney. But she's still going to be mad at E.J.

At least two characters did at the time. John and Abigail, in different conversations, pointed out that Victor and Xander playing God triggered Kristen in the first place. So yes, they were responsible, as well. Indirectly, but as they got the ball rolling for that, yes, in the grand scheme of things, Haley's blood is a much on their hands as it is on Kristen's.

I'm thinking that that's what happens. But more than anything, editing-wise, I think that Kenzie wins for another reason. Yes, people who watch the show think that Charlie has played the best game, because he seems to be socially in with everybody. However, it doesn't totally match up with what we're seeing others think about him. Kenzie gave that confessional wondering what else Charlie's done, and that has me wondering who else has been wondering that? Even if Charlie's playing a good social game, that might be all he's playing. His whole edit has been about riding the middle of votes, but ultimately picking sides based on where Maria seems to want to go. Really, he and Maria have been in lockstep in their decisions, but as Kenzie pointed out, every decision is looking like just Maria's, not his. And Charlie, despite saying all of the right things, has made no real move to diverge his path from hers. He had a chance to in this last episode, but Venus inadvertently spooked him out of it. And it might be the same thing that happens this time, too.

I doubt that she'd give it to a pre-merge/pre-jury boot.

Things with Jack went belly-up, he and Chanel don't talk regularly, I'll give you Gwen, though at the time she left, they were on decent terms, Chad is okay with him professionally, but we don't know about them personally, so no go there. And Bonnie and Justin aren't around enough. Not enough to convince me.

Assuming that "SMM" is "Sister Mary Moira," what did Kristen ever do to her? Or Edmund, for that matter? "DA Lady" is Melinda. And you might as well add her daughter, Haley, to that list, since, accidental or not, she did kill her (even if I do consider that more Xander and Victor's fault since their actions did get the ball rolling for that one). Sarah should be on that list, too, for the near-year she spent on that DiMera island, courtesy of Kristen. Steve and Abigail, as well.

Not "certain." Just two.

If that's what you want to believe. I don't and never believe that this will stick.