WearyTraveler

I hated Simon. I thought they took it too far. I watched almost all of Without a Trace, and Anthony fine in it. Must have been a director/script thing with Simon. I liked Gertrude as the annoying mother. But also thought she had overstayed her welcome

To me, it made perfect sense for Ricard. He knew Shan was in the African American alliance of 4 and he was a fifth only as a number. He knew the 4 were gunning for anyone that was not them, as in the tribal councils after the merge they have been picking off everyone else and threw down the names of people they were supposedly working with (e.g. Naseer). They have got rid of Tiffany, Evvie, and Naseer, and have thrown out Xander, Erika and Heather's names more than once. Clearly, the writing was on the wall for Ricard to read: if he voted with the 4, Xander, Erika and Heather would have been picked off one by one; then, it would have been his turn to go. I'm pretty sure Shan was probably betting on that scenario. If Ricard hadn't gone to DeShawn with his plan, then one of Erika, Xander or Heather would have been voted out, and then he wouldn't have had the numbers to vote out Shan. He had to strike while the iron was hot. The iron being DeShawn being pissed off that Shan "betrayed" him. If he waits, who knows what new advantage or idol would be thrown out there that the 4 could take advantage of, or if Shan gets paranoid, or sniffs a plot against her and plays her idol to save herself? As it was, she was trusting that because she warned Ricard about the threat against him, he would still vote with her, and she was pretty convinced she was not a target. That's the best time to strike. Now Ricard can go from being a fifth wheel in a strong alliance of 4 with the certainty he would be voted out at final 5 TC to potentially having an alliance of 4 for himself with Xander, Heather and Erika against an alliance of 3 with DeShawn, Danny and Liana. Erika and Heather, who have been at the bottom of their tribe and alliances since the very beginning, can now vote off strong players like Danny and DeShawn, if they want to. And Erika can now claim she had a hand in orchestrating Shan's ousting, as can Ricard. As I see it, the bottom players just managed to become the top players, and all because two alpha personalities like Shan and DeShawn were too proud and paranoid to trust each other. DeShawn was right that Ricard is a threat, but he could have waited to put his name down a little while longer. But he couldn't trust Shan, and Shan didn't trust him or anyone else that didn't do what she wanted them to do, so, there you have it.

Yes, I think so too! They thought she ran away from all the responsibility of being a mom (perhaps even a teenage mom?), but it will turn out she didn't.

The way I understand it is that she went to the motel. After taking a shower she found the champagne and strawberries, which she consumed. One of them was drugged, as was implied by her wonky behaviour after she ingested them. Next time we see her she wakes up and discovers the door had no handle on the inside, which indicates, to me, that she was moved when she was asleep to a room that is a replica of the hotel room, or at least close enough for someone coming out of a drugged haze to mistake it for the hotel room. The missing handle would be something a person notices when they first enter a room. I think the killer either has a deal with the hotel owner, or he gave her one of those rape drugs that keeps a victim conscious but makes them forget everything that happened while they were under the influence. In that case, the killer could have walked out of the hotel with the victim with people assuming she was going of her own free will. With all the references to missing women, specially from the tribe people and with this girl being a runaway herself, I think we will find out that the killer has been doing this kind of stuff with runaways for a while, and since they are runaways, it's easier to hide the serial nature of it. Even people looking for these girls/women, might not be able to find out they ended up in a small town in upstate NY. I don't know how common that is, but it's plausible a runway teenager travels north to make it to Canada. The tribe girls that go missing could be also dubbed as runaways. It wouldn't be the first time a police department mistakenly classifies a missing teen as a runway, and it's probably more common that this mistake happens to girls from a minority population, specially if running away has been an occurrence in the past. ------------ For those asking, DNA is destroyed by fire, so, no DNA can be extracted from ashes. In rare cases when a body has been burnt, DNA can still be extracted from bones or teeth, but only if the fire didn't reach or completely burn the bone or tooth. Burnt skin might also be a source, but again, only if the deeper layers were not burnt. If the sample turned to actual ash, then no DNA can be obtained from it

I think I have one of those faces! Strangers on the bus, subway, planes tell me the most incredible things. Once there was a lady I sat next to in a train ride, who told me the entire story of how her son was a drug addict and was spending time in a detox facility, and all the anguish that was causing her and her family. Never met her before, have never seen her again. Whenever I remember this, I find myself hoping that family found a way to get through it and came out ok. And that's only one of the stories I've heard. There are quite a few others I could tell, but that's neither here nor there 😆

Well, sometimes people find the need to rediscover/transmit their culture later in life. I had a colleague who is Jewish but wasn't practicing much when I met him. A couple of years later he was very keen on keeping kosher and observing the Shabbat. It happens.

I tend to agree. This is where Australian Survivor is better, IMO. They manage to blindside people and surprise the audience, and you never see people scrambling like crazy and having full blown conferences in the middle of tribal. Plus, you could see who was voting with whom, your alliances are totally outed. People will remember that Erika ran to the group with Danny and Deshawn, for example, so if she was hoping to forge an alliance with the people she basically saved from tribal or even to play double agent for the group she trusts (still baffled she does not seem to realize she's at the bottom of that group), she can't do it now. It's stupid. People should have gone to tribal with a plan A and a plan B, and maybe a plan C. "First option is all votes on Evvie", if Liana is not successful at stealing the idol, then all votes on X, or we split the vote. Then one person can say "Plan B it is", and those in his/her alliance will now what that means without having to reveal who is allied with whom. That said, I did enjoy that Liana's advantage fizzled. I hope Xander was paying attention because when he had the idol everyone in his tribe was basically gunning for him and stabbing him in the back. Evvie in particular, although Evvie did seem to realize how misplaced her trust was when Xander just up and offered to play the idol for her. I also have to give props to Tiffany (who I haven't really liked that much so far) for following Xander's wishes and stating that the idol was not hers to play. And, Riccard is growing on me. I was actually pleased he won the immunity challenge XD

I binged the first 6 episodes, so I am not sure, 3 or 4, maybe? Perhaps searching the PTV recaps for Erika's name will yield you an answer.

That, and then she also pitched voting out Daniel to DeShawn (sp?). I think she pitched it to the same person too, so, they see her as someone who started to stir the pot when there was no need yet for pot-stirring, as they were winning every challenge at the time

Taraji has been on two long running and very popular TV shows: Person of Interest and Empire. I liked her in both but I stopped watching Empire after the 2nd season because it was getting too Dinasty for my taste. Taraji was great in both. She has also done movies, but I don't recall what they were and I'm too lazy to look them up. I thought she did as good a job as a guest job as others have. At least she wasn't snarky or rude.

Way back in season 1, they were. LOL. But, they have to keep upping the ante as time goes by, or the show would get stale for the regular viewers. I watch an embarrassing amount of true crime shows (so much so, that I can recognise the cases when two different shows do it at different times), and from what I can tell, there are some really devious, sophisticated killers out there who have almost gotten away with it. But, yeah, the norm is simple killers, with simple motives who are not half as clever as they think they are.

Maybe her podcasts are not about murders she committed herself, but I do like the theory that she committed the Bunny murder to frame our trio because she didn't want more competition and could tell that these guys were good and gaining listeners. She wouldn't be the first person who thinks they can commit a murder because they know a lot about crime and how investigations are conducted.

Makes perfect sense. It's Schroedinger's Grissom!!!

When I was a business consultant, I had the chance to see the FBI pull up to a government office to execute a warrant and to take some people into custody. It wasn't related to the project I was working on, but it was in the same building. Later, in a totally unrelated matter, my ex-boyfriend had to go through a security clearance check for a job and the company hired to do that had ex-FBI agents doing the job. One of them asked me for an interview and even though it was in an informal setting (coffee shop), it felt really intimidating. It does something to you when you see/interact with these guys. My friends call me goody-two-shoes because I am such a stickler for following the rules and respecting the law, and even I felt apprehensive in the presence of the FBI

I particularly liked the loud stapling of documents after Linda, fully power tripping, made that woman in the first episode go back and staple a document she had delivered with a clip saying: "around here we use staples" 😆

I couldn't fine one clip with the entire sequence, but I was able to find two clips that overlap. You can see how the argument started, the slaps and the nose pulling in the first one. The second one has the nose pulling and the conversation that came after, where they talk about how hard the slapping was

Just watched a clip on YouTube and there are like 5 or 6 reciprocal slaps. One time, after Diane tells Sam not to slap her, he's actually the one to slap first

It was weird because Diane slaps him first and he slaps her back in like a nanosecond, as if it were a reflex reaction. She slaps him again twice, IIRC, and both times he slaps her back, and that's when they turn to the nose pulling which was clearly intended to be the funny part as it makes them progressively get lower and lower until they end up on the floor. After that is when they had the conversation and she decides to leave. It's uncomfortable because it's a comedy and we sort of want to laugh but the face-slapping is not a laughing matter, but the nose pulling totally is. I don't know, it was kind of heavy for the type of comedy that Cheers had been up to that point

That's precisely why I think it would not be well received in this day and age. By making it "funny", they are sort of diminishing the impact. I didn't remember this scene when I started my re-watch and Sam slapping Diane made me actually jump back. I get what they were trying to do and they did manage to make me smile when the physical comedy turned to them pulling each other's noses. But, a slap in the face is just so much more serious. And this was probably not the only show to trivialise it by making it a "funny" thing. In a drama it's different because when we see face-slapping of any kind (female to male, male to female, female to female, male to male, etc.), the characters react in what is (generally speaking) a realistic way according to the character's traits, personalities, backstory, etc. So, an abused spouse is traumatized but keeps it secret, an assertive romantic partners breaks it off and calls the police, etc.; there are consequences to such behavior. Not so in a comedy, and that's what makes it tricky. The characters don't suffer any consequences for it and that can be interpreted as condoning the behavior, or trivialising a serious issue. If a TV comedy today had a tall, ex-athlete, strong male character face-slap a shorter, wafer-thin, smaller female character, the social media storm would be so epic the show would be cancelled pretty soon after that, I'd guess. _______________ In other unrelated experiences: I was a college student in Wellesley, MA when the finale aired, and I actually was in the audience, outside the "original" location in Boston during the finale. So, I got to watch it in the big screens they had set up for the occasion outside the bar. It was quite an experience. I don't think many shows before them had done a finale live viewing party like that.

Love this series and just finished a full re-watch. Holds up well, except for two fight scenes where Sam actually slaps women (one with Diane where they slap each other several times, and one with Rebecca where she is drunk at Woody's in-laws because she thought she was going to be a guest/date of Woody's father in law and ended up being the bartender). I don't think those scenes would be very well received in current times. I've seen it mentioned several times that Sam and Diane were the first TV couple to use the "will they?/won't they?" device, but this is not true. There are several examples of this trope (also known as Unresolved Sexual Tension) in earlier TV shows: I Dream of Jeannie (1965): Jeannie & Major Nelson Get Smart (1965): Maxwell & #99 (Fun Cheers related fact: Barbara Feldon, who played #99 and was a popular sex symbol of the 60s because of this role, played the Valentine mystery date that Sam meets in a cabin every year in the episode where they don't have sex because Sam threw his back out and they talk about getting older) Star Trek: The Original Series (1966): Captain Kirk & Yeoman Janice Rand Mork & Mindy (1978): Mork & Mindy Remington Steele (1982): Remington Steele & Laura Holt Those are ones that I remember off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are others. What had not been invented/created at the time these shows aired was the term "TV Trope". So the trope itself did not have a name, but it existed.

As I understand it, game show regulations in the UK and Australia, are even more stringent than in the US

I think game show regulations would prohibit that, but, off course, there's no way to know unless someone associated with the production blabs

Of the other players left, I don't think any of them has the resume to go against George or Haley. IMO, Wai is the one with the weakest resume; she hasn't pulled any big moves since parting ways with George way back at the beginning and that was because his game was too chaotic for her tastes, which is not, IMO, a game valid reason. She obviously likes and excels at the puzzles, but she has not made any noteworthy strategic moves, and she has only been a follower rather than a leader. Andrew and Hayley have pretty much controlled her vote throughout the game, and even George exerted some control when he told her that Andrew was proposing her name and she believed him. Flick has also been pretty much the same in terms of big moves, more a follower of whoever controlled the Brawn tribe/alliance than a leader proposing strategic moves. She is above Wai because her physical strength could keep her in the competition if the next immunity challenges are a test of strength/endurance. Cara hasn't made any big moves on her own, but she has followed George's lead and managed to keep herself in the game. That said, she did demonstrate enough wit and strategy when she was sent to Brawn on her own and managed to use her social game to outlast other Brawn players in a tribe full of Brawns. Physically, she's not a big threat, but she's not too shabby either. She has held her own in physical challenges and she has never come dead last or given up. Physically, she can certainly beat Wai and George. Then again, anyone can physically outlast Wai and George. I think George and Haley are smart enough to know that they need to take a less accomplished player through to ensure their win. Hayley will probably aim to bring Wai with her, and George will aim to bring Cara with him. It doesn't make any sense for either of them to betray their staunchest allies at this point in the game. So, it will now be the battle of George vs. Hayley to win Flick's vote and for the next tribal Council, at least, Flick will have all the power. She also has to play that immunity idol in the next Council or lose it and that gives her even more power. If she uses it wisely, and she manages to win the next immunity challenges, she might be able to get herself to the finale. For the next tribal council, she can approach the Hayley-Wai duo to take out George first and Cara second, or the George-Cara duo to take out Hayley first and Wai second. Either way she will be at the bottom of the final 3 and will have to rely on winning immunity to get to final 2. If Hayley and George are smart enough, they will use Flick's vote to take out their strongest opponent and then turn on her to end up with two players weaker than Flick in the final 3 (Wai and Cara). So Hayley-Wai would use Flick to get rid of George, then join with Cara to get rid of Flick. And George-Cara would use Flick to get rid of Hayley, and then join with Wai to blindside Flick. The only way Flick can avoid these outcomes is if she wins immunity for the vote after next's tribal. For the next tribal, she's not in danger, as she will be the swing vote in the George vs. Hayley war. It's unfortunate for her that she has to use the hidden immunity idol next tribal, otherwise, she could have kept it for the following tribal and assured herself the final 3. Flick has a chance to play some mind games by revealing her idol to any of the duo's that will be asking for her vote in the next tribal and thus build her resume up. But I'm not sure that will be enough to topple George or Hayley's game. George can be annoying, specially when he waxes poetic about what a great politician (read manipulator, and in George's head, puppet master, most likely) he is, but I can not deny him that he has played an excellent game. His only major blunder, was at the beginning, when he used that advantage without even telling the beneficiaries of it about it, thinking that would make him a hero in their eyes and that he would have an automatic alliance because of it. Instead, they saw right through him and were pissed off at his attempt to manipulate them. He should have gone to those people first and let them in on the plan, so that they would feel that it was their play too. But George wanted early glory and his plan backfired so fast, and so hard, that he was at the bottom of his tribe until merge. The only reason they didn't vote him off then was because they thought someone so hated wouldn't get too far, anyway. He fought really hard to stay in the game with a target on his back most of the time, so, that I respect. But as so many other politicians, he needs to learn to keep his big mouth shut sometimes (ha, ha!) Finally, there is one more element to consider, and that is the unpredictability of the game itself. It's very likely they will throw an unexpected wrench into the mix to stir things up like they did with the "save" urns, and "the first three to complete the challenge are safe", and so on. There may even be some hidden advantage to be discovered before the next tribal that could help George or Hayley save themselves from the other's sights. Next week will certainly be very interesting.

At this point, the only people that deserve to win, IMO, are George and Hayley, both of whom have played really smart games. If they both end up pitching their games to the jury, it will be a tough and suspenseful decision. Will the jury forget the many Hayley betrayals? After all, she has flipped more times than George, who only really flipped alliances after merge when the Brawn were picking off brains one by one. And that was something the Brawn saw coming because everyone there knew George and Cara were at the bottom of that alliance. I think the jury would understand/forgive that before they'd forgive Hayley's many flips and flops. It's unfortunate for her. The only time I thought she was making a mistake was when she openly blew up George's spy role. She didn't need to do that at all. The Brawn had already figured out that George and/or Cara had to be the ones betraying them. Had she kept quiet and tried to work out a plan with George, they might have pulled off reversing the tide of "Brawn strong" before she was at serious risk. (To be continued)

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