Ffiferoo

No, they make themselves look bad. I think despite the gender element that contributed to them ganging up on Shane and him feeling alienated, he probably would have felt just as or nearly as happy to see anyone else, not just other men. Also, I've defended him and I think Alana and Dani were being assholes, but his comments about how men are stronger and it's just a fact were not exactly the best way to relate either. They're all guilty of not communicating effectively. That said, I was very happy for Shane when EJ and Jeff found him, he really needed that boost emotionally. I hope he actually goes ahead and asks them if he can join next week, because I think they felt a little taken aback by his eagerness without actually asking them (and the fact that Alana and Dani will possibly try to do so as well). Glad things went okay with the all-women team and Team Bromance so far. It seems like it'll balance out well for them to bolster their resources and have more variety, and none of them are huge assholes, so that helps too! Loved Luke and Chris doing yoga. I didn't even realize how long they'd been there until they showed that it was day 20 - it's amazing that they're all doing so well with only two tap-outs (one being someone who shouldn't have been there in the first place).

So glad Honora tapped out early on this week so we didn't have to listen to her whine anymore! And good on Chris for finding those things in the water too! It might be editing, but I really am not seeing Shane act so badly toward Alana and Danielle. They seem to be coming off like the assholes here, as far as I'm concerned. I think the biggest problem he has is trying to pre-empt people from thinking negatively about him by telling them about his past, which actually backfires because then they're looking for him to act "crazy" (even though he seems reasonable enough from what they've been showing). I usually don't like it when people who can't sit still get annoyed with partners who want to conserve energy, but I would have been pissed at Alana too for that snare comment - the way she kept saying "if we're going to make snares...", when I wonder whether she planned on actually helping at all or not. The whole group needs to learn how to have respectful conversations with each other! I don't get why EJ and Jeff had to both go for the water to cook their turtle, maybe for light? I saw EJ's second episode that he did with Laura a few weeks ago, and I love how he seemed to refer back to that when he was talking about how they got too cocky and should have had more respect for their meal. I find him so endearing, I hope they can get to a better camp soon and start having more success. Thought it was surprising the way that Dani had felt so isolated with Eva and Laura, who both seem pretty kind and welcoming, but I get her point about having been on her own initially for so long. I'm interested to see what happens with them possibly merging with Luke and Chris soon, although I hope they don't get angry at her for bringing others around. Also I wondered whether she was told not to share who her teammates were with them, or if she chose not to tell them on her own - she did say who the guys were when she got back to the ladies group, so maybe she was just trying to be discreet.

I know that Kail has done shady things in the past, so of course she might be defensive about her phone because she's doing something wrong, but some people do not have the mentality of "why worry about privacy if you have nothing to hide?", myself included. Kail also has two small children who could potentially buy things (on purpose or by accident) surprisingly quickly if her phone is without any security. I know that many people in relationships share their passwords with their partners, and if that's a mutual decision, that's fine, but you don't have to be hiding something to want to keep your phone private. I think it's just as or more likely that she has texts with friends saying things about Javi that she wouldn't want him to see, if anything.

This week was rough. I feel like all of the TM2 girls this season are making the OG girls look super competent in comparison. I don't really ever quit watching shows, but a couple more episodes like this and I'll have to be out on this one, because there is nothing entertaining about watching these kids be continually neglected, disappointed, lied to, and generally exposed to the kind of language and discussions that adults have around them. And knowing that this is how the "adults" behave *with cameras on them* just makes it worse. I work with elementary school kids in a district where a lot of these issues are very prevalent, so sometimes I feel like I'm getting insight into what the type of things they might be going through at home, but it's really upsetting to see it play out. Positives this week for being decent human beings and good parents go to Chelsea, Corey, and Jo (and Randylicious, as usual)! The list keeps getting shorter!

Ugh, Farrah interacting with Simon is extra insufferable, and he is not exactly a gem of a human himself. She was also super over-dressed the whole time he was there, like, it's the middle of the day, wear a sundress? Gary was a shit talking in front of Leah (again) about Amber, and I don't get why Amber and Matt couldn't postpone their night at the weird "romantic" themed hotel until Leah was okay. Catelyn and Tyler leaving the baby with April to go on TV and talk more about how great adoption is, in the midst of all of the issues they've had with BrandonandTheresa this season was more questionable decision-making. Theresa obviously decided for a reason not to bring Carly for the reunion show, and I wonder if she knew that April was going to be there. I know I watched several seasons of Catelyn filming without a kid there, but Maci's stuff is just really boring without Bentley. They are really trying to have the dog stand in for him and it is not working. I'm hoping they (all of them) don't do another season, but I don't know what Maci will do if they go forward - MTV can avoid filming Bentley, but not a newborn. Everyone is awful, basically.

I agree with everyone who is bored by all the talking, but I love the questions! The guy who is on now is a little more entertaining than the first contestant, also. He seems to be having more fun.

I totally agree with all of this, that's just my guess about what she's really worried about. Regardless of her reasoning, acting like it's about Bentley is just a way of trying to make it look like she's on a moral high ground. All of her arguments are full of holes in the context of her own life.

I think why I don't feel that Maci needed to explain herself directly to Farrah is because of the way the initial reaction happened, with the producers deliberately delivering the news on camera to use for the show (and getting the reaction they wanted most from Maci, and using it for every promo). Again, good TV and all, but it *was* shitty that the producers basically ambushed them with the news in hopes of getting a rise out of them. If the other girls and Tyler had anything negative to say, they just managed to hold it together and not say it on camera. Of course it came off as mean when she said that initially, and the repeated further comments and "quitting" drama made it much worse, but Farrah is correct in saying that this has more to do with Maci's own shit than it does with Farrah's life choices. Yes, Maci was being overdramatic and petty about the situation, but I just think that you can express dislike of someone or their actions and still be civil around them in, let's face it, a work environment. I don't recall her ever denying anything she'd said, she just wasn't being outright nasty in person like Farrah was being. Farrah didn't actually want to hear the explanation she asked for anyway, she just said it to get back at Maci. I don't blame her for being upset, but I don't think Farrah's method of dealing with conflict is any more helpful than Maci trying to pretend everything is fine, and she ended up alienating more people. I think Maci's real concern isn't actually about Bentley's classmates, it's about their parents who could potentially mistake her for "the one who did porn" - it wouldn't actually make a difference whether Farrah is on the show now, since people would know about it regardless if they know anything about Teen Mom, but it's obviously way more about her own image than anything Bentley would have to deal with.

Unpopular opinion I guess, but I don't think Farrah's behavior this week was defensible at all. Maci has definitely come off as self-involved and unnecessarily critical of Farrah, and I can get being upset about the comments that were made, but the way Farrah spoke to her was really disgusting. That pretend-sweet relational aggression crap is straight out of middle school and it put me off even more than before. Obviously the porn remains a non-issue, but Farrah's certainly hasn't earned any respect with the rest of her actions. Maybe some people feel that it's better to act that way than to be "fake", but there's such a thing as being polite to people you hate, because it's the mature thing to do. Much as Farrah does not owe anyone an explanation for her life choices, Maci did not owe her an explanation of why she decided to pull back from the show, whether or not it had anything to do with Farrah. I know the producers try to create a lot of these situations because it's good TV, but jeez, people, you're all in it for the money, there's no need to be assholes about it!

I think I may be biased and less skeptical about the circumstances just because I have some married friends with that age difference, and my brother is engaged to someone he met on Twitter, but personally I did not find him creepy. It's true that it's weird for him to have moved in the way that he did, with Amber not even seeming clear that that was his intention, but I just didn't get a bad impression of him. I'm sure he's not the most functional human, but none of them are and it seemed to me like someone who is simply too old to care about Gary and Amber's drama, and who can help put some of it into perspective for her could be a good influence. Like I said though, I could be wrong and he could be awful.

I think Maci probably also is less forgiving of Farrah just because they've had conflict between them in the past. I don't follow any TM people on social media or in tabloids, just watch the shows, but it seems like she (now at least) has good relationships with Amber and Catelynn, so maybe she excuses their behavior more. I want to defend Farrah because her body, career, and parenting choices are her own and she can do what she wants, but it's so hard when everything else about her personality is so aversive! I don't feel bad for Sophia for having a mom who did porn, I feel bad for her for having a crazy family full of assholes.

Does anyone else find it weird how Maci is on the aftershow talking about about whether or not she's actually going to leave the show, when this was clearly filmed months after the episode? If they're going to break the fourth wall on the show, they may as well do it everywhere. Having Farrah back reminds me how much I didn't miss her. Watching her interact with her family is just agonizing, and I feel bad for Sophia. Amber's new guy seems like... a mature adult!? (All they've had to do all along is find someone almost twenty years older!) I'll reserve judgment for a few weeks just in case he ends up being an asshole, but he seems level-headed and able to help her deal with Gary's bullshit.

This felt similar to the situation in the episode earlier this season with Felipe and the guy posing as a woman online who seemed like he may have been in the closet. I got the sense in both cases that they were reluctant to meet up and reveal the truth to a guy who could potentially try to harm them when they found out the truth. The way that Ari insisted on meeting on Catfish, to me, seemed like it was a way she knew would be safe, since Nev and Max and all those cameras would be there. She certainly didn't seem to want to be on TV. I was quite irritated when Jamey asked if they could talk in private and then they kept filming them, just without Nev and Max right next to them. This was obviously a really stressful situation for both of them, and they already didn't seem like the most socially functional people in the first place. Yeesh with those facial piercings though.

I think maybe Tyler's mom, even though she seems level-headed sometimes (because who wouldn't compared to April and Butch...), is still a part of their seemingly family-wide delusion that Carly is a part of their family. She probably isn't discouraging Tyler as much as she arguably should because she wants Carly to be a part of her life as well. I wonder what the effect will be on this dynamic to have the new baby actually present. Either they'll finally start to move on more, or they'll overcompensate and act even more like Carly should be in their lives "for her sister's sake".

I was also surprised that they didn't at least check, but usually kindergarteners have a change of clothes either in their backpacks or kept in the classroom just for these type of emergencies, so I assume they cleaned her up and had her change at school.

Maybe I'm just pessimistic, but that phone call from Theresa did not sound positive at all. Catelynn and Tyler were all psyched about meeting with them, and the way Theresa was talking sounded like they want to meet to talk about reducing contact more. The way she hesitated when they asked about seeing Carly made it even worse. And Tyler continues to act like he and Catelynn are entitled to contact with Carly, like *he's* the one in the position to put his foot down. I know that they were misled a lot by the adoption agency, so it wasn't their fault how things have played out, but it really is about time they changed perspectives on this. Despite seeming more reasonable last week, Catelynn was still talking with their family about *everyone* getting to visit with Carly... Gary, ew. Forget what he said on camera to Amber about his relationship with Kristina, the things he said to Kristina directly were bad enough. The way he told Leah about how the new baby was an accident (did he forget Leah wasn't exactly planned either?) was ridiculous too. Amber did hold it together well while he was breaking the news, but I'm sure it's mostly hard for her because the thing that was still special between her and Gary is now no longer unique to her relationship with him, plus hearing his lovely opinions about why having a kid with someone isn't a reason to marry/stay with them couldn't have helped.

That ALF clue during Game Time was the closest I've come to losing control of the car on my commute home, it was amazing. I tried watching Oz a couple years ago and stopped after three episodes, but this canon submission sounded really good - maybe time to revisit!

I wish they would put together some supercuts for these reunion shows of everyone contradicting themselves all the time. Bananas and Nia were the biggest offenders as far as I can tell, but it seems to be rampant. Mostly it pisses me off to hear Nia trying to call people out on things that she herself did as well. I agree that Jay and Jenna are probably not cut out for The Challenge, but for a person who deliberately quit a challenge a few weeks ago, she has a short memory. Yes, she did well the times she went into the Dome, but there's no denying that Leroy carried her through the season. At least Jay and Jenna seemed to pull pretty equal weight as a team.

I don't know as much about midwives, but doula certification doesn't require any specific medical training, because they are *not* the ones who deliver babies. A doula is really more to support the mother during her pregnancy and labor, which Caroline would know, if she's training as one. I have a friend who is nearly finished with her certification, and it basically consists of attending a workshop for a few days, reading some books, and attending a certain number of births (I think five). I assume that the point was that Caroline and Laird are delusional and misinformed about what they're capable of doing on their own at a home birth. Regarding Jessa's new aspiration to be a therapist, I was reading an article recently that said a lot of substance/alcohol abuse counselors have very little formal training and mostly got into the field because of their own experiences and treatment, so it may be possible for Jessa to realistically get into some kind of counseling job without going to school, necessarily. I do share many people's concern that they're going to handle this like Hannah's "teaching" storyline though.

I flipped out when I saw Sean Maher guest starring and totally missed what happened in the first minute or two of the episode. I love my Firefly alums! Not happy with Kevin here. As soon as he started the conversation about wanting to be honest I was super upset for Patrick, who clearly did not get what Kevin was about to say until way after the audience did. The shot at Patrick's mom was not cool, either. It's fine to be in a non-monogamous relationship, but both people have to be aware of it *before* it stops being monogamous, Kevin! The scene between Dom and Doris was really nice, and I loved Dom and Malik's conversation as well - I'm really looking forward to seeing more of Malik next season, he is super cool, and so sweet talking about Doris. The only thing I didn't like was not enough Eddie. Was that a Mariah Carey shirt he was wearing? Daniel Franzese is the man. I've been re-watching the first season of Queer as Folk, so I found myself comparing it with Looking as I watched tonight. As much as I feel nostalgic love for QaF, Looking is so refreshing in comparison. I'm sure part of it is that this is a current show and QaF doesn't hold up that great in a lot of ways, but when Patrick commented about the neighbor's party being full of only attractive white men, it really drove that feeling home.

I mostly liked this episode, but I wish they hadn't made home birth out to be weird. Obviously Caroline was not taking proper precautions or working with certified professionals, but the real issue (if I heard right, aside from it being breach) was that she was in labor a month and a half early! That would be reason enough to have immediately abandoned the birth plan! I just think they'd all be a little more used to the idea than they seem to have been. Love Shoshanna, and her conversation with Colin Quinn was awesome. I did want her to also get to talk to Ray, but I guess they'll have jumped six months for next season - I'm kind of assuming she'll either be back in the states already or on the brink of coming back by then. The "abigail" office was amazing. Ew, Marnie, ew, Desi, I agree that Ray was speaking for all of us until he started to say nice things about Marnie. He may not be ready to move on, but I am way past ready for him to do so! Hannah once again showed surprising maturity tonight, and I guess I'm kind of interested to see how things are going with her and Fran when we return? He's way too good for her, and they're going to have to drop the dysfunctional substitute teacher bullshit if I'm going to take her seriously at all.

It must be difficult for them to come up with tasks that will be fair for everyone, considering the range of skills and experience among the contestants. It ended up coming down to two relatively similar players as far as education and interests, but I guess they have to account for the possibility that one of the finalists would never have seen that type of puzzle before. I've never done one of those and even with them explaining it I found it somewhat confusing. I agree with everyone who said they should have shown more of the actual tasks - they practically skipped over the logic puzzle and the math problem entirely. If they thought it would be too boring to air, they should have found something else! Disappointed that Kaitlyn didn't make it to the final, but I'm glad that Ben didn't win. I felt like he skated by all season (not that Jonathan didn't), and then he was being a little ridiculous saying he "failed the popularity contest" despite having many of the women fawning all over him all season and having been in the alliance. I'm sure it was uncomfortable having no one pick him, but he certainly didn't have popularity issues throughout the competition.

Loved the Hot Potato challenge, I want to play! I wonder how they're going to have people choose who to back - if they don't require it to be equal, it could get really interesting. I'm curious to see how many cast-offs will back one of the remaining alliance members over Kaitlin. Now that three of the six are in the final, they're outnumbered by non-alliance members.

This completely. Whether they meant it or not, that is some classic relational aggression, acting like they don't get why he might feel ostracized when they're the ones who are responsible for excluding him. The fact that it wasn't even a thought in anyone's mind that *either* Jonathan or Amanda were going in and that Colby was a given as long as they lost the challenge was really fucked up. I only wish Colby had called them out on it and tried to do some campaigning to argue that they should both have to prove themselves. It's clearly not about strategy, it's about who the "secret six" are friends with. Good for Colby for at least making Amanda work for it.

Link may be from a game produced by a Japanese company, but he is not Japanese, and the franchise (Zelda) is one of the best-known worldwide, so it's not only popular in Japan. Link's fictional race is light-skinned, and he has blonde hair and light colored eyes. I highly doubt that they were going for the subtle racist angle, they just missed the mark with information Patrick wouldn't know. Overall as far as the costumes went, I have to agree that many of them were a little too on-point. I know several people who go all out for Halloween (myself included when I have plans), and none of them have costumes that look that nice, like they were purchased at an upscale costume store rather than a place in the mall. Even the wig Agustin was wearing was pretty fancy.