SourK

I think I'm sensing a pattern of one episode good -- one episode not so good. It felt like a lot of filler this time. Octavia being smart enough to sound the fog horn worked a lot better for me than Octavia kidnapping some huge dude and walking into a Grounder camp with him. As others have said, I kept wondering where Abby was. For sure, the most hillarious part was watching them all stand there doing eff-all while that one guy climbed down the cliffside and fell to his death. Seriously, did it not occur to them at all that they should brace the rope? And man, that girl can hang onto a tree branch for a long-ass time. She was already there when they arrived, and then she was there the whole time what's-his-face was climbing down, and the whole time they were making a new rope, and the whole time Bellamy was climbing down... I noticed that her sweater was tied around the branch at one point (maybe to hide a harness or something?) and then it magically untied itself as soon as she hugged Bellamy, and that whole thing was strange to me as well. Also, she was obviously standing with one foot on the ground in some shots. Oh, show.

I think the real lesson here is for Lennox. When you feel self-concious, you shouldn't give up in order to avoid embarrassing yourself. You should get drunk to let your personality show. Everything will probably work out.

I thought Chantelle was very reasonable in explaining to the camera why she doesn't want to be called "Panda" (and, frankly I was surprised that he thought that was okay in the first place), so I'm going to be upset if Yu Tsai says anything other than, "Sorry, I didn't realise it bothered you, but now that I know that, I'll stop." Yeah, it bugs me that she keeps saying the first call-out has "the best photo" when actually the first call-out is partially determined by the challenge score, and therefore might not actually have the best photo. But, even as I say that, I think we're demanding too much accuracy from a woman who says, "You need the boom boom wow" as a way of explaining how to pose for a photo. I think it's a pretty good deal. Nice vacation, plus the opportunity to participate in a bunch of different photo shoots under different conditions. Even if the photo shoots don't result in a campaign, it's more challenging than practicing in your house, and you get more feedback about how you're performing. I wouldn't be surprised if they were allowed to use some of the photos, but, even if they can't "offically" do that, CW put them all on the internet, so it's pretty easy to show someone. Plus, as others have said, you don't have to deal with all the drama of being in the competition. Yeah, I agree. As far as I know, the country is named South Korea so it's not correct to just say "Korea," but it seems to me that I've also heard people call South Korea "Korea" before, so maybe that's how it's commonly referred to. I don't know.

Natalie is the person I'm most interested in watching, so I'm kind of cheering for her by default, but I had this weird moment of cheering for Keith this episode. He's sort of playing the game all by himself, and he looked nervous when his name came up during Tribal, and I was really pulling for him as an underdog for about thirty seconds. I think maybe because he also has damp eyes, it makes me feel sorry for him? Like, "It's okay, Keith! You'll see your son again!" and "It's okay, Keith! You'll have a chance to play your idol!" Otherwise, this is really boring.

Well, this at least explains why the Grounders were afraid of the "Mountain Men" ... which is a plot point I had completely forgotten about. Often, when I watch this show, I start to wonder about its connection to Battlestar Galactica. It's borrowed some of the actors and some of the aesthetic and, this week, it borrowed an imaginary baby plot. Okay. Also, like everyone else, I LOL'd when Octavia came up with a plan to ransom the healer, and there were, like, four archers with a clean shot at her the whole time she was talking. Good job, girl. I sort of wonder if the healer and the leader were actually trying to help Lincoln go free, and that's why they went along with this, but I don't think the show is that smart. As others have said, though, I like the impulse to have Octavia do something besides get carried around and rescued by the male characters. I like to judge The 100 against itself rather than other shows, so, by that standard, the new credits are pretty good, and the second episode of this season was -- although a let-down from the premiere -- about a thousand percent better than the second episode of last season. I'm pulling for this show. I want it to be good.

I wasn't thinking about it that way, but now that I hear you say it, I completely agree.

I'm starting to think Tyra has some weird kind of aphasia that's slowly replacing all of her words with "Boom." Also, I feel like, this season, it's extra-obvious somehow that the judging scale goes from 6-10 in order to create the illusion that the contestants are actually doing well. In reality, a lot of them are just scoring 1-3 on a five-point scale, and that seems like a more accurate reflection of their performance. I liked the funny-looking gloves, but they had nothing to do with condoms or HIV-awareness.

This show airs on Saturdays where I live so I'm late to the thread BUT... Matthew gets more and more attractive each week just through not being an asshole. My favorite moment this week was when he looked right at the interviewer during his confessional and went, "Do I have something I'd like to say about how gay men are treated? Yeah. It's horrible." Or words to that effect. I love him. Also, BOO to Tyra and her weird need to bully 18-19-year-old girls. From what we saw, it seemed like Lenox cooperated with the stupid "teach" -- why is it not called a lesson?? -- for a really long time, in spite of being embarrassed by getting singled out in front of her peers and told that she's not sexy. It was a mistake for her not to realize that it would be coming up in a challenge and practice on her own, but that doesn't mean you need to a) give her a ceremonial 1, b) tell her you're "letting" her stay because Romeo headbutted someone, 3) tell her she doesn't "deserve" a photo, and d) give her some random penalty that you just made up this minute because you hate her guts. That's low. I also don't believe she would have ever gotten a 1 if someone were actually being eliminated. What a cheap shot.

I didn't understand why it was an optical illusion either, but that's what makes it magical. It was the most difficult possible way to take a picture of what, at its best, looked like a person standing upright and, at its worst, looked like a person pretending to stand upright. Last season was just kind of boring and annoying, but this is already one of those special seasons that's so far over the top, across the mountain, and into the valley of Crazyville that I am genuinely riveted. I am so effing stoked to see what fun, creative, artistic way Tyra comes up with to tell people about their racial heritage. (Kari's makeover was so terrible that I honestly expected her to be one of the people who got an emergency do-over. If she lasts more than a couple of weeks, I still expect it). Another fine reason not to fire Mr. Jay. I'm glad that Miss Jay's back, but I'd like the whole set.

I agree in principle -- it's a big retcon to add a part where Lettie Mae was a good mother for five minutes and redeem the character, which makes it kind of annoying, but I somewhat liked this resolution. In real life, people aren't all one way. Even shitty, abusive parents can have moments where they were loving and kind. I think Tara and Lettie Mae finally understood that they were both victims of Tara's father and that, whatever happened after, there was a part of Lettie Mae that had meant well and tried to love Tara, at least in the beginning. I found it kind of touching, but I have a troubled relationship with my own parents, so I freely admit that I brought my own baggage to those scenes. The Violet stuff, more than anything, made me wish this were a better show. I find it really interesting to consider what it would be like if you had people from medieval times hanging around in the present day. When she went on describing all the sick, messed-up ways that she was going to torture them she also mentioned that that was how they used to do it in the old days, and I think you could make such a fascinating show about that idea -- of having people from the distant past, who lived in different (and sometimes harsher) eras stepping out of history like that. But, of course, on True Blood, it doesn't really fit the tone and just seem randomly intense. I did, however, understand her torture chain when she explained it. The ultimate goal was to make Jason suffer, and Jason suffered more if Jessica suffered, and Jessica suffered more if Adilyn suffered, and Adilyn suffered more if Wade suffered, and Wade was just kind of unlucky. I didn't even notice that, but I think this idea makes sense. It would definitely seem like a strange career for them to give her, if she's got nothing to do with the Hep-V story. I agree with this. They put the focus on the wrong character. Nobody really cared about Lettie Mae, and she hijacked one of the major B-plots of the final season. It would have been better if we had had a story about Tara coming to grips with her past where Tara was actually present.

I think, because the sun was about to come up, she let them chill out all day so that Jessica couldn't sense where they were, and then she waited to scare them until she was rested. Her plan still seems dumb for other reasons, though, so it's not like I'm defending her. And change her clothes! I understand needing a minute to yourself to process the situation and decide what you want to do, but it does seem like she hung around for a really long time before deciding that she urgently needed to be with Bill. I forgot about this last week, but wasn't there also some dialogue about how he would have to take their special taxi service if he left in the middle of the day, because he wouldn't be able to drive his own car?

This was frustrating. I want to see the end of the stories they inched forward this week. I want to know what happens to Adilyn. I want Sarah Newlin's blood to cure Eric. I want those crazy drug addicts to finish digging up the yard. I want Bill to meet the true death (that's not specific to this season). Now that Grandpa Fairy told us that the point of Bill's flashbacks is how every single thing that ever happens is a miracle, maybe we'll stop watching them? Or maybe the secret to curing Bill somehow has to do with his human descendants.

The first time I ever liked Violet was when she kidnapped those dumb kids and took them to her secret eating place. I mean hiding place. I'm pretty sure Sarah Newlin's wig wasn't seated properly during some of her scenes. It looked like I could see her natural hairline. I still think she's hilarious though -- the flashback to her scarfing down all of the cure, and her presentation, like, "See? It's a miracle!" The special effects in the scene were Eric and Pam started to roast were not very good, but it resolves my confusion about whether these other people are vampires, too (they're not). I've always hated it when True Blood tries to use vampirism as a metaphor for being LGBT, because it's such an imperfect comparison (gay people don't want to kill you, for instance). I hate this HIV story, too. I get it, True Blood. Bill's dying of AIDS and he can't leave his shit to his partner because gay people don't have rights. You're coming across loud and clear. Now, be quiet. It's not a good analogy.

So... it looked to me like the pointless "challenge" was scored by having each judge decide which dish was better, with the better dish getting a 9 and the worse dish getting an 8 (unless they were equal and scored the same). The only reason to pretend it was actually done on a 10-point scale seems to be convincing us that the food was so amazing. Also, I didn't record it so I can't go back and see -- when they walked into the hotel room and Gordon was waiting to surprise them, did Jason say "Who's that woman?" I watched this episode because I felt obligated after watching all the other ones. I think part of why the last episode is boring -- aside from the fact that it's Scott and Jason this time -- is that they reverse the narrative they've been feeding us all season. Most of Hell's Kitchen is about telling us why these people suck (even if that's mean), but the final episode is about convincing us that they're suddenly both amazing so that there's tension about who will win (and so that you don't feel like the winner sucks). The same thing happens on a lot of competitive shows. For the first 3/4 of the season, it's like, "Jesus, you guys are all awful" and then right at the very end, it's like, "I don't know how we can choose between such amazing competitors!" How, indeed.

I've always liked Sarah Newlin. Maybe I just enjoy Anna Camp, but I find the character funny. Also, I think maybe the first scene from this episode was out of sequence, and moved from somewhere in the previous episode? Lafayette was talking like this was the first time he'd seen Sookie since Alcide died -- in fact, he says he came straight over as soon as he heard -- and that seems wrong. On the other hand, I don't remember exactly when Sookie had that ugly tee-shirt on, so it could be in proper sequence and just not make sense. That's entirely possible, too. THIS. True Blood often has these scenes where they try to say something that should be meaningful, but they mess up the context so much that it doesn't make sense anymore. Like, yeah, I agree that Lafayette should be a person with needs and feelings and not just a sassy black gay friend for the other characters but... he should also understand why Jessica would be upset in the two minutes after she finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her. Like, she's not holding James prisoner. He could break up with her, too. I did not know that about officers, but I found the whole set-up really weird and uncomfortable, too. Partly because it seemed like the show was unnecessarily -- and somewhat unrealistically -- trying to push the idea that Bill was a great guy for some reason. It's like they suddenly hate the idea that he fought for the south during the Civil War, so they're trying to impress upon us that he really, really didn't want to, and I don't know what purpose it can possibly serve at this point. (And, yes, the underground railroad-y scene was the strangest and worst).

Well, of all the possible combinations, Scott/Jason is the F2 I was least interested in seeing, so boo. Scott's a kiss-ass, but he's the lessor of two evils, I guess, so go Scott. As someone said upthread, I think/hope that maybe Jason made it through instead of Rochelle because Scott's been chosen the winner and there's no chance Jason will do better than Scott. I was going to say that Jason shouldn't win what is, in theory, a job where he would be supervising people, because he's all screamy and profane, but then I remembered what show I was watching. (And his management style was surprisingly laid-back given how hard he flips out on a regular day). They're really pushing Chef Andi as a character this season. I've noticed it for a while -- it's not just that she gets all this time talking to the contestants and stuff, but a lot of the shots are set up so that Andi's in the frame with the contestants and/or Gordon while James is not. I like her, so I'm not complaining, but it seems like they're trying to emphasize her more. Maybe one day Gordon will retire and Andi will scream at everyone to carry on his legacy.

I think it would be hard to keep perspective once you were on the show. I remember Penn Jillette giving all of these interviews after he was on Celebrity Apprentice, where he said that, going in, you think you can hold yourself at a distance from it and remember that it's just a gameshow, but once you're there, all you do every day is film the gameshow, and you're sequestered in a hotel with the other contestants and you're not sleeping, and you're working really long hours, and the show becomes your whole life, and you start to get really emotional about stuff you shouldn't care about. (I'm paraphrasing, obviously.) I feel like that would be true, though. Like, when people go to summer camp and, after they've been there a few days, the drama happening at summer camp means EVERYTHING, regardless of how little bearing it has on their lives before and after. I think the longer you last on the show, the harder it would be to keep perspective on what's happening, and the more you would buy into the show's values and narratives. At least, I think that's what would happen to me. I noticed that, too. When Kashia was there she used to mutter from time to time that she was tired of getting yelled at, too. IIRC, there was at least one time when GR heard her and asked what she said, and she told him "nothing." I think either something about this season is worse or more stressful than usual (doesn't have to be GR; could just be the general stress level is higher and people tolerate him less because of that) -- or, it could be that this group of contestants has been talking amongst themselves about how badly he treats them, which makes them feel emboldened to speak up in the kitchen. Hard to say.

Eh. I think people are allowed to quit reality shows, if they want to. While I realize that the producers have sunk a lot of money into the show and they don't want people to just drop out, it always annoys me when they do the "Quitters are the Worst" edit. The pep-talk they had Chef Andi give her annoyed me, too. It seemed like it was more about defending the show and making her feel guilty than anything else. As I remember it, there was a period of time where Melanie and Jason were calling out times and Joy wasn't acknowledging them or calling out her own time for when her dish would be ready. Gordon got frustrated and asked her how long it was going to be, which she might have interperted as him asking her to hurry up. She called out and said it would just be a second, and then she said she was walking, and he flipped out because she didn't wait for Jason to come with the garnish. It's not clear why she went quiet for so long, but, once he went all screamy, it was over.

Not that I'm interested in arguing that anything on this show makes sense, but I was willing to go along with this one based on character motivations. Jessica wants to protect Adilyn, but I think part of that is not wanting Adilyn to feel terrorized as she was when Jessica killed her sisters. So, even if, theoretically, she should be safe from the Hep V vamp if she doesn't let him in the house and stays away from the windows, she would still be scared and alone with him, so Jessica wouldn't want to abandon her. I'm willing to accept that Jessica is emotionally invested enough that she would stay as long as there's a predator in the yard, but YMMV.

Word to that. I found it really creepy and incestuous when that happened last season -- and then I blocked it out of my brain, only to find it creepy and incestuous again when they showed it in the recap. I'm really glad that's done. Yeah. In a certain sense, I wasn't surprised when that happend, because it was like The Final Insult after years of coming up with shitty plotlines for that character. I thought, at first, that they were building to a joke where she would finish her big speech and everyone would still be thinking "eff her" or whatever, but then it cut out as though the idea that Sookie wants to be helpful is, in itself, a shocking cliff-hanger... which -- I don't know -- maybe it is.

I was not expecting it to be good, so there's no disappointment from me. My random guess is that Tara actually died but will come back as a ghost to talk to Lafayette (because, remember when he used to talk to ghosts?). I kind of liked the scene where Pam and that dude were playing russian roulette -- the buckets were a nice touch; the dialogue was a little heavy-handed, but, for this show, not too bad. I also kind of liked the stuff with Jessica and that Natalie Portman-looking fairy girl. I did not remember who James was even supposed to be, because that's how little I cared about him last season.

Another awesome moment that I loved: Gabriel saying he wanted to make his dish "resemble Christmas," and then Ramsay somehow giving him a zero, in a game that ranks you 1-5, and not letting anyone else vote before he walked away in shame. I forgot about that, but Jason's reaction to Paul was also hilarious. Firstly, because Paul obviously didn't remember him, and Jason kept awkwardly trying to bring up the fact that they knew each other. And then secondly, because he was like, "It's nice to see Paul again" to Paul's face, and the immediately in the talking head he's like, "Pauls an *****" in such a matter of fact way. "He was an ***** in season [whatever], and he's an ***** now." I love it! Oh, for sure, it was completely and utterly fake, but that's what makes it so hilarious to me. He called a fake press conference, so he could bask in the fake glow of fake attention, while he waxed rhapsodic about his shitty calendar. Wiki says he was pulled for medical reasons right before the first service of his season. I don't know, but she looked uncomfortable to be there, and I love that they immediately cut to a talking head of Keisha (IIRC) saying how great it was to have real food critics tasting their cooking. I wonder who decided to invite the Yelp lady on the show. I am poor and a vegetarian, so I have no idea what people normally pay for good cuts of meat, but I've only ever eaten one restaurant dish that was over $20, and it was, like, the best meal of my life. I have a hard time believing all of those were worth between $20-$30, but the price system did make it less obvious who was going to win each round.

I always dislike the episodes with no dinner service, but I have to admit, I was laughing out loud at Gordon Ramsay making such a huge deal out of his stupid calendar, and such a huge deal out of what an honour it was to be included, etc, etc. Then, when it turned out that everyone made a sucky dish, and he was swearing and hitting the jackets, and palming his face -- it's, like, the best non-service episode ever. I'm actually curious to see how this resolves. The editing would lead me to believe that Joy will actually have an okay dish after all this, and the problem will be solved in thirty seconds at the start of the next episode, but it will be so funny if she doesn't.

I think Jason is happy that someone on his team is good at service. :) I like Chef Andi about a million times more than I like Anton, but I call shennanigans on that argument. From what we were shown in the kitchen, the worst he did was not seem very contrite when she told him off about the ovens -- it really seemed to be like the producers told her to be more of a hard-ass to create tension. Plus, the talking head we saw of Anton calling her "some little girl" I'm 99% sure came from an earlier episode where he was either talking about Melanie or one of the other female contestants. It doesn't make him look good, no matter who he's talking about, but I don't think that particular soundbite was even about Andi. I see the point you're making -- no one stands out as being a great chef -- but I withhold judgement about their abilities in real life. The show pushes them pretty hard so that their performance will be more dramatic -- you make a lot more mistakes when you're constantly sleep-deprived and isolated from your social support network. I think that's a good way of looking at her decision. It didn't occur to me to do the math that way, but, yeah -- either you're going to be on the team with two good chefs, or you're going to be alone, so you choose the team with two good chefs, no matter which team it is. I think Melanie is probably somewhere in the middle as a chef, but she looks really good compared to the worse competitors. Also, I do think she and Joy were the leaders on the red team -- if leadership is defined by convincing people to follow you, then Melanie lead a lot, because we watched her make decisions and, even if not everyone agreed, they seemed to back down and do what she wanted. Joy is a more populist leader -- she's the one who's always giving people pep-talks and saying, "We can do this! Let's bounce back!" I think, among this group, they're two of the strongest chefs, and two of the strongest leaders, so I would be okay with a Joy/Melanie final two.

Jumped over here from the 13th episode thread; just finished watching the season. I really liked Vee as a character -- I think it's one of the most realistic depictions of a sociopath that I've seen on TV, and Lorraine Toussaint has so much presence and commitment as an actor that I couldn't look away from her when she was on screen. It really worked, since Vee was supposed to have a magnetic, superficial charm that drew people close to her, even when their instincts should be telling them to run. I liked most of the A-story in general, even though I think Vee and her attempts to form a gang maybe belong on a different (and better) show. I've never been a big fan of the flashbacks, and I wasn't thrilled to have so many of them this time. Cindy's seemed like the most realistic to me, but I found most of them pretty heavy-handed. Also, I feel like the only person on the internet who thinks Kate Mulgrew is not doing a very good accent. Am I the only person who thinks that?