Pepperclove

Yeah April and Drew have been together for quite a while, and she has been on the sidelines watching more often than not. I’m not sure we’ve heard her interviewed in a package before though. And the point about Isaac and his girlfriend is well-taken. Overall I’m happy Drew won. I’ve always liked him, and he’s been the top ninja for a few years - I wouldn’t have liked a fluky winner since then it would be easy to blame the nerfed course. Stage 3 seemed a bit easier than past years but still very challenging. Hopefully they ramp it up next year though because the ninjas are getting better and better.

Just watched this and everyone finishing is even more boring than no one finishing. I started rooting for the poor course to take out someone, anyone. I am amused by the idea of 15 people finishing stage 3 and everything coming down to who can climb a rope 0.1 seconds faster though.

That was one tough course. I suspect only Drew and the top climber guys (Ian Dory, Geoff, an in-shape Isaac) could have gotten through that ninth obstacle. Jessie was close though! If she could have gotten to the top, getting down the other side might have used different enough muscles to be doable (I say this as someone who can’t even do a pull-up, of course). I wonder how much she has practiced that figure four thing or if she learned it on the fly from seeing Dan Yaeger do it. I was really hoping Jessie would make the Power Tower. I think she would have beaten Dan - he looked like he was still suffering the effects of that head injury. If no one wins this year, will it be known as the season of the head injuries? It definitely seems like the course designers could pay a little more attention to safety.

Wow, that episode just changed everything, despite the convenient destruction of the prison at the end. As some people have pointed out, some of the aliens might have survived, depending on their powers (although this being the CW, they'd probably have to be de-aged before they could resurface - I don't think the CW allows people over 40 on their shows). I'm a bit skeptical that this show can pull off a large-scale aliens-and-government-conspiracy plot (I haven't seen the original show or read the books fyi), but I enjoy the show overall - despite the massive plot holes - so I hope it gets renewed and we get to see them try. I thought Michael's utter disbelief and horror on seeing the aliens in cells was one of the few realistic reactions to the unthinkable that we've seen on the show. And him finding and losing his mom all at once was heartbreaking. I mostly bought the emotions between him and Alex. I think Michael has been in love with Alex all along (he started trying to move on when Alex declared them over, but I don't think he got very far). Alex has mostly been trying to deny his feelings, but the idea of Michael leaving the planet seemed to hit him hard and there's no way he would leave Michael to die in that building. That said, after that big emotional moment between them, why on earth would Alex leave Michael alone to go see Max? The scene between Alex and Kyle at the end was excellent, but did Alex really just drop Michael off after such a life-shattering experience like, "You cool? I'm gonna go off with Kyle. I'll call you in a day or two." Seriously, show? If they want to take plot short-cuts, it would be nice if they could do a better job with the characters' emotional reactions. Max pulling his gun on Michael seems like a major violation of the rules of fights between brothers, although I expect that gun to go flying across the room in the next instant. I hope the two manage to talk before either does something unforgivable since they're both missing crucial pieces of information. Also, last episode seemed to be bringing the two closer together again, so it would be kind of emotional whiplash to go to a major schism between them (save that for a future season).

Nice to see great runs by Jessie LaBreck and Barclay Stockett. And Australia was both fun and impressively competitive. I think there’s an asterisk next to the US win though since the European team was nothing like the team that won in the past. Where was Sean McColl? I’m convinced he would win the million dollars every year if he were allowed to compete on the regular US show, and since this year’s stage three seemed even more ridiculously hard than past year’s, I wanted to see him try it.

This show is such a simultaneously weird and cliched mess, but I'm kind of sad that we'll probably never know if the writers had any sort of plan for either the plot or the love quadrangle.

The Broncos put up a good fight, but I think they made some strategic mistakes in the fourth quarter- like not running Freeman when they got the ball back with a three point lead and about five minutes to go. Mahomes is really talented . He reminds me of Aaron Rodgers with his ability to extend plays and gun the ball downfield without setting his feet. The difference in arm strength between him and Keenum is huge. Witten has improved some from the first week, but it still seems like he got the job just for being a former Cowpie, not because of any ability to offer insightful commentary. Did he say anything that wasn't a football cliche?

So far this Thursday night game looks like a Big 12 game. What defense?

I'm half-watching Thursday night football, and the announcers seemed to be openly rooting for Baker Mayfield to replace Tyrod Taylor even before Taylor went out with a possible concussion. Seemed inappropriate to me.

Full credit to Naomi, who played a great match and seems to be an awesome person. Also credit to Serena for being gracious to Naomi. I thought the game penalty was completely inappropriate. Serena was right that many of the men chatter at the umpire without consequences. And as the commentators pointed out afterwards, he didn't even warn Serena that she needed to drop it or face another penalty. Serena is a very passionate person, and that's part of what has made her such a great champion. The whole situation was ugly, obviously, but I think the umpire needs to show restraint and let the players decide a grand slam title.

I agree that was a depressing episode of a show that is usually fun and uplifting (if frustrating at times). Travis's injury, no women advancing and only Flex even managing a good run, and I feel like most of the finishers are people I either don't care for or don't care about. I also wish they'd skipped a couple of the repetitive backstories to show a couple of additional runs, particularly people they haven't shown all season like Josh Levin. Jamie Rahn's shoeless run was fun, though!

Kerber matches up well with Serena, to the extent anyone does. She's such a good defender and so consistent that she makes Serena hit multiple winners to get a point, and today that drew Serena into making way too many errors. Plus I think Kerber had like five unforced errors in the whole match. And Kerber's ability to change the direction on the ball helps keep Serena off balance, and she refuses to give up the baseline, unlike a lot of defenders (like Wozniaki, for example). I think Serena will win the US Open though, especially now. She'll be even more motivated after this match. Also Angie seems like a wonderful, sweet person so congrats to her! She played a great match, and it's a well deserved championship.

Glad Anderson got the win! His fitness trainer deserves a raise given that he just went 13-11 in the fifth with Federer two days ago. What are the odds Nadal and Djokovic finish before the curfew? And will they start that match with the roof closed?

Maybe this match will finally convince Wimbledon to institute a fifth set tiebreaker. If they don't want to do it at 6 all, at least do it at 12 all. This match may never end, and even if it does, there's no way the winner will have anything left for the final.

I guess Virginia really wanted to join Arizona in the highly exclusive 20-point upset loss club. Also, this clearly shows that the ACC is terrible and should not have any teams in the tournament (since that's what people, cough ESPN, have been saying about the PAC-12).