Bryce Lynch

So "typical guys" have sexist tendencies and chauvinistic views? I don't know, but that comment sounds sort of sexist and chauvinistic to me. :) Worrying about your wife and wishing you could protect her is not the least bit sexist, even if she is a cop. Don't wives of police officers worry about their husbands when they are on patrol?

Just because Baylor (who is very young) has so far allowed her mother to take the lead, it doesn't mean she is an entitled, spoiled, immature child. Also, I think Baylor was actually convinced that her mother's strategy was the best for them (and I agree). Her issue was that, while she knew what she had to do, she didn't really have the heart to "let down" Josh. Missy told her to be strong and do what she needed to do. Within the alternate reality of Survivor, where lying, breaking promises and manipulating people is part of the game and not considered morally wrong, it was good parenting, IMHO. It also doesn't make a whole lot of sense, at this point, for any of the loved ones to go against one another. It would be pretty stupid for Baylor to blindside her mother, for no other reason than to prove to the TV audience that she is "independent" of her. As for the work around camp, in the clips I saw Keith and especially Alec were very bossy and rude towards her. Most people don't respond at all well to that type of demand, especially when the person making the demand has no legitimate authority over them. I tend to think that if Jeremy politely said, "Baylor, can you come help me gather some firewood?" her reaction would have been different.

If having higher standards for decency and common courtesy is "regressing as a society", here's hoping our society "regresses" a whole lot more. I think some of people have odd ideas about what "feminism" (a term I don't believe there is a clear, accepted definition for) and chauvinism. My idea of "feminism" is that society should not put artificial limitations on women. If a woman can do it, without special allowances being made, she should be allowed to do it. It should also mean that women who choose to embrace more traditional gender roles should be free to do that as well. At the same time, we should acknowledge that there are differences between men and generally speaking (though there any many exceptions) men and women tend to enjoy and be offended by different things. Having differences doesn't mean one gender is "better" than the other, just different. Men (in general) might enjoy fart and belching contests (though I don't) more than women, while women might enjoy shoe shopping a bit more. There is nothing wrong with that, and acknowledging it is not being "sexist" by being a "realist". I can't believe that people are "offended" by Jeremy showing RESPECT for women, by not carrying on like a fraternity animal and for wanting to protect his wife. If ANYONE whether male or female, has a spouse who does not have a strong instinct to protect them, I feel sorry for that person. Human beings naturally want to protect those they really love, regardless of how strong they know their loved ones are.

IIRC, when Baylor went up against her Mom, Missy head butted her in the face. Whether it was intentional or not, it seemed like the other contestants and Probst saw it as a cheap shot and seemed shocked by it. Even Missy seemed to feel guilty about it, which I think, combined with Baylor's anger, helped Baylor beat her.

I am not a big fan or hater of Baylor, but when has she shown herself to be an "entitled, manipulative, spoiled brat". If anything she hasn't been manipulative enough to play Survivor, as she felt a misguided sense of loyalty to Josh and couldn't really lie to him the past couple of episodes, when it would have helped her game and her alliance. (Makes her a better person than Survivor player in my book). The moronic males (Keith, Wes, and Alec) in the camp claim she isn't pulling her weight, but I'm not sure I'd take their word on that. Is she really lying around doing nothing or is she not jumping up quickly enough when Alec commands her to take out his personal trash?

I didn't like Missy at all, but the last couple of weeks she is growing on me a little. I agree that Keith's comment was outrageous. So, Keith would give his 20 year old daughter "a whoopin", for not doing enough work around camp? If that happened Wes would go to jail...to visit his Dad.

When Jon got back from EI he put his arm around Jaclyn and whispered "I have the idol" in her ear. Big mistake! :)

As to why Josh rather than Alec was voted off, I think it was because he was clearly the head of the alliance and a much bigger threat than Alec. Cutting off the head of Alec's alliance punishes him while being better strategy at the same time.

Good job by Jaclyn getting the "power couple" to make the best strategic decision and punish the rude idiots in the camp at the same time. Her comment about thinking long term being stupid sounded dumb, but was actually true. a) She was correct that Josh's alliance had more men who have done well in challenges that they would need to complete with. You can't win FTC if you don't make it to FTC. b) The idea that Jeremy would be unbeatable at FTC because of his "story" of being a fireman struggling to get by is absurd. First, I would probably take the financial future of a cop and fireman couple, with their job security, pension and benefits over that of a couple of "successful Broadway guys" whose careers could be over next week. More importantly, the jury generally votes based upon who played the best and who didn't betray or offend them. Jon acts as if FTC is a contest to convince the jury you have had the roughest life, like George Costanza and the Andrea Dorea survivor fighting over the apartment.

I was sort of expecting the NEL since we hadn't had one in a while and because the detour with the 4 person limit at one task, and the rather subjective nature of the painting task seemed a bit unfair. That said, I was nervous for Adam and Bethany and wished they had used the Express Pass as soon as they realized it was going to be close. It would be a shame to needlessly go home with the Express Pass in their amazing fanny pack. Glad the scientists missing out on the painting helped rather than hurt them. When they showed the vulture circling Maya over the go kart task, I thought it might be foreshadowing their doom. :-) I am sort of starting to like Brooke or at least get laughs out of the way she is so whiney and defeatist yet generally so competent at the tasks as she whines through them. The surfers and the scientists are my favorites, but the dentists are growing on me and I wouldn't mind if the wrestlers won too. Tim and Tee Jay I could take or leave, though they have been surprisingly consistent and solid on tasks, despite not being the physically strongest team. The only team I really dislike are the cyclists.

I really dislike the cyclists. They are typical NYC liberal, hipsters who think they are so nice, cool and "open minded", and accuse everyone who dares to have different views and different likes from their own as being "mean", "square" and "judgmental". Their "funner than thou" attitude really grates on me. Jim and Misti, while competitive and intense, seem like a nice, active, fun loving couple. Just because Jim's idea of "fun" might not be dancing around all night, when you have a grueling race for a million dollars in the morning, it doesn't mean you are "no fun". Jim and Misti (especially Jim) appear to be having as much fun as any team, and have been clearly enjoying the travel and competition and admiring the views along the way. Their comments about the cyclists (something like "we don't love them as much as we love the other teams", were far kinder and less judgmental than Kim (I refuse to spell it with a "y" LOL) and Alli's about them. I found the cyclists comments and windshield drawing to be mean spirited and childish. Imagine if Jim had drawn a picture mocking another team?

I don't necessarily take anyone's word on anything, but for all his faults, I don't see Rocker as a particularly dishonest person. His history is more of getting in trouble for not hiding what he is thinking or feeling very well. .

I agree, having 2 people with immunity, and one of them (Keith) also having a HII in his pocket could make for a lot of scrambling and strategy, both before and during the TC. I'm guessing this is what will happen, not because it is in the rules, or because it is necessarily the most fair approach (debatable, IMO), but because it would make for the best television.

Good question, though there are no teams anymore. You could argue that he deserves a TC with immunity for winning the challenge. It could also be argued that he didn't face elimination and Julie is now gone and he doesn't get to keep it. If they do let him keep it, would they do an immunity challenge and have Keith and the winner BOTH have immunity? That could be fun and really shake things up. Keith also has a HII, right? He could really pull a power play at the next TC if one his allies wins and he controls 2 immunity idols himself.

I thought in the past they would have a TC even after a quitter left. Could have something to do with the TV schedule. Maybe, based upon how they scheduled the episodes, they would be short an episode if they had 2 eliminations this week?

Great point about the bag search. What if they had found an immunity idol in her bag? Would that be fair game to steal? Even if they couldn't steal it, she would have lost the element of surprise with it, which is a huge part of the value of a HII. Couldn't they have waited until she returned, confronted her and demand to see the contents of her bag? If she refused, they would know she was probably hoarding the trail mix. As I said before, I really wish we had more information about whether she was really "hoarding" or "stealing" food, or if she had wisely saved some of her fair share, rather than scarfing it down like hogs, like the rest of the tribe.

I enjoyed Jeremy mocking himself for losing to the old guy, Mom, etc. It made him a bit more likable. Doing so poorly in the immunity challenge could actually help him, as other might see him of less of a threat than they originally thought and not look to vote him out so quickly.

I hated Missy less in this episode. At least she was playing the game and playing strategically, rather than emotionally and convincing Baylor to do the same. Jon is really annoying. He makes so many loud, unfunny comments, that he thinks are funny, can't seem to choose a side, and rambles on about them being a "power couple". Being a "power couple" or "deciding vote" after a merge doesn't mean you are anything special. It means that, so far, you haven't played the game well enough to form any solid alliances. Josh is also very annoying. He seems to be very condescending ("successful Broadway guys") and have a sense of entitlement. I also agree him saying he "saved Baylor's life" was ridiculous. Jeremy is somewhat similar to him, but he at least seems to mainly confine his obnoxious comments to the confessionals. As for the trail mix scandal, I wish they had further explored Julie's claim that everyone else had scarfed down their leftovers from the feast, while she put her's aside. If that was true, it would put the "hoarding" in an entirely different light. I don't like quitters, but I can understand why she did it. She was never going to win and hanging around a suffering a week or so more to be somebody's "number" wasn't really in her interest. I don't really like anyone very much this season. At this point, I am probably rooting for Keith, Wes and to my great surprise, Natalie, who I hated on TAR. I sincerely hope this is the last "Blood vs. Water" as I think the gimmick stinks. I barely watched the last B v W as it was incredibly boring. This season is a bit more interesting, but none of the castaways are very likable.

The episode was very good, especially the interaction between Kira and her Cardassian "father", but I never bought the idea that they could pull off the imposter scheme. Even if they could implant the real Kira's memories into the Cardy agent, and somehow restore her real ones later (dubious at best), I can't see how a species with such a different physiology could impersonate another species for so long without being discovered. I would think that it would be obvious both to Kira and the father that is was a hoax.

I am a "Twinny Hater" and I was impressed by Natalie volunteering for exile. She is much less annoying when she is not screaming back and forth with her sister (or John Rocker).

Jim did not sneer "pretentiously", he sneered sincerely. :) If anyone was being pretentious it was Maya. If Maya hadn't downplayed the stench and praised it as "culture", I doubt Jim would have commented at all. Maya was going out of her way to be overly tactful and Jim was blunt. I didn't have a problem with either of their comments If there is ever an AR task where the racers have to clean out my septic tank and one of them says it smells like "s..t", I will certainly not be offended.

Jim bears some responsibility for not reading the one hand instruction in the clue, but I still think it was mainly on Misti. Jim did his job by pouring correctly. It was her job to hold the tray properly. That said, you'd think after the fiasco at the sandwich shop, after the first couple of times they were told they did the tea task incorrectly, and the problem was not obvious to them, they would have immediately and carefully reread the clue.

Jim's calm exterior covering his seething interior seems to be cracking a bit over the last couple of episodes, but he is still pretty much keeping it together. He really did show amazing patience with Misti, who two weeks in a row, caused them to hemorrhage time by not reading the lousy clues! I like Misti a lot, but she was I believe she was the only one to neglect to give the sandwich numbers in that challenge and hold the tea tray with 2 hands. Most spouses would have erupted after the second screw up, but Jim remained supportive of Misti.

In just about any nation there are amazing, beautiful places and stinky, ugly places. Pretending that one of the stinky, ugly places is beautiful isn't a virtue IMHO. Plus, several of the other racers commented on the stench and some either vomited or were gagging on the verge of vomiting.

Well said. I really like Maya, but in some ways her comment could be seen as a condescending version of the "ugly American". Sort of like saying "Morocco smells, but it's their culture." The fact was they were probably in one of the smelliest if not THE smelliest place in Morocco. I'm sure the Moroccans hate the smell as well, though the workers there might have become somewhat used to it over the years. I agree that she seemed to be going out of her way to not look like the "ugly American". Being honest, courteous and tactful, would seem to be the best way to go. The other possibility is that she is blessed with a poor sense of smell.