KerleyQ

I was happy with the outcome. Cara and Jamie pretty much dominated everything but the puzzle (and, even as a math nerd, I can't imagine having to sit there and think about that puzzle when you're all sleep-deprived, dehydrated, and just plain exhausted). I agree with those who say Cara should probably stay home, at least for a while. She may have finally gotten her win, but this season seemed to break her in a lot of ways, judging by the reunion (I'll get more into that in that thread). The eating challenge didn't seem as bad as some previous eating challenges. I mean, I'm not going to sit down and order any of that for dinner any time soon, but they've had MUCH worse in the past. And, geez, Jenna, it's soup, just tip it back and swallow. If you don't let it hang around in your mouth too long, you won't get too much of the taste. Just chug it back and be done. Jamie was awesome on this one. Everyone else is whining and he's just powering through. Oh, and I don't buy for a second that Jenna didn't know exactly what she was saying when she talked about her lack of gag reflex and swallowing sausages. That standing there overnight is sadistic. I cracked up when the workers came down and were telling TJ they had to leave. I don't know how they didn't just all collapse into a heap on the ground right there in Olympic Stadium, after the results were announced, and take a 12 hour nap.

John's 55 suits cracked me up. Who does that? I go back and forth on Nattie. I think I like her when she's not neck deep in whatever "wacky hijinx" story the show has cooked up for her. I think she genuinely cares about these other girls, especially Brie and Nikki. And I can appreciate her wanting to help Mandy, but not wanting to waste her time if Mandy is just going to be another Eva. Foxy was just a straight up bitch to Rosa (and I generally prefer Foxy to Rosa on this show). Telling Rosa she's being selfish was ridiculous. The whole baby party was about what Foxy and Paige wanted. Throw yourselves a ghost princess Halloween or birthday party, ladies, and try to make this about the guest of honor. Or, if you can't do that, then back out all together, and let someone like Brie throw the damn shower. (You know Brie would be completely into that.)

So much rage watching that scene. So much rage. I still maintain that Morgan's issue is not that he's bipolar, it's that he's a frat-bro douchetool. "Aw, baby, I was just going to sleep with her to make sure I could get it up for you. Isn't it romantic?"

The overly dramatic "Katie Takes a Drink!" music was hilarious. It was like she was grabbing a gun.

Bringing on Liz's mother would be an actual genuine story for Liz, too. Because there are going to be issues there. Her parents dumped her off as a teen to stay with Audrey, and, as far as we can tell, they didn't even bother to make an etiquette based "hey, sorry your kid died" call when Jake was believed dead. There's story to be told there if the show was willing to tell it.

Mo's always seemed very invested in Sonny "winning" to me.

I don't think anyone is saying it's KeMo's fault that there's such a difference. That clearly lies at the feet of the EP and writers who have decided, over the years, to keep building up family for the kidnapping accomplice. But, I think it's only natural to compare the two main female characters in that age range, who seem to be permanently tied together in some way. Add in that both had a parent we had never met, and it's pretty easy to make the comparisons. Basically, the kidnapping accomplice is part of the mob bunch. As such, much like Sonny, she will have characters who exist because they're part of her family unit. I highly doubt NLG would have gotten a love interest with the amount of time devoted to the pairing that she's gotten with Julian if she hadn't been made her mom. She got WdV because the kidnapping accomplice needed her father to be created. (And NLG and WdV had enough chemistry at that point that the writers gave in and went with it.) Since Liz is part of the hospital group, she isn't "important enough" to round out her family. Her importance is solely as a prop to whatever story the show needs some antagonist or victim for. When people look at the two characters - same age range, some of the same shared love interests, similar fan bases, etc... - and they look at the story possibilities that are embraced for one and ignored for the other, they're going to make the comparison. The fault for those differences lies with the show runners, absolutely, but the comparison is pretty natural. It would be like comparing Maxie and Lulu - same age range, tied together over the years.

When Carly mentioned that she donated to Shriner's after Spencer's stay there, I couldn't help wondering how her bond to Spencer exists. Is it because he's Sonny's nephew? Or a lingering bond from that time the beast kidnapped him as a baby by lying about his paternity?

God bless you for including the Johnny Bananas Backpack clip. I don't care how many times I see it, I will enjoy it just as much each and every time.

It's probably just a charitable partnership the show has agreed to with them.

I seem to recall there was at least one instance in the clips John showed where more than one person was trying to vote at the same desk. So, in that case, it didn't seem like it was a situation where one person had asked a colleague to cast a vote for them, but more of them taking advantage of an unmanned desk to cast another vote for "their side."

So you weren't swooning when the hired killer asked his stalker-ish best friend, the mob moll, to watch her fellow mob moll, the kidnapping accomplice, for him? I'm just picturing the staff at Shriners going "another one from GH in Port Charles? The last kid they transferred here was an entitled little asshole." Can it involve her drunkenly informing the local cops a couple towns over from me "I'm famous!"?

They definitely should have gone with Nolan. He would have been so much better.

The only part of that Mo would probably object to is that he didn't get to do it with SBu's Jason.

I assume Sonny admits he was wrong about something.

What a petulant little child. Way to accept your award with dignity, asshat. Does he think TG is sitting somewhere in Amsterdam all "oh, shit, he told me!"?

I don't know about that. Natalie was largely the Liz to McBain's Jason on that show. When she did finally get a real love interest of her own who fans loved, they killed him off. And, even outside of the love stories, she was always the "lesser twin" to Jessica. So, playing Liz would be like a comfortable shoe for MA. "OK, you're here to play plot point prop for other characters' stories, and if you get involved in a pairing that the fans like or that has potential to move you out of the periphery of the guy we want your character always pining for, we'll kill that bastard off."

I'd like that. They never know who is going to show up from one challenge to the next, and there are a lot of ways they can go with exactly how they work that format (in terms of the missions themselves and eliminations after). If, say, you're doing an Exes or Rivals type format, where the cast is on teams of 2, then you could bring in a team of two old timers, and the cast is all competing to beat their time (or their count if it's a mission measured in that way). Every team who doesn't perform better than the old timers is eligible to be voted into elimination (so the only way to remain safe is to beat the old timers). Maybe the old timers get to pick one team, and the cast gets to vote in the other team. Even better if the cast doesn't find out who the old timers have voted in until right when they're voting, so there's no time for the cast to plan and manipulate to get the exact result they want.

Which seems just incredibly petty and juvenile.

Not to get too off topic, but the worst was when, on GH, Jax was kidnapped and forced to have sex with his female captor to protect his family. His wife essentially viewed it as cheating, and she and her male BFF laughed at the idea of Jax being raped by a woman. It was so very, very gross. I swear, all three soaps I watch (this, GH, and Y&R) are at points where it's sometimes really hard to figure out why I'm hanging in there. I guess I'm hanging in for TK's return and Detective Hard-on here. Also, is Ivy just really and truly gone now?

Was Zay around in season 1? I thought he didn't appear until season 2.

I prefer doing a Fresh Meat season to bringing in AYTO kids just because of the odds that we'll find more interesting people. With a FM season, we get a bigger pool of newbies (upping the odds that we'll find a few that end up being "keepers"), and those newbies are all paired with returning cast members, so we have a little more reason to be interested in them right out of the gate. With most formats of this show, any AYTO people brought in will likely be contained to each other (Rivals, Exes, Seasons), or grouped in with a bunch of other relative newbies (Rookies vs. Veterans). If they're not tied to someone we're already interested in, it makes it that much more difficult for them to catch our interest.

I always knew Liz would be the one thrown under the bus. The men never pay on this show (unless they are Sonny opponents). And the first time they had Nik/Hayden interacting, it was pretty clear that Nik was going to come out of this all with a new bed mate, while Liz would be the one who lost.

The specific details aren't the same, of course, but the general outline - an amnesiac is living with a woman who knows his real life and is lying to him to keep him with her for her own reasons.

I think that was Jason's biggest flaw (of many) - his complete inability to see exactly how dangerous the mob life would be for kids. He and Sonny had this arrogance that they could just keep everyone safe, because they're just that awesome (and Sonny still has this arrogance, despite the numerous awful things that have happened to those around him). I mean, he didn't need to predict a coma, exactly, but he should have been able to guess that, with all the enemies he and Sonny had, bad shit was going to happen to the people closest to them. I'll give Jason credit for eventually figuring that out, which is why he agreed to Lucky being Jake's father, and why, when Sonny got involved with Emily, Jason wanted to be the one running the mob. Although I only give him partial credit on that last one, because he and Sonny should both know by now that saying "oh, I'm not doing that any more" is not a get out of jail free card to no longer face danger from rival organizations. I think, at various points in time, Jason has gotten the fact that it's not fair to innocent kids to choose this life for them (Sonny has NEVER gotten that), but his attitude towards adults, like Sam, evolved to "hey, they know the risks."