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I love it when a plan comes together. And naturally, I decide to watch Arrow over this. Just another in a series of dumb moves. I guess that I have more in common with Jon then I would've guessed. Natalie for the win. Avenging her twinnie, surviving John, outlasting the dullest cast . . . I'm proud of her. ETA: I do feel bad for Missy. Now, having loyalty for Jon over her daughter's word? That's a little messed up.

Well, that was anticlimactic. Ra's basically made Ollie into his punk, and for what? Because Malcolm wanted to be released from his blood debt to the League. I'd call Malcolm a "Magnificent Bastard" like we did with Lionel Luthor back in the day, but Malcolm's plan reeked of desperation and mind control agents. So . . . Thea killed Sara? Damn. And she had no idea that she was doing it. That seems to be par for the course for this show. I did like Thea's sweet moves facing "Arrow," though. And nice lie about a bird going "Hitchcock" into the busted window. At least we got Shirtless Oliver out of the episode. Too bad the rest of it wasn't that great. And I can see where Laurel gets the insanity from. Damn it, Alex Kingston, you're supposed to be better than this. What's an ILY? I missed that in Acronym School.

With the finale next week, I keep meaning to ask . . . when was the last time Survivor didn't have a finale on a Sunday? ETA for fishcakes . . . I could've swore there had not been a weeknight finale in forever.

Is "Reverse Flash" official? I have t say, "The Man In The Yellow Suit" sounds too much like "The Man In The Yellow Hat" to me. I can't be alone on this.

Well, that wasn't as bad as I would've guessed. Granted, a lot of stuff was whitewashed, but I feel we had some good material for a half-hour. Why did MTV run it at 9 p.m. instead of 10? Because people are on "Molly," damn it, and True Life needs to tell us about it. Seriously, I didn't hate seeing Johnny again. Or Evan. Or Paula. Or TJ when he said he doesn't like quitters. We know, Teege, we know. It's a shame CT wasn't in there for a talking head segment, but that was probably too much to ask. I will say that I didn't like seeing Diem in BOTE2, mostly because it was probably the last time she ever danced. Or did something risky for the Challenge. I know that we saw her end coming, but it still doesn't feel real. I'm happy we didn't see her collapse . . . though I'm sure MTV and/or BMP will want to air it.

Not me. Lockjaw is supposed to be oddly loveable. Raina shouldn't become a teleporting beast of burden.

Well, that was . . . inhumane. How else do you explain why we won't be getting new episodes until March? Or an Inhumans movie for a number of years? I want my Lockjaw cameo now, dammit. At least we know what Skye is now . . . a Daisy. A precious, precious Daisy. Seriously, though, it's great that Skye isn't a Mary Sue anymore. It took half a season, but there's a redeemable character after all. Here's hoping they don't louse that up. Anybody want to take a guess about the Koening "brothers"? I'm thinking "Life Model Decoy" and sticking with that. I couldn't see from the lack of light . . . did Raina emerge from her stoned/cocooned state? And I didn't see Mac "recover" from being a sentinel. Or did I miss that part? Here's hoping Agent Carter makes up for the forced hiatus.

Wow. Such amaze at the twist. Except that Wells was the lead suspect in a field of three (Eddie through time-travel shenanigans; Pa Allen as the longshot), since we've seen him do shady shit. A secret compartment inside a secret room? Par for the course when Wells is concerned. Good episode, though. January 20 can't come fast enough. I'm only disappointed that Ronnie named himself "Firestorm." Cisco lives for naming metahumans, and I thought he would be crushed. BTW, was he wearing a Big Bang Theory-themed shirt, or did I imagine that? Speaking of crushed . . . damn, Barry laid it on the line for Iris, didn't he? I mean, everybody knew about Barry's crush except her and Eddie. Watching him blab it out was so painful, I kept hoping for Reverse Flash to show up. Anything to distract from the awful awkwardness of it all. But it was handled well by Grant and Candice. And Iris may be a pain in the butt, but she's no Laurel Lance. Thank goodness for no wooden acting. ETA: I'm assuming Wells is Reverse Flash, since we heard his voice in the end. Or maybe he's holding the costume for the real RF, and the voice thing was for dramatic effect; hence the getting-beat-up part.

From this week's description: My guess: the final three teams are told to keep racing, with no eat/sleep/mingle in between. The only other "shock" I can think up is that there's no elimination, and we'll be getting four teams in the final leg.

Just checking to see if anybody else is reading the series. Tomorrow kicks off an arc featuring Quarrel, whom Kurt Busiek considers to be his favorite Astro City character. Should be interesting to see how that translates, especially since she's been in the background for most of the book's run. ETA: Here's a preview of the issue. It also includes the fate of another Honor Guard member that often got overlooked in stories.

It's been a while. Here's an Arrow spoiler based on news from last month. It's a bit of a stomach-turner, to be honest. ETA . . . as long as we're in the holiday season, why not share some The Tick goodness?

Insult I Need To Use After Saying "Fuck You": "Ears, eyes, nose and throat." Thanks, Jon! You guys ever think that if we lived in less-civilized times, there would be a lot of pundits with black eyes, and Jon would have his hands bandaged all the time?

Ugh . . . can't believe they're going to be showing footage from BOTE2. For all we know, that might have been the last time Diem ever danced, which makes it truly heartbreaking. Given how Evan was also Fresh Meat along with her, I can't really object to the Canadian Doughboy giving interviews, even if he's on the Permanently Naughty list.

I never got to meet Sophia, but I did interview her back in 2001. I wrote about her for a grad school story, and I reprinted it on my blog. Meeting BMP alumni . . . the only time I've met them in bulk was when I went to Calico Jack's in 2003, back when The Gauntlet was airing. Wound up meeting Sarah, Steve, Rachel (the tall pixie from Back To New York), Roni, Elka and Antoine. Also, there was Eric from Campus Crawl. I remember being sick while there, as well as Roni and Antoine dancing on the bar. Antoine had to be asked down, since guys weren't supposed to do that. Oh, and I met Melissa during an event at Sanrio, the NYC HQ for all things Hello Kitty.

Heads up for anybody who reads Reality Blurred . . . Andy has one cast spoiler and location spoilers as TAR26 wraps up. I just wanted to warn anybody reading this about it.

Sounds like fun. Sports Illustrated just announced their Sportsman of the Year. Truth be told, I don't know who else would qualify.

Closer to topic: Stop Being Polite presents 30 most forgettable RW cast members. I don't know about you, but it's a bit of a miss, especially the #1 entry . . . a guy whose mere mention of his name would send TWoP posters into fits of rage.

Any favorite holiday-themed sketches? I'm fond of the Dragonball Z Christmas special, with the debut of Composite Santa. Also: mutated Mrs. Claus.

Bit of a rarity right now . . . Giants and Jets playing at the same time. NY/NJ fans can choose which team they want to see lose in a humiliating manner. The Jets are already down 7-0, and the game hasn't lasted a minute yet.

Knowing the show, they'd probably spring for protective visors. Y'know, just in case. I'd like to see the sheep corralling task from near the end of TAR2. That was lots of fun to watch, though it didn't factor in sheep with "mad hops."

Heads up: Toonami is going to be playing movies for the month of December. Summer Wars will be on tonight at 1 a.m.; next week brings Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos. Also, for any DBZ fans hurt by the lack of Kai on Toonami for December: Team Four Star is doing "DBcember" for the month, counting down the best moments from DBZ and Dragonball . . . but not GT, because that sucked (at least according to TFS). ETA: Toonami unveils their lineup for 2015. InuYasha gets moved to 1 am., pushing back One Piece and Gurren Lagann, and they'll be replaying Deadman Wonderland and IGPX.

Let me try another metric: the ratio between a team's front-of-pack finishes to being in the back of the pack. Any median finishes (sixth out of 11, fifth of nine, etc.) would count as 0.5 front, 0.5 back. Misti & Jim: 7.5/2.5 = 3.00 Adam & Bethany: 7/3 = 2.33 Amy & Maya: 4/6 = 0.67 Brooke & Robbie: 3/7 = 0.43 Not much difference from average placement, though the Scientists' two median placements allows them to go ahead of the Wrestlers, making them a better team statistically. Or maybe I'm thinking too hard about it. ETA: Kym & Alli finished with a ratio of 3.50 (7/2), so maybe the system isn't perfect.

I don't think Brooke is racist. I also don't think she's playing a character. She's not as bad as Kendra (and thank goodness for that), but she's too unafraid of what others might think of the stuff coming out of her mouth. She's just another complainy-pants in a series. At least Robbie is fun to watch some of the time. It's kinda like watching a live-action Team Rocket, minus a CGI Meowth. ETA for tds444 . . . man, I hope you're wrong. It's not that the Scientists have been bad, but I feel that the Dentists and Surfers should be fighting it out for the win, with the remaining team lagging behind in third place. Maya's constant love of the show could be taken as a clue, but she and Amy winning would be as big an upset as the Beekman Boys, for good and otherwise.

Here are average placements after ten legs (adjusted stats are in parentheses, with best and worst legs subtracted from the average): 2.60 (2.13) Misti & Jim 2.90 (2.63) Adam & Bethany 4.40 (4.38) Brook & Robbie 4.90 (4.88) Amy & Maya I figure it would take a miracle for the Wrestlers and Scientists/Candy Girls to be in the final, let alone for one of them to win. Then again, I didn't see the Cyclists' ultimate defeat coming, so what do I know? I reckon that the Dentists and Surfers would battle for win and place positions. Off-topic question: do you think Amy & Maya resent being called "Candy Girls"? Even Phil seems to be doing it.

Question for those more learned of TAR than me: has there ever been a season where so few teams won legs? With two legs left in TAR25, the only teams to have won have been the Dentists (5 times), the Surfers (3) and the Cyclists (2). I think the record for fewest teams is four, but I could be wrong. Also: was anybody else disappointed by the lack of "broken ox"? Sure, the oxen wandered quite a bit, and it didn't occur to anyone to walk alongside the animals, but we didn't have something leading to the breakdown Colin had. To be fair, he and Christie had a bad day going into that Detour, having fallen behind and getting Yielded by Chip & Kim. The ox was just icing on the cake.