S07.E05: Masking for a Duel -- Round 2

[The Crazed Spruce]

Quote

The good, the bad, and the cuddly continue to battle in round two.

 

[blackwing]

Kind of surprised that Hydra went home.  I guess that means Miss Teddy wins Group B, since there’s no way there won’t be one from each of Good Bad and Cuddly in the finals. 

[Rickster]

One of the very few times my guess was right! Came to me after the playing card clue.

[Ananayel]

I was thrilled it was Penn & Teller. Love them! It was cute how they still tried to hide Teller talking, but he's a talking head in a History Channel show on Harry Houdini, so there's that. I do like Nicole Byer a lot, and would be overjoyed to see her replace Jenny, but that would have a panel with two Nicole's on it, and I don't think that will happen. 

I don't understand why they kept guessing Muppets, I guess Kermit has seeped into everything. And I don't know if anyone could make Gary Busey actually rehearse and follow instructions, so it's probably not him.

[vibeology]

1 hour ago, Ananayel said:

I was thrilled it was Penn & Teller. Love them! It was cute how they still tried to hide Teller talking, but he's a talking head in a History Channel show on Harry Houdini, so there's that. 

I think they avoid showing him talking when they're the act "Penn & Teller" like they were as contestants. It's part of their schtick. When it's other media, he talks. 

[realdancemom]

13 hours ago, blackwing said:

Kind of surprised that Hydra went home.  I guess that means Miss Teddy wins Group B, since there’s no way there won’t be one from each of Good Bad and Cuddly in the finals. 

I'm fine with this since Miss Teddy and the ringmaster are the only two good singers in this group. 

I wasn't really listening to Hydra this week but I always heard two and not three voices.  Also, I wasn't paying attention because I was trying to figure out if three people could fit in the costume and I just couldn't see it.  I did think it was Short and Martin last week though.  After Nicole said Penn & Teller, I knew she was right but I didn't figure it out myself.

[blackwing]

5 minutes ago, realdancemom said:

I'm fine with this since Miss Teddy and the ringmaster are the only two good singers in this group. 

I wasn't really listening to Hydra this week but I always heard two and not three voices.  Also, I wasn't paying attention because I was trying to figure out if three people could fit in the costume and I just couldn't see it.  I did think it was Short and Martin last week though.  After Nicole said Penn & Teller, I knew she was right but I didn't figure it out myself.

I know this show is all rigged (it should have been obvious from the very start, but it didn't really hit me until Season 2, when the incomparable Patti LaBelle was beaten by the likes of Adrienne Bailon, Victor Olapido and Ana Gasteyer).  But I don't understand how Armadillo beat Hydra.  Hydra at least was entertaining.  Armadillo is just terrible.

So looking forward, Miss Teddy (Cuddly) will have to win Group B.  That leaves Group C to be won by a Bad character.  The only bad characters are Jack in the Box and Queen Cobra.  I highly doubt they would have three female singers in the finale, so I think the chances of Queen Cobra winning are diminished.  It seems to me that Jack in the Box could be a duo or trio.

I will be pleasantly surprised if Miss Teddy and Jack in the Box don't end up being the remaining finalists, but it's not looking good for all of the other contestants.

[Taeolas]

Nicole is a fun guest host in general, and I had to laugh a little how Penn was the one to give the shout out to her show (though it was also implied by her reveal mask with the wrecked cake). No mention of WipeOut that I caught though. 

 

Penn's right that he has a very distinctive voice, so I'm not surprised they had Teller do most of the singing; a nice fake out. As noted above, Teller can speak when he's by himself, but when they are in public as a pair, Teller is the quiet one; hence the Mr Wilson effect for the swan song. :) 

 

As for the rest of them, I have no idea who they are. Armadillo is an older man, but that's about all I can tell. (I think a white man too, from the glimpse of his neck/chin you can catch under the frill of his mask). He's probably one of the funner acts so far this season but that isn't saying much. He had a good recovery from the fall. 

 

Teddy Bear and Ringmaster are both good. Not as good as previous seasons, but good for this season. Not sure who will win this round, but by the numbers its Teddy Bears to lose at this point. 

[GaT]

Did he-who-shall-not-be-named ever show up? I still haven't seen a single episode of season 7.

[The Crazed Spruce]

5 hours ago, GaT said:

Did he-who-shall-not-be-named ever show up? I still haven't seen a single episode of season 7.

Not yet.

[realdancemom]

20 hours ago, blackwing said:

I know this show is all rigged (it should have been obvious from the very start, but it didn't really hit me until Season 2, when the incomparable Patti LaBelle was beaten by the likes of Adrienne Bailon, Victor Olapido and Ana Gasteyer).  But I don't understand how Armadillo beat Hydra.  Hydra at least was entertaining.  Armadillo is just terrible.

So looking forward, Miss Teddy (Cuddly) will have to win Group B.  That leaves Group C to be won by a Bad character.  The only bad characters are Jack in the Box and Queen Cobra.  I highly doubt they would have three female singers in the finale, so I think the chances of Queen Cobra winning are diminished.  It seems to me that Jack in the Box could be a duo or trio.

I will be pleasantly surprised if Miss Teddy and Jack in the Box don't end up being the remaining finalists, but it's not looking good for all of the other contestants.

Does that mean that he who shall not be named is a good or cuddly character?  Just no!!  I'm saying this because Jack in the Box is the only bad character left that could be male.  Hoping that the show will let three females in the finals then.

[blackwing]

27 minutes ago, realdancemom said:

Does that mean that he who shall not be named is a good or cuddly character?  Just no!!  I'm saying this because Jack in the Box is the only bad character left that could be male.  Hoping that the show will let three females in the finals then.

Or maybe Queen Cobra is going to RuPaul (he's been mentioned in almost every single recent season) and RuPaul makes the finals?

[Taeolas]

I do admit that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (Can we call you Voldemort? :) ) is looking likely to be Jack in the Box; but at the same time, I have a hard time seeing Penn tolerating being on the same 'team' as Volde. But at the same time, Jack in the Box is the perfect character to just "be" there in case the maskee was too toxic to keep around. At the same time I'm pretty sure all those reaction shots from each team are just body doubles in the costumes and not the actual Masked Singers, so even if Voldemort was eliminated on the first show, they could still film all the reaction shots later with body doubles. 

The idea that Cobra might be Ru Paul did occur to me last night. At first I was thinking it might be Teddy actually, but Teddy has a real female voice and not the falsetto that RuPaul has, so that took care of that. And while it's tempting to think Cobra might be Ru, her body shape is too feminine for Ru IMO. But we won't know for sure until she sings. 

Most likely Voldemort is actually on Team Cuddly, either Mammoth or Space Bunny. (I haven't really watched promos enough to tell if either are male but I think they could be). It would fit better with the overall theme of "being something you aren't normally" too. 

[GaT]

7 hours ago, The Crazed Spruce said:

Not yet.

 

4 hours ago, realdancemom said:

Does that mean that he who shall not be named is a good or cuddly character? 

I can't believe that he hasn't shown up yet, wasn't he supposedly the first person eliminated? I don't know if the show is holding off on it somehow in order to build up interest, but in my case, all it's done is prevent me from watching any of it, & I would bet I'm not the only one. 

[AlleC17]

I am pretty sure Volde will be Jack in the Box.  Are there even any clues out about JitB?  There are on the others that are probably men, and nothing points to Volde from early clues.  There is no way FOX is going to take him out of the show.

[HyeChaps]

Hasn't it already been established that none of the singers know the identity of the others?  (Makes it tricky when they rehearse duets)

[Ananayel]

17 hours ago, AlleC17 said:

I am pretty sure Volde will be Jack in the Box.  Are there even any clues out about JitB?  There are on the others that are probably men, and nothing points to Volde from early clues.  There is no way FOX is going to take him out of the show.

This is how cynical I am now - Fox did this on purpose, for buzz. They signed up one of the worst people they could have, filmed his whole group first (likely intending for him to be the first one "voted" off,) leaked it themselves, and then scheduled the first group filmed to be the last group aired, so as to gain maximum buzz and more people hopefully hate-watching for the dramatic explosion. This is likely why it's all felt somewhat wrong this season. All the episodes that have aired so far have been filmed under this shadow of "all publicity is good publicity." I initially gave them the benefit of the doubt, that were capitalizing on this person's previous position, that his current difficulties were the focus of a small group of people, and we wouldn't care. No more benefit of the doubt. Fox needs to learn how to read a room.

[blackwing]

On 4/9/2022 at 10:38 AM, Ananayel said:

This is how cynical I am now - Fox did this on purpose, for buzz. They signed up one of the worst people they could have, filmed his whole group first (likely intending for him to be the first one "voted" off,) leaked it themselves, and then scheduled the first group filmed to be the last group aired, so as to gain maximum buzz and more people hopefully hate-watching for the dramatic explosion. This is likely why it's all felt somewhat wrong this season. All the episodes that have aired so far have been filmed under this shadow of "all publicity is good publicity." I initially gave them the benefit of the doubt, that were capitalizing on this person's previous position, that his current difficulties were the focus of a small group of people, and we wouldn't care. No more benefit of the doubt. Fox needs to learn how to read a room.

I don't disagree with them wanting the publicity... but I don't think that whole group was filmed first.  In the 4/13 episode it seems clear that nobody had made it through.  Nick said something like "who is going to join Firefly in the finals" and I thought Nicole said (but I might not have her exact quote correct)

Spoiler

"the two people in the finals are both from Team Good"

Granted, Nick could have easily just re-filmed that line and maybe I got Nicole's line wrong.

Edited April 14, 2022 by blackwing

[Josette]

On 4/7/2022 at 5:52 AM, Ananayel said:

It was cute how they still tried to hide Teller talking, but he's a talking head in a History Channel show on Harry Houdini, so there's that.

 

I've seen that show and Teller was in shadow the whole time.

[Taeolas]

Yeah, they can always redub lines after the fact to better reflect the order of the episodes. Especially if you hear the lines without the speaker being on camera (or being shown in a long shot). I fully expect that Nick's lines that imply the airing order are redubbed after the fact. 

I do recall Nicole saying that line in the 04-13 episode, but I don't think she was actually on camera; it was one of those "overheard" lines we hear from the judges while the singer and/or Nick are the focus. In other words, it's trivial to slip it in after the fact to match the timeline they want to set up. 

It could also be that the pool finals were filmed later on so they actually do know who won each pool when it is filmed. 

While I'm convinced the results of the show are as rigged as Professional Wrestling, I don't think the producers give the judges the results before hand (so they 'know' to make comments like knowing Firefly is in the finals). It would weaken their reactions and make it harder to reorder eps. It's easier to insert random comments in later as needed. 

[Ananayel]

2 hours ago, Josette said:

 

I've seen that show and Teller was in shadow the whole time.

This was a newer one, I think part of the History's Greatest Mysteries series, but I could be wrong. He def wasn't in shadow.