So, Maggie has HoH, Alliance 2 is feeling their oats, time to nominate two of the Soverign 6. After many discussions, and a possible deal between Maggie and the pair of Rachel/Howie, Maggie nominates James and Kaysar.
Food competition was The Match Game type scenario, and the house guests won real food for the whole week.
Saturday’s episode is always fairly boring.
FINALLY! The show decided to get engaing! The house had been squarely divded into two alliances:
Alliance 1: Kaysar, Janelle, James, Sarah, Howie and Rachel
Alliance 2: Eric, Maggie, Beau, Ivette, Jennifer and April
After veto, Eric and Maggie were the two on the block. As they are not allowed to vote for eviction, and neither was Kaysar as Head of Household, that meant it was five votes for Alliance 1 (or as they call themselves, The Sovereign 6, you can read about it in Kaysar’s HoH blog entry.) to Alliance 2’s four votes. It was a lock Eric was going, and he did.
So, The Sovereign 6 were feeling darn secure that the house was now there’s to control, oh who cared about the pesky HoH competition, they were going to control the house, no one was going to stand in their way, feel our power, fear us, FEAR…..what? What do you mean Maggie won HoH? That’s…that’s not possible. That means that Alliance 2 will control the house for a week. NO!
hehehehehe I love it when this happens in a reality show. An alliance will think they have the game sewn up, but they get cocky too early and overplay their hands. Such is the fate of The Soverign 6. Let’s face it, Maggie will nominate two of them, even if they win veto, she will replace the saved member with another member of the team. She will effectively make them feed on themselves and campaign against themselves. YES! I love it when this happens!
Next week will be a replay of this week when it comes to HoH, but for now, Kaysar and his ego are learning a very important lesson, the lesson of the reality wildcard. Every show has them, wether it be Survivor’s immunity or Big Brother’s HoH, never count out the wild card.
The other rule, don’t name your alliance. It is ALWAYS a bad idea.
Lots of shifting alliances, finally! Now Kaysar, Janelle, James, Sarah, Howie and Rachel have formed an alliance. With that plan in place, they decided to compete hard for the Power Of Veto to pull James off of the nomination block, and change the possible eviction nominee to Eric. The nice twist to this was it meant Eric was up against his own secret pairs partner, Maggie. Ruh-roh Raggy! Adios to another secret pair team.
At the POV competition, it was decided James would win so he could take himself off the block. From there it was just fighting and scratching as everyone got angry over the shifting alliances. Yay! Nasty time….AT LAST!
My biggest question now is, everyone is saying Eric has lived up to his word in the house. For the life of me, I can not figure out what in the world everyone is talking about. Yeah, he’s a bossy pain-in-the-butt, but I have not seen him break his word. Oh well. Like everyone else is so honorable.
Hell’s Kitchen on it’s way to the wrap up, and we are down to the last three contestants as this episode opens. Jessica, Michael and Ralph head back to the dorm, after Elsie’s eviction, and are greeted by champagne so they can celebrate being the final 3. Jessica gets blasted, Ralph looks tipsy, Michael appears to be…well…Michael.
After heading to bed in a dunken stupor, the phone rings at 4 AM and Michael answers. They are to meet Ramsay in the kitchen on the double due to an emergancy. After some rangling, they all got there and discovered that not everything in a resturant runs smoothly. The baker was going to be unable to deliver the bread for that nights service. It was up to the hapless, tired and dunken crew to make all the necessary bread. After two hours of working at it, Jessica, who had really done nothing, was sent off to bed by Mike and Ralph. She showed back up an hour later, all perky and ready to go, too bad they only had about an hour of work left. All three headed to bed at 8, just to be woken up at 10 for their next challange.
This time, it was mastering making a souffl?, not an easy task. Ramsay demonstrates, the idjits follow along, and in order the winners are Ralph, Michael and Jessica. Their prize? Choosing what dish they will put their own twist on that night to carry them through to the final two. Ralph takes beef (filet mignon), Michael takes tuna (sesame crusted tuna) and that leaves Jessica with chicken (stuffed chicken breast). As dinner approaches, they do not know their families are present and will help in the judging. Part of Ramsay’s decesion will be based on customer feedback of their dishes.
Long story short, Jessica flubs up everything, even to the point of asking Ramsay for help. HA! That was stupid! In the final tally of dishes, the filet was most popular, then chicken and finally the tuna. As customer feedback matters though, we still didn’t have an answer.
Unaware of who prepared what, the final threes families case their votes at the end of their meals. They were:
Ralph’s family – tuna, tuna, tuna
Jessica’s family – tuna, chicken, filet mignon
Michael’s family – filet mignon, filet mignon, tuna
Meaning the final total was Michael gets five vote, Jessica had one and three for Ralph. With the curshing of the votes, Jessica is sent home.
Next week, Ralph and Michael face off with each running their “own” resturant, and the help of the banished contestants. Here and now, I am calling Michael as the winner, but we shall see.
Ok, this is quickly getting irritating because with the feeds, I am so far ahead of the telivised show, and it is hard to talk without spilling some things. Ok, highlights for this one.
Kaysar recieves his Head of Household room and amongst his treats are his Hookah pipe and kosher meats.
The food competition was food spelling, each correctly spelled word removed a “PB & J” wedge from a whell. When all done, the wheel was spun, and if it hit “Food” they got normal food, if it hit “PB & J”….you guessed it. There were 8 food wedges and 4 pb&j wedges, and yep, it landed on pb&j for the whole house. Funny!
Morgan Spurlock’s series 30 Days wrapped up it’s first season with a look into binge drinking. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, from Wikipedia:
Binge drinking is commonly defined as drinking alcohol solely for the purpose of intoxication. However, it is quite common for binge drinking to apply to a social situation, creating some overlap in social and binge drinking. Binge drinkers may or may not be alcoholics, although the definition of an alcoholic is also subjective.
The subject this time was 43 year old mom Michiel Nacke who is concerned that her 19 year old daughter, Jessica, is doing a dangerous amount of drinking at college. Her solution, instead of doing something sensible, is to turn into a binge drinking partier for 30 days. Wow…that makes about as much sense as shooting yourself in the stomach to teach your kids gun safety.
This recap is going to be fairly short because quite honestly I couldn’t stand this episode. Jessica was out doing her own drinking most of the time, so she hardly ever saw the effects the alcohol was having on her mom. The few times she did see it, she would just sit around with a smirk and giggling about it all. The one who did see everything, and seemed to take it the worst, was the 9 year old son Braden.
Besides the absolute absurdity of the whole concept of this “experiment”, the biggest problem was the severe attitude adjustment Jessica needed. Too call her a prissy little snob would be a compliment compared to the words I called her while watching the episode, but I like to keep my blog profanity free. Everytime Michiel tried to talk to Jessica, she was rude, abrupt and far more interested in her cell phone.
My biggest problem with this episode? Anyone notice I said earlier Jessica is 19? As in, two years under the legal drinking age. Not once in the entire episode was this ever mentioned. Hey mom, instead of putting yourself though this insane idea, how about you just once mentioned to your daughter she was breaking the law? How about you just once find out where she was partying and call the cops? Sure, no one wants to see their kid get busted, but if the other option was drinking yourself into a stupor multiple times in a 30 day period? Yeah, let’s go with the harsh lesson for the kid instead.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no dellusions that underage drinking is going to stop. I did my fair share of it in high school, and let me just say that first hour marching band with a hang over was a great time! That being said, there are so many more ways this could be handled, but instead of disceplining her daughter, instead of telling her daughter to stop being a snotty little brat, she puts herself through a drinking binge with no positive results. Dumb woman, dumb show and I have to say, dumb Morgan for allowing this, let alone showing it to us.
I am so far behind on my pointless reality show enteries. Oh well.
The second elimination episode of Big Brother 6 treated us the departure of Michael in a 9-to-1 vote. We were also treated to spew worthy moments of he and Janelle kissing, and in one of the oddest reality TV moments ever…Janelle broke up with her boyfriend via a scene in the diary room. And she assured the unseen boyfriend that she would understand if he never wanted to talk to her again. After the arrest record came out, would you want to date her anyway? Not that arrest records alone should matter in a relationship, but….it’s Janelle for crying out loud! You shouldn’t want to date her anyway!
So, with Michael gone, the Chen-Bot conducted her post eviction interview. I must say, the Chen-Bot Mark 6 is sporting an awful lot of body glitter. Being married to Les Moonves seems to have increased her budget for it.
HoH competition was a majority rules Q&A with Kaysar winning. Who will his targets be? dum-dum-dum!
I know I am behind on this, but oh well. The big things from this episode were the pseudo-fight between Eric and Michael, and James winning the veto competition.
Michael and Eric nearly got physical over…well…who knows what it was over. Let’s say hangnails for the heck of it. Any way you slice it, it was just silly. The entire house recieved a warning over their antics that night, and we got the fun of hearing a paniced Big Brother voice. Quite amusing.
James won Veto and chose not to save anyone. Hey, he does still have a brain.
And in great fun, you can check out Janelle’s arrest record over on SmokingGun.com
Episode 8 of Hell’s Kitchen hit the airwaves, and we were down to the final four with the departure of Jimmy.
The reward challange consisted of making a meal from a pile of 15 different leftovers in 15 minutes. This challange is something Ramsey makes all of his potential cooks do as it is way to maximize the use out of all food expenditures in a resturant. Jessica was first up with both an entree and a desert. Her presentation lacked, but taste was spot on with both. Michael presented a pasta that looked nice, but the taste did not work. Michael had nice presentation, ok taste, but bad utilization of his ingrediants. Elsie was last with a hearty chicken soup. And as Gordon announces the winner…commercial. I swear this show has more commercials! Anyway, Elsie won based on the fact that she used 10 of the 15 ingrediants, and because of the simplicity, you could move the dish many times in one nights service.
Elsie’s prize was a trip to do a cooking segment on Good Day Live (no link since it has since been cancelled) with Gordon, while the other three stayed at the kitchen prepping the food for that night’s service. As the time for the apperance approached, the losers were taken over to the bar so they could see the apperance on TV. None of them looked pleased.
With the apperance over, they were sent back to the kitchen to the kitchen where they were all served saucers of milk to go with their cattiness. They discuss how none of them plan to help her that night if she has problems, and from now on they will all make chicken soup for challanges if that’s all it takes.
Upon her return to the kitchen, Gordon informs her the other half of her reward will be who works what station that night. The other three are nice to her until Gordon leaves and then Michael sets in on a mind game about how Gordon expects less from her, so it was easy for her to rise above his expecations of her. Wow….that low, but seemingly effective.
Now, at the evenings service, I would love to update you on who worked what station, but after the first disastorous hour, Gordon moved them around so much, I couldn’t tell who was doing what. No one could serve up an entire table’s food at the same time…food was undercooked…there was a splinter in someone’s lobster and so on.
The big bruhaha of the night though was Elsie losing all control of her station. Gordon took her to the other side of the kitchen for a private chat, which raised the ire of the other three once again. They couldn’t figure out why she got a private chat as opposed to being yelled at like they had been. She headed to the bathroom to cool down for a moment, and then it was back out to the kitchen to try again. The cool down didn’t help much.
After two tables got up and left due to the horrendous wait, Gordon shut down the kitchen as usual. He informed the players that no one had earned the right to nominate, and that he would do it. At the banishment he told Michael he can not do the whole kitchen likes he keep trying to do, but did not pull him out for eviction. Instead he pulled out Jessica and Elsie. They both had performed terribly, so no one should be shocked by this. In the end, Elsie is sent packing, but not before Gordon informs her that she touched his heart….which amazed everyone as they were sure he didn’t have one.
Time for the first weekly eviction, and I will save you the pain of waiting for it like you suffer on the actual show. In a vote of 9 – 2, adios Ashlea.
The pairs were revealed this time to the general public. (Although, if you watch the feeds, you knew them all, just not how they knew each other) They are:
April/Jennifer – Soroity sisters
Ashlea/Janelle – Former roomies, BFF!
Beau/Ivette – Friends, former co-workers
Eric/Maggie – Friends, Maggie’s boyfriend works with Eric
James/Sarah – Dating 4 months….like we couldn’t figure out the dating
Michael/Kaysar – Friends for 6 years
I really thought Eric/Maggie and Rachel/Howie were brother & sister teams, but oh well. And how Rachel/Howie have been friends…scientists will be working on that one for years.
With the voting over, and the Chen-Bot interview of Ashlea over, it was time for the new Head of Household competition. True/False questions about the house, if you get it wrong you are out, if everyone gets it right, slowest to answer is out. The Hamsters fall one at a time until Eric wins HoH. Yay Eric! Maybe he will cut a hole int he floor of the HoH room and put a pole in he can slide down. That would be way cool!
Morgan Spurlock’s penultimate episode to the first season of 30 Days ended up having a close to home connection to me, and I didn’t even know it! (more on that later)
This weeks episode focused on taking two fossil fuel loving New Yorkers, and taking them to an Eco-Village to see how they did being more eco-friendly. The two folks taken were friends who work at a bar together, Vito Summa and Johari Jenkins. They were first assessed on their “enviromental footprint”, how much of the Earth’s resources they use. They were told that if everyone on the planet lived like they did, it would take 12.5 planets to sustain us all. Not that I want to be a naysayer, but I call that “math”, questionable at best.
So now that they knew how evil they were (can you tell where this recap is going yet?), they left to move into the Eco-Village. Upon arriving at the airport, they see a bin for brochures that says “What’s Happening In Kirksville”, seeing there are no pamphlets, they comment “Apparently nothing is happening in Kirksville.” HOLD IT! Did they just say Kirksville? As in…Kirksville,MO? As in…where I live? Why….yes they did! I was shocked, but that was the little airport just 15 miles from my house that they flew into! Cool! Upon finding the website for the Eco-Village, I come to realize it is just over in Rutledge,MO, about 40 miles from my house. Nifty.
After exiting the airport, they are greeted by Cecil who is there to drive them to the village in his vegetable oil powered car. I kid you not. Cecil’s hairdo alone may be one of the least eco friendly things in my life as it is just hideouslly huge. Oh well. So on their way to the village they are told the story of why it’s called “Dancing Rabbit Eco-Village“. Cecil tells them they have rabbits there. Vito asks if they dance in a joking manner. Cecil informs him that they do. The car falls eerily quiet.
They get to the village and are told they will be living in a converted grain bin, and they will have no electricity because they do not yet have solar panels. They are also informed that anytime they want to take a shower, they will have to heat the water with a fire. Johari is very upset by this, and relays to Vito that one of the girls in the village says that yes, this is what she has to do every 5 days for her shower. Johari and Vito seem very dismayed at the every 5 days bit. Johari is also upset when she learns she can’t use her hair care products because all run off water goes to a wetlands area, and her products are not bio-degradeable. The fun just keeps coming.
Johari and Vito get to learn about life in the village, how to process “hu-manure” for fertalizing, tending the rabbits, growing the vegtables they eat as they are a meat-free village, and…..wait…meat-free village? Vito is not amused. Vito needs meat. Vito loves meat. VITO MUST HAVE MEAT. They tell him he can hunt rabbits, but he will have to cook them elsewhere. And he can even buy meat, if he can find some raised in an eco-friendly way. Cue the rest of the episode focusing on Vito being obsessed with getting some meat, earning him the nickname “Meato”.
Finally the grain bin gets it’s solar panels and they get their electricity so they can at least have some light at night to read by, instead of the candles they have been living off of. See, this is one situation where I must admit, I would love to do solar power in my life, but the initial setup cost is just so blasted much. They said in this episode that a basic setup will run you around $20,000. Now folks, I am all for solar power, I know it will save you money in the long run, but…I don’t have $20K to just plunk down. And the idea of running my warehouse for work off solar power? I would love it, but it’s a 3000 square foot building…5 computers, tons of lights, phones…we would have to cover the entire roof, and somehow I think that would be more than $20K.
I will say I learned something about lighting, and I just did the research myself. If you replace a standard lightbulb (Incandescent Light Bulbs) with a Compact Fluorescent bulb (CFL), you have a higher initial cost, but a bulb that saves you money in the long run. They last longer, use less wattage and are more eco-friendly. To determine the wattage, take a standard bulb, say a 60 watt, divide it by 4, you would only need a 15 watt CFL to replace that bulb. You can read more on it in this PDF and on this site.
Later on, the village holds a meeting to discuss the impact Johari and Vito are having on the village. They aren’t happy with Vito killing rabbits, and they aren’t happy Johari using perfume. Johari gets pulled aside and asked to stop using perfume because some of the people are allergic, she asks “What if I said I was allergic to BO. What would you do?” She was told they would wear deodarant, but she isn’t, so she should learn to compromise. Um…let’s look at what the definition of compromise is from dictionary.com is, shall we?
1. A settlement of differences in which each side makes concessions.
2. The result of such a settlement.
Gee, the concession I saw was “We say so, stop doing it.” Not the type of compromise I am familiar with, but oh well, Johari gave in.
There were also lessons in making a car run on either vegetable oil or bio diesel. Nice ideas, not very practicle. I am much more interested in hydrogen powered cars myself. They were also taught dumpster diving for items, which thrilled Johari since they let her have a hair dryer she found.
The big thrill for me was when Vito finally got his meat on day 26. He found a butcher who raised cows in an eco-friendly manner. He went to their farm, their shop and into their freezer, way cool since it was….WESTERN’S SMOKEHOUSE! Folks…this place is like 12 miles from my house, and it is so good I drive there just for lunch sometimes! I can not stress to you how much I love this place. I have never once eaten a piece of meat from there that didn’t just send me into a meat coma. And their award winning beef jerky? TO DIE FOR.
Anyway, when the month was up, Johari and Vito were again assessed, and living the way they did, their new ecological footprint was 1.3 earths and….wait a minute…1.3? You mean, even living like this doesn’t put you in perfect synch with the planet? Why do I find this so funny? Oh well, they made some friends. On the last night Cecil and Johari shared some Smirnoff Vodka and….wait a minute…a processed item? That doesn’t seem very eco-friendly somehow. (and we won’t even mention all the screen printed shirts they had…not very eco-friendly either)
In the end it was an interesting episode, but I was not impressed by the Eco-Village at all. To be quite frank, I found them to be a bunch of hypocrites. They want everyone to live in an eco-friendly way, which I am all for, but do these folks have jobs? Are they contributing to society in any meaningful way? Not that I saw. For a planet to be self-sustaining, we would have to get rid of some of the population to have enough land, not an easy task.
What irks me the most is they want to have their own economy and focus on bartering to sustain themselves. Wonderful….why then do you have a donation page for people to send you money? Not to mention your wishlist of items you want people to just give you. Essentially you are asking people to support you in your lifestyle choice. You chose it, you live it.
Originally I was going to do a recap of each episode like I do with other reality shows, but I discovered something during the second episode of Big Brother….I really can’t. I have a two-fold problem.
1) They jump around so much, it would be a gazillion paragrpahs long and
2) I admit I am a live feed watcher, so I am so far ahead of what you see on the shows, it is hard for me to keep track of what is happening on the show as on the live feeds, that was three days ago. Things change so much, it is hard to keep things straight without giving away stuff you may not want to know.
So, I may just do like a commentary style thing. Highlights of this one would include Howie introducing the real Howie to the house…which is impossible to describe. The early alliances begin forming, which never last to the end. The biggest thing being the veto competition, which Rachel won, and since she was also HoH, she let her nominations stand.
So really, not much to go on at this point. Everyone is still in that “feeling each other out” stage to figure out why everyone stands. If you want to read a full recap, go to this site.
