Have I mentioned here that my minion has a scary encyclopedic knowledge of ANTM? Apparently someone (I can't even remember her name) from Cycle 4 is having Johnny Fairplay's baby?

I know about it from another ANTM superfan. It is Michele who was the wrestler from... Minnesota? maybe. Somewhere in the midwest I think. The one who had the "flesh eating bacteria"!!! And who maybe was a little gay?

Oh, that one!

I was really hoping John Robert would play the fake idol, I wanted to see Jeff's expression when in 2 tribal councils in a row someone made the same dumbass mistake.

I know! I wanted to kill whoshisface who I always think of as Orlando when he blew it.

It was almost hard to keep up with the nonsensical twists and turns going on this ep.

James had a scare - and a deserved one, since there was every reason for him to think about pulling one of his idols this TC.

I wonder what JR thought after watching this season and realzing how out of touch he was with what was going on.

I think he realized it the moment it became clear that there were idols out there he didn't know about. Or, not idols necessarily but idol clues. His attempts to browbeat people into alligning with him just get funnier and funnier, though.

Gah, I felt so bad for Denise this ep. Of all of them, I'd be happiest to see her win. Not that that's looking very likely.

More Survivor -

So how do people find Miss Alli's take on last week's ep? It was pretty clear to me that there was a "stupid edit" going on, but it also seemed fairly transparent, i.e., more poking fun about how the audience (and James) could see what was coming in a way that Jamie could not. I will say that I felt a twinge of discomfort at James and J-R's uproarious laughter at TC, and Jeff didn't earn many points in my book there either.

But it didn't seem to me like it was as bad as Alli took it - I thought they did show enough of Jamie's thinking (that it could say I.I. in chinese, that she was conscious that she might not have it, that even at TC she was throwing it out as a long shot) that it struck me as boy, is she going to be embarrased, not ha ha check out the dumb blonde. Still a little watch-from-the-hall perhaps, but not all that over the top.

After reading her recap though, I'm less sure and wish I could go back and watch. And certainly the J-R stuff this week - in addtion to making the same mistake she did, the previouslies showed a very different reaction from him at TC. Did we see him so shit-scared that she had it and he was going home? Or did that get cut to maximize the laughter/humiliation of the moment.

And also, since when doesn't Jeff ask about the idol in the first place? That seemed really weird to me from the get-go.

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I think the real hidden immunity idols have the rules of how and when to play them (before the vote, etc) written on the back, so they can stay secret (ha) until they're played. (Which is why I think Jeff hasn't been asking about them.)

Oh, gotcha. I forgot that this time around they hadn't announced that they even existed.

Todd was one of my early favorites, but I am so tired of him right now. Why on earth would James just give you one of the Idols? Why would you have James in a position to take him out, put the idols back in play, and then flip to JR? Amanda seems to realize that he is just chasing his tail at this point. Maybe she can rally some folks to take him out at the next TC. Keep the game interesting.

I cannot believe that they continue to let James stick around with two Immunity Idols! I'm baffled by that logic.

I now only have Frosti and Denise left to me as folks I like. And amazingly, I am grudgingly starting to like Courtney just a little (as measured against all of the other fools there). I can still like James for about a minute every now and again, but then something ridiculous comes out, like the way he was totally down on Denise, and I have to turn on him. I did enjoy how he straight up owned the fact that he is eating way more than anyone else around camp and what of it?

Pei Ghee has really managed to last a lot longer than I ever thought possible.

Do y'all think Courtney and Todd were throwing that boat challenge? Amanda and Frosti seemed to have a fairly easy time staying pretty far away from the water tossers and bailing out the boat.

Even with so few people, I still forget that the pretty boy (Erik?) is around half the time. I love that James thinks he's just as cute as I do.

kat, I was saying the same thing last night to DH about Courtney - I haven't changed my opinion of *her*, but as I start to dislike everyone else more and more, she rises by default. Heh.

I still like Todd, though. I always like people who really PLAY. Not just strategize, but PLAY. It's a game, have a little fun with it!

I thought Miss Alli went too far. In an episode I thought really great, I had to avoid the TwoP boards and read her recap wincingly because she was so single-minded. She's right, at least according to parts of Jaime's interview, that Jaime was aware that she had a false idol. But Jaime made so many mistakes in logic (James had to have dropped it, instead of hiding it, even though he had two other plaques) that the editors were right in showing her as dumb. And I hate her vendetta against the men who are bitchy in interviews, while she still likes Courtney. Frankly, I talk just like James does.

On the other hand, with this episode, I am coming around to her opinion on Todd. But unlike Alli, I don't use his poor reasoning and dislike of Courtney as a reason to literally hate him, as she seems to. I found his last-minute, totally inexplicable and unjustifiable change in voting poor strategy, but entertaining nonetheless.