Tonight's episode is titled "Brought a Bazooka to a Tea Party" which was a line uttered by Emily IIRC. Thank God it wasn't the kiss of death for our Queen. I thought tonight's episode was actually pretty good. I'll try to give my two cents sometime tomorrow as I'm not feeling great at the moment. :-(

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Brian

On Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at 9:36:45 PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:
> Tonight's episode is titled "Brought a Bazooka to a Tea Party" which was a line uttered by Emily IIRC. Thank God it wasn't the kiss of death for our Queen. I thought tonight's episode was actually pretty good.

So Emily's "the queen" now? Does Sandra know about this?

From my perspective, the extra 20 minutes of episode time each week is providing a much needed boost in character and
plot development. There is still the problem of the the tribe that is going to TC getting much more screen time than the
other two, but that is never going to change. At least we now get to see more rounded versions of the players' personalities
rather than having them reduced to caricatures. If E02 had been the traditional length, I would have expected most of the
scenes at camp to have been focused on Emily's developing "redemption arc" at the expense of the weird, but important,
friction between Bruce and the Civil Rights Lawyer. We also got to see some of the less flattering aspects of Stick Insect
Frat Boy's personality. In an episode of regular length, he would probably only been shown building alliances. The extra time
also allowed the suspense involving Truck Driver's hidden advantage to be played out. In earlier seasons, there wouldn't have
been time to include the two failed attempts to figure out where it was in the tree. Some viewers might argue that the extra
twenty minutes included too much useless content, such as that involving Cuban Entrepreneur's big toe and Asian/American
Software Developer's attempt to bond with the women on Blue Tribe by using his buff to cross-dress. But, IMO, the positive
aspects resulting from the extra time, at least in the first two episodes, far outweighed the negative.

Some other thoughts:
-Probst and his editor's desperate attempt to inject some drama into TC was pathetic. With only three players voting,
two of whom were Emily and the Canadian guy, it was dead obvious that Brandon was going home. Even if Gay Principal
had broken ranks, the result would not have been different. In my opinion, that lump should have been taken out in the
first TC despite Hannah's pleas to her tribe mates.
-I much preferred Bruce when he was concussed. By the end of E02, he had supplanted Nicholas as the most annoying
male player still in the game. Bartender, although she received a lot less screen time in E02, continues to dominate the
most annoying female category.
-Although the drama involving Truck Driver's advantage played out in a way that created legitimate doubt about whether
or not she would retrieve it before TC, she should have spotted that rope on her first visit to the tree. Wasn't it obviously
out of place? However, Production's decision to enclose the advantage in wax was a brilliant move. Even after 22 and a
half years, they can still come up with new wrinkles.
-"Get out of here"? Was that Probst's way of expressing a grudging affection towards Lump, or was he pissed that he was
"milking his time" in front of his snuffed torch?
-I predict that Yellow Tribe's losing streak will end in E03, and that Blue Tribe will be going to TC.

On Wednesday, October 4, 2023 at 10:36:45 PM UTC-6, Brian Smith wrote:
> Tonight's episode is titled "Brought a Bazooka to a Tea Party" which was a line uttered by Emily IIRC. Thank God it wasn't the kiss of death for our Queen. I thought tonight's episode was actually pretty good. I'll try to give my two cents sometime tomorrow as I'm not feeling great at the moment. :-(
>
> --
> Brian

Until I saw this tweet from Kellyn, I had no idea that Jake had fallen into the fire. I'm surprised the show glossed over it. You can see from her tweet that it was Carson who noticed what happened during the airing of the episode.

https://twitter.com/thekellynb/status/1710250855738273854

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Brian