Month: September 2009

Hell’s Kitchen Season 6 Episode 10

The men lost Andy, then they were saddled with Suzanne in Hell’s Kitchen Season 6 Episode 9.

The women are thrilled they don’t have to deal with Suzanne any more. The men are not so thrilled with this change, and they let her know they have no use for her. What this does do is gives the blue team a one person advantage, if she counts as a whole person.

The chefs are given a challenge to take 15 ingredients and combine 5 together into three dishes. Sabrina feels her teammates are ignoring her. As for Suzanne, the men don’t want to hear what she’s saying either. Tennille and Ariel believe they’re working with lamb, so Sabrina sabotages them and lets them keep thinking it’s lamb instead of venison. Ramsay has brought two people I never heard of before, figure skaters Sasha Cohen and Jonny Moseley. The blue team gets a point from both for their first dish. There’s a concern that the red dish is too rich. Tennille presents lamb, which Sabrina finds hilarious. She wants to see her team fall on its face. When questioned, Tennille realizes it’s venison. Despite Sabrina’s efforts to sink her team, they still get the point from both judges. Van and Sabrina step forward with the final dishes. Van doesn’t know what he’s prepared. The judges seem more split than they had been on the previous dishes, but both pick the blue dish, so the blue team wins the challenge 4-2.

For their punishment, the women will work at a local farm milking cows and cleaning a pigpen. For their reward, the blue team goes to a restaurant to learn how to make grilled cheese sandwiches.

Ramsay’s menu has been torn up, so each team will have to create their own menu. They’ve got an hour to come up with three appetizers, three entrees, and three desserts. The women are not happy with Tennille’s suggestions, and they’re clashing already. Blue team, however, are collaborating well. Sabrina doesn’t even hide the fact that she doesn’t like Ariel’s menu choice, and she tells Ramsay as much. Apparently having spent most of her time making fun of Tennille, Sabrina did not produce a menu item of her own.

Tennille’s on the garnish station but has no clue how to cook the dish she’s being asked to cook.

Ramsay asks Van to tell him what 2 times 3 is. It’s like watching Jordan from Big Brother try to figure out how many quarters there are in an hour.

Ariel has delivered frozen pork on her first appetizers. Van goes the other direction, burning his scallops. Then Ariel again delivers some more stone cold food.

Dave’s been going through this with one hand the whole time. When he lifts a pan, he’s hit with pain in that hand. Time to see a medic. Nonetheless, he’s going to push through the pain and continue with the service. Commendable effort on his part, or lame editing to try to trick us?

Sabrina needs to pick up the speed. Does she need a timer to see just how slow she’s going?

As Ramsay’s being a big baby and whining for no good reason, Van just laughs at him. Not happy being laughed at, now it’s time to blow it all out of proportion. He’s not there to fight with him, though. So who’s he there to fight with?

Tennille starts sweeping in the middle of service. Next time, she might want to serve the food first, then sweep.

Van has delivered raw halibut. Dave considers this a rookie mistake. Van’s not new to cooking halibut. His second attempt is still uncooked. He doesn’t seem to be taking too well to this being screamed at all night long.

For her part, Sabrina, likewise, is getting yelled at for uncooked halibut.

With neither team able to get their halibut cooked, they’re shut down. Nobody won. Both teams will have to come up with one name.

The blue team has a choice. Either Suzanne, who’s on her last life, or Van after his performance tonight.

Tennille and Sabrina hate each other, so it will come down to which of them Ariel wants nominated.

The red team has nominated Sabrina. The blue team has nominated Van, although Suzanne’s their weakest chef. If you’re going to nominate Van, just nominate Van. Don’t talk badly about someone who you wish to remain in the competition and be part of your team. Unless their strategy is merely to make sure they survive intact so that there’s no choice but to get rid of the other team’s member.

The person leaving Hell’s Kitchen is Sabrina. She proved she needed to go home when she laughed at her team’s mistake rather than trying to help correct it.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Hell’s Kitchen Season 6 Episode 11, which airs next on Fox.

Heroes Season 4 Episode 2

Heroes Season 4 Episode 1 started us off with the introduction of new character Samuel and his quest to change the past, Hiro’s accidental traveling back in time to change his own past, and Sylar’s return as he tries to overpower Nathan and get his body back.

Sylar’s now got baby Matt Parkman, and he won’t put him down until he gets his body. It’s all in his mind, his very disturbed mind.

HRG makes a call to his wife. A man answers the phone. It’s not a wrong number. After hanging up, he gets a call from Tracy, who wants to show him Danko’s body.

Hiro wants to go back to the future. He runs into himself, and he thinks he looks familiar. He’s returned to the moment he got that fortune that brought him down this path. His efforts to return to the future are not working, so instead he runs into Samuel.

Claire’s got some questions to answer. Her roommate had too much self esteem and was an overachiever. That’s not the impression the suicide note left, although Claire distinctly remembers her pillow case was crisp and lacked a note. How can a dead girl write a suicide note?

Ando tells Hiro’s sister the truth. Hiro slipped out of time and space and is 14 years ago at a carnival. The truth is lost on her.

If Hiro interferes in what’s going on over there at his fortune telling, he won’t save the cheerleader, and New York will explode. His belief is that everything is connected, so he doesn’t want to change anything while he’s there. Not even one little thing? Like preventing Ando from spilling a drink all over his sister Kimiko’s favorite dress. Nope. If Hiro won’t change things, Samuel pushing him in the way of the drink might. When he returns to the future, it worked. Now Ando and Kimiko are dating, or just really friendly.

HRG notices that all of Danko’s wounds are to the stomach. The killer was looking for something, but he left it behind. It’s a key. To what?

Noah stops by to see Peter, who intends through his paramedic job to make up for all they’ve done. It turns out the key opens a safe deposit box. He’s looking for a partner to defend him from the guy who’s super fast and has a thing for knives.

Gretchen can’t make sense of Annie’s suicide either. Who maps out their life for the next 50 years then throws it out the window? So how do they prove it’s murder?

HRG bets Peter knows the name of everybody he’s saved. Do any of them know his? Speaking from experience, Noah says it’s not good to live life alone. They’ve found out what Danko got killed for: a compass. A broken compass at that. As expected, they’re attacked, which allows Peter to copy the attacker’s power. When the fight’s over, Peter’s concern is to save the banker’s life.

When Peter grabs the compass, it starts spinning, but Peter wants to stay away from this. He just came along for the new ability.

Gretchen suggests the jump, push, fall test. By getting a dummy the approximate size and weight of Annie, they should be able to determine whether she fell, jumped, or was pushed.

Hiro has a new mission in life: to go back and undo his wrongs.

Matt’s interrogating a suspect. Sylar has a suggestion: just read his mind. Because the suspect thinks he’s crazy, which he may very well be, he folds after having a chair thrown in his general direction and gives up a name. Didn’t need to read minds after all.

While on duty, Peter gets a call. Arriving on the scene, he finds out that Noah’s been slashed, and the compass is gone.

Tracy has a suggestion. Maybe their plan should not be to stop the guy with the knives but to figure out a way to help him.

Matt returns home where he finds the water guy Roy. He had no problem fixing the hot water. Must be tough out there for a single mom. She’s not exactly single as far as Parkman knows, but tomorrow, Roy will be asking for a new route and never stop by there again.

Claire opens her window. She’s about Annie’s size and weight. Based on where she landed, she’ll have to go with fall. Guess Annie did kill herself. Oh, and Gretchen’s standing there watching Claire push her ribs back into her body.

Now that Samuel’s got Hiro on the path he wants him to be on, it’s time to get the rest of them.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Heroes Season 4 Episode 3 Ink, which airs Monday at 8/7c on NBC.

Heroes Season 4 Episode 1

Heroes Season 3 Episode 25 concluded Volume 4 with Nathan’s death and Sylar subsequently assuming the role of Nathan. Tonight, Volume 5 Redemption begins.

One of the good things to come out of the cancellation of Prison Break is that we get to see Robert Knepper (T-Bag) join the Heroes cast as Samuel. He’s the leader of a carnival clan, one gifted with extraordinary abilities. Mourning the loss of his brother Joseph, he tells his followers that there are others out there just like them.

Claire’s moving into a dorm and meets her new roommate Annie, who’s an AP student expecting somebody similar. But Claire got her GED because she was traveling and saving the world and such. Annie wants Claire to map out her future and put childish things behind. This should be oodles of fun.

Hiro and Ando believe that somebody will call Dial a Hero. Well, at least Hiro does anyway. Just look at the bar graph. Ando’s remembering a day years ago where he spilled something on Hiro’s sister. His theory is that she hates him because of that day at the carnival.

Peter’s a paramedic. He’s sitting in gridlock going nowhere, but he’s sure he can find a shortcut, by way of leaping tall buildings in a single bound.

Claire goes to class where she’s given 45 minutes to solve an equation. She’s gonna need a little longer than that. Maybe 45 months. Realizing this, she promptly bails, after having a vision that she’s been tasered by snipers.

The woman Peter saved ended up having twins. He can’t celebrate. 30 seconds more, and all three of them would have been dead. Him getting there faster than humanly possible is not good enough.

Ando and Hiro have their first client. A little girl wants to get her cat down. Are there no fireman around? As a reward for rescuing him, the cat attacks Ando and makes him fall. Lucky thing Hiro can freeze him.

Noah considers his decision to turn Sylar into Nathan an emotional one, hence, wrong. Now he doesn’t want anything to do with him.

When HRG gets into his car, it fills with water, which begins to freeze. He’s been paid a visit by Tracy Strauss. Danko can’t figure out how she survived. He put in a bullet into her himself and shattered her into a thousand pieces. Danko’s plan: kill Tracy before she kills them.

Claire meets up with Gretchen, somebody who may well be more normal than the rest of the people in the college. As they’re talking about how they’re from Texas, Gretchen recognizes the name. There was a Claire Bennet who got decapitated.

After he saves Ando from the fall, Hiro freezes.

As much as she may wish to pretend otherwise, Angela’s nightmares tell the truth. Sylar is Nathan now, and that doesn’t sit very well with her. To complicate things, Nathan’s confused. When he looks back on his life, it’s like it’s not his life he’s looking back on. Furthermore, he doesn’t feel mortal. Rather, he feels invincible. Mama suggests going out to get a big expensive sports car and a younger woman with questionable morals to get over this midlife crisis.

Angela calls Parkman with worry that Sylar’s beginning to emerge again. Her request is to apply a patch or upgrade him, but he believes he’s out and done with this whole thing.

While messing around in his office, Nathan realizes he’s got a creepy shocking power.

Noah pays Claire a visit at school. Annie’s been catching him up, telling him about how Claire needs to apply herself.

This morning when he was talking about redemption, Samuel left out the part about vengeance.

Tracy joins Noah and tells him that the reason why she’s still alive is simple. Her one cohesive thought was to kill all of them. He’s willing to help her out because he, too, is seeking redemption. It’s not quite that easy to seal a deal, though. Noah plans on getting what he wants. Danko will forget about Tracy.

Upon his return home, Danko runs into Tracy, a woman he no longer recognizes. Then he’s attacked by Edgar, Samuel’s assassin. Edgar then makes the mistake of attacking Tracy, who’s not nearly as easy a target and uses her powers to gain the upperhand and not end up all chopped up.

Ando’s wheeled the still frozen Hiro back to the office, where he manages to wake him up. Instead of freezing time, time froze him. Now his nose is bleeding. He doesn’t want to see a doctor. He’s already done that. The news is not good. He’s dying. Maybe soon. This all started the night of the carnival. He got his fortune that he would be a powerful hero. Ever since then, he’s been focused on doing just that. What if he never got that fortune? Hiro puts his foot down about going back, but that doesn’t prevent him from accidentally going back to that night at the carnival 14 years ago.

Thanks to Lydia, Samuel thinks he’s found somebody who can help them fix the past. He just needs to go back 14 years first.

When she returns to her room, Claire sees the windows open. Outside lies the corpse of her roommate.

Like Angela, Parkman is having nightmares about Sylar, who wants his body back.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Heroes Season 4 Episode 2 Jump, Push, Fall, which airs next on NBC.

Survivor: Thailand Episode 5

In an effort to bring peace to the tribe, Chuay Gahn voted out Ghandia in Survivor: Thailand Episode 4.

Jan voting the way she did puts her on the outside of the tribe. Add to that the fact that she’s the weakest link on the challenges, and she’d just better hope her tribe can win immunity.

Sook Jai’s decided to kill a chicken and have it for breakfast. Not waiting very long here. Shii Ann creeps out her tribe by eating neck, intestines, hearts, etc. Rather, she mostly creeps out Robb, who didn’t like her to begin with. You’d be surprised how good chicken neck tastes when you’re starving, but nobody else wants to partake.

Ted wants to make sure that Brian’s on his side. Brian agrees they’re going to the end together. He really doesn’t say very much, though. He just lets other people do the talking.

Over on Sook Jai, they hear Robb screaming. Nobody thinks much of it at first because he’s always running his mouth. Then they realize he’s bleeding. He figures he was bit by something out in the ocean.

Chuay Gahn has lost their boat. That’s a problem for two reasons. First, they have the beach with the nice shelter, which means their water trek is far. Second, that’s their fishing boat, and their net was in it. Ted gets the blame for the boat loss, but nobody vocalizes this blame to him.

The reward challenge is an auction. Before they get to that, Jeff poses a question to them, and he’ll give them 60 seconds to think about it. Does anybody want to switch tribes? Stephanie might consider getting the hell out of there, but everybody else may as well stay put. Shii Ann hates her tribe, so she’s tempted, but she is not budging either. Helen thinks that Jan should hop on the offer, but either way, she’s the next one gone. Ultimately, both tribes stay put.

Both tribes are given $1,000, and they will be bidding as a tribe. First item is a burger and fries. Sook Jai starts at $20, $60 for Chuay Gahn, $80 for Sook Jai, $100 Chuay Gahn, $120 Sook Jai. Sook Jai gets the burger and fries. Shii Ann walks away without paying, until Ted says something and Jeff remembers he was supposed to take money. A pitcher of limeade is next. Chuay Gahn bids $20 and gets it without Sook Jai putting up any resistance. A mystery item is next. $20 Chuay Gahn, $40 Sook Jai, $60 Chuay Gahn, $80 Sook Jai. For their $80, Sook Jai gets a bowl of grubs. Stephanie seems just fine with them. They taste like mushrooms and are full of protein. Spaghetti and meatballs and garlic bread are the next item, starting at an expensive $120. Chuay Gahn starts things off, $140 to Sook Jai, $280 Chuay Gahn, $300 Sook Jai, $320 Chuay Gahn, $340 Sook Jai, $360 Chuay Gahn, $380 Sook Jai, $400 Chuay Gahn. Expensive meal for Chuay Gahn. The next item is another mystery. Sook Jai bids $40, $60 Chuay Gahn, $80 Sook Jai, $100 Chuay Gahn, $160 Sook Jai, $180 Chuay Gahn, $200 Sook Jai. Chuay Gahn wants to let them have it. This one’s bound to be good. For their $200, Sook Jai gets a hot fudge sundae. Nachos are next. $60 for Sook Jai, $80 for Chuay Gahn, $100 for Sook Jai, $140 for Chuay Gahn, $200 Sook Jai, $240 Chuay Gahn, $260 Sook Jai. After that bid, Jeff says that something else goes with that. Then Ted realizes the other tribe is almost out of money. $280 from Chuay Gahn, $300 Sook Jai, $320 Chuay Gahn, and they know they’ve got this item won. In addition to the nachos, they get margaritas, and the auction is over.

Penny says that Stephanie’s slowly coming around and changing to be part of the tribe more now. Stephanie says that everybody’s being nicer now because they’re eating.

Brian and Helen have decided to swim over to the water on the day they have a challenge. They run the risk that they’ll be exhausted, but they see this as better than being dehydrated.

The challenge is to sort fish into bins. Every fish must be sorted and in the right bin. Erin and Ken sit out for Sook Jai. Not really a lot to say about this challenge. It’s anybody’s game, and there’s no clarity who is or is not winning. When it gets down to the end, it turns out Chuay Gahn has a big lead. They’ve got one incorrectly sorted fish, but once they correct that, Chuay Gahn wins immunity.

Stephanie’s wishing that she had jumped to the other tribe when she had the chance. She feels like her days are numbered. She and Shii Ann are discussing how the other tribe all seem really nice.

Now Erin’s whining about the way Shii Ann was eating. Jake doesn’t have any problem with Shii Ann because she works.

At tribal council, Jeff asks Shii Ann whether she considered switching tribes. She pretends that she likes her current tribe and really didn’t consider the move.

In his vote against Shii Ann, Robb says that she gets on his nerves and he doesn’t like being around her. But it’s nothing personal.

Votes
Stephanie
Stephanie
Shii Ann
Shii Ann
Stephanie
Stephanie

By a vote of 5-2, Stephanie has been voted off the island.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor: Thailand Episode
6 The Power of One.

Survivor: Thailand Episode 4

Ghandia came into the game full of emotional baggage and let it all come out in Survivor: Thailand Episode 3. Despite the tension between her and Ted, their tribe won the challenge, mostly because the other tribe lost on purpose so that they could get rid of Jed, a decision that’s probably a little too early to be making.

With Jed out of the game, Stephanie’s sourness will only get worse. Robb with two b’s will at least make an attempt to blend in.

Over on Chuay Gahn, as much as they say they’re over what happened, it ain’t gonna be over until one of them is gone. Ted has decided that Ghandia is not even on the island. He hates her guts, with good reason. It’s ending up as the women on one side and the men on another. To me it’s pretty black and white, though. Ted may or may not have done something wrong depending on how you look at it, but Ghandia’s excessive overreaction to it after accepting his apology is what’s brought them where they are now. This TV show is not the appropriate forum for someone to seek therapy, and really not something the viewers need to be subjected to.

The tribes get a dummy for their next challenge. They’ll have to dress him up and name him. Chuay Gahn decorates theirs together, while Stephanie decorates her tribe’s pretty much by herself with no desire for assistance. The challenge will be to carry that dummy, which weighs 250 pounds, around the island. Reward is bananas and a mystery to be revealed later. Shii Ann sits out for Sook Jai. Sook Jai has a slight lead early on. Crossing over to the other side of the island, they increase the gap significantly to a point where they’ve obviously got this won. Sook Jai wins reward.

When they return, the boys blame Ghandia and Jan. Helen’s name does not come up for blame, but Ghandia and Jan were clearly weak links in the challenge, so the blame is warranted. Ghandia immediately assumes they’re talking about her, so she gets all bent out of shape and blames them for blaming her. She’s not going to play their blame game. Instead, she’s going to play her own blame game.

Over on Sook Jai, when they return to camp, they find their mystery prize, chickens.

The men on Chuay Gahn go out fishing, while the women do the chores. In his sexist confessional, Brian views this as nature’s way. The women should be in the house cooking and cleaning and doing their laundry. As much as Helen doesn’t like the roles, she realizes she has to just keep her mouth shut because being loud won’t do anything but get her voted off next.

The immunity challenge involves tangrams, pieces of wood cut into 7 pieces used to form various shapes. They’ll have to match the shapes with the examples they are shown. Stephanie will sit out for Sook Jai. Sook Jai manages to solve the first puzzle because Shii Ann proves to be good at puzzles as she indicated last time. They also finish the second puzzle. Sook Jai wins immunity.

It’s obvious what has to happen now. Either Ted has to go or Ghandia has to go. The tribe will not be united with them both still there.

Strangely, Ghandia says that she’s got a toss up between Clay and Ted. When she and Jan talk, they decide Clay’s anti-female views don’t bode well for them. Helen is surprised by the move to get rid of Clay instead of Ted, and she’s assuming that if she goes into this deadlocked, it will come down to a purple rock.

At tribal council, Jeff asks whether everybody is pulling their own weight. Ghandia doesn’t hesitate to answer nope. Jan and Clay attempt to be somewhat more diplomatic about this question.

Votes
Ghandia
Clay
Ghandia
Clay
Ghandia (aka Denver Diva, the first time Jeff’s ever seen a vote that he doesn’t know who it’s for)
Ghandia

By a vote of 4-2, Ghandia has been voted off the island. Good riddance. At least she realizes in her closing speech that it was a big mistake to use the event that happened as game strategy to pit both sides against each other.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of Survivor: Thailand Episode
5 The Ocean’s Surprise.

The Vampire Diaries Season 1 Episode 2

The Vampire Diaries premiered last week as the largest launch ever by The CW, hopefully proving to the network that they don’t need pink shows (or Fox remakes from the 90s) to be successful. It also gave me a reason to watch The CW again, which I’d thought I lost when they cancelled Reaper. Episode 1 introduced us to the main likely to be on again off again love interests Stefan and Elena. At the end of the episode, we also met Stefan’s less than good brother Damon, who attacked (but failed to kill) Vicki.

A couple are out in the woods camping. She’s worried about it raining and him staying dry. It’s raining alright. Blood.

Things are changing for Stefan and Elena. They’re happy to wake up and greet the day so they can see each other. Awww.

Bonnie’s found out that she’s technically a witch. I knew it, and I await the British librarian.

Matt reveals that a vampire attacked Vicki, although he thinks that she was just drunk. Wait for it, dude. You’ll be a believer soon enough.

It’s the third day of school, and Jeremy’s already skipped six classes. That story about his parents having died four months ago isn’t going to cut it any more. The fact that he’s on drugs isn’t exactly a secret to the faculty of the school either.

Matt goes to visit Vicki in the hospital. What he didn’t anticipate is that Stefan overheard the whole vampire story and now wants to keep things quiet, so he uses mind control on both of them. Matt knows somebody was in that room. He just doesn’t know who.

Elena and Stefan just talked last night. Caroline just wants him to jump his bones already.

When Vicki wakes up, she doesn’t remember any screaming fit that she had because it never happened except in Matt’s mind. What she does remember is that she was attacked by an animal, a thought planted in her mind by Stefan.

Taking Caroline’s advice and going after the boy, Elena heads to Stefan’s house. That’s where she meets up with Damon. He warns her about “the last one,” Katherine. Stefan interrupts to thank her for stopping by and to tell her good riddance.

That whole animal attack story may not last very long, as Vicki’s now starting to have nightmares about the vampire who tried to kill her.

Elena’s realizing that Stefan is a complicated guy who likes to apologize a lot. Maybe she won’t be shacking up with him after all.

When she returns to the bar, Vicki knows that she knows Damon. She doesn’t know how, but she does know him. She’ll probably be more clear about how she knows him when he takes her up to the roof. He doesn’t need her to be dead, but his brother might. That animal attack story is now completely gone. The vampire one is back, but not the right one. Stefan is getting the blame for the attack. Damon’s plan is to see if he can get his brother to kill again, but it’s not working. With that in mind, Damon makes her forget everything that just happened. She just assumes that her being a druggie is what caused her current confused state.

Upon handing Elena’s cell phone number and e-mail address to Stefan, Bonnie wigs out, asks what happened to him, and walks away.

Aunt Jenna has decided she’s now an authority figure, so she’s ready to bust Jeremy for being a dealer, although she’s still worried that he’s going to get worse.

Rather than closing out the night by writing in her diary, Elena has decided that she’d better just go say all that stuff to Stefan. The talking doesn’t last very long.

As for Damon, he’s found his next victim.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Vampire Diaries Episode 3 Friday Nights, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on The CW.

Survivor: Samoa Episode 1

Survivor is back for season 19, and the larger than normal Survivor: Samoa cast consists of 20 contestants.

The contestants have been divided into two tribes.

Galu (Purple): Brett, Dave, Erik, John, Kelly, Laura, Monica, Russell S, Shannon, Yasmin
Foa Foa (Yellow): Ashley, Ben, Betsy, Elizabeth, Jaison, Marisa, Mick, Mike, Natalie, Russell H

Their first decision is to elect tribe leaders, despite the fact that they haven’t said anything to anyone yet. Mick believes he has leadership qualities, something he may want to keep to himself. Shannon’s lame nickname is Shambo.

Galu gives Russell S half their votes, with the runner up being Shambo with 3. With 4 votes, Mick gets his wish and is elected by Foa Foa over Jaison, who received 3 votes.

Now that they’ve been elected, it’s time to make a decision. Who will participate in the opening challenge? First, their best swimmer. Mick picks Jaison, who it turns out played water polo, while Russell picks John. For the strongest person, Russell H and Erik are chosen. The most agile people are Marisa and Yasmin, who was dumb enough to wear high heels. The smartest people are Elizabeth and Shambo, who wants God’s help to be smart.

The swimmer will swim out and get a key. The strong person will free up bundles of logs and bring them back to the mat. The most agile person will cross a balance beam. The smart person will solve a puzzle. First tribe to solve the puzzle wins reward. Game has barely started, and they’re already playing for fire. Jaison proves to be a strong swimmer as expected and takes the lead. Russell moves the first bundle of logs easily, but he struggles with the second one. Erik appears like he may have narrowed the gap some, but in either case he showed he’s going to push. Marisa’s already having a wardrobe malfunction even though she hasn’t lost any weight yet. Shambo comes pretty close to pulling the come from behind victory off, but ultimately Foa Foa wins reward.

Ben steps up to take some control, since he’s a hillbilly who’s done all this before.

Russell H didn’t come here to work. He came here to play. His plan is to have a secret alliance with each one of these dumb girls, as well as the not so dumb older lady, Betsy, who doesn’t trust him because he approached her too quickly.

Unlike Foa Foa, where Mick is happy to let Ben take charge, Russell S is would like to continue his leadership role when they get to camp. Except John keeps talking, so getting him under control may be Russell’s biggest challenge. Shambo, who was close to being the leader but not quite, doesn’t appreciate Russell’s leadership style. She wants him to whip these people into shape.

Russell H is telling a story. The only part of this story that’s true is, well, none of it. He’s never lived in New Orleans, was not there during Katrina, is not a fireman, and never even had a German shepherd.

Afterward, he empties all the water out of all the canteens and burns someone’s sock in the fire in an attempt to make everybody miserable.

It turns out that the burnt socks were Jaison’s. He’s getting blisters and has cold feet. As for everybody’s missing water, that’s a problem because it’s creating the potential for bickering amongst the tribe. What Russell needs to be careful of here, though, is his smirking. It may give it away.

For the immunity challenge, six members of each tribe will race while carrying three coils of rope. They will then use that rope to pull a heavy crate to the finish platform, where the four remaining members will disassemble the crate and solve a puzzle. Galu’s off to a sizeable lead. Yasmin, who luckily also packed some sneakers, slows down on the second platform, but they still retain their lead. With Russell’s strength, Foa Foa is able to close the gap some on the crate. Galu performs strongly in the puzzle portion of the challenge to win immunity.

The men are discussing the need to vote based on strength. That means one of the women, with Ashley being the name that Mike brings up.

Russell’s already overplaying. Marisa tells him that she does not like that he’s talking to everybody else individually when he’s supposedly in an alliance with her. He has now decided that Marisa is going first.

Betsy’s intuition is still telling her that Russell can’t be trusted.

When asked at tribal council who the weakest link is, Betsy openly acknowledges that it’s Ashley. When Marisa is given the same question, she dodges it, so Ben makes it as if this a bad thing. After Russell berates her, she apologizes if she did anything to put a mark on her back when she supposedly targeted him.

Votes
Marisa
Marisa
Ashley
Ashley
Marisa
Ashley
Marisa
Marisa
Marisa

With 6 votes, Marisa has been voted out. Russell’s proved he’s in charge, but he’s playing a stupidly aggressive game that in the long run should bite him in the butt. The Ashley votes came from Betsy, Marisa, and Mick.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: Samoa Episode 2, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 2

So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 1 turned out to be a pretty eventful opening night, as we saw performances from Mollee Gray, Ryan Kasprzak, Bianca Revels, Amber Williams, and Phillip Attmore.

Tonight we head to Phoenix, AZ, which some have said is less than a mile from the sun.

Brandon “Shorty” Smallwood (a little guy who may well be Urkel) and Demitrio “Biggie” Bargas (a white guy who should consider applying for The Biggest Loser instead) will apparently be dancing together. Nigel doesn’t know anybody who watched that but didn’t enjoy it. That’s not to stay it was good. Nonetheless, he wants them to go to choreography.

Sasha Mallory auditioned in season 4 but was cut in Vegas. Mia thought that was a really strong solo. Mary felt it was so beautiful. Nigel knows her family is very proud because the judges are, too.

Katie Muth and Ellie Soto will be joining her in Vegas.

Allison Becker was diagnosed with spinal meningitis at 16 months and is deaf. It’ll be interesting to see how she can perform without being able to hear the music or instruction. Nigel thought her movement and face were beautiful, though her technique is not as good as he would like it yet. Mary sees her as an inspriration because she didn’t give up. Allison will be going through to choreography.

Willem de Vries and Jacob Jason are same sex dancers, something we know from last season that Nigel does not like. To be real men, they need to be able to spit and belch and watch monster trucks. Mary is really proud having just seen a lot of emotion, passion, and great technique. Mia celebrates their courage. Nigel thanks them for showing him that same sex dancing can be very good.

Jonathan Noronha comes on stage with two sticks in his hand. This will be bad. Nigel had fun, but it’s not right for this show. So what show is it right for then?

Demetrio calls it quits in the middle of the choreography round. His buddy Brandon has been rejected. However, Allison, Jacob, and Willem will be going to Vegas.

Jarvis Johnson is so excited, and he just can’t hide it. Dude, it’s called decaf. Nigel calls him a dancing fool. There are worse kinds of fools he could be. Mia can just say one thing. Wow. For whatever reason, Mary and Nigel let him go through to choreography. Nigel wants a nap now.

As the day goes by, things get more and more strange. It’s not the heat; it’s the stupidity.

Kelsey White will see if she can break the trend by actually being normal. Nigel runs away out of fear that there are aliens in the vicinity, but from off stage he gives his okay for choreography. Mia thought it was just okay. Mary sees potential.

Jonathan “Legacy” Perez is a breakdancer closing out the day. Nigel thinks he’s tremendous but is not sure how he’ll do in other styles. Mary calls him one of the most exciting B-boys she’s seen. Mia calls him stupid, which is apparently a compliment.

During choreography, Jarvis collapses. The judges should have seen this coming. Kelsey has been cut but is told she was really close.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of So You Think You Can Dance Season 6 Episode 3, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on Fox.