Shane

Survivor: China Episode 11

As much as they wanted to get rid of the person annoying them the most, Peih-Gee, in Survivor: China Episode 9, her immunity win prevented that, so they got rid of Frosti instead, with every move being obviously orchestrated by Todd. We left the show at tribal council, where we were told there was more business to attend to.

They’re going to participate in a reward challenge right at tribal council. The winner will travel to the Shaolin Temple by private jet. Before the challenge even starts, they’re told they’ll need to choose two people to take with them. As twists go, this is rather lame. Fun to watch them sweat, but not worth a two week cliffhanger.

The challenge is multiple choice about China. Todd, James, Peih-Gee, and Denise get the first question right. Everybody got the second question right. Everybody except Denise got the third question right. Everybody except Amanda got the fourth question right, putting Peih-Gee, James, and Todd one away from winning. Peih-Gee wins reward. She picks Erik first, the only logical personal choice, then she chooses Denise, an odd choice, but Denise has made it clear she feels like the outcast of her tribe for a while. May be better off bonding further with Amanda, though.

Peih-Gee doesn’t waste any time. On the flight to the temple, she’s already discussing a final three plan. For some reason, though, she still sees James as someone potentially on her side. Back at camp, the others are discussing being the final four, but Amanda tells us she doesn’t want to go to the finals with any of them.

Denise mentions that she’s been studying karate for 8 years. When they get to the temple, they’re greeted with a martial arts demonstration from guys with the level of skill you would expect at the Shaolin Temple. Then the Survivors join in. Denise makes it obvious she’s probably the most grateful person who could have received the reward, so maybe there is some hope that Peih-Gee’s choice will pay off.

When they get back, Amanda goes out of the cave to greet everybody. The other three just stay hidden, avoiding the rain and probably the people returning.

Denise quickly goes to Todd and tells him Peih-Gee’s plan to be final three, as well as the first person mentioned as a boot, him.

James has no interest in flipping and doesn’t even pretend and dangle a ray of hope.

Amanda goes to Courtney with a plan. She wants James out because he’s got the two idols. If they don’t do it now, they won’t be able to because he will save himself at 6 and again at 5. He still feels unnecessarily secure, so this is definitely a plan that could work.

The immunity challenge is throwing Chinese stars. Peih-Gee scores 0. Todd hits once, scoring 3. Erik hits twice, scoring 6. Courtney hits all three times, scoring 6. Amanda hits twice, also scoring 6. Denise hits once, scoring 2. The four who scored 6 move onto the final round. In the final round, they get one throw each with a target 10 feet further out. Courtney misses. Amanda scores 2. Erik scores 3. James misses. Erik wins immunity.

James wants to take out Erik but will settle for Peih-Gee. Amanda goes to the rest of her group with the plan to get rid of James. Peih-Gee goes to Amanda to propose a James boot. Amanda tells her to shut up the rest of the day and pretend like she’s going home. Dangerous, but it may be her best plan. She does as she’s told, but she takes one extra step and suggests to Erik that they should vote for Todd, just in case James uses the idol.

James doesn’t play his idol.

Votes:
Todd
James
Peih-Gee
James
James
James

With two hidden idols in his back pocket, James gets blindsided. Well played, and hopefully a lesson for future players on how to get rid of the idols instead of letting them carry someone to the finals like they have for the past three seasons. It’s clear we’ve got one of the smartest casts we’ve seen in a while. That said, it’s no doubt this season’s most popular player just got the boot. He leaves with a positive attitude and won’t carry a grudge.

Next week, Amanda looks to get out from under Todd’s shadow, while Denise remains on the outside, which now is enough to make her a key swing vote.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: China episode 12 Going for the Oscar, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

Watch Survivor: China Online

Bionic Woman Episode 8

Antonio died saving Jaime’s life in Bionic Woman episode 7.

While everybody from the company is mourning Antonio’s death, Jaime tells Jonas she’s getting used to seeing people she’s close to die.

Jaime gets a little too aggressive when hunting someone down, so Jonas forces her to take some time off. She takes Becca along with her on the vacation. Of course, Jonas considers it a working vacation. He keeps calling her, unable to get through because she turned off her cell phone. He wants her to check on his guy, who happens to be staying there and has killed himself. She asks what’s going on but gets few answers, largely based on her own snooping in the briefcase. She sees a photograph in a folder and finds out the dead guy was an assassin.

Nick, the guy Becca met at the hotel, invites them on a gondola ride along with his dad, the target whose profile she saw in the briefcase. He’s a nuclear engineer who’s going to sell more efficient plutonium enrichment technology to the North Koreans. They chat, and she blows her cover, revealing he’s pretending to be an accountant before he even told her he was pretending to be one. Jonas tells her she needs to kill him before he kills her.

Jaime has trouble killing him, but she does get him alone. Jonas makes him an offer over the phone: talk or die. He agrees to talk if Jonas gets him and his son out of there. While they’re driving away, Jaime hears something. She gets them out of the car just in time to avoid being blown up.

They steal a car and drive away. It goes without being said that they were followed. Jonas arrives and tells them the truck they saw that was tailing them is there, leading to something that resembles a fight (really just Jaime knocking people down). Out front, the guy whose phone Jaime used earlier recognizes her. Jonas asks who it is, she replies, and he kills him without giving it a second thought, saying the guy whose phone she used looked nothing like that.

On the way back, Jaime wonders if she should take the advice she gave Nick’s dad: should she stop lying to her family? Jonas says it’s okay to tell Becca the truth if she wants. She’s able to get out the part about Antonio dying, but that’s as far as she takes the truth for now.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Bionic Woman episode 9.

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Kid Nation Episode 11

A new town council was elected in Kid Nation episode 10. Michael beat Laurel, Guylan quit and gave it to DK, Greg beat Anjay, and Blaine beat Zach. They came up with a plan to teach Taylor a lesson for refusing to work, but they were not willing to be mean enough to carry it out, so she promised she’d try harder.

Taylor thinks all the ugly animals should die. The town council agrees that some chickens need to die. However, Greg wants to kill the brown chickens, which Taylor considers the pretty ones, which therefore should stay alive. To prevent complete chaos, Sophia lets Taylor choose which chickens should die.

The pioneers suggest that the kids need to study. Because the showdown might have something to do with the history books about Bonanza City, the town council supports this. Taylor hates school and reading. Laurel’s okay with it. Jared doesn’t want to be flipping burgers at the supermarket.

Leila and Taylor don’t care what the council says about studying. They take off and go to the chicken coop instead. So the council threatens them. Again. Leila’s willing to listen, but Taylor doesn’t budge.

As expected, the showdown is about the history books. It’s a combination pop quiz/slingshot competition. Green gets the first point, following yellow’s incorrect belief that Pinto is a native American tribe. Blue ties it at 1, then takes the lead with a second point. So when did the Ewoks settle America then? Yellow gets their first point, and green ties blue with their second. Red finally gets a point. Green district gets a third point to become the upper class, thanks to Hunter’s excellent shooting. Now that they’ve figured out how to use a slingshot, red gets their second point. Blue are the merchant class. Yellow gets a point to tie red at 2, then a third to take third place. Red district is laborers.

In order to win reward, they must conserve ammo so that they have enough to fill a jar. Red district wasted a lot of ammo, but it doesn’t matter since the other districts nearly filled it. Reward is a choice between a library (Taylor’s unimpressed) and an arcade. Greg and Blaine push for the arcade. Michael would prefer the library. They decide to go with the arcade and tell Taylor she’s not allowed to play any of the games.

Green district goes to play in the arcade, except Sophia, who builds a library to replace the one they didn’t choose. Hunter checks it out for a bit but then goes back to cleaning up the kitchen.

Red district must haul water first. Now it’s Jared and Mike’s turn to disobey, and they decide to go to the arcade without finishing their jobs.

Taylor says she just needs to be treated with respect. Oh, that explains it. In an effort to get in the arcade, though, she does agree to wash dishes. After the dishes are done, without much help from the rest of her district, they allow her to go in the arcade.

Sophia wakes up to a ghost town. They’re all in the arcade. Despite the fact that she’s upper class and the yellow district are all in the arcade, Sophia decides to cook breakfast for everybody on her own. She confronts Blaine about this, and he’s gambling instead of cooking. DK gets angry and begins to question the decision to get the arcade.

DK, Sophia, and Nathan don’t approve of the arcade. Everybody else is happy with it. DK suggests padlocking it, and the rest of the council supports doing this. The kids must get a certain amount of work done in order to get into the arcade. The council elects Sophia as sheriff, and she will be responsible for enforcing this.

Hunter wins the gold star, the sixth member of the green district to do so. I’ve been expecting that for a while. He says he’ll give a lot of the money to his father, who lost his job a year ago.

Next week, the town council leaves, and Sophia’s in charge. Someone’s gonna get a beatdown.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Kid Nation episode 12 Where’s Bonanza, Dude?, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Dancing with the Stars 5 Winners

We’re down to the final three couples: Marie Osmond and Jonathan Roberts, Melanie Brown and Maksim Chmerkovskiy, and Helio Castroneves and Julianne Hough.

Marie and Jonathan are the first ones out, coming in third place. The winner will be announced after another 40 minutes of filler.

Mel and Maks do the mambo for their final dance. They get a perfect score of 30 from the judges, for a total of 85 out of 90 when combined with last night’s dances.

Helio and Julianne do the quickstep for their final dance. They also get a perfect score, for a total of 84 out of 90.

And the winners are… Helio and Julianne.

Reaper Episode 9

Sam still didn’t get the girl in Reaper Episode 8. Worse yet, when he gave her a gift that was more than a friend gift, she cried and said they couldn’t be more than just friends.

Sam’s the Devil’s handyman now, or so he’s told. He shows up to repair Mimi’s dishwasher, which she broke by using it as a washing machine, and she wants him to get her underwear out without ruining it. Oh, and this woman’s the Devil’s mistress. Not at all unusual.

Andi’s acting normal and like nothing’s happened. Sock’s theory is that Sam’s acting like a chick, and Andi’s acting like a dude.

He makes the mistake of telling Mimi he knows her boyfriend “Jerry.” She thinks he’s an importer but wants a window into his world, so she asks Sam what he knows, promising not to tell him they talked because “He would kill us.” He just tells her how great the Devil is, but not that he’s the Devil. Apparently there’s something wrong with that or something.

Ben’s grandmother shows up at The Work Bench. People in his family believe she has the eye, allowing her to predict the future and see evil spirits. He’s not ashamed of his family, though. Just Sock and Sam.

Sam knows that if he wants to find the soul, he needs to find Sarah. When he goes to find her, the soul kills her father. They figure out he uses the ashes to make himself a body.

Sock’s solution to Sam being depressed is to go ask Andi out again and again and again until she gets sick of him. He takes this advice, and she shoots him down for a movie. Ben tells Andi to stop being a guy and make a move, one way or another. She gives him a maybe.

The boys get a list of families the soul may be seeking revenge on, so they drive around pretending people have won a contest. While they’re in their houses, they take the opportunity to steal the ashes of their loved ones because that’s the only way to save them from all being killed. Sock insists he’ll take care of the ashes himself. Because that will go well. The Devil’s displeased they’re taking this route. He’s also displeased he’s getting demanding messages from Mimi.

Sam talks to his father about Andi. Since they’ve known each other for 5 years, he thinks the best case scenario is that he could hope for a miracle, but it’s probably time to move on. Setting that aside for now, they decide to go to Ben’s party, with the clincher being that maybe his grandmother could tell them where the soul’s going to strike next. They decide to take Mimi with them. When they get to the party, Ben’s grandmother sees the Devil in Sam’s palm and stabs his hand with a fork.

After bringing Mimi home, she wonders whether she should stop waiting for the Devil and move on. Sam advises her to leave him. While they’re there, the soul just so happens to show up at her house. They find the urn there but accidentally drop it, spilling the ashes. So they vacuum them and the soul up. Unsurprisingly, Sock’s promise to take care of the bags of ashes didn’t happen, as he just left them in the trunk, a perfect opportunity for the soul.

Having left the vessel at Ben’s house, they need to return there to stop the soul, which is now a giant ash monster. After watching the vanquish, Ben’s grandmother says he’s doing God’s work and has her blessing.

Mimi decides to move to New Mexico, and the Devil’s happy about it, though Sam believes he really cares about her and is the reason they managed to save her from being killed.

Sam goes to Mimi’s tag sale, where he instantly hits it off with her daughter Cady, who may possibly be the Devil’s daughter as well. Mimi would feel better if Sam hung out with her daughter when she moves.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Reaper episode 10 Cash Out, which airs Tuesday at 9/8c on The CW.

Beauty and the Geek 4 Episode 11

We got down to our final two in Beauty and the Geek 4 Episode 10. Obviously, one of those two teams is Sam & Nicole, this season’s twist. The other is Jasmine and David, which also is not a surprise, since they were considered a weak team, making them strategically a good team to drag further, though they did come on strong when they needed to.

Mike tells the teams there’s a(nother) new twist. This one probably won’t not suck any less than the previous ones. Before revealing that, though, the final two teams will get to go to each other’s home towns.

David takes Jasmine to Somerville, just outside of Boston. She’s concerned she’ll be judged for how she looks/talks, but that doesn’t present a problem. His friends surprise her when they tell her how social he is. She gets to be a LARPer. In public. In the process, she kills everybody except Dave, regardless of what side they’re on, but she can’t read the baron’s words because they’re not in Elvish.

Of course, the first place Sam takes Nicole to is the gym in Davis, CA. Then somehow the words coming out of her mouth are about being ready to go clubbing. She thinks there’s some point in the past in which he was a little more down to earth.

Sam goes to Nicole’s college, where he probably won’t find any frat parties. There she shows him she’s a good singer. Then she brings him to meet her roommates, where he likes to see her happy go lucky side coming out.

Nobody from Jasmine’s home is a cartoon character, which is disappointing to me. She takes him to visit her mom, then to babysit. On the visit, she learns Dave’s a friend.

Dave and Jasmine are hoping the winning team will be about who changed the most. Sam and Nicole are more interested in a quiz, or better yet one of the male-oriented beauty challenges Sam keeps winning.

Mike reveals how the winner will be determined. It’s not about who changed the most, or about what they’ve learned. Rather, it’s a popularity contest. America will vote.

Jasmine tells Dave to lighten up and just speak from the heart and have fun. Sam also wants to just have fun with it. Nicole would rather point out specifics and treat it like a quiz. It’s safe to say most people have already made up their minds, regardless of what’s said.

Nicole says she can relate to more people and take things a little less seriously. Sam says Nicole taught him how to not be crazy and unable to stand still, allowing him to be capable of learning. Jasmine and Dave point out how they didn’t want to be partners at first, but that they’ve grown and learned not to judge a book by its cover.

Voting will take place through Friday November 30th at noon EST, through both text messages and online.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Beauty and the Geek 4 episode 12, where we will find out who the winner is.

Heroes Season 2 Episode 10

Bob escalated his efforts to get Claire’s blood in Heroes Season 2 episode 9, kidnapping her. Her father, however, managed to kidnap Elle, arranging a trade and convincing West to help him for Claire’s sake. While they were making the swap, HRG was killed… briefly.

Peter tells Adam of what he saw in the future, where most of the world’s population was wiped out by the Shanti virus. Adam responds that Victoria Pratt obtained the virus from an Indian girl named Shanti, and that the virus is the crime of the Company founders. Peter wants to find Victoria and get some answers.

Bob goes to see HRG’s family, urn in hand. He offers them some attempt at being kind, saying they will be allowed to lead a normal life. When he goes out to the car, he blames Elle for what happened.

A not dead Noah is being doctored by Suresh, who infused him with his daughter’s blood to save him. The reaction to saving his life? Anger.

Niki returns to Micah, telling him about the virus she has. She tries to convince him Suresh will cure her.

Claiming her brother hates her for the murder of his wife, Sylar teaches Maya how to control her power.

Hiro thinks that maybe Kensei can live forever, and if so, he’d leave a trail.

Peter finds Victoria Pratt and mentions the Company. She pulls a gun on him, but after informing her of his trip to the future, she’s willing to talk.

Hiro and Ando find a picture of Adam Monroe from 1977. Ando says the name sounds familiar, and they find that he came from Primatech. Ignoring his previous vow not to mess with the past again, Hiro goes back in time again anyway. When he gets there, he sees Victoria trying to convince his father to destroy the virus.

Back in the present, Victoria tells Peter he’s looking for mutated strain 138 in New Mexico. When she sees Adam’s there with him, she wants to take both of them out. Except neither of them can be killed by bullets, so that doesn’t work.

When she goes to tell Alejandro the good news, Alejandro tells Maya their new friend Gabriel killed his mother. He says it was self defense and because his mother turned on him after finding out what he was, something Maya can understand. Since Alejandro doesn’t trust Sylar, an argument ensues that gets rid of Alejandro, exactly as intended.

Victoria tells Peter what happened 30 years ago, that Adam’s a killer who broke into the lab to release the virus, and that Peter must be a killer, too, since he’s with him. Now that he knows she lied to him, Peter again asks where the virus is. He can’t get an answer, but he can read her mind: Primatech in Odessa, TX. Adam unties and releases Victoria, who of course goes for a gun to shoot Peter, conveniently allowing Adam to kill her. She had the symbol on her photo as well.

Alejandro’s not quite done yet. He’s back to visit Sylar, insisting he’s taking his sister. Obviously, Sylar’s not having any of this. In the struggle, he kills Alejandro. Maya comes to the door, so Sylar leaves the dead body in the room and goes outside and kisses her.

Following her father’s death, Claire’s family decides to leave. She says it hurts more than falling 20 stories or being on fire. Her plan is to call on the Haitian and have her memory erased, but West tells her forgetting isn’t the answer.

Micah’s upset because his cousin got his dad’s medals stolen. He wants to be a hero and go get the medals, but his mom refuses. Monica, however, is willing to help. While they’re out, Suresh calls to tell Niki that he thinks he may have found a cure, and she goes to tell Micah and discovers he’s not in his bed. Using their powers, they break into the house where the kids who stole the backpack live. They come home just in time to catch Monica in the act.

Claire goes to the ocean to apologize to her father for being selfish and not listening. As she’s saying goodbye to West, she spots Elle spying on her. In an effort to scare Elle, she threatens to tell the world what she can do and that they kidnapped her and killed her father.

Sylar calls Suresh from home and asks for help for himself and Maya.

Like Peter, Hiro’s also on his way to Odessa. When Hiro shows up, he stops time and tells Peter why he’s there. Peter doesn’t want him to kill Adam, and the episode ends with Hiro charging at them with his sword.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Heroes Season 2 episode 11 Powerless, which airs Monday at 9/8c on NBC.

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The Amazing Race 12 Episode 4

A team that had been fairly invisible, Marianna & Julia, were eliminated in The Amazing Race 12 episode 3. Unfortunately, Lorena & Jason survived by the skin of their teeth, in spite of Lorena blowing past mere breakdown right into sheer embarrassment. On the other side of the coin, Azaria & Hendekea won the leg for the second time, while Nathan & Jennifer continued strongly following their near elimination in episode 1.

As usual, the show’s behind tonight. Worse than usual, though. Due to the football overrun, it’s about a 55 minute delay. A live blog will begin when 60 Minutes is over.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived. Given the design of the previous leg, everybody’s pretty bunched up.

First: Azaria & Hendekea
Second: TK & Rachel
Third: Nathan & Jennifer
Fourth: Kynt & Vyxsin
Fifth: Ronald & Christina
Sixth: Nicolas & Donald
Seventh: Shana & Jennifer
Eighth: Lorena & Jason

Teams must follow a marked path to find the tribal chief and obtain the next clue and a gift, a chicken, which they must keep with them for the entire leg. They have no money for this leg of the race. From there, they must take a taxi to a nearby village.

When they arrive at the village, there’s a detour, shake your pan or shake your booty. In shake your pan, they must pan for at least one ounce of gold. In shake your booty, they must learn a dance, and if the judges aren’t impressed, they incur a 10 minute penalty.

Shake your pan: Nicolas & Donald, TK & Rachel (after seeing Nathan & Jennifer fail the dancing)
Shake your booty: Nathan & Jennifer, Azaria & Hendekea, Ronald & Christina, Kynt & Vyxsin, Shana & Jennifer, Lorena & Jason

Nathan & Jennifer choose shake your booty because she’s a dancer, not taking into account that Nathan’s not a dancer and that it’s not just about learning a dance but making it your own. The judges don’t like them. Azaria & Hendekea, however, do get a positive reaction. Nicolas & Donald find out how easy the gold mining is. Ronald & Christina also get rejected due to lack of creativity. Kynt & Vyxsin blow everybody away and move on without penalty. Shana & Jennifer also move on without penalty. TK & Rachel finish up with the mining. Jason & Lorena? Uh, well, they’re around somewhere. I guess. When they do show up, they do the dance, where they’re given good reviews.

Faux French proves worse than faux Spanish. Multiple people use the word merci to say please.

From there, they must go to a market, and they will come upon a new twist to the race, a U-turn. In the U-turn, they can force one of the other teams to do the second task they have not yet done.

Azaria & Hendekea are first and choose not to use the U-turn. Nathan & Jennifer also choose not to use the U-turn. Kynt & Vyxsin, Ronald & Christina, and Nicolas & Donald follow and don’t use the U-turn as well. Shana & Jennifer choose to use the U-turn on Lorena & Jason. TK & Rachel, close behind, think it was a really bad move, which means it’s a really good move because if the blondes didn’t do it, it doesn’t sound like they would have been smart enough to do so themselves. Later, Jennifer tells us she’s not happy about it and that it’s Shana’s fault.

When they arrive at the market, they must load up a bunch of items onto their bikes and take them to the destination. These items include plants and a live goat.

Road block: Azaria, Jennifer (of Nathan & Jennifer), Christina, Nicolas, Vyxsin, Shana, Rachel, Jason

The main chore of the road block is navigating the hot streets where they don’t understand anybody. Everybody struggles, but nobody seems to struggle any more than the rest, no matter how they may be trying to edit it. Shana is afraid the goat will bite, but Jennifer comforts her by saying they ram rather than biting.

Jason discusses staying positive. Has he seen his partner? Granted, she hasn’t had a breakdown yet this leg. He says he doesn’t want to lose the race because of the U-turn. What he might want to do is think back to the camel task if he’s looking for the flaw in their race.

After the road block, Vyxsin gets emotional, as it gave her a closeup look at what she considered a sad surrounding environment, with garbage and poverty everywhere. She later says she appreciates that everybody’s greeted them with a smile, not caring about how different they look, and she’s upset that such wonderful people have so little.

First: Azaria & Hendekea (by a split second, they win Yamaha motor scooters)
Second: Nathan & Jennifer (Jennifer starts crying, apparently expecting sympathy)
Third: Ronald & Christina
Fourth: Nicolas & Donald
Fifth: Kynt & Vyxsin
Sixth: Shana & Jennifer
Seventh: TK & Rachel
Eighth: Lorena & Jason (eliminated)

Lorena made her bed last time around. It was a miracle they even survived that. After they’re eliminated, Jason gives us some excuse about a deeper love between people who aren’t married than people who are or some nonsense. I hope she’s not expecting a commitment any time soon.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 12 episode 5 We’ve Really burned Bridges, for Sure, which airs Sunday at 8/7c(ish) on CBS.