Survivor: China Episode 6

In Survivor: China episode 5, Peih-Gee pulled off one the best strategic moves I’ve seen in years (albeit still a somewhat risky one), intentionally losing a post-shuffle immunity challenge to avoid being Pagonged. Granted, I haven’t seen much in the way of good strategic moves on Survivor in years, but even with that aside, I’d still say that regardless. Many people probably hated this move because it may seem like a chicken’s way out, but it was really her only logical choice. Following the loss, Aaron was voted out because he’s a better schemer than James. However, unlike Aaron, James can win a challenge single handedly if the opportunity presents itself. So tonight’s ultimate question becomes whether he can save himself given the situation.

Todd tells Amanda he has clues to the hidden immunity idol, which I would hope has been burned by now. He’d previously called people suckers for sharing this type of information.

Reward is to go to a tea house, get pampered, and have tea and a light snack. They must go from room to room and find and untie planks, which will then form a puzzle, a phrase made famous by Confucius. During the challenge, Peih-Gee uses the time to strategize, waiting for a moment alone with Sherea. Brilliant again. She tells Sherea to tell Frosti they’re still there for them. The challenge is pretty much even all along. Fei Long easily wins because Zhan Hu sucked at the puzzle, begging the question just how much difference it would have made if they actually tried at least week’s puzzle. James’ old tribemates are happy to kidnap him, especially Todd because he wants to get another clue for the HII from him.

Courtney still wants to see Jean-Robert go. She couldn’t care less what that means in terms of numbers.

Peih-Gee, Jaime, and Erik start to get concerned that Frosti and Sherea aren’t still with them. So they decide they have to win immunity. Not sure how that increases their odds.

At the first chance he gets, Todd tells James there’s something in the tube that can save him if he gives it to him. James agrees because he doesn’t have another choice. With this fourth clue, Todd figures it out. While Todd and Amanda are searching for the idol, Frosti comes up and starts trying to find it himself. Because of this, he sees the idol when they get it, and they tell him they have to trust him. Todd gives it to James and tells him that he has to throw the challenge and use the idol to get rid of Jaime.

Did I say Peih-Gee was brilliant? Todd’s giving her a run for her money. This plot is also strategically one of the better ones I’ve seen in a long time, not to mention great use of a hidden immunity idol (much better than a weak plot like using it to sway an idiot on the outskirts, then being praised for months as the Yulfather). Todd said he wanted to show us Survivor’s still Survivor, and this is hopefully a sign of things to come.

The immunity challenge is a gross food eating challenge. Frosti beats Peih-Gee on the chicken hearts. Jaime and Courtney eat eel (lame for a challenge like this), with Jaime coming out ahead. Erik beats Amanda eating baby turtles. Despite an early and lengthy effort by James to throw the challenge, Denise can’t get down whatever it was they were eating with that had feathers, so James won to take the lead 3-1. Erik takes the next point and wins the challenge for Zhan Hu. Oddly enough, this was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, it means the damn hidden immunity idol lives another day. Hopefully that will lead to more than just someone being carried to the final three, perhaps another strategy like tonight (minus the anticlimactic part).

Back at camp, todd and Amanda want to get rid of Sherea and hope to form an alliance of Todd, Amanda, Denise, Frosti, James, and Courtney. Courtney would rather eat one of her own and get rid of Jean-Robert, and she tells Sherea. Jean-Robert gets the sense something’s up. Todd, who fears a negative reaction from people if they don’t do what they want, suggests that maybe Jean-Robert’s not such a bad boot, but Amanda doesn’t think now’s the time to get rid of him.

At tribal council, people start attacking Jean-Robert, not caring that they’re just alienating him even further than they already had to begin with. Don’t give him an excuse to flip when the merge happens. For some unknown reason, though, Courtney opens her big mouth and lets Todd know she doesn’t trust him either.

Votes:
Jean-Robert
Jean-Robert
Sherea
Sherea
Sherea
Sherea

As much as I won’t miss Sherea, it’s almost too bad they didn’t have time to plot and discuss getting rid of Courtney. It wouldn’t have been smart, but it would have been well deserved. Granted, watching Sherea’s goodbye video makes me completely sure I won’t miss her. Delusion, party of one.

The vote gives Fei Long a very shaky 6-4 advantage going into what is presumably a merge next week. Jean-Robert, Courtney, Frosti, Erik, Jaime, and Peih-Gee all appear willing and able to stab at least one person on their old tribe in the back.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Survivor: China episode 7 I’m Not As Dumb As I Look, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

Watch Survivor: China Online

CSI: NY Season 4, Episode 5 – “Down the Rabbit Hole”

Last week’s episode, Time’s Up introduced Mac and his team with a weird case about time traveling, physics and gambling. This week, the CSI team discovers the virtual world and enters a community only familiar to Adam.

A janitor named Pepe Romano dances a little tango with some mannequin as a tribute to his dead wife during their anniversary. He drops the mannequin’s head only to find a dead girl with green wig, red contact lenses, leather outfit, gun shot to the head and surgical cuts all throughout her body.

Lindsay and Hawkes investigates the crime scene and finds finger prints, a doll with a shirt printed “Johnny” and a piece of bamboo. Dr. Hammerback examines the victim’s body and discovers that she recently had cosmetic work done – scalp surgery, laser eyebrows and facelift in a needle. Dr. Hammerback also found a tick hiding in one of the vic’s wounds.

Mac discovers that the gun shot was from a 45 caliber with unusual markings, which made them believe it was from a silencer. Mac suggests that the killing may have been a pro job, where the vic was tortured first before receiving the bullet.

Danny and Adam found the vic’s identity through an online community. As it turns out, the avatar “venus”, which Cheryl Miller portrayed was an online celebrity. She dressed up that night to meet a certain don juan 2-3 (whom she has been in an online relationship) for the first time.

Don Juan 2-3 or Jonathan O’Dell was scheduled to meet Cheryl at a club named “random”, which was beside the crime scene. Since they have no paperwork to find Jonathan O’Dell, Adam and Mac created an avatar named “Tayor”. An avatar, white rabbit, helped them to locate don juan and Adam uses the IP to get a physical address. Flack and Danny appears in Don Juan’s location, but Jonathan runs.

Lindsay discovers that the tick may be from a hunter with lime disease. Stella and Danny interrogates Jonathan O’Dell, but he claims to stand up venus because he was dying of acute multiple sclerosis. He ran when the cops came because he thought it was about the gun, which he bought from the streets. Unaware about the real venus’ death, Johnny says he just spoke with her online before he got arrested. Hawkes tested Johnny’s gun and find no match to the bullet and prints they found at the crime scene.

Mac comes back to the virtual world to find the fake Venus, but ends up facing six fighters in a battle to enter the site where Venus was. Adam volunteers to take them down and brutally kills each opponent. Mac gets to enter and finds Venus. Unfortunately, Adam was unable to locate her real-world location because the avatar is wifi fishing. Another avatar, on the other hand, confronts the fake Venus and shoots her out of the online community.

Mac runs after the other avatar, but as soon as he stops and Adam locates the physical address, it was too late. They saw Johnny in his home dead in front of the PC with the same caliber, same markings and apparently, the same killer.

As it turns out, the gun used in the two murders was used in another case, Judge Mc Henry’s recent death. As soon as Mac was able to find Venus, they were led into a virtual trap room, which presented a trophy room of all the people he killed. The fake venus then gave the virtual Mac a letter, which gave the CSI computers a virus, leading to system overload.

As it turns out, the fake venus is setting up another murder. An avatar named mr. Tcb, which the CSI team found out to be Congressman Duvaine, was the target. The bamboo evidence that Lindsay studied led to the congressman’s NY apartment.

Unfortunately, the real Venus was killed for her avatar’s password, Johnny was killed to shut up about the fake Venus. As the CSI team figured out the fake Venus was a contract assassin, they were too late to stop the congressman’s murder.

Mac, Stella, Flack and Danny searches the building for the woman assassin, but escapes. Will the team be able to find her? Who is behind the murder? Watch next week as the CSI team uncovers the answers.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of CSI: NY Season 4 episode 6, which airs Wednesday at 10/9c on CBS.

Watch CSI: NY Online

House Season 4, Episode 4: Guardian Angels

In the last episode, “97 Seconds” House experiments with the after life and electrifies himself when a patient did the same and told him the 97 seconds of him being dead was the best thing he has ever felt. This week, House and the remaining seven apprentice is faced with a 20-year old patient working as a funeral home cosmetician named Irene who experienced a massive seizure and hallucinates that the dead people in the funeral home has come to life and attacked her. The team must now figure out why.

As it turns out, Cameron accepted Irene in the emergency room and referred her case to House. As she asks House how the so-called search for a diagnostic team was going and ended up making a bet that Cole, the only black guy on the group, was going to be pissed with House and kick his ass. House approved with the 100-dollar bet and instead of being nice, he makes Cole’s life more of a living hell.

As the seven applicants run some tests, they realize that the patient is carrying on conversations with her long-dead mother, whom she believes is sitting in the room with her. Believing that something in the funeral home may have made the patient sick, House sends his team t0 dig up a grave in the cemetery.

In the meantime, Foreman attends two separate job interviews after being fired by Mercy Hospital. Both job interviewers were amazed at how Foreman saved his patient on his last case, but both did not hire him. Dr. Cuddy, on the other hand, continues to try to win Foreman back at the hospital by giving him a raise, his own team and his own office, but Foreman still denies the offer.

Amber continues to piss everyone, especially thirteen, off in hopes of being the only one left in the team. Taub continues to prove Henry wrong of his diagnosis, positive that Henry was the “non-doctor” on the team that House claimed.

As the patient’s symptoms become worse and her visions become more vivid (saying that she saw House’s grandpa Walter and a man that says thirteen killed him and his dog), House ends up connecting with the patient’s mother in order to diagnose her illness. House diagnoses Irene with Parkinson’s disease, but ends up back to zero as the patient vomits blood and ends up at Dr. Chase’s operating room, assisted by Cole. As it turns out, Irene is dying inside-out.

Throughout the case, House kept insulting Cole verbally and even by sending him e-mails. Cameron, on the other hand, tries to win the bet by giving him Cole a “friendly advice” to yell at House in order to win his respect. At the canteen as House and Cameron bumped into each other, House asks if she wants her job back, but declines happily.

As House and the team searches for answers, House debates with Cole about religion and eventually becomes pissed off and punches House. In the middle of the awkward scenario, Amber finally taught of the answer – the patient had ergot poisoning.

Back at the lecture room, House narrows down the candidates from seven to six by bringing flowers and giving 1 for each applicant that will come back tomorrow. Cole was the first to receive a flower. Even if Amber played with thirteen’s head by feeding the patient information about the last case (the man who died with his dog), she received a flower. Thirteen and rest received flowers, except for Henry because  House doesn’t need anyone to tell him what he’s thinking.

Cameron asks House for her 100 bucks. House gives her the “blood money” and leaves. At Cuddy’s office, Foreman  arrives to accept her offer, plus 5% raise, his own office and personal assistant. Cuddy, on the other hand, did not accept Foreman’s offer saying that she knows no other hospital would accept him because Foreman is now “House-like”. Instead, Cuddy offers his old job back and Foreman starts on Monday.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another recap of House Season 4 episode 5, which airs Tuesday at 9/8c on Fox.

Bionic Woman Episode 5

In Bionic Woman Episode 4, Jaime was obsessed with the lies she’s been telling and the ones she’s been told. One of those lies was that she’s going to die within 5 years, though Jonas says he won’t let that happen. As for the lies she’s telling, she refuses to tell Becca what she’s up to, even though Becca’s figured out something’s not right.

In the opening scene, a soldier starts firing away at people. Jaime turns on the news and sees this. The soldier was a POW presumed dead. He and some others have neural implants that make fire on their own side.

Jaime needs to learn about math and science to fake her way through this case, with the only minor problem being she has no clue. She has to go to school, get a roommate, and speak in a fake British accent (except it’s her real British accent). In class, she gets an assist from a TA, Tom, who gives her an answer while her teacher whines about her having her cell phone on (annoying, yes, but no need to get all bent out of shape). Then she runs into the TA at a bar later that night, but Nathan, the guy monitoring her, makes sure to get her attention by causing pain in her bionic ear. With that, she steps away from the table and goes outside.

She breaks into a lab to find out what’s on a computer. After she gets what she needs, she decides it sounds like a good idea to stick around and get some useless information about him. That’s when Professor Samuels, her teacher, walks in. She pretends she was there to clean out the monkey cages because someone told her it would help get back in his good graces. Tom walks in and bails her out, pretending he was the one who told her that, and he also says he left the door unlocked. She tells Tom she was there to get some notes, and he agrees to help her out, if she has dinner with him.

She shows up to see a guy who was injured and received a neural implant. From a computer, they can make this guy do whatever they want, and there’s nothing he can do to stop this.

Antonio starts to get suspicious about Tom. Jaime is with Tom and kisses him, a perfect time for Antonio to barge in and introduce himself. He tells her that something doesn’t add up about Tom, but Jaime doesn’t listen and defends him.

While she’s walking through the parking lot, someone pulls a gun on her. It’s the patient who can’t stop himself because he’s being controlled by the neural implant.

She takes him back and has the chip removed. Back at the base, they ask her who knew where she’d be going. Tom, obviously. She asks to be kept on the case because if anyone can get to know him, it’s her. When he’s about two seconds away from taking his pants off, she asks for champagne, buying her some time to ssearch his room. The more she searches, the more she thinks he’s perfect… too perfect. Inside the taragon is the evidence she needs.

Antonio finds the guy responsible for transporting. He confronts him and asks who the supplier is. Jonas then calls Jaime and tells her the chip’s a match.

Jaime follows Tom and grabs a paper he gave a guy because she thinks it’s something covert. Tom goes up to her and asks who she is and what she’s doing. He’s CIA, arguably one of the good guys, and he thought she was a buyer. While they’re discussing this, they see the real culprit. Jaime saves Tom from being killed, then they start to beat up a bunch of people. After the case is solved, she leaves college but still hooks up with Tom at his place.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Bionic Woman episode 6, which airs Wednesday at 9/8c on NBC.

Watch Bionic Woman Online

Kid Nation Episode 6

In Kid Nation Episode 5, elections were finally held. Laurel’s district unanimously agreed to allow her to stay in power unopposed. Anjay also stayed in power. Mike got beat by a 9-1 vote by Guylan, whoever that is. Taylor, meanwhile, finally got a long overdue boot, as she was replaced by the yellow team’s best leader Zach.

When Zach rings the bell to wake people up, Taylor acts like a spoiled brat. So basically nothing’s changed.

The town trash bin is a big mess and has a lot of stuff crawling/flying through it. How timely, though, the pioneers have advice that they need to clean it up. The council selects a few people to carry the garbage a couple hundred yards out and bury it. Sophia, DK, Greg, Blaine, Leila, and Taylor are selected, the last two mostly to spite them. Taylor tries to get out of it, but Laurel tells her “Deal with it.” Both Taylor and Leila run off and refuse to help, but Leila decides she doesn’t want to be punished and returns to help. Guylan’s unable to get much done and walks away, but DK talks to him and cheers him up some.

The council takes great pride in delivering Taylor her punishment. She has to haul water back and forth until she fills up the now empty tank. She carries the buckets just to put on a show and then dumps them on the ground. Seriously, can we have a tribal council now and vote her out?

The council corners her in a room and refuses to let her leave. She throws a hissy fit, and they eventually do let her leave. She says she’s going home.

Mike, on the other hand, is handling not being on the town council any more maturely. He says he plans to work harder and focus on his job.

DK asks for volunteers to help fill the water tank. Most kids in the town help fill it.

The showdown is about pollution and recycling. There’s a massive pot filled with 1600 gallons of baked beans and 30 pigs. They must search for bean cans and find the right colored cans. If all districts collect a total of at least 75 cans, they’ll win reward. Most people are disgusted. Anjay hangs around in there for quite some time, as does Blue’s next candidate, Nathan. Taylor in this mess… now this is enntertainment. Red district’s crusing right along.

Red: 24 cans (upper class)
Green: 20 cans (merchants)
Yellow: 19 cans (cooks)
Blue: 17 cans (laborers)

A nice improvement for green, which is typically laborers. Reward is a choice as always. The first choice is all different kinds of fruit and vegetables, which follows on the heels of people complaining about the lack of variety of food and nothing but potatoes for veggies. The second choice is dune buggies with as much gas as they need to keep them running.

The council chooses the produce. Most of the town is thrilled. Taylor says she’ll hate Zach for the rest of his life.

Zach assigns Sophie, Leila, and Taylor to dishes. They want to make fruit salad for breakfast instead. He says he won’t pay them unless they do what they’re supposed to. He then says, “You can forget about the gold star… forever!”

Two of the kids were goofing off, and one of them fell into a barrel. DK jumps in and takes charge of the situation. After that, though, he says he doesn’t like the people there any more and doesn’t want to be there with them.

The town council is unanimous in their choice for a gold star, DK.

Even though she’s off the council, the town council meeting once again turns to Taylor not doing anything. She says she’ll try. Again. DK comes to her aid for some reason. We then find out why.

When asked if anyone wants to go home, DK raises his hand. This is really surprising because he’s stood out this episode as a strong leader. He reiterates that he’s sick of the people fighting and being negative. Guylan pulls him aside and tries to convince him that they need him there. When he gets back, DK agrees to stay.

With that, DK is still around to receive the gold star.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of Kid Nation episode 7 The Root of All Evil, which airs Wednesday at 8/7c on CBS.

Prison Break Spinoff

Hollywood Reporter reports that Fox has ordered a script for a spinoff, tentatively titled Prison Break: Cherry Hill, based on Molly, a character who will be introduced on Prison Break later this season. The show is being written by Prison Break executive producer Matt Olmstead and co-executive producer Zack Estrin.

Like Michael Scofield, Molly is also suffering from a family tragedy at the hands of the Company. Molly ends up in a women’s prison because of the revenge she sought, after which she learns her loved ones are still alive.

“There is an ironic similarity between Molly and Michael — they’re both emotionally banged-up, both have lost loved ones, and both want the people responsible to pay,” Olmstead said.

In the event Cherry Hill does not get picked up, Molly will continue as a regular character on Prison Break.

The Amazing Race 12 Teams Revealed

Great news, TAR fans. I’d heard the rumors that Jericho might be returning next month but wasn’t expecting that to apply to The Amazing Race 12 as well, particularly with reality TV being such a great thing to have in the event of a strike. CBS has announced that The Amazing Race 12 will premiere on Sunday November 4 at 8PM(ish… expect football delays). Along with that announcement comes a new cast. We have dating goths (their photo’s worth a lot more than 1000 words) and a grandson and his grandfather, but in a rare change for the franchise, no alpha male team.

Kynt & Vyxsin
Dating Goths
Kynt: Louisville, KY; 31; Waiter/Receptionist
Vyxsin: Louisville, KY; 29; Waiter/Receptionist

Jennifer & Nathan
Dating
Jennifer: Huntington Beach, CA; 23; Student
Nathan: Fountain Valley, CA; 24; Volleyball Coach

Ronald & Christina
Father & Daughter
Ronald: Tacoma, WA; 58; VP of Sales
Christina: Washington, DC; 26; Policy Analyst

Shana & Jennifer
Friends
Shana: Los Angeles, CA; 32, Actress
Jennifer: Los Angeles, CA; 32; Legal Assistant

Azaria & Hendekea
Brother & Sister
Azaria: New Orleans, LA; 27; Facilities Engineer
Hendekea: Torrance, CA; 23; Aerospace Engineer

Lorena & Jason
Dating
Lorena: Sherman Oaks, CA; 27; Bartender
Jason: Sherman Oaks, CA; 33; Wedding Videographer/Actor

Nicolas & Donald
Grandson & Grandfather
Nicolas: Chicago, IL; 23; Pilot
Donald: Elkhorn, WI; 68; Retired

Ari & Staella
Best Friends
Ari: Long Beach, CA; 21; Waiter
Staella: Fountain Valley, CA; 24; Restaurant Manager

Marianna & Julia
Sisters
Marianna: Miami, FL; 25; Art Gallery Manager
Julia: Miami, FL; 26; Production Assistant

Rachel & TK
Dating for almost one year (not sure why the last part of this is so important to include in their bio)
Rachel: Huntington Beach, CA; 23; Florist/Store Owner
TK: Huntington Beach, CA; 22; Substitute Teacher

Kate & Pat
Married Ministers
Kate: Thousand Oaks, CA; 49; Episcopal Priest
Pat: Thousand Oaks, CA; 65; Ordained Deacon

I’m going to pick Jennifer & Nathan as the odds on favorites early on. I’m picking Lorena & Jason as the team most likely to argue on a regular basis. What are your initial reactions?

Check out the photos of the teams after the jump.

Continue reading “The Amazing Race 12 Teams Revealed”