Survivor: China Episode 4

In Survivor: China episode 3, Jean-Robert made some enemies, but Leslie talked herself right out of the game.

Jean-Robert is discussing his “strategy” of doing nothing then trying to pretend he’s doing something so all of a sudden people are impressed with him. Courtney’s not buying it.

Yet another person gets upset with Dave, this time it’s Sherea. Even though I’m not a fan of Dave, she’s being unnecessarily aggressive (downright bitchy) for no reason here.

Reward is for a fisherman and his family to go to camp, cook a meal, and teach the tribe how to fish. Courtney sits out for Fei Long. Tribes must move a flaming ball in pairs of two using sticks like chopsticks. Fei Long wins 3-2. They decide to kidnap Dave. Hopefully he learned a lesson from Leslie.

Dave says he feels like he’s on vacation. He sees it as an opportunity to get on their good side because some people in his own tribe are causing him trouble. Todd thinks Dave’s a nutcase but is pretending to be nice. Dave foolishly thinks he can trust Todd, as does everybody else. He gives the hidden immunity idol clue to Todd.

Now Dave’s tribe is finding out what it’s like to actually work. Well, some members of his tribe are finding that out. Sherea, who hasn’t done anything all along, just stays in bed watching everybody else work. She’s trying to conserve energy for the challenges. Apparently it takes a lot of energy to suck at challenges or something.

The fisherman’s family comes with regurgitating fishing birds. Jean-Robert spent some time in Thailand a long time ago and is able to speak some Mandarin with the family, proving to be a valuable asset in translating. After they catch some fish, they teach the tribe how to use the nets.

At the immunity challenge, tribes are dressed in traditional Chinese armor. They will throw meteor hammers at their opponent’s vases and defend their vases with bamboo poles. Jean-Robert sits out for Fei Long. First round is Denise/Peih Gee against Courtney/Sherea. Peih Gee blocks one of Courtney’s shots, but Sherea still scores one. Todd and James dominate the next round to take a 3-1 lead. Amanda/Aaron go against Jaime/Eric in the third round. Jaime hits two at once to tie the game at 3, but Amanda retakes the lead 4-3. Fei Long wins immunity.

The boot choice is between Dave and Sherea, again the person who’s arguing with Dave. As far as I’m concerned, she needs to go. Her contribution in challenges isn’t worth a great deal, and that’s really all she’s willing to offer.

Votes:
Dave
Sherea
Dave
Dave
Dave

Dave has been voted off the island. Stupid tribe. No wonder they can’t win anything. If Sherea offered some value to the game, I’d be all for the vote, but she’s completely useless, making this pitiful.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Survivor: China Episode 5 Love Is in the Air, which airs Thursday at 8/7c on CBS.

House Season 4, Episode 3 – 97 Seconds

Last week,  House hides a patient from Dr. Cuddy and allows 40 of his applicants to diagnose the mystery patient. This week, after firing 30 of the applicants for his new staff, House splits the ten remaining candidates into two teams, by gender.  One lady applicant insists that she groups with the males, or as House calls them, “the danglers”.

The two teams compete ferociously in diagnosing a wheelchair-bound man with spinal muscular atrophy who was admitted due to fainting and showed signs of aspiration and liver failure.

At the clinic, House faces a suicidal patient that tries to kill himself by placing a knife on a live electric plug. House became curious with the patient’s motifs and tries to talk to him. The patient replies by explaining after being in an accident and becoming dead for 97 seconds, “it was the best 97 seconds of my life”.

As the two teams try to one-up each other, complications arise when one team assigns a treatment to the patient but does not follow through to make sure their treatment was executed.

While the students are busy with their assignment, House experiments on himself to see what happens in the moments when people hover between life and death. He did what his suicidal did with the knife and obviously, became paralyzed for a few hours and eventually came back to his senses, even saying “i love you” to Wilson.

Meanwhile, Foreman runs his own team of fellows in his new job at another hospital. Although Foreman and House had the same case, House let the patient die because he was busy making the diagnosis into a competition, allowing an applicant to screw up. Foreman, on the other hand, got it right, but was fired for using a “House-like” treatment to help a patient.

Next week, watch out as House diagnoses a patient that could see dead people.

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

Bionic Woman Episode 3

On Bionic Woman episode 2, Jaime decided she’s okay with joining the agency, where she learns that doing so will allow her to help save countless lives.

Jaime learns that, with practice, she can hack into herself and change the information. She then learns she’s got a GPS in her so they can track exactly where she is, which upsets her because she feels it’s an invasion of privacy. Jonas calls her and tells her to stop a guy from leaving. He’s not real into the whole being cooperative thing, so she needs to use force.

Sarah Corvis goes to see Jay’s father Anthony, who tells her he can help her if she brings him Jaime.

Jonas assigns Jaime to babysit a “spirited” teenage girl to avoid a war with Canada.

Becca and Jaime are talking about family and how Becca’s a packrat saving everything from their past. Becca tells her she saves everything because she doesn’t like secrets.

Following some odd hard to follow flashing sequences that may or may not be flashbacks/dreams/insanity, Sarah shows up and wakes up Jaime, telling her to meet her alone without backup. She tells Jaime she needs her, too. Jaime goes to Jonas and agrees to help bring her in but wants him to promise if they bring her in, they’ll help her.

When she shows up to meet Sarah, Sarah tells her she’s sick and needs her help to get well. She tells the story of how Will revived her from the dead. Sarah wants Jaime to save her life by correcting her from losing her way again with the more advanced technology in the newer design. The brilliant tactical thinker she is, Sarah decides to tell Jaime that Will was just using her, so she doesn’t get anywhere. Not yet anyway. Before they can really get to the bottom of things, though, backup shows up, and Sarah has to run away.

The fact that backup showed up convinces Jaime to want to help Sarah some, which the argument she heard didn’t appear like it would accomplish in itself. There’s concern that she was going to say something that Jonas didn’t want to be revealed.

Four guys show up and get into a fight with Jaime because they’re after the girl she’s watching. Sarah just sits back and enjoys the show, waiting for an admission she’s needed. Once she hears the word, they kick ass together, which is followed by Sarah again saying she needs Jaime’s bionics so she doesn’t die.

As a show of good faith, Sarah teaches Jaime how to visualize the tracker and disable it with her thoughts, allowing her to no longer have someone watching her every move. Jaime wants Sarah to go back with her, but she’s not having any of that since she doesn’t trust them anyway, plus with Will’s death, there aren’t any surgeons there.

And now we finally figure out what the heck was going on earlier in the episode (or at least I finally figured it out). Could have done without the creepy visual effects. Anthony talks about how she killed her sister and how Jaime will never trust her until she can relate to her. The previous scene replays, where Sarah was sideswiped by a truck, with her sister in the passenger seat.

When she gets home, Sarah’s chatting with Becca, pretending to be their new neighbor. Sarah threatens to kill Becca but proves Jaime right when she says there is some humanity left in her. Then Jaime turns her tracker back on and threatens to kill Sarah the next time she sees her near her family. She is, again, warned that she can’t trust the people she’s working with, and that Will didn’t love her but just studied her.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Bionic Woman episode 4 Face Off, which airs Wednesday at 9/8c on NBC.

Watch Bionic Woman online!

Kid Nation Episode 4

In Kid Nation episode 3, the yellow district continued to do nothing (still), the kids flipped out because they got a microwave and cocoa that would last the whole time rather than pizzas that would have been gone later that night, Greg didn’t win a gold star, and Taylor practiced being a beauty queen.

As the kids start discussing how religion starts wars, the journal conveniently tells them that they need to address the concept of religion. Great, more pot stirring from the adults who are supposedly leaving the kids to their own devices.

The council comes up with the idea to have all religions in one room and have people from each religion talk, in an attempt to let people learn from each other. Sophia hangs her head dreading it, and then a bunch of people start shouting/arguing about how this idea is going to start arguments. Mike doesn’t care about the input he gets. He tells them to shut up.

Alex decides to do a survey to find out what religion everybody is, receiving responses of Christian, Jewish, Hindu, atheist, and other.

Nobody cares what the council says. Nobody bothers to show up.

Morgan takes a different approach. She invites people and tells them they can come and pray if they want. This gets a good response, unlike yelling at people and trying to force them. People of all different religions come to join together and have a good time.

Taylor and the rest of yellow district are thrilled being upper class because it means they can sleep in and do whatever they want. Just like they did before they were the yellow district. Zach is trying to separate himself from the yellow district because he doesn’t like how they’re behaving.

The showdown is a puzzle. The kids must create a steeple puzzle then raise it with pulleys. Reward is not yet revealed. Yellow starts strong but falls apart. Red manages to take the lead as yellow screams and tries to figure out where a piece is. Blue then overcomes red with a slight lead going into the final stage. Pretty obvious what’s going to happen here. The oldest kid in town, Greg, is able to raise the steeple faster. Blue is the upper class. Red finishes close behind to become the merchants. Yellow takes a slight lead over green, and everybody begins praying yellow finally gets where they belong. But it’s too late. Yellow are the cooks, which allows Taylor to say if people don’t like it, they can just starve themselves. Green finishes in time to win the reward.

The reward is a choice between mini golf or a library of holy books. The council turns the decision over to the town because everybody got pissed off last time. Good way to at least try to stay in power, but considering who’s making the decision, it’s not a good way to ensure that the right decision is made. Oddly enough, the town chooses the books over golf. That’ll upset some people, but the majority of the town will be happy.

Cody, 9, gets homesick because of a letter from his girlfriend, who he’s known ever since third grade. Not touching this one.

Yellow team is still not doing anything. Only two yellow people are in the kitchen. A couple of people go to confront Taylor about her attitude and tell her they’re getting pissed off. She just laughs and keeps doing what she’s doing. Zach gets fed up and goes around gathering everybody from the other districts to help him watch dishes. Overthrow Taylor and put him in her place.

The kids wake up to snow, which receives mixed reactions. It’ll be harder to keep those water pipes unfrozen now.

Zach is the first person mentioned when it comes to a gold star. Morgan is also mentioned again. As usual, Greg’s name comes up. I’d say let him sweat it out for a few more weeks. I am impressed with his improved attitude, though. Instead of thinking he’s the only one who deserves a gold star, he acknowledges that Zach has also worked hard.

When asked if they have a problem with the leadership, Taylor’s name comes up again.

Cody decides he wants to go home because he misses his family. This leads to a tearful goodbye. Campbell is upset his best friend is leaving.

Morgan is awarded the gold star for working hard, being nice to everyone, and not complaining.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live blog of Kid Nation Episode 5, which airs at 8/7c on CBS.

The Biggest Loser 4 Episode 5

On The Biggest Loser 4 episode 4, the blue team lost following red team’s highway robbery immunity that allowed them to get nowhere but still be safe. After that, Allison revealed that The Biggest Loser campus was shutting down for a week. Except they didn’t reveal what that actually meant. Welcome to another live blog.

It means they’re going to Jamaica. Not worth the drama or a cliffhanger. We know already at least one of them doesn’t want to wear a bathing suit.

Jillian wants it to be known this is not a vacation. She’ll be as tough as usual.

Kim had to send Bryan to the doctor due to chest pain. To him, this is another reason why he should be losing weight.

Jillian’s unimpressed with the massive (and unhealthy) foods that are at the buffet, and it doesn’t appear like too many of the people she’s with have a concept of what’s good to eat.

Kim has her team workout in the pool. Bob decides to do yoga. Jillian’s back to her desert training.

Bryan runs on to the beach at the challenge. The doctor says he’s okay. Hollie and Isabeau sit out for the black team. Reward is a day at the spa. The challenge is a balancing act on rafts. Teams must pull themselves to shore without falling. Black team wins without any drama whatsoever.

Jillian and Bob told their teams not to dare drink a drop. Kim took a more reasonable but perhaps riskier approach and said they could drink if they wanted to do so, as they’re all adults and know what they’re there for. Even still, a couple drinks is pretty much irrelevant to whether they lose weight or not.

It’s time for the weigh in.

Black Team:
Isabeau: 264 pounds (-8)
Bill: 279 pounds (-6)
Jez: 302 pounds (-6)
Julie: 199 pounds (-4)
Jim: 307 pounds (-7)
Hollie: 228 pounds (-8)
Total: -39 pounds (2.41%)

Red Team:
David: 328 pounds (-9)
Bryan: 308 pounds (-11)
Amy: 268 pounds (-10)
Phil: 346 pounds (-12)
Total: -42 pounds (3.25%)

Blue Team:
Ryan: 331 pounds (-10)
Nicole: 252 pounds (-6)
Kae: 184 pounds (-7)
Neil: 365 pounds (-10)
Total: -33 pounds (2.83%)

Red team wins; black team loses. Hollie is the biggest loser on the black team and is safe this week. The girls are afraid of being picked off one by one. They’re trying to convince Jez to vote with them to take out one of the twins, an alliance that will be tough to beat if they last too long. I don’t think the girls have to worry about whether it’s a tie or not. If they vote as a block, I suspect the winning team will see the twins as just as much a threat, in terms of both longer term strategy and also their ability to lose weight.

Despite the trip to Jamaica, or perhaps because of it, everybody had a great week. David had a drink but didn’t go crazy, and in the end, it didn’t make a difference, as the red team still won the weigh in this week. Kae put up great numbers as usual.

Votes
Bill: Isabeau
Isabeau: Jim
Jim: Isabeau
Hollie: Jim
Julie: Jim
Jez: Jim

By a vote of 4-2, Jim has been eliminated.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Biggest Loser 4 episode 6, which airs Tuesday at 8:30/7:30c on NBC.

More Gossip Girl

Variety reports that The CW has ordered the back half of the first season for one of its new shows, Gossip Girl. I’d rather see them extend Reaper myself, but Gossip Girl does look like it has the potential to be the next One Tree Hill, which was highly successful for The WB, particularly as time went on and word spread. In its early weeks, Gossip Girl is already proving to be the top show among teenage girls.

Tivo Most Recorded Shows Week Ending October 7, 2007

1 Grey’s Anatomy (no change)
2 Desperate Housewives (+1)
3 House (-1)
4 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (no change)
5 Heroes (no change)
6 The Office (no change)
7 CSI: Miami (+1)
8 Oprah Winfrey (-1)
9 Dancing With the Stars (no change)
10 Survivor: China (no change)
11 Brothers & Sisters (+2)
12 Private Practice (+8)
13 Boston Legal (-2)
14 ER (-2)
15 Two and a Half Men (+2)
16 Las Vegas (+2)
17 Criminal Minds (-3)
18 Family Guy (+3)
19 Prison Break (-4)
20 Law & Order: SVU (-4)
21 NCIS (-2)
22 My Name Is Earl (no change)
23 CSI: NY (no change)
24 Without a Trace (no change)
25 The Unit (+1)