Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On

 "I did fart once." -Drew Basile Okay, the Top Gun montage sequence in this episode might be my favorite Survivor moment since Tony won Winners at War .  I don't know whose idea it was, but they deserve a raise.  That was the funniest moment in a very funny episode.  This episode was a blast even if the gameplay was questionable at times.  Let's get into who played well and who sucked! Who Played Well: Taking out Bruce was a mostly questionable movie since I don't think he could have beat anyone in the end.  He was a great Final Three goat.  However, I think splitting the vote between Bruce and Jake was a good move for Austin, Dee, and Julie.  They're the ones in power, so getting rid of the bottom feeders is fine for them.  Austin also managed to win a tough Immunity Challenge, which gave them the opportunity to get rid of Bruce. Emily was very effective in this episode.  She was the one who lured Bruce into a false sense of security so that he didn't pla

 "If we let the police handle this, we're all gonna be 50% off." -Evan One year after a tragic riot at a department store, people involved in the tragedy start being murdered by someone dressed as a pilgrim.  The daughter of the owner of the store, Jessica Wright (Nell Verlaque), has to face off against the killer before they all end up carved like turkeys. What Works: Thanksgiving is a love-letter to holiday themed slasher movies from the 70's and 80's and this movie does so many things right where those movies failed, and that's why I like it so much.  This is a slasher done correctly. These types of movies typically have some sort of small-town holiday tragedy, which ends up being the catalyst for the main plot of the movie.  In a lot of these films, that initial tragedy isn't shown or we only see a bit of it.  It's usually something that is told to us in exposition.  Not in Thanksgiving .  The opening tragedy is a classic Black Friday shopping riot

 "Good things are good." -Jake O'Kane This ended up being a pretty straightforward and uneventful episode despite the best efforts of production.  I think even without the twists of the episode, Kendra probably would have been the person to go.  I always like it when production tries to force something crazy and it just doesn't happen.  Straightforward episodes are fine!  We don't need to take away a third of the players' votes to have an interesting episode.  Straightforward doesn't always mean boring.  Anyway, let's take a look at who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: We'll start with Bruce.  I like that he's doing some self-reflection in the wake of Kellie's elimination.  I don't know how much good it will do him, but it might help.  He won Immunity and saved his Idol for another day and was willing to turn on Kendra when the vote started turning that way.  I don't know if he can win, but if he keeps this up, he can at

 "YOU ARE WITNESSING A FRONT THREE-QUARTER VIEW OF TWO ADULTS SHARING A TENDER MOMENT!" -Gordon Cole "Variations on Relations" picks up with Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) and the local lawmen returning to Owl Cave to find more of the petroglyph uncovered.  They figure out Windom Earle (Kenneth Welsh) has been there and Cooper has Andy (Harry Goaz) draw the petroglyph. Earle tells the story of the White Lodge and the Black Lodge to Leo Johnson (Eric Da Re) and a traveling musician, Rusty (Ted Raimi).  Earle than constructs a large, paper-mâché chess pawn with Rusty stuck inside of it.  Earle shoots and kills Rusty with a crossbow. Catherine Martell (Piper Laurie) asks Pete (Jack Nance) to help her open the puzzle box.  Pete accidentally drops it and it opens, revealing another puzzle box. At the diner, Shelley Johnson (Mädchen Amick) reluctantly enters the Miss Twin Peaks competition at Bobby's (Dana Ashbrook) insistence.  Meanwhile, Lana Milford (Robyn Lively)

 "Hopefully I stop sucking." -Jake O'Kane Wow, what a fun episode.  It was great to have the auction back and I loved Kellie's reaction to getting voted out.  Best of all was Jeff pulling out a knife and stabbing the bag of rice.  More evil Jeff please!  Anyway, let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Let's start with Jake, who was in a terrible position at the start of the episode and didn't get very far in getting himself out of it, but I like his awareness of the situation and seeing through Emily and Kellie's attempt to stop him from playing his Shot in the Dark.  He absolutely made the right call in playing it. The plan to take out Kellie from the Reba 4 and Emily was an awesome move, especially for Drew and Austin.  I think Kellie was the biggest jury threat and they can still take out Jake and Bruce later if they so choose.  This weakens the Belo alliance, weakens any potential women's alliance, and gives Austin a 2nd

 "Are there directions in space?" -Aamir Khan When a Kree warrior, Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), begins tearing open space and time, a connection between Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris), and Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) activates, which causes them to switch places if they use their powers.  This forces the three heroes to team up to stop the universe from being ripped apart. What Works: This movie is messy, but the parts that work, work well.  The chemistry between the three leads is definitely the best part of the movie.  It's three generations being forced to work together and two of them have some painful history.  I love when the movie slows down to have the three of them talking.  Iman Vellani is especially good.  Her energy and enthusiasm makes the movie a lot more fun.  I haven't watched the Ms. Marvel show, but now I'll definitely check it out. There's also a few really fun sequences.  The first action sequence of the movie takes

 "Last Christmas still haunts me." -Winnie Carruthers A year after stopping the killing spree of a psychotic masked killer, Winnie Carruthers (Jane Widdop) hasn't fully recovered, but the rest of the town seems to have moved on.  Despondent and depressed, Winnie believes everyone would be better off if she never existed.  Soon, Winnie finds herself in a world where she never existed and no one else stopped the killer.  Now a stranger in her own town, Winnie has to find a way to stop the killer again and take back her life. What Works: I love the premise of this movie.  I've been really enjoying the recent trend of retelling classic movies, but throwing in a slasher villain.  Happy Death Day and Freaky  are both awesome and It's a Wonderful Knife fits under the same umbrella.  While this movie has flaws, and a lot of them, I still enjoyed the concept and story enough that I was entertained the entire way through.  I really hope we get more movies like this. Winnie

 "My Idol has reached its final form." -Austin Li Coon I was concerned going into this episode, not gonna lie.  I wasn't thrilled that we were getting a double boot immediately after the mergatory episode.  I just wanted a normal episode to let the battle lines get drawn.  However, the twist ended up working for me.  I like that the person voted out of the first Tribal Council didn't make the Jury.  It increased the pressure on the castaways and I love that they were told ahead of time.  I will say, I wasn't a fan of the flash-forward editing.  I thought it made the final Tribal Council too predicable and I hope Survivor doesn't do that again.  Anyway, let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Starting over on the Blue group, Kellie was the person who kept Belo together.  She forced Bruce and Kendra to get on the same page and make the smart move in voting out Sifu.  I especially loved the way she talked to Kendra.  She started out by

 "I have no idea where this will lead us, but I have a definite feeling it will be a place both wonderful and strange. -Agent Dale Cooper "On the Wings of Love" picks up with Miss Jones (Brenda Strong) attempting to kill Sheriff Truman (Michael Ontkean).  The Sheriff manages to fight her off, knock her out, and have her arrested.  She refuses to tell them anything and requests to speak to the South African consulate.  The attack is enough to get Truman back to work. Jack Wheeler (Billy Zane) and Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn) plan a dinner date, but Ben (Richard Beymer) accidently ruins their plans by sending Audrey on a business trip to Seattle.  Jack admits to Ben that he is falling in love with Audrey, which Ben approves of. A bonsai tree is delivered to Truman and it appears to be from Josie Packard (Joan Chen).  In actuality, it's from Windom Earle (Kenneth Welsh) and has a microphone hidden in it allowing Earle to listen in to the Sheriff's office.  He hears

 "She took my sandwich." -Austin Li Coon Wow, that was an absolutely wild episode and a ton of fun.  It was already shaping up to be a great episode with all of these personalities interacting for the first time, but that Tribal Council really took the cake.  It was fun to finally see the Shot in the Dark twist pay off, but now we need to figure out who played well and who sucked. Played Well: I really like the switch in target from J. to Kaleb from the Reba 4 and Sifu.  I believe that at the merge (or mergatory), the primary goal should be to survive the first vote and, if you can pull it off, try to get someone eliminated who you've never been on a tribe with.  If you have a working relationship with anyone you've already been on a tribe with, try to keep them.  Sure, Reba may not trust J., but they can work with her.  None of them had been on a tribe with Kaleb, so I'm glad they switched.  That said, having everyone put their vote on Kaleb was a risky call.  A