Why do I always have mega crushes on Survivor guys?

[soleta_nf]

Yul on the current season of Survivor? Totally my ideal boyfriend. Intelligent, modest, fair, caring, ethical, no ego, says really geeky things that makes everyone laugh at him but makes me melt, reads the clues to the hidden immunity idol and immediately goes "Easy!" and finds it right away. And he's smokin' hot if you like the smarties, which I

Comments

[soleta_nf]

LOL! The deadline just passed! Want my thoughts now? I didn't really feel like writing up extended thoguhts (though I watched the episode this afternoon). Maybe I will after watching it again, which I most certainly will do soon.

In brief: I loved this last episode. (And it got the highest VM ratings ever! Go Rob!) My only criticism is they packed a LOT of plot in and it was very fast paced and overwhelming. Moreso than last seasons' finale, which is astounding. But they were grappling with not just tying up one plot but laying the groundwork for another, so it is understandable. The fact that they got more viewers makes me optimistic that these smaller arcs are a good idea, that people wanted to tune in for the Big Finish and that more Big Finishes mean higher ratings. Or maybe new viewers will be in awe of a finished VM plot and fully come into the fold.

I really like how the rape plot was handled in this final episode. (Though the gang of feminists beating up on the Dean's car was a lot much. Hooligan feminists? Ohhhkay.) It was a twist that it was two guys, and the climactic scenes were gripping. The very beginning scene of Veronica running made me laugh with the music and the out-of-context panic. But that probably drew in the viewers, and it worked much better again later.

I like that in retrospect what seemed kind of cheap (that the big climactic moment we were all waiting for was not the rapist, but just her RA) turned out to be significant indeed (not the rapist -- the rapist's assistant! ...Who assists a rapist? O.o)

The Piz and Parker and Mac and Wallace and Logan scenes were all great. Mac's treatment of that guy at the party was HYSTERICAL. I will have to try that sometime. The Logan and Veronica breakup was very realistic and well-done. I'm glad he broke it off, and he was right. I like that she tried to be strong, but broke down in her shower. I like that they saw each other at the party and were just transfixed. I LOVE that Veronica didn't hear a peep from Logan after everything went down, and then we see him volunteering to go to jail just to wreak vengeance for Veronica. She will pretend she wouldn't want his knight in shining armour, but she would totally do it herself if she were a big brawny male. She is the queen of vengeance.

I like that when Veronica blew her whistle, a fellow rape victim, Parker, was the only one who heard it. Very realistic. I like that she investigated and was kick ass and stood up for Veronica even though no one had stood up for her. That takes ovaries, man. Parker <3.

I could go on. But I'll leave it at that for now. :)

[corkdorkdan]

First off, if I haven't told you before, I really love that icon, and the episode it comes from. It makes me want to go out and buy the first season to watch it again. It had that adorable scene with Deputy Leo, where he was his normal horny self, and Veronica was so sweet in letting him down gently.

Though the gang of feminists beating up on the Dean's car was a lot much. Hooligan feminists? Ohhhkay.
I like that when Veronica blew her whistle, a fellow rape victim, Parker, was the only one who heard it. Very realistic. I like that she investigated and was kick ass and stood up for Veronica even though no one had stood up for her.
I know you have issues with the characterization of feminists on the show in general, but I'm willing to say that there's nothing wrong with them, it's just THIS GROUP that's a bunch of psycho bitches. I mean, after the newspaper corruption, the vendetta against the fraternities, and faking a rape, I wouldn't have been surprised if they killed the dean. What really ruined it for me was when they started getting angry with Veronica for standing up for justice (even though she despised most of the frat bros, and has been through more shit than anyone). I couldn't muster up any sympathy, even after the explanation about their friend who committed suicide. Everyone goes through crap when they're growing up, and awful stuff happens in high school, college, and beyond, and it's very sad when someone feels like they can't make it through that. But that's no reason to be angry at the world and play the victim forever.

Contrast that with Parker, who I agree was just phenomenal. Again, the stereotype when we met her was a peppy, happy, dumb girl that sleeps around. What a turnaround when she was raped, and everyone confronted their preconceived notions, and we started to see her as much more complex. To see her at the end, responding to the whistle, and then yelling and standing up to the rapist when she knew something was wrong, was simply fantastic. Protecting and supporting your fellow females, THAT is feminism. Also, she deserves points for growing her hair back so quickly, cause there's no way that's still a wig :-P

I like that in retrospect what seemed kind of cheap (that the big climactic moment we were all waiting for was not the rapist, but just her RA) turned out to be significant indeed.
This was SO WELL PLAYED. As someone who is really looking for a satisfying payoff to big questions (see Alias, LOST, etc.), I've been disappointed a fair amount. When things are so hyped, it's hard to still feel exhilarated when everything goes down, and I was seriously let down when we saw Mercer (ho hum, someone we barely know), and then they battled, and Veronica got away (yeah yeah), only to be rescued by the RA (*yawn*). And then... HOLY SHIT THE RA AND MERCER ARE FRIENDS, HE WAS IN ON IT AND OMG VERONICA'S DRINKING TEA. That was a GREAT payoff. I remember having a suspicion about the RA when we first met him, because he seemed to be just too nice, with that I'm-too-dorky-to-rape-anyone-look-I-make-scifi-references-and-drink-special-tea. Special rapist tea!!! But as time went on, he barely seemed heterosexual, let alone evil enough to be a serial rapist. I think pairing him with Mercer made the whole thing very believable, who clearly did have a dark side.

The Logan and Veronica breakup was very realistic and well-done.
Agreed, and it was so sad during the later scenes when they interacted, cause they're obviously still completely hung up on each other. Like Logan said at the alterna-prom last year, their love is epic, and no one writes songs about the relationships that are easy. I still have faith!

[soleta_nf]

I, for one, would be shocked if the feminists killed the Dean.

I think it was the Plan A Perfect Murder professor, perhaps with the wife outside whipping eggs at the window (to provide a cover and pin it on the feminists). I really think that bottle of scotch is significant. On the first viewing, I thought it was a clue that the Dean might have been the rapist (GHB in the bottle?) but on my second viewing today it makes me think that, if the police think it was a suicide (which is kind of what it looks like it was set up as), then Keith might figure out it wasn't because the Scotch wasn't touched, or was... I dunno. It just seems like it has a role to play.

I have LoVe faith too! They really need to figure out some of their issues before they get back together though.

What do you think Moe got out of the whole helping-Mercer-rape thing? It just seems odd that he'd go to that length just to, uh, "help" out a friend. He must have been getting something out of the arrangement, but I don't see what.

Btw, what do you think the 'spit' part of the title 'spit and eggs' referred to? It does make me think of rape, but only because of the spit connected to the first season rape plot.

I REALLY want to know the outcome of Logan being in jail with Mercer. It's going to be a long wait. :(

[corkdorkdan]

Heh, I don't really think the feminists killed the dean, they've proved they're too dumb to pull off something like that :-P I hope Patty Hearst killed the dean! I'd love to see her back for more episodes. I think your observation about the scotch is astute. I can't imagine what role it plays, but there was a lot of focus on such a random fact. Do you think the dean was poisoned or shot? I assumed it was a shooting, and I thought there was a bullethole in his head, but I don't recall any blood at all.

On Moe and Mercer, I think we'd have to look at the early episodes to see. Could be Moe was poor, or did he gamble at that fake casino? It also could have started out small, like just supplying Mercer with the drugs, and then progressed into more of a blackmail thing. As in, if Moe tells anyone, he would go down too for supplying the drugs. Moe seemed pretty freaked out at actually having Veronica in the room, I get the feeling he stayed away from the assaults themselves until Veronica became an issue.

I heard that spit and eggs were both hurled at the dean in his car. I'd have to watch again to see if there was actually any spitting, though.

[soleta_nf]

I assume shooting, too, but you're right. No blood. :S

I read elsewhere that Moe made a "the prison experiment changes you" comment in earlier episodes, which helps to explain what happened (and that Mercer was one of the prison guards). And, yeah, I read on TWOP about the spit. I will have to watch out for that next time.

[corkdorkdan]

That makes PERFECT sense. Remember also, there was that kid that got picked on (Horschak?) during the prison experiment, and afterwards you see him doing the a-hole guard's homework, and he just says that a-hole guard is an okay guy, but still you're thinking, why are you doing his homework?! It's almost like a brainwash/Stockholm syndrome kind of thing. This is why I love this show. All the clues are there, if you can stitch them together.

[soleta_nf]

Exactly! This plot was very impressive. I really need to re-watch this season. :)

[corkdorkdan]

Oh, and some news from Rob Thomas, which you may love or hate.

Rob Thomas reveals: There has been talk - more than talk - about dropping the whole big mystery idea after this middle mystery and to do all stand-alone episodes and sort of a combination of a few things. The network is behind it, and I am interested in heading in that direction. One feeling is that the big mysteries keep away the casual TV viewers, and the other is that the thing that has been least successful since season one - meaning the things we get the most complaints about - are the big mysteries. My design in season one was that Veronica’s best friend was dead, and every season regular had an integral role in the mystery. And unless they wanted every year to kill Veronica’s friends, it’s hard to have the same emotional connective that’s worth spending seven, eight, nine episodes on a mystery. It’s one of the things we are deciding on right now. [...] But what I think we might do is the final mystery we were going to run instead of running it as our final five is just to play those as stand-alone episodes and maybe contract that big mystery into a two-episode thing with a cliffhanger as just a trial balloon. And hopefully before season four, we’ll see how it works. It seems like a good time to do it - a good fun test balloon. Try it over five and see how fans and non-fans react. [...] We will still have ongoing personal life stories from Veronica, so there will be romantic relationships and the normal travails. We just wouldn’t have a mystery at the core.

[soleta_nf]

I think I like that idea. I like that it's a short trial that they can reconsider before (a hopeful) season four. I agree that the nature of the mysteries are directly related to how much time viewers are willing to invest, and, after season one, season-wide arcs don't make as much sense. I'm definitely interested to see how the single episode mysteries go. I am liking the smaller arcs so far, it's neat that in one year we will see a variety of plots rather than just things related to an overarching plot that goes in and out of focus at random times (like last season).

What do you think?

[corkdorkdan]

I'm totally on board with doing multiple big mysteries. I think this first one was great, and I like the variety of now being in a second one. I'm a little more leery of dropping the long mystery altogether, because I sort of like the randomness. I like how you can have an episode about some small thing, and then suddenly get hit with a big revelation. But Thomas is right about how that works really well in the first season, and then gets progressively harder. In the first season everyone is new, so it's hard to say, well Logan is obviously 100% good, Duncan is 100% evil, Lily was perfect, etc. Now that we know the characters, you can't really go saying, Wallace must be the rapist! Alias had a similar evolution, where they graduated from big conspiracies to more of a week-to-week action show. It still had some great episodes, but the magic of the early seasons never really came back.

However, I'm completely in favor of whichever option means I get more VM and not canceled VM :-)

[soleta_nf]

However, I'm completely in favor of whichever option means I get more VM and not canceled VM :-)

Agreed!

And I like your idea, too, of not dropping the bigger mysteries all together, but we'll see what happens.

[thanks4thefish]

So, would you believe...Kate has turned me into a VM nut. sigh.

But yeah, this episode was very well done. I loved the look on Logan's face as he walked up to the police cruiser. Logan has become so freakin' emo, I can't really handle it. I don't think that's what draws a woman like Veronica. But really, if they have them reconnect for a third go around, I will lose all respect for the show. New boy blood is needed dammit!

The only man she truly loves is her father, and it's got to be someone like him to win her over. She's not easily impressed.

I actually think the militant feminists, which are somewhat caricatured no doubt, serve a useful role in the show, that of counterpointing Veronica's personality. It bugs me the extent to which she operates in a Black and White world. She can be exceptionally judgemental (of course I'm not talking about her attitude towards rapists...there are no shades of grey around rape). That type of absolutism I find very dangerous and off-putting (see: The Bush Administration) because the real world is every shade in between. So here Veronica has to deal with these women, another group of people who have just decided that their view is correct and everyone who doesn't agree is an idiot. I think this plot line showed that there are pitfalls to Veronica's occasional, though increasingly frequent, smugness. Every player in the rape plotline (the Pi Sigs, the sorority whose name escapes me, the feminists, Veronica, Logan...maybe not Parker) was a little bit right, and a little bit wrong. I think that's the case in most situations in life and I think these episodes effectively demonstrated that.

More please. :)

[soleta_nf]

I'm so glad you got into the show! You have a lot of really insightful observations and comments. You have me convinced, now, that the feminists are there for a reason, as Veronica's foil. And not that people were accusing her of being a "crazy feminist" in high school or anything, but that is the side of the political spectrum her actions would take, so bringing people in who are seemingly "more" feminist than she is, but still so, so wrong, is interesting and further enhances our understanding of Veronica. And you're right that it's also a good lesson that the world is not best understood in blacks and whites, but rather in the shades of imperfection that make up everyday life.

Man I wish I had my old emo Logan icon uploaded. He's always been torn between roiling emotions or cock-jerkingly pretending he doesn't have any. I DO think they will get back together eventually (forgive me, for I am a LoVe shipper) but they definitely have to work out their issues first. Someone else I know said that they need to date many people separately and work through some things before they'll be happy together again. And it would be fun to see her with other guys. Can you see her with Piz? I can't really, but I wonder if that's where the writers are going.

And you're SO ON with the Keith comment. Veronica would definitely need someone as fabulous as him in all ways to be a true equal. Can you say ... Wallace much? (Though I prefer them as just friends.)

(And I don't know if you've watched the earlier seasons, but WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO KEITH AND WALLACE'S MOM? Either I missed that 5 minutes or the show just quietly swept their breakup under the rug.)

of course I'm not talking about her attitude towards rapists...there are no shades of grey around rape

By the way, I <3 you.