On the topic of "the big move": I was irritated that throughout the late season Ciera and Jeff kept holding up her voting out her Mom as "the biggest move in the game". It was dramatic certainly. But was it even a move?

Bandits. The coconut variety.

That wasn't a real downside though, Monica confirmed her position as number three by spending the preceding council distancing herself from Tyson and Gervaise.

It was bitter because it is a threat born from bitterness that he has clutched to his chest for weeks.

Good point on the RW Gospel. She even had it down by playing the victim card from her position in Final Three on all the people she had voted out.

Let me amend my statement. It was the worst cast since I started watching.

I think its the lack of interactions that show the dislike. Monica isn't someone that made splashy, filmable drama. She was just paranoid and passive aggressive.

Its not a particularly good gimmick, but I don't see it necessarily ruining everything either.

I don't because Gervase really didn't have a good jury game at all. He seemed to think "I was hiding behind Tyson" was a winning play. That's not someone who was thinking ahead to the jury.

I was glad he won, but it wasn't interesting enough to sustain whole season.

Yeah, I truly hated Monica by the end of this episode. She has no self-awareness. The TC you brought up was bad enough. Every time Monica was going to fail to make a move, she had to make big speech about it, as if she could convince people that her failure to make a move was a move in of itself.

Yeah, I think Boston Rob's season was the worst cast ever.

Yeah, all the "one big move" talk this season was tiresome. Tyson won because he played all season long, not because he waited and waited for a perfect chance, then realized it was too late and flailed desperately.

I already made this joke in the Survivor thread, but it made me laugh that the absolute worst player in challenges was the one that having heard it the most, clearly remembered. It's like it was engineered Ciera, the player with no talent, to win it

I'm honestly not sure how to save Amazing Race.I still watch it out of habit, but its nothing I get excited about. Unlike Survivor, it rarely lends itself to any kind of real narrative. There just isn't a lot of room for interesting character interaction aside from interteam bickering.

It's not that hard to get into. I only started watching a few years ago, with no idea who all these returnees were. But, yeah, they really are playing to the fans. I think its a good move even for new viewers, as you feel you are getting into something with a history to it now. The shows age works to its own advantage.

The twist is that he got you to click on the article.

I think the real question for @avclub-df1ccc80d7dc6b6c0eb5ba69bced9c8a:disqus is once you have entered a game with no intention of voting for returnees, who are very much a part of the game now, and no intention of voting for anyone to RI, which is a realistic possibility, should you even be playing the game at all?…

I had the exact same thought about Ciera while she was talking to Monica. Ciera has a little bit of cunning, but little in the way of real people skills. She went to Monica with a story that would be hurtful to her and didn't deliver it with enough empathy.

Of course, there is usually a disconnect between the gatorade they serve up during the questions and how they actually vote.