I liked the cousins story, particularly how it (apparently) changed the flavor of their relationship.

It was something dismissive and disconnected, but I can't remember exactly what. Maybe "How sweet" or something like that.

Thanks - yeah, I had a math failure. Given Russell and a 4-4 split, my money would be on Russell.

Strategy
1) IMHO, getting rid of Russell early was a reasonable strategy. (a) He doesn't win challenges; (b) he's a scheming strategic player. Unless you really think you're in his final 3, you're better off getting rid of him fast. You won't do any worse in the next challenge and he might not see it coming. …

Another Richard Comment
One random thought. Richard's food doesn't elicit much reaction from the judges. Last week, he won for a dish that as far as we could tell when they were eating it, was just ok. This time, they told him his dish was creative, perfectly executed, delicious, and met the challenge, then gave…

Queen Padma
Padma's best moment was when Mr. Hootie-Hoo explained that he and Carla met on Match.com. You could almost see the wheels turning in her head while she tried to think of what to say.

Richard
I love Richard, warts and all. He's observant, arrogant, kind of jerk in confession, nice almost everywhere else and can't stop analyzing the show.

Antonia's dish calls back to the Italian restaurant challenge, which distinguished between "Italian food" and "Italian-American food." (I'd never realized the distinction, but if Collichio buys it, then so do I).

"the drama payoff imo was richard blais getting fucked with by padma"

Three comments
1) The "sad music" score is really getting to me. Everything about this show's production values is just tops.

That's definitely present. Olive is withdrawn but fascinating; Peter has got troubles of his own but can't resist her, and is charming enough that sooner or later he reaches her. The kids do a great job recreating the adult relationship.

I read it as Peter the charmer. He thinks it's funny that Elizabeth is pretending not to watch him, and she knows that he does, and they have a shared amusing "I know you know I know . . ." moment over the absurdity.

My Choices for All-Stars
IMHO, the racers who didn't win who I would most like to see again.

MYEAAHHH was hilarious. This time, it was the baby leg jump that was funniest, IMHO, although some of the Andy Dick bits were funny. ("Who are you calling fey? I HAVE A SON!!!!")

My gripe with Herbert
I don't have a problem in theory with a sympathetic pedophile on Family Guy. As plenty of people have pointed out, they've done worse. (Although it helps that Herbert is ineffectual.)

There must be about zero cross-over viewers from "Heaven's Kitchen" or whatever that Gordon Ramsey show is that leads into Fringe. (I still tape things on VCR, so I get the scene of Gordon Ramsey fading into the night before each Fringe).

I like the schmaltz
Good review, although I'd give this one an A-. At this point, I even like the romance, and Torv's vulnerability was something to watch.

Ah, I see. Noel, you're right that Walter figures out that Alice is seeing Alt-2 Derek, but it's Peter who figures out that she's seeing him because Alt-Alice lost the coin toss. I might have misread the quoted sentence to imply that Walter had figured out both what was happening and why it was happening.

Correction - PETER figures . . .
Noel writes: "Walter figures that what Alice is really seeing is the Earth-2 version of Derek, since on the other side, Alice would have been the one to lose the toss."

Beware - it would be written by Grant Morrison and be uncomfortably metatextual and obscure.