My interpretation of what happened with this vote was that Mike is genuinely interested in bringing Shirin into his alliance, but he wasn't sure if he could trust her, so he made her vote out her ally as a test. The Joe vote proved that she is trustworthy, so now Mike can move on to picking off the Rodney/Carolyn…

Joe's hair was getting bigger and bigger with each vote, kind of like one of Miss J's gimmicks on ANTM.
*I apologize immediately for making that reference, AV Club.

I actually love a ridiculous sponsor endorsement from a castaway (Sandra at Outback, anyone?). I've been wondering for a few seasons whether they ask the cast what they will miss most in their pre-game assessment and then make sure to incorporate that into a reward. Then, if they can get a sponsor for that reward,…

I'm not sure Joe could have known this at the time, but I think there were two other potentially beneficial reasons he should have taken Mike:
-Rodney is already starting to develop some clear rivalry with Mike, so taking Mike out of camp for an afternoon would have given Rodney an opportunity to start persuading the…

I feel like Sierra and Hali will get along, just on a personal level. It's pretty much a lock that Joe will go back to his NC alliance at the merge, and I think it's very possible that Sierra will follow him.

Mike: "Kelly, when I say 'I'm throwing the challenge' and press down on your foot, you win the challenge."

During the whole interlude when Dan and Mike were trying to convince Sierra to vote with them, I just kept yelling "HAVE JOE TALK TO HER!"

Last night during the "Shirin's redemption" story line, I kept saying "are they making me like her, or do I just like her?"
I genuinely can't tell at this point. I've had a fondness for Shirin since the pre-season bios came out, and it didn't really even waver when everyone was calling her annoying for like 5 episodes…

I totally see Shirin playing the Sandra role (I think she even mentioned Sandra in her pre-season bio). I also think that Shirin is a little more open about being strategic than Sandra, so I could see a player (or small alliance) that is lacking in that department pull her in as a sort of 'strategy consultant' and end…

I just wanted to make sure everyone knew, in case they were trying to figure out which set of standards to hold me to. Otherwise, it's no big deal.

I actually laughed during the Rodney/Lindsey fight portion of the episode, because Lindsey was like "argh, I can't believe Rodney thinks women should be held to a higher standard than men!" and then they cut to Rodney's confessional where he was all "I don't get what her problem is, I was just saying that women should…

Random thoughts on this episode:
I was fully pro-Jenn until the second hour of last night's episode. I'm not anti-Jenn by any means now, but I definitely started to get why some people aren't in on the Jenn love. Maybe it's because I'm mildly pro-Shirin (not to win, just as a character), but I thought Jenn went over…

*Lady dude
And thank you!

Dan: "I'm sorry…..that you're so awful."

His "how women listen vs. how men listen" stereotypes seemed completely out of whack to me tonight, too. Not that any stereotype is ever that accurate, but who in the world would characterize women as just nodding and smiling and saying "yes dear" in every conversation? Either Gorham is more backward than I thought,…

Intelligence I've gathered about Rodney's mother so far this season:
-She may or may not be a whore
-Lindsey is curious about her parenting techniques
-She is hot for 60
-She is possibly Rodney's girlfriend? (I may have misunderstood something here…)

I would just like to pat myself on the back because in last week's comments I predicted Kelly's injury to a T (although I wasn't sure if it would be her or Lindsey).
And I quote:
"my guess is that it's just a superficial wound to the forehead. Those bleed a ton but aren't really that serious, so whoever it is will just…

I totally agree. I actually thought they did a good job making a solid episode out of a somewhat inevitable outcome. Just think how boring it would have been if we'd spent the whole episode at the No Collar camp building up to the obvious Nina boot. Instead, we got to see some fairly lively happenings at the other two…

Here is my ridiculous speculation about the 3 second clip:
Jeff says something about a huge collision, then Sierra (?) shouts "she's bleeding!" If it happens more or less that way on the show (big if) my guess is that it's just a superficial wound to the forehead. Those bleed a ton but aren't really that serious, so…

Pod people, eh?… The world makes sense again!