If anyone ever reads the recap that sushipup always links to, the guy is a great writer. Very entertaining. He explained it perfectly. You can't let emotions in or you will lose. Brenda cut her own throat when she won the family love reward challenge. It's a two sided sword. If you win and keep it, everyone hates you for getting the reward. If you win and give it to everyone else, you are a target because you're so nice. I would be willing to bet that if Brenda had kept the reward for herself and Dawn, she would not have gone home that night. It would have been Eddie. It's a fine line. Brenda was very sweet and nice this time around, and that's what did her in. I don't want crybaby or facelift to win. But I really don't want Eddie to win either. He has been cocky and so full of himself, judgmental about the "geeks" and not so beautiful people, ugh, I don't want him to win. Cochran is my absolute first vote. Erik second.

Kat was really really hoping that her boyfriend would change places with her, you could tell. I'm glad he didn't. I never cared much for her but I don't mind him. He obviously wasn't thrilled about giving up his chance, since he already won Big Brother, he seems to know what it takes to win. Not saying he will, but he sure wants his chance and if she had really pushed for it, he would have been in a tough spot. It sure made her look weak, but then, she was. I thought it was funny how Kat was against "cheating" at the beginning of the puzzle, but with people calling suggestions to her and then encouraging her to look at Laura's puzzle, it became OK with her. She seems SO very young and immature, even years after playing the first time. LauraB, well, she was like a fish out of water in this game, she should have stayed quiet and just gone along, she would have gotten a little farther probably. I can't WAIT for Tyson to leave, he just annoys me, everything he says and does bugs me, his over-inflated ego is so puzzling to me, he's a jerk who thinks he's a prince. I hope they vote him off ASAP. Monica's little thank you speech to John- was all that done tongue-in-cheek or what? She can't possibly think that John is being nice to her? I kind of like her, but can't stand how she talks so fakey-fake, like everything is so heartfelt. Maybe that's what happens when you have a camera in your face all the time, but it's so off-putting, to me.

It is kind-of boring this time. Both DH and I think that "Idol" that sugar had in her bag was a fake. Wasn't the one she found bigger than that. I remember wondering where she could hide it when she went back. At least that would make it interesting. I don't like the way Ace acts like HE is in charge of the use of the idol. I would love to see him steal it and end up with a fake.

"I loved the way the final votes were read but trying to figure out how and when that was planned." "A tie could happen anytime, it would only take 1 person to vote for the 3rd person to make a tie." Last season, in one of the Q & A sessions that Dalton Ross does with Jeff Probst, the subject of a tie came up and Jeff said that if there were a tie at the final tribal, then the person not involved in the tie would cast the final, deciding, vote. If you think about it, this is what they do in "regular" tribal councils when there is a tie vote to oust someone. The folks who are tied do not get to vote again, and everyone else votes again with votes only being cast for one or the other of the folks who are tied. Ok, now for "how and when it was planned." When everyone is done voting at a tribal council, Jeff always says, "I'll go tally the votes." Then he comes back and dramatically pulls them from the urn and reads them. If Jeff just grabbed the urn and brought it back to his post and started randomly pulling them out and reading them, it would not be nearly as dramatic as it has been. That's because when he goes off to "tally the votes," he actually looks at each one, and then they are arranged in the urn in a manner that will provide the most drama as they are being read. In last night's case, when Jeff previewed the votes and saw that there was a tie, he knew he HAD to read them out loud to the group right then and there, because he knew that Laurel would have to cast the deciding vote. No, he couldn't have waited and had Laurel cast the vote at the beginning of the reunion show, because it would have been a tainted vote. Think about it -- when they are on location, they have no idea what is going on. They only know what they see and hear. They don't know what another player is saying to the camera in the "confessional" interviews; they don't know what other players and saying to each other behind someone's back, etc. By the time the live shows rolls around, they've been home for several months, and they've watched every episode on tv, just like we have. That final vote needed to be cast in a manner that represented what Laurel felt at the time, uninfluenced by outside factors.