I knew the snake was red herring as there was no way that they would put a poisonous snake in the saddle bag. (snakes cannot be de-venomized can they?)
This was the first murder that I had actually had good theory of the crime.
I am glad Dana and Sasha are gone too! especially Dana although I thought she was the murderer.
My current theory is Melina is the murderer. Because she appears to be too dumb to still be in the game.
I believe you can milk a snake for it’s venom (as a temporary solution) or surgically remove the venom glands (as a permanent solution). Practically, if the contestants aren’t antagonizing the snake, it’s probably not going to bite them. And even if it did, depending on the snake, if the cameraman has some antivenin to administer on the spot there’d be minimal side effects. All that being said, though, I have a hard time seeing the show lawyers being ok with a poisonous snake, so it’s likely going to be nonpoisonous.
Which brings up an interesting question: the contestants know this is a reality show, so what meta-knowledge can they bring to the game? “Hmm, they wouldn’t leave poisonous snakes around for fear of a lawsuit, so the snake must be non-poisonous”
I’m leaning towards Melina as well - she just seems too dense to be getting the stories right all the time when other, smarter contestants are getting eliminated. But she’s doing a good job hiding it, as she has ZERO accusations so far. The accusations are going to get interesting soon, I think. Since people tend to stick with someone they’re accusing until they’re eliminated, once someone goes, it’ll be interesting to see how the accusations change.
Last episode may have been the best, but this was the creepiest by far. The producers are really ramping it up.
Don’t think I need to spoiler much. Good clues and riddles. The interteam backstabbing went as I expected from last time, although Kam was a super-dick to Ronnie about it. He’s asking to a boot up his ass, and I like Kam.
Although, with the death this episode, it will be interesting to see who Kam changes his guess to.
I’m wondering if the clue Cris found is an indication of the gender of the killer - anybody agree or is it a red herring?
I really, really thought Giles was somehow going to end up dead by limbo. That would have been the best twist ever.
I was as well- I watched extra intently and picked up the bad acting by Geno with regard to the coat (which lends credence to the “butler did it” theory) as well as feigned excitement about the luau, but no one else really stepped out of the party area in order to set up the next murder. I think that Kris’s information is a big red herring. Small feet does not equal Lindsey since there are still 3 women and 5 people with smaller feet than Geno.
[Slightly late response…had to catch the ABC.com feed because our local affiliate burned up 20 minutes reporting some little bitty storm that was 2 days from hitting at the time and probably won’t affect Oahu at all. Really do not understand my state’s priorities sometimes…]
Momsa, I am liking this show a whole, whole lot, and that’s not something I’ve said about any kind of TV program in a long time. I think it strikes a near-perfect balance between cheese, drama, manipulation, and actual competition. It’s been tense and unpredictable from day one. I don’t even care about the mystery anymore, I’m just enjoying the ride.
I think a lot of it has to do with the kind of contestant that’s required for something like this. There’s no way your typical Big Brother or American Idol schlub is going to be able to go along with the premise, stay completely in character, and actually try to win. Better contestants equals a better contest, and with it a better show.
If I had to hazard a guess (and make no mistake, guesses are all I have), I’d say that Kam isn’t the killer, mainly because he’s totally ruthless and playing a very solid game. Think about it. If you’re the killer, you can neither be eliminated nor win the quarter million*. You’re a completely neutral agent; you have no stake in the contest whatsoever. What do you care about the race for the clue or calligraphy on cards? If I were looking for the killer, I’d seek out the most unpredictable one, someone who can barely squeak by one week and shine the next. (I wouldn’t put too much stake in the stuffed shoes; that could have been a plant.)
Oh, and Giles…awesomest reality TV show host EVER. I don’t really think they’re going to pull a “the butler did it”, but I gotta admit he’s very convincing!
It’s the perfect summer show for this very reason, IMO 
It would lose everything if it were made into a weekly series duiring regular time.
nodding: The only reality show alum I could see playing this is Cochrane. I’m serious. He’d dissect every single murder, just like he dissected every single move anyone made in Survivor. The others? No way – they wouldn’t be able to do this AND stay in character.
I’ll be very surprised if he ends up being the killer. I don’t think he is, either – he’s just too much "out there.
Plus I think Giles is one of the better hosts out there. He has to be, though – this kind of show demands more interaction between host and contestants than Survivor or TAR.
Precisely why my money’s still on Melina, and I think there’s at least one contestant who’s starting to figure that out, too (was it Kam? I can’t remember). I hadn’t thought of it precisely the way you mentioned, but you’re absolutely corect–Kam is playing too hard to be a plant.
Yeah, $250,000 is not a lot, but I imagine this was the settled number in negotiations to get the network to pay for this show. Everybody has to work on the cheap to get it on the air. If it comes back for another season, perhaps they can double that amount.
I think Survivor is way harder than this, though that is not how they settled on the amount.
Yeah, we like the show too, though me more than Mrs. Mahaloth. It is definitely a summer show and basically just fills a slot in our weekly watching. We watch it the next day and I don’t think I could watch it with commercials.
Here are the current accusation totals, from Wikipedia. They must list this on the web site or something.
Cris: 10
Kam: 15
Lindsey: 4
Melina: 0
Ronnie: 0
So, my guess is that Cris or Kam is the killer, since people are picking them and are still in the game. In theory, Melina or Ronnie should definitely not run out to be the killer, as no one has picked them the entire game.
Kam seems to be where the show is leading us to think, so I’ll guess:
**Cris is the murder, with Kam winning the prize. **
I’m going to go with Melina as the murder, with Kam or Cris winning. I can’t bring myself to like Lindsay, but I at least respect that Cris seems to have a brain in her head, even if she wears inappropriate shoes around the house when she knows she may end up running.
I still wonder if the killer knows they’re the killer and the show was willing to risk the entire thing on an actor never making a mistake.
And to what degree they’re making sure the killer could have performed the deeds being done. For the horse ride one everything about the murder had to have been staged in bits and pieces with everybody reacting to what is supposed to have happened. There’s no way they put a bunch of contestants, most of whom have probably never previously been on a horse, on out of control horses and actually threw a contestant while in the middle of it making sure that the killer was actually in a position that would have allowed committing the murder.
I’m not particularly interested in the “who is the killer” part of things but don’t feel like it is something that could be reliably figured out by looking at who was where when.
Hey, instead of just wondering it is amazing what a little looking will do.
Found an interview with one of the producers and learned:
The murderer knows they’re the murderer but doesn’t actually know anything about the murders before or after they happen so they’re playing with the same information as everybody else (except knowing that they’ve been cast as the murderer).
They added the post-credit interview with the deceased after the first episode because of people thinking they might have actually killed the person.
There’s no judgment in the elimination, it is whoever scored lowest (or, presumably, second lowest if the murderer is worst) on the written test they take. That person always gets a scare card. The other scare cards, however, are at producers discretion and presumably used for dramatic purposes. I knew about the test but didn’t know if it was the only factor in elimination.
This makes me sad for society as a whole. :rolleyes:
The mole on The Mole had a much, much harder job and they just used a regular person, not an actor.
Would you please link to the interview? I’d like to read it.
This was the first interview I found. Then I also found this interview with Ulysses, and another (not much on the show itself) with Melina.
In the Mole did the mole benefit from remaining hidden? On this show there’d be no benefit for that person one way or another and having it confirmed for the audience would theoretically puncture one of the conceits. Though in the end nothing about the show requires that the murderer be one of them, it could be some anonymous person to the same effect.
If the agent who represents the actor who plays Giles does not parlay this actor into something bigger, he ought to be fired.
I can see him having his own sitcom.
I’ve wondered about that myself. A few times they’ve had a lot more detail about some minor piece than I’d have been expecting them to include (such as large shoes with paper in the toes), but other times they’ve been as sloppy as I’d expect.
I’m thinking Cris might be the killer - Kam seems too ‘on-the-nose’, and considering that Cris hasn’t done anything on-camera to make me suspect her, the fact that so many of the remaining contestants think it’s her tells me that she’s giving off some sort of vibe to the other contestants that’s being edited out of the televised bits.
I’m disappointed that there wasn’t an obnoxiously out-of-place giveaway to the method of the murder this week, such as the “this flower is poisonous” thing in the morgue last week or the “C to N” clue in the chase section the week before. It may have been to straightforward for that.
Cris is my second choice for the killer, but I base that on her actions, not lack thereof. Basically, she seems involved with a lot of the shit-stirring between teams - the back and forth with Lindsey in the second episode, bringing lindsey to listen at the door in the third episode, some talks with Sasha in the fourth episode… she seems to amp the friction between the teams a lot. Is that trying to play both sides, or trying to keep both sides off-balance so they work against each other? Not to mention, keeping her team alive keeps the suspicion off her, and breaking up the big team gives more easy victims.
My main choice is still Melina. My reasoning here is similar to the above - she stirs up shit between teams, trying to get Lindsay and Cris to switch sides. But, she also screws up her own team - insisting it was the poisonous snake in episode 4, misdirection in episode three… the one standout to this is the benzene in episode two, and that may have just been because everyone else figured it out at the same time (well, except for Don and Ronnie). She also overacts a TON, which you would expect from someone acting through the game but not from someone just playing the game. But the thing that really gets me about her is the lack of scared cards when she has squat for info - why didn’t she get a scared card during episode 5 when have her team did? what about in episode 3? I think she’s getting passes, and I don’t think they’re from lucky guesses on the quiz.
This show is silly but I like it a lot. Has anyone said anything about it being renewed? It doesn’t seem like it would be all that expensive to shoot.
It’s about $750,000 a day for shooting. (Apparently, 250 people working in production get expensive fast). Dunno how that compares to other reality shows or how their ratings compare to other shows in general. They’ve hovered around 3M viewers an episode - I don’t know if that’s good or not.