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Great read, FloPo, you really bring up some good points.
I want to start with the Buddhism theme though. Second chance can also be seen as a rebirth, something that is very important in Buddhism so that's why I think they incorporated the temple so much in the intro and the chants in the musical score.
Consider also that Karma was responsible for both eliminations:
We heard Shirin say “To me, Vytas comes off as smarmy. That’s how I read him in his first season" so it was the actions of his prior life that brought this Karmic fruit.
Shirin's actions in episode 1 brought her immediate punishment in episode 2 so it was again Karma.
Finally, the need to combine old school and new school can be seen as searching for the middle way.
Now turning to your post, I'm not sure about your interpretation that the baby monkey is Spencer. Last week, that same baby monkey was shown right after Varner said he was trying to learn this new game, making him, I thought, the little monkey that was learning. This time, the little monkey was shown right before we heard Shirin and Spencer talking so I think it could still be seen as Varner who had his eyes on those two. We'll see. Maybe it's because I got too caught up in Spencer's first struggle that I am hesitant to jump on his bandwagon again but I do hope they don't let him skate by like Tony did.
Good point about Andrew. I saw changes in the fact that he was more humanized that the PI Andrew but maybe he is also focusing too much on his perfect wife and perfect life. He may not feel the need to make the extra effort.
It's really starting to look like the lack of first episode introduction confessional could be seen the way we did with the list of friends in "Loser Lodge". Woo and Keith don't appear to be early targets though. Maybe there'll be another swap that will hurt them.
PS. I liked your comment about "spyshack". I saw it has a way to tell us that Varner and Terry had kept up with the show but it is also a way to tell us that "old school" knows about "New School" tactics. Can they use them? Varner certainly can!
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