Survivor: China - Ep. 3: "I Lost Two Hands and Possibly a Shoulder"

Cafe Society
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Previously on Survivor:

Bogus Boobs Booted. Former Model Models Bad Leadership Skills.
Oh and pixellated mud wrestling boobies.

For tonight, I’m hoping for more views of the Fe-Mullet.

TVGuide gives a good preview for once:

The Fei Long tribe continued to prove its superiority in challenges last week by winning both the reward and the immunity contests. They are now four for four in head-to-head competitions. If Zhan Hu loses immunity again, irritating leader Dave just might be reunited with evicted enemy Ashley sooner than he thinks. Tonight, the teams play for comfort items (pillows, blankets, a tarp) in a boat challenge. The winner kidnaps an opposing tribe member, who bonds with the other team over issues of faith. But is it in good faith?

I’m no rockle, but I figured this might get the ball rolling.

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They missed the most important part:

Jeff Probst is the host.

:smiley:

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Terminus Est, you are exactly right. I should have filled the gap for them.

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Previous episode linkies![ul]
[li]1: A Chicken’s A Little Bit Smarter[/li][li]2: My Mom Is Going To Kill Me![/li][li]3: Hi, rockle![/li][/ul]

I wonder if the rumors are true that…

Another contestant is voted off.

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The ads do bring a lot of attention on this particular guy. I hope it doesn’t mean that he sows fear over camp and gets voted out.

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I’d watch this show much more regularly if once in a while we got to see the contestants gossipping about each other and maybe some back-stabbing too. Just once. That’s all I’m asking for.

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If they stopped pixelating everything interesting, the ratings would go through the roof!

OK, they can pixelate Probst.

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What’s this doing on page two at this time of night? Everyone too depressed about the Phillies and Yankees?

Without mentioning any names, another player who was only in the game because of his/her “story” is gone, and it gets closer to being a good game. Hopefully Survivor is going to become like that scene from the first “Indiana Jones” movie, where the big scary guy with the costume and swordplay puts on a big show, after which Indy shrugs, pulls out a pistol, and kills him. Bring game, not attitude.

The other thing about this episode which stuck with me was when the first woman swung the huge machete at the rope and they did the freeze frame, I was sure she was going to miss and hack off her leg.

Also, next weeks challenge oficially looks like the greatest in Survivor history.

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Yankees lost, right? Who could be depressed about that? :smiley:
Dave approach to the Reward Challenge was…interesting. Didn’t seem to help him much, though.

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Does Denise speak?

I’m not loving James as much as I was. And I’m starting to like Courtney.

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Interesting week. Fei Long has developed a three-tiered dynamic, with two factions and a couple of free-agent question marks, while Zhan Hu looks to have settled into an uneasy truce after winning a couple of challenges (rewards and immunity always make for a more peaceful camp, though).

On to the completely arbitrary rankings:

Hostage - No ransom forthcoming: Leslie (Fei Long) couldn’t survive a friendly kidnapping after revealing potential kinship with members of the opposing tribe. Note to self: If ever in same position, don’t volunteer information relating to how close you felt to members of the other team. :smack:

Hard Target - Still very little idea who these people are:
Erik (Zhan Hu), Denise (Fei Long) - Is Denise mute?

Broken Arrow - The future does not look rosy:
Courtney (Fei Long) does not seem long for the show, with her pitiful showing in the Immunity Challenge and failing to win Todd’s sympathies in the vote. No escaping she really is the physically weakest member of the tribe, and no guarantee her assured future losses in individual physical challenges will be enough to keep her around.

Face/Off - Intra-tribal dynamics:
Fei Long’s factions have the threesome alliance of Todd, Amanda, and Aaron vying for dominance with the brawny twosome of James and Jean-Robert. Should be interesting to see where Denise winds up in this, and whether or not Courtney can be strategically useful enough to stick around despite her physical shortcomings.

Zhan Hu, with a couple of challenge wins, now have the still-abrasive Dave dealing with a Peih-Gee apparently concerned about his health and well-being; Jaime dealing with two clues to the Hidden Immunity Idol (thanks to Leslie) she apparently doesn’t understand; and Sherea and Frosti dealing, apparently, with . . . um . . . not much (maybe they hung out with Erik this week). At any rate, they won a couple of challenges, so they’re happy for the moment (or at least able to soldier on obliviously).

Coming attractions: Next week, Sherea apparently shows Dave a bit of the Art of (Vocal) War, and the locals (?) demonstrate some ancient weaponry.

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Careful what you wish for, dude. That pixellated nether-mullet is the stuff of nightmares… :eek:

And what the hell was with that freeze-frame at the challenge? I expected to see cartoon “SMASH!” “POW!” graphics over them. I know they’re trying to spice things up, but that was pretty lame. At first I was annoyed, thinking my DVR was messed up. Then I was mildly intrigued, then annoyed again, then amused at Courtney’s ping! freeze for her leisurely filleting effort. I hope they drop this affectation and use the extra time to let Denise actually speak. Can’t wait for next week’s challenge - that looks amazing! Lunchlady should rock that with her mad stick-fighting skillz!

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I liked Jean-Robert’s strategy of appearing to be a lecherous douchebag. Now, when there’s an occasion where he’s less of a lecherous douchebag than everyone is expecting, everyone will be all like “Hey, Jean-Robert is too valuable not to keep around… he’s less of a lecherous douchebag than we thought he was.”

I, too, am wondering if lunch lady Denise can speak. In my mind I’m imagining her first talking head confessional to be 20 seconds of silence followed by something like “Sorry, kids, we’re out of chocolate milk.”

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This lack of conversation from the lunch lady could be some incredibly subtle bit of editing to keep her completely under the viewer’s radar in preparation for some massive strategic move on her part.

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LOL.

Courtney absolutely sucked at that challenge and I’m really surprised that they didn’t vote her off, for no other reason to allow her to get some calories before she collapses. I guess Leslie buried herself when she told them all that she told the other tribe “little bits” of information about each member, like “Adam, I told them that you’re our reluctant leader.” Woman, keep your mouth shut.

I think they ought to be really careful about the FA dude (Todd?). If he’s willing to vote Leslie off after she revealed the HI clue to him, then I’d say he’s a real cut throat.

The gravedigger has rocked on all the challenges. He’d better be lucky though because not only are Courtney and Todd ticked at him (thanks to his big mouth) but if a merge ever takes places, he’ll be the first to go.

Dave was really, really obnoxious. Either he’s always a jerk or he’s got a major blood sugar problem.

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This is what I am anticipating. When she starts showing up on the little confessionals, watch out!

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Ok, first time I get to say this…you owe me a new keyboard. Plus CBS owes me a few gallons of brain bleach.

I hope the editors realize after last night that the freeze frames were perhaps the lamest thing (among many lame things) that they have ever done. I also think I underestimated how sharp those machetes are and/or how thin the suspension rope was. When the first dude (Erik?) took a big hack at it, I thought for sure it was going to just whipsaw back at him. I think I’d have taken one hand and held the rope against the pole and then swung at the rope. Eh, worked out fine for them though.

I wondering why Denise can’t use her supernatural lunch lady skillz to summon up some sloppy joe and mac & cheese. What good are lunch lady superpowers if you can’t use them in a time of crisis.

The spot between Courtney’s thumb and index finger looked horrible. I just kept thinking that if they didn’t vote her out, she’s going to be a good candidate for a heavy duty infection.

What kind of critters were James and J-R getting out of the lake bottom mud?

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So… That’s shaved in the front and six inches long out of her… Oh, my.

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Water buffalo, not wildebeest. Wildebeest live in Africa. (There don’t seem to be many critters actually around the camp…the wildlife shots are all edited in.)

Watching Courtney nibbling ineffectively with her machete, I was thinking that she must be *really *bad at puzzle solving, to have put her on chopping duty. She looks worse now than most contestants do after 39 days. Note to future skinny contestants…you might want to consider including cheeseburgers as part of your pre-show training regimen.

Dave: now a nominee for the Survivor Tool Hall of Fame.

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It’s interesting how the immunity challenge went. The Fei Long men won easily, as did the Zhan Hu women. That means, of course, that the only reason Zhan Hu won the overall challenge is because they went first. Intentional? Could be.