Survivor 10/24/02

Cafe Society
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Spoilers
Speaking of spiking challenges, I have a very vague memory of the brainteaser they used for the IC tonight. Isn’t it true that the team that goes second will always win as long as they make the same move as the first team does? I’m not sure why I think that, but if it’s true, Robbbbbb was doomed from the start.

Jan is dead meat. Chipped beef on toast. What a loon.

Editing aside, I think it was pretty clear that Robb was far more “moved” by his little moment than anyone else on his team was. It looked to me like everyone else was just playing along to look like part of the group. Shi-Ann’s little speech, in particular, reeked of butt-covering. I was glad to see that everyone made the smart move and ditched the moron.

Oh, and Ken (is that his name? The cop) played it very well, coming off as a really nice guy and peacemaker in his tribe. He could go a very long way.

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I actually thought Robb left with a bit of dignity and class. I was surprised. Robb is a young guy without much real exposure to the world. Also, I think he was resigned to his fate and was just enjoying his last days.

The bogus I.C.'s continue- this year is by far the worst rigging of the contests to protect a weak team that Burnett has ever done. No running, swimming, jumping I.C. for what-- 4 weeks in a row? Just stupid sunday newpaper type challenges. :mad: This isn’t Survivor-- its like that NPR puzzle show’s beach edition.

I would like to see the merge not happen at all. Just go to the final four as tribes. That would be neat.

Jan needs to go. Jan would have been gone 3 weeks ago except for the I.C. challenge spiking. In every year the “Jan” type usually is the first or second to go. Maybe she is Burnett’s grandmother or something. :rolleyes:

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At that point I so wanted to be on that island. Just so I could ask her, “How do you know the bat’s a Christian?”

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I’d say the 5 that voted out Rob(b) look like a pretty strong alliance.
Robb seemed well-intentioned, but he still hasn’t a clue. Did he even notice that EVERY ONE of his other teammates voted against him? I wonder if we could parse exactly how many pop-culture solidarity, salutation signs he attempted to incorporate in his exit.
Not sure who, if anyone, from the bat-team will make it to the final 4. Brian and Helen may have the best chances, but I can see Brian viewed as a threat. Sure didn’t show anything in the basket-ball challenge, tho.

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Actually, the team that goes first can force a win by taking one flag and then always making sure the number of flags left for the second team is a multiple of four. (They could pick one, two, or three flags, if I’m remembering correctly.)

If the first team doesn’t pick one flag, the second team can win.

I thought Ted had it figured out when he said they needed to have four flags left after some turn. But both teams were weird numbers of flags for a while. Were they thinking of some other puzzle?

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It wouldn’t surprise me if Ted had seen this before. Being a computer programmer, if he went through University/College for computer science, he may have studied these kind of logic puzzles before (he seemed to have a good grasp of the Hanoi Towers puzzle too). I know we did when I was going through Comp. Sci. Not that only Comp. Sci. students study these things, but it may have helped. Of course, if he remembers as much as I do from University, it’s no wonder his team was picking weird numbers of flags. DavidBs article on Reality News Online about this weeks episode gives a good explanation of how the challenge works. I can’t see how this would really be a “popular Thai game” if whoever goes first can be sure of winning. Once everyone knows that, there goes the fun.

I must say, Robbs farewell speech was a let down. Not a “Dude” or “Bro” in the whole thing. I wonder how much of a “twist” is going to be introduced next week. Hopefully the preview wasn’t just another red-herring.

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My previous poast apparently vanished. I hate when that happens. Basically, I went along with the “Bye bye, Robb” and “Jan’s a nut” sentiments. And now for next week’s prediction.

First, I predict there will be a merger of some sort. I base this on the preview hinting there won’t be and the duplicious nature of past previews. Every past series has done a merger at ten people.

If the merger occurs, it’ll be another 5-5 face off. In which case, I’m predict no one will jump teams and it will go to a tie breaker. Further, I’m predicting a Soup Guy will be voted off. My reasoning is based on two things. First, in every previous year, one team has been shown as the hopeless case and that team always comes back in the latter part of the series; Burnett apparently likes to play up the underdog. Second, we’ve be seeing a lot of the inner politics of the Chewing Gums but very little of the Soup Guys; in my mind, this is an indication that the Soup Guy politics aren’t important because they’re all going to be leaving. The editors are focusing on the alliances which’ll be around in the future.

Shii Ann is the wild card. She’s been getting much more attention than any other Soup Guy. In my opinion, this can indicate one of two things. Either Shii Ann will be the one who gets voted off next week or she will make some kind of deal and, like Vecepia last year, will outlast all of her other team mates and make it to at least the final four. Personally, I’d prefer the latter, but for the record, I’ll predict Shii Ann will be voted off next week.

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The best comment of the night was Brian’s response to Jan’s discovery of the dead bad embryo: “Can we eat it?”
It almost made up for the sight of him posing on that rock, hands on hips and legs akimbo in his short shorts.

I give up trying to predict anything that’s going to happen. Honestly, I wanted Robb around a little longer because he made it fun to watch. Who will I hate now?

Those were the biggest prawns I’ve ever seen.

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Dagnammit. That should be “bat” embryo. I also wanted to add that I thought Robb seemed a little drunk when he was going on about his father and all that. It definitely sounded like maudlin, homesick drunk talk to me.

And what’s going on next week, with Brian? Drinking from the bottle and then vomiting in the bushes? Weird.

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I just checked out that site. So it looks like the two tribes threw away a total of nine chances for a certain win. Wow.

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Jeff Probst was on the radio in Atlanta this morning. He promises that next week’s episode is a doozy.

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Yeah, Granny Jan is a psycho loon who should’ve been gone 3 weeks ago.

Notice in the TC, Robbbb’s comment that his speech had more of an emotional impact “than I thought it would”? Hmmmm…maybe a little bit of self-serving butt-covering last-minute kiss-up strategy? too little, too late.

Does anybody know if the challenges are set in advance? Or does Mark Burnett make them up as they go? I would like to think that they’re pre-scheduled, and that he doesn’t design them to “level the playing field” between the weak & strong, smart & stupid, and make for more interesting viewing. I would like to think there’s a Santa Claus, too.

Was this the first time they’ve let a tribe take alcohol back to camp with them, after it was served at a reward?

Based on previous hype-letdown cycles, I wouldn’t read too much of anything into the previews for next week.

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Robb’s been nicer these past couple of episodes, so he wasn’t even much fun to make fun of any more. Good riddance, I say.

Shii Ann’s position is indeed tenuous, just because of her outspokenness (is that a word? anyway…) But, as Little Nemo says, she’s been getting the most screen time, so I have hopes she’ll make it far. It seems Penny doesn’t care for her too much, and we already knew Erin didn’t. And it looks like she has a little tiff with Ken next week.Well, we’ll see.

On the subject of screen time, the second most exposed person is Erin, and not just boobie shots. She got two questions at the TC meeting. Everyone else got just one, except for Ken, who got none. Why are we seeing so little of Ken? Hmmm…

I was impressed with Penny in the RC. “I’m going to start launching them in the middle, and I want all four of your butts in there catching them.” Yes, ma’am! Didn’t know she had it in her.

And Jan’s antics aside, I’m giving my Survivor Moron of the Week vote to Ted for numerous idiotic comments. Remember these gems?..

“I have a feeling the merge is coming soon.” Why, Ted? Just because it always comes about now? Brilliant!

“So it’s for immunity?” Well, seeing as how you had the reward challenge yesterday…

“I think it’s going to be a mental challenge.” Well, given that the letter said you would need to “use your brains”, I’d say that’s a pretty safe bet. Sheesh. Did you get hit on the head in that RC?

But the real howler of the ep was from Robb. I cracked up when he said, after his & Ken’s little walk, “Ken and I really squashed the beef.” Am I just a pervert, or did that strike anyone else as a hilarious unintentional double-entendre?

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As I said on my Live Journal, if you can’t win Nim, you don’t deserve immunity.

Somebody on the Survivor staff got “Zillions of Games” for Christmas. We’ve seen the block moving puzzle, Tower of Hanoi, Tangrams, and now Nim.

Unfortunately, they’ve not followed Jeopardy!'s lesson: make your contestant eligibility requirements match the actual game being played. Actually, maybe that’s for the better.

Next week, Tic Tac Toe!, for immunity!

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Greetings, Professor Falken.

-W.O.P.R.

As for last night, I’m thinking voting Robb off may be a mistake. He is a lot of help in the physical challenges (he single handedly won last night’s RC for them) and he wasn’t part of any alliance anyway so he wasn’t a threat.

I really am having a hard time picking someone I want to win. This year’s model seems to have a bunch of whiny dipshits (Robb, Ghandia, Jan) and a bunch of kind of interchangable parts (pretty much everyone else).

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After the merge (which I bet will be next week, despite the teasers), the challenges become individual. So you want to vote off the stongest first.

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[Finished this yesterday; yes, it was late then.]

It’s late, I’m a little tired, I want to get some more Tekken 4 time before going to bed…keepin’ it relatively brief tonight.

Right. DKW’s top 3 highlights of round 6:

  1. Chuay Gahn (gad, I can’t believe I just wrote that…) just not being able to get in freaking gear. Just when they finally eliminate Gandhia (good move; I think there might have actually been a murder if she stuck), the boat’s lost. And then they look for it, but it’s history. And then Jan has to unimprove the mood just a little bit more.

It’s amazing just watching this slow burn. I’m really, really hoping that a sudden flash flood doesn’t wash away their food, 'cause I’m really not sure how much more they can take.

  1. A ridiculously easy immunity challenge a) which absolutely no one can figure out until three moves from the end, b) which Shii Ann, for all her supposed puzzling ability, fails to win, and c) which Chuay Gahn, with six flags remaining, took so much time to dope out the winning move…WHICH THEY ALREADY DETERMINED AT THE VERY BEGINNING!!

Great fun, no? Seriously, one of my guilty pleasures about this show is watching these people’s brains slowly dissolve into mush. I bet anything that even Clay’s going to be kicking himself halfway to Malaysia once he sees the replay. (“Who’s that there varmint pretendin’ to be me, and what’s this hoo-hah about ‘making the same move they do’?”)

[You didn’t ask, but here it is anyway: The surefire guaranteed unbeatable slam-dunk in-the-bag way to win, if they have the first move, is to always take the number of flags that’ll reduce the number remaning to an exact mutliple of the lowest possible take added with the highest possible take…in this case, four. So if there are 19, and they take 2, you take 1; that makes it 16. It’s pretty easy to figure out from there. If you have the first move, your best strategy is to do whatever and pray really hard that they’re dumb enough to screw up (i.e., reduce the number remaining to something that’s not an exact multiple of four).]

  1. Gee, Robb came across as compassionate, brotherly, and overall…dare I say it…human. And I totally agree with Jeff P that he almost singlehandedly won that reward challenge.

If he hadn’t emptied about 300 clips into both feet for the first 15 days, he might’ve actually had a chance of not getting the boot.

Memo to future contestants: Don’t act like the world’s biggest jerk for 15 days, then think that a little redemption in stage 6 is all that’s needed to salvage your position. If you dig yourself a 60 foot grave, throwing a few handfuls of dirt in it isn’t going to save your hide.

Anway, really hope that Mark and co. is going to follow through on their no-merge trailer. C’mon, let’s have an accurate teaser just this once!

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The “popular Thai game” is the catch-the-ball thing, not the take-away-the-flags thing.

I saw something similar to this on a PBS kids’ math show once. I think they figured out certain “poison numbers” that they didn’t want to get stuck with. 5 was one, and 9 was another, I think.

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I can’t believe a) That I’m the first to ask this, and b) That I’m asking this at all, but here goes - What the hell was all over Ted’s face and chest when he was sitting on the beach? I don’t even want to say what it reminded me of. Anyone else notice this?

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ubergoober said:

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Yeah, but I would guess none of them had seen it before – or if they had, they didn’t remember how to win. That’s how I felt – I was pretty sure I’d seen it but couldn’t remember the solution. And I was sitting, fully fed, fully rested, in the comfort of my own home.

jsc1953 said:

Everything I have heard indicates that they are set up ahead of time. This makes sense for many of them, which would require a good deal of preparation. But Burnett purposely mixes physical and mental challenges. He may not know which team is going to be better physically, but almost certainly one of them will, so it makes sense to balance things out. Plus, “Outwit” is one of the three key phrases of the game.