Coach has already won. The only thing that could change that is if he messes with what he already has going on. And this is why you don’t put professionals with the amateurs.
I say that Cochrane would have done no better with his old tribe, and they just have sour grapes. I don’t think they could look each other in the eye and said, yeah, we would’ve voted Jim off over Cochrane. Or Ozzy, or the other 2. So they have themselves to blame just as much as Cochrane. They didn’t make him feel included, and that’s THIER fault.
So in the end if there’s a 3 person Final Tribal with 3 Savaii that makes the jury 3 savaii and 6 upolu.(or 4-5 depending on Cochrane)
And if Ozzy makes a run, and it’s 2 savaii and 1 upolu FTC, then it’s a 5-4 jury again depending on Cochrane.
Cochrane’s vote is pretty important, and who’s been nicer to him?
What kind of challenge would Cochran win? It can’t be anything remotely physical, and he hasn’t been any better at puzzles. He also blew the quiz challenge.
Maybe if the challenge is “Who has redder hair and whiter skin?” he might have a chance.
They did have a memory (turn over & find matching tiles) challenge on RI last season - you’d think a law student would have some slight advantage at that, just due to memorization skills. Nothing else I can think of that he’d have a realistic shot at beating Ozzy.
I hope we get to see a little bit of life on RI with the two of them - like Ozzy bringing in multiple fish, cooking and eating his fill, then throwing the rest back into the ocean so Cochran can starve.
I was joking with Mrs. Cad (HUGE Ozzy fan) that she better hope the duel does not involve straddling a pile of coconuts because Cochrane might win that one. She asked why and I said, “Compare the size of Ozzy down there to Cochrane.”
Cochrane never had any chance no matter what, period. He is just too socially incompetent, not to mention his utter lack of any physical ability of any kind.
By betraying his original tribe, he went out 7th instead of 6th, so he did do worse by switching. 6th was the absolute best he could possibly hope for.
It cracked me up how Coach’s tribe was so mortified by how badly Cochrane was treated by his original tribe, then after like 3 days they understood completely. hehheh. Cochrane’s original tribe didn’t treat him badly for the first few days either. It was just once they discovered how aggressively socially awkward he was combined with being the ultimate liability in challenges that they started treating him as he deserved to be treated.
Stuck inside on a cold and snowy afternoon without much work to do, I just spent an inordinate amount of time reading the comments on the EW and TWOP sites, and watched some videos on CBS’s site.
Some comments:
Everybody on the jury and on Redemption Island sans Cochran is more interesting and deserving of the $1M than anyone left playing the main game, unless you consider Brandon interesting. I’m more horrified than interested.
Re: Cochran. I remember a story about baseball player Dennis Eckersley. He was a pretty bad drunk for a time, and his wife videotaped him once while he was drunk. She showed it to him in a sober moment and his reaction was “Is that what I’m like when drunk?” He was horrified and went to rehab, and restarted his flagging career.
I thought after seeing Cochran, some “nice guys” would have the same reaction, what with his desperate need to be liked and his creepy stories about shitting his pants and calling girls and telling them he wanted to “share sperm” with them. But in the forums there are all kinds of people saying that they were weak and nerdy as a kid and are rooting hard for him. Can’t they see how he creeps people out? His comments draw only nervous laughter, and not a single person on his “new” tribe liked him at all. I don’t get the love at all.
The “Ponderosa” videos are back at CBS.com. Whitney is more than a little strange. While others comment about their weight loss and how their clothes don’t fit, Whitney freaks out about her bushy eyebrows. Then there is the cringe-inducing scene where she talks about her developing relationship with Keith. She says something along the lines of “We developed this amazing relationship, but I had to be discreet because there is someone at home.” Yeah, like your husband! They then proceeded to make out in every location before crawling into a tent together. There’s another scene the next morning where she emphatically states that she has “no makeup” on, then spends the next thirty seconds describing the makeup she put on.
Speaking of tents, a few seasons ago, the “Ponderosa” lodge was a huge house on a hillside with a swimming pool and nice bedrooms and an endless supply of food. Last season, in the same location, it was a more rustic house but still nice. This time, they do a weigh-in in a six foot by six foot shack, then go to a wall-less building where a “chef” prepares them a plate of pasta and vegetables on a camping stove, and then they retire to their rooms, which are the aforementioned tents on a beach.
Maybe. But he was smart enough to see the writing on the wall in his original tribe and recognized the fact that he would do no better than 6. By flipping, he at least gave himself a fighting chance of cracking the Upolu alliance. It ultimately didn’t work (yes, in large part due to his social shortcomings), but it wasn’t the terrible hare-brained scheme some seem to think it was. Who really cares about the difference between 6 and 7 anyway?
Ugh, no. Keith, Whitney, and Jim are all sorts of awful people. They are entitled, selfish brats – and yes, bullies. (And I won’t even mention the adultery.) Whatever I think of the remaining players, I’m very happy none of those three can win.
I watched the Ponderosa videos. IMO, the folks at TWoP or EW (or Lamar Mundane) are being overly dramatic.
Whitney is not married. She mentioned a boyfriend in the video , not a “husband.” And who knows what kind of relationship they really have. “Freaks out” over eyebrows? :dubious:
IMO, people are looking to criticize these people.
The only thing that really astounded me about the Ponderosa videos is how long is takes these people to clean up. After I stuffed myself with some comfort food, I would be taking a long, hot shower and shave.
I’m no Cochrane fan, but recall that when he switched, the teams were even. It is possible that his old tribe might have come out on the bottom in any tiebreaking situation, and if so, Cochrane could have gone out much earlier than 6th. By switching, he pretty much guaranteed at least a 7th place finish, and gave himself at a chance to finish higher (if he could have formed some new alliances – didn’t happen but it was not unreasonable to hope for). If he had stayed with his old tribe he would have finished no higher than 6th and could have finished much lower.
Actually by sticking with his original tribe there was a possibility he went out 12th (by picking rocks) And as Spoke said, even if he didn’t go out via rocks, if one of his original tribemates would have gone out, he probably would have been next to go. (Coach’s tribe wouldn’t have been ‘sticking up’ for him if it wasn’t for his vote.)
This game-style of getting a group and actually having them stick together, while strategically successful is boring TV. And personally I feel the death of Survivor. They’d better think of a shakeup for future seasons. (Even if the shakeup is to not allow past contestants back.)
Yeah, they quit doing the pre-merge tribe shuffle when they started Redemption Island. RI has been somewhat more interesting this season than last, but it still hasn’t had as much of an effect on the in-game play as they’d probably hoped.
Whether or not they keep RI, I hope they bring the shuffle back next season.
That would be pretty interesting actually. If you wanted to have team competitions you could have them draw for teams at each challenge and randomize the number of teams for each one. Would make for some interesting strategy decisions throughout the entire season.
Having one tribe of 16 at the start would be pretty crazy, and certainly allow for interesting votes at the start. The current meta (have a majority alliance, don’t screw up challenges) would be completely unworkable in that scenario.
I think another good idea would just be have constant tribe swaps. Easier to keep track of votes at tribal (since only would have under 8 at votes) but alliances would constantly be shifting. Not to mention having a strong alliance would doom you once it got found out and you ended up on the wrong side of a swap.
I’m not sure why they all keep Coach around. I think the time was ripe for Albert/Sophie to take another two like Edna or Rick or Cochan with them, make a new alliance of 4 and vote out Coach, Brandon, etc but they’ve ruined their chances - Edna’s been in Coach’s pocket, Rick and Albert are feuding, and they just voted out Cochran. Now the ball is in Coach’s court, since he has Brandon, Edna and Rick on his side.
He wouldn’t have been sixth as best. His old tribe understood that once the merge happens, the game changes to vote off the strong and keep the week. And remember they had already blindsided Ozzy once. There was no hero worship like with Coach. Dawn was sympathetic to Cochran, and Jim had Ozzy in his sights. They would be sure to grab one other person and get Ozzy out. Jim would then take Cochran as far as possible, because he was no threat in challenges and no threat to win jury votes. He would have to sweat out the purple rock, though the odds were well in his and his teams favor, but then it’d be smooth sailing to the final three.
Re: “Bullying” That’s a pretty low bar for bullying. They didn’t really go off on Cochran until after he betrayed them. The other time was after Cochran completely lost them a challenge that they had a big lead in and their strongest player running the anchor leg. His failure was not due to a lack of strength, he just screwed up a simple task that he had performed successfully several times already. He deserved to take a little shit for that. It’s no more bullying than a teacher giving you a “D” on a math test that you completely blew.
Coach has a hidden immunity idol. The time to make a move on him is after his idol can’t be played (final 4+RI returnee last season)–Sophie/Albert can’t risk their current positions to make a power play (any of the desperate players could just run back to Coach with that info). What Sophie/Albert can do is to guarantee Rick a final 3 spot, vote out Edna and Brandon in the next two tribal councils, vote out the Redemption Island returnee (presumably Ozzy) and Coach the next two tribals, and take their chances with the jury.
I’ve wanted to see this for years: Start the game with two tribes, picked at random; not unusual. But then as each team is just starting to get comfortable and form their alliances, there’s the first challenge. Before the challenge, they get randomly divided into two new teams. They compete in the challenge like that (and of course losing team goes to tribal) and then live in those teams until the next challenge. Before which, they are again randomly divided. Do that before every single challenge.
Forces quite a different strategy. You can’t count on your alliance at all. It also means that the teams will always be even (no team will ever have more than a one member advantage). Also, by the merge, where will each person’s loyalty lie? There probably won’t even be a “first tribe” feeling, since that first tribe was only for three days, a long time ago.
I think that would make the game really interesting again.