Survivor 3/23

FFA? Phil is reminding me more and more of Mac from “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”. I expected him to announce he did an ocular patdown of Rob & Grant after they grabbed the clue.

She and Natalie are a toss-up. There clearly needs to be a butt-off. Bonus points to Stephanie for being petite with a shapely non-flat can.

If Rob does that though he runs the risk of having the women decide to form an all-girls alliance and won’t have the numbers to fight it.

  • I think the tribe did exactly the right thing getting rid of Stephanie. She’s playing a “chaos” game. I’m not putting her down for that as it’s worked for some players in the past, most notably Russell. For whatever reason, though, it’s not taking this season. They’re smart not to want to keep somebody like that around, no matter her challenge prowess – which was rather overstated anyway.

  • However, she and David did indeed have a point regarding Sarita. She just got a very big wake-up call, and it remains to be seen whether she’ll answer it.

  • Agree with notfrommensa that Jeff shouldn’t have called out Grant’s ex-NFL status. Did you notice Steve’s (another NFL-er) reaction to that news?

  • Seems to me like a tribe mix-up must be getting close (Please no spoilers if you know something). If they’re going to bring more than one player back from RI, that would be the next most logical time aside from the merge to do it. (WAG: one more vote-out and subsequent duel; then shuffle the tribes, including RI winner, into 2 tribes of 6)

  • At TC, I was surprised that Jeff’s question “Looking back, are you starting to regret throwing that challenge?” was answered with anything other than a hearty “Hell, no!” Can’t imagine how anybody could think they’d be better off right now if they hadn’t booted the troll.

  • Then again, on next week’s previewsJeff brings up the “mental fatigue” that makes Survivor such a difficult game. That’s one of the most fascinating parts of the show to me, and it’s starting to kick in already.

I thought Andrea came off kind of cold after the RI duel. Basically, “Matt got close to someone other than me so I’m not so hot on him anymore.” I mean, it’s the obvious reaction to Matt hanging on precariously anyway, because he and Andrea had all of…what? A week together? It’s not like their romance was so deep and long-lasting in the first place.

That said, I kind of like Matt. He’s cute, he’s strong, and he’s not, as far as we can tell as yet, one of those Christians who decide that they’re better than everyone else because they’re Christian. I’m really rooting for him to go all the way back into the game, although I think he’s facing his biggest challenge since Russell with Stephanie coming to RI.

Andrea’s only 18 - the youngest contestant ever on Survivor. Crushes come pretty easily and pretty hard for 18 year olds. Add in the “he’s all *alone *over there, probably thinking of me!” factor (I know I would be), and it seems very realistic.

I’'m not crazy about the whole Redemption Island thingy, but if they have to let someone back in, I’d be happy to see Matt be that someone. He’s really showed himself to be a strong competitor. And yeah, he doesn’t seem to be an in-your-face bible thumper.

They’re going to have to rethink the whole RI idea next season. It would really shake things up if they, for example, let the winner of two duels return to the game to the tribe of their choice. Having a strong player just steamroller all opposition on RI is boring, and keeps a strong player out of the main game too long.

Let’s say there are 4 weeks until the Resurrection of the Castoff, when somebody comes back from RI. Let’s say Matt wins the next 3 challenges, and then loses to somebody who had just gotten the boot. Newbie returns to the game after one week out; Matt goes home.

I’m conflicted. Does that seem fair and just? On the one hand, the Newbie managed to avoid being kicked off, which Matt couldn’t do. On the other…Matt’s certainly earned a ticket to re-entry.

I think it is. The earlier you’re voted out, the more duels you’ll have to battle. Someone who’s voted out late in the game has the same shot at redemption with far fewer duels to wage.