But muldoonthief makes a good point: no one was, so far as we were shown, even pretending to target either Donathan or Laurel, were they?
Fair point, but what’s their path as it stands now?
ETA: Magnus, I think trying to predict the winner based on editing is a fool’s errand. There have been several seasons when winners seemed to “come out of nowhere” from the perspective of people who play that game. They actually seemed disgruntled with that kind of editing, whereas I think it’s much better than making it obvious–if it were consistently so clear, I don’t know if I’d keep watching, TBH.
Also, am I the only one sick of the long drawn out loved one introduction where Jeff repeatedly asks inane questions? They spend so much time on it you barely see anyone interact with their loved one on the reward. I want to see Dom discussing strategy with someone outside the game.
You are definitely not the only one. It’s Jeff’s repressed desire to be a daytime talk show host—which also ruins most of the reunion shows in recent years.
Depends on how far into the rabbit hole you really go. There’s a whole group of “edgic” fans who will notate every episode for how many confessionals, general air time, but also whether the scenes give off a positive or negative vibe, or if they go into depth for some of the other things a good Survivor winner “should have” - stuff like a personal backstory, being shown strategizing, in control of the game, etc.
AFAIK among the edgic group there’s only been two winners who really didn’t fit the usual profile of a winner, Adam (from MvGenX) and possibly Michele (from Kaoh Rong). Adam was seen as ill-fitting because he seemed to have too much negative-strategy material around the merge, which I think is the sort of thing a regular viewer wouldn’t think twice of. Michele was more the other direction, as she felt much more like an out-of-nowhere winner (which I would say would be the current season equivalent of Chelsea suddenly gaining steam at the end and winning it, instead of being voted out).
It can certainly have drawbacks but it convinced me during the Game Changers season when Sarah got a ton of confessionals, even early in the game, despite her being not very interesting character-wise and not actually doing anything gameplay-wise (though she obviously started making moves later on). It just seemed out-of-place, unless you figured it was setup for an eventual winner. So stuff like Wendell having a very early confessional purely about his backstory and girlfriend to me is a strong sign he’ll be at the end. But it’s also a lack of any other contenders at this point… Kellyn’s edit has been negative strategy-wise, Laurel can’t pull the trigger. Sebastian is a non-entity. Donathan? Angela? I just don’t see it. I’d be absolutely shocked if anyone other than Wendell or Dom won.
Apparently it was even longer on the beach… I think I read somewhere that Angela got so emotional they actually stopped filming for 15 minutes to let her gather herself.
I can’t pretend to know how I would react after 30 days of starving and playing a cutthroat game with strangers, but sitting at home I agree that the loved ones stuff is pretty boring to me. Like you I’d rather see them actually interact on the reward instead of stuff like “how does it feel to see your X after so long?” “OMG Jeff it means so much!”
People so often say Michele was an “out of nowhere” winner, but that drives me nuts. When there were at least eight players remaining in that game, I was jumping up and down on Survivor forums insisting that she was one of the most skilled players I had ever seen (and I’ve seen every episode of every season except China), and I didn’t understand why no one else seemed to see it. So when she won, I felt extremely vindicated…for about a second and a half, until I had to hear the constant refrain of how undeserving she was. Can I say for sure she is absolutely the best player ever? No. But she’s hands-down the most underrated player ever, AINEC.
There must be a cutting-room floor’s worth of scenes and conversations between Laurel and Wendell that explain why he is so confident he has her vote. Because he seems pretty with it, but not playing your idol there makes no sense unless you trust Laurel 1000%.
Did we see a scene where she told Dom/Wendell that the target was Wendell? Because if not, then why didn’t Dominic play his idol either?
I think Laurel and Donathan have a path, but it’s a pretty narrow one. They need to pull in Sebastian and Angela and make sure that Dominic is the target for the next two votes. I’m guessing that Wendell/Laurel/Donathan is the tightest 3, so if they can get Dominic out first, then use whoever is left from Seb/Angela to vote out Wendell. That’s going to be hard with his idol, which is why I think he’s easily the most likely to win at this point.
As for Michelle, I honestly didn’t remember her at all until I looked it up. I was thinking of Michelle Yi from an earlier season, who I remember being a decent player. Then I thought of the Michelle that was tied to Taylor(?) in the GenX season- she wasn’t very good.
Michele played a subtle game, although it stood out just fine to me. There were a couple post-merge TCs where she didn’t have immunity, but scrambled in a way that didn’t seem desperate, and she whispered things in others’ ears that made it seem sensible to target other people. Then when there was really nowhere else to aim the spotlight and the others were like “shit, we need to get her gone NOW or she’s gonna win”, she won like two or three ICs in a row when she absolutely had to, despite not fitting the “challenge beast” profile. Then she made a good pitch at FTC, after having done a great job of jury management all along.
I always thought it would be interesting to have a season where, after the vote, there are a series of flashbacks that make how they arrived at the final vote. Maybe not every episode, but for a couple of key tribals.
If I’m reading this right, you are saying Wendell is likely to win? I think Dom is smart enough to know that W is a jury favorite and all around nice guy and there is no way he will allow Wendell to sit with him at final. Dom has an idol too. He will be every bit as hard as Wendell to vote out.
That’s true, except that I think that Dom is more ripe for a blindside than Wendell is. I could be wrong, but Dom so far has struck me as more of a true believer with Wendell than vice versa. I also think the edit has shown us a lot more of Wendell than Dom lately, but maybe that’s just because he says things that are more memorable/likable to me.
They are doing the fire-making thing at final four again, right? That may be a back-door way for Dom to make Final 3 too. And it means they really only have two more shots at each other.
Yes, after last season Jeff stated that the final 4 firemaking challenge will be standard going forward.
However, no one this season knows that. It was filmed last summer, before Heroes/Healers/Hustlers aired, so they have no idea what’s going to happen at the final immunity challenge.
I was happy to see SeaBass take Domenick along on the reward, as he was the only married person in the bunch. I get that the game messes with your mind, everybody feels isolated, and a bit of home is always welcome. But leaving a spouse behind is way different than not having seen your sibling or even your parent for a month. My pet peeve is when challenge winners pass up the opportunity to reunite a husband and wife for a night in favor of letting an ally in the game hang out with his brother. The single 20-somethings just don’t get it.
Gotta admit, for a second there with all the confessionals talking about turning on Dom and Wendell, I thought the other players might actually make a move. (I still thought they might need to win immunity + play an HII, but at least the effort would be there). Then… nope. Shocking immunity upset, but then the followers all continued to follow. Sheesh.
Donathan flips out. That was crazy at the IC where Wendell “won”, but didn’t win because he didn’t declare himself finished. But the rule does make sense. Hard to believe that no real challenge has been leveled against Dom or Wendell yet.