I would have agreed with this a while ago, but they sure came off better than some other people tonight. Lex is just nuts, and Jerri would have more credibility about being exploited if she hadn’t signed up for like five different reality shows. It’s a strange day when the two most reasonable people are Shii Ann and Hatch.
And then they come up with the audience voting thing, better known as “find another way to give Rupert a million bucks, since he can’t seem to win the game.” Bah.
borschevsky said my sentiments. I think Richard is the most sensible person on that show. I don’t have the constitution to play the game like Rob or he did as I’m too much of a coward but it certainly doesn’t mean I don’t respect him for it.
I missed a section of the reunion show. Did Probst ever tell if the infamous purple rock would have returned in case of a tie?
He said something about a rock which made me think it would be mentioned but he didn’t bring it up again. I believe the proposal and subsequent questions threw the show off track and they missed plenty of things they were going to cover.
Thunder, what did they say? I forgot already. The first few people kicked off never get more than a line or two during the reunion.
I sometimes tape the show. On some occasions, I don’t watch an episode until a day or two after its broadcast. But I never expected the rest of the world to hold up until I got caught up. So sorry, but while I’ve always been a strong opponent of spoilers in general, I think there is no need for spoilers in this case. Virtually every post made here would have to be enclosed in spoiler boxes. So if you’re watching in California don’t open the thread for three hours.
I agree with this analysis but I don’t hate Amber or Rob any less. Lex is a hypocrite. Jerri is both bitchy and too sensitive, a terrible combination.
I still like Rupert, damnit. He’s a lousy player but I like his emotional openness and lack of guile. You can flame me but I think he’s sweet and I hope he wins the million. If not him either Rudy or Ethan.
Perhaps this is CBS’s response to the feeling that many people get about the show? While you enjoy watching it you mostly wind up hating the top finishers. Vecepia was a religious fanatic and backstabber. Brian was a bore. Jenna was a whiny bitch.
Maybe this is the show’s way of warning future participants that if they act like scum on future shows they risk alienating the audience? Or is that just inane reasoning on my part?
The reunion show was a fascinating mess. So many questions left unanswered because of the whole Ramber marriage crap. Has Sue forgiven Rich? How do the million dollar winners feel about being voted off so quickly? How do the other players really feel about Lex’s betrayal? Do any of them regret coming back to the show a second time?
We didn’t even get to see a highlight show from next season because of all the focus on the two least appealing lovebirds ever. Ugh. Amber’s explanation of why she’s marrying Rob was so self centered. Normally I’m a sucker for that kind of mush but the two of them together are enough to make even Martha Stewart roll her eyes.
Let’s not forget Alicia, I don’t think they even had one shot of her face the whole show?
On one season of the British version of Survivor, they had an audience poll as the seventh vote of the jury. I think in some ways it might be a worthwhile addition to the show. But it would cut back on the confessionals - contestants would play to the audience as well as to their fellow contestants. And it would also make the editing controversies a lot more acute.
I assume you mean “proponent”.
Look, say someone comes home at 6:00 from work, opens up the boards, sees the thread Three Legged Whores Choose Midget FINALE, says to him or herself, “Gee, it’s the three legged whore night; wonder what people are saying,” opens the thread and BAM!, too late, Janice from Wyoming has chosen Al, the dancing showboy.
Obviously some people on both coasts don’t know the time diff. Maybe the BIG spoilers could be in boxes. As a matter of simple consideration.
Just the other day there were heaps of threads on Friends. Now I don’t really care, but some people might – and not knowing which thread is “safe” to open is ridiculous.
And please stop the “West Coasters want the rest of the world to wait” nonsense. It’s just about being considerate. I can only assume that a little effort on your part, which may make a big difference to someone else, isn’t too much to ask. Or is it?
Wow. Mess is right. That’s the only word to describe it.
I think the reason so many emotions were so high is that these people all knew each other before the game started. There were preexisting relationships and friendships. It’s a lot easier to stab someone in the back that you just met three days ago than it is to do it to someone you’ve been friends with for two years (as Kathy said to Rob). Similarly, it’s much easier to get stabbed in the back by that person and forgive them. Like Hatch said, you need a thick skin in this game - much much thicker when it’s your friends you’re playing against.
But on the other hand, as Shii-Ann said to Jerri, no one forced them to sign up, and the hurt feelings were a little bit ridiculous, especially on the part of Lex and Jerri.
That said, I think most of the jury is full of crap. There’s not a one of them that wouldn’t have done the exact same thing to get to the top. It’s so very easy to sit back after you’ve been kicked off and start thinking about how you’ve been wronged, while forgetting how you wronged others or were planning to do so when you got the chance. Ramber may have done it a bit more than usual, but there were no angels sitting on that stage. Frankly, I wish Rob had pointed that out during the last TC. If it were me, I would have asked the jury if they really believed they could have made it to the final two without doing something they regretted. But everyone was too busy making them feel like scum, and they were willing to buy into it.
I’m not a big Ramber fan. They remind me too much of the popular high school kids that always got everything handed to them - I mean, geez, they won $1.1 million, two cars, and they fell in love, while everyone else basically got squat. I thought there were more deserving people in the game. However, no one played the game better than they did. I have to give them that. No one else earned the million.
I wonder if future contestants will see this and realize that a completely strong, reliable alliance, even if it’s only two people, can wield a hell of a lot of power in this game.
They definately showed Alicia more than once…but I don’t recall her saying anything.
"Has Sue forgiven Rich? " I thought that perhaps they had…if they weren’t sitting right next to each other, they were sitting pretty close.
Who will I vote for? I’m split between Shii-ann, Rupert and Colby. I like Rupert for his honesty- it’s a very rare trait these days. I’ve always liked Shii-ann, she’s not afraid to speak her mind and I think she’s pretty hot. I think Colby should have been voted the million dollars last time he played.
As to the whole east coast versus west coast thing- As a west-coaster I know not to open these threads before the show is over because I know that people will be impolite and talk about what went on without using spoiler boxes before the show has aired. If you live on the west coast and open this thread before the end of the show, prepare to be spoiled, but blame yourself. If you live on the east coast and do not use spoiler boxes before the show is done airing that night, you are pretty rude, but not at fault if someone spoils the show for themselves by peeking here. You are just guilty of being an arse.
Oh, one other thing: I thought the live audience acted like a bunch of PRICKS! OK, you like some people and you don’t like others. Fine. That doesn’t mean you should cheer or boo when they’re trying to express some real, serious emotions. I think Jeff’s comments about remembering that these are real people were in part meant to get the audience to shut up.
Besides, they could have asked twice as many questions if they hadn’t had to keep stopping for cheers and boos.
OK, I’m done now. I think.
Looks like I was pretty close to the mark (patting myself on the back :p) in the last thread:
I was a bit taken aback that some number of the cast members who casually referred to back-stabbing each other as part of the “game”. But I guess in today’s world, when it comes to your word or a $$$million bucks, the $$$ win out (or to put it another way, the end DOES justify the means). I guess this season’s show puts to rest any question that greed (like power) corrupts absolutely. Call me a romantic, but I think there were (are always) ways to achieve your goals while wreaking minimal damage around you. Rob’s whole strategy appeared to be “I lie about everything and everything I say is a lie”. But I guess the rest got what they deserved. After all, if you KNOW someone has lied and you still continue to trust their word, then as they say - caveat emptor.
While I wish RAmber the best, were I her, I would be very concerned that I was getting hitched to someone who can lie so adroitly and cavalierly. I would keep a close watch on him.
I wonder why CBS agreed to ante up another million bucks? Was this planned from the getgo or was this in reaction to RAmber one/two ending and a feeling that such an ending was wrong? Anyway, my vote has to go to Rupert for the alternate prize.
I was disappointed that Tom shook Rob’s hand when he offered it. I would have given him a fitting “salute”.
The core of the show is getting to be too predictable. They need to come up with some better twists and surprises next time around. Hopefully a better cast also. Please, no more “All-Stars” and NO CELEBRATIES!
Ha! I guess you’ve never been to New York. 
I have, actually, but good point. I guess the blame really should go on the producers who thought they could have a serious discussion in this kind of setting.
My few points on the finale.
I thought it was curious that Jerri “chose to leave” after she started to talk about the entertainment nature of the game.
I also think it is interesting that Rob wanted to marry Amber. Would he have felt the same if he had thought he had won, or was the thought of a fairly hot chick with a million dollars a major attraction factor.
I don’t really respect Rupert all that much, but out of that collection of bitches he was the closest thing to an honorable dude there(even if he is womanishly whining :)).
Is the million dollar viewer vote a bone thrown to him (and vicariously to all of us who feel like me, that it a show based on the faulty assuption that lying is hard when it really isn’t, you just have to have the least honor) to manipulate the viewership for the following seasons and keep the ratings up?
Will someone tell me what happened in the final TC when Tom and Rob had words? Tom got up and approached Rob, then they cut to Jeff and he looked concern. Did Jeff think that Tom was going to hit Rob?
I only saw about half the season, and only the last hour of last nite and the first 20 minutes of the reunion…but I do not understand all the antipathy towards Rob. I thought he clearly deserved to win; nobody else was even close. So what if he lied - everyone does in this game. Sure, he may have done it a tad bit more… 
The only time I felt like he was really being a prick was the whole Lex thing, when he didn’t even give Lex one additional set of days - although, strategically, that may have backfired on him. But Lex passed Rob in the prick-meter almost immediately, and skyrocketed past him in the TC and reunion show.
To be honest, Lex, Tom, and Alicia acted like total babies - waaaaah, I didn’t get what I wanted in the game, waaaaaah. Suck up and take it like an adult. You got played. Life goes on. Kudos to ShiiAnn for what she said at TC (“People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”).
I say congrats to Rob for actually playing the game.
Tom reached out his hand and walked over to Rob saying, “No hard feelings”. Rob stretched out his hand and said, “No hard feelings, Tom”. As Rob leaned forward, Tom made a sweeping motion with his own hand and pulled back. “Don’t be stupid, Stupid!” he said derisively. “You might’ve fooled me once — no, twice! — but you ain’t gonna fool me this time.”
I thought it was the best final tribal council ever. I’ve been wondering who would ever top Sue’s snake and rat speech in the first survivor, and Tom did it with the above.
Finally, it looks like my analysis in the OP was right. Yea!
Rob was a brilliant player and, frankly, so was Amber. They were both incredibly astute politically and both excelled in challenges. I don’t know why everyone thought Rob was such a backstabber. He asked Lex to save Amber “if he could.” I would think Rob had the same such obligation, and he did have the honor to tell
Lex that he was going to be voting him off. I’m not sure what kind of deal he broke with Kathy. Tom had already betrayed Rob, so just because Rob won doesn’t make him any more of a dirtbag. This is the first survivor where I thought the final two definitely deserved to be there. I also think this was the best Survivor yet; great speeches by the jury.
Other shite:
It’s amazing how likeable Jeff Probst is. That position leaves him vulnerable to many an SNL sketch but the guy is just untouchable. He is inoffensive without coming off like a pussy. He’s done a lot for that show.
Rupert is the easy choice and win for the million. Can’t imagine why someone above would think Shii-ann is deserving, though she did get some points for that immunity challenge.
-I agree with Lex that how you play the game reflects on who you are as a person and that it’s not “just a game.” But boy did he come off like an asshole last night.
They could easily have spent another hour on the post-show wrap up. Perhaps
they will do more next Thursday.
I loved the fact that the audience was out for blood. Made it much more tense and exciting.