So, if you had watched the ‘next time on Survivor’ from last week, you knew someone was going out in the Immunity Challenge. And if you really paid attention, you knew it was a white male. I thought it would be Keith, my roommate thought it might be Joe, so watching that IC was even more tense than normal. I admit I was expecting someone to get brained by a falling statue, instead of Joe just outright collapsing. Ended up not being a big deal though… and he got voted out anyways when everyone realized it would be silly to pass up another opportunity. Kinda weird how the fact he passed out somehow got twisted into “he tries so hard, I can’t compete with that!”
The loved ones reward was surprisingly short. Some good “made for TV” moments with Jeremy and Spencer. Kimmi likes her dad maybe a bit too much, and Joe and his dad sure kiss an awful lot, but to each their own I suppose.
I don’t think Spencer and Jeremy are nearly as screwed as the edit would make us think… I think Tasha feels better with them than the other girls, and Keith will be easy to draw in (his vote for Tasha tonight, to me, signals that he isn’t well-plugged in and is a free agent) for a 4-3 advantage over Wentworth/Kimmi/Abi. Not to mention Jeremy still has his Idol, though so does Wentworth… that could be an interesting TC showdown.
Was this the first time we got a true behind-the-scenes look in an actual episode of Survivor? If you pause right after Joe went down, you can see a large chunk of the crew, and then we even see a cameraman run up.
During one of the earliest medical emergencies on Survivor (I believe it was season 2, when Mike Skupin fell into the campfire) there was a brief glimpse of the campsite for the camera crew; the shot was even captioned “Camera Camp.” That’s the only other example I can recall.
Joe knows exactly what he’ll look like in 30 years. And yes, they sure do kiss a lot. Which didn’t gibe with his “My Dad was distant and unemotional when I was growing up, so him telling me he loves me means a lot” speech.
Wentworth played her idol, then found a second one last week. Remember she needed everyone to leave camp, but Abi seemingly just wouldn’t leave? Then she finally got a quick window and barely snagged it before everyone converged back on the shelter.
Jeremy found two, but played one of them to save Fishback.
Survivor and Amazing Race do a great job of editing “production” out of the final product. It can’t be easy.
You seldom see any evidence of cameras during the challenges etc.
The only time I have seen evidence of cameraman in a non emergency was during a Family Visit, many seasons go, when the Family Member were first seen running into the Survivor Camp. I think it was Gabon. And it was the shadows of the camera personnel.
Wish we knew what was behind Keith’s vote for Tasha.
About 6 episodes ago, Kimmi got her nose out of joint when Monica suggested a girl’s alliance. and what does she do in this episode? Suggest a girl’s alliance!
Jeremy gave one of his idols to Spencer. Wentworth play her idol, but got another one.
Tasha is now in the power position. If she goes with the girl alliance, she has to win immunity to get to the final 3. If she sticks with the guys, same thing. So, who does she have the best chance against? I say go with the girls.
Keith is just sort of there. He’s not clued into anything.
Indeed, although Survivor definitely does a much better job as you can see evidence of the cameramen in Amazing Race in almost every episode.
But I’m not complaining. In fact, I think Survivor takes it too far. I like seeing the cameramen; it makes the show feel more authentic. Why shouldn’t we see what the contestants do? They like they’re trying to pretend they’re not actually on a show
Clearly Spencer and Jeremy decided to align with Tasha in getting Joe out. This also should keep Abi, Wentworth, and Kimmy feeling safe. If Tasha had switched against Wentorth and Kimmy, the sides would have been clearly divided and resulting in much more scrambling. Spencer and Jeremy aligning with Tasha gives them more opportunity to blindside one of the other girls next.
Well, it’s an interesting thing in that if she goes with the guys she actually likely doesn’t have to win final immunity to make the final 3. I think all of Jeremy, Spencer, and Keith would take her to a final 3. Certainly Jeremy and Spencer would both take Keith and Tasha.
With the girls it’s more mandatory that she win the final challenge. I think all of Kimmi/Abi/Kelley would rather bring each other than Tasha, save perhaps Kimmi or Abi wanting to take Tasha over Kelley. It’s kind of hard to get a feel for how Tasha is perceived by the jury - but my hunch is that it’s pretty bad.
Of course, she’s much more likely to win both the challenge and the final vote against the girls, which if you’re playing to win means that’s the way to go. I don’t really see any way for her to win the game if the final 4 includes Jeremy and Spencer. She needs either all the women with her at 4 or at least something like Tasha, Keith, Abi, and one of the other men (which actually seems perfectly plausible). With that final 4 (you could probably sub in Kelley for either Keith or Abi as well) she only needs to make sure that whichever of Spencer and Jeremy are left don’t win the immunity challenge.
All of which means she’s very likely to switch to the women alliance at some point, IMO. Which Jeremy and Spencer probably should have seen coming. The complicating factors, of course, being Jeremy’s idol (which may make him more comfortable with a 4/3 women/men split) and the fact that Joe is so strong in challenges that not even the fear of Tasha logically defecting could shake them.
It’s also perfectly possible that both Spencer and Jeremy intend to use Tasha to vote out each other in the not-to-distant future. Possibly as soon as next TC.
I was disappointed when one of the contestants said something like the following about Joe. They said, “He’s the kind of guy that … if you give him an inch, he will take a mile.”
Oh for crying out loud! Everybody is that kind of guy. Especially in this kind of game.
It struck me as “untowards” to label Joe as “that kind of guy” when no one playing this game would do anything else. But I believe the person who said it really thought it was a genuine fault with Joe and it didn’t apply to them. IMO, that was just really stupid. Joe is no less than any of the others for any reason.
I would behave in exactly the same way as I think everyone would.
In this context I agree the way they used it to describe Joe was unnecessarily disparaging, but I think they meant it in an unusually literal sense. Let him survive one more TC and he might win immunity all the way to the finale.
That’s not really what the expression is about in normal use. It’s usually more about taking advantage of people, overstaying your welcome, cheating the system, or being a mooch. None of these apply to competitions.
For example, you wouldn’t say it about athletes, like, say, Aaron Rodgers. Some people would definitely say it about the Patriots, though, which only reinforces how inappropriate it is to say about legit competitors.
I didn’t read it as negative at all, although I do agree that in typical usage it can have those connotations.
I read it exactly as Ellis Dee did - you let Joe survive one more TC and he might survive all of the rest of them. They may have realized that they were a bit lucky that Joe didn’t win this immunity challenge as well.
Speaking of which - how about a little variety in the immunity challenges. “Stand for a long time balancing something” has gotten a little stale. How about some run/jump/climb/swim + puzzle challenges?
I think Spencer and Jeremy’s next move should be to knock out out Tasha. Right now their fate is in her hands which is not cool, because strategically it makes sense for Tasha to go with the girls’ alliance.
So S&J go to the other women and rat her out…“hey, she’s playing both sides, she told us about your girl’s alliance plan, and she promised us she’s with us. But we don’t trust her and she’s too big a threat…let’s all get together and vote her out.”
Then, Spencer should team up with the others to knock out Jeremy.
After that he needs to get Wentworth, but I lose the plot that far out. Too many variables with idols and immunity necklaces, etc.
The environment in the Amazing Race is much more dynamic than Survivor though. I give the crew credit for doing it so well. It does make it fun to look for them. On the last episode of TAR in India, cameramen were right in the middle of some of the street scenes, but even so I didn’t notice since I was intent on watching the teams.