# Survivor: China - Ep. 5: "Love Is In The Air" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 18, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194 "2007-10-18T17:51:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ring](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Ring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ring)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/21 "2007-10-19T04:12:26Z")
[QUOTE=Jas09] I think this twist has the potential to be one of the worst decisions this show has made. [/QUOTE] I totally agree with you. This bullshit really pissed me off. Basically they just doomed two pretty damn good players who had no way to fight back. In effect Aaron was ousted by the idiot producers. I’m not sure how I’ll feel next week but right now I don’t plan on watching this garbage again. I know it’s just a TV show but some things just really stick in my craw. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Controvert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@The\_Controvert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Controvert)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/22 "2007-10-19T05:30:01Z")
It’s a real waste of everybody’s time when challenges are thrown. There’s no novelty and it destroys the integrity of the game. I really felt bad for James. The challenge designer and the craftsmen who made those elaborate puzzle discs could’ve just sat at home this week. Just make the challenge a team footrace of 100 years. Last team member to cross loses. :rolleyes: I like _The Amazing Race_ and \*Big Brother \*because anyone who tries to throw a challenge will likely be eliminated immediately. As a result, you see contestants fight tooth and nail on some pretty gnarly challenges. I dislike \*Pirate Master \*because no matter how interesting the challenge, ultimately throwing them became “strategic”. ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/23 "2007-10-19T12:12:29Z")
Oh for crap’s sake – I had this FANTASTIC post written, wherein I pretty much agreed with everything everybody else said, and then something went terribly wrong, and now I am feeling cross and unpleasant about everything and I need a cigarette. But to sum up: [ul] [li]Sorry about not showing love for the snakes. I actually _like_ snakes. What I don’t like are _bugs_, which are the only critters I originally intended to exclude.[/li][li]Peih-Gee and Jaime can go jump in a lake or die in a fire or something. Stupid witches.[/li][li]It would not surprise me in the _least_ if next week’s “reward” includes the opportunity for the winning tribe to attend the other team’s Tribal Council to gather “information” – and ultimately cast votes to save someone on the other tribe …[/li][li]… after which the tribes actually _would_ merge at ten, with six Fei Longs and four Zhan Hus. Bwahahahahahaha_hahaha_.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/24 "2007-10-19T12:53:53Z")
Has throwing a challenge EVER not come back to bite the instigators in the butt? During the infamous “align them by race” season, the Latino team deliberately threw a challenge to get rid of one lazy dude. Fast forward a few days and the tribes are shuffled. Surprise! Another Latino dude is voted off because Latinos were in the minority after the tribe shuffling. I really thought that PG and Jaime were obnoxious. It’s one thing to throw a challenge. It’s another to gloat about it. You have to be diplomatic if you’re going to win this game. James has all the incentive now to screw both PG and Jaime if given the chance. ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/25 "2007-10-19T13:16:07Z")
[QUOTE=PunditLisa] Has throwing a challenge EVER not come back to bite the instigators in the butt? [/QUOTE] _Nope._ Even before that, in the Pearl Islands season, the Drake Tribe threw a challenge so they could get rid of Burton, and then – _taa daa!_ The Outcasts Tribe was born shortly thereafter. TPTB _know_ these things, and they’re going to screw up the best-laid plans of mice and morons. (Mostly morons.) ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_of_the_Lake)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/26 "2007-10-19T13:54:45Z")
This was not an enjoyable episode. It’s so much more fun to watch a tribe try hard and win than to watch people purposely throw it just to screw other people. And the smug laughing…while James was being so earnest pissed me off. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/27 "2007-10-19T14:15:06Z")
I wish James and Aaron had spent a little more time trying to recruit Erik. They could have hit the whole “They didn’t trust you enough to consult with you about throwing the challenge - how much can you trust them?” point. Erik is completely whipped, so it probably wouldn’t have worked, but they don’t know that. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/28 "2007-10-19T14:30:15Z")
[QUOTE=rockle] _Nope._ Even before that, in the Pearl Islands season, the Drake Tribe threw a challenge so they could get rid of Burton, and then – _taa daa!_ The Outcasts Tribe was born shortly thereafter. TPTB _know_ these things, and they’re going to screw up the best-laid plans of mice and morons. (Mostly morons.) [/QUOTE] This is why I don’t get why folks are upset. We **know** that PG and Jaime are going to get screwed over royally by this. So what if they booted a challenge to dump Aaron? People “who could have gone all the way” get voted off early every season. And the comment about Aaron being ousted by the producers was totally inane. What did the producers have to do with it? They set up the swap, sure, but it was what the teams did with it that caused all the kerfluffle. Blame the idiots on the teams. This is going to lead to some High Drama before too long, and it will be glorious! ---
**Author:** ![CapnPitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/edb3f5/32.png) [@CapnPitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CapnPitt)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/29 "2007-10-19T14:31:31Z")
Y’know, I don’t like the throwing of challenges, but I could live with it as a strategy. It might work; I hope it doesn’t, but it might. What I can’t take is the damn giggling. You have to be clever in these games, so don’t show your hand until you have to. They could have thrown the puzzle part, just by “losing” the one piece. Instead they just didn’t try at all. There’s a difference between throwing a challenge and being a giggling idiot. :mad: If Erik was smart, he’d have distanced himself from those two for not including him in the plan, then told Aaron and James what happened and win their loyalty by switching to be with them. But, as mentioned upthread, he’s already whipped without having even gotten some yet. I said to the GF before the show yesterday that I was going to root for James through the whole show. Now he’s as good as done. If I’m him, I start chopping down the shelter the day of the next immunity challenge and crapping in the water supply. If by some chance he doesn’t get booted, you know he has the knowledge (bought the survival book) and work ethic to correct all those things. Further, at the reward challenge I wouldn’t try at all and I would just shout out PG and Jaime’s plan. Unfortunately, this would give Sherea an advantage (lazy, lazy, lazy), but better Sherea to have an advantage than either PG or Jaime, the giggling witches. ---
**Author:** ![Borborygmi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/borborygmi/32/217_2.png) [@Borborygmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Borborygmi)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/30 "2007-10-19T14:43:55Z")
I’m still sorting out my feelings about this ep. Tribal shuffle? Good: always fun. Strategic gameplay? Good: it’d be a pretty boring show if there was no gamesmanship. New reasons to like or dislike particular players? Good: I don’t have my rooting interests sorted out yet. Reasons for Jeff to get snarky? Good: Jeff call-outs are always entertaining. Add it all up and… huh. Add it all up and it was teh lame, with both show and game suffering. Clearly, I’m in the minority in thinking this was actually a decent strategic move on Jaime and PG’s part. They’re right: win the challenge, and Sherea or Frosti likely goes. They may not be the strongest of allies, but who else besides Erik even conceivably would have their backs? Jaime and PG don’t have the wherewithal to go all the way without stirring the pot. That said, the complete lack of stealth hurt them and lost them any gamesmanship cred. The giggling-all-the-way performance was really ugly. Tee-hee, we’ve sucked so much that we’re two players down. The only way out of this is to suck worse on purpose. Granted, it’s hard to plan how to quietly throw an upcoming challenge when you don’t know what it will be, but… geez. I’ll miss Aaron. I’ll _really_ miss James, assuming he goes next week. I don’t usually give a fig what the men look like, but damn: what a physical specimen. I had started to really dislike him based on all the playa talk over which he and Jean-Robert were bonding, but his talking head regarding the Lunch Lady was very, very sweet. I’m still a little uncomfortable that he was able to slip into misogynist chatter mode with JR so easily, but I’m willing to believe it was just a when-in-Rome tactic. Ugh, I hope this week was the low point of the season. There’s still a lot of weeks left. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/31 "2007-10-19T14:46:47Z")
5 quatloos says James is still there after next week’s Tribal Council. I don’t know how, but I bet it happens. He just might take some people into the bushes and beat the secret of the HII out of them. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/32 "2007-10-19T14:48:07Z")
What if James tells Fei Long that Jaime and PG threw the challenge, and will probably throw the next one, and we wind up with _both_ tribes trying to throw the immunity challenge so they can vote off their own interlopers. That would be awesome. If you don’t think that’s awesome, you need to go back to awesome school. Realistically, I’m guessing the producers will do either a “winning tribe gets to kidnap and/or protect a member of losing tribe” or “both tribes lose a member” next week. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/33 "2007-10-19T15:56:11Z")
In terms of game design, it’s a bad move by the producers, as it directly hurts people who have been playing the best in every aspect of the game. A fair game should never punish good play. That said, the producers are not setting out to make a fair game. They are trying to create an interesting television show. The goal here was clearly to shake up the “one team domination” that’s been going on for several seasons. And it worked. I don’t fault Peih-gee and Jaime for throwing the challenge. I do think they were idiots for not consulting Erik and for tipping their hand. It wouldn’t be hard to just barely lose and not look like jackasses. ---
**Author:** ![Aangelica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Aangelica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aangelica)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/34 "2007-10-19T16:06:20Z")
[QUOTE=Dag Otto] BTW, I think it is funny that the virgin is already pussy whipped. [/QUOTE] Not only is he thinking with his dick, he’s _doing a bad job of it_. In one of the weirder conversational moments of my entire marriage, I turned to my husband during Survivor last night and asked him “Your dick is smarter than that guy’s, isn’t it?” ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/35 "2007-10-19T16:16:05Z")
[QUOTE=Aangelica] In one of the weirder conversational moments of my entire marriage, I turned to my husband during Survivor last night and asked him “Your dick is smarter than that guy’s, isn’t it?” [/QUOTE] I wish I could watch _Survivor_ at your house. I bet it’s a riot. ---
**Author:** ![CapnPitt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/edb3f5/32.png) [@CapnPitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CapnPitt)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/36 "2007-10-19T16:55:42Z")
[QUOTE=muldoonthief] What if James tells Fei Long that Jaime and PG threw the challenge, and will probably throw the next one, and we wind up with _both_ tribes trying to throw the immunity challenge so they can vote off their own interlopers. That would be awesome. If you don’t think that’s awesome, you need to go back to awesome school. [/QUOTE] I don’t think I need to go back to awesome school because I think that would be awesome. What I’m here to say is that with awesome ideas like that, you could be the dean of Awesome School. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/37 "2007-10-19T17:29:04Z")
[QUOTE=Borborygmi] I had started to really dislike (James) based on all the playa talk over which he and Jean-Robert were bonding, but his talking head regarding the Lunch Lady was very, very sweet. [/QUOTE] I must have missed that. What did he say? ---
**Author:** ![Borborygmi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/borborygmi/32/217_2.png) [@Borborygmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Borborygmi)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/38 "2007-10-19T17:39:26Z")
[QUOTE=PunditLisa] I must have missed that. What did he say? [/QUOTE] I believe I have an exact quote, 'cause I try to use exact quotes from the show in my weekly office pool update: “[After describing how Denise works hard around camp] I like women like her. She’s a strong, good woman. She’s there to complement you _and_ work with you. That’s attractive. I like that. If Denise was ten years younger or if I was older – whichever way – Denise would be in trouble.” The “would be in trouble” was said in a way meaning he’d be pursuing her. Okay, not much of an Internet must-read, but I was touched. Denise isn’t most people’s idea of a beauty queen, but James is kind of sweet on her because of the person she is. A nice moment. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/39 "2007-10-19T18:15:00Z")
I was a bit distracted last night, so I’ve just replayed a bit. > [@Sherea](#): > > It never crossed my mind that they were gonna take two of us. We’re just like ‘Oh, we get to have two strong people.’ We didn’t think about it at all. That was really dumb. How dumb do you have to be? ‘The producers must like us! We’re getting an advantage for _free!_ w00†!!112’ ---
**Author:** ![lalenin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@lalenin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lalenin)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194/40 "2007-10-19T18:39:53Z")
I must have fallen asleep at some point so I need to ask, when and how did they get bathing suits? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survivor-china-ep-5-love-is-in-the-air/423194.md?page=3)