Eh. I think it was a good strategic move, given the circumstances they were handed. I just think that what they were handed was very unfair to the stronger players in the game, and they didn’t even TRY to make it look like they weren’t throwing the challenge.
But, as was said, nobody said the game was gonna be fair. Oh, well.
But I’ll be jumping up and down on my couch next week if a new set of circumstances comes up that allows James to screw over Peih-Gee and/or Jaime.
When both tribes were asked to circle the names of the two players they wanted to take from the other tribe, I was so hoping that the producers would throw in still another twist and form a third tribe with just those four selected players.
Oh! I meant to mention this as well. James slipped up a week or two ago, when he was shooting off his mouth with Jean-Robert, but I reverted again to my “default” condition about James, that he has a beautiful soul. So I like him again, until he does something stupid next week.
That would also have been awesome.
They got them off-camera at some point. They just showed up at the challenge with the new bathing suits.
Thank goodness they all got their bathing suits. I’m sure they were sick of pixellating all that skin.
This would have been all manners of awesome! Why didn’t they do this?
If you could switch Sherea with the lunch lady I would have totally rooting for that tribe too!
Y’know, I’ve been watching Survivor since Thailand (which was, what? 11 freakin’ seasons ago?). I’ve come to expect and accept backstabbing and lying and betrayal and hiding fish and peeing in the well. But I still REALLY HATE when a tribe throws an immunity challenge deliberately! I think it’s because it’s completely out of the hands of their potential victim. It’s like the difference between challenging someone to a duel and shooting them in the back of the head after you’ve tied their feet and hands together. It trips my Pit-Of-The-Stomach-Incredible-Blindsiding-Unfairness-Detector in a way that a planned ouster after a legitimate IC lose doesn’t.
Just let it be noted that I would totally look the other way if James decided to both pee and ejaculate into their rice pot…
Also edited to add that I STILL have a knot in my stomach from that…okay, so I only watched it tonight on On Demand, but it’s been almost 1/2 hour!
That’s what I was wondering as well – I’d have to play it back, but my recollection is that James was just chuckling at J-R’s sleaze talk rather than making his own sleaze remarks. He was going along to get along. There’s always some guy in the group who’s a pig; one tactic to deal with this is not deal with it, and shrug.
But you know what? I think the problem was that they wanted to tip their hand. I think that Jaime and Peih-gee just honestly thought that their “throw the challenge” idea was the mostest original and mostest cleverest idea in the history of ever. It was killing them that no one knew they had done it; they wanted credit. In their heads they were already imagining the mad props they’d be getting for their brilliant move, but the problem was no one knew. So they went with the giggling and the shit eating grins until someone finally busted them.
Which is a problem for several reasons. They pissed off James, which was pointless because you never want to piss someone off pointlessly - you never know how you might need James down the line, and now they have zero chance of getting his help. If they had thrown the challenge and then shut the hell up about it, and put on a good show of attempting to win, there’d be no hard feelings. They’ve also tipped Erik to the fact that he’s not part of the core group, and you never know when that thought might get past the barrier his genitals have built around his brain. And, perhaps most importantly - they’ve pissed off Probst and Burnett, by spitting on their game. From a meta perspective, there is no good reason to do that, because how hard would it be for Burnett to devise another twist to hoist the girls with their own petard?
And their strategy was flawed on its face, even if they merge at 10, because it assumes that Frosti and Sherea will remain loyal to their original allegiance. By then, Frosti and Sherea will have spent a week with their new tribe, sharing all the bonding that winning together promotes. They know Jean-Robert is on the outs with his group. Why in the heck would Frosti and Sherea rejoin Erik, Peih-gee, and Jaime, and face a tie with all that entails? They’d be better off joining Amanda, Courtney, Todd, and Denise to vote off E, J, & PG, then pick off J-R, and be in the final six guaranteed.
I know if I had the chance, I would screw Jaime. 
Yes, it is obvious that throwing a challenge pisses off Probst and Burnett, and they *will *get even. Those two giggling silly-assed bitches are dead meat. :mad:
And I was saying the same thing about Eirk- now he knows they don’t trust him. But he’s not thinking with the Big Head. :rolleyes: And they made Erik bust his ass at diving, too. Note all the divers were collapsed, barely able to move.
However, I am glad that Aaron the traitor got voted off. He was so very wrong to write down “James”, it was a complete suck-up move.
Interesting that everyone is making the observation that Erik is thinking with his genitalia in siding with Jamie and PeeWee.
My first observation was that he hasn’t got any …at all!
What an abso-freaking-lute WEENIE!!!
“I really want to trust them, so I have to stick with them for now.” HELLO? They made a decision to throw the challenge to get rid of the two new tribe members…AND DIDN’T TELL YOU! And you think you can trust them? No wonder you’re still a virgin! If a woman picked you up in a bar, you’d probably have to call Mommy to ask if it’s all right if you stay out past curfew!
Sorry for the rant, but this episode just made me livid! Throwing challenges is just chickenshit, no matter what the strategy (or lack of it) behind it! I wish they had a rule for automatic disqualification for anyone caught purposely throwing any competitions! And these two beeyotches are just so damn self-satisfied, like they’re the smartest players in *Survivor * history evah! I wouldn’t blame James if he went all Dick Donato on their skinny asses for the next three days!
James and Aaron should have pushed Erik harder, though. I think they could have saved themselves and gotten rid of Pei-Ghee with a little more persuasion. Oh well. The best I can hope for is the producers coming up with another little twist to totally screw her over. I mean, I just think that a message needs to be sent loud and clear that dumping challenges can carry with it serious consequences.
All I know is if I’m James, I ain’t doin’ nothin’ for no one. They can get their own damn fire and food and water.
But I love the idea of sabotage.
Did he even say anything that could be construed as “misogynist.” IIRC, JR was the one saying the off-color remarks.
I don’t think so. I remember it more along the lines of agreeing with him just to sound agreeable. Especially considering the way he’s acted in every point in the show (not an asshole like Jean-Robert), I gotta believe he just didn’t want to piss off one of his allies.
I didn’t get to watch the show, so I can’t add anything to this thread.
I do have to ask, though. Do you guys really think that Probst and Burnett are making stuff up on the fly as they watch the game unfold? That they can alter challenges and rewards on the spot to make things happen? That would be quite a feat of logistics (and a leap of faith on things going their way and not worsening the season).
ETA: the website offers the full video, but it says it is now unavailable. What is the window to watch old episodes?
Since I was the one who threw the accusation against James, I feel obliged to pop back in and say you guys may be right. I seem to recall James making some of his own questionable comments amongst Jean-Robert’s boorish drivel, but I’m going by memory and have no way review the scene to check. Either way, hopefully the way he came off in last week’s show was more true to his character than that earlier episode.
Which would make any forthcoming righteous retaliation from James against Zhan Hu all the sweeter.
I think it would be really easy for Burnett & co. to throw in a small twist to show the girls what they get when they piss on the Big Dog’s cornflakes. Remember, Jeff said they were all high half the time on Kava-kava when they were in Cook Islands, and these chickies ain’t exactly a brain trust. It wouldn’t be too hard to throw a touch of Karma at them.
Anybody else notice Jaime’s bitch move on Erik right after he tells her he’s a virgin? Almost immediately she turned and dove into the water, her butt and pixellated vajay-jay aimed right at him! I rewound that a few times, laughing my ass off. Monkeys, pandas, snakes and beavers on the wildlife scenery this week!
I don’t have any real info, but I think TPTB have probably 3-4 challenges in construction/testing at any time (till the end) They can probably control how the game goes by picking the challenge that gets them a favorable result. (keep teams even
As for Erik, he may be thinking with his little head, but he doesn’t have any real choice. If he feels betrayed and sided with James/Aaron then he goes into the merge on the short end of the stick. Once they explained their assumptions to him, I’m sure he used his big head to stick with the girls.
Not so much altering challenges to favor a team, but changing rules on the fly - they could f’rinstance say “for this immunity challenge, the winning team gets to kidnap a member of the losing team, and said kidnappee will not go to Council”. Either way, James will be safe.