Survivor: Cook Islands Ep. 2 - "Dire Straights and Dead Weights"

Cafe Society
21

Once again, until someone else comes along, here are:

The imitation RICH RANKINGS:

FORGOT TO FILE A 1040- I guess you couldn’t outwit everyone!

Billy: A rocker should know you’ve got to hide your love away

EATING BEEF JERKY- You’re still playing, but you’re praying for a tribe scramble!

Nathan - Still odd man out and you guys barely beat a team that was trying to lose
Adam - Two guys voted off by their team for not working and you can’t spot the pattern
Candice - Lost her chance to be part of the show’s first love triangle.
Cao Boi - The balance with your team is starting to tip towards annoyance. Start blending in or you’re out.

WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT A MERGE?- Middle of the pack players, the lotta ya!

Brad, Jenny, Parvati, Stephannie - You guys were all too quiet this episode. Do something entertaining next week

HEY! LOOK AT HIS MOHAWK-You might make the merge, but you’re grimacing from the jury row!

Jonathan - Doing okay as long as Adam doesn’t form a slacker alliance
Cecelia - Keeping your options open might be a good strategy for now
JP - Might end up taking the hit for Ozzy
Rebecca and Sundra - Still in it but you guys need to start winning challenges

LOOKING FOR A BIG TOM TO ENGLISH DICTIONARY- Big Tom has spent more combined days on the show than anyone. But he didn’t quite grab the brass ring.

Ozzy - Sneakiness needs to be a hidden personality trait
Becky - Working on an alliance and in a good tribe; good prospects
Jessica - Alternative girl is willing to work and avoid making enemies; she’s the anti-Courtney

ARE YOU A RAT OR A SNAKE?- Reserved for a MAXIMUM of two players. You have to be in the driver’s seat for this spot.

Christina - Tough and seems to understand how the game is played
Jul - Formed an alliance, plays well in challenges, seems popular, and has a hidden immunity.

22

I don’t know how smart it is to throw a challenge-- especially when the whole team isn’t behind it (well, the whole team minus the target). It’s interesting how the guys just assume that their decsions stands.

Yul is great. I knew he’d find the idol. And it looked like the Blacks didn’t need Sekou to make fire afterall! :slight_smile:

Good show. There sure seem to be a lot of chickens running around!

23

I think this will be my trademarked comment in every season of Survivor.

The firestarter is made of magnesium! :rolleyes:

Did you see their flint? Six days, and it’s half gone. But there’s still a lot of magnesium on the rest.

If I ever apply for the show, my audition tape will be a demonstration on how to use a firestarter.

Anyway. Throwing the challenge. Does anyone else think that it’s better to keep dead weight around so that you can boot him when you legitimately lose a challenge? They’re not starving. Billy didn’t want to work, but he didn’t seem to get into arguments or go out of his way to be annoying. Want to get rid of him? You’re not going to win every IC. The time will come.

Cece is hot.

24

I know! I was sitting there watching it, thinking “aren’t you supposed to scrape some of the Mg off so when a spark hits it REALLY goes up?”

25

The only time it makes sense to throw a challenge is when there are established alliances and a shuffle puts a smaller alliance in a temporary majority over members of the larger alliance. This happened in Africa. But in any other situation, it’s foolish.

Suppose they do a merge next week and the four Latinos are merged with the five Asians. Count the numbers and figure out who’ll get voted off.

Or consider that by getting rid of Billy, the Latinos gave up a chance to get rid of somebody else. The Blacks came in third; if the Latinos had beaten them, they would have had to vote off a member. Based on the current alliance, it probably would have been Nathan. Now decide who was more likely to be a future threat; Billy or Nathan?

And this is just doing the numbers and ignoring the whole psychological damage that throwing a challenge can do to a team’s morale and trust.

26

Yeah, my Ozzy love is over. That was a dumbass move. Sure, metal dude was annoying and useless, but he was on your side. You can toss him at any time, but throwing a challenge and weakening your side just to toss him is stupid. Especially since it cost him the trust of the cop girl (whose name eludes me).

27

Holy Smokes, I could not believe all those wild chickens just running around everywhere! I am done feeling sorry for the chickens and done feeling sorry for the team who lost theirs. Hell, there’s plenty more where those came from, so what was the point of putting some on the boat in the first place? And I guess wild chickens eat worms and grubs and stuff. But whatever they eat, it must be available in abundance, 'cause those guys sure aren’t starving out there.

Pretty good episode tonight, but I’m getting tired of these combined challenges. I’d rather see one for reward and a separate one for immunity. Oh well, I’m sure they’ll get to that soon.

28

Can I just say that I’d like to vote Becky onto my island? YOW!!

[sup]yeah, I’m watching too… [/sup]

Also, that one girl on the hispanic team really needs to lose the gym shorts! (and… I guess don a bikini bottom, if necessary. Though I can live with just losing the gym shorts.)

I watch mostly for the strategy.

29

Ozzy is not as cute as I originaly thought. Mostly because he opened his mouth and words came out. Yes Ozzy, you are good at all things survivorlistic, but just because you’re good doesn’t mean everyone else sucks.

Did anyone *tell *Billy that he needed to pull his weight?
Yul is dreeeeeeeamy.

30

That was funny as shit. So the fat lazy guy tries to convince the women on his tribe to break with the majority to save his ass. Naturally, the best way to ensure their support would be to go all crazy stalker during tribal council. Good thinking, man.

I truly cannot wait until the wrap-up show, if only to see how the producers handle the inevitable restraining order issues. 19 survivors on the podium, with Billy beamed in via satellite?

In all seriousness, has that guy never interacted with vapid bimbos before? They love everything, dude. It ain’t you.

I see next week is the “hot chick works it” episode. Always my favorite.

It’s interesting to see the dichotomy of the exile island. Every other element of survivor strategy has already been worked to death from every possible angle, so generally people go with the optimal strategic play. But exile island strategy is clearly not nearly as advanced. Here’s a hint, people: don’t send the smartest people to a deserted island with a hidden immunity idol, clues to its whereabouts, and two days to look for it. Unless, of course, you want them to have immunity.

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I’d be happy to share, if I didn’t actually need it. :slight_smile: I can spare you one or two, though.

Nothing else I read today will be funnier than that.

I think it was very early to throw a challenge, and it definitely wasn’t the smartest thing to do. But once Billy opened his mouth about Candice, I changed my mind. He wasn’t going to be anything but a hindrance, especially if he was all puppy dog about a woman who would likely file a restraining order as soon as she hit the losers’ lodge.

32

Yes, absolutely. The only possible way throwing the challenge would have been a good idea is if Aitu knew there was a merge coming up immediately, AND they knew who they were going to be merging with, AND they already had an alliance in place with their new tribemates. And even then, it would have been sketchy, because this is Survivor and people lie. Much as I love the “strategery” involved in this game, it just makes no sense to me when people start thinking about the endgame at Day Six when there are just so many variables. Maybe Ozzy and JP feel safe within their own tribe, but what if something happens to them? A tribal scramble? An injury? An alien abduction? A retaliation by a band of organized wild chickens? There’s just no way that they’ve considered even half of the possible outcomes, which makes this a truly dumb call.

This is my other issue with the “reasoning” behind Aitu’s move. Except for Cristina, it didn’t look like anybody called Billy on his slackitude. Which: huh? I mean, I suppose there could have been some behind-the-scenes discussion between JP and Ozzy (who seems to think he runs the show, even if he doesn’t admit it), where they debated whether to say anything or not, and they decided that no, they were just going to keep their mouths shut about it, so as not to make themselves targets. Of course, had that happened, calamity could have been prevented by not actually throwing the challenge, but what-the-hell-ever. I still think Ozzy’s nice to look at, but I’m otherwise done with him already. That kind of passive-aggressive-eyerolling garbage makes me crazy, and I don’t really need the help.

It’s interesting to me how my allegiances on this show change so often and so quickly. Last week I thought Ozzy was the bee’s knees; this week I wish he would get a coconut dropped on his head. Last season, I thought Terry was so awesome; by the end, I couldn’t even watch any more, because I found him so repulsive. So I can just imagine what it would be like to actually be there with these people in the flesh. I remember when Coby said in Palau that he wanted to push some people into the fire, and I can understand where that came from. And then I think, “It’s a good thing I never got picked for this show, even though I auditioned three times. Maybe I’ll try out for the Race instead, if I can learn to drive stick.” Yeah, right about now, I definitely prefer my view from the cheap seats.

Yeah … I wonder if “Aitutaki” is Cook Island-ese for “Not Nuclear Physicists, This Bunch.” But the strategy of how to use the Hidden Immunity Idol is still new, too. It will be interesting to see how Yul’s strategy compares to Gary’s and Terry’s.

33

Me, too. They should be merging into two tribes soon.

I little inside info: I have some friends in the pro volleyball world, and they tell me that J.P.'s nickname is Bi P. I’m not interested in gossipy stuff like that, but just in case anyone else is. :slight_smile:

34

You wouldn’t like me on Survivor then…if I had to listen to half the bullshit that these spoiled wannabe-TV-stars spew every single season, my eyes would roll clean out of my head.

35

It’s not so much the eyerolling, as the passive-agressive associates of it, that bothers me. I’m an eye-roller myself. But complaining to everybody else just makes you look like a whiner, and it doesn’t work, anyway. I would have to say something. I mean, I’d try to be tactful about it, like, “Hey, Billy? Can you help me clean these chickens?” or “I wonder if Ozzy and JP need any help with the fishing, should we go check?” or “Goddammit, help us with this shelter, you lazy oaf!” Get him engaged somehow. If he refuses, that’s one thing, but some people just don’t or won’t do something unless you ask them to. (At the same time, I can see how that might backfire on me, too, because I’d look like a nag, but … God, say anything!)

I just think it was a waste of time and energy to come up with this challenge-throwing strategy, then trying to convince the girls to go along, when they could have done probably 50% less work by letting Billy dig his own hole. Ask him to help, and then when he doesn’t, point out how he’s not being a team player even when he was asked nicely to help around camp. Then, at Tribal Council, let Jeff wail on him. It’s all about the power of suggestion. Ozzy’s endgame strategy is underdeveloped at this point, I think. He’s using the “Terry Overbearance Technique,” which has not worked yet, as far as I can tell. Too many feathers will be ruffled, especially once we whittle down from four tribes to two, and then down to only one.

36

Man - had a lotta opinions forming about Billy, but I didn’t realize he was a full-fledged looney! Wonder what TPTB are doing to deprogram him - or warn Cnady, before she hits the loser’s lodge. (Of course, the possibiity exists that LAFS actually occurred between the 2 of them! Ya think?)

Never woulda guessed chicken hunting was so easy.
I think the lady cop would get on my nerves - just seems to have a deep cop-authority streak that would not do too well over long periods.
And what’s with the white prettyboy getting all pissy about building the floor, when he didn’t have any alternative plans.

Yul looks like quite the player. Hope he doesn’t get Hunterized. Looks to be smarter than Terry.

Agreed with you all - intentionally losing the challenge was boneheaded - could have really dealt the black tribe some major hurt. And, like you said, could always jettison him when you actually lose (and those tarps would come in handy!) But I wonder if we didn’t get a true sense of how completely batshit crazy metal-Bill was.

Any thoughts on the “tie”? Not sure how there could be a perfect tie. Should they have a better way of documenting the finish other than JP’s eyeball reviewed by (apparently) questionable tape? I expected them to give each tribe 1 tarp instead of 2 each.

37

I was going to say, ‘What makes you think he’ll make it that far?’ He clearly bosses people around, and he’s shown that he puts personal feelings ahead of the good of the tribe. I thought he’d be a natural for the next boot.

But then I remembered the other guy was also very vocal about booting Billy. (Booting Billy would be a good name for Billy’s next band.) I can see the guys turning Cece against Candice. Candice and Cece can vote against the guys and force a tie. But I think Cece will go for the numbers. Turning the other guy (whose name I don’t remember) against Ozzy ain’t gonna happen. I’m sure he doesn’t want to be outnumbered by the women. So the guys will vote against Candice, and get Cece to vote with them. If they lose another IC before a merge, Candice is gone.

38

They showed at least 1 - maybe 2 instances where folks expressly asked Billy to do things, and he responded less than enthusiastically. And when will folks learn that playing the loner is a quick ticket to loserville?
It did, however, look like food was plenty. I would think it would always be good to have a convenient target other than yourself around. And I wonder how prospective allies post-merge will view the Latinos’ willingness to throw a challenge so early…

39

I missed the first 15 minutes of the show. Was it just me or did the black team have like zero screen time?

When Billy dropped that “love at first sight” bomb, I was confused at first. I thought he was referencing something that happened off-camera, because I had no idea where all of this was coming from. But then I realized he was talking about the said-out-of-pity “We love you” that Candice gave after the challenge and it hit me: the guy has major psychological issues. Poor thing. Talk about delusional.

40

The had screen time showing how they finally got fire going. It was one of the “girls” who did it, btw. :slight_smile:

That’s what I don’t like about 4 teams. One hour just isn’t enough to cover the bases well.