Survivor: Exile Island 2/23--"Starvation and Lunacy"

Cafe Society
21

See, now, this was an episode! Not entirely happy with the outcome, but it was a pretty darn good episode. I like when they do brains-and-brawn-and-balance challenges. They seem much more fair.

My two favorite things about this episode?
~ Cirie remained fully clothed at all times
~ Austin and his Umbros – damn it all if I am not a sucker for soccer shorts

My two least favorite things?
~ Cirie going the Vecepia “I’m going to stay away from the drama” route
~ Danielle’s accent – on altos it’s cute, but when you’re a shrieky soprano, not so much

“Fat freakin’ city,” indeed!

22

My class got out early so I caught the last half hour. Question: Who brought Circe a real shirt? I appreciate it.

Maybe I need a few more weeks of watching to get hooked, but I don’t really care about anyone on this season. I did enjoy the editing of the fight, what with the quick shots of the sleeping guy and Circe looking on awkwardly. The smart thing to do would be to walk away, but she just couldn’t keep her eyes off of that trainwreck.

23

So, who do you think was next to use the “Chateau de Charmin” after the big black dude pinched off a 10 lb. loaf?

24

Judging from the previews,

God wasn’t happy with the wafting aromas that rose to his nose from that one…it looks like their new outhouse gets destroyed by something in the next ep.

25

Major negative points for Bobby this week. When people are debating whether to use a building as a toilet or a storeroom and you go off and deposit a ten pound load in it, you’ve really made the debate moot.

The Alliance of Four Nuts is undeniably fun to watch. I don’t think we’ve ever had an alliance that was this dysfunctional before - any one of these four idiots would be the worst member of a regular alliance. Watching all four of them together is reality show gold.

And Cirie - if you don’t get off your ass and start playing this game, you’re going to face the ignobility of being booted out by these four knuckleheads. You’re not sitting in the audience watching this show, you’re supposed to be playing it.

I knew Ruth Marie was doomed as soon as the editors spent five otherwise inexplicable minutes showing how tightly she was now allied with the He-Man’s Alliance. Sorry guys, we’ve figured out how the foreshadowing works by now.

I think the subtext of the Sally vs Ruth Marie situation was that Dan is worried about his place in the alliance. He seems pretty solid with Terry but I think he’s right to be worried that he might end up the odd man out if Sally gets her foot in the door. Austin and Nick might decide to take her to the final four instead of Dan.

Here’s a question that might become a major game issue: what happens with the Zippy Idol if there’s a tie? Let’s assume that there’s a five-five merge. Terry will be the obvious target for the five Casayas to vote against and let’s say Aras gets the five LaMina votes. Can Terry pull out the idol and say “My votes didn’t count. Aras goes.” or does he actually have to lose before he can invoke it?

26

First, I think the idea of using the toilet as a storage shed is silly. All they have to do to keep the wood dry enough to use would be to put some palm fronds over it. Did they say towels? Maybe they can be put up on the shelf with the toilet paper? If there’s no room, maybe the bog rolls can go on the floor? I thought they were wrapped in plastic. Bobby showed a lack of tact, but at least he was making the best use of the reward.

And regarding the preview:

Since they showed it, I don’t really think it’s a spoiler. I thought that it might have been struck by lightning, but I’d like to think some Super Genius decided to protect the fire from going out by putting it in there.

I think that Terry can only use the idol personally if he is going to be voted out. But I think he can give it away if he wants to. But that would be a bad move.

27

Will someone fill me in on why they switched from Sally to Ruth? I thought Ruth was in the alliance.

28

It was felt that Sally is the better athlete and would be more of an asset than Ruth in the challenges.

29

The four men are the main alliance. They decided that they needed a fifth member as an ally because four people wouldn’t survive the merge.

Dan approached Ruth Marie and offered to make her the fifth member of the alliance. He openly told her that she was the fifth place person but she apparently figured it was better than being voted off next and took the deal. So Dan and her made the agreement. Dan then told the other three guys and they basically said, “why not?” Nobody at this point seemed to be disputing the idea that they now had an agreement with Ruth Marie. Obviously this put Sally, as the only person not in the alliance, in a very precarious position if the La Minas lost the immunity challenge.

Then they had the immunity challenge. One player was designated to sit on the nech and wait to be lifted up in the air. Ruth Marie as the smallest person in her tribe was an obvious choice for this role. But it was pretty much a passive role in the challenge. Sally, on the other hand, was one of the runners. And she knew she was the likely one to go if they lost. So she hustled and played very strongly. But the La Minas lost anyway in a very close match (probably due to Dan and Austin’s relatively poor playing).

So Sally now had to work the alliance. The first thing she did was tell them she didn’t want to be voted out and that she thought she had shown in the challenge that she was a strong competitor. She made a point to direct her remarks to Terry who is the unofficial leader of the alliance. Austin, who had been leaning towards an alliance with Sally and Misty in the previous episode, was also interested in rethinking their previous deal with Ruth Marie. Austin convinced Terry that Sally was a bteer player than Ruth Marie and Terry said that the rest of them weren’t technically bound by a deal that Dan had made with Ruth Marie on his own.

So Austin and Terry approached Dan and Nick. Dan was completely against the idea. He said they had all agreed to ally with Ruth Marie and shouldn’t go back on that. He also said that Ruth Marie was more likely to remain loyal to the alliance and that Sally was an opportunist who would abandon the alliance if a better offer came along. Nick also said he felt they had made an agreement with Ruth Marie and should stay with it.

So going into tribal council it looked like it might be a 3-3 split. During the questioning, Sally talked about how she was a strong player and Ruth Marie said she was also a strong player and was loyal. The two votes they initially showed was Ruth Marie’s vote for Sally and Sally’s viote for Ruth Marie. But as Jeff was reading the votes, I noticed it was 8:55 pm and there wasn’t enough time left in the broadcast for a tiebreaker. And sure enough, Nick had apparently changed his mind before the tribal council and voted against Ruth Marie as well.

30

I think Terry just created the crack that will doom his alliance. Dan clearly felt bound by his promise to Ruth Ann – see his vote and was disgruntled with the switch in vote targets. One of the guys – Nick, maybe – flat out said something about being disappointed at how swiftly Terry flipped.

In both cases, there is an unspoken but clear ‘and if his alliance to Ruth Ann can be shed in a second, why should I trust him to be any more loyal to me?’

Even Austin, who instigated the switch, is less likely to a loyal follower to Terry. HE came up with a strategic move and managed to get it carried out. Just one little nibble at the Leadership apple, but he clearly enjoyed the power.
And Terry shouldn’t feel too smug over that idol: it only works once. So he can save himself the first time the other faction votes for him and has the numerical edge. What happens three days later? Another Tribal Council. And no more shrunken head!

31

Terry probably figures he’ll be like Colby or Tom - he’ll coast through on immunity challenges. The emergency idol’s only in case he runs into a pick’em challenge or has an off week.

32

Why even bother asking Ruth Marie to be in the alliance? The guys had the numbers. They boot one one week, they boot the other the next. Sally is in the Alliance this week, next week she’s gone. I don’t see the point.

Snails again! They better figure out how to fish.

33

The shot of Bobby’s feet while sitting in the Casa de Charmin was a classic. We have hit new lows. “Scuse me, I gotta drop a 10lb Bomb” :eek:

Good on Cerie for trying to stay under the radar while she watches the team implode. How do these guys keep winning the challenges?

Shane must go. He got minor air-time, Mayhaps the worst of the Nicotene is gone, and he’s reverting back to being just an Uber-Ass.

34

No kidding. There are lots of loose threads in that alliance - start picking at them!

I was glad to see Sally stand up for herself and stay in. She is a better competitor than Ruth Marie.

I was wondering if they were going to have the same discussion about the fresh water as they did in Paulu - about whether to shower with it or drink it. That never did come up, did it?

35

I believe that Jeff said way back in the first episode that Zippy could be used at any time through the Final Four, even after the votes have been read. IIRC, last week when Misty got voted out, Jeff didn’t ask her if she had found Zippy until after all the votes had been tallied.

So – in the unlikely event of a tie (because everybody’s afraid of the Purple Rock of Doom which doesn’t even exist any more), Terry can hold out and force the revote, I think, before he has to use Zippy. He’s pretty smart and I’m willing to bet he’s already figured out all the permutations of how voting can down between now and the Final Four. I am so glad I have him in the office pool.

I can’t believe that La Mina have so easily forgiven Sally for losing the Hawaiian sling. Lookit all those fish around them! They’d be living like kings! At least they’re trying to fish (or at least Nick is). I give them credit for that. But I can’t believe there’s no fruit anywhere on those islands. We’ve seen monkeys, haven’t we? What do the monkeys eat? Of course, since the Young Women didn’t even consider eating the turtle, I don’t suppose it would occur to them to do like the animals.

No. But, then again, SuperTerry (heh!) is on the tribe that didn’t win reward. I’m willing to bet it would have come up if La Mina had won the reward.

36

Did someone forget to tell the neurotic team they were supposed to suck? Because Casaya has been incredible at the challenges. Crazy at camp usually translates into a march to Loser Lodge.

Warning- I was about midway through watching the IC, when I hear my three year old throwing up! Thank goodness for DVRs! I paused, dealt with the crisis and was eventually able to return to the show. I was up all night with my kid, so any drop off in quality of this week’s ratings is due entirely to lack of sleep!

And now, the less anticipated, highly derivative RICH RANKINGS! (Tribe and previous ranking in parenthesis)

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

Tina,Melinda,Misty- A Lumberjack, a Singer and a Rocket Scientist all in one cabin. It is so much like my fantasies that it is scary!

Ruth- (Merge/La Mina)- Ruth we hardly knew ye! She made a decent stand at TC with her “maybe not tomorrow” bit, but short of that, I have nothing much to say about Ruth.

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

Bobby- (Mohawk/Casaya)- You don’t “drop a duece” in the potential woodshed. It is considered bad porta-pottie ettiquette. Plus, he doesn’t help around camp. All around a shitty week for Bobby.
Courtney- (Jerky/Casaya)- Everybody hates her. She’ll either get ousted soon or make it to the final two.
Danielle- (Merge/Casaya)- Did anyone know she had that accent? Well, at least we know three things about her now. Joisy Girl , Huge Rack, and Doesn’t like to work.

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

Shane- (Jerky/Casya)- Less crazy this episode but gets a move up because he is REALLY good at the challenges. If he could reign in the crazy, he is a real threat.
Cirie- (Jerky/Casaya)- I think it was better that she DIDN’T run away from Danielle and Shane’s fight. Showed some backbone and is praised for her hardwork. She’s conquered the leaves.

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

Sally- (Jerky/La Mina)- Saved by Austin. Made a solid pitch to keep her around. She’s cute and likeable and that is worth something in the rich ratings.
Aras- (Merge/Casaya)- Reassessing his situation. May decide to go a different route.
Bruce- (Merge/Casaya)- Will benefit from an alliance switcheroo. Even moreso than Cirie.

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.

Dan- (Rat/LaMina)- Despite the lack of numbers, La Mina’s Fantastic Four stay in the top four spots. I don’t think Dan will get punished for voting for Sally. I think the guys told him he could. But he did show weakness. It makes me think he can’t go for the jugular should the situation present itself.
Nick- (Tom/La Mina)- Still great physically, but he has been a serious under the radar guy. He expressed doubts about voting off Ruth, but did it anyway.

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.

Austin- (Tom/LaMina)- Has been instrumental in debating the boot. It is amazing that he is getting credit for losing, but I think at a certain point, LaMina’s five will kick it up a notch and win a few challenges.
Terry- (Rat/La Mina)- He has his ace in the hole. With the new immunity idol rules, he can trim Casaya’s numbers after the merge. They will vote for him, and he will present his idol. Under the rules, whoever has the second most votes (a member of Casaya) will be ousted. So even if LaMina comes in with one more person, they will get burned when they vote off Terry.

37

So how does a guy who is starving drop a ten pound load of anything? I missed most of the first episode: are they given ANY staples at all (e.g. rice)?

Man, are those some hellacious thunderstorms!

I’m amazed at how they continued on the challenge even though there was an active thunderstorm going on. Do the producers think that Mother Nature is a fan of the show?

I don’t think they’ll vote Terry off anytime soon. If they do, it’ll be to their detriment because they just don’t have confidence to survive without him.

For being so dysfunctional, LaMina is doing very well at the challenges.

38

Terry could design a strategy around attracting votes to himself after the merge, thus assuring the ouster of a Casayan. 'Course, he’d have to trust his alliance.

39

On behalf of everyone from New Jersey, I would like to point out that we do not sound like that (Bergen and Hudson counties excepted). In addition, Danielle is from Boston. :slight_smile:

My favorite part of the episode was the future destruction of Casaya’s camp. That’s bad, isn’t it?

40

So like most people (Survivor was actually FOURTH in the ratings last night :eek: ) I was watching/DVRing the figure skating finals and American Idol last night. Is it worth forking over two bucks to CBS.com to download this episode?