When Probst asked the NFL guy about telling a lie, I got the impression that lying will get you in trouble, but does it? With who? I remember reading about a contestant who lied about someone in his family dying, but I don’t know what the consequences were. Is backstabbing okay but lying is not?
I like Probst. Seems like he enjoys what he’s doing, pays close attention, and he was asking the kind of questions that viewers might ask. He wasn’t shilling and he wasn’t afraid to call bullshit. I wish he would sit in on one of Trump’s boardrooms.
Technically? Lying won’t get you in trouble. But it can hurt you strategically, or not, depending on the lie and (more importantly) the people you lie to. Gary lied about what he does outside the game. Other people have done that (like Willard last season, who said he was a mailman instead of a lawyer, and Brian Heidik, the winner of Survivor: Thailand, who never mentioned his career in soft-core porn). But lying about the game - “No, we’re not going to vote you out tonight” or “The idol is on the ground” - could have repercussions come Tribal Council. It’s not against the rules, though.
Johnny (effing) Fairplay. His “family member visit” was from his friend, who came “instead” of his grandmother under the auspices of the grandmother having passed away. Some of the other idiots - er, contestants - in Johnny Fairplay’s season let him win the family visit reward because of the “dead grandmother.” There were no real consequences, except afterwards Johnny came out looking like a bigger ass than he did before. Which is saying something, because he was a pretty big ass to begin with. Everybody hated him.
Probst is hit or miss. I kind of think he’s a tool, with terrible taste in headwear and girlfriends, but I can’t imagine the show without him. He’s perfect for this show in ways I can’t really explain.
When Cindy was telling her sad tale, I thought how nice it would be to send her back to Guatamala for a Pay-Per-View special… send the improved Danni along with Stephanie for company… a few group baths in the Survivor “pool”, don’t spare the soap…
I think it’s pretty safe to assume that it was 6-1. If Steph had gotten anymore votes, Jeff would have shown them while doing the “heighten the dramatic tension” thing.
Wait just a goldang minute, here. I’m reading through the TWOP review of the episode where Steph won immunity, and in it, Rafe is paraphrased as saying:
What a grandstanding, self-sacrificing, history-altering little prick he turns out to be. He only promised to take her to F3.
Okay, I shut everything off after Danni won (not because I was mad, but because I was tired and didn’t want to get sucked into another hour of television). What is all this “Good for Margaret and Brian” stuff?
Actually that’s what he promised her, she on the other hand promised many many things to probably many many people. One of which was that if they were in the final 3 and she won the immunity, she’d take him. I don’t think we were shown this on TV, but Danni’s acceptance of it makes me believe it.
I think this season saved itself. It started out promising to be the worst ever, but it ascended to heights of great mediocrity.
Random thoughts about last night’s shows:
How is it possible that Lydia’s hair looked better in the jungle than on the reunion show?
Pardon me Steph, is that your face or am I in St. Louis with double vision?
In the reunion show, I loved Cindy’s “Baywatch” clip. Way hot!!!
As much as I disliked Danni (more specifically, her collarbones), she played an excellent game. Like Chris on whatever season it was, she went into the merge down on numbers and against a strong alliance and came out a winner.
Kudos to the editors for the contrast of Steph sliding down the pole in great agony while juxtaposing Danni fiddling with her fingernails. “What? I stand out in the sun wedged between a pole and a balance board back in Kansas all the time for fun.”
And of course, thanks middleman for doing the rankings all season. I really looked forward to that every week.
[ul]
[li]Rafe had me rooting for him until that last challenge. I agree that it was an extremely passive-aggressive move. I suspect he knew that strategically Danni was going to have to take Steph and he coudn’t stand the thought of being outright rejected. So he gave her an out which was intended to make him look noble. Instead it made him look like a pussy.[/li][li]The last challenge was not fair. The person with the longest legs had a big advantage because they could just do what Danni did. Had Steph’s legs been longer, she wouldn’t have had such problems hanging on. And had Lydia made it to the F3, she wouldn’t have stood a chance. I call foul![/li][li]I agree that Steph looked better in the jungle than on the Reunion show. The jersey hair and makeup has got to go.[/li][li]Best line of the reunion show: (Amy) “And then Cindy can drive her car to Guatemala!” I wish she would have stuck around longer.[/li][li]Judd is a tool.[/li][li]I could swear that Jamie was swaggering when he walked up to cast the final vote. Methinks the man is a drunk.[/li][li]Farmer Brandon looked way better with long hair and his hat! Why did he get a respectable haircut?[/li][li]Danni looked beautiful though she kept doing funky things with her lips. Hope she didn’t do something stupid like get a collagen implant. Speaking of implants, I wonder how long until she’s offered a Playboy Spread?[/li][li]I hope they don’t make a habit of allowing ex-players to get a 2nd chance at winning. Steph and Bobby Jon didn’t bring anything to the show that new players couldn’t have brought. I don’t know if any of the jurists’ votes were influenced by the fact that Steph had two chances to win a million, but I don’t like it. [/li][li]The first few shows were so unmemorable that I didn’t recognize, or care about, the first few castaways (who’s Morgan?). I still don’t know who was on what tribe originally.[/li][li]I cannot believe they ate the sacrificial chicken! Poor form! Good for Rafe for having some respect.[/li][/ul]
Yeah, they showed it at the time. He promised to take her to final 3. She promised the same, and then to sweeten the pot (in an effort to ensure he wouldn’t go back on his word) she added that she’d take him to the final two if she won immunity in the final challenge.
The challenges are never fair. They will always be suited to one person more than the others. In fact, I suspect that the producers design the challenges to skew them in favor of some people more than others. Remember survivor all-stars? Rupert was an ox on land and a fish in water. I don’t think any of the challenges were strength or swimming. Most of them were balance beams. Perfect for girder running, construction worker Boston Rob. Rafe was suprised that he won so many challenges. I wasn’t. He is a pretty quick guy and good at puzzles. How many running and/or puzzle solving games were there?
I imagine it is difficult to find individual challenges that favour men and women equally, but they could come up with mixed couple or men/men women/women challenges. I like seeing strength and toughness challenges.
In the challenge you refer too, I think the producers were probably caught by suprise. I bet they expected it to be better suited for Steph. She probably had the lowest center of gravity of the bunch. I don’t think they expected them to all brace themselves against the pole for which the tallest person would be best.
