Well, male rivalry in that regard is often the precursor or the result of a close bond. When two guys butt each other that way, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re mad at each other or hate each other. It actually can be a way of expressing a deeply rooted mutual fondness that manifests in “acceptable” physical contact.
Well, if Brian and Rafe decide to demonstrate mutual fondness, we may have a “never seen before on Survivor” moment! 
I don’t think Rafe is Brian’s type. They didn’t go to the same Ivy League school, after all.
Did they ever actually explain what was so cool about the camp with the ruin in it? My assumption was that there would be some sort of shelter there, like a partially-collapsed wall or a room they could hang out in, but they’re camping out in the open, just like the other tribe, and they have to hike up and down that freakin’ hill to get to the lake for water and to cool down.
Again, they showed Lydia looking like she is in seriously good shape, in spite of people wanting to vote her off because she is “weak.” She can probably kick Rafe’s ass.
re: voting off Blake… they really only have four reasons to vote people off. They’re incompetent, they’re too physically challenging, they’re too mentally challenging (too smart to leave in the game), and they are so freaking annoying that nobody can stand the idea of spending a month on the island with them… It’s real late in the game usually when the fifth reason, “I can’t beat this person in a final 2 vote…” comes into play.
I’m thinking that the purpose of it was so that they build their camp on the higher ground. But they built it at the bottom where it gets flooded with every rain.
What about “to break up a tight alliance”?
Jumping in late here.
I don’t think Jamie had time to see what Brandon was doing. Brandon chopped through the ropes so quickly he was already done before Jamie realized how far behind he was falling.
That said, Jamie handled it pretty poorly. The smart thing to do would have been to apologize greatly to everyone else and then drop the subject. To keep apologizing like he did just kept reminding everybody how badly he performed and made everybody else keep consoling him, which probably annoyed them.
Overall, I’m getting more and more impressed by Brian. Assuming it’s not all just editing, he seems to be the only player who’s actually thinking strategically about the game and making plans rather than just drifting. He’s twice basically decided who he wanted to have voted off and each time he then convinced other people to organize the actual votes. He apparently was the first one to pick up on Danni’s comments about Gary. And he’s playing smart on the prayer thing. Brian’s using his brain.
There should be some interesting rethinking of the tribal balance at the next challenge. The Nakum tribe had a 4-4 split between original Nakums and former Yaxhas, so it wasn’t a big surprise that a original Nakum got booted. But the Yaxha tribe had 3 original Yaxhas vs 4 former Nakums. Stephanie, Jamie, Rafe, and Lydia had probably written off their former teammates as being lost and were probably counting on needing Judd, not only in the tribes, but as an ally after the merge. Now they’re going to see that their former tribemates have gained the advantage which should be a major surprise. This means the original Yaxhas have gained control of both tribes. All of them will know there must be new alliances but they won’t know with who. The merge will be very interesting when everybody tries to figure out where the real loyalties are.
If Jeff was to leave the show, there’s only one person who could replace him and have the show retain any kind of credibility:
Richard Hatch!
::ducks::
BTW, am I not paying close enough attention, or have ther been no real alliances made yet? By this time, some of the contestants have formed some kind of partnerships–I don’t see that yet. Everyone seems to be in it for themselves from the get-go.
Stephanie/Jamie/Judd, maybe? But I agree, on the whole they haven’t shown us much bonding. Maybe a side effect of the very early tribe swap.
want2know, your suggestion is actually not a bad one. He’d be good, I think.
Hatch would be terrible. He would want every Tribal Council to be about him and would sit there telling the players what he would have done. We don’t need an egomaniac like Richard Hatch or Rob Cesterino or Rob Mariano.
If they have to bring in a past player, make it Brian Heidik, Colby Donaldosn, or Shii Ann Huang.
I have to agree with that. As long as he keeps his clothes on, of course. It would be better than some no-name guy or a popular, but boring former Survivor or Chris Harrison.
Anderson Cooper would have been a good replacement. He brought the snark to The Mole and admitted on Letterman the other night, that the contestants annoyed him and he would end up getting them drunk. I love that guy. Too bad he’s got credibility now. :rolleyes: 
My guess would be Hatch, Colby, Rupert, or Steph herself. None of those possibilities make me any happier. :eek:
re: Hatch as new host
Oh. Now, that would be funny, for a while… him showing up naked at challenges and tribal council…