Saw the first ep; boneheadedly forgot to turn off the damn VCR for the second and missed it, but managed to catch the important parts on CBS’s site. My initial impressions:
Anyone who plays this the same way as the first Survivor is meat. That’s because, having watched Survivor 1, they’ve all learned a very critical directive: kill Richard. If anyone so much as hints toward an alliance, vote that scheming creep at the VERY FIRST OPPORTUNITY. Never mind the sick, weak, or lazy. They can be dealt with after the deadly alliances have been scuttled. The irony, of course, is that a tactic which greatly helped three castaways in the first show spells instant suicide in the second. Believe you me, this was what got Debb tossed (the 7-1 vote wasn’t an alliance, it was a counter-alliance). Well, along with her general bossiness and irritability.
By the same token, it’s every bit as important to nail the annoying, grating, or otherwise harmony-breaking members ASAP. Don’t assume that they’ll dig their own graves…that all but ensures that they’ll outlast you. Speed is life.
No one is expendable. It doesn’t matter how many fish you catch, how well you do in the reward challenges, or how harmless and unassuming you look. You have to be a team player, pull your own weight, never raise suspicion, and try to get a feel for what the rest of the group thinks. Kel was a decent, honest, fellow, but also a lone wolf, and that more than anything is what got him tossed.
Assume nothing. Kimmi, a vegetarian, managed to eat a worm (maybe its exempt for the same reason fish is for some vegetarians) and ice an immunity challenge. Keith, a culinary virtuoso, can’t even produce decent rice in the outback. Age is not a liability. Best thing to do is just enjoy the ride…CBS has already made fools out of many, many viewers.
With that in mind, I think Michael is doomed, Kimmi is living on borrowed time, Jeff will stick around for a while but come up short, and Jerri has put herself in a bad position. Other than that, haven’t a clue.
What is Tina thinking? Are the producers intentionally editing the episodes so we can’t follow what’s going on or is she just nuts and voting off potential allies?
Yeah really… WTF? She was supposed to vote with Kel and voted against him, same thing with Maralyn.
I still hate them all, the lazy bastards who pick on the people that try to get food. Ok Mike’s trying to catch a pig (and from the next episode previews it looks like he manages it) and all they do is talk shit about him while he’s gone.
I don’t want to watch anymore, but I can’t help it because now I watch to see the people I hate get kicked off. I can’t wait until Jerri goes. I’m gonna have a party when she finally does.
Tina is such an idiot, she is voting off potential allies. Kel trusted her and was gone and Marilyn trusted her and is gone too. Tina is definetly next to go.
That whole tribe is going about it wrong. They should be voting off the weakest member so they can win the immunity challenges and have enough members left to vote the other team off when they combine teams.
He did not say that. Even though Kimmi claimed he did, and now the summaries of previous episodes are making it look like he did, if you look at the original time, you will see that this is precisely the opposite of what he said.
He said that hopefully nobody will turn this around into somehow making him the leader.
She voted off a potential ally, you say? Yes, she did. So she could have stuck by this one person who was going to be voted off anyway, or she could have honored her promise to vote with the rest of the group.
How long do you suppose she would stick around if the others saw her breaking her promise to ally with them?
True. But the fact that he mentioned being made into the leader was interpreted as a sly way to get them to think of him as important. He would have been much better off not even saying anything of the sort. His prayer should have been “Thanks for letting me catch fish for everyone” and leave it at that.
Anyone who tries to make themselves seem important is immediately outcast (they stand out) which I shall dub the “Richard Hatch Effect”. Though Maralyn violated this rule, but that was because she was a physical handicap to the immunity challenges. I bet that guy Nick, that does nothing, and Amber, who you hardly see will both make it to when the tribes combine into one.
Then again, I would have been voted off by now since I’d be yelling at everyone that we need to hunt and fish for food. These people are all skinny and have no fat to live off of.
Oh, I agree, it made him look like an idiot. He was apparently trying to get out of the whole “Mike is the leader” thing that Rodger had brought up in the previous Tribal Council. He didn’t do a good job of it, but my point is simply that he didn’t say what people are claiming he said.
Not if they really are important. There is a fine line.
I wouldn’t say she violated the rule – I’d say her ouster followed the rule quite well. Early on, you have to get rid of your weak links.
I’m not so sure. There is still ample opportunity for Nick to go – though I think Amber will stick around (there are better choices in her group to get booted).
But if instead of voting of Kel she had kept her promise to him and if Marilyn had done the same thing, they would have been one vote away from kicking Jerri off and having the most powerful faction.
Last night she could have teamed with Keith and Marilyn and they could have tried to go after Mitchell or Jerri. I don’t think she won any brownie points with Jerri by voting off Marilyn who everyone knows is her friend. She is just letting everyone knos she can’t be trusted.
I think the smart move would be to tell Jerri she voted for Marilyn while actually voting with Marilyn for Jerri. That way she raises a question whether there is a turncoat in the young and pretty group. As it is she has no real friends, everyone knows she can’t be trusted, and she has hard feeling directed at her for throwing up the beef stomach.
I noticed last night that maybe Jerri isn’t the leader of that group, maybe it is Colby.
As I mentioned before I was ticked at what they did to Kel, and so I loved it when they lost the immunity challenge because they were suffering through that obstacle course. You know Kel could have done that course in his sleep, because of his military background.
I could talk about this show all day, and I will not apologize for it.
Again, new game, new strategies. In particular, you can’t allow personal loyalties to affect how you vote, or it’ll probably be your head next on the block (see, told ya they studied from the last show!).
Simply put, Ogakor was in a bad situation. There weren’t any obvious choices for elimination (Jerri’s accusation was dumb, but lone-wolf Kel was probably doomed anyway), and the group hadn’t been together long enough to develop any real strategies. The immunity challenge was difficult for everyone involved, and no one was seriously blaming Maralyn for the loss; the other side was just a little stronger that day. In the end, it came down to knocking out the most vulnerable member out of self-preservation.
It must have been hard for Tina, but I would’ve done the same thing. No woman no cry.
On to round 4. Man, it’s been a little over a week and already everyone’s incredibly hungry…in more ways than one.
Just wondering why the folks haven’t thought of gigging frogs and fish. Just a sharp stick is needed.
And why fry or grill fish fillets? You can throw the fish in a pot and make a much more filling fish stew. They’re not using everything to the fullest.
I agree fully on the stew suggestion.
My thoughts were along the line of some rudimentary traps, tho I have not seen the structure of the stream so I don’t know if it would be practical.
I kinda wonder why these folk don’t seem to be having fun? I mean, face it. They might be hungry, but it isn’t as tho CBS is going to let anyone starve. They don’t seem to be treating this as an adventure. Tho you can’t tell due to the editing, they seem to spend most of their time lying around, talking about inconsequential stuff. I would have to think just about any random selection from these boards would have a better time (and IMO make for more interesting TV) than these folk.
I think I’ll post this over in IMHO - name your SD tribe.
This is just a WAG, but I would assume they’re being somewhat hamstrung by the producers not wanting them to chow on an endangered species. I remember hearing that in the last Survivor they were told they couldn’t eat the snakes.
Pigs, on the other hand, are an introduced species, so I doubt they receive any type of protection. But, if the castaways decided to eat a koala, watch out.
I also imagine that during hunting and fishing they pretty much lose the element of surprise by having a camera crew with them, making noise and bearing all sorts of human scents.
Does Jerri ever do anything besides sit on her butt in the creek and bitch?
These people certainly aren’t a testament to human ingenuity, are they? I, too, am surprised at their seemingly lack of motivation to eat better and maybe even build a sturdier shelter against rain.
I wasn’t surprised that Maralyn got the boot, though I liked her. I like Rodger, too, but he’s going to get the boot soon, I think. Keith is the next to go from Okachor. He allied with the wrong people, I think.
I doubt it. I’m sure they take everyone aside every day and interview them individually. She just chooses that spot, and they show her footage more because she’s such a bitch. Plus they figure she’s some good eye candy until she becomes emaciated.
OK, back to the prayer thing really quickly. c goat clarified my point pretty well. I understand that he didn’t really thank God for making him the leader, but I think that was the impression everyone came away with. Why ask to not become leader unless you think you’re in danger of it? That was my poorly-expressed point. In my defense, I had written a longer, clearer version of that post, but then my connection died and I had to redo it with less patience.
[nitpick]
Oh, and BTW, koalas my be cute, but they’re actually serious pests in some areas. I don’t think they’re still endangered.
[/nitpick]
Here’s my biggest problem with the show so far: the challenges are geared toward the young. Strength, endurance, etc are all that matter. Well, at least they matter more than anything else. The older people never had a chance. So how do you fix it? I don’t really know. More challenges like the eating thing, I guess, where age doesn’t matter. Maybe a quiz on the history of the 1950s? Nah, that’s just a wee bit biased…
One vote away is still a losing proposition. So Kel’s gone anyway and Tina is in the gun sights.
And again, they would have been short, Maralyn would still be gone, and Tina would be in the sights.
She certainly won a few points by sticking by her promise to vote a certain way. Since Jerri and Colby have both acknowledged the possibility of having to vote off even a friend, I don’t see why they would think any less of Tina for doing just that when it was necessary. By positioning herself this way, she has bought herself at least one more council because Keith will almost certainly be the next to go. And if they only have one more Tribal Council before the merger, she’s in good shape.
Yeah, right. Like Jerri wouldn’t figure it out? C’mon.
Everyone knows that nobody there can be trusted! But at least she kept a promise – one that they all knew was difficult for her.
I’m not sure they have a “leader.” Furthermore, even if they did, I’m not sure the “leader” would want to make him/herself obvious, but would rather try to manipulate things from the sideline.
No need to apologize to me. I do talk about it all day – and write about it, as well.
Palandine said:
Correct. They are forbidden to kill any native species (other than fish). The pigs are fair game, though, because they are not native (much like the rats of the first series). And from the looks of things, Mike makes a pig kill next week.
Jerri obviously chooses this spot for every interview because she thinks it showcases what she perceives as her assets. Namely her tits. Does she ever wear anything other than that sports bra type thingy unzipped to her navel? with her ass hanging out too? She is disgusting and a scheming class A bitch.
She adds nothing to the tribe but treachery and deceit. For this reason, she will probably last at least 4 more episodes.
