Well this one’s a no brainer.
First impressions are “meh” with this cast, but it could get better. I’m glad they got rid of that weird lady first.
I guess they dug around the CBS prop warehouse to find the immunity idol - Conquistador Buddha!
First thoughts: Benry? No seriously, Benry!?
What’s with all the blurring of the guys *while they are wearing *their underpants/swimsuits? The fuck?
Glad chatty goat lady was the first out. I couldn’t take much more of her accent and her talkiness would have gotten way old way fast.
I don’t really have much feeling good or bad towards anyone else yet. One-legged lady could be interesting, but unless something major happens it seems pretty evident that she’d be the first voted out of her tribe. My least likable so far is the dark haired young guy who bitched about women.
I think “Fabio” is going to injure himself and get medevaced out before he can be voted out.
Yeah, I predict he takes himself out with that machete.
Yes, the pixilator must be working full time this year if they are going to blur guys bulges.
The challenge was a pretty good challenge. I liked it. I wonder if Brenda saw the camera in the tree before she saw the medallion?
No doubt they restaged her finding the idol after she found it legitimately. That’s the whole “it’s staged” debate. Even when they do it legit, they sometimes have to restage it after the fact to get the shot. No way did they hide a hi-def camera in the tree, because everyone would have made a bee-line straight for it.
I’d rather watch the younger people, but the pair of Tooly McDouche and Douchey McTool (alpha males good, women bad, grrr) make it tough.
I expect the blurring was to keep the mystery of whether or not they were circumcized.
My wife commented to me where CBS has blurred out the male bulge but female breasts remain prominently in view. Apparently Survivor Tits are OK but Survivor Dicks are not. Will the same hold true for cameltoes?
Americans are such sexist prudes.
I saw a blurred boob. Some of those women are wearing quite ill-fitting bras. Why would you wear just a bra, anyway? You’d think they’d come on better prepared, like with a tank top or something, instead of just walking around in their bras. Also, I hate that the young people call the older tribe “the old people”. 40’s isn’t old! Bitches.
And Finally, a survivor contestant that knows how to make fire!! Good for her!
I wonder if any one of the youngsters can figure out how to fish?
Damn, DVR malfunction, we missed about the first third of the show (and apparently some bulging but blurry man-junk, but I’m okay with missing that). I’ve never seen someone talk themselves into the grave as quickly as that wild-eyed babbling woman. Wow, boffo performance, girl, and a unanimous result.
What the hell was with that Tribal Council set? It looked like a ruined mission church, with a glowing graveyard out back. And a conquistador idol? Did I miss the memo where conquistadors are the new hip in Nicaragua? I mean, yeah, Spain won and all, they won everywhere, but most places there a coupla regrets about how that came about. But what’s with the glowing graveyard?
Any-hoo, my dim recollection of the last time we did Young v Old is that it didn’t work out that well for Old, although Young had some hilarious crackups along the way, and it seems were set to have that happen next week, judging from the previews.
CBS profile says she was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Army. Does CBS ever fact check? Because that was in no way a Lieutenant Colonel. No. Fucking. Way.
I’m playing WAY to much World of Warcraft, because that set looks totally normal to me.
Not only that – a female Survivor contestant who was allowed to make fire, unimpeded by any an alpha male trying to “help” or “guide” or “direct” her. No one else tried to take the credit, and if I remember right, people on that tribe actually said “please” and “thank you” and “good job.”
I fear the women on Espada are not long for this game if the tribe doesn’t start winning challenges right away, but you know what? By and large, they seem pretty kick-ass, except for Wendy Jo, who may be a goat farmer, but she is no Big Tom. I actually like that whole tribe, and I am afraid that it is because I am closer to being “old” than I am to “young” in the Survivorverse.
And evidently something is wrong with me, brain fever or Burnettitis or something, because I actually said to myself, “Self? That Jimmy Johnson seems like an okay guy in person.” Another piece of my Eagles-loving heart died, I think.
Actual conversation that actually happened while my husband and I were watching last night: “Huh, that kind of looks like it could be Duskwood or something.” “Ehn, maybe Scarlet Monastery.” But we admittedly both need to get out of the house.
From Jeff Probst’s blog:
INSIGHT: From a production point of view here is the dilemma with an opening scramble that involves looking for something that is hidden:
You want to be able to film whomever finds the Medallion so that means you need to have plenty of camera operators near the location of the Medallion. But if you put the camera operators all in one spot then you are giving away where the Medallion is located.
So… we set up fake camera jibs, and brought in extra operators and put them on scaffolding and stationed them in various spots so that even the savvy player would not be able to figure out where the Medallion was hidden simply by studying the camera positions. It worked. The contestants scattered all different ways and Brenda was the one who spotted it sitting up in a tree and snagged it for her tribe.
Finally! A survivor contestant that practiced making a fire before arriving on the island. It is not that hard to do, and just watching the scramble for fire every season would seem to indicate that this is a much needed skill. Any Boy Scout above Tenderfoot can do this.
It’s going to be interesting if we see next week that the young punks can’t start a fire even with flint and steel. 
Well, I called the first one out correctly, for once. Wendy just looked weird even in the promo shots.
What’s up with all the underwear? Did nobody bother to pack a swimsuit? There wasn’t any set-up before the opening, so we have no idea what the contestants were told, but they had to know they were starting the game. A guy in a shirt and tie? Really?
If you want to take a crack at solving the HII clue, CBS has posted it here.
The clue is hidden 64 yards west of the “man-tree,” whatever that is.