Another DIY Reward Challenge, and the Revenge of the 50 Ft. Woman!
Not really, but the guys are royally fucked right now. And Kim is an Evil Genius.
I’ve enjoyed this season very much so far. There are a few dummies(Kat, Tarzan) and some people I despise(Alicia and the late unlamented Colton) but when it comes to smarts and social skills this seems to be an above-average cast.
I think Jay should have been a little more suspicious, particularly after Chelsea’s “that’s not necessarily true” comment last week, but considering that she said it in front of Alicia and Christina I can see how he’d swallow Kim & Chelsea’s “that comment was for their benefit, don’t worry the Nusalani alliance is still strong”.
I also liked that his farewell speech was quite classy and wish most people who exited were as mature as he was, particularly since it lacked any of Mike’s sexism from last week.
I also appreciated the discipline Kim showed in not using her own immunity idol after Jay’s reveal to her.
If the amount of posts in this thread thus far are any indicator, it seems most agree that this was an exceedingly boring episode.
Boring reward challenge + tons of boring, calm conversation + boring action-free immunity challenge + boring, unsuspenseful, and completely predictable tribal council = one of the worst episodes of Survivor I can recall.
Though is it just me, or was Chelsea particularly attractive this episode? Or maybe I was just so bored I had nothing else to focus on.
I disagree that this episode was boring (other than the DIY challenge). There was enough scrambling before tribal that Kim’s alliance messed up the vote splitting (5 to Jay, 2 to Troyzan). Had Troyzan given his idol to Jay and had Troyzan/Jay/Leif voted together, Kim would have been eliminated, two immunity idols would have been burned, and the men would have had a fighting chance.
Other than that, Kim is playing my favorite game of Survivor in recent memory–very impressive.
Emphases added. I too agree the show had potential to be far more interesting.
Kim’s been my favorite since the start, and she hasn’t slipped up at all, but I think Troy has smoked her out as the mastermind. She’s going to be on the defensive for the rest of the show. That is not a good position to be in. She reminds me in some ways of Cirie Fields, who was just too damn smart and likeable in her season that people turned on her rather than have to face her in the final vote.
I noticed quite a few different camera angles on her boobs–there was an over-the-shoulder one that seemed particularly gratuitous. Well-done, plastic surgeon who is not named Tarzan, well done.
Overall I liked the episode. The Do-It-Yourself challenges are a nice change of pace for me. Not that I have anything against Probst but he isn’t a player and the less time spent showing him talking the better IMO. The camp life scenes were pretty routine I have to admit. I’m kind of conflicted over whether I felt Jay or Troy deserved to go home more. Both allowed a man to be voted out first after the merge without locking in a woman for the following vote which was dumb. Last week it was Troy who was led into supporting the move to sent home another potential ally in Mike but this week it was Jay who, despite the signs to the contrary, had more trust in the people who were going to vote him out than in his fellow potential victim.
The preview for next week is puzzling. Why would everyone be ganging up on Troy? He seems to get along well with others so it’s not a personality thing I don’t think. Why wouldn’t the others nearing the chopping block want to seek to ally with him to improve their place? More foolish heads to roll it seems.
I disagree with 2sense, I really dislike the DIY challenges and hope to never see them again. I think the producers like them because it gives the players a chance to take the role as the “host” but I like having Probst there.
Pretty boring episode until the very end. Some interesting scrambling going on. Wish we could’ve seen more of it - but the producers seem to really be cutting back on showing us the conversations to try and make the votes surprising. I’d rather have seen who Kim tried to talk to, see exactly who Troy talked to, etc.
Everyone is ganging up on Troy because his alliance is gone and he’s the threat. There are a LOT of coat-tail riders hanging around. Alicia and Christina think they’re part of the girls alliance, and Leif and Tarzan seem happy to just do whatever the powers that be tell them to do. (Another reason I think seeing who talked to Tarzan would’ve been interesting - he tells Troy flat-out that the girls are running the game, and yet he was happy enough to follow their orders and vote Jay out).
Jay could’ve won by playing the Fabio role, but not this season. The other players are simply too smart this time.
One thing I wanted to look at was the scramble back at camp. As I remember it, the original plan was:
Kim, Chelsea, Sabrina, Kat vote for Troy
Alicia, Christina, Tarzan, Leif vote for Jay
Troy and Jay vote for Alicia
But the actual votes were:
Chelsea and Kat vote for Troy
Kim, Sabrina, Alicia, Tarzan, Christina vote for Jay
Leif and Jay vote for Alicia
Troy vote for Kim
So Kim and Sabrina switched their votes to Jay, and Leif voted for Alicia (unknown if he ever promised to vote for Jay).
Also, someone seems to have put up spoilers for the next couple votes on the Wikipedia article listed in the votes section. No idea if they’re legit or not.
The original plan was 5 votes for Troy and 3 votes for Jay in case Troy played an idol. When it was confirmed that Troy would indeed be playing an idol, and even worse, was gunning for Kim, Kim very wisely switched the priority to 5 for Jay and 3 for Troy. Only two ended up voting for Troy, though, so there must not have been time to get quite all of her ducks in a row, but it was an impressive 11 o’clock scramble to shore up their plan.
WTH was going on with the shirt Tarzan wore to tribal council? Bright red, shoulder strap on one side, much too small for him. It looked like a woman’s outfit or something. Are all the rest of his clothes too “dirty” for him to wear?
Did everybody get some sort of treat this episode? I’m trying to remember without rewatching it: 5 people go to the BBQ, cookies, cupcakes, candy, burgers, Immunity. Did anybody get left out of the largesse this week?
Now that it’s down to nine, how do you see alliances shifting after an “eye-opener” so to speak at the last tribal council? Jay was convinced the girls wouldn’t let him down, but Troyzan’s paranoia was never heard. Did last night’s tribal alter the way coat-tail riders like Leif and Tarzan play the game?
Obviously the numbers aren’t in it for the guys anymore, it never was after they agreed to vote Michael out, but these are the confirmed alliances that I don’t see shifting:
Chelsea, Kim, Kat
Troyzan, Leif.
Alicia seems like she is a sure-in with Chelsea and Kat, but there was a bit of uneasiness between Chelsea and Alicia during the immunity challenge, as well as conversation along the beach.
When Troyzan pulled Christina aside and told her he had an idol, she seemed a bit shocked, but still voted for Jay to keep the women’s alliance strong. Is there a chance Troy can win her over?
As for Sabrina and Tarzan, I see them as very interesting characters that many people are overlooking. Sabrina somewhat reminds me of an unspoken Albert from last season. Her intelligence for the game is extremely high, and she has yet to cross paths with anyone. Tarzan, however, is still a wild card. His antics at tribal council are so vague, yet so intriguing. I wonder if he knows more than he portrays.
If Kim continues to play defensive, and tries to exert her power on everybody, I can see a definite shift in Sabrina, Christina, AND Tarzan making the alliance going into tribal looking like this:
Kat, Chelsea, Kim, Alicia
Troy, Leif, Sabrina, Christina
I think everybody knows the targets right now are Troy and Kim, however I don’t think they will be gunned down this next episode. I predict Kat or Leif would be the next to go on a hunch.
Thoughts?
It’s all going to depend on who wins immunity next week, of course. I think that if Troyzan wins it, there might be a shake up. Otherwise, I think he’s toast. It’s after next week it gets vicious. Then the women will start turning on each other and Lief and/or Tarzan will have a chance to make it to end game.
Kat is either a fast learner, or she’s not as dumb as she looks and sounds. She’s making some semi-intelligent decisions lately.
Amen, brother! I rewound and watched that at least 3 times. 
The girls are doing well, and I really hope Kim wins it. She’s playing, if not brilliantly, at least very, very well.
When Colton was around, the survivor threads were generating a lot of interest. Episode threads at TWoP were going 25-30 pages long when Colton was medi-vac and convinced the men to go to tribal when they did not need to.
Last week’s thread got to 11 pages at TWoP. This week’s TWoP thread is going to be a little longer, but no where near 25 pages.
What does the episode Buzz say to the producers? To get Needle movers like Colton, like Russell Hantz.
How stupid was Tarzan to step off the Immunity Challenge before Probst bribed the players? (Yes Rhetorical)
Did he step off? It looked to me like he lost his balance.
Tarzan was never even trying to keep his balance. He knew he couldn’t win the challenge and just bailed at once rather than give it a shot.
I love that Jay complained about being blindsided despite Troy telling him exactly what was going to happen. Good job Troy playing the idol. If Jay hadn’t ratted you out it would have been perfect but Troy got it right: play the idol and hope you didn’t need to rather than not playing it on a night you should have (the James strategy).
Jay was a moron to tell Kim that Troy was playing his idol.
I think Troy can win this thing. If he can keep immunity, it’s his for the taking.