I did too, but that was on purpose! If I could have stretch it to longer than a year, I would have. 
I told my wife that because I was not paying much attention, I thought the rock pulling was some kind of “choosing teams” moment.
That was the game? I bet that it the only appearance of that kind of game.
The only excuse I can think of is if one or more of the “loved ones” had some sever physical malady that prevented them from doing anything more than reaching into a back to pull out a rock.
Yeah, this too. I enjoy it when they “hide” idols and clues in plain sight at the challenges. But other times, players have had to be at least a little bit sly to snag them without being noticed.
The producers may be starting to run out of creative steam after all these years. Fortunately, we had that crazy Tribal Council to save an otherwise tepid hour.
To be fair, she did have to find the clue about that shell, so it wasn’t a complete gimme.
Then just give her the idol, the whole idol. There wasn’t any drama in picking up that shell.
Maybe just a little. Because it was so obvious, someone might have noticed and gotten suspicious. I agree that they usually make it a little harder, but there was some exposure.
But the shell wouldn’t even have* been *there had she not already found the clue. At least, I didn’t spot any shells in front of anybody else’s platform.
I suppose the idea of having to find two parts of an idol is a potentially interesting one; the execution just wasn’t very good.
I agree that it was not nearly as fun as other cases where people have had to be sly about grabbing idols.
Even then, I’m pretty sure in recent seasons they have had challenges that loved ones did not participate in (which I lamented, but still).
Yeah, they could have done a completely mental challenge-- having the contestants and “loved ones” guess answers to questions and seeing if they match. I think the’ve done that before.
They could have planted a “Fiji Fact Book” in the loved-ones Hotel Room, and asked questions that were in the Fiji fact book. The same fact book could have been in the contestants hotel room during the pre-game.
Potential Questions include the Capital, President, Population, #islands.
They’re under enormous stress, and at that late stage of the game they’re usually exhausted, hungry, and sleep-deprived. I’m not surprised that they fall apart when they see a familiar face.
I hate it, though. If I was in charge of Survivor, that’s the first thing that I’d eliminate.
I don’t believe it either. I strongly suspect that there was a physical challenge set up that wasn’t used for some reason (as John Mace suggested, maybe one of the family members couldn’t or wouldn’t do it).
I’ve taken Probst’s post-episode statements with a grain of salt since he claimed that he didn’t know how the female contestants kept their legs hair-free and no razors were provided (in the first season, Sue Hawk was briefly seen shaving her legs with a disposable razor; the producers made sure we never saw anything like that again).
I’m so disappointed in Lauren’s idiotic gameplay. She was my favorite, now I’m in a holding pattern, not sure who I’d like to see win. I know I’ve been wanting to see Ben go for a few weeks though.
The challenges have absolutely sucked lately, way too many endurance challenges, not enough physical, This is fun to watch challenges.
Didnt Jeff say something about a race tied to your loved one?
Watching this episode the first time through I thought the exact same thing. It seemed like idiocy to not bring her second vote paper and give away part of her II. But…
In re-watching it a second time it really wasn’t that stupid. Think about it, her showing her vulnerability actually paid off in that EVERYONE voted for Ben (who legally could). No one, including Lauren, knew (or suspected) Ben had an idol so (in the players mind) there was no reason to split the vote.
Having her second vote with her wouldn’t of changed anything, even if she had played it.
Yes, he did. Like was mentioned upstream, I too thought the rock-pulling was team selection for a three-legged race.
Yes, you speak the truth! I had forgotten that no one was aware of Ben’s idol. Now this makes me wonder how Chrissy is going to feel about that because she was pissed about the vote the week prior and had gone to him even before that and basically told him everyone thought he was a tyrant. They did seem to kiss and make up, though, Ben was playing her, but she seemed to buy into it, idk.
It’s not the decision not to play the second vote that was damning, it was giving away the idol.
There are a few hard and fast rules of Survivor (IMO), and she actually violated (at least) TWO of them.
#1: Never give away your idol
#2: If you have immunity available, and you have any suspicion whatsoever, play your immunity
#3: Never tell anybody about any advantage you may have (idol or otherwise).
That said, I’m not entirely sure what happens if she plays her immunity and so does Ben. I guess the others all have to vote for someone other than the two of them, right? That’s still probably a decent outcome for her since she has an extra vote still going forward and Ben is still a bigger threat to win the game.
On the challenge: I think maybe they actually did run some sort of race but it either didn’t work well, made for bad TV or something and they decided to jettison it.
Then that was very bad editing to leave Jeff’s comment in, because I remember hearing it and being confused, too. This is a Survivor outrage, and heads must roll!!! 