What made last week’s dull, (aside from the usual first week dullness), was the amount of time various people predicted that their side would win because they had such an incredible advantage over the other side.
I don’t know whether they kept harping on that this week, because I opted to turn off the volume, except during the challenge, and while watching Cirie and what’s her name look for the idol, and part of the tribal challenge.
It made it much more enjoyable for me, but kinda makes it hard to discuss intelligently.
your post was so good, jayay, that I hope you don’t mind me using it as a jumping off point…
Funny thing about Joel is that he kept making the case to everyone that they had to undercut the other guy because he was trying to take control of the game. But in doing so, Joel was taking control of the team.
I missed that-- fast forwarded thru the part where the showed all the votes. But you had to love the expression on the other guy’s face when Mary was booted.
The thing that struck me is that all the contestants sent to EI will have to start from the first clue, I assume, unlike previous seasons where you wanted to be 2nd or 3rd over there so you got multiple clues all at once.
As much as it must be nice to get a little sugar on the island, how dumb is it to hook up that early and put a big target on your back. Especially for Ozzy-- he is going to be so vulnerable anyway since he’s likely dominate in the ICs once the merge happens. James, though, I think might not be as awe struck by Parvati as some might think. He’s a lot smarter than his hick accent suggests, and I suspect he’s using her more than she’s using him and will dump her as soon as it’s expedient.
Oh, yeah! It doesn’t even really matter if the person who got blindsided is someone I’m sympathetic to or not, a well-crafted and totally stealthy blindside is a beautiful thing to watch. The memory of the Alex/Mookie/Edgardo blindside in Fiji with the vote switch and Double-Agent Dreamz and the looks on those three’s faces can still make me giggle inside.
Isn’t TC usually the same night as the immunity challenge? We got an extra 24 hours of conniving this time.
We had a remote connection to Mary (son’s girlfriend’s brother’s ex-gf…or something like that), but now it’s gone…no one to root for. I’m not sure about the strategy: the Fans broke up an impending alliance; but they kept Chet around, who seems to be complete dead weight. This stage should be about winning challenges.
Actually, I’ve often wondered why no one has done this before.
Think about it - we’ve seen lots of teams that spend days with no shelter because they can’t get a big 10-person version built any faster. And we’ve seen lots of large shelters that were erected hastily and leaked like sieves or collapsed the first time they get hit with heavy weather.
So why not start out with a handful of 2-3 person size lean-tos, then build a larger shelter, if desired, at leisure. I would think that smaller would actually be more comfortable. Anything big enough to hold 10-12 people probably has more-than-proportionally greater airspace to be heated up, making for colder sleeping at nights.
That’s probably what he was thinking but c’mon - there will be plenty of people willing to tell Mikey that it was Joel’s idea.
I think he severely overthought this one. He had his people convinced Mikey was a threat. He had plenty of numbers. Why not “go along to get along” for this vote (Chet had proved himself worthless at challenges) and make your power play a little later? It seems to me the primary goal in the early game is to make sure you’re not a target and build up some allies. Instead Joel has made himself a huge target (more than he already was) and labeled himself as someone not to be trusted. Not smart.
Overall, a better episode - 100% less Jon Dalton helps. The big question seems to be where Cirie will fall in her tribe - with the couples or with the Johnathon/YM/Ami/Eliza quartet. Her interests are actually probably better served with the couples - they are obvious targets, have immunity advantages, and she is probably #3 in that alliance vs. #5 in the other one.
I agree it wasn’t a bad move, I was just noting the irony. You guys need to vote this guy off because he’s trying to control things instead of letting me control things.
Should make for some interesting maneuvering next week. If Joel were really smart (which I doubt he is), he’d make nice with Mike next week, and try to woo him back into an alliance. Tell him he had to take out Mary since the two of them were teaming up (a known Survivor no-no), but now that that’s over, they should let bygones be bygones. A good mafia Don could pull that off, but I don’t know about Joel the tattoo freak…
Boo, my preferred final three of Parvati, Amanda and Mary is already toast. I have to say, I’m not liking the trend from the past few seasons of voting off the hot chicks early.
As for Parvati, she’s not just a flirt; she swims like a fish, making here a force in challenges. IIRC, she swims nearly as fast as Ozzy. Oddly that seems to be an actual type, since the ditzy flirt who could swim circles around the guys was of course pioneered by Trishelle Canatelle of the Real World. Anybody see that Fear Factor she was on? That was some serious swimming.
Let’s not forget how good Amanda was in the physical challenges, too. I don’t think either can hold a candle to Ozzie, but they’re not just some flirty chicks who can’t compete. Amanda is a little lacking in the brains department, though, the way she pretty much through the whole game last time at the end.
I don’t think she was necessarily stupid. She just picked the less successful Final Tribal Council strategy…the “I’m so sorry, guys, I really feel bad and would totally understand if you didn’t vote for me” falsely humble and conscience-stricken mien. That doesn’t really work on Survivor. The jury is much more likely to vote for the person who basically owns the things he or she has done with a basic modicum of pride in his accomplishment, but without necessarily gloating. It’s a fine line, but there have been quite a few who’ve been able to walk it (Todd from China, Hatch, Brian Heidik). The other winning strategy is to have been a generally stand-up guy throughout, without actually making too many personal enemies (as opposed to factional enemies) on the jury, and then taking people who are fairly reprehensible to the FTC (Earl from Fiji, Yul from Cook Islands, Sandra from Pearl Islands).
But the hangdog, “I wish I hadn’t done that to you guys”, plea for pity does NOT work. Note the distinction between “I wish I hadn’t done that to you guys” and “I wish I hadn’t had to do that to you guys” (which is part of the “stand-up guy” strategy)…one shows regret for trying to win the game at all, the other shows regret for the rules of the game bringing sometimes personally painful outcomes. There is a huge difference.
There were times last night when I would have sworn that the “fans” had never seen the show before. Except for their bizarre reactions when they meet up with the “favourites”. The fawning reactions are kind of squicky.
That said: Why oh why wouldn’t they figure out how to light a fire with flint BEFORE they go so that you don’t use half the flint trying to get a fire lit for the first time? Why wouldn’t you spend some time figuring out how to build a shelter? Why wouldn’t you realize that the game is as much social as physical? That camp was probably the most chaotic I can recall seeing on the show. For example, the “you can’t stay in MY cave” made me blink. Even if you don’t like the other players, they are either a vote for or against you and you never know how things will turn. Also the firefighter guy who looks astonishingly like Lou Ferrigno during his Incredible Hulk days as has been pointed out by others seemed far more obsessed with his alpha status than what his scheming was going to accomplish. It was the best possible result for Kathy, Chet and the other outsider whose name I can’t recall.
Meanwhile, I think if Cirie maintains her usual low-key style, she’s in pretty great shape. There’s always risk in being the lone player between two major alliances since they can jointly turn on her and get her out of the way first, but she did some pretty good strategizing last time around, so I think it’s far less risky for her than some others.
About Amanda, I really didn’t get the impression at the end of China that it was a deliberate strategy at Tribal Council. I thought she just honestly fell apart and didn’t know what to say or do. She reminded me a bit of Kelly Wigglesworth at the end of the first Survivor. I could be wrong of course, but having read some interviews with others on China, they certainly suggested that as well.
Nothing like showing “that guy who thinks he is in control” a lesson by voting off his best lady friend, in the process making yourself “that guy who thinks he is in control”. When the Hulk eventually gets blind-sided, that will be one classic camera zoom-in…
Sure, but the producers do seem to mix this up intentionally – last season, Courtney was loved by the camera early on (but then, how could they not use her snippy little comments), and she ended up in F3.
