Ya know, watching the show, there was no way they could not have voted off Andrew, but I had been so sure that today John would finally get his comeuppance. I hope he’s not really that annoying in real life.
I disagree. (Well, she may be an idiot, but not because of that.) Rupert is a pretty honest guy. Mostly. He probably wouldn’t keep her over Christa and Sandra, and maybe Burton, but she can reasonably hope to outlast the rest of the Morgans and Jon. And a lot can happen in fifteen days.
Plus, she has, or at least probably thinks she has, an alliance with fellow Outcast Burton. So it makes sense to stick with his team. I’m not so sure he’ll be loyal to her either, but I still think her best chance was to jump ship. She was definitely on the outs with Morgan.
Anyway, I’m glad they merged. And I think the switcheroo helped keep things interesting. I do sort of wish, though, that dumbass Morgan had to go another three days suffering the consequences of their own inadequacies. Running out of food halfway through! Idiots.
BTW, I’m still on the Rupert Love Boat. (Loved that big childlike grin on his face when he got to wear the cutlass!) And Christa still rocks.
Please, 'splain this to me, Lucy!
I just finished watching the show, and then noticed that my DVR (Dish) listed this episode’s description as:
Lessee: the “wedding” was the merger. And the Curse was… Um… Lil’s facial expressions. ?
I was sorely disappointed that they merged tonight.
It woulda been very choice to watch one or the other (or both, if there was another Castaways twist) tribes vote off yet another member while being forced to keep a ‘reborn’ member.
And then, next week, while each tribe plots to nuke a Castaway, suddenly they merge!
Then we’d have 4 + 2 + 4 folks (or 4 + 2 + 5, whatever). All the alliances are about busted, and the 2 castaways are swing votes that can throw the whole game. Sweet!
Instead, in this episode, the tribe alliances survived – as evidenced by the vote to nuke Andrew. Now we get to see the last 3 folks in Morgan get nuked while Drake hangs tuff.
I think the producers screwed up; the next 2-3 voted off will be predictably Morganites (minus Lil – she’s now Drake). Booring.
Yes, I know the previews indicated the tribe alliances getting busted, but you can’t believe the previews.
Is there another Survivor thread that I missed? Most of the posts here were written before tonight’s episode aired.
Anyway, damn good episode tonight. He’s a cocky bastard and a tool, but Jon cracked me up tonight with his Randy “Macho Man” Savage impression while casting his vote for Andrew.
I’d grown to respect Andrew for being such a gamer and basically carrying a tribe of losers on his back, so I wanted him to make it to the jury. He deserved at least that, but it made perfect sense to oust him because he’s a tough competitor and I think more mental challenges are coming up, which he would’ve been better at. Also, the remaining Morgan’s have no minds of their own and without Andrew to think for them, they won’t know how to vote intelligently.
Nice PR move on Burton’s part giving immunity to Rupert tonight. He was in no danger because even the Morgans know that Rupe is everyone’s meal ticket and they’re starving right now. Did you see the look on Andrew’s face when Sandra told Jeff that they ate about eight pounds of fish and went to bed full? Plus, as soon as the Morgans arrived at Drake’s camp after the merge, Sandra was telling them “I depend on Rupert for all my meals.” Rupert/Christa/Sandra will be an unbreakable alliance unless someone pisses someone off badly, which I don’t see happening. And I think Rupert and Christa are totally committed to each other until the end. I love both dearly and if Rupe can’t win it all, I’d like to see Christa get the million.
The longer Jon stays, the better. Not just for strategic purposes, but because it’ll be even sweeter when he finally has his torch extinguished.
At least the merge meal wasn’t Mountain Dew and Doritos. Is it just me or is there a lot less product placement this year?
Also, I havn’t been paying attention to the commercials but let’s try to guess what car model will be won this year.
The car is clearly gonna be that SUV/truck with the retractible roof.
I thought it was brilliant of Rupe to play the “little fat boy inside” card. Hell, he had Burton practically apologizing less than a day after rejoining them.
I think Lil did what she had to do. She had no chance with her old tribemates. Now she has slightly more, tho still not good. I was disappointed that they did not show the outcasts’ votes.
Hard to see how anyone breaks R-S-C. Not quite sure how B fits in there, tho I’d have to think he will have a good chance to pull of a good share of the individual immunities.
Darrah and Ryan will be gone soon. Unless one of them pulls a shocker in a challenge.
Note: the preview suggesting J and ? scheming to oust R is a guarantee it woun’t happen.
Please tell me more about these “mental challenges”. All the (group) challenges so far have been a mix of a little strategy and a little brute strength.
With Andrew gone, the R-C-S alliance seems pretty strong. Both Rup and Christa are physically strong and not stupid. Sandra doesn’t seem stupid but has not proven her strength to me. I like all of that alliance and if any three of them win, I’d be happy.
A little off topic— I think it was cool the way both Burton and Lil showed up on the David Letterman show after their original vote-off and gave absolutely no clue as to what was coming up. Lil’s “I had limited access to the Drake tribe” comment was a pure genius lie.
I don’t see why everyone’s turning on Rupert. As far as I’m concerned, he’s still the man. Sure he went off on Jon. Big deal. Everbody on the tribe’s yelled at Jon at some point. All of us hate Jon and we’ve only got to watch him an hour a week. Rupert’s living with the idiot.
Instead look at how Rupert works as a leader compared to Andrew. Rupert provides food; Andrew talks about the lack of food. Rupert organizes the building of a camp; Andrew talks about the lack of shelter. Rupert emphasizes the importance of everyone on the team working together; Andrew picks who he wants to be scapegoats. Rupert talks to Burton and brings him back into the team; Andrew snubs Lill and is surprised when she switches alliances. Rupert’s team wins; Andrew’s team loses.
I’m wondering if Rupert and the alliance will play it smart and pagong off Darrah, Ryan, and Tijuana. Or will they decide to get rid off Jon as early as possible. It’s not surprising to see the idiot learned nothing from the last few days. He was a whipped pup because he was in danger. A day or two later, his vote is needed and he’s back acting like he’s the master of the game again. It’s fun to watch, knowing the higher he goes the farther he’ll fall.
And Biggirl, you’re right. This season has definitely been biased in favor of physical challenges. Usually there are mental challenges like puzzles, games, or skill tests.
It wasn’t really even a lie. By the time she had access to them beyond previous challenges and lootings, they were part of the Balboa tribe. That what makes it an even better line - she was telling the truth, from a certain viewpoint, at least.
Something Grace and I were discussing - ex-Morgan were stupid and lazy and totally doomed themselves to losing that TC. When the outcasts returned, Rupert made Burton feel welcome again, while Andrew completely alienated Lil. Ok, so both laid guilt trips on their outcasts, but Rupert did it in a “bygones” fashion, whereas Andrew turned into Osten redux (a whiny, spoiled brat)
After the merge challenge, pretty much the first thing Jon did, whether intentional or not, was make himself approachable to Lil. When he spread the word around that she hated the Morgans, a few of the other Drakes mentioned that now they didn’t need to find a weak link in the Morgans to join them, which made it obvious, to me at least, that that was what they were planning on doing. Morgan members didn’t even try to persuade a Drake to join them or to vote against Jon. They went into the TC hoping for a tie, that Lil would stay with them, despite the way they treated her.
Good leadership skills there Andrew. Way to get your team to dig your own grave for you…
Aside from the puzzles that Little Nemo mentioned, there will usually be some kind of “what do you know about the people you voted off” challenge, testing the remaining survivors’ people skills, asking them trivia questions about the personal lives of the others (last names, kids, college, professions)…
The previews for next week show Jon back to his old tricks, trying to talk Burton into voting off Rupert, while Sandra and Christa are talking about voting off Burton first and keeping Darrah and Tijuana around.
This leads me to believe that one of two things happens:
1)Jon’s scheming blows up in his face and he gets voted off
or
2)He gives up on the idea after realizing he doesn’t have the votes for it and goes with the rest of Drake and Lil and votes off Ryan O.
Andrew is the 2nd worst Survivor ever, right behind Osten. Never in the history of this show has a tribe ended up with absolutely no food whatsoever. He took the gift that Rupert gave them (teaching them how to use the spear gun to fish) and did absolutely jack squat with it.
And his bitter, angry resentment cost him Lil’s crucial allegiance. Look at the difference in how Rupert finessed Burton back into the folds of his tribe. He knew how important Burton’s strength and loyalty were going to be and he played the diplomat to a T. Burton no longer feels like the injured outsider bent on revenge – he understands how he alienated the key man in the tribe, apologized for it and offered a HUGE olive branch by turning over his immunity. Brilliant playing all around on both their parts.
And all the while Andrew was scowling, making Lil feel worse and making absolutely no effort whatsoever to regain her loyalty, knowing that even if it hadn’t been that week, that eventually there’d be a merge and he’d need the sheer numbers or his team would be screwed. I can’t believe that no one on that piss-poor tribe even made an attempt to woo Lil after the merge! Andrew so deserved to be out on his ass last night and I’m thrilled that he won’t have a vote on the jury.
Biggirl, an example of a mental challenge would be Mastermind from Season 2, where they had to do a slide puzzle, or Fugitives, also from season 2, where the contestants were asked questions based on a story they’d been told. Correct answers yielded them a key to unlock shackles they were bound with. The first one out of their chains wins immunity. (They did a similar one called, “Marquesan Folklore” in season 4, episode 12I.) In season 5 they played “Thai Numbers” (episode 9I) where they had a limited amount of time to memorize the characters that represent the numbers 1 through 10 in Thai. The top 2 players to match the most Thai numbers to their English counterparts then competed to solve a puzzle in Thai that gave instructions to burried disks in the sand. The first one to collect all the disks won immunity.
I cannot imagine living with Jon for twenty-odd days. I swear, by now he would have woken up in the middle of the night to find me lowering a pillow over his head.
I feel the rest of the Morgans are going to get Pagonged. Fuck this merge shit; it’s going to stay Drakes and Morgans. Lil was a useful vote to get Andrew out but I don’t see her lasting very long either. What I’d like to see is Ryan O make nice with the Drakes and ditch Tijuana and Darrah, who seem next to useless in their ability to do anything.
Rupert looked awesome with the sword slung over his back. It could be the final straw that causes him to completely dissociate from reality and believe that yes, he IS a pirate.
I think Colby’s tribe in the second season ran out of food. Jeff showed up at the island and gave them more food in exchange for their shelter tarps and Colby’s huge Texas flag which was also being used for shelter.
As far as everything else, you were dead on. Andrew was a tool and totally paid the Survivor price. The Morgans were pretty much screwed when they neglected to welcome Lillian back into the fold. It only took an observant Drake to notice that she was the outsider and they pulled her over to the Drake side.
Also, the Morgans didn’t even try to come up with a plan to pick up a Drake. They just huddled together, picking their teeth, and wondering about what Lillian was doing with Jon and the Drakes. HELLO! They were courting her and you weren’t doing anything.
Morons. All of them. Ryan O might be a cutie, but he’s just as clueless as everyone else.
IIRC, Colby’s tribe didn’t run out of food, it was swept away with the rain. Granted, it showed a real lack of brainpower to build your shelter in a dry riverbed but they didn’t really run out.
Nope. That was second time they lost it. The first time they ran out because they didn’t ration it very well. They almost lost it a second time when the flash flood swept it again, but Tina crossed the creek to retrieve it.
Well, in all fairness, it seemed like Lil didn’t really want to be accepted by the Morgans. When she first appeared back at their camp, they welcomed her, but she was reluctant to embrace them again.
The Morgans picked up on that reluctance, and figured she was a lost cause; there wasn’t anything they could do. She seemed to have her heart set on joining with the Drake’s anyway.
Before the TC, when Andrew and Lil had that talk, and Lil was feeding him that “I’m still undecided” BS, you knew she already had her mind made up, but because of her good nature, she couldn’t say no to his face.
Even if Morgan thought Lill was a lost cause, they should’ve been working on someone else at Drake – Burton, because they voted him out, or Jon, who is obviously unloved by all. It might not have worked, but jeezopete, sitting around in a clique hoping that Drake will intentionally self-destruct again for your benefit is definitely not working.
The Morgans were really pathetic last night. First they guaranteed that Lil would defect by failing to make her feel secure in their pecking order, then they failed to do anything in response to Lil’s defection. No attempts to pick up any outsiders from Drake, no attempts to form individual alliances, no nothing. A sad showing, really.
So who wants to guess when Burton breaks his word about never lying to Lil? I’m thinking that may well be the “big lie” Probst was talking about before the season started.