Overall a great game played by Natalie as well, and I think we can all feel satisfied that a deserving player won. I think she had it locked up even if she went to the finals with Missy & Baylor, and maybe would have won in a head-to-head against Keith too. So she may have overplayed things a little at the end, but adding a few final fireworks to what was an exciting season certainly couldn't have hurt.
I can't say it was one of my favorite seasons because I really do love a tribe full of schemers, but I was seriously entertained by all the shenanigans that went down. It was a bold if not brainy season!
Side Bets:
- Reed ftw: Moon v. Ben at 100:1 odds (two bits) - Ben = winner!
Jeremy v. Keith ftw: Michal v. Moon ($20)Missy v. Keith ftw: Ben v. Moon (one handle or bottle of wine $50 or less, 1 drink at Survivor dinner, and 5% of the next tournament they both play $1650 or less)Jon v. Keith ftw: Ben v. Moon (see above)Josh v. Jeremy ftw: Moon v. Ben
The Teams:
Michal & Ben "The Misfits": 134 points
- Josh (18 pts)
- Jeremy (29 pts)
- Missy (29 pts)
- Keith (58 pts)
- Reed (36 pts)
- Natalie (87 pts)
- Rocker (-6 pts)
- Julie (-2 pts)
- Baylor (26 pts)
- Jon (54 pts)
- Kelley (1 pt)
- Dale (-1 pt)
- Alec (25 pts)
- Drew (2 pts)
- Wes (23 pts)
- Val (-6 pts)
Power Rankings:
- The Misfits - It was a strong draft for us, with a standout performance from Keith in challenges sealing the deal. He might not be a schemer but he clearly loves competing & playing games! He's quite the charmer too. Missy also played a strong game I think, although her flaws turned out to be fatal & eloquently if a bit meanly described by Reed.
- Queers & Foreigners - Natalie crushed this season. She didn't play a flawless game, as she noted, but she laid low at the right times and made bold moves at the right times. In the end her loyalty to Jeremy was awesome but it probably worked out for the best that he got blindsided early, otherwise she might have wound up with a tough competitor next to her at final tribal.
- Daddy Issues - Daddy Issues has a strong showing this season, especially with what turned out to be a few lemons on their team. Dale & Kelley's early exits put them behind early, but ultimately it was Baylor's lack of game-playing & challenge winning that did this team in.
- The Buffoons - They are who we thought they were, as Ben noted early. It was wonderful to watch the Buffoons in action, although maybe not so much fun for Bag & Andrea. They'll get another chance next season, but I fully expect a similar series of drafting mishaps to take place then too. It'll be fun to see what additions they have to make to the trophy!
Douche of the Week
Jon takes the title. It probably should have been Drew, but his Drewchiness was too powerful & he suffered an early exit as a result. Jon is a deserving alternative though. :)
Season 30: Collar-iffic
The "new" and "never been done before" theme of next season is just a re-make of the same theme-based seasons Survivor has done in the past, but it should be interesting all the same. Survivor: Worlds Apart premieres on February 25th and I'm guessing will be very similar to Brains v. Brawn v. Beauty. Just maybe with more offensive stereotypes than we saw in the BBB season. Probst is also hinting at new twists, and so long as they aren't as horrible as the Tyler Perry Idol then I'm okay with that. But I'm not getting my hopes up.
Season 30 will be the first season for Baby Boy Greenberg, and, well, the 30th for me. (Actually I missed 1 season of Survivor, so it's actually my 29th... but I like rounding up.) Will we still all be playing in this pool for Survivor season 60?
5 comments:
It was a fun season, made more so by the fact that Mark and I got to be at the draft and feel more a part of this aspect of the participation. I was really worried that Natalie had made the wrong move voting out Baylor, but I did see how that family duo might have voted her off before the final tribal. But given Missy's huge emphasis on loyalty and Baylor's lack of strategic acumen, I think she would have been safe. I do wish they had shown how Nat convinced Jaclyn to vote off Keith because I never saw her make a strong argument for that. I also wasn't sure how Nat lied to Keith, as he claimed, but she clearly got the target off her back and he never made an argument for what a big threat she was. Too bad (for him and his fans) that he wasn't a little bit smarter about strategy1
Excellent season. Castaways I'd like to see again:
1. Jeremy
2. Natalie
3. Josh
4. Reed
5. Keith
Looking at the points breakdown, it feels like we have it balanced just about right. You should be able to win the pool without picking the winner if your overall team is clearly superior to the winner's, as was the case this season. The team with the winner should usually win but not always.
Big season for Bagdrea coming up - lot at stake.
Thanks to Michal for keeping the blog and hosting a space where we can all rant, brag, trash, laugh, and compete. I like the seasons that start off with 3 tribes more than the ones that start of with only 2, so I'm looking forward to next season. And despite there being 3 Greenbergs watching the show next season, there will not be 3 Greenberg victories in a row. Baby Greenberg, you will have to learn to be gracious in defeat at a young age, lil' guy. (Yeah, I'm talking Survivor smack to a yet-to-be-born baby. Deal with it.)
Good Game, Greenbergs. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Margot - Natalie played it very cool with Jaclyn about Keith. She didn't so much convince her as she did not arouse her suspicions. Natalie's brilliance was in keeping Jaclyn thinking about Missy vs Keith while she kept the target off herself. Jaclyn came to the conclusion, correctly, that Keith was a much bigger threat than Missy. Because Natalie played it so subtly I believe Jaclyn felt like she was in control with Natalie and perhaps did not consider her as the huge threat that she actually was.
Reflections on Blood vs Water 2:
The Buffoons had the #1 pick in the draft and they chose Alec. Bad time for Bag to buck tradition and eschew the strong black male that he has become known for.
Melissa made a good point that Jaclyn the dreg almost beat The Buffoons point total all by herself.
Natalie was taken 6th overall by Moon and Melissa which was shockingly high given her sister was the only player out at the time of the draft. The fact that they are identical twins made this an even crazier pick at the time. Very savvy drafting from Moon and Melissa to scoop up the eventual winner so early.
As canny as they were with their selection of Natalie, they doomed themselves to 2nd place with their brazen pick of Rocker as the #9 overall. Players who were selected after Rocker, or not selected at all, include: #12 Keith, #13 Missy, or Jaclyn the dreg.
I thought Doug and Bri drafted well and had they gone with Jaclyn over Dale as their last pick they would have come heartbreakingly close to the win.
If Jaclyn had won the show then there was going to be no pool winner, right?
I concur with Moon about the point breakdown. It feels balanced. I do think that the -2 penalty for sitting out should be reduced to -1 for reasons previously discussed.
I loved Doug's -1 for not outlasting the dreg rule.
I think the addition of the sliding point scale has given the draft greater parity and (potentially) makes it more valuable to have a player like Missy on your team. The low point total for Kass last season was the impetus for this idea and I feel like Missy was a similar player to Kass in terms of her likelihood to get points. I felt like outlast was getting a raw deal vs the amount of points available in the 'outwit' and 'outplay' categories and the scale helps bring them all closer.
This season was entertaining but I can't really point to anything specific as to why, especially compared to the powerhouse schemers from last season. Natalie's ability in the challenges reminded me of Tasha but the rest of the players that ran deep - Tony, Kass, and Spencer were so much more formidable than Jon, Baylor, Keith, and Missy.
I enjoyed the goofiness and family dynamics from this season. It was more interesting as a social season and less so as a strategic season.
Having all the Misfits make the merge was a great accomplishment for our team and having it punctuated with a Misfit final four in that first post merge memory challenge was probably my fondest moment from this season.
A close second would have to be Drewche's 'king of the mountain' speech about his Survivor chops which was immediately followed by his clueless ouster from the island.
Third, the greed of Wes and food. I believe that boy must be part Labrador the way he can't stop eating. Any moment with Wes and food was bound to be good, if not slightly disgusting. Also disgusting, the way he slimed his tongue around the outside of his mouth like Jabba the Hutt.
Honorable mention goes to Alec's gob which was constantly agape in wonderment.
Happy New Year!!
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