And now the show itself!
Next they switched up the tribes again - hurray! It'd be nice to see them stuck with this new dynamic for a couple of weeks, but I guess it will be short-lived with a merge on the horizon. Important lesson to all future Survivor contestants: if Probst ever asks how your team dynamic is, don't say that it's awesome! He will totally screw you over by switching up the tribes, just to be mean about it.
The reward challenge was uninteresting & seemed like an obvious attempt by the producers to get everyone all oiled up at an ideal time in their current weight loss program -- they're not yet emaciated, but they've lost most of their baby fat.
The scheming after the challenge was much more interesting. I loved that Ciera put her foot down about being the decoy -- there are not enough contestants who take something like that seriously! I mean really, the conversation of "we're going to tell him it's you just in case he has an idol" should be met with far more alarm than it usually is. I'm not sure that Kass made the right decision in teaming up with Ciera, Abi-Maria & Spencer... what a volitile group! However, as a fan I'm much happier having Spencer in the game over Woo.
Then we got to watch Stephen try to get his tribe to make the right decision in voting out Joe before the merge... and then have an embarrassingly emotional moment afterwards when his plan is rejected. I get why Jeremy doesn't want to vote Joe out yet, but at the same time he needs to trust in his consigliere & the alliance that he currently has. He's got a good thing going for him, he shouldn't risk it by assuming that all the brawny folks are all at the top of the chopping block if one of them goes.
At the same time, Woo - another physical threat in this game - got the boot. I don't think he was a threat at all, but Ciera wanted to target someone else & Abi-Maria was chomping at the bit to take her Brazilian vengeance out on him, so out he goes. Which got me reflecting on the fact that the Survivor contestants often do a lot of collateral damage to each other. Ciera's mad at Savage, so she takes it out on... Woo. This is pretty standard fare for the show. Makes you realize how dangerous politics are in the real world too!
The Score:
Michal & Ben - Contrarian Ninja Stack: 92 points
- Tasha (19 pts)
- Kelley (17 pts)
- Stephen (17 pts)
- Kimmi (18 pts)
- Kass (21 pts)
Doug & Bri - Survivor MacGyver: 54 points
- Spencer (7 pts)
- Joe (23 pts)
- [Shirin (-4 pts)]
- [Terry (9 pts)]
- Ciera (19 pts)
Bagdrea - Ghost Coaster: 48 points
- Jeremy (22 pts)
- [Jeff (0 pts)]
- [Monica (12 pts)]
- Kelly (6 pts)
- Abi-Maria (8 pts)
MoonBee - Woofully Inadequate: 41 points
- [Vytas (-5 pts)]
- [Woo (8 pts)]
- Keith (23 pts)
- Savage (18 pts)
- [Peih Gee (-3 pts)]
Power Rankings:
1. Contrarian Ninja Stack: Our entire stable has made it to the merge, which is fairly remarkable. Considering how many players are left, I suspect that making the merge does not equal making the jury (which is when the positive points come into play) but we'll have to wait & see. With the upcoming merge, Chaos Kass rearing her head again, and Stephen getting overly emotional about strategy I'm not willing to say that anyone on this team is safe at the moment. However, we have a very comfortable lead, a 2 player advantage over everyone else, an immunity idol, and alliances all over the place so the outlook is quite positive for the contrarians.
2. Survivor MacGyver: Spencer & Joe both made the merge! By the skin of their teeth, to be sure, but it's game on now! Spencer could find his lack of strong alliances to be an advantage now & become a crucial swing vote. Joe I'm still fairly unimpressed by. He lacks the subtlety needed to be a good social gamer & strategist. We'll see how much his physical advantage will help him coming up, though, and his 5 person alliance is still probably the strongest one in the game. Ciera finally got a bit of air time, which was a nice change of pace for MacGyver as well. Losing Terry was devastating though. They were in line to enter the merge with 4 contestants, which is a really good spot. And Terry would have been out of the doghouse with the tribal switch & impending merge.
3. Ghost Coaster: I did not expect Kelly or Abi-Maria to make the merge, so kudos to the Coaster on that. It'll be interesting to see where they end up falling in the post-merge alliance world. Will Tasha try to bring Abi back into the fold, even though she just voted out Woo? Who on earth will Kelly ally herself with?
4. Woofully Inadequate: MoonBee is down to 2 players. Savage is getting good air time & Keith is actually tied with Joe as the biggest point-earner in the game so far. Still, having just 2 players left in this game will be a deficit that's extremely difficult to overcome.
Potential Alliances Post-Merge:
Here's a list of the 9 original Bayon who are still in the game: Jeremy, Joe, Ciera, Fishbach, Tasha, Kimmi, Kass, Keith, and Savage. That leaves Spencer, Abi-Maria, Kelley, and Kelly as the odd ducks out. HOWEVER, there is also the 5-strong Ta Keo (part deux) alliance of Joe, Kelley, Keith, Kass & Ciera.
That would seemingly put Spencer, Abi-Maria, and Kelly on the chopping block. Kelly I can see going pretty quickly... she doesn't have any real alliance and no one really wants to protect her. But Abi-Maria & Spencer both have some ties & short-term alliances that could result in them getting some protection from a potential original Bayon blitzkrieg.
At the same time, the idea of targeting the "golden boy" that is Joe is something that should go viral. If we've learned anything from this season it's that alliances can change as quickly as the weather, and I don't see an original Bayon alliance actually lasting for that long.
My hunch is that the 5-strong alliance will show their hand too early & it will result in a split between them, the Jeremy/Kimmi/Stephen alliance (who will likely bring in Savage & Tasha), leaving folks like Spencer & Abi-Maria playing the role of swing vote. If this is the case, would Spencer stick with his frienemy Kass, or go back to Jeremy, who potentially would be allied with Savage, a guy he's not currently a big fan of? I can see Abi sticking by Tasha, but she also could easily be lured away by anyone else who strokes her ego & gives her what she wants...
Douche of the Week:
Jeremy for eating the pig brain on the way out of the immunity challenge. As Ben notes, if he really wanted the protein, he would have taken the whole thing with him. As it is, he just wanted to show off what a tough guy he was.
13 comments:
Can I vote for Stephen as Wuss of the Week and have that count as DOW?
You sure can though I think it's a bit mean!
Really? Still not understanding what strengths you think this guy brings to the table....
So Terry is my player, so I don't think my vote should count. I am willing to take the ultimate consensus of the pool commenters, but I will share my thoughts on the situation. I think the essence of the quit and medivac rules is that each of the pool members should be able to see those potential health or mental toughness weaknesses and choose their players accordingly. We should each be able to test our skills when choosing players to see who can spot the weak links or who can take a risk and suffer/prosper. There is no skill involved in a situation like this. There is no gut feeling on who's family members might have a situation. Thus, points (positive or negative) should be nullified. I would vote this way if this was another pool's member as well. Every survivor in this situation should, and would, go home. If a situation happens completely outside of the game, should it really affect the pool? The player's pool score will already be affected by a lose of potential future points. I would not want to penalize a player for making the same decision that 99% of the population would. There is my .02. Open to differing opinions and the ultimate vote.
I'm going for Kimmi as DoW. They didn't explain why she hasn't eaten pork for X years, but handing over a win to the other team like that put her team in a bad situation. I didn't like it.
I think there are too many Bayon members to have a cohesive alliance. I don't see an alliance bigger than about 5 people forming in reality. I think this will make for some interesting merge dynamics. Lots of possibilities from here on out. C'mon Joe and Spencer, get some individual challenge points to get me back in this!
I think Terry's exit should be a zero point situation. He really doesn't fall into any neat category. It was really sad to see anyone have to leave under those circumstances, and, I agree Michal, I'm really glad they did the extra segment at the end to give us an update. How old do you think his son is? Pretty young to need a heart transplant. Think A-M still considers her knee tendon comparable?
For DOW I have to agree with Margot. Stephen is totally worthless at any challenge, but crying because your advise is not taken with regard to a blindside??? I can almost hear Tom Hanks from "A League of Their Own" now!
Doug, I don't disagree with most of what you say except for bunching medevac in with quitting. I don't think we've seen anyone who was medically evacuated because they just weren't tough enough... at least not from the outset. Here's a webpage outlining many of the medical evacuations: http://survivor.wikia.com/wiki/Medical_Evacuation.
I seem to remember there being more of them though. Most medevacs are the result of a small injury becoming infected, something going wrong during a challenge, etc. Fun fact: only one woman has been medevacked from Survivor!
I feel like if we're already deducting points for medevacs then we should do the same in this case. If we're not going to deduct points from Terry, then I think we should stop deducting points for medical evacuations. I'm okay with that, but I think these things go hand in hand, so I'm going to be stubborn on this point if we don't take points away from Terry.
I agree that the damage has already been done to your tribe losing Terry before the merge. A loss of 10 or 5 points is nothing compared to the point potential lost by not having him there anymore.
Mom - you've been nitpicking the definition of "Douche" all season, so I find it surprising that you've so quickly decided that's not important because you don't like Stephen.
Mom & Dad - again I'm surprised that you dislike someone for being extremely passionate about what they do. Fishbach is not only a survivor veteran but he blogs about survivor for a living. (I suspect he does more than just that to earn a paycheck, but clearly he's passionate about it!) Sure he overreacted to the situation, but since when does wearing your heart on your sleeve constitute being a douche?
Well, let's hope he does more than that for a living! Good golly, how can you make a living writing a blog about Survivor??? Ok, not a Douche. I was actually just kidding when I asked if calling him Wuss of the Week could count. I don't dislike Stephen; I just fail to see why you think he's a strong player. You haven't explained that yet. And crying because people aren't following your advice re: strategy? Really? YOU would never do that, so I'm surprised you are defending him.
I have to agree with Doug, not only on not taking points for going home to be with a loved one who's having a heart transplant, but also for voting for Kimmi for DOW. It seems like she should not have taken a turn on that challenge if she has strong dietary restrictions (self-imposed or otherwise). But mostly everyone was pretty un-douchelike, imho, probably because they didn't show Abi much this past episode.
Terry's a quitter and the obvious DoW.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx2Sps9aMcY
Maybe I can clarify my opinion a little more. I'm all for the negative medivac points when the player themselves suffers from the injury or ailment. I'm having difficulty with an injury completely outside of the game, and not directly affecting any of the Survivor contestants, earning the pool team negative points.
If negative points are determined to be the go-forward for Terry leaving the game, quitter points seem to make more sense to me according to our rules. If that is how the vote falls, please give Terry the quitter points.
Maybe moving forward we could have a lesser "quitter" rule for when a player quits due to family/friend issues. My worry is that might be come a little subjective (like "I miss my family so i'm going to quit") but we can discuss before next season. Either way, we can't add rules in the middle of a season, so I think the judgement vote should come down to no points vs quitter points.
Wait a minute, Grave Wolf! I agree 100% with the YouTube clip (and it brightened my morning), but why is Terry the DOW?
Because of his sarcastic blog comments, obviously.
I'm lost. What sarcastic blog comments?
No penalty for Dietz. His exit was punishment enough.
Spencer has been defying death for so long we've come to take it for granted. How many times has he been on the outs only to find a crack to squeeze through? I really respect his play.
One thing I've never said to my mom - "You've been nitpicking the definition of "Douche".
Can I blog about the Bachelor for a living?
Back to the good old days - Kass DoW.
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