I'll try & cover the last 2 episodes in this blog since I ran out of time to do a post worthy of the awesomeness of episode 8. Episode 8 was probably my favorite episode in a fantastic season. Before the episode started, Ben told me he expected this to be a fairly dull episode as it seemed inevitable that Ciera would be voted out. Oh how wrong he was! As the commenters noted, Wentworth's idol play was nothing short of brilliant, the majority alliance's decision not to split votes nothing short of foolish. This was easily the biggest misstep of the season, apart from Shirin & Spencer's early arrogance... or maybe even including that.
Seeing Savage go home was positively delightful for me. That guy's been rubbing me the wrong way this whole season. I'd had my fill of him when in this episode he was sitting in his hammock throne while everyone else sat in the dirt around him. I definitely got the impression that he was feeling comfortable in this game with his alliance & I'm oh-so-pleased he got punished for that.
My only real question about this episode is around Joe. Did he tip Wentworth off that they would be voting for her? If not, her instinct is spot-on. If so, I feel a little bad for him that he wasn't included in the new "voting block" in the next episode.
Which brings us to episode 9. Super interesting alliance shifts that happened here. I wasn't surprised that Stephen made a move to switch things up. I was surprised that he beat Spencer to the floating buoy though! I hope he uses his advantage well & that he doesn't sit on it too long & suffer the fate of Dan last season.
Kimmi calling Wentworth, Abi & Ciera the "witches coven" was pretty rich in my book & definitely gives Abi more credit than she deserves. (Although, I have to give Abi credit for making it this far - no way did I think that was possible!) Stephen has been looking to mix things up for a while & finally decided to take the plunge. I'm impressed that he was able to convince Jeremy that he was on the bottom of their alliance. That really didn't seem true to me, but my perception of the game is dictated by the producers, so I could be wrong. In any case, I love that Spencer, Stephen & Jeremy are a voting block. It's just such a great group to cheer for! And I'm really happy that Spencer brought in 2 allies when he sided with the witches - they are now evenly matched against each other should they end up being enemies again next episode.
This leaves Tasha, Kimmi, Joe & Keith on the outs... at least temporarily. There doesn't seem to be much unity between these folks, but that doesn't mean much right now. Being a swing vote could be a powerful position this season.
I suspect the one thing that would unite everyone is if Joe doesn't win immunity finally. It seems like sure thing he'd be voted out in that case.... but of course that means that someone will undoubtedly pitch it at the perfect time to blindside another player. Hopefully they actually vote Joe out though, I'm sick of that guy winning. Plus, he's just not at the strategic level of the other players, except probably Abi & Keith. I'd much rather see those guys go home before Jeremy, Spencer, Tasha, or Stephen.
The Score:
Michal & Ben - Contrarian Ninja Stack: 118 points
- Tasha (21 pts)
- Kelley (28 pts)
- Stephen (18 pts)
- Kimmi (20 pts)
- [Kass (31 pts)]
- Spencer (9 pts)
- Joe (45 pts)
- [Shirin (-4 pts)]
- [Terry (9 pts)]
- Ciera (21 pts)
- Jeremy (27 pts)
- [Jeff (0 pts)]
- [Monica (12 pts)]
- [Kelly (20 pts)]
- Abi-Maria (7 pts)
- [Vytas (-5 pts)]
- [Woo (8 pts)]
- Keith (25 pts)
- [Savage (29 pts)]
- [Peih Gee (-3 pts)]
1. Contrarian Ninja Stack - Our lead is still sizable, though MacGyver is closing the gap. Now that they are individual immunity challenges, the 6 points gained from winning that makes a huge difference. I love that Wentworth is still the game for us, and that Stephen is making some waves. I'm also definitely not counting Tasha out - she's been quiet lately, but I think this last vote will be a big wake-up call for her. Overall still a very solid team we have here.
2. Survivor MacGyver - Joe is simply crushing it when it comes to immunity challenges. He's not doing much else, but that's all Doug & Bri need from him right now. And while he's making up a big point deficit, Spencer seems to be maneuvering himself into a strong position for a deep run. Ciera is still in this thing too, and could be a good person to bring along to the finals since everyone seems to dislike her. Overall this team has a lot of potential.
3. Ghost Coaster - Jeremy is a beast, there's no denying it. With 2 idols in his pocket he needs to be truly blindsided to go home at this point. I hope he follows Wentworth's lead & doesn't share the info with anyone unless strictly necessary (e.g. to save someone in his core alliance). I'm wondering, though, if he'd get a lot of votes should he make it to the finals. He's looking impressive from where I sit, but from the jury he might not be seen as making enough/a lot of moves. There's still time for that to change, of course, but I think he could lose against Tasha, Stephen, Wentworth & Spencer should he stay the course he's on.
4. Woofully Inadequate - this team is clearly out of the running & very appropriately named. Still, we can all keep cheering for Keith! He has to be the biggest competitor in his age group in the history of Survivor -- he hasn't beaten Joe yet, but he's always right there behind him! And his entertainment value is fantastic - I hope he continues to go on rewards & live it up!
Douche of the Week:
Gonna go with Kass. Moon's right in that her flicking off the castaways at each tribal council really is douchey. Plus, there just aren't many douches this season!
5 comments:
I don't see how Jeremy won't make it to final tribal at this point but I'm confused about the move they made.
Was it necessary to blindside Wiggles?
I think worst case scenario is that Tasha uses her ties to Abi and the coven votes with Tasha, Kimmi, Keith, and Joe against Stephen, Jeremy, and Spencer. Best case, Jeremy is able to smooth things over with those four but still has created distrust in his alliance. Wiggles wasn't making moves and wasn't winning anything. I know the reasoning was that she had good social ties with people but I felt like this was more about Stephen chomping at the bit to make a move than it was about good strategy.
My DoW is going to the birdwoman of Cambodia, Kass.
Power Rankings
CNS - As Michal mentioned, we have a large points lead (which is actually approximately 10 pts larger because we have 4 players vs 3 players for the other teams that are not Woofully Inadequate). Our weakness is in challenges and I also wonder if Kimmi could win at Final Tribal. Wentworth is not a Bayon so that would make it harder for her to win, although she did pull off a great blindside. In my opinion, if Stephen went to the finals with Jeremy he would probably lose. Tasha is our best chance to win at the end.
MacGuyver - Joe has almost double the points of anyone else. What a beast. Doug and Bri drafted a very good team this season and were the victims of bad luck when Terry left the game. Spencer is flying under the radar at this point and has a decent shot at getting to final tribal. He could pull off a surprise victory. The only thing Ciera is likely to win on this season is some DoW votes.
Ghost Coaster - Bag and Andrea are 5 episodes behind at this point. Jeremy is a big favorite to win this season but I don't know if they have enough players or time to overcome the points deficit. If Jeremy were to use both idols correctly that would help them make up a lot of ground and then if he were to win with an overwhelming majority that could vault Ghost Coaster into a photo finish win.
Woofully Inadequate - This team was doomed when they first invoked the name 'Vytas'. Interestingly, in Khmer, the word 'Vytas' means hopeless.
I know Ben studied lots of different languages at Duke, but didn't know one of them was Khmer.
I agree with him, however, about the blindside of Wigglesworth. It coulda/shoulda been a bigger target to count as a great move.
And I really like Joe, but he does seem to think he can win the game solely by winning challenges and/or immunity idols. I have a feeling he goes through life oblivious to other people or their feelings.
I'm voting for Kimmi for DOW. There's just something that irks me about a woman who isn't part of a group calling them witches.
Agreed about Kimmi, she was my DOW runner-up. Also agreed about Wiggles as a target, but again I wonder how much of that is show editing. The producers knew she wasn't going to have a deep run so they limited her air time, thus we don't see her scheming nearly as much as she was.... Not sure if that's true or not, but I'm holding it as a possibility.
I agree with a lot of the assessments shared so far. The Wiggles vote-out helped Spencer the most out of him, Jeremy and Stephen, so I am happy with it.
I'll jump on the Kass DoW train this week. I don't normally like voting for a player who isn't live in the game, but Kass is breaking down that barrier with a lack of other options.
The preview for next week shows a wet, cold cast, desperately trying to convince themselves not to quit. This season has been full of surprises, both for the castaways and for the pool. A quitter could certainly change things up again. Considering they would most likely not make the jury, it could be a 23 point swing. The preview commercial they have been showing hints that Stephen is having the hardest time, but I am hoping Abi quits. That would throw the Abi prop bet I have with Snaders back into my favor. (Which seems like it was preemptively ruled a Snaders win on the scoresheet... :/ )
Likelihood of an actual quitter at this point is very unlikely. This is most likely just a producer's edit to drum up a non-existent storyline.
I agree with the Khmer scholar - Wiggles was a random, senseless victim of Stephen's overflowing backstabbing libido. Overall I think Stephen is a pretty dreadful player who learned little from his first stay and subsequent Survivor blogging or whatever it is he does. He's a strongly dislikable fellow, probably because he doesn't like himself. If we contrast him with Cochran, we see someone who identified his social anxiety, paranoia and lack of confidence and actively exorcised these issues on the beach. Stephen is just a bully whose best-case scenario is retreading the role of unknowing lackey. He's also the Douche of the Week.
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