BBB 2: Episodes 13 & 14

The penultimate episode this season was so dull it's barely worth mentioning. All I will say is that listening to people discussing an old man's digestive system & enlarged prostate for 30 minutes does not make for good television.

On the other hand, the finale episode was rather entertaining. A fire challenge at tribal, a new challenge where someone got to remove a jury member, and a bitter bitter jury were all enjoyable. However, I think we all agree that the million dollars went to the wrong contestant: the sole survivor was clearly Mark the Chicken. His life was literally on the line & he's the only chicken who's ever lasted a whole season!

I want to quote the surprisingly insightful Moon, who noted after episode 6: "The "Screentime Theory" says that Neal, Julia, Joe, Aubry and Cydney can't win. The "Dickhead Theory" says that Nick, probably Jason and Scot and maybe Debbie can't win. That leaves Tai and Michele." In a season full of bold moves & dumb people, Moon called this one early... and rather often in the way he poo-pooed my power rankings. And rightly so.

I want to take a moment to complain about Neal & Joe being on the jury in the first place. As players who were medevacked, they don't have the chip on their shoulder that other players do. Aubry was in their alliance & didn't have to backstab them for them to make the jury. So she can easily win their vote without having to defend or justify any of her actions. Ultimately in this case the jury was so bitter that it didn't matter. But I still don't like the decision to let them stay on the jury. And I think that Bag should tweet as much to Probst!

Finally, a note about the scoring: because Neal was removed from the jury, we also removed the points he'd initially earned by making the jury. In the end, this may not have been a million-dollar play by Michele, but it did affect the outcome of the pool!


The Teams:

Bagdrea "Beautiful Mind" - 117 points

1. Caleb (6 pts)
2. Tai (55 pts)
3. Nick (38 pts)
4. Joe (18 pts)

Doug & Bri "She-Ra" - 114 points

1. Liz (-2 pts)
2. Jenny (-6 pts)
3. Michele (87 pts)
4. Cydney (35 pts)

MoonBee "Dairy Kings" - 111 points

1. Neal (13 pts)
2. Julia (40 pts)
3. Scot (14 pts)
4. Aubry (44 pts)

Michal & Ben "Cock of the Walk" - 88 points

1. Anna (9 pts)
2. Jason (38 pts)
3. Peter (14 pts)
4. Debbie (27 pts)

Dreg: Alecia - 0 points


Prop Bets:

Stakes for each bet = 1 drink

People involved	Castaways Involved	Method of measurement	And the winner is...
Ben v. Bag	Doug's team v. Moon's team	more points	Ben
Moon & Doug	1.5 line on medevacs	Over	Moon & Doug
Ben & Bag	1.5 line on medevacs	Under	X
Ben v. Bag	Anna v. Liz	Longevity	Ben
Ben v. Moon	Anna v. Liz	Longevity	Ben
Ben v. Bag	Anna v. Liz	Points	Ben
Ben v. Moon	Anna v. Liz	Points	Ben
Ben v. Bag	Caleb v. Aubry	getting medevacked	Ben
Ben v. Bag	Debbie v. Alecia	Longevity	Ben

Next Season:

20 castaways battle it out in Fiji. The theme is Millenials v. GenX which seems pretty boring to me. Hopefully they'll have some interesting & intelligent players. I'd also love to see the final challenge of choosing to remove a jury member come back again too!

BBB 2: Episodes 11 & 12

Time is flying by, and so is this Survivor season. With only 5 players left, it feels like the finale should be next week, but previews made it seem like there are a least 2 episodes left, which is surprising.

I've missed a couple of episodes, so feel free to vote DoW for both episodes 11& 12. Plus, with a very big wedding coming up, I doubt everyone will have time to read this blog, so you have next week to vote too. (Is that a great wedding gift or what?) :)

Quick recap: Episode 11 was when Julia got voted out. There was a brief attempt at voting out Tai or at least flushing his idol, but in the end no one went for it. Episode 12 was when Tai used his extra vote to try & vote out Michele, but the way in which he approached this was so off-putting to the other players that the plan backfired even though he used it advantage of an extra vote to try & pull it off.

In regards to Jason's attempt at getting at Tai: I don't see why they didn't all go for it. Cydney & Michele had no need to "go against" their alliance on this. They could have all been on the same page & split votes. It seemed like Cydney was very open & forthcoming about this, but maybe Aubry's loyalty to Tai prevented it from happening. If so I think that was a big mistake because Tai is a huge threat to win this game. If it hadn't worked & he'd played his idol, no biggie. He'd be mad & probably wouldn't be a part of that alliance anymore, but the only person he'd have to turn to would be Jason & I don't think they'd work together.

Episode 12 was interesting because I feel like it showed Tai's character a bit more. Several people have been saying on this blog that he no longer seems like the sweet & innocent guy that he portrayed himself as at the beginning of the show. I think that proved true in this episode & probably will continue next episode. He came off pretty self-entitled at tribal council. Perhaps it's unfair to Tai, but I think he started the season as the hero & is now the villain, either in reality, in my own mind, or through careful manipulation of the footage by the producers.

I'm now cheering for Cydney to win the whole thing. I think she's got a fun & interesting personality for this game. She's not afraid to mix things up & run with her emotions, which I usually think is a bad thing. But somehow it really works for her & she always feels like she's in control of her own destiny.


The Teams:

MoonBee "Dairy Kings" - 86 points

1. Neal (23 pts)
2. Julia (40 pts)
3. Scot (14 pts)
4. Aubry (9 pts)

Michal & Ben "Cock of the Walk" - 83 points

1. Anna (9 pts)
2. Jason (38 pts)
3. Peter (9 pts)
4. Debbie (27 pts)

Bagdrea "Beautiful Mind" - 82 points

1. Caleb (6 pts)
2. Tai (35 pts)
3. Nick (38 pts)
4. Joe (3 pts)

Doug & Bri "She-Ra" - 40 points

1. Liz (-2 pts)
2. Jenny (-6 pts)
3. Michele (32 pts)
4. Cydney (16 pts)

Dreg: Alecia - 0 points


Power Rankings:

1. Beautiful Mind - With two players left & one of them being Tai, Bagdrea are the favorites to win this season. It's pretty close though & it really could (should?) come down to which team's player wins the season. It clearly won't be Joe - does this guy ever think beyond "what does Aubry want me to do?" So frustrating to see him do nothing all season! But even though he loses Beautiful Mind 1-2 points each episode due to challenge dreckitude, he's going to rake in a sizable pouch of jury points.

2. Dairy Kings - Aubry kind of annoys me. It feels like she has everything going for her - she's smart, competitive at challenges, and basically gets 2 votes at every tribal because of Joe - but she's not living up to her potential. Of course I'll be eating these words if she ends up winning, but I feel like getting rid of Jason, not going after Tai when they had the opportunity, and the Tai v. Cydney situation were all mishandled & opportunities lost. Still, this is not an intelligent group of players this season & it seems as though Aubry can afford to make a few mistakes & make final tribal.

3. She-Ra - Can it be? She-Ra, who lost their top 2 player in the 1st 3 episodes is suddenly contending! I'm a Cydney fan, but Michele is also starting to prove herself late in the game. They have a huge deficit to make up, but both women are capable of winning challenges, making final tribal, and ultimately winning. It's definitely closer than the score makes it appear.

4. Cock of the Walk - We are the first team to have lost all our players & despite our 40 point lead over She-Ra, they will make up at least 30 points even if their players only make the jury. Our team lived up to its name, and definitely proved to be far more cocky than strategic. Now it's just a question of if we're making the next level of the trophy, which I'm starting to hope we do. We've come up with some good ideas over here in Casa Greenberg....

Player Rankings:

1. Tai
2. Cydney
3. Aubry
4. Michele
5. Joe

Douche of the Week:

I'm going to vote for Tai as DoW for both episodes. First for the weird half apology he gave Jason, and then for his off-putting attitude at the last tribal council.