Sruvivor: New Episode

Whoa, I'm actually almost keeping up with Survivor? Hard to believe!!

But it's Friday night & I can't think of anything better than to sit down with a solid beer (Left Hand Milk Stout) and "live" blog the latest episode of Survivor.

There's 7 left, and Donathan's feelings are very similar to my own from my last blog. He's seriously contemplating ditching play-it-safe Laurel and trying to do something to boost his resume.

In the meantime we have a reward challenge where the reward is being a Survivor Goodwill Ambassador & Kellyn clutches her heart throat in some kind of mimicry of being Mother Theresa rather than admitting that was she actually wants is the fried chicken. I'd probably be all for that if I was on Survivor. I recently learned that I make some seriously badass fried chicken myself (let me know if you want to try it sometime).

They draw for "captains" and the choices are 100% unsurprising. Poor Angela. No one gives her a real chance, including me.

This is the kind of challenge I'd be super pumped to participate in. Kind of mundane, but all about perfecting a process. That's my jam, yo. 33 days in, though, this is pretty grueling.

All 3 teams make it to 4 spools, which was better than I expected. I love that they did this as a team challenge this time around. All about communication, strategy, and heart. Is this my fave challenge ever? Honestly, it might be. Which is well-timed, because I think Moon is right. This is generally a weak season.

Dumbass Seabass & Kellyn are unsurprisingly the first team out, though kudos to them all for making it to 5 spools each. Laurel & Donathan bust immediately afterwards, and Wendell & Dom immediately choose Laurel to share their reward & Dumbass Seabass to go to Ghost Island. The lack of thought behind these choices (and the verbal announcement of the lack of thought) prove that these "masterminds" wouldn't stand a chance against the true geniuses of this show (Parvati, Boston Rob, Cochran, Yau Man, etc. just to name a few.... aaahhhh when are they going to have an All Star season again? I miss the Supreme Metagame!!) .

Back from commercial and Seabass is suddenly some kind of Ghost Island Philosopher. He refers to himself as a... barnacle??... that attaches to a whale. I clearly didn't catch the whole thing, but the gist was spot on and shockingly insightful for someone who appeared to be perma-stoned up until this point. Cap'n Bass wins himself an advantage in the game and even more importantly a little respect from this here blogger.

Now we move on to the "goodwill ambassador" part of the show, and it's mildly uncomfortable as it's borderline racist/classist/American-privilegist but thankfully they don't spend too much time dwelling on the black castaways being good at sports & the "adoring" looks the "brown children" are giving them while they show off their skills.

Donathan's "Truth Bombs" are maybe not something I've been paying too much attention to until the last couple episodes?? He says they've been working for him, but I can't say I've noticed that much of them until recently. In any case, he manages to ostracize most of his primary alliance in about 10 minutes and I failed to see how that helped him in his game. But I'd be happy if Cap'n Bass wasn't the only one to pleasantly surprise me tonight, so fingers crossed there was more to Donathan's strategy than what we just witnessed. Because if he didn't think that through, he just put 2 guys on high alert who were the last 2 people on the island that they wanted to feel insecure.

On to the immunity challenge, and Wendell & Cap'n Bass are going strong while everyone else seems to struggle. But Laurel catches up & in the end it's a weird finish where Wendell actually finishes first but Laurel calls it first & gets the credit. Well done Wendell for bowing out as gracefully as possible. I wonder if he would have done the same if it wasn't Laurel (or Dom) who was the winner.

Back at camp there's an uncomfortable scramble where everyone wants Kellyn gone, but Donathan gets so paranoid that somehow his plans just make himself a giant target rather than help him in any way. Laurel is conspicuously absent throughout all these exchanges, though, and I'm wondering what that means. Is she usually the one that protects him, or reins him in? Then Kellyn refers to Donathan as someone who "pulls the plug on the grenade" and my indignation at Moon referring to me as Kellyn-like intensifies. Seriously man? I'd like to think you have more respect for me than that.

There's some kind of scramble after that, but I'm not really paying attention other than to note that Angela isn't involved in pretty much any of this.

Dom's cryptic speech at tribal was so sketchy that he vilifies himself immediately rather than salvaging the situation. But then Donathan returns fire by doing basically the exact same thing.

Now the question really is, can Seabass use his extra vote when it's down to 5 or even 4 players left? If so, definitely hold on to that advantage -it's HUGE!!

In the end it's a tie between Kellyn & Donathan and strangely it appears that Wendell & Dom didn't give Angela any info as to who she should vote for. Did they talk to the Cap'n either?

Kellyn goes home & next week is the FINALE!!! What a good early birthday present. Kellyn is gone, and the finale is next week!

The Teams:

SuperDreg: 118 points

• [Chelsea (33 pts)]
• [Chris (26 pts)]
• [Chelsea (33 pts)]
• [Chris (26 pts)]

Eric: 110 points

• [Michael (32 pts)]
• [Michael (32 pts)]
• Angela (17 pts)
• Angela (17 pts)
• [Desiree (12 pts)]

Michal & Ben: 99 points

• Wendell (28 pts)
• [Jenna (19 pts)]
• Laurel (26 pts)
• Sebastian (14 pts)
• [Desiree (12 pts)]

Bagginses: 90 points

• [Stephanie (-5 pts)]
• Wendell (28 pts)
• [Libby (26 pts)]
• Laurel (26 pts)
• Donathan (15 pts)

MoonBee: 67 points

• [Brendan (-6 pts)]
• [Libby (26 pts)]
• [Kellyn (22 pts)]
• [Jenna (19 pts)]
• [James (6 pts)]

Phil: 54 points

• [Brendan (-6 pts)]
• Dom (29 pts)
• Dom (29 pts)
• [Bradley (1 pts)]
• [Bradley (1 pts)]

Doug & Bri: 52 points

• [Stephanie (-5 pts)]
• Sebastian (14 pts)
• Donathan (15 pts)
• [Kellyn (22 pts)]
• [James (6 pts)]

Power Rankings:

1. Michal and Ben - Cap'n Bass proved he has a couple moves and Laurel & Wendell met point-earning expectations this episode. That was about as good an episode as we could have hoped for, though it would have been optimal if Donathan had actually gone home. Still, he's in the dog house now and that's better than I expected.
2. Bagginses - Voting out Kellyn rather than Donathan was probably the wrong choice. That being said, that's assuming that the version of Survivor that I'm watching more closely mirrors reality than the version of Survivor that Moon is watching. In that version Kellyn is smart, socially savvy, and maybe has real reasons for divorcing her husband other than a desire to go to grad school... don't get me started. Leaving Donathan in this game leaves a real threat. That dude is smart & has a good story to back it up. Plus his Truth Bombs give him more street cred than Laurel's more subtle (though in my opinion, superior) game play. 
3. Phil - Dom's still here which means Phil's still in this game. I do feel very strange giving a higher ranking to Phil than Eric, given the 50+ difference in their scores up until now. With that being said, Angela lost Eric points this episode, whereas Phil is moving in the right direction... This is clearly flawed logic, but I'm going to stick to my guns & say that Phil has a higher ceiling than Eric this season. 
4. Eric - Angela... what is there really to say? Your performance in the reward challenge was literally absent. Your performance in the immunity challenge was actually worse. 
5. SuperDregs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5J1mn_u0rM
6. Doug and Bri - There's nothing new really to say. the Cap'n over-performed, and Donathan under-performed. Kellyn met expectations. You won't have to add to the trophy, so that's a plus? Except that Doug is far superior to Moon at adding to the trophy, so really it feels like everyone is losing right now.
7. MoonBee - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy9_lfjQopU

Douche of the Week:

Donathan!