Survivor 3H Club: Episode 5

Ugh, I can’t live update the scores because my computer isn’t getting internet and I left my phone at work. Boo.... And now it's days later and this post is going to look weirder than normal as a result. Sorry folks!

Joe “I swear I read your face” Douchebag is now claiming both genius status and huge poker playing potential. No one in this pool is buying it, and I’m not sure anyone in his camp is either. Except for Cole “I don’t know what I’m doing” Dumbass.

Ben’s PTSD brings out his softer side and it’s extremely moving to hear him talk about coming home after serving in the military. Thankfully I don’t know what it’s like to have people actively trying to kill me. But I do know what it’s like to live in the past, and I’d like to think that he might be able to talk about his woes to his tribemates someday.

Quick commercial break in which I learn that Uma Thurman is not only a good topic for a hit pop song, but is also now selling phones. Then we’re back to watch a worm-themed reward challenge for coffee. I used to be an exclusive tea drinker, but now I know I’d go full blast for that coffee.

-1 for Lauren & Chrissy for sitting out the challenge

Desi “I threw up in my mouth when you called me Joe’s husband” Crusher destroys the first leg of the challenge & there’s no stopping Blue after that. On the other hand, Ryan locks up LVP with his spot-on Sisyphus impression.

+2 pts for Blue for the win & +1 for Red for 2^nd place.

Is anyone else excited for Murder on the Orient Express? I loved that book!!

Blue tribe revels in the glory of their win, and now I’m reflecting on the consensus opinion that my blog has become less analytical and more sarcastic. I like to think that I’m following Probst’s lead and I’ll start to revert to my old ways once this season proves itself worthy. There could be some potential here, but they have a lot of chaff to work through before we get to the quality strategy we’ve come to expect from this show.

Roark speaks!! But really awkwardly. Is it weird TV editing, or is that the way she always talks?

Chrissy & Ali are after each other. #ToldYaSo

Cole “Just Call Me WOAT” Feedbag is predictably pissing off Lauren, and as noted by Doug he’s dragging Jessica down with him. Fingers crossed she can get some distance from this train wreck in a nice-looking package. Then she goes on an idol hunt with Dr. Mike who finds it, begging the question, why didn’t Jessica also dig for the idol? Standing around drinking water doesn’t earn you an idol. It’s never truly “our idol” – it only ever belongs to one person.

+5 Dr Mike

Now it’s immunity challenge time and it’s

-1 to Ryan and Mike for sitting out

Desi is the female MVP of the challenge and I’m sad we didn’t draft her. Side note: she clearly did know about Joe’s idol last episode but needed to shame him into telling her so she could then propose that he use the idol for her. This means she’s hot, athletic, smart, and NOT married to Joe. Making her a prize catch.

+3 for Red & +2 for Blue

Chrissy is clearly the LVP on this challenge and the Yellow tribe is starting to look pretty sad after the Ryan & Chrissy double choke.

Roark is suddenly being pegged as a huge strategist. Who saw that coming? Was she ghostly only because this is her first tribal council? I love that she rips Chrissy for only talking to her on the day of tribal council. But also Roark might be enjoying owning Chrissy too much. Hubris is a bitch. Roark might be one too.

Chrissy is acting like she’s feeling the noose tightening around her neck. Her defensiveness doesn’t play well at least from an audience perspective.

Okay, so I just finished a long explanation of why it’s definitely Chrissy going home because if it was Roark then Ryan def would have filled in Ali on the plan and she wouldn’t have come down so hard on Chrissy at tribal if that were the case. But then Ryan proves me wrong & votes out Roark anyway. Bad move, imo. If Ryan’s tightest bonds are with Ali and Chrissy then he obv shouldn’t tell Chrissy if he’s going to vote for her. But since the other name on the chopping block is Roark and not Ali then he clearly SHOULD tell Ali if he’s switching his vote! He’s going to lose her trust and loyalty by not filling her in. And there’s no way she wouldn’t have switched over to his side if he had. She doesn’t have any other options. So Ryan just proved that he’s not as smart as he thinks he is. Or as smart as we all thought he was when he went top 2 in the draft. I guess that’s what we should expect from a bellhop?

Next episode: does the WOAT out-WOAT himself by getting medevacked?? C’mon Cole!!!

The Teams:

Moon & Melissa "2 Cups of Joe" - 56 points

• Ryan (1 pts)
• Cole (12 pts)
• Joe (17 pts)
• Joe (17 pts)
• Ashley (9 pts)

Phil "Scrub Island Featuring Superscrub Roark" - 37 points

• Mike (15 pts)
• Chrissy (6 pts)
• Roark (2 pts)
• JP (7 pts)
• Desi (7 pts)

Eric "Two Laurens Don't Make a Right" - 38 points

• Ben (14 pts)
• Lauren (8 pts)
• JP (7 pts)
• Lauren (8 pts)
• Alan (1 pt)

Doug & Bri "Cowboys & Estrogen" - 38 points

• Ben (14pts)
• Ali (2 pts)
• Chrissy (6 pts)
• Desi (7 pts)
• Ashley (9 pts)

Michal & Ben "The Candlestick Makers" - 31 points

• Ryan (1 pts)
• Cole (12 pts)
• Devon (4 pts)
• Jessica (12 pts)
• Roark (2 pts)

Bagdrea "Surfing with Chick Hicks" - 34 points

• Devon (4 pts)
• Mike (15 pts)
• Ali (2 pts)
• Jessica (12 pts)
• Alan (1 pt)

Power Rankings:

1. Cowboys: I don't really see a weak point on this team. It's early, but I'm already worried.
2. Surf Chicks: Does Bag have a good team this season? I think maybe so. I think a lot will depend on how Ali reacts to this last episode....
3. Scrub Island: Mike got a big boost in my rankings after last episode, and Chrissy held up well under pressure. My new crush Desi is also on this team, so I'm suddenly liking Scrub Island. 
4. Two Laurens: Lauren is settling in to a solid mid-level player. I'm not sold her yet, but I think she's proven to be less distasteful than some other players.
5. Cuppa: Cuppa dropped in the rankings due to Ryan's misstep at the end there with Ali. This might be the dumbest team of the bunch, but there's still some potential here.
6. Candlesticks: On the other hand, our team is dumb AND we don't have a lot of points. Uh oh...

Douche of the Week:

Cole for being a pig around camp.

Survivor 3H Club: Episode 4

Sweet, we kicked things off with a challenge. No dithering about talking about power couples this time. And speaking of power couples: Cole and Jessica stayed together. Ryan and Devon broke up. Ashley and JP got separated too. But Ryan is rebounding quickly with Chrissy. Their is Super Idol Sharing Love Fest is somewhat diminished by the fact that he actually picked her because she threw up at the end of the challenge on the first day. But I guess they just won't talk about that. Also it looks like Devon might pick up his own leading lady next episode. And by the end of this episode, I feel like Jessica wishes that she & Cole had been broken up too.

Ali, Chrissy & Ryan all on one tribe is a strategists' powerhouse. With Chrissy/Ryan already pairing up, I'd be surprised if they didn't target Ali the first chance they get. She's clearly their biggest threat, with JP & Roark probably just being along for the ride.

Probst keeps saying "Yawa" (or Waya?) and it's driving me nuts. Is there any reason that they still name the tribes? I mean nobody calls them anything beyond red and blue and yellow tribe, right? 

Despite being a brawny team, blue tribe just can't get it together at either challenge. The red tribe impresses with a couple back-to-back wins. The yellow tribe is a pretty scraggly bunch, so not finishing last in any sort of physical challenge is something they should be proud of.

For the record I called that there would be a secret advantage in the chip bags before that even happened. Ben can back me up on that. Jessica is totally blowing it at playing cool, but makes up for it a little bit by admitting that she knows she's doing so.

I like that they are doing this Secret-Advantage-but-only-for-one-episode twist. It's a nice change for this season. If that super idol had stuck around for an entire season, it would have drove me nuts. 

Next we get to watch Cole attempt to understand the basics of cause and effect. "I shared info with Jessica and got a kiss. If I share info with others I will receive love from them too." Dammit Cole!

Ben accurately points out that Lauren considers Cole sharing this info to be a sleazebag move and instantly doesn't trust it. Hilarious how that insta-backfired.

Cole's stupidity combined with an apparent need to be loved is going to drag down the Candlestick Makers and the Surfers. Ben thinks there's a chance that this hapless informant may be kept around because he keeps helping people out, but I'm worried they'll decide he's too much of a liability.

Now we're on to the immunity challenge and I'm desperately hoping the red tribe doesn't end up at tribal after the fiasco Cole has been this episode.

Probst once again proves that he does not give a shit about this season with some horrible commentary. Probst for DoW? The puzzle at the end reminded me of Sudoku, so I think I would have crushed it. I just got back into Sudoku recently & was averaging under 7 minutes at the "hard" level puzzles. "Evil" level is still kicking my butt though.

In the end the Red Tribe wins (phew!) and the blue tribe is heading back to tribal council. Again.

Joe and Desi are both savvy people. Joe may not be likable but at least he has a brain in that skull. Unlike Cole. Unfortunately Joe thinks he's smarter than he actually is, and he & Desi could have been totally screwed if not for Jessica's Secret Advantage and apparently Ashley's terrible poker face. Poor Devon thought he had some sort of Survivor Crush and now he looks like he got his heart broken!

Desi then gets burned by Probst when he refers to her as Joe's wife. Ouch, man. Ouch.

In the end Joe "saves the day" while still coming across as a giant douchebag, and Alan gets ousted. It was a graceful exit by Alan. He turned things around here at the end. I wish Alan had attempted a more subtle game from the start, he might have actually been a good player. But I guess we'll never know.

The Teams:

Moon & Melissa "The Bakerss" - 41 points

• Ryan (2 pts)
• Cole (8 pts)
• Joe (13 pts)
• Joe (13 pts)
• Ashley (5 pts)

Phil "Scrub Island Featuring Superscrub Roark" - 29 points

• Mike (7 pts)
• Chrissy (7 pts)
• Roark (5 pts)
• JP (7 pts)
• Desi (3 pts)

Eric "Two Laurens Don't Make a Right" - 28 points

• Ben (10 pts)
• Lauren (5 pts)
• JP (7 pts)
• Lauren (5 pts)
• Alan (1 pt)

Doug & Bri "Cowboys & Estrogen" - 27 points

• Ben (10 pts)
• Ali (2 pts)
• Chrissy (7 pts)
• Desi (3 pts)
• Ashley (5 pts)

Michal & Ben "The Candlestick Makers" - 23 points

• Ryan (2 pts)
• Cole (8 pts)
• Devon (0 pts)
• Jessica (8 pts)
• Roark (5 pts)

Bagdrea "Surfing with Chick Hicks" - 18 points

• Devon (0 pts)
• Mike (7 pts)
• Ali (2 pts)
• Jessica (8 pts)
• Alan (1 pt)

Power Rankings:

1. Cowboys: This team came out of the tribal mix-up with a few butterflies in their stomachs at first, but they are cruising now. Ali & Ashley could be at risk in the next couple episodes, but I also think they're smart enough to get out of a tight spot. This is still the team to be imo.
    
2. Bakers: Joe maximized points for Moonbee this episode, but I think that's the most he's going to do. He's too aggressive and douchey (you know where I'm going next with that). Bakers also have the disappointing Cole to contend with, so they're really going to need Ashley and Ryan to pull through in the coming weeks.
3. Candlesticks: Watching Cole play Survivor is like watching Ben's grandma try to use Skype. (#LuvYaBlue) There's a whole lot of effort being made and positive energy being put into the effort. But the end result is usually a bit of a disaster. Hopefully he doesn't drag Jessica down with him, because she seems like she could have some potential. Here's hoping Ryan is the schemer we pegged him for, and that Devon is an overachiever at challenges.
    
4. Surf Chicks: Surf Chicks and Candlesticks are kind of the in the same boat. Jessica and Devon have potential, but they could get screwed by their circumstances (and/or alliances). Ali is solid though and Mike hasn't done anything to offend. They're down 1 player, so I'm ranking us slightly higher than them in the power rankings.
5. Two Laurens: Don't get me wrong, I love Lauren. But I get the sense that she makes decisions more based on "who do I want to get rid of" and "who don't I want to work with" rather than trying to keep an open mind to potentially working with anyone. That could make her a trustworthy ally, but it's not going to win her Survivor. Ben definitely has potential, but JP is starting to pale into as ghostly a figure as Roark, and I'm thinking there's an early exit in his future.
6.  Scrub Island: Scrub Island is earning decent points right now, and they really need to maximize that while they can. I just don't see them earning much post-merge. 

Douche of the Week:

Joe again for me. It feels like he knows about our DoW and is actively trying to take that title. 

Survivor 3H Club: Draft & Ep 3

Survivor pool is BACK in an updated format. We've added two new teams (welcome Phil & Eric!), and we've updated the rules for 1 season only (unless this turns out to be amazing) so that each player could be drafted twice. Otherwise I think all the rules are the same.

The draft was mostly done online & ran fairly smoothly all things considered. Ben, Ryan, Chrissy, and Mike seemed to be largely considered the top picks. Draft highlights include Ben's complete & utter shock at Mike being drafted so highly, Moon drafting Cole because he thinks Melissa enjoys looking at him/cheering for him, and then turning around and double-drafting one of the least liked players in Joe. We also saw Lauren "I played center field for 25 years" go in the 2nd round, and Patrick get spurned altogether. Kudos to alums & n00bs alike for solid non-drafting of the dumb ginger!

And now on to Episode 3...

It's the Simone fashion show! Survivor really doesn't have enough opportunities for cross-dressing imo, so this was a nice addition. But really, in the first 20 minutes it feels like nothing happens. We're suddenly watching the teeny-bopper Twilight version of Survivor where all we're doing is listening to people talk about who they like. But do they like them back? Was the peck on the cheek really the most we're going to get in the action category after all of this jabbering on? And with all the talk of power couples, why aren't Ryan & Devon's names being thrown into the mix? How could a bromance be considered a less dangerous bond than a heterosexual "we're making out at best" partnership?

We get our first glimpse of ghosties Roark & Desi. They even speak a little bit! Overall they seem unobjectionable & I could see them both going decently far based on that & nothing more. They certainly won't win if they aren't going to be strategists, but they could make the jury by remaining inoffensive & loyal. 

We watch a few different people gloat about how they're in the best possible position, seemingly unaware of the Survivor curse of hubris and also maybe forgetting that Survivor typically does a tribal switch-up right around this time of the season. Then Cole botches the whole secret plan to take Joe out & Jessica overreacts to his "taking her power away" or whatever it was she said. 

Finally 30 minutes in and we're getting to the challenge. Feels like it took forever.

Patrick is getting annoying in this challenge and really has it coming to get voted out. You need to be a team player in every aspect of this game, and hogging a part of the challenge that you actually kind of suck at is pretty bad strategy for both winning the challenge & keeping yourself in the game. Also, Lauren did not need to tell us that she was a 25 yr veteran @ softball. That was understood.

How was redheads don't do very well  at lying not the title of this episode?

After watching Patrick prove his idiocy for 5 minutes and then have producers edit it to appear that the rest of the tribe is in anguish over who's getting voted out, we're on to tribal council. Probst looks generally uninterested in the group of castaways. Maybe season 35 is the point that he finally realizes that maybe he doesn't love his job anymore. And is Probst implying that he is a therapist? "Maybe a wannabe," says Wolfie.

Thank goodness Patrick got voted out. That dude was going to be a ticking time bomb for the hustlers. Also I really like Lauren. Of course it would have been hilarious to see her voted out first so we could all endlessly mock Eric's team. But I'm glad that we're going to get the softball player for at least a couple more weeks.

Next week looks like a tribal switch up, and I'm wondering if it'll still be 3 tribes or move down to 2. What will this do to all of these power couples? Of the top tier picks, Ali seems most likely to land on her feet. There's also opportunity for ghosts like Rourke and Desi to move up. Those who aren't adaptable may be totally screwed. I'm thinking of you, Joe!

The Teams:

Doug & Bri "Cowboys & Estrogen" - 18 points

• Ben (5 pts)
• Ali (0 pts)
• Chrissy (5 pts)
• Desi (3 pts)
• Ashley (5 pts)

Phil "Scrub Island Featuring Superscrub Roark" - 18 points

• Mike (2 pts)
• Chrissy (5 pts)
• Roark (3 pts)
• JP (5 pts)
• Desi (3 pts)

Eric "Two Laurens Don't Make a Right" - 15 points

• Ben (5 pts)
• Lauren (0 pts)
• JP (5 pts)
• Lauren (0 pts)
• Alan (5 pts)

Moon & Melissa "The Bakerss" - 14 points

• Ryan (0 pts)
• Cole (3 pts)
• Joe (3 pts)
• Joe (3 pts)
• Ashley (5 pts)

Michal & Ben "The Candlestick Makers" - 9 points

• Ryan (0 pts)
• Cole (3 pts)
• Devon (0 pts)
• Jessica (3 pts)
• Roark (3 pts)

Player Rankings:

I decided to go full out this week & did a little math:

	Ranking based on avg draft pick	Michal's rankings after ep3
1	Ben	Ali
2	Ryan	Chrissy
3	Mike	Devon
4	Cole	Ryan
5	Chrissy	Jessica
6	Devon	Ben
7	Ali	Cole
8	JP	Ashley
9	Lauren	Roark
10	Joe	Desi
11	Jessica	Mike
12	Roark	Joe
13	Desi	Lauren
14	Alan	JP
15	Ashley	Alan

Power Rankings:

1. Cowboys: this team is chock-full of potential. All of these players could go far & I don't expect any of them to be too negatively impacted by the tribal mix-up. Also if Ali & Chrissy end up on the same tribe & also decide they don't like each other, then there could be some cannabilism early.
    
2. Surf Chicks: I think Bag's team actually has a lot of promise despite taking Poor Man's Ryan in the 2nd round. I think Devon is smarter than he might have initially appeared and he, Ali, and Jessica all seem like potential power players. A point against this team for earning potential in challenges.
    
3. Candlesticks: I think our team has the best chance at short-term earning potential with the 2 best swimmers on our team. As mentioned above, I think Devon is smarter than we might have thought, but I also think Cole might be dumber than we initially thought. I like that we have 2 sets of power couples on our team, but that also makes this a riskier stable than most.
    
4. Bakers: Not as risky as drafting Joe twice though! I just don't see this guy getting very far if his whole tribe already hates him. With that being said, he does have an idol, so I can't completely discount him. A well-played idol could completely switch up the game. He needs to stop throwing food away though. That's a Survivor taboo & also proves he has an extremely weak social game.
    
5.  Scrub Island: I like Chrissy, but I think Mike was taken way to early. There also isn't a whole lot of earning potential on this team. Challenges is where most points come from as well as finding hidden immunity idols, and I'm not seeing a high ceiling for either of those from this stable.
   
6. Two Laurens: There's just not a lot to be impressed about with this team. Ben's probably okay, but JP, Lauren, and Alan are not a good supporting cast. JP is vanilla, and Lauren & Alan appear to have far too strong of opinions about most things. Also, is anyone else getting the sense that Alan might quit?

Douche of the Week:

For those new to DoW, this is your chance to vote for the douchiest castaway of the season! Final overall most-voted douchiest castaway earns their team a bonus 5 points at the end of the season.

My DoW vote goes to Joe for throwing food away, especially after someone (Desi?) offered to eat his half-eaten food.

Game Changers: Finale

I think the jurors were fairly astute in their observations & comments – especially Michaela! If she’s not in law school, she certainly should be. Ozzy & Debbie’s arguments proved to me that they were the dumbest people left in the game. Also par for the course that crazy Debbie would side with Ozzy, who she voted out, and Brad, who she felt like betrayed her. Ozzy’s criticism of Sarah’s her "low" play especially rankled me. How can he judge her & say that she didn’t have to “stoop so low” to win & then claim his massive experience on the show as proof that he’s right? He’s had more opportunities to win this game than anyone, but still couldn’t do it!

The finale started with an epic moment when Cirie went home without getting a single vote. Holy cow!! Sucks that Cirie had to go out like that, but I love that this moment happened. Do you think if EVERYONE had played an idol that they just would have sent them all back to camp? I feel like that’s the only fair thing to do. I was sorry to see Cirie go, though. She was a canny player who was extremely likable & I think the scheming for the rest of the episode would have been more epic had she still been around.

In a season full of twists and records, the finale did not disappoint! I’m inclined to call this the greatest season of Survivor ever, though I am aware some recency bias may be coming into play here. At the very least it’s a Top 5 season.

Soon to follow is Aubry, and now the Final 4 is all Team Try Harder. This truly was a dominant season for our team. We blew out the previous record-setting score (228: Michal & Ben - 2nd Chance) by 66 points. That’s a nearly 30% increase. I don’t think we'll see a score this high again ever.

As I’m watching the final 4 compete I realize that Brad is now wearing a sack for a shirt. When did that happen? Was it around the same time that he became a mega-douche again? He reverted back to his first season self in an extremely off-putting way. I do think it had something to do with starvation, but I also think his domination at challenges brought his arrogance to the fore-front.

They kept talking about the “elite” group of castaways who have won 5 immunity challenges. From my research, the only other person who has done this within a single season is Ozzy. (Though before looking it up I’d guessed that Kim & Mike were in that group…) There are others who have done it over multiple seasons, but that seems like kind of a cheat.

I’m glad Sarah didn’t decide to split votes & do a fire challenge. There was no upside there for her, but there was huge upside for her to simply listen to Tai & take what he said seriously. The fact that Troyzan didn’t even consider that a fire challenge might come up in that final vote was just one more indication that he was NOT paying attention to how this game really works. I’m glad he gave that very gracious exit speech at the end of Final Tribal, that salvaged his dignity somewhat.

And speaking of Final Tribal, I really liked the new format! I think it’s great to hear the jurors discuss & argue with each other. You knew they were doing that at Ponderosa anyways, so it was nice to see that happen on camera instead.

In the end Sierra, Debbie & Ozzy voted for Brad – the “bitter Betty”s as Michaela called them. Everyone else voted correctly for Sarah, and we now have another Survivor champion!!

As opposed to Adam from last season who I thought was a very weak winner, I think Sarah may be one of the best. The caliber of player she was up against was off the charts, and she played a very crafty, strategic, yet subtle game. She also was super well-spoken at Final Tribal and argued her case really well.

Then we were on to the reunion where we could see how terrifying Brad could look with that molestache, and see Tai at his best in that spiffy blue sweater. Nothing else very interesting happened throughout the reunion, though I really liked hearing what would have happened in a tie. Do you think Probst dropped that info in here because it might actually happen next season!?

I’m going to hold out hope that this is the case, because I’m none too impressed with the preview of next season. Anything after this season is going to be a letdown of course, but seriously? Heroes, Healers & Hustlers? In Fiji… again? The only way this gets interesting is if the “hustler” tribe is actually full of hustlers a la Ocean’s 11 & Zootopia, and not bell hops & administrative assistants like the preview indicates. And that surgeon!! Good Lord, can they please stop bringing surgeons onto the show?

The Teams:

Michal & Ben "Try Harder" - 294 points

1. Tai (84 pts)
2. Caleb (-3 pts)
3. Sarah (79 pts)
4. Troyzan (43 pts)
5. Brad (91 pts)

MoonBee "Steel Magnolias" -  129 points

1. Michaela (28 pts)
2. Cirie (36 pts)
3. Andrea (52 pts)
4. Ciera ( -5 pts)
5. Hali (18 pts)

Doug & Bri "Original Manbun" - 123 points

1. Malcolm (5 pts)
2. Zeke (34 pts)
3. Aubry (42 pts)
4. Jeff (9 pts)
5. Sierra (33 pts)

Baggadocious "Legends of the Fall" - 71 points

1. JT (11 pts)
2. Tony (-4 pts)
3. Ozzy (31 pts)
4. Sandra (6 pts)
5. Debbie (27 pts)

Prop Bets:

-->

People involved	Castaways Involved	Method of measurement	Stakes	And the winner is...
Bag v. Ben	JT + Ozzy v. Tai + Sarah	Longevity (bonus if 1 whole team elimated before the other loses a player)	1 drink	Ben + bonus
Michal v. Melissa	Sierra v. Ciera	Longevity	1 drink	Michal
Moon v. Doug	Michaela v. 3 of Doug's team	The bet is that any 3 of Doug's team end up doing better than Michaela	???	I don't remember how this bet was supposed to play out - I will let commenters determine that!
Moon v. Ben	Varner wins the whole she-bang	100:1 odds	2 bits	Ben

Game Changers: Episodes 10 & 11

Two episodes have passed & 3 players have gone home. Tomorrow is the finale and I don't have a lot of time to post now. Which is too bad - this season has been fabulous & I wish I had the time to reflect more on the last couple episodes, especially the last 20 minutes of this last one!!

Quick recap: Sierra got ousted due to Sarah's scheming to get her legacy idol. She raised suspicions among the remaining contestants, but Andrea still got the boot anyway. It's hard to know how much went down there, though, because the show wanted to devote more time to the next tribal council. And rightly so!

I still don't fully understand what happened. Cirie tried to use Sarah's own advantage to save her, but couldn't. Her entire hand was revealed & Sarah was PISSED and yet somehow Michaela is the one who went home. What?? Sarah stole Tai's vote and voted with Brad & Troyzan to oust her. Cirie voted Aubry & Michaela & Aubry voted Tai. How did this go down? I still don't fully understand all the scheming that happened here. I like that somehow Troyzan & Tai didn't end up playing their idols through this madness, though I don't know how they could be so steely.



The Teams:

Michal & Ben "Try Harder" - 124 points

1. Tai (45 pts)
2. [Caleb (-3 pts)]
3. Sarah (21 pts)
4. Troyzan (27 pts)
5. Brad (34 pts)

MoonBee "Steel Magnolias" -  112 points

1. [Michaela (28 pts)]
2. Cirie (19 pts)
3. [Andrea (52 pts)]
4. [Ciera ( -5 pts)]
5. [Hali (18 pts)]

Doug & Bri "Original Manbun" - 105 points

1. [Malcolm (5 pts)]
2. [Zeke (34 pts)]
3. Aubry (24 pts)
4. [Jeff (9 pts)]
5. [Sierra (33 pts)]

Baggadocious "Legends of the Fall" - 71 points

1. [JT (11 pts)]
2. [Tony (-4]
3. [Ozzy (31 pts)]
4. [Sandra (6 pts)]
5. [Debbie (27 pts)]

Power Rankings:

1. Try Harder: Are we uncatchable? I think so. The only chance the others would have is if Cirie or Aubry swept the votes at final tribal, and even then it might not be enough if Tai & Troyzan play their idols mostly correctly.

3. Steel Magnolias: Cirie played a really solid game until this last episode where she should have read the fine print.

2. Original Manbun: Aubry is NEVER on the right side of the vote, but she is still miraculously in this game. Will she make it to final tribal on this same crazy yet weirdly effective game plan?

4. Legends of the Fall: Sup.


Douche of the Week:

Andrea, and then maybe Cirie? I can't choose for the 2nd episode!!

Game Changers: Episodes 8 & 9

We are in Los Angeles and got to have a bit of a Survivor reunion with Moon & Melissa this last week. In honor of the occasion, I decided to do a bit of live blogging during the episode, a la Bachelor blog.

But first the previous episode: it might as well have been could have been named ‘an homage to Sarah.’ She got all the attention & seemed to make a lot of smart moves. This was one of those episodes where it felt like they were gearing us up for her ultimate victory. I say this based on my personal opinions around the way Survivor producers give air time. For example, she was seen to read how long the advantage she got was valid for (down to 5 players) which leads me to believe that she will be around when it gets down to final 5. Additionally, her comment about being the first player in Survivor history to correctly play the stolen vote advantage was telling. If she’d misplayed it within that episode it could have been the producers showing a little egg in her face. But she didn’t, which leads me to believe that she is actually calling that one correctly.

Getting rid of Debbie was a pleasure. That cuckoo cougar may have been less annoying to the other castaways than Michaela, but she was definitely more annoying to me. I will not miss her. She stole too much air time from more deserving players.

Now, on to the most recent episode!

Moon & Melissa joined us at our VRBO for the event. Between bites of unexpectedly tiny pizza we caught up on life in LA and poured one out in memory of Baggadocious’ team. “We couldn’t have drafted a worse team if we tried,” concluded Moon gleefully.

The episode began with Sarah coming clean about breaking up the “line in the concrete” alliance of 6, and for us it began with a discussion of how Zeke has been playing the game too hard this season. He seems to think he needs to make moves just to make moves sometimes, which will likely be his downfall…. Dum dum duuumm….

The reward challenge seems to push the castaways to their limits of coming up with 11-letter words. After 50 minutes of puzzling, Probst starts giving them massive clues, but it’s unclear if anyone realizes it. Eventually Andrea figures it out, thus confirming her as the strongest puzzle solver in the game.

Zeke makes a reference to the game being like climbing Mt. Everest, which is funny because I’d referred to voting Sandra out as being akin to climbing Mt. Everest earlier in the night.

“It gets harder and harder every day,” says Zeke. “How would you know, Zeke?” asks Moon.

Moon claims Michaela is the smartest player left in the game. Ben questions this. Moon says she’s clever, sharp & picks things up quickly. Everyone agrees she needs Cirie as a mentor, and interested in seeing where that goes. Ben argues that these qualities do not give her the appropriate toolkit to win Survivor, and now there’s a discussion of whether Aubry is the best social player left in the game. She continues to remain safe despite rarely being in the majority alliance. “But if you don’t have the intel,” asks Ben, “how much can you really do?”

“Oh, hydrogen!” interjects Melissa. A commercial for a hydrogen-run car has just come on, which is something that apparently has been long-anticipated by the Jones tribe.

Zeke wants to make a final 5 with him, Sarah, Troyzan, Brad & Michaela. Team Try Harder is doing a happy dance, though this ends up being a short-lived alliance.

Moon compares Culpepper to Jaime Lannister. I didn’t get more details on this, but am super intrigued. Moon, perhaps you can share more in the comments about this?

At tribal council we all marvel at Tai’s decision to not play an immunity idol. “Who is his leak? Who is his informant?” Moon demands. A good question, and I seriously have no idea. No one trusts him & it looks like his closest allies all voted for him. So was that just amazing gut instinct?

In the end, Zeke goes home, and Michaela cries. I didn’t realize that Michaela cared so much about him. Between her & Sarah, Andrea bullied two people into voting out someone they really didn’t want to. What’s interesting about that is that it will likely embitter them against her and ultimately be the reason that she goes home. Also, she’s clearly one of the biggest challenge threats, so it’d probably be inevitable that she be targeted anyway. But I still think this was a moment when Andrea made decisions based on personal feelings rather than sound strategy. And I think it was a mistake.



The Teams:

Michal & Ben "Try Harder" - 108 points

1. Tai (45 pts)
2. [Caleb (-3 pts)]
3. Sarah (19 pts)
4. Troyzan (27 pts)
5. Brad (20 pts)

Doug & Bri "Original Manbun" - 84 points

1. [Malcolm (5 pts)]
2. [Zeke (34 pts)]
3. Aubry (17 pts)
4. [Jeff (9 pts)]
5. Sierra (19 pts)

MoonBee "Steel Magnolias" -  78 points

1. Michaela (12 pts)
2. Cirie (18 pts)
3. Andrea (35 pts)
4. [Ciera ( -5 pts)]
5. [Hali (18 pts)]

Baggadocious "Legends of the Fall" - 71 points

1. [JT (11 pts)]
2. [Tony (-4]
3. [Ozzy (31 pts)]
4. [Sandra (6 pts)]
5. [Debbie (27 pts)]

Power Rankings:

1. Try Harder: Try Harder just reached one-derland. We are undeniably in a strong position with 4 players still in the game and Sarah being my front-runner to win it all. Culpepper still seems solid too, despite recent set-backs. And Troyzan & Tai have 3 hidden idols between them. So it’s a pretty good spot all around..

3. Steel Magnolias: after Sarah I think Andrea is the strongest candidate to win it all, though I also think her strengths are too obvious & she’ll be marked as a threat. All the same, with Michaela’s earning potential & Cirie’s sound strategy this is still a solid 3. They have a lot of points to make up, though, so it’ll be an uphill battle..

2. Original Manbun: Aubry & Sierra don’t have enough combined oomph to challenge either Harder or Magnolias. Both are capable of making big moves, but I don’t think enough people like Sierra for her to win, and I don’t think Aubry’s accomplished enough to win either. Either could be a good person for a stronger player to take to the finals, though.

4. Legends of the Fall: and fall they did. Thinking about Moon’s comment, though, about how bad this team was…. Maybe we should do a season where we try for the lowest score? I.e. we draft for the worst players? I’d only want to do it on a season where it’s all n00b castaways, but it might be a fun twist for a season...


Douche of the Week:

Debbie for episode 8

Andrea for episode 9… she just got too obsessed & obnoxious about targeting Zeke imo

Game Changers: Episodes 6 & 7

Episode 6 was notable for obvious reasons. Varner solidified his WOAT status and also locked up a DOW vote that we don't need to take since it's so obvious. (Bag suggested cleverer wording than this, but I can no longer remember it.) Good riddance! Zeke handled the situation better than I could have imagined possible, and I like how the whole tribe seemed to unite behind him and just going through that tribal together.

What I don't like is that he suddenly became a target the next episode. He was named as the red herring vote because "his story couldn't be beaten at final tribal" which is so obnoxious. Even if they didn't mean it (which they always actually do when they name a red herring vote), it's still super shitty to use his unwilling outing against him just a couple days later.

It wasn't the most exciting merge ever, but it felt like a good set-up for intrigue later on. There's definitely a flow and dynamism to the group that will be hard to keep up with. Debbie & Sierra thinking they are calling the shots was easily the most laughable part of the episode. But good on them for getting rid of Ozzy!


The Teams:

Michal & Ben "Try Harder" - 96 points

1. Tai (45 pts)
2. [Caleb (-3 pts)]
3. Sarah (17 pts)
4. Troyzan (21 pts)
5. Brad (16 pts)

MoonBee "Steel Magnolias" - 69 points

1. Michaela (13 pts)
2. Cirie (18 pts)
3. Andrea (25 pts)
4. [Ciera ( -5 pts)]
5. Hali (18 pts)

Doug & Bri "Original Manbun" - 63 points

1. [Malcolm (5 pts)]
2. Zeke (19 pts)
3. Aubry (13 pts)
4. [Jeff (9 pts)]
5. Sierra (17 pts)

Baggadocious "Legends of the Fall" - 57 points

1. [JT (11 pts)]
2. [Tony (-4]
3. [Ozzy (31 pts)]
4. [Sandra (6 pts)]
5. Debbie (13 pts)

Power Rankings:

1. Try Harder: Tai continues to rake in the points, and the rest of our players are in a strong position. I like that Sarah seems to be keeping her options open. Brad's leadership was pooh-poohed a little this last episode, but Sierra really seemed to draw all the attention, so even he should still be safe for a little longer. He might lose his leadership position, but I don't think that'll be a bad thing.

3. Steel Magnolias: The Magnolias are one big alliance, and while it doesn't look great for them now, a lot can change in a few days. This could end up being a powerful alliance, so long as Andrea doesn't lose her cool over Zeke's betrayal. I like that Michaela has found a new mother bird to cling to. First Sandra, now Cirie. She certainly has good taste. Let's see if it's enough to keep her around for a while longer. She seems to be doing a good job of heeding.

2. Original Manbun: Aubry continues to disappoint and Zeke made a pretty massive mistake this last episode. Sierra's strong but she's outmatched by the beasts this season. Hopefully she'll get a little more humble soon or she could be in trouble. I'm not sure how Zeke will regroup from that blunder, though. I think he could be the next to go.

4. Legends of the Fall: As predicted, Baggadocious' last remaining player is Debbie. Bagdrea made a risky draft that absolutely didn't pay off. Now they're stuck with a woman who thinks that pretending to be drunk and foolish is a strong strategic move.


Douche of the Week:
Ozzy for threatening to not fish if he didn't win the pole-clinging challenge. Honestly him saying that may have lit a fire under Tai's ass and gave him the victory, so I should be thankful. All the same, what a douche.