MissEwa

I had a navel and a labret and both came out when I was pregnant (the labret because the piercing started to taste really bad - thanks hormones). If they were real person, I feel like just based on her outfits Donna whould have had a navel piercing, and worn really elaborate jewellery in it. Val would be more of a lower-back tattoo gal (not a judgement as I have one of those too...) - maybe with a tongue piercing too. David would almost certainly have pierced his nipples at some point. We did slip dresses with little t-shirts, or just over bras, and in the later 90s one of my friends was a dancer and she taught us this thing where you cut the feet and the crotch off fishnet tights and wear them over your chest/arms, so we did that a bit too. And I also had a top that was basically a shrunken apron with straps that tied at the neck and across the back. Loved that thing.

This. I guess 'trust cluster' didn't take off? I guess I like that they're thinking about winning, instead of just sailing through, but I also question the value they're all putting on 'big moves'. I love it too. And this is kind of what I read Adam's telling Jay about his mother as - Jay was begging Adam to take him to the end and Adam was basically saying 'dude, I would, but this is why I can't.' I didn't see it as gameplay or manipulation, but more Adam trying to explain why he's playing as hard as he is. I guess like with everything, every family would deal with this differently and you can't really know what drives those decisions. What we've heard is that Adam and his mother are both huge Survivor fans and she wanted him to go so she could see him win - not for the money, but because they love the game. His winning might be a way that she can be sure he's taken care of after she's gone, at least financially. She might also not want him to see her getting sicker. There's a whole lot that we can only guess at, really - it might not be the decision you or I would make but I've never been in that situation so I don't question it. Getting rid of Will and Sunday in a double boot episode was good. For all Will's efforts at a resume he wasn't much of an entity in the game and Sunday wasn't one at all. The one thing she seemed to want to do - get out Jessica - was done by the fates and what we saw of her personality was grating. And both those immunity challenges were interesting. I've fallen off the Ken train a bit and I can't see him winning but I do kind of love how persistently grumpy he is. When he won his first immunity a few weeks ago all he did was complain about his knee, and this time everyone's all 'hey, you are good at puzzles' and he's like 'well, those puzzles, but no other puzzles.' If it was anyone else, I'd wonder if he was trying to deflect attention so that they don't think he's a challenge threat but it's Ken so it's just him being shmoopy. This is one of the better F6s in recent seasons. There's no-one I hate. I don't really want Bret to win (and I don't think he will, based on the edit), but other than that, any of them could take it and I'd be reasonably pleased. I know the popular opinion is that Hannah doesn't stand a chance but I'm rooting for her. I think it's going to be Adam or Jay at this point though.

I love Hannah but to be fair, she wouldn't have been targeted the first time she was if *she* hadn't freaked out. I think Hannah has a really good sense of the game - her strategy is sound and she's correctly picked herself as the target twice - but maybe not the emotional fortitude to always follow through successfully. But I don't think the fact that other players have gone to rocks to keep her or played idols for her is a negative - it's a sign that she's played a good enough social game that people were willing to do that. Based on the edit, I wouldn't be shocked if she won. She's not a front-runner, edit-wise, but I feel like she's had a enough confessionals about the game and her place in it and her growth as a player that it wouldn't come from nowhere.

Oh yes - slip dresses. So many slip dresses, usually worn with Docs. And the more they looked like underwear the better - satin was especially popular.

As much as Dylan's stupid army duffel and stupid futon and especially those stupid patterned sheets are stupid, I feel like at least they're somewhat realistic for a college-age Jack Kerouac wannabe. Unlike the decor at the beach apartment, which looks like the visiting room of a retirement home. For some reason, even though I'm vague about a lot that happens in this season, Brandon's well-well-welly-well-well has always stuck in my head, to the extent that I'm wondering if it's not the only time he busted it out. He's so gross and I hate that he's essentially on the right side in this whole Finley thing.

I think Josh's insecurity is less about age and firsts and more about what David said to him at the hospital in the last episode. The tattoo thing is a bit squicky but IMO not really from Josh's side - I read it as being something she suggested. It's squicky because her motivations are all over the place, and the scene was shot to make it look like she was giving in to something she really didn't want, but have we ever seen Josh even mention the idea of wanting to give her a tattoo? Obviously he's thrilled to do it, but (unpopular opinion) I just don't see him as the bad guy in this situation. I don't know - the Liza-Josh-Charles thing is all kind of gross. The endgame is so obvious and I feel like the writers are making Josh look more and more unappealing so that Charles looks better, but I just feel bad for the guy - he's in love with her and she's all over the place. He's being immature and insecure but I think it's partly his age and partly because he can tell that something's up.

The assumption, because they only showed four votes for Hannah, would be that Will voted for Zeke. I think he could argue that, and he could go into handwriting, and they'd 98% believe him. But you are talking about David, Ken, Hannah and Adam here. I like them all but they've all shown themselves to be a little on the paranoid side - that 2% isn't nothing, and if he does something sketchy next episode, that 2% could turn into something more. He could, on the other hand, go back to Sunday and Bret and Jay and swear that he didn't switch. And he doesn't know why they didn't show that last vote for Hannah but honestly he really really didn't. And they might not 100% believe him, but they'd want to believe him, and that might be enough. Or it might not, and he's sunk with both sides for even trying. It's an interesting position and I'm just curious to see how it affects his game.

I don't love the family visits and I don't hate them but you can't do them when there are nine people left. Those intros and the crying and the hugging goes on for soooooo looooooong when there are that many people. I will say though that I didn't realise how filthy and tanned the players were until you put them all next to their pale, pale relatives. And David's dad coming out in jeans and a heavyweight dark shirt? Somehow perfect for David's Dad. Ken! I have been on Team Ken from the beginning but that was some bad gameplay. And it wasn't even that he was indignant or panicked about his name coming up. He was like 'that... doesn't make sense!' (or something similar) - it wasn't just surprise, but confusion. I don't think he stands much of a chance, but in terms of winners edits the fact that he talked about winning the million for his daughter twice and didn't get voted out bodes well for him. It's so funny to me that Hannah may be paranoid and jumpy but both times she's sworn it was her she's been right. And it's even funnier the way she reacts to other people in her alliance doing dumb bonehead paranoid things - both with Adam a couple of weeks ago and with Ken now she's rolling her eyes and being the voice of reason and just annoyed at their insanity. I think she's actually got quite a head for Survivor - she know the right things to do and she can read people and situations well. Unfortunately, she doesn't have the emotional fortitude to follow through (hence choking with Zeke last week). So Adam didn't need to play his idol but they didn't show all the votes so nobody will ever know that Will did indeed make his big move (which, I mean, wasn't that big - flipping from the bottom of your alliance at nine is not bad play but it's not AMAZING). He was annoying me so much with all that talk about wanting credit and big moves and blah blah blah that I'm kind of glad, but I can't decide if this is brilliant for him or terrible. On one hand, the person he wanted out is gone, Adam's idol is gone and he can go back to his old alliance and swear on his grandma's life or whatever that he didn't flip, and they'll never know for sure. On the other, they probably won't believe him, and it's possible that neither will Ken/David/Hannah/Adam. ETA. Adam's reward advantage non-play. This was a good way to do it. In fact, in any other reward, I think it would have been kind of cool if he could have said to whoever won and said 'look, I could use this and claim the reward, but if you take me, I won't and I'll give it to you', and then the player who had it did the same. It makes it a sort of currency instead of a poisoned chalice, maybe?

My unpopular opinions would be that I loved Kim and I thought her win was masterful from the beginning. I remember thinking about 2/3 of the way through that if she didn't win I'd be devastated and it would be so unfair. One World had some totally awful players but overall I liked it much more than I think most people did. On the other hand, I hated Tony. I hated Spencer too. And Tasha. And Woo. And Kass had her moments but ultimately I hated her too. In fact, I hated Cagayan as a whole and everyone raved about it and I just couldn't get any enjoyment from it. It could have been that it came after FvF2 and BvW both of which had their moments but ultimately felt like slow, inevitable marches towards their inveitable, annoying winners (never was a Cochran or Tyson fan) and Cagayan felt much the same.

I feel like viewers disagree a lot but this season has had a few (more than what's usual) players like that - Hannah, Michaela, Jay, Ken, Michelle, Zeke. It's like they've cast this bunch of oddballs and we're not really sure how to take them. I'm really enjoying it.

Agreed. I hated Val when I watched these episodes as a teen because she was mean to The Gang and I though The Gang were so great, but now I'm totally Team Val. She's eye-rolling on behalf of all of us.

I'd add Will to this list, I think. At first I thought I'd add Bret too but I actually don't know if his drunken boob edit is supposed to be as offputting as it is, or if we're supposed to be charmed by his realness.

Exactly! I love rocks because it's the exact opposite of three-more-days/anyone-but-me gameplay. It's playing to win by taking a calculated risk - in this case, if you pick rocks, you have a 1/6 chance of going home, and a 1/2 chance of taking out someone in the opposite alliance... or you flip and guarantee your alliance is in the minority and that you'd get zero votes at FTC, which you won't make anyway, because your alliance is in the minority, and no longer your alliance - and the other one doesn't need you. Jessica's post-game interviews suggest the only thing she regrets is picking up the first rock she touched - and rightly so.

But at that point - after a second vote - would that be enough, or does unanimous mean unanimous? After two tied votes, it's a discussion and they need to reach a unanimous decision or go to rocks, so if then, say, Will said 'look, I honestly don't care, Zeke should go', could Bret and Sunday have stood firm and forced rocks? There's speculating that Jessica should have flipped but as I understand it, if she was going to, it should have been before the second vote because after that just HER flipping isn't enough? (I'm wondering out loud more than anything - in this case both sides were holding pretty firm but could one player theoretically force rocks even though everyone else had agreed on a vote out?)

The contestants could have decided to settle it in one of those ways (or something similarly random), and I don't think Jeff could have stopped them, but as a producer-mandated solution to ties, I love the P(B)ROD. It flips the target and makes the voters vulnerable - not their alliance, but them, personally. And given we've only seen it come into play three(?) times in 33 seasons, it's obviously a good deterrent. Any producer-mandated solution where the two targets stay the targets gives voters no incentive to switch, and I think we'd end up seeing ties all the time. It kind of plays into why I love Survivor as a whole. To win, you need to get to the end, but you need to do so in a way where the people you've beaten still want to give you a million dollars. You can't just steamroll through, Russell-Hantz-style and expect the win. The PROD says 'go ahead, force a tie, but be aware - it might cost you.' I like that everything you do in the game has consequences. Me too. For me with Hannah it mostly comes down to the fact that she reminds me so much of me (which makes it amusing to read all the hate she gets, and reinforces my long-held thought that I should never, ever do it). It wasn't even a bad move - it was a fine idea, but she just choked on the execution. It was such a 'Okay, Mr Burns, what's your first name?' 'I... don't... know...' moment and to her credit, she realised it right away. I don't think I've ever noticed Ken's eyes before - they're so pretty. And that whole sunrise thing was super-cheesy but still somehow adorable. I feel like so much of what he does walks that line and on someone else it'd be eyeroll-worthy but he pulls it off. I wish David had played his idol correctly, but given he didn't I'm glad he played it for Ken and made it so he was safe during the whole rock thing. I'm confused about the timeline of the rest of the season - we're eleven episodes in and there are still nine players. So six going into the finale? Or a double between now and then?

One thing I'm confused about is Zeke's 'you don't tell people they're on the bottom that they're on the bottom because they'll flip' thing with Adam. Like... sure, you don't tell people on the bottom *of your alliance* that they're on the bottom, because they might flip, but I've never really noticed a problem with people from the majority alliance telling people from the minority alliance that they're on the bottom. It's not politically fantastic (although it has sometimes in the past been seen as the opposite - being honest and upfront instead of trying to give the minority alliance hope when there isn't any) but it's not like it's going to cause them to flip - they're *already* on the other side. It just reads like one of those things where Zeke doesn't like Adam and so everything Adam does is the worst thing ever.

This was so satisfying. Taylor is such an ass, and given his real-life situation I loved how much of the 'I'm doing it for Figgy' talk the editors got in there. That's gotta be awkward to watch with your family. This season has been frustrating but I do like the mix of personalities - there's a nice collection of oddballs and I know people like Hannah, David and Adam divide opinion but I kinda like the energy they add to the game. They can get annoying but they're not mean-spirited, and Ken is hilarious. Jay is playing hard, but I'm not sure about well. Turning the attention to Taylor last night was good in case they were undecided in which one of the two to vote out but I think mostly he's a little too cold. He's probably the one player I'm actively cheering against. He's playing, yes, but he's also very entitled. His outrage at being on the bottom and the huffiness at seeing his name came up (even though he had to know it was going to) just rubbed me the wrong way.

They were only together for a bit before they got pregnant, but then they had the whole of the (okay, shortened, but *still*) pregnancy to discuss this stuff. At this point it really feels like the writers just giving Andrea something to do, and tarnishing Jesse a bit so that the whole Peter thing doesn't look so bad, maybe? But like the business storylines, and the student politics storylines, I can't understand why they think any of the show's key demographic would actually CARE. ETA. And it's true that Andrea would probably be too busy to make many Mom-friends *now*, but Hannah was a premmie who was in hospital for ages. Surely there would have been other parents around then, with their also-premmies? Support groups? I just can't believe that she hasn't met ANY other parents (excluding Jim and Cindy).

Yep. Jesse's attitude is the worst too. They're both just such dumb parents. When I'm feeling generous I want to give them a pass because they are young and they don't have any other parents around them to bounce this stuff off. When I had my kids having other parents around you could have coffee with and be like 'so we were thinking of taking Hannah to midnight mass' so they could look at you like you were mad and say 'oh, god, no' was invaluable. And... when I overthink it... why doesn't Andrea have those friends. Surely there are groups on campus for parents? She'd probably have met some other parents if she'd gone down the daycare path, but still... take your kid to the park, strike up conversations with other mothers. Oh, wait - they're not part of the gang so it's forbidden. (Incidentally, and very hesitantly, I don't actually see anything *fundamentally* wrong with taking a baby to almost any event where they're welcome. Ours did a whole lot of things when they were super-little, including funerals (family, and everyone in the family insisted they be there) - but you always had a plan worked out beforehand. It's not that hard - "if he starts crying I'll take him for a walk" or "we'll get there early and put him in the stroller and walk him in circles for fifteen minutes so he's asleep by the time it starts" or "if he doesn't settle I'll take him to my mothers house and come back and pick you up" or "I won't feed him beforehand but during so he's got something in his mouth for most of it and therefore quiet" and lots and lots of "and if *that* doesn't work..." NOT "we'll take her and when she cries we'll freak out like it's never happened before and we have no idea what to do." That's just ridiculous and by the time they're six months old, completely unrealistic.)

Looking back, if someone offered me even $100 to quit dating most of the guys I was dating at that age, I probably *should* have taken it. Ah, youth and stupidity... I am an athiest and most people I know are either athiests or at best, mildly religious, but Santa photos are a pretty standard thing. I would never associate them with being one religion or another, just with... being consumers and suckers for cute-dumb things. And babies always cry. It's practically the law. Andrea's angst about everything to do with Hannah is ridiculous, even for an anxious, overthinking first-time parent and that's coming from an anxious overthinking two-time parent. I mean, I worried about everything but even I knew six-month-olds didn't care about religious traditions (or lack thereof). This whole season has felt so alien to me. I know I've seen it all, but I can't remember much of it and what I can is all in the wrong order. And it goes on for soooooo long.

Thank you! I thought I was paying more attention than I usually do but I got to the result and was so lost. I'm glad I'm not the only one. Also surprising because I would have figured Michelle to get a bigger edit in her boot episode, given her early gameplay. When we didn't see any votes but one for Adam I thought he might get all/most of them and it'd come down to him going or him idolling someone out, so this came out of left field. Otherwise, a big meh. Disappointing to see yet another woman go, but that's pretty much all I've got.

This. I've got problems with Hannah but I honestly don't see how her annoying Adam and Zeke was intentionally nasty and not just oblivious. Sure, it's pointless and unhelpful and annoying, but it's not morally bad or - really?!? - evil. YMMV, but I guess I come from the position of having a similar fill-the-silence arguing style - I find it necessary to get things off my chest and if people are mad at me I find it difficult to step away and let them calm down without trying (and trying and trying) to explain myself. If she's anything like me - and she does seem to be, in some ways - there was probably a very loud voice in her head telling her to be quiet and walk away and give them time but then her mouth just. kept. going. I guess if it was intentional, I don't see why she'd be doing it. It didn't put her in a good position, game(or anything)-wise. Ditto the panic attack. Why would you deliberately want to put a target on yourself like that?

From an editing/structural point of view, that was such an interesting episode. On the one hand, it was the classic 'inevitable downfall' story, where there's a hell of a lot of foreshadowing and every confessional leaves you thinking 'no! don't say that out loud!' except that the downfall-ee in those cases usually comes off looking like a bit of an ass, so their vote-out is satisfying as hell. But Michaela's gotten such a positive edit (YMMV, obviously, but I think the intention has been positive) that I was sitting there in a Hannah-like-state at the end. I think I'm on team 'bad move', as much as I see the arguments for getting rid of Michaela. I don't actually think Michaela would have been a bitter jury member though. She would have been hella pissed for the first night at Ponderosa, and then she would have gotten over it and respected the move. She's intense and focussed, but she's also been shown as having a sense of humour about herself and the game, IMO. I'm always trying to get people into Survivor and I keep coming up against this whole argument that it's so obviously rigged. This is one of those results that proves otherwise, IMO. Production might lead people to idols and skew tribal divisions and run challenges that favour some players over the other, but at the end of the day, they can't control the vote. It's why I love Survivor, and why sometimes I hate it.

I don't want to bring more attention to this post than it deserves but this is awfully similar to 'I know a couple of POC who... *insert outdated, offensive stereotype here* so it's probably true for all of them' logic. With a side of really, really not understanding the issues affecting these people and causing them to act the way they are. I'd also like to thank the people in this forum who are sharing their experiences of mental health issues, especially @SlackerInc, whose last paragraph was so, so important. I don't like or dislike Hannah particularly, but I think the whole thing was handled well by everyone there. I also don't have a problem with her being cast or applying to be on Survivor. If everyone with mental health issues (in Australia, the stats are 1 in 4 people suffering a MI at some point in their lives, so that's a LOT of people) stayed at home and avoided putting themselves stressful situations... wouldn't that just be playing into the stereotype even more?

This brings up an interesting thing though - I know there's editing reaction shots are rarely actual reaction shots but Figaroo was the last vote read out, right? So Ken would have known he was safe once as soon as he saw the second vote for Figgy, knowing his own vote was still to come. I know the last person to have their vote read out would always know the outcome before Jeff reveals it, but given he was the other target, that's some good pokerface.