jsm1125

While I generally like Spencer, he rubbed me the wrong way in his confessional where he told us that he felt like he had to talk to Joe like he was a dense jock. While Joe may not be a master strategist, he never struck me as simple-minded!

I remember hearing Probst telling Kass that she was the first member of the jury. It's random, but some seasons had the first merge boot be part of the jury, like Samoa, Nicaragua, Redemption Island, South Pacific, One World, Philippines, and Cagayan. Though it's hard to say if San Juan Del Sur would have put the first merge boot on the jury had Julie not quit in 12th place.

Why the hell did Savage expect loyalty from Ciera when he made it clear that she was at the bottom of Old Takeo in his mind? Paging Wigglesworth and Kimmi... Who was the lone vote for Savage? Wigglesworth? I know Keith voted for Kass, and I would imagine that everyone else seemed to be tightly allied with at least one other person. Color me surprised that Abi Maria did not receive one confessional tonight and that she didn't vote with the majority (I think she voted for Tasha).

I second Kimberstormer's mantra of crying on Survivor and in general. Many people get emotional about something game-related on Survivor, whether it be through anger, fear, frustration, or jealousy. Tears are a response to an emotional state, but for some reason, this particular response seems to be lambasted more than any other. Having said that, while I understand Stephen's frustration at the others not sharing his sentiment of getting Joe out of the game, I have a feeling that given Joe has played more recently than anyone else and as an obvious immunity and likability threat, Joe will be a target soon enough.

I just realized that literally half the cast has still not received any votes agains them, and we are already at the merge! The only remaining players who have been voted for are Spencer, Wigglesworth, and Abi Maria.

I'm astonished but pleasantly surprised that neither Kass, Abi Maria nor Ciera were even on the chopping block this episode. I was hoping for a Savage blindside, especially when he said "I'm not going anywhere" earlier in the episode. I'm surprised we didn't see Ciera try to get people to rally against him.

I didn't realize that the episode thread would be open before 9 PM EST. I'm not a huge Woo fan, but watching him and Joe during the reward challenge was an impressive thing of beauty. I could have done without seeing 120120 shots of Spencer make faces during the immunity challenge.

Between Freddie Smith and Casey Moss, it seems to be a trend that charismatic young male actors on this show are getting into legal trouble. Here's hoping that Billy Flynn isn't next.

I don't believe that Ciera was at the bottom of the voting, as she has gotten way too much pimpage from Probst for her game in B vs. W. I think she easily received more votes than at least Monica, Peih-Gee, Wentworth, and Kimmi.

Yep, Mike successfully threw the last pre-merge challenge to save Kelly, who was the first booted at the merge, and who probably had a better social game than basically everyone else that season (isn't it a sad testament to that season when arguably the best social player didn't even make the jury?). I don't believe that Kelly was in actual danger at that tribal council, as IIRC, Shirin would have been the next boot on that tribe had Kelly gone to tribal council. That season actually had such promise pre-merge.

From what Cesternino has said, while the winner of the first All Stars season still won $1 million (pre-tax), the prize money for 2nd through 18th finishers was higher than in any other season.

I know that Abi Maria and Kass were two of those women, though Kelly Wigglesworth and Tasha were not on that list of five "no shot" women.

I want to like Kimmi, but it's a pet peeve of mine when somebody cites "she is playing for herself" in a confessional as a reason to vote somebody off. Why didn't Kimmi, Stephen or Jeremy clue Kelly and/or Spencer into the vote for Monica? Now they know that they have no shot at being higher than fourth in that group. I knew Kelly wasn't going anywhere when she hadn't received a single confessional this episode. Disappointed that Monica went home so early, as I thought she had a lot of potential in Samoa. Even in this episode, she didn't come off that poorly to me.

Does anybody else think that Ken has been done with/over this show for quite some time and is too insecure or worried about seeing seen as a quitter to admit it?

The Tandang tribe went 19 days before going to tribal council in the Philippines.

Kimmi, Ciera? Are you there? I think it's interesting that Probst called both Terry and Andrew by their last names but only Jeremy by his first name during the reward challenge. I liked Tasha's "Not Probst" vote for Jeff.

It's interesting how Woo, despite having gone to tribal council in all three episodes, has only averaged one confessional per episode.

Whatever happened to Marybeth, Paige's friend who hated JJ and who pretended that she had broken her arm to get Paige away from him at the party?

I didn't really care for Katie, though I always liked her dynamic with Maya. She always struck me as an opportunistic jerk that we were supposed to believe was actually an overachieving do-gooder. I'm still annoyed that she never received any fallback from the foiling the cafeteria incident. I never found Dylan attractive. His features seemed way too pointy to me, though I think we were supposed to view him as a stud.

I actually like Kass and have since she played in Cagayan, but let's not forget that she didn't start pissing people off until the merge, which is still a long way away.

I think Spencer had an aired confessional last night were he said that Abi is like a deadly cancer. That might be what Peih-Gee is referring to.

I wonder if it was possible, given the vote split to flush out a potential hidden immunity idol, for Shirin and Spencer to try to work with Peih-Gee and Kelley to send home whoever they please, especially if Kelly, Woo, Terry, Abi Maria, and Varner end up on the wrong side of the vote with a (presumably) 4-3-2 vote split? I know that Kelley has the hidden immunity idol, but rejecting this plan could put suspicion on her as having the idol. Plus, it seemed that Peih-Gee and Kelley genuinely wanted to work with Shirin and Spencer until the challenge loss.

Savage made my skin crawl tonight. Maybe it was just wishful thinking or the editing, but it looked like Ciera wasn't buying into his story, so I am hoping that she and Stephen can work together eventually.

Given that Varner, who is providing awesome confessionals, both pings my gaydar and told her in the previous sentence that he thinks she is fabulous, I was less grossed out by this than some.

Did Savage's confessional regarding Stephen's comment about Jeremy seem self-involved to anyone else? "Maybe he wanted to have a moment thinking about his wife because of my story?" Because it's all about you, isn't it... Is Peih-Gee on anyone's radar? I think both Spencer and Shirin left her out of their confessionals entirely about the opposing alliances. I loved the animal shots in this episode. I'm a bit surprised that Spencer, who is more likely to go on an immunity run than Shirin, wasn't the one sent home tonight.