Lingo

Well, we only get one more Ponderosa video, right? That's too bad, I'm really enjoying these. I feel like I've gotten to know the players much more in these videos than on the show itself. Joe is a really big fan, Hali and Tyler have actual personalities, I learned more about Shirin's background, and Jen...well okay maybe I didn't learn more about her! Jenn was Jenn on the show.

Well what you could do is vote every day until the finale and just not vote for her again. Rupert wasn't even voted out. He switched places with his wife when SHE was voted out, then lost a RI challenge. It's noteworthy because it's a unique way of losing Survivor. He didn't win, didn't lose a jury vote, didn't get voted out, didn't draw an unlucky rock, didn't quit, and wasn't evacuated. (And unlike the first two out of Palau, he was actually on a tribe at first, if only for a few minutes.) (Did I miss any other way to lose?) ETA: Didn't lose a fire-making challenge to Stephenie in Palau.

For the most part, I voted old-school and for people of color. My votes -- men: Jeff V: Old-school, gave great interview. Shane P: Because he was crazy, and I remember it being hilarious, though once he's back on I may change my mind. Stephen F: Kinda old-school. Will probably be voted out quickly due to his high profile, but I gotta see some fellow nerds on here. Plus he definitely earned a second chance! Andrew S: To be honest, I really don't get the Cult of Savage. Maybe it's because I've only seen Pearl Islands once, but I barely remember the guy, but it seems like his name is dropped around here a lot as a great player who deserves a second chance, and I'm always "Really??" But he's old school and people seem to like him, so I voted for him. Vytas: He was an interesting character in BvW, a bit shady and willing to get his hands dirty, compelling backstory. Keith: Because dude cracked me up. "Stick to the plan!" Spencer: A little too full of himself, probably overrated, but compelling enough. Jeremy: Like Spencer, I want to see if he can live up to his reputation. How good are you really if you're voted out in the middle of the game? But compelling. Joe: Because I didn't want to vote for the others. Nice enough, big fan. Mike: Because I didn't want to vote for the others. But I think he won't make it because I think he actually won Worlds Apart. (If he doesn't, I may throw away my TV.) These are the ones I REALLY didn't want to vote for: Terry: I voted for everyone in the first 18 seasons except this guy, because he's smug and overrated. No strategic or social skill. Bleh. Brad Culpepper: Sexist asshole. "Fuck you Brad Culpepper!" Troyzan: sexist crazy idiot. Bleh. And these I just weren't sure about: Jim Rice: just not memorable. Max: Not interesting enough to vote for. Woo: For some reason I'm willing to forgive Natalie her bone-headed move of taking Rob to the end, but not willing to forgive Woo his bone-headed move of taking Tony to the end. I think it's because Woo is still kinda defending that move and because he's still talking about being true to his "martial-art values" (actual quote)! Now the women -- I voted for: Kelly: Wow! I didn't think she'd ever want to play again. Absolutely. Kimmi: Even though she was annoying, I voted for her because she's old-school. Teresa: Old-school sweetheart. Peih-Gee: Old-school, and b/c I feel sorry for her because she was bullied by James. Mikayla: I feel sorry for her because of her victimization by Brandon. Athletic. Shirin: Reluctantly voted for her because I felt sorry for her, even though I know she'll just annoy everyone again and be voted out first. Ciera: She voted out her mom! I always thought she deserved a second chance. Tasha: Absolutely. Underdog challenge beast. Sabrina: Not particularly memorable, but she was a runner-up and POC. Natalie Tennerelli: Rob's little helper. Yes I really voted for her! Like Amber before her, I'm curious to see how she would do if she weren't under Rob's shadow. Unlike Woo, she's not really defensive about her poor play. As for the women I didn't vote for: Kelley Wentworth: I almost voted for her because I wanted to see if she was really as much as a threat as her reputation suggested. But ultimately not memorable. Stephanie: I didn't remember her until watching her video. Russel Hantz's little helper in Redemption Island. She reminded me that she was a bit of a spit-fire on her tribe after being voted out, so I was a little tempted to vote for her for that reason. Monica: Memorable, but just for being a pretty face. Neither here nor there. Carolyn: I really liked her at the beginning of the season, for finding the idol and being a challenge beast and being assertive and not falling into the crying mom trap like so many other older ladies. I still respect her gameplay. But now she seems unpleasant and an instigator of Shirin's ostracism. So no. Abi-Maria: You know, I was almost tempted to vote for her, because she owned up to her bad behavior like a champ after the season. But then I watched her video and remembered how annoying she was and how much her voice grated. So no. Kass: No. Just no. All that said, given the fact I can vote once a day, I might switch up a few of those bottom votes later.

They have two different philosophies about the race. This was what the big airport blowup was about in this week's bonus video. She was VERY upset that he kept giving information away to other teams, e.g. he told Laura and Tyler about the earlier flight that J&J and B&H snagged. She was upset because L&T could have gotten a chance on the flight via standby. His response: So what? As long as we're not last, it doesn't matter. In her mind, EVERY SINGLE SECOND matters, whereas Jelani is more strategic about when a lead matters. I have to admit that in that situation I'd be more like Jenny, but she's got to realize that acting as if EVERY SECOND matters is going to drive them to killer fatigue.

I still hold out hope that this team can win. Let's not forget that they've actually won a leg (or two?), unlike Amy and Maya before the finale.

This episode was the story of how arguably the strongest and most competent team remaining, Tyler and Laura, would have been eliminated due to their multiple mistakes in this leg -- if Matt and Ashley hadn't made all the same mistakes! It was painful to watch, since Matt and Ashley were my favorites and every time T&L made a mistake, it gave me a glimmer of hope for a few seconds that M&A could somehow squeak by. But it was not to be. Not that I particularly wanted Tyler and Laura to be eliminated -- they're my favorite blind-date team because they're so calm and competent -- but it would have been quite a twist to see such a strong team eliminated like that. Really, who I wanted to see eliminated were one of the two teams that made it onto the first flight, due to their propensity for argument (how I hate arguments!), but that just wasn't going to happen, so I was bummed out early into this episode. It hurt even more that Matt and Ashley had so many chances to get back into it but blew them all. Interesting moments from the bonus videos: 1. It was Jenny's birthday as well! (The same day as Laura's, or maybe the previous or following day.) 2. "Chickens with their heads cut off" is such a perfect description of Matt and Ashley (God bless them). There's an extended bonus clip of the two of them right after the Speed Bump trying to figure how how to get their next clue (Ashley keeps trying to find the Plaza they're already in, and Matt is convinced they have to find the keys to the taxi waiting for them). They wander around for maybe 5 minutes before they figure out that the clue's at the same shoeshine where their Speed Bump clue was!

Definitely not just you! I thought for sure that that's what Tyler was referring to when he said it. But someone else in this thread mentioned James Brown, so if you told me James Brown said it first, I'd believe you.

You know, sometimes I feel a smidgen of sympathy for Hayley, because she WAS right about the street and Blair just ignored her, and I can't have been the only one to notice that she figured out all the rebus clues before Blair did. But then she just goes on and on and my sympathy is gone. Mike and Rochelle may be too polite for the race. There's a Bonus clip in which they all leave the airport and there's a huge line of people lined up waiting for cabs. Mike and Rochelle jump in the line and all the other teams just cut to the front and take off. Eventually M&R decide they have to cut too, but they feel really bad about it afterwards. SO relieved Matt and Ashley were saved, because they are my favorite couple left...which probably means they're eliminated next, because almost every eliminated couple (though not Kurt and Bergen) were my favorite when they were eliminated.

So speaking of evidence, there's a secret scene on the CBS website: before they publicly accused Will of hiding the good food, Mike, Jenn, and Shirin actually went out to search for Will's secret stash, and FOUND the cooler in the ground where he left it, because he left the flag there. They were convinced he'd hid the food so they were calling him a "dumbass" for leaving the flag there (especially Jen). Then they dug up the cooler and of course found nothing inside. The funny thing is that they were still convinced that he's hiding food somewhere else because they think the cooler can hold a lot more than what he shared with them! So that's when they (Jenn and Shirin at least) go back to camp and make the accusation. Personally I really liked this episode. I mean sure, there's a lot of not-so-likeable people here, but a bunch of stuff HAPPENED that completely turned the game on its end and made the rest of the game a lot less predictable, and that's a good episode. I don't have to completely like these people to appreciate the twists and turns (and I still like Mike and Shirin, and don't see anything particularly bad about Sierra, Tyler, or Carolyn).

Yes! I came into this thread to see if anyone else had posted about this, because it's so baffling. At the start of that second clip, you can hear Hayley whisper to Laura something like, "Ugh, he's so embarrassing. Everything he says. Just listen to him." And Blair's telling the camera (and his stylist) how he was so embarrassed in bermuda because the local news station thought he was a girl because of his long hair. And Laura and I appeared to be equally baffled by Hayley's commentary. Like, is she embarrassed because he's talking about a time he was embarrassed? Or maybe it's embarrassing because he's always talking about going on nice vacations with his rich family? That's the only thing I can come up with. And OH, it just burns me up every time how they check into the pit stop and talk about how much they fight and they just giggle and laugh like they think it's adorable or something!

Aw dammit, this was my favorite Blind Date couple! Not least because they got along the best, but also because Jackie is one tough lady, and I appreciated the fact that she took no shit but could also have a lot of fun on the way. Why couldn't it have been Hayley and Blair, or even Jenny and Jelani?? Jeff and Jackie for All-Stars!

I'm watching the rerun again right now...he doesn't really seem to be enjoying himself much during the cons (ladies or no).

No, Marco was just pissed because Jimmy was in town and didn't call him. Jimmy felt guilty about that. Did anyone else get momentarily confused when Marco was talking about "standpipes" and think, "Huh? Marco works for Sandpiper?" Odd choice of words. Do you think they intentionally chose similar-sounding words?? Yeah, this episode felt "muddy" to me too. I'm not quite sure I get why he suddenly changed his mind at the end. I'll have to think about it. At least at the very end of the season, we can say that it wasn't due to yet another stroke of bad luck or abuse. He chose his path for himself. Also, I can't explain why, but I hate hate HATED that goofy montage in the middle of the episode of Jimmy and Marco apparently conning people left and right, with the dumb mood lighting and the talking directly to the camera. I dunno why, it just felt lazy and overly long. I don't know if it was 7 minutes, but I felt like they could have cut that whole thing and gotten the episode in under an hour.

Yeah, Jenn is spirited and funny ... but I can't quite shake off my earlier impression of her and Hali (and maybe Joe) of being shallow and privileged and a bit mean. It's kind of telling that all of the older people who have played with them seem to dislike them, tried to remove themselves from their alliance and targeted them. Nina, Vince, and Kelly have all said something to that effect, and from what I'm hearing from Kelly's interviews, Will and Carolyn appear to have distanced themselves for similar reasons.

Would it honestly make a difference on that show??

It feels like every other season or so there's someone in the cast who everyone seems to hate and pick on for some reason, and on the show they come across as a pitiable underdog, more or less, but even after the show many in the cast still harsh on them. And usually it's a small, young girl. I'm thinking of Baylor, and Sierra from Coach's first season (Erinn too to some extent), and Eliza both times she played. I always end up feeling sorry for them.

Not to mention her good buddy Joaquin. /sarcasm

With all the focus on Rodney's plans, Rodney's feelings, Rodney Rodney Rodney the last couple of episodes, I'm more than a little worried that somehow he'll pull out the win! It seems really unlikely -- he seems like a good goat to take actually -- but maybe if he got to the end with two people perceived as floaters (Will and ??) and argued forcefully that it was all his doing, then I dunno, maybe he'd get enough Blue votes to pull it out somehow.

I don't know -- can you hold 55 pounds like that, squeezing them against your chest with cramped hands? In the online clips Phil says each stein with beer is like 5 pounds, and even the Olympians said their muscles ached afterwards. Apparently they went wakeboarding the day before in Thailand, and they said they wouldn't have been able to carry them if it were one day previous. I think it was smart of Blair and Hayley to switch detours. With that said, she is one bitter pill and I really want them eliminated immediately.

Ugh, dear CBS website: please stop making me watch the same 30-second car commercial before every. single. bonus clip. AAUGH!! The ironic thing is that the commercial wasn't even for a Ford Focus -- it was a Nissan! Speaking of car commercials, it sounds like you guys who watched the show live got to see some kind of behind-the-scenes stuff about the Focuses and the "Winter Wonderland"? That wasn't in the online version. I'm a little curious about what I missed. Speaking of bonus clips, there's one really funny one of four of the guys (Jelani, Steve, Tyler, and Matt) in the airport on one of those people conveyor belts doing the "Ladyboy" dance together, while the ladies laughed and took pictures. It's pretty great. Free Blair! Definitely! Also, free Bergen. He has all my sympathy. You can't drag an unwilling teammate around the world. I also have complete sympathy for those who didn't know stick. "Oh they applied, they should have practiced before the race"--whatever. We all lead busy lives. We all say we're going to do things that we end up not doing. You apply for the show, maybe half a dozen times even, and you have no idea if you're gonna get picked, and you forget about it and life goes on, and then maybe they suddenly call and you have two weeks before you fly to LA. And maybe it's not so easy to find a car owner that's gonna let you mangle their car as you practice. And honestly I'm surprised there's not more discussion of Jeff and Jackie's spat. There's a 3-minute bonus clip of their fight online, and I have to say, I'm solidly on Jackie's side. Jeff was being a huge ass in that moment. She kept asking him to just respect her, but he just kept demanding Jackie to shut up over and over again, and wouldn't stop until he could completely dominate her verbally. He apologized but it was completely insincere. I was kinda disgusted by his behavior. It's getting more and more uncomfortable to watch the blind-date couples. This season is slowly turning into the bickering nightmare we expected it to be. I hope all 3 remaining established couples make it to the final leg (especially since they're all adorable in their own ways).

I have a feeling that the No Collars are being edited as the "lovable" underdogs that are still doomed, ala the Brains from last year (Will is kinda the Kass of the tribe). They're not so lovable in my eyes but I don't dislike them much either. I can see them getting much further than they really should, just like the Brains did, but it's hard to see one of them winning now, especially since they're so hell-bent on getting Joe out. But you never know! I'm skeptical that they're gonna re-hide Jenn's idol, since Carolyn still has hers and the Blue tribe's idol hasn't been found yet. Typically after the merge, they don't rehide idols until there's only one left. Malcolm's second idol was a notable exception, as was last spring's "Tyler Perry Idol", and I think Fiji was also an exception. But I think in all those cases there was only one idol still in the game when they hid the second one. So I think Jenn's will be gone.

Well, as far as short-term plans go, obviously if there was any chance she would have flipped, we would have heard from her. But I would have still liked to hear her reasoning, as well as any longer-term plans she has (which Kelly may not be privy to).

The merge episode was nice in that we got to hear what every potential swing vote was thinking and where there head was at this point: Carolyn, Tyler, Kelly, Will, Rodney, and Shirin. All except Sierra, that is. I was disappointed not to hear what her plans were.

You took all the words out of my mouth. In fact, I'll go on to say (and agree with Hera) that Rodney's plan may also be a big factor in the decision to go with the BCs. I can actually see the alliance of 7 take out Joe, Jenn, and Hali, and then Rodney, Will, Carolyn, and Tyler take out Mike, Dan, and Sierra. Then they vote out Will at F4, and Tyler and Carolyn take Rodney to the F3 as their goat. Assuming Carolyn and Tyler don't backstab each other before then, because at that point each of them is the other's biggest competition. Basically every single time?? No he wasn't. I don't remember exactly when Rodney dropped out, but the final four were Joe, Carolyn, Jenn, and Hali. That second paragraph is where you lose me, because I think Mike was thinking precisely about the HII. If Will had told the NCs that they were voting for Hali, then Jenn would have given the idol to Hali to play vainly and Jenn would have gone home. That would have been perfect for Mike. As it was, with the WCs on their side they didn't need Will's vote, so it was safer to test his loyalty this way. This is exactly how Earl and co. handled Dreamz at the Edgardo vote. Will might be stung by the lie, but he doesn't have many options anyway, and he's a pretty cool-headed player so he may let this pass. What?? They split the vote last week!! They had a majority and yet they voted in two separate blocs!! Plus Sierra told the other guys she's ready to ditch the BC guys. Well this is really episode 7 you know, since Ep 5 was actually two episodes. And yeah, it's been pretty common in recent seasons for them to merge in Ep 7.

To me, him taking the cake shows that he's still an insensitive douche. If you just crush a guy's hopes and dreams with a fake smile plastered over your face (even if you're doing it on behalf of his cowardly brother), you don't then swipe the guy's cake too. I still think Hamlin's a dick, just maybe not as big of one as he seemed before. Those idiot twins would eventually have stumbled onto the path of someone as dangerous as Tuco with or without Jimmy. They're lucky he stuck his neck out to save their lives. Hopefully they learned something from that.