Lingo

There's been a few 3-way ties, but they're all cases of a supermajority splitting their vote to flush out an idol. The first one (3-3-3) was the vote to oust Russell Hantz in Redemption Island. 3 for Russell, 3 for his lackey, 3 for whomever Russell's group voted for. On the revote, the group of 6 ousted Russell. Well, we did see it in the preview ... pretty sure that's not live ;) I can see it happening at F6: Jeremy/Spencer/Tasha/Kimmi vs. Kelley/Keith. I assume they'd all revote with Jeremy and Kelley immune. Which probably means Keith goes home ... unless he has immunity. What would happen then? Maybe Jeremy and Spencer stay loyal to Tasha and vote for Kimmi, while Kelley and Keith gun for Tasha again...and Tasha and Kimmi vote for each other? Another tie maybe! Man, who knows. Jeff saying "for the first time in 31 seasons"...if it's a double idol play than it kinda doesn't make sense, because idols haven't been around that long. So I'm leaning towards a tie jury vote (that has to be broken by the 3rd place loser). Then again, that kinda doesn't make sense either, because a tie jury vote wouldn't have been possible in the early seasons either, before they started doing F3s and even-numbered juries. Idols have (barely) been around longer than F3s, so both theories make an equal amount of sense in my book. (shrug) Did they have a F5 last season? I seem to remember them squeezing more challenges into that finale than usual...I think one of them was a reward challenge, which they don't usually have in a final. Hard to see how they can fit in 4 Tribal Councils though!

I wonder why they ditched Glinda's curly golden wig. This link (that I copied from Previously.TV's twitter feed) has the producers explain why they made the changes they did. It appears that a big motivation is to make the TV special a launching pad for a revived Broadway production.

I don't know! But in a tie situation, where your only choice is to flip or draw a rock, it would be pretty tempting to switch your vote to challenge-beast Joe, especially once Stephen had already spent his advantage. If I had to pick, I'd say Kelley, or maybe Spencer. Probably the most likely to flip was actually Tasha, who'd voted for Stephen before. But it doesn't really matter what my opinion is, but Spencer's opinion. And the original question was whether Spencer should be nervous about Abi possibly flipping and creating a tie, to which I still say absolutely.

de Lancie looks like Alex Trebek in that screengrab. "I'll take 'Immortal Souls' for $1000, Alex."

I have to agree with your first paragraph. I know what they mean by the "voting blocs" and so forth because it does seem much less predictable than usual. In fact I'm having trouble remembering who voted for whom in each vote because there is no set-in-stone Group A vs. Group B dynamic that I can use to label everyone. There's Jeremy/Stephen and there's Ciera/Kelley/Abi and there's a whole lot of people inbetween. Your second paragraph also makes a good point: Stephen is much less of a threat once his advantage is gone. Actually, during the episode, I thought that Jeremy might try to strike a deal with Spencer and the others on the first vote, to vote out Ciera while trying to trick Stephen into wasting his advantage. Obviously, though, Stephen's loyalty was much more important to Jeremy. I do think his social/strategic game is probably better than it looks. I think people really like him. And I think there is actually a pretty good chance he could convince a majority to vote for him in the end. As for Mike, it's offtopic, but in retrospect it's a little baffling he beat Carolyn in the end because even though (or perhaps because) he was always lobbying for votes, it seems like he was really disliked out there, and maybe they voted for him only because he won so many challenges (though maybe I'm mistaking Dan's hatred for everyone's hatred). I remember freeze-framing on that parchment, reading those rules, and disbelieving them as written. It feels weird to me that the timing of his advantage would happen to come down to the order of people voting -- which is dependent on what? Where they sit? Jeff's whim? So the randomness of it is odd. And the way it was shown on TV, Stephen ended up voting last, which if it's based on seating doesn't make sense, since he was in the middle of the group. I think they edit the voting sequence out of order sometimes. Anyway, it's all moot, as I don't think it would have mattered when Stephen announced his play. I agree whole-heartedly about the CBS video player. I watch all my Survivor and TAR episodes with it and it's always a pain. I don't agree with your first paragraph because I think Stephen would have lost that runoff. He was doomed as soon as they decided to throw any votes at Abi. The more I think about it, though, the more I'm confused as to what Stephen and Jeremy's plan was. The way the episode was edited, their alliance seemed to be convinced that everyone was in on the plan to vote off Joe (the vote-Stephen plan was edited as a complete surprise). And they tried to convince Joe to vote Abi. So in Stephen's mind, the vote should have went 8-Joe, 1-Abi. But he (or Jeremy) was worried Joe may have built a counter-alliance and may have an idol. Now, with 9 players left in the game, if you think you have a solid voting block of 6 or more, then there's no need at all to use Stephen's advantage. Your 6-person block could vote 3-Joe and 3-Abi, and even if one of them plays an idol, you can vote the other off in a revote. Obviously you're even safer if you have 7 votes (or 8, if Abi also votes for Joe). But if you think the split is 5 to 4 (in your favor), then you've got a problem if Joe uses an idol. You can't split your vote or else you lose your majority. In this very particular case, it makes sense to steal a vote AND split the votes. Then, as above, you put 3 on Joe, 3 on Abi, and the opposition puts their 3 on Stephen. Then, again, you can win a revote whether or not an idol is played. This must have been what Stephen expected to happen. To repeat, it would have made no sense to steal a vote if the expected split were 6-3 or better. But the actual split was not 5 to 4, but 4 to 5. Now, here again, it of course makes sense to steal a vote, flipping it back to 5-4. But in this scenario there's no protection from an idol. Obviously it doesn't make sense to split your 5 votes, because you end up with exactly what actually happened. (Of course, if the split is 3 to 6 or even worse, then you're screwed no matter what.) So, either Stephen screwed up (which is certainly possible), or he must have suspected exactly a 5-4 split -- which doesn't exactly fit the blindside narrative we saw, but does explain why he speculated in his farewell that exactly one person, Spencer, flipped. (Then again, this scenario requires that the flipper was supposed to vote for Joe, whereas we saw Stephen ask Spencer to vote for Abi...I suppose they changed their mind later). To conclude, stealing a vote AND splitting your voting block in this situation makes sense only in a very narrow range of circumstances -- and, as usual, leaves you vulnerable to flippers. Even disregarding this particulars of this episode, it might be wiser in the general case to just steal the vote and hope no idol is played. Now in real life you don't know exactly how many votes are going each way. Stephen was probably trying to have his cake and eat it too by both stealing and splitting the votes. He just must not have expected a majority of the votes going against him. I fell for it too! I'm not sure what you mean, but if I interpreted it correctly, you're incorrect. If Abi had voted for Joe, then it would have been a 3/3/3 split vote, and the runoff vote would have been unpredictable with both Joe and Abi's votes negated.

Yeah, that's the part that's got me wondering, because I'm sure Justin knows the last 2 races had a final four, and I'd be surprised if the other teams don't know that as well. So if Phil's saying that about a non-elim, then I have to give him a serious eye-roll. So I have to think (or hope) that's it's something that would actually be surprising. Such as: it's a race for last between J&D and the cheerleaders, and J&D finish third -- but are penalized for breaking a rule or not following instructions and therefore end up last. Phil's voice-over did mention something about big mistakes. Of course, "Guess you didn't see that coming" could just be referring to the possibility of J&D coming in last. Is that actually right?? J&D and T&J had the same average in the first 7 legs?

I really think they are both equally annoying. Logan yells at Chris a lot but I get it because he always looks like he's wandering around with his head cut off. He never listens to her, and when she does a RB or an assigned task on a Detour (like the boat simulation) he nitpicks her to death and doesn't listen to her when she tells him to stop. Then again some of the things she complains about (like the fact that she wants him to walk right next to her all the time) seem really unnecessary too. I think they're aware of it and they're just used to it. Like, this is the only way they know how to do conflict resolution. There's a bonus clip this week where the cheerleaders were telling Phil how they were listening to the Paps argue and how they found it funny. Of course the Paps were standing next to them at the time so maybe they were being polite. I'm with green and others who've pointed out that there has been plenty of bunching. Just last week they were all on the same train in india, and J&D didn't even finish the roadblock first but somehow came in first anyway. The teams travel long-distance almost every other leg, and almost every time that occurs, it's a bunch because they're all on the same plane/train/bus or whatever. J&D just manage to have the right combination of skill and luck to keep coming in first. I do have to wonder if they have some super-secret way of communicating with the locals that manages to keep them from ever getting super-lost. And I also find it funny to hear folks complaining about too little bunching, because usually it is the opposite. I know bunching is a necessary evil on this show but I'm not a big fan of it. I do like the fact that where there has been non-transportation bunching (as in Africa or Rotterdam) they've been given numbers to allow the teams in front to still enjoy a bit of the advantage they earned. Also, what is a "non-linear" leg?? Every leg has the same basic design (Start - Task1 - Place 2 - Task 2 - Pit Stop) and it's not like they ever have choices (except for Detours). Thanksgiving. But I do admit that every week I watch hoping someone else gets first! I hear what you're saying, but if you're implying the harassment is just as bad in other places as it is in India then I'd find that hard to believe. I think the cheerleaders live in NYC so they'd be used to the kind of harassment that occurs in NYC. The Race has been to many big cities all over the world but I don't recall women having trouble in anywhere else like they consistently seem to do in India. Apparently (this is from a bonus clip) he came out of the womb looking like a potato. She also calls him "Potato Head." BTW, I like James Earl and I like Denise. She's a motormouth and a bit over-excitable but she's clearly trying to compensate for the pain she caused JE when he came out, and I think she proved herself on this race in more ways than one. I was hoping they'd beat Chris and Logan.

I don't agree with your first point -- it's no longer Joe's vote, it's Fish's -- but I do find it interesting that they made him announce his advantage before the vote, which Dan didn't have to do. That allows people to rethink their vote. That, combined with the fact that he won it publicly and thus made himself a target, definitely reduces its power. Perhaps too much -- it's now failed two seasons in a row, so I think players might start to avoid winning it. I think if they do it again on a future season, they should remove one of those disadvantages: either allow the player to win the advantage secretly (like an idol) or let the player announce its use after the vote. That's a good argument, I'll take it. And I thank everyone else who responded to my churlish challenge. You all had good arguments for what Stephen should have done. Are you sure that's not an exact transcript? Because that's exactly what I remember :) I was also tickled. But I was even more tickled by her interaction with Kelley, her scowl and her Godfather attitude and Kelley's eye-rolls. Oh and Kelley's exasperation at trying to get rid of her when she wanted to grab the idol was yet another golden moment from this episode. I guess Ciera really was the glue holding those two together -- they could barely rein Abi in this week. I'm willing to give him a slight pass, simply because I think the editors will sometimes completely ignore a player who doesn't win and whose gameplay turns out to be completely inconsequential to the plot (though to be honest that's not a great sign either). Like, say, Kimmi. Or to use another example, I think Erik had a little more gameplay going on in FvF2 than we saw but it turned out to be irrelevant when he got evacuated. On the other hand, there really is zero evidence of strategic thinking from Keith. Well considering what Jeremy suffered last time -- voted out by his own alliance -- it's no wonder that Jeremy has trust issues.

OK, amending my previous comment to say: Yeah, I agree, Stephen calling Tasha his "alliance mate" at the Reward Challenge was definitely a stupid move. Man, what kind of spell does Jeremy have over these people? In the second hour, when people were talking about voting out Stephen, I was simply shocked that they said if Stephen won immunity they'd vote out Tasha! Like come on, you just saw Jeremy personally save Stephen, don't you think he's Stephen's closest ally, not to mention a big threat in his own right? What does it take to finally put a target on him?? Gosh, this was such a fun episode. Both reward challenges were fun to watch for once, and the second one was educational and actually suspenseful. Plus the idol clue Kelly lucked onto again! The second immunity challenge was also suspenseful. After that IC ended, I actually started thinking that Spence screwed himself -- he should have let Joe win so that his tenuous alliance of 5 would stick to the plan and not vote out Joe. But it worked out anyway. But back to the first episode: the rain was so tremendous, about the worst we've ever seen on this show maybe. I was pissed that the IC was yet another balance challenge, and annoyed that the shelter twist meant that Joe would win another easy one, but the twist was entertaining anyway. Jeremy playing his idol for Stephen was shocking. I don't know if it's as stupid as everyone says -- he was trying to keep his true alliance intact and make a big jury move -- but it was definitely questionable and didn't pay off in the end. The second RC, as I said, was a real old-school treat. Then the IC, then Abi explodes again and all hell breaks loose. It was just so ENTERTAINING. The way she just stared silently at Kelley for what felt like an eternity! And the way she then just walked away, all, "I gotta go make a decision", like she's the Godfather or something! She's always staring at people and scowling, like she wants to murder someone! I think I've decided I'm going to miss her when she's gone because she's just so over the top! And then the final IC, and I have to confess that after the vote I had to pause the show with my mouth wide open and think hard for several minutes to figure out exactly who voted for whom and how it could have all gone so wrong! I think it's because I only expected them to throw one vote at Abi (which would have been enough if they'd all voted for Joe as planned) and I thought that maybe Abi had actually defected and maybe Spencer flipped on Abi after hearing about the advantage, and I couldn't figure out how they got 4 votes for Stephen even after Joe's vote was stolen, and actually started wondering if Kimmi and/or Tasha had actually flipped on Stephen. But I got it eventually. Blah blah blah all I'm trying to say here is that I was hugely entertained tonight. Happy turkey day!

OMG, that was such an amazing and entertaining two hours! It was hilarious reading the live comments in this thread after. "I'm not gonna watch, it's so obvious Joe's leaving!" *lol* BTW, no one's mentioned (unless it's in the 16 posts that appeared while I was writing this one) that if Abi really DID jump ship and voted for Joe, all hell would have broken loose! It would have been a 3-way tie (3 each for Joe, Abi, and Stephen), and in the revote none of them could have voted (and no idols could be played). So the revote would have come down to Jeremy/Tasha/Kimmi vs. Spencer/Kelley/Keith -- either ANOTHER tie and a rock draw, or someone would have flipped. I would really like to have seen what would have happened in that situation! Actually, Stephen was trying to be the opposite of Dan. Dan, as you remember, played his advantage and got knocked out due to an idol. Stephen orchestrated the split vote to avoid being idoled out. But, well, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. Still, it says something about Stephen that he got a majority of votes TWICE in a row in the SAME episode, and they were BOTH blindsides! I don't know what it says, but it says something! Obviously, he was worried about an idol and thought they needed another Abi vote, and he was expecting more votes for Joe. And even if he had voted for Joe twice, he still would have gone home. All you people saying Fish handled the reward poorly, I'd like to hear what you think he should have done, because no one's given an alternative and I honestly don't know what would have been best. Obviously he pissed off Spencer, but Tasha was already on the fence and Jeremy would have been pissed if he hadn't been chosen. No matter what Fish did, someone was gonna be pissed. (Except Kimmi, apparently.) Well yeah, a block of 4 is almost insurmountable once you're down to 8. Joe is just Joe. I know he's a challenge threat but I don't think he'll win every challenge. Even Mike last season lost one and had to be saved by an idol. OK, time to read more comments!

So yesterday I discovered that Katelyn Nacon ("Enid") was on the infamous "Too Many Cooks"! (She even got third billing!) And recently I was watching "Dumb and Dumber To" on cable, and recognized Laurie Holden, but I couldn't remember who she was until I saw her name in the credits.

As far as internet celebrities go, it's kinda hard to aim higher than Tyler Oakley. Good job, show.

So I guess this is the closest we'll ever get to seeing a Celebrity TAR, or indeed a celebrity version of any competitive reality show in the US that is not the Apprentice or Dancing with the Stars. I get that celebs and wanna-be celebs can be very annoying, but at least they know their partners. Thus, I don't think this is worse than last season. But live-streaming the start of the race? Very cool. I have to remember to watch that! The TAR website says that it will be Sunday Nov. 15 at 10:30/9:30c and you can watch either on the TAR website or Phil's Facebook page. (Which is during the premiere of Into The Badlands, dammit!)

Maybe they just don't see what we see. Jeremy sure looks like the puppetmaster from our perspective. But he's trying as hard as he can to lay low. He doesn't boss people around, dictate votes, or even step up for key roles in the challenges.

DING DING DING! Yep, that's why they didn't split it. No, I totally buy it, it makes perfect sense. The group of 9 did not trust each other enough to split the vote. They had just finished talking about voting off Stephen, and they knew Stephen was gunning for Joe! They probably didn't trust Andrew and Joe (who was talking to the girls a lot), and they certainly didn't trust Stephen. If they had split the vote 5-4, then the girls would only need to flip 2 people (at least one in the group of 5) to control the vote. If they'd split it 6-3, then the girls would only need to play an idol and flip one person to control the vote. Even when you have a 9-3 advantage, it's a risk to split the vote.

She says she was writing stuff like stories about a dog that eats human food ... but I like to think she was writing Survivor fan-fiction, like Joe-Jeremy yaoi or something ...

I don't know what you're referring to. What's a re-edit? Yeah, I noticed that too. Dunno what the reason was, but it was nice that they were separated from the episode clips for once so I could just watch them in sequence!

What's wrong with that? Pretty typical Over-Invested Racer behavior.

Well they were amazingly easy roadblocks! As I was watching, I thought, "Oh here we go, another RB that's impossible to mess up", and then Logan found a way to mess it up. Heh.

I think Diana was fine in this leg; it was Justin who was being an ass. I don't feel very sorry for him anymore.

I found it adorable too. I was happy for them. They knew what they would be good at and they nailed it. Maybe they would have been first if they'd managed to catch Justin and Diana's train.

So CBS posted clips from the episode on their TAR YouTube channel for this week's episode as usual...but no bonus clips. This is weird and disappointing. I wasn't expecting any mat chats with Phil, but it's odd of them not to post any clips of their downtime on a train or in a cab, for instance. :(

Yeah, they dub the scores. Or rather, after the challenge they'll film Probst in separate shots announcing various possible point combinations, and then in the editing room they'll decide how many points they have time to show and splice in the corresponding Probst shots. Or something like that. I don't know the details, but the fact that they edit some of the points out of challenges is old news. Certainly the former at least (Woo said in the show that he wanted to work with Andrew, and probably it was Abit's lingering loyalty to Andrew that kept him in the game this week). But he probably also imagined he could get Abi and Woo to play nice with each other for at least a vote or two. Nope!

I'm with those who say there's no way Glenn could still be alive. On top of everything else that's been said, you can see the dumpster behind his head and it's only and inch or two off the ground -- not nearly enough clearance for him to crawl under.

Well, what counts as a "superfan"? I think a lot of big fans of the show have gotten on that we don't hear about on the show -- it often doesn't come up on the show if it's not plot-relevant. Kelsey from this season told Phil on the mat after Leg 1 that she's watched the show since it premiered (when she was 15). That one little person (I've already forgotten their names), he was clearly a big fan of the show too, and said he's been talking about getting on the show for years. Maya of the Candy Scientists was also clearly a big fan. Though I wouldn't call them "superfans", I think most of the "Blind Daters" from last season applied because they were fans, not because they actually were interested in the dating part. Aw, I'm sad to hear that. I was a big fan of their team.