LadyChatts

I think that if she is pulled for medical reasons, that would be it for her game and she wouldn't be allowed to go to the island. If Wendy left and there wasn't a tribe swap (and Manu continued down the Ulong/Matsing path), I'd be curious who would go. My guess is it'd be David or Rick that would be in danger if they were still on a 'keeping the tribe strong', but I can also see them going after Wentworth. Maybe they'd think she was bad luck. Here's a new preview for this week (mostly focuses on Wendy and the EOE twist). As to the preview after the episode: Aurora was the one talking with Aubry and Joe, and likely letting them in on the tribe's plan to get rid of them. If Aurora isn't with the group and Aubry/Joe vote together, I wonder who else they can get on their side. If Eric wants to split the votes in case of an idol that could backfire. In the above promo, there's a quick shot of Aubry running, which makes me wonder if that could be idol related. Also, a split vote means Joe/Aubry wouldn't need a lot of people on their side to survive a split. It seems like Eric/Gavin want those two gone the most; I think Aurora will vote with Joe/Aubry if they can get people on their side. Not sure where the rest of the tribe would ultimately stand.

Why?! That settles it. I hate the guy.

I was sad, but not surprised, to see Keith go. It really was the right decision for his tribe. He seems like a nice kid. Maybe he would have been better off doing Big Brother. I didn't care for the whole 'what do I do God!' at the end when trying to make a decision. It reminded me of Eliza Orlins theatrics. And I just hate the whole cliffhanger part of it. I'd be shocked if every Survivor voted off doesn't at least go check IOE and see what it's all about.

The early seasons were called by their locations. Even a season like Guatemala and Gabon had a longer official title (Gabon was 'Earth's Last Eden' and Guatemala was 'The Mayan Empire'). So they could either call it by it's location or add a twist on it like that. That said, I do agree that regardless of where they go, they would probably still use a theme. S32 was B/B/B divisions, but the season was called Koah Rong. I don't know why they think they need themes in those cases. It's not even like the theme ends up mattering, but some of the themes haven't been that original. And I really don't want an increase in returning player seasons after S40 or seasons like our current one with a mix of newbies and vets. BTW, do we know if Survivor has been renewed past S40 yet?

At this rate, even with a tribe swap, Joe could go the way he did in Cambodia where he never goes to TC before the merge. A lot of it might depend if people are so desperate for him to be gone they throw the challenge, but that could easily backfire (just ask Rodney how that worked out for him and his bro Joaquin). He doesn't seem to be in the greatest of spots on Kama, but I'm not entirely sure Eric and Gavin would necessarily get the votes to get him (or even Aubry) out. One thing I've often seen criticized of Joe is his strategy and social game. Strategy yes, that needs work. I don't know that I've ever thought he had a weak social game, though. But clearly people think he's likable enough guy and threat to win.

That is him, and his last name is Devens, which is apparently what he'll be called this season. Why, I don't know. Again, why is he so special he gets the last name treatment? I can't imagine ever being that desperate for the Probst seal of approval and a potential Survivor legacy that I want Probst to use my last name. I wonder if anyone has ever asked Probst to call them by their last name and he said no? As for Rick or Devens or Jared or whatever we're going to call him, I don't like him, either.

I think leaving the island is considered a quit but not choosing to go there isn’t. As to the other part of your comment-there’s two opportunities for people to get back into the game (from what I remember reading). One of them is at the merge, the other is later in the game (around final 6 I think). I’m using Joe as an example here, but say he’s the first merge boot and opts to go to IOE and winds up getting back into the game at the final 6. Anyone voted out after him would be the jury and if they were on the island with him, they’d have all that time to spend with him and hang out and get to know him outside of the game. So it might screw someone like Wardog (for example) who makes the final 3 without ever getting voted off, but the jurors only know him from the game and may have the normal bitter feelings. I am wondering, though, how they are going to do a second return into the game. Is the jury still going to attend each TC? They wouldn’t be cleaned up so the remaining players would obviously know the twist was still in play. I’ll have to go look and see if that’s accurate or if it was just rumored. I don’t remember a lot of facts being revealed about how this twist works, but I’d be shocked if they only had one opportunity to return. After last night and Aubry’s Negative edit, I’m leaning towards her going to the final 3 and getting trashed as gaining more credibility.

Hey, there's an idea for a theme. Put Ozzy on a tribe of one and have him compete against 19 others. My money's on the the Oz Man. Speaking of Ozzy, why do I feel like if IOE was a thing in his respective seasons and he knew what it was, he'd beg to get voted off? Aside from the challenges that whole experience seems much more up his alley.

Wait, now Rick gets the last name treatment? What makes him so special? I was sad to see Keith go. Horrible at challenges, but he’s one of the few newbies I was rooting for this season. The premiere was promising, but tonight reminded me (again) why I hate these newbie/returning player combo seasons. Someone else besides Joe was the hero in the challenge?! This is going to be the David/Joe/Kelley/Aubry show, but that aside, I’m finding most of these newbies hard to root for. Never in a million years would have expected Lauren to find the idol. Or any of the newbies. I figured Jeff was hiding in the trees and would drop it as Kelley or David went by (and Joe on the other side). But hey, probably looks less suspicious to have Lauren find it and use it on Kelley if needed than Kelley magically finding it.

All I could think was Lauren will aspire to be the new Natalie Bolton and Kelley be her Parvati.

Yikes, I wonder what happened to Wendy's foot in the preview? That looks bad. Sure isn't looking good for Joe and Aubry over at Kama. I'm guessing they're being let in on the plot to get rid of them. My guess is Wendy gets pulled (she thinks she might have broken something, but that didn't look good whatever the injury is), and then there's a tribe swap the following week. For argument's sake, if Wendy injured her foot in the IC and Manu still won, but she got pulled for medical reasons, would Kama still end up voting someone off? Or just get tree mail saying someone from Manu was medevaced and they aren't going to TC after all? That might be one way to save Joe.

So we’re gonna get cliffhangers this season as to whether the person goes to IOE now? Or just when the ousted castaway wasn’t a shocking boot? Good one producers, in pretending that Kelley was in any real danger. I knew tonight was a very ‘meh’ episode as I found myself agreeing with Wardog of all people about targeting Keith for being a liability. He actually made good points after the challenge and at TC. But how exciting would IOE been had Kelley and Reem been out there together, alone? I’d pay to see that. Everyone would be let in on the twist this season from the fireworks and screaming that suddenly popped up out of nowhere.

I had heard at one point that they were essentially on their own, and that was part of the whole experience of going out there. I'm not sure if that's changed or not. I would think at the very least they'd give them flint and rice. I don't know that they'll make it too cushy, but they probably don't want everyone quitting because of lack of food/water/warmth. Because this is a new twist, I'm sure we'll get a decent amount each ep, especially if any returning players go there. But one of the rumors floating around is that someone who comes back from IOE at the end wound up winning, and that was controversial since that person had been with the jurors until the end. Remains to be seen if that's true, but I think it'll be telling if they pay a significant amount of time out there and one any certain person.

Looks like Davie got the Sia award this time: https://ew.com/tv/2019/02/27/sia-survivor-davie-rickenbacker-14k/

I have to think, too, that there might be more physical risks in a colder climate. Look at what the elements do in warmer, tropical environments. While I think doing a colder location would be interesting, I can see why they haven't done it (among the other reasons stated, mainly the bikini one). I think the biggest thing is they could stop doing these themes (or at least not have the excuse to do them if they moved locations-because Probst sure seems to like coming up with them and pretending he was looking at the cast and it just came to him what that season should be called and divided as). And I do miss the land locked locations. I thought it added a nice change every so often. But Probst has raved about Fiji and how much better and comfortable production is. I don't know how many more seasons Survivor has before the ax comes down, but I'm resigned to the fact we aren't going anywhere and can fantasize about the ridiculous themes they will come up with in the mean time.

The biggest reason I can see her being kept around is because Keith is too much of a challenge liability. And he also doesn't have a core alliance. It seems right now that two stories are forming at both camps, aimed at possibly getting the former players out (especially at Kama). What might doom is Wendy is she looks like she's going to try and go after Wentworth. Unfortunately I don't think she'll have the votes to get rid of her (I can't see Chris, Lauren, or Wardog voting Wentworth out over Keith and Wendy). So at best it's a 4/4 split, but no one is going to go to rocks this early. Wendy is already on the outs, and targeting Wentworth is just going to further push her out. I know a lot of spoilers are unconfirmed at this point, but even now I can see how some of them play out and end up being accurate. The only thing that's going to save Wendy is a tribe swap, and even then she might be a pre-merge boot. Right now I think her tribe might be thinking ahead of a tribe swap and her turning on them, so that's another thing that could work against her.

One thing I love about returning player seasons (especially big milestone ones) is that so many former Survivors start coming out the wood work, interacting with fans, asking to do podcasts, telling fans to tell Probst and CBS how much they want to see them back...always fun.

I think Reem didn't do herself any favors, but I don't think the rest of the tribe helped. As others and myself have said, Reem seemed blindsided by the issues her tribe was having with her. If they didn't want their clothes moved, they should have said something. If they didn't want her bossing them around (which, was she really?) then they should have said something. Look how defensive she got when Keith referred to her as 'mom'. Obviously he didn't mean anything by it, but it can be a scarlet letter to be wearing out there nowadays. I think back to last season, and Natalie at least having Jeremy around to clue her as to how the tribe felt about her. Granted she handled that information all wrong, but maybe if Reem had her own Jeremy out there to point out that the tribe thought she was annoying, she might have been able to save herself or at least make more pointed arguments. The age discrimination thing was stupid to say, but I'm also kind of glad she brought it up since it just seems common to fall back on voting out the older person in the first boot because they're perceived to be weaker. Reem has a long way to go before they attempt to re-enter the game, but at the very least I wish she could make it to the reveal, just to get the look on her old tribe's faces when she walks in.

With the talk of the vets being potential early targets to leave, I wonder how hard Probst will spin it at TC to try and make that respective tribe keep them around because of their experience. I'd throw in 'if you were in their shoes would you want people targeting you just for being a returning player.' This seems all about resume building for Gavin and Eric, but at the end of the day will anyone care that they managed to get rid of Joe? I've just never been one of those people that think it's a big deal to get rid of a strong player, unless you do it in spectacular fashion. At this point, I don't think Joe would be extremely shocked to go, and it looks like Eric and Gavin aren't the only ones potentially wanting them gone.

Here's a couple of sneak peeks: The challenge: https://youtu.be/aOQVENX31zQ And here's one of the Manu camp, where Wendy is explaining her vote at the last TC and wanting to get rid of Kelley. As someone whose not a fan of Kelley, this makes me love Wendy more. But sadly I think her efforts are going to fail. https://youtu.be/rtRANvzsRy8

That was James who brought up Stephenie being bad luck. Funny thing is, when I did a re-watch of Guatemala recently, Stephenie was in a challenge and constantly talking over people and trying to take charge. It reminded me of the HvsV second IC that the Heroes lost, and James yelling at Stephenie for talking over JT (who had done the challenge in his previous season). He was all 'one voice!' I get what he was saying now. Even Jeff brought it up to Stephenie after consecutive challenge losses during Guatemala and asked Steph if she thought she was bad luck. And yes, Guatemala overall had a very good, entertaining cast. I loved Brian, who I really wish had been given a second chance. He was a gamer, and had he made the merge I would have liked to have seen what he could have done. Bobby Jon was one of my first Survivor crushes, and I loved how he and Jamie went at it a couple of times. And I thought they had some good challenges that season, too (there was one where Farmer Brandon totally blew Jamie out of the water-and even when the challenge was over Jamie walked around bewildered like 'are we gonna finish?').

Well, even the cool kids at Bayside High allowed nerdy Screech into their clique 😉 This does bring up an interesting point though, and something I've seen discussed in the episode thread-did Reem know she was that on the outs until TC? And better yet, did Keith or Wendy know? Were they ever approached that people thought they were a trio, rather than just trying to do a good deed and help Keith work on his swimming skills? It seemed like people just say them as easy targets for being off together, and Reem for being annoying/allegedly weak (I still think that's debatable). As others pointed out, Reem seemed surprised that everyone had an issue with touching their stuff. It seemed like she was just genuinely trying to be nice, and not a mom that was picking up after her messy kids. But as others pointed out, why didn't someone just say something to her? As to the point about Reem pointing out the duo of Kelley/Lauren-she should have tried to make a point that Kelley is a returning player, and in past seasons that they are a bigger threat the longer they stay in the game, because people do blindly follow them. It would have likely gotten her no where, but she could have at least tried. In addition, she should have made the same case for David so it looked like she wasn't just picking on Wentworth. And to another point, we'll see if Wendy and Keith really are on the outs or not. I still think Keith might be seen as an easy out because he's a challenge liability in swimming challenges, but I have yet to see Wendy be weak. So we'll see what next week brings. I'm hoping for Ron Burgundy, Wentworth, or Wardog to go.

https://youtu.be/rV6t8vNeEqI New preview for this week.

I think it comes down to the cool kids clique just automatically ostracizing the typical outcasts. Now I know it is likely just a coincidence that the 3 who went off on their own happened to be the the older women, the Latina with tourettes, and the black man. But they just say them swimming and said 'hey, they're plotting against us!' I mean really? Everyone just jumped on that bandwagon too quick for my liking. Then again, I dislike the remaining members of the cool kids clique on the blue tribe, so I'm looking at it through those lenses 🙂 I can tell this is going to be a rage filled season for me already when it comes to that tribe at least. Good times!

So it's looking like Manu loses immunity again this week, based on what posters from Reddit and Sucks have figured out. The possible boots are Wendy, Keith, and Kelley, where there's no evidence past this ep that they survive. There was an unconfirmed spoiler that Wendy was a pre-merge boot and ended up quitting IOE; right now I'd say it's between her and Keith, and the preview pointing at a possible Wentworth blindside is a misdirect.