KimberStormer

Seen on Courtney Yates's Instagram: Boston Rob took her to Easter services at church which I think is completely adorable.

But her team got to the puzzle ages before either of the others. And no, I don't think that's because her tribe had some preternatural walking-while-blindfolded powers. I think she was great at the guiding part but is bad at puzzles as she said in the first episode. And I think it's strange when the caller has to do both, personally. It does remind me how Michelle rocked it on the MvGX blindfolded-puzzle-direction challenge, though, and that's a nice memory. Could have fooled me! She really had a "why do I have to be stuck on an island with you and your bullshit" face during their conversation.

Preview always lies, I bet this Dom/Bradley feud is as real as the Sebastian/Jenna showmance last episode. Frankly this made it look like next week is another total snoozer of a nothing episode.

I guess it's just me but I can't help but love a 3-tribe situation. It seemed like every tribe had some interesting thing going on in a strategic sense (I say seemed because it was all smoke and mirrors in Malolo's case, wasn't it? So probably the same is true on the other tribes.) And the editors, since there's not much gameplay to work with, are contenting themselves with wonderful character assassinating edits of Chris and Bradley (and Sea Bass to some extent), which I am totally down to enjoy. Wendell is still my man. Saving the shell for Sea Bass was what I call great Survivor play -- a thoughtful, human thing to do, making a human connection, mending a bridge. And anyone who talks back to Probst at challenges is automatically in my good graces. Laurel still playing very strong, and I Want To Believe that Libby could indeed be a Parvati 2.0, though the edit really isn't there for that. I can dream. I like Desiree as a person and I really like her glasses. I too would probably weep over coffee if I didn't have it for two weeks, so I don't mind it from Chelsea. Overall I am fine with the cast, for the most part they seem to get the edit they deserve which always helps. The big exception being Kellyn, who Probst apparently adores as much as the Survivor press corps does -- whatever they see IRL that makes them like her sure doesn't carry onscreen because she is still the worst. The big problem is the gameplay. It sucks. And this, honestly, is what it's like when there's no idols, like what you guys are always clamoring for: very, very boring Pagonings, where inevitably the terrible people beat the likeable. (I sure hope Michael and James were out hunting for the idol. I'm sure James will say they were, and they just didn't find it. I understand why they don't often show people vainly looking for one, but I do wish they would throw us a bone, at least a confessional voiceover like "I looked everywhere for an idol but I couldn't find it".) I can't say I was a big James fan but compared to Kellyn, of course, he was great. Frankly I think Angela made the wrong choice here, Kellyn literally gave her no reason (that we saw) not to flip: she was like "WE FIVE WERE SUPER STRONG! BE ON THE BOTTOM OF OUR STRONG SIX!" and doing about as good a job as Roark last season of hiding her total disdain. Also weird to target James, who has a connection with Angela...like why not give Angela something? I guess Angela sees Original Malolo as a sinking ship with no chance of doing anything by the merge, but she's gotta know she's totally on the bottom of the Original Naviti tribe. If they'd had Ghost Island in the mix this time, there wouldn't really have been enough time to see all 3 tribes...in theory anyway. Did someone go to Exile Island every episode of its eponymous season (aka Panama?) James knew. I'm sure he knows enough Survivor to know what Probst's reading order meant, and he gave Michael a total death-glare, almost long enough for me to think he was going to pull a Michaela/Jay scene. I think it must have been the other way around. She told Michael it was James, so he flipped. I very much doubt that Kellyn or Desiree came to him and convinced him to vote James.

Not liking Survivor is not a dealbreaker by any means, or even not liking that I like Survivor; but it certainly didn't help his case.

I went on an Internet date last weekend and reluctantly admitted, under questioning, that the only TV show I watch is Survivor. He did not approve. It's all about manipulation, so evil! he said. I was like, "All that happens when someone gets manipulated on Survivor is they get somewhat less money to go with their fame and vacation time, dude. All your Games of Thrones and so on are about people getting raped to death or whatever. Let me like my show." Not out loud, though.

I think that was the most boring episode of Survivor I've ever seen. I'm gonna go play Splatoon.

Just teasing!

How could that possibly work? Voting at random can't possibly help you. All it does is absolutely guarantee that one of your alliance goes home, idol or no idol. And if you're the target, you have literally no way to change that and save yourself. The reason that it would have been a good move for Malcolm and the Three Amigos in Caramoan is that it was already guaranteed that one of the other alliance would go home, and it could have caused rifts and craziness in the majority alliance when people saw that they got votes -- much like what happened with Angela this episode. It doesn't really matter if you're "on the bottom" of an alliance of 5 (or 6) in a 9 person tribe. There's no way in hell that tribe is going to tribal that many times. Even if you lose every challenge, and even if there's no swap (both extremely unlikely propositions), it'll be the merge before then. But it does matter if you're drawing rocks next time around because you flipped a coin simply to try to save Bradley, who is a) entirely obnoxious b) a threat to go very far c) possibly has you on the bottom of his alliance which will become relevant at the merge. Especially since, as I mentioned before, there's an entire month left to go. It's entirely possible for someone who flips this early to get to the end -- almost every season has someone like that in the Final 3. And Michael emphasized that they weren't any sort of power foursome, just people thrown together by chance. I think it's silly to say "well you'd be at the bottom" when there's soooooooo much game to go. It's not a slam dunk by any means, and I don't think Sebastian and Chelsea were stupid not to go along with it. Honestly I think if I were in their shoes I probably wouldn't have flipped, unless I really vibed with Michael or something, because they'd get another chance to flip next time if they did idol out Bradley and it was a tie game. But it was a good pitch, honestly as good as one could possibly make.

Really? There's something wrong with being a Catholic? I didn't really get a chance to form much of an opinion of Morgan except she was kind of wacky/spacy.

Well that was some excellent Survivor. (It's too bad it's all going to come crashing down when the Ghosts come home to roost, and the Just Give Ben The Win Because I Say So twist reminds us all that they're not even playing Survivor this season, but some bullshit house rules version.) I enjoyed the scrambling and thinking on NuNaviti. Laurel was the MVP in the reward challenge for sure, and doesn't intend to be a slouch in the game game -- excellent stuff. I'll be honest that I like having Chris in the game; there's something so old-school Survivor about having that sort of super-athletic, sort of douchey brodude in the game. It feels homey and comfortable to me, to see That Guy in the challenges. And, shit, at least he's trying in the game. But I kind of like everybody on that side. I find Domenick strangely likeable, Angela just sort of exudes cool, Wendell is my crush this season, Donathan is adorbz, and although we heard nothing from my Survivor Daughter Libby and yesterday's mastermind James, they were great last week so! NuNaviti! Good tribe, crazy tribe, looking forward to see what wacky hijinks they are up to next. However, the best thing about this episode was definitely Michael. As those who have spent years fighting with me over JT know, I adore a Big Ass Player who makes Big Ass Moves, who really goes for it and leaves it all out there. I love that he didn't just sit on his idol, or just hope to guess right, but went all-out with it. It's hardly anything really, it's just an idol, but you can make it as big as you want if you really try. Using the James story to bluff the double-idol power was a great idea. I sort of knew nobody would flip, and when he decided to play it for Stephanie that they were doomed, but he has nothing to regret. I consider that idol as one ghost exorcised. The rest of that tribe is not very likeable so far. I guess I have nothing against Desiree or Chelsea, because they're nigh-invisible. (I did know who Chelsea was because I remembered Probst being like "CHELSEA, REALLY STRUGGLING WITH THAT ROPE!!!!" when she was doing 100% fine with it last week.) Sebastian, I'm afraid, is just too much of a doofus for me. Stephanie and Kellyn are battling it out for which is more smug-annoying, with Kellyn taking the prize easily this time, despite Stephanie's best efforts. It seems like a ton of Survivor media people picked Kellyn as their winner, and I just do not understand it, she is incredibly obnoxious, from last week with her "well you guys are screwed lolz" at the well, to this episode where she was rubbing her self-regard all over everything. (Stephen and Rob went so far as to say that well scene was a good move for Kellyn last week, because the honesty would win her jury votes -- what jury votes, guys? It's goddamn day 7. If she's right and those guys are screwed, they're gone long before the jury, and if not, it's more than a month away, they will 100% forget about this "honesty".) But of course this seemed like the winningest humility next to Bradley, who is getting an absolutely delicious 'fuck this guy' edit, which I am absolutely revelling in, much as I was Dr. Mike's 'absolute moron who sucks at everything' edit last time. Please give me all the hateable Bradley moments I can stand, I love it. I want to soak in them, so when he goes down it will be so, so, so delicious. Hey Kellyn and Bradley: Kim Spradlin would never in a million years stonewall the rival alliance and tell them they were fucked. She would have them eating out of the palm of her hand, and every single member convinced they were in her final 3, even on the boat to Ponderosa. There is a huge difference, and not just because Michael's wasn't a "speech", just a regular old attempt to swing votes to his side -- there was some kind of plan, some kernel of an idea, a reasonable and worthwhile move there. Which is in stark contrast to Dr. Mike's complete and total bullshit nonsense, whose only possible object was to get another invite, which unfortunately it probably succeeded at. This is what I believe they call "results-oriented thinking". It blows my mind when people say, e.g. Kelley Wentworth's idol was "brilliant" and something like this "stupid", based only on what the votes happened to be. It could easily have gone the other way, it's pure chance. Guessing right or wrong is neither smart nor dumb, it's just lucky or unlucky. (It's also silly IMO to take a cutaway to Bradley that could have been from literally any minute of tribal as being an accurate representation of his face when Michael said he was playing it for Brendan....Bradley is an idiot, but I'm sure he knew enough to put on a poker face for an idol play.) Trying to make a move, split the opposition, with what you have, that's very smart. I think he even had a perfectly good answer to the "well then you'd be 5th on their side!" argument. He did a great job, successful or not.

There are lots of audible producer questions in the secret scenes. I don't see anything "scripted" about prompts of this kind. And plenty of people's eyes look around while they're thinking out loud and on the spot. Anyway, if you enjoy thinking everything is totally fake and scripted and you can tell by the pixels, I think you will enjoy this:

I've never seen Australia (but I adored her on The Look For Less) but as far as I know Elisabeth had the adorable part but not the deadly part? As a baby-faced blonde who has been constantly condescended to and underestimated my whole life long, I have a soft spot for any cute-as-a-button Survivor blonde (like my Survivor daughter Jefra) but I am inevitably disappointed when they turn out not to have the killer instinct for betrayal that produces the sort of gameplay I enjoy. Libby talking about enjoying lying and cutting Morgan's throat is at least a step in the right direction, and I believe according to Josh Wigler or someone (Rob talked about this on his podcast, where he was not in favor of Libby's overt villainousness) she gave a stone-cold staredown to Gonzalez on her way out as well. Too soon to say of course, but I can hope. It is impossible to overstate how much I do not care about Survivor contestants', or indeed any celebrities', political opinions.

As long as we're talking Survivor Doppelgangers, from the first I've thought Angela looks like Robin Wright.

Tina also had to pay for her son's funeral, so I feel like she deserves us being nice. Doesn't Sandra still do the same job she did before she won twice? I wouldn't, but I see why people do.

Am I right that Kellyn was the one at the well like "Welp, we're staying Naviti Strong so you guys are fucked, sorry!"? Because that was not a good way to handle that.

I think he was the only person to not speak at tribal? He just sat there shrinking as much as possible in the middle like don't notice me don't notice me don't notice me

Hoping for good things from Libby. Being singled out early as an adorable but deadly player could be a good sign.

I'll be honest, I too want Stephanie to fail, but the previews always lie, so I suppose she will be fine next week.

Wheeee! I thought that was great. I liked Morgan, but it was the best choice from the perspective of both gameplay and TV, I think. OldMalolo did what I always want the minority alliance to do, stick together like glue and operate from a position of strength. I haven't been a huge James fan but he did great this time, reasoned out the best course of action. Either the OldNavitis were really going after Angela, in which case the four OldMalolos could vote whoever they wanted and win, or they were telling lies and the worst that could happen was a revote/rock draw. As it is, it worked out completely perfectly -- blew OldNaviti completely apart as they voted for Angela, who will never trust them again. Beautiful! Although Libby losing her possible ally is bad, I think she did the right thing in going with Morgan as the vote -- it's not worth using that political capital to save the lady she just met. And we may finally see the legacy advantage actually passed down several times during the course of the show, so its curse might be broken indeed: not for the players, but for the producers, who finally get what they wanted out of it! (Although it's too bad poor Morgan doesn't get real last words and has to spend them on the passing it down. Is the person she passed it to considered a spoiler, since it came after the preview??) Selfishly, I like Wendell so I was glad to see him spared, though either choice would have worked. He solidified my good regard by talking back to Probst. I was as surprised as anyone by the emergence of Bradley, but I don't think we need to worry about not knowing who he is -- surely they wouldn't give this "entitled whiny dickhead" edit to the winner. On the other hand, I wasn't surprised by Chris breaking down "so early"...this is exactly when everyone breaks down on Survivor, around the end of the first week; it always has been this way and it always will be. The first few days are excitement and adrenaline, then the exhaustion sets in, and the realness, and the fact that it's going to keep on going this way: you don't get a break, there's no weekend, you're going to be miserable, starving, cold, and barely sleeping for the foreseeable future. Then you begin to get used to it, and by the end, when you go home, like Yul you find yourself hoarding food and like James (China/Micronesia/HvV James) you sleep on the floor because you're used to being outside and you're afraid to sleep on a bed.... I think for every swap he always has two baskets, one for men and one for women, to ensure an even split between tribes.

"Fire, in the form of flint" is as far as I know always available by day 4 (unless they lose or destroy their flint, as has happened a couple times.) Either you win it in the challenge or Jeff gives it to you at the end of the first tribal council, where as we all know, you "GET FIRE, because in this game fire represents your life!"

Here's my read on the Donathan Hero Moment: it seems the plan was that James would dive, because buff. The whole tribe decided that Donathan can't swim (they seem to think he can't do much of anything) so he should swim in to the dock and let James do his thing. This is a reasonable strategy, if James can dive; it saves time. Now Donathan seems like a very timid fellow and easily cowed, as with Gonzalez at the first challenge and the whispering at TC and nervousness at Ghost Island. So he does what the tribe says although it seems he can indeed swim. Then James can't do it. Why can't he? I don't even know and I could see the underwater cameras. Donathan just sees him go under, come back out...what is going on? Why can't James do it? He's way more fit than Donathan is...what could it be? Something terrifying, perhaps. If he can't do it, how could I? The mysterious situation and the pressure seem to me to be a very intimidating and scary scenario for someone easily frightened. I imagine that might be why he took so long to get out there; but once out, of course, there was nothing at all to be scared of. I forgot to say earlier that I liked Wendell the furniture guy a lot. Hope he sticks around, and gets to build more stuff with his hands -- very sexy. (I must agree that on the whole this is not an attractive cast...but I suppose that's fine.) Sort of, but as your example proves, that was hardly the first whispering at tribal. It has always happened. Michelle and Hannah for another example, or Russell telling Jerri to vote for Danielle in HvV. What JT did that was new (and which is apparently beyond the pale of decency for most of the posters here) was get out of his seat and walk over to the person he wanted to whisper to, instead of just sitting there because of the (producer-dictated?) seating arrangements. I haven't seen if there are any answers to my question about why the getting up and whispering is so terrible to people yet (that thread is my next stop), but it's definitely not the whispering, which nobody ever complained about before, it's the getting up. And that was certainly a JT innovation, like it or loathe it.

That's exactly my point. It's not unusual. No grown-up will ever say "Maria, hahaha, what a crazy name, you must hate your parents". Kids named John get called John John the Leprechaun, went to school with nothing on...the "normalcy" (to a certain white bourgeois audience) of a name doesn't have anything to do with getting teased as a kid, except by concern-trolling parents and teachers etc who just can't let you live with your name but have to project their discomfort with it onto "the kids".

Why do people hate that so much? It gets people really exercised, but I don't understand why.

Well, I didn't hate it. I am the one Survivor fan in a hundred who loves Exile Island, and Ghost Island is just a tricked-out version, so of course I like it. I always cherish a scenario that allows the Survivor production design department to go hog wild with tiki bar/Adventureland ambience. I even like the snuffers and the old immunity idols and so on. I'm sure I will hate them all soon enough, but I don't have the info to do so yet. I can't say Gonzalez (guys....she probably asked to be called by her last name because there's another Stephanie) won me over with the "special" comment but she's gone now. Jacob was reasonably funny as one of the most inept Survivor players I can recall, and lasted just long enough to not wear out his welcome. He even helped Probst to manage a good one with his "Something's gotta change for the Best Tribe on Survivor!" Stephanie is quite impressed with her own Survivor Superfandom and bamboozling Jacob was no great feat, but whatever, she's playing. The "leader" of the orange tribe looks exactly like my housemate's vile boyfriend so I dislike him on that basis but even the big dumb bro dudes this season seem fairly astute; he may or may not have been right to say that the era of voting out the weak first is over, but it's nice to see a muscley dude not feel smugly safe at least. Credit as well to Chris for not buying Dom's story, etc. I didn't know who Morgan was when Jacob willed the legacy advantage to her, but when she was shown I thought Amanda Seyfried should play her in the movie. Not only looks-wise but personality-wise too. And I can't help but root for Donathan to have a good experience out there, un-woke as he may be. (Can I say, as someone who grew up with a strange name, that little kids do not make fun of you for them? That's not a thing that happens, because little kids do not know what names are weird. They have literally no way to know. Their only context for names is...the people in their class, and you are one of those people, so you are that context, and they accept your name exactly the same way they accept anybody else's. Instead, it is the adults who make you feel bad, because they are always saying "I bet you hate your parents for that one, huh?" and talking about how the kids must make fun of you. No, if you are concern trolling/shitting on someone's parents for a kid's name that you don't like because you're unfamiliar with it -- speaking of unwoke -- you are the problem and kind of a bigoted, conservative jerk. And yes go ahead and mod me.) My favorite thing about this episode is that there was not the slightest mention of Jeff Probst's little Chores List that he was so proud of (I'm guessing he got the idea from the Berenstain Bears) which I presume means that it had no bearing whatsoever on the game, and thank the Survivor Ghosts for that. I hope you guys are excited that they have half the rice they usually get and we will be able to enjoy them staggering around in a dull stupor of hunger, like you're always asking for? Love this so much. Jacob, a gamebot??? He was the least chill dude ever and couldn't have been more transparent with his emotions... I found these two statements a fascinating juxtoposition, I must say.