Eolivet

I am Kellee and Janet and Missy and Elizabeth and Lauren. I have spoken up at times, and stayed silent at times. I have defended and I have enabled and I have denied. I have kept my head up and kept my head down. I have gone through life in a broken system primed not to believe anything I say, good or bad. Primed to punish my words, not others' actions. And I haven't had it nearly as bad as nearly everyone else I know. But I know all these women. I am all these women. And I believe all these women.

THIS. Missy and Elizabeth recanted, that's all, and they minimized and they downplayed. They ended up throwing another woman (Janet) under the bus, but I don't believe they deserve the brunt of the blame. They did what women do in these situations: try to SURVIVE. This is production's fault entirely, and while I'm sort of glad that they showed the unvarnished truth, I hate that once again, it's the women, not the SYSTEM that are getting the blame. The women chose survival. I don't believe Dan was "unfairly" accused. He did it, and they decided to take back what they said. They worked within a failed system that saw a man sexually harassing other women, a system that decided, "well, if the women don't say it's bad, it must not be." How about using some judgment? Of course, production is going to spin this as the women "using it as strategy" -- it avoids them from looking in the mirror and saying "you kept a sexual harasser in the game, and spun a story that was about how one woman took it too personally and the others used it for 'strategy.'" I'll say it again: had production removed Dan from the game, no questions asked, do I believe Missy, Elizabeth and Lauren would be clamoring for his reinstatement? If the answer is "no," then they didn't "falsely accuse him" or use it as a "strategy," they made a different choice than Kellee. They chose to survive within a system that failed them. It's the system, not the women. It's the system, not the women. It's the system, not the women.

UGH. That's not Kellee's responsibility! That's the producers' responsibility. You don't put that on the starving contestants, you grow some balls and make an executive decision. Instead, what Survivor said tonight is "Sexual harassment? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

Here's what continues to bother me. They set the women up to turn on each other. They set them up to fail. By treating this like a court of law, like "innocent until proven guilty" instead of "we are the almighty producers and we can kick you out for whatever reason." Production could have gone to Dan and said, "you have been inappropriately touching women, you have been told by at least one woman that it makes them uncomfortable and you continue to do it, we're removing you from the game" and then told the contestants simply, "Dan violated the rules, he's gone," I don't think anyone would've said boo. I'm sure in the 336 page Survivor contract they sign, they can kick you out for all sorts of reasons. Instead, they treated it like Dan was entitled to a defense. Instead, it was all, "we must get BOTH SIDES." And their solution was going to the women and saying "So. Did this happen? Are you uncomfortable? Huh? Huh? Are you? Huh?" So, OF COURSE they said "No, no, of course not, no, I didn't mean to cause any trouble, sorry." I think Missy and Elizabeth did what women do, which is minimize it and pretend it didn't happen. That's on the show, not them. The producers and Dan are the only ones to blame here. Because the minute they decided that they needed to hear "both sides," the women were screwed. Because that's the system. It can't be just a woman saying she's uncomfortable. No, the guy must've had intent to harass. And if he didn't have intent, then it's the woman's problem, right? Then it's a "he said, she said" and well, we can't hurt a guy's feelings. Think of his reputation! That's what's most important here. The reputation of an "innocent" man. Now Kellee looks like a crazy person, Missy and Elizabeth look like conniving bitches, Janet looks like a chump, the other men look like enablers and Dan ... well, he's still here, isn't he? Survivor, you wanted to mirror today's society? You got it.

I would take a Edge of Extinction winner who was voted out fourth every year over what happened tonight. Dan. Should. Have. Been. Removed. From. The. Game. PERIOD. End of Story. This is ALL on the producers' heads.

Last year was Feb 20, but before then, it's pretty much consistently been the last week of Feb. Kaoh Rong (Feb 17) and Game Changers (March 8 ) were the outliers until now. So, this is extra early.

Feb 12 is early! Wow, it's usually almost March. Does CBS have something else to do in May? Or is this season really going to air for three months (which seems unusually long to me)?

I'm also tiring of Thingamajig. I found this performance aggressively mediocre, and I think it's his costume that continues to save him. I knew Monster, Monster was a friend of mine, and you, Thingamajig, are no, etc. I continued to be baffled by some of the judges' fixations on the London clues for the Butterfly meaning that that she's British, yet the Leopard is in full-on Elizabethan drag, plus has a British accent, and they're like "that's obviously an American guy!" There is a part of me that wonders when a majority of judges have guessed the person (like Raven Simone), if they will then be the ones to be unmasked. Flower is getting to be one of those people ("you know, it sounds exactly like The Person We All Know It Is, but golly, this week, I'm gonna go with Totally Out Of Left Field Guess!") That will get tiresome after a while, as it did with Gladys Knight. This show bills itself as a "who-sungit" and there's no mystery if the judges ... know who the person is.

Here's the thing that bothers me so much about last night's tribal council. Survivor's track record with women's issues is actually horrible. Oh, you want to get into #metoo, Survivor -- let's talk Sue Hawk on All Stars? What's that? You'd rather talk about how we all should admire Angelina? (who ... got no votes, was dragged to the end as a goat and hitched her wagon to two men?) You want to talk about how hard women have it, Survivor? Let's talk about how women on this show are dressed in bikinis, excoriated for showmances and get called out for underperforming in challenges. Let's talk about how you called Parvati "one of the most devious villains this show has ever seen" and you had a woman quit because you gave her no clothes, and then made her invisible with editing. Let's talk about how you've devised a final four fire-making challenge that's heavily favored towards men. Better yet, let's talk about how you have the perfect vehicle to have the #metoo discussion this season in Feely Dan! But I virtually guarantee that you won't. Because you wasted it on "women's alliances = bad," which is much more comfortable to address than the women this season essentially getting groped without their consent. God, I hated this so much. Nothing but feel-good grandstanding so Jeff Probst can pat himself on the back as being sensitive to "women's issues" outside of Survivor, while doing absolutely nothing about the very real women's issues that do exist on Survivor. Okay, boomer.

I miss the relic, which prevented people from getting thrown in the next round. Theo winning the last elimination should've netted him some safety. I get that alternating guys/girls for elimination is fair, but unlike last year, there's no remedy against throwing someone in until they go home. I hate public proposals with the fire of a thousand blazing suns. That stuff should be private. Otherwise, it's just grandstanding (and puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the propose-ee). Surprise public proposals on television are the worst. And took all the air out of what was an exciting elimination. (Also, producers -- if they met on The Challenge, why not show old footage of them when they first met? I mean, you dug out Zach vs Jordan in an elimination, right? If you're going to subject us to this, at least give us context for it.) Man, nobody left is that likable, really. Like those Survivor seasons when the obnoxious alliance keeps power, and every week you think maybe this is the week and ... nope.

Can somebody explain to me like I'm stupid what on earth calling out the total double standard of being afraid of a women's alliance (vs a guy's alliance) -- an amazing and well-articulated point -- has to do with the #metoo movement? That felt inorganic and trying way, way too hard to "have a moment." And because they had to take an extra 20 minutes for this labored tribal council, we got absolutely no context for why Dean and Noura (?) cast the only deciding votes for who went home? Last week didn't detract from the episode, where I felt this week's did. And it's not like it was unavoidable (like the very powerful tribal council with Zeke). But in their efforts to pat themselves on the back for calling out the irrational fear of women's alliances and ... I guess the fact that the #metoo movement exists, they need to remember their main job is to put on an entertaining television show.

Vevmo sources I believe have removed Tori Hall, and are trying to find out the identity of a rookie male from Australia. Without Tori and with this new guy, that would be 15 guys and girls apiece for a total of 30. The most intriguing thing I saw is that the house might be a bomb shelter in Prague. That would be wild.

I believe that's what the kids would call a hot mess. The direction was bizarre for television. "Kiss the Girl" looked like someone put a camera on a Disney boat ride. Or like the pylon cam during NFL games. At one point, I swear they panned across Sebastian singing before he drifted out of frame. There was no sense of perspective. But it was interesting to see the movie again. One thing that stood out is that Disney animated movies were so much better when they hired true voice actors, not random celebrities they could promote in the TV ads (who don't really know how to voice act). Robin Williams should've been a one-time exception, not the beginning of a new rule.

Survivor Tommy is like six-drink Amy from Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Just sad. (Hopefully we get to the part where he speaks French. It would be an improvement.)

Filming started more than a week ago, and only one person has been confirmed as eliminated, according to Vevmo. Anyone else starting to think that Challenge 35 is nothing but an elaborate scheme to trap 30 reality contestants in Prague, tell them they're filming a show and then just keep them there forever? It's like the start of a mystery novel.

I was thinking about this episode, and how much I enjoyed it, and I think it was because it was about the perils of arrogance. We've seen many an overconfident alliance head to tribal council, secure in their numbers, only to find out that someone flipped or they got blindsided by an idol or something made their plans go awry. But it usually consists of shocked expressions and maybe a couple angry confessionals back at camp. What set this apart is by Elaine reading the advantage, we got to see in real time what happens when people who assume they have control have that control wrested from them. The Vokai four had their gracious winner faces on. They were so secure in their numbers, so confident in their plan. They proudly proclaimed they would draw rocks for each other as a little added disincentive for anyone considered not joining them. And they'd secretly been maneuvering the Lairos behind the scenes. They had plans on top of their plans. Then Elaine read her advantage. And slowly, but surely, all that graciousness began to fade. First, it became panic with all the whispering. Then it turned to shock, and finally outright bitterness. Tears. Disgust. Disbelief. We witnessed a real-time meltdown of people losing control who assumed they had it. It led to ridiculous hyperbole ("I'll replay this night for the rest of my life" -- really, Tommy?) and selfish agony about their personal games from people who were ready to pat Elaine (or whoever) on the back and put on their gracious winner faces when her torch was snuffed. Because they never assumed they could lose. Survivor has had a lot of memorable moments over the years, and I'm not ready to put this episode in that category. But so rarely do we get to see the downfall of arrogance in such exacting detail, and that made it particularly satisfying to me.

Survivor having the racial sensitivity conversation it should've had last season when Joe said ignorant, racially insensitive things in Julia's presence, but that was swept under the carpet, because: Joe. ::sips tea::

Turbo's ejection reminded me of an ejection in the NFL. They never throw the flag/eject the guy who throws the first punch, just the guy who retaliates. In this case, Turbo retaliated. I can't keep track of the alliances -- I feel like the conspiracy theory dude meme with all the lines pointing in all directions. None of them are good, and the only thing they've done is sent home the likable (or at least interesting) people. And I seriously cannot stand Joss. He's like, dead behind the eyes. All muscle, no brain. And stop trying to make "Jogan" happen -- it's not going to happen.

Benji and the communal nacho platter on Australian Survivor send their regards.

Given the additional language in that Vevmo thread, my guess is Tori Hall may be an alternate (which makes sense: why would they willingly have two Toris?) If they had Tor'i from Ex on the Beach, that might've been fun: Tori, Tori and Tor'i. I'm all in on next season, mainly for the rookies. Although the BB folks are paired up already, which likely means less hook-up drama (Kaycee in a relationship, Fessy's with Hayleigh, and Swaggy and Bayleigh are married). I also love Adam Klein's actual best friend, Jay, although it makes me sad that Jay will never be on Survivor again now. And I can't get over that crybaby Josh is ... a Challenge regular?! How'd that happen?

Dean: I don't know why people thought me and Chelsea were together! Also Dean (to Kellee):

I still feel like a showmance on Survivor is like Justice Potter's famous definition of obscenity: "I don't know what it is, but I know it when I see it." And if the editors were able to rustle enough footage to make a Chelsea/Dean showmance believable, then guess what, Chelsea? You were in a showmance.

This shows so little self-awareness on her part. Married Angelina was accused of being in a showmance with engaged John, yet single Chelsea is shocked -- shocked, I tell you -- that she was spooning with single Dean, and people thought they were in a showmance. Or that people didn't take the time to analyze the fact that she was, in fact, the big spoon, ergo and therefore, it couldn't be a showmance. I have to bring this back here, superfan.

I think the Leopard is Seal too, but I'm baffled why the judges think the English allusions in his costume and the accent are some character designed to throw everyone off instead of a pretty big clue. Has anyone ever pretended to have a different accent? The guy dresses up in a freaking Elizabethan collar, and the judges go, "yep, that's Jamie Foxx."

Oh, I almost forgot my favorite part of the show. Jeff Probst saying at tribal council, "Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?" I wonder how many people on the tribe got that.