simplyme

She does have kids, but Chrissy seems to not be playing what I will call a "motherly" game. She doesn't seem to try to take care of her chicks, or cut the food for anyone. From what we've seen of her, she seems to be building relationships with a few people based on strategizing, not on warmth of character or social skills. In fact, the other people in her alliances (Ben, Ryan) are the ones with the social skills. In this way, I think she is more like Denise than Dawn. The question to me will be whether Chrissy will have enough social skills to pull it off and be sitting next to the right people at the end. Denise was fairly well-liked. People saw her as being strategic without being evil, and they definitely preferred her to Skupin and Lisa. Chrissy is definitely seen as smart, and I feel like so far she's avoiding the "my mom backstabbed me" betrayal problem, but the likeability factor may be an issue for her, imo.

This question should probably go in another thread, but my question is how often is Survivor casting to stereotype (I'll certainly admit they do that to an extent) and how often are viewers pigeonholing castaways? I mean, Parvati is clearly more than just the bikini bimbo stereotype, but that's how people viewed her much of her first season. Ryan is currently getting Cochran comparisons, which I don't think is due to style of play at all but "nerd" looks. I think Survivor could be improved if castaways were stereotyped less, and part of that is casting (especially in terms of lack of diversity in jobs, races, etc.), but part of it is also on the viewers, imo. And I'm not sure how Survivor goes about changing that.

My deep thought is that Survivors are stuck on an island without a shower or deodorant for 39 days, and I'm pretty sure their camp is still more sanitary and smells better than the BB House. *gag*

I think it was one of those things where they didn't really trust or like him, but as @SVNBob said, he was a good provider and there were other people that it seemed more important to remove from the game at the time. They were more worried about Brad flipping if there was a merge than Jonathan, so Brad went first. Then they were worried about continuing to lose challenges, so Rebecca was voted out. And Jenny was gunning for Candice, so she had to go next... and then they merged and Yul used his idol to flip Jonathan, which he was able to do because they refused to believe Jonathan that Yul might have the idol. If they would have agreed to a safe non-Yul vote, I don't think Jonathan would have flipped.

Although it wasn't specified, every time Survivor has done a very similar challenge I've noticed that every tribe switches players between balls and no one does more than one ball. So I'm going to guess that each ball had to be maneuvered into place by a different tribe member. If you were struggling, you could give up and switch out with someone who hadn't yet placed a ball in one of the top holes, but once someone did place a ball, they were done. The other two balls had to be placed by two of the other three tribe members. So Chrissy struggled and gave up to take her shoes off. Meanwhile, Ali stepped in and did her one ball, so then either Chrissy, Roark, or JP had to do the next. The whole "Chrissy wouldn't let anyone help/ No one would when Chrissy asked" thing that came next is ambiguous. Chrissy did turn and ask if anyone else wanted to try. Roark responded with something like, "I mean, I can if you want me to." I didn't notice JP say anything (or it was edited out.) Chrissy turned back around and kept trying. Roark's rather tentative response can be interpreted in two (or more) ways. One is that she's willing to step in and is phrasing it that way because societally women are often taught to phrase things as suggestions and seek approval to avoid offending others. The other way it can be interpreted is that Roark really is not interested in taking over, but feels she has to respond, so she lobs the decision back to Chrissy. Chrissy appears to go with interpretation #2, either because that suits her purposes or she really thinks Roark doesn't genuinely want to step in or she'd be firmer. So to me, there's a possibility that both believed what they said (Chrissy that she asked if anyone wanted to step in and no one did, and Roark that people offered and Chrissy just ignored them) because they don't know each other that well and they communicate a little differently. Or either one could have deliberately responded the way she wanted having felt she covered her butt by asking/offering in the way she did.

That may be the way Ryan phrased it (having to choose who to hurt), but I wonder if numbers didn't have something to do with it. Keeping Roark would have meant six healers still in the game which is almost half the people left. Because Desi is on another tribe. (Also, Desi did carry one of her tribe's bags of rice, with Jeff commenting on how she was "making it look easy.") Ali is the one who voted with Roark, and although she's agile and smart, I don't recall anyone claiming she or Roark were built for feats of strength. There were comments that the prior challenges had been a mix of skills, allowing that team to make up for lesser strength by being better in other areas.

Technically, he was proactive before when he (very obviously) went idol hunting. After his not-so-comfortable chat with Joe following his unsuccessful idol hunt, I can see why he might have tried to tone it down a bit to let the target move elsewhere. We've only seen her dislike Patrick and Cole. Patrick appeared to be purposely annoying as hell. Cole appears to be duuuumb and possibly irritating if you have to share food with him and you aren't getting enough sleep. The others she hasn't said she dislikes, just that she doesn't have much in common with them, which due to an age, gender, and lifestyle gap is probably true. (Also, it seems like she may not be the most socially ept person, so her relationships from what little I've seen appear to be strongest with socially stronger players who may reach out to her, like Ali or possibly Ben. Cole's attempt to reach out (sharing Jessica's advantage) was so stupid that she thought he was playing her.)

Yeah. I'm not 100% sure what Ryan's thought process here for not telling Ali ahead if time was unless he was afraid of an idol. The only thing I can think is that he's hoping he can talk Ali back into trusting him. I can see why he chose Chrissy over Roark. He's allied with Chrissy, he has a stronger social game than her, and she's not a big physical threat either. Roark, on the other hand, had no prior connections to Ryan but still has five former tribemates in the game she might favor over him, and Roark appeared closer to Ali than to Ryan and was seemingly slightly better at physical challenges than him. So if Ryan could convince himself he could cut Roark and manage to talk Ali back into his clutches (who else does she have?), it's a logical decision. Even if I whimpered at it. Blah.

Well, crap. Just a few days ago I mentioned how much I liked Roark and that I'd thought of picking her if we had our Survivor pool. I see my excellent judgment rears its head again. :P Chrissy's manipulating of JP was... well, I'd say well done, but it's JP. That's like leading a really dumb dog around with a treat. I can't fault her for being strategic and staying in the game. I just wish she weren't so darn punchable while she's being strategic. I enjoyed the little Jessica-Mike moment of bonding sans Cole, and I'm glad someone did what I would have done and dug up around the well to see if the idols are in the same places at each camp. Good job, Mike. I'm not sure I like you, but you get points for that. Still liking Lauren, Ben, Ali, Desi, Devon, and Jessica. I assume that means one of them is toast next week. :P

And yet Brenda ended up SimplyMom's favorite from that season. Possibly mine too.

Apparently I missed reading Katrina's post-game Hollywood Reporter interview at the time. I wish I had. Here's the link: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-season-35-first-one-reveals-what-went-wrong-1043745 I thought this was interesting: So Chrissy may have wanted Katrina out, but Katrina wanted Chrissy out, too. This was not the middle-aged moms' coalition the editing suggested to add suspense about whether or not Chrissy's idol would get played.

Eep. I didn't mean to suggest that I thought there was an anti-Chrissy witch hunt. My apologies if anyone took it that way. It's more that I know I sometimes think differently than someone else, so I tend to give my view and explain excessively. Er, you've all probably noticed the excessive explanation bit. Sorry bout that.

Well, yes. That and JT historically will almost always vote off a woman over a man, especially any woman who isn't kissing his ass egregiously. Rewatch Tocantins sometime with that in mind. Although Fishbach gets credit for balancing out JT, it's Taj who drags them both back into sanity when JT wants to do things like vote off Sierra instead of Tyson. And even though they repeatedly catch Coach lying, in their talking heads both JT and Fishbach talk about how honorable Coach is, and how he tries to play the game without lying. It's Taj who rolls her eyes at Coach's bs and refuses to buy any of it. I've never understood why Fishbach got the credit for being the strategic one. I mean, he outlasted Taj, but imo she did great to make it as far as she did with that cast.

Alan Ball's post-game Hollywood Reporter interview is up. I love reading these. It's here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-season-35-alan-ball-exit-interview-1050308 For those wondering why they went after Joe and not Desi, this might explain it: Reading this, I'm also reminded that as we were watching the episode, when Joe had his TH about how he was going to try to be a jerk and make sure to draw their votes, SimplyMom just went, "Oh my God. You really don't know Alan, do you?"

Alan's Hollywood Reporter post-game exit interview: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/survivor-season-35-alan-ball-exit-interview-1050308 It made me miss him. He's very personable in interviews, I think.

True. And SO the reason that I'd never go on a reality show. You have to be able to not care how people interpret the bits of your personality that are shown during a stressful, fatiguing hunger strike of a competition. I'd be the witch with a migraine and humidity hair booted the third day for attempting to throttle Patrick. You'd never know that in my old job when fed and with enough sleep, I used to talk down the screaming crazies (I love 99% of people. That other 1%? omg.) with sympathy and a sense of humor. Well, some days I still had the humidity hair. I don't know what Chrissy is like outside of Survivor. I might dislike her a lot. I certainly feel more of an instant kinship with other players than with her, but I do respect what I've seen of her ability to analyze and strategize. There's also a part of me that feels like women that Survivor shows being strategic tend to get a bit of a villain edit or at least that reaction from many viewers. I don't know that that's backed up by evidence, mind you, but somehow I formed that perception. So I find myself appreciating what Chrissy brings to the game, even if there are players I vibe to a lot more. And, as always, one of the best things about Survivor in my opinion is that we're all free to like or dislike a player for whatever reasons we want. Wesley in BvW2 drove me bonkers because he was a mouth breather who kept doing weird stuff with his tongue. Petty, but true. :P Anyways, I feel like Chrissy's going to be around for a while. (I try not to read spoilers, so this is just a guess based on editing and pre-game coverage.) Sorry, @peachmangosteen. I love you and would send you a stress doll with blonde locks to smack around if I could. :)

I will politely disagree with you here. I don't think the show deliberately confused people. I think they expected people to follow along, and there were people who followed. I think the editing and the part of the note Jessica read out loud could have been clearer, but I don't think this was a case of deliberate misdirection. I think it's a case where we should apply Hanlon's Razor*: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." *Hanlon's razor wikipedia explanation for you geeks out there: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_razor

From her interviews and the tiny bits we've seen of her, I've really liked Roark. If we'd done the Survivor pool, I was thinking of picking her. (For the record, that would have been the kiss of death for the poor woman's chances. Yes, I know it's already taped.) Chrissy seems very analytical to me, which makes sense given that she's an actuary. You (@KimberStormer) seem to prefer players with more emotion. You can step back and see the whys and hows of players' moves, but just like the rest of us, the heart wants what the heart wants. For some reason, I can't warm to Ashley.

We have no idea what the context of Chrissy telling JP is. Also, Chrissy has a pre-existing relationship with JP (her fellow Hero) but not one with Roark. In the episode we just saw, Chrissy and Ryan appeared to make a connection based on Ryan confessing he'd sent the idol to Chrissy for the first TC. So I'm not going to assume that Chrissy is a horrible person based on 5 seconds of a preview that may indicate that Chrissy outs a possible plan of her as-of-this-writing non-ally Roark. Especially if that plan is "Hey, join the two people you have no connection to and vote out the people you may have a connection to!" As things stand at the end of episode 4 (which could very well change), I could certainly see extremely good strategic reasons for Chrissy to not go along with Roark's idea. They have nothing to do with gender and everything to do with not shooting herself in the foot. In summary: foot bullet bad. :)

And if the challenges involved pure strength, that would be a problem. But so far, I think the challenges have actually been a good mix of agility/dexterity, teamwork/communication, mental/puzzling, swimming, and such. The team with the biggest guys on it did the worst at unbraiding, flipping themselves, throwing a hoop with a rope on it accurately, and doing a puzzle. Joe, in fact, sucks at the agility and communication bits. Lauren, Ben, and Cole were great at unbraiding their ropes and flipping themselves over/around the beams, as were Roark, Ryan, and JP. The biggest problem for the smallest people (Roark and Ryan) in that challenge appeared to be managing all the rope and, of course, hauling the heavy sled. I don't know that Jessica was crying over Cole, exactly, though with the way she's been edited of course that's the conclusion folks will jump to. I think she had an emotional moment when she realized she trusted someone (her closest supposed ally) and got burned. Some of us get a bit snivelly when we feel backstabbed. >.>

Well, @BryroseA summed up what I had to say about Cole. Dumb. Jessica, though, managed her secret advantage pretty well. (She didn't misread it. If her tribe lost, she would give it to someone on her tribe when it was time to vote and it would block their vote. If her tribe was immune, she would send it to someone on the losing tribe, thus blocking their vote.) By choosing Devon, she takes the swing vote who is probably against the numbers-heavy healers out of the voting, evening up the votes. Then she hopes that Joe plays his idol and that he was his usual annoying self and they voted for him. That removes a non-healer from the game and gets the idol away from Joe. Win-win. She's definitely the brains of that twosome. Hope she votes Cole off soon. I don't really see Desi wanting to keep Joe around either. I can easily see future votes in that tribe being 3-1 against Joe. I wonder if/when they'll switch to two tribes? Weirdly, I enjoyed seeing Ashley and Alan work together this ep. I also didn't expect to like Devon at the beginning of the season, but I do. He has common sense and a low-key sense of humor. Also, his brain appears to function with some level of intelligence and without a high level of asshattery, which puts him miles beyond several of the other men they cast this season.

I mostly really liked Jay because he really appreciated the game. If he didn't see something coming at TC, he might be mad, but he also truly seemed to appreciate the way people played. He was a lot sharper and strategic in THs than he sounded in casual conversation. And he liked people. You can tell that in his THs when he talks about them. I did think blindsiding Michaela was a bad move, and I expected it to do him in loooong before it did. I can't believe he made it as far as he did.

I think Survivor is certainly trying to play up Chrissy's smarts (not that people are reacting well to that, imo). I think part of the narrative the editing monkeys show depends on what mix of stories they think viewers will want to see. I think Jessica is getting more of a focus on her relationship with Cole and her body and less on her brains precisely because she's in a showmance. They aren't getting that with Desi, Roark, Chrissy, Ali, or Lauren. Just Jessica/Cole and maaaaybe Ashley/JP. I think that's also why we aren't seeing much of Desi and Roark yet--no drama, no romance. Just calmly getting along, cooking potatoes, and managing not to bitchslap Joe when he chucks them rather than giving them to someone else or waits and cooks them more to his liking. I do think Jessica was right that Cole should have kept his mouth shut. There may also have been some jealousy in her reaction, because that would be a normal human reaction for anyone if your closest ally told you a big secret, then planned something with you, then without asking you told two other people the plan. It wouldn't matter if it was a showmance or JT/Fishbach, you'd be annoyed both at being less powerful and integral to the person and that they made what could be a big strategic mistake. I also don't think Jessica saying she's a virgin is TMI. She didn't graphically list her sexual exploits and limits or anything. I think she was simply explaining that outside of Survivor she's a slow mover, possibly somewhat for religious reasons. There are a lot of people out there like that. I don't think anyone should be judged for doing what they feel is right for them. I mean, I don't want to hear people go on about their sex lives (please, God, no), but I didn't feel she was. Of course, we all interpret through our own lenses, and I'm sure there was some producer prodding there too, so ymmv.

Lauren might not have the sour puss expressions now that constantly needling-screaming-waking-people-up Patrick is gone.

@SVNBob, you are brilliant! I had absolutely no memory of Janu (who apparently quit during Palau and made jury). What is interesting is that in looking her up, I found the real answer to why they let Naonka and Purple Kelly retain their jury standings: https://www.today.com/popculture/probst-why-quitters-are-allowed-survivor-jury-1C9381468 The relevant bit: