simplyme

Or, as the convo went in the Simply household: SimplyMom: "What is wrong with that woman?" SimplyMe: "I think she must have had a bad life. She certainly has some issues." SimplyMom: "But haven't you heard about all her accomplishments? She's met presidents and prime ministers!" SimplyMe: "Yeah. I sometimes have really funky dreams too. I once slew a dragon with the Duke brothers.* We could all fly." ETA: * Technically, Bo and Luke are cousins. Whatever.

Seriously, though, he could have answered it much better than he did. He either didn't even try or really didn't care about her. He should have been able to talk about her mom's name and how proud she was of how hard her mom worked, and how happy she was that her mom got to visit Fiji. He should have been able to say she could be very willful and fierce and competitive. That she was highly emotional and reacted strongly. That maybe, no, he wasn't close to her the way he was to some of the others, but that didn't mean he didn't pay attention to her and still learn some things. Maybe say he thinks it will be easier to get to know her when they aren't competing against each other. As it was, his answer came off as dismissive, like he didn't bother to learn more than a couple things and Michaela wasn't worth putting himself out for to prove anything. Which, if you're trying to claim you have an excellent social game, sort of torpedoes your point. If you don't bother to make the effort to answer a single question, you can't claim the lack of a relationship was entirely the other person's fault. That's really the key for me.

Ha! We noticed that too! SimplyMom started voicing Michaela's thoughts: "Get her off! Get her off before I take her down!"

That would be great. :) I forgot that livechatting was an option tonight, and I totally think it's fun, but for the folks who come by after... Eh. I'm not reading it. My favorite bit from the recap:

With 7 jurors, if 3 vote for A, 3 for B, and 1 for C, there is a tie. The person who voted for C would have to revote, or C would have to cast the deciding vote anyways. With 11 jurors it could be 5, 5, 1 or 4, 4, 3. Admittedly, the third option often gets zero votes (which I imagine you're thinking), but not always. ETA: Gah. Typed too slow. Sorry!

Not with an F3, he can't, and at that point does it really matter if he's making a jury member who voted for the third place person or the third place person themself cast the vote?

I don't know about that. The first thing I thought about when I heard of the new tie = rock draw rules was that a savvy player could use that to their advantage. If they can figure out who on their side is getting a certain number of votes and arrange a tie (or two) making those people immune, throw in the immunity necklace and possibly an immunity idol, and you could essentially have one or two people left who are the only ones eligible to draw rocks (and thus go home). It would be complex and take balls, but it could work, and it should be allowed IMO because someone has to do a lot of strategy (and white-knuckling) to get that result. The question is if there's a scenario where that's easier and less wasteful of idols than simply managing to put available votes on the person you want to send home. So... it sucked for Cirie, but IMO the problem was too many idols all at once, not what happens if they whittle it down to one unprotected person. Other things... I liked the new FTC format. Fewer stupid jury questions this way. Brad looked despondent at the Reunion. I'd guess he was really upset at the way he came off. Hint to Brad: If you're trying to make a case that you really love and respect a man, don't bodily pick him up like a child when you hug him. *sigh* I don't think Brad is evil, but I really don't think he realizes how he sounds sometimes. (Whoever said he looked like their history teacher, I said math teacher, but yeah. He was channeling a high school teacher there.)

Quoting myself to facepalm and say, "Boy, I should have waited to opine for a few hours until after the finale, huh?"

Re: The Cochran crush... I viewed that as a Survivor crush. Like Aubry viewed Cochran as a former winner with a sense of humor and she was being compared to him, so the "crush" wasn't technically a romantic interest but an expression of respect and "Hey, that's cool." Like when I say I have a girl crush on someone. I'm not really interested in dating said woman, but it's a way of expressing admiration for them. I don't know that Aubry would have volunteered Cochran as a possible "crush" without this particular situation, either. What was she supposed to say? "Ewww? Cochran has cooties!" about one of Probst's friends? She seems a bit socially savvier than that. So I think this may be a mountain out of a molehill, though I'd almost bet Probst will bring it up in some god awful awkward fashion at the Reunion.

I misread that as strategy and idiots, which really has summed up Gamechangers well for me. There's only been one idol played, most of the game hasn't really revolved around them, but sheer idiot moves have taken out a number of people. I don't know why I'm judging this cast so harshly. Maybe because they're all veterans? But I certainly expect them to know not to tell the other side the target of the vote, or to say something so unrecoverable and personal they get voted out, or flip at completely the wrong time and not realize that the other side won't trust you either and is going to tattle (Zeke, which got Ozzy ousted), or telling someone you have an advantage they'll get if you're voted out. I felt like the general level of play was much better last season and they were all new. I don't mind people playing under the radar or a good social game. I don't mind Big Moves. I do mind stupid moves, and I feel like this season has been filled with watching people randomly tossing kerosene around and lighting matches, often to their own detriment. And really, by the time you've played Survivor two (or four...) times, you should know how to make fire without doing that. :P

Re: That deleted scene... I don't know that Michaela is lying. I think both Culpepper and Michaela said what they thought happened. Neither one was actually accurate based on what we saw in the actual episode. Michaela didn't tell Culpepper to fish or he'd be voted out, but that's what he thought he heard. Michaela seemed to think she told him maybe fishing would help, but that's not what she actually said. It's a great lesson in the difference between what a person thinks they say, what they actually say, and what gets heard (or communicated). They can be three different things. As to seeing Michaela work around camp... We haven't seen anyone work around camp, really. Heck, we barely see camp. We didn't even see reward challenges this time. :) For all I know, Troyzan could be giving ballroom dancing lessons to the rest of them to pass the time and we just haven't seen it.

According to Michaela's interview, Sarah told Cirie she was going to give her the steal-a-vote advantage earlier in the day, but she only did so right before TC. So it's less about Cirie's reading comprehension than Sarah not giving her the time to read it. Michaela also clarifies in that interview that Sarah did know it was nontransferable and said that right away, and when Jeff seemed to be waffling Troyzan made a comment about "nontransferable means nontransferable." Thanks for posting that interview, @piequinn35! Lots of interesting stuff there.

Just remembered one thing that stood out to me during the episode. During the first TC, Sarah told Jeff that she thought the jury would reward gameplay over their emotions on being voted out, and she cited her experiences in Cagayan to back that up. She said, "I know. I've done that." My immediate response was, "Yeah, but it was an F2, and your other option was Wu. No one wanted to say they lost Survivor to Wu." Which actually is probably the question that really answers who will win Survivor a lot of the time. For each jury member, go through and ask yourself, "Who of the F2/F3 do they least mind losing to?" (IMO, this is also why Tai is not winning. No matter what you think of his game, people do not want to lose to Tai.)

I do think she had to go for Cirie to win. The problem was the timing. Culpepper then Andrea, Cirie. OT: I am really tired of the Wunderbrow ads at the bottom of my page. Boy, am I not your target audience.

I think the big thing is that everyone is human and makes mental mistakes in such a tense, draining environment. Cirie's plan could have been brilliant. Sarah just couldn't give her the advantage, which I expect didn't register because, well, it's day 30-something and Sarah freaking handed it to her. I'm not going to swear that I would catch that in a similar situation, even though I clearly should. As for how overrated Cirie is or isn't, she was great her first time. In Micronesia, which I just rewatched, she's actually also great. A number of things that the show gives Parvati sole credit for were either Cirie or both Cirie and Parv. The huge thing Parv did was make the alliance with Alexis and Natalie, but to be fair that option wasn't available to Amanda or Cirie as they weren't on the same tribe with them at the time. Cirie often comes up with the idea (blindside Ozzy, get Erik to give Natalie his necklace) and coaches the others on how to achieve it. So I think she's actually underrated in that season because Parvati gets the glory. (I'm great with Parvati winning too. Really, it came down to who won the final IC. Parv went out first, then Amanda and Cirie battled it out. Amanda won and took Parvati.)

Because Cirie put on an entire act to convince Tai she was saving him by playing this advantage in order to convince him to trust her and not play an idol. If Cirie then steals Tai's vote, she undoes all that work. If she had been able to use the advantage, she steals Sarah's vote and uses it to vote for Tai (plus her own vote, plus Aubry and Michaela), while Tai is voting for Sarah and assuming Cirie is saving him. Afterwards Sarah realizes Tai voted for her and Cirie stole her vote and voted out the guy gunning for her. (ETA: I feel like I just summarized a soap opera plot.) That was the plan that the fine print foiled. And I think there was a good chance Tai would have held on to his idol and trusted Cirie, because he really wants to make sure to use them when he needs them.

I tried hard to like Crystal and failed. If it makes you feel better, the US team was not actually stripped of their gold medals. Only Crystal was. Apparently she ran in one of the preliminary heats but was not one of the four women who ran the final.

Or maybe "People do really stupid things that get either themselves or an ally voted out" as a narrative for this season. I've seen more people taken out of this game by their own stupid moves (or that of an ally rebounding on them) than by anyone actually making strategic moves. This season is like Stooges Survivor. Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk. I just rewatched Gabon. It was even worse than I remembered. I'm curious where it falls in your ranking? By the end of Gabon, even though I knew how it ended, I was still hoping the jury would revolt and demand the the million dollars be given to the gorilla sanctuary. It's just painful to watch when the eventual winner is asked for one decision they made and their answer is, "I really didn't make any decisions." And the person who asked that question still votes for them.

The only thing I can figure out is that Troy told Tai they were voting Michaela and Tai told Sarah (or Troy told her directly). Sarah stole Tai's vote in case he has an idol and she could get him to waste one, but she then cast two votes for Michaela, knowing that Brad and Troy plus those two votes would send Michaela home AND that there was no way Michaela had an idol or would suspect it. Plus she would get to see how Aubry and Cirie voted. So Sarah went with the safe vote... maybe? That's all I got.

Yeah. I gotta say I'm Team Aubry. I still think Sarah's backstabbing will bite her with the jury if she gets to FTC. Tai won't win, but he doesn't deserve the crap I've seen about him either. Troy this season got stuck in a bad place and has actually done a good job with it. He has an idol no one knows about. People like him. He's won at least two individual immunities, I think, and he's managed to stay off the target list. Whether or not he can win depends on making it to FTC and who he's there with. I still think Brad both learned a lot from his first go around and is getting a good edit. I'm just not sure if it's a winning edit or if it's just because omg, he's Mr. Football. Love Cirie, but no one is letting her near that FTC.

Yes. This x 100 tonight. Usually I follow the decisions okay after the fact, but tonight? No. I mean, the Andrea boot was a no-brainer, but the Michaela boot I do not understand. And enough with the whispering at TC. Shut that down, Probst. Maybe the allergy meds made me grumpier and less able to follow than usual, but I really felt like it was the show.

SimplyMom and I are also convinced that the immunity necklace is a Michael's craft product. In fact, after the Mother's Day commercial where Jeff is shown putting it around Andrea's neck and saying, "That will come in handy," SimplyMom turned to me and said, "That is NOT what I want for Mother's Day."

I would have to rewatch the season to make an accurate judgment, but my opinion at the time was that Rob was an extremely experienced player with a bunch of newbies who were amazingly stupid and sheeplike. Whether that was due to casting or because Rob was a masterful manipulator can be debated, I'm sure. At the time, I felt like they cast idiots, but I admit that could have been frustration at how boring I found the season. (I'm slowly rewatching the seasons with SimplyMom, so we should get there eventually. We just started Gabon tonight.)

I was ruined for life by this Onion article so that whenever people make reference to that song, it's what I think of. Sorry, mods. I'll stick to topic now.

I figure Sarah's calm demeanor is probably part natural and part developed as part of her job. I imagine she is used to trying not to show too much emotion as a female police officer. Have you ever spoken to a police officer about the reports they have to file and the language they are trained to use? From my admittedly brief discussions, it is supposed to be as impersonal as possible. To whoever mentioned Brenda not scrambling on Nicaraugua, she later explained that the problem she faced was that her alliance decided it didn't trust her. If she suddenly started scrambling and talking to the other alliance and trying to make deals, that would simply reinforce the perception. It was a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. From that, she said she learned not to limit herself to just one set of options. (I think this is interesting, because I consider Nicaraugua an earlier season, but we can see one of the rationales for why the game evolved away from tried-and-true alliances and pagongings.)