simplyme

I guess I see it differently. Everyone already knows that Dom and Wendell are a twosome. The one thing you REALLY don't want to do is irk your ride-or-die, so if you have a choice, you play together and either win or lose the reward together. The captains were Kellyn, Wendell, and Donathan. We don't know the order they picked their second, of course. And once they won, I thought their choices were pretty strategic. They can only choose one person to go with them. Obviously they need to pick someone from Donathan/Laurel or risk losing that entire alliance, and they both know that Laurel is the leader in that twosome. She's also more athletic and a bigger threat than Donathan if she flips, so she's the one they cement. Now, they're also playing Sebastian as part of a boys alliance. If they don't send him to Ghost Island, he'll feel betrayed and very well might turn on them, and he's worked with Kellyn and Angela before. Then they'd just need to swing either Laurel or Donathan and that's the majority. But if they screw over Donathan... Well, they sort of see him as a lesser threat. Donathan can be told they took Laurel (his alliance mate) and needed to leave someone they trusted. Also, Laurel can probably reign him back in. And if she can't (like she couldn't), the truth is that no one sees Donathan as a threat. He's seen as a nice guy, maybe, but bad at challenges and with loose lips. IMO, Sebastian is treated as an alpha male. Donathan isn't. And that's also why I would say Donathan has a snowball's chance of winning this thing. The way I predict the winner is to ask myself for each jury member, "Who would I least mind losing to?" As much as I like Donathan, I can't see this jury will voting for him over anyone other than maybe Angela (our token older woman). That's also why I'd also expect Sebastian to be targeted next by Dom and Wendell if they don't go after each other. He hasn't done anything, but I think they trust him less than lickspittle Laurel, see him as a challenge threat because he's male (despite that not actually meaning jack), and he's better socially than Angela or Donathan. And no, I don't read spoilers. This is all based off of what *I* would do. Dom and Wendell chose Laurel for the reward feast with the locals. While sitting there eating, with Laurel between the two men, the subject of the final three came up. Laurel said out loud to Dom and Wendell (and various locals) that her best chance was to go to the end with the two of them and then hope that they split the vote. Then in a voice-over confessional, Laurel admitted that wasn't actually what she thought, but it was what she wanted them to believe. She still hoped to take them out before F3. I promise, it was in there. :) Judging by comments, @green and @Nashville heard it too. Easy to overlook in the sea of Survivor blah blah blah though... One other thing... Someone asked why no one is scooping up Angela. I think people (except Donathan) are being very careful at this point to appear very loyal. If you start trying to pick up Angela and it gets noticed, you just made people doubt you. So it works better to let Angela just hang out and be a goat, only tell her a plan when your alliance needs her, and not get "caught" talking too much to an unaffiliated vote by people who are now really hungry and probably paranoid.

Dave was incredibly difficult to watch, but I don't really blame him for that. I think he was an excellent example of how not getting enough food can literally cause mental problems. That was not a man whose brain was in touch with reality.

That's because that's almost all Brynn sang. There were really, REALLY few lyrics to that song. Basically once she knew walk my way so we can get closer, she had the bleeping song down. I wanted to smack the lyricist about 60 seconds in. That said, she sang that godawful song well. I just never, ever want to be subjected to it again. (And Kelly raving about the songwriter? Ease up on the crack, sister!) It was an interesting contrast for me when I compared that to Brittan's original song. I actually liked his. I thought he showed a lot of talent as a songwriter. I certainly felt he outwrote a number of the professional songwriters they've used in the past for some of the original songs (and Brynn's). Craig Wayne Boyd's comes to mind. Zzz. Unfortunately, Brittan had some serious performance issues. I liked the first half of Kyla's "I Get By..." and I think she has an amazing voice, but by the end she went a bit too waily for my tastes. I'm aware that's personal preference on style, though. I would love to hear that woman rock a church. Spensha has grown on me throughout the season. I wasn't a fan of hers at the beginning, but I think she's gained more control and strangely may now be my favorite.

I don't mind Kellyn, but she annoys the bejesus out of SimplyDad. I think she must come off differently in person. Also, there is a quality to her voice that makes it sound slightly shrill and whiny even when she's happy. And if course that combined with the producer-prompted "tell us your backstory" did her no favors. For the most part I've seen her make logical moves and be pleasant to people, and she seems to connect well with others. That was noticeable to me when she was talking to Angela before the vote that would pretty clearly either be James or Desi. But that voice leaves you with the word "whiner" ringing in your ears. I also didn't mind her answering gut to Jeff's dumb question because it was a dumb question. "A bit of both" is a reasonable response. Again, I think her voice somehow made that whole thing more annoying than it should have been...

Hi! Missed you guys! Really glad to see Bradley go, and after thinking it over, I don't think it was a mistake for Dom or Chelsea. We didn't see what all Dom and Chelsea said to each other, but I'm assuming that the Brad-Desi-Kellyn vote block worked against Brad. Also, at this point Dom has a fairly good relationship with Dohnathan, and although he doesn't trust Libby I think Dom figured he had a better chance of using Libby and Dohnathan to pick up Malolo survivors as allies than he did using Bradley to advance himself. As someone else mentioned, being so obnoxious that you're seen as a goat can be a reason to cut someone, too. Bradley was fairly good at puzzles, played a decent physical game, and had several people voting with him. It's kind of early to declare someone that competent at several aspects of the game to be a goat you want to take to the end unless you feel you control them. That guy may actually be someone else's pet goat who wins immunity and helps vote you out. In other words, I think Bradley was the right choice for Dom's game. I have no idea for Chelsea's game. She's pretty much been a space-holding non-entity most of the time.

Or he might snap and cannibalize a fellow castaway. I'm pretty sure that would be an automatic removal from the game. :P

As far as I know, the only difference is between whether food is cooked or raw. Once a food has been cooked a certain degree, it's easier for humans to digest. However past that point I don't think the benefits continue to accrue. Also to be considered, from https://realdoctorstu.com/2012/04/30/rare-medium-or-well-done-the-science-of-a-perfect-steak/: Dr. Stu sums up with: If you want more vitamins, go rare. If you want more iron, go well-done. If you're on a diet, cook it to smithereens. So if I were on Survivor and could eat an Outback steak? I'd be going rare for the fat and vitamins.

Chrissy mentioned waaaay back that she was a bit leery of Ben because he had a good social game. I'm curious to see exactly how far she'd want to take him vs, say, JP or someone else. I'd be willing to bet she's constantly evaluating how she thinks the tribe feels about each person and who she has the best chance to beat, which may or may not include Ben. I really wish they called Chrissy an actuary rather than a "financial analyst" because I think some people might have the wrong idea of what she does. She doesn't put together financial products for people to buy. She works for companies like insurance corporations and tries to evaluate risk and predict the future and sometimes put a financial price tag on it. This is a very general description of things actuaries are known for doing from http://www.beanactuary.org/what/do/?fa=what-do-we-do: That looks like a good skillset to have for Survivor if you can pull off enough of the social aspect of the game.

Or Jessica and Chrissy just didn't click. It's possible that Chrissy is that way, but frankly so far her choices have been the best ones to advance her strategically in the game with the least amount of risk. The fact that the other targets have also been women has been partially due to tribe make up, partially due to pre-existing relationships, and partially due to who has cozied up to Chrissy in return. I mean, I don't think Jessica was sent home because Chrissy felt threatened by her. I think Joe and Cole were the preferred targets, but they were afraid Joe had an idol, and since everyone knew Cole's name had been tossed around, they were afraid of voting for him in case Joe or someone else played an idol for Cole. Desi was immune. So that left Jessica or Mike, and since Mike and Joe have known issues that might be able to be exploited later whereas Jessica is attached to Cole at the hip, they vote Jessica. Unexpected vote goes uncountered by any idols, the Healers are down to four, and Cole loses his keeper. That's not woman-hating. It's frustrating as hell when Cole is still there, but it's just good game play. Also, I read that interview you're referencing. Jessica was all over the place. I liked Jessica a lot, but came away from that interview thinking, "Wha?"

People have physically tussled for idols (and clues) before with no repercussions, though.

Exactly. The exit interviews I've read, most people seem to get along fine with Chrissy. What Chrissy said in her TH at the beginning of the show was that she "is dominating the social game of this tribe." It can be interpreted as her bragging, but I took it as a somewhat analytical statement. She went on to explain the comment. She said she was on a tribe of three, and she pointed out that both guys had a better relationship with her than with each other. In other words, she was actually the dominant social player on the tribe. Granted, generally societally we don't like to hear people say things like that about themselves, especially women. If someone else had said it, it would have been ok. For her to say it, it came off as tooting her own horn. I do think Chrissy made a misstep by doing the math when Jeff asked at the challenge. That's what put the target on her. But I also think she is very much about giving production what they want, and I wouldn't be surprised if Jeff asked the question knowing she could answer and she answered because she knew production would like it.

I think the editors have shown why no one should trust Cole: as soon as he has any information, he tells someone. Repeatedly. In situations where I can see no possible benefit to him. I mean, just this episode, Jessica warns him to stop eating cinnamon sticks, and she and Lauren tell him not to say anything but just stop, and what does he do? He goes to Ben. Mike warns Cole that his name and Joe's came up. What does Cole do? Go to Joe and tell him everything, including about his alliance of five that Joe isn't part of. (He even led part of that talk with, "Please don't use this against me.") At this point, I'd want Cole allied with the other guys. You'd always know any plans Cole knew. Unpopular opinion, but Joe continued to grow on me, probably because I don't have to actually spend any time with him. He appeared to actually attempt to make Cole think, immediately pointing out the problem with Cole's 5-person alliance: "Ben's gonna flip on you." I also don't think it was necessarily stupid for Joe to play his HII. Most of the time people come to TC with a plan. They may not change it on the fly. Lots of times they don't. If you know your name has been brought up, it's definitely better to play it and be wrong than not play it and get voted out. And I have to agree with @SVNBob that as much as I wanted to see Jessica stay so I could maybe see her play without Cole, this was the right strategic move for the Heroes/Hustlers. Great third horseman comparison, too.

I'm such a geek that I found the Wikipedia entry on the vocal fry register to be fascinating. It briefly covers the physical production of the fry and its use societally and in singing.

Probst has already said he wants to see Ali back again, too. I think she was a player they liked and someone they thought was a good narrator, even if her actual game didn't go that great for her (which was probably partially the swap's fault). Personally, I'm seeing this right now as Ryan getting a narrator edit and Ben getting the winner's edit, but lots to go yet.

Probst has said medical checked Cole out. Taken from a Q&A with Probst at http://ew.com/tv/2017/11/02/survivor-jeff-probst-heroes-hustlers-healers-episode-6/ : It's not like medical is right there at camp. They're close, but it's not like at challenges when they're pretty much on standby at the scene. The castaways deal with it the best they can until medical shows up. As @Winston9-DT3 said, unless it affects the game or is gripping footage, they've generally got other things to show us. Especially when it's just going to be a doctor checking Cole's vitals and asking a few questions and then telling him to drink more water. Wooo.

Simultaneously all three went for the ball, and the coconut-like sound of their heads colliding secretly delighted the bird.

I've passed out, come to, and been coherent in a matter of just a few seconds. And then there have been times I've passed out and it's taken me a little longer to come to (still less than a minute), but I was always coherent within seconds of waking up. (I don't actually pass out that often, but over the years I've discovered my body does seem to occasionally react that way to a few stressors like overheating, donating blood, and running a particularly high fever a la severe strep throat.) It looked to me like Cole really did pass out. Lots of times you feel SO much better after you pass out and you lie still and flat and your body resets itself, so I'm not surprised he seemed kind of perky. I do think he milked it for all it was worth since there was food and attention from Jessica involved. Er, you don't always have those symptoms. I certainly didn't when I keeled over after donating blood. Three times! My body would suddenly just go, "Wait! I'm missing something! URK!" I'd go from feeling fine, eating my cookie or whatever, to suddenly feeling dizzy, and I might have time to say, "Hey, I don't feel good!" before the lights go out... but maybe not. The first time I was sitting at a table and I looked up at the girl across from me and all I got out was "I'm..." before my eyes rolled back and I went over sideways. (I gave her nightmares.) Yay, high school blood drives. (For the record, yeah, they told me to just stop donating blood after the third time. I guess they didn't like my prima donna act.)

That's a different situation, though. Medical was on-hand for the challenges, so Peter interfering would have been inappropriate (and probably could have legal implications in certain cases). With no other medical team around, it's appropriate for Mike and Jessica to step up.

So I started thinking about numbers. There are 5 former healers (Joe, Desi, Cole, Jessica, and Mike), 3 former hustlers (Lauren, Devon, and Ryan), and 4 former heroes (Ashley, JP, Ben, and Chrissy). The interesting thing to me is that the heroes and hustlers have seemingly formed new bonds with other people--mostly heroes/hustlers. The healers, aside from maybe Mike, haven't really seemed to have formed new alliances. So the healers are the largest single group, but the other two groups now seem to have a lot of cross-ties. It's hard for me not to see the heroes/hustlers teaming up at first to take out the healers they see as the biggest threats. I'd guess that would be Cole, Joe, and Desi, as I think they're all seen as physical threats and Joe and Desi possibly as strategic. Also, Cole and Joe have annoyed the bejesus out of people. They may not take out all three before cannibalizing a hero/hustler, but it feels like one or two will be the focus of a healer-paranoid majority after the merge. I still feel like this may be a big reason Ryan took out Roark. Everyone is anticipating a merge soon, and going to a merge with six healers (potentially half the numbers) and feeling that Ali was really close to Roark probably worried him that he would be on the wrong side of the numbers.

The less focus there has been on Joe, the less annoying I've found him. When Ryan said that people seem to like him (or was it trust him? I don't remember) and then said he was surprised because "I kind of think I'm a weasel" there was an immediate moment in our living room before SimplyMom just said, "Yeah, you are." I wanted JP to go but was pretty sure Ali was going to. Alas, I was right. I figure Chrissy trusts JP more and didn't believe what Ali was selling about putting her trust in Chrissy, and Chrissy figures she can control JP and use him as a meatshield. Re: Cole and the pizza. It was some time after the pizza. We don't know how long. Also, that tribe only got one pizza to split five ways. Given that Cole is a huge guy in his early twenties, I'm guessing his metabolism hasn't slowed down that much yet and that's why the lack of food is hitting him much harder than, say, Ben, who's mid-thirties. So either Lauren's "seething hatred of young men" that I saw suggested last week is contagious, or it appears when said young men are annoying. ;)

Exactly. We've had lots of comments and conversations about Chrissy, and they've been interesting. JP? I just keep saying the same things. Boring, dumb, and I wish they'd cast his dog.

She's said some arrogant things, but this is Survivor. Offhand I can't think of anyone who hasn't said something that can't be taken wrong unless they barely got any THs. I can't say I'm necessarily cheering for her, but it's really nice to see an "older" woman who embraces the strategic role, avoids the mom stereotype, and is somewhat aggressive in her playstyle. Then again, I liked Kass as a player, too. Imo, I don't really see Chrissy throwing herself at men, either. I see her as being able to tell who the most influential, useful players are on her tribes. On the healers tribe, that was Ben. On her new tribe it was Ryan. After that she seems to try to work the people she feels are most open to her. That was a toss-up on the healers, so she worked all of them, including Ashley. On her new tribe, she had a pre-existing relationship with JP, so she used that.

They named her Paisley. Like Jessica is going to do anything to her worse than that.

You shouldn't really judge sunscreen use by a sunburn, though. I say this as someone who apparently had a vampire as an ancestor. Not one of those newfangled sparkly ones, but one of those old-fashioned ones that went up in flames like gas-soaked newspaper if a single ray of sunlight touched them. Sunscreen can only do so much. I mean, I put the stuff on daily, and I cover up outside, and I live in a snowy, cloudy northern clime, but I know from two trips to Florida that no matter how much sunblock I wear or how often I reapply it, I'm going to burn because people insist on going and standing in the sun instead of letting me stay indoors. :P

Teethgate (*snicker*) is part of Caramoan.