Subrookie

Well his game has always been weak. That would have made the whole episode even more interesting. Had he done that Varner would have owed him forever, Jeff would have been the ultimate goat. And, Tai would still have had another Idol to protect himself.

Varner is getting a lot of well deserved anger after this, but I like to think even good people do bad things. I don't think he's a bad person, he made a bad decision. I won't try to defend him. I was pretty shocked he brought it up. I'd be amazed if they didn't spend a fair amount of time talking about it in the after show following the final tribal. He was one of my favorite players from my favorite season of this show (S2) and he's been outspoken on LGBTQ rights. I'm sure he feels horrible now. Ozzy had to be thinking, "thank God their not talking about me again" I can't remember when but I think this isn't the only time they never actually voted at tribal. They kind of did, by hands, but social issues aside Tai could have made them vote and used an Idol to get rid of someone. Since it was pretty clear Varner was going home. I do remember recalling that when they went to tribal with 15-20 minutes left something had to be up. Anyway, not a defense of what Jeff did but I won't judge him by this forever. He can apologize and I'm sure he has.

I assumed it was flour or grain dust. A lot of common foods are explosive when they are in powder form. I recall the older man who died said he didn't have the lungs for this work anymore so dust in whatever form was something they were exposed to all the time. I could be wrong and it was chemicals, but explosions at sugar and flour plants/storage facilities are a constant hazard.

I seem to be in the minority here and I don't care. I was happy to see Sandra leave so I don't have to hear that Queen schpeel anymore and I loved getting to see Cochran again.

Did they not show the Christmas episode here in the US? It doesn't show up on my on demand and I had it set up for a series recording. I can't find it anywhere.

I live in Seattle and read an interview with the Bellevue cop. He applied and was short listed for an earlier season to run with his brother. For some reason they didn't make the cut. When they were casting S29 they called him and asked if he'd consider running alone without his brother.

JT is a f'n idiot. If you are a fan of this show you should know if everyone at tribal council is telling you you're safe, you're not. I don't like Sandra at all. WTF is wrong with these people. She wants to take you to "39" with her. Really? Do you really think you're going to win if Sandra is still in the game at 39?

I like Vernon too. I remember a couple, three seasons ago they tried to say that he had a fleet of 20+ dredges. I think that was the episode his daughter was one one dredge and he was on another trying to mine the same spot. That's the part of the show that passes me off. Like when they led you to believe Shawn was going to buy some big ass barge at the end of last season and take it to the bluff. He's spent the entire season this year on a skiff. This has been a really bad season so far, IMHO. 4 shows in and no one is really getting much. I'm no geologist but even I could tell you Sledge Island was a waste of time.

They must have scaled the budget back in this show. The other guy with a barge like Shawn and Vernon aren't in this season.

Murder of a sloth? I probably wouldn't have been a fan had someone on a reality show hunted a sloth for food but the sloth we saw here is quite common in South America and likely hunted for food by locals. I enjoyed the segment. Murder is a strong word for what is called hunting. I'm interested to know what the travel time between zones is. Seems like it could take a while and that isn't reflected in the filming. The alpine zone is the only one I don't think is fair. There doesn't seem to be any food there. It's not the shows fault Saun or however he spells his name can't figure out the net. Had he done that he probably would have had more food than he knew what to do with.

I can't think of any contestant on the VI seasons that caught king salmon or even any fish much bigger than we saw in S3. Yes, here on the west coast the fish are larger but if Dave had 40+ filets fishing wasn't the only issue.

I feel for Fowler if that map is correct and Megan was actually across the lake from him. I can't imagine being sun deprived the whole time, all the while seeing sun soaked campfire smoke across the lake. Seems like if the map is even slightly accurate you'd also be able to observe people being pulled. I get that they can squeeze two show seasons in a year if they alternate hemispheres but it's really not that hard to geographically separate people and provide easy access for a medical crew. If they're that close this is completely about filming crew convenience.

Can someone who knows where it is post a link to the bushcraft forum post with a map of where the contestants were located? I saw it mentioned up thread somewhere, but I'm not going to search through 37 forum pages on another site to find it. Having spent several years in northern Canada as a canoe guide I couldn't think of a better place to have a S4 or S5 than N. Manitoba or Ontario. It would be very easy to keep everyone separated and have a fishing lodge for the crew as a base. I went months without seeing anyone else other than my clients when I did that. Even in relatively well traveled areas there were lakes a few miles off the beaten path no one ever went to.

I've hiked a lot on VI and SE Alaska. If the air was still campfire smoke would be visible from a long way away if you were on a mountain top. It's not like those folks were 20-30 miles apart.

Seems like they would have tried to avoid that, especially since was it Justin(?) in S2 that climbed a mountain near his camp? It looked like he could see for 10-15 miles from there. If everyone is on the same lake in S2 they had to know people would be able to see signs of other nearby contestants. I suppose limiting them to a small area would keep them from running into each other but also, as others have said, would make it more difficult to survive.

Jose might not be the best example. Didn't he spend most of his time building a canoe that didn't help him at all and ultimately tipped over ending his time on the show? I do think production plans the show in places and locations that work against the contestants. They say the competition could last up to a year, but a year of keeping a full time crew and medical team would be expensive. I've often thought being on the crew would be unbelievably boring, like being on call for 3-4 months. So, they pick places that are hard and times where the seasons work against everyone to make sure it doesn't go a year. I am surprised no one has ever killed a large land mammal. Other than mice and birds they've not done well. But, at both locations there are land animals they can't kill like the deer this year or cougars in Canada.

That sounds very hunger games. I think the contestants are significantly handicapped by being limited to a small area so they don't run into another player. If they were able to find a filming location where each person had a larger area to forage it probably wouldn't be so bad, but I got the feeling that everyone this season was one the same lake or lakes and were given specific rules that they couldn't explore much.

I wish this show was less about who can starve to death slower than everyone else. In three seasons I can't think of one contestant who was thriving. Even with the season 1 winner, I forget his name, I don't think would transition from surviving to homesteading. At some point in the winter he would have run out of food. I get people like Callie, but she left/gave up. She had a better location than Fowler and probably would have struggled had she stayed another month into the winter. I liked her probably the most but surviving before the winter started to get rough is different than surviving after it got harder to scavenge food. Probably off topic but watching this makes me think contestants on other shows like Naked and Afraid probably get a lot of unseen producer help to make it any amount of time. Someday I suppose someone is going to show up with a Dick Proenneke attitude, build a cabin and actually hunt food, try to grow food and last a half a year or more.

Not sure why people are getting so fixated on this. Have you watched NCIS? The cast is supposed to be in Virginia/DC but it's quite obviously filmed in S California. There's often palm trees in the shots.

I thought the Lexus segment was too campy with the fake animals blowing up. But, I really liked the rock quary segment, which seemed like some of the old TG episodes like the race against the luge sled in a rally car. Still can't get on board with the celebrity brain freeze or American segments. Really they need to rethink the American segment. I just don't like it.

I thought the radiator was in the rear and that's why he had to cut a hole in the fiberglass on the back to fix it?

How does a hood mounted ram air intake on a rear engined car work....?

I don't know, I liked it. At least it didn't have the two things I don't like about GT: 1)The American and 2) the celebrity kill segment. Some of my favorite original TG episodes were the touring ones and this wanted to be as good as the one Hammond bought and brought back his car from, but it was a little short. The start was slow, but it's a two show story so I'll cut them some slack.

I liked this episode the most so far, except killing the celebrities instead of having an interview is going to get old fast. None of the new intros bother me because I'm sure it's meant to just keep the BBC from suing them. Clarkson's quip about someone who tries really hard but doesn't succeed, an obvious dig at the new TC, was hilarious. I've been waiting for PETA to protest that they made a meat car.

I'm a little confused why Will was getting any credit for saving Hanna? Sure he changed his vote but Adam played his idol. What they must do during tribal is actually show every vote that was cast otherwise no one would have ever known that Will had gone with Adam's group and everyone would have thought Adam saved her. I was confused by the editing of that part of the show.