fishcakes

The players from 49 aren't on the EW list I linked to or in a People magazine article that's out. I know they've been identified on some spoiler sites (and they're in the spoiler thread here but, like you, I managed to avoid who they are), but I think all the mainstream sources are not naming them yet.

For those who don't want to go to the spoiler thread, the Survivor 50 cast has been revealed, and with 3 or maybe 4 exceptions, it's a garbage list. https://ew.com/survivor-50-cast-contestants-revealed-11742493

My overall take on Eva is that she's not a very nice person, but that she didn't try to exploit her autism. I think the producers did that and they gave her help both covert and overt, but it ended up backfiring and making viewers dislike her more than they would just based on her personality and actions during the game. Although she did talk about being autistic during FTC, I try to remember that we saw maybe 20 minutes of a two- or three-hour session and that it's not exactly something she can ever ignore. I feel like the showrunners crafted the narrative they thought we wanted to see, but they badly miscalculated and actually ended up doing Eva a disservice by making it look like she could not play the game unassisted, thus making her smugness and sense of entitlement -- which have nothing to do with her neurodivergence -- more prominent and even less justified. None of which is to say I like Eva. I do not. I think she was pretty shitty to some of her tribemates, I didn't want her to win, and I could go through all the things I dislike about her, but the season's over, and I can only care about this for so long. We have a whole new crop of boneheads coming up in season 49, and I need to rest so I'll be ready to crack on their dumb asses this fall.

And learning how to drink it like a man.

I need to get this out of the way and then never speak of it again: Season 49 will have a player who calls himself, "Rizz God." We are very near the end of civilization. Back to 48, my hoped-for sole survivor of Anyone But Eva won, so I'm happy enough. I am glad it was Kyle and of the three he played the best game, but I would have been okay had it been Joe. I felt bad for him when he learned that Eva and Kyle had been lying about their real occupations. He seemed so shook and intimidated by that, even saying during FTC, "I'm just a stupid Fire Captain." After last night's absolutely stultifying episode and reunion, it seems obvious that what we saw all season was nothing like what was happening out there during those 26 days. From the players' perspectives, Joe and Eva were not huge threats; Mitch was not the outcast he was portrayed to be; Kamilla wasn't just a passive dope. All of those narratives were crafted for the audience. Me slapping my TV: BE LESS MANUFACTURED. Lord, yes: So inept it took two clips to document it:

More than the obvious shenanigans of the advantage clue in her personal bowl of chips, I think she's probably been helped along with this kind of background work by the producers, with the tribe they put her on being the biggest thing. It's surely no accident they she ended up with Joe, a guy whose whole life is about protecting others and who is carrying a boatload of guilt over not being able to save his sister, which is something casting surely knew about since a simple Google search of him would have turned up info about Joanna's death and they would have talked to him about it during the casting process. A young woman who comes to him on day one looking for protection? No wonder he was tearfully saying he'd give up his game for her after knowing her for only a few hours; that's just hardwired into him. Imagine if Eva had been put on the Green tribe; given her obvious and admitted reluctance to work with women, Sai would have immediately isolated her and she likely would have been voted out at the first TC. I also have some opinions about how it came to be that Star gave Eva the idol, but they're a little more on the tinfoil hat side of things, so probably best to keep them to myself. As for Joe's goodbye scene on the beach, yeah, that was ... bad. When he was at the reward and telling Kyle and Shauhin about his sister and when he did the TH saying a little more about it, both of those felt organic and genuine. That kind of regret and guilt never goes away, and I feel so much sympathy for him. But I suspect that after he talked about it to the guys, a PA got in his head about how he might feel "closure" -- which I personally don't believe is a thing; some pain you just live with -- if he went down to the waterline and talked to his dead sister and, hey, these camera and sound people will just wait right here until you're ready! But no pressure! But think of the CLOSURE. So the whole thing was very cringe, yes, but I don't blame him for it. The fact that he kept covering his eyes and his face while doing it showed how uncomfortable he was.

These guys are worse than the idiots from 46 who all went home with idols in their pockets, but I have to admit they're pretty entertaining. Shauhin and his delusions of being the GOAT with the great legs, Joe and his investigative skills which seem to mainly consist of him saying, "I know I didn't do anything," Eva being pissy about not being taken on the burger reward while she's still burping chicken teriyaki from the previous reward. This is all good stuff. I also love the editors for turning TC into Apocalypse Now and documenting Joe going into a fugue state while listening to Kyle and Shauhin crush his soul with their filthy lies. I am only sorry it didn't end with him pulling out the machete and decapitating everyone. Kyle and Shauhin went from "it's too early to make a move on Eva and Joe," to "we can't have either Eva and Joe on the jury because they will stan for the other." And that's true, but so what? Joe maybe has the influence, but I doubt Eva does. So even IF there were a chance to get one of them out next week, Kyle won't go with Kamilla and Mitch to do it. Mitch is going to go home unless he wins individual immunity, and depending on what the challenge is, I think that's a (slim) possibility. If it's a strength- or speed-based challenge, then he'll lose to Joe, but if it's that thing with the balls rolling down the track, which they've used at least a couple times as a final immunity challenge, he'd have a decent chance. Mitch is small, but he's athletic and coordinated, and he did well in the physical challenges back in the tribal phase of the game. Of course if Mitch wins immunity, then Kamilla will go, so nothing is really going to change Eva and Joe's march to the end. I'm going to end all my Survivor posts for the rest of this season with this:

Yes, thanks for the reminder. I edited my original post.

She called herself from the phone in Will's office.

I also thought the archery team's reactions to being in the middle of a gun fight wasn't realistic at all, but I did love, "Sir, do you have an instagram?" Nico must have gotten something to eat and then gotten sick, but there's no way they didn't share their food with Betty, so at least we know that Betty was immune and would have been fine regardless. When Ormewood went to see Nico when they were recovering, I was so distracted by Betty not being with them, and it was a huge relief to see Angie out in the hall with Betty in her lap. I think I could handle any of the mains dying, except for Betty. Not that I will be okay with either Amanda or Ormewood not making it, but I'm not going to worry about that until next season.

lol at Charlie being suspicious of a guy in a suit and tie drinking milk because the instant I saw Mulaney pour a carton of half & half into a glass and drink it, I knew he was going to be a sociopath. Really fun episode, but I'm sorry that this probably means no more Rhea Perlman. Charlie being on the run is unnecessary to make the show work, but I was looking forward to seeing Rhea periodically this year. Beatrix: He was a typical white guy. Luca: We're all typical white guys! We have some serious flaws with our hiring process.

I found Giancarlo's character far more sympathetic than Katie's, at least until he tried to burn Charlie alive. She suddenly announces that she's leaving him and that she expects him to sell the business his family has run for generations and the way that he currently makes his living and send her half of the proceeds? That is very ballsy/delusional. I did like that Charlie could detect no lies in what he was telling her because strictly speaking he told the truth. He said she told him she was leaving with the crew and that's what she did. Since he put most of her remains in the urn that was part of the movie set, which they took with them, technically she did leave with the crew. I, too, was surprised by how bad Katie looked so I had to google some recent photos and they appear to have aged her up for the show.

It was a fun episode, and I adored seeing Jasmine Guy again, but I agree that there were a ton of holes in the logic. One thing that bothered me was that when Felicity drove up to the bluff, Hamber told her to leave the keys in the car because it was safe there, and then when Charlie and Didi (not sure which of the others quints was which) drove up to the house, she told Charlie the same thing, as if the episode is taking place in Mayberry. And of course the keys have to be left in the cars for the plot to work, but it was super clunky to do it twice. I loved Charlie chomping on at least three different turkey legs, as well as the deputy trying to give her back the one the cadaver dog had in his mouth.

Thank you! I was wondering that myself. Realistically, Medicaid Long-Term Care services paid for it. This is a separate program from Medicaid as health insurance. For a married person, marital assets can be preserved so the spouse who isn't ill can keep the house and savings, but for an unmarried person, you have to be essentially destitute (I think the current limit is no more than $3000 in assets). Single people typically end up spending down all their assets in long-term care, which happens quickly since it can be as much as $100K/year to pay for uninsured nursing home costs, and then they go on Medicaid LTC. Currently, 62% of all nursing home residents in the U.S. are paid for by Medicaid.

My first choice for winner is: none of them. My second choice is anyone but Eva. Other than that, I do not care.