HurricaneVal

I didn't see it so much as a fear of the water, but a fear of falling into the water. I suspect that as someone who learned how to swim specifically for Survivor, she didn't grow up with a casual and easy relationship to water by spending time at the beach, lakes, or swimming pools. She probably has a respect for water, and wants to meet it on her own terms. I can relate. I can swim, not well, but I can certainly bob about and float forever and have fun. What I cannot do, is plunge into the water. I can't dive in from the side--forget a diving board--and if I'm snorkeling from a boat, I gently lower myself in from the swim steps in the back. I don't like water slides, I don't like not controlling my water entry. So I can totally sympathize with Katurah here. That may or may not be what she was feeling, but I found it understandable. Especially if Katurah was still reeling from the letter from her mother. I could see entering a challenge like that, still a little emotionally upset, and then suddenly confronting another emotional fear would snowball to a panic attack. Speaking of that, do they have the person who used to book Dr. Phil's show working in casting and production of Survivor now? First we have Kendra, and her weird adoption backstory, and now we have Katurah's estranged mother suddenly getting back into contact on national TV. I call shenanigans, and I don't like it. Keep this crap outta my show.

One more for the pile! This is how I learned it: StalacTites = The vertical bar of the T hangs down StalagMites = T the peaks of the M point up I really liked that you could see several of the teams in the background of a lot of those wandering with wooden utensils shots. I'm actually quite impressed that you didn't see crew in those same shots. I wonder if the camera and sound technology and crew are getting so good at this that the equipment is pretty subtle these days.

Did anyone else note the way Jeffy nearly fell off his chair when someone brought up the "Sword of Damocles" in tribal council? He was sooooo happy about that. Methinks Jeff has a little chip on his shoulder about Survivor being denigrated as a reality TV show. Now he can say that Greek mythology and philosophy come up in tribal council, so Survivor is an intellectual show, uh huh.

Yup. My major was Physics and Math, and I've worked in engineering for over thirty years, and I have never been good at arithmetic. It wasn't until algebra, and solving for x that made math a game and mystery to solve that I started getting really good. However, I still need to count on my fingers to add my Yahtzee score. Enough with the losing vote thing. I'm OK with advantages--in moderation--but disadvantages without an actual offsetting reward are not fair game play from production. Though the fast moves that forced Austin into tonight were amusing, but ultimately risky for his game. He might have been better off refusing to vote. Can you do that? Bitter Kellie is giving me life. Keep it up, girlfriend! Keep drinking the margaritas at Ponderosa, stay hungover and cranky. I'm aching for bitter jury speeches and letting the rats and snakes come out to play.

Even if Steve had seen the "taken" sign for the Express Pass, I honestly doubt he could have convinced Anna Leigh it was legit. She was focused and not listening. Also? Even if he knew another team must have taken it, since they were the last to arrive he knew he had a snowball's chance in hell of convincing her of that. She was focused and not listening. I believe I even saw a moment when Steve almost tried that gambit, but more or less shrugged and trailed after her. This episode was the first time I heard him getting owly with her, mostly it has been her ragging on him. At the glider task, Mr. HV looked at me and said "You know, if we were ahead and there weren't many teams in line when I landed, I'd be tempted to give a wrong answer just so I could go up and glide around that gorgeous area again!" I laughed and told him I was kind of thinking the same thing "I wonder if he'd kill me if I deliberately flubbed the answer so I could do it again?" Sometimes we play that game when we watch, who would do what challenge, and how well we think we'd do. We would, of course, never go on the show. Are you nuts? We'd be Philiminated on the first leg!

Finally an update, or twist, I can get behind! The reimagining of the classic Survivor auction mostly worked. I'm not sure the current set of castaways really remembers the classic auctions. Yes, there was some mention of bat soup from someone, but I saw a lot of blankly eager faces saying "obviously this is a big deal, so I'm going to be enthusiastic, it is my job" rather than true starry eyed eagerness. For instance, there were only puzzled looks when Jeff said there were no advantages in the auction. Not one single person asked about letters from home. Pooling money never occurred to anyone, though Jeff might have had a rule that I missed. I think everyone assumed the auction was only going to be food. However, I also think that was a good thing--non-food or non-luxury items broke the classic auctions. Later in the glory years, even the hungriest castaways held onto their money, in anticipation of an advantage or contact from home. Which made for some lackluster bidding. Jeff was extra mean last night, eh? First of all making everyone who got something at the auction abandon their plates when the auction abruptly ended. Only the chocolate cake people got a deadline. I don't recall Jeff saying at the outset that when the auction was over, they had to leave everything behind. I'm not sure Kellie even had a bite of sandwich ... she was sipping the margarita and nibbling on chips. I wonder if they thought they could bring stuff back to camp with them? Emily might have been thinking she could have the salami for a couple of days, maybe even doling it out for favors. That was a lot of charcuterie for one person! Then Jeff stabbed the rice! Which was awesome, and moved the game right along! Makes me wonder if the negotiations and discussions in prior seasons might have gone on a little too long for his tastes ... Man, as a prior poster first stated, I wonder if Bruce thinks he has this thing locked up? Has production been stroking his ego a bit? Offering snacks on the sly? Or does he just have a hyperextended need to project a certain dignity of self? Leisurely donning his shoes, and tying laces with such excruciating slowness was painful to watch. At first I thought it might be strategy, waiting to see what the first person brought back so he knew what to look for. Nope. He just doesn't have a grasp of the game. Then when offered an opportunity at a third of a luscious chocolate cake, he just tentatively fingers through it, taking tiny bites? I think he's trying to build an image and work on a post-Survivor endgame to keep him pulling in appearance fees for years to come. I think he got a taste of that when everyone was so sympathetic when he went out on a medical pullout after one day. The sad thing is, if he stayed pat with that, he might have had that popular Survivor endgame. Now he's just going to be that annoying slow guy everyone hated so was drug to the end as a sacrificial goat. No appearance fees for you!

It could be the editing, but I thought Sifu had calmed down quite a bit in this last episode, and was quite likeable. Too bad he was voted out, I thought he was interesting. Man, I wonder if Kaleb had been playing under the old Survivor schedule if that extra day might have allowed him to turn the tide and stay longer. Eh, probably not, the prior vote was unanimous against him. That's a lot to come back from. At least it was a unanimous vote because he is a huge threat socially and physically. He can take some comfort in that. Actually, I think Kaleb would have done better on Big Brother. His laid back, sunny, but earnest style would probably have him winning that game!

I thought this as well....I spend most of the episode convinced they'd roped some random, completely unaware and unbriefed rickshaw driver into the game. I thought the vehicle looked different from the others, and I never saw a TAR flag like you did. I think the rickshaw was red and yellow colored, and they thought that meant it was "marked?" I'm still not convinced the driver was officially part of the game. Or if she was, she was a last minute replacement for someone else, because if the purpose was to highlight the impact and progress of having woman be taxi/rickshaw drivers, I'm not sure this particular driver was the correct poster child for that movement.

I have room in my petty heart to both respect Anna Leigh as a good racer, yet still not like her as a person. Or at least as the person we're being shown, but I think I can infer from her intensity while racing and her interview commentary that she's showing us who she is. I think we are owed an answer to Receiptgate. I agree that it probably doesn't matter whether they were told at the beginning of the bricks task, or at the end of the bricks task, that they'd not completed the prior task--Phil took pains to tell us all that there is no "rush hour" in India. It matters that they were told, and not only told, but given direct advice to read their clue. Which.....to be fair.......was probably the first thing they were going to do anyways, but it put special emphasis on reading the clue, which locked their attention on it. Would they have flailed around a little more, wasting more time? Maybe. Maybe not. I would be a terrible racer, because I probably wouldn't use the U-Turn correctly. Which is why I think a most of the time the teams choose not to U-Turn anyone in a regular U-Turn--they're afraid of doing it wrong. In a regular U-Turn, I can see the use and strategy in U-Turning a team behind you, if you know that team is behind you. That way you've done what you could to avoid being last. I see no harm in this sort of pre-voted U-Turn in U-Turning a high performing team. It will lessen their head start, compact the field, and perhaps have a psychological disheartening effect on that team and tire them out some for the following task. It is a way to get an edge on, and break the momentum of, a winning team. Frankly, I don't understand why they didn't ALL vote for Anna Leigh and Steve. That block printing task was fantastic. I loved every aspect of it!

I think we all saw Kaleb's play go one step over the line last night by schmoozing a little too much, a little too well. He's smart, he'll figure he needs to lay low for a bit and the typical Survivor attention span of a gnat (except for Katurah's hate-on for Bruce) will move to another target. I just hope he learned his lesson about overplaying. I do like him, and had him pegged as going far--he is damn lucky that SITD worked. I didn't really see or understand the whole switch to J last night. What did she do? How did the vote go to her, and not a real target like Sifu or Bruce? Merging is traditionally when you go for the big strong guys who might win a string of immunity challenges. After thinking about it, and reading up here, I think she was the victim of being the target of two different motivations to vote her out, and the combination sent her on her way. Sifu et al wanted her gone because they are all now convinced she voted for him. She's a traitor, a schemer, etc. (Even though she didn't vote for him....sigh.) Austin--sandwich longings notwithstanding--wanted her gone so his amulet gains in power. His was a clear-eyed, strictly machiavellian, cold-blooded strategy, since she stood in his way to gaining a full immunity idol. I also suspect that he knew, after spending more time around her after the "merge", that trying to get the three amulet holders to agree to use the power of three was never going to work. And if it were just him and J? She'd probably disagree then as well. I think Austin's move was well done. Sifu et al's move was......an emotional move coming from flawed information. Nevertheless, both came together, and J is gone. Was she the one with the unusually long big toe?

So, basically the amulets are worthless until the merge, if all three have to be at the same TC and all three have to agree on the extra vote. In the meantime, the holders of all three amulets can't vote at TC. What happens if an amulet holder gets voted out? Then it is a power of two? Way too complicated, and way too dependent on issues out of the holder's control. They should have just eaten the sandwich. 😆

In our weekly viewing party, we just call him "Seafood" as well. It is easier. Our favorite name has always been "Woo" because we all called him "Woo-Hoo!" and much mirth resulted.

Oh, I don't know....I'm kinda here for that drama! In my fantasy of how this will work--and we won't know until next week--the photo of the U-Turned team will be at the detour task, with photos of all the teams who voted for the U-Turned team displayed as well. A unanimous vote will bring the drama, and I assume the U-Turned team (*cough*cough*Anna-Leigh*cough*cough*) will either be crushed with the that knowledge they are unpopular, or they will be all "LOSERS HATE WINNERS!!!!" about it. The U-Turn not being anonymous can also be strategically revealing. The U-Turned team knows who is against them, and by inference, might look to support from the teams who didn't vote for them. I'm actually looking forward to how all of this is going to play out.

I thought Jake's syncope events looked more like seizures to me than your garden variety vasovagal swoons. In both events he sort of did this herky-jerky motion, and you could see in his eyes that he was clocked out. I can't believe after catching this on camera twice that medical hasn't been out to evaluate him. Maybe they have, and they left that footage out so they had time to include a scene with Kendra picking her underwear out of her ass, hawking a loogie, or snort laughing. Does anyone else see "Sifu" and think "STFU?" Just me? OK.

I, too, could only think of how long those sandwiches had been sitting out in the tropical heat. Even if the interns popped them them out of the cooler right before they crested the trail, you know the discussion lasted longer than shown, and you know there were retakes and camera positioning, and production stuff that took time. I truly do not understand how that 3-way, 2-way, then single advantage really works. I mean, I get it that when there is only one, it is a true immunity idol. But before that? Much depends on what happens on other tribes prior to the merge-which is out of each advantage holder's control. It is way too confusing. They would have been better served to eat the sandwiches--not the stunt sandwiches on camera, but new, cold and safe sandwiches--then breathe onion breath on their tribe mates as proof they ate and didn't get an advantage. The fish reward was puzzling too. That was ten fish for at most five tribe members. The team that won the big prize had only four members. How does that work? There's no refrigeration, no way to keep it safe, so do they cook it all and bloat up? Try to preserve it by smoking it? When does it get delivered? After the tribe members return from their "journey?" Is it the same fish as was displayed during the comp? If so, even though there were languishing ice cubes, it basically baked in the sun. No footage of the tribes enjoying their rewards either. 90 freaking minutes, and no scenes of hungry people rolling their eyes in ecstasy and devouring the largesse. Yet we spent nearly 30 minutes on the Lulu tribe denying the prior vote and strategizing for how to bamboozle or placate Sifu. WTF?

Mr. HV and I watched this episode last night. In the first part as we were seeing the teams for the first time on this episode, I was doing a running commentary of "Oh! I like them....Oooh, I do not like her.....He's OK, but he's on the bubble with me...." etc. and Mr. HV turns to me and says "You're quite judgy about these people aren't you?" I just looked at him, dumbfounded. "Well, yes. Duh." He just cracked up. I have to say, the team who made the wish for World Peace was not the team I would have thought would make a wish for World Peace, just sayin'. I was sure their wish would be "WE WANT TO BE TEAM #1 TO THE END!!!!" and when it wasn't, and they were all solemn about it, I filed that under "things that make you go 'hmmmm'" Hidden depths and all that.

Bread week is always my favorite week in this competition. Other than the chronic under proofing in the technical challenge, I think this was a great week. Except for the under-baking and under-proving issues--which are fixable for the next time the recipe gets done--I think I would have happily eaten any or all of the bakes they made. Each time a baker described their flavor combinations I would go "Mmmm...that sounds good!" Despite him being absent in the cold open skit, this week took the Paul-pandering to a higher level. Yes, he's a terrific bread baker. Yes, he learned how to bake bread as a young child working in the family bakery under exacting standards. I appreciate that perspective he brings. I understand that the Paul worship in each episode is a lot of cheeky British dry humor that is really poking fun at him, but there are a lot of people in this world who take things quite literally who probably believe he's the Beatles of baking.

This? Is brilliant. No all expenses paid vacation in a South Pacific paradise for quitters...you get dropped into the remote Amazonian rainforest with a machete, a cooking pot, and an asshole. My idea was that Survivor quitters get sequestered with a production assistant and no access to internet or phone at a Holiday Inn next to a Denny's somewhere completely unremarkable like Tulsa or Bismark to wait out the filming.

I think it was absolutely inevitable that there was going to be a mini-merge/tribe swap thing. I know in that one season, production allowed that one tribe to go down to one person, but that was a different time. Sure, more and more players on the other tribes could sit out challenges to make it even, but.... In modern era Survivor, there are elaborate and complicated structures for complicated challenges that have been meticulously planned for months (if not years) and most of those challenges assume a certain number of players in order to work. For instance, there's no way last night's Immunity Challenge would have worked with only three people. Three people would not have been able to lift that huge heavy bamboo cage out of the water, across the beach, and up over the cleat. For me, personally, I'd prefer going back to the less complicated challenges with fewer tedious segments. It's these pre-fab structures that mean the same challenges happen year after year. Jeff calls them "Survivor Classics" but really they're "Survivor Too Cheap to Build New Stuff Reruns." I do like new Emily, and I think the bond between her and Kaleb is real. If they both survive to the merge, that's going to be an interesting and power duo. As for Katurah's hate-on for Bruce? I think as others have speculated, she's got other, less flattering, reasons why she doesn't like him, and is letting his dad "jokes" and "Survivor Comeback Story" bragging become an obsession and an excuse to just outright dislike him. I also notice, other than some mugging for the camera now and then, she's mostly confining her complaining to her talking head interviews. Now, if Bruce was truly like that 24/7, I can understand the annoyance, but I doubt he's like that 24/7. And as Bruce said in one of his talking heads earlier in the season, he's doing a lot of that schtick on purpose to try and get his tribe to do things. He seemed frustrated right back at them. Different generations, I guess. Sean? Sigh. Whatevs. At least now with the mini-merge/tribe swap we can see what all is going on with the rest of the presumably functional people playing the game. Unless production continues to dwell on the Bruce/Katurah dynamic some more, which is already boring. Maybe we'll find there's some equally capable of quitting folks on the other tribes who haven't had an opportunity to dramatically quite at TC!

I've noticed this in the last several seasons, where they are wearing more or different clothes than they were dumped on the beach with. It bugs the hell out of me. Jeff makes a big deal that they all get abandoned with what they have with them, yet that patently isn't true. In earlier seasons, their swimsuits were issued to them mid-season, or their tennis shoes etc. because enough fuss was made of the inequities at critical challenges if people were forced to compete in the clothing production mandated for them at dropoff. You can't run through sand in dress loafers like production selected for them for the character plot. I also understand the lack of ability to change into dry clothes was contributing to crotch rot type infections, so production had to relent and allow additional clothing. That used to be just a swimsuit, so you had that for the comps when necessary, but you could also wear that while your other clothes dried. Nowadays there is apparently a whole Survivor closet out in the jungle somewhere. Maybe naked Richard Hatch had a deeper strategery than originally thought. Not only was his goal to keep people uncomfortable (too uncomfortable dude, when he nakedly rubbed on Sue in the first All-Stars), but by not wearing his clothes, they were always dry when he put them on his body, no risk of infection. Risk of sunburn, maybe.....

I was sad to see Keith go, but in all honesty, I don't think he was quite cut out for this sort of competition show. He seemed extra anxious and extra stressed over his bakes, and quite sorrowful when they didn't work out right--almost like it was life or death. The mocking of his tomato was uncalled for, I thought. Josh's tomato was amazing, yes, and well deserved singling out for praise. However, comparing it to Keith's sad little red circle with white dots was unnecessarily cruel, and Prue had a particularly witchy arch to her eyebrow when she held it up and looked Keith's way. It was very mean for the editors to construct that sequence that way. I did like how Tasha and Prue bonded over Milo's malted chocolate drink, that was a nice moment. I also like how Allison is fitting in with Noel and with the show, but her session with Keith also proved that she needs a bit of seasoning and experience for her one-on-ones. That went on too long, and got really awkward to the point that I was questioning the editing on that sequence as well. All in all, I think it is a good set of bakers this season. I can see some clear front runners and some clear cannon fodder, but nobody who doesn't belong there, or who bought their way on by being a "character."

I know that editing candid footage into characters and story lines is always a part of reality TV. Anyone who has watched the broadcast episodes of Big Brother and also watched the feeds or read summaries of the feeds knows that editing can completely change the plot and what you see in the show doesn't reflect what is really happening. Watching Emily's turnaround from one episode to the next really brought that to mind. Is she really a brusque, racist, bitch as portrayed in the first episode, or was she just so thrilled about being on Survivor that she busted out of the gate with too much enthusiasm for strategic game play and doesn't know how to reel it back in? Production can only edit together the pieces they've given, but unless you're Pollyanna, every person is a little bit of everything every day, so there's always going to be a lot of variation for the editors to stitch together whatever story production wants to tell. I'm going to withhold judgement on Emily and Bruce and everyone else for a while. Except Brandon. Imma gonna judge Brandon. Seriously, did he win a Survivor experience at an auction somewhere? Is he a Make a Wish kid?

You forgot stupidly going cold turkey on a nicotine addiction. Yes. Complete erasure, redaction, and cancellation would have been great. It was so frustrating for us fans, obviously angered Jeffy, and really, really, not a good look for production.I All the discussion and flurry of publicity of the first episode quitting makes me wonder if it was on purpose. I wonder if Hannah presented herself very differently to the casting directors and Jeff himself and she really is a Superfan with the diabolical plan of being infamous to make herself a "Survivor first!" by quitting so early, or she faked it to get on board to boost something she's going to do outside of Survivor. Seriously. I'm trying to figure out her agenda. Participating in this show, from the entire casting process to putting your life on hold to preparing for what is to come to actually playing the game is not trivial. It takes a major effort. I seriously hope there's a hidden agenda here rather than Hannah being just generally pathetic. If this was a plot to get a six week vacation in Fiji on CBS's dime, I purely hope they sent Hannah and an intern to a Holiday Inn Express next to a Denny's in Tulsa for the duration of filming. Gotta avoid those spoilers, 'ya know!

What kind of therapist is Hannah? I mean, from that 90 minutes I just watched, imma gonna say not a good one. Brandon obviously has experienced some sort of therapy based on his dialogues with Hannah--was giving better advice and affirmations than Hannah was. Sheesh! Her quitting kind of came out of the blue. I say "kind of" because she certainly wasn't portrayed quite as quitty or as despairing as Brandon, but if you looked close... in all her footage, she was quite clean and tidy. That made me start thinking she was waaaay too prissy for this game. She was really only poking at the edges. So in retrospect, not as much of a shock. Speaking of clean and tidy, I literally snort-laughed at the drone footage of the tribe rinsing off in the ocean back at camp and the muddy cloud all around them. Emily must be reeeaaaaalllly annoyingly super over playing back at camp. The vote is literally, what, day two, maybe three? Yet even with the utterly abysmal tribe dragging performance of Brandon, the name on their lips is Emily? Yeah. That's extra bad. I like Kaleb and the truck driver and the principal, and am very sorry for them on the yellow tribe. Unless there's a massive shakeup, they're going into the little merge or the big merge at a huge disadvantage. The yellow tribe sucked the air out of this episode, I hope next week improves.

I would have loved to see Maeve enrolled in the GOOP school. The eye rolls would have been epic! Not to mention, Maeve would have resolved the whole O storyline in a fingersnap. She would have just pointed out to Otis that it doesn't matter. Does he want to help people or not? There's no money involved, so who cares?