skybolt

I think another Heroes vs. Villains season with people that have only played once and haven't won would be great. I would love to see Dom vs. Devens on the villains tribe. These players are hungry for a win.

In the interview she said it wasn't strategic, but then admitted it was somewhat strategic. In other words, it was strategic. 🙂 Listening to another Tony interview, he mentioned that he had created a fake idol and given it to Sarah to use as a decoy. He mentioned Sarah slyly putting the idol into her bag as Natalie watched from the background. Not sure if this worked or not, but perhaps that's why Sarah wasn't targeted at final 5 or 6. Tony also mentioned waking Nick up in the middle of the night to show that he found a second idol in the jungle. In his opinion, this second idol kept Nick from potentially switching on the alliance, since Tony told him that he's willing to use it for him. The reason why Tony did that in the middle of the night is because Nick was so disoriented and couldn't tell a real idol from a fake one. Looking back, in a secret scene Tony did actually ask the other players if he can keep these beads from a tree mail as a souvenir. I guess we all know what he used them for.

Not to mention that at the 2 previous tribal councils Natalie had specifically mentioned that the jury was favoring Tony and he was the biggest threat. You can't make that statement and then complain about what Rob said. To Natalie's credit, she really hasn't disagreed with Rob's point. She now wishes that she had gone up against Tony in the fire making challenge. Also, even though Rob asked a couple of tough questions, at the end he mentioned that everyone did a great job answering the questions presented to them. He could've been argumentative and said that Natalie's replies didn't suffice, but he didn't.

The Kim vote out definitely took a lot out of her sails. In hindsight she should've teamed up with Michelle and Natalie to at least attempt to take out one the trio. I just think that at some point she decided that it's better to join the enemy than beat them. Maybe she has unbelievable fire making skills that we're not aware of (if she made it to final 4).

Other tidbits from Sarah's interview: She noted that the full version of the steal an advantage at night segment was even funnier. I guess Tony kept telling her to be careful, don't get caught, etc., and she basically told him, dude it's just a game, they won't torture me. She said the entire camera crew was on the ground laughing throughout the entire segment and they were afraid everyone would wake up. It seems like Sarah was also having fun with Tony's spy nest antics. She would take people to the well and put on a show for him. She said it made life much easier at camp since Tony wouldn't have to bombard her with 20 questions as to what happened. Earlier in the game Tony had also built another spy bunker, but Sarah couldn't convince anyone to go to the well with her. After lying there for 45 minutes with all the critters, that idea went out the door. She said that her, Tony and Sandra strategized before the game, but that she had only met Ben briefly at an event. Their bond grew at Yara. She didn't want to name names, but noted that a few players strategized with 10-12 people before the game started. She mentioned something about Yul and Sophie having a pre game alliance, but I may have heard that wrong. Sarah noted that her and Wendell got along really well a camp and that she was his apprentice when he built all the furniture. She said they had a "System" alliance with her, Tony (cops), Wendell, Nick (lawyers) and Sandra (paralegal?). I guess Nick was still coming up with nicknames. She also mentioned that Nick was very mad after the Wendell vote out, so she gave him Chinese takeout reward to make him feel better about his situation with the group. She was also being sarcastic when she said she's allergic to Chinese food.

They could've also taken a shot at Sarah at final 5, if Natalie was a little bolder with her moves. Tell Sarah we're voting for Ben, and then play her idol for Michelle, while actually voting for Sarah. I'm not sure why Natalie was so adamant about getting rid of Ben, especially since he was beatable at the end. Based on her interview she seemed to think that beating Sarah was in the bag, but I doubt she beats her at the end. Maybe Rob and Amber switch their votes to Natalie, but everyone else would've likely voted for Sarah.

The thing I hate most about all the advantages, idols, fire tokens, etc. is that it gives production a chance to meddle in the game to help certain players. For instance, Rob talks about running the trails at EoE every day, then low and behold, they receive a clue noting that fire tokens were hidden at the end of each of the 4 trails. The bottle that Natalie found on the beach to extort Tony could've been placed there by production as soon as they saw Natalie and Parvati head in that direction. If it was Yul, I bet there wouldn't be any bottle to find. I also bet that the stone structure the last clue was found at was a place that Natalie visited a lot of times during her stay at EoE. When someone comes back at final 6, it's very easy to get that person to at least the fire making challenge. They have an idol from EoE at final 6, then production can place an idol in a tree as soon as they see a certain player looking in that direction, which then gets you to final 4. For those who think something like this is not possible, just go back to Ben's season where the idol was hidden at the confessional with a sign to dig here. Yeah whatever.

Not sure, but they may have assumed there's a finite number of fire tokens in the game. Whatever fire tokens were used for advantages, would be banked and later return in the game in the form of as a prize for the person winning an immunity challenge. It does appear that Tyson decided not to share much about EoE when he came back to the game after the merge. IMO, I think they should've waited to put advantages and fire tokens in the game until at least 5 players were voted out. I would've also limited the number of fire tokens earned to 2 or 3 (per finding a clue). It just seemed unfair that whomever found that last clue would be able to purchase 3 advantages in the return challenge, which almost guaranteed them making it back into the game. Not to mention that targeting players was based on information shared by recent vote outs, such as how many fire tokens each person has.

Very interesting tidbit from Sarah's interview. She mentioned that Natalie sat down with her at final 4 and said that she's going to have Michelle go up against Tony in the fire making challenge. Her reasoning was that A.) she was not doing it and hadn't practiced, B.) Michelle was not winning, even if she beat Tony, and C.) Sarah would benefit from winning the fire making challenge. Throughout the whole day Sarah went through the numbers. Her worst fear was that if Tony beat Michelle, then her and Tony would split votes giving Natalie the win. She said that in her mind she was thinking her and Tony would tie at 6-6 with her getting Yul, Sophie, Ben, Denise, Dani and Kim. Her worry was that since Rob disliked her and Ben for voting him out, he would switch his and Amber's vote from Tony to Natalie to give her the win if the votes were even all around. I think this is mostly based on what Natalie had told her about how Parvati and Rob were talking smack about her and Ben's game back at camp, which could've been false. Anyway, ten minutes before they left for tribal, she approached Natalie and told her that she can beat Tony at the fire making challenge. She also noted that both her and Natalie saw how long it took Michelle to make fire and that she had very little chance at beating Tony. That's when Natalie switched her decision.

Listening to Sarah's interview, she noted that players in the real game thought that their tokens to buy advantages went to a Survivor bank instead of the EoE players who sent the advantage. If they had known that the EoE players could use these tokens to buy advantages, large peanut butter jars and immunity idols, it would have completely changed their thought process in paying for these advantages. She specifically mentioned the 8 tokens spent by Nick and Michelle for a minor challenge disadvantage. This is a huge deal since it puts the players still in the game at a disadvantage because the rules were not shared with them like the EoE players. Other things she disliked about EoE are similar to complaints noted on these boards: 1.) Returning player having vital information with respect to how people were voting and all the secrets shared from recent vote outs. She specifically mentioned how demoralized Ben was after Natalie told him over and over again that everyone hated him on the jury. 2.) It was unfair that the returning EoE player could buy an idol or advantages with their fire tokens, but in the real game they couldn't do that. She mentioned how upset everyone was back at camp when Natalie played the idol at final 6. 3.) She hated the idea of what she called participation tokens, especially if in the real game only the challenge winner received tokens.

Most of the challenge beasts are typically voted out right after merge, which leaves the remaining ones vulnerable to a another challenge beast coming back at Final 6 from EoE and running the table. It's like the table is set for the returnee to make it to final tribal.

I'm a huge Rob fan, but his game definitely hasn't aged well. He also refuses to change it up and risk looking weak. At this point I'm over seeing players more than 3 times, even if I'm a big fan. This includes Rob, Parvati, Tony, Sarah, Cirie, Ozzie, Malcolm, Tyson, etc. I do want to see new players take the stage, but the worry is that in recent years a lot of them have been super boring. Maybe another second chances season with players like Dom and Rick Devens would be interesting. Winners I'd like to see back for Season 50 would be Earl, Todd, Sophie, Natalie, Michelle, Kim, Tommy and maybe Adam for entertainment purposes.

This 100%. I just feel like the returning EoE player is playing with a handicap. They can build all these relationships on EoE without worrying about getting voted out, they can find out exactly what's happening in the real game from the recent vote outs, they can send disadvantages and advantages to people still in the game to help or hurt someone's game, etc. It reminds me of when my older brothers used to teach me chess when I was 6. I'd feel so happy beating them, even tough they were playing without a queen and two rooks.

Ben's decision actually made it harder for Sarah to make final 3. If he had stuck with the vote and eliminated Michelle, his best move would've been to eliminate Tony in the fire making challenge. Plus, them hugging as soon as the votes were read made Sarah's blindside of Ben look flat. The jury likely knew that Ben sacrificed himself than Sarah pulling a true blindside.

Good point. I think Natalie needed to either beat Tony at the fire making challenge or blindside Sarah at final 5. The best jury move would've been to play her idol for Michelle and take out Sarah in one shot. Going after Ben twice made zero sense since he was likely the only person remaining who she would've beaten handily. Even Michelle would've given her a run for her money, since she didn't rub anyone the wrong way and lasted the whole game.

My biggest issue with Natalie's take is that she could've beaten Sarah fairly easily if Sarah won the fire making challenge. Personally, I can't imagine a scenario where most of the new school players, who are still purists, and played more with Tony and Sarah in the game would vote for her. I actually believe her 4 votes were maximized whether she was facing Tony or Sarah. From the jury confessions, I think Rob, Amber, Wendell, Adam, Yul, Nick, Ben, Denise, Tony, Kim and Sophie all vote for Sarah. She may have gotten Dani's vote, but that's about it. Also, if she hadn't had a gazillion fire tokens to buy an immunity for Tyson, she may have only gotten Jeremy's vote, since I believe Tyson convinced Ethan and Parvati to vote for her. This has nothing to with Natalie and everything to do with EoE. The same thing would've happened if Rob or Tony were in Nat's place.

So Natalie is now regretting not going up against Tony in the fire making challenge, or having Michelle do it instead of Sarah. She's stating that she wanted to barf when Sarah was putting on an act to give Tony the victory after she lost. She also mentioned that Michelle was nervous so she didn't want her facing Tony, and that she would've run away with the votes if going up against Sarah and Michelle. First of all I didn't see Michelle being nervous at all. She wanted to take on Tony and had a good chance at beating him in the fire making challenge (she was practicing for hours). Also, there's no way Natalie is running away with the votes if either Sarah or Michelle beat Tony at the fire making challenge. Listening to all the jury interviews at Ponderosa (prior to final tribal), a good number of them wouldn't have have voted for an EoE returnee, even if Natalie was the best there. They noted it was like playing 2 separate games. Even Parvati who voted for Natalie noted that she was really bad at the game the first 3 days (throwing everyone's name out), and that she was an easy vote out. Parvati also praised Tony's game. She was obviously swayed by Tyson. Speaking of, Tyson was the only one who stated that he was voting for Natalie no matter what happens at tribal and it was solely based on her giving him the immunity idol. He was also going to try and rally the rest to vote for her. Apparently this is ok, but Rob asking what everyone is thinking makes him a jackass. This is basically what I hate about EoE. Since Natalie had a gazillion fire tokens she could basically bribe Tyson with an immunity idol without any repercussions. If you do something like that in the real game, you risk getting blindsided like Sandra. As far as Natalie getting into a fight with Yul, I think Dani is making a mountain out of a molehill. I'm sure we'd all act irritable at times if we were starving for 30+ days. Actually Yul had great things to say about Natalie, so I doubt there was anything there. I think Natalie is a top notch player. I was thinking that if there was no EoE and she was voted out first, I could totally see her come back in a legends season (with a few other winners) and pull out what Tony did. His quick exit in Game Changers put a lesser target on his back.

Denise should've used her idol to align with Kim and Jeremy. Between them they would've had 3 advantages. However, Denise decided to make the splash move and use 2 idols without attempting to pull an alliance together.

Welcome to Survivor 42 - Junior island! You must Out-jump, Out-skype and Out-like your opponents in order to win. Go!

I agree that the spy nest didn't really impact the game (Sarah would've shared the info anyway). However, Tony overselling it at tribal definitely had a positive impact for him. Wendell and Adam seemed impressed.

It's interesting that both Sarah and Tony have played 3 times each. All 3 times have been on the same seasons, and one of them has won each of these seasons. Forget about Rob and Amber, people should've been worried about these 2 first and foremost. Also, I haven't watched Amazing Race in many years, but would tune in if those 2 played together. Can you imagine the bickering as they get lost driving to their destination? Tony, the non traveler, would be funny at the airport trying to get on a flight.

The thing I dislike about EoE the most, especially in an all winners season, is that more than half the people voted off don't believe you should win the game if your torch is already snuffed. I give credit to Natalie for keeping a positive attitude and pushing really hard to gain advantages (heck her second place win likely earned her an addition $100K +). However, if half the players on EoE are just sleepwalking through the last several weeks because they know the majority won't vote for them anyway, it just makes the job of someone trying to get back much easier. A lot of the castoffs were just going through the motions.

Parvati is one of my top 3 players of all time, however, I'm not sure I like this new version of Parvati who thinks being always genuine and truthful in this game is a positive thing. First of all, this is completely the opposite of the way she played in her first 3 seasons, and the reason why Natalie didn't need to lie to Parvati is because she wasn't worried about being voted off EoE. Guess what, as soon as she got back in the game, she lied to Sarah about not having an idol, which is great game play. I also hate how some players think that just because they vote you off then all the conversations you've had with them about family, life experiences, etc. are fake. It's like me and my buddy playing chess and having a side conversation. If I try and win the match by disguising my moves and basically deceiving him, then I'm a horrible person and everything that comes out of my mouth is a lie. So in contrast, should I alert him that he's getting checkmated in 5 moves to maintain our friendship? Every season we get the same whine story from survivors. At least in an all winner's season this was not the case.

If I was still 15, this could be interesting. Now that I'm in my 40's I have absolutely zero interest in watching teenage dating drama. Heck, I got over Temptation Island when I was in my 20's.

I also worry about teenage hormones running rampant on the island.