Gummo

I'm glad contestants finally realized the worthlessness of the SITD. A 1-in-6 chance at safety is shitty odds compared to actual food in your belly. I also found Probst's astonishment at the deal quite funny - he obviously thinks the SITD is some kind of gamechanger. It isn't. Well, I take that back - it changes the game for the worse - it makes players too cautious, second-guessing who might use it and who won't, and it really circumscribed game play. Hopefully, ignoring and dismissing the SITD becomes a Survivor trend. Gabe was a good choice to go, but [Matthew Perry voice] could it BE any more obvious that they shoulda gotten Kyle out when they had the chance? Teeny seems like such a nice person and they're gorgeous, to boot. I wish them the happiness they deserve! Sue started out unattractive both inside and out, and she's only getting worse - both inside and out. "Hating" Kyle for playing the game is astonishingly ugly. And watching her face melt like a cheap wax candle as the days pass is not entertaining. Not for me, at least, I'm not a big horror movie fan.

Or he's just a feckless dumbass.

This. It's a diet, not a religion. And I haven't seen this mentioned yet: Does anyone else think the immunity necklace look like something they found at the bottom of the $1 bin at a pop-up Halloween store? I mean, cheap & tacky is one thing, but ... come on! I know it's season 47 or whatever, but make an effort, prop people!

Me, too!

That was fun! Sorry/not sorry for Tiyana - I mean, I liked her well enough but not enough to care, ya know? But that all worked out a little TOO neatly, didn't it? I get the feeling that, during his confessionals, producers were asking Sol questions like, "Wow, that advantage would work best on Rachel, don't you think?" and "Giving that advantage to Rachel would be a real gamechanger, wouldn't it?" I can't stand Andy. I can't stand Sue. Which means they're both going to be around for way too long.

The best way to use the amulet idol is after the merge, to engineer the ouster of the other 2 people who hold it so that you now have a complete & independent immunity idol without any complications. That's easier if all 3 don't go back and immediately spill their guts after the Journey, like these 3 did.

That? Was glorious! Rome didn't learn the #1 rule of sharing information - you have to get it exactly right. You need to report someone else's words verbatim so they can't wriggle out. But no, he thought he'd embellish what people were saying and it bit him in the butt. He made it so easy to deny everything he was saying! I even enjoyed the immunity challenge - I love those table mazes. And of course, Rome was heaving the ball every which way - it was a perfect visual encapsulation of his whole game. In 6 weeks, the only genuine, sincere emotion I saw from Rome was his joy & gratitude at getting a chance to sit on the Probst Throne and pontificate - and the funny thing was, he was exactly right in his evaluation of the amulets advantage - his background as an esports commentator came out then. Sol could not get that shit-eating grin off his face. He's had to take so much shit from Rome, he deserved his moment. Looking forward to Andy's renewed paranoia breakdown. Sam's dismissal of the buoy was emblematic of everything wrong with New Era Survivor - no hustle!

I thought of posting the 'Why Not Both?" meme girl but ... naah. Yeah, you miss the old show. Somewhere along the line, Probst and Burnette decided no one wanted to watch 'Survivor' to see people actually trying to survive. So maybe it would work better if they changed the name. Instead of "Survivor," they could call it "A Few Weeks of Inconvenience and Whining." Truth in advertising, after all.

1. Now THAT's a blindside! 2. Boy, howdy. "We've had this vital fishing equipment sitting around for days ... maybe we should try using it? [5 minutes of fumbling with net] *waaaaah* This is haarrrd. I don't wanna do this anymore!" [back to sitting on beach complaining] 3. Worst reward ever? Wtf, show?? 1 naked hot dog and no-name soda? Has all the production money been diverted to pay for Jeff's hair dye? Rewards used to be ... [musical flourish] REWARDS! Jebus, they used to give away cars, fer crissakes! Now, it's just Evil Oprah -- you get one hot dog, and you get one hot dog, and you....

I've seen this sentiment expressed more than once, and I admit I don't understand it - the vetting is worse now than the vetting that allowed two psychopathic Hantzes to ruin our show for several seasons? I mean, one was a true sadist who sabotaged his own team not for any gameplay but just to enjoy their misery. The other was a godbothering woman-hater who literally lost his mind on camera. Compare to those seasons, current casts are shining advertisements for good mental health.

Don't go there - Survivor will just break your heart.

Finally, an interesting episode. Agree with everyone who said if they were Sol, they'd sacrifice their shot at the million to pound Rome into paste, that bullying little pisher. "Ya know what?" POW POW POW "I don't need the money as much as I need THIS!" POW POW POW POW Then I imagine Sol calmly walking down to the shore and waiting for his exit boat. Ah well, a boy can dream. Very satisfying, though, to see Genevieve emerge from the shadows. Cockiness is almost always a death knell in this game and tonight was no exception, Kishan. I hate that she's working closely with Rome, but I can't blame her, right now it's working for her. She may come to regret it, though, and soon. Sue's beware advantage may have been the best one yet: simple, daunting, hilarious. When that red paint exploded everywhere, I howled. She might as well have just left the mess and admitted her idol to her team, since her cleanup efforts were less than stellar. In her defense, she didn't have a mirror handy to see the red smeared all over her. For the first time in a very long time, I have to commend the editors: The ping-pong pre-TC maneuvering was actually clear and compelling - we got to watch the target switch from Sol to Rome to Genevieve to Kishan. So that's 4 targets out of 5 people. Eeps. I feel like this season, even more than most, is kinda treading water until the merge. Hopefully, then is when we'll see some real action (cross fingers, eternally hopeful no matter how often this show lets me down).

Hate to sound like the old fart I am, but: it's the Participation Trophy Generation.

They've redefined "Survivor" to mean "survive the social game of alliances, backstabbing and blindsides." Going a little hungry and having an uncomfortable sleep are now just devices to put the contestants more on edge so we get more conflict (just as Probst's constant needling during challenges always had a purpose beyond Jeff being a dick - it's to keep poking, poking, poking until people lose their cool). The game is no longer about actual survival. Maybe that's good, I dunno - people were literally starving in some of the early seasons and that wasn't fun to watch, either.

Well, that was certainly an episode of Survivor. In old classic Survivor, we had themed seasons; we had outrageous characters; we had unique tribal dynamics. But in New! Era! Survivor!, every episode is interchangeable with every other episode; every tribe is interchangeable with every other tribe; and every season is interchangeable with every other season. And the challenges are all exactly the same. So how is this "better"? Sue's rants against Kyle may have been ridiculous, but at least they had a flavor of classic Survivor, where everything was personal and the entire game could turn on personal grudges. As for Rome, he's obnoxious and unpleasant, BUT he's also smart and playing the game well (as much as anyone can 'play the game' when so much of it is luck and arbitrary advantages). And yes, Kishan was getting pretty damn cocky at TC, babbling about a Core 4 - I bet his alliance loved that! - when that's exactly the sort of thing you keep to yourself. Great gameplay, buddy. And dsteele, you owe me a new snark meter. After reading your post, my old one exploded.