Way Wes Jr

If James Earl and Denise had taken the train with the Chaacs, the Chaacs would have stayed with them, avoided the whole tram#9 disaster, and been in a sprint to the mat. I'd have put better odds on the Dr.'s in that situation. And while it looked like James Earl dithered about until the choice was made for them, I thought it was the correct strategic choice - if they thought they'd lose in a foot race with the Chaacs. It is similar to the strategy in choosing a detour when you know you are last: even if it sounds harder, if everyone else has taken one detour, you usually want to take the other. (Exceptions exist for tasks that are completely in a teams sweet spot, but it's the strategic play.) Maybe they did, and it just wasn't shown. It'd explain a lot of the "stupidity," we had this episode. Also, I'm guessing a lot of posters either haven't seen Season 6, or have (mercifully) blocked it from their memory. You could cross the current version of Justin with an extra dose of camera-mugging from the Hippies, and give him an unpleasantness upgrade from Flo, and he still wouldn't be as objectionable as AssHat. (From AssHat and Victoria, the aforementioned Season Six. The Worst Contestant On This Show. EVER.)

Via Facebook, (irony perhaps,) I stumbled upon the "Meet the Racers," pictures for Season 28. Is today April 1st, and everyone changed the calendars? This is an eff-in' joke, right? If these famewhores^2 are truly the upcoming cast, then I find myself already dreading this season more than I did the "Blind Date," season.

That was a very fun piece of writing. I was going to tease you for making Dax sound like the Uber-Parvati, (and to campaign for Sisko - he's more ruthless than Kirk,) but ... you're right, Dax would clean up in a Survivor game.

Because one "thumbs up," in no way shows how much I agree with this statement.

Not so much a suggestion for the on-island show, but for the produced on-air version. In reading various threads, a common refrain has to do with either "the invisible edits," or conversely, "the time hogs." I think the feeling is more acute this season (S31:Second Chances,) because not only is it an All-Star season, but because many viewers feel a sense of proprietorship since we voted on who got to play. So, when someone we voted on to the show gets the Purple edit, we feel especially let down. I wouldn't suggest it for every season, or ever All-Star season, but I believe that the premier of this season should have been two hours, and that regular week to week episodes this season should have been ninety minutes long.

A pretty obvious episode, thanks to poor editing. I don’t mind a predictable boot if it is done in an interesting way, Drew Christie - come on down!, but by giving us Purple-Monica up until now the show didn’t provide us with a satisfying elimination. I replied to a bunch of posts earlier - so on to the rankings. Ta Keo (Blue-ish) Still to be known as Purple Ta Keo. No changes here either. (Isn’t copy-paste grand?) 1. Keith, 2. Cierra, 3. Kass, 4. Joe, 5. Kelley, and 6. Terry Okay, we did have some strategic talk - and the four OldBayon members won’t feel so bad about their new “Final Five,” once they see that newBayon gave Monica the boot. Angkor (Yellow) Yea, no tribal council! Only one small change - because Tasha isn’t an idiot. 1. Tasha, 2. Andrew, 3. Woo (4), 4. Abi-Maria (3) Bayon (Pink) I don’t think Monica could have phrased her interest in targeting Spencer over Kelly to Kimmi in any way that Kimmi wasn’t going to spin it to Jeremy as a betrayal. And with Spencer currying favor with Jeremy, I’m not sure if she could have convinced Stephen either. As it was, she voted the way her alliance told her to, oops. 1. Jeremy (1) Still has the HII. Is doing a good job of making sure no one suspects he has it. 2. Kimmi (3) Playing a “loyalty,” game to go with her “I’m not a threat,” game. 3. Stephen (4) But I think he’s in danger of being supplanted by Spencer. (At least in Jeremy’s eyes.) 4. Spencer (6) He was shown to be playing better than Kelly, and has this ridiculously positive edit happening. 5. Purple Kelly (5) OUT Monica (2) I blame not expecting this on the Abi-Maria show - we had no inkling that Monica was getting on Kimmi’s nerves until the opening segment of this episode. I don’t think her exit was optimal for the folk who voted her out, but I can understand why they did what they did.

Ah, but, while it may not have been directly stated as such, Jeremy, Andrew, and Joe all very clearly have stated that they want to be in an alliance with "people who will be seen as a bigger threat than me," and none of them are talking about strategic threats.

peachmangosteen, where are the promo photos for Episode six? CBS.com is horribly laid out, and I can't find them.

I think that it is a variant of the cat. Though, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm wondering if there are two types of cat, and we need to differentiate. There's the immunity run cat, (Mike, Kelly Wiggles,) and there's the social cat (Spencer, both seasons so far.)

"Million Dollar Quote," from Keith tonight. Though it was more specific to making Final Tribal than winning the show. Add the inclusion of the "Final Five," talk and both of Keith and Joe's talking heads from tonight... Stephen is right about the pro-Spenser edit through the start of the season. I didn't see the appearance of a replacement Narrator for this episode. But then again, this did seem more like a self-contained episode, rather than a season-arc one. (Ala Drew Christie's exit.)

The editing staff really does not like Abi-Maria. The whole post-Woo's story segment was designed to throw shade on Abi. (And maybe just a little on Andrew as well.)

Seriously, the "winning tribe," doesn't get a check for a million dollars, the winning player does. Really, what it comes down to is that Kimmi didn't like Monica for whatever reason, and jumped on "Bayon loyalty," as her argument to Jeremy/Stephen. (And to the confessional. Heck, maybe even to herself.) Monica was planning for the future, rather than the next day. And while I think Kimmi was in the right - eat what you have now; if you are voted out it doesn't matter, if there is a merge/swap you'll have to share with your competition - it does make me wonder ... We saw Angkor eating a clam, but what if one of the reasons their beach sucks so much, is because the tribe that had that beach in Season 32 stripped it nearly clean of food? Over on the "Know it alls," podcast at RHaP, Rob and Josh conjecture that Kimmi wants to play the "Cool Aunt," role while aligning with a bunch of guys. So yeah, I think it's the second conjecture. I can't stand reality contestants who get all hot and bothered about the possibility of a "girl's alliance." None of these players ever seems to be dismayed at all of the "boy's alliances," that inevitably form on these shows. Twelve year old me approves.

I usually enjoy the three tribe format, even if one tribe is Matsing-ing it, but this seemed pretty boring. I like that they threw us a smidgen of social gaming on newTaKeo and newBayon, but the production team had to squeeze out as much Varner as they could. Bayon (Pink/Purple) No changes. The token segments we received could have moved Stephen ahead of Kimmi, but Savage will return to Skinny-Ryan “the nerd,” at some point. Monica reinforces my having Spencer sixth. To recap: 1. Jeremy, 2. Monica, 3. Kimmi, 4. Stephen, 5. Kelly, and 6. Spencer Ta Keo (Blue-ish) Still to be known as Purple Ta Keo. No changes here either. 1. Keith, 2. Cierra, 3. Kass, 4. Joe, 5. Kelley, and 6. Terry Angkor (Yellow) Oh look, no changes here either, and as a bonus, my number five got the boot. 1. Tasha (1) Reinforced her position as one of the great Survivor (volatile player)-wranglers. (J’Tia and Abi-Maria) 2. Andrew (2) I disagree with folk who say he’s letting Tasha do his dirty work. His “old school,” John Cena style (honor, loyalty, respect,) will do him in later. 3. Abi-Maria (3) I do suspect Tasha will make the mistake of keeping the Abi-Bomb around too long. 4. Woo (4) At least he’s not likely to make a Woo face if Angkor goes to tribal before the merge. OUT Jeff (5) You were an obvious strategic target for Tasha and Andrew, and your mucked-up foot made it easy for them to convince Abi-M to forego her anti-Woo pogrom.

Not so much speculation as wishful thinking, but with the Angkor beach being so awful, how about a double elimination episode next week? Something along the lines of, "First place gets immunity, second gets to watch the first tribal council before going to their own." That'd get us to 14 players, which seems to be the shows, "go to two tribes" point on three tribe seasons.

While I agree that Joe seemed to be operating w/o the blindfold there, I think that it is just as reasonable to infer that he was the only one who could discern Kass' voice out from under Kimmi and Jeff's. At some point, if I'm the caller, and only one person seems to be following my instructions, I'm only going to call out to them. Extra bonus that that person happens to be Golden Joey.