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.

My eight year old isn't cognizant of twitter. If she was, she'd have tried to make #WhyNotJoe? a thing after the Reward Challenge teams were picked.

Not for nothing, but that seems like a stereotypical Southern Dr Evil way to do folk in... ;-)

I’ve put this off as long as possible. For a tribe switcheroo episode, this was a disappointment. The 4-2, 4-2, 2-4 split should have made this really predictable, but the fact that Abi and Andrew both got what they wanted ruined any sense of enjoyment from the numbers not going the way they should have. I am also willing to pencil in a member of oldBayon as the winner of this season. Yes, All-Star seasons see a bit more unpredictability than straight number-counting usually does, but - other than Stephen - no one from oldBayon has any incentive to not Pagong off the oldTaKeo tribe. I hope the editors/ camera people are on point for. “You get your first look at the new Angor tribe. Peih-Gee was voted off at tribal council.” I want to see how well, (or how badly,) the oldBayon majorities on the other tribes react, and if their minority members notice. [Also, the potential look of disappointment on Stephen’s face, when he sees Andrew is still around. Schadenfreude-alicious.] Bayon (pink/purple) 1. Jeremy (2B) Has an HII. 2. Monica (7B) 3. Kimmi (8B) 4. Stephen (10B) Perhaps Stephen and Spencer could make a play for Monica/Kimmi, but due to the ineptness of the oldTaKeo tribe, we really don’t know where the non-Tasha women of Bayon stand in regards to the Bro-liance. 5. Kelly (3T) 6. Spencer (8T) Providing Angor doesn’t Matsing themselves until the next swap/ merge, Spencer is the prototypical pre-merge boot, much too capable of pulling out an immunity run. Ta Keo (blue) Their buffs may be teal, but given the footage we saw this week, we might as well call them Purple Ta Keo. 1. Keith (3B) 2. Cierra (5B) 3. Kass (9B) These three are pretty much interchangeable. 4. Joe (4B) If any oldBayon tribe member is going to get blindsided before the merge, it is Joe. 5. Kelley (1T) She’s doing the right work to throw Terry under the bus, but that, and her HII, only give her two weeks grace. 6. Terry (4T) We weren’t shown him trying to use his newly acquired social game. newMatsing Angor (yellow) If we have a boring middle portion of this season, it’ll be because Tasha Jedi-mind-tricked the oldTaKeo folk into throwing away their numerical advantage. 1. Tasha (6B) 2. Andrew (1B) Because, if by some fluke Abi and Woo can be made to come to their senses, Andrew is a more typical target than Tasha. But he’s ranked at two because ... read that “if statement” again 3. Abi-Maria (6T) Tasha was able to wrangle J’Tia for a couple of votes; she ought to be able to keep Abi in line for, at least, one. 4. Woo (5T) 5. Jeff (2T) Woo is probably Abi’s target, but Tasha and Andrew should be targeting Jeff. OUT Peih-Gee (7T) Jeff made the “too hard, too fast,” mistake, but you paid the price. Partially because of Abi’s beef with you, and partially because you and Woo didn’t jump on the opportunity to vote out Jeff. Once you knew Abi was turning on oldTaKeo, you should have gone into Sandra Diaz-Twine mode, instead of trying to save Jeff. [interesting that this is the same mistake that doomed Shirin last week.]

On Ernest and Jin's exit interview with Rob Cesternino over at RHaP, they confirmed that there was a scheduled two hour gap between the second and third buses. And it was a half an hour late on top of that. There was no way they were going to make up that deficit. And, they too believe that skin color had an effect upon their ability to catch taxi's. (Specifically mentioning cabs that would pass them by, and pick a fare up down the street.)

I think calling them "bad racers," is going a little overboard. They did one thing incredibly well - while they were stuck waiting for their turn at the helicopter ride, they took notes, which could have helped for the task, or for things afterwards. They had horrendous taxi luck, (which, I mentioned in last weeks ep. thread, I would not discount their melanin count having an effect on,) and the one taxi they showed this episode almost looked like it was trying to take off away from them! I don't know Spanish, so I'm not going to try and research the bus schedules, but it seemed to me that there were the two buses that had close departure times, and that the twenty minute delay behind the track stars meant that Ernest and Jin had to wait much longer for the third bus.

I think Kelly was trying to give Rob M. style "non-answers," and since, you know, vagina, Probst got pissy about it.

They have, in previous seasons, had two bowls for tribes to choose from. The more ... conspiracy theory minded ... among us have cited that as an example of the producers trying to put an "easy" tribe together for their favored player. The generally accepted answer - Occam's Razor - is that Jeff has a male bowl and a female bowl, in order to keep things from being too lopsided. This is what I'd expect from S31:E3, Jeff holding two bowls, each with nine eggs, presenting one to the male players and the other to the female.

That was a fun episode while being watched, but really low impact overall. (Unless you are Shirin or Spencer.) Bayon (Purple/Pink) DoucheBro alliance apparently in charge? Check. Stephen on the outs? Check. No sign of Monica? Check. Joe being presented as a Golden Survivor God? Check. Why did we even bother getting any footage of them this week? 1. Andrew (1) 2. Jeremy (2) Top two of the Love Tribe, and we’re not getting anything from anyone else to suggest otherwise. 3. Keith (5) 4. Joe (4) Keith hopscotches as the unthreatening, loyal vote. 5. Cierra (3) She doesn’t look good. (Health-wise.) Of course, we don’t know why, because all of the cameras are pointed at the folk with penises. 6. Tasha (6) 7. Monica (7) I remembered her this week! 8. Kimmi (8) 9. Kass (9) 10. Stephen (10) Seriously, Kimmi says, “Maybe Stephen is looking for the idol,” and it’s accepted as a sign of his untrustworthiness. Stephen says, “Maybe Jeremey is looking for an idol,” and it’s a sign that he (Stephen,) has no morals. I don’t “do” hashtags, nor do I particularly like Eliza, but #EffAndrewSavage. Ta Keo (Blue) 1. Kelley (1) Still has an idol, still voted with the majority. She also was mentioned as one of the players Varner reached out to before the season started. (Though not as part of his ‘conference call,’ group.) 2. Jeff (6) I still think he is playing “too hard, too soon,” but there is no denying his place in the power structure on this tribe. We didn’t get the “nightvision” post-tribal conversations, which make me question the time line as presented. I can believe that Jeff told Terry and Kelly that he needed to avoid the tie, and get rid of a threat, and “teach them that they had to play ‘new-school,’” but did he present Spencer (and Shirin,) as the big threat the day after tribal? Before he had Abi? The numbers don’t quite work out - but as soon as Terry “white knighted,” Abi, the pendulum moved 5-4 to the shelter crowd. 3. Kelly (4) 4. Terry (5) 5. Woo (7) 6. Abi-Maria (8) I mentioned that with two exceptions this was an uneventful week. 7. Peih-Gee (9) While you dodged the Abi-bomb this week, she does seem to have an axe to grind with you. 8. Spenser (3) I don’t think Jeff liked being the third (or fourth) strategic mind in the tribe behind you and Shirin, (and Kelley?,) and the Terry/Abi bonding gave him the opportunity to swing the tribe back to the lines he envisioned for his pre-show alliance. It would appear that Abi was given the choice on whom to evict, and she choose Shirin. OUT Shirin (2) Abi thought you had an alliance, and you didn’t hold her hand throughout your time together on the beach. You know what you’re getting with Abi-Maria: You made your bed, and she lit fire to it. (Please see the Grassy Knoll / Tinfoil Hat thread for additional thoughts on the Spencer/ Shirin boot.)

I have inferred that as part of the dynamic shift on Ta Keo, that Abi was allowed to choose between Spencer and Shirin to be eliminated. BUT, everyone would have known that she'd choose Shirin. I have to think that Jeff would have preferred to get rid of Spencer. In post-show interviews, Shirin is claiming that she tried to get (Peih-Gee, Kelley, Kelly/and or Terry,) to see how shifty Jeff was and move the vote to him; he got wind of this and transferred the target to her. Wouldn't have production, subtly or not, tried to convince Ta Keo to boot Shirin? Not because they "owed him one," (see above,) but because they really wanted to have nine men and nine women approaching the upcoming tribe spit?

And, they need to get off of our lawns!