Trick Question

Every winner deserved their victory. However, if we're talking LEAST deserving, I'll go with Parvati, Cochran and Tyson since they had such a big advantage with seasons where half the cast were newcomers.

Floyd was dropping things off his bike before he even fully left the roadblock, so he would've had to have gone back to the start anyway.

Team Fun is also a more consistently competitive team than Liz/Mike, who are either great or lousy with no in-between. I could see Tara & Joey feeling that Team Fun was the bigger overall threat and wanting them out instead. U-Turning the boys wouldn't have really accomplished anything. I mean, they were right there amidst the three groups that initially arrived at the detour spot --- even if you hold them up with the U-Turn, there's still a great chance they finish ahead at least one of the three laggard teams, especially Liz/Mike who have the extra task. Assuming there isn't yet another U-turn still to come, I think the opportunity to trip up the guys has come and gone, the other four teams will just have to beat them.

I know Sarah's legacy idol can only be used at F6, but just to be clear, the regular immunity idols (the ones held by Tai and Troy) ALSO have to be played no later than F6? And Sarah's "remove a vote" thing can also be used no later than F6? Good lord, that's a lot. You'd think that at least one of Troy or Tai (especially) would be playing their idol this coming week if they don't win immunity, correct?

The legacy idol could be played at two specific occasions --- at F13 (the merge vote) or F6. So Sarah is still in trouble if she doesn't win immunity in either of the next two rounds, but she's safe at F6.

They randomly draw for captains. What I'd like to see are the schoolyard picks, I feel like the order and strategy behind those would impact things. Michaela not being chosen makes little sense to me.

Hali and Ozzy's "wait, we have to spend the next three days with Debbie?" faces FTW

It's pretty unusual that Survivor goes into a merge episode where it's still so unclear about who might win, though past seasons of all returning players don't have the normal "winner's edit." Maybe it's because the show feels we're already familiar with these players so their path to victory doesn't need to be so clearly laid out by the edit? Halfway through All-Stars you certainly wouldn't have picked Amber to win, nor would you have picked Sandra at this point in HvV, and even Jeremy wasn't too major a player halfway through Cambodia. This season is also pretty odd because of the lopsided challenge results, as a big piece of the cast has only been to one or two tribals. (Cirie actually hasn't been to a tribal yet all season!) It's tougher to get a read on those players' alliances and specific group dynamics since we haven't seen much of the Andrea/Zeke/Ozzy/Sarah group until the last couple of weeks, and even then things didn't get too complex vote-wise since Sandra and Varner were such obvious targets.

I knew there was no possible way that Sandra could win this season...and yet with each passing week, noticing how well she kept avoiding danger at tribal council, I started to think "wait, really?!" At least she ensured JT and Tony went out, so the Queen stays Queen in Survivor history. It really does come to a lot of luck in this game, however. If Sandra and, say, Aubry draw opposite buffs in the tribal swap, Sandra is very likely saved for another round. Instead, she got drawn onto the noticeably weaker tribe (even with Ozzy and Andrea) on the week when they had a very physical challenge. I'd be more upset about this as an unfair advantage if it was anyone getting it besides Debbie. Talk about someone who won't be able to absorb advice and criticism; Cochran himself commented that Debbie seems way too overconfident about her game. Now I'm wishing that the "Game Changers" season would've been just a classic no-frills season like Borneo, and watching to see how long it took the players to figure it out. Probst could even still ask about the immunity idol during TC to throw them off.

Unless this show really gets crappy and revisits the Pearl Islands outcasts twist, I have to believe the 'returning player' is someone who isn't actually participating in the game, just there as...I dunno, moral support? Help in a challenge? Whomever gets exiled spends a day with the returning guest hanging out at Exile Island? I'm guessing this has to be one of the super well-known names in Survivor history, whose presence would even impress a cast of returning players. Boston Rob? Rudy? Richard Hatch, as the original "game changer"? (That would actually be kind of cool, and a nice way for CBS to hedge against actually letting Hatch play again.)

This season is like fantasy camp for Sandra fans. At least when Tony got eliminated, he screwed up but at least went down swinging. With JT, he could've crapped his pants on the boat ride over and embarrassed himself less than he did in the game. Sandra is playing chess, everyone else is playing checkers.

Three mistakes and two semi-mistakes by Sandra's team... 1. Not having more belief that an idol could be in play. 2. Not voting for Debbie (since if you're worried about an idol, you vote for the person least likely to have it, i.e. The Edgardo Strategy) 3. Not voting for Tai, along the same lines as #2. He and Debbie aren't big-picture threats, but as long as someone is going home from that tribe, it's fine. 4. (semi) Not voting for Hali, and just cutting the cord as to whether you can trust her or not. 5 (semi). Not trying the REALLY advanced move and eliminating JT. If they pull Hali aside and tell her to vote for JT, you'd think she would've been on board. Malcolm wouldn't have been up for that plan, but they wouldn't actually have needed him. It would've gone five votes JT (Hali, Varner, Sandra, Aubry, Michaela), four votes Malcolm (Debbie, Tai, Brad, Sierra), two votes Sierra (JT, Malcolm). One mistake by Debbie's team... 1. Not eliminating Sandra when you have the chance. Malcolm is a threat but you know how to beat him. Sandra is still the John Wick of Survivor (who has now, btw, somehow made it through THREE TRIBAL COUNCILS WITH A SINGLE VOTE).

Agreed, the editing seemed wonky. They're all sitting around camp chatting, cut to Tai looking around and finding a clue that requires him to dig in the middle of camp, then smash cut to them all sitting around again and he reveals his idol. Rather than producer interference, it could be that there was one idol hidden at each of the original campsites (Mana-Red and Nuku-Blue), and then for the newly-created tribe (Tavua-Green) they instead did the "clue to idol at the challenge" thing that Troy found. So based on this, there should still be an idol hidden somewhere at the Nuku camp that Sandra, Michaela, JT, Varner or Aubry could find. In fairness, Culpepper was legitimately super-impressive in that challenge. He was so good at throwing my friend asked if he played quarterback in the NFL, rather than linebacker.

"Trying to get someone else to do the killing but telling them how to prepare the carcasses" is basically a perfect analogy for Sandra's style of playing Survivor. Let's break this scene down. You have everyone gung-ho about catching and eating a goat, with JT (a farmer) and Malcolm leading the charge. Once they're caught, it seems like everyone has a change of heart about eating the mama and baby. I assume JT's real reason for switching was that he didn't want to be the one who actually killed one or both of the animals --- again, the guy worked on a cattle ranch, so obviously he can't be that worried about killing animals. Sandra, meanwhile, was clearly the biggest "eat 'em all" proponent, but look how she handled that. They discussed the situation, had a vote, came to a compromise and she didn't make a big deal about it after the goats were released. This show seems to go out of its way to try to present Sandra as a "villain" when she's ultimately just pragmatic about how Survivor works. If she has to cast a vote, hey, anyone but her. If she sees food apparently walking freely around camp, hey, why not eat it? After 33 seasons of fish, pigs, chickens and god knows what else being eaten on this show, goats are fair game. Unless, of course, that Rob Cesternino tidbit is true, which makes me think the goats were really just there for dramatic effect. After all, the Survivor personnel have that entire section of jungle cordoned off. I'm guessing goats couldn't wander in there unless the producers wanted them in there, probably in order to try and create more 'Tai befriends animals' stories.

By this point, I'm thinking Sandra is the smoke monster and can't be stopped by mortal means.

I like Tony as a player but man, against Sandra? I'd pick him to go home 100 times out of 100. I still feel like there's no way she could possibly go 3-for-3, but the fact that we've already gotten some classic Sandra gameplay in just two episodes is delightful. It's interesting how in all of the "all returning player" seasons, their early focus has been on getting rid of threats moreso than physical weak links. The veterans of the game know what's really more important in the big picture.

If Sandra wins a third time, I might have to stop watching Survivor. No future event could possibly top that for sheer joy.

If you were under any impression that Sandra isn't still the best, well, here

It's not really a trick, it's her actual voice. She actually sounds 90% like Owen Wilson, which is why I didn't get her 'impression' until she actually said his name.

Given the text alert at the end, I was actually thinking "Culverton Smith's daughter" would be revealed as Irene, and I was looking forward to going back and seeing how they hid Lara Pulver so well under the wig and makeup. The whole 'letter reflection' scene might've been the first hint that something was off about Miss Smith. If her father is this wealthy philanthropist, she wouldn't be living in a place with a small kitchen.

The idea of Rob/Amber returning in a Blood vs. Water season was broached in another topic, and by this point it'd be quite easy to have an all-star BvW season. Were there any more "Survivor marriages" besides Rob/Amber, Whitney/Keith, Jamie/Erik and Kim Powers/Alex Bell?

Chet and Shamar both had their fill of Survivor about two episodes in, so yeah, a return visit is unlikely. It's too bad so many of the fans ended up being non-entities, since another easy hook for a season could've been 8-9 of the original "fans" returning to face 8-9 newcomers. But of all the "fans," maybe Erik is the only one semi-recognizable to a casual Survivor viewer. I doubt the likes of Eddie, Jason Siska, Sherri, etc. hold much appeal.

This would never happen, but a fun season concept would be the eight 'fans' from Micronesia against the eight 'fans' from Caramoan in a "sorry we put you at such a massive disadvantage, here's a chance to actually play Survivor."

There was the week-to-week suspense of "wait, is Koror actually going to run the table??" combined with the fact that Bobby Jon and Steph (in her first appearance) are both pretty likable underdog characters. And post-merge, there's a good deal of suspense about whether or not anyone will overthrow Tom and Ian --- Gregg and Jenn were underrated terrific players, only thwarted by Ian/Tom's plan to weaponize the threat of a rock draw. Also, the Tom/Ian duel in the final immunity challenge is still maybe the craziest thing that's ever happened on the show.

Let it be said for the millionth time how perfect the casting was for Fred Willard as Phil's dad. He and Ty Burrell even look like they could actually be father and son. It's too bad Kelsey Grammer is a jerk in real life, as he has the most amazing speaking voice. Also seemed like that Frasier episode when he hires the incredibly resourceful butler, played by Victor Garber