Trick Question

It's possible that Laurie, a first-time author, didn't really know the proper process and went to the publisher straight-away rather than get a literary agent. Well, Laurie put at least one dent in a GR member. :)

My mind boggles at these scavenger hunt episodes since they really should be the simplest tasks on the show if any of these players could keep their egos in check. Everyone had to be responsible for "their" item and were so defensive about it --- shouldn't there be some flexibility built in? If the team that isn't assigned, say, the anchor happens to drive by Andy's Anchor Emporium, they should be allowed to pop in just for the sake of getting something checked off the list. For the big-ticket items like the mirror, those should be 'all hands on deck' items that should be searched for by everyone, since the penalty of NOT finding it is so steep. I agree with Jenny, I honestly think I could perform this task better on my own than I could with seven other people all fighting for positioning around me and butting in. They really should've saved this task for its usual mid-to-late-season placement when there are fewer candidates left.

So if I had to guess, the medivac'ed player isn't from the Angkor tribe. Jeff's buddy-buddy "hey, it's Probst" would lead me to believe he's waking up his pal Savage and company informing them that someone from one of the other teams is now out of the game.

Ooh, good, an excuse to be shallow, the Hottest Survivor Women game! My votes go to Chelsea (One World), Tijuana (Pearl Islands), Alexis (Cagayan), Katie Hanson (Philippines), Elyse (South Pacific), Erinn, Syndey and Candace (all Tocantins), So (last season), and Amber Brkich-Mariano. I seem to also vaguely recall a few other very attractive women who were one of the first 1-2 bootees, so they aren't sticking in my memory as well. One of the most truly bizarre moments in Survivor history. Probst's facial expressions as Billy was explaining this were absolutely priceless. There was a great entry about this on the old "Funny 115 Survivor moments" webpage that's worth it for the pictures alone.

I was kind of hoping that we'd see another reshuffling into two new groups of eight, just to keep everyone on their toes. Oh well. The storyline of Terry Dietz: Social Game Juggernaut came to its logical, hilarious conclusion. Terry is giving confessionals solely about how great it is to be playing the social game, and winning challenges, and it's all so easy....smash cut to his five tribemates unanimously deciding that he's the odd man out. I don't hate the Monica vote from a "Bayon tribe unity" standpoint since that idea is meaningless at this point, for three reasons. 1. We've seen enough tribe swaps and reshufflings to know that players pretty often end up forging brand-new alliances with their new groups. In this very episode, we saw Kass/Joe/Ciera/Keith make their final five pact with a non-original Bayon in Kelley, so I doubt those four will be heartbroken that Jeremy/Kimmi/Stephen "turned their backs" or anything. 2. The original tribes were only together for six days before being split into three groups. By now, they've been with their new alignments longer than their old ones. 3. In an all-returning player season, who knows what outside-the-game friendships or alliances might really be driving things rather than tribe alignments on the show. I also can't blame Kimmi too much for that move to oust Monica, despite it busting up her four-person group and keeping Spencer and Kelly around. For all we know, Kimmi wants Kelly to stay...it makes sense that the two old-school older women would have more in common, and all things considered, Kelly definitely seems like less of a 'game player' than Monica (which is a nice way of saying that Kelly has apparently no strategic game whatsoever). Kimmi might end up being all for a women's alliance down the road, just as long as Monica isn't one of the women involved.

Jeff certainly loves his alpha male types, but generally I think he just really likes a) players who win challenges and/or b) players who make 'big moves' in terms of playing idols, turning on alliances for blindsides, etc. Basically, anything that makes for an easy storyline to show on TV --- player A wins Survivor because they're an immunity monster, or player B wins Survivor because they were finding HIIs, playing tribemates against each other, causing drama, whatever. It seems that Probst's least-favourite type of winner is the player C who wins largely due to a strong social game (i.e. Sandra, Natalie White) since it's a bit harder to get the "everyone likes and respects this person" footage into an episode without really telegraphing a final tribal council result. Anyway, who knows about Andrew's actual life or even actual personality since we're seeing him so heavily edited (and in such an odd way) on this show. I feel like they're really two people. "Andrew" is the actual guy, "Savage" is the Survivor personality and Probst favourite who may or may not be a favourite of the editors.

I agree. Jost has improved a lot since his debut last year (though, then again, how could he not have?) and it has a lot to do with him just deciding to embrace his kinda-stiff generic white guy persona. I feel his persona also helps him land some of his edgier jokes, when he's just staring deadpan into the camera after the punchline.

Matt didn't actually play Survivor, he played "Redemption Island," which was some other weird anti-climactic show that I have no interest in watching. It occurs to me that being the "second biggest threat" is a pretty interesting and often successful strategy to win the game. Denise should've been an obvious target yet everyone was so focused on Malcolm that it ended up actually keeping Denise around in order to have a chance at beating him. Same logic somewhat applied to Earl beating Yau Man, or Aras beating Terry, or maybe even Yul beating Ozzy.

Sasheer playing the Chief from Carmen Sandiego....well, that's it SNL, you have officially won me over for life. You were already about 95% there but even if I'd been 9.5% there, this still would've put it over the top with room to spare.

Everyone else is angling for that second Express Pass, so why not play along with Texas to say, "sure, we'll help you get rid of Green Team." It's just good strategy and the correct play --- if you helped get the Greens (who are a legitimately good team) out and get an Express Pass for it, you're suddenly in great stead for the rest of the race. Now that the second EP will be given away, expect Team Texas to become a big target as well. In no small part because they probably unofficially promised the Pass to several teams in their 'alliance.' My hope is that the editors are focusing so much on this feud now because one of the teams will be gone soon, so they're getting as much play from this feud as they can. If I had to pick one of the two be eliminated first? It would be the Texans. Here's another reason why playing that Express Pass at that point was a bad move --- you have a guy on the team who can barely run thanks to a bad hamstring! Save it for a future physical exertion challenge! Tanner & Josh have been very lucky they haven't faced any overtly physical challenges since the injury occurred, or else they might be out already.

"Western" was one of the better products they've ever had on the show? Uh, seriously? It was the deserving winner, but clearly, adverts showing guys shampooing their hair and then listing the cactus ingredient is literally the bare minimum they could've done. Hard to argue with either firing choice. Dan was useless at everything and seemingly wasn't taking the actual 'Apprentice' thing seriously, whereas Aisha instantly created bad blood with her entire team and wouldn't listen to any of the valid objections raised by everyone else. April and the terrible-pitching woman (forget the name) could've also both easily been fired as well, if Sugar had been in a double-firing mode. An 18-person cast is just too unwieldy, a double-firing or two would've helped clear the lot out. I feel there's still 4-5 people who I know nothing about, bad or good. Of course, there are also 4-5 people I can instantly cross off since they're clearly idiots. Happy Claude is on board, though I'll miss Nick Hewer. Presumably he's gone onto a lucrative sweater-modeling career with Rob Brydon.

Great question. I really hope it's not "Tasha/Savage both see her as their goat" since I can't take two more months of Abi's bullcrap. That said, from a strategic gameplay point of view, ditching Varner makes a lot more sense. During his whole pitch to stay, if anything he was digging himself a bigger hole --- showing how charming and sweet-talking he can be, which makes him a bigger threat in the big picture than Woo. Varner also has demonstrably made ties to others, as shown by his blunder in the previous episode. Tasha/Savage probably suspect or know by this point that Woo is flying solo and he actually will stick to them, so they can cut Abi loose as their third if she gets too out of control. If the three-tribe format continues next week and Angkor loses again (as I suspect they will, since it's getting unfair by this point), I really think Abi is done. If you're the green tribe, I'm sorry, how the hell is Joe not your pick for ANY solo physical challenge? Was there some unofficial "your champion must be a 30+ man so Probst can get his rocks off" rule in place? Even for Angkor, while I can't argue their choice since Savage won, why wouldn't Woo have been the obvious pick there? Maybe even Spencer over Jeremy for the pink team.....it's probably a wash, though since Jeremy came in last, it's easy to second-guess. My eyes hurt from all the "Andrew Savage, middle-aged superhero" editing this season. Even with the slanted edits, this guy cannot hide his inner douchebag. Even after the immunity challenge when he's exhausted and half-dead, he can't help but toss in a "I used to play college football" in there. "Original Ta Kao" has been so obliterated to this point that Jeff/Woo/Abi probably don't even consider that much of an option anymore.

It seemed like the prior episode was sort of Samberg's sendoff. I recall he had a few of his characters (what few there really were) in sketches plus the 100th digital short brought back literally all the video characters. So, Carrey would've auditioned for the 85-86 season for the Downey/Anthony Michael Hall/Joan Cusack cast, or he auditioned for the 86-87 cast? I can see him standing out in that drab 85-86 year and maybe he survives the cast purge with Lovitz, Dunn, and Miller. But it's really weird thinking of Carrey in the cast with the 86-87 group...his manic style doesn't seem to mesh at all with the more old-school vibe of Hartman, Hooks, etc. Carvey was the "crazy guy" in that cast and he's really subdued compared to Carrey. Ironically, Murray's breakout came in a Weekend Update bit where he played himself and said he didn't think he was doing well on the show.

First Maggie subplot in.....geez, how long? Part of me wonders if the episode broke an unwritten rule by having Maggie "talk," even if via subtitle. I think a number of the jokes probably could've worked even without the dialogue, or if just the animals were subtitled and they understood Maggie's pacifier-sucking anyway. I can't believe it took until the 27th season to have the funniest episode-closing line in Simpsons history, but here it is!

Varner is trying to harness Abi's crazy in the manner of a bull-rider trying to last eight seconds on a bucking bronco. It works for the first two votes, but tonight, we might've seen it go off the rails since Varner himself was threatened and (as was noted upthread) he went into pure 'anyone but me' mode. As we've seen, Abi holds a grudge for a long time and her snide little comment about Woo's two votes against her means that she had him directly in her sights. The most obvious play in the world would be for Varner/Abi/Woo to vote out Tasha/Savage after their next loss (I'm more or less assuming they'll lose again since the odds are so stacked against them from a food/shelter standpoint alone) yet Abi doesn't operate on reason. If she thinks Tasha/Savage can get her 'off the bottom' and into a better spot in a merged tribe or if things are reshuffled into two tribes, Abi will make that move and screw over Woo. Varner can't afford to lose a guy like Woo, who seems like a pretty vote to have along in an alliance. Ironically, BOTH Varner and Abi could be screwed since they happen to be in a tribe with Andrew "Physical Strength Above All" Savage, who will likely balk at voting Woo out. We could now see Savage/Tasha team with Woo to get rid of the weaker Abi or Varner himself. I was wondering if Kelley is keeping an eye out during challenges for anyone on other tribes trying to sneak an idol since she knows the trick. Then again, there's simply so much going on during these things that you have to stay focused on your own tribe's work rather than observe others....yet the person snatching the idol also has to be subtle about it. Man, do I ever love this new HII twist, it's very cool.

If CBS ever does decide to do a full-on celebrity edition of Survivor, Tommy Wiseau has to be the first one cast. Hell, even if not, put him on the show anyway --- if you can have Jimmy Johnson, Taj George, Lisa Whelchel, Jeff Kent, John Rocker, etc. in there with "regular" players, getting Tommy wouldn't be a stretch.

I feel like doing this would've set up a clear "4v4" divide, and Kelley/PG both seemingly want to keep their games and allegiances fairly fluid at this point. Not to mention the fact that while Kelley/PG both probably would've "preferred" to work with Shirin, they weren't too upset over getting rid of her now since she's in her own way almost as much as a needs-to-be-managed ally as Abi-Maria. Whereas Abi can turn on you on a whim out of emotion, if Shirin's game-odds calculations ever result in your elimination being 50.1% more beneficial to her game, you'd done.

Woo's slack-jawed face during Shirin's proposal/rant/overly-detailed explanation was priceless. You could just tell her talk was completely falling on deaf ears, though not dumb ears, as Woo instantly shut her down with two sentences. I love that Terry is acting like he's cracked some secret code of "the social game" by simply acting like a half-decent person. "I just went up and.....talked to her, can you believe that?!" Savage's whole talk about meeting his wife was one of the most bizarre things I've ever seen on Survivor. As others have pointed out, there was nothing to that story. It was just "friend set me up with a model, she had to go away on a trip for a bit but she came back and then we got married rather quickly." Savage made that sound like the most epic love story ever told, and weirdly tragic even though apparently nothing is wrong with his wife. The worst part is, you just know Probst and the producers loved that clip and thought it really humanized Andrew when, if anything, it make him look like an even bigger douche. The tribe probably figured they needed Spencer more for any physical challenges. Voting out Vytas AND Spencer back-to-back would reduce the muscle on their team to just Woo and old-man Terry. As for Peih-Gee, I think she could be either considered a total afterthought (or goat) by the other players......OR she's playing a brilliant under-the-radar game. I go back to her talk with Varner in the ocean in the first episode about how they're both sort of caught in the middle of the 'beach people' and 'shelter people.' If the two of them have decided to just swing back and forth and eliminate threats on both sides, that would be phenomenal. The fact that Abi has been so mad at Peih-Gee yet Shirin is the one ultimately blamed for it tells me that Peih-Gee has something going on. Varner's whole "hey y'all, I'm just an old-school guy trying to figure out this newfangled Survivor game, bear with me!" schtick is pretty tremendous. I'm not even sure the others see him as an actual threat rather than an excitable team player (who just happens to be switching sides every vote). Anyway, pretty much any alliance-building is now completely moot due to the early tribe shuffle, which I love. Keeps everyone on their toes. Hopefully we don't get another bad stroke of luck and end up with one tribe that has all the physical duds and gets smoked in every challenge.

I had Chris pegged as the winner as soon as the first episode ended. I was like "how the hell did that guy who blew the challenge manage to completely avoid getting targeted at tribal council?? He must be a real player." Sure enough, Chris ended up smooth-talking his way to the million bucks. A hugely underrated winner.

Damn, that question of Varner's sounds like a great TC moment. I can see why it might've been edited out, however, since it might've kinda revealed who was getting eliminated, and it also cuts through the "ooh, immediately Tribal Council, no strategizing!" gimmick when you have to figure that players could (and have) talked things out with their tribemates during Tribal itself.

in normal Survivor, an athletic player like Vytas would virtually never be the first one eliminated, so this is already an example of how an all-veterans cast has a different mindset than a normal cast. Ta Keo may have a tough time of it in physical challenges --- they have Woo, Spencer, Kelley as solid physical players but the jury's still out on how older Kelly or older Terry will do, and the others are nothing special. Then again, this is generally not a cast that boasts too many physical threats overall, so I can see why Jeremy's plan to team up with Tasha/Joe/Savage is a smart one. All will be targeted big-time come the merge to prevent an immunity run, especially Joe. Granted, the lack of pre-TC prep time may have influenced that vote, but it still seems like there's a pretty solid core of "Beach people vs. shelter people" as Jeff put it. Jeff and Peih-Gee may be getting set up in a swing vote position, which could put them in a good spot given how quickly alliances in an all-returnees cast can shift. He/she who best adapts will win. It's too early to start parsing any hidden alliances or pre-show deal-type of things, though it's interesting to note that Vytas didn't have many ties to others. Ciera was the only other person from the Blood vs. Water season and she was on the other tribe, while Terry had only a once-removed connection to Vytas through Aras. Not that being on the same season necessarily implies a better connection (since who knows who's met in CBS events or whatever) but it already seems to be somewhat of a factor, as Shirin will tell anyone who will listen about the possibilities of past tribemates teaming up. Do you get the feeling CBS and the Survivor producers were really kicking themselves over Kelley's early elimination in S29? She already seems like a terrific, camera-friendly player. Talk about a favourable first-episode edit, holy smokes.

My picks to win the season: Kelley, Monica or Varner. While we admittedly saw little of Kelley in S29, I feel she was held up as enough of a threat by the other players that the 'blood vs. water twist ruined my game' excuse actually applied to her. The question is whether she'll be able to more covertly hide the fact that she's a shrewd player this time around. Players I would be shocked to see win: Kass, Vytas, Kimmi, Terry, Shireen, Andrew Savage, Kelly, Keith. This could be a fool's errand since returning players can often greatly improve the second time around, but I have a hard time seeing any major adjustments coming from Keith, Terry or Kelly. Kimmi is kind of a wild card. Shireen and Kass seem like no-gos based on personality. Vytas and Savage seem cut from the same cloth as 'obvious leaders' who will play the game too hard and end up getting themselves ousted.

Wait, Tobias was a doctor leading Debrie to her doom.....oh lord, was Tobias really "Dr. Doom" and this was yet another subtle Fantastic Four joke? Good lord, this show. Mitch Hurwitz clearly should've directed the new FF movie instead of Josh Trank. My problem with S4 was that it wasn't until the back half of the season that it really started feeling like Arrested Development. The first six episodes were such massive information dumps and plot setups that there was barely any room for actual jokes. It also didn't help that the first six eps were so strongly centered around just half the cast (Michael, George, Lindsay, Tobias, with a decent side helping of Lucille) so it just made the absence of Buster/Maeby/George Michael/GOB even more pronounced. It was essentially a different show, which is why it took at least a few episodes to really get used to what the 'new' AD was going to be like.

Gino & Jesse's finishes have varied wildly from leg to leg. In some legs they'll have a clear advantage if the tasks are more physical; in other legs, they'll be at a disadvantage since (to be kind) neither seem like brain surgeons. On the other hand, they did make an interesting strategic choice in U-turning the other brothers in order to get them to burn the express pass. It was a good move on paper, though it backfired in the sense that a) Brent & Sean didn't need to use their pass and b) now G&J have used their U-turn so they can't help themselves later in the Race if they're targeted at another double U-turn.

Gretchen's comments are fascinating. I thought she was pretty much off the radar in terms of past contestants who have moved on from the game. I'm not wild about the Blood vs. Water format, though maybe this is an unintended benefit --- cool ex-players may be swayed into returning for the sake of playing the game with their kids. If you're new to Survivor and are rewatching old seasons, it can't hurt to just start from the very beginning and go in chronological order. Yes, some seasons are certainly better than others and if you're just coming into it now, the early seasons will seem both very slow and in many ways like a totally different show (since it essentially was). That said, you absolutely get the best sense of the game's evolution by starting at the very beginning. While I'm firmly a member of Team Sandra, it's interesting that her greatest claim for being the Greatest Survivor Ever (that she's won twice) could actually almost be kind of used against her in that same argument. What makes Sandra the best EXCEPT for the fact that she's gone 2-for-2? This is kind of an odd way of putting it, but if you took each of Sandra's wins in a vacuum, you'd think "hey, she's a hell of a player" yet you wouldn't say she's the best. To wit, going into S20, Sandra got very little hype as even a particularly notable winner, let alone a candidate for Greatest Survivor Ever. If you had another middlingly-regarded winner play the game again and win, would you suddenly rank them up there in the pantheon? Like, if Bob or Danni won again, for instance. Or, what if Fabio played again and somehow won in pretty much the same way as he won S21? Would he suddenly go from 'worst winner ever' to 'arguably the best ever?' I'd have a hard time swallowing that one, yet it's also the crux of the pro-Sandra argument.