Oholibamah

I know this is the age-old "it's editing"/"he actually said it" debate, but Tim said what he said to Alexander and no amount of editing can change that. He was defending "the brand" and not biting the hand that feeds - he knows better than that. But the indignancy with which he responded was what bothered me, since Alexander really wasn't saying anything particularly controversial or out of line: obviously judges have favorites and obviously production likes characters. This has been the case since The Real World in 1991. I am having flashbacks to the positively cringe-inducing Emilio/Tim interactions from Season 7. I generally like Tim and think Emilio needs to deflate his ego a bit, but it was uncomfortable to watch Tim being so unnecessarily combative. But one thing's for sure, Alexander seems to have learned that playing the producers is important, which would be an interesting carryover from Kate's return: she understood from day 1 that you need to be a "character" (hence her OTT attempt to be a "bitch" in the the Season 11 casting, only to end up being sweet and sort of fragile), and learned on her second season how to play to what the judges want and not just make a prom dress out of duct tape. So in some ways, somebody who feels screwed over their first time can end up being a great returnee. But I still want it to be Amanda.

No, but challenges have been thrown, and I see little merit in making the distinction except to say that winning and then giving it away actually does less to threaten momentum: "We can beat you, but we have bigger fish to fry." We often see shitty tribes gain momentum after the opposition throws a challenge, so in some ways it's better to let your opponents know they didn't actually win. My memory is admittedly hazy, but I don't recall her being treated particularily horrendously at this stage of the game. Especially not enough to put a strike against one of the most good natured, likeable players in 28 seasons.

Without fail, my favorite Survivor "type" is the whip-smart female who excels at strategy, puzzles, or simply giving some quality snark. This includes Kelly G, Erinn, Courtney, Parvati, Sandra, Cirie, Peih-Gee and most recently, Ciera. In the absence of snark and wit, I will also accept the Killbot version who dominates challenges or plays an aggressive game and makes no apologies. For example, Kim, Denise, Tasha, Brenda and Andrea. Although much less common, I will also accept a male incarnation of the snarky, brainy strategist. This includes Penner, Yau Man, Boston Rob, Brian Corridan and Yul. Rounding out my personal Top 20 are Amber and Erik Cardona. They fit the more "beta female" and "alpha male" types that I typically find merely tolerable, but Amber has enough kickass elements and Erik enough wit that I love them regardless. I find the same thing for myself, and it may center on the editing shoving them down my throat. Or maybe they just have a habit of casting egotistical assholes. Whichever. Unless events happened off-camera that I'm unaware of, Colton and Alicia mistreated Christina on a tribe that had no interaction with Kim, Chelsea, et. al. In fact, Kim had very little direct interaction with Colton at all. Assuming this "move" is the decision to give away Immunity then I disagree, both that it was unprecedented (challenges have been thrown before, and winning and then giving it away actually does less to threaten momentum than outright throwing it) and that Kim's entire game hinged un it. If, however, this "move" was Colton's maneuvering that completely fractured his tribe, then there is some merit to that. However, a deeply divided tribe is nothing out of the ordinary, and Kim's masterful exploitation of this division deserves all the credit it gets. Even if the men kept Immunity and ran the table, Jay, Mike and Bill were unhappy with the way things were going and were ripe for the picking either at the swap or the merge. I remain unconvinced that Colton's poor gameplay did much of anything to bolster Kim's success. I feel like this speaks to that ever-present distinction between casual fans and hardcore fans; I think the general public contributes to this Rupert-frenzy that Probst mentions, but hardcore fans generally disagree. And since casual fans would typically not be posting on the interwebs, his actual popuarity is eclipsed and often seems incomprehensible. But it's there. Sophie's strategy was predicated on the very knowledge that Coach will screw up FTC. It didn't just happen that way by chance. She aligned with him specifically to use as a Goat and masterfully baited him at FTC. Although, given that people tend to find her "delusional", it will probably be argued that she retconned all of this strategy and that she was just a big block of wood who did nothing. Heh.

The Twinnies are indeed annoying, but it's about damn time we have a South Asian on the show, and I like that they are competitive. I also think they will be more tolerable in the Survivor environment. The Race is a constant pressure-cooker situation where things need to be done quickly and, often, loudly. With more time to sit back and relax, I could potentially like them.

Last time they had a vote to bring back a contestant I wasn't worried because I love Kate and Ra'mon and felt pretty confident nobody would remember/care about Valerie enough to bring her back. But this time I can barely sleep. I was crushed when fragile, underrated Amanda was eliminated over that little troll Richard and cannot stomach the thought of having Ken back: annoying or not, his clothes consistently sucked. So I am praying that if recency bias must win, then we at the very least get Alexander instead of Ken.