Oholibamah

I suspect this week will be the "confusing" Tribal. At least I hope so, since it will otherwise end up lost in a jam-packed finale. I'm guessing Spencer wins Immunity, Jeremy plays his Idol, causing Kelley to (rightfully) panic and play her Idol. All votes are negated. Everybody votes again for Tasha, Kimmi or Abi. Abi goes 4-2. The hole here is explaining how Kimmi goes at 5. Idols will get rehidden and Kelley could win Immunity, but otherwise, it seems odd that she wouldn't be kept around as an east TC opponent.

Joe's point is also an important distinction, though, because pairs or trios of players have consistently voted together in varying combinations. The Witches, Keith/Joe, Tasha/Kimmi and Jeremy/Stephen tend to swing in groups, with Spencer floating as a single. They are "blocs" rather than sub alliances because they combine differently for each vote. I do, however, find this style of play similar to SJDS due to the BvW twist (inherent pairs) combined with no returning players (no preexisting relationships). Jaclyn/Jon, Missy/Baylor, Alec/Reed/Wes/Keith and later Natalie/Keith flipped around in varying combinations, albeit not as often as Cambodia. It certainly makes for a much more interesting season, but sadly, I don't think this "evolution" is anything more than a temporary mutation.

Kelley's edit reads as "she is doing so much stuff that she's impossible to ignore". She's found two idols under suspenseful circumstances, played one successfully, and has helped rally the masses in the eliminations of Joe, Wigles and Stephen x2. This is pretty typical of a female winner edit. Jeremy and Spencer have gotten a lot more decorative content. Baby, family, Pinocchio, fishing, etc. etc. Other than the Stephen boot, Spencer has gotten a lot more footage than his impact on the game would suggest. Jeremy's untelegenic gameplay is made up for with emotional stuff. Both of these are typical for male winners. tl;dr: too soon to tell for sure! But rooting for Kelley.

I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, but there's no way endurance challenges are cheaper than "eat this gross spider" or "memorize this sequence of symbols". There's been a steady trend toward endurance challenges the last few seasons - And they used to be my favorite! - but that many in a row is excessive.

I got the sense that Spencer did a decent job running the (shortlived) alliance of Tasha, Jeremiah, Morgan, Sarah and Kass before she flipped. If reports are to be believed, Tasha/Sarah were outplayed by Jefra/Trish leading to Kass flipping. I think Spencer plays a strong underdog game but misplays/gets complacent when he perceives he has power (the Garrett vote, losing Kass). He's good at hussling but seems to forget that egos still need to be stroked even if he's calling the shots for the moment.

I have a similar visceral reaction to Dawn, to the point where the Brenda betrayal has always seemed grossly beyond the game to me. I tend to have a pretty staunch "all is fair in Survivor" mindset, but that episode was downright disturbing to watch. Maybe it makes me an awful person, but I loved Teethgate. It was delicious schadenfreude. Not to mention, Brenda wasn't actually demanding that Dawn take out her teeth. She wanted her to finally, once and for all, decide if she was playing the game (emotional manipulation) or was truly upset by the situation. Dawn had been trying to have her cake for 39 days, and frankly, she fully deserved to be called on her shit.

I have been saying the same thing for years, but that is part of MTV's evil genius... They keep bringing people like Aneesa to keep us oldies coming back while they make us fall in love with all the new crazies, until suddenly the old/new crazies feel just like the old old crazies and we come back for them. It's a sick, vicious cycle that I cannot quit. I already really enjoy a lot of the family members. Jill and Shane were great, Candice and Nicole are hilarious, and I liked the little we saw of Jamie and Rianna. Was KellyAnne always this hot? Damn.

Ugh. I find the HOF interesting, but in a car-crash kind of way. It's like an assembly of all the players I find overedited and overrated. If Rupert, Coach and Tyson make it in this year I will vomit. And I actually like Coach. I'm pulling for Jerri and Natalie. I guess I could live with Tina if it means knocking out the other 3.

Once Mikey was out I was happy with anybody winning, but Nyle > Mame, runway domination aside. It's nice for the series to end on such a positive note.

I'm not surprised that a majority of the "Kelley is such a bitch" comments are immediately followed by lamenting the loss of Joe. I celebrated him losing the IC, too. That doesn't mean I didn't also feel and worry for him. Having contradictory opinions about something doesn't make me or Kelley an awful person. Neither does voting out somebody's TV crush.

An interesting example here is Kourtney's medevac in One World. They showed footage of Jeff explaining the "proper" way to jump. They don't normally show this footage, but it makes me think they always explain it. Something despicable happened on the Challenge a few years ago where, had cast members been willing to testify, likely would have resulted in a successful lawsuit for negligence by production.

This season definitely had the most unlikeable crop of crazies ever. I liked Justin as a person, and he marginally improved after being saved, but he really shouldn't have been in the finals. The HP print challenge is where this season went very wrong for me. Justin and Alexandria's outfits were AWFUL, yet Alexander and Kate went home for stuff I at least understood if not actually liked. Kate was in the top 3 practically every week and never in the bottom and deserved another chance. Kahindo was also eliminated for one of my favorite dresses of the season, and Ken outlasting Jeremy after his psychotic display was unacceptable.

I will always feel robbed of footage of Kelly and Brandon getting drunk and making t-shirts and sarongs to wear to TC. I bet they were a hoot.

IIRC, Ciera actually gained 1 pound in BvW!

Prisoners having high self-esteem doesn't make having self-esteem bad. And a problematic subset of the population having a positive trait doesn't mean the rest of us shouldn't also strive for that trait. I agree that children should be encouraged to do better and feel proud at their accomplishments. But if that child says "mommy, I am proud of myself/what I accomplished", it's sad that that could be seen as arrogance. Perhaps it's interpreted that Ciera is patting herself on the back for just being there. Again, I don't know how she worded it. But the way I see it, she failed, tried to do more and do better, and was proud of her accomplishments. I don't want to live in a world where vocalizing pride is gross, hence thinking we need more of this in life.

I don't think players typically assume others have two idols. It's pretty rare, and oddly enough, Val was mocked for claiming she had two.

Based on how this week played out, I'm a little miffed that Spencer appears to realign with Jeremy, Tasha and Kimmi. If I were him, I would align with Wentworth, Keith and Abi as a weaker, more fractured group, 2 of whom were original Ta'Keo. I guess Joe goes next and Jeremy uses an idol to tie it up 3-3?

Obviously the edit went out of it's way to make him look "bad" (gratuitous scenes of him sucking at chopping coconuts, picking his nose, etc), but it's actually had the opposite effect and has made me like him even more. I appreciate that he's a human with emotions and pettiness and weakness. The only time I've ever disliked him is when he blasted Andrea on twitter and when he coddled Coach/insinuated Erinn is evil for refusing to do the same. But when he's vulnerable and genuine I really like him, and thought he was actually pretty consistent from his previous season.

I've always found it to be a huge testament to be able to say someone is proud of themselves. I think we need more of that in society, and don't see why I should expectantly wait for an outside source to confirm that I've done a good job. There are two definitions of "pride": someone taking positive stock in something they've done, and somebody thinking overly highly of themselves akin to a "deadly sin". I suppose it's possible Ciera falls into the latter - I haven't read her interviews - but I don't think it's wrong to say you're proud of yourself. (I also don't think it's wrong to admit you're attractive, but the way Heidi did it obviously made her sound like a twat).

Absolutely. Gimme T-Bird, Goldsmith, Neleh, Carroll, Ryno, and Ian for Oldschool, Erinn, Shambo, Tracy, Corridan, Cardona and Jean Robert for Middleschool and Jenn, Trish, Sabrina, Misch, Marty and Albert and we've got 3 tribes that are fairly even and mostly tolerable. They could even do 3 tribes of 7 and give Oldschool more men if they're concerned about age.

I would love a Fan-Voted season with Oldschool/Middleschool/Newschool tribes of 6. Yeah, we would be subjected to Probst's constant exposition about it, but at least we would be guaranteed a balanced season. The Oldschool players I've always wanted to see back (Goldsmith, T-Bird, Tammy, John Carroll) would have a much better chance with this format.

Lacey's edit this week reminds me of C15 Chelsey. Which is to say, completely and totally awesome, but a clear attempt by the editors to make her look overly competitive. I nearly shit myself with shock and joy when Chelsey advanced to the finals over Tyra's pet Kayla, so I could see Lacey getting the runner-up edit. I just don't know how compelling a Nyle/Mame or Mikey/Mame finale would be, so Lacey/Nyle makes the most sense. And if not, how dare TPTB spend the entire season making me love them for nothing. I "get" Mikey as a model, but this redemption edit is not working for me. Too little too late after a season of being an aggressive, womanizing asshole.

Playing =/= playing well, or playing to win. And that is the point they're "trying to make on continuous loop".

I do think that alliances this season have a subtle departure from SOP, but agree that it isn't actually "new". Cesternino played this way in Amazon and Jaclyn/Jon flirted with voting blocks in SJDS. Players have theoretically operated this way since Borneo's "Barbecue Alliance", but I don't remember a post-merge season with so many possibilities. Up til now we've only seen a huge "flip" this week (since last week was an Idol play), but based on the bootlist, I suspect we'll see a lot of "voting blocks" involved in the Ciera, Joe and Stephen boots. I don't actually think this "style" will last past this season, though. As has been mentioned, this is only really possible thanks to returning players and so many tribe swaps.

This used to be SOP (Gretchen through to Savage 1.0), and has happened a handful of times since (Brandon, Nick, Kelly Remington).