S39.E01: I Vote You Out and That's It

[Wandering Snark]

31 minutes ago, Sir RaiderDuck OMS said:

ITA that Elizabeth's lying about the Island will come back to bite her.

Yeah that seemed an odd play when you are only the FIRST of many that will see the island and possibly out your lie. Either that or her bug-eye-itis will do her in. Speaking of poker I'd love to play with her since her eyes would literally 'go wide' when she looked at a good hand.

I would have liked Boston Rob's 'game' of firemaking to be that she actually WON the idol if she chose NOT to go against him because it was obviously a blockhead thing to do.

It's almost too bad Ronnie went out because he could have 'out chyroned' Debbie as far as having a new job each week/multiple times per episode. Hey Ronnie, here's a hint about conversation around people, when you get up to say 20ish examples of jobs you've held? You might be saying too much.

I can't believe that not a SINGLE damned person figured out in the IC that you could UNWIND the ropes to make them stretch further/make climbing easier. IT seemed so obvious to me.

Edited September 26, 2019 by Wandering Snark

[GaT]

Too early to have favorites, but the concept is interesting.

If I had seen those giant idols no way would I have recognized who they were. I'm surprised Elizabeth did. I guess teaching her how to make fire was good, but why didn't they teach her how to make fire without a flint? Does her tribe even have a flint? I also thought it was a mistake to lie about what happened on the island. If the next person who goes decides to tell the truth, she's caught in a huge lie & there's no way out.

[HeShallBMySquishy]

It's Dan who is the Gropey McGroperson. Tom is the Canadian (the very first!) retired NHL defenceman, who made the horrific blunder of going off for ten minutes with two others to gather palm fronds. I do like all three of them actually, especially Elaine. And yes, CBS, bring Vince some pants!

I still roll my eyes at any contestant who, after noticing someone or some group is gone for more than a few minutes, is suddenly all, "THEY MUST GO!!"

I find both Boston Rob and Sandra rather irritating, but, if each episode features just the right amount of them, like this one did, then they could be somewhat tolerable.

Actually being in a dumpster that is then set on fire would be much more fun than the dumpster-fire that was Edge of Extinction, and so far, Island of the Idols could be interesting. Or it could get tiresome very quickly. Still too early to tell.

[BK1978]

5 hours ago, mojoween said:

I am still so not a fan of Sandra.  Sorry.

I can't stand her either.  I thought I was the only one, glad to see others feel the same way.

5 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

The hiatus between seasons is torture.  I wish there was something in between, like "Bachelor in Paradise", i.e. "Survivor in Paradise - yet again, but this time it's Summer" - to tide me over.

I have been singing the praises of Australian Survivor all over the Big Brother threads, might as well do so here.  Seriously though, if you need a summer Survivor fix I would suggest checking it out.  There are far too many castaways and they do corny shit like have the family members at the final Immunity Challenge and FTC.  But all and all it is really good and they usually do a good job on focusing on every castaway so you really get to know them.  I say usually, because they did not do a great job during the last season.

5 hours ago, Eolivet said:

Did anyone else see those CBS previews ("Survivor will be right back after these commercial messages/preview") where they showed the shot of the tribal council, which pretty much gave away that Lairo lost the challenge at 8:21PM. Good job, CBS promo department. Let's not do that again.

I'm so happy Ronnie is gone for many reasons, not the least of which was that he described being from Brockton as "south Boston" when it's more like an hour south of Boston. Go home, ya losah.

Yeah I saw that.  That was bullshit.

I am very familiar with Brockton, I once had my car die in the middle of an intersection there.  Not a fond memory of the hometown of Rocky Marciano. 

I will say this, I had high hopes for this season because there are three people from Rhode Island (my home State) and a couple of other New Englanders (Or at least in Tom's case someone who currently lives in New England.  He is from Canada.) on the show.  Usually they go overboard in casting folks from California or New York, so it is good to see my home state being overrepresented.  

Got to go with Jamal as my early favorite thus far because he was great at the challenge and he's from RI.

4 hours ago, Maverick said:

 Jeff:  "Swear to God, they're not playing"

 Me:  "Unless one of them presses the button halfway through the season"

See now you reminded me of Mike Boogie and that is not someone I needed to be reminded of.

2 hours ago, preeya said:

Me too and I don't think I'm going to make it through to the end.

I don't like Queen Sandra either, so I'll probably bail after next week.

Two pompous conceited Survivor whores.

Yeah I feel the exact same way.  I do not like either of them and I think they are both overrated but both do occasionally make me laugh.

Yes I said overrated.  I took Rob four tries to win (Though he did play the best game in All-Stars) and when he eventually won it was because the cast basically bowed down to him and let him win.

Sandra beat Lil.  Lil...I could have beaten Lil.  When Sandra thought she was going to be voted out on PI she dumped all their food.  

When she played again she beat Parvati and Russell.  She was willing to go with the Heroes at the merge and probably get eliminated.  The Heroes were too stupid to work with her.  

Sure winning Survivor takes some luck, but Sandra has had a horseshoe up her ass the two times she's won.

I had another post quoted here but I deleted it...

I'm just going to say that EoE didn't happen.  Shoot I can't even remember the name of the winner off the top of my head.  He's just the dude that was voted out third in my memory.

1 hour ago, Sir RaiderDuck OMS said:

20 people is just too damn many. 

That's nothing, Australian Survivor has 24 people at the start and the game last 50 days.  They also have multiple non-elimination episodes.  

[hacman00]

I'm glad the Asian germaphobe and the handsy guy talked. However, at the end it came off like the woman was telling the man, "Don't like me less because you can't give me a back massage."

I wish Elizabeth told everyone about Idol Island because if everyone knows we can forego any future "What is this place?  OMG! IT'S BOSTON ROB AND SANDRA!!!" scenes.

Edited September 26, 2019 by hacman00

[BK1978]

I forgot to add, this is not a spoiler just a feeling.  But I do agree with someone else who posted this, I think the winner of this season will be a woman.  I am not sure who or why I have that feeling but just going by this episode that is the feeling I got.  

[Fallacy]

I am an unapologetic Boston Rob fan, and Sandra has always made me laugh. I don’t think they are the absolute best to ever play the game, but they’re pretty darn good. Plus they’re memorable, and they like each other. So if the show wanted to do a mentor season, I get why they chose these two. I can’t think of another pair that would work so well in that role. 

The best part was seeing Ronnie get voted out though. 

[DEL901]

Anyone else annoyed by the talk of spatial awareness?   Handy guy didn’t have a spatial awareness problem.  He had a boundaries problem.  

As for the tribes, surprised to find that I liked the winning tribe and it didn’t seem like they had any assholes.   That probably means that ,ost of them will turn into jerks shortly.  

Nice to see that Elaine lied to the two douche bros when she said she would vote for anyone to keep the vote off her.   Too often people cave for temporary safety.  

As for Vince’s underwear.... producers vet clothing and it doesn’t really matter what you want to wear.   

[plurie]

Quote

I can't believe that not a SINGLE damned person figured out in the IC that you could UNWIND the ropes to make them stretch further/make climbing easier. IT seemed so obvious to me.

Yeah, it certainly looked like the obvious play.

Elizabeth was an idiot to agree to Rob's "contest," and a bigger idiot to lie about what was on IoI. A much better play would have been to tell most of the truth, including that Rob and Sandra were there and taught her to make fire, but say that she'd refused Rob's offer.

The lie she did tell would have made her tribemates suspicious that she'd actually picked the correct urn and won an advantage of some sort.

Of course, there's no way they'd vote out the Olympic swimmer at the first tribal council, so it probably didn't matter what she did (for now), but this will all come back to bite her later on when they find out she was lying.

My favorite player right now is Janet, the lifeguard. She's a real badass, which probably means they'll keep her until the merge and then cut her loose as soon as she loses individual immunity.

[Wandering Snark]

4 minutes ago, plurie said:

The lie she did tell would have made her tribemates suspicious that she'd actually picked the correct urn and won an advantage of some sort.

Good point! Nothing like a lie that doubles as more suspicion within the tribe than the truth would have!

[jsm1125]

Found it interesting that Dean was the only one this episode to not have a confessional.

The Ronnie vote was a bit surprising, but I’m not complaining. 

[Bryce Lynch]

4 hours ago, HeShallBMySquishy said:

It's Dan who is the Gropey McGroperson. Tom is the Canadian (the very first!) retired NHL defenceman, who made the horrific blunder of going off for ten minutes with two others to gather palm fronds. I do like all three of them actually, especially Elaine. And yes, CBS, bring Vince some pants!

I still roll my eyes at any contestant who, after noticing someone or some group is gone for more than a few minutes, is suddenly all, "THEY MUST GO!!"

I find both Boston Rob and Sandra rather irritating, but, if each episode features just the right amount of them, like this one did, then they could be somewhat tolerable.

Actually being in a dumpster that is then set on fire would be much more fun than the dumpster-fire that was Edge of Extinction, and so far, Island of the Idols could be interesting. Or it could get tiresome very quickly. Still too early to tell.

While, I was rooting for Tom, Vince and Elaine, the "They wandered off together, they are forming an alliance, let's vote them off!" strategy is generally sound.

On day 1, you usually have no idea where you stand, so an anyone but me approach makes sense.

IOTI could be fun or could be annoying, but at least it won't completely ruin the game and make the first 12 episodes irrelevant like EOE does.  I will never watch another season with EOE.  I might watch the finale, but the rest of the episodes are a waste of time.

[Whimsy]

9 hours ago, Eolivet said:

I'm so happy Ronnie is gone for many reasons, not the least of which was that he described being from Brockton as "south Boston" when it's more like an hour south of Boston. Go home, ya losah.

I've noticed on these reality shows that everyone who is from Massachusetts says they're from Boston.  I live about 45 minutes from Boston and I would NEVER say I'm from Boston!  I'm not.  I'm from a suburb.  Not even close to the same as living in the city.  I get that it's an easy reference point, but to me it's very disingenuous.  

6 hours ago, Rachel RSL said:

Maybe germaphobe isn’t the proper term but I’m the exact same way. She said she didn’t like other people’s germs and I get what she meant. I don’t care about getting dirty or whatever but I do get sick very easily so I try to avoid touching other people, doorknobs, elevator buttons, communal pens, etc. When I shake hands with someone, I literally feel twitchy until I can get to the Purell.

I do appreciate the effort but, unfortunately, it doesn’t really help me put the names to the faces while I’m watching. (Especially so early in the season when most of the people are still extras in the background.)

I'm not a germaphobe.  I'm a I-don't-like-people-touching-me-aphobe.  I would've had real issues with that guy laying all over me and touching me.  

5 hours ago, Wandering Snark said:

Yeah that seemed an odd play when you are only the FIRST of many that will see the island and possibly out your lie. Either that or her bug-eye-itis will do her in. Speaking of poker I'd love to play with her since her eyes would literally 'go wide' when she looked at a good hand.

Maybe she's hoping that she'll just keep being sent there and no one else will know. 

5 hours ago, GaT said:

If I had seen those giant idols no way would I have recognized who they were. I'm surprised Elizabeth did.

Same. I bet she didn't either.  I guarantee that talking head was after she knew they were there.

I try to stay as unspoiled as possible (sometimes hard with modding this board lol).  I knew that BR and Sandra were going to mentor, but I just thought that meant each one was going to be assigned a tribe and mentor them as a group.  I think I like this better, but the secret is going to get out real quick and then everyone will be clamoring to go there.  

[Haleth]

8 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I think that the supposed "Germaphobe" woman was put in a position where she was FORCED to come up with an inoffensive storyline to tell Touchy guy "(I HATE WHEN YOU TOUCH ME), so.  I'm just going to say I'm a germaphobe."  No real germaphobe would EVER go on Survivor.  Women are forced into these situations all of the time.  We're taught early to pretend that we have certain "problems" that make us need to be away from guys that creep us out. I'm not saying it's right, but I'm saying I don't blame her 1%.  The onus should be on men to stop creeping us out before anyone else should have to say STOP DOING THIS.  In a game where you can easily be targeted, ostracized, voted out, the woman was put in a difficult position.

Definitely agree.  She did a great job diffusing the situation though.  Now if she'd only can the "like" every other word.  (Funny, she didn't do that during her confessionals, it must be a nervous tic when she's stressed.)

I can't fault Elizabeth for trying to race BR in the fire making challenge.  She's there to play, give it a shot.  BR probably would have told her to not be meek if she had declined.  I wonder what his other offer would have been had Eliz thought to negotiate.

I think if I were playing Survivor, any time I left the camp I'd announce why I was leaving and when I'd be back, and if I had to go to Idol Island I'd allow everyone to search my bag on return.  No idols.

Edited September 26, 2019 by Haleth

[dsteele]

It wasn't just Vince. They really should just rename this season:
S39 - Island of the Bulging Underpants

[violet and green]

Well! It started off a bit dull, for me. And I really don't like Sandra or Boston Rob and found that mentoring session long and dull - but I did enjoy the 'you idiot' glint of contempt in each or their eyes when Elizabeth opted to go against BR, and I loved them sitting observing tribal in their little spy shack, so maybe it won't totally suck - but man, keep the visits to the Easter Island heads center brief from here on!

I like a nice chunk of Lairo: Missy, Elaine, Tom, and Vince. Also that there's a women's alliance.

Enjoyed Janet slaying them with an instant fire. It was her idea someone should actually speak up re the hands-on stuff to poor Dan. How mortifying to be that guy. Found Kellee a lot more annoying than his paws-on faux pas. "Get off my legs!" would not have gone astray. I think he was just trying to offer something to the tribe, cracking backs, and all. Time will tell, I guess.

Glad Noura took pity on Jason, and let him in on the target he's emblazoned on his back, and his reaction to this news/his dumb actions. So I like those two, as well.

And then, after the slow boil of early dullness - what a magnificent ending! Hahaha! Sucks to be you, Ronnie! That was such fun.

[dizzyd]

9 hours ago, TVFan1 said:

Where at Tribal Council are Rob and Sandra? I'm guessing they can't be seen?

I think they’re in one of the huts on the TC set facing the cast behind where the jury will later be sitting so they can properly view the proceedings. 

1 hour ago, Whimsy said:

Maybe she's hoping that she'll just keep being sent there and no one else will know. 

She can’t. She specifically had to pull the name of someone from the other tribe to visit next. It was a stupid lie. 

If IOTI is a success this season, I’d like to see my favorite Cirie as a future mentor. 

Edited September 26, 2019 by dizzyd

[Whimsy]

3 minutes ago, dizzyd said:

I think they’re in one of the huts on the TC set. 

She can’t. She specifically had to pull the name of someone from the other tribe to visit next. It was a stupid lie. 

Duh.  I forgot that part. 

[TaraS1]

I'm so happy Elaine didn't get a single vote!  I really thought she was a goner there for a bit.  She's from my neck of the woods (and the same county as Nick, who won two seasons ago) and she reminds me so much of one of my best friends - just a regular, hard-working country girl who is funny as hell.  I love her.  And I love that she sniffed out Ronnie as a lying weasel right away.

So far, so good with this cast. Except I hate Boston Rob.  I thought the energy of the episode took a nosedive with that whole "lesson" segment because it was so boring.  Is that what we have to look forward to every single week?  I mean, yes, it's definitely an improvement over Extinction, but still.  

And while Sandra was never my favorite (I like her, she's just not an all-time favorite), I do love her snark.  Her response to Rob's question about voting people out was golden lol

[RedbirdNelly]

I found this to be pretty boring but reserving judgment. Maybe it will pick up as we get to know personalities better.

I like Rob and Sandra (especially Sandra) so I'm fine seeing them but talk about boring. The lesson is how to build fire? something any person going on Survivor should already know? I would be so disappointed. It took up a lot of the episode and frankly I have no interest in watching someone learn to make fire. I don't mind Rob and Sandra commentary--they are funny and snarky. But the lesson stuff--ugh.

[Fake Jan Brady]

10 hours ago, Quilt Fairy said:

OMG, YES!  From your mouth to CBS's ears.  Why would a guy go on Survivor with such a pair of flimsy briefs?  Does he just think his dick is God's gift to womankind? 

I suspect maybe not to womankind...

[Straycat80]

I’ve wondered why Survivor has the contestants play in their underwear because in seasons past they wore swimming suits. 

[Bryce Lynch]

2 hours ago, DEL901 said:

Anyone else annoyed by the talk of spatial awareness?   Handy guy didn’t have a spatial awareness problem.  He had a boundaries problem.  

As for the tribes, surprised to find that I liked the winning tribe and it didn’t seem like they had any assholes.   That probably means that ,ost of them will turn into jerks shortly.  

Nice to see that Elaine lied to the two douche bros when she said she would vote for anyone to keep the vote off her.   Too often people cave for temporary safety.  

As for Vince’s underwear.... producers vet clothing and it doesn’t really matter what you want to wear.   

Yeah "spatial awareness" seemed like an odd term.  Another time I cringed was when one of the women said that the tribe had "a lot of unison".  

I was happy to see Elaine and the others turn the tables on the douche bros.  It is refreshing to see the good guys know how to lie and say they will go along with the jerks, instead of tipping their hands.  

There seem to be a lot of guys on the winning tribe who walk the fine line between confident and fun and arrogant and annoying. 

[Bryce Lynch]

It might have been fun for the contestants on IOTI to get to choose from a menu of lessons, like fire building, spear fishing, idol searching, vote strategy, social game techniques, dirty tricks, psychological warfare, how to sell a lie, etc.   

[peachmangosteen]

1 hour ago, Haleth said:

I can't fault Elizabeth for trying to race BR in the fire making challenge.  She's there to play, give it a shot.  BR probably would have told her to not be meek if she had declined. 

Thank you. I expected to hate IOI but I was actually liking it until that bullshit. If it's just gonna be Rob acting like the player there is an idiot no matter what decision they make then it can go. It took Rob four fucking tries to win! He's not that great lol. That all being said, I'm trying not to judge it too much yet. I'm hoping it will either end up fun/interesting or it just won't really affect anything at all. And in any case, at least we'll get some fun Sandra snark all season.

I went into this completely blind. I didn't even look at the cast beforehand. Mostly just because they didn't seem to announce it anywhere, which made me think this was gonna be a dull season. But I really enjoyed the first ep. I am with the people thinking a woman wins. The fact that all of the first several confessionals were from women is very against the norm. 

I love that there's more diversity than ever in the cast, that most if not all the women seem interesting, and that the first vote off wasn't a minority/woman/older person.

The fact that the germaphobe told Dan she didn't like his touching was great. And I thought Dan handled it well. It seemed to me like he's just a touchy guy so I was glad she told him. He seemed to take it for what it was and I hope he stops doing it now.

I liked Elaine but I am like 98% sure she will get real annoying, real fast. 

Elizabeth lying about IOI was stupid enough but the way she did it made it even worse. Just so, so bad lol. I wish we had some follow up on it from the others. It seemed to me like Chelsea (I think?) was seriously not buying it. 

[JudyObscure]

9 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

The onus should be on men to stop creeping us out before anyone else should have to say STOP DOING THIS.  In a game where you can easily be targeted, ostracized, voted out, the woman was put in a difficult position.

Yes! What makes anyone, ever walk up to someone and do that amateur massage thing?  A woman did that to my son's neck at work and gave him a pinched nerve.  I don't even trust chiropractors, if you're not my doctor or my husband stand back. 

[SevenCostanza]

3 hours ago, Wandering Snark said:

Good point! Nothing like a lie that doubles as more suspicion within the tribe than the truth would have!

I really didn't understand why she thought she had to lie.  Did she not realize that other people will go there too? 

I'm glad Ronnie got voted out.    

Not a Boston Rob fan but he doesn't seem as cocky (at least not yet) as he used to be.  Sandra I don't have much feeling for but I do have to admit that she's a great player. 

[Dbolt]

I put the odds of Rob and Sandra entering the game at some point to be about 100 percent. I noticed one of the shots they showed of them talking had Sandra wearing u buff. You don’t get a buff unless you are a member of a tribe. 

[Special K]

Just now, Dbolt said:

I put the odds of Rob and Sandra entering the game at some point to be about 100 percent. I noticed one of the shots they showed of them talking had Sandra wearing u buff. You don’t get a buff unless you are a member of a tribe. 

They showed clips of the two of them from their previous seasons. 

Poker players don't do well on this show. They always think they uniquely have the goods on everyone due to their advanced powers of observation.  Ronnie probably thought it would be easy to snow "country girl" Elaine, which just made her subsequent "he's a snake" confessional all the more satisfying.

Overall, the women came across really well this first episode.  The men, with a few exceptions (the hockey player, the 4th grade teacher, Vince), not so much.  Nice to see them not automatically pigeon-holing the women from the git-go.  Shocking even.

[SVNBob]

21 minutes ago, Dbolt said:

I put the odds of Rob and Sandra entering the game at some point to be about 100 percent. I noticed one of the shots they showed of them talking had Sandra wearing u buff. You don’t get a buff unless you are a member of a tribe. 

They're wearing buffs from their other seasons.

[Ms Blue Jay]

4 hours ago, DEL901 said:

Nice to see that Elaine lied to the two douche bros when she said she would vote for anyone to keep the vote off her.   Too often people cave for temporary safety.  

Totally!  The typical thing, that we've seen 100 times, is that Elaine and everyone else would turn on VINCE!  I'm so glad that that didn't happen and they were being totally genuine with each other when declaring early loyalty.  Somehow they pulled off a big Ronnie vote, which is so much more than I hoped for.

Didn't anyone else think that Sandra would mentor one team and Rob would mentor the other?  This is so weird to me, Rob just staring at the naive Olympian (Elizabeth)?  And them calmly watching her fuck up, and then saying "Wow, you shouldn't have done that.   That was stupid."  LOL.  Weird.  

Edited September 26, 2019 by Ms Blue Jay

[Goodmantryin]

The Boston Rob and Sandra thing is lame as all get out. Survivor "experts" and "the greatest players". CBS must think we have "stupid" written on our fore heads. Elizabeth put on a fake acting job about the "big decision" and the she learned how to make a fire = Big Deal! Very lame.

[Etta Place]

I have a slightly different take on Elizabeth lying about the Island ... she's safe for now because someone from the other tribe is going. When someone from her tribe is sent, they will understand what she was keeping secret. I think there is a high potential for that to turn into a bond between those two players, and a reason to keep it secret. They can pool whatever knowledge they gain if they choose, or at least be part of a conspiracy of silence. Eventually, of course, it will come out, but I don't think it necessarily has to happen for a while.

I love Rob and Sandra, and I enjoyed this first episode a lot, both their parts in it and the cast. I don't know that I would have thought of negotiating about the fire challenge, but I would certainly have immediately said "what? that's hardly a fair fight, you've been making fire forever and I learned 10 minutes ago!" Maybe that would have led into negotiations, who knows.

[Goodmantryin]

You can't teach "mentor" someone to play or win Survivor. It's a combination of smarts and luck. Plus they don't seem to see the "threats" until it's to late. They should have voted out Boston Rob the first thing on the Survivor where he won the million. 

[Gummo]

Surprisingly, the worst thing about tonight's premiere were the giant wooden heads that everyone had to pretend look liked Sandra and Rob. Now THAT's acting!

Not sure how much difference the mentoring is going to make, but I'll take a whole season of Sandra and Rob Statler-and-Waldorf'ing Tribal Council - that was hysterical! 

Heck, let's go further and instead of us watching the season, let's watch Sandra and Rob watch the season Mystery Science Theater style, snarking as they go!

AND JEBUS IT'S DAY THREE, WHAT'S WITH ALL THE BLUBBERING, PEOPLE?? You hardly know these people! Loved Rob & Sandra: "Did you have this much  trouble voting people off?" "Fuck, no." 

But first impression is that this is the best cast in a long time, diverse and with a lot of people that don't fit the usual Survivor typecasting "slots" -- I have high hopes.

Getting rid of smarmy smug poker guy in an EPIC blindside in the FIRST TRIBAL? Beautiful. 

And PLEASE no players returning in the middle of the game. Let's play Survivor for once  - when your torch is snuffed, YOU'RE OUT.

[Goodmantryin]

Unusual diversity? Not really, it has the usual mandatory number of minorities ( 2 or 3 Blacks, an Asian or 2 etc., hipster young Whites and 2 old folks. Same ole, same ole really.

Forgot, there's always a gay as well- don't know which one yet but they will reveal.

[jsm1125]

6 minutes ago, Goodmantryin said:

Unusual diversity? Not really, it has the usual mandatory number of minorities ( 2 or 3 Blacks, an Asian or 2 etc., hipster young Whites and 2 old folks. Same ole, same ole really.

Forgot, there's always a gay as well- don't know which one yet but they will reveal.

Pre-season interviews indicate that Vince is gay.

[hacman00]

1 hour ago, RedbirdNelly said:

I found this to be pretty boring but reserving judgment. Maybe it will pick up as we get to know personalities better.

I like Rob and Sandra (especially Sandra) so I'm fine seeing them but talk about boring. The lesson is how to build fire? something any person going on Survivor should already know? I would be so disappointed. It took up a lot of the episode and frankly I have no interest in watching someone learn to make fire. I don't mind Rob and Sandra commentary--they are funny and snarky. But the lesson stuff--ugh.

I think if you really pay attention the lesson was so much more than just making fire.

[Wandering Snark]

3 hours ago, Haleth said:

I can't fault Elizabeth for trying to race BR in the fire making challenge.  She's there to play, give it a shot.  BR probably would have told her to not be meek if she had declined.  I wonder what his other offer would have been had Eliz thought to negotiate.

I'd guess he would have been willing to even the playing field a bit, given her a head start at least... She could have said "I can't beat your bike" to which he'd have responded "You don't have to beat me you just have to keep up."

2 hours ago, TaraS1 said:

And while Sandra was never my favorite (I like her, she's just not an all-time favorite), I do love her snark.  Her response to Rob's question about voting people out was golden lol

Sandra was the queen of the "anyone but me" approach. As long as it wasn't her she didn't give a f.

2 hours ago, Bryce Lynch said:

Yeah "spatial awareness" seemed like an odd term. 

All I kept thinking when they were using that term was "Like, what... he hits the post when trying to navigate the drive through??" Maybe he'll hit his head on the shelter a lot? It was very odd.

Edited September 26, 2019 by Wandering Snark

[Goodmantryin]

The lesson I got out of the fire teaching thing was that it was lame. Elizabeth put on this phony act of making the BIG decision as if her life depended on it and Rob talked gibberish that even he didn't know wtf he was talking about.

[Bryce Lynch]

I couldn't believe somebody didn't know who the Hmong people are?  Hasn't anyone seen "Gran Torino".  😁    Speaking of that, I wonder if Tom will try to help Vince man up a bit, and maybe even get him to put on some pants. 

[Ms Blue Jay]

There's 4 people in the cast over 40, and several people around the mid-30s.  I still say it's diverse in terms of body types and age for sure.

Elizabeth is supposedly 26.  I would have guessed 36.  

The cast seemed kind of diverse, but only 1/4 of the cast is non-white, so yeah, it's not amazing, but for Survivor standards, it's what I hoped for.

Tom's history is pretty cool.  

Edited September 26, 2019 by Ms Blue Jay

[Gummo]

2 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Elizabeth is supposedly 26.  I would have guessed 36.  

She's the Olympic swimmer, right? She looks fine to me considering she's spent her whole life training and competing in chlorinated pools. 

[Ms Blue Jay]

I guess.... I assume Olympian athletes look better than us, not worse.... 

[Gummo]

1 minute ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I guess.... I assume Olympian athletes look better than us, not worse.... 

Hi def TV isn't always kind to humans!

[TaraS1]

I was so distracted by Ronnie's horrifying underpants that I totally must have missed Vince's.

Also, Elaine has way more confidence than I would, going around in just a sports bra.  Due to my gut, I wouldn't have the guts.

[Libby]

On Survivor Know It Alls Dom made an interesting comment regarding the mentoring. He said that he hopes as the season goes on, Rob and Sandra will give advice that helps people out of a bind.

I hope that contestants get to ask Rob and Sandra for advice regarding a specific issue that they need help with rather than just "scheduled" advice that would apply to any contestant.

[TVFan1]

Elizabeth should have told the truth about the IOTI. Others might perceive her as untrustworthy when most people will go down there and find out she lied.

[Special K]

19 minutes ago, Bryce Lynch said:

Speaking of that, I wonder if Tom will try to help Vince man up a bit, and maybe even get him to put on some pants. 

IMO all the men are wearing too-small, floppy, or otherwise unfortunate undershorts at this point.  I mean, it's only day 3!  One shudders to imagine how much worse these garments are going to get.

[Bryce Lynch]

8 hours ago, hacman00 said:

I'm glad the Asian germaphobe and the handsy guy talked. However, at the end it came off like the woman was telling the man, "Don't like me less because you can't give me a back massage."

I wish Elizabeth told everyone about Idol Island because if everyone knows we can forego any future "What is this place?  OMG! IT'S BOSTON ROB AND SANDRA!!!" scenes.

I get what you are saying about the germaphobe, but I think it was a Survivor thing, as opposed to a male-female dynamics thing. 

It is week 1 of Survivor and everyone desperately wants to avoid putting a target on their own back, and being a little more blunt with Handsy Man might have done that.  I think her "It's not you it's me" approach was a smart move for Survivor.  IRL, I wouldn't expect her to be quite as diplomatic.  

BTW, I give a lot of credit to Janet for advising her to speak up.  I really like her.  She has a lot of wisdom and strength, did well in the challenge,  and hopefully she can break through the old lady ceiling.