S40.E11: This Is Extortion

[blackwing]

2 hours ago, skybolt said:

Thanks for doing that. I guess the peanut butter jar does cost 4 fire tokens now. If that's the case, then I assume the price for an advantage or immunity idol to return wen t up as well. Can you imagine if the price for an immunity idol went up to 6 fire tokens and Natalie bought a second one? Coming back with 2 idols after being voted out first would ruin the game for me.

It wouldn't ruin it for me, but then again, I like Natalie.  I feel like last time around, there were hordes of complaints that Chris Underwood was only in the game for 8 days, spent most of his time sitting on the Edge with nothing to do and not playing the game, then came back and won it because he had made friends with most of the Edgers and had inside information about others still in the game.

I feel like this season's version of the Edge was brought about partly 1) in response to everyone who complained about Chris Underwood coming back late in the game and winning even though he really didn't do anything for most of the game and 2) they didn't want the former winners who were early boots to be completely absent from the game.  Imagine all the people who tune in for Rob Mariano who would have turned off the show had he been gone for good.

So this time, they created a way for the Edge people to remain relevant in the game.  The clues for fire tokens and advantages, I think it's genius.  This enables them to still strategize and still form alliances.  We saw how Parvati was going to buy peanut butter and only share with some.  We saw how Natalie and Parv teamed up to find that last advantage.  And especially with them trying to figure out who was going to cause the most disruption in the game while at the same time getting them the fire tokens they needed.

I think that if getting those tokens helps Natalie get back in the game and she comes back with two idols, then good for her.  I'd say she hustled and did well.  Unlike say, someone like Sandra who gave up, or Adam, who probably snot cries about how sorry he is for himself.

[skybolt]

3 minutes ago, blackwing said:

It wouldn't ruin it for me, but then again, I like Natalie.  I feel like last time around, there were hordes of complaints that Chris Underwood was only in the game for 8 days, spent most of his time sitting on the Edge with nothing to do and not playing the game, then came back and won it because he had made friends with most of the Edgers and had inside information about others still in the game.

I feel like this season's version of the Edge was brought about partly 1) in response to everyone who complained about Chris Underwood coming back late in the game and winning even though he really didn't do anything for most of the game and 2) they didn't want the former winners who were early boots to be completely absent from the game.  Imagine all the people who tune in for Rob Mariano who would have turned off the show had he been gone for good.

So this time, they created a way for the Edge people to remain relevant in the game.  The clues for fire tokens and advantages, I think it's genius.  This enables them to still strategize and still form alliances.  We saw how Parvati was going to buy peanut butter and only share with some.  We saw how Natalie and Parv teamed up to find that last advantage.  And especially with them trying to figure out who was going to cause the most disruption in the game while at the same time getting them the fire tokens they needed.

I think that if getting those tokens helps Natalie get back in the game and she comes back with two idols, then good for her.  I'd say she hustled and did well.  Unlike say, someone like Sandra who gave up, or Adam, who probably snot cries about how sorry he is for himself.

To some extent I agree with your comments, but without the threat of being voted out again, the EoE experience just doesn't feel the same as playing the real game. In all honesty, I would've rather had a separate game being played on EoE with the winner getting $200K or something. Maybe that version would only be shown online, with CBS giving us updates to keep fans of Rob and Parvati happy.

I love Natalie, but she basically found her first clue by just going up to the hill by herself. The second one came by luck when her and Amber couldn't figure out the water well clue. She did a good job figuring out the number lock, and then later did the log challenge, which everyone else also completed. Fast-forward 20 days later, she now gets 6 tokens for finding the bottle with the clue and Parvati helping her strategize to get the tokens from Tony. For her to potentially come back with 2 idols to propel her to final 4 is really unearned IMO. All she would need to do is win 1 challenge and then have the rest of the vote outs give her $2M based on the relationships she built on Edge. In the meantime, someone like Tony is getting extorted for 6 fire tokens while he's in jeopardy of being voted out in the real game.

[Virulent]

The other thing about Edge is that the person who wins the reentry challenge is likely to be very good at challenges. You have to beat 13 other competitors. If Natalie comes back she probably might not even need the idol. She can just win out. 

[watchingtvaddict]

10 hours ago, skybolt said:

To some extent I agree with your comments, but without the threat of being voted out again, the EoE experience just doesn't feel the same as playing the real game. In all honesty, I would've rather had a separate game being played on EoE with the winner getting $200K or something. Maybe that version would only be shown online, with CBS giving us updates to keep fans of Rob and Parvati happy.

I love Natalie, but she basically found her first clue by just going up to the hill by herself. The second one came by luck when her and Amber couldn't figure out the water well clue. She did a good job figuring out the number lock, and then later did the log challenge, which everyone else also completed. Fast-forward 20 days later, she now gets 6 tokens for finding the bottle with the clue and Parvati helping her strategize to get the tokens from Tony. For her to potentially come back with 2 idols to propel her to final 4 is really unearned IMO. All she would need to do is win 1 challenge and then have the rest of the vote outs give her $2M based on the relationships she built on Edge. In the meantime, someone like Tony is getting extorted for 6 fire tokens while he's in jeopardy of being voted out in the real game.

I’m willing to bet though, that anyone who re-enters the competition has a better chance to win the 2 million if they’re in the finals. . . Natalie, Tyson, Rob... TPTB also like to engineer situations where the returning player can’t get voted out immediately and the advantages they win at EoE appear to be created to really push an EoE into the final 3. 
I’m not a fan of EoE and I agree they should have created a side competition because this two tiered system of Survivor doesn’t work for me. 
 

[AntFTW]

I' wondering why people's spidey senses didn't go off when they got back from the previous episode's tribal and Tony says to Jeremy "I thought we had a plan."

As far as we saw, nobody asked or wondered "what plan would that be?"... other than Kim.

Edited April 29, 2020 by AntFTW