Ponderosa for season 41

[JudyObscure]

6 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

If you want to read into my mentioning a statistic about the race of Survivor winners something blood-curdling, chilling, disgusting, etc., I can't really stop you, but I would have to wonder how you fare when faced with the manifold manifestations of racism in the real world.

Okay, I'm sorry I overreacted. It was early and seemed like the tenth time you'd brought up race this season.  No, you're not like the evil men who ran down Ahmaud Arbery, let's just say, to me at least, it was beginning to seem like a micro-aggression against whites.  To me, "stats" are like SVNBob's Tribe Tracker or baseball's list of hits at the end of the games.  They don't just keep track of the hits the Hispanic players get or act like it's a crime if someone white gets MVP. Besides, you're not some stranger on the news, you and all the regulars here are like a big family I watch TV with (yes, I know some of you hate me just like in a real family) but still it matters more to me what you think.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, JudyObscure said:

Okay, I'm sorry I overreacted. It was early and seemed like the tenth time you'd brought up race this season.  No, you're not like the evil men who ran down Ahmaud Arbery, let's just say, to me at least, it was beginning to seem like a micro-aggression against whites.  To me, "stats" are like SVNBob's Tribe Tracker or baseball's list of hits at the end of the games.  They don't just keep track of the hits the Hispanic players get or act like it's a crime if someone white gets MVP. Besides, you're not some stranger on the news, you and all the regulars here are like a big family I watch TV with (yes, I know some of you hate me just like in a real family) but still it matters more to me what you think.

To be fair to @Chicago Redshirt, their posts involving race are often in response to others', as part of an ongoing discussion. Issues surrounding race have been very prominent in this season, even extending to Ponderosa (yay topic!), so it seems only natural that people will bring it up in this forum. And CR's posts usually seem a lot more neutral to me than a lot of the "ugh, here goes Deshawn bringing up race again, why is the show so woke now" posts.

[AncientNewbie]

Danny's soothing voice could narrate every additional Ponderosa for me and I'd be fine. 

[Lamima]

Ricard's. Someone thinks very highly of himself. And, dude should be the one to initiate a mending of fences with Shan since he voted her out.

 

 

Edited December 16, 2021 by Lamima

[Hera]

16 minutes ago, Lamima said:

Ricard's

Shan is really unbelievable. Once again, I feel very sorry for the other people who have to be in Ponderosa with her.

I agreed with most of Ricard's takes on past players—I wouldn't go so far as to say that Michele Fitzgerald is one of my favorite winners and I wouldn't rate Ricard above Jeremy Collins (but that was clearly done half tongue-in-cheek), but other than that, I think my picks would have been all the same as his.

[Lamima]

26 minutes ago, Hera said:

Shan is really unbelievable. Once again, I feel very sorry for the other people who have to be in Ponderosa with her.

I agreed with most of Ricard's takes on past players—I wouldn't go so far as to say that Michele Fitzgerald is one of my favorite winners and I wouldn't rate Ricard above Jeremy Collins (but that was clearly done half tongue-in-cheek), but other than that, I think my picks would have been all the same as his.

He was missing quite a few....Parvati, John Cochran, Yul....

I would put Rob up there. He is one of my faves. And I wouldn't have put Michele up there at all. Ricard was good. I give him that. And I'd like to see him back. But he isn't one of the greats. Yet. I'd put him in the category the likes of Aubry. Really good gamers who ALMOST won but didn't. 

[Straycat80]

Eh, Ricard, don’t worry about Shan being cold to you, you’ll probably never see her again. 

[JudyObscure]

1 hour ago, Hera said:

Shan is really unbelievable.

It really is sad that the Christian minister is the most unforgiving person out there.

Yes, Ricard has an inflated ego, but according to their bios they don't get on the show without that. At least when Ricard says he was voted out because he was a huge threat it's easier to take than when Sydney says it.  I'll gladly make a handsomest of all time board and put him at the top.

[Hera]

3 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

Yes, Ricard has an inflated ego, but according to their bios they don't get on the show without that.

Exactly. Why bother going on Survivor if you don't believe you can win it? Which is part of what makes Shan's reaction to being voted out so off-putting. Everyone was there to win and everyone thought they could. Shan seems to have absolutely no perspective on this.

I also think she's pissed at Ricard specifically because she told him people were gunning for him "as a courtesy to her number one", but he didn't return the favor when the vote shifted to her (because he was the one doing the shifting). Then he teamed up with two people she thought she was allied with and flipped the game on the alliance she helped build. Basically, she underestimated him and it bit her in the ass, but instead of saying, "I got outplayed. Good game, Ricard," she's sulking.

I generally don't mind players needing some time to get over their losses, and I appreciate the timeline of this season is truncated, but Shan should really be over it by now. No one wronged her. She got voted out fair and square, just like fourteen other people this season.

[kassandra8286]

That scene with Ricard having breakfast before anyone else was up and then Shan comes out, walks right by him, refuses to look at him or say good morning, and silently gets her food was so uncomfortable.  I may have experienced a bit of PTSD while watching it, lol. It's sad because Ricard was so looking forward to seeing her.

Ricard may have an ego but I think he'd be fun to hang with. Loved Survivor Rushmore.

[ProfCrash]

OK, so Ricard…

Just wow

First, you don’t get to decide that you are the best or one of the best, other people do that. I mean, I think you played a good game but the hubris is just misplaced and annoying.

Second, Shan, get over yourself. It is one thing to be upset and another thing to play the ignore game. You had a quiet time that you could sit down and talk to Ricard but instead you decided to eat your breakfast in the rain. Yikes. Bitter, bitter, bitter. And yes, Ricard is the one who stabbed her in the back but I don’t think that Shan was approachable.

I am starting to understand why Shan was so down on Ponderosa in the final interview. I get the very real impression that Evvie, Tiffany, and Liana were off having a good time and the others just isolated themselves and didn’t want to hang out. Ricard was the fourth person to have a solo Ponderosa video. What the hell? 

The way the Jury acted in the final episode would make you think that they were not in really bad places but watching their Ponderosa videos is the exact opposite. Just ouch.  

[scorp01]

Wow, Shan.  She really is THAT butthurt.  Shan really needs to get out of the bitter barn and play in the hay.

I could be wrong, but in most other seasons even if a person is angry about getting voted out, Ponderosa videos will show them eventually coming to terms with it and generally getting along with the others.  I guess Shan just never got to that point, ever, because in every Ponderosa video she comes across as a petty b*tch who can't separate the game from real life.  I would have thought she'd be welcoming to Ricard, but damn she was cold.

 

[ProfCrash]

I don’t think Shan was the only one not happy to be at Ponderosa. Normally you see more clips of the Jury doing stuff together but the last one we saw hanging with the others in her Ponderosa video was Liana. 

The Ponderosa videos did not feel happy this year.

[SVNBob]

18 hours ago, JudyObscure said:

It really is sad that the Christian minister is the most unforgiving person out there.

Sad, but not totally unsurprising or unexpected.

[fishcakes]

That makes me sad for Ricard. On the way he said he was looking forward to seeing Shan, and when he first got there, it seemed okay, she hugged him and was smiling, but the next morning -- yikes. That was bad. He's sitting there feeling sad and waiting for someone to wake up, and then she won't even look at him. What the hell. Shan is hardly the first player who can't get over losing (somewhere right now Andrew Savage is sticking pins in a Lil doll, Russell is crank calling Natalie White, and Coach is sobbing), but I don't understand that attitude. If you have a 1 in 18 chance at a win, you're probably going to lose. It's not the worst thing in the world. Shan looks especially bad compared to Evvie coming out to greet Liana with a huge hug and immediately saying, "you and I are fine." Everyone at Ponderosa is in the same boat; they're all disappointed about losing. Shan needs to realize there was nothing special about her game and nothing special about her loss.

[ProfCrash]

I have this vision of the Yellow tribe hanging at Ponderosa having a good time and everyone else pouting...

[LanceM]

And finally we have Heather's Ponderosa in which she shows more personality in 5 minutes here than she did in the entire season (not that this her fault damn editors)

 

 

Edited December 18, 2021 by LanceM

[peachmangosteen]

I swear, the editors just hate women lol.

[ProfCrash]

LOL Heather’s Ponderosa was fun. I loved that Ricard approached her and seeing the relationship that they had. It was sweet of him and then he acted out the journaling while she was doing everything that you could do with Ponderosa in one day. 

But that group of people was just not fun. Ricard, Evvie, and Tiffany seemed to be the only ones who got out of their seats to greet her. The rest of them were just sitting there and didn’t say much of anything. Just Damn. 

This case seems to be kind of stuck on themselves and have these massive sticks up their asses. I guess I expected more of Danny and Naseer, not necessarily Shan or Liana.

[treeofdreams]

That was hilarious! - those shots of her running back and forth behind an oblivious Ricard had me laughing out loud - which I rarely do.

If no one wanted to play with her, she just made her own fun.  Kudos!!

[ProfCrash]

43 minutes ago, treeofdreams said:

That was hilarious! - those shots of her running back and forth behind an oblivious Ricard had me laughing out loud - which I rarely do.

If no one wanted to play with her, she just made her own fun.  Kudos!!

I am 99% certain Ricard was playing along. 

[treeofdreams]

1 minute ago, ProfCrash said:

I am 99% certain Ricard was playing along. 

Yes, I thought he probably was.  But I still found it funny!

[seacliffsal]

Wow, I like Heather so much more after seeing her video.  It's a shame they never showed her fun side during the season (well, I guess since she never found an advantage or idol they didn't see the need to show her at all...).

[KaveDweller]

4 hours ago, treeofdreams said:

That was hilarious! - those shots of her running back and forth behind an oblivious Ricard had me laughing out loud - which I rarely do.

If no one wanted to play with her, she just made her own fun.  Kudos!!

Yes, those shots of her running behind Ricard were hilarious. Too bad they never showed her personality on the show. I guess it didn't fit the narrative they wanted to tell.

[gail56]

We got robbed of seeing fun Heather!!

[Jobiska]

I don't read too much into the "alone" sections--I think it's production driven, where they want the person to have their little special thing and they don't want it to be anything that's been done before.  Danny trying rugby was a natural, but I don't think it means he's not hanging out with others.  They don't realize that a lot of us viewers crave more of the casual interactions (although I like the "interest" segments and I would instead get rid of the "walk about slowly, stare at the ocean while your own voiceover muses about how transformed you are, make sure to sit where the breeze gently blows your hair" segments).  

Also, they used to show "field trips" to markets etc., and the pandemic has put the kibosh on those, as well as, I would guess, staying in Fiji, where spoiler-people now know to look for glimpses of contestants!  

I also don't read too much into Ricard's pomposity--I think his sense of humor is like Tyson's (whom he ranked high on the Rushmore for a while!)  I mean, I am sure he thought he was good, because he was good, but he ended that segment with something about himself coming back and winning five times, and I'm sure he doesn't believe that.  I always liked Tyson's absurdist/sarcastic/etc. sense of humor and I know it's not everyone's cup of tea.  So I like Ricard, especially apart from Shan.

With regard to Ricard approaching Shan, yes, on the surface it maybe should have been him to hold out the (weird floppy tattoo of an) olive branch, but she made it quite clear that she wasn't ready, via her childish silent treatment, and that's what I think Ricard meant when he said it was up to her to make the first move when she was ready.  And I think it shows just how much better of an emotional read he has on Shan than Shan has on anyone (and yes, DeShawn could play emotionally, but Shan making a huge deal of how she had to cater to his emotions--pshaw! or should I say dshaw!).  

If it hadn't been for the pandemic, I would think they could have rounded up two teams of Fijians to play rugby with Danny in a split second!  (Side note:   I actually teared up when Fiji won their first Olympic gold medal in rugby sevens in 2016--I feel a connection to Fiji since it 's one of the places my dad worked in the 1980s).  

I'll only say two words with regard to taking note of the ethnic/racial/gender/etc. characteristics of winners:  Representation matters.

Edited December 22, 2021 by Jobiska

[kassandra8286]

Wow, very well said, @Jobiska. I was going to post something similar in response to posters thinking the cast was not having fun in Ponderosa or not hanging together, etc. These Ponderosa videos seem to be a deliberate editing choice as you indicated, a showcase to spotlight one or two features of that player they wanted to highlight. The videos are only a 5-minute heavily-edited glimpse of the days they spent there. This cast in particular is one of the least bitter (Shan excepted) of many we've seen in the past. Social media shows that they've been visiting each other, partying together, and supporting each other's SM posts. I'm sure they hung out together plenty during Ponderosa - if for no other reason than what the heck else was there to do?

I'm glad someone else saw Ricard's Mt Rushmore showcase as sarcastic. I mean, he put himself at the top, that wasn't meant to be serious, lol. I also wouldn't be surprised if he's purposely worked on acquiring self-confidence and self-appreciation in response to growing up different, not to mention currently living an unconventional life that many folks would think "strange" (just read some of the comments here in the first episode, you can only imagine what the Facebook fans were saying), but that could just be my pro-Ricard bias showing, lol.

[ProfCrash]

I am not so sure. They showed Tiffany, Liana, and Evvie hanging out and talking. they showed Ricard with Heather and then playing along with Heather's Ponderosa in one day thing. I strongly suspect that those moments were there because those people were interacting and it made sense. 

Danny's made sense but there was not much to show him hanging out with anyone else. Ricard's showed him wanting to hang out with Shan and her walking away. I can see Shan ignoring Danny and Ricard because she was upset that they betrayed her. Shan seemed hostile to Liana when Liana arrived and Liana was spending time with Tiffany and Evvie.

Danny, Nasser, and Ricard would not have had a lot of time to connect with Tiffany and Evvie in the game. I don't get the feeling that Nasser was close to anyone on his original tribe. I think Danny is a chill guy but I am not certain he was someone who would go out of his way to hang out just to hang out. He did not seem to be the social butterfly around camp. 

I can see the yellow folks chilling with each other and being welcome to other people joining them but being fine if the others didn't. I can see Shan actively avoiding everyone else and Danny, Nasser being fine on their own. Not sure about Ricard.