S46.E01: This Is Where the Legends Are Made

[Kenzie]

2 hours ago, blackwing said:

There could have been other ways to get it done.  Was there a restriction against placing one bucket inside the other? 

This actually would have been a very clever idea. The solid parts of the inside bucket blocking the holes in the outside bucket. Being able to carrying one, now full bucket would mean each player could rest between buckets. 

Edited March 4 by Kenzie

[Lady Calypso]

50 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I don't recall any tribes ever failing the muscle task.  There's definitely been times when both tribes picked the brain task.

It's interesting because when they first started doing Sweat vs Savvy, none of the tribes actually failed. It's only, I believe, 45 where we've started to see tribes fail and that's due to the changes in how the tasks work. 45 had the tribes fail the challenges for the first time because they changed things up. In 45, both tribes had to do BOTH tasks in a specific amount of time. Both tribes were so tired from Sweat that they had no time left to even attempt to finish Savvy, if I remember correctly.

They seem to have increased the difficulty on Sweat. Obviously, it's possible to complete it, but with the holes in the bucket, I think it made it very, very difficult and the closest to impossible that you could have gotten it, especially filling up both large urns. Even just one hole might have made it a bit easier, but multiple holes and 4 hours and two extremely large urns meant Q and Jelinsky had to basically not stop at all in order to finish. We saw that, at the 1 hour 15 mark, they weren't even a quarter of the way done (or maybe they had just hit that). Knowing that they'd grow more and more tired, AND having holes in their buckets, I do think that they would have depleted all of their energy by the time they finished, even if they had kept going. 

I think it would have been wiser to keep going a little bit longer but the ultimate decision to quit was the correct one. They'd need to go 4 straight hours with very few breaks to complete the task, and it was clear at least Jelinsky knew that was never going to happen.

On the topic of Savvy, I am surprised because the challenge didn't seem too hard, no harder than Tiffany's visual puzzle, yet Ben and Charlie weren't able to figure it out. But depending on how much time they had, they just didn't see the word scramble within the word puzzle.

[Rodney]

2 hours ago, blackwing said:

As far as Soda and Q, I rhink perhaps maybe Soda's parents could be originally from another country, her name is something longer and she has abbreviated it to something easier to say?  I assume that Q has an actual first name like Quentin or Quincy and he prefers to be called Q.  I probably would too.

Soda's name is a nickname.  Her real name is Sodasia.  Q is also a nickname, this one for Quintavius.

[SG429]

3 hours ago, blackwing said:

I don't understand why Q talked first at Tribal and said that "we" quit the challenge.  It was Jelinsky's idea, during the challenge, Q expressed skepticism and said he didn't want to quit, then we see Jelinsky breaking the hourglass.  Somehow when they get to tribal, Q seemed to willingly share responsibility?  Hell no, I would have described Jelinsky impulsively breaking the hourglass.

I'd be surprised if there aren't a whole lot of unaired scenes of Q talking about it  back at camp. I think most of the tribe knew what went down. Who could resist telling a good hourglass story?

[SummerDreams]

2 hours ago, Kenzie said:

This actually would have been a very clever idea. The solid parts of the inside bucket blocking the holes in the outside bucket. Being able to carrying one, now full bucket would mean each player could rest between buckets. 

But the two buckets had the same size, one can't go inside the other.

I think the only solution to this challenge was to try and use leaves or clothes to cover some of the holes. Did they consider it? I guess Jelinsky would have replied to this question in his exit interviews by now. Maybe they never considered it or they knew it was not allowed from the beginning. Maybe the trick was to hug the bucket so you lose less water, making it harder to run.

[GenerationX]

8 hours ago, blackwing said:

I don't understand why Q talked first at Tribal and said that "we" quit the challenge.  It was Jelinsky's idea, during the challenge, Q expressed skepticism and said he didn't want to quit, then we see Jelinsky breaking the hourglass.  Somehow when they get to tribal, Q seemed to willingly share responsibility?  Hell no, I would have described Jelinsky impulsively breaking the hourglass.

My theory on this is that Q made it sound like a mutual decision at TC to not raise any flags for Jelinsky that he was on the way out.

7 hours ago, blackwing said:

The brain task has never been this hard but I guess I do a lot of word searches and GAMES Magazine has taught me that there is frequently a hidden phrase formed by the leftover letters.

Same.  I've been a GAMES subscriber for 40+ years.

[jsm1125]

8 hours ago, blackwing said:

I was annoyed at Jess and was convinced she was going home.  Why can't Survivor cast actual competent Asian females?  Sometimes we get good ones like Erica who won a few seasons ago.  But too often, we get these cannon fodder early boots.  Why?  Why would the casting department cast someone who can't stop talking about her ADHD and openly admits at tribal that she is so tired she can't speak and think?  It seems for sure she is going to be the next boot from that tribe.

Have we even had that many incompetent Asians on the show before? We’ve had a lot of them be early boots, but I can’t think of many of them that did much wrong. Jenny from 42 had 2 allies who lost their votes when she went home. Helen from 44 didn’t seem to do anything that caused her boot. 

[Rodney]

2 hours ago, jsm1125 said:

Have we even had that many incompetent Asians on the show before? We’ve had a lot of them be early boots, but I can’t think of many of them that did much wrong. Jenny from 42 had 2 allies who lost their votes when she went home. Helen from 44 didn’t seem to do anything that caused her boot. 

Jeanine from 43 was pretty bad, though to be fair to her, a lot of her game was dragged down by the albatross that was Elie.  Matt from 44 wasn't great, either.  And going way back to Amazon, Daniel Lue, the first Asian male to be on the show, was a pretty damn bad player, as well, hence his early boot.

[Chalby]

On 3/1/2024 at 7:35 AM, SummerDreams said:

Regarding Jelinsky quitting the sweat challenge, I don't find it that horrible. To quit a challenge you are really sure you will fail is smart in my eyes. He said that the big barrels seemed they had the same water as half an hour ago and there was no chance to finish in time. I think it was smart to admit defeat and not exhaust themselves anymore. And I truly think that Jelinsky should have sold this better to his tribe, he should have said that he made the choice to not finish the challenge so they are strong for the challenge.

 

Do you think production gave them a task that is futile? I really thought it could be done if they put forth consistent effort (and grabbed leaves to plug the holes)

[PhoneCop]

5 hours ago, jsm1125 said:

Have we even had that many incompetent Asians on the show before? We’ve had a lot of them be early boots, but I can’t think of many of them that did much wrong. Jenny from 42 had 2 allies who lost their votes when she went home. Helen from 44 didn’t seem to do anything that caused her boot. 

Woo comes to mind...

IDK—from casually scanning this list, I feel like we've seen the full spectrum of gameplay, same as any other group. (And somehow I'm still bitter about Michelle from OG Fiji getting totally screwed by a tribal swap.)

[Nashville]

9 hours ago, Chalby said:

Do you think production gave them a task that is futile? I really thought it could be done if they put forth consistent effort (and grabbed leaves to plug the holes)

Can’t remember if from a published interview or maybe a post-vote discussion at one of the FTCs, but I seem to remember Peachy saying something a while back to the effect each challenge was specifically designed and tested out beforehand to ensure there was at least one way it could be completed within the specified time constraints while still abiding by the rules as laid out.

IIRC though, Jiffy also allowed successful completion may have been dependent upon a trick or gimmick to the challenge which contestants had to figure out on-the-fly - so while futility might not have been 100% assured, their odds of success may have been pretty damn low.

[blackwing]

18 hours ago, jsm1125 said:

Have we even had that many incompetent Asians on the show before? We’ve had a lot of them be early boots, but I can’t think of many of them that did much wrong. Jenny from 42 had 2 allies who lost their votes when she went home. Helen from 44 didn’t seem to do anything that caused her boot. 

I think one of the issues is that the show producers typecast the Asian female contestant.  Very rarely is the Asian female on this show thought of as a physical threat or a challenge beast.  They're almost always small and thin and physically weak, but smart.  Every season I'm always thinking "is there an Asian female this season?  I bet she gets put into the "puzzle solver" role.  And sure enough, she does.  This season we have Jess, who said herself that she is the smallest person there.  And of course she did both puzzles.

When you cast year after year of physically weak Asian women, then it's no surprise that the Asian female is always at risk to be the early boot.  It's safe.  "Oh we lost the challenge.  Gotta keep the tribe strong.  Let's boot out the weak Asian woman.  She's a liability."  I think back to that season where we somehow got three Asian women on the same season!  But they were three of the first four boots!  The third one was actually proud of being the "last Asian standing", and then she went home as the fourth boot.

The only example of a physically strong Asian female contestant in recent seasons that I can think of is the woman Bi  from the David vs. Goliath Nick Wilson season.  She was physically strong, unfortunately, she had to quit because she got injured.

 

[Rodney]

6 minutes ago, blackwing said:

I think back to that season where we somehow got three Asian women on the same season!  But they were three of the first four boots!  The third one was actually proud of being the "last Asian standing", and then she went home as the fourth boot.

Millennials vs. Generation-X.  Though in fairness, Rachel and Lucy did everything possible to get booted.  Mari was the only whom I felt got a bit screwed over.

[iMonrey]

On 3/4/2024 at 1:32 PM, Rodney said:

Soda's name is a nickname.  Her real name is Sodasia.

That's . . . better?

[tkc]

With all the applications they must have received, could casting not have found a way to get a Jean-Luc onto the same tribe as Q?

I guess I will just have to content myself by imagining John de Lancie’s voice and delivery every time Q speaks…

[Rodney]

On 2/29/2024 at 1:17 AM, Lantern7 said:

One of the tribes is named Nami. I wonder if there are fans of One Piece on the Dream Team.

Are you kidding me?!  Second favorite after Usopp!  "And an L-A-D-Y, Nami's not shy!"  She was the first thing that came to mind when I heard the tribe name!