S46.E05: "Tiki Man"

[Rodney]

From EW.com:

A castaway’s memory must serve them well on a journey for an advantage.  Then, tensions run high as the hunt for an Immunity Idol sends one tribe on a wild goose chase.

Normal chat thread for episode five.

[LadyChatts]

Finally an episode worth talking about!

It was refreshing seeing another tribe have to go to TC, largely so we could see the dynamics at play and actually get to see other personalities.  I ended up really loving Maria after this episode, I think she's going to be a bigger threat in this game than I thought.  I do wish she had saved her extra vote for a better opportunity, especially since she used both on Jem.  As for Jem, she seriously overplayed her hand in so many ways.  I knew all the bragging about her being such a good liar and having the girl's alliance plus Charlie was going to come back to bite her.  And she did something practically unheard of on here, she found the HII and managed to get it without anyone knowing (well, Tim suspected her but he didn't know for sure).  And he might not have suspected anything if not for the B.A. she planted.

I do question if Maria made the right choice, however, because she seemed to have reservations in working with Charlie due to him being close to Ben.

The slo-mo shot at the challenge before Yanu hit their last target was pretty impressive.  Normally those things are so corny but I thought it was a nice touch, even though it pretty much gave away they were going to hit the target and win.  I was happy for them to get a much earned victory.  I feel like they earned just for having to put up with Bhanu all that time.  

 

Edited March 28 by LadyChatts

[Rodney]

Ugh.  As much as hubris really did hit Jem, I'm only disappointed that she left due to Tim getting his way, going all the way back to the premiere.

[awaken]

Wait, why did Maria use her 2 votes to get out Jem? I thought she was leaning towards Ben?  Did Charlie want to keep Ben so she went with his plan to keep the peace?  Hopefully we’ll find out more next week. 

[LadyChatts]

4 minutes ago, awaken said:

Wait, why did Maria use her 2 votes to get out Jem? I thought she was leaning towards Ben?  Did Charlie want to keep Ben so she went with his plan to keep the peace?  Hopefully we’ll find out more next week. 

Maria using her second vote on Ben might have made sense if she wanted to split the vote in case Jem played an idol.  I don't get why she wasted it, and I noticed in the closing credits she used different handwriting and different ways of saying Jem's name (one was Jem and the other I think was Jemilia).  So maybe she knew Ben didn't have a vote and was trying to protect him?  Or just plant deception.  But I don't get it.  She shot up for me tonight, but this is one move that I think was a bad idea.

I also wonder, if the target had just been Tim, if Charlie might have been more apt to go along with that plan versus voting out his ally.  

[AntFTW]

I don't think I've ever laughed so hard while watching Survivor than watching Q shoot the sandbag at the final target in slow-mo. The producers are so dramatic.

Edited March 28 by AntFTW

[North of Eden]

Well I see the live chat thread didn't get its torch snuffed. Not sure why the single episode thread that worked for years isn't good enough anymore.

Onto the game. Karma for the   hoax with the Beware Clure replanting.... maybe but no matter what going home with an idol in your pocket is always an ignominious end to your SURVIVOR experience. Too bad too as just to night I noticed she was a cute little package.

Kudos for the machete measuring task...that was inventive and original, and I liked it.

Speaking of noticing for the first time. With all the focus on Bhanu I would have sworn Tim had never been on the show before.

Hunter seems to get a lot of love but there is just something off putting about him I can't lay a finger on. As for the hourglass comp... I'm not sure anyone outside of Rob Cesternino could have won that.

Why is Jeff pretending he has no idea what they were talking about with the idol clue snipe hunt? I'm sure he knows EVERYTHING that is going down at camp.

No clear person to root for at this point, certainly not an Emily who had such a great arc last season.

Lastly its been two seasons now but I still get a kick out of Jeff appearing in the opening credits. It's LOL that it finally dawned on someone after two decades that maybe he should be in it.

[SoMuchTV]

8 minutes ago, North of Eden said:

Well I see the live chat thread didn't get its torch snuffed. Not sure why the single episode thread that worked for years isn't good enough anymore.

For the last several seasons, we’ve had a live chat thread (that got locked when the episode ended) and an episode thread (that got unlocked when the episode ended). Now that we no longer have dedicated  mods to start/lock/unlock threads, posters have been stepping in to start threads along that model.  Maybe now it’s appropriate to go back to a single episode thread that we can post to during and after the episode? I think we the posters have the power to decide that at this point. 

[LadyChatts]

8 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

For the last several seasons, we’ve had a live chat thread (that got locked when the episode ended) and an episode thread (that got unlocked when the episode ended). Now that we no longer have dedicated  mods to start/lock/unlock threads, posters have been stepping in to start threads along that model.  Maybe now it’s appropriate to go back to a single episode thread that we can post to during and after the episode? I think we the posters have the power to decide that at this point. 

I posted this question last week and had a mixed response of people wanting both threads or people wanting just one.  Someone else started them this week, but I don't have a problem with two.  I like the live chat thread to be able to chat in real time, but I know not everyone likes it.  I'd be fine if there was one thread that doubled as the live chat and post discussion thread if that's what people want.    

Edited March 28 by LadyChatts

[SoMuchTV]

1 minute ago, LadyChatts said:

I posted this question last week and had a mixed response of people wanting both threads or people wanting just one.  Someone else started them this week, but I don't have a problem with two.  I like the live chat thread to be able to chat in real time, but I know not everyone likes it.  

Oh I missed that. Probably because I follow along in the live thread (even if I’m watching after the fact) and only skim through the regular episode thread. 

But, I don’t see why we couldn’t have a single episode thread, where people could post live and also after the fact. 

[choclatechip45]

Great episode. It was so nice without Bhanu!

[mertensia]

"It was funny watching them dig for a non-existent clue for three days!"  Yeah, no.

Did she get no sense she was in danger?

[Cotypubby]

“At least I made them dig for three days, so serves them right for voting me off.”

uhhhhh, that’s not how that works. It’s “serves you right” for making them dig. I don’t think she was as great a liar as she thought. Every time someone would mention the idol she’d start smiling and looking like she was trying to stop laughing. Totally looked like she knew something and was pretending she didn’t.

I thought Ben was pretty clever at Tribal, “you want to make sure the people you choose will stick with you after the merge. Btw I’m getting a Siga tattoo!”

Edited March 28 by Cotypubby

[North of Eden]

30 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

For the last several seasons, we’ve had a live chat thread (that got locked when the episode ended) and an episode thread (that got unlocked when the episode ended). Now that we no longer have dedicated  mods to start/lock/unlock threads, posters have been stepping in to start threads along that model.  Maybe now it’s appropriate to go back to a single episode thread that we can post to during and after the episode? I think we the posters have the power to decide that at this point. 

Yes good idea.Great compromise.

[TVFan1]

Anyone could tell that Jem was overplaying her hand. The way she was acting and talking and bragging about being a great liar and all gave it away that Maria and Charlie were going to flip from Ben to Jem. 

Thankfully, Yanu won an immunity challenge. Was actually happy for them for actually winning something, especially something as important as immunity, food, and finally, their flint.

[Lantern7]

Yanu wins immunity, and our nightmare finally ends. If they had lost, it would've been twenty minutes of Probst laughing and jacking it at their misfortunes. Someone on the live chat thread wondered why they couldn't bring their lit torches back to camp. I figure because Probst gets off on the misery of others, and he doesn't have to be there when Bhanu runs out of moves and pleads to stay in the game. For Probst, that's sprinkles on the banana split.

Yanu was living on one coconut per person per day because they didn't have the flint? That's sick. There should be a way to rub salt in a tribe's loss without feeling like someone should be calling Amnesty International.

I laughed at the slow motion shot on the sandbag hitting the target. You think they would've inserted the theme to Chariots of Fire while they were at it.

Jem, Jem, Jem. It's always painful to see someone go out with an idol. I guess her radar was dulled by Siga's constant winning. Also, Ben did seem to be a logical target for the tribe to pile upon. But they went after her instead, and all the drama/comedy of them digging for a non-existent advantage has been rendered moot.

Looks like Hunter isn't perfect after all. He can probably crack a challenge with no problem, but the order of seasons kicked his ass. I guess he was expecting a logic puzzle. He did come through for Nami at the challenge, so he wasn't prepared to lose in order to get the advantage . . . but if things go wrong in the future, Hunter might not be able to vote in back-to-back Tribal Councils. I bet he wouldn't see that coming.

Thinking about it . . . maybe Bhanu could have succeeded while Hunter failed. Eh, never mind.

2 hours ago, Cotypubby said:

I thought Ben was pretty clever at Tribal, “you want to make sure the people you choose will stick with you after the merge. Btw I’m getting a Siga tattoo!”

The funny thing is that he probably would have gotten the tattoo if he was first out this season.

Edited March 28 by Lantern7

[dancingdreamer]

I was so happy  for Yanu. They were so spent, nothing to eat  for 11 days, no fire. Yes, they deserved  to win immunity. I was yelling for Q to make his target and I liked the slo-mo.

Jem, she did so well getting the immunity  idol, maybe this time, it would  of been good to tell Maria she had it. I usually  want them to tell no one.

Good episode. 

[Sandiscot]

I'm also happy that Yanu finally got a flint. Did they ever try, during those 11 flintless days, to start a fire without a flint?

[Duke Silver]

It sure feels like Maria is a good position going to the merge: she seems to have Charlie on side (who is tight with Ben); Tim thinks she is his #1 based on his manly man convo w/ the other alpha males during the journey, thus, maybe a tie-in w/ Q+Tiff and Hunter+Tevin.   I'm glad I actually like her....

I still don't understand what Jem thought she was gaining with the beware advantage wild goose chase.  Oh well, doesn't matter as she goes home with an idol in her pocket.

[Fake Jan Brady]

Kudos to Yanu for listing the hardships they had endured and being classy enough not to mention Bhanu! 

Loved how the other tribes were kind of happy for them.

[Chicago Redshirt]

1 hour ago, SoMuchTV said:

Oh I missed that. Probably because I follow along in the live thread (even if I’m watching after the fact) and only skim through the regular episode thread. 

But, I don’t see why we couldn’t have a single episode thread, where people could post live and also after the fact. 

Some people might find it annoying to have to wade through all the live thread insta-reactions to get to the more informed commentary.

People speculating "Is ________ going home?" or not catching something happening live when rewinding or hindsight might make it clearer isn't everyone's cup of tea.

(FWIW, I'm not one of those people and often read the live thread even though I'm not typically able to participate in it).

Anyway, for those who might want one thread, it's not a major inconvenience to start reading the live one and then jump over to the regular one. For those who want separate threads, it wouldn't be quite so easy to figure out where the live comments end and the post-show comments begin.

27 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

Jem, Jem, Jem. It's always painful to see someone go out with an idol.

My mileage varies. Nothing I love more than someone going out with a pocket idol, particularly when they are someone who in their own mind are the bestest Survivor player evah, as Jem seemed to think she was.

I will take a moment from the shallow end of the pool to regret the loss of serious eye candy.

I am interested to see if the Island journey can result in a cross-tribe alliance. It feels like people have not really tried to mix things up beyond the original tribal lines for quite some time, but I may be wrong about that.

[Chicago Redshirt]

4 hours ago, Rodney said:

Ugh.  As much as hubris really did hit Jem, I'm only disappointed that she left due to Tim getting his way, going all the way back to the premiere.

It's interesting...Is Tim a sexist because he suspected that there might be a girl's alliance forming, or was he right to suspect it? There clearly had been talk that we were shown about both the women on that tribe targeting a man, as well as the "Charlie's Angels" of an alliance of Charlie and the three women. In either case, Tim would be in the line of fire as one of either two or three targets. 

It seems that Tim thinks he is tight with Maria, and when the two of them are relating he doesn't strike me as trying to boss her around or being misogynistic.

The saddest Tim-related thing this episode was that he got the title quote, which wasn't that exciting and came in a gross conversation. I am sure that there were plenty of better choices but none are coming to mind at the mo.

[LadyChatts]

1 hour ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

My mileage varies. Nothing I love more than someone going out with a pocket idol, particularly when they are someone who in their own mind are the bestest Survivor player evah, as Jem seemed to think she was.

I will take a moment from the shallow end of the pool to regret the loss of serious eye candy.

I am interested to see if the Island journey can result in a cross-tribe alliance. It feels like people have not really tried to mix things up beyond the original tribal lines for quite some time, but I may be wrong about that.

Given Jem's parting words about it "serving them right for voting her off", I was kind of happy she went home with an idol in her pocket.  And it's not as dumb as going home with two idols in your pocket (hello there James!) or giving your idol to someone ala J.T. because a tribe of Heroes had the worst read in the world on the Villians tribe.  What hurt a little bit with Jem is she actually did the unthinkable, in that she didn't tell anyone she had the idol (that we saw anyway) and did a pretty good job of retrieving it without being noticed, considering what she had to go through to figure out the equation.  But she just seriously overestimated her girls + Charlie alliance and her own ability in playing the game.  I feel sorry for her in that she wasn't fooling anyone and was actually making things more obvious than they needed to be.

But yeah, I don't really consider it a dumb move anymore, but I think it can be satisfying if the person is super overconfident and then winds up taking the walk of shame.  And I love a bitter exit!

[violet and green]

So glad they kept Ben, as he is a highlight of this so-far dull season. I went off Jem when she was smirking as they dug fruitlessly and destroyed that tree's root system in the process. So it's good she went out with her idol. Take that!

Thank god the cursed tribe won immunity, got flint, and some food. I thought it would have been nicer for the two women to wait until Q got back from the journey thing to start eating it.

[Haleth]

I wonder if Jem's tribe will continue to suspect one of the guys has the idol.  Usually I scream at players to not tell anyone they've found it, but it might have saved Jem if she had told Maria.

That logo task was impossible.

It makes sense to me to keep the live chat separate so we don't have to scan pages of banter before getting to post show analysis.  I wish we'd do the same for TAR.

 

Edited March 28 by Haleth

[Chicago Redshirt]

1 hour ago, violet and green said:

Thank god the cursed tribe won immunity, got flint, and some food. I thought it would have been nicer for the two women to wait until Q got back from the journey thing to start eating it.

I think it would take the patience of a saint after 11 days of basically no food to sit around for what presumably was an hour or so minimum, possibly as many as two, with a platter of tempting treats and say "politeness means we will wait for Q to return before partaking."

All they needed to do IMO was do what they did: save Q the approximate third of the reward he was due. Sucks for Q if they saved a little less than a third, or if it meant Q was relegated to third pick of everything. (Or if they literally were touching pastries to divide them in thirds, one of which was left for Q because I don't think most players would want any other contestant's meathooks on their food. but they might be beyond caring as to that score)

[violet and green]

18 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I think it would take the patience of a saint after 11 days of basically no food to sit around for what presumably was an hour or so minimum, possibly as many as two, with a platter of tempting treats and say "politeness means we will wait for Q to return before partaking."

Having gone that long, they still could have held off another hour or so. Or just shared half of one pastry, while they waited. I wasn't suggesting it for the sake of politeness, but for basic decency and also camaraderie.

It was a huge deal they not only won, but won food - and he comes back to, oh, we saved you some.

[Lady Calypso]

8 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Oh I missed that. Probably because I follow along in the live thread (even if I’m watching after the fact) and only skim through the regular episode thread. 

But, I don’t see why we couldn’t have a single episode thread, where people could post live and also after the fact. 

I will give a likely reason: because there's a lot of activity during the episodes as people are live chatting, enough where if we merge it all into one thread, discussions will get blurred. Some people, like myself, like being able to read people's thoughts on an episode but want to have discussions (such as quoting) that can get lost when live chatting is mixed in. When the live chat thread is going into multiple pages, I think it's not a bad thing to have separated threads because it makes the overall episode thread cleaner and easier to navigate and easier to have these discussions.

In terms of the episode, I very much enjoyed it. I like that Siga went to Tribal, because that tribe was kind of getting TOO much positive content. It was important to see the split within the tribe.

Jem was a very messy player, thought she was a better liar than she was and thought she was in control when she wasn't. I really love Maria so I was glad to get to see more of her, but I'm annoyed that Charlie is Siga's main narrator. I wanted to hear more from Maria but we got a whole lot of Charlie. We get a lot of his archetype narrating these new seasons and it's fun for a while but when we see it so many times, it's tiring. I would have loved to see Maria take charge of the narrative instead. Plus, I wanted to hear why Maria decided to burn her extra vote. Part of me thinks maybe it's so that she's not painted as a target come merge, as they know she has an extra vote and this now doesn't give anyone incentive to vote her out. 

I do love Ben, so I'm glad he's not gone, but none of the women were wrong to clock Ben as a long-term threat. But I also don't know why they chose to only place two votes on Tim. Had he decided not to play his idol and let's say Maria/Charlie decided not to vote Jem out, Tim would have stayed, Ben would have gone, and Tim would have still had his idol. What a bad plan.

Venus vs Hunter was a lot funnier than I thought it would be. But it's great to see someone like Venus break her archetype; she was expected to be a social butterfly, turns out she's just an annoying entitled whiny player, but also super oblivious. Yet, for some reason, it didn't annoy me this episode to see her go at it with Hunter a bit. 

The journey was fine, it was fun to see a new type of challenge about Survivor knowledge and fun that Hunter got it so, so wrong, but annoyed that a bro's alliance formed, even if the duos picked were Tiffany, Maria and then Tevin. But it's also not a bad final 6, if they can make it. I just don't think they can make it.

Jeff has got to stop blurring the lines between host and self-insert player.

Alas, Jem is gone now, with an idol in her pocket, and now they still think Tim has the idol. I wonder how that'll impact Tim's game going forward.

Oh, yeah, Yanu, a tribe we've discussed a lot. I am glad they won their immunity challenge. It isn't fun to see a tribe get decimated due to weak tribemates and no food, no flint, no warmth. So I'm glad they earned a little victory.

[Chicago Redshirt]

1 minute ago, violet and green said:

Having gone that long, they still could have held off another hour or so. Or just shared half of one pastry, while they waited. I wasn't suggesting it for the sake of politeness, but for basic decency and also camaraderie.

It was a huge deal they not only won, but won food - and he comes back to, oh, we saved you some.

People with better Survivor memory banks can chime in, but I don't think it's generally the case that winning tribes/teams wait for people to return from their journeys to partake in their food rewards. 

In the specific case of Q/Kenzie/Tiff, it doesn't seem to me that Q cared that they already ate and he didn't feel any less camaraderie or more upset about them eating. At least, i presume that if he was salty about it, that would have generated a talking head about it or some body language indicator that it bothered him.. He was still on a high of not-losing that I doubt it did bother him.

[violet and green]

2 minutes ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

People with better Survivor memory banks can chime in, but I don't think it's generally the case that winning tribes/teams wait for people to return from their journeys to partake in their food rewards. 

In the specific case of Q/Kenzie/Tiff, it doesn't seem to me that Q cared that they already ate and he didn't feel any less camaraderie or more upset about them eating. At least, i presume that if he was salty about it, that would have generated a talking head about it or some body language indicator that it bothered him.. He was still on a high of not-losing that I doubt it did bother him.

I'm not changing my opinion, which is all it is, regardless.

[Lady Calypso]

12 minutes ago, violet and green said:

Having gone that long, they still could have held off another hour or so. Or just shared half of one pastry, while they waited. I wasn't suggesting it for the sake of politeness, but for basic decency and also camaraderie.

It was a huge deal they not only won, but won food - and he comes back to, oh, we saved you some.

I think they're on the journey for more than an hour; I think they're gone for a couple of hours. 

I get what you mean, but I also fully get that Kenzie/Tiffany/Q have not been able to eat more than a coconut a day. As nice as it could have been to wait, I fully understand that they just simply were too hungry to wait. They did still split the food equally, so the good thing is that they didn't just eat almost all the food and only saved Q a little bit. They made sure he got his share when he returned. But I'm not angry at them being a bit selfish when they haven't eaten proper food in 11 days.

[Chicago Redshirt]

Ben mentioned being on tour and surviving on only Taco Bell because that was all they could afford...there's an actual Taco Bell commercial about a band that similarly lived on Taco Bell, linked below Coincidence? (I always thought this  is a commercial that backfires -- why would I want to eat the food that a barely successful band is forced to eat because their promoters are cheap?)

 

[seacliffsal]

I actually resented that I had to rewatch so much Bhanu in the 'previouslies.'  So glad that the other tribes weren't shocked that he was the one voted out.  I think the producers waaaaay overestimated his appeal.  Hopefully they will get the message that Bhanu is not winning a million hearts.  Oh, and I hope Sia shares my opinion as I don't want him to be rewarded in any way...

Okay, I think I might grumble my way through this whole post, but...it irks me every time they reference the 'new era.'  All it does is remind me of the original, better recipe Survivor (remember the failure of 'New Coke'?  'New Era' brings the sad predictor of failure to me).  Q references quitting (then takes it back) and it's only day 10 or 11?  That would be a drop in the bucket in the 39 day Survivor, yet here it's almost halfway through.  Four immunity loses?  Again, a drop in the bucket.  Tribe of 3?  Sounds good to Stephanie or Bobby.  Oh, and challenges that didn't end in puzzles or tossing sandbags...Stop making me miss the 'old era' superior Survivor.

I was glad Jem was voted out.  I don't appreciate needless manipulation and her glee at making her teammates dig/search for 3 dyas wasn't entertaining to me.

So happy to see other players whose names aren't Bhanu.  Liking Ben, Maria, and Moriah from Siga.  Would like to get to know the players better on Namu.

[peachmangosteen]

10 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

But, I don’t see why we couldn’t have a single episode thread, where people could post live and also after the fact. 

Many people, myself included, don't want to wade through post after post of live reactions to get to the posts that were posted after the show finished airing. I believe that's pretty much the main reason the mods (when this forum actually had them lol) started the live chat threads. Having 2 threads is absolutely the ideal imo but yes it would be much better if we could go back to when the mods (which again, there don't appear to actually be any anymore) closed the live chat thread after the episode ended as that avoided the issue of people seeming to not know exactly which thread to post in which means some people are still posting in the live thread days later. Perhaps someone could PM @CM-CrispMtAirand see if they can make the live chat threads so that they'll lock after the episodes air.

1 hour ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Ben mentioned being on tour and surviving on only Taco Bell because that was all they could afford...there's an actual Taco Bell commercial about a band that similarly lived on Taco Bell, linked below Coincidence? (I always thought this  is a commercial that backfires -- why would I want to eat the food that a barely successful band is forced to eat because their promoters are cheap?)

 

I totally thought of this commercial too lol. I wondered if Ben's band is the one featured in it.

Well I guess I'm the only one but I think Maria's an idiot lol. Using both her votes was absolutely stupid. And as soon as the woman's alliance was formed I knew she'd be the one to break it so that didn't surprise me at all. If I were her, I wouldn't have given that confessional talking about how I trust the women and not the men when I knew I was gonna side with the men lol. I also feel pretty sure Tim was bullshitting when he told Hunter and the other one (I already forget who else went) that Maria was his #1. It's kind of stupid to actually name your true #1 there lol.

I was massively over Jem though so I don't care that she was booted.

Edited March 28 by peachmangosteen

[Lady Calypso]

37 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

Well I guess I'm the only one but I think Maria's an idiot lol. Using both her votes was absolutely stupid. And as soon as the woman's alliance was formed I knew she'd be the one to break it so that didn't surprise me at all. If I were her, I wouldn't have given that confessional talking about how I trust the women and not the men when I knew I was gonna side with the men lol. I also feel pretty sure Tim was bullshitting when he told Hunter and the other one (I already forget who else went) that Maria was his #1. It's kind of stupid to actually name your true #1 there lol.

To be fair to Maria, I don't think she knew she would side with the men over the women. We did see that scene where she was telling Charlie, her closest ally I guess, that Ben was the vote and Charlie was the one to tell her why it shouldn't be Ben. 

I think Maria was fully open to keeping Ben AND Jem, but for some reason, everyone wrote Tim off as the official vote. That, and when Jem started behaving weirdly, it made the decision easier. 

I don't blame Maria either; we've now heard from pretty much all the men that they trust Maria the most, so Maria's been in a lose-lose spot while playing the middle due to how good she is with everyone. Similarly to Charlie, but Maria didn't stand her ground on getting Ben out. Or at least, she should have stuck with pushing more votes on Tim. 

It's more a shame she listened to Charlie, because his reason to keep Ben as a shield is bullshit; he obviously wants Ben around because he's his next closest ally and would probably prefer Ben and Maria work WITH him. 

[iMonrey]

Once Yanu won it became obvious Jem was going to go. The editors just aren't very clever, there was entirely too much of her after that. We would have seen and heard a lot more from Ben if he were going to be voted out. I guess I've just been watching this show for too long, you can almost always tell who's going.

Jem really didn't play this very well. When Tim confronted her about moving the Beware advantage she should have turned it right around on him, because up 'til then everyone else though Tim had done it. Had she told him so, it would have made him paranoid and he might have confronted everyone about it, making himself the bigger target. She also really overplayed her hand trying to get info out of Ben, but that goes without saying. 

For all his bluster, Q ran his mouth at the Journey almost as much as Bhanu did. Less to squeal about with only three people left but now they know he's tight with Tiffany and not Kenzie. 

RE: ThreadGate - the Live thread is for live reaction. The Show thread is for posting about the episode once it has finished and one has gathered their overall thoughts, and for more meaningful discussion. There's very little in the way of discussion in the Live thread. It's more like watching along with friends and shouting out comments and jokes. I don't know why anyone has a problem with a separate thread for that.

[fishcakes]

2 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

Well I guess I'm the only one but I think Maria's an idiot lol. Using both her votes was absolutely stupid. And as soon as the woman's alliance was formed I knew she'd be the one to break it so that didn't surprise me at all. If I were her, I wouldn't have given that confessional talking about how I trust the women and not the men when I knew I was gonna side with the men lol.

I think Maria is overrated by the rest of her tribe. They all seem to want to be allied with her and think they are. And it's hard to tell because until last night we've seen so little of anything besides the Yanu clown car, but Maria doesn't seem like a particularly good player. As you mentioned, burning her extra vote for one thing, but also, it's day 11 or whatever, you know a merge is coming within a day or two, so why would you side with the guys who are all pretty likeable and who could be seen as threats to the others instead of with the two more or less goaty women. Maria's now in an alliance that, after the merge, is probably going to be targeted, whereas, had she stuck with Jem and Moriah, she'd have allies who no one is worried about. And I don't think she needs strong players as shields, since once she's in with a bigger crowd, her own threat level is going to decrease. She'll have less social influence, and she's shown a couple of times that she's not a physical threat.

But her doing what she did was good for me because I don't care about Jem, but I've grown to love Ben. I thought the constant Spicoli-esque, "these things rock, these things are a bummer" narration was going to bug, but I just find him so much fun. It was so funny that he took a hammer along with him to defend against Jem's machete and him refusing to let go of it long after their conversation was done put it over the top with me.

[MerBearHou]

11 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

My mileage varies. Nothing I love more than someone going out with a pocket idol, particularly when they are someone who in their own mind are the bestest Survivor player evah, as Jem seemed to think she was.

Agreed!  This one in particular made me smile as she was voted out with the idol in her pocket -- Jem had too much hubris and glee at the others on her tribe digging in the ants for an idol.

[meep.meep]

4 hours ago, seacliffsal said:

 

Okay, I think I might grumble my way through this whole post, but...it irks me every time they reference the 'new era.'  All it does is remind me of the original, better recipe Survivor (remember the failure of 'New Coke'?  'New Era' brings the sad predictor of failure to me).  Q references quitting (then takes it back) and it's only day 10 or 11?  That would be a drop in the bucket in the 39 day Survivor, yet here it's almost halfway through.  Four immunity loses?  Again, a drop in the bucket.  Tribe of 3?  Sounds good to Stephanie or Bobby.  Oh, and challenges that didn't end in puzzles or tossing sandbags...Stop making me miss the 'old era' superior Survivor.

I was glad Jem was voted out.  I don't appreciate needless manipulation and her glee at making her teammates dig/search for 3 dyas wasn't entertaining to me.

Was Jem the one who told someone he was her meat shield?  Or was that Venus?  You can't do that!

New Era sucks.  Too many identical challenges - do they think we're betting on whether it's sandbags or puzzles at the end?  They used to throw in a pity challenge when one tribe was getting decimated - often something that had to be "judged."  Or bring  back the gross food challenges, those mix things up.

Hunter losing the journey challenge because there was something about Survivor that he neglected to memorize was epic.  And good for Q for trying something strategic.

[JudyObscure]

5 hours ago, violet and green said:

Having gone that long, they still could have held off another hour or so. Or just shared half of one pastry, while they waited. I wasn't suggesting it for the sake of politeness, but for basic decency and also camaraderie.

It was a huge deal they not only won, but won food - and he comes back to, oh, we saved you some.

Yes!  For basic decency and camaraderie! 

Without Q's determination at the end they wouldn't have won at all. After 11 days  all three should break-fast together.

[Arkay]

https://ew.com/survivor-46-jem-hussain-adams-interview-unaired-move-blindsided-8621418

 

A VERY angry Jem, and she refuses to ever get a Siga tattoo.

Also, I felt a little bad for Tim at Tribal, because on the journey, he Hunter and Q were all about how they were the strong men on their tribes, but then at Tribal Charlie or someone said “we don’t have a Q or Hunter on our tribe.”

[peachmangosteen]

1 hour ago, fishcakes said:

But her doing what she did was good for me because I don't care about Jem, but I've grown to love Ben. I thought the constant Spicoli-esque, "these things rock, these things are a bummer" narration was going to bug, but I just find him so much fun. It was so funny that he took a hammer along with him to defend against Jem's machete and him refusing to let go of it long after their conversation was done put it over the top with me.

Yes! I mean, I’m super glad Maria is dumb because Jem was annoying and Ben is one of like maybe 5 total people this season that occasionally entertains me. His confrontation with Jem was easily the best scene so far this season. 

7 minutes ago, Arkay said:

Also, I felt a little bad for Tim at Tribal, because on the journey, he Hunter and Q were all about how they were the strong men on their tribes, but then at Tribal Charlie or someone said “we don’t have a Q or Hunter on our tribe.”

I fast forwarded through the TC so I missed this but I might need to go back and watch because it sounds hilarious lol. I actually kind of like Tim now though. His tiki man and poop talks were pretty entertaining. 

[fishcakes]

21 minutes ago, Arkay said:

https://ew.com/survivor-46-jem-hussain-adams-interview-unaired-move-blindsided-8621418

 

A VERY angry Jem, and she refuses to ever get a Siga tattoo.

 

Quote

How tough has it been replaying it over the past nine months and going right before the merge where there's a big reset on the game?

Yeah, if I had made it one more and to the next one, it would've been over.

You know, no matter how many times an ousted player brags that, "if I hadn't been voted out, I would have won," it never gets any less stupid.

 

Edited March 28 by fishcakes

[LadyChatts]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

Yes! I mean, I’m super glad Maria is dumb because Jem was annoying and Ben is one of like maybe 5 total people this season that occasionally entertains me. His confrontation with Jem was easily the best scene so far this season. 

I fast forwarded through the TC so I missed this but I might need to go back and watch because it sounds hilarious lol. I actually kind of like Tim now though. His tiki man and poop talks were pretty entertaining. 

You mean the confrontation in the woods?  I heard Ben say something about Jem having the machete and that's why he brought the hammer.  I didn't know whether to laugh or feel sorry for her that Ben wasn't taking her seriously or wasn't afraid of her.  For a guy who didn't even have a vote and was having his name thrown out, he acted like he didn't have a care in the world.  If Jem didn't already have the final nail in her coffin, I think running off with Tim and Ben and trying to accuse them or being aligned together and therefore being a threat did it.  I said before she really made things more obvious for herself than she needed to.  I feel like she did everything you shouldn't do in the game, outside of actually keeping the idol to herself.  

Also at TC, Jem tried to play it cool and say she didn't know who she was voting for yet, and then like a minute later Maria outright said anyone who said they didn't know who they were voting for was a liar.  

[jaigurudeva]

Glad Yanu finally won a challenge (not just for them, but because we finally got to see more gameplay from other tribes). They're really playing with a handicap, since the other tribes have been resting their players on rotation for each challenge, while Yanu's been going through it giving their all with each one. I'm sure those muffins tasted amazing even with all the fly-nibbles (can production maybe put a net over the food? even if they swap out the display food from the challenge for what they give the contestants, it kind of turns my stomach watching insects crawling all over it). Not sure how fire is going to help with their food situation, it's not like they have fishing gear or they're given rice to cook. I guess now they can each have a COOKED coconut a day?

It's interesting that there's different challenges for each beware advantage to crack, since Tiff had to decipher some code instead of measuring lengths with the machete. I wonder what Hunter's beware advantage will be (especially since there's the "clause" about how to do it if their individual tribe never loses before merge).

15 minutes ago, Arkay said:

https://ew.com/survivor-46-jem-hussain-adams-interview-unaired-move-blindsided-8621418

A VERY angry Jem, and she refuses to ever get a Siga tattoo.

Can't believe she's still salty 9 months later, nor any more self-aware. She has nobody to blame but herself, playing games with the whole tribe is what sent her packing. Tim was the only one we saw confront her about it, but she is a TERRIBLE liar, if she thought the best response to "You planted the beware advantage, didn't you?" was "What beware advantage?" (you know, the beware advantage that literally the WHOLE TRIBE knew about and was making such a big deal about). Which meant she was either OBVIOUSLY lying, or had another advantage/idol of her own. Tim probably brought that back to Ben, who spread it back around, and it became clear that Jem (who was suddenly acting like the big fish in the pond strutting around with a machete and interrogating people) obviously had the idol. If she had a rock-solid alliance, then she should have trusted those machinations rather than going on the over-playing warpath (plus antagonizing Ben and Tim). And the whole idol scheme also needlessly created drama, she played even her own alliance, so if she wants to talk about trust and loyalty, that's not how you win it. Of course "Charlie's Angels" they wouldn't want to keep her in their fold going forward.

I have a feeling Maria burned her extra vote for threat management, because she knows a merge is coming up, many people knew she had the extra vote, so that could paint a target on her back. I also have a feeling (even though we don't see this) that, with Charlie and her being close, and Charlie and Ben being close, there was an idea to hide the fact that Ben didn't have a vote by playing her extra vote and making it look like two different people (she used two different handwritings and name spellings). This would solidify her alliance with Charlie, and Ben is so charismatic and socially-forward that he becomes a "meat shield" for them (without actually saying it to his face like Venus did to Hunter, lmao)

[SG429]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

RE: ThreadGate - the Live thread is for live reaction. The Show thread is for posting about the episode once it has finished and one has gathered their overall thoughts, and for more meaningful discussion. There's very little in the way of discussion in the Live thread. It's more like watching along with friends and shouting out comments and jokes. I don't know why anyone has a problem with a separate thread for that.

I like the Live thread but my Xfinity feed is so delayed that it's all spoilers if I read it in real time!

[Tdoc72]

18 hours ago, LadyChatts said:

 

The slo-mo shot at the challenge before Yanu hit their last target was pretty impressive.  Normally those things are so corny but I thought it was a nice touch, even though it pretty much gave away they were going to hit the target and win.  I was happy for them to get a much earned victory.  I feel like they earned just for having to put up with Bhanu all that time.  

 

I feel like Survivor owes me a cupcake from the reward challenge for me having to put up w/Bhanu. I was rolling my eyes at the previouslies. He can have a million hearts minus this one. 

[LadyChatts]

25 minutes ago, Tdoc72 said:

I feel like Survivor owes me a cupcake from the reward challenge for me having to put up w/Bhanu. I was rolling my eyes at the previouslies. He can have a million hearts minus this one. 

My favorite part of the night was when Yanu walked into the challenge and no one even reacted when they saw Bhanu gone.  So I guess a million hearts minus yours, mine, and the other 14 that were left last night.

[WatcherUp2]

30 minutes ago, Tdoc72 said:

I feel like Survivor owes me a cupcake from the reward challenge for me having to put up w/Bhanu. I was rolling my eyes at the previouslies. He can have a million hearts minus this one. 

That annoying gasbag may have won a million farts.

[ratgirlagogo]

Mr Rat and I have watched every season of this show and we both agreed that we would probably not have been able to do the Journey challenge.