S29.E05: Blood Is Blood

[Tara Ariano]

The tribes are reconfigured and it leaves one castaway on a team that has three pairs of loved ones. Meanwhile, the other tribe is forced to negotiate for their next meal, after they mismanage their food supply.

[Pepper the Cat]

Any one watching live? How did they re-configure the tribes? We lost a few mins of show here in Canada for the Prime Ministers address.mwas it a random thing or did Jeff dictate who went where? Thanks!

[Wings]

NuCoyopa: Baylor, Dale, Jaclyn, Jon, Keith, Kelley, and Missy.
NuHunahpu: Alec, Jeremy, Josh, Julie, Natalie, Reed, and Wes.

 

The editing is nuts.  Kelly?  Really?  

Edited October 23, 2014 by wings707

[cooksdelight]

All I gotta say.... that monkey had the biggest and lowest hanging balls I've ever seen on an animal. I sort of blanked out the rest....

[Lantern7]

Pepper the Cat . . . the buffs were drawn seemingly at random, with one tribe of five "singles" and Josh & Reed, the other with three couples and Keith.

 

Anybody else expected Blue/Teal Tribe to have to give up immunity for the rice? I swear, Probst must have needed a crowbar to take his shorts off, because he strikes me as someone who would go mad with power.

 

Orange/Yellow Tribe is still a mess. The vote for Kelley was anticlimactic, especially since I never felt like I knew her. How did the vote go down? I missed that part.

 

ETA for cooksdelight . . . I must have missed that. Was it a howler monkey with balls that big?

[willpwr]

Oh well, my favorite is gone, I hope Missy and Baylor keep being dumb about rations and their rice doesn't last more than a week.

[mojoween]

They drew the buffs out of a hat.

I wish every single one of those votes was for Missy. I can't put my finger on it, but I do not like her.

This Tribal Council is why they invented Blood v. Water.

Jaclyn was weird. She was talking like she hadn't been playing on the same tribe as Baylor for 11 days and didn't know what the dynamic was between Baylor and Dale.

Also, Jaclyn and Jon need to get a freaking room.

I wasn't sure which tribe I was going to root for when they split, and then I was cheering madly when blue was so far ahead. I think it's because of Reed and his beautiful blue eyes.

Although, Alec is almost as douchetastic as his brother. I didn't see it as much last week but this week he was annoying the crap out of me.

I would have thought an extra set of hands digging and shaking would be an advantage, I was surprised no one on blue had to sit out.

Edited October 23, 2014 by mojoween

[Straycat80]

I don't know why they voted off Kelly?

Ricegate. I would not give Hunahpu more rice! They need to go back to old school Survivor and quit coddling these overeating players!

[Wings]

Yeah, I liked Kelly too from what little I saw.  That vote made no sense to me, I did not see that coming.  

[Turtle]

Anybody else expected Blue/Teal Tribe to have to give up immunity for the rice?​

 

 

I was suspecting that's what he'll do on next week's episode.  But who knows.  It may be some really lame "price" he exacts.  

 

I wish we had actually seen more of J&J's reasoning for why they're siding with Missy & Baylor, rather than so much kissing.  

[Wings]

 

I would have thought an extra set of hands digging and shaking would be an advantage, I was surprised no one on blue had to sit out.

 

 

There were 7 on each team. 

[NYGirl]

Wow that was interesting.  Jeff must have been real real happy the way those teams ended up.  I'm not sure why Jon/Jaclyn went along with Missy and Baylor over Kelly and Dale but ::shrug:: who cares at this point.  Keith was just so happy it wasn't him going.  I'm not a fan of Missy nor of Dale.

 

I'm still searching for somebody to root for.  This is the first season of Survivor that I have nobody to root for this far into the game.  It bothers me.

[RedheadZombie]

I just noticed that Dale looks like Mike Boogie - a lot. 

 

I now know for sure that I don't like Baylor or Missy.  Standing there and eating rice and talking about eating all that rice in their camp - yeah lady, that's why it's all gone!

 

I found it a little odd how Baylor stood by drooling, while Jon and Jaqueline kissed.

 

I did think that they would/should lose immunity for rice.  I was very disappointed.

 

I thought Baylor had a little smug look on her face after the vote.

[willpwr]

I think they voted out Kelley because they view her as a threat, she has a better social game than her dad and they were concerned with how smart she and Dale are per the conversation Missy and Baylor had with Jaclyn.

[susannot]

Dammit.  Kelley had become my favorite.  Not rooting for anyone right now.  There has never before been a season of Survivor where I had no favorite going into the 6th episode.

[Pepper the Cat]

Thanks for filling in the gaps. It was confusing missing those few minutes.

[Wings]

I thought Missy was the obvious one to vote off, I don't like her at all.  What is up with her and the rice?  

[ElleryAnne]

I had no idea why Kelley was voted out.  That made the result kind of a letdown.  What's up with that, editors?

 

"Survivor Market"  - Love the name, hate the concept.  I wish Jeff would just tell them too bad, so sad, no soup for you.  I know it's not fair for the new tribemates,, but that's the game.  I may sound cruel, but I want them to struggle like some of the earlier tribes did when they had no food.  

[Straycat80]

I think they should have to vote off a tribe member for more rice.

I don't know who to root for either. I don't like Missy and Baylor.

[cooksdelight]

Lantern7, yes, the howler monkeys in the trees. This one was silouetted against the sun and, boy.... no missing those honkers!

[msmongolian]

I think they voted out Kelley because they view her as a threat, she has a better social game than her dad and they were concerned with how smart she and Dale are per the conversation Missy and Baylor had with Jaclyn.

 

I agree.  Also, if Jon and Jaclyn are thinking about the merge, then they could wonder who they'll team up with when the tribes come back together.  Jon was on the outs in original Hunahpu, so it makes sense to try to get in with people from original Coyopa.  That means Baylor, who is allies with Josh, Wes, and Alec.  So they keep Keith (in order to get Wes back on their side later) -- notice that Keith was in on the vote-splitting strategy in this episode.  Dale was on the outs in original Coyopa, so he doesn't bring Jon and Jaclyn much for the post-merge game.  But siding with Baylor and Missy means that Jon and Jaclyn at least have a chance of being in the majority alliance after the merge.

[Wandering Snark]

I try not to look like "that guy" and make comments out loud to just my TV but when Drew's now lone brother was talking at the arena and said "I guess he was a threat... that must have been it, right guys?" I said aloud "No, the reason was that your brother was a lazy douchebag."

[Haleth]

Meh. Boring episode. Wish they'd voted off Baylor or Missy instead of Kelly.

[susannot]

.... no missing those honkers!

 

Are you talking about Rocker's girlfriend?

 

( Sorry, I know she has a name but the screenshot of her always says "John's girlfriend."  Sexist--ass show.)

[truthaboutluv]

Anybody else expected Blue/Teal Tribe to have to give up immunity for the rice? I swear, Probst must have needed a crowbar to take his shorts off, because he strikes me as someone who would go mad with power.

 

 

Yeah I definitely thought they were going to give up Immunity too. Especially with how anti-climactic and quick the challenge was and when they started speaking to Jeff after it was over. It will be interesting to see what they have to give up next week for the bag of rice. But yeah it's crazy that Hunahpu was so irresponsible with the rice. Seriously, what were the planning to do when it was gone? It doesn't seem like any of them were catching fish so they could have eaten that, crazy. They're strong in the challenges for sure but they definitely do seem like a bit of a hot mess in other ways.

 

Orange/Yellow Tribe is still a mess. The vote for Kelley was anticlimactic, especially since I never felt like I knew her. How did the vote go down? I missed that part.

 

 

I actually was a little surprised at Kelley's ouster as I had gotten the impression they were gunning for Dale. So  I thought it would have been either Baylor or Dale leaving. I think Kelley and Dale made a huge mistake not trying to approach Keith and instead seemed to place all their hopes on Jacqueline and Jon. Of course I get the impression that Missy was probably closer to Keith than Kelley was to him but it was just odd how for much of the strategizing before Tribal, that Keith was like a nonentity, until Missy and Baylor were shown speaking to him. I am definitely starting to agree with many of the people on Afterbuzz Survivor that Baylor may be one to watch. That girl has survived so many close calls so far that I feel like it must mean she goes deep in the game. Meanwhile, I don't know about anyone else but I was kind of over Jon and Jacqueline's PDA very quick. Also wow, Dale's a little asshole isn't he?

 

So what we saw of Hunahpu confirmed my suspicions from last week - Jeremy and Natalie are a tight pair. It will be interesting to see what happens there if they do go to Tribal before the merge happens. It's a little scary that that key vote may come down to Alec if they do go to tribal because Jeremy is right, he and Drew are really not that different. So it will be interesting to see how things shake up over there. Josh has so far proven himself pretty savvy so I'll be interested in seeing him sort of match wits with Jeremy and Natalie and if he will be able to figure out what they're planning and find a way to counter it. This episode however definitely makes it seem like Reed may be one of those players who'll just float along until he's voted out. I'm still not getting any gameplay from him. It was kind of cute finding out that he and Josh are being celibate until marriage. That's nice, especially considering some of the stereotypes some people have of gay men when it comes to sex. 

Edited October 24, 2014 by truthaboutluv

[susannot]

I agree.  Also, if Jon and Jaclyn are thinking about the merge, then they could wonder who they'll team up with when the tribes come back together.  Jon was on the outs in original Hunahpu, so it makes sense to try to get in with people from original Coyopa.  That means Baylor, who is allies with Josh, Wes, and Alec.  So they keep Keith (in order to get Wes back on their side later) -- notice that Keith was in on the vote-splitting strategy in this episode.  Dale was on the outs in original Coyopa, so he doesn't bring Jon and Jaclyn much for the post-merge game.  But siding with Baylor and Missy means that Jon and Jaclyn at least have a chance of being in the majority alliance after the merge.

This post made my head hurt!  I totally admire you for not only remembering all of the names of these boring people, but what tribes they started out on and what their original strategies were.  Well done!  

[mojoween]

There were 7 on each team.

Oh. Duh. So much for my ability to count. Well now I'm aggravated, the orange tribe should have ended up with the same number of people they started with. Blue was still up a member or two, were they not?

Yeah, so I'm a straight chick but Julie was looking pretty sweet walking back from the challenge all mudded up. I, on the other hand, would have been a shrieking mess of tears if I ever made it on Survivor and had to crawl through that mud.

[cooksdelight]

Are you talking about Rocker's girlfriend?

 

( Sorry, I know she has a name but the screenshot of her always says "John's girlfriend."  Sexist--ass show.)

LOL, no, the business end of the monkeys in the trees.

[ShadowSixx]

I'm surprised that Kelly was the first one voted out, I was so hoping it would be Baylor or Missy but Kelly is the bigger threat out of the four of them so it does make sense. 

 

I've never seen a team barter with Jeff so much, but I'm thinking that even though they were running out of food, the producers would more than likely have to give them food or hope they win the next reward challenge with food as a prize. I was so thinking that Jeff said a steep price to pay would be that they would have to give up immunity for a bag of rice and give immunity to the other team. So I'm wondering what the steep price is going to be next week, double elimination if they lose immunity challenge or no idols for the team, cause it can't be giving up something like comfort or whatever cause that's not really steep.

 

It would be smart for Alec to team up with Jeremy, Julie, and Natalie since they're the only singles on their team to try and get an alliance going. Josh, being abstinent is not going to get you to the end, playing a good social game, winning solo immunity, or finding an idol is what can carry you to the end. So highly doubt that he's going to be the "go to" guy when it comes to votes as it might be Alec who might be the "go to" guy now. 

Edited October 23, 2014 by ShadowSixx

[Tryangle]

Ok, well clearly the producers must give the castaways toothpaste and or mouthwash because Jon and Jaclyn were kissing like it was a Scope commercial or something.

 

The NuHunapu dynamic does appear to be interesting to figure out. I would have expected Josh and his boyfriend to be immediate easy targets, but could they have leverage?

[leighdear]

I wish we had actually seen more of J&J's reasoning for why they're siding with Missy & Baylor, rather than so much kissing.

Potential goatage?

 

Baylor doesn't seem to be very popular on either team, and Missy is just loud, dead weight.  Keep them close & then ditch them when necessary.

 

Good for Keith keeping out of the line of fire.  I bet he's Dale's new "loved one".

[BigRedCheese]

 

I would not give Hunahpu more rice! They need to go back to old school Survivor and quit coddling these overeating players!

 

In the second season Probst took Colby's Texas Flag (being used as a tarp for shade and rain cover) in exchange for more rice. 

[susannot]

Potential goatage?

 

Baylor doesn't seem to be very popular on either team, and Missy is just loud, dead weight.  Keep them close & then ditch them when necessary.

 

Good for Keith keeping out of the line of fire.  I bet he's Dale's new "loved one".

Oooh.  If I see more evidence of Jon & Jacklyn thinking strategically along these lines instead of sucking face, I will like them.

[kelnic86]

Teflon Baylor. That girl has had her name written down at every tribal council she's been to. That's gotta be some kind of record. Yet, she's still in the game. She either has the best luck in the game or the worst. I wonder how much longer she can keep narrowly avoiding getting voted out. It'll be really funny if she somehow ends up winning this. Strangely, I can see it happening.

Edited October 23, 2014 by kelnic86

[mojoween]

Ha! Drew got what he wanted after all.

[willpwr]

I don't know how strategic Jon and Jaclyn are, though, because if they're thinking post merge and Baylor has already proven to be untrustworthy, why would they team up with her to help her potentially get to the merge and back with Josh who is her strongest ally? To me the choices Jon and Jaclyn had were two smart players, one who could be a goat (Dale) and who had stuck with their alliances vs two people that weren't concerned with rations and were painting Baylor as an innocent victim when she started the rift with Dale in the first place. Baylor and Missy seem pretty smart, too but they seem more interested in themselves instead of being team players. Post merge, Kelley would have had Natalie and Jeremy who I'd rather be allied with than Josh. 

 

Edited because I wrote the wrong twinnie's name.

Edited October 24, 2014 by willpwr

[ghoulina]

Well, that kind of sucks. I still haven't formed super strong feelings about anyone yet (which is disappointing), but I did kind of like Kelly. I thought she and her father would work well with John and Jacqueline. 

 

I wouldn't want to work with Baylor or Missy. I got really pissed off about the rice thing. Missy's all, "That's not how we did it over there". Yea, and that's why that tribe is down to a scoop of rice! Idiot. I really cannot stand people who don't look at the bigger picture. 

 

And it really sucked for the members of the rationed rice tribe who had to come over and find out they were on the verge of starvation. 

[ghoulina]

Good for Keith keeping out of the line of fire.  I bet he's Dale's new "loved one".

 

Oh my gosh, I am totally having visions of The Odd Couple: Island Style.

[truthaboutluv]

I would have expected Josh and his boyfriend to be immediate easy targets, but could they have leverage?

 

 

Based on Jeremy and Natalie's confessionals, they are. Jeremy and Natalie's plan seems to be to pull Alec over and convince him to vote with him (Jeremy), Natalie and Julie against Josh, Reed and Wes because Jeremy has figured out that Reed who was once his ally is now automatically with his boyfriend and if the 3 former Coyopa stick together, that puts him against the numbers. And my guess is if they do get Alec to come with them, they would likely target Josh who they may see as the bigger threat between him and Reed and/or Wes who seems strong in challenges. 

[North of Eden]

I guess I don't understand keeping curmudgeounly Dale (who looks like Jigsaw from SAWS emaciated brother) over the younger and stronger daughter who might help you win the next challenges. The only possible answer is Jon was still drinking Drew's koolaid about her.

Meanwhile Keith's game play is just so embarrassingly bad. What's the first thing you do when you are the odd man out on a new tribe? further isolate yourself by going off to fish while the remainder of the tribe is attempting bonding in communal swim of course! He's just lucky The War of the Rice broke out. Speaking of rice I was extremly nervous the winning team was going to bargain away their immunity win for a sack of rice. And I fear they may yet make some sort of deal like that next episode.

Sadly after a week on the sidelines his pompous majesty Josh is back front in center narrating and getting a lot of confessionals while Julie spoke exactly one time in a confessional in the last 10 minutes of the show. Hate the mad love the editors have for him.

And really abstinence before marriage? Is that ever a good idea...what if...what if...you find out your partner frankly is lame when it comes to carnal matters? I've always wondered if that happens a lot to couple who "wait".

Biggest laugh out loud moment was the pathetic shaking of the basket to dislodge the bags by the losing team. Absolutely embarrassing.

Edited October 23, 2014 by North of Eden

[RedheadZombie]

In the second season Probst took Colby's Texas Flag (being used as a tarp for shade and rain cover) in exchange for more rice. 

 

I remember that season as the cast being extremely malnourished.  When Mike fell in the fire, the others were kind of stumbling around, and slow to react.  Colby went to the end because he won every reward challenge, so he was the most nourished, and then won II every time.  They were in Australia, and there was no way to hunt or forage for food.  Elisabeth's hair was coming out in clumps.  They were at a challenge when  a flash flood took away their rice.  Jeff still treated them like crap about  it.

[bagatelle]

Ricegate. I would not give Hunahpu more rice! They need to go back to old school Survivor and quit coddling these overeating players!

 

They coddled them the first few seasons. It was only later they had to work for things, such as flint. They used to bring  a change of clothes and a luxury item, too.  

 

In any case, I couldn't get invested in this episode.  As mentioned above, we were interrupted for the Prime Minister and when we came back, I thought there was a merge.

 

Why isn't this group fishing more? Why weren't any others annoyed about the rice?  There must be stuff we aren't seeing.

[BigRedCheese]

 

They were at a challenge when  a flash flood took away their rice.  Jeff still treated them like crap about  it.

 

I think the tarp/rice exchange happened before that though, when they were running out of rice because of eating too much of it, I seem to remember Probst chastising them because they were provided with enough rice if they had rationed it correctly. As for when the flash flood took away their rice, they were warned not to build their camp in a dry creek bed because that could happen, and they did it anyway(Tina insisted on it), so they deserved some crap about it.

[leighdear]

I think Missy is going to go postal if they vote out her baby before her.  Then, she'll make it her mission to make whomever was responsible pay for it.  She has that look and that vibe.  They need to get her out ASAP.

[cooksdelight]

I think Missy is going to go postal if they vote out her baby before her. Then, she'll make it her mission to make whomever was responsible pay for it. She has that look and that vibe. They need to get her out ASAP.

I agree. In fact, when she started talking about being a Mama Bear, and a few side glances, I thought surely those people would have their wits about them and get rid of her. Baylor would be much easier to get rid of later without Mama around.

[LanceM]

Anyone notice that right before they did the tribe swap and Jeff was talking about how pairs can be very dangerous during this game they immediately focused in on Baylor?  Yeah she and Missy aren't going anywhere anytime soon. They are going to do some damage.

[candall]

I have a bugaboo about promising outcomes that can't possibly be foreseen.  (Olivia Benson is constantly promising people she'll protect them if they testify and five minutes later they're dead.)  So Missy annoyed me greatly by dismissing any rationing concerns with "It'll be fine, I promise" in her patronizing voice, when she knows damn well her old tribe will be going hungry that night.  That and the whole "Mama Bear" shtick would have earned her my vote.

 

Then I come here and read the long-term strategy posts and realize I probably wouldn't make it very far on Survivor.  : )

[blackwing]

I didn't understand Jon and Jaclyn's reasoning to split their votes between Kelly and Dale in case Dale had an idol. They split them and it was 2 votes each for 3 people. They effectively gave Keith all the power. Why? I guess Keith could have been in on it with them but if so it would have been nice if we had actually seen a conversation.

And why Kelly instead of Dale? Unless they figure Dale is an easy goat to boot later. Or maybe they thought Dale would use an idol on himself and not Kelly since they thought he thought he was more disliked.

Shut up Josh and Reed with your practically crying about how unfair it was you had no food. Why not look in the forest for anything? Why not try and kill those birds? If it's not allowed to kill birds, why not shoo off the birds and eat that dead fish they were eating?

[kelnic86]

I was much more annoyed at Hunahpu and their constant need to barter with Jeff for food/flint/fishing gear or whatever than I was about Missy and the rice. Oh, you need flint? How about you try making fire the old fashioned way? You want your fishing gear? Why don't you try making a spear or a fishing rod out of a stick or something. So, now you're almost out of rice? There's other ways to get some food out there. Just use your brain. Sure it'll be much harder. But at least you'll be surviving, which is partly what the show is about. Didn't these people ever watch Survivorman or Man vs Wild or read about some kind of survival guides before coming out there? Not saying they didn't try any these things before resorting to bartering with Jeff. They probably have. But I would've liked to have seen some footage of them trying instead of them just laying around complaining about it.

[CarolMK]

I'm not sure why Kelly was voted out either. But on the Survivor FB board, all the folks over there are bitching about how they dont' want to see men kissing. Sheesh, what is the big deal? I think the emphasis was on all of the couples who were together reuniting.