S28.E05: We Found Our Zombies

[Lisin]

A castaway questions a future in the game after a shocking blindside; one tribe revels in comfort after it raids another camp's supplies.

[Tara Ariano]

Here's Trip's post on the episode!

[Eggman]

I don't think I have much to say about this ep beyond what I posted at TWOP, but I just wanted to welcome my fellow TWOPers to our new beach.  There's a pile of bamboo over there on your right.  I'm off to see where the well is. 

[seacliffsal]

Loved the recap, and am happy to be here.  I'm looking forward to lots of discussions about Survivor.  As for this episode, it seems that JL and Spencer are really watching their tribe mates and listening to what everyone is saying.  The implosion of the Brawn tribe (Cliff voted out, Lindsey voting herself out, and Tony acting out) should make the next few weeks really interesting as it all plays out and new alliances emerge.

[dolphincorn]

This was a stellar episode because a lot of game-changing play from the castaways.  I don't believe I've ever got to the merge episode without having a good sense of who could win, but this time I don't have a clue who is going to make it to the end.  There are two idols in play, lots of alliances made on the fly and just enough crazy in the mix to turn this season into a classic.

[LakeGal]

Lindsey just wanted to go home because she wasn't winning anymore.  It was fun when she never had to go to TC.  But once she went and her alliance fell she wanted out. 

[JustAlison]

I have to agree that this is the best season in a very long time! I , too, have no idea who might win...and every week I change my mind about who should! (excepting Lindsey/Lindsie whom I loathed-she never made my jury).

I am on the fence about a few, like Boobs McGee.  On the surface, she  appears to be one thing, but under all that DD bubblehead "I"m not conceited, but..." stuff, I suspect there is a cunning, clever young woman. Happy she has learned the fine art of keeping one's mouth shut. It will serve her well, and I would not be surprised to see her make it deep into the game. 

I guess if I got to choose a winner, I would choose Trish. Unpopular opinion on other forums, which kept me out of the discussion. But I figured new forum, new day, be brave! So here goes. The truth is, I kind of get Trish. It's hard to be over fifty, a woman, and still relevant on television. Lindsey's snark about how 'disgusting' it was to see a woman Trish's age flirting with a man, any man, just made my blood boil. All these young dumb girls had better get it into their heads that they, too, will someday age (GASP) and perhaps no longer be seen as a sexual person by a good majority of the population,  simply by virtue of existing too long. (a phenomenon not experienced by men).   I am so tired of women close to my age group constantly being told they should lock up the old hoohah, and call it a day. So for that comment alone, I want Trish to win.

I got it when Trish made the joke about being a man, too. She is rather masculine in some ways, and likely has been sensitive to it. I've been chubby on and off, and am sensitive to that, and will often make disparaging remarks about my own weight before someone else does. Kind of takes the bite out of it, if I say it first. It also is a way to say 'hey-I know my shortcomings and I can joke about them'. I admire her physicality, and her willingness to throw everything into a challenge, they way she works around that camp, and mostly, I admire the way she took that shit for days and days, from folks who had no reason to be nasty. Add to that the name calling and teeth jokes, and who knows what else she suffered out there, and well, yeah. Trish for the win!

[HurricaneVal]

I suspected this before, but last night confirmed it.  Tony isn't good at math.  "Final Five!  Final Five!"  Erhm, no.  Not really.  Maybe he meant "Final Five" in the new "No Brains" tribe, that is a true statement.  But not final five in the whole game. 

I've never seen a set of castaways play too hard so quickly.  Garrett, Marlins-dude, Tony, and even J'Tia played too hard from the start, and Tasha wanted to scheme deeply from day one, and was so disappointed when nobody else wanted to.  Thankfully, Tasha has backed off from that and now seems to be more thoughful, and Tony is due to be exposed any minute now.

I was watching with a friend of mine, and after Trish (jokingly) said "I'm really a man," my friend was absolutely convinced that she is a post-op trans and kept obsessively looking for evidence.  I could only half watch the show, my friend was cracking me up so much.

Edited

Cross-posted with JustAlison... 

I meant to add something here about Morgan.  She was totally invisible last night, wasn't she?  When the brains+Sarah decided it had to be one of the beauties, it only came down to Alexis or Jeremiah and Morgan was not even mentioned.  She went from front-and-center to waaaay in the background.

Trish isn't my favorite, I haven't been very pleased with her behavior, but neither have I been impressed with Lindsey's.  I wonder if there is something else going on with Lindsey's quitting--like if she has serious anger management issues and was fearing she'd act out and actually assault someone which was why she absented herself from the rest of the tribe.  Hair aside, she kind of had that vibe to her. 

It wasn't very nice for the rest of her tribe to idly wonder where she went, all alone and upset in the cold and dark, and then just shrug and go "meh" over it.  That's some real concern and compassion right there.  To be fair, I'm sure they knew she was accompanied by a camera crew so wan't going to be eaten by jungle beasts or anything.

The message scribbled in the sand wasn't very mature.  Pretty petty, and pointless.

Edited March 28, 2014 by HurricaneVal

[Thylacine]

I thought one of the main takeaways from the episode was, "Wait for the moment down the road when Tony gets his comeuppance, for lo, it will be GOOD." And it will be since he is such a knucklehead who thinks he's great at strategy but is so very not great.

Also, for a season that has had 3 idols in play from Day 1, there has been nearly no talk (shown on TV) about idols. Are players become blasé about idols after seeing them for XX number of seasons?

[Cricketoo]

Was it the first episode where Trish said if she came down on Lindsey, the girl would be in tears?  And, in light of the merge next week, would Lindsey have been on the jury if she had only held on a little longer?  It is very good for Trish that that didn't happen.  

[bafleyanne]

I just hope, and this is an opinion I also saw expressed Over Yonder, that the way this season is going will make the Powers that Be on this show realize that it is SO much better without the Redemption Island nonsense.  This has been the best season in a while as far as I'm concerned.  I'm sort of rooting for Spencer, myself. :)

[Mabdul Doobakus]

Hello TWOP migrants.  I'm trying to make myself comfortable in our new home.  The end of TWOP for some reason made me ponder the eventual end of Survivor.  It has to come some day, doesn't it?  Anyway, I suppose that's a topic for another thread.

I have also been enjoying this season.  I think casting did a pretty good job, and separating the tribes as they did has helped me remember who (almost) everybody is.  It'll be interesting to see if anyone emerges as a truly great player because I don't think we've really seen that yet.  But it's also nice that no one is dominating the season and the air time as we've seen in year's past.

Tony is probably getting more air time than anyone else.  I actually think Tony is fairly clever, but only in the short term.  He seems to lack any long term strategy.  In last night's episode he finally grew so pleased with himself that he had to share how "awesome" he is with everyone else, admitting that he had been lying to a few of his tribemates since day one, admitting he was willing to swear on his son to get people to buy into his lies, and showing he eager he was to screw with other people, when he told everyone about how he had tricked Jeremiah.  I expect people's trust in him to start eroding as weeks go by.

I felt some sympathy for Alexis.  Clearly, she took this game pretty seriously, and it seemed like the early boot was a bit of a blow to her self esteem.  I don't think she was necessarily a bad player.  There's only so much you can control in this game.

[Overwhelming No]

Did Kass forget zombies eat brains?

Alexis was beginning to remind me too much of the Ever-Annoying Eliza, so I was thrilled by her sobbing exit.  

Thanks to everyone here at PTV for making all the migraters feel welcome. 

Edited March 28, 2014 by Boo

[Melina Detroit]

My first post. Another TWoP migrant here. I'm so glad I found somewhere else to go for my Survivor recaps. That has always been 50% of the Survivor experience for me since Season One. First you watch the show, then you hit the recap and forums.

I've enjoyed this season so far, and its complete unpredictability. Who would have guessed 2 weeks ago that the Brains would be in control at this point? Who would have expected Lindsey to decide her only two options were to either beat up Trish or leave the game? Who expected Trish to yell, "I'm really a man!" (Or did I just hallucinate that?)

ETA: Thank you for the incredible feature "Auto-saved content" because naturally I managed to lose my entire first post here. And then found it! This could be a good omen.

[Way Wes Jr]

As usual, I’m going to ignore the fact that the preview clearly shows a merge, and rank by tribe.  Big shuffle next week, as the rankings morph from, “who’s going to make the merge,” to, “who do I think has a chance to make the final three.”

Solana (Purple)

No changes from last weeks rankings.

1. Tony (1)  You still have an HII which will continue to inflate your ratings.  Since 6>5, I hope to be able to drop you like a rock next week.  (Flashes of brilliance, undone by hubris and a desire to be a “character.”)

2. LJ (2)  Also the holder of an HII.  Possible winner’s edit, though lower key than usual for a male winner.  (Especially one that Jiffy Pop is drooling over.)

3. Jefra (3)  Tight with LJ, under-the-radar, and showing flashes of strategy.  Possible UTR winner’s edit ala Natalie.

4. Trish (4)  Tight with Tony, could be in danger if the tribe is worried about keeping “strength” for challenges [which we know isn’t the case, in fact this becomes a positive moving forward.]  Possible F3 goat potential if she is as irritating to her tribemates as her edit is showing us.

5. Woo (5)  Low man on the totem pole.  [And, in danger as an “immunity threat” going forward.  Tell me his MA background wouldn’t be an advantage in many of the endurance challenges that typically favor women.]

OUT Quitter McQuitterson (6)

Aparri (Orange)

Just a minor bit of movement here, as Alexis was already at the bottom...

1. Kass (1)

2. Tasha (2)

3. Spencer (3) A unified three on a tribe of chaos.  [spencer is getting a winner’s edit and will be at the top of these three next week.  I still believe it is possible that last weeks “final three” comment is a contender for this season’s “million dollar quote.”]

4. Morgan (6)  You know who has been playing an actively stealthy game, (as opposed to a passive, typically UTR one,)?  The same woman whose name hasn’t been brought up as a potential nominee despite being singled out as the “weakest” in the first episode, that’s who.

5. Sarah (4)  I’ll go into this later in a bit, but if you thought you were the swing vote before ...

6. Jeremiah (5)  The choice was definitely between you and Alexis, and the Brain triumvirate may have kept you around for “tribal challenge strength.”  [Again, like Woo, this is a liability going forward.]  You made a huge error in not revealing the HII clue to the rest of the tribe in that sliver of opportunity Woo and Tony gave you when they were leaving, before Tony realized he had to get it back from you.  You made a second huge error in not demanding that he show you the instructions that said you had to give it back to him.

OUT Alexis (7)  The Brains thought you reeked of desperation.  And they may have elected to err on the possibility of another tribal Immunity Challenge coming up.

Finally, the merge...  Looking back at the original tribes:

“Brains” - Three of you.  Seem to be unified.

“Beauties” - Four of you.  Fractured, and while LJ and Jefra would probably welcome  Jeremiah back, Morgan is a bit of a wild card.  [And what’s up with LJ’s obsession with Morgan as presented by editing?]

“Brawns” - Four of you.  Woo is edited as on the outs, but he was with Sarah and Trish to vote out Cliff the episode that they couldn’t suck on purpose as much as J’Tia did naturally.  How “betrayed” is Sarah really feeling?  LJ should be able to convince Jeremiah to switch, Tony and/or Trish should be able to do the same with Sarah, giving a 7-4 advantage at best, and and 6-5 as a backup.  Of course if they both stay with nuAparri it’s all Tony’s fault.  (He tried to boot Jeremiah with the HII clue ploy, he poisoned the Sarah well with his leading the “Final Five” victory dance.)  Sweet, sweet freudenschade with a side of hubris sauce, please.

[Ladylou]

Sarah SHOULD be off the Tony train after the "Final Five!" nonsense, but Tony's a clever enough liar that I think he could sway her back.  I think she'd buy it if he said something along the lines of "Nahhh, I was just trying to throw them off our scent/protect you from the vote."

[ProfCrash]

Lamest reason to quit ever. Seriously, you don't like someone so you quit? Really? Trish is annoying. Her antics after tribal were ridiculous but not so ridiculous as to cause someone to quit. Talk about a temper tantrum. Lame lame lame

Tony could be brilliant but he has no guile what so ever. The immunity idol thing was brilliant, down to getting the clue back, but it showed how hard he is playing. Then he tells them all he lied for no good reason and some other lies he was thinking about using. So now they have less reason to trust him and know that he is playing silly hard. Then he tops it all off by jumping around screaming final five. Not bad instincts but so, so wrong.

Brains might have over played their hand by making it clear that they are three. So there is no hope for a final three with them. Then again Morgan and Jeremiah probably missed that and Sarah was so shocked by the Beauty implosion and Tony's betrayal she might have missed it.

[Wings]

My first post here.  You can absolutely count on Tony bringing up the "true blue" bond he and Sara the minute he has a chance.  And he will tell her to keep their alliance secret, of course.  

Tony made a grave mistake revealing the lies he told and didn't tell.  LJ is onto him.

Edited March 29, 2014 by wings707

[RescueMom]

 

.  You made a second huge error in not demanding that he show you the instructions that said you had to give it back to him.

I didn't think about this even in the comfort of my own home where I'm not starved, sleep-deprived, and/or paranoid, so I'm feeling kind of dumb right now.  Really good point.  Yet another reason I would suck at Survivor!

[Jolie]

TWOP lurker and longtime Survivor viewer. I think I've only missed one episode in all the seasons, but I don't have the memory many of you have. People and seasons run together for me, so I'm very impressed when someone can reference the players and what happened many seasons ago. I can barely remember last season. That said, this season really reinforces how much I don't like returning players, and I hope they continue with all new player seasons. This season is turning out to be one of my favorites. I actually don't dislike anyone now that Ms Scary Nuclear Engineer is gone, and have quite a few favorites--Spencer or LJ for the win. 

 

[Joystickenvy]

I didn't like Lindsey, but I think I actually like Trish less now. Kicking someone when they're down is never an attractive quality, even if they're a jerk themselves.

Seems a bit early for another merge, but I guess Lindsey quitting hurried it along. Though I would have liked another week in the current tribes, at least clears up my conundrum of wanting to root for orange, but not wanting LJ or Woo to get voted out.

I wish Boobs McGee would work harder at getting in an alliance, because I find myself liking her for some reason. It will be interesting to see if the brain trust sticks together post merge. I kind of doubt it and I don't think Tony's "final five" is long for this world either.

Definitely like the season so far and I'm hoping things will continue to shift enough to avoid the boring 6 vs 5 until one side is gone elimination march some seasons have had.

[Hanahope]

There's always going to be someone you don't like playing Survivor and quitting because that person is (currently at least) in charge of the game is a stupid reason to quit.  Lindsay didn't even make it half-way.  Big loser.  Next time, stick it out and then when the merge hits, join the other side.

[ratgirlagogo]

Did Kass forget zombies eat brains?

That's what I was thinking! 

This is turning out to be such a great season of Survivor, and after some kind of ho-hum ones recently,  it's all the sadder that I won't be able to play around in the TWOP Survivor archive comparing past seasons, since that's been so integral to my enjoyment of watching the show.  Glad to have found this refuge with so many familar screennames and others soon to become familar but so far I'm kind of wandering on this new beach like something of a zombie myself.

Edited March 30, 2014 by ratgirlagogo

[liqidclark]

Word about quitting being lame. I would expect harsher treatment than it seems they get on the show, if I were to be cast to play the game. I never really understand quitters, aside from those who have serious medical conditions, because the worst they could do is get voted out. Why. The fuck. Would you quit? Do you like one-million dollars before taxes?

Edited March 30, 2014 by Liqidclark

[faceupandsing]

This season is such a refreshing breath of fresh air after so many combinations of redemption island and returning players. I like having to actively work to remember everyone's names and not knowing how people are going to react in different situations. 

 

I didn't like Lindsey, but I think I actually like Trish less now. Kicking someone when they're down is never an attractive quality, even if they're a jerk themselves.

I didn't know someone picking a fight with my least favorite player could actually make the other person look worse but Trish managed to do it. Quitting is almost always inexcusable to me when it's not medically necessary, but there was literally no reason for Trish to go on that rant right after tribal. I still think Lindsey should have stuck it out until the merge when she would be able to plot against Trish to her heart's content, but Trish certainly didn't make the prospect of waiting it out seem very appealing, even with a million dollars on the line. 

[Yeldarbe]

First you watch the show, then you hit the recap and forums

 

That's how I watch many shows.. I'll echo the Thank You.. also a TWoPer here looking for a new place to call home. I love it so far. :)

 

What a sly move by Tony with the fake clue. I truely felt the guys frustration when he was trying to explain to his tribemate how the clue was just a recycle and it was a trick... I'm not so sure I'd believe his story if I didn't know the truth.

Shaping up to be a great season, for sure.

ETA: I'm still rooting for Spencer... he claimed that he wanted to be one of the greatest players evah in the first episode so I'm sticking with him.

Edited March 30, 2014 by Yeldarbe

[Rapunzel]

I've also come over from TWoP and glad to see that it looks like everyone will be gathering here and making this site our new home.

My favorite this season is Spencer. He comes across to me as a more athletic version of Cochran and I really hope he does well.

Tony just annoys me. He is the type who, though may have made a couple of clever moves early on, will have his hubris and ego cause his own demise. He is already a legend in his own mind and seems to believe that he's pretty untouchable. These are things that could definitely lead to him going home with his HII in his pocket. I really hope he is the victim of a blindside of epic proportions.

Edited March 31, 2014 by Rapunzel

[Joystickenvy]

Tony ruined his ruse with the HII clue by being so overly impressed with himself. He's like that guy that tells a funny joke, but then ruins it for everyone by telling it over and over and laughing hysterically every time. He's still trying too hard.

[ratgirlagogo]

 

He's like that guy that tells a funny joke, but then ruins it for everyone by telling it over and over and laughing hysterically every time. He's still trying too hard.

Absolutely. He's a classic overplayer and I'm waiting to see it bite him in the ass.

[Kazootie]

So happy to find a new place to post and read after TWOP.

Great fresh season with some interesting characters.  And happily some of the whiney and unself aware (i'm looking' at you J'Tia! and David and Garrett) have made early exits.  I'm ready for Tony to go any day -- but hope he doesn't move to my town to get work in our local PD.

Go Spencer!

[piewarmer]

Tony ruined his ruse with the HII clue by being so overly impressed with himself. He's like that guy that tells a funny joke, but then ruins it for everyone by telling it over and over and laughing hysterically every time. He's still trying too hard.

 

The Hump Day camel in those Geico commercials springs to mind.

[Hera]

Another TWoP transplant here (I posted as "InsomniaQueen"). Glad that so many of us are moving over here and I hope this influx of people doesn't bother those of you who were here before.

I agree with what others have said about Trish and Lindsey's fight: Trish shouldn't have tried to have that conversation right after Tribal Council and while it's understandable that Lindsey would be upset, she's a brat for quitting. It really does come across as, "My game hit its first obstacle and I gave up."

For me, Woo and Sarah are the most interesting players in the game right now. Both have been good in challenges, haven't screwed anyone over, and have the potential to be free agents after the tribes merge. I don't think either of them will win (unless one of them—probably Woo—goes on an immunity run, especially towards the end of the game), but I do think they each have the potential to play Kingmaker and decide who does.

I agree that this is one of the better seasons. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love the dynamics that starting with three tribes brings to the game. We're now facing a merge situation where none of the original tribes has a majority (or is even half of the merged tribe, like Tandang was in Philippines) and I can't wait to see how that plays out.