S30.E12: Holding On For Dear Life

[kikaha]

Why didn't Mike vote for Dan to continue the upheaval?

 

Because Mike still hopes to win Dan to his side.  He can't do that if he votes against him.  

 

I don't think the majority wasted a vote.  They wanted to take out Tyler, and did so.  Throwing votes at Mike didn't change the outcome.  I also think they had to vote for Mike as well, in the extremely unlikely case he did not play the idol.

 

Overall I liked the episode a lot.  Rodney's team had almost unbelievably bad luck at the RC, though his screwup with the balls cost them the win.  Dan is surprisingly good at a number of challenge activities, and actually made a few semi-insightful comments.  Enjoyed listening to Carolyn's thinking --  she is one of the two most dangerous players still in the game -- and believe she definitely made the right choice to boot Tyler.  (Give the assist on that move to Shirin and Mike from the previous tribal.) 

 

Cooker30 (one of our fellow posters) makes a great observation in the Season 30 Previews and Speculations thread, which I won't spoil by repeating, but urge anyone interested in the next episode to read. 

[CletusMusashi]

The only thing that would have made Roidney losing out on the challenge even funnier would have been if the reward consisted of cake, ice cream, and pony rides.

[Andromeda]

Rodney, "they just turned me into the psychotic person I am."  How can ya not love the guy?

That was such a WTF thing to say! I thought it might end up being the episode title. I don't think he knows what psychotic truly means, anymore than "collective."

[Andromeda]

Moving post to the Survivor voting thread.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Andromeda

[Shelby]

Rodney, "they just turned me into the psychotic person I am." How can ya not love the guy?

I could really get behind this post if it read:

Rodney, "they just turned me into the psychotic person I am." What a moron.

[millennium]

Rodney's birthday display following the challenge was one of the most pathetic Survivor moments I can recall.  I cringed.

 

But, nothing tops the creeping shame I felt when Jeff went all-out describing the goodies Survivor had so generously provided for the island kids.   "Things we take for granted but they don't have."   And the truck full of cheap, colorful toys rambles into the orphanage clearing amid the jungle trees, and there's the school bus and it's all looking like every movie about Jim Jones I've ever seen, and all I can think is that these kids have nothing, not even fathers (as Mike so insightfully pointed out), not even families  ... 

 

This ... grotesque show gives the orphans a few thousand dollars worth of self-congratulatory swag ... meanwhile, it's preparing to hand over ONE MILLION DOLLARS to one of those awful, nasty, narcissistic people who whine about not getting rewards and argue over family letters and spew hatred at one another.   Whose idea of hunger is going without cheeseburgers for a week.  Ugly human beings consumed by one ambition -- to out-asshole each other. 

 

And I'm watching it.

[mojoween]

Did Tyler say at TC that he would be surprised if he went home? I was half-listening at that point and didn't rewind to check.

[cooksdelight]

Did Tyler say at TC that he would be surprised if he went home? I was half-listening at that point and didn't rewind to check.

Yes, more or less, he thought he was safe. He and the other guys were convinced Mike would not play his idol and would go.

[himela]

(Commenting while watching the episode:)

But before that, I listened to Shirin's interview with Rob and I was surprised when she said that after Mike showed his HII in the tribal council Jeff started yelling to them “don't look at each other, we are voting now!”. I'm wondering, is Jeff allowed to do this? I mean if the players are able to communicate with each other, why not do it? Don't they have time to plan their votes before the tribal council? What changed when a HII was revealed? Why would Jeff ruin someone's game? (I know why, he wanted chaos to be created so that they act pananoid and vote for each other and it happened). But I am still wondering, why is Jeff allowed to ruin one or more players' game? For instance now Tyler's and Will's game may be ruined cause they voted for a person in their supposedly alliance, Dan. If they had the time and chance to discuss it, things maybe have been different.

So Tyler used a very good argument to justify his vote to Dan “my name was thrown so I had to vote for someone else so I would force at least a tie”. The question Dan has to have is, why him? And the answer should be, cause he is disposable. I hope Dan reacted without making a big deal out of it not from plain stupidity but from strategy. He doesn't want to show he doesn't trust them until he plans his next move. Lets hope that's why he was so cool.

I'm wondering why Sierra wanted to replace Mike on the reward challenge, it doesn't make sense cause he already knew how to handle this and there was no chance Sierra would get the hang of it and win the last 2 throws. I think she only reacted like she was annoyed on Mike who didn't let her try only to show that she is not only a goat who doesn't do anything. She already knew Mike would not quit.

I find it so stupid from Carolyn's part to not give her spot for the reward to Rodney when she knew how much it meant to him. In fact I have no idea why people get so crazy about becoming the ambassadors and give gifts to the kids while they have surely not paid for them. In my eyes they are just there for the food, they don't need survivor to give to charity and help poor kids. So Carolyn saying it's a one time life opportunity is BS for me. She is too safe with her HII and she thinks she can easily go to final 3 without making any sacrifices and this will come back to hunt her. In fact Carolyn was just lucky throughout the game. The only thing I give her is finding the idol. Everything else have just fallen to her laps. The powerful strong alliance with Tyler, Rodney willing to flip on his team and take her and Tyler to the final 4, that's all pure luck. She should be willing to make some sacrifices to show her appreciation to Rodney cause, even if we don't like the thought of it, he is the reason Tyler and Carolyn are still there sitting pretty.

When Carolyn said with this childish way “who knows, it could happen” I felt disgust for her. You are an old lady, you can behave like this your husband but not on national tv madam. And she would NEVER ally with Mike cause she knows she would have like under 0% chance of winning. Editors still trying to make this interesting and using whatever stupid think they can get out of the players but I'm not buying it. Dan will leave this time, Mike will follow, then Sierra and boom the original after the merge final 4 will be there to show us what a boring season that was.

Has Carolyn made a tatoo of eyeliner or whatever it's called? Omg that's a shallow old lady…

Well if Sierra does not win even this immunity challenge after claiming how athletic she is bla bla, she'll just be a useless competitor.
We still don't get to see Dan's and Sierra's voting plans for the tribal council. This leaves a suspicion of Dan doing something crazy like allying with Mike to get rid of Tyler but I see almost no chance of this happening.

What the hell? Carolyn voted for Tyler to go? Woohoo that's some crazy shit going on here! This bitch is smarter than she looks. Eliminate the only person who knew about her HII. As of this episode I think Carolyn has a great chance of winning, given that Mike does not go to a crazy winning every single immunity challenge thing.

And if she does, as much as I dislike her as a person, I will still be happy to see her win.

[JudyObscure]

I hope, when they package the DVD for this season, the cover is a big close up of Sierra's eyebrows, because they are actually the most interesting thing about it.

Hubs and I have a habit of forgetting our own birthdays and then celebrating by letting the birthday person chose the movie at Red box, so we cracked up at Rodney's birthday rant and then laughed a little harder every time they came back to him still doing it, until we were almost on the floor. Rodney the cool, calm and collective, psychopathic Road Runner never fails to entertain me.

[kstar821]

Rodney sure didn't stay calm, cool and collective tonight, did he?

 

Mike FTW!

[Puffaroo]

Them:  They just turned me into the psychotic person I am.

 

Me:  COOL!

 

P.S.  What a big baby.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Puffaroo

[ghoulina]

I'm probably a horrible person, but I was SO actively rooting for Rodney's team to lose that reward challenge. Fuck him and his birthday petulance. He acts like a 5-year-old. I would really like to meet this woman who raised him, because he is a bitter, spoiled baby. No, but I started out wanting them to lose, because I'm sure they thought they had that thing on lock - with the three men. But what do you know? Mike and two GIRLS beat you. Hah! And it was quite the comical loss too. Dan struggling through the nets, forgetting the freaking bag of balls. What maroons. 

 

And it was interesting to see how things changed for Carolyn after her time without Tyler. I would have much preferred for Dan to go home, but I get why she did what she did. I haven't been a huge fan of hers throughout the game, but she is one of the few people left who I could see giving a vote to. At least she appears to have her head in the game. Tyler deserved to go, IMO, simply because he has seemed so indifferent about the whole game. 

 

Rodney has made decent moves, SOME of the time, but I could never see voting for him because he's just such a gross person. 

 

Will is the ultimate goat. He has been completely and utterly useless in the game, and pissed off quite a few on the jury. 

 

Dan has done nothing but ride coattails to the end himself. And he doesn't have a ton of fans either. Can we just address the fact that he looks like some evil mouse from An American Tale? He was seriously creeping me out when he got all up in Will's face about how far they will go in this game. "As God as my witness - I will chew your face off!" That's what I expected him to say. 

 

Sierra has basically been a non-entity. Maybe she's just been playing it safe because she had no other choice? Maybe that's the smart move. We shall see. 

 

I'm just hoping Mike can make something happen or win another IC because, as it stands, he's the only person out there I actively like. 

[Haleth]

This episode is worth watching just for the RC/Rodney's tantrum.

 

[sarcasm]Oh, but he was only pretending to be mad, right?  To make Mike think Rodney wanted to be voted out?  That was his cunning plan![/sarcasm]

 

Why didn't Mike vote for Dan to continue the upheaval?

 

I'm 99.9% sure Mike has never voted for a BC since the merge.  I think he wants to use his loyalty to either get Dan back on board in an alliance or if Dan is sitting on the jury, to get his vote.

[BusyOctober]

When Jeff asked Dan about his big advantage and if anyone had asked him about it, Dan made it sound like everyone swarmed all over him at camp begging for info.  Have we seen one instance of that to back up his claim?  The only one who really seemed to care was Tyler.  He sneaked a peek in the bag to read it then Tattle-Tylered to Carolyn.  We haven't seen anyone else begging Dan for info.  More of Dan's "I'm sooo popular!" delusions?

 

I really want Rodney to stay just until the last TC before FTC.  I want him to never win a reward or challenge for the duration of his Survivor time.  I think it will be amusing to see his tiny Napoleonic head explode when it registers that everyone else got something extra except him.  I laughed out loud when he was whining about having to "do chores" on his b-day! What a baby.

[Puffaroo]

Rodney, "they just turned me into the psychotic person I am."  How can ya not love the guy?

 

Easy.

Going to throw my votes in now for next season!  Thought it would be a bigger announcement than it was.

 

You HAVE to vote for ten people of each gender.  That's just dumb.  Frankly, I don't remember most of these people.

[Wings]

 

But before that, I listened to Shirin's interview with Rob and I was surprised when she said that after Mike showed his HII in the tribal council Jeff started yelling to them “don't look at each other, we are voting now!”. I'm wondering, is Jeff allowed to do this?

 

It sounds to me that production wants them silent and looking concerned about the vote for camera shots.   They don't want a bunch of confident people socializing when the vote is supposed to be suspenseful . 

[Primetimer]

One Survivor uses his most valuable skill -- his ability to annoy others -- to attempt a blindside.

Read the story

[FineWashables]

I cringed watching Mike's Ego play that challenge.  Sierra is yelling that she can do it, and he won't back off to let anyone else try.  Just dumb luck that he pulled it off.  It really says something about how unlikeable this season's cast is that I'm rooting for Mike not because I like him, but because everybody else in the game hates him.

[Wings]

I cringed watching Mike's Ego play that challenge.  Sierra is yelling that she can do it, and he won't back off to let anyone else try.  Just dumb luck that he pulled it off.  It really says something about how unlikeable this season's cast is that I'm rooting for Mike not because I like him, but because everybody else in the game hates him.

 

I thought this too, at first.  They were down to the crunch of one ball (maybe 2) left.  There is a bit of a learning curve on any physical challenge and he already had the feel down.  Putting in anyone else, at that point, was a risk.  

Edited May 8, 2015 by wings707

[ozlsn]

Or at the very least, that Rodney should have had to carry the balls with him as he crawled through the net the second time.  I was bummed when he got away with tossing them to Tyler.

 

I thought he should have had to get down from the frame when they had the ladder wrong and fix it before climbing it.  They got a lot of leeway on that challenge.

 

It may be just me but it really irritates me when they do a team challenge with an odd number of players left.  They could have done this challenge last week with two teams of 4.  I realise some of it is probably to stir things up by having someone excluded but given we never see the schoolyard picks and it seems to have had no effect on anyone in the times they've done it (that I remember anyway!) I kind of wish they'd stop it.  Let everyone compete for reward, geez.

 

I just wonder if the editors had no where to go.  A horrible, bland cast, and anyone that was likable or playing any sort of strategic game has already gotten voted off.  So why draw more attention to them than the people who are actually still here.  Really one of the worst and most boring seasons ever.  I can see why they are jump starting S31.  They want to wipe everyone's minds of this.

 

I think the editors really hate this cast.  Judging by the editing at least.

 

Overall I liked the episode a lot.  Rodney's team had almost unbelievably bad luck at the RC, though his screwup with the balls cost them the win. 

 

I didn't think there was so much bad luck as there was screwing up, and they seemed to get a lot of leeway on that.  If all three of them had had to go through the mesh again, or even if they'd had to get down, fix the ladder and then keep climbing then they wouldn't have been anywhere near as close as they were.

 

I'm probably a horrible person, but I was SO actively rooting for Rodney's team to lose that reward challenge.

 

Dan has done nothing but ride coattails to the end himself. And he doesn't have a ton of fans either. Can we just address the fact that he looks like some evil mouse from An American Tale? He was seriously creeping me out when he got all up in Will's face about how far they will go in this game. "As God as my witness - I will chew your face off!" That's what I expected him to say. 

 

I'm just hoping Mike can make something happen or win another IC because, as it stands, he's the only person out there I actively like. 

 

I'm with you on the hellbound train then, because I was hoping Rodney would lose too.  That really did end up being hilarious. 

 

I hadn't thought of Dan like that but you're right.  He needs a floppy hat.  Chewing Will's face off would at least make the season more interesting.

 

I'm hoping Mike goes on an immunity run and screws over all of them.  Now that I've jinxed it it won't happen though.

[Calamity Jane]

I hope, when they package the DVD for this season, the cover is a big close up of Sierra's eyebrows, because they are actually the most interesting thing about it.

Hubs and I have a habit of forgetting our own birthdays and then celebrating by letting the birthday person chose the movie at Red box, so we cracked up at Rodney's birthday rant and then laughed a little harder every time they came back to him still doing it, until we were almost on the floor. Rodney the cool, calm and collective, psychopathic Road Runner never fails to entertain me.

Meep, meep!

[ghoulina]

I cringed watching Mike's Ego play that challenge.  Sierra is yelling that she can do it, and he won't back off to let anyone else try.  Just dumb luck that he pulled it off.  It really says something about how unlikeable this season's cast is that I'm rooting for Mike not because I like him, but because everybody else in the game hates him.

 

I tend to disagree. I do realize that Mike has tendency to take over challenges and try to do everything himself. But in this case, I think changing it up would be too risky. He may not have made every, single ball count, but he did have the rhythm down. Unless someone is doing HORRIBLY, I think it's best to keep the person who's been doing it in the game. 

[Boilergal]

Poor Poor Rodney - I'm sure he's used to Mommy waking him up by smothering him with hugs and kisses and telling him what an awesome lil boy he is.  Then she gives his favorite breakfast in bed.  While she's laying out his "I'm The Birthday Boy" t-shirt she also fills his room with balloon bouquets and huge happy birthday sweet baby boy banners.  She puts his crown on him and takes him to the amusement park and lets him have all the cotton candy he wants.  Then she invites all of his friends over for  pony rides, magic shows and bounce houses, cake and ice cream.  Of course there are pictures of the whole day to fill her photo album of all Lil Rodney's birthdays.

 

He's never going to find a girl to live up to the standards mommy set.

 

They wasted an opportunity to flush the idol and take out Sierra, leaving Mike and Carolyn alone.  But the alliances are tied up again .

Edited May 7, 2015 by Boilergal

[FineWashables]

 

When Jeff asked Dan about his big advantage and if anyone had asked him about it, Dan made it sound like everyone swarmed all over him at camp begging for info.  Have we seen one instance of that to back up his claim?  The only one who really seemed to care was Tyler.  He sneaked a peek in the bag to read it then Tattle-Tylered to Carolyn.  We haven't seen anyone else begging Dan for info.  More of Dan's "I'm sooo popular!" delusions?

He could be delusional, but I wonder if he was just playing the game by making everybody think that the other members of their alliance had had secret conversations with Dan about working with him.

Edited May 7, 2015 by FineWashables

[Alapaki]

When Jeff asked Dan about his big advantage and if anyone had asked him about it, Dan made it sound like everyone swarmed all over him at camp begging for info.  Have we seen one instance of that to back up his claim?

 

 

The other weird thing is Dan's saying "I don't know whether any of them know what my advantage is."  Now, I assume 95% of the time Dan is just talking out of his ass.  But, under what circumstances, other than what we saw Tyler do, would anyone have any clue what the never-done-before advantage is?  As far as I know, Dan doesn't know that Tyler went through is bag.  That was just weird.

 

I tend to disagree. I do realize that Mike has tendency to take over challenges and try to do everything himself. But in this case, I think changing it up would be too risky. He may not have made every, single ball count, but he did have the rhythm down. Unless someone is doing HORRIBLY, I think it's best to keep the person who's been doing it in the game.

 

 

I'm with ghoulina.  It seems like there was a learning curve to that challenge.  Mike took his time to figure out the amount of force to apply to the see-saw to get the distance he wanted.  Dan, on the other hand, seemed to just be jumping away.  He got lucky with the first few balls, but his last few misses show that he really didn't have any idea what he was doing.

 

They wasted an opportunity to flush the idol and take out Sierra, leaving Mike and Carolyn alone.  But the alliances are tied up again .

 

 

But was are the alliances at this point?  We had Dan saying that Mike is still "public enemy #1".  So, presumably, Dan still thinks he's aligned with Sierra and Rodney in a BC alliance.  But we also saw him thinking he was aligned with Carolyn/Tyler/Will.  Does he still think he's got an alliance with Carolyn and Will?  

 

Rodney presumably still thinks he still has his alliance with Carolyn and Will, but he came pretty close to burning the bridge with Carolyn.  

 

The looks they gave each other make me wonder if Sierra and Carolyn have a grrlpwwr alliance (which, I think, actually might be Sierra's optimal play at this point).  But who's their third?  Or does it matter?

 

And Will . . . . BOSCO!

 

I'm probably a horrible person, but I was SO actively rooting for Rodney's team to lose that reward challenge. Fuck him and his birthday petulance.

 

 

Boy.  I used to think Rodney might be a little SMAHT.  But its RETAHDED for a grown man to expect a PAHTY on his birthday.

[Special K]

I think we need a new category for Will, since he doesn't even fulfill the qualities of a true goat.  Is he a cow?

[dolphincorn]

Stop disparaging cows.

The recap brings up a good point. Can you imagine how insufferable it would have been to listen to Dan telling stories to the orphans about his own adoption?

[blackwing]

I forgot about Dan's "as God is my witness" comment to Will.  What was up with that?  All I could think of was Scarlett O'Hara.  "As God is my witness, I'll never go hungry again.  Cause I'm gonna eat you,"

 

I FF'd through a lot of the TC.  Jeff should have asked Rotney, "so if it's your birthday, do you expect that everyone will just let you win everything?  Maybe if you've been nicer to them these past 30 days people would feel differently about you."

[Boilergal]

But was are the alliances at this point? 

 

The way they've been voting recently would lead me to believe that Mike, Carolyn and Sierra are together.  Dan, Rodney, Will and Tyler were together. 

 

But then again Rodney thinks he's tight with Carolyn, and Tyler thought the same thing.

[laurakaye]

RODNEY.  You are spending your birthday playing "Survivor!"  Yes, you're starving and dirty but there are probably about 497,923 fans who would take your place in a heartbeat so STFU already, you big whiny baby.  I had to rewind when Sierra actually spoke up and said "If I hear the word 'birthday' one more time!"  Good for her.  Not that it would stop Rodney's epic hissy fit, but nice try.

 

Also, Dan and Will's intimate moment by the fire...maybe after 30 days they don't even smell each other, but all I could think was, BLECHHHHHHH.

Edited May 7, 2015 by laurakaye

[Cricketoo]

I don't really get why Carolyn is so unlikeable, but it is completely irrelevant. I try not to judge people on the edit they get since magical elves are magical. I am more or less neutral on her.

 

I am not sure if she did the right thing tonight or not. Keeping goats in the game when you are much closer to not a goat than the rest puts a target on your back. I realize she has an idol, but there are 3 people in the game who almost anyone would take to the end over you at this point. This needs to change for her to win.

 

In a perfect world, she needs to end up at the end with two of Rodney/Will/Dan. Her options tonight were between eliminating someone who could win challenges and beat her at the end vs. preventing a goat trio from aligning. It isn't a bad idea for her at this point because they will likely vote her out last of the 3 outsiders and she could win the final challenge because who else is going to?

 

I think I will puke if Dan/Will/Rodney are the final three. I guess a Rodney win wouldn't be completely undeserved, just not that likeable.

 

In the end, though, I find Mike overplays, Sierra knows what to do but never does it, Carolyn's best path isn't all that exciting, Rodney is entitled but tolerable, Dan is a traditional Survivor goat, and Will...there needs to be a new term for how far beyond a goat Will is.

I think the term is "Will", as in, "he, or she, is a Will".

[dbro]

When Jeff asked Dan about his big advantage and if anyone had asked him about it, Dan made it sound like everyone swarmed all over him at camp begging for info.  Have we seen one instance of that to back up his claim?  The only one who really seemed to care was Tyler.  He sneaked a peek in the bag to read it then Tattle-Tylered to Carolyn.  We haven't seen anyone else begging Dan for info.  More of Dan's "I'm sooo popular!" delusions?

 

 

Agreed that Dan is delusional but in this case I find it inconceivable that he didn't get interrogated by everyone given the potential importance of any advantage in the game. Aside from the snippet of Tyler and Carolyn discussing it in private, I and other posters have been questioning the editing (or complete lack of editing) on this very topic since he first acquired the advantage. And I love how Carolyn played dumb when the subject came up at TC.

[ghoulina]

The recap brings up a good point. Can you imagine how insufferable it would have been to listen to Dan telling stories to the orphans about his own adoption?

 

Oh my gosh, I didn't even think about it. Can you imagine him getting all up in their faces and doing his "extremely important" voice? Yikes. Still so glad that team didn't win. 

[laurakaye]

I hope Probst doesn't waste any time during the reunion wandering into the audience and asking Will's wife, Dan's wife and Rodney's mommy to school us fans on what truly remarkable and compassionate men those three are "away from the game."  Just don't even.  Announce the winner, hand out the check, give Joe his $100,000 for being the only normal player this season, and get us revved up for next season.

Edited May 7, 2015 by laurakaye

[Way Wes Jr]

Not against Mike or Sierra, at least according to Shirin.

 

Based on what she was saying I'd guess the order of potential winners is:

 

1. Mike

2. Sierra

(Tyler probably was here?)

3. Carolyn

4. Rodney

No chance - Dan/Will

 

I think I'd have put Tyler in the nominally second position.  And possibly switch Carolyn and Rodney - remember that Carolyn wasn't liked by Shirin, Hali, and Jenn.

 

 

I may have solved the mystery of Sierra's eyebrows...  Looks to me like she has a scar over her left eye where the brow was and may have her left brow tattooed because of it, but not the right.  When we see her right profile that eyebrow is blonde and full.  Sometimes it's noticeable, like in the bright sun, sometimes not, like at tribal.  Check out the preview, after Mike tells her and Carolyn that Dan is voting for one of them and pause when she looks at Carolyn.  The scar appears to continue between her eyes and up into her forehead a little. 

 

I haven't noticed the eyebrows - I can't be bothered.  But, a rodeo competitor with a head scar?  What are the odds?  </sarcasm>  [but, just so I am not misunderstood, really good analysis.  But wouldn't she have gotten both tattooed, to aid her "modeling" half of her career?] 

 

I forgot about Dan's "as God is my witness" comment to Will.  What was up with that?  All I could think of was Scarlett O'Hara.  "As God is my witness, I'll never go hungry again.  Cause I'm gonna eat you,"

 

 

I've read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  Now I want to see Gone with the Wind and Zombies.

[laurakaye]

Agreed that Dan is delusional but in this case I find it inconceivable that he didn't get interrogated by everyone given the potential importance of any advantage in the game. Aside from the snippet of Tyler and Carolyn discussing it in private, I and other posters have been questioning the editing (or complete lack of editing) on this very topic since he first acquired the advantage. And I love how Carolyn played dumb when the subject came up at TC.

 

I find it inconceivable that he hasn't been shown strutting around camp bloviating and pontificating on what his special powers might be to everyone.  We know he loves to talk about himself.

 

But yes, I don't get why not one person (that we know of) has sidled up to him and asked him about the advantage...especially since it hasn't been used yet.  If it were an advantage in a challenge, it's likely he would've had to use it already.  Is there no one guessing that it has to have something to do with voting?

[jumper sage]

Rodney - what a big baby!  Maybe if you didn't screw up the reward challenge, maybe you would go on the reward.  Seriously, who cries like that over the age of 5?

[fishcakes]

Why in the world would Tyler not throw a vote at Dan? 

 

That made no sense to me, especially because we saw Tyler and Will talking about voting for Dan. Maybe they thought they were splitting the vote, with the men voting for Mike just in case he didn't play his idol, Mike voting for Tyler, and the women voting for Dan. If Mike plays his idol, Dan goes home. But it's still damned stupid for Tyler, knowing that he's on the block himself, not to be one of the people voting for Dan; at worst, it could have been a tie between Dan and Mike, but then they could vote Mike out on the revote. Although I actually prefer that it worked out this way because I want Mike to win and I just think of Tyler as the squinty mascot for some evil peanut butter brand.

 

Is there anyone worth voting for on the list? I'm lazy to create a CBS login/password because I think there won't be.

 

You can also log in with your Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ (ha ha, like anyone has a Google+) account.

 

Hubs and I have a habit of forgetting our own birthdays and then celebrating by letting the birthday person chose the movie at Red box, so we cracked up at Rodney's birthday rant and then laughed a little harder every time they came back to him still doing it, until we were almost on the floor. Rodney the cool, calm and collective, psychopathic Road Runner never fails to entertain me.

 

Even when I was a kid, my birthday wasn't that important to me. The first time I forgot it completely was when I turned 10 and my family was on vacation so no one was particularly keeping track of the dates, and when my dad remembered at about 7:00 that night, I didn't care. I probably didn't have to do the dishes that day, but I also didn't throw a multi-hour tantrum, Rodney. He's probably one of those monsters who makes everyone celebrate his birthday week.

 

Ugh, Carolyn. I just find her deeply unpleasant. Her gameplay has been good (though mostly passive), but she reeks of entitlement. If she gets voted out, I can see a Guatemala-Judd-meltdown from her. I was looking forward to that last night when she smugged it up about feeling like she was in charge and then they cut to a frog palming his face, which I was so hoping meant she was getting voted out, but then she won immunity. So disappointing.

 

It seems like Dan did zero scrambling after getting two votes last week, and I don't think he understands that he has goat immunity, so evidently he's even a worse player than we thought. He sits there reassuring Will that "they're" not going anywhere, after he found out Will voted for him. Does he not know that getting votes is a bad thing? How is this guy a superfan?

Edited May 7, 2015 by fishcakes

[CletusMusashi]

Anybody who thought Mike wasn't going to play the idol is far too stupid to be there.

[laurakaye]

Since I'm sure Rodney's birthday usually consists of his mommy taking care of him (BoilerGal's post above was perfect) followed by his "bros" taking him out to get sh!t-faced while making derogatory remarks about every woman that passes within 50 feet of him, I can see why spending a birthday doing something as once-in-a-lifetime as washing dishes in the crystal-clear waters of a beautiful island would be somewhat disappointing.  Especially given that his adopted "Mama C" did not drop everything to wait on him hand and foot on his special day like he expected, and Mike had the audacity to not fall for for Rodney's well-executed "I'm-crazy-vote-me-out" plan.  And his beard itches.  Poor baby Rodney.

 

Just keepin' it real.

[CarolMK]

I have to root for Mike to win. He's playing the best game out there in my opinion.

 

Wondering about voting for who is to be on S 31...my 17 year old son pointed out that Mike is one of the contestants to be chosen, so does this mean that he doesn't win the game? 

Also, I really have to wonder if people from the early seasons are at a disadvantage because many

fans started watching the show a lot later than 2000. Do they even know who Kelly and Theresa are?

[rose711]

Rodney having a tantrum over a birthday when we are seeing sweet, orphaned impoverished children getting small treats shows what a spoiled and awful human being he is inside. It was mind boggling to watch.

I hope he doesn't win a million dollars. I hope none of them win.

I feel editing hates most everyone on this cast. We have the unlikable and the invisible fighting for a million dollars. Even Mike is a boorish, bossy loudmouth. They've made the entire season synonymous with ugly and hateful human behavior. It's a disaster.

[peachmangosteen]

Dan sputtering his Scarlett O'Hara moment directly into Will's mouth, Dan's big Stupidvoice announcing "THAT'S GAME!" and then missing, Dan's sommersault faceplant, Dan's fucking tweed hat. . .

 

It's bad when the highlights reel relies on Dan, the human scrotum.

 

I guffawed so much at this. I'm still laughing actually.

 

LOL at Tyler basically begging Carolyn to play her idol for him. And LOL at him going out without so much as a whimper. I am SO giddy over Tyler getting booted because Mike used the idol he only found because Tyler told him the entire clue and then didn't even bother to look for the idol himself. Yea, Tyler was a really great player. LOL.

 

Fucking Mike at the RC. I get what everyone is saying about it maybe not being wise to switch it up, but Mike has a pattern of doing everything himself but wanting to whine about how no one else (i.e. any woman ever) does anything, yet that's a bold faced fucking lie because the women were doing plenty at the BC camp and were ready to do anything in the RC. Mike wants to look like a hero, like the smartest toughest guy ever, but he also wants to make sure he whines about how everyone else just won't/cant do anything so he can look superior to everyone. This is why I can't warm up to him. Plus, maybe instead of ignoring Sierra/Carolyn as they asked if they can take a turn he could've said there was a learning curve and it made more sense for him to keep going. He's such a dick. He's lucky Will, Dan, and Rodney are bigger dicks than he is.

 

Tyler was the biggest threat to win after Mike so Carolyn booting him made sense, but I do so hope her leaving Dan and his adavantage in the game ends up screwing her over. Good times! 

 

Honestly I hope Sierra wins. She's the only person left whose personality I don't find abhorrent.

 

This has too be the worst season ever. At least in recent memory. It's made even worse by Probst and the contestants hype of it. I feel like I'm in some alternate universe or something. How did all these people think this season would be good tv? How did they think this would be a well-liked cast? It's mind-boggling.

Edited May 7, 2015 by peachmangosteen

[ljenkins782]

The looks they gave each other make me wonder if Sierra and Carolyn have a grrlpwwr alliance (which, I think, actually might be Sierra's optimal play at this point).  But who's their third?  Or does it matter?

 

Yeah, that was about the only interesting thing about last night's TC. I'm interested in next week now that the idol is out of there, leaving a shred of suspense about Mike's survival. 

 

As for Sierra and Carolyn teaming up, it's a good short-term move for Sierra to pull Carolyn in, but she should get rid of her before FTC. I've been wanting Sierra to flip all season to get rid of the annoying people, but I understand why she hasn't gone for it. 

 

That's the crux of the problem with this season, the player's individual best moves are at odds with the viewer experience (well, for MY viewing experience, at least, I shouldn't presume to speak for everyone.) 

 

It makes perfect sense for everyone to want to drag Will and Dan to the end to get a landslide victory for themselves, but it sucks to watch that show. I wish there was some kind of twist to make the goat strategy go away for a season or 2. I much prefer the suspenseful endings of the Yul/Ozzy (and Becky), Tina/Colby or even Rob/Amber variety over the blowouts we get with huge, obvious goats. 

[cooksdelight]

Stop disparaging cows.

The recap brings up a good point. Can you imagine how insufferable it would have been to listen to Dan telling stories to the orphans about his own adoption?

Not only that, but he'd eat all the food to the point the poor kids didn't get any.

[mojoween]

Speaking of frogs, I did love that one shot where a frog jumped out of the water at night and then in the daylight it was a bird taking off out of the water. Neat camera work, that.

This is the most Big Brother season of Survior I've ever seen. No one wants to make the really big move because they're all fine with the status quo.

In one of Dalton Ross's columns today he did a Q&A with Jeff and Jeff basically said that he is going to really go in on Will and Dan about the bad comments about women this season because instead of having to be the impartial host he can just be a guy asking questions. We'll see what happens May 20.

[Alapaki]

I think we need a new category for Will, since he doesn't even fulfill the qualities of a true goat.  Is he a cow?

 

 

I'm thinking Snuffaluffagus.  Because it's almost like he's really there.

[ProfCrash]

Snuffy is really cute so Will cannot be Snuffy. Just no.

 

Hyena maybe

[ElleryAnne]

It makes perfect sense for everyone to want to drag Will and Dan to the end to get a landslide victory for themselves, but it sucks to watch that show.

 

 

This. Times ten.  And I don't even always mind goats or the strategy of keeping them around for FTC, but this season's goats are such unpleasant people on every level.  The non-goats may not be the greatest group ever compiled, but it irks me to see Dan and Will cruising past them to the end by virtue of being awful people as well as awful players.  It's like they're being rewarded for being gross mistakes of casting.