S09: Vanuatu

[Whimsy]

Here is your Survivor S9 topic.

[Hera]

I've never seen this season before, but since Eliza Orlins seems to be such a frequent commenter on Survivor and the people playing it, I'm curious about her origin story. I remember her from Fans vs. Favorites, but I wouldn't say it's because of the quality of her game.

Also, I'm going to take it as a warning that this season never seems to rank among anyone's favorites.

[enlightenedbum]

I would say Eliza's improbable run with literally no allies the whole game is the most entertaining story of the season.

[SVNBob]

On 3/22/2017 at 7:49 AM, Hera said:

I've never seen this season before, but since Eliza Orlins seems to be such a frequent commenter on Survivor and the people playing it, I'm curious about her origin story. I remember her from Fans vs. Favorites, but I wouldn't say it's because of the quality of her game.

Also, I'm going to take it as a warning that this season never seems to rank among anyone's favorites.

Yeah, it's not one of the more popular seasons.  It's not bad per se, it just kinda starts with a couple of sour notes and never really picks up like subsequent seasons with lackluster starts.  The fact that Jeff started seeing one of the ladies from this season kind of tainted the reunion as well.  And there's not a lot of great and memorable players either.  At least not many worth seeing again (Jeff's dating opinion notwithstanding.)

On 3/22/2017 at 7:06 PM, enlightenedbum said:

I would say Eliza's improbable run with literally no allies the whole game is the most entertaining story of the season.

For a first watch, yes.  Her story of survival within Survivor is very entertaining.  On re-watches though, I've come to agree with an unpopular op-ed writer that this season is best thought of as a revenge movie.  It's less obvious on a first-watch, but after you know the events of the season, you can kind of see how the revenge story plays out.

[Daisy]

On 3/24/2017 at 3:15 AM, SVNBob said:

Yeah, it's not one of the more popular seasons.  It's not bad per se, it just kinda starts with a couple of sour notes and never really picks up like subsequent seasons with lackluster starts.  The fact that Jeff started seeing one of the ladies from this season kind of tainted the reunion as well.  And there's not a lot of great and memorable players either.  At least not many worth seeing again (Jeff's dating opinion notwithstanding.)

For a first watch, yes.  Her story of survival within Survivor is very entertaining.  On re-watches though, I've come to agree with an unpopular op-ed writer that this season is best thought of as a revenge movie.  It's less obvious on a first-watch, but after you know the events of the season, you can kind of see how the revenge story plays out.

It Totally is. Chris basically votes out Sarge - and goes "This is not a vote for you, it's against them and I am going to make them pay." and he basically did just that it was amazing, truly. it's also one of those seasons where it's like it never should have happened but people got focused on the wrong things. 

[enlightenedbum]

Mostly got focused on "how unbelievably annoying Eliza apparently is in person."

[Daisy]

4 hours ago, enlightenedbum said:

Mostly got focused on "how unbelievably annoying Eliza apparently is in person."

Yup. their Eliza hate basically doomed that alliance. 

[Lamb18]

I'm just starting this season. I love the location, so cool. I was wondering if Eliza was THE Eliza I've read about in this Forum and I guess she is. She has some kind of post-Survivor clique going, right? I'm not surprised. She reminds me of Brook from The Amazing Race except she hasn't burst out crying and saying "I can't do it!"

The men must not have watched Season 6 where the women won the first immunity challenge. I'm glad the women pulled through. Being a sheep person myself, I'm bummed Dolly the sheep farmer was voted out second.

[Lamb18]

I just finished watching this season. I kind of figured Chris would win once we got to the final 6, but I was hoping he wouldn't. I just wanted the women's alliance to last throughout and a women's final 2. But he played really well.

Now I'm wondering which one Jeff dated. Probably not Scout or Twila. My guess is Julie or maybe Lee Ann.

I really liked Jeff's journey from final tribal to CBS studios LA. First there's The Amazing Race flight line on the map starting from Vanuatu (Port Vila?) to Honolulu to LA. Then Jeff parachutes from the plane holding the urn, then tucks the urn in behind the seat of the waiting motorcycle and bikes down to Hollywood. Is this the first season the finale was held in California?

(Jeff is really giving it to Sarge good at the reunion.)

[Star Aristille]

46 minutes ago, Lamb18 said:

I just finished watching this season. I kind of figured Chris would win once we got to the final 6, but I was hoping he wouldn't. I just wanted the women's alliance to last throughout and a women's final 2. But he played really well.

Now I'm wondering which one Jeff dated. Probably not Scout or Twila. My guess is Julie or maybe Lee Ann.

I wanted the women to take it, too, but let's face it.  Ami, LeAnn, and Julie's Eliza hatred sank their alliance.

Oh, and Jeff dated Julie for a while.

[Lamb18]

Thanks, of the women there I thought Julie was the most likely.

[healthnut]

Just finished this season for the first time, definitely not sure why this season is ranked so low it was very entertaining, no much Pagonging post merge. Very lively FTC. The reunion show was above average, Jeff really went above and beyond to get Twila some love & forgiveness. I think he went to Julie too much but we all know why...

[LadyChatts]

On ‎3‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 3:20 AM, healthnut said:

Just finished this season for the first time, definitely not sure why this season is ranked so low it was very entertaining, no much Pagonging post merge. Very lively FTC. The reunion show was above average, Jeff really went above and beyond to get Twila some love & forgiveness. I think he went to Julie too much but we all know why...

I had been re-watching this season and am almost done (just the finale and reunion show left).  It wasn't one of my favorites when it first aired, but wondered if over time (and some truly horrible seasons that followed) my mind would be changed. 

It wasn't.  It mainly boiled down to an unlikable cast for me.  Twila's the only one I found worth rooting for, and it pains me that she's never returned.  Chris's win totally soured me the first time, but strangely I'm finding him not to be such a terrible winner the second time around.  Still would have preferred Twila a million times over, because Chris got very, very, very lucky.  Lucky that the original tribe split had 5 older men to 4 younger men.  Lucky that he was able to form some kind of social bonds with the women after the tribe swap.  Lucky that he was seen as less of a threat and had the social bonds after the men started getting picked off at the merge.  Lucky that he had such a bitter jury and two guaranteed votes in Sarge and Chad.  Oddly, while I wasn't a big fan of Sarge, I would have even preferred him to win over any of the remaining women.  Ami was such an arrogant obnoxious control freak who grew into a barrel of sour grapes when Leann got blindsided and the game didn't go her way.  I can't say I cared for Julie that much, and while I barely remembered Leann, she seemed more tolerable in the beginning.  Scout was okay but kind of a whiner.  And then there's Eliza, who despite bringing humor to both her Survivor appearances, I find one of the most annoying contestants to ever play in 36 seasons of the show.  At the time she was going to college not too far from where I lived, so it was cool to have someone local (the only other person in my neck of the woods who was on Survivor back then was Frank Garrison).  The news media couldn't interview Eliza before she got voted off, but her friends at school did weekly parties and spoke to the media about watching her on TV.

I can't say the pre-merge group was much better.  I loved the location, I loved the cultural elements of how it started and how it was incorporated into the season.  But the cast really put a damper on it for me.

Edited June 8, 2018 by LadyChatts

[Lamb18]

What I remember most about Vanuatu is watching the volcano.

[NutMeg]

What I remember most about Vanuatu is how good Twila was at the strategic part of the game, how happy I was when the Ami group started getting offed, and how surprised I was at Chris winning, because I was still new at this and had no idea that the jury were not aware of how awesome Twila was. And of course this was my first weird reunion, with Jeff focusing on Julie & Co in a way that seemed disproportionate (little did I know that was still fair, in terms of what it later came to be). With time, I realised Chris played the social game perfectly for that season, but I still and always will feel bad for Twila. And I remember Scout fondly, not only did she survive the curse of the old woman, she survived until the very end, and she, at least, voted for Twila to win :) 

[Corporal Agarn]

Just finished watching this season. I was not a fan of Twila but my God, scout was right about the others being so damn self righteous in their criticism of her ‘swearing on her son’ controversy. What was the big deal? Have these people not watched Survivor before? 

I liked Chris and thought he deserved the win. The whole thing with Julie at FTC was weird. I assume most of this “strong bond” they had was edited out because I honestly don’t even recall seeing them talk to each other in any meaningful way until the volcano trip. 

[healthnut]

Twila was before her time. Tony swore on everybody and won. Vanuatu had a bitter, bitter jury but the final tribal was so entertaining. It reminds me of what I miss with the new format. 

[ljenkins782]

On 7/19/2018 at 2:19 PM, healthnut said:

Twila was before her time. Tony swore on everybody and won. Vanuatu had a bitter, bitter jury but the final tribal was so entertaining. It reminds me of what I miss with the new format. 

I have to assume that gender played a role in the difference between how Twila and Tony were viewed.

I need to rewatch this one, it was a weird, but interesting season. Chris does deserve credit for surviving against all odds. IIRC, he bombed out on the first IC and lost it for his team. Points for rallying the older men and flipping the "keep the strong young guys" trope on its head. 

But Twila played a really good game too. She suffered for being up against one of the best bullshitters at FTC, her social game was her weakest component and it was by far his strongest. 

[NutMeg]

Totally. And I'll raise you one: Chris may not have won if Twila hadn't pointed him to the weakest link in the women's alliance. But for some reason, Twila was never winning the season, which is a damn shame. As much as Scout used to be mocked, she'll always have my respect, not the least for being the only one who got Twila and her game, and defended her/it against unwinable odds and a hostile audience.

[ljenkins782]

5 hours ago, NutMeg said:

Totally. And I'll raise you one: Chris may not have won if Twila hadn't pointed him to the weakest link in the women's alliance. But for some reason, Twila was never winning the season, which is a damn shame. As much as Scout used to be mocked, she'll always have my respect, not the least for being the only one who got Twila and her game, and defended her/it against unwinable odds and a hostile audience.

One of the benefits of working from home is being able to have stuff on in the background, I'm already at the merge episode of this one after deciding to rewatch it this morning, lol. (Though Hulu seems to randomly skip episodes here and there so I only have the "last week on Survivor" to know what happened in those episodes.

I'm looking forward to seeing who you're talking about, I assume it's Julie, but not sure. 

Chris is truly an impressive BS-er all the way through, he manages to relate to each person exactly on their level (bitching about work ethic to Sarge, making an allegedly accidental comment to Chad [with the prosthetic leg] about Chad and Sarge both "having a leg up on" himself, etc.). 

Twila makes me sad in a certain way. She's gruff, but she's no Sue Hawk, she seems like she might have actually wanted to relate to the other women a little more but was just awkward and didn't know how. 

Scout is someone that I'm not sure I'd like in real life, that hippy-dippy vibe isn't quite my thing, but if she went against the group and defended Twila (can't remember from first watch), good for her. 

[healthnut]

9 hours ago, ljenkins782 said:

Though Hulu seems to randomly skip episodes here and there so I only have the "last week on Survivor" to know what happened in those episodes.

This is super frustrating. Luckily, when I was on my all season binge I had CBS All Access. I want to rewatch seasons 4-8 but they are all missing episodes.

[LadyChatts]

Why would they be missing episodes?  That's weird (and really annoying).  

Quote

Totally. And I'll raise you one: Chris may not have won if Twila hadn't pointed him to the weakest link in the women's alliance. But for some reason, Twila was never winning the season, which is a damn shame. As much as Scout used to be mocked, she'll always have my respect, not the least for being the only one who got Twila and her game, and defended her/it against unwinable odds and a hostile audience.

What's more of a damn shame is Twila hasn't ever returned but Eliza and Ami both have.  Chris just got super, super lucky.  That's all his win boils down to.  I found Scout to be annoying, but I can agree with you.  I thought she and Twila were a great alliance duo, and looking back and seeing how the show and casts have evolved through the years, I get her personality.  

[ljenkins782]

8 hours ago, LadyChatts said:

Why would they be missing episodes?  That's weird (and really annoying).  

What's more of a damn shame is Twila hasn't ever returned but Eliza and Ami both have.  Chris just got super, super lucky.  That's all his win boils down to.  I found Scout to be annoying, but I can agree with you.  I thought she and Twila were a great alliance duo, and looking back and seeing how the show and casts have evolved through the years, I get her personality.  

I have no idea. For this season, they start with Episode 2 and then somewhere in the middle, there's just a random episode here and there that isn't included.

I wonder if Twila was ever interested in returning. I can imagine Probst not being interested in seeing her back, as she's neither an alpha male nor a young hot chick. I suspect she would struggle a second time around without the likes of Scout or Sarge around (she and Sarge had a nice relationship until things fell apart at the end). 

ETA:

Quote

I'm looking forward to seeing who you're talking about, I assume it's Julie, but not sure. 

ETA: quoting myself to say I think I was wrong, you were probably referring to Eliza. I have the final episode on right now and bonehead Eliza is bragging about her challenge prowess just before the F4 challenge. Great timing on that, way to plant the seed in Chris' head that he should take her out to leave his competition at F3 as Scout (who had zero chance with that knee) and Twila, who was just okay in challenges. 

Chris continues to impress me with his bullshitting skills. His one-on-one game is incredible, the way the editors intercut his interviews cutting them each down with scenes of him making an extremely convincing show of alignment to each of them to their faces. Interesting that I don't hate him the way I hated Brian Heidik for playing the exact same game. Heidik just seemed so slimy IRL.

Edited July 25, 2018 by ljenkins782

[RescueMom]

Watching this season for the first time, and in episode 3 they did something I haven't seen before that I found interesting (I haven't seen all seasons so maybe they did something similar in another season). Both tribes went to tribal; the first part of the challenge was for reward, and the winning team got to compete for individual immunity in the second part. Then the immunity winner (John) spent the day with the other tribe and was required to pass the immunity necklace on to one of the women after his tribal was done. With so many idols in play these days, doing something like that maybe wouldn't be as interesting, but he was really smart both in getting a lot of information on the dynamics of the women's' tribe *and* how he decided who to give immunity to (picking Ami because he knew she was safe, which should have pissed off nobody, we'll see next episode.) 

[marys1000]

On 7/19/2018 at 9:55 AM, Corporal Agarn said:

Just finished watching this season. I was not a fan of Twila but my God, scout was right about the others being so damn self righteous in their criticism of her ‘swearing on her son’ controversy. What was the big deal? Have these people not watched Survivor before? 

I liked Chris and thought he deserved the win. The whole thing with Julie at FTC was weird. I assume most of this “strong bond” they had was edited out because I honestly don’t even recall seeing them talk to each other in any meaningful way until the volcano trip. 

I agree.  Didn't she have to apologize and apologize and like do a whole apology tour or something?  I don't get it.  I liked her and I you could tell she didn't like what she had done.  But she is someone that a million dollars is a LOT of money.  Her son would be happy.  I was pretty disappointed in Sarge's whole morality stance. 

Edited January 12, 2019 by marys1000

[txvoodoo]

I'm going through all the seasons and rewatching.

I don't remember seeing this season at all, but it's probably because I was undergoing a lot of surgery when it was on, and was on the Good Drugs! 

Very disappointing, though. I didn't like anyone who had a chance of winning! Good god, the final TC was so self-righteous. It's Survivor! People lie! Get over it! I wish I could hear Sandra lecture them all.