S32.E11: It's A 'Me' Game, Not A 'We' Game

[Tara Ariano]

Quote

One castaway holds the key to individual immunity and guarantees themselves a shot at the final six. Meanwhile, a fractured alliance threatens to fall apart.

[llongori]

I'd like to thank all who posted last week.  I was not going to watch after the sabotage and smugness of the previous week.  But I came here and read who was ousted and decided I could watch.  I'll be on board tonight hoping to see the other nasty person go home.  :)

[Boilergal]

I feel like I superstitiously need to say. 

I hate that I'm not excited for tonight's episode! 

[Lantern7]

Crap. Jason lives. On the bright side, so does Mark. For now, anyway.

Awesome to see Scot in his natural habitat . . . the bench. Probst should have given him breakaway pants that he would never remove. On the downside, if Jason makes it to Day 39, he would get $100,000 because Scot voted for him, and the eventual winner would get the others. That would count as a loss for me.

"Meh" on Julia leaving. Surprised Tai didn't play his idol. And he's in a better situation than that fat pantload Dan in having two votes, because nobody else has an idol to play after being spooked.

[Drogo]

This season could have benefited from the casting of someone with a real sense of humor, like Jason's tattoo artist. 

[omophagia]

Voting out Julia instead of Kyle/Jason makes at least some degree of sense, in that she demonstrated that she had some real aptitude within each of the skill sets a player needs to win the game, whereas he could likely only be competitive against Joe at the end. But it may have been the better move to take out Tai to flush the remaining idol and his advantage; I don't see how he's as much of a threat to win as those still active in the game seem to believe he is, but the idol / extra vote combination along with his erratic play to this point all make him dangerous to Lee around if I'm, say, Cydney or Michelle.

Aubry and Cydney would be my preferences for the winner based on those left, but the editing in this episode definitely seemed to be laying the groundwork for Michelle's endgame, and I'm eager to see how that may yet play out.

The best part of the episode, though, had to be the reaction shots of Scot, with his top-buttoned polo and permascowl. He looked like a surly middle schooler on picture day.

[TaraS1]

All I can figure about that tattoo on Jason's back is that he let his kids draw it.  Scratch that - he got them drunk and then let them draw it.

So does Scot normally dress and sit like Forrest Gump?  

[Ms Blue Jay]

Right now I just want to say that I really enjoyed Michelle being so touchy with Jeff after winning Immunity.  And that she was a beautiful crier.

As for Debbie Wanner all cleaned up on the jury - Does anyone know Daria Werbowy's campaigns for Celine?  I think she reminds me of that.

https://www.google.ca/search?q=daria+werbowy+Celine&espv=2&biw=1082&bih=557&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjE6ea9vrHMAhVon4MKHZqJCrwQ_AUIBigB

[Mreid]

For me Jason is much more enjoyable to watch without Scot around I can appreciate the fight of a player when they are on the bottom.  I really thought Tai was going home, they really fooled me at that Tribal council. I wont miss Julia, I didn't dislike her, but she had such a crappy edit pre merge that she wasnt very memorable I am surprised she made it this far TBH.  Michelle wasnt going home though even if she lost that immunity. 

[North of Eden]

Gold! Pure Gold....the segment where Mark the chicken tries not only to save himself from the chopping block but warn and save Tai from the Tribal Council version of the chopping block! That was awesome.

LOL moment of the night was when they came back from drawing rocks or whatever and it was revealed that Jason was the one who had no shot at competing in the reward...and it not like anyone was going to take him. It was the cherry on top of the run of bad luck he's had.

Speaking of the reward...I couldn't help comparing the arms on the three women as they sat around, The complete lack of definition in Aubrey's arms comapred to Cyndey's jumped out at me....with Michelle's falling somewhere in between the two. I don't know I guess I am just in awe of what kind of routine Cydney must go through to get a body like that.

I was sure that they would whip out the Gross Foods competition in order to give Jason more of chance win immunity because keeping him around might make things more interesting from the producers standpoint...but turnout they ddin't need to. Oh and I really do hope they do a Gross Food challenge because that is always a highlight of the season and it ALWAYS shows who is most committed to this game. To this day nothing will ever top in terms of grossness of the people of SURIVOR 3 drinking blood!!! 

Not to sound suspicious but I wonder how much the producers kind of got the contestants to play up the "Tai may be voted out" as it seemed very unlikely Cyndey would flip and turn her allies against her.

Seeing the Jury again reminded me how much I hate everyone of them except Debbie (strangely...I thought she looked fairly attractive at Tribal Council).There was speculation a few weeks ago Debbie was crushing on young Julia so she's probably going to be very, very happy to have her at Ponderosa.

Edited April 28, 2016 by North of Eden

[Haleth]

I thought that was pretty suspenseful, I really didn't know if Michelle and Cydney had flipped or not.  I suspected/hoped not, but there was a glimmer of doubt.  Glad it was Julia over Tai at this time, but they are really going to have to take him out soon.  Julia really was an immunity threat and would have any male jury members (plus Debbie and Michelle) wrapped around her finger.  It was a natural choice to vote her out ASAP.  I'm glad Cyd and Michelle saw that too.

[riverheightsnancy]

Hubris...thy name is Bounty!  Gee, I love the lack of insight. Bounty would never admit to Tai that he and Lurch were TOTALLY planning on booting Tai next and Tai's gut feeling WAS correct. I would still love Tai to win, but I doubt it will happen. Joe is so invisible. He must have really pissed someone off. 

[Guest]

As long as Tai or Jason don't win, I'm fine with any of them remaining contestants winning.  I liked Tai until he joined the evil alliance and dumped water on the fire to be spiteful.  But now, I just want him gone.

Last night's episode was pretty good, I thought.

[ghoulina]

I definitely think Michele and Cydney made the right call with this one. I know Tai didn't play his Idol, but he could have. It looked like he really came close to playing it. And I wouldn't have blamed him, after Cydney stuck her foot in her mouth with that - "If Jason or Julia ask, we'll go with the Tai thing". "Tai thing? What Tai thing? Oh, so my name HAS been discussed?" I'd have been paranoid as hell. So yea, if they had voted for Tai and he played it, Julia would have gone home anyhow. And then everyone would know they flipped, but there would be no numbers to protect them. I think Cydney has a better chance of going far if she sticks with Aubrey. 

Loved Jason being left out of the reward challenge!

Aubrey's facial expressions crack me up. 

Julia and Michele were both very impressive at the IC. I love all the strong girls we have this season. Aubrey has really kicked butt at a lot of challenges as well. I would love to actually see a FF of Aubrey, Cydney, and Michele. While I am rooting for Aubrey, I'd be happy to see any of them win. 

[LanceM]

Kudos to the editors for splicing in that footage of Julia licking her lips after saying that she couldn't wait to eat Mark the Chicken after Tai got voted out.  That cracked me up.  I am very sad to see Julia go as I appreciate the fact that she playing the game hard. But it was easily the right decision to vote her out now as Aubry said not only was she a strategic threat who had blood on her hands but a challenge threat as well. Lost in all the deserved praise that Michele got for memorizing all the numbers was that Julia had that box opened up before her so is suspect she might have done the same thing

[ghoulina]

For me Jason is much more enjoyable to watch without Scot around I can appreciate the fight of a player when they are on the bottom.

I can agree with this. Plus, at least Jason is wise enough to keep cool and try to talk to people. I feel like Scot would be stomping around like a petulant, little brat and still being an ass to everyone. 

[peachmangosteen]

I really want a F3 of Michele/Aubry/Cydney. That would be such a dream!

I was surprised by how petulant Julia was over last week's vote. Showing her age there, I think.

[blackwing]

I agree that Tai is a big threat.  He has an idol, an advantage, and people on the jury mostly seem to like him.  But Julia is also a threat.  She's two-faced and devious.  I think Aubrey felt more threatened by Julia than Tai, because Julia is unreliable and unpredictable.   At this point, besides her lapdog Joe, Tai is her best ally.  Seems like Aubry is calling the shots and she pushed for Julia.

 

Joe truly is useless.  He doesn't strategise at all, he just does whatever Aubry says   Plenty of people have made it far in the game like that (see Woo to Tony and Gervase to Tyson as recent examples) but I can't respect a game like that.

[riverheightsnancy]

Funny how we don't have a girl's alliance, but we have a girl's alliance! Which, by the way,  looks like they are going to take all the way to the end.  I loved Bounty not getting at chance at the reward challenge. 

[Wings]

Aubry does not tell Tai to play his idol when he asked her!!  ARG!  She could have said, I am not sure maybe you should consider it to make sure your are safe or something along those lines.   It would have flushed the idol and avoid having to stage a blindside!  It would have been his decision and no flies on Aubry.  They know he has an advantage, too. 

Edited April 28, 2016 by wings707

[Turtle]

I was kind of liking Julia and so was sorry to see her go bit I agree it was probably the right choice for Michelle and Cydney.  

I've been struggling with whether or not I think this season is good.  We've had some great blindsides for sure, but I just haven't really been that excited about it and couldn't figure out why.  It hit me last night when Cydney and Aubrey chose Michelle for reward:  I always think through whether those choices are strategically smart ones but last night I realized that I had no idea!  I don't think I've seen enough of the dynamics between most of these people to get invested.  Two other examples:  when everyone was talking about voting out Julia in front of Michelle, I was so confused because I thought Julia and Michelle were tight and thought they were dumb for discussing that in front of Michelle; and, at tribal when they were all talking about how close Aubrey and Joe are, which I don't think has been shown to us but that clearly has been discussed around camp.  Hell, I'm still not 100% sure why Scot and Jason turned on Cydney.

This got longer than I intended, but my point is that while it's always fun to see people get surprised at tribal, I'd enjoy it so much more if I had a clue about the dynamics between and among these people, and the show usually does a much better job of that.  Analyzing their motivations and choices not made and whatnot is part of the fun for me, and I'm missing that this year because I have no idea who they are!

[riverheightsnancy]

8 minutes ago, wings707 said:

Aubry does not tell Tai to play his idol when he asked her!!  ARG!  She could have said, I am not sure maybe you should consider it to make sure your are safe or something along those lines.   It would have flushed the idol and avoid having to stage a blindside!  It would have been his decision and no flies on Aubry.  They know he has an advantage, too. 

I think she said something to the effect of "I think you're safe/ok" but to "use his gut" or "go by his gut" . I think that was smart because if he uses it, and then he doesn't get voted for, she's not responsible for telling him to do it and she can maybe still get his vote at the end. By putting the decision in his court. She's not responsible even if she knows one way or the other. 

[ghoulina]

14 minutes ago, riverheightsnancy said:

Funny how we don't have a girl's alliance, but we have a girl's alliance! Which, by the way,  looks like they are going to take all the way to the end.  I loved Bounty not getting at chance at the reward challenge.

That's what I love about it! It's not a girls alliance just for the sake of it, but these girls actually seem to work really well together and respect each other. I'm really enjoying it.

[Boilergal]

It made sense to get rid of Julia over Jason.  Jason only really seems to have Julia.  Can't tell if Cydney is pro Jason or just leading him on.  Leaning towards leading him on. 

Julia had Jason and Michelle, have to break that up.

Polo shirt buttoned all the way up - always a good look....bwhahahahaha

[ChicksDigScars]

Highlight of the night (besides Jason not getting to compete for reward) was Mark the Chicken getting his own intro in the opening credits. I kinda figured that he wouldn't be eaten yet, if they gave him opening credit billing! GO MARK! 

[eskimo]

It's confirmed, Bounty and Scot are tolerable when not together.  I still don't care for either of them on their own, but when they team up to treat people like trash and have little temper tantrums, the rage I feel burns with the heat of a thousand suns.  They really bring out the worst in each other. 

[vb68]

It was interesting to see Jason try to hold in his bully boy swagger for once.  You could tell it was still there, but he seemed like he knew he went to far with it.  

I enjoyed Cyd playing with him like a mouse to her cat.

I really am surprised how personally Julia took the Scot vote.

Edited April 28, 2016 by vb68

[Pazlovejoy]

This was a pretty satisfying episode except that I really wanted the despicable Kyle to get tossed out. Strategically, Julia might have been a better boot, but I've been hoping for Kyle's ouster for a long time.

I do not doubt Cydney and Michelle made the right decision to stick with their alliance. Tai is as shaky an alliance member as was alleged during tribal, but Julia had the potential to take Michelle with her to the dark side.

For now, it looks like Michelle is on her way to a win. I've been rooting for Cydney, but I'd be satisfied with a Michelle or Aubry win as well. All three have impressed me. Tai took himself out of the running for me when he doused the fire.

[Drogo]

4 minutes ago, vb68 said:

I guess it's something he didn't kill Mark the chicken while Tai was at the reward.

Tai wasn't at the reward.  I could see Julia and Jason killing and eating Mark during the reward had Tai gone. 

[Wings]

21 minutes ago, riverheightsnancy said:

I think she said something to the effect of "I think you're safe/ok" but to "use his gut" or "go by his gut" . I think that was smart because if he uses it, and then he doesn't get voted for, she's not responsible for telling him to do it and she can maybe still get his vote at the end. By putting the decision in his court. She's not responsible even if she knows one way or the other. 

Yes, I heard that.  I think she could have been more persuasive without any harm to herself.  Perfect opportunity lost.  People flip in TC, Tai, I don't know what to tell you other than better to be safe than sorry, but it is your choice. 

This made me chuckle.  Aubry was eating her chicken when Michele said, "good cole slaw"  Aubry, with chicken hanging out of her mouth says "COLE SLAW?"  

[piequinn35]

Oh good Tai didn't waste his idol, how the f did Michelle and Julia memorize that,

with Jeff speaking in the background, I would surely lose everything in my head hahahah

[Xazeal]

Predictable outcome, kind of boring challenges, but some nice character moments. I liked it.

I'm torn between wanting a Michele/Aubry/Cydney final three and wanting Michele to go to the end with someone who's easy to beat. I really enjoy those three and I'd be fine with either of them winning, but I was one of the ones who pegged Michele as the winner from her first confessional and I very much enjoy being right. That said, I understand the sentiment that she'd be a less satisfying winner. She's never really been challenged - she hasn't had a single vote cast against her and everybody seems to trust her at this point. Maybe she'd be more interesting if she ever had to scramble.

Also, I'm pretty sure Mark the chicken had more screentime than Joe this week. 

[fishcakes]

Jason actually being aware enough to know that he couldn't show his anger last night makes me think he would have been less terrible as a person and might be in a better position now if he'd not been with Scot all along. But it also confirms for me that he's weak and a follower; Scot thought being an angry jerk was cool so Jason thought so too. I still think Jason by himself is a crapbag, but he gets exponentially worse when he's hanging with other crapbags.

All of the players talking about how Tai is a threat and they can't let him get to F3 reminds me so much of the conversation about Lil in Pearl Islands. There's this underlying resentment about Tai, just as there was with Lil, so even though they're all saying things like, "he's a lock to win because everyone loves him" you can see that they really want to roll their eyes after saying it. I think part of it is that the person who's conflicted about having to play dirty and who talks about it doesn't get as much respect as the person who essentially says, "I played a strategic game; deal with it," and this goes all the way back to Richard and Kelly in season one. And the other part of it is I think people are pissed off that the tiny, older, heart-on-his-sleeve guy (or the frumpy, older, Boy-Scout-uniform wearing den mother) is actually playing a very good game and getting the better of people who think they should be coming out on top. Julia, for example, was seething about Tai blindsiding Scot, even though it was actually Aubrey, Joe, and Cydney who'd lied to her. She was trying to take Tai's place in the alliance and he knew it; Tai didn't owe her shit. She's not just mad because she ended up on the bottom; I think she's also mad because she wanted to be the one making the big moves. In any case, I don't think Tai is that much of a threat to win. I suspect that if he gets to F3 the jury will rip him up, and I hate that. Even so, I'm hoping for an F3 of Tai, Aubrey, and Joe, and I'll be happy if any of them win, Tai and Aubrey because they've both played good games and Joe because I think it would be fun to see a goat win at least once, and as goats go, he's one of the less annoying ones.

Edited April 28, 2016 by fishcakes

[Wings]

7 minutes ago, piequinn35 said:

Oh good Tai didn't waste his idol, how the f did Michelle and Julia memorize that,

with Jeff speaking in the background, I would surely lose everything in my head hahahah

 

My guess is that they memorized the animals in order staring with the number 1.  So no numbers to remember, just the names in order.  If you do this in groups of four and make a song or rhythm in your mind you can ignore Jeff talking.  It still takes a sharp mind, of course. 

Edited April 28, 2016 by wings707

[piequinn35]

And also, Bounty running on the water is funny, effective though.

[LanceM]

Julia talks about Mark the Chicken.

In the beginning, we had the chickens on leashes. They were tied to a tree. By the time we were a little bit after the merge, Mark the Chicken became domesticated. He didn’t need to be on a leash anymore. I’m not even kidding, he slept with us in the shelter. We fed him food every day. Tai would call him and he responded to Tai. It was the most bizarre thing. He was like a dog. It was so weird. I think, honestly, anyone would have had a hard time killing Mark, because he just became part of the tribe. He came on reward with us a couple of weeks ago to eat Chinese food… he was a beast! [Laughs] He has a huge edit. I’m so impressed by Mark.

Edited April 28, 2016 by LanceM

[azshadowwalker]

Another episode, another example of Tai needing someone to tell him how to play the game. Aubry is sitting pretty with the two useless men she has attached to each hip. 

[Jersey Guy 87]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

 

I was surprised by how petulant Julia was over last week's vote. Showing her age there, I think.

It's not like she put out the fire and hid the axe and the machete.

59 minutes ago, wings707 said:

Aubry does not tell Tai to play his idol when he asked her!!  ARG!  She could have said, I am not sure maybe you should consider it to make sure your are safe or something along those lines.   It would have flushed the idol and avoid having to stage a blindside!  It would have been his decision and no flies on Aubry.  They know he has an advantage, too. 

As some others have said I thought that was actually good game play by Aubry.  She told him he was safe but left that little bit of doubt for him to have to decide on his own whether or not to play the idol.

19 minutes ago, Xazeal said:

Also, I'm pretty sure Mark the chicken had more screentime than Joe this week. 

Well, Mark the chicken is playing harder than Joe right now.  People have threatened to actually kill Mark, nobody even thinks of bringing up Joe's name to vote out.  Mark has to scramble a lot more.

[PerfidiousAmber]

13 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Awesome to see Scot in his natural habitat . . . the bench.

Bwahahaaa!

[Wings]

21 minutes ago, wings707 said:

 

My guess is that they memorized the animals in order staring with the number 1.  So no numbers to remember, just the names in order.  If you do this in groups of four and make a song or rhythm in your mind you can ignore Jeff talking.  It still takes a sharp mind, of course. 

Quoting myself here.  I just went back and looked.  The numbers were not in order.  So that is NOT how they did it!  

[ghoulina]

There were certain animals that were easy to remember. Snake was with six. Ssssss. Monkey was on 10. "Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed". That's how I would have done it. I didn't get a better look at the rest of the numbers-animals, but I think that would have been a good way of remembering, find some association between the two. 

[Wings]

6 minutes ago, ghoulina said:

There were certain animals that were easy to remember. Snake was with six. Ssssss. Monkey was on 10. "Ten Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed". That's how I would have done it. I didn't get a better look at the rest of the numbers-animals, but I think that would have been a good way of remembering, find some association between the two. 

Yes, I would have done the same thing.  The bull was 4 and when I saw it I said to myself he does not have 4 horns and that stuck with me.   And will probably be with me every time I see a bull.  Odd things stick in minds. 

[Drogo]

Exactly, @ghoulina.  And I want to say the lizard was #17, and 17 upside down is LI(zard.)

Michelle was quick on her feet pouring sand in the letter slots to write down the numbers for each symbol before she forgot them.  It was quickly copied, but she was the first to think of it.

[Jodithgrace]

I did the same thing, "10 little monkeys, I 8 some good crab meat," but I didn't see enough of the others long enough. I was impressed that Michelle and Julia didn't have to go back, but got them all at first try.

I had thought that Aubry made a good move, indicating that she thought Tai was safe but making him decide. I was sure that Tai would be going home, idol, advantage and all. But since he didn't go home, it looks less like a good move.

For some reason, a chicken named Mark just cracks me up. It's such an unchickeny name.

I was also chuckling at Jason's back tats. I hope, for his sake, that they are a work in progress. of course it helps that he can't see his own back. Maybe the tattoo artist was getting revenge for something. I think I would have gone with "Kick me," myself.

[3jt]

At first I thought that it was dumb not to eliminate Tai while they had the chance- they still had the numbers to get rid of Jason and Julia, but now I think that Michelle is the wild card and could have sided with Julia in the future. With Julia gone Jason would have to flip 2 people to his side just get a 3-3 tie in any voting scenario. I don't think that he could pull that off.

[vb68]

Quote

Tai wasn't at the reward.  I could see Julia and Jason killing and eating Mark during the reward had Tai gone. 

You're right.  I'm not sure what I was thinking.

[PerfidiousAmber]

What the FUCK was that monstrosity on Jason's back... I had the TV on pause for 5 minutes trying to figure it out. Hangings, intestines, Martha Stewart? Whatever. Didn't even look finished.

[piequinn35]

Just now, PerfidiousAmber said:

What the FUCK was that monstrosity on Jason's back... I had the TV on pause for 5 minutes trying to figure it out. Hangings, intestines, Martha Stewart? Whatever. Didn't even look finished.

It is not yet finished, but it really looks horrible lol

[Wings]

3 hours ago, TaraS1 said:

All I can figure about that tattoo on Jason's back is that he let his kids draw it.  Scratch that - he got them drunk and then let them draw it.

 

I am bringing your post forward because you have the best explanation!  

Edited April 28, 2016 by wings707

[Eolivet]

I really didn't get what Julia was doing at tribal council. Say that Cydney and Michelle have decided to go with you. The last thing you want to do is insinuate Tai is in any trouble at all. You hang your head, all "Well, that's an unbreakable alliance, we tried, we just couldn't find a way in." Why she was practically begging  him to use his idol when him using his idol meant she or "Jason" went home made so little sense to me. I get they were trying to communicate Tai was a threat to those remaining, but it was just so ham-fisted. I suppose I'm impressed that Tai didn't burn his idol after that little stage play -- Julia really was that bad an actress.

I remain unimpressed by "Jason" -- Scot or no Scot. It's like saying the non-oozing sore on Neal's back is better than the oozing sore on Neal's knee. And his pathetic lament that he "can't give up because it's for my family." So, it's OK to help terrorize a camp full of people who did nothing but play a game, ostensibly if it's "for your family?" "Jason" can't take a seat on the bench next to Scot soon enough, as far as I'm concerned.