S32.E12: Now's The Time To Start Scheming

[LanceM]

1 hour ago, laurakaye said:

As much as I like Cydney, she's been kind of "talk to the hand" since the show started, with Alecia being the first person she dismissed.  I couldn't stand Cydney at first - I couldn't figure out why she seemed so comfortable going along with the Goon Squad on Brawn.  She has redeemed herself to me, if only because she helped kick Bounty and Bench to the...well, the bench.  If it comes down to her and Aubry, it will be very interesting to see which way the votes fall.

Speaking of which, I long for the days when we had a Final 2 instead of 3.

So do I and we both may get our wish this season because with 4 people heading into the finale it most likely will be a final two.  Jeff kind of hinted at this in his weekly chat with Dalton Ross.

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/05/05/survivor-jeff-probst-kaoh-rong-mark-chicken

BONUS QUESTION! We have five players left and two episodes. I’m doing a little Survivor math on the fly here, and does that mean we are possibly looking at a final two this season? 
Could it be that we finally listened to you and my friend Mike White (School of Rock, Enlightened) and went back to a final two? I mean, with all the evacuations we’ve had, it would make sense. And all your fans know you are an ardent supporter of the final two. Plus, you know that we here on the show think you are the cat’s meow and we only want to please you. So… is it possible that we are, at least for this season, going back to a final two? Yes, it is… possible.

[cooksdelight]

19 hours ago, LanceM said:

RobC has been joking on RHAP that Mark survived this season only to meet his demise on one of the tribes on Second Chances.

Rob can go to hell!!! Mark better be living the good life somewhere.

[Dobian]

I hope it is a final two, I've never seen the point of a final three.  All a third person does is occasionally muck up the voting, kind of like a third party candidate.

[meep.meep]

I agree.  Two people usually get all the votes, and the #3 is left (presumably) feeling like an idiot.  However, if it's final 3, do the losing 2 both get the big money?  100K each?  If so, less of an idiot feeling, I guess.

I'd love to see an Aubry/Cydney final 2.  But, I assume that everyone is going to try to take Joe the Feeble Old Guy.

[gunderda]

On 5/5/2016 at 1:30 PM, needschocolate said:

My take on the block/balancing/spelling bee challenge is that the ones who designed the game thought that people would put the blocks toward the far side and use the rope (keeping it taut for the most part) to keep it balanced.  However, it looked like most of the players tried to get the blocks balanced on the table without using the rope instead, which is closer to what is done on most of the balance-these-on-top-of-this-wobbly-thing type challenges

I think there was a line on the board and they had to place the blocks in a specific spot, they all seemed to place them in the middle (i think?).  Maybe it was strategic to place them all in the middle but to me it seemed like there was a line for a specific purpose.

On 5/5/2016 at 2:05 PM, Adeejay said:

I find Cydney to be bossy, bad tempered and hard headed. She has a problem taking orders, but doesn't seem to have a problem giving them.  If she makes it to the final, I can't see her winning. 

I can't either and honestly I feel like none of them have really done anything except Aubry. She's the master mind behind everything.  She stays level headed at almost everything.  All decisions go through her yet she never specifically makes the final decision so she's not seen as a real threat.  Everyone just thinks they have a fantastic relationship with her.  

23 hours ago, Cynna said:

I'm not sure how Debbie's going to go on that one. She seemed pretty pissed to be voted out and blamed Aubrey who was her alliance. I'm trying to figure out who Debbie is smiling at all the time at TC.

I think she smiles at everyone.  She just seems like that type of person. Happy-go-lucky, now that she's out of it she can have fun and enjoy watching from the sidelines.  

22 hours ago, LanceM said:

Tai has only won one immunity challenge. Nobody has won more than one yet.

But he gets really darn close in the ones that need stamina. Which more of those have to be coming up. 

5 hours ago, ljenkins782 said:

Debbie said in her Ponderosa video that Aubry lost her vote at the end if she gets there. She did say she'd stay friends with her, but she's not getting her vote. That could change based on who she's sitting next to or her FTC performance, but I wouldn't count Debbie as an automatic Aubry vote. I do think Aubry has a shot at Nick, Jason, Scot and maybe Neal's votes though. 

I don't know about Neal... didn't he make a comment after the episode aired when he got booted that he would have never given the idol to aubry? It seemed like he didn't like her much. 

However I think if Debbie was mad at Aubry when she got booted that she's the type to think rationally once she's out of the situation. And if she was mad at Aubry and no one else then she knows that Aubry is running the show.

 

Tai got too darn cocky this week for my liking..... I think Aubry was thinking that same exact thing too. 

It would be amazing if they found a way to get rid of him next week but I just think it's nearly impossible.  But nothing is ever impossible.

[Superpole2000]

On 5/5/2016 at 8:07 AM, sigmaforce86 said:

They should have voted Tai.

I agree. It was painful to see them miss that layup. The guy with all of the advantages tells you to do one thing, you don't end up doing it, and yet you don't target the guy with all of the advantages either? If they were worried about Cydney being on side, they shouldn't have been. She would have loved the chance to vote off someone who had bossed her around. "Hey Cyd, would you like to see Tai gone?" And even if she said no, Joe, Aubrey, and Michelle still could have bounced Tai without letting Cydney in on the game plan. And that would have been their power move to brag to the jury about. Now they're just numbers people who aren't impressing anyone.

On 5/5/2016 at 8:07 AM, sigmaforce86 said:

Once the first blocks fell and we realized Cydney had the right strategy from the start we were cheering her on; slow and steady was much better than start over.  And yes, if Jason or Tai had started out that way Jeff would have called their plan strategic; but she does it and she's just "slow" and falling behind.

I assume you are calling Jeff sexist here. Jeff criticized Joe just as much in the reward challenge for being slow. He also ridiculed Joe for misspelling immunity several times. I don't see the sexism that you see. Jeff simply states the obvious, and Cydney was obviously moving slower than molasses.

[azshadowwalker]

3 hours ago, meep.meep said:

I agree.  Two people usually get all the votes, and the #3 is left (presumably) feeling like an idiot.  However, if it's final 3, do the losing 2 both get the big money?  100K each?  If so, less of an idiot feeling, I guess.

I seem to remember that the placement is based on number of votes. Don't know what they do if the winner sweeps, though. I am sure there's a tie breaker in the contract. 

[peachmangosteen]

1 hour ago, azshadowwalker said:

I seem to remember that the placement is based on number of votes. Don't know what they do if the winner sweeps, though. I am sure there's a tie breaker in the contract. 

If there is a tie between the 2 non-winning players they split the 2nd and 3rd place money.

Edited May 6, 2016 by peachmangosteen

[needschocolate]

2 hours ago, Superpole2000 said:

I agree. It was painful to see them miss that layup. The guy with all of the advantages tells you to do one thing, you don't end up doing it, and yet you don't target the guy with all of the advantages either? If they were worried about Cydney being on side, they shouldn't have been. She would have loved the chance to vote off someone who had bossed her around. "Hey Cyd, would you like to see Tai gone?" And even if she said no, Joe, Aubrey, and Michelle still could have bounced Tai without letting Cydney in on the game plan. And that would have been their power move to brag to the jury about. Now they're just numbers people who aren't impressing anyone.

I think the didn't target the guy with all the advantages because he was the guy with all the advantages and they didn't know exactly what the advantage was. Based on someone (Michelle?) making a comment at TC that went something like Tai's "Two idols or super idol or whatever" and given that they had never seen the second vote advantge, I think they thought that Tai might have a way to play and idol after the votes were read.  Tai told Aubry and Joe how the advantage worked, but they either didn't believe him or wanted to keep him in because he was an ally (even though they didn't vote the way he wanted).  

[thehepburn]

9 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

Rob can go to hell!!! Mark better be living the good life somewhere.

 

Why you mad? Mark got his Second Chance, just like the other all-stars.  He was just #blindsided, that's all.

[Wandering Snark]

Two words... PETTING. ZOO.

[needschocolate]

I think Mark should take over Probst's job.  Then maybe all the clucking and squawking during the challenges would be less annoying. 

[Lantern7]

But Probst has experience! You can't teach a chicken stuff like openly ranking on Cydney's speed during the Immunity Challenge.

[KimberStormer]

7 hours ago, Superpole2000 said:

I agree. It was painful to see them miss that layup. The guy with all of the advantages tells you to do one thing, you don't end up doing it, and yet you don't target the guy with all of the advantages either? If they were worried about Cydney being on side, they shouldn't have been. She would have loved the chance to vote off someone who had bossed her around. "Hey Cyd, would you like to see Tai gone?" And even if she said no, Joe, Aubrey, and Michelle still could have bounced Tai without letting Cydney in on the game plan. And that would have been their power move to brag to the jury about. Now they're just numbers people who aren't impressing anyone.

I think it wouldn't be a question of getting Cydney on board but of getting Aubry on board.  Joe said it himself this episode, he just does whatever Aubry says, so no way to get just him.  But I have to assume Aubry would love to be sitting at final with Tai (and Joe), especially after his performance at tribal this week, which reminded me of Spencer trying to intimidate Jeremy at the end of last season.  That kind of thing is just not something you want the jury to see.  The thing which really amazed me was when he was like "I don't even know how you got in this alliance" like he was a Mean Girl asking "Who invited you?" at a party.

However, like I say, I think Aubry is rather malleable and might be pushed into voting out Tai.  At least it's worth a shot.  But it doesn't seem like it even occurred to Michele to try.

[hyukx3]

If they don't like Tai telling them what to do, why don't they just blindside him? Tai got too much power and was viewed as a strong final 3 contender;before the tribal anyway. It just doesn't make sense. Maybe they were too much afraid of his idol. Anyway, Tai's performance in this tribal may have cost him some jury votes.

Edited May 7, 2016 by hyukx3

[ForeverAlone]

Only Aubry and Joe knew that Tai didn't have a second idol (so he had no super idol). So one of them would have had to propose a Tai blindside, and for whatever reason, Aubry didn't seem prepared to go there for that vote.

[needschocolate]

8 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

But Probst has experience! You can't teach a chicken stuff like openly ranking on Cydney's speed during the Immunity Challenge.

She might not be able to do it in the same disdainful/incredulous tone that Probst uses, but I think Mark would be pretty good at henpecking the players.

However, when it comes to asking leading questions at tribal, she would probably lay an egg.  

[spiderpig]

9 hours ago, needschocolate said:

I think Mark should take over Probst's job.  Then maybe all the clucking and squawking during the challenges would be less annoying. 

Team Mark!!!

[Wandering Snark]

11 hours ago, KimberStormer said:

The thing which really amazed me was when he was like "I don't even know how you got in this alliance" like he was a Mean Girl asking "Who invited you?" at a party.

Yeah, that one really had my jaw drop watching him go down in flames and digging himself a deeper and deeper pit. He is truly terrible at speaking at tribals. I can imagine the car crash he would be in a FTC! But then that's what everyone must be thinking and why they might just keep him around.

Aubry probably salivates just thinking about a Joe & Tai final. Joe would just say "I think Aubry can answer that for me." to every question.

[PreBabylonia]

On 5/5/2016 at 2:30 PM, needschocolate said:

Your comment got me curious (I am generally too curious for my own good - if I were a cat, I woudl be dead)... One of my jobs is as a substitute elementary school teacher and, in the ten years I have been subbing, I have known a few Jasons, but no Kyles.  I figured that my experience is unusual, as there are a lot of kids with "older" names in the classes I sub in.  I checked the Social Security website's baby name popularity page and was very surprised to see that Jason was the 75th most popular name for babies born in 2014, and Kyle was 178th (5,510 Kyles born in 2014 vs 2,370 Jasons).  Kyle was in the top 30 names from 1085-1999, Jason was in the top 30 from 1969-1988, and was in the top 10 for most the 70's

Although I have called him Kyle, Cupcake, and maybe even, Bounty, I generally call him Jason, because of the Friday the 13th movies. 

Did you get the dates or the names mixed up? Because if there were 5.510 Kyles compared to 2,370 Jasons born in 2014, Kyle is obviously more popular so couldn't be 178th in popularity while Jason made it up to 75th. Very curious because I still love the name Kyle and named my son it in 1992. I don't like Jason at at all. It's difficult to pronounce Jason without placing your mouth in a frown at the second syllable, while Kyle ends your mouth in a smile. Not that I thought of it at the time. I chose Kyle because I liked the actor Kyle MacLachlan.

[needschocolate]

1 hour ago, PreBabylonia said:

Did you get the dates or the names mixed up? Because if there were 5.510 Kyles compared to 2,370 Jasons born in 2014, Kyle is obviously more popular so couldn't be 178th in popularity while Jason made it up to 75th. Very curious because I still love the name Kyle and named my son it in 1992. I don't like Jason at at all. It's difficult to pronounce Jason without placing your mouth in a frown at the second syllable, while Kyle ends your mouth in a smile. Not that I thought of it at the time. I chose Kyle because I liked the actor Kyle MacLachlan.

Yup, I flipped the numbers - it should be 5,510 Jasons and 2,370 Kyles.  The ranking was correct. 

I never noticed the ending with a smile or a frown thing with any names (which made me curious, of course). I have sat here saying Kyle and Jason for the last few minutes while paying attention to how my mouth ends up.   Fortunately, all my kids end with a long e sound - so I smile for all of them.