S35.E01: I'm Not Crazy, I'm Confident

[Wings]

I am bored with the challenges in Fiji.  They are in the same clearing and all have a course to negotiate with a puzzle at the end.  A few endurance thrown in. No tests, no food auctions etc, no need to go further we have been down this road.  Just annoyed. I keep hoping it will get better. 

Edited September 28, 2017 by wings707

[kassa]

I hope that one of these seasons they really throw a curveball and make the first few challenges intellectual (not just puzzles that require hand/eye coordination that a lot of 20 something athletes have).  Something, ANYTHING to make the alpha males look around and think "Wait a minute - I'm the weakest link here! I'm supposed to coast at least until the merge! This isn't the Survivor I came to play!"

[marys1000]

4 hours ago, Hanahope said:

A podcast interview I heard of Katrina, she said that she just didn't bond with any of the other heroes, she couldn't get them to talk to her much or connect, that Chrissy seemed to bond with them better.  Just a situation of not gelling.

Thats just sad and shows how stupid those others and all us people can be.  She was probably the most accomplished and interesting person out there not to mention competitive.  So the fact that she was "old" was an automatic we can just shut her out. When the reality was so much more than them made her feel different enough to ostracize her.  So Chrissy fit in better due to her mediocrity.  Hope the heros go down in a flaming pagonging

Interesting in her interview Katrina is a therapist and thinks she would have done much better on the Healers tribe.  

In past group seasons there have been placement mistakes and yea kiss of death.  

She also says that Chrissy pretty purposefully tgted her as the one of the two of them to go.  Also that people are easier around Chrissy because she seems softer and femine of which there are examples of in past seasons so I would agree.  She thinks Chrissy can win and tried to get people to vote her off.  
 

Edited September 28, 2017 by marys1000

[Gummo]

Quote

I hope that one of these seasons they really throw a curveball and make the first few challenges intellectual (not just puzzles that require hand/eye coordination that a lot of 20 something athletes have).  Something, ANYTHING to make the alpha males look around and think "Wait a minute - I'm the weakest link here! I'm supposed to coast at least until the merge! This isn't the Survivor I came to play!"

I love this idea.

I've never gone back to watch earlier seasons, but wasn't there a much greater variety of challenges in the first few seasons? I remember they used to sit and listen as Probst read them a local myth or folktale and they had to answer questions based on it.

Now it's run, swim, puzzle. Run, swim, puzzle. Run, swim, puzzle.

[iMonrey]

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I wish they would have showed us more of the rest of the general dynamics around camp (a complaint I have every season) so we could get an idea of why Katrina was unanimously voted out.  Was she annoying?  More annoying than Alan?  A prima donna?  Did she talk to fruit?   Did she brag endlessly about being an Olympian?  Was she such a cypher that it was exceedingly easy to vote her out without a second thought?  I want to know, dammit. 

This has almost always been the case since Day 1 though - we don't really get any insight into why they end up voting a certain way, until maybe after the fact in the next episode. Survivor would rather blindside us with an unexpected, surprise vote than tell us what kind of conversations led to a particular decision. It's very frustrating. There's no real reason for it in instances like this except for manufactured suspense. 

Quote

As to picking Devon to ally with, Ryan is aware of people's perceptions of him. I don't see choosing Devon as a starry-eyed infatuated choice, but a strategic one. Ryan will want a meat shield. There are two big guys on the Hustlers tribe (and big guys tend to stick around for a couple votes), and atm Devon seems like the calmer, more easygoing option. If they can pick up a third, they're starting to look really good.

But why approach Devon instead of, say, Lauren, or Simone, or Patrick and Ali? It's possible Ryan considered Devon a useful meat shield but that's not what he said. What he said was something like "we're two of the same kind, we think just alike." Um, really?  Somehow I doubt that. It's also possible there's more to the dynamics than they showed - maybe Ryan perceived that Devon was on the outs with the rest of the tribe for some reason. Anything's possible but what Ryan actually said in his talking head didn't make any sense. I sure didn't buy the reason he gave for singling out Devon as his partner in crime.

Quote

There was definitely harassment and threat there in my opinion.  He was trying to dominate and humiliate Dr. Sex Doctor, because he sees him as an easy target.  Classic, textbook bullying, IMO. 

It's hard to know because we don't know what led to that conversation. Did Joe pull Mike aside and confront him? Or did they just happen to be in the same spot, or were going to fetch water or something? Personally I don't see anything wrong with confronting someone about being sketchy as hell . . . especially in a game like this. I just think Joe looks like a bully, compared to some geeky nerd like Mike. Now, Joe may well turn out to be a bully, but I just think this wasn't the incident that proves it one way or another. 

Alan came off as more of a bully than Joe, IMO, by far.

[blackwing]

18 minutes ago, Gummo said:

I love this idea.

I've never gone back to watch earlier seasons, but wasn't there a much greater variety of challenges in the first few seasons? I remember they used to sit and listen as Probst read them a local myth or folktale and they had to answer questions based on it.

Now it's run, swim, puzzle. Run, swim, puzzle. Run, swim, puzzle.

Agreed.  But I think those "local folktale" challenges were all for individual immunity?  For some reason I seem to recall Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera being confused by the choices and getting some wrong.  The one where they had to run through the jungle and make a choice and collect stuff for correct answers.

 

Run, swim, puzzle does seem to be the typical formula.  Why can't we go back to the eating challenges?   And then once we get to individual immunity, the challenges seem to suspiciously align with the skills of Jeff's male obsession that season.  Yogi extraordinaire Joe Anglim?   Balance, balance, balance, and yet more balance.  Football player Brad Culpepper?   Throw things, aim things, throw things.  

Trying to figure out which hunk will have Jeffy creaming this season.  It would have to be Cole, right?  That one seems like Colby's little brother.  However, now that Jeff learned that JP stripped for a man, perhaps JP will get his attentions this time?   Jeff never changes.  His face never changes.  His lines never change.  He sucks.  I wish we could get a new host.

[Gummo]

Blackwing, I like the endurance and balance challenges because they level the playing field, as opposed to all the upper body strength challenges that are obviously designed for Probst's alpha males.

But despite his bro crushes, I kinda like Probst as host and always have. I even like his constant needling during challenges -- the whole idea is to break people's concentration, it's like another obstacle in the challenge.

[Jobiska]

Joe:  maybe not a bully, but not pleasant.  Love him, hate him, or love but get annoyed by him, outside his in-the-moment paranoia Tony knew how to laugh at himself.  It's partly why I'm in the third of those three groups.  I don't see Joe having that ability.

Yeah, here's how I read the idol-accusation scene:

Alan to JP: I'm sure you have an idol!  JP:  Nope!  Alan:  well let's go swimming right now [presumably naked because otherwise what difference would swimming make? and I'm sure that's how JP took it]  Ashley pops in.  All three:  blah blah blah blah idol no idol blah blah.  JP, wanting to end the conversation:  Strips.  

Those looked like humpback whales, which are baleen whales.  They don't have teeth; they have curtains of baleen that are used to strain small things out of the water (e.g. krill).  They wouldn't eat fruit.  Not even if they get "hungry enough."  I doubt their internal organs are set up to digest pineapples, just as cows' aren't set up to digest krill!

We got a kick out of whomever in the background was just saying a flat "no" to Patrick's repeated suggestions of eating the walking stick.  And really, Patrick.  I cannot imagine another arthropod whose inner-protein-to-exoskeleton ratio is lower than a walking stick.  You'd do just as well eating an actual stick.  And I didn't like how he threw it.  

Patrick also was the one who lobbed a pineapple to the middle of nowhere in the ocean.  Well, maybe he'll be good on a future toss-and-hit-target challenge, as that pineapple went quite a ways.

There was definitely behind-the-scenes agreement on Katrina--had to have been--and I hope Chrissy then kept the idol a secret to use as a decoy later.

 

[Tsunami1981]

That was as good of a Survivor premiere as I've seen in a while. I liked the fact that the first immunity stipulated that it could only be used in the first TC, although I think Chrissy made a mistake in not playing it. She basically let a possible ally go without a peep.

Alan's paranoia in the Heroes Tribe was more than a little disturbing. The first thing I thought of, after learning that he played in the NFL for 9 years, was CTE. He's definitely got some issues, and everyone knows that that sort of behavior is a death knell in Survivor.

I definitely like the fact that they chose many cast members who seem to be of high-quality character. I hate it when I'm looking for my rooting interests during the first few episodes and all I see are snakes and rats. So far so good.

Edited September 28, 2017 by Ike Mana

[Wandering Snark]

As far as I recall, Alan now owes JP chocolate and peanut butter, the standard Survivor pay off for nudity...

[piequinn35]

I liked the wagon slide it was fun lol though why would there be 9 puzzles, can they not just made 3, first tribe would just have to get whatever they want then the second then the last tribe had no choice.

Alan's paranoia of JP having an idol even after he stripped, if it continues, Alan will say JP buried the idol somewhere. :P

[LadyChatts]

6 minutes ago, piequinn35 said:

I liked the wagon slide it was fun lol though why would there be 9 puzzles, can they not just made 3, first tribe would just have to get whatever they want then the second then the last tribe had no choice.

Alan's paranoia of JP having an idol even after he stripped, if it continues, Alan will say JP buried the idol somewhere. :P

I just posted something in Chrissy's thread about her re-burying her now-defunct idol, and someone else finding it.  If she's smart and knows Alan believes JP had the idol, she could totally use that to her advantage.  Especially since it wouldn't have the paper with it.  She could casually say she saw him burying something.  I really hope she causes some chaos with it! 

[Wandering Snark]

1 hour ago, kassa said:

I hope that one of these seasons they really throw a curveball and make the first few challenges intellectual (not just puzzles that require hand/eye coordination that a lot of 20 something athletes have).

"So here we are in Figi. I'll tell you a story and you'll later take turns answering questions about it. First team to get 5 right wins immunity!" Hah, that would be a great one to lead off with.

2 minutes ago, LadyChatts said:

I just posted something in Chrissy's thread about her re-burying her now-defunct idol, and someone else finding it.

That could work or sure. Everyoen knows the standard spots by now... put that little ticking bomb in the arch of a tree and wait to see who it will explode on!

I was actually thinking she leave it in her bag and leave her bag at camp while getting firewood... have someone find it and they say 'We can't vote her out, she has an idol.'

[simplyme]

45 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

But why approach Devon instead of, say, Lauren, or Simone, or Patrick and Ali? It's possible Ryan considered Devon a useful meat shield but that's not what he said. What he said was something like "we're two of the same kind, we think just alike." Um, really?  Somehow I doubt that. It's also possible there's more to the dynamics than they showed - maybe Ryan perceived that Devon was on the outs with the rest of the tribe for some reason. Anything's possible but what Ryan actually said in his talking head didn't make any sense. I sure didn't buy the reason he gave for singling out Devon as his partner in crime.

Based on how people were acting, would you team up with Patrick, who was kind of hyper-not-in-a-good-way and talking about eating a stick insect? Ali, who immediately wandered off with Patrick? We didn't really see much of Lauren or Simone this episode.

I'll also pull part of a quote from Josh Wigler's pre-game profile of Ryan. This is Devon talking about his perception of Ryan pre-game: "He's nice. He's for sure nice. I might have a hard time connecting with him, but I'm going to do my best." So it could also be that Ryan went for Devon because Devon was specifically making an effort in that direction.

1 hour ago, marys1000 said:

Thats just sad and shows how stupid those others and all us people can be.  She was probably the most accomplished and interesting person out there not to mention competitive.  So the fact that she was "old" was an automatic we can just shut her out. When the reality was so much more than them made her feel different enough to ostracize her.  So Chrissy fit in better due to her mediocrity.  Hope the heros go down in a flaming pagonging.
 

Chrissy is "old" too by Survivor standards, as am I. I would argue that she's apparently more strategic and socially aware than Katrina.

For me, I think assuming that Chrissy is mediocre because she didn't make the Olympics is rather harsh. (Thinking about aging and accomplishment and mediocrity makes me think of a Dr. Seuss quote: "I climb Mt. Everest just as often as I ever did." That's true for me! Never done that... but I've done other great stuff and don't consider that a huge loss.)

IMO, Survivor has never been an even playing field. People come in with preconceptions of the kinds of people they want to work with in various stages of the game, and castaways must try to move the target to others as best they can. Katrina failed to do that.

[Bryce Lynch]

11 minutes ago, LadyChatts said:

I just posted something in Chrissy's thread about her re-burying her now-defunct idol, and someone else finding it.  If she's smart and knows Alan believes JP had the idol, she could totally use that to her advantage.  Especially since it wouldn't have the paper with it.  She could casually say she saw him burying something.  I really hope she causes some chaos with it! 

Now that you mention it, there are a lot of things one could do with a genuine, but expired idol.  She could pretend it is still valid to bluff, or to try to form an alliance.  She could also plant it where someone can find it, to give them a false sense of security.  So many options. I was really hoping Debbie would choose the fake idol kit last season.  Real looking fake idols could make for great, mischievous fun.

[marys1000]

One other thing from Katrinas post interview is thst Alan, when confronting about the idol told him "Trina told me" which was apparently a flat out lie.  

[eel2178]

21 hours ago, mojoween said:

They had tribe names on their buffs.  One was Yawa or somesuch.

Yawa tribe = hustlers

Soko tribe = healers

Levu tribe = heroes

[peachmangosteen]

4 hours ago, laurakaye said:

I remember the first season, when I would hope that I could get my 2-year old to sleep before 8pm.  Now that two-year old is a junior in college.

I hate you for this!

[Jobiska]

36 minutes ago, eel2178 said:

Yawa tribe = hustlers

Soko tribe = healers

Levu tribe = heroes

I missed the others, so thanks for the list; hopefully they'll get used as I still get a jolt from "Hustlers" even with the "positive" spin Jeff put on it.  

The biggest island of Fiji (where Suva is located) is Viti Levu; Viti is the actual Fijian word for Viti (or maybe we should say that the other way around!).  I don't know the origin of the other names.

[eel2178]

18 hours ago, BK1978 said:

I agree I hate when Jeff or the contestants try to fit into the theme.  The themes are so damn stupid.

Also, the themes never seem to last past the third episode.

[susannot]

Sooo boring.  Not able to stay awake. Don't find any contestants interesting.

[piequinn35]

1 hour ago, eel2178 said:

Yawa tribe = hustlers

Soko tribe = healers

Levu tribe = heroes

Soko = Fijian word for "beam" and "to sail"

Levu = Fijian word for "big" and "great"

Yawa = Fijian word for "distant" and "far"

source: survivor wikia

Edited September 28, 2017 by piequinn35

[eel2178]

4 hours ago, wings707 said:

I am bored with the challenges in Fiji.  They are in the same clearing and all have a course to negotiate with a puzzle at the end.  A few endurance thrown in. No tests, no food auctions etc, no need to go further we have been down this road.  Just annoyed. I keep hoping it will get better. 

Also, no challenges about actual survival. Remember when they had to build a stretcher to rescue a parachuter from a tree? Or, signal a rescue plane?

[fishcakes]

I wonder if Ryan is at all embarrassed after telling the world, "for the first time, someone's dying to get into my pants," and the someone he was talking about was himself.

[violet and green]

11 hours ago, himela said:

I don't blame them for choosing to evict the oldest person in the tribe. It's sad but the tribe needs strength and Katrina was the least strong however you look at it. It seems the oldest people are cast to either be the first boots or the perfect goats to take to the end. I don't see any older person winning in modern survivor unless the jury is really bitter.

But Katrina is the same age as Chrissy - so not the oldest person in the tribe. She just looks a bit stringy - because she's a former Olympian and that stuff is wearing. My guess is she is way stronger than same-age former financial analyst (I think it was) Chrissy. And no doubt as a former Olympic swimmer, she'd have been handier in swimming challenges. Oh well. Still waiting for Survivor Oldsters...

[LanceM]

Simone made a good point in an extra clip last night about keeping the tribe strong during the pre-merge and how it is not necessarily smart to keep the strong buff guys. In case anyone is wondering Simone is the Asian American woman on the Hustler tribe who we barely saw and apparently wasn't allowed to speak. Anyway, she mentions how every challenge nowadays has either a puzzle or a balance beam at the end, things that actually would benefit someone liker her over the strong men.

Edited September 29, 2017 by LanceM

[spiderpig]

I've always felt the Hero/Healers/Hustler gimmick (and similar stuff in recent seasons) was just an easy way for viewers to identify players and associate them with their tribemembers early in the game.  Otherwise you had to go by buff colors and tribe names which nobody could remember.  Much easier to recognize Alan the Blue Buff Hero than Alan the Blue Buff Levu.

Anyway - works for me.

(Still wondering how Tai got on the Yellow Buff Beauty tribe.)

[eskimo]

6 hours ago, Gummo said:

Now it's run, swim, puzzle. Run, swim, puzzle. Run, swim, puzzle.

Not true.  Sometimes it's Swim, Run, Puzzle.  So they do shake things up from time to time.  Ya know, keep it fresh.

[green]

6 hours ago, violet and green said:

...Oh well. Still waiting for Survivor Oldsters...

Yeah, me too.  The endless 20-somethings tend to bore me to tears.  Season after season after season of endless, boring 20-somehitngs.  Most have no real life experiences to make them remotely interesting. 

The only interesting ones to me are usually just the intellectual types (I hate the term "nerd" and the fact it seems to have some sort of negative connotation to some people) who will eventually be running our world.  The others just seem too entitled simply because they are young (yawn) and seem to think that only young people should get to go on an adventure like Survivor and enjoy an experience of a lifetime.  How dare older people have hopes and dreams as well.  So the result is the "tribal elders" get cast aside.

This will continue to happen as long as these shows only cast 2 or 3 token older people.  You need a season where they are in the majority.  "Survivor: The Tables Are Turned."  Make it happen people.

About Chrissy's expired idol.  Not only can she let it be discovered one way or the other but that is just step one. 

Once the other four think she found their tribe's idol (you don't tell them it is a special super idol) they won't bother to go out and look for the real one obviously since they think she has it.  Which means Chrissy will be the only person on her tribe looking for the real one.  Imagine what a one-two punch of mischief she can let loose with "expired idol" + "real idol" both in her possession.

Edited September 29, 2017 by green

[KimberStormer]

Putting aside the bullying question, we did have two situations this episode of people put in a sort of impossible spot by someone demanding to know if they have the idol.  Neither Dr. Mike nor JP figured out anything to say but "I don't have the idol" which was true but it didn't matter because their questioners wouldn't believe them.  (Well, I personally think Alan did believe JP, but pressed the issue on purpose as a "strategy".)   It bothers me to think there's no good solution to this problem...surely going on the offensive and accusing people of having the idol regardless of truth or any plausible theory can't be right.  But what could these guys have done better?  Laugh it off and ignore it?  I don't think either Alan or Joe would have been so easily put off.

I was kind of thinking maybe say "Yup, I have the idol."  I feel like the questioners would keep up their interrogations like "oh yeah? show me then," and now they're sort of doing your job for you by proving you actually don't have the idol.  But maybe that idea is crazypants.  What do you guys think?

[Haleth]

The endurance and balance challenges come with individual immunity.  The team challenges should include things that require various skills (run, swim, puzzle) so all team members can participate.  The stronger people and the puzzle wizards need to demonstrate to their tribe what they can and cannot do.  Too bad the first challenge didn't include a swimming segment or Katrina might still be there.

There will never not be a Survivor with a multitude of hot, young, semi clothed 20 somethings.  Oldster Survivor sounds good in theory but would end up as popular as a kiddie edition.  I've always said they should do a season based on occupation-- military vs first responders vs teachers.  They'd still get assorted size, shape, genders, and skills, without the manufactured labels.

[candall]

18 hours ago, Charlesman said:

if you're the other person in the 4-2, why save the other person? That just makes it 3-2, and the 3 are really pissed at you for breaking up their alliance on day 1. You're now in the minority, divided the tribe, and outed as the person working against the majority. Why blindside the majority there? Just makes your own game worse.

Because 3-2 is a much less stable configuration than 4-1.  You only need one person in the trio to feel left out or dissatisfied and defect to put you in majority position.  (And one of the trio is Alan, so the tripod's already on shaky ground.)   Against four, the singlet is easily toast.

 

On ‎9‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 11:42 PM, Rowan said:

Tone it way on down, Alan. I'm not sure I could put up with that kind of paranoia for very long. Talk about having some Manson Lamps, I'd be totally creeped out by the intensity of his gaze.

 

  Perfect.

 

On ‎9‎/‎28‎/‎2017 at 1:05 AM, PerfidiousAmber said:

Does anybody else see how this frantic alliance-building right out of the gate thing has evolved over the seasons? Gone are the days of just watching and waiting for the right time and the right people - everybody is just panicked if they don't have an alliance with at least one other person like five minutes into the game.

I thought the same thing.  They'll have to keep them all separated during the casting interviews or they'll be forming alliances.  I knew I could trust you when I saw you get out of your car in the parking lot..

***********************

 

Wheeeee, it's back!  I put political turmoil on hold for an hour and switched over to the craziness of a fresh batch of Survivors.  It's so fun to form those first impressions and know you're going to be totally wrong about everyone.  Beautiful island.  Probst still fanwanks the hunks and the fillers haven't drifted down to smooth out his dimples yet.  "No chickens were injured in the course of this filming."  And WHALES.  Happy sigh.

Edited September 29, 2017 by candall

[JudyObscure]

17 hours ago, simplyme said:

If it helps, in her interviews, Katrina kept talking about what kind of "energy" people gave off.

All is made clear.

[Lamb18]

One thing about the young people voting off the oldsters - I think it's also a revenge thing.  All their life older people have been telling the young people what to do: parents, relatives, teachers, bosses and now, FINALLY, the playing field is level and young people have the majority and don't have to do what older people say anymore!! Hurrah - let's stick it to them and vote them off!

[Special K]

Hello everyone!

Do you know how surreal it is to read 5 pages of posts when you have no idea what anyone's name is?  :)

I just had to say that that Hustler pair, I'm going to call them Horschach and Barbarino.  Seriously, it's like they forced me.

I'm so OVER older women being called moms. I know Chrissy is evidently a hero for birthing children, but was the Olympian even a mother?  It's possible to get older as a women and not push out any spawn, ya know.  She should've told them she could swim.  What would've been the down side?  It's not like Olympians are rich or anything.

Chrissy was right not to use that stupid first-vote idol.  I bet we never see that again.

That idiotic redhead looks disturbingly like my ex-husband.

ETA:  I can't wait to see/hear more from that Fisherman (fisherperson?).  She looked all kinds of awesome to me.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Special K

[eskimo]

I hate the predictability of first boots when there's an older person on the tribe as well.  I like to see diversity in the cast and different levels of life experience work together.  It irritates me that older players are judged right out of the gate and cast aside.  Katrina might have been an interesting player and an asset to her team in water challenges, but I do understand the tribe wanting to keep as much muscle around as possible.  They fear weakening their tribe to the point that they just lose everything.  I wish there was some way for the challenge designers to account for the fact that older people are generally not as strong as younger people.  It's biology, young people are at their prime.  Soon they will be the older people, and I don't think they realize that.  

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, Special K said:

I'm so OVER older women being called moms. I know Chrissy is evidently a hero for birthing children, but was the Olympian even a mother? 

Mom of two.  I don't put a lot of weight on her swimming.  Her Olympics was almost 30 years ago, when she was 18.  And it's not like they give these people a ton of speed/distance swimming challenges.  More like "dive down 8' and untie this buoy", usually.  

She's a marriage and family therapist and sounds very new-agey so I'm sure she was surprised to not land on the Healers.  

It makes me mad when they take one tiny thing from someone's past and make it their chiron.  Or take a perfectly fine profession like Actuary or Urologist and decide it plays better to the masses as Financial Analyst and Sex Doctor.  

I noticed Jeff using "Dr. Mike".  I wonder if Jessica, who has a doctorate in nursing, will get similar respect.  Not that I think a PhD is really comparable to an MD.  

[peachmangosteen]

2 hours ago, Special K said:

I can't wait to see/hear more from that Fisherman (fisherperson?).  She looked all kinds of awesome to me.

Yea, same. I feel like she has potential. I could see her getting really far but getting virtually no screentime ever though since she's and older, not conventionally attractive women. Basically she has virtually no chance of being shown at all lol.

[KimberStormer]

5 hours ago, Haleth said:

There will never not be a Survivor with a multitude of hot, young, semi clothed 20 somethings.  Oldster Survivor sounds good in theory but would end up as popular as a kiddie edition. 

Endurance! 

[HurricaneVal]

3 hours ago, Special K said:

I just had to say that that Hustler pair, I'm going to call them Horschach and Barbarino.  Seriously, it's like they forced me.

O. M. G.  That is so perfect!

[piequinn35]

15 hours ago, spiderpig said:

(Still wondering how Tai got on the Yellow Buff Beauty tribe.)

Inner beauty ;)

[Jobiska]

There were plenty of team immunity challenges involving balance recently--I recall because Debbie kept messing them up and criticizing other members for messing them up and saying she was a gymnast and screaming and fussing.

[Broken Ox]

On 9/28/2017 at 2:19 PM, laurakaye said:

It's like the factions in "Divergent."  You can't be both peaceful and intellegent?  Or both brave and honest?  You can't be both a Hero and a Healer?  At some point, these themes are going to become caricatures of themselves, like "Hunks vs Hicks vs Hoes."  I personally would like to see NO themes and a schoolyard pick to start the next season.

That would be after my dream of them throwing all the applications in a hat and drawing for the cast.  Lose a lot of eye candy, to be sure, but it might actually be the interesting "social experiment" they claim to be.  

[iMonrey]

Quote

I don't blame them for choosing to evict the oldest person in the tribe. It's sad but the tribe needs strength and Katrina was the least strong however you look at it. It seems the oldest people are cast to either be the first boots or the perfect goats to take to the end. I don't see any older person winning in modern survivor unless the jury is really bitter.

Needing to keep physically stronger players hasn't really been the priority for the last 10 years or so. Now that they have three or four tribes to start you know a switch-up is coming within the first 2 tribal councils. The trick here is to identify who is most likely to screw you over down the road and vote them out immediately. It should have been clear to everyone that Alan is a loose cannon and would sell them down the river as soon as there's a switch up. I think in the long run it was much more important to get rid of someone as dangerous as him, than it was to "keep our tribe strong." Your "tribe" will likely only be a thing for one more challenge, and that's it.

[Mindthinkr]

Not all challenges test physical strength. Some test puzzle solving, quick thinking and the tenacity to stick something out. 

[ghoulina]

21 hours ago, Bryce Lynch said:

Now that you mention it, there are a lot of things one could do with a genuine, but expired idol.  She could pretend it is still valid to bluff, or to try to form an alliance.  She could also plant it where someone can find it, to give them a false sense of security.  So many options. I was really hoping Debbie would choose the fake idol kit last season.  Real looking fake idols could make for great, mischievous fun.

I agree. I REALLY like the idea of having someone ELSE find it and trying to play it. I know that's happened before. 

[eel2178]

5 hours ago, Special K said:

Do you know how surreal it is to read 5 pages of posts when you have no idea what anyone's name is?  :)

 

Devon Pinto – Surf Instructor – Solana Beach, California – Yawa Tribe

Lauren Rimmer – Fisherman – Beaufort, North Carolina – Yawa Tribe

Joe Mena – Probation Officer – Tolland, Connecticut – Soko Tribe

Ashley Nolan – Lifeguard – Satellite Beach, Florida – Levu Tribe

Jessica Johnston – Nurse Practitioner – Louisville, Kentucky – Soko Tribe

Alexandrea “Ali” Elliot – Celebrity Assistant – Los Angeles, California – Yawa Tribe

Roark Luskin - Social Worker – Santa Monica, California – Soko Tribe

Mike Zahalsky – Urologist – Parkland, Florida – Soko Tribe

Simone Nguyen – Diversity Advocate – New York City, New York – Yawa Tribe

Katrina Radke – Olympian – Excelsior, Minnesota – Levu Tribe

Patrick Bolton – Small Business Owner – Auburn, Alabama – Yawa Tribe

Ben Driebergen – Marine – Boise, Idaho – Levu Tribe

Cole Medders – Wilderness Therapy Guide – Little Rock, Arkansas – Soko Tribe

John Paul “JP” Hilsabeck – Firefighter – Los Angeles, California – Levu Tribe

Alan Ball - NFL Player – Houston, Texas – Levu Tribe

Chrissy Hofbeck – Actuary – Lebanon Township, New Jersey – Levu Tribe

Ryan Ulrich – Bellhop – North Arlington, New Jersey – Yawa Tribe

Desiree “Desi” Williams – Physical Therapist – Newport News, Georgia – Soko Tribe

[Guest]

I don't watch this for the eye candy explicitly but I'll admit that I have zero interest in a Survivor without beautiful scenery and people.  I watched about 1 minute of Naked and Afraid.... middle-aged, pixeled, frumpy dude in an ugly, nondescript swamp.  Blech.  

I don't find the beautiful 20-somethings all that vapid, outside those cast specifically for that role, anyway.  There have been a lot of very smart, interesting ones.  This season a lot of these people have advanced degrees in their 20s, too.  

[illdoc]

27 minutes ago, eel2178 said:

Mike Zahalsky – Urologist – Parkland, Florida – Soko Tribe

Simone Nguyen – Diversity Advocate – New York City, New York – Yawa Tribe

Katrina Radke – Olympian – Excelsior, Minnesota – Levu Tribe

I barely ever know the names of the tribes (nor do I actually care)---I know them by colors. Which color is which tribe?

[eel2178]

1 minute ago, illdoc said:

I barely ever know the names of the tribes (nor do I actually care)---I know them by colors. Which color is which tribe?

Yawa = red

Levu = blue

Soko = yellow