S38: Spoilers & Speculation

[peachmangosteen]

6 hours ago, SVNBob said:

That's the typical edit of a season with a female winner.  It's not the story of how she won; it's the story of how he lost.  Natalie White, Sophie, etc.

6 hours ago, LadyChatts said:

If any of the above is true, then yeah, Rick probably loses.  

Stop getting my hopes up!

[MissEwa]

17 hours ago, SVNBob said:

That's the typical edit of a season with a female winner.  It's not the story of how she won; it's the story of how he lost.  Natalie White, Sophie, etc.

16 hours ago, LadyChatts said:

Supposedly Probst and company were upset with this season, and how it ended ultimately led to Lynn being fired.  Now, I don’t know exactly where that started but I think it was more rumor because of Lynn’s firing, and now it’s gotten turned into being a spoiler.  After hearing Angelina say Lynn was going to pass on her last season because she was young and married, I’m inclined to believe that’s a big reason Lynn got fired (for trying to go the BB route and cast a bunch of boring hot 20 somethings for showmance purposes).  That said, I can believe Probst and TPTB being upset that the returning players were all voted out before the end (and pretty early for at least 3 of them), and the EOE twist probably didn’t go how they expected, especially if they thought returning players would return, more people would quit, and there’d be more drama.  So far I think how Reem will greet the newest castoff is the most dramatic thing happening out there.

If any of the above is true, then yeah, Rick probably loses.   I’ll have to go see if Redmond said anything about the producers reaction to this season.

10 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

Stop getting my hopes up!

I would love this to be the case but I don't think we've had the story of how Rick loses. Russell was completely unlikeable. Coach was delusional and a bully. Rick is neither of those things. He's an underdog who made it back from EoE and is still there despite being targeted multiple times. And while I think Rick is annoying and not nearly in control as he thinks he is, he is definitely getting a positive edit. 

The only hope I have is a comparison to Malcolm, where he got a hugely positive edit only for his day one partner to win instead. Maybe not playing the idol for Julie after all will lead to his downfall and she'll win instead but I don't see it. 

[peachmangosteen]

They did air Rick showing his ass when he first came back when he was acting like a baby about working with Manu again. But still, it's not enough to call his edit anything but positive. And it certainly isn't 'how he lost' like Russell, Coach, Monica's husband whose name I can not think of right now, even Dom.

[TVFan1]

Saw a preview that says something like an unpredictable finale. Rick winning is not unpredictable.

[peachmangosteen]

8 minutes ago, TVFan1 said:

Saw a preview that says something like an unpredictable finale. Rick winning is not unpredictable.

I saw that, too. I told my sister and she said I guess Rick isn't winning then lol.

[LadyChatts]

I don't buy much into what the preview says.  TPTB are probably just getting my hopes up, it's an incredibly predictable finale, but they need to pretend otherwise.  There's speculation about the spoiler that someone wins 3 IC in a row, and some are thinking that involved Chris (or whoever returns from EOE), and that person winds up in the final 3 as a result.  Could also go along with Dale's bitter tweets.  Kelley and Lauren are friends outside the show, so maybe the EOE returning player screws her chances?  There was also a rumor that Rick lost the fire making challenge.

My prediction if Rick wins: Gavin goes next (possibly idoled out), Victoria goes 5th, Lauren loses the final 4 firemaking challenge, leaving a final 3 of Rick, Chris, and Julie (whose there as a goat).  

If Rick loses, it's trickier.  I think, with the knowledge that Lauren and Rick have idols, Chris decides to align with Rick and Julie, they bring Lauren in with the assumption that they are voting out Victoria/Gavin, and she gets blindsided at the final 6 and leaves with her idol.  Gavin goes next, Rick goes at the final 4 after losing the fire making challenge, leaving a final 3 of Victoria, Julie, and Chris.  Victoria wins because of her social game (as alluded to by David).

Edited May 13, 2019 by LadyChatts

[peachmangosteen]

1 minute ago, LadyChatts said:

My prediction if Rick wins: Gavin goes next (possibly idoled out), Victoria goes 5th, Lauren loses the final 4 firemaking challenge, leaving a final 3 of Rick, Chris, and Julie (whose there as a goat).  

This would be absolutely horrible. So that's probably what happens lol.

[marys1000]

Normally you can kind of read the jury, not so with EoE unless its to say more likely to vote for a returnee or maybe against someone who sent them home, which only works for the more recent boots

[peachmangosteen]

There's a shot of the F6 in the latest promo, but I personally can't make any of them out besides Victoria & Gavin. It's at the 9 second mark.

[SVNBob]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

There's a shot of the F6 in the latest promo, but I personally can't make any of them out besides Victoria & Gavin. It's at the 9 second mark.

I think it's actually of the first F6 from the last episode, and may not include the second EoE person.

From left to right, it looks like Rick, Gavin, Victoria, Aurora, Lauren, and Julie.  And if you watch the scene of them heading out to TC from that episode (muted, since it's got a Rick VO on top of it), it looks to match up to this shot perfectly.

If it is new footage, it means Aurora is the 2nd returnee.

[nutty1]

I belong to a FB page where the guy usually has spoilers at the very end of the season. He said Julie and Gavin are not in the final 3. 

That doesn’t mean one of them aren’t in the final 4. I’m guessing Lauren is in the fire making challenge. 

[EllenB]

On 5/8/2019 at 11:23 PM, Cutty said:

I'd be shocked if Rick didn't win. He's been the main character for basically the entire second half of this dreadful season. This is basically the Mike Holloway playbook. I don't really see anyone else who has even had somewhat of a winners edit. Lauren did have a good episode tonight. If they can get Devins gone she would be my pick. 

Chris will definitely be the returner. That is pretty obvious.

The big difference between this season and Mike's is that everyone else left was a total dick, so a lot of people (including me) reluctantly cheered him on as the more tolerable player.  This season, Rick is coming across as the most dickish of the remaining players.

[LadyChatts]

There was a spoiler of a final 3 of Lauren, Victoria, and the EOE returnee.  Victoria is also the only other person rumored to win, so maybe that's true?  Rick could use his idol at the first TC vote where Gavin/Julie goes, then lose immunity and get voted out at the F5.  Julie/Gavin goes out at the fire making challenge.   

Edited May 14, 2019 by LadyChatts

[peachmangosteen]

The finale ep description:

Quote

One castaway’s game unravels and someone gets a chance to return to the game when the castaways “living on the edge” compete head to head. In the end, one castaway will take home the $1 million prize and earn the title of Sole Survivor.

Here's to hoping Rick's game is the one that unravels!

[nutty1]

Per a spoiler on that FB page....

Chris is the returnee and wins all the challenges. There is no way Devens wins, he needed to win 1 or 2 immunities to get to the end. The last sentence is my opinion.

[LadyChatts]

I'm getting way too excited, because I know Probst is going to crush my spirits when he says 'the winner of Survivor EOE is...' and then dramatically turns the last parchment paper to the audience, despite the fact that we can count and saw that Rick had every previous vote.

However, with the final 3 rumors, the person winning 3 challenges in a row (which, if that person is correct, would be Chris), and David's vague comment about Victoria's social game, maybe Rick isn't the winner?  There was, of course, the original rumor that someone that was voted off early on ended up winning the game after re-entering and that TPTB hated the outcome as a result.  I'm still extremely skeptical of that, unless the finale goes from the Rick show to the Chris show.

Chris might know he has no chance in hell of actually winning, so I suppose it's possible he tries to keep Rick around knowing he will.  

Edited May 15, 2019 by LadyChatts

[nutty1]

Another spoiler....

The final 3 are Chris, Lauren and Victoria.

Chris wins every challenge after returning. Devens idols out Gavin at 6. Chris takes Victoria to the finals. Lauren beats Julie in the fire making challenge.

[LadyChatts]

So for a season that had incredibly inaccurate spoilers, looks like some of them were correct right at the end after all.  Have to say, while Chris is nice and everything, it just sucks that he was voted out so long ago, and now is not only making the final 3 (allegedly) but also deciding who makes the final 3.  And I'm not ruling out that he wins.  This twist should have either ended at the merge, or be done sooner.    

I am looking forward to seeing Rick grand stand like a 3rd grader when he idols Gavin out, only to finally put those of in the anti-Rick camp out of our misery when his torch is snuffed for the second time at the next vote.  If all of this is true, the editing is so bizarre this season.  

Edited May 15, 2019 by LadyChatts

[jay741982]

10 minutes ago, nutty1 said:

Another spoiler....

The final 3 are Chris, Lauren and Victoria.

Chris wins every challenge after returning. Devens idols out Gavin at 6. Chris takes Victoria to the finals. Lauren beats Julie in the fire making challenge.

I'm sorry but Victoria And Lauren deserve to win over a Guy who was out most of the fucking game. Fuck this season if Chris wins 

[jay741982]

I think it's obvious They are going for Bringing Rick back in a future season as a "fav" hence his edit. Hes gonna be a "Popular" player that comes up short and the people that think Players like Victoria and Lauren didnt do crap when they actually did start whining about him being robbed 

[LanceM]

2 hours ago, nutty1 said:

Another spoiler....

The final 3 are Chris, Lauren and Victoria.

Chris wins every challenge after returning. Devens idols out Gavin at 6. Chris takes Victoria to the finals. Lauren beats Julie in the fire making challenge.

Over on reddit they are claiming Victoria wins and that it isn't even close.  As much as I really really wants this to be true I remain skeptical

[TVFan1]

Victoria winning would be a good ending, even though I'd like Lauren to win. As long as I see Rick get his torch snuffed again, I'll be happy. I'm not going to get my hopes up, because there were spoilers that were wrong before.

[loki567]

I don't buy it. These "spoilers," came from the SpoiledSurvivor reddit mod who's been absolutely obsessed with Victoria all season. He got a boot list before last week's episode saying that Aurora was next to go so he thinks that confirms the list.

But Aurora's always been an obvious target in the event of a Rick immunity win. And Chris seemed a likely candidate to return since that picture of him with a red buff months ago. 

So I'm still comfortable in saying there are still no confirmed spoilers out there. 

[nutty1]

It wasn’t from Reddit. And the person who gave them is a Lauren fan. And trust me, I’d be thrilled if they were wrong!!  But I think they won’t be. 

Edited May 15, 2019 by nutty1

[loki567]

I'm pretty sure the mod got it from the same FB group. And the only thing supporting the spoiler is the Aurora boot when that was a fairly easy thing to predict. 

[nutty1]

Just now, loki567 said:

I'm pretty sure the mod got it from the same FB group. And the only thing supporting the spoiler is the Aurora boot when that was a fairly easy thing to predict. 

Curious if that person said Chris wins all the immunity challenges? I’m crossing fingers and toes that the spoiler is wrong. 🤞🏻

[phlebas]

So it sounds like Reem isn't coming back in? A pity. I was looking forward to a FTC performance fueled entirely by rage.

Wentworth: Reem, this question is for you...
Reem: I WILL COME FOR YOU IN THE NIGHT
Wentworth: Reem, please, I just...
Reem: I WILL DANCE UPON YOUR GRAVE BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON

An opportunity missed...

[Lamb18]

The  only hope I have for a non-Rick win is that Jeff supposedly hates this season and I don't think he'd hate it if Rick won.

[phlebas]

8 minutes ago, Lamb18 said:

The  only hope I have for a non-Rick win is that Jeff supposedly hates this season and I don't think he'd hate it if Rick won.

That implies good things for Lauren.  While I don't think Jeff hates her, she is a WEAKLING WHO FAINTED.

Go Lauren!

[Special K]

If Chris wins, well, personally, I think he's a good player (though he made at least one dumb misjudgement), and I guess I wouldn't be too annoyed, but it shows how poorly thought-out EoE was by the producers. 

They should have had ONE challenge to get back in the game from EoE, after the merge, but not too far in, and then send all the loser EoEers to loser Ponderosa, and start assembling the jury from the players that are still in the game at that point.  It seems like they didn't consider that so many people would stay at the Edge, and having a challenge this late to get back in the game is moronic and really undercuts the whole premise of the game. 

I bet the "Dream Team" were working overtime to create an individual challenge course for like a dozen people or whatever it is we'll see tonight.  They probably had to clear-cut a new section of jungle.

Edited May 15, 2019 by Special K

[peachmangosteen]

I'm down for Chris winning. It's so awful, but in a funny way. Plus, he's the most attractive man I've seen on Survivor in quite awhile.

I'm also down for a Victoria win since, as much as I irrationally can not stand her, she really has played the best game to me.

[Eolivet]

12 hours ago, nutty1 said:

Another spoiler....

The final 3 are Chris, Lauren and Victoria.

Chris wins every challenge after returning. Devens idols out Gavin at 6. Chris takes Victoria to the finals. Lauren beats Julie in the fire making challenge.

(guess I am here now after seeing Survivor 38 spoilers in a Survivor 40 casting spoiler thread elsewhere)

So, is it possible reddit saw this and decided, based on their reddit-ness, that obviously this means Victoria won? When it's possible that Chris does? Chris honestly has more of a story arc than Victoria, despite being absent for ages on Edge of Extinction.

I'm officially out of the Survivor edit-guessing business if Victoria wins. I thought I was out after Wendell, but Wendell was the nicer guy, so I convinced myself I needed to look more closely at character. But I need shows that adhere to normal hallmarks of storytelling, with clearly defined characters. If this is the outcome, there was a way to edit this season, and this character, so it wasn't just reddit judging the best faceless series of moves to be worthy of a winner. Victoria would've been a great love-to-hate villain or even a Kim Spradlin-like puppetmaster. Even now, I can't decide if I like her, because I know so little about her as a character beyond her game moves.

And if this happens, watch out for holy hellfire from casual Survivor fans. A triumph of the redditors is not what Survivor needs as a veteran series with declining ratings every year.

[peachmangosteen]

20 minutes ago, Eolivet said:

And if this happens, watch out for holy hellfire from casual Survivor fans. 

If Rick loses, the casuals are gonna lose their minds. Probably even more so if Victoria is the winner. 

I'm telling you, Victoria's edit is worse than Michele's. It made complete sense to me when Michele won. If Victoria wins, her edit makes zero sense. Victoria seems like a snarky little bitch and I don't believe she wasn't showing that in her confessionals so I don't believe she was 'boring' or whatever excuse they always use to under-edit women. 

[nutty1]

The latest is that Victoria wins. Not happy. 

[ProfCrash]

I would be fine with a Victoria win and I would be pissed if I were her because no one is going to know why she wins.

[LadyChatts]

I think the idea with EOE was that more people would quit, and that the castoffs would be essentially bullying other people into quitting to increase their chances of getting back in the game.  Yet we had 2 quits and the whole mood out there was chill (except for Reem if she didn’t like who got voted off).  I don’t know that it helped that they kept it such a mystery at first.  The first half of the group didn’t even really know what was going to happen.  

This is why I would love Big Brother in a case like this.  They would inflict all kinds of self made mental torture on them to ensure they had fireworks and quitters.

I’ve heard TPTB we’re disappointed with both the cast and/or the outcome.  I actually think this could have been a good cast and season without including the returning players and EOE twist.  I don’t dislike Victoria, but I don’t like her either.  I’ve been intrigued by her all season.  I can’t tell if she’s a follower or mastermind lol She seemed to have a more visible edit pre merge but I forgot about her most of the post merge half.  I wonder if that’s why she’s been sarcastic in a lot of her Twitter comments all season, about her game play not being shown.

[PhoneCop]

...and according to one of her interviews, Wendy said that she and Keith weren't told before they quit that they'd effectively made jury, or else they might've tried to stick it out. If not for withholding that information, the entire cast might still be in play and the season's idiot theme would've been an even bigger bust.

So yeah, this really would've worked better on BB, where the EoE people would've been subjected to noise torture, random actors in costume coming in to harass them, and Grod knows what else*. Plus the dumb twists on that show go sideways every week, which doesn't mean the producers come up with smarter twists but at least they're used to rolling with the punches. I agree that this wasn't an inherently bad cast—not a great one, but perfectly average—and it's unfair that this is going down as one of the worst seasons ever through no real fault of their own.

*Now that I think about it, EoE is really just a dumbed-down version of the Pressure Cooker, where they completely failed to ratchet up the torture and instead just let them hold the button with no additional discomfort.

[ProfCrash]

I think EoE killed the season. EoE diverted attention to that mess and probably messed with the current players heads. The returning players have the same issues returning players always have but in the end, the newbies did the smart thing and voted them out.

I still don't know what to make of Kama because we did not see enough of them in the beginning. How did Aurora end up isolated from the other newbies? She seemed to be the low person on the newbie totem pole. We never figured out what the over all dynamic in Kama was because time was spent at Manu or on EoE. Kama just kept winning, thanks to Joe, and we saw nothing about them.

[MissEwa]

I'd be happy with a Victoria win, and I would get why she won. They have shown juuuuust enough of her so it wouldn't come from nowhere. It makes more sense to me than Michele and about the same amount as Wendell (who I saw winning from about halfway through his season). Still not buying it until I actually see it though. 

[BK1978]

I wonder if Rick being hyped everywhere is just that hype and as others have said Victoria gets the win.  In a promo I heard today on the radio they were hyping Rick (it only had an audio clip of him talking).  Granted with a radio spot they tend to be really short so how many clips can you put in the ad.

[LadyChatts]

It could just be Rick’s story of being a huge underdog, and will he pull off 3 more wins to stay in the game, or will he scramble and manage to save himself?  I get that it was probably a more interesting story arc to follow than a majority Kama strong alliance dominating until the end, with Lauren thrown in.  

And maybe TPTB were mad that the Kama’s were more anti-returning player than Manu.  So they under edit them all season as punishment (yeah, I can actually see TPTB being that petty).

[loki567]

I still don't buy the spoilers or that the editors would do their winner like this. For example, Michele got a good edit where it felt like the editors were throwing in any reasonable content they could, to emphasis to the audience that she was a strong player. 

The simplest explanation is usually the correct one. They have a big character who's an underdog, he wins the necessarily comps to get to the end, he wins and gets 80% of the screentime like Ben or Mike. 

Otherwise, it's a case that the editors willingly tanked the season by giving their winner less of an edit than Natalie White. 

8 minutes ago, LadyChatts said:

It could just be Rick’s story of being a huge underdog, and will he pull off 3 more wins to stay in the game, or will he scramble and manage to save himself?  I get that it was probably a more interesting story arc to follow than a majority Kama strong alliance dominating until the end, with Lauren thrown in.  

They've had a loser like that before in Terry and they still made sure to show the tribal dynamics of the majority alliance. 

[jay741982]

8 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

If Rick loses, the casuals are gonna lose their minds. Probably even more so if Victoria is the winner. 

I'm telling you, Victoria's edit is worse than Michele's. It made complete sense to me when Michele won. If Victoria wins, her edit makes zero sense. Victoria seems like a snarky little bitch and I don't believe she wasn't showing that in her confessionals so I don't believe she was 'boring' or whatever excuse they always use to under-edit women. 

And see I think Rick is an arrogant ass.  And I remember him whining when things werent going his way. Haven't seen that from Victoria 

[jay741982]

7 hours ago, nutty1 said:

The latest is that Victoria wins. Not happy. 

I'd be thrilled just cause I would like some unpredictability instead of what we've seen: Rick Rick and more Rick looking like hes the obvious winner cause Probst loves to focus too much on the men. And Victoria would deserve it in my eyes 

[LanceM]

Well it looks like I was right to be skeptical as the moderator over on reddit has deleted the spoilers he posted last night. lol.  I don't know what to think any more I guess I will just wait until bout 10:30 tonight to find out who won.

[LadyChatts]

9 minutes ago, LanceM said:

Well it looks like I was right to be skeptical as the moderator over on reddit has deleted the spoilers he posted last night. lol.  I don't know what to think any more I guess I will just wait until bout 10:30 tonight to find out who won.

Was Anthony the author is the original post that’s now deleted?  He said on Sucks he deleted it because of people not being nice in the comments, if that was him.  

Some obvious things to expect: someone will likely get idoled out at final 6 (whether it’s Rick or Lauren that plays it).  If Rick loses immunity he’s definitely playing his idol.  I think Gavin or Victoria, if she doesn’t win, are likely good candidates to be the first boot tonight.  Victoria wasn’t happy with Gavin last week for voting off Aurora over Julie, and warned him Lauren wanted Julie around because she was easy to beat in the final 3.  Maybe foreshadowing to Gavin’s downfall?

I’d actually be surprised for Julie not to make the final 3, only because she’d be the perfect goat.  

Edited May 15, 2019 by LadyChatts

[LanceM]

Just now, LadyChatts said:

Was Anthony the author is the original post that’s now deleted?  He said on Sucks he deleted it because of people not being nice in the comments, if that was him.  

Yes that is him. I am not sure I am buying that reason but we shall see. I am still hopeful that they are true.

[LadyChatts]

Well, there goes a huge spoiler-Victoria ain't winning.  Maybe Rick or Chris does pull it off after all?  

[nutty1]

Well, Chris returning was correct. Still hoping the rest isn’t. 

Edited....

WHAT?! Victoria is out??!! I just got home. There’s still hope!! Please not Lauren. 

Edited May 16, 2019 by nutty1

[LadyChatts]

So two spoilers were correct this season: Rick making the final 4, and an early boot from EOE winning after coming back late in the game.