S38.E09: Y'all Making Me Crazy

[Tryangle]

42 minutes ago, Bryce Lynch said:

I thought this whispering TC was much clearer than most past ones.  Sometimes they were speaking out loud and a lot of subtitles were added to let us know what was being whispered.  It seemed pretty clear to me (maybe too clear) that either Aurora or Julia was getting voted out.  

45 minutes ago, Bryce Lynch said:

According to Victoria and Julia on Twitter, by the time of the vote, it was very obvious that Julia was the one being voted out.  

This was my read as well. The way the episode was going at this point, Julia was more prominent in discussions overall and once she fell in the IC it seemed that she could be a target of the Lesu group. Aurora's name may have been floated first at TC, but it makes sense that as the whispers went on (and Julia lost her nerve), Julia's name would have been more prominent.

37 minutes ago, HappyDancex2 said:

It would be helpful to me to have colored dots above their heads signifying their alliances lol.  And in an episode like this as the potential voting blocks change the dots change color.

That would have been freaking awesome for this TC! Because clearly the CBS team saw how chaotic this was during editing.

[Etta Place]

For me, I am okay with the whispering mini-conferences at tribal (and plenty of these weren't even that whispered) because otherwise as we've heard from former players, votes rarely-to-never get changed at tribal. The public talk may make it seem like they will be changed, or may be able to be edited to seem like they will be, but people are usually too nervous to try to change it up with just meaningful looks and gestures.

I don't need to know exactly what is being promised, that'll come out later. And what I liked about last night was the constant shuffling. It seemed that the groups were changing ... and maybe they were for a while, but it turned out it was building a consensus to get rid of Julia.

We'll see the reasoning next week, but Julia's name had been thrown out there earlier in the episode and undoubtedly her attitude at tribal didn't help at all. Though I confess that when she said "shut up, Wardog" I thought "well, who hasn't wanted to say that?!"

[peachmangosteen]

That was fun.

11 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

Some of the worst game play that we have seen in a long time.

11 hours ago, LadyChatts said:

... the way it went down tonight just made this look like a sad, incompetent bunch. 

I agree with these two statements, but I love it! Watching a bunch of idiots lose their minds and play badly is always fun for me.

3 hours ago, plurie said:

Julia was the right choice. She's much better at challenges than Aurora ...

Is she? Aurora won the first IC. I agree though that Julia was the better choice as she seemed to be much more of a leader type than Aurora, who appears to have no allies at all.

I loled that Ron's first reaction to being blindsided was to take Gavin aside and try to browbeat him into apologizing. Gavin just sitting there, taking it and stuttering, was also hilarious. And then, weirdly, Ron became despondent, which was also hilarious. And then he went bitchy again with his, "Should we vote out Victoria?" right to her face, as if to show her he was now in control and teach her a lesson about going against him last week. He went back and forth so much in this ep.

Aurora is shaping up to be a real bitch and I would like to see more of it.

Lauren's attempt to change the target from David to Ron was so bad. I mean good for her that she's been keeping her idol, but the girl is not very good at the game lol.

I feel like if people don't come together and break up Kelley/Lauren/Wardog next week then they're going to regret it, but also I really hope that doesn't happen lol. Them plus David, and hell even Rick who I hate, as a dysfunctional team is fun to watch.

Edited April 11, 2019 by peachmangosteen

[Lamima]

1 hour ago, Ellee said:

I really don’t have a read on Kelly or the David-Kelly relationship.  Is that because I’m blind?

Kelly either has nerves of steel or she really has read the others that well.  Or .... I guess it could be that Kelly and David may be keeping each other informed about intended targets without others knowing.  It might explain Kelly’s choosing not to play her idol and David playing his  

Or ....

Help me out here so I see what I’m missing. 

Basically Kelly and David are schooling the newbies. They really are better at this game and I am glad it has been all about the vets. As it should be. So, yes, I do think Kelly and David are kind of working together. I think they are smart enough to use each other when needed and how needed but they wouldn't risk their own games to save each other. They are walking a tight wire. 

[Lamb18]

I'm watching this right. I watched the first half last night but had to leave to spend an evening in a barn with 40+ baby lambs and their mothers. Aurora the dairy calf is doing well. Two years ago I named a bunch of lambs after Survivor players on the spring 17 season. I remember talk on this forum about Sarah being a mouth-breather and I have a couple of pictures of her lambsake sleeping with her mouth wide open and two little bottom teeth showing.

Eric is looking manly melancholy sitting on a rock at Isle of Extinction. And there's Malcolm standing alone on the beach, also looking melancholy. Reem has lost weight. Extinction would be so boring. That's probably the worst thing to face. Now I feel sorry for that poor stingray, gasping with that spear through its body.

[peachmangosteen]

10 minutes ago, Lamima said:

Basically Kelly and David are schooling the newbies. They really are better at this game ...

Most people who are playing for the second and third time are gonna have a better grasp than people playing for the first time. Which is why I despise returning players in seasons with newbies. Normally I would root against returnees, but David and Kelley are possibly the only two people I am actually rooting for this season. Dammit!

Edited April 11, 2019 by peachmangosteen

[Lamb18]

I wonder why Julie expects someone to watch out for her on the show anyway. After years of no one watching out for me I guess I sometimes wonder why anyone cries over this.

[Kelda Feegle]

Aurora needs to stfu with the "Soccer Mom" as an insult stuff - she needs to experience having multiple kids that need to get to multiple sporting events in multiple places before she can throw stones at those parents who do.

Loved TC excitement - beats "insert name here" strong plans.

[laurakaye]

12 hours ago, Lamima said:

^Cause it's boring and sucks. The whole point of watching Survivor is us, the viewers, being privy to the dynamics. We aren't at a whispering fools TC. I just had angst, not in a good way, and wanted to get to the vote already. And then the result was like...a deflated balloon because we had no idea where that came from.

While I don't mind some shuffling and whispering during TC, this went on far too long and once I lost the thread of what I thought was going on, I also lost interest.  I don't really want to watch a group of people that I still barely know whisper things I can't hear.

12 hours ago, tvfanatic13 said:

This is the longest most boring season ever. I can’t believe this was only week 8.

And we still have every player minus the two that rode off into the sunset.  This is also confusing.  Other than going to EOE and raising the flag, does anyone actually get voted off the island?  Are we going to have a Final 3 and a 13-person jury?

7 hours ago, MVFrostsMyPie said:

I'm just blown away that Gavin is married because he looks like he just hit puberty the other day and got excited about growing facial hair. 

And then I did a huge double-take when I saw the enormous blue and pink flower tattoo covering his shoulder.  I was like, does your mom know you got that??

Bad Survivor is better than no Survivor, but this season I am struggling hard to keep names and alliances in my head, which is why I found TC completely random.  I did enjoy @30 Helens recap of TC but even after reading through it a couple of times, I still don't have any real grasp on who is on which alliance.

Also, Aubrey can tone it down a few notches on the jury.  I don't even know how they followed what was going on since they aren't in the game anymore.

Edited April 11, 2019 by laurakaye

[peachmangosteen]

5 minutes ago, laurakaye said:

I still don't have any real grasp on who is on which alliance.

That's probably because there doesn't appear to really be any big alliances. Right now the biggest one is Kelly/Lauren/Wardog, who have worked together all along and seem likely to continue working together. Then you have David and Rick as a duo, but one that might not necessarily always vote the same way/want the same thing. And basically I think that's it. Victoria/Gavin might be considered a duo and maybe Ron/Julie, but everyone on Kama has proven that they will all vote for each other to save themselves so there's no tight alliances there.

Edited April 11, 2019 by peachmangosteen

[Bryce Lynch]

5 minutes ago, Lamima said:

Basically Kelly and David are schooling the newbies. They really are better at this game and I am glad it has been all about the vets. As it should be. So, yes, I do think Kelly and David are kind of working together. I think they are smart enough to use each other when needed and how needed but they wouldn't risk their own games to save each other. They are walking a tight wire. 

I'm not so sure.  I think David and especially Kelly have been lucky that Kama members decided to overthink things and self destruct.  

David was working with Kama to vote out Kelly and according to Victoria, the plan was to vote out Kelly, until Julie's breakdown and Rick's new plan at TC.   Kelly was apparently totally fooled by Julia and the other Kamas, but Julie didn't believe that was the real plan, got paranoid and the rest is history.  

[ProfCrash]

1 hour ago, Ellee said:

I really don’t have a read on Kelly or the David-Kelly relationship.  Is that because I’m blind?

Kelly either has nerves of steel or she really has read the others that well.  Or .... I guess it could be that Kelly and David may be keeping each other informed about intended targets without others knowing.  It might explain Kelly’s choosing not to play her idol and David playing his  

Or ....

Help me out here so I see what I’m missing. 

I think Kelly and David have been targeting each other and know that the other needs to go but the timing is always sucky. They have played this game enough to know it is not personal, just game, and can sit down and chat with one another just fine. It is almost Wendell and Dom type of symbiotic relationship except that I am not certain either of them can win the game. I like how David is playing, he is a target that has managed to move that target and is capable of playing a fluid game. Kelly has played ballsy with her idol but seems far more lost then David does.

Honestly, I don't think either of them has done anything that screams winner, they seem to be going with the flow well enough but they are not directing anything. Given the way this season is going, they are probably better off not directing anything but that won't help them at final tribal. And being able to say "You all suck as players and just navigating your crappy as, random game play was an accomplishment" is not going to win anyone over.

1 hour ago, dsteele said:

I just found a brief mention of it in her bio on the CBS website, but I don't think it's been mentioned on the show. Apparently she and her brother were taken from their biological mother and grew up in foster care.
https://www.cbs.com/shows/survivor/cast/216068/

OK, so that is huge. It says a lot about her ability to survive solo and probably plays a role in her not being able to read the room very well. It would also explain her feeling left out and isolated. I don't know much about Foster Care but what I have read and heard about is not great. Some kids are lucky to find good Faster families but many times there is a lot of moving, not the best families, and a good amount of social and educational upheaval. She is not doing a great job playing Survivor but that one piece of info helps me understand why she might be struggling.

And good on her for not playing that up in the game. Either she is smart enough to know that it would put a target on her back because that is some interesting back story or she doesn't feel the need to share her tougher then most past.

1 hour ago, sigmaforce86 said:

Hard to say what's really going on but it seemed like Julia was one of the quiet ones but also quietly stewing - she obviously was frustrated by parts of the game and how it was going and frustrated by some of the tribe mates and never really said anything about it at camp.  So to me when she let go at tribal once it started she just completely let go and vented all the things she'd been holding back.  Sort of "I always wanted to tell so and so off so here it comes".   Seems like she can be tough and a leader when she needs to,  too bad it all came out at once and at the completely wrong time.

Because he's useless.  He looks muscular like he could be an immunity threat, but he can't throw a ball or balance on a beam or do pretty much anything.  He talks to people like he's trying to play and plot but he always seems to go in the wrong direction with the most inane logic and is willing to change his vote at the drop of a hat.  He's an unlikely goat.

Dan has actually be pretty strategically aware. He was the one who figured out how Rick and David were going to be used by Ron/Julie/Eric and passed that info on to Julia and Gavin. Julia confirmed it with her well conversation with Eric or Ron, when they said that David and Rick need to stay until 8. Dan was right that Rick was simply a tool for the Kama tribe and that Rick would be better off working with Manu. Rick was right that Kama was going to reunite and vote out a Manu at the Tribal.

Dan's problem is that he has my level of diplomacy and tact, ie none. He gets upset when people don't do what he wants to do and more barks orders then holds conversations. But his strategic instincts are actually on the money.

His other problem is that he sucks in challenges, choose a stupid nickname, and refers to himself in the third person. admittedly, the challenge suck is more of a problem for his game then the later two.

Julia has been a bit abrupt in her conversations at camp. She seemed annoyed that Ron was interrupting her sunbathing when he wanted Joe's bag checked and then annoyed again when Ron came back to find out if Joe had an idol in his bag. Her conversations with the other Kama have always been fine but she was a bit more abrupt.

Her performance at this particular tribal was horrendous. Telling Rick that he was a passenger and Dan to shut up? Her comments to Julie. Just awful.

[Lamb18]

Hashtag shocker: Wardog Peacekitty drops first!!

(By the way I named a baby calf Hashtag Shocker because she got a shock from the electric netting. She is just fine.) Julia looked like she dropped on purpose.

Congrats to Gavin?! This is where I stopped watching last night.

[Lamb18]

Ha, Lauren says "Ron is the leader on the Kama Kult."

And Gavin, just because people disagree with you doesn't mean it's a dictatorship.  Expecting them to agree with you is a little more dictatorial.

[Bryce Lynch]

5 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

That's probably because there doesn't appear to really be any big alliances. Right now the biggest one is Kelly/Lauren/Wardog, who have worked together all along and seem likely to continue working together. Then you have David and Rick as a duo, but one that might not necessarily always vote the same way/want the same thing. And basically I think that's it. Victoria/Gavin might be considered a duo and maybe Ron/Julie, but everyone on Kama has proven that they will all vote for each other to save themselves so there's no tight alliances there.

I think the problem is that people like Julia, Gavin, Ron and Eric somehow think you can have an "alliance" that blindsides multiple members on multiple occasions and remains a "alliance".  

It seem like the Kamas got way too focused on the long game, instead of simply consolidating power, getting rid of the Lesu enemies and then fighting it out among themselves.

Alternatively, if you are going to flip because you don't like where you stand in your alliance, then you need to stay flipped and work with the new alliance, at least for a while.   

Those Kama members all seem to think the world revolves around them and they can break alliances but then expect those spurned allies to become loyal to them again when they tell them to.  

[Gummo]

Well, this morning I typed up a whole freakin' essay about that tribal but one wrong keystroke and I lost the whole damn thing! (Primetimers everywhere go "Yay!")

Anyway....

C'mon, Probst & Burnette, don't be such sissies - we all know the real title of the episode was, "I Might Be the Poop."

As of last night, I've done a 180 on "live" tribals -- I used to hate'em as a violation of the game, but last night was so much fun to watch that I have to toss all my objections aside. Hey, Julia, did it even occur to you that a tribal where the vote is literally changing every second might not be the best time to insult people right to their faces? Especially since it looked like her insulting Rick was what prompted him to point out that most obvious fact, that 5 + 2 = 7. As soon as he said that, you could see the light bulbs appearing over the heads of nearly everyone there.

Even then Julia couldn't stop, laughing at Julie's anguish and telling Wardog to "shut up" -- damn, she made it easy for everybody! 

And I love David & Kelly's relationship -- yeah, you were the vote tonight, but since that didn't work out, wanna work together? Sure! Contrast that with Julie taking everything so friggin' personally -- she's exhausting and definitely shaping up as a third-place goat. 

And Kelly's got ovaries of steel not playing that idol.

And yeah, Aubrey's over the top with her jury reactions, but while I thought Eliza was putting it on, I don't get that from Aubrey. I just think she's a superfan having a grand ol' time watching shit unfold as she tries to get back in the game. 

So many seasons have developed with 2 solid blocs of allied players going back and forth until the end. I love that that's completely blown up this season and instead we have constantly shifting groups of twos and threes. 

This season is finally getting better.

[Lamb18]

So are Ron's and David's halves of the idol reunited? I guess they're going to make me wait and see. Can't figure out what Gavin is holding as he walks into camp. Looks like two pairs of socks.

Wardog Peacekitty makes another good point with his comment about passengers on a plan.

David, TMI for us viewers.

Julie, get it together! At least she has perspective.

CBS Access is so annoying - it cuts into commercials in the middle of someone's sentence instead of waiting until the natural breaks in the show.

[ProfCrash]

1 minute ago, Lamb18 said:

So are Ron's and David's halves of the idol reunited? I guess they're going to make me wait and see. Can't figure out what Gavin is holding as he walks into camp. Looks like two pairs of socks.

Wardog Peacekitty makes another good point with his comment about passengers on a plan.

David, TMI for us viewers.

Julie, get it together! At least she has perspective.

CBS Access is so annoying - it cuts into commercials in the middle of someone's sentence instead of waiting until the natural breaks in the show.

David played the idol last night, they each turned in their idol piece to Probst.

[ljenkins782]

13 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

The title of the episode should have been “OMG she’s lost her damn mind!” HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Aubry’s faces are priceless.

I didn’t need to see that young stingray gasping for it’s last dying breath.

The long, lingering shot of that stingray shot through with a spear but still breathing was very upsetting. I guess they were attempting a metaphor with the voices talking over it, but it really bothered me. 

Quote

She might be sorry she complained earlier about getting no air time.  I couldn't believe when she basically said in front of everyone that she was siding with Wentworth (and effectively the old Manus).  

That was so dumb and was really the catalyst for the insanity that followed. Those two were NOT visibly aligned and their plan wasn't known to everyone (though since she voted for Kelley, she was lying about that plan anyway). But alerting the group to the fact that she apparently working with Kelley, which would mean Lauren and Wardog by association, was so stupid. She basically Keith Nale'd herself out of the game. 

And it was hilarious that she chided Aurora for talking too much when Julia herself kicked off the entire debacle. Kelley Wentworth, Lauren, and Wardog were cracking me up, especially Kelley, as Julia blew up their plan more and more with every word.

Rick won me back in that tribal, I like to see people shout it out loud when something hits their ear, rather than just sit there making faces until Jeff calls on them. 

Quote

Seeing Ron sulk and whine like a little toddler for not getting his own way last week still has me smiling.  Especially him trying to stare menacingly towards Gavin.

He certainly rolled over quick though. He went from cult leader to servant in a snap. 

Quote

The tribal council was fun and I really enjoyed the 'jury' reactions but I swear to God I would have slapped that pot away from Victoria. How could she not realize she was getting on my last nerve!!

I was waiting for someone, namely Kelley, to snap at any second. But it's possible that she wasn't really doing it that long and the editors looped it just to build the tension...which it did, honestly.

Julie and Rick were my favorites at TC, Julie by accident, since she had a complete and total meltdown and lobbed a grenade into an already burning building and Rick for openly throwing down the gauntlet. 

Also funny was this group of Ron/Julie, David/Rick, and then Victoria's just randomly hanging off the edge. I was like WTF is Victoria doing over there? 

I still love David and I like him and Kelley together, I'm hoping they join forces soon, but I've also got to root for Rick as well. He fought his way back into the game and he's making the most of that second chance. 

I'm so glad they settled on Julia over Aurora, I was so disappointed when Aurora's name was the first choice, she seems like such a non-entity. She's goat material, IMO. She doesn't seem close to anyone and her temperament probably won't lend itself to a strong FTC argument.

[Nashville]

3 hours ago, sigmaforce86 said:

Because [Warthog’s] useless.  He looks muscular like he could be an immunity threat, but he can't throw a ball or balance on a beam or do pretty much anything.  He talks to people like he's trying to play and plot but he always seems to go in the wrong direction with the most inane logic and is willing to change his vote at the drop of a hat.  He's an unlikely goat.

To date, hasn’t Warty been one of the first 2 or 3 to drop in every individual challenge this season?

Quote

I loved David plopping down next to Kelly at tribal and just going "Hi" with that big smile. 

Right up there with Joe’s “Where’s the popcorn?” for my favorite line of the night. 😄 

Quote

Gavin was a surprise immunity win, there may be something to him as long as he doesn't get over confident. 

I gotta root for the Tennessee boy.

3 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

Have they mentioned that Aurora was in the foster care system? Because, wow. That is heavy shit and can lead to all sorts of different views on the world then the rest of us have.

Not in the course of the show, I don’t think; in one of the other threads (Survivor in the Media maybe?) was a link to an article where several contestants spoke about personal obstacles in their lives preparing them for Survivor, though, and Aurora went into some depth on the subject.

ETA: Here’s a link to the post with the link to the article, if you’re interested:

https://forums.previously.tv/topic/3723-survivor-in-the-media/?do=findComment&comment=5201868

Edited April 11, 2019 by Nashville

[Ms Blue Jay]

13 hours ago, cooksdelight said:

The title of the episode should have been “OMG she’s lost her damn mind!” HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Can someone remind me who said this about who(m)?

[ljenkins782]

5 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Can someone remind me who said this about who(m)?

It was definitely about Julie (no surprise there), but I can't remember if it was Julia or Victoria who said it.

[Ms Blue Jay]

9 hours ago, green said:

This was the most wonderful and entertaining half hour of this whole season.  Please let us have what people say mean something and actually cause changes of plans and such at tribal every time.

Yeah, I honestly thought it was one of the best episodes of the show I had ever seen.  I'm not kidding.  People always say they want more strategizing scenes, and this was almost a full hour of it.  The entire episode was strategizing.  It's like how sitcoms sometimes do "bottle episodes" to mix things up; this time the producers let us see a full episode of strategy and thinking and chaos and craziness.  I'm really thankful that they did.  The formula is the same for like 97% of the season.  It's nice to see something break from that for once.  I thought it was great.

Also, the how did they land on Julia question - it was completely spelled out by that tribal!  Devens engineered it by bringing up the 7 non-Kama-strong, and the 7 went for it.  And Julia absolutely couldn't handle people questioning her decree and then she told Wardog to shut up and told Devens that he was a passenger, it was a total freaking meltdown.  It was awesome.  I'm sure that didn't help.  Aurora didn't really do much like that except for the totally random and hilarious soccer mom comment that came out of nowhere.

Also, like I said last week, if the editing is accurate than Wardog DID engineer last week's vote.  If not him, who?

(Sorry, I see now that I've repeated some people upthread, like @Bryce Lynch!  I've read everything now.)

Edited April 11, 2019 by Ms Blue Jay

[ProfCrash]

10 minutes ago, ljenkins782 said:

It was definitely about Julie (no surprise there), but I can't remember if it was Julia or Victoria who said it.

I thought it was Aurora

[dsteele]

7 minutes ago, Nashville said:

To date, hasn’t Warty been one of the first 2 or 3 to drop in every individual challenge this season?

Indeed. And in the last two challenges, he was the first to drop out. I'm pretty sure there were others. Which makes this line in his bio all the more hilarious:
 

Quote

I bring a strong set of physical skills, and I won't be the one whining and complaining.

It's been a long time since there was such a self-professed alpha male who failed so miserably at the very thing they claim to master. Okay, so maybe the physical side isn't really his thing after all. That must mean he's really good at the mental and strategic side of the game.

Oh, wait...

[Lamb18]

Now did Julia blow things up with her giggling? She's not really doing that well at this tribal. And it's nice of her to let Rick make her own plan. 

And it's nice of the show to have captions for the whispering - thanks for letting us in on the conversations?? What bugs me most about this is that the jury is left out of the conversations and they're supposed to be there to observe and listen.

Aubry's face!! And asking about popcorn! Ha ha! And this is why these guys decided to stay on Extinction - free show at tribal!

Jeff is enjoying this, too. Julia's coming across pretty arrogant at this tribal. And she kind of blew it for Kama (not that I mind).

[ljenkins782]

8 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Yeah, I honestly thought it was one of the best episodes of the show I had ever seen.  I'm not kidding.  People always say they want more episodes of strategizing, and this was almost a full hour of it.  The entire episode was strategizing.  It's like how sitcoms sometimes do "bottle episodes" to mix things up, this time the producers let us see a full episode of strategy and thinking and chaos and craziness.  I'm really thankful that they did.  The formula is the formula for like 97% of the season.  It's nice to see something break from that for once.  I thought it was great.

Also, the how did they land on Julia question - it was completely spelled out by that tribal!  Devens engineered it by bringing up the 7 non-Kama-strong, and the 7 went for it.  And Julia absolutely couldn't handle people questioning her decree and telling Wardog to shut up and Devens he was a passenger, it was a total freaking meltdown.  It was awesome.  I'm sure that didn't help.  Aurora didn't really do much like that except for the totally random and hilarious soccer mom comment that came out of nowhere.

Also, like I said last week, if the editing is accurate than Wardog DID engineer last week's vote.  If not him, who?

Agreed. I thought it was pretty clear even through all the chaos that Julia had talked herself into eviction. No, they didn't show us how certain people (like Gavin, Victoria, and Aurora) were moved to vote for her, but that's okay with me. I like to be left wondering how the actual votes will go once all the talking is over. 

But overall, they showed enough moments of Julia being imperious and dismissive of people who weren't in her master plan that it seemed clear enough that she was headed for a fall.

Also, I don't know how or when it happened, but I've come around on Wardog a bit. He's lucky he's been in an underdog position for most of the game because I'm sure he'd have been insufferable as a leader, but I'm kind of enjoying him as he tries to fight his way up from the perpetual bottom.

[Lamb18]

So the broken idol is reunited and is played! 

HA! And it's Julia! She blew up her own game, can't feel sorry for her. But she had a nice exit speech. And since Extinction is no longer a secret she probably already knows what she wants to do.

[Special K]

Julia finally got the screen time she has been complaining about -- and she comes across as imperious and mean.  That goes squarely in the category of "be careful what you wish for."

That soccer mom comment was so random -- isn't Aurora a divorce lawyer?

My favorite characters are the ones who don't take it all so personally.  David, Rick, Kelley, even Wardog to a certain extent.  However, it's the crazy ones that make things fun:  Ron cowering, Julia lording, Julie losing her shit.

Still rooting for David, who, amazingly, keeps on keeping on.  

[simplyme]

2 hours ago, HappyDancex2 said:

Peachy’s explanation of weeping mom Julia versus Tough Aurora is fine but it hasn’t been established on the show yet.  If that’s what they were going for then they didn’t do a good job editing.  Frankly when aurora made that comment about soccer moms I had no idea what she was talking about.

I don’t think you need to have everything established and explained on the show (yikes, the length!). Pretty much the important thing here is that Julie fell apart (and threw a massive tantrum, imo) after being left out of one vote. Aurora got left out of several votes and kept it together. Julie acted disgusted with Aurora for continuing to compete and negotiate during the challenge when Lauren fainted. Aurora looked stone-faced or slightly annoyed as Julie sobbed at this TC about how hard it was to be left out. Imo, the show was serving them up as foils.

They might at some later point on the show get around to WHY Julie and Aurora are such different people, but they don’t have to. It’s certainly *interesting* to know those bits about their backgrounds as it makes their behaviors make a lot of sense. But we don’t actually need to know it.

[TVbitch]

Whomever comes back from EOE will have a big advantage to win cuz they will have been hanging out with pretty much the entire jury on EOE island. The others will probably realize that and get rid of them immediately unless they give the returning player an idol like they did Rick.  

Aubrey really enjoys being on TV. 

[JudyObscure]

21 minutes ago, simplyme said:

I don’t think you need to have everything established and explained on the show (yikes, the length!). Pretty much the important thing here is that Julie fell apart (and threw a massive tantrum, imo) after being left out of one vote. Aurora got left out of several votes and kept it together. Julie acted disgusted with Aurora for continuing to compete and negotiate during the challenge when Lauren fainted. Aurora looked stone-faced or slightly annoyed as Julie sobbed at this TC about how hard it was to be left out. Imo, the show was serving them up as foils.

They might at some later point on the show get around to WHY Julie and Aurora are such different people, but they don’t have to. It’s certainly *interesting* to know those bits about their backgrounds as it makes their behaviors make a lot of sense. But we don’t actually need to know it.

Good points.  I usually try not to read the cast bios, I'm not on twitter and I don't follow any podcasts, so, up to a point,  my opinions are based entirely on what we see on TV  -- but then little things seep in -- like just now, I read here what Jeff had said about Aurora and then read her biography.  In a matter of minutes I've gone from kind of liking her for her toughness, to kind of not liking her because I'm pretty sure she wouldn't like me and my slow walking, stay-at-home, soccer mom tendencies.  Overall, the less I know about the real lives of these people the better I like watching the game.

[Bryce Lynch]

I rewatched the "She's lost her damn mind!' sequence a few times and still couldn't figure out who said it.  

[Nashville]

4 minutes ago, Bryce Lynch said:

I rewatched the "She's lost her damn mind!' sequence a few times and still couldn't figure out who said it.  

It sounded to me like a dubbed-in voiceover - which could have come from anybody, at any time.

[Lamb18]

15 hours ago, kikaha said:

Why?

Answer to why we should be able to hear everything at Tribal Council:

Also I think the jury should be able to hear everything said at Tribal. The jury makes the decision on who wins and once they are voted out, TC is their only opportunity to collect enough info about what's going on and who's doing what until final tribal. (Except for what's said at Exile or Ponderosa.) What's the point of having a jury if they are excluded from the discussion at tribal council?

[Lamb18]

15 hours ago, LadyChatts said:

I liked it better when they just talked openly about changing their plans at TC.  Perhaps one of my favorite instances was Caleb telling Brad that he was defecting from his alliance during BvsW at TC, and Brad's face draining of color (and Brad getting bounced as a result).  There are others as well, but that's what we're missing. 

Or Keith saying, "Stick to the plan!"

[fishcakes]

I've only watched it once, but I think it went like

David: There are sharks and minnows and I poop.
Rick: I could be poop
Aurora: You could be a different fish and we will still vote you out.
Julia: Stop telling everyone that we're working with Kelley.
Rick: [arithmetic]
Julia: Oh, the doooorman is talking. What, pray tell, does the doooorman have to say?
David, Rick, Lauren, Wardog, Ron, Julie: [notice Victoria]
Victoria: Um, someone said I could stand here.
David [to Kelley]: Hi.
Kelley [to David]: I know, right?
Julie: I'M LOSING IT! I'M LOSING IT!
Reem: Goddamnit, I'm the angry one. I'M THE ANGRY ONE.

Anyway it was fun, and it broke through Jeff's Botox:

14 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

It's a testament to how awful Kama is that when Kelley got a vote, I was like, "what? No! Whyyy?" and I don't even like Kelley that much. I feel bad for her and David, though, because they've got good game instincts but that won't help them if they're playing with morons. It's like when you play Blackjack at a table with amateurs; it doesn't matter how good you are, if dumbshits are hitting when the dealer's showing a 5, you're going to lose too.

I prefer it when the booted are gracious, but Julia's goodbye struck me as really fake after how awful she'd been all through TC. Also I had to check to see what she does for a living because I was thinking she was a medical student, but she's a medical assistant. If she works with patients, I hope she deals with  unexpected events in her job better than she does in the game. I'm not sure we ever saw anyone who was seemingly in control lose it that quickly before.

Ron crying in his little vest and tie was so funny.

[Gummo]

2 minutes ago, fishcakes said:

Julia's goodbye struck me as really fake

Now that everyone knows about Extinction, I expect every bootee to be gracious, unless they've already decided to leave the game.

[KimberStormer]

3 hours ago, Bryce Lynch said:

Kelly was apparently totally fooled by Julia and the other Kamas

I mean, not really?  Her skepticism of Julia was very well-established over the course of the episode, and in fact her expressing it while Julie was melting down is what kicked the whole thing off when Julia reacted in such a bizarre way.

I feel sure that if it had been a normal, athelete-press-conference tribal, Kelley would have played her idol, and David would have played his idol, and there would have been a different kind of scrambling.  Maybe Ron would have gone home since he was what Gavin wanted to do anyway.

2 hours ago, Lamb18 said:

What bugs me most about this is that the jury is left out of the conversations and they're supposed to be there to observe and listen.

But the jury's always left out of every important conversation ever, which happen on the beach, not at tribal. Live tribals like this are the only time they actually get to see the game played in front of them.  That Tarzan dude in One World going "The game is afoot" was just an extra obvious version of the absolutely nothing they ever say to Jeff at tribal. 

[Lamb18]

3 hours ago, ProfCrash said:

David played the idol last night, they each turned in their idol piece to Probst.

I know, I wrote that post while I was watching the episode. It was before they put the halves together and gave them to Jeff.

[Lamb18]

13 minutes ago, KimberStormer said:

But the jury's always left out of every important conversation ever, which happen on the beach, not at tribal. Live tribals like this are the only time they actually get to see the game played in front of them.  That Tarzan dude in One World going "The game is afoot" was just an extra obvious version of the absolutely nothing they ever say to Jeff at tribal. 

I know, that's why I feel it's important for the jury to hear everything said at tribal - because they are left out of everything that's going on back at camp. Although this one was better than other tribals where there was a lot of whispering. More people were talking in their ordinary voices, even when they were in groups.

[30 Helens]

1 hour ago, Bryce Lynch said:

I rewatched the "She's lost her damn mind!' sequence a few times and still couldn't figure out who said it.  

It’s not clear, but I was pretty sure it was Victoria.

[Nashville]

12 minutes ago, Gummo said:

Now that everyone knows about Extinction, I expect every bootee to be gracious, unless they've already decided to leave the game.

...that’s debatable.  

I mean: yes, the “mainstream” game contestants have already seen ONE returning-from-EoE scenario - but since then the EoEers have only been referred to as “the Jury”, and I don’t believe there’s been any game reference to the potential for another now-Juror to return to the game.  While I’m certain the EoEers know/suspect they’ll have another shot at re-entering, does that necessarily translate into equivalent knowledge for the mainstream?  

At this point I don’t think the mainstreamers even know the Jury is still sitting out at EoE; if they think about it at all, they probably assume the Jurors are spending their off-time at Ponderosa getting drunk, scarfing cheeseburgers and taking hot showers - the mainstreamers would have no reason to suspect otherwise, assuming (of course) they’re not sitting downwind of the Jury.  And every current mainstream evictee still seems a bit taken aback when their Walk of Shame takes them to the Crossroads, so I don’t think anybody in the mainstream realizes EoE is still an active thing in the game.

[Gummo]

Nashville, good point!

I was assuming way too much, based on what WE know, not what the players know.

You might be right that they still don't know what's going on; heck, for the most part, WE still don't know what's going on!

[mishap]

I have to wonder why the whispering bugs me so much.  i think if they had all whispering, with subtitles, it would be fine.  It's not that I need to know everything that is said, because obviously, we don't get to see all of that.  I am fine with editing showing us what they show us.  And I'm fine with the whispering at tribal, but if they are going to show they whispering, I want to know what they are saying.  What they choose to show us, I want to hear.  

I know there is really no way to do that.  lol  

But that is just me.  I generally hate whispering like that, with your hand cupped over an ear, in any situation.  So that might be part of my turn off too.  This is a game though and I get that they really don't have a choice, but to whisper like that, at tribal, if they don't want anyone else to hear.  

[Nashville]

3 minutes ago, mishap said:

I have to wonder why the whispering bugs me so much. 

Because in a normal society group setting, obvious close-quarters whispering by those within the group is considered extremely rude?  🙂  

[Ms Blue Jay]

1 hour ago, fishcakes said:

Julia: Oh, the doooorman is talking. What, pray tell, does the doooorman have to say?

😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁

[Bryce Lynch]

1 hour ago, Gummo said:

Now that everyone knows about Extinction, I expect every bootee to be gracious, unless they've already decided to leave the game.

You are probably right, but I am pretty sure if Reem had known about EOE she would not have been gracious.  :)

[zscore]

59 minutes ago, Nashville said:

At this point I don’t think the mainstreamers even know the Jury is still sitting out at EoE;

They had to have known, right? The jury were wearing the same dirty clothes they had on when there were voted out.

[scowl]

16 hours ago, knitorpurl said:

I'm not wild about the get up and whisper tribals. Maybe the rule should be you have to stay in your seat. Then if you want to communicate with those at the other end you have to say it out loud or resort to hand gestures.

I think the last thing Survivor needs is more rules. Rules requirement punishment and the only punishment on Survivor has been to get kicked off the show. Do you want to see someone get kicked off because they lifted their ass two inches above their seat?

I was smiling all through the chaotic tribal and I'm usually tempted to skip over them and get to the vote.