Episode 26.11

So, for those of you keeping score, ever since the tribe swap, a member of the new Bikal tribe gets voted out. Even after the merge, every member of the second Bikal tribe gets voted out. Sherri is the only female fan left in the game. Phillip went from crazy entertaining to stupid player. Bikal used to be the strongest tribe in the game with it composed of all favorites. Now, it is the weakest tribe with only two members left from its second incarnation. If Dawn or John gets voted out in this episode, they will continue the Pagonging of this tribe. I'm not sure if Pagonging has ever happened to a swapped tribe before, and it might not even this season. (For those of you that don't know what Pagonging is, it is when a tribe is systematically eliminated one by one after the merge until none of the contestants from it remain. It is named after Pagong, a tribe from the first season. It was the first tribe it happened to and it is now in the reality show hall of shame because of it.) The original favorites are still left in the game for the most part. It's possible that the newly formed Three Amigos Alliance with Malcolm, Reynold, and Eddie will become a powerful part of the game. Then again, the numbers are against them without idols or other members in the alliance. I, also, have yet to look up any of the boot lists posted for this season. I will by the time the final episode of the season airs. That way, I can see if they are accurate or full of crap like I think they are. I wish that I could look up the boot lists for previous seasons to see if they are accurate or not. But I don't always remember the boot list for each season anyways.

Some spoilers say that the next two seasons of Survivor will be filmed in the Philippines again. Although, I've also heard Tasmania (or was it Tanzania?) as well as The Solomon Islands. Although, like I've already said before, I have no idea where I heard the rumor of Solomon Islands and can't find that information again. In fact, when I googled Survivor 27 and 28 Solomon Islands, the first link that came up was to this very blog. That isn't very helpful trying to find that information again. Just like I don't know where I read about Coach being the reason that Exile Island was retired. Although, reading about the Exile Island Alliance from Survivor: Tocantins, the failure of that alliance could be another reason why it was retired. I mean, they have to show what happens on the island because it is important to the players at least. That was a good way to secure airtime on the show, although it isn't always something that you wanted. Likewise, I'm glad that they got rid of Exile Island and I don't think that it will ever make a surprise reappearance. If it does come back again, I hope that they change the rules so that the same person can't be sent in back to back episodes. That was the major flaw of the island. I liked the island most for limiting the power of the hidden immunity idol.

I've heard numerous theories about the idol. They could hide more than one for each camp and the moment one is found, the others are taken away. I don't think that a played idol has ever reentered the game while another one is still in play before. But I do like the twist that happened in the last episode. Their alliance will get new members and there will be a Survivor Auction in this episode. I still don't fully understand how the idols work. I also don't know when the idols reenter the game. If a contestant is voted out that has an idol, but the idol wasn't brought to tribal council, then it is found by the production team and reenters the game. If the player with the idol is blindsided and takes the idol with them as they leave tribal council, then I don't think that it reenters the game. And, of course, if an idol is played it reenters the game. The only possible exceptions are if there are more idols still in the game or not. I'm not sure about that reasoning/logic, though. Meanwhile, the three amigos alliance could become a powerful force to be reckoned with. Erik joined them in helping vote out Phillip in the last episode. If the four of them make the final four, that would be Survivor's first ever all male final four. It's kind of surprising that an all male final four has never happened before. There's been more than one all female final four. I'll talk more about certain final four later (I think). The only all male final three happened in the twenty-first season. That's a threesome that I wouldn't mind playing again in a future season. I know that I keep plugging Chase and Fabio, but you might as well bring back Sash as well to make things far for them all (although Chase wasn't even close to winning that season with no jury votes for him). But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we seem a recap of the last episode. The three amigos were born because they were excluded from Stealth R Us. Erik likes the shift in the game. Stealth R Us no longer exists (I think). The remaining members could keep the remains of that alliance if they wanted to. But I don't think that they ever wanted to be in it in the first place. Brenda was bummed out about losing control of the game and John loved the crazy tribal council. That's when the introduction happened. By the way, I had a dream that Erik got voted out of Survivor. The dream didn't go into that much detail about why he was voted out, but I guess we'll wait and see if this happens or not.

In the next segment of the show, the Survivor auction happened. Lots of crazy things happened as usual. Read my tweets. They say what happened. Then people talked about the auction. John cried some. Sherri, Malcolm, and Dawn were bummed that they didn't get to read letters from home. (But won't there be a loved ones challenge in the future?) Malcolm looked for the idol and Andrea caught him searching.

In the next segment of the show, the immunity challenge happened. I don't know why they do them so early into the episode. Isn't half the time remaining? Oh well. I recognize this challenge from Survivor: Samoa. They also did that in the same episode as the auction. John ended up winning. He gloated a bit to the audience about the win. Things were shaking up a lot at camp when Erik and Sherri both claimed that they were the swing vote/in control of the game. I doubt that John or Dawn is going home. The voted might be split and it could be a three way tie again. Malcolm got voted out. The spoilers that he wouldn't win are true. I hope that he didn't have the idol, but I don't think that he did. There goes my favorite to win. Guess I'll have to find a new favorite. By the way, Survivor: Philippines are now the second season to be eliminated. I guess that my favorite to win now is Reynold. Next time on Survivor, more interesting things happen. Hopefully, Reynold will stay in the game. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.