Episode 27.6

If all goes well, Survivor could be close it having its thirtieth season at some point in the near future. It would probably have all returning players. But what would the theme be? There are various guesses as to what could happen and none of them could prove to be true in the end. But here are guesses by me and other people. They could do an old school versus new school season where the players are determined by what season they originally played in. There might have to be more than two tribes in a season like that. Where does new school begin and old school end? They should have more than two tribes if they do a season like that. Borneo through Palau is one tribe. Guatemala to Tocantins is the second tribe. Samoa to the current season would be the third tribe. Many people have also talked about doing an all winners season. That might not happen with as many people as we would like or expect. But I hope that they give it a cool name like Survivor: Winner Take All instead of just Survivor: All Winners. A lot of people have wanted them to do a second chances season, but that might not happen and probably wouldn't for a landmark season like that. Plus, they could end up choosing people that have already got a second chance and get yet another one for various reasons. I wouldn't personally like that, but they could still do that and I'd still watch it if they did. They could do all runner-ups or all last voted out, but those might not happen. Smart players versus strong players or even Heroes versus Villains 2 are also in the running. Actually, I have no idea what's in the running for the potential 30^th season that might not ever even happen. It might not even be all returning players, although I'd be shocked if it wasn't. I just hope that they FINALLY bring someone from Guatemala who isn't Stephenie or Bobby Jon (simply because they aren't originally from that season, not because I don't want them to play again). There are many people that would work for a second chances season that I forgot to mention or didn't mention, but that could probably happen at some point in the future. Maybe the 35^th season will be something like that. Jeff Probst said that there were other possible ideas for the season that became Heroes versus Villains, but they could appear in future seasons. I just don't know what the three or four other ideas were. A celebrity season is unlikely in my mind, but could always end up happening. I hope that it doesn't. I've heard rumors of Jeff Probst wanting to do an all villains season. It could be all new players that are children of Survivor players. But there are lots of ideas and if you know of anything or want to mention some idea for the landmark potential season, please let me know. I highly doubt that a CBS producer is reading this, but that's always possible. I especially doubt that they would tell me what they have planned. I wouldn't mind waiting that long.

So I want Laura Morett to win Redemption Island and Brad to lose. I still don't know if a high number of confessionals is a good thing or not. Rupert got a lot of confessionals, but he didn't get very far. They might have just been showing him while they had the chance to. Are they doing that with Brad? Maybe Laura loses simply because there's no reason to focus on someone who doesn't end up winning the game and, like Marissa and Candice, doesn't come back into the game. But things change. Candice isn't on the jury this season and didn't come in the exact same place she did the first two times she played. At least she didn't flip on any sort of alliance that caused bad things to happen to her. The only bad thing that happened to her was first impressions and losing a very close duel on Redemption Island. A record three people this season never went to tribal council and that might not even count since they all did when they played in previous seasons. Will Ciera switch with her mother on Redemption Island? It's always possible. I do wonder if Rupert will be the only person who ever does that. I also wonder when any of the pairs will be completely out of the game. That is going to happen at the final nine, if not sooner. Also, why has nobody found the hidden immunity idol? The only season I can think of where an idol has gone this long without being found was Guatemala and that's simply because they didn't introduce that twist until after the merge. Parvati knew she was supposed to give it back after the TV guide interview, right? She made it for the other players and not herself. Besides, the producers would make sure that there is an idol in the game. They don't give clues to it for no good reason, do they?

It's official. There's going to be a tribe swap this episode. This may help with the idea that they wanted blood pairs versus water pairs in this season originally. But we don't know if they'll make sure that people with loved ones aren't on the same tribe or if they will just do a random swap. This will be the first time that they do a tribe swap in a season with Redemption Island and that means that whoever is on the island will be excluded from the swap, which is more or less a first (although earlier in the season might have counted when Rupert switched with his wife. I don't consider that to be a full-fledged tribe swap, though). I know that the twist challenge that brought the tribe swap in Guatemala was without certain members of the tribe present (and that was the point, since everyone except for one person on one tribe and two people on the other tribe were switching tribes and the two from each tribe that were gone were staying on their original tribes). I should rank the tribe swaps in a future blog post sometime. I still don't know if we have to wait until the merge for people on Redemption Island to reenter the game or not. I'll be sure to post the new tribes in this paragraph, so stop reading it now before I mention it. Katie and Tina, Kat and Hayden, as well as Aras and Vytas are the only pairs left that aren't on Redemption Island. Will any of them wind up on the same tribe? I wonder if they waited to do the tribe swap until after both tribes had gone to tribal council. I wonder the same thing about the first tribe swap in Survivor: Gabon. I am annoyed that they will probably never do it the way it appeared the first time again. It seemed like it might happen in Samoa, but that turned out to be a do-it-yourself challenge.

I wonder if the trip swap will affect which tribe wins challenges for a while. Typically, only one tribe wins immunity after a tribe swap in seasons where new players fight against returning players and possibly other seasons as well. So hopefully that doesn't end up happening again, since that is too predictable. Despite the fact that the new players have only won one challenge, more returning players have been eliminated from the game. None of them had gone to tribal council. Candice was voted out after first impressions, which I don't count as a real tribal council. Colton quit the game. Rupert switched with his wife who was voted out and sent himself to Redemption Island. Only two new players have lost Redemption Island and two returning players have also lost. I do wonder if more than one person will get back in the game through that twist. Will the swap have equal numbers on each tribe or will it be done a different way? SPOILER ALERT! The new Tadhana: Ciera, Hayden, Gervase, Aras, Tyson, and Caleb. The new Galang: Monica, Tina, Katie, Vytas, Kat, and Laura Boneham.

Most people probably wouldn't care about this, but in the second season of the Philippine version of Survivor, they had a twist that was like Redemption Island. That version had a tribe swap in it and the occupant of the island ultimately came back into the game and didn't get voted out immediately. In fact, she made it all the way to the final tribal council (like Lillian did, thanks to the outcasts twist) only to become the runner-up. She only lost by one vote and not in a landside. I really hope that whoever wins Redemption Island doesn't get voted out all over again. It reminds me of in Big Brother when evicted houseguests get back in the game due to a twist and get evicted the next chance. Only Judd of the most recent season didn't get evicted again (immediately at least) and neither did those who won Head of Household. Ozzy won immunity when he got back in the game in South Pacific and was almost given the necklace by another player (this unaired event was mentioned by the person who considered doing that before realizing that if he did that, he would probably get voted out instead and he decided against doing it. Guess he should have kept it a secret like Jenna Morasca did because she gave it up and didn't get voted out. Wikipedia has a link to this in their synopsis for that season) but he was ultimately voted out the first time he didn't have it. When the two outcasts got voted back into the game, they had automatic immunity at their first tribal council. I wonder why they don't do that with the people who come back from Redemption Island, or, at least the first returnee at the merge. But enough of my ramblings.

Laura Boneham was glad that she survived tribal council, although she is getting a bit cocky about her feelings about it. The coconut bandits (not sure if they are an alliance or not) talked about getting rid of Aras who is considered the ringleader. Will he suffer the same fate as Brad?

In the next segment of the show, the duel happened and things got emotion with Laura Morett and her daughter Ciera. They did not swap places. The challenge seems fairly simple. Laura Morett wins the challenge and Brad loses it. Brad is finally out of the game. So don't make big moves too fast. Once again, they show the entertaining player while they have the chance too. Besides, he should have lost the last duel anyways. Also, Vytas gets the clue and burns it before using it. It's become the same curse it was in Gabon when the ten players threw it into the sea, only no player has it yet. I'm wondering if nobody will find the immunity idol this season.

In the next segment of the show, the swap happened. As usual, we get used to the new tribes. One is all men except for Ciera and the other is all women expect for Vytas. Only one pair (Tina and Katie) get to play the game together on the same tribe right now. Yep. Spoilers are accurate, since they more or less showed it in the promos. Tina is glad that she gets to play with her daughter and Vytas isn't all that thrilled with being on a tribe of all women or just not being in control anymore. Tyson is stirring up trouble, which is typical to his character.

In the next segment of the show, people get serious on Galang. There is praying and hopefully they don't turn into nuts like they did in South Pacific. The immunity challenge happened next. The reward is a picnic. Laura Boneham and Tina messed up the challenge by forgetting to bring the trap back when they swam back out for it. This makes me think that Tadhana will probably win the challenge. Poor Laura Boneham might get voted out again. Galang almost pulled a come from behind. They were wrong and prematurely cheering their win. Will Vytas get voted out since he is literally the odd one out and people don't like doing the obvious votes anymore? Laura Boneham has still never spent time on what could have been her real tribe.

In the next segment of the show, Tina was sorry for the huge opening mistake that probably cost them the challenge. Kat talks about Monica possibly getting out of the game. Would the women really want to get rid of another woman? The last time the women failed to vote out a man, that man went on to win the game. But that was 18 seasons ago. Monica might get voted out because she is talking too much strategy. Monica now wants to get rid of Kat. Strangely, neither Tina or Laura Boneham appear to be on the chopping block. A lot of drama appropriately unfolded at tribal council. I have the feeling that the obvious vote might never happen this season. The person voted out was Kat for causing too much drama in the game by trying to shake things up. Hopefully, the women won't regret getting rid of Vytas. I'm sure that Yasur regretted never getting rid of Chris. Poor Kat got blindsided again.

On the next Survivor, Vytas is making new friends and things don't look well for his brother. His brother getting out might be too obvious, but that might not happen. I do wonder when a merge will happen and how many people will return from Redemption Island.

Confessional counts of players on Redemption Island: Brad- 16, John- 11, Laura Morett- 6. Confessional counts of players in the game: Laura Boneham- 7, Katie- 4, Monica- 10, Ciera- 8, Kat- 8, Hayden- 7, Gervase- 6, Tina- 6, Tyson- 11, Caleb- 9, Aras- 11, Vytas- 13. New confessionals this episode: Katie- 0, Monica- 2, Ciera- 0, Kat- 4, Hayden- 1, Gervase- 2, Tina- 2, Tyson- 4, Caleb- 1, Aras- 2, Vytas- 3, Laura Boneham- 2; Brad- 0, John- 0, Laura Morett- 0.

Not really sure what else I can say I look forward to in the future episode besides the usual. I hope that it continues to be good. I'm a little disappointed in the tribe swap, but China still has the worst one of any season. Hopefully, the next episodes and whatever they have in store are good as usual. Will the game make more sense? Would someone finally bite the apple, as it's called, and find the freaking hidden immunity idol? How annoying would it be for it to not appear in this season? That would make this the first season since Palau to not have the hidden immunity idol and I have to wonder what episode this season would have to be at to beat Guatemala's informal record of longest time without an idol in the game. Every idol from Panama to Caramoan has been found premerge. The first season with Redemption Island had someone finding the idol on day 2! I just don't understand why nobody would want that sort of power. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.