Episode 27.8

In the first season of Redemption Island, two contestants with a memorable rivalry fought in a rematch which Rob won easily and Russell lost horribly. I wondered from that season (or just the rumors of that season) if they would ever do a rematch of Survivor players again. Doing it with one returning players per tribe and the returning players are the ones with the rivalry worked in theory, but there is no way that they would keep doing seasons like that all the time. What would be more interesting is if they did a season with all returning players who had rivalries in previous seasons. I'd prefer them to keep the players with the rivalries on separate tribes for it to work. I don't know how they'd do the tribes. There are probably plenty of rivalries from seasons past. Heck, this season even have Tyson versus Aras in a way. The thirtieth season could be a good one to do Survivor: Rematch, if they don't have something better planned. I don't think that I'll list all the rivalries from every season yet, but I figure that it is still a good idea.

I'm still not sure what they have planned for Survivor 28. Feel free to post information about it, as long as it doesn't have contestant boot orders on it. Since they are still in the Philippines, they could use twists from that country's version of Survivor. They probably won't, but it could be interesting if they did. The only two twists I'd be interested in seeing are temptation rewards as well as the white and cursed pearl. Temptation rewards are best compared to Pandora's Box from Big Brother. The main different is that you find out what the good and bad things are before you decide if you want it or not and you are the only person who gets it; the rest of the tribe (or players) aren't affected by your decision. The white and cursed pearls affect voting. The white pearl removes a potential vote from you, but only if you still have it at tribal council. The cursed pearl gives you an extra vote at tribal council. If you lose it, then you get two extra votes. There is also a blood pearl that adds a vote to the rules of the cursed pearl. I'm not sure if either twist would work well in our country's version or not, but it would be worth trying. They could do it in any season, but it seems more interesting to do it in the place that established the twist. It's a shame that we'll never be able to watch another country's version of Survivor due to some sort of lawsuit, but they are probably too strange for us anyways.

I know that last year, they had a promo looking for new players to apply on the show. Since all the new players this season are recruits, that probably means that new players are on the next season. But is it an entire season that will be all new players? Will there only be two tribes? Will there not be any other season long twists that prevent it from being a normal season? It's been too long since a normal season has happened; longer than any previous gap from seasons past. I've heard rumors that, once again, there could be returning players. I don't think that it would be all returning players. If you read that at www.survivorsucks.com then they were probably wrong. They get final three spoilers right and sometimes winners are right, but most of what they get is wrong. They got the cast for this season wrong and they got the boot list for last season wrong (although the final three and winner were correct). I wouldn't look there for season 28 info since they would probably reveal more than I want to know. And I'm not going to wonder if they'll be a 29^th or 30^th season yet. We still don't know what would happen if Jeff Probst decided to no longer host Survivor anymore. I wonder if the last season he hosts will be an all-star season where the winner of the season also gets to host the show in future seasons. That would get a lot of players who said they would never play again on a plane to that island to battle it out. I doubt that they would choose a new host like that, but it would be interesting for us. Just be sure to tell the returning players that they are playing for that reason.

I wonder if any of the players on Redemption Island could avoid being immediately voted out again without winning immunity in this episode. There is still probably no special immunity for the player returning to the game than there was in previous seasons with Redemption Island. I don't know why the Outcasts got that honor but these players don't. It doesn't matter anyways. It could be Aras getting voted out no matter who gets back in the game. Aras wins immunity and they're screwed, although Vytas could still get voted out. If Laura Morett pulls a come from behind win, she will have a loved one to come back to in the game with where as other Laura and John have already had loved ones eliminated from the game. I'm still waiting until the last episode of the season before I list all the alternates for this season and what new players relating in some way to previous players would be potential new players for a future Survivor season. I don't know how I'll list the players who get back in from Redemption Island, although they will probably still be in the same order that they are now, in a way. They seem to show a lot of players while they are still in the game and they still have the chance to show those players. I don't know if the players with the most confessionals this season have already been eliminated or if someone else will end up getting the most. Vytas could end up winning the game and that would prove interesting and make the women of Galang look stupid. Of course, after all of mankind's long history, it would be a nice change for men to finally be the smart ones. Vytas didn't even have to do anything to save himself. He just had to let the women self-destruct and take themselves out.

The hidden immunity idol doesn't seem to be in use this season. I think that maybe I should go through a history of the hidden immunity idol in order to better understand it. But I don't know if I'll do that this post or in a future blog post. I just hope that it ends up getting used or found at some point. Maybe the reason they aren't showing John is that he secretly has it and they aren't showing us that. If he wins Redemption Island, he would probably play it when he gets back in the game and hopefully he'll be a target at the time so it isn't wasted when it is finally used. I don't know why Jeff keeps asking for hidden immunity idols when he knows that they aren't in play this season for whatever reason. I guess that he has to ask it as part of his job so no player can come forward and say that they never had a chance to play it when they could have otherwise. It wouldn't be the merge of a season with Redemption Island unless one player wasted their hidden immunity idol on another player. I don't think that would happen, but it could this time. We'll have to wait and see.

Based on future promos that I've seen, it's possible that there will be no Redemption Island after the merge and reward challenges will return. I still wonder why there can't be reward challenges separate from immunity challenges and Redemption Island duels in one episode. I guess there wouldn't be enough game play at camp for that to work anyways. I've also checked my blog and realize that stuff I mentioned relating to formatting doesn't show up the way I see it on the blog that you read. So I'm sorry if the reference isn't needed or makes sense to you. But I hope that things become interesting and that the hidden immunity idol actually becomes part of the game again. We'll see if Redemption Island remains in the game or not. And whoever wins should hopefully do better than first out of merged tribe. We still don't know if a secret double Redemption Island exists. That would be cool if it did, but it probably wouldn't because there's enough backlash against one Redemption Island and it was a joke when it was first mentioned anyways. The post boot interviews would have been a huge lie for the one person who survived it. I will not mention anything about Redemption Island confessionals and just stick to new and total confessionals if they are, in fact, not using it after the merge.

Okay, so I mention that I'll talk about a lot of stuff in this blog. I don't know if I'll ever get around to it or not. So, hopefully, I won't forget what I'm planning to talk about and if I do, be sure to remind me of what I haven't talked about yet. The news came that on October 29, 2013, Survivor: Borneo contestant B. B. Andersen died. He had brain cancer and a stroke. I will talk more about him in the next blog post. The most of Survivor: Borneo I've ever seen was the greatest and most outrageous moments VHS which is a movie like thing pretending to be something it isn't. I have it ranked as 18 out of 26 seasons, but it should be higher if I actually ever saw it. Many people consider it the best season of all time and all the other seasons were just there to go along with it. I will have to add it to my wish list now that the only requirement for me getting it is met. I don't know who might get it for me and when; I just know that I probably wouldn't get it for myself, yet. By the way, I listed Palau as 2 out of 26 in terms of greatness, meaning that only one season did better than Palau. I will blog about it, so hopefully there will be a good time to watch it and I won't be confused by the current season that is airing. I know that it might be a long time until Caramoan comes out on DVD. If there's a place where you can watch the whole season (Caramoan) online, let me know. At least my sister will see the thirtieth season, provided that it gets renewed, still. I just hope that she isn't confused by returning players from seasons she hasn't seen yet.

Ever since they started doing final threes at the final tribal council instead of final twos, some people have wondered what would happen if there is a tie. I will go over various scenarios that could happen in such an event, but I don't know yet if that will happen or not. I will mention that in a different blog posts. During the hiatus between this season and season 28, I might do random blog posts like I've done in the summer. I could mention the ten stupidest tribes or the ten most shocking moments in Survivor history. I could continue to do random crap in the blog post before the actual post like I normally do, but that doesn't matter yet. Also, since only one Laura can win Redemption Island, that will mean that only the first name of said Laura will be mentioned in this blog of mine in future blog posts. But I still think that John will win. I just don't know why they haven't focused on anyone that is on Redemption Island. I guess that there is no reason to but at least one of them is coming back into the game. I guess they don't do well when they return. Maybe Laura Boneham will reenter the game since she's the person who is focused on the most recently. I'll post merge facts and jury facts provided that it starts soon like we think that it is.

You know, you can learn a lot about Survivor by listening to podcasts about Survivor. Listen to the one I posted a link to in the blog post, quick link. That's where the person knew that Kat would be the first person voted out after the tribe swap. He used it to his advantage in a game he played on this podcast. I don't know if the person he played with is aware that he did this. You'd think that he'd know considering how he had said that he knew when she got voted out of the game. But it ultimately doesn't matter since he is still losing this game that is relatively unimportant. The people on the podcast interviewed Edna Ma from South Pacific who revealed that she was considered as a player for this season along with her sister. They weren't chosen for unknown reasons. I would have liked to see that, if only to see more siblings playing the game. But they could always do this twist again. I think that it works better with returning players instead of new players against their families. What new players from this season could return with a new player in the next blood versus water? What alternates from this time could they use the next time? Who should have been cut from this season that should have been replaced with Edna and her sister? The only pair that could have been cut were either Tina and Katie or Laura Morett and Ciera. I have to believe that it is good that Edna didn't play again, unless she wanted another child. Also, I don't trust the grammar check on my computer. It doesn't have well grammar sometimes. Hopefully it can stop underlining things in green. Also, what the heck does blue underline mean? I know what green and red is, but what does it mean when Word underlines a word in blue? I just don't get it. It thinks that well grammar is grammatically correct! I highly doubt that computers are smarter than mankind. But it could happen if they knew things better sometimes.

I'm not sure if now is a good time to mention what could happen with the three players who could return from Redemption Island. It could be a surprise. It's possible that Laura Morett, the least likely in terms of confessionals, is actually the person who reenters the game. They might have spoiled that in promos, although I could have mistaken her for someone else. Laura Boneham could wind up the first person voted out after the merge because things don't look well for her. John is who I suspect will and want most to reenter the game. We still don't know if there's a hidden immunity idol in his possession or if it still has yet to be found. There will only be one after the merge, right? Would there be two with only one camp? Whoever wins should hopefully find whatever they want to in terms of alliances and not wind up the very next person voted out. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Laura Boneham arrived at Redemption Island and didn't realize that she dug her own grave and that Vytas wouldn't get voted out. Every player on Redemption Island wants to get back in the game. They finally get confessionals again. Who will win?

In the next segment of the show, the duel happened. Laura Morett won the duel and got back into the game. So, hopefully, she won't get voted out again. She accomplished the purpose of why she was sent there in the first place. Despite the odds, in terms of confessionals, Laura Morett reentered the game while John and Laura Boneham were permanently eliminated. Also, Survivor China and Micronesia were finally released to DVD. The new merged tribe, then goes to their beach. Laura Morett and Ciera, Katie and Tina, as well as Aras and Vytas are the only players still in the game with the partners they started with. Tyson found the hidden immunity idol. Let's hope that he doesn't do anything stupid with it or something stupid happens to him because of it. The Baskauskas brothers were trying to figure out how to get into the game. I hope that Laura Morett doesn't get voted out. That would be bad and ruins the purpose of something like Redemption Island.

In the next segment of the show, Tyson is talking with Monica over what should happen next. The immunity challenge happened earlier than normal. There must be a lot of shit happening at the camp and at tribal council. Vytas won the close immunity challenge after his brother came in second. Vytas is glad that he didn't need immunity even though he won it. Interesting things happen at camp and tribal council. Either Laura or Aras is getting voted out of the game, but I don't know who is the swing vote, if there is one. Ultimately, Aras got voted out, even though Ciera and Laura both got votes against them. Did they vote against each other? That would be a Survivor first. Redemption Island is still in play and this is Aras's first time getting voted out of the game. What will happen next time? A horrible immunity challenge (or two) and things could fall apart for Tyson.

Confessional counts of players on Redemption Island: Laura Boneham- 12, John- 12, Laura Morett- 8. Confessional counts of players in the game: Katie- 5, Monica- 12, Ciera- 12, Hayden- 9, Gervase- 7, Tina- 8, Tyson- 16, Caleb- 9, Aras- 14, Vytas- 17. New confessionals this episode: Vytas- 2, Katie- 0, Monica- 1, Ciera- 3, Hayden- 0, Gervase- 1, Tina- 0, Tyson- 3, Caleb- 0, Aras- 2; Laura Boneham- 1, John- 1, Laura Morett- 2.

So it looks like Redemption Island is still in play. Tina and Aras will either be on the jury or make day 39 again. If Tina is not on the jury, that would make her and Russell Hantz the only three time players to never be on the jury. This is Monica's first time making the merge. I might have to give up Revolution for a very long time due to tape difficulties that could seriously affect how I watch this season of Survivor during Advent. I know that I already can't watch both. So I might have to buy the Revolution DVDs. Another problem is that I typically can't watch anything on Wednesdays until 9:00 because the lateness I get back home from church. Hopefully the VCR problems can be fixed, I can get a different VCR, or I can figure out timer programming on the good VCR without a remote. I think that I'm screwed. At least this laptop can still record shows. I just can't share it with anyone else. So hopefully the wait for this season on DVD isn't too long, or my sister will be disappointed. I also know that I don't want to skip church. While I figure this out, I have to get off the computer soon so I can record something while I watch something. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.