Episode 1.8

Well, I just posted the fifth episode’s blog post online and I’m starting to write this on. Being ahead on something is terribly unusual for me. I’m typically the biggest procrastinator that I know of. I would mention more about how I’m a procrastinator, but I think that I’ll do that later. And since I’m trimming down the list of TV shows on DVD to watch, I finished watching 8 Simple Rules, although I do plan on watching more of it should they ever release the third and final season of that show. I’m pleasantly surprised to find that someone has been reading the first season blog post of mine. I don’t know who you are (I might, actually, but probably don’t) but thank you for doing that. Getting ahead on this blog is actually quite a good thing to do. It has virtually replaced homework for me since I’m no longer in college. I would still be if I could still afford it, but we’ll see what happens in the future. So one is currently not a choice on the random rolling list and if I get that, I’ll just roll again. Just one more episode of NCIS, and it can be removed from the list as well (I know that there are commentaries from previous episodes that I haven’t listened to yet, but since I can trim the list down to only three choices for a while, I might as well ignore them for the moment). Actually, making NCIS one as well as three might solve my problems for the moment. I’ll probably find some way to burn the choices off so I can get to the more manageable and probably temporary three choices (only three choices, being the temporary part, not the fact that the three choices are temporary, which was already a given). We’ll see. But, enough of my ramblings.

On 7-5-2014, I rolled number five and got to watch Survivor with a snack. The snack was messy so I couldn’t keep track of the notes here at first. But, don’t worry, I can keep up with them now. After Gretchen was voted out, different people not in the Tagi alliance was starting to believe that an alliance of some sort was at play. Some people wanted to wait until another tribal council to know for sure that an alliance was really in play. Gretchen was targeted because she was a threat, the first such move in Survivor history. I have the feeling that Greg might have been voted out in the last episode if he didn’t have immunity.

Richard does the primary fishing and other sort of food providing. Some people don’t want to vote him out because of this, which probably further helped him win the game. He is a bit curious as to who voted for him last tribal council, although he doesn’t seem to care as much. Greg still admires Richard a lot, which for me, further destroys the theory that he would have voted for Kelly at the final tribal council. People are starting to think that Greg is a threat which is probably why he gets voted out later in this episode. Richard even explained in a confessional why he would want to get rid of Greg. Meanwhile, the tribe gets ready for the first ever loved ones challenge of the game which already makes me sad considering how I know that Jenna won’t get a video from her loved one. The challenge actually happened at their beach. I wonder how they decided to order the loved one videos for each of the contestants. In Greg’s video we see his sister who was supposedly offered to play with him in Blood versus Water. Poor Jenna didn’t get a tape back. But she did get to send a tape back to her loved one if she won. But, she didn’t.

Jenna lost after going after Greg who went first and got a target that no one else would beat. In this episode, we are even slightly treated (or punished) with a Jeff Probst commentary on the challenge. But, the first official of that appearance wouldn’t happen until later. Greg would end up watching his tape with the rest of his tribe. Jenna decided not to watch as she was still upset over not getting a tape. The tape and the response to it was weird. I’m wondering if they had to include a response to the tape since Jenna couldn’t win the reward otherwise. Jenna was feeling bummed and some people even thought that she wanted to quit. For some odd reason, the contestants brought their torches to the challenge. You do have to wonder if they’d ever do some type of challenge that would make use of the torches in the game, but I don’t think that they will do it. This challenge might have also been used in Panama, although I should get to that later. For the immunity challenge, Gervase pulled an early lead and kept it until the end.

Before tribal council, Kelly was starting to consider flipping, which would ultimately cost her the game. But, that hasn’t happened yet. Pagong is starting to regret their whole “vote to your conscious” strategy which failed them and explained their scattered votes in the last episode. Jeff explains the change to the game and that a jury would happen to all but the two of them that made it to the end of the game. The talk of alliances came up at tribal council. Finally, after seven previous tribal councils, Jeff is finally asking the hard-hitting questions that make people panic. Sue and Kelly smartly lied about their being an alliance because you don’t want to know that one has been established. The votes in this tribal council were between only two people. Gervase, Greg, and Colleen all voted against Jenna. Richard, Jenna, Sue, Kelly, Sean, and Rudy all voted against Greg. This means that Greg was voted out and he pretended to cry and be upset about it in what would become the first in a loose series of great reactions to getting voted out.

So, Greg, the lovable, popular oddball gets voted out in this episode. And finally, we have a contestant from this season who is rumored to have been asked back for a future season. He posted on his facebook page that he and his sister were both considered for Blood versus Water and they both declined being on that season for reasons unknown. Well, it was probably just him not wanting to do another season, if that source can be believed at all. That is the only known time that he has been considered as an alternate for any of the future seasons that they did. But, if I understand correctly, as much as fans love him, he doesn’t want to play the game again. In fact, he claims to have never seen a season of Survivor besides the first one. He probably liked the game, but doesn’t seem to like it enough to stay into it or be a fan of it. I’m not even sure he wants to be known for his time on Survivor. But, we don’t know the chances of him returning and I’d put it at a 49% chance. For me, Greg was such a wonderful contestant this season, he wins the award for breakout character of the season hands down. No one else seems worthy for me.

Total confessional counts:  Colleen- 21, Richard- 33, Gervase- 33, Jenna- 30, Sue- 28, Kelly- 23, Rudy- 24, Greg- 32, Sean- 23. New confessionals this episode: Richard- 5, Gervase- 5, Jenna- 7, Sue- 6, Kelly- 4, Rudy- 4, Greg- 10, Sean- 4, Colleen- 3.

Well, until Gervase gets voted out, it seems like he’ll be battling Richard for first place. With a lot of airtime this episode, Jenna has joined the two of them with getting more than twenty-nine confessionals. Greg briefly joined them as well due to his ten confessionals in a single episode. Everyone now has more than twenty total, which probably doesn’t happen that much in other seasons. But, I’m starting to see why people love this season so much, even though I have yet to change the ranking of this season compared to the other seasons. I’ll tell you what the ranking of it is when we get to the last blog post of this season. I can’t promise that it will move up to number one, but I’m hoping that it enters the top ten instead of being the bottom of the average seasons where it currently is. Expect more in the future, as always. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.