Episode 29.4

I typically start writing a blog post for the next Survivor episode before or immediately after I posted the most recent blog post. You know those random blog posts that I post between seasons? I already have some of them completely written. I keep coming up with new ideas and would probably take suggestions. But, the point of this meaningless filler at the moment is the fact that I haven’t been feeling well due to a cold. I’m hoping that I’m well over it by the time this is actually posted. But there are times when you know something currently happening isn’t good. Like all this crazy stuff with the White House security. Is it a lead-in to something bad? Or, it is just something that will quickly be solved? I don’t care who the president is, they don’t deserve to be assassinated. Four presidents have been assassinated. I’m hoping that there’ll never be a fifth one to die the same way. Of course, I shouldn’t say things like this. I don’t want the NSA to think that I’m crazy. The fact that I AM crazy is irrelevant to the discussion at hand. I don’t care if the NSA reads my emails because I have nothing to hide. And if they are reading this blog, then I’ve succeeded in making someone read this blog. Besides, you do realize that assassinating the current president means Joe Biden becomes president, right? Who would want him to be president? I don’t know if he would be good, but I hope that we aren’t put in that situation. Also, if you must kill the president, don’t do it during Survivor. Better yet, don’t do it at all.

Mysteries so far this season: When is Jaclyn going to get some airtime? Does she have the least going for her this season? Does someone else have the least? Who has the most going for them this season? Are they going to win? Are they going to get close to winning? Will they have some other affect on the season? What craziness is Drew getting into in this episode? Will this craziness get him eliminated? When will Hunahpu lose an immunity challenge and go to tribal council? Why do they keep winning? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Are these all the questions that I have?

Okay, against my better judgment, I have added a movie list for Mondays. The list of six movies is Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, dancing videos, the Little Mermaid, Pooh’s Grand Adventure: the Search for Christopher Robin, and Stargate movies. Now, some more explanation: you might be wondering how these six particular movies got on the list. Or you might just be wondering why I ever talk about something other than Survivor in this blog. Bear with me. You see, my sister did a bunch of dancing videos when she was younger that I can still watch. And when I dream about movies, I typically add them to the list and watch them. That is why dreaming about Winnie the Pooh eventually added the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh to the list. Once I was done watching that, I was unable to add its true replacement, so I added this to this list since I was unable to do it to other lists. I’ve had the Little Mermaid VHS for a while, but I haven’t seen it yet and thus, put it on this list. I would do the same with Pocahontas, but that can’t be added at the moment. The Stargate movies is not the end of the series movies that they made. The one was the first movie that inspired the TV show. The other is the pilot of the series that I might want to buy at some point (the episodes of the series). I am interested in Aladdin thanks to a parody I watched of it online. (Team Starchild rocks!) Beauty and the Beast also was parodied in the same play. So were other Disney movies, but I already are added them or I’ve seen them earlier this year. Those are the six that I added and I decided that I wouldn’t watch any of those movies this week. Meanwhile, on Saturday I watched Mr. Bean’s Holiday and replaced it was Made of Honor. On Sunday, I watched the next Celtic Woman concert in the order I was using. That is not replaced at the moment. Sunday was also the anniversary of a death in the family and I normally watch a home video of this person. But, I decided to watch it on Monday instead. I will visit this person’s grave as soon as the weather improves here. Meanwhile, my main problem with adding a Monday movie watching list is having the time to watch the movie. Hopefully, everything will work out okay.

You know, you can learn a lot about Survivor by watching a lot of different things online about it. For instance, the Survivor Live After Show, is pretty informative. Without it, you wouldn’t know a lot of the things about the show. Like the fact that John Rocker wanted to be exiled in the second episode. If he won, he would have chosen himself to be exiled. He wanted exiled to find out information about the hidden immunity idol. It’s a shame that he didn’t use it, but not to the people that don’t like him. I also found out who is competing in the reward challenge. This will probably mean that Jaclyn finally gets some confessionals. So far, Jeremy and Josh have both exceeded nine confessionals and it’s only a matter of time before everyone else either has more than nine confessionals or is eliminated from the game. We’ll see who ends up doing what as time goes by.

I do wonder if one could or would want to send oneself to Exile Island this season. It would insure that they get to spend time with their loved one. So, they might not allow it. In other seasons with Exile Island, people could send themselves there. The only person I know of who did this was Yau-Man. Now, one has to think about how long they plan on doing the reward challenge the way that they are. You see, the tribe division as it stands now ensures that a contestant plays against their loved one. A tribe swap could easily change that. Now remember that they planned on having Redemption Island instead of this possibly nameless twist.

While they could potentially reword a ton of these challenges down the road, they are pretty much stuck with them premerge, I think. This might mean that there is not a tribe swap this season since they have to use the strange exile twist. They have to ensure that each loved one is on the other tribe. While this twist could disappear once every pair has competed in the challenge, I’m not sure there would be time left for a swap. One pair never got the chance to do it, three pairs already have, and one is going to do that tonight. After the four pairs that are left do it, then we are pretty much at the merge part of the game where they probably can’t use the twist anyways. How would it work postmerge? I’m interested in seeing what will happen with all that. Also, do you find it interesting that the contestant who lost the reward challenge is voted out in the next episode? That happened with both Val and John Rocker. This makes me worry about Keith’s chances in the game. (It was Keith who lost the challenge, right?) But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Baylor was glad that John Rocker got voted out. The man’s alliance crumbled and Dale was none the wiser. Natalie found the flint that they lost right at the fire pit. Drew is still upset over the whole lost reward that they choose to give up. I don’t know if it is safe to compare his tribe to Koror since Koror was a lot smarter and knew how to stay coherent as a group. This tribe, however, could fall apart quite easily if they ever lose a challenge.

In the second segment of the show, we get to the reward challenge. The other tribe applauds at the sight of John Rocker voted out. Drew then does his craziness that involves the flint. Jeff continues to be a great host that won’t let the contestants sway his ways. Based on the challenge preview that I saw, this will be a close fight. Jon Misch fights against Jaclyn in the challenge. This makes me hope that Jaclyn will finally manage to get airtime, but she’s only guaranteed that if she actually loses the challenge. As I saw on the after show, the challenge is neck in neck. Jon Misch ends up winning the challenge. Also, I’m going to be calling him just Jon from this point forward since the other John is out of the game. Jon sends Drew to Exile Island with Jaclyn.

In the third segment of the show, Jon is unsure of his choice as to sending Drew with Jaclyn to Exile Island. Julie is upset that her boyfriend is voted out. On Exile Island, we finally get to see Jaclyn get some airtime. Drew then has the crazy idea of throwing the challenge. Is he going to pull a Burton? That mistake got Burton voted out the first time in Pearl Islands and Drew probably isn’t going to get a second chance like Burton did. Meanwhile, Keith was bad at finding an idol and told the whole tribe that Jeremy had it, thus alienating himself from the tribe. He then goes on to find the real idol but “doesn’t want to have a target on his back” by telling people that he has it. He must not realize that a target is already on his back. Could this be the first season since Micronesia where more than one person gets eliminated in possession of the idol? That seems dumb and now I’m really worried that the loser of every reward challenge will get voted out the next episode. Or are they covering up the fact that Drew is a younger and lazier Willard? Willard was from Palau. Meanwhile, I am too busy to eat supper. This is why I normally eat during challenges. That’s the only time when I can’t really say anything in this blog. And it’s the only time when I don’t add too much to it.

In the fourth segment of the show, Alec doesn’t like Baylor while Baylor finds him to be like a brother. At the challenge, Drew thinks that he could possibly get a million dollars by throwing the challenge. I know that Ethan did that, but I’m not sure if anyone else has done that and won. With the blue tribe being shown as winning the challenge, I think that they might lose. Of course, this show loves trick edits. Wouldn’t you know it, Drew did manage to throw the challenge. But will his tribe realize that he did that? The fact that they are showing so much of him makes me think that this will either get him voted out now or voted out soon afterwards. SPOILER! I heard rumors that Drew is a premerge boot. END SPOILER.

In the fifth segment of the show, Drew talks about how it is a good move that he threw the challenge. They are thinking that they need to get rid of players without loved ones. I do wonder if this thrown challenge will affect the tribe negatively like it did with Drake. One can be surprised that the winner was actually from Drake. Of course, that’s a different season than this one. Drew seems to be digging his grave really deep this episode. This makes me wonder why they showed him so much as obviously getting voted out. You shouldn’t do that. That’s bad editing. But, it wouldn’t be the first time that they made the editing too obvious. Jeremy is upset that he can’t vote out Keith yet. We then get to tribal council. The heat was a bit off of Drew while Jeremy and Keith fight a bit. I have no idea what’s about to go down. No idols are played. The votes are all over the place. In the end, Drew gets voted out like whatever the plan might have been. Like Christian from The Quest, the challenge that he threw cost him the game. That’s why you don’t do that.

On the next Survivor, it turns out that a tribe swap will happen right after both tribes attend tribal council. It seems kind of obvious that they do that enough. You see, being a Survivor fan for so long has probably given me too much knowledge on stuff that is in the edits and what isn’t. Guess I was wrong about the possible lack of a tribe swap. It’s a bit too obvious that there would be a swap. Philippines was the last time that they didn’t have one. Meanwhile, Drew was one of my three finalist picks. I’m 2 for 4 with the predictions for this season. I will replace him with Jeremy as a possible finalist.

Total confessionals: Jeremy- 13, Reed- 2, Julie- 5, Jon Misch- 6, Keith- 8, Wes- 3, Missy- 5, Jaclyn- 2, Dale- 6, Kelley- 4, Baylor- 10, Natalie- 6, Josh- 13, Alec- 6, Drew- 9.

New confessionals this episode: Jaclyn- 1, Dale- 1, Kelley- 2, Baylor- 2, Natalie- 1, Josh- 0, Alec- 2, Drew- 6, Jeremy- 3, Reed- 0, Julie- 1, Jon Misch- 2, Keith- 1, Wes- 0, Missy- 0.

Okay, Baylor has now joined Josh and Jeremy with having ten or more confessionals. Reed and Jaclyn are at the bottom. Jon Misch will only be called Jon in the future. Not sure what else to say here. I hope that the switch proves interesting and have a long term affect on the game. That’s not always the case with tribe swaps. Plus, some are more fair than others. They always affect the game. It’s just a question of how much that makes it more worthwhile. I hope that being a super fan doesn’t affect the game too much for me. I also hope that this season picks up as I haven’t been too impressed by it so far. I can keep you updated on how my predictions are doing as time goes by. Guess I hadn’t run out of things to say. Until now at least. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.