Top Ten Alliances

Well, it’s time for another top ten of mine. This time, I’m going with the best alliances in Survivor history. There are different qualifications about them that gets them a place on this list. I will get to that shortly. Plus, there are tons of good alliances that I won’t mention because I feel that they had to do something good enough to earn their place on this list. Before we get any further, I’d like to mention that with any of my top tens, they can easily become outdated when new seasons come along. As always, these lists will only contain information from the seasons that have aired at the moment that I posted this. I feel that I should state this fact just in case anyone wonders why the list is the way that it is. To better understand my thoughts, I will now post the rules regarding these alliances and how they would earn a spot on this list of mine.

Rule 1- I’m only including alliances that were successful in some way, shape, or form. While the three amigos was a great alliance, since they were still eliminated fairly easily, then they will not be part of the list. Rule 2- This goes in part with the first rule, but I’m only going with one alliance per season. That’s still pretty good for a top ten, but I thought that I would mention it. Rule 3- Alliances that succeeded due to dumb luck, such as the Chuay Ghaun five or the Solana alliance, are not worthy of the list. I may actually break that rule, but I still think that it’s a good rule. Rule 4- Alliances that succeeded in the game too easily, such as the Chapera alliance or the Koror alliance, are also not worthy of the list. I mean, the Koror alliance faced virtually no opposition and were forced to turn on each other pretty quickly. Are they even worthy of being called an alliance? Rule 5- While this is another rule that I might break once, I don’t think that it’s fair to have alliances that picked off their own members. I’m talking, of course, about alliance that did that before they were the only ones left in the game. Although, since there were some successful alliance that did that, then I might have to at least give an honorable mention to some that did that. In fact, I’ll get to the honorable mentions right now.

Okay, I’ll now mention different alliances from the seasons of Survivor that could have been on a different version of this list, but won’t be on mine. The Boran alliance from Africa was a good example of a successful alliance. They made the others turn on themselves and they wound up becoming the last ones left in the game. But I don’t want to put them on the actual list because I feel that others have done more than them. I also won’t put the Ogakor alliance on the list because they could have done more and gotten further as a group than they did. Now while every successful alliance probably turns on themselves at some point, they shouldn’t have to do that unless they are the only ones left in the game and there’s nobody left in the game not in that alliance. Now I can’t remember all the great alliances from season to season, but I’ve already mentioned some that I thought could work under different rules, but aren’t worthy of the list. Anyways, back to the honorable mentions. The Fei Long alliance was pretty good, but I don’t find them as memorable for some odd reason. Russell’s Villains alliance worked well both premerge and postmerge, but they failed to get rid of the threat not in it that won the game. It could have worked better, but it did not. Now, I will get to the actual list.

#10 Fulcrum Alliance (Philippines): The twenty-fifth season had the craziest alliances in the show’s history, I think. And one of them was more brilliant at using the other ones while also fighting against them than the others were. Consisting of Michael and Lisa, this alliance broke off of the Tandang alliance and made it to day 39 together. They used the other alliances while also fighting against those same alliances. However, unlike the other alliances from this list, the winner was not from it. They messed up at the final five and the lack of a final two that season prevented them from winning against a hero from Matsing. But they still respectfully earn the spot of number ten on this list.

#9 Final Four Alliance (Vanuatu): This alliance was one of, if not the most, boldest names for an alliance. Who would call themselves the final four alliance? Would they really be so ballsy as to actually call themselves that and become the final four? Who was in this alliance? I’ll tell you. This alliance consisted of Chris, Eliza, Twila, and Scout. If you remember the final four of Vanuatu, then you’ll know that’s who was in it. All four of them called themselves the final four alliance and they actually managed to become the final four. That’s remarkable in and of itself. Now I can’t remember most about this alliance other than the fact that it worked, but I felt they were worthy of being on the list.

#8 Stealth R Us (Caramoan): This alliance was named after another one from a previous season. During Redemption Island, the Stealth R Us alliance got along far too easily by hailing to its master. But in Caramoan, the alliance was much more interesting. Once they reached the merge, they had serious opposition from the Three Amigos. (Why the Spanglish? Am I the only one who doesn’t understand that phrase? For goodness sakes, just call yourselves the three friends or tres amigos. I really hope that someone can explain that to me, since it doesn’t make sense to me.) While they lost their leader, they still went far, despite not getting rid of the competition they could have at better times. They helped make that season the great thing that it actually is.

#7 Salani Alliance (One World): An all male alliance has never worked on Survivor. I don’t know if it ever will, but I hope so. But an all female alliance has succeeded before. And from another underrated season, we have the Salani alliance. They were definitely helped by the pure stupidity of the men that season (men are much dumber than women), but they did great things themselves. The way they controlled the game was pretty good. They got rid of everyone they could have and were the final three left in the game of quite an interesting season.

#6 The Family (South Pacific): A lot of people (including me) hated the South Pacific season. But, I still think that the successful alliance from this season is worthy of its place on the list. Even if this is the only alliance that could have also been a cult, the people were brainwashed into succeeding against other threats in the game. John ignored all logic (such as the odds of their side having to draw was higher on the other side and he’d get to go to Redemption Island to potentially win his way back into the game) by flipping on his old alliance (which isn’t as dumb a move as people think, actually, because he would have been screwed either way and his old tribe treated him like complete crap, a dumber move that probably caused him to flip) and taking control of the game. Things could have easily turned sour for them, but they pulled through and made it to the end of the game.

#5 Outsiders Alliance (Marquesas): This alliance is worthy of the list as it wasn’t originally even in the majority. Actually, it was, but only when they released they had to band together. For being the first minority alliance to take out the majority alliance, they are worthy of a place on this list. They knew they had to band together and they did. And they became the final five instead of the next five voted out. Just knowing when to band together was good enough for them to succeed.

#4 Foa Foa Four (Samoa): When you enter the merge with half the members of the opposing tribe, then you’d think your time in the game is done for. But, you can form an alliance and see what can be done. And this alliance worked to break apart the opposing tribe so much that they made it pretty far in the game. In fact, it wasn’t until the finale where we saw only one member of this alliance get eliminated. They got the other players to turn on themselves and thus deserve their spot on this list.

#3 Black Widow Brigade (Micronesia): The first successful women’s alliance worked so brilliantly at eliminating the mostly dumb men that you couldn’t tell what was happening. They got the men to turn on each other without people even knowing what was happening. They lured Ozzy into a false sense of security and then blindsided him. After thinking a fake idol was real, you wouldn’t think that you’d make dumb decisions with a real idol. But, that’s what happened with Jason. Poor Erik was even dumber when he gave up the immunity necklace only to be voted out by them. They worked brilliantly and had great powers in the game. They managed to do what no group of women had done before them.

#2 Aitu Four (Cook Islands): Okay, let’s say that you are comfortable on a tribe of six facing against another tribe of six. Then, a twist comes along and two of your members decide to join the other tribe. Now there are just four of you against eight of them. And yet, your alliance of underdogs wind up ruling the game and become the final four. Now doing that isn’t easy. But winning every challenge until the merge helps get that done. They never had to turn on each other until the finale. Even so, they made it there intact and that’s something worth putting here.

Okay, so you might be wondering what I have listed as the best alliance in Survivor history. Well, I may disagree with some of my own choices here. A lot of the earlier seasons are missing. But, I’m hoping that you think that I’ve missed only one on the list so far. Only one other alliance is worthy of the list. It deserves the top spot on the list for many reasons. It succeeded in getting rid of all the players before they had to turn on themselves. It wasn’t a perfect alliance because none of them are. But it worked better than any alliance since then. It worked, and that’s all that matters when it comes to alliances. It earns the number one spot as it was the very first alliance.

#1 Tagi Alliance (Borneo): Created by power player and first winner, Richard Hatch, this alliance not existing would create a completely different and far less interesting Survivor than the show is today. It was created to get rid of all other players and it worked. You can’t say no one tried to fight them. But by the time that they existence was known, then it was far too late to get rid of it. Even though a member of it left it, they still stayed together until the finale. I believe that this alliance has worked better than any other alliance on the show. It makes sense too. Feel free to disagree, but this is my number one. This is the best alliance in Survivor history.

Well, I hope that you liked the list. These ten alliances are what I consider to be the ten best in Survivor history. Sorry that there wasn’t much from the earlier seasons of the show. I know that I can’t remember every alliance, good or bad. But these are the ones that I think are the best. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor: San Juan del Sur finale

Sorry that this blog post is late. I thought that the finale was going to be on Sunday, but it wasn’t. Meanwhile, I had to record the whole finale, although I did watch some of it as it was airing. I honestly want to take back everything bad I ever said about anyone in the final five. I’m sure that I’ll like the winner since I know who this person is now. I will be eating lunch during this time instead of breakfast as I didn’t want to slow anyone down. Meanwhile, this paragraph was added to the beginning later, not that it matters. I’ll get to the rambling part and then the actual post.

Believe it or not, there are some contestants from previous seasons who have always voted with the majority at every tribal council they attended during a single season. Isn’t that interesting? I could bore you with a lot of the details, but I’ll only tell you who from what seasons have done this. Rudy did this in Borneo. Michael and Tina did this in Australia. Ethan and Kim Johnson did this in Africa. Nobody did this in Marquesas due to the purple rock fiasco. Brian did this in Thailand. Rob did this in Amazon. Osten did this in Pearl Islands. Sue, Boston Rob, Amber, and Jenna Lewis all did this in All-Stars, unless you count Jenna’s jury vote in the minority. Twila did this in Vanuatu. Ian and Katie did this in Palau, although, if you count the rumored immunity vote, then only Katie did this in Palau. Stephenie and Rafe did this in Guatemala, unless you count Rafe’s jury vote. Danielle did this in Panama. Yul and Becky did this in Cook Islands. Nobody did this in Fiji. Todd and Amanda did this in China. Kathy and Parvati did this in Micronesia. Sugar did this in Gabon. Stephen did this in Tocantins. Mike, Russell Swan, Russell Hantz, and Natalie all did this in Samoa. Nobody did this in Heroes versus Villains.

NaOnka and Chase did this in Nicaragua. Nobody did this in Redemption Island. Coach did this in South Pacific. Colton did this in One World. Nobody did this in Philippines. It didn’t happen in Caramoan either. Thanks to rock drawing, it didn’t happen in Blood versus Water. Tony did this in Cagayan. Julie did this in this season. I have checked the voting records and nobody in the final five this season can achieve this feat. Only quitters, medically evacuated contestants, and people in the final three can achieve this feat, it if happens at all. And it won’t happen to people who are voted out, unless they are the last ones voted out in a final two season.

I figure that now is a good time to mention my thoughts on the final five this season. I will mention them in the order I think they are most likely to win in Keith, Missy, Natalie, Jaclyn, and Baylor, with Baylor being the least likely to win. Unless there is a surprise four finalists instead of three, a woman will be voted out this season, for the first time since Kelley was voted out. I don’t know if Missy will get medically evacuated, but she probably won’t. I’d want her to win if it’s not Keith.

Meanwhile, I’d be okay with Natalie winning, although I don’t think it will happen. I have the feeling that Natalie might at least be a finalist this season. “Somebody has the idol and we’re going to burn it.” Unless they randomly aired that in the super promo of the premiere to edit it out of the season, it will probably affect Natalie’s idol and be part of what Jon does at the final tribal council. They could be editing out the idol burning. I wouldn’t want them to promote something and then not have it in the final product. (It was like that one scene in the trailer of The Invisible, but not in the movie that might have explained a lot more about it. For those of you that have seen both the movie and the trailer, this scene involves the male main character talking with someone about the weird situation that he’s in. It might have explained a lot more about the movie.) It’s interesting that every time a contestant has been named Natalie, they have made the finale of their season. I said earlier that this could happen. You do have to wonder what point the idol burning will serve. It may serve as a way to shame Natalie, but it makes someone more interested in the finale. Or, it’s not going to happen and they are hoping that it was never there in the first place, like the GS ball in Pokémon. (They could have just made it a Missing No. That would have been nice.) I know I’m not the only person who remembers that idol burning comment so there better be some resolution to that.

Since this is a blood versus water season, you have to wonder if this could affect potential jury votes. Missy and Baylor are the only possible pair that could make it to the end together. I don’t know yet if they will. Could that split the votes where some people could have different opinions on the better person in the pair? Plus, if there’s a loved one on the jury and their pair is a finalist, does that mean that they will vote for the person? We had the drama of voting against a loved one in the last blood versus water season. Wouldn’t it sting even more if a jury member, for whatever reason, doesn’t vote for their loved one who made it to the end? If Jaclyn or Keith make the end (or even Baylor or Missy, if the other one is voted out), then you have to wonder if that means that there will be an automatic vote for them from their loved ones.

Pretty soon, I won’t have to wonder that much about the thirtieth season. Will they finally do another normal season with no major twists, all new players, and only two starting tribes? The last time that happened was in Survivor: Samoa, which happened TEN SEASONS AGO! I’m not sure that I care much about what happens. I’m a bit interested in players. Think about it. Back in the first blood versus water, RC’s father was supposed to play with her. Will her father appear in this coming season? Plus, there is the mystery pair from this season that was supposed to be on it. Will one of them appear on the next season? It was a female/female pair and might have been a water pair (not a blood pair). Lesbians? I don’t know. I shouldn’t jump to conclusions. But we might see only one of them next season, if we see any of them at all. Meanwhile, if there’s going to be seasons 31 and 32, we don’t know about them yet. It’s likely, since they are casting for them. But they also cast a second season of Pirate Master. (Remember Pirate Master? No? Exactly! It was a one season show.)

Mysteries so far this season: Was this a complete waste of a paragraph? (I probably won’t have this section in other seasons.) Is there going to be an idol burning? Who will win? Who will the finalists be? Is the finale going to be good? Will this season be remembered well? Will it be remembered poorly? What will the next season be like? Will it be good? What will they call it? Who will be in it? Will I ever know a contestant from before them doing the show? Why isn’t the finale on Sunday? I’m sorry that I thought that it was on a Sunday, which may no longer happen. I can understand not wanting sports delays to affect the show, so that might be the reason. Or, it could just be a new thing that they are always doing now. Regardless, this won’t be on Sunday as I thought and with Advent still happening, you won’t see this post until Thursday after all. This could mean that I get spoiled as to who the winner is an advance, which wouldn’t actually be that bad a thing. I will run into hypotheticals a bit later. Actually, I’ll do that right now.

Okay, so here’s what I’m thinking will happen: Natalie wins the final five immunity challenge. I don’t know who gets voted out, but it could be Keith, but it’s probably Jaclyn. If Natalie doesn’t win that challenge, then she won’t be voted out or have to play her idol. Meanwhile, Keith probably stands the best chance of winning, although Missy could win as well. I don’t know yet if any of my predictions are right or not. Natalie could surprise us and win. I still think that her idol plays some importance at the final tribal council and is part of Jon’s jury speech. Otherwise, they added his line about burning the idol in a promo for no good reason. They better not have edited it out. In fact, as usual, I’m not going to edit this blog in any way so I could be rambling about nothing (as usual). If this doesn’t go down at the final tribal council, then I don’t know what’s going to happen at all with it. Maybe nothing at all will happen. But I don’t like set-ups with no pay-offs. Just like the Pretender finale. That’s not something that I wanted after being with the whole series that whole time.

Well, it’s time for me to talk about some Christmas stuff. Typically, when I watch Christmas stuff, there is a VHS full of recorded things with four different programs in it of varying lengths. That wasn’t the only one that I would watch. There used to be another one that I would watch. The last time I did watch it was in high school, over five years ago. After watching the first three things on it, I was going to watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I would always watch this and compare it with the edit of the special today, which is a different edit. But then the tape was messed up. At this point, I had a list of everything on this tape so I knew what was on it. While the tape might have been fixed, I have not watched any of it since. I have replaced most it if with what I can on DVD. One of the specials I will not replace, due to me not liking it. And I worry about the tape that I still watch getting to the point where it can’t be used again. Each year it gets worse, but never to the point where I can’t watch the tape anymore.

In case you are wondering, here are the all the specials on the tape that I’m not sure what happened to or if it still works with notes about what I’ve done with them: The Smurf’s Christmas special (bought on DVD in early January with a gift card I got for Christmas), The Bear that (or who) Slept Through Christmas (have not seen since the tape stopped working, although it might be online), The Christmas Toy (while available on DVD, I have not seen it since the tape stopped working right after I watched this special), Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (got the family this on DVD for Christmas), a Charlie Brown Christmas (also got this on DVD for the family on Christmas), Frosty the Snowman (another one that I got the family for Christmas, each of these being a different Christmas), Tis the Season to be Smurfy (this was on the same DVD as the other Christmas Smurf special that I mentioned earlier that I got shortly before I had my wisdom teeth removed), A Mouse, a Mystery, and Me (a terrible special that poorly resolves things at the end that I thought was incomplete on the tape for a while, but wasn’t when I watched it online), a Garfield Christmas special (which I saw last year online, but do not own, even though I believe that it is on DVD with other Garfield holiday specials) and, finally, a Claymation Christmas special (which I also saw online last year and know is on DVD with other Claymation specials). There are other Christmas things that I could watch, but typically don’t.

This season was supposed to have Redemption Island, but it didn’t in the end. This season also had a bunch of great people getting voted out. I like Redemption Island because if great people are voted out, then they can fight to get back into the game. I think that this season might have worked better if Redemption Island ended up being in it after all. We could have seen a great player like Jeremy or Jon fight his way back into the game and stay there once they won reentry. And even if they didn’t, we might have seen players get better places in the game than we do now. But I do have mixed feelings about Redemption Island this season as with only new challenges appearing as duels, it might have been better off not being used. I don’t know how I feel about it in the end. That’s part of my beef with this season. It might be average, not good, but not bad either. Ultimately, you’ll see more of that later. I hope that I like the winner. I’m hoping that the final four and final three are good as well. But I won’t have high feelings for this season.

Before this season started airing, Jeff Probst said that it would have an unconventional winner. I wonder what he meant by that. The promo also says that there will be one last blindside this season. Unless they are talking about the jury vote, it could mean that someone who has a lot going for them, like Natalie, is going to get voted out. I’m glad that I don’t know spoilers yet, although I probably will before I watch this episode. Maybe the lack of a good edit or clear edit for potential winners this season is because of a tie at the final tribal council. From the moment that they first did away with final twos, the possibility of a tie for the win happened. They have to have some method of tie-breaking for the final vote. It’s possible that we will never know what it is. Or, it could happen this season. Or, a future season. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we get to Jeff at the studio where they’ll do the reunion show letting us know what’s happening. Sorry about all the predictions as I’m not sure any of them are right. But, I’m leaving them in the blog post regardless. Anyways, the long and boring recap of the season happens so I eat some of lunch. The tribe gets back from Jon’s elimination where tempers flare. Not much really happened there that I can sum up easily.

In the second segment of the show, Missy and Baylor talk about making it as far as they did. There is then a REWARD? challenge that happens. Seriously? A reward? And the reward is an advantage in the next immunity challenge? I can tell you one thing for sure: I regret some of the choices that I put in my ten worst twist blog posts. A reward challenge in the finale should have made that list. Those are pointless. Geez, I’d like to see the rite of passage again, instead of this shit. Anyways, it is Keith that wins the challenge. Keith gets to send someone to Exile Island after what I believe to be the last reward challenge of the season. I do wonder how they reused all those Redemption Island duels. We then get a clip of Jeff at the CBS studio. The people in that studio are the only people on the west coast who don’t have to wait three hours to see the finale. I do wonder how that works. I’m not sure that I like the prereunion show bits as they tend to cut into the real reunion show.

In the third segment of the show, Jaclyn was sent to Exile Island and she was sad about everything. Keith’s reward is seeing how the upcoming immunity challenge will work. He gets the privacy of doing it. It looks like an interesting challenge. Maybe people were being ironic when they talked about how good Keith is at challenges. Or, this practice helped.

In the fourth segment of the show, Natalie is wondering what to do about who to keep in the game. We then get to the immunity challenge. Keith is the winner of that. Jeff then does another reunion show bit where he shows this person who designed the reward challenge in the last episode. It looks like a woman will be voted out for the first time this season since Kelley’s elimination.

In the fifth segment of the show, the people talked about the challenge. “I’m good with balls,” said Keith. I hope his wife knows about that. The usual pretribal drama unfolds. It’s unlikely that Jaclyn has an idol, although there could have been one. Natalie is afraid that people won’t like her if she makes big moves. We then get to tribal council. Natalie gives her idol to Jaclyn and it is Baylor that gets voted out in the “big” blindside that they were promising. We then get to yet another prereunion bit. I don’t get what this one is about and they typically seem to be wasting time with these. I understand trying to put more life in the reunion show, but this seems to be having the opposite effect to me.

In the sixth segment of the show, Natalie explains why she got rid of Baylor. Missy reacts to her daughter getting voted out. Baylor was probably voted out between the pair because Missy might be unable to win any challenges. Poor Missy. This is a bad time to get an injury, but at least it isn’t serious enough to pull her from the game. We then get to the final immunity challenge. No rites of passage again because that may be forever gone from the game. Keith is yellow in this challenge and they showed the yellow person winning in the dream team explanation of the challenge. Of course, if you are a regular reader of my blog, you’d know that what it typically means is that the person shown winning won’t win. Jaclyn gets hurt at the challenge, but she manages to finish the challenge and win despite trailing behind for most of the challenge. Keith is worried about being eliminated at the next tribal council due to Natalie’s move at the last tribal council.

In the seventh segment of the show, Jaclyn is proud of herself for winning the challenge. She wonders who she should take to the final three with her. Keith wonders if he’s getting voted out, which is Natalie’s plan. Jaclyn is wondering if she should make a big move or not. Missy is probably wondering if she’s safe as they plan on making moves. We get to tribal council next. After the talk of who all might get voted out, it is Keith that gets eliminated. We then get a strange segment from/about Keith and we get to the wife of Keith.

In the eighth segment of the show, the final three talk about how they got there to the end. With loved ones on the jury, unless they were being worse than Ciera was with voted out her mom (in this case, by not voting for your loved one to be on the game, despite you being on the jury and them being a finalist), then there will be some automatic votes in that part. They each give their opening statements relating to as why they deserved to win. Natalie seems to be owning up more to her game play than the other two people were.

Total confessionals: Keith- 31, Missy- 24, Jaclyn- 28, Baylor- 29, Natalie- 31. New confessionals this episode: Baylor- 2, Natalie- 6, Keith- 4, Missy- 4, Jaclyn- 6.

In the ninth segment of the show, Jon is the first juror to speak and he asks what Jaclyn thought she did to succeed in the game. The idol burning comment, much like Survivor Oz’s interview with Stephanie Favor, is nowhere to be seen in the end. What was it all about? I guess I know who to listen to more in Survivor Oz (Jon Misch). Keith was upset at Natalie for lying to him. Natalie pointed out that she did what she had to to stay in the game. Alec wondered what Natalie did to get to the end. Baylor talks to her mother and gets real emotional. Josh wonders what Jaclyn did that didn’t involve anyone else. Wes then asks them all general questions. Jeremy then gives a rambling statement as to why Natalie should win, something that no juror has done without the person they were favoring winning. He may not be the best at it, but I already know who won. Reed then spoke to all of the contestants where he mostly just bashed Missy.

In the tenth segment of the show, the jurors voted for who they wanted to win. This is the third time in a final three where all of the finalists got a vote to win. The blood versus water twist helped with that. In the end, it was Natalie who won. Natalie, who went the farthest in the game without her loved one, was the one who won. Interesting how her partner in the game was the first person voted out. But Rachel’s Tyson’s girlfriend, was the lowest ranking of the new players last season so they may be an indicator of what’s happened.

In the eleventh segment of the show, we finally get to the actual reunion show. Natalie feels that she might have done better without her twin, as I have stated before. She talks about the big moves she made throughout the game. Jeff does the usual, who would have won question that he has asked in the past. Keith is being the usual crazy person that he is. I like him. I’m not sad that he didn’t win, but he definitely falls under the entertaining aspect of the game. That doesn’t always mean good, but it’s still something that’s very good. We also get to the Natalie versus John Rocker fight.

In the twelfth segment of the show, Josh talks about how he and Reed have helped influence other people outside the game. I’m not sure what I think of the whole gay/Christian thing, but since all Christians go to heaven, then I shouldn’t be thinking too much into it. And nobody should just be hating for the sake of hating. We then get to Jon Misch and Jaclyn. They are over the fights they had and still engaged. In fact, they were engaged during post production. Actually, I think that it was during the airing of this season to be specific.

In the thirteenth segment of the show, Missy talks her failed relationships. It’s hard to know what to make of this segment here. Reed is sort of sorry about his hateful jury speech. We then get to what will happen on Survivor 30. While we are on this topic, does anyone know if they actually renewed for seasons 31 and 32 yet? I know that they were looking for cast members of them, but that doesn’t mean that it’s actually happening. I say that it’s likely that it will happen. But I don’t know yet as I haven’t looked anything up about it. If you know, feel free to comment. But it doesn’t matter yet anyways. I mean, there’s season 30 to look forward to.

In the fourteenth segment of the show, we learn about the thirtieth season of Survivor. There are three tribes: white collar (whatever that is), blue collar (whatever that is) and no collar (whatever that is). I’m not really sure what to make of this twist yet and I’m hoping that it will make more sense before the season starts. Survivor: Worlds Apart. This makes me wonder what other twists could start a season that have tribes divided in a certain way. I should let the professionals take care of that. I’ll be back on February 26^th (or 27^th, if Lent has started by then) with blog posts about that season. But I’ll post more about what’s happening with this blog before the end of this post.

In the fifteenth segment of the show, we get to the last bit where Natalie gets the check for the win. Do you realize that every Survivor contestant who has done the Amazing Race has won Survivor? With this Amazing Race season having Keith and Whitney from South Pacific, neither of whom won Survivor, I thought at first that they were destined to win the Amazing Race. But that didn’t happen on this Amazing Race season. Maybe they are both destined to win Survivor when they return in separate games. But could Nadiya return and pull a reverse Tina Weeson by going from first out to winner? While I think that Nadiya will probably return for a future season, despite being a first boot, I’m not sure if any person that was originally the first boot could go on to win the game. But, it could happen. I’ll post more about that idea for an all first boots season later. But, they made have to work their way up from out early to winner. You should see a strange post about that in the future. I’m disappointed that so many of the contestants were ignored at the reunion show. The prereunion bits may have led to that.

Points at reunion show: Nadiya- 0, Val- 0, John Rocker- 1, Drew- 0, Kelley- 0, Dale- 0, Julie- 0, Josh- 1, Jeremy- 1, Wes- 0, Reed- 3, Alec- 0, Jon Misch- 2, Baylor- 1, Keith- 1, Missy- 2, Jaclyn- 2, Natalie- 4.

A look back at my predictions: Last season, I got twelve of the eighteen contestants predicted right. I said they would be a premerge boot, a juror, or a finalist. Only six of them turned out being different. So I thought that now would be a good time for me to look back and see how many I got right this season. If you want to check, I did an analysis of who might rank where this season before this season started. It was a cast assessment. Meanwhile, since there is a contestant who made the merge but not the jury, I’m going to count them as a premerge boot, even though this will mean getting that prediction wrong. I’ll post which contestants I had where and if I was right about them. Then, I’ll post how many I got right versus how many I didn’t. Nadiya: guess- jury, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- wrong. Jaclyn: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- finalist, accuracy- wrong. John Rocker: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- right. Josh: guess- jury, actual placement- jury, accuracy- right. Dale: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- right. Baylor: guess- jury, actual placement- jury, accuracy- right. Alec: guess- finalist, actual placement- jury, accuracy- wrong. Val: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- right. Wes: guess- jury, actual placement- jury, accuracy- right. Natalie: guess- jury, actual placement- finalist, accuracy- wrong. Jon Misch: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- jury, accuracy- wrong. Julie: guess- jury, actual placement- (a bit confusing since she made the merge and then quit, thus not being on the jury, you see, I’d count the jury members gone before the merge as jury members and the people who made the merge, but not the jury as premerge boots) premerge boot *, accuracy- wrong (or half right). Reed: guess- jury, actual placement- jury, accuracy- right. Kelley: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- right. Missy: guess- premerge boot, actual placement- finalist, accuracy- wrong. Drew: guess- finalist, actual placement- premerge boot, accuracy- wrong. Jeremy: guess- jury, actual placement- jury, accuracy- right. Keith: guess- finalist, actual placement- jury, accuracy- wrong. I got nine out of eighteen right, if I did that math right. Only half is right.

I hope to be better with next season’s predictions. I’ll wonder about that mystery pair for a while. One of them could be on the next season (but probably not both). That’s provided that one of them is there at all. I should have known from the beginning about the lack of a good cast this season since I almost put nobody as a finalist. It was hard for me to guess with some since I saw them together in the preseason interviews and not apart. I feel that apart from each other, I would have gotten more to know about the other people. But they were just predictions anyways. Maybe I’ll do better next time or even worse. But I’ll talk more about the next season later.

Before I get to the end of this blog post, I will do the stuff that I typically do at the end of every season. There’s even a bit extra this time. Okay, so you might be wondering about what dumb moves have been happening this season. I will crown what I believe to be the three dumbest moves this season. Here are the candidates: Drew causing his own elimination, Julie’s quit, the flint fiasco, John Rocker’s dumb decisions, Jon Misch being voted out while in possession of a hidden immunity idol, Hunapu’s deals with Jeff, and the rice fiasco. Now, I will give a reason as to why some will be considered and some won’t. You see, Drew wasn’t the only person who was going to throw the challenge that got him voted out. That’s why I won’t have him on the final list. And Jon Misch did some good moves before his dumb one so I don’t feel that he deserves to get that award. I feel that the Hunapu’s deals with Jeff are worthy of the bronze for dumbest move of the season. Both the rice and flint fiasco is covered by this. I would put Julie’s quit as getting the silver award for dumbest move of the season. Meanwhile, John Rocker gets the gold award for dumbest move of the season by getting voted out while in possession of an idol after being an unbearable person.

Now there’s the reward of the most memorable moment of the season. To me, anything that can qualify for the list is in the blindsides of the season. Here are the candidates- Josh’s blindside, Jeremy’s blindside, Wes’s blindside, and Jon’s blindside. Ultimately, Wes’s blindside is what I think deserves the list due to the way it went down. It was very memorable what happened. Then, we also have the breakout character of the season. That’s an award I give to a new player of the season that left his or her mark on the show. The candidates for this section are Josh, Jeremy, Jon, and Keith. I feel that Jeremy is best winning this award.

Now we get to the ranking of this season. Out of all twenty-nine seasons, where does this one rank? You see, the lower the number, the better it did. So if one is the best, how does this season rank? I rank this season eighteen out of twenty-nine. Now we get into the extra part of this section. My sister was gone in South Africa for the last four Survivor seasons. So those four seasons, which I have already revealed my rankings for (unless new seasons or rewatches have changed it), I’m going to rank for you right now. From best to worst, the most recent four, I rank like this: Blood versus Water, Cagayan, Caramoan, and San Juan del Sur. The worst of them is this season. Caramoan ranks fourteen out of twenty-nine. Blood versus Water ranks eight out of twenty-nine. Cagayan ranks twelve out of twenty-nine. As for this season’s tribe swap, it ranks eleven out of nineteen, with the lower number being the better number, as I mentioned before.

So here are my thoughts on the next season: What do these different collars mean? I’d understand more about the next, upcoming season, if I knew what while collar versus blue collar versus no collar would be. Maybe I’ll have to talk to some people about it. I hope that there’s someone who understand. I just hope that I can someday be a guest at David and Jeff’s Survivor podcast. (It’s been over a year since I wanted to be a guest. I would like to be on your show sometime. Just let me know what time might work best for you.) You’d think that they would be able to explain things well. Or, maybe someone will comment on it. I’d like to know which contestants from the past have best fit which collar types. I really don’t know what to think of this twist yet. But I look forward to it as I always look forward to each Survivor season.

Well, the idol burning comment sounded great, but wasn’t in the final edit. Besides, that sort of thing is probably against the Survivor rulebook. Maybe it was just something dramatic that they needed to get people to watch this season. But I don’t know why it was even promoted in the first place. WHY WAS IT PROMOTED! I don’t get it. I may have to start a vlog just to interview Jon Misch, or any contestant from this season, actually, to see what that comment was about. But, if I do start vlogs, Coby Archa gets to be my first guest, because I promised him that’s what I’d do. My laptop doesn’t have that technology, but I might be able to borrow it from someone. Sorry for this random paragraph.

I will tell you what’s happening with this blog of mine in the future. I will post random things in this blog during the hiatus between this season and the next. I may not do any posts on Sundays. But I will do posts on Wednesdays. I know that Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are both Wednesdays this year, but I will probably be able to post whatever I can. I have a lot written already and many more ideas that could be done. I’ll probably never finish writing all these ideas. But I won’t tell you about what they all are since I don’t know if I’ll write them or not. You’ll see what happens if it happens. And if I miss a Wednesday during hiatus, then I’ll be sure to post two a week, if possible. I need to figure out when to update my TV blog since it relates to this blog when I post it. You might see more movie updates until I can finally get rid of the Sunday movie list. (However, I do plan on putting the Monday list on Sundays when I’m done with the watching of Survivor: Borneo.) I might not know what else to talk about for now. But come back here every Wednesday until Survivor: Worlds Apart starts to see random thought of mine relating to Survivor. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 29.12

It turns out that I did forget to tell you something about Survivor: Borneo in one of my blog posts. If I can remember, I’ll tell you it later, but not now. Meanwhile, I had another Survivor dream that I’ll tell you about. It was about the thirtieth season. Apparently Robin Williams was a contestant in that season during this dream. I do not know if that could have happened, but it more than likely didn’t. You do have to wonder if that could happen: a contestant from a season that hasn’t aired yet dies after production. I don’t like death, even though it happens to everyone. I like to remember the dead as a way of respect. You’ll probably see some of that in the future. I am blissfully ignorant as to anything that might have happened during the 30^th season of Survivor, although I’ll be glad to know what happens next year. For now, I should be focused on this season at hand.

Speaking about focusing about this season, I’ve been wondering if Missy will get pulled from the game. Now in the main (first) promo for an episode, they have never aired who will get medically evacuated. This would be a first if she is. It looks like it would happen at a challenge of some sort. If it is a reward challenge, the challenge will probably be incomplete, but the game will continue until we get to the immunity challenge where someone gets voted out on top of Missy being pulled from the game. If it is at the immunity challenge, then the episode will probably end with her being pulled from it. And that’s only if she’s pulled at all. One wonders if this can affect the final three/final two scenario. The last odd number season to have a final two was Guatemala. I still hate the fact that the final three is so hated by many people. It is much more interesting than a final two. But we’ll see if that ends up happening. Just don’t expect people to not win in a landslide, just because it’s a final two.

For those of you that know me from facebook, I’m going to take this opportunity to apologize for some of the stupid things that I was saying in one of the threads on the addicted to Survivor group. I was just trying to defend the underrated season of Caramoan. Now if someone can kindly explain how Caramoan is bad, I’d be glad to know. There are a lot of underrated seasons, especially if you consider things post Heroes versus Villains. I don’t get why Caramoan is considered a bad season. But since I don’t get why people like Fiji, maybe I should just ignore that whole subject entirely.

Here are the current groupings I have for medically evacuated players returning to the game. Ever since Survivor: Philippines aired, I’ve been putting medically evacuated players that haven’t returned into different groups for how they should return for potential future seasons. Since Michael Skupin, Jonathan, and Russell made up the first group and is why I’ll stick to three in a group when possible. Since James and Colton have returned, you won’t see them on the list. I consider Dana to count as medically evacuated and she’ll go with Shamar and Gary as one group. I figure bringing back people who placed around the same place when they were pulled from their respective seasons. That is why I currently have Joe, Bruce, and Erik as another group. That leaves only two left: Mike Borassi and Kourtney. One wonders how any new medical evacuation would affect this list of mine. I just hope that they do the Philippines starting twist again. Every medically evacuated contestant deserves to play again. And while I don’t like seeing that happen in the game, at least it is interesting and makes you empathize with the contestant being pulled (most of the time at least). Remember, that Gary can always go with a different twist, as can Kourtney. This would put Mike Borassi with Dana and Shamar, but only if you use the other twists. In case you are wondering, Kourtney would be put with Wanda and Jonathan from Palau and Gary would be put with Liliana, also from Fiji. Other blog posts have covered why that it, but basically, Gary and Liliana are the only two contestants to never lose a challenge whereas Kourtney, Wanda, and Jonathan were all eliminated in the first episode by means other than a vote.

You know, at first I thought the gender imbalance this season, more men than women, wouldn’t be that big of an issue. But it turns out that it was. Most, if not all, of the women this season have been underdeveloped in some way. That may mean that a man wins. But, that may not be the case either. I still don’t know if a floater will win. While I normally have no disdain for floaters, sometimes there are cases of me not liking them. Natalie this season has been weird. I didn’t know one could be both a villain and a floater. Normally, villains are up front and center. That may not always be the case. I still don’t know how I feel about her. I’m just glad that this season picked up postmerge. For goodness sakes, even the first season was lame premerge, but I don’t know anyone bold enough to say that it was bad. It wasn’t. Only if you haven’t seen it might you not like it. Also, regarding Natalie, on Rob has a Podcast, they were talking about how dumb her decision was to blindside Alec was. They were making it out to be much dumber than I think that it would be. We’ll have to see how it plays out, but I don’t think that it’s nearly as bad a move as the two commentators were making it to be. I’ve started listening to that podcast as the thing I planned on which, the Anderson’s twins first season of the Amazing Race, was taken offline before I could watch it. At least I wasn’t into this season before it was taken offline. I hadn’t even been able to watch it. But I was wanting to listen to Rob has a Podcast anyways so I added it to the list since I couldn’t think of something else to put on it.

Mysteries so far this season: Will Missy get medically evacuated? Will it just be an injury that won’t require her to be pulled from the game? How will this affect the challenge she was probably at? Is someone else causing her injury? Are they doing this intentionally? Would they be punished for it? Would this be the first time someone caused someone else’s medical evacuation? Was the edit a trick as usual? Is nobody getting pulled from the game? Will the finale be the next episode? Will there be a final two or a final three? Just remember, if the finale is on a Sunday, then my posts will return to their regular times. They won’t be on Thursdays again until Lent starts next year. I have to avoid online stuff (just Survivor spoilers) whenever I’m watching on delay. Anyways, once the finale airs, hopefully not on a Wednesday, then I will post updates of this blog on Sundays and Wednesdays during the hiatus between this and the 30^th season. I can’t promise that every Sunday and Wednesday will have these posts as I may give stuff up randomly. I have a lot of these random posts already written and I hope that you like them. I noticed that my list of players for a potential Survivor: Legends season has gotten a lot of readers and that’s always good. Meanwhile, you can enjoy any post of mine on this blog even when the show is not airing new episodes. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we get back from tribal council and Natalie does what she can to prove that she voted out Alec by accident. Keith is glad that he is still in the game. Thankfully, I don’t yet know any spoilers about this episode and it was at the very beginning of the tape, so I didn’t have to look for it on the tape to get potential spoilers. You may know that some of the Christmas stuff I watch is on a tape. That tape has a lot of old commercials. The most notable of them in the Hershey’s kisses ringing the bells doing We Wish You a Merry Christmas. The commercial still airs to this day. It is pretty old, I just don’t know how much.

In the second segment of the show, we get to the reward challenge which looks like it could have the Missy problem happening. Missy is on a team with Jon and Keith. That means that Natalie, Baylor, and Jaclyn are on the other team. Despite Missy’s possible injury, the challenge continues as normal as the injury is not serious enough to stop the challenge. But her injury may prove to be a liability in the challenge to her other members. In the end, her team still wins. Jon gives up his reward for Baylor. I can’t tell if the people who keep giving up their reward is generous or foolhardy.

In the third segment of the show, we get to the reward of a spa day. Missy talks about her injury and she seems to be wearing a special sock or something during the confessional so it may not take her out of the game. But we don’t know yet. Jaclyn suspects Natalie of intentionally flipping instead of accidently getting rid of Alec. Natalie is alone on Exile Island and is upset about being away from her sister for so long. And yet, her game is probably all the better for it. Meanwhile, before the challenge starts, Missy is treated by medical and they say that they might have to pull her from the game. She tried hiding the injury, which didn’t work. If I were in that situation, I’d probably want to get the treatment that I needed for a potential quicker recovery.

In the fourth segment of the show, it is decided that the injury is not actually serious enough to pull Missy from the game, keeping my grouping the same. Missy won’t play in the challenge. We get to the immunity challenge which seems like a better version of a leg up. Jaclyn is the first person out of the challenge, although Missy not playing it could give an advantage. In the end, it is Natalie that wins the immunity challenge. This could mean that things end badly for Jon.

In the fifth segment of the show, Jon doesn’t like losing the challenge. Natalie is working on a way to get rid of Jon. However, she is concerned about his hidden immunity idol. You do have to wonder if Natalie will give her idol to Keith to protect him. That could happen, but I don’t know yet if it will. That’s why I’m worried. Baylor is trying to and probably failing to convince Missy to get rid of Jon. We then get to the tribal council. At tribal council, as usual, the drama unfolded quite quickly. I have no idea what will happen as it one of those, not much was given away tribals. Missy had to be carried to the urn to cast her vote. No idols were played. It was a three way tie between Keith, Jaclyn, and Jon. This then leads to the revote. In the end, it was Jon who got voted out. This confuses me into wondering what the whole idol thing in the first promo was about. Did they edit that whole thing out? Maybe it doesn’t happen until the final tribal council.

On the next Survivor, we get to the finale. It is hard to tell what’s going to happen based on that. Now I’m thinking that Natalie might actually become a finalist. I don’t know if Missy will last until the end of the game or not. I don’t know who I want to win anymore. I hate twist endings.

Total confessionals: Jon- 41, Keith- 27, Missy- 20, Jaclyn- 22, Baylor- 27, Natalie- 25. New confessionals this episode: Missy- 2, Jaclyn- 2, Baylor- 5, Natalie- 4, Jon- 5, Keith- 3.

Poor Jon. He gets over forty confessionals only to get voted out. This leaves Natalie, Baylor, and Keith as the three highest in terms of confessionals with Missy as the lowest. I’m not sure who I want to win anymore. Natalie might win. I mean, teams from the Amazing Race typically have a Survivor winner on them. That’s why I thought that Keith and Whitney might win this Amazing Race season, but that was not the case. If either of them plays Survivor again, then we know who might win between them. Meanwhile, with the finale on Sunday, I might live tweet, but only if there is no sports delay in my region. Even if there is, I still might live tweet, I’m not entirely sure yet. Meanwhile, I have to figure out how to rearrange the names for this coming finale. Expect it on Sunday. Then expect random blog posts until the next season starts. For the last blog post of this upcoming season, you can expect the usual things. I will look back at my predictions for the season and see just how much I got right. I will crown the three dumbest moves of the season, the most memorable moment of the season, who I believe to be the breakout character of the season (an award I give to a new player who left his or her mark on the game). Don’t forget about me ranking the tribe swap and season as a whole. I’ll probably be right about a floater winning as the final five is full of them. I’m hoping that I like the winner at least. The most recent winner I absolutely despise is Sophie, although she’s not my lowest ranking winner. Sorry if I was hating on her, but I’d have to rewatch her season to see what exactly she did to win. I’m hoping that I like whoever wins this season, although I might not. If I do have bad feelings now for the potential winner, then they might change once this person does win. Right now, I’m rooting for Keith. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 29.11

With this being a two hour episode, maybe the blog post name should actually be episodes 29.11 and 12. But, like last season, I’m not going to bother with possible name changes. Even if the next episode should be episode 29.13, I will still call it episode 29.12. I don’t care if it is a misnomer or not. Like I said, last season’s post were misnomers. Now, this could cause a problem for me. I typically only watch two different shows (SVU and the 100) after Survivor ends and neither are on CBS. With me doing a recording on VHS and a back-up recording on my laptop, I will only be able to watch one of these two shows. And while I prefer SVU to the 100, I’m okay with missing a lot of SVU and would rather get caught up on the 100. But since I have a friend who is into the 100, I could always get text updates from him. But I might not get back in time to see either of these shows, which is bad. Meanwhile, I’m not sure how or even if I can get caught up on stuff during VHS (besides Survivor) because the Christmas watching stuff is taking over. I have a set list of Christmas movies and specials that I want to watch. I won’t keep you updated on them, but I might change my mind on that should any remain unwatched before this year ends. I won’t be watching any of my TV choices or regular movie choices for a while, although I could change some of the rules that I have.

This leads into a segue into my next section. I was able to watch a movie on Friday, but it was Celtic Woman, part of a series, so I won’t be replacing that. On Saturday, I watched Copacabana, the play that I was in. I replaced that with a special movie that my sister made called the Decker Family. This means that the Saturday list will be Decker Family, Fifty First Dates, Heidi, Monster’s Inc, National Treasure, and the Parent Trap. I once thought of doing the commentary with the Parent Trap, but I’m not doing that. It is part of a group of movies that I’ll want to watch next year, so we’ll see if they end up happening or not. I’m not going to start another movie list unless I’m done with Christmas watching and I have six movies to add at the same time. I still have to get rid of the Sunday list. That list is Celtic Woman, Finding Nemo, The Hobbit series, Little Rascals, Pocahontas, and Seventeen Again. I want to get rid of Seventeen Again and replace it with the Survivor: Borneo special. But there are some movies that might be removed from the list without me watching it. I’m just glad that no more Survivor contestants have died and I plan to post more information about them. My Monday movie list is Aladdin, Bible Video Stories, dancing videos, the Omega Code, Power Rangers: the Ultimate Rangers and the movie length Stargate SG-1 pilot. You will not see an update about those movies again until the premiere of Survivor 30.

So I may have told you about my problem with having to stop watching certain shows since any holiday would get in the way. And I may have told you about what the shows are which I would need to watch in the month of December. If I told you about this stuff and you really don’t care about it, then you can skip the rest of this paragraph and go to the next one. Go ahead. I won’t hold it against you. If you do want to hear more strange habits of mine, then by all means, continue reading. Just read the rest of this blog either way. The last episode of Invader Zim is a Christmas one that I will probably watch. This being the last episode, I don’t know yet if I will add that show to the watching list that I have, although I probably will if I need a new choice in time when that could fill the list. The other Christmas episode is that of the first season of NCIS: Los Angeles (for some odd reason, that show I just mentioned has suddenly improved quality this most recent season, so I suggest watching it if you don’t already or haven’t for a while) that I would want to watch before the Christmas season ends. Then there’s an episode of the fourth season of the Big Bang Theory that’s based on New Year’s Eve, giving me a window of December 26^th-December 31^st to get it watched. I’ve been waiting to watch it for over a year (yes, I know that’s crazy), so I won’t want to miss my chance to watch it. Those are the episodes that need watched over time and will join the Christmas specials list.

Mysteries so far this season: How did Natalie know that Jon should play his idol? Did she get a vibe? Did she just want to get rid of his idol? Will she make good choices with her idol? Will hers be the one that they want to throw into a fire? Are Natalie and Jon allies? Why tell him to play his idol? Why is this a two hour episode? Will I watch part of it if I get back too late to get into a different show? Why am I pondering this? How will I rearrange the contestants’ names for the confessional count? Will someone beat Jeremy’s record this season of 31 confessionals? Who is in control of the game? Will they stay in control of the game? Will this person win the game? Will they be voted out next? What’s going to happen? Well, we’ll have to wait and see, I guess. I wonder when they are airing the finale of this season. I need to figure it out so I know what to do with this blog and my other blog. I can probably schedule post updates for later, considering how Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are Wednesdays this year and I’d want to do these random updates on both Wednesdays and Sundays. I already have a good amount of random posts written for the future that I will probably post soon. I just need to work more on some of them so that there’s enough for the hiatus between this season and the next one. I might as well post something since otherwise there would be nothing here during this time.

The recording seemed to have gone okay and I might have avoided spoilers. I’m not certain if everything worked well, but we’ll see. Regarding the idol, you may or may not remember an event in the seventeenth season where a whole group of contestants, the final ten, made the decision as a group to throw a hidden immunity idol into the sea. This has marked the only time that an idol has ever been destroyed. Remember that hidden immunity idols are considered personal items. They cannot be stolen by another contestant. You might have wondered why Jamie didn’t do that in China when she had the chance. Well, it’s against the rules. When Bill threw Colton’s hidden immunity idol into the sea in One World, that was a clear violation of the rules. That is also the real reason why Colton hated Bill. Colton’s idol was returned to him, so whoever wants to burn an idol in the future can only do that with their own idol. And if it doesn’t happen in this episode, it’s going to happen pretty soon. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, the tribe gets back from tribal council and talks about what happened there. Meanwhile, I’m eating breakfast and trying to eat that while writing this blog post. This is where the beginning of the Jon and Jaclyn fight, one of many that seems to have been started over nothing. I guess this will boil over over time.

In the second segment of the show, we get to the reward challenge. The reward has a strange ending with the five remaining in the game basically giving the reward to Missy for some odd reason. Missy chooses Jon to send to Exile Island. She chooses Natalie and Baylor to go on the reward with her. This makes Missy quite possibly the first de facto winner of a reward challenge. So strange.

In the third segment of the show, Jon arrives on Exile Island and looks for a new hidden immunity idol. He finds it. Jaclyn feels that she is at the bottom of her alliance and that’s she only being used by it, including her boyfriend Jon.

In the fourth segment of the show, Jaclyn and Alec get closer than they probably should. We then get to the immunity challenge. It’s going to take serious balls to win this challenge. Jon has three balls at one point. In the end, it is Keith that has all the balls that he needs to win the challenge. This should be a good thing for Keith as his first individual immunity win didn’t count.

In the fifth segment of the show, Jon and Jaclyn get into their argument. It can be hard to tell what is going on. Reed is trying to work the wedge between them to avoid getting eliminated himself. There is some mystery wink worthy of its own hashtag. What’s that all about? There’s drama going on before tribal council between Jon and Jaclyn more so that anyone else. The vote could be between either Reed or Missy, but that could be a misdirection. Is it? We’ll see. At tribal council, Jeff talks about what happened after the reward challenge. Would Jon really consider turning on another alliance member, this one being Missy? Okay, while rewinding the tape that had this episode I saw who was voted out in the first hour, I think. I most definitely saw one of the two boots this episode. And I might already know who the second person voted out is too. But I’m not going to spoil it yet. Anyways, it is Reed that gets voted out and the tribe returns from tribal council. Jon is afraid of misreading people.

In the sixth segment of the show, we get to a reward challenge. Jon’s ball is a little to the right and it likes to move around. They have to keep enough pressure on the ball. Baylor’s ball slips a little. Geez, two ball challenges back to back? Jon’s ball is hanging on the side. His ball keeps moving. So many double entendres. In the end it is Natalie who knows how to best handle her ball to win the reward of whatever it was.

In the seventh segment of the show, the reward actually takes place at the camp. Natalie is still wondering the best way to get rid of Jon. She’s wondering how to go about doing it, but she doesn’t know how yet.

In the eighth segment of the show, a lot of drama happens at camp as Natalie best decides how to get rid of Jon. Will she succeed? Can she do this in secret? Will Jon find out? Will her plan work or will it go around and eliminate her? We then get to the immunity challenge. Alec’s time on Exile Island is ignored, once again a bad sign for him. Jon wins the challenge, thus spoiling Natalie’s plan to get rid of him.

In the ninth segment of the show, the iconic and underrated splitting the votes strategy is being considered again. The main target is Keith. Alec also worries that he’s on the chopping block. Now I’m not entirely sure who is actually getting voted out or not. We get to tribal council and it is Alec that gets voted out, thus making me wonder how to rearrange the names for the confessional count.

On the next Survivor, Natalie is still gunning for Jon and someone (Missy) might end up getting medically evacuated. Will there be another medical evacuation in the game? If you’ve read this blog of mine in the past, you may notice that I like to wonder how medically evacuated players can return to the game again, much like how Michael Skupin, Jonathan, and Russell returned to the game. You will see an update, but only if someone is pulled from the game.

Total confessionals: Natalie- 21, Alec- 15, Reed- 17, Jon- 36, Keith- 24, Missy- 18, Jaclyn- 20, Baylor- 22. New confessionals this episode: Baylor- 4, Natalie- 9, Alec- 4, Reed- 3, Jon- 9, Keith- 2, Missy- 3, Jaclyn- 9.

After that long episode, it looks like Jon is the highest in the confessional count with Keith and Baylor as second and third respectively. Jaclyn is now at twenty confessionals and Natalie is higher than twenty as well. Missy is the lowest, being the only one left in the game without more than twenty confessionals. I’m not sure what will happen next, but with an Advent service on Wednesday, I will once again have to record Survivor and post the next day about the episode. I also don’t know how to rearrange the names for confessional count, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out. Just remember that even if this blog is late, I will still give you updates. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.