Episode 32.8

Well, we now have the next medical evacuation: Neal. And now my groups of how people can return with these groups will change again. Neal joins the list of players that I’m picking from, which is Bruce, Gary, Joe, Mike Borassi, Kourtney, Dana, Shamar, Erik, Terry, and Caleb. Now I haven’t even mentioned who the three would be that I most want back. But I’ll do that if they decide that they will do the twist again, which they might not. Anyways, my new groups are Erik, Neal, and Bruce as group one, Joe, Shamar, and Terry as group two, Caleb, Gary, and Mike as group three, and Kourtney and Dana can be group four. Now those are my groups, for now at least. I wonder which medically evacuated players are the most likely to return.

Sometimes family visits happen and affect my TV watching. To date, this has not affected my Survivor blog in any way. But it could happen. I thought that I would tell you about this in case it does. I would say that if you don’t see a post on Wednesday when it isn’t Advent or Lent, I should be back soon and the blog post will have an explanation as to why I am late. Plus, there could be any number of reasons I could go on an unexpected hiatus. I just hope that I will be able to know this enough in advance or be able to return in enough of a short time. I guess the reason that I’m telling you this now is because my uncle is visiting on Wednesday. This caused me to miss the live Survivor episode, but I recorded it on VHS. I don’t know when I’ll be able to watch it. I probably will see it on Thursday after all, although if I can still watch it on Wednesday, then I will. I guess you’ll notice whether or not I did this when you see what day of the week this blog was posted at.

It seems that more often than not, the promos for an episode of Survivor can reveal too much about it. There will be some sort of crazy tribal council going on in this episode. There will probably be an audience blindside which typically speaks to how much they leave out of editing. I used to think that this show had great editing, but now I’m convinced that it does not anymore. We need to watch the tribal council for something interesting. It make sense as this is now the dramatic postmerge tribal council that was delayed an episode due to Neal’s evacuation. I just wonder how it will be interesting. I know that Jeff previously thought that Aubry’s vote switch was a Survivor first, but it wasn’t, I don’t think at least. Gervase switched his vote in Borneo’s first merged tribal council, although he had to as he originally voted for someone who was immune. As stated before, Hayden started writing a vote for one person, scribbled it out to write another, and then ultimately stick with the first name after all. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we seem to continue exactly from the moment that Neal left the game and Scot mentions the previously on Survivor thing Jeff does. Will the beauty and brawn tribes team up together as they say they will? I thought that three tribe seasons would get rid of the Pagonging problem (if one calls that a problem), but it just seems to change it.

In the second segment of the show, Jason tells about his daughter with autism. I hope that he doesn’t think negative things about it as that can ruin my impression of someone. I don’t watch Undercover Boss anymore as they aired one single person’s stupid opinion about it. Of course, different people have different types of autism (if they have it). We then get to the reward challenge. Scot, Nick, Julia, Debbie, and Tai are the yellow team while Aubry, Joe, Michele, Cydney, and Jason are the blue team. The blue team struggles a lot on the challenge. This leads to the yellow team winning reward. Aubry is upset over the team that she picked as it didn’t work out. But we don’t even know how the team picking went down. Guess I’ll have to watch it online and hope that it is there.

In the third segment of the show, the reward is at camp for some odd reason. Debbie refers to it as fantastic. That’s interesting considering how Dairy Queen’s nonsensical motto is fan food, not fast food. (Serious, what does that mean?) Scot opens up about his family and Mormon faith. Was that an SIU hat that I noticed? Which SIU might it be, I wonder? Anyways, it’s interesting that after all this negativity with Scot’s and Jason’s edits that they are suddenly being changed to be more endearing to the audience. Why the sudden change? Anyways, before I lose focus, it appears that people suspect that an all girls alliance might be happening because of a random trip that people took. Could this actually happen because the guys are paranoid? That would be ironic to see an alliance be formed simply because someone thought it had already happened, but it didn’t. I’m starting to see what might actually be brought up at tribal council.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge. (I’m going to do a quick segue here and point out to all of you bloggers and potential bloggers that sometimes it is better not to eat when watching Survivor although it does typically air around suppertime.) They lose a lot of people to the only food temptation in the game. Maybe this is to avoid what Natalie Anderson did by intentionally bringing food out to drop out of the challenge. Anyways, it’s interesting how many brawns dropped out of an endurance challenge. But they figure that they are probably safe. Are they, though? The challenge comes between Cydney and Tai. Tai seems to be the one struggling the most. But can he win? Apparently he is a Buddhist. I do wonder what those people believe. Tai ends up winning the immunity challenge when Cydney’s body gives out. Has Jeff really never seen something like that before? This seems like the type of thing that would have happened in the past.

In the fifth segment of the show, the plan is to split the vote between Debbie and Aubry. Nick reveals part of this to Aubry. Whatever happened to the phrase loose lips sink ships? Survivor contestants should know by now that they shouldn’t talk as much and be as open as you would in real life (if you are at all). Cydney talks about getting rid of Nick. I’m also wondering if a floater will win the game again. I don’t hate floaters the way some people do. Sometimes they just slip in there and win. I think this in the first time that there is a first jury member at the first merge tribal council. I don’t know if that could have possibly happened with Joe in Tocantins or not. Stick to the plan is brought up again at tribal council. People are convinced that the seven are staying together. Tai brings up the super idol for some odd reason. That wasn’t that smart a thing to do. Tai tries to play it off as something that someone could be misleading him about. Nick gets voted out of the game. I wonder how the votes went down.

On the next Survivor, the men seek vengeance after Nick’s blindside and the women’s alliance (if there even was one in the first place) seemingly crumbles just as soon as it started. What will happen next? Well, next time we’ll see.

Total confessional count: Scot- 19, Julia- 6, Tai- 20, Debbie- 21, Aubry- 16, Joe- 9, Michele- 13, Cydney- 14, Jason- 18, Nick- 11. New confessionals this episode: Debbie- 2, Aubry- 2, Joe- 1, Michele- 2, Cydney- 5, Jason- 3, Nick- 2, Scot- 1, Julia- 1, Tai- 1.

Nick had two confessionals this episode, the same number as Debbie, Aubry, and Michele. Joe, Julia, Tai, and Scot only have one confessional this episode. Cydney has the highest with five and Jason has three. In terms of total confessionals, Nick had eleven (probably more), which is higher than what Julia and Joe have. Everyone else has higher confessional counts. Julia still has the lowest, now with only six. Debbie has the highest with twenty-one. Tai is second highest with twenty. Scot is third highest with nineteen. It is still anyone’s game since we don’t know who could win and what will happen. Will someone come out of the shadows with the win? Or is someone clearly getting a better edit than others? Will it be a man as usual or will a woman pull off an upset? I’m eager to find out. I still don’t know where to rank this season yet, but I don’t have to decide until the finale. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.