Episode 33.4

There may be comparisons between this season and Nicaragua. If there are any criticisms regarding this season compared to that one, it is that this season doesn’t actually have a legitimate older tribe like Nicaragua did. This season isn’t so much old versus young as it is middle aged versus young or even young versus even younger. You do have to wonder in a way if Survivor is getting tired of casting older players in it. They could do a generation battle with the baby boomers, but they didn’t and I’m not sure if they ever will. I don’t know if this is ageism or them actually caring about older people by not casting them in the dangerous situations that people face on Survivor. It could be different things happening. Plus, the older tribe did suck in Nicaragua, although that might have been due to many reasons and not just because they were old.

You might be wondering how I feel about the fact that there is a person named Adam this season. Well, I’m honestly not sure how I feel about him just yet. I can hope that he is good, but I’m also not sure if he can last. But I do plan on doing something special when his last episode this season airs. I don’t know yet if he will be eliminated or if he will make the end. Ultimately, I will reveal more about it when it happens or around the time of the 39^th potential Survivor season. Why then? You’ll have to see then.

Survivor Shade is suddenly done with updates. It’s actually for a good reason as the man who did it got promoted at work. He is thus too busy with work to do the blog he started. I can only hope that we don’t lose any other great Survivor sites in the near future since it was already bad enough losing Survivor Oz. Maybe I should start a podcast to fill the void. I just don’t know how I’d do that, if I’d have the time and devotion to do it, who I would do it with (although there are probably a lot of potential people that would work), or what the name of the podcast would be. Honestly, I should create a TV podcast and have a Survivor specific part of it.

What was the point of the summit in the last episode? It didn’t seem to have much of a point or purpose to it. I’m kind of bothered by it, actually. While I guess I admire them for doing something new, even if it is kind of similar to what they did with earlier seasons before the merge. (Nowadays with the merge, the tribes are just dumped upon each other, which would be far more interesting if there wasn’t a swap before the merge.) But the whole summit thing didn’t seem to work in terms of advancing the game. Maybe it will prove pivotal to later game play, but I just don’t see what it was there.

Now to the legacy advantage: I know that Jessica has it for now. I’m honestly not sure if she will last in the game or not. I’m also not sure if I want her to. The only reason why I would want to see her voted out before it could be used is to see how exactly it would be willed away to another player. I wish that if one were blindsided with an idol that they could at least turn around and give their idol to some other player. Sadly, that is against the known rules of Survivor. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we get back to the gen x tribe after their tribal council. Chris said he was going to throw a fit, but he thought better of it. Jessica tries to talk them over about it. Sunday wonders whether or not they made a mistake. Lucy finally gets her first confessional aired.  She ends up stirring up trouble on the tribe.

In the second segment of the show, the younger tribe goes hunting. Adam (not me) goes looking for an idol while the rest of the tribe is distracted. Now from another blog I’ve read, he’s been near the idol before but didn’t know it. I actually missed this. Did you know this? We finally get to a reward challenge. The winner gets meat, veggies, and spices. Am I the only one wondering why they ever give spices as a reward on Survivor? What person living in the heat of the jungle wants to have something spicy to eat? The older tribe wins the first round. The younger tribe wins the second round.

I would probably hate competing in this challenge. Of course, there are a lot of them I wouldn’t want to do. That’s why I’m probably best as just watching it. Anyways, the older tribe wins the third round. The younger tribe wins the fourth round. There is a topless moment during this part. This alternating pattern continues and the older tribe wins reward. I also wonder why they didn’t have a man and woman versus man and woman round. Why the all gender battles? Also, what does this have to say about the younger tribe versus the older tribe since the men won all on the older tribe and the woman won all on the younger tribe?

In the third segment of the show, we get to the younger tribe after their loss. (Is it just me or was that a short commercial break?) Adam (still not me) doesn’t consider himself good at being physical. I guess there is stuff that we have in common. I still don’t know whether looking for the idol is good or bad, I just know that it can be good to have it. Apparently Hannah notices him searching for an idol. His mother has cancer. That’s sad. Today is the anniversary of my father’s death and he died of brain cancer. So it is nice to see a humanizing side of the players from time to time. Good for him.

In the fourth segment of the show, we go to the older tribe after they eat some of their reward. David thinks that he and Ken are still on the bottom of their tribes. Lucy wants them to vote off Jessica, but she’s too demanding with her rules about it. I was afraid that her airtime might mean her elimination is going to happen. The challenge seems to be interesting and I always like it when there is a new type of challenge that appears. It seems dumb of the older tribe to put Chris on the chair, but he ends up doing much better than Figgy did. After a long time doing the challenge, the younger tribe wins.

In the fifth segment of the show, Chris is with the plan to vote out Jessica. Lucy makes a statement that reminds me of a controversial book called Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Jessica hears that she was the target, but she then thinks about getting rid of CeCe instead. Jessica told Lucy about what was happening. Why do that? I think that she must be neurotypical as they tend to blatantly ignore clearly given instructions. Of course, it’s likely that every Survivor contestant has been neurotypical.

At tribal council, Lucy talks about being blunt. Honestly, I prefer people being blunt at times. This one teacher I had said that I shouldn’t take physics, but he beat around the bush about it (Me: Should I take physics? Him: Well, it’s a lot of math) and I never got the message. Thus, I suffered through a semester of the class and I don’t understand why he couldn’t have just put it bluntly by telling me not to take it. Anyways, David decides to play his idol on Jessica. His instinct is correct and Lucy gets idoled out.

On the next Survivor, there is an idol search on the gen x tribe and a tribe swap finally happens officially. Let’s face it, we all knew one was coming because it has been far too long without one. Can there be a season without a tribe swap in the future? While I like them, they are becoming too obvious.

Total confessional count: Hannah- 5, Zeke- 8, Jay- 5, Taylor- 6, CeCe- 4, Will- 3, David- 14, Michaela- 9, Sunday- 3, Figgy- 6, Chris- 8, Lucy- 3, Adam- 7, Bret- 3, Jessica- 8, Ken- 7, Michelle- 2.

New confessionals this episode: Michelle- 0, Hannah- 0, Zeke- 1, Jay- 1, Taylor- 0, CeCe- 0, Will- 0, David- 3, Michaela- 1, Sunday- 0, Figgy- 0, Chris- 3, Lucy- 3, Adam- 2, Bret- 1, Jessica- 3, Ken- 2.

Lucy had three confessionals this episode, the highest of anyone, also shared with David, Jessica, and Chris. The people with no new confessionals this episode are Sunday, Figgy, Michelle, Hannah, Taylor, CeCe, and Will. Lucy had three total confessionals in the game, the same number as Sunday, Bret, and Will. Only Michelle was lower with two confessionals; everyone else has higher confessionals. David remains the highest with fourteen total confessionals. No one else is above nine confessionals right now. We’ll see as things go along what numbers stay good and what were misnomers.

Most people would know by now that they are introducing a new tribe, possibly before the merge. I hope that it isn’t bad that I’m mentioning this outside of spoiler tags. But how would they do the swap with sixteen members? Isn’t this just a bit early? If they are going to three tribes, which one would get the extra member? Would someone just be randomly exiled somehow? Maybe it isn’t three tribes. Maybe we somehow know the merge tribe already. We’ll see what happens in the next episode. It could be any number of things. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.