Survivor: Game Changers Premiere

Originally, I heard that this season was actually going to be something along the lines of premerge versus merge or something like that. If the cast I have is correct, this is not what they decided to go with. But, this still might be an interesting season idea to do sometime. Of course, I should have already posted my version of a season like that. If not, you should see it some other time.

Now that Caleb, who was medically evacuated in his most recent season, has returned to play the game again this season, I might as well get to new grouping of medically evacuated players that I like to do. This will be similar to how they brought back the three players for Philippines. I will mention groups of three (or just two, if there’s not enough) for how I feel the groups should return in the future. Here are my new groupings: group 1- Joe del Campo (Kaoh Rong), Erik (Caramoan), & Bruce (Panama); group 2- Neal (Kaoh Rong), Joe Dowdle (Tocantins), & Terry (Cambodia); group 3- Shamar (Caramoan), Mike Borassi (Samoa), & Gary (Fiji); and group 4- Kourtney (One World) & Dana (Philippines).

I have another Survivor dream to tell you about. It regarded the Kaoh Rong season of Survivor. In it, it appears Neal was able to make a case to the jury as he rightfully should have. Only I was there to make a case for the winner of the season, Michele. I still don’t know why people hate Michele as a winner as I didn’t like Aubry at all. I guess that we will see this season if Aubry makes a better impression on me. Why did people think that she would win if the edit kept saying things weren’t going her way?

I also had a dream regarding some random Survivor contestant dying, but the dream didn’t say who died or why. It was around the start of the new year when I dreamt it. It must have been prophetic as on the last day of 2016, Dan Kay from Gabon died. I’m not sure that we know what killed him yet, although we hopefully will at some point. Sadly, I don’t remember who he was, but I should get the season again to watch it. Currently, I have Gabon ranked 31^st out of the 33 previous seasons. Maybe a rewatch could improve my thoughts on it. I doubt that I would have Palau ranked as high as it is without a rewatch and Borneo would still be low if I still hadn’t seen it. Meanwhile, I’m wondering if we’ll find out what killed him and why. Maybe we’ll never know. But it seems weird that it appears that the family knows what the cause is but won’t share it with anyone else.

Link with more info: http://www.tv.com/news/survivor-gabons-dan-kay-dead-at-40-14835453870075296/

Survivor Oz never interviewed Dan Kay. I wondered if he appeared in any Survivor podcasts before he died. If he did, I don’t know about it. But, in memory of him, Randy and Ken from Gabon did a special podcast with Rob Cesterino where they talked about him. Here’s a link to the podcast, which was a pretty nice one.

Link to Podcast: http://robhasawebsite.com/dan-kay-survivor-tribute-randy-bailey-ken-hoang-podcast/

I have so many posts that I started working on all at once that it’s not even funny. I have seven blogs to work on constantly and various posts all within a particular blog. It is hard to do and keep track of. I’m just wondering when the official cast of this season will be released so I can do some of my thoughts on it before the season starts. We’ll see what ends up happening. At least I could have lots of the random posts written for whatever hiatus of Survivor we are on.

Different family events run the risk of affecting this blog from time to time. My sister is going to be having a baby really soon. I thought that I would tell you about this, in the event that it affects this blog in any way. If I ever miss a planned episode, you’ll know why. Posts will be on Thursdays until Holy Week happens, in case you wondered why this was a day late.

In case you heard about the death of Richard Hatch, it was an actor who had no association with the Survivor contestant. I’m not sure how I’d deal with a death of a contestant who played multiple seasons just yet on this blog. I guess we’ll see what happens as it happens. I would probably not do a season again right away in the event that I already have it on DVD. I would do it eventually. I know that if it was the Survivor contestant, Richard Hatch, who had died, I would probably only get his second season and after blogging about that would I do his first season again since I already have it. We’ll see what happens in the future. I have two potential past seasons to blog about, but I’d need them on DVD first. Just keep out for potential posts on Sundays or Fridays.

Something that I realize about the contestants from this season is that one is named Ciera and another in named Sierra, that could cause confusion if they weren’t written differently. I won’t tell you their last names, but I will wonder how the show would keep them separate since you’d be hearing their names instead of seeing them.

I seem to have been having some computer issues lately. Hopefully these will be resolved at some point or I can find a new laptop. I still have my first laptop that I believe that I’ve had since around 2009. This probably means that it will need replaced sooner rather than later. I might just have to borrow my mother’s in the meantime, although I would want to get a new one of my own if there are problems. I have no idea how computer issues would affect my many blogs. Meanwhile, I still have my first digital camera (do cameras need replaced after a while?) and I still have my first cell phone. I love my flip phone that was free with rebate. I’ve had it since 2010.

There was a dream that I had that related to Survivor: Caramoan. It somehow he me as the host and I was reading the votes. In this version, Eddie was a finalist and he got four votes, tying for first with some other contestant implied to be maybe Dawn but probably John. The dream might have just made up a person. Also, if you believe that Eddie could have won Caramoan, let me know what potential evidence you have to back this up since I could potentially use this sometime. I tried to resolve the tie that was revealed then and there instead of at the reunion show like it is supposed to be. I started with a riddle that became a murder mystery and warped into a messed up version of Godsford Park. Also, don’t watch that movie. If you make a murder mystery film, then don’t wait until the second half of the film to get to the murder.

Apparently, the idea for this season involves a whole lot of idols being planted and used. I don’t know if I like the idea of things being crazy. I don’t really like idols as they are right now, even though they do lead to a bunch of craziness. But we don’t need too much craziness. We need just the right amount of use. If there are idols that aren’t used, that’s perfectly okay. Sorry if you consider this a spoiler. They’ve also changed how the tie-breakers work now so that’s pretty strange as well. I wonder if the contestants will know this ahead of time. I doubt it. In case you didn’t know that change, they have gotten rid of the revote part of tie-breakers now. They must really want more crazy rock drawings.

Since Lent is going on right now, this means that I will be missing most of the shows that I normally watch on Wednesday. Typically, the only certain thing I can watch on most Wednesdays during Lent would be whatever airs at 9. I was likely Doubt, but they pulled it from the schedule. Hopefully they will burn off the unaired episodes on Saturdays in the summer. Thankfully, I do watch another show at that time: Designated Survivor. I can watch some of the shows at 8 if church gets out at a good time and I leave it immediately. I typically watch SVU at this time. I also watch Modern Family by recording it for later. I do not yet know if I will watch any of The 100 this time around. I haven’t yet and don’t know yet if I will. Also, there are shows that air against Survivor that I’m planning on watching online. I watch Arrow and Blindspot, although I may not continue watching Blindspot as it might be easier for me to not tune into it (not because I don’t like the show anymore).

At this point in time, I have family visiting and will not be able to record the episode as I normally would. I will watch this later online, hopefully on Thursday. If it is later, I apologize to you about it. Hopefully there aren’t any major delays throughout the rest of the season and I can have these blog posts when I intend to have them. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we get to the introduction. Let’s see who’s covered: Tony is, Malcolm is, Sandra is, Cirie is, Debbie is, Brad, sort of is, and that’s it. Hmm. Jeff talks to the contestants on the boat in a homage to Borneo’s introduction. There is a twist as people try to get a tool kit. Ozzy gets it and no one even tries to go after him to get it as they figure that they would be dead in the water so to speak. It turns out that Caleb is going to compete with him after a while. It appears that a secret advantage was available and I think that Debbie got it, but I couldn’t tell for sure.

In the second segment of the show, has the Mana tribe going down a staircase to their tribe. Tony runs away from his tribe not even hiding the fact that he’s looking for an idol. That wasn’t even what he was going to do at first, but then he did. The Nuku tribe gets to their camp and find goats nearby. I wonder if this could be future symbolism. It turns out that Sierra has gotten a slightly different legacy advantage then the last time around. It was not Debbie as I previously thought. Ozzy wants to get revenge on Cirie. Why are they on the same tribe?

In the third segment of the show, Cirie decides to try to bury the hatchet with Ozzy. I do wonder why he isn’t wearing a shirt. Oh, wait, it’s camouflage. Tai seems to stir up trouble between the two, although I can’t tell if he’s trying to do that or not. Tony wants to build a spy bunker this time around. Troyzan notices this digging and it quickly becomes common knowledge throughout the tribe. Ciera talks about getting rid of Tony or Caleb while Malcolm wants to get rid of her.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the first immunity challenge. The immunity idol looks more like underwater headgear. This is when Jeff makes the announcement about the change in the tie vote. I wonder if this is a permanent change or just for this season. Nuku wins the challenge. Ciera talks about losing the same puzzle again and feeling that she could be voted out because of it.

In the fifth segment of the show, Jeff Varner talks about who he thinks should be voted out. Ciera is the person that people want out apparently. But Ciera wants to use the lack of a revote to her advantage. Michaela learns that Ciera is voting for her. This makes people want to target Michaela instead. I don’t fully understand what is going on here. I like the tribal council set. It is interesting to note that this is Caleb’s first ever tribal council. I lot of random things are discussed at tribal council. Ciera is the first person voted out, going the way Vytas did in Cambodia. I wonder if this makes Blood versus Water the first season to have three different people as the first person voted out at tribal council.

We then get back to camp. Tony feels that the vote was too easy. For realz? Tony and Aubry try to talk about who the biggest threats in the game are. Oddly, he wants to form an alliance with them all. He views them as shields to his own, dangerous game. Tai wants to save the chickens again. I’m not sure that’s a good idea. Others are against him keeping a chicken around. Tony works on his spy bunker and thinks that suspicious things are going on. This creates further rifts with him on the tribe.

In the sixth segment of the show, Cirie is concerned about her potential future in the game. She wonders who to work with. Sarah wants to play like a criminal this time around. It seems like a lot of people have reservations about working with Cirie, even those who say they will work with her. Debbie, like Sarah and Zeke, doesn’t really know if they should work together. Since there are a lot of good and strong players this time around, it can be hard to know who to trust and work with. Sandra works on trying to get people to vote out Tony. Jeff Varner works on trying to pick a side in the fight for control of the tribe.

In the seventh segment of the show, the Tony and Sandra fight continues. I wonder who will come out on top. It seems like a lot of the men are siding with Tony. Man, this season is so crazy already and I love it. I hope that this keeps up. We then get to the next immunity challenge. At first, the challenge seems like a blow out for the blue tribe, but they come close to losing. Regardless, the orange tribe goes back to camp and then their next tribal council.

In the eighth segment of the show, Mana gets back to camp after losing the immunity challenge. Sandra wants to get rid of Tony (of course). Somehow, it seems that Jeff’s poor challenge performance is completely ignored. Tony’s side doesn’t have the numbers to get rid of Sandra, or do they? I wonder who will come out on top of this battle. Also, since when is Tony good at challenges?

In the ninth segment of the show, we get to the tribal council. Normally a whole tribal council doesn’t get its own act. Malcolm thinks that they should get rid of the weaker members and Sandra admits that she could be considered a weaker player. I’m confused by Sandra’s vote against Aubry. How did she become a target? Tony is voted out and I don’t understand how Sandra seemed to scathe by without a vote against her. Where did Tony's allies go? Did they abandon him because they didn't have the numbers and didn't want to be picked off one by one?

On the next Survivor, there is a tribe swap coming up, a bunch of crazy things happening, and an adventure some people are sent on in order for someone else to look for an idol. I have no idea what all will be going on this season and hope that it’s good.

Total confessional count: Andrea- 1, Aubry- 2, Michaela- 4, Brad- 2, Sandra- 8, Ciera- 3, Cirie- 4, Hali- 1, Malcolm- 5, Sarah- 2, Ozzy- 1, Caleb- 3, Troyzan- 1, Zeke- 2, Sierra- 1, JT- 1, Tai- 2, Jeff Varner- 2, Tony- 8, Debbie- 3.

Tony had eight confessionals this episode, tying with Sandra for the highest. The second highest is Malcolm with five. Ciera had three confessionals, tied with Debbie and Caleb. Cirie and Michaela have four confessionals. The lowest count as of now are Ozzy, Andrea, Troyzan, Sierra, JT, and Hali, who all have just one confessional. Anyone not mentioned has just two confessionals. Well, I’m not sure what else there is to say at the moment so we’ll find out what happens next week. Remember that posts will be on Thursdays until holy week. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.