Episode 35.10

I’m glad that I was able to do the last episode’s post on time. I had recorded the episode on tape and was able to watch it with a late supper of leftovers after I was done working that night. If I keep my job, which I wouldn’t want to lose, this could be a potential problem for this job in the future. Keep an eye out in future years for troubles, although I’ll try to post reminders then. This will more than likely be the last post on Wednesday for the rest of this season. I’ll be back on Wednesday before the year is over. I always have to move to Thursdays during Advent.

How come there are always random two hour episodes of Survivor every now and then? Isn’t that kind of annoying? Are they expecting us to all be fans of SEAL Team instead of anything else that airs? Are we just supposed to be okay with having to miss what we normally watch? Plus, it really annoys me that they don’t always promote these as two hour episodes and instead say that there are two tribal councils which we all know can happen in an hour long episode.

It seems dumb that once again, they are doing a two hour episode of Survivor without clearly promoting it as such. Tell us that it is two hours and not that two tribal councils happen. At least they aren’t doing this before Thanksgiving like they did last year. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we get back to the merged tribe after tribal council. Chrissy thinks that Mike wasted his idol, which he basically did. He still thinks that he made a good choice with that move, but getting voted out with an idol is only one of the many dumb things you can do with it. I don’t think that things will stay well for him. We then get to a reward challenge. It’s the footsie challenge that we have seen before. Lauren beats out Mike to win the challenge. She chooses Devon, Ben, and Ashley to join her for the reward and talks about how it is a good choice for her.

In the second segment of the show, we get back to the camp with the people not on the reward and Mike tries to use these people to his advantage. People start strategizing. Why did we get this before we got into reward winners? I guess that they don’t always show things in order (well known fact for those that follow Survivor a lot) so I don’t know why they’d show us the losers first. Lauren wants to make her foursome the core in the group of seven. They find letters to home in the reward food. Jeff then appears in a promo that they are casting for another season. We don’t have a renewal of this show yet, but them looking for future contestants is a good sign for the future of this show.

In the third segment of the show, we get more humanizing emotion from Ben. I still don’t know for sure if he is our winner, but he could be. Or, sadly, he may be voted out for being a threat to win. Ben then finds a clue for an idol. Cue all the accusers that think this show is rigged. He does find the idol. We then get to a classic challenge being brought back again. Well, it is a recent classic. I still don’t know if this is a fair challenge entirely due to how the ocean could be different for different people. Three people sit out of the challenge for chocolate and peanut butter. And they get to keep their clothes on. Ashley wins the challenge, being the second woman this episode to just beat out Mike. Ashley thinks that the vote will be easy since nobody won who wasn’t supposed to.

In the fourth segment of the show, people think that Mike did good in the challenge even though he fell short. Ryan is upset at some of his alliance for sitting out of the challenge. People think that they know who to vote for, but I don’t think that the promos would talk about a blindside without one happening in the end. But it could happen in the next part. Devon thinks that he can work out some sort of plan that could get rid of people. As usual, I can’t tell what’s going on. But there is a plan in the works and I think that Ryan could be voted out, maybe.

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to what will probably be a wild and crazy tribal council. People think that Mike and Joe are a strong duo. People talk about if the alliance of seven is as strong as they think it is. Can one ever stop playing the game? I can gather little to no information about what is going on with the vote and it seems like a lot of them are cast for the duo not in the alliance.

JP is voted out for some odd reason that I didn’t see anywhere in this episode. And the poor guy doesn’t even get an exit confessional, much less a regular confessional this episode. I don’t understand how he was a threat in any way. But why take him out? Chrissy doesn’t like the snark that she gets afterwards, back at camp. Ben wants to play both sides of the game. Trend carefully, man. Ryan wants to know why Devon betrayed him. Devon is still upset over other people knowing of Ryan’s idol.

In the sixth segment of the show, Devon’s dark side is starting to shine forth. Or maybe he is just getting cocky in a way. Cocky or kooky; one of the two. We then get to a reward challenge. Lauren, Ryan, Mike, and Chrissy are team red. Devon, Joe, Ben, and Ashley are team blue. The blue team wins.

In the seventh segment of the show, the reward winners seem to get cocky and Ben wants to mess with Joe as often as possible. But some people like Ashley think that power is going towards his head. Ryan thinks that he can work with Mike. Only Mike wants to stick with the plan that he has now. Will it work? I can’t tell what the best method is, but I know not to trust Ryan based on what his edit is like. Chrissy doesn’t want to be voted off so that might mean something obvious happening soon.

In the eighth segment of the show, Chrissy is uncertain of what is going on for her in the future. She is sad as a result. We then get to the immunity challenge. It looks like a complicated challenge. Am I the only one who wonders how Jeff can do such a detailed play by play with all that goes on in a challenge? I’m guessing that there are people talking to him in an earpiece or something like that. I do think that I like the wheelbarrow like thing that helps complicate the challenge. If you need to make one word, you should switch letters and hope that you are smart enough to notice if words are the same with the letters out of order. Or I should say, hpoe taht you are smrat eungoh to nicote if wdros are the smae wtih the lteerts out of oderr. Chrissy wins the challenge after falling behind for a while.

In the ninth segment of the show, Ben thinks that the vote is still good. They want to finally get rid of Joe. Please? Pretty, pretty please? Devon is the architect of a crazy idea. People want Ben to be voted out of the game. Will he learn about this? Will he need it at all? Will the person who is voted out even be shown as a target? Ashley wants to act like a cheerleader and be aggressive, b e aggressive. It looks like Ben might be the target after all. But is that the right decision?

In the tenth segment of the show, Chrissy admits that she has been trying to play the game since 2001. I’m glad that she finally got it. I just hate to think of all the recruits who never applied that got on before her. To think that someone as great as her was beaten by nearly the whole cast of Fiji is terrible. As to the tribal council at hand, people criticize Joe who is at the bottom. Plans change, dreams take over, the world turns and we turn with it. That’s what I’m getting from this tribal council.

Jeff doesn’t think that there will be penetration. If Jessica were still here, then we’d know that to be true. Joe feels comfortable at this tribal council. Don’t ever feel that way on Survivor. But I still don’t know if it will be Joe, Ben, or someone else entirely. Ryan plays his idol on himself. People voted for him. Joe is voted out. Bye, Felicia!

On the next Survivor, we get to the loved ones challenge, only it is everyone for themselves as a fake idol shows back up in the game. I am glad to see it back because I really like those. I wish that we could see them more often than we do now.

Total confessional count: Chrissy- 22, Joe- 24, Ashley- 17, Devon- 20, Lauren- 24, Ryan- 31, Mike- 17, Ben- 32, JP- 5. New confessionals this episode: JP- 0, Chrissy- 5, Joe- 4, Ashley- 4, Devon- 8, Lauren- 8, Ryan- 5, Mike- 6, Ben- 7.

Poor JP had no new confessionals this episode. He also had only five confessionals this whole time in the game. In this double-lengthed episode, Chrissy had five confessionals as did Ryan. That’s the same number that Ryan had his whole career. Making matters worse for JP, higher this episode than Ryan and Chrissy are Mike, Ben, Devon, and Lauren with the last two tying for the highest with eight a piece. Joe had only four confessionals this episode, the second lowest, tied with Ashley. With total confessionals, Joe had twenty-four, the same number as Lauren. The only people higher are Ryan and Ben with Ben just barely edging out Ryan by one confessional. Ben has thirty-two right now. As for the new lowest now that JP is out of the game, Ashley and Mike tie for that with seventeen a piece.

Well, this is the last Wednesday post of this season. Since Advent starts next week, I’ll be posting on Thursdays until the end of the season. After that, this will move back to Wednesdays until next season starts. I don’t know yet when it will be or if Lent will have started yet. What is interesting is that Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day are the same day next year. I don’t know yet just how soon it will be until this season ends. It could come up fast. I guess I won’t know for sure since I won’t know how many people will be in the final at the beginning. Just know that I’ll be on Thursdays with this blog until this season ends. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.