Episode 35.9

Survivor can be a lot about the little moments. There are some people that are clearly going deep in the game, some people that could be doing something good or in for a major blindside, and those that are just there are extra players until they get eliminated. Now since last episode’s vote didn’t make much sense, you do have to remember where it said that Ben is a threat but that he wasn’t taken out. Does this mean that Ryan, who made the comment, will lose to him? Ryan has had more of an influence on the game as a whole thus far. At least, that’s what the edit wants us to think in some way. But Ben has a good edit too so it could be either one of them winning. Or it could be someone else entirely.

My only two jobs thus far have been ones where I can work whenever I want to provided that I get things done at a certain time. This is why I want to be working as soon as possible on Wednesday. I don’t normally work Wednesdays, but they want me to work then instead of on Thanksgiving (which I would have tried to get off if I could). Of course, the Wednesday night shows that I like and watch are different than before.

I would care about Law and Order: SVU, but NBC isn’t coming in where I live and its website sucks ass. As for the CW, I would care about Dynasty, but am not that interested to stay into it. I might try to watch more of Riverdale online if I can. I don’t care about any FOX shows that are on Wednesdays right now. The ABC shows that I watch are Modern Family, American Housewife, and Designated Survivor. The other Wednesday show that I watch on CBS is SEAL Team. Since that airs back to back with Survivor, I might as well record them together.

I don’t know exactly what will happen with work and it is possible that I could go in really early and be done before Survivor starts as I was confused as to the hours when I could do the work. I just know that the VCR that I would use to record in hooked up to a TV on a converter box that turns off in four hours if left on without the channel being changed. So I might not want to worry about adding SEAL Team this time around and I think that I could watch this show later with supper.

Mike has an idol and that may be easy to forget. It probably won’t be mentioned again until a previously on Survivor segment. When it is, it will probably be played then or it will have some other importance to the episode. I thought that I would point that out, even if it is a bit of a spoiler. Well, not him having the idol, but the edit thing they do. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Mike was confused over the vote. He did was he was told and didn’t vote the right way. Don’t worry, Mike. I have no idea what happened either. Lauren talks about her secret advantage. Ben knows about this advantage since she told him. Ryan tells Devon for some reason that I don’t understand. Do you understand?

In the second segment of the show, the reward challenge happens. The red team wins. I can never keep track of who is on what team a lot of the time. I could have written it down if I wanted to, but I feel that I missed that chance.

In the third segment of the show, the reward winners don’t talk much to each other, but they reveal a lot in confessionals about what happened. They like the fact that they are getting food. The winners pass by the camp the losers are at where the losers promptly moon them. Ryan continues questionable game play by telling Ben about his idol.

The animal imagery of an octopus and a snake in the water above it (as they want it to seem) making me wonder what it is. Sometimes it is clearly than other. I’ll never forget the snake slowly eating an animal in Pearl Islands that made me know Rupert was getting voted out that night. Joe wants people to be annoyed at him so they’ll take him to the end. That’s not a winning strategy. He openly calls the person he is talking to a goat. His “great idea” may backfire.

In the fourth segment of the show, Ben thinks that Ryan’s idol is dangerous. Every idol is potentially dangerous if the wielder knows how and when to properly use it. Ben tells Devon about Ryan’s idol which Devon views as a betrayal of sorts even though what Ryan said was true at the time. Of course, Devon has no way of knowing this. We then get to the immunity challenge. Ashley makes a comment that distracts people into dropping out. Well played. She doesn’t end up winning, though. Lauren ends up winning the challenge. But who is the target? Cole hopes that Joe is the target.

In the fifth segment of the show, Ben thinks that they should get rid of Cole. Ben wants to split the votes between Cole and Mike. Ashley wants to get rid of Joe. Might there be a failed split vote on the horizon? What will you see, on the horizon? Why do the white gulls call? Across the sea, come hail the horizon. The ships have come to carry us home. Back to the episode, Mike wants to make a move so that he is finally the ones calling the shots. Mike wants to play his idol on someone, but that could result in his own elimination. Ben could be playing too hard. But many still want Joe to be the target. Heck, it could be someone else entirely. We get to tribal council and people are talking as the jury member enters into the area. Has such a thing ever happened before? Maybe they want to recapture the spirit of the 33^rd season.

People think that the healers are in trouble. Mike makes the case as for why Joe should be voted out that night. Lauren thinks that Mike is putting himself in danger. More happens that I can’t really summarize easily. What will happen next? I don’t know. That’s a problem in Survivor nowadays. They don’t show us why some people get voted out over others.

The votes are cast. Lauren doesn’t use her advantage yet. Does she need to? Mike plays his idol on himself. Some people did vote for him. Cole is voted out. I guess Phoebe was brave enough to throw the potion at him. Did Mike waste his idol? That’s how it looks.

On the next Survivor, it seems that the alliance of seven starts to crumble. It’s about time. Maybe there will be more interesting things happening then as a result. This season has been good, but only by not being bad. It hasn’t been outstanding or better than average.

Total confessional count: Lauren- 16, Ryan- 26, Mike- 11, Ben- 25, JP- 5, Chrissy- 17, Cole- 17, Joe- 20, Ashley- 13, Devon- 12. New confessionals this episode: Devon- 1, Lauren- 1, Ryan- 2, Mike- 2, Ben- 4, JP- 0, Chrissy- 3, Cole- 2, Joe- 3, Ashley- 2.

I just spent a bit trying to sort out the names to fit me best for the next post. I still don’t know how much using a different computer earlier this season affected the name order. Anyways, Cole had seventeen total confessionals, the same number as Chrissy. The people higher are Ryan, Ben, and Joe, who are all in the twenties. Ryan is still the highest, now with twenty-six. Everyone else is lower with JP as the lowest with five. He’s the only person still in the single digits now.

In terms of confessionals this episode, Cole has two, the same number as Ashley, Mike, and Ryan. Only Joe and Ben were higher with Ben having four new ones, the most this episode. Everyone else is lower with JP as the lowest with no new confessionals. He has a slightly better edit now than Kelly Wiglesworth did back in Cambodia. It could still go up a bit.

Since Advent won’t be starting next week, you can expect my blog to remain unaffected for now. My post will happen at the regularly scheduled Wednesday where it normally belongs. It won’t be until the post after this one that I’ll be moving to Thursdays with these posts for the rest of the season. I’ll post a reminder about it then. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.