Episode 36.9

Last post, I cut short a look back at the merge tribal councils to see if the theory that they are always crazy holds up. Well, I’m going to continue that look back from previous seasons. Now like Tocantins, the merge tribal council in San Juan del Sur was delayed an episode due to a contestant departing for reasons other than a vote. The vote might not have been crazy if it weren’t delayed. Well, it wasn’t that crazy a vote, but it was different than it would have been had there not been a quit.

Next is Worlds Apart. That season’s merge had a first tribal council bring us an idol play and a blindside. So things would have been crazy at that point at least, if not sooner. As for Cambodia, I don’t think that the first merge tribal council was crazy in any way.

With Kaoh Rong, there was a medical evacuation that delayed what would have been the first tribal council of the merge. When we did get to the vote in the next episode, it could have caused some more interesting things going into the next vote and set up the whole season’s next moves, but I don’t know for sure as I don’t have time to read all of what happened. I still feel bad for the person who got voted out, even if I never liked him. I think my archive will explain why. With Millennials versus Gen X, I’m not sure that I understood the tribal council enough to think that it was crazy enough. I need to get caught up on the notes that I do on Survivor seasons.

Next was Game Changers. The vote was confusing, but I think that I’ve done an overall bad job doing recaps of tribal councils in the past. I wrote then that I thought it was crazy, so I guess that it was. In the latest season before this, Heroes versus Healers versus Hustlers, there was an idol play, but I think that it was a wasted idol. I don’t think that the tribal council was too crazy. And this season’s merge has a bit of a crazy tribal council, although it wasn’t as much as one could be.

Some of you might already know this, but this show has been renewed. We will be seeing it again next season. You wouldn’t expect this show to end in the future. Maybe it will end someday. But it is not going to end next season. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Domenick had a weird breakfast dream. Desiree used to be homeless. It seems that people are ready to take out Navatii. It seems to be coming from those inside. We then get to the reward challenge. One person will sit out and while they can’t win reward, they also can’t be sent to Ghost Island. I honestly would have been okay with a random draw for sides where the odd person out gets sent to Ghost Island right away. Donathan is the poor sit out. The orange team wins the reward. The purple team draws rocks and Angela gets sent to Ghost Island. Michael wants to do better in the game and hopes that winning the reward will help him do that.

In the second segment of the show, we get to the winners of the reward challenge. Michael wants to work with people. Kellyn thinks that she is in control of the game. She seems possibly full of herself with the alliance she has. Angela gets to Ghost Island next. She gets to play a game. Two of them have power. She doesn’t think that risking her vote is a big deal. She doesn’t get to vote now. She seems to have only thought things through after making her decision. But she’d feel good if she got an advantage.

Laurel thinks that she wants to change her place in the game. She tells Domenick that the other women were wanting to turn on people. He then goes to confront people about it. What good does confronting people with secrets do? I would never do that. Well, I don’t think that I would. But it seems to be a bad idea under most circumstances.

In the third segment of the show, Michael looks for another immunity idol and Donathan does as well. It is Donathan that finds one. He has Scot’s old idol from Kaoh Rong. He needs the other part of it as well that is at the shelter. He tells Laurel about an idol being there. Other people learn about it as well. He does find the other part. We then get to the immunity challenge. People have to know how to handle their balls and if they hit puberty, they are out of the challenge. Chelsea wins the challenge. Domenick wonders about this potential woman’s alliance.

In the fourth segment of the show, Desiree wants Kellyn to be voted out. That could happen, but I’m just not sure that it will. But word gets out about this and turmoil ensues. What is even going on? We then see Domenick and Michael talking with each other. Was that a spy bat from Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue? I remember it from Trakeena’s Revenge. Domenick doesn’t seem to know what to do going into the vote. And I need to work on my recaps of tribal councils so hopefully better ones can start now with this blog post.

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to tribal council. Donathan talks about the fireworks that had happened at camp between the secrets coming out in front of each other. This leads to more of Desiree and Laurel talking about each other for some back and forth. The jury members, who never seem to obey the whole no talking rule anymore (but never interact with the people still in the game), think that this tribal council is crazy.

People are trying to get to the bottom of the whole situation at hand. Desiree thinks that she is not on the bottom of the alliance. Jeff thinks that someone who was loyal could be voted out of the game by those who aren’t loyal. We get to the vote next. No idols are played. Desiree is voted out with the only known other person getting votes being Michael.

On the next Survivor, two people will be voted out of the game in the future. In just one night, it will happen. I don’t know what else will or could happen as the promo seemed to be too confusing. Will there be more confusion with the vote other than two people being voted out?

Total confessional count: Donathan- 13, Laurel- 11, Sebastian- 6, Angela- 7, Chelsea- 3, Michael- 22, Domenick- 22, Desiree- 11, Kellyn- 16, Jenna- 6, Wendell- 11.

New confessionals this episode: Jenna- 0, Wendell- 0, Donathan- 1, Laurel- 4, Sebastian- 1, Angela- 1, Chelsea- 0, Michael- 4, Domenick- 3, Desiree- 2, Kellyn- 4.

Desiree had two new confessionals this episode. The people higher than her are Domenick with three and Michael, Kellyn, and Laurel are the highest with four. The lowest, who all had none, are Chelsea, Jenna, and Wendell. As for total confessionals, Desiree had eleven, the same number as Laurel and Wendell. The people who are higher are Domenick, Kellyn, Donathan, and Michael, with Domenick and Michael tying for the highest with twenty-two. Everyone else is lower than them with Chelsea as the lowest with three. There’s not much else to say so I’m going to wrap up this post. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 36.8

Last episode, the idea that the merge tribal council was always crazy was brought up. I thought that I would go into the past seasons and decide for myself which of them were crazy. Starting with Borneo, it was a crazy tribal council in terms of the strange vote happening. Then in Australia, there was another one with the two tribes conflicting against each other into a deadlocked vote. Africa didn’t have that much of a bad one, but it wasn’t that crazy as all it lead to was the Lex is crazy at the extra vote thing. What happened in Marquesas? That was an easy and straightforward vote.

In keeping up with the overall boringness of Thailand, its merge vote was as simple as the one tribe voting one way and the minority tribe powerless to stop it. The Amazon vote wasn’t crazy at all. It is possible that the Pearl Islands one was crazy due to the Outcasts. While the All-Stars merge was more or less a straightforward vote, it was crazy enough in Rob blatantly reneging on his promise, a move that ultimately cost him the game.

In Vanuatu, the merge vote wasn’t that crazy, although it clearly kept the whole war between men versus women that season in progress. Palau didn’t have a merge and the first real individual vote was not a crazy vote in any way. The Guatemala vote didn’t seem crazy to me. The Panama vote was just another one where there was a six to four vote.

The next season was Cook Islands which had a flipper at the merge, so it must have been a crazy tribal to some people. Fiji’s is too hard to classify due to the first merge vote only having half of the tribe at it. I’d have to watch it again to see for sure if that or the next one was crazy or not. It might have been. China was sort of crazy when it revealed that the hidden immunity idol was in play. The Micronesia merge started one of the greatest postmerge games we’ve ever seen with a mostly crazy tribal council.

The Gabon merge didn’t have a crazy tribal council at the merge. The Tocantins merge had a blindside at it. That seems crazy enough. Samoa’s merge also had a blindside as well. And we all know that what had happened at the Heroes versus Villains merge tribal council was a game changer. That was one of the best ones that they had.

In Nicaragua, there was a straightforward vote at the merge. The Redemption Island merge was sort of crazy for just the person voted out and perhaps the other premerge tribe, but not the audience. The South Pacific merge was crazy and infamous for John flipping. Let’s face it, he wasn’t winning either way he sided with and no one gives his tribe the rightful grief it deserves for treating him like crap. As for One World, it had the men instantly turning on each other, setting the pace for the rest of the game, but I just don’t think that it was that crazy.

Let’s get to Philippines next. It had someone getting blindsided due to an idol play while all the various alliances in the game worked together to do it. The Caramoan merge only brought us one of the most obvious vote outs in the game and wasn’t as crazy as other ones. The Blood versus Water one was kind of boring as well. Cagayan’s had a flipper so that was crazy enough. I’m going to have to stop here and look up information about the other seasons later.

One of the things that I thought about last week was that I was feeling sick and might have wanted to have someone else ghostwrite the blog post for me. I don’t know if I’ll ever want someone to do a thing like that long term. The only person I might trust to write this blog in place of me temporarily would be my sister. The main reason is that she’d have to have my password to access this blog. But I don’t know if I’ll ever need one for sure or not. And it might need to be someone else entirely if it is.

The last episode actually did an interesting math problem. What is the likelihood of a 50/50 chance being used right 5 times if a good result happens have the time and a bad result that ends the game happens the other half? Well, taking the chance once is 50% chance that something good happens. Taken the chance twice means there is a 25% chance that things will continue to be good. The third time, it would be 12.5%. The fourth time, it would be 6.25%. The fifth time, it would be 3.125%. That is one of many reasons why Chris was an idiot last episode.

What I’m beginning to wonder is if curses will always be happening this season since there seems to be a running theme of curses continuing. This could mean that Michael doesn’t win and gets eliminated at the final four or somewhere else in the game. I still don’t know if it is either him or Domenick that wins. The winner could be lurking in the shadows a la Michele in Kaoh Rong. If there’s one thing that this season is good at thus far, it is good at being a mystery. I don’t know why two people voted for Libby last episode. Why would an all girl alliance form just to vote for a woman? I don’t know and I’ll have to see more of what happens to know for sure. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Libby is confused with why people voted for her. Me and her both. Domenick thinks that he might be too cocky. Wow. He finally gained self realization about himself. That is a good trait to know what negative qualities you have so that you can work on fixing them or not doing them. Wendell tries to figure out what to do. You know, I think that one of my animal neighbors is a walrus named Wendell. Although, I’m not sure what all has happened in that game. I’m playing right now even though I haven’t actually played it since maybe 2015. I lost a different game, though.

As for Wendell, he tells Laurel about his and Domenick’s real idols. Is he digging his own grave? We then get to a reward challenge. They are split into two teams for it. The losing team will have someone sent to Ghost Island. I wonder if an odd person out in the future would automatically be sent there. The purple team wins. Jenna draws a rock and then goes to Ghost Island.

In the second segment of the show, Jenna arrives at Ghost Island. How does she know what might happen here? Who all would have said things? She doesn’t get to play a game. The island must have ghosted her. Wendell narrates the reward win that he’s on. I feel that we lose something by not seeing who is picked via the schoolyard pick. They should just do it randomly. Otherwise, it seems that we are losing something in the edit. Apparently, people think that Libby and Michael might be too close. Back at camp, Michael tries to figure out what to do. Angela thinks that Michael isn’t open enough. But it seems to me that she is full of crap. Then again, Michael’s doom might happen in this episode.

In the third segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge of gross food eating. The first food is a fish eye. Is there a lens too? I got a fish eye lens and made a rap video with a couple of friends. I do wonder why they only do six people at a time. Grub is round two. Wendell didn’t even try to eat his. That cockiness got someone voted out in Amazon. Well, that was part of it. The final round comes down to Michael and Angela. I’d lose this with m & ms because I’m that slow an eater. Angela wins immunity. Michael still finishes the challenge. He wants to blindside Wendell.

In the fourth segment of the show, Angela thinks that she is in charge of who is going home and she thinks that after stirring the pot successfully, Michael will be voted out. People want to split the vote between him and Libby. Some people still want Wendell to be voted out. I wouldn’t put something like that on a résumé though. Why would voted out X in Survivor be worthy of that? There seems to be too much confusion with who the targets are. This is like Arrow’s current season. There are ghosts of pasts, lots of sides, people constantly switching sides, true intentions revealed, redemption for some, sorrow for others, and above all else, a continued interest to keep watching.

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to tribal council. Angela talks about how she dominated the immunity challenge. Jeff talks about all the ways that the game has changed. Can someone play a more sly game and tell people how they dominated? This makes me wonder if Rich could have won the first season if it had happened today instead of then. Michael seems to think that he might be a target. But who is, really? Michael plays his hidden immunity idol. I forgot that he had one. Wasn’t the recap going to keep us privy to things like that? Or did they want to keep us in suspense for a change? Libby ends up getting voted out and Michael seems to have saved himself from elimination.

On the next Survivor, there is a lot of paranoia going around for some odd reason. It is hard to tell what is going on, which seems to be the theme of this season. I do wonder what all will happen. But at least I hope there’s not a straightforward vote for a while.

Total confessional count: Michael- 18, Domenick- 19, Desiree- 9, Kellyn- 12, Jenna- 6, Wendell- 11, Donathan- 12, Laurel- 7, Sebastian- 5, Angela- 6, Chelsea- 3, Libby- 11.

New confessionals this episode: Chelsea- 0, Libby- 4, Michael- 3, Domenick- 1, Desiree- 0, Kellyn- 0, Jenna- 1, Wendell- 4, Donathan- 1, Laurel- 2, Sebastian- 0, Angela- 2.

Libby had four new confessionals this episode; tied for the most with Wendell. Michael had the second highest with three. As for the lowest, that would be a tie between Chelsea, Sebastian, Desiree, and Kellyn who all had zero. In terms of the total confessional count, Libby has eleven, the same number as Wendell. The people higher than them are Donathan, Kellyn, Michael, and Domenick, with Domenick being the highest with nineteen. Everyone else is lower with Chelsea as the lowest with three. We’ll see what happens in the future. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 36.7

I really hope that I never miss a planned post of this blog when a current season is airing. I would hope that regardless of what is going on in my life, that I can continue this blog should there be a new season airing. If the show is on hiatus, then it wouldn’t really matter if I missed stuff. There could be tons of different reasons why I’d randomly stop posting or a post would be delayed. I just hope that I would let you know what happened or if I’d be gone for an extended period of time.

With the merge happening in this post, some of the contestants will have more of a set edit take in. I think that Michael is a potential winner of this season. He seems to be getting a good enough edit. Then again, he could fall short of the end and get voted out. Domenick is another person who could have some winner potential in him. But his edit is bad enough that he could fall short of getting the jury votes in the end.

The twist of Ghost Island makes me wonder about what misused advantages we will see in the future. It also makes me wonder more about what the whole twist is. I think that I even had a dream that was just in general summing up what we know about it thus far. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, they remind us that Domenick has the legacy advantage so we know that this has to be important in some way. He also has an idol and fake idol. Kellyn talks about the fact that the merge is happening next. Domenick is glad that Wendell is around. CAN THEY QUIT USING THE BLACK BUFF FOR THE MERGED TRIBES ALL THE TIME? Sorry about yelling there. Did you know that the only season thus far to have more than two tribes at the start and not have a black tribe at the merge was All-Stars? I think that I’m right about that, but I’m not sure.

Chris learns via his buff that there is a clue to an idol that’s at Ghost Island. Can he sneak off into a boat in order to get this idol? This is just very weird indeed. Plus, I’m normally on the side of things not being rigged, but Chris out of all people got this? Wendell wants to make a deal, but this won’t happen. I was kind of confused with who he was talking to.

In the second segment of the show, we go back to camp where Chris sneaks out of camp during the night. Ghost Island is all ominous and stuff when he gets there. He gets JT’s idol from Game Changers. It is only good for the next tribal council. But he could extend the life by one tribal council if he risks his vote. He extends the life by one then risks the vote again. But now he doesn’t get to vote. He was cocky too. I don’t think that I would have taken the chance in his position as I would have just played it no matter what. Of course, if I won the immunity challenge, then it wouldn’t matter.

Chris has to get extra sleep when he is back at camp, but this only serves to irritate Domenick more. What is weird is that they could both be safe in this tribal council. Wendell could be voted out next if I understand the failed conversation from earlier. People seem to be taking sides in the whole war. What some people don’t realize is that if the power players take each other out at this phase, other players could come out on top. This could be Michael’s game to lose.

In the third segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge. I think that they showed a fly or some sort of insect on Domenick, so that could be important. The challenge comes down to women. Well, they are better at balance than men. Kellyn wins the challenge. She gets a confessional about it. But is she on the right side of the vote?

In the fourth segment of the show, Chris takes everyone except Wendell and Domenick to the well with him. And, surprisingly, it seems that everyone goes along with it. But are things what they seem? This season seems a lot like Arrow’s current season where you never know who will go next or who will wind up in control. Does anyone else watch Arrow?

Wendell wants to get rid of Chris. Are Wendell and Chris going to be buddy buddy? It seems very interesting that everyone mentioned as a target has an idol. Is someone going to mess up and not play one? Or is some random person going to be voted out after a null vote? It seems that the women are trying to band together next. Only they want to vote out Libby. I think that Domenick should play his legacy advantage. His idol is good at other parts in the game.

Before I continue further, I’m going to do some math as I wonder about the Ghost Island advantage. It would seem that if all of the chances worked out, it would last until there are seven people in the game. At the final seven, it wouldn’t last any longer. It seems like an odd thing to do. Surely, there wouldn’t be a twist in which multiple people are out at the same tribal, right? Well, it could happen and has in the past. And they did say tribals and not vote outs.

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to tribal council. I didn’t realize that Chris hadn’t been to tribal council before. Is he the first person to avoid it until the merge by himself? I know that others have done it with other people. Sebastian has a good point about how people aren’t who they seem to be. We learn more about the friction between the two of these people. I do think that Domenick has played some bad moves thus far. But I wouldn’t care if either are voted out, even though it seems more likely that they both last longer. Chris might be the leader, but it is hard to tell for sure.

I don’t think that the first merge vote is always crazy. It wasn’t in Nicaragua. It wasn’t in Africa. It wasn’t in Marquesas. It was not in Thailand. I’m sure there are other seasons. Domenick makes it clear who he is voting for at tribal council. Wendell can’t even talk right in his tribal council. Since when does Chris rap? They can’t do things like that and hope that we understand. When asked about an idol play, the legacy advantage is played. Chris doesn’t play his idol. Seriously? He is voted out and JT’s idol is not played again. How did he not know that he was the target? Why didn’t he take the risk when he knew that the idol would only last one more round anyways? Maybe he didn’t know he could still play it.

On the next Survivor, there are problems with the power players and people don’t know who to trust. Also, am I the only one who gets annoyed by how quickly things start right after the show is over? There used to be a good long break when Criminal Minds aired after this show and now that something good is on, they go straight into it without giving me a chance to set up recordings if you are like me and watch more than one show at once.

Total confessional count: Donathan- 11, Laurel- 5, Chris- 14, Sebastian- 5, Angela- 4, Chelsea- 3, Libby- 7, Michael- 15, Domenick- 18, Desiree- 9, Kellyn- 12, Jenna- 5, Wendell- 7.

New confessionals this episode: Wendell- 2, Donathan- 0, Laurel- 1, Chris- 5, Sebastian- 0, Angela- 0, Chelsea- 0, Libby- 2, Michael- 2, Domenick- 4, Desiree- 1, Kellyn- 2, Jenna- 0.

Chris had five new confessionals this episode, the highest out of everyone. Domenick had the second highest with four. The lowest were Chelsea, Donathan, Jenna, Sebastian, and Angela. As for the total confessional count, Chris had fourteen. The only people higher are Michael with fifteen and Domenick with eighteen. Everyone else is lower with Chelsea as the lowest with three. I should see you next week as normally. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 36.6

There’s not much to add to this introduction of mine here. I might have family visiting later this month. I know that there have been a few times where I haven’t been able to post this blog on time. I have been worse at posting various other blogs of mine (most notably, Madam Secretary). Hopefully things will wind up better in the future and I can keep up what I want to. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we get back to the orange tribe the day after tribal council. Michael is upset that he had to turn on his ally, James. But he didn’t really have to, right? I mean, the numbers were against James anyways. Michael looks for an idol and people think that he’s easy pickings. He got the fake idol from Micronesia. Only it is now a real idol. We get to the reward challenge next. The tribe that comes in second will get a reward, but could have a member sent to Ghost Island. There was a bit of a humorous moment where Michael is called James. The purple tribe comes in first. The green tribe comes in second. Kellyn gets sent to Ghost Island again. Donathan is a bit upset over the challenge.

In the second segment of the show, we see Kellyn get sent to Ghost Island. She gets to play the game. Only this time, there are two good ones and one bad one. She gets a steal a vote advantage. This was from the Game Changers season. She gets an extra vote in the future because of it. Now what was the advantage in the other good choice? Maybe we’ll see later or maybe we won’t.

Donathan seems to be doing well on his tribe. But maybe he isn’t. Bradley seems to be rude still at times. It could become a Bradley versus Donathan situation. Domenick wants to stick with his tribe. We see some of Wendell and him thinking about his girlfriend. I guess that they are spoiling that he makes the family visit. He then goes out and looks for an idol. He finds a clue to the idol and then finds the idol itself. This is the old necklace from Micronesia that became an idol.

In the third segment of the show, Malolo is shown again. This is the orange tribe that keeps losing. Desiree decides to burn the flag and her tribe agrees with it and does it too. At the immunity challenge, they tell them about the burnt flag. This is the first time this has happened that wasn’t the last day of the game with a merge tribe. It doesn’t seem to be that big a deal. Or is it? The green tribe wins the challenge. The orange tribe comes in second. This means that the purple tribe will go to tribal council. Maybe this will be more interesting than we’ve seen in the past. Libby wants Bradley to be voted out next. We’ll see if this happens or not.

In the fourth segment of the show, we see the purple tribe return to camp after their loss. Domenick thinks that he might be partly to blame for the loss. But he still wants to get rid of Bradley. Bradley wants to get rid of Libby. Donathan could still be a target. Libby thinks that she could be in danger. It seems that Chelsea is considering the perils of voting out Bradley. I can’t even remember what Libby did wrong to the other members of the game. This season has just not been as memorable as others have been just yet.

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to tribal council. Jeff talks about whether or not they are still voting along original tribe lines or not. The Morgan vote is brought up again. Maybe I’ll have to read the old posts that I wrote. Hopefully, I’ll understand what happened then and wrote about it well. Bradley talks about how he likes to argue. I don’t and will tell anyone who thinks that I do why exactly they are wrong about that. Is Bradley burying his own grave? I can’t tell what will happen. No idols are played as I don’t think that anyone on this tribe has one. Bradley is voted out. He seems to take it pretty well in a way. Then again, maybe this is him taking it badly.

On the next Survivor, the merge ends up happening. But there are butting heads when it happens. Will two of the conflicting personalities cause problems? I forget who Domenick has butted heads with in the past. Was it Chris? I guess that we’ll see what ends up happening.

Total confessional count: Libby- 5, Michael- 13, Domenick- 14, Desiree- 8, Kellyn- 10, Jenna- 5, Wendell- 5, Donathan- 11, Laurel- 4, Bradley- 6, Chris- 9, Sebastian- 5, Angela- 4, Chelsea- 3.

New confessionals this episode: Laurel- 0, Bradley- 2, Chris- 1, Sebastian- 0, Angela- 0, Chelsea- 1, Libby- 2, Michael- 2, Domenick- 3, Desiree- 1, Kellyn- 1, Jenna- 0, Wendell- 1, Donathan- 3.

Bradley had two new confessionals this episode, the same number as Libby and Michael. The only people higher are Domenick and Donathan with three a piece. Everyone else is lower with Laurel, Jenna, Sebastian, and Angela tying for the lowest with zero. As for total confessionals, Bradley had six. The people who are lower are Wendell, Laurel, Libby, Sebastian, Angela, Jenna, and Chelsea with Chelsea being the lowest with just three. Everyone else is higher. Kellyn is at ten confessionals now. The people who are higher are Donathan, Michael, and Domenick with Domenick as the highest with fourteen. There’s not much else to say. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.