Episode 38.2

Well, there’s not much to say in this introduction of mine. I just know that I should be given my eyes a bit of a break as I’ve been sick with a whole lot of things, pink eye being one of them. I even took breaks from all the movies that I was watching to limit my screen time. In fact, if I’m ever not here on time or if I’m not posting at all anymore, then go and read this blog instead.

Link: http://truedorktimes.com/s38/kaiser/index.htm

Let’s get to the idols from One World. Due to the twist this season of two tribes living at one camp, they had a layer of this season with the idols in terms of what could and couldn’t be done with it. Basically, each idol had to be found by a member of a tribe it was designated for or given to that member. Sabrina found an idol, but she found the idol for the Manono tribe and she was on Salani. Thus, she had to give her idol away and she gave it to Colton whom she felt could benefit from it more due to not being liked on his tribe. When Colton was evacuated, he had the chance to give his idol away. He wanted to give it Jay who was on the other tribe at this point, but the rules forbade it so he kept it as he was pulled from the game itself.

The Salani idol was found after they got the beach to themselves after the tribe swap. Kim was the one who found it. She was safe without it and never needed it. Troyzan found the rehidden idol that was replaced upon Colton’s exit. He knew he was a target, but wasted it when he only got minority votes. Kim’s idol was given by her to Troyzan after the season was over. He sold the idol on eBay, but the buyer returned the idol to her.

Lent is going to be starting soon and I normally give up all Wikia related sites for it. But I won’t be able to learn information about different hidden immunity idols as well from other sources. While I could take a break from telling you about it until after Lent is over, what makes more sense is for me to not give it up this year. I know that I could also learn all the information and write it down for the gap, but I do not think that I’ll do that. I could give up Wikipedia, but having found a page like this, I don’t know if I could ever give up that site again.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018%E2%80%9319_United_States_network_television_schedule

Now I normally wouldn’t give up stuff for Lent and it was 2011 when I first tried to do something. I did fail at that and thought that in 2012, I would give up three things so I could fail at two of them and still be good on the other one. Well, it turns out that I did get rid of all three successfully. It used to be that I would always give up Wikipedia which I did from 2012-2015, but I haven’t given it up since. Giving up all Wikia sites is what I’ve been doing since 2014-2018 and it was my longest streak. I now give up a grand total of five things instead of just three, trying to double it once, but failing at one of those six things. I’ll get into that more in the next post. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we go to the Edge of Extinction (so this isn’t an island?) where Reem is at by herself for now. She doesn’t know what’s going on right now. She finds information about the place and learns that there is no timeline on this place. She seems like a confused viewer would be when they talk about such a new twist. She’s emotional. I wonder if quitting the Edge of Extinction is the same as an actual quit. I don’t know why that would be.

Wendy talks about the tribal council and other things like it. She blames Kelley over her ally, Reem, as the one who was voted out. I may like Wendy for now simply because she has Tourettes Syndrome. Wendy thinks that David is okay to trust this time around. Kelley wants to get people to find the idol to make sure that Wendy doesn’t get it.

Aurora thinks that her tribe is doing well, despite being strange by singing. Aubry doesn’t like the tribe for being the way they are, although she thinks that it is good that they are together while they last in the meantime. Victoria thinks that Aubry is working with too many people. Isn’t chinchilla the code word to tell the boss about something, maybe related to the talismans or demons of the season? I can’t quite remember for sure, but Jackie Chan might know.

In the second segment of the show, people are looking for an idol. Someone thinks that Kelley already has an idol. David wants to get rid of Kelley since he thinks that she’s gunning for him. David wants to make sure that things are careful going into a blindside. David and Rick seem to be allies, although Rick, possibly joking, but maybe not, says that he’ll cut David’s throat at four.

Gavin and Eric look for idols, but people take notice. Julie and Victoria look for idols of their own. It does not seem like someone on this tribe knew who the hunters and the gatherers were. What happened when she played Ages of Empire? And has she never heard of hunter gatherers? I sadly think that it was just men who did things back then, but not as much women. Lauren finds an idol on her tribe.

In the third segment of the show, we get to what must be the only challenge of the episode. In this challenge, you have to get the cat out of the bag, I mean, the snake out of the cage. There is a reward, but who would want spices in Survivor when you could have fishing gear? This was a challenge that had been done before and Aubry talks about losing it due to a big and heavy snake. Maybe it just sounded like you lost it due to the intense pleasure you were experiencing?

Surely, black people know how to swim, right? Keith struggles and I’m honestly not sure if I can think of a lot of black men on Survivor who couldn’t swim. Gervase comes to mind and that’s it. Comma knows how to handle their snake. But the blue tribe does not know how to get it up. Maybe they need a blue pill in order to get the snake to come up. Man, I sure hope that kids don’t read my blog posts. At least they will just be confused instead of outright traumatized.

The tribe of comma needs letters. The yellow tribe, comma, seems to be doing better. And they win the challenge. They do a weird sort of like chant thing at the end. They got back to back wins. And now we get to take a break from comma. Yes, I know that’s not how you spell the name of that tribe. But I do not exactly care. The blue tribe is heading back to tribal council as they couldn’t make things go up and Wardog talks about things, but I can’t make much sense of what he said.

In the fourth segment of the show, Keith talks about his failures in the challenge. Wardog wants to vote out Keith while Kelley is certain that Wendy should remain the target. David doesn’t know what to do as a result. Chris feels that he can get loyalty from Keith so it seems like Kelley might be the target. A wave is shown in the ocean, but what does it mean? While people don’t trust Kelley, Wardog wants to keep her until at least a tribe swap. People feel like this is the vote to take out Kelley. She is worried that she will be voted out and blindsided. But what will happen?

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to tribal council. Jeff asks Wendy if she is concerned about the fact that she got votes in the last episode. It is believed that Reem is the person who voted for Kelley, but I did not keep track of if this was the case for sure or not. Keith is brought up as something that they think should be voted out of the game. Will the contestants go for loyalty or strength? Or will they go for something else entirely. Wardog and then David are asked how the vote will go. Keith is asked as well. Jeff points out to Kelley that a blindside seems likely.

The votes are cast and no idol is played. Keith is the person who gets voted out as a result. He thought that he knew how the vote was going to go. At least they were right about a blindside happening. He then gets to choice after the vote. He doesn’t seem to know what to do. It doesn’t seem like we will find out this episode what choice he makes. Would he really not try to stay in the game?

On the next Survivor, it is clear that people don’t want to work with the returning players and Wendy might have an injury or infection of some sort. Meanwhile, on the Edge of Extinction, Reem is hoping that someone joins her soon or she may have to quit. But why hasn’t she eaten? Is there nothing there to eat or is she just not taking care of herself? I guess that we won’t know Keith’s decision yet.

Total confessional count: Aurora- 2, Lauren- 3, Julie- 1, Keith- 5, Chris- 1, Kelley- 4, Gavin- 2, David- 5, Joe- 2, Victoria- 3, Aubry- 2, Julia- 0, Ron- 1, Wardog- 4, Rick- 4, Wendy- 4, Eric- 2; Reem- 4. New confessionals this episode: Wardog- 3, Rick- 2, Wendy- 1, Eric- 1, Aurora- 1, Lauren- 1, Julie- 1, Keith- 2, Chris- 1, Kelley- 2, Gavin- 1, David- 4, Joe- 0, Victoria- 2, Aubry- 1, Julia- 0, Ron- 0. Extinction Island confessional count: Reem- 2.

Keith had two new confessionals this episode, the same number as Kelley, Rick, and Victoria.  The two that are higher than him are Wardog and David with David as the highest with four. Everyone else was lower with Joe, Julia, and Ron tying for the lowest with zero a piece. As for total, Keith had five, tied with David as the highest. As for those with four confessionals total, they are Rick, Wardog, Wendy, Kelley, and Reem. Everyone else is lower with Julia as the lowest with zero.

There’s one important thing for me to say before I finish this blog post. Next week is Ash Wednesday. This means that I’ll be moving this blog to Thursdays instead of Wednesdays until Lent is over. I know that I could just watch the episode later on Wednesday, especially since the shows that I care about will not be on after Survivor right away (except for one). Now you know. I’ll be back on Thursdays from this coming week onward. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor: Edge of Extinction Premiere

Things might be a bit different in this blog than it usual is because Lent won’t be starting for a while and this blog will thus be on Wednesdays as usual until it starts. I’ll be sure to make a note later about when the change will be. I’ll also let you know if any job of mine changes things.

I still don’t know if I’ll ever hear back from the two missionaries that I wanted to include in this blog that did not reply to my requests to put them in here. What I do know is that it might not matter if you want to support any of them as long as the others that I mentioned are still there where they are. I also know that I could include a Christian song called Survivor here in this blog. Maybe I will. I felt that I wasn’t able to include as much as I wanted to in those blog posts. I started out good, but didn’t finish that way.

Something that I need to keep track of in this post is the number of people who found idols based solely on what gender they are. If a person found more than one idol, I have included them more than once as a result, although the listing might change in the future. Men who have found idols: 23. Women who have found idols: 7. This counting only goes up to season 22 right now. Let’s continue on to the next set of seasons and there’ll be one for each previous season in each post this season.

Regarding the idols from South Pacific, Ozzy found one and continued to have bad luck with it. When he did his ploy of getting voted out to eliminate a potential ally for the other tribe from returning to the game, he gave his idol to John. John gave the idol back to Ozzy when Ozzy returned to the game. Ozzy then played this idol for Whitney at a tribal council, only she didn’t have any votes cast against her. This would have kept her safe had there been a rock draw, but John flipped instead. Coach find the other idol in the game, but never needed to use it nor did he give it to someone else.

Since Ron Clark is a contestant on this season, I thought that I would make a note about him. I have a movie called The Ron Clark Story that is based on part of his life. I might do a recap of the movie in the future and post it in this blog. I am not making it a priority to do now. If you want to see it, let me know. Just know that you won’t see it unless the blog is on hiatus and I’m not posting about a past season of this show at the time.

Speaking of past seasons of this show that I might blog about in the future, know that I have Survivor: Gabon on DVD, in case I hadn’t told you that before. I also still want Survivor: Blood versus Water on DVD, but do not have it yet. Once I’m done watching Survivor: Borneo on DVD, then I will add Survivor: Gabon to my list of things to watch.

I have no idea yet how Extinction Island will work and really don’t like the fact that they aren’t being open and honest about what it is like with Redemption Island. A lot of people don’t seem to like it, but I will still give it a chance before I see whether or not I do. I think it’s a bad idea, but I guess that I’ll have to wait to see until later if it really is or not. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we get to the introduction of players. Wardog doesn’t want to tell the other people that he’s training to be a lawyer. Joe thinks that he’ll be a target. Wendy is a super fan of the game and doesn’t know what to expect. Jeff mentions to the new players that four of them will be on this season with them. Lauren loves Kelley and Joe. In fact, she could be in a showmance with Joe if things get far enough in the game.

Jeff does some recaps of who these players are with a sort of recap about who they are in his terms. I do wonder why they picked four returning players for a season as it seems an unusual number for now. I guess we’ll see if this works or not. Jeff starts them off with a sort of challenge of getting supplies ready as people dump things into the water and people get it. A man, a new player, gets a secret advantage. I wonder if they will ever go away. Keith struggles in the water. Is Survivor trying to portray some sort of unfair stereotype that black people can’t swim?

The two tribes continue to their beach where Rick introduces himself to the others as a huge fan of this show. Kelley wants to make sure that she gets in a good alliance with someone and wants to be more open as she felt that she didn’t do as well the previous times around. David also wonders what to do in the game and wants to make sure that people can trust him. It turns out that one of the contestants has Tourettes Syndrome. This is Wendy from earlier. She says hers is mild. Well, I guess this dashes my hopes of being the first player with Tourettes Syndrome. But I could still make firsts on the show.

Joe wants to offer help to the new players in the game, making sure that they get the help that they need. He also needs to make sure that he doesn’t stand out as a target like the other times he has been in the game. Victoria has good perspectives in the game. Aurora is gay. Ron has the secret advantage. He is told to dig next to the treemail. He gets an advantage menu and it only lasts until the third tribal. I do wonder when or if he has to decide what advantage to use.

In the second segment of the show, we get to the people on Kama, the yellow tribe, as two people seem to briefly wonder what Edge of Extinction means. Aubry wonders how to handle herself with newbies. Galvin wonders what to do with his time. Eric wants to turn on the returning players, specifically Aubry. Reem thinks that everything is going well thus far, but people don’t like her strange mannerisms. Reem, Keith, and Wendy seem to form a link among themselves which irritates the other players and might make them targets in the future.

In the third segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge. It is also a reward for flint as well. Flint is a place in Michigan, right? David helps his tribe, despite its struggles in the first part. Kelley tries to cross the balance beam and it looks like she is injured as a result. Despite some struggles at the puzzle towards the end, the yellow tribe of Comma, I mean, Kama, wins the challenge, sending the blue tribe to tribal council where Kelley is worried about how things will go. She wonders if there is Wigglesworth, I mean, wiggle room.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get back to Manu, the blue tribe, after their loss. Keith wants to make sure that they know what to do next. Will Kelley or Lauren go? Keith wants to play this game for himself. Who doesn’t? Is he implying that most people don’t? Wendy wants to get rid of Reem. Wardog wants to take out Wendy and that’s what he tells David. Reem learns that she’s a target and this seems to set her on the warpath. This sends them off to tribal council.

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to tribal council. I still don’t know if I like the fact that it gets its own segment now, but I think that it makes sense and works for the most part. Jeff asks how the tribe is working well together. Reem mentions that he name has been thrown out as a target. Kelley wonders why David’s name wasn’t thrown out when hers was. Wardog mentions the problems that he has with Reem whom he says doesn’t have a personality that he likes.

Why would you touch someone’s stuff without their permission and wonder why they get upset when you touch it? Why would you need them to tell you not to do it in advance? Reem must be neurotypical. Reem is surprised by some of what is going on. The votes are then cast next. Some votes seemed to have been randomly cast, but it is Reem who is voted out of the game. She wants rain to be poured down on these people. She then has a choice to make and she takes a torch and gets on a boat. Bring a torch, Jeannette Isabella. She is then shown arriving at Extinction Island and notices that there is nothing at the island before she looks for more information there.

On the next Survivor, it seems like the returning players are targeted and David is quick to throw Kelley under the bus. Reem looks like she might have struggles on the Edge of Extinction. I guess that we will find out more about what happens later in the next episode because that’s only when these promos might make some bit of a lick of sense.

Joe- 2, Victoria- 1, Aubry- 1, Julia- 0, Ron- 1, Reem- 2, Dan “The Wardog”- 1, Rick- 2, Wendy- 3, Eric- 1, Aurora- 1, Lauren- 2, Julie- 0, Keith- 3, Chris- 0, Kelley- 2, Gavin- 1, David- 1.

I know that I missed a confessional from either Julie or Julia, although I don’t think that I know of any other one. Outside of those two, I have Chris as not having a confessional. As for the highest, Keith and Wendy have both three a piece. I don’t know what else to say right now about things so I’ll end this post here. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

The Problem of the Ever Changing Survivor Game

While there is so much we won’t yet know about Extinction Island, nearly the whole consensus among the few people I’ve read about this new twist, people think that they will hate it. I might as well and plan to write a post about the various island twists during the next hiatus or some point when I have the time and aren’t writing about an old season. But I thought that I would use this post to talk about some of the changes in Survivor that have happened. I thought that I would stick to just the permanent changes that Survivor has done for this post.

Something that we knew for sure was affected was the tie-breaker. We don’t know for sure what the original way of resolving things after a revote were since it didn’t come to that the first season. Then, we got to a reveal or possible change that previous votes would get rid of people, something that may not be considered fair in every way. It didn’t work when it was a tribe’s first tribal council and we will never know what would have happened if they had the same number of previous votes against them, which they might not have even known about.

From the fourth season, it was revealed that a rock draw would cause people’s eliminations. It was not done right the first time as there was no fair way to do it at four people left. Thus, we did not see it done in a correct manner until the twenty-seventh season. It has only appeared once more and did have the chance to appear again were it not for complicated rules that would have left only one person as the guy who could draw a rock. This still remains controversial and I still don’t know what was wrong with the natural quiz tie-breaker. Why not make the rock draw just between who is tied instead of the rest of the players in the game? The way they do it doesn't seem to make sense.

When it comes to permanent game changes, a lot of the earlier players would never know what it is like to have a hidden immunity idol as it wasn’t present until the eleventh season and only then, it appeared as partway through it. While it took a few seasons to have an idol that had good rules, it will probably not ever again be without presence on this show.

More recently, we got to a change that might not have been as well received by everyone. Before we get to that, let’s get to how the final tribal councils are done now. Instead of one on one conversations, we get to a more open forum. I have the feeling that this was done as a way of trying to get people to not win in landslides which was common regardless of the number of finalists that appeared at the end of the game. But now it seems like people might not show up as a presence in the jury or hog up a lot of the conversation as a result. We don't get the same results.

I should talk about the fact that they got rid of the final two, but I’m not sure that it works as a chance since they brought it back around three times. Still, it seems like more of a twist to have it now instead of not having it. And they largely have used it since bringing it back.

Now for a highly unpopular twist: the forced fire making tie-breaker that is used at the final four. It has arguably made the fourth place person come in first two of the times it appeared and actually brought forth the elimination of a player that had no previous votes against it. It has changed the game too much and seems like we are stuck with it forever. Did they not realize what a terrible idea it was?

Well, that’s all I can think of writing for this post. I hope that I have come up with good posts this hiatus, although I’m not sure that it was as good as it could have been. It is hard to believe that the new season starts next week. It feels like this hiatus has been shorter than usual. What’s more likely is that we were stuck with a lot of breaks from the show that were longer than usual so we got used to them. Know that my blog will be here on Wednesdays until otherwise noted. I’ll be back next week to talk about the first episode of the new season. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Ten Almost Successful Contestants

I might as well explain what I mean by almost successful. What I mean by this post and my sort of top ten is that there were some players in various seasons, at least one if not more than that, where they had a lot going for them, but they weren’t able to win for one reason or another. It could be their own fault in some way or for reasons outside of their own control. All I know is that these contestants had so much going for them, but didn’t manage to pull off the win. I’m only going to include them as examples in the seasons I felt they came closest in, even if they played in more than what's listed.

#10 Matty from Gabon- He was just one fire making challenge away from winning it all. It did seem a bit unlikely that anyone could have beaten him at the final three outside of the person that he would have beaten at the fire making challenge, should he have won. He had so much going for him.

#9 Rafe from Guatemala- Like so many people, he messed up his chances at the game. But what made his especially bad was that it was right after the final immunity challenge. He released a person from the deal that could have taken him to the final two and thus, gave her no reason to keep her promise. He could have been a great winner, but instead, he fell short.

#8 Amanda from China and Micronesia- I’m not entirely sure why she fell short of winning the game in both of these seasons. I guess that I’d have to watch these seasons again. All I know is that she twice played the game and twice made it to the end, only getting a minority of jury votes each time. This does make her almost successful at the game.

#7 Colby from Australia- For him to come within one vote of winning and fall short, he is one of the most textbook examples of almost a success in Survivor history. While he probably would have beaten Keith, he took a gamble instead that didn’t pay off. Whether or not he could have changed anyone’s minds when he reached the end, I guess we don’t know whose vote mattered most.

#6 Rudy from Borneo- The first person to come to this classification of mine was Rudy who was just one hand slip away from winning the game. Heck, even the producers of Survivor were certain that the show would not last after he lost the last challenge. He had everything going for him and could have possibly even win, but lost focus and fell out of the challenge.

#5 Cirie from Panama, Micronesia, and Game Changers- How would you feel if you were the only person in the history of Survivor to still be competing in three different finales and never, not once, be a finalist at the end? First, she loses a tie-breaker. Then, she becomes the first person voted out at the final three in many seasons since there wasn’t an elimination there since before Cook Islands. When she played the fourth time, she made it to the final six a third time where she became the only contestant who was even eligible for elimination after the other five were made immune in some way. I don’t think that you could even say that all of these eliminations were her fault. Were any of them?

#4 Paschal from Marquesas- It was supposed to be a fire making challenge. It wasn’t supposed to have him involved at all. He went from no votes in the game to eliminated from it by random draw. We may never know if he could have won it, but his is widely considered one of the most unfair eliminations in the game. He made it that far only to draw the wrong rock.

#3 Brett from Samoa- While a Galu member winning seemed highly likely before the merge, it soon had become clear that they might be doomed. That might became probably, only Brett went on a winning streak with immunity and, had he won the final one, would have won the final vote. It might have been a close one, but it would have been his game to lose. He same so close, but came up short.

#2 Terry from Panama- There was so much going for him towards the end and this is where his game had sadly ended up fizzling out. He failed hugely at the final challenge and his ally in the game turned on him and voted him out. While it seemed like his was the closest game to being a success that wasn’t, it all falls to a more recent player who meets that mark.

#1 Domenick from Ghost Island- It came down to a tie vote at the jury that could have gone differently if only certain things were different at the end. He kind of messed up in the end that I’m surprised that it was not just a tragedy of Domenick at the end due to his cockiness towards the end. It was almost like a Shakespeare play, only good. It can even be hard to pin down what exactly he did wrong.

Well, that’s all for this post. I heard who one of the new contestants for the upcoming season is, but I do not think that I’ll get to a special post about them during this hiatus. I guess that we’ll see for sure what happens later when the show returns soon. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.