Survivor: Island of the Idols Premiere

I will include updates on watching Survivor: Gabon here in the main posts and explain more of what is now different with this blog since I have two seasons to blog about. Survivor: Gabon may not have as much priority as the current season does. As long as there is currently a show on air, I won’t care about missing random Sundays when I’m not caught up on that show.

Also note that if I miss a Wednesday, then I plan to post about this current season on a Sunday and the other season will go on hiatus until this season is done being posted about. A hiatus of all other posts of past seasons are certain to happen around Thanksgiving time.

Well, I guess that this will have to start right away, sooner than you’d think that it should be. I had to work on Wednesday and wanted to make sure that I was there at a good time. With the premiere being 90 minutes long, I couldn’t trust me to do the work of this in time and get things done with good enough time to do all of work. So I guess you’ll be seeing this post on Sundays and none of Survivor: Gabon until this season is done airing. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we start with voiceovers of people talking about Survivor. Rob and Sandra will be on a Survivor boot camp. Lario tribe arrives at their camp. It is weird to Chelsea that they are starting the game without Jeff or a proper marooning. There is a sexy wood gathering. Isn’t that what the Chippendales are? There are various introductions among people, but not the whole group as a whole. Elizabeth talks about being in the Olympics. On the other tribe, Lauren-Ashley, who I guess can just be called Lauren, wonders about the theme of the season. Janet helps her tribe get fire. Vince talks about how he is the first person of his ethnicity to be cast on Survivor. On the orange tribe, Aaron and six other players form an alliance of seven players.

Jason goes out to look for an idol and the rest of the players notice this. Dan is largely the one who says that Jason is missing in order to find a good first vote. But is Dan cocky? I guess we will see later as time goes on what type of player Dan will be.

In the second segment of the show, Jack gets food for his tribe and does some pranks with spitting water from a clam. Oh, Shelly! Why did you leave me? Tommy Sheehan believes that he is forming good alliances with people. Molly wants to get rid of the drama and shadiness of everyone. Noura thinks that Jason might have had an idol. He worries that he might be the first one out now. Elaine uses humor to make her way through life. She seems like Lauren Reemer from not too long ago. Missy thinks that she should form an all female alliance. Wasn’t Micronesia the only season where an all one gender alliance actually worked? It could happen again, but hasn’t.

In the third segment of the show, Kellee talks about being a germaphobe. Why would you play this show if you felt that way? She is upset at Dan. Molly is also upset at Dan since he doesn’t know personal space and Molly doesn’t want to ruffle feathers. I thought that it was rustle feathers.

Dan is talked to some and maybe straightened out about his touchy feely ways. Ronnie likes Elaine, but is worried that she might win. Now is this foreshadowing or red herring? Elaine no longer trusts Ronnie after he talks to her some about what’s going on.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the challenge at hand. Jeff gets his first look at the two tribes in the game. The tribes are neck in neck for a bit as the orange tribe fails at the puzzle. Thus, the purple tribe wins and sends the orange tribe to tribal council. Jeff then reveals that someone from the orange tribe will be randomly sent to the Island of the Idols. Elizabeth’s name is drawn. She will return in time for her next tribal council.

In the fifth segment of the show, Elizabeth arrives at the Island of the Idols. She sees two statues when she arrives there of Rob and Sandra before seeing the players in the flesh. They are Survivor idols. Oh, I see the name and meaning there. Rob explains some of what’s going on. Rob wants to teach Elizabeth how to make fire. Rob explains how the best teachers he has had had shown him how to do things. After he shows the fire, she tries to make one herself. With Sandra’s help, Elizabeth makes a fire.

Elizabeth is given a choice. She can make fire to get an idol good for two tribal councils. But if she loses, she will lose her next vote. If she doesn’t go for the competition, she risks nothing. We then go back to the tribe after their loss, with Elizabeth’s decision yet unknown. Elaine is betting on good connections in the game. But can she dictate the vote? People want to vote out Ronnie, but Vince feels like he is in danger of being voted out as well. Some people want to target Elaine. But Vince doesn’t want to vote her out of the game. Elaine doesn’t know what’s God’s plan is. Do any of us know?

Back at the Island of the Idols, Elizabeth still doesn’t know if she can beat Rob, but decides to go against him anyways. He was preparing to up the ante in some unknown way, but she took the first offer and did not know there was a second one. What is this: Let’s Make a Deal? Rob wins the challenge. She will not have a vote going into tribal council. There was a chance that she could have won. She gets to choose the next person who will go from the other tribe to this island. But none of us know who she chose just yet as it was randomly drawn.

Back at camp, people try to explain to Elaine why people are targeting her. They want her to vote out Vince now. Only the plan is still up in the air. This is when Elizabeth gets back and decides whether or not to tell the truth about what happened on the island. She lies and says it was an urn smashed that she lost and got now game as a result. Elizabeth doesn’t know what to say about the upcoming vote that she will not be able to take part in anyways.

In the sixth segment of the show, we get to tribal council. Apparently Rob and Sandra are secretly watching the proceedings. There was no information about the season in advance as they just went to the beach. “Likability is a liability” according Karishma. That’s why Elaine might be a target. She gets emotional about her journey to Survivor and how she doesn’t want to be the first one voted out. She wants a show that can build her up. Aaron talks about being a jack of all trades like Debbie Warner. I think it was Aaron who was talking, at least.

Vince also gets emotional talking about his place in the game. Voting out people is hard, but not for someone like sassy Sandra. There are some players that they like. The votes seem to be between Ronnie and Vince. Elaine isn’t a target at all. Ronnie is the first person voted out of the game.

On the next Survivor, a blindside and heartache lead to insanity in the game. A lot of people much have been out of the loop on this vote. Why didn’t Elaine get any votes? I guess I’m not sure and they had only brought it up as a potential red herring. But is her high confessional count now a good thing or is it a sign that they want to show her greatness before she’s gone early?

Confessional count: Ronnie- 1, Lauren-Ashley- 1, Elizabeth- 5, Molly- 2, Missy- 2, Janet- 1, Kellee- 1, Dean- 0, Tom Laidlaw- 1, Jason- 2, Aaron- 2, Vince- 3, Jack- 1, Noura- 1, Karishma- 2, Tommy Sheehan- 1, Jamal- 1, Dan- 1, Elaine- 5, Chelsea- 1; Sandra- 3, Rob- 2.

Sadly, only two people have higher confessional counts than the two mentors who aren’t even playing the game. Elizabeth and Elaine both have 5 confessionals thus far. They tie for the highest. Elizabeth might have only had a high due to being sent to the Island of the Idols. Dean is currently the only person without a confessional right now. Ronnie, Lauren-Ashley, Jamal, Tom Laidlaw, Dan, Chelsea, Jack, Noura, Janet, Kellee, and Tommy Sheehan all only have one confessional, less than the two mentors.

Hopefully I can be posting this blog on Wednesdays like I normally do and like doing and this Sunday post is just a onetime exception to the rule due to the long premiere and me wanting to get to my job as early as I could, but still not getting there as soon as I could have. Still, I might not be continuing with this job for long as they told me it was temporary for now and they would tell me if something changed with that. We’ll see what happens with it and hopefully I won’t have to abandon this blog like the writer of Survivor Shade did. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor: Gabon episodes 1 & 2: Want to See the Elephant Dung?

There’s actually a lot to talk about in this blog before I get to the episode in question. I had been waiting until I was done with watching Survivor: Borneo again before I got to replacing it with its replacement of Survivor: Gabon. That was the only thing that got to replace Survivor: Borneo as anything else that is waiting to be added will have to wait until later to be added. The current list of six shows that I roll for to see what I watch are now Charmed season 4, Farscape season 4, Moonlight the Complete series, this season of Survivor (of course), now number 4 on the list of things to roll, The Walking Dead season 1, and recorded shows on tape. I have a whole lot to watch once I'm done with any of these.

The day after the last season finale of Survivor, another player from a past season had died. Her name was Ashley Massaro and she played in Survivor: China. An official cause had not been determined last I checked, but all signs point to suicide. I have Survivor: China ranked as 31 out of 38 seasons. I will be wanting that season now on DVD so it might be a good Christmas present for me.

https://nypost.com/2019/05/17/ex-wwe-star-ashley-massaro-died-of-apparent-suicide-report/

Getting back to all the hidden immunity idols from past seasons, I’m going to split up the Ghost Island idols into one a post. So here are the idols from Ghost Island part 1. Back in Survivor: Caramoan, Andrea had an idol that pretty much everyone knew she had. She didn’t think she was a target and was voted out with it in her possession. It was reused in Ghost Island. Domenick found it and played it the last time idols could be used. No one had voted against him that time so it was considered a waste.

I created a new blog. This one is about the TV show The Good Fight. It is a spin-off of The Good Wife, another show that I have blogged about in the past. When it aired this past summer for free on TV, I was able to start blogging about it as a result. Here is a link to it.

https://adamdeckerthegoodfighttvshow.blogspot.com/

For some reason, there is a lot of information out about the season after Island of the Idols. SPOILER. It will be an all winners season and the cast has already been revealed. I will not mention the cast in this post, but I will in a future post before the season starts. It is reusing Edge of Extinction, which is quite a terrible idea. Will this be like Redemption Island where they keep doing it again until it finally works? Or will this be a temporary thing? And what’s with this idea of Survivor currency? People aren’t trying to break the game of Survivor. They are making it completely unrecognizable. END SPOILER.

I will keep you updated as to when the episodes of Survivor: Gabon are rolled. The first one was rolled on 9-21-2019. One of my blogs will be updated each time I watch an episode. It will probably be the TV blog, but might be others under other circumstances. But enough of my ramblings.

We begin with Jeff talking about Gabon, one of the last untouched places in the world. A lot of the players give confessionals now, although not all of them are labeled. The contestants introduce who they are at the beginning. Crystal lies about her profession. Corrine and Randy both admit to their own character flaws that we’ll see. Now Corrine may call herself a bitch, but I think that deep down, she does want to be liked by others. Bob and Gillian get to start choose their tribes. Bob chooses Ace. Gillian chooses Crystal. Ace chooses Sugar. Crystal chooses Susie. Sugar chooses Marcus. Susie chooses Matty. Marcus chooses Charlie. Matty chooses Randy. Charlie chooses Paloma. Randy chooses Dan. Paloma chooses Kelly. Dan chooses GC. Kelly chooses Jacquie. GC chooses Ken. Jacquie chooses Corrine. Michelle is on the last tribe by default. Bob’s tribe is the yellow one: Kota. Gillian’s tribe is the red one: Fang.

Jeff then asks the tribes if they are ready for their first challenge. Each tribe has an idol good for their first tribal council as a group. The tribe that finishes first gets a reward of an extra bag of rice. Marcus wins the idol on his tribe. GC gets the idol on her tribe. Michelle may have been the last person picked to be on a tribe, but she was the first woman from either tribe to finish. Kota wins the reward. Matty thinks that Gillian is a liability for her tribe. In the first of many failures for herself, Crystal doesn’t do well which she blames on her dress and uncomfortable tennis shoes.

The Kota tribe arrives to their camp. Corrine likes Bob and the way he works. He learns how to do things himself. Apparently being from Maine affects him in some way. Meanwhile, Fang arrives at their camp and Gillian gives a speech of encouragement to her tribe. She is hoping to keep the tribe happy. She wants people to get elephant dung since it burns very well according to her. Randy thinks that Gillian is annoying. Well, it takes one to know one. He thinks that she doesn’t know crap, but she clearly does. Ken talks to Michelle when she eats a termite. I know people who have done that. Ken is attracted to Michelle, but I don’t think that anything comes from it.

Ace gets on people’s nerves on his tribe. He has a villainous way of thinking about things and is certain that he could win the money. Charlie is attracted to Marcus, but Marcus is straight. I’m straight too, but I can see Marcus as good looking. At night on the Fang tribe, they all react to an elephant in the area. Randy hurts his head on the branch and seeks the advice of Gillian. Medical is brought in to help. They put stitches in him and he is worried that this will take him out of the game. But he thinks that it will be fine in a couple of days.

Michelle is cold at night and is mostly bones. There was an old lady all skinny and bones. Ooo, ooo, ooo. Wait, she is young and bones. The Kota tribe gets the treemail. If they are not the first to finish, they may be the first to leave the game. Ace leads the tribe through yoga.

Jeff brings the tribes together for a challenge where they are linked together for a challenge. Bob talks about how physics helps him solve challenges. Fang is only briefly in the lead. But Kota is able to win the challenge after a big enough lead.

GC feels down after the loss. He is safe so far in the game. Some people want Michelle voted out, but Randy is trying to push the vote against Gillian. People like Ken believe that Gillian is the weakest one on the tribe. Michelle is openly against her whole tribe and everyone. She’s being a negative Nancy. That’s what the other players seem to think, at least.

We get to the tribal council next. Dan is still hopeful about the tribe despite the dysfunction. Michelle causes a lot of discussion back and forth about what’s going on. Jeff points out that they ignored the question he had asked. There is another time that they talk over each other. GC seems to take up the leadership role in the tribe. I don’t think that he wanted this role. Michelle talks about being the last picked on the tribe. She still thinks that she does well on the tribe. After the votes are cast, Michelle votes for Gillian. Everyone else in the tribe votes for Michelle and she is voted out as a result. The tribe is excited that they get flint and fire on their way back to camp.

The tribe returns from the tribal council and GC talks about being the leader of the tribe. He feels that he will have a bigger target on his back as a result of this role. Charlie talks about Marcus and his role on the Kota tribe thus far. Marcus talks about Charlie and how he is like an onion because he comes in layers. Isn’t that an ogre? Marcus talks about forming an onion alliance full of these layered individuals. We will see more of that as the season progresses.

Randy had issues with how GC is working with the water since he’ll have to do work twice boiling the water twice. Randy wants to be quiet for now and watch his tribe self destruct. Corrine wonders what to do with her tribe in terms of alliances. This must be more of the onion alliance. She thinks that Bob should be brought into their alliance.

Gillian is worried that people are doing bad on her tribe since there are people in the night working instead of waiting until the morning. GC quits being the leader right on the spot. Randy thinks that this was a good move. Dan thinks that this was a poor decision for a leader to make. He wants to be a silent leader.

The Fang tribe gets treemail about the upcoming challenge. One tribe will be fishing. The other will be heading to tribal council. Jeff asks the Fang tribe about the face paint that they put on. The challenge involves moving a bolder around and getting keys to complete the challenge. Jeff introduces the concept of Exile Island which will happen to a member of the losing tribe. Gillian is asked to stay out of the way of the bolder to help their chances in the challenge. Fang isn’t as bad at this challenge, but they still lose it this time around.

After the challenge, they send Dan to Exile Island. He will return in time for tribal council. He is told some of where to go and given a map. The vote won’t happen until the next night. Charlie talks about his tribe’s win and how their tribe has been doing well in the game thus far. People on the tribe don’t think that they will lose a challenge. Dan arrives at Exile Island and is given the choice between clue and comfort. He picks a clue. He seeks out a clearing, but thinks that the idol could be in the lake. He doesn’t venture far away. He can’t figure out the clue and can’t find the idol in question. If only he looked farther away.

Back at the Fang camp, people face a lack of morale due to their constant losing. Ken wants to vote out Gillian and it seems like she is the target. She considers voting against Ken. Susie seems to be on board with this plan for now. Randy breaks his glasses apart in order to help form fishing equipment. Doesn’t he need glasses to see better? They still catch fish and Dan returns from Exile Island. Dan says that he could not find the idol. GC thinks that Dan was acting strange. Others are convinced that Dan does have the idol. People still need to figure out who to vote for and Dan is brought up as a target.

The tribe then gets to tribal council. Jeff asks GC about being the leader and GC admits that he does not want to be the leader of the group anymore. Jeff thinks that there are too many disruptive forces in the tribe. There is no current leader on the group. Crystal doesn’t think that they need a leader. Gillian thinks that they need to learn to work together or they will be doomed as a tribe. Dan talks about how he went to Exile Island. People think that he has the idol and Dan dumps his bag to prove that he does not have the idol. We then get to the vote at hand. Gillian votes against Ken. The rest of the tribe votes against Gillian and she is voted out as a result.

On the next Survivor: Gabon, Randy is not the leader of the tribe (yet) and Fang seems to remain quite a dysfunctional tribe. Meanwhile, Gillian gets her last words wishing her tribe good luck, feeling that they will need it going forward. Keep moving forward, just like in Meet the Robinsons.

Confessional count: Dan- 2, Corrine- 3, Bob- 3, Sugar- 1, Randy- 8, Charlie- 6, Marcus- 3, Michelle- 2, Matty- 2, Susie- 0, Ken- 4, Ace- 2, Crystal- 3, Gillian- 5, GC- 5, Jacquie- 0, Paloma- 0, Kelly- 0.

Michelle didn’t seem to have much of a chance in the game, being the only one not picked for a tribe. She still could have been a better player. She was too obnoxious in different places and could have tried to align with more than just one person. Will she play again? I’d say that it might be possible. I’d give her a 51% chance of returning to the game again.

Gillian may not have lasted long either, but she had quite a good impact on the Survivor community. She created Reality Rally, a gathering of reality TV fans and people like that. Despite being older, there is still a chance that she could appear on the show again. I’d give it a 60% chance that we’ll see her again.

I don’t yet know when I’ll be back with the next post of this season. Keep an eye out for Sundays and this blog will be updated if I’ve seen the next episode of it. Survivor returns on Wednesday and I will be back with the newest season then (I hope). We’ll see what all happens with this blog. I’ll try to keep the more primary parts of this blog with the new episodes. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor: Gabon- A Look Back

Well, I have this season on DVD and will now blog about it. At the moment, this season’s post will be on Sundays. This means that if a current season is not being blogged about, the random posts you see on Wednesdays will be gone as I will devote my time to just doing this season in the blog. If there are any other seasons for me to blog about, you will see them at their own time as mentioned in those, potential, future posts. Also keep in mind that this post will serve as an introduction to future episodes and will not be about a single episode itself.

What this season was like: One of only two seasons thus far to take place in Africa, we got a whole lot of dynamics over the course of the season. Exile Island was back, but it could have a hidden luxury with it instead of just being an isolated place. We saw a lot of crazy personalities this season, which can be good in its own way. There was a second tribe swap which hadn’t truly happened before.

Why it was good: There was a lot seen from the good characters in this show, even those that didn’t last long on the season. The winner may not have been outstandingly wonderful, but he deserved the win in my mind compared to others in the season. It might have helped shaped Survivor’s mold in some ways that it wouldn’t have otherwise.

Why it was bad: This season was bland and forgettable. Most of the contestants on this season were either annoying or forgettable. Too many bad players were focused on a lot and some of them made it too far in the game. The final vote was as boring as one alliance voting for one player and the other voting for the other player. Not much memorable happened in it.

My overall thoughts: I do not think fondly of this season and rank it among the worst ones Survivor had. In fact, there aren’t many that I think were worse than it. I don’t think that it had much to offer on a whole as too much of it just didn’t really work in the long term. To show just how forgettable the people on this season were, when I learned that one of them had died, my first thought was who? I did not know who this person was and it wasn’t the first fan out of Micronesia.

Current ranking of the season and why: I rank it as 36^th best out of the 38 seasons thus far. The fact that so much of this season’s airtime was wasted on terrible players speaks to the fact that not much of it really worked in terms of good Survivor that we were used to from other seasons. A rewatch of it could improve my thoughts of it or somehow make it rank even lower.

That’s about it for this blog post. I do plan to be back as many Sundays as I can in the near future with blog posts on this season. There might be some issues with me being able to keep watching it over and over again due to lack of time or other issues like that. But keep your eyes out for posts about Survivor: Gabon on Sundays for the foreseeable future. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Sue Hawk Borneo Recap

Here I am doing another recap of a Survivor contestant who played multiple seasons. This was her first season. I don’t know when I’ll be getting Survivor: Blood versus Water on DVD, but it has to be out on DVD before I could get it. The earliest, I think, that it could potentially happen by is Christmas and that’s just me getting it and not me watching it. This won the poll I did in the Addicted to Survivor facebook group. I will give this more priority than Blood versus Water if I get it on DVD. First I’ll have to watch the movie length special. Then, I’ll have to add it this to my show watching on DVD list. I have changed the way that I have done my TV blog so I won’t have to roll this show once a month, at the moment at least. We’ll see if things change with that.

I’m going to post a warning on all the rambling that I’m going to do before getting to the main point of this post at some point, I promise. I will write in all caps when the truly important part of the post begins even though this will edit out the movie length special before the show starts that I like to watch and recap about. I do want to limit the amount of rambling that I do in this post compared to the last time I did a recap of a player’s time on the game where I said far too much in the extended version that I first did a regular version with just the recap of it. This time, when I get to the episodes, I won’t talk about anything outside of the recap until the post is over.

When it comes to adding the Survivor: Borneo special to my movie watching list, I know that I will not be adding it to a list on Wednesday since I don’t update my Survivor blog on most other days typically. So we’ll have to see what list it gets added to. While I could have changed when the Wednesday list was, I was ultimately able to put it on the Friday list so I’ll have to wait to see when it gets rolled. Meanwhile, I’m close to cutting back on the lists since I’m running out of options to watch. I’m getting rid of what used to be Sunday’s list. This ultimately shouldn’t affect the Survivor: Borneo special being on the Friday list. Not as long as no other lists are removed yet.

What’s interesting about the list now is that outside of the two choices that have been on the list for as long as I’ve had it, only the Survivor: Borneo special is still on the list as the other three choices were all from the list I got rid of after my old Friday choices were rolled away to make room for replacements.

Now the list that I did have on Wednesday (so I wouldn’t be able to roll a TV show during the day Survivor was on, and, thus, not potentially roll Survivor) was moved to Sunday and Wednesdays are now movieless (which is good, since I’ve changed the way I update one of my blogs, and won’t need to roll Survivor at all for a while).

On 9-30-2016, I rolled the movie choice to do this recap (actually, it was the day before when I actually rolled it). This means that Survivor: Borneo can officially be added to my TV on DVD rolling list. Well, it will be added to the waiting list to be on the main watching list. We’ll see what happens with that. Anyways, on to the recap!

The Greatest and Most Outrageous Moments Special- She’s shown as trusting Kelly, but they become frenemies instead of real friends. Sue considers Kelly a replacement to her own best friend, but this is before their problems started. Sue and Kelly have a fight over the alliance. Kelly thinks that she was doing the right thing by pretending there wasn’t an alliance. Many people didn’t like Sue, but it seems like a lot of the cast didn’t like each other. It seems that not much can be gained from the special alone, but the episodes will reveal more about her.

Now it could be a long while before I’m able to add Survivor: Borneo to my watching list again. There’s a lot of other shows to be added before it and one of them is an s choice, meaning that it will get to stay on the list until I finish watching it before I add Survivor: Borneo to the list again.

Meanwhile, there could be problems if Survivor: Blood versus Water is released to DVD because I do want that to watch again. I guess that we’ll see what ends up happening regarding that front. It was September of 2016 when I could add the show to the waiting list and we’ll see just how long it takes before we get to the next part being able to watch.

While I’m trying to avoid this becoming a whole random, rambling post, I’m not sure if I can avoid this. I think that the best way to do this is to keep the updates of when I roll this show in my Madam Secretary blog and not mention it in this one.

I learn on January 4, 2017 that Dan Kay from Survivor: Gabon has died. This could mean a delay of when I watch this if I get that season on DVD. Right now, I won’t be watching it unless I get it either for myself or as a gift. With Christmas past, the next time I’d get any gifts would be my summer birthday. I’ll let you know if I get it or not. If you read the extended version of the last player recap that I did, then you’ll know that there were shows to be transferred to the main list. Three of them still haven’t been transferred yet. Meanwhile, Survivor: Borneo is 10^th in line to be added to the list of choices that I have and another s choice is on the list before it.

Well, there’s no real update yet on when Survivor: Borneo will be added to the list just yet, but after my summer birthday of 2017, I didn’t get Survivor: Gabon on DVD. This might be good in reality as things could get too confusing if I did get it now. Of course, I’ll still want it at some point in time. Now my list of what I watch hasn’t seen any major changes yet and Survivor: Borneo is now 9^th in line to be added. I know that it will be on the list at one point, but it seems to be taking a long time.

You have read this in a previous post about how a grandmother of mine had died. I remember watching some Survivor episodes at her old house as a lot aired on Thanksgiving at the time and I would normally be at her house for that event. I miss her and all the great meals that she made. At least I still have my other grandmother for now who can annoy me with her teasing.

I mentioned in this post when I watched Survivor: Borneo- The Greatest and Most Outrageous Moments and mentioned part of it relating to Sue. It is now a year later as of this paragraph. The s choice that is on the list before this is called Shining Time Station as I have some of it on tape. It is hard to switch between different choices that have the same letter which I could do but don’t have to unless worst comes to worst. It is worth noting that I could change the letter Survivor is if I wanted to. But there isn’t much of it so I’ll tell you what happens when it happens and how it could affect other blogs of mine. If you want to know, then read the other blogs of mine.

Remember when I said that I had another s choice before I could add Survivor: Borneo to the list? Well, it was a tape collection Shining Time Station and I’m done with that. It still might be a while before I can add it to the list and I don’t think that I’ll get to it before Christmas, which might be good if I wind up with an old Survivor season on DVD.

I did not get an old season of Survivor for Christmas in 2017. So that is at least three times where I could have gotten a gift of an old Survivor season on DVD, but didn’t get it. Now at this point in time, Survivor: Borneo is the next in line to be added. I think that I will get an old season for myself, but I will wait until I start watching this season again before I get it for myself. That way, it can take over once I am done with the recap here.

While I probably will be getting Gabon for myself at some point, right now, I’ve added Borneo on to my list and will watch it and not start watching Gabon for myself until I’m done with Borneo. If you want to know when I watch each episode, my Madam Secretary blog will state when I rolled it and my TV blog will be updated on days I watch it unless that day is Saturday, in which case my Madam Secretary blog will have a political post instead. For more details, check the archive of my Madam Secretary blog as the first post on an episode in March should explain more about it. It will explain any and all changes in this and other blogs. I will explain any interruptions when and if they happen. THE IMPORTANT PART OF THIS POST STARTS IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH.

The Marooning: Sue is mentioned in the introduction as being a truck driver. Sue talks to Richard and they butt heads initially over what should be done at the beach. Sue notices someone has a pierced nipple. In her first confessional, she says that a rat is a squirrel without a fuzzy tail. She then mentions that Stacey wants her to vote off Rudy. Only Sue isn’t going with him. The tribal council doesn’t seem as good as the modern ones. Sue casts her first vote for Sonja, joining the majority of her tribe in voting her out. She gets a voting confessional as a result. Confessional count: 1.

The Generation Gap: Sue is mentioned in the recap as not going along with the rest of the women who were wanting to vote out Rudy. Sue thinks that being gay is a lifestyle while Rich insists that it is not a choice. They are not the same thing, lifestyles and choices. Sue talks about Sean’s ineffective super pole fishing invention in her second confessional of the season. Her tribe wins immunity so there isn’t much else to her story this time around. New confessional count: 1. Total confessional count: 2.

Quest for Food: Sue talks about the lack of food in the introduction. She goes on a boat with Stacey and they talk about various things. She talks in a confessional about how despite being buddies with all of the tribe members she wants to be with, she wants to vote out Stacey. Stacey knows this when Sue will not talk about it on the boat ride. Sue is annoyed by Dirk’s constant talk of Christianity. She tells the then virgin Dirk that he should try sex sometime as he might like it. I’ll never know for sure whether or not men and woman experience sex the same way.

Her tribe wins the reward challenge, which I think might have used footage from the unaired first ever reward that should have aired in the second episode. She gets yet another confessional before the upcoming immunity challenge about how important winning is. She is the leader for the challenge. Her tribe loses the immunity challenge.

She gets a quick confessional where it seems like her vote at tribal council is up in the air still. Sue says at tribal council that the fish that Rich is getting doesn’t matter that much right now. Jeff actually cuts things short due to the storm that is going on during the council and it seems to have poor coverage at the set. Sue sticks with her original plan and winds up voting off Stacey with a majority of her tribe. New confessional count: 5. Total confessional count: 7.

Too Little Too Late?: Sue isn’t seen much in this episode. She criticizes Sean for building a bowling alley while she searches for nuts and tapioca. She helps build the signal and her tribe wins the reward. She joins the alliance that Richard started with Kelly. Rudy joins it later. Her tribe wins immunity and she is not seen that much in the episode. New confessional count: 2. Total confessional count: 9.

Pulling Your Own Weight- Sue is annoyed that people are fishing as they aren’t catching any fish. Sue is good in practice at throwing a spear and thinks that she would be able to do better than any man in the challenge. She does not beat Joel as her tribe loses the challenge at that point. She’s actually okay that the challenge was lost as she didn’t like chickens. Her tribe loses the immunity challenge. While Dirk votes against Sue, Sue joins the majority of her tribe in voting out Dirk. New confessional count: 2. Total confessional count: 11.

Udder Revenge: Sue talks about who she wants to vote out of Pagong. It doesn’t seem like she likes any of them. Sue gets a pocket knife during the challenge and that’s about all she does during that part. Her tribe wins the immunity challenge. New confessional count: 1. Total confessional count: 12.

The Merger: Sue gets a confessional about the upcoming visit from a Pagong member. She mentions that she likes company, even if she doesn’t get it much. Sue gets another confessional about the alliance and another one about why Sean isn’t a part of it. Sue is worried that Sean has spent too much time on the sand spit and that they miss him in another confessional.

Greg is annoyed by Sue’s accent. She is kind of loud. Sue talks about the new tribe dynamics and roof collapse of the shelter that people were trying to “fix.” Sue doesn’t last that long into the first immunity challenge. Sue gets a vote against her from Gervase. Meanwhile, she joins her alliance and a plurality of her tribe by voting out Gretchen. New confessional count: 5. Total confessional count: 17.

Thy Name is Duplicity: Sue likes Jenna better than she thought she would. Sue doesn’t want to join the possible woman’s alliance that Jenna was wanting to do. Sue wants to ration the food for at least herself due to wanting to stay until the end. Sue loses the reward challenge. She thinks later that Gervase is a slacker. Perhaps she thinks that no Peterson in the history of Survivor has ever amounted to anything. Well, history is about to change.

Sue loses the immunity challenge. She talks later about who the plan is for who to vote for. At tribal council, Sue lies about there being an alliance. When it comes time to vote, she joins the majority of her tribe in voting out Greg. New confessional count: 5. Total confessional count: 22.

Old and New Bonds: Sue talks about the tribal council that happened and how she had to lie about not being in an alliance. She felt that it wasn’t a good idea to just say what was going on. I think that she was right to think that. Sue later gets a second confessional over issues with the fish due to people who did not cook it right. Sue then thinks in two more confessionals that they were able to catch a fish when Rich thinks that only he gets them. She loses the reward challenge.

Sue wishes Rich a happy birthday in this episode. Sue loses the immunity challenge. At tribal council, Sue joins the majority of her tribe and her alliance by voting out Jenna. The vote largely works due to Sean and his alphabetical strategy. New confessional count: 4. Total confessional count: 26.

Crack in the Alliance: Sue briefly talks about Rich when he says that he wants to stop fishing and being the tribe’s provider as a result. Sue talks about how she feels that the former Pagong members are a bit dumb. She thinks that playing the dumb redneck might help her. She reveals that she never trusted Rich. Perhaps he rubbed her the wrong way. Wait, that’s not until a later season. She later gets emotional as she talked about her best friend who had died and how Kelly might have filled that role. She then wants to team up with Kelly and take Rich out.

Sue goes through the first leg of the reward challenge successfully and barely loses the second part of it and the reward as a result. Sue talks to Rich later about alliances and Pagong. It doesn’t seem like she makes a lot of headway in the immunity challenge that she loses. Sue talks about alliances and how they work in politics such as with political donations or other examples of how they work in real life. This is at tribal council when asked about alliances. When the votes are cast, she votes against Gervase who gets voted out of the game as a result. New confessional count: 3. Total confessional count: 29.

Long Hard Days: Colleen talks about how that Tagi alliance is all over the place. Sue could be on all sorts of different tribes. Sue doesn’t like Kelly anymore and the alliance plans to take her out. At the reward challenge, Sue is the second person out of it. Later, back at camp, she talks about what the weather is like here. Sue talks later about Sean’s decision to take Rich on the reward instead of Kelly. Sue wants to stop eating altogether since all they have is rice.

Sue is the second to last person out of the immunity challenge. Sue talks about wanting to target Kelly after the latter won immunity. This is on the way to tribal council that this confessional is shown. Sue votes for Colleen as does the majority of her tribe and she is voted out of the game as a result. New confessional count: 6. Total confessional count: 35.

Unrelated note: Yes, I know that I promised after saying that the important part of this post would start that I wouldn’t have any random segues and parts of it unrelated to the recap. I still feel like saying now that after seeing the previous episode and before seeing the next one is when I learned about the death of Ashley Massaro from Survivor: China. I feel that she is worth a mention now simply so you know what was going on around the time that I’m writing this.

Death of an Alliance: Sue and Kelly are seen fighting briefly, although you couldn’t tell much why this had happened. Sue believes that Kelly was trying to make herself look like the only good guy in the whole group alliance. Later, Sue is shown hunting a stingray or something like it. She says that this is the eighth one she had the whole time in the game. Sue later gets another confessional about wanting to talk to her family again, wanting to call them as soon as she can regardless of what time it might be for them there. She later talks to Rudy about a dig in bucket that arrived.

Jeff explains the mud volcano to the contestants at the reward challenge. Sue comes in third place in the challenge. The contestants have fun cleaning the mud off each other next. Sue and Kelly seem to be more okay with each other at least for now. Sue even gets two confessionals about it. Kelly talks about Sue at her reward and their tumultuous relationship. Sue continues to butt heads with Kelly while also wanting to be civil going forward until the end. Sue talks about how she hasn’t won any challenges yet. She is with the whole group when they get treemail about the immunity challenge.

Sue doesn’t do as well at certain parts of the challenge. She might have made it at one point, but does not wind up winning the challenge. There is a huge rain storm coming later. She talks briefly about that in a confessional. The possibility of Sue being voted out is brought up by the other players in the game. Sue talks at tribal council about money and her place in the game. At tribal council, Sue gets a vote from Sean. She joins the rest of her tribe in voting out Sean. She even gets a voting confessional about it. New confessional count: 7. Total confessional count: 42.

The Final Four: Sue talks about how there only 60 hours are left in the game. Sue talks about how she does not like Kelly as much since Kelly turned on them. But she also mentioned how she might not last against Kelly at the end. Sue is open in more confessionals to think that Kelly is the open target. If only someone other than Kelly wins immunity, Kelly will be voted out. Even then, they made the edit far too obvious at times. The contestants all arrive at tribal council. There is where they start off the immunity challenge. She comes in second place at the immunity challenge, not getting Sonja’s last name.

Sue votes against Rich, her only time not voting in the majority this season. With Kelly also voting against Rich, Rich and Rudy voted against Sue, which leads to a tie between Sue and Rich. Sue tried to sway the revote, but might have known that it wouldn’t do any good. Both Rudy and Kelly vote for her at the revote, leading to Sue’s elimination. She gives a voting confessional about how well she had done in the game. New confessional count: 5. Total confessional count: 47.

We don’t see much of her for the rest of the episode. But we do see her on the jury. We also see her with a montage of the other castaways on the rites of passage. Before the final tribal council, she talks about how she will hold her values as true to herself. At the final tribal council, she talks about how Rich is incredibly pompous. She also thinks that Rich doesn’t admit much wrong about himself which makes him a bit of a loser in life.

Sue goes really hard on Kelly, saying that she fails a lot at life and the game. But she admits that she is voting for Richard and hopes that it is the vote that loses Kelly the money. Sure enough, it is the key vote as to why Richard wins. Sue says that Kelly is a rat, running from the snake, and that Richard is a snake, knowingly going after prey. Sue votes for Rich to win and he does.

The Reunion Show: Bryan Gumble talks about how Sue didn’t give Kelly a hug or handshake after the game was over. Sue thinks that things are cool between them now. She is introduced with the rest of the players as the reunion show happens. She is proud of her speech as she was pissed at the time. At one point, all Sue wanted to do was to beat Rich. Bryan wonders if the speech was a little harsh. Sue says that she was a bad liar when it came to alliances in the game. We see part of Sue’s audition tape at the reunion show where she seems to be sweeter than usual and reads a poem she made up.

A special feature on the DVD shows her saying this on David Letterman’s top ten list, “Any time you feel like a couple of nights back in civilization, just fake scurvy.” She isn’t seen as much on any of the special features on the DVD outside of that.

Well, that’s all for this blog post. I’m glad after all this time that I’ve finally finished this and can get to posting about the season of Survivor: Gabon starting this Sunday. With posts on Sundays and the show still on hiatus, don’t expect any more random Wednesday posts during this hiatus. You might not get them on the next one either. But this post is finally now done. Sorry for all of you Addicted to Survivor people who were waiting so long for this. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

What Happened to Voting Confessionals?

Maybe it is just me, but it seems like one of the most well known parts of Survivor isn’t there at all in the more recent seasons. Is it just me or are there no more voting confessionals in the show anymore? What could the reason for their disappearance be? Are people just not giving good ones anymore?

While a small part of the show, voting confessionals often were a good part of it whenever someone had an interesting thing to say that was worth airing, we would see it. There were interesting things from what Gervase said when voting against Hayden in Blood versus Water to Eliza voting against Twila in Vanuatu. We could get more insight into what people said in these confessionals. But now it seems as if they are gone from the show entirely. Surely contestants nowadays still do them, right?

As each newer season happens, they seem to be focused on showing up plenty of the game that we did not see before. We also miss a lot that used to happen in the game. Tribal councils can take up a whole entire act of the show and yet we still don’t get voting confessionals as much as we used to. Are they trying to keep us in suspense regarding who will be voted out? Is the person who is going to be voted out so obvious that they don’t want to show us something that we already know? Or are they trying to go for the viewer blindside where there is no good setup for the vote that they just want to surprise us and make it unclear who the target could be?

I don’t get why voting confessionals aren’t seen as much or at all during current seasons of Survivor. It would be part of the whole edit of good moves and whatnot that shows why someone is targeting this contestant and what they have to say about it. Now, it could be that lately people haven’t had anything interesting to say when they vote (according to the editors) and that is why we haven’t been seeing what they’ve been saying. It could also be that other stuff is shown in favor of this. It is not like we don’t get general confessionals even if we don’t get voting confessionals.

Maybe I am wrong about the whole thing and we have been getting voting confessionals on the show that I just don’t notice. What are your thoughts on this? Have they been airing and they just aren’t as notable anymore to be noticed? Or maybe they stopped airing them for good, which is an issue in my mind. I hope that they can return. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.