Sunday, June 14, 2020

Survivor: Gabon episode 8: The Apple in the Garden of Eden

It should be noted that I’m working on this post and the previous post at the same time. I plan to do that a whole lot this season until there’s no season left to blog about. I will also be switching between telling you about an old post from my Madam Secretary blog and telling you about an old post from my Good Wife blog. I used to alternate like this between old posts from blogs in my Madam Secretary blog and was working on two posts most of the time. I actually find this fun and not too confusing.

Let’s get to the idols from David versus Goliath. Dan was the first person to find an idol. He then found another one. He wasted one on Angelina. He played the other one on himself. It would have been a successful play, had it not be nullified. If he still had two idols, he could have played the second one to save himself in the end. Davie also found an idol. He gave that idol to Christian. Christian played the idol on himself successfully. Or did Davie play the idol on Christian? I forget.

Christian later found another idol and played it on himself. It was successful again. Nick found an idol and wasted it out of paranoia. Davie found an idol that was only good for one tribal council. While he could have possibly made it last longer, he ultimately did not risk it and played it at the tribal, negating only minority votes. Angelina then found an idol and played it the last time it could be played, a waste as it turned out, but still good to play.

When I was writing the old Madam Secretary blog post that you’ll see here, I was wondering which of the football teams I should root for since the Rams were leaving St. Louis. I still stayed loyal to them, but there were other football teams that I root for now as well. I realize now that since I now do a group on facebook called Still a Rams fan, I could do an account of Rams versus the Cardinals since both are teams that once played in St. Louis and then left. I never posted in my Madam Secretary blog after the show had ended last year since there was still a lot of football season left to be played what my new ranking of the teams I have are. Note that I don’t root for the Cardinals and root against them unless they play either the Bears or the Patriots. I did meet a random man who is a Phoenix Cardinals loyalist.

Despite the episode being out in January, I do talk some about March Madness in the blog and might mention it here in this blog now since there’s no other place to put it for now. I will have to see who is in it in order to know who to root for based on who I have in the past. I also talk about being behind on tapes in the blog, something that often happens in the present as well. I also mention the play-off game of Steelers and Broncos which helped inspire me to root for both teams. I also don’t post the usual sign off for some reason. Read the post here.


I will not be talking about the March Madness tournament in this blog this time around since there will not be one this year for the first time ever. Maybe it will happen next year if this show is still on and they do a tournament like you think that they would. We’ll see what happens or if they reschedule the whole thing entirely like they might, but probably won’t.

Something that is worth mentioning again, but also worth randomly burying to this part of the update is the whole idea as to whether or not Sandra quit the game. Sure, Denise voted her out. But then we saw her quit practically immediately afterwards. Jeff may have said that she didn’t quit, but he has been soft on quitters since at least San Juan del Sur. If you want proof that she quit, look at this page:


While I was smart to stay out of one of the quitter discussions in the addicted to Survivor group, I did talk in another one where it mentioned that the queen stays queen. She could have stayed in the game and tried to get back in. Sure, she might have lost the challenge. But she could have won. And the man who started this thread seemed to mock others by constantly saying haha so often to people. I turned off the notifications for the post at some point. A lot of people who had the side of Sandra quitting either left the group or were removed from it for some reason. I wasn’t looking to become one of them and will snooze the group if something like that comes up again.

Ultimately, the way people feel about Sandra’s quit may be similar to the term second cousin. It is not the correct term for your cousin’s kid. The kid of yours is second cousins with your cousin’s kid. But there are many people who get annoyed with it to the point of becoming belligerent in some ways. The point of the whole thing is that you can’t really talk about it at all like you want to and know that you should just stay clear whether they ever accept the right way of saying it or not. While having this discussion once with one of my uncles, he declared that I was once removed, which was probably meant by him to be an insult but instead was just him stating a fact. I know and believe that Sandra quit. If others don’t want to believe the correct terms, that’s on them. And if people post again that the queen is still queen, instead of arguing that Sandra abdicated her throne, I’d switch tactics and go on to explain how I felt that Denise dethroned her since that fact seems to be agreed upon.

I think that the last post of this blog that I shared to that facebook group wound up being deleted. I haven’t shared it since to even my own page, much less the group that I’m more likely to put it on now since I don’t share as much to my own page anymore. The main issue was that just one person (as far as I could tell) wanted me to delete the whole entire blog and now I’m copying and pasting posts that were already put in this blog to different documents on my laptop. Maybe I will still get blow back for this blog or maybe I won’t. I am willing to delete other posts or edit out offensive parts of posts I won’t delete. What I do know is that I might put parts of other blogs on my laptop as back-ups and I do plan to share this blog on facebook again just to see what the response is. I just hope that I remember not to share this post in particular to the group that I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

I realize that I forgot to tell you about some of the changes that I’ve had with watching shows on DVD and other formats. I finished watching the select episodes DVD of Power Rangers: Megaforce. This froze the original Charmed off of the list and replaced it with Community again. I’m hoping that I can finish Community before I finish anything else. While I won’t know for sure when or maybe even if I’ll get it like I ordered, there should be another old season of Survivor that I’ll be getting on DVD. I’ll have to check the status of it on Amazon at some point.

If you read my TV blog, you would have noticed at one point that I had a link to five videos in a series that I had made reviewing episodes of the remake of Charmed. I should share every playlist to videos in my YouTube channel as a result. Until I make enough of them to share in the future, enjoy a private playlist of all the videos that I have liked in the reverse order that I liked them in.


Movie update: Let’s start with the Saturday where I would be watching the next movie. On that day, I saw Celtic Woman: Songs from the Heart. I replaced that with Celtic Woman: Believe. The next day, I saw Rain Man. I replaced that with The Omega Code. On Monday, I watched Back to the Future from the six oldest choices. I replaced that with Back to the Future Part 2. Since it was Memorial Day and I was not working, I had the chance to watch a movie then. Don’t expect movies on Mondays or Thursdays when I work so I’ll have more time to work. Also don’t expect them on Fridays when I’ll want to turn into the repeats of CSI: Miami on My Network TV.

On Wednesday, I watched Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. I replaced that with Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. I will be watching The Phantom Menace again to hear the commentary that comes with it. On Saturday, I watched Celtic Woman: Believe. I replaced that with Celtic Woman: Destiny. This is more or less where I stop for now. I’ll get to the next part later.

It was on Sunday, May 31st that I rolled the next episode and will get to watch that. I hope that I can stay ahead of this pretty good like I was the first time that I watched Survivor: Borneo and was able to give it an update every week until I was done with it. Note that since I hadn’t started the Sunday updates of Gabon back again, that I updated my TV blog that day instead. These updates will start soon, as you will now be able to tell. There might be more changes with blogs that I’ll get to soon.

We begin with Randy feeling insulted as usual. He explains why he voted for Susie, even though he wanted Dan out. Corrine gets upset that it seems that people are against her. Susie feels that she has the power in the end. Meanwhile, the other tribe also returns from their tribal council and talk about how they voted out Ace. Matty wanted to be loyal to Ace so he voted for Crystal. Both tribes are convinced that there will be a merge coming soon.

During the daytime, the Kota tribe gets a spool in their treemail. Corrine is plotting her revenge. They think that a merge is coming up soon and Randy is convinced that it will be the Kota six to the end. Matty seems to like this place. There is a box with a warning not to open until after the feast is over. There is a secret note that Ken notices. But too many other people notice it and it becomes common knowledge, thanks to Charlie ruining the secret.

They have to find the idol before the beach leaves. They think that they should just throw this idol away and Marcus actually wants to go through this. Randy finds the idol itself. No one wants the idol as it would be common knowledge who has it. They all say that it is the apple in the garden of Eden. They decide to throw it into the ocean, despite the fact that this is littering. Sugar is the only one who doesn’t care that much as she already has an idol. Marcus thinks that this mission is a success. After drawing for new rocks, they learn that there will now be two new tribes as an unprecedented second swap takes place in the game.

Here are the new tribes: Fang is now Charlie, Corrine, Matty, Randy, and Sugar while the new Kota is now Bob, Crystal, Ken, Marcus, and Susie. Marcus is convinced that he doesn’t need immunity to get to the finals in the end. But did he make one of the dumbest moves ever? I would say yes. In fact, I would say that the entire final ten earns the gold award for dumbest move of the season.

The new Kota arrives at their old camp and gets used to their new life. They agree that they have to stay together and not go to tribal council. Ken thinks that his only ally is Crystal. Marcus and Crystal have a connection since her cousin is one of his friends. Marcus is convinced that he can trust Crystal to the point of throwing out the playbook. Crystal admits that this gesture is just for show as she did the same thing to Ace before blindsiding him.

Back on the Fang tribe, Charlie is certain that the Kota tribe members will stick together on the new tribes as they each have an advantage on the new tribes. Corrine is certain that Charlie will go home next. Matty is sure that Randy already flipped to Kota from his original tribe of Fang. Matty leads Sugar to believe that she was manipulated by Ken into voting out Ace since Ace might not have actually been gunning for her after all. Marcus isn’t sure of Susie since they think that she is a wildcard. What’s a bit surprising to me is that SORT OF SPOILER she comes within one vote of winning END OF SPOILER and that people haven’t gotten rid of her sooner. Also, Matty wants Sugar’s idol if he thinks that he is in danger of being voted out.

What people are forgetting is that Susie was originally part of the Fang tribe. People know that about Randy. They are also forgetting that Sugar might have more Kota connections that they realize. The main question on many people’s minds now were what would have happened if they had stuck with Dan in the previous vote and got rid of Susie then instead. We have no way of knowing if the tribe swap would have gone the same way or not. But Dan would have been unlikely to switch.

As the Fang tribe gets treemail awaiting tribal council, Randy suggests throwing the challenge so that he, Corrine, and Charlie can get rid of Matty. They consider doing this as it still might remain too risky to take out Sugar. The tribes gather to a challenge and many criticize it for being an individual challenge that was set up as a pretend tribal one. But I still don’t know who this fake swap and merge was going to help or not help in the end.

Crystal is out of the challenge almost instantly. Sugar is right behind her. Randy and Corrine get out of the challenge at the same time. Marcus drops out at some point. Bob and Matty are the last people there for both of their tribes. Matty mocks others and laughs. It seems like it could be either one of them out of the game next. Bob is out first giving Fang the immunity challenge. I’m sure that this leaves Bob with a good chance of wanting a rematch in the future. Randy thinks that this win is good. Everything seems to be up in the air. Susie will do whatever it takes to get in the top three.

Marcus talks about the less than ideal result after the challenge loss. He thinks that either Ken or Crystal should be voted out next. He even talks to Crystal about voting out Ken. He wants to promise that he will get rid of Susie at some point in the future. Crystal doesn’t like this idea. Marcus talks to Susie about getting rid of Crystal instead of Ken. She will do whatever it takes to get to the end. She is becoming quite a ruthless person. Crystal talks to Ken about the fact that his name was a target. The both of them want to bring in Susie to vote out their planned target. Susie isn’t sure yet how she will vote and it is scary that she doesn’t know what she will do.

At tribal council, Crystal talks about the difference between the Fang tribe and Kota tribe. Bob regrets his last vote as he was expecting a merge. Jeff implies that there isn’t one yet. Marcus thinks that Ken is frustrated in some ways. Others feel that the vote is clear cut. Susie has already made her decision. The tribal council seemed pretty quick. While Marcus and Bob stick together to vote against Ken, the other tribe members of Ken, Crystal, and Susie vote out Marcus. Since no one has an idol, no idols are played. Thus, Marcus is voted out of the game.

On the next Survivor, the Fang or Fong tribe still has lots of problems while they continue in the game and Ken believes that he is in control. Marcus isn’t ready to forgive the people that voted him out and likes Bob, but isn’t sure that Bob will last in the game.

I feel that Marcus was a great player who just made a bad mistake, mainly throwing the idol into the sea. He showed too much of his hand and was voted out of the game because of trusting the wrong person with valuable information. I think that the twist, while influential in his exit, mattered less than people seem to think that it did. But I’ll get to more of that later.

Meanwhile, given the type of player that Marcus was and how he was as liked as he was and how strong he was, winning immunity in an individual way twice before the merge, something only possible in Micronesia and this season, that he might be back to play again, even if I don’t know of any offers he might have had. I will give him about a 65% chance that he will return to play the game again.

Total confessional count: Marcus- 19, Matty- 15, Susie- 7, Ken- 15, Crystal- 22, Corrine- 14, Bob- 6, Sugar- 15, Randy- 25, Charlie- 13.

New confessionals this episode: Charlie- 2, Marcus- 7, Matty- 5, Susie- 4, Ken- 2, Crystal- 4, Corrine- 4, Bob- 0, Sugar- 4, Randy- 8.


There’s not too much else to say here as I end this post for today. I’m hoping that I can have enough of this season written soon that you won’t have to worry about many posts not coming until later. I think that it shouldn’t be too hard. I was really lucky that things worked out the way they did when I saw Survivor: Borneo the first time. I do plan to do posts on that season again a second time. I have even written the first one of it, but don’t expect to see it for quite a while. Besides, you can always read what I wrote the first time again in the meantime. I should hopefully be back as usual with the next episode next week. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

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