Survivor: Gabon episode 9: The Brains Behind Everything

Something that I wonder a bit about now is the loved ones event on Winners at War and how they would have split Amber and Rob’s loved ones if one was in the game and the other was on the edge of extinction. It might not have been too hard to split them up randomly or however people would have wanted them to be split up. But it doesn’t matter much anyways.

While idols have always caused craziness and have had some issues with fans, they were never as bad as they could have been until Edge of Extinction. Contrary to rumors you might have heard or beliefs from fans, production never outright handed someone an idol until this season.

Let’s start at the beginning, a pretty good place to start. In it, Lauren gave an idol to Chris, but it was wasted with only one vote negated. Aubry found an idol, but was voted out with it in her possession with it becoming void on the edge of extinction. Kelley found an idol, but made the same mistake Aubry did. Rick was given an idol that he gave half of to David which he had to as he had to give his idol to someone. David gave his half back to Rick who then wasted it on David.

Rick then found an idol on his own and successfully played it on himself. He then found another idol and played it on himself successfully again. Chris was also given an idol by winning reentry, gave half of the idol to Rick, got it back, and saved himself from elimination at the last vote idols were good for. Rick also found one last idol and played it for Gavin who wasted it with no votes against him.

In the next episode of The Good Wife that I had blogged about a while ago, I talked about the football doubleheaders and seeing the episodes of various shows in wrong orders. I mention that I would record a lot at once such as three things at once and now can even do four things at once. I also mention the judge being evil and the defendant not being all that they say they are.

http://adamdeckergoodwifetvshow.blogspot.com/2016/01/october-eighteenth-2015s-episode.html

It only seems appropriate that I should tell you about the podcast that I was on again since it relates to what happened in the last episode. Marcus was voted out of the game and some feel that he was unfairly treated because of that second swap. Having just seen that episode again, I have to note that he made some dumb mistakes as well and it might not have just been the twist. His old tribe even tried to throw the challenge, only for Matty alone to pull out a win. If you want to watch that podcast, here it is again. I’ll mention where in the podcast this was in case you just want to skip to that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1P6L5Wab18 (most screwed by a twist starts at around 36:30)

Movie update: On the Sunday after watching a small part of the previous episode but before seeing the rest of it, I watched Back to the Future part 2 and replaced that with Back to the Future part 3. I could have watched another movie then, but decided not to and saw a speedrun race instead. On Wednesday, I watched Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie. I replaced that with Toy Story.

On Saturday, I watched Celtic Woman: Destiny. I replaced that with the original concert. On Sunday, I watched The Omega Code. I replaced that with The Omega Code 2. On Wednesday, I watched The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and replaced that with The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. On Saturday, I watched Mr. Bean’s Holiday and replaced that with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. On Sunday, I watched The Omega Code 2. I replaced that with Raising Arizona.

I wound up rolling this episode on Monday, June 15, 2020. I have a lot of TV blog posts to write and can only hope that I get them all written in time. I don’t think that I failed yet. With me having to do a post of that other blog every time I write a post for this blog, it can be quite bothersome coming up with something new each and every time in addition to when else I normally publish that blog every week when I write posts for it already. I do plan to show the schedule of when all my blogs are posted in a month at some point in the future towards the end of the month. I plan to start this next post if it happens at all.

We begin with Kota returning from tribal council. Ken is glad that he wasn’t voted out of the game as it easily could have been him instead of Marcus. Ken is convinced that Bob will go next. Bob still makes a joke about it as he says that he would be history even though he teaches science.

On the Fang tribe, Matty is hoping for a merge as he feels that he’s in danger every day he’s on this tribe instead of a merged on. Corrine is wanting a merge as well. They do a bit of practicing for the challenge and they gather for it. Fang members cannot believe that Marcus is voted out. Some feel that he did not deserve to get voted out. Fang wins the reward despite some bickering at the end. Bob is then sent to Exile Island since people feel that he can find the idol. Only Sugar already has the idol. Randy doesn’t like how the tribe was working. The Fang tribe then goes on their reward to a Gabon village. While they are not that happy a tribe at first, they still enjoy dancing with the villagers. Matty says that this is the only reward that he was on thus far, forgetting that he was on one earlier.

Back on Kota, Ken talk about being the provider in the game right now. He wants to take someone out before they take him out and he feels that he can win the game. Bob is on Exile Island and he looks for the idol. He finds where it would be if it should be there at all. He then uses material to make a fake idol that he will use in the game. It is like how one could use a fake gun at a bank robbery.

The Fang tribe gets treemail about the upcoming challenge. Randy doesn’t want to reunite with Crystal or Sasquatch as he calls her. The tribes merge at the challenge. Bob feels lucky since there is now a new hope for him in this game. Perhaps it can defeat the empire.

All a contestant has to do to win this challenge is make a fire. Susie gets the fire going and it grows really quickly. Sugar makes fire as well. After making the fire, all Susie has to do is let it burn and she winds up winning immunity as a result. Jeff tells them that they are all going to the old Fang camp. Randy hated Fang from the beginning and wants to vote out Crystal tonight.

Matty talks about people not staying as a good, cohesive tribe at the start as after a quick exchange of niceties, they immediately talk about who to vote out of the game. Charlie and Corrine both think that Sugar is the swing vote and they want to work with her. Corrine is even convinced that Sugar is sold even though Corrine was always mean to Sugar. Ken wants to vote out Charlie since it was Charlie who pointed out the idol clue that lead to it being thrown into the sea. Sugar likes being the woman of the hour. Meanwhile, the merged tribe will be called Nobag which is Gabon backwards. Sugar doesn’t trust any of these guys and doesn’t know which of the two tribes to vote for.

We then get to tribal council. Jeff talks about the tension at the reward challenge and Randy thinks that he could improve their already good chances at winning. Crystal butts herself into the conversation as she asks why Randy hates her. He explains that he felt that she was the reason that they were losing so much in the end. Charlie thinks that people need to process more of what was going on in the game. Jeff talks to Sugar about how she might have done better without being with the tribes most of the time. We then get to the votes. Charlie, Randy, Corrine, and Bob vote for Crystal. Meanwhile, Sugar, Matty, Susie, Ken, and Crystal vote for Charlie and he is voted out as a result. Jeff is confused by C. C. being written down by Randy, causing confusion.

On the next Survivor, Randy is causing problems in the game and many people want to get the vote right in some way, but Ken still wants to control the game and could shake things up in many ways. What will happen in the end? I guess that we’ll see in the future. Well, we already know as this aired quite a long time ago in the end.

Total confessional count: Sugar- 17, Randy- 30, Charlie- 15, Matty- 20, Susie- 7, Ken- 18, Crystal- 22, Corrine- 17, Bob- 9.

New confessionals this episode: Randy- 5, Charlie- 2, Matty- 5, Susie- 0, Ken- 3, Crystal- 0, Corrine- 3, Bob- 3, Sugar- 2.

Charlie played a great game and it just must have sucked for him to wind up on the wrong side of the numbers in the end. While he might seem like one of the more obscure players from this season, he was also one of the better ones. I don’t know if he wants to do Survivor again and also have no idea if he has been asked back. Still, I’d give him about a 59% chance of returning to play the game again. I should be back next Sunday with the next Survivor episode. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.