Survivor: China episode 2: My Mom is Going to Kill Me!

While it might seem strange to do this, I will be sharing Fridays with other blogs. You are certain to only see this season’s blog posts on some Fridays and not all of them. Even if I did have enough written to cover all of the posts for all of the Fridays, I still wouldn’t be able to get it done since I’m yielding at least the first Friday to The Good Wife blog and probably the second one to The Good Fight blog. Know that if I roll Survivor, I will have to update my TV blog and that still includes Fridays getting priority for that blog instead of this one. It is hard to juggle things around and blogger is already getting more complicated as we speak with the next set of changes that they are forcing on us.

Now, I feel like venting a bit about the new blogger that I and everyone who uses this site are going to have to put up with. For some reason, they are trying to make it better for mobile users. Who is going to use blogger from a phone? You aren’t going to get much of substance or value from doing this on a phone. How and why would someone do this on a phone? It would make writing things very difficult and you’d only be able to do shorter posts. It might work and make sense for others like Jim Brickwell or Hyperbole and a half, but it doesn’t make that much sense for me.

At first, I wasn’t sure that it would be affected too much, or at all, since they said that legacy, or the old blogger, would still be optionally available. It still says that on the legacy blogger. But there was a note that said that they would be getting rid of this in September. Of course, this is after saying that the new blogger would be the default in late June, only that didn’t happen when it did.

Still, perhaps even more worrisome was an email that Google sent that said if I didn’t start using the new blogger (and I’m sure this goes for every blogger writer, including the inactive ones), it could take the existing posts away in some way, making me wonder how much I’ll have to back up in some way. (They did say that it would either go to be stored on my Google Drive account, which I naturally have having a Google account, or some other thing would happen that I don’t remember. I don’t know how to control which of those two things would wind up happening. I would prefer it on Drive instead of the other thing.) I want what I write to remain visible for sure.

Now if this were just an issue I had with a new format, then there wouldn’t be anything worth putting in this blog and complaining about as a result. But when I try to use the new blogger on this laptop, I could not do the most basic thing that is pivotal to having this blog or any others: publishing a new post. It was at this point that I saw five options that were going to have to happen with my blogs.

Option one: It would seem that the issue might only exist and happen with a laptop that I’ve had since 2009. I’ve had a newer one since 2017 that I use at times that could potentially do blogs on. I did test it to see if the newer blogger might work with it, but haven’t done an actual post with it. It would be a bit tedious to transfer all my blogs from one laptop to another since I might need another word processing document on the new laptop or see if things would work with the documents there. Thus, this option would have me using the newer laptop for all of the blogs in the future.

Option two: I start using a new blogging format such as Word Press instead of blogger. If I did that, this would mean that things aren’t over but just transitioned. I’m not sure that I like this option as much as people might not like the domain suddenly changing to something new.

Option three: I stop all blogs immediately. If they are making it impossible for me to make new posts, then I see no other option than simply giving up all the bloggers that I do. I don’t know if this would solve the visibility problem at all, but I’m okay with that. Seriously. I spend far too much time blogging and should be doing more important things like a job search or maybe finding romance. While I’d hate for everything to be over, it might be good for me to detox from this addition.

Option four: Hope that the issues go away. I mean, for a good chunk of time this year, it kept saying that I would not be able to get on YouTube anymore with this outdated laptop, but I still can today and the warning seems to have gone away. I can only hope that maybe I suddenly can use the new blogger on my current laptop if I keep trying, even if and when the transition becomes permanent. The email that I talked about said that it would be September of 2021, even though blogger just says September, which implies the one that’s happening this year.

Option five: See if legacy winds up staying after all. It wouldn’t be the first time that backlash was able to change something that blogger was forcing on its users. I mean, after backlash to a ban on pictures with nudity in blogs, they were able to change it back so that users could allow that. Maybe if I complain about the issues with the new blogger and enough other users feel the same way, then it would be here to stay after all.

Right now, it seems that option one might be the one that I’m going with right now. I mean, you should have already seen a post done on my other laptop and posted on this blog through the newer blogger format. I can only hope that much of what I’ve written and still plan to write stays around.

Still, I’m planning to do a process of backing up posts of all of my blogs. I’ve already done that with this blog. I might as well do this with all seven of them. I plan to roll for what to back up so that I can copy and paste it to various documents on my laptop for the future. It shouldn’t be hard to work out seven options since one can go away after rolling it with a list of the other six given for this later. I doubt that I will ever get to a complete list since all are still active in some way and I’d want to write all of one year’s post before I start backing them up.

Now let’s get to the links that I have from Survivor fandom about the challenges that start with a where a is not an article this time around. I don’t know if I will have done this post or the next one on Gabon so you will see the other a challenges in the other post, depending on which one is done first. Now let’s get to this next grouping of challenges to see if they can be done while social distancing or not.

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Air_Raid

This challenge is also known as Gone Shootin’. In this challenge, the contestants would have to get over obstacles and shot targets with sandbags with a slingshot. This could possibly be done in some way while social distancing if parts are done one at a time or whatever disinfecting they could do before the challenge in question.

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Around_the_Bend

This challenge is also known as Rope-a-Dope, Connecting with Loved Ones, Brains and Brawn, The Bottom Line, Tangled up in Blue, and Don’t Call it a Comeback. In it, the contestants have to make their way through rope tangles quicker than others. But that was too boring a challenge Survivor producers so they combined it with other challenges. It twice had a connection with a challenge called Paddle Out which I’ll get to in a later post. David versus Goliath combined it with Pyramid Scheme. I’ll skip to the p challenges for the next post of this season’s blog updates. Note that this is not the pee challenge that was done in Nicaragua called Jump Shot, which only became that because of what Fabio did during it. Note that this challenge could probably be done while social distancing, or at least the basic version of this challenge could be which doesn’t combine it with anything else.

TV shows I watch on DVD update: Power Rangers season 1 volume 1 is replaced by season 1 volume 2. Winnie the Pooh graduates to oldest list with Power Rangers season 3 replacing the other Power Rangers season and mystery choice #5 replacing Winnie the Pooh. You will have to read my Good Wife blog to see what this mystery choice is. Survivor: China is now the sixth option on the rolling list.

After whenever you see this post, I think that I will start a process with my YouTube channel to ensure that something gets done with it. You see, on certain Fridays on YouTube, I review episodes of the TV show Moonlight. I’m posting a playlist of these Moonlight episode reviews here. I’m planning to post one of these reviews every Friday you don’t see an update of my Survivor blog until I’m done with doing all of them. I do plan to share more videos I do on YouTube in at least one of my blogs at some point in the future, since I’ve already shared one before.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0BZfIBtjHc&list=PLO8vECGH5CX9KCLDjTzHLdlAQFE-nxceg

Note that I finished watching Rare: Creatures of the Photo Arc and replaced it with Flashpoint season 4. There is some confusion and differences with the Flashpoint collection that I have and I have already watched a lot ahead on it already. Also note that Power Rangers season 3 is off of the list again in favor of Power Rangers season 1, volume 1. This choice remains number 6 on the list.

I rolled this episode on Tuesday, August 25, 2020. This will mean that my TV blog will be updated today and, since that was a vacated day (if that makes sense) then I will be updating the TV blog on every Tuesday for the foreseeable future again. I really need to have more of them ready, but think that I can get that and other posts done soon.

We begin with Dave talking about his leadership role in the tribe that he has now. Some don’t like the ways that he is bossing them around. Peih-Gee is like the second in command of the tribe now from what is seems based on the current dynamics. There is enough rain as they try to get fire going or at least talk about doing it.

Courtney talks about Jean-Robert and how he seems to be lazy a lot. Amanda talks about having an alliance with Todd. They are trying to pull in Aaron as a patsy. Jean-Robert’s work ethic is brought up. I would bring up my own, but I don’t feel like it. He says that he wants to do more.

Meanwhile, Jamie talks about trying to start a fire and a mess is made by mistake. She talks with others about trying to make fire and food as well. Ashley is annoyed at the lack of things going on. She is then accused of bitching as she claims that she just wants food.

The tribes then gather for a challenge. Jeff says that there will be a twist after the challenge that will be revealed once it is over. The challenge starts with it raining. Clothes come off during the challenge when others try to defend. Amanda being topless for a moment makes her comment the name of the episode. But she is able to score a point for her tribe, Fei Long, as a result. Another match up sees similar issues and James scores the point, winning the challenge for his tribe. Fei Long then gets to kidnap a member of the other tribe. They kidnap Jamie. She is also given a message in a bottle.

It has been raining a lot. They seem to live on a lake now. They talk about certain issues with the camp. But a fire area remains set up and standing. Jamie talks about being on this tribe. She is given a bamboo container that she has to give to someone on this tribe container a hidden immunity idol clue. Jamie isn’t sure how her tribe isn’t winning since the other one is dysfunctional.

Meanwhile, Ashley and Dave have a battle of words, constantly bickering. She finds him patronizing and annoying. Leslie talks about how she feels sick and knows that God has her here for a reason. Jamie gives her the idol as she wants to pick the weakest player to keep this tribe weak. She tells Todd about the idol. It is said to be in an obvious place. Todd wants to be the only one with knowledge of it.

We then gather for the immunity challenge. The challenge is six on six. It seems a bit early to do that. They could have waited until the next episode to do that. Zhan Hu struggles in the challenge, largely due to Dave being tired at the battering ram phase of the challenge. They never catch up and lose as a result. Both tribes then return to camp.

Dave talks about how he feels that he is behind their challenge loss. He wants to move forward now as a result. Ashley wants to get rid of Dave, but doesn’t want to be a crazy person about it, wanting to wait until tribal council to make her case. Others on the tribe agree that either Ashley or Dave has to go, but they don’t know what will happen yet.

At tribal council, Ashley admits that she and Dave keep fighting with each other. Dave is trying too hard to prove himself when he could be leading the tribe more. Sherea gets into a disagreement with nearly everyone over not enjoying this thus far. Ashley admits that she’s voting for Dave yet Dave admits that he thinks he’ll get more votes than just her. Jeff thinks that they have a good group therapy session. When the votes are cast, Ashley is the only one who votes against Dave. Dave, Sherea, Peih-Gee, Erik, Frosti, and Jamie all vote Ashley out of the game.

On the next Survivor, Dave still has issues with his tribe, Todd and Courtney are potential targets on their tribe, and the game gets even more brutal on both tribes. As the bear or whatever it is from the Ambergers and Wootbeer song would say, that’s about it.

Total confessional count: Aaron- 3, Frosti- 2, Jean-Robert- 2, Leslie- 7, Dave- 6, Sherea- 1, Erik- 1, Ashley- 5, James- 1, Amanda- 2, Courtney- 3, Todd- 5, Jamie- 5, Peih-Gee- 4, Denise- 1.

New confessionals this episode: Denise- 0, Aaron- 1, Frosti- 1, Jean-Robert- 1, Leslie- 5, Dave- 4, Sherea- 0, Erik- 1, Ashley- 3, James- 0, Amanda- 1, Courtney- 2, Todd- 2, Jamie- 5, Peih-Gee- 1.

Whether or not Zhan Hu made the right choice by getting rid of Ashley instead of Dave will be seen soon over the course of the season. Were they both poison or was just one of them? Regardless of how you feel about Ashley, I am obligated to tell you about what has happened to her since she played Survivor. It was literally the day after Edge of Extinction aired its finale when she was found dead by what was believed to be a suicide and has not, to my knowledge, been ruled anything else. While I like to keep track of what I feel is a contestant’s possibility of returning to play Survivor again, she is certain to have a 0% chance of playing the game again.

As I figure out the new blogger in the future, should that still be happening like I think that it is, I will have to see how or if it will work in the future. I’m hoping that I can still include tables like I do to show you the planned schedule of when I’m posting each blog in future months. I also hope that I can still do different fonts of blogs, like I rely on for four of them now. And while you don’t see it much in blogs, I do like having the ability to post pictures in them like I’m used to. Anyways, here is the planned schedule of the blog posts that I plan to do in September.

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Not September	Not September	1: Madam Secretary	2: Survivor (if not on Sunday)	3: TV	4: The Good Wife	5: CSI: Cyber
6: Survivor (maybe)	7: Elementary (if not on Sunday)	8: TV	9: Survivor (if not on Sunday)	10: The Good Fight	11: Survivor (maybe)	12: freebie
13: Survivor (maybe)	14: freebie	15: TV	16: Survivor (if not on Friday or Sunday)	17: Madam Secretary	18: Survivor (maybe)	19: freebie
20: Survivor (maybe)	21: freebie	22: TV	23: Survivor (if not on Friday or Sunday)	24: TV	25: The Good Fight	26: freebie
27: Survivor (maybe)	28: freebie	29: TV	30: Survivor (if not on Sunday)	Not September	Not September	Not September

There’s not too much else to say as I end this post. It will be weird not having Survivor at the fall as I still don’t know when they will be filming a new season or even if they will. I doubt that the show is over, but we’ll see what goes on with it. I am planning to do weekly posts where you would have seen me cover random topics like during the usual hiatus if you aren’t seeing a post like this on an episode of an old season. Hopefully the transition to the new blogger doesn’t screw me over. If I ever decide to scale back to just one post a week, I will let you know. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Redemption Island Challenges: What Works and What Doesn’t

While Edge of Extinction is a horrible idea that creates far too many problems, there may be hope yet for the concept of Redemption Island. While we are more likely to see Edge of Extinction again than we are with Redemption Island (probably, if I had to take a guess), if there is hope for Redemption Island, the hope rests entirely on the challenges that they use for it. While it takes out the concept of all of the advantages that we see in the show today, that can be quite a good thing. But let’s get to the main point of this post. What works and doesn’t for a Redemption Island duel?

Let’s start with the failures. The reason why I hate a leg up more than any other challenge (possibly, as I might hate other ones and will find out as I do research on various challenges and do hate that one monstrosity where they simply picked rocks for the loved ones challenge) was because they put an untested challenge as a duel. And it wasn’t just any duel. It was the final and arguably most important of all the duels that was brand new. This was despite an assurance that every duel was a challenge that had appeared on the show before. (They do seem to lie to us at times on Survivor. I could point out some examples of it, but that’s better for another post.)

In addition to challenges that were brand new, there were other challenges that just didn’t work out for other reasons. Maybe they should have known that it wasn’t just a good idea for an individual challenge or should appear differently than it has before to work as a duel. The other main problem is that there are some that only work for when there are just two people competing in a duel. We saw this in Blood versus Water where one could get second place and stay in the game by seeing what the first place person did with their puzzle. Thus, you could see exactly what happened when the first place person did what they wanted to help a specific person stay in the game and off the jury for now.

Of course, there are good things that can happen with Redemption Island duels. What works as a good challenge? It is hard to go wrong with an endurance challenge. What better way of proving that you deserve to stay in the game then by simply outlasting the other players? There are some ones that are bad endurance challenges to use, as stated above, but most of them work and are such staples of the show of Survivor that they should be used.

If we don’t want an endurance challenge used, then it makes sense to keep using prison break or any other simple challenges that work on an individual basis. The tribal challenges would be used a whole lot less in seasons like that, but there are ways to change some challenges that are tribal to be done on a more individual basis. We have seen this before and we can see it again. We can only hope that it does not change what we already like about a challenge.

While I don’t have the time to find and go through all the duels they’ve used in Survivor in this post, know that I am planning to go through a lot of them in future posts including one that you’ll see in the next post that I do of this blog on a Friday. I am ending the post here since going through all of the duels is best done for other days in the future and other posts of this blog. I hope that what I wrote here is good enough. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

How to Deal with Survivor's Extended Hiatus

Just a quick note that I'm doing this post on a different laptop in order to help deal with the transition of blogger that is going on right now. I might even put a picture in this as I want to make sure that what I've done in the past can be done on the new blogger as well. I am quite annoyed with this and have to use a different laptop if I want there to be any hope (it seems) of me using the new blogger at all. I will get more into my issues with that in a different blog post. Now, I should get to the actual introduction.

A lot of Survivor fans are having to deal with what is effectively a channel that won't come in as we have to wait a long time before a new Survivor season airs. What are we supposed to do during the meantime? Read a book? Go outside and play? Talk to friends and family on the phone? Who would really do such ridiculous things?

In all seriousness though, there are different ways of handling the fact that we don't yet know when Survivor will be filming a new season, much less airing said season. It could be over a year or even longer. But what is the best way of dealing with the fact that there won't be any new Survivor episodes this fall for the first time since 2000?

One could watch old seasons of Survivor on DVD or some other format. One could catch up on Survivor blogs that people still post during the hiatus of the show and date back until the season of One World that also covers some old seasons too. One could read Survivor blogs that aren't mine. One could listen to old Survivor podcasts that various sites and people have done if they are still accessible. Or one could just watch whatever other shows happen to be on TV that aren't Survivor.

I have no idea just how much people are podcasting about the past of Survivor like they could be. Has Rob Cesterino done podasts on Amazon or All-Stars, in addition to seasons that he was not on? What about Tocantins, which his podcast buddy Stephen Fishbach was on? He could even have the boots from certain episodes appear as the guests on it. But one would hope that they are able to do something so that they can keep people entertained.

How are you dealing with Survivor's airing gap? You may be awaiting the next season for tons of different reasons. Maybe you are supposed to be a player for any of the next seasons. I heard that they were casting all the way up to season 44 potentially. Who knows just how much they will be able to film in advance when they are able to start filming again? There could be a lot of seasons in waiting for the future when they can film Survivor again. I'd like to know how you are managing and keep in mind that you can read a book, spend time outside, and talk to people on the phone. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor: Gabon- Hero or Villain

Well, I’m now doing an analysis of the Gabon cast and whether or not I think someone from the cast was a hero, villain, or neither in the event that they didn’t really come across as one or the other. Now that I’ve seen more of the season again so I got a better idea of who these people are, I have a good idea of where I’d rank some of the players now.

Michelle: She didn’t have much of a story to her time in the game, being the first boot, but she did have enough to her story to make me think that there is a way to label her game. She was a bit devious and mischievous, so I would label her as a villain in the end.

Gillian: Outside of the show, she made a lot of influence by creating Reality Rally. I think that she was a nice enough person inside the game that labeling her as anything other than a hero wouldn’t really work in the end. To me, she’s a hero through and through.

Paloma: Maybe it is just because she seemed nice enough in the end that I can’t think of something else to label her as, but I do believe that she is best labeled as a hero in the end, despite not doing much in the game in her short time there.

Jacquie: With little to nothing to say about her, also due to her brief time in the game, I don’t think that there is a good label among the main two to give to her. Thus, she is neither a hero nor a villain. Do you think there is a better label to give her than that?

GC: Is there anything to say about him? He wasn’t much of a player at all. He failed to do well in the game, abandoning his leadership role practically instantly after getting it. He almost didn’t show up to a challenge that he had to do. He also didn’t want to play and asked to be voted out. Thus, he is neither hero nor villain.

Kelly: I think that her departure in the game created an editing problem as they wanted us to believe that someone else could be going home when that wasn’t the case at all. She didn’t seem to do much in the game from what I saw of her and could only be labeled as neither.

Ace: Supposedly, he was considered to be a villain for the 20^th season and I totally believe that. He did have a brief story when he played in the game until his elimination was manipulated. I might actually like him to an extent. He is clearly a villain in the game.

Dan: While there isn’t much notable about him outside of his death, he was known for being a lawyer and I do think that he was a generally nice and good person, which makes him more like Legal Eagle then like the typical lawyer that some people are thought of instead. In my mind, it is clear that he is a hero, despite his brief time in the game.

Marcus: He was such a nice player who dumbly brought about his own end when someone turned on him and the idol that he could have used to save him was no longer in the game. I think that there is no other way to label him than a hero.

Charlie: I like him, even if he is one of the more obscure players this season. He could have done better if his alliance wasn’t in the minority after the fake swap. I think that it is clear that he was a hero since there is no other good label for him.

Randy: When he played in the 20^th season, he was put on the villains tribe. Was he worthy of it? I’d say that he was. While he may come off as more of a grumpy old man who doesn’t care what people think about him (and you all know who this person is in your family), that is certainly how a villain would be in the end in the game of Survivor and in life.

Corinne: She is so obviously a villain that it is hard to think of any other label for her or what else might even work as a label. What else would you call her? She’s not a hero by any means. I do feel that she does want to be liked more than she might otherwise have us believe, but otherwise doesn’t care about how people might perceive her.

Crystal: It is hard to believe that someone as pathetic as her was both on Survivor and once played in the Olympics (although it is no surprise that she used steroids). While I could label her as a villain for her annoying ways, I think that her being neither makes more sense.

Ken: With the way he casually manipulated the game, it is clear that he is a villain through and through. He convinced Sugar to get rid of her ally. He was able to see through a fake idol ruse and controlled the vote as a result. He even could have conned someone out of their necklace, but that didn’t wind up happening. I just wish that I liked him at the end of the season.

Matty: To me, it seems like he was a hero in the end. I don’t think that any other label would make sense in the end. He could have won if only he could have made fire in the end. But that didn’t end up happening and his game ended as a result.

Sugar: When she played again on the 20^th season, she was put on the heroes tribe. Many think that she was put on the wrong tribe and I think that they might be right. She was a very mean-spirited person at some points and what she did with Randy was just rude. She’s a villain through and through.

Susie: It is hard to make a case for why she was a hero as she was so obviously a villain. Who doesn’t turn on an alliance without being a villain? Can you think of anyone in Survivor history who did that without getting that label as a result?

Bob: Some people may not like him, but as a player, I see no other way of labeling him than putting him as a hero. He did a lot to win the game, staying loyal to his alliance and might be unique among the winners in a way that I’ll get to in a future post.

That is it for this post. I don’t know what else there is to say, outside of the usual closing that I don’t really need here, but include it here nonetheless as most blogs have endings and closings as a result at some point or another. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Ten Worst Survivor Moments

Before the landmark 40^th, all winners season had aired, they did a special on what they felt were some of the greatest moments in all of Survivor history. Now there is also a problem that there are also a lot of terrible moments in Survivor history too. This list is about that as I go through what I felt was the ten worst Survivor moments. There are moments that we don’t like to talk about and only look back at with contempt what terrible things have happened in Survivor’s past.

#10 Spoilers from some seasons- Thanks in part to a man named Jim Early, many detailed spoilers such as the boot list and winners of both Samoa and Heroes versus Villains were released well in advance of those season’s airings. Consider yourself lucky if you never knew that. It was hard for me to enjoy what was supposed to be an otherwise great blindside when Tyson was voted out when I knew that Russell and Parvati, the only two other targets, were in the final three. Rob’s vote out later that season was also quite spoiled in advance with his talk with Coach revealing too much about it. It ranks lower on my list since some might not have known about it and it matters even less now that those seasons aired.

#9 The purple rock- This twist has been around for quite some time and it was always a terrible idea. If they were randomly deciding who among the tied players should be voted out through this method, then it wouldn’t be so bad. But making it bounce back on all the non tied players, just to discourage the idea of ties? Or why else is it done? I don’t get it. While it is largely only on here for its first appearance, it is one of the worst things to appear in the show.

#8 Voting out a jury member- When it appeared in Kaoh Rong, I couldn’t quite explain just how utterly and horribly terrible this was for a twist at the time. I’m even annoyed with myself for forgetting to include it in my awards for the worst of TV in a different blog. While that was my only issue with what had happened in the finale, it should have been the worst twist in a finale until they started changing too much of the format with this:

#7 The forced fire making tie-breaker- Now we will never know starting with Heroes versus Healers versus Hustlers just how many final fours could have turned out differently if this twist hadn’t been introduced. Some winners are now controversial and eliminations happen now where there used to be none going that way before. It is hard to tell just how much the game has changed because if it and it seems like we will never know the game we now have in its place.

#6 NaOnka and Kelly Shinn double quit- While there might have been more to this than we saw that made it make more sense, it was still quite disheartening for many to see not one, but two players make it that far in the game just to quit. Even more horrible was the fact that they were allowed on the jury based on the last time that someone quit that late in the game. While we don’t know just how much of an influence this made on that season, we do know that the rules were changed as a result of this.

#5 Dan Foley being attacked at the reunion show- This might be what people would most disagree with me about. In Worlds Apart, I probably hated Dan until this very moment. Basically, Dan was attacking production in post show interviews based on what he felt was an unfair edit. When it was the time for the reunion show to air, they thought that they would air a segment on this. What they did was that they went out of their way to attack him and make him look bad. This is supposed to prove him wrong? If anything, you proved his point. Why so many people take production’s side with this is beyond my understanding. They shouldn’t have attacked him even if they felt he deserved it.

#4 Sue’s quit- Even worse than the double quit from earlier in this list, it is hard not to think of just how horrible this moment was. While the bulk of it started in the previous episode, they made what felt like a whole episode devoted to this departure. It didn’t even make much sense from some standpoints to quit since that would put her in sequester with Richard, right? Still, it is hard not to think of this as among the most disturbing episodes of Survivor.

#3 Zeke is outed- More disturbing than that was this moment from not too long ago. It can often be quite terrible when whatever airs is something that you hear about the next day. Can you believe that someone, especially someone in this community, would out another member of it? Zeke may not have ever been known as transgender before, but now he has to deal with the fact that this is part of his life and so does Jeff Varner who did this insanely stupid thing.

#2 The Caramoan reunion show- What makes this bad isn’t just the fact that it happened, but also that they seem to care less and less about reunion shows after this one. They spend so little time on those in the game and made a lot of them sit out in the audience. Even if this was about Brandon’s departure, to not talk about it is doing a disservice to those in the game who might not care or notice if he isn’t even there. They have done reunions since then without the whole cast and no one would have noticed what had happened without noticing it was gone after the fact.

#1 Dan Spilo’s expulsion- As recent as this was, it is still hard to think of a worse moment than having to expel a player from the game. While some may talk about how he might have been wronged in some way, I don’t see it since they aired all the evidence of inappropriate touching from earlier in the season. Even if production did want to rig it to ensure that Dan wasn’t part of the final three, they would have to know how it would look. They wouldn’t say that Kellee was right to complain. Dan wouldn’t have then apologized in an interview afterwards if he didn’t feel guilty about what happened. If he had always been silent, there never would have been any reason to doubt the severity of this. It is hard not to think of a worse part of Survivor’s history right now.

That’s it for this post. As you already know, there will certainly not be a Survivor: Gabon post on this Sunday as I have to post a different blog then instead. I hope to be back with more of that and the other season that I’m working on soon. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.