Episode 41.2

At one point, I told you that my aunt and uncle (well, one of them) were missionaries in Ghana. The pandemic brought them back to the US during the airing of Winners at War. The last season that they would have seen would have been Cagayan with every season from San Juan del Sur until Winners at War (part of it) being ones that they missed. This means that they have been spoiled to the winners of the seasons of San Juan del Sur, Cambodia, Kaoh Rong, Millennials versus Gen X, Game Changers, Heroes versus Healers versus Hustlers, Ghost Island, and David versus Goliath. I could get them any of the seasons that they missed on DVD, but I’m not sure that they care and they could just stream them all instead. They also care some about The Amazing Race (or, one of them does), but that’s not worth covering in this blog.

While there does not appear to be a need for more missionaries in Ghana, I will be telling you about someone else who could be followed for that if you care. For now, I’m going to rank the seasons from San Juan del Sur to Winners at War. I am not mentioning what number they would be out of the ones that have aired so far. Here they are in order of best to worst:

Cambodia

Kaoh Rong

Winners at War

Millennials versus Gen X

Heroes versus Healers versus Hustlers

Game Changers

Island of the Idols

David versus Goliath

Edge of Extinction

Ghost Island

San Juan del Sur

Worlds Apart

Now let’s get to the one time challenges from the second season. I can only hope that people will learn over time that if even people were vaccinated, there wouldn’t be coronavirus anymore, just like we got rid of smallpox and plenty of other causes of death. Plus, there wouldn’t be a need to social distance or wear face masks again.

Mastermind (reward challenge from The Killing Fields): In this challenge, contestants seem to have to solve a sliding puzzle which contains a map leading to their reward. It seems that in the challenge, they did not have to solve the map in the puzzle as they would be given the win and then they’d have to go there after the win. I think that if they were able to do this again, an individual version of this challenge could be done while social distancing.

Return to Sender (reward challenge from Friends?): In this challenge, contestants have to throw a boomerang from their circle to a red target. This challenge could easily be done while social distancing. Whether or not they would include Australian culture like a boomerang in a season not set there would seem unlikely in my mind. But they could use some other object.

Don’t Fence Me in (immunity challenge from Friends?): In this challenge, contestants would have to try to connect one rope at a time to make a square. If they could make a square, they would win it and get a point. The contestant with the most points at the end would win. This could be done while social distancing. It is based on a computer game that I’ve played and would be best done only as a two person challenge such as a Redemption Island duel. Otherwise, it could seem unfair in some ways. This is an adaptation of the game Dots and Boxes, which actually predates computers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dots_and_Boxes

It is nice to know more about this game. I remember that such a thing had happened in the past with the seasons of Survivor so I could look that up. I might include a possible video of it at some point in the future. But I won’t do that in this post. I’m going back to challenges from the second season.

Hanging in the Balance (immunity challenge from Honeymoon or Not): This has multiple parts to it. The first part has contestants trying to knock their opponent in the water with a rope. The second part has players trying to knock their opponent off a boat by rocking people back and forth. The third part has people using rope trying to get people knocked off of a raft. All parts of this challenge could be done while social distancing. It’s interesting that this worked so well for a final eight challenge since it was like a tournament. Only it was a different task each round. 

Survivor.com (reward challenge from Enough is Enough): In this challenge, contestants ask their loved ones survival based questions and the most correct questions win. This could easily be done while social distancing. But I doubt that such a challenge would appear again as the show has evolved beyond this sort of thing in the end. I’ll admit, though, that it would be nice to appear again if it means that there would be a loved ones challenge during current seasons like this one.

 

I thought that there was a character named Sara from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. It turns out that her name is actually Saria. She had a song in this. Saria’s Song from Ocarina of Time was the theme of the Lost Woods and other parts of the game at times. It was also featured as a theme in Majora’s Mask. I actually find it to be a bit annoying, but am still sharing it anyways. I always seem to think of random words with the music. “Something is not right and you know it now, you know it now.” Am I the only one who does that? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKrhPHSuy4Q

Since Jeff had mentioned this in the previous episode, I might as well share a link on the Prisoner’s Dilemma which is a thought experiment regarding whether or not one or both prisoners should turn on each other. It points out what the benefits of each are. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma

What was up with the random rebus at the challenge in the last episode? Well, it and the beware advantage are both things that I’ll have to learn more about as things go on. The rebus is largely just for fans and potential future contestants. We’ll learn more about the other advantages as they go along. I do wonder why everyone just doesn’t look in holes in trees to find idols or advantages. Do you know how many of them are found there? But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we return to Ua, the green tribe. Brad can’t sleep and is worried about JD. He sees people going off to water and runs a different way to beat them there, signaling to other people that he’s doing that. Ricard and JD talk to each other without knowing that the person that they are talking about is eavesdropping on them. He then sees them leave and has to hustle back to camp so they don’t know that they were being spied on. Shan isn’t sure that she can trust Brad now. Ricard is told about this conversation by Shan and wants to get rid of him as well.

Meanwhile, on the blue tribe, Deshawn has trouble making fire. Naseer talks about his life and how he is good at survival. While that doesn’t mean that you will win, it certainly gives you an edge over all of them who aren’t good. Sydney makes it seem like he is essential and they shouldn’t get rid of him.

In the second segment of the show, a crab goes to hid. Maybe it’s one that they are hunting? Tiffany thinks that they are in bad shape right now. I forget how important animal imagery still is nowadays. She and Xander notice that the rest of the yellow tribe is missing. They split up to find them and he wants to find an advantage or idol instead. He finds the beware advantage. Would an advantage be bad? Maybe it could be. He decides whether or not to open it and does keep it in the end. He can’t vote at tribal council until all three tribes have found the beware advantage and say the secret phrase. He does have an extra vote. He tells Voce and Evvie about this. Evvie wants to work with women so that men don’t get all the credit and win. Evvie tells the other women on this tribe, Liana and Tiffany about this. I do think that men have done almost too well in recent seasons.

In the third segment of the show, we get back to the immunity challenge. Xander says his secret phrase: “I truly believe that butterflies are just dead relatives saying hello.” They are also playing for reward getting the obligatory fishing gear. Both first and second place get it. What are the other two phrases? I guess that we’ll have to hear them over time. At least there are two immunitys now and only one tribe going to tribal council. Are people really just allowed to sit on the balance beam most of the way? That seems very dumb. Tiffany is doing poorly on the yellow tribe, leaving them to get behind.

The blue tribe comes in first. The green tribe comes in second. The yellow tribe has to go to tribal council. Jeff then learns that two people are making a journey. The blue tribe has to pick one person from the losing tribe and they pick Evvie. Deshawn volunteers himself going on this with her. Evvie will return before tribal council.

In the fourth segment of the show, the yellow tribe talks about their loss. Tiffany thinks that she is strong with her woman’s alliance. But everyone else seems to think that she will go. Voce isn’t sure what will go on. Tiffany wants to vote out Xander. Liana thinks that she should stick with Tiffany since she knows that Xander tried to trigger the other tribe. But she’s afraid that Tiffany will do something dumb. Meanwhile, Evvie and Deshawn return to twist island which is what I’m going to call it until it gets a real name. Evvie thinks that the twist is known with Evvie thinking that he should risk his vote. Evvie will reveal some things, but only other people’s secrets. Evvie’s vote will probably not be risked. It is the same choice as before. Sure enough, Evvie goes to protect your vote while Deshawn goes with risk your voice. Is this going to be the same choice every time? It’s going to get predictable if it is.

In the fifth segment of the show, Evvie returns to camp and talks about what’s going on. Tiffany thinks that the crazy statement about butterflies being purple. What? Tiffany thinks that they should vote for Voce instead. Tiffany hopes that she isn’t one of those stupid Survivor players. I have the feeling that she might be voted out. Is it tribe strength or alliance loyalty?

We get to tribal council. Tiffany talks about her tough day at the challenge. I have the feeling that she might be nominated for “best” performance on a balance beam. That’s from a different Survivor blog on True Dork Times. I don’t know if I’ll ever have time to read any of those blogs again. Voce thinks that they are on life support. He knows the true risk of the shot in the dark. Will it be played? If Tiffany is as concerned about getting voted out with someone being immune, she would play it. Liana thinks that a lot goes into the vote. Tiffany thinks that she shouldn’t just be blamed as alliances are important too. Evvie is concerned about the numbers should their tribe take a bad shellacking early on. Xander thinks that there might not be a swap.

The votes are cast next. Well, all except Xander who doesn’t get to vote since all three shared idols have not been found. Will this be in place of the usual idol? I honestly hope so. Also, does Jeff have a hoarse voice to anyone else or just me? Voce is voted out of the game, keeping Xander around and any of his potential advantages. Will women take control of the game at least on this tribe?

On the next Survivor, Brad is learning all of the twists. Does he get the advantage? JD is still looking for the idol. I can’t tell too much else about what is going on right now. Maybe something weird will end up happening at tribal council. You know, if I ever read old blog posts, I should see how the promo wound up being next to the episode at hand that did air.

Total confessional count: Heather- 0, Erika- 2, Genie- 1, Ricard- 6, Xander- 5, Evvie- 8, Danny- 6, Naseer- 4, Deshawn- 4, Brad- 2, JD- 7, Tiffany- 6, Sydney- 2, Shan- 4, Voce- 5, Liana- 4.

New confessionals this episode: Danny- 0, Naseer- 1, Deshawn- 2, Brad- 1, JD- 0, Tiffany- 3, Sydney- 1, Shan- 1, Voce- 2, Liana- 1, Heather- 0, Erika- 0, Genie- 0, Ricard- 1, Xander- 2, Evvie- 5.

Voce had two new confessionals this episode, the same number as Deshawn and Xander. The people that are higher are Tiffany with three and Evvie with five. Everyone else was lower with Danny, Heather, Erika, Genie, and JD all having no confessionals. In terms of total confessionals, Voce had five, the same number as Xander. The people that are higher are Ricard, Tiffany, Danny, JD, and Evvie. Evvie has the highest with eight. Everyone else is lower with Heather still the lowest with zero. I hope that we see her sometime next week. The sooner we know more about her, the better. It sucks that she has no coverage so far this season. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor: China episode 9: Just Don’t Eat the Apple

You know what I realized? With Survivor having taken a season/year off, this would cause a potential messed up order with the Survivor anniversary. It wasn’t too long ago that I had a dream about a landmark season (I think the 50^th), but it didn’t mention much about it since it didn’t even say what the theme was, just that it was happening. But with Survivor having started in 2000, their 20^th anniversary season which happened to be the 40^th was in 2020. If the seasons continue without any extra third summer ones, in 2030, it would be the 48^th season airing and not the 50^th in time for the 30^th anniversary of the show. But this could mean that there could be three seasons celebrating an anniversary of the show in the end instead of just one.

 

Now at one point, I was hoping to be way more caught up on these old Survivor episodes so when I went through certain days of the week regarding shows that I like, it would be around that time that they were actually airing. I wanted to share Thursdays for two reasons. One was back in the early part of 2021 where I had to give up a lot of shows that I watch for a bit to finish up one job while doing a new one. The other would be later when Maundy Thursday was happening. I was way behind on shows since the new job gives me way less time to watch shows, I’m recording far too much, and trying to keep up with all of the movies that I want to do takes up time as well. Plus, I often do things on the weekend that can take up time.

 

Anyways, starting with the later time frame on Thursdays first, we get to Maundy Thursday. Often, the networks air season finales or even series finales then. This year, it was the opposite problem with a lot of series premieres or season premieres starting then. CBS starting airing The United States of Al back then on that day. But I watched it and didn’t like it so I didn’t watch it again. NBC started airing Law and Order: Organized Crime. I did like that when I saw it later. Manifest returned on NBC then. It wound up being cancelled and seemed dead for months (possibly dead to me as well given its lack of an ending) until Netflix picked it up for a final season that I won’t be able to see probably. Clarice was on at the time on CBS with ABC airing Station 19 and Grey’s Anatomy.

 

Going to earlier when it conflicted with my one job ending, ABC was airing a bunch of game shows at the time. I saw The Chase once, but have yet to watch it again, even when it aired during the summer on Sundays. I didn’t hate it, but know that many others do. I also checked out Celebrity Wheel of Fortune which was entertaining. And I watched The Hustler. And that was right before both jobs were conflicting against each other. I ignored ABC during that time frame

 

 I largely only kept up with Star Trek: Discovery during that time while also keeping up with the CBS shows of Young Sheldon and B Positive only once during that time since that’s all I needed. I didn’t keep up with SVU on NBC at this time. I had to put off seeing Walker on the CW which would have been too much at once and I didn’t like it when I did see it later. I did check out Mr. Mayor on NBC to review for a different blog. FOX never aired something that I cared about during this time. The only show on it that I had checked out was Call Me Kat.

 

Let’s get to the idols from Winners at War part 4. With this one, Sophie had an idol and had to give half of it to someone. She picked Sarah who then gave the whole thing back to her. Sophie was voted out with the idol in her possession.

 

I don’t know if I fully explained well why I was rolling for choice and what the choices are when it came to covering challenges on this show. The point is that this time, I’m covering the challenges that start with the letter m. The other, potential choices for this were q and r.

 

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

 

This challenge is also known as Coat of Arms and More than a Feeling. In this challenge, contestants have to recreate a mask while blindfolded. Depending on what precautions they use, it could be done while social distancing. More than a Feeling is the name of a famous rock song.

 

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

 

This challenge is informally known as the mixer. It is similar to memory, which I’ll get into in this post. In this challenge, contestants have to find items from the opposing tribe’s boxes by asking for it and getting the most matches to win. Contestants would be eliminated in the All-Stars version of when this challenge was done. It is very similar to more than two player versions of the standard card game go fish so much that I thought it affectively the Survivor version of Go Fish. It could easily be done while social distancing and could be a good tribal challenge to do that way.

 

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

 

This challenge is also known as Ringo Starz. In it, contestants have to race across obstacles and balance balls on a narrow perch. This challenge has been combined with running down a dream. An individual version of this could be done while social distancing, as could a relay race version of this.

 

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

 

This challenge is also known as remembrance, concentration, and brain food. In it, contestants have to look through covered items and find a match to either get a set number of points first or have the most points when all are uncovered. Samoa’s variant led to people putting items in a reward pool if it meant losing that point, which they had to decide when they first had this opportunity. This could easily be done while social distancing.

 

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

 

This challenge is also known as mud run. It is the first of many mud challenges in this post to cover. In this challenge, contestants have to carry mud on their body, but not in the hands or arms, and get the most mud to win. It could be done while social distancing.

 

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

 

In this challenge, people must race through obstacles to get an object from a mud pit to either fill their pot or get a certain number of points. I do not think that this could be done while social distancing from what I understand of it thus far.

 

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

 

This challenge is also known as Shakedown Street. In it, contestants have to go through obstacles and gain an object before scoring things like in basketball. It is possible that this could be done while social distancing, depending on how it is done. Shakedown Street is the name of a Grateful Dead song.

 

Now getting to a link from an old episode of The Good Wife that I covered in that blog, there were different things that I talked about. I mentioned the reviews of The Good Wife on tv.com and other thoughts on that site. That site gave up on life and I’m not sure anyone can log into it anymore. I don’t think that I can. I also mentioned my feelings about the NSA. They knew that I was going to say that. I also talk about doing back-ups of documents. I do that by email and on an external hard drive. Now I do blog scrapping, as it is known, in case something happens to any of my blogs.

 

http://adamdeckergoodwifetvshow.blogspot.com/2016/05/november-eighth-2015s-episode.html

 

Since I will be doing an animal related video in the remaining posts of the China posts of this blog, I am now going to share one from Family Guy called Gary the No Trash Cougar. It isn’t a real animal, but just one that Peter dressed up as. Still, I’m counting it in here.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WwqGQMYOBI

 

The song and other YouTube video that I’m going to share is one called Jungle Love. There are multiple songs that have this name. This version is done by Steve Miller Band. I know it from it appearing in the show of Everybody Loves Raymond.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQVHmESnUek

 

Movie update: On Wednesday, I watched Ice Age. I replaced that with Ice Age 2. On Thursday, I did not watch a movie and this could be a recurring theme depending on what happens. On Saturday, I was once again spending time with family and could not watch a movie as a result. On Sunday, I did have time for a movie so I watched Muppets from Space. I replaced that with Runaway Bride. On Monday, I chose not to watch a movie as usual.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Ice Age 2. I replaced that with Gran Torino, which one of my aunts lent me. On Thursday, I chose not to watch a movie once again. On Saturday and Sunday, I was busy spending time with family so did not watch movies then as a result. On Monday, I watched Thomas and the Magic Railroad. I replaced that with Pot O’ Gold.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Air Force One. I replaced that with Baby Geniuses. On Thursday, I did not watch a movie. On Saturday, I watched The Color Purple. I didn’t like it. I replaced it with Crazy People. On Sunday, I didn’t watch something from the main list. But I did do something from my scab list for the first time since January. I watched Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian from Thursday’s list. I replaced that with nature documentaries. On Monday, I watched nothing on the list despite possibly having time for movies, but ultimately deciding that I was too busy for any of them.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Baby Geniuses. I replaced that with Adventures in Babysitting. On Thursday, I once again chose not to watch a movie so that I could do other things with my time. On Saturday and Sunday, family visits prevented any movies from being watched. On Monday, I chose to watch this show again and not a movie from the list of things to watch this time around.

 

It was on Monday, 9-20-2021 that I rolled the episode or otherwise decided to watch it again using another rigged roll for it. I might move the movie watching updates at some point in time, but for now, they are staying in this season’s posts. They might even move to my new blog once I get the up and going. You’ll find out why if I do that. That could lead to a rigged roll in the future.

 

We begin with James talking about how he will be bringing his idols to tribal council from now on. Why wouldn’t he? Courtney thinks that it is like Christmas now that Jean-Robert is gone. Denise was also surprised by the vote like Jean-Robert was. She was the only one who voted for Peih-Gee. Who all knows about James’s idols? Denise does too, it seems.

 

Todd, as usual, isn’t sure how certain players are handling themselves. Peih-Gee is upset that she has lost the most challenges of those still in the game. We then get to the reward challenge. One team is Erik, Amanda, Frosti, and Courtney. The other team is Denise, Peih-Gee, Todd, and James. Denise was not picked last this time. Denise is on the red team. The other team is the yellow team. The yellow team wins because the red team is bad at the challenge.

 

Back at camp, the reward losers fight. This is mainly between Peih-Gee and James. It seems like we joined the discussion in progress. James seems like a huge ass out of this. Todd doesn’t like that the people he gets along with are on the reward. James said that people shouldn’t bite the apple and thus lose paradise. But was living naked forever going to last?

 

Erik is on the reward and wants to get along with the people there. People there don’t like Peih-Gee as much since they think that she complains too much. Erik doesn’t like her talked badly about, but is glad that they aren’t talking bad about him instead. Frosti and Courtney seem to like each other. He thinks that she’s out of his league. But some are reachers and some are settlers. If you are someone in that scenario, be the reacher. Amanda likes Erik and wants to see him around as long as possible. Frosti thinks that Erik is a threat.

 

The tribe reunites with them lying about the food that they had there. Todd mentions what Peih-Gee did after the camp, which they find amusing. What kind of fucking asshole finds someone’s anger to be amusing? It seems that a lot of the plan relates to Peih-Gee getting voted out. So I guess we all know who will be winning the immunity challenge.

 

Speaking of that, when we get to the immunity challenge, Jeff offers a choice between eating or playing in the challenge. Peih-Gee, Frosti, Amanda, and Erik all play in the challenge. The others sit out of the challenge. Erik is out of the challenge first. The others get the first round right. The sit outs seek to get as much food as possible before the challenge is over. Amanda is the next one out leaving just Frosti and Peih-Gee as the only people left in the challenge. Peih-Gee wins the challenge. She was the only one who didn’t go on the reward to compete in the challenge and it paid off for her. Jeff even points out that immunity is better than a cheeseburger in the game today.

 

Back at camp, Frosti is upset not just at losing the challenge, but also that people sat out. He thinks that Erik will get voted out next. Erik thinks that he is higher up the ladder and in less danger of being voted out of the game. Will this come down between Erik and Frosti? Yes. Yes, it will. Todd thinks that both Erik and Frosti are threats to win the game. Courtney isn’t sure who she is voting for and Todd doesn’t know what to expect, thinking that he might have to vote for Courtney. But doesn’t this gay man have a great three way going with Courtney and Amanda, another woman?

 

At tribal council, James mentioned that he wanted the hamburgers. He ate 7 of the 12 in a short amount of time. Todd admits that he seemed to lack impulse control, which is why he chose to eat. Frosti thinks that it was better to play to make sure that he fought to stay in the game. Amanda thinks that it is hard to have friendships while playing the game. Denise doesn’t think that there is loyalty in the game. Frosti is told that he might have worked well on the tribe that he was picked to be on. Erik thinks that things seem personal in the game.

 

The votes are then cast. Frosti votes for Erik. Everyone else, from Erik, Amanda, Todd, Denise, James, Peih-Gee, and Courtney, vote for Frosti and he is voted out of the game. He walks out of there and then Jeff mentions a need to adapt. He is going to test that now since they have more business to attend to here. And the rest of the jury is still there.

 

On the next Survivor, injuries are taking their toll, James is angry (what else is new?), and Todd takes a stand. But none of this has to do with the cliffhanger going into the next episode and all of it takes place during the day. What’s up with that? Is the cliffhanger unimportant?

 

Total confessional count: Todd- 27, Peih-Gee- 17, Denise- 10, Frosti- 14, Erik- 10, James- 21, Amanda- 16, Courtney- 14. New confessionals this episode: Peih-Gee- 2, Denise- 2, Frosti- 2, Erik- 3, James- 3, Amanda- 2, Courtney- 3, Todd- 4.

 

Frosti may seem like more of an obscure player and he indeed wasn’t seen as much this season. As far as I know, he hasn’t had any offers to play a second season. But he is a pretty good player in the end. I give him about a 55% chance of returning to the game someday.

 

I think that I had mentioned some about how the second list had an advantage at times when I was behind on tapes. Well, the first list has an advantage as well which is why I’m only going to watch it for a moment, meaning that I’m done with the second list of choices for a moment to rig choices in favor of benefitting this list and a potential third list that I really want to do. You’ll find out about the change in the list here and in potential posts on Blood versus Water. I am really hoping that I can get things done at the right time within the right time frame or it might not work out for me at all either the way that I like or in any potential way. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor 41 Premiere

Since Survivor has now finally returned with new episodes as of this post, I still feel like doing some of what I’ve done with other posts from old seasons that I’ve done that you would have seen during this long off season of over a year, provided that you have been keeping up with this blog all this time. I do not post many of my blog posts on facebook anymore. But there was something that I did where I went through all of the recurring challenges of the show and posted as to whether or not they would work while social distancing. I have decided that I should do all of the onetime challenges in each post starting with the very first season and then working my way to the present. Remember that all the information comes from Survivor fandom. Let’s start with the first challenge that only appeared once.

Treasure chest (reward challenge from Quest for Food): In this challenge, each tribe has to swim out to the chest and bring it back to their mat. If they do this first, they win the challenge. Their reward is the items in the chest. I’m not sure that a tribal version of this could be done while social distancing, but a possible individual one could be.

Buried treasure (immunity challenge from Too Little, Too Late?): In this challenge, the tribes have to do a relay race to get the map for the buried treasure and then the treasure itself by doing all of the following things: swimming, floating bridge challenge, rowing, jungle running, and then digging for the treasure itself. It is possible that it could be done while social distancing.

Abandoned barracks (reward challenge from Udder Revenge): In this challenge, each tribe has to get one of three items one at a time from a location without getting a duplicate item or they would lose the challenge to the other tribe. Obviously, this challenge could be done while social distancing. I doubt that we would see it again as I’m not really sure that it worked as a challenge. But it could be redone as they have evolved plenty of other challenges.

Survivor archery (reward challenge from Thy Name is Duplicity): In this challenge, contestants play a game of archery where they have to hit closest to the target to win. This challenge could be done while social distancing. It would have to be elaborated on more if it is to appear again.

Bamboozled (reward challenge from Crack in the Alliance): In this challenge, contestants have to run across a bamboo balance beam before the other contestants to win before others do. This challenge could be done while social distancing. It is unknown how or if it could work. It seems a bit too simple in a way compared to challenges of today.

Weight loss guess (unaired, unofficial reward challenge with no official name, only available on the Greatest and Most Outrageous Moments special said to take place during the time frame of the episode of Long Hard Days and the only time a second reward challenge has happened, as far as I know): In this challenge, contestants have to look at themselves in a mirror and guess how much weight that they had lost with the closest guess winning the challenge. This could be done while social distancing, but I am unsure if they’d do something like this again.

Walk the Plank (immunity challenge from Long Hard Days): In this challenge, contestants would have to stand next to each other on a set of planks until some were removed and only one was left. Since this challenge requires people to be close to each other, it could not be done while social distancing.

SPOILER. While I have worked a lot on this post before knowing the theme or even name of it just yet, I have heard through reading if you see what I’m saying that this might be a potential shortened season that is less than 39 days for the first time in history. I don’t know if this is true or not, although we might know by the time that you are reading this. This would be due to filming limitations of the sort. Now I am hoping that they can film more than just seasons 41 and 42 during 2021. They could film more just to ensure that more are ready for the future. They might have to if they have to shorten the airing of the season to ensure that there is more Survivor to air. But we’ll see what happens. I did hear that they might have filmed season 43 at one point by the time you are seeing this post. END SPOILER.

As you would have noticed from a previous post if you pay attention to the schedules of blogs that I do, you would have noticed that Sunday posts of this blog will be affected since I will be yielding it to the new CSI: Vegas blog that I’m doing. There are other times that Sundays could be affected over the course of the coming season so expect less of the Blood versus Water posts in the future. Note that I will be yielding Wednesdays to my CSI: Vegas blog during Advent and Lent as long as this show is airing during that time so Sundays could potentially appear then unless I have a late update on a current episode of this show.

I do have to express an annoyance of no theme name for this or any other future season, it seems. They are just going to number them for the rest of this show’s airing. That means that they can’t air them out of order again, which they’ve only done once thus far anyways.

Before I get to the first new Survivor episode in question, let’s get to some updates about this blog. I said the only real update about other blogs of mine and how it affects this one for now. You see, in the event that I am not able to blog about this new season on the day that it airs before the time frame that Advent starts, then you won’t see whatever past season posts are scheduled on the time that you do see it. This means that if you see a post on the 41’s season on a Friday, China’s posts will be delayed until the end of this season, if there are any of them written at all.

If this blog is delayed to a Sunday, you won’t see any posts on either Blood versus Water or China until this season ends. If this blog is delayed to a Tuesday, then you won’t see any posts on China, Blood versus Water, or Borneo until this season is being done being written about. Plus, if posts of past seasons are delayed and ready for the future, they would return in staggered posts over the months with one set to return in one month and then the next and the next beyond that.

Of course, there are a lot of wildcards going into the whole process. There is almost a certainty now that I will be doing a third list of shows to watch with since I might rig things to go my way (as much as things can) so you will even be assured of a potentially quicker time for me to blog about Borneo again. There are some weird things will all of the lists as a whole. I also now have All-Stars to blog about, but have no idea when or even which list or day of the week you might start seeing that at. You won’t see that for sure until I’m done with one of the three past seasons of the shows that I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Two of those, I haven’t even started watching again as I still have what I count as two Gabon episodes to watch that I’m not (yet) blogging about before I get to Blood versus Water. All I know is that things are pretty crazy with this blog for now. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Jeff talks to us and talks some about a new advantage in the game. There are penalties for losing. You mean, beyond tribal council? The contestants are coming out now. Evvie is talking first for her tribe. Danny talks for his tribe and Tiffany for hers. JD is the first player to be younger than the show itself. I missed someone in the confessional count, I think. A lot of people talk at once. The three tribes gather. I think that the name of this season is Let it Go. Perhaps that’s why it was a number. They can’t hold it back anymore.

Jeff talks to two of the people there with Naseer being the third people he learned English by watching Survivor. Why not watch a show with subtitles? I’m pretty sure this show doesn’t have it. I actually heard that you can teach kids to read by having shows and movies on with subtitles. Jeff says that this is a more difficult to win this season than others. They have little supplies. But didn’t they do that back in the fourth season, Marquesas? Jeff then mentions that only the first tribe to win the reward gets the meager supplies and the rest of the tribe has to start from scratch with nothing.

The yellow tribe has a setback in the challenge by losing its paddle. The blue tribe has a great lead in the challenge. But the green tribe is able to surpass them. They wind up winning the challenge. The blue tribe never unclipped in the back which is why they were dragging on.

The green tribe arrives at camp with their reward. They have to go more inward to find it. Brad wants to get the most out of Survivor. JD was preparing to be on Survivor. Well, they were cast for quite a long time before they went out there. And that’s provided that they weren’t a white person and recast in favor of the new casting rule. The yellow tribe is given a task. The choice is sweat or stealth. They decided not to count the triangles as just the sweat option was picked. The blue tribe makes the same choice. They think that their brains aren’t working right.

In the second segment of the show, we get the complicated back stories of various people. On the blue tribe, it is noticed that Deshawn and Danny are looking for an idol instead of staying with the task at hand. This leaves the other four to form an alliance right off the back.

In the third segment of the show, Deshawn learns that people are targeting him and Danny. Both of those tribes complete the task in time. Tiffany is a target on her tribe for not helping with the boat, even though she couldn’t have via the challenge rules. She calls herself a previvor, one of the first, since she got a double mastectomy before getting or potentially getting cancer.

In the fourth segment of the show, Danny goes on his tribe on a boat by himself to make a decision of some sort. Xander is picked for his tribe. JD gets to represent his tribe when they decide to draw rocks. He is unsure of being picked since he thinks the others would get rid of him. They then follow a trail to a summit, learning about each other. Danny says that he played football in college, but lies about being in the NFL, something others might have suspected.

They have to separate, thinking that it could be the choice between an advantage for themselves or their tribe. Everyone is given the choice between protecting your vote or risking your vote. If they all risk their vote, they all lose it. If just one or two risks it, they get an extra vote. Danny protects his vote. We don’t see what the others do yet.

In the fifth segment of the show, Danny returns and is honest about what happened. JD said that he risked his vote to the other tribe. But he says that he left out key details. JD says that he protected his vote, which seems to be a lie.

In the sixth segment of the show, we get to the challenge where Jeff decides to retire the phrase, “Come on in guys,” and replace it with just “Come on in.” I missed which player did this. We also get to a shot in the dark die where people get a shot at safety at tribal council. Only one tribe wins immunity with the other two tribes going to tribal council to each vote a person out. They also have to forfeit what they have until they win another challenge. The blue tribe wins the challenge. This was despite a setback at one point that put them last at one point.

In the seventh segment of the show, Abraham rallies the yellow tribe to get rid of Tiffany. Evvie does not want to get rid of all the women on the tribe. Evvie wants to get rid of Abraham instead. Tiffany thinks that she will be fine, but still looks for an idol. She doesn’t see a clue that Jeff hid earlier. I missed some of what it was.

Meanwhile, Sara on the green tribe is upset that she lost at the puzzle which is why she didn’t want to volunteer for them. But Ricard wants to get rid of JD instead. Sara doesn’t think that she is safe and wants to use her shot in the dark. She also thinks that it is strange that people want to vote her out just because she messed up at the challenge, which she thinks is too old school. Shan thinks that she holds all of the cards since people want her on her side.

In the eighth segment of the show, we get to the first tribal council, the one of the yellow tribe. Jeff asks Abraham what the criteria is for voting someone out. He said nothing while saying a lot. He is coming to bring it on. Tiffany thinks that Abraham is trying to play too hard. They talk about the shot in the dark twist. They talk about the David tribe from not too long ago. Many people spoke up. We’ll see who all votes as not voting is now always an option at least once. Xander notices that he did get an extra vote. Is using the shot in the dark worth being wrong 5 out of 6 times? Nobody plays an idol or advantage. It turns out that Abraham is voted out first. They go back and the next tribe comes in.

In the ninth segment of the show, the other tribe talks about how well they feel they are together. They do not trust that JD didn’t get some sort of advantage. But little do the others know, this was the first time where they couldn’t potentially bring back something. Sara is skeptical herself. While JD is busy talking, the other tribe members do a bit of a huddle that is noticed by some people. The name Brad is being brought up, but JD doesn’t want to do this. They want to work with JD. At one point, they all put their die in their pocket. But some aren’t sure they want to do it. JD does notice that he has an extra vote out there that others might not know about. No votes are known. Sara is voted out. I’m not sure why Ricard got votes or why Brad did either since JD thought that was a bad idea.

On the next Survivor, Brad is out looking for an idol or something, but people know that he is doing this and nothing else is really known or clear from what else I could gather in the promo. I feel like I might need to do a post on vague promos in my TV blog. This is far from the only show to do that. At least it wasn’t as bad as the final season of Madam Secretary which never even aired promos of the final season episodes that it should have.

Total confessional count: Abraham- 2, Heather- 0, Erika- 2, Genie- 1, Ricard- 5, Xander- 3, Evvie- 3, Danny- 6, Naseer- 3, Deshawn- 2, Brad- 1, JD- 7, Tiffany- 3, Sydney- 1, Shan- 3, Voce- 3, Liana- 3, Sara- 4.

JD is doing the best in terms of confessionals, although I’m pretty sure that I missed some of them. I mean, I had to replace two of the names since I thought that they would be known by their first instead of their last. I had to look them up. They would have been too similar to other people’s first names. Now Heather has the lowest count with none at all thus far, the only one without any. Sara had four, with Danny and Ricard both being higher. Many tie for third. Abraham had only two, which was a tie with Erika and Deshawn. The only people with just one are Brad, Sydney, and Genie.

Since I have these main blogs up again for the first time in a while, I’m going to include the planned blog schedule in this season’s posts. I even plan to get ahead of the game in November and December. Let’s get to the next month’s planned blog posts:

Planned October blog posts 

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

I hope that things will be easy to get back into the routine of doing posts on new episodes again. I just hope that I don’t miss too much. When you are watching it on DVD, it is easy to get used to being able to watch things that you missed. So here’s hoping that things will go back to normal. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Brains versus Brawn versus Beauty Using Returning Players Version 2

Before Cagayan, the first season to do this twist, I did a fantasy cast of who would work for a season like this from all of the seasons before it. Now, I’m doing another fantasy cast using seasons after it from San Juan del Sur to Winners at War.

Criteria: I am not going to include contestants from Cagayan as they already played using this twist. I am likewise not going to Kaoh Rong players for the same reason. I will include players who were originally from seasons before Cagayan if they have played after it. I will even include the Cambodia rejects as their own season as well. Hopefully, I can pick good people. I will cross out any and all alternates.

Brains tribe: Josh (San Juan del Sur), Hali (Worlds Apart, Game Changers), David (Millennials versus Gen X, Edge of Extinction), Cirie (Panama, Micronesia, Heroes versus Villains, Game Changers), Ben (Heroes versus Healers versus Hustlers, Winners at War), Christian (David versus Goliath), Rick (Edge of Extinction), Elaine (Island of the Idols)

Brawn tribe: Joe (Worlds Apart, Cambodia, Edge of Extinction), Mike (Worlds Apart), Terry (Panama, Cambodia), JT (Tocantins, Heroes versus Villains, Cambodia), Chelsea (Ghost Island), Noura (Island of the Idols), Danni (Guatemala, Winners at War), Kim (One World, Winners at War)

Beauty tribe: Max (Worlds Apart, Cambodia reject), Sabrina (Cambodia reject, One World), Mikayla (Cambodia reject, South Pacific), Monica (Samoa, Cambodia), Ciera (Blood versus Water, Cambodia, Game Changers), Jeremy (San Juan del Sur, Cambodia, Winners at War), Will (Millennials versus Gen X), Malcolm (Philippines, Caramoan, Game Changers)

Sorry for that lack of women on the lists as it was hard to remember even these more recent seasons as a lot of them have not been standout contestants in the edit. I largely wound up with some people in whatever tribes I wanted them on even if they may fit others better or none of them at all. I should have more women on the brains tribe since women are smarter than men and even Survivor seasons should prove that in the end.

Now let’s get to the main tribes and I’ll explain why I’m picking those people. Starting with the brains tribe, I picked Hali more for her time on Game Changers and how she influenced the game. I think that David is a good pick because he had a strong mental influence on the game. Cirie is one of the smartest players to have ever played the game and is legendary still for her blindside of Erik in Micronesia. To me, it seems that Christian should play again and brains is the best fitting tribe for him. Rick, I felt, was very smart despite an initial early exit. Elaine was also a standout from her season that would work well again if she were to play again (I hope).

Going to the brawn tribe next, I picked Joe because he is one of the biggest, major challenge beasts of this era of Survivor, even though he needs to tone this down more to not be voted out as soon as he isn’t immune anymore. Mike is also a pretty strong player, as is Terry. Noura won a lot of individual challenges and Danni might not have won if she wasn’t a strong player. Kim, also, won a lot of individual challenges, a fact I forgot to look up for more women players.

With the beauty tribe, I largely just picked people that I didn’t feel worked well on other tribes, even though I could have put some of them with others. I’m largely guessing with the men as to whether or not they are beauties as I’m not attracted to men. I feel that Sabrina, Mikayla, and Ciera all work best with this category as did Max, Will, and Malcolm, although Malcolm could easily be on the brawn tribe instead which might actually work better for him in the end.

And this will be my last hiatus post now that the hopefully longest hiatus ever of this show is done with. I will, of course, be back with more random posts during the future gaps of new seasons when I’m not busy posting about past seasons instead. I have many to write and hopefully enough ideas that will work. I might have wanted to do something else in this theme, but with a new Survivor season starting next week, this will be the only fantasy cast for a while. Besides, the other theme for casts that relate to Millennials and Gen X might be better in later time frames anyways. I should be back here next week with the start of a new Survivor season. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

What a Pandemic Season of Survivor Might Hold

With a new season of Survivor about to air and its hopefully longest hiatus about to end, there is still one more post to add in this blog of mine relating to it and the pandemic. While the pandemic is not set to end any time soon (although we are getting much better at it than we were in the past), this does make me wonder what changes might happen due to the pandemic alone that might be part of the show now, if not forever.

The first set of changes for future seasons seems to be known already, even if it is a potential spoiler. They are shortening the days of the future season as quarantining before the start of it due to some of the production time not being spent on the actual game as a result now. This might mean the game will be quickened in ways that we aren’t used to or less time will be cut. Maybe we’ll see a difference, or maybe we won’t.

Something that I have been wondering for a while now is whether or not there will be socially distant challenges or buffs that double as face masks. Of course, since it is harder to hear people with masks on, this might not be practical for some challenges. I doubt that this will happen, but it is still fun for me to speculate with all of the information that I’m researching for this blog.

We’ll see in the future if there will be a lot of changes regarding just this change or not. It won’t be too long before the next Survivor season starts and we’ll soon see for ourselves just how different it could be or if it will be different at all. There could be some changes, but at least we’ll see more of the show with new episodes of it finally out. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.