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.