Episode 41.7

I mentioned that there were songs or music to think of that relates to the one that Shan keeps humming when she is up to something. I imagine that Survivor’s producers will use it since it works well and can even be better than the animal imagery we keep seeing from time to time. I mean, this is more than just a camera shot that doesn’t last long and can easily be missed. (I still need to do a blog post on the topic of animal imagery from throughout the seasons.) I feel that Shan’s song, or whatever you’d call it, is quite possibly the worst Survivor earworm since Sticky Situation *.

 

* Credit for this joke goes to the people at the defunct Survivor website, Survivor Shade, although I forget who for sure made it.

 

Well, one of the pieces of music that I think it could be if she’s doing one that exists is called Hurry Along from the Pokémon video game series. There is another one that could be similar to one that I think that I could find the name of and have for the next post of this blog, should I be able to find it and get it up and posted on time.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf9hWgLrx_I

 

Now I had mentioned a past Survivor challenge from Amazon that used a name that was similar if not almost identical to the title of Gone Fishing. Well, the song, Gone Fishing, was also used once in the show Thomas the Tank Engine. Here’s a link to a video from it. I like it because it is from the good era of Thomas the Tank Engine and I may share one from the questionable era. There are different eras with that show. They are series 1-4 (good), series 5 & 6 (great), series 7 & maybe 8 (questionable), series 9-the end of the live action series (bad), and the CGI series (worse).

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X5noqCjew8

 

Now it’s time to get to the one time challenges from the seventh season. I had thought that this would be quicker to write, but hadn’t realized that there were TWELVE of them from just one season that would take a long time to look at and through. This was the main reason that this post was late and not on Wednesday when it should have been. If I had all of the part before the recap done, this would not have been the case at all. Heck, if I had gotten everything except the end done, keeping track of these challenges wouldn’t have been that hard to maybe finish the rest of the post on time. I do wonder if this is the season that has the most onetime challenges. I’ll have to see when I check the others. Now don’t get me wrong: I love the challenges from this season and their pirate themes.

 

Cannon Carry (immunity challenge from Beg, Barter, Steal): In this challenge, the tribes had to get their cannon taken apart and through obstacles before crossing the finish line with it together, all of the main accessories like the tribe flag and torch, and all of the members of their tribe. I do not think that this challenge could be done while social distancing.

 

Bountiful Chest (reward challenge from To Quit or Not to Quit): In this challenge, contestants had to put items in a treasure chest and then take the chest ashore and take it back to win. This could not be done while social distancing.

 

All Tied Up (immunity challenge from To Quit or Not to Quit): In this challenge, contestants would have to pull others to the shore while they untied themselves and each other to free themselves to get a clue and then use the info to dig and find a flag which they would have to raise to win. I don’t think that this could be done while social distancing and it seems like a rather complicated one.

 

Pull Your Weight (immunity challenge from United We Stand, Divided We…?): In this challenge, there is a player harnessed on a rope above the water with the other players having to hold on for as long as they can, but one player at the front of the rope must let go. I’d have to see this challenge again to see how it works (or doesn’t). I’d say that it is quite possible for this to be done while social distancing.

 

Float-it notes (reward challenge from Pick a Castaway… Any Castaway): In this challenge, contestants would have to get puzzle pieces that are either tied up underwater or buried under the sand together and solve the puzzle. An individual version of this challenge could be done while social distancing.

 

Boarding Party (immunity challenge from Pick a Castaway… Any Castaway): In this challenge, each player has to move one platform at a time to the other tribe’s platform. If they block each other from moving, they will have to physically confront each other with the loser going back to start. As this involved physical contact, it could not be done while social distancing.

 

Paddle for Paddles (reward challenge from Everyone’s Hero): In this challenge, contestants have to get ladder rungs from floating platforms before rowing to shore. One person then has to get an idol out of an old well while the others solve a puzzle ladder that the runner then has to reach the top first with an idol. I don’t think that this could be done while social distancing.

 

Ready, Aim, Fire (reward challenge from Me and My Snake): In this challenge, tribes must use cannons to hit targets on the beach and taking out all targets wins you the challenge. It would be easy to do an individual version of this challenge while social distancing.

 

Killer (immunity challenge from Swimming with Sharks): In this challenge, you use blowdarts to get a killer status and get rid of other’s same status with only three lives available. I think that this could be done while social distancing, although I don’t know how much it works.

 

Water Obstacle Course (reward challenge from Would You be my Brutus Today?): In this challenge, the players have to do some sort of obstacle course that involves water based things instead of the usual land based things. I won’t bother getting into more details about it this time. Note that it had the players gaining more as it went along. A relay version of this could be done while social distancing.

 

Corks and Keys (immunity challenge from Mutiny): In this challenge, contestants have to get water from a canteen across a balance beam and get five keys and lower five beams to get their flag and win. This seems almost like if not identical to Vertigo, only including a balance beam and keeping contestants on the move instead of just in one place. I think that it could be done while social distancing.

 

Tribal Draft (an immunity challenge from Flames and Endurance): In this challenge, players had to get questions about survival and pirate trivia right in order to win. It is known for an infamous twist in which all of the jury could compete as one against the individuals in the final four, wining immunity themselves instead of any of them getting it. I could see a properly done version of this being done while social distancing, even if it is basically just like other Survivor trivia challenges.

 

Since Naseer (I think) had called Evvie by the name Eevee in the last episode, I felt that I should get to mentioning all of the Eevee evolutions or eeveelutions from Pokémon since it seems relevant in my mind. I feel like referencing anything that I feel works well in my mind so here’s some now. Maybe there could be a Survivor challenge working all of these elements in it at some point in time.

 

https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Eevee (normal)

 

https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Jolteon (electric)

 

https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Flareon (fire)

 

https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Vaporeon (water)

 

https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Espeon (psychic)

 

https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Umbreon (dark)

 

https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Leafeon (grass)

 

https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Glaceon (ice)

 

https://pokemon.fandom.com/wiki/Sylveon (fairy)

 

As I think about this episode going into it, I remember that in Fiji, they did a twist where half of the merged tribe was immune and none of them went to tribal council as a result of this immunity. I think that this episode will bring about something like that twist in another way. It is a better way as all of the immune contestants are still coming to tribal council. I also realize that the merged tribal council in Fiji would tie the final six of Game Changers with five contestants immune at the same tribal council. This episode will break that record with seven contestants all immune at the same tribal council. But enough of my ramblings.

 

In the first segment of the show, we finally get a recap for the first time in a very long time. We are reminded of some of the advantages and alliances in the game. Erika talks about being on exile and thus becoming the most authentic version of herself. We do not know her decision just yet. But the tribe does gather for the challenge. They learn of the twist at hand. We then learn that her decision was to break the hourglass which hopefully doesn’t break her game.

 

In the second segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge that Ricard winds up winning. Erika talks about having to own her decision. Deshawn thinks that Evvie should be voted out of the game next since they have no alliance or tribe bonds. Liana wants to join this voting group when she tells Shan about this. But Xander wants to save Evvie with his idol as does Tiffany. Evvie tells the others about Liana’s steal advantage while Deshawn is also brought up as a target. Xander is worried about his idol being gone before he can play it. They should give it to Tiffany then, right? No one would believe that she has the idol and then Tiffany can give it to Evvie.

 

In the next segment of the show, Xander reveals more of Liana’s power to Deshawn, not seeing any potential downside to this. That was unbeknownst to the others but knownst to us. This knowledge is brought back to Liana who then has to make sure that she asks the right person. Loose lips sink ships. Why would anyone reveal secrets on this show? Too much scrambling is going on. Sydney even brings up her own potential risk of being voted out. Liana wants to make sure she outplays the others.

 

We then get to tribal council. People are craving different things. It is different seeing this play out on TV versus actually being there. The shot in the dark keeps coming up, but will it be like the mutiny in Pirate Master where not one of them ever voted for them?

 

People bring up Xander’s secret and he brings it or something that might be like it out. He says that he is willing to give it away. I really hope that he was not dumb enough to just whip out the actual idol a la Lauren from Heroes versus Healers versus Hustlers because that would be bad. It turns out that it was a fake that Liana asks for and gets. He plays the player in the game. Now people think the Evvie has the idol and they scramble to figure out who they should vote for instead, all whispering in groups. Did you hear about Manhattan Melodies?

 

Jeff takes this all in as different names are brought up like Deshawn, Sydney, and Evvie. A lot of people seem to be undecided and whether or not they bring in advantages to the game are all issues as well. One side wants to split the votes. I think that the yellow tribe has the power. They go from this to voting in the game. Sydney plays her shot in the dark and she’s not safe. They decide not to play an idol on Evvie as they aren’t sure that she got votes. Who was Sydney supposed to vote for? I don’t think that it matters as she is voted out, thinking that she should have kept her vote.

 

On the next Survivor, many different names are brought up as targets for the future: Tiffany, Xander, Heather, and others. An extra vote was played at tribal council. And I’m wondering why we saw only three people from the yellow tribe work together since there are four of them still left.

 

Total confessional count: Tiffany- 13, Sydney- 9, Shan- 15, Liana- 13, Heather- 1, Erika- 8, Ricard- 12, Xander- 12, Evvie- 14, Danny- 12, Naseer- 8, Deshawn- 11.

 

New confessionals this episode: Sydney- 1, Shan- 0, Liana- 4, Heather- 0, Erika- 2, Ricard- 0, Xander- 3, Evvie- 2, Danny- 0, Naseer- 0, Deshawn- 2, Tiffany- 0.

 

In this last episode, we saw no new confessionals of Danny, Naseer, Tiffany, Shan, Heather, and Ricard. The highest was four with Liana. In terms of total confessionals, Shan has the most with fifteen. Those that are not yet in double digits are Naseer, Sydney, Heather, and Erika with Heather still the lowest with a mere one confessional. What’s up with Heather’s dismal confessional count? This makes me as confused as a goat on Astroturf. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.