Episode 41.8

The more that I think about it, the more that I think that the song or music that Shan does is more or less identical to one by the Verve called Bittersweet Symphony. The name of this song was actually driving me a bit crazy for a while as it is one of those songs that you probably hear a lot, but don’t know the name of. If it weren’t in an episode of Riverdale, I may not know for sure.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opEOYvNfCp4

 

When I shared a song from Thomas the Tank Engine in the last blog post, it ended with a different song that they did. The other sound is called Sounds and I’m sharing the classic show version of it in this blog of mine now. Thankfully, I won’t have to do that again as this other song at the end of this one is not one that I’m interesting in sharing or even listening to in its entirety once.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEv74Lz_nDo

 

Doing the research on past challenges, I found out that only one challenge from the eighth season was used once. This makes sense as they would have wanted to do as many old challenges as they wanted to from previous seasons so they did.

 

Floating Puzzle (challenge from Sorry… I Blew it): In this challenge, players have to assemble a puzzle boat, row to shore, have one race to raise a flag, lower more paddles, and then paddle back to the start. A relay race version or possible individual one of this could be done while social distancing.

 

After the last episode, I had to take notice of Xander’s move from the last episode and wonder if his fake idol might appear again. I do like his move a lot. In the chess world, they would call that a swindle. Now as this is the merge now, I’m also wondering about contestants who are likely not winning this season. I don’t think that there is anything in Heather’s edit that indicates that she will get far. If she does, she won’t stand any chance of winning. Ricard didn’t get a confessional after his immunity win and we did not see much of Erika after her game changing decision. There are others too that aren’t worth talking about right now. But enough of my ramblings.

 

In the first segment of the show, a lot of things happened at the tribal council that are then talked about now. Evvie mentioned that Xander had an idol, something that Danny blabbed to the others at tribal council. Xander talks about playing Liana and Liana talks about having gotten played. A lot more had happened with the camp life and it seems like the yellow tribe is no longer working together.

 

There is an advantage at the sit out bench. Erika draws the sit out rock and Xander decides that he wants to swap with her which he does as Jeff allows this. The blue team wins the challenge with Evvie having remembered this puzzle from the Edge of Extinction. Xander didn’t take the advantage. Will it appear again? I guess we’ll have to see.

 

In the second segment of the show, Erika is glad that she got the reward of sandwich and chips. Tiffany was largely with the same people who failed at the last group challenge. She wants to put food out of her mind completely. Meanwhile, people talk about getting rid of Evvie. That is what Liana wants. And we learn that Xander wanted to sit out because being with the losers gives him the information. Shan thinks that Ricard is selfish by winning the reward and then still eating food later. There once was a man who took the lamb from the poor man instead of eating one of his many lambs. This is in the bible. He, as in Ricard, is worried about this move of his.

 

In the third segment of the show, we get to the challenge and a sit out option is included. It is agreed that if five people sit out, they will get rice for the whole tribe. This is taken down to four. I just wonder how many of them will be like that one woman from not too long ago who chose to sit out a challenge in order to give her tribe rice and demanded lots of credit for it. I can’t remember her name or that season offhand right now. Four people do sit out and Evvie wins the short lasting challenge. Evvie mentions this victory in a confessional.

 

In the fourth segment of the show, the others think that either Xander or Tiffany should be voted out tonight. Naseer says that he isn’t going home today. Shan is convinced that Xander should be voted out while Deshawn thinks that she should be voted out instead. Naseer’s name is brought up as well, but Shan doesn’t want him voted out since he is helpful around camp. Shan thinks that being a pastor means that her way is the best way. What kind of church does she run anyways? What do the people who go to her church think of her now?

 

Xander’s betraydar is going up and hoping that no stupid errors are happening. Tiffany doesn’t know what the plan is. Does she still have the idol? She might go rouge. Heather doesn’t like Shan as Shan is dictating too much about what to do. Heather doesn’t like that her name was brought up. Shan thinks that she needs a prayer for tribal council and mentions that the shot in the dark could come up.

 

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to tribal council. It’s a new era of the game. Shan wants them to be able to eat which is why she did what she did. Jeff talks to all the four people who gave up their spot in the challenge, Shan, Ricard, Naseer, and Xander. He then talks to those that didn’t sit out. There were a lot of things changed after the last tribal council. A comment might drop and cause whispering. Was the last one technically a post merge one? Or is this the first? Danny mentions that people are quite crazy in a way.

 

Heather then openly whispers right before Jeff wants others to vote. She wants to change the vote to Naseer and now people want to vote for Heather. If this is how she leaves, this would be the quickest game lost at tribal council ever. I can’t make some sense out of a lot of this. What even just happened? I can’t quite get it. This time, it really is time to vote. When asked about advantages or idols, no one winds up playing theirs this time. The votes are all over the place with four people getting votes. In the end, it is Tiffany that gets voted out and joins the jury. And I’ll have to branch out to do another post on Ponderosa, which I will be doing for every new season starting with this one and every old season that I blog about should it have one.

 

On the next Survivor, Xander likes people being crazy, Shan is causing more issues with people, and there is some more that I can’t quite understand so that’s all worth mentioning because it is easy to miss. So I guess we’ll see what strange type of church Shan currently has. And brace yourself: next week’s post will contain a bible lesson.

 

Total confessional count: Xander- 16, Evvie- 18, Danny- 12, Naseer- 10, Deshawn- 13, Tiffany- 16, Shan- 18, Liana- 14, Heather- 2, Erika- 9, Ricard- 13.

 

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

 

It is possible that Danny did get a confessional this episode and I missed it. I also might have gotten a bit confused at times who was giving what confessional. Also, who from the blue tribe remains in the game as I think that only one of them is out now, right? Or are they all still left? It’s hard for me to keep track of this sometimes. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.