Episode 41.9

In my strange, obsessive need to often reference something and make sure that you know what for sure it was that I did, here is a link to the song Sticky Situation that Baylor from San Juan del Sur did. It could be considered a Survivor song, but am unsure if this counts as it or not. Are there any?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YgH5uBmlcM

 

Now the last episode of this show made me think of Bathsheba and the story of her and David from the bible. I’d have to reread the last post to explain more why I felt this was relevant. This story is found in 2 Samuel 11 & 12, specifically 1-7 of chapter 12 which inspired the song There Once was a Man from VeggieTales. This makes me think that I should finally go back to reading the bible. I haven’t done that all year. Now I should again. I might have been just a bit past that story.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPwMo5rMCuQ

 

Let’s get to the one time challenges from the ninth season. This had more of a simple element to it and had some things that seemed similar to what we’d see elsewhere in Survivor. I do plan to cover every challenge on the show up to the present if at all possible. I just hope you don’t tire of this.

 

Fire Starter (challenge from They Came at Us with Spears!): In this challenge, contestants have to go through a mud pit, bring balls through a table maze, climb a ladder to cross a balance beam, slide back to the ground, use materials to light a torch, and end at some point by crossing a finish line. I think that an individual version of this or relay race version of this could be done while social distancing.

 

Tribal Tiles (immunity challenge from Now That’s a Reward!): In this challenge, we get one of those complicated mind games (not the kind that people play on each other, thankfully) where they have to figure out how to rearrange sixteen tiles with four colors and four designs into a 4 by 4 row without there being any repeat colors or designs in any rows. An individual version of this could easily be done while social distancing. They’d just need a different name for it.

 

Shoot Your Way Home (immunity challenge from Anger, Threat, Tears… and Coffee): In this challenge, contestants have to shoot out all 20 tiles of the opposing tribe. This could be done individually and could also be done while social distancing. This does seem similar to a different challenge on Survivor.

 

Jumper (immunity challenge from Now the Battle Really Begins): In this challenge, contestants would have to race up a tower, get a flag, bring it to a place, and repeat the process three times to get all of the flags that they need. A simplified version of this challenge could be done while social distancing.

 

Memory Mosaic (immunity challenge from Gender Wars… It’s Getting Ugly): In this challenge, those who are playing it must memorize what a mosaic looks like in a specific amount of time and then do their best to replicate it. This could be done while social distancing.

 

Played Out (reward challenge from Surprise and… Surprise Again!): In this challenge, the players were quizzed about challenges from earlier in the season. This could easily be done while social distancing. This should be done again.

 

Ready, Aim, Don’t Fire (final immunity challenge from Spirits and the Final Four): In this challenge, the contestants have to stand in a warrior pose holding a bow and arrow that they can’t release or they will be out of the challenge. This could be done while social distancing and should be done again.

 

I realize that some people don’t really like advantages in the modern version of Survivor. You might even remember a post that I wrote about it called The Disadvantages of Advantages. Well, I do have some appreciation for them now so I now plan to write a post about liking them nowadays. I think that they have done a lot of interesting things with them this season and look forward to seeing what else they come up with. But enough of my ramblings.

 

In the first segment of the show, we get to the fallout of the tribal council. They wanted to get rid of Heather. Whatever the world may be. What will be will be. They had to go with what Deshawn wanted. Xander voted for Naseer, but Heather is blamed for this by Naseer. She had told Evvie to vote for him in the end. Ricard talks about being deaf in his right ear. He wants to be the first winner of the show (in the US version, at least, although I don’t know much if anything about the other country’s versions) to be hard of hearing. Does this mean that he’s going to be portrayed negatively now? Why is this only now being brought up? Anyways, Erika is brought up as a potential target.

 

In the second segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge already. They are splitting into two groups and going to two different tribal councils to each vote out two different people. Is there a name for this twist yet? There should be, if there isn’t. The last person standing for their team wins the reward for their team. This has been done at times since Ghost Island. At least this time they are doing it with an even number of people on both sides.

 

Naseer gets disqualified from the challenge, not keeping his hand where he is supposed to. This gives Erika the win on yellow, but she drops out shortly afterwards giving the reward win to yellow. It is then Xander who wins it for the blue team. The yellow team has to go back to an old camp and vote out their player first, not allowed to return to their old tribe until after tribal council. The blue team will vote out someone second. Liana is upset that Xander is immune.

 

In the third segment of the show, we get to the tribe that won reward first. Some people on this group think that Evvie should be voted out, but an idol is at play. Xander has it. He calls himself the prom king since everyone is coming to him to make moves. Liana wants to have Xander’s idol, but he doesn’t fall for this ploy.

 

On the other team, both Naseer and Shan talk to each other about their idols and other advantages. The people here want to vote out Heather with Naseer openly admitting to her that she’s the target. It also seems that Erika wants to turn the tables on either Naseer or Shan, but not having the advantages to make this happen. But she does have the numbers if they don’t both play their idols and can get the other two people to vote with her.

 

While Evvie has an ally with her group, Xander thinks that he should play his idol on her to ensure that she is safe after the vote. Heather wants to make it seem like she is going home so they get rid of Naseer instead. Shan is the most paranoid player in Survivor history. She wonders whether or not to play her extra vote as there is once again friction between her and Ricard. It always has to be her way.

 

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the first tribal council of the episode. Heather is brought up as the target of the vote this night. She wants to cue an idol, but a bug appears on Tiffany instead. Jeff talks about how there are no secrets with who has what advantage since loose lips sink ships. I do not think that Naseer had a confessional this episode unless I missed it. Does that mean that he won’t be voted out or does that mean that his story isn’t worth saying this time?

 

People talk about the power of advantages and knowing who has what. The votes are cast with no advantages or idols played. An extra vote was played and it becomes a tie between Naseer and Heather. A revote happens and we go to commercial before we see what happens next.

 

In the fifth segment of the show, we return with only possibly the second revote certain to be resolved that way. Naseer is voted off, although I don’t know why there were three votes read when that should have been enough at just two.

 

The other team arrives at their vote next. Danny is shocked over what happened. Xander talks about how they won stew. Is stew really that great? Xander talks about wanting to work with people or how they would want to work with him. Jeff asks everyone if they feel comfortable or not. They think that there is lying going around. Evvie is glad about surviving Survivor death. Someone is going to die. We then get to the vote at hand. Evvie is voted out since no idol was played in Evvie’s favor. This seems rather dumb. Who was said to possibly be part of that twosome anyways?

 

On the next Survivor, people want Ricard gone since he makes Shan powerful and people think that Deshawn could be voted out instead. That’s the gist of what I could get from the promo. I doubt that there is much else to say right now about the next episode. But I will including something else about this episode. Evvie is convinced during her exit confessional that someone flipped, but unless I missed something, she only had Xander as an ally. Was she thinking that Liana was with her? I thought that it was clear from the sort of merge tribal council that Liana wasn’t on their side anymore. Why else would she have tried to taken Xander’s idol away back then?

 

Total confessional count: Shan- 22, Liana- 17, Heather- 4, Erika- 10, Ricard- 15, Xander- 21, Evvie- 20, Danny- 14, Naseer- 10, Deshawn- 14.

 

New confessionals this episode: Liana- 3, Heather- 2, Erika- 1, Ricard- 2, Xander- 5, Evvie- 2, Danny- 2, Naseer- 0, Deshawn- 1, Shan- 4.

 

It is worth noting that my church is offering two services for Advent on Wednesdays. One will be at the usual time at 7 when I normally go. The other would be at 4 right after work. I might honestly go to the one at 4, have supper, then go back home to enjoy primetime shows. The only time that this won’t happen will be noted for sure around the time that I’m pretty sure Survivor’s finale would be. But we’ll have to see for sure what I might do in the end.

 

Planned December blog posts (if Survivor blog is largely on Thursday)

 

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

 

Planned December blog posts (if Survivor blog is largely on Wednesday)

 

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

 

I am a bit unsure when I’ll be back with this blog and new episodes on it. I might be back here at the usual time as I’m planning. I don’t yet know why I wouldn’t be. I just know that Thanksgiving is next week and things can get rather swapped then for me. At least I won’t have to work that night so that’s a relief. We’ll see when I’ll be back then. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.