Episode 41.11

You might wonder why I blog the way that I do. Well, the main part this blog are a recap of what happened in the show. I like this best as now you know what is going on and happened in the show. Too many other bloggers do it in other ways, which can annoy me.

 

Let’s get to the one time challenges from the eleventh season. Since this one was in Guatemala, that is a lot that they can do with Mayan culture. This is why reusing the same location can be an issue as they are not able to work in themes from cultures of where they film if it is always the same place.

 

11-Mile Hike (reward challenge from Big Trek, Big Trouble, Big Surprise): I’m honestly surprised that this isn’t lumped together with the challenge Race to the Beach on fandom. I think that it should be. In this challenge, the tribes must hike 11 miles to reach ruins before the other tribe. My sister, who had done this hike at one point, said that Jeff was exaggerating the elements of danger in it. It was once ranked by Survivor Oz as the most physical challenge ever done. It is unlikely it would work while social distancing, although parts of it could.

 

Dragged Through Mud (immunity challenge from Man Down): This challenge is more or less a Survivor tug of war in the mud with each tribe trying to receive the other one’s flag. It would be a one on one match if no tribe won after a certain amount of time. I don’t think that this could be done while social distancing, if I’m understanding this challenge correctly.

 

Holding Court (immunity challenge from The Brave May Not Live Long, but the Cautious Don’t Live at All): This is an adaptation of Mayan Courtball, an actual game that the Mayans played, turned into an immunity challenge as the losing team would actually kill a member when the Mayans actually played it. This might be one of those season specific challenges that can’t be worked into the mythos of another season, although I’d like to see it again. In the challenge, contestants had to pass the ball to each other in order to score points by shooting at a target. Whoever had the ball couldn’t move or the ball would have to be given to the other tribe. It could not be done while social distancing.

 

Rows and Throws (immunity challenge from To Betray or Not to Betray): In this challenge, contestants had to get their tribe colored bag, get them into a bucket, take the bag of war clubs to throw at three different tiles, and break all three to win the challenge. An individual one of this could potentially be done while social distancing.

 

Slave to the Grind (reward challenge from Crocs, Cowboys, and City Slickers): This challenge is named after the song and album by Skid Row. It is a complicated challenge where people have to race to cut a rope with a stone at one station, then cut through a log and more rope, take handles from them to crank a cart up a hill, then ride that cart down to the finish. I’m unsure how this could be done while social distancing, although there could be individual versions of this, I think.

 

Spooling Around (reward challenge from Surprise Enemy Visit): In this challenge, contestants have to unspool around a pole after first being wrapped up until they are completely unspooled and across the finish line. An individual version of this could be done while social distancing.

 

Atlatl (reward challenge from Secrets and Lies and an Idol Surprise): In this challenge, people simply use an atlatl, whatever that is, in order to hit closest to a target with the person closest to the target winning the challenge. I’m unsure if this is a good challenge since it is one shot and done. I am sure that this could be done while social distancing. It is like choose your weapon, with only one weapon.

 

Bridge it (immunity challenge from Secrets and Lies and an Idol Surprise): This challenge comes in three stages. The first has people crossing a balance beam to get wooden planks. The next round has people using those planks to cross a knotted rope bridge. The final round has people navigating a two line balance bridge. I think that this could be done while social distancing.

 

Wobbly Boots (final immunity challenge from Thunder Storms and Sacrifice): In this challenge, players had to use thin ropes to stay on a fulcrum joint without touching the platform beneath. They must let go of one rope an hour in and then the other a half hour later. This could easily be done while social distancing and should be done again. I mean, seriously, what is up with so many great endurance challenges only being done once?

 

For a while, there was a time that I read other Survivor blogs. I haven’t had as much time for that lately. But I don’t even know which one that I’d like. I’ve mentioned before what other ones I like, but some of them stopped blogging and others annoyed me so I sought to find something else. Maybe I will find one on True Dork Times to replace the one that I used to read there. One seemed too negative and one was too convinced that this show is rigged.

 

Back when tv.com existed, it seemed like nearly all of those who did reviews (at least, the ones that I read) when only post negative things about the show in question with nearly everything a criticism of the show. I hope to find one and if you know of any, such as one that you write or one you simply know about, I would like to know. I just hope that I have time to read it. But enough of my ramblings.

 

In the first segment of the show, Liana talks about being blindsided due to Ricard’s move. Xander is glad that he’s not on the bottom anymore. Insert dirty joke here. Xander thinks that he is in control now, although he might be to in control of it. Did Shan know that Ricard turned on her? I hope that I can see Ponderosa and not just so I can blog about it. Deshawn did not like being called a snake. But in the game of Survivor, wouldn’t you rather be a snake than a rat? Snake is a compliment in Survivor history, like how those who saw at least one episode of Queens, the show on ABC that I only watched once and never will again, would think that nasty bitch is a good thing. Liana wants to get rid of Deshawn.

 

In the second segment of the show, Danny talks about his father’s death and letting go of the anger that he might have felt at it. I don’t think that I ever felt mad at my father or any other family member who had died, although I might have privately felt mad at the situation with my grandfather’s death. I was not mad at him, just the time gone and life upended.

 

At the immunity challenge, only Heather and Liana decide to sit out of the challenge to not play do or die. If you lose that challenge, you are eliminated without a vote. If you win, a vote takes place. It is Deshawn who is the first out and will have to play this game of chance. During the challenge, there is a fly next to Danny, which could be important. We know as Survivor fans what the fly often means. Heck, we know from the most recent vice-presidential debate what the fly means.

 

Anyways, Erika is the second person out of the challenge right before the final stage was to start. Danny actually wins the challenge. Does that mean for him what it meant for Natalie Anderson? I guess that we’ll find out. I do believe that Natalie is the only person who survived that curse thus far. Ricard hopes that Deshawn fails in the challenge since he will be safe otherwise and he’s supposed to be the target of the vote in the game.

 

In the third segment of the show, Deshawn talks about the twist at hand. But he doesn’t even know what will happen and how much control he has over it. Danny is happy that he won immunity. He goes out with Xander and the animal imagery of a snake with its tongue out saying that Ricard should be voted out. But Xander wants a shield, which he thinks Ricard is. People talk about getting rid of Liana, which is what Erika wants. Xander says that Ricard is the target. Liana wants the vote to go her way and might want to use the shot in the dark. The tribe walks to tribal council with only half of the episode gone thus far.

 

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the tribal council at hand. I think that we are already spoiled to the fact that there will be a vote or else there wouldn’t be this much show left. And I would have known this if I was blogging about this later. Heather talks about why she sat out of the challenge. Xander talks about all of the uncertainty of modern Survivor. Danny wants to put the plan out there and mention that he is the reason that the vote is going that way. Erika thinks that she hates the game now while Jeff mentioned that you can’t like Survivor without hating it to. This is also the last tribal council where the shot in the dark can be used. I don’t think that we’ll see it.

 

Ricard mentions more of what went on before the last tribal council. Deshawn mentions that he wanted to represent the black community well. He gets emotional while talking about it. Liana talks some about what is going on in the culture of the world and the US nowadays. I like this moment. It is humanizing. She mentions the 50% POC (is it all caps?) rule. I’m actually thinking that we’ll see the do or die moment after the commercial break.

 

There is a lot of emotion going on in the game. Xander and Danny talk some about this. Xander is an ally to black people. Danny thinks that they can be allies for any cause. Maybe that can happen with whatever gender non-binary means. Liana points out that some people just want to watch Survivor. Honestly, we need more of this from Survivor. This might be one of the greatest tribal councils and there might not even be a vote. My mother now understands why there is a segment this long for tonight’s tribal council as Jeff has to get this set up in the meantime.

 

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to the tokens. He has a one in three chance of picking the right box and staying in the game. He picks the one on his left. He reveals the skull and offers the chance to switch boxes, which he should have taken. I’ll get into that in the next post. Actually, he made the right choice as he got flame and stayed in the game. The odds would have favored the other choice. But now he doesn’t get to make the wrong choice such as having lysine and changing it. An extra vote must have been played even as Liana got voted out like they were wanting and would have happened without the extra vote being played, I think.

 

On the next Survivor, Danny looks for an idol as Deshawn and him are on the bottom. I could not make sense of the rest of the promo. But there is something out there so I guess we’ll see if there is another advantage or idol or something like that. It looks like there will be. Will it be what Xander passed up on? Or is it gone from the game?

 

Total confessional count: Ricard- 19, Xander- 23, Danny- 19, Deshawn- 22, Liana- 22, Heather- 4, Erika- 13. New confessionals this episode: Xander- 2, Danny- 2, Deshawn- 3, Liana- 3, Heather- 0, Erika- 1, Ricard- 1.

 

I should have done the January schedule last post, but that’s fine that I didn’t. I’m going to post the next three month’s planned blog posts in this post and the next two as well. This will actually get me caught up to when Survivor 42 will start. Anyways, here’s the planned schedule:

 

Planned January blog posts

 

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

 

As should be clear from the timing of this post, I was able to watch this live on Wednesday and will not be delaying this post until Thursday. I hope that this will be the case next week as well. I won’t know what the Lent schedule will be until much closer to it. Still, I hope that you enjoy the first of any posts done during Advent or Lent that are during an airing of Survivor, but not delayed. I wish that it could be this way for the season finale, but that won’t be the case. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.