Survivor: China episode 10: It’s Been Real and It’s Been Fun

There are ways that I have and continue to have to rig old seasons to be watched from time to time if and when it works out. That’s one of the reasons that the dates that this happens is good for me when it does happen. I’m not rigging anything for Blood versus Water yet due to complicated rules and reasons. But there are two reasons why I would want to make sure that I post about an old season again.

 

One would be a Survivor contestant birthday rule. You see, I’m friends with a lot of Survivor contestants on facebook, although I wouldn’t be surprised if any of them aren’t actually the person they claim to be. For instance, there seems to be multiple Danielles (originally from Panama) that are on facebook. But the point currently is that if I’m able to wish them a happy birthday when blogging about their season or seasons, then I will mention that in the wish and then share the most recent post on that season that I’ve done, meaning that I must now do another new post as soon as I can.

 

The other thing would relate to various updates with the movie watching lists that I have. To ensure that some can happen and there be some update, I will post that. Whether this means transferring it from one season of this blog to another, doing this because a year ended, making sure that I can start a new series of old blog posts to share in this one due to the right thing being watched, or anything like that, I would post about it in a blog post if possible.

 

One should note that this is a recap special. They haven’t done one of these since South Pacific. It’s fine that they don’t do it. It does affect my blog at times, especially if I was switching back and forth between two different blogs, at which point I give up one of them to just finish off the other.

 

I’ve talked about a lot of shows in the past season that I had watched at certain times together. I am going to mention one last one now. When I started my full time job and still had to finish my part time job until they had a replacement for me, this affected the shows from Mondays from early 2021 that I was watching. The good part was that Black Lightning’s final season from the CW had not started until the end of that job so I didn’t miss any of it and could just watch it live when I could. The other shows that I watched then at the time were All Rise from CBS, Bull from CBS, 9-1-1 from FOX, 9-1-1: Lone Star from FOX, and The Good Doctor from ABC. I could have cared about The Weakest Link on NBC, but didn’t at the time.

 

Let’s get to idols from Winners at War part 5. Note that Natalie bought an idol before the first reentry duel and was still able to use it after winning the second one and was able to help vote out Denise as a result of this idol use. I despise late in the game idols more than any other twist including the new final four twist that we’ve been stuck with since Heroes versus Healers versus Hustlers. I’m glad that they did not do that in season 41 and hope that it never happens again. Don’t put a new idol in the finale. Even though it might not have actually happened to a player that got back in the game, it is still a huge issue that can cause too much to go wrong.

 

Now getting to the challenges that start with the letter o from Survivor, there’s a good chunk of them in the game. I forget if this is something that I rolled for out of other choices or not. But just know that these will now be covered. This does not include something that might have been on just 41 and one other season that wouldn’t have had a page at the time.

 

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/O-Black_Water

 

In this challenge, the contestants have to cross a course one at a time and then get a grappling hook to then get all their rings and win. This challenge could maybe be done while social distancing, especially if turned into a relay race where each person did just one task at hand. It looks like that is how we even have the challenge designed in the first place.

 

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Odd_Shaped_Bottoms

 

In this challenge, contestants have to race across a ladder with puzzle blocks and solve the puzzle at the end. I do not believe that this challenge could be done while social distancing, unless it was just an individual challenge and not a team one.

 

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Operation_Balance_Build

 

In this challenge, contestants have to maneuver bowls through a medal structure on a spring and either stack them all first or have the most stacked by the end of the time limit. This challenge could easily be done while social distancing.

 

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Out_on_a_Limb_(challenge)

 

This is also known as compass ropes, tarantula, lei of the land, rise to it, temple of the dog, giant tick, and slide on. In it, contestants have to get items to a central location in a giant spider web course and sometimes solve a puzzle. I do not see how this challenge could be done while social distancing, unless contestants did it one at a time. Of course, that would defeat the race aspect of it and thus wouldn’t work, meaning that it can’t be done that way.

 

https://survivor.fandom.com/wiki/Over-Extended

 

This is also known as With a 10 foot pole, ten foot pole, and audio slave. In this challenge, contestants have to balance an idol on a pole. This could be done while social distancing. The line, with a 10 foot pole, seems to be taken from the song, You’re a Mean One, Mister Grinch. That means that I will share that song in this blog when it is December again.

 

Now setting up a link from my Elementary blog, I mention a Sandman video or Enter Sandman song. I also talk some about the once obsolete what replaced what thing that I did regarding CBS shows and other networks. It was gone in 2020 because of the pandemic. Now, I’ve brought it back. I reference the Popeye movie by bringing up the up to no good tax. I also reference the Bourne franchise.

 

http://adamdeckerelementarytvshow.blogspot.com/2018/07/july-2nd-2018s-episode.html

 

As stated before, I will not doing these blog posts from Elementary for a while. Well, I’ll still be doing the cast updates in them. But I won’t be sharing links from old episodes in this blog for a while. I do plan to watch the movie True to the Game again this year. This means that you might see that show again from this place that I leave you hear this season.

 

Now I have a lot of videos to share that relate to things that are recent enough and make enough sense to me. I was switching between animal songs and other animal related videos. I’m going to share the Elton John song Crocodile Rock next. I think that I went with The Muppet Show version of it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8gowZkMGAM

 

Next, I’m getting to the Metallica song Enter Sandman. It is a fun rock song that I might only know because my brother had it on his phone’s special playlist and we listened to it while travelling a long way for Thanksgiving. I am glad that I got to know it.

 

SEIZURE WARNING! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD-E-LDc384

 

Now I’m sharing a song called More than a Feeling which might relate to a challenge name or maybe had sounded like a similar thing to something already shared before. I sadly can’t always remember why I wanted to share something, but here it is nonetheless.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSism86Y4bk

 

My last song for this blog post is the Grateful Dead song Shakedown Street. I think that it was a name that was possibly used as an alternate name for a challenge as I don’t think that I covered the letter s yet in the challenge title names. But I do like this song enough to share it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_T2_XSYcQM

 

Movie update: On Wednesday, I watched Popeye. I replaced that with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. On Thursday, I chose not to watch a movie. On Saturday and Sunday, I was with family over the weekend. On Monday, I also chose not to watch a movie.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Forest Gump. I replaced that with The Fighting Temptations. On Thursday, I did not watch a movie once again. On Saturday, I watched Run Fatboy Run. I replaced that with Shrek. On Sunday, I was busy with lunch so I didn’t watch a movie. On Monday, I watched Invictus. I was still finishing that on Tuesday. I replaced that with Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. I’m going to try to watch my Monday movies during the month of October as the last thing on the crossover tape is Halloween related. That’s part of the reason why I ignored it other times that weren’t Labor Day.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Adventures in Babysitting. I replaced that with Aladdin. On Thursday, I once again did not watch a movie. On Saturday, I watched A Few Good Men. I replaced that with Grumpier Old Men. I don’t have the original in the collection. I just have that, the sequel. On Sunday, I was busy once again with lunch so I didn’t have time for a movie as a result. On Monday, I was not able to watch a movie this time around. On Wednesday, I chose not to watch a movie.

 

On Thursday, I watched The Muppets Take Manhattan. That was quite the news story, wasn’t it? lol. I replaced that with The Devil Wears Prada. On Saturday, I watched Dumbo. I replaced that with Dances with Wolves. On Sunday, I watched Stuart Little. I finished it on Monday so no movie on Monday. I had tried to count a Monday choice, but this didn’t happen. I don’t expect that to make sense. I replaced Stuart Little with Turbo: A Power Rangers movie. On Wednesday, I did not watch a movie. I also was busy with family visits so I didn’t watch one on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, even though I might have had time that last day. Ultimately, I wound up stuck with certain choices.

 

Now it’s time for a quick break from the movie watching that I’m doing for an update on TV shows on DVD that I watch. This is remembering that I’m posting on the second list of things that I have. There is also a potential change that I plan to get to in another post. Basically, NCIS graduated to the main list so it will be NCIS: Los Angeles occupying its sole place on this list. It also freezes Parks and Recreation on this list and puts Power Rangers back in its place.

 

On Wednesday, I watched The Fighting Temptations. I was still watching it on Thursday so I didn’t have a chance to watch any other movie then. I replaced that with Field of Dreams. On Saturday and Sunday, there were family visits that prevented me from watching movies. On Monday, I watched Front of the Class. What an appropriate thing to see since the actor from that movie is also on a show that airs on Mondays. Anyways, I replaced that with nothing as there was nothing that I could replace it with.

 

This means that I will have to dissolve Monday’s list into the others. The five remaining choices on that list in the order that they will be moved to the four others are crossover tape, The Hobbit series, Beauty and the Beast, Pot O’ Gold, and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Celtic Woman: Songs from the Heart. I replaced that with Celtic Woman: Believe instead of anything from Monday’s old list as I have to go with the next choice in a series should there be more in a series to watch. On Thursday, I did not have time based on what I was doing to watch a movie. On Saturday, I watched One Night with the King. I replaced that with The Hobbit from the list on Monday since the oldest Monday choice was a c choice which I already have on the Saturday list right now. On Sunday, I watched no movie as I was busy with family that day.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Celtic Woman: Believe. I replaced that with Celtic Woman: Destiny. On Thursday, I watched one of my four nature documentaries, this one on South Africa. I did not replace it as there are three other ones to watch. On Saturday and Sunday, I was busy spending time with family again so I did not have time to watch movies then.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Toy Story 4 with commentary. I replaced that with Beauty and the Beast from Monday’s list. On Thursday, I watched The Omega Code 2. I replaced that with crossover tape from Monday’s list. On Saturday and Sunday, I was busy spending time with family once again and didn’t have time for any movies as a result.

 

On Wednesday, I watched Beauty and the Beast. I replaced that with Pot O’ Gold from Monday’s list. On Thursday, it was Thanksgiving, so I didn’t have time for a movie then as a result. On Saturday, I watched part of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I did not return to it until Sunday, but not the Sunday right after it, the next one after that. I did finish that movie then. I then took a break from the main movie watching lists that I do in order to see Christmas movies and specials.

 

Not surprisingly, with less time for Christmas stuff since I had to finish this movie and didn’t want to put off finishing it until 2022, I did not finish all of the Christmas watching that I wanted to do. I think that there might have been five times where I could have watched something in terms of movies that had related to Christmas, but this might not have been the case. I know for sure that there were three of them and two of them was because I wasn’t done with The Hobbit. I didn’t that Saturday so I could focus on a blog post and not watch anything. That Sunday was spent finishing that movie. At least once, I didn’t watch anything due to seeing a Christmas TV movie for a different blog.

 

I didn’t even attempt to watch some of the choices that I could have, but still decided that I will want to add at least two Christmas movies to my list of things to watch sometime this year. If I’m not able to watch them before the pre Christmas season where they start airing Christmas commercials and do other Christmas things too soon, then I’ll just have to wait to see them until December as usual.

 

There are a lot of potential complications and issues with the movie watching lists as I start the year of 2022 out. I won’t even be keeping the updates of that in this season’s blog posts as I will be moving them to a different season in this same blog.

 

On Saturday of the start of the New Year, I watched Eclipse in America and replaced it with the last choice from Monday’s list, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day. This officially leaves me with just four lists to start the year 2022 with. I will probably be adding at least one more. But not yet.

 

On Sunday, I watched The Lion King. I replaced that with The Lion King 1 ½. On Wednesday, I watched something that will be explained elsewhere. I am moving these movie updates to my posts on Survivor 42. You’ll learn more there. I want to move the posts to newer season episodes, having missed my chance to do that with seasons 40 and 41. While there will be the potential to move this to posts on the first season, this might happen later and I have to take advantage of moving it to where I want to now or I might not get the chance to move it there at all, which can cause other issues.

 

Here’s the way that the lists stand up at this point in early 2022. Wednesday’s list is Aladdin, Celtic Woman: Destiny, Field of Dreams, Gran Torino, Pot O’ Gold, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Thursday’s list is Bella, crossover tape, The Devil Wears Prada, nature documentaries, The Rookie, and That Darn Cat. Saturday’s list is Crazy People, Dances with Wolves, Grumpier Old Men, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, and Shrek. Sunday’s list is Bend it Like Beckham, Ghost Town, The Lion King 1 ½, Runaway Bride, Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, and A Wrinkle in Time. It is Wednesday that I will talk about first in season 42’s posts.

 

It was on 1-18-2022, a Tuesday, that I rolled and watched this episode again. Well, I didn’t roll it. I rigged the roll as usual. But I will tell you if I ever don’t rig it in the event that I do. I will talk more about the whole roll thing in relation to the shot in the dark in my first blog post on Survivor 42. But let’s get to the episode in question now.

 

We begin with a closer look at the final seven. Courtney thinks that her not being strong is actually her strength. All of the final seven get a new confessional. They call James and his two idols invincible. Are they being serious, bro? They know what happen with that.

 

There was a grueling start climbing up a bunch of stairs. Ashley thought that her outfit was too short and so did others. Leslie thought that the welcoming ceremony was too much like worship. Todd wants to put the leadership role on Aaron instead of himself. Erik and those on Zhan Hu will eat anything that they can find there since they are that hungry. Ashley thinks that this all is disgusting. There was a lot of different food that they ate such as frogs, worms, leaves, root, and spoiled rice. Some of them wonder if some things are poisonous. I have the feeling that production wouldn’t let them eat it if it were.

 

James criticizes Aaron’s poor leadership since he’s laying around doing nothing. James criticizes a whole lot and seems to always be complaining. Frosti and others react to their tribe, Zhan Hu, getting flooded some with Erik helping devise a plan to fix it. Dave talks about how the water has worked. We also learn again about what happened with the idol.

 

Aaron says the name of the episode, saying that it wasn’t fun being the leader. He gives this up only to just instantly boss people around. Dave has a lot of sleep deprivation going on. He also doesn’t want to eat before a challenge and is responsible for the loss. But he still isn’t voted out that night.

 

Leslie dumped the bait, annoyed at the flies on it. Denise thinks that this is stupid. James thinks that without food, they would die. Jean-Robert complains about Todd. Courtney mentions this and this leads to a confrontation between Todd and Jean-Robert. Later, Dave gets upset when it seems that Sherea would get rid of shells that he was saving. Later, Todd does impressions of Jean-Robert and then does other impressions as well. Courtney does this as well.

 

Frosti is blackmailed by Amanda and Todd to ensure that he stays with them. We don’t see Frosti’s perspective in this. But we do know that he was loyal to a fault. When James notices that people have a fake idol, he gets a bit Machiavellian about it. At the merge feast, Jamie talks about how much she likes the drinking far into the night. They even sing a lot, these people. Well, the drunk ones, at least.

 

James talks about how all he ever does is work and that’s all that he likes to do as well. He thinks that he is holding everyone together. But he is shown having issues with first Jean-Robert and then Peih-Gee. Peih-Gee wants to apologize to James, but he doesn’t accept this at all.

 

We return to the still unresolved cliffhanger from the previous episode as we learn more about what will be going on. What will happen with James and his idols? On the next Survivor, we get to more of the reward or whatever is happening right after tribal council and then it seems like Amanda is going to turn on her allies and work with Peih-Gee. We end with a segment of Courtney talking about other people, some of them still in the game.

 

Total confessional count: Amanda- 18, Courtney- 19, Todd- 35, Jamie- 21, Peih-Gee- 19, Denise- 14, Aaron- 8, Frosti- 16, Jean-Robert- 16, Chicken- 4, Leslie- 15, Dave- 12, Sherea- 12, Erik- 16, Ashley- 7, James- 28. New confessionals this episode: Courtney- 5, Todd- 8, Jamie- 4, Peih-Gee- 2, Denise- 4, Aaron- 0, Frosti- 2, Jean-Robert- 1, Chicken- 0, Leslie- 2, Dave- 2, Sherea- 1, Erik- 6, Ashley- 2, James- 7, Amanda- 2.

 

There isn’t too much else to talk about as I close out this blog post. I need to remember to underline the name of the person who is voted out in each episode. I might talk about how I spoil what has already happened that we know has happened elsewhere as well. I also have no idea just how confusing and potentially off the count is now due to any potential repeat ones in this episode.

 

Also note that in case there was any confusion about this that if there aren’t new episodes of Survivor on the air, if you see me blog about one and I could potentially get it done the same day of the week the next week, then I will not be posting that next Wednesday doing a random blog post. People who stuck with this blog during the long hiatus would know this. It is part of the plan and not something that I just didn’t get done on time and decided against doing at all. I just want to take the week off in a way. It is normal and might not happen that much. Keep that in mind as this post is incomplete once again for the challenge at tribal council. To be continued… again…

The Ethical Implications of Shan’s Game Play

From what we saw of Shan on the most recent season of Survivor, there was a lot of shadiness or other weird aspects to it. What makes this worth doing a whole post on more relates to her being a pastor than anything else. I know that the bible says not to judge others (although not in those exact words). And I know that a lot of entertaining Family Feud players who say a lot of out there things that could be considered inappropriate are also pastors. But I still feel like covering this topic.

How did Shan play? Well, she was very shady with her you know what looking with her, wait. Those are a paraphrase of the lyrics of The Real Slim Shady. Anyways, she even invented a song (if it isn’t the song Bittersweet Symphony) that Survivor might own the rights to whenever she is up to something that she might not supposed to be doing. Is she up to something a lot? Well, it sure seemed like it.

Of course, the bible is full of plenty of examples of people displaying what clearly isn’t Christian behavior and yet these stories are about them and they are still known as God’s people. God uses a lot of flawed people to advance his works. But let’s not forget that they are never portrayed well as a result of this. Indeed, the bible is filled with a lot of examples of what not to do and how not to live a godly life.

What is worth noting is that there are two examples I can think of in Survivor of Christianity being represented, but not in a good way for sure. The first was in Marquesas. The winner from that season was Vecepia who was a flipper that one and has an overall mischievous game as a villain. But she gives God the credit for her not just playing Survivor, but also winning as well. Then we get to South Pacific where it seemed like Coach and others were doing more of a cult when they brought up God and the show even referenced a cult of Coach. Yet it still brought up God a lot more than any other season.

Just because the bible doesn’t always use the best people, at least during part of the Old Testament, we still should strive to be good people and not just assume forgiveness without renouncing your bad ways. I still have no idea what type of pastor Shan is or if I’ll ever hear a sermon or other biblical lesson from her. I have already stated that I don’t want to go to her church or here her preach. But maybe I should just once to see if she has better lessons than she does Survivor game play.

It is hard to tell just how much Shan has done throughout the game that isn’t ethical. She wanted to deceive another player into not thinking that she had an idol that she did. Not only did she want to do that, but she did do that. She was overall untrustworthy of others in the game. There were other issues with her that I already talked about when I blogged about the season. She was not ethically good in the game throughout a lot of it.

I don’t honestly know what else there is to say about this topic. This could have been more of a post than it was, but I think that I’m okay with it. I wanted to talk about it as it just seemed like something that I wanted to cover. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

The Upside of Advantages

Many people have talked in their Survivor blogs about how they don’t like the advantages of the newer seasons. I even wrote a whole post about it. But now I’m going to talk about good things about them and why they aren’t that bad at times.

 

You see, while some people may think that gimmicks would just make computers explode and then need replaced at some point in time, sometimes, they can make things more interesting and keep us wondering what will happen with them. While they can be misused a whole lot, that’s some of the fun that goes on with them.

 

These advantages are always worth seeing and fun to keep track of as they go along. We often see the people there learn about such a thing and wonder what to do with it. Of course, one of the best part about them in the “secret” that they are.

 

Of course, if you actually use scare quotes correctly, unlike nearly every US journalist, you’ll realize that I’m being sarcastic and the secret of an advantage that you tell another person is more than likely going to be learned by tons of other people as well. That’s actually part of the charm and fun. People still haven’t learned from such mistakes. They keep misusing advantages. They keep blabbing the secret with others soon learning about it.

 

And then, there are times when the advantage is actually used correctly, which often leads to great moments, be it at tribal council or something else. People can be smart with them and it is fun to see just how often they can actually be used right.

 

All in all, I think that advantages can actually be better in some ways than other people can give them credit for. It always eats up time, but there are always new twists to try out and advantages to see in the game that can be improved on in many ways. I think that improving on them can work and they lead to more great moments than we would otherwise get without them. When done right, they work well. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

How Jeff Probst is Ruining the Reunion Show

I’ve had this idea for a post for a while now and it is time that I finally write and publish it. You see, it should be apparent right now to everyone that Jeff Probst is ruining the reunion show. We’ve seen this ever since Caramoan, if not sooner. It’s like he doesn’t want Rosie O'Donnell to be remembered as the worst host of a reunion show.

Basically, Jeff and his Jeffness are causing issues and irritations among Survivor fans. It’s like he wants us to be glad if he winds up gone as host for whatever reason. But the reunion show, once considered the way the show should end each season, now winds up constantly ruined due to his involvement.

This actually started at least back in Redemption Island. After a whole season that was about Boston Rob, it did not help the reputation of how easy he had it as a winner to basically make the entire reunion show effectively the Boston Rob show. We already saw a whole season of Rob running circles around a bunch of noobs who were too glorified by him that they couldn’t take out him as a threat. Did we really need yet another hour of a reunion show about that?

And that’s back in the good old days when the reunion show was the whole hour it was supposed to be. We see a lot of Jeff talking with any of the finale vote outs of those that he feel deserve time that they could have easily gotten at the reunion show. These prereunion segments have always been awful and always took away from the time supposed to go to the real reunion show. There are other reasons why the reunion show isn’t a full hour. Plus, I don’t know how much the editors are to blame or if Jeff is even involved in the editing process.

But the worst of these prereunion segments had to be in Edge of Extinction when Joe was the only one of those players who lost that talked to Jeff. Jeff had to talk to his favorite alpha male of recent seasons whose strength is overshadowed by his lack of awareness of how not to stand out as a threat or to even be on the right side of the numbers of votes. Jeff is the sole reason that these prereunion segments exist. They need to go forever.

It is hard not to think of reunion shows as better in earlier seasons and ruined constantly in these seasons. We haven’t even a live reunion show since Edge of Extinction, but a good reunion show was a much earlier time ago than that. If the winner glorification of Rob in Redemption Island was bad enough, we had the winner justification of Ben in Heroes versus Healers versus Hustlers. Very little of what we saw in the reunion show was about something other than why Ben deserved to win after the new twist that is now forced upon us from season to season every season after it.

When Winners at War didn’t even have a reunion show, it was actually a welcome change. One might think that just ending the season with just a winner reveal could be a good way to end it, even if it meant not hearing from the contestants again at the end.

Of course, if there isn’t a reunion show, then we shouldn’t have something like the after show that we saw end 41. It might have been a fine way to end it, if the people voted out before the jury were there and got to enjoy it just like the players at a reunion show does. This new format can only be blamed just a bit on the pandemic and not knowing how it would happen. It can entirely be blamed on Jeff.

Jeff seems to only listen to the fans at times when there is too much overwhelming negativity to just overcome his support of this. Heck, I deleted three posts of this very blog you are reading because of intense backlash to it. But there are issues that he seems fine ignoring like the new way of doing the final four. It is possible that people don’t know just how much people hate his influence of the reunion show. He might know if this post gets back to him. I won’t tweet it to him directly like a hater would. I would hope that he can learn from his ways and bring us better Survivor.

He probably just ignores or would get irritated at any negativity as one would. I don’t bother reading things that I know will piss me off. But sometimes, people need to learn how to make things better. And if Jeff is going to remain as involved as he is with the show, he shouldn’t keep messing up the reunion show. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.