Episode 44.3

While it seems way too late to remind you right now, since you already know this, I might as well point out that Survivor was renewed for at least a season 45 and probably a season 46. We’ll see when I get these published as I need to be caught up on this blog first before I can post on any new seasons, which could take a good, long while, since I only post one post of any blog on any day and am not good at getting caught up even when I started trying (as evident by yesterday’s lack of a post here).

 

Now I want to post about the one time challenges from the forty-second season next, but there are none so I will have to end with the onetime challenges from the forty-third season. Since all of 44 has now aired by the time you see this, then I was a bit worried that anything that could have been one time isn’t included since it might have also appeared during this season as well. But there is something that I can cover before probably never covering these challenges again. I’ll get to what will replace it the moment that I’m done with this section.

 

Brain Stew (immunity challenge from Show No Mercy): In this challenge, tribes would have to push sandbags off different tables while looking for a hidden key. Using the key to unlock the net, they will crawl under it with four bags containing puzzle pieces. The pieces would first be used to form a square before it is taken apart and carried to the top of a tower. The same pieces would then be used to form a triangle. It could be done while social distancing if done as an individual challenge.

 

There are two things to note before I continue. The less important one will be covered first. I have decided that for reasons that I will explain in my Elsbeth blog (which doesn’t yet exist), I may give up different fandoms for an extended period of time. That would include the Survivor fandom, without which, I wouldn’t be able to give you a lot of the information I include in this blog like that on challenges or hidden immunity idols. This could affect this blog so I thought that I would let you know.

 

Meanwhile, in case you are wondering more about what I will post in this blog now that I’m done with posting about all of the onetime challenges before this current season, I will start at the first season and post about all of the easy votes that I feel have happened over the seasons since I just don’t believe the contestants this season when they say that there is no such thing as an easy vote.

 

Both Charlotte Alter and Lissandra Villa did an article called “Welcome to the coronavirus campaign” that was featured on page 6 of the 3-30-2020 issue of Time. It affected the Democratic primary, largely being the reason that Bernie Sanders dropped out of the race, giving the primary victory, and then the election, to Biden. It point out that the shutdown orders have been “a blow to Trump, whose signature rallies have been both a show of strength and a source of voter data.” It also points out that “There are real health risks for both the candidates and the voters [since] the virus has proved particularly dangerous for older people.” Indeed, Trump would later get it, which I’ll probably get to later.

 

I will be including a link to one of my sister’s TikToks throughout the rest of this season’s posts and I do promise not to be so superficial as to only share her videos with me in it. I’m hoping that I will only do this with stuff that existed when these episodes aired this season. Anyways, I had done a video about what I was giving up for Lent this year. Note that it should say Jay Exci and not JRT, although now I will have to see if there really is a JRT YouTube channel. Also, while I didn’t want to tell her this so she wouldn’t know I was still doing them, I also gave up non-English status updates on facebook, something I last did in November. Most of these channels I still haven’t returned to by the time you are seeing this. It makes me wonder if it is too easy to give these up.

 

https://www.tiktok.com/@nicoleboeder90/video/7212075497985953067

 

The next video that I’m sharing from The Hunchback of Notre Dame is God Help the Outcasts, which is a popular song for some, although I never understand why some songs get more love than others, not that I hate this or any of the songs from this movie because I don’t.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEEpavnk7Uw

 

You might be expecting me to do updates in regards to March Madness ever since I first put those updates in this blog back in 2021 while also doing that again in 2022. Well, those updates will be in my blog on CSI: Vegas this season, but I do plan to return and do those again here in season 46, should that season exist. I plan to switch back and forth between which of these two blogs will have the updates on that in the future, regardless of if that show doesn’t air during the tournament like CSI: Vegas is. The only change in that would be if a show that I blog about that isn’t this one airs on Sundays, I will post it there before moving it back here. But enough of my ramblings.

 

In the first segment of the show, the purple tribe gets back from tribal council. Carson is glad that he pulled off a blindside. Sarah talks about how she goes forward. Carolyn is glad that she didn’t have to play her idol. Things seem to be going well on Kane’s tribe. Danny finds the idol on his tribe and leaves the useless trinket as if it were the real idol as it were real. Matt Blankinship finds this and Danny sees it so he outs this in front of Josh. This means that Frannie and Josh think that Matt has the real idol.

 

People are worried about the potential pairing of Frannie and Matt Blankinship who promise to go out on a road trip later. I hope that they haven’t done it yet. There are four people on this tribe who might gather against these two. Jaime eats an earthworm and then finds the replacement idol. But it is not the real idol as Matthew Grinstead-Mayle had found that and put a fake in its place. I don’t know what else there is to say about that so I will skip what all I missed while I was distracted by HEY, LOOK AT THAT GARBAGE CAN!

 

In the next segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge. Claire decides not to compete in the challenge again and is outed by Jeff as one who is constantly doing that. The orange tribe has issues since Matthew Grinstead-Mayle is still competing with a bad shoulder. They could have sat him out of the challenge. But it doesn’t matter as the orange tribe wins immunity with the potential solution right there for the others to snoop on. The green tribe loses. Matt Blankinship wants to stay in the game since he lost his vote and wants to play his idol, not knowing that it isn’t real.

 

In the next segment of the show, the tribe gets back to their camp. Danny thinks that they should target Claire, but tell her that the target is Matt Blankinship. Josh thinks that either Matt or Frannie should be the one voted out. Frannie wants to keep Claire around so she has the potential numbers. They have to get Heidi in with their numbers. There are potential names brought up going into the vote.

 

In the next segment of the show, we get to tribal council. Some are in awe at tribal council. Claire says that people have been playing the game. The people talk about who they want to get rid of and they are not sure who to get rid of. Claire has sat out of all of the immunity challenges so far. She thinks that she was making a good decision. Wasn’t she choosing to sit out instead of letting the others sit her out? Claire talks about tribe strength.

 

Is she on the chopping block because of this? I thought that it was Chopin, the composer, which isn’t a synonym to chopping. It will be the last day for someone. Many find tribal council too cool. You mean like Senor Cardgage? Claire played her shot in the dark. While she isn’t safe, she was right to play it as she is voted out.

 

On the next Survivor, people need to be aware of their surroundings, something could change the game, someone put an x there, and there will be a secret scene of this next episode in Lingo, but I’m not sure that I care enough to watch that show yet, although I might see it in the future.

 

Total confessional count: Claire- 4, Jaime- 3, Sarah- 4, Carolyn- 8, Josh- 3, Yam Yam- 6, Matt Blankinship- 5, Brandon- 7, Kane- 4, Carson- 8, Matthew Grinstead-Mayle- 5, Lauren- 5, Heidi- 2, Frannie- 6, Danny- 6. New confessionals this episode: Danny- 3, Claire- 2, Jaime- 0, Sarah- 1, Carolyn- 1, Josh- 2, Yam Yam- 0, Matt Blankinship- 1, Brandon- 1, Kane- 1, Carson- 1, Matthew Grinstead-Mayle- 0, Lauren- 0, Heidi- 2, Frannie- 1.

 

And that’s about it for this post as there isn’t too much else to say. Sorry that this wasn’t published yesterday. I ran out of energy. I have to juggle a lot of menial things in addition to my full time job. But I hope to have this blog caught up at some point and it sure helps that I had these at least partially written or else I might have no chance of getting it done when I actually put the time into it. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 44.2

With yet another unfortunate contestant becoming the next person medically evacuated from Survivor, I’m now posting my next set up groupings of medically evacuated players to return. This would be like the opening twist of Philippines. I don’t include those who have already played again since being pulled. The people that I pick from currently are Bruce Kanegai (Panama), Gary (Fiji), Joe Dowdle (Tocantins), Mike Borassi (Samoa), Kourtney (One World), Dana (Philippines), Shamar (Caramoan), Erik (Micronesia and Caramoan), Terry (Panama and Cambodia), Neal (Kaoh Rong), Joe DeCampo (Kaoh Rong), Pat (David versus Goliath), Jackson (42), and Bruce Perreault (44).

 

How would I group them? Remember, they are groups of three outside of if two or four are left, in which case, they would just be groups of two. Let’s get to the groupings. Group one is Jackson, Bruce Perreault, and Pat. Group two is Gary, Kourtney, and Mike Borassi. Group three is Terry, Erik, and Joe DeCampo. Group four is Bruce Kanegai, Joe Dowdle, and Neal. Group five is Shamar and Dana. Since Jeff revealed on his podcast that I’ll talk a bit about more later that he offered Bruce Perreault a chance to play the game again, then we just might see him on the show once more.

 

Let’s get to the one time challenges from the forty-first season. It is possible and very likely that they just don’t care much about doing challenges just once anymore, but it is hard to say for sure. While that might mean that they’ll never introduce anything new that might potentially work, then at least we know that we will consistently have what should be really good challenges.

 

Beach Front Bay Bash (reward challenge from Truth Kamikaze): In this challenge, the players are divided into teams of three. One of them has to climb up a net that they will then jump off before going down and releasing a set of buoys, one of which has to be retrieved by them. The rest of them then have to get the rest of the buoys. The buoys must then be thrown into a basket. It could be done while social distancing, although, if it aired, I don’t remember if it was. It was the first season filmed after the pandemic had started so it could have done more social distancing. It didn’t have to, though, since it was in the bubble of theirs.

 

With so much to potentially talk about from the 2-17-2020 issue of Time relating to the pandemic, it only makes sense to talk about the xenophobia related to it. It mentions on page 44 that places and groups of people “facing novel pathogens have often engaged in the scapegoating of marginalized populations, especially when the infective source can be linked to a distant place and the disease associated with racially distant ‘foreign’ peoples,” with the writer of this article, Sonia Shah, pointing out that “we don’t apply this same nomenclature when an epidemic originates closer to home,” such as with HIV or MRSA. Indeed, the WHO has changed the policy on pandemics’ names (a potential future blog post in one of my political blogs, or past depending on how old this is) to ensure that they aren’t named after locations again, possibly even changing the past name of the 1918 pandemic.

 

More of the problem pointed out to this racism problem relates to “right-wing [news sources and] populist leaders [that] have long singled out foreigners as vectors of crime, terrorism, and disease, as if they alone posed such threats.” Indeed, you often never hear about the problems that white people cause from Faux, I mean, Fox News. The writer of this article points out that these people “are now using the same inflammatory language to depict the coronavirus outbreak that they employ to describe migrants.” The article in question is called “The Pandemic of Xenophobia.” Numerous hate crimes happened because of the pandemic.

 

Since I had mentioned it in the previous post (that and everything that you’ll see mentioned now) then I might as well get to publishing The Broom Dance. It is an interesting thing to share. That is me in the video as my sister tries to get me to figure out what the trick is. Can you figure it out? You have until the season finale to guess how to do The Broom Dance when I’ll post the answer.

 

https://www.tiktok.com/@nicoleboeder90/video/7166260749415943470

 

Another thing that I have mentioned was a phrase that is also a song: Topsy turvy from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I’ll start with this and work my way through all of the songs after it from that movie and its sequel in addition to things similar to it as well. Yay!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuVeky5U3Ak

 

The last thing that I have mentioned in the previous post was something from the double rainbow YouTube video. I hope that you enjoy this because if you haven’t seen this by now, you are surely missing out on something great.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI

 

I was able to watch this show live and I saw most of this show live throughout the season only putting the premiere and another episode on tape. Things went rather crazy throughout a lot of time and I didn’t quite care about updating most of my blogs during this time. Still, I plan to cover this at some point in time and can only hope that it happens sooner rather than later. By now, I know different. But enough of my ramblings.

 

In the first segment of the show, Matthew Grinstead-Mayle revealed that he wasted his shot in the dark so that he wouldn’t have to vote. He felt that things went well for him. Hopefully relationships can be repaired on this tribe. Kane thinks about his disadvantage now. Meanwhile, Matt Blankinship bonds more with Frannie since he got out of a relationship and reveals that he lost two rounds of votes instead of just one. They notice a walking stick. One of the women on this tribe is leery of the whole thing. The purple tribe talks about the cage as they look for the key to it. Carolyn finds a snake in the tree. Kane looks for another idol and his tribe knows it. He finds a crab. Danny finds the idol.

 

In the second segment of the show, we return to what Carolyn was doing. She finds the key and like Danny, doesn’t want to tell anyone. Danny gets the idol and the worthless coin. Later, it seems as if the cage is normal to people. I hope that he left the worthless coin with the idol note so they think that it is an idol. Meanwhile, Carolyn is not so coy as she leaves the empty cage open. She returns it, but not well as the other four members of the tribe notice that it has been messed with. Carson thinks that it could be one of them. He can tell that it isn’t Yam Yam or Sarah, but thinks that it could be Helen. Meanwhile, Yam Yam thinks that Sarah has it and Helen thinks that Sarah has it. They talk to Carolyn about it and she can’t tell if they know that she has it or just know that it is gone. This is brilliant.

 

In the third segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge. Again, they are putting all of the challenge on just one person at the end. I’m okay with there being an equalizer, I just want it to involve the whole tribe potentially. Do they want there to be a fall guy all the time? You’d think that after the One World premiere, they’d know not to have one of those. The orange tribe comes in first. The green tribe comes in second, making the purple tribe the losers. Carolyn is worried that she’s a target.

 

In the fourth segment of the show, Carson talks about having practiced a lot of Survivor puzzles since they are often repeated. He thinks that it isn’t smart to do what Matthew Grinstead-Mayle did and tell everyone that he practiced them. I have the feeling that this could affect things as by some accounts, they stopped doing Fallen Comrades because of the notes that Vecepia took throughout the season. Meanwhile, we can’t tell who is doing what. We have to remember that one of them doesn’t have a vote as I’m already confused as to who is who and might have mentioned the wrong names during the last episode of the show. The vote appears to be between Lauren and Carolyn.

 

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to tribal council with Yam Yam talking about what was going on. The tribe has to be strong now to do better post merge. They are wondering about tribe strength. Carson talked about how he seems young to people. Carolyn is emotional about things. She wonders if people are good or not without her. Carolyn talks about the strange chess board that is there at tribal council. Does it mean anything or is it just a red herring? Carolyn doesn’t play her idol. Helen is voted out this time around. Does this make her the first contestant to visit tribal council and never vote? Or am I confused about who didn’t vote? It was Sarah who didn’t vote.

 

On the next Survivor, people aren’t sure what was going on, an idol clue might be eaten if it wasn’t chips instead, and there is not much else that I can get from the promo yet at this point in time. It seems that Carson was once again convinced that there is no such thing as an easy tribal council. And like how people talking about who found an idol got me to put that in my blog posts, then I’m going to talk about that pretty soon starting in this season’s posts until I work my way up to the present.

 

Total confessional count: Matthew Grinstead-Mayle- 5, Lauren- 5, Heidi- 0, Helen- 4, Frannie- 5, Danny- 3, Claire- 2, Jaime- 3, Sarah- 3, Carolyn- 7, Josh- 1, Yam Yam- 6, Matt Blankinship- 4, Brandon- 6, Kane- 3, Carson- 7.

 

New confessionals this episode: Lauren- 1, Heidi- 0, Helen- 2, Frannie- 1, Danny- 2, Claire- 0, Jaime- 0, Sarah- 0, Carolyn- 5, Josh- 0, Yam Yam- 2, Matt Blankinship- 1, Brandon- 1, Kane- 2, Carson- 3, Matthew Grinstead-Mayle- 1.

 

There are two things that I want to note as I continue these blog posts that I’ve very late and getting published. One is that there will be a lack of schedule posted since even I won’t know for sure what all might happen. This leads to the second thing: it is also unknown when past season blog posts will appear again. Just know that you won’t see any until I’m caught up on all of this season first. Only once all of the posts on season 44 are published will you see posts on old seasons again. I have three now that should be written in their entirety so we’ll see about that. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.