Survivor: Kaoh Rong Finale

Well, here we are at the end of yet another Survivor season. Let’s have a moment of silence. Okay, enough of that. Survivor will be returning for one or two more seasons in the future. If possible, I should get my Survivor friend David Johnson to do a tournament ranking of the thirty-two seasons using a site called http://challonge.com/ which has people creating tournaments to do stuff of their own creation to see who comes out on top. There might be a podcast or just voting in their facebook group, if this happens at all at least. I should find a place to do it at if he won’t. SPOILER. There is talk of an all-star season for season 34. I might mention more of this later in this post, but I will probably mention more of this later. END SPOILER. Let’s look forward to the next seasons in the future. I wonder if the promo will reveal much about it or if it will be vague.

Joe’s evacuation puts him among the potential groups of people who were medically evacuated that I feel should play again. That list is basically all of them who haven’t already played again, including some that might not be considered medically evacuated for some people. This list will change, of course, as things change with returning players, evacuations, and deaths. Joe might work better with a group of older people like Gary and Mike Borassi, but I don’t think that I’ll do that. I still like when contestants were pulled from the game as the best indicator of when they should return in future seasons.

Joe del Campo (from this season) will now be put with Erik (from Caramoan) and Bruce (from Panama). This will now put Neal (from this season) with Joe Dowdle (from Tocantins) and Terry (from Cambodia). Caleb (from this season), is now with Shamar (from Caramoan) and Dana (from Philippines). That leaves the last group as Kourtney (from One World), Gary (from Fiji), and Mike Borassi (from Samoa). Those are my lists regarding medically evacuated players. During my posting during the summer hiatus, I will plan to do a post regarding why that twist should be done again. Maybe it will be. I hope that it is.

There is something that I feel needs to be mentioned before we get to the finale. The promo for the episode revealed that the idol is no longer able to be used. I’m not sure if that’s fair for Tai. I’m also not sure that it would be fair to have the idol for one last round either. Cook Islands proves that having an idol still in play at the final four isn’t a good idea. Of course, that season had a generally poorly designed idol in the first place, so of course it wouldn’t work. In Caramoan, Erik was evacuated at the final five and thus the final four couldn’t use an idol. The main difference between that season and this one is that nobody had an idol to use at that phrase of the game anyways. Is what they are doing now fair?

Apparently there will be some sort of twist going into the final episode this season. I’m not sure what it will be. Is it something that is new? Or is it something as simple as a final two? I find a final two to be a bit overrated. Maybe it’s not. You should read more about that this summer. More on summer plans later. There’s more to speculate about.

Remember how the first promo for the season revealed who six of the players were? I’m not sure if I can remember who all was in the promo. I know that Cydney and Tai were. I don’t think that Michele was. Aubry might have been, but I don’t remember for sure if she was or not. You do have to wonder what these players’ chances are based on that one thing from the previous season. Just the fact that they gave away two of the final four is revealing enough.

Going into the finale of the season, you might be wondering what I think of the remaining players’ chances this season. Aubry seems to be edited to have a lot not going her way. Will that end in this episode? Or is it all a set-up for why she doesn’t win? Tai is considered a flipper in a way. Did he piss off too many people? Did he actually turn on the right people? Can he still win the game now after all of his mistakes? Cydney could be the winner, but it just doesn’t seem like that would happen. She has some good parts to her edit, but not enough to be that clear of a winner choice. Of course, this could just be a misdirect at the audience. Michele seems to have the least wrong with her edit, but she also doesn’t have a whole lot to it. She might work as a winner, although enough people wouldn’t want her to win as they feel that she hasn’t done enough to earn it.

I don’t know what to think about going into the finale. There could be something unusual. They are talking about a twist of some sort. Is it a new one? Or is it just a final two as many people are saying? I guess we’ll find out more about it later. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we start talking about chickens. Also, since when does Aubry side with Tai instead of Michele siding with Tai? I’m really confused here about what happened and when. It seems like everyone is getting a confessional to start out the episode. We then get to some type of challenge. It’s a type of complicated challenge that we’ve seen before. And it’s another fucking reward finale challenge. At least the reward is only food, it seems. But there is some sort of new twist planned. Aubry struggles at the matching part of the game and loses a good lead. But she’s still able to win the reward. She is able to choose whether or not to bring a person to her reward and she brings Cydney on the reward. Aubry wants Michele out. Can I just say something really quick? Don’t you hate it when they edit someone as a threat to win, they face the jury, and get no votes to win? That seems stupid. I’m not sure if that applies in this case, but I just wanted to say that.

In the second segment of the show, Aubry talks about why she brought Cydney to the reward. It turns out that Tai and Michele are still a thing after all. We then get to an immunity challenge again. Michele wins the challenge.

In the third segment of the show, it appears that people are preparing for the next vote out. But I know good and well that this is far too soon for the game to be almost over. Is everyone going to vote off Aubry? Or is something else going to happen? It turns out that the vote is a tie between Aubry and Cydney. How did that happen?

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the fire making tie-breaker. Aubry starts off much better than Cydney. But things go badly for a while. Thankfully, she’s able to pull it off after all. Cydney goes to the jury and Jeff talks to her mom.

In the fifth segment of the show, Tai is suspicious of whether or not the game is actually over. It turns out that there is more game to be played. The official final three learn of a new twist: there will be one less member of the jury to whoever wins the challenge. They will get to vote off a probably very pissed member of the jury. I’m not sure I like this twist. That poor jury member. As much as I would have hated a challenge where the loser goes to the jury, it seems more fair an idea for a new twist. Michele wins the all important reward.

In the sixth segment of the show, Tai tries to convince Michele who to vote off of the jury. It seems like two of the choices are the two jurors who were medically evacuated. There are many different names being brought up by the players. We then get to the most unusual tribal council since the Outcasts. What will the way they are voted out are is anyways? (What?) I mean, they can’t snuff a torch again. She votes out poor Neal in the first time that he gets a vote against himself. He didn’t even decide who gets to be the winner nor did he even get to be voted out. He spent such a long time on the jury and now doesn’t even get to pick a winner. I might have to update my worst twists list.

In the seventh segment of the show, we get to the people back at camp. They talk about various things going into the final tribal council. The contestants get to see themselves in a mirror. They also get food before the final night.

Total confessional count: Michele- 44, Cydney- 29, Tai- 44, Aubry- 53. New confessionals this episode: Aubry- 11, Michele- 9, Cydney- 3, Tai- 3. Special confessional: Neal- 1.

Aubry has the most confessionals in this episode and total. Cydney has the least total. She and Tai tie for least confessionals in this episode. I guess that I’m not as hopeful for Tai’s chances as I used to be. This is unusually high based on my counting.

In the eighth segment of the show, we get to the jury questions and statements. Nick tells the three what they need in order to potentially win. Debbie grills Tai for his game and does the same for Aubry as well. Julia doesn’t think that Michele has done much in the game except vote herself out. She then talks to Tai about how he kind of fizzled out near the end of the game. Joe talks to Tai about what he has done over Aubry. He asks the same thing of Aubry. He decides to ignore Michele. Jason tells us that his vote if off for grabs and he has questions for both Michele and Tai. Cydney is up next. It’s hard to make sense of that. Scot tells off both Aubry and Tai telling Michele that she is his favorite now. Jeff decides to give the final three last words to the jury members. Things sure are emotional and crazy. I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a final tribal council this crazy before. I think that Borneo might finally be beat for having the best final tribal council ever.

In the ninth segment of the show, we get to the votes. Aubry and Michele get votes, but it appears that Tai doesn’t get any. Tai lets go of Mark the chicken. What will happen to him? Will the previous season’s cast eat him and we’ll have no idea? I wonder if we’ll get an update at the reunion show or not. It appears that Michele has won the game. And I’m glad. I don’t hate her the way some people do. I actually predicted this in a past blog post. And Kodi Ross sure knows a lot about Survivor. He figured that Michele would win and he was right.

In the tenth segment of the show, we get to Michele’s winner montage. She talks about what she has done to win. There is a segment on Aubry as well. Tai then gets the next segment. And this is all just the first part of the reunion show too. I miss there being more to the reunion show. They seem to care less and less about it each season. Sia makes a surprise and unexpected appearance at the reunion show. She supports animals and wants to donate to Tai and his causes. Jeff doesn’t seem to know what to expect from it. This is the weirdest reunion show ever.

Drew Carrey talks about the upcoming Price is Right Survivor special. I might do a blog post on that. But I won’t do it next week. Since I will probably have to record it on VHS (since I watch both Reign and Gotham) and it will take a long time for me to get caught up on it. I’m still on tapes from February. With any luck, you’ll see the post sometime during the summer hiatus, if I do it at all. I hate missing shows. I’m missing Nashville and Modern Family tonight and had to record SVU for later.

In the eleventh segment of the show, we get an update on the medically evacuated players. Caleb is the first with the updates. Apparently his family knew about what happened. And we don’t actually get updates, for the moment at least, from Neal and Joe. At least talk to Neal! He didn’t get the jury vote that he was supposed to.

In the twelfth segment of the show, we learn about the move regarding the super idol. Jason talks about why he didn’t keep the idol when Scot was voted out. They then talk to Debbie some. She thinks that she is eccentric and not odd. Hold on a moment while I look up synonyms to eccentric on my computer. The very first synonym is odd. We then hear from both Joe and Julia, the oldest and youngest of the seasons. There is talk about Mark the chicken. But they don’t mention what happened to him. He’s probably dead, isn’t he? A preview of the next season is, next.

In the thirteenth segment of the show, we finally get to the twist for the next season. The millennials face against generation x. Whatever happened to generation y? And what actually is a millennial? I hear about it, but I’m not entirely sure what it is. Am I one? I can drink, but I can’t run for Congress. And are they never ever going to start with all new players, only two tribes, and no major starting twists? The last time that freaking happened was Samoa. I’m not sure that they’ll ever do it again and they could really use one of those seasons again. My mom finds it interesting that the baby boomers weren’t a generation choice. “I guess they are too old,” she said.

In the fourteenth segment of the show, we get to only one last random bit of things before closing out the show for the night. We’ll be back sometime next season with whatever the name of the season is. I missed it if there was one.

Points at reunion show: Darnell- 0, Jennifer- 0, Liz- 0, Caleb- 1, Alecia- 0, Anna- 0, Peter- 0, Neal- 0, Nick- 0, Debbie- 1, Scot- 0, Julia- 1, Jason- 1, Joe- 1, Cydney- 0, Tai- 2, Aubry- 1, Michele- 1.

Like I hope I said before, they seem to care less and less about the reunion show. Like Worlds Apart, they made some time to talk to more of the controversial players of the season. Unlike Worlds Apart, the reunion show, while bad, wasn’t nearly as bad as that season’s monstrosity was. They need to get back to a full hour for the reunion show or add even more time. There shouldn’t be just forty-five minutes. I’m glad that they went out of their way to talk to some people who haven’t had the chance to talk before. But they could have done more with it than they did. I do have to wonder about Debbie’s jobs though. How can she have so many jobs?

Well, it’s time that I get to the annual awards for my blog. Let’s get to the three dumbest moves of the season. What all qualifies as dumb moves this season? Here are the candidates: Jennifer digging her grave at tribal council, men’s paranoia creating a woman’s alliance, Tai’s various insecurities, Scot and Jason’s various bad moves, Julia playing both sides, and the twist regarding voting out a jury member. I give the bronze to the voting out a jury member twist. Whoever it was getting voted out would be an unfair situation and it’s appalling that production would allow that. The silver would have to go to Julia playing both sides of the game. The gold would be given to both Jason and Scot for their bad game play. I’m not putting Tai with them just because I fell his dumb moves were separate enough.

Now we get to the breakout character of the season, which is a new player that I feel left their mark on the game of Survivor. I’m not going to bother with the potential candidates of the season. I’ll just say that I feel that Debbie was the breakout character of the season.

Now what was the most memorable moment of the season? There’s a lot of stuff that could work. Is it voting out a jury member? I may not like it, but it sure is memorable. The challenge where three people went down was very memorable, although I’d rather not pick something like that. While Tai turning on his old alliance was memorable, it was also too quick of a moment to stand out a lot. So I’ll have to go with the whole entire final tribal council of the season as the most memorable moment of the season. That sure was crazy, wasn’t it?

Of course, there’s the moment you probably most want to know about: the ranking of this season against the other thirty-two. But first, I’m going to rank the tribe swap of this season versus the other twenty-one. I decided that the tribe swap is 9^th out of all of them. It was pretty interesting, but not as good as it could have been. As for the ranking of the season against the others, I’ll put this as 11^th out of the 32 seasons. I like it pretty good as a season, although not as much as ten other seasons.

You know that I will be posting updates on this blog through various Wednesdays from now until the next season starts throughout the summer. This will probably start at the next Wednesday. There may be various Wednesdays that I miss during the summer. That basically all depends on what I roll. If I roll a Survivor episode on DVD to watch on any Wednesday, then I won’t actually be updating that blog on that day. But I will update it every Wednesday that doesn’t happen. I will not make up for any missed posts by doubling posting on Sundays. But I might move the posts to Sundays entirely if I ever get Blood versus Water to watch again.

What kind of posts can you expect during the summer? Well, if I can ever finish watching Survivor: Palau again, I will do a recap of Stephenie LaGrossa’s time on that season. And I will record the Price is Right Survivor special and do a post about it sometime, hopefully this summer. Either of those that I’m not able to post will be posted during the winter instead. I doubt I can be THAT far behind. But maybe I can. I will tell you more about my procrastination ways later. Meanwhile, I have to write enough posts for the hiatus. You’ll find out what they are as I post them. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 32.13

Blood versus Water is coming to DVD. If it will officially be available to order before the middle of June, it could make for a good birthday present for me. Hopefully I can let you know about this before next season starts. But that’s provided that I get it at all. I don’t think that I would buy it for myself in the meantime. It would probably be the first thing that I buy for myself if I ever did. But do you know about my complicated way of watching shows? It allows for up to six shows at once. I have another list of six choices right now. And there’s at least eight other choices besides those to add to the list to watch. I think I have a problem. Gee, imagine if I had cable or satellite. I’d have even more of a TV problem than I already do. I should start a TV podcast due to the shows that I watch. There are times that I watch nine hours of primetime in a single day. That should be impossible, but thanks to technology, I’m able to record what I’m not able to watch live. I’m just hoping that I have more time to watch these shows on DVD during the summer. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we get to the fallout of the tribal council. People talk about how Tai has turned on his alliances in the past. Tai, however, seems to be the most betrayed by all of this. At least he is fairly rational when discussing the whole thing.

In the second segment of the show, we get to the reward challenge. Joe seems to be real slow at it. So wait, if they’re out of bags before hitting all five targets then they just have to wait for a certain point in order to possibly hit the targets? This seems like a dumb rule and Joe is able to use it to his advantage. He gets it done at 71, as the hashtag says. Joe wins thanks to the probably dumb rule. Joe picks Aubry for the reward and lets her pick someone else, that person being Cydney. This then has Michele going back to camp with Tai with her thinking that she is not part of the planned final three. Does this mean that her and Tai will actually form an alliance after all?

In the third segment of the show, we get to the people on reward. Joe is glad that he won, but also can’t believe that it happened. I can after those strange challenge rules. Tai’s idol is brought up as to why they don’t want to vote him out. Will they turn on each other? It appears that Aubry wants to vote out Cydney after Joe suggests it. It appears that back at camp, Tai and Michele make amends for the craziness that has happened. Tai then gives Michele either a Tai massage or a Thai massage. They decide to target Cydney.

In the fourth segment of the show, Tai talks about how being on Survivor is the hardest thing that he’s ever done in his life. I wonder how often people say things like that. Aubry wants to vote out Cydney and she wonders if she can use Tai or not. It looks like she’s able to work with him. Meanwhile, there have been storm problems in the area so hopefully I won’t miss anything major. Tai and Aubry seem to meld together in front of the other tribe members which worries Cydney. (I hate the grammar check on this computer of mine.)

I’m also wondering if we are getting to the immunity challenge soon or not. But maybe there isn’t on this episode. The promos made it seem like something bad would happen. Joe seems to be developing medical problems. They have medical come to take a look at it. Maybe there is another evacuation after all. What’s sad is that he is getting this, it seems, after winning a reward. Who has had a problem after winning a reward challenge?

In the fifth segment of the show, Joe is possibly recovering more, but not enough. Is this still the same day as when we started the episode? It’s weird. This whole episode has been out of the usual format. Tai is really emotional. Is Joe leaving? It doesn’t seem like he is yet. But he could be. Joe gets another look at the doctor. The doctor (also named Joe?) takes a look at him. This is quite possibly the most ironic evacuation ever. They discuss whether or not to pull Joe from the game. It’s ultimately what they decide on. What does this mean for Tai’s idol? Can he still use it at the next tribal council? Is it dead now? Once again, we have something that’s unprecedented. Sort of like last season’s final six tribal council. It makes me wonder if we’ll see another form of tiebreaker in the future. Joe leaves the game in a record third medical evacuation of the season.

On the next Survivor, we are down to the final four. Alliances are up in the air and it is anyone’s game to win. It seems like we are getting an extended promo due to the lack of the game that we saw in this episode. Who will win? What will happen? Will there be a final two? It appears that he can’t use his idol anymore, according to the promo. I don’t know if that’s fair or not. Man, they really didn’t have idols that worked this season, did they?

Total confessional count: Joe- 18, Michele- 35, Cydney- 26, Tai- 41, Aubry- 42. New confessionals this episode: Tai- 5, Aubry- 8, Joe- 5, Michele- 8, Cydney- 3.

Joe had five confessionals this episode, the same number as Tai. Cydney had less with three. Aubry and Michele tied for the most with eight each. Joe had the lowest confessional count with eighteen. Everyone else had higher confessionals. Joe’s elimination means that Cydney is the new lowest with twenty-six confessionals. Aubry has the highest with forty-two. Tai has forty-one going into the finale and Michele has thirty-five.

What will happen next? And who will win? The season finale is in the next episode and we’ll find out what happens then. I’ll also be back with the usual end of the season posts. I will rank the tribe swap of the season, mention the three dumbest moves, post my thought as to who the breakout character of the season is, and rank this season against the thirty-two other seasons. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 32.12

If I haven’t told you already, I am working on a recap of Stephenie’s game from Survivor: Palau. But I am not able to do this as much as I’d want to. I’d say that I’m moving at a snail’s pace, but I know that a snail would be way faster than the rate I’m going. I started watching from at least some point before last season started. But since TV stuff is winding down, I’m probably going to be able to watch more during the summer and hopefully I’ll have the post published sometime then. In the meantime, I need to figure out (probably by posting a poll on facebook again, on the group Addicted to Survivor) who to do a recap on from the first season when I watch that again.

I lot of people like Aubry as a player and think that she could wind up winning the game. Will she? I don’t know for sure. I wouldn’t say that I hate her, but I just don’t see what people like about her just yet. Hopefully I will if she wins or provides the roll of the foil for who wins. Maybe I just see something being off in her edit before. I wouldn’t say that there’s been enough to it just yet. But she probably has a better chance than some players do.

Don’t get me wrong about Aubry: I’d be perfectly okay with her winning. In fact, I’d probably be okay with anyone besides Jason winning. There are some that I’d rather have win over others. But we’ll see which of them does end up winning and which of them doesn’t. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, the tribe gets back from tribal council and Tai talks about how he is glad that he didn’t have to play the idol. Is he reliable if he has to be told to play an idol? Michele wants to be loyal by voting out an ally which doesn’t make sense to me. Tai tells Joe and Aubry about his extra vote because he considers them and Cydney to be the main alliance. But don’t things always go crazy at the final six?

In the second segment of the show, Tai finds a grub and mentions that it could be used in a challenge. Jason thinks that they will never eat the chicken since it entertains the tribe too much. Joe gets a confessional so he might be voted out in this episode. But Jason thinks that he is doing the worst. There is then a really cool looking reward challenge involving a floating maze. I really hope that if I ever play Survivor that I could do a maze challenge. Since they always tend to do it later in the game, that would mean that I make it pretty far. Joe struggles at the challenge. Jason leads the blue tribe to do better in the challenge by the looks of it. The yellow tribe struggles a lot, mostly thanks to Joe failing at it, by the looks of it.

In the third segment of the show, at camp, Joe annoys both Cydney and Aubry, especially Cydney, with his work ethic. The other people enjoy their reward. Tai thinks about voting out Michele. I was preparing myself supper during this segment so I missed some of it.

Meanwhile, apparently Caramoan, Blood versus Water, and Cagayan are out on DVD. It seems odd to release three at once. Maybe they wanted to be back in line with season number instead of year. I will have to get Blood versus Water on DVD so I can blog about it again. I’ll be sure to put it on my wish list. I have to get all of them for Nicole (my sister) since she missed those seasons originally. She still hasn’t watched most of what I’ve recorded for her. I just hope that these are actually being released instead of them just saying that they will be released. I seemed to have lost focus for a while.

In the fourth segment of the show, the immunity challenge reminds me of the tortoise and the hare. Cydney (which is how you spell her name, people!) uses a slow strategy that seems to be bad at first and puts her at the bottom of the pack. But the other people drop their stacks over and over again so she is able to win.

In the fifth segment of the show, Tai wants to vote against Michele. I don’t understand the rationale behind his thought. I honestly can’t tell what might be going on. Maybe things will turn against Tai or they could get rid of Jason as seems like the best move. Aubry doesn’t know who to support and seems emotional over the move to make. Tai is doing a terrible job at tribal council and seems to have it out with Michele. And yet, some people still vote for Jason. Tai uses his extra vote advantage. He seems to have wasted it, but at least he isn’t voted out. Jason gets voted out instead.

On the next Survivor, Tai feels like his plan failed, but it looks like him and Michele will be together as a pair. Will they actually be together for real after Tai almost tried to get rid of Michele? And is Tai really at the bottom of his alliance instead of Michele?

Total confessional count: Aubry- 34, Joe- 13, Michele- 27, Cydney- 23, Jason- 34, Tai- 36. New confessionals this episode: Jason- 6, Tai- 4, Aubry- 3, Joe- 2, Michele- 4, Cydney- 2.

Jason had the highest confessional count this episode with six. Everyone else was lower. Joe and Cydney had the lowest with two each. As for total confessionals, Jason had thirty-four, the same number as Aubry. Tai is the only one higher with thirty-six confessionals. Joe has the lowest with only thirteen. SPOILER. Maybe it’s possible that we are done with medical evacuations this season after all. END SPOILER. I still don’t know what exactly is happening with this season. It seems to be all over the place and quite unpredictable. I’m looking forward to the end. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 32.11

You know, this season is getting down to the wire and closer to the end. You do have to wonder what will happen next and possibly if I have the right dates down for the finale of the show. I don’t seem to know a lot about the TV schedule going into when the summer shows start. I just know that this show is still going strong since there was a renewal for seasons 33 and 34 (which I’ve probably already told you about before). They should be in Fiji right now filming the 33^rd season. I’m not sure what that’s about yet, but I’m pretty sure that it’s all new players. SPOILER. The 34^th season is rumored to be all returning players, which seems awfully soon to be doing that again. I can mention the contenders that I read about might being on that season. There are 28 potential players, last I checked, although I know that there won’t be that many people in the final cast. END SPOILER.

I don’t know why they flipped the airing of this season with the airing of the previous season considering how this season was filmed before the last one. It’s possible that we will never receive a straight answer as to why this happened. We might not even get an explanation. There could be any number of reasons that Cambodia was aired before this season when it logically should have aired after it. One reason might have just been the whole build up to Cambodia where we voted for the players wouldn’t have made sense to air a completely different season next. One of the things that I’m wondering about is if this season has a tie for the win and they tried to figure out how to resolve it in the extra time that they now had. But I’m not sure if that’s what’s exactly happening or not. I would actually love to see a tie for the win, even though I know it will probably never happen. I mean, the last time the final vote was even close was over ten seasons ago. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Tai talks about having all the power. Will it go to his head? Not everyone thinks that he made a good choice. Julia is upset at over not knowing how the vote would go down. Aubry is smirking and possibly gloating over the demise of Scot. Is she doing as well as other people think she is?

In the second segment of the show, Tai talks more about the move that he made. He decides to talk to Jason more about it. The chicken might be in danger due to a hashtag shown. Jason plans on being mean some more. We then get to the reward challenge. They compete in pairs: Joe and Tai, Michele and Cydney, with Julia and Aubry as the pairs. Jason does not get to play the challenge. Michele and Cydney win and they have to choose together who among the remaining players they should bring with them. They pick Aubry, which was an obvious pick when you think about it.

In the third segment of the show, the women enjoy their reward and, of course, talk about their strategies going forward. Stuff happens at camp as well as Julia and Jason talk about how to get rid of Tai, their former ally. Can they get other people on their side? I’m still not sure what to make of the fact that some people got airtime in the preview of this season. I’m not sure if I can remember who all had that who is still in the game, although I think it is just Tai and Cydney now.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge. It already looks more interesting than the usual stuff we’ve seen this season. I like how they have to idea to write stuff in sand. Michele is the winner of the challenge. It was interesting how Joe gave up at the challenge by the looks of it.

In the fifth segment of the show, the contestants consider what to do. Aubry considers getting rid of Julia instead of Jason. Michele doesn’t like the idea of voting out Julia. Tai is paranoid (probably for good reason) so he’s going to bring his idol. It seems like Jason isn’t even in danger of being voted out. Michele doesn’t know which side to choose going into tribal council. Different discussions happen at tribal council while people try to figure out who or what side to be on. Tai asks Aubry whether or not he should play his idol and he doesn’t. Julia is the person who gets voted out.

On the next Survivor, Jason feels alone, but the majority is starting to fall apart. I love the fact that this season has been so unpredictable so far. I still haven’t figured out my ranking yet, but I will by the finale at least. I’m just not sure yet where it is going. It’s kind of like the most recent Big Brother season. I was worried a bit towards the end since all these people I didn’t like were still in it, but then it all ends well with a great winner beating the villain (in a way).

Total confessional count: Joe- 11, Michele- 23, Cydney- 21, Jason- 28, Julia- 14, Tai- 32, Aubry- 31. New confessionals this episode: Tai- 3, Aubry- 4, Joe- 0, Michele- 6, Cydney- 3, Jason- 5, Julia- 3.

Julia had three confessionals this episode. That’s the same number as Tai and Cydney. Only one person was lower than them. Everyone else was higher. Joe had the lowest with none. Michele has the highest with six. Then there are the total confessionals. Julia had fourteen. One person is lower and everyone else is higher. Welcome Joe to the bottom with only eleven confessionals. Tai has the highest with thirty-two confessionals. That’s all to mention about the confessional counts for now. This is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 32.10

It’s hard to tell for sure what will happen with this Survivor season for sure. I can’t entirely tell where it will go for sure. Who will win? Who are threats to win? Who is blocking the paths for others to win? Why are Jason and Scot so mean? Why is Tai, who once had a great edit, joining with the bullies? What’s with this sabotaging of camp? Isn’t that dumb? SPOLIER. Will there be a nighttime medical evacuation? END SPOILER. Will a woman win as fellow blogger Alex Gomory Keisler suspects? Why am I asking so many questions? I remember that I used to do with the San Juan del Sur season before I gave it up for being something I did that I found stupid. It’s hard to tell where this season will go for sure. But I guess that we’ll find out for sure later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1P6L5Wab18 Well, here’s the link to the Survivor Showdown that I was in. I didn’t win the showdown, but I’m glad that I did as well as I did, even if it wasn’t that well at all. It’s cool that I’m famous now, lol. I might answer questions about it later, if there are any.

In case you were wondering, I’m rewatching Survivor: Palau on DVD right now. Or, at least I would be if I wasn’t so bogged down on recorded shows on VHS. I’ve been going at a fairly slow pace with watching it. In fact, I’m moving so slowly with it, I would probably lose in a race against a sloth, snail, turtle, and a robot powered by internet explorer. Even that robot would be having a faster time than I would be with different tasks like that. Meanwhile, I’m still using a method of watching different shows at once by having a list of shows and rolling for an option from it. It’s kind of like what Sheldon Cooper did in the Big Bang Theory episode: The Wiggly Finger Catalyst. I’m looking forward to the summer when I will have more time to watch shows and hopefully won’t have any more recordings on VHS to make so I won’t be as far behind again. I will have to hope there’s less good shows on the schedule next season on TV so I won’t have to record that much. VHS tapes aren’t even my primary way of recording shows. They are my secondary way of recording shows.

There might not be any more family visits that I’ll know of in the near future so that shouldn’t affect me watching this show at all. But it has been pretty rainy and dreary all day. So hopefully there isn’t any problem with it in this or any episode. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, the men’s side talks about how they are glad the vote off happened. Tai returns Jason’s idol to him. Scot feels that being themselves if the other side does what they want, which seems kind of condescending if you ask me.

In the second segment of the show, we get to the reward challenge. They brought back the leg up challenge which I hate. This is the first time it appears outside of Redemption Island. There are three different rewards and the contestants choose between three rewards: an advantage in the game, a letter from home, or food. Once they choose their reward, they get that and only get that one reward. This is a pretty interesting twist. Sometimes they need to shake things up the way things work especially as we continue into more seasons of Survivor. Julia wins the letter fighting against Joe. Michele wins the food fighting against Scot and Jason. Tai wins the advantage fighting against Cydney and Aubry.

In the third segment of the show, Michele talks about how she is glad to have beaten the two men she beat. Meanwhile, it appears that to no surprise, Tai has won an extra vote advantage. Does this mean that he’s screwed? Sadly, those who have had the advantage so far have been screwed. Julia reacts to her reward as well. Julia thinks about which side to go on and how to get rid of their problems. I’m not entirely sure myself which side she is on. Maybe she is on nobody’s side because nobody is on her side. Nobody cares for the woods anymore, little orc. It feels like more should be happening now.

In the fourth segment of the show, Aubry and Tai talk more about the game at hand. She reveals the girls’ plan to vote out Tai to Tai. Tai talks about this to Jason and Scot, but they suggest voting out Aubry which is when Tai wants to turn on them. We then get to the immunity challenge. It’s weird that there are two endurance challenges in the same episode. Jason closely beats out Aubry at the challenge.

In the fifth segment of the show, it appears that some people still want Aubry to be voted out. It seems like Scot and Jason are too quick to flip on their allies, but maybe Julia was as well. The question is, are these people getting to the end as goats? The woman’s side wants to vote out Tai, or, at least flush his idol out of the game. Tai is worried about the vote and where it would leave him in the long run. I’m just wondering if the promos that implied a blindside are red herrings or not. We have seen red herrings before, but we also thought that we knew what would happen going into a vote before. The main flaw of the super idol is that it effectively uses two idols instead of just one.

Meanwhile, it is hard to tell for sure what is happening at tribal council. Since Jeff’s comments don’t air before the tribal council vote, it is probably going to be a blindside of sorts. Will it be that way to them or just us? There is confusion over whether or not Tai should play his idol. Scot gets the votes to be voted out and Tai doesn’t give him the super idol, meaning that Scot leaves with an idol and the super idol doesn’t exist unless there is another idol in the game. Tai’s decision could and probably will end badly. But, wouldn’t he have been in danger without it?

On the next Survivor, Tai feels that he’s on top of the world now, but the alliance of Jason and Julia will probably turn on him. I guess it was time that Tai cut ties. He voted against Scot and got an idol out of the game. I just wonder if that is allowed in the rules, but I guess that it is. Is what Tai did the right move? Now he’s the only one with an idol, but everyone knows that he has an idol. And they also know that he can turn on people so I’m not sure if he’ll do as well as I originally wanted him to. Do I still want him to win? Who would make a better alternative besides him? It’s hard to tell for sure what will happen, but at least we are in for a wild ride.

Total confessional count: Michele- 17, Cydney- 18, Jason- 23, Scot- 28, Julia- 11, Tai- 29, Aubry- 27, Joe- 11. New confessionals this episode: Aubry- 5, Joe- 0, Michele- 2, Cydney- 1, Jason- 3, Scot- 4, Julia- 2, Tai- 6.

Scot had four confessionals this episode. Aubry had five and Tai had six. Everyone else was lower in terms of number of confessionals. Joe had no confessionals and Cydney only had one. In terms of total confessionals, Scot had twenty-eight confessionals. Tai is the only one to have a higher confessional count than him at twenty-nine confessionals. Everyone else had lower total confessionals.  Julia and Joe have the lowest confessional count with eleven each. We are getting to the part where it is harder for me to come up with ways of changing the order of names that you see. I’m sure that I’ll come up with some sort of new order as I always do. I’ve made it this far with no problems so hopefully I’ll remember what other ways I can change the name order. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 32.9

You might be wondering where I plan on ranking this season among the other seasons of Survivor. I honestly don’t know where to rank it yet. At first I thought that it might be somewhere in the middle that I rank it. But I might go higher than that actually. This season has had great tribal councils and various other drama. But I’m not sure if it’s good enough to rank that highly. We’ll see what happens for sure. I have until the end of the season to decide for sure.

If I know what is going on regarding the future of Survivor, then I believe that they are filming the thirty-third season right now. Normally I’m on top of filming dates, but I haven’t been able to keep track as much lately. For instance, I have no idea when this season was filmed, just that it was during the airing of Worlds Apart. They will be in Fiji for seasons 33 and 34. I don’t know what they might do regarding twists and all that. I also don’t know if there are returning players on either of these seasons or not. I just know that I haven’t looked into seeing which former contestants might not be on social media. Of course, I think that it’s possible that Candice returns to play again on season 34 considering how she has played in seasons 13, 20, and 27. Mathematically speaking, she should be back soon. But that’s only if the pattern continues, which it might not.

It looks like in the near future I will finally get to be on a Survivor podcast. This one is called Survivor Showdown which seems to be a replacement for the one I originally planned on being on before they decided to stop doing that podcast. (It appeared that they didn’t care as much about it as they could have or used to.) I’ll post the link to the episode I was on in this blog after it has been made. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Scot talks about how their alliance blew up. They decide to hide various important objects away from their tribemates. Tai considers this to be a bit too much. But Scot does decide to hide the tools. Why is he doing this? He must want people to not like him.

In the second segment of the show, Debbie talks about how the important items are missing. It seems the edit is implying that a woman will probably win. If it were a woman, I’d guess that it would be Michele who wins if it’s a woman. Scot pours water on the fire. What is wrong with him? Tai is against what Scot and Jason are doing and planning on doing with the other tribe members. This makes me really hope that something bad doesn’t happen with the super idol. Although, they can only use it once, so hopefully they don’t take out someone too important. Plus, the way they are pissing off Tai may not make him go along with the plan to use the idol.

The reward challenge has an interesting way of deciding the two people playing. Joe decides to sit out and he supports the group of Aubry, Debbie, Cydney, and Michele who are competing against the team of Julia, Scot, Tai, and Jason. Julia made an interesting move by deciding to support the men. Will this decision come back to haunt her? The male team and Julia end up winning the challenge. Is this good or bad for Julia? There isn’t enough in her edit to support a win, but now there might be enough to show why she doesn’t.

In the third segment of the show, people talk about the reward that they won. The men try to bring in Julia and she seems to be playing both sides. I really don’t see this ending well for Julia. The problem with the majority alliance thus far tends to be that they do not have enough numbers to split the votes. The alliance wants to turn on Julia.

In the fourth segment of the show, Tai puts out the fire, deciding to sabotage the tribe again. The woman’s alliance thinks about getting rid of Julia, but Debbie thinks that they have to stick with voting out either Scot or Jason. The most interesting part is that they don’t realize that it was Tai who put out the first the second time. All they have to do to win the immunity challenge is to hit a gong. Between that and balls, whoever designs the challenges on Survivor probably has a dirty mind. Or maybe it’s just us viewers that have minds like this. There are numerous disasters for many players throughout the challenge. There sure are enough ways to lose this challenge that it’s hard to tell who could win. It seems like there is a design flaw with the dominoes or, at least, the plank they are stacked out. Julia is the person who ends up winning the challenge.

In the fifth segment of the show, Aubry is convinced that Julia could easily turn on their side. She lies to the men about what the plan is, sticking with the women. But will people believe that she is still on their side? It appears that Debbie could be a target of the vote. Why would they get rid of Debbie? Julia might actually be the swing vote and it is hard to tell what is going on. Tai reveals his idol at tribal council as does Jason. They are actually trying to decide what happens with rock/paper/scissors. But who will the vote go for? Jason gives his idol to Tai so it becomes a super idol, I think. WHAT’S GOING ON!? The votes go all over the place and one has to wonder if the idol will be needed. It wasn’t needed as Debbie is the one that gets voted out of the game. I’m shaking as I’m typing this over the type of craziness that I just witnessed. I don’t think that I can rank this season as average when it is probably higher. But I’ll figure that out later.

On the next Survivor, the man’s alliance looks good, but it appears that Tai could flip on them. Will he? I honestly can’t tell what’s happening and I’m quite glad that this is quite an unpredictable season. I don’t know what will happen next.

Total confessional count: Cydney- 17, Jason- 20, Scot- 24, Julia- 9, Tai- 23, Debbie- 23, Aubry- 22, Joe- 11, Michele- 15. New confessionals this episode: Jason- 2, Scot- 5, Julia- 3, Tai- 3, Debbie- 2, Aubry- 6, Joe- 2, Michele- 2, Cydney- 3.

Debbie has two confessionals this episode, the same number as Jason, Michele, and Joe. Everyone else has higher confessionals this episode with Aubry at the highest with six. In terms of total confessionals, Debbie has twenty-three, the same number as Tai. Scot is the only one higher with them with twenty-four confessionals while everyone else has less. Julia has nine confessionals, the lowest of the group. I’m not sure if I can tell who will win based on confessionals alone, although they always tend to say who won’t win. It could be a floater winning as I suspect, although that wouldn’t be a bad thing. We’ll see what happens as this crazy season continues to unfold. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 32.8

Well, we now have the next medical evacuation: Neal. And now my groups of how people can return with these groups will change again. Neal joins the list of players that I’m picking from, which is Bruce, Gary, Joe, Mike Borassi, Kourtney, Dana, Shamar, Erik, Terry, and Caleb. Now I haven’t even mentioned who the three would be that I most want back. But I’ll do that if they decide that they will do the twist again, which they might not. Anyways, my new groups are Erik, Neal, and Bruce as group one, Joe, Shamar, and Terry as group two, Caleb, Gary, and Mike as group three, and Kourtney and Dana can be group four. Now those are my groups, for now at least. I wonder which medically evacuated players are the most likely to return.

Sometimes family visits happen and affect my TV watching. To date, this has not affected my Survivor blog in any way. But it could happen. I thought that I would tell you about this in case it does. I would say that if you don’t see a post on Wednesday when it isn’t Advent or Lent, I should be back soon and the blog post will have an explanation as to why I am late. Plus, there could be any number of reasons I could go on an unexpected hiatus. I just hope that I will be able to know this enough in advance or be able to return in enough of a short time. I guess the reason that I’m telling you this now is because my uncle is visiting on Wednesday. This caused me to miss the live Survivor episode, but I recorded it on VHS. I don’t know when I’ll be able to watch it. I probably will see it on Thursday after all, although if I can still watch it on Wednesday, then I will. I guess you’ll notice whether or not I did this when you see what day of the week this blog was posted at.

It seems that more often than not, the promos for an episode of Survivor can reveal too much about it. There will be some sort of crazy tribal council going on in this episode. There will probably be an audience blindside which typically speaks to how much they leave out of editing. I used to think that this show had great editing, but now I’m convinced that it does not anymore. We need to watch the tribal council for something interesting. It make sense as this is now the dramatic postmerge tribal council that was delayed an episode due to Neal’s evacuation. I just wonder how it will be interesting. I know that Jeff previously thought that Aubry’s vote switch was a Survivor first, but it wasn’t, I don’t think at least. Gervase switched his vote in Borneo’s first merged tribal council, although he had to as he originally voted for someone who was immune. As stated before, Hayden started writing a vote for one person, scribbled it out to write another, and then ultimately stick with the first name after all. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we seem to continue exactly from the moment that Neal left the game and Scot mentions the previously on Survivor thing Jeff does. Will the beauty and brawn tribes team up together as they say they will? I thought that three tribe seasons would get rid of the Pagonging problem (if one calls that a problem), but it just seems to change it.

In the second segment of the show, Jason tells about his daughter with autism. I hope that he doesn’t think negative things about it as that can ruin my impression of someone. I don’t watch Undercover Boss anymore as they aired one single person’s stupid opinion about it. Of course, different people have different types of autism (if they have it). We then get to the reward challenge. Scot, Nick, Julia, Debbie, and Tai are the yellow team while Aubry, Joe, Michele, Cydney, and Jason are the blue team. The blue team struggles a lot on the challenge. This leads to the yellow team winning reward. Aubry is upset over the team that she picked as it didn’t work out. But we don’t even know how the team picking went down. Guess I’ll have to watch it online and hope that it is there.

In the third segment of the show, the reward is at camp for some odd reason. Debbie refers to it as fantastic. That’s interesting considering how Dairy Queen’s nonsensical motto is fan food, not fast food. (Serious, what does that mean?) Scot opens up about his family and Mormon faith. Was that an SIU hat that I noticed? Which SIU might it be, I wonder? Anyways, it’s interesting that after all this negativity with Scot’s and Jason’s edits that they are suddenly being changed to be more endearing to the audience. Why the sudden change? Anyways, before I lose focus, it appears that people suspect that an all girls alliance might be happening because of a random trip that people took. Could this actually happen because the guys are paranoid? That would be ironic to see an alliance be formed simply because someone thought it had already happened, but it didn’t. I’m starting to see what might actually be brought up at tribal council.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge. (I’m going to do a quick segue here and point out to all of you bloggers and potential bloggers that sometimes it is better not to eat when watching Survivor although it does typically air around suppertime.) They lose a lot of people to the only food temptation in the game. Maybe this is to avoid what Natalie Anderson did by intentionally bringing food out to drop out of the challenge. Anyways, it’s interesting how many brawns dropped out of an endurance challenge. But they figure that they are probably safe. Are they, though? The challenge comes between Cydney and Tai. Tai seems to be the one struggling the most. But can he win? Apparently he is a Buddhist. I do wonder what those people believe. Tai ends up winning the immunity challenge when Cydney’s body gives out. Has Jeff really never seen something like that before? This seems like the type of thing that would have happened in the past.

In the fifth segment of the show, the plan is to split the vote between Debbie and Aubry. Nick reveals part of this to Aubry. Whatever happened to the phrase loose lips sink ships? Survivor contestants should know by now that they shouldn’t talk as much and be as open as you would in real life (if you are at all). Cydney talks about getting rid of Nick. I’m also wondering if a floater will win the game again. I don’t hate floaters the way some people do. Sometimes they just slip in there and win. I think this in the first time that there is a first jury member at the first merge tribal council. I don’t know if that could have possibly happened with Joe in Tocantins or not. Stick to the plan is brought up again at tribal council. People are convinced that the seven are staying together. Tai brings up the super idol for some odd reason. That wasn’t that smart a thing to do. Tai tries to play it off as something that someone could be misleading him about. Nick gets voted out of the game. I wonder how the votes went down.

On the next Survivor, the men seek vengeance after Nick’s blindside and the women’s alliance (if there even was one in the first place) seemingly crumbles just as soon as it started. What will happen next? Well, next time we’ll see.

Total confessional count: Scot- 19, Julia- 6, Tai- 20, Debbie- 21, Aubry- 16, Joe- 9, Michele- 13, Cydney- 14, Jason- 18, Nick- 11. New confessionals this episode: Debbie- 2, Aubry- 2, Joe- 1, Michele- 2, Cydney- 5, Jason- 3, Nick- 2, Scot- 1, Julia- 1, Tai- 1.

Nick had two confessionals this episode, the same number as Debbie, Aubry, and Michele. Joe, Julia, Tai, and Scot only have one confessional this episode. Cydney has the highest with five and Jason has three. In terms of total confessionals, Nick had eleven (probably more), which is higher than what Julia and Joe have. Everyone else has higher confessional counts. Julia still has the lowest, now with only six. Debbie has the highest with twenty-one. Tai is second highest with twenty. Scot is third highest with nineteen. It is still anyone’s game since we don’t know who could win and what will happen. Will someone come out of the shadows with the win? Or is someone clearly getting a better edit than others? Will it be a man as usual or will a woman pull off an upset? I’m eager to find out. I still don’t know where to rank this season yet, but I don’t have to decide until the finale. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.