Episode 34.11

I can’t tell yet if I want Sarah to win or if I want her to get blindsided. I think that the second choice would be the better one. With Brad, I don’t know if he actually could wind up winning this or not. I’m not sure if I’d want him to. But he seems to have control of the game so we’ll see if this leads to him getting dethroned a la Sandra or if he’ll win based on that. While I may have some doubts about Cirie winning, I would like to see that. One would question why they should show someone struggling the way they show Cirie struggling, but they did show Jenna struggling in Amazon so it could happen again. I just can’t think of a winner besides Jenna who they showed not surviving the way someone like Richard was shown surviving a whole lot.

While there were multiple people from the same season at the start of the game, now the only two people that are left who played in the same season are Tai and Aubry. Of course, this is if you don’t count Brad and Troyzan as being part of the not playing a season club because they weren’t voted into it. I wonder if the next returning player season will have women who didn’t make the cut of Cambodia. Not being in a season isn’t that notable. Carolyn from Worlds Apart was a candidate for this season that didn’t make it. I’m surprised that, last I checked, it seems that we didn’t know that many alternates for this season.

I still wonder who might win this season. I could wait until the next post to speculate, but that won’t be published before the episode in question airs anyways. It is possible that Brad wins as there is enough in his edit to support that. But I don’t know if I can see that as happening. Sarah could win or have a major blindside waiting for her. I would like Cirie to finally win. I just hope that she isn’t eliminated in a third finale episode, which is possible. Andrea’s edit seems too negative to support a win. Michaela’s is all over the place which doesn’t support a win to me. The rest seem too invisible, especially Troyzan. It can be hard to remember that he’s even on this season. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Sarah gets the legacy advantage, but maybe not right away. The tribe talks about why Sierra was voted out. Sarah talks about how she was able to play Sierra and got the advantage from her. Sarah wants to get rid of Andrea. Please do it!

In the second segment of the show, we go straight to the first immunity challenge of the episode. It is the balance and make a house of cards challenge that we’ve seen before. I don’t know if this is a real classic the way he claims it is. It is fun to see it with more people. Aubry ends up winning the challenge in a record fast time. Andrea wants to get rid of Sarah.

In the third segment of the show, Aubry is glad that she won immunity. People want to vote out Brad since he is vulnerable. Michaela visits him. Brad thinks this might be blackmail. Clearly, it is black female. The idols continue to be irrelevant to the game. Why are they even there? There is so much confusion over what to do. Either Brad or Andrea is a good option. We haven’t seen Brad dominate that much in challenges, but I feel he is more of a threat to win. At tribal council, people discuss what to do regarding the impending vote out. The votes are cast and commercial break. Oh, come on!

In the fourth segment of the show, Andrea gets voted out. Move, bitch! Get out the way! Well, maybe she’s not that mean, but I do kind of feel like that right now. I wonder if she lasted longer than she did in Caramoan. She might not have. Redemption Island and Caramoan have now been eliminated from this season. Aubry is upset that Andrea is voted out. Tai consoles Aubry which concerns Cirie who thinks that they are a pair.

We then get to the next immunity challenge and Cirie is concerned. She didn’t win this in Panama, but it didn’t matter then. Cirie seems to fail at the challenge. Is Jeff allowed to just tell her to jump like he sort of did? Michaela almost wins the challenge, but messes up. Brad ends up winning the challenge in the end. Cirie wants to get rid of a threat to her. Who could that be?

In the fifth segment of the show, we get back to the tribe after the immunity challenge. Troyzan thinks that he might have to play his idol. Tai thinks that he needs to make a big move. Now, Tai: don’t do something too risky like you did last time. Aubry wants to get rid of Tai. Sarah gives her vote stealing advantage to Cirie. Isn’t that against the rules? I guess not. Cirie thinks correctly that Tai has an idol. She wants to do some of her crazy ways to get Tai to not play an idol. Tai doesn’t know what to think about this and actually considers playing his idol because of it. I have no idea what will happen next.

Next comes tribal council. Sarah thinks that people have been sneaking around.  Cirie thinks that a lot of lies have been going around the camp. This might be an attempt to cover up her own. There is more discussion between players before Cirie tries to play hers Sarah’s vote stealing advantage. Sarah points out that it can’t be transferred to someone else. Sarah then takes it back and drama unfolds with a whole bunch of secret whispers come out. What’s going on now? Sarah then plays the advantage going for Tai’s vote. Did Cirie still make a good move? This could come back and bite her in the ass. In the end, no idols are played. Was that a good idea? It doesn’t look like it. Somehow, Cirie gets no votes against her yet again and Michaela gets voted out for some odd reason. #what? This means that Millennials versus Gen X is eliminated from the game. I just realized that Michaela was voted out with the advantage she was supposed to have.

On the next Survivor, Tai does a potential crazy move that may end up costing him the game. I don’t know what else to think besides that. I guess we will see what happens when it happens, if you know what is happening. It seems confusing to me still.

Total confessional count: Michaela- 19, Brad- 23, Cirie- 28, Sarah- 26, Troyzan- 9, Tai- 18, Andrea- 18, Aubry- 16. New confessionals this episode: Tai- 2, Andrea- 3, Aubry- 4, Michaela- 1, Brad- 2, Cirie- 6, Sarah- 2, Troyzan- 1.

Andrea had three new confessionals in this episode. Aubry and Cirie are higher with Cirie as the highest with six. Michaela had just one new confessional this episode, tied for the lowest with Troyzan. In terms of total confessionals, Michaela had nineteen. Andrea had eighteen, tied with Tai. Aubry was lower but Troyzan remains the lowest with just nine. The highest is Cirie with twenty-eight. I have no idea how this season will end, but I just hope that it ends well. As long as an idol is finally played, I’m not sure that I’ll care too much about the end result. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 34.10

It can be hard to believe that there are this many people still left in the game and the end is coming later this month. Soon the show will end. It seems like they will have to do more double episodes or something like that soon in order to catch up. Otherwise, maybe they will be doing a twist that sees four finalists at the end. I doubt it and don’t think that I’d want to see it. So either there will be multiple eliminations in an episode or yet another two hour episode before the season ends. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, the minority voted for Tai, I think, as the recap put it. Brad makes it seem like a mistake. Michaela points out that nothing is solid as the majority voted out one of their own. Sierra talks about getting the legacy advantage to Sarah. I’m not sure if Sarah’s long term chances are good or not. She seems to have a fairly uneven edit, but could possibly win still.

In the second segment of the show, we get to the reward challenge. Things get instantly emotional when Jeff says that their family is coming. I do wonder how awkward it would be if a contestant said they wanted someone only for someone else to come out in their place. I’m sure that I would like any relative, but some I might want over others. I do think that these are more emotional than they might need to be. I’m starting to wonder how short this challenge is going to be. Monica returns to the island as Brad’s loved one. The competition is a team challenge with three teams. I lose track of which team wins and they invite two people. Michaela is not picked by Andrea.

In the third segment of the show, we get to the reward and what people are talking about regarding the decisions. I lost track of things for a moment as I prepared supper for myself. At least I don’t live tweet Survivor anymore. I couldn’t keep up with that. Michaela prepares to flip. I’m beginning to think that there are too many flippers this season.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge and it looks like it might be balls to the wall. Wait, it is a buoy and not a ball. It looks like a larger than usual ball. It is larger than usual for us, but maybe not for someone like Chuck Norris. The challenge comes down to between Brad and Tai. People probably don’t think of someone like Tai as a challenge beast. But he doesn’t win this time. Brad wins immunity for the first time ever. Michaela talks about potentially flipping.

In the fifth segment of the show, we get back to camp and I need to come up with a more creative first sentence for these paragraphs. Andrea thinks that the vote will be easy. In Survivor, it is rare that things are ever easy and straightforward. Will Sierra be voted out? Sarah thinks that she could get the legacy advantage if she does. While Sarah may be evil, she is good at playing the game. Doesn’t Sarah have her own advantage already? Does she need to? I hope that Sierra doesn’t will the advantage to Sarah if Sierra does get voted out. Michaela talks about making the right decision.

At tribal council, Jeff talks about the reward and how it might have affected the game. Sierra doesn’t think that she’s the biggest threat so she talks about how Andrea is one. One shouldn’t do things like that if you want to advance in the game. Andrea thinks that the lie is either one way or another. Nobody plays an idol (will one ever get played?) and the person voted out is Sierra. This makes me wonder if she knows who flipped or not. Sierra does give the legacy advantage to Sarah.

On the next Survivor, tensions are high. People are still looking for an idol even though they should all be found. Are they? I guess that we’ll see. Cirie also has to make a potential tough decision of some sort. I guess we’ll see what it is later.

Total confessional count: Cirie- 22, Sarah- 24, Troyzan- 8, Sierra- 17, Tai- 16, Andrea- 15, Aubry- 12, Michaela- 18, Brad- 21. New confessionals this episode: Brad- 2, Cirie- 2, Sarah- 2, Troyzan- 0, Sierra- 3, Tai- 1, Andrea- 2, Aubry- 0, Michaela- 5.

Well, Worlds Apart has now been eliminated from this season. Even factoring in all the returning player seasons before they originally played, only Kaoh Rong still has multiple players left in the game. That’s if you don’t count the Cambodia rejects of Brad and Troyzan. As for the confessional count, Sierra had three this episode, only below Michaela with five. Everyone else is lower with Aubry and Troyzan having no new ones this episode. In terms of the total count, Sierra had seventeen, which is below Michaela, Brad, Cirie, and Sarah, with Sarah at the highest with twenty-four. A lot of the people with the highest count have been voted out this season. Will it happen again? As for the lowest in total confessional count, Troyzan is still there at eight. I wonder when he’ll get a new one. There’s not much else to say besides that. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 34.9

I just can’t tell what still has a chance of winning or not. There are a lot of things to factor into that. We could wind up with a surprise winner. I forget the last season that truly surprised me with its winner. I might have to go back a long ways for that, actually. It honestly might have been Cook Islands. But enough of this very brief paragraph.

In the first segment of the show, the tribe gets back after the blindside. He feels like he is in terrible shape. They somehow thought Debbie was in charge. Whether that’s true or not, they still should have gone after Brad who is more likely to win immunity. I guess I don’t know who is in control right now. I don’t think that they know either.

In the second segment of the show, we get to the reward challenge. It is basically a night away from camp, if I’m understanding this correctly. Orange struggles with the challenge. I miss a lot of this part due to different distractions. Both sides struggle at the puzzle at the end of the challenge. It seems that the orange team loses.

In the third segment of the show, Sarah talks about winning the reward. Zeke feels that playing Survivor gets harder as you go along. You think, DiNozzo? Andrea is still upset at Zeke for whatever reason I think I missed. Do you remember, readers? I’d love a second comment on this blog. If I don’t, I’ll always cherish the first comment. The loser of the reward feel bummed out as usual. Cirie might want to get rid of Sierra, which is just a bit confusing. People want to get rid of Zeke. Sarah tells Cirie about her vote stealing advantage. I’m surprised that nobody noticed her getting it or thought nothing of her little trip to the sit out bench in the challenge she played in.

In the fourth segment of the show, Zeke freaks out about the camp being so calm. Sarah and Zeke talk about what could happen. Zeke tries to get a majority. Will it work? Remember what happened last time, Zeke. I can’t tell what the alliances are like this time.

We get to the immunity challenge which is a domino rally challenge. If you have never used a domino for another purpose, then I highly recommend that you start playing it with your family. I just hope that you have a more honorable family than me that doesn’t cheat as much as they do. (It isn’t major cheating, but we know most of the time what is going on.) After some concern, Andrea wins the challenge. Zeke could have won, but wasn’t fast enough. Also, I’m trying to avoid using pronouns with Zeke since I’m not entirely sure the right one to use.

In the fifth segment of the show, I wonder what the animal symbolism of the bird waiting to attack the fish is. Andrea still wants to get rid of Zeke. What was this betrayal? Was it right at the merge? Was it the Ozzy vote? I don’t understand why Andrea is so hard against Zeke. I don’t really like Andrea. She seems kind of bitchy to me. Sierra wants to abandon her alliance. Sarah wants to keep Zeke. Aubry feels that she has to strike before the other person strikes them. Michaela wants to work with Zeke still. If it isn’t Zeke, who would it be? It seems that Sierra is likely the other target. The fact that people can flip is constantly being brought up. Let’s put on my sarcasm hat as I wonder if any of this could possibly be important in any way.

We get to tribal council next. People talk about how things keep changing. I’m reminded of Australia and how the majority alliance never lost control even after they voted their own out. I never understood that. Was the first real flip back in Marquesas? I guess some might have happened earlier that just weren’t as important to the game in terms of changing alliances’ numbers. I’m getting distracted here. I don’t fully understand what all the talk at tribal council is about. How did Tai become a target? No idols are played. The person voted out is Zeke.

On the next Survivor, the subject of trust is brought up. The loved ones challenge is going to happen next. I don’t fully understand what will happen there for sure. I guess that I’ll have to wait until the next episode to see more of this crazy season happening.

Total confessional count: Aubry- 12, Michaela- 13, Brad- 19, Cirie- 20, Sarah- 22, Troyzan- 8, Zeke- 20, Sierra- 14, Tai- 15, Andrea- 13. New confessionals this episode: Andrea- 3, Aubry- 2, Michaela- 1, Brad- 3, Cirie- 2, Sarah- 6, Troyzan- 0, Zeke- 3, Sierra- 3, Tai- 1.

Zeke had twenty confessionals, tied with Cirie. Higher than both of them is Sarah. Everyone else is lower than the three of them. Troyzan is still in the single digits club with eight, the lowest of those still in the game. Troyzan was the only person in this episode without a new confessional. Zeke had three new confessionals, tied with Brad, Sierra, and Andrea. The highest in the new count is Sarah with six. Outside of them, everyone else is lower in the new count than three. That’s pretty much all there is to catch up on for now. I’ll be back in the future with new episodes. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 34.8

My laptop is back to working right so there shouldn’t be any major problems with it for a while. If there were problems, then there wouldn’t be any random posts during the summer until the issue is resolved. The next paragraph will explain more of what happened.

Here’s a paragraph that I’m putting in multiple blogs. I had problems with my laptop’s power cord and had to get a new one to use it again long term. In the event that there are problems with my laptop, this would be one of the blogs that I would try to keep updating blogs of shows that are still on, like this one. If not, then I would stop updating the blog until I have a new computer to do so with. For now, the issue is resolved and hopefully there won’t be any other problems with this for a while.

If there is one thing that I know without looking it up, I have done terribly predicting things this season. I doubt that many of my predictions will be remotely close to being right in the long term. Maybe I’ll have a few right, but this could turn out to be the worst I’ve been at predicting this in the few seasons that I’ve actually done predictions.

Now might be a good time to mention the history of controversies from this show. The first season had a controversy when a contestant from that season sued the show over what she felt was production manipulation that resulted in her elimination. Not much is known after that except that Mark Brunet countersued that person and the matter was settled out of court. The second season had a contestant taking coral from a reef which is in violation of that country’s laws. The third season had people messing up the final four immunity challenge with an obscure question that they failed to do enough research on. The fourth season had the purple rock, but some may question if that was a true controversy.

The next season to cause a controversy was the eighth season. The incident with Sue and a naked Richard was controversial. The America’s Tribal Council that season was also considered controversial as well. The thirteenth season divided tribes by race which was highly criticized by some people, yet widely praised by various contestants. The fourteenth season ignored all applicants except for one person who was in the final cast. Denise in the sixteenth season created a problem at the reunion show by possibly misleading people into thinking that being on the show got her fired. The seventeenth season had brief, uncensored nudity. The nineteenth and twentieth season were affected by mass spoilers. The twenty-sixth season had the terrible reunion show. And now this season has a controversial moment. Things were going so well too.

It is worth mentioning now that Ozzy’s elimination makes the fact that Cook Islands and South Pacific are now eliminated from this season. I have no idea what will end up happening this season. I’m not sure who has the potential to still win, who is a threat to win that won’t, who is in the path to victory of the winner that has to be eliminated and dealt with, and who doesn’t have a chance anymore. Maybe it is good not knowing who could potentially win. But I’d feel better if more of the choices were clearer. I’m not sure that I would know for sure who doesn’t have a chance anymore, but I do feel that some people like Debbie may be an obstacle in the winner’s path and not a potential winner themselves.

There have been some storms in the area today. Hopefully this won’t affect this blog post at all. If there is a power outage, then I should have this posted on Friday. The same can be said if there is storm coverage over the show on both of my CBS affiliates. Normally, I try to avoid using my laptop on days like this. But I have to use it to write this blog. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Debbie gloats over getting rid of Ozzy and feels that her side has all the power. Andrea wants to get rid of Zeke. I don’t understand what happened between them. I must have missed it, if they aired it at all. Sarah talks about her decision to get rid of Ozzy. She makes a good analogy about how lines drawn in the sand get washed away by the tide.

In the second segment of the show, we get to the reward challenge. The overview shows that a secret advantage is up for grabs if people notice it. Whoever isn’t picked gets no shot at reward, which is one of the dumbest things that go on in this game any season. Michaela is the sit out and she is right where the advantage is if she notices that. I guess that’s nice to offer the forced sit out. She’ll feel dumb know if she doesn’t notice it before she has to leave the challenge area.

The orange tribe does very badly in the challenge due to the poor performance of Zeke and Cirie. The blue tribe wins the challenge. Even though her team lost, Cirie finishes the challenge and the other contestants offer support for this. I’m still not sure what her long term story is. Would they show a winner struggling this much? I thought that when they did that with Aubry in Kaoh Rong, I could rule out her winning that season. They bring a boat in for the losers. Michaela never noticed what was probably meant for her: the secret advantage. Sarah did and she takes it for herself.

In the third segment of the show, Cirie talks about her struggles in the challenge. Sarah reads what the advantage is. It is a vote stealer option. She notices that they haven’t been played correctly before, these extra votes. I thought that Tai did his right in Kaoh Rong. But he might have wasted it. I’d have to look up the information. We get to the reward next. Brad talks about how he intentionally left some of his alliance members out of the school yard pick. I hope that’s a secret scene somewhere: who picked who. Cirie tries to reel Sarah instead her side. Sarah wonders what to do.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge. Tai gets really confused trying to get things set up in advance so he isn’t so confused setting up. He ends up being the last one out there as a result. Troyzan ends up winning the challenge. I notice that Brad seemed to be helping him at the end. I wonder if they are in an alliance as they were both rejected from the Cambodia cast. This makes me wonder if we’ll see other pairs of rejects from that season in the future.

In the fifth segment of the show, we get the image of various sharks in the water. What’s that song from Legally Blonde the Musical about blood in the water? I can’t tell if Brad is really in control or simply thinks that he’s in control. He wants to take out Andrea. They want to split the vote between her and Michaela. Sarah wasn’t consulted with this decision, so she feels that she should make a move now. Man, so many people get slighted to easily in this game. One moment your king of Narnia, then, just like Miraz, his associates kill him for feeling slighted. Sierra, Sarah, and Andrea could be the final three if nobody flips. Debbie wants to think that Aubry is on the same side as she is. Aubry is very suspicious of this and could wind up blindsiding Debbie again because of this.

Sarah thinks that she will decide at tribal council what to do. At tribal council, the tribe talks more about Cirie and the reward challenge. Andrea feels vulnerable. Debbie talks about the power alliance and how they made up their mind. She then possibly quotes Princess Bride. Zeke wants there to be a reshuffling of the deck at hand. I can’t tell what’s going to happen. That happens a lot. According to Debbie, a democracy is when there are some who give orders and some who take orders. The idols are still irrelevant as Tai has two and Troyzan has one. The person voted out is Debbie. I guess Sarah flipped? I’m not honestly sure, but this at least fits with my theory of her not winning and being an obstacle to overcome on the way to the win.

On the next Survivor, the tide has turned in some sort of way. I can’t tell what is going on. Man, they love these vague promos, don’t they? I’m just glad to be able to use my laptop again. We’ll see what ends up happening in the future.

Total confessional count: Sarah- 16, Troyzan- 8, Zeke- 17, Sierra- 11, Tai- 14, Debbie- 22, Andrea- 10, Aubry- 10, Michaela- 12, Brad- 16, Cirie- 18.

New confessionals this episode: Cirie- 2, Sarah- 7, Troyzan- 1, Zeke- 2, Sierra- 3, Tai- 0, Debbie- 4, Andrea- 2, Aubry- 1, Michaela- 0, Brad- 2.

Debbie is the next person with the highest confessional count to be eliminated from the game. Cirie is the second highest at the moment, or highest of the remaining players still in the game. Troyzan is the lowest in the total count as he is the only person left still in single digits. Debbie was second highest in the new count this week. Sarah was highest with 7. Everyone else was lower than those two. Tai and Michaela had no new confessionals, which is weird for Michaela since she was a potential target. There’s nothing else new to say regarding this, so I guess that I’m done with this. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 34.7

Things might be a bit different for this blog post as there are problems going on with my laptop’s power cord. While I might be able to use it should it actually have a long battery life, since it doesn’t, I won’t be risking it. Things should hopefully be back to normal in time as I have another power cord ordered. I am using my mother’s laptop as a result. If I can’t do a normal post by next week, that would be really bad. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we are at the Nuku tribe after their tribal council. It is daytime so it is hard to understand why the nighttime part was edited out. Zeke tells people that he’s transgender after what happened. It seems that things are okay for him (her?) now. We then get to the two tribes meeting for potential food. Cirie thinks that something is up with what’s going on. Jeff Probst said that one person from each tribe must volunteer to not take part in the merge feast. Why must this game be so cruel sometimes?

In the second segment of the show, Jeff gives the tribe the option of what will happen if people don’t decide to sit out of the challenge. Brad continues to strive to be like his wife might do and sit out of the merge feast. Zeke doesn’t buy this as something other than trying to get ahead in the game. Tai sits out on his tribe. Sierra reminds us viewers of her legacy advantage. She can use it now or at the final six. Will she wait? We’ll see. I don’t fully understand what all is going on at the merge feast as Debbie thinks that it’s a good idea to fake drunkenness.

In the third segment of the show, Debbie makes amend with Brad. Zeke reveals to the other tribe over what happened at tribal council. A lot of scrambling starts to happen at the merge as Brad attempts to take control of the game. He wants Michaela to be voted out which everyone starts to talk about on the tribe. They say that she shouldn’t win immunity, which makes me think that she will. They mention the infamous stick to the plan line. I don’t understand some of what they are talking about. Will the vote be as clear cut as they are trying to make it seem.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to even more tribe life going on. The recap told us that Michaela and Hali were on the outs considering how Brad was in control of their tribe. Michaela might want Cirie out, but it seems like they bond instead. It looks like they are potentially forming an alliance. Will it work? Will it last? I guess that we’ll see. We then get to the immunity challenge. It proves to see if someone is a blockhead or not.

Hali, Troyzan, and Zeke are the first three out of the challenge. Cirie is out fourth. Debbie is out after Michaela struggles for a bit. Michaela does wind up out next. Ozzy and Aubry are the next people out. Brad is then out. Sarah is out next. Sierra is then out. This leaves the last two as Andrea and Tai. I forget if it is actually Andrea and not Sierra who has the legacy advantage. Andrea wins the challenge.

In the fifth segment of the show, Sierra is convinced that Hali has an idol. I can’t tell much what is going on now and why. Cirie thinks that Hali should be voted out instead of Michaela. Zeke thinks that Hali should be the one voted out since she might have an idol. There are too many names going around during camp life that I have no idea who might be voted out without seeing tribal council. Cirie adds to her legend status by making the merge without attending tribal council.

Jeff thinks that this is the point of the game where blank happens. Yeah, shit does happen at the merge. Debbie thinks that she knows what is going down, but so often when you think you do, you really don’t. The discussion of whether or not someone has an idol is brought up. Hali wants to prove that she doesn’t have an idol, but not unless someone says that specifically. I still have no idea what will happen going into the vote. This seems like calm craziness if that makes sense. Nobody plays an idol or the legacy advantage. Hali is voted out and joins the jury. L I didn’t understand that vote.

We then get back to the tribe after the vote. Michaela thinks that she and Cirie can work together in the long term. Cirie thinks that she can take control of the game. I think that it is possible and I would love to see her win the game. I can’t tell who has the best chances right now. Andrea thinks that Brad or Sierra should be voted out of the game next. Zeke feels that he should be in control, but isn’t. I can’t tell who the next potential target is.

In the sixth segment of the show, we get to the reward challenge. I wonder if it will be more food. It seems like a rather fishy challenge. It is mostly a spa day that they get to experience. There is food as part of it as well. The orange team fails at the earlier part of the challenge. The blue tribe mess up by not taking a fish at one point. Jeff points out that they blue it. It comes down to the puzzle. The blue team does win the challenge in the end.

In the seventh segment of the show, Cirie feels like a loser. I doubt they would be showing us this with a player that wins. It’s sad because I really like her. We then get to the reward where Tai streaks for seemingly no good reason. Zeke talks strategy. Debbie thinks that Zeke is throwing out a fake story regarding her name being thrown under the bus.

In the eighth segment of the show, we get to see who can stay on a pole the longest. This is the challenge that I think Ozzy has won twice. Of course a porn star would know his way around a pole. Cirie and then Brad are the first two out of the challenge. Aubry is out next. Debbie is out next. Zeke is then out. Soon, the four left are Michaela, Andrea, Tai, and Ozzy. The next one out is Michaela. Andrea is then out. Tai and Ozzy are the last two left. Ozzy loses this challenge for the first time. Tai is the winner. Wow. That’s cool. Tai confuses queen and king. Brad thinks that tribal council will be crazy.

In the ninth segment of the show, Zeke wants to get out Andrea for some odd reason. I also had a very weirdly timed supper and am not sure if all of it was good for sure. I don’t think that the pears in fruit cups are any good anymore. People think that now is a good time to get rid of Zeke. Debbie suggests getting rid of Ozzy. Will this work? Sarah talks about the confusion of what is going on. What will happen? I guess that we’ll see and try to understand. The idols are irrelevant at the moment. Once again, I have no clue what is going on. Debbie might have been in the air force. She might be a jack of all trades. I can’t tell what is going on as usual. Debbie decides to play her extra vote. Nobody plays an idol (no one has to) and the person voted out is Ozzy. He has beaten his own record of most times voted out and is the first person since Rupert to be on three different juries.

On the next Survivor, a bunch of really confusing things are happening. I don’t understand what is going on and that seems to be a recurring theme throughout this season for me. I would rather have things make sense, but that doesn’t always happen.

Total confessional count: Sierra- 8, Tai- 14, Debbie- 18, Andrea- 8, Aubry- 9, Michaela- 12, Brad- 14, Cirie- 16, Hali- 9, Sarah- 9, Ozzy- 8, Troyzan- 7, Zeke- 15,

New confessionals this episode: Zeke- 7, Sierra- 4, Tai- 2, Debbie- 4, Andrea- 4, Aubry- 2, Michaela- 4, Brad- 3, Cirie- 9, Hali- 3, Sarah- 3, Ozzy- 2, Troyzan- 0,

Hopefully my laptop will be able to be used again next week. I don’t know why it wouldn’t be. I should have a new power cord by Friday at the soonest and Monday might be the latest. I just hope that nothing bad happens with the old cord. What are you supposed to do with a bad cord? I might have to give it to an electronic recycling place. I have to avoid using it in the meantime since it seems to be causing sparks and isn’t charging the laptop at all. I see no reason why I won’t have the replacement within a week’s time. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 34.6

It seems like this show is running pretty late in the schedule. It started late, so it only seems natural that it will continue late until the end of the season in May. I do wonder if Hunted will continue for future seasons or not. It might, in order to fill the gap between Survivor seasons. Honestly, you could potentially put The Amazing Race between Survivor seasons if you aren’t going to do them the same way they have been doing them. I have no idea if Hunted did well in the ratings or not so I won’t know until the next season is announced whether or not it is staying around.

Good Friday is coming up and that means missing all of the Friday shows that I typically watch. This might be good as a lot of those shows that I watch have already left the schedule. But it potentially means missing a bunch of different shows that I like that are still on the air. The Friday shows that I currently watch are MacGyver, Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods, and Reign. There are times that I watch 20/20, but I don’t always watch it and usually ignore it if it is a murder mystery episode. I might be getting into various new Friday shows like The Toy Box, You the Jury, and First Dates. Other Friday shows that I watched this season before they left the schedule were Grimm, Emerald City, and Sleepy Hollow. There are a lot of good things. I even watch Shark Tank and Dateline sometimes.

I couldn’t help but noticing that Exile Island this season isn’t really Exile Island. I had thought of a twist that I never mentioned before where instead of an Exile Island, it is a Luxury Island that a lucky, random person would get that also comes with a round of immunity. (This would be in a season that starts with one tribe, to offset when there are an odd number of players.) This is pretty much turning Exile Island into something good. I don’t like this. It shouldn’t be some sort of party like the people in the video I’m mentioning are having. Plus, why is it on a pirate ship instead of, I don’t know, AN ACTUAL ISLAND? It’s bad enough that Redemption Island has never been a real island.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avaSdC0QOUM (Warning: contains foul language)

Since all of the former winners are out of the game, it makes me wonder if the runner ups will be targeted or not. I doubt it, since they don’t really have the same sort of stigma attached to them that winners would be. In case you aren’t keeping track, the former finalists still in the game are Tai, Ozzy, and Aubry. If more alpha males go home, then Ozzy would be a potential next victim. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Debbie incorrectly thinks that she is the first person to observe a tribal council and not vote. Tai thinks that he’s in danger based on what’s going on. I forget who all has possessed multiple idols before. Didn’t Tai the last time he played? Jeff and Zeke talk which might be a bad decision on Zeke’s part. I think that all the others who have had two idols at once are James in China, Parvati in Heroes versus Villains, Malcolm in Caramoan, and that’s all that I can remember. If there are more, I’m not sure if I know them offhand.

In the second segment of the show, we get to a similar, yet different type of challenge. The winner gets pizza and soft drinks. (Why is soda called soft drinks sometimes? Is that to appease the morons who don’t call it soda?) Nuku wins the challenge due to Ozzy the challenge beast. I wonder if we should be worried that he’ll do this again. We don’t know if this whole Ozzy and Cirie rivalry will still come to mean that one will cause the elimination of the other. I’m not sure yet who I’d rather come out on top.

In the third segment of the show, we get back to the red tribe after their loss as I realize that Exile Island was probably a one-time twist this season. This is the part from the promos where everyone is getting emotional. I don’t entirely understand why this is happening, but that seems to be the point. Aubry and Brad seem to bond over this. Ozzy talks about the win that he helped bring his tribe. It seems almost like day and night the difference between the two tribes right now. Jeff wants to get rid of Ozzy. Plus don’t backfire on Jeff. I notice that a lot of people we haven’t seen in a while are getting airtime again. That’s pretty nice, actually.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge already. I don’t think that production rigs things, but it is interesting how they have a water challenge now and they know how good Ozzy is with these types of challenges. Of course, they only have a limited number of challenges that would work as a tribal challenge. Brad fails partly at the challenge. Anyone would be dead in the water, so to speak, against Ozzy in the water, so you have to wonder if this is important to the future. Despite the lead, Ozzy’s tribe loses the challenge after failing at the puzzle.

We then get back to the losing tribe. Jeff offers a public swan song, but I don’t that he’s out yet. Zeke wants to keep Jeff in the game. Zeke doesn’t want Ozzy out of the game. Jeff stirs the pot and tries to get the women on his side. Why do gay men seem to align with women? I can’t tell if is making up crap or not. Is Zeke in danger at all?

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to tribal council next. Jeff Varner talks about how he feels that he is on the bottom.  Jeff airs the tribe’s dirty laundry to everyone. Remember when Coby did that in Palau? It didn’t work out that well for him. Who is transgender? Things are exploding quite easily. When was this ever revealed? Now I’m wanting Jeff Varner to be voted out. Jeff Probst talks about the logic gap. Zeke feels betrayed. Don’t ever tell someone that you are voting them out. It doesn’t work out most of the time.

I don’t like this tribal council. Should they even be airing this? I guess that they might have to in order to explain the vote that happens. This might somehow being one of the most shocking tribal councils ever and we probably know who is getting voted out the whole time. I guess that the best way to called this episode is #survivorbombshell. Are we getting to the vote ever? They forgo the actual vote and Jeff Varner gets eliminated. Wow. I wonder who his vote would have been against. Poor Jeff just doesn’t seem to understand how to play the game.

On the next Survivor, we get to the merge as expected. There’s not much else revealed about the next episode. Jeff Varner is emotional in his exit confessional and upset over what he did. I hope that he doesn’t lose a lot of friends over this. I’ll stay friends with him on facebook. I know that I’ve said a lot of dumb and terrible things before. If you haven’t, that’s good. It’s sad that such a terrible fight is now on TV forever. Honestly, though, it is still better than a lot of what we saw during the election. Ugh. His elimination means that Australia and Cambodia are eliminated from this season. What’s interesting is that the two people who didn’t make the cast of Cambodia are still in this game.

Total confessional count: Michaela- 8, Brad- 11, Cirie- 7, Hali- 6, Sarah- 6, Ozzy- 6, Troyzan- 7, Zeke- 8, Sierra- 4, Tai- 12, Jeff Varner- 14, Debbie- 14, Andrea- 4, Aubry- 7.

New confessionals this episode: Brad- 2, Cirie- 1, Hali- 0, Sarah- 2, Ozzy- 1, Troyzan- 0, Zeke- 1, Sierra- 1, Tai- 1, Jeff Varner- 3, Debbie- 1, Andrea- 0, Aubry- 2, Michaela- 0.

Now let’s get to the confessional count. Jeff Varner tied with Debbie for the most total confessionals with fourteen each. The second highest is Tai with twelve. If my count is right, Sierra and Andrea tie for lowest with four a piece. Jeff had three new confessionals this episode, which was higher than anyone else. Those with two are Brad, Sarah, and Aubry. With no new confessionals are Andrea, Hali, Michaela, and Troyzan. I might have confused Andrea and Sierra with the confessional count.

Wow. That episode was pretty heavy. I would recommend to those on the west coast or later time zones to watch the CW after this episode is over because you might need a laugh to take your mind off of what happened. Poor Zeke. I hope that Jeff doesn’t get a lot of hate the way Dawn did after Brenda’s boot in Caramoan. I also hope that he learned his lesson. I thought that after Cambodia that Jeff couldn’t get a worse edit and was destined to bounce back. Instead, he went even lower. Maybe he should take a vacation. It sure helped Jeff Probst overcome the controversy regarding the Caramoan reunion show to instantly be out filming Blood versus Water until the whole thing blew over. This makes me seriously doubt that they will do anything bad at a fall season’s reunion show. I don’t even know exactly what I’m saying anymore. I guess that I will be back in the future with the next episode. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 34.5

I hope that this season doesn’t become too much like All-Stars. What I mean by that is they don’t need all these twists done in one season. All-Stars went overboard on all these crazy, dumb twists. I don’t understand the appeal of too many of them. Hopefully, they’ll at least provide good things happening in the game. Otherwise, it will just be one dumb thing after another.

The upcoming twist involving some sort of returning player (if it is a twist at all, that is) makes me wonder if they are introducing the joker concept that has been used on international seasons. The joker is when a new contestant enters the game part of the way through. Normally, they can’t get the ultimate end prize as they weren’t there for the whole game. I don’t know what they would do as I have never seen any international seasons. But it might be something that could appear at some point.

I forgot to mention that Tocantins has now been eliminated from this season. Heroes versus Villains remains as both Sandra and Cirie remain in the game. JT is now one of five players to be eliminated before the merge, be on the jury, and be a finalist. He’s the first one to go in the order of finalist then juror then premerge boot.

Sandra likes to call herself the queen. She seems to be too cocky. Maybe winning twice has gone to her head and made her think that she has all the power. Indeed, in the game of chess, the queen can do the most. But you can win the game without a queen. I think that it’s only a matter of time before Sandra finally gets voted out. It could happen before the merge as it seems dumb that they keep getting rid of all these good challenge competitors. Even if she does make the end a third time, I just don’t see her as winning this time as there’s too much bad in her edit. Will she be dethroned? Maybe. I think that her being the queen is ultimately a bad thing.

I don’t know if I should speculate more on this returning player twist. I don’t know if they are just visiting a tribe or what. I don’t know who it is. It could be someone who was already eliminated this season. Or it could be someone else entirely. We don’t know what capacity they are returning in, although I doubt that it would be a full-fledged player this late in the game. I normally am not this interested in a new episode, but I think that I am this time around. What’s bad is that I won’t be able to watch it live the way I normally would. But not watching things live can have its advantages. Indeed, if I had live watched the episode Bum Puzzled, it might not have been something that I blogged about. And if I didn’t blog about it, well, this blog wouldn’t exist and I wouldn’t be such an avid blogger. I’d probably just have the one blog that I wouldn’t care as much about. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Aubry talks about being left out of the loop. Will she finally have the sense to turn things against Sandra? Tai continues looking for the idol, which he’ll probably find since they mentioned it in the recap. He did find it as expected. The tribes then drop their buffs to switch tribes again. Debbie doesn’t get a buff. Mana: Troyzan, Michaela, Sierra, Hali, Aubry, Cirie, Brad. Nuku: Sandra, Jeff Varner, Ozzy, Andrea, Tai, Zeke, Sarah. I think that those are the right tribes. Debbie is sent to Exile Island. Jeff Varner isn’t sure of how he’ll do on his new tribe.

In the second segment of the show, we get to the new Mana tribe. Troyzan talks about how he feels well on his new tribe. Brad wants to form an alliance with Troyzan as they are the only two men on his tribe. Does he forget how poorly that went for him on Blood versus Water? At least he is getting women in the alliance as he needs a majority. Jeff Varner and Sandra want to work together. Zeke wants Sandra out. Andrea wants Tai out. Zeke wants to use Tai as a fake vote out name. Tai looks for a second idol. He looks in the same place for it that he found it on the other tribe and does find it. Congrats on joining the two idol tribe. You’re lucky if you can get one, but two at a time is impressive. We then get to “Exile Island,” which is actually a ship full of food. What? But then she notices a boat approaching with John Cochran from South Pacific and Caramoan. What's he doing here?

In the third segment of the show, we learn that there is an Exile Island experience and John is there to offer advice to whoever winds up there. John correctly asserts that Debbie is overconfident in the game. I wonder if we’ll see him again. He also offers her an advantage. There are three different choices that she is presented with: the kit to make a fake idol, an extra vote, or an advantage for her new tribe in their next immunity challenge. She takes the extra vote. I would have taken the advantage in order to help my new tribe. I wonder if the other two options could potentially show up again. I also wonder if John is the person who thought of this twist.

In the fourth segment of the show, Zeke wants to potentially work with Jeff Varner even while working to vote out his ally. Jeff buys this too easily, the fact that Tai might be voted out. Sandra isn’t so quick to buy this story so she thinks that they should win the challenge in order to win ensure that she won’t get voted out. We then get to the immunity challenge. Mana wins the challenge after Nuku trails behind too much in it.

In the fifth segment of the show, Sandra tries to stay in the game while Zeke tries to get her out. She tries to work her charm, but Sarah isn’t buying it. Ozzy doesn’t think that it was a good idea for Tai to mention that Sandra was the target to Jeff. Word gets back to Sandra about her being the target. Tai thinks that he’s safe with two idols. Well, that didn’t work out well for James Clement.

We then get to tribal council next. Sandra admits that she thinks she’s the target. Tai admits that he’s worried that he’ll be voted out. Sarah admits that some votes are still up in the air. I should be taking shots every time Sandra says either “As long as it ain’t me” or “The queen stays queen.” Tai suddenly wants to vote out Ozzy, but I can’t tell if this is a true target or not. This seems to be another dumb move. How did Sandra do that? Hopefully, this is part of Tai’s plan to get people to vote for him so he can play an idol on himself and vote out Sandra. If he doesn’t play his idol, that would be bad. He doesn’t play it. But the votes are still against Sandra. That’s a relief actually. How did that happen? I’m glad that people stuck to their guns.

On the next Survivor, things are going bad on Mana. Jeff Varner is after blood. Alliances are changing. I guess we will see what happens later. Are their people on the other tribe who haven’t attended tribal council yet? I forget as it’s easy to lose track of. Pearl Islands is now the next season eliminated from the game, yet Heroes versus Villains still remains for now.

Total confessional count: Tai- 11, Jeff Varner- 11, Debbie- 13, Andrea- 4, Aubry- 5, Michaela- 8, Brad- 9, Sandra- 19, Cirie- 6, Hali- 6, Sarah- 4, Ozzy- 5, Troyzan- 7, Zeke- 7, Sierra- 3.

New confessionals this episode: Sierra- 0, Tai- 4, Jeff Varner- 4, Debbie- 4, Andrea- 1, Aubry- 1, Michaela- 0, Brad- 2, Sandra- 4, Cirie- 0, Hali- 0, Sarah- 1, Ozzy- 1, Troyzan- 2, Zeke- 4. Special confessional: John- 2

Sandra had four confessionals this episode, a high shared by Tai, Jeff Varner, Debbie, and Zeke. At the lowest with no new confessionals are Michaela, Cirie, Hali, and Sierra. Sandra had the total highest confessional count with nineteen. The second highest is Debbie with thirteen. Tai and Jeff Varner tie for third highest with eleven. The lowest in the total count is Sierra with only three. It is worth noting that John, who isn’t a contestant this season, got two new confessionals this episode, the same number as Brad and Troyzan. John beat Sarah, Ozzy, Andrea, and Aubry who all only had one confessional. What does it say that in this one episode John is getting more confessionals than eight of the players actually on this season? Now that Sandra is gone, only four people had more new confessionals than John who are still in the game. That seems weird, right?

Some of you probably have no idea when Lent ends. Well, Sunday is Palm Sunday and Easter, when Lent ends, is a week after that. But the last evening Lenten service was yesterday so I’ll be able to move this blog back to Wednesdays. I should be able to live watch it for the rest of the season. Hopefully there won’t be any problems with that. If I don’t have a post on Wednesday, hopefully you’ll see an update sometime shortly after that. Just remember that my blog about the show Elementary will now be on Thursdays until further notice so you won’t see any potential late posts on Thursdays again for the rest of this season at least. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.