Sorry for the late post. It's quite difficult during the Christmas season to be all caught up on everything & yes, there was a Christmas party on Sunday night. Thank heavens for the PVR and for friends who did not spoil the ending for me! All caught up now - thanks for waiting!
Well... yeah. Denise! What do you guys think? Are we happy? We all knew it would be her or Malcolm and Malcolm looked like the bigger threat. AND he didn't win immunity, even with an advantage that he'd won in an earlier reward challenge. The final immunity challenge was a balancing one and it turns out that Malcolm has shaky hands when he gets nervous. As he said in the reunion show, he could have had 100 free tries and he still would have lost that one. Skupin won it, by the way, so he and Lisa by extension were safely in the final three.
Denise tried to talk Malcolm into voting with her instead of against her. Both of them vote for Lisa, and then it becomes a tie and a fire challenge. But Malcolm wouldn't commit ("took a page out of Penner's 'how to lose a million dollars' handbook," he said at the reunion.) and figured his best bet was to vote with Lisa and Skupin against Denise. Remember, he had a bit of an alliance with them from when they went out to pet the whale sharks?
It turned out that Skupin & Lisa were more afraid of sitting next to Malcolm than Denise. And truly, I think Malcolm would have won it if he was sitting there... I don't think Lisa & Skupin were going to win either way. They made too many people mad from their old yellow team. It's delightful to remember that they were the outcasts - the ones that none of the kids from the yellow team liked, the ones that were bullied. And here they are sitting at the end... But, all those guys were pretty bitter about it - Artis, Pete, Abi.... all except RC, who was pretty happy for Lisa and in the end was the only person to vote for her. (Carter was the only person to vote for Skupin, FYI, everyone else voted for Denise.)
The final Tribal Council was surprisingly bitter. I mean, there's always, always one or two people who are bitter and holding onto whatever happened to blindside them or vote them off... Always. But this was a particularly mean-spirited group. The ones I thought would be jerks - Abi and RC - were actually not that bad. RC asked some questions (and that laugh...after every single thing she says... oh my.... are you not glad you were not subjected to more of that? Yikes.) and Abi just played up the "poor me, I was told I am unlikeable, I am so heartbroken," thing. I think Denise actually got her vote by simply apologizing and saying you know what, I stand by a lot of what I said to you, but maybe I could have gone about it in a different way and I really didn't mean to hurt you if you are truly hurt by it."
Then... there were the ones you'd expect. Carter was nice. Pete and Artis weren't super nice, but we knew that was coming. Jeff Kent was quite reasonable. But then.... Malcolm and Penner. These two were hardcore jerks. Was I the only one weirded out by this? I mean, maybe I sort of understand Malcolm because it was all so recent for him & he hadn't a lot of time to process. But getting all mad at Denise for 'nodding'. "Don't you dare sit there and nod at me!" Whaaaaat? I'm pretty sure he knew how this worked. They both on a number of occasions said that they had an alliance down to final four and then it was everyone for themselves. She was true to that alliance. Also, ummmm... Malcolm, you were trying to do the exact same thing to Denise, only she was able to better convince Skupin & Lisa. That's all. Honestly, how these people let either one of Malcolm or Densie make it to the end is beyond me.
Then there was Penner. My former favourite. He was a class-A jerk. Told Denise that she was a bitch, told Skupin that he was never in trouble, he never got his name written down (while Penner holds a bit of a record for it) and then outed Lisa as a TV actor. Denise again had the "Whaaaaat?" facial expression. Skupin didn't say a whole lot (though, it was funny that he didn't realise his name hadn't been written down... though shouldn't that be a PLUS for Skupin? Shouldn't you congratulate the dude who people on his tribe did not like, who was the only returning player to make it to the end WITHOUT having his name written down once? Seems like a bit of an accomplishment.) And Lisa just stayed calm and said yes, it's true I was an actor. Shall we talk about what kinds of jobs you did in your youth, or would you rather talk about what kind of person you are today? I thought it was a good response. But Penner made it all about him and came off like a whiny, whiny baby. Tragic.
At the end of the day, I'm pretty glad Denise won. I'd have been happy for Malcolm too. Or for Lisa, or even Skupin... though a little less so. Denise made a pretty good case for herself. She had been to EVERY single Tribal Council and survived. She had forged relationships in all three tribes. She had to constantly reinvent strategy whenever she got moved around. She had to compete hard and work hard at camp to make herself seen as a useful commodity. She listened well and observed relationships and used what she could to her advantage. Overall, smart play. I have to say, it was interesting to see all three in the final three were the 'old' people in the cast. (Old in Survivor is over 40. It's like dog years....) Brains count for a lot in this show.
Not a lot to tell about the reunion show. It was kind of the Lisa Welchel hour. She talked at LENGTH about God and how he loves all the Survivors, blah, blah, blah. She took up a lot of the time so they couldn't really ask a lot of the questions I think would have been interesting. The usual quick question to the first people off... and surprisingly not much at all directed at Russell. I know he was 4th out, but he was a pretty big part of this season, non? Dawson ran down and kissed Jeff Probst on the lips. Uh, girl is a crazy stalker. Jeff: Thankfully that kiss was not as good as my wife's. Ha! Sorry, honey, the security officers will be seeing you out now. Dana is feeling much better, thanks. Penner looks weird with hair and no scruffy beard.... and does he dye his hair now? Weird. Abi came across pretty well - she said that she knows now after watching the show that she "has a lot of work to do." Artis thought it was funny how he was perceived as "the angry black man"... and RC went on AGAIN about how Pete and Abi screwed her over. To which Pete responded, "Uh, I think someone's still a little bitter." Ha! Generally, there was not a lot of love. It seems like the first people out - the non-jury folks - get along pretty well. And the final three seemed to still have a lot of love. Malcolm for sure has calmed down about losing, as has Jeff Kent. But if you're Denise, you don't really care at the end of the day if any of these people like you once you walk out the door with that cheque. You did your job. You won the money. You will take it back to your family in Iowa. The chances of having to see Penner or Abi or RC on the street are slim. Life is good.
Unfortunately, the PR wizards at CBS have seen fit to make the next season, Fans vs. Favourites again. Bleh. We've talked about this before. Is the talent pool in America drying up so badly that they can only find 9 people for the show? They have to recycle people who've played before. Boring! We've seen this now a bunch of times. Fans vs. Favourites, All-Stars, Redemption Island... they are all just different names for the same thing: Boring. I liked this season because the folks who were playing again DESERVED another shot. They left the show medically - not getting voted out (with the exception of Penner, who had been voted out in another season, then med-evaced.) But come on now, Mark Burnett. Enough already. And who are we going to have to endure again? Will it be interesting Survivors who we might actually want to see play some more? Dudes like Malcolm might fall into this category. Or, will it be Russell Hantz (or any Hantz for that matter)... or frickin' Rupert? Good lord, if Rupert is on the air, I'm quitting the blog.
OK - so I've just checked into it - don't read further if you like to be surprised.
It looks like we will see Malcolm again. And....are you sitting down? Baby Hantz. Ugh. Gross. Also Dawn from South Pacific, who I liked a lot.... and John Cochran... and Phillip Sheppard? Really? I mean, he was good TV, sure, but really? One time was enough. Also a bunch of people I'm going to have to look up because they're such "Favourites" I can't even remember who they are: Andrea, Brenda, Corinne, Erik, Francesca? Ugh... ok, just googled them. Blech. These people were all voted out for a reason. WHOSE FAVOURITES ARE THESE??? Who out there is like, Andrea... yeah, she was my favourite player EVER!!! You'll remember them when you see them. Erik was that long haired young dude who pulled one of the dumbest moves ever when he let those girls talk him into giving them his idol? Remember? When I google image searched Corinne, one picture showed up with the words: "Miserable Human Being".... Right. Fan-frickin'-tastic. You know I'll watch anyway, but I'm going to have words with Jeff Probst.
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Thursday, December 13, 2012
It Was All PMS. And Now It's Gone.
Can you even imagine the relief at camp once Abi was voted out? I would think that there was a brief period of dancing and celebration, followed by complete silence for about 8 straight hours. Ahead of myself as usual....
It all started with Skupin winning a reward challenge. He got to choose 2 people to go along with him in a helicopter that would take them to a boat, where they would swim with some giant (non-man-eating) sharks. Cool! Skupin chose well. He picked Malcolm first (to pay back for Malcolm choosing Skupin to spend the day with his son a while back) and then picked his long-time ally, Lisa. That left Abi and poor, poor Denise alone together at camp for the day.
From Abi's perspective: "Ugh. I have to spend the day with Denise. Denise is a horrible person."
From Denise's perspective: "Ugh. I want to gouge my eyes out and then put giant needles into my ears to help me get through this."
Something tells me they don't get along. Ha! It was pretty funny listening to Abi go on and on and on (and that was like, a minute-long clip. Denise had to endure this for a whole day!) about how she has her idol and how people should be paying her more respect, etc.... Yes, the millions watching also wanted to stick giant needles in our ears.
As an aside... the Jeff Probst show this week (Jeff's daytime talk show. Do you watch?) had the final five from Survivor. I only watched the clips. Lisa was good. They all answered some fun questions from the audience (and some dreadfully unimaginative ones too... "What was the first thing you ate when you got home?" Really?) And then there was an interview with Abi on her own. Basically Abi tries to blame the "one time" she was really bitchy (????) on PMS. For real. Check it out:
http://www.jeffprobst.com/posts/2488_survivor_finalist_abi_speaks_out/index.html
She tries to do it again in the clip where they're all chatting and Malcolm calls her out, saying something like, "You were PMSing for 33 days straight?" Haha!
http://www.jeffprobst.com/posts/2484_survivor_finalists_answer_burning_questions/index.html
Where were we?
Right, so while they're away, Malcolm, Lisa & Skupin make a final three 'deal'...everyone with the idea that they can't beat Denise in the final. All depends though on who will win the next immunity challenge.
Speaking of immunity challenges, this one was amazing. Malcolm totally fell behind everyone, and still managed to win it! He's the new Ozzy, non? So with Malcolm having immunity AND an idol, it looks like it'll either be Abi or Denise going home. Lisa & Skupin discuss keeping Abi in their final 3, and Abi does her best to sell them on it. It's definitely a strategy, and the odd thing is that Lisa keeps going on about how she's not ashamed to want to sit next to someone she can beat.... YET, in the end, she voted for Abi. I think Lisa is smart to play the loyalty card here. Now none of the final 4 can say they went back on their word - which was to make the final four together. However, is it impossible to beat Malcolm and Denise? Remember that none of those former yellow team guys really loved either Lisa or Skupin (which also makes it super awesome that they are the ones sitting in the final four!!). RC, Artis, Pete and Abi.... I think will all give their vote to Malcolm. RC perhaps could go over to Denise....
Getting ahead of myself again.
The loveliest part of Tribal Council was when Abi continued to berate Skupin for what seemed like no reason at all. Let's remember that she was desperately trying to court Skupin and Lisa to keep her over Denise. Yet, she - pretty much out of the blue - declares to Skupin, "You are an idiot." Followed by, "You are a complete moron." And then in case we didn't hear it the first time, "You are such a moron." Yup. Not a cultural thing at all. So yeah, they voted Abi out and then literally danced their way out of the Tribal Council area. Abi of course thinks that no one can handle her "honesty"... she just "tells it like it is..." and deserves to be in that final five spot... ha!
Which brings me to Ponderosa... Do you guys watch? Go to YouTube right now and search Survivor Philippines Ponderosa. Give yourself some time to go through each one. It's great. (Each person has a part 1 and part 2... except RC, who for some inexplicable reason gets 4 parts.) You can see the crazy, crazy drama that goes on after everyone gets voted off. Let me just say that RC ends up looking crazier than Abi. Jeff also is apparently not into being pals with everyone and is a bit of a whiny baby... I think Carter is flirting with Abi.... and Penner is still awesome. And though she's not acting as crazy as RC, Abi still will not shut the hell up and those poor people are forced to deal with it. "I did not know so many people hated me." Snort.
Anyway.... do NOT forget that the finale is this SUNDAY night. We all think it will be Malcolm or Denise, right?
It all started with Skupin winning a reward challenge. He got to choose 2 people to go along with him in a helicopter that would take them to a boat, where they would swim with some giant (non-man-eating) sharks. Cool! Skupin chose well. He picked Malcolm first (to pay back for Malcolm choosing Skupin to spend the day with his son a while back) and then picked his long-time ally, Lisa. That left Abi and poor, poor Denise alone together at camp for the day.
From Abi's perspective: "Ugh. I have to spend the day with Denise. Denise is a horrible person."
From Denise's perspective: "Ugh. I want to gouge my eyes out and then put giant needles into my ears to help me get through this."
Something tells me they don't get along. Ha! It was pretty funny listening to Abi go on and on and on (and that was like, a minute-long clip. Denise had to endure this for a whole day!) about how she has her idol and how people should be paying her more respect, etc.... Yes, the millions watching also wanted to stick giant needles in our ears.
As an aside... the Jeff Probst show this week (Jeff's daytime talk show. Do you watch?) had the final five from Survivor. I only watched the clips. Lisa was good. They all answered some fun questions from the audience (and some dreadfully unimaginative ones too... "What was the first thing you ate when you got home?" Really?) And then there was an interview with Abi on her own. Basically Abi tries to blame the "one time" she was really bitchy (????) on PMS. For real. Check it out:
http://www.jeffprobst.com/posts/2488_survivor_finalist_abi_speaks_out/index.html
She tries to do it again in the clip where they're all chatting and Malcolm calls her out, saying something like, "You were PMSing for 33 days straight?" Haha!
http://www.jeffprobst.com/posts/2484_survivor_finalists_answer_burning_questions/index.html
Where were we?
Right, so while they're away, Malcolm, Lisa & Skupin make a final three 'deal'...everyone with the idea that they can't beat Denise in the final. All depends though on who will win the next immunity challenge.
Speaking of immunity challenges, this one was amazing. Malcolm totally fell behind everyone, and still managed to win it! He's the new Ozzy, non? So with Malcolm having immunity AND an idol, it looks like it'll either be Abi or Denise going home. Lisa & Skupin discuss keeping Abi in their final 3, and Abi does her best to sell them on it. It's definitely a strategy, and the odd thing is that Lisa keeps going on about how she's not ashamed to want to sit next to someone she can beat.... YET, in the end, she voted for Abi. I think Lisa is smart to play the loyalty card here. Now none of the final 4 can say they went back on their word - which was to make the final four together. However, is it impossible to beat Malcolm and Denise? Remember that none of those former yellow team guys really loved either Lisa or Skupin (which also makes it super awesome that they are the ones sitting in the final four!!). RC, Artis, Pete and Abi.... I think will all give their vote to Malcolm. RC perhaps could go over to Denise....
Getting ahead of myself again.
The loveliest part of Tribal Council was when Abi continued to berate Skupin for what seemed like no reason at all. Let's remember that she was desperately trying to court Skupin and Lisa to keep her over Denise. Yet, she - pretty much out of the blue - declares to Skupin, "You are an idiot." Followed by, "You are a complete moron." And then in case we didn't hear it the first time, "You are such a moron." Yup. Not a cultural thing at all. So yeah, they voted Abi out and then literally danced their way out of the Tribal Council area. Abi of course thinks that no one can handle her "honesty"... she just "tells it like it is..." and deserves to be in that final five spot... ha!
Which brings me to Ponderosa... Do you guys watch? Go to YouTube right now and search Survivor Philippines Ponderosa. Give yourself some time to go through each one. It's great. (Each person has a part 1 and part 2... except RC, who for some inexplicable reason gets 4 parts.) You can see the crazy, crazy drama that goes on after everyone gets voted off. Let me just say that RC ends up looking crazier than Abi. Jeff also is apparently not into being pals with everyone and is a bit of a whiny baby... I think Carter is flirting with Abi.... and Penner is still awesome. And though she's not acting as crazy as RC, Abi still will not shut the hell up and those poor people are forced to deal with it. "I did not know so many people hated me." Snort.
Anyway.... do NOT forget that the finale is this SUNDAY night. We all think it will be Malcolm or Denise, right?
Thursday, December 6, 2012
On Bad Hair and Why the Chicken Boy Had to Go Before the Evil Brazilian
Oh those sneaky Survivor editors. They made us think Malcolm's goofy brother was going to do something bad.... We should all know better by now. The only bad thing Malcolm's brother did was that hairdo. Ugh. More on that later.
I love, love, love the family visit episode. I love how emotional they all get (ummm, yeah, I might have gotten a little teary too.) and I love how it humanizes them. Even Abi. You realize even she has a mother who loves her - hard to believe, but true. Now, it was a short lived humanization of Abi. More on that later.
Skupin was pretty great with his eldest son (and uh, I'd hate to be one of the other SIX children who now know (or maybe they knew already) that they're not the favourite.) Lisa completely ugly-cried over her brother. Like sobbed with the ugly-face and the shaking shoulders. We've all been there, right? You just hope not to have to ever ugly-cry on national television. See? Humanizing. Denise was super cute with her hubby and Carter with his mom, who's about 4 feet shorter than him.
Malcolm and his goofy brother won the challenge, even with their bad hair. Seriously. For all men out there... this is a bad haircut.
Yeah, that's Malcolm and his bro. Bro Miles is in the headband, which Malcolm also often sports. Dudes, headbands are not for you. They're for girls 12 and under. Stop it. I'm not denying Malcolm's a bit of a looker, but would he be better with a haircut? Yes. I've wandered off topic, non?
Right, where were we? The headband brothers won the challenge and got to pick 2 other Survivors that could keep their families at camp over night. He chose Lisa + baby brother, and Skupin + favourite son. He wanted to 'reward' Lisa & Skupin for sticking with him & Denise. How did Lisa & Skupin reward Malcolm back? By plotting to vote his headband out of there! Yup. Lisa's bro talked her up on playing the game to win it - with her head not her heart. Now, I'm not sure that switching strategies at the very end is necessarily a good move... but that's another discussion.
However, in another great, close challenge, Malcolm won immunity. I liked hearing from him that he had a sense that Lisa & Skupin were plotting against him. He has very good Survivor instincts, our Malcolm. He knew that Lisa's brother was busy talking her into hard strategy. Also, it was interesting to see how Lisa, Skupin & families "bonded over Jesus" as Denise put it. They sat on their own, away from the group & chatted & laughed & prayed. Lisa's prayer went something like, "Lord, we'd like you to bless our plan to get rid of Malcolm, but if that isn't your plan, we're ok with whatever." And, "Bless everyone, even Abi." Snort. Even Abi. Haha. So when Malcolm won immunity, Lisa and Skupin were seriously, "Oh, well, I guess it wasn't God's plan." It's an interesting way to live, that. And again, that's a conversation for another day.
Meanwhile, Abi was yapping on and on about how she has a hidden immunity idol and no one believed her. I laughed too when she said something about how the rest of the Survivors couldn't "take her honesty" so now she has to resort to lying. Hee. All that good will she built up by having her mom there.... evaporated. Everyone went on about how they just can't stand her any more. Lisa said she's just done with Abi, that she's tried being nice and kind and nothing works. Malcolm said that she's going to be voted out eventually just "because she's a bitch." And I get the feeling that's not a word Malcolm throws around that much.
But here's the thing. Everyone saw Carter just about beat Malcolm at that super close immunity challenge I was talking about earlier. Carter has won immunity before. He's super young & fit. And he's nice. And he's got a bunch of pals on the jury like Penner and Jeff. You can't not like Carter. (He's grown on us all, non? I mean, he's still only said about 25 words all season, but I still kind of like him. What's with that?) He tried to appeal to the others' sense of fair play, that he 'deserves' to be there way more than Abi and that he has lots of respect for all of them and how they play, etc. etc. Old Lisa, I think, would have been swayed by this argument. Lisa-since-her-brother-visited, however, put it this way, "You could keep someone around because they deserve it, but why make it harder on yourself?" Good point.
Here's the flaw in the logic, though. You're in a 'final four' pact with 3 other people who are 'deserving'. You have made a point of being loyal and playing with the heart. Again, it's just not necessarily a good thing to all of a sudden change your game. You know who hasn't changed their games since day one? Malcolm and Denise. Even Denise last night said something about voting for someone who deserves to stay vs Abi and she said she wouldn't keep Abi because it would go against the way she's been playing all this time. Huh, you say? But she voted for Carter.... Well, because she can make the following arguments:
1. I was going along with my 4-person alliance.
2. I had never ever made a pact with Carter.
3. My strategy was to get to final 4 with Malcolm, Skupin and Lisa, so it doesn't really matter whether Carter or Abi goes first. What matters is that one of them goes.
4. If Carter goes first, we've gotten rid of a huge threat to our final 4 alliance. Abi is less of a threat.
5. Hopefully, we only have to endure Abi for another 3 days.
Right? Denise's (and for that matter, Malcolm's) alibi on this vote is air-tight. Skupin and Lisa are less so, just slightly.
Let's assume Abi goes next, which she should unless hell freezes over once more and she pulls off an immunity win. That gives us 7 jury members: Abi and RC are the only women. Then there's Artis, Jeff, Pete, Penner and now Carter. 4 of them are former team yellow. What's your take on who these people will vote for? Of course it'll depend a bit on how they perform at the final Tribal and on the 8th jury member (which will itself depend wholly on who wins immunity.) My feeling is that Abi, Pete and Artis would probably all give their vote to Malcolm. They never really liked Skupin or Lisa and they got to know Malcolm more than Denise. Carter and RC are hard to peg. Carter because we don't really know him and RC because she didn't get to interact much with these guys who are left. Would Carter give his vote to his former tribemate Denise? Or fellow "young dude" Malcolm? Or to Skupin, who's like a dad to him (except for that whole voting him off thing... and the fact that he's already got a favourite son.) No, then. Not Skupin. I like to think that Jeff & Penner would stick with Denise... but Jeff is a bit of a guy's guy, so hard to guess. Then there's Lisa. Lisa's a dark horse for the win if she makes it to final three. Not everyone loved Lisa, but some did (Penner) and she's smart and a good speaker. She could sway votes her way if she plays her cards right and sells her story. Because she's got a great story. Lisa really IS the story of this season, right? The former child star, the divorce, 'finding herself', etc. And it's hard to stay mad at the church mom. So, if all goes as it should, it should be Malcolm, Denise and Lisa in the final. But we all know that on Survivor, things don't always go as they should. Will someone (Lisa) try to bring Abi to the final to discount at least one vote? Would Abi get any votes from Artis & Pete? So many questions!!
Finally, we finally have another Survivor character who could be a muppet.
I love, love, love the family visit episode. I love how emotional they all get (ummm, yeah, I might have gotten a little teary too.) and I love how it humanizes them. Even Abi. You realize even she has a mother who loves her - hard to believe, but true. Now, it was a short lived humanization of Abi. More on that later.
Skupin was pretty great with his eldest son (and uh, I'd hate to be one of the other SIX children who now know (or maybe they knew already) that they're not the favourite.) Lisa completely ugly-cried over her brother. Like sobbed with the ugly-face and the shaking shoulders. We've all been there, right? You just hope not to have to ever ugly-cry on national television. See? Humanizing. Denise was super cute with her hubby and Carter with his mom, who's about 4 feet shorter than him.
Malcolm and his goofy brother won the challenge, even with their bad hair. Seriously. For all men out there... this is a bad haircut.
Yeah, that's Malcolm and his bro. Bro Miles is in the headband, which Malcolm also often sports. Dudes, headbands are not for you. They're for girls 12 and under. Stop it. I'm not denying Malcolm's a bit of a looker, but would he be better with a haircut? Yes. I've wandered off topic, non?
Right, where were we? The headband brothers won the challenge and got to pick 2 other Survivors that could keep their families at camp over night. He chose Lisa + baby brother, and Skupin + favourite son. He wanted to 'reward' Lisa & Skupin for sticking with him & Denise. How did Lisa & Skupin reward Malcolm back? By plotting to vote his headband out of there! Yup. Lisa's bro talked her up on playing the game to win it - with her head not her heart. Now, I'm not sure that switching strategies at the very end is necessarily a good move... but that's another discussion.
However, in another great, close challenge, Malcolm won immunity. I liked hearing from him that he had a sense that Lisa & Skupin were plotting against him. He has very good Survivor instincts, our Malcolm. He knew that Lisa's brother was busy talking her into hard strategy. Also, it was interesting to see how Lisa, Skupin & families "bonded over Jesus" as Denise put it. They sat on their own, away from the group & chatted & laughed & prayed. Lisa's prayer went something like, "Lord, we'd like you to bless our plan to get rid of Malcolm, but if that isn't your plan, we're ok with whatever." And, "Bless everyone, even Abi." Snort. Even Abi. Haha. So when Malcolm won immunity, Lisa and Skupin were seriously, "Oh, well, I guess it wasn't God's plan." It's an interesting way to live, that. And again, that's a conversation for another day.
Meanwhile, Abi was yapping on and on about how she has a hidden immunity idol and no one believed her. I laughed too when she said something about how the rest of the Survivors couldn't "take her honesty" so now she has to resort to lying. Hee. All that good will she built up by having her mom there.... evaporated. Everyone went on about how they just can't stand her any more. Lisa said she's just done with Abi, that she's tried being nice and kind and nothing works. Malcolm said that she's going to be voted out eventually just "because she's a bitch." And I get the feeling that's not a word Malcolm throws around that much.
But here's the thing. Everyone saw Carter just about beat Malcolm at that super close immunity challenge I was talking about earlier. Carter has won immunity before. He's super young & fit. And he's nice. And he's got a bunch of pals on the jury like Penner and Jeff. You can't not like Carter. (He's grown on us all, non? I mean, he's still only said about 25 words all season, but I still kind of like him. What's with that?) He tried to appeal to the others' sense of fair play, that he 'deserves' to be there way more than Abi and that he has lots of respect for all of them and how they play, etc. etc. Old Lisa, I think, would have been swayed by this argument. Lisa-since-her-brother-visited, however, put it this way, "You could keep someone around because they deserve it, but why make it harder on yourself?" Good point.
Here's the flaw in the logic, though. You're in a 'final four' pact with 3 other people who are 'deserving'. You have made a point of being loyal and playing with the heart. Again, it's just not necessarily a good thing to all of a sudden change your game. You know who hasn't changed their games since day one? Malcolm and Denise. Even Denise last night said something about voting for someone who deserves to stay vs Abi and she said she wouldn't keep Abi because it would go against the way she's been playing all this time. Huh, you say? But she voted for Carter.... Well, because she can make the following arguments:
1. I was going along with my 4-person alliance.
2. I had never ever made a pact with Carter.
3. My strategy was to get to final 4 with Malcolm, Skupin and Lisa, so it doesn't really matter whether Carter or Abi goes first. What matters is that one of them goes.
4. If Carter goes first, we've gotten rid of a huge threat to our final 4 alliance. Abi is less of a threat.
5. Hopefully, we only have to endure Abi for another 3 days.
Right? Denise's (and for that matter, Malcolm's) alibi on this vote is air-tight. Skupin and Lisa are less so, just slightly.
Let's assume Abi goes next, which she should unless hell freezes over once more and she pulls off an immunity win. That gives us 7 jury members: Abi and RC are the only women. Then there's Artis, Jeff, Pete, Penner and now Carter. 4 of them are former team yellow. What's your take on who these people will vote for? Of course it'll depend a bit on how they perform at the final Tribal and on the 8th jury member (which will itself depend wholly on who wins immunity.) My feeling is that Abi, Pete and Artis would probably all give their vote to Malcolm. They never really liked Skupin or Lisa and they got to know Malcolm more than Denise. Carter and RC are hard to peg. Carter because we don't really know him and RC because she didn't get to interact much with these guys who are left. Would Carter give his vote to his former tribemate Denise? Or fellow "young dude" Malcolm? Or to Skupin, who's like a dad to him (except for that whole voting him off thing... and the fact that he's already got a favourite son.) No, then. Not Skupin. I like to think that Jeff & Penner would stick with Denise... but Jeff is a bit of a guy's guy, so hard to guess. Then there's Lisa. Lisa's a dark horse for the win if she makes it to final three. Not everyone loved Lisa, but some did (Penner) and she's smart and a good speaker. She could sway votes her way if she plays her cards right and sells her story. Because she's got a great story. Lisa really IS the story of this season, right? The former child star, the divorce, 'finding herself', etc. And it's hard to stay mad at the church mom. So, if all goes as it should, it should be Malcolm, Denise and Lisa in the final. But we all know that on Survivor, things don't always go as they should. Will someone (Lisa) try to bring Abi to the final to discount at least one vote? Would Abi get any votes from Artis & Pete? So many questions!!
Finally, we finally have another Survivor character who could be a muppet.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Seriously? Shakira > Hawkeye?
Oh, it's a sad day for me. And maybe for you... You all know my fondness for Penner. He's pretty much my all-time favourite Survivor. And he's gone.... He worked so much magic to stay as long as he did, and I think he was pretty close to staying again but for one mistake. More on that in a bit.
Let's go back to Abi. Our little pouty Shakira was in fine form, only this time she turned on her brain. It's like she hasn't had much brain all this time and only now did it kick in. If I had to classify Abi's brain it would be 95% "All About Me" and 5% "How to Win Survivor... For Me". Thankfully - for her - that 5% of her brain woke up. It started with the 95% when she was crying and pouting to everyone about how mean they all were to her, and how awful it is to be her and have to deal with people being mean. My favourite was her talking to Penner asking him, "What do you have to say to me?" Uh, what do you mean? "I think you should say sorry to me." He tried to explain to her that she "could have been friendlier," but she just wasn't having any of it (surprise!) so in the end the two hugged it out while everyone else stayed silent.
The reward challenge was the Survivor Auction. Now, everyone knows that there's always a clue or an advantage as part of the Survivor Auction. Thing is, everyone is hungry and everyone figures that even with an advantage, there's no way Abi can not get voted out, right? Right? Wrong. Everyone stuffs their faces except Abi, who waits for it (cue 5% of brain) and gets the advantage thingy, using all her money. The way she figures it, if she goes home, she'll be eating well soon anyway so why bother spending the cash on food. Again, way to go, Abi's brain! (Aside: I really enjoyed when Jeff showed Carter a baked potato and pronounced it "potatuh" a whole bunch of times. "You can take this baked potatuh, or you can trade the potatuh for bags of rice & beans for the whole tribe. Will he take the potatuh?" Hee.)
Where were we? Right, so the note Abi bought says that she can advance to the final stage of the immunity challenge. Again, cue brain. Brain tells her to pretend that the note also tells her there's an immunity idol. So, she goes off pretending to look for it for most of the day & then tells Malcolm that she's not going home, because she has the idol. Later, at the challenge, when Jeff asks her to read the note aloud, she says, "Jeff, I only have to read part of the note," and reads the actual part about the challenge. Then she rips the note into tiny pieces and litters it on the ground saying, "I have to tear this up so that no one will read the other part." Brilliant! Who knew the horrible little vixen could be so clever? Whether or not they believe it remains to be seen, but it's at least a very good try at playing the game. Damn, girl.
The note proved to be a huge advantage, as Abi managed to win the challenge vs. Carter and Skupin, who were both probably pretty tired from competing in the previous 2 portions. You (and by you, I mean me) have got to hand it to her, she did good. Don't get me wrong, I still can't her and there's no way on god's green earth that she's going to win this, but yes, this is what the game's about and this is why this show is so good. Now, what looked like a sure thing is no longer.
Now the six faithful allies have to turn on each other and here's where Penner's mistake cost him the game. Remember last week when Lisa & Skupin asked Penner to commit to a final four alliance and he didn't want to commit right then? Yep. Now, he's probably done in Carter too, as Skupin, Lisa, Malcolm and Denise did make that final four alliance (unless of course, Carter wins an immunity challenge, which would be awesome.) Lisa is SO fixated on being loyal (or at least appearing to be loyal) that she wouldn't budge on her alliance to Malcolm & Denise. Penner tried to talk her out of it and was clearly super frustrated ("Lisa has lost her mind again....") and then he tried working on Skupin by telling him that he has a way better chance against Penner than he does against Malcolm and Denise. And here is Skupin's fatal error that will cost him down the road. Penner is totally right. It's going to be ridiculously hard to beat M & D in the final. Malcolm STILL has an idol.... why is no one thinking of blindsiding the guy with the idol???? What the....?
Anyway, Penner went out in true Hawkeye Pierce fashion - giving Carter a hug, telling Abi he doesn't want to hug anyone else, telling them all to "suck eggs!" and then going out whistling down the path... then disappearing, then reappearing, still whistling.... ahhhh... you gotta love the guy.
(Seriously, am I the only one that loves Penner this much? I have a feeling this is the case. Like for reals, I want to invite him to my house for a bbq. Is that weird?)
Next episode is the family visit one, so prepare for lots of crying. There was an odd preview where we see Malcolm's brother - who proves that bad hair does run in the family, and perhaps screws things up somehow for Malcolm. Good fun.
I miss Penner already.
Let's go back to Abi. Our little pouty Shakira was in fine form, only this time she turned on her brain. It's like she hasn't had much brain all this time and only now did it kick in. If I had to classify Abi's brain it would be 95% "All About Me" and 5% "How to Win Survivor... For Me". Thankfully - for her - that 5% of her brain woke up. It started with the 95% when she was crying and pouting to everyone about how mean they all were to her, and how awful it is to be her and have to deal with people being mean. My favourite was her talking to Penner asking him, "What do you have to say to me?" Uh, what do you mean? "I think you should say sorry to me." He tried to explain to her that she "could have been friendlier," but she just wasn't having any of it (surprise!) so in the end the two hugged it out while everyone else stayed silent.
The reward challenge was the Survivor Auction. Now, everyone knows that there's always a clue or an advantage as part of the Survivor Auction. Thing is, everyone is hungry and everyone figures that even with an advantage, there's no way Abi can not get voted out, right? Right? Wrong. Everyone stuffs their faces except Abi, who waits for it (cue 5% of brain) and gets the advantage thingy, using all her money. The way she figures it, if she goes home, she'll be eating well soon anyway so why bother spending the cash on food. Again, way to go, Abi's brain! (Aside: I really enjoyed when Jeff showed Carter a baked potato and pronounced it "potatuh" a whole bunch of times. "You can take this baked potatuh, or you can trade the potatuh for bags of rice & beans for the whole tribe. Will he take the potatuh?" Hee.)
Where were we? Right, so the note Abi bought says that she can advance to the final stage of the immunity challenge. Again, cue brain. Brain tells her to pretend that the note also tells her there's an immunity idol. So, she goes off pretending to look for it for most of the day & then tells Malcolm that she's not going home, because she has the idol. Later, at the challenge, when Jeff asks her to read the note aloud, she says, "Jeff, I only have to read part of the note," and reads the actual part about the challenge. Then she rips the note into tiny pieces and litters it on the ground saying, "I have to tear this up so that no one will read the other part." Brilliant! Who knew the horrible little vixen could be so clever? Whether or not they believe it remains to be seen, but it's at least a very good try at playing the game. Damn, girl.
The note proved to be a huge advantage, as Abi managed to win the challenge vs. Carter and Skupin, who were both probably pretty tired from competing in the previous 2 portions. You (and by you, I mean me) have got to hand it to her, she did good. Don't get me wrong, I still can't her and there's no way on god's green earth that she's going to win this, but yes, this is what the game's about and this is why this show is so good. Now, what looked like a sure thing is no longer.
Now the six faithful allies have to turn on each other and here's where Penner's mistake cost him the game. Remember last week when Lisa & Skupin asked Penner to commit to a final four alliance and he didn't want to commit right then? Yep. Now, he's probably done in Carter too, as Skupin, Lisa, Malcolm and Denise did make that final four alliance (unless of course, Carter wins an immunity challenge, which would be awesome.) Lisa is SO fixated on being loyal (or at least appearing to be loyal) that she wouldn't budge on her alliance to Malcolm & Denise. Penner tried to talk her out of it and was clearly super frustrated ("Lisa has lost her mind again....") and then he tried working on Skupin by telling him that he has a way better chance against Penner than he does against Malcolm and Denise. And here is Skupin's fatal error that will cost him down the road. Penner is totally right. It's going to be ridiculously hard to beat M & D in the final. Malcolm STILL has an idol.... why is no one thinking of blindsiding the guy with the idol???? What the....?
Anyway, Penner went out in true Hawkeye Pierce fashion - giving Carter a hug, telling Abi he doesn't want to hug anyone else, telling them all to "suck eggs!" and then going out whistling down the path... then disappearing, then reappearing, still whistling.... ahhhh... you gotta love the guy.
(Seriously, am I the only one that loves Penner this much? I have a feeling this is the case. Like for reals, I want to invite him to my house for a bbq. Is that weird?)
Next episode is the family visit one, so prepare for lots of crying. There was an odd preview where we see Malcolm's brother - who proves that bad hair does run in the family, and perhaps screws things up somehow for Malcolm. Good fun.
I miss Penner already.
Friday, November 23, 2012
It's Not Me, It's You
Sorry for the late post, but I went to the opera on Wednesday night & only got to watch the show last night. Many a parallel between the opera and Survivor.... Lots of deceit and treachery and promises and drama... Only in opera, the traitors/liars/lovers/jerks and sometimes even the good guys end up getting poisoned or stabbed to death. Anyway, a Survivor opera in the future? Maybe.
Can I just start out by saying how glad I am that things are working out in a certain way? It's delightful. Again, I'm not one who thinks that lying in Survivor is 'bad' - indeed, deception goes a long way in this game! However, I'm also glad to see that the final bunch of competitors is going to be made up of people who - at least on a handful of hours of TV - seem like good folks.
No big surprise after last episode that Pete was the one to get voted off. Pete and Abi were not in a good place (yay!) and found themselves having to scramble. At least their team won the reward (along with Malcolm and Carter) to go on a big spa day, so you they have that I suppose. Meanwhile, everyone knows that when you come back to camp after one of those cool rewards, you don't ever blab too much about it. It annoys the hell out of everyone else who have been sitting eating rice and coconut, dirty, tired & sore. Right? Seems kind of obvious that you'd say, yeah, it was great.... but you'd kind of play it down a bit. How was the food? Good. That's all you need to say. Did you get a massage? Yes. How was it? Good. End of story. Nope... not if you're Abi. As mentioned - I think by Denise - Abi has no idea how to read social cues. I mean, this has been clear from day one when she freaked out at RC, has been mean to Lisa, to Skupin, to Penner. Pete was the only one who knew how to deal with Abi - and it proved to be his downfall. More on that later.
So Abi goes on and on and on and on about the reward. Tiny, exacting details on how the food was, what they drank, how full she is now, and how much she felt like a princess. Seriously, you could have run a pretty good drinking game on how many times Abi said either 'princess' or 'cinderella' and who knows how many of those they edited out? Dumb. So when the other guys started rolling their eyes and talking about her, she, of course, lost it. Again. (And the other guys listened to the princess talk politely for quite a while.) Abi told them in her Shakira way, that she was 'done wtih them' and was not going to cook any more. She was going to eat, yes, but no more cooking. Sigh. Ok, crazy-pants.
Immunity challenge was exciting, with Denise, Skupin and Carter duking it out. Denise is awesome, non? It was a pretty physical challenge & she kept right in there with the super fit men. And she's no spring chicken by Survivor standards. Anyway, Carter won. No really big deal as far as no one was going to vote for him anyway.
So Pete, being smarter than Abi and not in possession of his own immunity idol, started scrambling. Now, let's remember that had he had anyone else in his alliance, he could have probably made something happen. Maybe. First off - no one trusts Pete. Second, he's too linked with Abi and the mean, axis of evil for anyone to change their minds now. But also, Abi is selfish and would not have given him the idol (well, I suppose not many would - the others had the numbers to split the vote and even had she given him the idol to save him, she would have gone home for sure. It was too late to use the idol to blindside anyone.)
Pete - to his credit - came up with the only plan he could and he worked pretty hard to sell it. He tried getting people to blindside Malcolm, telling them (rightly) that Malcolm will get a lot of votes on the jury because he's nice, everyone likes him... plus he's a huge physical threat... plus he's got an idol still. Really, it was a sound plan on paper. If it was another season of Survivor with other people, Pete's plan may have worked. It looked like it was allllllllmost going to work with Skupin - he did consider it - but in the end, chose to stick with the new alliance of 6: Skupin, Lisa, Malcolm, Denise, Carter & Penner. These 6 have decided that they all want to go to the end with people they want to compete against - that they like - instead of taking someone they know they can beat - like Abi. And if Abi's smart next week, that's how she'll try to sell herself, but I don't think it'll fly with this crew. They've decided it. As Denise said, "It's like playing poker against someone who's never played before just so you can take their money."
I enjoyed how everyone was straight with Pete. Nope, sorry. Good try, but no. I just don't have an alliance with you. Even Lisa - who has made really one of the smoothest alliance transitions EVER - broke up with Abi and Pete. Sorry, it's not you, it's me. I've found someone else. You could have been nicer, but I don't hold anything against you. I forgive you, now it's time for me to move on. I mean, Lisa is worthy of her own Kelly Clarkson song.
At Tribal Council, Jeff is amazed at how little Abi gets about the fact that she screwed up last week with Lisa and how she doesn't understand that the rest of her tribe thinks she's ridiculous. "Is it a cultural thing?" asks Jeff? Yes, says Abi. I'm sure that's it, because I just am not seen as very 'gentle'. (Insert eye-roll and muffled laughter here.) Again it's Denise with the good sound-bite. "Jeff, I know other people for whom English is not a first language, and they are still kind, compassionate people." Did you stand up and clap for her when she said that? It's true. It's not cultural. She's not being 'misunderstood'. She's an unkind, selfish, narcissistic brat who is used to getting her way. The end. Again, we're meeting her on TV in a handful of episodes, but can you find any redeeming qualities besides the fact that her hair is nice and her bum looks good in a bikini? Nope. Even some of the other Survivor 'villains' were that way because they were at least smart (Russell, Parvati). They may not have played the way everyone would have - but they had that. Other Survivors maybe aren't great at strategy but they're great physical competitors. Abi is not particularly good at challenges and honestly, doesn't even seem very bright. She has no strategy of her own, she showed off the idol, she angers and alienates her own alliance mates, she's rude to people. And so when the rest of them told her so, yes, of course she cried. One would hope it's a wake-up call to this girl (or at least it will be when she watches the show) but I don't know. I believe the tears themselves are a way for this type of girl to garner more attention. It's a performance. She doesn't really feel bad - she just wants someone to feel sorry for her. Am I being mean? Maybe. Am I right? Probably.
And Pete - well Pete, when he got voted off, said that he felt bad for Abi. (See, Pete has redeeming qualities.) He didn't quite say he liked her, but he "found a way to work with her" or something like that. And it's true. She tried to pull that crazy stuff on Pete once in a while, and he knew how to shut it down. However, he never found a way to get her to just sit down and shut up. It's a good example of how the horse you tie yourself to on the first day can be your downfall. Pete could have extricated himself like Lisa, but he didn't and so he paid the price. Abi - barring any severe craziness - will go home next and then it'll be interesting again as the final 6 duke it out.
The last thing to mention is that of those 6 - there's an alliance of 4: Lisa & Skupin with Malcolm & Denise. Now, Lisa wanted to make a final 4 plan with Penner, who she trusts & likes more - but Penner, in a moment of unclarity (is that a word?) said, nah, I just want to deal with one thing at a time. Let's stick with the six. It's like Penner used up all his energy saving himself over & over - and fair enough - and now he's sitting back a bit? Anyway, Lisa called it a 'missed opportunity' and I think she was right. Every Boston Rob fan in the world knows you've got to play this game always a couple steps ahead of where you are. My prediction is Malcolm, Denise and Lisa in the final. Or can Penner outsmart them? What do you think?
Can I just start out by saying how glad I am that things are working out in a certain way? It's delightful. Again, I'm not one who thinks that lying in Survivor is 'bad' - indeed, deception goes a long way in this game! However, I'm also glad to see that the final bunch of competitors is going to be made up of people who - at least on a handful of hours of TV - seem like good folks.
No big surprise after last episode that Pete was the one to get voted off. Pete and Abi were not in a good place (yay!) and found themselves having to scramble. At least their team won the reward (along with Malcolm and Carter) to go on a big spa day, so you they have that I suppose. Meanwhile, everyone knows that when you come back to camp after one of those cool rewards, you don't ever blab too much about it. It annoys the hell out of everyone else who have been sitting eating rice and coconut, dirty, tired & sore. Right? Seems kind of obvious that you'd say, yeah, it was great.... but you'd kind of play it down a bit. How was the food? Good. That's all you need to say. Did you get a massage? Yes. How was it? Good. End of story. Nope... not if you're Abi. As mentioned - I think by Denise - Abi has no idea how to read social cues. I mean, this has been clear from day one when she freaked out at RC, has been mean to Lisa, to Skupin, to Penner. Pete was the only one who knew how to deal with Abi - and it proved to be his downfall. More on that later.
So Abi goes on and on and on and on about the reward. Tiny, exacting details on how the food was, what they drank, how full she is now, and how much she felt like a princess. Seriously, you could have run a pretty good drinking game on how many times Abi said either 'princess' or 'cinderella' and who knows how many of those they edited out? Dumb. So when the other guys started rolling their eyes and talking about her, she, of course, lost it. Again. (And the other guys listened to the princess talk politely for quite a while.) Abi told them in her Shakira way, that she was 'done wtih them' and was not going to cook any more. She was going to eat, yes, but no more cooking. Sigh. Ok, crazy-pants.
Immunity challenge was exciting, with Denise, Skupin and Carter duking it out. Denise is awesome, non? It was a pretty physical challenge & she kept right in there with the super fit men. And she's no spring chicken by Survivor standards. Anyway, Carter won. No really big deal as far as no one was going to vote for him anyway.
So Pete, being smarter than Abi and not in possession of his own immunity idol, started scrambling. Now, let's remember that had he had anyone else in his alliance, he could have probably made something happen. Maybe. First off - no one trusts Pete. Second, he's too linked with Abi and the mean, axis of evil for anyone to change their minds now. But also, Abi is selfish and would not have given him the idol (well, I suppose not many would - the others had the numbers to split the vote and even had she given him the idol to save him, she would have gone home for sure. It was too late to use the idol to blindside anyone.)
Pete - to his credit - came up with the only plan he could and he worked pretty hard to sell it. He tried getting people to blindside Malcolm, telling them (rightly) that Malcolm will get a lot of votes on the jury because he's nice, everyone likes him... plus he's a huge physical threat... plus he's got an idol still. Really, it was a sound plan on paper. If it was another season of Survivor with other people, Pete's plan may have worked. It looked like it was allllllllmost going to work with Skupin - he did consider it - but in the end, chose to stick with the new alliance of 6: Skupin, Lisa, Malcolm, Denise, Carter & Penner. These 6 have decided that they all want to go to the end with people they want to compete against - that they like - instead of taking someone they know they can beat - like Abi. And if Abi's smart next week, that's how she'll try to sell herself, but I don't think it'll fly with this crew. They've decided it. As Denise said, "It's like playing poker against someone who's never played before just so you can take their money."
I enjoyed how everyone was straight with Pete. Nope, sorry. Good try, but no. I just don't have an alliance with you. Even Lisa - who has made really one of the smoothest alliance transitions EVER - broke up with Abi and Pete. Sorry, it's not you, it's me. I've found someone else. You could have been nicer, but I don't hold anything against you. I forgive you, now it's time for me to move on. I mean, Lisa is worthy of her own Kelly Clarkson song.
At Tribal Council, Jeff is amazed at how little Abi gets about the fact that she screwed up last week with Lisa and how she doesn't understand that the rest of her tribe thinks she's ridiculous. "Is it a cultural thing?" asks Jeff? Yes, says Abi. I'm sure that's it, because I just am not seen as very 'gentle'. (Insert eye-roll and muffled laughter here.) Again it's Denise with the good sound-bite. "Jeff, I know other people for whom English is not a first language, and they are still kind, compassionate people." Did you stand up and clap for her when she said that? It's true. It's not cultural. She's not being 'misunderstood'. She's an unkind, selfish, narcissistic brat who is used to getting her way. The end. Again, we're meeting her on TV in a handful of episodes, but can you find any redeeming qualities besides the fact that her hair is nice and her bum looks good in a bikini? Nope. Even some of the other Survivor 'villains' were that way because they were at least smart (Russell, Parvati). They may not have played the way everyone would have - but they had that. Other Survivors maybe aren't great at strategy but they're great physical competitors. Abi is not particularly good at challenges and honestly, doesn't even seem very bright. She has no strategy of her own, she showed off the idol, she angers and alienates her own alliance mates, she's rude to people. And so when the rest of them told her so, yes, of course she cried. One would hope it's a wake-up call to this girl (or at least it will be when she watches the show) but I don't know. I believe the tears themselves are a way for this type of girl to garner more attention. It's a performance. She doesn't really feel bad - she just wants someone to feel sorry for her. Am I being mean? Maybe. Am I right? Probably.
And Pete - well Pete, when he got voted off, said that he felt bad for Abi. (See, Pete has redeeming qualities.) He didn't quite say he liked her, but he "found a way to work with her" or something like that. And it's true. She tried to pull that crazy stuff on Pete once in a while, and he knew how to shut it down. However, he never found a way to get her to just sit down and shut up. It's a good example of how the horse you tie yourself to on the first day can be your downfall. Pete could have extricated himself like Lisa, but he didn't and so he paid the price. Abi - barring any severe craziness - will go home next and then it'll be interesting again as the final 6 duke it out.
The last thing to mention is that of those 6 - there's an alliance of 4: Lisa & Skupin with Malcolm & Denise. Now, Lisa wanted to make a final 4 plan with Penner, who she trusts & likes more - but Penner, in a moment of unclarity (is that a word?) said, nah, I just want to deal with one thing at a time. Let's stick with the six. It's like Penner used up all his energy saving himself over & over - and fair enough - and now he's sitting back a bit? Anyway, Lisa called it a 'missed opportunity' and I think she was right. Every Boston Rob fan in the world knows you've got to play this game always a couple steps ahead of where you are. My prediction is Malcolm, Denise and Lisa in the final. Or can Penner outsmart them? What do you think?
Thursday, November 15, 2012
A Million Reasons to Stay in School & A Dissection of Abi's Brain (Or Lack Thereof)
I can't even stand it how much I enjoyed last night's episode!! The look on Abi's face when Artis was voted out made the entire season for me. That's it - I can stop watching. I'm done. Life is good. OK, who wants to take over the blog?
Oh, OK, I'll carry on. So let's discuss how this is now a game that's won by someone who's the smartest. Really, it is... Look at the winners lately - Sophie, Boston Rob, etc. They are smart people who are people-smart. And not that I'm saying Penner will win (though you all know that would be ok with me), but this particular episode was all about how a player's brains - or lack thereof - make all the difference.... with a tiny bit of luck thrown in for good measure. Cases in point: Penner (brains) and Abi (lack thereof). Somewhere in here is a PSA about how you can overcome bullying by being smart. Someday, being smart will win you a million dollars, kids! Stay in School!
The tiny bit of luck I speak of is the fact that for the reward challenge, the Survivors were again split into two teams. Because it was an odd number, Abi did not get picked (it was apparently - though not shown - a schoolyard pick situation) which made her sulk. No one likes to be the one not picked. Abi, however, does not mind sitting out because she is lazy and not very good at things. Note that the almost 50 year-old mom, Lisa, got picked. 20-ish year-old Abi did not. The teams were Penner, Malcolm, Denise and Carter (no surprise there, former red teammates and Malcolm) vs. Pete, Artis, Lisa and Skupin (all former yellow). Penner used his substantial brains to dig up ALL the bags needed at once, making it simple for the rest of his teammates to follow to just grab a bag and move through the obstacle course. Totally paid off and the team won a great reward where they got to deliver toys & school supplies to a local village (cool, right?) It was lovely to see Malcolm say how much he misses teaching kids (he spent a year teaching kids in Micronesia) and how it opened his eyes to how much he'd like to do that again instead of bartending. (Say it with me... "Awwwww!") And then of course, Penner got to schmooze and strategize.
Meanwhile, the bit of luck comes in that Lisa got stuck on the other team that did not win reward. When they went back to camp, Abi was her usual bitchy-weird-patronizing self and told Lisa... who again is twice her age... how she is just "gullible" and "naive" and how Skupin needs to be "kept on a short leash." Lisa was still concerned about how her big move from last week was going to go over. Let's remember that Lisa's move was to save Skupin while remaining LOYAL to her yellow tribe. The thanks she gets is to be talked down to by this arrogant pipsqueak child. Lisa took it all very well, but you could see the wheels turning in her brain.
Penner - knowing he's got to scramble but not LOOK like he's scrambling - approaches both Lisa & Skupin, because they're the ones who can turn the game around on the Axis of Evil. With Skupin, he's pretty matter-of-fact and asks straight out if he'd consider switching loyalties to get rid of people who are jerks. With Lisa, he becomes a psychologist. He talks to her about how she's always had to please people, be the breadwinner, etc. and how she's always wanted to be liked. How changing loyalties against people who aren't loyal to her wouldn't necessarily be viewed as a bad thing. And by presenting it to her in another way that she specifically gets - think of it like a script.... How would you want the viewers at home to see this played out? Do they want you to stay loyal to these jerks? Do they want these jerks to win? Or do they want you to make moves that are good for you because you're a nice person and they're rooting for you? Brilliant. He made Lisa cry at one point and she said how nice it was to have someone understand her. It's a great story seeing Lisa change as a person on this show - and she even said at Tribal Council how much these days have changed her as a person and how much she'll take away from this game. Probst eats that stuff up (have you seen his talk show yet?) (Insert line here about Lisa finally learning the Facts of Life... thanks Wendy!) Abi, because she's young and stupid (well, sorry, it hasn't been proved otherwise yet.) has a thought bubble meanwhile that says, "This game will not change me because I am special and perfect the way I am."
Where was I?
Right. So then there's a fun immunity challenge where you have to get 6 (maybe?) balls to balance on this paddle-looking thingy. I love these ones, as you know, because it's anyone's game. You don't have to be big and strong, or even that smart to accomplish a win. It's a game of skill that anyone may or may not be able to do. Skupin took this one easily, which was fun. Much like seeing Denise win stuff, you kind of pull for Skupin too because you know how much it really means to him to win.
So of course the yellows want to get rid of Penner. Easy vote for them. Couldn't get him last week, so let's get him this week. Penner and the reds are gunning for Artis, because they know that Abi may give the immunity idol to Pete, but not to Artis. The deciding votes will be Skupin and Lisa.
At Tribal Council, Probst asks Lisa how her big moves from last week went over. Lisa tells him that her moves were accepted "with grace" by people who knew she was just playing the game. Oh, says Jeff, by everyone? Nope, says Lisa. Interestingly, more so by the people who are my "opponents" rather than by my own tribemates. Interesting, says Jeff, "Like who?" "Well," says Lisa, "Abi has been a total jerk-face." Ok well, she didn't exactly say that. She's way too nice. But, here again is where the brains part comes in. While most smart people would have known that they need Lisa's vote and they ought to be sucking up to her, Abi just opened her mouth and let the usual arrogant crap flow out. "Well, I thought I was graceful towards her." And, "I am worried about Lisa's vote tonight," making Lisa say out loud, "Geez, I thought my actions spoke louder than words - but I don't know how else to prove to these thankless schmucks how loyal I am." (Again quoting, yet paraphrasing.)
In the end, Lisa and Skupin are a team, so they must have had an agreement. Skupin switched his vote over to Artis, while Lisa still voted Penner. See how she can still maintain the "idea" of being loyal, while actually having some say in who goes home? Smart! Artis goes home 5 votes to 4, and I'm a little sad in a way (a very tiny way) because I really would have liked to get to know Artis more. Is he really the cranky pirate from the Axis of Evil, or is he just a usually nice but sometimes cranky regular dude with 2 big earrings who happened to get caught in the middle of the Axis of Evil? In his parting words, he was super nice and kind of funny, acknowledging that he's really happy... but yeah, could be happier.... to have played the game and wishing the others well.
So now it'll be Pete and Abi doing the scrambling for once, whicih makes me super happy. Abi's face when Artis was voted out is what made my whole season. Seeing the fury that was boiling inside her tiny brain... which I believe was 99% fury and 1% "I'm still special" and not a lick of realization that it was she who was responsible for the whole mess.... Oh, seeing her face made the whole season grand. Now, the kick is that Pete and Abi "share" an immunity idol so it won't necessarily be as easy as picking them off. Pete may be smart enough to play the idol properly. Abi is not, plus she doesn't know how to keep a secret. I wouldn't mind seeing Pete stick around because he's a jerk, but a worthy opponent. If it's Abi, at least she's entertaining. At the end of the day, it's going to be a battle of the good kids... Who is the good-est? (Right, I know, not a word... whatever.) Can they each win a million dollars? Wouldn't that be nice? Maybe get rid of Carter.... and then give a million each to Malcolm, Denise, Penner, Lisa... and maybe even Skupin just 'cause he's got 7 kids to put through college. I'm going to call up Jeff and see if he's good with it. (I'm sure he reads this blog, though... right?)
Oh, OK, I'll carry on. So let's discuss how this is now a game that's won by someone who's the smartest. Really, it is... Look at the winners lately - Sophie, Boston Rob, etc. They are smart people who are people-smart. And not that I'm saying Penner will win (though you all know that would be ok with me), but this particular episode was all about how a player's brains - or lack thereof - make all the difference.... with a tiny bit of luck thrown in for good measure. Cases in point: Penner (brains) and Abi (lack thereof). Somewhere in here is a PSA about how you can overcome bullying by being smart. Someday, being smart will win you a million dollars, kids! Stay in School!
The tiny bit of luck I speak of is the fact that for the reward challenge, the Survivors were again split into two teams. Because it was an odd number, Abi did not get picked (it was apparently - though not shown - a schoolyard pick situation) which made her sulk. No one likes to be the one not picked. Abi, however, does not mind sitting out because she is lazy and not very good at things. Note that the almost 50 year-old mom, Lisa, got picked. 20-ish year-old Abi did not. The teams were Penner, Malcolm, Denise and Carter (no surprise there, former red teammates and Malcolm) vs. Pete, Artis, Lisa and Skupin (all former yellow). Penner used his substantial brains to dig up ALL the bags needed at once, making it simple for the rest of his teammates to follow to just grab a bag and move through the obstacle course. Totally paid off and the team won a great reward where they got to deliver toys & school supplies to a local village (cool, right?) It was lovely to see Malcolm say how much he misses teaching kids (he spent a year teaching kids in Micronesia) and how it opened his eyes to how much he'd like to do that again instead of bartending. (Say it with me... "Awwwww!") And then of course, Penner got to schmooze and strategize.
Meanwhile, the bit of luck comes in that Lisa got stuck on the other team that did not win reward. When they went back to camp, Abi was her usual bitchy-weird-patronizing self and told Lisa... who again is twice her age... how she is just "gullible" and "naive" and how Skupin needs to be "kept on a short leash." Lisa was still concerned about how her big move from last week was going to go over. Let's remember that Lisa's move was to save Skupin while remaining LOYAL to her yellow tribe. The thanks she gets is to be talked down to by this arrogant pipsqueak child. Lisa took it all very well, but you could see the wheels turning in her brain.
Penner - knowing he's got to scramble but not LOOK like he's scrambling - approaches both Lisa & Skupin, because they're the ones who can turn the game around on the Axis of Evil. With Skupin, he's pretty matter-of-fact and asks straight out if he'd consider switching loyalties to get rid of people who are jerks. With Lisa, he becomes a psychologist. He talks to her about how she's always had to please people, be the breadwinner, etc. and how she's always wanted to be liked. How changing loyalties against people who aren't loyal to her wouldn't necessarily be viewed as a bad thing. And by presenting it to her in another way that she specifically gets - think of it like a script.... How would you want the viewers at home to see this played out? Do they want you to stay loyal to these jerks? Do they want these jerks to win? Or do they want you to make moves that are good for you because you're a nice person and they're rooting for you? Brilliant. He made Lisa cry at one point and she said how nice it was to have someone understand her. It's a great story seeing Lisa change as a person on this show - and she even said at Tribal Council how much these days have changed her as a person and how much she'll take away from this game. Probst eats that stuff up (have you seen his talk show yet?) (Insert line here about Lisa finally learning the Facts of Life... thanks Wendy!) Abi, because she's young and stupid (well, sorry, it hasn't been proved otherwise yet.) has a thought bubble meanwhile that says, "This game will not change me because I am special and perfect the way I am."
Where was I?
Right. So then there's a fun immunity challenge where you have to get 6 (maybe?) balls to balance on this paddle-looking thingy. I love these ones, as you know, because it's anyone's game. You don't have to be big and strong, or even that smart to accomplish a win. It's a game of skill that anyone may or may not be able to do. Skupin took this one easily, which was fun. Much like seeing Denise win stuff, you kind of pull for Skupin too because you know how much it really means to him to win.
So of course the yellows want to get rid of Penner. Easy vote for them. Couldn't get him last week, so let's get him this week. Penner and the reds are gunning for Artis, because they know that Abi may give the immunity idol to Pete, but not to Artis. The deciding votes will be Skupin and Lisa.
At Tribal Council, Probst asks Lisa how her big moves from last week went over. Lisa tells him that her moves were accepted "with grace" by people who knew she was just playing the game. Oh, says Jeff, by everyone? Nope, says Lisa. Interestingly, more so by the people who are my "opponents" rather than by my own tribemates. Interesting, says Jeff, "Like who?" "Well," says Lisa, "Abi has been a total jerk-face." Ok well, she didn't exactly say that. She's way too nice. But, here again is where the brains part comes in. While most smart people would have known that they need Lisa's vote and they ought to be sucking up to her, Abi just opened her mouth and let the usual arrogant crap flow out. "Well, I thought I was graceful towards her." And, "I am worried about Lisa's vote tonight," making Lisa say out loud, "Geez, I thought my actions spoke louder than words - but I don't know how else to prove to these thankless schmucks how loyal I am." (Again quoting, yet paraphrasing.)
In the end, Lisa and Skupin are a team, so they must have had an agreement. Skupin switched his vote over to Artis, while Lisa still voted Penner. See how she can still maintain the "idea" of being loyal, while actually having some say in who goes home? Smart! Artis goes home 5 votes to 4, and I'm a little sad in a way (a very tiny way) because I really would have liked to get to know Artis more. Is he really the cranky pirate from the Axis of Evil, or is he just a usually nice but sometimes cranky regular dude with 2 big earrings who happened to get caught in the middle of the Axis of Evil? In his parting words, he was super nice and kind of funny, acknowledging that he's really happy... but yeah, could be happier.... to have played the game and wishing the others well.
So now it'll be Pete and Abi doing the scrambling for once, whicih makes me super happy. Abi's face when Artis was voted out is what made my whole season. Seeing the fury that was boiling inside her tiny brain... which I believe was 99% fury and 1% "I'm still special" and not a lick of realization that it was she who was responsible for the whole mess.... Oh, seeing her face made the whole season grand. Now, the kick is that Pete and Abi "share" an immunity idol so it won't necessarily be as easy as picking them off. Pete may be smart enough to play the idol properly. Abi is not, plus she doesn't know how to keep a secret. I wouldn't mind seeing Pete stick around because he's a jerk, but a worthy opponent. If it's Abi, at least she's entertaining. At the end of the day, it's going to be a battle of the good kids... Who is the good-est? (Right, I know, not a word... whatever.) Can they each win a million dollars? Wouldn't that be nice? Maybe get rid of Carter.... and then give a million each to Malcolm, Denise, Penner, Lisa... and maybe even Skupin just 'cause he's got 7 kids to put through college. I'm going to call up Jeff and see if he's good with it. (I'm sure he reads this blog, though... right?)
Thursday, November 8, 2012
And the Sub-Plots Thicken!
PENNER!
How much do you love Penner? OK, everyone loves him, right? We're all on the same page here?
Right, so backing up a bit... things weren't looking too good for Penner. Even his allies had voted against him. He knew it. There was no point in lying to him about it. Good eggs like Denise just told him straight up, yeah, I voted for you... I had to look out for myself, sorry. And he wasn't a whiny baby about it... he just decided not to quit. In the meantime, might as well help my team win a reward.
The tribe was divided into two teams for a reward challenge. It just so happened that the evil ones were all on one team (to review: Abi, Pete and Artis in addition to Skupin and Carter, who aren't evil, just goofy) and the nice, normal ones were mainly on one team (Malcolm, Denise, Lisa, Penner and Jeff.) Good won out over evil and the nice bunch got to go out for a picnic lunch. And Penner got to work a bit of magic.
All that magic would have been for nothing, though, if he didn't win immunity. He knew he had to win. Was it Jeff who later said that everyone went into the challenge saying that anyone can win except Penner, and of course it's Murphy's Law that Penner would, therefore, win. It was such a good challenge, too. It was one of those ones where everyone competes and then only the first three move on to the next portion of the challenge. Penner beat out Skupin by the tiniest margin... literally, Penner threw himself over the line like a baseball player sliding into home base, while Skupin hurried, but was like, a forearm behind Penner! Then it was a snake-shaped puzzle. Penner started out behind Jeff and Pete. Everyone is cheering for either Jeff or Pete. Penner stays calm. Once again, he gets the puzzle finished before Jeff by what must have been a tenth of a second. Crazy! PENNER WINS IMMUNITY!
Oh. Now, no one knows what to do. Craziness ensues.
The obvious first choice is Skupin. He's the other returnee. However, the original yellow alliance wants to keep their numbers strong and they don't feel like he's going to flip on them. So all of a sudden, Lisa becomes a mastermind of the game. She goes to Pete, and tells him about Malcolm having an idol. It's a solid strategy. Everyone likes Malcolm, but he's a huge physical threat, he's got an idol and he wasn't one of the original yellow tribe. Solid. However, Pete confronts Malcolm about it, thus throwing the lady under the bus who just threw Malcolm under a different bus... are you still following? Malcolm denies it and Pete believes him. On to the next plan, and now Lisa is worried.
The next name thrown around is Jeff. The yellow bunch decides that getting rid of the old Red tribe is the way to go, and without Penner to vote for, Jeff is the next biggest threat. Again, a solid strategy. Meanwhile, Jeff and the old Reds are thinking of voting off Pete, who again is a physical threat, part of a solid axis of evil, and well, not very nice. Yet another solid strategy.
Both groups think they have - or could have - the numbers on their side. If the Yellows stay strong, they have 5 originals, plus Malcolm. The Reds have 4 and think they may be able to get Malcolm or Skupin to flip against Pete.
Then Tribal Council happens. All this stuff comes out. And, Abi opens her mouth, proving herself one of the dumbest players ever. First she blabs about her alliance with Pete & Artis, basically saying that Lisa and Skupin are at the bottom of the heap. Then, more craziness. Malcolm shows that he has the idol. And he announces that he's going to play it to get rid of it, so don't bother putting his name down. Smart, right? No one's going to bother voting Malcolm.... So then Probst says, "OK, does anyone else feel like sharing that they have an idol." OK, says Abi, who reaches into her bag & pulls out the other idol!!!! Say it with me... Idiot. Oh honey, just because Jeff asks you, doesn't mean you have to share....Ay-yi.
Later Probst would say that this was one of the biggest missed opportunities of the game, ever. Why? Because everyone knew that Abi was not going to play that idol. It would have been a PERFECT opportunity to take her out, the idol along with her, and break up that axis of evil. Thing is, the only person who recognized this opportunity was Penner, and apparently no one else was on his page. And by Penner voting Abi, his 'side' only had 4 votes for Pete against the yellow side's 5 votes for Jeff. Penner will know for sure now that Skupin is not with him - fellow returning player or not. And, next time it looks like the Witches of Eastwick bully Lisa into possibly flipping over to team Penner. Things can happen quickly at this point in the game and fortunes can change. At this point, they need to get those idols gone more than they need Penner gone, but clearly not everyone realizes that.
Sheesh, I'm tired going over all that again. It was stressful. Also, can I point out that those former Reds need to stick together more than ever before if there are jury votes at stake. Even though he's not well liked, do you really want to go up against Pete or Artis at the end? Nope. Abi, maybe, because she's not liked AND stupid, so even her team couldn't vote for her once she opened her mouth.
I'm a little sad Jeff is gone. He was a good player, and truly does deserve it more than Artis or Abi. But so it goes. I enjoyed how pissed he was about losing. He said he'd made a gazillion dollars playing baseball and lost a World Series and that losing this was more painful. I believe it.
How much do you love Penner? OK, everyone loves him, right? We're all on the same page here?
Right, so backing up a bit... things weren't looking too good for Penner. Even his allies had voted against him. He knew it. There was no point in lying to him about it. Good eggs like Denise just told him straight up, yeah, I voted for you... I had to look out for myself, sorry. And he wasn't a whiny baby about it... he just decided not to quit. In the meantime, might as well help my team win a reward.
The tribe was divided into two teams for a reward challenge. It just so happened that the evil ones were all on one team (to review: Abi, Pete and Artis in addition to Skupin and Carter, who aren't evil, just goofy) and the nice, normal ones were mainly on one team (Malcolm, Denise, Lisa, Penner and Jeff.) Good won out over evil and the nice bunch got to go out for a picnic lunch. And Penner got to work a bit of magic.
All that magic would have been for nothing, though, if he didn't win immunity. He knew he had to win. Was it Jeff who later said that everyone went into the challenge saying that anyone can win except Penner, and of course it's Murphy's Law that Penner would, therefore, win. It was such a good challenge, too. It was one of those ones where everyone competes and then only the first three move on to the next portion of the challenge. Penner beat out Skupin by the tiniest margin... literally, Penner threw himself over the line like a baseball player sliding into home base, while Skupin hurried, but was like, a forearm behind Penner! Then it was a snake-shaped puzzle. Penner started out behind Jeff and Pete. Everyone is cheering for either Jeff or Pete. Penner stays calm. Once again, he gets the puzzle finished before Jeff by what must have been a tenth of a second. Crazy! PENNER WINS IMMUNITY!
Oh. Now, no one knows what to do. Craziness ensues.
The obvious first choice is Skupin. He's the other returnee. However, the original yellow alliance wants to keep their numbers strong and they don't feel like he's going to flip on them. So all of a sudden, Lisa becomes a mastermind of the game. She goes to Pete, and tells him about Malcolm having an idol. It's a solid strategy. Everyone likes Malcolm, but he's a huge physical threat, he's got an idol and he wasn't one of the original yellow tribe. Solid. However, Pete confronts Malcolm about it, thus throwing the lady under the bus who just threw Malcolm under a different bus... are you still following? Malcolm denies it and Pete believes him. On to the next plan, and now Lisa is worried.
The next name thrown around is Jeff. The yellow bunch decides that getting rid of the old Red tribe is the way to go, and without Penner to vote for, Jeff is the next biggest threat. Again, a solid strategy. Meanwhile, Jeff and the old Reds are thinking of voting off Pete, who again is a physical threat, part of a solid axis of evil, and well, not very nice. Yet another solid strategy.
Both groups think they have - or could have - the numbers on their side. If the Yellows stay strong, they have 5 originals, plus Malcolm. The Reds have 4 and think they may be able to get Malcolm or Skupin to flip against Pete.
Then Tribal Council happens. All this stuff comes out. And, Abi opens her mouth, proving herself one of the dumbest players ever. First she blabs about her alliance with Pete & Artis, basically saying that Lisa and Skupin are at the bottom of the heap. Then, more craziness. Malcolm shows that he has the idol. And he announces that he's going to play it to get rid of it, so don't bother putting his name down. Smart, right? No one's going to bother voting Malcolm.... So then Probst says, "OK, does anyone else feel like sharing that they have an idol." OK, says Abi, who reaches into her bag & pulls out the other idol!!!! Say it with me... Idiot. Oh honey, just because Jeff asks you, doesn't mean you have to share....Ay-yi.
Later Probst would say that this was one of the biggest missed opportunities of the game, ever. Why? Because everyone knew that Abi was not going to play that idol. It would have been a PERFECT opportunity to take her out, the idol along with her, and break up that axis of evil. Thing is, the only person who recognized this opportunity was Penner, and apparently no one else was on his page. And by Penner voting Abi, his 'side' only had 4 votes for Pete against the yellow side's 5 votes for Jeff. Penner will know for sure now that Skupin is not with him - fellow returning player or not. And, next time it looks like the Witches of Eastwick bully Lisa into possibly flipping over to team Penner. Things can happen quickly at this point in the game and fortunes can change. At this point, they need to get those idols gone more than they need Penner gone, but clearly not everyone realizes that.
Sheesh, I'm tired going over all that again. It was stressful. Also, can I point out that those former Reds need to stick together more than ever before if there are jury votes at stake. Even though he's not well liked, do you really want to go up against Pete or Artis at the end? Nope. Abi, maybe, because she's not liked AND stupid, so even her team couldn't vote for her once she opened her mouth.
I'm a little sad Jeff is gone. He was a good player, and truly does deserve it more than Artis or Abi. But so it goes. I enjoyed how pissed he was about losing. He said he'd made a gazillion dollars playing baseball and lost a World Series and that losing this was more painful. I believe it.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Now You're the Al Capone of the Totem Pole. Way to Go.
I don't have a ton of time today to blog, so apologies if this is a shorter one.
What do you guys think about Jeff's decision to turn on Penner? Now, I'm a Penner fan, as you know, so I didn't like it one bit. Fandom aside, I just think he's too hung up on the returning guys possibly winning. If I were him, I'd worry way more about Malcolm or Denise. I mean, Skupin's likely to get bitten by a shark or hit in the head by a falling coconut. And Penner's not necessarily as 'competitive' in the challenges as dudes like Malcolm or Pete or Artis or Carter. I think it's mis-focused energy. Finally, I think it was a bad idea to do in a solid alliance of 4. Jeff, Penner, Carter & Denise could have pulled in Malcolm, RC and Skupin for a majority. Then you get rid of the big dudes first - Pete and Artis. Then you get rid of Abi because she's horrible. Then you see where Lisa sits.
Lisa. I want to love her... I really do. No, I do love her.... but I'm not sure I'm 100% behind her game play on Survivor. She got totally bullied by the Pete group and now she's 'staying loyal' knowing full well that she's nowhere near the top of the pecking order. If she flipped over, she'd have a really good chance with guys like Malcolm (who had to promise her top-3 if she didn't blow his cover about having the idol. She was 'being nice' by going into people's bags (uhhhh.... that's wrong, right?) and laying out their wet clothes to dry.... thus, finding Malcolm's idol inadvertently. She was so nice and kept saying sorry. And I liked how he calls her the 'Church Lady." Hee.) Also, she had a perfect chance to bond with Penner, who knows that she's a former child star. They get along great.....buuuuut didn't see the need to talk strategy. What? Sigh. Lisa may be one of those people who really is just too nice to play this game. Unless she's got something up her church lady sleeves that I'm not aware of....?
Oh... if you didn't get it already... I probably should have started with the fact that the 2 teams merged into one. That's a bit of knowledge you should have. Also, that one man and one woman were allowed to win immunity. Carter won for the dudes, and Denise won for the ladies. How great was it to see her win something? Go Denise!
So Pete's gang's plan was to split the vote between RC and Penner in case Penner had an idol, which of course he did. And the plan worked because Penner did indeed - thankfully - play the idol. (I loved it when Penner said that he figured his alliance was strong, but if it's not, he's a really bad judge of character and he doesn't deserve to play. He must have felt something was up. Judgement intact.) Penner's group all joined in. Denise voted for Penner. Jeff and Carter voted for RC. Penner and RC voted for Pete. RC was the one voted out. I feel kind of bad for her because she seems like a truly nice gal who's a great competitor and a good Survivor player... who just got on the wrong side of a crazy person. And let's remember that it was Pete who got her there with his trickery. Yeah, I know, smart play, but still mean. And while I'm the biggest defender of 'game-play' vs. 'deserving-to-win'... I still prefer it that someone wins who's not a total a-hole. And I truly don't think they will win in the end. There's still the whole social game... even if Pete or Abi somehow made it to the end, they'd have to get outvoted for someone who's nicer. Al Capone could be up against them and probably get more votes for being nicer.
So where does this all leave us? Penner's on the outs and without an idol, he's gonna have to scramble hard and compete hard. They make it look like he wins... which probably means that he doesn't. I totally want his luck to change, but we'll see. It's not looking good. And if Penner goes, Skupin should read the writing on the wall.... he's already lost his main ally, RC because he was too stupid to leave the yellow-team "family". Ugh... who was it... was it Abi that said in Tribal Council... "Oh we fight, but we're like any family." Gross. A family who has to at some point turn on each other... See? That's the kind of language I don't like in this game. Bleh. And once the Returnees are gone, where the heck do Jeff & Carter figure they'll be on the totem pole? Bottom, that's where. If I'm Pete, I vote Jeff off next 'cause he's my next, most threatening alpha male. Carter's a threat, yes, but he's not super bright. I suppose it's possible Jeff figures he can get Denise & Malcolm on his side.... and maybe he can, but it's a stretch. Denise and Malcolm are playing the game brilliantly and staying perfectly in but out at the same time. They're both so likable and helpful and good at stuff.... yet, they generally keep their mouths shut and go with the flow. It's perfect Sophie-esque game play. They'll wait it out and see which way the wind is blowing. They don't have any huge loyalties to anyone but each other, and yet everyone sort of thinks they are loyal to them. Seriously brilliant. I will be surprised if those 2 don't make it 'til the end. And can you imagine making the choice between the two? Who would you vote for? They're both awesome. Malcolm has the obvious advantage in that he's had an opportunity to make more friends with people who will be jury members. Yet, he's also likely the bigger perceived threat.
Fun, right? Stay tuned and keep good thoughts in your heads for Penner. In the world of 'celebrities' I'd like to have a beer with or have over for a dinner party, Penner is on my list. Wouldn't it be fun to sit down with Penner AND Alan Alda and just listen....
In other news, Lisa was on the Jeff Probst Show this week - have you seen it? It's during the day, so generally I do not see it but was off work this Monday and she happened to be on. It was a pretty good interview - she talked about the Facts of Life (she just got back from spending 4 days at Jo's ranch!!) and Survivor and being the Church Lady who just got divorced after 24 years of marriage. Jeff is going to try to set her up. She's now one of his favourites - you can tell 'cause he calls her Welchel.
What do you guys think about Jeff's decision to turn on Penner? Now, I'm a Penner fan, as you know, so I didn't like it one bit. Fandom aside, I just think he's too hung up on the returning guys possibly winning. If I were him, I'd worry way more about Malcolm or Denise. I mean, Skupin's likely to get bitten by a shark or hit in the head by a falling coconut. And Penner's not necessarily as 'competitive' in the challenges as dudes like Malcolm or Pete or Artis or Carter. I think it's mis-focused energy. Finally, I think it was a bad idea to do in a solid alliance of 4. Jeff, Penner, Carter & Denise could have pulled in Malcolm, RC and Skupin for a majority. Then you get rid of the big dudes first - Pete and Artis. Then you get rid of Abi because she's horrible. Then you see where Lisa sits.
Lisa. I want to love her... I really do. No, I do love her.... but I'm not sure I'm 100% behind her game play on Survivor. She got totally bullied by the Pete group and now she's 'staying loyal' knowing full well that she's nowhere near the top of the pecking order. If she flipped over, she'd have a really good chance with guys like Malcolm (who had to promise her top-3 if she didn't blow his cover about having the idol. She was 'being nice' by going into people's bags (uhhhh.... that's wrong, right?) and laying out their wet clothes to dry.... thus, finding Malcolm's idol inadvertently. She was so nice and kept saying sorry. And I liked how he calls her the 'Church Lady." Hee.) Also, she had a perfect chance to bond with Penner, who knows that she's a former child star. They get along great.....buuuuut didn't see the need to talk strategy. What? Sigh. Lisa may be one of those people who really is just too nice to play this game. Unless she's got something up her church lady sleeves that I'm not aware of....?
Oh... if you didn't get it already... I probably should have started with the fact that the 2 teams merged into one. That's a bit of knowledge you should have. Also, that one man and one woman were allowed to win immunity. Carter won for the dudes, and Denise won for the ladies. How great was it to see her win something? Go Denise!
So Pete's gang's plan was to split the vote between RC and Penner in case Penner had an idol, which of course he did. And the plan worked because Penner did indeed - thankfully - play the idol. (I loved it when Penner said that he figured his alliance was strong, but if it's not, he's a really bad judge of character and he doesn't deserve to play. He must have felt something was up. Judgement intact.) Penner's group all joined in. Denise voted for Penner. Jeff and Carter voted for RC. Penner and RC voted for Pete. RC was the one voted out. I feel kind of bad for her because she seems like a truly nice gal who's a great competitor and a good Survivor player... who just got on the wrong side of a crazy person. And let's remember that it was Pete who got her there with his trickery. Yeah, I know, smart play, but still mean. And while I'm the biggest defender of 'game-play' vs. 'deserving-to-win'... I still prefer it that someone wins who's not a total a-hole. And I truly don't think they will win in the end. There's still the whole social game... even if Pete or Abi somehow made it to the end, they'd have to get outvoted for someone who's nicer. Al Capone could be up against them and probably get more votes for being nicer.
So where does this all leave us? Penner's on the outs and without an idol, he's gonna have to scramble hard and compete hard. They make it look like he wins... which probably means that he doesn't. I totally want his luck to change, but we'll see. It's not looking good. And if Penner goes, Skupin should read the writing on the wall.... he's already lost his main ally, RC because he was too stupid to leave the yellow-team "family". Ugh... who was it... was it Abi that said in Tribal Council... "Oh we fight, but we're like any family." Gross. A family who has to at some point turn on each other... See? That's the kind of language I don't like in this game. Bleh. And once the Returnees are gone, where the heck do Jeff & Carter figure they'll be on the totem pole? Bottom, that's where. If I'm Pete, I vote Jeff off next 'cause he's my next, most threatening alpha male. Carter's a threat, yes, but he's not super bright. I suppose it's possible Jeff figures he can get Denise & Malcolm on his side.... and maybe he can, but it's a stretch. Denise and Malcolm are playing the game brilliantly and staying perfectly in but out at the same time. They're both so likable and helpful and good at stuff.... yet, they generally keep their mouths shut and go with the flow. It's perfect Sophie-esque game play. They'll wait it out and see which way the wind is blowing. They don't have any huge loyalties to anyone but each other, and yet everyone sort of thinks they are loyal to them. Seriously brilliant. I will be surprised if those 2 don't make it 'til the end. And can you imagine making the choice between the two? Who would you vote for? They're both awesome. Malcolm has the obvious advantage in that he's had an opportunity to make more friends with people who will be jury members. Yet, he's also likely the bigger perceived threat.
Fun, right? Stay tuned and keep good thoughts in your heads for Penner. In the world of 'celebrities' I'd like to have a beer with or have over for a dinner party, Penner is on my list. Wouldn't it be fun to sit down with Penner AND Alan Alda and just listen....
In other news, Lisa was on the Jeff Probst Show this week - have you seen it? It's during the day, so generally I do not see it but was off work this Monday and she happened to be on. It was a pretty good interview - she talked about the Facts of Life (she just got back from spending 4 days at Jo's ranch!!) and Survivor and being the Church Lady who just got divorced after 24 years of marriage. Jeff is going to try to set her up. She's now one of his favourites - you can tell 'cause he calls her Welchel.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
I'll Trade You That Uncooked Rice for Your Mascara & Some Nasty Stomach Bacteria...
In this tale of now two teams - one gets along famously and is full of pretty nice people, while the other has some nice people and some that are simply insufferable. Guess which one wins? Sadly, it's the one with the insufferables. Team yellow - Skupin's tribe - are self-destructing and full of crazy. Have they ever been to Tribal Council? Nope. So sad, because there are some people who need to go away.
Skupin is one of them, maybe? As much as we may like Skupin for his accident-prone hijinx and wild pig killing, he is apparently not aware that he is difficult to live with. Dude has been eating all of the team's rice... raw. Yes, uncooked, by the handful, like it's popcorn. He figures that it'll 'cook' in his belly because our body temperature is 'close to 100'. OK, well I hate to get all sciency on you, but you are also smart people and you, dear Survivor fans, know that Skupin needs a bit of a shake in the brain department. Sure, body temp is 98.6 Farenheit. That's 37 degrees Celsius. Uhh... the last time I checked, water boils at 100 degrees Celsius... which is about 212 Farenheit. So, you see where this is going, right? Not only is the rice not 'cooking' in his stomach, but it's actually not very good for you and can cause all kinds of unfortunate gastrointestinal issues.... not really what you're after when you're on an island in the Philippines. See...
http://www.livestrong.com/article/415189-what-are-the-effects-of-eating-raw-rice/
Anyway, so we've established that killing pigs, not science or self-awareness, is Skupin's forte. What he isn't, however, is mean. He seems like a pretty decent guy (unless you're opposed to the whole pig killing thing, but that's another debate entirely.) This puts him at odds with the folks on his tribe who are not at all decent people. Tops on that list are Pete and Abi, with Artis as a possible runner-up. Pete and Abi are bullies. They figure they are running the show... and maybe they are to an extent - it's hard to tell when they've never been to Tribal Council. Pete does have the idol. Abi, meanwhile, is continually negative, bossy and just weird. As RC put it after they forfeited a win at the reward challenge, Abi is like a little Brazilian bomb just waiting to explode.
If you missed it, there was a Survivor first, where there was a stalemate at a challenge and the teams themselves decided on a compromise. It was 3 teammates pushing a huge ball in the mud trying to score on the other team. After an hour, neither team had moved the ball more than a foot or two either direction. They were exhausted and muddy (and can we talk about how awesome Lisa was at holding back Denise?) and to win, would have had to score THREE times! So Skupin and Penner come up with a plan. Penner's team will take the reward in exchange for giving Skupin's team the rest of their rice supply... which as we know, was pretty low because it's all sitting in Skupin's belly waiting to cause vomiting, nausea and indigestion. Both teams reluctantly gave their blessing to the deal.
Artis was the most angry about it on team yellow. He wanted the win. However, he was not the one competing - he was sitting out with guess who? Abi. Yup. That girl is useless. Artis and Abi combined to be the biggest complainers about the rice deal - go figure. Over at team Penner, the group enjoyed a good reward picnic and a morale boost of letters from home. However, once they got back to camp, they realized that oh yeah, we're going to be kind of hungry now. No worries, says Penner, I'll go fishing. He tried & tried and only came up with 2 teensy fish. Again, the ones who weren't doing anything about it were the first ones to complain. Carter - who we really haven't heard from as of yet - is now not shutting up about how hungry he is and how his body can't take it and how he'll lose if he has to starve...blah, blah, blah. Sure enough, he dropped the ball - literally - in the immunity challenge.
The challenge was where one person shoots a ball with a sling-shot thingy and the team has to catch them in these lacrosse-type nets. Jeff should KILL at this, right? Well, he did... just not as much as Malcolm, who kills at everything. Sadly, team yellow took it yet again. Carter wasn't the only one to suck at the challenge. Katie, once again, also didn't perform very well and Jeff-the-host was sure to point it out to everyone. "Katie, once again, not performing very well." Yeah, we got it Jeff.
So it's got to be Katie, right? She's the weakest link. (For a sec, I thought, why don't they get rid of Carter instead 'til I remembered that he'll do whatever he's told, which is his selling point. Katie has more of a brain, therefore more of a chance to make her own move or come up with an idea.) But then, it looked like Jeff was going to make a big move and take out Penner. After chatting about it, Jeff and Carter were sitting there when Penner came up to them. Carter says, "What do you think? Katie or Penner?" Heh heh. He covered it up pretty well... and went, ".....errrrr, Katie or Denise?" but it still made Jeff shake his head.
So were you all yelling at the TV like me for Penner to play the idol? Well, the clever editors pulled a good one on us, because clearly Penner knew what we didn't - that he was safe. Though, he did shoot Jeff quite a look when his name came up on the vote (Katie's)... and then immediately realized that oh, he was OK after all. Did Jeff-the-baseball-guy seem pissed to you? Was he pissed at Penner for the slip, or was he pissed that they didn't get rid of Penner when they had the chance? Or, was he pissed at Jeff-the-host for constantly prodding him about his former career secret. "Hey Jeff, have you ever played any other games that involve strategy?" Heh. So, yeah, as you can tell, Miss Delaware was the one who had to go.
You know what will stop team yellow? A merge. It looks like it's going to happen next episode. All of a sudden Pete, Abi & Artis will not be in a majority. Hopefully. There's a good chance Malcolm will stay true to Denise and vice versa. Do Skupin and Penner have a bit of a bro code? I think maybe. Folks on the outs of team yellow like Lisa and RC will hastily hop over to another alliance that'll have them. The strong guys always get targeted once the merge happens, so if I'm Pete, I'm thinking about a good way to use that idol, or deflect towards cranky old Artis.
So let's review...
Needing to go away: Pete, Abi, and possibly Artis, but I still haven't heard enough from him. I'm on the fence about Artis.
Needing to quit whining: Carter.
Needing to cook his food and keep his mitts off everyone else's food: Skupin
Strongest under the radar players and possible swing votes: Lisa & RC
Looking the strongest right now: Penner, Jeff, Denise and Malcolm.
Skupin is one of them, maybe? As much as we may like Skupin for his accident-prone hijinx and wild pig killing, he is apparently not aware that he is difficult to live with. Dude has been eating all of the team's rice... raw. Yes, uncooked, by the handful, like it's popcorn. He figures that it'll 'cook' in his belly because our body temperature is 'close to 100'. OK, well I hate to get all sciency on you, but you are also smart people and you, dear Survivor fans, know that Skupin needs a bit of a shake in the brain department. Sure, body temp is 98.6 Farenheit. That's 37 degrees Celsius. Uhh... the last time I checked, water boils at 100 degrees Celsius... which is about 212 Farenheit. So, you see where this is going, right? Not only is the rice not 'cooking' in his stomach, but it's actually not very good for you and can cause all kinds of unfortunate gastrointestinal issues.... not really what you're after when you're on an island in the Philippines. See...
http://www.livestrong.com/article/415189-what-are-the-effects-of-eating-raw-rice/
Anyway, so we've established that killing pigs, not science or self-awareness, is Skupin's forte. What he isn't, however, is mean. He seems like a pretty decent guy (unless you're opposed to the whole pig killing thing, but that's another debate entirely.) This puts him at odds with the folks on his tribe who are not at all decent people. Tops on that list are Pete and Abi, with Artis as a possible runner-up. Pete and Abi are bullies. They figure they are running the show... and maybe they are to an extent - it's hard to tell when they've never been to Tribal Council. Pete does have the idol. Abi, meanwhile, is continually negative, bossy and just weird. As RC put it after they forfeited a win at the reward challenge, Abi is like a little Brazilian bomb just waiting to explode.
If you missed it, there was a Survivor first, where there was a stalemate at a challenge and the teams themselves decided on a compromise. It was 3 teammates pushing a huge ball in the mud trying to score on the other team. After an hour, neither team had moved the ball more than a foot or two either direction. They were exhausted and muddy (and can we talk about how awesome Lisa was at holding back Denise?) and to win, would have had to score THREE times! So Skupin and Penner come up with a plan. Penner's team will take the reward in exchange for giving Skupin's team the rest of their rice supply... which as we know, was pretty low because it's all sitting in Skupin's belly waiting to cause vomiting, nausea and indigestion. Both teams reluctantly gave their blessing to the deal.
Artis was the most angry about it on team yellow. He wanted the win. However, he was not the one competing - he was sitting out with guess who? Abi. Yup. That girl is useless. Artis and Abi combined to be the biggest complainers about the rice deal - go figure. Over at team Penner, the group enjoyed a good reward picnic and a morale boost of letters from home. However, once they got back to camp, they realized that oh yeah, we're going to be kind of hungry now. No worries, says Penner, I'll go fishing. He tried & tried and only came up with 2 teensy fish. Again, the ones who weren't doing anything about it were the first ones to complain. Carter - who we really haven't heard from as of yet - is now not shutting up about how hungry he is and how his body can't take it and how he'll lose if he has to starve...blah, blah, blah. Sure enough, he dropped the ball - literally - in the immunity challenge.
The challenge was where one person shoots a ball with a sling-shot thingy and the team has to catch them in these lacrosse-type nets. Jeff should KILL at this, right? Well, he did... just not as much as Malcolm, who kills at everything. Sadly, team yellow took it yet again. Carter wasn't the only one to suck at the challenge. Katie, once again, also didn't perform very well and Jeff-the-host was sure to point it out to everyone. "Katie, once again, not performing very well." Yeah, we got it Jeff.
So it's got to be Katie, right? She's the weakest link. (For a sec, I thought, why don't they get rid of Carter instead 'til I remembered that he'll do whatever he's told, which is his selling point. Katie has more of a brain, therefore more of a chance to make her own move or come up with an idea.) But then, it looked like Jeff was going to make a big move and take out Penner. After chatting about it, Jeff and Carter were sitting there when Penner came up to them. Carter says, "What do you think? Katie or Penner?" Heh heh. He covered it up pretty well... and went, ".....errrrr, Katie or Denise?" but it still made Jeff shake his head.
So were you all yelling at the TV like me for Penner to play the idol? Well, the clever editors pulled a good one on us, because clearly Penner knew what we didn't - that he was safe. Though, he did shoot Jeff quite a look when his name came up on the vote (Katie's)... and then immediately realized that oh, he was OK after all. Did Jeff-the-baseball-guy seem pissed to you? Was he pissed at Penner for the slip, or was he pissed that they didn't get rid of Penner when they had the chance? Or, was he pissed at Jeff-the-host for constantly prodding him about his former career secret. "Hey Jeff, have you ever played any other games that involve strategy?" Heh. So, yeah, as you can tell, Miss Delaware was the one who had to go.
You know what will stop team yellow? A merge. It looks like it's going to happen next episode. All of a sudden Pete, Abi & Artis will not be in a majority. Hopefully. There's a good chance Malcolm will stay true to Denise and vice versa. Do Skupin and Penner have a bit of a bro code? I think maybe. Folks on the outs of team yellow like Lisa and RC will hastily hop over to another alliance that'll have them. The strong guys always get targeted once the merge happens, so if I'm Pete, I'm thinking about a good way to use that idol, or deflect towards cranky old Artis.
So let's review...
Needing to go away: Pete, Abi, and possibly Artis, but I still haven't heard enough from him. I'm on the fence about Artis.
Needing to quit whining: Carter.
Needing to cook his food and keep his mitts off everyone else's food: Skupin
Strongest under the radar players and possible swing votes: Lisa & RC
Looking the strongest right now: Penner, Jeff, Denise and Malcolm.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Baseball Player Jeff > Jeff Probst Stalker
Great episode! As expected, poor, sad, hungry Malcolm & Denise were split up into the other tribes. Malcolm went to the yellow Skupin tribe, and Denise went over to the red Penner tribe. There was a reward challenge off the bat for coffee & muffins & cookies that team yellow won, thanks in part to Malcolm. Denise did fine in her part of the challenge too, fyi, but overall her team lost out. (As an aside, there was a particularly good part where Abi was up against Dawson - the challenge was to knock the other person's idol off a thingy that they held in one hand. Can't remember who won, but somehow Dawson pulled Abi's hair, which caused a tsunami of whining and accusations of "Don't play like a bitch!" Really? How much more can I not stand Abi? She's horrible. End rant.)
Both Malcolm & Denise were fantastically happy to be with a group of (potential) winners and to be in a camp with a tarp and other essentials. Malcolm is especially sitting pretty with the immunity idol in his possession. Soon, everyone wanted to be his best friend. As he put it, "It's like being the star quarterback from the other school..." and he's going to enjoy every bit of it while he can.
Right away, Pete approached Malcolm and told him the lay of the land, who is allied with who, that he's got his own immunity idol and that he wants to vote out Skupin. Nice, right? RC, who's on the outs with her tribe since Abi turned into a lunatic, is not giving up either. She figures she might as well try to be nice & flirty with Malcolm - can't hurt.
Over on team Penner, things weren't quite as effervescent, but Denise did manage to get herself in an alliance right away as well. Jeff pretty quickly asked her if she wanted to be the 4th member of their alliance & Denise jumped on that bandwagon, no problem. So, happily (I think), both our former team-Russell-mates are doing just fine, thank you very much.
Not true for Dana (the old Denise, but the real Dana) who got sick. And by sick, I mean not just some sniffles, but full-on fever, barfing, feeling miserable kind of sick. Can you imagine how bad that would feel at home on your couch and then imagine being somewhere where you couldn't get warm or dry? I don't blame Dana one bit for packing it in, and neither did her teammates. It was her decision in the end, as the medics told Jeff that she could continue if she wanted to... but man, I don't know about you, but I think I'd want to get the hell out of there. It was super nice to see how supportive her teammates were (even Katie, who was devastated by her exit, alliance-wise) and especially Penner. He's the Alan-Alda-Dad of the group.
The only funny part of the Dana situation was when Jeff came in with the medics, we discover that Dawson has a huge crush on him. I mean, being my former boyfriend, I totally understand it. But the girl sounds a little bit nutso. She says something like, "All of a sudden, Jeff's there and I want to go hug & kiss him, but it just wasn't the right time." Ummm.... you think? Let's all be thankful for her restraint. Cut to shot of Jeff taking the sick Dana out of the game on a boat, rubbing her shoulders. Cut to (imaginary) shot of Dawson watching the show later at home, desperately wishing she was Dana.
So right away, team Penner is down a person for the immunity challenge. (I didn't think they'd still vote a person out if someone left voluntarily, but apparently they do!) In the challenge one team Skupin person has to sit out. Abi right away throws up her hand. Jeff: How many challenges have you competed in so far? Abi: Two. Then Jeff, 'cause he's awesome at drawing attention to the obvious, must have mentioned 5 times how Abi was sitting out AGAIN. Heh heh. I know they haven't been to Tribal yet, but how she could not be the first one voted off is beyond me. We can hope.
Anyway, the challenge was super close at the end, but between Katie being slow off the start of the obstacle course (again, Jeff must have rubbed that one in about 5 times... "the team has caught up, no thanks to Katie's struggle at the start".... etc.) and Dawson's inability to cooperate well with Penner at the puzzle part, the red team came up short. It was obvious that the choice would be between the two girls. Would it be the former Miss Delaware or the future Mrs Probst?
I think Katie won out over Dawson for a couple of reasons. She's probably somewhat less annoying. Aside from the last challenge where, yes Jeff, we know - she struggled.... she's overall been better at challenges than Dawson. She right away talked about it calmly to her tribemates, said she was sorry for her poor performance and truly felt pretty bad about it. I think the tribe wanted to give her another chance. And then there's Jeff... the baseball guy, not the host. Dawson was the only one who knew that Jeff's a former baseball star. Jeff didn't know for sure that she knew his secret, but he had a feeling she might. At one point, she's taunting him with, "I'd like to date an athlete, you know a football player or maybe a basketball player.... but not a BASEBALL player... they're just a bunch of grown men standing around doing nothing...." etc. Which made him laugh, but also gave him a hint that she might know about him. So, we didn't see it go down, but my bet is that Baseball Jeff made a pretty good case to Penner and Mute Carson that Dawson should be the one to go, and why the heck wouldn't they go along? Then the three of them just tell Denise, and bam! No more Dawson.
When Jeff the Host snuffed Dawson's torch, she looked deeply into his eyes... and latched on. Gave him a huge hug and a kiss (on the cheek, thankfully) and off she went into the night. I'm guessing that this is her reward anyway, and that she didn't care that much about the million bucks in the first place. If I'm Jeff, I'm watching my back at this point and not answering my hotel room door late at night. Stay in and read my blog, Jeff! For her last words, Dawson went on about how Baseball Jeff now owes her a bunch of the money if he wins (and a house and a car and a pink gun??? What the....?) Ummmm... that's idiotic. Not entirely sure why she wouldn't try to save herself by outing Baseball Jeff (not that it would probably matter at this point, but she could still cause some trouble!) except that for some reason she thought she was totally safe and Katie would be the one going home. Dumb. Probst likes his ladies smarter than that, girlfriend.
Final point... have we all noticed that Katie is wearing mascara? What the....? Was this her one luxury item that she had to have? Who the #@*& thinks that they should wear mascara on Survivor? I guess the former Miss Delaware does. Thing is, she gets rained on 17 hours a day, so mostly, it's running down her face giving her raccoon eyes. Not especially flattering. Cut to imaginary shot of Katie watching the show, thinking, "Dammit, I should have brought WATERPROOF mascara as my luxury item!!"
Next week it looks like we're going to see a monumental mud-fight! Woo hoo!
Both Malcolm & Denise were fantastically happy to be with a group of (potential) winners and to be in a camp with a tarp and other essentials. Malcolm is especially sitting pretty with the immunity idol in his possession. Soon, everyone wanted to be his best friend. As he put it, "It's like being the star quarterback from the other school..." and he's going to enjoy every bit of it while he can.
Right away, Pete approached Malcolm and told him the lay of the land, who is allied with who, that he's got his own immunity idol and that he wants to vote out Skupin. Nice, right? RC, who's on the outs with her tribe since Abi turned into a lunatic, is not giving up either. She figures she might as well try to be nice & flirty with Malcolm - can't hurt.
Over on team Penner, things weren't quite as effervescent, but Denise did manage to get herself in an alliance right away as well. Jeff pretty quickly asked her if she wanted to be the 4th member of their alliance & Denise jumped on that bandwagon, no problem. So, happily (I think), both our former team-Russell-mates are doing just fine, thank you very much.
Not true for Dana (the old Denise, but the real Dana) who got sick. And by sick, I mean not just some sniffles, but full-on fever, barfing, feeling miserable kind of sick. Can you imagine how bad that would feel at home on your couch and then imagine being somewhere where you couldn't get warm or dry? I don't blame Dana one bit for packing it in, and neither did her teammates. It was her decision in the end, as the medics told Jeff that she could continue if she wanted to... but man, I don't know about you, but I think I'd want to get the hell out of there. It was super nice to see how supportive her teammates were (even Katie, who was devastated by her exit, alliance-wise) and especially Penner. He's the Alan-Alda-Dad of the group.
The only funny part of the Dana situation was when Jeff came in with the medics, we discover that Dawson has a huge crush on him. I mean, being my former boyfriend, I totally understand it. But the girl sounds a little bit nutso. She says something like, "All of a sudden, Jeff's there and I want to go hug & kiss him, but it just wasn't the right time." Ummm.... you think? Let's all be thankful for her restraint. Cut to shot of Jeff taking the sick Dana out of the game on a boat, rubbing her shoulders. Cut to (imaginary) shot of Dawson watching the show later at home, desperately wishing she was Dana.
So right away, team Penner is down a person for the immunity challenge. (I didn't think they'd still vote a person out if someone left voluntarily, but apparently they do!) In the challenge one team Skupin person has to sit out. Abi right away throws up her hand. Jeff: How many challenges have you competed in so far? Abi: Two. Then Jeff, 'cause he's awesome at drawing attention to the obvious, must have mentioned 5 times how Abi was sitting out AGAIN. Heh heh. I know they haven't been to Tribal yet, but how she could not be the first one voted off is beyond me. We can hope.
Anyway, the challenge was super close at the end, but between Katie being slow off the start of the obstacle course (again, Jeff must have rubbed that one in about 5 times... "the team has caught up, no thanks to Katie's struggle at the start".... etc.) and Dawson's inability to cooperate well with Penner at the puzzle part, the red team came up short. It was obvious that the choice would be between the two girls. Would it be the former Miss Delaware or the future Mrs Probst?
I think Katie won out over Dawson for a couple of reasons. She's probably somewhat less annoying. Aside from the last challenge where, yes Jeff, we know - she struggled.... she's overall been better at challenges than Dawson. She right away talked about it calmly to her tribemates, said she was sorry for her poor performance and truly felt pretty bad about it. I think the tribe wanted to give her another chance. And then there's Jeff... the baseball guy, not the host. Dawson was the only one who knew that Jeff's a former baseball star. Jeff didn't know for sure that she knew his secret, but he had a feeling she might. At one point, she's taunting him with, "I'd like to date an athlete, you know a football player or maybe a basketball player.... but not a BASEBALL player... they're just a bunch of grown men standing around doing nothing...." etc. Which made him laugh, but also gave him a hint that she might know about him. So, we didn't see it go down, but my bet is that Baseball Jeff made a pretty good case to Penner and Mute Carson that Dawson should be the one to go, and why the heck wouldn't they go along? Then the three of them just tell Denise, and bam! No more Dawson.
When Jeff the Host snuffed Dawson's torch, she looked deeply into his eyes... and latched on. Gave him a huge hug and a kiss (on the cheek, thankfully) and off she went into the night. I'm guessing that this is her reward anyway, and that she didn't care that much about the million bucks in the first place. If I'm Jeff, I'm watching my back at this point and not answering my hotel room door late at night. Stay in and read my blog, Jeff! For her last words, Dawson went on about how Baseball Jeff now owes her a bunch of the money if he wins (and a house and a car and a pink gun??? What the....?) Ummmm... that's idiotic. Not entirely sure why she wouldn't try to save herself by outing Baseball Jeff (not that it would probably matter at this point, but she could still cause some trouble!) except that for some reason she thought she was totally safe and Katie would be the one going home. Dumb. Probst likes his ladies smarter than that, girlfriend.
Final point... have we all noticed that Katie is wearing mascara? What the....? Was this her one luxury item that she had to have? Who the #@*& thinks that they should wear mascara on Survivor? I guess the former Miss Delaware does. Thing is, she gets rained on 17 hours a day, so mostly, it's running down her face giving her raccoon eyes. Not especially flattering. Cut to imaginary shot of Katie watching the show, thinking, "Dammit, I should have brought WATERPROOF mascara as my luxury item!!"
Next week it looks like we're going to see a monumental mud-fight! Woo hoo!
Friday, October 12, 2012
I'm Blue, La Ba Dee, La Ba Da
Back after holidays - what kind of Survivor blogger chooses a Wednesday to Wednesday holiday? And yes, I know the serious bloggers blog from their phones, or maybe they're super fancy and have laptops or iPads, but that's not me. Apologies to y'all.
So I've got 2 episodes to catch up on. I did see the majority of last week's episode on the plane. Missed a bunch of the beginning when they had to come on to tell us how to buckle our seatbelts, etc. Really, are there people out there who don't know how to buckle the seatbelt? Anyway....
I did gather that Pete - who we haven't heard much from up 'til now - all of a sudden figures he's the King. He's one of those guys who thinks he's controlling the game - and maybe right now he is. In last night's episode, he played a clever trick on his former ally, RC. He knew where the hidden immunity clue was & placed it so that it looked like it had fallen out of RC's bag, then made sure crazy-pants, Abi saw it. Natch', Abi lost her mind on RC. Poor RC... "I didn't DO anything!" Abi won't hear of it. No, you know what you did - you are dead to me. Imagine being a friend or family member of someone this irrational. These are the people who end up on talk shows.
The good news here is that Lisa (can I just call her Blair, please?) is no longer the weirdo. The focus is on the feud between Abi & RC and everyone else can pretty much sit back & watch. Blair wisely just stayed out of it. Skupin so far hasn't had many more bleeding out the eyes incidents, and I'm starting to love Artis. I want to know mor about Artis. So far he is mute, but still somehow interesting... what's with that?
Things have shaken up in the red team too. Penner all of a sudden isn't on the outs any more. Yay! He was super smart to show the idol to Jeff and try to bond with him. Jeff was hesitant at first, but then I think actually grew to like Penner, who he has more in common with than any of the younger tribemates. Last night they brought in Carter, who we also hadn't heard from yet. Carter seems about 16, non? I'd have to look him up in the official bio, but he must only be 18 or 19, right? He's super cute, yet not that smart. I think he's pretty content to just follow the older men and not really come up with any ideas on his own....which will help Jeff and Penner down the road. Will Carter be swayed later by the ladies, though? He is that age... it's possible Katie the beauty queen could get him to switch sides. Oh, so did I mention that it's now girls vs. boys on the red team? Yes, Penner, Jeff & Carter vs. Katie, Dawson & Dana.
By the way, it has occurred to me that I've been calling Denise Dana up 'til now. They look NOTHING alike - Denise is the super fit older (and again, by older, I mean not 20) sex therapist on the blue team. I love Denise. More on her in a bit. Dana is the short, spikey haired blonde on the red team. She's firing the girls up to band together against the boys. I can't tell if I like any of the red girls yet, though I'm leaning more towards Dana than the other two.
Aaaaaand then there's the sad, sad blue team. No wonder they're blue. In last week's challenge, both Angie & Russell struggled on the diving portion. Russell, for all his muscley upper body, couldn't get back up onto the platform. He's obviously a fit guy, but doesn't seem to have much stamina. Perhaps he works out lifting weights, but never does anything else? Anyway, Angie just couldn't dive. Perhaps because of her floatation devices? Possible. At any rate, she hasn't done well at any challenges. I did enjoy that Denise (not Dana) and Malcolm took responsibility off the other two by saying that they could have just done the whole thing but somehow felt the need to let the others have turns, costing the game. Angie & Russell, meanwhile, just blamed each other. Angie - who GAVE UP - kept going on about how Russell shouldn't have given up. Huh? And how she 'would have kept going'.... except that it was easier not to.
(Quick aside.... in that challenge, it was pretty much RC that won it for the yellow team. She's pretty much an excellent swimmer, but seems to have not gotten any credit for it now that Abi has declared her a witch.)
So Angie was the first to go. You can't blame the blue team for getting rid of her. Russell has a little more athletic ability, though possibly more annoyingness (is that a word?) Though, I probably would be more annoyed by Angie and that doe-eyed thing that she does. I hope she got her cookies.
On last night's episode, the three blues came out swinging. Unfortunately, the other two teams got to sit out 3 people, so they each picked their girls to sit out in what was essentially a strength challenge. (Aside again - aren't you not allowed to sit out the same person in back-to-back challenges? Is this still a rule? 'Cause some of those girls sat out last time for sure.) This leads me to my love for Denise. Not only is she a good player and reasonable, nice human that I think I'd get along with (vs. say Abi, who I'd have trouble not punching....) but she's also a machine! She carried those heavy pots of rice better than a few of the men did on the other team. The blue team was actually in the lead for most of the game, but then Malcolm lost out to Jeff (who, uh, should be able to hit something with a ball....) and Artis... in what was a HUGE nail-biter of a challenge. Came down to the last second... amazing challenge. Didn't you feel sorry this time for the blue team? They all really, really, gave it their all & if it hadn't been the fourth loss in a row, you'd just think, well, you were close. But no. So you feel sorry for them.... until Russell takes a pot of rice and smashes it on the ground. Sigh.
Everyone looks on while Russell has a total tantrum meltdown. His teammates are mortified. The other teams look on somewhat amused. Russell starts chatting it up with God... "Why, Lord? Why can't we win a challenge?" Jeff just asks him what the what is up? Russell - I kid you not - goes on about how his body was created by God to be perfect... so he is the perfect being.... or something like that. Dude is as delusional as Angie. Malcolm put it really well (how much are you starting to love Malcolm?) when he said that Russell is not at all self-aware. He keeps trying to lead, while not thinking that he's leading and not realizing that no one wants him to lead. He does not know he's annoying. He talks a lot about himself without any idea about how anyone else is reading him. No attempt to adapt to others. Uh, he's a perfect being, why would he need to?
So Malcolm & Denise did a magnificent job in fooling Russell into thinking that each one might vote for the other one. Malcolm comes up & says that yeah, Denise should probably be the next one to go because she's not as strong as him & Russell (which is not at all true, but totally plays into Russell's inflated ego.) Then Denise comes up and tells Russell that they should vote off Malcolm because he's such a huge threat. Meanwhile, the 2 of them are tight and in no way are going to keep Russell. He could have shaken things up had he found the immunity idol.... but he didn't. (Did you love the Survivor editing team focusing on the rice bucket and even giving it a flash as he walked right by it for the zillionth time saying, "I know there's going to be like a flash on the screen as I walk by and I'm going to look stupid." Yup. Sorry. Could have happened to any of us. But it happened to Mr. Perfect. (Cue sad Charlie Brown music.) Master T is going home, super disappointed.... back to his weights and DJing for MuchMusic.
So not sure what's going to happen now. Are they going to merge into 2 tribes? If so, will they split up Malcolm and Denise? That would suck. Or will they make them keep doing challenges on their own? Would love to see the two of them kick butt. Would love to see them go to the end. Even Malcolm & Russell were so cute how they went on and on at Tribal Council telling Jeff how Denise is such a threat because she's SO nice (Russell: She'll win the million bucks and then you'll write her your own cheque to cover the taxes...) Really lovely. And yes, Denise, who used to be Dana, is a huge threat.
Next week it appears as though the medical team comes in for team red. Who is it for? Is it Jeff & his bum knee? He is used to having a trainer at his beck & call, so maybe. Or is it something more sinister? Hmmmm.... Will have to watch & see. And I promise a more timely blog next week.
So I've got 2 episodes to catch up on. I did see the majority of last week's episode on the plane. Missed a bunch of the beginning when they had to come on to tell us how to buckle our seatbelts, etc. Really, are there people out there who don't know how to buckle the seatbelt? Anyway....
I did gather that Pete - who we haven't heard much from up 'til now - all of a sudden figures he's the King. He's one of those guys who thinks he's controlling the game - and maybe right now he is. In last night's episode, he played a clever trick on his former ally, RC. He knew where the hidden immunity clue was & placed it so that it looked like it had fallen out of RC's bag, then made sure crazy-pants, Abi saw it. Natch', Abi lost her mind on RC. Poor RC... "I didn't DO anything!" Abi won't hear of it. No, you know what you did - you are dead to me. Imagine being a friend or family member of someone this irrational. These are the people who end up on talk shows.
The good news here is that Lisa (can I just call her Blair, please?) is no longer the weirdo. The focus is on the feud between Abi & RC and everyone else can pretty much sit back & watch. Blair wisely just stayed out of it. Skupin so far hasn't had many more bleeding out the eyes incidents, and I'm starting to love Artis. I want to know mor about Artis. So far he is mute, but still somehow interesting... what's with that?
Things have shaken up in the red team too. Penner all of a sudden isn't on the outs any more. Yay! He was super smart to show the idol to Jeff and try to bond with him. Jeff was hesitant at first, but then I think actually grew to like Penner, who he has more in common with than any of the younger tribemates. Last night they brought in Carter, who we also hadn't heard from yet. Carter seems about 16, non? I'd have to look him up in the official bio, but he must only be 18 or 19, right? He's super cute, yet not that smart. I think he's pretty content to just follow the older men and not really come up with any ideas on his own....which will help Jeff and Penner down the road. Will Carter be swayed later by the ladies, though? He is that age... it's possible Katie the beauty queen could get him to switch sides. Oh, so did I mention that it's now girls vs. boys on the red team? Yes, Penner, Jeff & Carter vs. Katie, Dawson & Dana.
By the way, it has occurred to me that I've been calling Denise Dana up 'til now. They look NOTHING alike - Denise is the super fit older (and again, by older, I mean not 20) sex therapist on the blue team. I love Denise. More on her in a bit. Dana is the short, spikey haired blonde on the red team. She's firing the girls up to band together against the boys. I can't tell if I like any of the red girls yet, though I'm leaning more towards Dana than the other two.
Aaaaaand then there's the sad, sad blue team. No wonder they're blue. In last week's challenge, both Angie & Russell struggled on the diving portion. Russell, for all his muscley upper body, couldn't get back up onto the platform. He's obviously a fit guy, but doesn't seem to have much stamina. Perhaps he works out lifting weights, but never does anything else? Anyway, Angie just couldn't dive. Perhaps because of her floatation devices? Possible. At any rate, she hasn't done well at any challenges. I did enjoy that Denise (not Dana) and Malcolm took responsibility off the other two by saying that they could have just done the whole thing but somehow felt the need to let the others have turns, costing the game. Angie & Russell, meanwhile, just blamed each other. Angie - who GAVE UP - kept going on about how Russell shouldn't have given up. Huh? And how she 'would have kept going'.... except that it was easier not to.
(Quick aside.... in that challenge, it was pretty much RC that won it for the yellow team. She's pretty much an excellent swimmer, but seems to have not gotten any credit for it now that Abi has declared her a witch.)
So Angie was the first to go. You can't blame the blue team for getting rid of her. Russell has a little more athletic ability, though possibly more annoyingness (is that a word?) Though, I probably would be more annoyed by Angie and that doe-eyed thing that she does. I hope she got her cookies.
On last night's episode, the three blues came out swinging. Unfortunately, the other two teams got to sit out 3 people, so they each picked their girls to sit out in what was essentially a strength challenge. (Aside again - aren't you not allowed to sit out the same person in back-to-back challenges? Is this still a rule? 'Cause some of those girls sat out last time for sure.) This leads me to my love for Denise. Not only is she a good player and reasonable, nice human that I think I'd get along with (vs. say Abi, who I'd have trouble not punching....) but she's also a machine! She carried those heavy pots of rice better than a few of the men did on the other team. The blue team was actually in the lead for most of the game, but then Malcolm lost out to Jeff (who, uh, should be able to hit something with a ball....) and Artis... in what was a HUGE nail-biter of a challenge. Came down to the last second... amazing challenge. Didn't you feel sorry this time for the blue team? They all really, really, gave it their all & if it hadn't been the fourth loss in a row, you'd just think, well, you were close. But no. So you feel sorry for them.... until Russell takes a pot of rice and smashes it on the ground. Sigh.
Everyone looks on while Russell has a total tantrum meltdown. His teammates are mortified. The other teams look on somewhat amused. Russell starts chatting it up with God... "Why, Lord? Why can't we win a challenge?" Jeff just asks him what the what is up? Russell - I kid you not - goes on about how his body was created by God to be perfect... so he is the perfect being.... or something like that. Dude is as delusional as Angie. Malcolm put it really well (how much are you starting to love Malcolm?) when he said that Russell is not at all self-aware. He keeps trying to lead, while not thinking that he's leading and not realizing that no one wants him to lead. He does not know he's annoying. He talks a lot about himself without any idea about how anyone else is reading him. No attempt to adapt to others. Uh, he's a perfect being, why would he need to?
So Malcolm & Denise did a magnificent job in fooling Russell into thinking that each one might vote for the other one. Malcolm comes up & says that yeah, Denise should probably be the next one to go because she's not as strong as him & Russell (which is not at all true, but totally plays into Russell's inflated ego.) Then Denise comes up and tells Russell that they should vote off Malcolm because he's such a huge threat. Meanwhile, the 2 of them are tight and in no way are going to keep Russell. He could have shaken things up had he found the immunity idol.... but he didn't. (Did you love the Survivor editing team focusing on the rice bucket and even giving it a flash as he walked right by it for the zillionth time saying, "I know there's going to be like a flash on the screen as I walk by and I'm going to look stupid." Yup. Sorry. Could have happened to any of us. But it happened to Mr. Perfect. (Cue sad Charlie Brown music.) Master T is going home, super disappointed.... back to his weights and DJing for MuchMusic.
So not sure what's going to happen now. Are they going to merge into 2 tribes? If so, will they split up Malcolm and Denise? That would suck. Or will they make them keep doing challenges on their own? Would love to see the two of them kick butt. Would love to see them go to the end. Even Malcolm & Russell were so cute how they went on and on at Tribal Council telling Jeff how Denise is such a threat because she's SO nice (Russell: She'll win the million bucks and then you'll write her your own cheque to cover the taxes...) Really lovely. And yes, Denise, who used to be Dana, is a huge threat.
Next week it appears as though the medical team comes in for team red. Who is it for? Is it Jeff & his bum knee? He is used to having a trainer at his beck & call, so maybe. Or is it something more sinister? Hmmmm.... Will have to watch & see. And I promise a more timely blog next week.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
And On the Eigth Day, The Lord Said, "Let There Not Be Booty Blindness"....
Oh my, lots to discuss from last night's episode. Let's break it down into tribes, shall we? I can't be bothered to learn the tribe names, because we all know they won't be around long, and plus... well, I don't care. We all know them by their colour and their returnee anyway, right?
Yellow-Skupin tribe:
RC figures she's in tight with the Shakira (Abi-Maria), so when she finds a clue to the immunity idol, she shares it. The Shakira on the other hand, is nutso. To her, she "caught" RC with the idol, thus "forcing" her to share it. See where this is going? Then, when Shaki "catches" RC chatting up Skupin, she starts to lose her mind. She confronts RC, who says, hey, we were just chatting. Shaki: "Yes, well it freaks me out. You know we are friends and everything, but if you go behind my back you are dead to me. Dead!" Ummmm... OK. You can see the wheels turning in RC's brain, and the thought bubble says, "Oh dear lord, did I just make an alliance with this?" You see, first you're all mesmerized by the hips and the accent, then it's all rabbits in boiling pots of water....
Then there's Lisa! Oh, I want to give Lisa a hug! She's just not fitting in. She's well aware that she's a shy person, who's not great at "chit-chat" and she's stuck with these young morons who are being mean to her. One (RC, I think... or maybe Shakira) says, "I just don't think she's making enough effort to fit in." Ugh. So, she goes off by herself a bunch... which, in life is probably an OK idea. In Survivor, it's like painting a big target on your back. Even Skupin is not really being her friend, probably because he's just trying to ride the waves of the game, which is his strategy. Fine. At one point, one of the stupid girls (RC again?) said, "She's like a dog that just runs off on you all the time & sometimes you have to face facts and just put the dog down." Something like that. Dog lovers and Facts of Life fans everywhere gasp! Well, I think Blair Warner is tougher than that and that she'll bounce back. In the challenge she took on a pretty tough role, as caller during a puzzle challenge. She was confident and awesome and helped her team win it. Woo hoo! This gives us more time for Lisa to endear herself to her tribe and more time for Shakira to show her true, paranoid colours.
Finally, there's Skupin. They keep cutting to him checking out small injuries. A scrape here, a cut there. Well on the 'scenes from next week' he appears to be bleeding out of his eyeballs! Perhaps our man is a little on the uh.... accident-prone side? Is it wrong that I laughed out loud when I saw him bleeding out of his eyes? (In fairness, I'm not sure yet what the exact nature of the injury is - will have to watch next week to find out!)
Red-Penner tribe:
Who else is even on this tribe except Penner? Oh yeah, baseball guy... and some other people. Yeah, the only interesting thing that happened over here is that Penner found the hidden immunity idol! Yay, Hawkeye! He came pretty close to getting caught, but made up a pretty lame story about losing a contact lens and having to look for his glasses... and I think it actually worked. Hee hee. Penner's tribe came in second in the challenge, so no need for the idol this time. Phew!
Blue-Russell tribe:
(Heh heh... My hubby reminded me that I used to call Russell "Master T," which you'll find funny if you're of a certain age & used to watch Much Music in Canada. Otherwise... just work with me.)
So it's cold and rainy for quite a while. Malcolm & Angie snuggle up at night. Well, this isn't new on Survivor - happens all the time. However, Roxy decides to make a big deal of it. On one hand, she's totally right. Especially in a small group, a solid pair can do a lot of damage. On the other hand, she kind of just sounds jealous of Angie's boobs, she talks so much about them... and maybe she finds it sinful? I don't know, she is a seminary student. We've had lots of Christians on Survivor, but this time it gets shut down instead of turning into an NFL worthy prayer session. Dana, the sex therapist, isn't big on the God stuff and finds Roxy's praying (ummmm.... what WAS that she was doing? Anyone? What the heck language was that anyway?) a bit weird. Roxy admits that she thought it would give her more strength of character, which it clearly doesn't. She's one of those girls who apparently has never seen the show, and doesn't get that there are pretty much 3 things you need to do:
Back to the couple for a sec... Malcolm knows he's being a bid dumb. He admits to the camera that he has to keep reminding himself not to get "booty blinded"... heh heh. But he doesn't think he's doing anything all that wrong. Later at Tribal, instead of just owning up to it, he says that Angie's like "a little sister" which Roxy calls "creepy". I'm with Roxy on that one. I saw those hands on Angie. That's not a big brother move, dude. Ew.
However, the rest of the tribe saw Roxy as the bigger problem. It really would have been a toss-up for Angie or Roxy, right? Both of them SUCKED at the challenge. One of them had to go twice.... Angie didn't want to, and then when Roxy was asked, she kind of whined, "I really haven't had much water today...." Really? 'Cause everyone else is apparently on a different island than you? So Angie went twice, but the two of them were awful at the challenge, which involved pulling a sled-type thing, picking up puzzle pieces and pulling it back. Both Angie and Roxy figured dropping their rope and pushing was the better option, though they ended up just really pushing the thing down into the sand. Then Angie went and collapsed in the shade after they were done and both girls entirely checked out and did not help with the puzzle at all. Roxy fought to stay by trying to deflect blame onto Angie's boobs, and Angie... well, she kept having those boobs. At Tribal, Jeff asked the question, "What one thing would you change about this tribe?" A couple people give pretty good answers. Angie: "That we could have cookies." Oh, honey. Jeff, bless him, just about fell off his seat. Way to buck that stereotype that you're just a young, dumb blonde, Angie. Ay-yi! Jeff didn't let it go. I like that Jeff is staying punchy and not letting people off when they say stupid things. "Really? Cookies?" Ugh... (while we're at it, can we talk about how annoying it would be to be stuck around those girls in the yellow tribe who just talk about what food they like all the time. There are always 'those girls' on Survivor.) I appreciated Roxy's fight, and the fact she kept referring to the sleeping situation b/tw Angie and Malcolm as a "booby trap." I believe the tribe is not a huge fan as a whole of either Roxy or Angie but that they saw Roxy as the bigger problem. (See above.) Angie and her boobs are at least trying to accomplish item #1, and maybe when you remove the downer from the group, they'll perk up (The tribe! What did you think?) and pull it together for a win. Or not. We'll see.
There's still a lot to happen. There are people we've barely heard a word from yet. Artis? Most of the entire red tribe? Yesterday I actually said out loud, "Who's that blonde guy?" Seriously, who is it? Carter maybe? Anyway, it's all been about a few people so far which makes me think we should keep a close watch on those folks who they're NOT showing. (Remember Sophie?) These are the ones who could go far precisely because they're not doing anything that interesting. They're just going about their business, working at camp and getting along. This is how you play Survivor, not sulking and wishing for cookies.
Yellow-Skupin tribe:
RC figures she's in tight with the Shakira (Abi-Maria), so when she finds a clue to the immunity idol, she shares it. The Shakira on the other hand, is nutso. To her, she "caught" RC with the idol, thus "forcing" her to share it. See where this is going? Then, when Shaki "catches" RC chatting up Skupin, she starts to lose her mind. She confronts RC, who says, hey, we were just chatting. Shaki: "Yes, well it freaks me out. You know we are friends and everything, but if you go behind my back you are dead to me. Dead!" Ummmm... OK. You can see the wheels turning in RC's brain, and the thought bubble says, "Oh dear lord, did I just make an alliance with this?" You see, first you're all mesmerized by the hips and the accent, then it's all rabbits in boiling pots of water....
Then there's Lisa! Oh, I want to give Lisa a hug! She's just not fitting in. She's well aware that she's a shy person, who's not great at "chit-chat" and she's stuck with these young morons who are being mean to her. One (RC, I think... or maybe Shakira) says, "I just don't think she's making enough effort to fit in." Ugh. So, she goes off by herself a bunch... which, in life is probably an OK idea. In Survivor, it's like painting a big target on your back. Even Skupin is not really being her friend, probably because he's just trying to ride the waves of the game, which is his strategy. Fine. At one point, one of the stupid girls (RC again?) said, "She's like a dog that just runs off on you all the time & sometimes you have to face facts and just put the dog down." Something like that. Dog lovers and Facts of Life fans everywhere gasp! Well, I think Blair Warner is tougher than that and that she'll bounce back. In the challenge she took on a pretty tough role, as caller during a puzzle challenge. She was confident and awesome and helped her team win it. Woo hoo! This gives us more time for Lisa to endear herself to her tribe and more time for Shakira to show her true, paranoid colours.
Finally, there's Skupin. They keep cutting to him checking out small injuries. A scrape here, a cut there. Well on the 'scenes from next week' he appears to be bleeding out of his eyeballs! Perhaps our man is a little on the uh.... accident-prone side? Is it wrong that I laughed out loud when I saw him bleeding out of his eyes? (In fairness, I'm not sure yet what the exact nature of the injury is - will have to watch next week to find out!)
Red-Penner tribe:
Who else is even on this tribe except Penner? Oh yeah, baseball guy... and some other people. Yeah, the only interesting thing that happened over here is that Penner found the hidden immunity idol! Yay, Hawkeye! He came pretty close to getting caught, but made up a pretty lame story about losing a contact lens and having to look for his glasses... and I think it actually worked. Hee hee. Penner's tribe came in second in the challenge, so no need for the idol this time. Phew!
Blue-Russell tribe:
(Heh heh... My hubby reminded me that I used to call Russell "Master T," which you'll find funny if you're of a certain age & used to watch Much Music in Canada. Otherwise... just work with me.)
So it's cold and rainy for quite a while. Malcolm & Angie snuggle up at night. Well, this isn't new on Survivor - happens all the time. However, Roxy decides to make a big deal of it. On one hand, she's totally right. Especially in a small group, a solid pair can do a lot of damage. On the other hand, she kind of just sounds jealous of Angie's boobs, she talks so much about them... and maybe she finds it sinful? I don't know, she is a seminary student. We've had lots of Christians on Survivor, but this time it gets shut down instead of turning into an NFL worthy prayer session. Dana, the sex therapist, isn't big on the God stuff and finds Roxy's praying (ummmm.... what WAS that she was doing? Anyone? What the heck language was that anyway?) a bit weird. Roxy admits that she thought it would give her more strength of character, which it clearly doesn't. She's one of those girls who apparently has never seen the show, and doesn't get that there are pretty much 3 things you need to do:
- Get along with people.
- Work in camp, at least as much as the others, and
- Step up (at least a little!) in challenges
Back to the couple for a sec... Malcolm knows he's being a bid dumb. He admits to the camera that he has to keep reminding himself not to get "booty blinded"... heh heh. But he doesn't think he's doing anything all that wrong. Later at Tribal, instead of just owning up to it, he says that Angie's like "a little sister" which Roxy calls "creepy". I'm with Roxy on that one. I saw those hands on Angie. That's not a big brother move, dude. Ew.
However, the rest of the tribe saw Roxy as the bigger problem. It really would have been a toss-up for Angie or Roxy, right? Both of them SUCKED at the challenge. One of them had to go twice.... Angie didn't want to, and then when Roxy was asked, she kind of whined, "I really haven't had much water today...." Really? 'Cause everyone else is apparently on a different island than you? So Angie went twice, but the two of them were awful at the challenge, which involved pulling a sled-type thing, picking up puzzle pieces and pulling it back. Both Angie and Roxy figured dropping their rope and pushing was the better option, though they ended up just really pushing the thing down into the sand. Then Angie went and collapsed in the shade after they were done and both girls entirely checked out and did not help with the puzzle at all. Roxy fought to stay by trying to deflect blame onto Angie's boobs, and Angie... well, she kept having those boobs. At Tribal, Jeff asked the question, "What one thing would you change about this tribe?" A couple people give pretty good answers. Angie: "That we could have cookies." Oh, honey. Jeff, bless him, just about fell off his seat. Way to buck that stereotype that you're just a young, dumb blonde, Angie. Ay-yi! Jeff didn't let it go. I like that Jeff is staying punchy and not letting people off when they say stupid things. "Really? Cookies?" Ugh... (while we're at it, can we talk about how annoying it would be to be stuck around those girls in the yellow tribe who just talk about what food they like all the time. There are always 'those girls' on Survivor.) I appreciated Roxy's fight, and the fact she kept referring to the sleeping situation b/tw Angie and Malcolm as a "booby trap." I believe the tribe is not a huge fan as a whole of either Roxy or Angie but that they saw Roxy as the bigger problem. (See above.) Angie and her boobs are at least trying to accomplish item #1, and maybe when you remove the downer from the group, they'll perk up (The tribe! What did you think?) and pull it together for a win. Or not. We'll see.
There's still a lot to happen. There are people we've barely heard a word from yet. Artis? Most of the entire red tribe? Yesterday I actually said out loud, "Who's that blonde guy?" Seriously, who is it? Carter maybe? Anyway, it's all been about a few people so far which makes me think we should keep a close watch on those folks who they're NOT showing. (Remember Sophie?) These are the ones who could go far precisely because they're not doing anything that interesting. They're just going about their business, working at camp and getting along. This is how you play Survivor, not sulking and wishing for cookies.
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