MrsGryn

You made me laugh and gave helpful advice at the same time. Someone earned a cookie!

So basically, don't wait for me to post any sort of discussion topic. I agree with jak about Tattersail. Definitely an instantly relatable character. One of the aspects I like so far is the diversity of the types of people inhabiting the book. One of the aspects I don't like is the same. A little trouble trying to keep track of who or what is what, so I'm grateful for the glossary and the dramatis personae.

Interesting, though the video made me seasick.

I think Davie may have some game smarts. but he has been mostly off the radar. Nick is certainly bright enough to think of splitting the votes. Same with Gabby and Christian. However, it is all contingent on Davie using the idol and it seemed Nick and Carl were in on it, judging from the reactions as Probst announced who was going home.

This show has been on the air for thirty-seven seasons, and yet it continues to blindside me. Tonight’s Tribal Council was one of the best ever, and I loved it, even though my current favorite player went home. Best part? The repercussions might be even juicier. But first, the rest of the episode. Back at camp in night vision mode, we find Angelina scrambling to try and save her shapely backside. She outright lies to the rest of the tribe about what happened when she told Elizabeth was going home. She claims Elizabeth cornered her, cried and begged. None of the Goliaths buy it, as well they should not. Also, she is one of those liars who thinks that if she just repeats her lie enough times, it will become truth. If only we could get Judge Judy to adjudicate the case! Christian and Mike deconstruct what happened with Angelina, and reassert their alliance as part of the Strike Force Six (Christian, Mike, Alison, Alec, Nick, Gabby). Strike Force is yet another stupid alliance nickname and this trend needs to die a watery death on Survivor Island, because it annoys the shit out of me. I used to hold Nick solely responsible for it, but now I see it has been Christian all along. There may be a poll as to which of the alliance names is the worst. (Spoiler alert: Fou-tay will still win.) It seems that even though Mike was on board with the six alliance, Gabby’s poor-me-crying act at Tribal the night before got under his neurotic skin. Now he is parannoying that the Davids are actually going to be voting off all the Goliaths and that was their plan all along. No, Mike, Gabby is just someone who talks through her feelings. Those feelings generally involve weeping. Nick and Davie, meanwhile, decide they are going to go out searching for an idol or advantage or something that might help the Davids stay alive in the game. We see them wandering around the jungle, poking through bushes with sticks and finally finding a bundle with a bright blue ribbon on it, the same color as the Kalokalo flag. Turns out it is replica of the picture painted on the Welcome to the Merge Feast sign. SEE! I TOLD YOU SO! Nick calls it a “cool 80s” design that he could put on a t-shirt, and from what I remember of the 80s, he is not wrong. The two of them realize they need to look for a real life scene similar to the design, a palm tree sticking out of a cliff. Carl joins them and BOOM! There they see it! A palm tree looking exactly like the clue picture. Unfortunately, Kara, Dan, John, and Gabby are sitting on the beach blocking the way. Davie peels off and goes to stand on a rock near the shoreline, pretending he is practicing his ninja sword moves with a stick, while Carl and Nick sneak off to go around the palm-tree-blockers and quickly find what they are looking for: an advantage in the game, a stolen vote option. The holder of the advantage, which is Nick, can remove one other player’s vote and then vote twice. They are super-elated and roll around in the sand in glee. Carl tells Nick that he has an idol nullifier, and then they clue Davie in on it. He is even more thrilled since he has an idol, though no one on his tribe knows about it. I’m so proud of Davie for finally doing what so many have failed to do in the past: keep a secret. Reward challenge time! Probst is wearing a Behr Paint Beachside Drive shirt, for those keeping score at home. The tribe will be divided into two teams of six. They will hold sandbags up over their heads. The bags are connected to a trough overhead and if one of the sandbags falls, then the trough will dump water all over them and that team is out. So this challenge is only as good as its weakest player. Fun! If it is hot enough, though, I might consider just letting the water dump anyway. Want to know what they are playing for? Pizza. A dozen pizzas as a matter of fact. He gives them a chance to try a bite from one slice and it looks like the wanest, floppiest pizza ever. I think there might have been pineapple on it. Survivor gods are so cruel. Teams are divided up. Purple is Carl, Kara, Davie, Dan, Mike, Angelina. That means Orange is Gabby, Christian, John, Alison, Alec, Nick. Survivors ready? GO! So it turns out, every fifteen minutes a player has to drop out and the sandbags are passed on to the rest of the team until there is only one player left on each team. The first to drop on each team is Gabby and Angelina. The next two are Christian and Carl, who ends up prone on the ground with back spasms. The teams struggle to pass the bags around and at one point, Dan is holding three bags (ten pounds each) on one hand, fully extended. He taunts Alec and John about being not stepping up like FatSwat is doing, and what happens? One of his three bags falls and team Purple gets the deluge. Dumbass. He holds sandbags like he plays Survivor: not thinking ahead. Orange wins pizza and gastrointestinal distress! Funny moment when Probst tells team Purple he has nothing for them, Mike sasses back, “Got nothing for you either.” Probst grins and loves it. “Finally, someone says what people have been wanting to say to me for years!” True confession: “I got nothing for you” is my husband’s favorite Probst-ism. He uses it with me all the time. I am less amused. Do you want me to recount people eating pizza, breadsticks, and soda? No. I am also not going to recap Carl and Davie killing one of the chickens. Oh, wait, I just did. Dammit. Let’s move on. Mike wanders off by himself, talking about how losing the reward challenge has reminded him he is not there for the rewards but to win the big game of Survivor himself. He is still feeling uncertain about the Davids voting out all the Goliaths, so he is less inclined to stick with the Sixth Stupid Alliance Name group. Also he is still translucent. How has his skin not burst into lobster red blisters by now? Anyway, he talks to Alec about the possibilities of flipping and he brings up getting rid of Christian as the biggest threat in the game from the David side of it. They run through the Davids left and dismiss Gabby as a follower. Then the two of them chortle at the thought about Carl and Davie mounting some sort of insurrection. Survivor Gods: Hold our beer. Mike brings the Goliaths together and they all decide to vote out Christian. Angelina does a #MeToo when she brings up to us that she wanted to get rid of Christian last week but no one listened to her. Suddenly when a man (Mike, though I would argue that he’s more ghost at this point) brings it up, then suddenly everyone accepts the idea as valid. I would submit that it is perhaps the deliverer of the suggestion more than the gender. AKA they don’t listen to Angelina because she has been a sneaky snake the whole time. Also, Elizabeth was hella-annoying. The Goliaths agree that they will say Angelina is the one being voted out. Immunity challenge time! Probst is wearing a Behr Paint Night Club shirt, for those keeping score at home. The challenge is one we’ve seen before: the Survivors will have to stand on a narrow beam while holding a buoy, volleyball sized, with two sticks. Very quickly we have Kara out first, followed by Christian, Alison, Davie, John, Gabby, Carl, Alec, Mike, and Nick. We are down to Angelina versus Dan at the end. They both looks solid, though Dan almost drops the buoy. Finally Angelina drops and FatSwat is the winner of individual immunity. I bet he had a peptalk with himself about how awesome he is right before the challenge. Post-tribal, there is some talk about voting out Angelina. John and Dan totally agree with Christian, then John tells us he is sorry to send Christian out since he is an honorary Brochacho, but the boy genius is way too smart to keep around. John is certain tonight is going to be a #BrochacoBlindside. And how, Mr. Slamtown Mayor! Just not the way you think. Angelina, though, is very paranoid and works Dan to promise to use his idol if necessary. He does promise, though he thinks it will be unnecessary. Later when he is talking to Alec and Kara, he expresses his unhappiness with Angelina and says it is clear that she must go, but first they have to get out a few more Davids. Still, he is willing to use his idol on her if necessary. Alec decides he doesn’t want to lose Nick’s trust, so he goes and spills the beans. Nick is confused about what happened to the Six alliance, but he is sharper than he looks. While talking to Christian, he spills the beans about being targeted, but advises him to not be stupid right now and just keep calm. Unlike Elizabeth, Christian is able to do just that. Nick and Davie whisper about possibly using the advantage to save Christian, but they are trying to make the numbers work. Davie is confused why they are targeting Christian. This clues him in that the Goliaths are going to pick them off one by one. Davie knows that his secret idol is the only thing that will save him for sure. Nick considers using the advantage but each of them separately wonder if it is a good idea to shine on light on themselves when they are seemingly not on the radar. Oh, what a tangled web we weave when playing Survivor! Tribal Council time. Probst is wearing a Behr Paint Yacht Blue shirt, for those keeping score at home. Elizabeth comes in wearing a lovely summer frock and I am just grateful that she is wearing something other than just her underwear. Probst asks Angelina how it was after the last tribal. Her answer is basically that it sucked and then Elizabeth’s death glare from the jury box killed her right then and there. Mike claims that the Davids are involved in the votes so it is a lot more complicated than just the Goliaths voting out the Davids. Davie is happy that Elizabeth exposed some cracks in the Goliaths last time and Carl, rather laconically, drawls that he does not buy when the Goliaths say and won’t until the votes come in. There is some discussion about give and take, and it winds around to John saying he is voting out threats. This gives Probst the opening to remind Christian that he was perceived as the weakest at the first challenge, but he proved himself to be Threat Level Genius. He acknowledges that it might have been a mistake to come out of the gate with a giant neon sign over his head stating “GENIUS HERE.” Angelina, once again smug-smiling her way through the tribal, says that Christian just wants to put someone else ahead of him on the threat level ladder. She informs Probst that the last tribal council was probably the final time they would go back to camp somewhat united and relieved. And with that, it’s time to vote. Survivors vote, Probst goes to tally the votes. Oh! A little business before the reading of the votes. Probst: “If anyone has a hidden immunity idol that they would like to play, now would bet the time to do so.” And what happens? Davie stands up and makes his way to Jeff. He asks if he can say three things to his tribe. First, he is sorry he had to hide the existence of the idol but he suspects they will understand. And that he is nervous, but he is more nervous for Christian, so the idol is for him. Angelina turns to Dan and whispers desperately that he needs to play his idol for her. She begs him and finally he stands up and tells Probst he wants to take care of his alliance, too. Angelina claims she loves him. He hands it to Probst and says he wants to play it for Angelina. And of course because she is just has to manage everything that goes on, she doublechecks that Dan told Jeff who the idol was for. Yeah, because this is Probst’s first rodeo, you clown. So votes for Christian and votes for Angelina do not count. Time for Jeff to read the votes. Christian. Does not count. Christian. Does not count. Christian. Does not count. Christian. Does not count. Christian. Does not count. Christian. Does not count. Christian. Does not count. Angelina. Does not count. Angelina. Does not count. John. Counts. John. Counts. And that’s enough, John is the second member of the jury. He takes is very well, in fact laughing at how it played out, and that just cements my love for the Mayor of Slamtown as a Survivor. He’s a player and he’s a fan and he understands the game. The guy is pretty awesome and I hope at some point in the future he comes back. I rewound Tribal Council vote reading a couple of times because it was so much fun. Once John’s name was read, Davie, Carl, and Nick broke into smiles and once John was told to bring his torch over, they high fived each other like pre-schoolers on a soccer field. No, really, they were pretty clumsy but still overjoyed at their accomplishment. Hey, FatSwat! Want to take back that snark about Davie and Carl being unable to mount an insurrection? Because they, along with Nick, just burned your ass like a bad Chipotle burrito.

Excellent episode! Love that it can still surprise me.

You guys are fast!! Or maybe I'm SLOWOLD.

The popularity of Christian is interesting! I find him a bit annoying but I can see the appeal.

I will give Dan credit for finding two idols. Editing makes it seem like he was the only one out looking but that is unlikely. On the other hand, his emotional reaction to Kara's information that Elizabeth was considering voting him out means he will not make good decisions down the line. I kind of hope he gets voted out with both idols in his pockets.

The Mayor of Slamtown seems to keep getting better and better as the season goes on. Genuinely funny and no asshole tendencies that we have seen so far.

I've changed my mind about Alec jumping ship. He seems to be playing it fairly well, by continuing to vote out Goliaths he is unaligned with, and creating a cross-tribe alliance with Christian, Nick, and Gabby.

There is still a wide field of Survivors out there, but the jury selection has begun. Which Survivor do you think is the early frontrunner to win and which Survivor would you want to see win the game?

Totally torpedoed her own game. Good.

Mike has lasted a lot longer than I gave him credit for in the beginning of the season. I do enjoy his asides and low key charm.

I say this as a person who tears up a LOT in regular life: get your shit together, girl.