Survivor 32 Episode 7 “It’s Merge Time”

AGCK!

Seriously, can we talk about that thing on Neal’s back last night?  Or, actually, let’s not.  As soon as Neal took off his shirt and turned his back to the camera, I was pretty much watching the rest of last night’s episode through my fingers.  It looked like a small creature was growing out of Neal’s back.

Interestingly enough, though, it wasn’t that terrible thing on Neal’s back that got him medically evacuated from the game.  Instead, it was the hole in his knee, which, deceptively, looked a lot less dangerous.  However, the show’s doctor was concerned that the infection could lead to Neal losing his leg and, as a result, Neal was medically evacuated.

Aubry got upset when Neal left without giving her the idol.  I can understand her being upset but, at the same time, I’m not sure how Aubry thought that Neal could giver her the idol without everyone else on the beach noticing.  If Neal had given Aubry the idol, Aubry would have become everyone’s number one target.

Plus, Aubry’s boring.  That really doesn’t have anything to do with Neal keeping the idol but I always feel the need to point out that Aubry is one of the most boring people that I’ve ever seen on Survivor.  She’s like the girl in high school who never wore makeup and would judge you if you wore a short skirt.

Personally, I think a lot of what happened last night has to do with the fact that Neal stopped wearing his magic bowtie.  For the previous few episodes, Neal always wore his bowtie and, as a result, he found the idol and always managed to avoid being voted out.  But during last night’s episode, after the two tribes merged, Neal stopped wearing his bowtie.  Suddenly, everyone on the Brawn Tribe and Beauty Tribe realized that Neal had an idol, he lost immunity, and everyone started to plot against him.  If he hadn’t been medically evacuated, he probably would have been voted out at Tribal Council.

Poor Neal.  He was the only member of the Brain Tribe that I liked.  Hopefully, along with Caleb, he’ll get another chance to play.

“I’m not Neal. I’m actor Jeremy Davies.”

As for the rest of tonight’s episode, things were dominated by the merge.  As I pointed out last week, the best thing that could have happened would have been for the Brains and the Beauties to team up and take out the Brawns.  Instead, the Beauties and the Brawns formed an alliance to take out the Brains.

And, to a certain extent, I’m okay with that because, with the exception of Neal, the Brains are all pretty unlikable.  Debbie is the Blair Witch and, therefore, responsible for a lot of bad things.  Joe claims to be a former member of the FBI and, if that’s true, it doesn’t give me much confidence in the abilities of law enforcement.  And then there’s Aubry.  I’ve noticed that Aubry actually does have a small and somewhat deluded online fan club, mostly made up of people who didn’t get to go to their prom.  But, seriously, Aubry is so BORING!

But, as much as I dislike the Brain Tribe, I absolutely cannot stand the Brawn Tribe and it upsets me to see the Beauty Tribe teaming up with them.  Scot was actually bearable when he was separated from Jason but, after the merge, the idiot man-child was reunited with the stinky bounty hunter and …. Bleh!

What can you say about Jason?  He’s the type of guy who brags about pushing smart people into lockers.  Last night, both Nick and Michele mentioned that Jason is obnoxious that there’s no way he would be a threat to actually win the game.  That worried me because I really hate to think that Jason would even get a chance to make it to the finale.  If there’s anyone who deserves to be blind-sided, it’s Jason.

(And, of course, Jason has an idol.  With Neal gone, he and Tai are the only two people with an idol.)

I’m taking the idol with me!!!!

Post-merge, Nick has suddenly emerged as a power player, serving as the Beauty Ambassador to the Brawns and the Brains.  Obviously, I really underestimated Nick when this season began.  Meanwhile, everyone hates Jason and Debbie is coming on way too strong.

At the end of tonight’s episode, it looked like Nick and the Beauties were willing to team up with the Brawns but you know what?  Next week’s episode is called “The Jocks vs. The Beautiful People” so it doesn’t look like that alliance is going to last all that long.

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

Forget me not!

 

Survivor 32 Episode 6 “Play or Go Home”

When last night’s episode of Survivor began … Oh My God, I was so worried.  After last week’s elimination of Anna, I had kind of resigned myself to the prospect of watching one member of the Beauty Tribe get voted out after another.  I looked at the numbers and I naturally assumed that the Brain Tribe would dominate the rest of the game.

Bleh! I thought, do I really want to watch a season dominated by the ugliest and most boring people in the game?  Do I want to spend the next month listening to Debbie cackle about how she’s the ring leader, especially when it probably means that final Survivor will turn out to be some boring nonentity like Aubry?

For the record, I do like Neal and his bowties.  He’s the only member of the Brain Tribe who I would voluntarily hang out with because you can tell that he’s an eccentric and that a conversation with him would at least be interesting.  Otherwise, consider this about the so-called smartest people on the beach:

Debbie, I am convinced, is the Blair Witch.  Last night, she declared that Nick, the least attractive member of the old Beauty Tribe, was an adonis.  She also bragged about being a former model.  Debbie, sweetie — taking a selfie of yourself naked in a gas station bathroom is not the same thing as being a model.

Joe is a former FBI negotiator.  Joe is also a total and complete moron.  Every time Joe starts to speak, I find myself thankful that he is no longer with the FBI and, presumably, has no role to play in keeping America safe.  Last night, several heavy blocks literally fell on his head during the immunity challenge but he says that they didn’t hurt.  That’s the advantage of having an empty skull.

Aubry is a basket case.  In high school and college, we all had a boring and needy friend like Aubry and, for the most part, we were always glad when she either transferred to another school or ended up having to take a semester off to recover from having a nervous breakdown.

And then there’s Peter.  Peter is the incredibly arrogant ER doctor who never knows when to shut up.  Peter has been scheming and conniving since the game began and, even more stupidly, he insists on bragging about it at Tribal Council.  Peter has been an obvious target since day one but it hasn’t made any strategic sense to vote him out.

But, last night, that’s exactly what happened.

The Gondol Tribe went to Tribal Council for a second time and, at first, it looked like poor Julia was going to be voted out.  But once again, Peter proved himself to be his own worse enemy.  First off, he openly considered betraying Joe and Aubry.  Then he talked about doing so at Tribal.  And, as usual, Peter managed to talk himself into a corner.

And this time, it finally came back to bite him on the ass.  Basketcase Aubry heard that Peter was looking to get rid of her and joined with Scot, Tae, and Julia and voted Peter off.  It was literally a last minute decision.  It was so last minute that Aubry originally wrote down Julia’s name before then drawing a line through it and instead voting for Peter.

Peter is gone, which is great for the Beauty Tribe though it probably won’t work out well for Aubry.  Next week, the two tribes are going to merge and it’ll be interesting to see if anyone’s going to be willing to trust Aubry.  Will Aubry be able to get back into her old alliance or will she end up at the bottom of a new alliance?  Is Aubry destined to be the Cochran of this season?

With Peter gone and the merge approaching, here’s who is left in the game:

Basketcase Aubry (Brains)

Empty-headed Joe (Brains)

Michele (Beauty)

Cydney (Brawn)

Bowtie Neal (Brains)

Nick (Beauty)

Scot (Brawn)

Julia (Beauty)

Adorable Tai (Beauty)

Stinky Jason (Brawn)

Witchy Debbie (Brain)

That’s 4 from the Brains, 4 From the Beauty, and 3 members of Brawn.  Personally, I would love to see the Brain and Beauty Tribes team up to pick off the Brawn people one-by-one.  The sooner Stinky Jason leaves the better!

I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Have a great weekend!

Lisa Marie

Survivor 32 Episode 5 “The Devils We Know”

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

I hope everyone wearing green from head to toe and is planning on dancing all night.  If you’re not — well, I guess that’s okay.  If you don’t have any plans for this most glorious of holidays, you can always spend some time thinking about last night’s episode of Survivor.

Though, to be honest, there’s really not much to think about.  After all the drama of last week, it’s not surprising that the The Devils We Know turned out to be a little anti-climatic.  Last night was pretty much a filler episode of Survivor.  There was really no surprise about who got voted out and it’s debatable how much anything we saw last night is going to really effect the end of the game.

That’s the nature of Survivor.  Not every elimination can be shocking.

Personally, I was sorry to see Anna go because I know what it’s like to be judged and stereotyped based on your physical appearance.  As I read some of the comments that were made about her on twitter (One guy leered, “Who will go home tonight?  Tits or Tai?”), I found myself almost praying that Tai would play his immunity idol and that he, Scot, and Anna would manage to turn the entire game upside down.  It would have been great and I would have loved to see one of those boring, arrogant Brain people go home.

But, in the end, Tai didn’t.  And again, I can’t blame him.  In the game of Survivor, fire may represent life but the immunity idol represents resurrection.  You want to hold on to that immunity idol for as long as possible and you certainly don’t want to give it away to someone else early in the game.  That’s just good strategy.

Anyway, the big news from last night’s episode is that we finally reached the tribal shakeup.  Because of Caleb’s unexpected exit, they went into the shakeup with an odd number of players.  As a result, when they drew buffs to determine their new tribes, six survivors pulled a Chan Loh buff, six survivor pulled a Gondol buff, and one survivor pulled a red buff and was exiled to Brawn Beach.

And that exiled survivor was Julia from the Beauty Tribe.  She spent almost all of tonight’s episode alone at the Brawn camp.  (Bleh!  Brawn camp probably still smells like Jason, too.  Jason doesn’t look very hygienic.)  Since she was in exile, she didn’t have to compete for immunity and was safe from the vote.  Next week, she will replace Anna on the new Gondol tribe.

Poor Julia

Here’s the two new tribes:

Chan Loh:

Witchy Debbie (former Brains)

Eccentric Neal (former Brains)

Cydney (former Brawn)

Stinky Jason (former Brawn)

Michele (former Beauty)

Nick (former Beauty)

Gondol:

Basket Case Aubry (former Brains)

Stupid Joe (former Brains)

Wannabe Peter (former Brains)

Anna (former Beauty, voted out at Tribal Council)

Adorable Tai (former Beauty)

Idiot Manchild Scot (former Brawn)

Julia (former Beauty, replaced Anna after Tribal Council)

(Sorry, not everyone’s earned a nickname as of yet.)

The tribal shake up did break up (at least temporarily) several small alliances.  Joe and Debbie are now on separate tribes,  Stinky Jason and Idiot Manchild Scot are on separate tribes.  And new alliances immediately started to form.  As if Debbie couldn’t be any more unlikable, she immediately started to bond with Jason and Cydney.  Meanwhile, Tai and Scot are working together over on Gondol.

(If I were Tai, I would be scared of Scot accidentally stepping on me, considering that Tai is three feet tall and Scot is like 8’9.  Or something like that.  All I know is Scot is really tall.)

When the Gondol Tribe lost immunity, it was obvious that either Tai or Anna was going to go home.  With Julia set to join after Tribal Council, the former Brains people realized that the only way to keep their majority in the new tribe was to vote out another former member of the Beauty Tribe.  Foolishly, they viewed Anna as a bigger threat and, let’s just be honest, I’m sure some jealousy played into it as well.  When your tribe is dominated by two socially awkward men and an insecure basket case like Aubry, it’s not surprising that Anna would be the target.

If Tai had used his idol to keep Anna safe, then wannabe Peter would have been voted out and, after Peter launched into another one of his “I control the tribe” monologues at tribal council, I thought it might happen.  But Tai held onto his idol and Anna was voted out.

(I swear, the Brain Tribe people are so boring.  And the Brawn Tribe was so ugly.  How can you not be Team Beauty?)

Your latest former Survivor, Anna

Anyway, that was last night’s episode.  Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!

Sláinte Mhaith!

Lisa Marie

The Amazing Race 28 Episode 5 “We’re Only Doing Freaky Stuff Today”

I always worry about the future of The Amazing Race.  Despite being one of my favorite reality shows, it’s never quite become as much of a television institution, at least not in the way that Survivor and Big Brother have.  Some of that’s because there’s rarely any controversy on the Race.  The teams are usually too busy racing to say or do anything that would make headlines.  Unlike Survivor and Big Brother, shows where you really get to know that people over the course of the season, The Amazing Race is all about the race and, at the end, all we can usually say for sure is whether or not the racers won or lost.

In the end, The Amazing Race is a travel show.  I like to travel so I love the show.  But not everyone agrees.  Over the past few seasons, the Amazing Race has not been treated with much respect by CBS.  First, the show was moved from Sunday to Friday which means that people, like me, who enjoy going out on Friday night are often not home to see it when it originally airs.  Secondly, the show has run the risk of getting gimmicky in a way that’s more appropriate for Big Brother.  For instance, we had the season where they tried to turn the Race into a dating show.  We had a second chances season.  And now, we have an “Internet Superstar” season.  It feels a bit like there’s some network tinkering going on.

And finally, last night, it was announced that The Amazing Race would be off the air for two weeks while CBS hands Friday night over to basketball.  Bleh!  The Amazing Race will be back on April 1st.

As for last night’s episode, it was a brutal one.  Nearly this entire leg took place in the French Alps and the teams not only had to deal with the thin air and the cold weather but a few also had to deal with a crippling fear of heights.  (I happen to be scared of heights myself so I was freaking out during this episode.)  Not only did they have to zipline from mountain to mountain in order to get their clue, they also had to go paragliding before they could go to the pit stop.  Seriously, this was a long and difficult leg of the race, one that was only briefly lightened up by the adorable sight of a man in a Yeti costume waving a French flag.

In fact, this leg was so difficult that I was convinced that it would be a non-elimination leg.  But I was wrong.  After having considerable trouble with the paragliding, Erin and Joslyn came in last and were eliminated from the race.

Here’s how the rest of the teams did:

Coming in first were Tyler and Korey.  They are a really strong team but I have to admit that Tyler’s constant laughing is starting to get on my nerves.

Coming in second: Brodie and Kurt.  As of right now, it really does seem like the Race is going to come down to Tyler and Korey vs. Brodie and Kurt.  Last week, I made some fairly dismissive comments about this team but, during last night’s episode, I finally started to understand their appeal.  They’re strong competitors, they work well together, and they don’t whine.  Good for them.

Coming in Third: Dana and Matt.  I really should like these two since they’re dancers and I’m usually impressed with their videos.  But, as a team, Dana and Matt spend way too much time arguing.  They should be one of the strongest teams out there but I still predict all that arguing is going to eventually knock them out of the race.

Coming in Fourth: Scott and Blair.  Scott and Blair jumped from 8th place to 4th place and they did so during a very difficult leg.  At first, this team annoyed me as elderly father/perky daughter teams on The Amazing Race always seem to do.  But they are slowly winning me over.  If Brodie asked Blair to throw the race for him, would she do it?

Coming in Fifth: Zach and Rachel!  I love Zach’s YouTube videos because they often feature kittens doing cute things.  But, to be honest, neither he nor Rachel have really been that interesting on the Race.  They’re likable but, more often than not, they’re Team Forgettable.  Still, they went from finishing 9th two weeks ago to finishing in the middle of the pack two times in a row.  Here’s hoping the Final Cut King will be around for a little bit longer.

Coming in Sixth: Burnie and Ashley.  Burnie and Ashley are a strong team but they made a huge mistake last night when, instead of throwing the dynamite, they decided to set up a camp instead.  It cost them a lot of time and, if not for Erin and Joslyn’s bad luck, they could very well have ended up getting eliminated during this leg.  That said, I have a feeling that Burnie and Ashley will fight their way back to the front of the pack.

Coming in Seventh: Sheri and Cole.  Poor Cole!  When he was freaking out about how high up he was, I totally related.  I’m glad that Sheri and Cole managed to avoid getting eliminated (mostly because Cole would have blamed himself and his phobia) but I’ll be surprised if they last for many more legs.

And finally, coming in eighth: Erin and Joslyn!  They have been eliminated, which means that I will no longer get them mixed up with Brittany and Jessica.

And that’s where we stand now.  The Amazing Race returns on April 1st!  Until then, I’ll just keep myself busy with Survivor. 🙂

Lisa Marie

P.S. Here’s one of Matt and Dana’s videos.

And here’s another video from Zach King:

 

Survivor 32 Episode 4 “Signed, Sealed, and Delivered”

I have watched 32 seasons of Survivor.  I have laughed.  I have cheered.  I have gotten mad and I’ve thrown things at the television.  However, I think that tonight’s episode may have been the first time that I’ve ever found myself in tears while watching Survivor.

Have you seen the latest episode yet?  If you haven’t watched it yet, stop right now,  Stop reading this post and go watch it.  Because, unless you’ve seen this episode and experienced it firsthand, you cannot understand the emotions that I and thousands of others are feeling right now.

I mean, we all knew that someone was going to be medically evacuated during tonight’s episode.  They told us that much in last week’s preview.  As I waited for tonight’s episode to start, I tried to guess who it would be.

I was certain it would be a member of the Brains Tribe because, physically, they are the weakest tribe.  I thought maybe it would be Joe because he’s older than the other castaways or maybe Aubry since she already seems to be way too fragile for this game.  A part of me really hoped that it would be someone from the Brawn Tribe, hopefully either Jason or Scot.  Wouldn’t that have been wonderful, to see one of the two self-styled alpha males collapse under the demands of competition?

Tonight’s episode started with a reward challenge.  It was a grueling competition.  In fact, I would argue that the reward — coffee and cups — wasn’t really worth the effort.  Along with running an obstacle course, the teams had to dig in a huge sand pit until they found three bags of balls.  It was a hot morning and, within a few moments of the competition, it was obvious that everyone was suffering.

The Brain Tribe found their bags first and, after throwing each of the 9 balls into a hole, they easily won the challenge.  While the other two tribes were still searching for their bags, the Brain Tribe was celebrating their victory.  That’s when Debbie collapsed and I thought, “Oh my God, Debbie’s going to be evacuated!”  Debbie leaving the game would have definitely been a huge development (for one thing, Joe would have no idea who to take his orders from) but, after the medical team checked her out, Debbie managed to recover.

(As I’ve made clear in the past, I’m not a fan of Debbie’s but I wouldn’t wish any harm on her.  Heat stroke is no joke.)

Meanwhile, the Beauty Tribe found their bags and Caleb started tossing the balls.  When he was finally down to having only one ball left, the Brawn Tribe finally found their bags and started tossing.  And the Brawn Tribe made up a lot of lost ground but finally, Caleb won the competition for the Beauty Tribe…

And then he collapsed.

And, seriously, it was one of the scariest moments that I’ve ever seen on Survivor.  The medical team ran over to Caleb and tried to get him to respond.  Tai started to cry and Caleb — big, strong Caleb — looked so helpless down on the ground.

And then Cydney collapsed.  The medical team checked on Cydney and it quickly became obvious that she would be okay,  Caleb, on the other hand, had to be medically evacuated.  When Jeff told him he was leaving the game, Caleb shook his head.  Caleb wanted to stay.  He wanted to play.  But for his safety, he was removed from the game.

On twitter, I said this:

I am goin' to start crying, OMG… #Survivor

— Lisa Marie Bowman (@LisaMarieBowman) March 10, 2016

As of right now, that tweet has gotten 166 likes and 23 retweets.  Obviously, I was not alone in being sad to see Caleb go.

And really, who would have ever expected this?  I couldn’t stand Caleb when he was on Big Brother but I loved him on Survivor.  He was truly in his element and, I would even say, that it appears he grew up a bit in between doing Big Brother and Survivor.  Gone was the stalkerish Caleb from Big Brother and instead, we had the Caleb who became best friends with Tai.  I’m not sure if Caleb would have won this season if he hadn’t been medically evacuated.  He was obviously such a big threat that he would have become everyone’s target after the merge.  But I think he had everything that he needed to succeed in this game.  If he had managed to make a few good strong alliances and win a few immunity challenges, I think he could have gone pretty far.

But you know what?  As much as it broke my heart to see Caleb go, it also reminded me of why I love Survivor.  You can never know for sure what’s going to happen.

After Caleb was evacuated, I was expecting that they would cancel the next Tribal Council (as they’ve done in the past when a survivor has been taken out of the game for medical reasons) and that they would just go ahead and reshuffle the tribes.  However, they didn’t.  The Brawn Tribe lost immunity (and, if we’re going to be absolutely honest, it didn’t look like Jason, Scot, and Cydney were making too much of an effort to win it).  At Tribal, Alecia was voted out.

And as I watched Jason, Scot, and Cydney spend all of their time bullying Alecia and talking about how she wasn’t up to their standards, I was reminded of why I cannot stand the Brawn Tribe.  Seriously, what a bunch of bullies.  Jason said he would not want his daughters to grow up to be like Alecia.  Hey, Jason — Alecia stood up for herself and refused to take your crap so you would be lucky if your daughters were half as independent as she is!

Jason insisted on calling Alecia “Blondie,” as if that was an insult.  Was he aware that Blondie was one of the greatest musical groups of all time?  In honor of Alecia, here’s Blondie performing Atomic:

Tonight’s episode ended with the suggestion that Caleb may return in a future season of Survivor.  Here’s hoping that both he and Alecia get a second chance at this game!

The Amazing Race 28 Episode 4 “Get It Trending”

Hi everyone!

So, I just watched the latest episode of The Amazing Race and I have mixed feelings about what I just saw.

Let’s start with the positive, shall we?

One of the most appealing things about The Amazing Race is that you get to see all of the beautiful countries that the teams visit.  Even though the teams rarely have the opportunity to really enjoy the scenery, the show still works as a fun little travelogue for the viewers at home.  Tonight, the teams flew from Columbia to Switzerland and I was really happy that they did.

Switzerland is one of the most beautiful countries in the world.  I spent the summer after I graduated high school exploring Europe.  And while I ended up spending most of my time in Italy, I still spent a few nights in Switzerland and it was absolutely amazing!  The mountains were breathtaking and the air itself seemed to be cleanest that I had ever breathed.  It was an amazing experience and watching Friday’s episode brought back a lot of really good memories.

Secondly, the challenges were truly challenging.  For the Detour, teams either had to put together an extremely intricate swiss army knife or they had to figure out how many people could sit on Europe’s longest bench.  Both took a lot of effort and concentration.  Then, the roadblock was a complex map challenge, where they had to look at hundreds of maps and figure out which map represented with country.  Once teams figured out how to do it, it was easy.  But, at the same time, some teams are better at figuring things out than others.

But, despite all of that, I got frustrated very early with tonight’s episode.  This season’s racers are all online celebrities and I’ve noticed that a lot of them seem to lack the killer instinct that was possessed by the best racers of the past.  The majority of them seem to be more interested in being stars and promoting their brand than in trying to win the race.  Hopefully, things will get a bit more cut throat as the race progresses because, tonight, everyone was way too nice to almost everyone else.

(It’s true that nobody was very nice to Brittany and Jessica but that’s because even this group of racers understand that someone has to come in last and be eliminated.)

Things started off with everyone talking about how Blair, who always finishes close to last, has a crush on Brodie, who always seems to finish each leg in either first or second place.  Tyler or Korey even suggested that Brodie and Blair should be known as Blodie and then encouraged us to “get it trending.”

And really — bleh.  First off, Brodie isn’t that hot.  He’s got a creepy smile, a boring personality, and it wouldn’t hurt him to shave.  Meanwhile, Blair and her father are in perennial danger of getting eliminated.  Considering how much those two have struggled during every single leg of the race, the last thing Blair needs to do is get distracted by a crush on a guy who isn’t all that special to begin with.  Would you give up a chance to win a million dollars just for a showmance?

And that leads me to my second issue — why was everyone helping out almost everyone else tonight?  Whenever one team figured out how to do a challenge, they would let everyone else know.  It all goes back to that lack of killer instinct.  Nobody had any killer instinct tonight.

Well, that’s not quite true.  When it became obvious that Brittany and Jessica were in last place, the rest of the teams pretty much shut them out.  When Jessica begged for help during the flag challenge, the remaining teams ignored her.  And while it may have seemed rather mean on their part, it was smart strategy.  As Blair pointed out, somebody was going to have to come in last.

But really, an even smarter strategy would have been for none of the teams to have worked together or helped each other out.  My favorite racers have always followed the strategy made famous by Boston Rob and Amber.  Why help a bunch of people you’re never going to see outside of the race?

(Especially when there’s a million dollars on the line!)

At the end of the leg, almost all of the racers pretty much showed up at the pit stop at the same time and there was big impromptu party at the mat.  Phil said that this was the biggest collection of people to arrive at the mat at the same time since All-Stars.

Either Erin or Joslyn (who can keep them straight) said, “That’s because we’re all-stars.”

Yeah, you wish.

To no one’s great surprise, Brittany and Jessica showed up last.  They had terrible luck during this leg of the race.  Not only did the rest of the teams refuse to help them but they also ended up getting the last train to the pit stop.  Phil eliminated them from the race.

For the record, here’s how everyone finished this leg of the race.  The top 8 teams were so close together that all of them pretty much arrived at the mat within seconds of each other.  Next week, when its time to start the 5th leg, they’ll all be leaving at nearly the same time so, this time around, the order of finish is not as important as it’s been on other legs of the race (unless, of course, your Brittany and Jessica);

1. Brodie and Kurt
2. Tyler and Korey
3. Dana and Matt
4. Burnie and Ashley
5. Zach and Rachel
6. Erin and Joslyn
7. Sheri and Cole
8. Scott and Blair
9. Brittany and Jessica (eliminated)

There are 8 teams left and, since the race began, it’s been pretty obvious who is at the top and who isn’t.  Though things can always change (remember what happened to Team Texas last season), it appears that Brodie and Kurt, Tyler and Korey, and Burnie and Ashley are the three strongest teams.  Dana and Matt have the potential to be strong but they spend too much time arguing and that hardly ever works out well.  Meanwhile, Zach and Richael, Erin and Joslyn, Sheri and Cole, and Scott and Blair as probably going to be steadily eliminated, one after another, over the next four legs.

Personally, I do hope that Zach and Rachel prove me wrong and manage to move up into the upper tier of this season’s racers.  Last week, I shared two of Zach’s Jedi Kitten videos.  Here’s a little more from Zach:

GO ZACH AND RACHEL!

Lisa Marie

Survivor 32 Episode 3 “The Circle of Life”

Hi everyone!

Tonight’s episode of Survivor was an interesting one because, for the first time since this season began, the Brawn Tribe finally managed to win a challenge.

Now, the Brawn Tribe shouldn’t get too cocky.  They nearly lost the challenge and they are still, by far, the weakest tribe.  But, occasionally, even the worst tribes get lucky.  Tonight, they got lucky and they finally got to take a night off from going to tribal council.  Instead, it was the Brains Tribe that went to Tribal and we finally got some insight into their tribe dynamics.

But before we get to what happened at Tribal, here’s a quick recap of what happened in the Brawn and the Beauty Tribe.

The Brawn Tribe continues to drown in the overwhelming machismo of Jason and Scot.  Scot continues to be a big lumbering mass of wasted space.  Jason continues to brag about how he is the world’s greatest bounty hunter.  For some reason, Cydney is still working with these two morons and, as a result, Alecia remains trapped at the bottom of the tribe.

“My name is Alecia and there’s no reason why I should be stuck on the Brawn Tribe.”

(Jason, incidentally, continues to call Alecia “blondie.”  Jason is a disgusting pig who looks like he doesn’t shower regularly.  Seriously, you can just look at certain people and tell that they have terrible personal hygiene and Jason is one of those people.  In another few years, his teeth will probably rot out of his head.)

“My name is Jason and I think my beard looks cool.”

Alecia found the clue to her tribe’s hidden immunity idol.  Unfortunately, Alecia was with Cydney at the time and Cydney told Jason and Scot about it.  Jason and Scot literally shoved Alecia out of the way and, working together, they managed to retrieve a key from a tree.  They then dug up the box that contained the idol and use the key to open it up and retrieve the idol. In doing so, they discovered that if they find a second idol, they can put the two idols together and create a Super Idol, one that is so powerful that it can be used even after the votes have been read.

And Jason and Scot were sooooo proud of themselves!  BLEH!  It was sickening to watch them gloat and I wonder if Cydney noticed that, after she helped them, neither one of them seemed inclined to share the idol with her.

Ugh.  Seriously, just thinking about Jason and Scot makes me shudder with disgust.  Scot is annoying because he’s an idiot but Jason is just disgusting.  His whole Alpha Male act is so 2004.

“Tell me about the rabbits, George…”

Meanwhile, over on the Beauty Tribe … well, let’s just get this right out of the way: I LOVE THE BEAUTY TRIBE!  As far as I’m concerned, they are the greatest tribe ever!  They’re nice, they’re smart, they’re great at challenges, and they’re all beautiful!

They killed one of the chickens and Tai was understandably saddened but, at the same time, he handled it better than some people have handled it in previous seasons.  But what was especially touching, to me, was seeing how concerned Caleb was with Tai’s feelings.

Seriously, when did Caleb become such a likable guy!?  I mean, Survivor Caleb is totally different from Big Brother Caleb.  STOP BEING SO PERFECT, CALEB!

“My name’s Caleb and I’m perfect!”

Tai also managed to get his key out of the tree so he now has the Beauty Tribe’s immunity idol.  (Tai, incidentally, managed to get the key on his own.  As opposed to Jason the Pig, he didn’t need an idiot manchild to help him out.)  Tai now knows about the super idol but he has yet to tell anyone else.

(Neither Tai, Jason, or Scot has yet to find the second idol so, as of right now, no one has the super idol power.  We’ll see how long that lasts.)

“My name’s Tai and I’m adorable!”

As for the Brains Tribe, here’s what we found out during tonight’s episode:

Essentially, the Brains Tribe has split into three separate alliances.  That’s impressive when you consider that there are only 6 people on the tribe!

Debbie and Joe are an alliance.  They’re close in age and neither one understands the importance of boiling water before drinking it.  During tonight’s episode, Debbie basically revealed herself to be the second coming of Kass.  That’s not a good thing.

“My name’s Debbie and I’m the Blair Witch.”

Then there’s Aubry and Neil.  Neil is eccentric, wears a bowtie, and resembles actor Jeremy Davies.  (He was on Lost.)  Aubry, meanwhile, always looks like she’s on the verge of having a full scale meltdown.

“My name is Jeremy Davies and I don’t see the resemblance.”

And finally, we have Peter and Liz.  Peter is the guy who thinks he looks like Obama.  Liz is the only pretty person on the entire tribe so, naturally, the least attractive person on the tribe (Debbie) decided that Liz was a “princess.”

(And I have to say that I still don’t get why people act like that’s such a bad thing.  Who wouldn’t want to be a princess!?)

Anyway, going into Tribal, Peter was convinced that he could easily dictate who should and shouldn’t go home.  He had decided that the votes would be split between Aubry and Neil, with Neil as the target.  Stupidly, he assumed that Joe and Debbie were on his side.  Even more stupidly, he bragged about it during Tribal.

“My name’s Peter and I shouldn’t be on the Brains Tribe.”

Well, the joke was on Peter.  The first vote was a tie: Peter, Aubry, and Liz got two votes each.  For the revote, only Neil, Debbie, and Joe could vote.  And they voted out Liz.  Why did they vote out Liz, when Peter was the one acting like a jerk and bragging about how he was plotting to vote out everyone else?  I imagine it’s because Debbie wanted Liz gone because Debbie is a jealous hater.

“My name is Liz and you won’t be seeing me again.”

So, the new dynamic at the Brains Tribe is that Peter is on the bottom and Debbie thinks that she’s in charge.  However, I think Neil will eventually turn the tables on her.  At least, I hope he does.  Debbie is so annoying and I just can’t wait to see her get blind-sided.

Of course, it would be foolish for anyone in these tribes to get too comfortable.  If history is any guide, there will be a tribal shakeup during either next week’s episode or the one directly after.

Here’s hoping!  Seriously, both Alecia and Peter’s future on the game may depend on escaping from their current tribes.

Stay supple!

Lisa Marie