Survivor 35 Episode 10/11 “Buy One, Get One Free”

Hi, everyone!

Forgive me, I’m running behind.  I only now got a chance to watch last night’s 2-hour episode of Survivor.  I’m just going to share a few thoughts because, honestly, there’s not much to say about these people:

This season is shaping up to be a strange one.  I’m not going to say that it’s a disappointing season because it’s not over yet and sometimes, a good finale can make up for a weak season.  Plus, I still like Ryan and Ben and Dr. Mike is intriguingly weird.

That said, the season so far hasn’t offered up much for viewers who were hoping to see a lot of great strategy.  Chrissy, Lauren, Joe, Ben, and Dr. Mike all claim to be brilliant strategists but so far, most of their game moves have been baffling.  By virtue of being two hours, last night’s episode revealed just how strange and random most of their moves have been.

The first hour started with Dr. Mike finally admitting that he wasted his immunity idol and that he didn’t really succeed in accomplishing anything at the previous tribal council.  (At least, he admitted it.)   He and Joe decided to deal with being on the bottom of the tribe by being as obnoxious as possible.  They even nicknamed themselves the Coconuts.  (“He’s coco.  I’m nuts!”)

Meanwhile, in the alliance of seven, Lauren, Ben, Devon, and Ashley decided that it was time to break the alliance and take out Chrissy, Ryan, and JP.  In itself, that’s not bad strategy.  Chrissy, Ryan, and JP are all bigger threats to win than either Joe or Mike.  Furthermore, Devon came up with the idea to use Ben as double agent.  At tribal, Ben voted for Mike and pretended to be just as blindsided as anyone when JP went home instead.

So far, so good.

As the second hour started, it seemed as if the dynamics in the tribe had changed.  Chrissy and Ryan were now on the bottom.  Lauren, Devon, and Ashley were in charge.  Ben was still pretending to be allied with Chrissy.  Joe and Mike were both aligned with Lauren.

The obvious targets were Chrissy and Ryan.  However, Chrissy won immunity and everyone knew that Ryan had an immunity idol.  (What they didn’t know was that Ben also had an immunity idol.  He found during the first hour.)

Knowing that Ryan would probably play his idol, Lauren, Devon, and Ashley had to decide who to vote for.  (Because they didn’t know that Ben was a double agent, Joe and Mike assumed that Ben would be voted out.)  Lauren decided that they might as well vote out Joe.

Around this time, Ashley suddenly realized that Ben was a far bigger threat than Joe.  Both Lauren and Devon admitted that she was right.  Now, the strategic movie, at this point, would have been to get rid of Ben because it’s not like Joe would have had a chance to win if he made it to the end.  Ben, on the other hand, is pretty much the front runner to win the whole thing.  Taking out the biggest threat is pretty much Survivor 101.

Instead, at tribal, Ryan played his idol and Lauren, Ben, Devon, and Ashley all voted for Joe.  So now, Joe has finally been sent to the jury and yet another alliance has been exposed as a lie.

So now, Lauren, Devon, and Ashley have not only lost the trust of Chrissy, Ryan, and Mike but, by refusing to vote for him, they’ve also revealed that Ben was a double agent.  It would have made so much more sense to go ahead and get rid of Ben.  Instead, they’ve kept the strongest player in the game and they’ve also created a situation where there’s going to be so much paranoia in the tribe that it’s easy to imagine it ultimately backfiring on Lauren and Devon.  All that Chrissy, Ryan, and Mike have to do to change the dynamic once again is convince just one player to betray Lauren and Ashley did spend most of last night’s episode talking about how she needs to make a big move and she needs to make it soon.

If I was Ashley, I would immediately try to make a new alliance with Chrissy, Ryan, and Dr. Mike and so that we could take out the three biggest threats in the game.

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

The Third Member of the Jury, JP!

The Fourth Member of the Jury, Joe

 

Survivor 35 Episode 9 “Fear the Unknown”

Hi y’all!  Happy Thanksgiving!

To be honest, this has been a confusing season of Survivor.  Almost all of the castaways are difficult to read.  Sometimes, they’re brilliant and sometimes, they manage to make the dumbest mistakes possible.  Almost every season of Survivor is edited so that, no matter how random the game may be, it still appears as if there’s some sort of central storyline, whether it’s a story of redemption or a story about an underdog proving that they can play the game or a story about a villain who is so clever that they become an antihero.

We’re nearly finished with Survivor 35 and no real storyline has developed.  Right now, everyone is obsessed with getting rid of the Healers but the most obnoxious of the healers has somehow managed to avoid being targeted.  It’s been a strange season.  Last night’s tribal may have featured some excitement but the end result was what everyone thought it would be at the beginning.  Cole failed to win immunity so Cole was sent to the jury.  Will anyone be smart enough to notice that, since Cole didn’t use the immunity idol that Ben swore that he had, that means someone else has to have it?  Probably not.  After all, it appears that they didn’t notice Lauren’s missing vote at the last tribal council.

These are not strategic geniuses.  They don’t pay attention to details.  Chrissy may think that she’s the best strategist in the history of Survivor but so far, she’s just gotten lucky,  Ben may think that he’s in charge of a huge alliance but there really isn’t an alliance.  Instead, there’s just a bunch of people hanging out together.  Nobody seems to be thinking more than few steps ahead.

Last night was full of “What were they thinking moments?”

Ryan decided to tell both Devon and Ben that he has an idol.  What was he thinking!?

Ben decided that he wants Devon to be his biggest ally, despite the fact that they have nothing in common.  What is he thinking!?  (Of course, Ben and Devon also discovered that Ryan told each of them about the idol and then swore that he hadn’t told anyone else.  Bad news for Ryan.)

Joe’s decided that the best way to get to the end is by being so obnoxious that everyone will assume that they can beat him.  That may be true but is Joe playing to be in the final three or is he playing to win?  When asked what his strategy was during the final jury, is Joe going to say, “Oh, I just decided to get on everyone’s nerves.”

Last tribal, Dr. Mike voted for Joe as a way to show that he would be loyal to Ben.  This tribal, Mike suddenly attacked his newfound allies and wasted his idol on himself.  What was Mike thinking!?

Ben decided that the votes would be split between Cole and Mike.  Everyone else told him they’d rather vote for Joe.  Ben ordered them to vote for Cole and Mike.  What is he thinking?  Now, the entire tribe resents him from ordering them around and they’ll probably be quick to turn on him once the last healer is gone.

Is there any strategy at all going on during this season of Survivor?  This is a confusing one.

Anyway, again, the final results of Tribal were that Cole was voted out and Dr. Mike played his idol for himself.  If the healers had been smart, they would have cast their three votes for Ben and hoped that maybe playing the idol would have put Ben in trouble.  (It wouldn’t have worked but still, it would have been worth a try.)  Instead, Mike played his idol on himself and then he and Joe both voted for Cole.  Why?  Why, when you’re that far on the bottom and you’re playing an immunity idol, would you at least not take a chance and vote for the people who want you out?

I don’t understand it at all.

It’s been a strange, strange season.  But I’m enjoying writing about it!  On this Thanksgiving, I am thankful to all of you for reading and commenting!  I hope all of you are having a great day and have a wonderful night!

Lisa Marie

The second member of our jury, Cole!

 

Survivor 35 Episode 8 “Playing With The Devil”

Hi, everyone!

Sorry, I’m running a little bit behind with my thoughts on last night’s episode of Survivor.  I actually had to rewatch the episode a few times because, to be honest, tribal council left me feeling very confused.  While it makes sense that the Heroes and the Hustlers are continuing to pick off the Healers and I can understand why Mike and Cole went over to the other side (why stay on a sinking ship?), I don’t understand why — after the first tie vote — they decided to vote out Desi and keep Joe.  Yes, Desi is good at challenges but Joe is good at finding idols and he’s about a 100 times more annoying than Desi ever was.

So, I don’t get the logic there.

Even if tribal left me confused, I still enjoyed this episode.  It started out with Lauren finding a secret advantage. The advantage was that she would be allowed to cast an extra vote in a future tribal council but the catch was that, in order to claim it, she couldn’t cast a vote in the upcoming tribal.

Then, after winning a spaghetti lunch in the reward challenge, Ryan, Chrissy, and Cole all ended up seeing a clue, one that announced where a secret immunity idol could be found back at the camp.  (The sneaky Survivor Gods decided to create some drama by making the clue so obvious and easy to find that there was no way only one person would see it.)

Back at camp, Ryan immediately started digging underneath the tribal flag and found the idol.  Chrissy then started to push the sand back into the hole.  Cole spotted this and he and Chrissy got into a wrestling match underneath the flag.  (If I had been Cole, I would have started digging as soon as I got back to camp.)  This led to everyone finding out about the clue but everyone — other than Ryan and Chrissy, who knew better — assumed that Cole had the idol.  What I find to be hilarious is that Ryan is so underestimated that it didn’t occur to anyone that he might have found the idol, despite the fact that he was digging underneath the flag merely seconds before the Chrissy/Cole wrestling match.

With everyone, especially Ben, convinced that Cole had the idol, it looked like the plan would be to vote for him at tribal and force him to use it.  Fortunately, for Cole, he won the immunity challenge.  So, then, the plan became to split the votes between Joe and Desi.  For a few brief moments, Ryan did consider blindsiding Ben but he wisely reconsidered.  Now is not the time to rock the boat.

Joe attempted to cause some drama by claiming that Ben couldn’t be trusted because Ben had “sworn on the marine corps,” which Ben said that he had not done and never would do.  I’m not really sure what Joe’s strategy was.  Maybe he thought that he could get Ben so angry that everyone else would get freaked out and vote him out.

Lauren told Ben about her advantage, which led to Ben getting momentarily panicked.  He was worried that Joe had an idol and wanted to split the votes between Ben and Desi but, if Lauren couldn’t vote, that would mean that, if Joe had an idol, he could play it and Ben might go home.  (Of course, Joe didn’t have an idol.)  This led to Ben reluctantly bringing Cole and Mike into their alliance.

At tribal, the first vote led to a 4-4-1-1 tie.  Joe voted for Ben and, for some reason, Desi voted for Lauren.  Mike and Cole both betrayed their alliance by voting for Joe.  Lauren managed to play her advantage so she’ll get an extra vote in future tribal.  Because of the tie, there was a revote, in which only Joe and Desi could be voted for.  Chrissy voted for Joe.  Everyone else voted for Desi.

Desi was really upset when she got voted out, which took me by surprise.  I can understand being upset but Desi really seemed to be shocked, despite having plenty of evidence that she was a target and that she was on the button of the new tribe.  Did she think everyone was going to go after Joe in the revote?  Did she think that Cole had the immunity idol and that he would play it for her at tribal?  I get the feeling that a lot more happened before this tribal than we were lucky enough to see on last night’s episode.

Anyway, Desi may have been voted out but she’s now the first member of the jury!

We’ll see what happens next,

Lisa Marie

The first member of the jury, Desi!

Survivor 35 Episode 7 “Get to Gettin”

Hi, everyone!

It’s my birthday so I hope y’all will be willing to excuse this recap for being a little bit rushed!

Well, the merge has finally happened!  Apparently, it didn’t happen a moment to soon because, at the start of last night’s episode of Survivor, the entire Levu tribe appeared to be on the verge of starving to death.  It’s actually kind of a tradition that all merge episodes start with one tribe talking about how they’re on the verge of death but still, it does highlight why Survivor is still the best of the reality competition shows.  It’s not an easy game.  Unlike Big Brother, where people spend the entire season getting fatter, Survivor is a show where everyone ends up looking like Tom Hanks in Castaway.

Anyway, I’m always happy when the tribes merge and it goes from being a team game to an individual game.  Sure, there’s still alliances.  It’s not Survivor without alliances.  But, ultimately, the only way to be safe now is to either win individual immunity or to find an idol.  Everyone is playing for themselves and everyone is responsible for their own fate in this game.

Take Jessica, for example.  She made it to the merge and promptly tried to set herself up as the new power player, trying to set up an alliance between the Healers and Ben and Lauren.  Since the game’s begun, Jessica has obviously had a high opinion of herself and her strategic abilities.  Of course, what she never seemed to realize is that, to everyone else, she was an obvious phony who really only cared about keeping Cole in the game.  Even after Cole repeatedly got on everyone’s nerves and proved himself to be more of a liability than an asset, Jessica remained loyal to Cole.  Even after it became obvious that Lauren and Ben wanted nothing to do with any alliance that involved Cole, Jessica remained convinced that she could convince them otherwise.

It didn’t work and last night, Jessica became the 7th person voted out of the game.  Jessica was stunned because, apparently, she believed that Ben and Lauren would join with her to vote out Chrissy.  Instead, they joined with the remaining Heroes and Hustlers and they voted out Jessica.

Jessica, of course, wasn’t their original target.  Originally, they were planning on targeting Joe but then they figured out that Joe might have an immunity idol.  They were right, of course.  Joe even pulled out his idol during the middle of tribal council, which was a stupid move on his part.  Joe then proceeded to waste his idol by playing it for himself.  For me, that was the best part of the episode.  Joe is so extremely cocky and so obnoxious that there was no way that I couldn’t enjoy watching him play himself.

Anyway, Jessica is gone now.  For her final words, she said that she still hoped that she and Cole would go out on a date after the season.  Jessica, sweetie — no.  Just no.

So, for now, it appears that it’s the Heroes and the Hustlers vs. the Healers and the Healers are in the minority, with only Dr. Mike having the safety of an idol.  Speaking of idols, it looks like there’s going to be fight over another idol next week.  I can’t wait to see that!

What does everyone think?  Was I too harsh on Jessica or was she truly the architect of her own demise?

Lisa Marie

The 7th person voted out of Survivor, Jessica!

Survivor 35 Episode 6 “This is Why You Play Survivor”

Hi y’all!

So, I just now finally got to watch last night’s episode of Survivor.  The main thought that I had as I watched the episode was, Who is this JP character?  Was he on the show before this episode?  Is he a new guy who just showed up on the island?

Seriously, I had no idea who JP was!  Looking over my previous recaps, I see that I did mention JP in the past but he was always just kind of there.  He never made a huge impression on me, one way or the other.  For lack of a better term, he was just a part of the scenery.

But last night, suddenly it was almost all about JP.  JP, it turns out, was the biggest physical threat on the Soko Tribe.  Normally, when you’re trying to win challenges as a tribe, that’d be a big advantage.  But I think the members of Soko understood that, even with JP, they were still never going to win a physical challenge.  Not with Ryan on the tribe.

So, Ryan came up with the idea of voting out JP before the merge.  That actually made sense to me.  When it came to winning individual immunity, JP was a real threat and his uncommunicative nature made him difficult to read.  When Soko once again lost the immunity challenge, it seemed as if Ryan was going to get rid of JP.

But then Chrissy decided that she wanted Ali to go instead.  And apparently, what Chrissy says goes.  And so, at tribal, Ali was blindsided and sent off the island by a 3-1 vote.  Ali was not happy about it either.  She was the most sore loser since Patrick was voted out at the end of the third tribal council.  In the end, we may not know who JP will be loyal too but we now know that Ryan is basically going to do whatever Chrissy tells him to do.

As for the other two tribes, Joe once again found an immunity idol.  Bleh.  Joe is so annoying and the fact that he might be good at this game just makes it even worse.

Meanwhile, on Yawa, Cole continued to get on everyone’s nerves.  When he dramatically fainted because of lack of food (despite the fact that he’d been eating nonstop), everyone was concerned except for Lauren.  You could just tell that Lauren was thinking, “Whatever, you drama queen.”  Jessica said that she was so upset when Cole fainted that it reminded her of how important he is to her.  I guess that means that the most annoying showmance in Survivor history will not be ending anytime soon.

Next week, it’s the merge!  Finally!

So, as we move into the 2nd half of the season, I’m still pretty much hoping for what I’ve been hoping for ever since this season started: a Ryan, Ben, and Dr. Mike final three.  I have a fear, though, that Joe is going to sneak into the group.

The merge could definitely make things interesting, if just because almost everyone’s loyalty is up in the air.  It’s hard to know who is going to team up with who.  The new merged tribe will be made up of the following:

Ben (Yawa, former Levu) — Before the tribal shakeup, he was apparently close to Chrissy.  After the shakeup, he’s allied with Lauren and Dr. Mike.

JP (Soko, former Levu) — No one knows who he will ally himself with but, if not for Ryan and Chrissy, he would have been voted out last night.  On the former Levu tribe, he had a potential showmance with Ashley.

Chrissy (Soko, former Levu) — On her first tribe, she was close to Ben.  Now, she’s extremely close to Ryan and maybe JP.

Jessica (Yawa, former Soko) — Jessica thinks she’s smart but spends most of her time obsessing on Cole.

Cole (Yawa, former Soko) — A total moron.  Jessica is his only ally but Cole’s probably too dumb to realize that.

Joe (Levu, former Soko) — Tony Vlachos wannabe.  He’s got an immunity idol.  On his former tribe, he was obsessed with getting rid of Dr. Mike.  Close to Desi.

Ashley (Levu) — Former power player but her struggles after the tribal shakeup would indicate that she’s not as strong a strategist as many assumed.  Devon is her only ally on the current Levu tribe.  On the former Levu tribe, she came close to having a showmance with JP.

Devon (Levu, former Yawa) — Ashley is his only ally.

Lauren (Yawa) — Has an outside chance of making it to the end.  Close to Ben and Dr. Mike.  Hates Cole.

Ryan (Soko, former Yawa) — Strong alliance with Chrissy.

Desi (Levu, former Soko) — Close to Joe.

Mike (Yawa, former Soko) — Close to Ben and Lauren.  Dislikes Cole and Joe.  Has an idol.

That’s a lot to keep track of!  We’ll see how it plays out next week!

At the halfway mark, who do you want to win?  Let us know in the comments below!

Lisa Marie

The sixth person voted out of Survivor 35,, Ali!