Survivor 38.10 “Fasten Your Seatbelts”

Overall, I’m liking this season of Survivor but I still hope they never do this Edge of Extinction thing ever again.

Edge of Extinction Beach might as well just be renamed Whiny Beach.  Every episode, we have to spend what seems like an eternity listening to Reem, one of the worst players in the history of the game, complain about the fact that she managed to so alienate her tribe that she became the first person voted out.  Reem is bitter and that’s understandable.  It can’t be easy to so totally fail at the game.  But seriously, enough is enough.  Last night, she was joined by Kelley Wentworth, who was very upset at Wardog for betraying her, despite the fact that it was the best move for his game.  For someone who has a reputation for being a brilliant player, Wentworth has little appreciation for or understanding of any strategy beyond looking for immunity idols.

Another thing that I noticed during last night’s episode is that the jury is getting huge!  Typically, there are 10 members of the jury.  With Wardog getting voted out last night, there are now 9 members of the Edge of Extinction jury and there’s still about three episodes to go.  At the rate we’re going right now (and considering that at least one person will supposedly have a chance to get back in the game), we’re looking at a jury of 13 people.  (If Wendy and Keith — remember them? — hadn’t voluntarily left, we’d have 15 people.)

When are we going to have our next comp to see who gets back in the game?  To be honest, to me, it seems unfair to let someone reenter the game this close to the end.  No, I’m definitely not a fan of this whole Edge of Extinction thing.  There’s no real stakes when you know that anyone voted out can get back into the game.

As for the rest of the show — well, this was one of the most straight forward episodes of Survivor in the history of the show.  After engineering the Wentworth blindside, Wardog basically got a big head and decided that he was in charge of everything.  After he barked at Gavin, Gavin decided that maybe it would be a good idea to build up his resume by convincing people to vote out Wardog.  They didn’t take much convincing, of course.  Once Devens won immunity, everyone shifted their focus over to Wardog.

Both Wardog and Devens made the case that Aurora should be voted out but it didn’t work.  Wardog and Devens may have voted for Aurora but everyone else on the tribe voted for Wardog and Wardog was sent to Edge of Extinction Beach by a vote of 6-2.  Over on the jury, Wentworth said that the tribe voted out Wardog because they wanted “revenge for me,” but I think it was more a case of Wardog just being viewed, along with Devens, as being the biggest threat to win the game.

So, now, Wardog is gone and, for a while at least, we won’t get to laugh at his total ineptitude when it comes to challenges.

As of right now, if i had to guess, I’d say that it looks more and more likely that we’ll have a Gavin/Ron/Victoria final three.  Devens is going to get voted out as soon as he doesn’t have immunity and I imagine Aurora will go right after him.  I could see Julie potentially making it to the final three but, in the end, I think Victoria will sneak in there.  Victoria is one of those players who has consistently managed to be on the winning side without drawing too much attention to herself and those type of players always seem to make it to the final three.

As always, we’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

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The Amazing Race 31.2 “Knock The Newbie Out Of Us”

Poor Rupert and Laura.

There was a lot of drama during last night’s episode of the Amazing Race.  The teams all went to Laos.  Leo and Jamal got annoyed with Corrine and Eliza and then they made two more enemies by flat-out lying to Nicole and Victor about the location of the pit stop.  Rachel and Elissa got mad at Team Fun for …. well, reasons, I guess.  To be honest, I’m not sure what Rachel was so upset about.

We had the first double u-turn on the season.  Rachel and Elissa u-turned Becca and Floyd, for no reason other than the fact that Rachel has decided that she doesn’t like them.  When Team Fun discovered they were u-turned, they responded by u-turning Tyler and Korey.  That meant that Becca and Floyd and Tyler and Korey had to do both detours during this leg of the race.

Personally, I’ve never understood the logic of u-turning anyone on the Amazing Race, especially if you’re in first place, like Rachel and Elissa were when they u-turned Becca and FLoyd.  Though it wasn’t the case tonight, most u-turns seem to take place during a non-elimination leg.  U-Turns are just a good way to make enemies and invite bad karma on yourself.  Even Colin and Christie, who were super competitive during season 5, always made it a point to never u-turn anyone.

However, despite all of the drama that went on, there was never any doubt about who would end up coming in last at the end of this leg.  Rupert and Laura started out in last place and that’s where they pretty much spent the entire episode.  Rupert and Laura tried hard but luck was simply not on their side.  In the end, they were the last team to arrive at the mat and they were eliminated from the race.  I was sorry to see Rupert and Laura go because I was curious to see how Rupert would handle being taken out of his comfort zone as the Race progressed.  But, fear not!  The producers of these shows love Rupert so I imagine he’ll continue to show up on either Survivor or the Race until he eventually wins.

As for the rest of the show, my favorite moment was when the teams had to ride the elephants.  Elephants may be big and scary but they’re also intelligent and empathetic creatures.  I’ve actually rode on an elephant before and it was an experience that was both fun and frightening at the same time.

Here’s how the teams did during this leg of the race:

Finishing 1st, Leo and Jamal!  I’ve never been a huge fan of Afghanimals but they’re a strong team.  Lying to Victor and Nicole about the location of the pit stop was a pretty lame move, though.

Coming in 2nd, Victor and Nicole!  I wasn’t really expectng Victor and Nicole to be a very strong team but they proved me wrong last night.  Considering they got engaged after filming this season, I assume that Victor and Nicole did well overall.

Coming in 3rd, Rachel and Elissa.  We’ll just call them Team Petty.  Rachel hasn’t had a full meltdown yet, though she did have her moments last night.  But, we all know that a full scale Rachel hissy fit is coming.  It wouldn’t be The Amazing Race without one.

Coming in 4th, Colin and Christie.  I’m having a hard time getting used to this new mellow Colin but still, they do seem to be a lot happier now than they were during Season 5.

Coming in 5th, Britney and Janelle.  I liked both of them on Big Brother but they have yet to really impress me on The Amazing Race.  If not for the double u-turns, they probably would have finished further in the back of the pack.

Coming in 6th, Corrine and Eliza.  Corrine and Eliza are trying to be the dramatic, mean team but Rachel and Elissa have already claimed that role for their own.

Coming in 7th, Tyler and Korey.  Tyler and Korey would have finished higher up if not for the double u-turn.  The fact that they survived the u-turn just reaffirms just how strong they are as a team.

Coming 8th, Chris and Bret.  Chris and Bret seem to be kind of lost.  If they last much longer, I’ll be shocked.

Coming in 9th, Becca and Floyd.  Team Fun struggled last night.  Still, they’re a strong team and I hope they stick around long enough to get some revenge on Rachel and Elissa.

And finally, coming in 10 and getting eliminated, Rupert and Laura!

So, as of right now, Leo and Jamal seem to be the clear front runners while Chris and Bret seem to be the most likely team to be eliminated next.

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

Survivor 38.9 “Blood of a Blindside”

Last night’s episode of Survivor was a surprise.  For the first time, outside of the finale episodes, we had two immunity challenges and two tribal councils, all in the same night.  I’m not sure why the show did that, though I imagine it might have something to do with Edge of Extinction.  At some point soon, the castaways on Edge of Extinction Beach will get another opportunity to reenter the game.

As for the two castaways who were voted out last night, one was a blindside and one was definitely not.  As soon as Aurora won the first immunity challenge of the night, I think we all knew that David was going to be in trouble.  He’s simply too good at the game and, as Wardog pointed out, too good at talking his way out of trouble at Tribal Council.  David was obviously the biggest threat to win the game and, as much as I love David, it made perfect sense for the rest of the tribe to vote him out when they had a chance.

Still, David didn’t go out without a fight.  He and Devens pointed out that Wardog, Kelley, and Lauren appeared to be an unbreakable alliance and they tried to rally Julie and Ron over to their side by asking them to vote out Wardog.  It didn’t work.  If anything, Ron apparently felt that Devens and David came on too strong.  In the end, David was voted out by a vote of 8-2.  But what’s amazing is that, even in leaving, David managed to set up the next blindside.

Though it didn’t keep him from getting voted out, David was correct when he argued that Wardog was essentially seen as being Wentworth’s lackey.  Certainly, David managed to convince Wardog of that fact.  From the minute that the tribe returned to camp, Wardog started thinking about how he could make a name for himself as something other than just a lackey.  His solution?  To blindside Kelley Wentworth.

And it worked!  For once, Wardog’s plan worked brilliantly.  After Rick Devens won immunity (with a little help from an advantage that David sent him from Edge of Extinction Beach), Wentworth and Lauren seemed pretty confident that Aurora would be the next to go.  Instead, Wardog teamed up with Ron, Julie, Victoria, and Aurora and they all voted for Wenworth.  Wentworth ended up getting voted out by a vote of 5-4.  She was voted out with an idol in her pocket.  As she left, she complained that Wardog had lied to her.

(If nothing else, this season should end the myth that Kelley Wentworth has ever been a great player.)

So now, all of the returnees have been voted out.  Joe, Aubry, David, and Wentworth are all on Edge of Extinction Beach.  As far as advantages are concerned, Lauren has an idol and Ron now has an extra vote.  It was originally Aurora’s extra vote but she gave it to Ron, presumably to win over his loyalty and also because she wanted him to have it in case the blindside failed and she was voted out.

I assume that, either next week or the one after, David, Aubry, Joe, Wentworth, Reem, Julia, Eric, and Chris will finally get their chance to reenter the game.  I also assume that the blindsides will continue to come!

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

The Amazing Race 31.1 “You’re In Our Race Now”

Yay!  The Amazing Race is back!

It seems like it’s been forever since my favorite reality show was on TV.  Actually, it’s only been a year.  The Amazing Race no longer gets the high ratings that it once did so CBS tends to treat it a little bit disrespectfully, in my opinion.  Instead of showing two installments a year, they now only show one.  And, for the most part, they tend to use it as filler.  When they need to fill in a time slot because a show’s been cancelled, they bring out the Amazing Race.

This season features some familiar faces.  Three of the teams were previously on Survivor.  Three of the teams were previously on Big Brother.  And four of the teams were on previous seasons of the Amazing Race.  Here are your teams:

Big Brother

Janelle and Britney, who are two of the most popular Big Brother houseguests of all time, even though they’ve never won.

Nicole and Victor, who are now engaged but who were merely dating when they filmed the Race.

Rachel and Elissa, who are …. well, where to even begin?  I have three older sisters so I can definitely relate to the Rachel/Elissa dynamic,  You can definitely tell which sister is used to being the center of attention and which sister usually has to be the peacekeeper.  Rachel has been on Big Brother twice and she’s run the Amazing Race two times in the past.  She managed to get through last night without having a meltdown but I’m sure we’ll get one eventually.

Survivor

Chris and Bret, who were on Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen X and who both seem like they’re a little bit too old and out-of-shape for this particular race,

Rupert and Laura, who are Survivor royalty, basically.  I’ve lost track of how many times Rupert has been on Survivor.  He and his wife are back and Rupert appears to still be wearing the same shirt that he was wearing on Survivor: Peal Islands.

Corrine and Eliza, who spent last night being snarky about the other teams, despite not being very good themselves.  It actually took me a while to remember who the two of them were.  I don’t really remember much about Eliza.  I do remember Corrine got on my last nerve during her previous two Survivor appearances.

The Amazing Race

Art and JJ, who are two former border patrol agents and who, like Chris and Bret, immediately appeared to be too old and out-of-shape for the race.

Colin and Christie, who are two of my favorite former racers.  Colin is ultra competitive which, in their previous race, rubbed some people the wrong way.  Myself, I like people who refuse to give up.

Leo and Jamal, the two obnoxious cousins who are returning for their third race.

Becca and Floyd, the dreaded Team Fun from the previous season of the Race.

Tyler and Korey, who are two YouTubers who came in third during their previous race.  Tyler laughs constantly, which got pretty old the last time he was on the Race.

As for last night’s episode, it saw the racers going from sunny California to Tokyo.  Everyone had to eat a shoe.  One racer, at the end, had to run up a slanted platform to grab the final clue.  The challenges were relatively simple and set up so that the first episode could focus on introducing us to all of the returning racers.  From the start, it was pretty obvious that JJ and Art were going to have trouble keeping up.  Though the Amazing Race isn’t a purely physical competition, it still tends to favor racers who are in slightly better shape than either JJ or Art appeared to be.

That said, JJ and Art came close to surviving.  Even though Art couldn’t make it up the platform and they had to take a four-hour penalty, they were nearly saved by Rupert and Laura’s inability to navigate Tokyo.  There’s always at least one team every race who is absolutely hopeless with directions and, this season, that would appear to be Rupert and Laura.  It took them forever to find that slanted platform.  However, let’s give credit where credit is due.  Rupert may be the oldest person on the race but he ran straight up that platform and got the final clue.  And so, Rupert and Laura managed to avoid elimination for now.

So, here’s how everyone ended up last night:

Coming in first, Leo and Jamal.

Coming in second, Colin and Christie.

Coming in third, Tyler and Korey.

(None of the top three finishes are surprising as all three of these teams were extremely strong during their previous times on the Race.)

Coming in fourth, Rachel and Elissa.  Rachel got through this leg without crying but I’m sure that will change soon.

Coming in fifth, Becca and Floyd.

Coming in sixth, Victor and Nicole. Of all the teams with no previous racing experience, they finished the highest.

Coming in seventh, Chris and Bret.

Coming in eighth, Janelle and Britney.

Coming in ninth, Corrine and Eliza.  They talked a good game but turned out to be kinda hapless when it came to actually racing.

Coming in tenth, Rupert and Laura.

Coming in 11th and getting eliminated, JJ and Art!

So, right now, I’d have to say that Leo & Jamal, Colin & Christie, and Tyler & Korey seem like the strongest contenders but you never know.  The Race is unpredictable, which is one reason why I love it.  Just because you finish strong during one leg, that doesn’t mean you won’t be eliminated in the next.

We’ll see what happens!  For now, I’m just happy to have the Amazing Race back!

Lisa Marie

 

 

Survivor 38.8 “Y’all making me crazy”

Wow.

So, where to begin?

Was last night the greatest tribal council ever?  It’s hard to say, just because there’s been so many tribal councils.  I mean, we’re on our 38th season of Survivor so it’s difficult to definitively say that anything is the best.  I will say that last night’s tribal council was unique in that it was one of the rare times when people actually changed their minds because of what happened at tribal.  The majority of the players went in there planning to vote for either David or Kelley.  Instead, thanks to Rick Devens and (believe it or not) Wardog, everyone changed their mind at the last minute, new alliances were formed, and Julie was voted out.

What happened?

While there were several factors involved in last night’s Tribal chaos, it all basically comes down to Julia and Aurora getting a bit too arrogant and Julie not being mentally prepared for what this game demands.

First off, Julia and Aurora both allowed their successful blindsiding of Eric go to their head.  Julia, thinking that she was now in charge of Kama, basically tried to run things like a dictatorship.  Her insistence that Kelley should be blindsided instead of David ended up alienating Gavin.  Even worse, for her, is that Julia didn’t do anything to soothe the worries of Ron and Julie.  Both Ron and Julie had been left out of the Eric blindside and, as a result, they felt very insecure about their place in the tribe.  Instead of making Ron and Julie feel safe, Julia basically just barked orders at them.

At tribal, both Julia and Aurora made the mistake of talking too much.  The key to Tribal Council, especially before the vote, is to say just enough without actually revealing your plans.  You have to keep things vague.  Instead, Julia essentially revealed that she and Kelley had some sort of plan.  (Kelley though the plan was to blindside David, while Julia was apparently planning on blindsiding Kelley.)  Aurora then went on this long tangent about how you can’t let everyone in on a blindside, which essentially revealed that there was a pan to blindside someone.  (“You’re spilling the beans,” Julia whispered to Aurora.  “No, I’m not,” Aurora whispered back.)

Julie started crying, saying that she hated blindsiding people.  Rick Devens ,seeing an opportunity, mentioned that, if Ron and Julie joined with the five former members of Lesu, they would have a big enough alliance to control the vote.  Wardog immediately pounced on the opportunity, telling Ron that he would be willing to vote out whoever they wanted to vote out.  Knowing that they were on the bottom of their tribe, Ron and Julie said they were open to voting out either Aurora or Julia.  Victoria, realizing that she might now be out of the majority, immediately went over to Wardog, Ron, and Julie and said that she wanted to be a part of their new alliance.

Hearing her name, Julia jumped up and started trying to get in on the conversation.  At this point, Tribal Council descended into chaos and it was glorious to watch.

“Let’s vote!” Wardog said.

“Shut up, Wardog!” Julie snapped.

While all of this was going on, both Kelley and Victoria said that the original plan was to vote out David.  “I’m right here,” David replied, with a grin.

Finally, once everyone was sitting down again, Jeff asked if they were ready to vote and they were.  Showing that they were once again happy to be working with each other, Rick used his immunity idol on David but it turned out to not be necessary.  Aurora voted for David.  Julia voted for Kelley.  Everyone else voted for Julia.

Julia, for her part, decided to go to Edge of Extinction Beach.

All in all, this was a great episode of Survivor.  Though the tribal council dominated the final 30 minutes of the episode, there was a lot of little moments that I enjoyed even before tribal.  For instance, there was that hilariously awkward dinner scene.  If you’ve ever wondered how people act at camp when they’re not scheming and plotting, now you know.  They sit around and try not to look at each other.

One last note: The Amazing Race starts next week, on the 17th!  And yes, we will be covering it here on the site!  I can hardly wait!

‘Til next time,

Lisa Marie

 

Survivor 38. 7 “I’m The Puppet Master”

Well, so much for “Kama Strong.”

For all the talk about how important it is to have “the numbers” when it comes to playing Survivor, it’s also true that big alliances always seem to fall apart right after the merge.  The Kama Tribe came into the merge with a huge advantage as far as the numbers were concerned.  Not only were there enough of them that they could have easily picked off the five remains members of the Manu Tribe, one-by-one, but it looked they also had an advantage in that the remaining Manu Tribemembers were split into two separate alliances.

So, what happened?

Well, the first tribal council after the merge, Ron Clark decided that it would be a great idea to vote out one of their own.  And so, Joe was blindsided.

Then, last night, Kama continued to turn on itself.  Ron and Eric decided to split their votes between Kelley Wentworth and Lauren, with Kelley being the ultimate target.  They managed to get Julie and RIck to vote their way.  However, the rest of the Kama Tribe, along with David, Kelley, Wardog, and Lauren, decided vote out Eric instead.  And so, yet another members of the old Kama Tribe was sent to Edge of Extinction Beach.  Eric will now join Reem, Aubry, Chris, and Joe in waiting for a chance to return to the game.

How did this happen?  Basically, both Ron and Eric — but especially Ron — overplayed their hand.  From the minute that Ron announced that he was “the puppet master,” I knew that the Survivor Gods were setting him up for a big fall.  The rest of Kama — with a little help from Wardog — figured out that Ron and Eric were looking to set up a secret alliance with David and Rick so that they could use the two of them to eventually blindside the other members of the Kama Six.  Ron got cocky and gave too many orders and, in the end, Eric is the one who suffered for it.

Why was Eric voted out and not Ron?  I imagine that Eric was viewed as being more a threat in challenges but, at the same time, Eric also has a better chance of winning the chance to reenter the game.  Personally, I would have voted out Ron.  He’s the smarter of the two and he probably wouldn’t be able to win any Edge of Extinction challenges.

Meanwhile, on Edge of Extinction Beach, everyone’s still in a crappy mood.  Aubry, however, did find a secret advantage and, as a result, she can now practice for the upcoming challenge.  She also received the opportunity to give someone in the game an extra vote.  She sent it to Aurora.

Speaking of Aurora, she won the immunity challenge but she managed to upset a lot of people by how she did it.  Basically, it was an endurance challenge, one of those things where the castaways had to stand on their tip toes and balance something on their head.  The final three people in the challenge were Victoria, Aurora, and Lauren.  Lauren ended up fainting and while the Survivor medical team was checking her out, Aurora decided to try to make a deal with Victoria.

A lot of the people on the tribe — especially Julie — acted like they were scandalized by Aurora’s actions.  Personally, I think that Aurora was playing the game and she shouldn’t be judged too harshly for that.  That said, asking someone to voluntarily give you immunity is not a good look.  Aurora’s argument was that, since she was left out of the loop on the last vote, Victoria owed her immunity.  To be honest, it was a moment and a strategy that seemed more appropriate for Big Brother than for Survivor.  Victoria ignored Aurora but she still ended up slipping so Aurora won immunity anyway.

The other big development from last night is that the David/Rick bromance is apparently over.  David wanted to stay loyal to the old Manu Tribe.  Rick wanted to accept Ron’s offer to join the Kama Tribe.  Unfortunately, David and Rick have two halves of an immunity idol.  For the idol to work, both halves must be joined together.  When Rick asked for David to give him back his half, David said that he’d rather hold onto it.

So, as of now, here’s how the advantages break down:

Rick — Half an immunity idol

David — Half an immunity idol

Kelley — Immunity idol

Lauren — immunity idol

Aurora — An extra vote

Aubry — An opportunity to practice ahead of time for the Edge of Extinction Challenge

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie