Survivor 40.3 “Out For Blood”

Hey, everyone.  Erin here.  Lisa’s on vacation so I’ll be covering Survivor this week and next.

So far, Survivor 40 is on fire this season but it also looks like it’s going to be breaking our heart every week.

Last night, after the Sele Tribe lost immunity to the Dakal Tribe, I thought Adam was going to get voted out.  He came up with a plan to blindside Parvati at tribal council but then he told everyone about it, including Parvati’s closest allies, Rob and Ethan.  It’s not a blindside if you tell everyone, Adam!  Adam obviously never watched The Wire because, if he had, he would know that “if you come at the king, you best not miss.”  Rob, Parvti, and Ethan told everyone that Adam had betrayed them and that they should vote out Adam.  Instead, the rest of the tribe had a different plan.

Everyone loves Ethan so, of course, last night he got voted out.  He was blindsided and he wasn’t the only one.  Boston Rob, Parvati, and Adam were all left out of the vote as Ben, Denise, Jeremy, and Michele banded together to vote out Ethan because they thought it would “weaken” Boston Rob.  Why not just just vote out Boston Rob?  I don’t get it.

The good thing is that Ethan will be probably do better at the Edge of Extinction than either Danni or Amber.  Right now, Natalie is dominating all of the Edge of Extinction challenges and she’s collecting fire tokens.  Ethan might be the only person smart enough to prevent Natalie from becoming the richest exile in Survivor.

On Dakal, Sarah’s now has an advantage that will let her steal someone’s vote.  (It was sent to her from Natalie) and Tyson wants to target Sandra.  If Dakal ever actually goes to tribal council again, I guess that will matter.

That’s it for now.  Next week’s episode is called “I Like Revenge” and I’ll be back to cover it and then Lisa will be back the week after that!

Poor Ethan

 

 

Survivor 40.2 “It’s Like A Survivor Economy”

There are a lot of things that go wrong when you’re playing a game like Survivor.

Your allies can betray you and you can end up getting blindsided in the tribal vote.  Or your allies can stay loyal but the original target can play an immunity idol and you can end up getting voted out with only two votes cast against you.  You can get some homesick or so frustrated with the game that you end up voluntarily taking yourself out of the game.  (And Jeff Probst will never let you live that down.)  Or you can end up getting sick or injuring yourself and be forcibly removed from the game by the medical team.

That said, the biggest threat in Survivor is paranoia.  So many good players have fallen apart as a result of allowing their paranoia to get the better of them.  They start out in a strong position but then they notice that they’ve been left out of a conversation or that they weren’t given a say in how the vote was going to go and, as a result, they decide that their allies are turning on them.  This often leads to the paranoid player trying to stab their alliance in the back and, more often than not, it totally backfires.

That’s what happened to Danni last night.  Danni started the episode out in a great position but, after Sele lost the immunity challenge, she became paranoid that her alliance — the Old School alliance led by Rob, Parvatti, and Ethan — was plotting against her.  Even worse, she let Ethan know that she was feeling paranoid and she also let him know while Ben — who didn’t even know an alliance existed — was standing right there.  So now, Ben knows all about the alliances and Rob and Parvatii know that they can’t trust Danni.

Danni made thing worse by trying to convince everyone to vote out Parvati.  Ben, Adam, Jeremy, and Michele considered voting for Parvati but, at tribal, everyone ended up voting for Danni.  (Except, of course, for Danni who voted for Parvati.)  I was a little surprised that the so-called new school players didn’t  give a little bit more thought to taking this opportunity to take out a strong player like Parvati.  Danni obviously proved herself to be an unreliable ally so I can understand not wanting to go to the merge with her but, at the same time, Parvati is a much bigger threat.  Maybe they didn’t want to risk the wrath of Rob.

The tribal council itself was kind of fun, largely because Ben doesn’t know when to shut up.  He spent so much time talking about paranoia that it briefly looked like Rob might spontaneously change the vote to get rid of him.  (Rob has said that he considers Ben to be a big threat.)  At one point, everyone emptied their bags to reveal that none of them had an immunity idol.  Of course, Denise and Adam have two halves an immunity idol but they managed to hide them right before letting everyone see into their bags.

On the Dakal Tribe, Kim also found a two-part immunity idol and a note telling her that she had to give the second half to another member of the tribe.  For some reason, she gave it to Sophie who immediately started gloating about what a huge mistake Kim was making in trusting her.  I don’t really care much for Sophie.  She wasn’t a particularly impressive winner during her first season of Survivor and, this season, she’s going a bit overboard trying to present herself as being some sort of master manipulator, as opposed to just someone who won because the jury was ticked off at the other two players in the final three.

Meanwhile, at the Edge of Extinction, Amber is stuck with Natalie.  Natalie found an advantage, which she sent to Jeremy.  The advantage allows Jeremy to leave tribal council right before the votes are cast.  As a result, he can’t vote but he also can’t be voted out.  Jeremy had to give up his fire token to get the advantage.  Apparently, and I missed his last week, that fire token goes to Natalie so Natalie now has two fire tokens.

And that’s it for now!  My vacation starts this weekend so Erin will be covering for the show for the next two weeks and then I’ll be back with you on March 11th!

Lisa Marie

Survivor 40.1 “Greatest of the Greats”

Survivor is back for its 40th season!

This season’s twist is that it’s a battle of champions.  They’re not calling it an “all-star season” but that’s exactly what it is.  Everyone who showed up on the beach in Fiji last night was a former winner.  Some of them were making their fourth or fifth appearance on the show.  (Boston Rob was making his sixth, if you count his role as mentor from Island of the Idols.)

Here what’s I liked about last night’s episode:

1. I’m usually a little bit iffy on seasons that are all returning players but this time, it looks like the Survivor producers have managed to recruit a pretty good mix of players.  For once, not everyone is a recent player.  Instead, you’ve got players like Ethan and Danni mixing it up with Adam, Tony, and Ben.
2. With a few notable exceptions, most of the players that are appearing this season all played good games when they were last on the show.  There’s so many winners that won just because the jury was bitter or because the other players in the final three were so unlikable that no one wanted to give them the money but fortunately, none of those “accidental” winners returned last night.  Arguably, everyone on the beach earned their previous victories.
3. When the show started with the men and the women separated, I was worried we were going to be in for yet another boring battle of the sexes.  I’m glad that they mixed the tribes up and I’m glad that they did it by random draw.

Here’s what I disliked about last night’s episode:

1. Edge of Extinction is back!  Once again, instead of leaving after getting voted out, the castaways are being sent to the Edge of Extinction.  I hated this twist the first time that it was done and I imagine I’ll hate it again.
2. I’m not sure whether or not I’m going to like the fire tokens.  Fire tokens are a new twist.  They’re like Survivor currency.  Everyone starts the game with one fire token and it can be used to buy stuff, like an immunity idol that’s good for three tribals.  If you get voted out, you have to give whatever fire tokens you may have to another player.  This could be interesting or it could just be annoying.  We’ll see.

We’ve got two tribes, the Sele Tribe and the Dakal Tribe.  Here’s who is on each tribe:

Sele

1, Natalie, you may remember, was on The Amazing Race with her annoying sister and then they both did Survivor.  Natalie’s sister got voted out at the first tribal but Natalie managed to win her season, despite not being that smart of a player.

2. Danni.  Danni won the 11th season of Survivor and I’m glad to see her back.  She was a smart player and if anyone deserves a chance to win a second time, it’s her.

3. Jeremy.  This is Jeremy’s 3rd time to play.  He previously won Survivor 31.

4. Ben.  Ben won Survivor 35 and was the first person to get into the final 3 as a result of the new firemaking twist.  In fact, some people think the whole firemaking comp was added just to make sure Ben made it into the final three.

5. Michele shocked everyone when she beat Aubrey during Survivor 32.  Michele’s an underrated player.  She proved that a social game can be just as important as a physical game.

6. Adam won Survivor Generation X vs. Millennials.  He’s the youngest winner on the beach.

7. Boston Rob.  Everyone knows Boston Rob.

8, Parvatti.  Everyone knows Parvatti, too.  Parvatti now has a family and, judging by last night’s episode, seems to be a little bit more down-to-Earth than she was the last time she played.

9. Denise.  Seeing Denise made me wish that Malcolm had won that season so he could be there instead.

10. Ethan.  Ethan won the third season of Survivor.  After his recent health struggles, it’s good to see Ethan back.  The question is whether or not an old school player like Ethan can adjust to a game that’s now dominated by immunity idols.

Dakal

1, Amber, or as Boston Rob calls her, “Ambuh.”  Amber won the very first All-Stars and she ended up marrying Boston Rob.  They later competed on the Amazing Race.  There’s always a lot of debate among the Survivor fandom as to whether or not Amber deserved to win or if she just rode Rob’s coattails.  I think she’s a better player than she’s given credit for.

2. Tyson.  Yes, self-styled villain Tyson is back.  It looks like he’s trying to be a bit less villainous this time around.

3. Sophie.  Who cares?  Sophie was boring during her first season and she’ll probably be boring again.

4. Sandra.  They just love bringing Sandra back, for some reason.  Did you know that Sandra’s already won twice?  It’s easy to forget since it’s not like Sandra brings it up every time she starts talking.

5. Wendell won Survivor 36.  I remember liking Wendell at the time.

6. Yul is a former winner who I have always hoped would get another chance to play.  It was good to see him back again.

7. Sarah Lacina.  This is Sarah’s second time to play.  She previously won Survivor Game Changers and I honestly can barely remember a thing about her.

8. Kim.  Kim totally dominated Survivor: One World.  I’ll be interesting to see if she can do it again.

9. Tony Vlachos. Tony’s back and just as hyper as ever.  Personally, I think he’s going to outplay himself.

10, Nick Wilson.  Nick won Survivor 37 and is the most recent winner on the beach.

We had two tribal councils last night.  Sele went to the first tribal and then Dakal went to the second.  At both tribal councils, the fact that Boston Rob and Amber were married made them obvious targets.

At Sele, however, Boston Rob and Parvatti were able to get the target off of them when Denise and Adam went off to get water.  The tribe decided that Denise and Adam might be working together or that they might have gone off to search for an immunity idol.  Realizing that he was now in danger, Adam then reminded everyone that Natalie and Jeremy had previously both competed on the same season and that they needed to broken up.  It led to a somewhat confused vote and amazingly, neither Boston Rob nor Parvatti got a single mention.

Instead, it was a 7-2-1 vote.  1 vote for Adam (from Jeremy).  2 votes from Denise (from Michele and Natalie).  And then everyone else on the tribe voted for Natalie.  An annoyed Natalie was sent to Edge of Extinction.  She gave her fire token to Jeremy.

At Dakal’s tribal council, Amber was the obvious target because of her marriage to Boston Rob.  Also targeted was Kim because of an appearance she had made with some of the other former Survivor players (specifically Tyson, Rob, and Jeremy) at a televised poker tournament.  During the game,Tyson had jokingly said that, if they ever got on Survivor again, they should all form an alliance.  This led to Sophie, Yul, Sandra, Tony, and Sarah targeting the members of the “Poker Alliance,” Kim, Tyson, and Amber.

At tribal, the votes were split between Amber and Kim.  (Amber tried to put a target on Nick’s back by pointing out that he was the most recent winner but it didn’t work.)  By a vote of 6 votes for Amber, 3 votes for Kim, and 1 vote for Nick, Amber was sent to Edge of Extinction.  Not surprisingly, she gave her fire token to Rob.

On Edge of Extinction, Natalie won the chance to send someone an immunity idol that would be good for three days.  She sent it to Sandra, who had to give up her fire token to receive the idol.

And that’s it for last night.  It looks like it’ll be a great season and I’m so happy to back to cover it!

Lisa Marie