Episode 25.2

Sorry about that information in my last post. This is actually the 25 season and not the 24. This is the second episode that season. I, for one, am interested in how the whole three tribe angle will turn out when it comes time for the merge. Will there be twists like only one tribe wins immunity, but now you have to join the other two tribes after both of their tribal councils and bid your tribe goodbye? I do wonder why Redemption Island isn't in play. We'll see what happens. There are some who already know more or less everything that will happen this season. But I'm glad that I don't. It should be noted that the 26 season has already been filmed, sometime after the One World finale aired. But more on that later. If you are from the Philippians, it should be noted that this is not the fifth season of your Survivor show, but the 25 season of the American Survivor. This will probably confuse a lot of international viewers. Hopefully, the next season is something creative like US contestants on one tribe and Pilipino on the other tribe. But I shouldn't speculate on what has already happen but hasn't been seen by the general public. In fact, that's what this season is already. If you are on twitter, be sure to follow @IamAdamDecker for more updates. Look for the hashtags I mentioned in my last post. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure that you're not alone. I am fairly new to twitter myself.

Today is September 26, 2012. After the recap and before the first commercial break, Russell talked about being on the voting block which has never happened to him before. In fact, he left Survivor: Samoa with no votes against him. There was also a romance between two of the tribe mates on the blue tribe. After the show came back from commercial, two of the women on the yellow tribe found the clue to the hidden immunity idol. Tension was also building between the two of them on the yellow tribe. It was raining a lot at the red tribe's camp. Jonathan really wanted to find the hidden immunity idol. He did find it, so he'll be lasting in the game longer.

In the next segment of the show, the possible showmance of Angie and Malcolm came to light. They are on the blue tribe and Roxy doesn't like that. People think that it might be a threat of some sort, since apparently all couplings like that are problems. Lisa feels bummed out about everything.

In the next segment of the show, the blue tribe was tired of all the rain and Roxy was acting very strange. There is a combined reward and immunity challenge. The blue tribe is already the weaker one going into this challenge. I don't think that the blue tribe will do well in this game. But time will tell. The red tribe is in the lead and the yellow tribe has a close second. When it comes to solving the puzzle, all three tribes were very close getting it done. The yellow tribe got first place immunity and reward. The red tribe got the second place immunity and reward. The blue tribe failed at the challenge again. Poor Russell is now on the losing tribe in this season. It's interesting to note that in Survivor: All Stars, the first two tribal councils were attended by the same tribe (I think).

In the next segment of the show, we see the tribe continue to unravel. Denise finds herself to be the swing vote since Roxy and Russell are supposedly together and Malcolm and Angie are supposedly together. At the tribal council, Angie talked about wanting cookies in the tribe and Roxy called out their possible alliance and romance. Roxy compares this to a bobby trap (is that a sexual term in this case?) but I don't know if it is. There are a lot of characters on this tribe with attitudes. In the end, the person voted out was Roxy, because of her mouth and other problems, I'm sure. The vote was probably near unanimous. Hopefully, the tribe of four does better in the next three days.

What happens next time? Lisa wants to stay in the game, Russell finds doubt in the game, and Michael gets hurt again. For this blog, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Survivor: Philippians Premiere 24.1

As predicted, Michael Skupin, Jonathan, and Russell Swan are the three returning players. For proof that this was my prediction, go back to my earlier blog post on that subject. Since there has to be returning players as that it a thing they always do nowadays, I think that they chose a good bunch. The three of them each got to lead a different tribe with five new players each. Three tribes will start the game. Time will tell how long that will last. As we begin, we see the Philippians, which I've never been to, but you might enjoy. In fact, you might live there yourself. You might be wondering what Americans like me have to do by blogging about this show. To you I say, don't the Philippians also have their own version of Survivor? The show's first episode premieres today. Today is September 19, 2012. You may not be interested in these events, but I am. I have decided to blog about them. It should be noted that none of these contestants have seen Survivor: One World, or if they have they weren't about to see all of it. So they have no idea what was happening. They also had no idea who these three returning players were. Russell would join the blue tribe that was predetermined. Michael would join the yellow tribe that was predetermined. Jonathan would join the red tribe that was predetermined. The contestants were confused with the mad rush of the game starting as well as the returning players. It seems as if the new players would lead the new teams, but that remains to be seen as the game progresses.

 

Before the first commercial, an ironic even took place when new contestant Jeff hurt himself in the mad rush of the beginning of the game. It remains to be seen as to if he will have to leave the same way these other people who returned have left. But every season of Survivor has events in it that has never happened before. I will post Survivor firsts as they come along.

 

The second part of the show had Russell point out that he doesn't want there to be any leaders but he wants his tribe to be a team. In fact, he wants a pawn to come up as the leader of the team. If you were reading my blog, you will have noticed that Ulong suffered without a leader and never avoided tribal council. The blue tribe got fire and water very quickly. The three tribe twist seemed strange to the tribes, since this hasn't been done since All Stars. In the yellow tribe, secret alliances were forming already, which always seem to happen on the first day.

 

The third part of the show had a contestant who knew who Jeff was on the red tribe. Lisa talked to an interviewer about how she doesn't have any money anymore. She talked about how she stopped acting and decided to do Survivor because she was such a big fan. She talked about her Christian faith and how she believes that he is the reason she is there. Michael, the returning contestant, already knew who she was. Both of them liked meeting for the first time since they were both fans of each other, in a way. The game of Survivor was a big deal to Michael, who has never had a vote cast against him. Denise, a sex therapist, was curious about the Southern guy named Zane. She was probably judging him based on his appearance and the way he talked. But I've never been a sex therapist, so I have no idea what she thinks about sometimes. I know what I think about sometimes and sometimes share with other people. Of course, there are some things that I don't.

 

The fourth part of the show had Michael not caring about getting hurt again. As if by some dumb stroke of luck, the two returning contestants on the blue and red tribes were the ones looking for immunity idols. Russell found a clue by sheer dumb luck. Jonathan, as true to his nature, was looking for a way to stay safe in this game. Also, if you use www.twitter.com, the #immunityidol hashtag now exists as does the #survivor hashtag. CBS Cares about its tweets. It must like doing that a lot of the times. But it doesn't matter since the most watched network has to know what the viewers like about the shows that they air. I wish that they didn't do that, but you probably wish that I didn't waste my time with useless blogs. But I digress. As the fourth part of the show airs, #immunitychallenge is created as another hashtag on twitter. The first place tribe gets a firemaking set as well as immunity. The second place tribe would also get immunity. The third place tribe would go to tribal council. I am trying to eat supper while I'm typing this at the cat got on my lap. Since I don't want food close to my laptop, my food is not within arm's reach. So today is complicated in more than one way. The yellow tribe seemed to be doing better in the challenge, due in part to Michael wanting to help his tribe excel, since he never got much of a chance in the second season. The red tribe looks like the second place at this part of the challenge. The host of the show is annoying the contestants during the challenge as well as the viewers. The red tribe won the reward and the immunity. The yellow had a close second and immunity as well. The blue tribe would end up going to tribal council.

 

In the next part of the show, the blue tribe got to understand more about each other. I honestly hope that Zane makes it far in this game. Russell continued being an asshole; much like Survivor's other famous Russell, whose family should never be on reality TV, especially on CBS. (Did I just use well grammar? I hope that I did.) The tribe of six ended up voting out Zane, much to my disappointment. Even being from what some consider being from the south, I still wish that Zane was not the first person voted out. He must have voted from Russell, the only other vote that was shown in the game. Poor Zane. I would love to be friends with you in real life. As for this blog, consider this Adam Decker signing off until the next episode when who knows what happens. What is the preview? Jonathan wants an idol and the former actress finds life in the game hard. For further reference, all new posts will be labeled with 24 in the title to reference the new season. For now, I say, go Michael!

Finishing my Look Back

Here is the end of my thoughts on Survivor: Palau. Stay tuned for updates on the newest season: Survivor: Philippians.

Palau Episode 12- We'll Make You Pay

 

    With six members of Koror left alone, there was nowhere to hide in this episode. It was impossible for all of the tribe members to stick together anymore. The game was about to get even more interesting. Of course, you might already know everything that happens already, but it doesn't matter. I'm still blogging about it and it doesn't matter if no one is reading this or not. At the reward challenge, it was a classic trivia with three hits to each member where the surviving member at the end would win the challenge. Well, if you've seen the show, you've seen this type of challenge in the individual phase and know what I'm talking about. The divisions in the tribe became apparent as the challenge progressed and no one knew who was in control. The reward challenge was won by Gregg and chose Jenn and Katie to go with him. They both won a night on a yacht as well as nice meals and showers. It wasn't the biggest reward challenge ever, but it was nice for the contestants. They got reward of a massage and visits from friends from home. I don't know if this is what is considered the loved one challenge of the game, but by now it might be too late for an official one.

 

    It may be unfair that only those three loved one got to visit, but I don't know what the plans for this season were and if a loved one challenge was ever planned. The three tribe members that were left on the beach were talking about splitting the vote and picking purple rocks. (See Survivor: Marquesas controversy on www.wikipedia.org.) But that has yet to happen again on the show. Meanwhile, Gregg was the member who would end up getting voted out. He might have still been in a showmance with Jenn and it is unknown to me, at least, whether their relationship lasted after the game and before her death. The immunity challenge had each member slowly eliminated facing challenges from their past, that most of them had never gotten to play much before. Caryn was first out of the challenge at the first phase of the rope challenge. The sliding puzzle was the second phase where Katie was out. In the eating contestant, Gregg was the one out of the challenge. Little did he know, that would cost him the rest of the game. Jenn was out at the third round where Tom and Ian fought off again. Those two men were the only ones to win any immunity challenges this season.

 

    With Ian the winner of the challenge, the tribe members knew that someone was going home. There was still a three versus three split in the tribe with Ian, Tom, and Caryn on one side and Katie, Jenn, and Gregg on the other side. While Jenn and Gregg would vote for Caryn, everyone else would vote Gregg out of the game. It is hard to tell in the scrambling just who was voting for who before tribal council was to start. Will Gregg ever return to the game? I give it about a 60% chance. Jenn was surprised by the votes and didn't want him gone. But we'll find out more about what happened later in the game. Until then, stay tuned.

 

Palau Episode 13- It Could All Backfire

 

    With the game drawing to a close, the last few days would be the toughest for the five in the game. And for Caryn, it would be her last in the game. Tom and Ian wanted to take a woman with them on the challenge in case either of them won just to make sure that they wouldn't form an alliance against them. The challenge reward was for a car as well as a trip away from the camp. Ian ended up winning the reward challenge and was in a bind. He promised Katie in the past that he would take him on a reward challenge, but in the heat of the moment, he remembered that he promised Tom to take him along if the challenge had a car. While the men were away at the challenge, things did start to unravel back at camp. It was hard to tell who was on what person's side. Nobody knew who to trust or who would be in the final three or four for that matter. While the men tried to fix the relationships, nobody really knew what was happening. At the immunity challenge, the five remaining players had to solve a complicated memory puzzle after doing obstacles. After the hard challenge, Tom was the person who won. Caryn would vote for Ian, but everyone else would vote her out of the game. Would she ever return? I give it about a 30% chance. But she really didn't do much and hasn't really made much of an impact on the game. But she did better than most.

 

Palau Episode 14- The Ultimate Shock

 

At the first immunity challenge, a complicated first part eliminated both the women. At the second part, Tom ended up winning. Ian had thought of betraying him if he hadn't won. But that wouldn't end up happening. With Tom as the winner of the challenge, a vote at tribal couldn't eliminate him as the rest of the tribe would have done to him. Ian wanted the three of them to vote out Tom, but couldn't really recant it when he tried to say it was just "game talk." The vote would become a tie with two for Ian and two for Jenn. Jenn would lose a fire making tie-breaker challenge. They would not draw for rocks. Ian easily won the challenge before Jenn could really do anything. Unfortunately for Jenn, most of her major contributions to the game were never seen on camera. I do not know if more footage of her still exists or not as it is easy to lose footage since it was never used in the game. Jenn is dead now so there is a 0% chance of her returning to the game. She ended up getting cancer which she might have known about by the time this episode aired.

 

Tom and Ian had a falling out when they got back to camp. Ian was upset with everything that was happening. He wanted to blame playing the game on what has happening, but by now it was much more than a game. The final three then went through the memories of the fallen competitors who had played the game and got voted out or quit. The final immunity challenge lasted longer than any other challenge in Survivor history. Katie ended up stepping out of the challenge. Tom and Ian still stayed there and one of the stupidest decisions in Survivor history was made. Ian would give up the million dollars to keep their friendship. There was no tribal council as it happened right where the final challenge took place. The challenge was five minutes short of twelve hours. Tom voted out Ian in a verbal vote. It was much too late for a real tribal council so that is why it took place there. Will Ian ever return to the game? I give it about a 50% chance.

 

With the final two of Tom and Katie, one could wonder who would win the final vote. Nobody really liked Katie in the finals, but Tom didn't really do that well either. They were both grilled by the jury because it seemed like Katie was there by sheer dumb luck and Tom screwed too many people when he won all those challenges. Katie screwed Janu by basically saying that she didn't expect a vote from her.

 

Palau Reunion Show

 

    At the reunion show, Katie would be revealed to have gotten only one vote and she would be the runner up. I give it about a 25% chance that she would return to the game. Tom would win this season of Survivor: Palau. He would also return to Survivor: Heroes Versus Villains, but would be voted out before the merge. Would he play a third time? I give it about a 60% chance. The only other interesting part about the reunion was how Jeff had to tell everyone that he didn't make Janu quit, that she wanted to. I didn't know that there was a controversy there.

 

Stay tuned for the next season of Survivor and look here for blog posts on it. They will come as soon as possible.