Episode 26.11

So, for those of you keeping score, ever since the tribe swap, a member of the new Bikal tribe gets voted out. Even after the merge, every member of the second Bikal tribe gets voted out. Sherri is the only female fan left in the game. Phillip went from crazy entertaining to stupid player. Bikal used to be the strongest tribe in the game with it composed of all favorites. Now, it is the weakest tribe with only two members left from its second incarnation. If Dawn or John gets voted out in this episode, they will continue the Pagonging of this tribe. I'm not sure if Pagonging has ever happened to a swapped tribe before, and it might not even this season. (For those of you that don't know what Pagonging is, it is when a tribe is systematically eliminated one by one after the merge until none of the contestants from it remain. It is named after Pagong, a tribe from the first season. It was the first tribe it happened to and it is now in the reality show hall of shame because of it.) The original favorites are still left in the game for the most part. It's possible that the newly formed Three Amigos Alliance with Malcolm, Reynold, and Eddie will become a powerful part of the game. Then again, the numbers are against them without idols or other members in the alliance. I, also, have yet to look up any of the boot lists posted for this season. I will by the time the final episode of the season airs. That way, I can see if they are accurate or full of crap like I think they are. I wish that I could look up the boot lists for previous seasons to see if they are accurate or not. But I don't always remember the boot list for each season anyways.

Some spoilers say that the next two seasons of Survivor will be filmed in the Philippines again. Although, I've also heard Tasmania (or was it Tanzania?) as well as The Solomon Islands. Although, like I've already said before, I have no idea where I heard the rumor of Solomon Islands and can't find that information again. In fact, when I googled Survivor 27 and 28 Solomon Islands, the first link that came up was to this very blog. That isn't very helpful trying to find that information again. Just like I don't know where I read about Coach being the reason that Exile Island was retired. Although, reading about the Exile Island Alliance from Survivor: Tocantins, the failure of that alliance could be another reason why it was retired. I mean, they have to show what happens on the island because it is important to the players at least. That was a good way to secure airtime on the show, although it isn't always something that you wanted. Likewise, I'm glad that they got rid of Exile Island and I don't think that it will ever make a surprise reappearance. If it does come back again, I hope that they change the rules so that the same person can't be sent in back to back episodes. That was the major flaw of the island. I liked the island most for limiting the power of the hidden immunity idol.

I've heard numerous theories about the idol. They could hide more than one for each camp and the moment one is found, the others are taken away. I don't think that a played idol has ever reentered the game while another one is still in play before. But I do like the twist that happened in the last episode. Their alliance will get new members and there will be a Survivor Auction in this episode. I still don't fully understand how the idols work. I also don't know when the idols reenter the game. If a contestant is voted out that has an idol, but the idol wasn't brought to tribal council, then it is found by the production team and reenters the game. If the player with the idol is blindsided and takes the idol with them as they leave tribal council, then I don't think that it reenters the game. And, of course, if an idol is played it reenters the game. The only possible exceptions are if there are more idols still in the game or not. I'm not sure about that reasoning/logic, though. Meanwhile, the three amigos alliance could become a powerful force to be reckoned with. Erik joined them in helping vote out Phillip in the last episode. If the four of them make the final four, that would be Survivor's first ever all male final four. It's kind of surprising that an all male final four has never happened before. There's been more than one all female final four. I'll talk more about certain final four later (I think). The only all male final three happened in the twenty-first season. That's a threesome that I wouldn't mind playing again in a future season. I know that I keep plugging Chase and Fabio, but you might as well bring back Sash as well to make things far for them all (although Chase wasn't even close to winning that season with no jury votes for him). But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we seem a recap of the last episode. The three amigos were born because they were excluded from Stealth R Us. Erik likes the shift in the game. Stealth R Us no longer exists (I think). The remaining members could keep the remains of that alliance if they wanted to. But I don't think that they ever wanted to be in it in the first place. Brenda was bummed out about losing control of the game and John loved the crazy tribal council. That's when the introduction happened. By the way, I had a dream that Erik got voted out of Survivor. The dream didn't go into that much detail about why he was voted out, but I guess we'll wait and see if this happens or not.

In the next segment of the show, the Survivor auction happened. Lots of crazy things happened as usual. Read my tweets. They say what happened. Then people talked about the auction. John cried some. Sherri, Malcolm, and Dawn were bummed that they didn't get to read letters from home. (But won't there be a loved ones challenge in the future?) Malcolm looked for the idol and Andrea caught him searching.

In the next segment of the show, the immunity challenge happened. I don't know why they do them so early into the episode. Isn't half the time remaining? Oh well. I recognize this challenge from Survivor: Samoa. They also did that in the same episode as the auction. John ended up winning. He gloated a bit to the audience about the win. Things were shaking up a lot at camp when Erik and Sherri both claimed that they were the swing vote/in control of the game. I doubt that John or Dawn is going home. The voted might be split and it could be a three way tie again. Malcolm got voted out. The spoilers that he wouldn't win are true. I hope that he didn't have the idol, but I don't think that he did. There goes my favorite to win. Guess I'll have to find a new favorite. By the way, Survivor: Philippines are now the second season to be eliminated. I guess that my favorite to win now is Reynold. Next time on Survivor, more interesting things happen. Hopefully, Reynold will stay in the game. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 26.10

So something interesting is going to happen in this episode. But I don't know what. I haven't talked much about the potential spoilers that I heard on Survivor Sucks, but it says that Dawn would make the final two and be the runner up this season. But I don't know if there will be a final two or not. I don't know if that is even true or not. But we will find out by the time this episode airs. I just hope that I'm not spoiling anything to my readers based on information that I don't even know for sure yet is true. But, since I need a rambling thing to do like I typically do, I can talk about what I've been thinking about lately. There are a lot of Survivor final fours that could compete again in a future season. But, I will not go into detail about that just yet. I will do that during the summer (maybe). I'm just wondering: would it have to be an even number of men and women on each tribe considering how there could still be an even number of men and women in the game? Could any final four from any season potentially return for another season facing other final fours? While I like the idea of each final four from varying seasons competing against other final fours with at least four or even possibly five tribes in the game. The tribe would all be the final four from one season. I wonder if that could ever even happen. I'm the first person (I think) to think of this. I also wonder what Survivor would do if there were a medical emergency in the last three days of filming a season. The closest that came to happening was in the fourth season where the person who just got eliminated at a tribal council collapsed afterwards and couldn't even attend the next tribal council as a jury member like he was supposed to. In fact, that might be the only time a jury member wasn't at tribal council.

If you go to www.youtube.com, which you probably do if you have access to the internet and like to waste time outside of reading blogs, then you might watch the Survivor Live after Show, which is an internet talk show currently hosted by Parvati who interviews eliminated contestants and other guests that typically relate to Survivor. I find it interesting and informative, although it can be kind of stupid at times. The most recent one had Michael, who was voted out in the last episode. As a jury member, he says that we are in for some crazy tribal councils for the rest of this season. I wonder if he's even allowed to say that, but I'm guessing that he is, since he did. I hope that he's right. Also, I'm trying to come up with a list of memorable rivalries from each Survivor season. If you know of any, feel free to comment. I can't really think of that many. Another thing I was wondering was if, hypothetically, two people could go to the final two in Survivor without getting votes against them. I'm not sure if this has ever happened before or if it even could happen. If it has, I'd like to know when. I actually just looked that information up, and to date, this has never happened. But that doesn't mean that it never could. Unless I don't know voting table math for Survivor. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, nothing interesting happened on the way back from tribal council. Then, we get to Dawn's freakout from the promo. As I thought, they were misleading the viewers. She didn't quit the game, but the tooth/retainer problem was a pretty unique problem. I'm glad that it got found and nothing bad happened. The team of Erik, John, Phillip, Dawn, and some male fan had a very short reward shown. The most best part of it was when Phillip said, "I'm naked." Dawn's meltdown was a somewhat minor part of the episode. Phillip chose to sit out of the challenge, which could be a stupid move like Reynold wasting his idol on Malcolm last episode. Malcolm considered playing his idol. They are pretending that another idol has reentered the game, but that typically doesn't happen when there are other idols in the game. I cannot think of a single time where the idol reentered the game after being played when others were still in the game. I'm actually surprised that there was another idol in the game. Malcolm now has two. That makes him the first player since Parvati in Heroes versus Villains and James from China to have two idols at once. Reynold won the immunity challenge. Jeff mentions Phillip's first at tribal council. It is a Survivor first that someone sat out of a challenge for no reward after the merge. Tribal council was a wonderfully crazy time where Malcolm gave his second idol to Eddie and they were both played, thus eliminating Phillip from the game. This marks the third time that two idols were played at the same tribal council and the first where neither was wasted. This was awesome. I think that Phillip will get a stupid award for sitting out at the immunity challenge. But I've never seen anything like it before.

Next time on Survivor, the Survivor auction happens as well as more entertainment. It looks like Malcolm and the two male fans are now a new and sudden very powerful alliance. It also looks like people won't have to worry about being Phillip's rival and getting voted out. I think that we have more interesting events in the future. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 26.9

Sorry about the comment that I started in my last blog post that I never finished. I forgot to complete it before I quickly posted the blog. As I was trying to say before, Corrine was asked to be on Heroes versus Villains, but was too busy with work. She must have gotten time off this time. I'm glad she got to compete again, even if she didn't do so well. If Phillip gets another rival again, then we might know who might get voted out. There are only four fans left in the game. But if the favorites continue to turn on themselves, then maybe the fans do have a chance. Also, I have no idea if people who read this blog are on the west coast or not. Most of the friends and family that I know that I think read this blog are on the east coast or Central Time zone. I'm just wondering if people on the West Coast get treated to tweets from Jeff Probst or not. I thought that he might do them on the East Coast and maybe he does on other weeks. I'm just surprised that he wasn't on this week. I hope that I will be able to tweet live as usual on future episodes (so ignore my tweets if you are in a different time zone) and hopefully there won't be too many problems. I could always be on twitter during the west coast feed of the episode, whenever that is here, so maybe I will hear more from that side, if I want to stay on that long. I hope that I can do both blog and tweets in future episodes. But you will know what happens if I'm not on when it happens. I also wonder how they prevent spoilers from happening online on twitter or if they don't even care. They probably don't even care. Remember, my twitter account is @IamAdamDecker if you want to follow me. Just be warned that I have a lot of other opinions and stuff that I like to tweet about. Also, don't follow me if you live on the West Coast.

You know, Jeff Probst says that he wouldn't want to do a Celebrity Survivor but a lot of things happen in the show that he was against. If they do a Celebrity Survivor, they could have five tribes with two men and two women on each tribe. They could always do without one of the tribes I suggest in case they can't get people that would best fit it. I would have a tribe of famous singers, famous writers, famous comedians, famous actors, and famous politicians. Of course, another way that I think they should do a season with five tribes would be an all-stars season called Survivor: Champions. There would be two men and two women on each tribe with only one representative from each season. The five tribes would be divided by how they played the game the first time. There would be a tribe of strong players, a tribe of social players, a tribe of smart players, a tribe of lucky players, and a tribe of players who were screwed in some way out of the game. But next season I hope that they have only two tribes, no returning players, and no other twists that last for most of the game. If it isn't that way, I won't be mad, but I do hope that a "normal" season does resurface at some point. If they have to do returning players, Sandy and Sierra, who were screwed in a way by the opening twist of their season would be good returning players. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Phillip talked about the 23 days that the tribe has gone through. The reward challenge happened and the team of John, Erik, Reynold, Eddie, and Michael (or at least I think that it was them), ended up winning the reward challenge, which was cool. Also, I just realized that there are only four women left in the game.

In the next segment of the show, Andrea and Eddie started a showmance. (That term even has a wikipedia page.) The immunity challenge is a classic from Palau episode ten: Exile Island, which marked the unofficial introduction of the memorable twist. It was the immunity challenge then too, I think. Apparently it was also in Micronesia. Brenda would win the challenge.

Now there's something strange that I don't fully understand that happened to my Word document where it looks differently than it normally does. But as to whether or not it will be different as people are reading this is another question entirely. It might not be different for you at all. I'm not sure why I'm bring it up. Hopefully things will be normal in the future.

Meanwhile, things happened at tribal council. I don't fully understand what went on. Michael got voted out. The strangest part was when Malcolm convinced Reynold to give him the idol and play it instead of Reynold.

Next time on Survivor, Dawn might be quitting? Or she is going through a medical emergency? I found it hard to understand what the preview meant. If she did quit, she would not be on the jury and that could mess things up like James's evacuation might have done in Micronesia. If it is a medical evacuation, where the emergency itself isn't shown on the promo, then it could be the rumored second evacuation of the season. I heard potential spoilers about Dawn's progress in the game, but we have yet to see if they will be proven or unproven in the next episode. The promo could be misleading. So I'll wait until the next episode to see what the heck will happen. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 26.8

Okay, loyal readers (or reader), whoever you are, I have some good news. Survivor is renewed. They will be making more seasons. I think that there will be two seasons like always, but I don't know for sure. I haven't looked up the news outside of the renewal. I do wonder if Jeff Probst is returning as host, although I imagine that he is. I mean, his talk show is ending this season and I don't know why he would quit. I also wonder sometimes who would replace him as host if he left. I hope that we never find out. I also know that they are doing the merge in this episode. I know it seems soon, but there are twelve contestants left in the game, which is typically when they do the merge nowadays. I do miss the days when the tribe switches lasted longer and had a more lasting impact on the game. Lately, it seems like two episodes go by with a switch and then the merge happens. Oh well. You know, there is something that I wonder, and I thought that I'd bring it up here. There are some contestants that are unofficial quitters of the game. That means, they asked to be voted out and were voted out, even though they didn't really quit. What I wonder is why they are considered quitters when they aren't really quitters. A vote happened that removed them from the game. Why are they considered quitters? Would you invite any of them back for another season? Most people that I talk to say no. But I think that they should be because they didn't really quit. In fact, some official quitters have been offered chances to play the game again. They turned it down, of course, but one does wonder what would happen if that were to happen. It could set some strange sort of precedent in the game. Some of them wouldn't have wanted to be voted out if they hadn't gotten injured in the game. Some of them really didn't want to leave, but still did this anyways. So I guess I'm wondering why they are considered quitters when they aren't really quitters? Maybe, though, I'm part of a minority anyways in my opinion that they should be invited back to play again. Also, some say that Dana from last season quit, although I think that she would be invited back and could very well play again. But it's hard to tell for sure with all the grey area involved.

I still don't know if the Solomon Islands rumor that I posted here in the blog and can't find outside the blog is true or not. But it doesn't matter anyways. You know, I have mentioned in the last blog about what would happen if a person died while filming a season of Survivor. I don't know what they'd do, but I hope that we never find out. I'd think that they'd keep the season going because if a season was filmed and never aired, that would be more controversial than if a season had a death in it. I'm not even sure how they'd handle it if they cancelled it. Would all the remaining players in the game be given a second chance? How would they explain that to the players in the next season? These people from a season that never aired are returning players due to whatever reason. If they want returning players, they could go with Lex and Tom from Africa. They probably wouldn't since they both had a second chance in All-Stars. But they are screwed by a controversial challenge from Africa. As to the whole dead cast member thing, they'd probably have to do a special tribal council to see if the game would even continue or they wouldn't even inform the contestants about the death at all. You'd think that they would, but I don't know for sure. Also, when would the person have even died anyways? You'd think that they would be medically evacuated first and then they might die when the treatment fails. I doubt a death would be instantaneous. Stranger things have happened though. I also mentioned in my last blog about contestants competing in the same season that know each other by complete coincidence. The chances of that happening though, are probably so incredibly low that they would never happen anyways. But it's hard to say for sure. In Survivor All Stars, the tribe switch changed every tribe member but one to the other tribe and that seems like it should be low, yet it happened nonetheless. That's not the only low chance event that happened on the show. But enough of my ramblings.

Okay, let's see if I can do this all. I am trying to be on twitter during the episode (so don't read my tweets if you live on the west coast), blog about this episode, and I need to eat at some point too. Dawn is feeling sad. The merge happened and the new tribe buff is green. The tribe's name is Madeline spelled backwards with a space between the two names. Enil Edam is the name of the tribe. Meanwhile, the feast that they typically have happened again. Corrine says the episodes name. I was out of the room heating on my supper in the microwave so I missed some of the immunity challenge instructions and the challenge had started by the time I came back. It seems sad that one of the few times the contestants get to eat food is when it is a type of challenge like this. I hope that I never have to do this if I play the game. John won the immunity challenge.

In the next segment of the show, John talks about how he won the challenge. Most strategy was discussed as well, although it is hard to tell for sure who will go. Corrine talked about blindsiding Phillip. Eventually, Phillip learned of this plan and talked about blindsiding Corrine. Sherri might get voted out, if it were an actual blindside. Apparently somebody is getting blindsided. Meanwhile, Corrine has forgotten the lessons she should know this season. Every rival of Phillip gets voted out. Will that happen again? As a matter of fact, it did. Corrine got voted out. I don't think she got to be on the jury, which is kind of surprising. If I'm wrong and she is on the jury, let me know. With Corrine gone, there are no more players left from Gabon. (Here's an interesting fact, she wanted to do Heroes versus Villains, but since

Next time on Survivor, Malcolm will make a move and Eddie will do more in the game. I also wonder who Phillip's next rival might be. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.