Episode 27.11

So I don't know if this will be a recap episode or a new episode. Either way, I will probably blog about it. I will hopefully be able to record it, provided that it needs recording at all. Of all the things that I want to talk about and haven't yet, I will probably talk about a history of the hidden immunity idol. When it first appeared in Guatemala, Gary found it without a clue. The idol had to be played before the votes are cast. I actually liked this better than after the votes are cast and before they are read (originally at least because second thought makes me think that it would not help an alliance if those were still the rules) and they saved Gary and eliminated Bobby Jon, although most people don't count that due to the rules at the time. In Panama, after the votes were cast and read, you would play a hidden immunity idol if you had it and were voted out. This made it no good at eliminating someone with an idol. You'd think that someone would give the idol to an ally that was voted out, but no, that didn't happen either. So the idol was more or less worthless this season and the next season. At least Cook Islands had a player think about splitting the votes for different targets, even though it wouldn't actually happen until the next season. In Fiji, the votes were cast and the idol was played before the votes were read. This lead to some players wasting an idol, but it did lead to successful split votes. Yau-Man officially saved himself with his idol once and introduced the world to fake hidden immunity idols, though his was never found. China brought the first player who had an idol (or, in this case, two), didn't play it, and got voted out with it in his possession. Neither was rehidden and people wouldn't play idols when they should have in future seasons. Someone tried to play a fake idol this season as well. In Micronesia, it became a huge power source again when two people got voted out after not playing it and another person got someone else voted out when she did play it. This is also the first season with a failed spilt vote. Gabon had a sort of wasted idol with someone who did get votes against them. That would happen a lot. A spilt vote was also tried but didn't really fail despite not happening as planned. There would also be players who would have lost to a tie vote revote if they hadn't played their idol when they did. In Tocantins, someone failed to play an idol and got voted out with it in his possession. In Samoa, someone would play it and get rid of a record number of votes against him due to playing the idol. Someone else found it and didn't play it. In Heroes versus Villains, Tom would use it to save himself and so would Parvati and Jerri, when someone else gave them an idol to use. This season also marked the first time that two idols would be played at the same tribal council. Nicaragua had mostly unused idols for most of the season. I think this resulted in the first time were a split vote was used, the person had an idol but didn't play it, and he still wasn't voted out after the revote. I'm not sure why that happened, but the player in question still had to give the idol to a different player. Nobody who gave up the hidden immunity idol to someone else has ever won the game, but only one person (JT) and no one else had an elimination caused by giving up the idol. Giving up the idol started in Gabon and allies sharing an idol that only one could claim started in Nicaragua (I think). The twenty-first season also marked the only time when two people play different idols when they were not possessed by the same person either time. What's also interesting is how neither of them originally had the idol. In Redemption Island, one would be found earlier than any other season. It helped cause the best first tribal council in Survivor history (in my opinion). Nothing new and interesting happened in South Pacific regarding the idol. One World had an idol that had to be given to the other tribe if you found it for that tribe and not yours. I'm not sure how they'd enforce that rule if people didn't do it. What would they do? I don't know. I'm not sure if anything interesting happened with hidden immunity idols in other seasons since, although Blood versus Water is the first time it was first found after the merge unless you count Guatemala, which you shouldn't. That's all the information I have right now, although wikia has a great page about it. Meanwhile, I have made a paragraph that is way too long and will look much longer on the blog when it is posted and I have no idea how to break this up into multiple paragraphs.

So there might be a new alliance this episode and either Tyson or Ciera is the threat that might be voted out. Not sure if either of them will get voted out or not. I think that I want Laura to win Redemption Island (again). Not sure who I want to lose. Hayden is my favorite to win this season, although my favorite has changed so many times, I don't really care that much anymore about who wins and who doesn't. Panama is the next season to be eliminated. What will happen in the next episode? We'll find out soon. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, people talked about Ciera voting out her mother. Then the opening credits happened. The people came in for the duel. Laura is proud of her daughter for turning against her. I also hear that Christmas starts in September. Still no flying pigs or anything, but that has already happened in a Survivor challenge. It looks like the duel is the one that Edna almost won in South Pacific. Whoever wins is giving an advantage to the second place person since they have an already solved puzzle to refer to. It's unknown if the puzzles all solve the same way or not. Jeff does continue his constantly annoying commentary and the challenge is close. I don't think that this is a fair challenge with more than one player in it. Laura totally helped someone win too! Oh well. We'll see if this affects the future game or not. Tyson wants to get Katie out of the game, so there are three possible people who could get voted out. Anyways, a lot of drama happens again on the show. The alliance that may or may not be newly formed this episode. They might vote out Tyson or fail miserably during the tribal council. I forgot to mention that Vytas lost the duel by one freaking second. That doesn't seem fair to me. Candice earlier this season lost what could be considered an unfair duel as well. This can seriously affect the game getting messed up, although I have yet to hear a backlash from people saying that they think certain duels are unfairly decided and the wrong winner is declared.

In the next segment of the show, the immunity challenge is going to happen this episode. That means that a lot of shit is going to happen at both camp and at tribal. The challenge looks like the one that both Denise and Carter won in the 25^th season. I'd have to say that's an interesting challenge to repeat since it marked the only time Denise was immune in the game. Gervase, Tyson, and Ciera all decided to eat instead of competing in the challenge. That could backfire for any of them, but we don't know if it will happen or not. The ten minutes that seemed like an hour was edited to less than one minute. Monica is turning into a strong competitor this season. Katie is the first out of the challenge, of those who participated at least. Caleb is next out of the challenge. It comes down to Hayden and Monica. Monica won the immunity challenge again. What will happen next?

Hayden didn't like the people who sat out of the challenge. My phone reminds me that an SNL Thanksgiving special is airing soon. Tyson thinks that Ciera is playing both sides and should get voted out tonight. Is that what will happen? Does anyone remember when Shane threw his chance to be saved as the swing vote when Aras first played? We'll see what happens. Jeff says Aras's name wrong, but I didn't realize that I was saying it was wrong anyways. Caleb thinks that Ciera sitting out of the challenge was predictable. I wonder if only one person decided to do an immunity challenge where you could sit out for food, what would happen next? The food rules wouldn't be the same and the one person who's playing would win by default. They'd probably redo it and make more people do the challenge (although I'm not certain that they can do that anyways. Ciera thinks that she has been too honest and that might be her famous last words like Kat's "blindsides are fun!" Not sure why people are voting against Caleb. Will Tyson play his idol? He did! I guess he'd rather risk wasting an idol than get voted out with it in his pocket. It was funny how he had it hidden in his bags so far that he didn't know where it was. I have the feeling that he did waste it. He did because Caleb was voted out. When was the last viewer blindside? I know that one happened tonight.

Next time on Survivor, Hayden is finally focused on some more. Will his floater strategy that he might have used during Big Brother play off again? Can he avoid being an eviction night nominee? Will Julie never tell him that he's been evicted from the Survivor game? Actually, I think that I'm confusing two different games here.

Confessional counts of players on Redemption Island: Laura- 12, Tina- 10, Vytas- 20. Confessional counts of players in the game: Monica- 15, Ciera- 16, Hayden- 12, Gervase- 9, Tyson- 24, Caleb- 11, Katie- 12. New confessionals this episode: Ciera- 3, Hayden- 3, Gervase- 2, Tyson- 4, Caleb- 2, Katie- 2, Monica- 1; Laura- 1, Tina- 1, Vytas- 0.

So I'm not certain why Caleb is surprised that Ciera flipped since they were all voting against her. I guess he was referring to earlier in the episode. Hopefully Tyson's wasted idol doesn't come back to haunt him like it has for Ozzy in South Pacific. He could always find it again, although I actually hope that someone else does. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 27.10

As promised, here are challenges from Palau that I think would make a good Redemption Island duel. The information about the challenges comes from wikia. I have only included challenges that I think would work and ignored all others. I might do challenges from Borneo sometime, but that might be hard to list due to the reward challenge they didn't air in the second episode. Has footage of it been released? How could a reward challenge have such little affect on the rest of the game? Was there another season where it was edited out? Besides, I'd probably only list the first three challenges anyways, none of which would work well in the way it first appeared. I could mention them all after I watch the season. Was there even a dream team for the first season? I read that there wasn't one. It wasn't introduced until a challenge in the second season didn't work as planned. Does that mean that the rest of the second season had it or the third season started the dream team's tenure on the show? I don't know. I just know that Hunter from the fourth season joined the dream team which might mean we'll never see him play the show again. Why would they have a player back who knows a lot about how challenges work? Regardless of this, I will post information about Survivor: Palau challenges and which ones could reappear on Redemption Island.

Here are the challenges from Survivor: Palau that I think would work as Redemption Island duels. Keep in mind that a lot of them might need to be retooled first- Sea Salvage: contestants are brought out to sea and go underwater for a bottle to bring back to score a point. This might have to be a two way duel. Shooting Gallery: one player at a time uses a replica gun to shoot color coded tiles. There are eight for each tribe and (I'm fairly certain at least) that a point from another tribe on your target counts as a point to your tribe. This would probably only work as a two way duel and with better design so you don't knock yourself out of the game. Build It Up, Break it Down: the challenge varies by season but this time, it was one tribe building a barricade around a crate with a flag in it and the other tribe having to get it out after a certain amount of time had passed. This would have to be a two way duel. Sea Stars: this is a giant sliding puzzle out at sea that needs to be solved in order to win. Cool Hand Balut (more commonly called the gross food challenge or Survivor Smorgasbord, this time featuring only balut): The tribe members have to eat balut in order to win. The numbers of the food increases each round and a tie-breaker round features the fastest eater winning. They get a point for every one successfully eaten. This would probably also have to be a two way duel. Under Current (also known as Survivor Scramble): in this variation of the challenge, you see contestants swim to pontoons, get puzzle pieces, and swim back to the challenge board. After using the pieces to solve a puzzle, they must then solve a word search to identify letters used in more than one word to unscramble and put in a phrase to win immunity. The break separates the tribal challenges from the individual challenges.

Perch: contestants must stand on a perch over the water for a long amount of time and are tempted by items to step off of the perch. Take out the temptations or use a different season's version and use it as a reentry point where the winner gets back into the game. Survivor quiz: this recurring challenge is like Touchy Subjects, but isn't. Contestants are given a quiz over the place where they are filming this season. This might have to be a two way duel. Raft rally: Contestants must paddle a raft similar to what natives from Palau use to untie and color coded bag and bring it back to the dock. They must get five bags that have cities and distances from Palau and five major world cities. R.A.M.: contestants go through a course and have to memorize items on a grid. Each contestant has a different grid. Tower of Domination: in this challenge that is split into two parts, the first part has contestants go through a course while attached to a rope. They unhook themselves and wind up at the top of the tower use grappling hooks to get keys that unlock a flag that they must raise. In the second part of the challenge, they would take a zip-line like devise and retrieve a combination box containing a flag that would have to be raised in order to win. They could do the two parts separately as different duels. Bob-Bob buoy: This challenge had people simply standing on a buoy for as long as possible and the last person left would win the challenge. It was the longest challenge on record, so I'm not sure if they'd do it again, but if they did, it could be the other reentry point back into the game. If I can't choose this, then I don't know which challenge would work as the other reentry point, if I'm only choosing this one season's challenges to do the challenges in a Redemption Island season. I listed twelve challenges total and the other challenges done this season aren't included because I either didn't like them or they wouldn't otherwise work as a duel between two or more people.

Hopefully, I don't forget to post what all I promise to post and haven't posted yet. I'm sure that there are stuff that I might not remember to post and others that I'll do randomly in the hiatus between this season and season 28. Not much is known about the 28^th season for those that don't want to know about it. I remember a year ago when a promo aired looking for new contestants to apply for the show. Since all the new contestants from this season were recruited due to a loved one formerly playing the show, that probably means that if the commercial wasn't misleading people a year in advance, there are probably new players in the 28^th season. Is it all new players or a mixture of both? I will not research information because I don't want to be spoiled to anything. And the order that contestants just happen to be in this season lists many potential winners this season. So far, the current number of winners listed is six and they are Aras, Tina, Vytas, Caleb, Tyson and Gervase. Three of those people are on Redemption Island and cannot possibly all win. It would be interesting if the winner of this season ever gets voted out and sent to Redemption Island. We have the rest of the season to see if that will happen. I've heard the rumored winner, who is actually one of the six that I mentioned. But I'll try not to reveal anything early this season, even though I just said five people were rumored not to win this season. I just hope that I don't tell you who a runner-up is like I did with Dawn last season.

So, random things that I want to post would be the ten dumbest moves in Survivor history, the ten most shocking moments in Survivor history, the ten stupidest tribes in Survivor history, memorable Survivor rivalries, and various other things I'm sure I'll come up with at some point. I wish that I knew who to say Brad butted heads with this season, because I'm sure that he did that with someone (probably John). I had a Survivor dream relating to when Erik was voted out of Micronesia that largely focused on Natalie. I think the dream was one of those dreams where it more or less happened the exact way it happened in reality. I'm starting to think that I should just start a blog about my dreams, but I know that there are certain dreams that I wouldn't post online or tell anyone about. On second thought, even though most of my dreams can be shared with people, I wouldn't want to share them since I can turn them into TV show episodes and anyone could steal them online (even though google says that what's in my blogs is my property, it is hard to trust any online site with anything). For now, I will keep reporting on Survivor dreams randomly in this blog and other random things that are hopefully Survivor related. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Kasama comes back from tribal council. Katie talks about her mother getting voted out of the same. Ciera also talks about being the only loved one left in the game with her mother. I sense drama that isn't good for them, but is good for the viewers. Hopefully all is well by now. Meanwhile, I am getting annoyed by all the freaking Christmas commercials. If we need a plethora of those, it should be when it is actually December. We are at 331 and counting. Look at my TV blog for the total number sometime later.

In the next segment of the show, the Redemption Island duel happened. Who will lose between Aras, Vytas, and Tina? I'm hoping that Aras loses. The challenge is a maze that needs to be solved after getting puzzles solved with grappling hooks. Tina takes an early lead and Aras seems to be coming in second. The maze part seems very complicated and hard to do. Tina made a lot of progress and lost it closely. I don't like the challenge this much. Vytas won the duel. Tina is close to win and manages to do it. Aras will not win twice, but he is the first winner to be on the jury after he won since JT was voted out of Heroes versus Villains. But some winners were on the jury the first time they played, before they won. But I won't talk about John Cochran, Parvati, or Amber right now (I think those were the only three). Aras said a tearful goodbye and it marks the first time he was voted out. Vytas gives it to Katie and finally someone doesn't burn the idol clue. Too bad it has already been found.

In the next segment of the show, interesting things happen at camp while I'm too busy eating supper with my hands and can't do it. Tyson said, "I don't know why I'm wearing a shirt." That took a long time for that to happen. But I'm sure that many people were happy with that comment, even if they are straight men like me. That's his best quote this season since, "stupid will be stupid." Ciera and Laura are wondering if they can still play the game together or if they have to turn on each other. In a strange twist, Laura actually likes the fact that Ciera has turned into a great person and be told that without having to be a real blindside. So I'm not really sure what to make of this situation and it could be a lead-up to nowhere, as usual.

In the next segment of the show, Katie looks for an idol that isn't there and Tyson didn't even both making a fake hidden immunity idol. I miss fake hidden immunity idols. Whatever happened to them? Why did people stop making them? I miss them. Tyson continues to be full of himself and might not do well because of this. Then the immunity challenge happened. This appeared in previous seasons. I can't tell if it is more like the one that Dawn won in Caramoan or more like the one that Jane won in Nicaragua. Maybe it's a different version of both of them. I wonder if there will be any temptations of food or anything like that. Hayden is the first one out of the challenge. But you can't win HOH every week (they won't let you). Caleb also falls out of the challenge. There are no food choices. Gervase and Ciera fall out of the challenge and Katie follows soon after. Laura falls out leaving just Monica and Tyson left. Tyson falls out of the challenge and Monica wins. A lot of people don't like her this season so she could get voted out later. Monica decides to give her reward to everyone else except for her. Interesting move, but she's not the first contestant to do this. In fact, those who have never ended up winning (I think).

In the next segment of the show, a lot of drama happened again at camp and we don't even get to see the reward happen. I have finished supper, but only after tribal council started. Who will get voted out? Will it be Katie, Laura, or someone else entirely? Ciera doesn't like what Laura said based on her facial and otherwise nonverbal communication. This makes me think that Laura could still be the one voted out, although it could still be someone else entirely. Poor Laura if she has to return to Redemption Island. At least she made it longer than any other returnee from Redemption Island, and all this without winning the immunity necklace. This makes me glad that Laura has returned and hopefully we'll see her in a future season after this one. Nobody plays an idol because Tyson doesn't think that he's in danger, which he probably isn't. Will he ever be in danger? I don't know. Poor Laura gets voted out again and Katie lives to see another day. Will this come around and bit them in the ass or will Katie still be voted out in the future like Vytas was?

Next time on Survivor, Tyson could finally get voted out of the game (again) since his evil ways are catching up with him, even though the promo didn't make a lot of sense (they rarely do). So, once again, I'm not really sure what to expect for the next episode.

Confessional counts of players on Redemption Island: Aras- 15, Tina- 10, Vytas- 20. Confessional counts of players in the game: Hayden- 12, Gervase- 9, Tyson- 24, Caleb- 11, Laura- 12, Katie- 12, Monica- 15, Ciera- 16. New confessionals this episode: Katie- 4, Monica- 0, Ciera- 4, Hayden- 2, Gervase- 0, Tyson- 4, Caleb- 1, Laura- 3; Aras- 0, Tina- 0, Vytas- 0.

Not sure what to make of the confessionals this season. Some people (JML) are much better at seeing what happens than I am. But I am way behind on those podcasts and haven't had any time to catch up on them. Hopefully I will, but in my defense, I wanted to listen to a new one for a while before it was finally posted and I have yet to hear one that happened after Edna Ma was a guest. I will get caught up sometime, possibly only when the next season starts airing (probably sooner). So I don't know what else to report on, I just know that there's a bunch of random stuff that I need to talk about in this blog because I don't want to make promises and then not keep them. Oh, well. For now, this is Adam Decker signing off.

Episode 27.9

As promised, here is information regarding B.B. Andersen, the second Survivor contestant to die. He was the first player voted out of a tribe that did not go to the original tribal council of the season. He was the first male voted out of Survivor and the second player voted out of Survivor. He is the lowest ranking member of Pagong as he was the first person voted out of that tribe. Some consider him a quitter since he didn't mind going home and might have broken the sequester rules regarding staying in Borneo while the filming still happened. He still had a personality that made him unlikeable at the time. Hopefully, he has a better following now that he's passed. Since he's one of the earlier boots, he'd be a great focus of a special DVD of some sort. I still wonder if any of his family, in-laws, or friends will ever become contestants on Survivor. You can always hope, even if that doesn't seem likely to happen. I will get the first season in his memory at some point. Besides, people don't need to know that it's because there's a dead contestant from that season. I really want to see the first season because I haven't seen it before. There have been many selective episodes that I've missed here and there in various Survivor seasons. But the first one I've seen none of, except a sort of movie like special that was just pretending to be the season it claimed to be (the greatest and most outrageous moments). But I will still watch the special again before I end up seeing the complete season.

Here's a quick summary of what you need to know about this season so far relating to trivia and facts like that. This is Monica's first time making the merge. Will she be on the jury? We don't know yet. Every player who made it this far will make day 39. We just don't know if they will be a member of the jury (I'm guessing of eight) or if they will be a finalist. If Tyson is a finalist, he'll be a juror, pre-merge boot, and finalist in three different seasons. That same rule applies if Tina joins the jury this season. Tina or Aras could become a two time finalist. That would mean Tina would never serve on a jury, unless she plays a fourth time. There could be two tribal councils and people voted out in this episode. I don't know yet, but it might happen considering how Colton quit earlier in the game and might have messed things up in terms of jury/merge configuration. Then again, maybe they always planned to have a merge at eleven again. I didn't catch the merged tribe name. But I do know that every previous season including Redemption Island had double tribal councils post merge. They actually did that twice. One was just two tribal councils spread out over different days. The other was a tribal council followed by an immunity challenge and another vote. So there might only be one double tribal council episode because of Colton quitting the game.

Remember when I joked about who would win the game? You'll notice that when a season is done airing, the names are in a certain order on a page on www.survivor.wikia.com or www.wikipedia.org on relating to the winner who would end up at the top of the voting records chart and the bottom of the challenge history chart. With that being known, the winner is Aras, Tina, Caleb, or Vytas (but Aras might be on the jury since he was voted out and is no longer where the winner ends up). I don't have any idea who the real winner is. But they could end up having a low confessional count. I'm starting to wonder if I should judge that or not. Look at the person who won Redemption Island. She had the least amount of confessionals of all the players there. But Laura Morett, henceforth to be referred to as Laura, made Survivor history by not being voted out immediately after returning from Redemption Island the first time she wasn't immune from getting voted out. Ozzy on South Pacific avoided being the first one voted out after returning from Redemption Island both the first and the second time he won it. But since he won the immunity necklace, he was still voted out the first time he wasn't immune. (Sorry if the formatting on this paragraph turns out bad because of the links.)

So I'm not sure who my favorite to win this season is anymore. I'd have to say that it is probably Hayden, Vytas, or Laura. I don't have a favorite to win Redemption Island yet, because there is only one person there right now and I'd have to root for him by default. I'm not sure that I like Aras that much and I don't see things ending well for Vytas either. I do wonder if pairs will end up in the end of the game together or if they won't. People without partners in the game could form an alliance with others that don't. Gervase, Monica, Hayden, Tyson, Caleb, and some might even count Vytas, as not having partners and could form an alliance. Tina, Katie, Laura, Ciera, and Vytas have partners in the game, but Vytas would be more likely to join to join those without since it would be a majority and avoid a tie vote. But I don't know if I'd want to have this happen or not. It has already fallen apart if it was going to happen at all.

If there were a tie vote with a final three, one would wonder how they'd handle it. Only a jury of nine and final three could produce a three way tie. Someone could win the game with a plurality of the votes and not have the regular majority, even though both are the most votes given to the inevitable winner. A tie between two people would be more likely and could end up being resolved in the same way as a three way tie for the win. Here are the different solutions that I see happening: 1- the tie is resolved before the reunion show by a revote, potentially of only the juror members who caused the tie by voting for a third person instead of the two who got the most votes. 2- A live revote happens at the reunion show during a commercial break after the jury is given a chance to reconsider how voting might happen after having seen what happened during the season. 3- A live fire making tie-breaker occurs at the reunion show. 4- The contestants affected by the tie are both considered to have won the game. 5- No winner is declared at the reunion show. Instead, the affected players are the returning players in a one returnee per tribe season designed to have a final two with an odd number of jury members and whoever makes it farther the second time is considered the winner of the previous season. I don't know if they'd have to prevent the contestant from potentially winning twice in a tie-breaker like that or what they would do if one of the people were medically evacuated. One also would wonder in a situation such as this if the new players that season would have to not know about these players or if they could know that they are playing to resolve a tie for the win. 6- The winnings are split between the two or three people affected and they all share the title of sole Survivor for the season. 7- Previous votes against contestants are taken into account, regardless of if they plaid a hidden immunity idol. 8- The viewers vote to break the tie. This could mean that whoever gets more votes as the Sprint player of the season is considered the winner of the game provided they beat just the people or person they were tied with and regardless of if they won the vote with the other players. 9- The players from the season that didn't make the jury also vote for the winner of the finalists who were in the final three. 10- There will coincidentally never be a tie that we have to worry about being resolved. 11- Something else entirely will happen that may or may not be revealed to the audience.

You know, since Redemption Island is being featured after the merge, one could wonder why they are doing this if people don't actually like it that much. But I guess it wouldn't be fair to only get a chance to reenter before the merge and after the merge, you just join the jury. I do wonder if the reentry point will still be the final five, with the winner as part of the five. It would be interesting if the winner of the final duel on Redemption Island was automatically in the final three with the other two people that remained. It might not be fair for the other two people and might seriously ruin how they do the last three days of filming, which are among the most important of all the 39 days. But at least nobody has messed it up horribly. Not even quitting messes it up. Getting medically evacuated whether you are on Redemption Island after you were voted out or before you are voted out and being unable to go there would both be interesting to see, but we have no idea if this twist will keep getting used or not. I hate seeing people medically evacuated so it might be better if neither happen at all. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, the fallout of the first vote happened and I have decided that I am giving up recording Revolution. The only way to fix the timer programming is finding a remote that works for it, hoping that I can get another VCR, getting a different universal remote that would work for timer programming, going through a lot of tape on very few episodes, figuring out if the remote I have does work for timer programming, hoping that someone else I know has a working VCR and would record something like this, or something else entirely.

Kasama went to their first immunity challenge of the episode. Two interesting tribal councils happen this episode, but since that's always the case, it is hard to classify how this one might be different. Tyson, Monica, and Vytas win the first round of what Tyson likes to call gross gummy worms. No one is doing well this round, unlike the last round which went better. Hayden, Gervase, and Caleb don't quit the challenge and win by actually doing what they are supposed to do. This challenge is gross, which makes me glad that I'm not eating supper yet. True to promos they didn't realize they showed, Gervase is in the final round with Monica. It should be noted that Gervase's tribe won this challenge when it first appeared in Survivor history. Gervase goes crazy trying to eat the gross food and Monica also has problems, but she ends up winning.

In the next segment of the show, people think about splitting the vote. Tyson thinks that he shouldn't reveal having the idol. Monica is doing stupid things possibly, but it's unknown if she can be that paranoid since she has the immunity necklace. People are wondering if Katie is the real target or if Vytas is the real target. So tribal council ending up happening next. Drama unfolds as usual. I can't tell what might end up happening so I'm making no guesses here. And wouldn't you know it, they put a commercial before the votes are revealed.

In the next segment of the show, Vytas ends up joining his brother on Redemption Island. I should have seen that coming. They should Kasama coming back from tribal council instead of showing what happened to Vytas going to Redemption Island. They ended up showing that later. The brothers discussed whether they were or weren't in the game. Finally, they start showing Redemption Island again. A feud happened between the two brothers, I think. So it could be an interesting Redemption Island, but only if they can keep winning for a while. The final immunity challenge from Nicaragua reappears as the immunity challenge this season. Oh, and Monica should have voted for Katie, but ended up voting for Vytas instead. Nothing bad happened, unless they didn't really want Vytas gone. Monica and Ciera quickly fall out of the challenge in the beginning. I have been unable to eat supper. Tina is out of the challenge next. Gervase is out next and Laura is quickly behind him. Caleb is out of the challenge next. After that Hayden and Tyson both drop out and Katie wins the challenge. There was a lot of wobbly coins in the first place.

In the next segment of the show, Tina looks for an idol that isn't there. Tyson doesn't want to be a target. Nobody even considers making a fake hidden immunity idol. I miss those. Funny scenes happen. Are they getting rid of Tina or are they getting rid of Monica? Monica is getting paranoid, like she was in the earlier parts of the episode, which makes it seem like she will get voted out tonight. So Tina got voted out and this could create an interesting Redemption Island, but I won't say how. Will Katie find a place in the alliance? Will she at least team up with the last pair in the game?

On the next Survivor, Ciera might vote out her loved one. But this is probably a twist edit. It could have already happened tonight. Meanwhile, I need to eat the rest of my supper and worry about tape issues later. Hopefully, I can record it for me and my mother at least if I can't for anyone else. Besides, I already know that I probably wouldn't want to risk recording any other Survivor seasons for my sister anyways because she can probably wait until the long time passes and the seasons are finally released on DVD. Hopefully, she won't be confused by players in the thirtieth season she'll be watching when she comes back. Four seasons missed, but a landmark season like that could end up happening and be pretty good. At least she'll be able to watch it if they make it. Oh, and feel free to post Revolution spoilers in this blog so I know what's been happening.

Confessional counts of players on Redemption Island: Aras- 15. Confessional counts of players in the game: Tina- 10, Tyson- 20, Caleb- 10, Laura Morett- 9, Vytas- 20, Katie- 8, Monica- 15, Ciera- 12, Hayden- 10, Gervase- 9. New confessionals this episode: Laura Morett- 1, Vytas- 3, Katie- 3, Monica- 3, Ciera- 0, Hayden- 1, Gervase- 2, Tina- 2, Tyson- 4, Caleb- 1; Aras- 1.

I know that I missed two confessionals this episode and I always think that my numbers are off. Not sure if I'll ever do this again, or, at least, not in a season I'm watching the first time. I could end up doing it for a season I'm rewatching. If you know the real numbers and I don't have them, let me know. I liked Tina's fake out with the hidden immunity idol.

Episode 27.8

In the first season of Redemption Island, two contestants with a memorable rivalry fought in a rematch which Rob won easily and Russell lost horribly. I wondered from that season (or just the rumors of that season) if they would ever do a rematch of Survivor players again. Doing it with one returning players per tribe and the returning players are the ones with the rivalry worked in theory, but there is no way that they would keep doing seasons like that all the time. What would be more interesting is if they did a season with all returning players who had rivalries in previous seasons. I'd prefer them to keep the players with the rivalries on separate tribes for it to work. I don't know how they'd do the tribes. There are probably plenty of rivalries from seasons past. Heck, this season even have Tyson versus Aras in a way. The thirtieth season could be a good one to do Survivor: Rematch, if they don't have something better planned. I don't think that I'll list all the rivalries from every season yet, but I figure that it is still a good idea.

I'm still not sure what they have planned for Survivor 28. Feel free to post information about it, as long as it doesn't have contestant boot orders on it. Since they are still in the Philippines, they could use twists from that country's version of Survivor. They probably won't, but it could be interesting if they did. The only two twists I'd be interested in seeing are temptation rewards as well as the white and cursed pearl. Temptation rewards are best compared to Pandora's Box from Big Brother. The main different is that you find out what the good and bad things are before you decide if you want it or not and you are the only person who gets it; the rest of the tribe (or players) aren't affected by your decision. The white and cursed pearls affect voting. The white pearl removes a potential vote from you, but only if you still have it at tribal council. The cursed pearl gives you an extra vote at tribal council. If you lose it, then you get two extra votes. There is also a blood pearl that adds a vote to the rules of the cursed pearl. I'm not sure if either twist would work well in our country's version or not, but it would be worth trying. They could do it in any season, but it seems more interesting to do it in the place that established the twist. It's a shame that we'll never be able to watch another country's version of Survivor due to some sort of lawsuit, but they are probably too strange for us anyways.

I know that last year, they had a promo looking for new players to apply on the show. Since all the new players this season are recruits, that probably means that new players are on the next season. But is it an entire season that will be all new players? Will there only be two tribes? Will there not be any other season long twists that prevent it from being a normal season? It's been too long since a normal season has happened; longer than any previous gap from seasons past. I've heard rumors that, once again, there could be returning players. I don't think that it would be all returning players. If you read that at www.survivorsucks.com then they were probably wrong. They get final three spoilers right and sometimes winners are right, but most of what they get is wrong. They got the cast for this season wrong and they got the boot list for last season wrong (although the final three and winner were correct). I wouldn't look there for season 28 info since they would probably reveal more than I want to know. And I'm not going to wonder if they'll be a 29^th or 30^th season yet. We still don't know what would happen if Jeff Probst decided to no longer host Survivor anymore. I wonder if the last season he hosts will be an all-star season where the winner of the season also gets to host the show in future seasons. That would get a lot of players who said they would never play again on a plane to that island to battle it out. I doubt that they would choose a new host like that, but it would be interesting for us. Just be sure to tell the returning players that they are playing for that reason.

I wonder if any of the players on Redemption Island could avoid being immediately voted out again without winning immunity in this episode. There is still probably no special immunity for the player returning to the game than there was in previous seasons with Redemption Island. I don't know why the Outcasts got that honor but these players don't. It doesn't matter anyways. It could be Aras getting voted out no matter who gets back in the game. Aras wins immunity and they're screwed, although Vytas could still get voted out. If Laura Morett pulls a come from behind win, she will have a loved one to come back to in the game with where as other Laura and John have already had loved ones eliminated from the game. I'm still waiting until the last episode of the season before I list all the alternates for this season and what new players relating in some way to previous players would be potential new players for a future Survivor season. I don't know how I'll list the players who get back in from Redemption Island, although they will probably still be in the same order that they are now, in a way. They seem to show a lot of players while they are still in the game and they still have the chance to show those players. I don't know if the players with the most confessionals this season have already been eliminated or if someone else will end up getting the most. Vytas could end up winning the game and that would prove interesting and make the women of Galang look stupid. Of course, after all of mankind's long history, it would be a nice change for men to finally be the smart ones. Vytas didn't even have to do anything to save himself. He just had to let the women self-destruct and take themselves out.

The hidden immunity idol doesn't seem to be in use this season. I think that maybe I should go through a history of the hidden immunity idol in order to better understand it. But I don't know if I'll do that this post or in a future blog post. I just hope that it ends up getting used or found at some point. Maybe the reason they aren't showing John is that he secretly has it and they aren't showing us that. If he wins Redemption Island, he would probably play it when he gets back in the game and hopefully he'll be a target at the time so it isn't wasted when it is finally used. I don't know why Jeff keeps asking for hidden immunity idols when he knows that they aren't in play this season for whatever reason. I guess that he has to ask it as part of his job so no player can come forward and say that they never had a chance to play it when they could have otherwise. It wouldn't be the merge of a season with Redemption Island unless one player wasted their hidden immunity idol on another player. I don't think that would happen, but it could this time. We'll have to wait and see.

Based on future promos that I've seen, it's possible that there will be no Redemption Island after the merge and reward challenges will return. I still wonder why there can't be reward challenges separate from immunity challenges and Redemption Island duels in one episode. I guess there wouldn't be enough game play at camp for that to work anyways. I've also checked my blog and realize that stuff I mentioned relating to formatting doesn't show up the way I see it on the blog that you read. So I'm sorry if the reference isn't needed or makes sense to you. But I hope that things become interesting and that the hidden immunity idol actually becomes part of the game again. We'll see if Redemption Island remains in the game or not. And whoever wins should hopefully do better than first out of merged tribe. We still don't know if a secret double Redemption Island exists. That would be cool if it did, but it probably wouldn't because there's enough backlash against one Redemption Island and it was a joke when it was first mentioned anyways. The post boot interviews would have been a huge lie for the one person who survived it. I will not mention anything about Redemption Island confessionals and just stick to new and total confessionals if they are, in fact, not using it after the merge.

Okay, so I mention that I'll talk about a lot of stuff in this blog. I don't know if I'll ever get around to it or not. So, hopefully, I won't forget what I'm planning to talk about and if I do, be sure to remind me of what I haven't talked about yet. The news came that on October 29, 2013, Survivor: Borneo contestant B. B. Andersen died. He had brain cancer and a stroke. I will talk more about him in the next blog post. The most of Survivor: Borneo I've ever seen was the greatest and most outrageous moments VHS which is a movie like thing pretending to be something it isn't. I have it ranked as 18 out of 26 seasons, but it should be higher if I actually ever saw it. Many people consider it the best season of all time and all the other seasons were just there to go along with it. I will have to add it to my wish list now that the only requirement for me getting it is met. I don't know who might get it for me and when; I just know that I probably wouldn't get it for myself, yet. By the way, I listed Palau as 2 out of 26 in terms of greatness, meaning that only one season did better than Palau. I will blog about it, so hopefully there will be a good time to watch it and I won't be confused by the current season that is airing. I know that it might be a long time until Caramoan comes out on DVD. If there's a place where you can watch the whole season (Caramoan) online, let me know. At least my sister will see the thirtieth season, provided that it gets renewed, still. I just hope that she isn't confused by returning players from seasons she hasn't seen yet.

Ever since they started doing final threes at the final tribal council instead of final twos, some people have wondered what would happen if there is a tie. I will go over various scenarios that could happen in such an event, but I don't know yet if that will happen or not. I will mention that in a different blog posts. During the hiatus between this season and season 28, I might do random blog posts like I've done in the summer. I could mention the ten stupidest tribes or the ten most shocking moments in Survivor history. I could continue to do random crap in the blog post before the actual post like I normally do, but that doesn't matter yet. Also, since only one Laura can win Redemption Island, that will mean that only the first name of said Laura will be mentioned in this blog of mine in future blog posts. But I still think that John will win. I just don't know why they haven't focused on anyone that is on Redemption Island. I guess that there is no reason to but at least one of them is coming back into the game. I guess they don't do well when they return. Maybe Laura Boneham will reenter the game since she's the person who is focused on the most recently. I'll post merge facts and jury facts provided that it starts soon like we think that it is.

You know, you can learn a lot about Survivor by listening to podcasts about Survivor. Listen to the one I posted a link to in the blog post, quick link. That's where the person knew that Kat would be the first person voted out after the tribe swap. He used it to his advantage in a game he played on this podcast. I don't know if the person he played with is aware that he did this. You'd think that he'd know considering how he had said that he knew when she got voted out of the game. But it ultimately doesn't matter since he is still losing this game that is relatively unimportant. The people on the podcast interviewed Edna Ma from South Pacific who revealed that she was considered as a player for this season along with her sister. They weren't chosen for unknown reasons. I would have liked to see that, if only to see more siblings playing the game. But they could always do this twist again. I think that it works better with returning players instead of new players against their families. What new players from this season could return with a new player in the next blood versus water? What alternates from this time could they use the next time? Who should have been cut from this season that should have been replaced with Edna and her sister? The only pair that could have been cut were either Tina and Katie or Laura Morett and Ciera. I have to believe that it is good that Edna didn't play again, unless she wanted another child. Also, I don't trust the grammar check on my computer. It doesn't have well grammar sometimes. Hopefully it can stop underlining things in green. Also, what the heck does blue underline mean? I know what green and red is, but what does it mean when Word underlines a word in blue? I just don't get it. It thinks that well grammar is grammatically correct! I highly doubt that computers are smarter than mankind. But it could happen if they knew things better sometimes.

I'm not sure if now is a good time to mention what could happen with the three players who could return from Redemption Island. It could be a surprise. It's possible that Laura Morett, the least likely in terms of confessionals, is actually the person who reenters the game. They might have spoiled that in promos, although I could have mistaken her for someone else. Laura Boneham could wind up the first person voted out after the merge because things don't look well for her. John is who I suspect will and want most to reenter the game. We still don't know if there's a hidden immunity idol in his possession or if it still has yet to be found. There will only be one after the merge, right? Would there be two with only one camp? Whoever wins should hopefully find whatever they want to in terms of alliances and not wind up the very next person voted out. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Laura Boneham arrived at Redemption Island and didn't realize that she dug her own grave and that Vytas wouldn't get voted out. Every player on Redemption Island wants to get back in the game. They finally get confessionals again. Who will win?

In the next segment of the show, the duel happened. Laura Morett won the duel and got back into the game. So, hopefully, she won't get voted out again. She accomplished the purpose of why she was sent there in the first place. Despite the odds, in terms of confessionals, Laura Morett reentered the game while John and Laura Boneham were permanently eliminated. Also, Survivor China and Micronesia were finally released to DVD. The new merged tribe, then goes to their beach. Laura Morett and Ciera, Katie and Tina, as well as Aras and Vytas are the only players still in the game with the partners they started with. Tyson found the hidden immunity idol. Let's hope that he doesn't do anything stupid with it or something stupid happens to him because of it. The Baskauskas brothers were trying to figure out how to get into the game. I hope that Laura Morett doesn't get voted out. That would be bad and ruins the purpose of something like Redemption Island.

In the next segment of the show, Tyson is talking with Monica over what should happen next. The immunity challenge happened earlier than normal. There must be a lot of shit happening at the camp and at tribal council. Vytas won the close immunity challenge after his brother came in second. Vytas is glad that he didn't need immunity even though he won it. Interesting things happen at camp and tribal council. Either Laura or Aras is getting voted out of the game, but I don't know who is the swing vote, if there is one. Ultimately, Aras got voted out, even though Ciera and Laura both got votes against them. Did they vote against each other? That would be a Survivor first. Redemption Island is still in play and this is Aras's first time getting voted out of the game. What will happen next time? A horrible immunity challenge (or two) and things could fall apart for Tyson.

Confessional counts of players on Redemption Island: Laura Boneham- 12, John- 12, Laura Morett- 8. Confessional counts of players in the game: Katie- 5, Monica- 12, Ciera- 12, Hayden- 9, Gervase- 7, Tina- 8, Tyson- 16, Caleb- 9, Aras- 14, Vytas- 17. New confessionals this episode: Vytas- 2, Katie- 0, Monica- 1, Ciera- 3, Hayden- 0, Gervase- 1, Tina- 0, Tyson- 3, Caleb- 0, Aras- 2; Laura Boneham- 1, John- 1, Laura Morett- 2.

So it looks like Redemption Island is still in play. Tina and Aras will either be on the jury or make day 39 again. If Tina is not on the jury, that would make her and Russell Hantz the only three time players to never be on the jury. This is Monica's first time making the merge. I might have to give up Revolution for a very long time due to tape difficulties that could seriously affect how I watch this season of Survivor during Advent. I know that I already can't watch both. So I might have to buy the Revolution DVDs. Another problem is that I typically can't watch anything on Wednesdays until 9:00 because the lateness I get back home from church. Hopefully the VCR problems can be fixed, I can get a different VCR, or I can figure out timer programming on the good VCR without a remote. I think that I'm screwed. At least this laptop can still record shows. I just can't share it with anyone else. So hopefully the wait for this season on DVD isn't too long, or my sister will be disappointed. I also know that I don't want to skip church. While I figure this out, I have to get off the computer soon so I can record something while I watch something. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 27.7

There are three players in Survivor history who have played the game three times and never participated in a tribe swap. Those three are Russell Hantz, Coach, and Colby Donaldson. I think that those are the only three. Laura Morett did not participate in a tribe swap this season, so keep that in mind if she plays again. Candice and Rupert both did tribe swaps in previous seasons. Tina and Tyson could have gone on to never have been in a tribe swap, but that didn't end up happening. That's good for Tina considering how one happened on All-Stars that she never got to see because she was the first boot that season. She's doing quite well this season and I don't know if she does well or not. We still have no idea if the coconut bandits prove to be a true alliance and if it will have other players in it or not. Whether they are or not, they are definitely doing better than the five guys alliance. I don't think either gender has a good alliance this season. I don't know if every reader of my blog has seen the ninth season of Survivor in Vanuatu. I might reference that sometime this season. If you can rewatch it, please do. I would, but I have to wait until a contestant from that season dies before I buy that season in their memory. I said the Yasur, which happened to be a yellow tribe, was similar to the post swap Galang, which is also yellow, because it was a tribe of women who didn't get rid of the one man. Yasur should have had it made in the merged part of the game, but they failed to get rid of the last man standing who went on to win the game. So often in Survivor, people wait too long to get rid of a player and said player goes on to win the game. Yasur made that mistake and should have been an all female alliance making it to the end, which didn't happen until either Micronesia or, a better example, One World. It should be noted that Lopevi wouldn't have done badly if they had made smarter moves after the tribe swap. Both it and Tadhana are red tribes and have mostly men on it. I just hope that this season doesn't somehow become a repeat of the previous season I'm mentioning. It shouldn't, but it could since Aras looks like the target instead of Ciera.

According to a special preview on the Survivor Live after Show, there is a possibility that Hayden switches places with Kat on Redemption Island. That might actually happen since it wasn't on the main preview where they show that happening and it doesn't happen because Survivor loves twist edits (in promos at least). I don't know how that would affect the confessional counts that I do. I don't like the way I do it, and yet, I keep doing it that way anyways. Laura Boneham always seems to spilt the names so I have to rearrange the names and she always seems to start a list and end a different list. I want to switch it up, even though it is more or less in the same order all the time until someone is eliminated from the game and taken off the list. In fact, it's because the names are taken off of the list that I will run out of ways to switch it up. (You'll notice how the second list isn't even showing up on two lines anymore, of people in the game at least. This is a problem for me, but the reader of this blog doesn't care, probably.) It's unlikely you'll notice what edits I end up making anyways, since this is posted after all changes are made to it and final. I don't know how getting out of Redemption Island will affect the confessional count or not and I firmly hope that it affects the game and they don't just become the next one voted out. It's possible that two people will return from Redemption Island premerge, but I don't know how the merge will work this season. It's possible that we could see a merge at ten again. Besides, I don't know who I want to win Redemption Island and I have no idea who should lose Redemption Island. I'm guessing that the Christine edit could apply to Laura Morett, but that has yet to be proven. I just know that it's a bad sign for the players in Redemption Island if no one in Redemption Island to get a confessional in an episode, which happened last week. And a merge should be happening soon. I just don't know why it hasn't happened yet, except that it is always strange in a season with Redemption Island.

You know, there is all this talk about breast cancer this month and none of it mentions Jennifer Lyon, who died of breast cancer. I had a dream that she wasn't the only dead Survivor contestant. Ian, also from the same season, died of murder, but how and why he was murdered was unknown. While it's unfortunate that a great player like Jenn will never play again (final four with no votes against her, and then everything fell apart for her), it would be especially bad that Ian, a commonly cited player for a second chance, would never be able to play again. I don't know if I'd get a season if a contestant doesn't die, but still goes through a life changing event that would prevent them from playing again, such as getting permanently paralyzed. That would be bad, as would death. But since there are tons of contestants who will probably never play again, whether it is due to their choice of not wanting to play again or things they did during or after the game that would prevent them from playing again, I'm not going to get every season with a quitter, for instance. Now, there have been three contestants from Survivor that have died in dreams of mine. I would never take bets as to who the next one to die will be because that's horrible immoral and I do enough thinking about death anyways. I should be too young for that, but since you can die before you are even born, one argues as to whether they should always be thinking about stuff like that. I just don't know who it will be until it happens and a lot of them could die at once. I still don't know if they'll ever do a special about someone who played Survivor and then died (probably not, considering how they don't always want to do that for any contestant no matter how short they lasted in the game, how controversial they were, or how little they affected the game) that would have unused and largely unseen footage from each season they were in. I don't even know if they keep all the unused footage from each season anyways. There are some things that they'll never show us (like Michael Skupin falling into the fire) and some stuff we probably don't want to see (like Michael Skupin falling into the fire). I had a dream where I went through what he did in that episode of Survivor. I don't want any contestant to go through something that serious again.

Since Halloween episodes are coming on Wednesday when Survivor airs, this could cause problems with what I normally do. I normally watch Survivor and then watch Las and Order: Special Victims Unit while I record Revolution and then The Tomorrow People. But since The Middle and Modern Family are on and showing special Halloween episodes, I might not be able to blow them off. I'm recording this Survivor season on VHS for my sister who will watch the season later. I'm typing this Survivor blog on my laptop, which is the only other way of recording something. I know that for the last episodes on Wednesday before the Sunday finale, I'll have to switch the way of recording it, making sure that it is still on tape, since my laptop won't have enough room to keep the records for as long as it would take before my sister could watch it. And I want to be a good brother to this dear, sweet sister of mine, who is probably not reading this blog but I still feel the need to mention. The better VCR does not have the ability to set timers on it, so I'm hoping that the other VCR is good enough to record something as valuable as Survivor. And for a fan, you do not want to miss anything when a show is on. That's why commercials of Survivor are valuable and hectic times for me, and most Survivor fans. I might change the recording for today. I don't have to see Revolution, since it's a long time when I watch it after it is recorded. And I think that The Tomorrow People typically does stand alone episodes. I might be able to record something on my laptop, if possible. Even though the two comedies I mentioned are in syndication now (it's fun watching episodes I never saw before), NOTHING stays in syndication forever, and most shows, like Survivor, will never enter syndication. It would be nice if they showed episodes mixed with never before seen footage (although that term technically doesn't really exist since SOMEONE has to have seen it at least once), but that would probably never happen. It would be nice. But it probably wouldn't be profitable. But I can still watch The Middle during the hiatus between the fall and spring season of Survivor. I'd watch it online, but I don't have time. I'd watch it during the summer, but ABC and summer reruns, don't ever belong in the same sentence. If you're familiar with that network, then you know what I mean. Besides, I'm watching the Big Brother season online that has Hayden Moss in it. He's my favorite to win that Big Brother season, so I hope that he does well in it. (That's a semi-serious statement, by the way. I'm mostly joking.) As for the ABC comedies I mentioned, I'll have to make sure that the channel comes in before I change something I usually do. Just know that I do hectic things between the ending of this show and the beginning of the next show. I might let you know what happens. I think that I will record it. But enough of my ramblings.

So the episode starts with Kat arriving at Redemption Island. She overdramatic about possibly not making the merge and upset about getting voted out again. She forces Hayden to give her a hug, which hopefully helps the situation out. Hayden says that his relationship with Kat is more important than the game. Jeff challenges him to switch places with Kat on Redemption Island. And just on cue, we get the intro and a commercial break. Will he do it? I figured that this is where there'd be a commercial break the moment I first saw some of that scene on the Survivor Live after Show.

In the next segment of the show, Hayden thinks that he's in a good spot. Hayden will probably do better in the game than Kat would. Kat ultimately decided to stay at Redemption Island and hopefully this move doesn't turn into what Rupert did when he did switch. The challenge is the final immunity challenge from Caramoan, I think. That means that a recurring challenge was actually won by the winner of a season. Only, it wasn't a recurring challenge before this season and the others, I'm pretty sure, were only ever for immunity. I will mention challenges from Palau that would make good Redemption Island duels, but I will do that in a future blog post. Jeff confirms that this challenge is from Caramoan. The puzzle making is neck and neck. It is hard to tell who is winning and who is losing the challenge. John wins the challenge. It is then a race between two women. Kat isn't doing well. Kat loses the challenge and Laura Morett stays in the game. Kat is eliminated from the game. John decides to give the clue to the hidden immunity idol to Monica again and for the third straight time, she burns the clue before reading it. If either Monica or Vytas get voted out, you'll know the dumb move they made that got them that way. I do miss exit confessionals. Why don't they exist in seasons with Redemption Island?

In the next segment of the show, we saw what happened on Tadhana. Hayden was upset about Kat getting eliminated from the game and him not switching places with her. But he's still in the game and feeling better that he doesn't have a loved one anymore. Aras wants to win this season and a merge to happen so he can be with his brother Vytas. Tyson is still trying to get Aras out of the game. Tina likes Vytas on her tribe and there could be a potential romance between her daughter and Vytas. Are they both single? I don't know. Laura Boneham also talks about the game. Now I hope that The Middle is over soon before the show comes back from commercial so I can stop it and wait until the next show I like is one.

In the next segment of the show, I missed part of the show by trying to mess with a tape and getting food to eat. Galang talks about voting on Vytas, which seems like their best move. The challenge then happens for immunity. The challenge is confusing so I won't give commentary, since I'm just now eating. Tadhana ending up winning the strange and interesting challenge. Hopefully nobody pulls a Kat again and gets themselves voted out instead of Vytas. Laura Boneham made stupid decisions and may no longer do better than any first boot has done this series. Doesn't she realize that Kat just did the same stupid thing that she might have just done? I missed out on a lot because I was eating a hamburger, but since I don't have any drink right now, I won't be able to eat something comfortably until after a commercial. Drama unfolded at tribal council because Laura Boneham revealed the plan to vote out Vytas to Vytas. That reminds me of poor Matt in Redemption Island, but that probably isn't the same, although it is a dumb move. Will both Lauras wind up on Redemption Island or will Vytas be the easy vote out? I don't think that a viewer blindside will happen. Meanwhile, VCR problems upstairs make me really hope that I can still record this show for myself and my sister during Advent and other holidays or events that will come up soon. Who will be voted out? Well, it looks like Laura Boneham dug her own grave on this one.

Next time on Survivor: someone is finally coming back from Redemption Island and the merge does, in fact, finally happen. With both losers be out? Will one stay on Redemption Island while the other person who doesn't win is finally out? I have the feeling that only the winner will reenter and the other two will be permanently eliminated. It will then lead to one regular tribal council in the episode followed by a double post merge tribal council in the next episode. I hope that get a grip continues to be a good challenge.

Confessional counts of players on Redemption Island: Kat- 10, John- 11, Laura Morett- 6. Confessional counts of players in the game: Gervase- 6, Tina- 8, Tyson- 13, Caleb- 9, Aras- 12, Vytas- 15, Laura Boneham- 11, Katie- 5, Monica- 11, Ciera- 9, Hayden- 9. New confessionals this episode: Laura Boneham- 4, Katie- 1, Monica- 1, Ciera- 1, Hayden- 2, Gervase- 0, Tina- 2, Tyson- 2, Caleb- 0, Aras- 1, Vytas- 2; Kat- 2, John- 0, Laura Morett- 0.

So Revolution wasn't coming in so it's a good thing that I didn't record it. I hope that The Middle that I wasted a tape on wasn't a repeat because Modern Family and SVU are reruns as well. Maybe they were originally planned to be new ones until they realized that game six of the World Series is going to happen and was happening while us die hard Survivor fans didn't even care while we hoped that a game seven would also happen. I don't know if this means that potential new episodes tomorrow aren't going to happen if there is a game seven or if various new programs will have to air next week. I finished watching Halloween episodes of various TV shows on DVD so I won't watch them on the wrong holiday or the next year entirely. Meanwhile, I get to watch the Tomorrow People instead of having to record it. I have also heard various Survivor winners disappointed with the edit that they got because they weren't seen much until the end of the season. I imagine that the winner of this season could suffer the same fate. Based on Redemption Island edits, John will probably be the player who gets back in the game, although I want Laura Boneham back in the game. It would be interesting if both Lauras are eliminated from the game permanently at the same duel. Hopefully, Vytas doesn't pull a Chris and end up winning the game after Galang failed to vote him out. I wouldn't mind him winning, but it's possible either way. Besides, he's more of a Rory now anyways. Well, he doesn't have a lot of votes against him like Rory did and we don't know who will be the first one voted out after the merge. It just better not be whoever wins Redemption Island. That would be horribly stupid. I also hope that I don't have problems recording whatever might be on next week. But it's possible that nothing new was planned anyways and nothing was delayed. We'll see when the shows for next week air. Well, I've rambled way too much in this blog post. I'll have to stop for now. Sorry I forgot to post this sooner. This is Adam Decker, signing off.