Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Random season 27 blog post

I accidently spilt the twelfth episode into two different blog posts so I deleted the repeat information and decided to make this just a random blog post for this season regarding various information about this episode. I think that I will talk about Ciera related what ifs. Sorry that I can't find a good way to reorder the names in the upcoming blog post. I guess that Gervase gets to me mentioned first twice. So relating to Ciera: when she flipped from an alliance of four to an alliance of three and caused a tie and another tie, she might not have made the best move. I can't think of anyone who flipped on an alliance and went on to win the game (in the season they flipped, at least). So what might have been a better move for her? She could wait until Hayden and Katie are voted off, convince Monica to vote with her and whoever won Redemption Island, and then she's in the final three with Monica and the winner of Redemption Island. She could hope to win immunity at some point and throw a wrench in the plans of whoever wanted to vote her out while possibly making a big move. If Katie won the next immunity challenge, Ciera would join her and whoever else they could get to avoid Ciera being voted out next. Ciera's flipping ultimately got her fifth place when she could have been fourth. She will probably return as a villain if they ever redo heroes versus villains (or do the all villains season that Jeff Probst supposedly wants). But regardless of if we see her again or not, I hope that contestants make better choices in the future. Hayden had a chance to take out Tyson, but went with Ciera instead and ended up on the minority alliance with other people. When Ciera flipped, they voted against her. I don't understand why you would vote against a swing vote. That should be a rule. I know that voting against the swing vote doesn't always turn out bad. In Panama, when Shane threw his shot at being saved, nobody wanted him anymore and they weren't in a possible minority at the time. I'd have to say that should be one of the rules nonetheless. Never vote against the swing vote (if you don't have the numbers, at least). Sorry for the weird post. I'll be back next year with various random posts before I start posting about the next season. I'm hoping that I can turn the no delay, six minute delay, and twenty-five minute delay all at the same time into an episode of a TV show, but I'm not entirely sure how that would work exactly. I'll be back sometime next year, hopefully. That's all for now. This is Adam Decker, signing off.

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Survivor Blood Versus Water Finale

There are always alternate players that would come back to the game for certain Survivor season that have returning players. There are different reasons why these players did not ultimately return to play the game again. But what I'm wondering is this. This season had alternate returning players, but since they were paired with new players related to them, that means that there are potential new players relating to former players that could appear in future seasons. Even the 28th season which has already been made might have new players of the sort that I've mentioned. I should include a link as to where I got the information relating to the alternates for this current season. http://survivor.wikia.com/wiki/Alternate_Returning_Players Hopefully that link works okay. Check out the rest of the site for other great related Survivor information with pages related to seasons, contestants, challenges, alliances, episodes, and various other stuff to that relates to Survivor. There's even other wikia related sites for various other things. This is the most recently updated page that I saw three days before the finale so there may be more people than have actually been listed. There is also the chance that some of the information here listed isn't right at all due to questionable links that the site accepts or contestants who aren't really saying what is right. All the contestants had a potential partner and back-up partner. Without listening to most of these sources, I am going to mention who the returning players would have been and who the new potential players relating to them might be as well.

There are twenty-two alternate players known for this season. The first was Greg from Borneo. It's unknown why he declined and this source isn't as reliable as others. This is his first time he's a known alternate. His potential partner was his sister. Amber from Australia and All-Stars was considered, but she declined as she considered her Survivor experience to be over. It's unknown if she would have had a new partner or not. If she wouldn't have, then it is probably best that they don't mess up the new/old ratio. That reason alone is why I figured that no Hantz was playing this season. They aren't alternates and I'd be surprised and upset if either of them return. Jerri from Australia, All-Stars, and Heroes versus Villains wanted to play this season, but couldn't get a partner so she didn't end up playing. Her sister and father were both considered as partners, but her sister was pregnant and father couldn't play either, I think due to work commitments. Tom Buchanan, from Africa and All-Stars, declined being on the season because he was working on a different reality show (Family Beef). Lex from Africa and All-Stars declined for the same reason. Boston Rob from Marquesas, All-Stars, Heroes versus Villains, and Redemption Island declined being on this season for the same reason as his wife did. Why would they leave their kids just to play a game anyways? Besides, they should let other players be given the spotlight for a change, even though Amber isn't as much in the spotlight anymore. There are no alternates known who were originally from Thailand or Amazon. Sandra from Pearl Islands and Heroes versus Villains was considered playing with her daughter. I'm not certain why she didn't appear again.

Eliza from Vanuatu and Micronesia was considered for this season but ultimately not chosen. She would have played with her mother. She revealed who the cast was (when it was originally RC instead of Candice) and mentioned considered players of which no alternate information has been revealed yet, if it was true in the first place. I'd mention those players if I knew who they were (which I do, but I haven't bother to look up any information regarding it that I could easily find). Besides, if I knew that they were really considered, they'd be on this real list. Bobby Jon from Palau and Guatemala was very close to being on this season with his female cousin, but he was cut for reasons I'm not sure of. Tom Westman from Palau declined being on the season due to work commitments, although he said that he'd probably be back at some point. There was an alternate originally from Guatemala. Jamie, who has an identical twin brother who would have been his partner, couldn't play because of his brother's work. I'm not certain that this source is legitimate. Cirie from Panama, Micronesia, and Heroes versus Villains was going to be on this season, but she couldn't find partners and couldn't play. Jonathan, from Cook Islands, Micronesia, and Philippines, was going to be on this season with his son, but his son was too young to play so he didn't end up coming back. Yau-Man from Fiji and Micronesia was considered to play again, but didn't come back.

An interesting thing about Yau-Man is that of all the players from Fiji, he's the only one that we have knowledge of being asked back for another season. That doesn't mean that they've never asked any other players from that season back. That means that if they have, we, the general public, don't know about it. So if you know of anyone from Fiji who was offered to play again and have a legitimate source to back it up, let me know. I don't want this blog to only have one comment from someone other than me for the duration of the time I do this blog. But I should at least be glad that there are no haters on this blog spamming the comments. And no comments doesn't mean that no one reads this blog. If there are no people reading this, then I post this for no good reason. At least I'll never know if people don't read this. There were no alternates from China. Micronesia had no fans that they wanted back. Gabon had no alternates and the players from Tocantins and Samoa that they wanted back did come back.

Holly, from Nicaragua, wanted to play again with her daughter, but they weren't chosen. Jane from the same season also wanted to play again with her daughter but they were also not chosen again either. Marty was also considered to play again but didn't return. He was from Nicaragua and would have played with either his son or his wife. Ashley, from Redemption Island, was going to be on this season, but neither partner of hers could play again. Edna, from South Pacific, was considered to play again with her sister, but wasn't chosen for whatever reason. Edna is the highest ranking player from South Pacific who I'd want to play again from that very lame season. It's not the worst, but it's the only season after Heroes versus Villains that I feel deserves to be hated like it is. Troyzan from One World was the male/male alternate for this season with his brother as his partner. That means that he would have appeared instead of Colton/Caleb or Aras/Vytas. RC and her father were memorably cut from this season when her father had high blood pressure. But she's not the only player originally from Philippines that they wanted to be on this season. They also wanted Malcolm, from Philippines and Caramoan, to play an unprecedented three seasons in a row. He declined. But I still wonder if we'll see the brother he was supposed to play with in a future season. No fans from Caramoan have been asked back yet. Those are the only alternates for this season that I know of. Look out for future seasons for those potential great players, the partners of the returning players.

So as we near the end of this season, I'm pretty sure that we know this will be a good one to many fans. I hope that they use this twist again, provided that they do this many seasons still and people don't hate the idea of returning players. Even if they do, they will probably do that again at some point. I'd have to list this as the eighth best season out of the twenty-seven seasons they've done so far. I don't think that new players versus their family members would have worked out as well in the end. They could still do it, but we don't know who any of the players are or why we should care about them. Meanwhile, I will talk about the spoilers I heard relating to this season. Tina is the winner with Gervase and Tyson as the runner-ups. I have no idea how that could happen. But it will be interesting to see if it does. I have the feeling that the spoilers might be wrong. Now, hopefully, I don't hear any spoilers relating to the 28th season, because we'll find out more information about it tonight. I hope that the all new players rumor is true, although I also heard that it is all returning players, and a mix of new and returning players. Since that's the only three options there are, then anything can happen. But like I said, we'll find out more about what happens with it tonight.

I added a new section for this episode with the confessional counts. It involves how a contestant appears at the reunion show. The more points they get means the more appearance they had at the reunion show. I think that points will mostly only happen when that person is talking. Meanwhile, I'll be missing a lot of the great Sunday shows that air tonight. I won't miss the usual CBS shows that I watch on Sunday like The Mentalist and The Good Wife (yes, I watch the Good Wife) because they won't be airing due to the Survivor finale. And 60 Minutes airs before it so I won't miss the show I don't always watch in the first place anyways. I will miss Once Upon a Time. Hopefully that won't cause too many problems, although I'd love for people to post here what spoilers have happened on that show currently this season since I've missed a lot due to bad reception of the channel (it won't come in, not too many people hating it, although ABC does get a lot of bad press, I still watch it a lot of the time). I'll also miss The Simpsons, Bob's Burgers, and Family Guy. Since The Simpsons jumped the shark a long time ago and the fans generally don't care, I don't think that it matters that I miss an episode that I'll probably easily see in reruns anyways. The same can be said for Family Guy, although I'm not sure if it has jumped the shark. Has Survivor jumped the shark? I can't think of any other show that's had this many different seasons in primetime at least. And, here's good news you might not know about, Survivor has been renewed for seasons 29 and 30! That means that there will still be a lot of Survivor after the 28th season which starts sometime in the fall, probably February. But enough of my ramblings.

The episode begins in some regions but other regions are airing on delays from as big as 25 minutes to as short as 6 minutes. And this is already on top of the 3 hour delay that I'm pretty sure that the west coast has (could be more and could be less), and that's not accounting for whatever place they do the reunion show at. The different airing times on the east coast/central time zone is a horrible problem. I've seen this problem already since I get two different CBS affiliates in my area and they don't always air it at the time. I'm surprised that there isn't much backlash about it. So just be warned that I will post this the moment the reunion show is over in my region. Neither CBS affiliate of mine is airing on a delay. Jeff said that Ciera made the most emotional move in the show's history, but that might not be true since he says things like that a lot. Ciera is ironically number 4 despite making moves to not be number 4. At least she isn't number 6, which she could have been if she drew a rock. The six minutes take up the entire recap and then some. I'm hoping that Hayden wins Redemption Island, although I really don't care. I just want them to not be voted out immediately once they get back in the game. Also, it could be Monica is the final three instead of Tina. No idea who wins yet. Drama happens when they get back from tribal council as usual. Then the intro happens.

In the next segment of the show, Hayden arrived at Redemption Island. I wonder if the Redemption Island confessionals at the reentry point will somehow reveal who gets back into the game. They used the same challenge as a reentry point the first time they did Redemption Island, I'm pretty sure. Laura is pretty wobbly at the duel, but Hayden is the first one out. Laura loses the duel next. Tina then rejoins the game, but will she last that long back in it? Samoa is the next season to be eliminated from this season. So two people are eliminated from Redemption Island, Tina is back in the game, and the Survivor finale just started airing in some regions. Weird, huh?

In the next segment of the show, Tina has a clue to the idol, but there is still no fake one, Tyson has it, and probably not another one that we know of. Monica is unsure of what side to join. If she plays her cards rights, she could beat Michael Skupin's record of most improved finished in Survivor history. But I'll have to look up information about that after it ends up happening. The immunity challenge is a complicated one that involves keeping a lot of blocks on a board that wobbles a lot. Pretty strange challenge, but it's always nice to see something new. Jeff continues his annoying commentary that he's become quite infamous for. No idea who will win yet, so I might tune this out for a while. Meanwhile, I still haven't been able to eat supper yet, and I know that will make this more complicated. Tyson wins the challenge.

In the next segment of the show, people decide between Tina and Ciera as to who they should vote out. Gervase forgets that Sandra won the game twice when he said something along the lines of that they would not let a millionaire be a millionaire twice. Much drama happens before tribal council, and I'm guessing that a lot of drama will also happen at tribal council. And now I have to worry about eating supper as usual. Before the votes are read and possible idols are played, the show goes to commercial and we have to wait to see what happens. Tyson would be dumb if he didn't play his idol, but that wouldn't be the first dumb thing he ever did regarding hidden immunity idols.

In the next segment of the show, Tyson gives his hidden immunity idol to Gervase who plays it and cancels votes. We don't know if he would have gotten voted out or not (do we?) if he hadn't played the idol. Ciera is voted out and Blood versus Water is the next season to be eliminated leaving all the returning players in the final four. Tina is glad that she made day 38, although she is only one of two players to make day 42 in a single season. The immunity challenge happened and Tyson won it. He is now one of three players to be a finalist, jury member, and pre-merge boot in three different seasons. (Stephennie LaGrossa and Colby Donaldson are the other two and Tina could become one of them as well if she is the last one voted out. If she's the last one voted out, then Ozzy is no longer the only finalist to also be the last one voted out and Johnny Fairplay will no longer be the only player to be both first and last voted out. She also has the possibility of being the next two-time finalist since Boston Rob, the first two time winner since Sandra Diaz-Twine, and the only three time player besides Russell Hantz to never be on the jury.) No matter who gets voted out, one season will get eliminated from the game (two if it is Tina). I have the feeling that Tyson and Gervase could turn on Monica and that could lead to the rumored final three I've heard. Of course, the last words spoken at tribal council are always some interesting shit that could spill disaster. "Big moves could happen and they can happen at any time." Also, for the record, I realize that Tyson had won immunity earlier and shouldn't have play an idol on himself anyways. I'm too lazy to go back and fix it. So I have no idea who wins, but based on confessionals alone, Tyson has the highest. But I don't know if that means that he'll win.

In the next segment of the show, I realized that there is no rites of passage this season (unless it went unaired) just like there haven't been for other seasons with Redemption Island. And yet, the season with the outcasts did have a rites of passage and was the only one with a quitter to not have the quitter mentioned there. Tina is a winner who gets to be on a jury. Australia and All-Stars are the last seasons to be eliminated from the game. Tocantins, One World, Borneo, and Heroes versus Villains are the seasons that aren't eliminated from this season. I know that I probably shouldn't have eliminated Blood versus Water since all twenty contestants are from this season, but since all new players are out, in would be just like when Micronesia was eliminated from that season when Natalie was voted out. In my mind, the way I see it right now, this is Tyson's game to lose. He could lose it, but I don't know if he will. I couldn't gather much information from Vytas's speech expect that he probably won't vote for Tyson. Katie wondered about pulling rocks. In the fourth season, the jury member who drew a rock voted for the finalist who drew a rock. Caleb wondered what Gervase did in the game and Monica cries for some odd reason. Ciera wanted to know if Tyson was a hero or a villain (VILLIAN!). She also wondered if Gervase would have gotten rid of Tyson. Laura grilled Monica at the story who might have broken Michael's record of most improved finished. Tina asked for a one word answer from everyone for how they played the game. Gervase failed horribly. Hayden wanted to know if Tyson had the idol when they drew for rocks. Aras asked Gervase, Monica, and Tyson who they would vote for if they had to vote for someone in the final three that wasn't themselves. I'm guess that Gervase didn't get any jury votes since we didn't anyone do that in the promos. I think that Tyson just won the game and with seven of the eight jury votes. He seems to be crying over the win that he did.

The reunion started in some regions while other people just found out who won in the six minute delayed version. Tyson is the first winner who had to draw a rock in Survivor history. If you remember, Vecepia did not have to draw a rock in Marquesas, although nobody really should have drawn a rock in that scenario. He's also the first three time player to win the game. I'm hoping that a five time player will win the game when Rupert inevitably returns. Of course, not everyone loves him that much. I'm glad that the premerge boots are not in the audience again. I hope that they never do what they did in Caramoan ever again. By the way, Brandon wasn't banned. He chose not to go, although it is true that they didn't want him there. It was more of a mutual decision. Colton gets focus at the reunion show for some odd reason while some people just found out who won. Now I'm done keeping track of the one time zone that should be airing all at the same time. People must hate spoilers this time, but for reasons unknown as to why they are airing different football games in the first place. Rupert does not regret giving up his spot in the game. BBB and random pictures is the clue for season 28. If I didn't want to wait 25 minutes, then I'd google what it is. Hopefully, they explain before the end of it with at least a title of some sort. I'd probably already know what it was if I were up to date on the podcasts I listen to. John Cochran is writing for The Millers, but the majority of us already knew that so I'm not sure why they are focusing on this as if it is some big news that just happened. I'm still not sure if that's something that you'd like to watch, considering how it used to air in Survivor's old time slot (half of it at least). I love how the Survivor players are sitting next to the partner's they had in the game instead of the order they were eliminated like they usually were. The Weesons get airtime and they talk about their dead family member. It's a very sad event. I've lost three members of my family, although one of them was before I was born and I'm including extended families such as grandfathers.

So, what are they doing next season? They are doing brawn versus brain versus beauty and decided to do the twist with all new players, I've heard, but am not sure. I'm not certain that they'd use any returning players in a season like this, but that could always be a future twist. Does this mean that the tribes are evenly split by gender or that some tribes get only one member? What man would be on the beauty tribe? I'm guessing that this is not a normal season but I'm hoping that (knock on wood) they do that for the 29th season. Casting is probably underway, unless they are already planning on doing all returning players for both seasons. Not sure what else to mention regarding the next season.

Confessional counts of players on Redemption Island: Laura- 14, Tina- 18, Hayden- 23. Confessional counts of players in the game: Gervase- 18, Tyson- 36, Monica- 25, Ciera- 27. New confessionals this episode: Gervase- 3, Tyson- 5, Monica- 6, Ciera- 3; Laura- 1, Tina- 6, Hayden- 1. Appearance at reunion show: Rupert- 1, Colton- 1, Rachel- 1, Marissa- 0, Candice- 1, Brad- 1, Kat- 1, John- 1, Laura Boneham- 1; Aras- 1, Vytas- 1, Caleb- 1, Katie- 1, Hayden- 2, Laura Morett- 1, Ciera- 2, Tina- 1, Gervase- 1, Monica- 1, Tyson- 1.

So it looks like Marissa is the only player that didn't get any airtime at the reunion show. I suck at the game that I just invented regarding who gets what type of airtime at the reunion show. I missed a lot of people and there should be more than one mark for a lot of these people. Meanwhile, while tweeting on twitter was fun during the finale, I'm not entirely sure it was that fun an idea. I'm thinking of waiting a while before I post this blog. Expect random blog posts during the hiatus between this season and Survivor: Cayagan, as I think that it's going to be called. I'll get the spelling right when it airs later. Meanwhile, I have to get to the awards that the contestants earn this season.

I will not be giving a most memorable part of the season award because I have no idea what to choose from. I'm guessing that I'd give it to drawing rocks again if I gave it to anything at all. Drawing rocks is also the third dumbest move from this season, considering how those who were trying to use it to their advantage were the same people who had a two to one chance of drawing the rock (if I understand that term correctly). The second dumbest move is when Laura Boneham got herself voted out of the game by telling someone else that they were next and flipping the target to her. And what else would win the dumbest move of the season except for Colton quitting the game for no good reason. Thanks a lot Colton for doing something stupid like that. You made the win of dumbest move easy for me to decide. As for the breakout character of the season, I'd have to give that award to Brad. He may not have played the best game, but he was an entertaining player.

The different airing of the finale this season makes me wonder if this has ever happened at another finale I wasn't aware of. I don't think that my station was even airing sports. I don't give a damn about sports and frequently boycott the Super Bowl (although I boycott a lot of things of various reasons, a lot of them petty and the majority of which nobody would ever notice). But you can expect me to blog randomly about Survivor until the next season airs. Not sure when I'll be able to watch the first season of Survivor, but hopefully there won't be another season on at the same time. I'm glad that Tyson won. Does the most confessionals at the finale always make you the winner? I don't know. I'm fairly certain that no one had him beat for this season at least. I'm pretty sure that Tyson is the reason that Monica got Vytas's jury vote when he answered a different person's question. Hopefully this blog post doesn't make people on the west coast mad. I'm not sure I want to wait a long time until they air this there at hopefully no delay. I could post this tomorrow, but I won't. I find that it's funny that this show was airing at different times on the east coast, depending on where you lived. Hopefully, you didn't run into any problems with it if you were watching it. That's all I have to say at this moment. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Episode 27.13

So, there's probably a huge list of players from various seasons of Survivor who will never play the game again. There are many reasons why they wouldn't do that. I forgot what all I said that I would want to post in this blog that I haven't yet. I do know that some of what I want to post will be in separate blog posts that would be posted on the hiatus between this season and season 28. I'm still looking forward to whatever great events will happen in the 28th season (even though they already have happened). I already mentioned how I'm fairly certain that the 28th season has new players. Is it all new players? I hope so. I want there to be a normal season before the potential landmark 30th season. So if it is not the 28th, it could be the 29th. Something I'm wondering about regarding the rocks is the chances of getting one. Hayden's alliance had a two in three chance of drawing a rock, which is probably why Tyson felt good drawing one. But what I wondering is this: does the order in which the rocks are drawn affect the odds? Does going last give you an advantage, disadvantage, or not make a difference? Can the same be said about going first? Maybe someone can contact the Parade magazine writer who would know how to answer a question like that. If you are math wizard, feel free to comment if you think you know the answer. I have a friend to contact about that to see if he knows. Maybe it is always a one to three odds of you grabbing the wrong rock. I, for one, would not risk picking a rock unless I was immune from picking it or Redemption Island was in the game. Cochran could have fought his way back into the game in South Pacific if he drew a rock and, if I understand the odds correctly, only two people out of the six on his tribe would have had to draw rocks. Unfortunately for his tribe, Cochran was one of the people who would have had to draw one.

I can't think of how else to ramble at the beginning of this blog post, so I will mention various players from various Survivor seasons who will probably never play the game again and I'll list the reason why as well. B.B. because the second contestant to die a long time after he played the very first season. He can't return. Sue quit the second time and she probably wouldn't want to play the game again. Stacy sued the show after she competed so it's highly unlikely that they would have her back. Kelly originally stated that she has no interest in playing the game again. Rudy is probably too old to return to the game. Colleen stated that she doesn't want to play again, although the producers have wanted her back. Greg has showed little interest in the game after he played so I'm not sure that we'll see him again. Debb, from the second season, stated at the reunion show that she would never do this again. It is widely believed that Elisabeth will never return, even though they really want her to. Amber is probably done with this part of her life so she won't be back either. Colby is also uncertain to return again. I'm not sure if there is anyone from the third season who will not play again, but there probably are and I'm just not thinking too hard into it. If there were any, Silas or Ethan might be them. From the fourth season, Hunter was a player who worked for the dream team in some way so they might not let him play again if he knows too well how challenges work. Boston Rob is probably more than likely done with playing Survivor. In the fifth season, Brian has been considered to come back, but ultimately, nobody who can bring him back want him to play again so it might be unlikely that we'll see him again, although you never really know. The sixth season might have one in Jenna, who has still been considered to return despite quitting the second time. It's also unknown if Rob from that season would play again considering how he's busy with a podcast. And Shawna didn't really have fun with the game so she might not play again either. From the seventh season, Osten isn't coming back and Johnny Fairplay is probably not coming back either.

From the ninth season, there was a contestant who dated the host and thus knows more production secrets than any other contestant. So that contestant named Julie probably isn't going to play again. There are a lot of people from the tenth season who will probably never play again. For one, we know that Jenn, who is dead, will never play again. Jonathan doesn't really want to play again since the opening twist eliminated him for no good reason. Ian probably would play again, but since some consider him a quitter, that's why he might not. Jeff is more of a sort of quitter so he's more likely to never return. Both Kim and Ashlee both had enough of the game. And Janu really did quit so she probably won't play again, even if it is rumored that she was an alternate for Micronesia. Gary from the eleventh season might not play again, although I can't think of anyone from that season who would never play again, even though none of them have yet. I'm also not sure if there's anyone from the twelfth season who wouldn't return. Terry hasn't for whatever reason so I don't know if that means that he never will. Both Ozzy and Parvati from the thirteenth season have stated that they never want to play again. The fourteenth season brought us the most infamous quitter who couldn't even make it to the game. Melissa quit before it even started and singlehandedly ruined the season for everyone involved. And Gary asked to be medically evacuated so he might not come back. While nobody considers him to be a quitter, they consider Dana to be a quitter and she left the exact same way. Besides, Yau-Man is the only person from this season that they've wanted back anyways (that we currently know of, at least). James from the fifteenth season is probably not going to play again since he hasn't done that well playing the game for reasons that are mostly not his fault. Denise caused controversy at the reunion show when she mislead people in some way. I'm not sure that she'll return either. And Todd is having current problems with alcohol that will prevent him from returning in the foreseeable future.

I've already mentioned the favorites from the sixteenth season who will probably not return (Johnny Fairplay, Ozzy, Parvati, and James). The fans that probably won't return are Chet, who asked to be voted out, Kathy, who officially quit, and Erik, who was pretty fed up with the game the last time he played and is convinced that he probably wouldn't return anyways. I doubt that Erik will never return a third time, but you'll never know what will happen for sure. In the seventeenth season, Sugar has already stated that she's not interested in playing again. And GC wasn't a real quitter, but he sure seemed like it when he asked to be voted out simply because he didn't want to play anymore. In the eighteenth season, Taj has openly stated that she doesn't want to play a second time. Sierra might have said the same thing, but I'm not so sure about that. From the nineteenth season, both Russells have said how they don't want to play the game again, each for different reasons that are kind of similar in the end. Shambo also doesn't want to play again either.

Who from the twenty-first season won't play again? Well, I would be shocked if they let either Kelly Shinn or NaOnka play again after they infamously quit so late into the game. I also heard that someone asked to be voted out that season (and they obviously wouldn't air that with the two quitters) and I think that person was Marty (although I could be wrong). The David and Jeff Survivor podcast episode with Holly mentions who she said did that. Sash caused an unaired controversy that could have gotten him expelled from the game. From the twenty-second season, Matt has stated that he doesn't want to play the game again. Steve might have thrown a Redemption Island duel so we might not be seeing him again. Francesca is probably done playing the game and I'm thinking that Grant is probably not playing again either. The twenty-third season brought us Brandon who is more than likely not allowed to return to the game. John has also stated that he doesn't want to play the game again. Bill from the twenty-fourth season may not play again due to an unaired incident where he threw Colton's hidden immunity idol into the sea. We don't know why this might have happened, but we do know that this is the real cause of their fights throughout the season. Colton ain't playing again either. And one also wonders if Kourtney will be able to play again for a while since she has cancer (at the time of the airing of One World, at least. She might be better now). Season twenty-five brought us the entertaining and confusing Zane who might not be back because he's considered to have quit. Dana might not be back either for the same reason. And I'm not certain that Sarah will come back if Jeff Probst is still the host of Survivor. Allie, Shamar, and Sherri are all players from the twenty-sixth season who will probably not play again because they didn't like what all happened to them or how production portrayed them and none of them loved the reunion show. I'd also say that it is probably too soon to guess who from this season won't play again (new players at least). But enough of my ramblings.

So, once again, watching this episode will get complicated. I hope that my cats won't mess it up. I have a bowl of cereal to eat for breakfast as I watch a tape of the show. I don't want to get the milk near my laptop. So I have to worry about eating breakfast and keeping my food away from the cats while I watch the old episode. Don't worry. I'll be here live for the finale. Here's what happened at the beginning of the episode: Katie arrived with the women on Redemption Island. Tina talks about letting Katie win the duel. Would she actually follow through with it? Hayden talks about what he can do to further advance his game. Tyson revealed his hidden immunity idol to his alliance. Monica might be playing too hard, but she doesn't like how Tyson hid the idol from them. Now if I don't fast forward through the commercials, I can still eat breakfast in enough time.

In the next segment of the show, Ciera thinks that she made a good move. But I can think of other ways she could have advanced her game without flipping. But I think that I'll mention that in a different blog post. Ciera's talk makes it seem like she could be the next one eliminated. That's when the Redemption Island duel happened. They are using jail break, which is a Survivor classic. Tina helps her daughter verbally and this makes me wonder if Laura will lose the duel. Maybe Tina will win or Katie will win. This is the only challenge to be used so far in every season with Redemption Island in it. I'd actually prefer it better if it was the last duel of the season. Laura wins the duel. Now it becomes a race between Tina and Katie. I think that Katie will lose the duel. Katie probably lost the duel when she dropped a key on the ground. Tina wants to make sure that Katie is okay with her mother eliminating her from the game. So, once again, the trick promo happens and Tina was never going to through the duel. And because of first a rock and then a key fall, Katie is out of the game. I might have to put her on an updated list for Survivor: Second Chances. She can replace Natalie, just like Vytas can replace Mike. Katie then joins the jury. Now I have to remember to watch the Survivor After Show with her and see her join Ponderosa.

In the next segment of the show, Hayden and Ciera are looking for the hidden immunity idol that Tyson already found. He didn't even plant a fake idol. Why does nobody do that anymore? Monica, Gervase, and Tyson are in the majority alliance, but we don't know if they can stay together or not. Hayden wants the good guys to win and he considers himself to be one of the good guys. That was a pretty short segment. So the immunity challenge happened next. And I'm fairly certain that there is no loved ones challenge this season, which makes sense since there is loved ones in the game for a change. This is the classic bring a buoy through a course and solve a puzzle at the end. We haven't even seen the Ciera tries to flip Monica moment yet. The challenge pretty much seems to be neck in neck, except for Ciera who is totally losing it. They are filling out a classic eight word Survivor phrase. I am currently wondering what the phrase is, although I will probably smack myself in the head when they figure it out. Ciera wins the immunity challenge, despite being behind in such a long part of it. Ciera chooses Hayden to join her with the meal she won as a reward.

In the next segment of the show, Ciera is glad that she won the challenge. Without her mother competing against her, she can actually do puzzle challenges. And she probably won't have to compete against her in a Redemption Island duel. Ciera is quite good at stirring the pot and she is definitely a villain this season. She tells total lies about Tyson and Monica appears to be eating it all up. Tribal council happens and we have yet to see how things will unfold and what crazy tribal council will happen this season. Hopefully Hayden doesn't get voted out, although he at least got a reward out of it. I just realized that Hayden and Gervase have a rivalry this season. So the vote happened after the crazy exchange of words happened. When asked if an idol should be played, nobody played one, but I'm not certain that Tyson was the target anyways. The person voted out was Hayden. It's a shame that nobody flipped which would have made things more interesting. There are three potential players to come back from Redemption Island. Will Tina, Laura, or Hayden return? I think that I know who might, but I'm not certain yet.

What will happen on the next Survivor? The promo is very vague as usual. The final three spoilers and winner spoiler that I heard have still not been proven false yet, but I'm still interested in how it might happen, if it happens at all.

Confessional counts of players on Redemption Island: Laura- 13, Tina- 12, Katie- 16. Confessional counts of players in the game: Monica- 19, Ciera- 24, Hayden- 22, Gervase- 15, Tyson- 31. New confessionals this episode: Hayden- 4, Gervase- 1, Tyson- 1, Monica- 3, Ciera- 3; Laura- 0, Tina- 1, Katie- 1.

I'm not sure what to make of the confessional count this season. Tyson has the most confessionals, but that probably doesn't mean that he wins based on that alone. I'm wondering if the final three spoilers I heard are correct but the winner is not. Many people thought that Michael Skupin was going to win the twenty-fifth season, but we know that's not true. I've long forgotten who my favorite to win is now. I still have to decide who is the breakout character of this season, keeping in mind that it must be a new player who wins this award, what are the three dumbest moves from this season (one might still happen in the last episode), the most memorable moment of the season, and who had different rivalries this season. There are different bets when can start making about the finale. How much will it be delayed on the east coast because of sports and other possible delays? How long will the recap be before the episode starts? How good or bad will the reunion show be? Who will return from Redemption Island? Who will win the game? Who are the other two finalists? What's in store for the 28th season? This has been a pretty good and interesting season so far. It's especially interesting how there has not been all three returning player or all three new players on Redemption Island at the same time. There has always been a mix of new and returning players on Redemption Island, or at least when there's a duel about to happen. Not sure what else to say until the next blog post. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Friday, December 6, 2013

Episode 27.12

I should rank the tribe swaps at some point. I don't know if that should be its own blog post or not. But I have nothing else to talk about so I think that I will do it now. Future seasons are obviously excluded from the list, although they could be added for future lists. Sorry that I forgot to include the real confessional counts for this latest episode. Don't know what happened. I also don't know if there are a lot of episodes left this season or not. Apparently, an infamous tie-breaker is going to be used again, even though it could actually be a new tie-breaker instead. I ranked the purple rock the third worst twist in Survivor history. We don't even know if that for certain will happen considering how only two (if the promos aren't misleading, that is) people are drawing for rocks and it could be the two people affected by the tie who are the only ones that draw for rocks. Redemption Island aside, someone is probably going to get pissed at what happens. They have given a lot away in the promos and it's possible that Monica wins immunity and Caleb joins the jury but we are unsure if those events will happen yet or not. Hopefully, you can find a way to read that in this blog after I post it, but I don't know if you will be able to or not. Besides, I'll post it if it turns out to be true. Maybe I'll see the whited out font because it looks way different on the blog then it does on my computer. So you might not even know that something was attempted to be hidden or not. I hope that you can see it, because I can't figure it out.

So, ranking the tribe swaps, I will start with the worst one and go all the way to the best one. I've already told you what season had the worst tribe swap. The tribe swap in China is just a joke. It wasn't any good. The people who switched tribes were unsurprisingly voted out of the game because they had only one ally and the rest of the tribe was against them. It just didn't work. Another tribe swap that I'd rank as bad, but slightly better than China's was the tribe swap in Caramoan. It was totally unfair to the fans tribe and caused an obvious worse tribe. What's the third worst? Vanuatu. It could have worked better in different circumstances, but it lead to the gender wars continuing until way past the merge and even up until the final two. The next season I will mention had way too many twists in the first place and it's switch didn't work out that well because it occurred too late in the premerge part of the game and didn't last as long as it otherwise could have. All-Stars had a pretty bad twist that ultimately lead to Amber winning when her tribe had the perfect chance to get rid of her. I'm fairly certain that if another bad switch happened, it would be hard to classify. The next best twist was from this season. It was interesting, but did not entirely work. It wasn't bad, per say, but it wasn't the best one either.

The next one technically had two tribal swaps, even though none of them were real swaps in official terminology. Cook Islands needlessly got rid of the controversial twist where tribes were divided by race (that many contestants say was a great twist and nobody seems to think was a bad twist, to my knowledge) and went down to two tribes in a fun fashion. The mutiny was weird, in a way, although this was the only time this actually worked, in a way. They should just do the mutiny a better way that isn't so obvious to everyone else in the split second you had to do it. The reason that it worked it that the tribe that should have been negatively affected by it went on to win tons of challenges after they did. So regardless of whether or not it really had a tribe swap of any kind, it was pretty interesting. One World was a pretty good tribe swap, even though there were a few parts to it that made it seem pretty strange. The one in Fiji was the next best swap since it helped even the playing field with a poorly planned and designed twist. Gabon had two tribes swaps and were pretty interesting, even though the second one seemed a little unnecessary.

Most people probably knew that one could happen in Micronesia and it helped make the season even better than it ended up being. The one in Amazon was a pretty good swap from the way it was done to the way it worked. Marquesas is considered to be the first tribe shuffle, where a tribe swap isn't an even swap between the two tribes. It was pretty interesting and helped three players become the first players to be on a tribe with everyone in their season. Survivor Panama also didn't have what some would consider a real tribe swap, but it probably was. In the second episode of that season, people chose their new tribes and someone got to be immune for three days by not being picked for either tribe. The third best tribe swap is one that went down in Survivor history for reasons largely known throughout the Survivor world. I'm surprised they never tried it the same way again. I'm talking about the original tribe swap, from Survivor: Africa. It was a great twist when they first introduced it and it worked well in its debut season. I loved the way they did the swap in Guatemala. It had the second best swap in the show's history. The way they causally handled it at a twist challenge was pretty good. I don't like the question that prompted the four players (two from each tribe) to leave, but it was a pretty interesting swap. The best swap, by process of elimination, has to be Nicaragua. It helped make the season good. It got rid of two bad twists (old versus young and the Medallion of Power) very quickly and improved on the overall quality of the season (because I loved the season, unlike some people).

So a quick update about those contestants that happened to be in the spot that winners ended up. Ciera is the most recent person to be a winner. She's there along with Gervase, Tyson, Tina, and Caleb. I will also be watching the episode after it airs for a while. It won't be until the season finale until I can watch a show live again. Sorry for the delays. I will post information about the episodes, just a little later than usual. I will miss a lot of different shows during this time, but hopefully I will remember to record these shows and the recording will work without any major problems. The recording on my laptop worked out well. I hope that the VHS recording turned out well too. Hopefully, nothing important was missed even though the clock on the VCR is a bit off. Sorry that my blog posts will be delayed until the finale. But I will post a blog as I watch the episode now. I also have the real confessional count that I forgot to post last week. But enough of my ramblings.

Apparently Gervase went crazy about Tyson and Tyson is unsure if he wants that type of target on his back. I missed some part of it on the tape, but that doesn't matter. Is Tyson the probable winner this season? They gathered for the duel and that's when the commercial happened. The duel turned out to be house of cards, which has happened a lot in other seasons. The challenge is neck and neck like it always is. Of course, this has the problem of falling over and losing all your progress, like many other duels have. Laura wins the duel. Because Caleb's stack was crooked and fell all the way over, he ended up losing the duel and joining the jury, which is true to what the promos said. Laura give the hidden immunity idol clue to Ciera and Ciera kept the clue instead of burning it, which is common lately. The hidden immunity idol is in a tree as usual. Apparently Tyson was close to finding the idol again and he ended up finding it again. "I got to put it in my crouch where nobody will suspect a bulge," said Tyson about the idol. That's his next best line this season and I don't know why he's the only player who seems to be saying all these great lines. Maybe he is getting the winner's edit, even if the rumored winner might be someone else (I said might. Winner spoilers could be wrong. Remember when Michael Skupin won the game?)

In the next segment of the show, the immunity challenge happened. I'm pretty sure that it is a new challenge, but I'm pretty sure that a new challenge always appears in every new season. The race for the win was mostly between Monica and Gervase. Gervase seems to dominate very quickly at the tossing sandbags part of the game. Gervase won immunity. The potential spoiler, trick edit, or reusing old footage in promos, proves that Monica does not win immunity like some people though. But Gervase brought Monica and Tyson with him on the reward that he won. This is not Gervase's first time winning individual reward or individual immunity. Meanwhile, I am having trouble successfully eating breakfast as I watch this episode. The show comes back on and we see what happen with the reward that they bring to the camp. Hayden tries to make a huge move that was revealed in the promos, but whether or not it will work will remain to be seen. Hayden even tells Tyson about the failure of the plan to vote out Tyson. That seems weird and strange to me. Gervase made an offhand comment about a player that he wonders why she's still in the game. But he didn't realize that's what would end up happening. That's why comments like this are put in the final edit to show the viewers why that would happen. Someone talks about how they are dominating the game and they get voted out that night. Lots of different things like that happen, but I'm still not sure if I've seen enough of these edits before. An interesting tribal council happened and somebody will probably win a stupid award for what happens tonight. So much conversation happens in the tribal council and we are left very confused as to what will happen. Jeff made an interesting comment about it. Gervase had a great voting confessional, but it would have been better if he had just simply said, "I vote to evict Hayden." Hayden may or may not have mentioned Russell Hantz in the tribal council. Ciera continues to flop on one alliance to another alliance. I'm fairly certain that there is no way that Ciera wins. Another tie happens at tribal council after the first one which leads to something that hasn't happened since Marquesas and hasn't happened correctly before. The three people, Ciera, Tyson, and Katie, decide to draw rocks in a risky move. Katie draws the rock with very little build up to it. I'm not sure why they changed the colors of the rock. Is purple too infamous a color? Why'd they draw rocks? I guess the color change was to trick the viewers yet again in a promo, just like the two hands instead of the three hands.

What will happen in the next Survivor? Tina considers letting Katie win the duel. Will Tina really throw a duel? Wouldn't Katie throw it first? Is throwing a duel quitting? I liked how Katie said that she was rocked out. That makes the most sense as to how you would classify and call an elimination like that.

Confessional counts of players on Redemption Island: Laura- 13, Tina- 11, Caleb- 13. Confessional counts of players in the game: Katie- 15, Monica- 16, Ciera- 21, Hayden- 18, Gervase- 14, Tyson- 30. New confessionals this episode: Gervase- 3, Tyson- 2, Katie- 1, Monica- 0, Ciera- 2, Hayden- 3; Laura- 0, Tina- 0, Caleb- 0

I realized that I forget to post last week's correctly so I will mention that here as well, I think. Here are last week's true numbers: Confessional counts of players on Redemption Island: Laura- 13, Tina- 11, Vytas- 20. Confessional counts of players in the game: Monica- 16, Ciera- 19, Hayden- 15, Gervase- 11, Tyson- 28, Caleb- 13, Katie- 14. New confessionals last episode were mentioned the right way as they were originally seen.

So I'm not sure what to make of the confessional count and I'm not certain that I can go to work because of all the snow in my area. I'm sure that they'd understand if I wasn't able to go. It doesn't look like they'll be many episodes left this season. Hopefully, it will continue to be a good one. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.