Survivor: Heroes versus Healers versus Hustlers Finale

I do wonder know that we are reaching the end just how much of this versus season actually remained in the end of it. I can’t even remember now who all started on what tribe. I think that Mike is the only healer still in the game. And I think that the heroes still might have a player in it. I know that the hustlers are still in this so it is kind of nice that they are all in the finale.

You might wonder what I will do with the time that I spend watching Survivor until it returns. I don’t know for sure what all I’ll do. I don’t think that this show will return until after the Olympics. The date that I have is February 28^th on next year. But you might wonder what is happening with the slot during the winter hiatus. The Amazing Race will start out in the slot before moving back an hour to air the rest of its season. I think that Celebrity Big Brother or Undercover Boss will be in its slot the rest of the time. I may be recording other stuff during Lent while I wait for this to start airing.

Something that I’ve randomly wondered some about is the tie-breaker method for the win that Jeff revealed in the last season’s finale. I don’t know if he should have told everyone that. Plus, it only works if there is a two way tie with a finalist either not getting votes or getting minority votes where they wouldn’t win a tie. Due to how they can make a jury, a three-way tie wouldn’t be possible unless it is a final three with nine people on the jury. But since the finalist who won’t win would know he is casting a tie-breaker vote, you’d have to wonder if that is right since they would know the winner as a result. But who knows? A tie might never happen anyways. It has been over ten seasons since the final vote was any close. Plus the final two never did anything to fix that problem.

I do hope that we go back to the normal way of doing the final tribal council. The open forum twist that they did last season just didn’t really seem like it did what it should have. They changed a lot of the show last season given its theme so that is why things are probably more back to normal now. I won’t know for sure until I see the whole episode. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Jeff introduces the show and the finale. I still don’t know if I like these pre reunion show segments since it seems to serve Jeff to give himself more airtime. The final five each get what can best be described as a courtesy confessional at this point, but I’m not going to count it this time. They all talk about how they need to get rid of Ben.  He looks for an idol throughout the night. He is surprised that people aren’t looking with him, but it could go either way with whether or not there is an idol in the game again. Sure enough, he finds an idol.

In the second segment of the show, Chrissy wants to make up with Ben, which she is doing just for the game instead of because she means it. She then offers an idol to take him to the final three, but he sees right through it. But was her request sincere? We get to a challenge and the reward with immunity is food. That seems kind of dumb to offer that AFTER the challenge. It’s interesting the ball part of the challenge that appears at the end. But I guess the producers just wanted to see these contestants handle balls. Chrissy wins the challenge. She gets to pick people for the food reward and she picks Mike and Devon to join her with it and it seems that Ryan doesn't like this.

In the third segment of the show, the people look through the food for an idol clue. They find nothing, although I have the feeling that they would have if Ben didn’t find an idol. Chrissy wants to use her old superidol that has been dead since day four onward. Everyone talks about how brilliant this is or would be if he didn’t already have an idol. “You should waste your energy, I mean, save your energy.” That’s a bit of a fun Freudian slip.

He makes it seem like he bought it and now won’t spend time looking for an idol which he would be doing even though he found it. Ben wonders who to vote out, not thinking that Ryan would be a good person to vote out. He thinks either Devon or Mike should be voted out next. Jeff then talks some to the audience and talks to random people.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the tribal council at hand. Ryan thinks that no one has played an idol before the votes were cast. In Guatemala, that is when you had to and when Gary did. Under the current rules, that hasn’t happened. Chrissy reveals her “idol” to the jury and they actually look like they believe it can still be used. Ben goes along with the idea that he’s going home.

The votes are then cast. Ben plays his real idol while Chrissy tried to do something with her old idol. Devon would have gotten voted out if he hadn’t voted for Mike instead. Devon made a risky move, but it was a good thing to follow his gut this time. Mike gets voted out at the revote. I love how this season has been like a roller coaster with all its twists and turns. There is a twist coming up. Mike thinks that he could have won in the final three. I think that he only could have beaten Devon, which means that he would have lost against whoever the third person was.

Jeff then takes Mike out at the reunion show and talks about his vote out. Mike was going to vote for Devon and if he did, Mike would have stayed. Survivor is knowing when to do the right move and what it is. He knew it, but he didn’t make it because he played it safe and wound up sorry.

In the fifth segment of the show, Devon talks about how he wasn’t expecting tribal council. But he did know and that’s why he didn’t vote for Ben. Everyone else wants to get rid of Ben by winning immunity. But what is this twist? We then get to the final immunity challenge. The challenge is a big bunch of wibbly wobbly, letters spelling stuff. The stuff is the word heroes, healers, and hustlers. I don’t really like the challenges where people can lose their progress easily. It seems really dumb for a final immunity challenge. What happened to the endurance challenge? Chrissy ends up winning due to mistakes by Ben that happen twice in a way. Will Ben get voted out? I know some spoilers, although I won’t tell them to you until they happen.

In the sixth segment of the show, Ben is bummed that he didn’t win immunity. He is probably more bummed that he can’t just find another idol to use. Chrissy says that she’s considering keeping him in the game, but she doesn’t know for sure if she really will. She learns that she is casting the only vote by choosing who to keep and the other two will face off and make fire.

This seems like possible production manipulation to ensure that the vote off isn’t obvious like it would have been otherwise. You shouldn’t be able to force a fire making tie. But at least it would happen even if Ben won. Devon practices some, but not too much due to the flint breaking. Bob won Gabon through practicing a challenge like this. I don’t think that saving your energy would work.

In the seventh segment of the show, we get to the tribal council. Not much is talked about before it gets to the reveal of the twist that only Ben and the jury didn’t know. She picks her buddy Ryan to go to the final three via a voice vote. How many people have cast a voice vote? It sure doesn’t happen much. The people that I know that did that were Tom in Palau, the favorites in Caramoan, the people who voted out Jeff Varner last season, and now Chrissy.

In the eighth segment of the show, we get to the fire making challenge. Devon struggles the whole time while Ben ends up winning. Why did people think that Devon would be good in a challenge? I just know that Chrissy sticking with Ryan makes the most sense. Jeff says that the twist will appear again next season. Quit changing the game all the time!

In the ninth segment of the show, Ryan is glad that he made it this far and thinks that he can convince the jury that he was in control of the game even though he really wasn’t. We get thoughts on the final three and I do believe that it is one of the best we’ve had in the game. They are all deserving in some way of the win. All can be villainous and yet seem likable. It looks like they are doing the twist that they did at the last tribal council. Why must good things change?

Total confessional count: Devon- 29, Ryan- 37, Mike- 24, Ben- 48, Chrissy- 37. New confessionals this episode: Ben- 7, Chrissy- 8, Devon- 4, Ryan- 2, Mike- 2.

In the tenth segment of the show, the go with the outwit portion of the game. Desi feels that Ryan does not really belong there because he didn’t do much to get there. That’s the problem with a quiet game like the one he has is that no one really knew what he was doing. Ryan thinks that Devon was a person that he used to his advantage. Joe talks about Ben’s horrible social game. Ben might be too much like Russell Hantz for his own good. Only I’d actually be okay with Ben winning. Chrissy feels that she stayed loyal to her alliances and not just make one huge move after another.

Cole talks about the whole peanut butter thing that I don’t even remember. When did this happen? Ryan thinks that he was nicer to Cole then Ben was. I can’t keep track of everything that is going on here in this which is why the format is bad.

Next is the outplay part of the game. He likes the fact that Chrissy won challenges and that Ben played idols, but can’t see what Ryan did. The show gets a bit like The McLaughlin Group in a way. People like that Chrissy won challenges, but that’s not all Survivor is. Ryan has to talk about his moves and that he made stuff with the idol. Why do people think that Ben’s idols are so good? People do think that it is a dumb decision to keep him in the game for so long. That’s a recurring theme throughout this season so it makes me wonder since I don’t know for sure who won just yet.

Last is the outlast portion of the game. Ryan doesn’t think that anyone dragged him here, although he did technically get an assist from Chrissy. Ben thinks that everyone on the jury was a hurtle to the win. He is told to tell us why he should win. Chrissy gives a speech on all she did to get to where she is now. Like I said before, I just cannot keep track of everything. Jeff gets a person in the audience to cast a random and probably meaningless vote for one of the three finalists. I guess the lesson that someone should learn here is that if you are in the audience at the finale, wear a buff.

In the eleventh segment of the show, we get to the votes that are cast. There’s at least one for Ben and another for Ryan. There’s one for Chrissy as well. But how many votes besides these ones will each person get? I honestly don’t know who could win and wonder if it might be a tie. Surely that random person wouldn’t have cast a tie-breaker, right? There won’t be a three way tie so it could be someone who won’t be part of the tie, if there is one. Ben is the winner. We get to a recap of Ben’s time on the game, which seems like a really weird thing to do, but whatevs.

In the twelfth segment of the show, we finally get to the real reunion show, which I think is late. Chrissy talks about the first challenge and losing her job to play Survivor. I’d have to not have a job to pick this show over it. Ryan talks about how he did the game. We get more about PTSD here. Jeff has marine buddies of Ben show up at the reunion show. They talk about what he has done.

In the thirteenth segment of the show, Jeff wanted this to be the season of secrets but no one could keep a secret. The fourth season of NCIS was the season of secrets. It is good to keep secrets in this game. Lauren regrets her move with the shell. But this is a hint about next season.

In the fourteenth segment of the show, they will come up with something for the next season that speaks to the past seasons. They show a montage of bad decisions made by players. It will be called Ghost Island and have new players. How are they doing this? Why not use returning players? I guess that I don’t understand all this. The season premiere is February 28th.

In the fifteenth segment of the show, Jeff reminds people to go to casting. If I knew that there weren’t people still recruited as new players, then I’d know that casting is the best thing. There isn’t much to this segment except the end of the episode.

Points at reunion show: Katrina- 0, Simone- 0, Patrick- 0, Alan- 0, Roark- 0, Ali- 0, Jessica- 0, Desi- 0, Cole- 0, JP- 0, Joe- 0, Lauren- 1, Ashley- 0, Mike- 0, Devon- 0, Ryan- 1, Chrissy- 1, Ben- 1.

Ladies and gentlemen, this had to have been the shortest reunion show ever. Why can’t they be an hour long like they used to be? Did we really need segments after Mike and Devon’s eliminations when they could have just been talked to at the reunion show as normal? We got more out of the players from Caramoan’s fucking reunion show than this one. Get rid of these stupid pre reunion show segments that always cut into what should be the reunion show because there is no reason why random people in the audience should get to speak instead of fourteen of the players. Maybe I should count Mike and Devon for getting to talk, but I think that Jeff is changing too much to give himself more airtime. I’d rather see a different host than one who keeps wrecking the reunion show like this.

What are my thoughts on next season? Well, it is hard to tell without seeing it for sure just how much it would work out. Why do this sort of thing with all new players? Or are there some returning players? SPOILER. I heard that they might be using some like Jeremiah from Cagayan in some season filmed in Belize. I don’t know if that is what Survivor 37 will be or what could happen regarding that. It could just be a rumor because you wouldn’t think they’d start filming a new season until sometime into the airing of the fall season. That’s how they typically do it nowadays, I believe. I heard of other returning players besides him, but I can’t remember who they are. END SPOILER. I guess that I won’t know for sure what will happen until it happens, you know?

Now it is time for the end of the season awards. Let’s start with the three dumbest moves of the season. The bronze will go to Joe for his overall craziness that got him voted out. The silver will go to Lauren for giving half of her idol to Mike. And the gold will go to the people who kept Ben around and let him get every idol that he could.

When it comes time for the breakout character of the season, I think that the person who should get it will be Ryan for being pretty much a joy to watch this season. It’s a shame that we got more out of him than the other players did.

As for the most memorable moment of the season, it hands down has to be the tribal council at the final seven where different crazy moves went down. If I ever do updated versions of random posts that I’ve done in the past, you can bet that that tribal council will be on my top ten.

You may have noticed some confusion personally when I have ranked tribe swaps in the past. I have four less swaps ranked now than there were. But I do plan on changing them as time goes on by adding what I don’t have. Out of the 25 swaps that I have mentioned right now, I’ll list this season’s as 4^th best. As for the ranking of this season versus the other 35, I’d put it as 17^th best.

Well, there’s not much else to add to this post other than when this blog will be updated. If I do random posts, for as long as I do them, they will be on Wednesdays. That’s how things will start with them in the first place, should something change. They will stay there until the next season starts at which point this blog will be moved back to Thursdays. If I wind up with a past season on DVD for Christmas, then I will blog about it on Sundays. If I do that before the next season starts, you will see those posts instead of random posts. I might also get a second old season posted on Fridays. We’ll see what all happens with that. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 35.12

If I get an old Survivor season for Christmas, be on the lookout for posts on Sundays. If I get two old Survivor seasons for Christmas, then be on the lookout for posts on Sundays and Fridays. Of course, it is possible that I won’t get anything Survivor related for Christmas. Just know that after the season finale, I’ll do random posts on Wednesday unless I have an old season to blog about, which will appear the other days as already mentioned. I might have to buy it for myself if I don’t get it for Christmas. We’ll see what happens regarding that front. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, the tribe returns after tribal council. Who thought it was better than their idol play? Ben is the only person with a good idol play yet this season. Everyone agrees to vote out Ben next. Will they be able to? Ben looks for another idol. He should at least wait until daytime, right? But he shouldn’t look for it in the same way. But maybe he doesn’t know that every idol has been found in a different way thus far.

In the second segment of the show, we get to the reward challenge which is a pairs challenge. They must want to see who will have to work with Ben. He is with Ashley. Ryan is with Mike. This makes Devon and Chrissy the last pair. Mike and Ryan struggle a lot with the challenge. In the end, they are all pretty much about even in the ring throwing stage. Devon and Chrissy win. They get to take a person with them and take Ryan. Ashley thinks that Chrissy clearly controlled the choice and is surprised in some way for some reason about all of this.

In the third segment of the show, Mike thinks that they should pander to him since he is in the middle and people are upset that he went on the reward. Ben tries to get in the middle of these people. Mike thinks that Ben won’t find an idol because he couldn’t find one either. But you should never feel sure that you’ll know what will happen next in Survivor. We then see the people on the reward who want to make a final three alliance. But who would they use as their fourth vote? Chrissy wants to get rid of Ashley at some point. Survivor isn’t just knowing what moves to make, but when to make them too. That is why Ciera got into trouble in Blood versus Water for flipping a vote too late.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge. They kind of made it obvious in the challenge set up explanation that they were showing a member of the dream team and not a person in the game right now. What would happen if the ladder got stuck on its way down for a contestant? You’d think that they’d have to pause the challenge to sort it out or it would be unfair. Chrissy wins the challenge on the same platform she once had trouble at earlier in the game back in the first episode of the season.

In the fifth segment of the show, Ben thinks that he’s the target. Still, he looks for an idol and is okay with everyone talking amongst themselves about who to vote out. If he were there, it wouldn’t seem like they wouldn’t get rid of him as easily. Chrissy wants to get rid of Ashley, but if she does this, it could lead to Ben to finding an idol. Don’t give him more time to do that. Ben finds the clue for an idol. He knows where the idol is but needs people clear of the camp area. Did he get it? We don’t know. We are lead to believe that he didn’t get it, but he might not be the target anyways.

We get to tribal council next. Did Ashley somehow cause herself to be a target? It seems that five out of the six players have a final three deal. Things aren’t always as they seem on Survivor. It is hard to tell what is going on here, but that can be a good thing. Ben pulls out his idol that is probably real. There is more Russell Hantz in Ben that I would like. Ben wants people to vote out Mike. Can he play it before the votes are cast? That has to be against the rules. Ben thinks that he has succeeded in his mission to cause chaos in the game. But would people vote for him now? Ashley is voted out. I can’t tell if Ben wasted his idol or made sure no one voted for him because of it.

On the next Survivor, the season finale happens. There is a secret advantage yet again. Why? I just don’t get it. You are going way too overboard on that. Please, don’t ever do a season again with a secret advantage if you will just use them way too often like this. You better not be doing the twist where a person gets to vote off a jury member. That was a monstrosity before and if it happens again, I will be most annoyed.

Total confessional count: Chrissy- 29, Ashley- 21, Devon- 25, Ryan- 35, Mike- 22, Ben- 41. New confessionals this episode: Mike- 2, Ben- 7, Chrissy- 4, Ashley- 2, Devon- 3, Ryan- 2.

Ashley had two new confessionals this episode, the same number as Mike and Ryan. Everyone else is higher with Ben as the highest with seven. As for total confessionals, Ashley had twenty-one, the lowest of anyone still in the game. Mike is second lowest with twenty-two. The highest is Ben with forty-one. The second highest is Ryan with thirty-five. The third highest is Chrissy with twenty-nine.

I have no idea who will win this. It could be Ryan, Ben, or Chrissy. I don’t think that it will be Devon or Mike. I kind of like not knowing what will happen sometimes. Just as long as I understand why things went the way they did, I should be okay with whatever happens next. Anyways, I’ll be back next week with the finale episode, hopefully soon into the day if I can do it as early as I’m wanting to. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 35.11

Now is the point where things get confusing with me keeping track of confessional counts. I don’t know how I’ll keep changing them, but I’m sure that I’ll find a way. I have a sort of process with it, but that’s not really something people besides me care about, now is it?

I realize that whenever Elementary returns, I’ll want to put that blog on Thursdays. But I can’t do that if this blog is on Thursdays. I also don’t think that I can do that if that show returns on Thursdays, but I have no idea at the moment when it might return with new episodes. I just know that it got additional episodes ordered for this upcoming season. If I had to guess, they might put it on Sundays again when Wisdom of the Crowd probably ends its run sometime soon.

Some of the midseason schedule on CBS has been released. It includes the fact that Survivor 36 will start on February 28^th. It also has the dates of the probably short season of Celebrity Big Brother. Right now, I’m only going to watch it if it has alumni from CSI: Cyber or The Good Wife. It just seems like it would be too complicated for me to try to watch outside of the summer.

Things could be different for me if I get either Survivor: Gabon or Survivor: Blood versus Water as gifts for Christmas. I could wind up getting them both. I do want them both as gifts. I’m pretty sure that they are both out on DVD now. I know that Blood versus Water wasn’t out for a bit, but maybe it is now. Keep in mind that things would change for this blog if I get either or both on DVD. I might need to buy them for myself soon if I don’t get it as a gift. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Mike talks about what happened and how he wasn’t expecting it. Ryan thinks that things went well in some way despite all that happened. Maybe he was being sarcastic in a way and I didn’t understand it. We then get to the reward challenge. It is a loved ones challenge. Also, when they ask who they want to see, how awkward would it be if they said a person who wasn’t there? These reunions always take a long time.

Is this a challenge? What’s with the rock drawing? Of all the dumb challenges! That wasn’t even a real challenge! Chrissy wins the challenge and picks her allies of Ryan and Mike to join her, with Ashley as the third choice. She wants to punish Ben for the fight from earlier, which seemed kind of dumb.

In the second segment of the show, Chrissy wants to switch Ashley to their side. Will Ashley be easy to break? She knows that Chrissy is doing, but still considers the offer. Ben makes a fake idol. It would be funny to me if he accidently switched it with the real idol. Lauren thinks that Ben is making things too personal in the game with his vendetta against Chrissy. Lauren then finds half of an idol. They’ll never stop doing these tricks with idols, will they?

In the third segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge and they show us where the shell is that is hiding the second half of the idol. People have to hold a disk in order to win the challenge. Ben is out of the challenge first, followed by Chrissy. Ryan is then out. Lauren is out next, where she finds the shell that was right next to her station. Mike is then out of the challenge. Devon talks his way out of the challenge giving Ashley the win. Lauren thinks that she knows what will happen next.

In the fourth segment of the show, Ashley is in a great position and thinks that now might be the time to flip. Only Ben has an idol so this could cause problems. He thinks that he figures out that he’s the target. Now it seems like Ben wants to flip. He tells Mike about Lauren’s idol. But will Chrissy work with Ben? I don’t know what will happen. Ben tries to make amends with Chrissy who wants to put the target on Lauren. Did Lauren get the kiss of death confessional? Ben even told Chrissy about Lauren’s extra vote and idol. Lauren then hears from Devon that Ben is planning on blindsiding her. Lauren gives Mike part of her idol. But I think that she can reclaim it if she wants to. Can she? I guess we’ll see.

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to the tribal council. Things quickly turn out against people. It seems like the “core” four are now all against each other. Lauren thinks that she can’t use the advantage right now, but I have no idea if she did that or not. Mike threw his part of the real idol in the fire. Ben revealed his fake idol. There is so much craziness happening here and I’m loving it. The jury is loving it too. What is going on? Chrissy doesn’t want to get rid of Ben. I can’t even write what is all going on here. I have no guess as to what might happen. Ben plays his real idol. He would have gotten a majority of the votes. In fact, he would have gotten all of the votes. His sole vote against Lauren gets rid of her. Does anyone know who would have gotten voted out if Lauren was immune too?

On the next Survivor, people are afraid of Ben, but Chrissy might want to work with him. It would seem that whatever beef exists between them is going away just as easily. I don’t know what to even think about this season anymore. At least it seems good in some way. But it is seeming too crazy. And here I was thinking that crazy was good.

Total confessional count: Ben- 34, Chrissy- 25, Ashley- 19, Devon- 22, Lauren- 27, Ryan- 33, Mike- 20. New confessionals this episode: Ryan- 2, Mike- 3, Ben- 2, Chrissy- 3, Ashley- 2, Devon- 2, Lauren- 3.

In terms of new confessionals, Lauren had three, tied for the highest with Mike and Chrissy. The only people lower were Ryan, Ben, Ashley, and Devon, the only other people still in the game, who all had two confessionals this episode. As for total confessionals, Lauren had twenty-seven, which is higher than Chrissy, Ashley, Devon, or Mike, with Ashley as the lowest with nineteen. Everyone else is about thirty with Ben as the highest with thirty-four. Now can Ben still win this or are people going to get rid of him? Who all can even win this still? I guess we’ll see what happens as this season comes to an end. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 35.10

I’m glad that I was able to do the last episode’s post on time. I had recorded the episode on tape and was able to watch it with a late supper of leftovers after I was done working that night. If I keep my job, which I wouldn’t want to lose, this could be a potential problem for this job in the future. Keep an eye out in future years for troubles, although I’ll try to post reminders then. This will more than likely be the last post on Wednesday for the rest of this season. I’ll be back on Wednesday before the year is over. I always have to move to Thursdays during Advent.

How come there are always random two hour episodes of Survivor every now and then? Isn’t that kind of annoying? Are they expecting us to all be fans of SEAL Team instead of anything else that airs? Are we just supposed to be okay with having to miss what we normally watch? Plus, it really annoys me that they don’t always promote these as two hour episodes and instead say that there are two tribal councils which we all know can happen in an hour long episode.

It seems dumb that once again, they are doing a two hour episode of Survivor without clearly promoting it as such. Tell us that it is two hours and not that two tribal councils happen. At least they aren’t doing this before Thanksgiving like they did last year. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we get back to the merged tribe after tribal council. Chrissy thinks that Mike wasted his idol, which he basically did. He still thinks that he made a good choice with that move, but getting voted out with an idol is only one of the many dumb things you can do with it. I don’t think that things will stay well for him. We then get to a reward challenge. It’s the footsie challenge that we have seen before. Lauren beats out Mike to win the challenge. She chooses Devon, Ben, and Ashley to join her for the reward and talks about how it is a good choice for her.

In the second segment of the show, we get back to the camp with the people not on the reward and Mike tries to use these people to his advantage. People start strategizing. Why did we get this before we got into reward winners? I guess that they don’t always show things in order (well known fact for those that follow Survivor a lot) so I don’t know why they’d show us the losers first. Lauren wants to make her foursome the core in the group of seven. They find letters to home in the reward food. Jeff then appears in a promo that they are casting for another season. We don’t have a renewal of this show yet, but them looking for future contestants is a good sign for the future of this show.

In the third segment of the show, we get more humanizing emotion from Ben. I still don’t know for sure if he is our winner, but he could be. Or, sadly, he may be voted out for being a threat to win. Ben then finds a clue for an idol. Cue all the accusers that think this show is rigged. He does find the idol. We then get to a classic challenge being brought back again. Well, it is a recent classic. I still don’t know if this is a fair challenge entirely due to how the ocean could be different for different people. Three people sit out of the challenge for chocolate and peanut butter. And they get to keep their clothes on. Ashley wins the challenge, being the second woman this episode to just beat out Mike. Ashley thinks that the vote will be easy since nobody won who wasn’t supposed to.

In the fourth segment of the show, people think that Mike did good in the challenge even though he fell short. Ryan is upset at some of his alliance for sitting out of the challenge. People think that they know who to vote for, but I don’t think that the promos would talk about a blindside without one happening in the end. But it could happen in the next part. Devon thinks that he can work out some sort of plan that could get rid of people. As usual, I can’t tell what’s going on. But there is a plan in the works and I think that Ryan could be voted out, maybe.

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to what will probably be a wild and crazy tribal council. People think that Mike and Joe are a strong duo. People talk about if the alliance of seven is as strong as they think it is. Can one ever stop playing the game? I can gather little to no information about what is going on with the vote and it seems like a lot of them are cast for the duo not in the alliance.

JP is voted out for some odd reason that I didn’t see anywhere in this episode. And the poor guy doesn’t even get an exit confessional, much less a regular confessional this episode. I don’t understand how he was a threat in any way. But why take him out? Chrissy doesn’t like the snark that she gets afterwards, back at camp. Ben wants to play both sides of the game. Trend carefully, man. Ryan wants to know why Devon betrayed him. Devon is still upset over other people knowing of Ryan’s idol.

In the sixth segment of the show, Devon’s dark side is starting to shine forth. Or maybe he is just getting cocky in a way. Cocky or kooky; one of the two. We then get to a reward challenge. Lauren, Ryan, Mike, and Chrissy are team red. Devon, Joe, Ben, and Ashley are team blue. The blue team wins.

In the seventh segment of the show, the reward winners seem to get cocky and Ben wants to mess with Joe as often as possible. But some people like Ashley think that power is going towards his head. Ryan thinks that he can work with Mike. Only Mike wants to stick with the plan that he has now. Will it work? I can’t tell what the best method is, but I know not to trust Ryan based on what his edit is like. Chrissy doesn’t want to be voted off so that might mean something obvious happening soon.

In the eighth segment of the show, Chrissy is uncertain of what is going on for her in the future. She is sad as a result. We then get to the immunity challenge. It looks like a complicated challenge. Am I the only one who wonders how Jeff can do such a detailed play by play with all that goes on in a challenge? I’m guessing that there are people talking to him in an earpiece or something like that. I do think that I like the wheelbarrow like thing that helps complicate the challenge. If you need to make one word, you should switch letters and hope that you are smart enough to notice if words are the same with the letters out of order. Or I should say, hpoe taht you are smrat eungoh to nicote if wdros are the smae wtih the lteerts out of oderr. Chrissy wins the challenge after falling behind for a while.

In the ninth segment of the show, Ben thinks that the vote is still good. They want to finally get rid of Joe. Please? Pretty, pretty please? Devon is the architect of a crazy idea. People want Ben to be voted out of the game. Will he learn about this? Will he need it at all? Will the person who is voted out even be shown as a target? Ashley wants to act like a cheerleader and be aggressive, b e aggressive. It looks like Ben might be the target after all. But is that the right decision?

In the tenth segment of the show, Chrissy admits that she has been trying to play the game since 2001. I’m glad that she finally got it. I just hate to think of all the recruits who never applied that got on before her. To think that someone as great as her was beaten by nearly the whole cast of Fiji is terrible. As to the tribal council at hand, people criticize Joe who is at the bottom. Plans change, dreams take over, the world turns and we turn with it. That’s what I’m getting from this tribal council.

Jeff doesn’t think that there will be penetration. If Jessica were still here, then we’d know that to be true. Joe feels comfortable at this tribal council. Don’t ever feel that way on Survivor. But I still don’t know if it will be Joe, Ben, or someone else entirely. Ryan plays his idol on himself. People voted for him. Joe is voted out. Bye, Felicia!

On the next Survivor, we get to the loved ones challenge, only it is everyone for themselves as a fake idol shows back up in the game. I am glad to see it back because I really like those. I wish that we could see them more often than we do now.

Total confessional count: Chrissy- 22, Joe- 24, Ashley- 17, Devon- 20, Lauren- 24, Ryan- 31, Mike- 17, Ben- 32, JP- 5. New confessionals this episode: JP- 0, Chrissy- 5, Joe- 4, Ashley- 4, Devon- 8, Lauren- 8, Ryan- 5, Mike- 6, Ben- 7.

Poor JP had no new confessionals this episode. He also had only five confessionals this whole time in the game. In this double-lengthed episode, Chrissy had five confessionals as did Ryan. That’s the same number that Ryan had his whole career. Making matters worse for JP, higher this episode than Ryan and Chrissy are Mike, Ben, Devon, and Lauren with the last two tying for the highest with eight a piece. Joe had only four confessionals this episode, the second lowest, tied with Ashley. With total confessionals, Joe had twenty-four, the same number as Lauren. The only people higher are Ryan and Ben with Ben just barely edging out Ryan by one confessional. Ben has thirty-two right now. As for the new lowest now that JP is out of the game, Ashley and Mike tie for that with seventeen a piece.

Well, this is the last Wednesday post of this season. Since Advent starts next week, I’ll be posting on Thursdays until the end of the season. After that, this will move back to Wednesdays until next season starts. I don’t know yet when it will be or if Lent will have started yet. What is interesting is that Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day are the same day next year. I don’t know yet just how soon it will be until this season ends. It could come up fast. I guess I won’t know for sure since I won’t know how many people will be in the final at the beginning. Just know that I’ll be on Thursdays with this blog until this season ends. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 35.9

Survivor can be a lot about the little moments. There are some people that are clearly going deep in the game, some people that could be doing something good or in for a major blindside, and those that are just there are extra players until they get eliminated. Now since last episode’s vote didn’t make much sense, you do have to remember where it said that Ben is a threat but that he wasn’t taken out. Does this mean that Ryan, who made the comment, will lose to him? Ryan has had more of an influence on the game as a whole thus far. At least, that’s what the edit wants us to think in some way. But Ben has a good edit too so it could be either one of them winning. Or it could be someone else entirely.

My only two jobs thus far have been ones where I can work whenever I want to provided that I get things done at a certain time. This is why I want to be working as soon as possible on Wednesday. I don’t normally work Wednesdays, but they want me to work then instead of on Thanksgiving (which I would have tried to get off if I could). Of course, the Wednesday night shows that I like and watch are different than before.

I would care about Law and Order: SVU, but NBC isn’t coming in where I live and its website sucks ass. As for the CW, I would care about Dynasty, but am not that interested to stay into it. I might try to watch more of Riverdale online if I can. I don’t care about any FOX shows that are on Wednesdays right now. The ABC shows that I watch are Modern Family, American Housewife, and Designated Survivor. The other Wednesday show that I watch on CBS is SEAL Team. Since that airs back to back with Survivor, I might as well record them together.

I don’t know exactly what will happen with work and it is possible that I could go in really early and be done before Survivor starts as I was confused as to the hours when I could do the work. I just know that the VCR that I would use to record in hooked up to a TV on a converter box that turns off in four hours if left on without the channel being changed. So I might not want to worry about adding SEAL Team this time around and I think that I could watch this show later with supper.

Mike has an idol and that may be easy to forget. It probably won’t be mentioned again until a previously on Survivor segment. When it is, it will probably be played then or it will have some other importance to the episode. I thought that I would point that out, even if it is a bit of a spoiler. Well, not him having the idol, but the edit thing they do. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, Mike was confused over the vote. He did was he was told and didn’t vote the right way. Don’t worry, Mike. I have no idea what happened either. Lauren talks about her secret advantage. Ben knows about this advantage since she told him. Ryan tells Devon for some reason that I don’t understand. Do you understand?

In the second segment of the show, the reward challenge happens. The red team wins. I can never keep track of who is on what team a lot of the time. I could have written it down if I wanted to, but I feel that I missed that chance.

In the third segment of the show, the reward winners don’t talk much to each other, but they reveal a lot in confessionals about what happened. They like the fact that they are getting food. The winners pass by the camp the losers are at where the losers promptly moon them. Ryan continues questionable game play by telling Ben about his idol.

The animal imagery of an octopus and a snake in the water above it (as they want it to seem) making me wonder what it is. Sometimes it is clearly than other. I’ll never forget the snake slowly eating an animal in Pearl Islands that made me know Rupert was getting voted out that night. Joe wants people to be annoyed at him so they’ll take him to the end. That’s not a winning strategy. He openly calls the person he is talking to a goat. His “great idea” may backfire.

In the fourth segment of the show, Ben thinks that Ryan’s idol is dangerous. Every idol is potentially dangerous if the wielder knows how and when to properly use it. Ben tells Devon about Ryan’s idol which Devon views as a betrayal of sorts even though what Ryan said was true at the time. Of course, Devon has no way of knowing this. We then get to the immunity challenge. Ashley makes a comment that distracts people into dropping out. Well played. She doesn’t end up winning, though. Lauren ends up winning the challenge. But who is the target? Cole hopes that Joe is the target.

In the fifth segment of the show, Ben thinks that they should get rid of Cole. Ben wants to split the votes between Cole and Mike. Ashley wants to get rid of Joe. Might there be a failed split vote on the horizon? What will you see, on the horizon? Why do the white gulls call? Across the sea, come hail the horizon. The ships have come to carry us home. Back to the episode, Mike wants to make a move so that he is finally the ones calling the shots. Mike wants to play his idol on someone, but that could result in his own elimination. Ben could be playing too hard. But many still want Joe to be the target. Heck, it could be someone else entirely. We get to tribal council and people are talking as the jury member enters into the area. Has such a thing ever happened before? Maybe they want to recapture the spirit of the 33^rd season.

People think that the healers are in trouble. Mike makes the case as for why Joe should be voted out that night. Lauren thinks that Mike is putting himself in danger. More happens that I can’t really summarize easily. What will happen next? I don’t know. That’s a problem in Survivor nowadays. They don’t show us why some people get voted out over others.

The votes are cast. Lauren doesn’t use her advantage yet. Does she need to? Mike plays his idol on himself. Some people did vote for him. Cole is voted out. I guess Phoebe was brave enough to throw the potion at him. Did Mike waste his idol? That’s how it looks.

On the next Survivor, it seems that the alliance of seven starts to crumble. It’s about time. Maybe there will be more interesting things happening then as a result. This season has been good, but only by not being bad. It hasn’t been outstanding or better than average.

Total confessional count: Lauren- 16, Ryan- 26, Mike- 11, Ben- 25, JP- 5, Chrissy- 17, Cole- 17, Joe- 20, Ashley- 13, Devon- 12. New confessionals this episode: Devon- 1, Lauren- 1, Ryan- 2, Mike- 2, Ben- 4, JP- 0, Chrissy- 3, Cole- 2, Joe- 3, Ashley- 2.

I just spent a bit trying to sort out the names to fit me best for the next post. I still don’t know how much using a different computer earlier this season affected the name order. Anyways, Cole had seventeen total confessionals, the same number as Chrissy. The people higher are Ryan, Ben, and Joe, who are all in the twenties. Ryan is still the highest, now with twenty-six. Everyone else is lower with JP as the lowest with five. He’s the only person still in the single digits now.

In terms of confessionals this episode, Cole has two, the same number as Ashley, Mike, and Ryan. Only Joe and Ben were higher with Ben having four new ones, the most this episode. Everyone else is lower with JP as the lowest with no new confessionals. He has a slightly better edit now than Kelly Wiglesworth did back in Cambodia. It could still go up a bit.

Since Advent won’t be starting next week, you can expect my blog to remain unaffected for now. My post will happen at the regularly scheduled Wednesday where it normally belongs. It won’t be until the post after this one that I’ll be moving to Thursdays with these posts for the rest of the season. I’ll post a reminder about it then. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 35.8

I might as well get to the last news update about Jessica before not having to talk about her in the future with these introductions. But I think that I do have something special planned instead starting with this season’s posts that I can keep doing in the future. The update said that this Cape native was voted out in the episode. The parents will have to find someone else to root for. They said that they would interview her, but they didn’t so it might show up in the future. Or not.

Things could be changing in these posts in the future. Not too much should change, but knowing that I have to work on Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. I’ll try to watch a recording of the show that night if I can. You might not see that day’s episode until the Sunday afterwards. Since Advent won’t be starting the week after Thanksgiving this year, you won’t see Thursday posts right away. That’s why I can’t just post this a week late like last year. My new job is a bit confusing right now. If all goes well, I’ll be back before the recording starts. We’ll see what happens in case next week’s post is late. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, the tribe gets back from tribal council and talk about Jessica’s blindside. Lauren gets an advantage in the game where she gets to save a vote for later. She has to be stealth about it or it could blow up her whole game.

In the second segment of the show, we get to the reward challenge where the winning team gets a trip to a private island and they get food. The sit-out wins automatically. That’s better than losing by sitting-out, but still kind of dumb. The blue team wins, but they get a reward where the winners don’t all get to enjoy a meal and talk to each other together. They get a meal where they eat alone for as long as they want to. I guess they got tired of seeing the same old same old.

In the third segment of the show, Joe picks Devon to go first. JP goes second and it seems like there is a message on the tray. Cole goes third. He sees the clue and tries to hide it. Chrissy still finds it when she goes next. Ryan finds it and is smart enough to hide the plate. Joe goes last and knows nothing about the clue. Now for the crazy scene that they promised us: the contestants looking for the idol buried under the flag. They need to stop putting idols in places like that. Ryan finds the idol and Chrissy wants to cover it back up. I like Ryan. He’s like a likable Brian Heidk. People think that Cole has the idol now. Doesn’t someone have another idol, though?

In the fourth segment of the show, we get straight into the immunity challenge. The contestants have to balance a statue on a pole. Well, at least it isn’t balls again, but there are still tons of ways to think of dirty ways of saying how people can handle themselves well with poles. The men don’t seem to handle themselves on the polls well, but the women know how to work with poles. I love how all this dramatic music plays and it is only ten minutes that have passed. Cole ends up winning the challenge like he was wanting to. What’s the next plan then? Chrissy thinks that it will be another healer.

In the fifth segment of the show, Cole wants to rally the healers together. I thought that they were. The problem is that the other two tribes outnumber them. What they should do is try to work on divisions between them. Would the hustlers abandon the heroes? The talk of voting off Ben is brought forth and Ben overhears this. Ryan thinks that it’s the wrong time to do that. Joe and Ben have a bit of a fight of some sort, although it might not have been that bad. Lauren tells Ben about her advantage. Why can’t she just wait? That sounds like a good idea. Ben approaches Mike with an idea to vote with him. Will this work? I guess we’ll see what happens.

We get to tribal council next. Joe talks about how nervous he is and that he thinks that Ben is controlling the game. We get into the fight that they had earlier over whether or not he swore on the marines. The dynamics of the merged tribe is brought up as people discuss who should be targeted. Ben even decides to apologize over the fight, even though it was probably Joe’s fault. Lauren takes the extra vote now, which seems a bit dumb. The vote seems a bit scattered. This leads to a tie and a revote. But will people notice that a vote is missing? And can Lauren vote at the revote? I’m confused there. Desi is voted out and I just now realized that Jessica isn’t on the jury.

On the next Survivor, Lauren had the advantage now and Ryan has to blab about his idol for some dumb reason. Why would he do that? Why would anyone do that? I just don’t get it. Keep an idol to yourself. Heck, I can still get annoyed that we know in addition to the player who found it.

Total confessional count: Desi- 8, Mike- 9, Ben- 21, JP- 5, Chrissy- 14, Cole- 15, Joe- 17, Ashley- 11, Devon- 11, Lauren- 15, Ryan- 24.

New confessionals this episode: Mike- 1, Ben- 6, JP- 1, Chrissy- 2, Cole- 4, Joe- 4, Ashley- 0, Devon- 1, Lauren- 2, Ryan- 3, Desi- 1.

Desi had only one new confessional this episode. She ties with Mike, JP, and Devon. The only person lower is Ashley with none. Everyone else is higher with Ben as the highest with six. In terms of total confessionals, Desi had eight. The only person lower is JP with five. Everyone else is higher with Ryan as the highest with twenty-four. Ben is second highest with twenty-one. Joe is third highest with seventeen confessionals. Not sure what to make of all these numbers. I won’t know what all is happening next week, as stated earlier. I hope that I can post the episode on time as I want to, otherwise you’ll have to wait until Sunday for me to have it ready. Have a happy Thanksgiving next week to everyone. Hope I can be back as normal. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 35.7

I don’t know who all I know that read this blog and who among them would be getting me a present this Christmas. I would like to watch Survivor: Gabon again and I’d only want to do that if I had it on DVD. I would also want Survivor: Blood versus Water on DVD, but I don’t know if it is out yet. They promoted that it would be out, but it isn’t. Not last I checked, at least. But what if I get them both at once? That wouldn’t be a problem for me, but which season would I blog about first?

I would have to wonder if what I do with these two seasons would affect other past seasons that I could blog about in the future. Gabon happened before Blood versus Water so it would make sense to put it first. Plus, I have already blogged about Blood versus Water. But, maybe Blood versus Water should be first since I have wanted it on DVD for longer than I wanted Gabon. I’d still keep your eyes out for posts on Sundays and Fridays in the future, but only if you know that I have a season to watch for the first time on DVD. If I watch it again on DVD (which I probably will), you won't see those updates on a time other than Wednesday unless the time this airs changes.

Jessica’s update on the news mentions her immunity wins and what happened with Cole. They mention the upcoming merge and what all can change. They don’t seem to do too much on these updates and they only say what brief recaps are needed each time on these players. I could probably do better updates in the future should I want to.

I had an interesting dream about Survivor that involved characters from The Flash. It was said to be the season filmed after Kaoh Rong (making it Cambodia) only it featured Cisco and Barry Allen. A challenge producer was there with Barry and thought that there could be some sort of cheating going on that was so severe, it would result in the season in progress being cancelled and scrapped.

In the dream, I wondered in my mind if a speedster like Barry Allen could run at a normal human speed or if it was only possible for him to run at superhuman speeds. (Does anyone know the answer to the question? I have not seen Barry Allen or any speedster on the show run at a normal speed when they had access to powers.) Barry, who arrived at a challenge before Cisco, showed secret puzzles being shown in a booth and the producer proved that cheating had gone on and that Koah Rong would be aired in the fall and they’d make a new season to air in the spring to replace this one.

There were problems with the internet where I lived which can cause problems with my job. I need to access the internet and get an email to see what I have to do each day. What’s interesting is that this is a company based in Iowa and I don’t live there or near there. I haven’t been to Iowa all year. I do have another job besides that. As for the internet problems, they seemed to have gone away for now. I don’t know what caused them. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we are at Soko after the tribal council. Chrissy likes her chances at the game thus far. Back at the red tribe, did Jessica take off her top for a bit? I mean, they discuss strategy and how they feel like they are in the lead. Ashley complains on her tribe as they eat sugar for breakfast and feel that they need food. Is there going to be a medical evacuation? That’s where the edit seems to be going, but that isn’t always trustworthy. We then get to the merge. Only there is something set up where they are.

In the second segment of the show, we learn that there is a merge feast courtesy of Outback Steakhouse instead of the usual merge feast. I haven’t ever been there. If they have steak, it is probably a good place. But why not go to Applebee’s instead? Jessica gets a majority of people to join her tribe. There are a lot of people who reconnect and meet each other with different things going on.

In the third segment of the show, what will happen with the three tribe divide? Will the heroes and hustlers team up against the healers? I guess that we will figure out what will happen later as time goes by. I can’t tell much what is going on with this so we might find out more later. Jessica, as always, is concerned about Cole. Why did Mike think that no one else is playing the game but him? He has to make sure that they know what is happening.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge. It has balls in it as expected. They have to keep the balls spinning. You spin me right round baby right round. Whoever has yellow might be the winner of this. Ryan is the first out of the challenge. Different people fall out including the yellow person. Guess I was wrong. Desi and Ashley are the two people who know how to keep balls moving. For some reason, Jeff points out how Ryan failed at the challenge. Desi wins the challenge when it comes down to the last stage. I wonder if this would be easy if they didn’t have to move the ball around. Ryan thinks that they should take out a threat and hopefully they don’t realize that he’s one.

In the fifth segment of the show, there is odd animal imagery of some sort for some reason. Cole thinks that he is the target going into the vote. Cole wants to apologize to Ben for the food situation. Why does Ben have the huge uptick in airtime? Cole blabs to Joe about the alliance he thinks is going on, but Joe thinks that Ben shouldn’t be trusted. People want to vote out Chrissy. Who is Ben with? One side wants to target either Joe or Cole while not knowing who could have an idol. Even Jessica could be a target. What is going on? I guess we’ll find out pretty soon.

At tribal council, we get to the last people in the game lighting their torches. People talk about the new tribe dynamics. Everyone on the tribe is concerned that they will be voted out next. Joe, continuing his crazy ways, shows his idol to everyone. Tribal council is like sex: you want protection when you go into it or unexpected things could happen. Also like sex, you have to know when to use the protection that you have and when you don’t need it. The votes are cast. Joe plays his idol on himself. Jessica is voted out of the game. I guess that I won’t see her on the news again after tonight.

On the next Survivor, the future looks grim for the healers and an idol hunt gets very crazy.  I hope that there aren’t any explosions that they refuse to do again. I might have to do a post about it. Also, Jessica, the biggest blindside of your life might not happen as long as you are still a virgin. You better hope your partner uses a condom. I don’t know if I want her to wind up with Cole or not. She’d be better off with a smarter person. But I honestly see no reason why she shouldn’t be with him. I kind of lost focus there for a bit, didn’t I? Well, that's bound to happen with me.

Total confessional count: Jessica- 15, Cole- 11, Joe- 13, Ashley- 11, Devon- 10, Lauren- 13, Ryan- 21, Desi- 7, Mike- 8, Ben- 15, JP- 4, Chrissy- 12.

New confessionals this episode: Cole- 5, Joe- 2, Ashley- 1, Devon- 3, Lauren- 2, Ryan- 3, Desi- 0, Mike- 3, Ben- 6, JP- 0, Chrissy- 3, Jessica- 3.

In terms of total confessionals, Jessica had fifteen, the same number as Ben. The only person higher than them is Ryan with twenty-one. JP is the lowest with four. In terms of confessionals for this episode, Jessica had three which is the same number as Chrissy, Devon, Ryan, and Mike. The only people higher than them are Cole and Ben with Ben as the highest with six. It looks like he might be more important to this season than we were lead to believe earlier. The lowest this episode are JP and Desi with no new confessionals. That’s a bad sign for Desi since she won immunity. It’s still a bad sign for JP who has no real impact on the game thus far. I don’t know who to look out for, but it is probably Ryan that they want us to care about most. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 35.6

With my new job, I have had to stop watching the late night shows that I would normally watch. Now this only affects Tuesdays and Thursdays at the moment, so I can watch what I normally watch then. I don’t always late night shows anyways. Nor do I watch the same late night shows. In addition to my local news (which is one of my CBS affiliates most of the time), I typically watch Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Late Late Show with James Corden. Sometimes I watch The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon or The Late Show with Stephen Colbert instead of Jimmy Kimmel. Sometimes I watch Nightline instead of James Corden. I also watch reruns of Modern Family whenever I want to. There might be other shows that I’ll get into when I’m done with my late night work.

I saw Jessica on the news again. They mention how her tribes keep winning immunity. She’ll have to go to tribal council eventually. They also give a preview of the medical problems that Cole might have. Was Cole a healer? I already forget. I think that he was so this would fit with my prediction of what ironic thing could happen this season.

SPOILER! I was looking up information regarding Survivor 36 just to make sure that it would be airing in the spring. I didn’t look up too much about it, but did learn that the name for the season is apparently Ghost Island. There might also be some season in Belize that will happen with some returning players like Jeremy from Cagayan. If I get a facebook notification from facebook that says it is the first time that a friend of mine on facebook who is a Survivor contestant has posted in a while, then I can guess that they were probably gone filming a new Survivor season. I’ll post who it is, but only in a spoiler section like this so you can ignore it if you don’t like spoilers or want to know any. END SPOILER.

Planned new programming tonight on at least two network (CBS is one of them) are not airing planned new episodes that they were going to air. This is because of game seven of the World Series being at the same time. This new episode will air, but the things after it won’t. I won’t know if they are rerunning episodes I haven’t seen. I missed some due to not being able to record shows on my laptop and not caring enough about others to record them on tape. I’ve also missed a lot of NBC this season due to the network not coming in. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, they bring up that Cole couldn’t hide his hunger in the recap. Ali is upset at Ryan over the vote. This may have been Ryan’s first mistake, but one that was unavoidable since Chrissy would be mad at him in an alternate reality. The fight is a bit confusing. He wants to cut her loose although now that this fight happened. Mike catches fish on his tribe. Cole is criticized for eating too much. But does he need to for some reason?

In the second segment of the show, we get to the reward challenge. They have to transfer a buoy and then hit targets. I already know that the red tribe either doesn’t come in first or probably doesn’t win the challenge period. Or the food probably that Cole has is a red herring to his actual problem. The yellow tribe comes in first followed shortly after by the red tribe. JP gets a random confessional for some odd reason.

In the third segment of the show, Ryan talks about how great JP is. Why is he suddenly getting airtime? Maybe he’ll have more of an impact on the game than his early edit would have us believe. Why does Ryan think that the merge will happen soon? I guess that it could, now that I count people again. There might be another look for a hidden immunity idol, this time at the blue tribe. There are two tribes now talking about who to vote out. But will either of them get their wish?

Joe finds a clue to the idol and wants to get rid of the clue. But how could he do that? He waits until the cover of nightfall to look for the idol. It seems like a good idea, but how would you see? He finds another idol. Here’s hoping that he gets blindsided.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to Yawa. The weird thing with Cole happens. Mike and Jessica decide to take care of him. This makes her realize that she doesn’t want to play without him. Only one tribe member missed the amount. This makes people want to get rid of Cole. This is Ben who is in the cowboy hat all the time.

We then get to the immunity challenge. It seems like they repurposed an individual challenge to be a tribal one. But will it be as hard as how we see it the other way? The yellow tribe is first one and the blue tribe falls out too. The red tribe was close to a win before they had to reset as well. These word stacks are wibbly wobbly. The red tribe comes in first due to a great strategy. The blue tribe comes in second after the yellow tribe drops again. Ali is concerned that she might be the target, even though it might be JP.

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to the Soko tribe after their loss. JP thinks that Ali should be voted out. But Ryan wants to get rid of JP. But this could be a mistake to get rid of him in case there isn’t a merge like Ryan thinks. Ali wants to find her crack. I can already imagine how perverts have taken that line already. Chrissy doesn’t think that she can trust Ali.

If Ryan plays his cards right, he can keep Ali on his side, stay aligned with Chrissy, and be right about the merge coming making a JP vote off worth it. We get to tribal council and I’m pretty sure I already know that JP will be voted out due to the spike in his airtime, but this show can be surprising at times, even at the cost of making us know what happened. JP is smart by trying to deflect himself by downplaying how strong he is. But is it worth it? After the votes are cast, Ali is voted out, so thanks for misleading me. I guess Ryan thought that he was better off without her. In fact, his mind might have been made up after the last vote.

On the next episode of Survivor, there is a merge after all. We don’t know who the target is but a whole lot of things could be messed up. We never went from three to three to one before. How many ways are there to do a swap or two during a season? I need to figure out where to rank the swap for the future. I haven’t worked on that yet.

Total confessional count: Lauren- 11, Ryan- 18, Desi- 7, Mike- 5, Ben- 9, Ali- 15, JP- 4, Chrissy- 9, Jessica- 12, Cole- 6, Joe- 11, Ashley- 10, Devon- 7.

New confessionals this episode: Devon- 1, Lauren- 1, Ryan- 4, Desi- 1, Mike-2, Ben- 1, Ali- 3, JP- 2, Chrissy- 2, Jessica- 1, Cole- 1, Joe- 1, Ashley- 1.

Ali had three confessionals this episode. The only person higher than her is Ryan with four. Mike, JP, and Chrissy all have two. Everyone else had just one confessional this episode. At least there were none without a confessional. Ali was at fifteen total confessionals. The only person higher than her is Ryan with eighteen. Everyone else is lower with JP as the lowest with four. But he does have a slight uptick in his game so he might not be as irrelevant as the confessional count might have us believe.

I think that I realize that Ryan was certain to leave tribal council with two allies and he had the least to lose by picking off Ali. But keeping JP could come back to bit him. This looks like Ryan’s game to lose right now so we’ll see what ends up happening there. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 35.5

Well, if you read this post last week, you might have been wondering what would happen with my laptop. Well, I am glad to say that it is working well again. This has lead me to save some of what was meant for the last post being added to this post. Enjoy this somewhat outdated paragraph over my local news about Jessica that would have been after the third episode this season.

Jessica was on the news again as they focused on what little has been shown about her game thus far. They did have more to her story and showmance with Cole. We do get to see more of her as time goes by and I can mention anything in these posts that I missed in old posts. I do like these stories although they seem like CBS self promotion and I don’t know if they require local news channels to air these specials or not as this hasn’t happened before to my knowledge. I might have to check my other CBS affiliate more in the future should people from that area be on the show.

I had a dream about a challenge from Survivor Borneo. It was the last immunity challenge between the two tribes. The dream had Rudy competing in the challenge and the Tagi tribe barely lost instead of what actually happened where they barely won because they could sit him out despite the lack of an advantage in numbers over the other tribe. I wonder how different the game could have been if Tagi had lost that challenge. But it could have been an even better game. We’ll never know for sure unless someone can prove the existence of then access the multiverse. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we get back to the tribe after the tribal council. I hope that I would be crazy and smart if I played Survivor. If I wasn’t smart, then at least I’d be one of the things. Ben freaks out over bamboo popping on the first. Ben doesn’t like sudden, load noises. Who would? At least he isn’t hurt like the last person I remember going into the water after something happened with the fire. Don’t get into child porn, Ben. In fact, no one should do that. I wonder if this segment on Ben might be foreshadowing a big role for him throughout the game.

In the second segment of the show, we get to a reward challenge. Maybe I should take this as a break to get my supper ready. I’m going with simple leftovers for supper. I typically only do that for lunch unless there’s a lot of leftovers, but it makes sense to have something it takes a while to make when I’m trying to watch and blog about something. The second place team gets a simple reward as people worm their way through the challenge. The yellow tribe loses since Ryan struggled too much in the challenge.

In the third segment of the show, Desi on the blue tribe talks about coming in first place in the challenge that gave them a win for the time. Devon and Ashley try to get Desi away from Joe’s side so that they don’t go to rocks. Ryan talks about doing nothing in the challenge and takes responsibility for the loss. I still don’t know what to make of Ryan right now. He could be in it for the long haul, but I don’t know yet if he will win or be an obstacle the winner has to overcome. But I do see him making the endgame right now. Roark tries to find allies on her new tribe. She wants to join Ali and they start scheming. Ryan feels that he is in the middle of two potential alliances.

Lauren continues to vent about various tribe members in her confessionals. Jessica wants to form more of a bond with Mike. She gets him to do all the work digging for an idol while she just stands around and does nothing. It’s kind of funny in a way. She doesn’t get the idol so that’s more interesting. She should have gone out on her own and kept it to herself. Now someone else has the idol instead of her.

In the fourth segment of the show, we get to the immunity challenge. It seems to be part Pinko like we’ve seen before. I predict that the red tribe will lose. What’s interesting is that the two people who struggled in the last challenge (Mike and Ryan) are sitting out this one. I do wonder why they showed Jeff encouraging Mike during the reward challenge instead of criticizing his poor challenge performance. So maybe Mike will have a redemption arc of some sort. The red tribe (Yawa) comes in first. The blue tribe (Yuvu) comes in second after the yellow tribe struggles based on the fact that only one person could do that last stage. Roark thinks that Chrissy needs to go after Chrissy’s poor performance.

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to the Soko tribe after their loss. Chrissy feels like she is in danger of the vote. She wants to talk to Roark and create an all girls alliance. Only this is just a ruse. But it doesn’t seem like Roark was in on it. Now Chrissy makes it seem like the all girls alliance was Roark’s idea. At least she is doing something since she knows she is in danger. Ryan need to figure out which side to join: Chrissy’s or Ali’s. We then get to tribal council next.  It seems like there is a catty cat fight between Chrissy and Roark. There are blurred lines. I haven’t heard that song. The votes are cast and I have no idea what might be happening. It seems like it will be either one person or another. Roark is voted out. L Who voted against her? The numbers don’t add up.

On the next Survivor, Ryan faces the fallout of the vote and it seems that Cole might have some sort of medical problem. But is it just a fake out of some sort? I guess that we will see what happens later and how much the promo could be misleading us on the medical problem.

Total confessional count: JP- 2, Chrissy- 7, Jessica- 11, Roark- 5, Cole- 5, Joe- 10, Ashley- 9, Devon- 6, Lauren- 10, Ryan- 14, Desi- 6, Mike- 3, Ben- 8, Ali- 12.

New confessionals this episode: Ali- 3, JP- 0, Chrissy- 2, Jessica- 1, Roark- 2, Cole- 0, Joe- 1, Ashley- 2, Devon- 1, Lauren- 1, Ryan- 2, Desi- 1, Mike- 0, Ben- 1.

Roark had two new confessionals this episode, the same number as Ryan, Chrissy, and Ashley. The only person higher is Ali with three. Everyone else is lower than them with Mike, JP, and Cole as the lowest with no new confessionals this episode. In terms of total confessionals, Roark had five, the same number as Cole. The people lower are JP and Mike with JP as the lowest with two. Everyone else is higher with their confessional count. Those in double digits are Lauren, Ryan, Ali, Jessica, and Joe with Ryan as the highest with fourteen. There’s not much else to say. This blog should be normal for the rest of the season unless problems come back up again. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.

Episode 35.4

I don't know if you know that my laptop was having problems even though I was still able to work on it despite these problems. I'm getting the laptop fixed and am using a different one for now. Hopefully I can get mine back to use normally for the future pretty soon. Until then, I'm glad that I have another option. I hope that then I can use what I planned for this post in the next post like I did in April when the laptop failed then. But enough of my ramblings.

In the first segment of the show, we get immediately to a challenge that is set up for three tribes. The tribes are then switched around. I don't know if I can get all the new tribes or not. I might get them later. But there are still three tribes and the two love birds are still together. Ben had an alliance with Chrissy apparently.

In the second segment of the show, we get to the reward challenge. How long are they going to keep up the new three tribes? This is the typical do something then solve a puzzle. Only the winner will get reward. I wouldn't be to thrilled about this reward, although I wouldn't have to use the peanut butter, I think. Peanut butter is only good paired with chocolate, in which case it is AMAZING! The blue tribe struggles a lot during it. The red tribe wins. Ali feels that her tribe fails. I think that's why they aired that confessional, but I have no idea who is one what tribe anymore.

In the third segment of the show, to little surprise, there is a secret advantage in one of the chip bags. Jessica gets what is very similar to the veto armelet from international seasons of Survivor if you care about them. She gets to block a vote at tribal council and this has to be given to the other tribe if they win. She tells Cole despite the fact that he doesn't keep secrets as evidenced by the last episode. To little surprise, he blabs it to everyone on his tribe. This is why I wouldn't tell secrets to my sister if we were playing together. (Love you, if you are reading this.) Ryan tells Chrissy that he was responsible for her getting the idol. Joe lies to a person on his new tribe for some reason and Ashley doesn't like the fact that Alan is on her new tribe.

In the fourth segment of the show, Lauren wants to tell Mike about the advantage. She wants to prolong herself in the game since she knows that Jessica and Cole are buddy buddy. This could actually bite Lauren. Cole blabs that he blabbed to them and now she is rethinking her relationship with him. There's still nothing shown on Joe's tribe about his idol so his tribe could be losing this immunity challenge. Let's get to that, shall we? The red tribe comes in first, although I don't think that things will stay well with Jessica and Cole. The yellow tribe comes in second and the blue tribe will head to tribal council. What can Jessica do with her vote blocking power?

In the fifth segment of the show, we get to Levu, the blue tribe, after their defeat. Devon learns of Joe's previous lie about people trying to vote against him. Joe continues to be all concerned and devious. He thinks that Desi is getting voted out and wonders if he should play the idol. We still don't know who Jessica will either give her power to or block from voting. I think that she can't just pick someone, can she? There is a load argument over who should be voted out? Joe is really crazy. Desi thinks she is a target and she wants Joe to play the idol on her to gain her trust. Risky move. I wouldn't trust her, but it could be a good move in the end. How is Alan not the crazy person? Devon gets the secret advantage.

Tribal council is next. Joe talks about his crazy plan before tribal council. We don't really know what all is going to happen. I don't know who Devon would block with his vote or why he doesn't yet know that that's the power of the secret. What is good for each player's game? Devon is blocked from voting which is not the advantage he thought he was getting. I like how they played that. But why did Devon get targetted by Jessica?

When asked about an idol, Joe plays it for himself. That's the best move even if he does wind up wasting it. To little surprise, he got votes. It would have been a tie between him and Alan if he hadn't played it. How would they have resolved it if Devon can't vote? Alan is voted out and Joe is now the most annoying player still in this season. Hopefully he can get voted out next. It would seem that Desi voted with him even though he didn't hold up his end of the deal. What could that mean?

On the next Survivor, there is a wiggle room, an alliance that might not work, and other things that might be crazy too. I don't understand what went on with the blocked vote, but we might find out more about it later and I'll see what my local news has to say about Jessica, which will be a lot this time. In fact, I might just wait until the broadcast of it tonight (and maybe in the future) to add to this blog post too. If you care, comment on this blog and say where and when you want me to mention this on blog. I can also not mention her news blurb at all if you'd rather, but I might as well since I have this link.

Total confessional count: Lauren- 9, Ryan- 12, Desi- 5, Mike- 3, Alan- 7, Ben- 7, Ali- 9, JP- 2, Chrissy- 5, Jessica- 10, Roark- 3, Cole- 5, Joe- 9, Ashley- 7, Devon- 5.

New confessionals this episode: Devon- 2, Lauren- 2, Ryan- 1, Desi- 3, Mike- 1, Alan- 2, Ben- 2, Ali- 1, JP- 0, Chrissy- 2, Jessica- 5, Roark- 1, Cole- 2, Joe- 3, Ashley- 2.

Alan had two confessionals this episode, the same number as Chrissy, Devon, Cole, Lauren, Ben, and Ashley. The only people higher are Jessica, Joe, and Desi with Jessica as the highest with five. Everyone else was lower with JP as the lowest with no new confessionals. In terms of total confessionals, Alan had seven, the same number as Ashley and Ben. The people that are higher are Jessica, Ryan, Lauren, Joe, and Ali with everyone else lower than seven. Jessica is now in double digits, but Ryan remains the highest with twelve. The lowest is JP with just two. I can't even remember who this guy is.

Jessica was mentioned in the news again as she trusted someone more than she should have. Her parents are the people that get the main bit of interview for the news blurb and we don't get anything from her yet. The story mentioned nothing about her advantage, but I guess that they are just doing whatever short things they can do.

That's all for this blog post. We'll see what ends up happening with whatever laptop I might end up using whenever I can blog about this show. Just know that I will use something as long as I can and keep this blog updated. If the show were on hiatus, then you might get a break from updates for a while. I guess that we'll see what ends up happening. I could even use both laptops while I keep this one for this blog until the end of the season should both of them work in the future and I'm allowed to keep this one. I should know by the next post if I can use my main laptop again. I hope that I can as the copy and paste doesn't seem to work well on this other laptop. For now, this is Adam Decker, signing off.