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.