None of that happened, so you must have had your own issues with Tom for some reason. Not sure how your imagination even concocted that nonsense to get upset about it. In the final immunity challenge that season, Ian gave up because they had lasted in an endurance challenge for many hours and he was tired, so he expressly asked Tom to NOT take himself (Ian) with him to the final 2, because Ian had a bit of a crush on Katie and wanted to salvage some sort of victory or save face out of losing.
But tonight was really a huge gut punch - Zeke’s initial reaction was just so sad and hard to watch, and I was actually really glad that so many of the others (really, all of them) got so emotionally affected. It was a really awful thing to do, and while I agree that his apology seemed sincere, only someone so self-centered and selfish could ever have done something like that in the first place - not surprising, from the guy who ruined Survivor All-stars for no reason other than his own vanity even though it should have been obvious to him that everyone would know that he wasn’t a Nostradamus (if you don’t recall the incident, he gave the exact boot order of Survivor All-Stars prior to the season even airing in a column he was writing for TV Guide at the time - and somehow deluded himself into thinking that people wouldn’t realize that and would just laud his foresight).
I’m sure CBS had the victim sign off on airing the show as they did. Could tribal have been edited just to show the reaction with the actual reveal being bleeped out? There would have been a lot of speculation, but it would have remained just that.
What are the chances of the victim riding this to a sympathy win? I happen to like the person, and think the person is a good player, but that would seem kind of cheap to me.
Interesting questions. I do think that anyone who was in attendance at that tribal, who didn’t make it to the end, might be inclined to vote for Zeke if he did. I don’t think CBS would cut that scene off entirely regardless of what Zeke thought, but I do think that they would have edited it differently if it didn’t end relatively positively.
It was actually really touching how it seemed to bring everyone together, both through empathy generally, and as an event that just seemed larger than any game – it seemed like, for instance, that there was some discussion about the impact that reveal might have on people in Zeke’s life outside of the game (parents, other relatives, etc., in particular, who may not know that aspect of Zeke) - and to have it revealed in that fashion - it could have been a really awful situation. But I really loved Zeke’s comments about how maybe a situation like that “outing” might help someone else outside the game. Zeke is a really interesting person - he played a great game last season, and had a reasonable chance to win, and he was one of my favorites going into this season too, and he still has a shot.
If he wins, I think it’ll be because he positions himself through strategic play to get to the end of the game, and not for any other reason. If he does manage to get to a jury, he might get some sympathy based upon what happened, but I think that would only really have an impact if the other persons are less sympathetic, and it wouldn’t have any impact on his ability to get to the end (in fact, it may hurt his ability to get there, as voting him out would seem like the smart thing to do to avoid any potential sympathy vote). In any event, as a die hard Survivor fan, I feel like I’ve seen everything, and that event really was both surprising and something that seemed larger than the game itself, so I’m rooting for the guy.
Apologies if I’m misusing pronouns in this situation, but choosing to keep with the gender he is identifying with on the show.
There’s also the issue that half of the players still don’t know. It will be interesting to see if this is addressed post-merge, and if not,how it affects the balance of power.
I just watched the last episode from last night and wow, that was quite a powerful tribal there. I totally agree that the reaction of the others on the tribe was great to see. What a shocking and low thing to do by Varner and how impressive Zeke was through it all. Damn.
Varner strikes me as a fundamentally decent guy who made a very bad decsion, knows it, and seems genuinely contrite. It had nothing to do with his job as a realtor, and for the company to fire him over it seems particularly dickish to me.
It is interesting how winning immunity makes you so much bolder about making your move earlier rather than later. Even though the numbers are the same, just having that immunity makes people much more likely to make bolder moves, I’ve noticed.
Anyway, since we saw what was coming as the TV audience, we can see how well timed this move was. It couldn’t have been any better timed. And the players are probably not going to realize it until they see the episode on TV months after this happened.
Maybe I wasn’t paying complete attention, but I didn’t see it coming. The Zeke thing seemed weak, and they didn’t mention any other plans. After 5 votes I figured some other plan was going through.
I meant, since we saw what Zeke’s plan was for the next vote, where he was going to make his move with Brad and Troyzan, and take out Andrea, Cerie and whatshernamefromlastseasonwhohasn’tdonemuchthisseason. Andrea just happened to strike first. They wouldn’t have known that until they saw it on TV last night.
On the bigger picture, this was all instigated by Zeke. It’s interesting that on the ground it was so bizarre and befuddling for Andrea that her best ally suddenly betrayed her. But those of us watching at home didn’t have a much better explanation either. It was just Zeke wanting to be a game changer and wanting to make a big move. I do also wonder how much his outing had to do with it too, at that Tribal by Varner. Maybe after that, Zeke felt an extra pressure to be remembered for some big move rather than be thought of as the Trans Survivor, and his best idea was to turn on his closest ally.
Only thing is, when a plan is that bold, it had better work. And here it didn’t work. And Andrea was smart to target him as soon as possible because at that point battle lines can’t really be re-drawn again.
As bright and strategic as Zeke is, and maybe because it, he just can’t help plotting too aggressively. Something mostly lost in the edit is how his scheme to knock out Cerie included Machaela who Cerie has formed such a bond with. He had a similar problem last time where he was showing too many people his moves and people realize that if they follow him he takes credit for it all.
I’ve had aspects of this season spoiled as well - some jackass printed a list of the jury members, but the only one that I really noticed enough to spoil was Ozzy (who as listed 2nd, in the correct order) – warning to other fans of the show: do NOT read the comments to any of Entertainment Weekly recaps/interviews (or even the related Dalton Ross tweets), as idiots love to insert spoilers into their responses.
Sierra didn’t follow that advice and ended up paying for it.
I love everyone’s reactions here. In classic Survivor years, Sarah would have heard the news that Michaela and Tai were voting against Andrea and felt so betrayed and hurt, and there would have been drama. Here she took in stride, went over and convinced Michaela to change her vote in a low-key but convincing way, and it was done. I love that the game is played as a game now. It’s so much better.
It does depend on the players. This season with all returning players, many who are quite good players, there more of the game in the game.
It really does appear that Sierra managed to shoot herself in the foot. It appeared that things were all set to vote out Andrea until Sierra blabbed. But the editing some times can be misleading. In wonder if that is actually how it all went down.
Very true. Even the mediocre players seem to have a more strategic impulses and a much more constructive (and healthy) mindset towards the game. So many of those classic seasons got relatively dull both early, after tribal power alliances were settled, and then especially in the immediate aftermath of the merge after the initial numbers were decided – the side with the numbers would just pick off the outside members for several weeks. In recent Survivor seasons, that hasn’t been the case - there are always opportunities to get back in the game, with shifting allegiances and players being much more conscious and concerned with being at the bottom of alliances.
That said, it’s hard to see how Sarah doesn’t win at this point, especially given the editing. And she has made at least a couple of strategic moves, even though voting out Debbie was dumb (since clearly taking Michaela and Debbie to the end with you is an auto-win). Michaela will probably get to the end for that reason too. Tai has a good shot with his 2 idols, even though he is being ridiculously passive in using them - he really just seems lucky to not have been seriously targeted, and he has made zero attempt to step up and use the idols strategically to save one of his allies and maintain his group’s numbers - he clearly could have saved Sierra, for instance.
Difficult to see how Brad isn’t out next - despite having some alpha male success at assembling groups, he doesn’t seem to be very bright in his strategic play. Troyzan will muddle through until he doesn’t - I didn’t think he was a good player the first time we saw him and didn’t understand how anyone could think otherwise, but he’s clearly been exposed as just sheep. Andrea is the opposite - she has lived up to the hype, despite me being similarly uncertain that she had it in her. Aubrey has been a bit disappointing but it seems like we’re not getting the full story of what she has been doing/thinking because of the editing - she’s been in the mix for sure, however.
But Cirie is, by far, the class of the field in strategic play. It’s a real joy to see how subtle and persuasive she is when she acts - she’s truly brilliant, and could have been a first rate litigator or negotiator if she had chosen those career paths. I’d love to see her consistently bold (and yet seemingly invisible to many of her opponents) strategic play rewarded. Nobody who has ever played has managed to be as effective in each of her 4 seasons.
Yeah, half of the story line around Zeke’s outing was Sarah’s reactions and opinions. She definitely has been getting a hero edit. That said, I think they do edit in some head fakes there from time to time in recent seasons so maybe she somehow blows this. She’s got to be the odds on favorite right now.
I think that returning players have been way less willing to bring goats along, in particular goats who they don’t think they can control. No one wants to miss out on the final 3 (?) because the goats turn on them at the end and in returning seasons like this the goats are generally able to see that they need to knock out the better players at the end. If you’ve spent 30+ days scheming and calculating every angle it has to be hard to leave it up to being able to control Debbie at the end for the last couple votes.
