Outback is to a good steak what Olive Garden is to good Italian.
Based on the one time I’ve had steak there: I agree!
But the steak they were showing last night on Survivor looked really tender and juicy. With just the right amount of redness throughout the center.
They are definitely getting more nuanced in their editing. There were a couple seasons recently where I called who was voted out correctly 90+% of the time after 15 minutes just from the obvious editing. This season has been a lot better. They did tip it a bit when they cut the Chrissy line about if Joe pulled an idol they would get Jessica paired with Jessica’s “Queen Bee” comment. But there were enough other foreshadowing things that going into the end I wasn’t sure which way it would break.
Chrissy seems like a great player who is playing too front and center to last. I bet she’ll be a hell of a player her second time playing though.
Good episode. I wonder if Lauren could have used her advantage in the second round of voting.
I was sad to see who went at the end of the episode. I don’t get the logic of voting for her on the second go-around. I feel like what we were presented with in the episode wasn’t enough information. Why were they targeting her over Joe? Was she an immunity threat, maybe that’s why?
I feel like she was always under Joe’s shadow, and could finally be free to make some moves if he’d been voted out. But she never got the chance. It’s a shame.
I think that she was a huge threat to win immunity in general. I also think that the fact that they have introduced gender immunities (one male, one female individual) in some seasons make players even more likely to knock out a female immunity threat so perhaps that kind of backfired. People seemed to like her, she seemed smart, and good at immunities so I think she’s the logical one to knock out. I was bummed she’s gone but I think that she was the larger threat.
One thing always tough from the edit is that it is hard to know if she was strategically passive or if she was playing a more active strategic game and it just didn’t make the edit since she was knocked out fairly early. It does seem like she should have done more to distance herself from Joe but perhaps she did but people just wanted her gone.
I wondered that too - or at least could have just voted the 2nd time - probably not, but then again why would she have even wanted to in this case.
I was genuinely surprised they picked her over Joe, but I think it was absolutely the right decision - she was far more of a threat than Joe, who is predominantly a blowhard, while she was both liked and very dangerous in immunity challenges.
I’m starting to think Lauren has a real shot. She’s good at challenges, and everybody seems to like her. She needs to pull off a couple of strategic moves in order to make it to the end, however
Wednesday’s Episode spoilers follow.
That was a very good episode. Going into tribal council, you had two possibilities from the alliance of 7: were they going to follow Ben despite their grievances with his decree and not explaining himself? Was it going to be a vote for Cole vs Mike? Or was it going to be revolt and be a vote for Joe? And Mike had decided to insert himself into the mix by saying he was going to play the idol. Was he going to give it to Cole or Joe? Ben had told him Cole was going, but did he trust him or would he give it to Joe instead?
So yeah, going into tribal, I thought it was the best episode yet in terms of building up anticipation. I love that.
Of course, tribal itself was really confusing to me. Mike was trying to get all the votes to himself? And by doing that, didn’t he make it too obvious to everyone that he was going to play the idol for himself? But then he was going to outsmart them by playing it for Cole or Joe right? But no, he played it for himself. It was a really weird moment. And then at the end, it turns out even Joe and Mike voted for Cole. So the only possible outcome if everyone of the 7 had voted for Mike would have been that Joe and Mike’s votes for Cole would have gotten Cole out instead of Mike, which is what happened anyway? So yay, Mike’s plan worked? I’m so confused. Of course, if he had played the idol for Cole, then Mike would have been out, since he’s the only one with two votes, since him and Joe also voted for Cole, not for Ben. So given their votes, the only outcome they could have been hoping for is to get Cole out. But then, why play the idol at all?
So apparently, the tricky editting done was trickier than usual this time around.
Mike played a fake idol as well as his own real one.
Ah ok, that does make more sense now. I still think it was the smarter play to do all that, and then give the real idol to Cole, and the three of them vote for Ben. I guess Mike was just in pure survival mode, trying to make sure neither he nor Joe were voted out.
Tonight’s episode spoilers follow, as always.
Ok, so Lauren did something that I haven’t seen ever done, and that is to hand-pick three other people for a reward, and fueled no resentment or suspicion or any negative consequences. I guess players are so used to those things now as viewers, they’ve moved past it, and that turns out to be a stupid mistake.
Kudos to Lauren for engineering a new alliance at the right time.
And then kudos to Ashley in the second episode for aiming for Ben instead. Oh my god, that would have been a deliciously wicked move. I’m a little disappointed that Devon didn’t agree to that move with Ashley. Oh well. Now they can duke it out, because it looks like Ben is going to get wind of that next episode, judging by the previews.
Overall a good double episode. I still find myself rooting for Chrissey, but I don’t see too many paths for her to the end now. But it’s still possible. We shall see. I’m just glad that they picked JP for that first boot, even though it was the perfect time to get Ryan and his idol out. But hey, keeping Ryan and Chrissey in the game and getting rid of JP was great for the viewers of the show, since absolutely no one except JP’s family at home had to be rooting for that guy.
That was a very well executed surprise move. She took full advantage of her reward victory to take the initiative. I didn’t think Lauren was going to make it this far because she didn’t look like she was really connecting with others but she’s managed to survive.
Was that Ashley that initiated that line of thought? My (sometime faulty) memory has Lauren starting that conversation. Regardless, I agree it was a lost opportunity to take out a strong contender to win the game. Ben was already pretending to be one of the two likely targets so any whispers of him being voted out would have been expected by him.
I’m also enjoying Devon presenting a Ted “Theodore” Logan slacker facade to the rest of the players. He’s more aware and more involved in the strategizing than he lets on to the others.
True. And he’s been pretty involved since the beginning. The downside of that strategy is if he makes it to the end, he might be treated like Amanda was treated, where no one believed that she could be mastermind behind anything, even though she was. Sometimes the facade you put up keeps you safe but bites you in the end. But she had the fact that she was a woman working against her too, the additional sexist factor, and Devon doesn’t have that. People are more likely to believe him in a final tribal.
Devon reminds me of Brandon Lee, but I love that Keanu role too!
Yeah, Lauren was shown as talking to Ashley first, but it’s also impossible to know when things happened with the editing. That could have happened 5 days ago (game time) or in 5 days. I think that they were very wise to take out Joe instead of Ben right now. Joe/Mike had become too tight and swing votes. If they knocked Ben out then the three of them would be very vulnerable to a Joe and Mike flipping back to Crissy/Ryan because that is their path to actually winning the game (taking Ryan with them). If they are smart they also split the Crissy/Ryan group next episode. You just can’t leave weaker game ‘couples’ in play at the end.
I agree with you on the sexist factor, and also in recent seasons it seems like the jury is far more likely to have people advocate for the behind the scenes puppet masters instead of pouting about being betrayed. If Devon makes it to the end then whichever of Lauren, Ben, and Ashley who don’t make it will likely be strong advocates for his game play.
It’s interesting in the edit how much they are showing Devon as the ring leader.
I don’t remember them ever having a challenge that was 100% luck-driven like this one. Have they?
Normally I loathe the “loved ones” episodes, but this was pretty good.
Yeah, when he said this was another brand new never-before-seen Survivor challenge, and that they’d be pairing up with loved ones to see how in sync they are with each other, I wasn’t imagining that they’d just be drawing black and white rocks blindly out of a bag. That has to take the record for the lamest survivor challenge ever.
Now, if I get over it and just take their framing at their word, then I guess the winner was pretty in sync with her husband. That was impressive. I wonder how those two stay so in sync with each other like that?
So, what would have happened at the end if she hadn’t foolishly given away her idol? If they’d both played their idols? They would have to vote again, but this time couldn’t vote for either of the two? Would Lauren and Ben still be able to vote in the re-vote?
Intersting, as I hated the game/challenge with the loved ones. This 100% total change was totally lame. I personally like those that make the loved one get really gross/dirty (like eating gross foods)
I couldn’t get over the amount of bad game play by Lauren. Breaking up her idol was nuts. She had 2 advantages that everyone knew about (thanks to Ben) And instead of utilizing it to save her but, she tries to side with the other side putting herself at risk. Just crazy.
Ben is a scary threat, the fact that his Idol is gone now, as well as Lauren’s advantage weakens his game.
I’m happy to see the game kicking in to high gear finally!