Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Survivor: Gabon - Episode 1706
Belated Redux!
Obviously, Dr. H already gave a quick synopsis, but I wanted to add some quick thoughts. Forgive my tardiness.
- While Matty was fashioning the ring to remind him of his girlfriend, my thought process:
- I wonder if she's watching this with him right now?
- Did being away in a remote location for ~3 weeks convince him that she is the one and only girl for him, causing him to give her a ring after he got home?
- I wonder if she slept with his roommate while he was in Gabon?
- The flag assembly portion of the Immunity Challenge was perfectly symbolic of the Kota-Fang divide. For Fang, Ace is the only Survivor who touches the puzzle pieces, whereas everyone at Kota is helping out! Gotta love how JProbst calls them out on that even during the challenge!
- Speaking of Jeff, I wish he would narrate my life, constantly dispensing sage advice just like at Tribal Council. I can just see him standing beside my poster presentation at a conference, wryly observing "Corinne obviously did not believe that last piece of data!"
- Is Sugar playing the game smartly or not? I cannot tell whatsoever.
- Is it pronounced Gah-bone or Gah-bahn? I thought the former, but the CBS voiceover before the episode says the latter.
- In the intro, this season's montage only shows the remaining Survivors. In past seasons, haven't they always shown everyone? If there is anyone who remember a detail like this, it is AH.
CORRIGENDUM:
Spell Check:Right: 5
Wrong: 1 (Kelli - by Ace. Though to be fair, he can't even speak right - how can we expect him to spell?)
Other: 0
If AH disagrees, this is his chance to throw the red flag and we'll let Ed Hochuli review the tape.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Survivor: Gabon - Episode 1705
Wow, GC really has joined pantheon of the worst survivors ever. I'm talking Osten and Janu territory, maybe even Rafe or Lil (she made the finals but did she really do anything to deserve it? and she essentially got voted out twice). GC is described as a "maintenance supervisor" but does he really supervise anyone? What a terrible manager he would make with no seeming motivation of his own. How does this guy get onto Survivor in the first place. He never really had any energy after he trucked it up the hill to win the first individual immunity challenge.
The other highlight of this show seemed to be the nature highlights. I thought that the elephant was awesome and it shows you how much they are out there this season. Normally we see all wild animals only in cut scenes and they're just edited together to make it look more wild than it actually is. This was the real deal - everyone was just rapt with complete attention to that elephant. Then Kota found an electric fish, which I didn't know existed. I was sort of waiting for Bob to rig up a lamp so that they'd have more light at nighttime.
Reward Challenge
The reward for the challenge was an herb garden? Pretty interesting but would probably not be as great for Fang considering they should run out of rice in about 2 days. Even if they had won that first challenge the rice and beans would only have lasted another couple of days. I think that Ace was a good man on the club but Crystal and Charlie are really not people that we should recruit for Imperial Palace - they can't hit as well as Avocado. To continue the IP analogy, Randy sliding in to catch that fruit reminds me of Nick in the outfield.
I was trying to think of a good strategy for this challenge and really throwing more than one piece of fruit at the same time is the way to go. There were multiple people who were available to catch it. The other possibility was just to take an apple and peg the club man in the throat and then throw your fruit through at your leisure. Ace took care of that himself.
Immunity Challenge
I did think originally that this could be more luck that skill, especially in terms of the throwers. The hill was very steep at the beginning so the only real choice was to pick good blockers. Sugar was a really bad choice for this since she seems pretty soft-spoken and you really need a loud mouth up there (like Eliza). This was proven when Randy yells out "Freeze Ace" at the end, a crafty play by Randy. He doesn't like to play fair between this and his cherry picking last week. This was like Survivor Plinko, but really not one of the most compelling challenges.
Strategy Analysis
Looking at this I totally figured that GC should go home since he was totally under performing. Of course you can pretty much get rid of him whenever you want. I thought that Fang hit on the solution by talking about voting out Sugar. She's really not great in challenges and you can flush out the immunity idol at this point in the game. It's a given that she had it even if they hadn't looked in her bag. No one goes to Exile for 9 days and gives up after reading 2 clues unless maybe it was Janu who didn't look in the first place. Also, how does Sugar not hide the idol somewhere around camp? That's crazy. I don't think that you should be allowed to go through people's things, but if that's allowed you have to hide important things like that.
This does highlight where Survivor departs from pure strategy. As a viewer at home we can recognize that GC is a real drag and doesn't help out. But we don't have to deal with him all the time like they do at camp. Frequently they depart from pure strategy due to personality conflicts. This is one of those cases.
My prediction: GC. He's done but the smart money is on Sugar
Season total (1/2)
Spell Check:
Right: 5 (GC is pretty easy to spell)
Wrong: 0
Other: 2 (G Size, and G-$izzle)
Quick hit thoughts
The other highlight of this show seemed to be the nature highlights. I thought that the elephant was awesome and it shows you how much they are out there this season. Normally we see all wild animals only in cut scenes and they're just edited together to make it look more wild than it actually is. This was the real deal - everyone was just rapt with complete attention to that elephant. Then Kota found an electric fish, which I didn't know existed. I was sort of waiting for Bob to rig up a lamp so that they'd have more light at nighttime.
Reward Challenge
The reward for the challenge was an herb garden? Pretty interesting but would probably not be as great for Fang considering they should run out of rice in about 2 days. Even if they had won that first challenge the rice and beans would only have lasted another couple of days. I think that Ace was a good man on the club but Crystal and Charlie are really not people that we should recruit for Imperial Palace - they can't hit as well as Avocado. To continue the IP analogy, Randy sliding in to catch that fruit reminds me of Nick in the outfield.
I was trying to think of a good strategy for this challenge and really throwing more than one piece of fruit at the same time is the way to go. There were multiple people who were available to catch it. The other possibility was just to take an apple and peg the club man in the throat and then throw your fruit through at your leisure. Ace took care of that himself.
Immunity Challenge
I did think originally that this could be more luck that skill, especially in terms of the throwers. The hill was very steep at the beginning so the only real choice was to pick good blockers. Sugar was a really bad choice for this since she seems pretty soft-spoken and you really need a loud mouth up there (like Eliza). This was proven when Randy yells out "Freeze Ace" at the end, a crafty play by Randy. He doesn't like to play fair between this and his cherry picking last week. This was like Survivor Plinko, but really not one of the most compelling challenges.
Strategy Analysis
Looking at this I totally figured that GC should go home since he was totally under performing. Of course you can pretty much get rid of him whenever you want. I thought that Fang hit on the solution by talking about voting out Sugar. She's really not great in challenges and you can flush out the immunity idol at this point in the game. It's a given that she had it even if they hadn't looked in her bag. No one goes to Exile for 9 days and gives up after reading 2 clues unless maybe it was Janu who didn't look in the first place. Also, how does Sugar not hide the idol somewhere around camp? That's crazy. I don't think that you should be allowed to go through people's things, but if that's allowed you have to hide important things like that.
This does highlight where Survivor departs from pure strategy. As a viewer at home we can recognize that GC is a real drag and doesn't help out. But we don't have to deal with him all the time like they do at camp. Frequently they depart from pure strategy due to personality conflicts. This is one of those cases.
My prediction: GC. He's done but the smart money is on Sugar
Season total (1/2)
Spell Check:
Right: 5 (GC is pretty easy to spell)
Wrong: 0
Other: 2 (G Size, and G-$izzle)
Quick hit thoughts
- How does Ace claim that Sugar hasn't eaten in 3 days. Clearly they can't let exiles not eat for that long
- What would happen if GC misses the challenge? That would be good TV
- Is Sugar really as much of a pawn as she seems? She better not give Ace the idol
- Are Kenny, Crystal, GC the worst alliance ever? They remind me of when Shane and Courtney formed an alliance in Panama but completely hated each other.
Labels: Survivor
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Survivor Gabon: 1704
Ah another shakeup from the producers of Survivor. Picking teams again really was the highlight of this episode. After their first shot at picking teams, would the players really have learned anything? Sometimes you do get a second chance.
Let's just get into the ranking and picking of the teams shall we?
Here's how the tribes ranked their own teams from top to bottom:
Fang: Matty, Dan, Randy, Crystal, Ken, GC, Susie
Kota: Marcus, Ace, Bob, Charlie, Jacquie, Corinne, Sugar, Kelly
Here's how I would have ranked the tribes:
Fang: Matty, Crystal, Randy, Dan, Ken, Susie, GC
Kota: Marcus, Bob, Jacquie, Corinne, Ace, Charlie, Kelly, Sugar
Clearly Marcus and Matty are top of the heap. I think that Crystal is a real competitor and she's going to get stronger as the season goes on. Is Randy the only one on Fang who realizes they'll run out of rice? Last episode when they said they threw some away on the first days that was awful. GC really sucks at this show. He's terrible with people and doesn't even try in the challenges. At the beginning I was for him just because he was named GC. He should be renamed Raman, a more useless analytical technique.
Bob is definitely a hard worker and I think he should be right up there after Marcus. It's hard to tell since he's not a physical threat though. Jacquie and Corinne both seem pretty solid. I moved Ace down since he's such a polarizing figure and hadn't been quite as physical in the past.
They got back down to picking teams. Here's how I thought they would have picked them. It's important to note here that I did not allow for the players to discuss with each other in my decisions, they would have been independent.
Kota: Marcus, Dan, Jacquie, Randy, Corinne, Ken, Bob
Fang: Matty, Ace, Crystal, Charlie, GC, Kelly, Susie
Here's the actual order:
Kota: Marcus, Dan, Charlie, Randy, Corinne, Susie, Bob
Fang: Matty, Ace, Crystal, Jacquie, Ken, Kelly, GC
I was actually pretty close. The most striking thing here is that Bob slides so far down. I think the main reason for this is that you are always being picked by someone from the opposite team and so they just see him in challenges where he's not at his best. They haven't seen how hard he works around the camp. I'm surprised that no one stepped up from the original Kota tribe to say that he was necessary. I think that Ken made perhaps the best decision when he chose Kelly. The biggest worry is that the other tribe is very strong. Since Ace told him not to pick Kelly, that was a great selection since they probably don't get along. Puts Ken in a position to pick sides and come out on top.
Sugar is definitely one of the weaker players and so she ends up at Exile again. Two things, why is is still called Exile Island since it's not an island and how easy was it to find that damned idol last time? What a waste. Should definitely be a little tougher. Lucky Dan was an idiot before and hardly made a dent. Good to see Sugar choose comfort. Could overthink that and wonder if they just hid another idol out there. They seem to be giving them away for free now
Immunity Challenge
At the challenge Marcus was really the star of the show. It's like he was born to do that. I wonder how Kelly from Season 1 would have done as a river guide. Those rafts didn't seem to be super-easy to control. Randy was really cherry picking but did end up with three goals. Since Marcus was so good that didn't seem like a bad move. I guess it would have been too complicated to incorporate an offsides rule. So many of the people were completely useless: Crystal, Kelly, Ken (although only Ken got called out). I'm not sure GC was even in that challenge. After Randy's third goal I was hoping that Probst would throw his hat into the water - didn't happen.
Strategy Analysis
After Fang was destroyed they had to vote someone out. It's amazing but the power bloc was GC, Crystal, and Ken who are able to pick up Kelly. They can't have a whole lot of faith in her. When GC says you have a bad attitude you know you're in trouble. This alliance is not really in a good place. If they vote Kelly out they lose the numbers, but if they keep Kelly they'll continue to underperform at the challenges. It was nice to see Jacquie fighting to stay around and actually tell people why she wants and deserves to stay. At the same time at Tribal I don't know that it was a good idea for Kelly to call out Crystal and Kenny for the challenge when she's supposedly in their alliance.
My Prediction: Kelly. I thought they'd be swayed by wanting to win and get rid of Kelly who was negative and not physically as useful. (0/1)
Spell Check: I am always amazed at how bad the Survivors are at spelling each others names and want to keep a running tally of right vs. wrong
Right: 1 (Kelly)
Wrong: 6 (Kelli, Jackie 4, Jacky)
Season Avg: 0.143
Quick hit thoughts:
Let's just get into the ranking and picking of the teams shall we?
Here's how the tribes ranked their own teams from top to bottom:
Fang: Matty, Dan, Randy, Crystal, Ken, GC, Susie
Kota: Marcus, Ace, Bob, Charlie, Jacquie, Corinne, Sugar, Kelly
Here's how I would have ranked the tribes:
Fang: Matty, Crystal, Randy, Dan, Ken, Susie, GC
Kota: Marcus, Bob, Jacquie, Corinne, Ace, Charlie, Kelly, Sugar
Clearly Marcus and Matty are top of the heap. I think that Crystal is a real competitor and she's going to get stronger as the season goes on. Is Randy the only one on Fang who realizes they'll run out of rice? Last episode when they said they threw some away on the first days that was awful. GC really sucks at this show. He's terrible with people and doesn't even try in the challenges. At the beginning I was for him just because he was named GC. He should be renamed Raman, a more useless analytical technique.
Bob is definitely a hard worker and I think he should be right up there after Marcus. It's hard to tell since he's not a physical threat though. Jacquie and Corinne both seem pretty solid. I moved Ace down since he's such a polarizing figure and hadn't been quite as physical in the past.
They got back down to picking teams. Here's how I thought they would have picked them. It's important to note here that I did not allow for the players to discuss with each other in my decisions, they would have been independent.
Kota: Marcus, Dan, Jacquie, Randy, Corinne, Ken, Bob
Fang: Matty, Ace, Crystal, Charlie, GC, Kelly, Susie
Here's the actual order:
Kota: Marcus, Dan, Charlie, Randy, Corinne, Susie, Bob
Fang: Matty, Ace, Crystal, Jacquie, Ken, Kelly, GC
I was actually pretty close. The most striking thing here is that Bob slides so far down. I think the main reason for this is that you are always being picked by someone from the opposite team and so they just see him in challenges where he's not at his best. They haven't seen how hard he works around the camp. I'm surprised that no one stepped up from the original Kota tribe to say that he was necessary. I think that Ken made perhaps the best decision when he chose Kelly. The biggest worry is that the other tribe is very strong. Since Ace told him not to pick Kelly, that was a great selection since they probably don't get along. Puts Ken in a position to pick sides and come out on top.
Sugar is definitely one of the weaker players and so she ends up at Exile again. Two things, why is is still called Exile Island since it's not an island and how easy was it to find that damned idol last time? What a waste. Should definitely be a little tougher. Lucky Dan was an idiot before and hardly made a dent. Good to see Sugar choose comfort. Could overthink that and wonder if they just hid another idol out there. They seem to be giving them away for free now
Immunity Challenge
At the challenge Marcus was really the star of the show. It's like he was born to do that. I wonder how Kelly from Season 1 would have done as a river guide. Those rafts didn't seem to be super-easy to control. Randy was really cherry picking but did end up with three goals. Since Marcus was so good that didn't seem like a bad move. I guess it would have been too complicated to incorporate an offsides rule. So many of the people were completely useless: Crystal, Kelly, Ken (although only Ken got called out). I'm not sure GC was even in that challenge. After Randy's third goal I was hoping that Probst would throw his hat into the water - didn't happen.
Strategy Analysis
After Fang was destroyed they had to vote someone out. It's amazing but the power bloc was GC, Crystal, and Ken who are able to pick up Kelly. They can't have a whole lot of faith in her. When GC says you have a bad attitude you know you're in trouble. This alliance is not really in a good place. If they vote Kelly out they lose the numbers, but if they keep Kelly they'll continue to underperform at the challenges. It was nice to see Jacquie fighting to stay around and actually tell people why she wants and deserves to stay. At the same time at Tribal I don't know that it was a good idea for Kelly to call out Crystal and Kenny for the challenge when she's supposedly in their alliance.
My Prediction: Kelly. I thought they'd be swayed by wanting to win and get rid of Kelly who was negative and not physically as useful. (0/1)
Spell Check: I am always amazed at how bad the Survivors are at spelling each others names and want to keep a running tally of right vs. wrong
Right: 1 (Kelly)
Wrong: 6 (Kelli, Jackie 4, Jacky)
Season Avg: 0.143
Quick hit thoughts:
- Charlie really does love Marcus
- GC is totally negative and a quitter
- Dan is not smart. When they get the gear for the challenge he asked "Is that a ball? Ohhh"
Labels: Survivor
Survivor Commentary
I've decided to start posting to the blog my analysis and commentary on each week's episode of Survivor. A secondary goal for this is probably to become rich and famous. The main goal is to provide a forum for us to discuss the week's episode even though we're spread out geographically.
Please comment freely with any of your thoughts as well, I'm looking forward to seeing some of them.
Please comment freely with any of your thoughts as well, I'm looking forward to seeing some of them.
Labels: Survivor
