Sunday, April 26, 2009
Survivor: Tocantins - 1809
Great episode. After last week's I thought that this week would be a bit of a letdown. Especially once Sierra lost the Immunity challenge I didn't think that she'd have anything left in the tank. I didn't believe that the rest of the tribe would go for a major game changer. Boy, was I wrong.
Another question I had during this one was "why does everyone hate Sierra so much?" Tyson was really mean to her but one person could just have an irrational hatred of someone. When JT and Stephen were talking about how much she needs to go and JT said she's a "lying bitch" I just didn't see that at all. Another example of the show getting cut so that the audience doesn't really understand the characters.
Reward Challenge
Coach gets very excited about Capoeira. That's not really a surprise to anyone is it? Works really well with his whole Steven Seagal thing. Of course he's going to have to start winning some of the challenges. The challenge was interesting but not too compelling to watch. I was glad to see Debbie trying to spell out words that might be in the anagram that they were doing as a method to solve it faster. I'm surprised that they don't do that more often.
I liked JT sending Stephen to Exile again just in case there would be another immunity idol. That's the kind of forward thinking that doesn't come up every time. Even with so much time to think about it, people tend to not consider all of the angles
The reward looked pretty cool. As they showed stuffing yourself full and then trying to do martial arts dance is a bad idea. After going to Dim Sum it's hard enough to try and lay on the couch.
Immunity Challenge
I love the choice of food vs immunity. People always make decisions that are questionable. I was surprised to see Coach go for the food and shocked to see JT go for the food. Stephen not so much. It shows you who is comfortable, but the warriors went for the food. Does Coach think that the samurai would sit out the battle for some extra tonkatsu? And then it also builds up tension within alliances as people like Tyson feel they have to support the whole team's chances in the challenge while the other people are rewarded.
The rain looks like it made that challenge significantly harder. Now there were lakes and rivers on the map to match the highlands that were on there as well. The rain also looked completely miserable, how cold was it? People were shivering like nothing else.
The drama was great too. Sierra with the second to last chance rocked it right down there and it looked like she was going to mix it up with a win. Then Debbie snatches it away. Super exciting. The minute that Sierra lost I thought to myself, well there goes all the chance for excitement in this episode.
Strategy Analysis
Major strategy move in this episode. JT and Stephen pretty much decided to take out Tyson instead of Sierra and slay the dragon that is the "Warrior Alliance" Coach was not pleased with that move. I can't wait to see what happens next week when they get back to camp.
Sierra did a great job of really laying it all out there and trying to stick in the game. Too often it seems like people get deflated when they know they are going and just accept their fate. Much like Coach was suggesting to Sierra. When you keep gaming you never know what might happen and that saved Sierra this week for sure.
Jeff really got on Coach about taking out Brendan and seemingly going against his ethic of taking the strongest people to the end with him. Pretty much the same question that I had been asking. While Coach was blabbering on about Brendan picking a fight with him it became clear to me. Coach was still bitter that Timbira thought that Brendan would be a better leader than Coach. It was all about that. In Coach's mind, he had to defeat Brendan to show that he makes a better leader, even though those two questions are actually pretty much unrelated.
My Prediction
Sierra. Her time had come. Oh snap! Tyson. The season of blindsides continues!
Season total: 3-6 (.333)
Spell Check
Right: 7
Wrong: 1 (Siearra)
Other: 0
Season total: 45-11-2 (.804)
Quick hit thoughts
Another question I had during this one was "why does everyone hate Sierra so much?" Tyson was really mean to her but one person could just have an irrational hatred of someone. When JT and Stephen were talking about how much she needs to go and JT said she's a "lying bitch" I just didn't see that at all. Another example of the show getting cut so that the audience doesn't really understand the characters.
Reward Challenge
Coach gets very excited about Capoeira. That's not really a surprise to anyone is it? Works really well with his whole Steven Seagal thing. Of course he's going to have to start winning some of the challenges. The challenge was interesting but not too compelling to watch. I was glad to see Debbie trying to spell out words that might be in the anagram that they were doing as a method to solve it faster. I'm surprised that they don't do that more often.
I liked JT sending Stephen to Exile again just in case there would be another immunity idol. That's the kind of forward thinking that doesn't come up every time. Even with so much time to think about it, people tend to not consider all of the angles
The reward looked pretty cool. As they showed stuffing yourself full and then trying to do martial arts dance is a bad idea. After going to Dim Sum it's hard enough to try and lay on the couch.
Immunity Challenge
I love the choice of food vs immunity. People always make decisions that are questionable. I was surprised to see Coach go for the food and shocked to see JT go for the food. Stephen not so much. It shows you who is comfortable, but the warriors went for the food. Does Coach think that the samurai would sit out the battle for some extra tonkatsu? And then it also builds up tension within alliances as people like Tyson feel they have to support the whole team's chances in the challenge while the other people are rewarded.
The rain looks like it made that challenge significantly harder. Now there were lakes and rivers on the map to match the highlands that were on there as well. The rain also looked completely miserable, how cold was it? People were shivering like nothing else.
The drama was great too. Sierra with the second to last chance rocked it right down there and it looked like she was going to mix it up with a win. Then Debbie snatches it away. Super exciting. The minute that Sierra lost I thought to myself, well there goes all the chance for excitement in this episode.
Strategy Analysis
Major strategy move in this episode. JT and Stephen pretty much decided to take out Tyson instead of Sierra and slay the dragon that is the "Warrior Alliance" Coach was not pleased with that move. I can't wait to see what happens next week when they get back to camp.
Sierra did a great job of really laying it all out there and trying to stick in the game. Too often it seems like people get deflated when they know they are going and just accept their fate. Much like Coach was suggesting to Sierra. When you keep gaming you never know what might happen and that saved Sierra this week for sure.
Jeff really got on Coach about taking out Brendan and seemingly going against his ethic of taking the strongest people to the end with him. Pretty much the same question that I had been asking. While Coach was blabbering on about Brendan picking a fight with him it became clear to me. Coach was still bitter that Timbira thought that Brendan would be a better leader than Coach. It was all about that. In Coach's mind, he had to defeat Brendan to show that he makes a better leader, even though those two questions are actually pretty much unrelated.
My Prediction
Sierra. Her time had come. Oh snap! Tyson. The season of blindsides continues!
Season total: 3-6 (.333)
Spell Check
Right: 7
Wrong: 1 (Siearra)
Other: 0
Season total: 45-11-2 (.804)
Quick hit thoughts
- Tyson's comments on Sierra were over the top. What was with "I can't imagine her boyfriend is that cool"
- No new idol, another departure from the past
- The Capoeira was actually pretty cool
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Survivor: Tocantins - 1808
This episode was clearly going to come down to one big blindside or another. Brendan just didn't see it coming at all. I thought that he would be a little more savvy, but his trust in his alliance was just too much.
Reward Challenge
Coach was very excited about the possibility of winning a rafting trip. Don't get me wrong, I think that it would be totally awesome, but he seemed more excited about rafting than the chance of winning the whole game. Sierra on the other hand was very excited about brownies.
Going into watching the challenge I didn't think that the teams were stacked up and I didn't give Stephen, Sierra and Erinn even an outside chance. I guess that I forgot this was an attack challenge not a defense challenge and they had many chances to just stick around if they're not considered a threat. They didn't pull it off but that was pretty good. I wonder if there was a rule against throwing the balls overhand, that would have been a lot easier.
I was hoping that they'd send Coach to Exile but that would have been too great. I was also wondering if there was going to be another idol put into the game post-merge, but that just didn't happen. Stephen's trip to Exile was reminiscent of Janu's revelation when she was sent to Exile. Of course Stephen didn't come back and immediately let Jeff talk him into quitting the game. And that is why Stephen is not one of my least favorite Survivor contestants ever.
Immunity Challenge
The challenge was pretty cool, but there's not much to say about it. Not really any strategy but it was fun to see people literally tie themselves in knots as they tried to get through the course quickly. Brendan looked like he had it sewn up and blew it at the end, that really is going to cost him dearly.
Strategy Analysis
This is where last week's positioning really paid off. It came down to whether Brendan or Coach/Tyson would hold the day. It really all came down to JT, Taj, and Stephen and how they wanted to play it.
Brendan's whole philosophy of an outcome he was happy with in the game really confuses me. So if I get this right: If Brendan wins Survivor, Brendan wins. If JT wins Survivor, Brendan wins (but also loses). It sounded to me like Brendan was afraid of losing and so cooked up this idea in his head so that when he lost the game it was okay as long as someone else had a chance. I call that a cop out for sure.
I've said it before but Coach's philosophy of surrounding himself with warriors doesn't really jive with his desire to slay the dragon. I mean if he's the dragon don't you think that Brendan is a better competitor than say Sierra, or Erinn. I don't really agree with Coach's philosophy in the first place. I think that if the goal is to win the game then you should surround yourself with people that you can beat.
My Prediction
Sierra via Brendan. I went out on a limb with this one thinking that Brendan would use the idol. His problem, my loss. Really a good chance, they might not get another chance to take out his immunity idol.
Season total: 3-5 (.375)
Spell Check
Right: 8
Wrong: 1 (Brendon)
Other: 0
Season total: 38-10-2 (.792)
Quick hit thoughts
Reward Challenge
Coach was very excited about the possibility of winning a rafting trip. Don't get me wrong, I think that it would be totally awesome, but he seemed more excited about rafting than the chance of winning the whole game. Sierra on the other hand was very excited about brownies.
Going into watching the challenge I didn't think that the teams were stacked up and I didn't give Stephen, Sierra and Erinn even an outside chance. I guess that I forgot this was an attack challenge not a defense challenge and they had many chances to just stick around if they're not considered a threat. They didn't pull it off but that was pretty good. I wonder if there was a rule against throwing the balls overhand, that would have been a lot easier.
I was hoping that they'd send Coach to Exile but that would have been too great. I was also wondering if there was going to be another idol put into the game post-merge, but that just didn't happen. Stephen's trip to Exile was reminiscent of Janu's revelation when she was sent to Exile. Of course Stephen didn't come back and immediately let Jeff talk him into quitting the game. And that is why Stephen is not one of my least favorite Survivor contestants ever.
Immunity Challenge
The challenge was pretty cool, but there's not much to say about it. Not really any strategy but it was fun to see people literally tie themselves in knots as they tried to get through the course quickly. Brendan looked like he had it sewn up and blew it at the end, that really is going to cost him dearly.
Strategy Analysis
This is where last week's positioning really paid off. It came down to whether Brendan or Coach/Tyson would hold the day. It really all came down to JT, Taj, and Stephen and how they wanted to play it.
Brendan's whole philosophy of an outcome he was happy with in the game really confuses me. So if I get this right: If Brendan wins Survivor, Brendan wins. If JT wins Survivor, Brendan wins (but also loses). It sounded to me like Brendan was afraid of losing and so cooked up this idea in his head so that when he lost the game it was okay as long as someone else had a chance. I call that a cop out for sure.
I've said it before but Coach's philosophy of surrounding himself with warriors doesn't really jive with his desire to slay the dragon. I mean if he's the dragon don't you think that Brendan is a better competitor than say Sierra, or Erinn. I don't really agree with Coach's philosophy in the first place. I think that if the goal is to win the game then you should surround yourself with people that you can beat.
My Prediction
Sierra via Brendan. I went out on a limb with this one thinking that Brendan would use the idol. His problem, my loss. Really a good chance, they might not get another chance to take out his immunity idol.
Season total: 3-5 (.375)
Spell Check
Right: 8
Wrong: 1 (Brendon)
Other: 0
Season total: 38-10-2 (.792)
Quick hit thoughts
- Erinn's in a pretty good place in this game. If you can make it all the way through with no allies you start to become a swing vote as they line up 2-2 against each other. Win a lucky challenge and you're in the finals. Not bad for a cancer.
- Coach was attacked by Amazonian pygmies? I'm not the only one who found that a little bit outlandish.
- Brendan didn't give anything away saying he had the idol. Everyone already knew it
Monday, April 13, 2009
Survivor: Tocantins - 1807
What an unsatisfying episode of Survivor. Just when you get into it and are ready for the merge. Joe has to get taken out of the game and all of the scheming is for naught.
Feast
At least it really was time for the merge. It would have been interesting to see Timbira play out a little bit more since they were certainly the more interesting of the two tribes but I'm eager to see what the strategies are post-merge this time.
Man I'm glad that they didn't pick the name Dingus. Although I did learn the other day that in Poland and some parts of the US Midwest Easter Monday may be called Dingus day. Who knew that one? Forza sounds like the name of a soccer team that Coach just brought up so that you'd remember he is a coach of something.
It was interesting to see the two tribes try to probe each other for information. Sierra really just laid it out there when she asked them to explain the last two votes, since they didn't understand it. That I'm sure caused a bit of an awkward moment at the celebratory feast.
Immunity Challenge
I really like the individual challenges where it's all about how much you want it. This really wasn't one of those. I think that there was too much strength and balance involved vs some of the others where it's just holding your hand up. This was still better than just digging around in the dirt for some puzzle pieces or something.
Wearing no shoes was really the way to go for this one. Unless you had worn climbing shoes out there, sneakers just didn't allow for enough grip on the grooves in that pole to be useful. Tyson showed us that since his barefoot technique got him the win. I didn't really like Coach jumping down off the pole, that usually gets punished but not tonight. Of course, jumping off looked like a smarter move after Sierra got 1000 splinters sliding straight down the whole length of her pole.
Strategy Analysis
The strategy in this one was all over the place and I was pretty excited to see how it was all going to work out. It's really hard for me to keep things straight right now but I'm trying (more than we can say for Erinn). Timbira really is running the show. If they decided to play it straight they could just get down to 6, that's the beauty of going in with numbers.
The Brendan, Stephen, Taj, Sierra alliance looks like it could be on the ropes. That's basically Brendan's fault since he's determined to have no contact with the other members of his alliance, which is causing them to wonder whether they're really in an alliance any more. I see how he wants to lay low, but it really wouldn't be out of place for him to have a conversation with Taj or Stephen since they are part of a new tribe. You've got to get out there and work it with everyone so they don't know who you're actually tight with.
Coach welcomed JT with open arms. That's sort of strange since he's from the other tribe and they're outnumbered. Doesn't Coach think that JT just wants to split up the Timbira vote at all? And for all Coach's talk about wanting to go up against the best gamers in the finals how is he getting rid of Brendan before Erinn?
Splitting the vote is a pretty good strategy here. If you're really worried about the immunity idol coming out just put it down 4-3-2 and it doesn't matter what the 2 say. The key is making sure that you can coordinate that many people without everyone finding out about it.
Just as I was getting pumped to see what was going to happen it was clear that Joe was gone and there would be no tribal this week. What a let down! Now the whole plan may have to change and there are 3 more days out there. Hopefully this will end up as a positive but I'm not convinced yet.
My Prediction
Joe. It's cheap but I'll take it. I did write in my notes at the beginning that Joe's leg really wasn't looking so good.
Season total: 3-4 (.429)
Spell Check
No spelling this week.
Season total: 30-9-2 (.769)
Quick hit thoughts
Feast
At least it really was time for the merge. It would have been interesting to see Timbira play out a little bit more since they were certainly the more interesting of the two tribes but I'm eager to see what the strategies are post-merge this time.
Man I'm glad that they didn't pick the name Dingus. Although I did learn the other day that in Poland and some parts of the US Midwest Easter Monday may be called Dingus day. Who knew that one? Forza sounds like the name of a soccer team that Coach just brought up so that you'd remember he is a coach of something.
It was interesting to see the two tribes try to probe each other for information. Sierra really just laid it out there when she asked them to explain the last two votes, since they didn't understand it. That I'm sure caused a bit of an awkward moment at the celebratory feast.
Immunity Challenge
I really like the individual challenges where it's all about how much you want it. This really wasn't one of those. I think that there was too much strength and balance involved vs some of the others where it's just holding your hand up. This was still better than just digging around in the dirt for some puzzle pieces or something.
Wearing no shoes was really the way to go for this one. Unless you had worn climbing shoes out there, sneakers just didn't allow for enough grip on the grooves in that pole to be useful. Tyson showed us that since his barefoot technique got him the win. I didn't really like Coach jumping down off the pole, that usually gets punished but not tonight. Of course, jumping off looked like a smarter move after Sierra got 1000 splinters sliding straight down the whole length of her pole.
Strategy Analysis
The strategy in this one was all over the place and I was pretty excited to see how it was all going to work out. It's really hard for me to keep things straight right now but I'm trying (more than we can say for Erinn). Timbira really is running the show. If they decided to play it straight they could just get down to 6, that's the beauty of going in with numbers.
The Brendan, Stephen, Taj, Sierra alliance looks like it could be on the ropes. That's basically Brendan's fault since he's determined to have no contact with the other members of his alliance, which is causing them to wonder whether they're really in an alliance any more. I see how he wants to lay low, but it really wouldn't be out of place for him to have a conversation with Taj or Stephen since they are part of a new tribe. You've got to get out there and work it with everyone so they don't know who you're actually tight with.
Coach welcomed JT with open arms. That's sort of strange since he's from the other tribe and they're outnumbered. Doesn't Coach think that JT just wants to split up the Timbira vote at all? And for all Coach's talk about wanting to go up against the best gamers in the finals how is he getting rid of Brendan before Erinn?
Splitting the vote is a pretty good strategy here. If you're really worried about the immunity idol coming out just put it down 4-3-2 and it doesn't matter what the 2 say. The key is making sure that you can coordinate that many people without everyone finding out about it.
Just as I was getting pumped to see what was going to happen it was clear that Joe was gone and there would be no tribal this week. What a let down! Now the whole plan may have to change and there are 3 more days out there. Hopefully this will end up as a positive but I'm not convinced yet.
My Prediction
Joe. It's cheap but I'll take it. I did write in my notes at the beginning that Joe's leg really wasn't looking so good.
Season total: 3-4 (.429)
Spell Check
No spelling this week.
Season total: 30-9-2 (.769)
Quick hit thoughts
- The new immunity necklace is really bad ass.
- Coach really seemed to be making an effort with the tribe for the first time.
- Did Joe leave his immunity idol back at the Jalapao camp after the merge? I mean it's fake but he should still have it with him.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Survivor: Tocantins - 1806
Note: This one's coming out a little late. I'll try to get the next issue up soon.
It was like playing hot potato with the immunity idol this episode. It's here, it's there, there's fakes, and so on.
Reward Challenge
Mmmm, BBQ. I like these challenges where the teams have to come up with some sort of strategy that can be totally different. In this case it was trying to block thrown pigs. Timbira decided to go with a more regular grid and Jalapao went with a randomness in effect method. I kind of think the grid would be better because the key element is to avoid leaving one large hole that they can throw the items through. Ultimately it was hard to judge which team had the optimal strategy because it also depended on their skill in throwing. And we know JT can throw, catch or hit anything.
Watching this one, I almost forgot that there were two barricades because all the action was at the end with JT and Tyson. Even the grid ended up with a sizable hole through it but it was at the bottom so that was slightly harder to throw the pigs through. Those pigs did look like they hurt a little bit too.
Timbira won again and wisely chose not to send Taj to Exile. It avoids tipping your hand to a cross-tribe alliance by showing favorites and they already have the immunity idol so there was nothing to be gained there.
Immunity Challenge
The immunity challenge was pretty normal except that only 3 people on the tribe really participated. It definitely made sense to just have the same person shoot out all the targets since they would get the most practice, unless they totally stunk it up. I have no reason to believe that JT wouldn't be the best at the shooting portion so Jalapao did the right thing in sticking with him. The puzzle looked pretty tough but there were only six puzzle pieces to get into place so that wasn't really that bad after all.
Strategy Analysis
This one was all about immunity choices good and bad. We can start with Taj telling JT that she has the idol. My gut reaction is that this was a bad move, but it seemed to work out for her in the end. She's still in the game and still has the immunity idol (maybe). Then when Taj went to show the immunity idol to JT she just took it back from Stephen, is that allowed? Jeff Probst said on his blog that Taj giving the idol to Stephen for safe-keeping was a legitimate transfer but she doesn't seem to realize that. And then after making her fake immunity idol did Taj hide the original idol in one of the tribe's fishing bags?! It's crazy.
So JT knows about the idol, Stephen pulls off a clearly lying acting job about not hearing anything and then JT decides not to get rid of Taj? Then Taj takes the idol she stole from Stephen and gives it back to him, but was it ever not his in the first place? My head is hurting from all of this. What it comes down to is that Taj is clearly an immunity ingenue who is not considering all of the angles. I wish that they would vote her out and she tried to use the idol but Stephen wouldn't give it back to her, just to teach her a lesson.
Regarding getting rid of Taj. I have to think that it would be a bad move because that would just trash the secret cross-tribe four person alliance. If Brendan and Sierra came over and Taj was gone how could they trust Stephen and what does that really buy you in the end?
And as for Joe. How can he believe that he has the real immunity idol? He found it in one second and it was super obvious from a number of clues before the last one that he had. Someone else clearly had found it. I was somewhat surprised that he didn't tell JT that he found the "immunity idol" maybe they aren't that tight after all.
My Prediction
Sydney. They won't pull off a huge game-changer when Stephen already has the idol in his pocket. Too bad she had to go.
Season total: 2-4 (.333)
Spell Check
Right: 4
Wrong: 1 (Sid)
Other: 0
Season total: 30-9-2 (.769)
Quick hit thoughts
It was like playing hot potato with the immunity idol this episode. It's here, it's there, there's fakes, and so on.
Reward Challenge
Mmmm, BBQ. I like these challenges where the teams have to come up with some sort of strategy that can be totally different. In this case it was trying to block thrown pigs. Timbira decided to go with a more regular grid and Jalapao went with a randomness in effect method. I kind of think the grid would be better because the key element is to avoid leaving one large hole that they can throw the items through. Ultimately it was hard to judge which team had the optimal strategy because it also depended on their skill in throwing. And we know JT can throw, catch or hit anything.
Watching this one, I almost forgot that there were two barricades because all the action was at the end with JT and Tyson. Even the grid ended up with a sizable hole through it but it was at the bottom so that was slightly harder to throw the pigs through. Those pigs did look like they hurt a little bit too.
Timbira won again and wisely chose not to send Taj to Exile. It avoids tipping your hand to a cross-tribe alliance by showing favorites and they already have the immunity idol so there was nothing to be gained there.
Immunity Challenge
The immunity challenge was pretty normal except that only 3 people on the tribe really participated. It definitely made sense to just have the same person shoot out all the targets since they would get the most practice, unless they totally stunk it up. I have no reason to believe that JT wouldn't be the best at the shooting portion so Jalapao did the right thing in sticking with him. The puzzle looked pretty tough but there were only six puzzle pieces to get into place so that wasn't really that bad after all.
Strategy Analysis
This one was all about immunity choices good and bad. We can start with Taj telling JT that she has the idol. My gut reaction is that this was a bad move, but it seemed to work out for her in the end. She's still in the game and still has the immunity idol (maybe). Then when Taj went to show the immunity idol to JT she just took it back from Stephen, is that allowed? Jeff Probst said on his blog that Taj giving the idol to Stephen for safe-keeping was a legitimate transfer but she doesn't seem to realize that. And then after making her fake immunity idol did Taj hide the original idol in one of the tribe's fishing bags?! It's crazy.
So JT knows about the idol, Stephen pulls off a clearly lying acting job about not hearing anything and then JT decides not to get rid of Taj? Then Taj takes the idol she stole from Stephen and gives it back to him, but was it ever not his in the first place? My head is hurting from all of this. What it comes down to is that Taj is clearly an immunity ingenue who is not considering all of the angles. I wish that they would vote her out and she tried to use the idol but Stephen wouldn't give it back to her, just to teach her a lesson.
Regarding getting rid of Taj. I have to think that it would be a bad move because that would just trash the secret cross-tribe four person alliance. If Brendan and Sierra came over and Taj was gone how could they trust Stephen and what does that really buy you in the end?
And as for Joe. How can he believe that he has the real immunity idol? He found it in one second and it was super obvious from a number of clues before the last one that he had. Someone else clearly had found it. I was somewhat surprised that he didn't tell JT that he found the "immunity idol" maybe they aren't that tight after all.
My Prediction
Sydney. They won't pull off a huge game-changer when Stephen already has the idol in his pocket. Too bad she had to go.
Season total: 2-4 (.333)
Spell Check
Right: 4
Wrong: 1 (Sid)
Other: 0
Season total: 30-9-2 (.769)
Quick hit thoughts
- Erinn declares "I have no alliances out here." That doesn't really bode well for her game, although at the merge all bets are off
- Coach is very out of touch with his tribe. He doesn't really consider their feelings at all - bad strategy
Labels: flying pigs, Immunity Idol
