As the show opens up:
The majority alliance goes into damage control mode to get Dan back into the mix after 2 of them voted for him during tribal council. Dan seems to make amends with Will. He's more skeptical of Tyler, even though Tyler had the better reason for voting for someone else.
Reward Challenge:
Split into teams of 3 by schoolyard pick, each team must unwind long ribbons from around a post that they are connected to. This releases a key that is used to open a box containing boards to build a crooked ladder. At the top of the ladder is a bag of balls. Everyone on the team has to go over the ladder. The team then must make their way through a narrow all-net bridge. The 5 balls then need to make it into 5 goals by being aimed and catapulted into them.
It's Rodney's birthday and he wants nothing more than to win reward for the first time. Others had agreed to bring him along with them, but this is a team reward, not individual. Will told him he would even switch with him, but with 7 people left, Will was not chosen on either team. Team 1 was Mike, Sierra, and Carolyn. Team 2 was Rodney, Tyler, and Dan. Team 1 gets their key first. Team 2 just about catches up through the net bridge, but Rodney forgot the bag of balls so has to go back to get them and go through the net bridge again. Mike starts launching balls towards the targets. Dan finally starts in on it. Dan gets his first 2 and the challenge is tied quickly. Dan then pulls ahead 4-2. A few unlucky rolls later and Mike ties it at 4, then manages to win reward.
Rodney makes a plea to be brought on reward. One of the winners would need to switch places. Mike is obviously unwilling since Mike knows he needs food. Carolyn and Sierra are also unwilling to switch. Rodney is upset, saying "They just turned me into the psychotic person I am."
Reward:
Mike, Carolyn, and Sierra bring toys and school supplies to a local orphanage as ambassadors of goodwill from Survivor. They feast on local cuisine and discuss how camp life will be with Rodney when they get back.
Immunity Challenge:
Lean back while holding onto a rope with knots at regular intervals. At certain points in time anyone who has not fallen into the water will drop down to the next knot. The last time this challenge was used was in Survivor Caramoan (Fans vs Favorites 2) and John Cochran won by using an advantage of moving up a knot whenever he wanted. This time nobody had an advantage. It came down to Mike, Carolyn, and Tyler when they had to move down a knot for the first time. Mike couldn't make the transition and soon after that Tyler dropped out. Carolyn wins immunity.
Pre-tribal, then Tribal:
Rodney had been plotting to trick Mike into not playing the idol by claiming he was so mad about not going on reward that he wanted everyone to vote for him. Mike never bought it though. The majority alliance needed to come up with a game plan for who was voting for whom. Tyler's name and Dan's name came up as options. Some figured this was the time to cut Dan loose. Others thought that this would be the best time to get rid of Tyler. Carolyn could play her hidden idol on Tyler and save him, and he asked if she would. Carolyn, however, is one of the people tossing Tyler's name around. Dan is being talked about due to the advantage that he has and only Carolyn & Tyler know about.
Let's get to the voting. Before the votes are read, Mike plays his idol. The first 4 votes are for Mike, but do not count. The next vote is Tyler (presumably from Mike), but the next one is also for Tyler. The votes that count are 3-0 making Tyler the 12th person voted out and the 5th member of the jury.
Best Moves:
1)
Mike plays his hidden immunity idol for real. He was quite wise not to believe that everyone would vote for Rodney. He lives to play another 2-3 days.
2) Carolyn starts making big moves, plotting against Tyler. This does several things. She removes a threat. She removes the chance that others see her and Tyler as a duo, which creates the risk that she is voted out especially if Tyler wins immunity. She removes the only person who knows she has a hidden immunity idol. She removes the only other person who knows what Dan's advantage (2-votes at a tribal council of his choice) is.
3) Everyone who won reward refuses to give it up for Rodney. How would that help any of you? It wouldn't. It would keep Rodney from complaining a little bit more than he usually does.
Worst Moves:
For the first time this season, I don't have any worst moves to report. Did people say and do stupid things? Sure, but none of them were game altering. But for those of you who want to read something here, I'll stretch and give you this.
1) Tyler trusts Carolyn too much. Sure, he has every reason to trust her since they've been together since the start of the game, but you should always pay attention to who knows what information. If you are the only person who knows that someone else has an idol, and the only person that knows that another person has 2 votes at tribal, the person with the idol might see that has you having too much power - even though you don't hold any of those cards. Knowing what cards people are holding is a card in and of itself.
Top 3 players:
Last week, the top 3 were Carolyn, Mike, and Sierra. This week I will only choose 2.
1) Carolyn.
Way up at the top this time. She now not only has an immunity idol, but now nobody left in the game knows about it. She is likely the only person in the game that knows the power of the advantage that Dan bought at the auction. And she just orchestrated the removal of one of the biggest remaining threats - notably the one with the story closest to her own.
2) Will. Here's my controversial call this week. Will isn't that good at Survivor, but he's still here. I believe that nobody thinks of him as a threat, and that Rodney and Carolyn are both trying to get to the end with him so they can beat him. It's a junky reason to be in the top 2, but that's how it's going down in my view.
Bottom 3 players:
Last
week, my bottom 3 were Dan, Rodney, and Tyler. Tyler was voted out. I only have 2 this week.
6) Dan. This one is tough for me. I don't think Dan deserves the bottom spot, but given the way things have unfolded to the audience at home, I think he's being played. It really wouldn't surprise me if Dan is blindsided by Carolyn to take out his power before he can use it against her.
5) Mike. Top 3 last week because he had immunity, but his immunity is gone this week and he's the biggest perceived immunity threat left. He's going to try to sway someone, but it might be too late. I think his (and Dan's) only chance is if he can get a plan working with Dan and Sierra. If that doesn't happen, look for a final 3 of Carolyn, Rodney, and Will - with Carolyn flying home with a nearly guaranteed $1 million.
Let Me Have It - Comment:
Ok folks. I've made a few bold and controversial statements about this last episode. What do you agree with? What do you disagree with? What are you glad I mentioned because you were thinking it too, or because you hadn't thought of it and are glad I enlightened you? What did you think I missed?
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Monday, May 4, 2015
Keys to Survivor Worlds Apart Ep11
Recap:
The most recent Survivor was a fantastic episode. Drama, suspense, creativity, and great moves. Here's the important details.
Reward Challenge:
Split into teams of 4 by schoolyard pick, each team must cross a court using barrels and boards in a classic team-building-style exercise. If a person or a board touches the ground, the whole team has to return to the previously completed segment (the court is divided into 3 sections).
Mike, Shirin, Sierra, and Rodney (I'll call this Team Mike) take on Carolyn, Dan, Will, and Tyler (I'll call this Team Carolyn). Team Mike rolls their barrels out on their sides. Three of them stand on one upright barrel while Mike moves the other 3 barrels into position while trying not to roll off. This technique amazingly seems to be working, but Mike is doing most of the work and is tiring. Team Carolyn take the typical approach of using all barrels upright. Dan is the last across, getting pulled the final bit while having his trailing foot drag behind to tip the last barrel toward them so they can roll it ahead. Eventually Team Carolyn take the lead as Mike tires too much. Mike finally loses his mental control and sets a board down, causing his team to start over at the 2/3 mark. In a last ditch effort, Team Mike each stand on a tipped barrel (a few of them carrying boards) and tries to roll them individually while standing on them in order to get to the finishing line. This is amazing, but very risky. A few of them fall and they start over again as Team Carolyn win reward.
Reward:
Rodney, again, misses out on a reward and he's not happy about it. The winning team gets a lunch cruise. They enjoy it and use the time to plot against Mike and Shirin.
Immunity Challenge:
Mike knows he's in trouble this week. The twist at this challenge is that there will be one male winner and one female winner, for a total of 2 people winning immunity. Each contestant must grip a rod with a rope looped around it connected to a bag with 25% of their initial starting weight. This is another classic Survivor challenge which guarantees to rip some skin off of some hands. The first outcome is that Carolyn wins immunity, outlasting Sierra, then Shirin. Then we watch a showdown between Rodney and Mike. Rodney wants this one bad because he wants to get rid of Mike. Rodney's physique makes it look like he should handle this well, especially since he's smaller than Mike so is holding less weight. Mike, on the other hand, has two things on his side - his immense need for the protection (which tends to win out over standard desire), and his faith is God to get him through tough circumstances. Mike wins and is immune at the vote tonight.
Tribal:
Since voting for Mike is not an option, Shirin is the only odd person out. But both Shirin and Mike have had chances to plead to others that keeping Shirin is a no brainer because nobody left likes her, she's unlikely to win even if she somehow made it to the end, and she's no good at challenges, so you can vote her out later. The thought is that they could take out a bigger threat now while they have 2 extra votes to work with them. All they need is someone to feel as though they're in the bottom 2 of the 6-person alliance. The problem is, nobody seems to think they're at the bottom.
But Mike has a grand plan. He reveals his hidden immunity idol. He tells everyone that he plans to play the idol for Shirin, making her immune and causing one of the 6 others to be voted out. He tells Shirin to vote for Tyler - the biggest threat of the 6. Mike says he will choose one random person from the others. If the others want to guarantee that they'll stay in the game, they would need to switch their vote from Shirin to Tyler or risk being voted out themselves due to Mike's random vote.
Genius!
The voting commences. Jeff tallies the votes. Mike stands up, but only tells Shirin that he likes her and keeps the idol for himself for a future tribal council. The votes are read. Shirin, Tyler, Dan, Shirin, Tyler, Dan, Shirin, Shirin. With that, Shirin is voted out 4-2-2. But the take home message, of course, is that Dan received 2 votes. Dan looks shocked and relieved. Mike looks like the cat who caught the canary. Shirin, despite being voted out, looks happy too. I believe she loved the play that just happened even if it did mean her demise.
Best Moves:
1) Mike "plays" his hidden immunity idol. I usually advocate for keeping those things a secret, but in this instance, Mike made better use of the hidden idol than I think anyone ever has before - be it by playing it, sharing it, keeping it, or leveraging it. Mike exposed exactly where a crack exists in the larger alliance, and is now guaranteed to stick around through their initial turning on each other since he still has his idol.
2) Shirin attempts to convince everyone that she's not a threat so they should vote out someone else and save her for later. It didn't work, but it was honestly the best move. Whether you thought you're on the bottom of that group or not, turning on your people now made sense since it would be a big move and would leave Shirin as an easy target for later, as she argued.
3) Carolyn doesn't get fooled by Mike, keeps her vote on Shirin, and doesn't play her idol to save Tyler, thus having it as a weapon to combat a potential move by Mike next week.
Worst Moves:
1) Will votes for Dan. What the hell? Tyler was the one in trouble. Your only reason for voting for Dan would be if you truly believed that Shirin was going to be immune and that your alliance was going to turn on you instead of Tyler. But if that were the case, you would get at least 3 votes and would be toast, so a vote for Dan would not have helped. Maybe you didn't have much time to think about this vote, but I have to say that Phillip Sheppard (Redemption Island, Caramoan) was wise enough to stay the course and vote for the original intended target. Dan, the person you voted for, said it earlier - flippers never win. Although I don't agree 100% with Dan, he may be right about it with respect to Will's move here.
2) Tyler votes for Dan. Again, if your tribe was going to turn on you, your one vote for Dan wouldn't save you anyway. It would have been smarter to send the vote towards someone who wholly trusts you (although Carolyn was immune), or to someone who would flip out and make themselves the next easy target. A vote towards Rodney was the safe bet for Tyler if he felt he needed to have a vote to displace the one already coming to him.
3) Mike does all the work in the barrel reward challenge. It was a risk that would have paid off nicely if it worked, but the strategy should have changed for the 3rd segment when he was already tired.
Top 3 players:
Last week, Carolyn was my top pick. I only chose one since I was short on time.
1) Carolyn. Still at the top. Still has an immunity idol. Kept her cool at the last tribal. Unlikely to be the biggest target going forward even if things get messy on Wednesday.
2) Mike. What can I say. The man was pure genius last week. Plus he's got an idol that everyone knows he has and will expect him to play so we're stuck with him at least another week.
3) Sierra. Almost put her in the middle, but I suspect she'll be a key vote in this next tribal council. It is all too likely that her final 3 would have involved Dan, so if Dan was targeted then that means she would be next, so she'll probably side with Dan & Mike, and either way, she won't be the target.
Bottom 3 players:
Last week, Dan was my bottom pick. Not bad, considering 2 of his alliance members turned on him when the going got tough. I only chose one since I was short on time. Shirin was voted out (believe me, she would have been in my bottom 3-4 if I had done a full post).
7) Dan. His alliance targeted him, and despite what went down, they still have the numbers unless Sierra was alienated. As long as Sierra thinks she's got a final 3 with the others, Dan is doomed. Of course, there is the problem of that extra vote he has. It seems highly likely that it gets played this week, but will it be enough?
6) Rodney. I almost put Will here, but Will is probably the best bet left for a goat to bring to the finals. Rodney is way more volatile and it may bite him. Look out for votes heading his way to guard against an idol ruining someone else's plans.
5) Tyler. Used to be near my top. After his vote for Dan and because of his potential to win a late immunity, he's going to be a target again. Maybe his gig will be up sooner than I originally thought. His best hope may be to get saved by Carolyn's idol, but she might be wise to keep it for herself, unless using it could result in Mike being voted out.
The most recent Survivor was a fantastic episode. Drama, suspense, creativity, and great moves. Here's the important details.
Reward Challenge:
Split into teams of 4 by schoolyard pick, each team must cross a court using barrels and boards in a classic team-building-style exercise. If a person or a board touches the ground, the whole team has to return to the previously completed segment (the court is divided into 3 sections).
Mike, Shirin, Sierra, and Rodney (I'll call this Team Mike) take on Carolyn, Dan, Will, and Tyler (I'll call this Team Carolyn). Team Mike rolls their barrels out on their sides. Three of them stand on one upright barrel while Mike moves the other 3 barrels into position while trying not to roll off. This technique amazingly seems to be working, but Mike is doing most of the work and is tiring. Team Carolyn take the typical approach of using all barrels upright. Dan is the last across, getting pulled the final bit while having his trailing foot drag behind to tip the last barrel toward them so they can roll it ahead. Eventually Team Carolyn take the lead as Mike tires too much. Mike finally loses his mental control and sets a board down, causing his team to start over at the 2/3 mark. In a last ditch effort, Team Mike each stand on a tipped barrel (a few of them carrying boards) and tries to roll them individually while standing on them in order to get to the finishing line. This is amazing, but very risky. A few of them fall and they start over again as Team Carolyn win reward.
Reward:
Rodney, again, misses out on a reward and he's not happy about it. The winning team gets a lunch cruise. They enjoy it and use the time to plot against Mike and Shirin.
Immunity Challenge:
Mike knows he's in trouble this week. The twist at this challenge is that there will be one male winner and one female winner, for a total of 2 people winning immunity. Each contestant must grip a rod with a rope looped around it connected to a bag with 25% of their initial starting weight. This is another classic Survivor challenge which guarantees to rip some skin off of some hands. The first outcome is that Carolyn wins immunity, outlasting Sierra, then Shirin. Then we watch a showdown between Rodney and Mike. Rodney wants this one bad because he wants to get rid of Mike. Rodney's physique makes it look like he should handle this well, especially since he's smaller than Mike so is holding less weight. Mike, on the other hand, has two things on his side - his immense need for the protection (which tends to win out over standard desire), and his faith is God to get him through tough circumstances. Mike wins and is immune at the vote tonight.
Tribal:
Since voting for Mike is not an option, Shirin is the only odd person out. But both Shirin and Mike have had chances to plead to others that keeping Shirin is a no brainer because nobody left likes her, she's unlikely to win even if she somehow made it to the end, and she's no good at challenges, so you can vote her out later. The thought is that they could take out a bigger threat now while they have 2 extra votes to work with them. All they need is someone to feel as though they're in the bottom 2 of the 6-person alliance. The problem is, nobody seems to think they're at the bottom.
But Mike has a grand plan. He reveals his hidden immunity idol. He tells everyone that he plans to play the idol for Shirin, making her immune and causing one of the 6 others to be voted out. He tells Shirin to vote for Tyler - the biggest threat of the 6. Mike says he will choose one random person from the others. If the others want to guarantee that they'll stay in the game, they would need to switch their vote from Shirin to Tyler or risk being voted out themselves due to Mike's random vote.
Genius!
The voting commences. Jeff tallies the votes. Mike stands up, but only tells Shirin that he likes her and keeps the idol for himself for a future tribal council. The votes are read. Shirin, Tyler, Dan, Shirin, Tyler, Dan, Shirin, Shirin. With that, Shirin is voted out 4-2-2. But the take home message, of course, is that Dan received 2 votes. Dan looks shocked and relieved. Mike looks like the cat who caught the canary. Shirin, despite being voted out, looks happy too. I believe she loved the play that just happened even if it did mean her demise.
Best Moves:
1) Mike "plays" his hidden immunity idol. I usually advocate for keeping those things a secret, but in this instance, Mike made better use of the hidden idol than I think anyone ever has before - be it by playing it, sharing it, keeping it, or leveraging it. Mike exposed exactly where a crack exists in the larger alliance, and is now guaranteed to stick around through their initial turning on each other since he still has his idol.
2) Shirin attempts to convince everyone that she's not a threat so they should vote out someone else and save her for later. It didn't work, but it was honestly the best move. Whether you thought you're on the bottom of that group or not, turning on your people now made sense since it would be a big move and would leave Shirin as an easy target for later, as she argued.
3) Carolyn doesn't get fooled by Mike, keeps her vote on Shirin, and doesn't play her idol to save Tyler, thus having it as a weapon to combat a potential move by Mike next week.
Worst Moves:
1) Will votes for Dan. What the hell? Tyler was the one in trouble. Your only reason for voting for Dan would be if you truly believed that Shirin was going to be immune and that your alliance was going to turn on you instead of Tyler. But if that were the case, you would get at least 3 votes and would be toast, so a vote for Dan would not have helped. Maybe you didn't have much time to think about this vote, but I have to say that Phillip Sheppard (Redemption Island, Caramoan) was wise enough to stay the course and vote for the original intended target. Dan, the person you voted for, said it earlier - flippers never win. Although I don't agree 100% with Dan, he may be right about it with respect to Will's move here.
2) Tyler votes for Dan. Again, if your tribe was going to turn on you, your one vote for Dan wouldn't save you anyway. It would have been smarter to send the vote towards someone who wholly trusts you (although Carolyn was immune), or to someone who would flip out and make themselves the next easy target. A vote towards Rodney was the safe bet for Tyler if he felt he needed to have a vote to displace the one already coming to him.
3) Mike does all the work in the barrel reward challenge. It was a risk that would have paid off nicely if it worked, but the strategy should have changed for the 3rd segment when he was already tired.
Top 3 players:
Last week, Carolyn was my top pick. I only chose one since I was short on time.
1) Carolyn. Still at the top. Still has an immunity idol. Kept her cool at the last tribal. Unlikely to be the biggest target going forward even if things get messy on Wednesday.
2) Mike. What can I say. The man was pure genius last week. Plus he's got an idol that everyone knows he has and will expect him to play so we're stuck with him at least another week.
3) Sierra. Almost put her in the middle, but I suspect she'll be a key vote in this next tribal council. It is all too likely that her final 3 would have involved Dan, so if Dan was targeted then that means she would be next, so she'll probably side with Dan & Mike, and either way, she won't be the target.
Bottom 3 players:
Last week, Dan was my bottom pick. Not bad, considering 2 of his alliance members turned on him when the going got tough. I only chose one since I was short on time. Shirin was voted out (believe me, she would have been in my bottom 3-4 if I had done a full post).
7) Dan. His alliance targeted him, and despite what went down, they still have the numbers unless Sierra was alienated. As long as Sierra thinks she's got a final 3 with the others, Dan is doomed. Of course, there is the problem of that extra vote he has. It seems highly likely that it gets played this week, but will it be enough?
6) Rodney. I almost put Will here, but Will is probably the best bet left for a goat to bring to the finals. Rodney is way more volatile and it may bite him. Look out for votes heading his way to guard against an idol ruining someone else's plans.
5) Tyler. Used to be near my top. After his vote for Dan and because of his potential to win a late immunity, he's going to be a target again. Maybe his gig will be up sooner than I originally thought. His best hope may be to get saved by Carolyn's idol, but she might be wise to keep it for herself, unless using it could result in Mike being voted out.
Wednesday, April 29, 2015
Keys to Survivor Worlds Apart Ep10
Hey there Survivor fans. Life was super busy for me this past week. My day job kind of took priority and I didn't have time to put up a full post. Here's a quick abbreviated post to get you primed for tonight's episode.
Survivor Auction (in lieu of reward):
Will bought the first covered item and it was a ticket back to camp and out of the rest of the auction.
Mike almost swerved his teammates by not buying a letter from home just so he could outbid everyone for an advantage, but they caught him and he backed off and bought his letter too.
Mike, Dan, and Carolyn bid 480 for the advantage. Dan won it. He later read it and it is an extra vote that he can use whenever he wants, but he must declare it after Jeff says "I'll go tally the votes" and before he actually does that.
Immunity:
Mike feels like he's in trouble. He is. Everyone thinks he's less trustworthy. See the auction section, and my future slightly longer post. Mike wins immunity when he probably has needed it most. Balance beams, transporting balls using metal tongs. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
Tribal:
There had been talk of Mike, Jenn, and Shirin trying to work together. Mike had tried talking to Dan to pull him over with him since Mike is convinced that Rodney, Tyler, Carolyn, and Will are together.
For such a dramatic episode, the vote ends up 5-3-1 with Jenn going home.
Thanks for reading. I may expand on this later. Either way, the write-up for next week (tonight's episode) will be better.
Oh, and for a quick top/bottom...
Carolyn is still my top pick.
My new bottom pick is (this is a tough one) Dan. I bet at least one idol will be in play tonight. So it could be anyone, who knows.
Survivor Auction (in lieu of reward):
Will bought the first covered item and it was a ticket back to camp and out of the rest of the auction.
Mike almost swerved his teammates by not buying a letter from home just so he could outbid everyone for an advantage, but they caught him and he backed off and bought his letter too.
Mike, Dan, and Carolyn bid 480 for the advantage. Dan won it. He later read it and it is an extra vote that he can use whenever he wants, but he must declare it after Jeff says "I'll go tally the votes" and before he actually does that.
Immunity:
Mike feels like he's in trouble. He is. Everyone thinks he's less trustworthy. See the auction section, and my future slightly longer post. Mike wins immunity when he probably has needed it most. Balance beams, transporting balls using metal tongs. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
Tribal:
There had been talk of Mike, Jenn, and Shirin trying to work together. Mike had tried talking to Dan to pull him over with him since Mike is convinced that Rodney, Tyler, Carolyn, and Will are together.
For such a dramatic episode, the vote ends up 5-3-1 with Jenn going home.
Thanks for reading. I may expand on this later. Either way, the write-up for next week (tonight's episode) will be better.
Oh, and for a quick top/bottom...
Carolyn is still my top pick.
My new bottom pick is (this is a tough one) Dan. I bet at least one idol will be in play tonight. So it could be anyone, who knows.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Keys to Survivor Worlds Apart Ep09
Survivor: Worlds Apart Episode 09 quick recap:
Reward Challenge: A schoolyard pick results in 2 teams of five. Each person must individually swim out and pass a series of floating obstacles (climb up and slide down, cross a submerged net bridge, cross a balance beam) and get to a final platform. When someone finishes, the next person on their team begins until all 5 are at the final platform. Then a floating grappling hook is used to retrieve 5 floating rings.
Team1 is Mike, Shirin, Tyler, Dan, Sierra.
Team 2 is Jenn, Joe, Rodney, Carolyn, Will.
Lots of hard falls. Team 2 starts retrieving rings first, but Team 1 is victorious.
Reward: A chocolate free-for-all. They had all the Snickers, Twix, M&M, and Dove chocolate they wanted. There was also popcorn and drinks. Blatant product placement, but I'll all for it. This was a great reward.
Back at camp: Jenn is bummed that she hasn't been on reward yet. Joe is taking it better, but knows he needs to win immunity. Rodney does some impressions of Mike and Dan. His Mike impression is spot on and was very entertaining. His Dan impression wasn't as good, but the others present were loving it all.
Jenn later tells Joe that she doesn't want to play anymore, but won't quit. She says that if she wins immunity she'll give it to Joe to cause drama and maybe she'll get voted out like she wants. Joe is thrilled as long as he can believe her since that would double his chances to advance.
Immunity Challenge: Stand in what looks like a door frame. Each one is adjusted to the height of the individual. Hold a tall block of wood between your head and the top of the frame (roughly 4" diameter octogon that is about 12" tall).
Elimination order: Carolyn, Will, Shirin, Dan, Rodney, Sierra, Joe ...
This is the first individual challenge that Joe will not win.
Final 3 comes down to a No Collar, a Blue Collar, and a White Collar.
Mike drops out next, then after about 32 minutes total time Jenn drops out. Tyler wins immunity.
Tribal Council: First some more background. Everyone was supposed to watch Joe continuously at camp after the immunity challenge. Joe asks to talk to Dan so they walk off. Dan confirms that he can't possibly convince anyone to save Joe, then leaves him. Joe runs off and disappears. The jewelry maker has collected supplies over time and is now making a fake immunity idol. It looks pretty good, but is nothing like the ones we've seen so far. He attempts to offer it to Mike in a trade to keep him in the game. Mike will only consider it if he gets the idol before the vote.
As they arrive at tribal, Joe secretly hands the fake idol to Mike. During tribal, Mike asks if Jeff can confirm whether this idol is legitimate. Jeff can not do this until after the vote. With that, they vote. The plan is to split between Joe & Jenn in case there is an idol. Joe wants to stay, so he knows he has to vote for Jenn. Jenn wants to go, so doesn't vote for Joe. Shirin, the superfan, proves she actually can do basic math and figured this all out before any of it actually happens. She can potentially choose who goes home with her vote.
The vote ends up 5-4-1. Jenn voted for Dan. Joe voted for Jenn. The majority split between Joe & Jenn. Shirin voted for Joe, choosing to continue playing with Jenn and hoping this decision would make a friend out of Mike.
Best Moves:
Best #1: Joe constructs a convincing hidden immunity idol.
Best #2: Mike stays skeptical of this hidden immunity idol, even after it is handed to him.
Best #3: Rodney shows a goofy human side to himself by doing impersonations of Mike & Dan.
Worst Moves:
Worst #1: Joe chooses the wrong person to try to sway with his fake hidden idol. Mike knows what two have looked like this season. Targeting a swing vote might have been a better strategy even if they already know what they look like too. Not that Joe could have known any of this.
Worst #2: Rodney shows the potential crack between him and his alliance by doing impersonations of Mike & Dan. This gives anybody on the outside a place to focus their attacks.
Worst #3: Shirin keeps Jenn over Joe. Last season, Natalie proved that sometimes the best move is keeping a threat (keeping Keith around). This season may have been another key example of that working. Keep Joe, so that he's the obvious target of the large alliance, instead of being a 50/50 chance with Jenn. This improves your chances for the next 3 days and gives time for cracks to expand in the large alliance.
Top 4 Prospects: Last week I listed Carolyn, Tyler, Mike, and Sierra. No change to the people or the order, just updated reasoning.
1) Carolyn - former White Collar and Nagarote. She hopes she isn't waiting too long to make a big move. She still has a hidden immunity idol - one of two in the game.
2) Tyler - former White Collar and Escameca. Alliance with Carolyn buys him this spot.
3) Mike - former Blue Collar and Escameca. Has a hidden idol and keeps proving that he's paying close attention to lots of details.
4) Sierra - former Blue Collar and Nagarote. Not a target of anyone yet, and not likely to become one in the next few days.
Bottom 4 Prospects: Last week I listed Joe, Jenn, Shirin, and Dan. Joe was voted out. Here's my new bottom.
9) Jenn - former No Collar and Nagarote. She's the last one left who is not partially tied to the majority alliance.
8) Shirin - former White Collar and Nagarote. If Jenn wins immunity, I would be shocked if Shirin isn't kicked to the curb.
7) Dan - former Blue Collar and Escameca. I assume this only happens if Rodney decides it is time to break apart from his Blue colleagues.
6) Will - former No Collar and Nagarote. I could see a scenario where he is dispatched before Shirin, purely because he is more likable than she is, so he could garner more jury votes if he somehow made it to the end.
Reward Challenge: A schoolyard pick results in 2 teams of five. Each person must individually swim out and pass a series of floating obstacles (climb up and slide down, cross a submerged net bridge, cross a balance beam) and get to a final platform. When someone finishes, the next person on their team begins until all 5 are at the final platform. Then a floating grappling hook is used to retrieve 5 floating rings.
Team1 is Mike, Shirin, Tyler, Dan, Sierra.
Team 2 is Jenn, Joe, Rodney, Carolyn, Will.
Lots of hard falls. Team 2 starts retrieving rings first, but Team 1 is victorious.
Reward: A chocolate free-for-all. They had all the Snickers, Twix, M&M, and Dove chocolate they wanted. There was also popcorn and drinks. Blatant product placement, but I'll all for it. This was a great reward.
Back at camp: Jenn is bummed that she hasn't been on reward yet. Joe is taking it better, but knows he needs to win immunity. Rodney does some impressions of Mike and Dan. His Mike impression is spot on and was very entertaining. His Dan impression wasn't as good, but the others present were loving it all.
Jenn later tells Joe that she doesn't want to play anymore, but won't quit. She says that if she wins immunity she'll give it to Joe to cause drama and maybe she'll get voted out like she wants. Joe is thrilled as long as he can believe her since that would double his chances to advance.
Immunity Challenge: Stand in what looks like a door frame. Each one is adjusted to the height of the individual. Hold a tall block of wood between your head and the top of the frame (roughly 4" diameter octogon that is about 12" tall).
Elimination order: Carolyn, Will, Shirin, Dan, Rodney, Sierra, Joe ...
This is the first individual challenge that Joe will not win.
Final 3 comes down to a No Collar, a Blue Collar, and a White Collar.
Mike drops out next, then after about 32 minutes total time Jenn drops out. Tyler wins immunity.
Tribal Council: First some more background. Everyone was supposed to watch Joe continuously at camp after the immunity challenge. Joe asks to talk to Dan so they walk off. Dan confirms that he can't possibly convince anyone to save Joe, then leaves him. Joe runs off and disappears. The jewelry maker has collected supplies over time and is now making a fake immunity idol. It looks pretty good, but is nothing like the ones we've seen so far. He attempts to offer it to Mike in a trade to keep him in the game. Mike will only consider it if he gets the idol before the vote.
As they arrive at tribal, Joe secretly hands the fake idol to Mike. During tribal, Mike asks if Jeff can confirm whether this idol is legitimate. Jeff can not do this until after the vote. With that, they vote. The plan is to split between Joe & Jenn in case there is an idol. Joe wants to stay, so he knows he has to vote for Jenn. Jenn wants to go, so doesn't vote for Joe. Shirin, the superfan, proves she actually can do basic math and figured this all out before any of it actually happens. She can potentially choose who goes home with her vote.
The vote ends up 5-4-1. Jenn voted for Dan. Joe voted for Jenn. The majority split between Joe & Jenn. Shirin voted for Joe, choosing to continue playing with Jenn and hoping this decision would make a friend out of Mike.
Best Moves:
Best #1: Joe constructs a convincing hidden immunity idol.
Best #2: Mike stays skeptical of this hidden immunity idol, even after it is handed to him.
Best #3: Rodney shows a goofy human side to himself by doing impersonations of Mike & Dan.
Worst Moves:
Worst #1: Joe chooses the wrong person to try to sway with his fake hidden idol. Mike knows what two have looked like this season. Targeting a swing vote might have been a better strategy even if they already know what they look like too. Not that Joe could have known any of this.
Worst #2: Rodney shows the potential crack between him and his alliance by doing impersonations of Mike & Dan. This gives anybody on the outside a place to focus their attacks.
Worst #3: Shirin keeps Jenn over Joe. Last season, Natalie proved that sometimes the best move is keeping a threat (keeping Keith around). This season may have been another key example of that working. Keep Joe, so that he's the obvious target of the large alliance, instead of being a 50/50 chance with Jenn. This improves your chances for the next 3 days and gives time for cracks to expand in the large alliance.
Top 4 Prospects: Last week I listed Carolyn, Tyler, Mike, and Sierra. No change to the people or the order, just updated reasoning.
1) Carolyn - former White Collar and Nagarote. She hopes she isn't waiting too long to make a big move. She still has a hidden immunity idol - one of two in the game.
2) Tyler - former White Collar and Escameca. Alliance with Carolyn buys him this spot.
3) Mike - former Blue Collar and Escameca. Has a hidden idol and keeps proving that he's paying close attention to lots of details.
4) Sierra - former Blue Collar and Nagarote. Not a target of anyone yet, and not likely to become one in the next few days.
Bottom 4 Prospects: Last week I listed Joe, Jenn, Shirin, and Dan. Joe was voted out. Here's my new bottom.
9) Jenn - former No Collar and Nagarote. She's the last one left who is not partially tied to the majority alliance.
8) Shirin - former White Collar and Nagarote. If Jenn wins immunity, I would be shocked if Shirin isn't kicked to the curb.
7) Dan - former Blue Collar and Escameca. I assume this only happens if Rodney decides it is time to break apart from his Blue colleagues.
6) Will - former No Collar and Nagarote. I could see a scenario where he is dispatched before Shirin, purely because he is more likable than she is, so he could garner more jury votes if he somehow made it to the end.
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Keys to Survivor Worlds Apart Ep08
Survivor: Worlds Apart Episode 08 quick recap:
Reward Challenge: Walk a series of balance beams, stopping to untie bags of puzzle pieces. Each of 3 bags must be brought to the finish individually as the contestant starts at the beginning of the balance beams before retrieving the next bag. First 3 people to finish compete in the puzzle making challenge. This ends up being Mike, Joe, and Hali. The puzzle is wooden pieces of an anchor that looks simple, but some pieces are very similar and could go in multiple places.
Joe is the winner (2 individual wins in a row). Jeff tells him he can choose 3 other people to go on reward with him. He wisely chooses Carolyn, Tyler, and Will. Jeff then lets him select one more person. Rodney makes a scene about how it won't be him. Sure enough, Joe chooses Shirin.
Reward: Zip-lining through the forest with a meal of pizza, cinnamon rolls, fruit, and soda at the end. Joe notices that Carolyn's soda bottle has something in it. He works in a comment about wanting more soda, and she gives him the rest of her bottle. He chugs it to get the item, but Tyler sees it come out of the bottle. This leads to drama later.
Scramble: Joe shows the clue to the idol that he found in the soda bottle to Tyler. Mike followed them and saw it happen. Tyler later tells Mike what the clue said. Suddenly everyone is out looking for Joe and the idol. Eventually Joe is back at the water with others, so Mike decides to play it up like he saw Joe get the idol. Now everyone thinks Joe has it. He doesn't. Mike later goes out looking around some more. He seems exhausted - to the point of tears. Mike finally finds the hidden idol.
Immunity Challenge: Work a puzzle piece in one corner of a no-image slide puzzle and out the other. Do this for a 3x3, a 4x4, and a 5x5 puzzle. Then insert your puzzle piece into a 4x4 slide puzzle with the phrase OUTWIT, OUTPLAY, OUTLAST written on it across 3 lines. Outwit is in yellow and should occupy half of rows 1 & 2. Outplay is in blue and should occupy half of rows 2 & 3. Outplay is in red and should occupy half of rows 3 & 4. People get to the final puzzle at various times, but ultimately they are all trying to solve it simultaneously. Dan thinks he has it. He does not - his 2nd & 3rd pieces on row 2 are swapped and make it so there are no legible words. Dan thinks he has it again. Again, the same 2 pieces are swapped and it makes no sense. Joe is done next, and he has it solved correctly. Joe wins immunity and it is his 3rd straight individual win.
Tribal Council: There seems to be 2 likely outcomes to this vote. Either the swing votes stick with the former Blue and probably vote out Hali, or a new women's alliance forms and kicks out Dan. Several women had joined forces at the beach and Sierra seemed quite in favor of kicking out some people that annoy her. The resultant vote came out 7-4. 7 votes for Hali, 4 votes for Dan. The alliance from last week holds, Hali is voted out, and becomes the 1st member of the jury.
Editor's Rant: After the reward challenge, back near camp, Dan berates Shirin for being a fan who can't do basic math. He wonders why she would side with Joe when the numbers aren't there. He then points out his lack of math skills by saying there are only 2 people in this game: People who don't do anything and get voted out because of it, and people who do too much and annoy everybody and get voted out. Apparently Dan hasn't watched Survivor, because there are always 2-3 people who DO NOT get voted out. Not to mention that 1-2 of those 2-3 people often fit into his 2 categories, and sometimes win.
Best Moves:
Best #1: Joe sees a possible clue in the soda and manages to secure the bottle so he can get the clue.
Best #2: Joe brings all swing votes with him on reward. Much better than bringing Hali, Jenn, Will, and Shirin.
Best #3: Mike convinces everyone that Joe found the idol, allowing him to look for it alone.
Best #4: Mike searches for, and finds, the hidden immunity idol.
Worst Moves:
Worst #1: Joe shows the clue to Tyler in hopes that Tyler will work with him. Trust is one thing, but trust with a very important piece of information is another.
Worst #2: Tyler tells the idol clue to Mike. He misses a perfect opportunity to relay the wrong clues so that Mike won't be able to find it himself. The wrong clues wouldn't get realized as a lie because Joe won't be revealing them. It would also allow Tyler to possibly find the idol later.
Worst #3: Dan comes into the immunity challenge either without enough food or sleep. Somehow he couldn't tell that his puzzle didn't look like words, despite his last word reading just fine.
Worst #4: Mike hasn't played out his lie about Joe into the future. How will you vote Joe out if everyone thinks he has an idol? How will everyone react when Joe doesn't play it during a vote where it makes sense to play it?
Top 4 Prospects: Last week I listed Carolyn, Tyler, Shirin, and Hali. Hali was voted out. I even said something about feeling safe she would survive this time but that feeling safe is a bad thing in Survivor. That logic works again.
1) Carolyn - former White Collar and Nagarote. She's still a swing vote even if she hasn't been swinging yet, and she still has a hidden immunity idol - one of two in the game.
2) Tyler - former White Collar and Escameca. Same swing-vote reasoning as Carolyn.
3) Mike - former Blue Collar and Escameca. He's finally in my top 4 after some lovely maneuvering concerning the hidden idol, which he now posesses.
4) Sierra - former Blue Collar and Nagarote. Going out on a limb here. She was willing to lie to the other girls about forming a girl alliance to remove Dan. She might yet have plans to move forward intelligently, and she isn't on anyone's major hit list yet.
Bottom 4 Prospects: Last week I listed Joe, Mike, Jenn, and Will. Hali was voted out in a move I predicted, but the target changed. Here's my new bottom.
10) Joe - former No Collar and Escameca. All those individual wins and no hidden idol for a backup plan. His only hope is winning immunity again.
9) Jenn - former No Collar and Nagarote. If Joe wins immunity, it's either her or Shirin in this next vote.
8) Shirin - former White Collar and Nagarote. If Joe wins immunity, it's either her or Jenn in this next vote.
7) Dan - former Blue Collar and Escameca. If, and that's a big if, the non-blue-collar folks realize this is one of their last chances to all band together and break up the former Blue Collars before they hold an absolute numbers advantage over everyone, I think he's a fine choice to vote out. He's been targeted already, is generally unlikable, and probably doesn't have an idol.
Reward Challenge: Walk a series of balance beams, stopping to untie bags of puzzle pieces. Each of 3 bags must be brought to the finish individually as the contestant starts at the beginning of the balance beams before retrieving the next bag. First 3 people to finish compete in the puzzle making challenge. This ends up being Mike, Joe, and Hali. The puzzle is wooden pieces of an anchor that looks simple, but some pieces are very similar and could go in multiple places.
Joe is the winner (2 individual wins in a row). Jeff tells him he can choose 3 other people to go on reward with him. He wisely chooses Carolyn, Tyler, and Will. Jeff then lets him select one more person. Rodney makes a scene about how it won't be him. Sure enough, Joe chooses Shirin.
Reward: Zip-lining through the forest with a meal of pizza, cinnamon rolls, fruit, and soda at the end. Joe notices that Carolyn's soda bottle has something in it. He works in a comment about wanting more soda, and she gives him the rest of her bottle. He chugs it to get the item, but Tyler sees it come out of the bottle. This leads to drama later.
Scramble: Joe shows the clue to the idol that he found in the soda bottle to Tyler. Mike followed them and saw it happen. Tyler later tells Mike what the clue said. Suddenly everyone is out looking for Joe and the idol. Eventually Joe is back at the water with others, so Mike decides to play it up like he saw Joe get the idol. Now everyone thinks Joe has it. He doesn't. Mike later goes out looking around some more. He seems exhausted - to the point of tears. Mike finally finds the hidden idol.
Immunity Challenge: Work a puzzle piece in one corner of a no-image slide puzzle and out the other. Do this for a 3x3, a 4x4, and a 5x5 puzzle. Then insert your puzzle piece into a 4x4 slide puzzle with the phrase OUTWIT, OUTPLAY, OUTLAST written on it across 3 lines. Outwit is in yellow and should occupy half of rows 1 & 2. Outplay is in blue and should occupy half of rows 2 & 3. Outplay is in red and should occupy half of rows 3 & 4. People get to the final puzzle at various times, but ultimately they are all trying to solve it simultaneously. Dan thinks he has it. He does not - his 2nd & 3rd pieces on row 2 are swapped and make it so there are no legible words. Dan thinks he has it again. Again, the same 2 pieces are swapped and it makes no sense. Joe is done next, and he has it solved correctly. Joe wins immunity and it is his 3rd straight individual win.
Tribal Council: There seems to be 2 likely outcomes to this vote. Either the swing votes stick with the former Blue and probably vote out Hali, or a new women's alliance forms and kicks out Dan. Several women had joined forces at the beach and Sierra seemed quite in favor of kicking out some people that annoy her. The resultant vote came out 7-4. 7 votes for Hali, 4 votes for Dan. The alliance from last week holds, Hali is voted out, and becomes the 1st member of the jury.
Editor's Rant: After the reward challenge, back near camp, Dan berates Shirin for being a fan who can't do basic math. He wonders why she would side with Joe when the numbers aren't there. He then points out his lack of math skills by saying there are only 2 people in this game: People who don't do anything and get voted out because of it, and people who do too much and annoy everybody and get voted out. Apparently Dan hasn't watched Survivor, because there are always 2-3 people who DO NOT get voted out. Not to mention that 1-2 of those 2-3 people often fit into his 2 categories, and sometimes win.
Best Moves:
Best #1: Joe sees a possible clue in the soda and manages to secure the bottle so he can get the clue.
Best #2: Joe brings all swing votes with him on reward. Much better than bringing Hali, Jenn, Will, and Shirin.
Best #3: Mike convinces everyone that Joe found the idol, allowing him to look for it alone.
Best #4: Mike searches for, and finds, the hidden immunity idol.
Worst Moves:
Worst #1: Joe shows the clue to Tyler in hopes that Tyler will work with him. Trust is one thing, but trust with a very important piece of information is another.
Worst #2: Tyler tells the idol clue to Mike. He misses a perfect opportunity to relay the wrong clues so that Mike won't be able to find it himself. The wrong clues wouldn't get realized as a lie because Joe won't be revealing them. It would also allow Tyler to possibly find the idol later.
Worst #3: Dan comes into the immunity challenge either without enough food or sleep. Somehow he couldn't tell that his puzzle didn't look like words, despite his last word reading just fine.
Worst #4: Mike hasn't played out his lie about Joe into the future. How will you vote Joe out if everyone thinks he has an idol? How will everyone react when Joe doesn't play it during a vote where it makes sense to play it?
Top 4 Prospects: Last week I listed Carolyn, Tyler, Shirin, and Hali. Hali was voted out. I even said something about feeling safe she would survive this time but that feeling safe is a bad thing in Survivor. That logic works again.
1) Carolyn - former White Collar and Nagarote. She's still a swing vote even if she hasn't been swinging yet, and she still has a hidden immunity idol - one of two in the game.
2) Tyler - former White Collar and Escameca. Same swing-vote reasoning as Carolyn.
3) Mike - former Blue Collar and Escameca. He's finally in my top 4 after some lovely maneuvering concerning the hidden idol, which he now posesses.
4) Sierra - former Blue Collar and Nagarote. Going out on a limb here. She was willing to lie to the other girls about forming a girl alliance to remove Dan. She might yet have plans to move forward intelligently, and she isn't on anyone's major hit list yet.
Bottom 4 Prospects: Last week I listed Joe, Mike, Jenn, and Will. Hali was voted out in a move I predicted, but the target changed. Here's my new bottom.
10) Joe - former No Collar and Escameca. All those individual wins and no hidden idol for a backup plan. His only hope is winning immunity again.
9) Jenn - former No Collar and Nagarote. If Joe wins immunity, it's either her or Shirin in this next vote.
8) Shirin - former White Collar and Nagarote. If Joe wins immunity, it's either her or Jenn in this next vote.
7) Dan - former Blue Collar and Escameca. If, and that's a big if, the non-blue-collar folks realize this is one of their last chances to all band together and break up the former Blue Collars before they hold an absolute numbers advantage over everyone, I think he's a fine choice to vote out. He's been targeted already, is generally unlikable, and probably doesn't have an idol.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Keys to Survivor Worlds Apart Ep07
Survivor: Worlds Apart Episode 07 quick recap:
Reward Challenge: We didn't have one of these. Instead, the teams met, Jeff Probst wasn't there, and there was a note telling them that they have merged. They enjoy a merge feast, then return to the Escameca camp (notably the only one where a hidden immunity idol has not been found). They find that their shelter has vanished so the producers must have decided that recreating things would be good for team building.
Immunity Challenge: The classic "Hang Around On A Pole" challenge. Everyone starts near the top of a pole that has 4 hand/foot hold ridges carved around it. Last one hanging wins. Jeff tells us it has been used 6 times before and been won equally by men and women. The big guys are the first to drop - Dan & Will. Slowly people drop out until it is just Joe and Carolyn. Carolyn drops out next and Joe wins the first individual immunity.
Tribal Council: Our new merged tribe, Merica (short for America), heads to tribal council. The former No Collars seem like they are a group. The former Blue Collars seem like they are a group. The former White Collars seem like they may be the swing votes. Lots of conversations happened before tribal, but let's see how things turned out. Will was swayed by a few people on the former Blue Collar tribe to vote with them. Tyler & Carolyn, knowing they were swing votes, decided to go with the Blue Collar folks. Shirin was welcomed in by the former No Collars and voted with them. The result was a 7-4-1 vote. 7 votes for Jenn, 4 votes for Kelly, and 1 vote for Hali. Will had been told to vote for Hali, and secretly the Blue Collar people would know that if they didn't see a Hali vote then they couldn't trust Will going forward. But I've left out an important detail. Jenn didn't feel comfortable about this tribal council and figured this may be the best time to play her hidden immunity idol. She did play it, and used it on herself, nullifying 7 votes and resulting in Kelly being the 7th person voted out of Survivor: Worlds Apart. She is NOT noted as being on the jury.
Best Moves:
Best #1: No question this goes to Jenn using her hidden immunity idol.
Best #2: Joe realizes he could be an early target and digs deep to pull out an immunity victory.
Best #3: Mike somehow convinces several people to work with the largest intact group in the game.
Best #4: Jeff Probst doesn't waste his time to attend the merge festivities. He certainly had better things to do - maybe he was helping to put the Escameca camp back to day-1 condition.
Worst Moves:
Worst #1: The new apparent majority alliance doesn't consider the possibility of a hidden immunity idol. The players this season had been so good up until now at guarding against that even when it didn't seem likely. I'm not sure why they stopped now. Sure would have been better to vote 4-4, then the only downside would have been if Will was still with No Collar and they had 5 votes.
Worst #2: Rodney drops out of the immunity challenge after asking if Carolyn could do it. Never count on someone else to do what needs to be done.
Worst #3: Nobody cheers on Joe in the immunity challenge. If anyone would have given him some encouragement then maybe it wouldn't be as obvious that he is your target. This also makes it less obvious that Jenn or Hali would be a target in case Joe wins.
Top 4 Prospects: Last week I listed Carolyn, Tyler, Hali, and Jenn.
1) Carolyn - former White Collar and Nagarote. They merged, and even though things didn't go as she expected, it actually worked to her advantage. The former Blue Collar crew is smaller now, which makes her that much more powerful. She's still a swing vote and she still has a hidden immunity idol - the only one currently in someone's posession.
2) Tyler - former White Collar and Escameca. Same reasoning as Carolyn. More powerful as a swing vote than he was before.
3) Shirin - former White Collar and Nagarote. She isn't very good at challenges or at the social game, but at this point that could carry her along since people will not be considering her as a threat.
4) Hali - former No Collar and Nagarote. Although she may be in the minority now, it appears that Jenn is a bigger target than she is, so I feel safe believing that she will survive the next vote. Of course, what usually happens in Survivor when someone claims they feel safe? Discuss amongst yourselves.
Bottom 4 Prospects: Last week I listed Joe, Dan, Rodney, and Sierra. Kelly was voted out in a move I didn't see coming. Here's my new bottom.
11) Joe - former No Collar and Escameca. Just like last week, he's probably still the biggest target.
10) Mike - former Blue Collar and Escameca. My new guess for who will be the target in the larger alliance. And just because his alliance is large, doesn't mean it will stay that way with so many possible swing votes around.
9) Jenn - former No Collar and Nagarote. She was the most recent target and now she doesn't have a hidden immunity idol to save her.
8) Will - former No Collar and Nagarote. He hasn't appreciated being left out of the loop in the past. Although the majority alliance had good reasons, don't expect Will to respond well to being the only one left in the dark. Remember what happened to Vince in episode 2? Will could go rogue, but this time it could be his undoing.
Reward Challenge: We didn't have one of these. Instead, the teams met, Jeff Probst wasn't there, and there was a note telling them that they have merged. They enjoy a merge feast, then return to the Escameca camp (notably the only one where a hidden immunity idol has not been found). They find that their shelter has vanished so the producers must have decided that recreating things would be good for team building.
Immunity Challenge: The classic "Hang Around On A Pole" challenge. Everyone starts near the top of a pole that has 4 hand/foot hold ridges carved around it. Last one hanging wins. Jeff tells us it has been used 6 times before and been won equally by men and women. The big guys are the first to drop - Dan & Will. Slowly people drop out until it is just Joe and Carolyn. Carolyn drops out next and Joe wins the first individual immunity.
Tribal Council: Our new merged tribe, Merica (short for America), heads to tribal council. The former No Collars seem like they are a group. The former Blue Collars seem like they are a group. The former White Collars seem like they may be the swing votes. Lots of conversations happened before tribal, but let's see how things turned out. Will was swayed by a few people on the former Blue Collar tribe to vote with them. Tyler & Carolyn, knowing they were swing votes, decided to go with the Blue Collar folks. Shirin was welcomed in by the former No Collars and voted with them. The result was a 7-4-1 vote. 7 votes for Jenn, 4 votes for Kelly, and 1 vote for Hali. Will had been told to vote for Hali, and secretly the Blue Collar people would know that if they didn't see a Hali vote then they couldn't trust Will going forward. But I've left out an important detail. Jenn didn't feel comfortable about this tribal council and figured this may be the best time to play her hidden immunity idol. She did play it, and used it on herself, nullifying 7 votes and resulting in Kelly being the 7th person voted out of Survivor: Worlds Apart. She is NOT noted as being on the jury.
Best Moves:
Best #1: No question this goes to Jenn using her hidden immunity idol.
Best #2: Joe realizes he could be an early target and digs deep to pull out an immunity victory.
Best #3: Mike somehow convinces several people to work with the largest intact group in the game.
Best #4: Jeff Probst doesn't waste his time to attend the merge festivities. He certainly had better things to do - maybe he was helping to put the Escameca camp back to day-1 condition.
Worst Moves:
Worst #1: The new apparent majority alliance doesn't consider the possibility of a hidden immunity idol. The players this season had been so good up until now at guarding against that even when it didn't seem likely. I'm not sure why they stopped now. Sure would have been better to vote 4-4, then the only downside would have been if Will was still with No Collar and they had 5 votes.
Worst #2: Rodney drops out of the immunity challenge after asking if Carolyn could do it. Never count on someone else to do what needs to be done.
Worst #3: Nobody cheers on Joe in the immunity challenge. If anyone would have given him some encouragement then maybe it wouldn't be as obvious that he is your target. This also makes it less obvious that Jenn or Hali would be a target in case Joe wins.
Top 4 Prospects: Last week I listed Carolyn, Tyler, Hali, and Jenn.
1) Carolyn - former White Collar and Nagarote. They merged, and even though things didn't go as she expected, it actually worked to her advantage. The former Blue Collar crew is smaller now, which makes her that much more powerful. She's still a swing vote and she still has a hidden immunity idol - the only one currently in someone's posession.
2) Tyler - former White Collar and Escameca. Same reasoning as Carolyn. More powerful as a swing vote than he was before.
3) Shirin - former White Collar and Nagarote. She isn't very good at challenges or at the social game, but at this point that could carry her along since people will not be considering her as a threat.
4) Hali - former No Collar and Nagarote. Although she may be in the minority now, it appears that Jenn is a bigger target than she is, so I feel safe believing that she will survive the next vote. Of course, what usually happens in Survivor when someone claims they feel safe? Discuss amongst yourselves.
Bottom 4 Prospects: Last week I listed Joe, Dan, Rodney, and Sierra. Kelly was voted out in a move I didn't see coming. Here's my new bottom.
11) Joe - former No Collar and Escameca. Just like last week, he's probably still the biggest target.
10) Mike - former Blue Collar and Escameca. My new guess for who will be the target in the larger alliance. And just because his alliance is large, doesn't mean it will stay that way with so many possible swing votes around.
9) Jenn - former No Collar and Nagarote. She was the most recent target and now she doesn't have a hidden immunity idol to save her.
8) Will - former No Collar and Nagarote. He hasn't appreciated being left out of the loop in the past. Although the majority alliance had good reasons, don't expect Will to respond well to being the only one left in the dark. Remember what happened to Vince in episode 2? Will could go rogue, but this time it could be his undoing.
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
Keys to Survivor Worlds Apart Ep06
Survivor: Worlds Apart Episode 06 quick recap:
An abbreviated recap compared to normal. Wrestlemania 31 was my focus this past weekend, so I'm behind.
Reward Challenge: Team races to the top of a large structure, then one-by-one launches weighted bags at 8 targets. First team to hit all 8 targets wins food and a night adventure to watch sea turtles lay eggs. In a surprising outcome, the new, mostly female Nagarote wins. This makes Shirin happy since it gives her a chance to bond with her team to possibly change her trajectory in the game. The food is enjoyed and the turtle adventure was fun.
Immunity Challenge: Memorization game. 6 objects lined up behind a screen. Jeff reveals them. Pairs of people memorize as fast as they can, then drop the curtain before their opponent is ready (ideally). The trick here is that a few people on Escameca have decided it would be wise to throw the challenge to save Kelly and to remove the future threat that is Joe. Rodney and Mike are the masterminds here. In the best of 5, it is 2-2 when Mike must face Kelly. Mike tries to lose, but Kelly gets it wrong too. Mike tells Kelly (quietly) that he's giving it to her, and tries to help her memorize. Kelly gets it wrong again. Round 3 has Jeff reduce it to 5 items. Mike says he will set them up but will switch the bottles. Kelly just has to put the bottles in the opposite positions. She does, and Nagarote wins immunity.
Tribal Council: For Escameca, Mike is now worrying about Rodney and Joaquin becoming good friends. So tonight will likely be Joe, Rodney, or Joaquin. Long story short, Joaquin is voted out 4-3 and Rodney looks perplexed, dumbfounded, etc. Classic blindside, especially since Rodney first brought up the idea of losing the challenge.
Best Moves:
Best #1: Hali is honest with Shirin about why Max was voted out and that Shirin is also in trouble.
Best #2: Shirin takes this information to heart and actually wants to improve her situation, instead of just getting mad.
Best #3: Mike realizes the new threat of Rodney and Joaquin and uses that to pull Sierra back into the group.
Best #4: Dan actually apologizes to Sierra without caveats. Finally.
Worst Moves:
Worst #1: Escameca decides to throw a challenge (or at least Mike and Rodney do).
Worst #2: Joaquin, Tyler, and Joe don't get on the same page and don't effectively court Sierra.
Worst #3: Rodney doesn't realize that he needs to distance himself from Joaquin. Set up an agreement, then keep it on the down-low.
Top 4 Prospects: Last 2 weeks I listed Carolyn, Hali, Tyler, and Joe. Only one revision to the people, and a slight reorder.
1) Carolyn - Nagarote. With the merge coming, she may be in a swing vote group and she still has a hidden immunity idol.
2) Tyler - Escameca. He's tied to Carolyn and I expect them to be swing votes in the next episode.
3) Hali - Nagarote. Showing her wisdom by making good social moves with respect to Shirin.
4) Jenn - Nagarote. With the merge looming, she may wind up in the top group if her No Collar people can sway the swing votes. Plus she has an immunity idol.
Bottom 4 Prospects: Last week I listed Shirin, Kelly, Rodney, and Dan. Joaquin was voted out. Here's my new bottom, factoring in merge implications.
12) Joe - former No Collar and Escameca. He is bound to be a target of one alliance due to his strength.
11) Dan former Blue Collar and Escameca. He's my best guess for being a target on his alliance since Mike was so dumb in that last challenge.
10) Rodney - former Blue Collar and Escameca. I suspect nobody likes him now, but sometimes that is desirable after a merge.
9) Sierra - former Blue Collar and Escameca. Seems like she may be a swing vote, but if she is indecisive then the target may wind up on her.
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