COME ON IN, GUYS Beginning of Mini-Recap "Okay, let's take a pause from our Justice 4 Heather campaign and get into all the other big moments from Survivor 1 (What? They told me to drop the 4!)" Dalton Ross "Heather Speaks!" was the name of Dalton's recap. Fitting: this was the first time she has made a real effort to impact the game, and it was... a nice effort, I guess. But a complete failure. Sorry Heather. The show opens at camp after the last explosive tribal council. You know: Liana tried to take Xander's idol but got outsmarted. Back at camp, the Yasa three (who worked so well to trick Liana) suddenly seemed to be turning on each other! Xander, Evvie and Tiffany.... none of them trust each other. All of them are looking to find new allies. None of them are having much success. Wonder why that trio (and try to include Liana for four) couldn't stick together long enough to reduce the Luvus? I really am curious about this. Or to take out Ricard or Shan. Why wouldn't Shan and Ricard, the tribe of two, be at the bottom and not the Yasas, a tribe of four going into the merge (Shan is in a sub-allliance with Luvu's Danny, Dashawn and Liana. It wouldn't require much convincing to take those six votes - the majority - and switch the target to any of the bottom three)? Why did all three of them see themselves as at the bottom? I know... they all felt betrayed for one reason or another. But the three of them seemed so solid at that last tribal council. Why did it fall apart for them as soon as that TC was over? (Tribal proved the Luvus were "Navity strong". With Shan and Ricard on their side, it was only a matter of time (and immunity wins) before they all got pagonged). It made for some interesting conversation. And at the end, it seemed as though Evvie would be the target. Of course, this was early in the episode, so we all know what THAT means: no way was Evvie going anywhere at the end of this episode. Reward Challenge -To start, everyone had to draw a rock. Whoever drew the gray one had to sit out the challenge and miss the reward: lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches and chips. In keeping with the new tradition, Erica was the unlucky one to draw the gray rock. Before the tribe arrived, we got a moment alone with Jeff, who explained he was hiding an advantage under the sit-out bench. Good things come to those who seek hard enough to find them, right? (Right Michaela, who practically stubbed her toe on the hidden idol during "Second Chances" but didn't bother picking the bag up? Right Sara, who caught a glimpse of the bag while swimming in the challenge, and managed to secretly board the raft and steal the idol for herself after the tribe had left) Xander, the kind-hearted soul that he is, offered to take Erica's spot on the bench so that she would not miss out on lunch. Aww. What a nice guy! Well, sort of. Heh. There were selfish motives at play here. He clearly knew he should look for .. something. But he didn't look hard enough and found no advantage (which, we must say, really wasn't concealed well). He should have looked harder and not worried about anyone noticing. I mean... I doubt anyone completely bought him doing it out of the kindness of his heart. Everyone knows Xander and the player he is. Still, Erica's team won (in large part due to Evvie's puzzle solving skills) and she got a good lunch out of it. I'm sure she appreciated that. Xander also said he liked the idea of using time spent with those who lose, to gain allies while they are feeling vulnerable. Liana and Shan had a meltdown over the loss of the challenge and a lost chance for some real food; Xander lent a compassionate ear. Meanwhile, tribe provider Naseer went out and found them all papayas. As the winners came back, their bellies full from lunch, Ricard's eyes light up at the site of freshly cut up papaya and he nabs a piece. Imagine his shock when his ride-or-die Shan tore a strip off him for taking a piece after just having had a reward lunch. "I've never seen this on Survivor, a player getting their hand slapped for taking food at camp after having food at a reward." he whined. Uh, Ricard? It's happened many, many times over the last fourty seasons. Immunity Challenge The immunity challenge is an old warhorse endurance comp: stand on your tippy toes with a block of wood on your head pressed up against a frame. Last person standing wins immunity. Who can endure the longest? As it turns out... HEATHER can! Well, almost. Before we discuss Heather, we should mention the deal. Probst made an offer: he would send a full bag of rice back to camp if some would sit out the challenge and give up their shot at immunity. Shan is the first to volunteer but she wants to make a deal. "How many need to sit out to get the rice?" She first offers "Two" and Probst all but scoffs at the notion. "Seven? Five?" Naseer steps up but no one else - so the two decide to give up on it. Then Xander talks Probst down to four, and offers to be the third volunteer. Ricard makes four, and the deal was done. To recap: Shan, Naseer, Xander and Ricard (three of whom are holding idols, so not as much of a risk for them) sit out of the challenge in exchange for a bag of rice for the tribe. Many players drop down almost as soon as the challenge starts. Quickly it narrows down to Evvie and Heather. Yes, HEATHER! The silent one who has barely been seen all season suddenly is THIS close to winning a challenge. I was all feeling good for her (until Tribal Council). Evvie takes possession of the necklace, Back at camp, Shan was causing real hard feelings among her alliance. She just HAS to have her way no matter what. She won't listen to the opinions of others. She wants full control at all times. Liana wanted to force Xander to use his idol but actually target Tiffany. Shan wanted to vote.. Naseer? Or was it... Heather? Huh? Because she came so close to winning ONE challenge after having spoken barely two words in eight weeks... now she's a threat? Honestly, it all got confusing for me. I lost track of who was wanting what about halfway through with all the drama between Shan and Deshawn (who really didn't appreciate the paster not wanting to hear his opinion - or anyone else's). Xander caught wind that Liana's goal was to flush his idol, so his radar was up too. They get to tribal council and the drama continues. When Jeff finally announces it's time to vote, Hether (!) asks if she is allowed to talk. She jumps up and starts whispering to everyone. WTH? It looked for a second she might be actually shaking up the works. And then... no. Heather wanted to shift everyone to Naseer. Shan could hear, and called her people around to vote Heather for causing so much drama. DaShawn didn't want anyone telling him what to do without feeling like his opinion was heard. It was a bit confusing to watch and ultimately, Heather ended up looking rather foolish. Dalton's recap gives the play by play quite well. Here is a link if you care to check it out: Survivor 41 recap: Heather speaks! | EW.com In the end, it was Tiffany who was voted out. Sadly. It felt like she wasn't really the target going in (well....the Luvus semmed determined to get one of the bottom three out. Evvie had the idol, so if they brought the floaters in and split the vote, Xander might be forced to play his idol and Tiffany would go. That seemed to be their ideal plan). But somehow after all the drama, she was the fall guy. HA.. or girl. She might be a fun jury member though. Should search out the first Ponderosa. "Oh, and as for yet another live Tribal, remember back when players weren't allowed to have private conversations there and actually had to figure out a way to communicate certain things to certain people without tipping off others? I miss those days." Dalton Ross Me too, Dalton. Me too. Okay, we will let WM add all the details I missed. See ya next week. Beginning of Live Chat
Episode synopsis reads like this: "The castaways must work to make amends after betrayals; an interesting turn of events takes place at the reward challenge." There were plenty of betrayals: Xander feeling betrayed by Evvie with the knowledge that she had shared his idol info with DaShawn; the Luvus feeling betrayed by Erica for hitting the hourglass and putting them all in jeopardy; Liana feeling betrayed by the Yasas (specifically Tiffany, who she thought she could trust) for making her look foolish, tricking her with the fake idol to save Evvie. Maybe Evvie feeling betrayed by Liana (so determined to take Xander's idol that it became impossible for him to use to save Evvie at that last tribal council - until he got wind of her betrayal and came up with a slam dunk defense against her, that is). Perhaps all of the above? So many options! And just what "interesting turn of events" will take place at the reward challenge? I don't even have a guess. But maybe I'll try to come up with one before Wednesday for NGH purposes. This might take some thought! Well, now it's Wednesday... hmm. I really STILL don't have a guess. Maybe another "re-write history" moment: all the voted-out players return as a team, to go head-to-head against the people still in the game. If the ex-players win this challenge, "history" will rewrite their torch-snuffings and they are now back in the game; the losing tribe of current players are unceremoniously sent to Ponderosa. Not fair? Who cares! That's what rewriting history is for! (Must read that back to see if it makes any sense. Hmmm.....) ...yep, it makes sense. And I wouldn't put ANYTHING past the drunken producers (who obviously had far too much time on their hands when plotting out season 41) to pull something completely unfair like that. Here is how I imagined the planning sessions went: they began by rewatching all fourty previous seasons. Which immediately led to... drinking game! Each time Probst said the word "guys", everyone had to chug the alcoholic beverage of their choice. Naturally, they got completely plastered; naturally, that was followed by some incredibly stupid ideas. "Probst should stop using the word "guys" so much. It's annoying. Also, very bad for the liver." said one. "I have a perfect way to put a stop to THAT." said one, slobbering over his drink. "Wouldn't it be a hoot for the players to humiliate themselves week after week by saying random, idiotic sentences? Maybe "butterflies are dead relatives"? No, I'll come up with stupider when I'm drunker. Hey, do goats ever use Astro-turf?" "It's GOLD, I tell ya!" said another, legendary for quoting "Seinfeld" whenever he imbibed. "Hey, let's have one team win immunity - only to have it reversed on them the very next episode by a different advantage!" said a third. "Maybe we should really stack the teams by making it a very physical one - well, except for that damn puzzle at the end that Probst insists finish EVERY challenge - then load all the strong young men on one team, with maybe one or two token females, and all the other ladies - especially any over fourty - onto the other team, with just one male. " "Ha! Oh ya, they will be SOME pissed!" Now, I don't drink and have no idea how to write people speaking while drunk so I will let WM make those three statements more entertaining to read (just make each one vomit whenever they finish a sentence). We know from his past history on EW that at one time he used to post as a guest, under incognito monikers. One was a drunk, if I'm not mistaken. So long ago, I can't recall what he used to call himself (Her name was "Old Lush", after the drunk office worker in the movie "Nine to Five". She was a constant drunken presence on the "Bachelor" board). Out of time..... WM, fix all this for me. Who wants to live chat "Survivor" at 8 pm?
Comments
|
Archives
May 2024
Categories
All
|