Survivor: Philippines Episode 1 Live Thoughts

Hey, guess who's back? Yup, Survivor returns and so do I. These thoughts were taken as the show went on, and are presented as is. I should be back tomorrow with an initial power rankings/first thoughts on the players.

- Side benefit of Skupin reappearing is they get to use more Elizabeth Hasselback footage.
- Possibly the best first appearance of Jeff Probst
- Way to call out Jeff Kent immediately
- There is no chance I am going to remember the tribe names. So Yellow (Skupin), Red (Penner) and Purple (Swan)
- Skupin grew up watching the Facts of Life. That's something I didn't expect
- Awesome, they're doing the get your supplies in 60 seconds and then get on the raft thing.
- Did they get any machetes?
- Jeff Kent loses everyting, but they recover well.
- And then Jeff Kent gets hurt. Awesome

- Swan isn't going to take the leadership role, and then immediately says "Let's get our stuff and get it going"
- Swan's plan is to throw the leadership role at the person who doesn't expect it but wants to step up. Okay, but then he's showing somebody how to make shelter, like a good leader. Is the somebody he's talking about himself?
- And there's the poster child (Angie)
- Wait, Malcolm lived in Micronesia?
- And he started a fire without a flint?
- I mean what?
- No really, what?
- And now Malcolm is happy to make Russel the leader.
- Back to Red, and Jeff Kent is still hurt
- But Penner is looking at this as a job
- Oh god Jeff Kent is giving Penner the Barry Bonds treatment, and they're going to boot him.
- Skupin has the awareness that he's
- So we have 3 people who are lying about who they are - Jeff Kent, Lisa and RC
- Alliance talk between Abi and RC is too forced and quick. This is going to fail
- OMG Abi is going tot ry to play the Parvati role this year. That's going to fail
- And Skupin falls into a decent 4 person alliance.
- He does note that ehis alliance mates are moving fast

- Dana is a southern punk rock person. Interesting.
- As is her desire to work with Jeff Kent.
- Jeff's plan to not reveal his being a former baseball player with a tonne of money is to instead claim that he has a ranch in San Antonio? Um...
- My girl Sarah Dawson knows who Jeff Kent is. And she's planning on using the information strategically. Well done.
- His actual backstory is that he rides motocross for fun, but sells motorcycles? And he owns a ranch? I mean, come on.
- Oh no Lisa is going to do the opposite of playing cutthroat and is going to try to get to know everybody on a personal level.
- And she starts with her Ministry for Moms job. I don't think that RC and Abi is the right audience.
- And Lisa is isolating herself even further.
- Skupin hasn't lost his awareness for the game. That is going to be
- Denise picking up on Zane's tattoos and backstory is something I didn't expect.
- Then Roxanne picking up on Zane making alliances with every person in the game is just as interesting.
- Zane then bringing in the guys by saying that he has an alliance with everybody else, which sets Malcolm's radar. Malcolm is going to be interesting.
- Malcolm has too much of a hard-on to get rid of Russell swan. It's kinda like Ralph and the other Russell from Redemption Island, and it's probably going to bite him in the ass.

- Skupin is stepping up as leader.
- But what the hell, would you stop getting hurt Skupin?
- And there's Pete with our first joke about somebody's accident in their last appearance which severely hurt them. Yay.
- The Red tribe is going after Penner, who is looking for the immunity idol.
- He gets a clue about it being under his nose, which is obviously the giant symbol thing on the box that the rice came in, but he doesn't put 2 and 2 together.
- And then Russell flukes into the same idol clue.
- Which gets him into trouble with Zane (who caught him looking at the clue). But Zane has his own trust issues with the rest of the tribe, and he seems to think that Russell already has the idol. That could be a problem.

- Wait, they got war paint but we weren't told? Why not?
- The immunity idol is a chicken.
- Make that immunity idols.
- The non-leader Russell Swan steps up to tell his team to calm down.
- And then he stops any dissentors from talking bad about his plan for the immunity challenge (at least until he explains it completely.)
- Is Zane supposed to be the Joker or Abe "Knuckleball" Schwartz?
- Zane did not help his cause with his performance there
- What does Malcolm have on his torso that has to be blurred?
- Probst was so happy to announce that Skupin was so far in the lead.
- What the hell happened with Malcolm and Denise that they were overtaken by the far behind red tribe?
- The best part of having three tribes is how much more emphasis and pressure Jeff can put on the tribes.
- Shockingly, Purple is
- "I told you, I'm not good at puzzles," really doesn't address the part where you guys were in last before even starting your puzzle.
- Then Non-Leader Russell steps up to admit that he bears some responsibility for choosing the pairings.
- Russell: "We just have to click the next time. And that's the beauty Jeff, there's always a next time"
  Jeff: "There's a next time for 5 of you." <- That's why Jeff Probst is awesome.
- Malcom puts the blame on Russell for not listening to anybody, but who was the one who took a huge lead into the water before getting overtaken?

- Non-Leader Russell gives a pep talk to his tribe that doesn't believe in him...
- Zane all of the sudden interrupts Russell and proceeds to throw himself under the bus. Interesting. He talks about how Russell had to literally pull him along and that he didn't deserve to be there.
- Russell is pleased by this
- Zane, OTOH, explains to us that this is his plan. He's going to act weak so that his tribe will want to carry him along as a liability instead of a strong player. Which would be smart if we were close to a merge or something. But after the FIRST CHALLENGE?
- This plan is Luwan-esque.
- "I'm playing chess the best way I know how, and hopefully, I'm gonna king me." How was that not the title of the show?
- What is with people from Danville, Virginia wanting to get voted out in the first tribal council?
- Non-Leader Russell tells Angie and Roxanne that it looks like Zane is the vote. Which is cool. He then continues to talk.  Which isn't.
- "All I have to say is Welcom to Survivor, dig deep, you guys got it in you." I mean, that's what a non-leader would say.
- Angie now lambasting the Non-Leader for trying to lead while saying he's not a leader, and then not leading very well.
- (BTW, I am going to drive this Non-Leader joke into the ground, if I haven't already. Be forewarned.)
- The cameraman does a pretty good job of making sure that we notice Angie's bum.
- Okay Angie, you told him that you weren't good at puzzles. You were also working from behind. You'd need to be Boston Rob to have come back from that deficit.
- And now Angie confronts Zane about giving up, which he claims he isn't doing. Um, saying you deserve to be voted out is giving up.
- Angie comes back with the big revelation that she and Roxanne wanted to run but he ran instead. Here's the thing, Russell and Zane got the oars to Malcolm and Denise in pretty reasonable time. Then that lead was decimated by Malcolm and Denise's inability to row. Unless you want to blame Russell for putting them on rowing and swimming, this wasn't his fault or Zane's fault. But the real culprits skate away without even a hint of getting voted out. Ridiculous.
- "You aren't going home, because we need you. We need some laughter." You also need to actually win a challenge, which seems less likely with Zane.
- "You ain't never seen a move like this in Survivor history." Well, that's true in a sense. I mean, Richard Hatch threw a challenge because he knew that he would make the final 2 either way, but he didn't ask for either person to vote him out.
- Malcolm asks Zane if he really wants to go, and that he would prefer Zane to stay. Zane interprets this to mean that Russell is gone unless he has an idol. I interpret it to mean that Malcolm would like Zane to commit to actually playing the game and not whining about it being hard but him not giving up but he deserves to be voted out.
- Zane then offers up that Russell has an idol. Malcolm immediately interprets that as being sketchy (going back to the trust issue that Zane created earlier.)
- What is with the theory that Zane, Malcolm and Denise seem to have that since Russell has an immunity idol, this gives Zane a chance to stay because they will vote Russell out. Isn't that the point of a hidden immunity idol?
- Both Denise and Malcolm touch on Zane's weakness in the challenge and how that doesn't help things.
- Russell at least realizes that his Non-Leader act wasn't very Non-Leader like.
- "You never know with this game. I mean, these people could vote me out tonight." Not the best of quotes for you Russell.
- Holy crap a cobra at Tribal Council.
- Denise praises Russell's knowledge as helpful, but derides his return as ruining the purity of the game.
- This turned into a big "Russell is a dictator, but is going to change his ways" discussion. That's not good for Russell.
- But of course Zane brings up that he volunteered to get voted out, and that might help Russell wiggle off the hook.
- The votes are in and Zane reacts in shock when his name comes up a third time.
- And sure enough, Zane gets voted out.