Survivor Tocantis Finale Thoughts

For a finale that was going to have no drama to the end result (JT was going to win,) there managed to be quite a bit of (manufactured) drama. JT and Steven seemed to dissolve their friendship right before our eyes (much to Steven's surprise/dismay.) Alas, we were had, and JT proved once again why he deserved the win with a grade A acting job.

JT was the second person to win via clean sweep of all votes. It's tough to say whether his clean sweep was more impressive than Earl's - on one hand Earl had to face 2 opponents in final tribal, but his opponents were infinitely weaker than Steven. Ultimately, I'd give the nod to JT, as he actually dominated the game, and Steven had an argument that might have swayed a vote or two his way.

It's fair to start to think about where JT ranks in the pantheon of greatest Survivor players. He dominated the game physically, and he dominated the social game as well. He definitely ranks as one of the captains in the goofy idea Boyd and I came up with after the Cook Islands season. In terms of winners, here's how I stack them:

1.  Tom (Survivor 10)
2.  JT (Survivor 18)
3.  Brian (Survivor 5)
4.  Richard (Survivor 1)
5.  Yul (Survivor 13)
6.  Todd (Survivor 15)
7.  Tina (Survivor 2)
8.  Aras (Survivor 12)
9.  Bob (Survivor 17)
10. Chris (Survivor 9)
11. Jenna (Survivor 6)
12. Ethan (Survivor 3)
13. Earl (Survivor 14)
14. Sandra (Survivor 7)
15. Parvarti (Survivor 16)
16. Amber (Survivor 9 - All Stars)
17. Danni (Survivor 11)
18. Vescepia (Survivor 4)

More importantly, they need to find a way to get Coach on another season. I'd be willing to sit through another All-Star season just to get my Coach fix (his Twitter feed just isn't enough.) His lie detector stunt is fantastic, because it shows he's aware of what his role is, but it also shows that if he gets caught in a significant lie, les jeux s'ont fait.

And finally, your link du jour: Bid on Jeff Probst's Tribal Stool!

(Yes, I just made a bad poop joke.)

Survivor: Tocantis Thoughts - 04/23/09

A quick post because I'm still blown away by this episode.

Last episode, when Brendan was voted out, I thought that JT and Steven were screwed, all because of their own stupidity. They chose an alliance with Coach, Tyson et al where they were in the minority. And they weren't going to be in a position to change that without aligning with Sierra, which they were dead set against for reasons that are still unclear.

Meanwhile, Sierra was screwed, and nobody was trying to make her feel otherwise. From Coach's suggestion to "take her death honourably", to Debbie's argument that Sierra wasn't loyal and Tyson's telling her to straight to her face that she was stupid, it did not look good for her.

A glimmer of hope arose when the immunity competition was a modified game of shuffleboard. Sure enough, with one rock left, Sierra was winning. But Debbie knocked Sierra out and won immunity.

While Sierra struggled to try to stay in the game, JT and Steven came up with a new plan. Why not get rid of Tyson, who had won 2 of the 3 immunity challenges? They knew that Sierra would vote for him, and they, along with Taj and Erinn, would have the numbers to execute their plan. Sure enough, Tyson is confident at Tribal Council, but gets blindsided and voted out in one of the most satisfying tribal councils that I can remember.

The thing that really bugs me is that I should have seen this result coming. The editing was very much showing Tyson as overconfident, and Sierra having no hope whatsoever. And yet, I was still convinced that Sierra was getting voted out. After 18 seasons, I should have seen the swerve coming. But I didn't, and I enjoyed the show immensely.

It goes without saying that this season has probably been the best in a long time, with blindside after blindside, likeable characters in JT and to a lesser extent Brendan, a great villan in Tyson, and the greatest character since Rupert in Coach. I can only hope that the season keeps up the pace it has set.

Survivor: Tocantis Episode 3 Live Blog

Quick Episode 2 Thoughts: Candice was dumb. Someday, when I write the guidelines on how to play Survivor, one of the main ones will be "Avoid conflict in the early going of the game. Another will be to never pick a fight with somebody who is seen as more valuable than you, and a final one will be "First strike is much more powerful than waiting." Candice managed to break all of those guidelines. Don't rock the boat unless you have to.

Onto the liveblog:

- Erinn is digging a huge hole for herself. Combine that with hergeneral weakness in physical challenges and she's definitely in trouble.

- Coach refers to "my alliance". I give him credit for playing completely from the Brian Hedick playbook, but Brian was much more of a physical threat.

- Uh-oh. Jerry is not feeling well. It's like the storylines write themselves.

- Jalapeno can't figure out how to use the fishing net to catch fish. Luckily, they catch a copule of minnows to use as bait, and then use the fishing line to catch actual fish.

- Oooh, maze. Throw in blindfolds and it's comedy time!

- Yes! Blindfold and guiding and corn hitting somebody in the head!

- That each team is on the course makes this even better.

- Debbie isn't doing that bad of a job as a spotter. But Timbira is awful as a team.

- Jeff stirring the pot by asking if there's any concern about Brendan and Taj going back to Exile Island. Taj needs to worry about her spot (if her revelation of being Eddie George's wife wasn't enough reason.)

- Text from Matty P: "Coach has to go. He sucks."

- Coach is surprisingly calm in his tribe, and is entirely reasonable.

- Tyson wanting to be called Coach if he's on another tribe is amusing. But it will probably come off as obnoxious.

- Nice Jalapeno/Tibmira contrast with the rain.

- I have to imagine that Mark Burnett salivated when he found out that his latest wrinkle in Exile Island is working just as he hoped: creating a secret alliance between tribes.

- Jalapao is very confident, which normally means that they are headed for a loss.

- Did Jerry just call Brendan BJ?

- Sydney's "See you soon" was just the icing on the cake - Jalapao is losing.

- Pairings are very important. Steven and Sydney was not the choice.

- Then again, neither was Tyson and Coach.

- Timbira starting building wrong. And not working well together. It's like they want to make me look bad.

- It's the end of Jerry. Too bad for him.

- Jerry says "he isn't going to quit". But, uh, he just said he's through.

- Sierra isn't falling for the "Vote for Erinn movement. Good idea.

- Tyson lying to Jerry that "nobody" was talking about voting him out is interesting. And probably a good psychological move.

- But it's pretty obvious that Jerry is likely to go.

- Jerry suggesting Brendan as the leader instead of Coach is probably my favourite moment in Survivor since at least the Randy fake idol blindside.

- COACH~! "I don't want to say I was the leader, but from the moment we were on the truck, I looked into everybody's eyes and I communicated through that eye contact that they needed to get whatever they cool off the truck."

- Erinn shoots down Coach, and then Jeff identifies it as Passive/Agressive.

- Don't worry, Coach doesn't want to be leader because of ego.

- Jerry's "We'll be getting rid of the weakest" statement is one of those statements that's supposed to be prophetic or something.

- And look at that. Jerry gets voted out. Thank goodness this played out as it should have.

- The Matty P texts: "?" then "I'm fine with that" (likely because Jerry isn't an attractive woman.)

Final thoughts: As soon as Jerry complained about being sick, you knew it had to be him getting the boot. But Erinn needs to be worried about her spot in Timbira (assuming we don't get a switch next week.)

Survivor: Tocantis Episode 1 Thoughts

I had a grandiose plan of doing a preview of this season's Survivor, but disaster hit on Sunday: My laptop decided to breakdown. The diagnosis? Video card dead. The solution? Purchasing a new laptop (to the regret of my pocketbook.) Hopefully, this helps to explain why I'm (a) reverting to the list o' thoughts format and (b) why this might be shorter than expected.

• The old bait and switch was in full effect. Two people are going to be voted out indeed. Instead, we got a Survivor favourite - identifying to everybody who the consensus weak link is. I swear though, Mark Burnett was thrilled when he saw the polar opposite reactions to the shunning.


• Sandy's reaction was not surprising. Heck, I'd be angry as well if I had shown up and had my opportunity taken away simply because people thought I was too old. But I really thought she was in trouble when she decided to go for the Idol instead of setting up camp. As it turns out, she benefitted from a strong performance in immunity challenge (though it really helped her to be put in the easiest position to succeed.) It also helped that somebody managed to step up to annoy the "Jalapeno" tribe.


• Meanwhile, at the Timbira tribe, Sierra took the attitude that she had to prove herself, so she was going to build the shelter while her tribe struggled to make it to the camp site. This was an excellent idea since she pretty well tanked her chances of surviving the first vote by admitting she had "strep throat" and a 102 degree fever. Ultimately, it didn't matter - Timbira won immunity so she was spared, and has at least three more days to integrate herself into the tribe (or hope that somebody else screws up.)


• Tangential note - it took me 5 minutes to realize that Timbira (the black tribe) were wearing dark colours while "Jalapeno" (the red tribe) were wearing bright colours.


• And now, to poor, poor, Carolina. It was pretty obvious that they were setting her up to be the other person who could be voted out. They were showing her "bossy" side and playing it up even before the immunity challenge. By the time she tried to change her ways, it was too late. She hadn't performed well in the Immunity Challenge, and now she's pushing people around. She has to go. Realistically, she broke two of the rules to avoid being the first person voted out: (1) Don't take a leadership role (especially if the tribe doesn't want to be lead) and (2) Don't be a hot woman. Yes, the Matty P corollory - The hot chicks get voted out first - reared its ugly head yet again. I'm kinda surprised that I didn't get a phone call from Matt, but it's possible that he didn't actually watch this episode.


• To continue with the "I'm a guy, so I'm going to talk about attractive women" meme, Sydney is stunning.


• A general observation of this year's players - they seem to all be aware of how the game is played, which means that this season is going to be more interesting to the hardcore Survivor fan. This makes me nervous though, because next season could see a swing back to the wacky character. I hope I'm wrong.


• My prediction for who gets voted out next episode is Sandy. I just don't see her surviving again, especially when she still isn't integrating herself into the tribe.

All in all, a good episode which hints at a good season to come. I might be back later this week with some thoughts on some of the individual players, but if not, I will see you here next week for episode 2!