Survivor: Nicaragua

[Spiderman]

Forgot this had started... I guess with the hustle and bustle of premier week for TV shows and that I watched it over the weekend made me forget.

I think the dividing into the old/young tribes is a good idea. I just wish the old tribe had won the immunity challenge to put the young 'uns on the defensive right away...

I think Wendy? sealed her fate by talking "too much" at the council, especially when she asked Jeff to speak some more after the council was seemingly done. It's hard to say, but I think if she was "true to herself" during the days she was on and was talking away, she might have "annoyed" people even sooner.

Don't have a real good feel for everyone since the old tribe focus was on Jimmy Johnson and the young tribe was basically on "Fabio" (LOL). Although I'm not sure why Mario? the fisherman dude on the old tribe feels threatened by Jimmy, although I guess it's because he's used to doing things his own way and being in charge and now he's not?

 

[Melkor]

It is always tough to stand out in the beginning. I also think they want to give us our fill of Jimmy now because if he doesn't shape up soon, he'll be going home soon. I'm not sure I like the Idol of Power or whatever it is. It could lead to uninteresting challenges if they just start trading it back and forth.

 

[Spiderman]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that Idol/Amulet of Power. I think the old tribe made the right choice in not using it - the challenge wasn't overly physical (which is probably their greatest collective weakness) and they had a decent shot at it. They should save it for when they're clearly outclassed and need the advantage (which could be the next one )

 

[train]

I saw the end of this, and agree about the fill of Jimmy... It'll be interesting to see how they interact when the merge happens, and I'm sure some challenges will be geared towards the old or young groups from time to time.

 

[EricBess]

I posted earlier, but my browser freaked out.

Anyway, I think that people need to be less vocal during tribal counsil. That's twice that someone has been eliminated when they just didn't know when to stop talking. Now, I'm not saying they wouldn't have been eliminated anyway, but I got the impression that final decisions weren't necessarily made until then.

My take on the amulet - for the old people, don't waste it on a physical challenge. Use it when you have a chance to win anyway, but things might be close. It would be far worse to use it and lose anyway than to use it when you would have won anyway. That first challenge was close enough that the amulet would have made the difference so in hindsight, they should have used it.

Having said that, they used it the next time and again, it made the difference, but they almost lost that one anyway (it was a bit more physical, but the benefit of the amulet was HUGE).

Personally, I don't think any of the challenges are going to be pure physical. Not when they've separated the tribes into older and younger.

 

[Spiderman]

Yeah, I agree about the speaking up in tribal thing and just making waves in general (thinking of Nay on the younger tribe and Holli on the older). She only survived initially because the people who would like to see her out think she's an easy target and are saving her for later (which could be a mistake...), and so they focused on trying to get a stronger player out and "blindside" him/her and it suddenly polarized the tribe into two equal alliances going into tribal. But I think Shannon's diatribe (plus asking Sasha if he's gay? What's up with that?) caused at least one person to switch to vote for him - I didn't follow the end votes too closely so not sure how many switched over.

The first challenge wasn't all THAT physical - I mean, some had to hold up pieces of gutter to get the water down but that shouldn't have been too difficult. It was more the puzzle skills than anything that got the older tribe behind. I think they made the right choice keeping the amulet then and using it now - even though the younger tribe closed the gap temporarily by getting the first ball in, I think the older tribe didn't panic as much knowing that they also had a ball in. If they didn't, I think they would have started rushing it and missing the basket more, just like the younger tribe did at the end.

 

[EricBess]

I just have one things to say after last night's episode. That black girl has got to go...

 

[Spiderman]

Yeah she does. I guess they keep focusing on her because she's "good TV", but she's just disturbing.

I'm sorry Jimmy J had to go, but I think now that he's gone, the other "alpha males" (specifically Jimmy T and that tech guy) are going to butt heads and cause more discord.

 

[EricBess]

Yes, I agree. Jimmy J wasn't very strong, but he was a good influence on most of the tribe. His problem is that he was too honest about his lack of strength. He certainly wasn't the strongest physically, but he added a lot that he was discounting.

I don't know if I agree with him that he couldn't win (because no one would give it to him since he was already well off), but I think he was genuine and not just "trying to play" like some people thought.

 

[Spiderman]

Well, I think in terms of the game, his admitting of his lack of strength was bad, but presumably, people could have looked past that if they weren't thinking solely in terms of physical strength. I think people will miss him when the other two alphas start butting heads.

But yeah, I think he was genuine.

 

[EricBess]

I think some people were willing to look past his admission because they wanted to keep him around, but to others, it was practically an invitation to vote him off. They could eliminate him and not have to feel guilty about it.

 

[Melkor]

It surprises me that Jimmy J. really did try to kind of be the coach of the tribe. It seems like the older tribe is really underdeveloped as far as the strategy of the game is concerned. Nobody seems to have made firm alliances, they're all just trying to muddle through. So far seems like a weak season, I'm not sure I like anyone that much and the young vs. old thing kind of takes away from the challenges. Still, it's early.

 

[Spiderman]

Well, the tech guy who kind of engineered Jimmy J's ouster is trying to get an alliance together, with him as head of course. But yeah, the others don't really seem to have a plan... I think they were hoping to just have the tribe as one be an alliance and try to beat the younger tribe so they wouldn't have to go to tribal that much.

 

[EricBess]

Yeah, I think Marty seems to be the only one on the old tribe even playing the game. A couple of the women seem to be voting based on "Oh, I think he's such a nice guy". Overall, I'm not impressed with them much.

As for the young tribe, I only have one thing to say and I already said it. You know, there have been a lot of people on Survivor that are considered "villians" and a lot of them are fun to watch. Russell, for example, was an idiot and a jerk, but he made things interesting. Naonka is just absolutely annoying. Did you see yesterday's episode yet? More of the same. Pure attitude with absolutely no reasoning to back it up. I can't believe the other girl (Brenda?) is so willing to let her just take the idol, and her comments about "I figured it out" when it was clearly the other girl that figured it out. What kind of a narcisist is this girl?

 

[Spiderman]

Started watching this last night and just when it reached tribal council, the kids woke up and it was all a mess... so hopefully will finish up tonight and can comment tomorrow.

 

[Spiderman]

Okay, finished it up (but didn't see last night's now ) yeah, I totally agree with you about Naonka - I don't know what her problem is with the girl with the prosthetic and apparently neither does anyone else. I hope she goes soon. They ought to "blindside" her

And yeah, unless some people who aren't getting a lot of airtime on the old tribe have their own gameplan, it seems they're just really "following the herd" and Marty is trying to call the shots. And as I thought, Jimmy T was the next to go. I don't understand his relentless call to "give him a shot", especially when people were calling him on it and asking him what he would have done in the challenge had he been the one giving directions and he said "um, nothing, BUT I want to be given a shot at leading...". So I'm glad he's gone too.

But no one has really jumped out as a favorite yet; I guess there's still too many people and the show has to jump back and forth between the two tribes still

 

[Spiderman]

My wife's away this week, so I won't be seeing any shows until she gets back. Plus we still haven't watched last weeks... so lots of catching up to do next week.

 

[EricBess]

It never ceases to amaze me how rediculous people on this show really are. I don't know if they just wait for someone to tell them what to do or what is going on.

I was under the impression that the "plan" was to split the votes as a fall-back. When Jill (I believe that's her name) won immunity, they couldn't split their votes between her and Marty, so they had to use Kelly B, who they had previously had a problem with.

Personally, I'm not sure why Fabio didn't tell Marty what they were planning. If he had, they could have formed an aliance of 4 and busted it up very easily, getting rid of Brenda. But I guess Fabio isn't really sure where his alegence is yet.

Still, my understanding was that first priority was to get rid of Marty and the immunity idol, with Kelly B being the back-up plan in case that didn't work out. When the vote ended in a tie, my first thought was that Kelly B would then be eliminated because there were 3 votes for her, 3 for Marty, and 2 for Brenda. The votes for Brenda came from Mary and Jill, and Kelly voted for Marty. Since Kelly and Marty couldn't vote, then that's 3 votes for Kelly B, 2 for Marty, and an additional vote from Jill, switching from Brenda to Kelly B (since Jill isn't going to vote for Marty).

However, that was really stupid. Once the tie happened, why did they all keep voting for the same person they had been "assigned" to vote for? If the top priority was to eliminate Marty and Kelly B was just the back-up plan, then after the tie, the revote should have had only 1 vote for Kelly B (Jill's) and 5 votes for Marty (everyone else). I guess they might be a bit worried about fall-out from Kelly B, but this way, they didn't even manage to flush the idol out. It's sort of like studying all month for a test, memorizing all of the correct answers, and then when you get to the test, you just put all "C"s without even reading the questions.

 

[EricBess]

So, I have started to dislike Brenda almost as much as I dislike Naonka (but not quite). At this point, both are very manipulative and fairly arrogant about their control of the game. I don't remember the name of the guy that was accused of being gay, but he's a fool to think that he is controlling things when clearly Brenda is pulling the strings. At some point, things will unravel and they will be forced to figure out where the true alliances are.

I can't believe how stupid Marty was giving up the idol and I can't believe how stupid they others were in not voting off Marty. They told Marty they would give him the idol back. Any wagers on whether that happens? Either way, Marty is going to have some ammunition now since it looks like they are merging. Is it just me, or is the merge happening earlier than it usually does?

 

[EricBess]

Honestly, I think this is one of the dumbest groups they have had on Survivor in a long time. They all discuss what they want to happen and occassionally even what they need to do to make it happen, but they never seem to follow through on any of their plans.

I was sort of torn, though, because the two people I have liked least on this season were Brenda and Naonka. Amazing how Brenda actually started being a decent sort of person once she thought she was on the chopping block. Still, I don't know how long Sash thinks he's going to last now that the alliance has disrupted around him. I'm not sure what I would have done in his position. My gut is that he would have been better off using the idol to protect Brenda, but even if he does, they end up 4 against 5, so they still don't have the numbers. Still, I think 4 against 5 without an idol might be better odds than 3 against 6 with it...

But speaking of that...what's up with Kelly? Seems like everything think she's with the other group.

I was sort of curious what would have happened had Sash pulled out the idol for Brenda. Would Naonka then pull out her idol as well? I can't remember who that last vote was for. What do they do if all votes are for people with immunity? Probably will never happen, but I wonder if they have a contingency in place.