Survivor: Nicaragua

[Spiderman]

I know the finale aired, but luckily I don't know who won and and am still catching up...

Saw the 11/17 show, this is the one where Brenda was (mostly) blindsided and voted off. Actually, I wouldn't call it a blindside because she knew she was being voted, but I think she was trusting too much in that some people wouldn't at the last minute or something. That and perhaps hoping Sash would give her the immunity idol.

While I'm glad to see a "power player" out, Naonka really needs to go. It must be the next one where she shows what she really is since the previews alluded to it and she was fairly calm in this episode, but man, hopefully she's out soon since her alliance is broken.

What surprises me is that Dan is still in the game, bum knees and all. Ordinally he would have been voted out a long time ago but I think due to all the mergers and switch-ups, more desirable targets have emerged and he's survived. Pretty amazing

Jane is amazing too, hanging on in the immunity challenge and beating Chase. I'm starting to root for her... Marty was right, she is very dangerous and could win it if she goes all the way.

 

[Spiderman]

Saw the 11/24 show, the "catch-up" show. Not much from here, even from "unaired" footage. I guess the things that stood out was that Dan got some air time in showing his strategy in trying to bond with the younger players after the merge, Holly trying to get Jimmy T to consider the possibility of a merger and him dismissing her, and Naonka going to Holly for advice about what to do after stealing the food.

 

[Spiderman]

Saw the 12/1 show, this is the one with Naonka and purple Kelly quitting.

I guess I feel for the ones on the jury since obviously they still wanted to play and can't believe that those two quit. It's only 11 more days! Obviously though I'm not out there and don't know how it is, so it's easy for me to say Still, it must have been terribly frustrating to those who *were* out there and knew how it was and seeing the two quit.

I think Naonka is delusional though, saying she had a shot at the million. I don't think *anyone* would have voted for her, no matter who she was paired up with if she made it to the finals.

And kudos to Holly for "taking one for the team" and forgoing the reward challenge so the tribe would have a new tarp and more rice. Again, it was puzzling why Naonka wouldn't give up her spot since she was quitting (well, not puzzling since we know she's selfish, but still holding out hope ). I hope she doesn't make it back to any future Survivors who recall the "best loved" or "most famous" or whatever dopey reason they give to bring back past contestants. Especially not "those who quit".

 

[Spiderman]

Saw the 12/8 show, this is the one where Benry got voted off.

Honestly, there's not a lot happening. Sach is talking alot about how he's the key vote between the two alliances, Chase takes Jane and Holly to the reward challenge and seemingly disses Sash, which he knows was a mistake when he got there (and I just realized while watching that Jane and Holly are the only two females left - yeah for the old tribe), there's wheeling and dealing and Benry is blindsided.

And what still amazes me is how Dan is still in the game despite being physically weak. Although at this point, that's to his advantage since it appears the strong ones are being targeted (Benry and Fabio).

My favorites to win at this point are Jane and Fabio, although I don't think Fabio will make it unless he wins immunity or something weird happens with the 4 person alliance.

 

[EricBess]

I think at that point, people were trying to balance "who would get votes" with "who might win immunity", so Dan is still around because he isn't a physical threat. I'm not sure how popular people think he is, though. Then again, Holly is still around also, so if you are worried about keeping someone popular, she's got to be a huge target. Yes, yeah for "taking one for the team", but that sort of thing also puts a target on your back, so you have to be careful.

BTW - hope I'm not giving anything away, but Jane ends up winning the "most popular" vote that they do each year. Personally, I don't see it. I never really liked Jane all that much.

 

[Spiderman]

Well, from what it sounded like, everyone thought that Holly deserved to go on the next reward challenge, even though Chase and Sash were the only ones shown actually saying it, but it seemed no one begrudged her for going back at camp. So I don't think that would be the cause of being a target. If anything, it'd be because she's in the "strong" alliance right now with Chase and Jane and Sash. Although Chase seems stronger physically so he'd probably be the top target.

Then again, the other three - Benry, Dan, and Fabio, didn't really seem like they had an alliance to begin with as they were willing to vote each other off (well, not Dan as his name didn't come up, but Fabio and Benry), so I think they're just doing anything they can to make sure their name isn't on the ballot for a particular council.

I heard about Jane, so not sure if that means she loses overall (because it never seems that the winner and the most popular are the same) or what...

 

[EricBess]

Nothing in the rules says that the overall winner can't with the most popular. Without commenting on this season, I believe it happened once before, but I wouldn't swear to it. I'm certain that the winner has been in the "top 3" in previous seasons.

I don't remember when they start actually showing comments about Holly, but they do occassionally discuss who they want eliminated based on popularity, and again, without saying what actually happens, there are people who are concerned that Holly will auto-win if she gets to the final tribal council. But yes, in the meantime, I agree. I don't think anyone begrudged her going on the rewards after having given up the movie reward. Everyone thought Naonka should have given it up because she was going to be comfortable soon enough anyway.

Did you see the episode yet where Jeff basically tells them how they should be voting?

 

[Spiderman]

Nothing in the rules says that the overall winner can't with the most popular.

Oh, I know that. I just don't think it's happened. Rupert is the only one that stands out to me right now though.

Of course, it's kinda stacked in that the most popular is more than likely one of those who reaches the top 3 because that means they've had the most screen time and thus more time for viewers to get to know them. I don't think there's been a season where the top 3 were absolutely hated by everyone

They haven't shown such comments about Holly yet, but there's only two shows left, so it's probably coming up. Same with Jeff's comments.

 

[Spiderman]

Saw the 12/15 show, the second to last one. This is where Jane gets voted off.

While it was amusing to see Jane be petulant and put out the fire before she left, I'm left with wondering how she thinks she played the game. I mean, I'm pretty sure she thinks she played it fairly and that's true, but how does she think the jury would have voted had she gotten to the final three or four, as everyone seems to assume? Does she think she would have won? 'Cause if so, obviously everyone's concerns are valid that they don't want to end up in the finals with her and Marty would have been right all along. If she doesn't think she could have won, would making the finals just have been a personal goal? She just seems to focus on the fact that she was voted out but not on the reasons why (aside from everyone being a backstabber).

And the other two, Dan and Fabio, don't seem to know what they're doing, they're just hoping their names don't come up every week or in the case of Fabio, win immunity. Because Jeff was right, they just sit back, they get picked off (unless Sash, Holly, and Chase self-destruct), so this was their chance to at least force a tie and hope one of those three get voted off in the tie-breaker. Now, it's just wait and see, it looks like...

There weren't too many comments about Holly in this one either, just at the end when Jane was singling her out and seemingly trying to get people to vote for her.

 

[EricBess]

I was actually quite surprised that Jeff would take such an active role in how people chose to vote. Ultimately, they ignored his advice, but he pracatically tried to grab the pen out of their hands and write down the name for them (figuratively speaking, anyway).

 

[Spiderman]

Well, I think he just couldn't believe people would be sitting back and not fighting for themselves. It seemed like he was trying to make them think and "play the game" rather than just allow them to sit back and passively await their fate.

 

[Spiderman]

Saw the first hour of the last show, where Dan got voted off.

I still don't understand his and Fabio's voting, after all of that talk of trying to get Holly. I mean, I guess what wasn't shown was that they weren't confident that Sash would go with them so they figured might as well go with the flow (and Dan told the reason for his vote at the end), but it just seems so futile. Fabio winning immunity is pretty much his only chance of getting to the top 3 and his and Dan's trying to recruit Sash during this episode seems weird considering they had the best chance last episode, when Jane was voted off, 'cause at least there would have been a tie.

All in all, I'm not impressed by the remaining players of this game - the ones who DID seem to be playing, Marty, Brenda, and Sash, are all out of the game or seemingly out of power (Sash back in with the other two but it was touch and go for a while) while Chase and Holly seem to have more "lucked" into the final alliance and power rather than planning it.

Unless that was their plan to make it look convoluting

 

[EricBess]

Like I said earlier, it seems like the only plan some players have is to look at who else has a plan and vote them off... At some point, Chase and Holly have a tentative alliance and Sash was astute enough to latch on, but Chase has switched alliances ever other episode, stabbing someone in the back each time. I'm surprised no one has said, "hey, he's unpredictable" and rallied enough support to get him off yet. Of course, he does have a reputation of being paranoid, so they do talk about it, they just never get enough support to do anything about it.

Sash is a leech and and think everyone deep down realizes it. He'll attach himself to whichever group he thinks is likely to keep him alive. In any other season, he would have been eliminated a long time ago as a solid alliance picked off everyone else. Of course, in any other season, his alliance might have survived.

Ultimately, I think that Chase is the reason this season has gone the way it has. He is paranoid, but it seems he's won immunity a couple of times at key moments when there might have been enough of an effort to actually get rid of him. He's likable enough to be included in alliances, but is too paranoid for the alliances to last.

 

[Spiderman]

Well, I think Sash has a "good game plan", in that he's trying to keep his options open and thus aligning with everyone. However, will that come back to bite him if he makes the final 3? I don't think he's actually "backstabbed" or written an alliance member's name down, so maybe not...

I actually think Naonka turned out to be the key player, since she was the one that caused the Sash-Brenda alliance to fall apart. However, since she quit, it's hard to tell what kind of influence she might have had later on.

Chase has just been lucky in that other people made themselves a target more than he and thus his vote was needed to help get them off. And now, it turns out he's the one in power since everyone who might have mounted an opposition has left

 

[Spiderman]

Well, it took about a month later, but saw the finale and reunion show....

I'm glad Fabio won, he was my choice after Jane. It was hard to tell whether he would get enough votes during the questioning since it seems most of the jury ignored him or agreed with his answers Chase and Sash got hammered hard though.

I was surprised to see Naonka being kind to Fabio since it seemed when they were together that she hated him. Maybe absence makes her forgetful...

There always has to be a tirade and Jane provided it this time...

I guess I wasn't too surprised that Sash didn't get a vote, although I thought maybe he'd get one...

Reunion show was surprisingly short. The only real surprisingly thing was that Brenda revealed that she tried to get Sash off on the episode that she was voted off and it wasn't shown, and that's why Sash didn't give her the idol. Other than that, I was kinda disappointed that Jeff didn't ask the "one question" of each contestant - some weren't addressed and didn't say anything.

 

[EricBess]

Naonka voted for Chase, if I recall correctly. I seem to remember thinking that Naonka was more civil during tribal than I was expecting, but I don't know that "kind" is the word I would use, but she certainly wasn't mean, either. She still came across to me during the reuinion as thinking "yeah, I probably would have won, but I decided to quit on my own terms."

 

[Spiderman]

Did they show the voting? I don't remember seeing it...

Yeah, she came across as delusional to me also

 

[EricBess]

They showed 3 or 4 of them as they were voting. Enough to give you an idea of who was getting votes without giving away the results.

 

[Spiderman]

Yeah, but they always do that. I think it was 2 for Chase and 2 for Fabio. And it's always the obvious ones, who you figured were going to vote for them anyway, based on the questioning or history together.