Survivor Blood vs. Water: What Is Going On?!

Clearly, I have no business writing this blog because my intuitions were way off for this latest episode of Survivor. Wish I was wrong about other, more important things in my life… Murphy’s Law was bound to come into play, I guess, since I was talking up Ciera so much in my last post. When I’m wrong about an event or person, I’m usually wrong in a completely ironic way and how more ironic can we get in this week’s episode of Survivor Blood vs. Water? (And, yes, I’m a writer and a poet so I know what the definition of “irony” is and that Alanis Morrisette song… It’s actually good luck if it rains on your wedding day, or so I’ve heard).

First of all, Ciera votes out her mom in an attempt to show the boys in her alliance that she’s loyal, and Tyson sees it that way, but only thismuch because what actually happens is that instead of proving her loyalty, Ciera becomes Tyson’s target. This is partially her fault for trying to shove the votes towards Katie in the last episode; if Ciera hadn’t worked, even a little bit, to save her mom, Tyson may not have felt so threatened by her. Funny Side Note: When Laura joined Tina and Vytas on Redemption Island, I flashed back to the scene in Back to the Future 2 when Marty McFly walks into his future home and his future daughter says “Mom, mom is that you?”. lol

At the duel, Laura wins and goes on the defense when she sees Vytas looking at her puzzle, then takes the offensive position and starts helping Tina with hers. This is a great move by Laura because at this point, she would much rather Tina be around for the next duel instead of Vytas. Some people have called this cheating and to those people I say – Come on! Technically, you can call it cheating, but in the game of Survivor, it’s called “out-witting”. I didn’t hear Jeff say that the players couldn’t look at another player’s puzzle or help each other solve it – did anyone hear him say that? A duel (or thruel) is not an individual immunity challenge and while you can call it cheating, you have to admit it was the smart thing for her to do to increase her chances of returning to the game because between Tina and Vytas who is the bigger threat?

In what should have been a photo finish, Vytas loses the duel by mere seconds and bids a fond adieu to his cast mates, (“Namaste, bitches” is the new “Aloha”), before he joins his brother in Ponderosa. Laura gives the clue to the hidden immunity idol to her daughter and what does Ciera do? Throws it in the damn fire! I’ve been going back and forth about whether or not this was smart. Some people think there is a second hidden immunity idol, but is there? From what I can gather from last week’s episode, Katie’s clue lead her to the same spot where Tyson found a hidden immunity idol. Wouldn’t this supposed second idol have been planted at the opposing tribe’s camp before the tribes were merged? Would the producers have it moved to another location at the merged tribe camp and if so, why did the clue lead Katie to the snake branch tree? I don’t think there is a second idol, but what do I know? I’ve been wrong before! So was it a smart move? Yes and no. No, because players of Survivor should never pass on the chance to gain an advantage in the game. Yes, because it helps back up the lie she told Katie about having it already – why would she need a clue if she has it - and it helps her seem less threatening and more loyal to the boys.

After the duel, the editors get to work setting up the mirrors and smoke machines so they can pull the ol’ “bait and switch”. Tyson is focused on Katie now. Hayden is talking to us and Caleb about targeting Tyson and Caleb approaches Katie about it, which leads us to a “DR” with Katie and she says what my brother points out is a perfect explanation of what it is like to play the social game of Survivor. --- Katie: “… I feel like one of these hermit crabs that walk along the beach and have to transition from home to home… you don’t have a shell and it’s terrifying because there’s predators…”

Hayden and Caleb then have a conversation with Ciera about targeting Tyson. Ciera thinks it’s all Caleb’s idea and skitters across the sand in an attempt to secure the shell she thinks she has on her back to tattle to Tyson. Tyson then goes to Gervase and they turn their attention towards Caleb and Hayden. The next day, Ciera invites Tyson to walk to the post office with her and for what I think is the first time, at least at the merged camp, and we get to see a little bit of Tree Mail. Then Hayden talks to Katie who thinks everything is up in the air at this point and she’s totally right! I had to watch the episode six times to follow everything that happened, and I think I still missed some things!

This brings us to the immunity challenge and after explaining it, Jeff hands out the black and white rocks to see who wants to eat and who wants to play. Not surprisingly, Tyson and Gervase decide they feel secure enough to eat, and surprisingly, so does Ciera. I will never understand what goes through these players’ minds when they decide to show the rest of the tribe how secure they are in their positions by choosing food over a chance at immunity. I just don’t get it! Even if you know you don’t have much of a chance to win that necklace, you should still fight for it so people don’t resent you for eating. And what was up with Jeff’s British accent?! lol --- Jeff: “Perform for me! Show me blood! Bring me some more meat!” --- I’ve never seen him act so silly while hosting Survivor and I loved it. I want more British Jeff Probst being funny!

So Monica wins immunity, again, and the scrambling begins. Hayden and Caleb throw Ciera under the bus, letting Tyson know that she was down with their plan to take him out and the Cupcake King decides that Teen Mom should be the next target. Tyson also lets us know that he thinks he should play the immunity idol, just to be on the safe side, then has a little chat with Gervase. They don’t know who is lying and who is telling the truth and we go into tribal council without one clue as to who the real target is and whose torch is going to be snuffed. At least, the first time I watched this episode I had no idea who would be kicked to Redemption, but now upon several viewings, the editors make it very clear that Caleb would be jaunting off to join Tina and Laura at the end of the show.

And I just have to say… I like Tyson. I know a lot of people don’t, and I get it, but you have to admit… Tyson is hilarious.

Okay. I kind of strayed away from the whole “irony” thing I was focusing on at the beginning of this post, but it's time to wrap it up... So I can put that focus back onto flirting with Judd from Big Brother 15 on Twitter. ;) Be excellent to each other and J-U-Double D Party-Daugherty on, dudes!

Survivor Blood vs. Water: It's All Wibbly Wobbly Now!

Well, well, well. Not only was I wrong about last week being the kiss goodbye to Redemption Island, but I was totally wrong about Tina only having a 10% chance of staying in the game. Grandma had all three of her bags caught in four throws and she had to start her maze over again after getting thisclose to finishing. Poor, Aras; he shouldn’t have been so competitive with his brother because now he’s the first member of the jury. And THANK YOU, KATIE for not burning the damn clue to the damn hidden immunity idol! Seriously. I want to hug that girl, then I’m going to slap her for being so naïve in the game of Survivor. She’s just floating around all wibbly wobbly with her head either buried in the sand or up in the clouds. If someone told me they had a hidden immunity idol, I would want some proof.

This bring me to Ciera, who has been flying under the radar since the beginning of the season. I knew from the start, especially after Caleb pulled the move to vote out Brad, (THANK YOU, CALEB for that exciting and brilliant move because it was awesome – Sorry, Missy Z!), that she would go far. Unlike in seasons past, I went to the CBS website to look at photos of the Blood vs. Water players before the season started, read the bios, I watched the Rob Has A Podcast Survivor Blood vs. Water preview show and I also watched the special “behind the scenes” video hosted by Parvati Shallow (Survivor Cook Islands, Micronesia (Fans vs. Favorites 1 and Heroes vs. Villians), also located on the CBS website. There was just something about little Ciera… thinking about it now, she actually reminds me a bit of Cera from The Land Before Time, but that would take awhile to explain…

Anyway, Ciera just struck me as someone who could play the game of Survivor really well. I quite can’t explain it, I just liked her energy. I also knew that her mom would probably get in the way. I don’t remember Laura much from her previous season, but I remembered enough to know that Ciera would probably want to get rid of her mom at some point. I just get feelings about people sometimes and usually my intuitions are accurate. (I was completely wrong about Aaryn from Big Brother 15, though). That move telling Katie that she had the idol was great, but Teen Mom should have been a little quieter about sliding the votes away from her mom and onto Katie. Tyson caught wind of her little scheme and now he has Ciera on the brain. If the previews are to be believed, he will be making a move to vote her out of camp and on onto Redemption Island with her mom.

I’m not even going to begin to try to predict what will happen with Redemption Island this week. My Survivor-Obsessed best friend says there will be at least two more duels before a player returns to the game again and he’s probably right. Oh! And where is Tree Mail? My brother made that query when he, my mom and I watched the show together last Wednesday and I was like, yeah! Where the eff is Tree Mail? Did the Survivor Post Office cut its hours down too? Did the guy who wrote the poems about the challenges quit? Hire me, CBS, I’ll write your Tree Mail Poetry. I am the dolphinPOET after all.

So what’s going to happen this week? No idea. I have no clue. Redemption Island is up the air and I think it will be another “anyone can win this challenge” duel. Maybe Tyson will get the votes to get rid of Ciera, maybe Hayden and Caleb will attempt to take down the Cupcake King. Who knows! I think we’re in for an exciting episode of Survivor on the night before Thanksgiving.

Since Eric, Jon and Missy Z. will not be recapping Survivor this week, I am going to do my best to find some time after the next episode to write up something for all you lovely people to read on Thursday instead. : ) I’m not making any promises, but I’m going to try. I might also be posting a fun movie review… <cough> Catching Fire <cough>. It’s sort of like Survivor and that’s a good enough reason for me to post a review the second Hunger Games movie here. Agree?

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone in America, and Happy Regular Ol’ Thursday to everyone else!

Survivor Blood vs. Water: A Final Two?! & The H-Factor

Did I catch Katie talking about a final two during tribal council this week? Is Survivor finally going back to classic finale mode?! Did I miss mention of it earlier in the season?! Did the producers only make this season a final two because of the loved ones twist?  I hope this is a final two and I hope the producers stick with it from now on because I can’t stand the Survivor final three – it diminishes the title of Sole Survivor! Allow me to explain why.

Part of the real strategy involved in winning the game of Survivor is choosing the one person that you want to sit next to in the Final Tribal Council. No matter what motivates a player to choose another player, the person winning that final immunity challenge has to make the million dollar decision of which person to take to the final two. In a final three, you might have the immunity necklace after the last immunity challenge, but you do not have the sole vote to snuff a torch that night leaving your fate in the hands of the people in your alliance. That’s just my opinion though! Feel free to share yours.

 

And did the producers decide to go back to a final two for Blood vs. Water so that a pair of loved ones could go the end together without a third person to throw a wrench into the works? This just has to be the reason! A jury full of jilted loved ones would probably give the money, and the title, to the solo player in a final three with a pair of loved ones. The solo player had to get to the final tribal council all by his or herself – the loved ones had each other. I know if I was sitting on that jury, I’d probably give all my props to the solo player. 

Now, I'm about to throw down some knowledge. What is discussed below will not reveal the winner of Survivor: Blood vs. Water, but if you want to watch events unfold on television, STOP READING NOW! :)

Moving on… It’s time to talk about the elephant in the chat room. No matter how much we ignore what we know about Hayden, it doesn’t change the fact that Elissa flapped her botox-injected lips on the Big Brother live feeds this summer and told everyone watching that he makes it to the final four. If you were subjected to this spoiler you shouldn’t be too upset because it opens us up to the opportunity to speculate on how he gets there and with whom he aligns himself.

Until this week’s “Next Time on Survivor” preview, I was sure that Hayden would make it to the final four Brigade-Style and stick with the boys, but now I’m not so sure. A much smarter move for Hayden, at this point in the game, is to align himself with Katie, Ciera and Caleb to take out Tyson, Monica and Gervase – in that order – along with whomever moves back into camp from Redemption Island. What will he do though? Can we believe the previews? Is he really going to make the big move to get rid of Tyson? I have no idea and even though I know that Hayden makes the final four, I’m still excited about watching him get there. You should be too!

That’s all I have for this week. I’ll be back next week with another precap of the next episode with all of my thoughts on what’s going to go down at the next tribal council. Until then… Be excellent to each other!

Survivor Blood vs. Water: Will Ciera Throw Mama from the Game?

Survivor Blood vs. Water has turned out to be quite the dynamic season. At first I was a little apprehensive about having loved ones in the game and how it would effect the strategy of playing it. I have not been disappointed. Splitting up the pairs was an obvious move for the producers to make, but throwing Redemption Island and all of its twists into the mix was a clever surprise. And that tribe switch?! That was almost as crazy as the tribe switch in All-Stars when Amber was the only person to switch, but let’s get to the good stuff.

Last week we had a double elimination episode, which resulted in Vytas and Tina, being voted out of the merged tribe. And by the way, why didn’t we get to see how the players came up with this season’s merged tribe name? Don’t we always get to see that footage? I don’t mind not getting to see them paint the stupid flag, but I’d rather have seen that than Katie’s nasty toenails (or lack there of).

Anyway, Vytas and Tina are now with Aras on Redemption Island so they will be competing in the duel at the beginning of the next episode. And I’m not calling it a “thruel” because let’s be real, folks, grandma ain’t got nothing on those two boys. I will be nice and give Tina a 10% chance of returning the game (because this has to be the last duel, right?); you never know, it could be some wacky challenge that just isn’t suited for two strapping lads, but odds are, it will be something physical or endurance-related. Even if it involves a puzzle, I think Tina will be throwing her Buff into the fire this week.

As long as it’s not the damn clue to the damn hidden immunity idol, right? Am I right? I don’t even care that Tyson has it and that the clue is moot at this point – I just want to see someone not throw it in the fire.

It’s a toss up between Aras and Vytas, though, if we’re talking about who’s going to win this (hopefully last) Redemption Island duel. I’d say that Aras has an edge over Vytas because he’s played the game and won before, but Aras was kind of taunting Vytas at the end of the episode last week, which had to have lit a fire under the former addict’s spoon making the desire to win that much greater. He really wants it now. We’ll just have to see on Wednesday night what happens.

Back to Kasama, or Kasamama or whatever they are calling themselves now, we still have Caleb, Ciera, Gervase, Hayden, Katie, Laura, Monica and Tyson in the game and it is not looking good for the ladies. Katie may have won that Immunity Challenge last week, but I think her torch will be snuffed soon enough. Laura and Monica are playing like it’s their first season of Survivor; they are oxymorons, over-strategizing while not using any kind of strategy that makes sense at all. Ciera is the only woman left in the game whose head is 100% in it to win it, and she’ll probably be the last woman standing.

And then there are the boys. At this point in the game, Tyson is by far the mastermind running the show. His misdirect of instructing the boys to Tina-Sit while she ran the Fool’s Errand of searching for the hidden immunity idol was a brilliant move and he is my pick to win the game right now. Gervase’s best move has been sticking with Tyson and their Coconut Bandit alliance, but he really isn’t doing anything to prove that he deserves to win the money. Caleb and Hayden appear to be sticking with the alliance they all formed with Ciera before the tribes were merged, but like Gervase, they aren’t doing anything strategy-wise except keeping their heads down and their mouths shut. Big moves, fellas, big moves! If you want to overthrow the Cupcake King, you’ve got to start taking some bites.

What we see on television, you have to remember, is what the editors and producers want us to see. Will Ciera throw her mama from the game this week? I think she definitely will if she has the chance; she knows that her mom is a liability to her, but I think that whatever happens during Tribal Council on Wednesday night hinges on which Baskauskas brother comes back into the game. They both have the motivation to rock the boat and if the producers are up to their tricks as usual that’s exactly what we are going to see.