Survivor Palau: Episode 3

[kaitykaity]

Bobby Jon wants to pinch Kim's head off like
use it as a soccer ball. Hee hee.

Buh-bye Jeff. See ya. Wouldn't wanna be ya.

His selfless send me home act was disGUSTing.

That lift-preserver challenge was d*mn good.
Angie is a freaking wild woman. Dunks Janu and
Janu didn't like it.

[lazarus]

1. I preferred the IC

That was totally new and unique for the show. Used strategy and muscle, very very good.

Isn't it odd how Ulong keeps winning rewards handily, but flames out on 3 straight ICs?

They've tied Morgan tribe from Survivor: Pearl Islands for consecutive losses to open the season. One more and they tie for the record with Maraamu, from Survivor: Marquesas.

[kaitykaity]

2. That Kheph eye is freaky, man.

It's like it won't blink or twinkle when I'm
looking at it. I can only catch it out of my
peripheral vision.

I liked what Bobby Jon said about Tom at tribal
council. Called him a he-man or something like
that. This coming from Ulong's Tarzan, that's
saying something.

I think maybe Kuror is saving energy at the
RCs so they can burn it up at the ICs. Hm?

[lazarus]

3. He called him

A man among men.

I can understand his accent. He grew up about 40 miles from my hometown, in Troy, AL. I've got family there still.

Tom is a hoss. He and Ian and Gregg seem to be hooking up nicely. Coby and Caryn are definitely on the outs in that tribe.

I wonder if we're actually having a switch next week? Or maybe a re-draw?

[kaitykaity]

4. Well, if Coby's that "backstabbing bitch hairstylist"

then fine by me.

Ulong's so out if it. They got rid of a real (possible)
leader, and now this democracy thing ain't working. On
the preview they didn't have their representative picked
yet. A re-draw may be the only way to keep that group
of people in the game.

And I'd really hate to see Bobby Jon go. And Stephanie.
She was really something on the IC. Stayed with those
men for a long time. And Angie for that matter.

I thought that confrontation btwn Caryn and (?) was a dud.
Made it out to be something and it was jsut this one
woman having a freakout and the other one laughing about it.

[lazarus]

6. That's the odd thing

I really like Koror as a tribe, but like several of the individuals on Ulong (the 'Bama boys and Angie, in particular).

Speaking of lost, even though he voted for the bootee this week (for the first time), could Ibreheim be any more lost out there?

[kaitykaity]

12. Kind of makes him non-threatening, doesn't it.

Who knows, maybe there's more "there" there than we're
seeing.

The cast is pretty good this time. Some individuals,
characters, not just carbon copy cookie-cutter hardbodies.

[lazarus]

13. I agree

Although the majority of the women are just background so far. The ones who have dominated airplay are Tom, Ian, Bobby Jon, Coby, James, Angie, and Caryn.

Ibreheim's the quiet black guy. Gregg is simply the other guy on Koror. Willard's the old guy. That's about it.

But except for Jeff and Ib, no real hardbodies or model types. Real people this time.

[dr.strangelove]

5. Ulong is crashing

They just can't get a break. I agree that a strong Jeff would have helped them in a challenge designed for their strength, but they would have found another way to lose. They remind me of Ogakor in Outback before Michael's injury in that they just seem lost. Maybe something will happen, like it did when Michael was injured, to turn the tides. They need to turn the tides or else there will be some trouble for them. Mybe a merge or switch will help break the albatross on their backs. Whenever Jeff has them pick a representative, some kind of change is usually coming. Though it is funny that it seems that Ulong can't even pick a rep.

I also agree that Tom is a machine. That guy just did not give up. He is impressing me a great deal. I want to see how he plays the game after a merge or tribal switch. Maybe they will do something very different this time. Tom may be in trouble getting all this attention though, ala Colby in all-Stars. the guy that can win immunity has to go before the individual immunities start, or shortly thereafter. I think he is going to go after the merge, if there is one. I like Gregg and he and Ian may be my favorites to win. The person I like the least is Stephanie, but she is playing well and impressed mw with both her strength and the wisdom in turning her mind around to vote for Jeff. She did a good job. I think she will be around for awhile and may still be a player at the end of this thing.

[lazarus]

7. Actually

they remind me of Pagong from season 1. Remember how scattered and disjointed they were?

Led to that amazing post-merge tribal council where seven different people got votes, with the 4 from the Evil Tagi Allliance winning.

I still find it weird that they dominated both the reward challenges, but were dominated in all three immunity challenges. I've never seen that before.

[dr.strangelove]

9. I think they don't think

This is becoming a contest of brains v. brawn. The decision to run in the shallows and walk in the deep was Tom's. Ulong did not seem to pick up on the fact that they were gaining ground in the shallows. Ulong seemed to just want to muscle through it. I give Tom and Ian some credit for having a little brawn, but they are clearly the physically weaker team.

They will get Pagonged if they are not careful. If they lose one more, they will probably enter a merge in the minority. I can't see MB waiting four more weeks to merge, even if he does shift things about this week.

[lazarus]

10. About that

MB and others have repeatedly stated that everything is mapped out ahead of time.

For instance, there was supposed to be a switch in Australia. Something like, if, when there are 12 Survivors, it is split 6/6, then switch three from each tribe.

Didn't happen, so it got rolled over to Africa.

The false merge in Thailand? Already set up.

They have to do it this way for a couple of reasons. First, they can't be seen as manipulating the game during the game to favour one storyline or one tribe, or to rescue somebody, etc.

Second, those challenges can take a week or more to set up. They spend weeks planning and testing them, too. (At least the more complicated ones.)

I'm actually looking forward to the concept of one tribe never winning an immunity challenge. Let's see what happens.

But they'll likely have a switch next week. Sigh.

[kaitykaity]

11. So they would never panic and hit the kill switch.

In other words, even they saw the game going
down the tubes -- one tribe loses all it's members,
no shifting alliances to create drama -- they still
wouldn't make a panic move to alter that course?

Yeah, there's alwasy been talk like they set up the
last three challenges to help Morasco win in Amazon.
That the game is somehow rigged.

[lazarus]

14. Actually

one tribe losing all the challenges would be fascinating.

The merge would be 9 of one tribe, 1 of the other. Two possibilities there:

The singleton is voted off. Now we have the whole tribe (Koror in this case) having to turn on each other for the first time.

Or the singleton manages to pull a Chris and just slalom his way around the obstacles, jumping sides and weaseling her way into the fractures in the majority tribe.

Much more interesting than the standard way the show's gone in the past. Relatively even numbers. One tribe gets the majority right after the merge. 3 or 4 episodes of Pagonging, and then they finally get to themselves.

In a way, having one tribe lose every IC before the merge would be almost like having two seasons. Fun!

We've seen similar things before. Remember Marquesas? 6 of the first seven people voted out came from Maraamu (yeah, there was a switch, but that's how they started). But a Maraamu won.

Look at Thailand. Chuay Gahn lost 3 of the first 4 challenges. They then proceeded to boot the rest of Sook Jai. 7 in a row.

Morgan lost three in a row to start Pearl Islands. Then Drake got stupid, threw a challenge, and lost three in a row themselves.

No reason to rig the game. The players do enough crazy stuff themselves to keep it interesting.

[kaitykaity]

16. You are just a fountain of historical information.

I'm like huh? Who's that? What's he talking about?

Makes me really sad about your arthritis. With kind
of knowledge, you would know how things were shifting
and how to react if you were playing the game.

[lazarus]

17. Yup

I'd be a mix of Rich and Chris on the show, depending on the personnel. Maybe a bit of Rob Cesternino thrown in.

[kaitykaity]

18. What, no Brian?

You tired of getting beat up because you like
him?

:evilgrin:

[lazarus]

19. Not at all

I'm just not good enough to play his game.

Chris played a bit of his game, but not the full scheme.

Brian's still the most dominant winner we've seen yet.

[kaitykaity]

20. Joke, Laz. Joke. Ha ha?

Just giving you a hard time. I don't get
to do that very often.

[lazarus]

21. I know

:hi:

But I did want to clear up why I wouldn't (couldn't) pattern my game after who I think was the best player ever.

I could maybe do a Chris/Sandra combo, though. I loved Sandra's game, but don't know if it would work for my personality.

[kaitykaity]

22. You're so funny.

I completely understand why you're so insistent
about why you admire Brian so much, and that you've
caught a lot of hell because of it.

I liked Sandra a lot too. She was in people's faces
telling them what she thought. It was great. It's
just too bad Lillian was Crazy.

[Ravenseye]

8. Jeff Was Clueless

The comments he made about taking one for the team shows yet another person in the show's history who simply didn't get it.

It's about who will be the SOLE survivor, not the team. Now he gets nothing. Sure his ankle was bad, but ya never know. He might have been able to hobble along. Maybe he'd be helpless in some challenges, but they're due for a mental one which would give him a few more days.

He should have not said anything and been thinking 'ok, how do I play this.'

If it were me I'd be saying 'Yeah it's bad but it'll probably be better in a day or two. I like snuggling with Kim but she's helping us less than I would be with my ankle, etc.'

It would have given him 3 more days to possibly heal, and even if not, he could keep playing cards. He had no mental game, and in survivor if you have no mental game you've got no game, period.

[ernstbass]

15. I question the wisdom of Koror

sitting out Willard and Karyn in the RC - it seems like they would sit out their weakest physical players on the more important IC.

I argree with you Lazarus that it would be fascinating to have one tribe lose all the IC's prior to the merge.

I gained more respect for Bobby Jon this week - I had him pegged for a "pretty face" Stephanie also impressed me in the IC.

I fear that Tom will make it to the merge only to be voted out as soon as he loses an IC. I wish he would hang back a bit.

I think Kim has a mark on her back. I'm not very impressed with Katie thus far.