I was in a big market shopping, probably Costco or something. Suddenly I see Boston Rob and Phillip looking at some pots and pans together. Being a Survivor fan, I get excited at seeing someone I recognize from the show and go over to say 'Hi' to them. We talk for a little while and then Phillip brings up 'Stealth R' Us' again. He then gives me a challenge to get a code name: He tells me to find him some eggs, look at the sign labeling the aisle, bring the eggs back and tell him the title and that will be my code name. I figure I might as well go along with it.
I go through the market and find the eggs in the section labelled 'Gourmet'. I figure I may as well guess that so I bring the eggs back to them. Now they're behind one of those free sample booths, using the pots and pans they got earlier. I give them the eggs and tell Phillip my answer and he tells me I'm correct, making 'The Gourmet' my official code name. So we start cooking the eggs (Guess I didn't have to pay for them) at the booth and they start telling me about this contest they're hosting all the way in in New York (I live in Cali) for Survivor fans and that this challenge was a test to see if I would be good for the contest. I figure, sure, why not? So they start giving me all of the information for entering the contest but then I wake up.
#Survivor
All right, let's get into this. First off, I want to say that this season was absolutely awesome. It was one of the best we've had in this modern era and I'm perfectly happy with how everything turned out. Seriously, everything just seemed to come together so perfectly. Maybe just a tad less airtime on Tony and maybe a little more character focus but other than those little nitpicks...this season was a thing of beauty. With all that said, let's get to these rankings. I have a lot to say and there's going to be a lot of unpopular opinions here...but screw it.
18. Sarah (11th) - And here's an unpopular opinion right off the bat. But I don't care. Sarah had so much potential but wound up being either disappointing, frustrating or awful. Let's recap. She starts off on Aparri, brags about how she's going to be great at reading when people are lying to her since she's a cop, sees Tony and immediately knows that he's a cop in spite of his denials. Sounds like the set-up for an awesome rivalry storyline, right? Wrong. Tony comes clean in Episode 2 and BAM. It's all sunshine and roses. Tony then starts lying to Sarah about Cliff and Lindsey targetting her. There's no reason for this lie to make any sense; Tony's just trying to protect himself. Surely, Sarah who's SO great at reading liars can tell Tony's lying, right? Nope. Sarah eats this right up. Never mind the fact that Tony has ALREADY lied to you about being a cop; he must be telling the truth since we're both cops. In fact, she eats this up so well that she wants to throw a challenge to vote off Cliff, in spite of history stating that throwing challenges is almost always stupid. Thankfully, the Brains were failtastic enough to prevent this stupid plan from coming to fruition, much to Sarah's frustration.
But fine. Sure, Sarah kind of sucks but not enough to get this low yet. And when Sarah saw Tony declaring NuSolana as the final 5, it seemed like she was finally going to make the move against Tony many people were dying for her to. She goes into the merge in the best possible position; in the middle of both groups that need her vote and everyone knows it. So how does she handle it? In the worst and most awful way imaginable since Big Tom in All Stars. Let's start at NuSolana. Tony promises her the world (Potential F4 and pick whoever leaves) compared to NuAparri. Strategically, Sarah maybe would have had a better shot working into NuSolana but not only does she stick with NuAparri, she does a terrible job of bluffing that she will consider flipping to NuSolana. At NuAparri, it's even worse. NuAparri anticipates an idol and wants to vote out Jefra or Trish to be safe (which turns out to be right). But no, Sarah demands that the vote has to go the way she wants it and she wants it to be Tony or Woo. NuAparri says no because that's stupid and Sarah goes on to whine about how NuAparri is bullying her by not giving her what she wants and submitting to her powerful position, which is BS because SHE's the one trying to bully her way using her power. It's like, geez...no wonder Kass got so pissed off that she flipped. As a result of Sarah's idiotic and obnoxious behavior, Nusolana is able to recruit Kass to blindside Sarah. It was a glorious boot and it could not have been more well-deserved. Top it off with her condemning Kass's move by acting so morally superior in Ponderosa and her jury question where she condemns Tony for swearing on his badge when she tried to get the vote on Tony and was going to go back on her word as well and just...how can anyone like her? So if you absolutely hated that Tony dominated, Sarah is 100% to blame for that and I just can't stand her.
17. Lindsey (13th) - After that major Sarah rant, I'll try to shorten these next few. Believe it or not, this ranking has nothing to do with her quit. I can respect her reasoning that she was aware she may have done something regrettable if she stayed so I can respect that belief. I can rank her low for everything else though. Lindsey just came across as really whiny and naggy and she didn't bring anything fun to make up for it. She just seems to sit on a high horse and if anyone challenges her, it's either 'how dare they' or she plays a victim. She wasn't even present enough to matter (though that may be due to the quit). She just wasn't fun to watch.
16. Morgan (10th) - I'm about to receive a ton of crap but once again, I don't care. Morgan is so overrated and I can't for the life of me figure out why. I mean, her final Tribal Council was pretty good. "If most people could choose between being ugly and being cute, most people would choose to be cute" was funny in a Heidi Strobel way. And her jury question was kind of cute as well. That is all I will give her credit for and that's all she really deserves; enough to get above Lindsey but nothing else. The negatives are...well, she didn't really do anything. Sure, there was the first episode where LJ singled her out so she looks for the idol and fails at it. And then after that...she does literally nothing. The Beauties take out her ally Brice first because he's clearly the bigger threat. And Morgan just sort of sits around and does nothing memorable, other than throw Jeremiah under the bus which isn't saying much anyway. It's just this entire empty gap between the Beauties Tribal Council and her boot where she's just irrelevant, conceited or just sucks. To top it all off, Morgan confirms the negative stereotype that Tengaged automatically worships pretty girls even if they are worthless. Seriously, half the blogs I read praising Morgan are about her boobs and the occasional few about some tiny quote or facial reaction. Apparently, Tengagers have forgotten that there is still porn on the internet; you just can't post it here. -_- I'll definitely keep more of an eye out for her on rewatch but she definitely doesn't warrant the praise she gets.
15. Jeremiah (8th) - Well, we're past the three really bad ones. Now we get to the duds. Out of everyone who made the merge...Jeremiah was just the biggest dud. Well, OK so was LJ (spoiler alert) but at least LJ played a decent game. Jeremiah just apparently came off as shady but couldn't even do it in an interesting way. His bit about him revealing he was a model was a little cute but other than that, he didn't do anything worth mentioning.
14. David (18th) - Funny how when you get a sort-of celebrity, they get some hype and then they flop. David actually wound up being an extremely unmemorable first boot. He targeted Garrett when he was picked as leader and told to single someone out which ultimately turned around to bite him. That's...really all I can remember about him.
13. LJ (9th) - He played a decent game and I'll admit he was screwed somewhat unnecessarily. The problem with LJ is that he's just so....dull. I can legitimately feel the energy leaving my body whenever he comes on screen. Yeah he contributed to the craziness of the Sarah Tribal council but tony still initiated that. So yeah, glad he was out.
12. Alexis (12th) - And just like in the game, the Beauty tribe is getting steadily decimated in this ranking. Alexis was kind of cute, she was a superfan and I felt really bad for her during her blindside. But even setting those aside, Alexis didn't do a whole lot worth mentioning. Another person I'll need to keep a watch out for during rewatch.
11. Cliff (14th) - Another celebrity that probably had some hype around him but fell flat. tried to downplay his celebrity status but Woo's just like 'Dude I know who you are :)' and boom. Then the tribe tried to throw a challenge to get rid of him but whoops, it's a basketball challenge. Other than that, Cliff seems nice but didn't do much.
10. Brice (16th) - Brice had a lot of potential and it's a real shame that he was booted instead of Morgan. Brice had a much more lively personality and he seemed to be a decent strategist unlike Morgan. It made sense to take him out first. However, potential can only get you so far and there's a chance he could have been annoying if he lasted longer too so yeah.
9. Garrett (17th) - Now we get to the good stuff. He's only this high because his story arc is funny. I swear, it was a two hour premiere JUST for this guy and to show how quickly he rose and then crashed and burned. First part, he gets singled out but it's OK. He finds the idol and gets the numbers on his side to blindside David. He goes into Ep. 2 on top of the world only to screw it all up. He starts off by whining about working and being hungry. Then when they lose, he pisses everyone off by wanting an open forum for the vote and basically leading to the rice dumping incident. To finish the job, he gets blindsided, not even bringing the idol with him and leaving it at camp. It's a wonderful rise and downfall arc so early on and it set the stage for the whole season.
8. Trish (5th) - It's a pretty good sign when the entire Top 7 makes your Top 8. Out of the Top 7, Trish ranks the lowest but that's nothing to be ashamed of at all. I only really dock Trish for Episode 5 where she did come across kind of creepy and in her boot episode where she annoyed me a bit. Everything else, she was pretty enjoyable with her little jokes and moments (I'm actually a man, They look like Morgan's boobs, etc). And she actually had a really solid case for winning should she have made it that far. Finding the crack in NuAparri and pulling in Kass was crucial for shaping the season the way it turned out and I thank her for that. Overall she was kind of irrelevant but I still liked her.
7. Jefra (7th) - Like Trish, Jefra was kind of irrelevant a good amount of the time and yes it was frustrating when she didn't flip to change up the game. But I still like her for her cute moments such as her confessional in the rain, not knowing how chickens lay eggs, almost leaving in the merge tribal council, the letters and maybe a couple others (Unlike Morgan, Jefra actually does have likable character moments) Yeah they're small and yeah they make me seem like a hypocrite since I just slammed Morgan for being useless and Jefra can be seen as useless as well. In spite of that, she was still adorable and mostly inoffensive so she gets 7th in the ranking.
6. Spencer (4th) - Spencer is just such a strange case for me. Yeah, he comes across as a douchebag and yes he comes across as obnoxious at times even when he isn't (It's just something about his tone of voice). And there were really awful moments from him such as his jury speech and his first vote for Woo. But overall, he was actually somewhat good. It's weird we all thought he'd be this major CPN force and then he spent the first half of the game just kind of being there as a narrator. Sure he was surviving a crazy ride but he wasn't doing much yet. But then the merge came and he suddenly had to scrap. He had to find an idol, he had to win challenges and suddenly he was forced to do stuff to survive and to become important. His planting a seed of paranoia in Tony to target Jefra was brilliant and he actually managed to cockroach for a long time. Maybe I'm overranking him because he can be a jerk and he's definitely overrated as a strategist but there's no denying what he brought to the season and doing what he could to prevent a complete Pagonging.
5. J'Tia (15th) - J'Tia is one of the best fails we've ever had on the show and it made for great TV. Obviously, the highlight of this was dumping the rice. In all rights she should have been voted out right there but she somehow survived. After that, she just became a lulzy fail in challenges. My only problem with J'Tia is that I feel she should have been voted out after the rice dumping so that she leaves looking like a crazy person instead of a sane person who just had an emotional reaction to possibly being voted out. She kind of fizzled out after the rice-dumping incident other than continuing to fail. But she still delivered to the season in her short time, her two miraculous survivals also helping set the stage for how crazy this season would get.
4. Tasha (6th) - Yes I know she's robbed but 4th is still pretty good. Tasha started off strong in Episode 2 when she was against the open forum and helped engineer Garrett's downfall. Sadly, she fell off the radar after that until the merge came when she had to scrap. From that point, she pulled out the immunity run that seemed to come out of nowhere which was awesome. And she had a little sass to her as well. I wish she was shown a bit more other than just winning challenges, otherwise she'd be even higher due to her potential as a character. I have no idea why she was the only one who voted for Woo by the way. I thought she was going to vote for Tony.
3. Woo (2nd) - And again, the final three is up in the top 3. Woo sadly ranks the lowest of the three and the only reason for that is the admittedly retarded decision to take Tony to the end. My pro-Woo argument was locked until that happened. Damn it, man. But other than that, Woo was still a great positive character who was a lot of fun to watch. He just came across as kind of dorky but still a fan of the game that had a different way of how to go about it which helped make the season interesting. Stealing the idol clue and creating chaos was one of the highlights of the season. He had other positive moments such as failing in the boat with Cliff, staying positive in the rain, falling out of the tree and demonstrating martial arts for the kids. And trying to keep the honor thing was pretty cool even though it cost him the game. Overall a positive force even though people complain about his gameplay.
2. Kass (3rd) - Kass has a lot of hatred and admittedly a good amount of it it warranted with some of her comments (college-age males are selfish, calling Trish Skeletor and a banshee). But without Chaos Kass, this season would not have been the masterpiece it was. Kass starts off pretty rational and normal, and she seems well-spoken but kind of bland. Nothing much, nothing much, nothing much and then the glorious merge episode hits where random paranoia just seems to get to her and she flips. Admittedly not for great strategic reason but it owned Sarah so I'm cool with it. Then Kass lays low for a little while, playing free agent for an episode then settling for a bit. Then the final 6 comes and she just brings it again and again, causing the camp to erupt and the power to shift. It's because of her that Tony lost control at the end and he would've lost if it weren't for Woo. Still, Kass brought a lot of chaos to the season and she did it effectively.
1. Tony (1st) - Not only was Tony a strong player but he was constantly entertaining. He took Russell's game, fixed the tweaks and improved upon it. He didn't go out of his way to be awful to other people; sure he swore on things a few too many times but people knew it was just a game and Tony generally got on well with others. Tony played an aggressive game, not a perfect game, but it definitely warranted his victory. Yeah the super idol sucked and yeah the airtime hogging in mid-merge sucked but I blame the producers for that more than Tony. Tony himself was just a hardcore player and even though his paranoia caused him to make some mistakes, he still did well overall.
The weirdest thing is that I always told myself that if Tony won, I'd knock him down to probably the lowest of the Top 7. I always thought Tony's arc would work best with him losing, with him getting a major downfall. And the thing is even though he won, he still got that major downfall when the jury ripped him a new asshole. And I have to give the editors and the cast heaps of credit; it was probably one of the best bluff jobs I've ever seen on the show and I sincerely thought Whoa maybe Woo could win. That was enough for me to keep Tony as number one because even when it should have been obvious, it came out of nowhere. That was the beauty of the season; that it truly was difficult to predict and it even made the predictable unpredictable. It was glorious.
How Russell Hantz is so anti-Tony. Seriously, his Twitter feed is constantly filled with anti-Tony comments and how he's rooting for Spencer. I think my favorite tweet of his was on Jefra's boot episode, he praised Spencer for planting a seed of paranoia in Tony's head to save himself. I seriously wanted to make a Twitter account just to say 'Yeah. That move was amazing. Kind of like how Sandra did that to you in Heroes vs Villains, huh?'
So why does Russell hate Tony for playing essentially the same game he played? Is it a simple case of pride in that Tony is being a copy-cat? Given that we know how arrogant Russell is, it's perfectly possible. But I think it goes a little deeper than that.
A few weeks ago, another Tengager posted that if Tony wins, this will prove that Russell's strategy works and that Russell is therefore a great player. This claim is only partially correct. Yes, Tony's winning this season will prove that the specific strategy Russell implemented can be successful. But you know what else it will prove? That Russell sucks.
Seriously, think about it. What Russell is successful at is playing a very hard, aggressive game to get to the end and one that is heavily reliant on idols. You can see the argument made that this strategy cannot work, that this strategy risks pissing off a lot of people and creating a great deal of resentment on the jury. This of course has been said millions of times at this point but it's basically why Russell can't win; because he's too aggressive and obnoxious as a person. And I think it's a fair argument that a lot of Russell supporters can blame this on his strategy and not on him; that his strategy is a great one to get to the end but no one can win using Russell's strategy, no one can do it better than Russell and if Russell can't win with the strategy, then no one can. This could be used as an excuse for Russell's loss and it still makes Russell look like a great player.
But what happens if Tony somehow wins? Outside of a few confrontations, Tony has never been anywhere near as awful to people as Russell has and he's never gone out of his way to specifically boast about how great he is and how superior he is to everybody else. So a Tony win isn't entirely out of the question. So if Tony winds up winning, people can no longer blame Russell's losses on his strategy because if Tony wins, he proves that the strategy can work if executed properly. In terms of winning, Russell can't execute it properly. Can you see where I'm going with this?
The bottom line is that a Tony win will mean that Russell will no longer have ANY excuses as to why he lost and that he just sucks at Survivor when it comes to actually winning. All pro-Russell arguments will officially be invalid. And I think Russell knows this too, which is why his anti-Tony tirade gets so intense. Can you imagine how big of a blow to his massive ego it will be for someone to take Russell's exact game and actually make it work? The myth of an unjustifiably bitter jury will be dead. The argument that Russell's strategy is not a winning strategy will be dead. A Tony win will prove once and for all that Russell's strategy works; Russell himself is just retarded. And the uproar this would cause for Russell fans would be a thing of beauty.
That being said, I'd be perfectly happy with any of these four winning (or really any of the final seven winning. Seriously, the merge boot order was as perfect as it gets) yet out of the four, I feel Tony's arc would work best if he lost. But if Tony does wind up winning, I can still look at the bright side I just mentioned and accept Tony as a winner (even though the super idol sucks). #Survivor
What if they split a vote between two throwaway people? Let's say the vote goes 3-3 between two decoys, Spencer and Kass for instance. Let's say this vote remains deadlocked and Tony has not won the immunity necklace nor played his normal idol. If they draw rocks and Tony draws the bad rock, can his super idol negate the rock or would he go home? I know this most likely isn't happening but just a what if?
It's been a long time since I've posted an actual Survivor blog (about a year I think). I haven't stopped watching though and I'm still invested in this season. And I just want to express my opinion on who I think is playing the smartest overall game in terms of staying in a good position and holding a level of power (but not in terms of who I think is going to win). Spencer and Tasha have done a really good job of staying alive so far but they're still on borrowed time. Trish and Kass have kept themselves safe for now but people may argue they have not done much outside of their crucial role in the merge boot (and they also got blindsided twice already). Tony has played a very head-on aggressive game which, while powerful, has pissed people off, makes enemies and risks bitterness from the jury. So...that leaves Woo? O_O
But Woo hasn't made any big moves either! He's just a wimp who does whatever Tony tells him to do! He sucks! Calm your jets. Give me a chance here. Woo's game is by no means perfect and it may not make for the best TV. And his odds for a win are still somewhat slim. But he's playing the game subtle and he's playing the game smart. Let's just take a walk through his game so far and see how he's really doing.
One thing Woo has about him is that he's likable and approachable. This is shown right away when he is easily able to make friends within his tribe. Cliff tries to downplay his celebrity status but Woo's like 'Dude, I know you. :P' but instead of making a big deal out of it, he plays it off as it's cool. Woo's laid-back, fun and friendly attitude draws people to him and it causes them to trust him. Cut to Episode 4. A (stupid) plan is being put together to throw a challenge in order to boot Cliff. Tony, Sarah and Trish are in. They need a fourth. So who do they pick between Woo and Lindsey, both of whom are very close to Cliff? They pick Woo (admittedly the Trish/Lindsey feud may have something to do with this).
This brings me to the second point of Woo's strengths in the game. Woo is adaptable. Woo states clearly that his strategy is to make sure that he stays in the majority, whatever he has to do (This'll be very important later on). He is willing to turn on Cliff to make sure he stays in the majority of the tribe to keep himself safe. (Yes I know he doesn't vote for Cliff in Episode 5 but that's because taking out the Beauties really should've been the priority at that time.) Unless evidence comes up otherwise, I think Woo would've gone through with the plan if the challenge had been thrown because why risk a tie? Even if NuSolana lost the next immunity challenge after Cliff/Lindsey left, it's very possible that Woo is able to get in the middle between the Beauties and the Brawns ala Kass was in Episode 2.
This adaptability has proved very crucial going through the merge. Who is the only other person other than Tony who has voted correctly every time since the merge? Woo. Woo has been able to work himself into a position where he is being approached to make moves and keep him from being a target. People think Tony wants Woo out? Leave Woo alone and focus on the minority. Tony wants to blindside LJ? Bring along Woo. Tony wants to blindside Jefra? Bring along Woo. People are considering making a move against Tony next week? They still bring along Woo even after he screwed them! (Unless next week's trailer is being misleading like the LJ boot episode). People know they can bring along Woo for these moves because he will do them. Woo is sticking to his strategy and ensuring that he is always in the majority. He has accomplished this by getting an aggressive player like Tony to trust him the most. And even though Woo is going along with these big moves, no one is bitter towards Woo (except for stealing the idol clue which I'm about to get to). Everyone blames Tony. This is great for Woo! He can be involved in these big moves without getting the blood on his hands and pissing people off because he has Tony as a shield to take all the damage.
The last point I can make is that Woo knows how to look at the bigger picture. The primary incident I can make of this is the incident where Woo took the clue from Spencer (which was awesome BTW). Woo shared the clue with his alliance instead of looking for it himself or making a deal with Spencer. The reason for this is simple; it's more important for your alliance to have the idol than for you to have the idol. Sharing the idol clue accomplishes two things (in theory): 1. It increases the odds that your alliance gets the idol and keeps the power (meanwhile the target is not on you since you don't have it). 2. It makes your alliance trust you more and makes you less of a target than if you just looked for it yourself or made a deal with someone you're supposed to be against (Look at Trish compared to Morgan and Garrett for instance. Who's still here?). Sharing the idol clue he took was the best thing Woo could do, even though it didn't actually work out and Spencer found the idol anyway.
I'm not saying Woo has a win in the bag just yet. Not by any means. If people start to realize that Woo is likable or a threat, they can vote him off and Woo loses. If the jury respects Tony and isn't bitter about his game, Woo loses. If the jury is bitter at Tony and affiliates Woo in that manner, Woo loses. If Woo is at the end with Spencer or Tasha, Woo loses. Woo's best chance of winning is being at the end with Trish and/or Kass and making that argument of how he made sure he was in a powerful position of the majority without being a target. He can also win if it's a final two against Tony and people are bitter towards Tony. I think Woo actually has a decent argument to win and is playing a strong yet quiet game, even if his edit suggests otherwise. He just needs a strong finish to have a shot at actually winning.
After six rounds and several eliminations, we have our three finalists! Congratulations to our finalists for making it this far!
Now here's how the finale is going to work. At sporadic points over the next 18 hours, I will post a question on this blog which will have either one or two answers. Each time you get a correct answer in, you get a point but you still only get one guess per question. Finalists will be tagged in a comment keeping score when the next question goes up. Whoever has the most points at the end of five questions wins the second season of Survivor Trivia Rush! (A tiebreaker question will be used in the event of a tie) Good luck, finalists!
