Survivor 23: South Pacific (Discussion)

[Roger Wilco]

Hm, in Survivor: Thailand they merged with 8 left, in All Stars at 9, in Palau there was no merge, Cook Islands 9 , Gabon 9, Samoa had a big merge with 12, Nicaragua also had 12, Redemption Island even merged at 13.

So with the trend towards bigger merges it's certainly not out of the question that they could merge next week, but it's impossible to predict. It would be the first merge at 11, but there have been several uneven merges too as mentioned above. I'm sure Cochran is sceptical, but he would be an idiot to say it considering how precarious his position was and how strong he looks now (maybe even stronger if Ozzy loses...).

 

[Garak]

Well, Ozzy may have cemented himself as the worst strategic and social player ever after this season. What a piss poor choice, given that Christine would have probably come over to them if she was reinserted in to the game.

Love the ego on him too, thinking he'll no doubt win. I think a lot of the challenges are designed so it doesn't take an incredibly fit man to win it, very possible for women to do well in these challenges.

Couldn't help but laugh at Honest Coach, aka Mr Integrity, when he was leading a group prayer to God about finding the idol when he had the idol in his pocket the whole time. That guy is so full of shit it's not even funny.

Anyone else catch when they won the challenge, Coach grabbed one of the girls by the arm and yelled "kneel down!" I rewinded that like 10 times.

Amazing that Cochrane is still in the game, gotta give him credit.

 

[FreezeC77]

Ozzy is playing a very Russell-like game in that he seems to have a huge ego and is doing moves simply for the sake of looking 'cool/important' on TV and not considering the overall strategy of winning the game.


and yea Coach has always been a huge contradiction in what he says and what he does. He plays the God angle and then just goes and makes a mockery of anyone who really has beliefs in God which what he did in this episode. His actions and words have rarely matched up through his various times on Survivor.

 

[Skywalker]

My guess as to what happens next: Ozzy beats Christine, but there's no merge. Savaii loses again because they don't have Ozzy, Cochran uses his immunity idol and votes out either Keith or Jim. The tribes then merge and Cochran jumps ship to Upolu. Ozzy destroys not only his own game, but everyone else's.

Well, I was kinda close.

I think it was seriously naive of the ex-Savaii tribe members to expect Cochran to fall in line after his less-than-ideal experience with them. They should have been telling Cochran one thing, knowing that he would be going over to the ex-Upolu folks, but planning something else; I'm actually surprised Jim didn't see this coming. And I think they seriously miscalculated when they expected Upolu to vote for Whitney. Keith was by far the most obvious target, IMO. They should have told Cochran that Ozzy would give the idol to Whitney, but then have Ozzy give it to Keith instead.

 

[OmahaStar]

They should have been telling Cochran one thing, knowing that he would be going over to the ex-Upolu folks, but planning something else;

No kidding. Especially when he was doing exactly what Ozzy told him to do - be a double agent. Let them think he had flipped, and bring Ozzy and co info. Pretend to play both sides, and all that.

 

[24thcenstfan]

I hope Cochran is able to pull through for a while. He has a big target on his back now that he has revealed he has switched sides. I don't blame him for changing alliances though. He was treated poorly by his original alliance.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I hope Cochran is able to pull through for a while. He has a big target on his back now that he has revealed he has switched sides. I don't blame him for changing alliances though. He was treated poorly by his original alliance.

Everyone keeps saying this and feeling sorry for Cochrane, mostly based on his own one-sided narrative, but I just don't see it. They kept him around long after he deserved to be voted out. No one expected him to be a big physical presence, but he didn't even put in the bare minimum of effort. He always just got flustered and quit trying at the challenges.

Couple that with the fact that he was promoting himself as some kind of Survivor expert and strategic genius, and he sucked at the social game, making alliances, and completing puzzles too. He couldn't handle keeping ropes untangled. He barely outlasted Edna balancing coconuts. He managed to betray his tribe and put himself in an even worse position than he was before (number seven out of seven instead of number six out of six, but at least a chance his tribe would keep him around because he's not a physical threat).

The worst thing that happened to Cochrane was Ozzy going on his little temper tantrum after Cochrane lost the challenge a couple episodes ago, but so what? Ozzy's a tool, but he still took the fall for Cochrane. The tribe was right that Cochrane should have stepped up and gone to Redemption, since he was by far the weak link and lost that challenge near single-handledly.

Jim's exactly right, Cochrane's a coward. And the ultimate irony is that Brandon the would-be rapist is the one coming to his defense.

 

[OmahaStar]

Couple that with the fact that he was promoting himself as some kind of Survivor expert and strategic genius

I love that idea, don't you? How many people are there that watch the show and say "I could do that" ya know? People who automatically think they could do better than the people on the show. And I don't mean just Survivor, I mean this in general. "I could sing better than that American Idol wannabee" or "I wouldn't make that mistake on Amazing Race" or whatever.

Cochran is that random viewer who sits at home and thinks they know it all because of what they see on television. Cochran, being such an ultimate fan, obviously is going to be better than everybody else on the show.

And then gets his ass handed to him on a silver platter.

Maybe Cochran can be a lesson for other fans of the show who think they could do better.

 

[Yoda]

Dead thread is dead... but...

Brandon?

 

[Skywalker]

Yeah, it was pretty dumb, but Albert also killed his chances of winning any jury votes by not giving the necklace back to Brandon. That was a great job by Probst to steer the conversation in that direction.

 

[Geck]

This season started out promising but sort of fell apart halfway through and is only marginally more interesting than Redemption Island now. Heading into the finale, I really really hope Sophie wins, but even that's just more of a hope that nobody else wins, rather than cheering for her specifically.

Hopefully the finale will at least be entertaining. I wouldn't mind a few more Brandon meltdowns.

 

[Skywalker]

I don't really like anyone from Upolu, so I'm rooting for Ozzy to come back from Redemption Island and win it all. He's not my favorite player either, but I like him more than Coach and company.

 

[Garak]

I forgot about this thread!

When has someone given up their immunity and not been voted out? Never. Brandon is all sorts of moron and I'm happy he was given the axe. Good on Coach for voting him out, and now all he has to say to Brandon is "God told me to do that" and Brandon will probably believe that like the chump he is.

Also, if Brandon is stupid enough to give up his necklace, no one should be under any obligation whatsoever to give it back.

I feel bad for Ozzie, because whoever said it was dead right - every single member of the jury has gone through Redemption Island and Ozzy's been there to talk to them, feed them and bond with them. He's probably the most dangerous player in the game to win it all assuming he makes it out of Redemption, so if he does he'll get voted out by Coach and them instantly I'd imagine. Too bad.

I like this season, it's definitely way better than the last. I'd like Sophie to win, but I'm thinking Coach might pull it off.

 

[Snaploud]

I understand the theory behind Ozzie bonding with other contestants on a one-on-one basis, but I'm not sure he could actually pull it off in reality. He has too much trouble dealing with people who are different from him.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I liked Sophie in the beginning of the season, but for the past couple of weeks I've started to sour on her. I think I fall firmly in the Albert camp in the Sophie/Albert showdown. I doubt anyone besides Coach or Ozzy will win this season, but if someone else does, I hope it's Albert. Or Rick, just for the hell of it.

 

[OmahaStar]

No one is commenting on the finale? Seems fitting considering how it went down. Of the final three, none of them really deserved it.

Coach did nothing. Sorry to his fans, but he didn't. He road the coattails of his own name and past "glory" and copied Russell and Rob's previous style by surrounding himself with "yes men" and letting them do all the work.

Albert ... Was he even on the show? Huh. Didn't even notice.

Sophie ... And what, exactly did she do? Look into the camera during confessionals and act snarky? That's game play?

There were three coattail riders, none of whom actually did a thing.

When Ozzy was brought back in, it was at least temporarily interesting. Then it went back to that season in the Amazon with Stephanie ... One tribe completely dominating another, making it utterly boring by the end.

And for season 24, they're "shaking it up" by having both tribes living in the same camp. No mention of whether RI would be part of it again.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

And for season 24, they're "shaking it up" by having both tribes living in the same camp. No mention of whether RI would be part of it again.

From the rumors that I've read (and what little we saw on the show):

Spoiler: Survivor Season 24 will...

- Be set in Samoa again.
- Have both tribes living on the same beach and competing for resources from the start.
- Be divided into teams of men vs. women.
- Have no returning players.
- Have no Redemption Island.

One site speculated that something in the way Jeff worded his comment about previous shows featuring "American competitors" (plus the "One World" theme) might suggest that they'd open the competition up to players from other countries, but that was just a guess and not anything I've read elsewhere.

If the things above are mostly accurate that sounds like a good shake-up from the last two lackluster seasons.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Dead thread is dead... but...

Brandon?

It was hilarious and very satisfying to see the look of panic creeping in on his face once he realised that a) Albert's keeping immunity and b) he's fucked.

As to the finale: well, I liked Sophie at first, but the longer the show went on I thought Coach deserved it most, despite all the dumb preaching. Sophie's at least an average worthy winner though.

 

[Yoda]

I also enjoyed his expression when they told him they had to stage an idol-finding for him because they had already found it

 

[Skywalker]

God, I hate final threes. Hasn't pretty much every final three just been one person sitting there looking uncomfortable while the voting is split between the other two people? It's dumb. Bring back the final two!

I think Coach lost the game when he decided to vote Rick out and keep Sophie instead, unless he was thinking that Sophie had the best chance to beat Ozzy in the next immunity challenge. If that was his thinking, he made the right choice, because any final three featuring Ozzy (in any combination) would have resulted in Ozzy probably winning in a landslide. But how delusional was Albert to think he had a shot at winning?