John Rocker managed not to be an asshole yet (surprise) and performed well in the challenge (no surprise, steroid free though it was), but the hunger, fatigue, and bad weather hasn't set in yet, so I have no doubt he'll unleash his inner bigot and/or dickhead soon enough. I love that in his dumbass attempt to create an alias to try and fool that Hobbit-looking kid (we're walking through a wetland, therefore my name is John Wetland) he actually managed to give a fake name which sounds exactly like another
professional baseball pitcher who played during roughly the same time period he did. That's like James Bond trying to convince people that he wasn't a spy by saying his real name is Jason Born because he happened to be walking through a maternity ward at the time.
So glad they already sent one of the annoying
Amazing Race twins home. I couldn't stand them on TAR and hopefully separately the remaining sister won't be as irritating and shrill. Her sister Nadiya was already an ass with the constant references to Josh being "one of the girls" which he clearly didn't appreciate, and which is insulting regardless. Unless someone like Colton says he prefers the company of women and wants to be "one of the girls" like he did his first time on the show, one shouldn't assume that that's okay to call a gay man that.
I have high hopes for Val and Jeremy, although sticking your neck out and volunteering for the first challenge at BvW is stupid, because you know they're going to do something with your loved one. Although Jeff twisting the knife and also making him send away one of his own teammates was harsh. Choosing the likeable Louisianan firefighter guy to go with her and help her was a good choice, although the constant paternalism about protecting his wife, while sweet, was kind of annoying. She didn't seem to appreciate it either, seeing as how she's a cop and hardly helpless. Hopefully that was just opening day jitters, since I like them, and I think as a former quarterback (smart and athletic) and firefighter and her as a cop they could potentially make a potent social, athletic, and strategic pair. Plus, they already have a bond with firefighter Wes and his son animated movie Bilbo Baggins, so that can help.
I'm happy they switched out Redemption Island with Exile Island, because RI was too much of a time waster and undercut the tribal vote. Hopefully Exile will give some strategic function without drawing too much time from the challenges and scrambling at camp.
That was an impressive first immunity challenge. It drew on past obstacles while incorporating new hurdles to overcome. Apparently that final puzzle took forever to complete and we saw a massively edited for time version (much more so than usual).
The tribal was rather boring, even with Josh's odd vote for his tribe friend Baylor. I thought he might be in trouble when he said he was in the middle playing both sides, because those people often get voted out. I'd like to see him and his boyfriend do well.
I liked Dale and was a bit bummed to see them so predictably almost vote out the old guy despite his usefulness with the fire and around camp, and his general likeability. It would be funny if he got voted out without ever knowing that he found the "hidden" immunity idol at the water well, which I assume that thing he picked up (but didn't seem to know) was, given Val's Exile Island clue.
Nothing blew me away about the first episode, but then I felt the same way about the last Blood and Water episode one, and that turned out great.
