Survivor (Season 42): Life, the Universe... and Everything!

[JirinPanthosa]

I didn’t read it yet, so I didn’t know for sure whether or not it was a spoiler.

I got up to the immunity challenge. The choice is interesting at this point because

Spoiler

the person who seems likely to be targeted has an idol

.

 

[DigificWriter]

Spoiler-tagging out of courtesy:

Spoiler

For as much hair-wringing as the Hourglass seems to have given the Survivor fan community writ large, it's done exactly what is was intended to do: shake up the gameplay and make things more dangerous.

Rocksroy's decision torpedoed a proposed alliance of 8 - of which he was supposed to be a member - before it could actually coalesce and potentially gives the Taku Four of Jonathan, Omer, Lindsay, and Maryanne all of the power going forward if they can hold together the voting bloc of Hai, Mike, and Drea that helped them send Lydia home.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

NOW I've seen it.

Spoiler

That line was a mild spoiler in that it implied Jonathan and Maryanne were safe, who were two of the main other targets this week.

I don't mind who went home, I liked Lydia but she clearly didn't have the social chops to protect herself in a chaotic situation.

I strongly dislike the back in time twist, because it takes away a fought for victory in a pretty arbitrary fashion. But there's worse twists out there. Amazing Race's U Turn, Big Brother's coup de tat. This one isn't as bad as those because it isn't an arbitrary death sentence.

 

[Timewalker]

Okay, have we all seen it now, and can dispense with spoiler tags?

Honestly, it's not a spoiler of who's safe to say I'm beginning to like a player. Some players didn't rate good will from me until I heard them say something in the finale or in some later interview.

As for MaryAnn... win or lose, she is one of the most bubbly, cheerful players who's come along in ages. I enjoy seeing that.

 

[DigificWriter]

I'm getting a bit weary of so many so-called Survivor experts authoritatively stating that there's no possible way things like the Beware Idols and the Hourglass can come back, and there's a huge part of me that wants the show to keep said stuff just to prove a point... especially after they were refined for Season 42 and now accomplish what production wanted them to.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I don't dislike the beware idols. But they're harder to do when everyone has seen them.

Maryann, at the very least, is good television. I would not count her out at all. She's very smart, and the kind of person who could find enough walls to hide behind to carry her all the way.

Most of the time naming a safe person isn't a spoiler, just this particular case when the two safe people were two of the possible five targets. Anyway the point is, when you started talking about the elimination, I had no way to know whether or not you were giving spoilers.

 

[Timewalker]

So you didn't notice for the past few weeks that I've made just vague comments, such as I'm not upset at who got voted out? Considering that it takes over half the season before I learn everyone's names, let alone who I like, I haven't been ready to say who I want to win.

So here it is: I will be disappointed if MaryAnn isn't in the top 3.

As for why I like Omar's t-shirt... ostriches are very cool birds. As with penguins, it's the males who do much of the nest-watching, keeping the eggs safe, and caring for the chicks when they hatch.

Once upon a time on another site, I had a favorite ostrich picture:

 

[DigificWriter]

the beware idols are harder to do when everyone has seen them

I disagree.

Knowledge about the Beware Advantage Idols only gets out there if people are sharing information, and there's no way to predict whether that will be consistently happening just because it happened the first two seasons with said Idols in play.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I disagree.

Knowledge about the Beware Advantage Idols only gets out there if people are sharing information, and there's no way to predict whether that will be consistently happening just because it happened the first two seasons with said Idols in play.

I mean if you've seen the season before, and know what 'Beware' means, you would be more careful about whether you open it. People would be more careful about risking their vote and wait till they think the others have been found.

But yeah, to what you meant, idols are *way* weaker when everyone knows who has them.

 

[DigificWriter]

The argument that the Beware Advantage Idols can't be used again because players won't pick them up knowing what they are and the consequences that come with them is BS (IMO) because modern Survivor players want to find Idols; the idol is as ubiquitous a part of Survivor as Jeff Probst, Tribal Council, and fire-making, and if the Beware Advantage Idols are expected by future players to be the only Idols in the game, players are still going to pick them up/seek them out because they're Idols.

You might occasionally get a player who decides that the reward of having an Idol isn't worth the risks of the Beware Advantage, but most players are still going to pick them up and accept the risks involved.

 

[Timewalker]

The argument that the Beware Advantage Idols can't be used again because players won't pick them up knowing what they are and the consequences that come with them is BS (IMO) because modern Survivor players want to find Idols; the idol is as ubiquitous a part of Survivor as Jeff Probst, Tribal Council, and fire-making, and if the Beware Advantage Idols are expected by future players to be the only Idols in the game, players are still going to pick them up/seek them out because they're Idols.

You might occasionally get a player who decides that the reward of having an Idol isn't worth the risks of the Beware Advantage, but most players are still going to pick them up and accept the risks involved.

Is it in the rules that if you find one and pick it up, you can give it to someone you trust to use it to both your advantage, so as to keep it away from someone you don't trust?

I may need to rewatch the last 15 minutes of tonight. I know who was voted off, but dozed through tribal council.

Is it my imagination or is Jeff Probst seriously cuter this year than in the more recent seasons? I guess it must be because he's smiling more. I'm enjoying those little break-the-fourth-wall scenes he does right before the players come in for a challenge.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I never said they wouldn’t take them. They just wouldn’t be dramatically blindsided by them. They might wait to open it until they go to a challenge and hear nonsense sentences to test if anyone else has them. They wouldn’t automatically open them just for the lulz. They’d avoid opening them until they are reasonably sure they can becc by activated.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Have any of you guys ever watched the UK or AU versions of Survivor, BB or Amazing Race? I'm wondering if they're worth checking out.

 

[Timewalker]

Have any of you guys ever watched the UK or AU versions of Survivor, BB or Amazing Race? I'm wondering if they're worth checking out.

Neither of those. There's a Canadian version of BB and TAR.

The Canadian version of BB makes the Americans look like a bunch of staid, boring people. Or maybe the ads just make everyone look like someone's fed them an insane amount of sugar so they'll appear that hyper. I've never been tempted to watch, even on the odd chance that someone I might know could be on it.

TAR? Not sure if it's canceled. I know they just announced that Canadians are now eligible to compete on the American version of Tough As Nails (with a little side dig that it's harder than hockey).

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I think the other Big Brothers are all audience votes like the original UK version and American first season, so I wouldn't have interest in those. But clips from AU Survivor keep coming up on my Facebook feed and I'm wondering if there's an entire glutton of perfectly good Survivor seasons that are new to me.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Heavy episode this week. Going from 10 down to 8, then the whole thing about fear black people are being targeted (And Jonathan fighting the urge to make it about white victimization).

And now only one idol left in the game, but also the knowledge advantage that could take it away by surprise.

No idea who's going to win now, the two people I thought least likely to win just got voted out.

 

[Timewalker]

No quibbles on who got voted out, but they just guaranteed that a black person will win regardless of social game or challenge wins or immunities, or there will be cries of "racist jury."

I got no sense of "white victimization" from Jonathan, unless he said something I dozed through, and I didn't doze through any of that episode.

The only black person there with any kind of social game is Mary Ann. I have no quibble with her winning, though it would be nice if she had an individual win to show for it as well.

Is anyone here aware of what isn't being shown on the regular broadcast? I'm getting the feeling that what we're seeing isn't remotely what's happening.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

It was more subtle, the moment Dreya pointed out that the last two people voted out were black, instead of listening to them, Jonathan jumped right to feeling like he was the one being accused of racism.

 

[DigificWriter]

instead of listening to them, Jonathan jumped right to feeling like he was the one being accused of racism

And then autocorrected himself by the end of the discussion (which wasn't really about racism, but the real-world consequences of the perception of racism).

I found out a possible spoiler about the end of the game, so every episode I'm now watching/waiting to see if it gets either debunked or solidified, and this most recent episode contained some real solid evidence pointing towards it being valid.

 

[Timewalker]

It was more subtle, the moment Dreya pointed out that the last two people voted out were black, instead of listening to them, Jonathan jumped right to feeling like he was the one being accused of racism.

So what? It's a valid thing to be concerned about. Some people are quick to play or suspect the racism card on very flimsy evidence, or no evidence at all. Jonathan has the right to try to find out if he's being accused, or if he's just merely misread the situation. And not all black Survivor players who were ever on the show and were voted out were voted out for being black. I can think of at least one who was voted out for being obnoxious (James). I don't know about all of them since there are at least three seasons I didn't watch. But James is one I remember who garnered a lot of dislike for his bad attitude and rudeness.