This episode could have played out so differently than it did. In the end what happened is exactly what we were told would happen at the start of the episode.

* RC was very interesting. Before it started Jeff told us that he was going to hide an Advantage note at the sit out bench. The players would draw rocks to divide into two teams but one rock would be a third color (gray) and that person would have to sit out and not get a chance to play for food. Erika drew the gray rock and thought she was cursed. Then out of the blue Xander said he would swap with her so she could try to win food. I thought for sure he had noticed something but he did''t! Turns out he wanted to be with the losers so he could try and gain some allies. Evvie killed the puzzle in like five seconds and her team won a cheese-based feast. Liana and MP were devastated that they got no food again and started to cry.

* The main plan was to vote out Evvie and to flush out Xander's idol.

* Before the IC started Jeff told them that if one person gave up their shot at immunity they would get enough rice for one meal but if multiple people sat out they would get enough rice for the entire tribe for three days. Heather asked what he meant by multiple people and Jeff said they would have to negotiate with him. So MP said how about two and Jeff countered with seven. MP then counter offered with five which Jeff accepted. She stood forward and Naseer joined her. No one else would until Xander asked Jeff if would agree to four people sitting out and that he would do it if someone else joined him. Jeff agreed and Ricard joined Xander.

* IC was the challenge where you need to balance on your toes while holding up a block with your head. Three people were out within seconds and the comp was over in under four minutes. Evvie outlasted Heather to win II.

* With Evvie safe the plan changed to getting Tiff out and getting Xander to play his idol. Then Danny suggested to MP that they split the votes on Tiff and Naseer saying that Naseer would be a huge threat at the end. MP was not happy at all with that idea. DeShawn then joined them and she snapped him which pissed him off. IIRC MP then tried to target Heather. When Xander found out that the target had changed to Heather he got suspicious.

* TC was another mess. They were already to vote after Jeff very slowly said "It's...Now...Time...To...Vote" but Heather asked if they could whisper. She tried to switch the target to Naseer. Lots of chaos which upset MP. Ricard kept pushing Xander to use his idol. In the end Tiff went as planned but Heather, Naseer, and Xander all received votes. Tiff is the first jury member.

* Next week it looks like MP continues to rub some people the wrong way. I think DeShawn says he wants a new alliance but I think the Campout will survive.

--
Brian

On Wednesday, November 10, 2021 at 6:44:16 PM UTC-8, Brian Smith wrote:
> This episode could have played out so differently than it did. In the end what happened is exactly what we were told would happen at the start of the episode.

It must have been a tough episode to edit because, as Tiffany said, the dominant voting block "played a safe game" and stuck to their plan of
eliminating the remnants of the former yellow tribe one by one. There were some red herrings tossed into the edit such as the advantage
hidden beneath the "sit-out bench", the "vote for Heather nonsense", and alleged friction between Mafia Pastor and some of the men in her voting
block. However, it was clear from the very beginning of the episode that either Evvie, Xander, or Tifanny would be going to Ponderosa. However, they
made a huge mistake by not voting together. For the record:
-Xander got two votes (Danny and Naseer)
-Tiff got six votes (Deshawn, Erika, Heather, Liana, MP, Ricard)
-Heather got two votes (Evvie, Tiff)
-Naseer got one vote (Xander)
If Evvie, Xander, and Tiff had all put their votes on either Naseer or Heather, and Xander had given his necklace to Tiff, things would have become a lot
more interesting. Xander could have also played his extra vote which would have put four on their target. So, although it was a pretty predictable vote,
it didn't have to be if everybody had been playing hard until the very end.

> * IC was the challenge where you need to balance on your toes while holding up a block with your head. Three people were out within seconds and the comp was over in under four minutes. Evvie outlasted Heather to win II.

Props to Evvie and Heather. They were the last people (with the exception of Deshawn) who I expected to see still standing at the end.

> * TC was another mess. They were already to vote after Jeff very slowly said "It's...Now...Time...To...Vote" but Heather asked if they could whisper. She tried to switch the target to Naseer.

What was that all about? I realize that it was included in the edit in order to place doubt in the minds of the viewers, but what was Heather thinking? Especially
when she ended up voting for Tiffany. It's possible that she had been told to vote for Xander, and, for whatever reason, didn't want to. But to draw that amount
of attention to herself at TC was nuts.

On Thursday, November 11, 2021 at 8:21:16 PM UTC-7, zeppo wrote:
> On Wednesday, November 10, 2021 at 6:44:16 PM UTC-8, Brian Smith wrote:
> > This episode could have played out so differently than it did. In the end what happened is exactly what we were told would happen at the start of the episode.
> It must have been a tough episode to edit because, as Tiffany said, the dominant voting block "played a safe game" and stuck to their plan of
> eliminating the remnants of the former yellow tribe one by one. There were some red herrings tossed into the edit such as the advantage
> hidden beneath the "sit-out bench", the "vote for Heather nonsense", and alleged friction between Mafia Pastor and some of the men in her voting
> block. However, it was clear from the very beginning of the episode that either Evvie, Xander, or Tifanny would be going to Ponderosa. However, they
> made a huge mistake by not voting together. For the record:
> -Xander got two votes (Danny and Naseer)
> -Tiff got six votes (Deshawn, Erika, Heather, Liana, MP, Ricard)
> -Heather got two votes (Evvie, Tiff)
> -Naseer got one vote (Xander)
> If Evvie, Xander, and Tiff had all put their votes on either Naseer or Heather, and Xander had given his necklace to Tiff, things would have become a lot
> more interesting. Xander could have also played his extra vote which would have put four on their target. So, although it was a pretty predictable vote,
> it didn't have to be if everybody had been playing hard until the very end.

I hope the next episode gives us some further info on this last vote. Did all of the scrambling change people's votes? IIRC, Danny wanted to split the vote between Naseer and Xander. I thought DeShawn was going to join him but the vote makes it seem like MP won him over and they forget to tell Danny they were voting for Tiff. It also seems like they discounted the possibility that Xander might give his idol to Tiff. Were they that confident he wouldn't? Xander voting for Naseer makes me think Xander did get played. I'd also like to know who flipped Heather into voting out Tiff.

> > * IC was the challenge where you need to balance on your toes while holding up a block with your head. Three people were out within seconds and the comp was over in under four minutes. Evvie outlasted Heather to win II.
> Props to Evvie and Heather. They were the last people (with the exception of Deshawn) who I expected to see still standing at the end.

I still can't get over how fast that challenge ended. Was standing just on your toes something new? It must have been b/c that would be crazy hard to do for an hour and 22 minutes.

> > * TC was another mess. They were already to vote after Jeff very slowly said "It's...Now...Time...To...Vote" but Heather asked if they could whisper. She tried to switch the target to Naseer.
> What was that all about? I realize that it was included in the edit in order to place doubt in the minds of the viewers, but what was Heather thinking? Especially
> when she ended up voting for Tiffany. It's possible that she had been told to vote for Xander, and, for whatever reason, didn't want to. But to draw that amount
> of attention to herself at TC was nuts.

Here's what I think happened. Danny tried to get a split vote between Naseer and Xander and Heather was one of the people he recruited to vote out Naseer. Why she publicly pushed for him to go at TC is a mystery. Maybe she just sucks at the game. She also might have been setup.

--
Brian

On 2021-11-12 17:22:33 +0000, Brian Smith said:

> I still can't get over how fast that challenge ended. Was standing just
> on your toes something new? It must have been b/c that would be crazy
> hard to do for an hour and 22 minutes.

You don't remember this challenge?

REAL Survivors can do it for an hour and a half. These snowflakes
barely lasted 4 minutes.

Jesus.

On Sun, 14 Nov 2021 09:58:32 -0500, Elmo P. Shagnasty
<elmop@nastydesigns.com> wrote:

>On 2021-11-12 17:22:33 +0000, Brian Smith said:
>
>> I still can't get over how fast that challenge ended. Was standing just
>> on your toes something new? It must have been b/c that would be crazy
>> hard to do for an hour and 22 minutes.
>
>You don't remember this challenge?
>
>REAL Survivors can do it for an hour and a half. These snowflakes
>barely lasted 4 minutes.
>
>Jesus.

I'm going to have to get caught up - on Survivor South Africa they did
a pole standing challenge (which was basically stand on a telephone
pole about 4' above the ground) which the winner and runner up did for
22 hrs. So they did it again in their second season and they went 24
1/2 hours. (Naturally the host teased them with food treats to step
down....)

Hopefully they gave the contestants diapers - I don't think I could
hold it that long so I'm relieved (pun intended) they didn't show
everything!

On Friday, November 12, 2021 at 9:22:34 AM UTC-8, Brian Smith wrote:
It also seems like they discounted the possibility that Xander might give his idol to Tiff. Were they that confident he wouldn't?

At the very end of the episode, Xander turned to the people sitting behind him and said, "Thank you guys". This suggested
to me that some sort of "understanding" had been reached before going to TC. Xander must have known that Tiffany was
going to get the most votes, otherwise he would have used his immunity necklace for sure. OTOH, the people who were
driving the votes in the dominant group could afford to split the vote 6-2 without having to worry about the "Yase 3" voting
together, or Xander's advantages messing things up. So, Tiffany leaving the game worked for everybody concerned except
Evvie.
Xander must have felt that his best chance of staying in the game beyond F10 was to play day-by-day, using his advantages
as leverage, possibly winning immunity once in a while, and making himself available when the dominant alliance begins to
fall apart. It's a good strategy that has worked for lots of smart players in the past.

> I still can't get over how fast that challenge ended. Was standing just on your toes something new? It must have been b/c that would be crazy hard to do for an hour and 22 minutes.
I went back to S28 and watched this challenge when it was run for the first time. Back then, the players' "on the toes stance" was not nearly
as extreme as it was this season. The F2 (Spencer Bledsoe and Tasha Fox) were barely on their toes, and one of the players (LJ?) appeared
to be standing flat footed.

On Tue, 16 Nov 2021 09:16:31 -0800, The Horny Goat <lcraver@home.ca>
wrote:

>On Sun, 14 Nov 2021 09:58:32 -0500, Elmo P. Shagnasty
><elmop@nastydesigns.com> wrote:
>
>>On 2021-11-12 17:22:33 +0000, Brian Smith said:
>>
>>> I still can't get over how fast that challenge ended. Was standing just
>>> on your toes something new? It must have been b/c that would be crazy
>>> hard to do for an hour and 22 minutes.
>>
>>You don't remember this challenge?
>>
>>REAL Survivors can do it for an hour and a half. These snowflakes
>>barely lasted 4 minutes.
>>
>>Jesus.
>
>I'm going to have to get caught up - on Survivor South Africa they did
>a pole standing challenge (which was basically stand on a telephone
>pole about 4' above the ground) which the winner and runner up did for
>22 hrs. So they did it again in their second season and they went 24
>1/2 hours. (Naturally the host teased them with food treats to step
>down....)
>
>Hopefully they gave the contestants diapers - I don't think I could
>hold it that long so I'm relieved (pun intended) they didn't show
>everything!

OK I've now seen episode 8 and there is no way that one was lasting
anything close to several hours BUT no question there was a lot of
strategizing there and many dropped out as they didn't feel they
needed to go the distance.