Tonight's episode is titled "Sneaky Little Snake." Be prepared for one of the cringiest scenes ever.

--
Brian

On Wednesday, March 15, 2023 at 5:52:55 PM UTC-6, Brian Smith wrote:
> Tonight's episode is titled "Sneaky Little Snake." Be prepared for one of the cringiest scenes ever.
>
> --
> Brian

I thought this was a fun episode that should lead to some good blindsides down the road. Gamewise, this episode offered nothing other than a lesson on why it’s important to participate in the game.

The episode started with Carson, etc. trying to convince Sarah that they’re okay with her. She’s not buying it. In a confessional, she said that Carson is the most dangerous player. I agree but he’s getting a little too cocky for his own good.

In a flashback scene, we saw Danny hiding the key for his tribe’s birdcage after he had gotten the idols. He then convinces the others to keep looking for it. Matt finds it and tries to lie about it, but Danny saw him.. Matt then opens the birdcage and gets the fake idol thinking that it’s real. Danny calls him out in front of Josh. Matt then came clean to Danny and a bit later to Josh. He also told Frannie.

In another flashback scene, we saw Matthew hiding the fake idol he got from his tribe’s birdcage. He then sets it up so Jaime finds it. She thinks she has a real idol and a close alliance with Matthew. He’s using her and will backstab her as soon as she’s of no use to him. She’s either going soon or will be dragged to the end. IMO, she has a horrible read on what’s going on.

Immunity/Reward Challenge

Matthew’s tribe wins and the other two tribes copy their puzzle. Sarah’s tribe finishes second. Frannie’s tribe loses. Matthew’s shoulder earlier in the episode was back in a sling but out of it for the challenge. There was a close-up of him at one point grimacing. They must be showing this sling stuff for a reason. I sense he’s going to be pulled from the game at some point.

The other noteworthy point about the challenge was that Claire sat out for the third time in a row. If I heard correctly, Jeff said she had yet to compete in an IC and he asked her if she was okay always sitting out. She said she was because she’s a team player. Probably doesn’t feel that way anymore.

Tribal Council

TC wasn’t exciting. Claire knew she was being targeted because she didn’t compete in the challenge. She played her SITD but got “NOT SAFE.” She was voted out 4–0. FYI, Matt had no vote.

Danny was impressive once again. Is he channeling Tony? He’s a good strategic player and is at least one step ahead of Matt and Frannie.

I thought Sarah had a good episode as well. She knows she’s at the bottom and sees through Carson’s lies. Her biggest challenge right now might be convincing Yam Yam and Carolyn that Carson is untrustworthy.

--
Brian

On Wednesday, March 15, 2023 at 10:34:59 PM UTC-7, Brian Smith wrote:

> In another flashback scene, we saw Matthew hiding the fake idol he got from his tribe’s birdcage. He then sets it up so Jaime finds it.

He actually made his own fake immunity idol, the original fake (the pendant) is still in Brandon's possession as far as we know. Also, Matthew didn't
find Brandon's replacement bracelet in the bird cage. It was hidden in some bushes.
> The other noteworthy point about the challenge was that Claire sat out for the third time in a row. If I heard correctly, Jeff said she had yet to compete in an IC and he asked her if she was okay always sitting out.

Probst could have prevented this situation from developing in the first place by insisting that one player could not sit out two challenges in a row, even on consecutive days.
That way, everybody, on every tribe, has to participate in challenges at least some of the time.

> Danny was impressive once again. Is he channeling Tony?

Heh! Yes, his little summersault was classic Vlachos.

A couple of other observations:

-I was not the least bit surprised to learn that Mr. Yum Yum snores like a chain saw.
-I hadn't realized that people from Saskatoon sang the Canadian national anthem with alternate lyrics.:-)

zeppo wrote:

>> The other noteworthy point about the challenge was that
>> Claire sat out for the third time in a row. If I heard
>> correctly, Jeff said she had yet to compete in an IC and he
>> asked her if she was okay always sitting out.
>
> Probst could have prevented this situation from developing
> in the first place by insisting that one player could not
> sit out two challenges in a row, even on consecutive days.
> That way, everybody, on every tribe, has to participate in
> challenges at least some of the time.

Here the discussion can go both ways, on the one hand it's
natural to pick the (perceived) best team for a task, but on
the other hand - who decides that?

And in a game of Survivor the person at the bottom don't have
a lot to say, and now people can put that person even more on
the bottom by never allowing him/her to compete in
challenges, even.

Further, image another type of person than Claire, like
a huge, former professional athlete or something - but he is
on the bottom and for this reason not allowed to do ICs, even.
I.e., it's even more stuff to the majority alliance's
advantage: so what if the team looses because it didn't
participate? They can then just vote him out instead.

You see, it'll just get absurd that way. And if we won't allow
that to happen to a huge, former professional athlete we
shouldn't allow that for people like Claire, either.

--
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

Brian Smith wrote:

> Tonight's episode is titled "Sneaky Little Snake." Be
> prepared for one of the cringiest scenes ever.

Okay, didn't notice, what does this refer to?

--
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

> Further, image another type of person than Claire, like
> a huge, former professional athlete or something - but he is
> on the bottom and for this reason not allowed to do ICs, even.
> I.e., it's even more stuff to the majority alliance's
> advantage: so what if the team looses because it didn't
> participate? They can then just vote him out instead.

Christ, because *she/he didn't participate ...

--
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

On Sat, 18 Mar 2023 01:18:09 +0100, Emanuel Berg <incal@dataswamp.org>
wrote:

>Further, image another type of person than Claire, like
>a huge, former professional athlete or something - but he is
>on the bottom and for this reason not allowed to do ICs, even.
>I.e., it's even more stuff to the majority alliance's
>advantage: so what if the team looses because it didn't
>participate? They can then just vote him out instead.
>
>You see, it'll just get absurd that way. And if we won't allow
>that to happen to a huge, former professional athlete we
>shouldn't allow that for people like Claire, either.
>
I dunno - can you imagine someone like Rudy going to final 3 with such
a regime in place back in season 1?

I'm not at all they would have given him a decent run at it - these
days they'd say "hmmm. 70 years old. easy boot" and not look at all to
the qualities that took him to the final episode.

The Horny Goat wrote:

>> Further, image another type of person than Claire, like
>> a huge, former professional athlete or something - but he
>> is on the bottom and for this reason not allowed to do ICs,
>> even. I.e., it's even more stuff to the majority alliance's
>> advantage: so what if the team looses because it didn't
>> participate? They can then just vote him out instead.
>>
>> You see, it'll just get absurd that way. And if we won't
>> allow that to happen to a huge, former professional athlete
>> we shouldn't allow that for people like Claire, either.
>
> I dunno - can you imagine someone like Rudy going to final 3
> with such a regime in place back in season 1?

I think it should be a rolling schedule. If A sat out and
B and C didn't, it's either B or C's turn. If they can't work
it out between themselves who's gonna do it (between B and C),
then do rock-paper-scissors, and whoever looses and don't
participate, then yes, the next challenge it's just one person
who didn't sit out so simple.

Make it as fair as possible. No extra advantages to the
majority alliance since they have all the advantages anyway
and any other additionally given to them they are sure to
exploit, believe me.

--
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

On Friday, March 17, 2023 at 6:19:57 PM UTC-6, Emanuel Berg wrote:
> Brian Smith wrote:
>
> > Tonight's episode is titled "Sneaky Little Snake." Be
> > prepared for one of the cringiest scenes ever.
> Okay, didn't notice, what does this refer to?

You didn't find Kane singing "O Canada" to be cringy as hell? And what was the purpose of that scene? Why do we need to know that he likes to play fantasy games?

--
Brian

On Friday, March 17, 2023 at 8:15:41 PM UTC-6, Emanuel Berg wrote:
> The Horny Goat wrote:
>
> >> Further, image another type of person than Claire, like
> >> a huge, former professional athlete or something - but he
> >> is on the bottom and for this reason not allowed to do ICs,
> >> even. I.e., it's even more stuff to the majority alliance's
> >> advantage: so what if the team looses because it didn't
> >> participate? They can then just vote him out instead.
> >>
> >> You see, it'll just get absurd that way. And if we won't
> >> allow that to happen to a huge, former professional athlete
> >> we shouldn't allow that for people like Claire, either.
> >
> > I dunno - can you imagine someone like Rudy going to final 3
> > with such a regime in place back in season 1?
> I think it should be a rolling schedule. If A sat out and
> B and C didn't, it's either B or C's turn. If they can't work
> it out between themselves who's gonna do it (between B and C),
> then do rock-paper-scissors, and whoever looses and don't
> participate, then yes, the next challenge it's just one person
> who didn't sit out so simple.
>
> Make it as fair as possible. No extra advantages to the
> majority alliance since they have all the advantages anyway
> and any other additionally given to them they are sure to
> exploit, believe me.

They should just say you can't sit out two consecutive challenges. End of story unless one of the tribes has been decimated and you need to sit out the same people in consecutive challenges. Doubt that'll ever happen again as they'll just do tribe swapping and go from three to two tribes. Another solution would be to stop doing this three tribe crap. Nearly everyone hates it other than Jeff.

--
Brian

Brian Smith wrote:

>>> Tonight's episode is titled "Sneaky Little Snake." Be
>>> prepared for one of the cringiest scenes ever.
>>
>> Okay, didn't notice, what does this refer to?
>
> You didn't find Kane singing "O Canada" to be cringy as
> hell?

Nah, remember some people are used to listening to music 24/7,
there is nothing to do on Survivor a lot of the time (or you
have no energy to do it because of the patented Survivor diet)
so if some guy sings a song, I don't find that strange at all.

> And what was the purpose of that scene? Why do we need to
> know that he likes to play fantasy games?

.... ?

What are you saying, it's indicative of something?

You think it means he will go far in the game?

--
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

Brian Smith wrote:

>> Make it as fair as possible. No extra advantages to the
>> majority alliance since they have all the advantages anyway
>> and any other additionally given to them they are sure to
>> exploit, believe me.
>
> They should just say you can't sit out two consecutive
> challenges.

It's an easy enough way to make it more fair and avoid the
situation that happened here with Claire, for sure, but
I think my rotating scheme (round robin) is even more fair and
actually as easy to do.

That way, the majority don't have a say _at all_, either the
guys who have not sat out previously decide between themselves
or got to rock-paper-scissors. It's the most fair IMO.

> Another solution would be to stop doing this three tribe
> crap. Nearly everyone hates it other than Jeff.

I know, right? :O

I have said that for years, I thought I was the only one
who noticed! Well, I'm certainly happy you said that!

You are absolutely right, it should be 2 tribes and BTW that's
what they do on AU Survivor.

--
underground experts united
https://dataswamp.org/~incal

On Sun, 19 Mar 2023 01:09:33 +0100, Emanuel Berg <incal@dataswamp.org>
wrote:

>Brian Smith wrote:
>
>>>> Tonight's episode is titled "Sneaky Little Snake." Be
>>>> prepared for one of the cringiest scenes ever.
>>>
>>> Okay, didn't notice, what does this refer to?
>>
>> You didn't find Kane singing "O Canada" to be cringy as
>> hell?
>
>Nah, remember some people are used to listening to music 24/7,
>there is nothing to do on Survivor a lot of the time (or you
>have no energy to do it because of the patented Survivor diet)
>so if some guy sings a song, I don't find that strange at all.

I didn't either. It just felt like there wasn't much going on so they
used it as some safe for broadcast filler.

>> And what was the purpose of that scene? Why do we need to
>> know that he likes to play fantasy games?
>
>... ?
>
>What are you saying, it's indicative of something?
>
>You think it means he will go far in the game?

I think it means he likes fantasy games and production likes to give
us some sense of who the players are. He's a bit goofy and might get
along well with the other goofy players if they all get to the merge.