Survivor Tues – Merge & temptation island

Yay – it’s merge! But first, the blurb: The first challenge consists of a series of temptations. What will the hungry survivors fall for? And one survivor makes sure that if they’re going down, they’re going down in flames.

Now this will show who is really playing the game. Anyone watch Survivor Amazon? Two girls in that stripped off and gave up their chance at immunity in exchange for peanut butter. Survivor suicide, you’d think, but one of them, Jenna, went on to win the game.

Jenna, the eventual winner of Amazon.

I feel a good half of this Aussie cast would have no problem stripping naked in exchange for food – we’ve already seen far more unpixellated bums than the US version.



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Windsong

Finally, merge is here. Gosh, if only the Contenders had a huge numbers advantage that they could easily exploit to get them further into the game and remain safe for many more episodes yet … Oh. That’s right.

It feels like the show was in too much of a hurry to get here, you know? Most of the people eliminated, up to this point, didn’t even get back-stories or any kind of context whatsoever. It’s like, even the show was telling us, “these people don’t matter, discard them without a thought”. Just so we could reach this point with all the big-personalities clashing.

As for who makes it through? At this point, I really haven’t considered it much. Janine is playing a fantastic social game, and there’s the physical threats like Shaun, John or David (and maybe Andy’s training will give him an advantage). I think Harry can go the distance as well.

Jayblossom

Andy is such a dickhead!

brain dead dave

People will stop him on the street and tell him what an awesome dickhead he was.

Alan

They won’t because it would mean they were seen talking to him.

Windsong

Daisy panicking (“Oh, if I make the wrong decision, they’ll pick us off one-by-one!”) seems a bit hollow, since if she’d realised that a week ago, none of them would be in this position right now.

But this is their chance to get rid of Dave.

Jayblossom

This was such a great opportunity to get rid of Dave and once again they blew it!

Windsong

So much must be happening off-camera that it takes all the fun out of actually trying to guess who they’re going after. Almost every single person turned on Andy. There must have been some conversations that we’re not privy to. Which is frustrating. The Contenders went from 11/7 to the losing side of 5/6. For the life of me, I can’t figure out how that happened.

And it wasn’t a total loss, tonight. Andy totally threw Dave under the bus, without even knowing he was doing it. And didn’t Dave look thrilled, at having his idol outed, albeit unintentionally?

The final three is starting to look like it’ll be the godmother and her den. I don’t see anything else happening, at this point. Although Janine versus Dave will be interesting.

Windsong

“Surely they all guessed Dave had an idol anyway…”

You’d think, but I honestly wouldn’t put it past any of these clowns not to have realised it.

Alan

I could not disagree more about Janine. Her alliance management is shocking. Her principal social strategy is sitting on the beach with Abby and Pia and ignoring the rest of her alliance.

Windsong

The only other people in her alliance were Ross (and she couldn’t do much about that), and Dave/Luke (who she doesn’t like much or trust anyway). And Simon was clearly on the bottom because she was using him to get through safely to merge. And Abby seems like she’d be easy to manage.

Pia, on the other hand, might be the eventual thorn in her side?

But Janine’s still doing better than I expected her to.

Alan

Janine has cruised into tribals on multiple occasions saying ‘X can’t have an idol’ when X did. She’s cruised into multiple tribals saying ‘X has an idol when’ when X didn’t. She played an idol on herself in a tribal where she received no votes, and where Junior and Unimportant Allies Simon and Rossco saved Pia by voting for Matt.

And when someone as thoughtful, calculating and strategic as Abbey describes Janine’s strategy of voting against Simon to keep Harry alive as ‘insane’ it may be time to for Janine to review her strategy.

If Rossco had not been injured, Janine would have executed her strategy of knifing a loyal ally to keep a snake alive and reached the merge hated by Rossco and Abbey with a snake who would have sunk his fangs into her at the first opportunity.

At least last season when Sharn kept saying ‘Champions Strong’ she was trying for a viable alliance instead of Janine focusing exclusively on the Three Amigas.

Alan

Afterthought: Does anyone imagine that Abbey and/or Harry will not tell someone else about Janine’s knife Simon and keep Harry idea some time soon?

Janine is all crushed ice and no fruit juice.

Fijane

I think she lost some loyalty from Abbey by suggesting sacrificing Simon for Andy. The three strong may not be quite so binding as Janine would like to think.

Brussellsprout

Wow – Shaun was on the money with the right strategic move – use Daisy’s idol to get rid of Dave under cover of chucking votes on Andy. And Daisy ONCE AGAIN showed zero strategic nous and wouldn’t play ball. Honestly, what an IDIOT. I am not Team Daisy.

Windsong

No, I don’t think I care much for Daisy’s gameplay either. Ever since she decided to fracture her own alliance and totally cripple her entire team’s chances of making it to the end … because of a minor spat she had with Sam, two weeks prior … Daisy is just not making smart decisions, right now.

I wanted to like her, too, but … eugh. Don’t get me started on being suckered by Dave, and then practically handing him a new idol. She’s an idiot.

Brussellsprout

We are totally as ONE on this Wind!

Fijane

I like her as a person, and for that reason would like her to do well. But I totally agree that she is not playing at all well, and is becoming a liability to Shaun.

Alan

Shaun is playing grudge match. Grudge match never works. Daisy is playing crush match, and that strategy has one or two problems as well.

A major reason the Contenders lost their superior numbers is Shaun’s habit of throwing challenges to Get Dave At All Costs. Andy got a unanimous vote because (as John said to Dave and Shaun even said to camera) all the other Contenders wanted Andy gone because he tried to throw the puzzle challenge.

Any day now the other Contenders are going to find out that Andy told Dave that he tried to throw the puzzle because Shaun and Daisy told him to. And then Shaun and Daisy will be looking at some fairly serious problems of their own.

Windsong

“A major reason the Contenders lost their superior numbers is Shaun’s habit of throwing challenges to Get Dave At All Costs.”

No, the major reason the Contenders lost their numbers advantage was Daisy decided to start making really stupid decisions, not helped when she started listening to David and his cheekbones. The other major reason the Contenders lost numbers was because the second-combined tribe only had 4 contenders on it, Janine kept trying to knife Harry and the bugger kept pulling immunity idols out of his butt.

Shaun didn’t factor much at all until they grabbed him. I don’t recall him throwing *that* challenge, they just lost, and Shaun did the obviously-intelligent move of trying to take out one of the ex-champions (and it only went south because Luke had an idol as well, so Hannah got caught in the crossfire).

Sure, Shaun wants Dave out (so do Janine’s alliance), but in terms of it becoming an obsession and causing problems, I don’t see that at all. Aside from being yanked from team-to-team, Shaun hasn’t factored into a lot of gameplay, and the few things he has done have been entirely reasonable.

Alan

That could be because I didn’t realise this season was on until 2 days ago so I’ve been binging a bit.

Janine told Shaun about the fake idol in Episode 9, although she forgot to mention that she gave David the swap idol paperwork to go with the fake idol. Shaun’s tribe lost all immunity challenges after the kidnapping except the balance ball challenges while winning all reward challenges.

At some stage Janine telling Shaun is likely to come out.

At Shaun’s first post-kidnap challenge in Episode 10, he was much slower in the water than he usually he is. He only half-opened the door the first time and kept it open for much shorter periods than other players. He is a terrible liar and he said right after the challenge ended ‘How did we lose that?’. The one thing Andy is good at in Survivor is ball-throwing and suddenly he was as good at ball-throwing as he was at puzzles in Episode 13..

In Episode 12, at the reward with Harry, Shaun actually said they would keep losing immunity challenges until they got rid of David. Luke and David looked surprised. Baden and John looked angry.

Neither Andy nor Shaun made any obvious attempt to throw the balance ball challenge in that episode, but that may only be because they were beaten to it by the Champions or because Baden and John had already said it was a no-go.

Episode 13 was the famous Andy can’t do puzzles challenge.

That’s a consistent strategy of Get David At All Costs in all episodes since the kidnap reward. It’s also a type case of why grudge matches don’t work either for the individual or the tribe.

I don’t know if Baden and John realised the challenge-throwing started at Episode 10, or that Andy was being pressed by Shaun to throw challenges over 3 episodes. If they work out it we can expect some fireworks. The chance of it not being worked out by the jury is minimal if Shaun makes it t the final.

Fijane

I am surprised by your ‘exposition’ above. This the first I have heard of Shaun throwing any challenge, I didn’t see any of the play that you mention, and didn’t hear any of the conversations suggesting that he was throwing.

Obviously I haven’t been watching as closely as I thought I was.

And it seems to me that although Shaun has a definite grudge against David, we only hear about it in the to-cameras. Most of the time he has kept the grudge under control when the scrambling has been happening. To me, he seems to be biding his time.

Alan

Episode 12
32:27
Shaun: So you’re definitely next.
Harry: Yep. There’s only me and Matt next. Were the only ones left. It’s legit. It legit is back to Champions v Contenders.
Shaun: They threw that challenge yesterday.
Harry: It certainly sounds like it.
Andy: We’re now 7/7. If we **** this up we go in as a minority. And everything we’ve heard is how tight they’re gonna be.
Daisy: Yeah.
Shaun: Then let’s start the game. Let’s have fun.
Harry: And we need to go up in the merge and we need to get rid of two of them before we start any shenanigans. It’s game on.
Harry: So as Old Contenders we need to start taking our shots against the Champions.
Shaun? (not completely sure who is speaking, but I think it’s Shaun): What we need to do is make sure we go to tribal council at every opportunity.
Andy: I can **** up a puzzle. And if I have to miss a bunch of throws it will hurt my dignity.
Daisy: But…
Andy: But yeah we have to think big picture.

Episode 14
50:30
John to Dave and Luke: Anyone who throws a challenge in sport or anything is not all right in my book and I wouldn’t trust him going forward.

51:39
Shaun to Daisy: So are all the Old Contenders going to grow some balls tonight? It’s just they’re playing so arrogantly. They come in here they’re going to tell us who to take the flick about who’s going home. They’ve got the numbers and its just shits me that’s all.
Daisy: Well do you have an alternative?
Shaun (inaudible) Put it onto Dave.
Daisy: Vote for Dave?
Shaun: They’ll vote for Andy.
Daisy: That would mean that someone would to play an idol for… Andy.
Shaun: We have to.
Daisy: I know but I don’t want Andy to still be here.
Shaun: We’re done after that. You know what I mean.

Daisy rejects the plan because it could leave her vulnerable. That’s a perfectly sound piece of game play on her part.

Dave would played his idol if Daisy had played hers. At the revote Andy and Dave would have been immune and Daisy would have been the likeliest candidate to go home.

There is also some interesting stuff from Episode 10, but I’ll put that up later today. We know Andy intentionally ****ed up a puzzle. I think there’s good reason to think he missed a bunch of throws in episode 10, but as I say I’ll look at that later today.

Fijane

Wow, Alan, thanks for all that transcription – it must have taken a while to do.

I remember the conversation when the decision was made for Andy to throw the challenge, but I didn’t quite remember which four people were in it. I knew Andy volunteered to do it. From your transcription, it doesn’t seem certain that it was Shaun’s idea. He may have said “we need to go to every tribal” but had not yet verbalised that that would require throwing.

The Ep 14 section I don’t remember at all – I must have missed it. I was wondering why people here were talking about Daisy playing her idol on Andy. Now it makes more sense.

You previously mentioned the underwater-door-holding-open challenge and suggested that Shaun sabotaged his team. My memory of that was that whoever was throwing was abysmal at it, and didn’t even get anywhere near the door. That person was also terrible when the door was been held by the other person (Luke?). By contrast, Simon on the other team shot them all in and barely missed. So I am not sure that Shaun could be blamed for that.

Who knows for sure, though? Editors will show whatever they want, and leave us to pick over the clues.

Alan

Imagine if Daisy had used her idol to save Andy from a 9/2 vote against him. David would have played his idol the instant Daisy played hers for Andy. T

The first thing is Shaun and Daisy would be shown up as part of the challenge-throwing that made John (and presumably Baden) so angry. The second thing is that the Contender alliance would either break up completely or continue without Shaun and Daisy. Swapping Baden, Harry, and John for a reliable ally like Andy, without actually sending Dave home, makes absolutely perfect sense. Or not…

Alan

Thanks Juz. Watching 14 episodes in 48 hours was pretty strange, but you do pick up things you wouldn’t otherwise. I’m leaving the RHAP podcasts to the weekend to try and stop my head exploding.

I can’t post a link from my news app, but apparently we get an early Australian Survivor series next year, with some previous players, and maybe 2 seasons.

I want an international season that has Tony and David in it. The only problem is the other players would probably need therapy afterwards.

Windsong

Right. Great. So. The Contenders spend most of the episode telling each other how impenetrable the Champions are and if they lose the numbers advantage, they’re hosed … so they all turn on each other at the end. Of course. Why wouldn’t they?

Tribal council was interesting, though. They *all* voted for Andy, except that Andy voted for Daisy. Did something else happen, that wasn’t shown, that turned everybody against Andy … and did he also guess that Daisy had an idol, that Shaun had told her to play for him? Or was he doing it because David told him to (and for a clever player, Andy got suckered by Dave very, very easily)?

The second most interesting part of that was Andy’s final shots. Sure, his gameplay was not great … until his final ten seconds. Telling everybody, “Dave’s got an idol. Bye!” just to screw with Dave (because he obviously realised, right at the end, that he shouldn’t have trusted Dave) was hilarious. The fact that Dave actually *does* have an idol (and Andy honestly didn’t know that) was freaking amazing. Thanks Andy. You were useful, right at the end.

Jayblossom

Yes that parting shot was slight redemption for Andy.
I think that at the end of the day he got booted because he was a dickhead and so transparent in his attempted manipulations that everyone just knew they couldn’t trust him.
Having said that I do wonder if Dave’s throwing him under the bus (re the attempted Daisy ousting) at tribal was the final nail in Andy’s coffin. If the contenders had been wavering that could have made the difference.

Windsong

The problem is Luke made it sound like he and Dave *had* worked with Andy, at some point, which would be when Andy suggested voting out Daisy.

Which means, if they were working together, Andy probably knew whether or not David had another idol … so everybody has more reason to trust Andy’s final words. If he was betrayed by his former allies, why wouldn’t he take one last shot?

So Luke’s plan was to discredit Andy — and sure, maybe it worked — but it had the unintended effect of also rebounding.

There’s a bit of chatter on the FB page, at the moment, about whether Andy should’ve been allowed to do that. Firstly, the rules state you have to leave the tribal area immediately. They don’t say anything about “silently”. And to actively stop that from happening, you’d have to change the entire dynamic of tribal council. How would they remove that knowledge from the game? What’s done is done.

Andy shot himself in the foot one too many times. He had a good thing going with the Contenders, but then tried to throw in with Dave and Luke, then changed his mind when that didn’t work, then tried to get rid of them … he dug his own hole, so deeply that he couldn’t get out when he needed to.

But I can’t see the Contenders coming back from this.

brain dead dave

I’m a bit~ “Andy, the tribe has spoken. Now shut up and go home , you dickhead”

Andy’s biggest problem for a guy allegedly good at puzzles was that he couldn’t tell the difference between Survivor and Suicide.

Jayblossom

Yeah but the fact that he Andy didn’t actually know it was true was amusing.
I think the best option for the ultimate winner is to keep Janine in until the end. No matter how much they respect her game play, surely no jury member would vote for a multimillionaire to win the $500K.

brain dead dave

Sure. At that minute I didn’t know that Andy didn’t know that Dave really had an idol. I’d just switched over from The $chlock and my brain had been pulverized with rubbish for more than an hour. But I “survived”

Parting shot is okay. It’s the Australian way. Andy might not have figured on being coward punched at the cast party , however.

Fijane

Contestants make comments after the snuffing all the time. I am sure I have seen several that could affect the game, either subtle or blatant. I don’t have a problem with it.

Alan

The rule book says to leave immediately, not to leave after trying to effect the game. Andy was not only a noob with delusions of grandeur, but the only thing that saved him from Hanzian levels of sleaze is his utter ineffectuality.

Brussellsprout

I think they should have damn well realised that David has an idol. The contenders totally deserve to be picked off.
Andy probably had a strong inclination that David had an idol. He was appalled at the time that they sent David in first to reward and seeing it was a carbon copy of the Benji Nachos Horror moment (I couldn’t eat a cornchip for months after seeing him spit it out onto other’s food) they all should have KNOWN there would be an idol or a clue.
I feel bad for Shaun who will need a big run of immunity to get rid of David and he identified the right way to get rid of David (under cover of universal hatred for Andy & Daisy idol) but dumb Daisy couldn’t do it. HONESTLY. what a bunch of idiots.

Windsong

This is exactly how I was feeling, on Sunday night before the week’s episodes started. The Contenders are just … idiots. They’re terrible at this game! It’s been a run of non-stop awful decisions.

And the pain of that is, the Contenders who are playing a good game (Shaun, Baden and Harry) are just going to get caught in the crossfire. And the champions (who I like a lot less) are going to get a free run to the endgame.

Alan

Baden turned a tribal council around with one speech. If he makes the final he will win.

Brussellsprout

Totally. I have been Team Baden for a while now. And he is playing clever with Luke as well.
Even though the edit is delivering us heavy-handed “Pia is a player” edit I actually believe it too and I am also team Pia. Her spidey-sense is fantastic – up there with David.

Windsong

Pia’s another one, I think, we should keep our eye on, because I think she’s a lot savvier than she lets on. She’s an actress and a damned good one, and I think she’s playing a role beautifully … but she’s also the minor partner in a big alliance, which means she has Janine to hide behind when the votes start flying. Which is smart gameplay.

And we know she wants to knife Dave, at some point. I imagine Andy’s revelation, last night, increased everybody’s anxiety about getting rid of him.

Brussellsprout

I can see her knifing Janine too!

Fijane

It is interesting that Pia has been threatened several times, but it has always been as Janine’s sidekick. Nobody seems to realise that she is probably controlling Janine rather than the opposite. I expect her to be in at least final five, along with Baden.

Alan

I think Harry realises, just an impression from the way he deals with Janine and Pia. Harry is very good at reading people and managed to flirt his way into Janine’s insane plan to save him and knife Simon.

Windsong

I’m not sure that Baden is my winner pick, but I definitely think he’ll go far. He’s quietly making moves in the background, hiding behind the physical threats like Shaun and Daisy and John, while also cultivating a friendship with Luke and Dave. And everyone seems to like the kid, and he does have a habit of blitzing challenges.

Windsong

Half the time, I feel like the producers have forgotten that Simon is there too. He had an interview segment tonight, and I was like, hallelujah, they’ve remembered he’s there as well.

Windsong

But still, the most beautiful part of their one-two attack on Andy is just how badly it backfired.

brain dead dave

Andy was just like the Coyote playing with dynamite. Kaboom!

Sioux Denim

On another note, how friggin good was that reward challenge? One of the best ive seen by far!
Pity for Daisy she didnt use the idol to her best ability……
I’m really liking harry for a final 3 and hoping Luke gets in there too.
Interesting luke speaking up at tribal too, would’ve thought Dave would have liked thaf honour…
Ps, absolutely love reading this forum after each episode and everyone’s insights are brilliant…would comment more but get annoyed having to type my name and email every time….love youse all 😃

Brussellsprout

I can’t feel pity for Daisy – I am more annoyed with her for blowing the opportunity and wasting the idol.

Ebony

Actually I didnt like the reward challenge, I prefer it when they pick teams, i starts to show who really thinks what of who and it divides the whole group into 2 whilst giving some such much needed food, giving a chance for a change up of alliances which this season desperately needs.
I also thought Daisy’s reward was ridiculous, as if she needed that much food, and they just GAVE her the idol, it should have been a clue.

Brussellsprout

Interesting – we were just saying that Baden with his lighter build will probably do well in those kind of challenges that traditionally the smaller women do well in. I like that time of the game too!

Fijane

Endurance challenges are my least favourite, by a long way. I find them so boring and long. Last night’s was a little more interesting because of the food, but I would still prefer an active, obstacle-based challenge.

Alan

They’ve been far too easy with idols this season. The well clues have barely been hidden.

Fijane

Sioux, I still have to do that too. I mentioned it a few times to Juz, but now I am just used to it.

brain dead dave

When I double left click the empty name and email fields, my details appear, click again and the fields are filled out. Hope that helps.

Fijane

No apology necessary, I assume it is just one of those bugs.

I will try the double click, BDD, straight after this post.

Fijane

Nope, didn’t work. It still just gives me a drop down list of possible names, including the ones that were accidental mispellings.

Carole Morrissey

Wow, Daisy sure can eat. Can’t believe how much food she ate. We don’t know how long she was there for though. I could have been over several hours. Was she not allowed to share? No way could she have eaten all that food by herself. I thought she might give poor John his Mexican parma. I don’t know why John didn’t wait to see if there was a Mexican parma before stepping down.
Andy’s parting shot was hilarious.

Ebony

I’m not liking Dave one bit but I must say if this season didn’t have him it would be a total dud. The contenders gameplay is near on non-existent. Daisy has aligned herself with great people but other than that just makes bad decision after bad decision and has ultimately thrown the rest of the contenders under the bus. I’m not sure why Shaun was ever placed in the contender tribe, surely he should have been a champion.
Why is no-one talking about who to take to the end… Maybe Dave is a good choice, no one seems to like him, his ego indicates he’s relatively successful and wouldnt need the money. In saying that how many of the champions (plus Shaun) would need the money? And if that’s the case maybe they are the perfect ones to go to the end with.

Brussellsprout

JayBlossom suggested taking Janine as even if she has played a strong game, no one would give her the $$ over someone like Luke, Baden, John, Daisy, etc. I am signed up to that!
I think David may be a dangerous strategy though as there are players that will admire his gameplay and look past his ego. Even though I personally am not a fan he would have a compelling case to me if he got to the end and it would be hard not to vote for him, but I just can’t see it happening.

Windsong

Dave feels like he’s made too many enemies. Even Luke probably wouldn’t hesitate to knife him, if it kept the votes away from *him*.

Fijane

Shaun’s backstory was that he was actually a failure (not a champion) in his AFL career. Not sure that I agree that nearly 100 games makes you less than a valuable player. He says that he sees it that way because he was on the lists for several years and highly limited by injury. He is allegedly trying to redeem himself.

Possibly a ruse to put strength on the contenders team.

Alan

I’m gonna dob you in to the next set of Masterchef judges for that.

Brussellsprout

As I previously observed, I have never heard of a Mexican parmi and equally have ZERO desire to sample one! Plain parmi for me all the way, preferably one approximately size of own head, lol.

Bobi

I second that plain parmi – with lots and lots and lots of lemon juice. No additional muck to spoil the experience.

Brussellsprout

Yes indeed – I don’t get it either. You take a nice crispy outer coating and put claggy cheese on it. Does Not Compute.

Fijane

Another vote here. Anything added to the schnitzel which makes it soggy is out. Same for putting the schnitty on top of the chips, and making them soggy!!

Often wondered if it is a state-based preference?

Windsong

I don’t like any of those options. Parmis and schnittys, none of them do anything for me.

Give me a big bowl of pasta or carbonara or something. Then we’re talking. Even nachos with homemade salsas are more my thing.

Brussellsprout

After Benji’s nachos I needed nachos therapy!

Alan

I’ve never been alone with a plate of nachos after weeks on a starvation diet. I like to think I’d do better than Benji but I’m not making any promises.

Alan

Way too many people are convinced that (1) Survivor is a game of Outlast, Outplay, Outnice and (2) that what people do on Survivor is exactly how they act in real life. If David were not in the season we’d be seeing identical complaints about Harry or Luke. We’d also be dead bored.

Alan

Survivor South Africa 2019 is on YouTube and it’s a seriously good season.

Bobi

Hey Alan, having trouble sleeping? I have some podcasts I can recommend.

brain dead dave

Yeah, my doctor recommended listening to podcasts for trouble getting to sleep. Bit of an unforeseen benefit.