Tag: El

Australian Survivor – Mon, Oct 24 – Does she get the Flick?

It’s final four time! We’re down to Flick, that “poor girl” Kristie and power couple-but-it-doesn’t-mean-we’re-in-an-alliance “Leel”.
Before we go any further, can I just boast about this:
jlaptweet

Back at camp, after Flick failed to vote off El, we hardly get any of the fallout chat, which is really annoying as it makes it hard to judge where people really stand. Flick, understandably, feels she’s next.
The next day there’s a bit of awkward chat about what what they are proud about and everyone says stuff like “building a shelter”, “doing well at a challenge”, except El, who digs the knife in a bit about sticking to an alliance (oops – except that one with Magic Matt that was just friends who voted the same).
Everyone’s spirits are lifted by cooking a Samoan lovo but there’s not that much food. Perhaps they didn’t want everyone to get the runs before a challenge.
Lee is more excited about being given tinder for the lovo fire and Flip not at all subtlety asks Lee to teach her how to make the fire. Because Lee is not a Survivor fan he doesn’t twig that Flip’s sudden interest in fire is obviously because she wants to be prepared for a tiebreaker fire challenge and not because she wants to prostrate herself at the feet of the fire guru (which no doubt he is, because he is Lee the almighty).
Kristie, however, has been watching Survivor since she was a kid and knows exactly what Flickety is up to, so she starts paying attention to the fire lesson also. (Side note: Did you know Flick’s partner has a brother who was a Survivor contestant in 2010 this dude )
Flick hopes “Leel” will forgive her planned betrayal and keep her around over Kristie. El tells the camera she did regard Flick as a little sister and in not so many words says she doesn’t really like Kristie: “I think she’s a really nice girl; a strange one, but a lovely girl.” We keep hearing about how Kristie is weird but the camera hasn’t shown it at all, apart from what looked to be an anxiety attack in the game’s early days over what she thought was her missing bag. She’s certainly not weird by US Survivor standards – they’ve had some people on who obviously cheated on the psych exam.
Later, Leel discuss how Flick is weak at challenges and would pick El for final two and they would pick each other, so it would be smart to go with her.
And then we get a cool scene of Kristie, scurrying off in the dark with flint and a coconut husk, trying to make fire while the others sleep. Go Kristie – but, really, what kind of fan goes on Survivor and doesn’t insist on making it at camp once in 51 days. I’m sure all the guys were doing the manly thing and being the fire lords, but who was making the fire when she was on the loser tribe with Sue, Conner and Kate? Kate, I’m guessing (sorry, Conner).

Immunity challenge time
It’s a convoluted one involving bits of previous challenges, including the one where they have to create a long stick to hook a key, walking while rolling on a barrel, and ending on a puzzle. This has Lee written all over it, unless the puzzle is really hard. Flick is off to a poor start and if this was the US show Probst would be yelling: “Flick, falling waaay behind.”
She actually catches up well until it’s the bit where they have to throw something the size of a cricket ball at a specific spot – geez, who’d have thunk a professional cricketer would be good at that?
Lee is first to the final element, the puzzle. Will this be immunity No. 4 for him? El is next, then Flick. JLap isn’t bothering to say what Kristie is up to.
Flick knocks a puzzle piece off the table and by the way the camera keeps lingering on it she hasn’t realised. Is JLap’s next bit of commentary a clue? “She needs to find the pieces; she needs to pick it up.”
El wins, which makes things soooo boring.

Later, Flick tells Kristie she heard Leel whispering about taking each other to final two, which is no surprise. But will Kristie do anything with this info? Flick is scrambling to save herself, reminding El she saved her bacon previously. She asks El to split the vote so she can do a fire challenge with Kristie. But Lee isn’t keen and here we get proof Lee is actually thinking more about strategy than previously shown. “I understand the theory behind it, but that exposes me,” he says, and he’s right. If Flick teams up with Kristie, Lee could well be going home. Flick pinky swears with a cherry on top she won’t even talk to Kristie but Lee’s brow is furrowed. Daddy is not happy with her desperate moves.
“It’s a bit Nick-ish, this,” Lee tells Flick after she makes her pitch. Ah, when will they drop this whole Nick is a snake bizzo. Over it. Flick even pulls out the “I love you”, which could well be true but she forgets her fellow castaways are not following the US Survivor rule book.


Tribal council
Here comes the jury and how skinny does Matt look with the beard shaved! After some chat about alliances, fighting to stay and trust. JLap suggests it’s a good idea to vote off an ally so you can get their jury vote. “I want to win it next to someone I’ve been through the whole time, and someone I can trust,” El says. “So, Lee,” Flip interjects. And El takes the bait: “Okay, Lee. There you go: I’ll be taking Lee to the final,” she says frustratedly. Gotcha! On the jury bench, Nick’s “what the?” hand gestures are a thing of beauty.
Lee tries to distance himself from the declaration but when asked point blank if he promised El a final two spot he can only shrug. You can see the jurors willing Kristie to make a move but all she says is she has to win immunity (despite never having won a challenge before). Nick practically slumps to the ground in frustration and Kylie and JL cover their eyes in horror.


Now, is this all talk or is this how Kristie really thinks? “I can see the jury absolutely cringeing over there, but I’m still in it. I’m going to fight for it.”
Flick responds Kristie has “dug a hole” but still a chance to win the game by ensuring there’s a 2-2 vote between Flick and Lee to ensure a fire challenge. True – or perhaps this is a plan to get Kristie herself out. I can’t see Lee turning on Kristie, though. Hurry up and vote!
The vote: We see Flick vote for “Leeroid”. And it’s Flick going home. It’s hugs all round, apart from a joking “you’re an idiot” to Kristie.

Tomorrow
The finale screens from 7.30pm-9.15pm on Ten. Sadly, Ten is not doing a reunion show straight after, which is modus operandi for the original and is always great fun as there’s none of this “let’s record two endings and make people pretend they’ve won”. Plus, I’d love to see JLap rock up to the Opera House on a jet ski, clutching the urn full of votes. We get a glimpse of the final immunity challenge and it’s fun to see they’ve gone way back to Borneo, the first season of Survivor, for the “standing on a log and touching a pole” challenge. These can go on for hours. (History here)

SO …
I really want to see Kristie take this thing out but her moves have baffled me. If she does freakishly win the final immunity, I’m guessing she will take Lee and that would be her ticket to winning, because she can boast: “I beat this dude – little ole me”.
And for all those Flick’s, Matt’s and Sam’s banging on about how people should have moved against Leel earlier: Where were you guys this whole game? Why didn’t you do something when you had a chance? This is what happens when Survivor goes for 55 days and they don’t mix up the tribes enough – everyone gets too entrenched in their perceived alliances.



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Australian Survivor – Mon, Oct 17

Monday night Australian Survivor chat.

If you haven’t heard already, the Survivor finale screens Tuesday, October 25 (yes – it’s back to a Tuesday timeslot). Channel 10 doesn’t seem to be doing a reunion show (despite a campaign by fans on Twitter), which is a real shame. No doubt there will be the odd contestant pop up on The Project or Have You Been Paying Attention, but it’s not the same as getting to see what everyone looks like in the real world compared to their island style.


The episode starts with the morning after the spa night – we don’t even get to see Flick, Kristie and Matt discussing forming an alliance to vote out Lee and El. What the hell happened – did Channel 10 lose the footage? Does this mean we also won’t see Exile Beach footage?
After a decent night’s sleep at the spa reward and wearing almost-matching black satin nighties, Kristie and Flick pledge their loyalty to each other. Neither one really trusts the other, though.
It’s also morning on Exile Beach and everyone is shitty because they can’t get the fire to light and they are hungry. There’s no talk of idols. Disappointing!

It’s challenge time already!
Lee skips the greeting and opens with: “Not happy with you, Jonathon.” JLap rubs it in my getting the reward winners to extol the virtues of real beds, before revealing the other three went to Exile and got neither food nor sleep. So now everyone feels bad.
It’s another reward challenge and they are competing in teams of three. It’s a twist on a Survivor classic of carrying water over an obstacle course but instead of the usual buckets they are tipping water from a cracked coconut into someone’s mouth. That someone then has to sprint across a balance beam, mouth full of coconut water, and spit it into a tube. It’s Team Spa versus Team Exile Beach. Winner gets an advantage in the immunity challenge. “I will put it in my mouth – I’ve got a big mouth,” Kristie volunteers. Lee and Flick are selected as the spitters proves but Kristie – with her shorter reach and having trouble with the wind – has trouble directing the flow into Flick’s mouth (yes, I really just typed that). Unsurprisingly, despite Sam being on the outs, Exile Beach team wins. Team Spa had better hope the immunity challenge tomorrow involves a puzzle or they’re stuffed.

Back at camp, after 27 hours without food, Team Exile Beach can’t wait to dig in to their black and white glop. But then, for the first time, we get footage of what we’ve known for a while back in the real world: Lee and El are a thing.
“Lee and I have spooned since day one,” says El, saying it was because they were cold to start with and then became something more. Unlike the current season of US Survivor, however, there is no pashing or even hand holding. It’s just sitting on a beach, gazing at the waves and chatting – not even touching. That’s Survivor romance, Aussie style.


Meanwhile, Magic Matt and Sam cement their alliance and are hopeful Kristie and Flick are on board. But then Matt tells the camera something that’s the kiss of death on Survivor: “I have a chance at winning this game, and I’m coming for it.” Noooooo!

It’s Day 49 – that’s 10 days longer than a normal Survivor. Kristie is tossing up between siding with Flick, a known backstabber, and Lee, who she believes has been loyal to her. She has a mini meltdown – which we haven’t seen back since the show started and she thought someone had moved her bag (and it was El who calmed her down then). “You are doing so well – I’ve said that from day dot,” says Daddy Lee.
Flick is a bot worried this sign of emotion means Kristie is going to crack and spill the beans to Mum and Dad.

Immunity challenge
JLap reminds us that Sam has yet to win individual immunity. That’s because he’s no good at puzzles of hanging off/on to stuff. The challenge is a Survior classic: balancing on a triangular pontoon, with no hands allowed. It usually favours girls with smaller feet and good balance, although the last person to win it was Joey Amazing in Second Chances. Here’s a history of who’s won it. This could be El’s challenge if there’s not a guest of wind.
And the advantage is: The Exile Beach three get to start the challenge 10 minutes after everyone else. That is a huge advantage. Someone could fall before the three even start.
And, yes, Flick falls just before the 10-minute ark.
After 90 minutes it’s just Lee, El and Sam and they have to transition to the top for a surfer-style pose. In the past contestants have stood here for quite a while but the Samoan sea is choppy today and Lee hangs on just a few seconds longer than El and Sam to win.

Back at camp the alleged alliance of Lee, El, Kristie and Flick aims to split the vote between Matt and Sam. But, later, Flick tells Kristie that El is the target of the other alliance. Kristie is conflicted and goes for a stroll with Lee, where she confesses all. Daddy Lee looks down at Kristie with his sad, frownie face as she pours her heart out. And then tells her not to worry about the fact he and El are close. Yes, do worry about that fact, Kristie! And it just gets more shambolic from here, with Lee telling El, who tells Flick, who pretends it’s all cool but is inwardly freaking out. Interestingly Lee and El dismiss the notion that Flick has turned against them, when just days ago she flipped on her BFF to join them.

Tribal Council
Matt talks about making moves. Lee talks about how people should not make moves. Sam decides it’s time to throw a few tribal truth bombs a la JL – how his tune has changed. Talk turns to how El and Lee are running the show and over on the jury Nick is loving this.


It’s time to vote but first Lee announces he’d like to use his advantage. Hooray – some actual gameplay. He gets to cancel someone’s vote and, logically he should pick Matt or Sam as they’re definite votes for El.
And he picks Sam.
I’d be tempted to vote El out on the basis of her wearing short pink overalls.
The votes are: Sam, Matt, Matt, El and Sam. Time for the revote (and Matt and Sam can’t vote). Matt looks sick.
Sam’s gone. At least he can reunite with Brooke back at Ponderosa. “All the best, eh,” he tells his fellow tribemates, making the “rock on” sign with his hand.



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Australian Survivor – Sun, Oct 16 – more twisty twists

Well, this one’s pretty easy.

Sunday night Survivor recap
It seems like ages ago hat Brooke was voted off – that’s what happens when Channel Ten reduces our Survivor fix from three nights a week to two. Back at camp after the vote Sam knows he and Magic Matt are in trouble, as they weren’t in on the Brooke vote out. Can Sam mend his fractured relationship with previous BFF Lee? Perhaps once they are back at Ponderosa (aka the dreadfully named Jury Villa for our series) they can lift weights together and make each other protein shakes.


The next morning Flick does some sucking up to Matt to try and smooth things over in case she needs his vote and her version of sucking up involves telling him that she didn’t trust him. It doesn’t go down well. “It’s not just a game he tells her.”
Lee, Flick and El make a final three pledge and decide they will ditch Kristie when needed. It’s totes awks when Kristie then wanders up and they obviously change the conversation. Kristie knows they could be plotting against her. Please, Kristie – find an idol or sort something with Matt because I want you to win this thing.
“I’m just going to run to the dunny,” she tells the girls (yet another saying you won’t hear on US Survivor).
Kristie DOES start plotting with Matt – yay – but how are they going to make it work numbers wise? There is much sketching in the sand with a stick going on. But Flick and El have noticed she’s gone and go hunting. Matt and Kristie hurriedly scrub out their markings in the sand and it seems they have fooled El for now.


Lee, who has an obvious soft spot for Kristie (but not soft enough to shield enough from El and Flick) has a quiet chat to check she’s still on board but it’s hard to know how he feels.
She tells the camera: “I’ve been waiting my whole life pretty much to play and win this game.”
But Matt is right when he tells the camera that Lee and El are the Mum and Dad and Kristie and Flick are the daughters. Geez, Sam has changed his tune from the days of telling everyone they were snakes for talking strategy and targeting each other. He tells Flick – rightly – that if she makes final three with Lee and El they will pick each other, not her. Flick says she hasn’t thought about it but she must have – what else is there to do most of the time on the beach? Finally, we get to see Matt talking strategy and using his powers of persuasian on Flick.

Reward challenge time
Winner gets a spa stay and, hopefully, will get to choose someone to go with them so everyone else will be jealous and start plotting against them. The challenge is a mixture of of a memory game, digging for treasure and, of course, a puzzle. Lee is first one to the puzzle and Matt quickly catches up. It looks like the piles of sand on the table are making the pieces not quite fit but, after blowing the sand away, Matt wins. Who will go with him?
JLap says: “But you won’t find out who that is until tonight, at tribal council?”
In the words of the contestants: “Whaaaaat?”
Oh dear – another one of those twisty twists. Hope it’s more interesting than Exile Beach. And if Matt gets voted out and THEN gets his reward, that will suck.
The majority alliance decides to split the vote between Matt and Sam, in case there’s an idol. Since they are voting 2-2 this is a chance for either Kristie or Flick to flip because everyone knows Lee and El are strong contenders to win and they are a tight couple who would look beautiful doing ads for compression athletic wear together.

Tribal council
They arrive at tribal but it’s not really tribal – it’s the Survivor classic of “how well do you know your tribemates”. Correct answer means you get to smash boxes with an opponent’s name, potentially knocking them out of the challenge. So, we know already Kristie is going to win, right, because we heard Lee say earlier that she had never been on a single reward. Early in the days of Survivor this game tended to make it clear who was on the bottom of alliances and resulted in a lot of hurt feelings, but last time a version of it was played on “real” Survivor Jeff got so cranky with the contestants for not being cutthroat enough (Survivor San Juan Del Sur, where the majority alliance conspired to let Missy win, making for a boring challenge indeed. There’s a whole Reddit thread discussing whether this challenge is too “broken” to be used again here.).
The answers are based on surveys the contestants previously answered (and you have to pick what the group will say) and the answer to “Who most deserves to win Survivor?” was Sam. I guess it’s because he runs a charity. But no-one actually gets it right.
“Who least deserves to win?” The answer is Sam and only Lee gets it right. He smashes a Sam square.


“Who is playing the game more than anyone?” Flick. Four of them get it right.
“Who is flying under the radar?” El (agreed).
“Who is least likely to win the game?’ Sam. There are more questions but we don’t hear them all.
“Who is the most popular player?” Lee (no surprise).
“Who is the least popular player?” Kristie (ouch – poor Kristie – they regard her as an easy target).
“Who do you most want sitting next to you in the final two?” El.
“Who do you least want sitting next to you in the final two?” Sam.
“Who is most likely to blindside you?” Sam.
Oh no – Kristie’s squares are all chopped – guess she’s not going to the luxury spa with Matt.
“Who is the worst listener?” Sam. Flick is right so she gets to go on the spa date with Matt.


Poor Matt – he doesn’t even get to pick who goes on a spa date with him and he won the reward challenge. Luckily, there is a third spot and Flick picks Kristie. This should be interesting.
And then JLap tells Lee, Sam and El they are heading straight to Exile Beach, armed only with a flint. Does this mean we’ll get idol hunting this time? Depends how long they are there for in daylight I guess.


Next time: We see the spa reward winners living it up as they plot against the power couple. and Lee talking about his closest ally: “I have feelings for El inside this game.” Oooh! Will they be Australia’s answer to Rob and Amber (who now have four girls after romance bloomed on Survivor All-Stars).

Soooo, that was yet another episode where no-one went home … Come on, Channel 10. It’s Survivor – someone has to go.
Do we think Flick will really turn against Lee and El? Kristie is looking good to make it to the end and she’ll have a good pitch about being the underdog who made it through without a solid alliance.

Here are my answers to the questions – what would you put?
1 “Who most deserves to win Survivor?” Kristie
2 “Who least deserves to win?” Sam
3 “Who is playing the game more than anyone?” Flick.
4 “Who is flying under the radar?” El
5 “Who is least likely to win the game?” Flick
6 “Who is the most popular player?” Lee
7 “Who is the least popular player?” Sam
8 “Who do you most want sitting next to you in the final two?” Sam (for a goat)
9 “Who do you least want sitting next to you in the final two?” Lee (because he might win on sheer charisma).
10 “Who is most likely to blindside you?” Flick
11 “Who is the worst listener?” Matt (because he was clueless to the Brooke blindside).



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