Survivor: Gabon
 

This has been on for a couple of weeks now, and no one has posted anything about it yet. Anyone else here watching, or am I the only one?

So far, the votes haven't been very surprising. Then again, they've voted off only three people, and the first to go are always relatively forgettable.

I'm really liking Bob the Physics teacher; the way he wears his buff as a bow tie is too cute!
Matty and Dan are next in line, just because they're so fun to look at. :D

Definitely watching this season. Already entertaining.

Bob is pretty much the coolest guy (I love the awesome old dudes that know everything).

I wasn't too surprised that Paloma was voted out last night, but I was kind of secretly hoping that Ace would go home. Similar to the people on the show, he's not my favorite. Unfortunately for Sugar, she's all buddy-buddy with him, and I think that both of them are going down soon.

And yay for Fang winning two challenges. I always tend to root for the underdog in the beginning. But there are definitely a couple people on that tribe that are holding them back.

I also like Bob. I was surprised he didn't get the puzzle right away though. I think it's hilarious that Sugar got the HI. I bet she gets voted out with it still in her possession.

Anybody else thinking "You may have been an Olympic gold medalist 4 years ago but you sure aren't that kind of shape now" ??? I'm just not seeing the athleticism one would expect.

It looks like some of the conditions may be brutal this season. The one tribe has used more than half of their rice already??

I'm watching, but haven't "connected" with the cast yet (no one I'm really rooting for individually, but as a tribe, I too am rooting for the "underdog" Fang tribe :))

Ugh...he's sickening and his accent makes me want to slap him. So patronizing.....

I'm not really. I just wanted to say that my friend worked in Gabon this summer when they were filming.

Yayyyyyy Gabon.

He loved it there.

I missed the first one, but thank God for www.televisionwithoutpity.com and their recaps

These blogs are kind of fun... they even have Jeff Probst blogging after each episode now.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20230920_4,00.html

What do you all think of Marcus?

You can see all of Marcus, and I do mean ALL of Marcus here:
http://dlisted.com/node/28490

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!

I've been watching. I really hope there's a few more twists waiting in this one, because as it stands, it looks like it's going exactly like China with Charlie = Todd, Marcus = Amanda, Corinne = Courtney, and Jocyln = Denise.

Another really good source is Reality News Online. Not only do they have really good recaps (though maybe not as detailed as TWP), but they also have regular (and well done) analysis articles and interviews with those voted off the "island." The interview with Paloma is interesting.

Really good source for The Amazing Race and Big Brother (and other shows) as well.

Love the twist. Loved Charlie saying "I just love Marcus" Love Sugar at Exile Island again, especially since she gets comfort this time!

Charlie says that in every episode. He wants to bang him and everyone knows it!

Anyway... I think they were stupid voting out Jackie. By voting her out, they got rid of one of their stronger players. And the way they completely sucked at the immunity challenge, they couldn’t afford that.

As it stands, Kenny, GC, Olympic girl, and awesome guy (Matty?), are all pretty tight. To kick off Jackie or Kelly wouldn’t really have mattered. It’s still 4 against 3 (if Jackie or Kelly sided with Ace and Sugar). But I think if they kept Jackie, she would have done anything to ensure that she stayed on the island, thus voting with the 4 original Fang tribe members.

Now, they’re pretty much guaranteed that they have Kelly on their side, which brings them to 5 people, but she’s weak and useless and she isn't going to help them win immunity challenges (which is what they NEED to do right now). And even if Sugar and Ace work together with the immunity idol, I don’t think it’s going to help them for too long.

Thus why it was stupid for them to vote off Jackie instead of Kelly.

The end!

Quoting myself, because apparently the producers saw the same end result I did. It's funny how when one or both tribes start forming tight alliances, the next activity is a tribal switch.:p

... and the Fang tribe loses yet another person.

However, it wasn't a huge blow to them or anything. G.C. needed to go. But I would have also liked for them to have kicked Sugar off. I think that would have been awesome with all of them knowing that she has the idol.

And there haven't really been any suprises at tribal council yet. During the show, they try to make it seem like they're going to pull a fast one on someone, but then they all end up voting the way they were originally going to.

And in the previews for next week, it looks like Ace might be in trouble...

^^ I know! At least they haven't had much of the focus on him in the past few episodes.

I loved when he was talking about what a cow Kelly was - and the accent was mysteriously missing.

I'm waiting for the reunion show when he'll mention how the accent thing was all an act

:p

I think he's too much in love with his persona for anything like that. If it is an act (for the show - I have no doubt it's an act, but I really think he keeps it up in "real life"), he wouldn't keep it up as much as he does in his individual dispensations.

Recorded it last week and finally got a chance to watch it last night.

Can I just say "stupid, stupid people"? Yeah GC was annoying, yeah he quit (we call it that, GC, 'cause that's what it was), but they were crazy for not voting Sugar off. It was probably the best opportunity they'll have and it would have been a major undercut to Ace. Is the meager rice diet really making them that dimwitted?

^^ I guess so! I really thought they'd kick her off. Or at least, I thought there might be a battle between GC and Sugar for who received the most votes. But surprisingly, everyone voted for GC.

This week, I think if they find themselves back at tribal council, they're going to run into the problem of who to vote off, Sugar or Ace, and the immunity idol could be passed back and forth. In which case, they might want to surprise them, vote off Kelly to get rid of their weakest player, while possibly forcing them to use the idol. But I don't know if they'll do that and lose another ally.

And I forget... if the person that uses the immunity idol is the one that is voted out, they're obviously not eliminated, but then how does that work? Does everyone re-vote? Or do they use the votes that are already made and kick off the second person with the most votes?

This.

And that is why it's risky to plan to vote for the person with the Hidden Immunity Idol. What if YOU end up being the other person? It gives the alliance with the HII the power, really. The thing is, why was Sugar so sure they weren't going to vote for her this time? The one thing that nobody with the HII has mastered yet is WHEN TO PLAY IT! Most get voted out while holding it, some get voted out holding more than one!

This time it would have been about as risk free as possible. It was clear to Ace that everyone (Crystal especially) was ready for quitter and whiner GC to leave. So, unless they see something coming, Ace and Sugar will vote for GC. If they don't see it coming until tribal council, it's too late for any strategy between Ace and Sugar. So, it could have been:

• Ace and Sugar believe they are going along with everyone else and vote for GC;

• Matty, Kelly, Ken and Crystal, who were all set to vote for GC (because they are ready for him to be gone) blindside Sugar; and

• GC, who can't vote for himself, votes for Kelly.

Had the votes gone this way, and had Sugar picked up on comments at tribal council and realized that she wasn't safe after all (I did wonder if they were trying to bluff her into playing the idol so she'd waste it) and played it, then the next highest vote getter would have been GC, thanks to Ace and Sugar. Everyone wanted him gone anyway, so no big loss. Meanwhile, Sugar would no longer have the idol protection.

I agree, though, that it seems to be the rare player who understands how and when to use the idol.

Either way, this next episode should be interesting. And personally, I think that Kelly, Crystal, and Ken have to watch out for Matty. If I were them, I'd be kind of worried. He has power because he's one of their strongest players, and I tend to think that he’ll be loyal only insofar that it will help him get to the merge. Do I think that he’ll just suddenly turn on those three? Probably not. But if they continue to go to tribal council, and if it’s because of those three people (which it usually is), and their alliance becomes weaker, Matty has the upper hand in that he knows that Ace and Sugar have the immunity idol, and he could vote whichever way he wanted and pretty much be guaranteed that he’s safe.

WELL, I am pretty sure the immunity Idol will be used next time if they go to council because Ace and Sugar will be confident they will be put up...

WHAT THEY SHOULD OF DONE: They should of made Ace confident that they wanted to vote of Sugar... Told him that they want him to join their alliance, and they want to get rid of Sugar tonight... Sugar would of played the immunity idol because Ace would of told her to, but the gang would of still voted out GC... two birds, one stone.

^^ Hm, probably too obvious, though. Ace would have figured it out.

Maybe, but he would of still be paranoid that she is going... and what would they have to lose by trying, considering they were voting GC off anyways...

^^ True. And yes, Ace and Sugar know they're on the chopping block this week. It's just a matter of a guessing game.

Here’s the question… could they essentially still get rid of either Ace or Sugar this week no matter what?

There are 4 people in an alliance. Ace and Sugar are on the other side. Let’s pretend that the original 4 split their votes (2 vote for Ace, 2 vote for Sugar). I would also assume that Ace and Sugar would vote for the same person to go home, leaving 2 votes for someone else (let’s say Ken, just for the sake of argument).

Suppose either Ace or Sugar uses the immunity idol, that will exclude that from being kicked off (let’s pretend Sugar uses it). They read the votes to figure out who received the second highest number of votes, and there’s a tie between Ace and Ken.

My question is… how would they break the tie? Is there another vote? Does the person who used the immunity idol break the tie? If there was another vote, Ace would go home. If the immune person chooses, Ken would go home. Any way you look at it, as long as those 4 stay close and no one turns to the other side, they should be fine. Because even if Sugar used the immunity idol and she got to choose to send Ken home, Ace and Sugar would still be outnumbered 3-2.

The key is for those 4 people to get either Ace or Sugar to use the idol.

This is why they should have gotten rid of Sugar last tribal council and kept GC around for another few days at least. Ace and Sugar would not have seen it coming last time, Sugar would be gone, Ace would be on his own and the immunity idol would be back in play.

I think the only way for Ace or Sugar to be voted off this week is for them to be successfully bluffed as to which one of them is the target. That will be hard since, if they have any brains at all, they have to assume after the last tribal council that everyone else knows that Sugar has the immunity idol and they would consider that assumption in interpreting any representation from other tribe members.

BTW, the "Next on Survivor Gabon" blurb at CBS.com says that the idol changes hands tonight.

ASTalum, if there is a tie, then I assume (based on previous seasons) there will be a challenge, such as whoever builds a fire faster and burns through a rope stays.

Oh, I've actually never seen this happen before. I usually watch every other episode with shows like this, but I've been watching this one the whole way through.

Pulling a fast one on Ace and Sugar is their best option, but it's not going to be easy, and they definitely made things a whole lot more difficult by voting out GC. I'm anxious to see what's going to happen.

Ken is a gamer, so I am surprise he is not thinking to strategic. What that tribe needs to do is make it seem like sugar needs to go, and vote out Ace, or visa versus...

^^ The problem is, as much as I hate Ace, he's not too dumb and he'll probably catch on. Same goes for Sugar. Unless those 4 don't make it seem obvious at all. There can't be any, "We want you to change over to our alliance" kind of stuff, because I know they won't buy that.

It truly is going to be a guessing game.

Ok, so honestly... who called it? :D

Didn't Crystal say that she had been an Olympian? I'm not seeing "Olympic Champion" material from her. At all. I'm not surprised that Kelly was voted out, but I think Crystal deserved the boot a little more than Kelly did.

Is it just me, or is this season is a little more predictable than previous ones?

^^ Very predictable. And what amazes me most is that EVERYONE seems to vote the same. There aren't any secret votes where people say they'll vote one way, and then they go in a completely opposite direction. Tribal council isn't suspenseful. Once Jeff reads the first name, you know who's going home.

I did like that Sugar took the idol back from Ace. Ace was acting like "it's mine now so I'm in control". I think she's on to his game now.

^^ I think so, too. I think that Ken still doesn't trust him at all, but I don't know if he'll be the voice of reason in the long run. Hopefully they'll win some challenges now that Kelly is gone. I know that Crystal isn't exactly the Olympian that she once was, but at least she's giving a LITTLE effort.

And could someone just punch Randy in the face, please? He was fine at first, but now that he's on a winning team, he's being a jerk. Honestly, his strategy is just to stay out of the way and lay low. Yea, way to contribute. :rolleyes: