Survivor: Samoa

[SWTXBelle]

0ooo! Mystic Cat - I thought of you today. I have a small red rubber ball with a smiley face on it which I refer to as my "Happy Fun Ball". My students didn't get it, so I showed them the ad - "Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball" is now the cool catchphrase of the day in a certain TX middle school!

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

Or was Lauren in Foa Foa's camp?

Meanwhile, what's with Liz and what's-her-name? "We know it's one of us, so let's give up"?! How about try to get just one of the guys to vote with you? At least try!

It looked like Galu's camp - the spot where Shambo was trying (feebly) to convince Monica not to vote for her. Plus, I thought I saw more purple in the background, but maybe not.

It seemed like Liz was trying to get either Jaison or Mick when she went to talk to them, but hints like that don't work. She should have flat out said "Let's vote Russell off, because he's a jury threat later in the game, the merge has to be soon, and this might be our only opportunity". I really think Russell was those girls' only opportunity - there's no reason to vote off Mick and Jaison, as they've both only been mediocre, and it seems like Jaison is thisclose to quitting most of the time anyway. I know Natalie thinks she's in an alliance with Russell, but I think she would have gone that way if she thought it would save her.

[SydneyK]

Well, I missed most of last week's episode, but I saw enough to know that only Russell was eliminated from the game.

I saw bits and pieces of last night's episode (I watched the VT/UNC game), but again, I saw enough to know the end result.

I'm not sure I understand why Shambo is now the leader at Galu. I get that the producers want an identified leader of each tribe (have they told us why they want this?), but I don't get why SHAMBO - of all people - was chosen. Was it random? It just seemed so odd. But then, at the challenge, she had to identify someone to make decisions about keeping the point or the matched item. Was she not allowed to make the decision (even though she's the leader) because she was not participating in the challenge?

I'm starting to feel very lost. It seems like there are lots of random rules thrown in this season. We're still in the dark (AFAIK) about the hidden immunity idols (can Evil Russell, who doesn't seem so evil anymore, use the one he found at his own camp?); we just learned last night that a leader has to be identified in each camp (but we haven't been told why); when Good Russell had to be eliminated due to injury, no one else was voted out, but when Borraci (is that his name?) had to be eliminated due to injury, Foa Foa still had to vote out someone else. There just seem to be a lot of rules that don't have much backing. Maybe I've missed to much of the season to be making these comments... I'm sure if that's the case, someone will fill me in.

Signed,
Perturbed with the Producers

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by SydneyK

Well, I missed most of last week's episode, but I saw enough to know that only Russell was eliminated from the game.

I saw bits and pieces of last night's episode (I watched the VT/UNC game), but again, I saw enough to know the end result.

I'm not sure I understand why Shambo is now the leader at Galu. I get that the producers want an identified leader of each tribe (have they told us why they want this?), but I don't get why SHAMBO - of all people - was chosen. Was it random? It just seemed so odd. But then, at the challenge, she had to identify someone to make decisions about keeping the point or the matched item. Was she not allowed to make the decision (even though she's the leader) because she was not participating in the challenge?

I think that missing most of last week's episode greatly contributed to being confused about Shambo being leader.

Last week, the guys took Shambo under their wing, and realized that they wanted to keep her around, and instead, vote out Monica (which if I remember correctly, was mainly because she did so poorly during the immunity challenge). Also, I got the impression that a lot of people had started to not like her, and they wanted to vote her off.

This is why I was mad that they didn't have the double elimination last week, as I would have loved to see her get blind-sided and go home.

But basically, the guys made Shambo leader to show their loyalty to her, knowing full well that they would collectively vote her off later in the game. But for now, they have an extra person on their side.

[AlphaFrog]

It doesn't matter that much about Shambo being elected leader, because her only decision was to make someone else leader in the only challenge she will be leader for...they merge next week. Even if the leaders have to make decisions as to which camp to stay at, etc, there's still not much that can go wrong there.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

It doesn't matter that much about Shambo being elected leader, because her only decision was to make someone else leader in the only challenge she will be leader for...they merge next week. Even if the leaders have to make decisions as to which camp to stay at, etc, there's still not much that can go wrong there.

Exactly.

Making her leader was simply a strategic move made by the guys of Galu.

I think they even said they'll eventually vote her off, but they wanted her to at least make it to the jury.

[SydneyK]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

I think that missing most of last week's episode greatly contributed to being confused about Shambo being leader.

I'm sure you're right! Thanks for filling me in.

Random thought: They usually don't start the season with 20 players. Now that we've had two players eliminated due to injury, do you think it's safe to assume the remaining eliminations will be from tribal councils?

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by SydneyK

Random thought: They usually don't start the season with 20 players. Now that we've had two players eliminated due to injury, do you think it's safe to assume the remaining eliminations will be from tribal councils?

I don't think it's ever safe to assume anything when it comes to Survivor.

[SydneyK]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I don't think it's ever safe to assume anything when it comes to Survivor.

You know, when I wrote that, I had originally put "(ha!)" after "assume". For some reason, I deleted it.

Let me rephrase: At this point, do any of you anticipate any non-tribal-council eliminations?

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by SydneyK

I'm sure you're right! Thanks for filling me in.

Random thought: They usually don't start the season with 20 players. Now that we've had two players eliminated due to injury, do you think it's safe to assume the remaining eliminations will be from tribal councils?

I thought along the same lines when (good) Russell was taken out of the game.

My guess is that the remaining contestants will be taken out through tribal council.

However... think about it. When they start a season, they don't know how many people are going to get injured, and they can't base the number that they start with on how many people will be taken out of the game through a method other than a vote.

I actually looked up "Survivor Contestants" on Wikipedia, and I'm not sure how they come to decide how many people will make up the cast. But there does seem to be a pattern forming, although I'm not sure if it's intentional or not. Here is a list of the number of contestants for each season, in order:

16 - Borneo
16 - Australian Outback
16 - Africa
16 - Marquesas
16 - Thailand
16 - Amazon
18 - Pearl Islands
18 - All-Stars
18 - Vanuatu
20 - Palau
18 - Guatemala
16 - Panama
20 - Cook Islands
19 - Fiji
16 - China
20 - Micronesia
18 - Gabon
16 - Tocantins
20 - Samoa

They started off with 16 contestants. Then they bumped it up to 18. But since Palau, there seems to be a pattern... 20, 18, 16 (except for Fiji, where there was randomly 19)

Just a fun fact

ETA: I'd also be curious to find info about how many people were taken out of the game each season due to injury, and also when the tribes merged. I know that while they're merging at 12 this season, they've also merged at 10 in the past. I'd be curious to know how many contestants they started with in each of these scenarios.

[ASTalumna06]

For the first time, I was actually rooting for Russell to not get voted out. But I did think it incredibly stupid that he was telling everyone about the immunity idol.

But that tribal council and vote was priceless

[AGDee]

They made them elect leaders. I don't know why. I was wondering if they chose Shambo because they realized they screwed up and left her out by sending her to the other tribe so many times. They even have a special necklace for the leaders, which is odd. It is this season's "twist" I guess?

[srmom]

My guess is that Russell wins immunity - otherwise, it's too obvious that he's the target from the previews. But, with all the scrambling last night, who knows who might be voted off - geez, they changed strategies many many times last night!!

Erik played too hard too soon! It's best to lay low until the numbers are smaller, try not to become a target!! Loved the look on his face when he got the boot!! I was worried he might play his idol when Russell played his, but NO, he was too confident, as usual with idol holders (except in Russell's case - wasting his).

He's gonna wish he had that idol in the next few weeks. Unless, he goes on an immunity winning streak, he's wearing a big target on his back for all his scheming!

[ASTalumna06]

I'm very curious to see what will happen with Shambo in the next episode. She was the only person, besides Eric, who voted for Jaison. I wonder if no one let her in on the plan, or if they did, and she didn't approve of it.

Either way, I think she might be in trouble.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

Erik was SOO funny trying to argue in Tribal that Galu was still one strong united team. Was he really that clueless?

Yes, he really is.

The previews make it look like Russell is in trouble next week. While I really do think he started scrambling too early and showed his cards to everyone, rarely does the person who looks in trouble in the previews really go home.

Originally Posted by SydneyK

You're definitely right about this. I couldn't believe he went around to each Galu member and told them he had the idol. To do that, and to also tell each one that he hadn't told anyone else, was pretty short-sighted.

True that the previews often mislead us, but I think he may be in trouble next week. He clearly wasn't confident in what was going to happen this last tribal council, because he played his idol, so he wasn't really in the know. They successfully flushed his idol out (which he told way too many people about) and got rid of Erik with his idol. Hidden immunity idols are not a factor they have to worry about now.

Stupid Shambo for giving hers to Erik -- I wonder how long it took her to realize that he took it out of the game with him.

Originally Posted by srmom

Erik played too hard too soon! It's best to lay low until the numbers are smaller, try not to become a target!! Loved the look on his face when he got the boot!! I was worried he might play his idol when Russell played his, but NO, he was too confident, as usual with idol holders (except in Russell's case - wasting his).

Exactly.

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

I'm very curious to see what will happen with Shambo in the next episode. She was the only person, besides Eric, who voted for Jaison. I wonder if no one let her in on the plan, or if they did, and she didn't approve of it.

Although Dave told her that some wanted to vote for Erik, they didn't let her in on the plan -- she clearly thought Jaison was going out. The look of confusion on her face when Erik was voted out was just priceless. She should be worried that she's such an outsider, but I'm not sure she's got enough sense to be properly worried.