Re: Latest RI Episode -
- I dunno if I posed this before, but the idea of Phillip on an island with these people without a camera is scary. I'm almost certain he would have laid hands on one of the girls and/or gotten in a fight with Rob and/or Grant. He's a self-centered psycho man. At least they come together well in the challenges. Rob isolated Phillip perfectly after the duel, and his throwing the clue in the Volcano was the greatest thing I've ever seen.
- If Matt doesn't win the next RI duel, I'll be so bummed. He's a monster at these things, and has really earned the chance to come back. If Sarita wins, it will just be stupid.
- Zapatera is stupid and obnoxious. They're losers. They voted off Russell because they're losers, and they're still paying.
In other news, I started watching the Heroes vs. Villains season. I saw five seconds of coach at the beginning was thought "wow, he is going to live up to everything everyone's said about him, isn't he?"
- Oh my god, this is amazing so far. All these people have something interesting to say. Then they launch into a challenge
right away! Then the girl gets her arm dislocated because the Villain tribe demanded it. Then Coach, as Tyson so nicely put it, utterly owned and emasculated Colby. Wow, is the whole season this good?
- OH MY GOD. Sandra undid the other girl's bra to try and slow her down, and then the girl decided she didn't care, ran back with the bag, and flipped off Sandra. This is perfect. And then good lord, what's up with Tyson and his cheeta boy shorts?
- Something that's very true about anything: The best always know who the best are. The best writers know who else is the best, the best Basketball players know who the best Basketball players are, the best musicians know who the best musicians are, and so on. I think it's notable that the two girls Russell has talked to have both said "I know exactly what he's trying to do, and I don't care, I do not want this guy against me." If Russell was as bad a player as so many fans of the show think, then why would anyone outright fear him like this?
- I think it's interesting how just dividing the people up into Heroes and Villains makes them like subjects in the Stanford prison experiment. The Villains tribe is nastier and more aggressive, and the heroes tribe thinks of themselves as more virtuous and wants to engage in more teamwork.
- I'm such a pussy, I hate this chicken killing scene. I find it interesting that the Heroes tribe is the one that just goes for killing animals for food.
- This Coach and Jerri thing is amazing. "Jerri's in denial, but in spite of herself, she's in love with The Dragon Slayer." Greatest sentence of all time.
- On episode two. Interesting how Rob is kinda like Phillip here. Frustrated with how other people don't want to do the work and won't do it right. Clearly this is a lesson he learned for Redemption Island.
- Rob's moment of fainting was fascinating. Feeling like he's dying, his only thought is "I love this game and I need to win." No wonder he's so competitive.
- Maybe I haven't seen him at full tilt, but I don't get why people are comparing Coach and Phillip. He's a bit screwy, but he's fundamentally different. He's actually happy and peaceful seemingly all the time. Nobody seems to be creeped out by him. In fact the other villains seem to enjoy the guy. Plus, he's just fun. Phillip is an occasionally funny well of darkness (no racial puns intended). Other than being a bit off (and even then, Phillip's way crazier), where's the common denominator?
- The block stairs challenge was so intense. Has there ever been another Survivor challenge that ridiculous physically? Also interesting how the Villains tribe is spanking the heroes in the puzzles. Having BRob is huge, but the heroes look like crap. Maybe Russell is smart and evil is smarter than good. I also appreciated Rob killing himself to get it done.
- The way the trees and greenery cover this island is breathtaking. It's like a consistent and defined layer of leaves and grass all over it, not broken up by tree trunks and brown plants. Check out this picture to see what I mean:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Samoa_upolu.jpg Sometimes for the transition footage they get great stuff from the locations, and with this one they knocked it out of the park.
- Episode 3. Isn't Russell married? He was awfully close with Parvati. I liked the thing Rob said about the closest alliances sleeping next to each other.
- Mmm. I think Coach was dead-on about Parvati. She can just make you melt, and Russell's letting himself get hooked in. Really, I feel the same way about Russell here as I do on Redemption Island. Plays his strategy extremely well (he showed just the right about of submission/conciliatory tone with Rob and Coach to make them feel more comfortable than they should, then did the right thing by telling Parvati everything and assuring her he was solid, which also makes her feel more isolated), but you have to wonder if his strategy's right to begin with. Coach is loopy, but unlike Phillip he's not totally imperceptive about the world around him. Russell may or may not like her a bit too much.
- And now he's hidden the machete. I can't wait to see how this goes. And he was thinking of stealing Rob's hat, which felt kinda cold to me. And then he dropped this gem: "I don't even like the Boston Red Sox, it's the Houston Astros baby." The guy's entertaining.
- Great moment out of the commercial where Coach is doing Tai-chi or something and singing, so they wrote music to accompany the singing and set up the camera shots into this kinda serene and trippy moment.
- Heroes killed the villains 8-0 in the first all-physical challenge. Also, the missing Machete hasn't come up yet, meaning at this point anyone could have taken it. Maybe they'll still figure out it's Russell, but the move worked out nicely for him.
- Watching Parvati try to talk down coach was interesting. She said something super smart, "You don't look like someone who lets fear control you," which is exactly what someone like him would want to hear. And yet, due to a combination of his personal background (according to him, he fends off these kinds of tactics from female soccer players who want playing time), and his unshakable nature, it didn't work. And then he did the flirty grabbing her thing, which was a nice "haha, talking to you entertains me" touch. She can't be pleased with him right now.
- Sandra's starting to show why she won two of these games in a row. When votes this early in the game become bitter, things always go downhill. I'm sure to some degree this comes from her strategy of self-preservation (which she does rather well, hopefully I can understand it better as we go along), but she knows how to take the temperature of the overall situation really well instead of looking at little petty things. She (smartly) wants it over with so the environment stays level. Interesting how this directly contrasts Russell's strategy of making things more bitter. Also, I notice she's out and listening to people's conversations and hearing what's going on, a basic mistake I've seen too many times on Redemption Island.
- Now I'm starting to see some of coach's craziness. Overly dramatic "pontifications" about important sounding topics with a very thin connection at best to what's happening. That's a little more like Phillip.
- I feel dumb. Sandra getting coach to go off about his work at the shelter was such a nice move, it's changed the whole tenor of the conversation away from anything of any real bearing on the voting, and I don't even know how she did it. And before that she answered every question with something everyone already knew that wouldn't spiral out of control. Russell's response about respecting the players was good, came from an obviously genuine place. He's not going anywhere. Rob's was... indecipherable. I don't think it was even strategic, he still clearly looks flustered. Completely different player from the Rob that's destroying Redemption Island right now.
- Eh, good riddance to Randy. He was clearly the odd man out of his tribe, and his confessionals about his simplistic views on life were annoying. Who voted for Rob?
- Episode four. Now the crazier side of coach comes out. We're still not at Phillip levels, but I know why he's so notorious. As always, Rob has something interesting to say and do. "Doesn't seem like much of a coach." Exactly. The way he handled him was perfect too. Once he said all there was to say, he cut off coach's whininess and let the chips fall as they may. And... Coach is back in this. I think the most interesting thing is how neither Rob or Tyson told him "Sandra just said that to rile you up, no one feels anything bad about you." Which seems to actually be true, unless the editors aren't showing something.
- Love this challenge. Which Survivor producer decided it would be smart to have women in bikinis grease themselves down in the sun? Because he's a smart man.
- Russell made the dumbest mistake ever by not realizing it was a hidden immunity idol clue, something only he knew about, and he realized what he did the moment it happened. The reaction of the other villains was interesting. None of them were comfortable with the idea. Sandra was right when she said it makes you marked, and also pointed out how you can set up the vote to force people to use it. And yet, Russell got a lot of mileage out of those things, and he knows. "It makes you powerful." Good on him to act confused about it when it was dropped. He doesn't want to ruin the advantage that comes from them not knowing that he played in a game with them.
- What I'm not sure about is his decision to get it in that moment. Obviously, you can't have other people getting it, and yet this play marks him.
- Tom looked a little too suspicious. The move into the sock was smooth, the constant adjusting of the pants sucked.
- Tom's play to get out Cirie was a great piece of work. I can see why he won before. He want from odd man out to potential new tribal warlord.
- Episode five. So Probst gives out the chocolate samples. The villains gladly enjoy it, and the heroes just turn it all down because they want to think they're focused on the challenge. Look, maybe this says something about me, but the villains tribe seems like a way cooler group of people who would be more fun to hang out with. Even in real life. It's not like the heroes can't back stab and be dishonorable when faced with the opportunity.
- I REALLY didn't like how James' injury meant the heroes were a man down. Just sub Colby back in or take someone off the villain tribe. That's just not fair. Also, maybe there's no better way because the balls are shaped like footballs, but trying to hit it at the basket with the football toss is making the same mistake as Shaq. When you shoot it at the basket it's liable to bounce away. Arc it in.
- Holy crap this is getting tense, they're openly throwing each other around for no reason, and then Jerri got whomped in the head. Apparently, people get violent even when the game only kinda resembles basketball. Imagine if David Stern was the commissioner of Survivor. Three guys would have been booted for double technicals.
- Loved the reward for so many reasons. The location was great, the idea of the all-chocolate feast was cool, and of course, the game itself. It was interesting as Rob/Sandra/everyone not Russell, Parvati, and Coach started realizing this hidden immunity idol thing might be a big deal. Meanwhile, Russell shows that as bad a guy as he can be, he's legit with his alliances. His idea to try flipping Coach was exactly right. Then there was an interesting moment with Parvati. In the confessionals, she actually doesn't seem self-aware enough to realize she's really an evil mastermind at the game. Then we cut back to the reward challenge and she says, almost blankly, "[Coach] is a scared puppy, he'll do whatever you want." Maybe Parvati's not disclosing how much of an evil genius she is in the confessionals so people in real life aren't freaked out by her. And then Russell went and played Coach like a fiddle, because he has such a terrible social game. Right?
- I'm torn. I liked that James was able to call well for the Heroes and overcome his knee injury, but wow his intensity is scary.
- Has Rob ever lost a puzzle challenge? He's unstoppable at them man.