Survivor megathread

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I think whoever won “should have won”. They played the whole game and were most able to convince the jury. (Except Chris from Edge of Extinction because I don’t like that concept, period. I think it fundamentally goes against the spirit of the game.) Russell couldn’t do that. If he wanted to win he should have been better at it.

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I love Gabon purely because it was one of the only seasons I watched live (China through maybe Kaoh Rong) where my favorite (aka the nerd) won.

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Incredible energy coming off the premiere. Everything I love about Survivor. Stupid challenge mistakes, made-up stories, inexplicable votes, people running around at tribal.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Loved the premiere. Wow. The prisoner's dilemma and the water haul were both great. Although I think the triangle thing was probably doable if you send away half the tribe and just let the people who like puzzles work it out.

Not a huge fan of the 1/6 dice thing, but maybe it will be ok.

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

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Also, Genie must be a fantastic social player, because it looks like she wasn't on the chopping block at all. And the fact that she threw a vote on Ricard in case Sara rolled the dice is some next-level thinking. As of right now, I think I might ... put her down as an early winner pick, along with Xander. {Now watch them both leave next episode.}

Same thoughts on the second person you mentioned in the spoiler area, but man that first thought is a galaxy brain take. Am I just not on the strategic level necessary to understand the Moves being Made?

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

I agree re: come on in guys. Why not just change it after talking off camera and that’s it? Why put the focus on the queer castaways so they end up being the faces (and bearing the brunt) of whatever culture war Survivor is trying to stoke?

And re: Genie, I really assumed she was just out of the loop. I didn’t see her participating in the scramble about Brad vs Sara vs JD (who I would have been set to vote out the minute I heard his story) at all.

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Wasn’t the guy that spoke up with a trans man?

Yes, and the one who said it was fine was nonbinary - either way I think it was a bad move by the show to put the whole discussion very publicly on the shoulders of two visibly queer contestants.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Wasn’t the guy that spoke up with a trans man?

Yes, and the one who said it was fine was nonbinary - either way I think it was a bad move by the show to put the whole discussion very publicly on the shoulders of two visibly queer contestants.

Is she(?)? I'm pretty sure she used the phrase "as queer woman..."

They identify as genderqueer on social media and use they/them and she/her pronouns.

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Just watched this week’s episode with some friends. Best episode of the season so far. Two challenges, seeing stuff from every tribe, and no visits to Game Theory Island.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Good episode, although again too much time spent on advantages and I really dislike the advantage given out this episode (too overpowered on a season like this). Great moments from Tiffany and Ricard in particular, loving Shan and Ricard’s dynamic.

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God, did anyone else hate the twist they just pulled on this week’s episode? And for what? Not going to tribal council? It’s not even a good cliffhanger. Awful imo. At least the cast is fun (I really like everyone left from Ua and Yase, as well as GOAT on Astroturf Naseer).

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God, did anyone else hate the twist they just pulled on this week’s episode? And for what? Not going to tribal council? It’s not even a good cliffhanger. Awful imo. At least the cast is fun (I really like everyone left from Ua and Yase, as well as GOAT on Astroturf Naseer).

This episode almost made up for the last one. What a great move (and it saved one of my favorites!).

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Shan is a raging B.

Aaaand she’s gone, in a great move by Ricard, Deshawn and Danny, and the minority alliance. What a great episode.

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And Harry does it! Congratulations Erika on becoming the first woman winner in seven seasons and tying for most jury votes ever for a woman (also seven). A practically unanimous vote given that only Danny voted for Deshawn, capping off what was in retrospect a criminally underedited game - they couldn’t have taken some random confessionals off of JD and given them to her to explain her friendship with Heather?

Anyway RIP to my king Ricard, you were too good for the other four to let you continue and you didn’t get that final advantage, but congrats to Erika for a great victory and to the whole cast for a great season.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Xander should have taken her to fire and knocked her out.

Agreed. And he shouldn’t have told the camera she was a big threat and he wanted to keep the shine off her, then told the jury he didn’t think they saw her as a threat when he did take her.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Xander should have taken her to fire and knocked her out.

I'm going to disagree 100% and take it a step further and say that the person winning immunity shouldn't even be allowed to give up immunity and make fire themselves. Why? Because a move like that shouldn't be rewarded by the jury or become an "expectation" of a winning game.

A fire-making challenge is practically a coinflip unless one person just has no idea how to do it, and a good player avoids it instead of willingly puts themselves into it. I respect Tommy's approach to weasel his way out of firemaking (also Ryan in S35) way more than I respect Chris putting himself in danger, and although Natalie winning S40 would have been a cancel-the-show level disgrace, I do respect her for not putting herself in a coinflip danger there, and even if she'd taken Tony herself and beaten him, I wouldn't respect it because, like I said, it's a glorified coinflip.

(Obviously the real answer is to abolish the F4 firemaking, but Jeff Probst has no interest in that. If you get voted off at final 4, it was your fault for not managing your threat level, nor playing your social cards right, nor winning immunity. I don't feel bad for Wentworth or David at all.)

I don’t think it’s going to be an expectation going forward. The only person who did it and the only other person who was really pressured to do it had both come back from Edge of Extinction and had a lot to prove. And even if Natalie had taken out Tony I think Sarah would have beaten her in the end.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Bump for the premiere tonight.

I thought it was a solid premiere, and this cast seems better than the Survivor 41 cast to me.  I feel like everyone's going to be talking about the evacuation/ejection.  But, what seems most likely to me is that the producers were going to let the situation play out, but someone on the legal team was worried about liability and stepped in.

Yeah, I really liked the person who got evacuated, but on the other hand…they really should have told production about the issue at some point before literally the day before shooting. Overall a really good premiere with an exciting cast, and hopefully the next few episodes don’t spend as much time on explaining the twists and advantages as they did last season (the amulets were already much better explained than last season’s triple idol).

Re: Christianity, we know Maryanne (whom I LOVED and I know I’m not alone in this!) is a seminarian and devout Christian.

Re: political views on season 41, Tiffany is a Jewish teacher from queens who formed a close friendship with Evvie and talked about LGBT issues with them on Ponderosa. Ricard is Puerto Rican.

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A few episodes in: is anyone else loving this season? I think it’s certainly leagues better than 41 at this point if only for the lesser focus on advantages and more well-rounded editing in general.

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Update for the castaways’ politics thread: Jonathan’s audition video features him serving as a bodyguard for Roy Moore and his dad (Dean Young, the guy who made him run up a mountain every day when he was five) is challenging Kay Ivey from the right in the GOP gubernatorial primary next month.

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Another episode discussing the role of race on Survivor last week, with Drea and Maryanne playing their idols together so as to avoid three black contestants going home in a row. Raised quite a bit of controversy from the usual folks (Russell Hantz, etc), but what Drea and Maryanne did was both good gameplay (since they were the targets) and important to bring up.

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MARYANNE WINNER EDIT

like Fabio but smart

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Blast from the past: Survivor: Palau castaway Jolanda Jones is running for the Texas State House of Representatives, and looks to be in a strong position to win the primary runoff (she got 41% in the primary, ahead of the second place finisher who got 20%) and likely win the general in this safe Democratic seat in Houston.

Ah, Palau -- that was a fantastic season.  I don't think there's ever been such lopsided domination by one tribe before or since.  It really was a remarkable thing. 

I’ve been thinking about watching Palau and Guatemala back to back to get the full Stephanie LaGrossa experience. What a rise and fall.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Blast from the past: Survivor: Palau castaway Jolanda Jones is running for the Texas State House of Representatives, and looks to be in a strong position to win the primary runoff (she got 41% in the primary, ahead of the second place finisher who got 20%) and likely win the general in this safe Democratic seat in Houston.

Ah, Palau -- that was a fantastic season.  I don't think there's ever been such lopsided domination by one tribe before or since.  It really was a remarkable thing. 

I’ve been thinking about watching Palau and Guatemala back to back to get the full Stephanie LaGrossa experience. What a rise and fall.

Don't forget the first 2 episodes of Heroes vs. Villains

I already saw HvV when I was 12 so I’m basically an expert.

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SHE DID IT FOLKS

HERE’S MARYANNE!!!!!

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Lindsay openly called Jonathan a misogynist in her exit interviews, FWIW. And Daniel is a clerk for Raymond Kethledge, who was the runner-up for Brett Kavanaugh’s SCOTUS seat.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Apparently, Survivor 37 winner Nick Wilson (R) ran unopposed for a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives this week.

Mike White should have won.