115 Comments

  1. So what are we guessing tonight? Jenna’s big move is — predictably — a non-event, and either her or Sue gets picked off by the evil twins, in a move that everybody saw coming weeks ago but nobody had the impetus to do anything about.

    Interestingly enough, I noticed on Facebook, a lot of people are also annoyed at the passive game-playing, this season, and I took a little pleasure in introducing the FB community on the Australian Survivor page to the “evil twins” idea. I credited here, naturally :).

    • Oh dear, I got in big trouble with my 15yo for describing them that way – she said “it’s not nice to call someone evil”, so I’ve had to stop saying it everywhere except here. Maybe it is a little harsh, but it does roll off the tongue.

    • Whilst I agree that the evil twins are the tightest, to me the Axis of Evil is really a Troika (Flick, Brooke, El). El is just the same as the other two in my opinion.

    • Yeah how dare Jenna L game play I mean back stab them – every time those three are on I switch the channels . It’s irritating that a whole season is dedicated to those three irritations

      I’ve noticed how El hardly gets the same airtime as her other two cohorts which makes me think she wins the game

    • Flick was so lazy about the fishing and then choked quickly in the immunity challenge. This is a “strong woman”? Apex of the pyramid? Or just ape?

      • Flick’s lazy because she’s comfortable. She’s in charge, and the majority of the castaways are wrapped around her (and El and Brooke’s) little finger. Which means she can do whatever she wants. Have you noticed that Flick *always* quickly chokes in the immunity challenges?

        Some of these contestants have said that they’re big Survivor fans. Yet, all of this should be a giant red flashing light saying, “DANGER DANGER DANGER”. I’m honestly starting to lose sympathy with most of the remaining castaways, even the good-looking ones. I’m halfway to the point of wishing that nobody wins.

    • Matt’s always been a poor deluded fool.

      If you’ll recall recall this is Mental Matt who believed his skills as a stage magician would enable him to see though all plots and tricks. This is Mental Matt whose response to Connor revealing that the Pretty Girls Alliance was against Matt was to vote Connor off Sunaapu as a punishment.

      I guess it is possible the PGA have slipped a drug into everyone’s coconut that makes them run and reveal as soon as they hear anything, or Mental Matt, Steadfast Sue, Calculating Connor and Crumbling Krystie may just be the some of the silliest players ever cast for Survivor anywhere.

      • I give Sue some props for calling everybody out on their bullshit at tonight’s tribal council. She told them exactly what was going to happen, and everybody just giggled and laughed. Sigh. Whatever.

        I wish the outsiders had gotten their act together a month ago to deal with the bad girls. Matt seems to be running the most classic live-action illustration of, “trusting the wrong person”. Even when multiple people are telling him not to. I’ll almost be glad to see him gone, I think.

        As for Brooke. What I’m hating is, “Oh no there’s no alliance we don’t know what she’s talking about *whistles innocently”. It’s like, FFS girl, how stupid do you think your fellow castaways are … oh, wait, no, that was rhetorical, never mind.

        • Unfortunately Brooke has very good and sound, indeed irrefutable, reasons to believe they are every bit as stupid as she thinls.

          • ” In the country of the blind, the one~eyed man is king ”

            Hence Brooke and Flick are behaving like royalty.

          • Ultimately it’s a very serious casting failure. The majority of this season’s castaways don’t know enough about the game to actually play it.

          • Which has turned the back half of the season into a shooting gallery, essentially.

            Lee and Sam just going along with whatever the girls tell them to do, I mean, that was something channel 10 couldn’t help. Same with Matt’s unbelievable lack of awareness.

    • For a mentalist he is pretty bloody stupid. I got really excited when they showed him in the promos before it started saying he’s a mentalist & will know if someone’s lying to him. I’ve seen that mentalist guy on Today & Sunrise & he is just brilliant & I thought he’d be like him but I guess he needs more practice. I can just see Matt watching at home & thinking oh I really fucked up there.

      • When Matt was doing some heart felt talking in the shelter, Brooke was tugging her ear the whole time she was listening. In my understanding of body language, that is really not a good sign. Did Mentalist Matt not pick that up considering he’s STILL convinced they are in a tight alliance cos that’s what Brooke told him.

  2. Aware that I’m an hour behind everybody …

    … but my gosh. The bitchiness of the bad girls is just exploding out of the television, right now. They get word that Jenna is trying to make a move and they respond with outrage, “She should be *grateful* she’s come this far with us!” I’m just thinking, are you for real, right now?

    And then the conversation reaches its nadir with the girls deciding to oust Jenna for the crime of telling Matt that he’s not that important to them. And if Jenna wins the next immunity? “Then we’ll ditch Matt.”

      • Dave said it….Brooke and Flick act like royalty. I get the impression that this is very much how they operate in real life; put themselves bang at the head of pecking order. People like that aren’t usually liked by the observant.
        I would suggest Elle isn’t that nice either or she wouldn’t stomache the two queen bees.

    • I’m also watching at the same time as you Windsong. Right now I’m hoping JL gets immunity just to see Matt’s face when they blindside him. Remember the pre-season promos ? Matt always said as a mentalist he’d know when people where lying to him. Time for a career change I think.

  3. JL is right, it really is the last chance to brek them up numbers wise. If she goes tonight I don’t think I’ll bother with the rest of the series.

  4. What leaves me totally gobsmacked is the lack of self awareness shown by Flick and Brooke. Ultimately its a game and players will do what’s best for them. But in their case they seem genuinely angry with anyone who dares to make a move against them. They are allowed to lie and scheme, but god forbid anyone else try to do it to them.

    The only real chance left to break that alliance was for Sam, Krisitie, Matt, Sue and JL to vote for one of the 3 girls. But poor deluded Matt chooses to still trust them and runs straight to Brooke and tips her off.

    • I know I really hoped that would happen. And bloody Sam seemed to agree with them then goes back with the others. Well Kristie’s had a big wake up call. but will she do anything about it? Probably not.

  5. The arrogance of Brooke and co to act like JL and Sue are idiots/crazty for recognising how things sit. Smug is so unattractive!

  6. Idiots.

    You know, I’m so bloody grateful to Sue and Jenna, for finally bringing some genuine honest-to-braincells into the show. Because nobody else seems to have any. I loved that Tribal Council for that very reason. Sue actually points out to everybody there how the voting is going to happen — culminating in Brooke and Flick being the last two standing — and everybody (except Jenna and the jury members) ignores her. I loved her smack-talking Brooke. “I’m not naive, sweetheart.” And Brooke still selling, “No, there’s not really an alliance!” I mean, my gosh lady. Give it up. Sue even threw a spotlight on the El/Lee dalliance, which I liked. Because Lee is just letting her do his thinking for him, and he doesn’t stand a chance of making it to the end. Which Sue specifically told him, in great detail, and he still didn’t get it.

    Props to Jenna and Sue for *almost* getting away with the plan to write Kristie’s name down. It obviously surprised the blue alliance, because there was the reaction shot from Lee, “What is going on?” What I liked about the move was that it’ll just turn the screws on Kristie’s paranoia. Two people were opposite her, but four people voted for her. That should be a big clue that she’s expendable.

    As for Matt the idiot, I mean, Matt the mentalist … okay, so. Kate tried to tell him where he sits in the tribe. Nick tried to tell him where he sits in the tribe. Jenna tried to tell him where he sits in the tribe. Brooke keeps making confessionals where she tells us exactly where Matt sits in the tribe. Even Jonathon pointed out, as they were leaving Tribal Council, that friends are soon going to start knifing other friends, and they should already be thinking about that.

    But Matt’s sitting there happily in his alliance. At this point, I just don’t care about Matt anymore. Matt, you’re gonna get knifed when you least suspect it, and it’ll be your own stupid fault. And if you’re that fundamentally clueless, then you don’t deserve to be here anyway.

    Fijane, you mentioned upthread that fear is keeping a lot of the castaways in their place, and I think Jenna made a very similar observation during tonight’s episode. Everybody’s too scared to do something, so they’re going to do nothing … and the end result is worse, that they’ll just get picked off one-by-one, which is what’s been happening for weeks now.

    Fingers crossed Jenna just goes on an immunity-rampage from here on to the finale. Because screw the rest of these idiots, that’s why.

    • Best comment from Facebook …

      “What is wrong with Sam and Lee ? Seriously. They’ve had all this time to figure out what is really going on. Are they really that blind and dumb?”

      Sadly, I think the answer is yes. Either that, or their brains are not the organs they’re paying attention to, right now.

    • And for the record, people are posting onto Matt’s business FB page, and they do seem to be giving him a little bit of grief over his odd-decision making.

      • Yeah, he’s supposed to make rabbits and watches disappear….not himself. He’s basically sawing himself in half here.

        • Which, to be fair, would be a hard trick to accomplish.

          I understand being played by the bad girls. I get being lied to by Brooke and Flick to keep him under their thumb. I can even understand why he’s comfortable in this alliance (that only exists in his own head) and he doesn’t want to question it.

          What I don’t forgive is the simple fact that FOUR PEOPLE HAVE TOLD HIM where he sits in the tribal hierarchy. And he’s ignored every single one of them. It’s like, eugh, really? He’s not gonna make it to the end, and I really don’t have much sympathy for him.

    • Well that was a big steaming pile of shit. Glad I’m not the only one ill from watching this and thinking it’s been a waste of a season.

      Had Matt actually been in the alliance he thinks he’s in he would have voted Kristie with the boys and Sue would still be there.

      Can’t wait to see the US version and how this game is really played.

  7. I got spoiled for who goes and am feeling “meh@. Can’t watch until tomorrow. Looking forward to US Survivor Thurs night to see people who came to play hard.

    • Absolutely Juz. I expected Australiams to be slightly less cutthroat in the social game and more so in the challenges. I didn’t expect self-deluded silliness as the season’s dominant theme. Or the universal cries of ‘snake!’ when someone does something as inoffensive as not declare their idol before each and every TC.

      • Did anyone see the first season back in 2002? It was the same as this season.. one tribe being disseminated by the other, picked off one by one …. & players were just too nice & compliant… our australian nature didn’t suit the game, although that was early in the evolution of Survivor, when cutthroat strategy was starting to become the norm.
        …re labels of ‘snake’ : players forget they are all players & it is a game. Of course there’s going to be evasion, deceit, lies, back stabbing, flips etc. That’s how one gets to the end, & it’s good when someone ousted recognises a well played blindside!

  8. I feel like I am watching a bunch of highschoolers. Except usually in highschool, there might also be a guy or two at’the top’. These girls are like female spiders who eat the males after sex, biting off their heads.
    The guys are like spider prey that has been wrapped in web, to be eaten later. I wonder if they are watching this thinking, “I was a pussy-whipper’s patsy”.
    And Matt, who I thought may have had a interesting dark side, just turns out to be another idiot, led around by the whiskers (not thinking whiskers) by Flick and Brooke.
    Both Brooke and Flick are horrible, smug queen bees but Flick takes the cake because she has the stare that can take down a plane.
    I wonder if, now that JL has stepped up and shown she has more balls and brains than all of the guys put together, the producers might throw her a bone in the form of a clue to immunity. She and Sue made tonight good viewing. And it was Sue’s idea to throw in Kristie’s name. It could have worked had the split fraction gone one more to Kristie. Good try Sue.
    The only worthy winner there now is JL. I still blame that stupid decision to let Sanapu choose their entire team on the imbalance in the game that led to it being a game of “ten in the bed and the queen bee said, “Roll over””.

    • “I wonder if, now that JL has stepped up and shown she has more balls and brains than all of the guys put together, the producers might throw her a bone in the form of a clue to immunity.”

      Oh, gosh, if there’s any justice in the world, they’re gonna keep this girl around.

    • Yes, it’s not interesting viewing to see a team picked off, as well as see them deprived for so long, while the other team smugly sat on their weighted laurels, & even gorged themselves to sickness. And JL was part of that cruise for a time, till she felt the pinch & eventually woke up to herself, albeit too late,
      having ignored Kate’s, Sue’s & Kristy’s previous attempt.

      I agree the producers could have mixed things up more fairly, & earlier, to keep the tribes & tension balanced.
      Rightly so, a case of “10 in the bed & the queen bee said..”

  9. Worked tonight so just read the chat here, thanks so much for all the comments…i feel i dont have to watch it at all!
    Just watched Jury Villa, man it will be interesting when Lee, Sam and Matt start arriving there.
    Like you have all commented, it is very frustrating watching this show when no one is really playing the game! I too am totally over the girls alliance and am wondering too why dont we see so much of El?
    Someone mentioned that Sue eluded to El/Lee dalliance, can anyone remember what she exactly said?
    Thanks 😜

    • We actually saw some nastiness from El tonight for the first time. Before that I thought she might have been not too bad.

      I think the crux of it now is that most of them are thinking “near enough is good enough”. They are accepting that if they make it to final five/four/three, well, that will be a commendable effort. So, that has become the goal, not the winner’s podium and the money.

    • It’s really frustrating that the others don’t all gang up on the 3 queens & take them down. They outnumber them but are too stupid to do something.
      There was a season of the US survivor, can’t remember which one, where all the underdogs did just that. They all got together & took down all the top dogs. It was brilliant.

  10. Did everyone else notice that there was some talk that there is a romance brewing between Brooke and Sam, as well as Lee and El? Flick seemed to think she was squashed in the middle.
    It was interesting considering Sue implied that the final two might be the lovebirds rather than the twins.

    • Yeah I was surprised at that. I haven’t heard anything about them but have read about Lee & El in a few magazines.

      • I wouldn’t put ot past Brooke to use her sex to keep Sam dangling on the hook, so there cd be some one sided eye-lash batting. Maybe that’s why they got rid of Conner. He didn’t give the queen bees his testicles.

    • I did notice that.

      I didn’t get the implication from Sue that one of the lovebird couples might be the final two, but by that point, I was shouting obscenities at the television screen, so I may have missed it.

      It makes sense though. Remember when Sam went off-grid to try and oust Nick? Brooke confessed to the camera that Sam was the person she trusted most (and she felt like she was losing that, by him acting without her permission. Yeah, there’s a healthy relationship, right there), and not Flick or El. That was a hint that there’s something going on that we’re not seeing.

      Now, if the girls are smart (and we know they’re the only people playing this game with their any smarts left), they would darn well know how that ends. If El’s beside Lee in front of a jury, Lee wins. If Brooke is beside Sam in front of a jury, Sam wins. It’s not because the boys are masterful geniuses who deserve to be there … but they’ve pissed off a lot less people than the girls.

      Honestly, the person I’d most want to be sitting in front of a jury alongside is Flick, because Flick’s awful. Nobody likes her, she’s lazy and entitled, and she’s already pissed off the three jury members already. Plus, her death-glares are not a good way to make friends.

      What I’ve found interesting, reading the FB comments, is that everybody’s saying the same thing we all are, that the season has gotten boring because nobody’s doing anything, and everybody’s just resigned to letting the bad girls run the show. Which is frustrating, because this isn’t the Bachelor, Sam or Lee. You’re here to win the prize money. You’re *not* here to whimper in at fourth spot because your testicles are in a jar somewhere. More to the point, if you’re making that little effort, then what are you even doing here in the first place? Bring back Craig or Conner or Kate or, lord save us, Phoebe, because at least they tried to play the game.

      And that’s the annoying thing. Sam and Lee are two good, likeable blokes who haven’t really done anything dastardly or underhanded (well, too much), which means they *could* attract people into a sneaky alliance if they really tried (and if Conner or Kate or Sue were still here). But Sam tried once and Kylie immediately ratted him out (thanks for that Kylie. How’s that *not* having half a million dollars in your bank account?), and he’s too scared to try again, so he’s just gonna tuck his tail between his legs and do what he’s told.

      So Lee and Sam defend their alliance to JL at tribal, but I’d be super-interested in asking what they actually think is going to happen as they get closer to the end of the season. Because there’s five of them in the alliance. And the finale will feature only 2. It’s unfathomable to me that the boys are just content to let that play out. And that’s not even going near Matt. Kristie could be a really powerful loose cannon, if she wanted (particularly *now*, since she knows she’s expendable), but she seems content to sit back and be picked off, as well (grrrrr! What is *with* these people?).

      • That’s it in a nutshell, and I can’t for the life of me see it going any other way.
        That’s why it seems boring, because we have lost hope.

        • I’m not bored. I want to see if Matt finally gets it. I want to see if the idiot boys’ faces when they realize they have been useful suckers OR the couples joined by lust, ditch Flick 🤗 I want to see Flick then realize she needs a boyfriend 😁
          And most of sll I want to see Jenna win every immunity and find an idol. A cat fight between Brooke and Flick would just be icing on the cake. 🍰

          • Oh, absolutely, I want to see the look on Matt’s face when JLap starts reading out his name on the votes. That’d almost be a lovely bit of karma.

            I’d also pay good money to see Brooke and Flick cut ties and turn against each other (like any good high-school cheerleader alliance should do). That would be the best thing since Lee’s clingy trunks.

            And although it would require a lot of good fortune, OMG, I want to see Jenna go on a Colby or Tom-style immunity rampage through-out the remaining episodes and just smash her way into the finale, while everybody battles to the death around her. It’s the only way she’s gonna stay safe. That would be amazing. And she’d be a lock for the money, as well.

      • Channel Ten are happy to flog a dead horse because their promos boldly suggest that the alliance is going to be broken over two glittering nights next week. Yeah right, like Kim Lardasshian is going to get her jewels back, too.

        • Yeah, I find myself really hating channel 10’s marketing department over their promotion of the show, I have to say.

      • I don’t know about the claims of a Brooke Sam romance. Last night in her beach confessional she admitted that Matt was not in the alliance and she stated the alliance had 4 members – Herself, Flick, El and Lee.

  11. Sue didn’t win the money but her kids and grandkids can be so proud of her, and she can be proud of herself. She played a great game, was tough and strong like a good work boot. I doubt if she will get mauled on SM like some others will.
    I want Sue for TAR Australia. How about Sue and JL. Wow. They would be hard to beat on TAR. Unless producers decided to switch teams and let one team choose all the strongest players. 😐

  12. I hope lee remembers he has that special clue about banning someone from voting up to when 5 people left. I think rest have forgotten.
    I thought I heard talk about the romances last night. Leading the guys by their d$cks is a strategy i guess.

    • Oldest strategy known to humanity. used to blindside Adam in the Garden Of Eden. $amoa’s no different.

      Still being seen on Bold And The Beautiful daily. Ask Eric.

    • One of the nights this week, not sure which one, the twins said that they would make Lee play his advantage that night. It didn’t eventuate, but we had a big discussion in our house about whether he had told his alliance what the advantage was, or if they were just assuming it was good and they could use it. Knowing Lee, I was on the side of those who thought he had blabbed.

      • Lee’s advantage (to block someone from voting) might just be the only interesting piece of gameplay that we haven’t seen yet.

        Everyone assumed (and naturally enough) that the advantages that Lee and Nick got at the auction were clues to a hidden immunity idol (and Nick immediately told his alliance-mates that that’s exactly what his was). So Nick found his, played it once, and then was eliminated, and nobody’s concerned anymore. And I can’t fault the castaways for that, it was a fair enough assumption.

        Except that’s not what Lee’s advantage was. He could still flip the game by playing that.

        He won’t. I like to think that Lee’s smart enough to know when to keep a secret (and so I hope he’s realised that he needs to keep that quiet, particularly from the bad girls alliance) … but I just don’t think he is. El probably already knows, and if El knows, then the girls know too, which makes the whole thing null and void.

        But it’s such a great twist that, if he’d told El, then the audience would’ve heard the girls talking about it, by now, as part of their strategy. So I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt (which I don’t think he deserves) and assuming that he kept quiet about it, for the most part.

        • So why isn’t anybody looking for idols anymore?
          The girls did discuss Lee’s advantage, saying “we will play it tonight” but then they didn’t. So they know about it, and it will be played when the girls decide it should.
          From memory, I think there was a time limit on it but I can’t remember what.

      • Aaah, Lee would have told. The queen bees have been playing a ruthless game of ‘if you don’t tell us, you don’t really trust us, so watch your back’. Those girls are friends with bite.

  13. Finally watched it. How awkward when Matt was telling the alliance they had to split the votes and Kristie was right there with them! Oops. Well done JL for back-to-back immunities. That’s a classic Survivor challenge and another one I like because anyone who’s moderately fit could win it. As everyone has said, thumbs up to JL and Sue for some truth talking BUT I wish they could have manned up a few episodes ago, when there were more outcasts for them to make a big move. They had numerous opportunities to gather an opposing alliance but every tribal council we saw the votes scattered around. ALSO, I am thinking the length of the season is also affecting the gameplay (or lack thereof). We are now at, what Day 40? In US Survivor the game would be over by now. Having such a long season means contestants have formed even tighter bonds and are thus less keen to flip on “friends”. If it had been a regular 39-day season I wonder what the outcome would be?

    • My memory might be faulty, but I thought that Sue and JL have responded positively to every ‘big move’ that had been offered. We can’t really tell, because most of them have foundered by someone dobbing to the twins.

  14. JL wasn’t swayed when Kate tried to make a move with the fringe dwellers at the right time, if I remember correctly. She left it too late by clinging to what she saw as ‘security’ with Saanapu at the time. She missed the boat.
    Kate should still be there – she had more merit than anyone: socially, physically, strategically, especially given Vavau’s ‘deprivation’, compared to smug Saanapu.

    • we must have missed ALOT of brainwashing when Saanapu were winning all the challenges for the original Saanapu to convince anyone with a blue buff to stick together.

    • It’s ALWAYS sad to see a good player go, just because they are strong, athletic and with a nice personality and good character, but sadly, that’s the nature of the game; Connivor. Think Malcom from the US. Too good not to be shot down at the first immunity loss.

      • This is where i wonder if Sam and Lee have a bit of a strategy of not winning to many immunity challenges early on, although the challenges so far haven’t really been strength based , istill expected them to be a bit more dominate.

  15. I am soooooo looking forward to when Magic Matt realises he has been played. The best sleight of hand has not been performed by Mr Magician, but by:
    1. Brooke, convincing him EVEN NOW that his shadow-alliance actually exists.
    2. The producers who have been tap dancing like crazy with the promos, trying to convince the audience for the last several weeks that someone is going to make a BIG MOVE that blows the game wide open and topples the Axis of Evil. They have cried wolf too often.

    I felt like last night’s Tribal Council could’ve been a Production meeting when JL expressed frustration that no-one can crack the Axis of Evil. It says a lot about how bad these players are that the only way the head of the snake could be cut off, was by a producer’s twist that sent Flick to Exile Island and finally separated the evil twins.

    Nick looks good without the beard and I give him credit for calling the elephant in the room at TC, just as JL and Sue are doing now. Brooke might be sneakily effective but when it comes down to it, not as openly ballsy as JL who, in calling out Matt at TC last night, stared him straight in the eye the whole time. When Brooke was denying the Troika were in charge, and Sue said “I’m not an idiot, sweetheart”, Brooke immediately went quiet and shut down.

    I was thinking about Star Wars, and the spontaneous audience reaction when Luke fires his missile straight in and the Death Star explodes. If one of these fringe dwellers (love that expression Genie) could do that they would well and truly deserve the win.

    “SIOUX DENIM, Someone mentioned that Sue eluded to El/Lee dalliance, can anyone remember what she exactly said?”

    When Sue was at the beach pow-wowing with JL, she said “Lee would not vote for El”. That implies El is the more powerful (she is in the Gang of Three). Ever since I heard here they are dating, I have been on high Lee/El alert and note whenever they are together but we don’t get much. As soon as Sue said that, I thought “it’s official, they’re an item”. Then at TC, Sue again said, “Lee will not vote for El, and El will not vote for Lee.”

    Like1+

    • Even now they’re showing promos for next week saying the alliance is going to be split, but it’s probably bullshit.

    • Nt much too it and I sorta wish I didn’t read that they are an item now – but I guess I would have been wondering why the hell wasn’t he making moves – thanks AO!
      Interesting to also read here that someone implied Brooke/Same are also an item – and then Brooke’s statement a few backs that her only alliance was with Sam – mmmmm
      Again,the promo’s are bullshit – but yes, I will be watching!

  16. Weird how this production has absolutely avoided, so far, any impression that Sam has a thing with Brook and Lee has a thing with EL. It’s been something that others have alluded to but we’ve never seen. Given the amount of Flick on to camera lately and almost nothing on Lee and EL I’m thinking that those two will be getting to the end. Yikes what a final – dont like either of them.

    • Yes, remember Boston Rob and Amber. Why wouldn’t producers add a bit of Paradis Island. Maybe the ‘lovers’ are being very discreet.

      • They’re sharing a tent with ten other people. You’d want to hope they’re being very, very discreet 🙂 .

  17. Flick said that when they are in the shelter at night, she has Lee and El on one side and Brooke and Sam on the other. She implied that there is some mild canoodling going on. The producers have been very careful not to show us any of that, but it would explain Sam’s apparent capitulation after his attempt to flip, and why the twins didn’t assassinate him for his disloyalty.
    Has there ever been relationships form in the US versions? The ones I have seen, it seems to me that 1. They are so much more focussed on winning, and 2. There are much more distinct racial and class divides, so that they are often on the beach with people they would not normally mix with.

    • I can’t recall serious relationships forming from too many Survivor seasons.

      Although I can recall Ethan from Africa dating another Survivor contestant, but I think she was from a different season? The only one that really springs to mind is Rob and Amber. So I guess it happens, it just doesn’t happen very often. I suppose they’re too busy starving and knifing each other to fall in love.

      • And how attractive would the other person really be – what with the lack of toothpaste, soap and freshwater.

        Not to mention the gaseous consequences of a diet of rice and beans and coconuts.

        Sorry to mention.

        • I always think they all look nicer scruffy and am disappointed at how much less attractive they look painted and dolled up. I think especially Ozzie and Sugar.

          • That’s hilarious – obviously they’re being cast in the wrong programs. At the bottom of your link there are other articles Five worst Survivor players and Most Annoying Duos. Some of these castaways come to mind.

        • This is my first season of $urvivor and speaking of wrong programs , I feel like I’m watching Big Brother….but without the house…..and showers..

          In a promo Mental Matt is proclaiming that there are four in the alliance, imagining he’s one of them. He ought to be on Dr.Phil. He sounds as deluded as that drummer who was kicked out of The Beatles.

          • BDD, are you watching the US one, also? I’d be interested to see if you find it more interesting because of the different format.

          • Not sure yet, Juz.

            I’m trying to chase down a baking show with Paul Hollywood in it atm. Saw it advertised but can’t remember where or when.

          • As a “Survivor” veteran, Dave, the best I can say is that some seasons are great, and some seasons are bad. The gamble of being a “Survivor” fan is that, the entertaining part of the season is the contestants and how they play the game. If you get dodgy contestants, you’ll get a dodgy season, which I think is what we’re sitting through right now.

            But being familiar with the franchise, I think the fingerprints of the production team are over this season quite visibly too. They’re experimenting with ideas, they’re trying out twists to keep older viewers (like myself) on their toes, and to mess with the contestants (who are also familiar with the franchise by now). Most of the twists have worked, but the one that didn’t (blue gets to choose their own team) was *such* a terrible idea that it negatively affected most of the game. That’s not what you want in a season, and lord willing, they never do it again.

            I guess I’d say just don’t give up on the franchise just because this season has been a little hit-and-miss. Sometimes you get seasons where the personalities are amazing (quirky or loud or dramatic or amazingly badass), and sometimes the game-play (where people outplot and outwit each other, at least, they try to) is jump-to-your-feet brilliant.

            I can’t really tell you about many of the past American seasons because I’d end up telling you who won, so yeah, but some of them are definitely worth watching. Palau was my favourite.

          • Thanks Windsong. I won’t give up yet…like I did on Bachelorette last night.

            Like others here, I want to see Mental Matt have his long overdue light bulb moment. He’s like the Coyote playing with a box of explosives with “ACME Alliance” written on it.

          • Yeah, I feel like it’s way too early to introduce intruders into the Bachelor Pad. Half the original guys haven’t even had dates with Georgia, which isn’t really conducive to them having a life-time romantic relationship. And poor Mateo was ousted as soon as he got there.

            Thing is, I think Matt’s lightbulb moment will be JLap extinguishing his torch.

          • Despite the way the game has gone, I’m still really pleased with the show and will watch it again. It is because the essence of the show is well done – produced well, great challenges, mostly well edited, loving Jonathan as host now that he has relaxed a bit.

            The things that have gone wrong, I view as being possible on any season, and mostly just the luck of the draw. They have no way to know how the players will interact or play the game (which is why the viewers keep coming back – we never know either) although they might try to guess.
            As all know, the major error was the schoolyard-pick tribe swap. With the benefit of hindsight, we now know that it basically killed the game, but at the time it happened, there was scope for a different outcome. The team picking might have chosen all weak players, to have a big pool of outsiders to eliminate. Or despite strong players they might have lost a couple of the early challenges, and things would have changed. Again, it was a gamble, which failed dismally, and I believe that the producers will learn very, very quickly from that.

            In essence, the show works and is worth persisting with, this was just one of the seasons that went wrong. And who knows, maybe it can salvage itself over the next couple of weeks?

    • In general on the US season if you are seen to be getting too close to someone, people see that as a threat and they boot you off almost immediately, so that doesn’t allow serious relationships to form. But i assume that doesn’t stop people hooked up at the sequester location or ponderosa.

      • They seem to have regular Survivor functions where people from different seasons meet so some relationships probably happen then. Whenever they have an all stars season they have often formed alliances before they get there.

    • Yes, Boston Rob and Amber. I think Pahani (not her name but something like that) manipulated guys to get to number 1.
      Damn! What was her name. I didn’t like her.
      I am pretty sure there have been other Survivor romances. Now I am off to google it.

        • Parvati is a smart cookie. Yes, the flirting was irritating first time round but I warmed to her on subsequent seasons. And she masterminded the most amazing tribal council in Heroes V Villains involving not one but two hidden immunity idols.

          • I loved JT in his first season (first to have a perfect game – no votes against him all through and ALL the votes in the final to win the 1million. )
            In his second season (the one from the video) he made a bad mistake of handing the idol to Russell from the opposite tribe because he thought that there was a women’s alliance and Russell was on the outs. In fact Russell was in the middle of that alliance.

            Also notice from Parvati when she voted she said “this is my love letter for trying to vote me out?” Nothing about stabbing me in the back like the simple minded Flick and her ilk.

      • Parvati?

        She was always smiling and giggling at the boys

        You know even when Matt gets voted out he’ll convince himself that he really did well to get that far compared to those that warned him but were voted out before him – low expectations.

        As for Lee and Sam I think they think they’ll win an immunity when it comes to the final five

        • You’d want to hope that they do. But the girls have been kicking the butts of the immunity challenges so far. In fact, I kind of hope that Jenna just keeps winning them, forget the boys.

        • Then they haven’t noticed how many times vrooke has beaten them.

          When and where is the US Sirvivor on? I forgot.

          • It’s on ch 9 tomorrow night at 9.40 It’s a double episode so then we’ll be up to date with the US.

  18. Am I the only one who doesn’t like watching those horrible goggleboxers so obviously performing to the tv? Bluugggghhh!

    • Some of them are funny. I like the boys, and the husband/wife with the two teenage daughters, they’re pretty cool. I also like the elderly couple, because they don’t sugar-coat their feelings (which makes them hilarious). And the two Asian girls are nice.

      But the two girls (who often sit on the couch with their dogs), they kind of annoy me a little bit. And the Greek ladies are very *loud*.

  19. Matt is like a guy who accidentally picks up your Monopoly wheelbarrow and wins you Mayfair, Parklane and $200 bucks for passing Go. But ssshh. Thanks Matt.

  20. Fijane, you are right in that the production values, challenge sets etc have been amazing. Say what we will about the gameplay but this season was a million times better than the pathetic first Australian Survivor (filmed in SA) and our awful Celebrity Survivor.

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