Survivor: San Juan del Sur

[Q the Cat]

And I'm glad Nadiya got voted out first. She really rubbed me the wrong way. Wanting to gang up on the older guy, Dale, and also all her comments about the gay guy being "one of the girls." :rolleyes:

I cringed every time she said "one of the girls" about the gay guy.

I'm glad she's gone and curious to see how it affects her 'twinnie'.

I did have to shake my head and snicker when one of the "Survivors" talked about how they'd have "nothing!" and they were on their own. Watch a few episodes of "Naked and Afraid" chump, and you'll see what having nothing for 21 days actually feels like. (Yeah, I know Survivor's longer.)

Those Naked and Afraid folks are hardcore.

[awesome possum]

Actual preview for the second episode, as opposed to the "this season on Survivor" video they showed after the first episode.

Nothing really special in there but thought I'd share.

[Cyvasse Khal]

Josh's Baylor vote was a crappy move. You could tell he was uncomfortable being the swing vote, but he had no need to feel that way as Baylor had already told him she would vote with him too ahead of the women's alliance. Plus if pressed on it by the women afterwards, Josh had a ready made legitimate reason that he felt disrespected by Nadiya calling him a girl.

If people know it was Josh that voted for Baylor, then neither alliance is going to trust him. The most fundamental thing about being in an alliance is that everyone knows you are a solid no questions asked vote on their side. Josh after only 3 days has proved he can't commit to a vote, and for me that makes him a big target. He can of course, try and convince everyone that Nadiya voted for Baylor, but that's just leading him into a path of lying he probably doesn't want to go down.

Overall, an okay premiere episode. One thing I noticed was a distinct lack of leadership or big personalities on either tribe. These players must know by now how to avoid being an early boot. Smart game play but not exciting TV. Only when the players are being affected by the emotions involved with their loved ones will we see really good episodes I think.

[Ken Stone]

Does it seem like Survivor is trying to be especially cruel? What a mean twist to make a husband compete against his wife with the loser going to exile. I wonder how many of these twists we are going to get.

[Gronzag]

So this John Rocker really is an imbecile. He actually found the idol and yet he still thinks that Val has it?!

[Cyvasse Khal]

Where is all the camp life stuff? We literally got 2 minutes of losing the flint and Jon and Drew are stupid dumb guys, and the rest is pure challenges or strategy talk. Come on Survivor, this season has started off with very little charm to it, feels very mechanical like it's just chess pieces (with people that aren't that good at chess) moving around an island. 2 and a half hours in and I have no idea what kind of people Jaclyn, Keith, Wes, Reed, Kelly, Alec, or Missy are. That's almost half of who's left!

Rocker had an interesting episode. Sucked at challenges, made a side alliance, found an idol, tried to strategize, broke that side alliance. Julie will go next, and he'll go 2-3 episodes later.

Jeff Probst thank you so much for telling that tribe to go take a hike. I couldn't believe they had the nerve to try and make a deal like that. Spoilt brats mustn't think they should be forced to you know....survive.

[Gertrude]

Come on Survivor, this season has started off with very little charm to it

Abso-freaking-lutely. Who are these people and why should I care about them? Hint - I don't. Not even momma Missy who hurt her baby girl. Move along, please. I am not exactly getting good vibes about this season so far.

Not only is Rocker a bit thick - he got beat by a giiiirrrrl. How will he ever face his friends back home? A little girl beat him when obviously his muscles should have prevailed with all that ducking and balancing.

Val turned out to be a dud. Wow. Her only move - and I mean only - was to hint she had 2 idols? How threatened could she feel when her name didn't come up last tribal and we didn't see anything that would seem to change that other than her own flipping lie. When that backfired and she knew she was getting votes - where was her back-up plan? This just felt like someone who thought they were making a very clever move and it was actually a little embarrassing to watch.

To be honest, I wasn't entirely sure what the hell was going on with the vote this time. Val, ok, you flush the idol. So then Baylor is the next on the block? Did we even see why and who were the ones voting for who? It just seemed so haphazard because it was really all about the idol and Val and screw the rest of the story.

I seriously hope we get to see a challenge in which Reed's aerialist skills play a part because damn. That was impressive.

Oh - and Josh did have a strategy behind his Baylor vote last time. I'm still not sold it was a good idea - even Baylor is calling it shady.

[awesome possum]

Yeah the vote for Baylor seemed weird when Jaclyn was right there. Yeah, Val claimed she had two idols but that was impossible. Completely impossible but paranoia does often reign on this show.

I agree that we need to learn more about these people but I see that as less having no charm and more prepping for a completely chaotic season. I see this season going down a similar path to Gabon and Nicaragua where alliances are constantly shifting and changing every other vote. We don't really have a majority alliance yet, we haven't seen much strategizing from anyone not named Josh - who is either already being set up to win or be the big pre-merge blindside.

I think Rocker is the quitter. We saw in the preview for next week that Jeremy throws him under the bus and he starts bickering with the other tribe. I think the blue tribe loses immunity, votes out Julie and he quits. He's stated in interviews that he was a recruit and hadn't really ever seen the show before being recruited and he's also said Survivor was the worst experience of his life. I'm hoping I'm right so they can get the big personality out of the way.

And Val... so disappointing. It sucks being sent to Exile on that first day, immediately makes you an outsider. But it looks like Val didn't really try to fit in beyond grabbing the women for an alliance without really thinking, "Hey, there are only 4 women and 5 men." And then bluffing about two idols? Just plain dumb.

[Cyvasse Khal]

.I am not exactly getting good vibes about this season so far.

Yeah for sure. Straight after the finale of Cagayan it felt like we had just watched one of the better seasons, but it's always hard to place exactly how good the season you've just watched is. Now I'm getting the feeling that Cagayan really was that damn good, and this season is so far showing how big a difference a good and bad season can be.

I guess it may still be too early to write 29 off completely, but I have no idea where the perfect combination of entertaining TV and smart play is going to come from.

[awesome possum]

It's been two episodes, way too early to call this a bad season. Though I don't know if we'll see smart game play. It looks like we have a bunch of contestants who are mostly strong competitors but are either naive or just plain dumb strategically (this season has a lot of recruits it seems like) which is why I think this may be along the lines of Gabon or Nicaragua in its randomness.

[Cyvasse Khal]

Who here are subscribers/regular listeners to RHAP? And if so do you often leave comments? And what are your Disqus usernames? I post under my name, Matt Campbell. I know at least a few that regularly post in this forum follow Cesternino's podcasts so would be cool to know who's who in that community.

I don't come to ASoIaF forums much when it's Game of Thrones off season and there's not much happening with the books until WoW is out.

[Nox Irradiata]

I'm with y'all. Pretty boring episode overall. /yawn

[Gertrude]

I am not ready to write the season off yet, just really not impressed so far.

I had forgotten that Rocker was a recruit, so I can excuse his gullibility about idols. WTF were the rest of the tribe thinking about that that lie? In Rocker's defense (did I just say that?) it's hard to help someone who is bent on self-destruction. I still have zero idea what Val was trying to pull. That has to go down as one of the worst moves, right?

It suddenly makes a bit more sense why Jeremy might be wanting someone to take care of Val - maybe he just really knows his wife's strengths and weaknesses. AP, you're right - Val didn't seem to be making social bonds when she got back from EI. The little rant she had against Baylor this tribal was... just awkward. Oddly angry or just poorly acted. She fumbled with Keith? in Ep 1 with the clue - just a lot of little hints that perhaps she doesn't have a great social game.

I listen to RHAP, but more for Fishbach than Cesternino. I was rooting for him in Tocancins. I don't ever comment though.

[Arbor Gold]

It looks like we have a bunch of contestants who are mostly strong competitors but are either naive or just plain dumb strategically (this season has a lot of recruits it seems like) which is why I think this may be along the lines of Gabon or Nicaragua in its randomness.

I'm hoping the smarter players are just laying low and letting all the dumb people take each other out first?

Who here are subscribers/regular listeners to RHAP? And if so do you often leave comments? And what are your Disqus usernames? I post under my name, Matt Campbell. I know at least a few that regularly post in this forum follow Cesternino's podcasts so would be cool to know who's who in that community.

I don't come to ASoIaF forums much when it's Game of Thrones off season and there's not much happening with the books until WoW is out.

I'm in the RHAP Patron group on Facebook (which is super fun); if you're there, I'll PM you my name! That's the only place I comment and it's a great community that's being built over there.

[Cyvasse Khal]

I'm hoping the smarter players are just laying low and letting all the dumb people take each other out first?

I'm in the RHAP Patron group on Facebook (which is super fun); if you're there, I'll PM you my name! That's the only place I comment and it's a great community that's being built over there.

Oh cool. I don't have a Facebook account anymore (although won't rule out rejoining) but I have considered becoming a patron recently as I would like to support his sites more now that he's expanded them so much. Do you find the extra content is good value for the monthly cost?

[Howdyphillip]

While I agree that this years format of exile island lends to boring TV because almost all of the time is spent in challenges, I disagree that everyone is playing a poor game so far.

Specifically Val's move. With the producers throwing out hidden idols everywhere, it was credible that she made a claim to have two idols. One hidden on exile island itself, and one from the camp. Only Rocker would know she couldn't have both, but he assumed that she had one and wanted it flushed out. Seeing as Val was on the chopping block, what other play would you think that she could have?

[Gertrude]

But was Val on the chopping block? Baylor was the alternative vote last tribal. As far as I can tell with the editing, Val only came up because she began talking about the idols. And ... no. I can't see having two idols by the second tribal council as plausible - even with the producers being in love with them like they are. What was her back-up plan? Hey, I have 2 idols that I can use to save me and an ally... oh what? You want me to produce them so we can blindside the guys? It was just sloppy and not well thought out.

[awesome possum]

Yeah I don't think there's any chance at all that someone could have 2 idols just 6 days into the game. If there was an idol at Exile there would almost surely be a clue or mention of it. If they hide idols, they want those idols found. Even if its already been discovered we've seen in the past that they keep the clues so that other people can at least find out the idol has been found.

Although I do think Val probably was on the chopping block because of how bad she'd been in challenges but she might have been able to scramble her way out of that position if she'd actually scrambled instead of basically daring people to vote for her.

[Howdyphillip]

The explanation for having two idols would be simple. All she would have to do is say that she was given clue to the location of an idol back in her camp, and that she spent two days at exile digging in corners and found an idol there that the clue had not been delivered yet. We have seen players find idols without clues on the show.

You guys seem really harsh on her for not scrambling, but that is really exactly what she did. She was smart enough to realize that she was the next target, and tried to deflect the target off herself. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't leverage her play to save herself. All she would have needed was for one person to keep in alliance with her and it would have worked, and it almost did.

All I am saying is that it might not have been the strongest move that we have seen, but it was certainly not as futile as what people are suggesting.

[Gertrude]

We're gonna agree to disagree on the idols. Anyone playing who knew the game would have to be skeptical and wonder what she was up to. Even if someone thinks she could have two - that's not something you announce. You just don't - you use it for leverage or for an ambush. If you don't have an idol, maybe you try to fake the other team out and make a show of pulling something out of hiding right before tribal to spook their plans. I dunno - I think part of it is that she didn't act confidently enough to pull it off.

But you're right - she does deserve credit for trying something instead of doing nothing. It was just presented so horribly. It wasn't about Val at all and was told through Rocker's eyes. It's a disservice to her, honestly, since she never got to explain her thought process. We have zero idea who the target would have been without the idol talk surfacing because apparently that is not important for us to know.