Survivor: Cagayan (Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty) **SPOILERS**

[GoGo Yubari]

SHAME ON YOU LINDSIE

[Pleatherface]

Anyone that cheers when a member of their tribe quits deserves to lose. It's like throwing a challenge. It's not smart to be happy about it.

Tony especially should've tried his best to keep Lindsey in the game. Trish is making moves despite probably be an ultimately ineffectual player, and with LJ present I have to believe Tony's game is at risk. I think he panicked with the Cliff vote, and didn't consider how it would impact him long term.

Lindsey's hatred of Trish would've been a useful buffer if things didn't work out to his advantage. He has either a fall back alliance with her and Wu, or more likely, someone Trish would be more willing to vote out than him.

I think Lindsey quitting was a case of writing on the wall and not wanting to sit through Trish being odious in her general direction until whenever they lost. It's disrespectful to the game, and I hate it, but there's very few people that handle the post tribal fireside gloat very well, so I can't really judge her for being over it.

But I do think some assurances from Tony would've given her hope and made her viable pawn.

Could've been useful since Cops R Us may or may not be available to him in the future.

They tried to be slick with the Alexis vote, and actually this season has been pretty good about audience blindsides, but I saw it coming. Jeff asks the question "Hey, Alexis, why are you smiling that two people from the other tribe are gone?" And maybe she was trying to be nice and not throw salt in the wounds by saying "I'm glad they're dead, and hope they burn in hell." but she answers in probably the worst way possible. I'm glad my former tribe, those two of which I'm well connected with, are safe.

Behind her Spencer IMMEDIATELY turns and nods to Sarah, and then turns back smiling when Jeff asks him the same question.

I'm sure there were other considerations, but throughout the episode I couldn't help but think that handing people that want to kill you a weapon that big was going to turn out badly.

[GoGo Yubari]

Oh Christ, the Sarah/Kass debate is super-embarrassing. Two players who preseason I had a lot of belief in and now not nearly as much. We'll see how the next 30 minutes of this go I guess.

EDIT: 43 minutes in. Oh my god what is wrong with both of them. Good god. Both of these people I'm pretty sure are actual fans of the show and neither of them understand BASIC SURVIVOR FACTS.

EDIT II: God, Kass, you idiot. That was almost amazing.

[db07]

People like Kass annoy me... Sure you're bottom, but you have a better chance against the brains than Brawn.

As so as all brains are picked off, Kass will be first to go.

[The Quasi Juice]

Horrible play by both Sarah and Kass this episode. Sarah listening to Tony's plans made sense because they had a relationship before and she could get info out of Tony. After that she should have reaffirmed the top 6 alliance that she's still with them. That should have been it. Instead she dubbed herself the queen and she thought she was in a position to make demands on who should go out, pissing Kass off and rightfully so. Her reads were terrible too, i.e. being confident that nobody has an idol in the other alliance and disagreeing with Trish and Jefra (although they ended up voting Jefra anyway which we didn't see?). Damn, such a good position totally thrown away 'cause it got to her head. Kass was terribad too though, because despite Sarah being a dick to her she still had a way better shot at going far with her original Brains. She only talked to Trish for fuck sakes and now she's confident she'll go far? She doesn't even know the other people! She'll be top 7/8 at this point. With the top 6 alliance she would have been top 3 I think. Kass should have sucked it up and taken out Sarah later on. So dumb.

Edited April 3, 2014 by The Quasi Juice

[Your Mom]

Lots of stupid play. I though Kass was the smartest Brain. Was so wrong

[GoGo Yubari]

I feel so bad for Tasha, who seems like a good player who got dealt a horrible hand.

[Your Mom]

This show is so fun though. I wish I hadn't dropped it for 30 seasons or whatever it's been

[RPS]

Go back and watch the old seasons. It is great fun.

I am going to binge watch the whole season at once. I've heard it is by far the best season in years.

[RPS]

Double post.

So I finally caught up. This has been a really good season so far. 9 are left and I can say that everybody, minus Kass, has a chance to win the game. That doesn't happen often. The alliances are complex, the combinations of characters are interesting and the three tribe format really worked this time around.

As a lawyer, I feel like I can give insight into how Kass operates, because I am one. There is a desire to be in control, to have your voice heard and to be the one making the decisions. The world revolves around lawyers, in their minds. Kass fundamentally misunderstands the game. Survivor isn't about making the finals - Kass sees a jury as a group of objective individuals who don't hold any biases. Survivor juries aren't like that. The key isn't making it to the finals - the key is making it to the finals and having the jury vote you the winner. Players who play like Kass are unable to win, because although they end up in the finals, they end up there because they can't win. She potentially lost 5 votes with no plan to get them back. She was in an incredible position before and now she is in a terrible situation unless she does something far more drastic, at which point she loses more jury votes.

I'm cheering for Spencer and Tasha at this point because they know how to play the game. Both have shown that they understand that Survivor isn't about whacky moves. Survivor is chess. It's moving your pieces one move at a time. Kass sees Survivor like Duck Hunt - wildly flail around and hope you hit something. I still believe Spencer or Tasha can win, because I don't think they are up against stacked odds. The three tribe dynamic favors their position and I think they'll be wise and exploit it.

[GoGo Yubari]

On his blog Stephen Fishbach made the great point that on any other recent season, LJ and Tasha would be standout characters but this season they're out of focus because there are so many dynamic characters left.

And Jefra. Jefra's still there too.

[RPS]

I actually think Jefra is OK. She clearly is much better than Alexis and Morgan. I think Jeffra, sitting beside the right combo, could actually win. I think the winner of the season may be a tad bit random for that reason. This is one of those few seasons where I think it really does matter who you are sitting beside and the case you can make. A guy like Tony could win (given his demeanor, I think he'll make a number of colossal errors, but he hasn't made them yet). He just needs to be sitting beside the right combo of people. Someone like Kass has completely shit upon those chances and it speaks volumes to what a terrible player she is. I think the best players of the season by far are Tasha, LJ, Spencer and Woo. Woo is probably the most surprising, but the the guy has played a flawless game minus Tony going Rambo and taking out Cliff. He clearly has great relations with everybody around him and he is great in challenges. He may be the target next week, but I think that is a testament to the fact he is a good player.

[GoGo Yubari]

Oh, I think Jefra can win, I just think she's not particularly interesting.

But yeah, Woo actually being a solid Survivor player was a great surprise. I love him. He's Ozzy without the smugness.

[Pleatherface]

So... He's Fabio?

[RPS]

Yeah. I was shocked when Woo instantly translated being on the wrong side of the numbers into him securing his spot in the five person alliance. There isn't a lot of bad players out there right now, which is a testament to how great casting is. I mean there were several dudes like Garrett and David, but for the most part everything has been stellar. The only sadness I have is that Brice was cast on this season and on the tribe he was. Brice was a smart guy, stuck on the completely wrong tribe. Throw him on a more diverse 8 person tribe and he is in the top 5 or 6.

And Woo isn't Fabio. Woo has an ability to embed himself favorably into good alliances. It's not Woo's fault that the swap happened and Tony was completely moronic and wanted to take out Cliff as early as he did.

[GoGo Yubari]

Me all the way into people voting: "Ah, haha, whatever, this is a lot of really well-edited misdirection ending in Spencer playing his idol and Jeremiah going home."

Spencer: *does not play his idol*

Me: "... wait what the fuck."

This season is crazycakes. I mean, all the evidence for the LJ blindside was there (Tony saying he was going to maybe not vote LJ out as his last confessional before tribal! LJ being super overconfident in his own position the entire episode!) but jeez.

Also Tasha is boss:

[Pleatherface]

It's great that Tony's moves have been formed thus far with "Hey. This person wants you out." "Okay. Let's vote them out." *person gets voted out*

I love this show.

[RPS]

I feel like Tony and Kass are in a competition over who can pull the worse move.

So the rumor is that Kass is disliked by pretty much the entire jury. My gut feeling is that Kass swings back to Jeremiah/Spencer/Tasha next week. This was a significantly bad move for Tony, but only in hindsight knowing of the special hidden immunity and it's power.

Spencer has the idol and he can easily get someone to flop back to their side. He simply approaches Kass, says 'hey, Kass, I've got an idol and I'm going to play it next week on whoever gets votes because you guys can't split the votes anymore, so me/Tasha/Jeremiah will control who goes home next. It is better to be aligned with me at this point because you can chose who goes home out of the remaining people". This is the exact same scenario as Cook Islands and Spencer is a superfan and will know the scenario. Penner flips on Yul's alliance and joins the majority alliance. They merge at 10 with a 6 to 4 advantage. Yul leverages Penner to flip his vote at the merge, because they've got the idol that can be played after the votes, so regardless of how the other alliance votes, they chose who goes home. Kass likely chose Tony, because he fucked up, and he'll be sent packing. That'll leave Trish/Jefra/Woo as a fractured threesome, Jeremiah/Spencer/Tasha as a solid threesome and Kass somewhere in between. Kass/Spencer/Tasha/Jeremiah are the most likely to be sitting at the end.

[GoGo Yubari]

Erik Reichenbach's Survivor comics are delightful too;

[Your Mom]

So jury isn't allowed to say anything right? When Tony said he was a construction worker Sarah practically exploded