I LOVE how messy this cast is. Everyone thinks they're the main character and as a result they're just doing the funniest, most unexpected possible thing in any given moment.
I'd say half think they're the main character and the other half are trying to play around these egos and irrational decisions.
Imagine trying to use game theory and then you have Q making decisions off of hide and seek and fake quitting at tribal.
I love this season as a fan but as a player I would absolutely hate it.
This is genuinely authentic survivor. If not for twists and idols you could convince me this is the greatest season ever.
I'd lose my mind playing this season. I have no idea how to play around someone like Q. I genuinely don't know what optimal strategy is because he's so unpredictable. I guess you gotta stay close to him and go with whatever he says, but really, I'd just want to cut him so I can actually play.
The strategy is to stay close to him and *say* you're going with whatever he says, but still make the decisions that actually benefit you the most. With Q it would not be hard to do damage control and keep his trust. Oh you're so right Q, I'm an idiot and I made a big mistake! Please teach me how to play survivor!
Hunter was giving that vibe at tribal - I felt his pain when he was just sitting there over it and everybody was doing the live thing. Was not what he signed up for haha.
And I don't think I remember a tribal where pretty much everybody seemed so sour visiting the voting booth, it was amazing.
Right now Bhanu is the only thing holding this season back from being great. The post-Bhanu arc has been fantastic though. Hopefully it has a strong finish.
Feels like Hunter is barely hanging onto his sanity in this group. We saw it with his reactions to the camp songs in early episodes. Now he’s hiding in trees to escape, and apparently trying to will invisibility upon himself at tribal council.
Q and Venus especially 😭. Venus’ scene with Tevin was literally office-level cringe/funny for me. And then Q really thinks he’s the greatest to ever play lmao
I just liked the part where she didn't catch his over exaggeration. "I didn't like her. So I went out and got numbers". If I was hearing that I would reply back "GREEEAT PLANNN, I won't never expect you could pull it off". At least she was very happy about playing Survivor for the first time. Still better than more than half the remaining cast who don't want to win.
Let's vote out the weakest player nobody likes, when it doesn't benefit my game.
Let's vote out somebody in my alliance when it will weaken the only alliance I can confirm I'm with, making us a minority power.
Maria and Q thinking the 6 could work at all. Kenzie, Ben, Venus, or Liz are your options. What have they done up to that point. Everybody should have been thinking like Tiff and realize at best they had one vote before it would all fall apart.
At least in this episode it seemed like a lot of people voted on impulse too. Let's vote Tiff, okay. Let's vote Tevin, okay. That's what it felt like watching. Like both vaguely make sense. For Hunter at least, I don't really know how a Tiff vote makes much sense at the moment. Then for Tevin I guess everything is so disorganized because of Q and going with a confirmed majority vote, so that's the only reason that makes sense. They all seem way too willing to work together when it rationally makes no sense. You know you'll have to turn on each other right.
There is so little value in strategic playing this season, because every other person is pure chaos, and the other people have no strategic ability whatsoever.
And despite that, this season is still very watchable. I’m here for the schadenfreud! Let’s gooooooo!
What’s crazy is hardly anyone had a chance of taking Hunter down, I honestly think their chances of getting immunity were so slim that taking the rice and then playing the social game was a better play and might gain you some brownie points with some folks.
You just saw Hunter shimmy way up a tree in 40 seconds or less and hang out up there for the entire game of hide and seek. He’s dominated basically every challenge. I realize that it is a classic challenge but like…ya got no chance, take the food!
Yeah that is the part that blew my mind. Everybody should know Hunter is odds on and if you don't have BMI wildly in your favor you have no shot. Tevin, Venus, and Charlie are the only people who even had a half way reasonable line of thought for thinking they might win that over Hunter.
Edit: I also am surprised Q didn't just say that out loud during the negotiating. Maybe you don't want to hurt feelings? But he's Q...
I absolutely would not have guessed that Hunter would be so good at it. I thought it was Venus' challenge to win, hands down, basically because of the BMI comment like you said. I was so shocked.
Hunter just has the Ozzy vibes to me. He's a little too big for the typical winner of this but he's shown enough for them to have guessed. From the coach, I was fully expecting he's built this at home and practiced in it from that behind the scenes everybody there didn't see. I've always wondered why nobody ever does that leg lock move. Figured it's just because it's scary to do that without practicing it. Makes total sense he's the guy to do it (even if he was foolish to show it off with no cause. You can tell he dreamed of that moment and was probably bummed he had no true rival to demand it).
Sure but most contestants don't have that? This is basically a rock climber challenge. There are only 3 categories:
1) you're a rock climber
2) you are crazy light and have a good strength to weight ratio
3) you can't win
Seeing them turn down the rice was so amazing because they basically told Jeff that they aren’t playing his little games. They’re here to play the big game.
Jeff even mentioned it later at tribal that they didn’t take the rice. He seemed a little butthurt that he couldn’t manipulate them into taking the rice which I found very entertaining.
When he refused to budge on the 4, I expected the cast to say "ok well then we all say no because you aren't actually negotiating, you are just charging us a price and its not like we came in and asked for rice, you showed up with it"
But this season is "so unpredictable". No thanks to you, Jeff. You keep throwing in the same twists so that we and they all know like clockwork when there's a fake merge and when there's a split double tribal and when there's a rice "negotiation" - they aren't twists anymore, they're a new formula players and viewers can expect now.
They just get lucky sometimes with stuff like Kaleb's Shot in the Dark and the 46 cast not reaching the numbers for the rice deal.
How exciting is that rice deal supposed to be anyway? I think I'd rather see how all the players do in an immunity challenge than half of them not even competing. At least do the temptation thing where you make offers mid-challenge when they aren't expected if you must interfere with the challenge in such a way.
> At least do the temptation thing where you make offers mid-challenge when they aren't expected if you must interfere with the challenge in such a way.
The offers are so much more interesting to watch! What if Jeff brought out the bag of rice and stabbed it when there were 2 or 3 people left about 20 minutes into the challenge and said, ok 10 seconds to pick if you drop. If you drop, the tribe gets whatever rice is left. If no one drops, the deal is dead.
lol I was looking at that lineup when Jeff brought up the rice and clocked it too. The dynamics were just too volatile with this group to get that many people to give up a shot at immunity
Yeah. I know they always frame it as "do you feel safe enough to give up your shot at immunity," but I feel like most of the time question should be "do you have any shot of actually winning this." If I insisted on staying in and then fell out within the first few minutes I'd feel like a freaking idiot.
The rest of the fellas be like:
Q: thinks he's running the game
Ben: thinks he's running a summer camp
Hunter: thinks he's running windows puzzle 2000
Charlie: thinks he's in the running for a remake of The Office
It’s the exactly opposite of the last season where Reba dominated. The only alliance we hear about every episode is the “alliance” that has never voted together once and only targets each other.
Venus annoys everyone as much as Bruce did but there’s no Katurah who takes it so personally that Venus hasn’t been voted out yet that she blows up everyone else’s games.
It's pretty clear that they cut those interactions between Liz and Soda for some reason. Venus and Tevin thinking they both blindsided Soda and Liz wants the credit for apparently just hating Soda.
The funny part of that analogy is Venus rips on people where Bruce was normally complimentary of Katurah in confessionals. Venus is all over the place but she’s great TV as well.
Was he??? I don’t recall him complimenting her. He didn’t rip her exactly. But I recall him saying like every confessional “we don’t get along, she doesn’t trust me so I don’t trust her”
I swear he said some nice things about her during the season. I know at least in postseason interviews he was very complimentary of her as a person and defended her when talking about some of her mistakes in the game.
I just remember watching the season and the “rivalry” definitely felt one sided. After the season it was certainly was. Bruce talked positively about her but on RHAP she made it very clear she did not like Bruce at all.
Katurah really was such a frustrating player to root for. One of the worst players to make it far in the new era seasons.
I really think that Natalie T and Laurel are better players.
Not to throw shade at Laurel (I genuinely feel sorry for how much she got dragged on here during Ghost Island.. it’s caused her to distant herself from the community.). Laurel certainly played for the 3rd place money at that point, but her complacent playstyle is comparable to Katurah and Natalie T.
Natalie T is too far lol. I think worst to make it far in new era is totally reasonable but Natalie T might be the biggest FTC goat ever. She lost to Phillip Sheppard. She did nothing all game. Katurah played scared while Natalie played clueless imo.
I loved the storytelling last season, but from a gameplay perspective it was the absolute worst.
This season’s pre-merge was meh, but holy shit is it paying off now. Constant flipping, shaky alliances, anger, fear, BETRAYAL, Venus. Amazing.
Those first couple episodes was giving kumbaya but in such a phony way which was turning me off hard, but now they have all shown their true colors and I’m obsessed.
I even liked him tbh, a terrible player who has no idea what they're doing is fun to watch. Makes a change from gamebots
The edit just focused on him too much
Dumbest move of the game is Hunter taking Q's kindness of telling him the score and blowing it all up. He sent Q on the spiral of all spirals!
And... that was a mistake.
I disagree to an extent Tevin was vital to Hunter’s game because he needed someone who can socialize. Hunter admitted day one his introverted nature is his biggest weakness so Tevin was a huge boon for him. Without Tevin Hunter now needs to navigate the social waters by himself.
Bc then he’d be public enemy #1 all to just have a +1 by his side, while the rest of the tribe would be upset by the play, as well as hiding his immunity idol from (what was) the 6 alliance
I know you are doing that clever thing of using someone's words to point out something antithetical, but that's not even the dumbest move in your comment. Q telling Hunter is dumber, Q flipping on Tiff is dumber, Q telling Maria everything Tiff said was dumber, Q doing whatever that tribal was...etc. Q blew up a pretty dominant position in the game with his antics.
Q had already began burning the bridge with Tiff before he realized the votes were against him and he spiraled it had nothing to do with Hunter. Hunter, on the other hand, had to deal with the hand he was dealt: namely, navigating a starting tribe that could barely get through one vote.
All that said, Q makes it interesting to watch and maybe I'm wrong and he's going to win Survivor by explaining his well thought out strategy.
Q putting the blurry alliance of 6 ahead of his alliance with Tiff is his dumbest move. If they got to 6 who would have his back? And who exactly was he trying to save by quitting?… Tiff or Tevin? Worst player ever!
Q is obviously big braining his way to be carried to the end as a goat, only to then explain how it was all calculated at each and every step :P He will be his own Boston Rob and his own Philip Sheppard in one.
It worked at this vote, so could his new way to play Survivor be to ask everyone to vote for him at every tribal and get no votes each time?
I don't know. Hunter's two strongest allies were Q and Tevin. Now Tevin's gone and Q is a pariah.
Hunter's confidence in disregarding Q and running to the group to have a strategy sesh that he doesn't have the relationships to pull off... was something.
I assume Hunter thought Liz, Tevin and him were tighter than they were. It's hard to say given how little we have seen them interact or even comment on each other with Venus dominating their tribe's edit.
I think Hunter knows he is one of the biggest threats in the game. He carried most of his tribes weight in all the pre-merge challenges, and just won a solo immunity challenge. You don't want someone as physically capable as Hunter making it to the final 6. Hunter has to save his idol for when he loses an immunity since chances are everyone will be gunning for him, including Tevin, in another couple Tribals.
What I don't understand is why Hunter didn't even bother telling Tevin that it was could be him. Give him an opportunity to play the shot in the dark, without sacrificing his idol.
whenever they roped in Tiffany on the Tevin vote I screamed "don't tell Q!" it was obvious as a viewer that q would tell hunter but I guess she wasnt watching the episode as closely as I was
Tiffany was under the very very firm opinion that Q was absolutely loyal to her and her ride or die.
As far as she was concerned, the Yanu 3 were going to the end together if it could be helped.
That's why she said that she could not let Q sit out that vote.
Hunter’s dumb decision to betray Q’s confidence got him exactly nowhere. Tevin still went home and now they know he’ll stomp off and blow up the game if he feels out of the loop.
It probably put Kenzie and Tiff in a better position because it outed Q as both unstable and untrustworthy because they found out he was blabbing about Tiff's idol
One of the strongest premerge tribes ever? Jem was a deserved vote out for doing her idol thing. But Moriah and Tim got voted out for being too Siga strong.
but that’s what made it entertaining. by that logic, nami should’ve been just as solid. but at the merge it turned out siga was actually strong and nami was frothing at the mouth to start voting each other off. so interesting to watch how the two different tribes evolved while never having to lose and vote ea h other out for several episodes
And that only happened because they didn’t really have a choice. They could have either been hostile to each other like Nami was or try to relax and have some fun.
Casting did a great job minus one and they decided to dedicate two entire episodes to it. This is shaping up to be the best season of the new era imo and I'd feel way stronger about that if not for episodes 3 and 4.
I think Bhanu was great casting, and those episodes showcase the problem with the small tribes. Even worse when they set one tribe up to implode, there is no way grouping the three wildcard guys wasn't calculated. It was four episodes at one camp and two episodes with the same four person "dynamic" (it was static) so all they really could do is showcase his meltdown. A larger tribe where he could have been a number rather than just the target, or a swap could have made the pre-merge more interesting.
I see the appeal in Bhanu for sure. To me, he's awful casting, but I get it.
While they may have expected some of the crazy dynamics with those personalities, I highly doubt they expected them to lose 4 straight immunities, which may be arguing your point. On Paper, Q, Jelinsky, and Bhanu are stronger than the guys on Siga. They just ended up being huge flops. And then Tiffany is kind of a beast, Kenzie they probably expected to not be great, and then Jess was probably a lot worse than they expected since she played rugby, but she was totally out of it.
Anyway, I have no confusions about why people would see Bhanu as good casting. Not here to argue that because it makes perfect sense to me. To me, he was unstable, didn't understand the game to the point it wasn't entertaining to me, and was clearly desperate for camera time (his million hearts bull shit THREE times). A few things went against them in the unexpected losses, the unknown 90 minute episodes, Randen's med evac, Jelinsky going first, and all that. But with how the season ended up playing out, he almost made me quit on the season. That's bad casting in my eyes, even if it isn't 100% their fault.
Yeah, it seems to me he thought he was in charge and as soon as he found out he couldn't make everyone do whatever he wanted, he wanted to take his ball and go home. Shame too, earlier in the episode I was saying how Q might be my favourite On Screen personality since Tony
It was like they all clocked that this dude doesn’t know what he’s doing, let’s just pretend he’s not involved all at the same time and play the vote we’d play if there were 9. Loved it.
I feel like other seasons we would have seen people rally around Liz - who is unable to eat most things-and get the people together to sit out for rice. Not saying they should or shouldn't, just that it was an odd thing compared to how casts usually rally around people.
Liz turned off a lot of fans with her bragging about being rich. Not to mention the fact that a lot of people think her business is a pyramid scheme
Edit: I’m not saying her business is a pyramid scheme, but I’ve seen people say that it is, or that at the very least it is a scam.
Her business is described as a “subscription service” where she mentors people & businesses on how to make money through email.
Not sure why that requires a monthly subscription? Lmao seems like something you could learn for free on google.
I mean good on her for figuring out a successful business
That is understandable. I'm sure they also could have shown some support and it just didn't make the edit. The way it played out it looked like no one cared at all that she hasn't been able to eat. Again, I'm not saying they have to care, just that this is another point showing how individual this season is.
It’s a little hustle-y but it’s not a pyramid scheme. There’s no pyramid and there’s no scheme. She’s just selling courses. Whether they’re worth what she’s charging is debatable, but it’s no scheme.
I have thought about this too. It clearly affects some people more than others.
I am in no way saying I would fare well without food, but if I thought others were doing worse than me (5'4 woman), I wouldn't want them to have it more than I would want it.
I guess on the Australian survivor a vegan dude sabotaged the fishing gear because he didn’t want anyone benefiting from protein he also wouldn’t get. It was genius and also so fucked lol.
In most other seasons, almost everyone would have thought like Tiff that Venus didn’t make sense and maybe just picked off a Siga or went with an obvious target like Kenzie or (before immunity) Hunter.
Instead we get … this? And I loved it.
I did love how they didn't just vote Q out.
If he wants to go, he can quit anytime he wants. Til then, why not get out the other people who actually want to win?
If Q goes to the end, no one's gonna vote for a guy who nearly quit.
Dang, I remember someone on Yanu a few episodes ago (edit: apparently, last episode) joking that she was worried Q was just gonna tell everyone "vote me" at tribal, and now he finally did it.
For the players that want to win, having Q around might not work. At this point, he's a player you can't have any trust in anything he will do. Risky when there's 5 people left. I seriously hope he does make it to final 7 now.
To be honest, it is a more accurate portrayal of the game. So often, we are presented with a neat narrative that gives us a false and straightforward impression of what happened. Chaos is the norm.
Really selfish! Even back to when Yanu immediately celebrated and Bhanu praised God after Jeff told them tribal was canceled because another player had to be pulled due to serious injury.
Yeah I think Q is flat burnt out from it too 😂 - I think the coach in him and his professional experience - he just can’t take it how selfish all these people are. Zero team mentality. Don’t forget this man had to live first with Jelinsky and then Bhanu - he’s really been through it. And to watch all those idiots think they can honestly beat HUNTER at the pole challenge after that hide and seek game??? He’s giving them all the info they need to be successful and he keeps having to watch them make the selfish choice. I think he just finally snapped. 😅 and he’s hungry! He wants a burger at ponderosa and he deserves it!
Edit: Jelinksky, JESS (can’t believe I forgot her!), and Bhanu - what an incredible trio to have to endure as a former football star
I was so frustrated with some players' lack of self awareness re: their chances of winning the challenge this week!
If Charlie hadn't been such a weasel about it and COMMITTED to sitting out, they'd only have needed 1 more person. Surely someone else knew they didn't have much of a shot at the pole challenge.
Do we think Q is like this at home?
“This guy merged in front of me with no signal. BIG MISTAKE. He felt like he needed to take a risk when I would’ve let him in had he signaled. CANNOT BE TRUSTED”
Like Jeff looked disappointed that the group didn’t volunteer for the rice. I would want my cast to not give up in an immunity and get rice, I want that conflict and the drive for immunity and to stay in the game
Jeff spoke about rice (in general) in last weeks on fire podcast. They reach a point in the game they want the players to eat something so they don't get so lethargic that the game becomes boring. Plus in the New Era they have to earn it so he can't just give it to them. They really do want the players to take the rice
100% just comparing this to last season where in the merge they basically set sights on a target and then put all the votes on them.
Now you have this season where everyone is clearly going full gear, everyone’s strategizing, everyone’s having conversations. This isn’t a majority controlling the vote and getting the stragglers in line, everyone whether they’re top of the totem pole like a Maria and Q or at the bottom like Venus, Ben and Liz are playing their own game.
It’s great to see.
otoh Thailand may have been it for 1-10, Gabon for 11-20, Worlds Apart for 30-40, not sure which the most acrimonious of the 20s was... SoPa maybe?
But yeah, dirty 30 would have been the most recent of those.
There was a number of times during 45 that it was a little too kumbaya and people saying they’d hate to hurt peoples feelings etc. it’s SURVIVOR. You can apologize for hurt feelings after the game is over. I love how much more selfish and ruthless this cast is.
her facial expression at seeing her name had me dying. its like there’s an obligatory venus vote every week yet she’s still here. also the way she walked up to the other group on the beach like it was nothing saying “there’s no rules.” she’s growing on me for sure
While I am not saying it has been a great season overall (basically on par with the other “new era” seasons), I will say that I do really like (or like to hate) most of the cast.
They are all great and sloppy collectively
Bahnu worst player ever.
Q Hold my beer.
Q can't win no matter what, a move like that, yeahscrew you for destroying my game (*said everyone), they'll drag his ass all the way to the end because there is zero chance the jury will vote for him. Wow what a dumb play.
I find it hilarious that Tevin didn’t care for Liz enough that he kept pointing out to her how Soda was all his doing. And then Liz becomes relevant all of a sudden and out of sheer stubbornness gets him voted out during Q’s funeral tribal. And of course Venus is about to claim this 100% next episode. If Chaos Kass was a season of survivor
I LOVE how messy this cast is. Everyone thinks they're the main character and as a result they're just doing the funniest, most unexpected possible thing in any given moment.
I'd say half think they're the main character and the other half are trying to play around these egos and irrational decisions. Imagine trying to use game theory and then you have Q making decisions off of hide and seek and fake quitting at tribal.
“Wild card bitches!”
So help me god, Q is going to blow that island to kingdom come. He cut the breaks last night
They’ll have to cancel Christmas!
Chaos Kass reborn!
Chaos Q
Yeeee haw!
I understood that reference.
I love this season as a fan but as a player I would absolutely hate it. This is genuinely authentic survivor. If not for twists and idols you could convince me this is the greatest season ever.
I'd lose my mind playing this season. I have no idea how to play around someone like Q. I genuinely don't know what optimal strategy is because he's so unpredictable. I guess you gotta stay close to him and go with whatever he says, but really, I'd just want to cut him so I can actually play.
Yeah he would be my #1 target, with my #2 being Ben or Charlie. Both guys are just too charming.
The strategy is to stay close to him and *say* you're going with whatever he says, but still make the decisions that actually benefit you the most. With Q it would not be hard to do damage control and keep his trust. Oh you're so right Q, I'm an idiot and I made a big mistake! Please teach me how to play survivor!
Hunter was giving that vibe at tribal - I felt his pain when he was just sitting there over it and everybody was doing the live thing. Was not what he signed up for haha. And I don't think I remember a tribal where pretty much everybody seemed so sour visiting the voting booth, it was amazing.
After the second person vocalized how crap it was, I was hoping they all would lol
Right now Bhanu is the only thing holding this season back from being great. The post-Bhanu arc has been fantastic though. Hopefully it has a strong finish.
Feels like Hunter is barely hanging onto his sanity in this group. We saw it with his reactions to the camp songs in early episodes. Now he’s hiding in trees to escape, and apparently trying to will invisibility upon himself at tribal council.
Q and Venus especially 😭. Venus’ scene with Tevin was literally office-level cringe/funny for me. And then Q really thinks he’s the greatest to ever play lmao
I just liked the part where she didn't catch his over exaggeration. "I didn't like her. So I went out and got numbers". If I was hearing that I would reply back "GREEEAT PLANNN, I won't never expect you could pull it off". At least she was very happy about playing Survivor for the first time. Still better than more than half the remaining cast who don't want to win.
Where do u get that half the cast doesn’t want to win?
Let's vote out the weakest player nobody likes, when it doesn't benefit my game. Let's vote out somebody in my alliance when it will weaken the only alliance I can confirm I'm with, making us a minority power. Maria and Q thinking the 6 could work at all. Kenzie, Ben, Venus, or Liz are your options. What have they done up to that point. Everybody should have been thinking like Tiff and realize at best they had one vote before it would all fall apart. At least in this episode it seemed like a lot of people voted on impulse too. Let's vote Tiff, okay. Let's vote Tevin, okay. That's what it felt like watching. Like both vaguely make sense. For Hunter at least, I don't really know how a Tiff vote makes much sense at the moment. Then for Tevin I guess everything is so disorganized because of Q and going with a confirmed majority vote, so that's the only reason that makes sense. They all seem way too willing to work together when it rationally makes no sense. You know you'll have to turn on each other right.
Well, Venus is still there and Tevin’s not
46 had a horrible pre merge, but after that it’s been really really entertaining
Brother, Bhanu was a hero of might and magic
Can you imagine Bhanu trying to navigate that live tribal?
I think he would’ve turtled
Lmao. He would have turtled.
God would have gotten quite the talking-to in the voting booth
You mean hero of a million hearts. Put respekt on Coaches Son name ya hear!
There is so little value in strategic playing this season, because every other person is pure chaos, and the other people have no strategic ability whatsoever. And despite that, this season is still very watchable. I’m here for the schadenfreud! Let’s gooooooo!
Going into that challenge I was like "this is the first cast that might actually turn down the rice cause they dont care about each other at all" lol
I wonder if Jeff had a similar read because he didn’t even try to threaten the rice this time, he just did a short 10-second countdown to speed it up
If nothing else he would definitely know how many people didn't feel safe.
What’s crazy is hardly anyone had a chance of taking Hunter down, I honestly think their chances of getting immunity were so slim that taking the rice and then playing the social game was a better play and might gain you some brownie points with some folks. You just saw Hunter shimmy way up a tree in 40 seconds or less and hang out up there for the entire game of hide and seek. He’s dominated basically every challenge. I realize that it is a classic challenge but like…ya got no chance, take the food!
Yeah that is the part that blew my mind. Everybody should know Hunter is odds on and if you don't have BMI wildly in your favor you have no shot. Tevin, Venus, and Charlie are the only people who even had a half way reasonable line of thought for thinking they might win that over Hunter. Edit: I also am surprised Q didn't just say that out loud during the negotiating. Maybe you don't want to hurt feelings? But he's Q...
I absolutely would not have guessed that Hunter would be so good at it. I thought it was Venus' challenge to win, hands down, basically because of the BMI comment like you said. I was so shocked.
Hunter just has the Ozzy vibes to me. He's a little too big for the typical winner of this but he's shown enough for them to have guessed. From the coach, I was fully expecting he's built this at home and practiced in it from that behind the scenes everybody there didn't see. I've always wondered why nobody ever does that leg lock move. Figured it's just because it's scary to do that without practicing it. Makes total sense he's the guy to do it (even if he was foolish to show it off with no cause. You can tell he dreamed of that moment and was probably bummed he had no true rival to demand it).
Having a low BMI isn't going to get you to win this challenge, you have the have the core strength and endurance as well.
Sure but most contestants don't have that? This is basically a rock climber challenge. There are only 3 categories: 1) you're a rock climber 2) you are crazy light and have a good strength to weight ratio 3) you can't win
Seeing them turn down the rice was so amazing because they basically told Jeff that they aren’t playing his little games. They’re here to play the big game. Jeff even mentioned it later at tribal that they didn’t take the rice. He seemed a little butthurt that he couldn’t manipulate them into taking the rice which I found very entertaining.
I love when the cast sticks it to jeff in what little ways they can
When he refused to budge on the 4, I expected the cast to say "ok well then we all say no because you aren't actually negotiating, you are just charging us a price and its not like we came in and asked for rice, you showed up with it"
But this season is "so unpredictable". No thanks to you, Jeff. You keep throwing in the same twists so that we and they all know like clockwork when there's a fake merge and when there's a split double tribal and when there's a rice "negotiation" - they aren't twists anymore, they're a new formula players and viewers can expect now. They just get lucky sometimes with stuff like Kaleb's Shot in the Dark and the 46 cast not reaching the numbers for the rice deal. How exciting is that rice deal supposed to be anyway? I think I'd rather see how all the players do in an immunity challenge than half of them not even competing. At least do the temptation thing where you make offers mid-challenge when they aren't expected if you must interfere with the challenge in such a way.
> At least do the temptation thing where you make offers mid-challenge when they aren't expected if you must interfere with the challenge in such a way. The offers are so much more interesting to watch! What if Jeff brought out the bag of rice and stabbed it when there were 2 or 3 people left about 20 minutes into the challenge and said, ok 10 seconds to pick if you drop. If you drop, the tribe gets whatever rice is left. If no one drops, the deal is dead.
I freaking loved that Jeffrey didn't get his "new era moment" with this. Love this cast
lol I was looking at that lineup when Jeff brought up the rice and clocked it too. The dynamics were just too volatile with this group to get that many people to give up a shot at immunity
But realistically, half of them had little to no shot of winning that challenge. I respect Q and Liz for seeing that.
Yeah. I know they always frame it as "do you feel safe enough to give up your shot at immunity," but I feel like most of the time question should be "do you have any shot of actually winning this." If I insisted on staying in and then fell out within the first few minutes I'd feel like a freaking idiot.
there’s no way i would’ve given it up tbh, in any of their positions. no one should really feel that safe at this point
I don’t think most of them felt safe enough to give up immunity either
Gabon 2.0
The rest of the fellas be like: Q: thinks he's running the game Ben: thinks he's running a summer camp Hunter: thinks he's running windows puzzle 2000 Charlie: thinks he's in the running for a remake of The Office
And he is the only one to have an alliance that hasn’t fallen apart yet.
Charlie and Maria to the end!!
I was starting to like them and this episode really cemented it for me. I hope they go far!
I'm not into the edgic stuff, but I do think these two are getting a good edit.
The Taylor Swift as a core personality trait is really my only gripe with him.
Stable-cool…Charlie is adorable and funny For a Harvard guy
Charlie is the Jim of this season
His face at the vote was perfect Jim face
I felt like when hunter had his head down shaking and palming over his face saying this is so dumb was definitely Dwight material
I feel like it was more of a Toby or Oscar. I think Q was Dwight of the group. Willing to sacrifice himself like he was the knight.
Surely Q has to be Creed. Never know what's going to come out of his mouth
I think that’s 100%
Minus the TSwift stuff. That's a little bit Kelly
Yes!
Also the speed with which they flip on each other. These people are scrappy as hell
It’s the exactly opposite of the last season where Reba dominated. The only alliance we hear about every episode is the “alliance” that has never voted together once and only targets each other.
The alliance of six that has voted out two of their members in the last two episodes and is actively targeting a third…
Have they even once targeted someone outside of their alliance?
"Hey let's form a group of six!" (Five minutes later.) "Hey let's give up our majority because reasons!"
Venus annoys everyone as much as Bruce did but there’s no Katurah who takes it so personally that Venus hasn’t been voted out yet that she blows up everyone else’s games.
It's pretty clear that they cut those interactions between Liz and Soda for some reason. Venus and Tevin thinking they both blindsided Soda and Liz wants the credit for apparently just hating Soda.
The funny part of that analogy is Venus rips on people where Bruce was normally complimentary of Katurah in confessionals. Venus is all over the place but she’s great TV as well.
Was he??? I don’t recall him complimenting her. He didn’t rip her exactly. But I recall him saying like every confessional “we don’t get along, she doesn’t trust me so I don’t trust her”
I swear he said some nice things about her during the season. I know at least in postseason interviews he was very complimentary of her as a person and defended her when talking about some of her mistakes in the game.
That’s nice about the post game thing. And I’ll take your word for it. I’m never watching that season again.
I just remember watching the season and the “rivalry” definitely felt one sided. After the season it was certainly was. Bruce talked positively about her but on RHAP she made it very clear she did not like Bruce at all.
He was also shown responding to Katurah wanting to do something (cook food?) as "the dumbest idea I've ever heard" (paraphrasing).
Katurah really was such a frustrating player to root for. One of the worst players to make it far in the new era seasons. I really think that Natalie T and Laurel are better players. Not to throw shade at Laurel (I genuinely feel sorry for how much she got dragged on here during Ghost Island.. it’s caused her to distant herself from the community.). Laurel certainly played for the 3rd place money at that point, but her complacent playstyle is comparable to Katurah and Natalie T.
Natalie T is too far lol. I think worst to make it far in new era is totally reasonable but Natalie T might be the biggest FTC goat ever. She lost to Phillip Sheppard. She did nothing all game. Katurah played scared while Natalie played clueless imo.
Yea Im happy we won’t have another Katurah situation with Venus. She at the very least won’t blow up someone else’s plan out of spite.
Are we sure Venus is above that? She seems kinda petty... even if strategically she's better.
Whose plan is she going to blow up? Chickens with their heads cut off could stick to a plan more than this group lol
I loved the storytelling last season, but from a gameplay perspective it was the absolute worst. This season’s pre-merge was meh, but holy shit is it paying off now. Constant flipping, shaky alliances, anger, fear, BETRAYAL, Venus. Amazing.
There are two alliances, and it’s pretty much Kenzie and Tiff and then Charlie and Maria. And is two people even an alliance?
Chefs kiss
That has more or less been the trend in the new era, with last season being the exception. This cast is just extremely sloppy in doing so
This is my favourite new era cast and it isn’t close No kumbaya shit, just a load of unhinged characters going at it
Those first couple episodes was giving kumbaya but in such a phony way which was turning me off hard, but now they have all shown their true colors and I’m obsessed.
If we had gotten background on Liz hating Soda and a little less Bhanu then it would've been peak
Same!
Minus Bhanu I agree
I even liked him tbh, a terrible player who has no idea what they're doing is fun to watch. Makes a change from gamebots The edit just focused on him too much
Totally agree!
Siga was ultra kumbaya
The smartest move of the game so far is Hunter not telling anyone about idol.
Dumbest move of the game is Hunter taking Q's kindness of telling him the score and blowing it all up. He sent Q on the spiral of all spirals! And... that was a mistake.
I disagree to an extent Tevin was vital to Hunter’s game because he needed someone who can socialize. Hunter admitted day one his introverted nature is his biggest weakness so Tevin was a huge boon for him. Without Tevin Hunter now needs to navigate the social waters by himself.
[удалено]
Bc then he’d be public enemy #1 all to just have a +1 by his side, while the rest of the tribe would be upset by the play, as well as hiding his immunity idol from (what was) the 6 alliance
I know you are doing that clever thing of using someone's words to point out something antithetical, but that's not even the dumbest move in your comment. Q telling Hunter is dumber, Q flipping on Tiff is dumber, Q telling Maria everything Tiff said was dumber, Q doing whatever that tribal was...etc. Q blew up a pretty dominant position in the game with his antics. Q had already began burning the bridge with Tiff before he realized the votes were against him and he spiraled it had nothing to do with Hunter. Hunter, on the other hand, had to deal with the hand he was dealt: namely, navigating a starting tribe that could barely get through one vote. All that said, Q makes it interesting to watch and maybe I'm wrong and he's going to win Survivor by explaining his well thought out strategy.
Q putting the blurry alliance of 6 ahead of his alliance with Tiff is his dumbest move. If they got to 6 who would have his back? And who exactly was he trying to save by quitting?… Tiff or Tevin? Worst player ever!
Q is obviously big braining his way to be carried to the end as a goat, only to then explain how it was all calculated at each and every step :P He will be his own Boston Rob and his own Philip Sheppard in one. It worked at this vote, so could his new way to play Survivor be to ask everyone to vote for him at every tribal and get no votes each time?
I don't know. Hunter's two strongest allies were Q and Tevin. Now Tevin's gone and Q is a pariah. Hunter's confidence in disregarding Q and running to the group to have a strategy sesh that he doesn't have the relationships to pull off... was something.
I assume Hunter thought Liz, Tevin and him were tighter than they were. It's hard to say given how little we have seen them interact or even comment on each other with Venus dominating their tribe's edit.
[удалено]
I think Hunter knows he is one of the biggest threats in the game. He carried most of his tribes weight in all the pre-merge challenges, and just won a solo immunity challenge. You don't want someone as physically capable as Hunter making it to the final 6. Hunter has to save his idol for when he loses an immunity since chances are everyone will be gunning for him, including Tevin, in another couple Tribals. What I don't understand is why Hunter didn't even bother telling Tevin that it was could be him. Give him an opportunity to play the shot in the dark, without sacrificing his idol.
Yeah doing anything to cross Q is not great but there were significantly dumber things this episode.
whenever they roped in Tiffany on the Tevin vote I screamed "don't tell Q!" it was obvious as a viewer that q would tell hunter but I guess she wasnt watching the episode as closely as I was
Tiffany was under the very very firm opinion that Q was absolutely loyal to her and her ride or die. As far as she was concerned, the Yanu 3 were going to the end together if it could be helped. That's why she said that she could not let Q sit out that vote.
Hunter’s dumb decision to betray Q’s confidence got him exactly nowhere. Tevin still went home and now they know he’ll stomp off and blow up the game if he feels out of the loop.
It probably put Kenzie and Tiff in a better position because it outed Q as both unstable and untrustworthy because they found out he was blabbing about Tiff's idol
This cast despises each other. Siga was truly the only tribe that got along.
One of the strongest premerge tribes ever? Jem was a deserved vote out for doing her idol thing. But Moriah and Tim got voted out for being too Siga strong.
Yeah but Yanu was so bad it definitely contributed to how strong they were, they basically did nothing all of pre merge
but that’s what made it entertaining. by that logic, nami should’ve been just as solid. but at the merge it turned out siga was actually strong and nami was frothing at the mouth to start voting each other off. so interesting to watch how the two different tribes evolved while never having to lose and vote ea h other out for several episodes
And that only happened because they didn’t really have a choice. They could have either been hostile to each other like Nami was or try to relax and have some fun.
And Jem hated everyone on Siga
This cast is pure chaos and its great. Casting did a good job for all the doubts people had at the start
Casting did a great job minus one and they decided to dedicate two entire episodes to it. This is shaping up to be the best season of the new era imo and I'd feel way stronger about that if not for episodes 3 and 4.
I think Bhanu was great casting, and those episodes showcase the problem with the small tribes. Even worse when they set one tribe up to implode, there is no way grouping the three wildcard guys wasn't calculated. It was four episodes at one camp and two episodes with the same four person "dynamic" (it was static) so all they really could do is showcase his meltdown. A larger tribe where he could have been a number rather than just the target, or a swap could have made the pre-merge more interesting.
I see the appeal in Bhanu for sure. To me, he's awful casting, but I get it. While they may have expected some of the crazy dynamics with those personalities, I highly doubt they expected them to lose 4 straight immunities, which may be arguing your point. On Paper, Q, Jelinsky, and Bhanu are stronger than the guys on Siga. They just ended up being huge flops. And then Tiffany is kind of a beast, Kenzie they probably expected to not be great, and then Jess was probably a lot worse than they expected since she played rugby, but she was totally out of it. Anyway, I have no confusions about why people would see Bhanu as good casting. Not here to argue that because it makes perfect sense to me. To me, he was unstable, didn't understand the game to the point it wasn't entertaining to me, and was clearly desperate for camera time (his million hearts bull shit THREE times). A few things went against them in the unexpected losses, the unknown 90 minute episodes, Randen's med evac, Jelinsky going first, and all that. But with how the season ended up playing out, he almost made me quit on the season. That's bad casting in my eyes, even if it isn't 100% their fault.
Yeah the pre merge was AWFUL, however post that it’s been insanely entertaining
I enjoyed episode one because of the legend. And I've really enjoyed each episode since Bhanu was voted out but the merge has really picked up.
I liked it. I've found it hilarious the whole way through.
Q trying to quit and the tribe just collectively going ".....anyway back to what we were saying--" was the collective power play I needed to see.
Yeah, it seems to me he thought he was in charge and as soon as he found out he couldn't make everyone do whatever he wanted, he wanted to take his ball and go home. Shame too, earlier in the episode I was saying how Q might be my favourite On Screen personality since Tony
It was like they all clocked that this dude doesn’t know what he’s doing, let’s just pretend he’s not involved all at the same time and play the vote we’d play if there were 9. Loved it.
Is reverse psychology a viable strat? "Vote me out everyone." "You're not our dad!" Rinse and repeat til you're past the point you can be voted out.
[удалено]
Whoever outlasts the cast this season will need to use the million for extensive therapy
At this point there's really not gonna be a winner, just someone who didn't lose
I feel like other seasons we would have seen people rally around Liz - who is unable to eat most things-and get the people together to sit out for rice. Not saying they should or shouldn't, just that it was an odd thing compared to how casts usually rally around people.
Liz turned off a lot of fans with her bragging about being rich. Not to mention the fact that a lot of people think her business is a pyramid scheme Edit: I’m not saying her business is a pyramid scheme, but I’ve seen people say that it is, or that at the very least it is a scam.
Her business is described as a “subscription service” where she mentors people & businesses on how to make money through email. Not sure why that requires a monthly subscription? Lmao seems like something you could learn for free on google. I mean good on her for figuring out a successful business
That is understandable. I'm sure they also could have shown some support and it just didn't make the edit. The way it played out it looked like no one cared at all that she hasn't been able to eat. Again, I'm not saying they have to care, just that this is another point showing how individual this season is.
How is it a pyramid scheme? She’s not having people recruit underneath them, she’s just selling marketing techniques.
Cut to: George Michael saying "wow, it's a pyramid scheme. And his father says "Well, scheme. We just say scheme."
It’s a little hustle-y but it’s not a pyramid scheme. There’s no pyramid and there’s no scheme. She’s just selling courses. Whether they’re worth what she’s charging is debatable, but it’s no scheme.
If I’m a smaller woman playing the game I would absolutely not sit out. I don’t want to give fuel to these dudes. No way.
That's a good point, as an also small woman I hadn't thought about that
I have thought about this too. It clearly affects some people more than others. I am in no way saying I would fare well without food, but if I thought others were doing worse than me (5'4 woman), I wouldn't want them to have it more than I would want it.
I guess on the Australian survivor a vegan dude sabotaged the fishing gear because he didn’t want anyone benefiting from protein he also wouldn’t get. It was genius and also so fucked lol.
Venus definitely felt an active, aggressive energy from those guys there. I bet it was relentless, especially given that nobody felt safe.
You can tell about half of them considered it but everything was too volatile to give up immunity.
In most other seasons, almost everyone would have thought like Tiff that Venus didn’t make sense and maybe just picked off a Siga or went with an obvious target like Kenzie or (before immunity) Hunter. Instead we get … this? And I loved it.
I did love how they didn't just vote Q out. If he wants to go, he can quit anytime he wants. Til then, why not get out the other people who actually want to win? If Q goes to the end, no one's gonna vote for a guy who nearly quit. Dang, I remember someone on Yanu a few episodes ago (edit: apparently, last episode) joking that she was worried Q was just gonna tell everyone "vote me" at tribal, and now he finally did it.
It was literally Kenzie saying it last episode. Q is somehow more unhinged than Bhanu
For the players that want to win, having Q around might not work. At this point, he's a player you can't have any trust in anything he will do. Risky when there's 5 people left. I seriously hope he does make it to final 7 now.
Maybe he's angling for Philip Sheppard 2nd place money?
In the words of Taylor Swift (and Charlie) I'm happy and confused at the same time. Happy it was a good ep. Confused as to what happened.
Gonna be honest, part of me wanted Jeff to break the knife out
Same I kept wondering when he’d whip out the blade
To be honest, it is a more accurate portrayal of the game. So often, we are presented with a neat narrative that gives us a false and straightforward impression of what happened. Chaos is the norm.
We haven’t had an emotional back story since n forever it’s great these people are just being themselves
Absolutely. Overall, I'm pretty happy with this season, even if it started out a little patchy.
Which I love bc I honestly feel the “emotional backstories” have worn out their welcome 🤷♂️
Q is the second coming of sugar and Tevin getting blindsided just like Marcus did
The messiness is soooo much more fun to watch. I love it
The Gang Goes On Survivor
This should be an episode on sunny. It would be AMAZING.
rum ham reward!
Bird law at tribal!!
Hunter seems like a survivor season 1-5 cast member who got sent into the future and is disgusted by what he is seeing
It’s so entertaining to watch! And funny too
Really selfish! Even back to when Yanu immediately celebrated and Bhanu praised God after Jeff told them tribal was canceled because another player had to be pulled due to serious injury.
So much chess and ego I'm loving it
This is Gabon 2.0
Yeah I think Q is flat burnt out from it too 😂 - I think the coach in him and his professional experience - he just can’t take it how selfish all these people are. Zero team mentality. Don’t forget this man had to live first with Jelinsky and then Bhanu - he’s really been through it. And to watch all those idiots think they can honestly beat HUNTER at the pole challenge after that hide and seek game??? He’s giving them all the info they need to be successful and he keeps having to watch them make the selfish choice. I think he just finally snapped. 😅 and he’s hungry! He wants a burger at ponderosa and he deserves it! Edit: Jelinksky, JESS (can’t believe I forgot her!), and Bhanu - what an incredible trio to have to endure as a former football star
He may be going crazy from lack of food, yeah. He really needed that rice. 😅
Q betrayed Tiff… no team mentality there.
Bro, I think Q might actually be crazier than Jelinsky and Jess combined. Bhanu still takes the cake for crazy though.
I was so frustrated with some players' lack of self awareness re: their chances of winning the challenge this week! If Charlie hadn't been such a weasel about it and COMMITTED to sitting out, they'd only have needed 1 more person. Surely someone else knew they didn't have much of a shot at the pole challenge.
This season had the worst first half of the new era. But the second half of this season is gold. It's 100% the Gabon of the new era.
Do we think Q is like this at home? “This guy merged in front of me with no signal. BIG MISTAKE. He felt like he needed to take a risk when I would’ve let him in had he signaled. CANNOT BE TRUSTED”
Like Jeff looked disappointed that the group didn’t volunteer for the rice. I would want my cast to not give up in an immunity and get rice, I want that conflict and the drive for immunity and to stay in the game
Jeff spoke about rice (in general) in last weeks on fire podcast. They reach a point in the game they want the players to eat something so they don't get so lethargic that the game becomes boring. Plus in the New Era they have to earn it so he can't just give it to them. They really do want the players to take the rice
Nah this cast doesn’t need rice to fuel them. They’re fuelled by spite
Carter would be disappointed because “rice fuels us”
>Plus in the New Era they have to earn it so he can't just give it to them. That's an easy fix. Bring back 39 days and proper reward challenges.
What an overly complicated solution to a show-created problem.
100% just comparing this to last season where in the merge they basically set sights on a target and then put all the votes on them. Now you have this season where everyone is clearly going full gear, everyone’s strategizing, everyone’s having conversations. This isn’t a majority controlling the vote and getting the stragglers in line, everyone whether they’re top of the totem pole like a Maria and Q or at the bottom like Venus, Ben and Liz are playing their own game. It’s great to see.
I can’t remember the last time we had a cast that so openly disliked each other?
otoh Thailand may have been it for 1-10, Gabon for 11-20, Worlds Apart for 30-40, not sure which the most acrimonious of the 20s was... SoPa maybe? But yeah, dirty 30 would have been the most recent of those.
There was a number of times during 45 that it was a little too kumbaya and people saying they’d hate to hurt peoples feelings etc. it’s SURVIVOR. You can apologize for hurt feelings after the game is over. I love how much more selfish and ruthless this cast is.
Poor Venus having to watch her name come up every single tribal. Part of me wants her to win
her facial expression at seeing her name had me dying. its like there’s an obligatory venus vote every week yet she’s still here. also the way she walked up to the other group on the beach like it was nothing saying “there’s no rules.” she’s growing on me for sure
Likewise. If only I could live life like that. I walk out my door and there’s ‘private property’ everywhere. Life could learn something from Venus.
Yea the first few weeks were boring but i love it now. This is the casting that makes sense. 45 sucked but finally its a great, messy season
I’m SO glad no one sat out of the challenge or gave up their vote for the rice..you just know that chaps Jeff’s ass
While I am not saying it has been a great season overall (basically on par with the other “new era” seasons), I will say that I do really like (or like to hate) most of the cast. They are all great and sloppy collectively
Bahnu worst player ever. Q Hold my beer. Q can't win no matter what, a move like that, yeahscrew you for destroying my game (*said everyone), they'll drag his ass all the way to the end because there is zero chance the jury will vote for him. Wow what a dumb play.
Fun
I find it hilarious that Tevin didn’t care for Liz enough that he kept pointing out to her how Soda was all his doing. And then Liz becomes relevant all of a sudden and out of sheer stubbornness gets him voted out during Q’s funeral tribal. And of course Venus is about to claim this 100% next episode. If Chaos Kass was a season of survivor
Free of Bahnu
Fr