[TomC]

Christy is annoying, but the Jaburu girls are so ignorant and half-arsed towards her.

[Braden]

Christy NEEDS to return for a future season, however unlikely that chance is.

[Headie]

Originally Posted by TomC

JoAnna is so rude to Christy

Legend Jo

[Ashley.]

How I look at the ballots when I'm trying to guess who the contestant voted for based on the movement of the pen:

[Macie Lightfoot]

I feel like this gets underdiscussed re: Joanna

RNO: What is your side of the situation which caused you to go off on Christy the way you did, to the point of sticking your hand in her face when you knew that the only way she could understand you was to read your lips?

JoAnna: As far a Christy goes, she was a thorn in my flesh. Christy was very vocal about her disagreement of my not wanting to touch the idol. She also held me personally responsible for the girls isolating her from the tribe... If you were listening to what I was saying, in addition to what I was doing, you would have understood from the episode – but then of course this would mean you actually wanted to understand??? –anyhow, there were several occasions that I was talking to Jeanne and Christy came and stuck her entire face between us and right in my face. My solution to this problem was to invite her face out of mine with my hand. The clip you see, the issue is being laid on the table because Christy is still talking about the idol, my stupidity (as if) and me putting my hand in her face. Outdone, I finally approached her and I reminded her that we agreed that she was going to let it go. It amazes me that you never see Christy harassing me????? But I guess it wouldn't have mattered because it would have been OK because she fell into a minority with her hearing – well I fell into several minorities – Christian, Strong, only single-parent, the sudden death of my mother DOROTHY VASSELL, but there was no pity for me – oh I forgot – I don't need pity. By the way did you notice above all else that Christy did not vote against me after I allegedly "went off on her." Makes you wonder??? Nobody voted against me at all that episode??? Then, when the did vote me off, I wasn't because of my faith, going off on people, mean, or rude??? Hmmm... I was just too strong… SPIRITUALLY, MENTALLY, and PHYSICALLY. Or maybe they just lied on national TV and said that I was just plain better – it amazes me how others try to formulate so many other reasons – I am a Mighty Woman of God. Come correct or don't come at all. It is hard to argue with absolute truth supported by evidence. Try something else – next. [RNO Note: While we obviously weren’t there, it does seem that perhaps Christy might have needed to “stick her face” in as reading lips is the only way she can understand what others are saying.]

RNO: We have seen Heidi and the other younger women talking to the cameras about being cute and all that – did they say something out in the open that caused you to lecture the younger women on beauty being only skin deep?

JoAnna: No, I had no idea they imagined somewhere in their finite minds that they could hold a candle to me in a pitch black dark room. I had no idea we were competing against each other in a beauty contest – if so then let the games begin.

[TomC]

ugh I really don't like jenna

[TomC]

Christy is more annoying than I remembered, but her and Butch are so sweet It's nice to see after Jenna was such a bitch to her.

Deena is hilaaarious. Her scalping Jeanne (Although I actually really like Jeanne). I love the interaction between these corporate women in the Amazon.

[TomC]

Deena's confessionals are amazing

[TomC]

Episode 7 of Amazon is GLORIOUS.

It's rare that you know for most of the episode who's going home, and far rarer that it is a good episode, but watching Roger's complicity, and then the girls cackling at how stupid Roger, Dave etc are is just amazing

Half-way rankings:
Deena
Heidi
Matthew
Rob
Christy
Butch
Alex
Jenna
Dave

Jeanne
Joanna
Shawna
Daniel
Janet
Ryan
Roger

[Macie Lightfoot]

Finally watched episode 6 of Nicaragua and it was one of the best ones yet? Or maybe it's just bc I haven't watched in a few weeks, idk! It was the double boot and it was good at getting some forward plot movement.

Espada was all about ~Yve's Last Stand~ and I hate to sound basic but I think I mildly stan her? She's painfully UTR but had some funny quotes about how WINNER'S CARRY GOLD in the premiere along with I *NEVER* ASK A WOMAN HER AGE and her boot episode was her #breakout where she campaigned to everyone by being all "I was *not* aligned with Tyrone! But I am super close with Marty and Jane and Jill so you should keep me until the merge so I can put in a good word for you " and then using the entire TC as an opportunity to get on a soapbox and bash Dan for being lazy and a complainer and a liability Needless to say she was not even remotely successful and went home unanimously The secret scene for this episode also consisted of her doing yoga on the beach while NaOnka just sat off in a distance and laughed at how she looked like a dumbass

La Flor was a lot more dynamic bc you had the whole Brenda/Marty rivalry heating up and I don't really care for either of them! I've already documented my Marty dislike and this episode just consisted of him pretending to be A GRANDMASTER AT CHESS and then patting himself on the back for pulling the wool over ****ing Fabio's eyes of all people. Brenda though..... I've said it before but she's just kinda lifeless and inert? Like she's kinda like Noirin in BBUK10 where she takes on a bigger role than she's actually capable of taking and she just doesn't have enough charisma to pull it off. I know people fan over her being a ~femme fatale~ but it was toootally just people looking for the next Parvati since this was right after HvV. Just about every Brenda confessional is some variation of "I'm in such a good spot, people just want to align with me and I'm not even doing anything" but she says it in the most monotone voice that I don't care!

There was a bit of a Brenda/Marty smackdown at TC and that's the one thing that I will give Brenda credit for so far bc she's not holding back (oh at all!) when it comes to speaking the truth about Marty being a shady used car salesman, but then she took it a step further about Marty throwing Jane's name out there and the edit didn't really show any of that so I don't know if it was true or if it was just Brenda trying to run him over even more, which if that's the case it's kinda stupid bc his fate is already sealed? IDK, the jury's still out.

[Macie Lightfoot]

Oh, and as boring as she is I *do* need to show a little bit of love for Kelly B, someone who I don't really care about but feel incredibly bad for. She's definitely the most well-adjusted person in the entire cast of Nicaragua and that's part of the reason that she made boring TV, but my god she was sooooooo out of her element here. I don't know how well she would do in Survivor under any normal circumstances because she didn't even show much potential As A Gamer, but man she was screwed from the start when she was put on a tribe full of egomaniacs, narcissists, and rude assholes who were extremely self-centered. Can you even imagine having to somehow share a beach with Brenda, NaOnka, Sash, Chase, Jud, Alina, and Shannon??? The tribe swap didn't even do her any good bc the only two people who pretended to tolerate her were Benry and Alina and they were on the other tribe. I always felt bad for Kelly B just because she has a prosthetic leg and NaOnka really did great her remarkably terribly, but then I really felt bad watching this episode's secret scene where Kelly B nearly gets her finger taken off by a crab and she's screaming at the top of her lungs and the only people who even try to help her are Jill and Marty Sash and Jud eventually make their way over but Brenda and Kelly S don't even get out of the shelter to check on her

[Headie]

Ddd whenever I think of Kelly B I just think of this moment:

Youtube video

[Macie Lightfoot]

Episode 7 finishes off the pre-merge and it was okay! It's a memorable episode bc the Reward Challenge is one of my faves with Jud peeing in the pool (), Dan not even being able to jump off of a platform (), and Kelly's infamous milk your own milk confessional () so that was good and fun.

The rest of the episode.... it was fine! Espada was just randomly about NaOnka thinking Alina's sneaky and grimy (I mean she kinda is but NaOnka is also kind of an awful cow) and then La Flor was just about whether Mr. Farty or Jill was going hobe. I think I'm realizing that my issue with Nicaragua is that as messy and crazy as the cast is, there's nobody who I really like that much? I do enjoy a few of the side characters like Dan and Holly, who isn't a side character but isn't exactly a major character in the pre-merge either. The entire pre-merge centers around like... Marty, Brenda, and NaOnka and I think I already documented my issues with all of them. Nu La Flor in particular is a bit of a tough tribe for me to even pretend to care about because the episode pretty much entirely focused on Brenda, Sash, Jill, and Marty and they all kind of suck. Marty's one of those awful David Murphy/Jim Rice gamebots who takes himself way too seriously and the show also takes him seriously for some reason, Jill is decently perceptive but doesn't seem to give a **** about ever improving her own position in the game, Brenda has an unfounded level of arrogance for no particular reason and is kinda boring about it, and Sash is equally arrogant (if you gave me a transcript of Sash's "I don't even have to look for idols, people just give them to me ;D" confessional I genuinely would not be able to tell if Sash or Brenda had said it) but entirely insincere and I doubt he's capable of expressing any human emotion. I'm pretty sure my favorite on Nu La Flor is Purple Kelly so just let that sink in.

[Macie Lightfoot]

The merge episode of Nicaragua was definitely Good! One good thing that Nicaragua has going for it is that it tends to do a pretty good job at tying up loose storylines in a person's boot episode, and this time around it was all about Alina, someone whose presence is mystifyingly irritating but it makes me like her? The show never really does a good job at showing or explaining why everyone is annoyed by her, but pretty much everyone can't stand her and it's kinda believable that she's transparent and smarmy and That Girl. She's not nearly as transparent as Sash is, but for some inexplicable reason he has much more currency in the game than she ever did. Case and point being the moment when NaOnka throws a temper tantrum and hides a bunch of food and cooking utensils, Alina accidentally stumbles upon it and eats an orange upon NaOnka's suggestion to calm her nerves, and then the entire tribe uses it as an opportunity to make Alina the scapegoat and have a tangible reason to get rid of her And then she aimlessly pleaded her case to everybody to the point where Fabio of all people gave his best attempt at a "let death take you speech," which the secret scene shows that it was basically him saying that she's screwed because nobody likes her and everyone can see right through her when she smiles at them It's a more intense dogpile than the entire La Flor tribe ganging up on Kelly B, but it's also more enjoyable because there's a lot less ableism and a lot more humor. Alina's entire final words were her complaining about how everyone made a bunch of STUPID MOVES by sending her home and Chase is retarded for screwing her game up as early as the Shannon vote because he apparently should've voted for Brenda. Sure, Jan...

But even with all of that being said, my favorite part of the episode was any Jane moment because oh my god I forgot just how much she ****ing hates Marty's guts. She spends the entire episode talking **** about him, lasting as long as she can in the Immunity Challenge just to beat him, holding a women's huddle and telling them all that her only goal was to beat Marty, and then trying to strong-arm the entire tribe into voting out Marty just because he crossed her I remember being so love-hate with Jane when I watched live but I think I'm going to enjoy her a lot more because she's such a moralizing shrew to a comical degree. Like, her entire moral compass really comes down to "being nice to Jane = good person" and "being mean to Jane = bad person" and she takes it to absurd levels.

Shoutout to my favorite exchange of the episode:

Sash, awkwardly leaning into NaOnka's ear: You're my number one girl here...
NaOnka: Oh... ditto.

[Macie Lightfoot]

Episode 9 was fine if only because it got rid of Mr. Farty final-****ing-ly. I'm currently listening to his Ponderosa while listening to his posture about how his plan to flush out NaOnka's HII and blindside Jane was *PERFECT* and if he was able to pull it off then he for sure would've been in the final three Jane was hilarious this episode with her constant screeds that were literally about good triumphing evil and how Marty is a disgrace to all fathers out there and she would *never* let her kids go on a play date with his kids NaOnka was also a star in the best way at TC by telling Marty that his hair and his walk SUCK and she hates him and telling both him and Fabio to **** themselves this is the NaOnka I can get behind.

The star of the episode though was CHASE, someone who I always thought was a bit overrated but he's been decently compelling so far? Always managing to stumble into the swing power position and pissing off everyone in the process, he's so earnest but he can never win this time it was because he had to place a bet on the boys or girls to win the highly physical Reward Challenge and he chose the girls just so he could stay in the good graces of Jane, Holly, and Brenda. Not only did the girls lose, but the guys and the girls spent the entire episode talking about how he's a people-pleasing moron whose strategy sucks this all climaxed with him constantly bothering Brenda by saying "YOU SEEM REALLY UNSURE ABOUT EVERYTHING " after NaOnka coached him to not bother her at least he had great intentions?

[TomC]

loving the commentary on Nicaragua macie!

[TomC]

Okay so Amazon is probably the most game-changing season of Survivor? And a lot of the credit for that has to go to Rob, and also Deena to an extent. Rob flipping on Alex so... flippantly... was totally unheard of up to this point. The post-merge has been so fluid, and it truly was an evolution of the game. Does anyone know if Rob was popular as Amazon was airing? Bc I'm sure he would have been completely villainised in the first few seasons.

I must say, the misogyny is TERRIBLE. In the truths challenge, Jeff asks Jenna about her using her sexuality to get her way with men, which she outright denies, and then he said 'and you say that with an adorable smile... see, it works!', and he continues to mention it throughout the challenge despite the denial. It made me feel so dirty.

[Macie Lightfoot]

Brenda's boot episode was pretty awesome, I must say. It had a similar literary build up to Rupert's boot in Pearl Islands, albeit on a much smaller scale, and it actually affected the tribal dynamics greatly unlike the Marty boot, which was very straightforward even in spite of the show placing Marty on some absurdly high pedestal. Holly got the ball rolling and then NaOnka just spread it like wildfire and then it got to the point where the entire tribe was on board except for Purple Kelly The episode in isolation is a great one, but there still are some gripes I have with how the editing of previous episodes affected where we're at right now. First of all, a lot of Brenda's "black widow" power was told to us rather than shown, which makes me wonder how legitimate it was? I know Brenda talked a little bit earlier on about how people just want to align with her even when she doesn't do anything to approach the matter, so I'm going to assume that her rise to power was really just by circumstance but the edit didn't make it fully clear. The random Chase/Benry UTR distrust is another minor B-plot of the episode that was spontaneously presented to us without any background. I know that back when they swapped tribes there was one confessional when Chase was debating between getting rid of Dan or Yve where he mentioned that he's a little worried that Benry could link up with Dan to get rid of him, and at the time it seemed like a random concern since he and Benry never had any televised interactions at all. I guess we got a continuation of that "storyline" because Chase was laser-focused on getting Benry out for reasons that I don't really understand. It ultimately didn't take anything away from the episode, but I wish we had more insight into Chase's motivations. There's a lot of talk all season about how Chase just wants to get in Brenda's pants and will do whatever she says, but I don't think that's entirely true since their relationship peaked in like... episode 2. We did hear Chase talk about how their relationship really disintegrated through the tribe swap, but we never get any insight as to what Chase's end goal in the game is other than the fact that he's playing with his heart rather than his head.

Brenda wasn't even in the episode that much herself, but her exit was just so perfect by her standards. I just find it so fitting that someone who stumbled into a power position possibly on accident ended up going out in such a lackluster way. One of her closest allies leads the charge to blindside her, she catches wind and gets very bitter about it, but then she ultimately does nothing to help herself. I could at least understand her point during her confessional about how people are much more willing to work with you if you remain calm rather than freak out, especially since that's the exact behavior that has been taking Chase's game, but then she lost me when Jeff goaded her into her speech at TC about how scrambling's not her style and she's above it because if you're scrambling then you're already screwed. Holly's voting confessional was perfect as usual: "You just thought things were gonna come too easy to you. You should've scrambled." It was just a really lame exit that proves that Brenda's not that good of a player because it was her first moment of adversity all game and she just crumbled (I don't count the first La Flor vote because even though Brenda was a target, she didn't really have to work that hard because she already had four or five of the ten votes and Shannon's outburst at TC swung more votes in her favor.)

Last paragraph I promise, but I just need to talk about my favorite Jane moment of the episode, which is where she declares that she doesn't associate herself with villains in real life or in this game and Brenda's become a villain so she has to go. Jane's voting confessional isn't aired in the episode but it's in the DVD special features and it's Jane going on a diatribe about how Brenda is trying to bust up original alliances between her and her Carolina homeboy Chase and that ain't going to work. This is hilarious when you remember hat Jane and Chase met for the first time on Day 19 while Brenda and Chase were on the same original tribe on Day 1

[Macie Lightfoot]

I actually have very little to say about the double quit episode! It was a very unique episode and it kept me engaged, but it was largely straightforward. There wasn't much strategy talk, nobody was CP on my edgic chart, and aside from a little bit of alliance talk in the first ~10 minutes, the episode was entirely about what the show is about in its essence: survival. We learned that NaOnka is anemic and her bones hurt, we hear more about how her and Purple Kelly can't stand the rain ('gainst my window), and they ultimately quit.

I guess the most interesting aspect is how the quits are portrayed differently. I wouldn't say that we were exactly supposed to sympathize with Kelly, but the editors definitely gave us the opportunity to hear where she's coming from and at least understand her rationale. NaOnka, on the other hand, received a beautiful hatchet job of an edit. I had forgotten all about the debacle where she announces her quit after winning the Reward Challenge, Probst offering tarp and rice if someone forgoes the Reward, and then Holly volunteering and shooting NaOnka the most menacing and guilt-inducing mother stare imaginable. We even had Benry whispering to NaOnka about how she should be the one to give up Reward since she is going to leave the game by sundown, but in typical NaOnka fashion she gloats in the confessional about how she ain't no fool and she wasn't gonna give up the Reward she worked so hard for because she wants to go out in a bang.

I might actually have more thoughts when I watch Ponderosa because the Jury's reactions were something else. Shoutout to Alina, who was literally driven to tears by the double quit

[Macie Lightfoot]

"Ever have one of those days where everything goes wrong? Welcome to Sash's world!"

*Sash was UTR1 last episode*

[reece(:]

I couldn’t think of a better New Years then seeing Na’Onka Mixon furiously quit Survivor whew!

[TomC]

christy's final words were a scream

[TomC]

Matthew von Ertfelda is a sexy serial killer

[TomC]

jc i love heidi stroebel. "i've been the mastermind behind half the plots in this game"... "these three guys are terrified of sitting next to me at the end and that really says something"

Despite my adoration for Heidi Stroebel... I really wanted to LOVE Amazon, but it just hasn't happened (again). Like, every episode is fairly eventful in Season 6, and i LOVE Heidi, and I like Matthew and Rob, but all-round I just find the cast of Amazon fairly unlikeable all-round, and that's pretty important for my enjoyment of a season

[TomC]

ugh matt was so sexy at the reunion I must say I was v impressed with jenna's ftc performance. no wonder she thrashed matt in the vote... i always foudn it hard to reason w how jenna beat matt so comprehensively bc jenna isn't exactly overwhelmingly likeable - but then i gather neither was matt to the jury, and between that and the ftc performances, the result makes sense.

Anyhoo, here's my feelings on amazon...i like it, but I feel as though I don't like it as much as I should?

I adore Heidi, and I really like Matthew. But I'm really not a fan of Jenna and so knowing she wins is rough. I like Rob too but his personality can be somewhat grating.

Obviously the misogyny (and in one part, homophobia) are really not fun to watch, and the only strong feminist character is Deena, but she never really succeeds at owning the game in the end.

I just feel, despite there being plenty happening in Amazon, and the season being a major strategic evolution, there is an overwhelming lack of warmth coming from the cast... which makes it hard to find someone to root for, and therefore somewhat more difficult to enjoy.

I'm pretty content w my ranking of Amazon among the first 35 seasons.. i think i put it 19th? Overall it's certainly v entertaining and lots of iconic moments but the cast just don't resonate w me for me to love the season.

Heidi
Deena
Matt
Jeanne
Rob
Christy
Jenna
JoAnna
Alex
Daniel
Butch
Shawna
Janet
Ryan
Dave
Roger