Survivor 50 "In the Hands of the Fans" Discussion Thread

[Wendy Pleakley]

Okay, 54 of the first 55 minutes of this episode were skippable...

Ditto to really everything you said.

The episode annoyed me at the start because it's the same old disaster tribe scenario playing out.

I assume they still have fire since they had 8 fish, so it wasn't the heavy hand of production necessarily, but it still grows tiresome.

They spent a lot of time on the reward which I didn't love, but it was an old school "event" type reward like watching a movie, which I did appreciate.

The rest of the episode made up for it.

Existing and new relationships came into play.

People had to deal with recognizing the danger and skill sets of people one considers friends, and so the decision making was as interesting as it has ever been.

Giving Rizzo the idol feels similar to people helping Russell in HvV. Not knowing who the new guy really is and underestimating what he can do. It will be interesting to see if Rizzo can make the use of the idol bluff technique he did so effectively last season, when up against seasoned veterans.

 

[dmw]

I hope they never do a celebrity focus again! Ugh...

Yep, the three tribe approach and one being weak stinks. As I stated in other discussions, I prefer only two tribes to start, then one merge.

Flint/Fire - it's silly to lose flint when obviously it does not matter to a team that knows how to start fire without it.

Christian standing behind Ozzy making faces as Emily spilled the beans was priceless!

I really appreciated Mike's exit. He was gracious and you could tell he understood this was a game, and he was outplayed.

 

[artvandelay]

I hope they never do a celebrity focus again! Ugh...

Yep, the three tribe approach and one being weak stinks. As I stated in other discussions, I prefer only two tribes to start, then one merge.

Flint/Fire - it's silly to lose flint when obviously it does not matter to a team that knows how to start fire without it.

Christian standing behind Ozzy making faces as Emily spilled the beans was priceless!

I really appreciated Mike's exit. He was gracious and you could tell he understood this was a game, and he was outplayed.

Unfortunately, we have a visit from Mr Beast some time soon

 

[CynBeth]

I always watch on streaming sometime later that week it goes so much faster. Glad it was Mike instead of Emily.

 

[dmw]

I'll say it again... losing flint just needs to go away. So many shots of fire in the tribe without flint - it's a non-issue.

Double elimination night - the Charlie/Rizo vote was the only one that was hard to predict.

Overall, this episode was not great. Too much talking - it needed a reward challenge, idol hunting or something different. This could have been a 60 minute episode.

Maybe the merge next week will add a bit more excitement...

 

[rd805]

I could be in the minority here, but i was sort of wishing they would have went to TWO larger tribes for a few votes rather than a massive too big of a merge.

I feel asleep in the most recent episode. Editing is very uneven, and the tribes that continue to vote out muscle early in the game, acting like they won't have a chance to get them come mid game proves to be a horrible strategy (looking at you disaster tribes!).

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

I could be in the minority here, but i was sort of wishing they would have went to TWO larger tribes for a few votes rather than a massive too big of a merge.

I feel asleep in the most recent episode. Editing is very uneven, and the tribes that continue to vote out muscle early in the game, acting like they won't have a chance to get them come mid game proves to be a horrible strategy (looking at you disaster tribes!).

I agree, but if history is any indication it will actually be a "mergatory" vote where the tribe is split in two for voting in some way.

We'll see what happens but I'm skeptical we'll see a true merge with the full group voting.

It's wild to have a merge of 17 people.

 

[dmw]

I could be in the minority here, but i was sort of wishing they would have went to TWO larger tribes for a few votes rather than a massive too big of a merge.

I feel asleep in the most recent episode. Editing is very uneven, and the tribes that continue to vote out muscle early in the game, acting like they won't have a chance to get them come mid game proves to be a horrible strategy (looking at you disaster tribes!).

the three tribe start just creates problems. They should have gone back to starting the season with two tribes. But, someone thought that three tribes, and then mixing them up if one got too many people booted was more "entertaining".

 

[CynBeth]

Wish Rizo had gone over Charlie.

 

[PUSH]

I didn't watch live last week because I was in Disneyland, but I'm back this week... unfortunately.

This twist was terrible. It came down to dumb luck. Genevieve and Colby both seemed to be in a great position through the first part of the game, but they drew the short end of the stick. Genevieve was spot on when she said it came down to the color of rock she drew. She was playing so well. It hurts even more, because Genevieve is probably my favorite player of the new era, and maybe one of my favorites of all-time. If she had made it through this random draw, she could have gone very far. It's also tough because she found two idols that could have saved her, but because they brought in celebrities, it changed how idols work, and she had to give them away. She did literally everything she could and it still came to a SitD play. I really hope she gets another chance at some point. She deserves it, and she's got to be up there for players who have been screwed by production.

Colby's words were so touching. You can tell he's fully come around. In his second and third times, he realized he had the wrong attitude and wasn't appreciative, but he very much was this time around.

This season started off so strong, but the past few episodes have all dipped down in quality. The Zac Brown content, then Angelina/Charlie weren't super exciting boots, and now this awful twist.

It also really irks me that Jeff continuously says that it's the fans who wanted this, when in reality they rigged the questions so much to skew the average fan who doesn't fully understand what they mean. Also, I'm not sure fans wanting twists meant they wanted random luck.

I really hope we rebound from here. I knew we were going to lose players we love. It comes with the territory. But the way we lost them hurts.

 

[artvandelay]

I didn't watch live last week because I was in Disneyland, but I'm back this week... unfortunately.

This twist was terrible. It came down to dumb luck. Genevieve and Colby both seemed to be in a great position through the first part of the game, but they drew the short end of the stick. Genevieve was spot on when she said it came down to the color of rock she drew. She was playing so well. It hurts even more, because Genevieve is probably my favorite player of the new era, and maybe one of my favorites of all-time. If she had made it through this random draw, she could have gone very far. It's also tough because she found two idols that could have saved her, but because they brought in celebrities, it changed how idols work, and she had to give them away. She did literally everything she could and it still came to a SitD play. I really hope she gets another chance at some point. She deserves it, and she's got to be up there for players who have been screwed by production.

Colby's words were so touching. You can tell he's fully come around. In his second and third times, he realized he had the wrong attitude and wasn't appreciative, but he very much was this time around.

This season started off so strong, but the past few episodes have all dipped down in quality. The Zac Brown content, then Angelina/Charlie weren't super exciting boots, and now this awful twist.

It also really irks me that Jeff continuously says that it's the fans who wanted this, when in reality they rigged the questions so much to skew the average fan who doesn't fully understand what they mean. Also, I'm not sure fans wanting twists meant they wanted random luck.

I really hope we rebound from here. I knew we were going to lose players we love. It comes with the territory. But the way we lost them hurts.

I agree. New Era Survivor has become a lot like Big Brother. Random twists can ruin everything you accomplished and you’re gone.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

I didn't watch live last week because I was in Disneyland, but I'm back this week... unfortunately.

Who goes to Disneyland during Survivor 50?

Oh wait, I did the same during AU vs. The World.

I'm more forgiving of this episode than most people based on a glimpse at the Reddit discussions.

We can rehash the old arguments that splitting a merged tribe up isn't really a merge, but I think it was an okay approach in this case.

It allowed us to have 17 big characters come together sooner rather than later. There was always going to be something like this to address the size of the cast.

Genevieve was arguably the only "screwed" player. Kamilla paid the price for her flip last episode. Colby didn't have a vote but he ultimately agreed to risk it on a journey (I think, I don't remember the details). He also arguably could have tried for an old school alliance in that vote.

I guess I overlooked the issues with the episode and twists just because it was so cool to see these 17 characters come together, We got to see Colby, Coach, and Cirie together talking about legacy. There was a lot to love.

Christian continues to impress as an entertaining and astute player. I try not to think of such things, but is he in winner edit territory?