Survivor 47 Discussion Thread

[dmw]

Rome had a great attitude after being blindsided. This is a game and he understands that. I did not like him as a player, and he certainly will look back at this episode with humility, but, he will probably laugh at himself because that just seems to be his happy personality. Kudos to Rome for a classy exit.

 

[rd805]

Hi! Happy to have found a little Survivor chat on my WDW board haha!

A lot of good players left, been a fun season thus far.

 

[PUSH]

Hi! Happy to have found a little Survivor chat on my WDW board haha!

A lot of good players left, been a fun season thus far.

This website is how I started watching Survivor. I saw a thread for season 26 all the way back in 2013 and started watching because of it. Now I'm obsessed. Glad to have another person aboard!

 

[rd805]

I've been watching since the beginning -- hopped in mid season 1. Didn't watch for a bunch of years and after graduating college I remember 4 seasons were included on my Amazon Prime (South Nicaragua, South Pacific, Redemption Island, and maybe One World?) -- anyway, binged South Nicaragua over the course of a few nights and watched all I missed. Been watching every week live (or 24-48 hours later if not home) since Blood vs Water.

Definitely a megafan!

 

[PUSH]

This is the first episode this season that I didn't find fun. There were some interesting outcomes, but everything was decided because of production's meddling.

The split groups has never been interesting. It's always produced unfair boots. And then on top of that, they throw in the safety without power, which is another random game piece put in by production. Tonight felt a lot more like a board game than a social strategy game. Just let the players play! It's frustrating listening to Jeff talk about how great these things are on his podcast, while refusing to listen to why it's not fun and ruins the integrity of the game.

If we would have had a straight forward vote, we could have had the storylines with Andy and Genevieve. We could have seen how Andy would have interacted with Sam. All of that was setting up to be extremely interesting until the unnecessary twists were thrown in.

I know I say it over and over, but this isn't what Survivor is. Let the players use social and strategic moves to influence the game... not a random chance card.

 

[rd805]

This is the first episode this season that I didn't find fun. There were some interesting outcomes, but everything was decided because of production's meddling.

The split groups has never been interesting. It's always produced unfair boots. And then on top of that, they throw in the safety without power, which is another random game piece put in by production. Tonight felt a lot more like a board game than a social strategy game. Just let the players play! It's frustrating listening to Jeff talk about how great these things are on his podcast, while refusing to listen to why it's not fun and ruins the integrity of the game.

If we would have had a straight forward vote, we could have had the storylines with Andy and Genevieve. We could have seen how Andy would have interacted with Sam. All of that was setting up to be extremely interesting until the unnecessary twists were thrown in.

I know I say it over and over, but this isn't what Survivor is. Let the players use social and strategic moves to influence the game... not a random chance card.

I agree -- it does drive the point home that if you "win" the game at the end, you probably deserved to win.

But having 7 of 12 immune, with only a max of up to 6 voting when there are 12 in the game is just odd. I think with Sol finding that advantage, but having the vote being 5 original tribe members vs 1 new showed how flawed the pairing of these two "twists" could be.

A lot of luck in the new survivor.

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

This is the first episode this season that I didn't find fun. There were some interesting outcomes, but everything was decided because of production's meddling.

The split groups has never been interesting. It's always produced unfair boots. And then on top of that, they throw in the safety without power, which is another random game piece put in by production. Tonight felt a lot more like a board game than a social strategy game. Just let the players play! It's frustrating listening to Jeff talk about how great these things are on his podcast, while refusing to listen to why it's not fun and ruins the integrity of the game.

If we would have had a straight forward vote, we could have had the storylines with Andy and Genevieve. We could have seen how Andy would have interacted with Sam. All of that was setting up to be extremely interesting until the unnecessary twists were thrown in.

I know I say it over and over, but this isn't what Survivor is. Let the players use social and strategic moves to influence the game... not a random chance card.

I just watched and I was kind of all over the place in terms of, is this good or bad?

It is modern Survivor in a nutshell. They really lean into these small voting groups as the most dramatic thing, even post merge.

At first, it was actually quite promising. You get a 3-3 showdown or a 5-1 dilemma. That notion of walking back into a 6-5 scenario was interesting. Good points were made about who would be the biggest targets from the 5.

Then we got the twist that was maybe just one step too far. It negated the 5-1 dilemma just as it would have changed the 3-3 scenario to a straight forward majority vote.

On the bright side, Rachel survived what was a purely unlucky situation to be in.

The Andy/Genevieve relationship showed, and still shows, potential, but was basically sidelined by producer decisions.

I'm not a Survivor purist by any means, but I agree with the fundamental notion that it needs to be primarily influenced by player choices.

 

[PUSH]

This was a fun episode. Imagine that... when you don't break the game, the players produce.

The auction was better than 45's, but it still isn't fun watching everyone bid all their money to avoid losing their vote. It's not an auction at that point. We know exactly who is getting what. I like the different amounts of starting money, but just do it without the lose-a-vote. I also liked the extra money thrown in and the grub eating challenge. But just get rid of the losing a vote aspect. The players will make it fun. I've never watched an auction and been bored before the new era auctions. I also liked hiding the advantage in the food. That makes it so players don't hold onto their money until the end.

It was interesting to see everyone's opinions on which Gata to vote out. I agree that Sierra was probably the right target. Sam loses most of his power without her. Rachel is a threat, but she has inklings of allies, but nothing firm. As a whole, I feel like that's what this season is. There are no strong alliances outside of maybe Sue/Caroline and Sue/Gabe. It reminds me of Cambodia when voting blocks became a thing, but even still there were stronger alliances that season.

Seeing Andy's perspective intrigues me. We saw his line of thinking, but it didn't seem like he was actually the one pulling the strings. Not to get too much into edit reading, but it makes me think he's either the winner because we're being shown this vote from his perspective OR he's a no-vote finalist and we're going to find out that his read was totally wrong. It seemed like we were being told he was the one controlling the vote, but in reality everyone wanted a Gata out... they just had to agree on which one.

I'm going to start my potential winner rankings again. They're based on the chance they would have to win if they were at a final tribal council right now. It's not actually how I think they'll finish... for example... Sam is ranked #4 as a favorite, but I don't think he'll get close to the final three.

Favorite
1. Caroline
2. Sol
3. Genevieve
4. Sam

Good Chance
5. Rachel
6. Gabe
7. Kyle

Possible
8. Teeny
9. Andy

Little to No Chance
10. Sue

 

[rd805]

I'm thinking Andy is in the 3rd place finisher-- he isn't terribly articulate, but seems to have created a good new alliance patched together which could take out the likes of Sam, Rachel, maybe even Kyle if they look at him as a threat (they probably HAVE to).

 

[PUSH]

What a crazy episode, when in the end all the scrambling just resulted in even more people jumping on board the original plan.

Starting the the immunity challenge, I don't mind the tiered challenge system, but keep it as a once a season type of thing. Also, STOP MAKING PEOPLE LOSE THEIR VOTES! It's not fun, and the majority of the time it take away from what would have been fun strategy. I believe it was Genevieve who said that it's hard to make a plan when you don't know who has their votes and who doesn't. Therefore, it puts people in a mindset where they all have to pile onto the name with the most traction. Because you don't know if people will even have enough votes to make a different plan happen. I think the "dangerous" aspect of losing your vote actually leads to safer gameplay.

Kyle has gotten a bad wrap for winning immunity three times. However, the first time he only competed against a portion of the tribe. The next time, he actually lost, but was granted immunity because he was the last person standing from the group that went to tribal. The third time, he only had to beat out the rest of the men. So he never won a full immunity challenge.

Now onto the juicy part... I'm not sure why Genevieve wanted Sol out. There's got to be more that we haven't seen. My hypothesis is this... she said Sol was in with almost everyone. Based on exit interviews, Genevieve also seems to be in that same spot. I wonder if she wants to be the person to play that role and felt threatened by Sol.

I also wonder if it was actually better for her that everyone piled on Sol. It takes a little heat off of her for coming up with the idea, even though she was the mastermind. I do fear that this will come back to haunt her, as she's put herself out there as a strong player with a big target. Regardless, she's shown she is excellent in using her relationships to manipulate the votes to the way she wants them. I was really worried the vote would come back on her after Rachel let the cat out of the bag. I thought Sol would connect the dots back to her, and I'm actually shocked that he didn't. He actually included Genevieve in his plan to get out Sue/Kyle. I had to laugh when he approached her with that and pretended to be surprised that his name was out there. Genevieve is a great character and has some amazing one-liners.

Here are my updated winner rankings...

Favorite
1. Genevieve (+2)
2. Caroline (-1)
3. Sam (+1)
4. Rachel (+1)

Good Chance
5. Gabe (+1)
6. Kyle (+1)

Possible
7. Andy (+2)
8. Sue (+2)

Little to No Chance
9.Teeny (-1)

 

[Wendy Pleakley]

I may have considered throwing a heavy object at the TV when Jeff said the bottom four lose their vote.

I don't know if it mattered that much but I see the point that it leads to a "safe" vote. It turns out they didn't need Caroline's vote to oust Sol so it felt inconsequential here.

One missing vote aside, I did think this episode demonstrates why it's important to allow large tribes to vote together, instead of doing splits and other gimmicks.

 

[PUSH]

I may have considered throwing a heavy object at the TV when Jeff said the bottom four lose their vote.

I don't know if it mattered that much but I see the point that it leads to a "safe" vote. It turns out they didn't need Caroline's vote to oust Sol so it felt inconsequential here.

One missing vote aside, I did think this episode demonstrates why it's important to allow large tribes to vote together, instead of doing splits and other gimmicks.

Even if the vote is unanimous, watching the process of a large tribe come to that decision is very fun.

 

[PUSH]

EVERYONE!!!

CBS is putting on an exclusive early screening of next week's episode next Tuesday at the University of Wisconsin, and I'm going! Andrea Boehlke is hosting, and I'm so excited!!! There may be other former contestants there, too! I ordered a Survivor sweatshirt off of Amazon to wear.

 

[CynBeth]

They should have voted Kyle out while they had the chance.

 

[PUSH]

I went to the exclusive early screening of tonight's episode last night! It was such a fun event! I got to meet Andrea, Davie from David vs Goliath, and Sash from Nicaragua. I got pictures with all of them. Apparently Sash went to college at the University of Wisconsin. I had no idea! All three of them were extremely nice.

We had to sign an NDA, and they made us lock our phones in bags during the screening so we couldn't take pictures or videos. It was fun hearing the reaction of the crowd.

They did a Q&A after the event, and it was fun to hear the three of them talk.

We also got free pizza and drinks, and we got complimentary canvas bags as we were leaving.

My coworker and I could have been the first in line, but decided not to wait outside that long. Little did we know, the first nine people got to compete in a challenge. Wish we would have waited!

We met some really awesome people, and I wish we would have gotten their contact info to add them on Facebook. It was so cool being around people who were at the same level of fandom as me. I have Survivor fans in my life, but not to the level of super fandom that I'm at.

All in all, if you ever get a chance to go to a live watch party, do it! It's so much fun and so worth it!

 

[PUSH]

Now that I can officially talk about tonight's episode... I'm so glad I got a good one for the live watch party. I've never experienced Survivor like that, where everyone is laughing or cheering or collectively going "awwwwww" to something sad. The energy is fantastic. The speakers in the venue made everything so much more dramatic. Watching on my TV tonight, it was a totally different vibe. The Teeny stuff at the very beginning felt so much more personal on the big screen than in my living room.

Starting with the Teeny stuff, I wonder what will happen now. I feel like they're going to get Genevieve at some point based on what we heard. I think it was smart of them to not let those emotional control their game, though. I'll get to it, but I do think it made sense for most people to go for Gabe.

The reward challenge was so fun to watch in a large group. Genevieve blowing on the ball got lots of laughter. Andy's slow-motion biting of the ball got lots of screams and laughing. It was so much fun.

The rice negotiation was actually interesting for once! I never expected to see the SITD played like that, but it's honestly been a pretty good addition to the game. Not because of it's intended power, but how players can use it as "currency". I feel like this is kind of what they were going for with fire tokens.

The immunity challenge was again so much more fun to watch at the party. Everyone LOVES Kyle. He's not high on my radar, because I don't watch Survivor for the challenges, but everyone was cheering so loud for him when he won. To quote financial analyst, Emily Flippen, I do have to push back on him winning 4 immunities, though. He won some of those under easier circumstances (only 6 people competed for his first one, one he was only competing against men, and one he was part of a split tribe). Not quite the same as the Ozzys of the world.

I was very nervous for Genevieve, since she's my favorite. I thought her reconsideration of giving up her SITD was fascinating. However, I think voting out Gabe makes sense for most of the people left. Outside of Sue, nobody wants Tuku to run the game. Caroline wants to separate Sue from Gabe. Kyle knows Gabe will be coming for him. Everyone else doesn't want to get picked off. It made so much sense, despite Genevieve making a big move with the Sol vote.

Going forward, I could see Genevieve laying low and getting to the final 6 or 5. I think she'll be the "fallen angel" like Ricard, Omar, Jesse, etc. The player that would have won, had she gotten to the final three, and everyone views as the "best" of the season.

Next episode, I could see the rogue players going against each other. I could see Rachel or Sam be targeted. I think Genevieve's name will be thrown out there, but maybe not get the majority of the votes. I think she'll play the decoy vote or shield for a little bit.

All in all, this week of Survivor was the coolest experience I've had with the show. It makes me want to go to other watch parties or RHAP live events. I met so many cool people, and I wish I would have gotten their contact information. I went in with just one other person I knew, and 7 of us ended up talking and bonding over the show all night. It was so much fun to have people who share my passion. If anyone ever gets the chance to go to something like this, I highly recommend it!

Here are my updated rankings...

Favorite
1. Genevieve (-)
2. Rachel (+2)
3. Sam (-)

Good Chance
4. Caroline (-2)
5. Andy (+2)

Possible
6. Teeny (+3)
7. Kyle (-1)

Little to No Chance
8. Sue (-)

 

[dmw]

I really like Kyle. I hope he wins. But, I don't know if he has played enough strategically to get jury votes. If he helps to orchestrate getting out one of the other contenders, that will help him win jury votes.

I think Sue gets picked for the final two just because she has not made any significant moves and really won't deserve a win. Teeny and Caroline are not strong enough to be contenders, but might make it as one of the final two (a non-contender) if Sue gets voted out.

I think Rachel, Kyle, Andy, Genevieve, and Sam are the main contenders, and are all in a battle to vote each other out.

I really hope we don't have another battle to make fire for the third finalist. I hate that option. I want to see the final three all make it because they outlasted tribal votes.

 

[JPPT1974]

Yeah as much as I like Kyle he is such a huge threat but also he is very likable!

 

[CynBeth]

Too bad about Gabe he was one of the few that I like.

 

[PUSH]

They managed to make an obvious, straightforward boot into an interesting episode. We heard a LOT of tribe dynamics and strategic thinking. It's such a contrast to what we normally see. The "lesser" players banding together to make the "power" players into a minority.

The journey was actually really fun this time. It was so over the top. When they showed the table getting pulled into the ocean, I laughed out loud. It was hilarious. Ultimately, I wish less advantages were in the game, but if we're getting one anyway, this was a fun way to do it. The visual of the ropes and weight were fun, too.

The immunity challenge always reminds me of Cydney Gillon from Kaoh Rong. Genevieve was so close a couple of times. The strategy for this challenge is to go very slow. Let the others mess up. It's never been won by going fast.

It was nice to see Caroline's segment about her struggles with ADHD. That has to be relevant to so many people. As a teacher, I see so many kids with ADHD, and it truly is a difference in how people's brains work.

Before the challenge, when Kyle was talking about his family, it cut to Sue. Jeff asked why she was emotional. I was expecting her to say, "I just hate Kyle so much." Her one-sided rivalry was so much fun. She's brought so many laughs this season.

My thought have been all over the place here tonight, so let's try and summarize where each player stands in my rankings...

Favorite
1. Genevieve (-) - Genevieve is the consensus threat. While she has the greatest chance to win should she get to the end, she has the hardest road to the end. I do not expect her to make it there. They'd be stupid to let her make it to fire.

2. Rachel (-) - Rachel has emerged as the most strategic person left, besides maybe Genevieve. She's in the best position to win, in my opinion. She has one mostly public advantage, but a block-a-vote is something that can bond an underdog group. She also has a secret idol. And she has good relationships across the board. Plus, she's very articulate and would do well in a final tribal council. If I had to pick a winner right now, it'd probably be Rachel.

Good Chance
3. Sam (-, but moved down a tier) - Sam hasn't driven much of the post-merge, but he's the "on paper" threat. If he makes it to the end, he did so by being a big target.

Possible
4. Caroline (-, but moved down a tier) - I could see a Caroline win, but she's played a very subtle game, and I don't know if others will see it. It's something that is easier to see watching on TV and hearing her confessionals, but the other players don't hear those. I think she's played a strong game, but she needs to make a more visible move for the jury to see.

5. Teeny (+1) - Teeny needs to make something happen to have a chance. They've been talking a big game, but nothing has materialized. I won't rule Teeny out, but the clock is ticking.

6. Andy (-1) - I've struggled with Andy all season. I actually think he's playing a pretty solid game. Probably only behind Genevieve and Rachel. However, the perception of him is not good. I worry that he won't be able to overcome that without a big, flashy move towards the end of the game. It's definitely possible, and I think there's actually a good chance it happens with the story we've been told about him, which is why I'm leaving him in the "possible" tier. I wouldn't be surprised at all by a Maryanne-like finish for him.

Little to No Chance
7. Sue (+1) - Sue has been a great character, but I don't see her pulling off any move. And at this point, she's a goat. She'll be a good zero-vote finalist.