Survivor Marathon

You might think that being behind 4 episodes might make me give up. The truth is, I almost did. But then I was home this Friday night with nothing to do but clean my room, and I realized that Survivor would make for really nice background entertainment. Apologies for the looooong break between Survivor posts, but here are my thoughts on Episodes 6-9:

Episode 6 was relatively boring, except for Rocky's blow-up. I was left wondering how it was Anthony got voted off and not Rocky.

Episode 7 was significantly more interesting. Yau Man and Earl solidified their interesting alliance, and I thought it was interesting that Yau Man promised to share the idol with Earl. I wonder how that will play out. And burrying a 2nd Idol!?!? It doesn't appear like it will matter now, but how cool would it have been if someone found the dummy idol and tried to use it!?

I kind of took issue with the arcade award challenge. I mean, I guess I just feel like these people are on this beautiful island, and wouldn't it be much cooler for everyone (viewers included) if we all saw more and learned more about the island culture rather than watching them play at an arcade? Rocky's reaction to everyone having stomach aches was pretty funny though. God, he's an idiot.

Earl is funny. I'm not sure I had realized this before, but his whole thing about "just call it Earl Island" somehow made him much more endearing to me. I'm rooting for him now all the way.

And can we just all stop and ask ourselves what the hell Boo is still doing in this game?! No only does he not seem to contribute much, but he also DOESN'T KNOW HIS LEFT FROM HIS RIGHT. I mean, that's kind of an important thing to know before heading into a game full of challenges that often require some sort of directional knowledge.

Two favorite quotes:
"Old guy's good for some good!"
"She's gonna love the attention - 5 men with ears!"

Also, does anyone know what the hell Rocky said when he left? He said something right after Jeff announced it was him, and then appeared to say the same thing again after Probst said, "The tribe has spoken." Anyone? Anyone?

Episode 8 - where Lisi proves to the world what an incredible idiot she is. I mean REALLY - did she seriously tell those guys all the idol clues!? Also, she actually said she doesn't "take the challenges seriously." Um, Lisi - I don't meann to question your obviously brilliant game strategy here, but if you don't take the challenges seriously, and you keep losing those challenges, than it's going to be YOU who goes home, honey.

Edgardo, sweet Edgardo. Whatever you do, don't tell people you're good at something. Too many Survivors in the past have gotten themselves voted off after promising their teammates that they could be counted on for a certain challenge task ("I'm good at puzzles!") only to fail miserably in the end. Just don't say anything. If you end up being good, then great. If you don't, then your tribemates never expected anything to begin with. I'm pretty sure you learned that lesson this week, and won't make that mistake again.

Lisi's flip-flopping was annoying as hell, and I was glad to see her go. It did bring up an interesting question for me though: If Lisi were to have gotten to the point where she chose to quit rather than get voted out (presumably because she thought she would not get voted out for some reason), would she sit on the jury? I'm guessing no, because she quit, but she did technically earn a spot on the jury... Then again, if they didn't let her be on the jury, it would mess up the jury numbers (and how do you break tie at the Survivor finale?).

Finally, Rocky - who knew he could clean up so nice!?

Favorite quotes:
"Call me a genie in a bottle 'cause I grant wishes." (Dreamz to Lisi)
"You're a grown man, consider a name change." (Lisi to Dreamz)

Finally, Episode 9: I started getting really angry that the original Moto tribe members who had remained on Moto from the beginning would never experience what it was like to rough-it, but then I realized that it was Survivor, and there's no way they'd allow everyone to live in paradise. I was glad to see I was right.

Honestly, I had mixed feelings about Michelle from the beginning. Her sugary-sweet voice was a turn-off, but at the same time, she was amazingly good at all that she did, and she did it all with a smile and great enthusiasm (hello - she fell off the platform and jumped right back up). She started fire without any fire-starting supplies, and was generally a really tough competitor. I definitely liked her better than Stacy, so I was sad to see her go.

I can't wait for next week to see the tribe members go completely nuts on each other. GREAT twist to merge the tribe, but still have a separated tribal council. Survivor 14 is still keeping it interesting.

Quote of the week (and a great example of slithering out of answering a question):
"One good reason for me to vote for Stacy is it ain't me."