Survivor: South Pacific (Season 23)

[Melanie]

Despite the preview to the contrary, according to my dvr guide, next week's episode is a recap episode, not a new original one.

Probably why they planned a double elimination.

Always seems to be the case for the Thanksgiving episode.

[SBETigg]

Really surprised that a 3 person alliance of Albert, Sophie and Cochran didn't pull in Dawn and Whitney to take over the tribe.

Right now Coach is playing right out of Boston Rob's and Evil Russell's playbook. Search out and exploit the weak minded and useless (Edna and Rick and to some extent Brandon) then control the rest of the tribes movements and the interaction with the other tribe, then slowly turn on your tribe.

I'm not that surprised. There's a good chance, with immunity challenges mixed in, that Whitney or Dawn could have made it to the end, and could anyone beat Dawn at that point? Possibly Whitney, but maybe not. I can see how that didn't seem to be a perfect strategy.

And Coach seems to be playing Boston Rob's game more than Russell's, to me. He's controlling the tribe, doesn't want them talking to other players, has his core devotees. It's very much like Rob's game last season, and we all know how that worked for Rob, so I can't blame Coach there.

What they'll probably do soon (after next week's boring recap show) is to do one of those challenges that reveals pecking order, where you have to target and take out other players. We usually see that kind of challenge at this point, and it's often a wake up call for some of them.

[laprana]

Really surprised that a 3 person alliance of Albert, Sophie and Cochran didn't pull in Dawn and Whitney to take over the tribe.

This is what I was hoping would happen this week, but of course it didn't. I don't dislike Sophie, but I had to laugh when she said that she was being strategic. Really?? Not making any big moves and falling in line behind Coach, voting however he says to vote, is being strategic? She's so reluctant to do anything that there's no way she'll end up in the top 3 unless she changes her tune and shakes things up. Every time Albert has brought up some kind of big move to her, she caves and says they need to wait until later. Pretty soon it will be too late!

The way things are going, I see the final 3 as being Coach, Edna, and Brandon with Coach bringing those 2 along knowing he will most likely beat both of them.

I still have flashes of "Who is that?" every time they (briefly) show Rick. Why put someone on the show and then never show them? It makes no sense. Most of the time I forget he's even there.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

What they'll probably do soon (after next week's boring recap show) is to do one of those challenges that reveals pecking order, where you have to target and take out other players. We usually see that kind of challenge at this point, and it's often a wake up call for some of them.

I'm not sure if they do those much any more. When they used to hold individual reward and immunity challenges, they would usually do a challenge, for reward, that revealed the pecking order (ie answer a question correctly and you can cut someones rope). But since you can't defend yourself in that challenge it is generally used as an reward challenge and not for individual immunity. Since they no longer seem to be doing separate challenges I would be somewhat skeptical of this type of challenge.

I think this weeks "do you want to participate" challenge was intended to somewhat reveal who might feel in trouble, didn't work of course.

[SBETigg]

I'm not sure if they do those much any more. When they used to hold individual reward and immunity challenges, they would usually do a challenge, for reward, that revealed the pecking order (ie answer a question correctly and you can cut someones rope). But since you can't defend yourself in that challenge it is generally used as an reward challenge and not for individual immunity. Since they no longer seem to be doing separate challenges I would be somewhat skeptical of this type of challenge.

I think this weeks "do you want to participate" challenge was intended to somewhat reveal who might feel in trouble, didn't work of course.

Oh true, good point. I miss Reward Challenges!

[SBETigg]

If anyone watched the recap show, and I caught parts of it while baking pies, it seems they have not shown us some more of the drama surrounding Brandon. He killed a chicken when everyone told him they didn't want to kill it yet. And he accidentally let the second chicken go. Now, when in the history of Survivor has chicken drama been swept under the rug and left for recap show? That's some major drama! They were going to vote him off over it, but their team kept winning and now it seems to be forgotten. Hmph.

So after watching last night's TC Brandon meltdown #10, I think I would have changed my vote and kept Cochran over Brandon. But hey, I'm not playing. I'm just watching from home. And no loss. I would have booted Cochran, too. But no idea how Brandon keeps hanging on, except that he can't win the million so he fits in someone's end game. Still, I think he's too much of a loose cannon to bring to the end.

[A Big Kid]

Getting rid of Cochran makes no sense to me. He would not be a threat to win any physical challenges (for immunity). You can bet that the rest of his tribe he threw under the bus would never vote to give him the million dollars.

[Ian]

If anyone watched the recap show, and I caught parts of it while baking pies, it seems they have not shown us some more of the drama surrounding Brandon. He killed a chicken when everyone told him they didn't want to kill it yet. And he accidentally let the second chicken go.

Sheesh, are we sure this dude is really related to Russell and not Shambo??

I was so darn happy to see Cochran get sent to Redemption and doubly so because he had to go sit there with Ozzy. He got what he deserved. Dork.

[SBETigg]

Sheesh, are we sure this dude is really related to Russell and not Shambo??

I was so darn happy to see Cochran get sent to Redemption and doubly so because he had to go sit there with Ozzy. He got what he deserved. Dork.

Shambo, hahaha. So what if Cochran actually beats Ozzy at R.I? It seems implausible, and yet, the challenges there are more random, it seems. And the scenes from next week showed Ozzy being all cocky about it, assuming Cochran goes home. It makes me wonder. Which is probably part of their evil plan, but still, now I'm considering it.

[Melanie]

I just don't care for any of them, although I do think it will be funny and very entertaining if Cochrane beats Ozzy.

[SBETigg]

I just don't care for any of them, although I do think it will be funny and very entertaining if Cochrane beats Ozzy.

Coach lost me when he started using religion as a manipulation tool, and then his misogynistic side reared its ugly head. I like Albert and Sophie. I don't think Albert's going to last, but I think Sophie has a good shot at winning this one. If Albert does make it all the way, he has been trying to get those jury votes, so he could win, too. But it looks like he's a target now. If Ozzy makes it back, he has all the Savaii votes wrapped up.

[JanetMegan]

Ok am I the only one who actually likes Cochran? I so want him to beat Ozzy and come back...something about watching that poor, white, freckled skinny kid get a massage. Also the whole fake birthday thing had me totally LOL.

[SBETigg]

Ok am I the only one who actually likes Cochran? I so want him to beat Ozzy and come back...something about watching that poor, white, freckled skinny kid get a massage. Also the whole fake birthday thing had me totally LOL.

I wanted to like him. I thought I might like him. But then, no, he really lost me. He's too caught up in himself and so whiny, then he made the really bad move of switching alliances just to avoid taking a rock. Chances are good that he would not have drawn the bad rock, someone else would have gone home, and he could have made it to the end with a chance. Instead, he made himself someone no one could trust or want to watch succeed. But I would also love to see him beat Ozzy. That would be fun.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

Getting rid of Cochran makes no sense to me. He would not be a threat to win any physical challenges (for immunity). You can bet that the rest of his tribe he threw under the bus would never vote to give him the million dollars.

Getting rid of Cochran made a lot of sense. Yes, he's not a threat to show up to, much less win any challenge, but he's a wild card in what thus far has been a pretty predictable tribe. Despite all the red-herring previews and misleading scenes during the actual episodes, Upulo has actually been very consistent and predictable. Leaving Cochran in the game throws a wild card out there that I don't think anyone wants to deal with. Which proves that these people either A) all think they are going to final 3 or there are sub-alliances out there that we really don't know about yet. Sophie appears to be too smart to be gullible, yet we've been shown nothing of her game. Alberts came out a bit this week, basically him trying to play the social game, but Sophie, we don't really know anything about her yet.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

Ok am I the only one who actually likes Cochran? I so want him to beat Ozzy and come back...something about watching that poor, white, freckled skinny kid get a massage. Also the whole fake birthday thing had me totally LOL.

His self deprecating humor got old at about, oh, day 1. Even Sophie was like "yeah, I wanted to feel sorry for him, but I can see why the other tribe was so annoyed".

My problem with Cochran was that he wanted to become so much a "Survivor Character" like a Coach, Rupert, Savage, Boston Rob, Phillip. From day one "call me Cochran Jeff, cuz all the cool Survivors get called by their last names" Every confessional seemed to be this lets advance my character so people will remember me. Well, he finally got it right when he realized he made an idiotic move with his old tribe. Had he and Savaii survived the purple rock he would still be in the game.

Cochran reminds me a lot of Shi-ann (Thailand and Allstar seasons) who knew the dynamics of the game, understood the strategy and could see how things were happening. But that said, she didn't know how to put herself into the game. She knew how it should be played, she just didn't know how to put herself into the game and play it. I think Cochran is the same way, he panicked at the thought of the purple rock and while in his mind he came up with all these great strategic scenarios (which were valid) the best he could come up with is "you owe me" and he resorted to his day 3 tactic of begging, which thankfully didn't work.

He had a lot of options, but I think after the big flip that no one really trusted him, despite the fact he'd be a perfect person to sit next to at final 3.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

Coach lost me when he started using religion as a manipulation tool, and then his misogynistic side reared its ugly head. I like Albert and Sophie. I don't think Albert's going to last, but I think Sophie has a good shot at winning this one. If Albert does make it all the way, he has been trying to get those jury votes, so he could win, too. But it looks like he's a target now. If Ozzy makes it back, he has all the Savaii votes wrapped up.

Sophie is the real wild card for me. When Jeff asked her at the last tribal "so, this was really enlightening tonight" and she was just "nope, not really". I think she really gets what's going on, so I'm thinking there is something that we are not seeing. She appears to be aligned with Albert, but never seems to go along with what he wants. So is there an alliance that she has that we don't know about, is she a lone wolf just biding her time? You never really hear coach talk much about her, so it doesn't seem like she's got anything going there, and again, nothing going with Edna or Rick either it seems. So I don't know, it appears she's just riding along, but I think there is more there, but I don't know what it is.

As for Coach, he's simply using Rob's playbook, right down to holding the hidden immunity idol. Start by socially integrating and cashing in on your celebrity (probably is working on Edna, Brandon and Rick) and then control tribal movements by any means necessary, which in this case involves religion, which really is only impacting Brandon. I don't see the others really falling for the religious angle, I think they are just putting up with it.

Albert, I think he's overthinking things too much. I don't know that any lazy person around camp gets much credit for playing a social game. Without making strategic moves, I don't see Albert winning against Coach or Sophie. I think if two of the following 3 are in final 3, (Edna, Rick, Brandon) then any of the other 3 win. I don't think Albert wins if he has Coach or Sophie next to him. Seeing Coach and Sophie in final 3 would prove the most interesting I think.

If Coach is perceived as the mastermind, I think that would garner Savaii votes and give him the win.

[Ian]

As it stands right now my vote would go to Coach head and shoulders above anyone else who's left.

Not a one of the others has done anything to make me want to award them the million dollars and Coach really has avoided making enemies to the degree that would stop the jury from voting for him.

That being said, it's pretty easy to envision a scenario where he doesn't make the final three. For example, if Albert wins final immunity there's no way he's taking Coach with him to the end.

[SBETigg]

I really don't think Coach has it in the bag. I think we've seen a lot of Coach, but I watch the extra scenes at the CBS site and read exit interviews, and I think there's so much they have not shown of Sophie's game and a few others. Plus, a lot of the departing players do not have a lot of love for Coach. I really think Sophie has it wrapped up. It's just a shame that most viewers have no idea and if she wins, it will seem like she was in the background just agreeing with Coach. I don't know why they do the edits they do. This season is especially boggling with the editing.

I'm sure Rick has said more than a few words out there. Maybe he's not the most exciting guy, but to have made it this far, I would like to know more about him and less about the Hantz family. Survivor producers and Probst seem to think the Hantz people are Survivor gold, but I am really not interested. Aggravated. That's not good viewing. That's daring us all to stop watching. And four out of four returning players have been male. If they do RI again, will they bring back some strong female players? But, wow, I hope they do not do RI again.

[Melanie]

This season is quickly turning into my least favorite season ever and I have sat here the past 3 or 4 weeks continuously asking myself why I'm still watching. Purely because it's 'Survivor' is why I'm still half tuning in.

PLEASE STOP WITH THE RELIGIOUS STUFF!!! I'm soooooo over it on these 'reality' shows. Please God, give me the strength to make it through the finale. HAHA! Just kidding.

[SBETigg]

I actually thought Coach showed some masterful game play with the heavy religious dose tonight. The only way to counter what Brandon was asking him was to throw Brandon's own line back at him, "I have to see what God wants me to do." Coach lost me a little with the follow-through, though. Was he trying to make it look good? Keep his honor intact? I can't actually believe that anyone but loose cannon Brandon thinks God is speaking to him out there, about a reality show game. Coach is playing it a little heavy, I agree.

And I am so over the Hantz family. Why the Survivor producers insist on believing this is a family we want to see more of boggles my mind. And I would take Russell over his nephew any day. At least he knows his own mind. But I am done with all Hantzes.

But overall, I liked tonight's show. I love that it came down to the turning on each other and that I really had no idea who was going at the end. And now Albert can't win. He looks like a jerk to the jury no matter what he does now. I think my biggest surprise is that Rick has stayed on the show this whole time without speaking more than a paragraph's worth of sentences on camera.