Survivor 33 Finale Recap "Voters Finally Get It Right"

   Let’s skip the small talk. Let’s skip the introduction. Last night was the finale and there is tons to say, so I am just going to jump on in. While I would have preferred a Jay or David win, Adam deserved the win based off of who he was up against in the final three. It baffles my mind that there are people who think Ken or Hannah deserved to win after a season of mediocre play. Adam wasn’t perfect, but he tried, and he often knew what needed to be done. So let’s talk about the one thing that angers me about the finale. People keep insinuating that Adam won because he mentioned his mom’s cancer in his final speech. It’s amazing how bitter people are that they think that that won him the game. Just like Jeremy in Second Chances, Adam would have won anyway. Chris said it the best when he was addressing the final three: the jury gave Adam credit for the big moves that occurred in the last half of the game. Adam had Chris, Jay, Brett, and Sunday all before tribal council even began. That means he had this season in the bag before he even had the chance to mention his mother’s story. May the story have influenced David and Jessica to not give pity votes to Ken? Possibly. But it didn’t cause Adam to win. He won on his own merit by being against Hannah and Ken who did practically nothing all season.

   To all of the people who thought Ken or Hannah would win, may I ask why? Hannah had four things that were preventing her from ever winning and I predicted just last recap that she would not receive any votes. 1.) She was a flip flopper between alliances. In Big Brother those may win, but they do not win in Survivor.  2.) Any move that she may have deserved credit for, like the David vote out, she did not vocalize to the jury. How are they supposed to know she made it happen when Adam is the only one who vocalized wanting David out? 3.) The only moves she did claim were voting out Sunday and Brett. These are two moves the jury and myself included believed were mistakes. 4.) She was socially unaware the whole game. She made two connections that were strong enough for votes, David and Ken. Ken sat next to her and David was always going to vote off of game. People may not have been annoyed by her, but there is little evidence that they liked her.

   It is difficult to talk about Ken. He was an early favorite of mine, but he did nothing all season except win challenges and talk about loyalty. However, he then betrayed his closest ally David and voted him out. So he went against his only argument as to why his game play was better by turning on that level of game play. He apparently also received a good edit because in post finale interviews it appears that the cast did not even like him that much. Dear fans of alpha male survivor players, COMPETITION WINS SHOULD NOT EQUAL WINNING SURVIVOR. The worst player in the entire world with zero strategy or social awareness could win challenges and make it to the end. It requires no playing of the game or solidifying relationships to do that. If you have to champion challenge wins as why you should win the game, it means you completely ignored the fact that Survivor is a social game first and foremost. If you alienate that aspect of the game, you shouldn’t win.

    So, now on to a more positive topic: I thought I’d do a retrospective where I pasted my thoughts on the final three from my first initial thoughts on the season and see how my opinion on them has changed. I read over my initial thoughts last night and found the contrast to be hilarious. It’s part of why I enjoy not being spoiled when it comes to Survivor. It’s interesting to see how my perspective changes. 

"Adam: I really don’t have an impression of him outside of the fact that he talks REALLY loud when he is giving his confessionals."

   It’s hilarious to see that I had little to no opinion on Adam. During the rest of the season, my opinions on him fluctuated faster than Hannah flip flopped between groups.

"Hannah: We go from someone with some intelligence, to someone who miraculously showed none last night. The target was Figgy until Michelle whispered to her during tribal to vote out Mari instead. Here’s the kicker: Michelle wouldn’t tell her the reason until after. HELLO?! If someone won’t tell you the reason until after you do it, that’s a pretty good reason NOT to do it. Furthermore, the fact that she was told last minute proves she is on the bottom of the “Kappa Kappa” alliance, a name that she gave them last episode. So now a showmance and an alliance that doesn’t need her is strong in this game. She screwed herself."

   Right from the start I predicted that Hannah would make dumb choices due to lack of social awareness. And my opinion of her never really recovered. While she survived until the end, the reason why she would never win was apparent from the start.

"Ken: I like Ken. He seems down to earth and good at challenges. Basically, he is like my past favorite Joe. The issue is, these guys don’t win. The second they lose an individual immunity after the merge, they are voted out. I’ll enjoy him while I can."

  All I can say is Ken got lucky that Jay existed. If Jay had not been winning individual immunities, I have a feeling that this prediction about Ken would have come true. Though I guess I was still technically right about him not winning. Joe Anglim he was not.

   So now that that fun little retrospective is over, let’s talk about some rankings for this season. Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable season. Second Chances and Beauty V Brains V Brawn 2 had dampened my enthusiasm for the show a little bit. I was not as excited every week to watch.  I thought that would continue this season but since the merge the season was spectacular. The finale had me on the edge of my seat thinking who would go home when. 

Season rating: 8/10

Winner rating: 8/10. Adam was not the best player of the season, but he deserved it over who he was sitting next to.

My three favorite players:

1.)    Jay- It should not be a surprise to anyone. I was fairly obvious in my Jay bias in recent recaps.

2.)    David- His growth was an amazing story to watch and unlike others, when he made a strategic move it was usually in his best interests.

3.)    Ken- I am not as fond of him now since his game really became apparently bad post-merge. However, I really liked him pre-merge so he still deserves a spot on this list.

So another season of recapping comes to an end. But have no fear, I won’t be gone until March. Instead in January, I’ll be returning with recaps for Nick’s season of The Bachelor. I have a feeling that there will be a lot of mocking to do. Until then, Happy Holidays to all! Make sure to spend it with family and friends. 

Survivor 33 Finale Predictions

   Hello everyone and welcome to a special edition of my blog. Today, I am going to list my predictions for who has the best chances of winning this season IF they make final tribal council. For example, I have Jay as having the best chances if he makes it there, but it is unlikely that he does. The reason I won’t predict specific placements of people is that there are 6 people left and that would leave too many scenarios for me to have to calculate. I know what you are thinking. Well, then how can we keep Julia accountable for her predictions? It’s simple. Take the three people who make final tribal council and see how many votes they got. If my predictions are accurate, then the winner would have been placed on this list higher than the other two people. Make sense? Good. I hope my predicting these winners does not jinx them like it did with Paul on Big Brother. So here are the rankings!

1.) Jay

   Let me start off by saying that it is going to be really hard for Jay to make final tribal council. I do not expect him to. But, if he did he would beat everybody except maybe David. He has Taylor and Michelle’s votes locked down. No one is stealing those from him. That’s 2 solid votes when you only need 4 or 5 to win depending on the jury size. I am also pretty sure he would have Sunday. Adam might also vote for him as they seem to have a begrudging respect for one another that Adam has not shown to any other player.

    Also, I read somewhere that Jay’s photo as a contestant was a part of a recent episode of CBS’s sitcom Life In Pieces. Based on filming schedules of most sitcoms, at the latest that episode filmed in September when Survivor was first premiering. I don’t think CBS would have featured him as a joke in another show that would just now be airing if he did not make it very far, so add that to a conspiracy factor of him possibly winning.

2.) Adam

       I know. I am just as surprised as you are that I am putting him above David, but hear me out. Juries tend to have short term memory, they care more about the end stretch than the beginning. Adam has had a much better end stretch. He orchestrated the Will vote out. He saved Hannah. He has been the one pulling the strings while David has pulled back to not be seen as a threat. The last “big” move the jury currently has of David is when he misused his idol to save Ken who wasn’t in trouble.  Juries love a good underdog story, but somewhere along the way David became seen as a top dog, and therefore he will be held to that standard.

    Also, I’m trying to find a sensitive way to say this so please do not take what I am about to say in the wrong way.  Adam also has the fact that he is playing for his sick mother. Do I think he would bring her up in final tribal council as a deliberate game move to manipulate votes? No. I do not think he is that cold, but I do think it will come out. And his strength in dealing with that is going to garner votes. It’s why Jeremy from second chances did not tell other players his wife was expecting a baby, they would have then known to vote him out before the finals because that alone could make him win. I am not saying neither of them deserve it based off of game, they do, but that is an added benefit that both of them have.

3.) David

     David has played a good game all season, but the intensity with which he plays has fizzled out towards the end stretch. This is likely a deliberate move on his part to lose some of his being a target. However, as I said before, the jury tends to look at who played better towards the end, then what you did in the beginning. It is part of the reason why Michelle beat Aubrey in Survivor Kah Rong(or however that is spelled) even though Aubrey outplayed her all game. I think the same scenario could happen to David if he goes to the finals with either Adam or Jay. However, if he makes it with the people ranked below him on this list, he is guaranteed the win.

4.) Ken 

   I guess he could win if the jury decided to only vote on likability. Or if he ends up in the finals with Brett and Hannah. The issue is I do not see either scenario happening. The jury does not seem bitter enough to go for the first, and I do not see him betraying David to end up with the second. However, it is still possible which is why he is ranked at 4.

5.) Brett

    Brett arguably has done the least out of everyone in the final 6. But, why do I not have him at the bottom? It is very simple. He has friends on the jury. Zeke, Chris, and Sunday are all very close to him. They could all vote for him depending on who he sits next to. Therefore, it is not a lost cause that he could potentially win, it just is unlikely because 3 votes is not enough to win. He would have to swing someone else over. 

6.) Hannah

    Hannah is a lost cause for winning. In voting out Sunday, she became the new person that will not win. She does not have any close allies who will vote for her based off of a relationship except maybe Adam. The rest will vote off of game and in the perception of the jury, she has done nothing. She has been the most expendable member of every alliance she has been. And let’s not forget the week 2 tribal snafu where she agreed to vote with Michelle even though she was just told the plan at tribal and would not even be given a reason until afterwards.  She has been a mess strategically and socially this season and would at most have Adam’s vote. Even that is not guaranteed though as I could also see Adam voting off of game play and picking a Jay, David, or Ken win over her. 

    So there you have it. My predictions for who is most likely to win if they make tribal council. Drop a comment below or on my Facebook page telling me if you agree and if not which prediction would you change. I’d love to hear from you. With all of this being said, I hope you guys have a great week. I am about to go die from finals. Wish me luck.

Good Things Come in Twos

   Have you ever heard the saying bad things come in threes? I’ve been hearing that a lot lately, and it is frankly depressing. So I thought I’d come up with an alternative. Good Things Come In Twos. Why? Well, maybe it has to do with the fact that I am about to take my second final in two days and this might be wishful thinking. Or it could do with the fact that Survivor aired a double elimination episode last night, where two episodes of Survivor were squashed into one hour. Which is it?  Read on to find out.

  As a double elimination episode not too much happens outside of brief strategy and competitions, so hopefully this blog will be quicker than usual. In less than three minutes, we jump on in to the first immunity challenge of the episode. Jay is feeling the pressure because if he loses, he is going home. The contestants had to carry pucks on a pole through a set of obstacles and then roll the pucks into a goal. Jay ultimately wins. I am thrilled because the final 8-7 is always when my favorites tend to be voted out. Buck the trend Jay!

  So the players get back to camp and everyone is scrambling since the easy vote won immunity. Will decides that last week’s “big move” wasn’t enough and he wants to take charge and get out David. Adam sees this and gets worried. He now wants to target Will. I take back the good things I said about Adam last week because his game this episode sucked. Let’s put the choice for him in his own words: he can keep Will who is “kinda loyal” to him and go after “the biggest threat to win the game” David, or he can save David and vote out Will who I guess “kinda” skeeved him out. This was a perfect chance to take out David, but Adam and Hannah dropped the ball. Well okay Adam did. Hannah has probably never gotten close to a ball in her life. 

   So Will is voted out, solidifying that Jay is on the outs and that David is a force to be reckoned with. Surely, the cast will realize that now and target him over Jay who has absolutely no one left? Nope. This cast still continues to play who do I like more instead of who can I beat. We go to the second immunity challenge where the players must assemble a puzzle. However, while doing so, they must roll a ball up a pinball machine and make sure to continuously catch that ball before it drops. Dear Survivor, I see you copying challenges from Big Brother. That is an honor code violation. Speaking of cheating, Adam decides that since he can not win, he is going to help Ken and tell him when he needs to catch his ball so he can fully focus on the puzzle. He does this right in front of Jay, who has to win immunity to stay. I find that to be a low class move, and I don’t think helping should ever be allowed in a challenge. It should be considered cheating, if someone is going to be safe they need to earn it on their own. 

  So Ken wins and Jay is pissed. Adam immediately goes into scramble mode and tells Jay that he helped Ken to prevent David from winning, not to prevent Jay. While this may be partially true, that is something Adam should have told Jay during the challenge. He could have easily whispered it to him as they were right next to each other. But, to make up for it, Adam reveals to Jay that his mother has stage 4 cancer. In a really touching moment, Jay has to pull his bandanna over his eyes to hide his crying so that the other tribe does not see what is going on. Jay’s mother has brain aneurysms and so the boys bond over their shared reasons for being on Survivor. If only these two boys could get over their differences and align! But, alas fortune never favors my favorites.

  In a plot to flush out Jay’s idol, Adam wants to split the votes between Jay and then have the second most votes go to David. Hannah makes a big blunder by trying to get Sunday out instead. She thinks Sunday is too tempting of a goat to take to the end. The issue is that Hannah has to be against two goats to have a shot of winning. She loses against anyone else. So by convincing everyone to vote out Sunday, she voted out the only chance she has of winning. Bye Felicia.

  The last note of importance is that at tribal, Jay did play his idol. This was unfortunate because as expected, he did not actually need to. The majority of the votes were thrown at Sunday. I could tell this was going to happen based off of what was being said, but I can understand why Jay played his idol anyway. Smarter players would have cast the majority of votes on him, and then second votes on Sunday. Its not his fault for hoping to have been playing with better people.

Best Player: 

None. I can’t award this because I think both of the moves made tonight were underwhelming.

Worst Player:

Hannah. She voted out her only chances of winning. Adam could have done better by getting out David, but at least he still stands a chance to win.

Favorite Player:

Jay. I doubt this changes by the finale next week. I hope he pulls out the win even if the odds are stacked against him.

Stay tuned sometime before the finale for a special finale prediction blog post!

Survivor 33 Recap "Apparently 18 Means Adult"

  Previously on Survivor, it was blindside of the attorneys. Chris was voted out and then Jessica left due to an unfortunate rock draw. Predictably, the episode starts with people still freaking out over the rock draw. To explain, since I did not cover last week, a rock draw occurs when the vote is tied and no player is willing to switch their vote to break it. Then, the players who were the subject of the tie are declared safe and everyone else without immunity must blindly draw a rock. The person who draws the wrong colored rock is then the one voted out. It’s a sucky way to go and most times it can be avoided. Including last episode it has only ever happened 3 times. 

  Either way, back to the players freaking out. Hannah makes Jessica’s elimination all about her and how she feels guilty since she was one of the players at danger of going home from the tie. Basically, its slightly arrogant thinking that she believes they did it for her. They did it because they disliked Zeke, you were just the person paired up next to him to go home. David is also worried after the results of tribal. He burned his idol thinking that they were actually targeting Ken, and now he has no idol safety net. He also just lost a number so he thinks his time in this game is running out.

  The show cuts to Zeke talking about how he is an overconfident asshole. Okay. He didn’t say that, but that’s how he was acting saying he was 100 % going to final 5. In Survivor, if they show that, your time is numbered. It is here in the episode that I knew something was going to happen to screw up Zeke’s game. I’ve told you before; Survivor editing is easy to figure out. If they show someone being confident, it is because they are about to be knocked down a peg. 

  In other news, Ken receives the legacy advantage willed to him by Jessica. He talks about how he cherishes authentic relationships like theirs and how he wants to better his life through this show for his daughter. This is where I wanted to go off and cry about how perfect he was, but the rest of the episode changed that opinion for me. There’s a tease for you to keep reading.

  We have now come to the infamous loved ones visit, where after only 30 days of being on the island, they get to see their family members and cry as if they had not seen them for 10 years.  I have always found the emotions to be out of proportion to their situation. The only two times where I have found it reasonable was in a situation’s like Adam’s where he would find out how his terminally ill parent was doing(or any other sick family member), or if it was a parent seeing their kid, since 30 days is a long time to be without your children. 

  Basically, the gist of the challenge is that the players all compete to get to spend a full meal with their visiting loved ones. Whomever loses does not even get to hug them goodbye. The winner of the challenge then gets to pick 3 other people to enjoy the reward with them, so it often reveals who they are working with. Adam announces before the challenge begins that he does not intend to use his advantage to steal this reward from someone if he does not win. Obviously his tribe was not able at this moment to see how classy that was, but that made me really respect him. If anyone had a justification to be a jerk this reward, it was him considering he needed to hear about his mother. 

  So to win the challenge, the players while attached to a rope must maneuver through a set of obstacles and then hit a button. The first to finish wins. Jay is ultimately the winner. He obviously picks his two closest allies of Will and Sunday. Then he surprises everyone by picking Adam, his game archenemy to be the third person to enjoy the reward. It was really a touching moment with Jay crying about how he respects Adam despite everything for not stealing the reward and Adam being so touched that Jay would put aside personal differences and pick him. Adam, in fact, is so grateful that he ends up giving Jay his advantage to steal a reward from a challenge.  That obviously was not a smart game move from Adam, but it was a touching gesture of thankfulness making this episode fitting to be the most recent one after Thanksgiving. I would love to see these two team up late game.

  While they are enjoying their reward, Will is not enjoying himself at all. He feels his alliance is not respecting him because he is only 18 and he wants the world to think he is an adult. So he throws the Survivor equivalent of a tantrum and switches sides. He will now join David, Ken, Hannah, and Adam to vote out Zeke. Newsflash Will: if you want to be treated like an adult, you have to act like one and not throw a fit when things are not going your way. For example, later in tribal council he rails into Sunday because she had the nerve to call him “kid.” 

  Anyway before I start ranting about those darn millennials, let’s jump into the immunity challenge. The players have to hold onto two sides of a bar to hold tension. If they lose tension, the bar drops, breaking a tile and eliminating them from the challenge. The last person remaining wins. Adam wins immunity. I smile??? Does that mean I like him now???? What a difference an episode makes.

  As they get back to camp, Jay shows why he is my new favorite player with a great read on the situation. He immediately notices that usually paranoid David is not acting paranoid. In Survivor, that means they know that they are safe. Now Jay and Zeke are worried that that side has an idol, so they should take out Ken instead. Unfortunately, they told this to Will as well.

  Will then tells Ken that he is the target. Ken then goes and makes one of the stupidest moves that moves him out of ever being in contention for my favorite player again. He immediately rats out Will to Jay as a “test” to see if Will was telling the truth. Ken, you are the one in danger! Will is the one trying to save you! You don’t get to “test” him. He tests you. And you failed. He sold Will out and now Will had to scramble to undo the damage Ken did by revealing him as a flipper. Jay wisely sees this as an opportunity to try and mend fences with Will. People still hate Jay for blindsiding Michaela, but the guy has good instincts and a great social game. 

  However, now since the other side knows there is a chance of Will leaving their alliance, they wonder if Ken is who they should really target. They then come up with the idea to go after Hannah so that if there is an idol, it is misplayed again. Tribal council starts and quite honestly it was an amazing one. Everyone had decent game points to make to Will about why he should vote with them. In particular, not to beat a dead horse, but Jay nailed it when he gave Will joint credit for his blindside of Michaela. In all honesty, I had thought that that could have flipped Will back. Brett also made a good point about David being known for backstabbing any alliance not named Ken. 

  Not content to let Will get credit for a big move, Adam plays his idol to save Hannah and ensure Zeke goes home. I have to give some credit to Hannah for knowing that she was the one going, but even more props to Adam for acting on it. The funny thing is though, Will ended up siding with them and voting out Zeke. So the idol was technically wasted, but it made sense as to why he played it. Also, I keep laughing at Will because what was supposed to be his big move got overshadowed by Adam’s idol and now Will needs to find another way to beef up his resume.

Best Player

Adam. It was a heck of an episode for him. He got the reward without winning it, won immunity, and played an idol well. Great job.

Worst Player

Ken. It pains me for him to have fallen so far, but tonight was a really bad night for him when it came to intelligence.

Favorite Player

Jay. He is now my undisputed favorite, even if he is a part of an alliance that I do not like at all.

B&L Finale Recap "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly"

   I start off by apologizing for the lack of blogs last week. I was traveling Tuesday night so could not watch this show, and I figured no one wanted to read my Survivor blog on Thanksgiving. Furthermore, this show in particular was fairly boring last week as it was basically an episode of Extreme Home Makeover. So, with all of those apologies doled out, I thought I’d run a proposition by you. To celebrate this finale episode, I’ll forgo the normal recap and do something different. I haven’t been shy about my critiques of the show. There is some to like, but ultimately it fails at entertaining. I thought I’d summarize the issues the show has to correct if it wants to continue, and for the sake of positivity, what it already does well. Good? Well, I guess it does not matter since I’m writing it anyway. Julia, stop talking to your readers. They don’t talk back.

  First though, I’ll do a quick summary of the episode. Ben and Lauren decide to have a combined bachelor and bachelorette party in Las Vegas. It is populated with so many bachelor alum to the point where you know producers decided who was invited and not their actual friends. Eventually, the guests find out that Ben called the wedding off and it gets awkward. But, have no fear! The end of the season is here! This means that by the end of the episode Ben comes around and tells Lauren that he wants the wedding to be back on. 

   Also, a little news for you guys. Grant and Lace, the couple from Bachelor In paradise that has been heavily featured on this show, have broken up. For those who read my Bachelor In Paradise blog, I predicted that these two would break up very quickly and be the first of those couples to be broken up. I’ll take my “I was right” money in cash.  It will go to my annual charity of getting me junk food to get through finals.

So now that that standard part of the recap is done (as I told you it wasn’t much to go over), I want to talk about the season as a whole.

The Good:

. The overall plotline of Ben getting cold feet and the emotional issues that caused for Lauren was spot on with how it happens for most couples. The struggle felt real. It was just overdone when it was the focus of almost every episode. We need to see the good of the relationship as well, and that suffered.

. Both Ben and Lauren come off as decent people that are enjoying the opportunities that come to them instead of being explicitly fame hungry. The shots of Ben at work did a good job showing that.

. When the show incorporated humor that did not have to deal with bachelor alum, it could be pretty funny. I thought the prank scenes were cute as well as Ben trying to dance when he sucks even worse than I do.

The Bad:

. The scriptedness was pretty hard to deal with. Obviously, all reality shows are scripted to some degree. However, this show did not even bother to hide when those instances were. Of course, JoJo called right when a mariachi band starts playing. Of course Ben “bought” Lauren a fiat when she was mad at him. I bet it wasn’t that they wanted a sponsorship at all…. Of course they just happen to meet an elderly couple that went through the exact same communication issues as them to convince them not to break up. At times it was eye roll inducing and I don’t want to have to be annoyed by the show I am trying to be entertained by.

. The Bachelor cameos. Okay, look I love The Bachelor shows. The alum are entertaining. But, seeing an alum every episode took away from the actual show and felt forced. We did not need to see the twins almost every episode. Grant and Lace should never have been featured when neither Ben nor Lauren were close to them. The cameos ended up not being special because you expected one every episode.

. Each episode felt the same. The circumstances from every episode might have varied a bit, but the format was the same. They start off happy. They talk about the wedding. They fight. Then, some special event occurs. This event causes them to realize they want to stay together. The end. Wash, Rinse, Repeat. The show needs to vary things up. Repetitiveness works on The Bachelor because it is a competition show. You expect the dates and then the elimination. A reality show about a couple’s lives should not have the same issues every episode.

  There it is. My thoughts on how the show could improve should they receive a second season. I appreciate everyone who has read my recaps for this show over the season. My Survivor recaps should continue until its finale in December. Expect Bachelor related blogs to resume in January when The Bachelor premieres. I’m currently working on a format for how I will write those blogs so don’t hesitate to let me know if you have an area you would like me to focus on.

Survivor 33 Recap "How To Be A Dumb Surfer"

  Previously on Survivor, the Cool Kids were completely blindsided by Michelle being voted off. They didn’t realize that Survivor casts more normal people than Big Brother and so didn’t realize that being in a powerful alliance turns off people not in said alliance. Despite Taylor’s insistence of not being a “dumb surfer”, I think we can all agree that this episode helps cement that he is indeed a “dumb snowboarder”.  How so? Well, let’s talk about the episode.

  The episode starts off with Jay proclaiming how stupid the millennials are that voted against him. He mentions that Zeke and Hannah are at the bottom of the GenX tribe, and so voting out a millennial was just hastening their demise. I disagree with him because I doubt that the GenX tribe will stay strong, but I can see his logic. Taylor and Jay reconvene and decide that they need to make the tribe like them again and that their main way of doing that will be to throw Adam under the bus. 

  Taylor, for some reason, still thinks he is being sneaky about the stash of food he has. But A.) Everyone knows he was eating the tribe’s food already, so I hardly doubt that anyone at this point doesn’t know he stole food. They just may not have known the extent of it. He was called out on it at the last tribal, but for some reason still thinks that people didn’t know about it. #NotSmart

  Jay tries another approach of sneakiness by attempting to get back in Hannah’s good graces. Hannah tells him that she felt used and that if she had stuck by the millennials she would have ended up as a goat. For those of you new to Survivor, a goat is a person you take to the final 3 because no one would ever vote for them. What Hannah doesn’t realize is that she is a goat for both sides. The millennials now won’t vote for her and the GenX people never would have voted for her. She keeps talking about wanting to build a resume. But, she already has. A bad one. A can’t even work at McDonalds bad one.

  So we get to the reward challenge where 2 teams of 6 are competing for a day at the spa with some good food. In an absolute blowout, Sunday, Brett, Chris, Taylor, and Ken win. I thought about describing the competition, but the amount of time it would’ve taken me to type that up would have been longer than it took for them to win. At the spa, Brett decides to get really really drunk. Unfortunately, this doesn’t provide much entertainment because he apparently can control his alcohol and does not make any game changing mistakes.  

  While they are at the reward challenge, Jay sees this as an opportunity to mend fences with Adam. Unfortunately, Adam wouldn’t know how to mend fences if he had a degree in it. He immediately asserts that Jay is on the bottom and there is nothing he can do about it. Jay predictably is then angered and tells Zeke and Hannah about the conversation. Both Zeke and Hannah roll their eyes at Adam. You suspect the guy of having an idol but you blatantly tell him that he will likely have to use it soon?! Not only that but in terms of social game that was an idiotic move. Even in Adam miraculously made it to the final tribal council, he would have no shot at getting those jury votes.

  Before the immunity challenge, Sunday starts becoming insecure about fellow GenX member Jessica, She is so paranoid that she contemplates keeping Jay and Taylor to get Jessica out first. This reveals 2 things. 1.) Jay’s social game is good enough that people are finding excuses to keep him around. 2.) Why do girls always have to target other girls? There are only 3 girls left in this season compared to around 10 boys and you are telling me Jessica worries you the most? What about David the guy who has lied to you almost every day? I’m telling you, I don’t think her decision is based on any strategy except be the last girl standing.

   At the immunity challenge, the players had to stand on a small beam and balance a ball on some wooden concoction. If you fall off the beam or drop the ball(pun intended), you are out of the competition. There was also the added component to the challenge. If you felt safe enough, you could opt out of the challenge and spend the time eating food. Will and Zeke opted out. Zeke makes sense as there was no way he was going home. Will’s decision was dumber. He would have gone home last week if he hadn’t won immunity, but now he thinks he is safe enough to sit out. I get that he thought he wouldn’t win, but at least try. Eventually, Ken ends up winning.

  Immediately after, David decides that the vote should be split between Jay and Taylor to ensure that one goes home even if an idol is played. Sunday doesn’t like this plan and wants to campaign for Jessica to go instead. Brett says that he will talk to Chris, but no conversation is shown, so yeah that doesn’t look like a possibility at all.

  This leads to an explosive tribal council where I didn’t know if I was laughing at the stupidity of it, or if it was genuinely funny. Taylor decides to sell out Adam in an attempt to stay. He reveals Adam’s advantage that he can steal a reward. However, to do that, he also had to reveal that he stole the food again. Adam did a fairly decent job at reiterating that his advantage didn’t really have any impact on the game so it shouldn’t impact voting. Taylor did a decent job in saying that Adam knew way more than he let on about Taylor stealing food. Taylor even lied and said that Adam HELPED him steal the food and ate it alongside him and Jay. That’s a lie. But, it makes sense that Taylor would say that. Adam is already doubted by the tribe and anything Taylor can say to make that worse is worth doing. Even if it only ends up helping Jay. Another funny exchange occurred where Jeff was asking people about their reactions to Taylor having stolen food. Jessica immediately tries to make it an age thing. Jay becomes my lord and savior because he counters that it is not an age thing, and that some millennials aren’t raised like that. Finally, someone said it! My parents didn’t raise me to be stupid either. But, the kicker was that in explaining this Jay indirectly refers to Taylor as a “dumb surfer.”  Taylor immediately looked offended, but likely only because he is a snowboarder and not a surfer. I’m not sure Taylor knows the meaning of the word dumb. He might be that dumb.

Best Player/ Also My Favorite Player

  While in danger still, he did a decent job of cementing relationships to help him exploit cracks in alliances. He has also lost Taylor who ultimately was just deadweight to him. He was even smart enough to vote out Taylor to ensure that the votes weren’t split against him.

Worst Player:

Need I say more?

B&L Recap "Trouble In Paradise"

  Since the powers that be decided not to air a new episode during election night, we were instead treated to a double header last night. And by treated, I don’t mean of the chocolate or sports car variety, but the bug bomb your room or take an antibiotic type of treatment. While I’ve always wanted a spin-off of one of the Bachelor couples, I can’t help but feel Ben and Lauren were a misstep. Every episode has ended up being the same. Ben has cold feet. Lauren doesn’t understand that. They keep fighting. Then they make up because of “love” and all of that jazz. But don’t let my feelings about the show spoil it for you. Let’s talk about what happened this episode.

   The episode starts with Lauren shopping for bridesmaid dresses with her friends. She talks about wanting them all to feel comfortable.  I flashback to the previous weddings of my sisters as a bridesmaid. Sorry, I don’t know why I’m shhhakinggg now. Ptttsssddd??? Anyway, off of that subject for my sanity. Lauren discusses how the day went “perfect” and she can’t wait to tell Ben. As expected, he will ruin that “perfect” day by talking again about his cold feet. Here’s a thought. Try some bunny slippers. Move out of Colorado. You’ll get warmer real fast. Oh, they meant about the wedding? I could never have guessed. 

  To deal with their problems they decide to go to pre-wedding counseling. Because they haven’t had any Bachelor alum in 10 minutes, the show hyperventilates and decides to bring in Lace/Grant and the Twins. I use to love The Twins, but do they really need to be in every episode? Could they not get any other alum? Heck, I bet Josh/Amanda would have loved to do it for tv time and I would kill to see them in couples therapy. Anyway at this counseling they play the nearly-wed game. I’m sure most of you know the rules. Your partner answers a question and you have to see if you know what they said. Everyone is surprised because Ben/Lauren do poorly, but Grant/Lace do well. But, all of Grant’s answers outside of one had to do with sex. He and Lace were having sex within 2 minutes of meeting each other. I wonder what their relationship is all about. Next time, ask them about when Grant expects to start cheating on Lace. I’m sure Lace will get that question wrong…..

  Lauren doing poorly just puts more doubt into Ben’s mind before the couples do part 2 of the therapy by completing a Ropes course together. All the girls are freaking out. I guess I’m not as much of a girly girl as I thought because it didn’t look scary at all. I mean, yes, heights suck. But did they really think that the show would EVER suggest doing something that would cause them to get hurt? There’d be lawsuits and cancellations if they did. Any logical person would have known that they would be perfectly fine. Yet again, maybe I’m just not like most girls, but the crying just got annoying after a while. 

   After the ropes course, they have the standard therapy session of talking out feelings. Ben again elaborates on feeling unlovable and how that makes him want to be extra sure before he marries Lauren. He feels they haven’t done enough to get married. This angers Lauren because she completely uprooted her California life and moved for him. She feels blindsided. She really shouldn’t because he has literally expressed this every episode, but she does. The therapist trying to help them, decides to do an exercise where they dress in wedding clothes so they can gauge how they would feel if they got married that second. Ben does a 180 and decides he’s ready to be married. Yeah, no that doesn’t happen. It only freaks him out more and he calls off the wedding. You know producers, maybe this would have had more impacted if you hadn’t shown that clip 70 billion times before the episode aired. Just a thought.

  So they go to Chris Harrison to tell him the wedding is off. This was again a repetitive segment where Ben and Lauren continued to express the same problem. Chris Harrison continued to act like he cares about the leads, when its just the paycheck that he is after. Ben realizes he is in the dog house so to compensate he  buys Lauren a new car. It’s a successful tactic. If a girl is mad at you, buy her an engagement ring, dog, house, or car. Usually, we will be blinded by that long enough for you to get at least a day of peace. The not happy couple then takes a road trip.

  On the way home, they stop at the IheartRadio Music Festival. I’m surprised because that took place in September. So the turnaround on these episodes is getting faster and faster. It also makes it appear worse that Ben and Lauren are still having these issues. Anyway, they fight. Again. The press keeps asking them about a wedding date and Lauren feels like Ben is faking that things are going okay. What is he supposed to say though? Dear press that we don’t know, we are fighting a ton and the wedding is called off. No. I get Lauren is upset, but every situation doesn’t need to be about the wedding. 

  Of course they aren’t allowed to end the episode on a bad note, so ‘spontaneously” Ben and Lauren meet with a couple that’s been married 70 years. Blah blah Blah. They offer advice. Blah Blah Blah. Ben and Lauren are happy again. ZZZ ZZZ ZZZ. Woah. I just woke up. Sorry about that.

  The episode ends with the big reveal that Ben had the house redecorated to Lauren’s taste while they were road tripping. The house is a little too overtly feminine for my tastes, but if Ben can suck it up, good for him. Until next time folks, keep dreaming about being on a reality show so you can afford a brand new car and complete remodeling all in the space of 3 days. 

Survivor 33 Recap "Chicken Littles"

  How ironic is it that the episode I missed recapping due to debate was likely the best blindside we will have all season? It was so beautiful and she truly did not see it coming. Heck, even I didn’t see it coming and thought that Jay/Will would back out of it. I hope the rest of this season can be as entertaining. Debate itself is a lot like Survivor. Of course, there are a certain set of skills you should come into the game knowing how to do like swimming and basic social skills. However, each season has different people/judges that you have to tailor your skills around. That is what Michaela failed at and what the winner of this season will ultimately have to prove they can do.

  So now on to this episode. After the Michaela vote, Hannah is blindsided and upset. Hannah is probably the biggest person ever to play the victim. When she has a freak out about every vote, it’s obvious why Jay and will wouldn’t want to fill her in on a potential blindside. She would’ve told Michaela. It has nothing to do with Jay thinking that he is so “charming” and that you will fall in line.  Hannah seems to be taking the Revenge of the Nerds thing too far and wants to isolate people that she has no reason to isolate. Please get her off of my screen Survivor gods. Please. 

  After this, we are treated to the Survivor merge. For those of you new to Survivor, it is no longer a tribe game. At this point, everyone is on their own. The rest pretty much works the same as usual, there will be an immunity challenge, but only one person will win it. Then everyone will attend tribal with whomever won immunity being safe. This is where the real game kicks in, and as Adam put it “separates the great players from the mediocre ones”. And boy did he foreshadow which side he’d be on. (Hint: It’s the latter.)

  Old groups from before the tribal swap reemerge as allies and the millennials think they are sitting pretty. Jay even calls himself the “kingpen”. I roll my eyes because whenever Survivor shows someone overconfident you know that that very episode they will suffer a setback. Overconfidence is a Survivor killer. This overconfidence shows itself to Zeke who is now desperate to take out Jay. Adam is also desperate, but in a different way. He goes searching for another immunity idol to add to his collection. Instead, he finds an advantage that allows him to steal another person’s reward. This is a freaking pointless advantage. The only reward challenge that is even worth the anger of stealing it from someone is the advantage in the final 4 immunity challenge. But after tonight, we all know Adam won’t make it anywhere close to that point. So all in all, a fail of a Survivor twist. Try harder.

  Another fail this episode was Taylor. Boy, how many times was this kid dropped on the head as a baby? I’m guessing enough that Child Protective Services should have been called because this boy is not very smart. He decides he’s going to steal the tribe’s food because he is hungry. The worst part is that he isn’t stealthy about it at all, and he doesn’t make sure everyone is asleep. However, this wasn’t even the stupidest move of this episode. Yes, unfortunately that is true. The stupidest move goes to Adam. Adam runs up to Taylor and tells him about his advantage. ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME? You just voted out his girlfriend, and you are telling him not only about your advantage, but the fact that you want to target his best friend Jay, and Jay’s best friend Will. In what universe did he think Taylor wouldn’t rat on him? As much as I dislike Taylor, I wanted Adam to go home this episode due to the sheer amount of stupidity shown by Adam.

  GenX gets together to discuss which of the millennials they want out. The consensus is that they want it to be Will or Jay, until David intercedes. He thinks Jay has an idol and so instead they should vote out Michelle, who will be blindsided and the idol won’t be played. It’s not a smart idea. As evidenced by tribal later, Taylor and Jay thought they had this in the bag. They could’ve blindsided Jay without the idol being played and taken care of two birds with one stone. But instead they’ve taken out a worthless player and alerted Jay to the fact that he will need his idol in the future. They’ve lost the element of surprise. But, I digress.

  The players head off to their first individual immunity challenge and it’s a tough one. The players must balance on a small pedestal, while holding onto a metal bar. If their arms even slightly move off of the bar, a bucket of water will drop on them eliminating them from the challenge. Ultimately after a long battle between Jessica and Will, Will wins. This, along with intel from Zeke, convinces Adam that Taylor had revealed his plan to vote out Will to other people. I roll my eyes because he should’ve assumed that the second Taylor left the conversation and ran straight back to Jay. 

  The Genx members are in a pickle because they can’t seem to agree on who to vote out. This frightens Adam so he goes back to the millennial tribe and tries to work with them. Of course, this frightens already paranoid David into doubting him. Hannah tells Adam that he needs to chill it with the flip-flopping because it is ruining his chances at this game. Screw Adam for making Hannah have a moment where I agree with her. 

  So we head off to tribal council and all in all it wasn’t very interesting. There was more comparison of GenX vs. Millennials that made me want to vomit. Taylor continued to act like an overconfident bozo and then Michelle was voted out. The vote could have been suspenseful if they hadn’t shown Zeke saying while voting “I have never trusted you.” Obviously, that wouldn’t apply to Adam so everyone knew then and there that Michelle was a goner. Yet again, I find this to be a dumb move. They could have easily gotten Jay or Taylor if they had played their cards right. Now Jay knows to be on the lookout to play his idol and he may even start the search to find another one to give Taylor. 

Worst Player:

Taylor. Now, this was really close between him and Adam. Both were idiots that have no chance of winning the game now. The difference is, at least Adam showed some signs of figuring that out. So based on that, Taylor gets worst player of the episode.

Best Player:

No one really stood out. Sure David pitched the Michelle vote, but I ultimately think that was a bad move, so I won’t give it to him. Instead, I’ll give it to Zeke for effortlessly transferring to a position of power on the Genx side of the tribe.

Favorite Player:

 Ken is still my favorite, but Jay is rising up the ranks and could challenge him if he makes it far enough. So, for the sake of variety, I'll give this episode to Jay.

B&L Recap "Welcome to the Real World"

  Hey guys! Welcome to a little mini-post edition of my blog. I’ve got a lot going on this week from tests to a debate tournament this weekend so I don’t have as much time to devote to this recap. However, I know many of you read this instead of actually watching the show so I still wanted to provide you with a basic outline of what happened. Especially since game 6 was on last night, if you watched this show live I would be surprised. That’s my job to do for your benefit.

Alright, so with that being said, we can break down the episode into three parts.

1.)    The house hunt

2.)    The struggle over future careers

3.)    Lauren’s blog launch party

  Ben and Lauren decide that they want to look for a new, larger place to raise their family in. Since the  houses” in a segment more scripted than an HGTV show. Look it up, those shows are all scripted. Basically, she goes from showing them a disaster property that’s worth 200k and then right after shows them a dream home worth 900,000 that’s “only a little past your budget”. If the other house you showed them was 200K, the 900K isn’t only “a little” past budget. Ben wants the fixer upper because money. Lauren wants the dream home because she wants to settle in the home she will live in for the rest of her life. Here’s a brief newsflash for her, most people do not live in one house their entire life. There’s no need for you to buy a perfect 4 bedroom when you aren’t even married yet. The couple splits the difference and decide to postpone house hunting.

  Then Lauren starts to struggle with the idea that she no longer has a job. She used to be a flight attendant, which are awesome by the way, shout out to my aunt! I digress. Lauren had to stop working because she kept getting recognized and in interfered with her doing her job. I sympathize for her, that could not have been easy. However, her logic on the show for finding a new job was either really stupid or scripted. She decides that because she loves to “cuddle” with animals, she should be a zookeeper. Because, we all know that’s all zookeepers have to do. It took one minute of her shuffling poop before she realized it wasn’t the job for her.

  Finally, Lauren settles on the fact that she wants to start a lifestyle blog. It will focus on beauty tips, her life, fashion, etc. While I admire her trying to find a job, let’s be honest, her blog being successful doesn’t really have much to do with her work on it. If she hadn’t gone on The Bachelor, no one would give a crap. None of those industry professionals would’ve shown up at her party because she has no relevant experience. Also, is there really anything new she can add with a beauty blog? There are thousands of them on the web already and I doubt there are that many unique tips that she could share. This blog, if it makes her money, will solely be because people want to read about Ben’s fiancé. Eventually, she’ll be last week’s news though so she needs to find another career at some point in her life.  The launch party goes well enough with her receiving only positive feedback (as if anyone on camera would’ve said anything negative). Lauren starts to worry that Ben won’t show up, but instead he surprises her with her brother and her mother coming to the party. She’s thrilled and all is forgiven. It’s a sweet gesture. Hopefully, Lauren holds on to that to help her deal with the fact that Ben is starting to question the wedding because Lauren didn’t know he was allergic to coconut. Okay, it had more to deal with what that meant and not the actual coconut allergy, but this a blog and sensationalism works best.

  You know what else works best? You watching game 7 of the World Series tonight. However, don’t worry about missing Survivor. If CBS foolishly decides to air it, I will cover it in a recap tomorrow. It might be shorter than usual because I have to pack for my debate tournament. We will be driving all the way to Kentucky. Let me know if you want me to do a post about how the tournament goes. What I write is all up to you.