Survivor 41 - week 10 results

 Although the pool points awarded was simple, the episode was really great, showing Survivor at its core and exactly what all the relevant players are thinking and feeling and how they're making their choices based on those.  And then how the voting plans changed a couple times before tribal.  Let's get to the pool points:

• Ricard wins individual reward!  5 points for him.
• Then, Ricard wins individual immunity!  Another 5 points for him.
• Before tribal council, the plan to vote out Erika was changed by Ricard to vote out Shan. In case Shan plays her idol, Erika manufactures a split vote to create a tie between Liana and Shan. At tribal council, neither Xander nor Shan play their idol, and everything goes to plan, creating the tie. Everyone votes for Shan on the revote except Liana, who couldn't vote. 2 points to everyone that banded together to vote out Shan.
• 9 points to everyone that survived tribal council #9.
• Ricard earned the most points by far with 21 while everyone else earned 11 or lower.

In the pool, 53% had Shan, the 34-year-old pastor.

• Jswizzle is still in first with the only entry with 6 picks left out of the 7 remaining contestants.
• Mitch is still in last by 20 points.
• massey jumped into the top 10 from 11th to 6th.
• That One Guy and Ezequiel both fell 8 spots out of the top 10 to 16th and 17th.

Next week: Liana basically declares war on Deshawn.

My episode observations:

• I can't believe Erika's last minute plan to get the 6 players other than Liana and Shan to split the vote and create a tie worked.  Even though it wasn't needed because Shan didn't play her idol, Erika did well to cover her butt just in case.
• Funny when Shan started humming her own song and Heather asking her about it.
• Xander not playing his idol again, correctly, was impressive again!  Ice in that guy's veins.
• Did perhaps Liana get her closest ally voted out?  If she didn't tell Shan about the guys' plan to vote out Ricard, and then Shan told Ricard, and then Ricard realizes then he's not top 4, maybe he wouldn't have decided it was time to take out Shan?
• Did anyone notice the somber music that was playing on the revote before Shan was voted out?  Wow, even the producers loved Shan.
• When Shan was leaving, she announces that Ricard would get her winning vote.  Did she mean that?  If she did, didn't she just put a bigger target on his back?

Survivor 41 - week 9 results

Another great episode tonight and despite the little twist of separating the tribe into 2 groups for 2 tribal councils, I felt there was great classic Survivor strategizing and chess moves and keeping us in suspense right to the very end.  Here are the pool points:

• At the immunity challenge, Erika and Xander won individual immunities - 5 points for each of them.
• At the first tribal council, it goes to a tie between Heather and Naseer.  In the tie-breaker, Ricard and Shan turn on Naseer and vote with Erika to blindside him.  2 points each to Erika, Heather, Ricard and Shan for voting out Naseer who goes out with an un-played idol.
• At the second tribal council, the show really makes us think that one of the players in the power alliance is going to go home, but Deshawn stays true with his alliance and along with Liana and Danny, they vote out Evvie after Xander decides not to play his idol on her.  2 points each to the 3 of them for voting out Evvie.  Xander was the only one out of the surviving players who didn't vote for the people going home.
• 8 points each to all the contestants that survived tribal council #8.
• Erika earned the most points this week with 15.

In the pool, 35% of entries had Evvie, the 28-year-old PhD student, and 41% had Naseer, the 37-year-old sales manager.

• Jswizzle takes back 1st place and is now the only entry with 7 out of the remaining 8 contestants.
• Mitch takes over last place by 11 points and is the only entry with 1 pick left
• Sara D jumped up 7 spots into the top 10 from 13th to 6th
• Both Ezybilt and The Mexican fell out of the top 10 from 6th to 16th.

Next week: I didn't see a preview for next week... was there one that I missed?

My episode observations:

• Wow, Iliana really hated Xander's face during the immunity challenge!
• It was really funny that Liana tried to pull a Shan and tried to get Xander to temporarily give her his immunity idol.  Xander would have nothing of it.
• Even if Xander really did think there was a good chance that Evvie was going home, would he have played his idol on her to get one of the others out?  I don't think so... there's just still too many in that majority alliance and he would have then been extremely vulnerable.
• Like I'm sure many of you were, I was really puzzled at first why Shan would need to play her extra vote, and then actually split her two votes between Heather and Naseer, if the plan was to get him out.  It was only later on did I realize it must have been for insurance that Heather would still go home in case Naseer played his idol on himself.  But it must have hurt her to use up that advantage to vote out a loyal ally instead of eliminating the person she really wanted to get rid of.  Ricard really worked her over to make her go with his plan.
• What the heck was the answer to that rebus puzzle?  Finale?  Final Three?  I couldn't tell if the tree was part of the puzzle or just a border decoration.

Survivor 41 - week 8 results

Hope everyone is doing well on this Remembrance Day.  Last night was a decent episode, another live tribal, or so it seemed.  Pretty straight forward points breakdown:

• At the reward challenge, the team of Danny, Deshawn, Erika, Evvie, and Ricard win and earn grilled cheese sandwiches and chips!  2 points each to them.
• At the immunity challenge, after a group of 4 sit out to provide rice for the whole tribe, Evvie wins individual immunity.  5 points for her!
• At tribal council, no idols or advantages are played.  There seems to be a split-vote but it was hard to tell exactly who was in on the split.  Anyways, it turns out that Deshawn, Erika, Heather, Liana, Ricard, and Shan vote for Tiffany who is voted out.  2 points to each of them.
• 7 points to everyone who survived Tribal Council #5.
  
• Evvie earned the most points this round with 14.

In the pool, 46% of entries have Tiffany, the 47-year-old teacher:

• Rachel L took over 1st place by one point, and having Evvie helped.
• Adam J is still in last place by 2 points.
• Amanda M jumped into the top 10 from 13th to 8th
• BlueBoxer climbed the highest from 53rd to 33rd and is in a good position to keep climbing.

Next week - fireworks and more chaos as alliances are seemingly broken

My episode observations:

• Xander is definitely not a dumb surfer dude!  Sitting out the reward so he can have time with the emotional losers of the challenge?  Brilliant.  It's unfortunate he didn't look more and find that advantage on the sit-out bench.
• Xander is also pretty ballsy volunteering to sit out the immunity challenge, AND not playing his idol!  He is definitely putting in the work with the others and reading them correctly.  Ricard really tried to get him to play his idol but Xander did not break.
• I love Xander's term - betraydar.
• Shan's pushiness is starting to rub people the wrong way, mainly Heather and Deshawn.  I think she's in trouble next week.
• Heather almost got herself voted out at Tribal by starting the whispering and huddling when everyone else seemed to be set.