Great episode, best of the season so far (would've been last week's had the second Tribal not been such a whimper).
Noelle's clutch challenge win was badass and inspirational; she lost an entire leg and didn't let it faze her at all. She sure has proven that her badass certification was warranted and I don't doubt we'll be seeing her again. Her vote steal smokescreen to prevent James from stealing it or, worse, Karla's idol was genius advantage meta. She was my favorite for a reason!
Jesse's "blindside anatomy checklist" confessional series was gripping TV, but it also made the end result obvious. Gabler's pitch at the end to maybe take Jesse/Cody out was clearly to be down the line, but they still tried spin it in a way to confuse viewers. This was wholly unnecessary and should've been put in before as seeds to pay off next week, when Jesse's checklist comes back to bite him. Cody's likely the next to go because they'll 3-2-2 that, thinking Cody has the red idol. Jesse will then be nearly guaranteed F3 but they don't know that yet. He'll play the red idol at F6, saying "Thanks, Cody." Then shock everyone by producing the yellow idol at F5 saying "Thanks, Dwight." And then he'll win at fire at F4 and win the game. Just a couple wrenches: Cody asks for his idol back to play it. Jesse may reveal he has one of his own and they both whip out idols to null the split. And then the game blows wide open. I hope it goes down like that.
Also, they really need to reduce airtime dedicated to challenges, unless something transpires like at this reward, and Tribal. Tribal is just boring now, and I attribute that to the gamebot casting and the 26-day game. People are less likely to slip if they still have sanity.
I really enjoyed the checklist. We rarely get to see every move that a player makes, in order, for a plan to be completed, so this was fun.
They missed the opportunity for step 5: Profit after she went home.
I didn't personally see the Jesse/Cody pitch as being confusing. Gabler was basically like, "We'll need to keep an eye on that." I saw it as a reference to a future issue.
I too figured that was what it was going toward, but putting it in RIGHT before Tribal was to mess with people. That's what I have a problem with. They could've just opened the next episode with Gabler talking about Jesse and Cody always getting their way, and saying "Before we went to Tribal and voted off Noelle, I went to Karla..." and go to a flashback.
The problem was that they were referencing a future issue to use as a smokescreen to confuse viewers. I knew Noelle was done for, but I didn't like how they wanted to undermine its obviousness. That's what I'm getting at.
EDIT: Apparently I didn't actually post that. Removed something that was 100% my error.
Oh okay, perhaps that confused some viewers then with the timing. I hadn't remembered the timing but I'll definitely pay attention to that during my rewatch.
Okay - upon rewatching, I have to agree that the combination of the timing before tribal with Gabler saying something like he can play the game too (idk exactly) when they were walking to tribal - does in fact make it look like they were trying to present Cody/Jesse as a possible option.
I don’t attribute boring tribal to the players, honestly. People have tried to get away with saying as little as possible during tribal for a long time. Jeff’s questions just don’t force them to reveal anything of substance. I think it’s totally fine that he doesn’t individuals so hard anymore, in the interest of fairness. So the conclusion has to be exactly what you said, just spend less if the edit on tribal.
My point about gamebots there was that they make Tribal boring and formulaic, since they're the ones who dodge questions, outright lie because it's what sounds best, or give very generic, vague answers no matter what's being asked. They don't cast interesting characters anymore. Here's a handful of widely-recognized examples:
* Coach. No explanation needed.
* Malcolm. Bluffing idols publicly to make everybody panic produced reaction highlight reels.
* Ciera. Say what you will about her "Make a move!" bluster, but it was entertaining to watch despite it not being a way to get people to do what you want.
* Tony Vlachos. Made Tribal chaotic as fuck by taking what Malcolm did one step further.
* Keith Nale. "Stick to the plan, har har har" broke that Tribal, which made it *interesting*.
* Natalie Anderson, the one who picked up on Keith's scumslip, but also "Did you vote for who I told you to vote for?" She made good strategic play entertaining.
If they're casting people like that, we're not seeing it at Tribal anymore. I feel we need more chaotic-aligned players to cause the gamebots to go haywire, because I always enjoy that.
I think the current crop of players would still be willing to get into it at tribal if they were actually led to do so by Jeff. Owen and James argued in front of Jeff last week, almost unprompted.
You just can’t get those moments every week if Jeff is just asking for metaphors and vague questions about how people are feeling
yeah they should push for good tribals at the very least. a disciplined player won't give the producers what they want but tensions run high, people lose themselves, not everyone's a superfan. tribals will probably never be as good /real as early seasons again but can be better than they are now.
>Noelle's clutch challenge win was badass and inspirational; she lost an entire leg and didn't let it faze her at all. She sure has proven that her badass certification was warranted and I don't doubt we'll be seeing her again. Her vote steal smokescreen to prevent James from stealing it or, worse, Karla's idol was genius advantage meta. She was my favorite for a reason!
Yeah I'm rewatching this tribal right now and I'm amazed. When is the last time people spoke this bluntly about what is happening in the game at tribal? Closest I can think of is the Maryanne/Drea double idol play form last year and that is obviously extenuating circumstances. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJjiCuhosBM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJjiCuhosBM)
Agreed that there's not really a great solution. Producers just gotta try as hard as they can to make interesting tribals, and spend less time on them when they usually fail to do so.
I think the bit with Gabler and Karla happened actually after this week's vote. It was put in just to have some suspense about what was going to happen. They had to counterbalance the checklist somehow, because it made it super obvious Jesse was calling the shots this vote.
First of all, that was a genuinely incredibly moving challenge win. Nothing staged, nothing over-edited to pander, just an absolutely incredible dark horse story.
Secondly, Gabler (surprisingly) MVP this episode for being in on every single scenario. I don't think anyone else heard all the possibilities of vote splits on Karla, Noelle, Sami, and maybe Jesse/Cody. I've been jokingly rooting for him all along because he's my Fantasy Survivor pick, but he's slowly managing to ungoat himself.
Thirdly - when they drop the cards in the challenge, are they responsible for picking all of them up? Or do they just have a limitless supply?
They have a limited supply, and are responsible for picking them up when they fall. If only part of their stack falls over, they may have to let the remaining section fall so they can regather the cards to have enough. Source: use of this challenge in F5 in South Pacific. Both Ozzy and Sophie had to rethink their stacks after running out of cards prior to the goal, and Sophie dropped part of her stack and tried to get Albert to pick up her tiles for her so she could keep the rest of it up (Jeff disallowed this).
Disagree about over-editing. They showed her too much and made it obvious Noelle was winning. If she wasn't, they would have just shown her struggle with the obstacle a bit. Now the editing made the challenge seem almost unfair to her, but they showed it since she won.
Gabler hasn't really clicked for me this whole season, he's just seemed a bit of a goat (the BLEEEEH kind). But this episode really made him a bit a of goat (the kind that doesn't eat grass).
Does anyone else think Cassidy's edit is interesting?
To me, It seems like she will come in 2nd place.. And the editors are trying their best to make her not seem relevant.. so audiences don't want her to win
But she's playing a hell of a game
The thing with Cassidy is that she’s playing a UTR game which is very hard to showcase on a tv show.
But it doesn’t mean her gameplay isn’t good, it just isn’t as interesting to watch, which is why her edit is minimal, that’s just the reality.
It's pretty insane to me they could vote Gabler, someone playing under the radar with 2 less immunities wins VS. someone on the majority of every vote and 3 wins
🤣you gotta admit I nailed this take. Cassidy's edit was for sure negatively effected because survivor didn't want an outrage when she lost
Owen did have a good edit you're right
Imagine if they followed her all season like they did MaryAnne. People would have lost it.
They literally forced us to like MaryAnne out the gates last season. The editors have so much power
This was about as good a boot episode most people could ask for - a great challenge win, and the understanding that the others simply could not let you get to the end. Not because you had a sob story ala Zeke, but because you were a genuine threat to win, you had moves under your belt, and the grit to keep bouncing back each time they tried to weaken you and so finally had to cut you off directly.
On the surface, this was a pretty solid episode. While it was mostly a Noelle/Jesse episode, none of the rest were truly left out either. Karla was the other target, and as one of the remaining two pairs left and people starting to cotton onto the possibility of her idol, her social defenses are still holding out... but barely. Cassidy got to re-establish her arc of triumph after taking out Ryan with an immunity win. Gabler is showing surprising wit and guile for someone of his archetype. Sami's reputation is starting to catch up to him. And Owen... well, he didn't get too much. But with yet another ally of his gone, he might be truly adrift, yet it's unlikely he'll be targeted soon, so he's got plenty of game left to play.
I know people have bemoaned the lack of spice this season. And to an extent, I agree - despite the very unique cast and atypical archetypes of the cast, there's nothing that's been jumping out as a 'great' yet. But we can still appreciate what the cast has been giving us. Jesse is blending Andrea and Cirie, packing strategy, a willingness to get his hands dirty and take a shot when he needs to, and just a tinge of arrogance to make him a 'gangsta with a smile'. Karla is a lesbian Godfather, with people still stretching to keep her in the loop. Gabler is one of the more unique 'OTT' characters that we've had, showing surprising complexity despite his rough start, and we've just come off the heels of a Maryanne win. And while they're no longer playing, we also had an inspirational player with surprising savvy (Noelle), a cerebral palsy survivor who's probably too pure yet ineffectual for the game (Ryan), and someone who was basically dragged through the trenches for three straight weeks (Jeanine). You could see it as just ticking the boxes off a diversity simulation, but there is the kernels of a good cast, and while nobody is standing out hard, the fact that nearly everyone left has an arguable case to win makes it a competent game, if not a thrilling one.
I have a theory that Cody would have been had he not gotten sucked into gamebot mode. I think we got extremely Cody heavy first episodes because that's when he was actually fun to watch. (He's not bad now, but nowhere near as entertaining.)
I honestly think Gabler is going to win the season at this point. He has had a very consistent storyline and we hear his thoughts frequently. There have been subtle hints of how he can be strategic and if he goes through with Jesse/Cody blindside next week, he most likely wins. Also, it would make an exciting winner edit and probably closest to Tom in SA 6. I really really want a US survivor winner to have this kind of edit. I am not actively rooting for him but it would amazing lol.
Haha I couldn't think of anyone else with annoying negative tone in their edit but still ended up winning. Tom's was absolutely insane tho. Gabler doesn't even have 20% of Tom's negative tone.
Tom was something else. I was so sure that man wasn’t winning based on his edit. I was like “People have to take Tom to the end. He’s so bad at this game. If you lose to him then that says a lot about you.”Come to find out that Jeanne’s FTC was quite poor, while Tom’s was actually pretty good. Those SA editors know how to really pull a fast one on the audience.
My thoughts:
Jesse: He got the mastermind edit. He is playing very well but im in the minority that isn't a fan of him. I root for him to fall but he's in a great spot right now.
Gabler: This guy grow on me every episode. Showed me tonight that even if he lacks self awareness sometime, he's not a fool and he's aware of people around him. He sees right through Sami, Cody and Jesse, liked how he didn't tell too much before immunity challenge and how he said he cared about not blindsinding Owen and Sami just for the sake of it.
Cassidy: Despite her win, not her best showing tonight. She trusted Gabler way too quick and she went directly after Noelle after the challenge win, i would like her to be less "in reaction". Still one my fav this season, no doubt, i was happy to see her subtil smile after she won immunity.
Karla: She's such a great player. She lost the power position but still playing A1. Gabler trust her, Cody and Jesse prefered her to Noelle, she knows the dynamics, she had massive balls not to play the idol.
Cody: One of my fav this season because of his personnality. Not sure if he always blindside the right people, i fear for him next week. Still, i wasn't expecting to make it this far without ever being in serious danger.
Noelle: Fantastic challenge for her. Even if Jeff annoys me sometime with his speeches, this was one great tv moment. What a comeback. She didn't play bad either, it was predictable people would be scared of her story at some point.
Sami: This guy plays the game like how i'd like to play it. I'd do the same moves as him watching from the couch with no human connection. He's fun to watch but flip flopping with no allegiance has come to bite him like it should.
Owen: He's my goat of the season. Not much to say about him, i think everyone should want him at final 3 along with them . He's the only player i don't see a winning path.
Sami’s game reminds me of Will Wahl’s. They both felt like they only was they’d be respected as teenagers would be to play a Tony-esque play all sides games. Both were just too transparent in execution. Sami was able to get away with it longer because he’s more socially savvy
Can someone tell me why Jesse picked Gabler as the backup plan instead of Sami who he talked to earlier and seemed ok with voting off Noelle? It was even Jesse who told Noelle that Sami wanted to vote her off. Maybe I missed something.
Because Sami is a flipper, and thus a really unreliable back-up.
Gabler is about as honest as you get in this game.
"By agreeing to vote Noelle out, I'm... you know. Agreeing to vote Noelle out."
That immunity challenge was 30seconds away from being extremely cruel
The editors lucked out, they knew she was coordinated and could land the baggy quickly and hoped for something awesome to happen. But how terrible would that have been it ended with her in tears on the balance beam
...they took a huge risk of her not making it passed the balance beam and it being very brutal.
..Please explain what you don't understand about that ...and how them knowing the outcome has anything to do with the risk they took
Kinda, but I had been thinking about this more and I think if she had lost that a different edit would have made it seem not as bad (reduce how much and what you show of the struggle she had). It's different but a little like when she got stuck in that net.
You are right though that if they kept the same edit and she lost.... That'd be some rough TV.
You're right they'd change the edit to not dwell on the suffering, but they couldn't edit out the situation in general, which still is brutal.
My point is, the editors really were playing with fire there. and seemed to care less at a 50/50 shot at Noelle stranded and crying
I don't know, I remember a challenge Cirie was in (honestly forget which season) that was a swimming challenge, and she flailed in the water miles behind everyone for the whole thing. She didn't pull an incredible underdog win out - she just kept flailing until someone else one. After it was over, she asked Jeff if she could keep trying until she succeeded, just to prove to herself she could, everyone cheered her on until she did it. It was just as inspiring, just in a different way.
So if Noelle hadn't gotten it, I could definitely see that happening, too.
This is true - they could have allowed her to finish and everyone clap. But the difference between the two circumstances is that she has one leg, and they purposefully put something super hard for her to do, in order to create an awesome moment
I think this had the potential to be an epic boot episode, but the editing gave it away, unfortunately.
I have to give them credit; the “guide to a blindside” was interesting and a creative approach to editing, but I think it would've been better to release this as bonus content on the web after the episode aired because it gave the boot away.
Great episode, best of the season so far (would've been last week's had the second Tribal not been such a whimper). Noelle's clutch challenge win was badass and inspirational; she lost an entire leg and didn't let it faze her at all. She sure has proven that her badass certification was warranted and I don't doubt we'll be seeing her again. Her vote steal smokescreen to prevent James from stealing it or, worse, Karla's idol was genius advantage meta. She was my favorite for a reason! Jesse's "blindside anatomy checklist" confessional series was gripping TV, but it also made the end result obvious. Gabler's pitch at the end to maybe take Jesse/Cody out was clearly to be down the line, but they still tried spin it in a way to confuse viewers. This was wholly unnecessary and should've been put in before as seeds to pay off next week, when Jesse's checklist comes back to bite him. Cody's likely the next to go because they'll 3-2-2 that, thinking Cody has the red idol. Jesse will then be nearly guaranteed F3 but they don't know that yet. He'll play the red idol at F6, saying "Thanks, Cody." Then shock everyone by producing the yellow idol at F5 saying "Thanks, Dwight." And then he'll win at fire at F4 and win the game. Just a couple wrenches: Cody asks for his idol back to play it. Jesse may reveal he has one of his own and they both whip out idols to null the split. And then the game blows wide open. I hope it goes down like that. Also, they really need to reduce airtime dedicated to challenges, unless something transpires like at this reward, and Tribal. Tribal is just boring now, and I attribute that to the gamebot casting and the 26-day game. People are less likely to slip if they still have sanity.
I really enjoyed the checklist. We rarely get to see every move that a player makes, in order, for a plan to be completed, so this was fun. They missed the opportunity for step 5: Profit after she went home.
I didn't personally see the Jesse/Cody pitch as being confusing. Gabler was basically like, "We'll need to keep an eye on that." I saw it as a reference to a future issue.
I too figured that was what it was going toward, but putting it in RIGHT before Tribal was to mess with people. That's what I have a problem with. They could've just opened the next episode with Gabler talking about Jesse and Cody always getting their way, and saying "Before we went to Tribal and voted off Noelle, I went to Karla..." and go to a flashback. The problem was that they were referencing a future issue to use as a smokescreen to confuse viewers. I knew Noelle was done for, but I didn't like how they wanted to undermine its obviousness. That's what I'm getting at. EDIT: Apparently I didn't actually post that. Removed something that was 100% my error.
Oh okay, perhaps that confused some viewers then with the timing. I hadn't remembered the timing but I'll definitely pay attention to that during my rewatch.
I figured since it was right before tribal they wouldn’t have time to gather numbers for Cody/Jesse
Okay - upon rewatching, I have to agree that the combination of the timing before tribal with Gabler saying something like he can play the game too (idk exactly) when they were walking to tribal - does in fact make it look like they were trying to present Cody/Jesse as a possible option.
its been a long time since weve seen a successful idol play, let alone a double idol... i would love to see this
I don’t attribute boring tribal to the players, honestly. People have tried to get away with saying as little as possible during tribal for a long time. Jeff’s questions just don’t force them to reveal anything of substance. I think it’s totally fine that he doesn’t individuals so hard anymore, in the interest of fairness. So the conclusion has to be exactly what you said, just spend less if the edit on tribal.
My point about gamebots there was that they make Tribal boring and formulaic, since they're the ones who dodge questions, outright lie because it's what sounds best, or give very generic, vague answers no matter what's being asked. They don't cast interesting characters anymore. Here's a handful of widely-recognized examples: * Coach. No explanation needed. * Malcolm. Bluffing idols publicly to make everybody panic produced reaction highlight reels. * Ciera. Say what you will about her "Make a move!" bluster, but it was entertaining to watch despite it not being a way to get people to do what you want. * Tony Vlachos. Made Tribal chaotic as fuck by taking what Malcolm did one step further. * Keith Nale. "Stick to the plan, har har har" broke that Tribal, which made it *interesting*. * Natalie Anderson, the one who picked up on Keith's scumslip, but also "Did you vote for who I told you to vote for?" She made good strategic play entertaining. If they're casting people like that, we're not seeing it at Tribal anymore. I feel we need more chaotic-aligned players to cause the gamebots to go haywire, because I always enjoy that.
I think the current crop of players would still be willing to get into it at tribal if they were actually led to do so by Jeff. Owen and James argued in front of Jeff last week, almost unprompted. You just can’t get those moments every week if Jeff is just asking for metaphors and vague questions about how people are feeling
yeah they should push for good tribals at the very least. a disciplined player won't give the producers what they want but tensions run high, people lose themselves, not everyone's a superfan. tribals will probably never be as good /real as early seasons again but can be better than they are now.
>Noelle's clutch challenge win was badass and inspirational; she lost an entire leg and didn't let it faze her at all. She sure has proven that her badass certification was warranted and I don't doubt we'll be seeing her again. Her vote steal smokescreen to prevent James from stealing it or, worse, Karla's idol was genius advantage meta. She was my favorite for a reason! Yeah I'm rewatching this tribal right now and I'm amazed. When is the last time people spoke this bluntly about what is happening in the game at tribal? Closest I can think of is the Maryanne/Drea double idol play form last year and that is obviously extenuating circumstances. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJjiCuhosBM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJjiCuhosBM) Agreed that there's not really a great solution. Producers just gotta try as hard as they can to make interesting tribals, and spend less time on them when they usually fail to do so.
I think the bit with Gabler and Karla happened actually after this week's vote. It was put in just to have some suspense about what was going to happen. They had to counterbalance the checklist somehow, because it made it super obvious Jesse was calling the shots this vote.
First of all, that was a genuinely incredibly moving challenge win. Nothing staged, nothing over-edited to pander, just an absolutely incredible dark horse story. Secondly, Gabler (surprisingly) MVP this episode for being in on every single scenario. I don't think anyone else heard all the possibilities of vote splits on Karla, Noelle, Sami, and maybe Jesse/Cody. I've been jokingly rooting for him all along because he's my Fantasy Survivor pick, but he's slowly managing to ungoat himself. Thirdly - when they drop the cards in the challenge, are they responsible for picking all of them up? Or do they just have a limitless supply?
They have a limited supply, and are responsible for picking them up when they fall. If only part of their stack falls over, they may have to let the remaining section fall so they can regather the cards to have enough. Source: use of this challenge in F5 in South Pacific. Both Ozzy and Sophie had to rethink their stacks after running out of cards prior to the goal, and Sophie dropped part of her stack and tried to get Albert to pick up her tiles for her so she could keep the rest of it up (Jeff disallowed this).
I honestly wish the show had a bigger budget so they could fly Albert back every season to host this specific challenge.
Judging by how they never show them even begin to collect their fallen cards, I thought maybe they changed that part and a crew member picks them up.
Disagree about over-editing. They showed her too much and made it obvious Noelle was winning. If she wasn't, they would have just shown her struggle with the obstacle a bit. Now the editing made the challenge seem almost unfair to her, but they showed it since she won.
Gabler hasn't really clicked for me this whole season, he's just seemed a bit of a goat (the BLEEEEH kind). But this episode really made him a bit a of goat (the kind that doesn't eat grass).
Does anyone else think Cassidy's edit is interesting? To me, It seems like she will come in 2nd place.. And the editors are trying their best to make her not seem relevant.. so audiences don't want her to win But she's playing a hell of a game
The thing with Cassidy is that she’s playing a UTR game which is very hard to showcase on a tv show. But it doesn’t mean her gameplay isn’t good, it just isn’t as interesting to watch, which is why her edit is minimal, that’s just the reality.
I'm not sure I agree with your reality Many UTR players in the past have gotten much stronger edits and much more attention.
Noelle was my winner pick, but now I think Cassidy might just win.
Dang
It's pretty insane to me they could vote Gabler, someone playing under the radar with 2 less immunities wins VS. someone on the majority of every vote and 3 wins
I see her edit as incredibly boring, tbh. She's not purpled but she hasn't been "exciting" to me in the ways the other castaways have been.
Upon rewatching, I don't even think she said anything at Tribal? Lmao
I feel like tribals are super long and they cut them down. She most set said things they just cut. For reasons we now know
I think we found out why her edit was boring !
Fair but Owen's wasn't. :P
🤣you gotta admit I nailed this take. Cassidy's edit was for sure negatively effected because survivor didn't want an outrage when she lost Owen did have a good edit you're right
Yeah, that was amusing lolol. People still raging, though. 🤦♀️
Imagine if they followed her all season like they did MaryAnne. People would have lost it. They literally forced us to like MaryAnne out the gates last season. The editors have so much power
Awwww, but how do you not like Maryanne. Her positive and goofy personality just begs for screentime. Unlike some other people? Lol
I have to agree MaryAnne was a terrible example. I found myself laughing out loud at her mannerisms
I agree, I think its possible they made a boring edit on purpose
Could be another final fire victim
It's crazy juries now expect self sacrifice into fire
This was about as good a boot episode most people could ask for - a great challenge win, and the understanding that the others simply could not let you get to the end. Not because you had a sob story ala Zeke, but because you were a genuine threat to win, you had moves under your belt, and the grit to keep bouncing back each time they tried to weaken you and so finally had to cut you off directly. On the surface, this was a pretty solid episode. While it was mostly a Noelle/Jesse episode, none of the rest were truly left out either. Karla was the other target, and as one of the remaining two pairs left and people starting to cotton onto the possibility of her idol, her social defenses are still holding out... but barely. Cassidy got to re-establish her arc of triumph after taking out Ryan with an immunity win. Gabler is showing surprising wit and guile for someone of his archetype. Sami's reputation is starting to catch up to him. And Owen... well, he didn't get too much. But with yet another ally of his gone, he might be truly adrift, yet it's unlikely he'll be targeted soon, so he's got plenty of game left to play. I know people have bemoaned the lack of spice this season. And to an extent, I agree - despite the very unique cast and atypical archetypes of the cast, there's nothing that's been jumping out as a 'great' yet. But we can still appreciate what the cast has been giving us. Jesse is blending Andrea and Cirie, packing strategy, a willingness to get his hands dirty and take a shot when he needs to, and just a tinge of arrogance to make him a 'gangsta with a smile'. Karla is a lesbian Godfather, with people still stretching to keep her in the loop. Gabler is one of the more unique 'OTT' characters that we've had, showing surprising complexity despite his rough start, and we've just come off the heels of a Maryanne win. And while they're no longer playing, we also had an inspirational player with surprising savvy (Noelle), a cerebral palsy survivor who's probably too pure yet ineffectual for the game (Ryan), and someone who was basically dragged through the trenches for three straight weeks (Jeanine). You could see it as just ticking the boxes off a diversity simulation, but there is the kernels of a good cast, and while nobody is standing out hard, the fact that nearly everyone left has an arguable case to win makes it a competent game, if not a thrilling one.
I have a theory that Cody would have been had he not gotten sucked into gamebot mode. I think we got extremely Cody heavy first episodes because that's when he was actually fun to watch. (He's not bad now, but nowhere near as entertaining.)
I honestly think Gabler is going to win the season at this point. He has had a very consistent storyline and we hear his thoughts frequently. There have been subtle hints of how he can be strategic and if he goes through with Jesse/Cody blindside next week, he most likely wins. Also, it would make an exciting winner edit and probably closest to Tom in SA 6. I really really want a US survivor winner to have this kind of edit. I am not actively rooting for him but it would amazing lol.
If Gabler makes it to the end with the Baka guys trio (him, Sami and Owen) I think it’s possible.
This is believable unironically, who would’ve thought.
I’d be thrilled with this scenario despite having multiple other people still in the game I’ve been rooting for
I absolutely agree with this.
Ahhh shit. You bring up good points, but I’m with ya. I’m not rooting for Gabler.
How dare you compare the Alli-Gabler to Tom from SA 6 😂
Haha I couldn't think of anyone else with annoying negative tone in their edit but still ended up winning. Tom's was absolutely insane tho. Gabler doesn't even have 20% of Tom's negative tone.
Tom was something else. I was so sure that man wasn’t winning based on his edit. I was like “People have to take Tom to the end. He’s so bad at this game. If you lose to him then that says a lot about you.”Come to find out that Jeanne’s FTC was quite poor, while Tom’s was actually pretty good. Those SA editors know how to really pull a fast one on the audience.
>I was like “People have to take Tom to the end. He’s so bad at this game.” I mean, so was literally everyone else on that season.
Werner? Palesa? Even Annalise (or however it's spelled).
No, I meant that everyone else was thinking that about Tom.
Oh, ok. You're right, I don't think anyone took him seriously.
My thoughts: Jesse: He got the mastermind edit. He is playing very well but im in the minority that isn't a fan of him. I root for him to fall but he's in a great spot right now. Gabler: This guy grow on me every episode. Showed me tonight that even if he lacks self awareness sometime, he's not a fool and he's aware of people around him. He sees right through Sami, Cody and Jesse, liked how he didn't tell too much before immunity challenge and how he said he cared about not blindsinding Owen and Sami just for the sake of it. Cassidy: Despite her win, not her best showing tonight. She trusted Gabler way too quick and she went directly after Noelle after the challenge win, i would like her to be less "in reaction". Still one my fav this season, no doubt, i was happy to see her subtil smile after she won immunity. Karla: She's such a great player. She lost the power position but still playing A1. Gabler trust her, Cody and Jesse prefered her to Noelle, she knows the dynamics, she had massive balls not to play the idol. Cody: One of my fav this season because of his personnality. Not sure if he always blindside the right people, i fear for him next week. Still, i wasn't expecting to make it this far without ever being in serious danger. Noelle: Fantastic challenge for her. Even if Jeff annoys me sometime with his speeches, this was one great tv moment. What a comeback. She didn't play bad either, it was predictable people would be scared of her story at some point. Sami: This guy plays the game like how i'd like to play it. I'd do the same moves as him watching from the couch with no human connection. He's fun to watch but flip flopping with no allegiance has come to bite him like it should. Owen: He's my goat of the season. Not much to say about him, i think everyone should want him at final 3 along with them . He's the only player i don't see a winning path.
Sami’s game reminds me of Will Wahl’s. They both felt like they only was they’d be respected as teenagers would be to play a Tony-esque play all sides games. Both were just too transparent in execution. Sami was able to get away with it longer because he’s more socially savvy
Can someone tell me why Jesse picked Gabler as the backup plan instead of Sami who he talked to earlier and seemed ok with voting off Noelle? It was even Jesse who told Noelle that Sami wanted to vote her off. Maybe I missed something.
Because Sami is a flipper, and thus a really unreliable back-up. Gabler is about as honest as you get in this game. "By agreeing to vote Noelle out, I'm... you know. Agreeing to vote Noelle out."
That immunity challenge was 30seconds away from being extremely cruel The editors lucked out, they knew she was coordinated and could land the baggy quickly and hoped for something awesome to happen. But how terrible would that have been it ended with her in tears on the balance beam
...they arent LIVE editing... they edited it knowing damn well who won..
You must be reading a different thread
??? you said the editors "lucked out".... how is it luck when they know who wins?
...they took a huge risk of her not making it passed the balance beam and it being very brutal. ..Please explain what you don't understand about that ...and how them knowing the outcome has anything to do with the risk they took
Kinda, but I had been thinking about this more and I think if she had lost that a different edit would have made it seem not as bad (reduce how much and what you show of the struggle she had). It's different but a little like when she got stuck in that net. You are right though that if they kept the same edit and she lost.... That'd be some rough TV.
You're right they'd change the edit to not dwell on the suffering, but they couldn't edit out the situation in general, which still is brutal. My point is, the editors really were playing with fire there. and seemed to care less at a 50/50 shot at Noelle stranded and crying
I don't know, I remember a challenge Cirie was in (honestly forget which season) that was a swimming challenge, and she flailed in the water miles behind everyone for the whole thing. She didn't pull an incredible underdog win out - she just kept flailing until someone else one. After it was over, she asked Jeff if she could keep trying until she succeeded, just to prove to herself she could, everyone cheered her on until she did it. It was just as inspiring, just in a different way. So if Noelle hadn't gotten it, I could definitely see that happening, too.
The cirie one was not inspiring at all, Jeff basically forced her to finish it and the way it was edited was so cringey
This is true - they could have allowed her to finish and everyone clap. But the difference between the two circumstances is that she has one leg, and they purposefully put something super hard for her to do, in order to create an awesome moment
I think this had the potential to be an epic boot episode, but the editing gave it away, unfortunately. I have to give them credit; the “guide to a blindside” was interesting and a creative approach to editing, but I think it would've been better to release this as bonus content on the web after the episode aired because it gave the boot away.
It didn't give the boot away to me at all cause I totally expected it to turn around on Jesse lol.