The Survivor 9: Vanuatu Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[AnthonyC]

Good.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> We won't see any physical challenges until the tribes merge.



Hmmm, that obstacle course looked pretty physical to me.

 

[McPaul]

Is it me? or is this season considerably more "redneck-ish" than most?



The first episode was alright, Jeff seemed like he was "going through the motions" with his speeches and comments during ceremonies. I feel like I don't know who anyone is. I certainly hope next week's show improves from this one.

 

[Patrick Sun]

It's only been 1 episode and 18 contestants. I doubt many people know who all the players are at this point, but it's a long season, with plenty of time to develop favorites and villians.



I do think most of the guys are knuckleheads, but a few of the women are pretty cute and watchable.

 

[AnthonyC]

I don't know if any of the girls are watchable (other than being major hotties) because we barely saw the Yasur tribe. We just saw their walk to camp and a little bit of the age division (go worker girls!). The only girls who were featured enough to make a casual viewer remember them were Twila and Eliza.

 

[Chris_Morris]

It really seemed obvious that this episode was originally 90 minutes and quickly chopped up into 60 minutes. They should have left it at 90.


Chris

 

[AnthonyC]

It was going to be two hours actually, but CBS thought it would be a waste because the TV season hasn't started yet. Very stupid IMO, because it was obviously edited for two hours and instead we get a rerun of CSI. Bad move on CBS's part.

Here's hoping that the two-hour premiere will be included as a bonus on the eventual Vanuatu DVD set.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

> I don't know if any of the girls are watchable (other than being major hotties) because we barely saw the Yasur tribe.



Go to the cbs site for what people really look like.

[url=http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor9/]http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor9/[/url]

I was also surprised the episode was only an hour. It should have been 80 min to lead nicely into The Apprentice (AKA Survivor: Trump Tower).



When do we get the rerun with an extra 12 min of Tribal Council?

Oh, I noticed at the end the team didn't take their torches with them. Jeff said something about them having to make fire themselves. Is that a new rule? I thought before they got to take the fire back to camp, whether they had been able to start fire or not.

How long had they been at camp when they had Tribal Council? The CBS site says it was on day 3. They went without drinking water that long?

 

[Patrick Sun]

No, if the guys didn't have fire before, they can't take their lit torches back to camp.

Survivor's a tougher game than people make it out to be, especially in the early going when no fire is available to heat up water to sterilize it as much as possible. I'd probably be done with the game after a day out in those elements...

 

[AnthonyC]

I won't provide any links, but back in 1996, Ami was in Playboy and she looked FANTASTIC.

You can find the pics if you look hard enough. But she looked GREAT.

 

[Kwang Suh]

Hmm, wonder if that'll be brought up. Nix that. It will be brought up.

 

[Tom Meyer]

my prediction:



Spoiler:

the rock the guys got off the pole is actually flint and they are too dim to realize it





And yes, there is about 5000cc of silicone floating around on the women's team. Yow.

 

[Richard Gilmore]

Why the heck don't people who know they will be on the show learn to make fire!?! You make fire and you are the hero for at least one episode, maybe enough to keep from being voted out.



I agree, the men should have voted Chris out, he didn't really give the beam a good try again - The man's a quitter who will cost them again at some point.



That course really was designed to give the women an advantage including the beginning where a big chested man would have trouble getting through the low ropes.



That beam had to be pretty slippery what with all the mud and sweat - I guess that's why we didn't see anyone walk all the way across.

 

[WillG]

quote:That course really was designed to give the women an advantage including the beginning where a big chested man would have trouble getting through the low ropes.

As opposed to the small chested women?

quote:I agree, the men should have voted Chris out, he didn't really give the beam a good try again

I can't remember the last time the person who screwed up the first Challenge got voted off at the first T.C. or, if it has ever happened at all (although I do seem to recall it happening in the first season, but I don't know for sure)I think the reason it hardly ever happens is that the person who screws up is seen as weak but the rest of the tribe and therefore is not considered a threat. I think that for the last few seasons there has been a trend of voting off someone who is looking strong right away.

 

[Michael Martin]

quote:

I agree, the men should have voted Chris out, he didn't really give the beam a good try again - The man's a quitter who will cost them again at some point.

That's making an assumption that everyone will want to stay divided by genders into the merge - an assumption we know won't stand.



I still think voting off Brook was a good move - they got rid of a known schemer early, as well as breaking a potentially strong alliance up before it become a juggernaut within the tribe.

 

[Patrick Sun]

IIRC, at least one of the guys got over the beam by walking, not hugging.

 

[Christopher Cheadle]

quote:I still think voting off Brook was a good move - they got rid of a known schemer early, as well as breaking a potentially strong alliance up before it become a juggernaut within the tribe.

I agree...while watching the show, I kept remarking to my wife that pulling all of the younger guys together during the first 3 days and making your alliance known to the potential "outcasts" was pretty stupid IMHO. If anyone on the current show watched the All-Stars season before heading off to the island, then they should know not to allow the juggernaut to get a foothold (see Romber). Good move on the tribe's part I think.

It will be interesting to see if the tribe keeps voting off "physical threats" early, which could certainly lead them down Lex Avenue and an early fall after a merge/tribe mixup.

 

[Lew Crippen]

I normally think that voting off strong members before a merge is a mistake, because the tribe should do everything possible to make sure that its members are not reduced. Which is why the ‘Lex’ strategy was wrong.



In this case the men get a free pass, as there will probably not be any competitions that require sheer physical strength until there is a reshuffling of tribes and they become mixed. My initial view that the men made a mistake was probably wrong. Voting off the strong members now, won’t make any difference, since no one person has any guarantee as to the makeup of the tribes after a reshuffle. And one member would be as likely to be in a tribe with physically strong people as they would weaker players. The same with the opposition.



It would be a mistake to get rid of tribe members at this stage of the game with good skills (fishing, construction, etc.).

 

[AnthonyC]

Borneo: Sonja

Africa: Diane

Amazon: Ryan (although he and Daniel both screwed up)



Those are the only three I recall.

 

[Joshua_W]

I don't think Lex's strategy in All-Stars was so much voting off physical threats as it was doing everything he could to appease Rob.



He actually had it in his head that he and Rob were going to allies after the merge, so he was weeding off guys like Ethan early on.



It might've been a sound strategy if Rob hadn't already had all of the allies he needed on his own tribe.



(Still you had to love Lex's "just strategy, nothing personal" line he took with Ethan... only to see how bitter he was it his turn to hear the same speech.)