Culturally Preconditioned

Oh my. Will these people ever learn? If there ever was a car for a reward in this game, THROW THE CHALLENGE!! Aren’t they aware of the frickin reward car winner’s curse?

Yeah, that’s the real Burton answering to my question. (link to the CBS chat transcript) LOL. I can’t believe CBS actually quoted me as saying “Hi Burty”. (Still ROTFL because CBS let that slide, those fukkers).

Anyway, a recap on Survivors who have won the car reward challenge :

Survivor:Borneo - no car reward challenge
Survivor:Outback - Colby (finished 2nd place)
Survivor:Africa - Lex (finished 3rd place)
Survivor:Marquesas - Sean (finished 5th place)
Survivor:Thailand - Ted (finished 5th place)
Survivor:Amazon - Matthew (finished 2nd place)
Survivor:Pearl Island - Burton (finished 5th place)
Survivor:All Stars - BostonRob (finished 2nd place)
Survivor:Vanuatu - Eliza (finished?? or will she break the curse and win the car AND the game? It’s also interesting that she’s the first non-alpha male to win this challenge)

All in all, a pretty decent episode. Ami’s boot was a bit predictable considering last week’s shocking turn of events. Disappointing in the sense that the bootee is too predictable. Not disappointing because we are seeing more and more people getting cutthroat in the game.

Episode 12 : Castaways Impressions

Alinta Tribe

Ami - So the penis-hating Ice Queen has finally been dethroned. A bit anti-climactic if you ask me. There goes all my Ami vs Chris hinkies. Aarghhh… LOL. Oh well, if it’s any consolation, the final Immunity Challenge tonight finally came down between Ami and Chris anyway. I have mixed feelings for Ami. Though I could careless on her attitude towards men, I thought she played a rather brilliant game (EXCEPT for that one FATAL mistake last week, of letting LeAnn talk to Scout about their non-Final Four pact). Her reactions to last week’s tribal council was relatively calmer than what I would’ve expected. At least she tried all her tricks on Eliza before she was voted out. Her edit has been significantly softened up towards her demise. I wouldn’t mind to see her win the game (if she was still in it, of course), but a part of me was also glad to see her voted out into the jury. In my honest opinion, I think Ami’s one of the best players this season. And all it took for her plans to be foiled was one simple mistake. Such a shame.

Chris - Right now, aall Chris has to do is sit back and relax. He’s like right smack in the middle of the eye of the tornado. Just let things around him self destruct, he should sit quietly, and he’ll nicely coast into the Final 4, or Final 3 at least. I usually don’t go for coattail riders, but I can’t really call him that. Like what Sandra has said in the Pearl Islands in response to a jury question - “How do you feel about reaching the Final Two by riding other people’s coattails.” Her response was straight forward : “Rupert’s there. Christa’s there sitting on the jury. Who’s coattails am I riding on?” Same with Chris, whose coattails have Chris been riding on? Scout and Twila? Maybe for now. But at least, we are hearing strategical confessionals on why he’s riding their coattails. No matter what turn of events take place next week, Chris is a shoe in for the Final Four. And if he gets to the Final Two, the jury will have the least amount of contempt for Chris than the other players remaining in the game. I seriously think with Ami’s ouster, Chris has actually won the game.

Eliza aka Olive Oyl aka Mrs Popeye aka Skeletor - Oh my God. Did you guys see her back bones? That truly was a scary sight. Even more so than seeing Sarge’s bare ass. Eliza has suddenly become a power player in the game. Everyone is suddenly vying for her vote. Strategically, I must say that she’s actually doing great. She was teh one person who could force a 3-3 tie vote, and based on the new rules (as mentioned by Chris in the episode, AND reinforced by Chad’s post-show interviews), in the event of a tie vote, they will get a chance to vote again, and if it is still tied, the ones who received the tie votes gets immunity, and the rest needs to pull out the purple rock. Yowza! Tough rule, huh? Anyway, looks like Eliza might have to do a bit more strategizing next week, cause next week will be her only chance to split the Twila/Scout pair.

Julie - Was she even in this episode?????? If Julie gets voted out and gets to sit with the jury, I have no doubt that Julie will be the most calmest and un’bitter’est (yeah, I know that’s not a word) out of the lot. But WILL she be voted out next week? Chances are high that she will, but there’s always a possibility of her staying on in the game. Again, her edit has been weird. There is yet, again, a weird conversation edit between Julie and Chris during the reward challenge. AND, during the reward trip, Eliza has expressed (to Chris) about the possibility of voting out Scout/Twila, and Chris quickly saying “NOT with Ami!”.. but he never said anything about Julie. Come on, Mark Burnett, is there really a secret sub-alliance between Julie and Chris you’re not showing us? And then of course, there’s a possibility of Julie winning next week’s immunity. Who will go then? Out of the 5 people left in the game, the most obvious pair would be Scout and Twila (much like Rob and Amber), and the other three would be stupid if they don’t take this chance to break that pair. But then again, I could just be talking out of my ass (which has become the norm) and Julie just gets voted out next week. LOL. In fact, Chris’s quote of “Julie might slide her way into the Final Five” from the 4th or 5th episode has just come to fruition. Will she stay at Final Five?

Scout - She’s got a negative edit this week. I think this may be the first time Scout has mentioned something about her physical weakness in the challenges. Could this be foreshadowing that she will actually win the all important Final Three endurance challenge? ::shudder:: I certainly hope not. And Ami’s comments “I wouldn’t want to see Scout in the Final Two” also felt out of place for me. Anyway, if it’s a Scout vs Chris Final Two, I’m gonna say Chris will win on a 6-1 vote.. hell, even possibly a 7-0 vote. In any case, I don’t see Scout winning this game. At all. Remember Scout, you said it yourself : “Vengeance is mine sayeth the jury”. If you’re not on the jury, the jury will have its vengeance on you. Thank you for playing.

Twila - I guess first impressions are almost usually correct. I hated Twila in the beginning, then softened up to her, and I’m back to hating her again. Her smugness after LeAnn’s boot was WAY EXTREMELY OVER AND BEYOND Ami’s previous smugness. She’s back to becoming the old bitter hag that I knew from the first few episodes and I can’t say that I’m surprised. She’s got a really negative edit and so far, has betrayed everyone on the jury so far. 4 jury. 4 votes. That’s what it takes to win. I can’t see how she can win this game. I can’t. I know Sandra also lied and swore on her son’s name. But look at who she was swearing too. It was Jonny Fucking Fairplay. Twila lied to Ami and LeAnn, and it was done voluntarily (unlike Sandra). I think that’s was pretty low. I know this game is full of deceit and lies, but why lie if there isn’t a need too?

Predictions : Brain/Heart/Gut

Brain : Julie (if the Final Four stays intact)

Heart : Twila (talk about cocky. Pot meet Kettle.)

Gut : Twila - okay, bear with me, here’s my logic. I think Ami’s parting words spoke VOLUMES. “Good luck, youngins”. Remember the first few episodes. The battle between the bowheads and the older women? Yep, Eliza and Julie were the youngins, and I believe Ami was reminding them that “Scout and Twila have voted for you. You need to break that pair”. Hopefully Eliza and Julie will realize that, and more importantly Chris needs to realize that as well. I wouldn’t want to be stuck in the Final Four with a pair that’s strong and firm *cough*ROMBER*cough*. This is the time to break that pair. Final Five. Not Final Four.

Anyway, no more Ami vs Chris hinkies for me. Bloody red herring! Grrrr… LOL I feel like such a loser, but it’s always fun to speculate. Makes the game more interesting. Talk about speculation, I will doing an update on Sunday on further speculation based on the Survivor Opening Credits video.