5/11 Show discussion thread ***spoilers***

[jadewarlock]

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I hope whoever comes back from Redemption Island wins the whole thing. These other people are too stupid to deserve the win.

IF it's Matt, I agree with you. If it's anyone else and Rob's there, I'd have to still go with Rob because he's played the game.

Matt and Rob in their own way are really the ONLY two who have played this game.

Rob - all three areas.

Matt - two of the three currently - out play and out last in winning the duels. He's won every single one he's played, and so far I think that's been every duel. He's also lived I think 31 days mostly by himself in this game, or about half the time factoring in time spent with the other contestants. Currently, the past few days with two-three others is the closest he's spent playing it more along the real game.

The ONLY person Rob really should worry about facing is Matt. The others he'll have a decent chance at winning this.

[karalott]

I'm so ready for this season to be over. It started off great, but it's become such a bore. I can understand the logic of keeping Rob and hoping you can make the argument he backstabbed too many people, and was the mastermind behind everything. Of course I look at it like you just followed along and did nothing, and for whatever reason he found you dumb enough to keep around for his own strategy. Everyone's had a chance to get rid of Rob, but they didn't, and eventually they had to know their alliance was going to crumble. Rob deserves to win because he actually played the game and got everyone to where they are. But he won't. My second choice is RI winner, third is Phillip, and fourth is nobody because I don't want to see those two coattail riding boring girls win. So increase the jackpot next season to $2 million and maybe people will actually play.

Ralph's a jerk. I liked him at first, but that didn't last. Hope he liked his 15 seconds of fame for ousting Russell, and is prepared to get grilled by Probst at the reunion over it. The Zaps were a stupid tribe when it came to strategy.

[mushybrain]

Phillip is ridiculous. He took certain nutrition facts and proceeded to put his Phil spin on it to try to make himself sound "scientific," but, as usual, he ended up sounding and behaving like an inane jerk.

Of course he is correct that, on average, a small woman would need fewer calories per day than a large man such as Grant. But his rant over calories was nothing more than a generalization and pure ignorance. He is a moron if he believes that all women can survive on 1700 calories per day for an extended period. People's caloric needs depend on height, age, body type, metabolism and energy expenditures. I know very thin women who require more than 2400 calories a day to not lose weight, and that is with minimal exercise.

Certainly, fewer calories are required to initially sustain a body when it goes into semi-starvation mode, but when it reaches such a condition, it must start feeding on its own muscle to try to survive. So even though those two scrawny little girls might require fewer calories, they would, no doubt, die of starvation faster than the men who have more muscle to help keep their bodies functioning.

I guess Phil is a registered dietician special agent.

And as an aside, how the heck does he expect anyone to take him seriously about anything when he is walking around in those winky pinkies?

[jammyjoe]

The Zaps are stupid for throwing a challenge. You know that will always backfire in the end. Get rid of your biggest threat early in the game when you only have to, and that means actually losing a challenge not by throwing it. Russell planted that curse on them so they do deserved to be ousted. Rob was lucky to have been dealt a good hand. Having Russell in the merge would have helped the Zaps because Russell is out to get Rob so it would have worked to the other Zap member's advantage. There was no way that Russell would have flipped knowing that he hates Rob.

This season sucks! Rob totally dominating the game. He'll be taking the most inexperienced and naive kid with him and the most hated guy. Who else can win against him? Yea, I think only Matt can win it against him but he's not coming back, othewise, just give it to Rob already! These idiots do not know how to play the game. Rob is pitting them against each other as he just sits pretty watching them go at it. Now how clueless is Grant? He is a big threat in challenges, surely he should have known. Also he didn't even know who betrayed him? Of course both guys betrayed him or he would have seen Natalie's name twice.

[pretlitdev]

I guess Phil is a registered dietician special agent.

And as an aside, how the heck does he expect anyone to take him seriously about anything when he is walking around in those winky pinkies?

He's also an expert on Buddhism. And racism. And knowing exactly what a person is thinking. And stealth. And what else? Probably lots that I've managed to forget over the weeks as he seems to be an expert in something new every week.

Along with the tendency to start screaming nonsensically to make his points, I think that's what I hate the most about Phillip. I hate it when I see it in every day life too-no one can be an expert on everything, and as you pointed out, when you generalize things you will probably expose yourself when it comes to the details.

But as I said before, if he had approached them and had a calm discussion using the same points....they probably would have agreed to let the guys have a little bit more rice than them. It was him screaming, getting in their faces, and wearing those 'winky pinkies' (love that term) that makes no one want to listen to him, even on the rare occasions where he's making some sense.

[fan999]

... Certainly, fewer calories are required to initially sustain a body when it goes into semi-starvation mode, but when it reaches such a condition, it must start feeding on its own muscle to try to survive. So even though those two scrawny little girls might require fewer calories, they would, no doubt, die of starvation faster ...

Once again, I ask whether the real prospect of starvation is essential to Survivor? Would it really change game play and our interest in the players if the teams had, if nothing else, at least an unlimited supply of rice (which by itself is nowhere close to a nutritious diet)? I hope we could agree that it would be unconscionable to try to restrict players to, say, two cups of water per day. Is limiting food intake so drastically really much different?

[luvlady345]

After this episode I don't understand how anyone can say that these people are following Rob blindly....Ashley came up with the idea of voting Grant off not Rob...Grant came up with the idea of voting Natalie off not Rob...Rob went with the best choice he thought for him and voted Grant off.....I hope Rob wins this season he has been the best player, if he doesn't win the only player I don't want to see win is Matt.....

[deedreamer]

Even Rob himself when talking about being in control said "No man should have this much power". My impression is that all the players think they can hitch their wagon to Rob's star and then when they slide to the final 2 on his coat tails convince the jury that they played the social game and deserve the money because Rob has played before and they were smart enough to use him to get them through. But I think their thinking is flawed. Most people in the end will appreciate someone who played the game strategically more than someone who tried to just slide through under the radar. Love him or hate him you have to appreciate that Rob always plays the game and is never just there taking up space.

[Tilden]

I wonder how much game talk goes on both on RI and at the Ponderosa. For instance, Grant acted as if he didn't know who had to have sold him out in order to have engineered the blindside, when he knows that Rob has led every single vote in the game for a very long time. He also knows that Andrea was blindsided by a Rob-led decision. Ditto Matt, twice. The Zaps know Rob decided the order in which they were ejected too (or certainly they assumed he did). If he talks to any of them, do they manage to convince him that all of the votes, save his own, would have been to dump him and that Rob knew it and was fine with it? If he's convinced, what's his reaction?

At the Ponderosa, are the Zaps talking about how much they don't like the way the Ometepes, led by Rob, treated them or are they discussing that they don't like Rob but respect the fact that he's the only one who played the game? Are they talking about what they'd like their jury questions to be? Or are they just not discussing the situation at all? Are they even allowed to discuss it? Are there rules for what the people at RI and on the Ponderosa can discuss? I did notice that the jury didn't seem especially moved by Rob's reference to playing for his family last night during TC but that Julie teared up when Grant started discussing his fiance. Don't know whether that indicates anything about how any of them would vote, but it did make me wonder what was being talked about at the Ponderosa, since all the videos indicate is stuff about their reactions to the house, the food etc. All of those factors could influence the outcome of the vote, but we're not privy to any of them.

Of course, we also don't know who from RI will re-enter the game either and whether they'll be able to stay in the game to the end and what effect that might have on the vote. If, for instance, Grant manages to make it back into the finals and is willing to gun for Rob, assuming he's there, does that make a difference? He could spill a lot about what Rob was thinking and saying about the other players, including the Ometepes, and depending on how the jury took that, that could affect the vote. Maybe they'd give Rob credit for being able to outwit all of them or maybe they (or at least the Ometepes) would feel lied to and angry about it.

Oh, and we also don't know about the immunity idol Rob still has. Are they going to let him use it right up until the end or are they going to say it's only good until a particular challenge and then he can't use it again, which is what they've done in the past (unless they've already established that and I missed it)?

[Oceansands]

jammyjoe: This season sucks! Rob totally dominating the game. He'll be taking the most inexperienced and naive kid with him and the most hated guy. Who else can win against him? Yea, I think only Matt can win it against him but he's not coming back, othewise, just give it to Rob already! These idiots do not know how to play the game. Rob is pitting them against each other as he just sits pretty watching them go at it. Now how clueless is Grant? He is a big threat in challenges, surely he should have known. Also he didn't even know who betrayed him? Of course both guys betrayed him or he would have seen Natalie's name twice.

Maybe CBS wants Rob to win. Grant really isn't all that bright, none of them on Rob's team are. Rob has been given more chances than any other contestant in the history of Survivor, to the point it's getting old. I can think of a lot of people that played an excellent game that should have been given a second chance, yet, Rob is brought back over everyone else...WHY? I never could figure out why Russell got more than one chance. I'm pretty sick of Rob saying he has been trying for ten years. He is good buddies with someone that has pull. Why would a TV show keep bringing this guy back????? At least when he wins this time maybe we will be rid of him for good.