Survivor: One World Blog

Kim’s Domination Of Survivor:One World Concludes

Posted on May 14, 2012 by stevebeans
0 comments

The marathon season finale of Survivor typically goes in one of two ways.. One is with plenty of drama and suspense, and the other has almost none of that. Sadly, for Survivor:One World, it was definitely the latter.

Kim Spradlin, the 29 year old bridal shop owner, had this game so tightly wrapped that she was still leading two separate alliances heading into the final 5 tribal council. The funny part is that everyone at tribal seemed to be well aware of Kim’s double dipping, but fought for her vote instead of realizing they’re fighting for second place (Although to be fair, in Alicia’s thick head, I’m sure she felt she was leading the alliance, but if you’re reading this, you weren’t). That was the domination of Kim’s season, and something that doesn’t happen very often. To be in two alliances, have everyone pretty much know, and still make it out alive shows just how powerful of a player she was.

While that was great for Kim, it was bad for viewers as it was probably the most boring episode, and definitely the most boring season finale I’ve seen on the show to date. Out of the 120 minutes of show, there was probably suspense for about 5 minutes when Kim and Christina were fighting for the final immunity idol. Even that was curbed with the reality of the complete lack of strategy talk from the remaining four women. If Christina won, you felt like she was still going to take Kim while securing a third place finish instead of fourth. It didn’t even come to that as Kim won her 4th immunity idol in the final 5 chances to secure the million dollars and just had to figure out who gets the second and third place prize money.

The final jury questioning, which can sometimes be the one redeemable quality of an otherwise boring finale was one of the strangest and most awkward I’ve seen yet. Half the people didn’t even seem to ask any questions, like Tarzan who went off on some speech about his wife stepping foot on the island, and Kat telling people about her heart surgery and pleading to the jury for a Kim vote. The two biggest chances for some entertainment were Alicia and Troyzan, and while Alicia spent her time praising the best person in Survivor history (herself), Troy asked Kim a very stupid question and said it will decide his vote. (I don’t even remember the question, it was that pointless… like “What made you vote me out” or something like that).

Like Troyzan’s season, he felt his vote meant more than it actually did and he was going to have an influence on the outcome. He didn’t. His question, like his time on the show ended up to be a blip on the radar of Survivor history as Kim won easily with a 7-2 vote. If anything, it made him appear more bitter and self centered than he already appeared throughout the season. Kim dominated Troyzan just like she dominated each and every member this season. It wasn’t even close. Alicia may have felt it was her game, Colton may have felt the same, but it wasn’t, and never was.

Survivor: One World will be remembered by two things… one is Colton’s pure ignorance in life, and the second is that it was completely dominated by a 29 year old bridal shop owner from Texas.

Congratulations for the win, Kim Spradlin. You certainly deserved it.

0 comments
Filed under: Survivor: One World
Tags: Alicia Rosa, Chelsea Meissner, Christina Cha, Episode Recaps, Kim Spradlin, Sabrina Thompson, Survivor: One World

The Last Of The Zan’s

Posted on May 9, 2012 by stevebeans
0 comments

Will this be Tarzan's last stand?

It’s hard to believe this is the second to last episode of Survivor: One World. While Sunday’s finale will feature the terribly boring walk around the island putting out fires and talking about people they hardly remember (Kourtney Moon anyone?), I’ll spare people the trouble. The season featured a bunch of early nobodies, a man versus woman feature that was quickly scrapped yet remained as part of the strategy, a gay republican, and a group of male players that had almost no gameplay ability.

As the season winds down to six, typically it’s when things start heating up, unless of course you’re part of Survivor: One World. Tonight’s episode pretty much went the path of the rest of the season, sans last week when a surprise actually happened. Kim remained in complete control, Tarzan lost another challenge, Alicia was worked up over stuff, they blurred out her butt despite wearing large bikini bottoms, and Christina acted like she was making moves when she wasn’t.

In the biggest ironic twist of the season, as soon as Tarzan finally did start to play the game (about 5 votes too late), he instantly became a threat and became the girls main target. This was in part to Kim’s fantastic ability to squash the growing fire, and Tarzan’s inability to actually play the game. He would have been better off just shutting his mouth and letting the girls keep going after each other, but perhaps he was getting bored.

When Chelsea picked Sabrina and Kim for the reward challenge, Alicia was completely fired up and willing to draw rocks if it meant sending Chelsea home. Instead of letting her take charge, Tarzan opened his mouth and started making the same promises to Alicia that he made to Kim. Well, once things were settled down, the girls started talking, and he was exposed for his ‘plan’ (if you want to even call it that).

Tarzan spent the better half of the episode trying to convince Alicia to take him to the final 3, even saying that she’d have a better shot at winning it all over him. When he said it, I rolled my eyes thinking he was BS, however when I saw Mike flip Tarzan off after he was eliminated, it makes you wonder. Did Alicia make the million dollar mistake tonight by not forming an official alliance with the weakest two players in the game? I am beginning to think she did. Hopefully Kim at least takes her out to dinner with the prize money she gets this Sunday.

0 comments
Filed under: Survivor: One World
Tags: Alicia Rosa, Chelsea Meissner, Christina Cha, Episode Recaps, Greg Smith, Kim Spradlin, Rathes Ramblings, Sabrina Thompson, Survivor: One World

Survivor One World – All Fun & Games Until You’re Voted Out

Posted on May 2, 2012 by stevebeans
0 comments

Using Kat’s age logic, being 33 I should be in a retirement home instead of blogging about the episode tonight, but I’ll somehow try to push through considering it’s been a few weeks since my last post.

Since I last checked in, the girls have been dominating Survivor like you’d read about. The remaining male tribe worked together about as congress when passing a bill, so it’s no surprise they were pegged off one by one until the lone wolf, Tarzan, remained just waiting for his turn. It was pretty funny to watch the lack of charisma someone like Troyzan had where he couldn’t even convince the bottom of the totem pole that they were the bottom and will be gone soon. He had the passion, but that’s about it, and it’s why he watches on from the jury now.

Now, you have Kim running the show, Christina and Tarzan trying REAL hard to stay under the radar, Alicia running around like it’s her camp, and the rest just kind of there. While I’d like to pretend it’s going to be interesting to see how the last few episodes will play out, the only situation I can see is Kim taking Alicia and possibly Christina and the rest just getting picked off.

Why Christina? While she has somehow managed to stay under the radar, is in way over her head, and has shown absolutely no ability to play with any sort of skill so far. Even a disgruntled jury would have a hard time voting for Christina over someone like Kim. Alicia, well that’s a tough one, and it may be a mistake Kim makes at the end. While she may be delusional, the jury is full of people who are dumb enough to be there, and could easily fall for some speech about how she was pulling the strings while making Kim look like the bad guy. Would it be true? No… does it matter? Not with this crew.

The only real upset I can see is if the girls get so overconfident that Tarzan is such a non-threat, they take him to the final 4 and he ends up somehow winning that final challenge. That would be hilarious and fantastic to see, but it won’t happen. He won’t win if he gets to the final 4. It just won’t happen. If he did, may as well start writing him a check because you have 5 very disgruntled male jury members waiting to vote for him.

Random notes:

- I could finish this blog by going off on Kat for being selfish about her decision tonight, but let’s not forget that Alicia and Kim were just as selfish. Both of them could have easily passed up the chance to go in favor of someone else, I’ve seen it happen. Kat was dumb for picking those two, but all three were equally selfish. Just a little note on that. I just didn’t want to see one person take the full blame for all three.

- Why do people act like they haven’t seen their family in 3 years every reunion show? Each cast member has been vetted for many mental tests, yet they all break down to tears when they haven’t seen a family member for a month? I haven’t seen my parents in about 3 weeks now, but don’t expect to burst out in tears this weekend when I see them.

- Anyone notice the previews that Tarzan is wearing Kat’s bikini bottoms on his head? I don’t even know what to think about that. I am kind of creeped out but also respect the power move at the same time. It’s like putting the heads of your enemies on a stake to warn future enemies. Those girls now know that he’ll be all up in their panties as soon as they leave, and it has to be in their head now.

- Someone really has to fire the person in charge of censoring episodes. Immediately. One shot you see the girls from behind, each butt is blurred out, then a minute later the same shot is there with no blur, and nothing TO blur. The same with Kat and her chest. One scene it’s blurred, the next it’s not, and she’s in the same exact position. Did something magically jump out of her bikini top and then back in a second later? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s too distracting to see blurry things. Blur out slips, but let’s not act like the show is on at 11am on the Disney channel. Butt’s don’t need to be blurred.

I’ll try to check in next week if it’s another good episode, hope you enjoyed the read!

0 comments
Filed under: Survivor: One World
Tags: Alicia Rosa, Chelsea Meissner, Christina Cha, Episode Recaps, Greg Smith, Kat Edorsson, Kim Spradlin, Rathes Ramblings, Sabrina Thompson, Survivor: One World

Rathe’s Ramblings

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Rathe
0 comments

From Steve:

I’d like to introduce my occasional guest writer, Rathe. He is a Survivor fan and may be more passionate about the show than I am, so I wanted to give him an outlet to express his opinions when something on the show gets him going. Here is his first piece…

Today’s 7-up hangman blog puzzle is K T F HT!!!

Kim might have finally made her first strategical mistake tonight by not picking Kat for the reward picnic. Troy was ultimately sent home but Kim allowed Troyzan the opportunity to plant those seeds of unrest in Kat’s head. Time will tell if they will grow but the previews for next week certainly indicate things will no longer be smooth sailing for the ladies of Tikiano.

Does anyone else think the producers sat around a table thinking about how to get ratings up and came up with: oil Chelsea up?

This should help ratings. Oil up the women!

I think my favorite player tonight had to be the wild pig. I could just hear the Benny Hill theme song as the tribe chased it around with a rope, axe, and Tarzan’s stained briefs.

The pig has more charisma than Troyzan

These next few episodes are traditionally my favorite ones to watch. The alliances that got the remaining folks to where they are currently will be exposed for what they really are. Big moves need to be made by the folks at the bottom if they want any opportunity to claim their shot at one million dollars.

0 comments
Filed under: Rathe's Ramblings, Survivor: One World
Tags: Alicia Rosa, Chelsea Meissner, Christina Cha, Episode Recaps, Greg Smith, Kat Edorsson, Kim Spradlin, Rathes Ramblings, Sabrina Thompson, Survivor: One World, Troy Robertson

This Blog Post Brought To You By 7-Up

Posted on April 5, 2012 by stevebeans
0 comments

Every season on Survivor, there is always at least one episode where they become extremely obnoxious trying to promote one of their sponsors. At least it’s not as bad as “The Biggest Loser” where they promote 2-3 things per episode, but when they do it, they do it hard.

This episode, we were lucky enough to be treated to non-stop talk of 7-Up through the first 30 or so minutes. I have to admit, I didn’t even know 7-Up was still in business, so it’s pretty smart to allow the cast of Survivor to drink it. I mean if you want to make a product seem good, give it to a bunch of people who have been eating dirt for the past 20 days.

When the game wasn’t revolved around the product placement, it was actually a pretty good episode. Kim is clearly taking control of things and is an easy favorite to be in the final 3 right now. She’s the best player remaining in the game and there isn’t even a close second. The only thing that will stop her from winning is if the remaining people got together and collectively put together some type of strategy. However, I don’t think that would even work because one of those people would be Tarzan, who thinks Chelsea is annoyed at him because she had a botched surgery before. Right, it has nothing to do with putting your dirty stinky bottoms in with her clean clothes.

The only remaining player who seems to be doing any type of thinking is Jay, surprisingly. He went into the game kind of ditzy, but seems to be the only one aware of the girls quietly taking control of the game. However, that’s about the extent of it because instead of doing something about it, he simply sat back and even voted for Mike to go home. Well played, Jay. Well played.

While these aren’t exactly the type of episodes that leave us on the edge of our seat, after a few snoozefest seasons, I’ll take what I can get at this point.

0 comments
Filed under: Survivor: One World
Tags: Alicia Rosa, Chelsea Meissner, Christina Cha, Episode Recaps, Greg Smith, Jay Byars, Kat Edorsson, Kim Spradlin, Leif Manson, Michael Jefferson, Sabrina Thompson, Survivor: One World, Troy Robertson

Colton Cumbie Had A Bacterial Infection, Not Appendicitis

Posted on March 23, 2012 by stevebeans
0 comments

Now that the dust has settled on one of the most disliked Survivor contestants – Colton Cumbie – being removed from the game due to medical reasons, his exit interviews are coming in, and they’re probably more interesting than his regular interviews.

Regarding the pain
It turned out that Colton had a severe bacterial infection, and never ended up having his appendix removed. He told zap2it…

“I’m obviously 100% better. What happened was I was taken to a hopsital where they determined it was a severe bacterial infection. They gave me a round of antibiotics, I got back to the States and I had to do another round of antibiotics. They thought it might still be appendicitis when I got back to the States, but I still have my appendix.”

I’m glad to see he is ok, I really am. I don’t like anyone leaving the game for medical reasons, as I seen it happen to one of my favorite all time players a few times. Whether you’re a good guy, or a dirty player, everyone should leave the game through a vote or as the winner. I hate seeing anyone leave any other way, whether they’re forever branded as quitters (looking at you, Naonka and Kelly Shinn), or especially through injury.

I think Colton deserved nothing less than to be completely blindsided and knocked down a few pegs, but it never happened and this injury robbed us of that. To be fair, I’m not really sure any of the remaining players had the guts or brains to pull that together.

Not turning over the idol
This is something I do feel slightly bad about. Colton was certainly victimized by poor editing as he did want to give the idol away, but according to The Insider, he wanted to give it away to Jay, who was on the other tribe. Sure, he could have given it to Alicia, but apparently the cameras didn’t show the close friendship he had with Jay. Colton did not want the idol to eventually come back and haunt his good friend, and for that I can understand.

I am torn on the producers not allowing him to give the idol to Jay. This whole season was based on the premise of “One World” where we looked forward to opposing tribe members having secret alliances. They also allowed something crazy, for the guys to just hand over their team idol after they’d won it. Sure, this was one week when the two tribes were completely separate, but I still don’t really agree on the decision.

On Being Mean
After reading some of his comments, I almost applaud his effort, despite still being incredibly obnoxious. His goal on the guys tribe was to literally be their queen, and that’s what he was doing. He sat there, didn’t lift a finger, but for some reason he had full control before the swap. He did so by playing like a Russell or Rob in a very controlling way, and those who were just there to get a little fame easily bought into it. It’s the reason he spoke to Christina the way he did, simply to put fear into the rest of the tribe.

Coming out of it, my hope is that people would appreciate my game play. Let’s be honest, a little 20-year-old gay boy convincing a group of men to do what he wanted, without ever lifting a finger? They’ve never had anyone like me. It would be one thing if I helped out at camp, but I did nothing. I literally was their queen.

Could he have taken a different approach? I think so. Rob was very controlling but charming, Russell was controlling while … hmm, Russell was pretty bad now that I think about it. He was also incredibly lucky at times, unlike Rob who literally had his tribe locked down air tight.

Did the editing make him look bad?
According to Colton, everything you seen was true, but the editing definitely didn’t help. It’s not like they forced him to say mean things, but they left out a lot of his strategizing, and mentioning that was his game plan going in. He knows he did a good job making himself look bad, and has learned a bit from it, but he also stands by a lot of things he said.

To his credit, some questions were kind of trap questions. I personally hate when the question is used “Do you have any black friends” to prove you’re not racist. It’s a no-win situation. You can either say ‘Yes’ and start naming a few people off which looks strange, or you can say ‘No’ and appear you don’t because you hate them. I don’t have any black friends, but that’s because I don’t have many friends at all haha. People generally don’t once they leave high school or college. I don’t have any alien friends either, but it doesn’t mean I hate aliens!

0 comments
Filed under: Survivor: One World
Tags: Colton Cumbie, Survivor: One World

« Older Entries