Has it been established that he was/is even a "high stakes" player? I'm convinced from that showing he is not.

I believe the producers pick contestants largely based on putting together an entertaining cast that will get ratings and game savviness is secondary at best. Also, if anything, they seem to go out of their way to cast irrational/illogical people sometimes.

That was the biggest tribal meltdown in show history, yes? Holy cow.

But my favorite part of the episode was SPY SHACK! They won't notice you hiding behind those palm fronds, Tony, don't worry. lol...wtf?

Yes he's a high stakes player and a deucescracked coach.

Even if J'Tia survives until some type of merge/team shuffle, isn't she insta voted out by her next tribe? Who wants to keep around someone that combustible and risk another rice burning incident?

The Brains tribe is playing like they are the only ones left in the game, talking about order of the "final 3", 2 vs 1, etc.

It always surprises me in the more recent seasons how many players get off the boat and immediately start attempting late game moves on day 1. It's like they've watched the past seasons but only remember the big flips/back stabs that occurred from like day 20 on. What's wrong with just keeping your tribe strong, avoiding tribal council, and forming bonds with your tribemates early on?

I really thought J'Tia was a great pick for the first week of SS, as she was obviously the one to go "crazy black chick." I just didn't realize how quickly she'd do it. Whew.

Ok thanks, I must have missed that earlier in the thread.

yikes

(from: http://www.anl.gov/articles/j-tia-taylor)

Me too Dom, I was literally in tears from that. I can't wait to see what develops there. LOL

I really feel that you're overestimating some of these people, there have been many intelligent people cast on survivor in the past who have been clueless to strategy. Remember, many of them are recruited on the show just for for having a specific look or character trait rather than how savvy they are at the game.

.

Why were Garrett/Spencer so adamant on needing/making Kass their third? Was I missing something, but couldn't Tasha have served that same purpose. Except she actually has built a rapport with them, and has also shown a capacity to listen to do what you want when she voted with you the previous round.

The problem is, J'Tia also took the worst strategy by starting in the far corner of the puzzle. You still need to manipulate four swivel blocks to fit a piece, but you only get help with two more spots once you find it.

Starting from the middle is so fundamentally better, I can't believe Spencer or someone wasn't at least telling her to do that from the start, much less believe a nuclear physicist (or even an 8th grade physics student) not being able to figure that out.

LOL Brains

Someone should really update this idiom.

This is minor. Once she had one in it should have gone relatively quickly. But she panicked. She had the right idea of trying each piece on the locked swivels, but if they didn't just slip in she moved on to the next. It was like her mind shut off.

True, any time someone looks over at the other tribe on a challenge that will yield no help instead of just focusing on your own, it's trouble.

But it's still dumb to start by trying to get a corner piece.

Obviously spent all 2k hours watching Cultmaster Rob in Redemption

That is exactly the impression I got. He thought he would be Boston Rob 2.0. Hence my comments about delusion.

I may not be able to say anything this week without someone ripping it to shreds, but it seemed as if there were three distinct groups of two (David/Kass, Spencer/Garrett, and Tasha/J'Tia) at the first vote. The only possible outcome was for two duos to take out a member the third, but that didn't mean that the two duos were aligned at all...and it almost seemed like the opposite was true, as Spencer/Garrett immediately wanted Kass as their #3.

That was a fantastic premiere, this cast is so good. It seems fitting that 2+2's survivor representative would fail due to a mixture of poor social skills and fancy play syndrome.

I'm loving Tony so far. I genuinely lol'ed each time he showed up in this episode. He's like the perfect blend of Russell Hantz and Brad Culpepper.

LMAO

Cheers to nonecks1!

what a great episode. Sad that Garrett had such a poor showing but it was clear he was drawing dead in the game.

Loving the 2 cops, Cliff, Woo, Spencer, Latasha and Brice so far, but all in all a great cast. I literally LOL'd every time Tony on was screen, so so good.

It's funny how ridiculously bad the brains tribe did in the first episode. And I'm not just talking about the challenges, but about how they play the game as well. Both times they had a really really easy vote and both times they ****ed up in so many ways. ALso look at J'Tia or whatever her track record and then realise she's still in... Ridiculous. Hard to evaluate Gman since we're on a poker forum but has to be one of the worst performances ever?

Though I gotta agree with that one line, the fact that that crazy woman is a ****ing nuclear engineer is terrifying.

First episode cliffs: