im just wondering why out of everyone they brought fran back? she was 1st out last time. seems odd being a favorite being 1st out.

cause of the special agent

5/10 of the favorites are from Shep's season right?

Brenda is pretty, but not as hot as she thinks she is.
She is smart too. But, not as smart as she thinks she is.
For me she is just a little too full of herself.

I also think the guys in the show are now less naive than they were in the early years. Look at the way Malcolm approached the girl/guy thing last year. He was clearly focussed on the game. I doubt anybody on the favs is going to be smitten by Brenda, and her attitude may actually hurt her - as in, people might not believe her even when she is being sincere.

PS. Glad you are still a reg here Soncy...love your posts

will prob be tough to get it to specifications, but I'll give it a shot

I don't have a sterling reputation: Cites Brandon and Erik giving away their immunity as the kind of irrational game playing that he is scared of (I hear you, Cochran--not really sure how that kind of thinking translates into choosing Phillip over Francesca though). This group is a dysfunctional group. A lot of misfits. "I don't have a sterling reputation. I'm bad at challenges. I'm not valuable around camp. And maybe worst of all, I'm known for betraying my entire tribe." He's toying with the strategy of being aligned with every single person in the game and making it known he is aligned with everyone...giving information as if whoever he's talking to at the time is his real alliance. An interesting idea, but he's a really nervous dude. I'm not sure if it's a strategy he can pull off.

cross between colby and parv: Reynold droning about his boring fing job. "Experience/adventure" guy. He swims and plays rugby; that's gotta bode well for his challenge prowess. He's really going to enjoy every moment of this experience. (If he has the opportunity to rub a cute chicks @$$, he's on that. Crimeny, that was boring.)

I'm a killer on the inside: Julia, the racecar driver...was this girl on the show? She has a passion for racing. blah blah blah. She's an expert in racing and her academics. Seems to have really studied Survivor after she found out she'd be going on the show.

I would open a dog bar: <<<(Sounds ******ed? If you guessed this was an Eddie clip, you get a ding from the RHAP bell.) He thinks being a brainless reactionary is going to help him in the game. (Okay, he didn't say it quite like that.) Not sure if he's going to tell everyone that he's a firefighter because being trustworthy and loyal are a huge part of his job description and if he's backstabbing everyone he doesn't wan't them to know his occupation. (Doesn't want to malign the job in the eyes of his cast mates? Doesn't realize that the rest of America already knows?) He thinks he is less of a douche bag than the typical Jersey shore kind of guy. (Mmmm, we'll see. Not looking good so far, Ed.) Awwww, the dog bar idea is sweet. I'm almost sorry I made fun of him earlier.

from worst to first: No, Fran...still worst. Not looking forward to speaking with Phillip, but not gunning for Phillip. Going to try to reason with him, but that didn't work last time. Going to suggest letting bygones be bygones. There are bigger threats in the game. Learned that she needs to keep her mouth shut sometimes. This time, won't assume that she has more time to get in a better position.

fran the day after: Hurt her that she was friends with some of the people she was playing with because it made her trust them when she shouldn't have trusted them. Puts into perspective the people who really are her friends and that she can trust...makes her appreciate those relationships more. Never expected to get asked back. An honor to get to play this game twice. Grateful for the opportunity. High point was competing in the challenges, and winning one. Low point was being betrayed by someone (or someones?) she thought was her friend on day three. (Honestly, this would be kind of brutal. It's not like getting cut in a spot well down the line because you are a threat or whatever. It's saying, I don't want to play with you from Go. If you went into the game thinking you had a friend or two, and this happened to you, it would be rough.) Would not play Survivor again. (Of the 'burn me twice' camp, it appears.)

Not very good at this kind of thing yet, but there it is if you want it.

Brenda is pretty damn gorgeous. In a survivor hotness draft she's never falling out of the top 10 and is probably a top 5 pick.

episode needed more Hope

There is something about Hope that greatly annoys me. Did Colin get his Ja'mie King vibes crossed up? Laura seems cool while Hope came across as someone I would consciously avoid.

Why did the editors pin the challenge loss on Malcolm? Neither Dawn nor Malcolm were targets so why not just show what happened? It even goes against Probst's overwhelming desire to crown Malcolm as Ozzy's heir to the challenge throne.

woops

I'm not intimidated by women: Erik has a huge advantage because he's been around Parvati, Amanda, and Cirie. Learned from watching the gangsters. Soliloquy on giving away his immunity and how he wants to redeem himself. Maturity and life experience important to playing this game well. He loves his tribe. All the people seem like decent people...perhaps being too gullible again. Not intimidated by the women...also maybe not a good idea. Cruel and horrible for Francesca to get voted out first again. No way he wants that to happen. Wants to compare notes with Brandon about why he gave his immunity away. Not sure if Andrea will be a player or a pawn. Phillip is very interesting...can't wait to get to know him.

I named my son after Colby: Sherri been married 18 years. OMG, she owns delicious places, wetzels pretzels, haagen daz, cinnabon, jimmy johns, etc. Huge fan of Survivor. Been told she looks intense and is intimidating. She sounds like a life warrior, so I don't find that too shocking. I like this chick.

I'm all in this time: Brandon needs a little help with his sentence structure. Reminds me of an 'English as a second language person' sometimes. That teal color of his shirt suits him. Not sure why he feels the need to essentially draw all over himself with a marker though. Feels liberated enough to lie to somebody in this game and not feel so jacked up about it. He plays poker and he's "all in this time". Leaving it all in the Philippines. Regrets giving away immunity. Won't be doing that again. Life has calloused him. He's changed a lot. Not going to worry about someone sneaking and whispering behind his back. Not going to get mad at you on a whim. Not going to trip out over a pretty girl. That stuff doesn't matter. Not going to see tears this time. Going to see an exciting, happy, person. Make be aggressive. Not going to be a carpet for Coach again. He was trustworthy last time, and he thinks people are going to want to align with him. Also interested in talking to Erik about giving up immunity. "Phillip is probably going to get on my nerves. He seems like he's going to piss me off. I might have to control myself from saying something. He seems like a loose cannon."

can't over think it: Hope is a little bit of an outdoors girl. Camping, four wheeling, horseback riding. Says she luck boxed a beauty competition. Keep a positive mental attitude all the time and be your biggest fan. Be adaptable as the game goes along. Brenda Lowe was a favorite of hers. And Chelsea+Kim. Is naturally flirty...sometimes unintentionally.

my sights are on the win: Fellas might want to check out Andrea's scene. Some cleavage. Her voice annoys me. Doesn't want to fall into the trap of being a follower this time around. Phillip is really annoying at first, but now he's almost endearing. She likes watching others react to him. "I don't think Phillip is this strategic mastermind. Even if he thinks he is. ...I could use him as like a side thing." On day 37 last time, Phillip was still talking about Francesca...calling her his nemesis. "Francesca is going to be so upset when she sees how far I went. --This really weird hatred that he has towards her. So that should be interesting. ...I wasn't really excited to see Corrine. We watched her season recently and I remember her not really liking people in general. ...I haven't met her yet. Maybe we'll click." Worried about Brandon because of the whole Mykala thing. Erik known for being tricked by girls, but she thinks he won't be tricked again. Cochran will be interesting...he gets really nervous...but he concerns me. If it comes down to saving himself, or doing something with his tribe, he will save himself. Really exciting to see Dawn. Dawn is like a Survivor mom. Might vote her out in three days, but excited to have her for a Survivor mom.

Fan from 10 years old: Laura I think she said? Who is this? Bonded with her mom while watching Survivor. She's about the politics. Not much of an athlete. Will dominate strategically and socially to help compensate for being a physical drain on the tribe. Not a patient person. (I'm rooting for a tribe swap putting her on Phillip's crew.) She seems very mature and boring.

Can we get a tribe swap that puts Phillip and Marine man on the same tribe? I'd watch that.

you make me think of something...

We still dont know which side marine man is playing yet huh?

seems like he might be the odd man out all season until they merge.

ps: survivorsucks_lol

Okay, here are my thoughts on the Favorites after watching the episode and the secret scenes:

Fran: RIP, Fran. I feel badly for Fran. I think she's a funny person. I'm pretty sure I'm getting robbed of her making good-natured fun of her fellow tribemates and probably herself. If Andrea had went instead, I don't think it would have been a big loss--this season is chock full of fast talking blonds. But I wasn't ready to see Phillip go just yet (as a viewer--as a player, I wouldn't like the element of chaos). The really brutal thing for Fran is the number of people saying they liked her, didn't particularly want to see her go, and yet they still voted her off. In fact, choosing to be aligned with Phillip over her. Ouch. I think she threw Corrine's name out as an alternative to Phillip at some point. That was probably a mistake. Phillip was the safest person to offer up, and she probably shouldn't have mentioned anyone else's name without knowing pretty sure where people stood on that person. If you aren't sure of your footing, you just ask people what they want to do. Poor Fran. Wrong side of Phillip Shepherd.

Phillip: He's probably playing about as well as he can play--and by that, I mean the game is going as well as it can go for him. I'd think he'd be pretty happy with the situation. People are pretending he's in charge. Deferring to him. Electing to be aligned with him over a more predictable, fairly rational seeming human being. They are even humoring his ridiculous breath holding displays. Not really sure why these people are letting him hang around. But they are. It's week one. He's annoying as hell. And yet, they are jumping in bed with him and his pink panties. It has to bode well for him. Endgame is where all his value is at, and he's got peops lining up on day one. People are voluntarily subjecting themselves to him knowing there could be 36 more days of this.

Andrea: Again, I think she's handicapped for this game by her mannerisms. She talks too fast and has a twitchy quality to her. She ends up seeming really shady. I think people like her for the most part, but I don't think they particularly trust her. It doesn't bode well. She landed in the majority alliance. She's in with Phillip, the faux leader. I think she has connections with Corrine and maybe Malcolm, but we saw so little Malcolm, it's hard to be sure--basically a quick shot of him agreeing to go with them. If she does...those are good connections to have. Not sure if those connections will be able to save her from herself though. Very first group we saw forming was Andrea suggesting "us three (herself, Fran, Dawn), Cochran, Brandon, Phillip...there's six." Right. Good selections there, Andrea.

Corrine: &@$*! Props. She appears to be holding her tongue and being nice to people. Surely she will snap eventually. I liked how she handled Phillip. I think she's a good fit with Malcolm. Looking forward to seeing a little more of both of them in the next episode so I can get a better idea of where their heads are at. %$@#* it all if I end up having to root for her. I could see it happening. Hopefully the new Dawn will cut her throat.

Malcolm: I have no idea where he's at. I know his mind is sharp for this game. I liked his pre-game reads on his competitors. I like how he evaluates his own strengths and weaknesses. We just got to see so little of him this first episode. We got to see the ground floor alliance of he, Corrine, Andrea, and Shep, but no in depth thoughts revealed. He's not one of these, 'I need to be in charge' people so he can sit back and let Phillip be the faux leader and pretend to be on team Shep. No mention of him being a target even though he got overtaken by Reynold in the bean bag toss. Even though, he's an unknown quantity.

Cochran: Still neurotic. Poor guy with the sunburn. He must never go outside. How could he not be aware he would quickly be sunburned? Like, you can tell by looking at him he's going to burn at the drop of a hat. Had to be in a lot of pain--props to him for handling it. His feet looked misshapen as hell in the first place. Funny, funny, man though. People seem to be getting on well with him. No mention of axing him either. Even though his lack of challenge prowess has been well documented. And he couldn't even open the tree mail scroll without help.

Dawn: Oh I have high hopes for Dawn. Please let 'The New Dawn' be real. I could see her trying to take a more manipulative approach to dealing with Cochran than she seemed to have last time. I think she's also a little twitchy though. And so fricking nice. Really, what insane group of people are going to let her sniff the endgame?

Brandon: Still a bit of a loon. A tad psycho during that first challenge. Then executed a celebratory tackle of Malcolm after it was over. Good radar on Andrea's shadiness, but again, I think she's a bad liar so maybe not that impressive. Interested in seeing him tap into his Uncle Russell side next week. Still loco.

Brenda: Racecar driver going on about how dangerous she is as she stepped off the helicopter. Still didn't hear her name thrown around as a potential first Favorite boot, but she didn't get tapped for team Shep so it's not looking great for her. I suspect Shep finds her off putting. She is the weakest challenge link in the group who voted Andrea. If Brandon doesn't shoot himself in the foot, doesn't look good for her in the near future.

Erik: Could have been the original Fabio. I still think he's too soft for this game. Also, I'm not sure we got the whole interaction between he and Phillip, but I think Phillip's original intention was well meaning when he approached Erik about being in the alliance. I think he was drawn to Erik because of his seeming honesty and legitimately wanted Erik in his alliance. Phillip used poor wording and ended up turning Erik off, but I think Erik had no poker face about it and that whole interaction turned out much more poorly than it should have because both guys are insecure and reacted over-sensitively to the bad vibes coming off the other. I mean, who doesn't realize that you just humor Phillip when he comes at you with his condescending bull$#!%? Erik, apparently.

I agree on your analysis of most of the favs except Eric. If Eric truly detested Philip as much as he showed in that confessional, it's probably best he doesn't try to fake allign with him. As he wouldn't be able to pull it off and by not attempting to do so he avoids a vocal blowup between Phillip and himself.
As well it should be pointed out his alligning with the fran alliance was a low risk, big reward move. When Phillip approached him was told he was at the bottom of the alliance so 7th and that is if you believe Phillip. (not likely by his response) While on the otherside he at worst is 6th. Even if Phillip is right and he does have the numbers, Erik should still feel that he is 7th in the tribe, given he is alligned with an irrational persons that will make a big target for himself, as well as a strong strategic player who won't likely add as much value as him in challenges. Making it likely he will make the swap either way.

Thanks for the write ups as always soncy!

One thing I can't believe is that Cochran knows he is a pasty white guy but doesn't bring a hat?!

But don't forget, he wrote a paper on Survivor!

Let the crab symphony begin!

Players don't decide what they can or cannot bring to the island.

Nevertheless, he should've been able to at least minimize the sunburns by constantly re-applying sun lotion.
I have a fairly light skin type myself and I know how hard it is to avoid getting burned but that burn was just ridiculous.
He probably forgot that sun lotion gets washed away by water and didn't re-apply lotion after the challenge.

Cochrane wasn't the only person burnt pretty bad, Michael also was quite sunburnt.

Pretty sure everyone thinks Phillip is a mostly harmless jack@$$. They just accept his ******ed name for them and move on to their real alliances which is what I think Erik should have done. It's kind of what he did, but the exchange didn't go well. Both guys bristled at each other. I guess if he can't fake, he can't fake, but good luck playing Survivor.

This was my favorite part of the show!!

One little hermit crab is like, "Yo! Come on over here!"
And the 2nd little hermit crab is like, "Nah, you come on over here!"
And first hermit crab is like, "Yo Dude, YOU come over HERE!"

I loved it.

Excellent use of animals in the episode over all.

So you think he wanted to bring a hat (as many others have done) but the producers said, "We don't think so. We like you red."?