Similar question I was pondering:

Who's the first to flip the board over in a game of Chutes and Ladders?

Brandon Hantz or Willie Hantz?

I can't get over how hot Andrea is looking this season. That purple and black bikini is going to be running through my dreams

I didn't see it as much on her last season but yes she is among the HOAT.

I'm willing to concede that the rice dumping was an idea that Brandon was in love with prior to coming into the game and he was looking for any excuse to do it. However, if I'm right about that, I think it's further support for the idea that the kid isn't right in the head. It's a hugely anti-social act. I mean, he liked Erik, Dawn, Brenda, and Andrea at minimum. Why make them suffer? Some of them were even firmly attempting to be aligned with him in the early going.

Clearly it was unethical to cast Brandon but it provided some A+ entertainment and will probably translate into good ratings.

Also interesting episode for the Fans minus Julia. I really like Reynold despite being so inept at being subtle. I mean when you find the idol the last thing you should be doing is stopping your search and returning to camp and then telling your buddy straight away with a celebratory fist bump. But his child like wonder at everything is endearing and I'd like to see him play again. Found it funny that Sherri was complaining that they lost anyway when it seems like she was the reason for it.

Too speculative. He still had two tribal councils to go. Plus the way he was protecting Brandon and criticizing Savaii may not have gone well.

grunching, but why the hell do they have Mike holding the bag in the reward challenge over Eddie? seems absurd.

No idea why Probst let Brandon go on so long.. it got a bit boring and repetitive. The shoulder rubbing was just uncomfortable.

Yeah but, let's not forget Brandon is 34 year younger than Phillip.

However, Phillip kicked Brandon's ass bad in the reward challenge!

I'm obviously no Brandon defender but this just isn't true. They focused on Brandon's net first so by the time it was full and he dropped it Phillip had only a few in his. Brandon dropping before Phillip is not a win by any definition.

Seriously?

Even Brandon's earring is insane.

Exactly.

This is basically my sentiment.

Pretty sure he'd be dead by now if he had won the million dollars. I jest, but I don't think he'd handle the money well.

I loved Reynold this episode. Awesome facial reactions during the "tribal council" and him asking Jeff to raise his arms was hilarious.

I don't think Brandon is acting at all, he really seems that unstable. I'm sure he had aspirations beforehand of making a big move, but I think the bi-polarness and outburst was genuine. Why would he want this to be his big move?

Once brandon was clearly struggling they should have switched to phillip. Brondon will drop on his own before the, why waste 5 coconuts. So tilting that they can't figure this out on their own.

Prost did an amazing job as host, no other reality host would have handled that as well.

Wow, I'm surprised by the reactions to this episode. I'm 100% on board with Clovis here. This episode was boring, disgusting, and just downright unenjoyable. I will simply not understand what anyone could have found entertaining about it, but to each their own.

I see the arguments for Probst handling this well and Probst being a scumbag. I'm indifferent about it. My gut says Probst enjoyed it way too much, but I get that he can see this being a ratings-drawer of an episode as soon as this happens, and this is his baby (and, quite frankly, they need viewers). More importantly, I can already picture the "Probst rubbing [insert homosexual man and/or Colby and/or Boston Rob here]'s shoulders" gifs.

Reynold MVP'd the **** out of this episode. I'll vent about it in a new post, but his reactions and comments during this episode were all pretty fantastic. Him asking Probst to do the "hands up" thing after the forfeit hit me just right.

+10000000000000000000000000

Okay, my big complaint: why are they re-hiding the idol pre-merge? Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm 99% sure they've NEVER done this unless both pre-merge idols were played. This specifically sticks out because the Heroes and Villains both played theirs pre-merge, and the Heroes (who had played theirs before the Villains did) didn't receive a clue until after Russell had played his idol (which they didn't know about, but the point stands). Yes, you can argue that the new Heroes idol was re-hidden before they ever received that clue, but that seems like a bit of a stretch. I love HIIs, but this re-hiding encourages people to play them at every tribal council, and while that might make for better TV, it makes for a terribly un-strategic game.

This doesn't make sense... how does rehiding them pre-merge encourage people to play them "every Tribal Council" any more than it does post-merge? What you're saying is just empirically untrue, with the exception of Survivor Samoa and I would be hard pressed to find someone claim that aggressively playing HII's in that season made it worse. It's not a realistic strategy to just hope you can beat the rest of your tribe to find an idol over and over again.

They rehid the idol pre-merge in RI, though it was never going to matter that season.


I found the Phillip-Brandon feud entertaining, but this hasn't done anything to rekindle my excitement for this season. I imagine Probst/production thought this would be a headline episode not just for the season but for Survivor as a whole, but I'd gladly take half of the episodes from S25 over this. Mostly I'm just glad that one of the airtime black holes is gone.

When you re-hide them post-merge, everyone left in the game has one opportunity to find each idol. For example, let's say that Reynold plays his new idol at the next vote, finds and uses #3, and then Julia finds idol #4. Julia now benefits from having someone in her tribe who used the idol. She had four opportunities to find an idol, and she goes into a merge with this idol for no reason other than Reynold's aggressiveness with it. How is this fair to someone like Erik, who could certainly use an idol but only had one opportunity to get one?

I just think both tribes should be on an even playing field as much as possible. The ability to find and use multiple idols pre-merge ruins that imo.

Sherri's incompetence was a bigger contributing factor to their challenge loss. It's only natural for Eddie, Julia, and Reynold to panic when they see Sherri throwing brick after brick.

I think Probst's love for this season is closely tied to Redemption Island. The fool from Probst's pet season ran the game, while the savvy player from Nicaragua became a nonentity. Probst must sleep better at night thinking (incorrectly, imo) Boston Rob really did play against strong competition.

That's such a bizarre way of thinking about it. Anything except the last idol only affects the tribe that's using them. Erik doesn't care if Reynold plays 5 idols in Tribal Council's he's not at, any more than he cares about idols people played in seasons he's not in. So only the last idol a tribe finds matters to him, and each player on that tribe had one opportunity to get it.

Why do I occasionally get the feeling that some of you want a season of emotionless chess moves. Where people are always acting in their own best interests and have no other motivation driving them other than winning the million? Then, at the end everyone merrily congratulates everyone else on the great game that they played. You realize that game doesn't exist, right?

Some of you fellas must be the most tiltless poker players on the planet. Never bothered by a seemingly endless string of bad beats or some smelly asshat running his mouth at the table while raking in pots with 93o. Starved, drenched, cold, sleep deprived, miles from anyone you trust...all trivial annoyances that hold no ability to knock you off your game.

Well, in the real world, most people have various issues. Some have serious issues. But the show has been well documented. When you sign up for it, you know what you are getting in for. Doesn't mean you can hold your **** together when the going gets rough. And that's an interesting part of the show for me. Who is going to hold themselves together and who is going to fall apart? Could anyone have prevented Brandon's meltdown? Managed him better? If not, why didn't they get rid of him sooner?

It's not just about numbers to me. How do you get the numbers? How do you keep the numbers? Getting people to want to do what you want them to do instead of figuring out what is best for themselves and doing that. The strategic aspect is entangled within the social aspect. How people interact is key.

This is case in point why you don't align with people who are 'crazy'. (Let's say you define crazy as having some priority other than winning the million; whether it be redeeming yourself, not being fooled, being on TV, what have you.) You count them in your numbers, but they are not in your numbers...they are willing to firebomb their own game and yours along with it.

I'm curious to see if Brandon's demise affects the games of Andrea and Dawn or if they chug along unperturbed. And by that, I mean, they witnessed another human being meltdown while playing this game. Will they be able to merrily get back into game mode and start lying and manipulating each other with no compunctions or is this episode going to throw them off their course?

Our attempts to identify the Sole Survivor may have been clarified a bit tonight given that Malcolm received multiple confessionals, while Dawn and Cochran both had none.

Brandon went 30+ days on his first season without going scorched earth on his tribe. He was on this season for just 10, knowing exactly what to expect and living under much more comfortable circumstances. This wasn't a meltdown, it was a ploy. Brandon didn't reach a breaking point. He saw the writing on the wall, knew he wasn't going deep in the game, probably didn't want to spend an extra two weeks in Ponderosa, and figured why the hell not? His sole motivation is to try get as much screen time as possible and overindulge in synthetic drama. It's painfully obvious.

I FEED ME