Didn’t seem like he was playing the idol until Jaime hit the shot in the dark. Maybe that was the editing.

I do agree Lauren should have been the target.

Shot in the dark is dumb. First time it hits is when the people using have no idea what they’re doing.

Too many advantages and too much kumbaya, just like the last few seasons. They still haven't learned that Survivor needs villains.

Don't want to judge the season too soon but not looking that great to me.

Still can't believe they still create puzzle stations so that struggling teams can see "exactly" what the other teams are doing to get to the solve.

I mean it is a puzzle....cmon Survivor...

PS. I thought they blocked one off late in season 43???

And how tf (unless explicitly prohibited) does the purple team not dismantle theirs as soon as Jeff says they're good? The uber prepped NASA kid should've known better, unless he's trying to avoid strategizing in those margins this early.

The cast already has me excited. Good characters plus people are actually interested in playing the game.

Maddy was my preseason QT3.14. GG

Almost no sob stories in the first two hours

I kind of liked the new advantages, especially the bank your vote. I also liked that they changed up the journey decision.

I wonder what the advantage would have been for Matt.

Why did the girls think they had the numbers if they allegedly thought Lauren had no vote (and she kind of did)

Much better 1st episode than the past few seasons

Standard problem with modern Survivor (season 43 being a huge culprit of this).

When you spend 90% of the episode on either advantage treasure hunt scenes, immunity challenges or Jeff asking people at tribal council 'how is Survivor like a Dolphin' it means you leave every episode having to try and fill in so many blanks yourself like some sort of Lost episode.

For example this week we have to figure out

-Why did Maddy think they definitely had the votes for Brandon with Lauren publicly announcing she had no vote and Jamie playing shot in the dark, did she think they had Matt locked in for a 3-1 vote?

-Why did Kane also go along with this, did he really think they had Matt?

-Why was Jamie playing her shot in dark in the first place. Was her name ever tossed out?

-Why did Matt play his shot in the dark. Was it paranoia, or a pre planned strategy to make his vote disappear

-Was Brandon always flushing his idol or did he figure out votes were on him. If so did he figure it out early or did Matts shot in the dark play tip him off?

-Why did Brandon vote Maddy. Did he think the numbers were there with Mat and Kane or was he just trying to idol her out with 1 vote. We were only ever shown him discussing Lauren with Matt


That's six unanswered questions from the first vote alone

This one there might have been an answer to; when he and Maddy were discussing the key and she was suggesting they don't tell anyone, he made some comment like "that's when I knew she wasn't a trustworthy person".

I thought it was a ridiculous tribal:
1) Random person who isn't in anyone's radar decides to shot in the dark
2) Target the one person who has an idol everyone knows about and who doesn't seem like he wants that target - him playing the idol seemed to be a very high likelihood
3) Not targetting the known liar who has no protection

Didn't mind the sling guy playing his SITD; being injured, probably knowing Brandon is going to be an idol player, he could see himself as the easy backup vote.

Does Matt use his Shot if Jaime doesnt?

Ranked the players preseason for a draft and Im proud to say I had Carolyn and Jaime as the bottom two

Thought I read somewhere that Jeff revealed there was going to be a showmance this season. My early money is on Matt and Frannie but it is sometimes hard to tell the players' sexual orientations so I could be way off.

Odd that 3 of the strongest looking dudes all needed medical in the first ep. Felt bad for Bruce, just took a header directly into the wooden plank, that looked really bad

My early pick to win is Danny, for whatever reason I feel like NYC firemen are a good fit for this show. Usually sociable and collaborative, and good leaders without being bossy or obnoxious. Tom Westman of course was the prototype, probably one of the goat seasons when he won Palau.

They showed it's them in next week's preview.

Carolyn would be a freak in the sack I bet.

I watched about half an hour of the new season and realized - this isn't interesting for anymore. I think the game has been ruined by too many changes and too much "known strategy." Survivor is boring now. Oh well.

Also not a fan of the casting. Everyone's nice. Everyone's positive and upbeat. I know Jeff loves that, but it gets old. They could never have another Heroes v Villains season.

I agree, but can't not watch.

Thought this was a very entertaining episode 1 from a reality show perspective, less so from a strategic perspective. Still I think a lot of the cast has potential.
Carolyn & Jamie are going to annoy me a lot, though. Preview also looked bad.

*Hard to not conclude from this episode that Jamie is really somewhere between kind of crazy and super crazy.

*I can understand Matt not picking a side but in the end it also results in him not aligning with anyone. He should've told Brandon to play his idol and get someone else on board if he was so concerned. I guess he didn't know who to trust. I hope he has a good story as a defense to him playing his shot in the dark.

*Thought Maddy was very cute and had some wit in the first half, but her plan was really putting an unnecessary target on her back while targeting a known idol in the first tribal with only 6 people at tribal and potentially people not having a vote. That is just never a good idea. I can understand from her perspective it's 'Brandon or her voted out' at some point given that they had that awkward exchange, I still don't think she consciously made the decision to swing for him with a very high probability of being voted out as a result of it.

Two questions:

1) Let's say someone did want to sell their story of having lost their vote. Is it possible to not write down a name? I'm pretty sure the answer is no, and if you want to try to cover yourself you basically have to use your shot in the dark.

2) Speaking of shot in the dark, if two people use their shot in the dark at the same tribal, as occurred here, I assume they redo it so it's 1 in 6 for each, rather than the second person only having to pick from a total of five?

All I can say is how in the world did falling off that rock not go worse. I mean, that was not a little tumble. He went falling back and was totally unprotected. And those were not nice smooth rocks - that looked basically like coral, which I think we can all agree can cause serious injury. That dude won the game just by managing to escape major injury, while another guy bonks his head and has to be medically tapped.

lol Matthew admitting he bulit the challenge in his back yard to practice

lol dudes trying to using body language reading on people they have known for 5 days. Of course people look sketchy, I mean cameras and situation cause it.

So glad Carolyn made it. First character survivor has had in 3 of 4 seasons