Probst's words on whether Aubry's II and advantage are live or not:

"Nope. Both of them are done. Bye-bye. El gonzo."

https://ew.com/tv/2019/03/21/survivo...ribal-council/

My thoughts on the episode:

The "Aubry is terrible" crowd needs to give it a rest. All the returning players know they are in a tough spot, and she tried to fight out of it. Yes, she got completely fooled and it's not a great look, but IMO it was more a reflection of decent play by her tribe in terms of keeping it locked. Could she have picked up on the Wendy stuff? Maybe, but how much would you trust that Wendy knows anything given what's gone on so far?

Reem beyond horrible and undoubtedly wants to see your manager. Can't say I think much of Keith as a player, but I'll give him at least credit for trying to do something in running off first after the unknown prize. Pretty sad that he couldn't get it with that head start.

How David has survived all of this is a complete mystery to me. Horrific in challenges, returning player, and they've been to tribal basically every time. He doesn't seem to be making any exceptional moves to make it happen either, just benefiting from Wardog clicking buttons. Same for Wentworth, though she seems to have at least roped in Lauren as an ally.

Joey Amazing tribe is dying to vote him out, end of story. He's in about as hopeless a spot as I can possibly imagine. I'd guess there's some pretty major concerns about the returning players teaming up at some point.

Victoria good episode; the blindside of Aubry was a nice resume builder for her and she was the chief architect by all appearances.

Lot of invisible players. Gavin seems sneakily athletic. Eric has the look of a solid 5th place finisher.

It's a weird season. Because one tribe is losing every time, they are getting much more camera time and having to play the game a lot more, and given that they are demoralized, hungry, and maybe not that great to begin with, a lot of questionable decisions and moves have been made.

Hopefully it picks up post merge. As much as others here have disliked EoE, I'm interested to see what form it takes next week.

Reem is in the running for worst contestant of all time

This season sucks. Right?

pretty much

I thought it was one of the best tribal councils as far as how that happen. Usually, at least one of them ends up saying something dumb. But they all did it just right.

Finally watched both episodes. Aubry got played HARD, damn. I fully stan Queen Victoria now, that girl is just a badass.

A lone bright spot in this mess.
I think she is the most likely winner

Last week I was ready to agree with this. It's easy for the ep before the merge to be a snoozer (S33 comes to mind as a recent pleasant exception), so, props to whichever producer decided that this would be a good spot for the Malcolm twist. I'm re-energized now.


Exile island still has potential to ruin all of this depending on how it's implemented, but, I recall posting similar doubts about Ghost Island endgame twists and was happy to be wrong. This can still be a great season.

Agree. It hasn't been a great season overall, but last night's double ep was pretty good, and even Extinction Island was entertaining for once. Next week should obviously be interesting, and hopefully it picks up from here.

In the meantime, here's a song from our new Survivor queen:

She got this part right.

Not sure why you would assume this. Players on Edge of Extinction are still in the game, are they not?

Okay, I stand corrected. But, they didn't say this on the show, so I was assuming nothing.

Victoria obviously awesome. Thread seems to approve. Woman hating thread theory debunked.

Now can we say we find Reem and Wendy annoying without getting attacked, or do we need to also throw Keith and Wardog in there for equality's sake?

Also, lol at the tribe who decided it would be a good idea to vote Chris off going on a challenge losing streak and complaining about it. That wasn't foreseeable?

The .1% chance that the tribe would stay together was not forseeable

So even though I think the 4 of them played it well last night, making the read that the other 3 wouldn't put their game on the line for Wendy, they may have done some damage to themselves for the rest of the game. Here's why:

They're going to be at an 8-4 disadvantage at the merge. Usually when one team is at such a disadvantage, they have two options: 1. (The more favorable option) Try to find cracks within the majority and bring some of them over. If this doesn't seem like it's going to work and the writing is on the wall, then: 2. Be willing to turn against their own.

By holding so strong together at tribal last night, it's going to be hard to convince anyone in the majority alliance to flip over because the majority will know that the 4 are so tight that whoever joins them will be on the bottom of that tribe. I could potentially see Joe being tempted but it seems like he's preferring to stay strong with his originals. I suppose if Aubrey hadn't gone home, it would be enticing for her and Joe to flip over some there are two vulnerable returnees on the other side. But if it's just him, not enough incentive.

If I'm in the majority 8, I'm letting my tribe mates know that after that display of loyalty last night, it's imperative to just pagong them out of the game, perhaps sparing whichever one is left as a decoy to blindside Joe or other threats on my own team.

I'm not saying they should have played it differently, just that that display of loyalty for each other might come back to bite them in the ass. The irony is that they're not that loyal to each other. Possibly if they had gotten rid of one of their own last night, the members of the other tribe would be more open to working with them post merge.

Of course, anything goes after the merge and we suddenly see people make all kinds of moves, so it's not like they're dead in the water at all.
S

(Pops head in)

So I'm binge watching seasons 29-37 of Survivor to get caught up (on season 31 right now), because I want to be current & posting in the Survivor threads again.

I just watched Joe get voted out in Survivor Cambodia, and I'm honestly surprised he's back for season 38. That dude has a more paralyzing effect on players than just about anyone I've seen. Fishbach became more obsessed with him than the game itself, and the sheer desperation on people's faces when rooting for him to fail in an immunity challenge was hysterical.

Someone needs to tell him to lose the man bun and throw some challenges. FFS.

Also: (1) Keith doesn't really play Survivor, but man he's a tough individual. I'm half-convinced he was raised by an amiable pack of wolves. (2) Thank goodness Natalie won season 29. I can't remember having so many players left and feeling like only 1 person would be a deserving winner. (3) The cast for season 30. WHY SURVIVOR. (4) The cast for season 31. Thank you Survivor.

(Pops head back out, apologizes for off topic-ish post, disappears for a while)

Pretty poor performance by Aubry, the only returnee who's done worse on these types of seasons is Russell Hantz who was voted out twice by his tribe first time going to tribal and once with an idol on his third and fourth tries. Still a good player which is why she was targeted but her rep has took a hit. Her first go was fantastic, her second she struggled the whole time and this time was awful.

Also despite the edit it's clear David and Kelley have both played pretty impressive games despite having the returnee targets. They survived 5 votes

It's easier to play a good game when the rest of your tribe is a dumpster fire. To avoid getting voted out, you just have to be not completely useless.

They lucked out starting on a tribe where three players are arguably in the top 10 worst contestants of all time.

The guy that calls himself 'Wardog' is an athletic embarrassment. To say that he threw 'like a girl' would be a disservice to females everywhere. Lauren showed him how to do it until she ran out of gas. I would have liked to Wentworth step up but 'Wardog' jumped in front of her. What a douche. Too bad the merge is coming because it seems like the tribe is finally coming to the realization that 'Wardog' is a poser who needs to get the boot.

I wouldn't say they lucked out. They're going into the merge with no numbers, and as returning players no one on the other tribe is going to work with them. They're both as doomed as Joe.

I think they look worse because we see more of them on Extinction. Reality is it's hard to come back with as big reputations as David and Kelley have, David specifically is dogging it in every challenge and surviving. Kelley also seemed to have complete control by the end of her swap tribe and was the only one not being targeted.

They've both made it to day 38 and one day from a win before. I honestly think they both have a chance to make it into the GOAT tier with Sandra and Parvati.

Compare that to Russell who was on a tribe with the biggest morons ever on Redemption Island and even worse on AUS survivor and got humiliated twice and it's kind of impressive. They've both proven they're much better than him at least.

Reem is Tan Mom, minus the tan