cast is amazing imo

and slanche's avatar reminds me of how awesome Des is -- like Morgan from Cagayan level melons yo

I actually like Donathan, feels unique to me and I think he's definitely getting the 'growth narrative' we've seen before on Survivor.

Overall very optimistic about the season, stronger start than most of the recent Survivor seasons.

On KIA they were saying Dom+Wendell could be like the Trish+Tony duo and I can see it, I think Dom clearly has the longer legs in his rivalry with Chris.

Yes in spite of losing two of my early favorites I still think this is a strong cast. We've still got Hot Libby, Scheming Stephanie and Relatable Donathan among others. I remain optimistic for a good season.

Wow deliverance is most annoying cast member in years.

I was just thinking that

Thought last night was one of the best season premieres in a while. Pretty unfair teams tho physically. Very impressed with Stephanie.

Oh, I like Donathan - he seems like a great kid. I just don’t think he has a shot at this.

I don’t really see the Cochran comparison - Cochran was really smart and not a bad social player.

Is it racist to LOL at blind-picking Desiree to do the puzzle?

Anyone else notice the following?

During the challenge, as Des was shooting the balls into the basket, whenever one of her shots bounced off the rim, there was an obvious/exaggerated trampoline-sounding *BOUNCE* sound effect (for lack of a better description).

As she was adjusting herself (slanche's avatar), that same BOUNCE sound effect played. Bravo, sound editors.

go back and watch cochran's first episode lol

Donathan was the challenge hero!

i was gonna say super impressed with stephanie, but then jacob got voted out. still impressed with her overall though, obv its smart to win over the outsiders on your tribe (which a lot of people dont bother to do since they write them off, and just want to fit in with the insider people). kind of unlucky for jacob that the tribe already have a lovable dorky guy in donathan (specifically stephanie already won him over it seemed) and so there was no reason to do anything for jacob

obviously his lie about the idol was terrible when he doesnt have the letter. and if you're gonna tell the entire tribe you have a (fake) idol, you tell them you'll use it at the merge or tribe swap in whatever way benefits the tribe. you say theres 2 tribes and #s are everything so you'll use it to help the tribe. then you actually have value with it. saying you're gonna use it next time no matter what is a pretty obvious bluff. and whats the plan after that? i thought he would at least use it and pretend to be shocked its fake so that its not proven he was lying. just terribly thought out overall. and of course you should never tell your tribe you have an idol anyways. but if you're going to, that was the wrong way to do it

im surprised people dont like donathan. i love him already. and i think hes better than people realize given the outcome of the first vote. people were acting like it was a tossup and gonna be close, then he didnt even get a single vote besides gonzalez's. that shows him being at risk was more of an edit for drama than reality imo, and i think hes in good shape with those girls. particularly because stephanie thinks she can control him easily, which whether true or not, is very good for his game.

the other girl who is with stephanie (jenna?) also seemed reasonably smart - it was kinda funny to me the only times she talked was when jeff asked her a question at tribal and she just summed things up. kinda felt like she was more of an observer than a player. but i think shes the one who's also some high level executive? so i think her and steph, with donathan, can be a good group.

on the other tribe, domenick vs chris feels a lot like mike vs joe from last season, not that i have any idea how itll play out. lying about an idol when you actually have an idol made zero sense. its not even a lie! now chris knows to target him, and to target him in an under-the-radar way. just so stupid. it was smart to talk to the guy whos targeting him, which it seems so few people actually do, but he could've went about that way better. it was weird that chris seemed to know he had the idol before he even said anything. that probably made him want to compensate for lying. idk. it seems like dom could be decent if he can get chris out though, whereas i think chris will be terrible with or without dom in the game

wendell seems really good/smart also, so its gonna help that dom has him on his side vs chris having sebastian who seems pretty stupid. did we even hear from any women on that tribe (strategically)? i guess they didnt go to tribal so it didnt focus on them as much. other than morgan being hot i dont know much about any women on that tribe. cast overall seems good though, with a higher amount of 'superfans'/generally smart people than usual




i also thought the ghost island twist was fine, at least for now. the biggest concern was that they'd overdo stuff which remains to be seen, but its really just a fancy way for them to reuse old ideas without coming up with anything new. so we shouldnt have to worry about any horribly game breaking twist. plus the fact that donathan's urn was a blank (plus jacob's was a 5050) is an encouraging sign that there won't be too many twists. the worst thing that could happen is a repeat of the cirie situation where someone loses just because everyone else has an advanatge

the way you choose to save someone from the other tribe by sending them to ghost island is a nice tweak, too. its the perfect level of twist that does affect strategy and gameplay, but not too much. i was surprised there's no rule about sending someone back to back times though. i would think itd be best to just keep sending someone. then they get advantages but also get isolated from their tribe, and also become a huge threat. and you hope they just get voted out eventually and all the advantages go down with them. or if not, you prob have a good chance of flipping them to your side after the merge. and basically just because you dont want to spread out advantages to a bunch of different people

btw has jeff ever singled out someone to give motivation to during a challenge? "you can do this" to donathan lol. i wouldnt love that if i was on the other tribe

or even his entire first season

He was so out of place and awkward, I think Cochran is a good player but he needed the experience and a good tribe draw.

Wouldn't rank in my top half of winners. Frankly I'd put Malcolm above him despite Malcolm being a three-time loser who lost on the season Cochran won. I don't think anyone has entered a season set up so well to win with maybe the exception of Amber in All-Stars.

This.

Whoever said the line "Jacob has a lot of knowledge about the game, but he isn't very smart" just nailed it - and it easily applies to ~30%-50% of the "superfans" who get cast (Cochrane perhaps the most obvious example).

Nothing changed except Stephanie gleaned a bunch of information that no one else had. I don't blame Jacob. She was the only person to approach him and pretend to want to strategize with him. Even though she was throwing water on a drowning man, to him it felt like water to a man in the desert. She was much better at being disingenuous than he was. Again, I don't fault him for falling for it, but to refuse to acknowledge she was pretty good at being his faux ally seems a bit stubborn.

Mother in law LOVES Donathan.

I find him an interesting character and am at least mildly interested in seeing other people's reactions to him. The show has always had a least a bit of melting pot randomness to it. So far, in Donathan's case, I don't mind. I think the show runners like that possibility of a coming of age story line running through the show. If nothing else, the mother in laws really eat it up.

Every season has it's sheep. I think Donathan has potential to be a hit in his role. People who frequent 2+2 are not the only demographic that watches the show.

Donathan is fine (except for his stupid name), but if he doesn't stop being all starry-eyed about not being in eastern Kentucky anymore - I've never traveled before, and I'm meeting people! - it will get old fast.

Donathon is there to appeal to the MAGA crowd.

This. Conversation back at camp after James choked was awkward as ****, and one of Michael's confessions was so clearly him saying stuff the producers told him to say.

I also think if Jacob came back and told 100% of the truth about the secret advantage for the other tribe, they probably would've all thought he had a real idol .

Sure, a little gay boy from Kentucky is their prime demo.

He said he was gay? I must have missed that.

Agree with most of this except for the Michael stuff. Maybe I'm simply reading him incorrectly but that guy is a helluva smooth operator despite being only 18 years old. Michael certainly isn't my winner pick, but man it's hard not to cheer for him - he's easily the player I'm rooting for the most.

James seemed ready to seppuku after disgracing his family

Lol