This +100000. I'd bet 5 figures that both coconuts had the same message inside.

Still, props to the game designers for not getting too twist-heavy just yet. I'm not optimistic though:

Ya the guys don't wear shorts. They only wear underwear.

Domenick

Weird episode in my opinion, that vote made zero sense. That whole tribe basically is out for themselves which is going to make for good game play, especially when Chris gets back.

Dominick is trying WAY too hard, I see Wendell outlasting him by a large margin or simply throwing him under the bus if/when it is needed.

The good thing about doing a swap so early is that the allegiance to the original tribe isn't nearly as strong and makes for more moves early on. I can see them doing that from now on because it makes for better game play in my opinion.

Still lots of female talent. Jenna, Libby, Stephanie and Chelsea - she has barely been noticed but is top two with Libby for overall hotness.

Doubt the legacy advantage was in both coconuts wrt Jacob winning first try, but if he chose wrong then I bet the next week would have said "congrats you have a game" or whatever the message is instead of "sorry, no game this time"

In theory that be nice but I just don't think in the premiere they want him opening it saying "no game this time"

Why haven't we seen anyone at 'Ghost Island' looking for idols or clues?

There have to be some rules about what they can and cannot do over there which the viewers aren't told.

Right now I'm thinking of Ghost island as one big challenge stage with defined rules rather than just another beach they live on for a while on which they can do pretty much whatever they want with anything they can find.

I find it kinda odd that if you wear the conspiracy hat tight enough to believe that producers can rearrange each week's "game or no game" message, that you can't believe that both of Jacob's coconuts had the legacy advantage.

because there's nothing there. and there's no time to show someone searching for something that doesnt exist

i dont think they rearrange. they knew they had a swap in hour 3. so they put no game.

they had two bites at the apple in the premiere, so maybe if Jacob missed the 50/50 then donathan would automatically get it. and they would have the action they wanted happen in the premiere regardless.

I think the real question is "who cares?"

How does it make zero sense? It was very smart of James to realize exactly what was happening and eliminate a much stronger and more dangerous player than the old lady. Old lady and Chris now join them and its 6-4. They could pick off rest of original purple team.

Only person it was bad for was Libby. But she may have been forced into it by the other 3.

Yea I think I'm on the same page that they don't rearrange. Fwiw, one of Dalton/Gordon explicitly asked Probst after the premiere if the order of the Ghost Island "game or no game" parchments were pre-set, and Probst gave an emphatic yes. Said that the players had to punch the parchments from left-to-right.

That still leaves them some small leeway regarding when to send someone to Ghost Island (there are only 13 parchments, IIRC). But most of the time (13/17 tribal councils, maybe 13/16 depending on how the endgame plays or if there are med-evacs), someone will be safe on Ghost Island.

Especially after last season, if you're unable to accept a little bit of well-meaning discussion about the role of producers/production, then you're probably going to have a bad time.

Obviously if there's so much tin-foilery that it's drowning out better discussions, then that's indeed a problem, but we're far from there.

I haven’t thought about how ghost island will work post-merge. Maybe the winner of immunity gets to choose who to send? gonna be harder than ever to take out big threats when they get the immunity challenge + idols + ghost island

One balancing act that I imagine will be fun to consider is that: suppose you win individual immunity (and you can't send yourself to GI) - presumably you want to send one of your allies to GI. But (1) you lose that ally's vote for the night's TC (which is more of a penalty at, say F6-F7 instead of immediately after merging), and (2) you might not want to signal to everyone that the person you send is indeed an ally. And of course there's some potential FPS to be had in sending a non-ally.

Does anyone else think that this season has a number of contestants that are kinda celebrity-lookalike-ish? Punker already mentioned Seth Rogen as Jacob. If Hollywood were casting actors to portray this season's contestants, I might also add:

Dave Franco as Sebastian
Donald Glover as Wendell
Amber Rose as Desiree

Some of the other girls also remind me of other people, but I can't quite place it. Who else you got?

Truth.

Yup. I mean, I don't like it in terms of watching these early season episodes, because I would have preferred more time to get to know the original tribes and alliances. But I do like it in terms of the entire season, and how it leads to shakeups, like we've already seen. More unpredictability down the line, less chance of a Pagonging after a later tribal swap or the merge.

These. The move made perfect sense.

From James' and former Malolo's point of view, they do not trust Domenick and think (correctly) that he is a liar. There is also a very good chance at attempted deception in order to avoid/break the 4-4 tie going into TC.

Since Dom is a liar, it is very possible that him throwing Angela under the bus could be a trick. If the Malolo 4 vote for Angela, Dom could play an idol for Angela, and then the Naviti 4 could vote off anyone they wanted to, without the risk of going to rocks.

They want to vote out Dom, but also don't want to take the risk that he plays an idol on himself. That leaves them with 2 choices, Wendell or Morgan. They want their current tribe to be stronger so that they don't lose future immunity challenges, so they keep Wendell and vote out Morgan.

Once James and Malolo correctly figure Dom to be a liar who they cannot trust, that all seems textbook to me, and exactly what they should have done. It also has the benefits quoted above. They may not trust Chris long-term, but he seems honest (and is) about wanting to vote out Dom, and there's a good chance that he votes with them in the future, as well as Angela, who now sees that Dom and Wendell voted against her.

Your point (1) is probably the biggest factor, unless your alliance has far superior numbers. We've already seen how people treat it when their is a 5-4 tribal and supposed alliance split. They wanted to keep their own tribemates/allies going to TC and send an opposite tribe person to GI so that they don't vote at TC.


*Sidenote: MaLOLo is a funny name to use for a tribe.

great post

Keeping vote so bad.

Claiming two is FPS?

Sea Bass and Chelsea arent going to flip if there is a zero percent chance of going home.
Worst case scenario is they lose bradley

I like it because it was plausible given the history.

Results oriented it worked but passing up individual immunity for a chance to keep an alliance membef when you know you are merging again soon is really dumb imo.

Great episode: had everyone expecting a chris vs domenick tribal, amazing comeback at the challenge, and drama at tribal council

Should not have announced a target. In fact should have said it was one of the other four Not Bradly. Make them all feel the heat.