Survivor Season 26 CBS HD February 13th, 2013 - Page 10

^ it didn't happen and the tribe didn't look very pleased when Reynold asked for it.

You thought I was serious?

Glad that is over with. I have to say, as a long time Survivor fan who has watched every season, I have pretty much hated the casting this year. There is a reason I don't watch shows like Springer or Povich - I find nothing amusing about intentionally placing people into situations that they are mentally and emotionally unable to cope with. Both Shamar and Brandon are borderline unstable in normal situations, and when placed in the stressful conditions with little food, water, or emotional support, they become combative and irrational. If this is the direction the show will be going in future seasons, they may actually lose me as a viewer.

There have been a tremendous amount of great and compelling moments in Survivor history without any of these unstable type castaways. I personally hate how schadenfreude has somehow become a legitimate and acceptable form of TV entertainment. I had thought that Survivor was above that, though. Guess not.

That was my point with the earlier post. CBS knew something like this was coming and is counting on it (same meltdown happened on Big Brother) to get viewership. First there's the issue if it worked and second is your point that this may not be the way to get an audience.

yeah, there are still 14 left. i don't think they've ever merged that early. i would like to see the fans get a shot at making the numbers even. maybe they will be rejuvenated after getting this "win". just don't let sherri toss the coconuts!

Worst survivor episode ever.
Edited by 33idolfinder - 3/14/13 at 10:25am

Well, I sure didn't see any emoticons to indicate otherwise . . .

smh, just as much the poster boy FOR gun rights if that kook was your neighbor and you had a family.

HE will be sitting right by Russell if he does. What a joke. I do think that it would've ended ,somewhat, more civilly if Phillip had not started lying about some of the things he said. CBS would've loved to have had a fight to promote instead of Jeff and the off screen staff tempering the situation.

Yeah I noticed he didn't throw up his hands either. I don't think he ever intended to follow through with the request, though. Just isn't the right thing to do in the situation.

Yeah, when Brandon had that machete in his hands I had a brief flashback to the Big Brother episode years ago when one of the "house guests" got evicted for threatening someone with a knife.

I'm curious as to what the episode didn't give you that the TAR preview and the one before it promised. We got a full Hantz meltdown,a forfeit and new reveals about the Faves that we hadn't seen before. Hopefully the Hantz run on CBS is done. This wasn't a quit but he really did quit in a way when he forced the issue with his inHantzsanity.Get this guy a shrink please.
Even though Hantz''s meltdown was uncomfortable to watch I'm glad he is gone. Two of the biggest distractions this season are gone so that bodes well.
It was interesting to hear Phillip talk to Hantz about his inclusion in an F4 or F3, which Andrea hinted at in earlier episodes when she talked about getting rid of Corinne and putting in Brandon. Maybe that's why she was crying at tribal. Her plan blew up.
A tiribal swap pre-merge seems likely and would be welcome as it would shake things up and force open some of the cracks that are being revealed in the Faves alliances.
Yay CREAM.

Oh my God, that is a joke right? They didn't edit together him doing and saying those things. He really DID dump the rice, and really DID dump the beans, and really DID say those things to Phillip. Regardless of how they were edited, the words came out of his mouth and he performed those acts.

Yes, I figured most would get that something that preposterous was a joke.

I thought it made it more funny that I DIDN'T have a winky. Maybe not...

But then, you ARE from the land of Rachael of BigBrother/AmazingRace fame..... I didn't know what to expect . . .

Actually it was more about knowing how to haul on a rope than about pure strength. Phil used an overhand grip on his trailing hand where you kink the line into a z-form to increase the friction and put most of the strain on the edge of the hand instead of on the fingers. Phil looked like a person who has worked on boats or performed manual labor that involved ropes and learned the best way to haul on a line while everyone else just used underhanded grips.

I was actually a little surprised that they let him use that grip due to the advantage, Phil still needed good grip strength and stamina, but it was a big advantage.

Actually, I'm not sure that's fully it either.

It's entirely possible that the reason they won is Brandon. Jeff made it sound like they were pumping coconuts into his basket. If they were filling him up more than Phillip and Brandon held out long enough to allow them to not fill up Phillip as quickly, then Brandon is a huge part of the win.

No way to really know. Either way, you had to have a good performance by both rope holders to win the challenge.

To me, they should have been evenly distributing the coconuts - and giving more coconuts to whoever was straining the LEAST --- not just dumping most of them on Brandon to get him out first.

When Brandon was really starting to struggle and it appeared he would lose it soon -- they were still adding to Brandon.

Contestants have been doing things like that in challenges since the show first began. They almost always "gang up" on the one they want out first. I remember many of the "rope chop" challenges where the various contestants get three chops to a rope so they take their turns. They don't distribute the chops evenly; they routinely pick on one person until he/she is out of the competition. Usually (but not always), the opposing team tries to take out the strongest player.

Actually, I was just addressing the question of Phil's strength not what was the most significant factor in the win. But yeah, their targeting of Brandon first definitely put him before Phil and might have been a factor in the win.

But, I doubt that even game theory could come up with a definitive strategy for this game. Should you concentrate all your effort on one person at a time until the first person fails or should you concentrate most of your effort on the strongest and hope the weaker person's stamina wears out and thus you spend less coconuts on him than you would have if you targeted him first? Or do you mostly concentrate on the weaker person and only spend enough coconuts on the stronger person to knock down his stamina so that he goes down quicker when you switch your focus to him? I'm not convinced that there's a definitive answer to the question.

No surprise here or at other forums after watching the show...I am not defending Brandon, but Its all to easy to jump on the "Brandon is a nutjob" bandwagon. What he did is normal behavior in reaction to a given situation. He hit the wall and anyone is capable of doing the same, everyone without exception. Again ANYONE! In fact the rain was getting to everyone. Phil is an ass and no doubt taunted Brandon. At the immunity challenge as the conversation progressed, Philip couldn't hold his tongue and Jeff let him taunt Brandon. You could see Philip having a breakdown and hitting the wall too... Jeff knew exactly what Phil was doing and he allowed it. If anyone started causing trouble it is Philip, the control freak, but the others let him run with it from the beginning in a sense controlling him. Phil is good at challenges...as far as Phil and Brandon going at it...If I were Phil I would be concerned..and he was, as you could see it in his demeanor..."hiding" behind Corinne and how he was talking. And Jeff...he was holding Brandon back..and he would have done what Philip couldn't. I would put Jeff's strength above both Brandon and Philip. Brandon's choice was simply to not react and take action, but he did the former. Crappy episode. And Reynold finding the idol again? Come on now...we have been here before. Again I want to see statistics of someone finding it more than once, like Russel Hantz did.. and then factor in it has happened how many times?...given environment and others looking for it... it has to be highly unlikely..

http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/archives/survivor_caramoan/2013_Mar_14_brandon-hantz-episode
Edited by Hughmc - 3/14/13 at 4:34pm

Exactly as I saw it. Hantz did nothing particularly extraordinary and certainly not in the least "nutty" or fatally unstable or psychotic. He just got mad (and had every right to). Now unfortunately he seemed inexplicably drawn to an act of sabotage which alienated him from his tribe's favor, but up until that time I saw any production edits as favoring Brandon --he showed remarkable restraint in the face of Phillip's duplicity and outrageously infuriating braggadocio of being "the hand that feeds" -- that kind of crap is very hard to take out of an obvious loser that everyone has been humoring and cajoling all along -- and doing so partly just because he is so easily hoodwinked into accepting that his tribemates think him the cat's pajamas -- the mark of a fool.

So getting mad is not having a psychotic break -- what hyperbolic silliness...

He might not be psychotic, but he has anger management issues and an inferiority complex. The best you can say is that he's unstable. Everyone else is dealing with Phillip's ranting and raving and "leadership." If he wants to author his own exit, then break something, douse the fire, yell and scream at everybody but don't sabotage everyone else's chance at the game. By dumping the food, he put their strength and health in jeopardy. And based on his teammates demeanor, especially the women, you can tell that they were traumatized. I felt uncomfortable watching the episode. I'm sure the show will provide some way for them to gain back the food supplies, but there will probably be a cost.

Brandon obviously reacted randomly and completely misdirected his anger in some ways, but that Phillip guy is an ass for so many reasons already stated above. Another thing I did not like was how after hearing Brandon go on a rant contemplating leaving the game to get back with his kids, he tossed in that barb about "who is taking care of your kids" which just shows what kind of low person he is. He was already trying to 'Son' Brandon at every turn, and he had the gall to deny his own words and then act like he wanted a fight. Speaking of which the "I'm a street fighter" act was a joke too; a street fighter against a guy half his size, maybe.

"Next season on The Amazing Race!"

That reality blurred article is insane in itself... the author has an axe to grind imho...

"... Brandon and Phil... former Survivors and mortal enemies...."