THE PLAYERS
Brian, Clay, Erin, Helen, Jake, Jan, Ken, Penny, Shii Ann, Ted
THE LOSERS John, Tanya, Jed, Ghandia, Stephanie, Robb
First of all, I want to offer a BIG THANK YOU to last week’s bootee – ROBB-DUDE!
Looking back at my pre-season predictions (see my post #12), I made the following statement:
Well folks, there you have them. The latest batch of millionaire wanna-be’s. Consolidating the list, I predict the following will be the first ones (i.e pre-jury) voted off the island:
Erin Collins,
Jan Gentry,
Helen Glover,
Clay Jordan,
Penny Ramsey,
Robb Zbacnik,
And finally Brian Heidik, (just cuz I need one more Pre-Jury bootee.)
So thank you Robb, for not making me look like a complete FOOL!
At least I got ONE correct! And who knows, if Jan’s dementia continues, I might even get two right.
Now for what you all have been waiting for, here are:
To merge, or not to merge, that is the question.
Jeff P. has made the following two statements to the castaways during the promos for this week’s episode:
1. “The two tribes will now live together on one beach.”
2. “Something very different is about to happen.”
Well, we all know that this season, Mark Burnett has said that Survivor; Thailand will be different from all the other Survivors in the past. And it’s true.
They let the two elders pick their own tribes.
We didn’t have the disgusting food challenge.
The tribes didn’t have to build a fire from scratch nor did we have the “Quest for Fire” as the first Immunity Challenge.
The food auction was between two tribes and not between individual castaways.
This season, the castaways were permitted to have physical contact during the challenge.
And is it just me, or is there a lot more booze flowing around this season than any of the others?
Anyway, (and this is just a thought), what if the two tribes live together on one beach but DO NOT merge into one new tribe?
The reward challenges could be individual against individual, or pair against pair.
The immunity challenges could be tribe against tribe and not individual challenges, with the entire winning tribe getting immunity, but all the castaways going to, and voting at, tribal council?
What happens to the alliances each side has so carefully crafted?
We wouldn’t have to worry about tie breakers.
We wouldn’t have to worry about our favorite tribe getting “PAGONGED”.
There would definitely be more tension and suspense from week to week.
So, here are my pics:
If we have a modified merge like proposed above, and if Sucky Jive wins immunity, I think that Ted will be the first from Chewy Gum to go. If Chewy Gum wins immunity, then Ken will be the first from Sucky Jive to get the boot. These pics are pretty much no-brainers. The winning team will want to boot the strongest person from the other tribe.
However, if this is all smoke and mirrors and red-herring attempts by Mark Burnett to throw us off the track and we have a traditional merge, with individual immunity challenges, then I think we will see our first tie breaker. And since we haven’t heard anything to lead us to believe that the tie breakers will be handled any differently then last season, then it’s a toss up. Anybody could get the boot, so I’m gonna go with my personal favorites. We will have a tie between Shii-Ann and Jan. And just so I can say that I got two pre-jury pics right, bye-bye Jan.
So there you have it. Ok guys, lets have your pics.
I gotta go, but I’ll be back tomorrow with my re-cap.
Enjoy, 
