[JillValentine]

SURVIVOR PING!

Well, the original thread has disappeared for the moment, along with most of the rest of the archives, so this can be a temporary thread for this week.

Survivor: Gabon premiers tonight, Thursday September 25, at 8PM ET/PT, on SeeBS, of course. Eighteen new contestants will be dropped into the jungles of the equatorial African nation of Gabon. This season includes Exile (formerly Exile Island). Survivors who are Exiled will have a choice of receiving either a clue to a hidden immunity idol, or a form of instant comfort (food, pillows, etc.) The idea is to see if any contestants are dumb enough to take comfort over a chance at immunity.

The Survivors must outwit, outplay, and outlast one another to claim the $1 million prize. Who will be the sole Survivor?

Contestants from left to right: Michelle Chase, Charlie Herschel, Gillian Larson, Paloma Soto-Castillo, Corinne Kaplan, Susie Smith, Crystal Cox, Dan Kay, Ken Hoang, Jessica "Sugar" Kiper, Ace Gordon, Randy Bailey, Jacque Berg, Kelly Czarnecki, Marcus Lehman, Danny "GC" Brown, Matty Whitmore, Bob Crowley.

Episode 1 title: "Want to See the Elephant Dung?"

In this first episode, the contestants will divide into two tribes based on a good old schoolyard pick 'em. Gillian and Bob, the two oldest Survivors, will be given the honor of beginning the selections. Each selected contestant will in turn choose their next tribemate.

After the tribes are chosen, the Survivors will go immediately into their first challenge, which appears to involve racing to the top of a hill. The first tribe to the top will win a large bag of rice. In addition, the first individual from each tribe to the top will win individual immunity good for their first Tribal Council.

The next challenge will be for tribal immunity. Six players from each tribe will be tied together and will run through an obstacle course. At the end of the course, they must dig for bags of puzzle pieces. The remaining three contestants from each tribe must assemble a long puzzle of their tribe's flag. First tribe to finish wins immunity.

The tribes:

Fang Tribe (Red): Crystal, Dan, Danny, Gillian, Ken, Matty, Michelle, Randy, Susie.

Kota Tribe (Yellow): Ace, Bob, Charlie, Corinne, Jacque, Jessica, Kelly, Marcus, Paloma.

Spoilers (highlight to see):

Immunity Winner: Kota

Voted Off: Gillian

Back after the show with the recap.

[submarinerswife]

I am a big fan of the show. I like the immunity idol idea but it’s time to juice it up again. ( I was a little bored with it last season)

[Lee'sGhost]

Are your spoilers for certain or best educated guess.

[MomwithHope]

Thanks for the ping.

[HighWheeler]

Location

[Hot Tabasco]

Marcus Lehman (the phony physician) has a lifelong soulmate in homo Charlie Herschel. If he plays his cards right, Charlie will be watching his back (literally) till the very end.........

Advice to Marcus: Sleep on your back dude and don't drop the soap when Charlie is in the shower with you.......

Just now watching Charlie hit on Marcus in the canoe and man does that little fag make me sick!

[JillValentine]

Well, looks like the spoilers got the best of me. I didn’t realize there would be two tribal councils tonight.

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Initial thoughts:

I think this has the potential to be a good season because there are a lot of interesting characters. However, if the Fang tribe keeps losing, it could become dull. A tribe switch-up somewhere along the way is highly likely.

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Fang tribe: Very dysfunctional. It could be Ulong, Morgan, and Maraamu all rolled into one. The whole “we don’t need a leader” thing - anyone else get vibes of Ulong right there?

Michelle: Should not have been voted off first. Yes, her attitude was less than pleasant, but I don’t blame her. She was understandably annoyed about being picked last, and none of her tribemates except Ken even made an effort to get to know her. The others in the tribe should have realized that she could be an asset, especially in challenges, and reached out to her. Not only was she the first woman to reach the top of the hill, she also beat seven of the nine guys. Also, she seemed to be one of the few Fangs who didn’t keep pushing the ridiculous rose-colored glasses view of how their tribe was doing.

Gillian: Should have gone first. Both a liability at challenges and irritating around camp. The cheerleader act got annoying very fast.

Dan: Doesn’t seem very bright, not so much because he couldn’t find the idol, but because of his delusional attitude at the first tribal council.

GC: If he didn’t want to be the leader, he should have refused the position right from the beginning. Will his short time as an incompetent leader come back to hurt him?

Ken: He could appear like a naive kid, but he seemed pretty smart in being willing to bond with Michelle (adding a potential option for his game) and then cutting that bond loose when it became apparent that Michelle was in trouble.

Randy: I actually found myself liking this guy in a weird way. If he was on the other tribe and was acting this way, he’d be an ass. But his tribe is so screwed up that his attitude and comments towards it come across as justified. I do have a feeling that he’ll go pretty soon, because he’s gotten a lot of air time already and because of the previews for next week which show him getting into an argument with GC. The others in the tribe would probably take GC’s side because he’s younger and more athletic.

I’ll add this about Randy. From the perspective of someone sitting on her couch at home, he’s entertaining. If I was actually there on a tribe with him, however, I’d probably find him annoying.

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Kota tribe: Keep it up. Just don’t get overconfident. I also like the fact that they did well in three very physical challenges while having more women and fewer men than the other tribe.

Marcus/Corinne/Jacquie/Charlie alliance: It’s smart to form tight bonds early in the game. It’s not so smart to be open about it at this stage. The best thing for them to do would be to vote together while keeping their alliance a secret until they have the numbers to be in control.

Bringing Bob in could backfire. The smartest thing for Bob to do would be to realize that he’d always be the fifth wheel with Marcus, Corinne, Jacquie, and Charlie, and instead form a counter-alliance with the others in the tribe, five against four. In this group he would never be the fifth wheel.

Charlie should tone down his hitting on Marcus. Marcus, on the other hand, should realize that he has a golden opportunity with his admirer, and take advantage of Charlie’s letting his emotions rule his behavior.

Ace: Seems like a jerk. He could be the first target of the quartet alliance, if they decide their advantage over the other tribe is big enough that they can afford to get rid of a strong physical competitor.

Kelly: Who? Did she get any air time at all? She’ll probably go pretty far, then.

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Exile: An apple and a straw hut? Come on. How about offering a cheeseburger, fries, ketchup, chocolate, and a six-pack of beer? And a comfortable, air-conditioned room with a real bed. Then, maybe someone would be dumb enough to take comfort over a chance at getting immunity.

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I’ll have the official recap up within a couple of days.