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Posts tagged ‘survivor’

Dec 20

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Survivor South Pacific Season Finale Recap

Sophie finds out she wins (Photo courtesy of cbs.com)

First of all, I want to apologize for not doing a recap of last Wednesday’s episode, finals caught up with me in a big way.  In short, last week before the immunity challenge, Rick, Coach, and Sophie had all decided to vote off Brandon at the next tribal- he was becoming too much of a threat.  At the immunity challenge, however, Brandon won, throwing a wrench in the three’s plans.  Conveniently, at the same time all of Albert’s devious schemings caught up to him and it became clear he was the next to go.  Albert, scrambling, convinced Brandon “as a Christian man” to forgive him.  At tribal, Brandon gave Albert the immunity necklace to protect him.  Unable to see any other option, the three others reverted back to the original plan, voting off Brandon. Basically, Albert looked like a terrible person.

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Sunday night, as I sat down to watch the finale from my couch at home, I realized how insane it is that Sophie has made it this far.  I started watching this season just to see Sophie and support Middkids, but as I explained what had happened in the season to my parents, I realized that this show is actually a crazy test of strength, both mentally and physically- which makes it all the more impressive that Sophie did so well.  That being said, this two hour finale was DRAMATIC- Very exciting. I was a little too excited actually. Also, this is long, sorry I’m not sorry.

Brandon and Ozzy's duel

Ozzy kicked off the episode with a pretty appropriate analysis of Brandon’s game play in the tribal the night before.  ”Brandon’s trying to play this game like he’s playing with God. He’s not playing with God, he’s playing with greedy people who want money.  That’s the game.” THANK YOU OZZY.

This season has had, in my opinion, an uncomfortable amount of weight put on religion, with many of the contestants using God to justify their actions or thanking God for victories.  Many of them seemed to have forgotten that this is a game in which deceptiveness and cunning are not only expected, but required to do well.  While loyalties are important, eventually it is an individual game and you will have to vote off people you were friends with.

Anyway, with that in mind, the episode began with the final Redemption Island duel.  Ozzy and Brandon fought it out in what has to be one of the hardest duels yet- hold onto a pole, without holds, for as long as possible. While both put up a good fight, Brandon ultimately lost, putting Ozzy back in the game and justifiably terrifying all of the other remaining contestants.

After the jump… everything else.  Read more

Dec 18

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Middlebury’s Sophie Clarke Wins Survivor

Sophie, '11 won Survivor tonight. That is awesome.

Sophie Clarke, Midd grad from 2011 won a million dollars on Survivor tonight.  Clearly our Middlebury education is worth something these days.  Look out for a more details and a recap of the finale episode tomorrow.  Congratulations! Here’s CBS news coverage.

Dec 9

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Survivor South Pacific: Episode 12 Recap

Hey everyone, sorry for the delay in posting this recap, you know, finals happen and sickness abounds this time of year.  Also, brief sidenote, my episode was accompanied by some girl practicing Bach on the piano.  It was weird.

This episode continued the cycle of making us think something exciting is going to happen and revealing, surprise, that everything has happened exactly as we predicted it would.  In any case, there were verrry entertaining developments in the social front.

The episode began with the Redemption Island duel, involving grappling hooks and a big labyrinth maze, between Ozzy and Cochran.  Now here’s what we’re all thinking.  Its Ozzy, right.  Cochran is a little weird nerdy kid, there’s no way he wins.  HE ALMOST DOES.  Key word there is “almost.”  But honestly, ‘almost’ is WAY more than anyone was expecting out of him.  So Ozzy wins, surprise surprise.

Aww... tearful product placement.

Now, we’re far enough into the season to show the viewers just how hard this show really is with a tearful family reunion episode. Each survivor has a visitor to the island- dads, moms, brothers, wives- but they are only given a brief moment together before Ozzy gets to choose three contestants who will get to spend more time with their family members.  (Artificially manufacturing some support for Ozzy- seems a little fake.) Ozzy picks Coach, Brandon, and Albert.

I have a few comments about some of the interactions with family members before we move on.  Sophie, after hugging her father, tearfully requests peanut butter cups, freshly made banana bread, and a hamburger- a big one ready for her at the airport. Coach‘s brother- looks NOTHING like Coach.  Seriously.  He’s like a pudgy short pale white guy. And WOW MUSTACHE GUY WOW. Hugs his wife and than squeezes her butt for a really long time on national television.  Too long if you ask me.  I think you deserve a real name for that.  Welcome to the club, Rick.  Finally, due to Brandon’s extreme honesty, his father begins aggressively fighting his case with Coach, which is weird.

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Dec 1

Survivor South Pacific Episode 11 Recap

Confused? Check out our previous recaps here.

If you’ll remember, Survivor last week marked the end of the life of the Savaii tribe after both Dawn and Whitney were voted off in a double elimination episode.  This week, we saw a dramatic shift in the social environment of camp as members of the “family of five” (Sophie included) began to turn on one another.

The episode began with yet another 3-way duel to stay on Redemption Island between Ozzy, Dawn, and Whitney.  To no one’s great surprise, Ozzy managed to win again.  Fulfilling every producer’s wildest dreams, Ozzy manages to show off his jungle skills by climbing trees like a boss, spear fishing next to sharks, and generally being pretty awesome.  Maybe he’ll win, that would certainly be exciting.

(Left to right) Master and Grasshopper - ©2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc

On the main island side, social strategy was the name of the game. Having never actually watched Survivor before, I can’t say I feel all that comfortable making strategy criticisms, but it seems as though many of the players in this game have very little ability to look beyond the next elimination.  Cochran continued his somewhat desperate plea to break up ‘the family’ and stay in the game, validating his decision to flip teams back at the merge several episodes before.  While I often criticize Cochran for his lack of forethought, I am actually surprised no one took him up on his offer to take them to the finale.  With the end game looming, all the players are designing a final three that set them up in the best light to win, and honestly, Cochran is a guy you want there with you.

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Nov 17

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Survivor South Pacific: Episode 10 Recap

Check out last week’s recap for a summary of the season and the contestants left in the game:

Hey everyone, I think we can all safely say that Midd alum Sophie Clarke ’11 had a good week on Survivor. Continuing the theme of balance- related challenges and pointless tribal debates, this episode did have its highlights.  Here’s a brief rundown:

The redemption island challenge - Picture courtesy of Monty Brinton/CBS© 2011

Ozzy, Keith, and Jim, the three who remained on Redemption Island last week, fought in a challenge to remain in contention to rejoin the tribe at some point down the line. Predictably, Ozzy won the challenge, continuing his gladiator-themed storyline of the season.  With these two eliminations, however, came the first two members of the Jury, the group that decides the winner from the final three in the live season finale.  Ozzy returned to his ‘paradise’ on Redemption Island where he continued his solitary life, spearfishing with the fancy snorkle equipment he clearly fashioned out of palm leaves and sticks.

Back on the mainland, the tribe had another balance-inspired immunity challenge where contestants had to walk across a series of teeter-totters with bowls of rice on their heads.  The first to fill up their bowl and outweigh the counter-weight won the challenge.  In a tight race between two others, Sophie won the challenge! Yay! Immunity for Sophie!

After the jump… tribal debates and a TWIST!

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