Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On

 "Jesus got high off God." -Shannon Fairweather Another day, another pretty straightforward episode of Survivor 49 .  I've heard some people say this season has been boring recently.  I think I've realized that I don't mind boring gameplay if the moves make sense, so I've been mostly fine with 49 .  Sometimes the best moves in Survivor are boring ones.  Boring or not, let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Starting over on Hina, Nate had an absolutely stellar episode.  He volunteered to go on the Journey to prevent Jason from going, which worked, he managed to keep his vote by completing the Journey Challenge, while bonding with MC, he managed to prevent her from getting an Advantage, and he voted out Jason, which was absolutely the right move. Rizo, Savannah, and Sophi B all made the right call as well to take out Jason over Jawan.  Savannah played with her head, not her emotions, and made the smart call.  I also like tha...

 "The ocean took my shoe." -Sophi Balerdi It was nice to get a tribe swap from three to two tribes.  It's been a minute since we've had one of those, so it was a nice change of pace.  Other than that, this is what I would describe as a perfectly average episode of Survivor .  We were presented with two people on the chopping block, given reasons for both of them to go, and then one of them was voted out.  It isn't flashy, but this is baseline Survivor , and even baseline Survivor is interesting enough.  Let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: We'll start on the new Hina tribe.  Nate, Rizo, and Savannah all did a good job of making Sophi B feel secure with them and cleanly split the vote to take out a member of original Hina.  They might not have all agreed on who the primary target should have been, but it was really just splitting hairs and they got the job done.  I also like that Rizo told Sophi B about his Beware Ad...

 "I probably mentioned in the past my fondness for a TV program called Cougar Town ." -Abed Nadir "Critical Film Studies" picks up with Jeff (Joel McHale) on his way to a birthday dinner for Abed (Danny Pudi).  Strangely, Abed requested dinner at a very high-end restaurant, with just Jeff and no one else.  When they meet at the restaurant, Abed acts very differently.  He's very personable, makes physical and eye contact, and doesn't make any pop culture references.  When Jeff suggests going to a burger place instead, Abed declines.  He doesn't even seem to like Jeff's gift, a wallet that Samuel L. Jackson's character has in the movie Pulp Fiction , which is one of Abed's favorite movies. It's revealed that Jeff had set up a Pulp Fiction- themed surprise party for Abed at the diner where Britta (Gillian Jacobs) works.  The study group and Chang (Ken Jeong) are all dressed as characters from the movie and waiting for Jeff and Abed to arrive...

 "Insert action music." -Jawan Pitts Wow.  What a wild episode.  I don't think I've ever felt as bad for a single tribe in all of Survivor as I do for the Kele tribe.  This was a brutal episode for them and for Canada, as we lose both of our Canadian castaways in this episode.  It was cool to get such a behind-the-scenes look at the show, but it's a bummer we lose Jake this way.  At least he made it home for the birth of his kid.   Medical evacuation aside, let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Starting over on Hina, I only have one person to talk about here and that's Steven.  He formed a close enough bond with MC that she told him that she found the Beware Advantage.  Best case scenario with the Beware Advantage is that you don't have it, but you know who does.  That gives Steven a lot of room to work going forward. Over on poor Kele, Sophi B did the best on the tribe.  She got Alex and Jeremiah to t...

 "The aura was great." -Rizo Velovic This episode confirmed what I suspected last week; this cast is full of Looney Tunes.  What a goofy bunch and a really fun episode.  There was a lot of bad gameplay this week, but I enjoyed ever minute of it.  Let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: We'll start over on Hina.  I have to give major props to the entire tribe for not only overcoming the Challenge Disadvantage played on them by Jawan, but getting 1st place.  It was extremely impressive all around. Steven, Kristina, and MC all got into a potential majority alliance of four.  If they want to go this route, they have the numbers to do so. I'm not sure how I feel about MC telling so much information to Sophie S.  She could use that info and turn the game on MC.  I guess it depends on MC's read of and relationship with Sophie S, so I'll trust her and leave her in the net positive.  Good job for Sophie S though for having...