Survivor: Game Changers - Mamanuca Islands (US)-[**SPOILERS**]

seligehgit

Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »

Wow, Dick Move Varner - lost any respect I ever had for him. That was so wrong on every level.

Zeke was my favourite player last season, I'm so glad he's back this season, and I'm glad we got to know Zeke as Zeke like he wanted us to and not just as the "Trans Survivor", but if anything I like him even more now and have so much respect for him for how he handled that.

The reunion should be very interesting this season.

Foxtrol

I actually feel sorry for Varner. It was incredibly stupid and hurtful thing to do but I think it was more terrible judgement than maliciousness.

Survivor messes with your head, not only are you exhausted and malnourished but the game means the lines between what you believe are right and wrong become blurred. We have to also remember that the survivors would not have seen Zeke's season due to the back to back filming so I suspect that Varner presumed that information would have come out at some point during the previous season and it wasn't a complete bombshell that it turned out to be.

Zeke is obviously the victim here but Varner has destroyed himself with a stupid mistake that you could see he regretted once he realised the scale of it.

Foxtrol

The next few weeks should be very interesting as going into the merge we have:

Tai with 2 idols
Troyzan with an idol
Debbie with an extra vote
Sierra with the legacy advantage

ElChe32

What an absolute piece of shít Varner is. No sympathy for him, he deserves the backlash. It was a vicious thing to say and shows how much of a low life he is. Good riddance.

Mr E

Yeah it wasn't a good move by Varner, but I just read a comment on Facebook which is 100% true....

Varner outed Zeke in front of about 20 people.
CBS outed Zeke in front of about 9 million people.

CBS have to take a good chunk of the blame here.

Also Starring LeVar Burton

Mr E wrote: »

Yeah it wasn't a good move by Varner, but I just read a comment on Facebook which is 100% true....

Varner outed Zeke in front of about 20 people.
CBS outed Zeke in front of about 9 million people.

CBS have to take a good chunk of the blame here.

While it may be true, the Survivor execs and CBS worked with Zeke and got his approval while editing the episode together, therefore Zeke had agency over the situation at that point. There's no excusing for what Varner did - from all accounts and from what we've seen of him before this point he seems like a decent bloke, who made a monumental error in judgement, but the arguments I've seen of people shifting the blame to CBS and the Survivor Production Team because they aired the episode (which isn't LIVE and they've had the best part of a year to decide what best way to move forward with it) is a misrepresentation of the point. It is worth reading some of the articles and interviews that Zeke himself (particularly the article I posted a few posts back that he wrote himself) and Jeff Probst have done since Wednesday, because it goes into it in a bit more depth.

At the end of the day, Varner took Zeke's agency away from him, by working with the Survivor Execs and CBS Zeke made the best of an awful situation and took control of his agency again.

If CBS had used this "shocking revelation" as a way to promote the episode, that would've been wrong and exploitative, but they didn't do that, so it is a little shortsighted for people to be hammering home the idea that Varner only said it in front of x amount of people, but CBS aired it so millions would see; to quote Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - "The situation is a lot more nuanced than that..."

seligehgit

Also Starring LeVar Burton wrote: »

While it may be true, the Survivor execs and CBS worked with Zeke and got his approval while editing the episode together, therefore Zeke had agency over the situation at that point. There's no excusing for what Varner did - from all accounts and from what we've seen of him before this point he seems like a decent bloke, who made a monumental error in judgement, but the arguments I've seen of people shifting the blame to CBS and the Survivor Production Team because they aired the episode (which isn't LIVE and they've had the best part of a year to decide what best way to move forward with it) is a misrepresentation of the point. It is worth reading some of the articles and interviews that Zeke himself (particularly the article I posted a few posts back that he wrote himself) and Jeff Probst have done since Wednesday, because it goes into it in a bit more depth.

At the end of the day, Varner took Zeke's agency away from him, by working with the Survivor Execs and CBS Zeke made the best of an awful situation and took control of his agency again.

If CBS had used this "shocking revelation" as a way to promote the episode, that would've been wrong and exploitative, but they didn't do that, so it is a little shortsighted for people to be hammering home the idea that Varner only said it in front of x amount of people, but CBS aired it so millions would see; to quote Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - "The situation is a lot more nuanced than that..."

Bottom line is participants surrender a lot of their ability to influence the editing by agreeing to partake in CBS Survivor,they know what they're getting into.

GreNoLi

Onwards and upwards towards the merge.

kingtut

Dammit watched the first half and then fell asleep

Such a waste to get rid of Hali, she isn't a threat at all and basically admitted she was a goat! Why not go for power players ?!

Also Starring LeVar Burton

I've never been a big Ozzy fan, so I'm glad they took him out sooner rather than later. It's hard to know who to root for right now - I think Zeke was too eager to make a big move (which was his downfall last season) and may have screwed his game again, although I do agree with his assessment in that keeping Cirie and Andrea in the game isn't smart - either of those make it to the end and they're likely to win it (which I'd be fine with) but it makes sense for the other players to want to get them out. I'm still very impressed with Culpepper this season - he'd definitely be one I'd be happy to see win it. I also love Aubry, but I feel like so far she's just been a background player and needs to start making moves or she's getting nowhere.

kaji

I was delighted to see so much Cirie in this double episode- she has basically been invisible until now- but I guess she hasn't had to go to Tribal council until now. I liked the way she steered the vote to suit herself. But I don't understand anyone wanting to vote off Hali- she is a non-entity out there. It was a weird vote. I hope the game doesn't end up with the main 6 powering through and picking everyone else off one by one- that's really boring to watch.

titan18

Hali is so hot, so that's a shame, and Ozzy is one of my all time favourite Survivor players so that also sucked.

I'd say they definitely hooked up in Ponderosa though after watching Ozzy's video.

Kirby

Nothing would surprise me with Ozzy. I doubt he cares about the camera's to get his leg over. Sure the lad did porn and CBS still invited him back. :P

ElChe32

Thankfully Michaela survived again...she's a babe.

kingtut

Delighted to see a power player gone! Ozzy basically saying "if I don't win you don't eat" while he was up the pole was an a$$hole move and they are going to manage without him food wise.

seligehgit

Certain people seem to have pretty big targets on their back now..Culpepper,Sierra,Andrea and Zeke.

Usual fatal qualities arising.. Overconfidence/too comfortable in one's position and acting the Godfather and trying to be too clever by half,making big moves too early and unnecessary enemies.Sierra and Zeke spring to mind in particular.

In spite of Debbie's inspired blindsiding of Ozzy she isn't going to win the game.Foolhardy play by Ozzy pre his dethroning.Of course they'd have survived without his fishing...

The Ciera we grew to know of the famed Black Widow Alliance at last thankfully came to the fore.Liking Aubry and Tai too​,not liking the cheek baring antics etc of Debbie and Tai!:D

kaji

I hope Cirie wins or at least goes deep in this game. It's so frustrated to see her play with such a bunch of nobodies. I like Aubry too, and Tai to a lesser extent (more his personality than gameplay).

I find it funny that after all the death threats and vile that Jeff Varner received last week- Zeke actually turns out to be very deceitful! Which was the point that he was making. I know it wasn't right to out him, but Jeff was in the right to assume that Zeke being transgender would have been common knowledge after filming 2 seasons back to back. And Zeke must have known that the truth would have come out at some point- people would recognise him. I hope Jeff Varner is doing ok- I saw he got fired from his job. Again, I'm not excusing him but just saying I understand what his thought process must have been at the time, being on the "chopping block".

Foxtrol

Despite being in such a strong position Sierra is making very poor reads. First targeting a goat like Hali because she incorrectly believed she had an idol and secondly running off and telling on Zeke when he was saving her. If it was Michaela who did that it would be looked at in a completely different light. How much longer before her poor decisions come back to bite her?

Also, what was Cirie doing voting for Sierra when the rest of her alliance went for Zeke? Was she left out of the loop?

seligehgit

I can't say I'd be rooting for a Cirie TBH,can't see it happening from the edit thus far.

Yes it turns that Zeke is quite a devious little customer after all the wrongful damage inflicted on him by Varner.

Sierra is going around thinking she's running the show,lacking subtlety in her gameplay.Putting a massive target on her back.

I wouldn't mind the lovely Andrea winning the million bucks or Culpepper,Aubry or Tai.

noveltea

think troysan could do with a good feed. thought he was going to collapse after the immunity challenge.

kingtut

Woo-hoo the pyscho is gone

S.M.B.

Delighted, can't stand Debbie. Could maybe deal with her as an underdog scrambling within the game but can't tolerate her in smug mode.

Tough to tell if that was the best move for Sarah.

Opens the game up nicely.

Agent Coulson

Is there anything Debbie isn't an expert at.


Total pain in the ass and really didn't bring anything to the show in entertainment value even being a complete eccentric nut.

kingtut

Amazes me that at this point in the show (and given the fact that they have all played before) so many of them think that an alliance will never break. Are they seriously that stupid? Well Sarah isn't obviously but the others are ... ffs!

Thargor

So satisfying seeing Debbie go, was sure it was Andrea the minute he started reading the votes.

Loved the bit with Micheala missing the hidden advantage aswell, you dont really get moments like that in any other programme on tv except Survivor, I bet that advantage is going to be a big deal soon, if she survives next week after flipping.

GreNoLi

Can only see a Sarah win based on edit, not the most enamouring contestant there's ever been.

S.M.B.

Find myself less interested at the moment than any recent season. Not sure if it's Survivor burn out or this season is underwhelming.

kaji

So Zeke got the boot. It was such a boring episode though. Even the immunity challenge where they stack dominoes kind of failed, normally this challenge is chaotic with people knocking them over etc. Here, Andrea just won pretty easily. And why won't the minority of 4 do something to help themselves.

Together they possess:
Sierra's advantage
Tai's 2 idols
Troyzan's 1 idol

It's becoming such an awful season. I wish Sandra was still in it to cause a bit of commotion.

kaji

S.M.B. wrote: »

Find myself less interested at the moment than any recent season. Not sure if it's Survivor burn out or this season is underwhelming.

I feel the exact same. It's just very boring gameplay at the moment with a lot of sub-standard players.

GreNoLi

2 tribes, no mix up before merge, no idols, final 2, go back to basics, I can't keep track of all these advantages.

I wish both alliances would vote out the floater Sarah, hardly happens anymore.