They've never allowed that; too much of a fear of teams violating speed limits, etc., for a million dollars.

And Frank/Margarita lost precisely because it was their home town — they arrogantly told the cabbie what route to take (a totally sensible route if there were any traffic) in getting from EWR to Queens (via GWB/Triboro) when, given that it was 7am on a Saturday, the straight-across-Manhattan route taken by the other…

The clues were great, but the actual tasks lacked much appeal.  I miss the days when final episodes called for airport aggression and risky behavior, when having saved money meant something.  (Bring back Colin and Christie!)

Courtney Cox
I love you
You're so hot
On that show

I think it's fairly easy to argue that Sandra's degree of difficulty in winning Heroes v Villains was the toughest of any winner of any Survivor season, given just how active and complicated the gameplay was.  Really: beating Boston Rob, Russell, and Parvati?

Zero suspense, just a lot of satisfaction at watching someone pitch a perfect game, even going to orchestrating the weakest possible other members of a final three.

But he wears a sweater!

#2: Vecepia.

Well, there are two Final Fives — the original one, and then one with the RI returnee. He can only use the HII at one of them.

@avclub-09242a5045cda8c7f60b238ba86876a7:disqus is right — it wasn't a clue, but rather she obtained the ability to switch with any player at one point in the challenge.

We're definitely not seeing Albert and Sophie talking about what their plan is, in the same way that we didn't see it last year vis-a-vis beating Boston Rob (or, even, that they all knew he had a HII).

I thought Rick was someone who Coach wants in F3 with him; he'd rather boot Albert and Sophie.

Also: am I correct that this was the same Immunity Challenge that Danni won in the Guatemala season, after winning a clue as to how to dominate it (via auction)?

No one's going after Coach because they all know he has the HII, and are incapable of blindsiding him.  And as @avclub-ef062084a1c4a3584af1d4f8e514ea50:disqus said, Coach wants Brandon and Johnny Cakes in the final three with him, so they at least ought to have taken Brandon out here.  Just crappy gameplay.

I took a look back at my blog to see what I said at the time.  Here goes:

Which you and I have discussed plenty here.  RI is a nice twist on occasion, but not when it prevents the existence of Reward challenges that separate alliances and reveal pecking orders.

But she didn't understand that people would be voting based on strategic interests as opposed to survival skills, contributions to camp, affinity, etc.  Because, after all, that's how her tribe was voting — on the merits, a pure "who would be helpful to my life to have around?".

Not so much in the first All Stars, other than the Boston Rob-Lex thing. Because the first All Stars were split into three camps, not two, it made it much less likely that you'd have a preexisting ally with you.  (And I don't believe Rob and Ambuh knew each other before the season started.)

I'm trying to remember — was that All-Stars motivation more based on "because he's already won $1M," or "because by winning, he's shown that he's really good at this game, and therefore too dangerous to keep around"?

Another odd thing about this week is the whole talk about Joel not needing the money as much as other competitors.  It's not a factor which comes up very often in the show — mostly in terms of wealthy folks (I'm thinking of Russell) not talking about their real occupations — but to the extent that votes and decisions…