Not thrilled about next week's preview, fingers crossed for misdirection.

On some level I think that's just the natural dynamic of any mixed new players/returning players season.  The newbies are just naturally going to defer to the experience of the returning contestants.  Reynold thought Malcolm sniffed a plot out, and he was right, except for Andrea and co. falling ass-backwards into…

I do not enjoy watching that particular immunity challenge.  I panic just seeing it on TV.

And then a few more times after that.

It's like a Marvel teamup except somehow even less socially acceptable to talk about in polite company!

Plus Brandon's insanity really only took up one episode, whereas Shamar was the focal point of the bulk of the early part of the season on the Fans tribe, a 3 or 4 episode span where he sucked all the oxygen out of the room.

Also the other supposed target, Sherri, was a complete non-entity in this episode.  That was definitely a failure of the editors, especially since her vote ended up being so important.  By the time they got to tribal, there really wasn't any doubt that the person who was heavily featured was going to go home over the…

Well I think you're wrong!

"Reynold is literally carrying my unrequited love for dopey mimbos on his back!"

Every time you think, okay, this is the douchiest thing Eddie could possibly do, he tops it again.

He is going to take a lot more bullets than she is.

He seems really, really unaware of the game happening around him, something I'm pretty surprised by.  He stumbled ass-backwards into the right decision (because with the group he's linked up with, he has a decent chance to go on a late-game immunity run) but there doesn't really appear to be that degree of long-term…

Malcolm's "I'm glad he got his moment" confessional about Cochran and Corinne's bit about how excited she was for a blindside really sealed the outcome here.  And I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Dawn's "college money for my six kids" confessional was her winner's drop.  I'm calling it now.

….is a question no one has ever asked unironically.

I agree with you in general, but Fiji is really awful.

Gorillion definitely dates back to Redemption Island.

Ian has gotten short-shrift.  He could have easily come back for one of the two subsequent All-Stars seasons, either the first FvF season or Heroes v. Villains.  It's possible that he just doesn't want to but he was a major character on one of Survivor's best seasons.

You could be right.  I do feel like I remember a lot of bat eating that season.  Way more than the normal amount of bat eating.

That wasn't a gross food challenge though, right?  James bought the mystery item in the auction, which turned out to be bat soup, and then he ate it anyway because James is incredibly weird.

She could write him a letter and ask him really nicely for it.