I, too, enjoy the existing tribe dynamics, but I sort of like the idea of an early tribe shakeup. It lessens the possibility of immediate dominant alliances forming and if they do it one more time before the merge (which I imagine will be the case), you're going to inevitably have people who have multiple alliances.…

How dare you call Ciera a goat.

That, and the fact that they're living in threadbare conditions with relatively little food and (I'm guessing) sleep. From the comfort of our couches, it's easy to say that we wouldn't get emotional. Faced with the actual conditions, I bet all us hardcore Survivor cynics would crack just a little. Or most of us,…

Concur. And while sometimes Probst goes overboard with his predetermined narratives, it really felt apt with Spencer. I don't want Jeff to resort to "YOU DID THIS LAST TIME, REMEMBER?" at every Tribal, but in this case, he was spot on.

Devil's Advocate.

I'm guessing when he lost half his skin sliding down the first(?) ramp, he probably just mentally caved. Survivor challenges always toe that fine line between "that looks tough but cool" and "this is too painful to be entertaining."

This was one of the more straightforward editing jobs we've seen in a while. I kind of liked it. Most weeks, I would be against the almost predetermined outcome the episode is spinning out, but it allowed several story-lines to wind naturally without any of the red herring angles that we normally get. If you're the…

I think Abi's game is going to chill a ton if she gets in a stable situation. She clearly entered the game with a fair bit of built-in tension that she's exacerbated at several points, but part of it is on her tribemates. They come in expecting CRAZY ABI-MARIA and that's how they probably viewed her from the jump.…

Savage's story wasn't particularly touching, but with the way the music was going and some of his verbage, I was 99% certain that the story was going to end with her dead. Pleasantly surprised that this was not the case. I'm all for people living.

Shirin and Spencer acted exactly like Shirin and Max did last season, just to a slightly lesser degree.

Welcome back, Survivor/comments. This show is always a ray of sunshine during the middle of the week.

For half of his season, I didn't like him, but I found his dogged crustiness weirdly charming over time. Even with the spitting.

When she first grabbed the thing from the tree, I thought, "Seriously, producers, you're that lazy?" Glad they are not that lazy. I liked Kelley narrating her search in a loud, cheerful manner.

Kelley of the Extra E got a very nice first episode edit. Probably doesn't mean much, but she's instantly more likable without Dale around.

Think it should be a one-off. I'm sure they knew this episode would be half-an-hour longer than normal and they wanted to give a bit more buildup of the relationships on both tribes, rather than show the minimal strategy that goes into the first vote. I would hope they don't make a habit of jumping straight to Tribal.

There were certain things that I hadn't even realized I missed. In no particular order, I am happy to have these seven things back in my life on a weekly basis:

I had to pause the movie midway through to turn on the lights and smoke a cigarette. The first half unnerved me to a silly degree. And then the second half of the movie happened. Not a good sign when you feel like you can relax once the ghost children show up.

Upvoted for "half my allowance."

Fair points, though I would argue that while 'Pepper' doesn't hold up to the hype of the time, it's actually aged far better than it should. Every time I put it on, I remember some random thing about it that I love. Some of it is definitely a bit on the cutesy side, but The Beatles were always walking that fine edge.…

I came up with the "brownie points" response riiiiiiiiight under the buzzer, which is always fun.