The Mastermind’s Collapse

Survivor S38E11

I can’t believe how close we are to the finale! It feels like this season just started, and here we are with two more episodes left. I’m actually going to be in Washington D.C. on vacation the week the finale is airing, so that’s going to be challenging to watch and write about but we’ll see how it goes!

Another week, another Devens blindside. Devens thought Wardog was going to be safe next week and Ron lied to him, again. Ron recognizes everyone is happy with him at this point, except Devens, and he needs to do something to try to fix that rift until they vote him out. He does this by giving Devens his expired advantage menu that has the immunity idol as an option. Of course this expired weeks ago, but Devens doesn’t know this. Ron is hoping that it makes Devens feel at ease and not search for any hidden immunity idols.

REWARD CHALLENGE

Really quick challenge for us this week, maybe 3 minutes into the episode. It is the Loved Ones visit episode. I’ll be honest, the Loved Ones episodes in these shows usually fuck me up and get me feeling emotional. Something about pure unfettered happiness really gets to me so when the contestants break down, I feel things. Get off me.

They bring out everyone’s loved one, one by one, so they can hug and cry and what not. The challenge was a pretty exhaustive one where the survivors run down to the water, scoop a bucket, and toss the water to their loved one’s bucket where they catch it and pour it into a pail. First to fill the bucket wins. I explained this challenge when I normally don’t because I wanted to show that while it seems simple it is pretty exhausting to have these starved people run a decent distance to the water, scoop, and run back. Viewers who didn’t watch the older seasons probably think people like Victoria are weak competitors because they gassed out in this one. We get almost no camp life shown in the seasons anymore so it’s hard to tell just how little food they are working off of. But enough reminiscing about old seasons…

Ron and his husband win! Ron gets to pick a couple pairs to join them on their reward. He picks Julie and her husband, and Gavin and his wife. I’ve already made it known I wouldn’t want to accept any family visit, aside from the initial hugging and what not, in order to garner favor with other people. It just needs to be mentioned again that winning the Loved Ones competition can only hurt you, you also immediately make the other people you didn’t choose feel bad. Life is just a lot easier to not rock the boat unnecessarily like that. For example, Victoria says in a confessional that she is rethinking her connection with Ron since he didn’t pick her.

Everyone hanging out at the reward are having a good time, and they all agree that if Devens doesn’t win immunity, he is gone. In private, Ron is bragging to his husband about how he is running the game by cheating and manipulating people. His husband reassures him that it’s okay and he can do whatever it takes to win the game. Womp womp, here is that foreshadowing of someone saying they are running the game, pretty much saying they are a puppet master…lets see what happens!

Devens goes out looking for the idol, the rest of the people at camp are all against him, and someone half jokingly says they should look through his bag to see if he has the idol. Aurora grabs his bag and starts looking, while Devens walks back into camp and catches her. Instead of owning it and saying sorry, she overcorrects and becomes an asshole, not caring that she was caught and trying to act tough about it. Devens says he will be bringing his backpack with him everywhere.

Devens is looking all over and no one is shadowing him, which is strange since these people would have seen Ben Driebergen’s idol streak, but whatever. It pays off for Devens as he finds a clue to an idol! He is so pumped that he is ready to go get the idol and says he doesn’t even care if the other people see him get it, luckily he takes a beat and says he will sneak and get it. This turns out to be pretty challenging as it’s in a tree really high above the shelter. He waits until everyone is asleep and in the pitch black night, shimmies up the tree that is supporting the shelter, rubbing the beams together, making noise, but is able to get the the idol with no one expecting anything.

IMMUNITY CHALLENGE

Time for another endurance immunity challenge. Devens drops in about a minute. It’s a really difficult challenge so it makes sense if he accidently fell, but it seems it would be beneficial to try to get the immunity necklace to extend the idol. Devens calls out that he knows he’s being sent home, and tries taking a shot at Aurora saying she would be the next target with two immunity wins, this is mostly ignored by everyone. Gavin wins the immunity.

Everyone back at camp is largely ignoring Devens. They are all sitting around a fire eating and he’s trying to talk to people about random stuff and they appear to all be ignoring him. Eventually in private, Ron, Julie, and Devens are talking and they tell Devens the plan is Aurora, and Devens asks Ron if the idol is real, he looks him in the eye and says yes. Ron and Julie leave and Julie is telling Ron how awful she feels about doing this to him and Ron says the game is called Survivor for a reason. Ron explains the master plan of everyone voting against Devens and Devins voting against Aurora, this way if Devens does have a real idol, Aurora is out.

Just going to say it now, Victoria and Lauren are geniuses. The two get together and realize they are both free agents at this point and why not work together? They are able to recognize Rons plan with no clues and propose a plan to foil it, both of them vote for Ron. That way if Devens gets the most votes, and Devens votes for Aurora, then their 2 votes would send Ron home. Lauren and Victoria bring Aurora in on the plan, then they approach Gavin. Gavin is resistant since Ron gave him the time with his wife but is still listening. To try to win him over Aurora gives Gavin her second vote.

TRIBAL COUNCIL

Jeff asks Devens about dropping out so quickly in the competition. He says it’s easy when you know you’re the target (I don’t really understand this logic). The whole Aurora digging through Devens bag comes up again with the same annoying reaction from Aurora, the jury is floored by this news. Jeff asks Ron about his choices and he says he feels bad for not picking either of the Father/Daughter options because he knows that bond is important. Lauren and Victoria both roll their eyes and Lauren says it’s really telling about who he picked.

Jeff asks a bit about alliances and how they are going. Julie says she has multiple alliances because this season with all the blindsides, the alliances are always shifting. Jeff asks Devens if this is reassuring since he feels he is on the outs. Devens says not really since no one is listening to what he has to say so the alliance formations don’t matter.

It is time to vote! Jeff tallies them and asks if anyone has any immunity idols. Devens announces he will try to order something off of the advantage menu and tries Ron’s idol. The way Devens is wording it, you can kind of tell he doesn’t 100% think this is a real idol, but wants to try anyway. Jeff announces what the advantage is, but says it expired on day nine and has no power. Devens looks back, calling Ron and Julie villains, saying he was already going home, and did they just want to make him look stupid so his kids think he’s an idiot? Then BAM! He says “Except…. You’ve proven time and time again you’re untrustworthy and disloyal, and Julie has proven time and time again she loves lying to people’s faces!” as he is walking back to his bag to get his real immunity idol. He ends his speech with “You guys are gems.”

Jeff starts reading the votes. Devens gets the first four and Aurora gets the next one. Things seem to be going Ron’s way and then Jeff reads a Ron vote which surprises him a little bit. Jeff reads a second and Devens starts clapping. Jeff announces one vote left and Devens says “Peace Bro.” Ron is gone. As great as Devens is with these Tribals, it shouldn’t be forgotten that Victoria and Lauren came up with this move and deserve most of the credit for figuring out two peoples plans and coming up with the best plan to deal with them.

I have never seen such a emotive Jury and I’m absolutely loving it. They are all freaking out, clapping, and making noises with everything Devens does. They love this guy, and if the other people still in the game are seeing how the Jury is eating up everything he does, they have zero chance at beating him in the final. I’d love this since I’ve been unabashedly rooting for him since day 1, but I can’t imagine a scenario in which he can get there. I’d have to imagine next week will be an EoE person coming back into the game, and likely going right back out, unless the Devens target is just that large.

That’s all I got this week! I have been thinking a lot the last couple days about how close we are getting to Big Brother time and I am SO PUMPED! I’m not sure how I’m going to deal with 3 episodes a week and trying not to spam everyone on my social media with articles they probably don’t care about…but we’ll see what I come up with! Until my next post…bye!

Before the Afterwards

Game of Thrones S8E3

I really need to get better at writing about shows after they air sooner. The most important show on TV had an episode 3 days ago, and here I am FINALLY writing about it like a bum. Finding time to write about shows, while also keeping up on all the other shows you watch, is proving to be more difficult than I expected. I’m 7 episodes behind on other shows that have new episodes out, and when I could be catching up on them I’m writing. What a rough life I have, right? Feel like this is as good of an intro as any…let talk some Game of Thrones!

This episode is pretty much a straight continuation of last week’s episode. It’s all conversations, moving those chess pieces together for the big battle next week. Of course anyone in the future watching is just going to binge the whole season together, so it’s all going to feel like a 6 episode episode. In terms of live viewing though…episode one and two were definitely meant to be one block, with Battle of Winterfell next week, then “Afterwards” for episode four through six.

Show opens with Jaime on trial in front of Daenerys, Jon, and Sansa. Daenerys is pretty pissed off at Jaime killing her father The Mad King Aerys Targaryen. This is wild to me. She knows her father was insane at the end of his reign going around killing everyone for no reason. If my dad was going around setting people on fire and murdering them because he felt like it, someone stopping him probably wouldn’t be too upsetting to me. Daenerys seems all about punishing him, likely dragon fire because that’s her whole thing. Sansa appears to be in agreement too, until Brienne stepped forward to vouch for him. Making a really good point that Sansa wouldn’t be alive now if Jaime hadn’t sent her to defend Sansa based on a promise he made to Catelyn Stark. This changes Sansa’s mind and she is pro-Jaime. Comes down to Jon being torn between his sister (actually his cousin) and his lady (actually his aunt) and he sides with his Sister/Cousin, so Jaime is pardoned. When the meeting ends Jon is really cold to Daenerys, which she doesn’t understand; Jon still hasn’t told her about him being Aegon Targaryen.

We get a half episode rift between Daenerys and Tyrion because Jaime reveals in his trial that Cersei has no intention of sending her army to the north to help defeat the army of the dead. Daenerys is mad that Tyrion, who is Hand of the Queen because of his brains, was easily fooled by his sister. A little later we get a scene where Tyrion and Jaime get to talk in private. Tyrion thought Cersei’s pregnancy would change her, hence his trust in her. Tyrion wonders if the pregnancy was a lie too; which Jaime assures him it is not. The Daenerys being mad at Tyrion situation gets squashed when Jorah who would have been the Hand of the Queen if he had been around advises her to trust Tyrion, even though he has Jorah’s job.

I’m not exactly going chronological through this, mostly I will, but I’m going to group together pairings so this isn’t all over the place like the episode is. Which, for the record isn’t a criticism. This works well in the show to go around and see how these things develop, but will be easier flowing here grouped.

Here are a couple Arya/Gendry scenes. The sexual tension in this scene is just spilling all over the place. Arya comes to Gendry asking for the weapon she asked for in the last episode. Gendry brushes her off that she should be in the Crypt with the other women and children, which I’ll touch on later is a stupid place to keep non-fighters. To prove Gendry wrong Arya throws some spear heads across the room into the wall very threateningly. She asks about her weapon and he quickly says he will get right on it. Later on Gendry shows up and gives Arya her weapon. This better have some hidden power, otherwise the weapon she is so concerned about is the exact same spear head he was making attached to a staff. Gendry reveals to Arya that he is the bastard son of Robert Baratheon. Some chit chat and Arya casually asks how many people Gendry has slept with. This is all lead up to how Arya wants to fuck someone before she dies, and they do it; Much to the delight of all the fanfic nuts out there.

A pretty constant thread through the episode is AFTERWARDS. A good amount of the conversations in this ep are initial planning to what will happen after the war with the dead. This kicks off with Jaime talking to Bran in the Godswood. He apologizes for what he did, which Bran excuses by saying he did what he needed to do to protect his family. Jaime asks why Bran hasn’t told them what he did to him in the past. Bran says Jaime couldn’t help fight if he let them murder him first. Jaime asks what about afterwards (meaning after The Battle of Winterfell) which Bran answers with a how do you know there is an afterwards?

Daenerys finds Sansa to have a talk about their relationship. They seem to patch up their differences bonding over both being women leaders who have to work harder to garner respect. Sansa reveals she is hesitant of Daenerys because men are easily manipulated by women they love; meaning Jon being manipulated by Daenerys. Daenerys explains that her whole goal in life was to win the Iron Throne and she has paused that to come fight Jon’s war, then asking who manipulated whom? This seems to make everything better, and they are even holding hands smiling. Then the “afterwards” strikes again. Sansa asks what will Daenerys do after the war. Daenerys says she will take the iron throne, which Sansa asks what about The North? She explains that they lost The North once and took it back and they would never bow to anyone else again. Daenerys lets go of Sansa’s hands as tension is building. They are interrupted by the arrival of Theon who request to fight for the Starks.

The most hilarious example of afterwards is a conversation between Greyworm and Missandei. They agree they don’t want to grow old in the cold foreign land and want to go back to Missandei’s homeland of Naath and will sail there together. This is pretty much guaranteeing that Greyworm will die; or if they feel extra spicy Missandei will. DON”T MAKE MEANINGFUL PLANS BEFORE A BATTLE, YOU WILL DIE.

We know the battle is happening soon because Tormund and Beric return to tell Jon about Umber being murdered by the NIght King and is close to Winterfell. All the major players are involved in a battle plan meeting. Jon believes killing the Night King will cause the rest of the dead to no longer be able to animated and end the war; but others point out the Night King won’t expose himself to risk. Bran volunteers to be bait, telling everyone the Night King always knows where Bran is at and wants to kill him because he contains all memory of man. The endgame for the Night King is to erase all memory of man from the world. Jon’s brilliant idea is putting Bran in the crypts with the women and children to keep him safe. Let’s think about this for a second. A bad guy…who has the power to reanimate the dead…is coming for Bran, and the solution is to put him in a basement that is full of dead bodies? Sounds like a fool proof idea…. The actual plan is made to have Bran in Godswood with Theon as his guard to lure the Night King there to be killed.

Spread throughout the episode is what my cousin Andy, who I watched the episode with, called “A bottle episode”. We get six rando’s who at one point or another were all fighting against the Starks, now protecting their home sitting by a fire drinking. It’s a weird mix, but led to a number of great interactions. Tyrion, Jaime, Brienne, Podrick, Davos, and Tormund are all in this hang session. Best moment of the first scene is a story about how Tormund got the name Giantsbane. Just watch the episode for the story because reading about it won’t do it justice. We come back to the bottle episode later to what is probably the most heartwarming moment of the episode. Tyrion is saying how he thinks they will all survive the battle (guaranteeing they all won’t) and when everyone is laughing at this he lists everyone’s resumes of prior battles. When he gets to Brienne he calls her “Ser”, the name for knights. He corrects himself and Tormund is surprised thinking she was already a knight and doesn’t understand why women can’t be knights. We know Jaime has tremendous respect for Brienne as earlier in the episode he asks to serve under her as she is commanding the left flank in the battle. He mentions that you don’t have to be a king to knight someone; that a knight can also knight someone. He has Brieanne kneel before him, which she is reluctant to do. Having your life’s goal that previously was thought to be impossible presented before you can be a difficult thing to jump right into. Jaime knights her and everyone claps enthusiastically while she is tearful and smiling ear to ear. The last time we return to this scene is the setup for a montage of everyone preparing for the upcoming battle. Tyrion asks for a song, and nobody is volunteering. Podrick begins singing and we get cuts to Theon and Sansa talking, Arya and Gendry lying in bed together after getting it on, and Greyworm and Missandei kissing goodbye.

One last important moment squeezed in before the end. Daenerys finds Jon down in the crypts in front of Lyanna Stark’s statue. Daenerys says she can’t believe her brother raped her after all the stories she heard about how great he was. Jon reveals that her brother didn’t rape Lyanna, that he loved her, and they had a son right before she died. The child was given to Ned Stark to protect and that he is Aegon Targaryen. Daenerys looks pissssssed. She asks how he knows and he says Samwell and Bran told him. She is resistant to believe this because the source is his best friend and brother. Jon tells her he knows it’s true. Daenerys says if it were true, it would make him the last male heir to the house of Targaryen and he would have a claim to the throne. This shows that all her bullshit selflessness about her family name isn’t really true. While she does want the Targaryen name back on the throne, she wants it with her name, not Aegon/Jon. They are interrupted (another common theme this episode) by battlehorns. Last scene is the Night King and the other White Walkers with their army behind them standing across a field from Winterfell about to start the battle.

This episode a lot better to me the second time I watched it compared to the first time. I thought it was a whole lot of nothing before but you can really see the meaning and masterful writing when watching again. I’m pretty sure I said this last week too, or something similar, so the key must just be watch it all multiple times and revel in the brilliance of it. My top people who are going to die: Greyworm, Tormund or Brienne (not both), also Jorah doesn’t stand a chance. I’m a coward picking only secondary characters but whatever. I JUST finished this article two minutes before the new episode of Survivor is starting so going to have to cut it off here. Everyone enjoy the Battle of WInterfell next week, it’s going to be amazing!