WELCOME TO THE MERGE!! How bloody exciting for the final 10 contestants, not only making the merge, but also the Jury! What a fab achievement – FYI Matty announced this at the start of Ep 10 (7 jurors & Final 3). As always, Simon Knyvett joins me again with his thoughts on this weeks episodes. And yet again, totally devo one of my faves is gone!!
Episode 9 – Day 17-18
Redemption Island. Georgia is shocked to see Shady Shay joining her! I have to say I’m so annoyed all my favourites keep being sent to RI. These two are fighters though and I’ll be happy to see either of them back in the game.
Mogoton. This is the beginning of Lee’s edit, finally! Oh you know, we’re only 9 episodes in! It’s the Wizard of ONZ Winkie Guards of Nicaragua! Hey, they’re the ones who sang the famous chant “Oh-Ee-Yah! Ee-Oh-Ah!”. I don’t buy the whole “Survivor Enchilada” boy band thing, guys!
Hermosa. Avi is concerned about Tom going into a potential merge. Avi, you mention your love for Tom every episode! He’s not worth it. (Sorry, Tom fans!) Tom is playing his own game, and Avi is not necessarily in the picture. I really hope moving forward that Avi realises this, and I think he just might!
Barb is so over Shannon’s incessant chatter about random shit, I mean, the girl doesn’t shut up. In saying this, Barb knows that Shannon is awesome with her words, hence why she’s playing both sides right now!
Oh, also, both tribes are attending the Redemption Island Duel. Which means it’s obvious whoever wins will join in for the merge. Hells yeah!
DUEL TIME
Shay and Georgia enter the arena. They both want this win badly, but Georgia shows it just a little more. Matt tells them to look over to the people who voted them off… LOL BARB.
#SmilingAssassin
Matt lets them all know the winner re-enters the game. Captain Sparrow is PEAKING at the potential spooning with Georgia later tonight. While Sala is pretty confident Shay has got this!
The challenge is to build up a wall made from wooden boards over nay metres (I didn’t catch it), and Georgia struggles early on. After an interesting cut of shots, the girls are pretty much NICK AND NICK! Is there a rule where you can’t push over the other person’s stack? Shay is soooo close to the end, but runs out of boards. WHAT?! She starts playing bloody Jenga; oh so badass! This gives Georgia time to catch up and almost puts her last boards on top, then BAM, her stack falls to the ground. FFS.
Frustrated AF, Georgia rebuilds. It’s Shay’s game to lose right now and after her Jenga efforts she places her final boards on top and wins the duel!
Georgia is GUTTED. And so am I!! BOO, HISS. Shay feels bad and knocks over her own stack, no girl, own it! Georgia desperately wanted to make the merge… This little ripper of a chick packed a punch. The tiny dancer goes home 🙁
Check out Georgia’s exit interview HERE
MERGE TIME!
DROP YOUR BUFFS, SHADY SHAY IS BACK!
Casar. Merge feast time! I’m surprised there are no offerings from Pizza Hut here, or at any Reward Challenge actually!
Avi is THRILLED to have Shady Shay back! And of course he brings up Tom. Shay informs Avi about Tom’s bromance with the original Hermosa boys. Of course Shay figured out Tom used Mike at her vote out; clever girl. Avi sees the light and doesn’t trust Tom as much now! WOAH. Other than the Tom thing, I really like where Avi is at this point in time. He’s not considered a huge threat, and is very well liked by pretty much everyone there. He’s done well connecting with everyone on both tribes so far.
Shannon is having some Boys time and says Barb doesn’t deserve to be there. :O
The boys tell her that they threw the challenge to keep her in the game. She’s not too happy about that. But hot damn, how good is she at playing both sides right now?! I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite her in the butt! It”ll look great on her ‘Survivor resume’ if she makes it to the end and sell it to the jury.
Jak and Tom discuss how to approach Avi into voting with them. Thing is, Avi isn’t shady and can see right through your bullshit. I give the boys credit for giving it a show though!
Side note: Shannon’s accent has pronounced ‘pineapples’ as ‘pinenipples’ and the ‘beach’ as the ‘bitch’ so far this episode.
Tom works on Avi and it’s pretty much a no go!! Avi ‘s reading between your lies, Tom! I think we’ve just had our second break up of the season.
There is a lot of talking this episode… STRUGGLE STREET. Then we see a funny scene with Shay ‘hanging with the old people’! Nate and Barb are loving life right now. From what we’ve seen, I just don’t see these two making the finals, although I am enjoying watching them throw shade at the youngens. I’m a fan of Survivor oldies!
REWARD CHALLENGE
It kills me that these long episodes only have a reward challenge and no immunities.
Reward is a memory challenge with an iced chocolate cake up for grabs! Anyone just think of this moment?
Skipping ahead, Captain Sparrow just shows he’s a threat in ANY challenge and wins! He decides to take Shannon and Shay to join him. If only Georgia was there so we could see George Michael re-enact the GIF above… #RIPGeorgeMichael
Casar. Lee’s boot edit continues with him dismantling the shelter WHILST NATE IS SLEEPING IN IT. I couldn’t help but laugh at this scene! What everyone is saying about him, that he just does things without consulting everyone, seems to ring true. I get he wants to be helpful and beneficial around camp, but oh my God, not even Ozzy (Lusth) went around doing shit like that. Lee is just putting a target on himself by doing it. Also, have we even seen Lee talk to anyone else but his boys alliance??
Episode 10 – Day 19-20
Casar. Tom tells Avi he wants to take him and Barb to the end, with Barb obviously being the old goat.
I think we’ve seen Shannon talk about her two alliances, and how she hasn’t chosen a side about 100 times now. She’s become good allies with Avi though; I approve! I can see these two making it to the end.
Sala calls Captain Sparrow and his crew the Backstreet Boys. I find this highly offensive!! The Backstreet Boys are
Avi has a go at ol’ Barb for having a go at Lee trying to help out at camp. Why is he so damn nice?! #TeamAvi
How many pans to the horn in the fire do there need to be?! Take a guess. THREE times they showed it! I don’t care about the fucking horn anymore. Move on, guys! But I guess they need to show Lee somewhat before he gets the boot. It’s all about Lee not being a team player, and Barb and Nate bitching about it.
Shannon’s Emmy award performance continues with the boys and throws her other alliance under the bus. Lee is upset about him being perceived as a bully. I don’t think he’s a bully, but we don’t see him talk to anyone!! Perfect goat if you ask me.
IMMUNITY CHALLENGE
Woah, did someone dip pasta in paint?
This is the challenge:
And look who lasts longer than many of the youngens, ol’ Barbie hangs in there to make the final 3 standing! Unfortunately she can’t hang on for longer, and it’s down to Mike ad Shannon. Mike wins the first immunity challenge. This guy is going to make it very far!
Shannon starts talking, and Barb’s subconscious kicks in and decides, HEY, time to cark it again!
Casar. Tom confesses he didn’t care about Barb fainting… If he mentioned why, and being related to his game, okay, but jeez man have a heart! The boys get excited at the potential that Barb won’t come back, and you’d have to consider it after seeing what happened to Lou. But don’t count out the ol’ girl just yet!
Tom is worried about a potential tie next vote and brings up black rocks and I completely understand, you don’t want to become the next Jessica Lewis!
Avi takes some time out of Survivor… Lucky he’s safe at tonight’s vote and has the luxury to do so. In this moment, he becomes Barb’s escort back to camp. How sweet! BARB IS BACK! And completely fine. Maybe she really did just want to shut Shannon up.
Again, we see Lee talk about and hanging with the boys. We have not once seen him talk to anyone outside his boys alliance and it irks me.
Shannon makes an interesting point that she hasn’t been to Tribal Council since Day 1. It just shows how lucky you can get in this game.
TRIBAL COUNCIL
What’s important to people this far in the game? Nate starts off with the trust issue, and it’s true. There’s a semi-clear divide of relationships left in this game, and even Lee says he’s a little confused by it all and that “it feels like Survivor now”. These boys got lucky post tribe swap. The talk about big moves comes up. I think we will be seeing some in the next few weeks. Even Sala, the nicest guy out there, sounds like he’s willing to make a ‘big move’ to earn respect at the end. Hmm! And with that, Shannon decides to vote against the Boys and Lee is voted out to Redemption Island. They made it clear that Mike would have been the one going if he hadn’t of won Immunity. I can definitely see Lee winning RI Duels though, so we can’t count him out just yet! Lee-6, Shay-4.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! Matt announces they’ll be having their next Immunity Challenge RIGHT NOW!
From what we’ve seen so far, these are the four I can see nabbing a Finals spot: Sala, Avi, Shannon, Mike.
SURVIVOR SIMON SAYS
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This week on SurvivorNZ Matt spoke an abnormal amount at the start. Was not exactly sure why. However it did uncover that we would have a three person final tribal. Jeff Probst would be proud. Another Survivor first, a 16 person season with a final three. With this my final three remains the same as what I had last week with Shannon, Avi and Sala making the end game. After this week tough, it could go any way. My predictions have not exactly been great so far, which leads me to Mike.
Even though Lee definitely has played a game similar to Ozzy’s it appears that his challenge strengths were not quite on par. It looks like Mike’s challenge ability will be a lot more capable. Maybe he will show a similar skill-set to World’s Apart’s Mike Holloway and challenge beast it to the end. It would not surprise me if this happened in our version. Mike still does not seem to have very close friendships apart from the four men in the boys club. He seems to have a small thing with Shannon, but I think other than Lee and Shay he may have the least relationships in the game. This is a pivotal aspect of Survivor. While it is a necessity to have those close relationships, the fact he does not have many to fall on excluding a few means he could easily go unnoticed and use challenges.
Lee on the other hand was possibly one of the most choreographed merge boots in history. I think this has to be because of the two-episode format. From the moment Lee renovated the shelter I felt like he would go home if Mike won immunity. It seems with Lee out Mike may have more chance in the game. Also with Lee heading to Redemption Island it now strikes even more of a similarity with RI King Ozzy (sorry Matt Elrod/Wyatt Nash, you ain’t the King). So strange that Lee barely had a word to say all season and is gone. I can only think his last words at tribal are foreshadowing and Redemption Island is where his game begins. Another wildly speculative prediction is that the Redemption Island curse ends here. Oh how I wish Redemption ended at the merge.
Shannon as the swing vote could be a good or bad moment of her game. It means she has now potentially PO’d one half of the remaining players. However I think that side (Lee aside) is more likely to appreciate good game play. I think it was better for her to split from them. Her next best move will be to solidify an alliance with Sala, Avi and Shay as well as Barb and Nate. From there once she gets rid of the boys club get rid of Shay somehow with Hermosa and Avi then work with Avi and Sala to final three. Her game is the only one I can clearly see going forward (obviously). But will be interesting to see whether she follows this.
Jak I can see somewhat still being a wildcard as people do enjoy his company on the odd occasion and that is a great thing to have on Survivor. This could also mean he could last a lot longer in the game. The way I see it is Shannon is control of the game, Avi is a crucial piece with Shay and Sala less so, Barb and Nate important for the time being with Tom and Mike on the outs. While Jak should be on the outs he still has a relationship with Nate and Barb who say if he stops being a smart arse he is fine. Sala also seems to enjoy Jak’s company finding him entertaining. It still could mean Jak could slip through the cracks. All I know is that with a new person going each week the less my predictions make sense.
My final thought of the week is how entertaining Sala is. While I am not sure about his chances of winning he seems like he is enjoying every moment of it out there. He is like a New Zealand version of Rupert without the propensity to be playing it up for the cameras. Sala’s moment at tribal council was very entertaining. He is a cheeky fella I feel like audiences seem to enjoy. Plus I just wonder how many kids he has having birthdays this season so that he can continue endearing himself to his tribe mates. Got to love Sala, I will just leave this here www.facebook.com/pg/SalasCoolNZ/posts/.
Want to be a part of the audience at Survivor New Zealand’s live finale? Want to see if Dee is a true super fan and shows up bitter? Want to see Mike without a top on in the flesh? Head HERE to grab your tickets! The event will be held on Wednesday July 5, at the Civic Theatre, Auckland. This Aussie is making her way over to say hello, so hope to SEE YOU ALL THERE!
Want to be a part of the audience at Survivor New Zealand’s live finale? Want to see if Dee is a true super fan and shows up bitter? Want to see Mike without a top on in the flesh? Head HERE to grab your tickets! The event will be held on Wednesday July 5, at the Civic Theatre, Auckland. This Aussie is making her way over to say hello, so hope to SEE YOU ALL THERE!
Blog by Lynda Olson
ALL IMAGES USED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE COPYRIGHT TVNZ. THIS IS A PERSONAL BLOG AND ALL VIEWS ARE MY OWN.
