Tag Archives: Survivor Ghost Island

Survivor 36.13 “It is Game Time Kids”

Hi, y’all!

Well, it’s over!  Tonight, the 36th season of Survivor came to a close.  Now, obviously, if you haven’t watched the finale yet, this post is going to be a spoiler.  So, if you don’t want to know who won, now is the time to stop reading.




Wendell won!  If I may pat myself on the back, I’ve been predicting that Wendell would win ever since the merge.  Not only has he been a consistent force to be reckoned with in the challenges but he repeatedly proved himself to be a skilled strategic player.  His alliance with Dom and Laurel seems to be unbreakable and, unlike them, he managed to get through the season without collecting too many enemies.

That said, I have to admit that I was sure that Wendell would easily win.  I thought that he would get 8 or 9 votes with Dom picking up a few strays.  What I never expected was that Wendell would only win by 1 vote!

There’s a lot of negative stuff that you can say about Ghost Island.  This season, there weren’t many strong players.  One reason why Wendell and Dom were able to so totally dominate this season is because they were surrounded by so many players who, quite frankly, didn’t seem like they had ever watched Survivor before.  I don’t mean to take anything away from what Dom and Wendell accomplished but it’s not like they were playing against the best players in the show’s history.  Instead, their main competition was Kellyn.

As well, the whole Ghost Island gimmick never worked as well as one might have hoped.  Most of the cursed advantages remained cursed because the majority of the people who went to Ghost Island were clueless about how to play the game.  There were a lot of advantages given out this season but almost all of them were either wasted or went to Wendell and Dom.

In many ways, this was a very frustrating season.  Up until tonight, Laurel had so many opportunities to blindside both Wendell and Dom.  Instead, it seemed like she and everyone else just lay down and let Wendell and Dom walk all over them.  Nobody seemed to be willing to make a big move when they needed to.

But, with all that in mind, Ghost Island will always be remembered for tonight’s finale!  For the first time, we had a tie.  5 jurors voted for Dom.  5 jurors voted for Wendell.  No one voted for Laurel.  Per the rules of Survivor, Laurel joined the jury and cast the deciding vote.  And, not surprisingly, she cast that vote for Wendell.

And so, Wendell won Survivor 36.  Dom did not look happy, which is understandable.  If Dom had been a little less abrasive with the jury, I imagine he might have been able to pick up that one vote that he would have needed to win.  Instead, he got arrogant and condescending.  While it seemed like Wendell sometimes struggled to make the case that he had done more than just ride Dom’s coat tails, he obviously did well enough to convince 5 jurors plus Laurel.

Now that Ghost Island is finished with, I’ll be taking a few weeks off and then I’ll be writing about the 20th season of Big Brother over at the Big Brother Blog!  I hope to see you there!  Thank you for reading and commenting on these recaps!  I’ve had to deal with some health issues over the past few weeks so I haven’t gotten to reply as much as I would have liked but I really do appreciate y’all reading and I hope to see everyone again for both Big Brother and Survivor: David vs. Goliath!

Lisa Marie

P.S. Big Brother starts on June 27th!

Congratulations, Wendell!


Episode 36.10 “The Finish Line Is In Sight”

Hi, everyone.

First off, accept my apologies.  As I sit here typing this recap, I’m dealing with a lot of sinus pain and my mind isn’t exactly as clear as it would usually be.  So, forgive me if I keep things kinda short this week.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to make it up to everyone next week.

Anyway, last night’s episode of Survivor featured a new twist but the same old outcome!  During the immunity challenge, the 10 survivors were split, by random draw, into two separate groups.  Each group competed for immunity, which meant that two people won immunity and there were two tribal councils.  However, the twist may have been new but it led to the same old result.  The old Naviti Tribe is still, to quote Kellyn, “Naviti strong!”  And so, two Malolos were voted out.

In fact, perhaps the most interesting thing about tonight’s episode was the chance to see just how stupid the majority of the castaways are.  Seriously, this is probably the dumbest group of people since the Blue Collar vs. White Collar vs, No Collar season.

The first group to attend Tribal was the purple group.  That group was made up of Donathan, Jenna, Sebastian, Angela, and Chelsea.  Chelsea won immunity and it was obvious that either Donathan or Jenna would be the target but which one?  Sebastian, Angela, and Chlesea decided to vote out Jenna but they told Jenna that they were going to vote out Donathan.  Even when Donathan let Jenna know that she the target and that he was going to play his idol to keep her safe, Jenna continued to believe that Donathan was actually the target.  She also decided that, since Donathan was going to use the idol to keep her safe, that she should go ahead and vote Donathan out, as opposed to maybe coordinating with him to get out a member of the Naviti Tribe.

Then, at Tribal, Jenna announced that she knew she was the target and that they should all go ahead and vote, which, of course, made everyone else at Tribal paranoid that she had something up her sleeve.  When Donathan did play his idol, he played it for himself.  Jeff announced that none of the votes that Donathan received would count.  However, Donathan only received one vote, from his ally Jenna.  Donathan, meanwhile, voted for Sebastian and the other three vote were all cast for Jenna.

End result: Donathan wasted his idol.  Jenna joined the jury,

Then, it was time for the next group to have their tribal.  This was Dom, Wendell, Kellyn, Laurel, and Michael.  Dom won immunity and, as he kept saying to everyone, Michael was the obvious choice for who to vote out.

However, Michael nearly survived this tribal.  Why?  Because nearly everyone left in the game is an idiot.

Michael resorted to lying about having an idol and promising Kellyn that he was going to use it on himself.  Instead of demanding to see the idol, Kellyn believed what Michael said and immediately freaked out.  She decided that, since Michael was going to be using his idol, she needed to cast not only her tribal vote for Laurel but her extra vote as well.  Laurel, meanwhile, also freaked out and decided that she had to vote for Kellyn.

And again, no one actually bothered to demand proof that Michael actually had an idol.  Everyone except for Dom took Michael at his word.

At tribal, Dom and Wendell both voted for Michael.  Laurel voted for Kellyn.  Kellyn voted twice for Laurel.  And Michael voted for Wendell.  This led to revote, in which Michael and Laurel could not vote.  This time Kellyn, Dom, and Wendell all voted for Michael and he was sent to the jury.  Still, even though Michael’s ploy ultimately failed, it did reveal that Kellyn and Laurel are both willing to sell each other and it also eliminated Kellyn’s extra vote advantage.

For those keeping track, there are now only two advantages currently in the game.  Dom has an idol and Wendell has an idol.

As for next week, it looks like Kellyn’s paranoia might get the best of her.  We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

Survivor 36.9 “It’s Like The Perfect Crime”

Hi y’all!

Well, in the latest episode of Survivor, things certainly didn’t go well for Desi.  After spending most of the season flying under the radar and keeping out of everyone’s way, Desi finally showed some initiative and was promptly sent to the jury.

Give Desi some credit, though.  At the start of the episode, Desi took one look at her alliance, realized that she was on the bottom of the old Naviti Tribe, and immediately told the four remaining Malolo tribe members that she was willing to betray her alliance and vote out Kellyn.  Everything that Desi said was correct and now would have been the perfect time to blindside Kellyn.

When it comes to Kellyn, you have to consider the following:

  1. Kellyn does well enough in challenges that she’s usually a legitimate threat to win immunity.  When you have a player like that, you have to get them out of the game as soon as the opportunity presents itself.  Who knows when you’ll get another chance?
  2. Kellyn has a strong alliance with Dom and Wendell.  Since Dom, Kellyn, and Wendell are pretty much in charge of the Naviti alliance, the only way to get rid of Kellyn would be via a blindside.
  3. Kellyn has a compelling personal story, which she could use to her advantage if she makes it to the final three.  Add to that, since Kellyn has pretty much let Dom and Wendell do all of the public scheming, a bitter jury might vote for her as the lesser of three evils.
  4. Finally, Kellyn is one of the most annoying people to ever appear on Survivor.  (If I have to hear her say “Naviti Strong” one more time…)  As a viewer, I always love seeing a smug player get blindsided.

Unfortunately, for Desi, she obviously didn’t know that Laurel thinks that she has a strong side alliance going with Dom and Wendell.  So, of course, Laurel ran off and told Dom what Desi was talking about doing.

Dom told Kellyn that Desi was talking about blindsiding her.  Kellyn announced that this couldn’t be true because how could anyone possibly want to vote for her out?  Or as Kellyn put it, “I was having the best day of my life and it was ruined!”  Kellyn went on to say that there was no way that Chelsea and Desi would ever turn on her and that this was all a scheme to keep Michael from getting voted out.

“I WILL NOT ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN!” Kellyn announced.

(Oh shut up, Kellyn…)

As for Michael, he was smart enough to realize that, regardless of Desi’s scheme, he still wasn’t guaranteed any sort of safety.  So, he went hunting for an idol.  Unfortunately, for him, Donathan came with him and found the idol first.  (It was the old two-piece super idol.  One piece was in the jungle and the other was hidden back at camp.  It’s no longer a super idol, however.  It’s just a regular idol.  IT’S CURSED!)  So now, Donathan has an idol.  Donathan was pretty unclear on whether or not he would ever be willing to let Michael use his idol.

This week, immunity was won by Chelsea.  Jeff mentioned that the last three immunity challenges have been won by women so yay!  Girl Power!  That said, it would have been more exciting if immunity had been won by someone who actually needed it but that’s Survivor for you.  Sometimes, immunity is won by an innocent bystander.

(Both Dom and Kellyn threw little hissy fits when they lost immunity, which was not a good look for either of them.)

Anyway, back at camp, Desi found out that Laurel had told Dom about her plan.  Already in trouble, Desi doomed herself by freaking out and trying to deny all of her scheming.  No one believed Desi when she claimed that Laurel was lying and it wasn’t really a shock when Desi was voted out at tribal council.  In the end, Michael received two vote, from Desi and Chelsea.  Everyone else voted for Desi and sent her to the jury.

For those trying to keep track of who has which advantage:

Wendell has an idol.

Dom has an idol.

Kellyn has an extra vote.

And, joining the advantage club, Donathan now has an idol!

And that’s it for this week,

Lisa Marie

P.S. Earlier this week, I was interviewed about movies, writing, and a lot of other things.  You can find that interview by clicking here!

Desi a.k.a. Juror #3

Survivor 36.8 “The Sea Slug Slugger”

Here’s a few lessons from this week’s episode of Survivor:

First off, Survivor really, really, really loves the gross food challenge.  Ever since the very first season, there has always been at least one challenge designed to force the castaways to eat something disgusting.  Myself, I always hate these challenges because it always seems like someone ends up either spitting up or freaking out.  This week, Wendell refused to even compete.  As soon as he saw those two fish eyes staring up at him, he pushed them away and gave up any chance to win immunity.  In the end, the challenge came down to Michael vs. Angela.  Angela won immunity rather easily.

Lesson #2: the show has apparently never figured out what to do with Ghost Island.  This time, it was Jenna who drew the white rock and had to go to Ghost Island.  On the way to the island, Jenna told us that she was excited to finally get a chance to visit the island and see what it was all about.  Of course, as soon as she arrived, she got the “Sorry!  No game for you!” message.  Ghost Island is a fun idea but it hasn’t really been as much of a game changer as it was originally sold as being.

Third, Laurel is being underestimated.  Not only did she prove herself to be a beast in the reward challenge but she was also astute enough to know that she’s at the bottom of her alliance with Wendell and Dom.  Wendell thought he would win Laurel’s loyalty by telling her about his immunity idol but, instead, Laurel was annoyed that Wendell waited so long to let her in on his secret.

Fourth, the old Malolo tribe is dead.  Going into tribal council, Michael pointed out that, if the remaining members of the Malolo Tribe stuck together, they could potentially pick off another member of the old Naviti Tribe.  Michael was correct in assuming that the former members of the Naviti Tribe would split their votes between him and Libby.  Michael’s plan was for all of the Malolo Trib members to vote for Wendell.

Instead, at tribal, only Michael voted for Wendell.  Chelsea, Des, Kellyn, and Laurel voted for Libby.  The seven remaining votes were all cast for Michael.  However, Michael played his idol and, as a result, Libby was sent to the jury by a vote of 4-1.

Now that Michael has played his idol, there are now only three advantages currently in play:

  1. Dom has an idol.
  2. Wendell has an idol.
  3. Kellyn has an extra vote.

Next week, if Michael doesn’t find another idol or win immunity, he better find his way into a new alliance or his time in the game may be over.

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

Juror Number #2, Libby


Survivor 36.7 “Fear Keeps You Sharp”

Hi y’all!

Last night on Survivor, we finally reached the merge!  The three tribes have now become one big tribe.  (The new tribe name is LaVida.)  For the most part, Survivor usually gets a lot more interesting after the merge.  With everyone now playing an individual game, it becomes a lot easier to get a feel for who all of these people are.  Up to this point, with the exception of Chris and Domenick, the majority of the castaways have been ciphers.  Now, in theory, we’ll get to see what they’re really made of.

I can’t say that I’m particularly surprised that, post merge, Chris was the first person to be voted off the island.  Chris was a strong enough physical player that no one wanted to vote him out during the early days of the game but, at the same time, he also wasn’t a particularly smart player.  His social game sucked and he had a tendency to talk down to people.  He was the type of player who was always giving people orders and, with a few exceptions, those are the type of players who rarely survive that long after the merge.

I also can’t say that I was surprised to see Chris go home with an immunity idol in his pocket.  To be honest, as soon as Chris arrived at Ghost Island, I had a feeling that he was destined to waste whatever advantage he received.  That said, I did like the way that they handled Ghost Island last night.  Chris sneaking off in the dead of night was exciting and I hope this will be the way that the show will continue to handle Ghost Island for the rest of the season.  I can’t wait for someone to get caught trying to sneak away.

Chris’s exit also brought his feud with Domenick and Wendell to an end.  (After tonight’s episode, I’m really growing to like Wendell.)  Domenick was happy to see his rival vanquished but I think it might actually backfire on him.  Domenick not only wasted his legacy advantage but he also revealed that he has an idol.  Judging for the previews for next week’s episode, it appears that the rest of the tribe is going to realize that Domenick has way too many advantages to be left in the game.  As long as Chris was around, there was always a bigger target than Domenick in the game.  Now that Chris is gone, Domenick would appear to be the most obvious target left in the game.

(For the record, Libby should also be careful.  With almost everyone united in their desire to vote out out Chris, Libby still received two votes, from Angela and Desiree.  Libby has a target on her back and, unlike Domenick, she doesn’t have an immunity idol or any other advantages to fall back on.)

Speaking of advantages, I have to admit that I’m having a hard time keeping track of who has what.  Domenick may have played his legacy advantage but he does still have an idol (a real one, to go along with the fake one that he took out during last night’s tribal council).  Wendell has an idol, too.  And so does Michael.  And Kellyn has an extra vote, which she can cast at a future tribal council.  Is that all of them?  It’s hard to remember.

Anyway, Chris is now out of the game and a member of the jury.  The question for next week is how is this going to change the game and will Domenick be able to survive now that his biggest rival has been voted out of the game?

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

Chris Noble, aka Juror #1

Survivor 36.6 “Gotta Risk It For The Biscuit”

Hi y’all!

Next week, the three tribes are finally going to merge into one big tribe!  The merge is the moment that I spend every season waiting for because that’s when the game really starts.  Old alliances are challenged.  New alliances are formed.  No longer can players just coast along by voting with the majority.  It’s only after the merge that we truly start to really get to know the survivors.  So far, Ghost Island has been a rather uneven season but, come next week, the entire game will reboot.

One player who will not get a chance to reboot his game will be Bradley, who was voted out at the end of last night’s episode.  After performing an exorcism by burning their team’s flag, Malolo finally won immunity and, for the first time in a long time, Naviti was sent to tribal council.  Bradley was under the impression that either Libby or Donathan would be voted out.  Instead, Domenick and Chelsea joined with Donathan and Libby to blind-side Bradley and send him out of the game.

There really wasn’t any great strategic logic behind voting out Bradley.  In fact, when the merge happens next week, Dom and Chelsea might regret their decision when they have to explain to the other Navitis why they voted out a member of their alliance.  The logical choice would have been to vote out Libby.

If Bradley had been just a little less obnoxious, he probably would have survived Tribal Council.  Instead, he talked down the other members of his tribe.  He tried to give too many orders, which is always a mistake when you’re dealing with someone like Domenick.  Bradley had one of the worst social games that I’ve ever seen and that was what ultimately did him in.  To be honest, I was willing to give Bradley the benefit of the doubt and assume that maybe it was just the stress of being on Survivor that was making him so annoying.  But, last night, Bradley explained that he’s apparently always obnoxious and impatient.  His personality doomed his game from the start.

So, who is left to go into the merge next week?  Here they are:

Originak Naviti Members

  1. Domenick
  2. Desiree
  3. Kellyn
  4. Wendell
  5. Chris
  6. Sebastian
  7. Angela
  8. Chelsea

Original Malolo Members

  1. Jenna
  2. Donathan
  3. Laurel
  4. Michael

It would appear that the original Naviti have got an unbeatable numerical advantage.  If they stick together, it should only take four tribal councils to get rid of all the former Malolo members.  However, I doubt that will happen because Chris and Domenick hate each other and, if the Malolo players are smart, they can use that to their advantage.

As for hidden advantages, here’s how things currently break down:

Domenick has both an immunity idol and the legacy advantage.

As of tonight, both Michael and Wendell have immunity idols.

Finally, as a result of going to Ghost Island, Kellyn won the right to vote twice in a future tribal council.

Will the advantages help or will they remain cursed?

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

Bye Bye, Bradley


Survivor 36.5 “Fate is The Homie”

Hi y’all!

So, I guess the old saying is true.  The more things change, the more they remain the same.

The latest episode of Survivor opened with Jeff once again telling the castaways to drop their buffs and to do a redraw.  This time, they were divided up into three separate tribes — Naviti, Malolo, and Yanuya.  While the Domenick and Chris feud was finally brought to a temporary end when they ended up on different tribes, that was about the only thing that changed.  On all three tribes, there were three original Navitis and 2 original Malolos.  That pretty much guaranteed, from the start, that — regardless of who won the immunity challenge — it would be a member of the original Malolo Tribe going home.

As well, no one was sent to Ghost Island this episode, which seems like a missed opportunity to me.  What’s the point of having Ghost Island if you’re not going to use it?

Anyway, here’s the latest tribal breakdown:

The New Malolo Tribe

  1. James (Original Malolo)
  2. Michael (Original Malolo)
  3. Desiree (Original Naviti)
  4. Kellyn (Original Naviti)
  5. Angela (Original Naviti)

The New Naviti Tribe:

  1. Domenick (Original Naviti)
  2. Bradley (Original Naviti)
  3. Chelsea (Original Naviti)
  4. Donathan (Original Malolo)
  5. Libby (Original Malolo)

The Yanuya Tribe

  1. Jenna (Original Malolo)
  2. Laurel (Original Malolo)
  3. Wendell (Original Naviti)
  4. Chris (Original Naviti)
  5. Sebastian (Original Naviti)

The immunity challenge was one of those challenges where 4 tribe members were blindfolded and had to solve a puzzle by listening to the directions being shouted at them by the remaining unblindfolded tribemate.  This is the type of immunity challenge that always stresses me out, largely because I know that I’d be terrible at it.  I have a hard time following directions and I’m not really patient enough to be the one shouting out instructions.

Anyway, Malolo once again lost immunity and went to tribal council.  At tribal, Jeff announced that Malolo had one of the worst win/loss records in Survivor history but that’s really not quite fair.  With all of the tribal reshuffles, it’s not like anyone’s really had a chance to learn how to work together.  Add to that, the makeup of the Malolo Tribe has been changed a total of three times now.

Though the crafty Survivor editors did their best to try to convince us that Angela might end up getting voted out, it was actually pretty obvious that the original Naviti members would get rid of one of the two Malolo members.  In the end, James was targeted because no one felt close to him.  I felt bad for James, as I always do whenever anyone is voted out because they didn’t fit in socially.  Unfortunately, some people are just better at talking to people than others.  If you’re naturally shy, Survivor can be a difficult game.  Personally, I thought James had the potential to be an interesting player so I’m sorry to see him go.

What will happen next week?  Hopefully something surprising!  So far, this season has been a bit too predictable.  As of right now, it just looks like it’ll be the former Naviti members picking off the Malolos until the merge.

We’ll see what happens!

Lisa Marie

Best of luck, James!