More Whatnot

Last Wednesday: Alicia finally figured out that Kim was the one playing both sides of Tikiano. She utilized her most unlikely ally, Tarzan, to send Kim packing from the game with an idol in her pocket. How embarrassing.

Just kidding…

Kim convinced Alicia that Tarzan was trying to play her and they both sent him swinging from the game.

39 Days, 18 People, 1 “Survivor” Blog

Let’s take a look at the finalists…

The Tikiano Tribe (wearing black)
Alicia –  25, Special Ed Teacher
Chelsea – 26, Medical Sales
Christina – 29, Career Consultant
Kim – 29, Bridal Shop Owner
Sabrina – 33, High School Teacher

Watch Full Episodes of “Survivor: One World”

Quick Aside: If Kim pulls this off, she’s got to be considered the most dominant female in “Survivor” history, right?

The evening’s fun kicks off after Tribal Council, the Tikianians are proud of how the women have been able to finally eliminate all of the guys. I’ve never really understood that thinking. “Survivor” is an individual game. I wouldn’t care if I got to the end with a panda bear and a salt shaker. (Yeah, that’s random.)

Alicia, however, isn’t crazy about having to vote out her buddy Tarzan. I’m betting she’s going to be less crazy about it the next two Tribal Councils when she joins him.

The next day while gathering tree mail, Kim and Sabrina discuss who to boot next. They’d like to see Alicia go, but Kim is worried that Chelsea will receive a lot of jury votes. This caught Sabrina off guard. She worries that she might be in trouble if Chelsea wins immunity.

Immunity Challenge #1: Wow…this is an impressive structure. The players have to untie knots to open a gate. They’ll then race across a balance beam maze. Once they’re finished they’ll bounce across a rope net and untie bags of puzzle pieces. They’ll use those pieces to complete a puzzle. The completed puzzle will give clues to a combination lock. First person to open the combination lock wins immunity and a one-in-four shot at a million bucks.

It’s hard to tell who’s in the lead initially, as they all plow through the gate quickly and are wandering around the maze. Alicia and Chelsea are the first ones through with Sabrina right behind them. Alicia and Sabrina accidentally untie the wrong colored bags, giving other players an advantage. Chelsea is the first one with all of her bags, but the others are right behind her.

Kim completes the puzzle first, Alicia is right behind her. Kim goes to the lock, but her answers are incorrect. Alicia can’t figure it out either.

Kim heads down to double-check her puzzle. She still isn’t having luck. Chelsea’s taking a shot too, but can’t get it.

Finally, Kim manages to release the lock and win immunity.

I’m thinking if Kim was serious about getting rid of Chelsea, it would have made more sense to throw that challenge so Chelsea wouldn’t try to get her to hand over the idol.

Back at camp, Chelsea makes her pitch to Kim, saying that she thinks Kim is the strongest player in the game and they’ve had each others backs since day one.

Kim later admits that she wishes Chelsea didn’t know she had the hidden idol, because now Chelsea expects her to play it for her. Ooo…I was right about something for once.

Meanwhile, Alicia is confident that Kim is still on her side. She thinks it’d be foolish for Kim to want to sit next to Chelsea and Sabrina at the end. Well, she does have a point.

That night at Tribal Council, Alicia and Chelsea were shocked with the lack of scrambling after the immunity challenge.

Kim admits that it’s difficult to play the game because she enjoys all of the women in the final five.

Kim thinks loyalty is very important. Kat didn’t seem to like that comment.

Jeff gives everyone a chance to say one more thing to Kim before the vote. Alicia thinks she’s fine because she’s been with Kim from day one. Sabrina has nothing to say. Christina is confident in her vote. Chelsea thinks Kim will gain respect from the jury by sticking to her guns.

Voting Time: Chelsea votes for Alicia, Alicia votes for Chelsea, and the rest of the votes are…well…you know…

J-Pro gets his tally on and returns. He asks if anyone would like to play an idol…and nobody does.  Ooo…

We’ve got one vote for Chelsea, one vote for Alicia, one vote for Chelsea, one vote for Alicia, and the fourteenth person to leave “Survivor: One World” is…Alicia.

Fun Fact: For the second Tribal in a row, Kat has predicted who’s going home. She’s been wrong twice.

Back at camp, Kim apologizes to Christina to lying for her. To Christina’s credit, she appreciates that it’s a game and that it was a good play. Her next step is to play the I-can’t-possibly-win-this-game card. Although, if I were a jury member it would be worth it to vote for Christina just to see Colton’s reaction.

Tree mail arrives the next day and it looks like we’re getting a Fallen Comrades ceremony! Take that, Redemption Island!

Kourtney is remembered as a trooper and the sweetest girl. Also, she’s very fragile.

Nina was fierce and built the shelter.

Sabrina remembers Matt as being pretty fine. Well, we’re not debating that.

Chelsea remembers Bill as quite a character.

Sabrina aspires to be more like Monica.

Chelsea thinks the game would have gone much differently if Colton had stayed in the game. That’s an understatement.

Sabrina remembers Jonas as a sweet guy. Chelsea thinks he made the best food in the history of “Survivor.”

Ha! They don’t say anything about Michael. Poor Michael…

Chelsea admires Jay’s outlook in life.

Leif is small in stature with a giant heart. Couldn’t resist, could they?

Kim considers Troyzan to be the biggest strategic threat in the game. She might’ve misspoke, she probably meant the “only” strategic threat in the game.

Kat has a ton of heart and determination.

Kim thinks Tarzan grew on all of them. Well, his microbes surely did.

Alicia is their Puerto Rican mommy.

So wait…nobody was a “competitor”?! Have we forgotten how Fallen Comrades is supposed to work?!

Immunity Challenge #2: The players will use a pole to guide a bowl through a wire structure. Once the bowl is through, they’ll place the bowl on the top of the structure and start again with a new bowl. To make it more difficult, the structure is placed on a spring, so if you hit the structure it will wobble. The first person to stack ten bowls on top of the structure wins immunity and a spot at the final Tribal Council.

This challenge is very cool and totally different than what we’re used to. Well done.

Kim and Christina are in the lead early on. Chelsea is behind a bit and Sabrina is way out of it.

Christina and Kim are tied at eight bowls apiece when the wind starts a-blowin’. All of the structures are a-rocking.

However, Kim managed to pull ahead and win immunity yet again. The only thing that can stop her now are some bitter jurors.

Back at camp, Christina tells Kim that she’d rather not have it be a blindside. Kim fesses up and tells Christina that her number is up. I think that’s very smart. There’s no reason to lie at this point.

Christina doesn’t put up much of a fight, which on one hand I understand, but she does have an excellent point to argue in that she is not a jury threat.

That night at Tribal Council, Sabrina tells Jeff that everyone knows that Christina is the next person to go home.

Jeff is a bit disgusted that Christina didn’t scramble.

Sabrina doesn’t think Christina is there to play the game if she’s not trying her best to stay around.

Jeff makes the argument that unlikely people have won the game before.

Christina thinks breaking up an alliance that’s been together since day one wouldn’t have been possible.

Kim says that she would have done everything she could to stay around. She also thinks Christina could have made a few different arguments, but didn’t make any.

Voting Time: Christina votes for Sabrina, Sabrina votes for Christina, and I’m pretty sure everyone else voted for Christina too, but they’re going to make me wait.

Probsty does some solid tallying then returns. One vote for Sabrina, two votes for Christina, and the fifteenth person to leave “Survivor: One World” and the final member of the jury is…Christina.

The next morning, Sabrina breaks down a little as she never expected to make it this far in the game. Really? She seemed like one of the smartest people from the very beginning.

Later on, the Day 39 brunch shows up at tree mail. For those of you playing “Survivor” bingo at home, it seems like mimosas were on the menu.

Kim lets us know that she recently got out of a rough divorce and being a part of the game has helped her get her confidence back. A bridal shop owner going through a divorce? That had to make checking into work every morning kind of tough.

That night at Tribal Council, Chelsea decides to stand up for her opening statement. She claims that you can go very far in the game if you have someone you can trust, and Kim has been that person for her. Heh…a lot of people on the jury thought she was the one person they could trust.

Chelsea also claims to have checked herself out of the game emotionally so she could vote out people she liked. She’s worried that this may have cost her some jury votes as she isn’t as connected with the jurors as Kim.

Kim remains seated. She thinks the game was going to be like poker and you do whatever you can to get to the end. She didn’t expect voting people out of the game to take the toll on her that it did. However, she did it for her family and she hopes that everyone can forgive her and see it as a game.

Then, she does the one thing that I’ve been saying people should do for years when she says that she wouldn’t take back what she’s done. Jurors want you to admit when you lie, but that don’t buy it when you say you’re sorry for it.

Finally, Sabrina (also sitting) claims that her strategy was to have balance. She knew if she was too aggressive that people would put a target on her back. She also claimed to not try her hardest in immunity challenges because she knew that’d make her a threat.

Then, she drops a bomb and tells the jury that she was just laid off. Ooo…

I’m a big believer that what happens outside of the game, shouldn’t matter. But, that might’ve won her some votes that were on the fence.

Now, it’s the jury’s turn…

Jonas bats leadoff, he starts off pretending to be serious, but can’t keep it up. He says he loves Sabrina, but thinks she sucked in the challenges. Jonas thinks Chelsea is the hottest woman on the season (no argument there) but he wants to know what her biggest move was. She admits that it was her idea to take Kat out of the game.

Finally, he gives Kim grief for not taking Christina to the end.

Christina goes next. She wants to know who Kim would’ve kept if she had to choose between Chelsea and Sabrina. Kim thinks she has a better shot of winning against Sabrina.

Then, she asks Chelsea why she hates people. Ouch. Chelsea claims not to hate people, but that she was playing with her head instead of her heart.

Jay steps up next. He calls Sabrina out for taking it easy in the challenges. He also thinks that she took it easy around camp too. Sabrina thinks that it was important for her to step back. Also, she’d just learned to swim, so deep sea fishing wasn’t going to be an option for her.

Mike bats cleanup. He wants Kim to explain what a blindside is. She says it’s sending someone home who thinks they’re safe. She then explains that Michael was the only man Troyzan would send home over one of the women. Michael thinks that Kim took the blame for all of the blindsides. The question is, was that a smart move?

Tarzan goes next and thanks God for giving him such a wonderful adventure. Then he thanks the women for keeping him and allowing his wife to visit Samoa.

Before he can sit back down, Chelsea tells Tarzan that his romance has opened her eyes as to what love can truly be. Aww…

Leif has to follow that tough act. He wants to know how voting him out went down. Kim admits that she wasn’t sure if they could trust him. Sabrina says that Kim was the one calling the shots at that point and she “punked out.”

Kim is doing a fantastic job.

Alicia goes next. She realizes that she had her pawns and Kim had her pawns. She’s flattered because she didn’t’ realize she could be such a threat.

Troyzan congratulates the final three and claims not to hate their guts. He thinks that Kim played a great game, but he wants to know when Kim made the move to take him out. She thinks it was when they took Jonas out of the game.

Kat (and her eye makeup) gets to go last. She tells everyone that she had two heart surgeries when she was a kid, and if she ever wants to have children that she’ll have to have another surgery in the future. She claims that she doesn’t have time to be angry with them, she forgives them, and she’s going to vote based on who played the best game.

Voting Time: Troyzan votes for Sabrina, Kat votes for Kim, and the rest of the votes aren’t shown.

So…an eight-to-one Kim win?

J-Pro snags the votes and heads off to New York City. And…Mayim Bialik is in the audience! Random…

OK, one vote for Kim, one vote for Sabrina, one vote for Kim, one vote for Sabrina, two votes for Kim, and the winner of “Survivor: One World” is Kim!

Close, a seven-to-two Kim win.

Verdict: Well, at least this weak season had the right winner.

I really do like the “One World” twist. I hope how things turned out this season didn’t sour the producers on the concept.

Power Rankings Update: This season’s Power Rankings champion Dawn Meehan did a special finale rankings as an encore and she nailed it. She had all five of the women in the right spots. It’s probably safe to say that she is the most dominant Power Rankings player since the game’s inception during “Survivor: Tocantins.”

Any Questions? Drop me a line on Twitter: @gordonholmes

In honor of “Survivor: One World’s” men vs. women theme, XFINITY TV’s “Survivor” guy Gordon Holmes captained a team of “Survivor: South Pacific” guys against a team of “Survivor: South Pacific” gals.

In an odd twist, the Power Rankings imitated life and the women’s team ran away with the game. In fact, the men were mathematically eliminated with three weeks still left to go.

So, the executive “Survivor” Power Rankings committee decided that the Power Rankings should continue to imitate “Survivor,” and the women were forced to compete against each other until one sole Survivor was left standing…er…ranking.

That sole Survivor, with a perfect record of four wins and no losses, was Dawn Meehan.

Set Your DVR to Record “Survivor: One World”

However, in one of the most controversial moments in Power Rankings history, the men pulled some strings and were allowed to randomly pull names from a “Survivor” Hall of Fame coffee mug on behalf of the women’s team. It was one of the few victories the men were able to achieve.

In an effort to right this wrong, the executive committee has offered the new champion the opportunity to ultimately defeat the coffee mug with one final rankings showdown.

We had a chance to speak with Dawn before the rankings took place…

Gordon Holmes: First of all, congratulations. How does it feel to be a Power Rankings champion along with such legendary names as Charlie Herschel, Tamara “Taj” George, Matthew “Sash” Lenahan” and Gordon “The Hurricane” Holmes”?
Dawn Meehan: I’m honored to be a Power Rankings Champion (great company). I can hardly wait for the annual luncheon!
Holmes: As you should be, it’s very luxurious. Now, you’ve had some harsh things to say about the “Survivor” Hall of Fame coffee mug in the past. Is it nice to finally get a chance to put it in its place?
Meehan: As for my attitude towards the mug … I’m not usually one to curse, but that hunk of ceramic makes me wanna swear like a sailor. What the $#%^ is up with that mug? I just hope the “Survivor” Gods are with me come Sunday night and I can put that guy back in his place (the cupboard).

The Rules: The two combatants will rank the players based on how they think they will finish the game.  (Well, Dawn will rank them, the coffee mug will just have names drawn at random.) Each correct placement is worth one point. The person with the most points will win.

Note: There is no weighting for the two finalists who don’t win. They are considered tied no matter how many jury votes they receive.

Got any advice for Dawn? Drop her a line on Twitter.	The ‘Survivor’ Hall of Fame mug still doesn’t have a Twitter account.
1. Kim’s in A League of Her Own this season. There’s no doubt in my mind: she’s taking home the million dollars. (And girl, you’ve earned it.)
Other Finalists: I love both Chelsea and Sabrina–and I think some members of the jury do, too. I just don’t think either one of them will earn enough votes to beat Kim.
4. I think Christina’s had an unbelievable run … but I don’t think she’s going to make Final 3. (She should be proud though—she definitely OUTLASTED her competition. Wow!)
5. Unless Alicia can win immunity, she’s definitely next to leave the game. Last week’s reward challenge confirmed it: Kim, Chelsea, and Sabrina are locked as a Final 3.

Last Week: Tarzan’s hopes to spend time with his wife were ignored, the wrong people were chosen to go on reward, and Kat’s elimination from the game left her floored…

39 Days, 18 People, 1 “Survivor” Blog

Let’s see where the tribe currently stands…

The Tikiano Tribe (wearing black)
Alicia –  25, Special Ed Teacher
Chelsea – 26, Medical Sales
Christina – 29, Career Consultant
Kim – 29, Bridal Shop Owner
Sabrina – 33, High School Teacher
Tarzan – 64, Plastic Surgeon

Set Your DVR to Record “Survivor: One World”

Quick Aside: Since Redemption Island is gone, is it possible we could get a fallen comrades ceremony this Sunday? Ah…classic “Survivor.”

The penultimate episode kicks off with a somber Tikiano tribe after Tribal Council. Everybody seems to feel bad about Kat’s blindside.

Tarzan lets us know that he has a plan to get into the final three, but part of that involves getting into the final four first. Mathematically, that is a sound strategy.

Later, Tarzan runs an idea by Kim where he offers to be Kim’s advocate on the jury if she keeps him until the final four. That’s actually very savvy. A lot of people think the Ponderosa set-up has too much of an affect on the jury’s votes.

The end of the discussion results in Kim giving serious thought to getting rid of Chelsea and Sabrina so she can go to the end with Alicia and Christina. Wow…who would’ve ever picked Christina in the final three?

Afterward, Tarzan makes a similar jury-advocate offer to Alicia. I’m not against this plan. If anything, he’s making it interesting.

The next morning, Chelsea offers to take Christina on the reward if she wins. Oh, c’mon. We know how this always turns out…

Chelsea does her best to get Christina to come on board, but, also claims she’s just talking out loud, (which is how most people talk.) She asks Christina to keep their conversation between them.

CUT TO: Christina telling Alicia and Kim what Chelsea just said. This, of course, concerns Kim because she’s been playing both sides.

Reward Challenge: Players will spin around a post to release a disc. They’ll then take the disc to the next station and do it again. Once they have three discs, they’ll use them to create a decoder wheel. First person to use the decoder to get a three-number combination and release their flag wins a lovely evening on a yacht.

Not a ton to describe here except for a lot of spinnin’ and disc retrievin’. This is actually hilarious as the spinning makes them all dizzy. Well done, John Kirhoffer. Should’ve made them drink beers first.

It’s all fairly even until they get to the decoder. Chelsea thinks she has the combination, but comes up short. Others join her, but aren’t able to get it to work either. Eventually, Chelsea figures it out and wins reward.

The part where she doesn’t take Christina on reward is coming in 5…4…3…2…

Probst gives her the opportunity to take someone with her, she chooses Sabrina.

Uh huh…

Probst lets her pick one more person and she goes with Kim.

BAHA! I’m a Survivor psychic! That, or I can decipher basic patterns.

We meet up with Chelsea and her buddies on the yacht. Kim lets Chelsea know that she thinks they can go all the way. Funny, she said something similar to Kat last week. I’m getting déjà vu.

Back at camp, Christina and Alicia are livid over Chelsea’s reward challenge choices. I’m getting déjà vu.

Anywho, Tarzan, Alicia, and Christina agree to vote for Chelsea if she doesn’t win immunity. They’re also going to try to bring Kim on board. If not, Alicia’s OK with pulling rocks. Does she remember that Kim has an idol?

EDIT: I was reminded by @Hugh310 that Chelsea is the only one who knows about Kim’s idol.

The next morning, Tarzan kicks back into bizarre Tarzan mode by being weird about random things. In this case, Alicia doesn’t want him to use his gross buff to filter food. He doesn’t think this is a big deal because they’ve been in the wilderness for over a month and microbes are everywhere.

Once the yachting team returns, Alicia and Kim have a discussion about how Tarzan told both of them that he’ll be their jury advocate. Dah…busted.

Alicia is not pleased that he tried to play a social game on her. She doesn’t approve because she’s the “Queen of the Social Game.” Oh boy…not sure where to even start with that comment.

Immunity Challenge Time: The players will use large fish hooks to grab puzzle pieces. They’ll then use those pieces to (duh) complete a puzzle. And to make things more difficult, they’ll have to do it with one hand behind their back.

Kim and Alicia are both off to a strong start as they complete the beginning section of the puzzle first. Kim finishes the second section first and is building a big lead; Tarzan and Alicia are right behind her. Chelsea’s way in the back.

In the third and final stage, Kim has trouble with her hooks and can’t get her bags. She’s eventually passed by Alicia and Tarzan.

Kim, Alicia, and Tarzan are neck and neck in the end with Alicia finally pulling off the win by a matter of seconds.

Back at camp, there’s an uncomfortable moment where Tarzan calls Alicia a b—- for having the audacity to beat him. He was probably kidding, but it was awkward.

Politicking around camp centers around everyone going after Tarzan. However, Sabrina and Chelsea aren’t convinced that Alicia isn’t still gunning for Chelsea. Chelsea asks Kim to play the idol on her behalf, but Kim is noncommittal. (Or nonkimmittal)

In fact, Kim lets us know that if the others aren’t voting for Tarzan, that she’d rather get rid of Chelsea and use her idol to get to the final four. Dun dun dun…

Fun Fact: Everyone seems to think that Kim is super smooth, and everyone blames it on her blue eyes.

Before they head off to Tribal, Tarzan decides to wear someone’s panties as if it’s a headband. This grosses the women out. Oh jeez, they’re only microbes.

That night at Tribal Council, Tarzan thinks he’s still in the game because he helped the ladies get rid of the guys.

Sabrina thinks that the male jurors may want to give the million to a man.

Tarzan thinks he’s misunderstood and that he knows more about microbes than anyone. Also, apparently those were Kat’s panties that he was wearing on his head. Kat, as you’d imagine, was not amused. I’m assuming that’s one less jury vote for Tarzan…

Alicia thinks it wasn’t fair for Chelsea to take Kim on the reward as she’s been on like every reward ever.

Christina was frustrated that she wasn’t chosen for the reward.

Chelsea is OK with not taking Christina because she thinks Christina broke her word to her.

Voting Time: Tarzan votes for Chelsea, Chelsea votes for Tarzan, and the rest of the votes are super secret.

J-Pro tallies and returns…we’ve got one vote for Chelsea, three votes for Tarzan, and the thirteenth person to leave “Survivor: One World” is…Tarzan.

As Tarzan is leaving, he gives a very polite farewell. Michael responds by giving him the middle finger. Well, that seemed unnecessary.

Verdict: Kim deserves points for convincing Alicia that Tarzan is a threat.  Other than that…um…well…huh…

Who’s Going to Win: It certainly seems like Sunday will result in a Spradlin family celebration. However, in Gabon it was believed that there was a jury alliance made up of Randy, Charlie, Corinne, and Marcus that was going to award the million to whoever they wanted. Is it crazy to think the guys would do something similar? Just to mess with everybody? Probably not, but something to think about.

Power Rankings Update: Dawn Meehan had Tarzan in spot four while Sophie Clarke had him in spot three. Therefore, the winner of the “Survivor: One World” Power Rankings is bread-making maven Dawn Meehan!

Congratulations to Dawn and a huge thanks to Jim Rice, John Cochran, Sophie Clarke, Christine Shields Markoski, Andrea Boehlke, Benjamin “Coach” Wade, and a “Survivor” Hall of Fame coffee mug for participating in this season’s competition.

Any Questions? Drop me a line on Twitter: @gordonholmes