I just finished watching this past week.
The orange team stood no chance once Carson got to that puzzle. WHIZ. Matt didn’t do anything hand him the pieces! Hope being a puzzle whiz doesn’t =his demise.
Josh jist didn’t win any fans it seems on or off the show.
Turns out Carson had built the tree puzzle with a 3D printer and practiced it in advance as part of his training. I read something about the fact that they reuse puzzles. That seems like a bad idea - all puzzles should be new. I kind of feel the same way about reused challenges - but I know they love repeating the ball in the wire thing, and some of the other stamina ones.
Yes, at the end of the show, they showed a home clip of him assembling his home made model. I would bet after this season they won’t be reusing puzzles.
He said he had probably done it 1000 times! That’s dedication!
I mean, how many people are going to go through the trouble of replicating all the puzzles? Sure he did and others have done a puzzle or two…but I think his effort with the 3d puzzles is probably quite over the top.
And while it certainly helps to be fast at the puzzles, the puzzle is only part of the challenge so your team or self has to excel at the rest of the challenge to at least be close to the other team(s) to get to the puzzle and beat someone else at it.
It always comes down to the puzzle. I think we’ll see a lot of new puzzles in the future, due to this new era of players who have the time and resources (say a 3D printer) to replicate puzzles.
Well sure because the puzzle is the last obstacle. But if your team or self is way behind in the preceding obstacles, being especially good at the puzzle might not buy you enough catch up time.
In a team challenge good decisions about who does what also matters. Who leads the ball push method, who climbs the ball to get the key, who unties knots, etc.
Sure they can and probably will change some of the puzzles. But I also think Carson is probably the exception to the rule in how extreme he went to get his puzzle skill.
This is an interesting read. Also shares players who memorized puzzles.
Honestly, Survivor needs to bring Dalton Ross on as a consultant
I wholeheartedly agree!
Matthew said he built one of the challenges in his backyard. I’m sure there are other contestants who practice things like standing on one foot while balancing a bucket of water over their head. Many contestants practice fire building before coming on the show.
Sometimes producers adapt to what incoming contestants have figured out. Russel Hantz was the first to find an idol without a clue. Now they rarely give clues. There used to always be an idol at the merge feast. Now we rarely see them. I imagine those who sit out events and those on rewards are hunting for idols and it isn’t shown to us.
Edit to add: Something that we don’t see anymore is that contestants used to have a luxury item.
Good points on other aspects of the game players come “rehearsed” for.
All that said, I do love Carson and the fact that in part, that puzzle prep is paying off -may kick him in the butt eventually (players seeing him as a threat).
I do like him and see nothing wrong with his studying and trying to master the game. But I do think that production should always be changing the game, because we do have these super fans. I also agree that his puzzle magic could make him a target. My H was saying to the tv “ slow down! It doesn’t need to be that fast!”
What Carson does have, IMO, so far, is the social game to go with his other skills. That’s hard to learn or fake.
Agree that they need new puzzles. Great for Carson, but as someone wrote, the other team had no chance.
I also thought the remaining players on the losing team should have gotten some kind of merge feast along with the merge buffs. Pretty unfair to deprive them of that treat, especially when it was random luck (except for Carson) to be on the winning vs losing team.
I agree with @Leigh22 that this may put a big target on Carson’s back once they are playing for individual immunity. Wouldn’t want to go up against him in a puzzle challenge.
Very emotional tribal tonight - so many tears. I thought when she made the vote go to Yam-Yam that he would be done. But the play on Matt makes total sense, he and Fran are just too attached. You can’t keep a strongly connected duo together, hey had to be broken up.
I’m left with a lot of questions, about rules and strategy and such, after this episode:
Is it normal for players to take their backpacks to immunity challenges? Has this kind of thing happened before (~exiled with no chance to get bag back)?
Since’s Matt’s ~girlfriend (can’t remember her name) won immunity necklace for herself AND excluded her group from tribal vote, could she have handed off immunity necklace to Matt?
On the “Direct a Vote” thing, could it have been used to force someone to cast a vote for themselves?
Did Matt’s girlfriend consider negotiating to get the advantage?
Did the player who HAD the advantage consider giving it up? Seems unproductive - upset Jam Jam without accomplishing goal.
In general, if everyone knew that the 3 from the same tribe were going to cooperate with each other, then using the advantage against Jam Jam or Matt accomplished nothing, as you really need only 2 out of the 3 unified tribe members, plus whoever was targeted by the advantage, to overturn the power of the advantage. Of course, the advantage user may not have known of the unity, but still… The only way it could really be effective is to force one of the unified 3 to vote against another within that group, and hope Matt and Jam Jam follow suit. But THEN, what happens on a 3-3 tie (if the extra vote is used)?
Interesting twists, but it’s not clear what all the surrounding rules are, nor that the various players strategized correctly.
I was thinking along these lines - if she had directed Lauren to vote for herself, although Lauren could have used her second vote on somebody else, then yam-yam and matt know to also vote Lauren and that is three for her. Then she saves Matt and Yam-Yam. I think may be what Frannie was expecting.
The EW wrap-up guy pointed out that had Franny stepped off before the other team all did, she could have saved herself (she had the necklace) and Matt (everybody on his team would have been safe).
Oh that’s a good point that I didn’t think of.
I agree with the above that she could have used the advantage to save both Matt & Jam Jam. Couldn’t she have told Brandon or the other girl to vote for Lauren? Then Yam Yam and Matt also vote for her. Worst case there’s a tie.
I don’t get why they didn’t bring Matt’s bag to tribal. Did his girlfriend know there was an idol in it? Wish they had explained that better.
I expected her to “fall” off, especially after getting down to just 2 players so it would seem a little less like throwing the win. I was really surprised she didn’t.
VERY dramatic episode!! Very emotional tribal council! Sad that Matt got voted off, but didn’t want Yam Yam to go either. I like twists like splitting the tribe up and only letting half vote because then a dominant alliance can’t just roll over everyone.
Even if Frannie had brought his bag, she would not have been allowed to give it to him, according to an interview with Jeff.
Frannie’s team was mostly Soka. At first it seemed like if they had targeted one of the Ratu, they could have gotten that person out with votes from Matt and YamYam. But because Lauren had the extra vote that may not have worked and if it ended with a tie, Matt probably would have gone on the revote.
It was the right move for the winning team and may be good for Frannie in the end since she is no longer in a showmance. Soka now has the numbers.
Does anyone else think it is odd that nobody suspects Caroline of having the birdcage idol?