SURVIVOR 41 (Episode 8)

After a brief hiatus from the blog, I'm BACK by popular demand and ready to dish the dirt on Survivor 41. We had a pretty packed episode filled with social risks and questionable (Heather WTF was that!? BIIIIG YIKES!) gameplay...so let's jump right into it!

• VIAKANA?? Are we just skipping over this?? When did this happen? Did I miss something?

• YASE is DUNZO. And to me this didn't really make sense. Although Evvie got called out as a snake during tribal, and Xander saw her true colors, it seemed like the trio of Evvie, Xander and Tiffany could be endgame, haaaaaad they looked for and found the cracks and picked up all the bottoms from the majority to join their side (I'm looking at you: Naseer, Heather and Erika). Instead they all just blew up their own games and are now "free agents" ...cool! Survivor-drop-the-four-keep-the-one!!

• Did anyone else feel like Jeff Probst is dumbing down the game for us a little this season? Why did we need a 3 minute explanation on how he was hiding an advantage on the sit out bench? They were able to tell the Mikayla/Sarah advantage without explanation....

• Of course the wolf in lamb's clothing (Erika) draws the bum rock and won't be able to participate... but wait!!! Xander wants to switch things up! He volunteers to sit out to give Erika a chance!! I like the strategy behind Xander wanting to spend time with the losing tribe - especially since these people have NOT BEEN FED!!! He's on the bottom and it is a clever way to possibly work his way into some sort of alliance...but it was just so flashy and... well, DeShawn ain't buying it:

• Because of this grandiose "secret advantage" pitch Jeff gave ahead of the challenge, I could not even tell you what happened here with these two tribes. My focus was exclusively on Xander. (I've watched the episode now three times and still find myself struggling to focus on the challenge itself).

• Danny, DeShawn, Erika, Evvie and Ricard win grilled cheeses thanks to Evvie memorizing the "bead" pyramid puzzle from Edge of Extinction. Now, if **iiiii** were cast on the show, I know I'd struggle with trying to keep my fan-girl down. But Evvie had no chill bragging about that puzzle. Dumb move, girl! That's putting a target on your back!!!

• Xander also did not look hard enough for that advantage....

• Shan is seriously The Godfather this season. What she says, goes, and people tend to follow it. It's kinda amazing how she's been able to skate out of the spotlight, yet still have control over the game. She wants Evvie gone, and starts the campaign to knock her out.

• Naseer finding papayas! What a guy!! But how do we all feel about the winning tribe eating papayas after winning a grilled cheese? Was Shan justified in snapping at Ricard? Or was Ricard right about what's on the island is for everyone to share? I waaaant to say I'm leaning more towards team Ricard in this scenario, I just don't think he went about trying a piece of the papaya in the correct way.

• IMMUNITY CHALLENGE! Here we go! And it's one of my all-time favorites because someone unexpected usually wins this! But wait, Jeff temps the contestants to barter with him for rice. If people sit out of the challenge, they can earn enough rice for the next few days for the tribe. After a dramatic back and forth, surprisingly Naseer, Ricard, Shantel and Xander all sit out.

• I take that back, this challenge is LAME when they are not FED properly!!! This challenge was "won" in (drop the)FOUR MINUTES! And what a shame - Evvie had the challenge beast episode - but how great would it have been if Heather won this?? SHE was the someone unexpected I was hoping for!!

• "Ms. Ma'am" Shan needs to not be so bossy because it's starting to rub people the wrong way.. there are definitely cracks starting to form in this Danny/DeShawn/Liana/Shan alliance.

• The vote flips around a lot is it Xander? Is it Naseer? Is it Heather? The only name that seemed to be consistently thrown around however, was Tiffany, and no last minute live tribal "orchestrated" (can we even say that??) by Heather could save her (again, BIG yikes).

• But all is well! Tiffany is going to make the best juror ever and give Eliza Orlins a run for her money with facial reactions from the other side!

ONTO THE LEAGUE:

To no one's surprise, this week's top points earner was Evvie - after winning BIG, both group reward and individual immunity (28 points). And although he didn't win anything this week, Xander played a big game, sitting out/risking his safety in the game and naming the episode (23 points)! Both players are also the biggest point earners all season (Xander earning his tribes a total of 98 points so far this season and Evvie earning her tribes a total of 90 points so far this season).

Since we're halfway through this season (I seriously can't believe it!) I figured we'd dive a little deeper into the current standings. Our top leaderboard is filled with players who seemed to draft heavy Luvu or have had the deadly Evvie/Xander combo! There are also 4 out of the top 10 tribes who have Tiffany drafted, so it will be interesting to see how this leaderboard shakes up next week!

And for the first time all season, Petra is not in last place! (That new distinction goes to last year's fantasy league winner, Casey).

1st	CHRISTIE (386 points)	Evvie, Heather, Liana, Naseer, Xander
2nd	MATT R. (371 points)	Heather, Liana, Shantel, Xander
3rd	BRENDAN (370 points)	Danny, DeShawn, Erika, Xander
4th TIE	AMY (361 points)	DeShawn, Evvie, Liana, Naseer, Tiffany(x)
4th TIE	AMANDA (361 points)	DeShawn, Evvie, Ricard, Xander
6th	ANDREW (356 points)	DeShawn, Evvie, Ricard, Tiffany(x)
7th	RACHAEL (341 points)	Evvie, Naseer, Tiffany(x), Xander
8th	ANGELA (331 points)	Liana, Shantel, Xander
9th	MAGGIE S. (327 points)	Danny, Erika, Ricard, Shantel
10th	PAUL (322 points)	Erika, Evvie, Ricard, Xander

11. HANNA (311 points)

12. BRIAN (306 points)

13. PETER L. (305 points)

14. BRI (297 points)

15. VICKY (294 points)

16. KATH (293 points)

17. LIV (285 points)

18. MEL (284 points)

19. GRACIE (282 points)

20. JOYCE (281 points)

21. ROBERT (277 points)

22. PETER B. (269 points)

23T. ALLIE / MATT S. (268 points)

25T. CHRISTINA / DAWN / MAGGIE L. (258 points)

28. ROBBIE (248 points)

29. JIM (242 points)

30. ADAM (241 points)

31. LORI (225 points)

32. TORI (197 points)

33. JILL (192 points)

34. PETRA (178 points)

35. CASEY (176 points)

Full points sheet:

See you Wednesday!

Your tribemasters,

Liv + Brian