Simple Souls Speak Survivor

Wil is back and we both learned a bit more than we knew before!!! We both agree this episode was mostly boring, yet there were a couple exciting moments to discuss! Hope you all enjoy!

Wil is subbing for Anna today! It's a new season and we are just trying to get our bearings!!! Help us along our viewing journey :-)

No spoilers in here... but we talk about the whole 3 hour finale... well mostly about the first 2 and a half hours! We hate it, but we love it, but overall it was a good watch!

We have a special guest on the pod: Roommate Shelby! This is wonderful! This episode brings us down to the final 5 contestants and also we only have one more episode left! So exciting!!!

In this weeks episode of Survivor Jeff said, "Tonight, if Deshawn lives, then we have a normal vote and somebody goes home. If Deshawn dies, then he's out and there is no vote."

In response, Dalton Ross at EW said, "Wait, if Deshawn dies?????? Are they now killing people on Survivor?! Does this have something to do with that "Monster" Probst kept talking about? I know this season has been heavy on the twists, but killing contestants does seem a bit much. How about instead of dropping the four and keeping the one, we try to keep all of the players in one piece, shall we? I mean... the fact that Deshawn fought to keep someone in the game that the producers have done everything in their power to keep off our screens doesn't exactly seem like grounds for on-air murder. Also, if he dies, there is no vote, but the game continues?! Doesn't that seem like grounds for canceling the rest of the season? What the hell is going on here? Am I watching the freakin' Squid Game ?!"

Anna and I do not disagree!!!

As Dalton Ross said in his EW article, "The Thanksgiving eve episode proves you don’t need idols or advantages to make riveting TV." We couldn't agree more! He went on to say, "THIS IS NOT WOKE SURVIVOR! THIS IS CLASSIC SURVIVOR! When Deshawn talks about the 'duality' of wanting to play with Black players but also wanting to play for himself, that is a clear and vivid example of the push and pull of wanting to win but also wanting to win "the right way" that players have struggled with since the show began over 20 years ago. Can you win in a game built around lying and deceit and still stay true to yourself?" So much good TV this week! Anna and I will amateurly break it down for y'all!!! 

Anna and I are on the ball now, we saw 2 different castaways sent packing to join Tiffany on the Jury! Fun split up as well as great drama in the 2 Tribals! Keep on Speaking Survivor! 

Again, we welcome back Shane to the podcast! Also we welcome a quote from EW's Dalton Ross, "This is how confusing Survivor has gotten: They actually went back and aired a 'Previously on…' segment this week. Even with all the twists, that may be the most surprising thing about this entire season. I thought the 'Previously on…' segments were a relic of the past, in some Survivor graveyard right alongside the opening credits, the Rites of Passage, and other things we complained incessantly about when they are on our TV screens eating up precious episode time — and then complained incessantly about when they were gone because we are impossible to please. However, apparently, I was mistaken, and the "Previously on…" segments were actually buried somewhere on Ghost Island while maturing and accumulating awesome new powers."

Dalton Ross at EW says it way better than we can, "It's not the fact that the cliffhanger is not really a cliffhanger that I object to — it is what that fact illustrates: that the team that just fought so hard to win a challenge they were told would give them safety to the merge were actually competing to lose. Think of it this way: Survivor producers are smart. They work through every scenario before they put something into motion. What do you think the chances are that anyone who ended up on Exile Island and was therefore in danger of going home and did not have two days to bond with their tribemates doing the voting would not smash the hourglass and just leave the game as it was? Extremely low, right? So the producers knew when that challenge started that the winners of it were actually the losers. So from a strictly game perspective, the twist is pretty much indefensible. You are straight up punishing people for winning when you told them winning was what they wanted to do." That is what we are discussing in today's episode!