starvenger

I admit that I might be. Nice to see that you're allowing that Terry isn't really as strong as he's been made out to be here as well. I'll be honest, I haven't seen that. Much. Michaelangelo at IP is pretty anti-Terry, but I'd assume you mean TWoP. Because of that little issue with there still being Austin and Sally. That's five, not four. And Terry just stabbed one of his "own" in the back. That's pretty much what I mean when I say that Terry thinks too linearly. A smart F2 opponent would try to expose these flaws

That was indeed a HUGE benefit for her...now, but again you're forgetting - she went from being "first one out" to being the unofficial fifth member of the doomed alliance. We know she was tight with Aras, but it's been shown in the past that she was also tight with Danielle and Shane. It wasn't just one person who decided to keep Cirie and vote off Bobby, when it made no sense to do so at the time - those four had to have had a reason for doing so. And comparing Cirie to Amber is not a good comparison. Cirie has been lauded for her "3-2-1" play, which Brian tried in Guatemala and failed to execute. Yes, Cirie got it to work because noone perceives her as a threat, but do you think Amber could pull that off? I'm sorry, I must've missed the many chances people not named Aras have had to send Cirie there. The fact that Cirie never got sent to Exile Island seems like a failing of the others, not her. Nice retcon. Noone's said he was an ass. I've called him whiny though. Still, Terry was the undisputed leader of La Mina. He told Misty, Ruth Marie, and Dan that they were going home before TC. He basically left Sally twisting in the wind until she was saved by the immunity/reward twist that sent Dan home. He never did things on a douche level like Shane did, but he was still pretty straightforward about it. And yes, the Casaya's held an open meeting, conveyed by Shane. But here's the thing. They let Shane do most of the talking. Remember how they had the poll and Shane was voted the "person who thought they were in control of the game, but weren't"? The rest of the Casayas - well, maybe not Bruce. I'm not sure if Bruce was really playing the game or not, and I guess we'll never know for sure - pretty much knew that it would bite him in the ass later. Fact is, Terry went to Danielle and Bruce because he'd asked Shane if the Final Four were Shane, Cirie, Aras and Courtney and Shane agreed with him (without swearing on his son's name). Of course, Danielle was on Exile Island and Bruce was on reward (or vice versa), so Shane knew that there wasn't going to be much time for strategizing, or that he could talk to the two of them later. And there was that flaw in the plan where he was gonna give Danielle the Talisman, meaning that Bruce was still pretty much in the same spot he was with the Casayas. There was no incentive for Bruce to switch sides. And again, there's Terry's weakness in the mental aspect of the game. He's never brought enough to the table to convince others to hook up with him.

I don't think it's much of a spoiler, raz You can generally tell who's gonna get some sort of contract whether they win or not. Matt will get some matches because it's good PR. Other than him: Bisping and Nickels, maybe. Bisping looks like he'd drop down to MW though. Herman, Solomon and Kalib look to be good MW/WW prospects. Kendall Groves I'm not so sure, but he could probably put asses in the seats for Rumble on the Rock.

I believe "pathetic, but loveable" is the best way to describe Michael Scott...

I agree with you. She's a strategic thinker. A Power Player would be a Tom Westman or a Brian Hedik - none of those this time around. But she's basically talked her way into the Final Four, so I think that, while not as obvious as Terry's ascent there, it's still impressive. As for getting sent to the "right" team, there's a lot of luck with that. Would Stephanie La Grossa be "America's Sweetheart" had she not been on Ulong? Would someone have killed the annoying singing woman had she not been eliminated right off the bat? Would Misty be Final Four if she went to Casaya and Courtney to La Mina? Lots of "what ifs" when it comes to the division of tribes, man.

The chance comes because Terry was all about the physical gameplay. He never really tried to play the mental side of things, and everything he did try was with a single-mindedness, where the only outcome was him in the final two. Which would be fine in a two-person alliance, but until the thing with Danielle, it never was. Basically, Terry's like the guy in your fantasy league who tries to get Peyton Manning for Alex Smith and Jimmy Smith. If you can show how piss poor his strategic game was - while emphasizing yours of course - you've got a chance. This is why Aras can't win against Terry. He'd try the same trade. Luckily he's got a co-owner (Cirie) who's making the trades and reads the studies the stats to know how to get a good trade. Danielle I still think can convince the Jury, but I thought of something that will get her maybe three votes: wardrobe malfunction.

From what I saw, Danielle wasn't really helping Aras or hindering Terry. Aras definitely wanted her to, but I noticed that she actually helped Terry more than Aras. As for the shove - Terry shoved first. You need to look back a bit. Only one person came right out and said it - Shane, the master of subtlety. If you remember, he also told Cirie that she'd be second out on the new Casaya tribe. The others may have shared Shane's sentiment, but were a wee bit more subtle about it. Then again, the space shuttle launching is more subtle than Shane's approach to voting people out. btw, I agree about Pagonging generally being poor strategy, but the tribal lines were drawn quite tightly this time around, and Terry and whatever La Minas were left would have no problem with dispatching the Casayas they flipped first before turning on each other. It was just that kind of season. Here's the problem. First thing Terry does in Gitanos is to try and get two people to flip, and offer them 5th and 6th. And he acts like he's doing them a favour. It's kind of insulting, and pretty much sets the tone for the rest of his attempts. I pretty much take everything said post elimination with a grain of salt. Many have said "I'll never vote for x" and changed their mind come final TC. With Cirie, she's come from being first one out to Final Four, so I'm cutting her some slack at this point. She's been "gone for sure" so many times that I think she's got some idea as to how to sawy votes. Assuming she builds fire faster than Danielle, that is. Once again you're not giving Cirie a lot of credit. She saw where she was and made an alliance with Danielle and Aras to get them to the Final Four. I'll be honest though - Bruce's ouster was probably the turning point for everybody's strategy. Lots of "what ifs" had he been able to stay. It WAS irresponsible, but Terry presented way too much drama than was warranted.

Fair enough.

Need to look again dude. He didn't ruin anything - they just plain don't like him. And if you look, two of the three that bitched the most about Terry are gone. Although Aras seems to be half anger at Terry and half at himself for not beating Terry. Besides which, if the tables were turned La Mina would've done the exact same thing. BTW, I've really yet to see where Cirie is a bitch. The only time I've really seen her be bitchy is after Terry had a hissy fit about her torch and went after her. And I don't think any of the others see her that way either. Noone really seems to "hate" Cirie at this point. I don't think it was ever made explicit, but based on Danielle and Terry's actions yesterday I believe that it had to be in your posession before Tribal Council started.

I think you're being overly generous with that one...

I don't see it that way. The thing about Terry is that he calls himself an "underdog", but it's hard to truly see him as one. He's had the Immunity Talisman since his first visit to Exile Island, and he won five straight Immunity Challenges. That doesn't make you an underdog - that makes you a Threat. An underdog wouldn't be able to earn their way to the Final Three the way Terry has, and he's really doing himself an injustice by thinking of himself in that way. In fact, he almost comes off as cocky when he tries to be humble, and I think that will turn off the cynical members (read: Casaya) of the jury, so I think his best approach would be to be honest and matter of fact about what he's done during his run on Survivor. But as we've seen, Terry is a very narrow thinker when it comes to strategy, so he could choose the wrong way to talk to the jury, and that could be disastrous for him. As I've mentioned before, I think Cirie has the best odds of winning should she make it to the Final Two. Her game has been based entirely around strategy and talking, so turning into Paula Abdul during final TC is unlikely. That's not to say she's got it in the bag, but I think it's hers to lose should she make it that far - and there's a good chance she won't make it past 8:10pm on Sunday, rendering this paragraph moot. Aras' best chance is against Danielle, and vice versa. You're probably looking at a 4-3 vote. Terry matches up best against Aras, and to take Danielle to the Final Two over Aras could come back to bite him. Both Terry and Aras have a strong physical game, and Terry had dominated that. Strategically, Aras has been the better of the two, but Terry could argue that Aras wasn't the mastermind there. Aras would need to go after Terry's "poor loser" behaviour to have a chance, I think. Terry vs Danielle would be very interesting. We've seen both Shane and Courtney with looks of disgust after Danielle makes comments in TC. BUT we know that they also don't like Terry, so it could be a wash there. Two very important swing votes there, and Terry and Danielle would have to choose their words wisely in order to win those votes.

Gotta be Jesse. I don't think Tito would be particularly pissed if Ross came back and moved up to 205, and as LT noted, Kristian has a gash that resembles Qwest Field (which also looks like a vagina). As for the other MW moving up, Stine coming back would be about as wise as having Ross back, and Solomon is probably a bit too heavy at MW as it is. The one time (this season) he doesn't actually need to say this and he says it. The dickery was warranted this time.

Yep. Earl's plot wasn't THAT hard to pick up though...

Gold. Someone call Bruckheimer.

What about Kevin's band? That was some good stuff there.

Speaking of douches, Terry showed himself to be a bit of one tonight, eh? Cirie dropped her torch right in front of you? Um, no. But sure, so ahead and whine about how she did it intentionally. That'll earn you her vote if it comes down to that. And clarification, my ass. Terry was whining and bitching because he didn't understand the rules, plain and simple.

I've got a better idea: There should be a race that involves Colin vs monkeys for every task.

They wasted that on Vinnie Jones? Pyro could've used that line.

There's an option on the Final Two, for certain. Don't know if there's one for the second runner-up. The Top 12 are obligated to go on the Idol Tour, and that's it I think.

In truth, it was the correct decision - the other teams had a lead so the odds of gaining ground were slim. You know you're last, so you have nothing to lose by switching tasks. I'm happy that three teams that I like are racing to the end. And it looks like they're finishing in either Alaska or somewhere in the midwest/northeast, jusging by the snow...

Not the words I would've used, but... that's pretty much the long and short of it.

I figured that Chris was somewhere in between emo and rock. Shows what I know about music. Or at least subgenres of music. Acting sure. But we want to see Kat nekkid. Why? Because we're guys. And one gal.

I would've thought avoiding Oregon was a given...

I wonder if that would disqualify them as CanCon? Because if it means I hear less of one of those groups, I'm all for it.

Or you could (heaven forbid) read...