Rob lied!
It was a really nice weekend, and the same weather is continuing through this week. Temperate, low-eighties days and fifties nights. Wish it could stay like that all the time. We were able to eat outside on the back deck twice and, thanks to the paucity of rain, there weren’t many insects to spoil the experience.
I finished my part in judging the short story contest and passed along my top 5 to the selection committee together with my notes on all the stories I read in case there’s some debate that needs my input. I also used the experience for my Storytellers Unplugged essay. Written yesterday, will appear tomorrow.
Made it to the halfway point of The Snowman by Jo Nesbø and enjoying it greatly. Lots of red herrings and I like the main characters a lot, including the detective, who has the unfortunate name Harry Hole, and his ex-wife and his new sort-of partner.
Caught up with the season finale of Blue Bloods, which tidied up the story of the Blue Templar and the death of the Regan brother at their hands. Not a bad show. Wish it wasn’t on Fridays.
This week’s Doctor Who was written by Neil Gaiman. The whole look and feel of the episode was different from the norm. I thought it looked very much like something designed by Tim Burton. The characters of “aunt” and “uncle” were particularly Burtonesque. I think I have to watch it again before I can write more about it, but it was cool to see more of the TARDIS—in so many ways.
This is the first season of Survivor where I rooted for someone from the beginning and, as it happened, that person won. I know it is fashionable in some quarters to dislike Boston Rob, but I think he’s an interesting guy and he played the game like no one has ever done before. If Survivor were a video game, I’d say he beat it. If it were a logic problem, I’d say he solved it. It’s almost like they don’t need to do Survivor any more. Can anyone ever play it better? Here’s an indication of how good Rob is: he lied to his wife, Amber, about how far he got. For nine months, she thought he was voted out at the final four. (He was so scrawny that he couldn’t get away with saying he lost out sooner.) Only a day or two before the finale did he tell her the truth. Never play poker with Boston Rob.
The producers also lied to us, in a way. Rob revealed that he had told the girls that he had the immunity idol after the merge. By keeping that piece of information from us, the tension was heightened toward the end. Will he play it or will he get blindsided? If I’d known what the others knew, I wouldn’t have been so nervous during that final tribal when it looked for a minute like he wasn’t going to play it.
I felt really bad for Philip during the jury grilling session. They were really hard on him, especially Steve. I didn’t see any need to call him names like that. Julie was also pretty tough on Natalie. Was her relationship with Rob really “creepy”? I didn’t get that. Philip was fairly subdued during the finale, though he did get wound up a couple of times. Most awkward moment during the finale: David’s proposal. For a smart guy (his speech at the jury session was spot on), his decision to do this on live TV was ill advised at best.
During the reunion show, Rob revealed that Grant had stopped talking to him after a few episodes aired. Turns out that Grant was really miffed when he found out that Rob had swapped out the clue to the hidden immunity idol with an older, much more vague, clue. It was a pretty clever thing to do (not sure I would have thought of it), but Grant felt betrayed, apparently.
Favorite quote from the reunion came from Matt: “following your heart doesn’t mean ignoring logic and reason.” Amen to that.
One thing I didn’t miss at the end of the season was that lame old Hall of Fame journey the final three usually takes. Apparently they filmed it but decided there was too much else going on to take out the five or ten minutes that normally occupies. I hope they lose it from now on.
Categories: Survivor