Survivor

CBS has announced the 18 castaways who will be “battling extreme conditions and interacting with wildlife such as elephants and gorillas” on Survivor: Gabon — Earth’s Last Eden, premiering Sept. 25. Host Jeff Probst says, “In a strange coincidence to ‘Earth’s Last Eden,’ good vs. evil emerges as a major theme this season.” Last season’s James and his “Don’t bite the apple” catchphrase would’ve fit in beautifully. The castaways, in alphabetical order, are:

You now have an extra week to prepare yourself for the brilliant magnificence that is Survivor. The season premiere of CBS’ Survivor: Gabon — Earth’s Last Eden, originally scheduled for Sept. 18, will now air Sept. 25 from 8-10pm ET. The episode is the first time a season of Survivor has kicked off with a two-hour premiere, and it also marks the show’s high-definition debut. —- Photo: Jeffrey R. Staab/CBS © 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved

After getting rid of the last guy on their tribe, the Final 4 women return to camp after Tribal Council all giddy, shrieky, and doing the pot-stirring dance. If their consciences are bugging them over what they did to Erik last episode, they’re hiding it well. For the immunity challenge, the women, each standing on a perch on top of a 20-foot pole in the water, raise buckets of water, which they pour into a chute, thereby raising keys that they need to open a chest that contains 16 ladder rungs that they need to assemble to climb up to […]

When I first saw this episode, I was left dumbstruck. Incredulous. The blood drained from my face. What those women did to that poor boy Erik was disturbing. Horrific. But after watching it again, those last 15 minutes of the show were beautiful. Poetic. It was like watching masters at work. They spun their words and twisted Erik’s mind as if his thoughts and emotions were tangible threads that could be woven however the women chose. The women worked so well together, and each played their part flawlessly. They were the Harlem Globetrotters of Survivor backstabbery.

The scenes from last week’s episode show Parvati calling the female alliance the “Black Widow Brigade,” and Natalie describing blindsiding Jason as “flossing my teeth with his jugular.” But today the women show a softer side when they realize that James may have to leave the game due to a finger injury; although James was one unplayed immunity idol away from being voted off last episode, the women now pout that they don’t want him to go. Granted, some of the women’s reactions could have just been politeness — Cirie tells the camera that, being a nurse, she should feel more compassionate […]

By Elaine Throughout this game, I kept picking different titles for the episode: Parvati plays nice. James gets batty again. Girls gone wild. Erik sucks. But nothing fits the episode quite as well as Killer Bitch. And, good Lord, isn’t she? I mean Natalie, of course, who used the B-word so frequently to describe Jason (who hadn’t done a single thing to earn the title but be fiercely loyal to her) that I suspect that parents who let their young kids watch this show as either a lesson in how to grow up to be Dick Cheney or the next […]

Jill has awakened from her long winter of hibernation, left the comfort of her cave and the solace of her television and gone in search of nuts and berries and adventure. And she entrusted this blog to me, me who thinks the best thing that could happen on Survivor (any season, mind you) is that hunger will overcome everyone and in a bout of totally understandable temporary insanity the castaways will unite and eat Jeff Probst (possibly the cameramen could provide them with some fava beans and nice Chianti to add that certain Je-ne-sais-quoi to the event). Not that someone […]

Eliza isn’t liked by anyone, so her best strategy is to align with fellow outcast Jason. When Jason tells her that he has the hidden immunity idol, she’s excited that her alliance might have some power, especially if they can join with Ami when the tribes merge. But Eliza doesn’t yet know that Ami got booted off, and that what Jason believes to be an idol is just a stick that Ozzy carved a vague face into. The tribes are told to gather their personal items immediately and go to a new location, and they correctly assume that a merge […]

Ozzy is a little shaken by talk at the last Tribal Council about how people think he’s a controlling leader of the tribe. He doesn’t see himself that way — he thinks he just has a lot of good opinions and know-how. But apparently not the good sense to not cuddle with Amanda around the rest of his tribe. Ami tells Ozzy that Tracy was trying to get her to overthrow Ozzy, but Ami prevented anything crazy from happening, and Ozzy shouldn’t worry about his safety. He feels uneasy, thinking that Ami is a little too adamant in her assurance. […]

On Malakal, Tracy thinks Ozzy is too controlling — he decides when the tribe eats, what the tribe eats, when the chickens will be killed. She thinks he’ll win the game unless they get him out of there. Erik, meanwhile, idolizes Ozzy, who is taking the young ice cream scooper under his wing. Cirie can’t come up with enough figurative language to describe the situation — stardust comes out of Erik’s mouth when he says Ozzy’s name; the two are like the father teaching his cub in The Lion King; “I think if Ozzy were to propose marriage to Erik […]