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Estee 44384 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Playboy Centerfold" 08-25-06, 12:34 PM (EST) "Survivor: The Society Islands: Recap Episode: I'm Not Very Good At 'Hope'." LAST EDITED ON 08-28-06 AT 07:22 AM (EST) ---------------------------------------------------------------- After ---------------------------------------------------------------- {Topic Title: Alex's idol strategy -- huh?} {I don't get it. She knew she was safe. She was safe from what I'm guessing was an hour and half before bedtime all the way through the vote. Why the act? Why run around all day playing 'Poor little me, I'm going home tonight, can I get an escort to protect me from those vicious tropical squirrels while I get a few last sketches in?' Is this going to turn into another Elmore situation, where she basically used a temporary power to screw over her own tribe as permanently as possible?} {No. Also no, no, and maybe even a few more 'no' uses just to cover anything else that might crop up. Alex had exactly one motivation there: not to be Terry.} {Say what?} {Okay, let's take it slowly. Yes, Alex found the idol nice and early: probably slept better that night than she did her entire stay to date on Yanini. Yes, she was safe. But the instant she was safe, Mary-Jane went on the block. If the men got any hint that Alex had the thing, they would have said 'Well, we've still got another woman left to dump' and there goes The Amazing Bikini Girl: how does that thing stay on when she moves? (Tree sap. Lots and lots of tree sap.) So Alex is fine for three more days and probably even gets six -- no matter what Connie tries to talk Haraiki into, she can't be the primary target after the merge on that side: Trooper or Gardener should take priority. But -- there goes Mary-Jane. No allies left, except for whoever cast that third vote. Now let's look at the tribe as we don't know it -- or didn't officially know it until last night. They're divided. With Desmond gone and Gardener's voting status really uncertain -- how can anyone be that good an actor without some professional training? -- I'm going to call it Alex's side and Gardener's side. If that last eruption spewed lava on the right target -- and thank you, Burnett, for the post-council footage, don't expect me to say it again -- then what we were looking at all along was Gardener, Gary, and Desmond on one side, with Alex, Mary-Jane, and Trooper on the other. Remember Trooper's idol search footage? He really wasn't into it at all. Combine that with some of the things he said at and before Council, and it's obvious that the last thing he wanted to have happen was for Alex to go home. Gardener's comment about taking Alex fishing adds to that... he's just had more and more sympathy for her as the season went on. Either she actively swung his vote or he switched on his own. I'd bet on the former. Back to Alex for a second. She's got the idol. She's making sure no one else knows she has the idol -- including her own allies. Why? Because it's Survivor, people, the question of 'Who can I trust?' is always hanging right over your neck, and the edge is sharp. If she lets them know she's got it, then maybe suddenly, they're not her allies any more. A little overstated, maybe, but it's possible -- and stuff can always be overheard. Around and around the camp she goes. 'Vote for Desmond with me. Force a tie, and I'll take my chances.' We don't know if Mary-Jane was aware Alex had a third vote -- we don't even know if Alex knew, although I think it's pretty safe to say she did. But Alex knew that no matter what happened, the idol was good, barring Jeff pulling out some stupid 'except during a tie' rule at the last minute. Her minority (or tie) vote was going to control the ouster. And that meant she got to see how her supposed alliance was going to vote at no risk to herself. Suddenly, Alex is in the best position in the game. All she has to do is sit back, wait, put on one of the best acting jobs in CBS history, and see how the votes fall. If she's got a tie, she's safe and her alliance is solid. If she's got the majority against her, then she knows someone on 'her side' is a liar and gets to figure out what to do next on the island instead of second-guessing herself from Sequesterville. If she somehow gets the majority for her -- everyone gets fed up with and blindsides Desmond -- then just turn the idol over to Jeff at the end of Council, everyone has a good laugh, no harm done. Alex has one more episode, minimum, and has a damn good idea where everyone in Turare stands -- which, after Desmond's ouster, gives her the majority control or influence in the group. Suddenly, Gardener and Gary are really glad they're merging at ten. Next: the target. Desmond. I'm trying to get into Alex's mind here and it's a dark and scary place, but I think I can see where she was going with this. This was not a revenge hit: you refused to listen to me, I'm going to get rid of you. It may have felt somewhat like that because of the Council footage, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't her intent. Alex is more likely thinking 'We're going in tied. I need to get rid of the dumbest player.' It's not just about challenges, although Desmond's no prize there either: what were the odds of a construction challenge coming up? She got rid of the one who was the least show-savvy -- the one most susceptible to lies, deceit, treachery, and twists from Haraiki, not to mention someone whose vote she couldn't be sure she could influence -- what if he said the hell with tribal lines, tried to reform the men's alliance with Tony and Phillip in the new version without letting the others know first, and gave everything away in the first two minutes? 'Desmond, you're making a mistake! -- too late...' What's left on Turare is five people who seem to know the game, are probably willing to stick with each other through the very tricky 5-5 vote -- can anyone see Gardener, with his team-based ideals, switching over, no matter how angry he is with her? -- and while they may not have a single person who constitutes a total challenge force, have at least one person who can probably beat any given challenge type. Elmore's vote wasn't about victimizing his tribe: come on, it was Michelle. Elmore's vote was about saving himself 'for now'. Alex's was about getting further in the game -- not just for herself, but for Turare as a whole. So in review: Alex is safe at that vote, she knows that unless things get radically weird, she's got a clear path to at least the first jury seat, she now knows where everyone in her tribe stands and has the controlling interest in the group, plus she's made the group stronger as a whole by getting rid of someone the others were openly wishing they could get rid of anyway. In the poker terms she so recently learned, that's a free look at the flop and getting the pigeon all-in from the small blind. This, people, is how the idol is supposed to be played. This may have even been what Burnett was thinking when he first introduced it. But then Terry basically stuck it up his shorts for a full season, and the non-factor twist came over from BB and settled in for a long stay. Alex just switched up the power structure within Turare -- and as a special bonus, no one may ever hold it against her after Gardener gets the last of the bluster out of his system. We've been talking about how Gary may be smarter than he first seemed, Gardener's uncommonly intelligent for someone who was cast as a muscle man, Trooper and Mary-Jane seem to know the game -- but I'm starting to think we've let Alex go under our radar. She brought the cross in, she's been twisting up the challenges, the strategy at the memory game was hers... and we dismissed all of it as being nothing more than cutely evil (or highly offensive) because she was out next, and that meant all her tricks ultimately worked out to 'So what? She's out next.' But now... I want to bring back a phrase from the editing thread here: 'playing the game against the game.' Imagine Rob C. if his target was the show itself instead of whoever he was pretending to be allied with that week. Imagine Dr. Will crawling inside the walls to go after the rats. Alex is dangerous. And I have to wonder if anyone on Yanini has figured that out...} {Oh, come on! Take it to one of those so-called love threads, okay? Since when does Burnett cast the women for brains? He puts them on for looks, for funny accents, for age demographics, and in this case, to appeal to perverts! If it was a perfect idol play -- and I can think of at least five better ways to have used it in that situation -- then she stumbled across it by accident! All this means is another episode where the cameras can try for wet blouse shots. That's why Alex is on the show. No other reason. Hell, someone with the show probably stuffed the idol down her shirt and then whispered the idea to her sixteen times before she had the first word memorized!} {Okay, no problem. Five better ways to use the idol in that situation. I'm listening. Go.} {Gee, it sure got quiet in here, didn't it?} {Well, it was a one-post wonder... I guess we were supposed to do the work for him.} {I'm a woman, jack***.} {Okay, my bad. Two-post wonder. Still waiting on those five better ways to use the idol. Any time you're ready.} {Still waiting...} {Bump for waiting...} ----------------------------------------------------------------- {Topic title: Official Alex Love Thread} {I think we were overdue. Alex Fanatics only, please: all others will be trampled to death under a storm of moccasins. Sign in, please, and complete the following statement! I like Alex because...} {...remembering the look on Desmond's face is still making me giggle.} {...girls with parrots turn me on.} {...at the point when we thought we were just going to get new people playing the parts of the same old stereotypes until the show went off the air, we finally got a brand-new one. I don't completely love her, but I'm definitely loving not being able to say everyone's lines ten seconds before they do.} {...if I just hope, pray, and keep the faith, eventually, I will see cleavage.} {...strategists are hot.} {Rob C. was hot?} {Yep.} {You are sick.} {...I hate the memory game, and maybe now we'll never see it again.} {...like the idol thread said, when the moment came, she chose not to be Terry. I know this is more of a one-shot idol and she can't hang onto the thing for the entire game, but just having someone use the thing at long last made the entire show. And I know Elmore pulled it out in the first episode, but this one feels different. Better.} {...it's so much fun to watch Gardener losing his mind...} {...I'm hoping to see Alex & Mary-Jane kiss. I know, I'm delusional, but the fan art has me inspired.} {Fan art?} {Yep. Here's some links to samples. Alex is even hosting some of the stuff on her site -- the FAQ just says 'Well, it's art...' and leaves it at that. She's just putting up the tame stuff, though. Nothing beyond PG-13 there -- hell, nothing more than G, really. Don't follow the bottom three links unless you're willing to go beyond the barrier. You have been warned.} {Wow. I haven't seen this sort of thing in this kind of quantity since the caricature art was making the rounds during Borneo. Cool.} {...boobies!} {Ohmigawd, someone finally taught Howie how to type.} {...she's got great eyes. Seriously. They're a little shaded, but when the camera gets in close, you can pick up the color. Beautiful gray.} {...I don't know what happens next anymore, and I'm starting to feel comfortable with it.} {...it's been so much fun on the Be The Survivor threads, watching Alex's player go from preseason bimbo wannabe to suddenly realizing she was supposed to have a brain...} {*groan* Yeah, she got me. You people have no idea how hard this has been. Plus I'm pretty sure Desmond's player now wants to kill me. They both thought they were going to Final Two.} {I'll get you, my pretty. You and your little parrot, too!} {Okay, Faux-Connie -- back to your own thread!) {...choo-choo!} {...somewhere, there is footage of Burnett's heart attack at the moment that cross came out, and we may get to see it.} {...if she made The Apprentice, she'd find a way to fire Donald.} {Oh, God -- I can hear that. 'You didn't explain the task well enough, you were unclear on what our goals were supposed to be, you're supposed to be our boss and you have no talent for direction -- so you're fired!'} {...even if it came from the FORT, 'Busty Keaton' is still the perfect nickname.} {Like in Alex Keaton? That old sitcom?} {*sigh* No, as in 'Buster Keaton'. Old movie star. The Great Stone Face Of Comedy. Don't you get Turner?} {No. But I can go to the IMDB... Oh. Yeah, that's pretty good.} {Maybe after Angela finishes adjusting reality to suit herself, that can be Alex's new stripper name.} {...after all those players who claimed the show was a life-or-death situation, we finally have one willing to back it up.} {...evil! Evil! I still love the Alex evil!} {...she and Gardener would be the hottest series couple ever. What? Everyone knows that when two people yell at each other that much on a TV show, they're five seconds away from falling into the shelter with each other!} ---------------------------------------------------------------- The first thing Desmond did was put it on the record: he was still bitter. Also unhappy, angry, convinced the show had set him up, ready to go out and find a lawyer who'd sue CBS for all it was worth because they'd denied him his million, and all sorts of other things that his contract specifically said he couldn't do... While I'd been consistently watching the show (and had been surprised at just how well they'd kept my having the idol a secret on the previous night's episode), I hadn't been as faithful about checking the Early Show appearances the next morning. I'd always peeked at the transcripts for those I'd missed, and nothing would have kept me away from Frank's -- it was only my second opportunity to see him since the medivac -- but for the most part, they'd been optional exercises. I'd even made a special point of skipping Trina's, knowing there was no way she was going to do the only thing worth tuning in for: showing the last card. The transcript had confirmed it. But with Desmond -- he was the first player where you could make an argument that I'd directly backstabbed him, and after he'd had several months to calm down and think about what he'd done on the show, not to mention getting a look at his own editing -- well, I wanted to see if he'd reconciled what had happened. And figured out why it had happened. But -- -- well, for starters, he hadn't watched the show. At all. Why should he? He was there, he knew what had happened. There was nothing there worth seeing. Who cared about what Haraiki had been up to? Who cared about seeing who the traitor in his alliance was? (There was an attempt to interrupt him right there and tell him it hadn't been shown: he talked right through it.) He didn't have to watch the show to root them out: he knew who it was, and he knew there had ultimately been two traitors to his cause. The first was -- -- Gardener. No, really. Gardener. Obviously it was Gardener, because Gardener had wanted me out too badly. Anyone wanting me gone so strongly, who said so at every possible opportunity, just had to be covering his tracks. Gardener had betrayed him. Of course, he had no idea why, because clearly they'd known I'd had the idol all along and they could have just voted me out 5-1, they didn't have to stick it in his face like that -- but it was nothing compared to the second betrayal, and were we all ready for this? Because Desmond was going to tell the truth, and America had better be braced for it. The show had given me the idol! That was right. The show had done it. And why? Because I was sleeping with someone on the camera crew. He wasn't sure who. Maybe the woman who always filmed my confessionals because I struck him as that kind of sick pervert, maybe one of the men, it didn't matter. I was in bed with Production every night -- he'd gotten up sometimes to find me gone, and the bringing back water and fruit was just a cover -- and because of that and the fact that the show thought I'd be more appealing for the all-important ratings than he was, they'd just given me the idol, which had been designed all along to keep people the show liked in the game, and bounced him out. The lawsuit would be filed as soon as he found someone willing to sue on his end. Wait and see: he'd get his million -- and more -- yet! And that was when they went to the Secret Scene. -------------------------------------------------------------- Before -------------------------------------------------------------- (Transcript of Survivor Secret Scene from The Early Show, shown during Desmond's post-ouster interview.) {ALEX is just starting to walk down FRANK's trail at sunset on Day Seventeen: the view behind her starts with a little bit of the camp visible, which quickly drops away. She's obviously deep in thought, concentrating on something: not much attention is being paid to the path, and she's moving on autopilot. She gets about twelve edited paces in that way -- then stops and looks directly into the camera lens.} {very softly} "It's always in the first place you look...!" {appears to be speaking directly to the camera operator.} "Maybe..." {ALEX changes course and accelerates: from the sticker hedges she's moving past, it looks like she's skirting the border of the Tree Mail clearing, looking for the back opening. It doesn't take long to reach. Camera cut, and we see her easing into the clearing, carefully checking the area before coming all the way in. No one else is there, and she spends a few seconds making sure she's completely hidden from the camp. Very faint voices are audible in the background: we can pick up that it is speech, but very little of it can be made out. From what little can be discerned, it sounds like MARY-JANE and GARDENER are having a rehash of their argument about who's going next -- but there's no line of sight. There's enough of a bend in the trail to keep what's happening in the Tree Mail area private from the rest of the tribe.} {Cautiously, sliding her feet across the ground, ALEX approaches the quiver.} {glancing back at camera} {whisper} "Here goes everything..." {carefully reaches inside, then freezes -- just for a second, no more, but we can tell her hand has touched something. For that brief moment, you can almost make out a look of shock on her face -- and then it's gone} {ALEX withdraws the idol. She turns it around against the fading light for a few seconds, looking at it -- then gently runs her right hand over it. Immediately after that, she just as silently -- and quickly -- leaves the clearing the way she came in. A camera cut, and we're at the starfruit. It's getting darker, and there's just enough light left to see by without using enhancements: the shadows are long and heavy. ALEX looks around again and stops to listen for a few seconds, making sure she's alone -- then begins to move her right index finger over the idol, very carefully.} {quietly} "Just checking for edges... it's smooth enough. I can put it against my skin without getting cut. I think it'll bulge too much in a pocket, but it's very light -- maybe --" {pulls out the cuff of her left sleeve, sticks the idol inside. The weight of the idol resting against the fabric is immediately visible.} "No. It'll work with the sweater, but there isn't enough resistance on this blouse. I can't slip it into my bag without being seen unless I get up in the middle of the night, and I don't trust the others not to search my stuff..." {looks momentarily pained, then tries again, slipping it into a sock and taking a few steps} "No good. It's moving when I walk, it might fall out -- and when the cuff goes high enough, it's probably visible. I can't slide my feet for a whole day." {sighs, seems mildly upset and slightly weary} "Just one place left until I can get the sweater on -- I really hope it's cool tomorrow night, or I'm going to look so stupid..." {reluctantly moves hands to bottom of blouse, untucks it from pants} {very softly} "Don't be Terry... whatever happens, don't be Terry..." {ALEX slowly starts to raise her blouse. Scene ends.} ----------------------------------------------------------------- After ----------------------------------------------------------------- When they cut back to the studio, Desmond was still staring at the monitor. Slowly, he said "Well -- everyone knows computers can fake just about anything..." And then, more loudly, "You made that up to cover your tracks!" They'd ended the segment before America could officially ask him a few questions or recommend a good shrink. I sighed softly and turned off the set. Well, that's going to make the Reunion extra-fun... Desmond was required by contract to show up, but it didn't look like he was really paying much attention to the wording. He wasn't allowed to sue the show, either. He definitely wasn't allowed to say anything about perceived production bias on the air, and as for saying I was sleeping with the staff -- well... I thought Desmond was going to see a few interesting letters in the morning, delivered in thick brown envelopes that also contained enlarged copies of his contract, with some parts done in super-large block lettering. They might not invoke any of the penalty clauses, since the whole thing had arguably made for good television, but they'd definitely threaten to. Loudly. Six or seventeen lawyers knocking on his door might shut Desmond up in a hurry. It was actually something of a miracle that he'd stayed silent this long -- he'd probably been waiting for his chance to make the announcement on live television and really scare CBS. And yet, he wasn't cast to lose... Rewind. Imagine, just for a few seconds, that I'd never went to help Connie: one of the rescue divers had gone to her aid instead. Put me on the orange raft, keep everyone else the same except for switching Phillip to the purple. Desmond still leads the shelter build the first day. Turare, with the two strongest males, wins enough Immunities to keep the losses down to two. Frank doesn't overdose. Trina and Mary-Jane go out. Desmond makes the merge with the majority, slides under the radar because he's not a challenge threat, and winds up sitting in front of a jury with relatively few women on it because Haraiki tore itself apart during Tribal and couldn't risk getting rid of Tony. Elmore's probably out first, I go second (or first on a bounce), and Desmond could have won. 'Hi: I provided shelter, I kept this tribe working, I protected all of you from the elements... a million dollars is good payment for that union job.' One jury vote later, congratulations to Desmond Cooper, Sole Survivor. Desmond had a chance. But Desmond had gone out in eleventh place. And he'd spent all the months since his ouster listening to the little pieces debate on what had happened until finally deciding to go with the one that had locked into total paranoia... I wondered if anyone would believe his claims. The fringe element loved a good conspiracy theory, but they also loved some tidbits of proof to go with it. So far, he didn't have any, and that would bring his story to the only people willing to listen: The Weekly World News. Their new reality show coverage section was probably just an issue away. Was it personal, Desmond? Maybe a very little bit. But Gardener said it: how could we afford to keep someone who wouldn't listen when his own survival was at stake? We needed Trooper and Gardener at the tie: they were threats to win Immunity, and we needed it on our side. I wasn't going to vote out Mary-Jane or Gary, especially not when they were the ones I was hoping would be voting with me. It was a little bit personal -- but it was mostly about giving us the single best chance during the tie. If you'd listened, maybe we wouldn't have been in that mess. Maybe we could have Pagonged Haraiki all the way down to Final Six and worked it out from there. Maybe it would have been so much better than what actually happened... Another sigh. No, it hadn't been all that personal. Desmond had just been the best choice to bounce out. The personal vote had come later. -----------------------------------------------------------------   Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Subject     Author     Message Date     ID    RE: Survivor: The Society Islands:... azkate 08-25-06 1  I'm Not Very Good At 'Hope': Part I... Estee 08-25-06 2  Topic thought AyaK 08-26-06 3    RE: Topic thought AyaK 08-26-06 4    RE: Topic thought Belle Book 02-09-10 11  I'm Not Very Good At 'Hope': Part ... Estee 08-28-06 5    Flipping AyaK 08-29-06 6        RE: Flipping michel 08-29-06 7  I'm Not Very Good At 'Hope': Part ... Estee 08-29-06 8  I'm Not Very Good At 'Hope': Concl... Estee 08-29-06 9    RE: I'm Not Very Good At 'Hope': C... Belle Book 01-09-09 10

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azkate 239 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Network TV Show Guest Star" 08-25-06, 01:07 PM (EST) 1. "RE: Survivor: The Society Islands: Recap Episode: I'm Not Very Good At 'Hope'." Thank you Estee! I was getting a headache about the FLDS/LDS debate over yonder. I can now start my weekend happily mulling over Alexs' upcoming strategies. Can't wait! another tribe work of art   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Estee 44384 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Playboy Centerfold" 08-25-06, 04:46 PM (EST) 2. "I'm Not Very Good At 'Hope': Part II " LAST EDITED ON 08-28-06 AT 07:41 AM (EST) {Topic Title: Desmond on the Early Show.} {...and here's the link to the transcript, and here's the link to YouTube, and here's the web address of Bellevue, just because I've got a hunch.} {Oh, wow. His brain don't stay up very well either, do it?} {I can top that... I caught a radio interview with him after his TES appearance. After it was done, the host actually said CBS had tried to warn them, but they'd insisted on having their contract honored... He went on for a while in the same general vein and talked a lot about how they'd faked the Secret Scene, which is kind of funny coming from someone whose main computer expertise is probably in yelling for help when he has to turn one on. But he also did a lot about women and their natural place in society, which is to say, at the bottom, with men standing on their throats. And that's not an exact quote, but God help me, it's the exact attitude problem. Which led to the question we've all been waiting for: did he discard Alex's movement strategy on purpose so he could lose for Turare and use the chance to get rid of her, the hell with the majority? And the answer is -- "I knew I could do better on my own than with any stupid (bleep) she came up with, and if I didn't, well, that was her problem!" Admittedly, that's after several months of letting the wound fester, and it's pretty obvious that Desmond and reality are no longer on speaking terms where the show is concerned, but... well, everyone can now take their best guess.} {Introducing the next president of the AFA...} {Or of the Connie fan club. He said he hopes she wins now, because she had Alex pegged all along. His Final Two is Mary-Jane and Connie, BTW -- he doesn't think the cheating producers can afford to keep Alex beyond Final Four, because then the manipulation would be so blatant that anyone could see it. No one asked: he just volunteered it.} {Okay -- Mary-Jane, out, Connie, out...} {Hey, Stacey! Wherever you are, you've got a new friend! And he might even hire you! First one in how many years?} ---------------------------------------------------------------- During ---------------------------------------------------------------- {Welcome to Recrap Week! And I see we've actually got people here tonight, which is making me wonder if I've got the week wrong...} {If you think we've got people, you should see the latest ratings. The show's been on the climb since Week #1. Right now, we're starting to approach first season numbers. At least for the moment, Survivor is back, and that means Burnett is in his glory, all is right with the world, and even the recap will be ninety minutes! We've been promised new scenes, and he'll catch all the latecomers up on His Story So Far. Personally, I'm here because I'm hoping some of those new scenes shed a little more light on things. I'm also hoping the plural works out to at least two scenes.} {We'll see. Right now, I think this is really for getting the new -- or returning -- viewers up to speed, which means we're not going to see a lot in the way of strategy information. No freshly revealed alliances, for starters -- which means that the new Trooper/Alex theory is going to get absolutely nothing backing it.} {I'm amazed by the amount of time we've spent this season using a slash mark, Alex's name, and someone else on the show. You'd swear we were building up to a sex scene.} {Don't tell Desmond.} {Heh.} {And we start with -- Jeff! He's standing on Challenge Beach, and telling us that his tale starts eighteen days ago, even though this was probably shot right after the final Council. Rehash about the legend of the island, with shots of the vegetation -- hey, baobab tree! -- well, that makes sense, the entire season has been upside-down...} {Back to the ship, and a longer look at the contestants as they were sitting in the chairs during the ride. Michelle's already uncomfortable: muttering about how she can't take this. Phillip's got a big grin on his face: he's really looking forward to everything. Alex seems to be concentrating on everything around her. At one point, Mary-Jane falls asleep.} {And there they go again! Into the water! This time, we see what happened to Connie: she basically knocked herself for a loop. Her arm went under her stomach as she was falling, and when she hit the water, it was like getting an extra punch. Combine that with the shock of the fall, and that's why she was in so much trouble early.} {Rehash on the Alex-Connie meeting, and guess what? It's still hate at first sight. Jeff has commentary here -- 'leading to the formation of an instant -- and strange -- rivalry.' Right. Because Connie hated Alex before we ever knew what the cross was for, and from what we've seen of Connie, if she'd somehow spotted it under Alex's wet blouse -- easy enough to do in this recap -- she would have just assumed 'fellow Christian' and probably taken to her. Whatever the issue is, it did not start because of the loophole.} {More on the water -- Angela & Tony really did start flirting instantly, and note that they were seated next to each other before they went off. Also note that Angela started it. Gary helping Frank in after he belly-flopped. Phillip does the same for Denadi.} {Trina almost starts going to Haraiki, then pauses, shakes her head hard as if she's trying to remember something, and changes course for the Turare raft...} {The rafts paddle away. We get a look at Haraiki -- Phillip making sure everyone's okay before they start, telling Elmore to sit it out because he's so clearly exhausted and the rest of them can paddle without him, some resentment from the women there towards Elmore...} {Opening credits. Azure is not in this grouping: this is the original set. They'll introduce the new viewers to her later. Hopefully with a warning, because the newbies may not be ready to have their hair turn Mary-Jane's shade all in one go -- and back to the show without a commercial break. Society Islands: A Look Back. Any time you're ready, Jiffie.} {At Haraiki... We're back to the group prayer, and here's a new scene: Connie noticed that Denadi was just mouthing the words. While they're together looking for shelter materials, Connie confronts her on it: not too angry, but very challenging. Denadi informs Connie that she's Wiccan and while she honors Connie's beliefs, she doesn't see any need to participate in them. There's a moment when you can basically see Connie considering the fight/withhold options, and then she just shrugs and tells Denadi it's her choice -- before stepping into confessional, where she can be as frustrated and borderline angry as she likes. "I wanted this to be a Christian tribe. As long as Denadi's here, it can't be. I guess as long as she keeps her beliefs in the background, I can stand having her with us, but I'm looking forward to the day she's voted out." I get the feeling that's an exert from a much longer rant: her face is flushed as if she was on the downslope of a screaming fit. We know there was no immediate political vote, though.} {More on the construction of The Shelter That Sucked, a quick shot of an Elmore confessional where he says that thinking is the only real work he needs to do on the island, and over we go to Turare.} {Here we go! Jeff narrates about the importance of fire, especially given that Haraiki didn't have it yet, there goes Alex, Gardener makes a promise that he's probably still regretting, the AFA gets pissed off all over again, and -- yes!} {He gave it to us! Christmas came early and Burnett forgot to pack the coal! There's the scene we were speculating on! There was an argument within the crew, and there's Jake at the center of the 'get rid of her!' faction! Hell, he just about is the faction -- he wants to toss Alex immediately and call in one of the alternates, maybe even re-divide the tribes tomorrow and start the season over! Turare's told to sit and wait it out, and you know we're just getting the highlights here -- but eventually, they reach Burnett, and this is the first time we've ever heard his voice on the show, even if it's hard to make out exactly what he was saying. I'll have to replay it later, but he's clearly letting Alex go through.} {Jake very angry with Alex, but he's lost the argument. A few nasty-toned words, and he leaves. Alex gets repositioned, starts the fire, Gary repeats his quote about bringing life, and we alternate camps: washing up at Turare and Haraiki. This is when Connie approaches Phillip and asks for an alliance, which he grants her. Mary-Jane and Alex... the men talking at Turare -- the women talking at Haraiki after Connie made a bond with one of the males, but of course, Angela did it first -- first night at Haraiki, the mandatory profession discussions on both sides, no one can believe Alex is a cartoonist, everyone believes Mary-Jane is a model, Elmore can't talk about the games he's worked on because they'd just get edited out, Robin having to clear up 'dancer' until the others know she works on Broadway...} {Immunity challenge! They do it fast. Jeff criticizing the task placement for Haraiki, and says that with Alex having gotten Turare that all-important first fire, she now helped bring them the equally-important second one. Some focus on Gardener in the kayak and Michelle swimming. Another quick snippet we didn't get before -- Michelle threw up after the challenge. Gardener caught a fish with the Immunity spear? Wow.} {Hidden idol announcement, and here we see Elmore deceiving Haraiki again -- and there he is finding it. He tells the camera "If it's this easy, I can do it all the way to the Final Four," and hubris much? The vote that night, Michelle's bounced out, Elmore swaggers... commercials.} {So what does everyone think so far?} {Maybe they're front-loading the episode to make sure the long-timers don't go anywhere, but we've gotten a lot of new material so far.} {I'm glad to see where the Jake situation started -- Alex really got him mad. You'd swear he'd signed onto the board and started calling her exclusively by her last name.} {Ahem. Want to see my complete lack of contract with CBS?} {No, I believe you... besides, that 'loneliness' theory thread's an interesting one. I still don't believe the theory, mind you, but you've definitely got some support there. Maybe by next season, we'll have you writing summaries.} {I'd like to sign up for one on the Amazing Race show. I've started watching it after seeing the forums, and I love the travel.} {Nothing like a first look at the beauty of infidel lands...} --------------------------------------------------------------- After --------------------------------------------------------------- Four knocks on the door, sounding oddly weary, as if they were taking the last bits of effort the visitor had. I put down the drawing tablet -- the Sunday for six weeks from tomorrow was just about done, but the last four panels still had to be colored -- and checked the lens. Two men in red, looking as tired as the knocker had sounded. I had no idea who they were. "Yes?" The door was not opening until I had a better idea of why they were there. "Delivery," the lead one said as he wiped the sweat from his forehead using his right sleeve. "This is Alex Cole, right? There's no number on the door." And there never would be, because the landlord refused to pay for them and I wasn't going to sacrifice a few dollars which would only raise my rent by an additional twenty bucks a month for having improved the quality of the apartment. "Delivery from who?" UPS was brown, DHL was yellow, and the Post Office was blue. No one was red. "Coca-Cola." He held the clipboard up to the lens for inspection. "Lady, we just dragged this thing up five flights of stairs and I swear the banister nearly gave way twice. Can we just deliver it, please?" Huh? The form looked official, and even if it was counterfeit, I could get Mr. Brooks up and going for his imaginary shotgun with one well-pitched scream... I opened the door. The man gestured to the left. "If you could just sign for it?" I looked. It was a Coke machine. The design looked ancient: the logo had to be from decades ago, and it was absolutely nothing like the ones sitting outside every supermarket and gas station, not to mention within every previously-empty rectangular space in town... Four feet tall, tops, with a hinged glass panel that showed what looked for all the world like an empty bottle rack behind it, given some very small bottles. There was a coin slot and return area, a long cord with a plug at the end, a little cove where you were supposed to put the bottle tops in and work off the caps... But the machine itself was brand-new: bright red paint, smooth curving lines for the white areas, not a scratch or nick anywhere. A faithful recreation of something that hadn't existed for years. I blinked. "I didn't order this." "I know." Very exasperated. "This is a gift from the Coca-Cola company. Because some big fan of the show at the top of the ladder cannot believe that someone in this country has gone their entire life without drinking from one single bottle. Especially in the middle of a show that they brought commercial time in and provided supplies for. Do you know what that probably did for us last night? We provided the drinks with dinner, and someone refused to try the drinks!" Muttering a little now. "'Everyone's life should include Coke...' Well, lady, now your life includes Coke. Congratulations. Maybe if you like it, they'll put you in a commercial or something." I just kept looking at the machine. "Oh, for -- Leo, will you get her to sign it? I'll go get the first boxes of bottles." He passed the clipboard back. "Damn stairs..." And gone. I looked over to Leo. There were still a few things to clear up. Actually, there was still the first thing to clear up. "I never asked for this." No, really. I didn't. And I wasn't going to sign the 'Get a free machine, pay a hundred dollars a presumed bottle' contract either. Leo chuckled. "Don't mind Carl. He's just ticked off because he had Desmond in the pool." He gestured to the machine. "This is free, Ms. Cole. You get the machine and a year's worth of bottles. After the show is over, someone may even approach you about doing a commercial. No guarantee there, but right now, one of the bigwigs just wants to be able to say something like 'We've filled a void in her life' at a press conference." He grinned. "Because I bet some of the upper men are feeling kind of stupid about last night, and the sooner they can get rid of that feeling by pretending to play nice guys, the better." Even wider. "Also because there's office pools all over the company, and someone in the Boardroom probably has you..." A wink. "I know I stand to win three hundred and twenty bucks if you beat the thing." People are betting money on me? I knew there had been betting spoilers in the past, but those were offshore casinos, not people in local businesses putting a few bills into a pot and pulling names... "Can I see the contract?" He passed it over, and I read it carefully. One antique replica Coke machine, mine forever. One year's worth of eight-ounce glass bottles, mine for free. Definition of 'one year's worth': for twelve months, I called when the machine ran out and someone would deliver more bottles. No loopholes. No semi-hidden clauses. No cost except for the electricity, and I didn't even want to imagine what this was going to do to my bill... "But -- I don't have room!" I didn't. Where was I supposed to put a Coke machine in my apartment? Let it go where the desk was and stick the computer out the window? Sleep on top of it instead of the bed? Hope it could refrigerate all my food and just never buy anything that needed freezing? Another chuckle. "Plenty of space on the landing..." There was even an outlet that was supposed to be used when people were doing maintenance work that required power tools. In theory. No one had ever seen any. "We'll just plug it in here." He pulled another set of papers out from under the delivery form. "These are the instructions -- how you load the thing, how you can maintain it on your own, but you should call us if anything goes wrong beyond just basic cleaning -- you can set it up to take coins like a giant bank or just deliver for free, and you'll have the key to the coin area, so you can get it back any time you like. Everything you need to know." The rest of the delivery was something of a blur. Bottles came up, went in the machine. A couple of spare boxes of bottles went under the bed. The machine was plugged in, left to quietly do its job, an throwback to the past that came with a cooling motor from the future: no noise at all. Somewhere in the middle of it, I wound up signing the papers. Carl made some extra frustrated noises regarding Desmond and left. Leo winked at me again, asked a couple of questions that I wasn't allowed to answer, asked for and got the second autograph of my reality career -- I numbered that one too -- and he left. It was back to just me and my brand-new soda machine. I looked at it. It seemed to be looking back at me. Sure, that could be an eye in a cartoon version. It looked friendly enough, in a drug-dealer kind of way. Free sample, kid... first hit's free, and so's the second, and even the third and beyond, but just wait until the dentist gets ahold of you, and then the bill comes due... No, not a good idea. Maybe brushing after every drink would keep that problem away, but a caffeine addiction was just begging for trouble. And I couldn't even use it to keep water cold, unless -- well, I could dump out some of the bottles, pour water into them, reseal... Footsteps approaching a neighbor's door -- and then Mr. Brooks emerged. He was currently in 'happy mode', which was a fairly rare thing and a very delicate one: that place where the alcohol had made him temporarily content, a state that could only theoretically be maintained by getting more alcohol, which was guaranteed to destroy the condition within two drinks. He was actually fully dressed for once, which meant a trip to the liquor store was about to get underway. Presumably they'd been trained to stand the smell. "H-hey," he hicced. "Where did that come from?" "It was just delivered today." You could talk to Mr. Brooks in his happy mode, although he probably still wouldn't remember any of it. Maybe eBay -- but how am I supposed to get this thing down the stairs, much less to the Post Office for shipping? Will any of the delivery companies take something this heavy on a pickup call? Or in other words, Now what? "Haven't -- haven't seen one like that since I was a -- kid." Hiccup. "Nice... about time they did something for us..." A happy burp. "How much is it for a bottle?" Blink. How -- much? Okay, think hard. The bottles from the machines outside the supermarkets were usually twenty ounces, this was just eight, but they were glass bottles instead of plastic, figure that had to cost something, the landlord might hit me up for the increase in the electric bill if he ever saw the thing or want a cut... "Sixty cents." "Damn reasonable," Mr. Brooks concluded. Hiccup. "Maybe I'll -- grab some for a nightcap sometime." Burp. "Tastes real good when you mix it..." He headed for the stairs, got the banister in his grip on the third try, and merrily staggered his way down. Sixty cents... maybe I should have said sixty-five... Where were those instructions? I was going to have to load some coins into the right area so it could give change -- there, that was the right page, this thing was very clearly-written, anyone could follow this. It's not like I don't have the coins... maybe I should hit the bank on Monday and pick up a couple of rolls anyway... Yes, very easy: you opened here, loaded there, checked the counterweights, closed the panel and forgot about it. Beautiful piece of technology. Beautiful, profitable piece of technology. I patted the side of the machine. Drug dealer, absolutely. But now it was my drug dealer and I was the one who was getting the protection money -- no, that thought was way too uncomfortable. It was my Coke machine, it was just that everyone else got to drink from it for what was probably a reasonable price. Much better. And I could look up the price for such machines on the Internet later if I decided to get rid of it. A contract with Coleman, a Coke machine... there was no way there would ever be a commercial because I wasn't what anyone was looking for, this was just a higher-up getting ready to look better at a press conference, it wasn't as if Coke couldn't pay for this just by spending the profit they made during a thousandth of a second, Leo had called that, but still... my machine. I couldn't complain about that, right? Maybe everyone's life should include Coke. Just not firsthand. If this was what being a celebrity was like... I quashed the thought. No, this was what being on the receiving end of a media scramble triggered by embarrassment was like. Nothing more. Come to think of it, that was probably just about exactly what being a celebrity was like. ----------------------------------------------------------------- During ----------------------------------------------------------------- {Keep in mind: more than ever, the 'they want us to see this' factor is in play during recrap shows. This is the Cliff Notes version. Anything they show, there may be a test on later.} {And we're back, and apparently they want to remind us that Alex & Mary-Jane have their friction points, and no, that is not code for something. But there's a little of the no-hug discussion.} {There's Frank going to the grass patch and chewing, with Jeff commenting about 'a seemingly innocent act that would lead to tragedy'. Good thing we didn't get a recap after Bruce went out. They would have had to say the same thing every time he ate something.} {Haraiki deals with the aftermath of Elmore's bounce, Angela's angry all over again, that rarest of things, the Tony confessional, where he says there's no way he's gonna let some stupid nerd beat him and he just wishes this was high school so he could stuff Elmore into a locker -- okay, the 'stupid' edit has just gone to 'stupid, juvenile, and possible bully'. This isn't an improvement.} {Pre-Reward -- listen to Alex & Frank discussing the typical Reward order, and Frank calling out just what the Reward was before they even got there! Sounds like that grass wasn't impairing his memory!} {Kind of makes you wonder how far he would have gone if he hadn't taken himself out...} {Probably jury. Maybe Turare would have hit the merge at 7-3.} {Not sure -- the stilts might not have changed that much...} {The Reward challenge -- you know something? This still hurts to watch. I wonder how many takes they needed to get Jeff into that neutral tone on Connie's attack?} {At this point, I'm conceding it was an attack. But it was one conducted within the rules. Just another loophole. Connie is not an unintelligent player.} {Alex leads the puzzle charge for the first time, Turare wins...} {The bone? Why do we need to see the bone again?} {We never saw this scene... Phillip leaves camp and walks back to Challenge Beach on his own. He's got the urn with him. Reaches the middle of the beach, holds it up, turns around slowly, smiles a little, and heads back. Is it okay to be weirded out and a little bit touched at the same time?} {Didn't see this one, either: Mary-Jane comes in on Gardener when he's washing up at the lake, and guess what? She just caught him out of his boxers! Blurred, naturally, but this puts Gardener behind the diving rock in a hurry, and can he swim fast for a short-term push. Mary-Jane giggles and apologizes, but tells him he has nothing to be ashamed of. Gardener's yelling at her, telling her she can't just walk in on people when they're vulnerable like that. Mary-Jane shrugs and says "It's just bodies. Even if it's not my type, you've still got a good one. Don't be ashamed of it." Gardener's in a real huff and tells her that from now on, he expects her to give people a little privacy. Mary-Jane leaves. Confessionals: Mary-Jane shrugging and saying that she guesses she should be glad it wasn't Desmond, Gardener promising to put the brakes on this before it gets out of hand. Explains why Alex was so shocked that time -- Gardener was probably running interference for everyone.} {Immunity -- Jeff claims that everyone made a mistake in the tower assignments, but he doesn't sound too happy about it... We get shots of Frank having trouble aiming in the tower -- the fear of heights thing coming into play, I guess -- and Angela glaring at Trooper across the towers. Interesting -- there was something going on here before the gross food challenge. I thought she wanted to take revenge for Tony from the beam, but now...} {The finishes from all the races -- still can't believe how close Alex was -- and start laughing again, because here's Elmore & The Wooden Death Trap! This lost nothing for being a repeat!} {Haraiki at camp, conspiring behind Elmore's back -- Angela comes up with the plan to follow him the next time he goes on an idol hunt, doesn't believe he can think well around women...} {And the Tarot card scene. A little bit cut down for time constraints, but there's enough to get the gist of it. Jeff calls it 'One of the strangest moments in Survivor history.' Still wondering -- do you think he ever brought it up that night at Council?} {Doubt it. He probably knew about it within minutes of its end, but you'll notice we've never seen Alex or anyone on Turare talking about it. I think Alex kept it to herself and Jeff just didn't pry for it that night. Remember, what we saw there was a pretty peaceful Council... if there was a repeat of the near-fight over the hand, it would have made the air.} {A quick look at that 'pretty peaceful Council', goodbye to Trina, but we get her last words again -- commercials.} {We're still speculating on the Death card, right? The last time I looked, it was between finding Azure and stepping in that puddle, Frank's going down, and the near-drowning during the last Reward challenge.} {Yeah, those are still the leaders, although someone's giving Alex credit for a near-death experience on that vote bounce. No one really thinks we've reached the Devil card yet, and there's a few people insisting that Death hasn't been played -- that we're forgetting the transformative aspect of the card. In that sense, it could even represent the merge: the game moving from one state to another. But as Trina agreed, there are times when the thing means death itself...} {I've been waiting for the editing to throw the possibilities in our faces, and you're right: so far, we're stuck in the Dead Zone. At some point, the rest of the deal has to start coming through.} {And that's assuming we've seen the first one... maybe Trina will explain them all at the Reunion.} {If she can make them fit.} {I still want to know what the eighth card is.} {That many months after? Once she sees how Alex finally goes out, it'll be whatever she wants it to be.} ---------------------------------------------------------------   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

AyaK 8129 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Playboy Centerfold" 08-26-06, 01:50 AM (EST) 3. "Topic thought" {Topic Title: Alex's idol strategy -- huh?} <I agree completely with the discussion about hiding the Idol, but I have to disagree slightly about her rationale in picking Desmond as the target. There are two types of mutinies -- one in which you kill off the leader of the dominant group and set up a complete rivalry between the groups; one in which you try to keep the dominant group together but push it in a new direction. An example of the first type of revolution was in Survivor: Marquesas, when Neleh and Pascal flipped sides and took out John. The dominant group was furious and remained furious as they were being picked off one by one -- so furious that they awarded the win to the most worthless sack of .. well, let's just say the most inept player ever to win Surivor, Vecepia. An example of the second type came in Survivor: The Australian Outback, when Colby and Tina secretly decided to flip their votes on the walk to tribal council and ax Mitchell instead of the outsider Keith. At that point it seemed certain that Kucha would go into merge with an edge, but Ogakor held together (after all, even Jerri and Amber knew that Mitchell SHOULD go, but they were allied with him), then Kucha got lost in a maze (bye, Kimmy) and Michael go Skupined, and Colby faked out Kucha at the merge, and Kucha was firewood. ("It's getting cold out here; throw another Kucha on the fire!" -- Thumper) Alex didn't want the first kind of mutiny, for the simple reason that a furious dominant group could choose to switch sides at merger now that they may be a minority. She needed the second to have a chance to make a bigger payday. And was there a target in her tribe the equivalent of Mitchell? I believe that Desmond fit the bill admirably. This isn't to say that he's going to win. I don't think that she's getting a winner's edit. But she may well make the final episode (final four) -- which would at least permit her to go out and order a Coke with her BBQ if she wanted.>   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

AyaK 8129 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Playboy Centerfold" 08-26-06, 07:05 PM (EST) 4. "RE: Topic thought" <But who is the leader? It was Desmond who put the alliance together.> <True, but Gardener has been the real leader of it for some time now. He's the Michael Skupin of his tribe. They all revolve around him, and everyone knows it, including Alex and Trooper (if that's her secret partner).> <I can think of a couple more Survivors where the head of a group was voted off in the third episode, with disastrous consequences for the tribe both times -- Survivors IV (Hunter) and III (Carl, aka Don Carlo). But it hasn't happened for a while.> <Regicide usually is punishable by death. Guess that's also true on Survivor. Ask Silas.>   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Belle Book 1925 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Herbal Healing Drugs Endorser" 02-09-10, 08:58 PM (EST) 11. "RE: Topic thought" Yeah, Alex wouldn't dare try the first kind of mutiny -- she's not that stupid when it comes to the game! I think that part of Alex's reason for taking out Desmond was because they needed to get rid of the dumbest (in terms of the game) player, but she also knew it would help keep the dominant group together -- just push it in a new (and better) direction. So Desmond was the best choice.   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Estee 44384 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Playboy Centerfold" 08-28-06, 05:53 PM (EST) 5. "I'm Not Very Good At 'Hope': Part III" LAST EDITED ON 08-30-06 AT 10:53 AM (EST) After ----------------------------------------------------------------- Sundays were for walking -- especially now, when the weather was still pleasantly cool, before the biting cold that made the words 'temperate zone' into the Northeast's longest-running joke came in for a long stay. The leaves were turning, and that meant one thing for me: college. Walk right onto the campus roads through the lowest gate, right next to the now-closed summer day camp, swing up towards the dorms, dip right -- -- and you were in the woods. Tall, thin trees whose canopies had become somber rainbows, already some leaf accumulation on the ground, crisp air... It was at least partially an illusion, of course: go too far towards the junior & senior dorms, and you'd find yourself in a parking lot on the edge of a cliff that offered a great view of the Manhattan skyline, along with the potential of a campus police officer who'd ask what you were doing there. (I used to be able to come on campus whenever I wanted to, although getting into the library without an ID card took a little work. But while I was still within the typical college age range, my face was much better-known now... I couldn't pass for 'just another student' any more.) Go around the border too far, and disinfectant would start to override the scent from the trees as you approached the hospital. Skirt near the recreation center, and it turned into the chemical odor of a polishing cloth -- there was a rock and gem show on the basketball court that weekend. But still, they were woods. Narrow and constricted in places, without anywhere near the variety of the island, but they were real. They'd been there for eons, and humans had made no alterations that added to them. All they'd done was cut things away. I stuck my hands in the pockets of my old jacket as I moved past a lover's tree: a series of hearts lightly carved into the bark, with two sets of initials inside every one. Some of them had been crossed out. K.R. had once loved T.Y, but it hadn't lasted. L.Q. and B.V. might still be together... We all try to leave memories. I stopped, went back to the tree, ran my left hand over the bark. This tree may be here for decades or more, after the people who came to it graduated, moved away, married, divorced... "Do you ever regret not going to college?" Jeff had to get his oar in. I shrugged. "Couldn't afford it." There was no one around to hear. While I occasionally found evidence of human passage beyond the carvings -- empty beer cans, mostly -- I'd never met another person in the woods during my walks. Rabbits, sometimes. A raccoon once. Two deer, a buck and a doe, traveling together. Months later, a shed antler lying on the ground. "And it's not like my grades were good enough for most of the schools anyway." It's not easy to maintain any sort of decent average when one of the school sports is stealing your homework, preferably followed by setting it on fire. I hadn't. "That kept me from getting much in the way of grants... it would have had to have been a community college to start, that meant not being able to leave the area... I would have been stuck with some of the same people who'd turned their early major into Waste Disposal Through Paper Combustion. The strip was ready, so..." Getting a little cooler: hand back in pocket. Moving on. "They can't teach creativity anyway. I'd gotten my drawing style down, I knew something about writing... all they can teach is grammar, other people's techniques, and focus. Having ideas -- there's no classes in that. Waste of time and money." I shrugged. "It's not as if it kept me off the show. Tony never went to college, either: he was proud of that. Got signed to the minors right out of high school." "And stayed there." "And stayed there," I conceded. I'd looked up his record. There were two ways Tony would make the majors at his relatively advanced age, and the first would be if he changed: fixed the problems in his game, tried something new, took a serious risk with his career. The other was to hope on fame from the show and see if someone would give him a call-up just so they could play the theme music before his at-bats. According to ESPN's site, the second option hadn't happened, although he had ended the season at Triple-A -- up one level -- and probably owed the composer a dime every time he stepped on home plate. The first... "Angela had a degree..." "You're thinking about Haraiki a lot more lately." Uphill, checking for rocks ahead that could serve as footholds under the slippery leaves, listening to the wind. "It's the time to think about them." Brace foot, push... "Once the show gets past the recap, we're all together. Phillip, Robin, Angela, Tony, and Connie. One big happy tribe." Jeff laughed, very briefly. "It's never worked that way." "It probably never will..." Was that a structure up ahead? Actually -- -- yes! That was one of my lean-tos! I picked up speed, using tree trunks for extra braces as the slope became steeper, heading for the crest and -- -- still standing. Still completely intact, months later. Just old branches piled up against each other in the way the books had instructed, a little leaning here, a little support there -- but still standing after months of wind and rain. Wow... I recognized this attempt: it was one of the ones I'd been practicing in case of exile. A night alone somewhere, no tribemates, plenty of wood -- brace, lean, pile, and hope to get some sleep. No good against any real storm, but at least it was shelter of some sort -- and the fact that it was still up proved it would have been good against the wind. That there were empty beer cans and used condoms inside proved it had been good for something else, too. I sighed. Figures. Jeff was amused. "It's still a college campus, and that's just about enough room for two people if they know each other really well. It was here for summer classes -- what were you expecting?" "That they'd use the dorms." I sat down in front of it. "Guess someone's got a nosy roommate..." Moved my fingers through the dirt on my left, idly drawing without looking at the results. "That's not part of my life now. After the orphanage, I really didn't want to live with other people. Another reason I didn't think about college: the idea of roommates was just sickening." Dozens of children, all ages: babies, toddlers, elementary schoolers, junior high, tweens and teens. Always running around, always grabbing things. No privacy, barely a concept of ownership, because the little ones took what they saw and the management backed it up because they didn't want to upset the youngsters and don't worry: you'll get it back after it's broken. (Although I couldn't remember a single time when I'd been allowed to take something from an older kid. I could remember something else. The first rule of bureaucracies: policies will only change after the new one would no longer benefit you.) And any time you started to make a friend -- gone. Fostered, adopted or, very rarely, transfered. There was a time when I ran around trying to make friends just to see if I could get more people adopted that way... "Did it work?" "Beautifully, but don't ask me for the exact figures. They got too depressing to keep track of. And then I hit the point where the management didn't want anyone to be friends with me..." It felt like my fingers were working through the merge symbol. I stopped, wiped it from the dirt, then leaned back against the shelter. It held. "Solitude was never really part of my life, and I thought it was the thing I wanted most. As soon as I got the chance, I went for it. I practically left a vapor trail going out the door." If I tried, I could still hear the shouting. Most of it had been accusations, with the rest pure hatred... "And then you went on the show." "And then I went on the show." I seemed to be repeating Jeff a lot today. Repeating myself. I rested more of my weight against the frame. It was still holding. "I know what you're going for here." I stared up at the sky. Medium gray -- moderately overcast, probably a light rain tonight. "And solitude became a myth. If no one else in the tribe was around, there was a camera operator. And the one time there was no camera operator, there was Azure..." Deliberate, hard-forced stop, just barely in time. It wasn't time to think about that yet, and Jeff knew it. "Do you miss her?" Softly, "Yes." It hurt to say. I closed my eyes against the pain and listened to the wind. There was no music created by fire pit rocks here. There never would be again. "Maybe she even misses me." ----------------------------------------------------------------- During ----------------------------------------------------------------- {We're back on Night Six, and here's the storm! Gardener's divorced, Alex is an orphan, Mary-Jane likes to watch, Angela & Tony like to cuddle and maybe Mary-Jane would like to watch that so she could see what Angela's doing wrong, break in, and take over... Previously unseen confessional from Phillip, who says that sometimes, the only cure for something is time and patience. There's no point to cursing at or trying to outshout a storm, so the only thing you can do is wait it out. More of the post-storm suffering at Haraiki: Angela gets a confessional in after her eruption all over Mount Elmore, but it's an odd one. She's wondering if it's a good idea to get that angry in front of the tribe. "I don't want them to know what I'm capable of there." Huh. You know, she does have those scars all over her right hand... anyone else wondering exactly how she got them?} {A quick scene -- Elmore wandering by himself in the rain-soaked jungle, clearly miserable -- and then we go right to the Reward challenge. Quick views of the results, and slow-motion on Connie going into the water, slow-motion on Desmond going in -- it's the Festival Of Quarter-Speed on Day Seven, and you know, I think I'm finally starting to see just what Trooper did there... Jeff talking about Denadi quitting on the challenge with his usual not-really-hidden note of disgust. I can give you one name that'll never make the roster if someone commits the crucial mistake of A.S.S. II.} {Trying to dodge the censor program?} {All-Star Survivor. Season Eight. You really need to spend more time in the archives.} {Something else we didn't see: the challenge postscript at Haraiki. Tony's crestfallen in front of Angela -- he feels he let her down, especially since she's letting him know he screwed up the plan in favor of his own ego: Tony was originally supposed to call out Gary for an easy win! Tony apologizes, felt he could make more of an impression and intimidate Turare if he took out a stronger player, and he had no idea Trooper was capable of that. Angela relaxes a little and tells Tony "His whole job is hurting people for money. You had no way of knowing that. If anything, it's my fault for not telling you. If I had, you would have stuck with Gary." She gets behind him and starts rubbing his shoulders. "Or maybe you would have gone for Trooper anyway, just to see if you could make it work..." Tony's loving the massage, but it's hard to tell if Angela's into it.} {Easy to guess why this is coming out now -- we're looking at an Angela-Trooper conflict after the merge. If her idea of what police work entails is 'hurting people for money', then those two are not going to get along.} {How does she know he's a cop? The only professions Haraiki knows for certain are Alex's and Gary's, although Phillip at least partially pegged Gardener's past. And they initially guessed way wrong on Alex.} {I don't think it would be all that hard. Trooper's relaxed a lot since he first hit the beach, but he's still one of those guys who practically radiates an aura of 'cop' for twenty feet. He just looks like a police officer, and he sure as hell moves like one -- the slight wariness, the checking angles for potential threats. And if all else fails, his name is Trooper. If his parents had named him Major Major Major, he'd be in the Army right now. Imagine if they'd given him a first name of 'President' -- I'm still waiting to hear how someone with his ethnic background wound up with the last name 'Reagan'.} {Come to think of it, Alex moves a little like that, too.} {Over at Turare, they're talking about the Reward being a jealousy-inducer. Interesting! Sounds like Gary did see through things there, and this explains the card pick later on... And there's Frank trying to teach Desmond something about the game, and Desmond visibly not taking open, perceived talk-down instruction well from a junior. Frank's actually trying to give Desmond a condensed history of the order-sorting challenge right there on the beach, but Desmond keeps cutting him off to ask if this stuff is essential, or if Frank thinks it'll really apply to them. Frank doesn't even get halfway through Marquesas before Desmond makes an excuse and leaves.} {The Great Shelter Collapse (or as I like to call it, The Sucky Shelter Collapse -- just not enough injuries), and Haraiki slaving into the night. Slightly extended footage -- Angela really was pushing them here, and the camera is making it clear that there was no rain in the forecast. And if the camera isn't giving it away, Jeff is.} {New confessional from Robin, and a note on the screen that the full text will be available on Survivor Gold tomorrow -- she did propose that they use the tarps as tents and call it a night, but got ignored! Not shouted down, not outvoted -- ignored. This was probably the real start of the 'Let me out of here...' we saw from her in future episodes.} {I'm still not sure she's really going to flip, though... she wants to, I'm sure, but right now, she's got to know she's sixth place in any new alliance, and that's the classic question all over again: how is being sixth with you better than being fifth with my original group? The tie makes it extra-complicated that way -- she almost has to stay where she is.} {You're assuming a straight flip, though -- maybe she can forge a new creation. Women's alliance...} {Oh, right. Robin stays with Connie and convinces Alex to join her. That's going to happen. And there's only five women to start with -- against five men. No matter how you flip the numbers, it works out to five-five.} {A little comedy at Turare -- Alex having trouble getting the Tree Mail poem read without choking on it.} {And now -- take a deep breath, prepare for the worst, the most pointless challenge in the un-i-verse!} {Wasted! Tribe!} {Jeff: "Is there even a point to having a challenge today?" I can think of about three times before this when I've heard him that frustrated, and they were all just before someone quit, on a challenge or the game itself. I don't believe he's been showing either tribe open favor, but I do know which one he's been more fed up with.} {You know, this recap of the Immunity might actually be taking up more screen time than the original airing?} {I don't suppose there's any kind of editing significance attached to Phillip carrying the elephant while Mary-Jane had the giraffe? No? Good. Because if we're that desperate for animal shots, then there's something seriously wrong with us.} {Huh -- crew shot. No one we know, and how weird is that to say? But we're shown the planting of the idol under the scrapbook. This feels like game show rules in action: there's got to be a record that the thing was actually out there, in case anyone ever asks. Maybe Desmond shook them up more than we thought.} {Doubt it -- Sucks has someone who lives close to him, and she said his front door was Special Delivery Central for days after he went on his multimedia rant. Enough official papers dropped on his mat to bury him to his stringy hips. Desmond pulled the tail of the tiger and found out it was attached. You do not question EPMB in public to that degree without paying for it eventually -- and 'eventually' is currently in progress. As someone we know once said, the funny thing about free speech is that you wind up paying for it in the end...} {There goes Angela, executing her plan, and there goes Elmore after he was victimized by it, not that anyone cares very much -- but meanwhile, over at Turare...} {This gets no less spooky for knowing what's at the other end of it. I've gotten used to Azure's voice, which wasn't easy given how little we've heard her talk, but you can really see how this would scare the hell out of someone, grassed up or not.} {Yeah -- getting a look at Frank's close encounter of the no-see kind this time is really bringing it home. It looks like he was just doing some honest exploring on this one -- or at least looking for the next supposed no-comeback high, maybe there's a tree leaf out there he can apply to his skin -- and then, hello! You've got company! It's a pretty short peek, though -- he was out of there in a big hurry, and the reprise of the Blair Witch Walk is longer.} {We have blood, we have Alex stepping in it, we have Azure, and cover your ears -- too late...} {And once again, right out to commercial. You know what bothers me more than the near heart attack in that scene? The contrast. Bright sunlight in the middle of the clearing, this beautiful, energetic parrot just looking for a friend -- but then you have the puddle of blood plus Azure's scream speech after 'beg'. Death, then life, then death again... Burnett couldn't have edited that up in a thousand years: he was just lucky enough to catch it at the right moment. And you can see how the Tarot card theory is catching on, just from this bit. As far as I'm concerned, our borderliners are right: this is the moment when Burnett let us know we weren't going to be spending the entire season inside the familiar, comfortable slow torture of the format. We've basically been ducking in and out ever since.} {Yeah, but that's why the ratings are up. They've got the casual viewer back, and that all-important water cooler talk. It's no longer a core of loyalist 'fans' and people with nothing better to do on Thursday nights. Now we're back to where we were when the show premiered -- 'Did you see that? Can you believe this? What's going to happen next?' It's in Burnett's best interests for things to keep going off into the Twilight Zone every so often, just because it'll keep people talking. If the show settles down from here, he'll probably keep most of the new/returning crowd, because they'll be watching for the chance that things go weird again, all the way through the finale. If they keep going weird, then we may break the original numbers -- and that means we could be heading for some all-time audience shares by the time we reach the Reunion.} {Kind of makes you wonder if he's out there right now, scouting the world for haunted islands just to see if he can get a real ghost...} {Survivor: The Winchester Mansion. No, I don't think that's going to happen, but if I see any hamsters walking into that particular cage next summer, I am so gonna sue.} ----------------------------------------------------------------- After ----------------------------------------------------------------- A selection of comments overheard while shopping on Monday morning, none of which were said directly to me, the majority of which were probably meant to be overheard: "...I don't know -- she doesn't dress like she won. Look at that jacket: you can see where it's been patched..." "'...'Get them transfered to the deli section.' Hmph. Yeah, like she's ever done an honest moment of cashier duty in her life..." "...cannot be real, and those are probably contacts." "...know someone who used to go to school with her -- said she never handed in half her homework. She used to make lame excuses about how it had been stolen by the other kids, and then she just stopped saying anything. Probably knew no one was buying it..." "...I don't know, dude -- you ask her! Just don't ask for a Thursday night -- bet she's busy watching..." "...saw her scavenging garbage once -- carrying a chair my neighbor threw out..." "...had one professor spend ten minutes talking about that trick she pulled with the stuff in the boxes, and then next class, the next one wants to go into the sociological implications of the game! Suddenly, I'm majoring in Prime-Time Television..." "...think he must have killed people -- at least two, could even be a dozen or more -- and the parrot saw all of it. Somewhere, there's got to be a word that triggers her imitating that bastard boasting to someone..." "...never seen a millionaire checking the coin returns before..." "...ain't all that, no matter what she thinks she is. She ain't all that, and no stupid TV show is ever gonna make her more than what she really is: just another piece of white trash that got some air time..." "...heard a rumor -- Jeff broke up with Julie, and he's been sneaking into town to see her. Saw this really expensive car with shaded windows cruising around her neighborhood. I bet that was him..." "...can't win..." "...never had a single date in high school, never even went to the prom -- and remember Cyndi? She must have tried to fix her up with a dozen boys! Some of the best-looking ones in the school! Cyndi even tried to give Alex some of her own cast-offs, and anything Cyndi was done with was still worth having. Rejected them all and pushed off the ones who approached her on their own -- you know there's a few sickos who're attracted to her type. Everyone thought she had to be some kind of lesbo, but she avoided the girls as much as she avoided the boys. After seeing her on the show, I'm convinced she was born without a sex drive. How can you be stuck with Gardener for eighteen days and not try to jump that?" "I thought you used to beat her up in high school -- you and Cyndi and the rest of the crew." "Well -- yeah. But she probably doesn't remember that. It's not like it was important..." -----------------------------------------------------------------   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

AyaK 8129 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Playboy Centerfold" 08-29-06, 00:14 AM (EST) 6. "Flipping" LAST EDITED ON 08-29-06 AT 00:16 AM (EST) {I'm still not sure she's really going to flip, though... she wants to, I'm sure, but right now, she's got to know she's sixth place in any new alliance, and that's the classic question all over again: how is being sixth with you better than being fifth with my original group? The tie makes it extra-complicated that way -- she almost has to stay where she is.} {If her tribe loses the first vote, there is no incentive for Robin to flip. She'll probably be the last member of Haraiki booted anyway, since she's likely to get along with Mary-Jane and Alex better than anyone else on her tribe, so they'll want to keep her for a while at least. {But what if Haraiki wins the first vote, or a hidden-idol trick does in someone from Turare (after all, we've seen it work twice now)? THEN, Robin has a real incentive to switch; she can't do any worse on the other tribe than she'll do on her own tribe, and she might well do a lot better (especially if, say, Gardener is axed by the hidden idol). {And it seems like EPMB is playing up her dissatisfaction with her tribe. I haven't seen that much since the days of Kelly Goldsmith on Boran, when she got sick of Lex and his hyperactive gut.}   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

michel 6689 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Playboy Centerfold" 08-29-06, 12:24 PM (EST) 7. "RE: Flipping" {We've rarely had 5-5 merges. Most of those confrontations were ruined by a lame twist not by someone flipping. We'll probably see the hidden idol come into play and then simple pagonging} {I count Borneo, Australia, Amazon, Pearl Island and Vanuatu. 5 out of 12, that can't be called rare.} {Borneo doesn't count since you had 1 tribe playing against individuals. Australia was decided as soon as Varner stepped off because of prior votes and a loud-mouth. Pearl Island was ruined by the twist which brought back the spurned Lil. You can't compare someone having been booted to the present situation. Amazon and Vanuatu were different cases because even if the new tribes were even, the original tribes weren't. Anyway, in Amazon the ones that saw themselves as leaders were being led to their demise. Here we have much stronger and respected leaders who'll keep their tribes united.} {Maybe, but as another poster talked about Africa, that season did get down to 4-4. We could even look at Thailand when they played as if it was 5-5. What if they can use Robin's dissatisfaction against her? Brandon and Shii Ann's isolation from the others were used by the other alliance. Somehow getting the 2 couples to believe Robin has defected and voting against her.}   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Estee 44384 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Playboy Centerfold" 08-29-06, 06:23 PM (EST) 8. "I'm Not Very Good At 'Hope': Part IV" LAST EDITED ON 09-01-06 AT 06:05 PM (EST) During -------------------------------------------------------- {We're back -- and we just got the warning again, so in case you lost track earlier, you should probably realize which episode we're up to. Still, because we didn't get into full-fledged panic mode until later that night, Jeff's currently in one of his rare openly amused moods, talking about how Turare managed to increase their tribe's roster by one without the show getting involved.} {You know what I remember about that night? How it showed that all you hardcore, cynical, sarcastic, DAW-hating posters are just a bunch of softies who actually do care about whether people live or die...} {You remember that 'Oh, shut up?' Still stands. We're here to watch people hurt themselves through stupid mental mistakes. Watching them nearly kill themselves is another category entirely. I was here the night Michael went into the fire, and it took at least thirty seconds before we started making the first pig roast jokes. That's our idea of compassion. We're glad you're not dead. Now you have a chance to do something even more stupid.} {Azure being introduced to the rest of Turare, Burnett does not hit us with the second scream and watch me not say 'thank you' because suddenly I have to prove what a vicious bastard I am all over again, and Azure's pretty much adopted by the tribe within a few minutes of her arrival. A confessional from Gary, and this has a really wry tone to it -- "So this makes two orphans we've taken in. This one will probably be the more talkative..."} {And here's Gardener: "You know, when I was a kid, I once brought a puppy home. Little beagle bitch I found wandering around the street with a broken paw. I was four. My dad told me I wasn't responsible enough and I didn't know anything about taking care of a dog, I'd never remember to feed her, I'd never remember to walk her... and I had Jeanie for twelve years. You know what that tells me about today? It tells me I should have yelled, and I should have done it a hell of a lot louder than my old man."} {A quick new one: Desmond making the perch, and then one of his confessionals. Oh, this is ironic: "I like it when Alex sees that she has to give me the lead. She had a problem she didn't know how to deal with -- came straight to me. It's like when she wanted to know more about table assembly and I gave just a little bit to work on -- nothing more than what I thought she could understand -- while we talked about voting Trina out. There's some times when she's a really respectful kid. But then there's times when she does the weird stuff, like with that cross... I don't know. That girl was raised wrong, but who raised her? Guess I've gotta blame society." That's right, Desmond, and in a few days, what happens to you will fall under the category of 'weird stuff'.} {Back to Haraiki and their desperate food situation on Day Ten. We're getting an extended look at Denadi's root vegetable hunt, and guess what? She's the first to find the durian grove Jeff mentioned on Day Two! The wind must have been blowing the other way, because she apparently got no warning: steps in, sees them, gags, and gets out in a hurry. In confessional, she talks about how horrible the smell was, and hopes she doesn't have to deal with anything worse for the duration of her stay on the island -- which swings us right out to their receiving the poem for the gross food challenge. Ha! Durian vs. fafaru, Denadi: at least you can eat durian.} {Funny how we've never seen Haraiki having any.} {Not really -- the interior actually tastes pretty good, but that smell is a killer, and they're a nightmare to open. Phillip might even have trouble. There's stuff around that takes a lot less effort.} {Azure insisting on coming along to the challenges, everyone meets Azure, Connie tries to get Alex kicked out of the game again in what Jeff semi-wearily -- at least, that's how I'm choosing to hear his voice -- calls 'the most recent in a series of attempts to eliminate one Immunity Challenge from the show' -- and then hold onto your ribs, kids, because now we're really going to give her some incentive...} {Still trying to figure out how that got into Azure's repertoire. I mean, obviously she was taught it, but I'd love to hear the motivation.} {I've got a sound file of my mother-in-law that I can play for you any time after you sign the waiver. I'm getting tired of people suing me over ear bleeds.} {And Jeff goes into a laughing fit for the first time ever on national television. If it's any consolation, Jiffie, you've still got a long way to go before you catch up to Mary-Jane.} {Quick recap of the challenge, and note what we've learned about these people before and since. Robin is one of those contestants who constitutionally cannot shut up. She talks during challenges, her Survivor Gold confessionals run longer than anyone's, and she may miss out on as much as half of camp time because she's always out filming them. We're starting to figure out that Angela really, really doesn't like cops, and that's why she wanted to beat Trooper at something hard, even if it made her look like a complete idiot at the time. Phillip's just one of the nicest guys to ever make it into this game, but it doesn't stop him from giving his all in a competition -- he was trying to beat Alex, she just mustered more willpower than he did. Tony's good at anything he doesn't have to think about. Gardener almost seems to be making a deliberate effort to distance himself from the other 'Tom' contestants -- and not just in name: we haven't seen his exact stereotype on the show before this either, at least not since the moment he started talking. Gary might be able to get along with just about anyone -- even Connie is giving him a little respect. Think about how this works into a merging tribe -- do you want Robin keeping your secrets? Do you think there's any chance Angela would ever align with Trooper? How many people will be trying to buddy up to Phillip while trying to swing his loyalties, and how close will Gary be to the edge of those conversations, ready to move in?} {Angela could be playing a really long-term game here, but...} {Alex & Mary-Jane at the waterfall again... Mary-Jane with a confessional after, and this is the most tired I've seen her look. "Wow. Deja vu." She closes her eyes and adds "Did you ever feel like you were going to spend up to twenty-nine days moving on tiptoe?" Sounds like she finally realized her casual attitude about nudity was finally getting on the nerves of too many tribemates -- it wouldn't be the weirdest focus for a political vote.} {Haraiki and Tony's bare-hands fishing -- this is still funny, and by the way, I looked up who Marissa was, Tony's in first place -- followed by the T-shirt net. New scene from that night after dinner: Tony reliving the moment, talking about how he got the shirt hole lined up the right way and scooted the fish in with one hand, plus it took really quick reflexes to get the hole sealed before the fish could turn around... It's some major bragging, and somehow, he's completely forgotten to give Angela credit for inventing the thing in the first place. Phillip seems to see Angela's face, so he tosses off a laugh and invites Tony to a round of greased pig catching, just to see how he does with that. Tony grins and says he's up to anything if he gets some practice first -- so the others get their torches lit and head out to the beach, where they watch Tony and Phillip wrestling in the water. It starts as funny, and the Haraiki women are enjoying it tremendously -- Robin's got some awesome professional wrestling play-by-play here between the Fighting Farmer and the Battling Batboy, but Tony stops seeing the humor in it when Phillip keeps putting him down. After a few time-lapse falls, he calls a very frustrated halt and retreats up the beach, marching past the others until he hits the trail. Phillip looks downcast here and says he didn't mean to embarrass him or nothing. Connie tells Phillip they all appreciate his efforts to keep the place light, and Tony will calm down by morning. Angela & Robin agree. Robin with an interesting line here -- "Without you, big guy, we would have fallen apart a long time ago." Angela doesn't particularly seem to like this, but what can she do? She's the brains of this tribe, but Phillip is the heart.} {Next day -- wow, the drinking must have been really inconsequential at Turare if we're not even seeing any for the recrap -- and get ready, because here we go again.} {And this is something new, but I can't complain or go into semi-OCD fits, because the new viewers need to know this: Frank is actually narrating! Wow -- they must have recorded this right after his Early Show appearance... New footage from Cameron's camera: Frank weaves, Frank goes down, and our present-day Frank admits how much of an idiot he was and how close he came. Here come Turare to save him, and Frank delivers his 'Don't do drugs, at least not ones where you're not willing to believe or work to get around the side effects with properly-spaced dosages' message at the appropriate moments.} {This last shot of Turare staring after the boat is strange -- this was the most unified point in their existence, and Alex is so devastated that she's emotionally out to lunch: just about nothing on her face. Total shock.} {Um... I can see by your post count that you're kind of new here, so I think I'd better tell you: that's how she usually looks...} {Gary praying... do you think Connie has a Christian-sense that goes off at proximity?} {Not sure. To the best of our knowledge, has Connie ever been bitten by a radioactive Christian?} {I can't make out the words -- no telling which religion Gary's practicing there. Connie will probably not feel all that well if it turns out to be Wicca.} {A repeat of Connie's 'burning plastic' confessional from that episode, and a new scene: Robin & Phillip talking late that night on the beach. Robin's really worried about what might have happened and to who -- she's talking about Michael and Bruce, wondering if the show finally had someone injured past the point of medical help. Phillip tells her that given the places the show has filmed and the number of people who've been through it, he's surprised there's been as few seriously hurt as there have been. But he's sure the victim is okay -- they would have been told if it was anything major. No news is good news. Robin sighs, says she hopes Connie's wrong. Phillip says he's not worried about who quite so much as how badly. "Nothing permanent, nothing that won't heal. Let it stay a game. None of them should have nightmares from watching someone go." Robin asks him if he's thinking about his father. Phillip just nods and looks at the stars.} {A bit of Turare's daylight Council, Frank's torch gets set in the waiting area instead of being mounted, and Frank talks about it. "I went out too early, and it was my own fault. But Gardener made sure I'd always be there... I owe him for that, and I'll tell him at the Reunion." You can just about hear him grinning here: "I intend to embarrass the hell out of him when I hug him." And commercials.} {And here's my game epitaph for Frank: 'Eh. I've seen worse.'} {It'll probably make for an interesting 'What If?' speculation in a year or two -- what would have happened in the game if he hadn't gone out.} {That's easy. Michelle would have won. Hey, if we're really going to play chaos butterfly...} -------------------------------------------------------- After -------------------------------------------------------- The Post Office loved me. I wasn't their most frequent customer, and I was nowhere near their biggest spender, but I'm one of the most careful patrons they have. I always packaged my items as securely as possible. I filled out all the insurance and customs forms before I got there and had everything ready well before I hit the counter. If it was a large group, I sorted by regions to help speed things up, and I always told the clerk to go ahead and ring me out in the middle if there was someone in a hurry behind me: I could finish up when they were done. I was considerate, I was detail-oriented, and I've never had a package lost. There might be a relationship there. I was currently in the middle of processing ten commissions and fourteen books. In the pre-show days, this would have been either an incredibly good week or a lot of trouble getting things back from the printer combined with a deadly case of artist's block. Now it was on the verge of turning into a slow visit. Something else I couldn't let myself get used to... "This one's going to France." Rosanne frowned. "That's a first for you, isn't it? Do they get the show in France?" "I don't know... Maybe it's like Big Brother: some countries have their own editions, and some watch ours." I'd never looked up the complete list of series receivers. I didn't know if there was one. "It could just be a coincidence, I guess... Insured, return receipt." Footsteps behind me. To the newcomer, "If it's important, I can stop here." Always offer. You never knew when someone had to get a rent check through. "That's okay, Alex. I just need to send a couple of things -- no rush." Male -- very rich voice, you could spread that voice over bread and charge a hundred dollars a slice -- scent of leather shoes... In Haledon? But the voice was unmistakable. Cautiously, "Hello, Matt -- what are you doing up here?" Because Matt came from the other side of the hill, everyone knew Matt's address, his annual trust fund income, and the decibel level of the last party. Matt just didn't come into this area without good reason, and I desperately hoped I wasn't it... "Power outage," he explained. "Nothing big -- they'll have it fixed soon, but it was easier to find another post office than wait. When everything's got to be scanned... hey, can't I get a look at an old classmate?" I turned. He was still just as good-looking as ever -- actually, if anything, he'd gotten more refined now that he'd finally figured out how to dress casually instead of just following whatever the latest fashion trend was. Tall, well-muscled but without a ton of bulk, brilliant hazel eyes and dirty blonde hair that he was currently wearing in a stylish business cut, the sort of features where the classic hero artists just froze in place and yelled 'Hey, you! Ever want to have an alter-ego immortalized in spandex?' He could start a locker room fight with a smile at the two girls who were entering it, subject of the mini-war being which one he'd been interested in. To look at him too long was to feel a hormone surge -- if you were interested. "You look good -- I'm glad to see the show didn't hurt you there." He smiled. Perfect teeth. "All that weight loss... I'm starting to see it on your blonde friend." Is everyone in this county watching? "Yeah -- Mary-Jane was losing weight." I shrugged. "We all were at that point." Maybe this would be the end of the conversation and he'd never speak to me again. "And later?" Eyes sparkling with good humor. No such luck... "I can't tell anyone that." Maybe I should make a copy of the contract and hang it around my neck. He laughed. "I figured." Rosanne finished with the French package and moved onto an Australian one. "You really do look good, Alex." I am wearing an ill-fitting secondhand jacket that's basically down to a gathering of patches which are barely speaking to each other, jeans where I had to sew together a hole in the knee two days ago and the back pocket probably has to be redone, and sneakers with laces broken off three inches above the last hole. I have no makeup on and I haven't cut my hair in five weeks. Plus I just went a whole bunch of blocks balancing a whole bunch of books and tubes, it was sweaty work, I never wiped my forehead, so any hair up front is clinging in interesting patterns. "Your call..." He was amused by that. "So what are you doing with yourself these days while you're waiting for your morning show appearance? I know you've basically got the week off." Okay -- why is this conversation continuing? And how can I make it stop? Answering questions was just leading to more questions. "Not really -- my site isn't exactly a full-time job, but keeping up with all the commissions lately is." I wasn't sure how much of this he was tracking. He seemed to be paying attention, but that had been his primary skill in class, too. "I draw them, I mail them out -- it takes a lot of time." "I remember you drawing in class," Matt told me. "You were always good." Lie. I had never drawn anything in school, because if I'd ever been seen creating something, there was an entire cadre's worth of people who would have made it their week's mission to seek, destroy, and keep me from doing anything like it again. A few of them had been teachers. "It's nice to see you found a way to make it pay... still single?" Blink. And now we come to the reason this conversation is continuing. Did the other side of the hill produce some kind of fumes that erased long-term memory? "Yes." No gloves, no ring: easy enough to see, if he could ever be bothered to get his gaze that low. Face, torso, face... Another laugh, rich and hearty. Great laugh. You could almost feel an urge to join in. "Not for long -- not after being a reality star. I bet you're getting all sorts of proposals." "You have no idea." And I'm not going to give you any, either. Matt looked down at me from his six-four vantage point, eyes sincere. "Why didn't we ever hook up, Alex?" I couldn't believe he was going there. I intended to get him away from it as quickly as possible, and we were starting to enter 'no matter what it takes' territory. "You were rich. I was poor. They bused me into your neighborhood for classes and the wheels couldn't jump the socio-economic lines." I will say this in front of a witness if you make me... "That didn't really matter," he smiled. "Come on -- I remember Cyndi trying to fix us up a couple of times. I nearly took you to the prom, remember? But you always said no." And finally we're into things that actually happened: Cyndi had tried to fix us up, exactly twice, and he had asked me to the prom. Six boys had asked me, and Cyndi had talked to every one of them first. "And even if it did matter -- we're a long way from high school now, right?" Such a handsome face, so much sincerity in his expression. "Come on. You and me, dinner, Saturday. I promise not to ask you about the show. But I reserve the right to ask about what you've been doing with yourself for the last five years. Ever since everyone missed you at graduation..." Part of the reason I didn't go was so no one would have a chance to aim! And that was all I could take. I'd had a few people ask me out ever since the UPS delivery started off the parade of in-person date requests, and I'd given them all the same answer: not while the show's running, it's too awkward for everyone. As an excuse, it had the benefit of being completely believable, although nearly everyone insisted on hearing it as a postponement until after the Reunion. It might even work as an answer here. But -- "You're right, Matt -- we are a long way from high school." Fist clenching at my side: I didn't care if he saw it. "That means we're free to talk about the rape now." Smile: gone. Confidence: present, but with a network of cracks spreading out from the hit. Voice: steady. "Look -- I know how those rumors got started --" -- the cut-off snort was borrowed directly from Gardener. I probably owed him a usage fee. "Yeah. So do I. You rape someone at a party, she calls up all her friends to cry and boy, those rumors just start." Watch the crevices spread towards the face... "I also know how other rumors get started. Let's run down a few, okay? 'She's a slut. She sleeps with everyone. She's just after money from an out-of-court settlement. I made a mistake sleeping with her and I'd never do it again, now that I know what kind of blackmailer she is...' You know the sick part, Matt? I came this close to believing you, because you always sounded so hurt and victimized over the whole thing. And then I found her crying her eyes out behind the gym one day when I was sneaking out from lunch." Because I always snuck out of lunch. I held the world record for least number of cafeteria sessions suffered through from ninth grade on: twelve out of six hundred and twenty-eight, which included taking out the snow and sick days plus in-school suspensions. Number of times caught on the way back in: best not thought about (and had led to some of the suspensions). "I remember Sybil. She never cried. Tough and strong and nose-in-the-air, that was Sybil. Tougher than anything she was near, as long as she was near it -- and then she wasn't near anyone, because all those rumors spread with you disbursing them, and she couldn't be tough any more..." The darkness was spreading towards the eyes, lips fallen inward... "Of course, she stopped two days later. Permanently." Suicide has a way of halting tears, at least for the person committing it. I'd tried to talk to her that day. I'd actually approached someone who'd been on Cyndi's crew until Cyndi had dumped her, because Cyndi had believed the rumors or told herself that she did: gaining the benefits from knowing Matt was so much more important than anyone she had once lied about considering as a friend. Sybil had run from me. She'd never returned to school. Two days after that, the announcement over the loudspeaker... I kept looking at Matt, kept my eyes locked into his even as the cracks reached his pupils. "But do you know how I really figured it out, Matt? Because Cyndi never tried to fix me up with someone unless she thought they'd hurt me. Every boy she ever tried to put me together with had a reputation for smacking their girlfriends around, minimum -- and after the rape, you suddenly joined the parade. Part of her knew, even if the rest didn't care." The sounds of scanning from behind me had completely stopped. And now his hands were closing, fingers curling inwards -- "-- go for it." My left arm went back, fist ready, fabric scraping across and away from the skin with the sudden movement: the jacket had never fit right anywhere. "You may be twice my size, but --" -- he'd stopped. Completely stopped moving. Rosanne, just barely visible in the overhead angle mirror, had stopped reaching for the phone. And Matt's next words weren't tinged with anger, but with fear. "Your -- your arm..." Oh. Oh, that was right: the jacket sleeve had gone back and taken the blouse's covering with it. I could feel the warm arm on my skin. "Yeah. My arm. So?" He couldn't look at my face. He was looking at the scars. Nothing else. I had a free shot if I wanted it, but I also had a witness, and I'd wanted him to shut up and leave me alone forever far more than I'd wanted an actual fight -- -- and if it somehow came down to a fight -- -- he just wasn't scary any more. Matt took a single, shuddering breath -- and the cracks vanished. He finally brought his gaze back to my eyes. "I'm sorry you believed those rumors about it being a rape, Alex. I'm sorry Sybil killed herself, but she was a screwed-up girl -- we all knew that once she started trying to convince people I'd done anything to her except what she'd asked me to do. I'll never be able to convince you of the truth, and I'd be wasting my time to try." Just a little bitterly, "I guess dinner is out." I hadn't relaxed my hand yet. "You think?" Stand ready, just in case... "I guess I'll try another post office." He started towards the door. Backing towards the door. "I wish I could say it was nice seeing you again, Alex... I still hope you do well on the show." "I'll keep that in mind." Slowly, "I want you to keep in mind that I see a police officer pretty much every day, Matt, because not everyone is as happy about my being on the show as you are. I want you to know I'll be telling her every detail of this, just in case. I want you to remember that if you ever touch me, no matter how much bigger than me you are, I will do my damnedest to make sure I leave behind evidence that no one will ever miss... Oh, and do me a favor?" A total guess out of nowhere, wild shot in the dark, but it felt right. "Tell Cyndi it didn't work this time, either?" He was looking at the scars again, eyes almost horrifically wide. Back to my face as his heel met the door, back to the scars -- -- he's afraid of me! It was an incredible moment. Matt Hough, golden boy, heir, king of the school, lord of the hill, was afraid of me... ...and he was gone. Back first, so that the last thing I saw was his terrified eyes. "You make enemies like a craftsman." This sigh was completely internal. I had that one for a long time, Jeff. He was just more in the background than the others. But the last thing he wants to do is reopen the case in any way, from new rounds of the old rumors on up... and I am going to tell Officer Ramirez about this tomorrow. "She'll be mad at you." She would. I'd be told that I should have just brushed him off as many times as it took and left it at that. Except that Matt was the type who, once he gotten a target in his firsthand sights, would never take 'no' for an answer. And thus, the rape and the words I'd heard through Sybil's tears. Let her be mad. This one may not be a no-reprisal victory, either... but I don't think he wants to take the chance. Hell, I'm going right to the station -- why give him any opportunity? Aloud, "Save me from any more class reunions..." I turned back to Rosanne. "Sorry about that." Her mouth was slightly agape. Slowly, "I have the security tapes if you need them." "Thanks." That would help. He'd pulled back first, I'd seen it, and I knew some of the police on both sides of the hill would love any excuse to talk to Matt. There had only been the one rape. There had been a lot of stories emerging from the parties. The full-fledged cocaine festivals, for starters. "I remember those stories," she said, hand shakily reaching for the next package. "He was such a handsome boy -- it was so hard to believe he would have done anything. Do you really think...?" "Yes." No doubt for years now. "Everyone knew." And most of them wanted to be friends with someone who could get out of that. The charges had been dropped after Sybil's death: her parents hadn't seen any point in going on, and had left the area a month later. "But knowing and proving are always two different things." Why hadn't I been afraid? "I guess..." She scanned the package. "Alex?" I looked back at her -- I'd been checking the door, just in case. "Your -- arm?" Oh. Right. I pushed both sleeves back into place. "I'm not allowed to talk about that, either." --------------------------------------------------------------- During --------------------------------------------------------------- {Hmmm. Episode #5. Did anything even remotely important happen during this episode? Let me think... nope, pretty normal all around. This would be a perfect time to take a bathroom break. See you all in roughly fifteen minutes -- wait a minute, there's a member of the crew in front of my door! How did he get here? Hey, everyone's supposed to have equal access to the bathroom at all times, unless you're a mother of three living in a house with two teenage girls, in which case, forgot it! Come on, move! I can have you permanently thrown out of my house for this!} {We start with Turare and Desmond making an admission that we probably would have let him get away with as part of the Australia pool, loyal fan that he would have been, and which currently still falls into the 'completely inexcusable' category. I'll go the editing thread one harsher: his game chances essentially died right here. Burnett was not telling the story of the series-naive sexist who just happened to stumble along under the radar all the way to a million dollars. At least, not this time. Applications for future seasons will be considered as they arrive.} {Angela & Tony are in one of their good moods in this scenelet, and migawd, Tony's still bragging about the fish...} {Over to the challenge. Gardener provides the only briefing Haraiki is going to hear regarding Frank, and then provides the words Connie doesn't want to hear regarding herself. We now know why Phillip didn't take well to that: it was an insult against his alliance partner, and he probably has some country gentleman values about speaking ill of women -- note that he's never joined in on Connie's trashing of Alex, either. In fact, from what little we've seen, Phillip likes Alex as much as he likes everyone else -- there's probably some friction over that with Connie which we haven't been seeing.} {It still feels really funny to have had Jeff not narrate a single tribal switch...} {Y'know what I think? There probably was one scheduled when the season started -- but then Burnett saw what he had with these two groups, and decided to go back to Survivor Classic for a little while. With all the twists and switches and distortions he's thrown at the tribes -- and the audience -- to keep everyone guessing, the one thing no one was looking for was a return to what was once our 'normal'. We kept waiting for things to be switched up and out, figured two semi-interesting groups that were kind of at each other's throats would have to transfer members eventually -- and it didn't happen. All our waiting did was keep us watching. And suddenly, Turare and Haraiki are at the merge having had the chance to develop more of a cohesive tribal identity than any groups in what feels like a very long time -- and they enter tied. The recap is your basic temporary freeze on the Armageddon timer. Burnett could not have had this work out better if he tried -- which is why some people are saying he did try. I swear to God, I never actually thought anyone would support Desmond's conspiracy theory until the moment they showed up...} {There's only a few hundred of them. Around here, that doesn't even come close to being a voting block.} {just because i think i have evidence that the footage of your precious cartoonist finding the idol was doctored...} {I have to tell you, I am not being encouraged by my steady push towards the middle. At least I can use her last name.} {I have to tell you, if Connie is still around when my summary episode arrives, I am totally stealing your 'Connie Lastings-Adams, The Spectacular Spider-Christian' joke. Imagine the costume.} {...too late. Must go throw up now... was doing fine until I pictured the rosary beads being shot rapid-fire from her wrists...} {You got wrists? Lucky -- you don't want to know where I had them coming from...} {And the challenge. You know, this is really a pity. We finally had one designed expressly for Mitchell, and he never got anywhere near it. Can you imagine him running this course? All he would have needed was a pair of platform shoes.} {Robin's Moment Of Glory -- watch her move, but watch fast, because she's not going to be out there for long. Can you imagine her in the final Immunity challenge if it's another ExI balance run? Anyone up against her might as well just jump into the water right there. She's going to be unbeatable if that comes up again -- but what are the odds she gets that far?} {Right now? As a certain frequently-speaking expert on show matters would say, she has a one-in-ten chance -- at a million dollars!} {For those on the editing thread who believe Angela can be taken out of herself very easily, note that she likes to try and move in straight lines...} {Alex's Moment Of Ouchie -- Jeff sounds a little rueful here. They really should have realized Azure was going to need more than a few treats to keep her distracted and quiet. That only works with the human contestants.} {Tony trying to impress too many people too much with too little -- there's his entire career in twelve words.} (And because it's not as if we've seen Desmond fall down enough times during this show, a brief condensed montage. Just a few of Desmond's Greatest Hits. Soon to be available on DVD. Ask about the special concert footage.} {Haraiki wins! Haraiki wins! We knew that already, but we've had so few chances to say it!} {Skip over most of Storm #2 -- Mary-Jane and Gardener arguing over Alex going next, Haraiki huddled in their shelter (and bathroom) trying to find the dry spots...} {A little bit from the poker game -- Alex wants to know why the first three community cards are called 'the flop'. Gardener says "Because that's when your hopes and dreams from the first two cards completely fall apart." Funny semi-demi-expression on Alex's face right there -- bet she's thinking about the Tarot reading.} {Angela uses the P-word and sets up for us not getting to see it work out that way -- at least, not immediately -- and new scene: Robin gets up in the middle of the night -- the rest of Haraiki is asleep -- and decides to have a nice, long, luxurious shower where there's no real hot water, but the tank is never going to run dry because the tank is the entire island and let's face it: water is available. Sounds of a happy Robin softly singing her delight at the new birdbath, and then -- Tony walks in on her. Because it's the middle of the night and who's going to close the latch on the door? We can't see his face from this angle -- no way to tell if he was too sleepy to realize it was occupied or just going for the free look -- but the peaceful night gets very loud in a hell of a hurry. The rest of Haraiki emerges to find Robin screaming at Tony from the relative safety of the shower, asking him what he thinks he was doing and going into enough bleeps to make Gordon start hunting for just where his long-lost daughter left the genetic trail. Peace is eventually restored (by Phillip, naturally) and Tony insists he was just really tired, aimed for the bathroom and missed, but Robin's a lot less than happy when she finally emerges. Angela may have bought the story, but she's right in front of Tony... no real way to tell. Everyone finally goes to bed, and we stay with the camp long enough to watch Angela's clothes catch fire. Just not a good night for Tony all around, with the possible exception of the free look.} {Jeff narrates about Alex having had an idea, and then makes his most horrifying transformation to date: right into -- the Chenbot! "But first..." And there's the confrontation with Jake. Not all of it, but way more than enough to get the idea.} {We can put it in context this time, though. Jake clearly still hates Alex for what she did on Day One -- gee, I think that's the first sign of that we've seen since the show started. He's really in the clear minority there -- and he'll do anything he can to make her feel uncomfortable, starting from oobie shots and heading on through carrying a gun just to intimidate her. Yeah, right. Intimidate Alex. Good luck. If there's anything she knows, it's the rulebook, and part of it very clearly says 'If a member of the crew touches a contestant, they're gone.' Just the same as if a contestant got thrown out for going after the crew. All she has to do is ignore it, and he can't do anything to her.} {Not completely sure -- I don't think Alex is going to crack under what little pressure Jake can bring, but Cameron said he'd been carrying the gun for a few days before being switched back to Turare...} {Then put it on what Trooper said: we're looking at the All-American Jerk. He's got sunglasses, he's got a tiny amount of power, he's got a gun -- if he didn't have the camera, he'd be stopping people for going 55.1 in a 55 zone in some small town just to get the $1000 fine plus his central pleasure: watching their faces as he locked them up for a night in his personal Exile Island. Imagine his pick-up lines. "Hey, baby, wanna go home with me? I shoot reality stars." And he spends every night wishing that his words will one day be a new kind of literal.} {Angela still wishing for a redo on that first formal meeting. 'Look -- are you sure you weren't actually trying to become a stripper and just got the definition horribly wrong? It's a comic strip, isn't it? See! I was right! She's the one who doesn't know what she's actually supposed to be doing!'} {Over to the John Nash Memorial Challenge, and you know something? Haraiki still hasn't figured out a counter! Lots of time-lapse here after the first gambit, and Jeff narrating about exactly how this worked, noting that Turare never lied a second time, but Haraiki crossed themselves up in constantly searching for it -- and by the time he's finished saying that, the score is 25-11, and the humiliation was complete long before he reached the middle of the sentence.} {New scene, and get your slash marks ready, people: Trooper took Alex fishing on Day Fifteen. Actually, he's teaching her how to fish, and she's very reluctant to get going -- what if she loses a hook? They have so few, and she's never done casting before... Trooper gives her very careful instruction, which leads to her snagging his shorts once and the camera twice, but she eventually gets the idea of 'aim' down and actually brings in a few fish, which turn into the next meal. Interesting -- that's just about a bonding experience. Put that together with Trooper's 'Well, maybe there's an idol around here and maybe there isn't: I'm not sure I care any more' search on Day Eighteen, and you can really start to see him switching his vote.} {At Haraiki, we see Tony being sent out to find the idol, get a shot of him actually picking it up -- he does seem to recognize it and have some vague idea what it's for -- before the camera cuts to Denadi looking in the exact same place the next day and coming up empty.} {Tribal Council, and then a little bit from after Haraiki got back to camp -- Angela firmly telling Tony that he didn't have to volunteer the information to Jeff: only give what you're asked for, and sometimes not even then. Tony, who never saw a sign where he didn't have to call into the dugout -- 'Hey, coach, you want me to steal, right?' -- doesn't seem to have much of a grip on the concept. Denadi leaves, we get a quick reprise of her final words where she basically hopes to get hit on the head as she leaves the last confessional so she can develop immediate and permanent amnesia about this part of her life -- commercials.} {So far, some of this actually feels like an expansion on the material we got already, instead of just a way to fill an extra ninety minutes. Kind of makes you wonder what a two-hour episode would look like for a single-cycle show.} {Find the tooth marks in your keyboard from last time, then bite down harder. Not gonna happen. I'm just barely getting used to ninety, and the summarizers are crying out in pain every week. All this is showing us -- again -- is how much can really happen in a typical three days, and how little of it we actually see. There's a lot more stories here than the one that Burnett eventually chooses to tell.} {No argument there. But we still haven't figured out just whose story will be standing at the end...} -----------------------------------------------------------------   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Estee 44384 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Playboy Centerfold" 08-29-06, 11:34 PM (EST) 9. "I'm Not Very Good At 'Hope': Conclusion." LAST EDITED ON 09-01-06 AT 08:08 PM (EST) After ----------------------------------------------------------------- Laundry night. I wash some of my clothes at home -- anything that can be done in the sink and drip-dry in the shower afterwards -- but there are items which won't cooperate with that treatment and naturally, they're the most expensive ones. So every so often, I have to stuff the bag and walk a few blocks to the 24-hour laundromat. It's worth the trip, at least financially -- while my building has two pairs of washers and dryers available for tenant use, the cost per washload is double that of the larger facility, and the dryer offers a whole twelve minutes and ten seconds of hot air time per payment. (And you only get the ten seconds if you bang on the ancient fan housing to keep it going.) All things considered, I walk. He gets enough of my income already. The problem is that laundromats are gossip centers. There isn't much else to do. You can sit and read -- very few -- or draw -- one -- watch any of the multiple battered televisions -- several -- or spread whatever juicy rumor you've heard last -- lots and lots. It never used to bother me because I was so seldom the target of gossip, and I was never the recipient of it -- at least, not within the languages I could understand. Once, a recent arrival leaned over to me and said something in what I think was German. It sounded like a very hot topic. I had no idea what she was trying to tell me, but it definitely came across as important. These days, I was the central topic. No, everyone in the neighborhood didn't watch the show -- or at least, they hadn't when it started. But some did, and recognized me. They told a few others that a reality contestant was in the neighborhood. And they told more people -- who called up more people -- Email might have gotten involved somewhere: I didn't exactly have the only computer in a five-block radius -- and now, the ratings share for Haledon on Thursday nights was approaching one hundred percent. The ratio of people in the laundromat who muttered to themselves when they saw me enter and occasionally brandished crosses in my direction: closer to one in five. So Wednesday night (moving into Thursday morning) was the time for laundry, the wee hours when the gangs cleared the streets in the name of a midweek break -- even sidewalk stalkers had to sleep sometime. The laundromat was relatively empty: one night manager, a bunch of security cameras just in case someone tried to break into the coin machine, and the occasional college student who didn't trust the notorious money-eating dorm units and couldn't get to sleep after the latest twelve-page paper anyway. I'd cut across the usual number of alleys and gotten in without any problems. No one had started anything since I'd arrived, mostly because there was no one around to start. There had been a problem here once, long ago -- three newly-initiated gang members (only one tattoo each) had come in on a night when I'd had insomnia and been doing laundry in the dark time for lack of anything better to work on. They'd been running the old charity scam: please give us all your money and we'll give it to a good cause: The Foundation For Letting You Live. I'd refused. They'd started to pull out the non-subtle threats -- very new members -- the night manager had started to make his usual noises about not wanting trouble and calling the police if he had to because he paid protection to the senior members of this gang and he didn't feel he was getting his money's worth -- and I'd pointed out one small fact that I really felt they should have their attention called to. Yes, there were three of them. Yes, collectively, they outweighed me by A Lot. They could definitely finish me off in a matter of seconds and do whatever they wanted to the body. But -- -- I had an open bottle of bleach. I would be dead. They would be blind. Both states would be permanent. The gang probably wouldn't have much use for blind members, unless the wars got to the point where they had to start using mobile mine detectors. They'd stared at each other, declared me to be insane, and left. It had taken a very long time for my laundry to wrap up, and even longer before I'd been able to make myself leave the building, not until the first hint of sunlight touched the sky. I'd been terrified that night. I'd slept badly (or not at all) for weeks afterwards. I'd been nineteen, and anything could have happened to me, because so much had happened before... I hadn't gone back to the laundromat until I was on my absolute last pair of clothes, I'd just barely managed to talk myself into going, and ten minutes after I'd arrived -- the gang had returned. Only this time, I got the leader, plus two bodyguards. He'd walked up to me -- not too close: I still had plenty of bleach -- looked me over, and then said that the new boys had to know better than to make a mess where he made money, or at least words to that effect. So he was sorry. Wouldn't happen again. And by the way, the new boys weren't part of the gang any more. It wasn't just me: there had been -- problems. And he'd left. It wasn't about the inherent nobility of gangs or any of the other lies that some of the music tries to tell. It was about the dual elements that create gangs: fear and respect. I'd made the new boys fear me. That lost them respect in the eyes of the elders. I'd gained a tiny amount of respect, but I'd only keep it as long as I showed the proper amount of fear... The leader died four months later. It had made the front page of the paper: shootout. He'd been suspected in connection with several murders. He was twenty-three. But from coincidence or legacy, I'd never had any gang problems since. Not direct ones, at least. (Graffiti didn't count.) I called it coincidence and hoped nothing new started. For years, nothing had. But -- on that night, I'd been afraid. For weeks, I'd been afraid. Yesterday, my fear response with Matt had been minimal -- almost nil. Very little with the bottle in the first week of airtime: I'd reacted, but it had diminished quickly. I hadn't been as cautious on the streets as I could have been, because fear directs caution... I just wasn't feeling fear as much as I used to. Why? "It's Alex, right?" The words did not come as a shock. I'd seen the man come in, and dismissed him as a threat -- people in their late sixties are generally past the gang stage of their lives. Afrimerican male, receding hairline with what little remained all the way into white, lots of wrinkles in both his face and the extremely old suit he was wearing, toting a big bag of laundry that very probably didn't have a machine gun in the bottom. "I thought I knew your face, but these eyes aren't what they used to be." Oh, great... And things had been going so well. "Yes." No point in denying it. There were times when locking myself in my apartment for the duration of the dehydration process started to sound good. This entire week, for starters. I could still hear Officer Ramirez chewing me out. 'Yes, everyone knows he did it and the only reason nothing happened is because the family dropped the charges after that poor girl's death, he doesn't do anything because he knows he's on our bad list and he's got about seven towns watching him, but I swear he stays just to laugh at us! You cannot confront people like that! You did the right thing in coming straight to me, but you should have just left immediately in the first place!' And then we'd had a rerun of our very old talk about how walking out on a problem only told it to follow you and stab you in the back -- at least, I'd gone over my lines, and she still didn't believe them. I'd thought there was a tiny chance I might have solved the problem because I'd seen that he was afraid of me. She couldn't believe that anyone would ever be, certainly not long-term. Well, that might change eventually... He sighed. "You sound like you're my age, young lady," he told me. "Too many years in too few years... I imagine this is where you come to get some peace. I won't bother you for long." After much effort, the laundry bag was set down on top of the machine. "I'd just like to ask you two questions." And right into the set speech. "I'm sorry -- I'm not allowed to talk about future events on the show or go too much into past ones. I'm under contract, and --" "-- it's not about the show." He smiled, and it reminded me of Gary. "Well, maybe a little. But it's about nothing that happened there. Just two questions, and I promise I'll leave you alone." It was my turn to sigh. I was tired. Maybe I was even sixty-plus worth of tired. "The worst thing that can happen is that I get some more practice in saying no..." His eyes seemed to twinkle. "First question. Do you still wear that cross?" The blink was automatic: the response was not. I hadn't told my hand to reach under the jacket's neckline and bring up the chain: not enough to pull the cross out, but just enough to show the chain was attached to something. But it acted anyway. Stupid hand... The man nodded, just once. "Second question. Why?" I looked at him -- directly at him: he was my height, rare for a male. He seemed sincere enough and I was so tired, I'd stayed up late just to get some things washed, I didn't have the strength for lies... "I don't know." I let go of the chain. "It was with me through a lot. I guess I've just gotten used to the weight of it -- I feel weird if I don't put it on in the morning. It's not as if I need to start any fires. It's just -- part of my wardrobe." For complete and utter lack of several better terms. Another nod, and then "You don't believe." It was a plain statement: no offense taken or being looked for. "You didn't believe in those cards and you don't believe in that cross, except as something solid. I think you believe in something now -- I can see in your eyes that you found something, but I will be damned if I know what it is." He chuckled. "But I don't see hatred in those gray eyes, and I don't see much anger. Not directed towards that cross, anyway." And a head shake. "There are people calling you all wrong without having gotten this close, and I can't exactly make all of them quit. But I can tell mine when they need to stop and think before they start to scream." And a casual look up and down: no survey, just a silent memorization. "I'm Pastor Roberts. I don't think you're ever going to come and find me -- but if you ever need to, I think you know where to look. That's my two -- we'd better both get some washing done." He turned away, digging in his old brown pockets for quarters. I had absolutely no idea what had just happened. First Trina tells me I don't believe on one glance, months later and this one comes along, and between those two... Maybe I already had a sign hung around my neck: Non-Believer. Do Not Cross. No Pun Intended. Back to the laundry, loading the machine while breathing in the residue of mixed detergent brands, feeling bleach fumes sting my eyes while listening to the multi-lingual babble of the televisions... Belief? I believed in Trina a lot more than I had on Day Six. Did that count? -------------------------------------------------------- During -------------------------------------------------------- {While we're still in break: did we ever get a Sucks riddle for the recap?} {No -- but he posted one early for next week. 'You can't always finish what you start.' I'm thinking that's another long-termer -- we got one at the beginning of Tribal that still hasn't worked out, so maybe he's throwing out another one for the launch of individual. His stuff's been sort of like the idol clues: they make sense in retrospect, but good luck figuring them out on first look. But like us, he's standing by on the next episode of all-new material, or at least the latest attempt to guide a new wagon wheel through the same old rut.} {Except that the wagon keeps careening along the edge of a cliff...} {Last recap segment for the night -- since it's the most recent airdate, this should be the shortest one -- starts at Haraiki and with a reprise of Connie & Phillip's alliance conference after Denadi's ouster. New scenelet: Robin exploring a little before they have to leave for the challenge. In confessional, "It's to my advantage to be as familiar with the area as possible. The more I see, the more I might be able to connect to an idol clue. They can't keep it in and around camp -- they probably want to plant it where we'll have to really get away in order to hunt for it, risk missing vital conversations in exchange for possibly grabbing Immunity. The others are being idiots by sticking close to camp -- once the difficulty goes up, they'll be handing me the idol." Fair point, and it sounds like something the producers would think about doing, but we don't know how long the idols are going to last. We've got two coming up, and after that -- well, that could be it: normal votes until the end. I doubt it, but it's not impossible.} {The only thing I'm personally sure of there is that they'll cut out before Final Three. No way someone gets to idol-waltz their way in front of the jury -- it'll be the usual dogfight. I hope. It feels like it's been a while since the last major struggle.} {A quick review of Turare's 'I thought I'd finish in...' discussion -- and it's time for the Reward challenge. Watch the reaction shots as Jeff announces what they're playing for. Robin would trade a complete map of the island with idol spots marked on it for one pork chop. You don't want to know what she would have done if she'd known there was Coke involved. She's already admitted to being a coffee fiend -- by now, any caffeine will do.} {Jeff narrates about how some struggled -- Connie -- some excelled -- Trooper -- and some nearly pushed themselves too far to win -- Alex. Personally, I think this entire episode was the Death card: Alex nearly takes herself out during the challenge, officially meets her series end because of Desmond's stupidity, and then resurrects herself with the idol.} {The rifle, Azure loses it -- what's the pulling power on one parrot, anyway? -- and we go immediately to a snippet of Gary Explaining It All To You. Next week, Gary will explain how to beat a 5-5 merge. Oh, and exactly how that kid keeps getting in through his bedroom window. You'd think he would have started using a latch by now.} {I liked that little look at Haraiki's huddle around the puzzle pieces. What is this? What does it do? Is there any chance we can get a pork barbecue out of it? Angela's PolSci degree wasn't designed for this.} {Three college degrees there, and not a single clue...} {Three college degrees?} {Angela: Political Science. Robin: Dance -- Julliard. Phillip: Agriculture -- believe it or not, he's a Cornhusker all the way through. Comparable to Turare -- Gardener has a degree in Education, Gary's got one in Accounting, and Trooper's been going for Criminology in his off hours: it was in his profile. Desmond, Mary-Jane, Tony, Alex, and Connie are high-school graduates.} {I'll top that: Alex didn't finish high school. At least, not conventionally. According to The Smoking Gun, she has an equivalency diploma and while she aced that, her grades in HS sucked. She took the test a little before formal graduation for her school and got out: never collected the real diploma. There's a picture of it on the site -- still in a dust-covered file at the school, waiting to see if she'll ever come and get it.} {That's weird... why duck and run before you could officially finish? Any details on what happened there?} {No -- TSG said they've been trying to get more, but most of the records are sealed. Remember, she's only twenty-three -- the majority of her life falls under the juvee privacy statutes. Not that our favorite public humiliation site has ever cared about anyone's privacy, but it makes it harder to get information out. And she's done nothing notable -- or illegal -- as an adult. It's not like those awards she won for cartooning had fixed votes.} {Angela drawing Sudoku diagrams in the beach sand at Haraiki -- telling the camera she has to work on her puzzle skills, just in case. Of course, it takes a special person to figure out a solvable Sudoku grid from scratch, including planting her own clues, and Angela can't do it -- she tries to set one up, but time-lapse gives us her erasing and starting over several times until she finally figures out that her beginning configuration guaranteed her two 7s in one subgrid no matter what she did. She retreats in disgust, muttering about how at least it was good practice for spotting mistakes in anything the producers hand them...} {The Reward dinner at Turare and Coke gets embarrassed all over again, because Alex still isn't going to have one. Jeff has some funny narration here before they show the exert. "They were ready for twists. They were ready for challenges. But there was no way they could have been ready for the most surprising news of all." Next up: Hershey cries into their chocolate pillow upon learning that Alex has never had a single bar. It's addictive, y'know.} {New confessional from Gary: "I like the balance of challenge forces we have for after the merge. Gardener can take strength-based areas, Trooper handles speed, Alex grabs the puzzles, and Mary-Jane and I can show at least a little something in all departments." Pause. "Desmond can -- well, Desmond can -- wait, I'm thinking..." He's grinning, but you can see he's a little worried about it. Yeah, Desmond could have been the classic 'Why vote him out? He'll never win...' and then the last Immunity turns out to be something he can actually do. They're better off.} {Better off at five-five than six-four?} {Fair enough -- we're better off.} {New scene -- night at Turare, everyone's around the fire finishing dinner, and here comes someone on the crew... you know, we really need a scorecard for these people.} -------------------------------------------------------- This argument is not going to be settled any time soon. We've been going back and forth over it all night, and the others have reached the point where they're just watching in amusement to see who's going to quit first. "The whole point of having a clock is so you can run it out. Football teams are terrified of letting their opponents actually play. 'Oh, no -- we've got a lead! Let's do nothing and have it take up as much time as possible!' You don't get comebacks in football because football's built around the idea of not having them happen. Clock management is just an excuse for not letting the opposition get into the game." Gardener shakes his head. "And your so-called comebacks only have half a chance to happen because it's only the home team who gets the bottom of the ninth." "Oh, come on." It would be nice if he went with something that made sense. "The other team gets the top half." "Sure," Gardener replies, trying to sound halfway reasonable. This is generally known as 'the first clue'. "But let's say the home team is behind or tied and comes back in their precious last at-bat. The instant they go ahead, one run or four, the game is over. The team they got ahead of never gets a chance to respond. How is that more fair than football?" Oh. Ouch. Um... "Well -- each team gets eighty-one chances at that walk-off comeback. A leading football team can sit on the ball sixteen times a season." Gardener snorts. "Last time I looked, no one had gotten the chance to play clock-killer sixteen times in a regular season... So what would you be happy with: home field team gets a final drive to respond?" That sounds kind of promising, but there's a catch. "It doesn't work -- the comeback from one or more scores down is a lot more common in baseball. If you get one last drive, you get three, seven, or eight final points out of it. It doesn't do any good if you're down by more than that. In baseball, you keep going until you run out of outs -- maybe the football team could keep going until they stop scoring..." "Except that in baseball, you get three chances not to advance your players before it's over," Gardener argues. "Or two, and the third one ends things, depends on how you look at it. Three non-scoring drives, and the game is over? Sure -- the networks will be happy to take a TV package that includes that air-time waster -- hang on..." His tongue works around his teeth until he extracts a bit of previously-stuck pork. "Got it. Look, Alex, I'm not exactly happy about the college overtime system: I score, you score, I score... part of me wouldn't mind one and done, except that the instant it happens, my guys are going to be on the wrong end of 'done'. And I know that when we're down, I hate seeing the other team sit on the clock -- except that I know we're entitled to do it if we get ahead. And even in that sense, maybe the rule does stink -- but name another that would work. At least the current one stinks equally for all noses. You can never destroy a system unless you have something to put in its place." He sounds like he's quoting again. "So fine -- football's got problems. I'll be the six millionth person to admit it. But baseball is not the better sport." I take a slow breath, getting ready for Salvo #4 -- how football radio coverage is a nightmare and baseball is a dream, which is how I became a fan in the first place: it's a lot easier to smuggle in earphones and follow a baseball game on a dollar store AM set than it is to keep any idea of where twenty-two people are on the field based on audio -- but then we get an unfamiliar sound, and everyone looks up to see what's producing the squeaks. It turns out to be a cart with a DVD player and small flatscreen TV mounted on it (both plugged into a battery box), being pushed in from the beach trail. A production staff member is directing it across the clearing -- and Jeff is following him in. Mary-Jane blinks. She clearly thinks she knows what this is -- we all have a really good idea -- but she wants to get rid of the other possibility first, just in case. "Hi, Jeff -- this is a weird hour for a twist..." Jeff smiles a little at that. "I'm not bringing one. Put it in front of the shelter, Todd -- the firelight's best there." Gary goes for the primary option. "Frank's video?" Jeff nods. "Frank's video." And that stops the meal in its tracks. We all put the very little that's left of our Reward food down and turn to face the cart, watching as it's slowly eased through the dirt. Some very expensive electronic equipment is being transported on something that escaped from an underfunded A-V department. This was clearly not borrowed from the mansion. Jeff's paying a little attention to the process, but not much. "So this is Home Base Turare..." He walks over to the shelter and gives the semi-awning a couple of thumps. Nothing collapses. "Solid." Desmond preens. "You're telling me you've never seen it?" Mary-Jane teases. Because those hourly updates don't include a single picture, really they don't. "I haven't been in this clearing," Jeff partially clears up. "I never got to scout the original camp sites." He kneels down next to the table, raps it. The table also holds together. "I didn't get to be part of the advance team this time... other things to do..." A small, very unexpected sigh. "There's days I'd love to be out here, but we don't always get what we want." "Want to trade places?" Gary, with a very big grin. Jeff glances over as he heads back to the shelter -- and goes inside. "I've thought about it." Group shock. "What it would be like to play as a contestant, after seeing everything everyone's done. No way not to think about it." Trooper's curious. "How did you think you'd do?" I'm very glad he asked that: I really want to hear this... "First out of my tribe," Jeff replies. He grins at our group shock. "Well, what did you think? I'd be The Man Who Knew Too Much. No one would ever believe I hadn't been briefed on all the challenges beforehand, plus we'd get the inevitable 'He's already made his money hosting: he doesn't need the prize...' I'd last for exactly as long as my group could keep Immunity, and then goodbye, Probst. In the event of a Korror run, I'd be gone the instant I didn't have the necklace. The only chance I'd have would be in a show with fifteen to nineteen other reality hosts, and good luck working out everyone's schedule to find thirty-nine mutual free days. Cesternino could take my place for a few weeks..." The trail-off is because he's gotten to my pallet -- and seen my sketchbook sitting under it. He reaches for it -- "-- ready here, Jeff," Todd calls out. "We can roll when you say go." Jeff pauses -- then comes back out. I force the exhale to come out slowly. No, there's nothing embarrassing in there, and I've shown the others their portraits on request just to prove that caricatures weren't on my agenda -- but the thought of Jeff paging through it is still a weird one. We all reorient on our ground pads to face the television set, which is slightly odd to see. It's like being on the changing boat again: after spending so many days telling myself I can live without technology, getting a reminder of it just doesn't feel right. (It's a lot easier to pretend you can do without when you never get a chance to have any.) Gardener's having a similar problem. "Hey, Jeff -- about trades -- if that thing gets ESPN..." Jeff's bemused, but he's not in the mood to host a swap meet. "Keep your luxury item, Gardener -- this is just what we promised we'd do. Nothing more." He takes his usual position for video: standing off to the side of the screen, angled so that he can see it and be in the shot -- while looking like he's peering more at us than it. "Ready?" We could not be readier. "Here goes." He turns the set on. The battery box does its job, Jeff pushes a few buttons, and... ...Frank. He looks so weak. He's lost more weight in the few days since his medivac than he did in his entire stay on the island: his eyes seem to have sunken back into their sockets, and his arms seem thin, in part because the tubes from the IVs going in at the elbows overshadow them where they lie at his sides. Someone's shaved him: no beard stubble, but no sideburns either. It changes his entire face, brings out how sharp his cheekbones have become under the skin. Pillows are piled behind him, propping him so he can look at the camera: he may not be able to sit up on his own. But he's alive and he's up to talking, even if he has to speak slowly to save his strength... "Hey, dudes..." Franks begins, and Gary smiles at that. "Yeah, I know. You're probably all still mad at me for cutting the numbers by one. I don't even know who I'm talking to right now -- they won't update me on the game. Could be a switch and half of Haraiki is in the camp with you, could be an early merge... not a clue, guys. But I'm gonna guess I've got Turare looking, and they'll show this to anyone who went out." He stops for a few seconds, gathering his strength again. "I don't have an excuse and I'm not gonna try and invent one. I screwed up. I know it. I'll probably spend the whole Reunion apologizing for it, if Jeff gives me more than my thirteen-place twenty-three seconds." Which gets a raised eyebrow and very small smile from Jeff. "But I know what happened with you guys. I know you came out looking for me -- I know you saved my life..." Slowly, "Timing, dudes. The faster they got me to medical equipment, the better my chances were. Ten more minutes, and..." Very tired now. "I owe you. All of you. Even Azure." Who's watching from her perch, although she's watching Jeff more than she is the screen. "Because if Alex hadn't gone out to find her, didn't know the path that well..." A long sigh, and a longer pause. "I'm sorry. That's not enough, but it's all I've got. I can't fix things for you. I can't come back and give you an extra vote. I can just be sorry. Sorry sucks... it's the weakest damn word in the world..." Another silence -- and then he rallies. The ghost of a grin manifests on his face. "Okay. Enough with the depressing stuff. I got your messages, and I've got some things I want to say back. Desmond." Who sits up a little straighter, waiting. "Dude, did you get any part of your lifetime coming in from the outside? You're too locked in, man... I screwed up and I know it, but I screwed up on taking a stupid chance on something new, and you'll screw up based on never taking any..." In the brief moment before he looks away, Desmond's eyes are angry. "Mary-Jane -- yeah, it was fun. No hard feelings: how many chances is a guy like me gonna see for tooling around with a future supermodel on his arm? Tyra didn't know what she missed out on. If we were all just playing, then at least it was a great game..." Mary-Jane smiles, and I can see self-absolution settling into her relaxing frame. "Gary -- I think I've gotta believe in myself first. Maybe the other stuff can come later." Gary nods: he can accept that, whatever it's referring to. "Gardener... man, I'm glad I never went to your college. But tell you what: when I feel better, I'll drop by Ann Arbor and you can stick me on the field to be the tackling dummy of your choice." Gardener's smile is considerably more grim, but there's a chance it might also be sincere. "Trooper -- okay, okay. I don't want to spend any part of my life in jail. This hospital is too damn close to it. Now that I can say it without thinking about political votes, I will: there's stuff that should be legal. My last high shouldn't be one of them. You're right, but you're only half-right -- or are you gonna tell me your group's completely cleaned up the quests?" Trooper's entire body is a study in 'no comment'. "Alex --" I'm listening. I remember what I said to him. What could he possibly say back? "-- you're a weird one, you know that? It's a hell of an offer, but I can't take you up on it..." A long pause. "Yeah, you weren't mine, either. There's stuff I can't figure out about you. I may not seem like the most analytical guy in the world, but I'm still a pharmacist: we like to break things down into their component parts. You're not sugar and spice and everything nice -- don't know what the hell you're made out of. And that wasn't the reason -- swear it wasn't -- but if it ever comes up, I won't. You're right there: some bastards are always watching." And now I'm being looked at. What did I say that brought out that response? But the same thing applies for everyone else -- we never talked about what went into our messages: too personal. "Jeff." Which puts us all back on the screen again. I remember Jeff saying he'd left a message... "Well. What can I say? Gotta try, dude. Gotta figure out why as a first step. And I want it -- I want it bad -- but I've got to get better for more than that. So thanks, dude -- thanks more than you'll ever know -- but I've gotta say no." Jeff's eyes fly open. He never expected to hear it, never, he's in open shock and he's forgotten to hide it from us... Frank glances off-camera. "Okay -- they'll gonna want me to rest again." A tiny laugh. "Been doing nothing but... comas are good for that. I'll see you all at the Reunion, okay? That's a promise. I'll be there and I'll be healthy. Bank on it." He pauses. "Final Two: Gardener and Desmond!" And the plain blue screen of a set waiting for input. Gardener's laugh is strangely soft. "Hell, that's practically a betting spoiler..." Mary-Jane's looking at Jeff. Very quietly, "What was he turning down?" Jeff's already come back to himself: the composed, neutral, in-control host. "It's private. Sorry, Mary-Jane -- what I said to Frank is between him and me, the same as all of your messages to him. If you want to discuss what you told him, go ahead -- but I reserve the right to hold mine back." He turns off the television. "We're going to fly him out to Hawaii as soon as he's a little stronger -- a day or two, tops. But he's past the crisis point. Physically, he'll be fine -- it'll just be his job to get his head on straight." Just a little more loudly, "Get some sleep, guys. Immunity tomorrow -- you'll need the rest." Todd wheels the television back towards the beach, Jeff follows -- and after we strain to pick up the sounds of the small motor moving away, the camp is ours again. Gardener looks around at all of us. "Any guesses?" He shrugs. "I'm keeping my message to myself, but I'm damn curious to hear if anyone's worked out what Jeff's was." Silence. "Figures... Gary, you've got cleanup tonight." A half-grin. "Bad draw -- should have watched out for the Reward days when we drew up the assignments..." Gary laughs. "I'm just glad to have the chance to pick up after a big meal." And probably glad for the change of subject. He starts moving around the fire, cleaning up the very few food scraps in the name of keeping scavengers out of camp. We haven't seen any rats -- if it has four legs and fur, we haven't seen a single living anything -- but you never know. "The man had a point -- let's keep the conversation down tonight and turn in when we get tired." "Yeah, we're gonna need the strength," Desmond agrees. "Everyone watch your bedtimes -- that's an order. Alex, where are you going?" I've started down the beach path with my lit torch. "Just out to the shoreline for a few minutes -- follow Jeff's trail. Maybe if we're really lucky, something fell off the cart and we've got another pen." Trooper chuckles. He does that a lot more now. "Or a remote which we can't use... sure, go ahead. You never know." And I head out. There's nothing resting next to the grooves the wheels left. I wasn't expecting there to be. I sit down on the sand and watch the ocean for a while -- -- until Mary-Jane softly says "Okay. What did Jeff say?" I heard her come up. I knew it was her before she got there: we're learning to distinguish each other's footsteps. (Gardener has the heaviest tread.) "What makes you think I know?" "Nothing," she admits. "Nothing gave it away. Except that you left, and I thought it might be because you didn't want to be quizzed by the group." She sits down next to me, legs folded underneath her. She's already taller than me when standing, and this makes her extra-tall while sitting... "I think you've got a guess. Please?" I sigh. "I left because I didn't want anyone asking what I'd said..." That feels safe to admit. After all, Gardener already said he wasn't going to give up his, so it's probably universal. Or not. "I apologized for deceiving him with the flirting and hoped he'd at least enjoyed it." Gently, "You can keep yours. I've got a guess, but... Well, Jeff's is the big one. That's the one that can't come out naturally in camp." "Okay -- fine." I've got a guess. I worked it out as I was listening to Frank's reply. "But it's pretty unbelievable." She shrugs. "Go for it. It's been an unbelievable sixteen days to start with." Slowly, carefully, trying not to trip over words I'm having a hard time believing, "I think Jeff offered Frank a spot in a future season as motivation to get better. A second chance. And Frank turned him down." Immediately, "You're right. I don't believe that. No one in their right mind would do that. Give back a second chance at this game? If I thought I was about to go out and I could get one out of Jeff that way, I'd be on the grass before you could try to whistle down it once..." Light laughter. "It's got to be something else." "Probably." But I don't know what, and after a long silence, Mary-Jane has no proposals to offer. We both sit in the sand, listening to the waves. Finally, Mary-Jane says "At least now I can stop spending all my spare time hoping for him." I idly draw in the sand with my left index finger. Single geometric patterns, nothing special. "I'm not very good at 'hope'." Mary-Jane gives me a questioning look. "I wanted him to be okay, but it was so hard to believe he would be after we saw him that way. I thought, I -- wished -- but..." "I know." Her hand comes up, seems to be heading for my shoulder, descends back onto the grains. "Maybe now I can stop dreaming about it, too." Time for a subject change. "So you went out for Tyra?" "Twice." She makes a disgusted sound. "The second time, they told me my look was 'too traditional' and they were trying to move away from that, don't bother sending anything else in. After that, I went for this -- I was always the bigger fan here anyway -- and made it first try. I sent in the application and tape -- three months later, special delivery! How about you?" "I never applied for anything else," I admit. "I never sent in a tape, though." She's very curious. "You mean you're one of the lucky ones where the casting directors just walked up to you in a bar and said 'Ever think about being on television?' A big smile. "I'm having trouble seeing you in a bar." Which makes two of us. "No -- I came in through the open auditions in Manhattan. Went through several layers of screenings and questions, filled out a lot of forms, they did film me at two points, and then..." I spread my hands. And then I was in, and wondering how it had happened... "Did you ever think you'd make it?" Still curious, but a little bit softer-toned. "No." Plain and simple. "Thousands of people try every year. To think I'd be one of the ones who made it -- well, they had to be really desperate for a first boot." And there were technical problems... But in the end, they'd said it was okay, they could live with it should things ever reach that stage, and -- I was in. She laughs. "Sixteenth place -- with eleventh locked up. Maybe you're starting off a new kind of show legend. Say you'll be last, and --" I cut her off. "-- not even as a joke. I'm that superstitious." She nods. "So did you meet Tyra?" "No." This laugh is a little more bitter. "It's not like anyone was going to say it to my overly-traditional face. I did run into Janice once, though -- God, that was a nightmare... world's first super-bitch, maybe..." -------------------------------------------------------- {So they got to see that Frank's okay, and we get to see him respond to the messages -- but only the ones we heard. Lots of editing there -- wonder what we missed?} {Probably nothing -- it's just your classic 'Don't worry, now go out and kill each other' scene.} {Time for Immunity, and Jeff repeats his speech about control over your fate and influence over destiny...} {Well, he's right. If one idol stays up for grabs to go with one Immunity challenge, starts after we hit nine and stays that way through four, then every contestant has two chances to directly protect themselves in each cycle -- a better shot than anyone who's come before. But at the same time, if the bounces come into play, everyone's more at risk than ever...} {Well, you can't bounce onto someone with this year's necklace, since you can't vote for them in the first place -- in that sense, the original Immunity is still more valuable, because someone can't miss you and get your best ally instead.} {No, they can just target that ally directly. Terry again.} {Terry had allies?} {Cute touch: Alex beating down Gardener, as heard from Haraiki's huddle -- they keep pausing to make out words, and Angela's really confused. At one point, she turns to the others and whispers "Wait. Who's in charge there?" Connie disgustedly tells her it's probably Gardener, but Alex knows exactly which part of the leash to hold. Only I'm pretty sure she didn't mean 'leash'. And she may not have said that exact word, either. Angela discounts this -- the leader has to be Gardener or Trooper, they're probably just staging this to confuse Haraiki and Alex will lose in the end -- which is when Alex announces that Gardener's sitting out and Angela gets to deliver her WTF? look.} {Angela -- an activist for feminist causes -- can't believe that a woman might be in charge on Turare?} {Angela believes she's in charge for Haraiki. Angela's really, really good at being wrong... I think the only reason we haven't seen everyone go off and follow Phillip yet is because with the exception of work-based tasks, Phillip has never once said 'follow me!' If he did, they would. Bet on it.} {Good line from Gary about the chains.} {Alex tries to tell Desmond what to do, and gee, do you get the feeling that's not going to work?} {The time-lapse montage of the sixty or so falls sort of gave me the hint.} {Desmond loses the challenge almost all by himself with just a touch of assistance from Moms Gravity, blames it all on Alex, storms out, and we switch to Haraiki's celebration continuing all the way from the beach to their camp. They get their favorite drink -- boiled water -- ready, and Connie leads a toast. "To three days of showing them what this tribe can really do!" Everyone can get behind that, and Connie gets cheered for one of the few times in her stay. There's nothing quite like not being automatically doomed to lift everyone's spirits...} {Haraiki talking about the ouster... Despite Desmond's generous clue delivery, they're (mostly) not really sure who's going to be out. Robin has a pretty good summary. "They can't get rid of Gardener or Trooper because the next Immunity challenge could be physical. They could get rid of anyone else. Desmond's weakest but the men have the majority, we haven't seen a ton from Gary, Mary-Jane's too cute to dump this soon, and hearing Desmond say they'll get rid of Alex doesn't give me any confidence that it's what'll actually happen..." Regardless, Connie looks like a kid two seconds before the first Christmas present gets the wrapping paper shredded -- she has all the confidence in the world in Desmond, and truly believes with all her heart that Day Eighteen will be Alex's last, as truly as she believes that Santa is a conspiracy to destroy the real meaning of Christmas. You just know she isn't going to take Day Nineteen well.} {A quick look at Gardener and Alex shaking hands on the Cliffs -- but we get a different angle on the following events this time. Jeff says "Turare's plan was set in stone -- but they forget one small detail." The Secret Scene is given to us right away in condensed form, and Jeff finishes with "They expected the victim to cooperate." So now we're looking at Alex's so-called last day from the perspective of knowing she's got the idol the whole time. Which turns what happens next into an acting performance that makes Colleen, Colby, and the entire cast of The Scorned look sick. Doctor Will couldn't have done this any better. I'm going home, let me draw a little because I'm going home, let's have a small joke about swinging the vote because I'm going home, how about I light this last fire because I'm going home -- guys? Small surprise. I'm not going home. And not a hint of it do you see on her face the whole day. Busty Keaton, indeed.} {This confessional from Desmond is just nearly perfect. Alex approaches him in mainstream, he ignores her, and then: "I hate women who think they're smarter than men... if Alex thinks she can switch my vote, then it's time to show her how stupid she is." Migawd. She basically totally crushed his ego, didn't she? No wonder he lost it all over the airwaves. She didn't just bounce him out, she destroyed his entire sense of self.} {The council -- honestly, someone get the Emmy committee to create a new category for reality acting: this is better than half of CBS' canceled so-called sitcoms from last season now that I know what's coming...} {I think we do have a moment there where Alex wasn't acting. She was honestly concerned about Azure, and relieved when she found out Jeff would take custody. She knows she's going out at some point, baring that two-in-ten chance of seeing the jury from the other side -- and even after that, she'll have to leave, and she can't take Azure with her. Alex really cares about what happens to this parrot.} {More than she cares about what happens to the humans... Yeah, that may have been real worry there. May have been. It's so hard to tell with her -- and like Gardener said later, it's going to be really hard to believe her on anything from now on.} {Jeff reveals the votes, Desmond reveals his future therapy bills, Alex reveals the idol, and Gardener reveals the absolute top of his decibel range.} {And thus has Jeff recrapped our story thus far -- stay tuned after what's probably going to be a very long commercial break for scenes from our next episode -- okay, this is hilarious.} ----------------------------------------------------------------- After ----------------------------------------------------------------- Arthur Dent had said it, hadn't he? 'This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.' The college library had so little fiction, but that one had been there. It was possible to read just about anything at the chain bookstores, but even if you were incredibly careful with the spine, the clerks tended to react badly when they realized you intended to complete an entire novel... Thursday, and I'd been getting ready to watch the show again. It had been a fairly quiet day -- not too much hate mail, just a few orders -- but with one very strange phone call. Just getting a phone call was still a little strange, and while the caller had been familiar, the subject had gone south in a hurry... "Alex?" Yes, Officer Ramirez, and I've got the whole of Turare with me. Want to speak to Frank? "I'm here." Two coughs and an inhale. "What the hell did you do?" Huh? No, really. Huh? "I've been in most of the day..." I was getting close to the point of having enough strips for a new book: most of the afternoon had been spent in preliminary layouts, figuring out where to begin and end the storyline collection, and the single worst part of the process: working out a title. "I went to the post office earlier, but nothing happened." Oh, and in case it might be important in some vague way, "I also met one of the local pastors last night at the laundromat, but I don't think anything happened where someone would have complained..." Exhale, another cough, chair squeaking protest at a shift in position. "I just got a call from a friend in Hough's area. I called him after your little run-in because he's still got a burr up his butt to get this guy, and if anything happened, God forbid, someone in that precinct should have some warning. You're with me so far?" "Yes..." I had no idea where she was going with it and all things considered, I could have used some directions before starting the ride, but I hadn't been able to get the seat belt off yet and the doors were still locked. "Good. Because he took a spin by Hough's house today, and Hough is gone." Blink. Slowly, "...dead?" She actually laughed at that: one short, harsh bark that brought up at least an ounce of tar. "No, but rhymes with it. Fled. He grabbed his stuff and got the hell out of town. Took anything portable, dumped the rest -- some of it's piled up at the curb -- and left. There were actually some used syringes on top of it all..." 'The mansion shows signs of having been cleaned out in a hurry, but anything heavy or even mildly inconvenient to move is still there.' "So I've got to know -- did you threaten him? Did you say anything beyond what you told me you said? -- and remember, I can check those tapes." Utterly confused now, "No -- I told him I'd hurt him if he tried to do anything to me -- leave evidence that everyone could see --" I'd been thinking about something in the way of permanent scarring or organ removal, possibly both "-- but that was it." Slowly, disbelief riding on every word and weighing down the pace. "I'm going to check those tapes, Alex." "Go ahead." I knew what I'd said. Beyond that, threats hadn't been part of it. "You won't find anything else." Three coughs and a hack. She was not taking this well. I had to be telling the truth, and she didn't want me to be. Still -- "Not that I'm complaining, especially since I don't think he's got the brains for a swoop-back, but I'd like to know what happened. I really didn't think he was fleeing in terror from your five-foot-two self, and that means something happened. Maybe his trust fund couldn't cover his latest high. Good riddance to expensive rubbish --" and this was a prompt "-- right?" "I can't complain, either..." That was simple enough. I couldn't complain. She could read anything into it that she liked. "It would be nice if you could keep it that way." A single cough. It actually sounded lonely. Maybe some friends would be along later. "Have fun watching your recap -- I know I'll be in the ratings point. This whole town is in the ratings point... See you tomorrow for the drop-off. It'll probably be heavier with the latecomers freaking out behind schedule." "Probably." A few less-than-pleasantries, and she hung up. For the first time in my life, I feel like having a Coke. I left the apartment instead, heading downstairs to get some fresh air. The recap would be starting in less an hour. I was curious to see what they'd included -- especially to see if they'd introduced Jake's initial problem with me. If they did, then the episodes were about to take a very strange turn. If they didn't... No, they would. That story was going to unfold, and every last bit of cloth would come down from the sides. Outside, and I stood there, looking around at my little piece of the world. Most of the streetlights were working tonight, and they illuminated small clouds of breath emerging from the noses and mouths of the few people walking by. Cold snap: time to bring out the salvage quilt. There were a few dogs being walked, and they were in much less of a hurry to get back inside than their owners were: old scents to check up on! New ones to lay down! Black and white portraits on the sidewalks to survey! Some of those were new, and one was starting to become familiar: a brown sigil that almost looked like a pair of capital S marks: the left one normal, the right one backwards, facing each other. Almost: there were some odd distortions there, with the curves not quite regular. I had it down for a new gang sign, but there hadn't been a single fresh color in the neighborhood. This was the second one I'd spotted that week: the first had been on a fence two blocks away. The new one was on the far corner of my own block, just visible in the circle of light where Mrs. Lindti was currently walking her attack poodle. He was afraid of me. He's probably never been afraid of a woman in his life... Would that be enough to make him leave? Was it something else? What had he seen in my eyes when he'd looked at me? But he'd also seen the scars -- the first person since Mr. Brooks to see them, I'd been so good about wearing long sleeves at all times, even while it was still hot, and Mr. Brooks didn't remember... Maybe his fleeing the area was just coincidence. And maybe Trina's cards had carried over to the game just through my willingness to see it that way... Yeah, right. I took a deep breath of the chill air, held it until it stopped burning my lungs. Maybe that was what cigarette smoking was like, only in reverse. No great prize. He was scared of something, and it could have even been me. He saw scars, and thought about my scarring him -- that would have been a bigger threat than death to someone like Matt. Maybe that was it. But why wasn't I afraid of him? Maybe because the worst he could have done was death. And after you've died once, you can't dread it any more... ----------------------------------------------------------------- During ----------------------------------------------------------------- {In case you got up at the wrong moment: we just had white letters on a red screen in a font everyone in this country except one person knows on sight -- and that last one just lost her exception. 'This past Saturday, a Coke machine was delivered to Alex's doorstep. We trust she's had one by now.' Sincerely, Coca-Cola. Everyone's Life Should Include Coke, and one DAW just got it for free. Sheesh... good thing she didn't talk about how she'd never had any shares in Microsoft...} {This is just a big corp using what's, for them, a really tiny amount of money to make themselves feel better about being abjectly humiliated on national television. 'No, I won't drink the free brown bubbly: cavities!' Betcha they still yelled at Burnett.} {Hey, loverboy? If Alex gets another UPS delivery, mind telling us if the machine is there?} {Ha. Ha. But I'll report it if I see it. I don't think they'd lie about it...} {No -- just curious as to what kind she got. Maybe it's one of those countertop minis.} {Why is this ringing a bell? I doubt like hell she went and asked for one -- I agree that this is Coke getting some extra-cheap promotion on the fly, not counting the skyrocketing cost of a Survivor commercial -- but this feels familiar...} {Chicken George? That's BB, but I seem to remember he got free college tuition for all of his kids at the state schools after spending a lot of air time talking about how worried he was about not being able to afford it during the first season. That's something else where we're getting back to a first-season feel. Back then, we had the creation of instant celebrities. Not very major ones, most of it didn't pan out for anyone -- honestly, if you've seen Colleen's movie, then you either love her or hate yourself -- but they were getting touches of special treatment from the rest of the world. And thus, all the after-DAWs, looking to see if they could benefit from a magic no one's ever figured out how to recapture...} {Big Brother had a first season?} {Oh, great. Watch the application rate triple now that the freebies are back. Every Internet cartoonist in the country is probably filling out the form right now. "I can be the next Alex! I already own a fine selection of long-sleeve shirts!" Of course, the second they get excited about it on the video, they're out...} {Now there's a funny thought -- people trying to get themselves cast to fill her type. Those are going to be some of the most expensive applications in history. The plastic surgery alone may run close to high four digits. Possibly low five.} {I know we go through this every season with virtually every female contestant on every show, but can we all just agree that Alex has not had the surgery in question?} {No problem here, but good luck convincing the League Of Alex Haters. Some of them are at the point where they're convinced she's had her eyes set slightly back. Don't ask me how they think she paid for it... Let's face it: Alex is the last of the reality TV all-naturals, because there's no way she could afford to have anything done. I see two bits of plastic surgery on this show: Robin's nose and Connie's entire body. Nothing else.} {So you're actually saying Mary-Jane's body is...?} {Yes. And take it to Bashers. That thread could really use a hundred and fifty-eighth post. Come on -- with what she wears, anyone could find the scars. There aren't any.} {Previews! -- huh. Well, that's interesting. From what Gardener just read, the ambassadors are back! Guess that settles the question of whether they're starting over -- no new neutral site if two people are deciding where to go.} {It would have also really messed up the idol hunts.} {Good point... only so many hours before they moved... actually, that will mess up whatever tribe has to relocate. I wonder if the idols are only going to be out there for a few hours? And if not, can the moved tribe can go back to their old camp to look? Hell -- they can search at the new camp for their rivals' idol... this is going to get complicated fast.} {Don't worry. In one week, Jeff Will Explain It All To You. And if he doesn't, then Desmond will make sure he testifies about it at the trial.} {Ten players. One tribe. One Immunity (presumed) necklace. Two idols. And a five-five tie. It's The Survivor Club, kiddies, and this is going to be Anything Can Happen Week. One group gets the majority, the other de-facto alliance is set up to hear the Pagong, and one person will never see the rest of it...} {I don't suppose there's any chance that last will be Cole?} {Not sure. Is there any chance that last riddle actually works out to 'Boing'?} ----------------------------------------------------------------- . . . . . . . . . (End of Recap episode. I think it's safe to predict that the next one will be shorter.)   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

Belle Book 1925 desperate attention whore postings DAW Level: "Herbal Healing Drugs Endorser" 01-09-09, 07:26 PM (EST) 10. "RE: I'm Not Very Good At 'Hope': Conclusion." LAST EDITED ON 01-10-09 AT 11:34 AM (EST) Desmond's behavior after the revelation that he was bounced out just confirms what I said about him: he's an idiot. I'd give him a Dunce Cap Award -- or a season GUFU Award. Connie really should learn some tolerance -- at least when it comes to playing Survivor or some similar game. Sure, I'm a devout Christian and wouldn't marry a Wiccan, but I'd form an alliance with one if it would help me progress in the game. How I feel about a Wiccan in real life doesn't apply to games like Survivor. Now for Alex & her encounter with Matt. So Cyndi tried to fix up Alex with any guy that could hurt her? Lovely woman! And btw, that's sarcasm -- in case you couldn't figure that one out on your own. Although it probably would've been better for Alex just to ignore Matt and keep her head down, if he was the type of guy who wouldn't take "no" for an answer, then maybe the option of ignoring him was out of the question. At least he's out of the picture -- although I wouldn't mind seeing him out of it permanently. As in "dead." Belle Book   Remove | Alert Edit | Reply | Reply With Quote | Top

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