I'm sure many viewers laughed when Parvati suggested that the sit-out bench should be named after Sandra. Those viewers are so focused on physical strength that they forget or don't understand the very nature of this game. Sandra herself wasn't irritated at all by Parvati's suggestion. In fact it amused her and she embraced it as a badge of honor.

Sandra is right: While strength can help to survive, intellect and social skills have always been much more important. By accepting to sit out, Sandra not only helps her team but she avoids creating frustration in others that would be disappointed if forced to sit out. Being one of the eldest women and not a muscle-man, Sandra cannot be expected to dominate physical challenges.

If Survivor respected its own rules and prevented players from sitting out two challenges in a row then Sandra couldn't simply volunteer all the time. That rule, we realized, only applies for two challenges in the same episode but why not enforce it even when they have only one challenge per cycle? If they don't then we can't blame Sandra from profiting from the loop-hole.

The French Survivor Koh-Lanta, avoids this situation by having chance decide who will sit-out. If a tribe has an extra female then the women of the tribe pick rocks and the one picking the different rock sits out. Koh-Lanta's problem is that the same woman can sit-out if they are unlucky. I'd suggest Survivor use a variation of that method with the person who sat out the previous challenge being left out of the draw.

• RE: The Sandra Bench,sj007, 04:53 PM, 03-10-20
  • RE: The Sandra Bench,michel2, 11:32 AM, 03-12-20
    • RE: The Sandra Bench,sj007, 10:24 PM, 03-18-20

I agree and I don't know why they conveniently don't have that rule where you can't sit out back to back challenges. After that last episode I lost faith in this season. Either Dakal deliberately threw that challenge or something nefarious is going on behind the scenes. They were way ahead at the puzzle and then all of the sudden there was no urgency or anything to win. Just watch the way Sarah and Nick were taking their time and no one on the tribe had a problem with it. None of them were mad at all. These are all previous winners and they blow a lead like that. I don't buy it. I don't trust anything that happens from now on with this season. ##### sad and what a joke!

If they had a plan to boot Rob from the start then yes, they could have thrown that challenge. The problem comes at the next IC; What if they lose that one. If so then one of the two guys will regret throwing the challenge.

BTW, wasn't Adam the one doing the puzzle with Sarah and Yara the tribe that threw it? Dakal is the land of the idols.

My previous post was about last week's episode where dakal had that massive lead and sarah and nick were very casually trying to solve the puzzle. No one cared that they lost or blew that lead. Very suspicious.