Okay, now this is happening.

Very tumultuous episode as we continue to go back and forth between Savii and Upolu.

1. Ozzy - That's right. Worst to first. He is making a huge move, and that is partially why I love it. This is his 3rd time playing the game. Either play big or don't come back in the first place. He gives his tribe their best chance at staying out of the minority at merge by going to RI. This is the first time that we've seen someone take RI into consideration. Sending their strongest is the exact right move. Of course, the edit has gone out of its way to make this move irrelevant even before it was hatched, but if you are Savii, do you take that chance? No, this is the smartest move. It just took someone with enough balls to try to pull it off.

2. Coach - He will get knocked for suddenly finding religion and hoisting it onto his tribe, but actually the entire HII ruse was one of the more intelligent ploys we have seen on Survivor. Finally, he acts like a coach who use psychological games all the time to motivate their teams. The prayer to find the HII followed by its faux discovery might have given his team the confidence they needed to win the IC. Of course, the other tribe having Cochran doesn't hurt. Yelling at his tribe to take their knees after the win was out of line, but if you noticed, they never did anyway and he didn't make a big deal out of it. He was talking about family at the IC and at the reward. The only question is whether he is the only person on his tribe that thinks like that. Regardless, Coach's edit looked suddenly strong again.

3. Edna - Typically, it is the important people who speak during reward, and we heard from Edna and Coach with the camera focusing on Edna a lot. If the merge comes, the danger for her will have passed. She's going to make it far now, and for a while now, I've believed there is enough edit there for her to make the end.

4. Cochran - Was mostly a whining weasel this episode who flubbed up the most important IC of the season in colossal fashion and then whined endlessly about how he didn't want to go to RI. I'm sure he was right though. If he goes to RI, Christine eats him for lunch. Fortunately for him, he took his place among the luckiest players in the history of the game as the gracious benefactor of Ozzy's ballsy move. Cochran has zero game, has done zero, but is in a great spot now. He is decent in confessional, at least. Could his mentions of being an "outsider" and "ostrasized" suggest he could be a free agent come the merge? Seems unlikely.

5. Albert - He appears to have easily slipped back to a supporting role with no bitterness from Coach. He was the key player for Upolu in the huge IC win. Things look good for Upolu after this episode, which is good for him.

6. Sophie - She continues to get her own voice, even when she isn't playing a key role. That is a big plus for her. She is wise to go along with Coach and Brandon versus openly opposing them and alienating herself from the rest of the tribe.

7. Jim - He has still played the best game, but he shouldn't have opposed Ozzy's move. It is the best play. If they did happen to go to a challenge without Ozzy, it still wouldn't be the end of the world. Jim and Keith have been big in challenges, and Dawn and Whitney are better in challenges than Edna and Sophie. So, it is still pretty even, even without Ozzy. He might ultimately pay the price for the move on Elyse though. They win that last challenge if they have her, likely, and has it ever been explained afterwards the logic of getting rid of her?

8. Rick - Just happens to be on the right side of things, for the moment.

9. Brandon- Easily fooled, and Coach seems almost daily to consider being free of him. However, I think if Upolu keeps the majority he has a good shot to make the end in the same manner Phillip did last season.

10. Dawn - If Savii isn't winning reward, she has nothing to say. Good. Still a better edit for her than for those below her.

11. Keith - Like Jim, he should have been fine with Ozzy going to RI. Again, it does give Savii their best chance at keeping 6 people. Of course, he shouldn't have ever voted out Elyse in the first place. Without that, none of this happens.

12. Whitney - Same as Keith.

RI

Christine - her time is short

Make like a tree and beat it-

Mikayla - Performed in that challenge about the same as how she did everything else - half-assed. She far from vindicated her peers as competitors.

>

• RE: Survivor- S23 - Love/Hate List - Ep.7,michel, 09:38 PM, 10-29-11
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• RE: Survivor- S23 - Love/Hate List - Ep.7,Belle Book, 04:18 PM, 10-30-11
• RE: Survivor- S23 - Love/Hate List - Ep.7,michel, 11:06 PM, 10-30-11
  • RE: Survivor- S23 - Love/Hate List - Ep.7,Jaxxjack, 11:23 AM, 10-31-11
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• RE: Survivor- S23 - Love/Hate List - Ep.7,dabo, 12:49 PM, 11-01-11
• Tallies,dabo, 02:05 PM, 11-04-11

"Yelling at his tribe to take their knees after the win was out of line, but if you noticed, they never did anyway and he didn't make a big deal out of it"

Huh! What? They certainly did get on their knees and Coach sounded like a crazed zealot. Since my thousand words never convince you, I thought I'd show you visual evidence now that I can make my own screen caps!

Will you say that someone raised the table?!

Ils sont fous, ces Romains!

LAST EDITED ON 10-29-11 AT 10:28 PM (EST)

LAST EDITED ON 10-29-11 AT 10:26 PM (EST)

Ozzy: If only because he made the episode interesting. Don't know about his move; seemed pretty foolish considering all the negative comments (and hand gestures) Christine has tossed Upola's way. None of the Savaii at the RI challenges noticed anything? And why give Cochran the idol? Wouldn't he be the last Savaii Upola would want to vote off. Get rid of the threats like Jim and Keith first?

Coach: Not sure what to make of all the praying, but his tribe is performing well and he's at the center of it, holding an idol.

Albert: Good challenge performance.

Last:

Cochran: Should be gone by now.

Christine: Has spirit and competitiveness. Would not be surprised if she won again.

Website acting strange. May try to complete later.

I watched it again, and I saw this shot.

I stand corrected. They crouched down together for a split second when Coach finished his prayer. When he said the bulk of it, they were all standing together.

By the way, teams crouch down in a huddle like this and praise the Lord after a big win all the time in virtually every sport.

No big deal. Just another rare example of Coach actually acting like a Coach, which happened twice this episode.

>

Here are my rankings:

1. Edna -- still my favorite although she was overshadowed by others. She did her part and did it well.

2. Coach -- recovered from a tough Tribal Council and helped lead his team to victory, even if the religious bit was rather excessive.

3. Albert -- he and Sophie helped win Immunity for Upolu.

4. Sophie -- a little bit below Albert for now but her stock should rise come merge time.

5. Cochran -- really screwed things up for Savaii but Ozzy's move at least saved him from Christine and gave him power.

6. Jim -- he should have pointed out more things that could go wrong with Ozzy's plan -- like how well they could fool Upolu.

7. Rick -- right now, he's on the right side of things and that is good for him.

8. Dawn -- when she doesn't say much after Savaii loses a challenge, that's a good thing for her.

9. Ozzy -- he has the best chance to beat Christine, but I worry about the rest of his plan.

10. Keith -- it was his decision to throw votes Dawn's way that led to this scenario.

11. Whitney -- same thing for her but at least she'll be safer than Keith once the merge hits.

12. Brandon -- not my favorite person but I like him better than his Uncle Troll.

Currently on Redemption Island --

Christine -- with Ozzy coming, she's toast.

Out for good --

Mikayla -- if only she'd been better in the puzzles.

1- Cochran: He went from next on the block to being the key to the merge strategy. Not bad at all.

2- Ozzy: It was his strategy of throwing a challenge that got Cecilia, JP and Cristina voted out in CI. So maybe we should wait before saying Ozzy's move will be one of the best ever but it made for an entertaining episode.

3- Coach: I was worried that his early edit would ruin his legacy but we are now seeing the real Benji: A complete fool that has no idea how foolish he looks. The one with a head big enough to eclipse the sun.

That's the Benji I enjoy.

4- Brandon: There are so many things that Benji is hiding from him that I think LilHantz will have a memorable explosion.

5- Dawn: She is in a nice position but I'd like to see her story picking up.

6- Edna: Brandon saves her then she turns around and says he is a liability! I don't know what moves she will eventually make but she could surprise us.

7- Sophie: Yes, I found Benji's act ickey also but she should be more expressive like Erinn was ("Who is this Jackass?)

8- Jim: The strategist is now boxed in: If Ozzy's move fails, Jim is in trouble. If Ozzy's move succeeds, Ozzy and Cochran will be sitting at the wheel with Jim left with nothing to do but follow.

9- Whitney: She is also in a nice position but why is the camera ignoring her?

10- Albert: If he didn't want Benji to have all the power in the tribe he could have told everyone they already had the idol and end this charade.

11- Keith: Why didn't he talk his bro into giving him the idol? He'll certainly be Upolu's target at the merge, not Cochran.

12- Rick: If he was worried that Brandon's next "blow-apart" would come after the merge then he should have kept Mikayla. Brandon would have blown up right there and then but he wouldn't have been a problem after the merge.

Redemption Island's temporary resident - Christine: It's not hard to imagine what she thought when she saw that Ozzy was joining her.

Ils sont fous, ces Romains!

I thought that shot looked familiar. A coincidence?

>

LAST EDITED ON 10-31-11 AT 11:34 AM (EST)

No, it's not hard to imagine what Christine felt -- it was probably something like, "I'm in big trouble."

01. Edna. She jumps back to the top this week for having a good week and taking the bumps on the noggin during the challenge. Good edit for having survived the last Tribal, better edit happy at reward. The camera found her a lot even when she wasn't the center of attention.

02. Jim. Drops slightly this week because he had no control over what happened at Savaii, his control game took a hit. But when Cochran faulted during the challenge Jim stepped in and tried to make things right, his head is still in the game.

03. Dawn. Still like her even though she pretty much vanished this week.

04. Sophie. Not much from her this week, but she saw through Coach's BS so good for her.

05. Keith. Tried to stand up against Ozzy's Messiah plan and be the voice of reason at Savaii, though he eventually had to capitulate.

06. Rick. Solid head on his shoulders, his concern about Brandon is well founded. Still too much in the background, which is a shame because this guy is probibly the most sensible Upolu.

07. Albert. Vanished again this week but an apparent willing conspirator in the scheme to "find" Coach's HII.

08. Cochran. Lucky to have survived this one.

09. Whitney. Oh yeah, there's a Whitney.

10. Coach. Eccentric jerk, religious hypocrite, now trying to be the founder of his own Upolu cult, only this high on the list because he does have game. Damn lucky they got treemail for a challenge during the HII ploy.

11. Brandon. Tool.

Redemption Island.

Christine. Eh. Even if she gets back in the game, she's all mouth and no game.

Ozzy. Good luck with the Messiah gambit, at least it should go down in the annals of Survivor as a noble gambit. Self-centered, but noble.

Edna -- 11: 2.75
Coach -- 17: 4.25
Cochran -- 18: 4.5
Sophie -- 21: 5.25
Jim -- 23: 6.5
Albert -- 25: 6.25
Dawn -- 26: 6.5
Rick -- 33: 8.25
Brandon -- 36: 9
Keith -- 37: 9.25
Whitney -- 41: 10.25