OK, although I will always regard the ADS as a dastardly approach, it you’re going to do it THEN DO IT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! I can acknowledge the challenge of ONE individual having to shadow another person 24/7. But last week’s episode it was 5 on 1...this episode 4 on 1. If you want to ADS Rick, shadow him in shifts. When he’s away for his confessional, you have enough players to section out the grid to prevent him from finding another idol upon his return. Everyone has to sleep...but not at the same time.
Listen, I give Rick all the credit in the world for outworking, out-searching, and outplaying the rest of the castaways; but shame on the others for their failure to allow Rick any opening to out-search and outhustle them.

RICK – Two words to describe Rick in this Edge of Extinction season...SURVIVOR STUD. And why? We heard it from Rick through his own mouth...he’s been OUTWORKING the competition. Even though I emphasized the word, allow me to repeat—OUTWORK. Not to be confused with out-whine, out-sleep, out-ADS, etc. Proactively determine your own fate—no one has done it as effectively as Rick. And not to get caught up in just the “Outplay” portion of the game, Rick’s masterful use of his HII at TC was a vintage Survivor example of “Outwit.” The way Rick was messing with their lily-livered uptight heads during his fake scavenger hunts was easily the high point of this lackluster season thus far. The scaredy-cat chickenshits could not have handpicked a more appropriate target to Anti-Darwin.

LAUREN – Props for sniffing out Rick’s ploy to get the others to believe his idol was gifted from EI. I also give her kudos for recognizing what a perfect goat Julie would be to sit next to. Whereas Gavin and Butterface were duped by Rick’s splendid example of outwit, Lauren was probably leaning toward voting out Aurora anyway. Finding a HII early in the game that she did not have to use would be a feather in her cap if sitting as a finalist; or so I was told back when I bashed bellyaching Kelly for narcing out Lauren about her HII and was told it would NOT be a factor at the point of the game when the win back player returns. Now, from what I’m seeing in the preview and doing a hand count of the remaining players...it appears Lauren’s HII may still have its power when an EI bootee rejoins the others with the knowledge he/she will have about Lauren’s HII thanks to Kelly.

GAVIN – Has found himself between a rock and a hard place through the season. We saw it when he tried to save his partner Eric only to be coldly shutdown by Julia. And again in Ep. 12 when he was forced to choose between someone who brought him on a Reward vs. someone who gifted him her advantage. Whichever way he went would be seen as an act of betrayal by one of them. This episode he was being pulled in two directions by the very two he brought on Reward after, yet another, solid challenge win. Rick’s use of his idol softened the rock and the hard place this time around. With Aurora the newest inhabitant on EI, Gavin’s choices of Butterface and Lauren proved to be the right ones for him.

JULIE – HMMMM, the two oldest Vata tribemates segregated by the four youngest. Further proof and verification of the biggest and oldest divide in Reality Show history. Julie is playing a perfect game to make the Finals, but one that gives her virtually no chance to win. Yet, according to Nash she should be the runaway winner this season.

BUTTERFACE – CBS should have sent her audition tape to Big Brother where she could scurry around the House like a laboratory rat and play the only card she has (which happens to be the easiest card in the deck) lie/deceive on Reality TV. It’s a classic and convenient copout to offset ineptness where fans who herald that approach comically regard them as “good players.” LOL. Production further spoon-feeds that very ineptness with the F4 fire-making tiebreaker to darn near guarantee a castaway like Butterface a seat in the F3 wearing her goat horns.

BOOTED

AURORA – Yeah, we know...to quote Survivor Champion Ben, “DAMN FRIGGIN’ PUZZLES!” But Ben’s equalizer was out-searching and being more proactively successful when looking for (and ultimately finding) HIIs. So, Aurora used her proactivity to look through Rick’s belongings instead. Let her think she was the victim of the others falling for Rick’s “reverse psychology,” when the truth be told, Lauren wanted her privacy invasion ass out BEFORE Rick’s vintage outwitting maneuver. Even her final words reeked of ADS...and no that’s NOT “natural...” it’s being a SOOOORE LOSER.

EX-STINK-TION ISLAND/JURY

A fair amount of time devoted to LoserLand this episode.
Let me try to understand...reading letters you wrote to yourself only 30 days ago? HUH?? I realize the conditions are harsh, but do you REALLY believe they completely forgot what they were thinking about themselves right before they started the game??? Could Production’s idiocy drop to even a lower moronic level???? And Queen Embellishment Julia cries and carries on over a letter she wrote to herself a few weeks ago? Sweet Mother of Mercy, where do they find these obnoxious overexaggerating Losers!

NTOS – Thought we’d see previews of a whole lotta scrambling knowing Rick is safe for the next TC. Instead, the entire preview focused on the bootees and the win back challenge.