Welcome to Survivor – The Family Edition.

Last week, we saw that the Messiah tribe was no more, leaving us only with Eczema and No Carrots. Will the Messiah come again?

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=the+messiah+will+come+again&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=4F82170FCFB97C2AF0F74F82170FCFB97C2AF0F7

No because, thankfully, we don’t have a redemption island this time.

Tribephyl brought us this image showing us the merge color:

That means the crazy game play will be more Deep Purple than Roy Buchanan:

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=child+in+time+deep+purple&FORM=VIRE3#view=detail&mid=09449F08B342FCD8382909449F08B342FCD83829

If you missed the events of the last two episodes, I suggest you go over to our East Coast Spoiler Thread where Flowerpower and Brownroach deliver excellent play-by-play posts while the rest of us in the peanut gallery make our (more or less) on the spot comments.

I also invite you over to The Characters and their Stories thread if you want to look at the editing analysis and give us your impressions of these castaways.

Since Blood versus Water received so many good reviews, SEG decided to give us a full Family Edition. It worked so well for TAR after all...

In the Eczema Family, Dad Mike has been left alone to take care of his two kids, Sierra and Rodney. In a “Wife-Swap” type of twist, Mike’s wife, Kelly, had to go undercover and live with the rival family of No Carrots. Sure, his father-in-law Dan was left over to help but can we call that help? Mike’s biggest problem is that Sierra wants to start dating and she has all the guys in the neighborhood after her. Joe, Tyler and Joaquin have all been courting her and that worries Mike because he knows they are bad influences.

Joey: “How you doin’?”

To make matters worse, Mike’s son, Rodney is becoming friends with one of Sierra’s suitors, Joaquin. Rodney thinks he has found a true friend but Joaquin sees him as his right hand man.

In the No Carrots family, Ma Carolyn has just sent ex-hubby Max packing because he couldn’t get along with her kids from a previous marriage. Jenn, Hali and Will all felt that Max was favoring his own kid, Shirin, over them. (OK, Will may have been adopted...he is about the same size as a young Michael Oher in “The Blind Side.” Dum-Dum-Dum)

The problem is that Shirin didn’t go with her dad and now she is:

The Odd Woman Out

The Press tease sets up Shirin’s story: “One castaway struggles to fit in after a shocking tribal council.”

However, like Sheldor said, the “Odd Woman Out” could also be said about Sierra, who is the only woman in Eczema, and even Kelly, who is the only Blue Collar left in No Carrots.

The first Family Feud will be for reward and it looks like a very physical challenge:

This cap tells us that Dan will be sitting out for Eczema, a great choice since he would probably have a heart attack running up those stairs and I wouldn’t want him to fall on me. We also see that Eczema will enjoy a slight lead: Rodney has already reached the first level while there are No Carrots up there at that point. Of course, there is more to this challenge than a race up the stairs and over a rope bridge. I first thought that there were some recycled images of players shooting balls out of a catapult but Jenn was a receiver last week, not a passer. So this picture is from this week’s challenge:

If we look back at the first image, we do see that the catapults themselves are recycled and have been placed atop the structure. The balls have to be aimed at the boards that we see behind the players in the second picture.

That will be quite a challenge, one in which Sierra could very well redeem herself in Dan’s eyes if she makes a few hits.
Since we’ve heard that Will won’t be good in any physical challenge then we can raise our arms like Jeff and yell:

Eczema wins Reward!

What will be their reward? I stared long and hard at the picture where we see Dan sitting on the bench, but I don’t see a table that would hold their prize. Therefore, the winners will likely be visiting some random Survivor Taco Stand or Burger Bar and Grill set up a few yards down the beach. God forbid we would get to see something culturally or historically relevant to the region. In fact, I’ll ask “Where are we?” I know they said Nicaragua but tell me how do we KNOW that it wasn’t filmed on a small parcel of Burnett’s ranch?

Sheldor brought us the Press tease which tells us that: “Winning a reward gives one castaway a new outlook on life and the game”.

The one castaway in Eczema that needs a new outlook on life and the game is Sierra.

Well, you could say it also about Rodney but, in his case, it’s more than just an outlook, it’s a complete re-education process that is required. That’s much too expensive for a simple Survivor reward so Burnett will let another one of his psychos roam free in the jungle with an available machete.

What could cause Sierra to get a new outlook on life? I first thought that Rodney and the other guys were going to say that Sierra should sit out the challenge but Mike would convince them that she is a good asset for this challenge. However, Dan is such an obvious choice to sit out that something else must occur for Sierra to get that new outlook on life. Maybe Mike and Dan say that she was the MVP of the challenge, making her feel better. We do know that she will soon be talking with Mike and Dan about the next boot so we know that she has a new outlook on the game.

The Week’s Big Story

Sierra sees that one of her suitors, Joaquin, may be actually using her to get her brother into his crime gang:

Partners in Crime

Grandfather Dan warns Sierra about Rodney and Joaquin:

“I think he wants to screw us. He has to go first.”

Even Rodney’s father, Mike, isn’t happy with this development and wants to teach his son a lesson he will never forget:

“Rodney and Joaquin are a power couple. Power couples have to be split up, immediately.”

Does this lead to the boot story or is it misdirection? The promo department could be making us look at the wrong tribe because there is an obvious boot in No Carrots.

At some point, say around 8:30 PM, the two families will be competing for an immunity challenge that involves memory as seen here:

In One World, this challenge featured a very funny confrontation between Kat and Troyzan which came to represent the whole battle between the men and the women.

No Carrots just got rid of the guy that has an Eidetic Survivor Memory so can they win this? Max could probably have figured the items and their position without even looking because of some pattern he observed in a previous season.

We will see Carolyn competing against Rodney:

Since Carolyn is taking this seriously enough to put on her glasses and that Rodney is Rodney then I will say No Carrots get this point.

Rodney being Rodney: “Hum...what do I have to do again?”

We also have Joe going up against Will:

I’ll have to give that one to the younger guy. Will is probably going to get too confused, making the score: 1 Eczema, 1 Carrot.

Then we have Shirin squaring off against Joaquin:

Just like the angle of the camera suggests, we may as well say that Shirin is playing by herself!

That would make it 2 Carrots, 1 Eczema.
Will the Misfits win?

Like Flowerpower wrote, this picture doesn’t bode well for the NoCarrots:

Does it mean that the Blue Tribe wins?

Before we get to the boot story, I invite you to take a look at Dabo’s analysis in the Confessional Tracker thread. It gives us some ideas on the players who could be going to the Loser Lodge soon.

Since the challenge winner is unknown at this time, let’s look at the “Alternate Realities”:

Burnett’s Reality #1: Jeff yells: “And with that, Eczema wins immunity!”

The cameras bring us back to NoCarrots on Day 17 where we see Hali, Shirin, Carolyn, Jenn, Kelly and Will, who is carrying the tribe’s flag, coming back to camp. Knowing that she is on the block, Shirin pulls out all the stops and throws Kelly, Carolyn and Will under the bus one after the other: Kelly has 4 allies on the other side, she warns, you have to get rid of her. When that fails, she reloads and tells everyone that Will is the only guy left in the tribe so that the odd man out should be going home. But Will could prove to be an immovable object right now (yes, that is a fat joke) so Shirin, the unstoppable farce, has to tackle another angle: Carolyn, the flipper, cannot be trusted and she has to be voted out before she goes back to Joaquin and Tyler.

Now that tactic could very well work but then that would mean Carolyn would be leaving with an idol in pocket so we would have heard something about a “shocking tribal council”. Too bad; Jenn and Hali could certainly benefit from getting rid of Carolyn.

So Reality # 1 likely ends with Shirin telling us that she had a wonderful time and has no regrets except that she won’t be watching howler monkey porn anymore.

Burnett’s Reality #2: Jeff yells: “What the hell? NoCarrots win Immunity!”

We get back to Eczema’s camp where Rodney is feeling very confident: With his new buddy Joaquin and old friends Dan and Mike, he is ready to send Sierra packing.

After her talk with Mike and Dan, Sierra is also confident that Joaquin will be going home.

So what will Mike and Dan do? They should vote out Joaquin to break up the bromance immediately like Mike says but the promos have talked so much about the new bromance that I tend to agree with BrownRoach: It would be strange to have it come to an end so quickly.

Since the oddly place pictures of Sierra qualify her for the CTGirl theory and that she had a big surge in airtime last week, then Sierra could be going home.

I think this picture qualifies for the CTGirl theory, doesn’t it?

So which reality is real?

We can probably narrow it down to the second one as Sheldor so nicely explains here:

http://community.realitytvworld.com/boards/DCForumID2/8334.shtml#26

The camera timestamps appear to show us Eczema after the Immunity Challenge.

So, to summarize:

RC winner: Eczema.
IC winner: No Carrots
Boot: Sierra which would make for a nice play on words with the episode’s title: Someone says it about Shirin but Sierra is the odd woman voted out.
Dumbass: Rodney

Don’t forget to vote (for Sierra ) in Dabo’s thread and thank you for reading.

Please tell me if I forgot anything or if some new info comes along. I will edit this post.

Enjoy the Family Feud!