Yuku free message boards

Episode 5 ...One stands out...





Jalapao...



JT MOR3

Relentlessly MOR. JT is the leader of Jalapao and there's a lot more going on in the tribe than the edit is showing.

(And I give Sierra credit for working hard enough to break the guy's tooth.)

Joe MOR3

Welcome to MOR, Joe! You are hereby the officially manipulated enemy of Taj.

Spencer CPP4

The eds let him tell his story.

Stephen CP3

His story continues to follow the season's theme of First Impressions.
As we predicted, Stephen immediately gave a confessional that he was looking after himself before he did anything else.

This episode also had him say the same thing about Brendan.

Both confessionals established Stephen as approaching the Exile Alliance with more caution and apprehension than the other three.

If this was the merge ep and I had to choose a winner, it would be Stephen.


Sydney UTR2

I got nothin'...


Taj CP5+


Like Brendan and Sierra, she's all about the wonderful Secret Alliance and how she's "not so nervous", even though by going to Exile, "...you just separate yourself from the tribe..."


After the IC, she is shown telling the boys that now is the time for them to use their heads and not do things emotionally. She immediately goes emotionally ballistic.



After Stephen tells us that he's still looking out for himself , Taj tells us that Stephen, "[will] let me know if I really need to pull it out or not..." We are reminded by these two confessionals, that it's Stephen who holds the power, not Taj.

At TC, Taj tells JP, "...Anything you do can cost you in this game, so an outburst is just (ph-h-ht!) another form of anything that can happen that gets you out of this game..."


Stephen is a silent observer at TC.


This episode, Taj talks and talks and talks. She seems oblivious of the danger of giving the idol away to Stephen and her mouth and behavior is getting a little loose and wild. We watch her starting to lose control of herself, becoming at the same time, overly confident and paranoid.


The post IC river scene showed that she feels a bit on the outs and nervous about her place in the tribe. Her eggs are all in the Secret Alliance basket, but she's already given away the idol.



Timbira



Coach (aka, You know...) UTRN1

Once again we have a scene where Coach is wrong in his analysis and predictions.

It was a scene in which, once again, only Erinn seems to have any opinion.


But, it was interesting that the only other person featured in it was Sierra, who got two reaction shots.




Brendan MOR3

I really like how Brendan's being edited.
On the surface, his edit seems to show someone in a powerful position, who as the brains, brawn, motivation, and luck to win it all.

But, he's continually coming up short in his speeches (except for his "I'm not doing it for the money" speech).

He's also part of the alliance group that talks of having the game sewn up.

He tells us:
"Every single kinda stage we've set has worked. And every time we've layered more people in the plan, you know, we've gotten more and more powerful."


At Exile, he narrates the stories of how he and then Stephen and Taj found the idols and where the alliance is at this point.
Again, he says, "...It's gonna put us in a powerful spot!"

There's a camera shot of Stephen looking down at Brendan, while Brendan builds a fire. It's an interestingly dominant position that the shot frames him in.

Stephen tells us, "Brendan. My first impression of him is positive, but wary. He's obviously an extremely strong player. /break/ and he's, you know, mentally strong and he's clearly strategically strong. /break/ but, /break/ it's hard to trust someone who /break/ you know, I've known him for five minutes. I can't place my entire faith in the game on him. /break/ So, I might keep this 2-tribe alliance in the back of my head as something that might be there, but I can't place my entire faith on this 4-person alliance." (cut to commercial)

Debbie UTR1

Wow, Deb gets some game talk. The Timbira split continues to show itself.


Erinn UTR1

More wry commentary on the Viking Samurai brave.

Her edit continues to be tightly restricted to Tyson and Coach and no further.


Sierra UTR2

Sierra was placed in with the part of the alliance that is confident that they are unstoppable.

This knocks her below Stephen on the winners podium this episode.


Sierra (off-camera), "That 4-way alliance is insane! We're going down to the end of the wire no matter what."

Sierra to Brendan, "We rule! It's over!" (laughs)

Sierra (off- camera), "Hallelujah, praise the Lord, (laughs), Amen, Jesus!"

Sierra (on and off-camera), "After three days of being a loser /break/ when I first got here /break/ I'm proud of myself. I formed an amazing alliance /break/ It's really quite brilliant /break/ We're gonna take over the whole world. /break/ That's right! /break/ (laughter)

This was clearly a very bad confessional for Sierra.

Look at how constructed it is to make her look smug and overly impressed with the alliance:

• There is no perspective or cautious analysis like Stephen's.
• The entire segment is made up of 4 distinct groupings by the editors.
• They insert what sounds like Sierra trivializing religious exclamations. There is no way to know how she actually used these exclamations.
• The final group of her comments is a highly spliced together concoction. Even the laugh at the end is spliced in.

It's all designed to make her seem over confident, uncritical strategically, and even, maybe, religiously offensive.

Maybe she'll get to recover from this, but it was a hell of a scene.


Tyson UTR1

Tyse gets to show that he's no fool and his head's in the game.

---

Winner Short List

Stephen:

Fulfilling his theme of not being someone who can be lead around. Quite the opposite. We get in his head and know where he stands on all things critical to his game. He is out- thinking his alliance members. He's the only one being cautious analytical about the alliance's chances and dynamics.

This episode separated Stephen from the pack. He's way out front.

Sierra:

I've been concerned about her "If it's my time to go, it's my time to go." statements.
I wasn't happy with her first "awesome alliance" speech at Exile.
I still don't know how to read her "cute, but angry" SPV from Jalapao last ep.

But her confessional scene this ep was very bad for her chances. Being lumped in with Brendan and Taj, as uncritically confident in the alliance, while Stephen gets just the opposite position, is bad bad bad.

Still, she is above the rest of the pack.

---

Can't Rule Out

Brendan: He did heve his speech after finding the HII. He's got an idol. He's got an alliance. meh

Erinn: Her edit has been relentlessly Tyson and Coach.

JT: If JT can come out of the MOR stupor the edit has him, he could shoot up the winner list. So far, it doesn't seem likely.


I'd be Shocked! (again...)

Joe, Nuff said.

Sydney, "Yeah Jeff, people stereotype me as another beautiful blond model with nothing to say, but... ...uh, I can't think of anything to say.."

Taj, She's wound pretty tight and there's steam starting to come outta her ears. Get back! She's gonna blow!!!

Coach, Ya know, if the edit could make him at all appealing in some goofy way, I'd say he could be our first N, jackass winner. But, it ain't gonna happen.

Deb, Momma Deb.

Tyson, Adds up to one of the big threats, but not a winner.

My lack of tone

Based on my take on the Super- Secret, Cross-Tribal, Exile- Island Alliance, I probably should have given Taj, Brendan, and Sierra Ns.

The tone to me was ambiguous, or at least hidden by the editors. I usually give a tone when it's been made obvious and clear. Okay, I'm tone stingy.

Visibility

And if people want to hand out 2s and 3s to players that they "feel" should be credited with more, be my guest. But, if it's a Close Call, I'm going with the objective Vis count (aka, Warrior's).

What matters is that they rated UTRs. Yes, Taj's 5+ visibility made their Visibility numbers very low. That's what's called flying Under the Radar!

Honestly, some posters seem to want to hand out Visibility scores like merit badges. (Sorry. Having a Taj moment...)