Yuku free message boards

40. Survivor: Tocantins

Wikipedia
Reality Blurred Archive

Survivor: Tocantins - The Brazilian Highlands was the eighteenth season of the United States reality show Survivor filmed in the microregion of Jalapão in Tocantins, Brazil. The premiere aired Thursday, February 12, 2009.

CBS began casting for Survivor: Tocantins once production for Survivor: Gabon was underway. Applications were due by July 15, 2008, with in-person interviews being conducted in various cities sometime in August 2008, and semi-finalists traveling to Los Angeles, California sometime in September 2008.^[2] Shooting occurred sometime in October to mid-December 2008.^[3] This is the first season that applicants under the age of 21 were able to apply except in Mississippi and Washington, D.C.^[2]

Sixteen applicants were chosen to compete on the show, and were initially divided into two tribes. Exile Island returned this season, but with new twists. Instead of one castaway sent to Exile Island, two were sent. While on Exile Island, each exiled castaway picked from one of two urns. One urn contained a clue to the Hidden Immunity Idol and an option to join the opposing tribe, while the other urn contained nothing.

Since I did the most recent season of TAR a couple of days ago, why not the most recent season of Survivor? I mean, really, what can I really say about the 18th fucking season of Survivor? Yeah, it had a couple of interesting twists and some interesting alliances and a rival for dumbest tribe ever. Still, it's Survivor. Fuck this intro, let's start the write-up.

1. Sandy. For the four episodes she was on, she was rather entertaining. She was initially voted out by her tribe in the beginning because of the first impressions twist, and decided to look for an idol to save her. It turns out she did not need it since Carolina's big mouth and big tits were booted instead. She was rather loud, but very enthusiastic and jovial about being out there. She contributed to the camp and all that, and she was decent in challenges, but in the end she was still the second boot from her tribe. Oh well.
2. Exile Alliance. The Exile Alliance was an interesting deal, initially established by Brendan and Taj when both of them were at Exile. They both got their tribe's respective HII's, and they also brought in their closest allies, Stephen for Taj and Sierra for Brendan, in on the plan. Of course, Taj had to end up telling Sierra the plan on Exile, while Stephen and Brendan shared a nice moment of anal sex during their excursion. Once the tribes actually merged, though, Brendan didn't bring it up, confident that he had control of Timbira. So Brendan left, and thus the Exile Alliance died off. Would've been a neat concept if it worked, but probably wouldn't have been as hilarious as what actually happened.
3. Timbira. What a stupid tribe. First, they had Ben, so they were kinda fucked from the beginning. They took out a strong competitor solely because she wouldn't let Ben lick her shoulders. They still managed to come out 6-4 post-merge, then 6-3 after Joe got medevaced. The problem was, everyone hated each other so much that they quickly split apart. Ben, Debbie, and Tyson were in one faction, Brendan and Sierra were in another, and Erinn hated all of them and straight-up joined Jalapao. Hilariously, both sides wanted to see JT win, probably more than they themselves wanted to win. They were just so bitter against each other that they fucking let Jalapao get all the power, and thus Timbira got wiped out and JT and Stephen had probably an even easier walk to the finals than Rob and Amber. Holy shit, how can one tribe be so god damn dumb?
   
4. Brendan. His appearance on the show was spoiled before he even got on. A millionaire or so who started his own granola company, he also formed the Exile Alliance, found the HII, and was chosen as leader of his tribe. The problem was, the guy was an idiot. When making the Exile Alliance, he somehow forgot to tell his closest ally and the person he included in this alliance about said alliance, so Sierra didn't actually hear about it until Taj told her on Exile. Also dumb was ignoring the Exile Alliance post-merge while still needing to rely on them to backstab Ben. He also told JT he wasn't trying to win, but rather would try for JT to win, which is pretty infuriating to hear after we had to endure dipshit Sugar the previous season. He ended up getting backstabbed by his own tribe, though at least he took it well. Still, as nice a guy he was, he really sucked at this whole Survivor thing.
5. Tyson. As much as I hated Ben, I still actually liked Tyson. Yeah, he was a douchebag, but he was a self-aware one, much like Fairplay and Randy. He was a complete dick to Sierra because he didn't like her, but then I don't think anyone really did besides Brendan anyway. Other than that, he was actually a pretty fun guy, always goofing off and giving some absurd confessionals. The guy had a good energy about him, and even though he allied with Ben, he still mocked him behind his back and joked about dethroning him and becoming the new "Coach." He also got dry-humped by Debbie. He proved to be an immunity threat, and thus he ended up leaving early at F8. Pretty decent villain overall, since he embraced it.
6. Sierra. One of the two who was voted out early based on first impressions, she actually did rather well considering that as well as the fact that no one really seemed to like her. The editing managed to make her look like a sweetheart and a lock for the next All-Stars, but everyone complained about her constantly whining and stuff so it's really hard to see who the real Sierra actually was. She allied with Brendan which turned out to be a mistake since Brendan was an idiot. She then called out Ben and Debbie about what a shitty game they were playing when they tried to beg her to return, only for them to then lie about Sierra asking to join them. She ended up getting voted out anway, but still, 7th place isn't that bad for someone who was as fucked as Sierra.
7. Taj. Taj is married to football player Eddie George, who managed to dominate some airtime during the family visit. Concerning Taj herself, though, she quickly bonded with Stephen, and was soon in with Stephen and JT, where they managed to take out Spencer and Sydney, with Joe getting medevaced soon after. She had a couple meltdowns, but overall she was pretty cheerful yet wasn't afraid to talk trash about, say, Ben. Great character, Jalapao made the F4 easily, but then Stephen and JT decided to take Erinn over Taj to the F3, which pissed her off and made her a bitter juror. Still a likeable character, and she did pretty well anyway.
8. Erinn. Pretty big outcast in her tribe. She was struggling a recent break-up, so she wasn't the person on Survivor she usually was, from what she said. Still, she quickly earned a lot of love for her staunch anti-Ben stance, constantly making fun of him and saying probably the iconic quote of the season, "Who is this jackass?" Erinn managed to make the merge, where she quickly joined Jalapao and, with the help of Timbira's utter stupidity and contempt for itself, made the F4. She managed to weasel her way into the F3 and would've made the F2 had JT not won immunity. Now, whether she'd actually win or not was another story, but overall she had a nice story and brought some entertaining moments.
9. Stephen. A pretty big strategist in the game who had several alliances going, from the Exile Alliance to F2 pacts with both JT and Taj. The big story of the season was the bonding of the New York Jew Stephen and the Good Ol' Southern Boy JT. And would you look at that, these two managed to let Timbira give them outplay their way to the F2! Stephen was part of the dead Exile Alliance, and also had a pact with Taj, and after JT found Taj's idol, the three of them solidified into the Jalapao alliance. Stephen's probably biggest mistake was that, while he was a big component in the strategizing with JT, nobody actually knew that Stephen was a strategist. They thought more that he was a goat that rode JT's coattails, and he didn't help with his underwhelming jury performance. Thus Stephen became one of the few people who ended up not getting a single vote, joining such distinguished company as Becky, Dreamz, Cassandra, and Sugar. I suddenly feel very sorry for Stephen.
10. JT. I've never seen a person so charismatic that almost everyone pretty much wanted him to win. A good ol' country boy, he and Stephen formed a quick bond, and he also allied with Taj later on. He lost a tooth during a challenge, which he didn't give a shit about, and Probst was so overwhelmed with his manliness about it that he dug around in the mud for JT's tooth, masturbated to it a few times, and gave it back to his mother, forever reminding us of just how creepy Probst is about his alpha-males. When the merge came, everyone wanted JT to win and allied with him, it was so pathetic. JT had no fucking trouble despite being in a minority alliance, and he and Stephen even remarked to how ridiculously easy they had it in the game. But what really made me appreciate JT was the final TC, where Debbie gets Stephen to admit that he would've taken Erinn to the F2 given the chance. Now, JT knew this and was fine with it, but he managed to fake appearing heartbroken and hurt by Stephen's response, which the jury totally bought. That alone made me appreciate that, even though everyone pretty much let JT win, JT was still a shrewd player and did deserve the game's second unanimous win and being the only player in Survivor history to have absolutely no votes against him both in the normal game and in the final TC. I really would've loved to see him have to struggle a bit more, because I really think he could've been even more impressive if he had to actually work for a win like Tom had to at times, but overall I'm still happy with his win and consider him a deserving winner, even if it was the easiest victory ever.

Yeah, there were some aspects I didn't like about Tocantins, but overall I enjoyed it. It had some great and unique characters, even if the gameplay was a joke. Some solid villains, some great heroes, and overall everything just flowed well. Yeah, there were a few duds and one certain character I would've enjoyed not being there at all, but despite all that I still enjoyed Tocantins well enough. Now if only we could get a season with both great characters and great gameplay instead of simply one or the other.