An "Insider" Look at Survivor: Guatemala, Episode 2: Shock Me

CBS.com continues to annoy. First off, the order of the videos seems random, instead of the two interviews by the bootee followed by chronological storytelling. I’ve moved them around a bit. Yeah, I’m nitpicking, but it’s such a simple thing. Plus, out of 11 clips, 5 of them were from the episode!

Then they’ve added pictures that dance around on the video window, slowing the whole thing down. Look, here’s a note to all you website designers out there – STOP. I don’t know what sort of competition there is in the corporate web design world, but it seems like there’s some sort of race to make the LEAST user-friendly page that takes the longest to load on my new computer. Just show me the link and let me have the content without a million flash animations showing me how clever you are, okay? Take a look at the website you’re on now. Simple works.

Sorry… the week I’ve had, I’ve been in the mood to rant. The show was good this week, even if it was somewhat unremarkable. As long as they have great challenges, I’m happy.

Morgan’s Final Words: She didn’t see it coming. She’s not mad, that’s just how the game goes. She feels naïve, but she’s happy with the way she played physically. She doesn’t know why she got voted off. Either way, it was an amazing experience. She’s never even left the country before. The experience was worth every second. She’s searching for words, she obviously had no idea.

She learned a lot about herself, maybe she doesn’t read people as well as she thought. She’s always been strong socially and that didn’t happen here, so it was a bit humbling. She wouldn’t have done anything differently, or maybe she would have done a little less “alliance” in the beginning and just enjoyed the experience. We’ve seen this game played so much that we immediately start in with alliances and lose focus. Well, that kind of play won Chris a million in Vanuatu, but I do see her point.

Morgan, the Day After: She’s feeling shell shocked, not as bad as last night. She’s OK with it today. She doesn’t think she’ll understand until it’s all said and done. She thinks she got along with everyone, she was voted out for other reasons {loooong pause} that had nothing to do with the way your personalities click. Smart one, she is.

People put their game faces on and did what they had to do at Tribal Council. Because of that she can’t get mad. Oh, I get it. She thinks she was a threat. :::snort::: She cares about everyone on her tribe, and they all voted for her and they were dishonest. She feels like she was cheated on. I like Morgan because she says the same thing sixteen ways, and says it very slowly, so she makes recapping pretty easy.

Tribal Council was surreal. Between asking the questions and people voting, there’s a lot of dead time to think {pause… God bless them, crickets chirp in the background. You can’t script this stuff} and getting voted out was the furthest thing from her mind. She didn’t think it would be her last Tribal Council.

She feels like her Survivor experience hasn’t ended just yet. She has a lot of questions and a lot of things to piece together. She needs to step back and look at the experience as a whole. She’s never even left the country before and here she is in the jungle of Guatemala, and doing really well.

She (sing along, this season’s no different from the others) learned a lot about herself. Here she is, she looks like this little sorority girl and she taught the guys how to make fire. She knew she was more than what she looked like, but people tend to form opinions of her. She’s never been this physical in her life, she’s played sports in high school, but then you go to college and maybe go on a run if you feel like it. I think she means she hasn’t kept herself up.

The mind is a powerful thing. She’s been fine – she had a lot more game to play. That’s because she had a strong will and a lot of heart. Even though she got voted out early, the game gave her a lot of confidence. After the challenges here, there’s not a lot that you can’t do.

If she could say something to her tribe, she would say she’s sorry that she didn’t say goodbye. They were so close, and he hopes one of them wins and that they stay close. Having to vote someone off was a big deal to them, and she hopes they stay united without her. Since it was unanimous, I’d say so. She’s not mad, she wants to see them all on “the other side.”

Not That There’s Anything Wrong: Jamie talks about his tribemates. He thinks Brian is gay, and the video showing his favorite color as teal (duhn-duhn!!) seems to seal the deal. They show Brian doing other “obviously gay” things like rolling corn for meal. Methinks the editors need a clue.

Girly Girls & Girly Guys: Morgan loves her tribe. The guys are sensitive and understanding, and they’re really proud of the women. When they do well in a challenge, like the canoe challenge, the men told the women how great they did. It was a team effort, and they could have been cocky and talked out how they did the pulling and whatnot, but they didn’t.

The guys are really great, and they don’t look like really athletic guys, but they’re good and have a lot of heart, which is more than she could have asked for.

She worried about being this huge girly girl, but her knowledge has actually contributed. It’s great how the girls and guys are on the same plane. They work together really well. It’s interesting to see how the dynamic of the group will go. Nakum is a really strong tribe. If they have to go to Tribal Council, she doesn’t want to vote anybody out. It’s great that they’re all friends, but she’s not ready to vote anyone out. Good thing she didn’t have to, eh?

Reward Challenge: In the original order, they start with this one. Very unusual. CBS.com is really slipping lately. My main thought on this – how did Blake get all that energy? He could barely breathe! And my girl Stephenie rules it again.