Abso-effing-lutely. Not just the viewers, but more importantly the jury. And I've enjoyed these past three seasons more than any of the first 14 because of it. For a long time I cursed Richard Hatch's win as the initial impetus for that subsequent multi-season obsession over "honorable" gameplay. But the show seems to have finally outgrown that.

I know Survivor passed its peak a long time ago in terms of popularity, but for Survivor game strategy geeks like myself, these recent seasons are so enjoyable. Now even the non-hardcore gamers, the mostly under-the-radar weak older players like Susie, are making mostly wise and savvy strategic moves.

EDIT: This is not to say there isn't the occasional idiot (ERIK) but even his retardism was interesting, as opposed to the "meekly settling for 6th in a six-person alliance" type of stupidity.

I realized why this is. She was pretty chunky in the beginning but now that she's thinning down, she looks better.

This is shaping up to be a strong season.

Marcus had played a fantastic game, both physically and behind-the-scenes, but got a little too comfortable with Crystal. I bet he is still kicking himself. If he had just fortified his alliance with Susie, he would have had a great shot.

Agreed on Sugar getting more and more attractive as the weeks go on. I'm pulling for her, Kenny, and Matty to advance as far as possible now.

Gotta say, has anyone as useless and dislikeable as Crystal been able to get so far? I mean, she's terrible at challenges and she has a terrible attitude ... yet somehow manages to survive week after week.

The alliance of 6 really should have gotten rid of Suzie, she's really crazy, like Randy said. I'm not sure she has any strategy at all and is going to be easily played. If they had kept the other guy (can't remember his name now), they would have had more control.

And poor Sugar, is she really that naive? The conversation with Matty ... I hope she wins and she probably has a good shot if she reaches the final 3 because it would be hard not to vote for her since she seems nice but man, she's easily manipulated.

Cherie (both times)

Vecepia won the whole thing being pretty useless. I don't think she had the terrible attitude, but was the original "weak player I can easily beat but she won the whole thing" player...

I think I'm rooting for Bob or Kenny at this point. Really, the person I am actively rooting against is Crystal. Has she ever not sucked in a challenge? If she was an Olympic athlete at some point, she has totally let herself go now.

Bob is likely in trouble. If their tribe loses the next challenge, he is all but guaranteed of being voted out.

I just thought it was cool that he outlasted everyone in yesterday's immunity challenge.

Ditto.

I had little hope Marcus would make it to the final 3 given his likeability and threat physically, so this really was inevitable I think. Too bad though, I liked him. He should have tried to hide that immunity idol instead of throwing it out to sea. :)

And how dumb was that anyway to have the idol hidden right there where everybody could see it and wonder why the person was digging there? (if they kept the note a secret).

Marcus was as much in control as someone could be at this point in the game and he blew it. He played flawlessly up until that point and his one mistake got him voted out.

Assuming tribes don't merge before the next immunity challenge Fang is going to have a very tough time winning now and Bob is definitely the next to go.

It would have been interesting to see if Charlie would have lost the challenge on purpose if Matty had dropped out earlier.

I really think that was the writers trying to create a TV moment rather than making a serious attempt to put another idol in play.

Crystal once again proved my point of her being the most unathletic olympian I have ever seen.

Not sure if anyone else noticed, but Marge Boesch died and tonight's episode was in memory of her.

I did notice that. Poor Rudy. Anyway, I think Sugar picked the right side to go with. The losers and misfits she aligned with are more likely to fall apart. Kenny might be getting too cocky and people are beginning to recognize him as a power player. Crystal is still worthless. I can't believe Suzie won. The fake idol Bob made was awesome and I hope that comes into play later on.

With the way this Survivor is turning out, the only person I'm really rooting for is Kenny at this point.

But it would be hilarious to see Suzie, Crystal and Randy as the final 3. Not sure anyone in the jury would actually want to vote.

I liked Kenny earlier on, but now he completely annoys me.

In fact I don't think there is one likable person left in this season that I really am rooting to win. I guess if I had to choose, at this point I want to see Sugar win. She seemed useless at the start, but she actually has exceeded my expectations for her.

I'd go with Sugar and Matty. They are both likable in my book. I'm still interested to see how Sugar's idol comes into play/how she will use it.

The wife and I have five of these on the tivo that we haven't watched yet.

Has there been a recap episode yet? If so, when was it?

And if not, without giving any spoilers, has anything happened that would be worth watching five hours to catch up vs. just diving back in now?

There have been a few pretty good episodes I thought, some twists and such, but mostly normal Survivor type game things. It hasn't been the worst tv ever, so if you like the series, you probably would enjoy the last few episodes.

Pretty strong fake idol. :)

Hopefully it comes into play at some point.

Matty? Seriously? His obnoxious attitude at the immunity challenge the other week is enough to keep him far from being likeable.

I was hoping the same. with the tribes merging though, isn't this when they normally stop having exile island? My assumption is that no one else will be sent out there, which is a shame.

Of course I still had it in my head that somehow, someone would end up sneaking out to sea and grabbing the one idol that was thrown out there too.. but oh well :)

Randy is likeable and he is who I want to win although he probably has no shot. Suzie, Crystal, and that other bitch Corrryn I think her name is also have no shot to win so it's down to Bob, Kenny, Sugar, or Matty. Sugar and Kenny are the favorites to win at this point.

We must be watching different Randy's then. His attitude at the challenge and at tribal was pretty terrible and I can see why people wouldn't like him if they actually have to live with him.

Hmmm... I assumed he had taken the idol with him back to camp, but, in hindsight, I guess it was kind of vague as to whether he planted it or kept it.

You must be watching in some strange parrallel universe?

the funniest thing i have seen on TV all season was when he was at camp with susie and crystal and said that he was all alone at camp with two beautiful women.

sugar is an idiot. i was impressed with her when she found the idol, but first she let kenny trick her into voting for ace, and even though she knows he screwed her, she listened to him again.

i am really annoyed with this season. the whole juggle the tribes before the merge thing is so old and tired. as whiny as it sounded, i actually think corrinne was right about people deserving to go home...when you are part of a winning tribe and have to endure getting shipped over to a bunch of losers that vote you out, that isnt being outwitted or outplayed...that is just getting screwed by a crappy mechanic.

I agree with all of the above. I'd add that another funny part was Randy dancing with the native woman. How hard up is he that he has to go to another country whose inhabitants probably don't speak much English to find a woman who "likes" him?

In some cases, that's true. In this case, Marcus still had a numbers advantage in his new setup. He simply didn't work Susie correctly and paid for it. He deserved to go home. Part of Survivor is effectively managing the low end of your alliance and/or skillfully relating to outsiders in case you ever need them down the road.

Marcus does NOT deserve to be there. He was outplayed by Kenny. Corryn is a bitch and nobody cares what she says. Hopefully she's gone soon as nobody deserves to get voted out more than she does.

Randy is likeable because he's a dick. He hates Crystal which is a plus. He admits to being an absolute trainwreck and if that isn't likeable I don't know what is.

This has a lot about you I am afraid if true:(

Completely agree with this. Marcus dug his own grave. Like you said, he didn't play the bottom of his alliance correctly and he also was to honest with Crystal.

Even if the two tribes had merged at ten, Marcus may have still been voted out. Marcus, Corinne, Charlie, Randy, and Bob needed either Sugar or Susie to vote with them for a 6-4 majority. That means Sugar could give the idle to whoever Kota wanted to vote to out and and consequently cancel out their five votes. Sugar, Crystal, Matty, Susie, and Kenny could then send whoever they wanted home which probably would have been Marcus.

1.) Randy is far from likable. He's just as whinny as Crystal and him going on about an African native liking him was one of the best unintentional comedy moments of the season.

2.) Marcus made one mistake and paid for it. He played a great game up to that point, but his mistake was colossal and he deserved to go home for it.

3.) I agree that the tribe swapping thing is becoming old and its taking the game out of the player's hands and bringing a lot of unnecessary luck into play.

4.) I liked Kenny at first. The past couple of episodes though he's started to wear on me a lot. He's getting arrogant to the point where its obnoxious and right now I'd have a hard time deciding whether he or Crystal annoy me more.

5.) This season has been a disaster as far as likable people getting to the end. Bob is probably the only person left I'd like to see win (maybe Sugar, but thats just to show how bad this season has been) and that says more for this season than it does for Bob.

I thought Sugar should have written down Randy and let the two factions duke it out over the tie...

I really think that they need to have a full season WITHOUT a merge. That way, people stop voting out their top members early in the game because they're a "threat", and the first season doing this would be a complete shock to the tribes that did not keep strong.

Overall I believe that Survivor favors the weak far too much. There's no point in keeping your tribe strong when: 1) you'll switch tribes 2-3 times anyways and 2) that person will kick your ass later on if you leave them in the game

My favorite in this game is Kenny because he has successfully exploited the weakest members of the other tribe and turned them to his side. His ultimate success will be determined by how those members perceive themselves in this alliance and whether they trust him to keep them along to the end. If they believe that Kenny is doing it for Kenny, the votes may splinter again later on.

Not sure if a non-merge game could work. Games would get increasingly difficult because of manpower issues especially if one tribe was outclassed (like this year).

I think they should keep them all together from day one. Then for each set of immunity challenges they need to randomly split them into "tribes" for teh challenge. The losing "tribe" goes to tribal. This forces everyone to play an even larger social game as they have no safety net alliance to always fall back on.

Ooooh I like that idea. Forward it to CBS. ;)

Why not? It really seems like the current format of the game has been exploited to the fullest, and this would break the pattern. Right now the producers are so determined to make "good tv" that they continuously rewrite the rules to mix things up, and the game feels like a series of random patterns and luck vs. the best strategy winning. If they could prove that these tribe changeups were determined prior to the game starting I'd be okay with it but they definitely feel reactive. Makes it feel like the producers have too much impact on the game.

Randy really came off as a racist at tribal

That had to be one of the best tribal councils ever.

I wonder if this bought Bob a little bit longer in the game. Sugar said tonight that Matty was starting to play the game so maybe he will be the target instead of Bob once they get rid of Corryn. The goal for Sugar, Kenny, and Matty is to get into the finals with Crystal and Suzie and be guaranteed the $1 million. Sugar might be able to use Bob to help oust Matty and Kenny to do just that.

Next week's preview looked pretty interesting and I'm not sure what to make of it.

I wonder if that preview was Bob's attempt to explain the idol he had instead of a new twist.

Said it before, but oh my lord, Sugar is still getting insanely sexier with each passing week. That cheery feistiness...

Um... but anyway. Yeah, I think for everyone in the dominant alliance, it was an awesome joke to play on Randy. For Bob, it was to gain an ally from the opposing alliance in Sugar. Might pay off down the road, might not, but it probably puts him in a better situation than he was in otherwise.

I don't know what the hell that was all about next week, though. I also thought that maybe Bob was just trying to cover his ass with Corinne, but that really doesn't make any sense if you think about it...

Didn't everyone see what the idol they threw into the ocean looked like? If Corryn saw it then she would know that the fake idol Bob gave to Randy wasn't the one Marcus threw into the ocean so it wouldn't be Bob just trying to cover his ass.

Man that had to be one of the best Survivor moments ever! That plus Crystal shouting after she wrote Randy's name down so everybody heard her. What a complete idiot Randy was and Corrinne for that matter.