A lot of good stuff here. I really loved your Tod from "Scrubs" reference. Dissing Rupert? Not so cool. Dreamz had kinda grown on me, maybe his whole "comic relief" presence. Earl deserved the win, but I wish Cassandra had gotten a vote or two.

That was the most excrutiating Jury questioning session of all time. Alex and Lisi annoyed me SOOO much I half expected Jeff to step in and start laying into them about the absolute insanity of their line of questioning. Poor old Cassandra, what on earth did she do to deserve that?? Both Alex and Lisi were cockily planning on voting her out until she was smart enough to align with someone else and at the same time seize control of the game. She never backstabbed them or lied to them - she wasn't even on the same tribe as Lisi when she was voted out! And she was a far better friend to Stacey than Alex was, as you pointed out she actually stuck with her and attempted to out Yau-Man instead. I was screaming at my telly throughout. Grrr.

BEST. RECAP. EVER.

You stand on the podium with the TVG All Stars. This recap exuded snark, irony and it was very observant. You're the perfect Survivor geek and I hope you stick with it. Loved your comment about that idiot Mirna. Made me realize that being beautiful can be a burden, if assholes like Mirna feel entitled to make comments like that about two hard-nosed competitors.

But I digress: Dreamz would win the "Top Douchebag" title if he was smarter, but you rightly place that honor on Alex's shoulders. Lisi would be a contender, too, but that woman has no common sense whatsoever. I felt uncomfortable just watching her show her ignorance and low IQ in front of millions of people. And that's with SIX zeroes, too.

Earl earns my respect, even if he did come off a bit cocky knowing he's torpedoed Dremz and even Cassandra. Yes, she did play a cerebral game, but she didn't have the leader status Earl earned. Earl and Yau Man made up the best alliance I've ever seen. One of the things that impressed me early on was that Earl unselfishly allowed Yau to find the idol thanks to his clues and never acted as if it was his prerogative to use it. Classy.

Good season, excellent finish, even better recap. Now go and take over wriring for TAR.

I'm an attorney. I'm hard working, I'm honest and I'm regularly humbled by the very intelligent people I work with and against. Most attorneys are like me.

25-30% of attorneys are sneering, entitled assholes with god complexes. they try to denigrate those around them and pleasure in any iota of power they can exert over others.

Alex represents the latter half and he makes me hang my head in shame. At tribal counsel I saw nothing but an asshole, and frankly not that smart of an asshole. Best wishes alex, hope you realize all of your peers hate you and shudder when they see your name on a document.

okay so I realize this isn't as big of an issue in this day and age. I also realize that Lisi is a complete idiot, probably more stupid than anyone on the history of survivor ever.

BUT, her little eenie, meenie business really burned me. She clearly does not know the origins of that poem/rhyme, a SLAVE poem, where the second line used to be "catch a N-word by his toe".

But watching her do this to three african americans who have soundly beat her at a game completely beyond her, just make me want to scream, slap her silly and then take a shower. I needed to wash the lisi off.

My husband works for the company that Alex is a lawyer at. He said all the girls swoon over him and that he dresses like a model everyday.

His line of questioning made me hate him more than I thought possible.

Am I the only person on Earth that thinks CBS should have given Yau-man a truck? They gave Rupert a million dollars for heavens sake?

Great Recap. Thanks Schoonie.

"My husband works for the company that Alex is a lawyer at. He said all the girls swoon over him and that he dresses like a model everyday."

That makes me sad. All that guy deserves is to be constantly laughed at for being so ridiculous in every way.

Thanks, anonymous, for noticing that "eenie meenie" nonsense from Lisi. I also gasped when I heard her start that rhyme. I think she knew the original rascist origin and thought she was being clever. What a despicable person!

Schoonie,
Great job on capturing and articulating the frustration anyone with a brain felt watching Dreamz through this finale, and the annoyance and rage at listening to Alex and Lisi be the complete asshole douchebags they are at final tribal. You are the king of Survivor recaps. Looking forward to the reunion show recap, and I hope you'll be doing next season too.
-JR

I think Yau was very smart giving the truck away. From all of the people that have won cars in the past, they all say the cars end up costing almost as much as buying the car. Dreamz screwed himself by taking the car. He does not have a licence (did you notice Boo was driving the truck during the show). All in all, Dreamz will end up with around 10,000, which is not bad at all, but after taxes and paying off the car, he is not as well off as he was thinking he would be

Schoonie, I have already proclaimed my "heart" for you and your recaps, but I disagree with one of your main points. Dreamz was totally playing the game the whole time! Okay, kidding! God, I can't even type that without cringing. What I disagree with is when Dreamz is talking about doing the "wrong thing" -- he was referring to the "wrong thing" being keeping the necklace. If giving it to Yau-Man was the "right thing," Cassandra and Earl couldn't vote for Yau-Man because he would have immunity. So I don't think that scene was telling in any way. He was still referring to keeping it as the wrong way to go. Right? Either way, he was infuriating.

I don't think Lisi knew or was thinking about the racist origins of "eenie meenie." Unless, when she was rehearsing her Tribal Council speech with Alex and Mookie (I can totally see them holding a pre-Tribal rehearsal) one of them told her of the origins of the rhyme...but I think she's too dumb to think about something like that.

I actually kind of liked what Edgardo said. I think part of the reason he asked what he did was so that everyone in the jury could hear how things really went down and would vote accordingly, thereby taking more votes away from Dreamz.

Alex is a retarded douche. Who says "riddle me this"?! What a self-satisfied dumbass. At least you can laugh at Lisi knowing that she's too stupid to have any influence over anything important, but Alex is out there douching up cases left and right. Good lord.

can't wait for the reunion!

I think it's important to mention that Dreamz actually spends his days working with cheerleaders - that pretty much (to me) explains his erratic behavior. Modeling his behavior (whether intentionally or not) after a well-known stereotype totally explains his brand of krazy.

I am in the minority, but I will say this, Schoonie! Your thesis is that Dreamz should give away his immunity because he made a promise in a game of dishonesty and outwitting the next guy. Why don't you place the blame where it belongs? Yau-Man? He trusted someone who obviously couldn't be trusted and lied to everyone, alliance member or not. I also think it's unfair for someone to say that Dreamz shouldn't be playing for the money? Why the hell else are the people out there?

Seriously, Dreamz played the role of the village idiot because no one would believe he was smart enough to get to the end. I mean, he was boxed in from day 1 as the strong idiot, so why not play that role as far as it goes?

I'm tired of people not giving Dreamz credit. Yau-Man didn't deserve to win anymore than Jessica, who went out first. She played a horrible beginning game and Yau-Man played a horrible end game. If he wasn't a fan favorite, everyone would be cheering Dreamz's move and saying how it was good "game play." You all are acting like a bunch of hypocrites.

I thought Lisi's water shoes/over your head comment sounded like a bad rip-off of Judd's question to Danni in Guatemala. He asked her if she'd ever worn rollerblades, because she skated through the whole game ... or something like that.

"Your thesis is that Dreamz should give away his immunity because he made a promise in a game of dishonesty and outwitting the next guy."

I never said that. In fact, I said that keeping the necklace was a good move. You can find it in the recap.

"Seriously, Dreamz played the role of the village idiot because no one would believe he was smart enough to get to the end."

He didn't "play the role". It wasn't all some clever plan to get to the end by appearing not to know what he was doing and then screwing over Yau-man. He actually DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HE WAS DOING. Look at the confessionals; he's so emotional and honest about wanting to live up to his word that keeping the necklace was a spur of the moment decision, just like everything else he did in the game. He never once thought past the immediate boot, made no long term plans, and did whatever struck his whim the entire time. I'm not saying he's not a smart guy in real life, I just think he has no capacity for the thinking required here. There was no "village idiot" to it. There was just idiot.

And he wasn't "boxed in" to his role, as you say. People didn't pull that out of thin air. It's not like he's a nuclear physicist or anything and because of his act on the first day, people boxed him in. That's the way he was acting. Asking how many white people there are on the island while everyone else is trying to get to sleep does not exactly bode well for your status as a good player, or as someone who is particularly socially apt.

People aren't giving Dreamz credit because he doesn't deserve that much. As I've said in the recaps, props to him for getting to the end, but that's the only credit he deserves. He doesn't deserve credit for masterminding anything, or for orchestrating things. The empirical evidence is there: he was just crazy, random him, and this time it happened to get him to the end.

All I can say is that I have had a crap-ass day and I prayed and prayed installment #2 would be posted so I could read it and laugh... & crack up I did - once again so much I was afraid I'd wake my kids up...

The hilarity started for me with the parade/Michelle comments and just got better from there.

Alex & Lisi sufficiently made jackasses of themselves...it's so irritating when the jury members get up there (after leaving "Loser Lodge") and act so pompous & righteous. They are just pissed b/c they were out-played. Their sense of entitlement is infuriating. Okay, enough, I'll move on.

Earl deserved it, but I agree...I would have liked Cassandra to have gotten a few votes. I agree with Schoonie that she played a great game and received NO credit in the end.

Credit to Dreamz? Change your name to slutty_crazy_whore! Dreamz basically Forrest Gumped his way to the final 4. Yau-Man could have worked something out (maybe convince Dreamz to vote for Cassandra?) and didn't, so that was kind of odd. I agree that CBS should have given him a new car or something. I hate Rupert too and they gave that clump of hair $1 mil, and Yau-Man played a better game.

I doubt girls would be swooning after Alex after that pathetic display. Lisi and her feathered 80's hair were almost as bad.

Schoonie, again, I have to disagree. As you point out in your critique of Cassandra, no one within the context of Survivor respects the type of game she played, so why does she deserve a vote? You can't on one hand PRAISE someone (Cass) who the other players don't respect while CONDEMNING another person (Dreamz) the same players also don't respect. Both Cassandra and Dreamz used what they could to get to the end.

If you remember, it was DREAMZ who orchestrated trying to get Yau-Man out at six, so as to avoid what happened at the final TC. Cassandra just nodded, said "Uh-huh", "Uh-Huh." It was Dreamz who went to Stacy to see if she was on board, etc. I think where I disagree with you is that Survivor is a "social" game within the "community" of people playing... so Dreamz played the village idiot, because he was deemed that by the other players in the game. So, if being dumb like a fox gets you to the end, that's all that matters. I mean, come on, getting to the end in Survivor is all that matters because the final TC can be such a crap shoot between people voting with their hearts or their brains. Who cares if the jury "respects" you, as long as they vote for you? The prime consensus was that Yau-Man had to go; he was clearly the front-runner. I just feel that if Dreamz had made a similar move on Lisi, Rocky, Alex, or someone equally unlikable, you would have been fine with it. Because Yau is a fan favorite, the move is all of a sudden wrong.

Personally, I don't believe that Cass deserved any votes and this is why. If you have to "mastermind" something to win, as Schoonie indicated in the comments, then she didn't do that. She played the game like last season's Becky and the same result occurred. No one will vote for a rider of coattails, no matter how good a listener they may be. At least Dreamz had an impact on the game, imploded an alliance, and single-handedly made the second half of this season watchable.

I just feel Dreamz takes a lot of shit, most of which is undeserved. Vent over.

"You can't on one hand PRAISE someone (Cass) who the other players don't respect while CONDEMNING another person (Dreamz) the same players also don't respect."

Why not? I'm not going to automatically disagree with something just because someone I don't like agrees with it. I take each individual opinion, assess it, and make my own decision. It's kind of a petty sentiment to automatically disagree/agree like that, just because of who someone is. I'm not saying anything about you, I'm talking about the jury, to clarify.

"As you point out in your critique of Cassandra, no one within the context of Survivor respects the type of game she played, so why does she deserve a vote?"

I actually took this paragraph about why Cassandra deserved to win more than Dreamz out of my recap because it was getting too long, but I'll just put it here:

I would like to take a moment to put forward the theory that Cassandra deserves the money more than Dreamz does. If you’re looking for someone who just followed the flow of things and rode coattails and did whatever everyone else was doing, you should probably look at Dreamz first, not Cassandra. He threw every option possible out in every place possible, and then once the grown-ups decided what to do, he followed them. I don’t see the merit in that, honestly, besides the commendation I give him for avoiding his own elimination, because he’s not making any choices or pursuing any long-term strategy; he’s just puking all over the place and hoping that someone else slips and falls on it while he bumbles along behind everybody to the end. Once he did have to make a decision, he wouldn’t even own THAT one, and it’s the only one he really has to take responsibility for! I mean, even Vecepia owned her shit, right? Think about it, is all. Cassandra’s not the follower here: Dreamz is.

Basically, slutty, doing everything that you can possibly think of doing (which is what Dreamz did most of the time) is not "strategy". Strategy involves thinking out your options, weighing the pros and cons, and then choosing the one that benefits you the most.

"If you remember, it was DREAMZ who orchestrated trying to get Yau-Man out at six, so as to avoid what happened at the final TC. "

It was also Dreamz who failed at this. So...why is this a point in his favor? It was a poorly thought out plan that Yau-man saw coming a mile away.

"So, if being dumb like a fox gets you to the end, that's all that matters. "

That's the thing, and it's where I think we disagree: he wasn't dumb like a fox. He was just dumb. He had no idea what he was doing, fumbled his way through to the end, and happened to get that last immunity. He wasn't planning on breaking his deal until five minutes before he did it, so that's not a valid argument about how smart he was, either. He just did what he wanted.

"I mean, come on, getting to the end in Survivor is all that matters because the final TC can be such a crap shoot between people voting with their hearts or their brains."

Not true. It's about the individual jury members, assessing whether they're more likely to use their "brain" or their "heart", and then get them voted out while keeping whichever part dominates them on your side. It's not random; it's the people.

"I just feel that if Dreamz had made a similar move on Lisi, Rocky, Alex, or someone equally unlikable, you would have been fine with it."

Not true. It wasn't about who Dreamz screwed over, or even that he did it. What pisses me off about him was that he spent thirty-six days talking about what a good person he is in confessionals (in which you are contractually obligated to be truthful, by the way) and how he was planning to keep the deal to show his son all about his integrity, and then at the last minute he does something to save his own ass (which is understandable), and then all of a sudden it's been something that's been planned out step by step the whole time? You can't talk about integrity one minute, and then the next minute talk about what a heartless snake you are. Pick one, because you can't be both.

If you show me evidence of that that took place before the point at which he kept the necklace, instead of after when he attempted to rewrite the whole story after it had already taken place, I'll believe you, but I haven't seen a shred. If he would just admit that he did it and wasn't planning on it, I would have respected him no matter who it was. But trying to pull the wool over the audience's eyes about something when the writing is on the wall is disrespectful to the people watching the show, and an insult to our collective intelligence. It was the lying about his motivations that pisses me off, not the action itself. It could have been Rocky and I would have had the same reaction. It's about what Dreamz did after keeping the necklace, not the action of keeping the necklace itself.

"At least Dreamz....single-handedly made the second half of this season watchable."

True. Someone asked me about an All-Stars 2 cast, and I totally put him on it. Just because I can't stand what he did doesn't mean he's not good TV.

Oh, sorry, one more thing:

"Because Yau is a fan favorite, the move is all of a sudden wrong."

That's the thing: I never said it was the wrong move. In fact, I said it was the right move. It's not the move that was the problem, which is why I think you're missing the point of what I'm trying to say. It's him acting like he's fucking Richard Hatch for it, when he's actually just some guy who was planning on sacrificing himself and then changing his mind.

I don't put the blame on Dreamz when it comes to keeping Yau in the game at 6. It was Stacy who blew it at TC, saying that it would be a split vote. If you recall, Earl tried to soothe Yau's concerns (probably to get rid of him also). I guess that I do believe it was a valid strategy to play the game as wildly as Dreamz did. What about Jonathon from last season? What about Jon and other players who quote "play the game hard just to get to the end?" I concede your point that he should have admitted it in the final TC, and not play to sympathy, and that was a misstep.

I think Dreamz played the game hard, with the hand he was dealt. He played in the same vein as Jonathon from last season, but as Stacy pointed out, Dreamz is not as eloquent as Earl or some of the other players in the game.

I don't think that what you are saying is necessarily wrong, I just feel you're way too hard on Dreamz, when other players have done worse within the game.

What he did isn't the problem for me; it's that he's not honest about what he did. It's a travesty.

The difference between Jonathan and Dreamz is that Jon thought out ahead when he made his choices, and then did what he thought would help him the most in the long run. Dreamz saw a big shiny truck, thought "Dreamz want truck!" and then when it was offered to him, he took it without thinking of the consequences. That's not strategy. That's being an idiot. When he said that he "manipulated" Yau-man during the final TC, that was bullshit. He was planning on living up to his end of the deal. I just don't see it, and there's no merit in it. We're going to have to agree to disagree.

Yes, I totally respect your point of view and hope you get cast for one of the next few seasons! LOL.

I was thinking of who should return for All-Stars 2, (from Vanuatu on...)

1. Eliza from Vanuatu
2. Rory from Vanuatu
3. Tom from Palau
4. Jonathon from last season
5. Yul from last season
6. Earl from this season
7. Yau-Man from this season
8. Cirie, from the season Aras won.
9. Judd, from the season Danni won.
10. Amy, from Vanuatu.
11. Dreamz, from this season.

I can't think of who else I would want to see again. Any other suggestions?

Schoonie, you do seem to be taking this whole Dreamz thing a bit too personally. He's hardly the first guy to go back on a promise in Survivor (poor Twila), and while it boils my blood as well to see him pretend that he'd been yanking everyone's chain from the beginning, that's his story, and he's sticking to it. He deserves to be chastised and ridiculed, but, on the scale of insufferable idiots we've been introduced to on Survivor: Fiji, Dreamz still ranks no less than 4th on the list behind 1. Lisi, 2. Alex, and 3. Rocky (who did manage to rehabilitate himself somewhat by not being a total ass at tribal council, hence his ranking behind Alex, who did the opposite by definitively revealing himself to be the giant, narcissistic phony you always knew him to be).

Where I really agree with you, Schoonie, is on the distinction between playing a clever, deceptive game and just flat-out lying or breaking promises to get what you want or to advance in the game. The fine line between acceptable and unacceptable deceptions comes up for debate almost every time at final tribal council, the most notorious instance being the Twila vs. Chris final in the Vanuatu season. And even though I loathed Chris and couldn't believe he wasn't voted out first after that balance-beam debacle, Twila set the standard by which all other major betrayals are judged: she swore on her son's life to keep a promise she broke shortly thereafter.

Now, part of me thinks 'never believe anyone in a game for a million dollars who is willing to swear on god or their children,' but another part of me feels that this is where the social game comes into play. You have to be smart enough to get people to trust you without making a clear, public, easily recalled promise of such magnitude. Even though I thought Chris was a jackass, he did this very effectively, lying and double-dealing all the way to the win without going back on any hard promises that weren't relatively easy to rationalize or defend betraying.

Dreamz blew this part of the game royally with the Yau-Man deal. While his decision to screw Alex's alliance could easily be rationalized or defended--after all, Dreamz never made any hard promises to those guys, and he had reason to turn on them when he learned that they were withholding information from him--when his kid-on-christmas morning greediness kicked in after Yau-Man offered him the truck and the chance to eat good food and get away from camp, he sealed his fate, effusively swearing to god and begging with abject shamelessness. Dreamz rightly pointed out in tribal that Survivor is a game of deception, but the 'outwit' part of the game also involves getting to the end without making everyone on the jury hate you, and in order to do that, you need to seem to have been playing an 'upright' game, if not an honest one. Dreamz' claims to have been fooling everyone with those integrity speeches the way Edward Norton fooled Richard Gere in 'Primal Fear' are obviously false, and only weakened his position. He wouldn't have gotten any votes, but he might have been forgiven somewhat by the audience if he'd owned up to making some regrettable decisions.

I don't feel the same degree of rage at Dreamz that Schoonie seems to, I think, because by the time Yau-man made that deal, Dreamz was a known quantity. He made his deal with the wrong person. In retrospect, he should have offered the deal to Boo, who seems like the type of guy who would actually use and enjoy a big truck like that (which is really designed for towing boat and livestock trailers), had the strongest individual immunity performances of anyone left in the game other than Yau, was much more trustworthy and predictable, and, matter of factly, much more desperate for an ally. Yau-man should then have convinced Earl to swap in Boo for Dreamz instead of Stacy in their final 4 configuration, pointing out that they could easily get rid of Boo at the final 4, because Boo would certainly keep the promise to give up the immunity necklace.

Yau and Earl could then have approached Stacy and assured her that, once Dreamz was gone, there'd be no one between her and Cassandra, strengthening her position in the game. Stacy would have had no problem writing Dreamz' name down. That would leave only Cassandra, whose vote would be irrelevant if everyone else was on board with the plan. Nothing would change in the scenario outlined above if Cassandra and Dreamz still went ahead with the plot to oust Yau-Man, so long as Earl and Yau both wrote down 'Dreamz' instead of 'Stacy' and Yau still played his idol.

Yau has since admitted that he should have considered other options before and after the truck deal, but said that he was afraid that tampering with the accepted boot order after it had been established for quite a while might end up backfiring. He might have been right; we'll never know.

So, while I feel everything you're saying about Dreamz, I just seem him as the boy who cried wolf. Yau-man should never have trusted him, before or after the truck deal, and thus can only blame himself for making a strategic error, since he did have other, better options.

P.S. - Dude, your recap kicked ass. Thanks for the hard work and for following through after the euphoria has passed. I can't wait to read your re-caps next Survivor season, and I hope that you pick up another good show (but please don't do Big Brother--I'm trying to wean myself off that massive, empty time-suck and doubt I'll be able to succeed if you are re-capping).

As for 'All Stars: 2': please, god, no. Probst ranks the first All-Stars season as the worst ever, along with Thailand. We also have All-Stars to thank for Rob and Amber--'nuff said. Burnett and his crew have such a great formula going now with the new diversity initiative and the recruitment of people who are not well-schooled in Survivor history and strategy. Stick with what works, I say.

Let me just state that I don't feel any "rage" towards Dreamz or anything, nor am I taking it personally. It's my job to write about this and convey what I'm feeling, but I'm not angry at him, like, with real feelings. I happen to write very intensely, so don't think I'm some crazy person who screams at the TV just because I write it.

Also, I'm a firm believer in the "this is a game" theory and nothing is unacceptable. There is no "you are a bad person because you kept the necklace" issue. That's not my point. I'm a big fan of Boston Rob for this, and even Jonny Fairplay did well. I don't think Dreamz sucks because he went back on his word. He sucks because he told everyone after the fact that he is a mastermind, when he's really an idiot.

I've typed it before and I'll type it again. Love. Schoonie.

I screamed when Earl said "fire sale." Arrested Development forever. Miss that show.

Schoonie, let me just say that I think I love you!

This was an amazing recap, well worth the wait. It is obvious that you are a great fan of Survivor, your recaps are full of great observations.

Having to watch the final tribal council was excruciating. I wonder how many of Alex`s clients will be looking for a new lawyer now??

For me, the best part of the recap was when you admitted to hating Rupert! I honestly thought I was the only one who hated him. As much as I was repulsed to even see his name in print again, I was excited to realize that there was at least one other person who disliked him as much as I did.

Schoonie, will you marry me??

I don't like Dreamz and therefore feel reluctant defending him ('rage' was probably the wrong choice of words, Schoonie; if I were able to revise, I'd resubmit 'indignation' or 'reasonable contempt'), but the fact that he is an idiot and not a mastermind is part of why I feel a certain amount of sympathy towards him.

Consider: Dreamz went into the game likely expecting to emerge a hero, thanks to his hard luck story and the American public's tendency to fall in love with people who have overcome adversity. But Dreamz' lack of intellectual sophistication (not lack of intelligence--he is very bright; just not very well socialized or skilled at thinking ahead) led him to make a series of childish, impulsive decisions, beginning with betraying Mookie's confidence and ending with reneging on his promise to Yau-Man. At the last tribal council, and then at the finale, he was suddenly confronted with the fact that, thanks to these choices, he was seen not as a charming fan-favorite, but as perhaps the most detested villain ever to play the game.

Add to this the fact that, as soon as his excitement about being given the truck wore off, it occurred to Dreamz that Yau-Man's primary motivation for giving away the truck was not altruistic. Dreamz felt that he had been tricked by Yau-Man, and he rationalized that this entitled him to betray the promise based on the idea that Yau-Man's gift was a trojan horse (Again, some blame falls on Yau-Man here, for not securing Dreamz' confidence by suggesting that they should team up to vote out Earl or Cassandra).

Dreamz' insistence that he was a mastermind throughout the game is just another example of his backwards reasoning--a way to try to convince people not to hate him for screwing over the beloved Yau-Man.

I am equally annoyed by Dreamz, but I understand, given the fact that the same 30 million people he thought would love and root for him now think of him with nothing short of contempt, why he would hold on to his silly story and try to rehabilitate his ruined reputation by pretending that his promises were insincere from the beginning. He's just a shallow fool grasping at straws. It's really kind of sad, actually. Yeah, Dreamz screwed Yau out of the million, but Yau seems like he's doing all right to me--great job, loving, healthy family, beloved by America--and none of the other Survivors has been as generous in defense of Dreamz in their post-game interviews as Yau, who aptly explained Dreamz' choice on the finale show and elsewhere.

Dreamz blew it, big time. I think Schoonie once observed that, if he'd kept his promise, he'd have probably been given a truck by Oprah and would have had a much more lucrative post-reality TV run of celebrity. People would have been clamoring to honor the homeless kid who chose integrity over money; instead, we'd all like to see him in stocks so we could throw rotten fruit at his head. It's actually quite pitiful, hence my growing sympathy for the poor dolt.

I'd say 'contempt' is an appropriate word, Jack. He could have honored his deal and I would have thought he was noble but ill-suited for the game, or he could have said that he was never planning on honoring the deal in confessionals, and then not honored it, and I would have respected him for doing the best that he could without worrying about silly things like honor inside the game. The fact that he tried to do one and then all of a suddent pretended like he'd been doing the other the whole time is my problem with the guy. He thinks we're all dumb if he expects us to believe it, and I don't take kindly to being called an idiot, basically. He's asking everyone watching the show how many zeroes are in a million dollars.

And, I love Arrested Development too, and when he said 'fire sale', that's automatically where I went. That scene is one of my favorites in the whole series.

The other is, "You forget, dear, that I am trained twice over. I'm both an analyst and a therapist. The worlds FIRST analrapist."

I will say it again as well. I heart you, Schoonie. I just finished reading the recap but haven't gotten to the comments yet. Although I am uncertain about how good it might actually be, I will be checking out Pirate Master. Any chance you might recap that? And any word on whether or not you will be recapping BB8? I sure hope so 'cause it will be a long summer without you!

Thanks for the kudos. I'll definitely be back for next season of Survivor. That's pretty much all I can say right now. But you might, just maybe, see me before that.

It's pretty great on Arrested Development, too when they are talking about "how detailed" tv shows are and George Michael opens up the kitchen cupboard and there is nothing in there except one granola bar. Love it. But this isn't about Arrested Development. Sorry.