Spoiler alert! Read after the jump to check out Jeff’s candid take on what went down on last night’s episode of Survivor: Gabon.
Ah, man. Man. Man. Man. This blows. Ace is gone…and Dan is gone. I miss them already. Okay, we’ll get to that later.
Crystal spilling the rice.Love this. Thank you, Survivor gods. Amazinghow such a small moment can turn into something so big. The name of this gameis "Make Sure It Ain’t Me," and Crystal just gave them a reason to make it her. Only a very strong alliance saved her.
I root for Dan. In life. Iknow he can be annoying but it comes from a place of insecurity. It’s too bad,he’s a nice guy. Hopefully this adventure helped thicken his skin a bit. He’snot as smart as he thinks but he’s much smarter than he appears to be.
Corrine is tough. She saysit like it is and sometimes that is really hard to hear. If I found myself onher tribe, I think I’d be tempted to hold her down and let the leaches havetheir way with her. Then again, knowing my weaknesses, I’d probably find myselfin a regrettable alliance with her and end up with my throat cut but with asmile on my face.
The loved ones letters. Theseget to me every time. Bob and Dan were both so touched to hear from theirfamily. It made me like them both even more. If you’re reading this andthinking "I hate anything to do with loved ones," I say this: If youdon’t like love, what is wrong with you?
It wouldn’t be an episode ifSugar didn’t go to exile and didn’t cry. Check both.
Matty, Matty, Matty. He’slike a Billy Joel song. Wearing his heart on his sleeve. He must stay in thisgame a long time. Along with Kenny, Crystal, Corrine, Randy, and Sugar.
Now to tribal council. Danhad to know it was a possibility that he’d be voted out. He tried so hard. Toohard. That’s what I’d offer to Dan. You’re fine as you are, my friend. Don’ttry so hard. Just be.
As for Ace. Let’s beextremely clear. Ace was blindsided. Major blindside. He doesn’t want to admitit but it’s true. Man, I hate to see him go. Such a delight. A great bit of Survivor casting. Ace, you delivered. You left too soon.
Next week we finally pull one over on this group ofSurvivors. A small victory, but it felt so good that I want to brag about itearly. I think you’ll love it and you will shake your head in amazement at the"never happened before" moment that occurs as a result.
Survivor: Gabon continues…right afterthis.
Now check out our exclusive deleted scene from Survivor: Gabon and then read Dalton’s recap.
Comments (1-30) of 68 Add your comment
Jeff Probst, I hope you’re having a good time doing you know what down in you know where. What a great place.
It was sad to see Ace go, and there was such a good streak of lesser characters getting booted too! If only Marcus went instead of him.
Now for once, show us beyond the shadow of a doubt that you actually read these. Don’t encourage comments, as you did the first time, and then not even come to your own blog to read what others commented on!
Jeff Probst — you’re the BEST reality host. I enjoy your blogs very much!!!!
Why couldn’t it be Corrinne, Charlie or Marcus? Those 3 can go and nobody will even notice or care!! They’re obnoxious and boring. As much as Ace annoyed me, he was fun to watch because he’s not as one-dimensional as Marcus, Corrine or that Moulin Rouge Charlie.
If you liked Ace so much you probably shouldn’t have bent him over and had your way with him in the immunity challenge. That was the most blatantly unfair challenge since the floating challenge that doomed the navy pilot so many years back. Would reseting the log after Sugar fell in been so hard as opposed to making Ace roll blind, while his competion gets to stare at his feet and know exactly which direction he was trying to go.
Jim, I disagree. Ace should have STARTED the challenge facing Marcus with his little Sugar watching his back.
I like Ace. He is good in the challenges and is always strategizing. Besides he doesn’t annoy me as much as he annoys the other players. I think now Fang is weaker in the challenges and they can expect to disintegrate further from here on out. Sugar is in a great spot with the idol, so I expect her to be in this game for many more weeks. I can’t wait until next week when we see Corinne frolicking naked on the beach. Shwing!
I was glad to see Sugar come to her senses and vote Ace out. Can’t wait to find out if that accent of his is real or not.
I miss Ace all ready, I am bored with watching so many weak useless players such as Crystal, what a bad attitude. Someone should have given her what she wanted and told her what a dumb *ss she was for knocking the rice over. Still love Sugar
but miss Ace 
Bob crying over the letters made me love him even more I hope he makes it far into this game.If I had been Sugar I would have kept Ace around a bit longer she needs an ally going into the merge, Crystal is not a good choice I doubt she will win anyone over with charm.
Wouldn’t it be great if the suprise was that they redivide the tribes again thus shattering some more alliances so people have to scramble. (Charlie and Marcus on opposite teams). It could go one round or two rounds (and maybe making the jury smaller and going to final 2).
Great episode. Bittersweet to see Ace go. He was entertaining on the show for sure, but, beneficial in being eliminated for Ken(survivor I am rooting for). This game could end up being real interesting or a total dud. Right now the smartest players would have to be Ken, Randy and Marcus. It’s funny because everyone looks at Ken and sees a pathetic player. But, he is likely one of smartest people out there right now. People are not expecting him to be playing as hard as he is. If the game goes the way I want, there is going to be movement against Marcus at some point. I am guessing Corrine will split from her alliance at some point and work with Ken.
Jeez, at least with Ace gone we can hopefully get over this “fake accent” mania!! It’s been pretty well established that the man has lived in several global locations throughout his life and that it’s “normal” in such cases that their accents can fluctuate like that…
Great ep otherwise; Crystal is fading fast, she’s got those crazy/desperate eyes like she’s going to gnaw her own leg off to get outa the trap she’s in!
i love this week’s episode…Ace was gone.. so sad.. he is a very smart and entertaining…I am rooting for Kenny, he is also one the smartest players in the game….
Sugar’s move was I think is very smart…Please, please, vote out Susie and Crystal soon..
Snsetblaze.. i think rehuffling tribes again would be very interesting… but It has been done before..Dalton said he think it would be the fake merge just like in Thailand
Still not a Sugar fan, but I was very happy to see her THINK outside of Ace this week. While I think Ace was great TV, shame on him for chastising Sugar for voting for him!!! It’s call Survivor, Ace. The prize is a million dollars. So your ego got bruised, you got too cocky.
Jeff, what I want to know is how come Sugar and her hair always look so good! Everyone else looks dirty and crazy, especially Bob! LOL! I loved Bob crying over his letters. Still rooting for he and Kenny to the end. I already miss Ace, he was awesome. Damn Crystal, wish it had been her instead of Ace. Can’t wait to see Randy’s antics next week!
I LOVE SUGAR. Sugar is money!
http://thelittlestwinslow.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/survivor-gabon-sweet-sweet-sugar/
Yeah, what Miss M said… “Everyone else looks dirty.” They obviously have access to water, so why is this bunch so *filthy?!?* Randy’s shirt looks like it’s about to rot off! Oh, and Thanks again to Jeff; I’ve been really loving hearing his take on things
I’ll miss Ace for the entertainment value, but Ken was right to get rid of him before the merge when he could have snuck back into Koda’s good graces. Bob is still my favourite. I love Randy, too, but I don’t want him to take Bob’s place in that alliance. Hopefully his big mouth will kill him before he cements himself in with Marcus and Corinne. Susie is too stupid to live. She’s got to go, like, yesterday. I would have killed her before Dan because he would be easier to control, I think, and he was just a nicer person.
Hi Jeff! Thanks for the blog. Whether you read it or not it’s great to read your spin. I liked Ace but he asked Sugar for the idol so he must have had some inkling of something. Also no letters for Randy? I didn’t see him reading anything. Love him or hate him that’s just sad.
Jeff – I would love to know if anyone explained why they chose Sugar and not Crystal to be the monkey in the middle.
I agree with Brenda. If Ace was such a good strategist, he would have been facing Marcus, not Sugar. That was a huge mistake on his part. I also don’t believe that it should have been stopped to reset the last 2.
I’m also glad Sugar finally came to her senses and voted Ace out of the game. I think Ken is playing the best game right now. Unlike Marcus and Randy (arguably the other best players), they both have a huge target on their back. Ken is so under the radar and is seen non-threatening so no one is really paying much attention to him. Yet he made a BIG move last nite by engineering Ace’s dismissal. Anyone who thinks Ken is not doing anything in the game has not been watching Survivor. In many ways, Ken’s gameplay reminds me of Dan from BB10. You know what I mean if you’ve seen it. GO KEN!
Okay already. Yes like any other Survivor junkie, I read these comments. Hate comments that say things like Jeff really sucks. Love comments that say things like “Jeff is really cool.” Okay, I’m done.
In an effort to expand the casting beyond the CBS recruitment drive that has dominated the last several seasons, why not post the application info on your blog? I know you love the casting but the fans really love the “person next-door” aspect that has been missing for a while. That said, good job this season on the q&a tribal meetings.
Jeff, love your weekly blog (and you’re awesome). As you predicted, I’m totally rooting for Sugar. And she’s set up well; she will go into the merge with just about everyone on her side (or at least not against her). I think she’s smart enough to sit back and let the top dogs go after one another once the merge occurs; no one thinks she’s a threat, so she’s positioned really well. Crystal is driving me crazy. Loving Ken and Randy. Corrine makes good tv, but she’s just a terrible human. She’s the person I hope is voted out just outside the money, so she knew she came soooooo close but lost.
I disagree with Dalton about the double eviction. What’s so great about it is that it breaks up Kota’s happy camp. They can’t focus just on winning any more; they have to play the game and turn on one another. And they can’t compete like a team nearly as well either, if they are now suspicious of each other. I can’t wait to see what happens next week; I’m all for shaking things up again!
It’s a good show I can watch with my kids. I let them stay up ’til 9pm and watch it if they don’t watch anything else on tv that day. My kids are rooting for Sugar and I told them “nice girls don’t win Survivor,” but last night’s show proved she can be cunning.
-Dave Rymenave
Ace was always playing for the cameras, which ultimately made him uncompelling. What’s great about Survivor is the strategy. We love watching ordinary people play 39 days of starving poker. But when the players are just trying to launch their post reality careers, it’s less interesting. I get the sense that Sugar is also just there for air time. I can see why producers liked Ace–he said interesting things. But it was all so calculated to be GOOD TV, that it felt hollow.
Ace!!! Awe man, I loved to hate that guy and I am going to miss dogging on him!!! Sugar, pa-the-tic – but GREAT luck. Crystal, standing (or lying down as the case may be) at the bring of her patience I think. Corinne – Failure as a human, but entertaining to watch her fail as a human. Dan – poor Dan…We knew from the moment he couldn’t get past the first clue that what was in store for him. Sorry man. Kenny – so much fun to watch him work. He sees the angles, good for him! Thanks again Jeff for your informative insight!
Jeff – can you please answer this question , what in the name of Wild Kingdom are those big hog like looking animals that are shown in the opening sequence , jumping over a small creek? They are brown in color and have black markings on their face – they look huge & nothing like any animal I have ever seen!
Great episode, great recap. I’m so glad you’re doing these, Jeff (and coming back to comment, too!). For the record, I absolutely adore you.
Here’s one thing my husband and I have a hard time getting past: These people have been out there for less than 3 weeks and they lose their minds over getting letters from home. I could see if they’d been separated for longer than a month or two, but after just a few weeks? My husband was in the military and we spent far longer time periods apart, with him going to isolated, scary places. I guess we have a hard time conjuring up the same amount of emotion we see on the show.
About this episode: I was sorry to see Ace go because he was entertaining to watch. I really want Crystal off my TV screen, and I hope she gets some sort of therapy in the future. Her mental sickness makes me sad. It’s hard to watch.
I love me some Marcus. He reminds me of the Bachelor, Travis Stork, for some reason.
Excited for next week!