Survivor Cook Islands Review

0:01 And welcome back to day 13 of Survivor 46 and 46 just finished watching Cook Islands which was a lot better than I thought it would be on this rewatch and I'm going to get to that in a second today we're joined once again by McKenna from The Specialist and for the first time Phil also from The Specialist Phil going right into it first of all thank you for joining us today going right into it your first experience with cooking islands has your opinion of the Season changed because I want to talk about this perception that Cook Islands might be a tad overrated oh yeah so thanks first for having me I'm super pumped to be here it really lined up I think Drew I think you're crazy for doing this as often as you do it's absolutely mind-blowing as somebody who loves Survivor I couldn't even fathom doing what you're doing and I burned through Seasons man I've done it but never to the level that you doing it your eyes are going to be bleeding but I my wife and I just watched Cook Islands over Memorial Day weekend so it was fresh in my head and we rip through it fast the pre-merge of Cook Islands is bad like I there is no other word to say other than it is bad but the moment that Candace

1:21 And Jonathan Mutiny the season becomes incredible and it's just a matter of do you have the beginning outweigh the end and of course yeah talk about the Race season here we go can't wait but I just find it this used to be like a top 10 season for me now granted we're talking back there in like 25 26 how many season we had 26 Seasons it's you know now there's so many I ranked them and my wife and I have been going through and I can share this here so you can all feel like you're getting some Insider knowledge here I have 13 ranked one two three four five six seven eight ninth out of the first 13 seasons of Survivor and it used to be in my top 10 so I think it does a massive drop even if there's some amazing storylines it's just the premerge is horrible and they didn't know how to edit 20 people they didn't and we're going to talk all about the 20 people of it as we progress through this McKenna I know that this year is very high on your list when we did 42 and 42 you came on for that time I'm going to assume that it hasn't dropped in the last two years so what is it about cook that continues besides farb because I know like say I know what you're ready to point to besides what is it about this season because parvy isn't the

2:41 Main character or you know she's she's there and I think that she does get a lot more content as the railroad tribe starts to get taken out but besides parvy what are some of these things that keep that keeps cook Island so high on your list we have like so many rures coming from Cook Islands where like this might not be the their best season but it gives us so many great people to return that return from it and I don't know like the pre merge can be a slog but I love like some of those interactions and some of those moments of like the bad wind and playing Voodoo and all of that like it has a bu it's like very character driven and well it might not be heavy in strategy aside from Ule like it just is very fun to watch for me I love Cook Islands I think I always say it's my favorite non- rury season because I'm basic and like Heroes versus Villains I mean yeah and we'll get to that and I will say that I watched cook Island when it first aired I watched it during covid and I watched it during 42 and 42 and that point it started to slip down my

4:01 List only because and it's it runs into the palow problem of once you get past you know oh yeah I've seen I've seen a tribe get decimated before I really don't want to watch oolong lose every single time now it becomes boring with this I felt like the last time I watched it the I24 storyline was like okay yeah I it's cool but I don't care and I will say that this time I actually got invested again I actually got invested in that storyline thankfully because once the merge hits it's very it's a very easy watch pre merge I will say the best thing the pre merge has going for it besides Cowboy are the challenges the challenges are actually pretty cool this season I enjoyed most of them I en obviously I enjoyed the scenery of both Tribal Council and the earn that we were given this season but a lot of these people are very forgettable like the fact that we have you know Rebecca and a few others on that early part of the jury it's they don't need to be here like it's we could have had a regular jury or they could have merged to at least give people interactions you know because I think oh my goodness Brad never met aie Brad never met aie yeah Brad never met aie and so Brad was probably never going to vote Aussie go ahead Phil well actually they did meet when

5:21 Cowboy Azie and obviously wasn't gonna talk to Azie during that and I always this is the one thing and sorry to interrupt you but I think this is a massive problem of this era of Survivor is when they start having people who never actually make the merge or play with other players make the jury it is so ridiculous I hate it and I mean we see it in Heroes versus Villains but obviously Courtney and Coach knew who everybody was yeah but I mean I'm watching Fiji right now and it really bother me with those first two people who make the jury I don't want my wife to overhear it she's in the other room but you know it with those first two people who make the jury it's like they don't play with anybody from Modo like or barely anybody from modotto it's silly it's nonsense and I don't know that just that really does bother me and we're and we're still at this phase of Survivor where they are still trying to test new things it's very similar to the 40s where they're just like all right in this season we're going to do this and thankfully this is the last time that we get the rcon Tyler Perry Idol until KAG on and that's the main story like one of the main story lines of the merge is the fact that like Terry last season you'll pretty much has he's kidnapped everyone like everyone

6:41 Is on lockdown they can't Target him and I do think that ul's a great strategist or and you know one of the best and all that but I do feel like the fact that he has this all powerful Idol is going it keeps it keeps people from making moves and the raro tribe was never going to do anything crazy you know they were convinced that he didn't even have the idol until Jonathan this goes off on him about it McKenna because this is our last time with the retcon Tyler Perry Idol do you feel like youu there's there's Merit to ul's win outside of him having that yes I feel like it was used it was used as a tool for him to like get Jonathan over and then he did a little jury management with Jonathan's hat then he also like voted out Jonathan before parvy and Adam so that would Curry favor with them once they're on the jury because they know that they're heading toward the jury but it's like if you want my vote then you'll vote me vote me out before after Jonathan so I think he was making moves

8:01 That did solidify him strategically plus his alliance with Becky I think he needed you know a right hand to help him move forward that wasn't as big of a voice than he was so he could take credit or it's perceived that he took that he had all the credit for moves that they might have made together yeah and I the craziest thing about this jury is that we know that this season is very recruit heavy and we'll talk about that it does seem like a lot of people put stock into the challenges and before we went live I asked Phil or I brought up to Phil I'm surprised that Candice and Adam voted for Yu in the situation because I felt like they gave off the we you know the challenges are what matters Phil why do you think that happened specifically with Adam votes Adam votes for Yu because youu voted out Jonathan before Adam I think that's I think that's 100% the reason parver doesn't vote for Yule and I think that parvy ultimately doesn't vote for Ule just because she was so annoyed by Ule and just probably had a better working relationship with Azie I mean they're closer in age they're youngb the hotb what is it the humpback whale orp whale

9:22 In that hot tub but yeah but I think that's why Adam did it Candice Candace is one of the most interesting players to me because I feel like when she got cast on Heroes versus Villains people said what why how did that happen and then you watch the season back and you're like why did it take them until Heroes versus Villains to put her back on the show she's all over the place she's an absolute mess and in a season with 20 people where I think only three people get good edits and I'm talking uul Azie Penner that's really it like Candice is the next best edit Candace is Candace outshines parvy I don't care what anybody says and I got I got I'm Gonna Save my statement for later about parvy I'm really excited but I feel like Candace is great but still we don't get into her head because they can't figure out a way to get us into the heads of all these people when there's 20 there's just too many with too short of time and too much going on so yeah I don't know why Candace actually does vote for Ule but I also don't feel like aie played a very good social game he did not and that's Azie storyline through Four Seasons it's Azie can't go ahead McKenna I was just going to say that the only reason why aie is at final Tribal Council is one they couldn't get rid of him in the merge portion and two like they needed his vote

10:42 Since the Mutiny because he was going to be next he was like on the dead bottom of that tribe oh and it's crazy that everyone's you know attacking Becky for the coattail writing and like I think John brought this up during Pearl islands that you know that's just an played and I do agree that hey we work together when Becky says we did work together I do believe that's the case and it seems like years later that is still the Casey but Azie yeah Azie I feel like rode the cels of this the idol hanging over everyone yes he was winning challenges and all that but I don't think that he was ever going to be in any type of Jeopardy and the challenges that they he didn't win which obviously because only one yeah I think Adam won Adam won one or two one it yeah just one okay yeah Phil go ahead and what I was going to say and I think that's a great Point Drew is so many people try to discredit 's win because he had the idol and the only time that the idol was stupid was at final four the fact that he could use it through final four so he could literally never be voted out of the game the way he was like he whatever but I do feel like when it comes to Azie people don't realize that if Yule goes if that Idol's not there Azie goes too and if Azie sits at the final three with any of the Adam

12:03 Parvy Brad Rebecca any of them he's going to lose because this was a very clicky cast this was a cast that was going to vote for who they liked more and if anybody from that raro Alliance other than Jonathan sits at final three they probably beat everyone and I don't think people really understand that so if you goes Azie goes and I know Azie won all the challenges but at that when Adam won it Azie would just gone home there yeah Azie was a part of the three the cowboy flicker group that showed up to Rara and they you know they straight up say hey these are the three people we least want to see it's like yeah Azie is not from the very beginning and wigg can start touching on the beginning of the season the race war aspect of it aie gets a lot of negative content the first couple of episodes like yeah he's shown as a provider and everything but like throwing the challenge because Billy does do certain things around Camp he does come off as entitled like what Penner says during final tribal when they do what vote was it that he came back and was pouting about I don't remember who they had gotten rid of at that point but they get back to camp and Azie once again and this is something that Azie does many times throughout his career is when things don't go his way he'll just sit there cilia Cecilia

13:23 Okay yeah and Azie just pouts around Camp it's like dude get over it and he does this again in South Pacific which is you know like two weeks away and he's you know in Micronesia he sits there and Pals at everyone's face while he sits on the jury and gives his stupid speech which we'll talk about in a couple days wa the race war aspect obviously I'm gonna assume I know both of y'all's answer to this but do you think their hearts were in the right place can I just okay here I was thinking about this cuz I'm like all right I'm going to go on a podcast I try to avoid like these types of conversations as much as possible on the podcast but I was like man I'm going on I'm talking about Cook Islands you got to do it this is what it is and what makes me laugh morbidly is that in 2006 they were told hey Guatemala had no it was all white people every single person was white and come out and you do Panama and you have S who goes really far and it's like see if you start casting you know bipo players now all of a sudden they can go further and what survivors response to that was and this is this is where my brain went yesterday or this morning or whatever it was

14:43 Their response to you need to have more diversity was okay we'll do diversity and we'll segregate them and we're going to use segregation to determine that's good because you know what's always worked for diversity is to segregate based along racial lines and as and H them all against each other and yeah and thank God I literally said this to my wife earlier thank God they did not put the halves vers Have Nots twist in season 13 and they waited till Fiji because no matter how they would have broke that out also supposed to be race exactly if they were breaking this up by race and One race was going to get or two races because there were four obviously we're going to get all of this and the other four we're going to get nothing oh my God so got lucky that at least they did that but yeah that's what I thought of this morning I'm like they literally went there so do I think their hearts are in the right places yeah but I think ultimately you had a bunch of people who were sitting around that room just saying that's a great idea not thinking about what they were actually about to do well and the fun part go ahead M I think also it's like all right so we just did by age and gender now what else do we do we have left and it's obviously the next option is race what I was going to say is when they when they swap Jeff uses the word integrate and I'm like what are we

16:03 Doing F who says it I think it was Flicka who says the sister on the end and stuff yes that earlier I'm like man Flicka would be so cute if she didn't say Flicka and had dreads as a white person and I feel like by segregating the tribes as I'm gonna keep saying here you open it up to people being like Oh we on the black tribe so now I'm going to talk to you the way that I would stereotypically think that white people interact with each other and that's what happens and it's crazy and you do see I mean really it is funny that at the end of the day an Asian wins this season because Ule and the rest of the Asian tribe were the ones who seemed the most concerned about how they were going to be perceived leaning in you almost quit like right on the spot once he found out if found out it was divided by race yeah and it's a it's a fascinating experiment and I for what it is and I'm thankfully they get rid of it after the second boot for what it is it I do think that a lot of the conversations that we see people have like hey we've got to represent for black folks and everything and it's funny because during the first challenges it kept saying like Yeah The Stereotype is we can't swim so like I guess

17:23 Get that in Samoa too when you get you get but than Jon could swim so it works and so as we you know we swap yes we have the Billy Candace thing I don't want to really touch on it because everyone talkes on it the BL canace thing is a lot of fun we swap and I think one thing that people forget about this season is it's not like I2 was like some tribe I2 wins most of the challenges before Candace and pener leave so once that happens I would still say that I2 is in you know they have momentum because they keep winning anyway they've had to vote out two people and one of them was because both tribes went to tribal and then from there they don't lose another challenge so I understand we have to paint them as The Underdogs but are they really underdogs they're only underdogs because Jonathan and Candace stepped off to make it 84 if it sorry if it's not 84 they're not underdogs at all I mean they have two of the most dominant players in the history of the show you is incredible I don't care about the idol thing and like I'll defend 's win till the day I die I think it's huge but then they have Azie who's great at the other port and honestly like okay Becky is kind of a snooze sorry she's boring but sundra plays

18:44 Like sundra plays game she just can't make a damn fire she runs out of matches but she plays the game and she plays hard and I think like there is something to be said for how hard they all played and how they all came together on a season and it is it is funny and it is fitting that then a cast of One Hispanic two Asian and one from the African-American tribe all go to the final four and they systematically eliminate the white folk and when you were talking earlier about thank God something I thought you were G to go with thank God a white person didn't win this season which is true like I mean I would I don't think I would have been upset I don't think that people would have actually been upset about that but the Optics wouldn't have looked great if they had done this and Whitey wins but I would mean what's crazy and Phil I think you were the one that brought it up earlier there is a chance that Adam could win this season there is a chance that Candace could win this season parvy okay yes Penner probably not but those three the three that come off you know outside up Azie as the most spoiled this season especially Adam I cannot I could not Vibe with Adam at all and sitting here watching it's like wow Adam could actually

20:04 Win in a different type of situation do you think that the white do you think that raro was more portrayed that way or do you actually think that's how they were out there either one you can ask answer they're villains every single person from that tribe is villain every single person and I'm talking about from the starting white tribe I also like that like they try to go like hit asan Hispanic American like they're really trying to be like PC it while also not being PC at all but I feel like you look at that Jonathan Penner played again he's a villain everybody knows that parvy literally plays on the villains tribe C hero though Candace is the hero who betrays the heroes like the villain she always was and then you have Adam who I mean is downright rude and disrespectful so many people on the season really the only one who's not a villain is Flicka but then again maybe she is a villain I mean who knows ex said sistera so I mean has dreads no I like she did say sista she did is she's fine to answer this question I feel like because season because Seasons 41 through 46 had the 50% bipac initiative and I thought the only time that race has

21:24 Really been brought up outside of the tribal from 42 was in 41 where they tried to make the Survivor version of The Cookout didn't last past like an episode but I don't feel like race has really you know in the seasons that we have had more diverse casts even David versus Goliath and davus Goliath all the way through you know through island of the idols they all have pretty diverse cast and that's not really a storyline with them so I do feel like if you mix it up and we get it in if you mix it up even though the final three are you know all black spoilers don't listen yeah I don't think that the race thing would have been an issue and I still don't think that it was that prevalent on what we got in the edit this season does anyone disagree I think what's silly about it is so think about this right we know that now there's been the diversity initiative so that 41 to 46 have to have 50% have to there's no question about half have to did anybody have a conversation about the fact that the final four of 46 are all white people no because that's not why they made it to the final four it's not what happened and I think what makes Cook Islands dangerous compared to a season like Fiji where you know Fiji

22:45 They might have been trying to do the same thing but they didn't do the same thing is you're putting out a lot of diverse cast members but you literally saying now we want you to go against each other and we are immediately telling you here's your here's your difference here's your you're pointing it out it's as surface level skin level as it can possibly be but when you don't address it in that way and you let it play out I mean we see it happen all the time where like I said this last season nobody was sitting there going oh my God I can't believe Ben Charlie Liz and Kenzie all teamed up because they're white people like that's not why they did but if they had started on a tribe of white people it sure would have felt like what happened with the raros in this and I also feel like parvity was once they like combined into the full tribe swapped into the full raro tribe she was getting along with Nate she was getting along with Jenny she was getting along with like people who were not her starting tribe because Candace was over on the o other side Jonathan was on the other side Flicka was on the other side and who does she have Adam I mean she's gonna flirt with him but that doesn't get her anywhere because Candace was his main yeah that was her squeeze yeah so like I think she's really connecting with a lot of other people once the

24:05 The swap happen so I feel like they are limiting The Castaways as well with having them put in their you know same walks of life right yeah the Asian tribe they do actually sit there and talk about their actual differences which I thought was really cool what I want to touch on Pary was and this is probably not PC but like whatever the fact that in this season and in Micronesia she's a little bit of a chocolate Chaser which was I totally forgot about her in Nate this season so like and I know you know everything with James yeah I don't like to talk about this kind of stuff either but it is cook Island so Candice mcken I asked you a similar question yesterday about why Danielle was a villain and not hero Candice do we feel like Candice was you know whatever they CH to tell us fine do we feel like Candace was a hero because of all her emotional confessionals while she's at Exile do we feel like it's because she was very strong with her OG tribe what just y'all's perception why is Candice a hero

25:26 So Candice is such an enigma to me in Survivor because I feel this was actually a question I asked like a hundred years ago on a Q&A for you and Alexa Phil but it's like why does Candace always get such like a raw deal in Survivor like in Heroes versus Villains parvy acts like she doesn't know her and the real connection is Amanda granted they get to the final two together but like she played basically the entire time with Candace and Cook Islands and then she gets shafted in blood versus water because she wasn't in the pregame Alliance and so it just feels like she gets painted as such this evil person but I think in cook Island she was just trying to take the game into her own hands she didn't feel comfortable on I2 and she stepped off not knowing Jonathan was gonna follow her but like her two number one allies and Adam and parvity were over on raro so she took the opportunity to advance her game hopefully for the better but I to felt incredibly burned by just specifically Candice pretty much I think she is a hero from the standpoint of look Jeff's reasonings for why Danielle's a villain and why Candace is a hero actually do make sense

26:46 You know Danielle goes to the final four Terry helps her make fire says if you win immunity got to take me to the end she get wins immunity and then takes arus like that makes you a villain because you would have been out at four and then who's the ultimate hero probably wins the game so yeah we're not happy with you but then when you look at Candice she suffers this season and it's funny I mean I laugh every time they send her because she is she is so full of herself coming out there and she gets a nice little wakeup call but she suffers for the people that she's loyal to and it's the same thing as Russell H is a villain because Russell Hance obviously in the real world is Russell Hance but also like Russell Hance is Russell Hance right he you see him burning socks you see him dumping water all that but if you're in Russell H's Alliance you go to the end it happened twice we saw that happen and I think Candace kind of falls into that where obviously she's not doing anything egregious to make it so that she's a villain but she kind of bullies Jonathan throughout this season like her and Jonathan don't get along and half the time sitting there going man Candace is kind of being the one who's harder on Jonathan than Jonathan is on her so that's just my take for all of that I feel like Candace it makes sense that she was thrown on theill Drive even though personally I think she's a villain yeah I think the and I do agree that my favorite of the four times she goes to Exiles obviously

28:07 During the auction because they're trying to combine money and soon as you know soon as Becky gets it there Candice the cut to U's face one of the favorite gifts and she loses all of her money and she knows at this point and she has a confessional where she's talking about like these people that I want to be friends with but they keep sending me here it's like yeah Candace I do I do feel like yes you want to be friends with these people aie has shown that he's a very bitter person youu Becky and sundra like even if they are fine with you they still feel at least a tad burned because y' were on this winning streak you guys were winning you didn't H you didn't have to jump I guess but I also understand that hey if my two biggest allies are over there more than likely I will be safe if I jump ship I'm not going to jump into a situation where I'm on the bottom Penner made the crazier move of also jumping because he didn't have that same he good with you all yeah he didn't have that same implied safety net that Candace did like Candace knows that these people are here he has a deal with Candace but he doesn't know where he falls in that pecking order and he's able to play his way from the actual bottom of that when they jump ship

29:27 I love pen this season I forgot how much I enjoyed pener this season I used like the first time I watched it I just I hated his guts because I was a stupid what 13y old or something same yeah I was 13 but I still I'm watching like you don't get to appreciate who Penner is until you like watch him a little bit you also have to kind of be older I feel like because the things he's grumpy about start to make more sense older and older because like when they're calling him a rat when they're calling him whatever they're playing the game and they're playing the game hard and I respect it but also like Penner didn't do anything that agous this season yeah he had to flip back and forth though I mean I think Penner plays an unbelievable game for how early he should have went out but he makes the biggest mistake of the Season which is teaming up with Ule and again where Ule doesn't necessarily get the credit anymore because people want to say oh he only won because of his Idol Penner he had to convince Penner to come with him if he doesn't do that it's a four vote even if you plays his Idol next Tribal Council it's 44 Azie might flip in that situation there's a good chance that could happen and Nate goes home there no matter what but there is a chance so Penner is kind of like he's the he's the Cog in the wheel the entire time he's the spoon that's stirring everything where he's just he's constantly

30:47 Making mistakes good plays bad plays good plays bad plays to me his best game ever is Micronesia and obviously he gets injured so there's nothing that you can do I personally think he could have won Micronesia I say this all the time and people think I'm crazy but I really think he's set up to goodness he didn't yeah I know and we'll talk about again okay let me can I say this real quick Drew and we'll just see how everybody feels here's how I feel after watching Cook Islands you can't be a top five player in Survivor history if you lose to Adam Gentry the first time you play that's how I feel about parvy sorry she lost to Adam Gentry yeah and not because he had immunity yeah he had immunity either so ad sucks here's the deal okay arguably she's more threatening than Adam though no parv the thing is with parvy I love her game in micro I still think it's sir's game I think people overrate her game in Heroes versus Villains because they want to keep elevating poverty we need to be like no it's the greatest game I've ever seen it's like clearly it's not and also like let's give Russell credit for giving her one of the two Idols like let's not forget that happened and I just think that her first game like if you sit down and watch

32:07 That seasoning you say to people who don't know anything about Survivor who's the most iconic one of the people from this season is a top five most iconic players in the history of the show they are never going to save harvy ever they're never going to do it and I just think every time I watch Cook Islands the one thing I will say about her is man she plays she's good in the challenge she's way better in the challenges than she gets credit for the one thing people underr her on is because she's actually she's like the strongest woman on the tribe she's participating in every challenge doing the physical parts but anyway I don't even know how I got here I just wanted to make sure I said this to mcken that you cannot be's overrated okay no like Mna go because I do agree with Phil and I do want to touch on that she probably is but in a list of ranking every Survivor player ever between four people combined and one of them is JN so you can yell at him if you need to we have parvy ranked third in out of 40 Seasons it's one to winners at War we have her ranked at third so between four people I don't know I'm not the only one pushing parvy here I mean I'm not gonna lie when I did my 40 Seasons thing for Russell I had her at number five I'd probably move her behind Tom for sure now butty is a is

33:27 A I won't sit here and say that she's not an alltime because like she is like just even character-wise she is I do feel like what Phil said is true of if you look at her three games not including winners at War we won't touch on that if you look at Cook Islands yes she goes before Adam who sucks you go to Micronesia where everyone is saying oh yeah parver is the one that g got Eric to give up necklace it's like well that's not how I remember it I think it was more Natalie Bolton more than anyone else but maybe I'm wrong tral Council yeah and if Azie doesn't suck and give the worst speech ever and if Amanda doesn't pout her way through final tribal there is a chance that parvy doesn't even win that one and then yes Heroes versus villain is probably her best of her three pre winners at War Seasons but I don't think that it was like I don't think it's yeah they put it on this pedestal of like the ultimate robbed goddess that's ever exist it's like no that's not true she latched you know she was I won't say latched on because that's I don't like wrest but she was aligned with someone who everyone hated but there was also another option here and I feel like even if Jerry sits at the end Jerry probably wins I we're jumping

34:48 By like a week but like what's up because they're the they're the other of like the other yes it had to be Danielle for E any of them to doesn't win in a single iteration of the final six of Heroes versus Villains cuz rubert and Colby both be too because there's so many Heroes over there well here's my question because I do think like look I understand that from a real life person who they are I understand why people like parvy so much as compared to Russell and stuff like that how do you feel though about considering somebody to be one of the greatest players of all time when they lost at a final Tribal Council no I'm being sincere in this because this is something I was thinking about I thought you were gonna say lost to Adam G go back to Adam lost at a final Tribal Council because even though she's won a season she has lost at a final Tribal Council she has gotten there and she has not been able to pull out the votes and I know she did that against Sandra but Sandra and her were both on same playing field coming into that season they were both one-time winners so my I just I just am very curious how others feel about that because if you lose to somebody else at a final tribal that means that like the jury just said that they were better than you it's just you could spin that of she did lose at the final Tribal

36:08 Council but how in the same heck did she get her way like how was she able to get her way there which is like another level of like all right she got her way there somehow I mean Idols yes were part of the game but she had to find them slash have her social game anyway this is not Heroes versus Villains hold on you also we have to like you said Sam heck like that's you did I don't know where that came from but yes we're not talking about your vill yeah I'm sorry yeah it was funny because when I was doing the first seven seasons I would always end up going on an All-Star tangent so now that you know here's and it's funny that we're not talking about micro that much but parvy 1.0 I think she plays her role well I think that she we know her game and it's more than just the flirting thing like she is trying to find her way in with things and yes that she has the physical thing going for her I do think that Candice is probably yes a more shown character this season whatever word you want to use Candace has more of a story arc this season I guess that's what I'm going with but I think that ultimately because and this going back to what I was talking about at the begin

37:29 I thought going into this time that it was going to have the palow effect of like I'm just not going to care about the I24 this time because I've seen it happen already and I was really invested again and I it was fun watching the Domino's fall to get them to that point where it's every episode it's like oh is someone G to flip on the other it's like nope they're sticking true to it and aie and the great strategist at Azie is oh I don't I don't want to send one home it's like you why like I don't understand why you won't just you are basically doing that anyway by voting Becky all you'll has to do is also do which he's never going to I do think that this is between this and Game Changers is my favorite version of aie Game Changers because he doesn't outstay as welcome he just kind of there and here because he gets more of a positive edit than he does on micro and South Pacific his final speech though I just kept laughing because it's like this all comes off this corny only because I've seen his micro speech and his Redemption Island speech on in South Pacific it's like this seems like the same type of acting he's taking a turn for sure to the point where at this everybody's saying oh he's the young guy who like you know he's trying to do what he can and good head on his shoulders all

38:49 That stuff and now it's like okay not So Much Anymore I don't care about his personal life but you know he's probably never going to play Survivor again let's be real everybody yeah because right after this he goes and films his other reality show that he did and I do we not know about this okay never mind he's filming now that's for sure oh I know I know what he's filming now yeah Azie was on forsome on Playboy TV like right after this because he goes on and at one point he's like yeah I just got trip or whatever overseas and I'm like oh that's it I have seen the episode because Aussie was on it so like I'm just putting that out there wow as we start to as we start to wrap up ozy Azie was on it I had to watch it can I can I can I just throw something out there I know you were about to say as we're wrapping up but we haven't talked at all about Nate and how has Nate not played again because so that's the wrapping up portion is going to get to that okay good because I'm sorry to jump on you I just God no did not skip over the fact that no we so the first question I always ask is you know of the people that we have got gotten back from this season which would be parvy Ule Penner

40:10 Candice and is that it parv Ule Penner Candace parvy Ule Penner Candace Aussie you didn't say aie an Aussie and Aussie one quarter of the Cs are they the right five should they have been more you can Phil you can start because we there's two people who should have played again other than other than those five there was just really nowhere to fit them it's Nate and it's cowboy is the one of the best casting decisions of the first 46 seasons of Survivor okay like that man being cast on this show is unbelievable and I'm going to be honest with you the success of him is why ya man plays 14 if this if Cowboy wasn't a hit because remember if you watch actually the reunion it's interesting because you see at the Cook Islands reunion they've already filmed Fiji they're talking about the car situation at the Fe at the Cook Islands reunion so they had they had obviously already filmed this before they saw cowboy on TV but the production team knew cowboy was a star and I do think that then they said we got to get yeah we got to get another person like him so they go with more serious version which is Yao man

41:30 That being said plan Voodoo is absolutely incredible it's AB mindblowing the story behind it everything chills talking about it like he comes up with plan Voodoo it's incredible when that tribe swap happens and it's Penner Ule Azie and cowboy as the four men on the One Tribe I sat there and I was like oh my God I never really realized this was the group of four but that might be the greatest four men ever on One Tribe in the history of Survivor and then you have Nate and I think Nate look pre mergers have a hard time coming back and especially now Cowboys like 60s something it's a little bit different Nate though he is phenomenal TV we had never heard confessionals quite like what he was giving during this season he's much more off the cuff he's much less polished purposefully he's still very good at what he's doing but he's talking the way he would talk to his friends while he's talking to a camera person it's amazing he's good at the game he understands what's going on and to me he outshines everybody on this season from a from a confessional perspective maybe with the exception of Penner because I think Penner has more confessionals in one episode than Brad and Jenny or Brad Becca combined he has more in one episode than they have combined I think Nate and Penner are the two biggest stars

42:50 Azie I get it because he wins all the immunities I would have rather seen Terry on Micronesia no doubt about it I would have rather Terry is the dominant challenge beast on Mike gresia instead of Azie Yule he's good at the game he's not necessarily the greatest TV even though I find him to be compelling and parvy and Candace I think played again just because I do think that there was a smaller pull of who Survivor was willing to pull from for the women from this era so for me Nate is an I have no idea people talk about Shawn Rector it might be Nate who is the biggest question mark to me because Nate is non-controversial Shawn is a little controversial well there was a Cook Islands person supposed to return for blood versus water and it was Christina Coria someone who like nobody really asked to come back which I'm surprised that she was in the running but it's because she was dating an actor of some kind at the time I don't know who it was but like she was almost back which I find Crazy that like Nate wasn't the option or like any anybody else like so exactly the only the only way I can get you to know Christina is she was fighting with aie

44:11 And aie was like I'm 20 years younger than her and so she doesn't like being bossed around by ay old yeah you got shot that's pretty much what I know but other than that yeah Stephanie favor would be the answer yeah honestly Stephanie's way better Rachel was bummed when Stephanie got voted out she thought Stephanie yeah she thought Stephanie was going deep I so I agreed that I Cowboy I would say cowboy and Nate but Cowboy even outside of plan Voodoo which is yeah you know changed the game even though it didn't actually you know they didn't actually do it this season the fact that him and U are sitting there and he clocks immediately the white people are going to get back together when you guys merge like that's what that's what's going to happen we need to deal with this now because this is what because it came to me in a dream or whatever like this is what's going to happen I think that was so we didn't really hear that from everybody else it was Cowboys saying hey they're going to get back together and then he what the next episode is when Candace and Penner jump ship but Nate you know you brought up sha Rector and that's the person I kind of had in my head watching it this time it's like yeah this is getting know outside of you know obvious skin

45:31 Similarities I feel like both of them were their genuine selves on the show you know they weren't trying to play the camera as a character they were trying to play to the camera as this is who I am and I do feel like you know going to the second part of how we wrapped this up of hey anyone pre-33 from this season that you would like on 50 who would that person be if anyone and it could be anyone that's even returned already but is there anyone I mean I mean Nate is the answer from Cook Islands I don't think we need a Penner return I don't think we need a Ule return I don't think we need a parvy return or I mean maybe Candace because maybe please no pleas don't no more I really don't think Cook Islands needs aury and 50 if it was if it was going to be anybody I'd probably go Penner especially with what happened with his wife with the ALS and all of that I feel like Penner has a completely different story now I feel like he was the cocky confident dad and I feel like now he is he's a different guy I feel like I feel like you go through something like that you're G to come out a different person and I think you know he's always going

46:51 To give great confessionals if I was if I was casting a Survivor season pener is one of the first people going to I think he's just one of the great confessional givers in the history of the show Nate's such a stretch I mean I love Nate but for 50 I can't see him coming back for 50 if he never came back before that it would have to if they're gonna do it would be Shawn is or potentially Earl one last note on Penner I love that cook island is like a nice time capsule for him and to have because his wife is his loved one my gosh that actually got me today like it's a really amazing like moment that they can have together because she is Mob she's like comes out on the island hugs him you know that whole so it's great for him to see or and always be able to look back on like a fun moment with him and his wife yeah that I'm dead ass I lost it when that happened because I just totally forgot you know that he even gets a family visit in this season we're moving on to Fiji we're going to race Wars part two is a season that I feel like is wrongfully on like I don't have it anywhere near my top or anything but

48:11 Like I'm excited to watch Fiji this time around just for some of the other story lines outside of oh you remember that time that cowboy and or Cowboy y' man in dreams with a truck final thoughts on Cook Islands before I give my rating I love it's one of those Comfort seasons for me where I'm like what season do I want to watch I want to go old school you know what let's throw on Cook Islands I have it ranked at in my at 10 in my ranking through 25 so it's like middle-ish of the pack Cook Islands is bad and then it's good and like honestly it's bad and then it's great and I think that's the hardest part about this and you were talking about palao I always used to love palow I have palow ranked right behind Cook Islands because I think they are two storylines that don't necessarily get better the more you watch them they do get a little bit worse because it's just like okay we're watching it there's nothing spicy happening from what US Survivor fan like at this point you could tell with 20 people I know palao had 20 people three of them go home in the first hour of that show and so Survivor didn't know what to do with 20 people I think personally Rebecca

49:32 Might be the worst casting Choice ever for the show was so she doesn't know what's going on ever they the moment where is like teaching her how to like at Camp funny when she's like dying in that one Challenge and he's just like I can't do anything and like you know I don't like to say that kind of stuff like with the community because you never know who you're going to meet who you're going to run into and like you say things and then you meet the people and you really like them and stuff but I doubt I'm ever going to meet Rebecca and like honestly when I was watching it this time she gets I think she gets three confessionals in the first episode and then she gets three more the rest of the season and she's there until final 11 or whatever yeah she wasn't fun there's a lot of Duds on the cast and maybe they're not even Duds but from an editing perspective because there were too many people they didn't know how to edit it and it really shows and you get a lot of strong personalities and that's why a quarter of this has played again and we can make Arguments for cowboy and Nate but the other 13 people who haven't played again I just throw my hands up and I think that's the problem with the season and if it wasn't for the Mutiny this is down there with Thailand but the Mutiny makes this go way up and it puts it into at least the mid tier of Survivor and I'm glad you brought up Thailand so right I'm gonna give it a four out of five so I'm going to put it right

50:52 Behind Panama and right in front of Africa right now through 133 Seasons you bring up Thailand this is I mean going off the definition of the word pagonging this is the third pagonging that we have gotten since the beginning of the show we've got Borneo Thailand in here and I feel like people don't really think of this as a bonging but it very much is but it's not boring like Thailand was it's not you know we're actually rooting for these people to get rid of these folks so I feel like that was a fun little thing that the fact that you know this was actually a Jing Phil McKenna anything going on for y'all in the next few days weeks oh yeah Phil if you want to go first yeah so we just did the Traders season or cast season 3 cast breakdown will and I jumped in and did that I put out an Australian Survivor patreon preview today our top two tiers of patrons are going to be getting Australian Survivor coverage every Friday from here until probably the day I die because there are just so many episodes of a Australian Survivor you want to impress me coach Drew do Australian Survivor days of Australian Survivor I don't even know if you could it in that time but yeah and then so if you're interested in Australian Survivor patreon.com specialist and then we have

52:12 A Ben katsman tell all coming out on Sunday night 900 PM could release it now but we're gonna wait till 900 P PM Sunday try to make it old Prime Time and so tune in for that one that's gon to be releasing on our YouTube and on you know Spotify iTunes all of that fun stuff I call it iTunes but it's Apple it's Apple podcast Apple podcast yeah and then for me over on the specialist I am will be recapping Big Brother with Blake who is also on the Channel all summer long so if you are craving some big brother content that will be over on the specialist as well we're not just survivor anymore not anymore like I mentioned yesterday I'm a patron I think that they've one of the only well one of two things that I actually subscribe to Patron wise or patreon wise so like please give them a follow Phil McKenna thank you so much we're gonna have McKenna back in two weeks one week Redemption Island Redemption Island so like two weeks is he need and I was like I'll talk Redemption Island and hopefully we can get Phil back before this all a sudden done thank you both so much thank you for everyone in the chat and we will see you after Fiji and see you on the other side