shoppingbear

Yup, I agree completely. Probst was like, "it's not worship", but it's bowing down to statues of another religion's God, in a temple, and it went against her beliefs. She was polite, she didn't make a scene, and she clearly didn't want to say anything until she was put on the spot.

Agreed that the blond chick was the disrespectful one, she didn't have any personal beliefs at issue, she just was bored and whiney.

shoppingbear

We were laughing at that, saying to each other, Huh, apparently everyone in New York is an unhappy, gloomy kiljoy, who knew?


Yeah, this isn't the first time that the start of the game was sprung upon the contestants. What about the season where they had to jump overboard with just the clothes on their back?

If I were on this show, I would change into camping clothing with many layers (complete with convertible pants, for the heat issue) the very minute my plane landed in the country. No way would I wander around in a dress.

atlantamoi

I normally agree with your point of view in these religion discussions, but don't agree with you here. Jeff did say it was not a "worship" service, but I don't see how a Christian couldn't have seen otherwise (without more detailed information about what this ceremony was about). The room was filled with idols and everyone had to bow down on a mat in front of them.

Looks like an interesting season, but then again, even *bad* starts always seem to end up fun.

movieking

I gotta agree that the whole welcome "ceremony" was designed specifically to get the chick to walk out on it. It's too bad that Chicken was booted first. I liked him.

aktick

I wouldn't be surprised if they made all the contestants dress up, just so it'd add a little more drama to the show ("oh my God, they are all wearing dresses, what are they gonna do?!?)...just like the temple scene was an obvious setup to add some drama.

It was nice to see that other than the above, they didn't introduce any new gimic yet. I'm guessing there's some sort of exile island that just wasn't introduced yet?

shoppingbear

Geez, I hope not! I didn't like the Exile Island gimmick at all, and the only point of having Exile Island would be if they have the Immunity Idol. That's been done the past two seasons, I hope they try something new.

chowderhead

there are some seasons where they would drop them off with only the clothes on their backs and there are other seasons when they know when the "game" will begin.
If I was told that we will be headed to a temple for a ceremony (and not told of anything else), I think it would have been more respectful to wear something a bit more elegant than shorts, teeshirt and tennis shoes. I hate tourists that do that when entering a church or a temple ... it's not respectful to the people worshiping there. I guess once you sign up for Survivor, you have to expect that they would pull that stunt, but really I would have expected to be properly dressed if I was visiting a so-called holy site.

Josh-da-man

Buddhism isn't really about dressing fancy, is it?

And it's not unusual for Wiccans to worship naked.

Big Boy Laroux

damn, i have a man-crush on James. it was smart of christian-lady to latch on to him and befriend him. Those don't appear to just be "for-show" muscles. The guy has a very physical job.

I agree with those on here who have defended christian-lady. Her stepping out was much more respectful than the white chick rolling her eyes through the whole thing.

And I also agree with those that said chicken went home because of his own decisions. he could have stepped up and been a provider, which normally gives you a good few weeks without having to worry. but being non-committal to everything, even when specifically asked, was his downfall.

Dr. Henry Jones, Jr.

Burnett said they eliminated exile island for this season.

mnementh

Be prepared- dress in layers. And wear a jacket with pockets large enough to carry extra shoes.

dstrauss

Thank God they voted off Chicken. I couldn't listen to that accent more than seven seconds at a time.

And of course they were putting the Jesus lady in the temple to cause a scene. It's frickin' Survivor. They don't cast for interesting or intelligence anymore, it's for drama.

You can't tell me no "real people" auditioned for this season, I was one of about 600 who waited on line for 5 hours a few months ago for a casting call for the China season. But it doesn't look like they took anyone from that crowd, they're almost all actors or bartenders or models from California.

orderandlaw

When Chicken took his glasses off, he reminds me of the current day Gabe Kaplan, not the old school 'Welcome Back Kotter' look, but the poker-playing Gabe we see on TV these days.

BDB

I was impressed with the size of James, and how agile he was, he was so strong that he threw himself over the walls with barely a flinch, as opposed to mr. parcour who madea mess of it..

tboogie

I have never watched a single episode of Survivor. Two people have told me to check this guy out...what night is this show on?

Wow!

illini420

I was into the first episode until they made it to their camp and they were given food supplies. Whatever. then to top it off, the losers were allowed to take their fire home from the tribal council. This show is really getting soft. Let's see the losers get weak, cold and hungry to bring out some real motiviation to survive!

cdollaz

Yeah, that's how they do it every season.

dstrauss

It was my thought that they realized how badly they screwed up the Survivor dynamic by making it so hard on one tribe last season. Pretty much any tribe that spends the first 4-6 days without fire tends to be put in a hole that determines the whole rest of the game, so I wasn't surprised they gave the losing tribe fire after the first council.

Big Boy Laroux

yeah, it's been a mix in past seasons. in some previous seasons, the team that went to tribal the first time also got fire. But in those seasons, they typically go at least one or two days without fire, as flint is awarded in the first reward challenge. So the reward challenge-winnging team has fire for longer than the losers. There was no separate reward challenge this episode, so everyone pretty much got fire at the same time.

Howiefan

Final 5 spoiler: