www.roanoke.com

It was a night of spilling things on Survivor: Gabon. Crystal started it with a simple mistake of spilling the rice box, but then spilled her cool a little and while the offer to not eat her share that day was warranted, her attitude about it was more than needed. It came back to haunt her later.

On the Kota side Dan is the odd man out socially and loses it himself a bit, spilling his feelings and making himself vulnerable.

The reward challenge was a ball, literally. Keep the ball away from the other team or they will break it for you. One, two, three points go to Kota once again. Fang loses as Ace smashes the last ball into a post, but everyone seemed to blame the loss on Sugar. Kota sends her packing back to the Sugar Shack in an unprecedented string of visits to exile island. It's just not funny, and to me it even reeks of Lord of the Flies mentality. Harsh and cruel. Kota though, doesn't think twice and goes off on a picnic tour of Africa. Crater-side, they snack on cheese and fruit and feast on letters from home. Bowtie Bob is deeply moved.

Immunity challenge is good old log roll fun, but the spin is that both tribes go to tribal at the end, with individual immunity up for grabs. Showing her true colors, Sugar smiles sweetly at Bob as they battle. Marcus takes the prize and in another twist, is allowed to appoint a member of Fang immune as well. He bestows the honor on Sugar. Maybe he realized how harsh they had been on her? Maybe he's just using her as a pawn.

So, Ace tries to convince Sugar to give him the immunity necklace for the night, just in case, while Ken spills his plan to Crystal to blindside him. He takes Sugar aside and lets it all out, the way he thinks Ace has been treating her. She's not surprised. At tribal, Ace goes down the dark path to home.

At Kota, Susie spills her honesty and naivety that she would have voted a certain way and Corinne gets vindictive, losing her cool. These people aren't used to going to tribal. In the end, Dan the Man goes home.

Ace has a few aces up his sleeves….just in time. Does anyone ever really mean it on Survivor when they make a pact on their loved ones? It seems Matty did, at least so far. He and Ace swore to hang together till the merge, on their girlfriend and mother respectively, though not respectfully if you ask me. What is anyone thinking when they do such a thing?

Over at Kota things get a little hunger induced crabby as Dan the lawyer helps himself to more than his share of grub. A little spice goes a long way but some of these people are quickly going through their food, like they’ll be able to head out to the grocery store the next day. While Fang goes seriously hungry. The camera crew should get a nice tummy growl for effect.

Crystal

This all makes the food challenge timely. A nice twist to the tribe chase game, the teams must carry a huge stuffed snake on their shoulders to weigh them down while they run around a track and try to catch the other tribe. As the members of Fang drop out one by one, it’s plain to see who has food energy over at Kota. So much for being an Olympic runner…Crystal drops out, and Fang loses the race. It’s coffee, tea and pastries for Kota as Crystal tears up over the loss (Maybe feeling disappointment in herself in what one would expect from her in a running race.). And Sugar…gets sent back the shack.

Sugar

While Kota captures and cooks up a nice big turtle, Fang is still starving and Sugar feels guilt over being able to eat in exile. Not me! I’d eat up my fill. I suspect though that she smuggles some of that fruit back to camp in her bag.

The immunity challenge had folks teamed up in pairs to go through obstacles and build a better flagpole, but clearly Ace didn’t get the memo that it was a teamwork thing and lost it for Fang by insisting on fumbling the pole puzzle alone. Crystal is in a funk and blames Ace, but while some members want to try to blindside him, Matty had made that timely pact and Ace is safe. Kelly gets the boot after an ugly little scene in tension high tribal. Oh, the drama!

Sugar’s back from the Sugar Shack!  But for how long? She may have eaten well while there but Kota is living high on the hog with a bunch of fish caught in the net, including one with a shocking quality. Weird. They also still have beans and corn and rice. Where’s the survival challenge? These people are eating better than some Americans!

On the Fang side, we finally get a glimpse of human/animal interaction. Viewers always see nice shots of snakes and hippos, rats and crabs, but hardly ever do the cast members interact with the wildlife. A few exceptions come to mind, like the wild hog incident in a Lord of the Flies moment in Australia and  the disturbing of a nest of hatchlings a couple of seasons ago. This time, the survivors are in awe of nature, as well they should be. Matty spies a male elephant across the water and gathers the tribe to watch for awhile. The pachyderm was presenting, trying to scare them off, but that didn’t stop Ace and Matty from taking the canoe ever closer. Why do men do these things?

The reward challenge was smashing, literally. A fruit toss and smash for herbs, salt, and well, fruit. Matty and Ken did well but in the end Kota won by two pounds. Ace summed it up with, “This is so fun!” In a move admittedly made purely for comedic effect, Kota sends Sugar back to the shack. She happily dances her way to paradise and a full belly.

Lawyer Dan gathers Kota to talk about what will happen after the merge. No one really buys his “together forever” speech. On the other side, GC and Crystal knock heads and it is clear that GC is losing it. He needs to chill, and chill he does. He takes the canoe out and vanishes, causing the team to use energy worrying (or refusing to worry as Crystal ranted about) but reappears just in time to head to challenge. He didn’t care and really neither did I. Oh, the drama!

The challenge was a nice one, reminiscent of a carnival game I played as a kid. Huge wicker balls were tossed down a hill with two blindfolded tribe members trying to defend the goals. A teammate was able to voice directions but either Sugar didn’t yell loud enough or Ace just wasn’t listening (Possible relationship issue there folks) and he got mad. He did listen to Randy, who yelled out to him to stop in a tricky enemy camp move. And Fang will go to tribal.

The tribe snoops in Sugar’s bag and finds the idol…big surprise. Crystal is all kinds of nervous! Talk is to vote Sugar out now to blindside her, but GC claims he wants to go home. He just can’t cut it. Again, what did he think this was all about? They send him packing and my girl Sugar is safe for another round. Whew!  

...so I haven't seen the dang Project Runway finale.

But I know who won, thanks to google.

I'm at a journalism conference in Houston (home of former winner Chloe, who will be giving a fashion show here on Saturday ... too bad my plane takes off at the same time).

So I won't be able to see the full episode until I get back Saturday night.

Please do talk amongst yourselves until I can join in the conversation ...

Survivor blog entry by Heather Froeschl

The best laid plans….will always get turned upside down. Alliances were finally beginning to form on Fang. After ten days out there, too little too late? Everyone was just a little too comfortable in this regard if you ask me. Jeff put an end to the comfort zone when he had everyone rank their teammates in order of importance and value. Ouch. Worse than being last picked on the playground, this was labeling at its harshest. Some were surprised in their placement while others were downright offended, like Crystal who balked at Randy being higher up than she was. Hmm, maybe she was flashing back to her Olympic days on the pedestals? I do agree though, that she is more valuable a team member than Randy is. But the tribe had spoken and there it was.

Read more »

Wedding dresses!
Finally, Project Runway challenges its cast to create dresses for an occasion that is the only time most of us common folk would consider hiring our own designers. So bravo.
Would I actually wear any of their frocks down the aisle?
Probably not.
My idea of bridal bliss is not Swan Lake (Kenley), an orchid thunderhead (Jerell), a burial of by waves of fabric (Leanne) or a dried corn husk (Korto).
However, the judges were absolutely right by sending Kenley and Leanne immediately to the finals.
While Korto's dresses were total duds, she didn't deserve to go home.
I have a feeling that the judges' decisions were influenced by what Tim Gunn (and the crew?) might have said about their runway shows behind the scenes.
Tim raved about Korto's pieces, but he walked away very concerned after seeing all of Jerell's gaudy embellishments and glittery fabrics (they remind me of a store years ago at Tanglewood Mall ... remember Lazurus?).
It would have been a shame if Korto's potentially winning line was kept from the Bryant Park runway, while a shiny pageant of crap got through. Plus, Jerell's arrogance has annoyed me lately.
So ... we have a fabulous female final.
Anyone want to chime in with your predictions? I'll go ahead and pick Leanne --- she seems to have the most consistent point of view, yet she's versatile.

Okay, so people are going to get hungry. This IS Survivor. I remember when they didn’t even get rice, and Fang is just chowing down. They realize their mistake and cut back but wow, GC is not happy about it. What did he expect when he signed up for this show? Three rounds and beddie bye? Yikes. Suck it up. It adds to the drama though and the Randy/GC tension builds. Good TV!

Read more »

Ugliness.
That's all I saw in last night's episode of "Project Runway."
How can these four talented designers get inspired by glorious flowers ------ then proceed to give us colorful duds, like Kenley's purple monstrosity that looked like Barney the dinosaur had lost a battle with a quilting bee.
Anything but elegant, judged Heidi.
"But I wasn't going for elegant," Kenley snapped back.
Riiiiiight. She must have been going for fugly.
But worse than their uninspired designs were the attitudes.
I realize it was a high-stakes challenge, and they're all exhausted and stressed and missing their loved ones. But did Jerell and Korto have to unleash their divas, making fun of Kenley's design when she walks out of the room ---- while refusing to give her their unused tule?
I'm definitely not defending Kenley's childish behavior --- she's definitely getting her karmic investment returns. But it would have been the right thing to do for them to at least give her the dang fabric that they weren't going to use.
And the excessive crying was over-the-top. I just didn't feel that sympathetic. And I get moved to tears by lousy commercials.