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Episode 7: Tools for a fire and some ‘fireworks’

After the reward challenge, Paolo gave the prize (a flint) to the winning team, Jarakay. The Naak tribe members were asked to stay. They were given a chance to take home another item that could help them build a fire. That’s another challenge Naak would have to take and at least another chance to take home something.

The eight Naak tribe members were given one match each. They would have to out the match in their mouth above water and try to not get the match wet. This challenge happened in a deeper part of the waters. When a tribe member is successful in treading the water for fifteen minutes, the tribe would be able to take home the tribe member’s match. Paolo, sat on a boat while monitoring the tribemembers as they treaded the water. If a tribe member can’t tread the water anymore, they would have to go to the boat and hold on. Those holding on the boat are of course out of the challenge.

The Naak tribe members were asked to jump off the boat into the water. The time of 15 minutes start when all tribe members are all in the water. The first two minutes was ok. All tribe members kept floating. After a minute or two, Emerson couldn’t manage and had to hold on to the boat. A few minutes after Rob held on to the boat. The remaining six tribe members continued on with the challenge and didn’t seem to have problems floating. Paolo then had a countdown of the last 15 seconds. He then collected the six matches from the successful Naak tribe members. Paolo checked if the matches did indeed got wet. The matches were dry and the six members were successful with the challenge. And so Naak took home 6 matches. Good for them. At least now they have something to be happy about.

The Naak tribe members got to their camp in the night. The tribe members were preparing to rest when Cris went to Kiko wanting to talk about something. Nainis yata itong si Cris kay Kiko during the reward challenge. Medyo taglish pa nga ang pagkakasabi ni Cris. Pero Cris naman didn’t raise his voice or anything. He was calm, he explained himself and he just said what he felt. What I like about what Cris said is that he rarely comments or says anything pero when he thinks he sees something wrong he won’t be afraid to say something. Para ay Cris may mali siyang nakita kay Kiko during the reward challenge. And yun lang yung point niya. Kiko naman defended himself and didn’t want to take the blame. Kiko even brought up his track record in dragon boat rowing. Three years na pala siyang rower and that they’ve won in international competitions. I guess Cris, being the driver by profession, didn’t like the driving he saw from Kiko during the challenge. I’m not really sure kung sino naman ang dapat iblame for the loss. Pero it was a team challenge and since hindi masyadong maganda yung teamwork na pinakita nila with the challenge, they lost and they lost badly. I’m not so sure if the others care. Si Zita nga just continued trying to make a fire. Ang inisip na lang ni Zita na gutom na lang naman yun. Buti na lang Rob, the loverboy, stepped in and reminded them na they’re one team and fighting wouldn’t do them any good as a team.

At the other tribe, Jarakay, the castaways tried to make use of the flint. Kaya lang since madilim na nahirapan din sila. In someway, may fireworks din dito. Si Marlon the waiter kasi parang nakikialam at ang daming sinasabi. I guess it got to the nerve of the other tribe memebrs especially John. Buti na lang nilabas na lang ni John yung saloobin niya at another time. Tama nga ba si John na puro lang salita itong si Marlon at wala namang gawa. In some way I guess tama siya. Para kasing nagger itong si Marlon. Lalaki pa naman siya. Tignan na lang natin in the next few days kung sino sino pa ang maasar dito kay Marlon. I’m sure meron pang iba. In the end, na-give up na lang sila for the night at bukas na lang daw pag may liwanag na nila itutuloy ang paggawa ng apoy. The next day naman mas madali na for Jarakay to make a fire. Since nakita na nila yung ginagawa nila at tuyo na yung ginamit nila for the fire. The others did their own share of the work by looking for food. Marami naman silang nakita small shells, crabs nung umaga. Upbeat na silang lahat sa Jarakay since makakakain na sila ng lutong kanin at shellfish.

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Episode 6: Reward challenge for a flint

Survivor Philippines’ Episode 6 showed the events that happened after the first tribal council, like the aftershocks of the first tribal council and the second reward challenge.

The men of Naak had something to say to Emerson after the tribal council. Natakot yata ang mga guys. I mean they thought they had an alliance and then Emerson makes his own plans. Pero yun nga Emerson backed out from his plan once that his saw that he didn’t have the numbers yet. It was Rob who confornted Emerson about it. Rob said na during the tribal council, kinabahan siya because he didn’t know kung sino ang safe at kung sino ang hindi. The following morning parang lalo pa yatang sumama ang image ni Emerson. The girls naman think that Emerson created stories para mag-away-away sila. One guy doesn’t even believe na Emerson doesn’t know how to play the ‘game’ of Survivor. Dahil daw nadudulas naman daw si Emerson about knowing some things about the show Survivor. Kawawang Emerson. Parang basa na ang papel niya with his tribemates. O well, we’ll see how good he plays the game in the next few days.

For the reward challenge, medyo mahirap yung pinagawa. Sabagay, maganda rin naman kasi ang reward. The reward is a small piece of metal that’s called a flint. Ikiskis lang nila ang knife nila sa flint, it would create sparks at ayun magkakagawa na rin sila ng fire at last. So gaano nga ba kahirap ang pinagawa? Eight members for each tribe had to compete for the challenge. The challenge can be divided into two parts. The first part is involves the team rowing a boat. The eight tribe members had to bring their boat to the water and row it. They then had to reach the torch also somehwere in the water. Then they’ll use the torch to light up six lotus pods scattered all over the water. After lighting all lotus pods, they can now go into the next phase of the challenge. Before starting the next phase the teams had to dive for the two footstools that they’ll use for the challenge. This part of the challenge involves the team getting two of their members accross the three platforms. Kailangan nila yung footstools para gamiting tulay ng dalawang members nila para makatawid sa platform. Medyo physically demading yung challenge since the people who will be holding the footstolls will have to carry the weight of the footstool and the weight of the girls as they cross the platforms. For the two girls who will be on top of the footsools medyo katakot din naman to be on that height tapos ang support lang naman sa ilalim mo e yung mga teammates mo. Kapag nakatawid na yung two girls sa final platform. The whole tribe has to climb up the platform. The first team na makaakyat ang walong members sa platform wins the challenge. O diba ang hirap?

Since Jarakay has 9 members, one had to sit out. The tribe chose Nikki to sit out for the challenge. On the other side naman, Kiko was instructing his tribemates kung paano magrow. The challenge started out na pantay lang yung both teams. Kaya lang pagdating na sa mga lotus pods, nagkaproblema na yung Naak. They seemed to have some communication problems. Kiko in his own way tried his best na pakinggan siya ng mga tribemates niya. Kaya lang parang hindi naman nakikinig yung iba. At yung iba naman tried intheir own way din na ayusin ang kanilang pamamangka. So ayun, Jarakay had the lead. Nauna sila matapaos sa six lotus pods nila. Naak at that time still was at their fifth pod. Tapos Jarakay had no problems getting their footstools. Nung time naman ng Naak to get their footstools, problema ulit. HInila kasi yung tali kaya humigpit yung pagkakatali sa footstool. Nakuha rin naman nila pero they lost sometime at lalo pa tuloy naglead ang Jarakay. Both teams naman were efficient in transporting their two members from one platform to the other. The girls naman on top were trying to balance habang nasa taas at ‘tumutulay’. Because of the lead established by Jarakay, their girls reached the final platform, even before malipat ng Naak yung two girls nila sa medium platform. The members of Jarakay went up the final platform and Paolo annouced that they won the challenge. Super pagod for both teams, Pero siyempre tuwang-tuwa ang winners. Back to back losses na ito for Naak. Hmmm… ang sama siguro ng feeling kung Naak tribe member ka at that time. Lets’ see na lang kung makakabawi pa sila next time.

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Episode 5: The First Tribal Council

The reorganized tribes came back to their respective camps. The girls were happy to see that the Jarakay camp was bigger and better than Naak. It seems that the new Jarakay tribe enjoyed their camp as they went to shore to enjoy the waves and swim. Another noteble happening in the Jarakay camp was the love team of Jace and Vern. Jace has a bit of a crush on Vern. And I think Vern likes the idea. I guess what drew Jace to Vern is that Vern is an athlete since Jace is a sporty kind of guy. Let’s just see in the coming days where this leads to.

At the Naak camp, there were a lot of talks. JC was telling the others to vote off Vern since they see her as the main culprit why they lost the immunity challenge. Emerson was trying to feel everyone. He was trying to make a point to the others that JC should go. Most of what happened was kind of like that. As a viewer, I was kind of feeling that it will be either JC or Vern who will be voted off first. It seemed that Emerson also had this Bisaya alliance within Naac. If that were true JC would be in danger.Â

When it was time for tribal council, the castaways were instructed to get their torches and light them up. Â They then sat at an area where Paolo would as them questions. I was surprised by the questions that Paolo asked at the beginning. Ano ba Paolo! Hindi ito showbiz talkshow. I was expecting more of the questions to be about how the castaways are dealing with each other and with their life on the island and how they are playing their game. Buti na lang in the end, ganun na naman yung mga naging questions. Buti na lang.Â

After the discussion, the tribe members were asked to cast their votes. Because there are nine tribe members for the Naac tribe, any person who gets five votes will have to leave the tribal council area and leave the island.  The first vote that was read by Paolo was for Chev. The next vote was for Kaye. The third, fourth, fifth, andf sixth votes were also for Chev. Chev was voted out. She felt bad for being the first to go. She kinda didn’t see it coming so she lashed back at her tribemates by saying ‘I hate you all’ in her final video.

I think this is the best episode of Survivor Philippines so far. The game is on for the members of the Naak tribe as they determine who they’ll vote off from their tribe. Maraing usap usap, bulong bulong, at kung anu-anong pagsusumbong.  Naglalaro na ang mga Castaways ng kampihan. Siyempre sa botohan, kung sino ang madaami sa bilang, siya ang panalo. Kaya kailangan maghanap ng kakampi. Ganito talaga ang Survivor at ito yung hinahanap ko sa Survivor.

Pahabol lang. I think Emerson played great. He was nice to Chev and boom. Chev didn’t see it coming. I hope to see more of these things in the next few episodes.

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Episode 4: No longer Men versus Women

Special thanks to The Amazing Race Asia Season 3, I was jumping from one station to another just to watch both Survivor Philippines and TARA3. Because TARA3 started at 9pm and ended at around 1030pm, I was more absorbed with that than watching episode 4 of Survivor Philippines. But somehow I was still able to manage watching Survivor Philippines and take note of what happened in Thursday nights episode.

Episode 4 of Survivor Philippines showed another twist that changed the complexion of the game this early. The tribes were reorganized putting both males and females on each tribe. The Jarakay and Naak tribes were given their tribe flags. Â Paolo called on Gigit to receive the flag of Jarakay. For Naak it was Zita who got their flag. I guess they were the flag bearers for their tribes because these two are the most senior castaways in their tribes. Then Paolo started caling the names of the castways giving them their survivor bandanas. Becasue I wasn’t watching really intently, I didn’t notice that a reorganization was taking place as Paolo called on the castaways. I really thought Paolo was just giving the bandanas as give aways to the castaways. Later on I realized that the tribes were now coed.

After the re-org Jarakay is now composed of Gigit, Marlon, Patani, Nikki, Vern, Jace, John, Nina, and Charisee. While for the Naak tribe, it now has Kaye, Chev, JC, Cris, Emerson, Zita, Rob, Vevherly, and Kiko.Â

The former Naak members were quite sad. The ladies have formed a bond even if they were only together for two days. But in the end I think it was better for all of them and for all of us viewers. The competition gets better with both tribes getting a better mix of brawn, brains, and ablility as they became coed.Â

After the reorganization, they now had to compete for the immunity challenge. The challenge is composed of two parts, finding the puzzle pieces and the solving the puzzle. The finding part was the more difficult part of the challenge. The tribe will have to carry a carriage with one person inside. When one member of the tribe needs to rest, this member must go back to the starting line and get a replacement for this tribe member. This memebr will then look for his/her teammtes and they can continue their search for the pieces. The puzzle peices will be scattered in an area and will be numbered. The six puzzle pieces must be taken in sequence from 1 to 6. And only the person inside the carriage will be allowed to retrieve the puzzle pieces.Â

Jarakay was first to obtain all 6 puzzle pieces. The 3 d puzzle of a Pagoda was quite difficult to finish whith Jarakay’s puzzle solver having some problems making the peices fit. The Naak tribe then arrived with their puzzle pieces and it was up to their puzzle solver to catch up for her tribe. The solver had difficulty in pulling out one piece from its cover. As she struggled to get the piece out, Jarakay’s puzzle was being checked by Paolo. It was then announced that the winner of the challenge was Jarakay. The Naak members were disappointed. Â The solver cried. She was consoled by her teammates with a group hug. With Naaks loss, they would have to go to tribal council and vote one of their members off the island. This is where survivor gets interesting.

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Some Comments on Day 1 of Survivor Philippines

The long wait is finally over. Survivor Philippines aired its first episode last Monday night and it was ok. I left from work as soon as I can so I can catch its premiere. I didn’t have high hopes for the show so I wouldn’t be too disappointed. I mean, GMA7 acquired the franchise for Pinoy Idol and it was a disaster. Now, GMA7 has the rights for the pioneer of reality tv shows, Survivor, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if they would also fail my expectations on this one.

The opening credits is just ok. I was expecting to be wowed by it but I wasn’t. It was nice but it wasn’t enough. I guess the music should have been different or something. I was expecting it to be as enticing as watching the opening credits for the international editions of Survivor or of the Amazing Race.

The location is nice. They are in some island Thailand and it’s nice. The sneak peek of Survivor Philippines kind of reminds me of Palawan or Camarines. It’s not that we don’t have nice places here in the country, I guess they decided to hold it outside the country so the castaways would have a harder time psychologically. It still feels better to be stranded and lost somewhere in the Philippines than somewhere else. Right? Also, there’s this place where they held the first reward challenge. The place reminded me of Anawangin in Zambales. Pine trees and the beach.

The casting was ok. I think they have a much better reperesentation of ordinary people in Survivor Philippines that in any other Philippine reality show. I don’t know much about the castaways yet but I like the fact that most of them are blue collar workers. There’s a yaya, labandera, mekaniko, waiter, and a driver. I think did a good job in selecting the castaways. At least I the viewers would have an easier time to relate to them. And most of all, ang mga cataways naman ang magdadala ng show. Kaya good luck sa mga plot at twists na makikita natin sa panonood sa kanila.

As for the host, I think Paolo Bediones was the only suitable choice. I couldn’t think of another host who could fit the bill to be the Jeff Probst of Survivor Philippines. Paolo has hosted a successful reality show before and that should help. However, I’m not so sure about his voice. Specally when he does voice overs.

I guess it’s still too early to judge. But I hope they all do well. That’s all for now. Do you have any comments on Survivor Philippines so far?

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Recap: Day 1 of Survivor Philippines

Survivor usually starts out with the Castaways riding a boat or something to get to where it all happens. In the case of Survivor Philippines, the castaways were on a big boat thinking they were just going for an interview or VTR. Little did they know that they had to jump into the sea and swim to the island. But if you’re a Survivor fan, you wouldn’t be surprised to see things things. Â Paolo Bediones gave the Castaways 30 seconds to jump into the water. With nothing but their clothes on, the castaways started their journey into the island that they will call home for the next 39 days.Â

During all these, the castaways were being introduced. Nine girls and nine guys with different backgrounds all eyeing the same prize of 3 million pesos tax free. Â

Swimming toward the island would prove to be the first challenge for the castaways. A prize awaits the first person to reach the island. Â The first three to get to the island were Jace, Zita, and JC. After the last castaway arrived, Paolo divided the 18 castaways into two tribes. Jaracay and Naac. Jaracay is composed of the male castaways while the Naac tribe memebrs were the female castaways.Â

After forming the two tribes, Paolo announced the first challenge. The tribes had a reward challenge. The winning tribe bags the bamboo and rope which are suitable materials for a camp. The two tribes had to go through an obstacle course. 8 members from each tribe were chained while one was the key keeper. The eight members had to go through the balance beam. Before the key keeper could unlock the first set of chains. The remaining chains locked the 8 members into four locked pairs. The four locked pairs then had to ride a zip line before the key keeper could unlock the pair. The unchained 8 would then have to go thorugh a web of rope where the puzzle pieces are. After all pieces have been retrieved, the key keeper would then have to solve the puzzle. The first team to solve the puzzle wins the reward. The boys blew their lead as they struggled to solve the puzzle. The women almost caught up with the guys as they were solving the puzzle. In the end, the guys went on to solve the puzzle. The losers of the challenge also had a punsihment, they would have to be chained in pairs, just like in the challenge.Â

It was also announced that the prize for the first person to reach the island was that he was getting the better and bigger part of the island. Since Jace arrived first, the boys would get the bigger and better camp. The boys arrived at their camp with the sun already long gone. They decided not to make camp that night because of the darkness. The girls arrived at their camp, beofre the sunset. They looked around to survey for the best camp site possible. It took them long to finally decide on where to place their camp. It was already getting dark as they started building a shelter. They slept under the rain with only rain coats for shelter.Â

At this point I don’t have a favorite yet. Hopefully, within the next few days we get to see more of the personalities of the 18 castaways.