Ep. 2 - "We Have the Numbers"

Cowboy was the first eliminated. 7 remain, who will be voted out next?

OPENING SCENE

Episode 2 opens up immediately with our most experienced and most determined player Tommy laying out his thinking. “enjoy the last moments of privacy before attacking the day” “all i think about at night is Survivor” “I’m trying to think 3 moves ahead, down the road, final 7, final 6, final 5” “Game is always thinking, game is always thinking” “time to grind”. Clearly Tommy has been dreaming about playing a game like this. He has done the mental preparation and strategic reps necessary to have these types of mindsets going on. He has watched Tony win 2 seasons of Survivor and bookmarked Tony’s strategy of thinking at night about every facet of the game, if _____ then ______ for every scenario. Tommy is in it to win it, but again, do others know he is this hungry for the win? If so, they will be onto Tommy and target him.

Then, Nick let’s us in on his thoughts about Tommy. “Tommy’s losing his f!@#ing mind.” Hysterical. The look on Nick’s face and his delivery is perfect. In 5 words Nick illustrates to me that he recognizes what Tommy is up to, the level of gameplay he is willing to go to, and Nick is either on the right side of the numbers to do something about Tommy or not.

WE HAVE AN OPENING INTRO/CREDITS

Cheers my New Amsterdam cocktail to the people editing Surviving Barstool and putting the opening credits together. It has it all. Adventurous and heroic music, Survivor like font, slow motion shots of the players with their names next to them, shots of the NYC setting - squirrel climbing a tree, Statue of Liberty silhouette, homeless man hauling recyclables, promotional shots of NA Vodka, and a climactic finish with the ending shot on the Surviving Barstool logo. Really elevated this episode above the first already and the level of the content.

DAY 3

Day 3 begins with Brianna searching for clues to the hidden immunity idol. Even though Tommy already has it. Anyway. She starts searching around the bar area and the bar area is full of people working at Barstool. She is lifting up objects and checking around, but also showing me she is here to play. She may be a “newbie” to Barstool but she is no newbie to this game at the 3 day mark. She wants to find the idol and wants to do it without being seen. Maybe Tommy isn’t the only one who can play.

YouTube/Barstool Sports

But, sure enough Brianna is talking about clues and the idol with Kelly and…you guessed it, Tommy. To his credit, Tommy plays it off well and gives no indication of having the idol. This is important. In any game of Survivor, having the hidden immunity idol is a gigantic advantage. You get another life in the game no matter if you play the idol well or not. Obviously, the best and most dramatic use of the hidden idol is when it gets played when the person would have been voted out if they didn’t use it (ex: Keith in season 29) OR when someone plays their idol to save someone else, BIG TIME MOVES, (ex: Russell in HvV) OR when someone is dumb enough to NOT USE THE IDOL and ends up going home with a free life in their pocket. Tommy isn’t going to want to be in the last category, so he needs to form an alliance, be on the right side of the numbers, and not get complacent.

CHALLENGE

Guest host “Vibbs” is called in from the bullpen to run the second safety challenge where the goal is to “not puke”. Here we go!

Round 1 - Pint of Thick Water

No, the players aren’t all suffering from dysphagia (trouble swallowing) but they may have trouble swallowing thick water because it’s thick water. Now, maybe some of them in preparation for Surviving Barstool have kept up with YouTube’s own “Badlands Chugs” who isn’t human and has millions of follower and views of him chugging various large quantities of liquids including thick water.

For round 1 the first 5 to chug the glass of thick water completely, move onto round 2. If they puke, they get another full pint and can try again. The girls especially make it known that this challenge is teetering on being absurd or impossible or f*!@ed up, and they’re probably right. However, I like the use of thick water over something like beer or vodka which could be a little more dangerous and give someone an advantage that has a heightened affinity for a NA Vodka beverage. Thick water is a level playing field. Nobody would ever drink it but everyone is on level playing field to drink it.

Moving on - 1st Zah, 2nd Donnie, 3rd Nick, 4th Tommy, 5th Bri

Perhaps the challenge was unfair to the ladies considering the two eliminated were Trysta and Kelly. The men seemed to put it down no problem. Never had thick water and probably never will so good job by them putting it down and getting to round 2.

Round 2 - 1000 year egg/Century egg/Fermented Disgusting Duck Egg

They have to finish the egg. Nick is outraged by the idea of it and gives laugh out loud eye roll combined with knowing the fact that he is about to put himself through something terrible. I don’t envy this part of the challenge but the strategy I would try is swallowing in one bite. One bite everyone knows the rules meets fermented 1000 year disgusting egg. One bite. Swallow it whole. Move on to the final round. Chewing will expose the horrendousness inside.

3 were supposed to move on but only 2 could put it down. 1st Zah, 2nd Donnie.

YouTube/Barstool Sports

Zah seemed unphased by the egg but Donnie looked like he was experiencing an “exorcism” as Host KFC put it. He did the nose hold, his body shook, and he dry heaved. In the end, Tommy could only mush it around, Bri didn’t attempt it, and Nick never made the egg up to his mouth. Zah and Donnie into the final round.

Round 3 - Giant can of Surstromming Fish

The third round is just cruel. The Surstromming fish cans barely get pierced, releasing the smell and beginning the dry heaves from Vibbs, Zah, Donnie, KFC, the eliminated players, and the rest of the Barstool office. Zah and Donnie are going to go bite for bite until someone taps out and we have one player remaining. The prize is the ability to go out for lunch and the NA necklace giving you safety from the vote. I don’t know if I would really want lunch after an appetizer of fermented 1000 year duck egg, Surstromming fish and a pint of thick water.

Round 3 comes and goes with the two remaining “savages” devouring multiple bites of the Surstromming fish with relative ease. Zah especially. However, Surviving Barstool is prepared for a tie and breaks out the dueling cans of pork brain. First to finish the “solid brain matter” from their plate and show a “clean” mouth, wins safety, a stay in the NAV Lounge, the ability to eat lunch outside of the office and choose someone to join them.

In a disgusting photo finish, Zah edges out Donnie by a piece of solid brain matter. Zah wins safety, a stay in the NAV Lounge, lunch outside and chooses Donnie to join him. Zah and Donnie enter the lounge and begin talking who is the next to go. Donnie seems to be the name brought up by Trysta. With her also being a challenge threat, considering she won the first challenge, she could be the one that receives votes from Zah and Donnie.

However, the girls have their own plans. Trysta is onto Donnie targeting her and she thinks he is even a bigger threat than Tommy. So, the girls make a closed door deal to stick together and vote for Donnie. If the girls can get Donnie out, then they will have the numbers for the rest of the game. To get this vote done, Trysta is going to try and get Tommy to vote Donnie and then solidify that the girls can stick together and pick off the boys one by one Pagong style. It makes sense that the ladies would align and stick together. You have to imagine that the women of Barstool deal with certain types of dudes all day every day and probably have to stick together while working there anyway, so it makes sense that they work together.

Trysta needs to make a deal with Tommy. If they get him, they have 4, and it’s all systems a go for Trysta and the ladies’ plans. Trysta and Tommy talk it out and the target is Donnie. It seems all good until…

YouTube/Barstool Sports

THE WINK!

Tommy gives the wink and a memorable, standout, Barstool T-shirt worthy moment. Will he stick to the plan that Trysta has laid out for him? OR Will Tommy have a voting plan of his own?

TRIBAL COUNCIL - NEW AMSTERDAM BAR

I think the name of the Tribal Council is just the New Amsterdam Bar. Whatever the case, the players are greeted at the bar by refreshing New Amsterdam Greyhounds to “cleanse the pallet” after today’s challenge. Cowboy is back as the first member of the jury and he looks PISSED! He looks like he wants nothing to do with sitting on the jury and only wants to rip into everyone for voting him out first.

Then, KFC asks about alliances and Kelly smartly answers that vaguely that there have been some “light discussions and people are on the same page”. Answering the hosts Tribal questions without revealing much is an art and everyone is showing they understand it. She doesn’t want to reveal that the girls talked and want to vote for Donnie. She has gotten her sea legs a bit through these 3 days and has become quite a bit savyer.

Next, Nick brings up the point that tonight’s vote is the first time the game feels real. The first vote was obvious. Everyone knew that Cowboy was the first one being voted off, but now the game has become real. Now, the votes become harder. It’s time to think about who to vote off that is a major threat. The girls seem to think that Donnie is the major threat and Donnie and Zah seem to think that Trysta is a major threat. All of a sudden Tommy found himself in the middle of the vote tonight. With his possibly soon to be famous WINK! to the camera, he could be voting for Trysta, spoiling the girls’ plans.

Then, the conversation at the bar turns to the after effects of the food challenge. The fascinating thing we learn isn’t that Donnie will be upset if he ate all that garbage for 2nd place only to be voted out but rather the interesting piece of info we learned was about Nick. He confessed that he poops naked and has to line the seat with toilet paper every time. This was a Survivor/Surviving Barstool first. The story of his pooping habits is then proven by a phone call he makes to his mother in the middle of the bar. Ridiculous? Yes. Hysterical? Of course. Big move in jury management? You bet your ass! He had everyone laughing and though he didn’t come close to a challenge win yet, he may be one of the biggest threats to a jury vote.

Voting

Trysta - 5, Donnie - 1, Tommy - 1

YouTube/Barstool Sports

Well, we have our first blindside of Surviving Barstool. So much for the all girls alliance and the plan that Trysta had thought she concocted. Not to be. Her ass got voted out by everyone but one. Trysta was “double crossed” by Bri and Kelly.

But in a turn of events, Bri reveals that she voted for Tommy and not Trysta because she knew what was going to happen to Trysta and felt bad. Uh oh. Bri then also makes the mistake of revealing that she did it so that Trysta will vote for her in the end if she is there. What a dumbass! Why would you say that to everyone? You keep that to yourself newbie. Someone is going to take all this information in and 100% use it against her. My bet, is Tommy. People don’t like getting burn votes thrown at them and especially when it’s revealed that they are part of a long term jury management gameplan. Big mistake Bri!

The episode ends with Trysta packing her shit and leaving the office. In the end, she had no chance. Her initial fears of thinking everyone wanted her out turned out to be true. Had she not won immunity the first night, she may have been voted out first. Well, probably not, because Cowboy and his stupid gimmick deserved to title of first out. Trysta instead feels like the right person to be voted out at this point in the game. She was a threat, she was a player, she was making alliances, she was trying to solidify and control the vote. She needed to go.

Through two eliminations it seems like it’s anyone’s game. Wink!

Rankings

1 - Tommy - has the idol

2 - Zah - trending up, won safety, making no waves, super likeable

3 - Bri - revealed her jury management hand when she voted for Tommy over Trysta. Target.

4 - Kelly - getting her footing in the game, ready to make a move

5 - Nick - under the radar, poop story and Mom confirmation was jury management

6 - Donnie - avoided the Trysta plot, challenge threat, but will anyone vote for him to win?

Trysta - 2nd member of Jury

Cowboy - 1st member of Jury

Thanks for reading. Be sure to outlike, outcomment, and outshare the rest.

The blog has spoken!