Episode 1: Here, go brush your teeth with some Ash!
Welcome to my first blog! Yes, this is my first online blog EVAH. Bear with me—there may be rants, segways and life confessions. I promise by the end of this season there will be order to this blog. Maybe.
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Andrea Boehlke and I finished fifth on Survivor Season 22- Redemption Island. What am I known for? Well, some people group me in with Rob’s Angels or Zombies—whichever you prefer-- but I did end up gunning for the Rob Father at Final 5. (However, he had an idol, and I apparently didn’t have friends). I had a complicated showmance with Matt Elrod, an outstanding knack for detecting maggots; I always wore braidy-braids and I beat three hot guys at Redemption Island holding up my leg balancing a vase. I also shoved my face with chocolate cake. So without further adieu—my thoughts on Survivor South Pacific!
I loved the premiere. It felt a little odd watching Survivor and not being on it—but honestly it was a huge relief. I can now sit back and watch the show paranoia free, not worry about the edit and whether or not they will show that one time that I let Phillip Sheppard give me a back massage at camp. I also had the pleasure of watching the premiere with the elite NYC Survivor crew, the “wine and cheese” clan, and experienced the hilarious commentary of Courtney Yates and company. There was more wine than cheese, in case anyone was wondering.
Like a lot of people, I don’t necessarily crave the concept of Coach vs. Ozzy. However, surprisingly I really enjoyed the new approaches of both of these long-haired jungle men. Ozzy is still hot and both Coach and Ozzy were really humble --I’m finding myself to be rooting for both of them! After a season like mine, where Rob and the editing made us all look like sheep, you’d think I’d be rooting for the newbies to take control and vote out the veterans—but I’m actually Team Ozzy and Team Coach with a slight lean to the latter.
Let’s start out at the beginning. So the cast rolls in all decked out in blue and purple. There are already some fun characters. You have the adorable nerdy super-fan John Cochran. You have the gay older man/bear Mark Anthony aka Papa Bear who is also adorable and I want to hug his face. There is the hot chick Mikayla who is tough and charming. One of the first things she said was, “He [Ozzy] can fish like a son of a gun.” The only other person I’ve heard use that phrase is Ralph Kiser. People like Mikayla say “son of a gun?” And make is sound sexy? Well that’s pretty neat.
Then you have a few cougars, your ripped hot guys, your required blonde Southern girl, and the token relative of a former Survivor. About that. I’ll get to that later.
So I’m just going to assume everyone reading this blog watched the episode—if not, you’re dead to me. But seriously, I think I’d rather just point out things I liked/interesting moments/my input than do a scene by scene, since I’m already getting long winded. See? This is what happens—you ask for one little blog and I can’t stop writing.
A few of my favorite moments:
-Brandon creeping on Mikayla. I’m all for creepiness. I love a good creeper and I thought this moment was incredibly creeptastic so it excites me. I actually think a lot of this section was editing as I highly doubt we will see a Brandon-Miki showmance brewing (especially since Brandon is married with babies and loves God) but it still was just…..weird.
-Brandon wearing his shirt like a goon. I have never seen anyone wear their shirt like that. I would possibly vote someone out just for wearing their shirt like that. I hate to say it, but Brandon, just take off your shirt! It’s going to happen soon—I feel it. Sniff him out Sophie! Ruff!
- The Semhar drama. I loved the Semhar drama. In her defense, it does take a lot of guts for a young girl to take on such a crucial role in the first immunity challenge of the season. Also, those challenges are TIRING. Yes, it is only Day 3, but you haven’t eaten much, you probably haven’t slept at all, and it’s hot out. She just overestimated her coconut tossing skills and had to pay the price.
-Jim Rice and John Cochran- I like these two kitties. I find Jim pretty funny and also a threat to Ozzy for power in the tribe. I have a feeling that Jim will be the one who eventually guns to vote out the Ozster.
Yes, I am on the Cochran bandwagon, but not because I think he is a great player. Everyone loves a good nerd, and everything John does is so cute and nerdy. He had me at glasses. I think he has a lot of ground to make up if he wants to stay in this game, but wasn’t it just so cute when he got all paranoid and sexist? Okay not the sexist part; I didn’t appreciate the comment that he would be insulted to be voted off “before all these girls” but whatever, we all say random comments we didn’t necessarily mean. Women everywhere still love John Cochran.
-A baby alliance! An alliance is born on Night one between Coach, Albert, Rick, Brandon and the Sophie. I love that Sophie hangs with the dudes. I wish Sophie was on my tribe. I am very interested to see if this alliance sticks together. It actually reminds me of the Ometepe alliance that was created on Night 2 of my season. Well, subtract an Elrod and add a Sheppard.
I can’t wait to see more of these characters. Is Dawn going to pull a Holly and become the mom of the tribe? When does the Hantz ousting take place? When do we find out about Keith’s pace maker? Will Semhar live? Also—I’m dying for a good ole showmance. Maybe Albert the dating coach will hook up with Miki. Or possibly Sophie and Coach will whisper sweet Russian nothings in each other’s ears. I don’t know, but I’m hopeful some sort of Island love goes down. Maybe it’s wishful thinking of a single lady.
Thanks for reading! You can follow me on twitter @andreaboehlke where I’m known to make random cat noises. I’m also doing a few other Survivor shenanigans: weekly power picks with Gordon Holmes and I’m the bi-weekly host for SuperPass. I link all my doings on twitter, so follow me and I try to answer fan questions from time to time. Have a good one!
*Editor's Note aka Jonny Fairplay's Note - Is Andrea the cutest Survivor of all time or what?