Insane and Off the Rails- This World

So, just a reminder half of this article is to sum up the voted out castaway, the other half is a very humorous way to sum up what happened.  Just want to get the record straight.  If you want a full episode summery, I’m sure you’ll find one over the next few days. :)

Also, if anyone out there have been self publishing their own write-ups, send me a E-mail, PM, or whatever and I’ll add a link to it.  You people are my people.

Anyways, don’t read if you don’t want spoilers.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you, but if you’re reading episode write ups without watching the show first you’re doing it wrong.

First off, we are going to cover Hali.  Hali was always a weird one for me.  She was the “pair” to Jenn.  A big theme this season is watch the pairs.  Mike, Carolyn, and Tyler have verbalized this, so really this shouldn’t be as big as a shock as I thought it was.  Hali was shown to be close to Jenn since episode two at the least.

Okay, I won’t blame you if you were surprised.  Hell, I was.  I thought that Kelly was what was holding Blue Collars together.  Okay, I might still be right in that for a bit.  I thought Blue Collars as a “Casaya” and Kelly as there “Aras”.  A “normal” person who on any other season would be shown as weird as can be.  You know, Kelly the one who freely admits to using Pepper Spray in her house.  However, the problem with this comparison is that this enters probably my least favorite part of Survivor discussions.  The “Should’ve, Could’ve, Would’ve” part.  What happens when Casaya lost Aras?  Who knows.  So for all we know, the second most “normal” person might hold on to this group until Sierra or Rodney just strays away.  And Mike, someone who doesn’t have the same sway over Rodney and Sierra as Kelly, is left to struggle over this alliance.  Mike needs a lot more than a fractured alliance and a Hidden Idol that he told no one to save his friends.

This is where I get to Hali.  Now, as bad as the attempted Jenn vote went, it was actually the best idea to target Jenn.  Just from what I’ve seen, Jenn was a lot more involved in targeting Kelly in the last episode.  Maybe I’ve giving her too much credit to say that perhaps that she’s actually the one that’s behind most of No Collar’s direction, but I strongly believe that she would be the better choice.  Of course, they didn’t, because Idols man.

Oh, and think that Joe would be the number one person to vote out… well, they’re right.  Joe’s winning stuff.  That’s easy.

The jury's out, and this law student is in.

Back to Hali, just like Kelly, a lot of people think that she would win by the fabled Ethan way.  Be the nicer second in command to someone who could take a good amount of bullets for that you.   Of course, the problem with this is ditching your first in command unless they were really that bad, which might have been something Kelly could have pulled off (I like Mike, but Kelly just seemed more well liked) but I don’t really know if Hali could.  I do know is that she seemed to have a lot of people rooting for her.  I was one of them in fact.  Said to see her go but at least she has a nice spot on Jury, which is something I couldn’t say about Kelly.  Go Merica.

As closing to this part of this write up, I urge you guys to watch these people.  Two pairs in fact.  Watch Jenn and Mike.  They have a lot more in common than you thing.  And watch Carolyn and Tyler.  They are also some sort of a pair, but they seem to be keeping it on the down low.  So far, this narrative is centered around pairs, and Jenn and Mike both lost their other half to each other.

Everything Wrong With: Survivor

Worlds Apart- Episode 8

~ The episode title is “Keep it real”. I’m not sure what needs to be kept real nor do I really want to know because they took that quote from some rant from Rodney.

~ Rodney forgets to watch every single Survivor involving rice amounts. 

~ Salami is f*cking gross and I’d only eat it if I was on Survivor

~ Rodney tried to Blue collar No collars.

~ This really shouldn’t count, but in the 30 facts for this video they called Jonathon Penner “John Penner” and no one in this history of this show has ever called him that.

~ Dan fails at balance.  Yes Hali fans the law of gravity hates Dan too.

~ Jeff says that “A lot of people” are in this game.  Jeff apparently can’t count to eleven.

~ None of the White collars made it to the final part of this challenge, instead they paid Hali to be their rep and decided to chill out in the big office instead.

~ Joe picks the White collars and Will to go with him, while smart stragicially it is also F*cking boring.

~ Jenn is clearly pissed off at being left at camp with all of the blue collars with only Hali to prevent her from actually harming anything but we get zero footage on this because IDOLS ARE AWESOME.

~ Shirin is like me when I am very bored.  That scares me.

~ Instant drama add stupidly high dangerous Ziplines.  I’m with Amy O’Hara this height stuff is for the birds.

~ Joe doesn’t eat the idol clue, which would have given us a better episode because it would have cut out the useless idol hunt afterwares.

~ Tyler becoming more important.  It’s like one of those tools for us to remember that there is probably a reason that he’s still here but we’d rather watch Blue Collar emotionally wear on each other or Vince being creepy but they didn’t show us for some reason.

~ I do question the sanity of someone who stays up until twilight to wait on an idol clue in a game where sleep is a luxury.

~ Cue what is basically a piss break.  Seriously.  I just saw an Easter egg hunt Sunday between my cousins and was bored why would I want to watch people do this on Survivor?

~ Also what is really the point of suggestion that Joe has the HII aside from you not having it?  Joe wins Immunity so soon and that’s not going to stop them from targeting him anyways and they don’t know who has the Masaya idol.  It just seems rather pointless to me, at least not with Joe.  So I’m sure this will come up later and now I have to remember this.

~ Dan.

~ Let me elaborate, Dan insults Shirin for being a puppet to Joe, despite it was Hali who was shown to interact with her on the swapped tribe.  I’m sure we’re probably missing something but for right now it’s sexist to imply that Joe is leading over three ladies.  Which, it is.

~ Of course, he has such a high opinion of himself despite Blue Collar losing probably their most pivotal person in their alliance. 

~ That he was a puppet for.  (Of course, it may have been more Mike and Kelly together, but let’s say Kelly just for the irony of it shall we?)

~ Shirin can’t count but Dan can’t remember the name of someone whom he shared a camp with for at least what, five days now?

~ Shirin is shown as annoying while being inspirational at the same time. 

~ On thing I was giving credit was that when Carolyn and Jenn found their idols it was basically “Oh hey this is cool” and done.  Not Mike.  Mike has to have a montage with trees and such because why not.

~ Also Mike’s Happy dance.

~ Because you didn’t like the Puzzle’s at the end of the challenges we’re using them in the entire challenge.

~ Joe tried to pander to me by using shenanigans in a sentence.

~ I hate slide puzzles because I suck ass at them.  I’m not even allowed to make fun of Dan’s incompetence in this because I would be worse.

~ However, I will say that I know that the words in Survivor isn’t “Outwijwat.....Oblaltay...Owtlstr” or whatever that was.

~ Joe the challenge threat wins immunity so natural the target shits to the person that was in second to dead last for the majority of the challenge.

~ This all girls alliance doesn’t happen.

~ Dan doesn’t get voted out.

~ This revolution doesn’t happen.  I wonder if Blue Collar even taxed their tea yet.

~ And Jenn probably won’t quit in the next episode and the teaser is probably lying.  Just a reminder that it was strongly hinted in the third episode one that Jenn or Hali was going to run into something that causes them to bleed and get Medivaced.  Instead Dan drops a lift on Kelly’s head.  So calm down.

FINAL TALLY- 34

Anyways, next week- Am I still wrong?  I don’t know, but I’ll be tweeting live this week (Hopefully) so come join me east coasters.

I am Heather and this is me signing off.

Kelly is the Duct Tape of Blue Collar

Hey guys, I have decided to try and get back into writing episodes so my skills stay sharp.  What better way to start than with the episode that saw the end to one of my favorite players this season.

I’m not going to gloss over a lot of stuff, but I will say- spoilers.  Duh.

Let’s start this episode with a farewell to Kelly.  This kinda hurts.  Kelly was a favorite of mine in this season.  I picked her out Preseason mostly because of her job.  Anyone who knows my Survivor likes and dislikes knows about a certain Cop from Guatemala who is my current favorite Survivor since I was eleven.  I’m 20 years old right now.

Kelly, who started on a blue tribe, got injured in a challenge that her tribe lost, lasted seven episodes and just missed an important Survivor milestone… I knew she wasn’t going to last long.  I had that feeling.  However looking back on everything, it’s easy for me to see why so many people picked her out as a winners pick after episode 4/5.  Also after the shock at everything was gone, it was easy for me to see why Kelly and not, say, Mike.  Why, yes, it probably was personal on Jenn’s end, but outside for personal interest, Kelly is the best choice to vote out to dismantle the Blue Collars.  She was their glue.

Alright, so how can we tell Kelly was the glue? Well, in all of the dysfunctional BC arguments, who was the one who kept out of it? Kelly. She compared it to the Bar fight calls the Troopers get. They hang out on it a bit, and then turn up.  She knew that it wasn’t worth getting her hands bloody in those fights, because they were going to sort themselves out.  She knew how to deal with BC’s dysfunction, and how to sweep up after it.  Also telling was the Challenge thrown, not only Mike threw the challenge, but Sierra and Rodney did too. You could argue that Rodney did so to get Joe out, but Sierra may have not shared that same interest.  As for Rodney, she was the only BC who was included in Rodney's four people group.

Kelly, the one who got hit in the Fricken head, got six stitches (one for each of us!) whom in retrospect I am surprised that she didn't have blue blood because she was that blue collar tribe, and currently I would be shocked as hell if any BC make it to the end now.  They’ll fall apart without her.  She’s also not on the jury, so they better hope that the other votes will be just as well.

Still a Trooper :)

My point, they loved Kel. They would have thrown a challenge for her. Hell, they did. Kelly would have probably even won but she made such a huge mistake and that was that she didn't try and keep appearances with the No Collars. She tipped off Jenn, and that is why she was gone.  That’s the one thing that she really messed up on. 

My final words on Kelly, her head injury… wow. I had a similar one when I was ten, but it was not nearly as bad.  It bled a lot (head injuries are really famous for bleeding a lot but not being that serious) and I had a check for concussion, but I didn’t need any stitches much less six.  Although the scar is still there, right above my left eye brow.  Also I have Hemophobia.  I have panic attacks if I see a large amount of blood.  Congrats to Kelly, who is the only Contestant I’ve ever had that reaction too.  Hopefully the last because that was a lot of blood.

Okay, now time for-

Everything Wrong with Survivor: Worlds Apart

Episode 7

- Kelly is apparently so deep undercover but couldn't fool the surfer girls of the season

- Subtlety is probably something that Kelly doesn't remember how to do because of the head trauma, but I’ll give up a point because come on. 

- Foreshadowing of the couples splitting leads to minor irony latter

- Dan peed on his own foot.  Even in the correct context it’s a stupid sentence that I don’t really want to hear.

- Jenn aggressively throws hot water on people’s feet again.  Let’s hope this time Dan doesn’t have warts.

- Shirin forgoes Jenn the Lifeguard’s suggestion that peeing on Dan’s foot was stupid to make a John Carroll shout out.

- They name the Tribe after a stereotype.

- Okay, the flag is badass, but they use no hint of the purple that's in the buff.

- Also Shirin is the one they went to on complaining about the name.  Yes, she’s justified and such but wasn’t she the one who randomly burst into singing “Merica’s” national Anthem?

- I can't even keep track of all of this, alliance stuff, but I'm sure it's all important.

- Joe's Face in this picture

- Jenn asks if Rodney is smart an episode later after hearing about him from Kelly and deciding that he's a "Tool".  Go with your gut girl.

- So, the No Collars vs Blue Collars and random White Collars doing whatever.  Ten minutes and we're back to whatever we concluded at the start of this episode?

- The Pole challenge is brought back so the internet can have a field day.  Again.

- The necklace has a compass on it.  Lady Antebellum approves.

- Jenn is assaulted by a bee in a place where Jeff is probably unaware existed.

- Also Jenn, you are still probably not a huge character in Jeff’s eyes

- What’s with this season and everyone getting hurt?  You have Mike throwing up in the first episode, Kelly, Max and the Stingray, Dan and the Jellyfish, and now Jenn?  Did they cast a bunch of Skupins or something?

- Rain where Drama needs it to be.

- Carolyn's children didn't see her win that challenge.  Nothing like saying "My mother won the pole challenge!" am I right.  Damn, now I'm doing it.

- Blue Collars want to test Will's loyalty instead of covering their asses with a safer split vote.  Like serious.  Either way if Will flips you’re screwed.

- Random alliance of Kelly, Rodney, Will, and Carolyn goes absolutely nowhere and dies in this episode

- Random alliance is made important but goes along with Mike anyways.

- We are randomly remained of Jenn's idol.  Must be important.

- Jenn blames Idol found on "Magic".  No Jenn that’s how Russell found his Idol that blindsided Kelly.  Hey wait.

- Will makes the comment that Jeff could get voted out but we all never see it.  I can only dream.

- Will makes an ass of himself by voting for Hali.  And the only one to vote for Hali.

- Jenn and her friends laughing at Kelly, while probably harmless, has a lot of internet people calling her out on poor jury management.  While I get where that’s coming from I’d think some of the jury people would understand the fact that she just narrowly missed getting voted out.  Come on.

- Also Idol plays are still rather silly and not a true substitute for a real shock vote.  Come on guys. 

- Joe draws a band aid on his Kelly vote, giving a Jenny Guzon-Bae tribute in voting for a Cop while drawing an image in reference to an injury of theirs.  Way to be a jerk Joe.

FINAL COUNT- 30

Might I remind everyone that that is for pure comical reasons only. :)  Don’t take it too seriously.  

Join me next week to see the fallout of Blue Collar’s losing their glue.

 Also Bonus, my take on this challenge.

Thank you and have a good [insert time of day here]

Confessions of an Ex Ozlet

I know I haven’t posted in my own blog for a long, long, LONG time.  But I feel like since some of the stuff I’ve written here reflected my time on Survivor Oz, it would be oddly appropriate to post this here.

Now, of course if you’ve been following this giant mess on Twitter, you’d know that host Ben Waterworth made some very controversial remarks about a Survivor contestant’s Wife.  More specifically, it was about Will’s wife and the remakes were racist.  There is no other way to slice it.  He was mocking her name and making offensive comments.

 

Want to hear something extremely amusing?  The preview podcast aired about a month ago.  It’s only now getting attention.  Why?  Because no one I know that would be able to pick this out and get offended even watch the show anymore.  I don’t have the time to even care personally.  Since I’ve left Survivor Oz I recently got a promotion at my job and I’ve since started my own project with a fellow Ex-Ozlet and really good friend, Ben Powell.  I don’t have the luxury of keeping hold of bad blood… or even good blood really.  However, I understand idiocy when I see it.  That’s a universal language there that doesn’t hold credence to the supposed cultural barriers Waterworth’s been claiming.

Oh, and from this point on, Ben Waterworth shall be called simply Waterworth.  It’s more of a confusing clear up just to make sure my good friend Ben Powell (Who I shall just call Ben) isn’t going to get nasty tweets or whatever.

 

Anyways, let’s play the story.  Ben and I joined Survivor Oz in January of 2013.  I was an eighteen year old college student that thought Survivor was just the coolest thing ever.  I love to write, and I just finished my first season of actually actively participating in the online community, Survivor Philippines.  They were looking for writers, and I was a writer.  I also already was on one of their podcasts.  I was on the Christmas Episode where I got to speak to John Carroll. 

This is where I need to stress, when I joined Oz I had nothing but respect for them.  They were able to get interviews from Guatemala contestants.  If you’ll remember I’m know as THE Guatemala fan from various people.  Even Guatemala contestants are aware on how much I love the season they were on.  I was very excited to get to write for something with as much of a readership as Oz.  I never really done anything like that since, but (again I stress) this is more to my job than anything else.  I still have saved all of my work that I’ve done for Oz because I have put my time in effort in every single article, top ten, write up, and Podcast for them.  I didn’t give them anything that I wouldn’t post on my own blog.

Waterworth’s always been agonist towards those who don’t share his opinion.  I should have seen it when he mocked Sophie for declining an interview due to her schooling.  You know, because medical school isn’t taxing on free time or anything.  When I supported her choice I was mocked.  When Waterworth made a top ten podcasts and put Historian’s up on there, Mario was honored but he pointed out that Historian’s isn’t in the same group as Rob Has a Podcast or anything due to the lack of schedule that they do.  This was met with Waterworth fuming that Mario just wouldn’t say “Thank you” and gush about being on the list.  Now, Mario is a good friend of mine (I was in the running to be a historian a while back) so I defended him like a good friend, but that didn’t matter.  Those that do bow at his feet and give in to his ego are of no use to him.

The catalyst of why I left though?  It’s a bit lesser known but I’ll do my best to explain it.  Now, it’s early January of 2014.  I haven’t actually done anything for Oz in a while, yet for some reason I’ve been kept around.  They have “fired” my good friend Ben, with only me expressing sympathy towards Ben.  They’ve just posted a top ten in Previously on Survivor (Also known in this article as PoS) of the top ten tribes written by Jimmy Kurniawan (who is also a pretty nice guy.)

Now, like most top tens, a lot of comments were had.  Most of them citing various inaccuracies (The Foa Foa four weren’t a tribe) and overall disagreement.  I myself posted in this thread (screenshots will follow) but I only expressed confusion, because for some reason I thought that practical subject of top ten was already done.  Of course, I looked it up and I was wrong, and then commented on that.  I in no way mentioned the article or the ranking.  (Oh and comments that were pure humor of the fact that people think that Korror had an advantage because they had more men)

And somehow, those comments earned this.  I will black out names besides my own or Waterworths.  Mostly because I don’t want to get in trouble for doing something similar than what they did.

Well, okay.  Maybe he had a bad day right? (I thought)  The other Ozlet he tagged is in PoS as well, so whatever.

Then, this happened.

That is pretty much what made me think “Well, fuck you too”.  I do not like getting dragged into things.  If I’m in the wrong, it’s fine but that’s not okay to me.  I kept quiet about it because I know what will happen.  I would be discredited and the reason would be a perceived bitterness due to bad blood… or whatever.

BONUS MORE THINGS-

Seriously, I have most of the thread screenshotted and if it didn’t take a lot of work trimming it down and whiting out names I’d post the whole damn thing on here.

Oh, I guess I should put my own reactions-

*cue me handing in my resignation form*

Later he did apologize for those words.  I was pissed, but I had already made up my mind.  It was bothering me that I somehow was allowed to stay but they kicked out Ben.  I was just as opposing to various comments he said in the Oz group.  I don’t know why I was spared to be blunt.  Maybe because it was my winning personality and stuff?  Naw.  Can't be.  Let's just say I don't know, but I have an idea that hasn't been proven, but there were comments.   

He had another blow up in PoS facebook group last January (too the same month a year later!) that resulted in him leaving PoS and Survivor Oz in general a target for mockery to the group.  That was when both Ben and I let loose on several tangents, each about the Group and Waterworth’s comments about Survivors that didn’t want to do interviews.  It was informational, and we changed many a minds that night but I knew that it wouldn’t be over.  After all, PoS is just a small slice of the Survivor fandom. 

Unfortunately, I couldn’t provide any screen shots.  In light of recent events the Survivor Oz facebook member (which was posting these articles) appeared to be deleted when I tried to find the posts.  But it was a blood bath.  Take my word for it.

Speaking of recent events, this brings me to the present week.  Mike from Survivor: World’s Apart tweeted (to Carolyn and Jenn of his season) about Survivor Oz attacking “our family”.  Well, that brings me to the preview podcast that I mentioned at the start of this article.  When accused of mocking a Survivor family member (aka someone who didn’t sign up for that) you should quickly say sorry, remove the offending podcast, and make note that that sort of thing will never happen again.  Instead Waterworth said that “Sorry but Other podcasts have said worse” which is by no means a real apology by any stretch of imagination.

The “Other Podcast” he mentions is the Corinne Preview episode that Rob’s show has done since at least South Pacific.  Corinne is a Survivor contestant however, she never has brought family members in that podcast nor has she even brought up race in any of them.  The podcast itself is at best is Satire, like the Onion. It’s all in the name of comedy, not meant to be serious, and above all she’s in the Survivor family, an unofficial bond of being mocked on media and articles alike brings these people together.  Compare that to some random Australian guy who will never be on Survivor nor understand what they went though that foolishly thought that mocking a family member based on her race was a good idea.

This was pointed out on Sucks as well, where I was also attacked by and the attack was quickly shut down by myself and other Sucks posters.  Since then neither Waterworth nor any other known Ozlet has shown their avatars in Sucks.

On the Fackbook front, he and the Survivor Oz page was kicked out of Addicted to Survivor. (Also known as AtS)  I’m sure if he was still in PoS that would have been changed really quickly.

On the next Oztopsy, he addressed the various goings on.  Here I have a transcript that a really good friend of mine pieced together.  I’m going to pull two very specific points that I want to draw attention too. 

From our standpoint, this issue was resolved, as the conversations that we had with cast members had been settled and we were assured that there were no ill will between us and the cast of Worlds Apart. (4:47 were or was?) On behalf of Survivor Oz, I would once again like to take this opportunity to unreservedly apologize for any offense caused by comments made in this episode. Survivor Oz is by no means a hundred percent politically correct. Like most podcasts out there on the Internet, our comments and content are from a variety of people and will sometimes blur the line between humor and offense. There are times when, yes, we do step over the line and we have to put our hands up and apologize. This is one of those times. We accept that words are easy and that our actions need to reflect this going forward. We will be taking this as a learning experience for future podcasts.

We hope this apology will be taken for what it is: an honest attempt to make amends. And we hope that current and past contestants, as well as our listeners, will continue to interact with us to help provide you with great content.

Now, I do want to just address some other issues (5:38 some or a few) in relation to this, though, on a side point. This week, in terms of the issue if people aren't aware of what happened, Mike from this season tagged us in a post directed at Caroline, also from this season, claiming that we were, and I will quote, "the podcast that disrespected all of us and our families just FYI." A brief exchange was then had between myself and Mike about this issue, in which I proceeded to say that we had apologized - as I previously just mentioned - for this issue, and if there was any further clarification needed, for him to contact us directly. He then did publicly continue to shame us, claiming that a private apology was no apology and that we needed to apologize to all 18 on air, despite the fact that, again, as I just said, we already had. He then publicly called for a boycott of our podcast and refused to go into any specific details about what was said in public that had offended him. He then went on to post a separate tweet bragging, and I will quote again, that he "went off on a podcast today - if you know me, you know that I am one of the most positive people. You don't mess with my family", before retweeting and favoriting abusive tweets directed towards us. While, of course, it is his right to claim for a boycott or not to like us, it still is amusing slightly to us that he will not publicly say what was so offensive to him and to try and get this sorted, and yet still continue to publicly shame us.

I would also like to point out that there were other podcasts' preview episodes, that had nothing to do with Survivor Oz, that did say far worse, volatile, and downright offensive things about the cast of Worlds Apart that are not being targeted in the way that we are. I am aware, of course, that this is not a tit-for-tat exercise, but as the host of this show, I am also entitled to express an opinion and defend the product that we do put out. My apology, as I mentioned before, does stand, but I still find it slightly confusing and ironic that we are having a smear campaign against us when other podcasts getting away with doing worse. I also do find it ironic that people are excusing comments made on other podcasts as "humorous" and "satiric" as an excuse for abuse, whereas our comments were done in the same style and method and aren't seen in the same light. I do also find it slightly ironic that Mike does remain friends with several people involved in these other episodes yet still cannot continue to let what we said go.

Out of all of this, one thing that I really feel the need to address as well are the defamatory comments being labelled at us calling us "racist." I have had several comments and messages - abusive messages - to myself and to us publicly saying comments along those lines and have also been shown messages on forums and Facebook and other online, uh, outlets saying similar things. With no explanation given as to why Mike is so annoyed at our preview episode, people have speculated it was due to comments made about Will's wife Monifa in our episode. Since the exchange on Twitter with Mike, it has been brought to my attention what directly Mike was referring to in terms of taking offense, and this was in no way at all related to comments directed at Monifa. Despite this - and with still no public explanation from Mike - our podcast continues to be dragged through the mud with outlandish claims being labelled against us. In the preview episode, I will reiterate, there were no discriminative, racist, or offensive comments directed at Monifa or anybody in that matter. In fact, if people actually listen to the episode, they will find that it was the complete opposite and that we spent the entire episode praising Monifa and wanting to see her playing Survivor and applauding her and Will throughout the episode.

If people have taken offense to the comments in this episode, then again, I do apologize. However, I will once again reiterate that there were no racist undertones or intent with these comments. The definition of the word "racism" in modern society is constantly lost in social misgivings and viral social campaigns that blur the lines between what is racist and what is not. I've heard comments everywhere, from casual racists right through to downright accusing myself and our Ozlets of constantly being on a racist crusade in the past. There were even several comments online claiming that Australia is a racist country and that our past policies of white Australia are the reason why myself and our Australian Ozlets are of this opinion. To me, these are far more racist and offensive toward myself, the Ozlets, and our country in general. There may be a cultural divide as to what some consider the word "racist", casually racist, or not racist at all. But in claiming racism against a person or organization, it is ironic that actual racist comments are then used in a way to try and clarify comments. Let me state again that comments directed, calling us racists are misguided, false, and highly defamatory and offensive. Several of the comments have been made by people who have not listened to the episode, or who have only listened to small portions of it and have not listened to any other Survivor Oz episode in the past and are jumping on a bandwagon of hate and misguided vitriol. People have threatened to report our episode and have listened to parts of it claiming the racist parts are there. They have even reached out to Jeremy and Val, who do our power rankings, and warned them we are a racist podcast and to avoid us, and we have even been banned from selective groups online due to this perception of racism. I would look to, however, firmly stand by my claims that nothing racist was said in the episode to defend myself and my team. The episode will not be removed from any online platforms, and if people want to continue to run a smear campaign against us by contacting others or posting defamatory comments online against us, then that just speaks to the character of those individuals, given that online trolling culture is based on vile hatred, racism, homophobia, sexism, and other forms of bigotry, several of which have been directed to our show, other shows, and contestants in Survivor in the past, it is highly hypocritical that these select people continue to go on a crusade against us. As somebody who does pride himself in putting out an entertaining podcast that takes a lot of effort for no financial gain, it is highly offensive to be labeled in such a light.

Still not an apology.  Mike didn’t think so either.

Oh and one more thing- This.

Our show might not be everybody's cup of tea, we don't expect everybody to like us, but when comments and hate are spread to us in a manner that has been this week, then I have had no choice but to bring this up and speak out on it. I will defend not only myself and this show but each one of my Ozlets who work tirelessly and hard for Survivor Oz for nothing other than the passion of Survivor and no other reward. When our product we put out is getting unfairly diminished by certain corners of the Internet and the trolling culture previously mentioned, it is time to take a stand, and I would also like to point out on a separate note that this goes towards ex-Ozlets who have worked for us in the past, who, for whatever reason, cannot let go reasons why they were either fired or quit and continue to make up false allegations against us or false claims of personal entertainment or Like-bait online. These people have deep resentment towards us for their own past misgivings and can continue to shame themselves all they want, but they only make themselves look like fools, given the actual truth of the situation. I will not stand for this any longer from these people.

You got it.  He directly targeted me and Ben in this.  Well.  It is on.  You do not attack my friends like this.

Also what are you planning to do to me?  Flood my E-mail with spam?  Talk trash about me?  Dude, I survived an ice storm, various tornadoes, Earthquakes, a bad childhood, and High school I’m sure I can survive whatever a random guy with a podcast throws at me.

In closing, I’m not telling you at all that you need to actively hate Oz.  That is my job.  I just want to get a record straight.  You can do what you will with this information, but do not think that Waterworth is innocent in this.

Also notice that I have tried to keep the other Ozlets out of this.  They have actually apologized and to any that on the off chance might be reading this I beg of you to find another job.  Get off of this sinking ship before you drown because if Waterworth goes down he will take you with him. 

Finally, please don’t take this as a call to action.  All this is an informative piece.  If you are appalled by what Ben Waterworth has sad or has done I encourage you to (if applicable) unfollow him on Twitter, unfollow the show on Twitter, and/or unlike the Survivor Oz facebook page.  I want the message to come across that what he did is not okay and the refusal to actually own up to his mistake will cost him dearly, but attacking him on twitter and being an ass would make you no better than what he was.

For all of my readers, this is Heather.  Thank you for reading this.

Special thanks to my good friend Ben Powell.  I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have the bravery to even say half of this junk without your support. 

Thank you to Russ Bartlett for transcribing that Podcast for me.  Kept me from going mad trying to pull tidbits of information from it, you rock.  Also John Simons from PoS, whom stomached listing to the Preview cast to pick out what Mike was outraged about.  And for everyone on both PoS and Sucks who had my back when it mattered the most.  Also thank you.

Finally, thank you to Mike Holloway.  Worlds Apart is currently ongoing at the time of this article, but thank you for opening that floodgate so everyone else can see how horrible Waterworth really is.  On the off chance that you actually read the 3,000+ words of a crazy ass Survivor fan I personally thank you of this chance.

P.S.

Here are the links to various things that you are welcome to see for yourself.  Unfortunately this does not include any PoS things because it’s a closed group, but you can join to see for yourself and I’ll point you the way. :)

Survivor Worlds Apart Preview episode- Note: Timestamped @1:26 to where the mocking starts.

Survivor Oz Thread on PoS- Starts at relevant spot

Survivor World Apart Oztopsy episode 6-  Only need to watch the beginning for the “apology”

Max’s thread on Reddit- This is an interesting read, I couldn’t exactly fit it here without getting this longer than it needed to be, but it mentions the Oz comments and Max conforming the difference between Corinne saying the stuff she did and Waterworth’s comments.

Reality RAW- Not to be confused with Sarah Palin.

Hell’s Kitchen-Season Two

The Basic info
Aired-2006
Winner- Heather
Runner Up- Virginia
Sous Chef- MaryAnn, Scott
Maitre d’- Jean-Philippe
Episodes- 10
Contestants- 12

Season two is where Hell’s Kitchen really set its stride.  The first season was something different to recent seasons.  Seasons 2 and 3 helped transition to the later seasons formats.  Season 2 showed that Ramsey canned the whole “No interfering with nominations” and eliminated Gabe right away pretty early in the season.  Season two is also one of my personal favorite seasons because of the characters that really moved the season.  As much as I love the “talent” shown in the show if you can’t be a fun character than why even bother?  Luckily, I will say that HK has done an amazing job showcasing their winners.  

Before I drone on about the merits of this fine season, I will say that season 2 more or less established practices that continue on to this day.  The split between men and women, the coat hanger and burning picture, quite a few popular challenges (Talking about the relay, taste it now make it, and the 100 portions challenge) and the more traditional confessional animation.  The editing was better as well in the fact that they showed off more flaws in the eventual winner than Michael.  Heather was never put up for eliminated yet she still had her moments of inconsistency and this was a huge plot in the mid episodes while she was on the blue team.  In fact, it looked like that if the blue team didn’t win that she would be in very real danger of leaving, something that NEVER happened to Michael aside from the “Back up your claims of experience” that was mostly a “Previously On..” thing.

Season Two of Hell’s Kitchen also has a little known fact attached to it, practically with the winner, Heather West.  From the usually scouting of opinions I gather that Heather is one of the most popular Hell’s Kitchen winners that has been on the show, along with Dave.  Heather was also the first open lesbian winner of a reality TV show.  I found this fact interesting, yet no one seems to bring this up.  Richard Hatch was the first openly gay winner of a Reality TV show and since 2000 the representation of gays in the media has certainly changed since then.  The only time you really get tipped off on Heather’s sexual ordination was when Sara said that her and Rachel were making eyes at each other.  She never had a huge subplot featuring who she dated nor was she the first lesbian on the show (Jessica from season 1) but she was the first one to win a Reality TV show, something Survivor has yet to do.  Fact is, that if you are writing a piece of Representation of LGBT contestants in Reality TV, if Heather isn’t mentioned at all in said piece than I will not take you seriously.  

The other important thing that I will point out is Sara.  Sara is the best Hell’s Kitchen villain that they ever done.  Elise? Season 4 Jen?  Lacey?  They don’t hold a candle to the original.  Sara was basically every negative element on a RTV person that doesn’t social rights things.  She was immature, a liar, mediocre chef, yet she made the top four. (my sweetspot for the   season villain is they are out on the third to last episode at least.  My Season 9 episode write up will explain why this hurts Elise) It’s a fun moment whenever Sara’s around.  She started this one sided feud with Heather about the leadership on the red team, then moved to Rachel, and then sabotaged Virginia then got away with it.  Without her Season two would have been boring.  Sara’s fall was perfect karma.  She sabotaged Virginia early on, she gets sent home directly because of Virginia not wanting to quit.  

Unlike season one that relayed on more of the cooking and strategy, season two broadened these characters.  Michael wasn’t as dynamic as Heather for example.  Heather was an adorkable yet determined chef.  Virginia was dealing with the internal struggle of her existence in the game.  Keith was a confidant chef with an ego problem.   Sara was immature yet she did have a softer side.  Finally Garrett the prison chef that was actually a giant softie.  The Black jacket group was a strong one this season, and personally this season has my favorite final two of Virginia and Heather.  In season five they related the match up to the “Perfectionist” Heather vs the “Creative” Virginia.  The two were almost complete opposite, with Heather being strong on the line and Virginia being a strong challenge performer.  

Another extremely important character this season was Rachel.  Rachel was hinted as a strong chef and a leader.  However every season since this one a strong person at the beginning slowly fall down in skill.  Rachel’s decline could be pinpoint to when Heather was moved to the blue kitchen.  This fall was shocking and from then on usually there is someone in every season that does this, though season three is really when this is noticeable.  Rachel herself is rather noteworthy of this season also because of the supposed relationship with Heather.  At first the two both denied taking the relationship further (For RuPaul’s Drag Race fans, think of how the Ivy/Jinkx thing was like) but after Rachel committed suicide around a year later, Heather had that regret in later interview.  It’s an interesting “what if” for sure.  As for the suicide, a big question about if it was because of the show.  My thoughts are that it sure didn’t help, but an interview with Heather hinted that she didn’t really communicate with anyone.  It’s odd for sure, but I don’t think that it had anything to do with the show.

Mirabel wasn’t extremely noteworthy in this season.  She missed her family thus she turned into a mess.  She’s one of those reality subtexts, and she didn’t even show up for the finale.  She was spent, and sometime that happens to contestants on a RTV show.  She wasn’t that good either, but mostly stayed because of Polly and Rachel being worse than her.  Gabe is kinda in the same boat.  Gabe was nominated through Ramsey making that a first, and a message.  Giacammo had a strong signature dish but completely failing to figure out that the gas wasn’t on sealed his fate.  And last in this line up is Polly.  Polly was presented as a kind of an Elsie copy (mother of six, inexperience) but ended up not being able to serve appetizers for around 90 minutes and getting her station replaced by Heather.

The last player that I haven’t got to cover yet is Tom.  Tom is someone who was seen as sexist and someone who just can’t get away with nothing.  When sexist contestants come up, usually the winner is a female.  (averted with season 6, but season 6 had the two winning female contestants appeared in the season at some point so it works in that case) Tom was really the first time it had happened.  With this shows first female winner and divide by sex I have no doubt that that was there for a reason.  Tom himself was widely incompetent.  It was a wonder how he lasted that long.

So I’ve been trying this whole write up to not completely gush on this season and Heather.  Heather is defiantly in my top five favorite RTV winners.  She’s not my favorite contestant but she’s a huge favorite of mine of course.   Season 2 is also in my group of my favorite seasons, as well as being my first season that I saw all the way though.  Also this isn’t the last time we’ll talk about Heather or Sara or Virginia.  Sara’s character template and Heather and Virginia’s lasting legacy are important in later seasons.   So file this all away!

Sorry for the wait on this- Next Week we will visit another favorite season of mine.  The tale of Hell’s Bitches, a Waffle House Cook, and a guy named Rock.  Also an added bonus of gushing over a certain Pastry Chef.  

Reality RAW- In the beginning, when Elsie was cast...

Hell’s Kitchen- Season One

The Basic Info

Aired- 2005

Winner- Michael

Runner Up- Ralph

Sous Chef- MaryAnn (Red) Scott (Blue)

Maitre d’- Jean-Philippe

Episodes- 10

Contestants- 12

Season one of Hell’s Kitchen started out very basic.  As basic as you could get in fact, especially compared to later seasons.  It was almost like a different show, even if you compared it to season two.  The teams weren’t separated by sex, Ramsey and JP got confessionals, the intro was very different, it was just different.  Also this season was also weird in the fact that it had 7 males and 5 females instead of the even spilt that other seasons have. (Discounting the odd numbed contestants of 4 and 6 that is)  Also what’s different (but still something common the first two seasons had) was the general lack of experience that the overall contestant field had.  In total, only three contestants had major experience in line cooking.  Out of those three two of them were the final two.  It’s a bit of an understatement to say that the first season was pretty predicable in retrospect.

Michael was no doubt probably the strongest chef in that season.  The first three winners did have a sense of obvious to them.  While Heather and Rock had glaring faults (Heather was inconsistent and Rock had a temper) Michael didn’t really have any as big as Heather and Rock.  Really the only problem of his was that he didn’t really have the charisma compared to Ralph, and that is really just a comparison to Ralph.  Ralph had big talk and usually didn’t have the ability to back it up, which is more of a problem that Michael had.  Also Michael was like Hell’s Kitchen’s only answer to Richard Hatch.  He was a strategic competitor and written a story, but the problem is that he broke Hell’s Kitchen.  Now you can’t put up strong people.  Now you can’t sabotage to test contestants at the hot plate because Ramsey stole that ability.  Michael tried everything to get ahead, even though he probably didn’t need to.  Because of today’s format there will be no more Michael type players of Hell’s Kitchen.

The other 10 contestants all had their little quirks.  Carolann provided a wonderful quote about inexperience, but ended up the first boot due to not helping out on her team, despite being competent.  Hell’s Kitchen is a team competition, not individuals. She wasn’t horrible, and far from the weakest chef in the red team, but you need to show teamwork.  This idea is still present in these current seasons, the most current being Dan from season 11.

Dewberry was straight comic relief.  Usually those people usually last longer past their expiration date but sometimes those people get out earlier that you’d expect.  Jim from season 6 is an amazing example of that.  Dewberry was unintentional funny.  He also somehow ended up in the finale to get picked as a team member despite being second off and not ever working with the two finalists.  He was a horrible cook but extremely entertaining.

Jeff was the first nontraditional eliminated contestant that appeared on the show.  He blew up on Ramsey and picked a fight with him in the hallway and got hurt.  Therefore he got kicked off.  He also argued with MaryAnn, and was probably a driving factor to her leaving the show after season three.  In the end, Jeff was pretty insignificant yet probably affected Hell’s Kitchen and the red kitchen’s Sous Chefs.  He doesn’t really talk about the show either.  Ha.

Wendy and Mary Ellen I’m going to combine because I don’t have a ton to say about them.  Wendy was that one that was in over her head.  She was mixed up on water temps and she didn’t know how to prepare meat, yet when she returned for the finale she was a consistent chef and surprised me.  Mary Ellen was fundamentally the opposite.  She was consistent until her last service.  Shockingly she was kept over the less consistent and abrasive Andrew.  She also strangely didn’t come back at the finale.  It’s not unheard of people not showing up to the finale (Only seasons 3 and 8 had no one bailing on the finalists.) but it is a little odd that three people didn’t show.  Jeff is a bit understandable, but not Mary Ellen.

Chris is probably one of the most important eliminated contestants for two reasons.  Chris was experienced but never lived up to his own hype, and Ramsey couldn’t change the nominations.  Chris arguably wasn’t the worst that night, but Michael wanted to “fuck shit up” to put it lightly. He was up against Elsie that night, someone on the other end of the spectrum.  Also Chris is the other person that bailed on the finalist with Mary Ellen.  How odd.

   

Andrew was kinda a hook of some sorts.  He was the bad tempered butt monkey of the blue team.  Literally no one respected him in that place.  If Jeff was MaryAnn’s person that showed that she was a badass, Andrew was Sous Chef Scott.  He tried to cheat a blue team punishment so Scott laid into him.  However he grew.  He canned his attitude which probably saved him over Mary Ellen.  However his bad attitude and bad ability got the best of him and just missed the black jackets.

Jimmy is the first person to individually win a challenge.  He is also the first person to get kicked off the black jackets.  He was saved by never getting picked to be eliminated.  Had Elsie or Michael put him up he’d been gone a long time ago.  He never gave up either.  The same kinda niche of contestant has shown up now and again, but Jimmy was the first.

I would argue that in simple terms Elsie is what the show needed to be popular.  Elsie was the relatable older kickass woman that had no experience what so ever yet made it all the way to fourth place.  She sold Hell’s Kitchen.  It was a sad day in Hell’s Kitchen when she left, however it was necessary.  It was pretty eww how she left the show.  But I don’t think you’ll ever find a Hell’s Kitchen fan that didn’t love Elsie. Add in the fact that she took in the high road instead of rating out the other competitors about them not give them their support for her, she was a very nice lady.  You don’t find that many nice people in Hell’s Kitchen and most of them don’t last that long.  Really the only other “nice person” that made it as far as she did was Jen of season 3.

Jessica, in my opinion, kinda got lost in the fold a little.  I rarely see talk about her, but she’s a pretty underrated character.  Her storyline in the beginning was as gold as it can get in the earlier seasons of Hell’s Kitchen.  She put up her best friend Mary Ellen and she left right after her other best friend, Wendy, left.  She grew and turned into this badass but her lack in the line is really what kept her out of the final two.  She was Ralph’s best friend, and a lot of focus was put on that and the fact that she was Michael’s first choice just to fuck with him.

In summary- Yes season one was a bit too predictable, but it’s the first season.  There was so many things that they needed to work out.  Season two was really the more typical season of Hell’s Kitchen.  This season was more of the ten season introduction to everything Hell’s Kitchen brought to us.  It ran us by the eliminations, the restaurant itself.  Without this season we would be lost.

Later this week- The first lesbian winner, the first Hell’s Kitchen “villain”, and Ramsey’s Hard on.  That’s right, we're talking about season two.

~Heather Out~  

Oh Hey!

Jesus I forgot about this did I?  Ugh. 

Well hi everyone!  The amazing Heather Smith here today to tell everyone where I was for the past few months

-Playing Pokemon Y/X
- Survivor Oz stuff
- Draw... Draw.. Draw...
- CHRISTMAS
- Work
- Tumblr
- Hell's Kitchen catch up
- Drag Race catch up
- Fawning over Kelly Mantle
- TV tropes
- SARA MOTHERFUCKING BAREILLES
- Twitter
- wait what was this list about again?

Well point is that I was a tad busy.  So I will try and restart this place up.  Starting with a couple of things in the works-

Raw Reality- a bunch of my notes over all Eleven seasons of Hell's Kitchen.  I plan on releasing them after when I'm done with all eleven seasons- which should be before the end of the month (I just finished season 10)

Recaps of both RuPaul's Drag Race season 6 and HK season 12, when the come.  Survivor recaps will appear on the S-Oz webbie. 

Some other random things.  I might also post battles that I've had with some of the Pokemon Trainers down in CTS of Survivor Sucks.  Or even random people.  You know me.  Full of surprises!

So, peace, luff, and perfectly cooked chicken wings.

~Heather~