Archive for year: 2014

In this episode of Survivor, all team members are brought to Nicaragua, as it is the start of the episode. While they are brought with a family member or close loved one, they are split up and put into tribes after the first night. The two tribes have a complete sense of choice when it comes to how to survive and are working toward the same goal, to win challenges for their tribe. However while they all have a common group goal, they each have their own individual goal, to make it to the end of the show. The two tribes, throughout the first episode, figure out their group dialects that can help them become successful groups for the rest of the show. A good example of how the group members are finding their niche was while the rest of the tribe spends time rubbing branches together in hopes of a fire, Dale shows constructive nonconformity by continuing to work on making a fire with the use of his glasses. Even though it was the work of one member, it gave the whole group a sense of accomplishment.

While the tribe members are becoming nervous about the upcoming tribal council, the orange group starts to talk amongst themselves seeing who everyone wants to vote out. They have started the storming stage where people have taken up roles as leaders and followers and are realizing they can’t be friends with everyone and still accomplish their individual goal. The first set of conflict is that a lot of members had hidden agendas when talking to each other. That could lead to many communication issues if that continues to be the case. The storming stage in the orange group should continue into the next episode as they have now experienced voting someone out but are still trying to address and figure out the groups dialect. The blue group could stay in the forming stage because they have yet to experience any major tension. They seem to have moved from primary tension after doing so well in the first challenge, to being able to resolve the primary tension and will continue in the forming stage.

As in other survivor seasons, we see the way emotions can take a toll on someone’s body, it breaks them down and leaves them hopeless. In Survivor: Blood vs. Water, we get the sense that emotions are going to flare since friends and family, are battling against each other in such a brutal cutthroat competition. In this season everyone comes with a partner whether it be a friend, wife, husband, daughter or dad, they are then split into different tribes which are the Hunahpu wearing blue and Coyopa in orange. In the first episode we already get a sense of how every constants true colors are, some are snakes in the grass, some are arrogant, and some are genuinely nice people. However once the contestants were put into a group like setting, their true intentions were put to the side and their false identities were then visible. They put on fake smiles, they talked each other up and they tried to display likeable attributes. As a long time survivor enthusiast, this is all to common, towards the middle of the season alliances will be made and they will be broken, people will get stabbed in the back and people will ultimately fall back on there word, the only thing that could truly save you is winning immunity or finding the idol, both almost impossible jobs because everyone has one goal in mind and it’s the same as the other contestant besides them, win at all costs because money talks.

In my opinion the best part of the first episode is seeing everyone’s reactions to who’s in their group, they begin to size each other up and think about who they want to form alliances with. For example, in the Hunahpu tribe, Jeremy becomes the all around good guy/ savior. He seems like a reliable player because of his performance in the first competition. The others have respect for him right off the bat because he won them there first challenge, he also seemed like a genuine guy who had real emotions and was a real guy and he wasn’t scared to display them either; Unfortunately he knocked out his wife and sent her to the deserted island. He went on saying he never wanted that to happen and he doesn’t know is he could go on in the competition if he hurts his wife in the process. This is a prime example of how emotions are going to take on a big role since everyone is pit against there loved one. In the Coyopa tribe, exactly what shouldn’t happens, happens, there’s already a few different “cliques” and they leave out all but one of there tribe members primarily because he’s old and they think he doesn’t have a good chance of impacting the group. But as the old saying goes don’t judge a book by its cover. Dale struggled to get in with the crowd because he was significantly older and that automatically put a huge target on his back. Dale and the rest of the tribe are trying to make a fire, as the younger members struggle dale successfully starts a fire. His peers start believing in him and named him the fireman.

No matter how many alliances you make in this game, the one goal that isn’t indivual is surviving, your in the wilderness with the bare necessities and if that at some point in time. You have to depend on others to help you and vice versa, the same could be displayed in the work were doing in class; we all need to pick up the pieces in order to “survive” or get a good grade. The tribe members however are on a way different scale, they need to build shelters, and start fires, as well as hunt and gather food. On top of that they have to deal with one another’s ego. One tribe member, Drew, felt as though he was the “leader” because he was building the shelter, while he as doing that other people were doing there own thing trying to start a fire looking around the island. He took it as no one was helping him and was the only one doing work, in this case communication would’ve been key all he had to do was speak up and ask the other members to help him. However he took road less traveled and started bragging and acting really cocky, which rubbed a lot of his tribe members the wrong way.

This would be my first time watching Survivor and I am already interested in the theme Blood vs Water. After completing the first episode, I am more aware on how the show relates to the four stages in the life cycle of groups, also known as the Tuckman’s Group Development Stages. The forming stage appeared at the beginning of the show when the couples were introduced, giving the viewers a sense of their personal goals. On the first night, after the loved ones were split up and put into their own groups, each member did not know what to expect. The members explored each others different personal goals and group goals as a result of getting acquainted with one another.  Many were eager to show the group their skill set, such as, Dale from the Coyape team. Knowing he was the oldest from the other group members, he knew that in order to show his worth in the group, he had to prove that he was a good asset to the group. In doing so, he was able to be the first one to start a fire by breaking his eye glasses.
As the show progressed, the groups began to move into the storming stage. Members from both groups began to form alliances in order to decide who gets booted off the island.  In the Hunahpu tribe, Jeremy immediately created alliances with a few of the female members in order to keep him safe from elimination. By doing so, Jeremy was able to compete for social acceptance.
After returning from exile island, Val from the Hunahpu tribe, was given information about an idol being hidden by the well. When she returned to her tribe, she ended up finding the idol to save her from future eliminations. Val from the Hunahpu tribe displayed a hidden agenda by keeping this information from her other teammates.

I look forward to see what happens next!

I think I’m starting to figure out how to make my website work! Yea!

The beginning of the episode starts us learning the players in this survivor season, who they are and their motivation for being on survivor. It was great to watch them have their first task being that they had to use a flint to make fire with their loved one. Some of the groups could not even start a fire, so it will be great to see how they will survive the rest of the season after being separated from their family members. With their loved one they went all of the group development stages on the island when they got there and the first thing they had to do was make fire.

Once the groups were divided into the blue and orange groups, the Tuckman group development stages began to take place. The forming stage was the most prevalent in this episode because they had been just divided and the first challenge had just taken place. the forming stage was great in the hunahphu tribe when Jeremy won the challenge for them. They all bonded with their group goal of being one step closer to winning and he was able to winner them food which is a plus. Some of the personal goals were taking place in this episode because some of the people wanted to prove to themselves and their tribes that they belonged and could help.

During the second challenge for immunity that involved the whole tribes they both showed achievement norms. On the blue team John stood out by helping people with his body on tribal challenge and did everything he could. Achievement norms means that members will put all their time, energy etc for the best interest of the group. With him doing that them that allowed the blue team to be energized and win the challenge. No one in the tribe argued with the way the puzzle was being solved and just went with it. We will see if they continue to remain on top.