She wasn't shanghaied into it; nobody nominated her and cornered her and made her feel she had to do it. She volunteered, and then she dug in her heels about, well, everything.

Oh god, I forgot that part!

I accidentally posted in Bitches about the chick who had blonde hair and dressed in khakis and white t shirts that almost didn't do it. She said fuck a lot (which they bleeped out).

They dyed her hair brown and when she came out to the reveal she looked weird, random clothes like she just picked what she thought they wanted to. At the end they took her back to blonde.

Oh! And there was the Southern woman with the addiction to hairspray, she was a tiny little thing with BIG SOUTHERN HAIR. When Nick cut it and styled it she said she wasn't sure what her husband would think. At the end he was raving about her hair and how he could run his fingers through it.

yeah, this bitchy guy with long grey streaked brown hair.

Wayne Scot Lukas. If it makes your friend feel any better, he's the guy who created Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction."

And there was the Southern woman with the addiction to hairspray, she was a tiny little thing with BIG SOUTHERN HAIR.

I remember her! After the makeover, she looked like her daughters' sister, not their mom, that's how much that big hair was aging her. IIRC, she dressed in garb straight out of the '80s, too.

Damnit, I knew his name was Wayne! Beaten to the punch.

I hate makeover shows so much. But I may have issues. Okay, I know I have issues, but I might have particular issues when it comes to makeover shows. You can have my men's cargo pants when you pry them from my cold, dead hands, or when you radicalize women's fashion into something wearable and functional.

The jury's kind of vicious tonight on Survivor.

What a parade of jackassery. Between Lisi's belittlement of Dreamz's intellect and Cassandra's capacities, Alex shouting down Cassandra's response to his uninformed, inane question and his implied assertion that Dreamz was a lesser role model than he, Boo's "What an awful Christian you are-iness" and the chunk of also-rans hung up on some niggling aspect of the fact that the finalists didn't offer up their bodies as willing sacrifices, I had to pause to complain to my totally uninterested friends about how much I was being annoyed. I was unconvinced that some jury members were as odious as their edits suggested but no, they were. Especially Alex. God, he sucks. And this whole 'Yau-Man was the best player here' talk lodged itself firmly up my nose. Had Yau-Man been the best player, he wouldn't have come fourth.

So, yeah, I was sad to see Cassandra misjudge the jury so spectacularly but I had been strongly suspecting Earl for the win since it became clear that his 'masculine yet generous mastermind' edit wasn't quite aligned with reality. I'm glad he did though, he seems lovely.

I think Yao was the best player but everyone caught on (which happens) and then he wasn't able to get immunity, which has been the downfall of smart players before.

I wanted Earl to win if Yao wasn't. Earl was smart and never let on about how he and Yao were working together. He did vote for Yao but he was sort of forced into it, if he had it would have revealed his alliance and then he was in danger of being the final person kicked off (I think at that point they were still assuming 2 were going to the final).

I think Earl was the best player because he won. I think Yau-Man fell because he failed to cultivate a support system stronger than the communal urge to boot him. Which is... all I really said there was what happened and that's because, for me, where one places is the only measure of how well one played in such a fluid game; if you come fifth, that's because you did or didn't do something important the person that came fourth did or didn't do.

He did vote for Yao but he was sort of forced into it, if he had it would have revealed his alliance and then he was in danger of being the final person kicked off

It was fairly well known that Yau-Man and Earl were aligned and it was announced at the last immunity challenge that it would be an F3. I'd like to think Earl was happy to boot Yau-Man though; Yau needed to be not there for Earl to win.

if you come fifth, that's because you did or didn't do something important the person that came fourth did or didn't do.

Oh, I think there's more to it than that. Take Michelle - that shake up that got her out wasn't her doing, and impacted both herself and a number of other players. While losing certainly does lose you a few points in the final rankings, there are elements of the game that can bite someone out of nowhere, and conversely put the "undeserving" up a few notches. Merit doesn't guarantee a win, but neither does winning retroactively make you a good strategist.