User blog comment:The Flaming Sword of Fury/TDI Analysis-The Good and The Bad/@comment-27329394-20141127050359

The who voted for who thing was ambiguous but it still added up for the person who got eliminated aside for Wawanakwa Gone Wild... the bottom two never made sense but I never found that as important. As for Bridgette, it can be assumed that Izzy voted off Owen and Geoff voted off Bridgette, so there's that (please don't debate with me on this if you disagree, I really am not in the mood to do that AGAIN).

For the elimination order, well, again, everybody's importance was wrapped up by the time they got eliminated (partially because it was supposed to be a one season thing), which is what made it fine. That's why Bridgette and Trent lasted as long as they did despite not having that much personality. DJ and Geoff lasted long because there really wasn't a good reason to vote them out (there is a really good reason DJ never gets voted out normally). For the final three Owen being in the finale was a reference to that similar guy in the first season of survivor, Gwen got the most development, and Heather got her comeuppance. Everyone else that was important just fell into place. And by important, I mean everyone eliminated before Basic Straining was pretty much considered minor so not them. I didn't really have a problem with this and there is truthfully not a single elimination that I would have changed. However, there were a few (mostly minor) problems that I did have with the season that prevents it from being perfect for me.

The first is inconsistent interactions. While they were good, a lot of them were ambiguous or their status would frequently change. Particularly with Gwen and Trent - while I love the two, their flow of events was kind of weird which does drag out its development. Let's outline it really quickly.

In The Big Sleep, they started to hook up, which was damaged in Not Quite Famous by Heather. Gwen is upset in The Sucky Outdoors but they seem to get along again in Phobia Factor. The two seem to officially hook up in Up the Creek, seem to be enjoying each other in the next two episodes... and then randomly Gwen is still mad about Phobia Factor in Who Can You Trust?. So then Bridgette says that Trent is crushing on Gwen, no hated feelings toward him... and then in No Pain, No Game she is mad again about Phobia Factor. In Search and Do Not Destroy the two kiss but then for some reason Trent believes everything Heather said despite what happened in Not Quite Famous. Even though both are upset, Gwen seems to understand and forgive him by the end, but she hasn't forgiven him come The Very Last Episode, Really!. Then at the end the two finally decide to go out.

Yeah, I'm not sure what happened there. Some friendships and conflicts were also a bit inconsistent and there were two relationships that took a solid episode to form with almost no buildup. While I don't dislike either of those two relationships, it's hard to ignore people talking about relationships that form too quickly in other seasons when those exist.

On a more minor note, the amount of goofs is pretty noticeable upon rewatching, with misplaced/disappeared contestants or some inconsistencies. I also didn't like it when a large amount of contestants just wouldn't say anything in earlier episodes, and even some of the later ones.

That being said aside from those things it is definitely the strongest season.