“Survivor” Retrospectives: Micronesia

Ok folks, I know we’ve had some hard times. We’ve slogged through the horror that is “Survivor Fiji”. We lasted through the average likeability of “Survivor China”. Yes, either the season or the blog about it was bad, but this makes it all worth it. This is Micronesia, and this is where things really get good.
Before we delve into why, however, I would just like to once again put out there that this review of the season will contain spoilers. Those who do not wish to have the events of the season spoiled for them may scroll to the bottom of the page and find the “Abstract” section. There, I will have a brief broader and spoiler-free look at the season, which will tell people at a glance how watchable this season is. Now that that bit of business is taken care of, let us begin!

CAST
As with many seasons, this is Micronesia’s main selling point. Nearly all of the returnees made their mark, as would be expected. Old favorites like Yau-Man Chan, James Clement, Cirie Fields, and Oscar “Ozzy” Lusth remained popular, and those favorites who weren’t as popular gained new life. Notably, eventual winner Parvati Shallow, who sort of filled the “Amber Brkich” (“Survivor The Australian Outback”) slot, was not well-remembered, though not outright disliked. After this season, she gained her reputation as a master-strategist, and looking back, she does kind of deserve it. While her main skill is simply playing the flirt card a lot, the woman can pull together a good alliance, even across tribes, as this season showed. Even Jonny Fairplay, back from “Survivor Pearl Islands”, made a mark despite leaving first. He chose to get voted out at the first Tribal Council, claiming that he missed his wife and impending baby too much, though the general consensus (with which I agree), is that Fairplay was simply trolling the production, and that he did. Still, for what it’s worth, it was nice to see him get voted out so soon, and his jabs at Probst actually were somewhat funny. In retrospect, Amanda Kimmel was actually somewhat bland as well, but again, at the time she was a great action girl, and she hadn’t worn out her welcome by this point. Eliza Orlins, back from “Survivor Vanuatu”, made much more of an impact this time around for her great jury expressions, and Jonathan Penner’s return from “Survivor Cook Islands” gave everyone a new appreciation for his wit and strategy, even if his game did crash and burn. Really, the only favorite who could be considered a “flop” for the season might be Eliza’s ally from “Survivor Vanuatu”, Ami Cusack, and that’s because she wasn’t a driving force this time around. I’ve always personally had a soft spot for Ami (my dog is named after her), and so I give her a pass, and call this a great group of returnees.
Not to say that the new players were slacking, by any means. No, the new players are almost as well-remembered as the returnees, just not always in as positive a way. The three biggest characters given by the new players were Kathy Sleckman, Chet Welch, and Erik Reichenbach, none of whom are particularly remembered for positive traits. Kathy is often dubbed one of the more clueless contestants ever, and is most remembered for a tearful, if justified (they’d just had a day-long rainstorm) quit, Chet is remembered for being pathetic at all things challenge-related, and Erik is remembered for an event that will be covered in the twist section. Also remembered (though less so than these three) for equally negative reasons is Joel Anderson. A hulk of a man, Joel the firefighter had a distinctive voice, and a very derisive attitude towards his fellow contestants that made him come off as mean. He’s particularly remembered for an incident where during a challenge in which he was chained to Chet, he unapologetically dragged Chet THROUGH several obstacles, and upon losing, was unsympathetic towards Chet’s pain. Still, due to his voice he got in a few good one-liners (“The tribe picked Chet. Over me.” is a personal favorite), and I think he had a softer side that didn’t really come out, so I think I look more positively on Joel than others do.
All this is not to say, of course, that all new players are remembered negatively. Indeed, a lot of them are now thought of as some of the greatest strategists on the show. Alexis Jones was a favorite at the time, and is still considered an all-around good player and nice woman. Tracy Hughes-Wolfe, despite not doing too well in the standings, made the most of a bad situation and was still considered to be pretty damn good at strategy. And, while I at least didn’t appreciate her at the time, Natalie Bolton made several major contributions to the winning alliance, lasted the longest of the new players, and definitely needs more respect.
Sadly, the new players weren’t quite the home-run that the returnees were. Michael “Mikey B” Bortone didn’t have much of an impact, Mary Sartain was almost non-existent, and while Jason Siska was a perfectly nice guy, he’s really only remembered for being in over his head, and for playing what has to be the most pathetic fake hidden immunity idol in the history of the show (literally just a stick with a face on it).
So yeah, this cast might have been slightly skewed towards the returnees, but even then, the new players still had a pretty big impact, and nearly all managed to shine through in adversity. This cast is a lot of what I love about this season.

Score: 9 out of 10.

CHALLENGES
Ironically, the challenges are probably the worst aspect of this season. Not to say they’re bad by any stretch, they’re actually quite good. The problem is that the other categories are just so good that this one pales in comparison. I’ll mention here that the season returned to Palau, but this time the theme was more about the native culture than World War two, and it showed. I remember a lot of fish and stones when I think of the challenges this season, but they found good ways to use them. Likewise, the challenges themselves were not epic in scale, but still pretty big, very clever, very tough, and just felt right for the season. The few issues come mainly after the merge. Once again, the scale seemed to drop somewhat right after the merge. It picked up again at the final 7 or so, but there were a few episodes where the challenges just weren’t memorable for me. On top of this, there was the issue of some reused challenges. Granted, innovative challenges dominate the season, and the reused ones felt appropriate, but it’s still a downgrade. With that said, I still enjoy nearly every challenge from this season, and while it’s the weakest category, that’s out of very strong categories.

Score: 8 out of 10.

TWISTS
The season’s other strong point, as I’ll discuss in the “Overall” section. Standing on its own, though, the twists hold up surprisingly well. The overarching theme of the season was “Fans vs. Favorites”. Given that this season was divisible by 8, it was time for another “All-Stars” season by the unofficial schedule. However, in a brilliant move, CBS decided to only cast 10 returnees, and instead pick 10 “superfans” to play on this season, thereby changing up the game from what we expected, and also reaping the viewership bump of an “All-Stars” season with the originality of a new cast season. Quite a good twist, and one that would come up a lot even after fans and favorites were not on opposing tribes. Exile Island also came back, but this time with the twist that two people had to be sent each time, the winning tribe picking both. I quite like this, as it honored the past but still changed things up, and after only 3 straight seasons of it, Exile Island was starting to seem a staple of the show.
After finding out (in the middle of a torrential downpour) who they would be playing against, Probst sent everyone on a cross-ocean swim to find outriggers. Probst also said that there was an immunity idol for each tribe, good only for their first Tribal Council, hidden on that other island. Cleverly, the idol was actually attached to the outrigger, but in such a way that it was not obvious on approach. This was a great idea that led to a hilarious scramble, culminating in Yau-Man bashing Fairplay’s head into the outrigger accidentally in an attempt to get the idol. Yau-Man suddenly jumps up in my estimation.
Fairplay’s sabotage makes for something of a twist, and we’re introduced to the next in the second episode, in the form of our first blindside. Rather than vote out Chet, the fans (particularly Joel) decided to take out a threatening alliance started by Mikey B., by targeting his closest ally, Mary. This would set up how unpredictable this season would be.
Not to say that the favorites didn’t have their share of the treachery. Following Fairplay’s exit, there were two main groups of four: Jonathan, Ami, Eliza, and Yau-Man against the couple’s alliance of James, Parvati, Amanda, and Ozzy, leaving Cirie caught in the middle. After gaining a promise of final three with Parvati and Amanda, Cirie split from Jonathan’s group (which made Jonathan quite angry), and voted out Yau-Man, out of fear that Yau-Man would easily find the idol. In hindsight I can appreciate the strategy (even if I don’t agree with it), but at the time I was upset, due to not liking Cirie and liking Jonathan. Still, it kept me on my toes, and gave us the one good Cirie line ever: The term “Ozzlets” for children of Ozzy.
Ozzy found the immunity idol in episode four, and subsequently made the fake Idol Jason would play later (or more accurately, have Eliza play later), and like I said, it was pretty pathetic. A stick with a smiley face. HOW did Jason think this was an idol? Still, it was hilarious for it.
Episode 5 brought us a tribe swap, and it led to Joel’s surprising ouster, once again, keeping us guessing for the season. Episode 6 gave us the first of three non-conventional exits with Jonathan Penner’s knee getting too badly infected to continue. James would go the same way post-merge (though admittedly, there the infection was in his finger), and Kathy would quit shortly after Jonathan left, due simply to fatigue. While I’m normally not a fan of such exits, the sheer number hit such an improbability point that they became interesting, and helped to make the season unique.
Slowly the fans on the new Malakal tribe were taken off, but just before the merge we got thetwist of Ami being voted off, due to Erik’s relationship with Ozzy, and him throwing Ami under the bus. Again, always good to be unsure of how things will go down, and it made the favorites seem less dominant than before.
Post-merge, Eliza played the fake idol, but in so doing outed Ozzy as having the real idol. This led to what is, perhaps the greatest series of Tribal Councils in the history of the show. First, Ozzy is blindsided with the idol. Then, Jason got the idol, and was also blindsided. At this point, it was very clear that there was a woman’s alliance going on. James left at this point, but then Erik won immunity, forcing the women to eat each other. However, in yet ANOTHER twist, Amanda found the idol, actually PLAYED it, and got Alexis sent home.
Then, the crown jewel. The thing that Erik is so remembered for. After winning immunity at the final five, the women convinced him to give up immunity! It’s so crazy I almost can’t believe I just typed it. It’s completely stupid. What Erik was thinking, I can’t possibly know. Rule 1 of “Survivor”: You DO NOT give up immunity! EVER! Still, the very fact that I rave about it makes it a good twist, and it also led to the first ever successful women’s alliance. Score.
What more can I say? Every twist hit home, and this was one of the most unpredictable seasons ever.

Score: 10 out of 10.

OVERALL

This season managed to overcome the problem of “Generic South Pacific Island” and seemed to have a flavor all it’s own. Not one episode was weak, and it helped that each individual element was strong. If the cast was slacking, there was some sort of twist. If neither, there was an impressible challenge to watch. Everything had great synergy, and I just love it to death.

Score: 37 out of 40.

ABSTRACT
While Micronesia is not a season I would recommend starting on as it builds from a lot of previous seasons, it’s still one of the best ever. Every element is strong, and I recommend checking it out, whoever you are.