Before it was known what the game of “Survivor” would become, the premise was assumed to be “survival of the fittest” in the classical sense of the term. Even after it was discovered that the show would focus more on “survival of the fittest” in the social sense of the term, the show still cast mainly hard-core survivalists, people who could withstand anything. At some point, it became less and less the case, and it wasn’t a bad thing. You don’t want the show to look too easy, and you generally want to go with the best characters, regardless of how much they may suck in the outdoors. However, this was a bit of a double-edged sword, as now quits and medical evacuations became much more common. Worst of all, some people were calling in medical and asking to leave for injuries that, at least to the audience, seem pretty minor (Dana Lambert from “Survivor Philippines” comes to mind). While it’s a tough game, and understandable that some people can’t hack it, to those of us who have tried and failed several times to get on the show, it seems really lame, if not insulting. Therefore, it’s very gratifying when we get a badass who tries everything in their power to prevent their exit, even if it means arguing with the medical team. The reason Russell Swan’s evacuation of “Survivor Samoa” is so memorable is not just because of how horrifying it was to see, but because of how hard the man thought not to be pulled from the game. Tonight, for better or for worse, we got another one of those moments. And it was glorious. Let’s dive right in.
So getting back from Tribal Council, there’s naturally a little bit of chaos over Natalie’s move to get out Alec instead of Keith, which I’m actually supportive now for reasons I’ll get into later. Regardless, at the time it still seems a bad move, but Jon’s alliance is now looking for every reason other than betrayal to figure out what went wrong. Jaclyn suggests that Alec might have voted for himself, proving once and for all that she knows nothing about the game, as voting for oneself is not allowed on the U.S. version of “Survivor”.
Quick interesting sidenote before we get back to gameplay analysis. Following the success of the U.S. “Survivor”, many other countries started producing their own versions of it, with their own twists. The gameplay and rules tend to be the same, with the notable exception of voting for yourself. Only in the U.S. version can a person not vote for themselves at Tribal Council. Every other version of the show allows people to vote for themselves, and very often, the first boot does vote for themselves. This has absolutely no bearing on the episode, just an odd disparity between versions. This concludes your quick, interesting sidenote.
No, the ACTUAL result from the last Tribal Council is that Natalie does the only sensible thing she can do to prevent her alliance from suspecting her betrayal: playing dumb. Now, I don’t mean this in a derogatory way, for once. Natalie turns things back on Jon and Jaclyn, lambasting them for not communicating enough with her, and claiming she thought she was supposed to vote for Alec in the first place. This is a fairly logical lie, and Natalie pulls it off beautifully, feigning confusion in the face of the vote very well. Baylor takes a potshot at Jon and Jaclyn for not recognizing Natalie’s lie, and while I do enjoy it when Jon and Jaclyn take potshots, I don’t think this is deserved. Natalie’s not going to be an Oscar nominee or anything, but she did a decent acting job, and coupled with a plausible lie, I’d call it a good one.
The next morning, Natalie proves that she can learn from the mistakes of her predecessors, specifically Reed. As his downfall was pretty much entirely due to Keith not being told exactly how to behave, Natalie goes up to Keith early the next morning, explains what she did, and tells him things are still good. We’ll get an even better scene of this later, but suffice to say, it’s a good idea on her part. Now let’s get to the reward challenge.
Just when you think the show is going to start a streak of actual individual reward challenges, they of course give us another team challenge. Come on, guys, it’s the LAST REWARD CHALLENGE OF THE SEASON! Give us some individual action! As if that wasn’t bad enough, this challenge is yet another generic obstacle course. Divided into teams of three, the contestants will go through a hay pile, then through a series of hitching posts, pick up a bucket of water, go over a teeter-totter, and pour their water into a bigger bucket. Once the bucket is full, a gate will lower, and then they must solve a basic puzzle. First team to put the puzzle together gets a spa day with food. Nothing here is exciting, most of it is reused, none of it is really difficult, and to top it all off, it’s not all that epic to hear Probst saying “They’re onto the teeter-totter”. Oh, for the days of battering rams.
The blue team consists of Keith, Missy, and Jon, while the orange team consists of Baylor, Natalie, and Jaclyn. Gee, I wonder who’s going to win this competition? In fairness, though, it’s a very close race, due to some smarts and some luck on the parts of Baylor, Natalie, and Jaclyn. They go through the side of the hay pile, rather than the middle which is denser, and get lucky (in one sense of the word) in that Missy twists her ankle badly jumping off the childish teeter-totter. But even her needing to be carried through the rest of the challenge does not slow down the blue team enough to steal victory, mostly due to the ladies bickering at the puzzle. Over what, I’m not sure, but they lose regardless.
Keeping with the whole “reward sacrifice” thing, Jon gives up his reward to Baylor, to “help solidify their alliance”. Plus, massages and manicures are for, like, girls and stuff! Don’t they give you cooties? Actually, I think Jon just wanted some alone time with Jaclyn, and it was definitely a bad move to give up the reward. There’s only so much solidifying you can do, man, you need your strength. Yes, maybe massages aren’t your thing, but these are massages WITH FOOD! Maybe you don’t realize it, but you’re a big threat, immunity would be really nice right now. Go, keep up your strength. People are gonna vote you out regardless, so just go all out.
Natalie in a clever move volunteers for Exile Island, in case there’s a new idol (there isn’t), and also makes it seem like she’s being nice to Jon and Jaclyn. The topic of discussion now turns to Missy’s ankle. Despite Missy needing to be carried everywhere, she protests so loudly that she doesn’t want medical that even Probst can’t bring himself to call them in. This is odd, because in more recent seasons, Probst has been very willing to call in medical, and forceful about doing so. For Missy to protest so much that she overrides PROBST is a real feat, good for her! Still, we’ll be getting more into the Missy love a bit later.
The reward itself is fairly uneventful, mostly just everybody exclaiming about how nice it is, and Keith cracking unfunny jokes (evidently this is just my night to disagree with everything Baylor says). We do get another shot of Missy’s ankle, though, just to reassure us that, yes indeed, it is obscenely swollen.
Slightly more unpleasant is Jon and Jaclyn having the camp to themselves. Or at least that’s how I thought it’d be, given how they’ve been prone to public displays of affection in the past. Thankfully this is not the case, and Jaclyn gives us the one bit of strategy we’re going to get before the immunity challenge. Yes, Jaclyn of all people is the one to suggest that Natalie might have sinister motives. I really don’t know what to think of Jaclyn anymore. One minute she seems to know nothing about the game, and merely trails pathetically after Jon, the next minute she makes an astute observation that Jon does not, and seems to have equal influence, and then the minute after that she’s back to being dumb, rinse and repeat. Still, she’s definitely in the right and Jon in the wrong on this one. Jon has fallen prey to the doom of many a “Survivor”: becoming too comfortable with your alliance. He wants to believe the best of Natalie, he really does, but he’s also blinding himself to the possibilities, which will ultimately lead to his downfall. Yes, I am giving away the result of this episode. The show doesn’t try to hide it, why should I?
If you thought the people on the reward had nothing to do… you were right, but Natalie comes in a close second. We get a bit of her whining about being without Nadiya for so long, as they’ve never been apart this long, and it’s just so hard, and for all that I’m enjoying Natalie more and more, it’s a sore spot. Don’t get me wrong, I understand missing your loved one out there, and perhaps there’s something to this twin connection that I do not get, but I feel the same way I felt about Julie complaining after the merge: it’s not that long of a time! Suck it up, people! If anything, it hurts a little more coming from Natalie, if only because I expected more out of her. On the plus side, rather than quit, Natalie at least uses these feelings to fuel her drive to win, so I guess it’s not TOO bad, all things considered. Not her finest moment, though.
Heading off to the immunity challenge, we actually get a slightly touching scene where those from the camp bring Natalie a bowl of rice. More importantly, however, we see that Missy, who requires stick crutches to make it to the challenge, is not fit for this challenge, which is a needlessly complicated endurance challenge, with emphasis put on the feet. As such, even Missy’s protests can no longer dissuade Probst from calling in medical. The prognosis isn’t good. Missy has a least a severe sprain, if not a broken bone, but there’s no way to know for sure without pulling her from the game. Her condition deteriorating over the course of two days is also not good. But here’s where I give Missy major props. In the era of quitting at little provocation, in the era of recruits, in the era of, for want of a better term, “wimpy” contestants, here we have someone arguing at every possible opportunity to stay in the game, willing to sacrifice anything to stay in. For all that I lambast people who give up over injuries, I think this one is severe enough that I couldn’t really blame Missy if she said she wanted out over it. That she was determined to stay in, even being willing to not participate in the immunity challenge for it, speaks to a strength of character I’m happy to see. Missy, whatever else I say about you (and believe me, it’s going to be BAD), you are a badass, and I’m very impressed. Good for you.
Luckily for everybody, medical decides that Missy’s ankle will not get worse over just four more days, and as long as they brace it, she can stay. This is good both because I’m happy to see Missy’s determination rewarded, and because it plays with expectations. Rarely do they advertise medical coming out and someone doesn’t get medevaced. Plus, with all the strategy built up this episode, it would have been an anticlimax. As it stands, we head off to the challenge itself, sans Missy, so I guess I should explain what it is in more detail. Contestants stand on a wooden plank, which is connected by another wooden plank to a wooden pole, on top of which is a vase. Movement on any part shakes the whole. When the vase falls, you’re out, last one standing wins. I won’t deny that this is an interesting challenge, but a bit complex, for once. When it comes to endurance challenges, I’m a fan of “Keep It Simple, Stupid”, and this does not follow that. Another thing: while I’m a fan of endurance challenges, we’ve had a LOT of them this season, and it’s getting old. Yes, I will still be mad if the final immunity challenge is not an endurance challenge, but that’s tradition. We could have cut back on them earlier, is what I’m saying.
The challenge comes down to Natalie and Jon, and thankfully Natalie wins, because otherwise the episode would have been boring. Jon gets an interview over everyone leaving the challenge, saying that everything’s in place, and Keith will go home tonight, which I’m SURE means Jon has NOTHING to worry about, and is in NO WAY going home tonight.
Shock of all shocks, Natalie sets in motion a plan to grid of Jon that night. Once again she learns from Reed’s mistake and coaches Keith on EXACTLY how to behave and what to say at Tribal Council. She then confers with Baylor, and they agree that they need to make sure either Jon or Jaclyn goes home that night. As such, they’ll split the vote, with Natalie and Keith voting for Jon, and Missy and Baylor voting for Jaclyn. This is why I actually now support Natalie keeping Keith rather than Alec, despite the fact that it was a risky blindside that seemed to gain her little. I doubt that Alec would have been ok with this plan, just because he’s not that bright. Granted, Keith isn’t too bright either, but he’s at least willing to strategize, and can do ok when the strategy is shoved under his nose (though you’d think his moustache would obscure it). If Keith wasn’t around, the vote could not be split, and everything would be ruined, or at least more of a risk. So yeah, I was wrong, Natalie’s flip was totally justified.
Even though the split vote is a smart move, there’s a hitch in it named Missy. Remember when I said I was going to say bad stuff about her? Yeah, that time is now. When Baylor broaches the subject, Missy flat-out refuses, on the grounds that she made a deal with Jon, and she’s loyal to the end. While I admit Baylor was a bit blunt with the strategy, and could have used more nuance, this is REALLY bad strategy from Missy’s part. Missy, you’ve stated before that you want to get to the end with Baylor and Natalie. This is not a bad idea. However, for that idea to work, at some point, Jon has to go. As all of you know, Jon has an idol, therefore, if you don’t get rid of him tonight, he’s safe until the final four. Even in a best-case scenario, when it’s you, Baylor, Natalie, and Jon at the final challenge, Jon has a good chance at winning the challenge, and by extension the game. I would have sympathy for trying to build the “loyalty narrative” for the end, but you kind of axed Jeremy a few votes ago. I think that ship has sailed. Better to play the “strategist” card. Just when you think there might be a slight chance at Jon not going home, Missy admits that despite her protestations she’s thinking of going with voting off Jon, if only for Baylor’s sake, and the world rights itself. The episode has been building up a big Jon blindside, there’s only one way it can end now.
This is probably one of the better Tribals of the season. Keith doesn’t even wait for Probst to ask him what he’s supposed to do being outside the alliance of 5, and just jumps right in with his answer. It seems like he might give the game away, being a bit overdramatic in saying how tight the alliance is, and suggesting that people use him for his vote, but it’s vague enough that I let it pass. We then get some discussion from the alliance about what happens when they need to turn on each other, ending with Jon giving the required ironic statement about how safe he feels. Well, I’m SURE this means he’s actually safe, and DEFINITELY sticking around.
Actually, the only real misstep in Tribal is the reading of the votes. Missy’s was the only one really in question, but we know she was supposed to vote for Jaclyn. Reading out Jaclyn’s name before Jon’s kind of gave away the ending, even more than the rest of the episode did.
You’d think I’d hate this episode for how obvious the outcome is, but it’s one of the better episodes of the season. Doesn’t quite beat out Josh’s boot, just because that one had more doubt as to whether or not it would succeed, but this one comes close. Despite the fact that anyone with a brain could see the outcome coming a mile away, it was a big power shift, which is fun to watch if it’s been earned, and this one was definitely earned. Sometimes the journey can outweigh the destination, and this episode, it did. It was fascinating to watch the mechanism leading to Jon’s demise work itself out, and Jon’s ironic statements about being safe were an added bonus. While he was one of the few more strategic minds this season, I don’t really mind seeing him go. He would have been a boring winner, and there’s just something about him that rubs me the wrong way. Still, good effort!
Before signing off, I want to make a quick note of something: not counting “Survivor Retrospectives”, this is the 100th post of “Idol Speculation”. While I certainly can’t say that my readership has skyrocketed or anything since I started this blog during “Survivor South Pacific”, it has gained at least a few readers, and it’s been a fun ride thus far. We’ve been through the good seasons, the bad seasons, and made fun of them alike, with some critical analysis thrown in. I like to think my writing has gotten better, and I certainly appreciate the show even more for doing this blog. For the few who read me, thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedules to listen to my knee-jerk opinion that you are entitled to. Here’s to 100 more blogs!
With that said, I do have some sad news. I’m going to visit some friends next week, and will accordingly be out of internet access for the finale of the show. As such, for the first time this season, my blog will be delayed. I hope to see the episode Friday or Saturday, and get the blog out then, but I’m afraid you’ll have to wait. Despite my love of “Survivor”, there are a few things more important to me than watching the show as it airs, and visiting old friends is one of them. Forgive my schedule slip, but I will be back for the finale as soon as possible!
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
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