Idol Speculation: “Survivor Cambodia” Episode 9: Fish-Come-Bach

At first glance, the title of this blog might seem to indicate a cry of remorse for the demise of my favorite remaining contestant this season, but quite the opposite! Stephen Fishbach has finally managed to shake off his goober edit. And it only took him NINE EPISODES to do it. “Survivor” Mastermind, everybody! Nothing can stop this blog now…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Consarn it, three in a row?! I’m really losing my touch. Last blog, I made fun of Keith for being unable to correctly say “Tuk-Tuk”. Evidently, I AM Keith, because I misremembered it as “Tau-Tau”. Yeah, that’s definitely a low point for me. Also, while celebrating the demise of Andrew Savage, I neglected to give due props to Kelley Wentworth. While I’m always one who advocates hiding the hidden immunity idol unless you have good reason to share it, it’s difficult to do. About the only thing more difficult is knowing precisely when to play the hidden immunity idol. Kelley did both to perfection, and deserves much praise for her efforts.

The start of the episode alleviates my guilt somewhat, though, as Kelley gives herself plenty of praise for her move, to the point where she becomes a bit of a braggart. Look, it was a good move, and I won’t deny that Savage being out of the game instead of yourself is cause for celebration, but she just takes it a bit too far. It’s a shame, because I’ve come to like Kelley Wentworth a lot. She takes a lot of initiative, has a good wit, and for once is a person on “Survivor” named Kelley who is not, as I once described, “As bland as beige wallpaper.”, so this little bit of tarnish is disappointing, though not fandom-altering.

We also see the drawback to Kelley’s idol play shortly after this. While hiding your idol pretty much guarantees you can make that clutch play with little interference, it only saves you one vote. Case in point, Kimmi comes in to rally the troops, wanting to get one of the three out again. She compares them to the witches from “MacBeth”, although with the ferocity with which everyone’s against them, I think more of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”. Not to say that the three haven’t done anything to EARN their witch hunt (Ciera and Abi-Maria, at least, voted out Woo, who could be considered part of the current dominant alliance), but I just see more parallels there. Point being, despite her masterful idol play, Kelley is still in trouble.

The next morning, we see that Kelley’s move DID shake up the alliance somewhat, but not quite in the way she was expecting. With her idol gone, most everyone surmises that a new idol must be in play, and set about searching for it. It’s mostly standard fare, but we do get Abi-Maria doing one of the oddest jobs of tailing another player ever. She meets up with Joe and, not wanting him to have the idol, insists that she needs to use the bathroom, and demands privacy. There’s two problems with this plan. One of them is that Joe is still on his own, just not in the are you are, and more importantly HOW DOES THIS PLAN POSSIBLY WORK? You have MILES of empty beach, why do you need that one specific spot? And why does Joe just up and give it to you? this scene makes no sense!

Jeremy is also concerned with this new idol, since with Savage gone, he feels vulnerable. I just have to ask, though, doesn’t Jeremy already have an idol on him?

*CRASH*

ME: Oh, great, here we go again…

JEREMY: You don’t understand, man! I gotta have two idols! One for me, and one for Val!

ME: Val isn’t even on this season!

JEREMY: Ah, but I think about her every day, and I want the money to be used for her and our child. Plus, I get a really sentimental crying scene later on that totally justifies it.

ME: Yeah, ok, I guess that makes sense. Just saying, you’re being a bit paranoid.

JEREMY: Maybe. But after what happened on “Survivor Dan Juan del Sur”, can you really blame me for wanting double protection?

ME: I suppose not. Just remember what happened to the last guy who had two idols on him. James from “Survivor China”?

JEREMY: Don’t worry, I’m much smarter than him. Sorry about the wall, by the way. I’ll have it repaired tomorrow.

ME: Cool, thanks man! Now I won’t have to strangle you with my nice, new Bayon buff.

JEREMY: Uh… cool… I guess…

(JEREMY exits awkwardly out the hole in the wall)

Following Jeremy’s paranoid episode, we cut back to “Survivor Cagayan”, where we’ve eliminated the pointless “Beauty” category, and made this a sheer test of Brains vs. Brawn. Right now, we’re in the middle of an “individual” reward challenge. Each team of five will have to assemble poles of various lengths into holes, climb over what is effectively a jungle gym, and slide down a rough bamboo slide. One person then maneuvers a key through a stick-and-rope maze unlocking wooden rectangular puzzle pieces. After the rest of the team races through said maze, two team members work together to assemble a puzzle that will reveal three numbers of a combination, which, when entered, raises a flag conveniently titled “Reward”. Winning team gets a good, old-fashioned spa day, complete with over-the-top Probst description. Apart from my usual gripe with “individual” reward challenges being changed to team competitions, I don’t have much of a problem with this one. There’s a lot of cool elements, and a good mix of the physical and mental components.

Our purple team, the “Brains”, consists of Tasha, Stephen, Joe, Ciera, and Spencer, while the green team, or “Brawns”, consists of Kelley, Kelly, Jeremy, Keith, and Kimmi, with Abi-Maria not fitting into either the “Brains” or “Brawns” category (good call there, everybody!). Now, this may seem a bit odd to people, since 9 of these people weren’t even on “Survivor Cagayan”, but I mean, look at the breakup of those teams. Tasha clearly chose smarts more than strength, while brain-trust Kelly picked all the strong physical players. And it shows. The Brawn team gets past the first puzzle part, but just barely. It’s an embarrassment, but frankly, it’s fun to watch.

Since Ciera is on this particular reward, you can be sure she’ll try and talk up a big move this time around. She chooses to do so while Joe is in the shower, which you think would mean that Joe is about to be targeted, but soon enough Joe is out of the shower, and everyone is listening to Ciera, discussing about the threat posed by Jeremy and Kelly. First point: why is Tasha listening to this? I get why everyone else is, since they either want to make a move to get off the bottom, or are scared of a blindside, but Tasha is sitting pretty comfortably at this point. Granted, it’s usually good to listen to all sides, to make sure you’re taking the best possible option out there, but Tasha is maybe ignoring a threat here, a threat that could (and will) depose her place in the game. Second, I get that Jeremy is a threat, even if you don’t know about his idols, but Kelly? I don’t like her this season because she hasn’t DONE anything, but I also acknowledge that this makes her non-threatening. Admittedly, the arguments they make about Kelly do make sense, mainly that she’s a social threat who hasn’t offended anybody. However, with the amount that she’s being targeted, having seen virtually NOTHING of her this season, it just feels kind of rushed.

Oh, and while I’ll be praising Stephen a lot this episode, I do have to point out here that his justification for strategizing is that nobody wants to be on the bottom of the obvious hierarchy. I would have no problem of this; it’s fairly logical; but it was STEPHEN who only last episode said that “This season’s different, there’s no hierarchical structure!”, and is now blatantly contradicting himself.

Back at the camp, everyone is understandably down, but Jeremy’s really been the major debbie downer of the group. An idol hunt is just what he needs to bring his spirits up. He searches for a bit around tree mail, before stumbling upon the clue within the big tree by tree mail. Um, did NO ONE think to look in that tree? It’s fairly well-hidden in said tree, but I feel like someone would have thought to look there by now. Perhaps the difference this season is not so much that they’re hiding clues in different places, but they’re justing hiding them more thoroughly in obvious places, so you can’t stumble across them accidentally.

Thus far this season, hidden immunity idols have been hidden at challenges, to make them harder to pick up, and as I’ve stated, it’s a twist that I like. The flaw in it, though, is that it’s only fair at the tribal phase of challenges. Once you hit individual challenges, you would be hiding the idol on the specific part of the course that individual would be on, giving them an unfair advantage in finding it. There are many creative and exciting ways to solve this problem, and we go with… just hiding it far away from camp at night. Yeah, kind of a letdown in my opinion. It’s basically just giving people a clue runaround that’s only present at a certain time. Very atmospheric, but not very difficult. The clue even says to wait until people are asleep, you know, the time when it’s EASIEST to get an idol without being seen! A bit of a cop-out for this season. Jeremy even takes a leaf out of Abi-Maria’s book, and claims to be off using the bathroom when his tribe does not fall asleep immediately. And it works. Are bathroom breaks just this tribe’s blind spot. If someone were to say they were going to use the bathroom at the immunity challenge, would only they show up?

This is also where we get the aforementioned Jeremy emotional moment. Like I said before, it’s a nice moment, but I don’t feel the need to dwell on it too much.

Evidently, this episode is meant to be a tribute to “Survivor Cagayan” (not that I’m complaining, mind you, since it’s a great season), as our immunity challenge comes courtesy of that season as well. It also come courtesy of “Survivor Caramoan”, but since no one is on from that season, it doesn’t exist in Probst’s mind. Each contestant will stand on a small triangular prism in the middle of the ocean, on increasingly small ridges, last one standing wins. Simple and insidious, but also not a very spectacular-looking challenge. On top of that, while I enjoy endurance challenges, we’ve had NOTHING but endurance immunity challenges this season, and it’s getting old really fast. Can’t say I’m a huge fan of this challenge, but can’t say I hate it either.

Really, there are two things that make this challenge fun for me. I’ll discuss the second one first, because it requires less discussion. We eventually move to our final round, where everyone can only use one leg. Take note, Andrea and Brenda, your rule from “Survivor Caramoan” got added to the challenge! St. Joe is in the finals, as you’d expect, but who’s his opponent? Abi-Maria. True, it does make sense, as this is a challenge that favors the petit. However, St. Joe nearly loses on a number of times. And I know that St. Joe is not actually infallible, and that losing is not humiliation, but to have potentially lost to Abi-Maria? That’s hilarious! Sure, it doesn’t ultimately come to pass, but it’s a hilarious concept. How could anything top that? You’ll see…

So, most of the way through the first round, we hear some of the usual Probst banter, about the toughness of the challenge, how great this season is, etc. Like good contestants, everyone ignores him, until he talks about adding a twist to this challenge. Is it the usual food offer for a quit that we usually get? Unless the food is underwater, no. Probst chops a rope on his platform, sending colored buoys up to the surface, one for each player. He announces that the first person to touch their buoy wins an advantage in the game, keeping mum about what that advantage is. The catch? The buoy is too far away to be reached, so one must give up immunity to get it. This is a GLORIOUS twist, and a highlight of the episode. It’s mysterious, it’s something new that we haven’t seen before, and it has implications beyond just giving someone an advantage. Do you go for it? How eager do you seem if you do? Will this only put a bigger target on your back? Can you even win immunity? Is it even worth trying? This turmoil makes for great, tense television, and I enjoy the hell out of it!

Of course, even a great twist can be ruined if no one bites. Thankfully, that’s not the case here, and the result of the twist is, if anything, more exciting than the twist itself. After a few seconds of hesitation, two people jump in and swim for it: Stephen and Spencer. I can’t fault either of them in this case. They’re unlikely to win immunity, and are both potential swing votes who could use some extra power in this game. For everyone else, they either need immunity, or have a decent shot at winning immunity, or are just so not involved in the game at this point that going for an advantage at this point is a waste (Kelly and Kimmi, I’m looking at you!) Maybe Tasha should have jumped, but I don’t think it’s a game-breaker. Oh, but it gets better! In a rare moment of “Oops!” for Spencer, history repeats. Like with the reward auction on “Survivor Cagayan”, Spencer risks it all for an advantage, but comes up just short. Stephen, in the most athletic feat we’ve seen from him all season, wins the advantage, a bamboo shoot with a note in it.

What does this note say? Well, with most known immunity idols in play, it’s most likely the “Extra Vote” twist from “Survivor Worlds Apart” that I wasn’t overly fond of. That conclusion is partially correct, but they’ve improved it immensely, in my opinion. Now, instead of adding a vote to the Tribal Council, one person gets an extra vote at the EXPENSE of someone else’s vote. A bit unfair to the person, since they could go home without any say, but, as I’ve said before, since when is “Survivor” about fairness? Furthermore, this solves the problem I had with how the extra vote was done on “Survivor Worlds Apart”. My problem there was that it was too simplistic, too easy to get around, with no really strategy added to it. This way, though, strategy becomes paramount. Who do you use you vote steal on? How will everyone else take it? And once it’s known, what can people do to counteract it? There’s more possibilities this way, is what I’m saying.

Possibilities we won’t see tonight, as Stephen says he’d rather use his intellect to force a flip, which I don’t entirely agree with. I’ll get into this more in a bit but the only person for whom I really think a flip this episode is NECESSARY is Stephen. Tonight’s really the last night he’ll have the numbers, but everyone else has other options. Rather than try and convince others to flip, use your advantage to shake things up, and make people more likely to flip. Further, it helps you avoid the “Dan Foley” pitfall (“Survivor Worlds Apart”), where you become a target thanks to people fearing your power.

Still, Stephen does have a massive intellect, let’s see what he does with it. With St. Joe immune, Kelly is the next obvious target. To cement this idea, we get a scene of St. Joe and Kelly bonding, which would have a lot more impact if we’d had any indication of this bond BEFORE TONIGHT! Was the scene of Keith on reward more essential than building up Kelly’s relationship building? Again, I do not understand how airtime is decided, but it seems to me that, for all the random buildup of Kelly’s social skills we’ve been getting this episode, we could have been laying it out earlier.

Stephen chance comes when Kimmi, arguably the most staunch member of the majority, insists that one of the “Witches” has to go. Look I was ok with Kimmi before now, but tonight she really got on my nerves. While she’s certainly playing a more proactive game than she was on “Survivor The Australian Outback”, she hasn’t evolved much beyond that season. I’m not sure I’d say this is a new “Evolution of the game”, but it’s true that having one solid majority that Pagongs the minority doesn’t really work anymore, and certainly isn’t working this season. Yet Kimmi, rather than adjust her strategy, tries to ride that cart to the end. It’s a bit frustrating from someone I expected more of.

In any case, Kimmi suggests they split the vote, five for Kelley, three for Ciera, which is admittedly a pretty smart move. All Stephen needs to do is be one of the Kelley votes, and get another Kelley vote to flip. Spencer is probably his best bet, as Spencer, being definitely on the low end of the totem pole, has the most incentive to flip. So, naturally, Stephen talking to Spencer doesn’t surprise me. What DOES surprise me is that Jeremy is also in on the conversation. What incentive does Jeremy have to flip? He talks like he’s on the bottom with everybody, but everything we’ve seen indicates that he’s on the top of the alliance. Why screw that up? He says he wants to work with Stephen, but both he and Spencer make the fair point that nothing guarantees that Ciera, Kelley, and Abi-Maria will stay loyal after this vote, plus it pisses off Kimmi, Tasha, Joe, and Keith. It does do a good job of creating uncertainty, though, and we head off to Tribal Council a bit unsure of what’s going to happen.

Tonight’s Tribal Council is certainly a memorable one, but more for how extreme the weather is than anything that actually happens there. The trouble is that it’s mostly retreading the same ground as the last Tribal Council. Kelley and Ciera talk about how screwed they are, and Stephen gives his “Non-hierarchical” speech again, and we have a vote.

While the votes are being cast, let me say that I’m not buying this whole “New evolution, non-hierarchical” thing Stephen is spouting. This season is more chaotic than other seasons, I’ll grant you, but it’s just expanding upon the basic “Don’t let the same majority run the whole game” idea that’s been around since “Survivor The Amazon”, and arguably has become the norm since then. On top of that, there clearly IS a hierarchy to this alliance, or Stephen wouldn’t be trying to flip the game. I don’t know what he’s selling, but I’m not buying it at all, and I’m growing really irritated by it. It’s like the show is trying to force it down our throats that this season is different, this season is special. Not to say that it isn’t those things for a number of reasons, and I stand by my conviction that this is a really great season so far, but I wouldn’t say it’s bringing about a new evolution of strategy or anything.

When the votes are tallied, Stephen’s intellect gets its wish, and Kelly gets sent home. I am not sorry at all. Kelly brought NOTHING to the table, either as a strategist or as a character. The only thing she had going for her was the novelty of seeing an “Original Contestant” brought back after all this time, and even then we didn’t get much of that. I’d almost say Kelly will be the forgotten contestant of this season, but because of her “old school-ness”, she does stand out a little bit, and so that reward probably goes to either Peih-Gee or Monica. Point being, Kelly is not a huge loss from a fan perspective. It cuts the fat off an already stellar cast, which can only improve the already great.

As to whether this was a good move? Tough to say. I’d definitely say it was for Stephen, since I think he doesn’t have the social connections to make a big move much later than this, but it’s harder to say for Spencer and Jeremy. I guess I can see why Spencer would be tempted, since his value is as a swing vote, and so as many blindsides as possible is good for him. Jeremy, though… I fail to see the upside. For a man so paranoid about never being a threat, he’s bound to make a fe enemies with this move. On top of that, if this alliance of six stays together, he’s the biggest threat. What happened to your strategy man?

About the only harder question is whether this was a good episode. Nothing particularly bad or stupid happened, but it did retread of lot of ground from the previous episode, which got old fast. And while I can certainly say I enjoyed it, it just lacked that spectacular air that’s been going throughout the rest of this season. By any other standards, a good episode, but by this season, ok at best. Still an improvement, though. Lets hope the trend continues.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.