While many are still comparing Hannah to Aubry Bracco (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”), and I’ll admit that Hannah actually does something to earn that comparison this episode (albeit briefly), I think people are missing a more apt “Survivor Kaoh Rong” comparison. Why is nobody pointing out how Michaela is basically Cydney? Both are challenge beasts, have “tell it like it is” quotes, and even hidden intelligence. But, I hear you protest, didn’t Cydney have a terrible social game (evidenced by the hatred of the jury at that last fire-making challenge), while Michaela is a social genius? To that, I respond that someone yelling out their strategy to the entire group of contestants at an immunity challenge, as Michaela did last episode, is far from a smart social game, especially as someone who always speaks her mind. So yeah, these two are pretty similar. Really, the only differences between them are Michaela is a bit more inherently likable, and Cydney is evidently a bit more inherently smarter.
Yeah, you heard me right. The evidence in this episode speaks for itself. Cydney chose to keep her intelligence largely under wraps, letting it out only when needed. Michaela, for all her values, did not have this advantage, and this was her doom, in a real topper of an episode this season.
But, of course, we must start with our requisite fallout from the last Tribal Council. Taylor is pissed! There’s an incredible shock! Adam, the one left on Takali who really needs to do damage control, demonstrates more skill in this area than anyone on this season so far, by first asking if the burned person is READY to talk before actually engaging in the talking. Mind you, he still makes a right pig’s ear of it all. Adam apologizes up and down for burning Taylor, an approach I’d normally deride, but here I think it’s actually the smart play. Taylor, as will be emphasized repeatedly throughout the episode, is not a thinker. Man plays with his heart. Emotion matters more to him than strategy. True, Adam does need to follow up his emotional appeal with the logic of why he had to do what he did, but only by starting off this way can he appeal to Taylor. Mind you, he still DOES have to explain himself, and here’s where he falls short. It may just be that we didn’t see it, but Adam never really tries to justify his actions, instead repeatedly emphasizing how he screwed Taylor and betrayed him. Again, this needs to be PART of Adam’s argument, but by just having the “I screwed you.” emotional part of the conversation, you’re only fueling Taylor’s fire. To Adam’s credit, though, Taylor takes it about as well as could be hoped. Granted, Taylor says that he’s still out for revenge against Adam, but given that Adam voted out his lover, that’s understandable. As Taylor just agrees to not make waves for now, I’d call this a success. Having someone out for your blood is never good, but under the circumstances, I think this is the best that could be hoped for in Adam’s case.
Another part of the fallout of Adam’s move was the fear that the old Takali would reunite and be unbreakable, thus putting Adam on the bottom of another majority. The counter to that comes next morning, when David gets paranoid about whether or not Chris will screw him. As I’ll talk about near the end of this blog, I do think the old Takali are more likely to come together than the old Vanua, but this is not like an Upolu situation from “Survivor South Pacific”. These six may be able to unite, but it’s not like they were tight from the beginning. There’s cracks, and those cracks can be exploited, helping to justify Adam’s move.
So, what does David do about his paranoia over Chris? Why, he reveals his idol to Zeke, of course! Ok, I can see David bonding with Zeke. I can see David trusting Zeke. I can even see David telling Zeke about the idol later. But now? The pair haven’t had THAT much of a chance to bond, and given how close Zeke has been to Chris, I’d be a bit suspicious. I’d at LEAST tell Jessica and Ken about your idol before I’d tell Zeke. Granted, David’s not on the same tribe as them, but the point that they’re more trustworthy than Zeke at this point is work taking into account. Many have accused David of making big moves for the sake of big moves (his saving of Jessica being a major example), and here’s one example that I can’t disagree with. The only reason to trust Zeke with idol information at this point is desperation to do something major, and I think it may backfire on David down the line.
Coming into our reward challenge, Jay can only proclaim the phrase “sick” While I have an intense, burning hatred for this phrase, I can’t deny that this challenge is all kinds of awesome. Tribes start out in the water, where they must run to a pole, with a coil of metal around it, with a bag of balls tied to that coil. They must lift up one tribe member to unspool the balls, then bring them to shore. One at a time, those balls can be tossed down a chute into a fishnet, where they are worked through by two other tribe members. Once all three balls are through, they must be thrown and stay atop a thin wooden board. First tribe with all three balls atop wins a chef at their camp, while the second tribe gets do-it-yourself kebabs. Not too shabby, especially since the “personal chef” reward is a relatively less-used one. Not unheard-of, but less used. Likewise, most of these challenge elements have been heard of, but not used very often. The metal coil comes courtesy of “Survivor Blood vs. Water”, while the fishnet dates all the way back to “Survivor Thailand”, though this iteration bears more of a resemblance to a challenge from “Survivor Cagayan”. But ooh, that ball throwing ending. We’ve had challenges of putting balls on a target before, but, if you’ll forgive me for reusing a description from last episode, this nook is nothing short of sadistic. Unlike other ball nooks, which require power to reach, this one requires finesse, a very different skill. Even if other nooks also required finesse, those at least were form-fitting, mostly preventing the balls from being knocked out by other, wayward balls. There is no such comfort in this challenge, adding to the pressure. While the elements of the challenge are rehashes, they come together well, and I can’t help but once again agree with Jay’s assessment. Sick.
We, of course, get pretty major reactions from our fellow contestants, with Hannah giving her “shocked” expression at the whole situation. An expression she’s had a lot of practice at this season. Surprisingly, though, Michaela seems pretty happy. Probst asks her about this, since she’d directly called out Takali to get rid of an old Gen-X member, and her fallout was also another strike against Adam’s move last episode. Well, you can chalk this up as another downside nixed. Michaela, in yet another great quotable moment, says that she said what she needed to say, not what she felt. So yeah, who has Adam offended by this move? Taylor, definitely. Jay and Michelle, one Taylor gets back with them. All people he probably wasn’t going to work with anyway. Not a huge loss, all things considered. And a lot of gain, in weakening an alliance against them. But back to Michaela; while this is once again a great moment, it’s not the smartest move for her. Again, wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve can reveal too much of one’s game, and while that’s not the DIRECT reason for Michaela’s ouster, it IS symptomatic of the larger problem of her game.
As if the challenge could not get more awesome, we get a good back and forth. Vanua falls behind early, due to the inexplicable decision to try and lift Zeke to do the balls, when you have the much lighter David and Michelle on your tribe. Takali and Ikabula are pretty even, but Ken’s tossing skills give Takali an edge. However, as this challenge involves balls, Chris is king. Between his throwing and Zeke and Michelle being surprisingly good at getting the balls through the fishnet, Vanua is back in the race, and as the last phase ALSO involves tossing balls, you can guess who has a great come-from-behind victory. Not quite as spectacular as Kass McQuillen’s on “Survivor Cagayan”, but impressive nonetheless. It’s a tight race for second, but Ikabula wisely puts Michaela on the last phase, and as we all know, Michaela is a challenge beast. She naturally clinches second, earning kebabs and a proud confessional about her skills for her trouble. However, Michaela also expresses some fear, as her challenge beasting may make her a threat, and she’s worried everyone else knows it. Michaela suggests that perhaps she hold back.
Oh Michaela. Michaela, Michaela, Michaela. That ship sailed a LONG time ago. We are well past the point where you can take it back. Just own it and run with it.
Bodily functions? Did I just change the channel? I thought I was watching “Survivor”, but this looks like “Family Guy”? No, our reward food has not, for once, manifested to what Dawn Meehan (“Survivor South Pacific”) would call a diarrhea fest, but instead in a fart-fest. So, it’s the “Survivor San Juan del Sur” version then? No, not a whole lot comes of this other than Michelle being paranoid about being the only woman left on Vanua. She should be paranoid, but not because she’s a woman. Rather, she should be paranoid because everyone on her tribe really IS out to get her. Or would that make her not paranoid?
AAGH! ELECTION TALK! You planned this, CBS. You somehow KNEW this episode would air the week before the election, just to make us miserable didn’t you? ADMIT IT! Well, at least there’s no way to make election talk any MORE cringe worthy…
AAGH! TAYLOR PONTIFICATING ABOUT BEING A MILLENNIAL! HE MADE IT WORSE! Yes, even the relative death of the “Millennials vs. Gen-X” twist cannot silence Taylor, as he has to bring annoying generational talk into irksome election talk. Now, to his credit, Taylor’s point about the electoral college being an outdated way of holding elections is actually a fair point, but couldn’t he have said that WITHOUT the generational comment?
Now, for all my complaints, this scene DOES actually have a point. While Adam is away gathering wood, Taylor beings to enact his revenge, planting the seed in Jessica and Ken’s minds that Adam had given him his word to not vote for Figgy, and then went back on it. This is actually halfway decent strategy. After all, one CONSTANT downside of betrayal is that it makes you lest trustworthy overall. Taylor is working that very well, helped by the fact that, as Jessica points out, Taylor is a simple, honest guy. There’s not a lot going on up there, which makes him far easier to read and manipulate than a strategist like Adam. Having him along, rather than people like Adam might therefore seem an appealing prospect. Time will tell if this comes to anything, but Taylor gets at least ONE feather in his cap this season.
Finally, FINALLY we get some insight into the inner workings of the Ikabula tribe. Granted, it was pretty clear from the beginning that the old Vanua would dominate, but now we get more insight into their politics. They overall don’t care who goes, by Sunday has been putting on a nice face for them. Bret, conversely, is under suspicion. He’s been throwing out the story that he’s a funeral director, not a police officer. Hello, plotline that came out of absolutely NOWHERE! Bret’s justification, unsurprisingly, is that cops tend to have a bad time on the show, and looking at the history of “Survivor”, he’s got a point. Jessie Camacho of “Survivor Africa”, Amy O’Hara of “Survivor Guatemala”, Betsy Bolan of “Survivor Samoa”, Sarah Lacina of “Survivor Cagayan”, and many others, all cops, all gone. Granted, many would cite Tony Vlachos (“Survivor Cagayan”) as a counter-example, but we can also agree that Tony’s a breed unto himself. However, it’s also worth pointing out that, statistics or not, there’s really no correlation between these people being cops and their fates. In each of the examples listed above, there were extenuating circumstances for their evictions, none of which had to do with their professions. Jessie was dehydrated, Amy was injured and screwed by a tribe swap, Sarah went power-mad, and Betsy was on a season with Russell Hantz. Still, can’t say his caution isn’t justified.
Bret comes off as an ok liar from what we see of him, but evidently not good enough. Hannah calls him out EXACTLY as a cop after he and Sunday leave, with Jay agreeing, and the rest of the tribe not trusting Bret. This seems to seal Bret’s future fate, but kudos to Hannah for figuring that out. It’s one of the few times this season where she’s really seemed to have an Aubry-like knack for the game. Of course, it’s one instance out of many negative ones, so I still don’t support the comparison.
We come to our immunity challenge, which is once again a combination challenge, but not nearly as epic. Tribes toss coconuts into a basket, making it heavy enough to drop a banner with numbers. These numbers go to a combination lock, which gives one a key to unlock a slingshot. Once unlocked, the slingshot is used to knock over targets, with the first two tribes to knock over all five targets winning immunity. This challenge has elements from a few older ones, notably the coconut tossing from “Survivor Micronesia” and the slingshot from “Survivor South Pacific”. However, while it does ok, it is technically a rehash of a challenge, and doesn’t come across as that epic, so I can’t really give it my blessing.
Before we talk about the outcome of the challenge, let me talk about how happy I am that we even HAVE an immunity challenge here. Speculation on the show about when the merge will come has always bugged me, because, as demonstrated by “Survivor Thailand”, there’s no guarantee as to when it will come. However, that argument falls apart each and every season that the merge happens after episode 6 (episode 5 in some cases, but it’s early in either case). I get that it’s a part of the game, and I’ve gone on record saying that the merge phase is overall more interesting than the tribal phase, but I’d like to see variety, rather than the merge happening at pretty much exactly the same point. You know when was the last time the merge happened after episode 7? “Survivor Blood vs. Water”. Three years ago. Yeah, we’re well past due.
As to the challenge itself, there’s less back-and-forth than the reward challenge, but it’s still there. Tackle gets an early lead and keeps it. Ikabula puts up a good fight, but makes a fatal mistake in not having challenge beast Michaela work the slingshot, instead giving the job to Bret. Granted, they do later give the job to Michaela, and she sucks, but I’ll talk about that shortly. Meanwhile, Vanua falls behind during the coconut toss, and then a panic attack by Michelle on the combination lock puts them further behind Not for nothing is Chris on their tribe, though. He powers through the slingshot person, giving Vanua a fun, narrow victory. Probst points out that Ikabula will be going to Tribal Council for the first time as a tribe, and asks Sunday how long it will be before the scheming begins: minutes or seconds. Sunday gives a standard answer of minutes, justifying it as the tribe getting along well, and despite being underwhelming, I actually kind of like this answer. You see, most would be inclined to give a glib answer, but Sunday just answers honestly and sincerely. It’s refreshing to see that every once in a while.
It also turns out that Sunday grossly UNDERESTIMATED the length of time until the scheming set it. The tribe mopes for about a half-hour before getting up and doing things. Specifically, presumably to make sure that her tribe doesn’t do something stupid like vote her off, or even just agonize over who to vote for, Michaela does seashell math to show that, as long as either Bret or Sunday go, they’re in good shape. Actually quite a logical plan, but Michaela’s brashness finally begins to work against her in earnest. Jay, being the member of the “Triforce” alliance with a brain, starts to think that MAYBE Michaela, with brains as well as strength, is just too smart for her own good. Being Jay, though, this is still a dumb idea. I get that Michaela is a threat, but as she’s demonstrated this episode, she’s a LOYAL threat. Given that the old Millennials are a fractious bunch, loyalty is a premium right now. Vote off Michaela at this juncture, and you lose an important number. Assuming a merge next episode or the episode after, the best you can hope for would be a 7-5 split favoring the old Millennials. Given that Adam and Zeke are on the outs, and we the audience know the merge is coming next episode, making the split 7-6, this is very dangerous. I’m not saying the old Gen-X group is a tight bunch, but I think they know opportunity when they see it. This is a chance not to be missed, and they’ll probably unite to take out a fractured group of old Millennials. Keeping Michaela keeps your numbers up, and makes your coalition more united.
Fortunately, as we see no evidence of Jay talking to Bret or Sunday about all of this, it’s not going to happen. A valiant attempt at misdirection, but one that fails nonetheless.
Still, you can’t say Tribal Council is a bore. Everyone puts on their best Stepford Smiler face, and acts like one big happy family, when in reality things are about to be torn apart. And we get Michaela being mad at Probst, this time for the merge not happening when expected. Always funny.
So, the votes come in and Bret is naturally… wait, Michaela is getting mad? They DIDN’T!
They did!
Yes, in an entertainingly stupid move, Jay flips the script on Michaela, getting her out before the merge. Even out before the jury. For all the reasons outlined above, this is a stupid move, and one that probably cost Jay the game. Plus, as we saw in the preview for next episode, it may even cost him further allies, with Hannah feeling betrayed by the vote. From a viewer standpoint, this was also a huge loss. On a season that’s had trouble sustaining a good reputation for a character from one episode to the next, Michaela was a ray of fun that never lost her luster. As I said before, a real “Classic ‘Survivor’” type of character. In fact, one could almost compare her to Rupert Boneham (“Survivor Pearl Islands”): Not so good at strategy, but wears her heart on her sleeve, is a challenge beast, and is very quotable. And we don’t get to see her jury game. At least she gives us a good rant against Jay on her way out. Right up there with Judd Sergeant’s “Scumbags” speech from “Survivor Guatemala”.
As I’ve said before, stupidity is often more entertaining than being good at the game, and this is no exception. While the misdirection has been ok this season, this one really got me. Add onto that a lot of good quotes, strategizing from all three tribes, and a number of come-from-behind victories, and I’d dare say this episode is best of the season. Even if we did lose Michaela.
Up through now, I’ve been hoping that future episodes would be good. I don’t have to hope for this next one. Between the merge episode usually being exciting, and fissures in the alliances on both sides, this should be one hell of an upcoming episode.
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
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