Idol Speculation: “Survivor Ghost Island” Episode 8: Deep-Throat Sea-Slug

19 Apr

Good God, CBS! What were you thinking? This show is on prime time! Children watch this! And you think it appropriate to show a lady deep-throating a sea slug? DISGUSTING!

Speaking of disgusting, it’s time for another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Over the course of last episode, I hypothesized that one of the people Chris pulled over to his water well conversation spilled the plan to Domenick and Wendell, forgetting that there was no NEED to hypothesize. We, in fact, had hard evidence that this happened. In editing time at least, no sooner had the conversation ended than Donathan ran over to Domenick and told him the whole plot. Really, this should have clued everyone into the result of last episode. Donathan was one of the few people who said NICE things about Chris. And HE’S the one blabbing? Yeah, in hindsight, Chris was completely doomed, short of playing his idol.

Chris’ exit is the topic of choice post-Tribal Council, as one would expect. Libby is completely clueless about what happened, and no one seems to want to let her in on anything. Thankfully, Libby is not an idiot, and concludes that she needs to start making some in-roads with other people if she’s going to have any shot at this thing. Good for her.

Moving on to the people in the know, Wendell privately celebrates his victory in confessional this morning, but notes that something’s amiss. Wendell considers himself a smart reader of people, and for the most part I’d agree. I’ve said before that Wendell’s strength is his social game, and part of that is his social perception. It’s really his biggest asset… and it’s COMPLETELY missing tonight! Well, maybe not completely, but Wendell is off on a lot of things. First up, what to do about Laurel. She and Wendell have been pretty tight so far, and Wendell can usually get a good read on her, but today somethings seems “off”. Given her protestations in a minute, I’m not sure I see it, but fair enough. Perhaps there’s something we’re not seeing. Wendell seeks to reassure her, and tells her about Domenick’s true idol. It’s a move I can understand, but not one I can get behind. The idea, of course, is for Wendell and Laurel to bond over their shared secret. The flaw in this plan is that this secret is an idol. Look, between a couple of people, an idol secret can be a good bond. However, you have to be really certain. Apart from an idol figuratively losing more of it’s power with each person who knows about it, you run the risk of putting more of a target on your allies if they’ve got an idol. Still, Wendell could do worse. I mean, at least HIS idol is still a secret.

Naturally, the next thing Wendell does is tell Laurel about his idol, which I REALLY can’t get behind. Once was a risk, twice is foolhardy, especially since Wendell is now basically showing where all the power is consolidated. Power is good on “Survivor”, but you want that power to remain a SECRET! You do not want other people knowing you have too much of it! Sure enough, Laurel is now wary of both the fact that Wendell waited so long to tell her, and of how much power he and Domenick have. Way to go, Wendell! A solid, secret four alliance in the majority, and you gave people a reason to go against you! Kudos!

Oh, but the “Wendell makes himself a target” train is just getting started! Our reward challenge, at least in how the teams shake out, is DESIGNED for Wendell to stand alone. It’s the “Hit things with a giant slingshot” challenge, and as you’d guess, it’s a team challenge post-merge. My hatred for these is well-documented by now, so let me get it out of the way for the season: TEAM CHALLENGES SHOULD BE DONE WHEN WE’RE IN TRIBES! The point of the merge is to move to INDIVIDUAL competition. By not doing that, and by removing the “Who do you take on reward?” dilemma, you make the merge much less interesting than it could be.

Still, how does this spell doom for Wendell? You see, the teams are divided up as such: Orange gets Michael, Domenick, Sebastian, Kellyn, Desi, and Jenna, while Purple gets Wendell, Donathan, Libby, Chelsea, Angela, and Laurel. Which side has all the big, buff guys? Yep, it’s orange. As such, rather than hide his strength, as Wendell’s been doing most of the season, he’s really got to step it up. If he were on a team with one or two of the other big guys, he could afford to sandbag and make himself less of a threat. Here, though, any sandbagging would be obvious, forcing Wendell into an unfortunate position.

Thankfully, though, it’s a winning one. That slingshot is no pushover, and very few have the strength to wield it properly. Hell, when Donathan tries it, I’d say HE gets thrown around more than the bag he’s trying to launch. But purple also exploits the rule that everyone must SHOOT once, not hit a target. Thus, they quickly switch out people after one shot, so that Laurel and Wendell (the only two successful shooters for purple) can take all of their shots instead. Orange also picks up on this strategy, but too late. With Wendell scoring four of the six targets (Laurel was too exhausted on the last one), purple wins a day at the taco shack. Yay.

But of course, this leaves the decision on who to send to Ghost Island in the hands of purple. Now that the merge has happened, you’d THINK a consensus would be possible. After all, three of the main four alliance are here, Chelsea and Angela think they’re a part of that majority as well, and Libby’s liable to go along with what you say just to fit in. But nope! Rocks! You would think that someone like Sebastian, who’s a physical threat, but not a threat if he gets an advantage, would be the play, but instead randomness sends Jenna there. Great job giving someone outside the alliance a chance at the advantage, dudes!

Fortunately the alliance’s screw-up isn’t too bad, as Jenna gets no chance to play for an advantage. Normally this would be the point where we get an emotional story from her, but since we’ve got 11 other people to check in with, I guess we’ll just skip the Jenna character development. The purple team is celebrating with margaritas, and pretty much all of them intend to make use of this time for bonding. Wendell sees this as another attempt to bring back Laurel to the fold, and while we don’t really hear from her, it’s not going to hurt things, at least. What we do hear about is Libby attempting to break into the group, basically asking how things went down again. Not a bad plan, but I’m not sure about her execution. The only person she really seems to talk to is Angela, who seems to be the most out-of-the-loop of the original Naviti. The pair do seem to commiserate a bit over this, and again, I wouldn’t say that this is a BAD thing for Libby, but I don’t see how anything she did specifically brought her closer to the alliance.

Counter-measures are forming back at the beach, though. Michael confirms what most of us suspected: that the vote for Chris was done in part because he’s an easy consensus. Not only was he annoying, but he was a physical threat as well. Michael now wants to continue that trend. Normally this would put him at risk, but after Wendell’s impressive performance, HE’S now enemy A-1. To Michael’s credit, it’s smart of him to go for Wendell over Domenick. Both have the same number of idols and advantages now, and Wendell’s likability makes him more of a threat. Michael can assume that most of the original Malolo will be open, so he needs to pilot this plan to an original Naviti. Michael smartly chooses Angela to propose this to. After all, Angela seems the most out-of-the-loop, and one of the few people burned by the majority alliance who isn’t from the original Malolo. Really, this is a great deal for Angela! She’s swiftly falling into a follower position, and that’s not a winning game. Her bond with Chris likely makes her on the bottom, so switching things up really has no downside. Unfortunately, Angela’s loyalty sinks that ship. Now, you might be saying “But Angela’s stated goal wasn’t loyalty! It was chaos!” True. But if she really wanted to cause chaos, wouldn’t it have been better to change her VOTE? Then everyone’s scrambling to figure out the new majority alliance. Instead, Angela tells everyone from the original Naviti about the plot, putting Michael in harm’s way. Excellent job burning your bridges and ruining your opportunities, Angela!

Oh, and Wendell, upon hearing that Michael is targeting him, states that this will be another easy vote. Oh, Wendell. Wendell, Wendell, Wendell. Votes are never easy.

Our immunity challenge, as Probst gleefully informs us, is the classic “gross food challenge”. Yes, it’s a repeat, but it’s one of those things that is so quintessentially “Survivor” that I don’t mind seeing it over and over, especially after a decent length of absence like this challenge has had. We also get some pretty good foods this time around. We start out pretty weak with fish eyes, though this does give us our “Person who can’t handle even the most basic foods.” of the challenge. As you may have guessed, it’s he of the bad episode, Wendell. Round two is a classic, but a bit more disgusting. It’s the beetle larvae that Gervase had trouble eating on “Survivor Borneo”, as Probst joyfully reminds us. Round three is the best, the aforementioned sea slugs. Apart from just being disgusting thing in general, those suckers are HUGE! Serious props to Angela for this challenge in general, and for swallowing them whole in particular. Round four is sadly probably the second-weakest, just being raw clam. Come on, guys, it’s basically sushi! Still, mad respect for Angela winning this thing. Woman was a monster at this challenge, and for someone who’s had very few triumphs out here, it was nice to see her succeed.

This episode has been pretty messy so far, but things seem to get more coherent back at camp after the challenge. The original Naviti convene to confirm that, yes, Michael is the target, though they do make an effort to include Laurel and Donathan in the decision. Kellyn seeks to undo some of the damage Wendell did by offering Laurel and Donathan some leeway, though admittedly it does seem like a token effort rather than something genuine. More appealing is the prospect of a split vote, going five and four between Michael and Libby, in case of an idol. Not a bad plan, if Laurel and Donathan are loyal. If, say for instance, they were worried about the power of Wendell and Domenick, they could use that split vote to their advantage to take out a major threat and upset alliances.

What do you know? Michael offers the pair to stick “Malolo strong”, and take out Wendell. Again, probably an idea the pair should take. While a final four deal with Domenick and Wendell is appealing, the fact is you’ll be seen as a coattail rider at the end, and you have less power, thanks to a Naviti majority and how the idols shook out. Taking out Wendell now robs a lot of that power, and gives you resume points at the end. Both Donathan and Laurel consider it, and surprisingly it’s DONATHAN, the one who DOESN’T know about the idols, who seems more interested in the prospect. Not that he shouldn’t be, but I’d think Laurel would be the major advocate for it.

Of course, Libby is not to be the forgotten person in this equation. Domenick understandably tells her that Michael is the target, and encourages her to vote with them. Not a bad idea, since Libby’s been trying to get into the majority all episode. But then Donathan blows the whole plan up, letting her know about the split vote. Libby is conflicted, and I can understand a bit why. She’d have more power with the original Malolo, but she’s been working so hard to integrate herself. Voting against Naviti now would put a lot of that work to waste. On the other hand, pretty much all of that pales in comparison to the fact that LIBBY IS THE OTHER TARGET OF THE SPLIT VOTE! WHEN AN ALLIANCE IS ACTIVELY MAKING YOU A TARGET, YOU DON’T STICK WITH THEM! How is this sort of thing still a thing? Libby does say that Donathan could be lying, but what does he have to gain from lying to her at this juncture? Pretty much nothing. Take what he says at face value, in this case at least.

This means that a lot of the episode is going to come down to idol playing. Michael naturally will be bringing his idol, and makes it clear that he’s likely to play it. Wendell, in yet another blunder, is fairly noncommittal about the whole thing. He acknowledges the possibility, and admits that he doesn’t want to go out like Erik Reichenbach (“Survivor Micronesia”), but states that he’d like to hold onto the thing for a while. He concludes by saying that he’ll feel out how things are at Tribal Council. Given this episode’s track record of you getting the right read on things, dude, not sure that’s a wise idea.

I’ll give Tribal Council this: It gives Wendell little to no reason to be suspicious. Laurel and Donathan do a good job playing things close to their respective chests, such that there’s no reason to suspect a “Malolo strong” play tonight. Hell, DESI of all people is the one to raise the possibility of playing hard and flipping, and she’s been seen to be nothing but a solid member of the majority. The bad news of all this is that it means the only tense part of Tribal Council is the vote itself. For all my complaints, this episode HAS done a really good job of presenting me with options. Granted, this episode seems to be building to the downfall of Wendell, but Mike and Libby have both gotten enough screen time that there’s an outside chance they’re going. But as to the banter of Tribal Council itself, it just leaves me cold. The only thing NOT boring is annoying, as Probst tries once again to talk up the new format of the Final Tribal Council. Yes, I’m one of those few people who’s not a big fan of the new format. I’ve seen nothing to convince me that votes are changed by this format rather than the question and answer format, and the new format has some drawbacks that irk me. Apart from robbing us of great/funny Final Tribal Council questions, Probst is injected too much into the proceedings. I know Probst being “impartial” was never really a thing, but directly putting himself in the discussion is a step to far in my book. Go back to the questions.

After the votes are cast (with no shown confessionals), it’s idol tension time. After a suitable amount of suspence, Michael plays the stick with a face, which now gets to be an actual idol. Wendell does not play his prior to the reading of the votes, and I expect this to be the nail in the coffin of Wendell’s doom. Fortunately for Wendell, this turns out to be his one CORRECT move of the evening. Contrary to pretty much EVERYTHING we heard from them, Donathan and Laurel stay true, and even Jenna and Libby get in on the split vote. Michael’s idol WAS necessary to save him, making this the first instance of “reversing the curse”… halfway through a season about reversing curses, and over a relic that was only tenuously “cursed” at best. Great. Just great. However, the split vote held, with only Michael going for Wendell. As such Libby goes home, and while I’m not too sorry for her, I’m THRILLED that Wendell is still in this thing! Granted, he would have very much deserved to leave after his performance this episode, but he’s a dynamic and fun character. Libby, while better than your average good-looking young woman that this show loves to cast, never really developed into much of anything, and so, compared to losing a major mover and shaker of the season, this is the much better outcome.

This begs the question: HOW THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN? Well, ok, we know HOW it happened. The original Naviti planned a split vote and it worked. The better question is why didn’t Donathan and Laurel go for Wendell, when it seemed like that’s all they talked about this episode. We can only speculate, but quite simply, the editors did us dirty. We’ll never know for sure, but I suspect that Laurel’s anger at Wendell was somewhat overplayed, and that Michael never really factored into her or Donathan’s plans, hence why they weren’t willing to stick their necks out for him. That said, this was clearly the wrong move for the pair. Instead of shaking up a more and more insurmountable hierarchy, and giving themselves some power, they instead left it in the hands of the people taking more and more control each day. Poor move, guys.

While there are a couple of good points to be found here and there (I still feel like I’m going to have a heart attack from that vote reading), this episode was just a mess. Frankly, it felt crowded. There was too much going on, and especially before the immunity challenge, nothing seemed explored in-depth. The boot was a huge misdirect, and it just leaves the audience feeling empty. The season as a whole is still quite good, but hopefully next episode picks up the slack of this one.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

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