Everyone, I have an announcement to make: The cliche joke of “Christmas in July” has been cancelled. This is not, as one might expect, due to people getting tired of a joke that wasn’t really funny to begin with, but because we are now so impatient that waiting until July is now too much for us. Christmas will now take place again in February. Late February, admittedly, but February nonetheless. It will then repeat every other month ad infinitum. This is barring, of course, that Aubry manages to win this season somehow. Then it will become a daily occurrence.
For all my stealing of yet another comedy writer’s joke, this is hardly an exaggerated opening. I’m not normally a fan of shifting things around in editing unnecessarily, but if there was a way to somehow make this the first episode, I would do it. Frankly, this episode blows the premiere out of the water in nearly every category. What does it do so well? Let’s find out, after our opening feature…
MATT’S MESS-UP!
It seems not even having a short premiere lets me escape the bane of forgetting important points from the previous episode. And yes, I said “points” as in plural. Admittedly, one thing I missed was just a minor joke opportunity. When her tribemates go to talk to her about her behavior, Reem happens to be holding a machete, which they awkwardly ask her to put down. Funny enough on its own, but it also makes a nice callback to an early season. Clearly Reem is somehow channeling the spirit of the still-alive machete fanatic Matthew Von Ertfelda (“Survivor The Amazon”).
The other missed point, though, is somewhat more serious. In talking about our new players, I neglected to mention Julie. Not to be confused with Julia, Julie is an older player on the Kama tribe. The toymaker, if that helps you remember her. Her confessional of the premiere is talking about her lack of outdoor experience, having lived in New York City all her life. A pretty standard confessional that wouldn’t bear much mention were it not for the fact that, since the show’s focus has shifted away from actual survival, such confessionals are a rarity these days. It’s kind of nice to see this type of confessional return in a retro way, and while it doesn’t do much to make Julie stand out, it’s still nice to see. And don’t worry. Julie will begin to stand out in the next episode.
Moving on to our episode proper, we start things off at the Edge of Extinction, which is apparently what “Extinction Island” is actually called. A little on the nose there, production. Rem gives us some shots of her wondering around for a bit, then goes to read the placard of the Edge of Extinction, giving her a bit more info on what’s expected of her while she’s here. It’s all information that we’ve gotten before, so I’ll spare you a summary. Suffice to say, Reem is not pleased, though mainly due to the lack of a time frame for the Edge of Extinction being mentioned. She then sets about making life there livable. True, she does have the husk of a ship’s hull for a rudimentary shelter, but that won’t be enough when the torrential rains come. Weaving palm fronds, Reem sets about considering how she ended up here, and to her credit, comes to the hard conclusion that she presented herself poorly. It shows good self-knowledge on her part, and makes me intrigued for her chances should she come back in the game. Isolation is tough on the best of us, and Reem breaks down a little, talking about leaving her kids for so long only to be voted out first, before sucking it up and getting on with life. We transition away with a pensive shot of her looking out at the ocean. A nice, short scene, but one that shows a lot of character growth for Reem, and is pretty nice to look at as well. If we’re going to have an “Edge of Extinction” in the game, it’s been handled nicely so far. It’s there and it adds character, but doesn’t take up more time than is necessary. That said, I’m still not sold on this twist, if only because I feel a lot of why this worked is the isolation. As soon as Reem gets company, a lot of the interest goes away.
Transitioning to the Manu camp, we come upon the tribe playing the favorite game of all “Survivor” Contestants: Who most resembles a zombie? Seriously, I feel like every couple of seasons we get a shot of people comparing the gray and wrinkled-ness of their hands. Nice to see that some traditions survive.
As for our fallout from the past Tribal Council, I’m pleased to report that Wendy falls on the good side of how to handle the wrong side of the vote. Nearly perfect in fact. Rather than frame her siding with Reem as an emotional decision, Wendy highlights to Rick (I refuse to follow Probst’s lead and call him “Devans”) the danger of keeping Kelley Wentworth in the game. Not only does Wendy express few if any sour grapes, but by presenting her argument so logically, she paints a target on someone other than herself, and leaves people open to working with her, which she’ll need if she hopes to survive in this game. It also helps a lot that Wendy reins in some of her excesses a little bit.
Sounds like a textbook way to work back into the fold after picking the wrong side. So, why do I say “nearly perfect”? Well, as a new player, Rick is likely to want to take out a returnee. After all, they’re objectively the largest threat to his game. Other returnees, however, are less like. And guess who else happens to be in on this conversation but David, the other returnee of the tribe. Sure enough, he gently indicates to Wendy that things aren’t probably going to go that way.
This conversation does not go unnoticed by Kelley Wentworth and co. Sensing a blindside brewing in the wind, she, Wardog, and Lauren agree that an eye must be kept on Wendy, lest she find an idol. More on that plotline in a bit.
Over at Kama, Ron livens things up by helping the tribe coe up with a tribe dance. Wonder where that is in his school curriculum? It’s a nice scene of everybody bonding, but soon, we get the intrigue that goes on behind the scenes. Aubry complains about not going to Tribal Council first, which seems a bit weird to me. Aubry, as a player, works best when she has a bit of time before the strategizing starts. She’s a social player, and so needs time to work her way into people’s good graces, especially on a season where she’s seen as a big target like this one. Given how Eric and Gavin in particular were targeting her last episode, I think she’d be thrilled. Now, I do understand her argument that it’s harder to see where the strategic lines are drawn without a Tribal Council, but again, Aubry’s best strategy is built up slowly over time, and it’s hard to observe battle lines if you’re, you know, voted out.
Then again, perhaps we’ve been slightly overselling Aubry’s social prowess here. She starts putting some feelers out to people, in particular asking a clearly disinterested Victoria and Julia about how they feel about returnees. Aubry is at least bright enough to read the room, seeing that this is getting her nowhere, and compares herself and Joe to ants under a magnifying glass, in danger of being fried by the sun. A funny metaphor. A worthy successor to her original “Oregon Trail” confessional. But possibly not enough to save her. Not helping her case is that she’s been having one-on-one conversations with people, and using some similar phrasing in them. This is hilariously edited into a montage, where we see Aubry saying similar things over and over to different people. Now, the awkwardness of these conversations may just be editing, as Victoria does say that Aubry does a good job of socializing with people, but the fact remains that people talk, and it kind of undercuts Aubry if people are seeing this. We go to commercial with Aubry being in just as bad, if not worse, of a position than she was before.
Back at Manu, we see that Rick and David are bonding over a shared sense of humor. David, the guy who wrote for “Family Guy” even calling Rick “hilarious”. Though, given that David wrote for “Family Guy” this may not be a compliment. That said, Rick did get a couple of zingers in there, both intentional and unintentional. Rick is a proponent of the “shields” strategy, wanting to keep people who will be voted out before him. To this end, David makes sense to ally with and keep around, as unless your returnee is “Purple” Kelly Shinn (“Survivor Nicaragua”), they will always be a bigger target than you. What’s funny is that Rick doesn’t say “bigger threat” than him. He just says “bigger” than him. We then immediately cut to a shot of David, who, to use another cliche, probably weighs about 90 pounds soaking wet. Ok, ok, we should also acknowledge Rick’s intentional humor, and I did like his line about promising “to blindside David at the Final Four”.
This, of course, leads the pair to talk about Wendy’s proposal against Kelley, and David now seems more on board with it than ever. He says that Kelley probably won’t keep him around too long, and he may need to make a move on her first. Here, I have to raise my eyebrow. True, Kelley isn’t likely to want threats around, as except perhaps for Joey Amazing, she’s the biggest fish in the entire pond this season, but I don’t see her wanting to vote out David too early. The trouble is, it sets a bad precedent. It’s like the winners going first in “Survivor All-Stars”. The pattern of “Get out returnees” is made, and now there’s nothing to be done to stop it. If Kelley takes out David, it eliminates a threat, but makes it more likely she goes after him. Since the same works in reverse for David (and is arguably even worse for him, since Kelley makes a good threat shield for him), I’m going to come out here and say that, for David and Rick, any plan to get out Kelley is not a good one, at least so early. Not helping things is when they ask Wendy how she would get the numbers to get rid of Kelley. There’s the three of them, obviously, and Wendy says Keith will be a fourth. But then, for the fifth, she says Wardog will come on board. Um, excuse me? Wardog? The man who seems to be in the power trio with Kelley and Lauren? The man who seems almost as stubborn in changing his mind as Wendy herself? Yeah, not buying that. Don’t see how that could happen. Thus, the plan is tabled for now, and with that pitch, I can understand why. Now, if I were them, I would go for Chris as the fifth. He’s part of the majority, but doesn’t seem intimately tied with them, and might not want to risk a tie so early. If you were looking to get a solid fivesome together, I’d look to him as your fifth.
And no, I assure you I’m not saying this with the benefit if hindsight. Those were my exact thoughts at the time.
It seems Manu is not the only tribe that can get idol paranoia. Eric and Gavin, worried about Aubry or Joe finding an idol, agree to amp up their idol search. Thus, all of the guys at camp (even Joe, according to the edit) go out on the hunt, searching through every conspicuous-looking tree, which as Gavin points out, is all of them. This leads Victoria, Julia, and Julie to come together and channel the spirit of Angelina Keeley (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”), talking about how blatant the guys are being with their idol hunt, and asking why THEY can’t find an idol. All great questions! An intriguing way to shake up your usual idol search! Now, if only they would DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Seriously, they talk on and on about how they need to be a part of the search, and there’s no reason why they can’t find an idol. A perfect set up for them to turn the tables on our usual idol narrative. Yet all they do is talk about how they should do something, instead of, you know, ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING! I’m all for good buildup, but we need at least some payoff.
To be fair, we do get a bit of payoff in the form of getting to know Julie a bit more. She talks about how this idol moment has told her she’s maybe playing the game wrong, and may need to step up a bit more. A great growth arc that really makes Julie stand out to me, which as I’ve said is something this season sorely needs. I’ll be watching Julie with great interest now. But there’s also an ulterior motive here. Julie was mostly talking about changing herself, but she also had a few comments about not letting others, particularly the guys, run her game. Might this be the beginning of a women’s alliance on the tribe with a female majority? The Aubry Lobby hopes so, and fully supports any efforts in this direction!
Not to have their plotline taken away from them, Manu sets about their own full-scale idol hunt. This is mainly spurred by Kelley, who doesn’t like having her name in the wind, noting that it can flare up at any time. I understand her concern, but I think she needs to get used to it. As I say, she’s arguably the biggest target of the whole season. Her name coming ups not something she can really avoid. She can only hope to contain it as it comes. Luckily for Kelley, the idol is found by her close ally Lauren. It’s deep in a dead tree, but I still feel it was too easy to find. Even that deep, the bright blue packaging really stood out. Good for Lauren, though I do have to dock points for her using the idol find to talk about her fangirl crush on Kelley again. Understandable, but this means the show feels the need to give us a “Survivor Cambodia” highlight reel. Show, you’re doing fine this episode. Don’t ruin it by reminding us of a better season. To Lauren’s credit, she does keep the idol secret from everyone, so that’s one mark in her favor.
Off to our immunity challenge, which is a repeat of the second immunity challenge from “Survivor Game Changers”, involving carrying a giant snake from the water to the shore, finding numbers for a combination lock in it, and tossing rings onto oars to spell “Immunity”. Poor Aubry probably gets PTSD flashbacks from seeing this challenge, and in case you think she doesn’t, don’t worry, Probst is there to remind you of it! Sensing the pain he has caused, Probst quickly shifts talk to the reward to go with the challenge, which offers a choice. The winning tribe can take either spices, knives, and a cutting board, or fishing gear. I’m all for choice, but make it a tough one. No question, fishing gear, the thing that can actually sustain you in the game, is the superior choice.
As we let Julie wisely take her spot on the sit-out bench, I have to applaud the editing this episode. Apart fro giving us the few hilarious moments and pretty shots I’ve previously mentioned, they’ve done a good job of balancing the tribes this episode. All have had some strategy talk, and while Manu has more coherent targets than Kama, there’s no clear favorite in terms of the edit as to who wins and who loses. Kama has maybe a slight edge, due to only Aubry’s name being thrown out, and thus lacking misdirection should they lose, plus Manu already being down a member, and not having Joey Amazing, but it’s decently even if you don’t watch anything other than what’s on the show proper.
Too bad I do watch more than just what’s on the show proper! As I say, Aubry is the only real coherent target from Kama this episode, and when one of her intro shots hasn’t been seen yet, you can bet this is a loss for Manu. Don’t believe me? Watch as Probst goes out of his way to point out just how bad at swimming Keith is! Yes, Keith was favored by the first immunity challenge playing to his strengths, but this one shows off his weaknesses. For all my ribbing of Probst, I’m not sure his narration really did Keith in. Keith did a fine job of that himself. This challenge is designed to show off the weakest link, and Keith was clearly that in multiple legs of the challenge. Like the Mana tribe before them, Manu do make it closer than it seems at the outset, but also like Mana, they can’t pull it off, as between the tossing skills of Eric and Joey Amazing, Kama wins immunity. Guess this is what Joe meant by “holding back”: Only winning HALF the challenge for his tribe.
Kama does the smart thing and takes the fishing gear reward so nothing to comment on there. Wardog, meanwhile, is on the warpath. Yes, folks, I waited all of two episodes to use that joke. It’s just the kind of restraint I have. In any case, Wardog, ever the subtle one, is big on “tribe strength” at the moment, meaning we now have a third target in Keith. True, we’re about halfway through the episode, but I can forgive hiding Keith as a target until now, since he really didn’t become a target until now.
Back at camp, while Kelley is resistant to the idea of not targeting Wendy, she also realizes that Wardog is not easily swayed, and thus Keith seems to be the consensus. Keith, trying anything to save himself, talks to Chris about how much Chris has helped him out, and swears undying loyalty to him. This gets Chris thinking. Undying loyalty is not something to turn away lightly, and so Chris gets to thinking maybe the target shouldn’t be Keith. You’d think he’d just go back to Wendy as the target, but Chris begins thinking bigger. He approaches Rick and David with a plan to get out, you guessed it, Kelley. This is basically gift-wrapped for Rick and David. They can get their five, but don’t seem to be scheming, as everyone else thinks it was their own idea. That said, it’s still probably best for them to go with Keith as the boot this episode. Why? Well, as they stated earlier, they want to keep Wendy around for her loyalty, so she’s not a good option. But getting rid of Kelley removes a great shield very early in the game. Keith is a third option that keeps the two biggest targets around, thereby protecting you and keeping your options open. True, Keith was supposed to be a part of the plan to oust Kelley, but even if he leaves, as Chris has shown, there’s still support for a coup against Kelley. Plus, it does keep the tribe stronger, and unless you have a swap in the offing, you need all the strength you can get.
Still, things seem perfectly in place. How could this plan possibly fail? Chris goes to Wardog. You know, the guy everyone talks about being unpersuadable? Yeah, smooth move their, Chris. Wardog, unsurprisingly, is not open to the idea, but he and Chris go away from the conversation with no clear winner, thus keeping the suspense in the air before Tribal Council. Yet another thing this episode does much better than the first one.
As a side note before Tribal Council: Props to Wendy! She did a fantastic job of staying just out of the spotlight enough for other people to become targets. She seemed poised to go after Reem, and yet she didn’t. That takes some skill, and she deserves much praise for it.
That said, the one thing the first episode has over this one is a more exciting Tribal Council. This one has better misdirection, as I’m really not sure who between Keith and Kelley is going, but that also means that everyone plays their cards close to their chest. Kelley herself probably gives the best performance, arguing well why keeping around a returnee might be in the other’s best interest. But it’s mostly good strategic double-talk, and while it keeps the mystery alive, and shows that these players are smart, it does not make for the stuff of legends.
Keith ends up on the losing side of the coin this time, which as I hope I’ve indicated, is the smart move for most involved. It’s not smart for Wendy, and Chris is a bit of a toss-up, but smart for everyone else. I’m a bit mixed on how I feel about Keith. On the one hand, I quite like the guy. Yeah, he kind of sucked at swimming, but he put up every effort, and within the game, did everything he could to stay alive. I enjoyed his spirit, and hoped to see more of it as the season went along. He’s one of the few new player’s I’ve connected with as of episode one. That said, I’m not sure I could in fairness say I’d rather he stayed over Kelley. That’s not knocking him, it’s just that few people are Kelley Wentworth. I guess what I’m saying is there was no good choice this episode, but he was the least bad choice.
“But,” I hear you ask, “What of Edge of Extinction? Surely Keith chose to go there?” Well, he might, but I suspect not. The producers, in one more clever move this evening, keep it hidden whether or not Keith choses to try again in the game. They even get in a good fake-out shot where Keith moves towards the torch and they pan to a close up of it, making it seem like Keith is going, only to show him pulling away and asking God for advice. We end with no clear answer as to where he goes. If this is just a fake-out so we suspect people might not go to Edge of Extinction, I’m thrilled. It’s well-done, and adds variety to the exits, instead of just seeing basically the same scene over and over again. That said, I suspect this is just their way of making people who choose to leave for good “exciting”. If so, that’s disappointing, but I could at least understand why Keith would choose not to. The kid’s 19. He has his whole life ahead of him. With his challenge performance so far, I’d say any chance of winning, even if he were to return, is most likely shot. Given that, he might just want to pack up and move on. I’d be disappointed, but I’d understand.
Like I said before, great episode! The editing is top-notch, the misdirection well-done, and now we’re starting to connect more with the cast! Admittedly, Kama is still largely a blank slate, save for our returnees, Ron, and Julie, but they’re becoming a likable bunch, and Manu now nearly all have some depth to them. Chris is kind of “blah”, but at least he thinks for himself. Keep up this trend, and this season may save itself from itself yet.
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
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