Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 9: Meta-Forced

I get it, “Survivor” contestants. Really, I do. People have many goals in coming on the show, and for all, being remembered is one major goal. A good way to do that? Make a clever metaphor for the current state of the game. By all means, take your shots in this regard. But if a metaphor isn’t working, let it die! First we had the pilot/passenger thing that unfortunately carried over into this episode, and then the “pushing vs. letting up on the pedal” at the end. They’re not working. Let them die, and try something else. A good metaphor enhances the show, but a forced one, just makes us cringe.

And since I know people are complaining about how “fake”, she is, no, I do not count Aubry comparing the Edge of Extinction to things in this category. Those are similes.

Seems our “Previously On…” segment was just on a short furlough back to the game, as it is conspicuously absent tonight, though I suppose a succinct summary of that last Tribal Council would be hard even for Jeff Probst. Instead, we jump right into the fallout. Ward is pissed; there’s a shock. He blames Aurora for starting the whole thing, and while her comment did start off the debate, I’d be more inclined to blame Julie for fanning the flames. Still, it gets Wardog what he wants, which is a solidified whole. He talks to Ron and Julie about joining up with himself, Lauren, and Kelley, with Gavin brought in as a sixth to make a majority. Wardog, however, has lost some of his sales-pitch mojo. For a group of people needing security after a crazy vote, a solid majority seems appealing. So you frame it as “I’ve got Kelley and Lauren in my pocket, so we can make a six.” Instead, Wardog talks about how loyal he, Kelley, and Lauren are; how they’ve never voted against each other once. Yes, Wardog, please remind us how tight and unbreakable your bond is! I’m sure that’s in now way threatening in a game that is quite chaotic now! It seems hatred of Aurora now outweighs logic, though, as the other three quickly agree to this plan, with Julie in particular being in favor of it.

It seems Wardog sold Aurora short, however, as she’s not as unaware of her position as he claims. True, she still has no idea what happened at that last Tribal Council, but frankly none of us do. She is aware that she’s on the bottom, though, as no one is pulling her aside. She tells us she’ll need to win immunity in order to survive this next vote.

Speaking of which, this brings us to our immunity challenge! Rather early in the episode once again. Rather than herald a crazy Tribal Council, however, it instead heralds the boots of two episodes crammed into one. Because even LESS time to understand what’s going on or bond with the characters is EXACTLY what this season needed! Once again, I don’t understand why they’ve stopped doing this at the tribe phase of the game. It fits better in the overall episode, and can make for some great interpersonal dynamics. Here, it just feels cramped.

Our immunity challenge today is generic endurance challenge number 85. You know it’s reused. You know it’s from a past season. But you’re so numb to them by this point you don’t even care to remember what season it was originally on, because you’re too busy being pissed, since it looked like the raising fire challenge from “Survivor The Australian Outback” come back from the dead. The only true thing of note here is the return of the “eat or compete” twist. Always nice to see back, but even that gets little fanfare. No drama comes of it, we don’t get any dramatic reveal of who chose what, and even the food seems lackluster this time around. I thought you couldn’t make “Survivor” pizza look any more unappealing, but they found a way! Yep, we’re just going to pile it on top of itself so it all mushes together in a big, greasy, disgusting pile. Only starving people would eat that. It seems that Kelley, Lauren, Victoria, and Ron are starving. Makes sense for all of them. Kelley and Lauren have idols, and neither Ron nor Victoria have any reason to believe themselves a target.

At first, it seems like our eaters might not get much of a chance, as people drop out quickly. It comes down to David, Aurora, and Rick. Rick is out first, but gets in a good bit of newsman comedy about how much the challenge sucks. I will say that Rick’s humor is one of the saving graces of this season. It’s sparing, but it’s good when we get it, and I like how the music complimented it in this particular instance. Speaking of the music, it does a good job of building tension once it comes down to David and Aurora, swelling in such a way that it looks like each might fall at some point. Both are targets of some form at this vote, being outside the main alliance we saw form earlier, but for once, our more direct target wins.

Back at camp, our alliance of six reconvenes, where Lauren does a better job than Wardog at selling Ron, Julie, and Gavin on the alliance, talking about how everyone needs a say to come to a consensus, now that Aurora is immune. They quickly focus on David, as an endurance challenge threat and a returnee, and therefore just threatening in general. A logical choice, and for once, Kelley and Lauren don’t ruin it by unsubtly going against it.

Of course, one can’t expect a returnee to go down without a fight. David and Rick decide to target Wardog, on the theory that the “Lesu Three” are a threatening group that need to be broken up, and Wardog is not known for his good bedside manner in general. True, he’s gotten better as time goes by, but still, perhaps an easier sell than Kelley or Lauren at this point. Aurora and Victoria, left out of the majority are of course on board, but Ron and Julie will be a harder sell, particularly Ron, since he was burned a couple of votes ago. Wisely, they decide to talk just to Julie first, presumably playing up her bond with Rick from earlier in the merge. The pair at least give the idea due consideration, admitting that the “Lesu Three” are a threat. Ron is the more concerned of the pair, though, feeling they would have less power if allied with David and Rick, which is also a fair point. For all that the “Lesu Three” are a threat, they have at least done well at giving you the impression that you have a say, even if you actually don’t. On the other hand, with four original Kama in with David and Rick, you could argue that it would be easier to instigate a coup if something goes sideways in that group. Pros and cons to both, and I don’t think there’s really a “bad” choice for Julie and Ron here. Either way, they break up a tight group (the “Lesu Three” or David/Rick), and have some path to save themselves from the group they got with (pulling in outside if they stick with the “Lesu Three” or an original Kama majority if they go with David/Rick). Thus, for me, the better decision comes down to exactly who each side is targeting, and who would be better sent out. As such, I’m going to say that getting rid of David is the better choice here. Apart from having the advantage of experience in the game, thus making him dangerous, he comes across as a challenge threat, at least in terms of endurance. Conversely, the belief that Wardog is a challenge threat of any kind went out the window weeks ago.

Sensing this, David and Rick push the hard sell at Tribal Council tonight. Leaving aside the forced plane metaphors mentioned earlier, Rick starts in by pointing out the threat of the “Lesu Three”. Wardog points out that he’s pushing the hard sell, and Ron concurs that the hard sell doesn’t work. David does a deft job of pushing said claim back onto Wardog, and again leans on his experience, encouraging people to act on “The one conversation they’ll regret” if they don’t follow. A good pitch, and it does leave the good mystery up in the air until the end. Unfortunately, sometimes salesmanship isn’t enough. David goes home, and while I am sorry, I’m also glad. I enjoy David, and don’t like that he never really was able to get his game started. That said, one fewer returnees in the game means we FINALLY have a chance to bond with some new players instead. Now, if only we could get rid of Kelley…

Surprising no one, David heads to the Edge of Extinction. We were spared the “This sucks” confessionals from both himself and Julia this time around, though I suspect this is more due to time constraints than anything. Because when you’ve got extra time on your show, you want to spend it showing the same confessional we’ve seen many times before at this point.

Speaking of things we’ve seen before, it’s message-in-a-bottle time for everyone, telling of an advantage hidden someplace “jagged and smooth” when “you’re feeling hollow”. Some don’t even try to find anything, being too exhausted at this point, but those that do should have an easy time. The clue is obviously referring to a hollow in the rocks. It seems that Eric is even worse than a fool, as he somehow concludes that the clue leads to the rice getting area of the island. Joe and Chris also fall into this category, insisting that the advantage must be around the mast on the beach. Nope. It’s the rocks. Surprisingly, it’s David, the man who knows the island the LEAST well, who finds it. Unfortunately for him, it’s not that great an advantage. Just a challenge boost for someone still in the game. David talks about how this is a chance to curry favor with someone left in the game, and we just roll our eyes, since we all know it’s going to Rick, someone David definitely does NOT need to curry favor with.

Our immunity challenge is actually NOT technically endurance challenge, thus bears talking about. Tribe members roll small balls down to the flat end of a paddle, where they must land them in what Probst refers to as “dimples”. I personally would call them “indents” or “slots” but I guess Probst was feeling insecure, and needed to remind us that he has dimples. Probst, don’t worry. We know they’re there. They’re kind of hard to miss. In any case, the first person to land five balls wins immunity. This is definitely a reused challenge, hailing originally from “Survivor Philippines”, but again, it’s not endurance, so I’ll take it.

Rick reveals the advantage we all knew he had, and Probst tells us that Rick must only land four instead of five of his balls. I do actually like this advantage. It definitely helps, and if you’ve got skill in this challenge, it can be a major benefit to your victory. However, if you outright suck in this challenge, and previous challenge beasts like Kelley and Gavin do this time around, it might not matter. That said, Rick falls into the “Not Sucky” category, and so his victory is all but assured at this point, despite knocking his falls out of their “dimples” a couple of times.

Back at camp, everyone seems on the warpath for Aurora, so we need someone to shake things up. Somewhat surprisingly, given how calm he’s been over the past couple of episodes, Wardog comes to our rescue. His target? Of all people, Kelley. Evidently that anti-returnee bug is back, though again, given that it will help us bond with the cast, I’m not complaining too much. That said, I’m baffled here. Wardog had set himself up in a pretty cushy position here. A swing vote in the main alliance, and not as obvious a threat as others. Yet he’s willing to cut himself off at the legs. When was Kelley going to go against him? There’s little to no logic to Wardog’s decision here. Yet it’s RON, the person who should be chomping at the bit to get rid of Kelley, who’s hesitant. Ron, listen to me: Getting rid of Kelley is GODSEND for you. It keeps you in the majority, but gets rid of a major threat, as well as keep you in control of said minority. I hear your point about Julie not wanting Aurora around, but you didn’t go directly against her. Assuming you give her fair warning, I doubt she’ll be too mad. In case it wasn’t obvious, Kelley is the correct move for Ron and the other swing votes in this case (I don’t really count Wardog as a swing in this scenario). Gets rid of a major threat, and keeps the overall majority intact while still maintaining power within that alliance. The downside? Unless Kelley plays her idol, none that I can think of. Go for it!

The only wrinkle in this idea is Aurora, who has a good idea, but executes it poorly. While she’s happy there’s a target other than her, given that the news is coming from a man who goes by the name “Wardog” she’s suspicious. As such, she decides to get some insurance using her extra vote. Now, playing it here would be pointless, since with an odd number, there’s no risk of a tie. Instead, to help convince our swing vote Ron to keep her around, she ought to tell him about it, and say they’ll use it together if she stays. Instead, she gives it to Ron as collateral for keeping her around. This is an incredibly dumb idea since, as Ron points out, he can just get rid of Aurora and have an advantage for himself. Now there’s a slight incentive to get rid of Aurora, though since this means Aurora is also open to being a future number, I say still go for Kelley.

While no less mysterious, our second Tribal Council just doesn’t have the pizzaz the first one had. This is understandable, given that the first Tribal Council was about a battle between two sides, while the second is about subtlety and intrigue, lest an idol be played. This means that Ron and company needs to act like everything’s going down for a normal, boring vote. They do this well, and so I don’t blame Kelley for not playing her idol. That said, it does make things less interesting to watch, even with a second good bit of misdirection. As foreshadowed, Kelley goes home, and again, I’m not overly sorry. Kelley had returnee upside, but she didn’t bring as much snark as she did on “Survivor Cambodia”, and again, as it means we’re finally unshackling this season from being all about the returnees, I’m in favor of it.

This season continues it’s upward swing, again only hampered by the lack of time. There’s just too much to get through in each episode, and it leaves things feeling cramped and rushed. However, we’re now at the point of exciting Tribal Council, good camp intrigue, and a cast now able to forge their own path, rather than one related to returnees. If the season can keep up this trend, it just might move up a few slots in my rankings. It would take a miracle to put this season in the “Best of the Best” category at this point, but we just might avoid mediocrity as well.