Idol Speculation: “Survivor Island of the Idols” Episode 10: The Editors Go Crazy

The “Survivor” editing team. Some of the best at what they do. Purveyors of humor on many a season. Check out Russell Swan’s idol hunt on “Survivor Philippines” if you doubt my claim. Yet tonight, we get proof that there can be “Too much of a good thing”, and they weaken what was already a poor episode to begin with. So much so that the most exciting thing in this blog is going to be another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Bit of a quick point, and actually a repeat of a point I made two blogs ago, but a missed point nonetheless. Amongst Missy’s arguments as to why she should stay, particularly after seeing Aaron leave at the previous Tribal Council, was a “People of color should stick together”, and an echo of Cirie’s point from “Survivor Game Changers” about the rarity of multiple women of color making the merge. A pretty solid, human moment, ruined once again by Probst’s need to inject himself into the situation, and to point out how much of a “moment” this is. Like I’ve said before, Probst, the way for you to strengthen these moments is to just LET THEM BE! It makes for a stronger message. When you try and constantly point them out, not only do you make us feel ill, but you weaken the moment overall as a result. Not saying that the argument would have changed the outcome of the episode or anything, but it would have been nice to just let a human moment be.

Speaking of Tribal Council, Lauren is initially worried about the outcome of the second one, so much so that she can’t even celebrate the ouster of Aaron. She and Tommy may not have been on the same team last episode, but they are on the same wavelength, both wanting Missy out to cement their power. Lauren, however, is pretty good at reading the room, and rightly predicts trouble for Tommy. Of course, as we know from having watched the episode, she needn’t have worried. Tommy returns, and the pair celebrate their good fortune. As well they should. They’ve cemented themselves as the Domenick and Wendell (“Survivor Ghost Island”) of the season: Savvy players that can run the season with little competition, with the only player savvy enough to stop them (Elaine, playing the role of Kellyn), being disinclined to do so. Glad all tension just went out of the season.

Yes, most everyone left has a reason to celebrate. About the only exception is Elizabeth, who just lost… Yeah, pretty much all her main allies. Put that way, she takes the whole thing quite well, stating that while she’s upset, she knows why it had to be done. Props to her for saying the right things to say in this situation. The read could have done with a bit more heart and sincerity in it, but much as I like Elizabeth, she has been kind of “flat” this whole season, so maybe it’s just her speaking style. No one seems to hold it against her, so in the end, I can’t really fault her.

The next morning, Tommy and Lauren regroup their strategy. Dean comes over and pitches his plan to get out what he calls the “goat army”, specifically Noura and Karishma. It’s basically his “meat shields” idea from last episode, minus the Aaron. Tommy admits he’s sympathetic, but also notes that Elizabeth is a major threat in confessional, and says he may need to go for her first. This is jumping the gun here, since I usually save my strategy thoughts for when targets start being finalized, but I will say that Tommy is absolutely correct here. Yes, you don’t want to go too big on the “get out the threats” route, since Tommy is fast becoming the biggest threat, but you can frame targeting Elizabeth not as a threat, but as an enemy. The trouble with Elizabeth is that she has no real allies right now, and no incentive to work with you. All this makes her a threat, even more so than the whole “Olympic Athlete” thing, and means she needs to go.

Someone else needs to go as well, though… To the Island of the Idols! Yes, the producer’s restraint has reached its limits (plus it actually fits within the time frame of the show now), and it’s time to send one person back. Continuing with our shout outs to “Survivor Ghost Island”, the selection method is exactly the same as the pre-merge selection for who goes to Ghost Island: Come to a unanimous decision, or draw lots. Unlike last time, some people are clamoring to go. And by some people, I mean Karishma and Lauren, the former because she’s still a major target, and the latter to consolidate power in her alliance. As always on “Survivor” social game wins out, and the tribe decides to send Lauren. Of course, Karishma could pull a Shirin (“Survivor Worlds Apart”) and be the dissenting voice that denies her, but as she rightly points out, making waves over such a little thing is more trouble than it’s worth.

After a “humorous” interlude involving a chicken stealing Sandra’s papaya, Lauren arrives and does her best impression of Amber Brkich (“Survivor The Australian Outback”), saying “Oh my God!” over and over. This pleases Boston Rob, and he bestows his favor upon Lauren. You see, up until this point, people have gotten “lessons” that are either things they genuinely need to work on, or things that are neutral to them. Here, Lauren gets a lesson in what is dubbed “situational awareness”, but is really “interpersonal awareness”, and either way, plays to Lauren’s strengths. Basically, she gets told the immunity challenge (which is a repeat from “Survivor Ghost Island”. What is up with all the references to that season this episode? Don’t get me wrong, it’s underrated, but it’s not great enough to be deserving of THIS much attention), as well as that it’s an eat or compete challenge for breakfast. She has to pick one potential winner of the challenge. Get it right, she gets an idol good for two Tribal Councils. Get it wrong, she loses her vote. As Lauren herself rightly points out, those aren’t good odds. You’re basically picking a 1/9 shot, and even if you eliminate half of the people for various reasons (challenge weakness or desire to eat), that’s still only a 25% chance that you win. Bad enough in and of itself, but after those crazy couple of Tribal Councils, every vote is important. For me, losing such a vote would be too big a risk. Boston Rob therefore decides to sweeten the pot with better odds (and not just seemingly better odds like he talked about doing pre-season) giving Lauren two picks instead of one. Objectively better odds, but I still say the risk is too great, even for Lauren with her reading of others. Lauren disagrees, however, and with the repeated flashbacks when discussing each person, she comes down on Elizabeth and Noura to win, since this challenge is an endurance challenge involving holding a ball against a wood block with an upward pull system. Not bad choices, though I’m surprised Elaine and Tommy weren’t in the mix.

Say, you know what we haven’t had in a while? Dean making a fool of himself! It seems despite the skepticism of Jamal’s “gift” from two episodes ago, people have now swung around to thinking the “legacy advantage” is real. I guess you did your job after all, Jamal. Not that it does you much good besides a satisfying “gotcha” since you’re already on the jury, but satisfying nonetheless. After getting confirmation from Janet on the veracity of the advantage, Dean decides to double down on the idiocy by plagiarizing the fake advantage, so that he can bluff with the fake and save the “real” fake for the final six. If this were a legit advantage, this would actually be kind of a smart play. But it’s not, and anyone with brain cells should realize that, so I’m not sorry Dean gets the dodo music here.

Only the return of Lauren could stop this madness, so return she does. When asked what went down, she talks in the same vein as Noura did during her trip (which should make everyone immediately suspicious), and reveals the challenge, as well as the eat or compete twist. It at first seems like she’ll continue keeping the nature of her twist a secret, but she spills the beans in the end. Granted, it’s only to Tommy, who’s a really good co-conspirator for her, so ultimately probably a good move. It just seems weird that the trend gets bucked NOW of all times. Since Tommy wants Lauren to have that idol (presumably she’s selling it as “an idol for both of us”), he goes around, talking up the feast aspect to those that Lauren didn’t bet on. Gotta admit, it’s good gameplay. If Lauren did the convincing, she’d be seen as suspicious (again, see Noura), but Tommy’s a natural salesman, and despite his closeness with Lauren, doesn’t come off as someone with an agenda.

Consequently, after Probst feigns indignation at the lack of reaction to the feast (the man HAD to know they’d been informed), six of the nine choose to sit out, a surprise even to me. Only Karishma, Noura, and Elizabeth choose to compete, better odds that Lauren could have possibly hoped for. Even better for her, Karishma is out in the first 30 seconds or so, guaranteeing her the idol no matter what. Even better for the audience, Karishma gets a really touching emotional moment where she breaks down about trying even when something doesn’t play to her strengths. Probst, while he addresses the moment, wisely lets it play out largely without commentary. About the worst that can be said is that the challenge is over quickly by endurance standards, though you knew that was coming. Probst talked up the 45-minute record like it was a major feat, but dude, we’ve seen 12-hour endurance challenges. Get that JV-junk out of here.

Noura ends up our victor, and kudos to her from learning from her mistake. She keeps going in the challenge in the hopes that it makes the feast last longer, before Probst puts the kibosh on it. We of course see Tommy and Lauren pick up the idol, but there’s not much beyond that. There’s very little strategizing to be done, since Elizabeth is largely a consensus boot (though Elaine isn’t terribly happy about it), and there’s enough of a majority to split the votes between her and Karishma. The only issue comes if one of them has an idol. Karishma is still reeling emotionally, and I hate to pick on her, but Noura stole her bag to look through it, and if NOURA is able to steal your bag, you must not be paying even the remotest bit of attention. About the only upside for Karishma here is that this is Noura, so despite finding a note and two things with seashells, she thinks there’s no idol.

In order to convince Karishma not to blow up the plan, Dan tells her the partial truth. Elizabeth being the target is correct, but he tries to sell her on Janet being the other swing vote. Karishma, being occasionally blind, but not stupid, sees through this, and goes to talk to Elizabeth. Fortunately Lauren can read lips, and so sees Dan’s name be brought up between the pair. Lauren initially tries to keep Dan contained when he wants to go over and bust up the conversation, but Dan cannot be contained. Dan, did you learn nothing from Missy last episode? Strong-arming Karishma is NOT the way to go. Consequently, now she’s bringing her idol, the ONLY reason you would have to vote her out, and no one even knows about that!

Our Tribal Council is unfortunately just as dull as the rest of the episode. The lowlight is Probst forcing racing metaphors into the conversation. Metaphors can be painful enough when they’re NOT obviously planned by production. Hell, Tommy had a decent one comparing making a decision about who to vote out to where to take his girlfriend to dinner, but you force in the racing one? Between this and the obvious boot, not even the presence of the awesome music can save this one, though it tries valiantly. It’s really bad when the highlight is Boston Rob and Sandra recapping what we saw EARLIER IN THE EPISODE!

The outcome may be obvious, but this is modern “Survivor”. Shenanigans must be had! Dean plays his “fake” fake Legacy Advantage, and does a poor job feigning surprise. Sadly, it also makes Tommy a moron, as he also believes in its veracity. It does, however, cause Karishma to play her idol, which I can’t fault her on. Hell, I might have played it last time if I were here, and given that she’s portrayed as the alternate boot here, I can’t fault her. What I CAN fault is Lauren playing her own idol on herself. Why? What possible reason did you have to think you were the alternate target? Better safe than sorry, I suppose, and since the idol was only good one more vote, you don’t lose much, but you don’t gain much either. The jury’s not going to look at you fondly for playing an idol incorrectly, compared to Karishma’s correct play tonight, and Tommy seemed a little miffed that a “shared” idol got played without his consent.

If one person comes off well from this Tribal Council, it’s Karishma. For reasons I still can’t fathom, she was the main target tonight, and negates seven votes against her. Good for her. For all my smack-talk, playing an idol correctly is hard, so kudos to Karishma for pulling it off. This leads to a tie between Elizabeth and Janet (presumably Karishma voted for Elizabeth, and Elizabeth voted for Janet), leading to the obvious outcome of Elizabeth going home. My, that was a convoluted way to get to the outcome we all knew was coming. Painful as it is to see one of my winner picks go home, I can’t say I’m too broken up about it. Elizabeth was by no means BAD to watch, but much like this episode, she just didn’t bring much to the table, and I can’t say her presence will be majorly missed.

How many ways can I say it? This episode was BORING! An obvious outcome, and so much time spent on flashbacks and on Island of the Idols, that the whole thing just felt like a chore. Granted, they didn’t have the best material to work with, but surely we could do better than this?

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Island of the Idols” Episode 9: The Cosby Show

MATT’S MESS-UP

A bit of a sober way to start the blog today, but I feel that’s what’s needed. As many of you know, the tagline of “Idol Speculation” is “My knee-jerk opinion that everyone is entitled to.” I hold myself to that, giving my unfiltered opinion immediately after the show. However, there are times where, with the benefit of hindsight, I change my mind. Last episode is one of those instances. I gave the episode some praise in my most recent blog, but the fact is that the more I think about it, the scummier I feel. So, let’s go through things item by item, and give my general thoughts on each part of the issue.

First, the couple of things I misinterpreted/failed to mention in my previous blog. A lot has rightly been made of Miss and Elizabeth basically using Kellee’s feelings about Dan to blindside her, notable later telling Dan that they said no such things. At the time, I paid this no mind, because my interpretation was that they DID feel that way, and they were lying to Dan to make HIM feel better, since it was better for their game. But no, it has come out that they used Kellee’s feelings, and yeah, that’s pretty scummy of them, and makes me think the less of them as a whole. Speaking of Dan, I failed to mention his muttered smugness towards the bootees of the previous episode, which, even with the most generous interpretation of Dan’s actions, is a low blow, dude.

But the big thing I want to talk about is the production side of things here. I wrote a lot of praise for production on the previous episode. I felt they dealt with the situation in a sober and serious manner. Then, as is my tradition, I go and read other people’s thoughts on the episode, and, to put it mildly, they did not agree with me. In fact, they brought up a number of points that I agreed with. Notably, that they should have had this talk with Dan about his behavior BEFORE the issue got this far, and that Kellee should have been able to have a say at the first Tribal Council after she was voted out. Admittedly, the latter could be argued as a violation of game rules, but given that it led to a situation where people were talking ABOUT her when she was RIGHT THERE, I feel like this is one area where we could bend the rules. All that plus my dislike of Probst for forcing a “moment” at the second Tribal Council really makes me unhappy with production over all these proceedings. That said, I do cut production a little slack, and I’ll explain why in the next paragraph.

Let me preface everything I’m about to say by pointing out that yes, production could have handled things better, and no, none of what I’m about to say is an excuse for any of their actions. But I think production was in a no-win situation with this whole affair. The trouble is that production wants to strike a balance between doing what’s morally right, and what’s “fair” in terms of the game. And unfortunately, past precedent with regards to sexual misconduct says to not interfere. I mentioned the “Grindgate” incident from “Survivor Thailand”, and I think that was heavily on their minds when deciding what to do. After all, in that situation, which is comparable in seriousness to the current situation, production let the contestants sort things out. Now again, that doesn’t mean that’s all they should think about in this situation. But consider in terms of lawsuits: If you’re on the production of the show, are you more worried about being sued by Kellee, who has had to sign away a lot of her rights in the contracts they have every contestant sign, thereby giving production something of a barrier to a lawsuit, or Dan, who if you remove him, has fair grounds to say that he was denied money and placement in the game by production? Again none of this makes production ok, but I understand why they did what they did.

For me, there’s also an element of production learning from all this. Yes, as I’ve said, we’ve had situations like this previously, from “Grindgate” to the Richard and Sue situation in “Survivor All-Stars”. But that was a very different era in terms of our conversations about sexual harassment, so for me, this is really the first time that “Survivor” has really had to confront this issue, and their part in it, in this environment. Thus, I give production the benefit of a doubt, and think they’re just making a mistake, rather than acting with malice aforethought. That said, I’m all for questioning authority, and completely understand if people think that production does not deserve that chance. If something like this happens again, and they react in the same way, I’m right there with you. If you feel that this is so triggering that you simply cannot watch “Survivor” anymore, I understand, and do not judge. But I, as an individual, am willing to give production a chance to show that they’ve learned and do better. If they don’t, it might be enough to stop watching the show.

Given how little happens in this episode, this blog may already be half-over. Soberly heading back to camp after a heavy Tribal Council, Janet notes that she’s royally screwed, thereby ensuring that Janet is safe. Janet, however, is not the only person ensuring their safety through edit at this point. Get ready for a heaping helping of Karishma this episode. She was pretty quiet last episode, but she’s back with a vengeance now. She comes in literally screaming, as a rat apparently crawled in her mouth. So in other words, she had the natural reaction. Elizabeth is pretty beat up in the morning as well. Seeing people cuddling, I thought Dan STILL somehow hadn’t got the message about his behavior, but no, it’s just the rain. Again, understandable. Karishma will not be denied, however. She plops herself down in the hammock, leading Noura to a confessional tirade about how Karishma isn’t doing anything for the tribe. A bit hard to deny, since Karishma seems to be sleeping sitting up. Still, Noura is not to be denied, and badgers Karishma into going on a coconut hunt.

This is a big mistake. If someone’s a slouch around camp, and you want them out, you encourage that behavior. Play it up. Keep them in everyone’s minds, and let them see the burden this player is to the tribe. Plus, if you send them off, they have a chance of finding an idol. Which is exactly what Karishma does. Admittedly this idol seemed to “pop” a lot more from its hiding place than previous idols, but I don’t mean to belittle Karishma’s accomplishment. An idol find is an idol find, and Karishma is rightly proud of herself. She’s also right that she needs it, since as she comes back from an hour of hunting with two measly coconuts, we see Noura, Lauren, and Tommy talking about the need to get Karishma out, with Janet as a backup. Needing an excuse, Karishma plays up her illness. Lauren, out of compassion, suggests calling for the doctor, which Karishma denies, though I’m not sure why. If the doctor comes, and there’s not really anything wrong with you, so what? Sure, it looks like you’re playing up the “woe is me” bit a bit if there’s really nothing wrong with you, but hey, you’re already on the bottom, and you lose a lot of goodwill by being so insistent, so what’s the harm?

One point about this season as a whole: While we don’t have any “Island of the Idols” this episode, which I’m overall for (though the title of the season is starting to seem like a lie), and I don’t feel it usually takes up too much time, I think we’ve missed something here. It’s becoming clear this new merge tribe has multiple shelters. Why? Was it a space thing? Because of Dan? Alliance segregation? Gender segregation? There’s a story here, a fascinating insight into the dynamics of the tribe, and I’m sad we don’t get it.

Off to our immunity challenge. Yes, already. You see, the show is doing the “Divide into two groups and vote separately” thing they tried on “Survivor Ghost Island”. Not the worst idea to try again, but since that fell fairly flat this time, I’m surprised to see it come back. Now is not the time, however, purely because of the odd number of contestants left, making for uneven teams. There’s an issue of fairness and number of votes there right off the bat, but there’s more issues I’ll get to in a bit. Second, while both this season and “Survivor Ghost Island” had fairly solid majorities, it felt more solid on the latter season, making the twist seem more of a necessity. Here, there’s more flexibility, and thus, to me, less need for the twist. As to the challenge itself, it’s pretty lame. Balancing on a beam, contestants keep a ball circling the inside of a hoop. Last people standing for each team wins immunity. Definitely a tough challenge, and requires a different skill set than most challenges, but it’s just dumb-looking, and doesn’t do enough to distinguish itself from other challenges. Oh, and Probst, no, not all strategies are created equal. Spinning the ball fast does not take significantly more energy than spinning it slowly, and the extra force helps keep the ball in the hoop. Fast is the way to go.

After the challenge starts, Probst pulls a classic “dick move” by telling them the teams are also playing for reward AFTER the challenge starts. The last person standing overall wins peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for their whole team, as well as the right to go to Tribal Council second. This is why, in the issue of fairness, the teams NEEDED to be equal. Could you really not have held this challenge for one more episode cycle?

In the end, the edge doesn’t matter, however. That’s because the winner on Purple is Noura, having beaten out Dean, Dan, Aaron, Janet, and Lauren. Noura being Noura, was not paying attention to the instructions, and drops her hoop in celebration, leaving just Elaine and Missy to battle it out on Orange, Tommy, Karishma, and Elizabeth having fallen out already. Good for them, but nothing much exciting about the challenge.

Probst sends the orange team back to the Lumuwaku camp, while he twists the knife further for the purple team. They’re sent out the old Lairo camp, confirming by proxy that the merge camp is the Vokai camp. Janet is naturally targeted, but realizes this, and so seeks to turn the narrative around. Noura is of the same mind. She may be a bit on the crazy side, but even she can see the blindingly obvious. Aaron has won a bunch of immunity challenges. He’s a major player in the majority alliance, which a number of players in this group have a reason to want to break up. If you’re outside of the majority, like Janet or Dean, it keeps things chaotic and gives you a chance to get back in the majority. f you’re a part of that majority, like Lauren, Noura, and Dan, it gets rid of a major threat and original Lairo member in that alliance, thereby improving your overall odds. Since this group is smart overall, pretty much everyone readily agrees to this plan. But, of course, we need someone to do a dumb in order for us to have tension at this Tribal Council. Dean, as is his want, obliges by talking about wanting to keep “threats” around so he isn’t targeted. Not the worst justification I’ve heard, but Dean, even if you’re fairly strong, you don’t LOOK the part. You’ve got room to maneuver if that’s the case, and any shakeup is a good shakeup for you. Dean’s decent at persuasion, though. He even persuades Dan that he’s a challenge threat. Dan, “challenge threat” is not how I think of you, and I would say that even before the events of last episode. It’s Dan’s musings about his place in the game that transition us to the Lumuwaku camp. A fun transition, but I do wish it was someone other than Dan doing the narration.

Karishma is so obvious the plan to be the target tonight, and thanks to her idol, so obviously not going, that we don’t even get any lip service to the idea. Perhaps that’s because everyone’s lips are full of peanut butter, but even when Missy is capable of speaking again, she’s going with a different plan. Yes, it’s time for that foreshadowing from the swap to pay off. Missy still wants to split Lauren and Tommy up, and to be fair, this is the ideal time to do it. You could make an argument that Karishma pulled something (even not knowing she has an idol), so that Lauren has no hard feelings towards you, while still severing her options. And, of course, anything that keeps Karishma safe is good for her. So why is Missy trying to so hard to torpedo her own plan? Seriously? I get that she’s a bit authoritative, but Missy, you’d been so good at persuasion before. I’ve seen worse, but it really felt even to me, and definitely to Karishma, that Missy was bossing her around. Even so, Missy was in a recoverable position, but then tried to stop Karishma from leaving the clearly uncomfortable conversation, and would not let up on her afterward. You really think this is the way to Karishma’s heart?

Missy then makes a second mistake, though I think this one’s more understandable. Being allied with Elaine, Missy fills in Elaine on the boot out Tommy plan. Elaine, however, is not on board, due to her bond with Tommy! Yes, that very special bond with Tommy that supersedes the bond she has with Missy, who she’s been allied with and on the same tribe as since the beginning of the game! A bond so special, we’re not hearing about it before tonight! Look, I get that Tommy’s thing is “the social game”, but if a bond is this strong, perhaps a bit of foreshadowing would be nice. Then again, maybe Elaine’s just feeling confident because of the immunity necklace. She’s certainly doing better at persuading Karishma than Missy, being gentle and kind and understanding. Let it not be said that Missy does not learn from her mistakes, as she talks more gently with Karishma afterward, and makes it more of a conversation. Karishma admits to being conflicted, stating that it’s a battle between her emotions, which are not happy with Missy, and her intellect, which says Tommy is the smarter move. This is really the main disadvantage of the episode: The less intriguing group is going second, making for a weaker finish. For all my snark at Dean, there’s real debate as to whether Aaron or Janet would go home. Aaron’s the clearly smarter move, but I could see this group not playing optimally. Here, however? Time and again, Karishma’s voted with Missy, and there was the foreshadowing that Tommy and Lauren would be broken up. The only things working in Tommy’s favor. His and Elaine’s “bond” that only came up this episode, and him saying he connects with Karishma, despite her mentioning last episode, that Tommy wouldn’t talk to her. Yeah, Tommy is toast, which is unfortunate, as he and Janet are really the only players left that I unequivocally like.

We get a brief scene at the old Lairo camp, with Elaine’s confessional transitioning us again. That’s the coolest thing, though, as nothing much comes of the conversation. Nothing much comes of the Tribal Council either. I’m still not a fan of Rob and Sandra commenting overall, but this first Tribal Council needed it. There was NOTHING going on. Rob noting Dean rolling up his sleeves is fascinating in comparison. Actually, Rob betting on Aaron going, while Sandra betting on Janet helps add to the mystery, as the narrative so far this season is that Sandra is right in her predictions, while Rob is wrong. Adds more to the mystery. However, with a lack of awesome music this group does the smart thing, and Aaron goes home. I’m not sorry to see him go. It’s impressive that he came back from his first episode blindside, and he did have really cool socks, but the dude was at best boring and at worst a bit arrogant. Plus, Janet is fun character and a wonderful human being. Happy to have her around any day. That said, this really seals Tommy’s fate, as seeing Aaron on the jury indicates a “vote out the men” strategy that Karishma is likely to go along with.

Our second Tribal Council is much more lively, owing to Missy’s self-sabotage. I’m still certain that Tommy is going home, but Missy is doing everything in her power to convince me otherwise. After rallying to have a good conversation with Karishma, she’s now going on about how they don’t get along. Granted, Missy did warn Karishma that they would need to bash her, and I applaud her for sneaking in calling jurors Jamal and Kellee “threats”, thereby pandering to them for potential jury votes, while still having it sound natural. It seems, however, that Karishma is not as logical as she says. She flips to vote out Missy. I would complain about Karishma making a bad move, since Missy has been in her corner far more than Tommy, but I can’t because I’m too busy doing my happy dance! After effectively having “the bad guys” win last episode, it’s nice to see one of the people involved get a comeuppance. Plus, once again, any emphasis on the social game is fine by me.

But who should get credit for this move? When Missy asks what happened, Tommy pulls a “don’t screw with me”. But Elaine, in whispers, says that it was her. She gets the credit from Missy, but at what cost. Blatantly violating the “Need to bring me your torch” directive, she whispers to Elizabeth that Elaine needs to die. Elaine, I applaud your jury management, but it doesn’t do you much good if you’re on the jury.

This episode is solid. The few out-of-nowhere plot points kind of drag it down, but overall a decent episode. That said, it’s not enough, and I don’t think anything would be enough. For better or for worse, this season has become like anything associated with Bill Cosby. It can be good quality, it can bring you joy, but with recent developments, it’s going to feel a bit icky watching it. This is a shame, since I like this cast at least ok overall, and there is a lot good to watch here. But now, it’s mostly going to be marred by the spectre of this incident. Between the lackluster last season, controversy this season, and, if the rumors are true, a completely chaotic and idiotic next season, this show may be finally pushing me to quit watching.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Island of the Idols” Episode 8: Behind the Scenes

First off, my apologies for the lateness of this blog. I usually try to spot these things ahead of time, but didn’t anticipate the merge episode being double-length. Couple that with me needing to get up at my usual time for work, plus the blog both starting later and being extra long, and you’ve got a recipe for a blog you’ve got to wait for. That said, I’ve avoided reading other people’s thoughts on the episode, so you still get my unfiltered opinions. And ooh boy, this is going to be unlike most other episodes you see me blog.

Questions abound at Lairo as they return from Tribal Council, as one would expect after a blindside. Here, we see the pitfall in Kellee hinging her plan on Noura voting the way she expects. Not only is Noura a bit unreliable in this regard, but also tends to have a bit of a problem keeping her mouth shut. Questions emerge about who the second vote for Jack was, and Noura initially plays it off quite well, giving a pretty good dumbfounded look. However, after seemingly no pressure, Noura caves and says she was the second vote. Noura then gets questioned on why, and gives up that someone told her to make this move. Noura further professes loyalty to the person, saying she won’t betray her. Five seconds later, Noura is throwing Kellee under the bus. Again, great convoluted plan, Kellee! Jamal and Janet are naturally the most upset about this (being the most gung-ho about voting out Dean), and go over and talk with Kellee. Kellee offers up no real defense, but then Jamal and Janet offer up no real anger. Evidently Jamal is learning from his reaction to the Molly boot. Still, this does not look good for Kellee, which she realizes.

With confirmation that yes, idols can be found at camp now (Jamal having not been to the Island of the Idols at this point most likely means they’re not exclusively there), we get an idol hunting montage. Everyone on the tribe’s in on it. Even Janet, who just last episode said she didn’t want to put a target on her back, is looking. Noura frets about snakes, which makes me wonder why she doesn’t poke around with a stick first. Kellee, being the smartest of the bunch left (convoluted plan notwithstanding), ends up finding the idol, which is wrapped in orange paper. Now, this might just be because the idol’s on Lairo now, but I wonder if Kellee inadvertently found Chelsea’s idol that she never got to play instead. Not that it makes much of a difference in the grand scheme of things, but a fun little trivia note if so.

Not long after, the tribe gets a not that says “Pack your things”, which some immediately say means “merge”. Um, guys? I see the logic there, but a bit of a jump if you ask me. Sure enough, though, our remaining 13 players are whisked off to a feast, and some new blue buffs. This is pretty standard fare, so while our tribe members are celebrating, let’s talk about the new tribe name, Lumuwaku. Give it credit that it’s one of the longest merge tribe names we’ve had in a while that isn’t a repeated syllable. Although it’s not mentioned in the show proper, we also get the backstory behind this name. As a tribute to loved one’s back home, it’s a misappropriation of “Love You, Miss You, Really Wanna Kiss You”. Kind of cheesy, but it does make for a multi-layered name. I’m cool with it.

The game must recommence, though, and Tommy is the one to bring us back. He talks about how easy it would be for the original Vokai to sweep the original Lairo, being up 7-6. Certainly Jamal seems on board with the idea, despite being the one remaining guy who has been REPEATEDLY burned by the original Vokai. Tommy, however, wants to keep his options open. So, he reconvenes with Kellee. Remember how tight they were? How they worked together? How they basically made the decisions for their tribe early in the game? Yeah, throw that out the window. Tommy suggests she and Janet come on board with the new Vokai and run the game. Kellee says no, citing that Missy is a threat. This, to Tommy, means original tribal lines are dead, and he needs a mix to win the game. Look, Tommy, I want to like you, I really do, but this is just stupid! After one failed pitch, which you did a poor job on (he really should have emphasized using Kellee and Janet to oust the four remaining Lairo on that side, to give Kellee and incentive to rejoin), yo just give up on that advantage. Need I remind you that just two episodes ago, you were betrayed by the old Lairo on your tribe? And now you want to work with them? Where the hell did this come from? Look, the philosophy is sound. Work with a coalition, not just a simple majority. In general, I can get behind that. But Tommy, when your game so far has been about getting everyone to like you, and then you suggest betraying people for little reason? Doesn’t seem very likable to me. And again, what incentive does Tommy have for sticking with the new Vokai? Dan and Lauren I get, but the other four are clearly against you. If you can’t pull in some others (like, say, Kellee and Janet), you’re just dooming yourself to fifth place at best. Doesn’t sound very good. I still like the guy, but he REALLY dropped the ball strategy-wise here.

It seems that he and Lauren are all-in on this plan, though, as Lauren goes and informs Missy of Kellee’s plan to target her, cementing Kellee as a target a the upcoming Tribal Council. Look, I get that Kellee is a threat. She needs to go at some point. But right now, for Tommy and Lauren, she’s a USEFUL threat. Let her take the brunt of attacks for making moves, get out a few old Lairo to cement your majority, then blindside her when the time is right. Sure, she has an idol, but you can’t know that! On top of that, Missy is also a threat! Possibly the one person who can unite the old Lairo! And you’re just kowtowing to her right now. If you two get voted out, at this point, you deserve it. Lauren further advises Missy that she ought to win immunity. More on that later.

And now we come to something unlike anything I’ve yet blogged about. An entire segment of rarely-seen footage on “Survivor”. I’m talking, of course, about a peek behind the scenes of how the show gets made.

Now, we know conceptually that this is a show being filmed. There are camera crews with sound crews watching these contestants every minute of every day. Players aren’t just talking to themselves in confessional; they’re talking to a producer who’s asking them questions. But it’s a mark of the professionalism of the show that you so rarely see that. Sure, there’s occasionally times in the show proper where they make their presence known. The challenge on “Survivor Kaoh Rong” where three people got heat stroke comes to mind. The most infamous is probably the “He’s burned pretty bad, Terry.” from “Survivor The Australian Outback.” But usually that happens in the presence of a real medical emergency, where making a show takes a back seat, priority-wise, to saving people’s lives. Here, there’s no immediate danger, but they show us footage that clearly shows production, as well as giving us what I believe is our first ever on-screen producer sound-byte, in order to show us the gravitas of the situation.

And what situation could be so damning that this was needed? Well, Dan’s hands are finally coming to a head. And leg. And chest. And pretty much any female body part they can find. Yes, Kellee may want to vote our Missy, but she’ll still commiserate with her about what a creep Dan’s being. This leads to a flashback montage where we see various shots of Dan putting his hands on people (both ones we’ve seen before, and ones we haven’t) as they’re described. One could argue that it’s a little cheap that we’re just learning about some of this stuff now, but I think it works. Dan’s handsiness is well-established at this point, and since we do get some old footage, it stays in good continuity with the new. Kellee understandably gets somewhat emotional about this, given that she’s had a problem with this before, and despite her talks, it only seems to be getting worse. This is where the producer comes in: to ask if she wants him removed from the game. When she says know, he informs her that she’s always free to say so if she’s uncomfortable.

Now, I’ll be getting into the ramifications for the show as a whole in a minute, but I want to take some time out to discuss the rules conundrum this presents. “Survivor” has relatively few rules about what you can and can’t do in terms of the game, with two hard and fast exceptions to that. You cannot intentionally hurt someone, and you can’t conspire to share the prize money. Clearly, Dan has not done the latter, and you could argue he hasn’t done the former. The former rule usually refers to physically hurting someone, and while Dan is emotionally hurting someone, there’s no physical damage here. As Dan himself will later claim, it’s also possible there’s no intentionality to it. Yet, his removal for this is still discussed. My guess is that they’re including sexual harassment under “physical harm”, and Dan’s actions at the very least border up on this area, given the experiences of the women. Good on the show for being progressive, I say.

Know what else I’ll praise the show for? This whole segment. Yeah, it’s not the only time we’ve seen the production side of things, but it’s one of the most extensive, and it’s a fascinating look. Plus, this would have been so easy to sweep under the rug. Jumping ahead a great ways, while this does come up in conversation a lot, and will be the major focus of the second Tribal Council, Dan faces little in the way of comeuppance for his actions here. The show could easily have gotten away with just showing the complaining to explain why the subject comes up later on in the episode. They cynical might say the show HAD to acknowledge the role it had in this whole scenario, since Janet will later make reference to “the powers that be”, but to me, this comes off as the show saying “Hey, for all that this is a game, we take this shit seriously. This is how it went down, and this is how we handled it.” The only editorializing comes from the players themselves. Scenes are presented, shown, and discussed, all with little fanfare. This culminates in a card from the show as we go to commercial, stating that production talked with all individuals, as well as the group as a whole, and Dan in particular, about proper conduct. Again, could be covering their asses, but I think the show was trying to handle a delicate situation maturely.

Off to our immunity challenge, and as you’d expect, it’s another endurance challenge involving balancing balls. Honestly, I don’t know why I even both explaining these anymore, since they all just blend together. What is more noteworthy is how obvious it is that Missy will win. We had the foreshadowing from her and Lauren, plus these sorts of challenges tend to favor the women. All that makes for a greater surprise, then, when Missy falls out. She lasts a good way in, but still falls short. Hell, none of the women make the finals, as it comes to a showdown between Aaron and Jamal. Aaron takes it when Jamal gives out of nowhere and seems unable to get up. Aaron does the smart thing and checks in on his victory before going over to help Jamal, though I’m glad he did help. Good in terms of keeping up the mystery, bad in terms of having a coherent story. As to our individual immunity idol of the season? Well, it’s better than the tribal one, though it’s not saying much. They keep with the Easter Island Head thing, but add some artfully burned bamboo to make it look creepy. I’ve seen worse, but this one’s not going down in the history books by any stretch.

Kellee is, of course, the main target for the night, but we need some plausibility that someone else will go home instead. There are two ways we get this. One is Dean. While the new Vokai members have a majority on their own, they want as many people in on the vote as possible. As such, Tommy and Lauren talk to Dean about voting for Kellee. Unbeknownst to them, however, Dean feels some debt to Kellee, owing to her saving him last episode. Nothing comes of it yet, but it is a plot thread to bear in mind. Another is Kellee not being content with just one idol. Recognizing that merges often have multiple idols, she goes hunting and sure enough finds a blue idol. While recent track records (Tony Vlachos, Jeremy Collins) would indicate having two idols simultaneously as being a good thing, I still tend to favor the James Clement (“Survivor China”) model, where they make one overconfident, and more trouble than they’re worth. Still Kellee is definitely smarter than James, so she’s still got a chance to make this work.

But of course, all this would be worthless without another target in case Kellee does play her idol. Jamal, as one of the more sensitive people to topics like this, pitches voting out Dan due to the controversy surrounding him. Not a bad idea, when the merge is this big. Rather than going for the big move, merges like this tend to move for the consensus boot, just to ensure the safety of the group as a whole, and avoid the headache of strategizing with so many numbers. Actually, for Tommy and Lauren, voting out Dan would probably be the BETTER move for them, since they piss off fewer people this way. But no, they’re still stuck on the Kellee thing. Whoopee.

Good or bad, this Tribal Council is LONG! You’d think with the surface-level tribe dynamics, this would be an open and shut Tribal Council, but no, we have long discussions and lots of double-talk. Probably the two standout moments (at least the two that stand out nearly 24 hours later) are Dean’s “I’ve gotta be honest.” comment, since his delivery and editing are the one thing that really make it seem like he might blab to Kellee, thus getting her to play her idol. The other is the masterful play by Lauren. Kellee, during voting, looks at her and asks if they’re good. Lauren nods and assures her they are. A simple lie, but brilliantly played off by Lauren. It’s a brilliant play for what I’ve emphasized is the wrong move, but brilliant nonetheless. And all capped off with the awesome music.

We get a commercial break as the votes are tallied, trying in vain to convince us that Dan will go. But no. Doesn’t work. Look, the controversy around Dan is palpable, but if people were more concerned about that than the game, he would have been ejected before this Tribal Council. People are focussed on gameplay now, and the “strategists” have targeted Kellee. Sure enough, she doesn’t play her idols and goes. A dumb move, and one that I can’t even support from a viewer’s perspective. I don’t think Dan is the scum of the Earth or anything, but he’s brought very little, apart from controversy. He’s Ted Rogers (“Survivor Thailand”) lite. Kellee, while making some dumb moves recently, has brought strategy to the game, and crazy, out of the box thinking, which we always need more of. Point being, I’m very much in favor of her getting a second chance somewhere down the line. Not the greatest game ever played, but a strong showing for a first time.

Naturally, with a blindside, there’s going to be fallout. Janet, Jamal, Noura, and Karishma were all left out of that particular vote, and all have a reason to be upset. One person usually takes point at times like these, and as you might expect, that person is Janet. What you might not expect is her reasoning. From what we saw, Jamal just threw a name out there he thought people could get behind, not being on any sort of moral crusade. It was for Janet, though. She talks with Tommy and Lauren about the why of it. The pair really don’t do a good job explaining themselves, when really all they need to do is say “The talk with production handled it, so we went with what we thought was best from a gameplay perspective.” In spite of their waffling answer, Janet seems satisfied, and goes to explain herself to Dan. Dan, for his part, seems perplexed at the whole thing. Odd, considering production supposedly talked to him about his behavior. Seeking consolation, Dan talks initially to Missy and Elizabeth, two of the people Janet implicated as having a problem with him, with Elaine and Aaron coming around as well. Dan says that he’s completely dumbfounded at these accusations, and you don’t know how hard I’m resisting making an impeachment joke right now. This leads to Dan confronting Janet about this, who pulls over Missy and Elizabeth to talk with Dan, where Elizabeth, despite being one of the few people to say she didn’t find Dan particularly objectionable, does admit to talking go Janet about it. It becomes clear to Janet that she was being fed something of a story, so our scene ends for now. Rest assured, though, the issue is not done with yet.

We get back to our now usual “Survivor” stuff, in a good, old-fashioned idol hunt by a few of our members. Aaron and Missy agree to go looking for an idol, and so get up to try and avoid the rush. Unfortunately, they pass by an already-awake Janet on their way, and their lame lie of “going for a walk” does not fool her. She tails them, and when that doesn’t work, she just hits on her own. Janet is justly rewarded for her efforts. Good for her.

Janet’s not the only one finding goodies, though. After hearing Karishma complain about how Tommy won’t talk to her (literally the ONLY THING resembling fallout from their move that either he or Lauren gets. Seriously, how are they getting away so unscathed?), we get a comedic moment of a piece of paper dangling in between them without them noticing. Karishma finally spots the paper, only for Jamal to be closer and grab it. He’ll soon wish he hadn’t, though. The show may be handing out advantages like candy on Halloween, but even they’re not that blatant. Jamal’s “advantage”, such as it is, is to go to Island of the Idols, mercifully absent from the merge so far. Even Rob and Sandra’s reactions at Tribal Council are kept to a minimum. Jamal swears to come back with an advantage, only to be told that the thing that looked so much like schmuck bait was indeed schmuck bait. For being so foolish as to grab a possible advantage dangling right in front of him, Jamal has lost his vote at the next Tribal Council. Still, Rob and Sandra offer him a chance to screw over someone else as well. They give him a blank piece of paper and pencil, telling him he can make any fake advantage he wants with it. Sure, a blank piece of paper. That you write a fake advantage on. That will DEFINITELY fool people! I mean, it’s not like there’s a very specific style of writing on advantage notes that would be nearly impossible to forge! Clearly, people will fall for this.

Coming back, Jamal tries to pass it off as a legacy advantage, which he gives to Dean to put a target on the latter’s back. Jamal’s penmanship is nice, but it’s clearly a fake. People entertain the idea it might be real, and keep an eye on Dean, but when even Dan is saying he doesn’t buy it, you’re in trouble.

Our second immunity challenge is a reused concept, but more distinctive than the first. Contestants hold a rope as they’re slowly lowered closer horizontally to the water. Last man and woman standing win immunity. A bit overdone, but it’s been a while since we’ve seen this particular challenge, and any opportunity to have Jeff Probst play the role of torturer is always glorious. I’m less of a fan of the “split gender immunity” thing. I’m ok with it for the first immunity challenge, particularly if you’ve got a large number of people at the merge. But now it just feels cheap and arbitrary. If you’re not going to do it during the first challenge, don’t do it at all.

Our outcome this time is just as uneventful as the first. Missy and Aaron win immunity, though I must say I’m surprised ANYONE fell out before Dan. Dude’s kind of top-heavy. Still, if you though our challenge did nothing, our strategizing does even less. Not even TRYING to pretend the majority is going to break, we instead get mystery in the form of who the target will be. They plan to split votes between Jamal and Karishma, the former due to possibly having an advantage from Island of the Idols, and the latter due to… well, basically for voting the wrong way, and not being Janet or Noura (the latter of whom seems to have been absorbed into the new majority). Kind of random, since I’d say Janet’s the biggest threat, due to being well-liked and uncompromising, but if you must choose between those two, there’s no contest. Jamal is a better strategist, and more likely to pull something crazy. Janet would be the best choice, but if it can’t be her, better Jamal than anyone else.

You would think that the limited amount of strategizing would lead to a long Tribal Council, but this is not so. Not to say that nothing happens, but in terms of time spent, it takes up less time than the first. Our topic of discussion also seems misplaced, as it’s NOW that Dan is put through the wringer for his handsiness. Janet feels the need to justify herself, explains her actions, and gets some feedback from the other women. And it could have been dropped there, but Aaron just has to go put his foot in his mouth, arrogantly saying that he doesn’t believe it because he hadn’t heard it. Jamal rightly points out that Aaron is not entitled to know anything until someone is ready to tell it, nor does it make it any less true. This leads to Dan defending himself, Janet breaking down, and everyone building Janet back up. A good honest discussion we needed to hear, and very emotionally impactful on multiple fronts. Too bad Probst just has to keep talking about how important this conversation is! Look, I largely thing production handled the whole situation well and with much dignity for all involved, but Probst trying to force-feed us the social commentary is really pushing the limits of my patience. I’ll give him credit for at least saying he’s not going to let Dan off the hook just because the man’s getting emotional, but again, Probst, the scene speaks for itself. Sometimes your narration is just too much.

Unsurprisingly, Jamal goes home, though there is some tension. Janet plays her idol. I can’t blame her, since she knows she’s on the outs, and she did receive votes, but in the end, they’re just throwaways. Jamal and Karishma are the main targets, and Jamal is smartly sent home. I will miss the guy, though. For every forced Probst talking point about social commentary, Jamal made it feel natural and comfortable, talking about uncomfortable subjects in a way anyone can understand. Dude might not have been the best player of “Survivor”, but he was and presumably still is a decent and fun human being. For this, I respect him.

Apologies if this blog was less detailed than usual. Not being able to write right after the episode does hamper me a bit in this area. One area where it helps, though, is in giving me time for another…

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5!

Yes, it’s time once again to bring out the best and worst “Survivor” has to offer. I don’t often talk about episodes titles as a whole, but they really dropped the ball on this one. As you’ll soon see, it’s bland and generic, despite them having a multitude of good quotes to choose from (I personally would have gone with dan’s cringey “Dope-Ass Merge” comment for hilarity alone). But they didn’t. So, let’s first look at the best titles to herald a merge, and then see where it all went wrong.

TOP 5

5. “I’m not as Dumb as I Look”-Hailing from “Survivor China”, this one may require a little context to understand why it’s so good. On the surface, it’s a pretty generic episode title. Then you remember that this is being said in reference to the infamous, yet hilarious, first fake idol play in the history of “Survivor”. The title may be a bit on the generic side, but anything that reminds one of that deserves a mention on this list.

4. “The Hidden Immunity Idol”-This may raise a few eyebrows to newer fans of the show. After all, and episode talking about hidden immunity idols. Don’t you mean EVERY SINGLE EPISODE OF THE SHOW? Ah, but this title hails from the merge of “Survivor Guatemala”, the first season to introduce this particular twist. Not only would this be a topic of discussion for several episodes to come, thereby making it relevant as a title, but also heralded mystery and excitement. After all, we were seeing this for the first time. We didn’t know what was coming. Thus, by adding excitement and intrigue to an already exciting time in the game, this title accomplishes its most important job.

3. “Girls Gone Wilder”-Look, I’m a sucker for a good pop-cultural reference, and this one works out well. Not only appropriate to the gender theme of “Survivor The Amazon”, it also references Jenna and Heidi’s infamous stripping for chocolate and peanut butter. On a more PC level, it could also refer to the girls going “wild” with power, since not only do they pretty well dominate the game from here on out, but exert their influence on this episode in particular, by insisting Roger go. Maybe a bit sexist in this day and age, but at the time, quite a fitting title.

2. “There’s a New Sheriff in Town”-I like this one for how brazen and yet not brazen it is. This, as you might guess, hails from “Survivor Game Changers”. You know, the season won by officer Sarah Lacina, aka Sheriff Lacina? Obvious in hindsight, but still makes for a decent title on its own. That’s the kind of subtlety I like.

1. “An Emerging Plan”-Out of all the titles on this list, I’d say this is the most subtle. At first seeming like a fairly generic episode title, you glanced over it without much thought. Then you think about it and realize: “An eMERGEing plan”. See, show, if you’re going to work the word “merge” into your merge episode title, do it like this: with a good dose of pun and subterfuge. Not bad for “Survivor Exile Island”.

Honorable Mention: “I’m the Kingpin”-Yet another fairly generic title for a merge, and one that unfortunately has less to justify it. All that puts it on this list is the possible Marvel reference. What can I say? I like Daredevil. Props for playing to your audience, “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”.

BOTTOM 5

5. “Double-Agent”-I may not have as much to say about the titles on this half of the list, mostly because the worst a title can do is be generic, and there’s only so many ways I can say that. “Double-Agent” from “Survivor South Pacific” is no exception to this rule, and so ends up on the list, though I keep it low because, unlike some titles we’ll get to, it’s at least appropriate. After all, this is there episode where Cochran fully jumps ship. It may be overdone, but you can’t say it doesn’t fit.

4. “Play to Win”-What puts the generic merge title from “Survivor Cambodia” on this list is the fact that it’s a lie. Look, the strategic gameplay this season was overall top-notch. It’s my second favorite season for a reason. But the fact remains that this episode was not decided by “Play to Win”, but rather by old grudges coming to light for an easy boot at a large merge. Not saying it’s a good or bad way to play, but call a spade a spade.

3. “Blindside Time”-I really have nothing else to say to this one. It’s generic, more so than the previous two, and what we’ve come to expect at a merge. And for how good the post-merge of “Survivor Caramoan” was, that’s disappointing.

2. “This Game Respects Big Moves”-Yet another thing to blame “Survivor Redemption Island” for: The start of the “BIG MOVEZ!” era. Yes, not only do we have a title that could fit pretty much anywhere, we also have one actively encouraging impulsive and erratic gameplay that stifles individual creativity for the sake of entertainment. Joy. What could possibly be worse than this?

1. “We Made it to the Merge!”-Yes, our most recent season tops the list, though really, it’s a placeholder for all the generic titles just announcing that it’s the merge. We KNOW from the preview that it’s coming. Why not hype us up with what’s special about this one? But no, we just get genericness in a sea of good quotes. It’s not like you didn’t have things to work with this season, CBS. Is a little quality too much to ask?

Honorable Mention-“The Merger”-This one really falls under the number one slot, but I single out for two reasons, one good and one bad. On the good side, this title comes from “Survivor Borneo”, where yeah, they had a reason to be generic. Like what I talked about with “Survivor Guatemala”, even though now it seems old hat, this was a new and exciting development for first-time viewers, making the title not as bad as at first glance. On the bad side, though, this title perpetuates the myth of the “merge” being a “merger”. It is not. Stop calling it that. For this sin, this title must be singled out.

This episode as a whole is unique, if only in the insight it gives us into production. That makes it hard to review, and it does have some annoyances. Parts of the game seemed to go too fast, and I still can’t fathom how we’re supposed to side with Tommy and Lauren when they’re making such bad moves. That said, it was fairly exciting, set up stuff for later, and handled a difficult situation maturely, which is always nice to see. Hope things stay on track, or even improve, in the next episode!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Island of the Idols” Episode 7: Rubbing People the Wrong Way

Forgive me for starting my blog philosophizing about what it takes to win “Survivor”, but as this season, nor the last, had a themed tribe split, I haven’t had a chance to espouse my pet philosophy yet. The person best equipped to win “Survivor” is the person with the best balance. Not in terms of physical balance (though the case of Terry Deitz on “Survivor Exile Island” does make a strong argument for it), but in terms of balance in gameplay style. For instance, on a season like “Survivor David vs. Goliath”, the person who balances the best qualities of a “David” and a “Goliath” within themselves is most likely to win. Now, while this philosophy comes up most prominently on seasons with “vs” themes, it really applies everywhere. Such is the case tonight, where we have a bit of a complexity overload possibly leading to a bad move. Ah, but now I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s begin at the beginning.

In case you had forgotten about it, Elaine reminds us about her blocking Jason’s vote, and then voting him out last episode. Incidentally, dick move there. I can’t fault the using of the advantage, but still, to vote someone out and not even giving them the chance to vote? Dick move.

Old Vokai have now been blindsided, and feel real fear for the first time in the game. Lauren does not take it well. Let me preface what I’m about to say by saying that Lauren has been playing a solid game thus far, and I will have some praise for her later tonight. But MAN does Lauren not take this well. She gets incredibly emotional, particularly with Missy, whom she seems to have something of a bond with. Now, does Lauren have a right to her feelings? Absolutely. But, as I’ve said before and will say again, you can’t let them out like this, especially in the immediate aftermath of a blindside. best to say “good job”, maybe try and get a bit of information, and move on. Any sort of emotional reaction makes you seem harder to work with, and therefore a target. Luckily for Lauren, Missy’s “Girls Alliance” switch is flipped to “On” this week, and so Missy wants to keep her around to use her as an “in” with the old Vokai. Good strategy on her part, though I wish we got a consistent narrative for what that strategy IS. One week she’s all in with the women, the next she’s saying it was never a thing, the week after, back to the women. I’m not saying don’t be flexible, I’m saying have a narrative throughline, rather than this choppiness.

Lairo may not have the interpersonal turmoil that Vokai currently has, but thing’s aren’t so easy for them either. As happens every so often on “Survivor”, the elements rear their ugly heads, and a torrential downpour hammers the tribe. Karishma complains about the shelter getting them wet, but the more immediate concern is fire, the lack thereof. Jamal volunteers himself to restart it, and from what we see, tries for a while with little success. Jack suggests getting Kellee to do it, since she’s good at fire. Kellee reluctantly agrees, only for Jamal to start telling her how to do it. Kellee diplomatically asks if Jamal wants to keep doing it, hands him back the materials and storms off. She tells us in confessional that Jamal can come off as condescending sometimes, such as in the previous scene. Jack’s diplomacy eventually coaxes her back into the role, and she does make fire, but there’s tension now. Jamal’s annoyance makes for an interesting contrast with Noura’s annoyance. Both are rubbing their tribes the wrong way, but for very different reasons. Noura is a blatant annoyance: Talking too loud, laughing too much, wearing her heart on her sleeve, etc. That said, you always know where you stand with her. In contrast, Jamal is polite and has more social graces, but can grate on you in little ways. Plus, he’s outside the alliance and sneaky. Not that much will come of it tonight, but it’s an interesting contrast.

We sadly don’t have much time to dwell on it, as a boat comes, bidding Janet go to the Island of the Idols. Janet, as mentioned the last time, is somewhat reluctant to go, since it puts a target on her back. This time she has no escape route, though, and so contents herself with putting on an over-the-top “upset” face. I say this because I don’t think someone like Janet has been upset in 20 years.

After a literal jaw-dropping reveal of Boston Rob and Sandra, we get down to brass tacks. Boston Rob talks about “Survivor” being a game of calculated risks, and then my tv spontaneously explodes. Must have been the “Survivor Edge of Extinction” failsafe I put on there after last season. No more of that on my screen, thank you.

Switching to steaming the show on my computer, I must admit this “calculated risks” schpiel seems like a reused one. Isn’t that basically what ALL contests, and Vince’s in particular, have been up to this point? That said, it IS a good lesson for Janet, who earlier had turned down Noura’s idea of a women’s alliance. While I can’t say for certain whether or not the women’s alliance is a good strategy for Janet, I can say her reaction to it is wrong. You ALWAYS show at least a bit of interest in a deal. Keep your options open for down the road. Not that Janet burned her bridge with Noura, but it still seems like a missed opportunity for her.

Back to the game of chance, Boston Rob lays out the stakes. Win and you get what basically amounts to a hidden immunity idol that also prevents you from voting. You go back to camp before the vote. Can’t be voted for, can’t cast a vote yourself. Not the most original twist, but it’s something. As usual, if you lose, you lose your next vote. Janet takes her time to consider, which she should definitely do, though for me this is one of the more clear-cut decisions. There’s very little risk if Janet plays. She’s in a solid majority on a tribe likely to go to Tribal Council next, which doesn’t need her vote to succeed, and if she wins, she basically gets a hidden immunity idol good through the final seven. Not being able to vote kind of sucks, but you know what sucks more? Being voted out, that’s what! Janet, however, is a cautious player, and chooses not to take the risk, citing too much flak if she makes herself immune. Gotta admit, I’m not seeing the logic here, Janet. If you use an advantage, that generally makes you LESS of a target. You’ve effectively revealed your hand, and people won’t be suspicious of what you have. If she’s talking about suspicion of her having something in the first place, well, that just makes even LESS sense, since that’s going to happen to you REGARDLESS just by coming back from “Island of the Idols”. Still, props for giving us something different, and she earns the praise of Sandra, which isn’t nothing.

Kellee is concerned that Janet won’t toe the party line on “Island of the Idols” when she returns, but luckily for her, Janet keeps to the story, and we reaffirm that the tribe as a whole wants Dean gone, spinning Noura as a story to him, and Kellee and Noura having chips on their shoulders about Jamal.

Strategy is not unknown to Vokai, either. It seems Kellee is not the only one a bit creeped out by Dan, as Lauren, Tommy, Missy, and Elizabeth discuss the next day. Evidently Dan needs to take his cue from Emperor Kuzco, and “No Touchee”. Boy, there’s a phrase I never thought I’d say.

With no obvious crack in the old Lairo on their tribe, the old Vokai members, or at least Tommy and Lauren, go for plan B: Make sure it’s not them. I would say “me” but Lauren makes it clear that she and Tommy are a pair. If someone has to go, it should be Dan. After all, he was rubbing people the wrong way (both figuratively and literally in this case), so he’ll be less missed from the old Vokai. Tommy even spins a decent lie he acts out very well, telling most of the old Lairo that Dan talked about voting out Aaron. A decent lie, but if Missy is inconsistent in terms of her overall strategy, she’s very consistent in sniffing out BS. She recognizes the bond that Tommy and Lauren have, correctly conclude that they’re lying, and strategize to get one of the two of them out. She targets Tommy in particular, since she and Lauren have something of a bond despite the blindside (they still seem to pair up, though Lauren admitted that it was going to be hard to trust Missy going forward), and believes that getting rid of Tommy will make Lauren side with her. Given the information she has, I can’t blame her. However, I think Missy underestimates the bond Lauren has with people like Janet and Kellee. It’s understandable, since Missy’s never seen them interact, but I think voting out Tommy would only drive a wedge between Lauren and herself, leading to a Natalie Anderson (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”) situation where Lauren makes it her mission to get revenge for her fallen ally.

On to the challenge which is for… Immunity! Ok, I can understand needing to cut reward challenges for time, but you gave us them in the last two episodes, and now we expect them. Be consistent is all I’m saying! They at least give us a pretty cool challenge for it. Three tribe members toss coconuts into a net, which will knock over a set of puzzle pieces. The remaining four then assembles these into a “Survivor” logo, winning immunity. Not a bad set of elements overall, even if they are reused. Coconut tosses are always fun, and what the puzzle lacks in complexity, it makes up for in scale. Plus, we get Tommy and Jack yelling a lot. Always good for a laugh.

After last episode (both in terms of Lairo actually winning and losing Jason) contests are now going to be much more even overall, and the editing gives us very little. We got viable targets on both tribes pre-challenge. Vokai only got one (Tommy), while Lairo had multiple (Dean, Noura, Jamal), making for good mystery. Funnily enough, we had a situation where both tribes had good reason to try and throw the challenge. We didn’t see it, but it was still a funny concept. I actually thought Missy and Elizabeth, two of the throwers for Vokai, WERE trying to throw the challenge, since their shots went SO wide for athletic people, but since they were drilling shots later, I can only assume they just needed some practice to get in the groove. Vokai gets a lead from Tommy’s shooting, and although they narrowly lose it on the puzzle, they still pull out a narrow victory. Kellee angsts about the use of her idol, as tonight is the last night she can play it, which I’m sure in NO WAY will come into play tonight!

Dean is reaffirmed as the primary target for the night, with Jamal and Jack spinning him a good story about voting for Noura, due to her being, well, Noura. Even Detective Dean can’t see through their poker faces. Kellee, meanwhile, is still down and out about not being able to use her idol, evidently forgetting about the Chrissy Hoffbeck (“Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers”) school of “Dead Idol as Leverage/Bluff”. Then, though, she has an epiphany! A complicated epiphany! The Rube Goldberg Machine of epiphanies! She wants to keep Dean around, since she has a connection she can use. Fair enough. She wants her idol not to go to waste. Still fair, though again, an idol CAN be of use even if you don’t play it. She wants to give Dean her idol so he can save himself, and here’s where things start to get finicky. I agree with her argument that it’s best for her game if Jack or Jamal go. Both worked against her interest in the past, and could be dangerous come a merge. Plus, since Dean has nowhere to go, he’s not much of a threat. But I fail to see how giving Dean your idol is necessary. True, it ensure Dean will be forever loyal to you (as much as one can on “Survivor”), but just letting him in on a plan to not vote him out will do that! It’s not like the guy has anywhere else to go! All his allies are gone! Now what, you may ask, is the harm of letting Dean play the idol? After all, it gets to the same result in the end. The trouble, though, it that it increases risk for Kellee (as she herself mentions, Dean could use this against her), but she either has to publicly play her idol for Dean, or let him steal a moment that should be for her. She doesn’t know the jury will start tonight (it will), but if she’s suspecting a merge, like she tells us, then most people here will be on the jury, and will see this great move of her. Unless, of course, it just looks like Dean found the idol on his own, in which case he gets all the credit for saving himself. To add onto the complexity pile, Kellee wants to let Noura in on the plan, and have her vote for either Jack or Jamal. Now we’re back in good idea territory, but again, we didn’t necessarily need to go here. True, Jack and Jamal will never go along with the plan, and Janet’s made it pretty clear she’s not moving, but the fact remains that we’re never shown why Kellee can’t keep her idol (or play it on herself, just to be safe), and go to Karishma, Dean, and Noura, and rally them to vote out Jack or Jamal 4-3. You could argue that this move would piss off the remaining two left out, but either Jack or Jamal would be pissed anyway, and all you have to do is let Janet know, and she’ll be at least slightly less miffed. Kellee doesn’t know that Jamal has an idol, so she can’t know that this is the risk.

Point being, I think Kellee got a little too caught up in her idea, and made it overly complex. Is it the worst thing in the world? No, but I think it got a little too cute, and ran more risk than she needed, as outlined above. Not the end of the world for her tonight, but could be a problem long term. Simple plans are simply foiled, but plans that are too complex lead to a lot of unnecessary risk. Like most things on “Survivor”, you need to balance simplicity and complexity in your plans. Complex enough to not be easily foiled, but simple enough to avoid unnecessary risk.

Since we see Kellee telling Dean about her idol, it’s pretty clear that either Jamal or Jack is going home. Yes, it kills the mystery a bit, but this is another good example of a “journey” episode, rather than a “destination” episode. We don’t need mystery if there’s a fun story getting there, and damn if this isn’t fun. Plus the mystery of who was going to Tribal Council, plus the mystery between Jack and Jamal keeps that element going. As to who she should go with, Kellee lines out her choices better than I could. Jack is a threat come the merge, but Jamal is less likely to work with her. Both compelling arguments, but for me, Jamal is the correct choice here. Leaving aside his idol (as Kellee can’t possibly know about it), while Jack is a threat come the merge, you don’t know for certain that the merge is coming, and Jack’s a bigger target than you if it is. Plus, Jack’s shown that he takes betrayal WAY better than Jamal. You want as many options as possible, and Jack could still be willing to work with you, even if you do betray him. Betray Jamal, however, and that bridge is burned pretty much for good.

Even Tribal Council has a bit of complexity addiction tonight. Dean, of course, plays up his moroseness, but Noura decides she needs to add on to it. She starts off well, talking about long term trust versus short term trust, indicating that not knowing Dean for as long makes him a target by gesturing in his direction. She also gestures towards Jamal as someone she doesn’t get along with, but Jamal takes it in stride. Then, however, she has to get complex with it. She goes on some extended metaphor about family, talking about working with and against the jerks in the family, and now Jamal is suspicious. He requests that Probst question Noura on trying to target him, which Probst obliges, hilariously mimicking Jamal’s gestures as he does so. Jamal then invokes the dreaded “Women’s Alliance”, getting Kellee into the action, who calls the accusation “arbitrary” and “sexist”. She does have a point when she says it’s brought up as a threat more often than it’s actually a problem, but in Jamal’s defense, we’re still reeling from “Survivor Micronesia”. This segways into a nice, honest discussion about how the perception of women in society is changing, and how that impacts the game. It’s a thoughtful and engaging discussion, ruined by Probst talking about how “relevant” it makes “Survivor”. Look, Probst, I love you, but this is a step too far. DOING something makes it relevant. TALKING about how relevant it is makes it seem like pandering, and less relevant pandering at that. We didn’t need you to tell us it was relevant. We already knew. Remember that first episode, with me talking about how “Less is More”? Yeah, that’s something that’s still relevant as well.

We sadly don’t get the epic music to plays us out of Tribal Council, but we do get the expected Dean idol play. This has Jamal spooked, and so he plays his idol. Props to him for paying attention, but less props for playing it on Noura. With all that talk of people being out to get you, seems to me the smart thing would have been to play it on himself. I’d be wrong, however, as Jack is targeted for being a threat. Not the move I expected, and not the one I think is the smartest. That said, while losing any of the targets tonight would have been a hard blow, I do think Jack is at least the least interesting of the three. Jamal is a complex character who brings a lot of drama, and Dean at least has the “Detective Dean” persona to lean back on. Jack, while a nice guy and intelligent, brought little to the table. He’s sort of a less athletic Joe Anglim (“Survivor Worlds Apart”). A nice, inoffensive guy who brings little else to the table.

After a few rocky episodes, this show is back in gear! This episode not only built on past storylines, but set the stage for new ones as well, what with the Missy/Lauren and Dean/Kellee bonds. Plus, some people noticed that Dean played his idol tonight rather than the previous Tribal Council. Will this overly complex plan bite Kellee in the butt? I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out in the merge next week!

I wonder if CBS will compensate me for a new tv…

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.