I guess, if we have no one to praise for correctly identifying last week’s quote, we can talk about the new tribe name, since I failed to do so. “Koru” is not a bad name, though a bit on the short side. We’re not doing as bad as back in the day, when it was NOTHING but four-letter names for a while, but this one does manage to not sound similar to any previous tribe name, at least. It does sound similar to the character of Tohru from “Jackie Chan Adventures”, but as I’m probably the only “Survivor” fan who has ever watched that show, it would only bother me.
Getting back from Tribal Council, it’s safe to say that people are not happy. Michele in particular is not happy, and in telling us that she is not happy, we see that the crowdedness of last episode has even spilled over into this one. Michele, you see, references a plot line we DID NOT SEE AT ALL IN THE PAST EPISODE. She talks about how mad she is when she said she was ok with Wendell going, yet was left out anyway. Um, did I miss something? Yeah, Michele talked about not liking Wendell when they first ended up on a tribe together, but the most recent narrative was how she had wasted a fire token on him, and how bonded they were. Where did this come from? Now, you might charitably say that Michele was simply playing that up to the players, to help make her anger come off as righteous indignation, as well as imply her free-agent status. This argument would make sense, were it not for the fact that she was saying this in confessional. You know, when ONLY talking to the camera? Unless she’s pulling a Danni Boatwright, why lie to the camera? And about this of all things?
Michele is not alone in being pissed, however. Nick, of course, is quite upset as well, telling us that there’s a storm brewing. I wouldn’t bring up this line specifically, were it not for a bit of meta it creates for me. You see, there happens to be a tornado advisory in my area, which a crawl started for as soon as Nick started talking about the storm coming. There’s no way that was coordinated, and it’s comedy gold! Sorry to all of you who didn’t have potentially life-threatening weather in your area. To add insult to injury, Nick tells us he was blindsided on his birthday, which I’m sure will in NO WAY come back to become a plot point later in the episode.
To contrast with the anger, we have Adam, who is naturally thrilled to have made it through Tribal Council. Unfortunately for Adam, this is an odd-numbered episode, meaning he has to look like an idiot. However, it seems Adam may be limited to just grammatical and pronunciation matters, as his first big error is misusing the word “literally”. Unless you’re having open-heart surgery, your heart is never “literally” beating out of your chest. That said, Adam does tell Michele of a bit of a good idea of his. I haven’t drawn much attention to it, but Adam has been searching the Tribal Council voting booth for an idol pretty much every time we see him vote, and as someone who’s advocated for that twist for a while, I can’t help but approve. Adam has turned up empty, but noticed a fleur-de-lis on Probst’s pedestal. Remembering that Denise’s idol was a fleur-de-lis, Adam thinks maybe it might be an idol. I think it might just be a recurring symbol, but hey, I’ve heard weirder theories on “Survivor”, and kudos to Adam for thinking outside the box. Adam does lose points for pronunciation, though. The “s” is silent in fleur-de-lis.
Speaking of thinking outside the box, we cut over to the Edge of Extinction. Joy. Yul returns with a tiny pizza… Er, I mean, yet another clue to a fire token earning opportunity. The clue tells the players to take a step back and remember history. Most everyone concludes that they must look in a place where they found fire tokens before, and hikes up the mountain. Why Natalie doesn’t immediately ditch everyone and run for the water well, since only she knows that it’s there, I can’t say. Natalie does have the bright idea of suggesting they split up at the top, so as to keep Yul and Wendell, who don’t know any place the group has been so far, from finding any tokens. Not that it does her much good, of course. It’s Danni and Parvati who have the brainwave to think back to “Survivor Edge of Extinction”, and look in a memorable hiding place there. Thus, they remember Aubry’s find in a hole in the rock, and so look there, finding a “50/50” advantage, basically a coin flip that either grants you immunity or doesn’t. They agree to sell it to Michele, since she has the most fire tokens, and they can also probably guess that she’s on the outs, and in need of something to keep her in the game. But who gets to receive said fire tokens? Parvati found the actual advantage, but Danni was right there, and was the one with the brainwave about finding the clue? The point is moot! Parvati states her intention to use the fire tokens to get food for everyone there, and even tells them about finding the advantage. Parvati, what happened? Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying seeing a different side of you, but this all feels like it really came out of nowhere! What happened to the Parvati of old?
As to this method of hiding it, you might think that I’d hate it. There are several reasons to, after all. Reusing an old hiding place, while clever for an anniversary season, just shows the weakness in staying in Fiji (fans of the show can remember where previous advantages were hidden, and look there). Plus, there was no guarantee that someone would remember this. No winner past “Survivor David vs. Goliath” is on this season, and “Survivor Edge of Extinction” itself is not exactly a memorable season. On top of that, while I get wanting to honor the show’s past, you should not honor “Survivor Edge of Extinction”, due to overall being pointless and, in my opinion, the worst season the show has ever had. If it fades into non-existence (with the exception of Aubry, Rick Devans, and Wendy) I will be content. So yeah, I should hate this. But I don’t. Why? Because Aubry got mentioned in a positive light on the 20th anniversary season of the show, and that’s a high even Edge of Extinction can’t bring me down from.
Continuing on the “tangentially related to Aubry” train, our reward challenge comes from her first season “Survivor Kaoh Rong”. Three members of a team of five must transport a net of heavy wooden fish to shore, hook them to a pole, and transport to a table, where the two remaining players must them put them in a table puzzle. Not a bad challenge at all, and certainly not overused. That said, my usual complaint about team challenges post-merge stands, especially when our sit-out doesn’t even get a chance at reward. What is our reward? Chinese take-out. Nothing special, but I suppose when you’re starving on an island, food is food.
On paper, this should be a lopsided competition. Our red team is Jeremy, Nick, Adam, Tony, and Tyson, while our blue team is Michele, Sophie, Kim, Sarah, and Ben. While these types of challenges usually come down to the puzzle, each time has one puzzle whiz, so you’d think the challenge would come down to strength, which it kind of does, since our early lead team does win. And you’d think the red team would have the edge there, having four challenge beasts compared to one. There’s almost no way they could lose. So, I have to ask: WHY IN GOD’S NAME DID YOU PUT ADAM ON THE STRENGTH PORTION OF THE CHALLENGE? HE’S FAR AND AWAY THE WEAKEST PERSON LEFT PHYSICALLY, AND ALL HIS STRENGTH LIES IN PUZZLES! Either Jeremy or Nick our two puzzle solvers, would have been WAY better served helping on this portion of the challenge.
Sure enough, red struggles, and blue wins reward. Before Probst can send them off, though, Sarah asks if she can give it up. Probst agrees, knowing the drama this can create, and Sarah gives the reward to Nick. It is his birthday after all…
Sorry, I had to check my phone there. Just got a news alert. It seems the city of Boston, MA, has exploded. Experts aren’t sure why, as the only clue is that the epicenter is the home of one Rodney Lavoie Jr., contestant on “Survivor Worlds Apart”. Bizarre.
Anyway, this might seem like a nice gesture, but this is Sarah Lacina we’re talking about here. The criminal of “Survivor Game Changers”. Literally the person most people wanted out pre-game. There’s no way it’s that simple. There must be some ulterior motive.
SARAH: I just wanted to do something nice and emotional. There was no gameplay involved.
Well ok, then. Apparently this is just the episode where all the ruthless women show their softer side. That said, just because there was no gameplay involved doesn’t mean people won’t believe there is. Adam points out how big of a threat this makes her. Jeremy reminds us that this is what got him eliminated on “Survivor San Juan del Sur”. Even TONY talks about how dumb of a move this was, and when TONY is the one telling your your move was stupid, you know you done goofed.
With that, though, I would like to point out how good a job Tony and Sarah are doing at keeping their relationship under wraps. On a season where any pre-existing pairs have been snuffed out as soon as they’re noted, it’s pretty impressive that they’ve managed to stay strong and avoid being targeted, by and large. Those times when they have been targeted, it’s for entirely different reasons. It shows the strategic chops these pair have. And the best part. The show doesn’t hit us over the head with this information, but instead trusts the viewer to pay attention, and lets it sink in without narration. More of this, please!
After a humanizing moment with our reward winners, we must get back to what Probst believes “Survivor” is all about: Idols and Advantages. Our feasters look high and low, even going so far as to bust open their fortune cookies to find a clue. No such luck, though I did appreciate the “look under the bottoms of the cartons” maneuver. With no idols or advantages there, we instead turn to Michele, who now has to decide whether or not to buy the “50/50” advantage. Ok, since we’re here, let’s talk about this advantage. Put simply, it’s dumb. The rules on it aren’t exceptionally clear. “Safe” means you effectively have immunity, but “Not Safe” is not well-explained. Is it like losing a challenge on “Island of the Idols” where you lose your vote? If so, then it’s a TERRIBLE advantage. Very expensive (four fire tokens!) for only a SHOT at payoff, and a big loss if you don’t. Even if it just does nothing, however, it’s still a bad deal. People have paid less for GUARANTEED safety. Even with Michele in this position, why go for this? Because a fortune cookie told her to. Look, Michele. I like you. Even as the head of the “Aubry Lobby”, I like you. You seem like a lot of fun to hang with, and you played a solid game last time. I may prefer Aubry, but no disrespect to you. You are a very worthy winner. That said, THIS IS A HORRIBLE DEAL, AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD FOR MAKING IT!
Our immunity challenge today comes courtesy of “Survivor Caramoan”. Basically, everyone has to balance on increasingly small parts of a triangular prism, with the last one standing being the victory. We sadly do not get the positive callback to Andrea and Brenda’s impromptu rule change, though we do get the positive of a few particularly wild players trying to keep their balance. Jeremy’s theatrics and Ben’s “kung-fu” moves in particular need to be praised. Also, I should say that I’m impressed with Ben. I thought he’d be out early, since this sort of challenge does not favor the top-heavy. Jeremy can attest to that. Second place is impressive, though. That said, this challenge does have a couple of bad points. Once again, a fire token is granted to the winner, and we again get rock music with lyrics of the challenge, rather than the more traditional music the show has. I expressed my disdain for these creative choices last episode, and am sad to see they don’t seem to be a one-off thing. However, since I already talked about my hatred for these choices recently, I’ll spare you the rant again, and thus cut to Kim winning immunity. A well-earned victory, but not an impactful one.
At first, the vote seems like it’s going to be simple and straightforward. Nick and Michele are on the outs? Split the vote between Nick and Michele, with Nick being the primary choice for being “untrustworthy”. Adam gets thrown out as the alternate split vote in place of Michele, but that gets dismissed very quickly. But then Nick, sensing that everything is going against him, decides to stir things up. He tells Tyson that his name is getting thrown out. It may be. After all, he is they guy back from the Edge of Extinction, and while I don’t expect most people to remember “Survivor Edge of Extinction”, the fact that the winner came from there is something I would hope they remember, and take to heart when deciding how to treat returnees from the Edge of Extinction. Thus, it wouldn’t surprise me if Tyson had been thrown out as a possible boot, but we haven’t heard about it. This gets Tyson to toss Sarah’s name out, who tosses Adam out again, who tosses out Ben’s name, and then all hell breaks loose. Names being thrown around left and right. Tyson even gets his name thrown out for really real this time. It’s pretty much pure chaos as we head to Tribal Council, meaning my usual “This is who’s being decided between; here’s the right move for the swing votes” format goes out the window.
What I can talk about, however, is one little moment that nearly escaped being seen. You see, for the most part the people we see talking are the groups you’d expect. Jeremy, Tony, and Tyson. Sarah and Sophie. Ben and Adam even get together and do their “odd-couple schtick”, where Ben tries to call Adam on throwing out his name, which Adam does a poor job of denying. But one that almost escapes notice is Kim and Denise. We’d seen them talk on the second iteration of Dakal, but nothing much concrete. Here, however, when everyone else is panicking, they stay calm and debate the pros and cons of going for Sarah (Kim says she’s ok, and we immediately cut to her saying to Ben that Sarah can’t go. This to me says they’re playing smarter than most everyone left. My favorite player still in the game, and the most dominant winner ever teaming up? I love it.
With so much misdirection (though given their airtime earlier in the episode, Adam and Sarah seem to be the main people set up for elimination), all Tribal Council really needs to do is keep the chaos going. That it does, with all pretense thrown out the window, and Tribal Council turns into a whisper-fest, though somewhat more justified than other examples. The producers did nothing to elicit this. This is just everyone being crazy. It’s only Adam and Ben arguing about how they talk to each other once again that gets everyone to pay attention. We’re reminded here that Adam is his own worst enemy. While I don’t doubt that he was targeted before Tribal Council, when he kept being paranoid about straight answers, and continuing to make it an issue when he could just let it die, he really did himself no favors. As such, it’s not a surprise when Adam gets the votes, but the rest of the episode was enough of a mystery, and the reasoning behind his leaving clear, that one can’t help but be satisfied. Adam clearly demonstrated, through his paranoia at Tribal Council, that he had crossed the “Shamar Threshold”, first seen on “Survivor Caramoan”. His chaotic paranoia now made him more a hinderance than a help as an ally.
Did that paranoia pay off, though? Did Adam correctly pick out an at-Tribal Council Immunity Idol? It would seem not, as Adam is unable to wrest it from the podium. Probst takes pity and lets him declare it an idol for himself anyway, before revealing that it is, in fact, just set decoration. To everyone’s credit, apart from a bit of mockery at Adam’s attempts to pull off the fleur-de-lis, no one really thinks it a bad idea. It’s plausible, and as Adam says, worth a try. Even Probst is respectful when snuffing Adam’s torch.
In case it wasn’t obvious, this episode is head and shoulders an improvement over the previous one. There was still some crowding, but we got good emotional moments, three-dimensional characters, even some solid misdirection in there. I still think this season is trying to do too much, but it did that much better this episode than the previous one.
So now, as we await your next episode, I await your next guess. Which US contestant said this quote, and on what season? Adding in episode number is not necessary, but earns your brownie points if you get it! First person to get it correct gets their name at the top of the next blog!
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
idolspeculation 
Brian Heidk
Correct on the name! And the season?
Thailand