Every season has a zenith, and so every season must have a nadir. I just didn’t expect them to come one right after the other. For context, this is now the second time in two seasons that, had things gone slightly differently, you would not have gotten a recap blog. Instead, you would have gotten a thousand-word rant about how nothing really matters, and everything is pointless. Even though you won’t be getting that rant today, we came dangerously close, and as such, it gets to be the title of the blog.
To save us from having to talk about the awfulness just yet, I am, for once, happy to welcome you to another edition of…
MATT’S MESS-UP!
I felt like I gave Shan a pretty good send-off last blog. Talked her up, sung her praises. But no, while I talked a fair game about the impact of her exit, I did not talk nearly enough about her exit proper. On a positive note, she left the game with a lot of class. True, she did call Deshawn a “snake”, which will get talked about a lot in the episode coming up, but she didn’t seem to have much venom (pun intended) behind it, and did have kind words for her Ua buddy Ricard. Her farewell confessional focussed on berating herself, and I respect her for that. All that said, I also have to note a cruel irony. All season long, Shan’s debate has been “heart vs head”. Her deciding whether to vote out the smart person for her game, or the person who would hurt the most to vote out. And, all season long, Shan’s head has won that conflict. This past episode was the first time she gave in and acted emotionally. What did it get her? Voted out. Fitting for “Survivor”, but rough nonetheless.
Sigh. I really can’t put it off anymore, can I? No? Great. On to the episode, I guess.
As one would expect from such an explosive vote-out, there’s a fair bit of fallout. Danny opens matters, but unfortunately it’s not him running the conversation, but Liana and Deshawn. You know, two of the more volatile people in terms of feeling betrayed by votes left? Yeah, it goes about as well as you’d expect. Liana is upset that, after all their talk about the POC alliance sticking together, she gets blindsided and the alliance falls apart. Deshawn, meanwhile, is unhappy about the “snake” comment mentioned earlier, especially when Ricard, who had at least a similar level of betrayal in the whole maneuver, gets off scot-free. Not an unfair criticism, but Deshawn complaining about it doesn’t do much to help his matter.
Deshawn’s complaining does also not go unnoticed by Ricard, Xander, Erika, and Heather, who it seems are in an alliance now? I guess it makes sense, since they weren’t explicitly in the POC alliance (despite Ricard and Erika both ALSO being POCs), but this still feels out of the blue. It’s nice for Erika and Heather to be on the top once in a while, but unfortunately I think it also screws any of their chances of winning. Ricard and Xander are probably the top two biggest jury threats (Ricard is well-liked, and Xander has been playing a flashier game, and is one of two remaining Yase at this point, giving him a good underdog story), and they probably need to go sooner rather than later, particularly given that Xander, somehow, still has his idol on him.
The next morning, it’s diplomacy time, as well as emotional time. Seems we didn’t use up quite all the emotion we had stored up from last episode, and hey, Danny hasn’t had his backstory moment yet. We get a truly touching bit from Danny about losing his father at a young age in a car accident, and how that impacted him growing up. Once again, flashbacks to life outside the game are used effectively, and it is a really touching scene. Nothing much else to say on it.
We then awkwardly segway into Deshawn dealing with the fallout from his rant the previous night, as Ricard kind of felt attacked by being called out as the one Shan was cool with. In a moment of humility, Deshawn admits Ricard may have a point, and wishes he could go back in time and just be quiet after Tribal Council. Sadly, Deshawn is not Time Lord Casupanan, and has no hourglass to smash. He does doe his best to repair the damage, putting on his diplomat hat and apologizing to Liana, hoping they’ll work together. Liana does a good job selling that she buys it to his face, but admits privately that “She’s open to revenge.”
So, so far the events of this episode have ranged from “standard fare” to “actually pretty heartwarming. Even in this, the nadir of the season, there are positives to be found. So, what’s so wrong? What could case this rage of enormous proportions?
My friends, let me introduce you to the “Do or Die” twist. You see, it’s immunity challenge time, and our challenge is the Final Immunity Challenge from “Survivor Micronesia”. Holding cylindrical blocks together at various lengths, keeping a ball balanced in the middle, last one standing wins. “Cirie’s Bane”, “Malcolm’s Bane”, “Wendell’s Bane”, take your pick for the nickname. Standard challenge fare at this point, so what’s so bad about that? You see, as Jeff Probst feels inclined to tell us “Blues Clues” style once again, there’s now a CONSEQUENCE to losing this challenge! You see, the first person out has to take a penalty. What is that penalty, you may ask?
To quote as much as I can remember amongst my rage from the show, the consequence is “A game of chance” played at Tribal Council, where “If you win, you’re safe, and we vote as normal with you immune. Lose, and you go home immediately, there is no vote.”
Are they trying to kill the show at this point? Does Probst just want to retire, but doesn’t want to admit it, so is tanking the show on purpose? Seriously, I want to know what the hell is going through the minds of these idiots when they think something like this is ok? A game of CHANCE? Pure luck, sending someone home. Guess there’s a reason that “Ultimately, it is a social game.” was cut from the opening narration. Nothing much social about a game of luck.
Ok, ok, for all my ranting and raving, let me be completely fair to the producers. They could have done this twist MUCH worse than how they implemented it. They let everyone know up front that it’s coming, and give them the option to sit out the challenge. Had they not done this, and sprung it on the players as a surprise after the challenge began, it would have been BS to everyone, not just the person who lost the challenge. And, as we’ll see at Tribal Council, it’s not quite AS random as something like a coin flip, but still pretty luck-based.
I will also concede that I can see where they’re coming from. It’s the same principle as taking away the flint from the losing teams pre-merge. Wanting there to be consequences for outright losing. A stick of punishment to accompany the immunity carrot of reward.
The flaw is that the consequences are too harsh for a simple challenge loss, especially on a challenge like this that has no obvious skill set, meaning several people could have a reasonable belief that they could win this challenge. But no, just because you happen to suddenly find out you’re not good at this ONE PARTICULAR CHALLENGE, your time in the game is now at risk. And hey, why stop there? Why not make EVERY vote out a game of chance? I mean, after all you’ve taken all the social maneuvering out of the social game already, why not just go whole hog? Use those dice for something: Every Tribal everyone rolls their die, lowest number goes home! It makes about as much sense as eliminating someone this way!
Seriously, I cannot emphasize it enough: Fair warning or not, it goes against the core of the game to have an elimination based on a luck-based game, rather than social dynamics or interpersonal strategizing. Fuck this twist. Fuck it hard.
Despite these dire consequences, only two people (Liana and Heather) sit out the challenge. There’s also little tension as to who will have to face this BS twist, since Deshawn adds his name to the “Bane” list, and falls out after 3 seconds on the first round. Relieving for everyone else, but rough for the poor guy. Our final battle is a three-way duel between Ricard, Xander, and Danny, and surprisingly, it’s the one of the three who doesn’t need immunity, and hasn’t yet won immunity, who takes the prize. Good for Danny.
Between Ricard having won multiple immunities at this point, and Shan calling him out as a good player at the last Tribal Council, naturally Ricard is target number one for most everyone there. Why no one wants to try and flush Xander’s idol is a question that still eludes me. Regardless, it’s the smart move for pretty much everybody. Even Xander, who warns Ricard of the impending trouble, should really just be letting him go at this point. Xander makes the argument that Ricard is a shield for him, which is fair, since Ricard’s name is coming up more than Xander’s. But, to quote from “Rob Has a Podcast” from last week, “You eventually need to USE your shield/“ There’s fewer and fewer votes left, and while I think Xander does well if he gets to the end, I don’t think he beats Ricard, and so needs him out. There’s also an argument to be made that Ricard is needed as a number against the threesome of Deshawn, Danny, and Liana, since Liana seems back in the fold for this vote. Given her desire for revenge, and how long she’s held onto the grudge against Xander, however, I feel like she could be swayed to your side as a number, at least for one vote, and again, Ricard is too big a threat to be brought to the end.
With our targets cemented, and Erika positioned as the swing vote, we head off to Tribal tonight. It starts off pretty standard, with more talk about the fallout from Shan’s comments and Ricard and Deshawn trying to come to an understanding. Where this Tribal REALLY gets good, though, is when the discussion turns to race. Deshawn breaks down about what this means to the community, and him personally, citing his sister in the conversation. Danny and Liana chime in with their own experiences, Liana in particular noting how important it is that the show is now casting 50% BIPOC minimum moving forward. All good, honest stuff. Once again, it gets the mirror neurons a-firing.
Pity, then that the conversation has to turn to the TWO WHITE PEOPLE left in the game! Look, I’m not saying they can’t or shouldn’t have an opinion on this, but the voices of members of a community, when having a discussion about said community, should always, ALWAYS come first. Granted, they did come first as mentioned, and Xander at least was brought into the discussion by a member of the community in Danny, but when Probst has to decide who to get an opinion from, who does he go to? Heather. When Ricard and Erika are sitting RIGHT THERE, and probably have experiences they can relate to. Not to belittle Heather’s “I know so little about this.” comments either, since I’m certain their genuine, but to a degree, it’s showing off her privilege, and again, is her’s REALLY the opinion Probst needed to hear right now? It’s the Sarah Lacina moment during the Varner/Zeke Incident on “Game Changers” all over again, only less natural. The discussion overall is still good but it clearly shows there’s still room for improvement on the show.
Oh, and Probst also drops that this is the last night to use one’s “Shot in the Dark”, as Liana had discussed doing earlier. Gee, so nice to know that, Probst! Hope they players knew that before Tribal, or else that’s MORE BS you’re dropping on this episode. Perhaps that’s why it’s starting to stink.
Ok, ok, enough stalling. We have to, once again, talk about the God-Awful “Do or Die” twist. This time, however, we’re talking about one of the few things that makes it SLIGHTLY less awful. When Probst said “Game of chance”, I was envisioning a coin flip or something similar. It starts off that way, with Deshawn given the choice of three boxes, one of which keeps him safe, the other two of which send him home. After picking one, Probst then goes full “Monty Hall Problem” on Deshawn, eliminating one of the unpicked bad boxes, and allowing him to switch if he wants. This slightly mitigates the “game of chance” thing, since any basic stats student will tell you that switching gives you a better than average chance at surviving, meaning as long as Deshawn knows his stats, he can up his odds to be the best they can be, making it SLIGHTLY more skill-based as to whether he goes or not.
Ultimately, though, it is STILL a game of chance, as Deshawn demonstrates by sticking with his original box and being safe. I’d complain about him going against statistics, but I did the same thing with my stats teacher when presented with the exact same problem. Read their body language to determine I had picked correctly, and stuck with my first choice. Point being, who am I to judge?
One more awful thing about this twist? The tension of the choice is gone. There were still a good five minutes left in the episode when Deshawn made his choice. We could tell he would be safe.
In another rarity for this season, the dumb decision is made in regards to who to vote out. Granted, Xander does well by SOMEHOW saving his idol yet again, but he does spend his extra vote, and no one spent their shot in the dark. Gee, that twist sure was consequential this game. In any case, Liana goes home, and while I don’t think it makes strategic sense, I can’t say I’m to sorry. Not that Liana was by any means a BAD character. Her vendettas were oddly fun to watch, and she played competently enough. But up against Ricard, she was just less interesting, so if one had to go, better her than Ricard.
So, what do I think of the episode overall? Eh, it was decent…
Just kidding. If you couldn’t tell by now, in my opinion, it SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!
Do I really need to spell out why at this point? While this episode is not devoid of good moments, they are all overruled by the awful, awful, AWFUL “Do or Die” twist that goes against the very core of what the show is about. They narrowly avoided disaster this time, since it was relatively inconsequential, and given that season 42 has already filmed, I can’t be mad if it gets reused there. But after that, never again, “Survivor”. NEVER AGAIN!
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
idolspeculation 
This article was very cringe worthy