Idol Speculation: “Survivor 42” Episode 8: Return of the Lex

You know, of all the players I invoke on a semi-regular basis, Lex van den Berghe of “Survivor Africa” may be the most out-there one.  Now granted, he’s a classic character; hardly the worst person to call out.  But he’s neither someone whose game I despise, and thus bring up as a negative example, or one of my favorite whom I praise at every opportunity.  Granted, I like Lex overall as a character.  Dude is complex, and definitely funny.  Seriously, his commentary on “Survivor All-Stars” is worth a watch if you want to laugh your ass off, if you’ve never done so.  But he doesn’t exactly break my “Top 10 players of all time” list or anything.  He’s maybe in the Top 50, but not much beyond that.  Yet, he gives such specific material to work with, that I can’t help myself.  

Such is the case tonight.  Evidently Lex took some voodoo lessons from Butch, and has made one of Hai, channeling his spirit through the doll so that Hai reacts similarly to how he does at the top of the episode.  Romeo, you see, was on the outs of that last vote, and so took a leaf out of T-Bird’s book (also “Survivor Africa”) and threw a vote on the person he perceived to be in charge, in this case Hai.  Hai, understandably, does not take it well, going around interrogating everyone as to who it was, when Romeo gives a decent denial.  The only real differences are that Hai does not go to quite the extremes that Lex did on Africa, and he’s actually right in who voted for him.  

All that said, props to Romeo for overall playing this well.  Apart from one or two kind of awkward acting moments, does a good job saying the right things to prevent any more flak from falling in him, while at the same time recognizing his position and what needs to be done for his game.  The comparison to T-Bird is 100% a compliment.  And yes, I am still bitter at the fan base for not putting T-Bird on “Survivor Cambodia.”  I voted for her every day; I have the right to say “Ya done goofed.” You put on Monica Padilla (“Survivor Samoa”) when we could have had T-Bird.  

The next morning, we keep going old school, and no surprise, it’s Rocksroy who gets that ball rolling.  He gets frustrated over the larger lack of work ethic in the camp, citing himself, Mike, and Jonathan as the three biggest workers around the camp.  The three meet at the water well, and agree that with Hai and Omar on board, they can make an overall majority to run the game.  Fair enough plan for them, but two problems: One, this is framed as a “Guys Alliance”, which is about as painful as every time a “Women’s Alliance” is brought up, though this has the added negativity of it seeming like the “strong” pick on the “weak”, not to mention making for boring tv.  Two, and perhaps more immediately concerning, Omar and Hai have basically no reason to join such an alliance.  They recognize that they would be on the bottom, and unlikely to immunity their way to the end in order to save themselves.  Thus, they have little incentive to comply with the plan, and both openly mock it in confessional.  What little chance the plan had is further torpedoed by having ROCKSROY, the man who openly admitted that he has a terrible social game, pitch this plan to them.  I suppose this is technically a third “problem” with the plan, but one that was avoidable even with the strategy, unlike the first two.  All this really does is make Rocksroy a target.  Good going, man!

Speaking of targets, it’s time for our challenge, where two people will win immunity, and two will be voted out.  Look, this is normally where I get hyped for them having a double-elimination with all 10 people left voting in one big group, but we all know this won’t be the case.  “Survivor” is committed to their “Split into 2 groups of 5” at the Final 10, and on paper I can understand why.  It is a truth universally acknowledged that Pagongings are boring, or at least create a boring stretch of episodes.  Granted, more recent seasons, due to smaller tribes and sometimes multiple tribe shake-ups, tend to not be straight tribe Pagongings, but rather a supermajority Pagonging the minority, so the point still stands.  Thus, the show hopes that such a shake-up will put the minority in power on one tribe, and/or force the majority to eat each other early.  On paper, this makes sense.  But, after SEVERAL seasons of this, it needs to be acknowledge that it has NEVER worked!  Partly  this is just due to luck, but EVERY SINGLE TIME, the majority just gets, well, the majority on both teams, and it has ALMOST never led to any shake-ups.  Again, I get the temptation, and it was worth a shot.  At some point, however, you need to acknowledge it isn’t working, and try something different.  That is the case with this twist at Final 10.  A worthy attempt, but it has failed.  TRY SOMETHING ELSE!  

Our teams are Hai, Omar, Mike, Romeo, and Rocksroy against Jonathan, Lindsay, Maryanne, Tori, and Drea, playing in the “Pyramid Balance” challenge first seen on “Survivor Caramoan”.  It remains unchanged, save for the waters once again being rough.  Nearly snapping Rocksroy’s neck not being enough, now it needs to throw contestants in the air like it just does not care.  Which it probably doesn’t.  Thus, it becomes less about “Who wants it more?” and more about “Who has the best sea legs?”  Hai quickly wins on his side, but stays in since the overall winner between both teams gets kebabs for their team, as well as the right to go second to Tribal Council.  Jonathan and Lindsay are our combatants on the other side, with Jonathan ultimately winning out, both immunity and the food.  Gotta admit, despite the guy’s challenge prowess, this one surprised me.  Men are traditionally worse at challenges that involve balance, as their center of gravity is higher up (in the shoulders, compared to women’s, which is in the hips), and Jonathan being so top-heavy, I would have thought he would be out early  Good on him proving me wrong, though.  

Hai and his team get sent to Taku beach to strategize.  They talk like it’s a step down from the merge beach, which it may be, but the shelter looks decent enough, all things considered.  It’s not Rupert’s hole in the ground from “Survivor All-Stars”, or the Younger Men’s “Four Fronds on a Tepee” from “Survivor Exile Island”.  Strategy, unsurprisingly, quickly coalesces around Romeo being the one to go home, with even Romeo seeming to accept it, saying he just doesn’t fit in with the machismo around camp.  Fortunately for him, Omar in particular still has a chip on his shoulder about Rocksroy, though he also brings up the fair point that Romeo is a possible ally for him down the line, while Rocksroy is, to put it mildly, inflexible.  We haven’t seen this much reluctance to change the plan since Joe Del Campo (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”).  As such, he, Romeo, and Hai hatch a firm plan against Rocksroy, which is honestly probably the smarter of the two options.  Their analysis of their position in the “Guys Alliance” is correct, so they have no reason to stick to it.  Keeping Romeo around keeps their options open, and while the current overall majority might not be happy with the move, Rocksroy is not so integral or so well-liked that they’ll have hell to pay for making such a move.  

Really, the biggest drawback is that Mike would be left out in this scenario, and we’ve seen how he feels about being left out.  Hai corrects this problem by, well, talking with Mike about the plan.  Mike is unhappy about it, and talks about possibly not doing it, but we all know that’s BS.  Mike will stick with the numbers in the end, as well he should, and Rocksroy is obviously going to be the boot of this group.  

Our other group, however, is a bit more of an interesting story.  Like Romeo, Tori would seem the obvious choice, but also like Romeo, there is incentive for the others to not follow said plan.  Drea’s pile of stuff has grown so large that even Jonathan, whom Lindsay will later describe as “Not very strategic.”, takes notice.  As such, he decides to organize everyone else to blindside her.  Which, much as I want Tori to finally be gone, is a move that makes sense for them all.  Having stuff on your side is one thing, but Drea just has SO MUCH STUFF that it can’t be ignored.  Plus, you still have Maryanne to be your “Stuff Supplier.”

Like with the “Guys Alliance” earlier, however, the flaw in the plan is in the messenger.  Jonathan tells us that he’s trying not to be “That big guy” who just bosses everyone around and acts like he owns the game just because of his strength.  Which is true.  We’ve seen shades of it here and there, but for the most part he’s kept his cool.  Now, whether due to immunity or just dwindling patience, Jonathan snaps, and starts talking down to people in regards to his plans, which rubs Maryanne the wrong way, such that she chats more openly with Tori than perhaps might be advised.  

But wait, there’s more!  It’s not just those who personally annoy him that he’s unreasonable with!  Lindsay, whom we’ve only seen be close to Jonathan at this point, brings up the “Hey, what if Drea plays her idol?” scenario to Jonathan.  She points out, correctly, that Maryanne might go at that point, which would get rid of a lot of their edge at the moment.  As such, splitting between Drea and Tori might be wise at this juncture.  Jonathan takes this reasonable idea, and throws it away entirely, evidently on the basis that he “Doesn’t trust Tori.”  Fine.  Don’t trust Tori.  You can still split the votes!  It’s not like Tori and Drea are going to work together at this point!  Seriously, Jonathan is not as bad as many men in his archetype, but loss of respect points this episode.  

Even though we get two Tribal Councils tonight, it really just feels like one.  The first Tribal Council, with Hai’s group, can pretty much just be “Yadda Yadda’d” away.  Absolutely zero mystery, and not even any fun banter.  When the highlight of your Tribal is Hai commenting on his lack of body fat, you’ve got issues.  Rocksroy does go, and while I’d say it was the smarter move overall, I am sorry to see Rocksroy go.  Granted, keeping Romeo around probably keeps things more interesting strategically, and I hardly dislike the guy, but I just connected with Rocksroy a bit more.  Possibly because his archetype is so much rarer in this age of “Survivor”, but I find him more intriguing than Romeo, despite the simplicity of his strategy.  No disrespect to Romeo meant, though.  He’s awesome as well, and I look forward to seeing his strategy play out moving forward.  

What we lose in intrigue in the first Tribal, however, we make up for in the second.  You see, since Rocksroy was voted out first, he gets to sit in on the jury, along with Chanelle.  Thus, this group KNOWS he was the boot, and they can’t help but notice a pattern developing, even if it’s just a subconscious one.  Yep, two black people are the first two members of the jury, and if blindsides go as planned, it’ll be three in a row.  Fortunately, Drea is quick to inform us this will not be the case, as she will be playing her idol to prevent this.  Honestly can’t blame her.  With all the stuff she has, might as well use some of it, both to lower threat level and buy yourself more time.  Drea then talks about the problems of implicit bias and how it affects people, both in day to day life and on “Survivor”, which at first might seem like unintentional guilt-slinging at the attempt to blindside her, but it’s not.  She was aware of the plan.  It was intentional guilt-slinging.  

Maryanne, also being black, chimes in to talk about how she notices the same issues, and thus will also be playing her idol tonight.  With Drea’s proclamation, can’t really blame her, since she would be a viable alternate target.  Our group whispers to come to a Tori consensus, though why they need to whisper I can’t say, since I would assume, with Maryanne, Drea, and Jonathan immune, Tori would be the logical boot.  Only potential misstep here is that Maryanne says the quiet part out loud, outright saying she’s voting for Tori, but since there’s little that Tori can do about it, it’s a minor thing at best.  And hey, while we have had individual discussions about diversity this season, this is the first time this season we’ve seen a community come together to talk about their lived experience, one of the few things “Survivor 41” had going for it over this season.  Good to see this one can hold its own in that territory as well.  Maryanne and Drea manage to marry emotion and articulation, explaining their points well while also making us, the audience, FEEL their pain.  One of the best discussions I’ve seen about this issue in a long time, including “Survivor 41”

TOO BAD JONATHAN’S HERE!  Just when the conversations winding down, Jonathan HAS to butt in with “Hey, I’m not a racist!”  News flash, bud: If you have to say you’re not racist, YOU’RE MOST LIKELY AT LEAST SLIGHTLY RACIST!  Look, Jonathan may be telling the truth when he says that consciously, race has nothing to do with his targets, but that’s not the issue here.  It could be implicit bias (which is in most people, and something we as a society need to work on), or it could just be coincidence.  Overall, though, the point is that you are stepping on these women’s lived experience, telling them, in effect, that what they see and feel is not true.  I don’t care if you’re hurt or offended by that; that is not your place.  Sit down, let them have their platform, then show through your actions, not your words, that you are not, as an individual racist.  It doesn’t help that after the conversation dies down again that Probst goes BACK to Jonathan for his thoughts, though Jonathan does at least have the grace to apologize, and leave the door open for some discussion.  Maryanne and Drea clarify they don’t hate him, but need to talk about their experience.  Could have gone a lot worse, but MAN did Jonathan not come out of this looking good.  

With all the emotion in the air, Probst smells an opportunity for a drama moment, and offers to let everyone skip the formal vote, and just come to a consensus.  Naturally, that consensus is Tori, and we now see her one recourse: The Shot in the Dark.  Yes, this is the one way Maryanne’s proclamation could backfire.  Fortunately for Maryanne, and us as a viewing audience, Tori continues the trend of the shot being useless, and goes home.  I am THRILLED!  Of the choices available at this Tribal Council, definitely the smarter choice, and while she played better than I would have guessed, her arrogance, coupled with her outside-the-game actions, left her the one person remaining I just didn’t care for.  As such, very happy to see her go.  

A jam-packed episode, but one that overall did pretty well.  They made the most of having one straightforward vote by focussing on the less straightforward vote, and hit those mirror neurons very well with Tribal Council #2.  Granted, time is still an issue, with them packing too much into too short a time frame, but with less people and less “stuff” hopefully the upward trend can continue!

-Matt 

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 42” Episode 7: Mistakes Were Made

2-hour episode or not, this is just embarassing.  Yes, folks, we have not one, not two, but THREE things last episode that I forgot to mention.  Dear readers, we have a trifecta, meaning it’s time once again for another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

To give credit to myself, at least one of the things was relatively minor.  While on Exile, while I talked about Rocksroy’s arc overall, I neglected to mention his penchant for firewood collection, even going so far as to state “when you think you have enough, you don’t have enough.”  Minor enough moon its own, but clearly Rocksroy is being controlled by Butch Lockley of “Survivor The Amazon”.  Evidently Butch has taken up voodoo in order to control Rocksroy from a distance.  Not what I expected of him, but power to him.  

Speaking of Rocksroy, while I mentioned his smashing of the hourglass, I neglected to mention the fallout from it.  We oddly didn’t see a lot of people complaining about this.  I assume that it happened, like it did last season, but just wasn’t shown by and large.  What’s funny to me is that the one pissed-off person we see is Tori, narratively implying that she was the ONLY person who had an issue with Rocksroy’s choice.  What’s rich is that Tori had the LEAST reason to be mad at Rocksroy’s choice.  Does it screw up her game?  Absolutely, but she was the one throwing Rocksroy under the bus earlier that episode.  Not to mention the argument they had earlier as well.  Tori, you can hardly blame the man for looking out for himself rather than you.  

Finally, but to me most importantly, I neglected to mention a strategy employed by the teams at the “immunity” challenge last episode, and I’m talking the team one, not the individual one.  I did mention it was the same challenge as last season, but the players here started it off SLIGHTLY differently.  In this case, rather than dig up their entire ball, they dug a ramp in the direction the ball needed to go, and just rolled it up that way.  A smart bit of challenge strategy, and one that, you’ll recall, I advocated for last season.  Given that this was filmed WAY before that blog was written, you’d think this was just a coincidence.  What you don’t realize is that Dr. CasWHOpanan from last season has taken up a new companion in her TARDIS, and it’s MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Silliness aside, we dive into our episode proper with damage control needing to be done on those left out of the vote.  Chanelle is naturally pissed, and does a bad job of hiding it.  She goes OFF on Hai, who really has no defense.  If Chanelle didn’t know she was on the bottom before, she does now.  Little better off is Romeo, who while not as overtly pissed, is also well aware of where he stands.  Understandably, Drea is the main target of his ire, as he wonders why she couldn’t clue him in.  Drea tries to pass the buck to Mike, but Romeo rightly points out that as his main ally, it was really up to her to make sure he was informed.  While the bridge may not be as burned as thoroughly as Chanelle’s at this point, it’s very tense at a minimum.  Despite being included in the last vote, Maryanne is consoled as well, with Lindsay coming clean about her whole plans and why.  Maryanne, as per usual, gets emotional about it, and gives the schpiel about being excluded from the “cool kids”.  We’ve seen this a million times before on this show by now, but what gets me is that, while some like Jonathan and Mike this season are your typical “cool kids”, this “cool kids” includes the likes of OMAR.  And don’t get me wrong, I love Omar!  He is awesome, both as a human being and as a player, but “cool kid” is not a word I would use to describe him.  

We also learn, via chyron, that the merge tribe is to be named Kula Kula.  Decent enough name, but kind of confusing when we had a “Kalokalo” on “Survivor David vs Goliath”.  Kind of a problem when you stay in a place, and thus names are often drawn from the same linguistic group, over and over.  Why they waited until now to reveal the name, I can’t say.  Perhaps it’s because they didn’t get the flag and paints until tree mail for the reward challenge came?  Hell, when was the last time we had tree mail shown on this show?

To emphasize how great a guy Omar is, we see that Mike has taken up Omar offer to answer questions about Islam, as he quietly watches to the side while Omar conducts his prayers and gives a play-by-play.  It’s respectful and nice on both ends, a fun little humanizing scene that doesn’t advance the game, but does connect us to the players.  Enjoy this moment.  There will be few compliments to be had for this episode.  

Complaints, on the other hand, will about.  You remember last episode?  How I was complimenting the show for reducing Probst’s asides to the audience to the absolute bare minimum?  Yeah, they took that and spit it back in our faces.  Probst talks MULTIPLE times this episode, but the first is the worst, since not only is he still treating the audience like a pack of kindergarteners, but it’s to hype up ANOTHER twist, labeled a “beware advantage”.  This one is the one Xander missed last season, or at least another one hidden under the bench.  Probst tells us that if this one doesn’t get found, they’ll keep trying.  Perhaps neon signs will be put pointing to it at that point.  Joy.  

Our challenge is “Octopus’ Garden” first seen on “Survivor Cagayan”.  A decent challenge, but overplayed at this point.  Of course, with a sit-out bench, we need a sit-out.  Maryanne draws the bad rock, but then Drea, on the pretense of disliking the reward of PB&J offers to switch.  An odd parallel to when Xander also switched last season.  I’d say again that it’s just a weird coincidence, but again, Dr. CasWHOpanan strikes.  

Our teams consist of Omar, Hai, Maryanne, Lindsay and Romeo, against Jonathan, Rocksroy, Mike, Tori and Chanelle.  As there is no puzzle in this challenge, the latter team is favored to win, and they do, but more narrowly than one would expect.  Inexplicably, Jonathan is not, at first, put on the basketball portion of this challenge, and this combined with Omar having a surprising amount of skill in this area, puts the former team ahead, in spite of being slower to get their buoys to the platform.  Then they come to their senses, and Jonathan of course crushes it.  They win, and while it was a comeback, Probst is more than a bit hyperbolic when he calls it “One of the biggest comebacks in ‘Survivor’ history!”

Both teams actually kind of celebrate after the challenge.  The winners celebrate having food, obviously, with Jonathan once again going on about his caloric intake.  Eh, it was funnier when he was going full Gaston.  But the losers still express joy in how hard they fought, with Omar’s performance in particular being impressive.  It’s here that we get insight into Omar’s game, with him talking about creating “options”.  He uses not having had a vote at the last Tribal Council to his advantage, making it seem like he’s on the outs, so that he’s getting information from pretty much everyone, even if he’s not explicitly allied with some of them.  Good smart play.  We love to see it.  

Drea, of course, is also happy, in this case because of her advantage.  After reading it, it turns out it’s the return of the “Knowledge is Power” advantage.  You know, because Drea didn’t have enough stuff.  Now she needs an advantage that gets her even MORE stuff!  I know I praised this advantage last season, so let me clarify my position here: This is a brilliant idea for an advantage, placed on the worst possible season for it to be on.  This sort of twist works best when things like idols and advantages are kept secret, and not, you know, incredibly public like they have been.  Between needing to say phrases to activate idols and sending people to Shipwheel Island, this advantage takes little skill to play, and therefor loses any good it possibly has.  I’d like to see it come back on a different season, but for this one, it’s OP, please nerf.  

But what of the “Beware” part of this advantage?  Well, the advantage is hidden under a coconut near the water well, and so Drea has to make an excuse in order to obtain it.  To paraphrase Devon Pinto on “Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers”, “That is not a disadvantage”.  Look, I get that it’s harder than just being given the thing outright, but this isn’t even like when they hide it in the campsite proper, and you need to wait for good timing, or manipulate events to get the good timing, a la Yau Man on “Survivor Fiji”.  Literally all you have to do is say you’re going to get water for the group, and BOOM!  Done.  Suspicion averted, provided you don’t take too long.  

To be completely fair, though, there IS a bit more “Beware” to this advantage than explicitly stated in the note.  It mentioned needing to avoid being caught “red handed”, and it seems this was meant to be taken literally.  The advantage was sealed in a container at the bottom of a tube of red paint, which Drea had to stick her whole forearm in to reach.  I’ll give it points for cleverness, with the subtle foreshadowing in the note, and it does have kind of an “Indiana Jones” vibe with the “stick your hand in this unknown hole” thing.  As mentioned on previous seasons, I like a good “Indiana Jones” shout out.  And it DOES create a dilemma.  I mean, how’s Drea going to get this red paint off?  If only she had some water to wash it away!  Oh, wait, SHE DOES!  IT’S LITERALLY FIVE FEET AWAY!  What kind of consequence is this?  

Well again, to be fair, there ARE repercussions.  Tori notes some leftover red paint, at first thinking that Drea is bleeding.  Drea claims she was painting, but no paint on the still unmade tribe flag makes Tori think otherwise.  That, plus a lump in Drea’s pants when Tori KNOWS she’s not happy to see her clues her in to Drea having an advantage.  Much as I hate to say it, props to Tori for good deductive reasoning.  Still, with all that said, these consequences do feel quite tame for a “Beware Advantage”.  They’re not NOTHING, but compared to losing one’s vote for likely an extended period of time, it’s kind of a letdown.  

Probst once again has an aside as we come to the challenge, noting that he’s offering another deal for rice to the tribes, as he did last season.  Really, there’s little bad about this one apart from the “monster” metaphor when he talks about bargaining being harder on future seasons, but with so much emphasis on “stuff” coupled with my dislike of these Probst asides in general, I’m in no mood to give it points.  Kula Kula is a lot more stingy than Viakana last season, since it takes Maryanne begging to get four people to sit out, with her, Lindsay, Omar, and Drea ultimately making the sacrifice.  Jonathan says he owes them, once again grateful for food.  More on that later.  Maryanne uses this to tout how she uses her emotions to manipulate others, which is doubtless true, but not sure this was the best example.  Not a hard situation, and hardly the first time we’ve seen someone plead to give up immunity.  Really, Maryanne here is being a nicer version of Colton Cumbie in episode 4 of “Survivor One World”.  I feel disgusting even putting those two in the same sentence, but it was the first thought that came to mind when I saw this.  

Our challenge is the lame endurance one where you hold up a buoy with two sticks, and barely worth mentioning, save that I thought for sure they would bring back the “Do or Die” twist just to hit the awfulness trifecta.  In the end, it comes down to challenge beast Jonathan versus previous challenge winner Tori.  Sadly, Tori wins, and so we must endure her presence for another episode.  

Without immunity, Chanelle is now once again the target.  Pretty much no one has a good relationship with her, and she’s an easy consensus boot.  Such boots need obvious misdirection, and Romeo is there to provide.  He’s checking and double-checking with everyone about his plans, and like Jamie Newton on “Survivor Guatemala”, it’s getting on everyone’s nerves.  Even the relatively chill Omar is talking about booting him.  What’s interesting is, despite Romeo being an obvious decoy, he would actually be the smarter choice, apart from Drea.  While Drea has some relationships in the majority alliance, Romeo is someone she can use to help flip numbers if needed, when he has few relationships in the majority beyond her.  Vati gets to keep their numbers up, Taku weakens another potential upstart tribe, and perhaps most important, you keep a consensus boot around to help unite your supermajority.  Yes, Chanelle needs to go at some point, and she’s hardly a BAD choice at this juncture, but Romeo still keeps the alliance intact, while eliminating a potential numbers flip down the road.  Plus, Romeo is just better at the game than Chanelle, from what we’ve seen.  She may have said she was playing chess while the others played checkers at the top of the episode, but that metaphor seems more apt to be flipped around, from what we’ve seen on the show.  

Tribal tonight is a mostly standard affair, though with two stand-out moments worth commenting on.  The first is when Probst checks in with Jonathan as to whether he’ll vote for any of the challenge sit-outs, which he denies on the grounds of “owing them one.”  I want to point out that it’s easy for Jonathan to say when 3/4 of them were on his starting tribe, and he’s at least to some degree allied with all of them.  Good excuse to hide still holding to tribe loyalty, is what I’m saying.  The second is something that should be a bad thing, but turned out good.  Sensing that we don’t have enough forced metaphors this season, Probst injects one about how playing “Survivor” is like riding in a car.  Of all the metaphors I’ve heard on this show, this one is definitely on the “More Cringey” end of the scale, but damn if this cast doesn’t kind of make it work.  Maryanne makes a joke about getting a new car, adding much-needed hilarity, while Lindsay and Hai actually manage to tie the metaphor into the game in a good way, noting the need to not be in the driver’s seat 100% of the time, or at least have protection if you do.  

Unsurprisingly, Chanelle goes home, and I’m not too sorry to see her go.  Nothing against her; she seems nice enough.  Just not as exciting a character as some others here, and I felt like we’d seen all the strategy we could from her.  Not that she didn’t have more game in her, but she just had no options at this point.  Credit where it’s due, though, she was totally right in rejecting the “We love you” from the group, particularly Hai.  Since they just voted her out, she was justified.  Also happy she gets to serve on the jury.  She’s earned that right, if nothing else.  

After so many steps forward, this episode really felt like a step backward in a lot of ways.  Having largely shed the worst excesses of last season, this episode largely fell back into the bad habits of “Survivor 41”.  More Probst talking to the audience, and adding in new advantages that ate up a lot of screen time.  The editing was still good, and the cast overall still likable, with a few good moments even shining through.  Not the worst episode, but a worrying trend, should it continue.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 42” Episode 6: Now Owned by Disney

I must admit, when I thought about the possible fates in the future of “Survivor”, a channel hop was not one of them.  Then again, Disney is buying up everything even remotely marketable; I guess it was only a matter of time before they got to “Survivor”.  Suppose Probst talking about something happening “For the first time in forever.” and Sydney’s stint at the little mermaid last season should have tipped us off.  

But before we can get into the cornucopia of Disney references, it’s time once again for another round of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Because having a two-hour episode to recap wasn’t enough, I need to talk about something I neglected LAST episode.  In all my discussion about the activation of idols, and the rules of idols (as a side note, I hate the rule change that if you don’t all say the phrase, the idol activates at the merge anyway.  Wasn’t just Mike misreading things, and I despise it.  Make them risky, I say.), I neglected to mention that we got a good look at the hidden immunity idols themselves, and they’re… underwhelming.  Not terrible, but basically just some colored beads on a string, rather than anything distinct.  Now, I get why the show would do this. By making the idols stand out less, fake idols become more viable.  And that’s fair.  I don’t mind seeing fake idols being brought more into strategy.  But it seems to me that the thing to do is, rather than make the idols generic, have no theming of idols whatsoever per season.  Like, one tribe has this super-elaborate necklace that fits with the theme of the season, while another’s is a tin can with a hole in it.  When an idol can be anything, fake idols gain power, but the idols still look distinct in and of themselves.  Seems like the perfect compromise, but hey, what do I know?  

Rant over, we continue to talk about last episode, or at least Probst does.  Yes, after a LONG absence, the “Previously On… ‘Survivor’!” makes a return.  Much as I might say otherwise, I don’t miss it.  Look, I know in the past I’ve said it’s helpful, but I’ve changed my stance.  The need for it arises when the show only airs weekly with not easy way to rewatch things.  Then, we NEED to make sure new viewers are up to speed.  But, in the age of streaming and on-demand video, that’s just not necessary anymore.  Sort of the same logic for why I don’t rail against the show staying in Fiji full time (I would prefer they continue to move around, but my main argument for why staying in Fiji will kill the show no longer applies).  Really, the only reason you would NEED a recap, and the reason we seem to have this one, is if you need to remind everyone who has what advantage.  If that’s the case, then it seems to me that maybe, just maybe, you have TOO MANY ADVANTAGES!

Vati also wants to talk about last episode, it seems.  Mike, unsurprisingly, is not happy about having his name written down.  Fair enough, though I must disagree when he says the move made no sense.  Chanelle was trying to protect herself in the event that Daniel successfully used his shot in the dark.  Then the vote would be a tie between her and you, and she’d at least have a chance, instead of being out automatically.  You want to be mad?  Fine.  That’s your right, and Chanelle is probably the least-trustworthy person left in the group.  But a bad move?  Can’t agree.  Mike plays it off well for now, but admits that he doesn’t trust Chanelle moving forward.  Probably should have been feeling that way since the Jenny boot, but either way, makes sense.  Mike prays for a merge.  

Despite this perfect segway, we first need to check in with Ika.  Rocksroy is going full Moana (something he will do multiple times this episode) and extolling the virtues of island produce.  The strategy, however, is the main point of the segment.  Shock of all shocks, Tori is causing drama.  Rocksroy, true to his game so far, was completely honest with his tribe about what happened.  It was the prisoner’s dilemma, he didn’t risk anything, and got no information out of Lydia.  We move on.  But no, Tori insists Rocksroy must have gotten SOMETHING from the island, and doesn’t trust him when he says he didn’t.  To put Tori’s argument in the BEST light possible, it’s not outside the realm of possibility for something new to happen on the “journey”, and it’s the sort of thing she’d keep hidden had she gone.  Rocksroy does not help matters by saying “I’m not telling you.” when what he means is “I’ve told you everything.”  Poor word choice aside, though, this is clearly Tori making a mountain out of a molehill.  The man was as open as he could possibly be, and yet she insists on going after him.  Even Romeo and Drea, people who have also targeted Rocksroy in the past, are on his side here, and put Tori on the block, thereby ensuring that Tori will stay this episode.  

So we head off to the challenge and… Oh hey, Probst is talking to us again, Blue’s Clues Style.  There’s something from last season I didn’t miss.  

Speaking of awful things from last season, the hourglass twist is back.  Joy of joys.  Look, I said at the outset of this season that I was not going to hold it against the show if they repeated bad ideas from last season.  They had little time for feedback; little time to correct.  This, however, is the exception.  They KNEW it was a bad idea.  The players last season TOLD THEM it was a bad idea.  It is very much PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE that Danny in particular read Probst the riot act for how this went down.  And yet, they still kept this in?  Madness!

Ok, ok, let us be completely fair.  Probst does explain in narration that the twist was tweaked a bit from how it went down last season.  Specifically, all contestants will be informed beforehand that whoever is sent into Exile will have some major power in the game, though exactly what is unspecified.  In addition, anyone on the winning team can sacrifice their spot for that power instead.  These are both good additions.  Steps in the right direction.  Sadly, for me, they don’t go far enough, and don’t fix the two major problems with this twist, that being the unfairness and the lack of entertainment.  

So, what changes WOULD this twist need to be ok in my eyes?  Let’s start with the fairness aspect, since they did seem to TRY and fix this one, by noting that the exile got power.  This does add more strategy to how the winning team plays things, and it makes it easier for the players to figure out what said twist might be.  Hell, Drea actually DOES figure it out; good for her!  But the sticking point for me is that Probst still says “The winning team makes the merge and is immune.”  This goes against Danny’s point of fairness, where you say that someone is immune, only then to revoke it, not due to a technicality, but due to a twist.  This undermines the game, and the fix is so simple.  In addition to the changes Probst made, DON’T SAY THE WINNERS GET IMMUNITY!  Just tell them they win a feast, and leave it at that!  Nothing lost, and much more fair!  As to the entertainment part?  Well, we’ll see later that Rocksroy’s “dilemma” is exactly the same as Erika’s, and just as “tense”, as in, we all know what will happen.  If you really want some mystery to the season, the exile should be immune no matter what.  Then it comes down to “which side played it better socially”?  Still not the stuff of legends, but better than what we keep getting, which is a non-choice.  

Oh, and Probst also mentions that the winners specifically get Applebee’s this season.  Guess Karishma from “Island of the Idols” got a job as a producer.  

So little was this whole thing tweaked that they even reuse the exact same challenge from last season!  Probst shows our players the “Whole New World” that is the hemispheres they must unearth and work with, and divides them up.  Our Orange team consists of Hai and Lydia, Jonathan and Maryanne, and Tori, while our Blue team consists of Omar, Mike, Drea, Romeo, and Chanelle, with Rocksroy and Lindsay as our sit-outs.  Orange team is of course favored to win with the presence of Jonathan, and win they do, but Blue manages to keep things fairly close, in spite of Drea’s difficulties getting up the ball.  They get to the puzzle, and get a decent way through it.  I actually thought Maryanne’s impression of Mr. Incredible, saying she “has time” over and over, foretold a come-from-behind puzzle victory, but no, Orange still wins.  

As with last season, Orange gets to take along one person, and here we get probably the only real strategic blunder we see this episode.  Orange takes Lindsay with them, and none of them sacrifice themselves to exile, sending Rocksroy instead.  Um, WHY?  Even if none of you wanted to give up your spot, why not send Lindsay instead?  Literally NONE of you have a tie to Rocksroy, with the only two people who have spoken to him on this team (Tori and Lydia) either not getting much from him, or getting bad vibes.  Why would you want to give someone like that power?  Conversely, Lindsay is more trustworthy, and actually has SOME incentive to not screw your team over, since at least Jonathan is there.  She might be ok screwing over Maryanne, but I have a harder time seeing her screw over both her AND Jonathan.  

At least they get to enjoy their feast.  Jonathan explains that he DID consider stepping down to exile, but felt he needed the nutrition of the food, which for a guy his size I can understand.  He even regales us with his meal plan.  Every morning, he eats five-dozen eggs, so he’s roughly the size of a barge.  Not to be outdone in sucking up to the mouse overlord, Tori notes that she’s gone from “Zero to Hero”, and proceeds to throw Rocksroy under the bus.  She brags about her power over him, and, um, Tori, did you NOT hear Probst talking about the exile having power?  Do you not realize that you have sent someone with NO incentive to save you into a position of power?  My, you really can be blind to your game sometimes.  

Less blind are those back at the Vati camp, which will be the merge camp (oddly no word on the merge tribe name this time), where they discuss what the twist might be, and here’s where Drea pulls out her eye of the fates, and correctly predicts what the twist will be, in hoping that Rocksroy makes them all safe.  Good on her.  She even ups the ante, once she and Mike are alone, by comparing idol notes.  They agree to stick together, and talk about who they’re tight with, with Mike throwing out Hai and Lydia, while Drea names Romeo and Rocksroy.  They agree to stick together and discuss available targets, with Mike pushing hard for Chanelle because of the top of the episode.  Solid strategy all around, you two.  Kudos.  

Meanwhile, Rocksroy makes himself at home on exile, even getting a small shelter for himself.  Since Probst is taking his sweet time to come out and explain the hourglass to him, Rocksroy, feeling alone on this island, looks out towards the sea.  It calls to him.  And he enjoys this look, as he notes that his eyes are degrading, and his eyesight may go before too much longer.  This sort of thing could sound forced, but Rocksroy delivers it with such sincerity that you sympathize with the guy.  Again, this is good, personal content.  Say what you will about this new era of “Survivor”, but they are GOOD at getting you to sympathize with the contestants.  

As our challenge winners now arrive back at camp, the real socializing can begin.  With the tribes so even, and a lot of chances for tribe interaction this season, there’s naturally a lot of good conversations to be had.  Lydia and Omar seem to bond over their quirkiness.  Hai, Drea, and Lindsay agree not to go against each other due to their advantages, presumably based on some sort of mutually-assured destruction fear (i.e. if one of them betrays the other two, the other two have no reason not to tell the tribe about their amulet on the way out), though Hai admits he’s not sure how deep that goes.  Drea loops Maryanne in on the idol holders sticking together.  Maryanne and Tori discuss how much they can trust Drea.  Jonathan and Mike bond over being strong guys who are only ever seen as just strong guys.  Mike and Omar bond after talking about Omar’s love life.  Hai tells anyone who will listen how tight he and Lydia are…  Wait, what?

Ok, perhaps I spoke too soon when I said there was only one bad move of the episode.  Hai is a social butterfly, and will make some good bonds, as we see, but the man goes a bit too far in talking about how he’d die on his sword for Lydia.  Not that he doesn’t frame it well, offering someone that level of protection is a good incentive, but advertising that you’re a tight pair is a bit of a death knell in the game, man.  Might make you more of a target than you want, just saying.  

Like I said, though, Hai is very social, and does make a good impression on a number of people.  One such person is Romeo, who is pleased to see someone in the LGBTQ+ community so open about their sexuality, when he himself is not out to several members of his family in El Salvador, who will find out presumably due to the show.  It’s a real human moment as the two bond, and Hai gives Romeo the encouragement to “Show Yourself”.  Yep, it’s great to have friends like these.  

One would assume that the presence of Omar, who is also a member of said community, would continue the heartwarming conversation, but instead, talk turns to strategy.  Hai is still on the warpath for Chanelle, and quickly turns Omar to his side by informing him that he has lost his vote, his chyron now changing to reflect this.  Despite making pleasant overtures at the merge, this is something that Chanelle, for some reason, neglected to tell Omar, putting Omar now firmly in the “Don’t trust Chanelle” camp.  Again, way to play, Chanelle.  

Our majority does eventually coalesce into a group of 8.  Jonathan, Hai and Drea all agree to work together as the physical threats.  Hai naturally pulls in Lydia and Mike as loyal allies, Jonathan pulls in Lindsay and Omar, and Drea pulls in Rocksroy.  Guess Romeo got dropped between commercials for some reason.  To be fair, though, when they’re throwing out targets, Drea does NOT name Romeo, but instead Tori.  Hai continues the “dump on Chanelle” train, and Jonathan throws out Maryannes name, though in the latter case it’s less that he really wants her out and more that he doesn’t want to let on how tight Taku is, which is fair.  I’d normally criticize this super-majority as being too large and too even to be viable long-term, but between split-votes being the meta right now, and larger merges tending to lead to large consensus boots for safety (yet another reason to hate larger merges), I can understand it.  

This, of course, leaves only Chanelle vulnerable of the targets, thus making her the consensus boot.  They shun her like Belle’s town in “Beauty and the Beast”.  Unfortunately for the majority, Chanelle has the annoying habit of walking in on conversations about targeting her.  Incidnetally, once Omar reveals his lost vote, Drea reveals her extra vote, making it the first time she’s done so that it ACTUALLY makes sense to do so.  The first time Chanelle comes up, everyone splits up as soon as she arrives.  She gives Lydia the third degree, who tries to “play dumb”.  It’s not the worst performance I’ve ever seen, but Chanelle is not an idiot, and realizes something’s up.  The majority then REALIZES that Chanelle realizes that something’s up, and admit they can’t end their conversation right as she comes up.  They then… talk about fish for like 30 seconds and split up.  Way to execute the plan, everyone.  

Of course, plans don’t matter when you have TIME TRAVEL!  Probst has explained the twist to Rocksroy, and though he puts up a decent effort at acting like he won’t, citing “not everyone gets a trophy”, we all know he’s going to smash that hourglass.  ALL his allies are on the other side, and the show stupidly allows him to give himself immunity, thereby all but guaranteeing he’ll smash that hourglass.  Yep, there he goes saying that “Change history” thing.  I can only assume that production is priming them to say it, because that phrase is too stupid for BOTH Erika and Rocksroy to say it.  The losers of the challenge now get the pretty purple buffs, and we move on to more fun topics.  

The challenge is standard.  Spell “Immunity” in blocks you balance on a board you hold with a rope.  Pretty standard, but tough, and hardly a bad challenge to reuse.  But the REAL highlight of all this is the new individual immunity idol, which is nothing short of kick-ass.  They keep the Ouroboros as the central image, and build on it with a necklace of what looks like scales,, and some bone spikes for an ominous feel.  It stands out, looks badass, and is overall a great continuation of the aesthetic of the season.  If only the hidden idols could keep up.  

While it might seem that we have more viable targets available, given how Jonathan was really not keen on getting out Maryanne, Tori is still really the only target we’ve heard about.  Naturally Tori wins immunity.  Guess she was able to keep up the “Surface Pressure”.  Note how happy I am.  Also not the sarcasm.  

At least we now get some good mystery out of it.  With all our viable targets immune, the scrambling begins.  Romeo is the first to throw out a name, talking about his “Rally the weak” strategy with Lydia.  You know, since that worked so well with Zach.  Jonathan is naturally the target of such an alliance, and it seems to gain a fair bit of traction.  Unfortunately, Jonathan has several people in his corner who want to use him as a shield, particularly Lindsay.  She then deflects to Maryanne, citing her large number of advantages as a reason to get her.  I would berate Lindsay for targeting someone on her original tribe, but to be fair, if she wants the group of 8 to stay tight, that’s the best option.  

It seems initially like those two will be our only options, but, in an attempt to get Omar in on the plan, Lydia talks about the 8 possible not being as tight down the road.  This is presumably meant to let Omar thing he wouldn’t be on the bottom of such an alliance, but Omar instead sees an opportunity.  While he knows he has no vote himself (and s, from what we see, everyone else knows as well), he can influence the vote, and starts pitching Lydia based on this.  He warns Maryanne and Jonathan (the former even shedding some tears in confessional about this), and seems to also gain some traction, presumably in part because Hai talked about how tight they were beforehand, and people wanting to split that up.  Where Omar may slip up is in telling Hai about this plan.  Hai, understandably, is not on board with this plan, and pitches Maryanne more aggressively as they head off to Tribal.  

So, three reasonable targets, but which one is best?  Well, depends on what side you’re on.  With old Ika seeming to be the most fractured of the bunch, they’ve lost the chance to grab power as a whole, so in some ways, this comes down to whether you want old Vati or old Taku to have power down the road.  Old Taku of course, want to keep power for themselves, and so have the best interest to vote off Lydia.  Old Vati and old Ika, however, have more incentive to de-power old Taku, since they seem to be the most united group.  Of the two, though, who to target?  Personally, I’d go Jonathan.  Physical prowess aside (as we saw today, it does not guarantee individual immunity wins), the man is the glue that holds old Taku together.  Take him out, and they’re no longer a threat to either of you.  Yes, Maryanne has “stuff”, but it can be strategized around, and as we’ve seen, Maryanne has trouble keeping secrets.  Better to weaken the tribe socially than in terms of advantages.  

For how tense and mysterious this tribe is, Tribal Council is oddly fun.  Everyone seems to genuinely get along, and have good rapport with one another.  The highlight is definitely Drea and Maryanne trying to figure out if they’re on the same page or not, but there’s a lot of fun moments from each individual.  

After a decently chaotic vote, with a total of four targets somehow (Rocksroy seems to have thrown a stray vote onto Lindsay.  No harm done, but see little logic when the vote was so split already), Lydia ends up being the consensus.  On the one hand, I’m happy she left, since it gives Taku, and by extension Omar, more power, which is what I want to see.  On the other hand, I did enjoy her presence on the show, more so than, say, Lindsay or Jonathan.  Nothing against either of them, I like both of them just fine!  Lydia was just more entertaining to me.  She will be missed, at least on my end.  

Hourglass shenanigans aside, this episode was great!  “Fun”, above all, is what I think of, but there’s more to it than that.  Strategic intrigue.  Good misdirection.  There’s something in this episode for everyone!  Let us hope the merge can keep up this pattern!  And if not, oh well.  That’s just the Circle of Life.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 42” Episode 5: Fully-Armed Battalion

I try not to be too antagonistic on this blog, but sometimes, things just have to be said: CURSE YOU, LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA!  You and your annoyingly catchy lyrics!  Now I cannot here the phrase “push comes to shove”, a fairly common phrase, without your songs getting stuck in my head.  And now I’m forced to make them the title of my blog.  Again, CURSE YOU!

Rant over, we join the Ika Tribe, fresh off of Tribal Council.  As Romeo tells us, there’s damage control that needs to be done with Rocksroy, since his “set in his ways” mentality means he was unwilling to not vote for Tori.  Surprisingly, despite numerous slip-ups, Rocksroy actually takes being effectively “left out” fairly well.  I won’t say “perfect” because Rocksroy is not good at hiding his emotions.  He clearly is irritated by the decision, and mistrustful of the others moving forward.  But looking at his reaction on paper, it’s kind of hard for him to have a better one.  He talks about how glad he is that Swati is gone, once Romeo explains the whole “everyone is her number one” thing, and even has some good introspection.  He notes, both publicly and privately, that his social game needs some work, and if he wants to win, he’ll have to up it, or at least “ride his team’s social coattails” as he says.  Good introspection I would not have thought possible for him.  Kudos.  

Continuing the praise, much as I hate to do it for her, I will admit I got a laugh out of Tori rolling her eyes behind Rockroy’s back after he asks if his social game needs work.  That was actually good comedic timing, and I can’t deny that she’s probably right in this scenario.  More concerning for Ika is that Tori is not on board the “strong four” train they have going.  Granted, she has little reason to.  She WAS the alternate target at the first Tribal Council, and was at least talked about for the second.  If she’s not on the VERY bottom, she’s clearly not on top either, and so has little reason to stay loyal, barring no better options.  Really, I bring this up just to reinforce my point that Tori would have been a better boot.  Swati might have been double-dealing you all, but at least she had INCENTIVE to stick around.  

Moving on to Taku, all is not well in Jonathan’s paradise.  Specifically, his tribe won’t stop talking, particularly Maryanne and Lindsay, who first discuss Mario Kart, then the finer points of the game “Hot/Cold”.  There’s only so much the man can stand, but fortunately he has fishing gear to go full Rupert Boneham (“Survivor Pearl Islands”) and get away from it all.  

Unfortunately for Jonathan, he goes even further down the Rupert hole than he should, and by that I mean causing a disturbance via camp life.  Jonathan is in the process of chopping a log, but in the process, it bounces and hits Maryanne in the foot.  Maryanne is naturally upset about this, but Jonathan feels like she’s making too big a deal out of it.  Drawing on my deep knowledge obtained via years in the Boy Scouts (probably the first time I’ve done so in a decade), I have to say, while Maryanne may be slightly dramatic, she’s in the right here.  While she did enter what’s called the “Blood Circle” (an imaginary circle around a person wielding a sharp object whose radius equals the point of that object held at arm’s length to the corresponding shoulder, into which one is not supposed to enter for safety), it’s also incumbent upon the person IN said blood circle to A) call it out and B) keep an eye and make sure no one enters unawares.  

Jonathan tells us he needs to keep his temper, as he’ll come off looking like the jerk in any argument.  Valid, and shows good self-knowledge.  Instead, he privately vents to Lindsay about how Maryanne would need to go next due to irritation, to which Lindsay agrees… Despite being part of the “annoying” group earlier.  Jonathan is not as subtle as he seems, however, since Omar notices him going off, and correctly deduces that Jonathan is complaining about Maryanne.  This, as he notes, is a problem, given that it splits the group, and Maryanne has all the advantages.  Only time will tell if this bears any fruit.  

Not wanting to be left out of the “tribe fracturing” action, we head over to Vati, where Hai is mistrustful of, well, pretty much everyone but Lydia.  And we see he has reason to do so, since shockingly, Daniel and Chanelle seem to be mending fences, agreeing to bury the hatchet should the merge come.  Granted, with Mike, he and Lydia still make three to Daniel and Chanelle’s two, but it’s a point of concern.  Hai decides to break up that possibility by throwing shade at Daniel while the latter is out fishing.  Hai notes that Daniel is saying he can’t do challenges, yet can go out fishing.  I personally would not be one to question a serious injury, but it’s a valid point, and the others seem to buy it, so I can’t really complain.  

Now, we’ve been getting some good strategy this episode, even some bits of social interaction, but viewer, that’s not what you want.  No, what you want is STUFF!  Idols!  Advantages!  Long explanations of rules!  That’s what brings the viewers in!

This, at least, seems to be the mindset of Romeo, who along with Drea sets out to look for the Ika idol.  This segues into him talking about being a pageant coach, and the sacrifices his mother made for his family, and how it inspires him.  Not the greatest backstory we’ve ever had, but it does it’s job decently well.  The picture of Romeo in Time’s Square is particularly inspiring.  That said, I do find it concerning that he frames it as him wanting to help DREA be the best she can be, tying it back to his pageant coach thing.  If it’s just to tie into his career, I’ve no issue.  But the way it comes across is that he’s here to support someone else’s victory, rather than his own.  Not a good look.  

With all this talk about the idol, naturally it must be found, so naturally, with the previews spoiling everything, it is found by… Drea.  

Ok, ok, time to address the elephant in the room.  The preview snookered us, most especially myself.  In hindsight, the voice over that played over Tori looking inquisitive is NOT Tori herself, but Maryanne.  Yes, Tori was never the one to find the idol at all, and could have gone home no problem.  Yes, it is clever on the editor’s part to trick us that way.  But no, it is still not a good thing to do.  Whether intended or not, it still sucked out a lot of the tension.  More to the point, I feel like one should really not include ANYTHING in the season preview that’s after episode 2, in order to avoid such speculation/spoiler.  Or, if you MUST, if there’s some draw to the season that cannot be ignored, talk about it in the VAGUEST terms to build intrigue.  I can’t believe I’m typing these words, but they should have taken their cue from “Survivor Fiji”, or at least its season preview.  The big event of that season was the deal between Yau-Man and Dreamz, and it’s something they couldn’t ignore in the preview, despite happening in the last two episodes.  But rather than give us details, they kept it vague, referring to it only as “The most controversial move in ‘Survivor’ History”, over footage of a shark.  Gives nothing away, but builds intrigue.  The hyperbole could get old, but better than spoiling your season outright, or ruining its intrigue.  

Drea gets her idol, and is very pleased with the amount of stuff she now has.  Much as I like this season, that amount is starting to get out of hand again.  Reading the note, she notes that Maryanne has found an idol, since both Maryanne and her particular phrase are hard to miss.  She wonders aloud if anyone on Vati found their idol.  This is our cue to cut to Mike, who is STILL insisting he won’t say his phrase.  Mike seems to be under the impression that if he just keeps quiet, his vote AND his idol come back at the merge.  Now, they may have changed that rule between seasons, but that’s NOT how it worked before.  Your vote came back, but the idol went away at the same time.  Like I said, possibly they just didn’t tell us about a rule change (in which case, shame on production), but I’m more inclined to think Mike just didn’t read the rules carefully.  

Mike will get the chance to put his money where his mouth is, as it’s once again challenge time.  The challenge is your standard obstacle course and puzzle, with a slingshot at the end, so not much need to dwell on it.  Instead, let’s talk about those idol phrases.  Maryanne once again uses her large reactions to sell her “bunny having dinner in the mailbox” line, and Drea has a natural lead-in with talking about food to get in her potato phrase.  Mike?  Well, he DOES say his phrase, and wisely so, but he doesn’t even TRY to sell it in the moment.  Oh, he goes back an tries to tie it into his football coaching, but he REALLY does a poor job of selling it.  Give Naseer credit from last season: He might have just blurted out his saying as well, but at least his SOUNDED like something of a rejoinder to the other two.  

Given that this challenge only has one small puzzle element, despite all tribes getting good strategic content, Taku is almost guaranteed to win this.  After all, they have Jonathan, who’s basically a fully-armed battalion in one person.  Yet, surprisingly, this episode does a good job of convincing us this might not be the case.  Ika cruises to an easy victory after Tori frankly BEASTS the puzzle, but Omar, on the puzzle, REALLY blows the lead, and Vati gets several shots on the slingshot before Taku gets a chance.  Unfortunately, Vati sucks just as bad on the slingshot as Omar did on the puzzle, and Jonathan is able to beast mode Taku to a victory.  

But wait!  Shipwheel Island returns once again!  As winners (getting a larger tarp as well as immunity, while Taku gets a smaller tarp and second immunity), Ika gets to send one person from Vati to Shipwheel Island.  They choose Lydia.  Unsurprising, given her not-great challenge performance, and a decent move.  Then they can choose one person from themselves or Taku to go as well.  They wisely choose themselves, which I can’t complain about.  Again, keep power and information consolidated into your tribe, rather than the other one.  But I must ask… You send ROCKSROY?  Granted, they can’t send Drea again, since those who’ve gone before are explicitly banned, and Tori is a bad option since she’s disloyal, but Rocksroy?  The guy who’s bad socially, in a situation requiring social smarts, and who may feel burned from the last Tribal Council?  THAT’S who you’re sending?  Again, better than some choices, but Romeo, who has proven to be very socially smart, and also in the majority, is RIGHT THERE!  Why not send him?  

While there is mystery as to which of two choices will go at tonight’s Tribal, it’s not a mystery who those choices will be.  With Hai and Lydia having done the smart thing, and picked up straggler Mike, it will be Daniel or Chanelle.  That said, we’re definitely left in the dark as tho which one the group will go for.  Hai seems to favor taking out Chanelle, while Mike is still against Daniel.  Both are good options, and there’s not really any downside to eliminating either of them, but on the whole, I say better to keep Daniel.  Apart from TECHNICALLY having voted with you once, the dude’s injury makes him less of a threat at the merge, which you now have to assume is nearby given the numbers.  And if it’s not?  Eh, you can get him at the next Tribal Council anyway.  Still, not going to fault them if they decide to keep Chanelle.  

Everyone left tries to push the decision onto Lydia, despite them not NEEDING her vote, assuming that Chanelle and Daniel vote against each other.  They talk about how they need Lydia’s vote anyway, thereby all but guaranteeing she risks her vote at Shipwheel Island.  Speaking of which, we get our requisite backstory on Lydia.  It’s decently touching, as she talks about her image issues, but really only stands out for her pink flower hat.  That thing is awesome.  Vati doesn’t need to worry, though.  She and Rocksroy are both suitably cagey, and so both naturally protect their vote, not trusting the other.  Reasonable decision, and nice to see another new outcome than either a mix, or the total miss when Chanelle and Omar went, but ultimately, just kind of a waste of time.  

What does NOT waste our time is Tribal Council, which brings entertainment in spades.  This is mostly due to Daniel, who tries to deflect things back onto Mike when asked a question, and weirdly succeeds.  He talks about how he can’t do analogies, only to then give an analogy to Muhammad Ali of all people.  He’s neurotic and all over the place and I kind of love it.  Unfortunately, this also dispels the tension of Tribal.  These are the actions of someone desperate, particularly when he tries to build up what a team they are, not someone confident they’ll stay.  Daniel will be going, which is hardly a bad decision.  Dude has shown himself to be unreliable.  

Daniel DOES go, but it’s a bit trickier.  Chanelle, anticipating a possible shot in the dark and unanimous vote on Daniel, throws a vote on Mike to try and save herself in a possible tie should Daniel be safe.  I was initially critical of the vote, since it seemed to come from Lydia or Hai and served to antagonize Mike, but from Chanelle, it makes sense.  This leads to a 2-2 tie between Daniel and Chanelle (Mike and Daniel voted for Chanelle, Hai and Lydia voted for Daniel), leading to Daniel going on a re-vote.  In terms of character, I am sorry to see Daniel go.  Chanelle is perfectly fine, but dude brought way more personality.  In terms of watching strategic play, however, very much pleased with the outcome.  After that first Tribal Council, Daniel was on a train-wreck to failure, and had next to no chance to recover.  Chanelle, at least has moves she can make and that will be intriguing going forward.  

I will say, this episode sits wrong with me.  It’s not the WORST, but I feel like, apart from some Daniel character moments, it’s the weakest of the season.  The issue, I think, is that the episode is more focussed on the twists and advantages coming into play, rather than the characters, which most of this season has focussed on.  The characters are strong enough to shine through anyway, but it’s a concern, particularly after last season.  

What intrigue there will be next episode!  An even 4-4-4 split!  Omar not having a vote, and possibly not knowing if Chanelle doesn’t tell him!  Jonathan now being targeted at every available opportunity!  Join us next week, for a rant about the hourglass twist if they don’t get rid of it and/or alter it!  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.