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.
idolspeculation 
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