Idol Speculation: “Survivor 42” Episode 10: A New Villain Arises

While I admit I haven’t seen this complaint so far, I could see some in the fan community having a gripe with this season.  Specifically after Tori’s exit, there’s no real “Villain” left in the game.  Everyone is at least some degree of likable (some more than others, but let’s not split hairs), and even if they have some rough edges, no one is a real “villain”.  Evidently the show heard this complaint through time, and set out to give us a new villain, and his name is Mike!  

What’s that?  You say that Mike did nothing particularly villainous this episode?  Oh ho, I beg to differ, dear reader.  He committed perhaps the most heinous crime known to man.  HE MISUSED SHAKESPEARE!  

You all heard him!  He made the inevitable “Wherefore art thou” reference that must happen when someone named “Romeo” is around, which is fine, except that he made the admittedly common mistake of using “wherefore” as if it were the modern “where”.  It’s NOT people.  It’s analogous to WHY in Modern English.  This is not a hard concept to work through!  At least the episode is over, and I don’t have to hear it again…

CRASH!

MIKE: Wherefore art thou, Matt?  In your home, obviously.  

ME: Why do I even bother?  Look, Mike, what are you doing here?  

MIKE: Our hill, over dale, over bush and briar, I do wonder everywhere.  And your house is a part of “Everywhere”

ME: Yeah, but see, that doesn’t work since that’s ACTUALLY an appropriate Shakespeare quote for the situation, albeit an abridged one.  

MIKE: Well I heard you were a Shakespeare fan, and thought I could regale you with some more of The Bard, ya’ know?  Show ya’ I actually know what I’m talking about.  

ME: You know what?  Fine.  I have better things to do than chase you off my property with my nice new Taku Buff.  Just try and keep it to a minimum, ok?

MIKE: The silence often of pure innocence persuades where speaking fails.  Ya’ know, shut up if you don’t want people to know about your advantages.  

ME: Woah, slow down there, man!  We’re not even at that part of the episode.  First we’ve got to get over you congratulating yourself on blindsiding Hai.  

MIKE: What can I say?  Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon ‘em!

Mike has no idea how appropriate that quote is to his situation right now.  In any case, there’s really no drama from that vote out since it was pretty unified.  Even morning doesn’t bring much drama, as we instead focus on camp life.  Drea evidently wants to be the next Richard Hatch (“Survivor Borneo”) or Tom Westman (“Survivor Palau”), and catch a shark, the mechanism for which she debates with her tribe.  This is soon interrupted by Maryanne’s oddly casual observation that her pinkie toenail has fallen off.  This casual nature is soon revealed to be because it’s a regular occurrence for Maryanne, something the tribe is oddly fascinated with.  Though I suppose if I had nothing but time, such a banal subject might get my attention as well.  

Strategy talk does eventually re-emerge, though, as our “Strong 5” go down to the beach, leaving Maryanne and Romeo behind.  The pair acknowledge that they’re on the bottom, but also recognize that that five are not going to stick together, and they can weasel their way further forward.  

Meanwhile, on the beach, the five are making a pact to stick together through Romeo and Maryanne’s boots, only to “duke it out” later.  A decent enough idea for all of them, under the patented Cirie Fields “Every goat left is a threat to my finals seat” logic, and Drea, at least, is heavily on board, very ready to throw Romeo under the bus.  They just haven’t been able to get on the same page.  And credit where it’s due, but this group has FINALLY figured out to send the right salesman to make such a pitch.  Mike, the guy who would seem most likely to propose such an alliance, is the one doing the talking, and he sells it hard.  Good job for him.  It’s certainly more believable than, say, Omar trying to go with this idea.  

The salesman language is intentional, though.  Once the group splits up, he confides to us and Omar that the whole thing was to make Drea comfortable, so she doesn’t play any potential idols or advantages.  Smart play, but unsurprising.  Just due to sheer amount of “stuff”, Drea is the biggest threat left for the end, and that’s not even including her surviving being a target multiple times, plus her heart-wrenching speech at the Tori boot.  

Yet, I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t believe this is who they would target until Mike told us so.  I thought he was being 100% serious.  Good job, Mike.  

MIKE:  What can I say, I’m a good actor.  

This player here,

But in a fiction, in a dream of passion

Could force his soul so to his own conceit

That from her working all his visage wann’d,

Tears in his eyes, distraction in’s aspect,

A broken voice, and his whole function suiting

With forms to his conceit?  And all for nothing!

Thanks for the good performance, it helps take some of the salt out of that “Wherefore” misusage.  Also salty is Jonathan, who continues to want to be the provider, yet finds himself very much weakened, both physically and in his resolve.  Drea is still on that shark-catching train, and so she and Lindsay go down to untangle a net to attempt to use it.  Jonathan, after some perceived effort, goes down and verbally directs them in their untangling efforts.  After this surprisingly doesn’t work as well, Drea makes an offhand, if somewhat snarky, comment that more hands would help, which Jonathan takes as a slight unto himself.  This blows up into far more of an argument than it needs to, save for the fact that it proves Jonathan will remain a target.  While I can see his side of it, I do think he was overreacting, and again, it’s that side of Jonathan that I don’t like to see.  

And so, we now come to the moment we all saw happening from the moment the preview for this episode showed up.  Yes, dear readers, it is time once again for the episode with the “Do or Die” twist.  Mike, any appropriate words for this situation?  

MIKE: It sucks, man?

ME: Well yes, but I meant more bardic words.  

MIKE: Hmm.  How about “What a sign it is of evil life…”

Good enough, thank you!  Now, I promised at the top of this season that I would not give the show flak for reusing twists, as they had no time to gather true feedback from the audience on how they played out.  And I will hold to that, even if the rub salt in the wound by having Probst talk to the audience like we’re kindergarteners while re-introducing the twist to us all.  So no, I will not complain about the presence of this particular twist here.  Much.  

That said, however, I do want to re-address something I talked about last season.  While this and a large number of twists implemented last season have received some degree of hate, I’ve noticed a number of people come around on this one, and say that it’s actually a decent twist, or at least not the worst last season had to offer.  And fair enough.  One is entitled to one’s opinion, and it’s not the WORST opinion one could hold regarding “Survivor”.  However, I would respectfully disagree, and I would like to take a minute to explain why.  

When I do see people talking about the worst twists from last season, usually the hourglass is top of the list.  And again, fair enough.  That is also a terrible twist for a variety of reasons.  But I still maintain that “Do or Die” is by far the worst.  Still, it seemed odd to me that this was so common an opinion that I took time between seasons to consider why, and have come to the conclusion that it is because we’re rating the relative merits of a twist based on different criteria.  

The most common criticism I see lobbed at the hourglass is that it’s “Unfair”, which it categorically is.  And if you’re rating at twist on fairness, I 100% agree with you.  Much as I may dislike the “Do or Die”, I cannot deny that it is “Fair”.  Contestants are told up-front what will happen, and are given the chance to avoid it.  No, it would be wrong to say the “Do or Die” is unfair.  

But fairness is not the issue for me.  For me, how well it fits into the spirit of the game is.  

In my view, there are only three ways a player should leave the game: They get voted out, they quit, or they are removed by production, either for medical reasons or some other violation of contract that necessitates production removal.  Anything else does not feel like “Survivor”.  The mechanism for implementing the twist is fine.  But the consequence is far too severe for my liking.  

NO ONE should ever leave the game based on what the show describes as “a game of chance”.  Even those screwed by the hourglass twist have a chance to socially maneuver to save themselves.  But this twist leaves open the possibility that someone leaves, not based on their own social maneuvering, willpower, or actions, but a bit of bad luck.  Luck may play a factor in many exits, but it should not be the ONLY factor, or even the PRIMARY factor.  You want to keep the “consequences” theme going?  Fine.  But make the consequences less severe.  Hey, you’re fond of taking away votes, and we saw what good drama that caused at Vati’s first Tribal Council this season.  Keep things the same, tell people about the twist beforehand and give them a chance to opt out, but say it’s a chance to not be able to vote.  I would even accept the vote being lost for two Tribal Council’s in a row if that’s what it took not to have this particular twist in the game!  And hey, if you want to push the “chance at reward” angle like you did this season, you can do that as well!  Survive the “Do or Die”, you get an extra vote!  It keeps the fairness of the twist, and creates a dilemma without the possibility of gutting the true drama and point of the show: The social maneuvering and the vote.

Boy, my fingers are sore from all that typing.  Mike, can you fill in for a second?

MIKE: Farewell, Immunity!  Thou art too dear for my possessing!

Another misquote?  You’re on thin ice, buddy.  But yes, most here do choose to sit out, and wisely so, given the potential consequences.  Mike and Maryanne have immunity via idols, so they see no need to risk themselves.  Drea has the ability to steal one of their idols with her “Knowledge is Power”, so she is also out.  Omar has somehow not had his name mentioned once for elimination yet, so he sits out, like a boss.  And Romeo sits out… Well, it’s not made super clear, but I guess he gets the accurate read that he’s not going to be a target tonight.  All understandable.  

Naturally, the two people competing are Jonathan, correctly surmising that his name is brought up, and Lindsay who… Ok, Lindsay’s not a target, but I admit it would be out of character for her not to complete.  Specifically, they will be competing in an endurance challenge where our players have to stand in a semi-crucified pose that makes them go numb.  You may remember this either as the challenge where Natalie Anderson accidentally spat on herself during “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, or more recently, the one where Christian blabbered everyone else into submission on “Survivor David vs. Goliath”.  Not a bad challenge, but again, I’m sick of nothing but endurance immunity challenges post merge.  Jonathan wins, somewhat surprisingly, meaning this twist could now screw over someone I actually really enjoy watching.  Way to keep ruining things, show!

To really hammer home just how terrible this is for Lindsay, we get HER flashbacks, specifically to playing football in high school.  She talks about her toughness and how she perseveres in spite of the odds.  On the one hand, I want to complain about how pointless this flashback is, given how it just tells us stuff the show already did a good job of conveying about Lindsay.  On the other hand, we get to see pictures of High School Lindsay, which is pretty cool, and discover that she has the same Fountain of Youth that Probst does.  She does not age either.  You doing ok, Mike?

MIKE: I am a kind of burr; I shall stick.  You ain’t getting rid of me that easily.  

Ooooookay then.  Angsting over, it’s time to get back to targeting  As discussed earlier, Drea is the main target due to all her “Stuff”, but Drea is not so easily got rid of.  Being no moron, she recognizes that when people are distant with her, that means her name is coming up.  Fortunately, she has a plan.  No one knows about that “Knowledge is Power” advantage, so she can steal Mike’s idol to keep herself safe.  All she has to do it keep quiet about it… Wait, why is she telling Omar about this plan?  

MIKE: She prattles something too wildly.

Precisely.  Look, props to Omar for getting in so good with everyone that he’s at the center of most every plan that comes up, and for somehow being the only person left who has NEVER been brought up as a target for elimination, but what the heck was Drea thinking here?  How does it in ANY WAY behoove her to let ANYONE know about this?  All it can do is derail her plans.  There is LITERALLY no need for Omar to know this, but she tells him anyway.  

About the best that can be said is that it leads to some decent misdirection here.  Omar acknowledges that he has power, and can eliminate Mike tonight.  He could even possibly get him to let Omar hold his idol, then still vote Mike out to take full possession.  The latter, at least, is a somewhat compelling argument, as Omar is one of the few people left with no idol or advantage to his name.  Still, this falls into the same category as “Now that everyone’s against Hai, maybe we should keep him.”  There’s no way this is real.  Yes, Mike is getting a big head about stuff.  GOOD!  Let him think he’s in charge, and he’s less likely to move against you.  Mike does not take being betrayed very well, as you may have noticed from literally all of his game so far.  You really want someone like that on the jury?  I think not.  Plus, Drea is probably the only person left who you realistically lose to in the end, so she should be target numero uno.  

The ethics of Lindsay’s risk are the main topic of discussion at Tribal tonight.  Not much comes of said discussion, but it is nice that people don’t take the mickey out of her too much.  Of course, when Lindsay goes up to pick a box with 10 minutes still left, and no cut to commercial, we know she’s safe.  Probst gives us the Monty Hall problem, the jury looks shocked, Rocksroy proves he doesn’t understand the Monty Hall problem, you know the drill.  Oddly, like Deshawn last season, Lindsay ignores the odds and refuses to switch.  Again, like Deshawn last season, it saves her.  I’m happy at the outcome, but this twist still needs to die.  

MIKE: My dancing soul doth celebrate!  Even though dancing isn’t a real sport.  Now we can get out Drea.  

Not without a hurdle, you won’t.  With the vote now on, Drea naturally plays her Knowledge is Power advantage, asking for Mike’s idol.  Continuing with his surprisingly good acting chops, Mike looks all dejected, only for us to discover that, indeed, Omar did the smart thing.  We flash back to Mike handing Omar his idol for safe keeping, and so Drea is out of luck, though we see she wisely spends her extra vote on the move as well.  See, THIS is good stuff!  The strategizing, good and bad.  The plays and counter-plays.  The dramatic reveal.  All stuff we would have missed had the show just had “luck” boot out Lindsay.  

I would also like to take this time to point out that the “Knowledge is Power”, a twist that’s actually got the potential to be GOOD on other seasons, has given us great dramatic moments, highlights of the season, twice now.  Why do people hate this one again?

The smart moves continue as bigger threat Drea goes.  I admit, I’m mixed on this one.  On the one hand, between Mike and Drea, I want to see more of Mike on my screen, particularly after he’s shown how good an actor he can be this episode.  That said, Drea was far from my least-favorite player on this tribe.  It’s just Jonathan was immune.  Drea leaving takes out one of the last remaining threats to Omar’s victory, which I would enjoy, and also removes more “Stuff” from the game, again a plus.  But it also takes out a great strategist, which means that the remaining episodes become more predictable, never a good thing.  Sorry to see her go, but not as sorry as if she stayed.  

Now, Mike got three votes this time, one more than expected.  Given Mike’s track record of handling surprises against him, he… Asks Drea for clarification, congratulates her on a move well-done, and hugs her goodbye.  Huh.  You really are full of surprises, man.  

MIKE: Men at some times are masters of their fates.  Not Lindsay, though.  

Most players content themselves with throwing one or two people under the bus as they leave.  Drea is not most players.  She compliments EVERYBODY in some way, whether it be Jonathan being below the radar, Lindsay being her close friend, Mike being likely to win in the end (doubtful), or giving Omar credit for foiling her Knowledge is Power (she does also say stuff to Maryanne and Romeo, but I missed it.  I assume it was in the same vein, though), she gives everyone a reason to target everyone else, which should help keep things interesting these last couple of episodes.  

Despite the show’s best efforts, this was a good one.  Once we didn’t have the worst outcome of “Do or Die” leading to “Die”, we had great misdirection, good use of flashbacks, and valid strategizing that led to a satisfying exit.  You’ve dodge the bullet twice, show, but don’t expect to do it a third time.  Next season better not have this particular twist.  

Anyway, thanks for the help Mike.  Want to take us out before I run you out of here with my nice new Taku buff?

MIKE: If this blogger has offended

Think but this, and all is mended:

That you have but slumbered here

While this blog post did appear.  

No more hatred, no more spite.  

Let it vanish in the night.  

If you seek a new recap,

Head to Dalton, that good chap,

For he is an honest man

Who seeks to tell us what he can

Of challenges and strategy

And he do hath no symmetry

With these harsh words of this here Matt

And that’s all I can say ‘bout that.  

Give me your hands, if we be friends,

And I’ll make sure everything’s right, ok?

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.