Idol Speculation: “Survivor 44” Episode 6: Persephone

I’m coming to realize that, for me, how easily I can come up with a title for a blog is a good indicator as to the quality of the episode, or at least my feelings about it.  If an episode is extremely good, it usually has a strong through-line or sense of humor I can base my jokes around.  If an episode’s extremely bad, my rage lends itself to many a clever title.  It speaks to the quality of this season that I haven’t raged yet still, if I may toot my own horn a bit, come up with some of my better blog titles.  

Then you have episodes like this, where all I have is a passing reference to a comment of Jaime’s I’m sure most people forgot about since it was quickly overshadowed by Carolyn talking strategy.  

Titles aren’t the only area in which I’m deficient, it seems.  It’s time for another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

My sadness over Matthew’s quit last episode made me neglect one more bit of strategy at Tika.  Specifically, while I gave Josh a bit of flak for the fake idol play, I didn’t actually talk about how he REALLY messed it up.  Prior to Probst coming in with the tribe’s stay of execution, Josh decided to show the note, in broad daylight, to Yam Yam.  And, just in case there was a chance Yam Yam missed the obvious clues that the note couldn’t be referring to the birdcage idol based on wording, he also shows it to Carolyn.  Yes, the woman who has literally ALREADY SEEN THIS NOTE in connection to the idol he played.  Shock of all shocks, this backfires, and all but confirms, for Carolyn and Yam Yam, that Josh has no idol.  Brain trust, this one.  

Speaking of Tika, we see that Matthew’s quit REALLY messed them up.  They were ITCHING for a Tribal Council.  Granted, it was a saving grace for one of them, most likely Josh, which he recognizes.  But still, there’s at least mistrust, if not outright bad blood, between all three to some degree, and so they hope for a shake-up soon.  

This shake up comes in the form of Tree Mail, which tells Soka and Tika to drop their buffs, and that they have 10 minutes to pack up camp, while Ratu just get the former portion of the note, denoting them as the merge camp.  After we get a mildly humorous line from Kane about how he feels “naked” without his buff, we check in with Carson for his strategic thoughts on his matter (all we really get from Soka is them still wanting Josh out).  Carson admits that he’s got a lot of information at this point, and we see that he does know about Lauren’s banked vote, something we hadn’t formally seen from him before now.  To be fair, said information also says Jaime has a real idol, since Matthew did not get to go back to camp to say goodbye for some stupid reason (it’s not like it was an evacuation where he had to go to the hospital ASAP.  Surely they could have driven him back to camp to pick up his stuff, say goodbye, hand off his idol, etc.), though we can’t hold that against Carson too much.  What I WILL hold against him is him revealing his idol to the camp.  Information for information I suppose, but if I were old Ratu, I’d be like “If you’re so in with us, why not tell us sooner?”  Carson says that the thing has no value, and while it is technically powerless, I’d hardly say it has no value.  A bluff or a fake idol are hardly “nothing”.  Give yourself some plausible deniability at least.  

Oh well, tribes meet up, and there’s happiness all around.  Jaime talks about how she has the most power in the game, due to having the most information.  I’ll concede that Jaime has at least a BIT of a point, since she has had direct interactions with the most people left in the game.  I believe Yam Yam and Carolyn are the only two she hasn’t specifically talked with in some capacity yet, though admittedly her interactions with Josh and Carson were confined to the “Journey” they took to switch them up.  The flaw in this thinking is that Jaime has mostly incomplete or bad information.  Her idols?  Powerless and fake.  Her knowledge of other tribes?  Can’t even see the relationship between Matt and Frannie.  I can see why Jaime thinks she’s in a good position, but the facts just don’t bear it out.  

Luckily for Jaime, all of original Soka is ready to eat each other.  With no love lost between him and Tika, Josh spills EVERYTHING about what was happening there, getting Yam Yam upset again.  Their clashing styles of play were fun to watch last episode, and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t still at least a bit fun in this episode. Yam Yam also lets us know that he feels alone, due to Carolyn’s breaking trust to vote with Josh, and Carson’s time on Ratu being an unknown quantity.  Yam Yam therefore sets about trying to make friends with Soka as quickly as possible.  

Soka, for their part, is ready to eat Josh due to the lack of bond with him.  Fair enough.  Josh wasn’t particularly connected anyway, and given that Soka has the most original members remaining, showing a willingness to devour one of their own greatly lowers their threat level.  Matt tells Yam Yam as much, but does go a bit too far, saying that Soka is super-fractured.  While not 100% true, there are still two pairs who can be played against each other, and you don’t even want to HINT at that, lest it be used against you.  Granted, Yam Yam is not in a position to do much about it, but Matt has no way to know that.  

Speaking of not knowing stuff, Carolyn does not know what to do in regards to all these conversations.  In a cool editing trick wherein we hear the start of bonding conversations only for them to fade out, Carolyn acknowledges the dilemma of wanting to be in on conversations, but not wanting to force herself in.  It’s a tough, human element, and one of the better parts of the show.  Her solution is to try and get back with Carson, whom she trusts the most out of those left, which she does that evening.  Carson, for his part, is ready to get the “Three Stooges” alliance of himself, Carolyn, and Yam Yam back together.  Not exactly the most auspicious name there, but can’t fault the strategy.  Certainly better than Carson talking about his idol to Ratu earlier.  

In a bit of a rarity, we go to commercial on a night scene, and come back on another night scene.  Matt and Frannie, with a whole bunch of new people, have a chance once again to bury their relationship form people who might not have noticed it.  And they indeed talk about doing so.  The flaw in this plan is that they’re talking about doing so IN THE MIDDLE OF A CROWDED SHELTER!  It may not be “The Sounds of Jungle Love” as Cirie said on “Survivor Micronesia”, but it’s at least The Sounds of Jungle Flirting, and I’d be surprised if people don’t take notice.  

Hey.   You see that challenge coming up?  The one that’s clearly demarcated for two teams?  You know what that means?  Yep, it’s “Mergeatory” time once again.  The “Kind of merge, but not really”.  And frankly, I’m just sick of it at this point.  Once they got rid of the “Hourglass Twist” it was at least not PAINFULLY bad, but this twist even without that addendum rarely adds anything but more confusion to an already stuffed vote.  Time to get rid of it, or at least not do it every season, to keep players on their toes.  

Even the challenge is a rehash, what else is new?  Only two things are noteworthy about it.  One is that they bring back the digging up and rolling around of giant balls, which is always a fun challenge element, even if reused.  The second is the puzzle, which is the normally difficult tree puzzle.  I say “normally” because, as Carson reminds us, this is one of the puzzles he 3-D printed and practiced.  Thus, when Probst says the randomly-drawn teams are “evenly matched” I can’t agree.  Physically they’re pretty even, but since the purple team has Carson, they have the major edge.  Unless they’re REALLY behind at the puzzle, they’ve got this.  And sure enough, that’s exactly what happens.  Good for Carson, though if I were him, I wouldn’t be happy at Probst hilighting “my” challenge win, lest it make me a threat.  

Yam Yam, Danny, Kane, Josh, Lauren, and Heidi all had the misfortune to not be on Carson’s team, and so go back and sulk.  Naturally, with Josh and Yam Yam both vulnerable, they immediately start pitching each other.  Yam Yam pitches Josh to Kane and Danny, but Danny at least is not having it.  Weird, considering that Danny’s part of Soka, who seemed quite keen to get rid of Josh earlier, but perhaps Danny really does want Josh for the bro-down he discussed last episode.  Josh has more luck pitching Yam Yam to Lauren and Heidi, who are presumably happy it’s not their names ultimately being thrown out.  

Our purple team gets to enjoy their feast in the black merge buff, which I wasn’t happy to see at first, but they’ve grown on me.  Black has gone from being a fairly rare merge buff color to being so common as to be cliche as the show went on, but when I think about it, the show’s actually been fairly restrained in using them lately, last being seen on “Survivor Winners at War” three years ago.  That’s enough of a gap that I can’t be mad at them being brought back.  It’s the chyrons that really sold me on these buffs, though.  The buffs have dark red accents, which normally don’t make a difference, but in the chyron, one color blends into another for a really cool effect that helps the color scheme stand out.  I don’t want every other season to have a black buff merge again, but this one I can live with.  

Josh as the target is not dead, as pretty much everyone on this feast agrees he should go.  Their only concern, primarily voiced by Carson, is that Josh may have an idol.  Thus, with only Brandon and Jaime to defend him (neither of whom seem particularly close to him anyway), Kane gets thrown out as the alternate target.  While it may not be strategically wisest to keep targeting people who have few to no connections and thus are no real threat, I can see why socially it makes sense, and with a large merge, sometimes the simple plan is best.  Carolyn, strongly preferring the Josh option, keeps insisting that Josh has no idol, even giving her evidence as to why this is the case, but no one listens to her.  While this looks bad for sure, it isn’t ALL bad.  If nothing else, it shows that Carolyn is still not perceived as a strategic threat, thus putting her in a good position to strategize under the radar.  That said, you need to be taken seriously at Final Tribal Council to be able to win, and I’m not sure Carolyn’s there yet.  She can get there, but she’s going to need to do some work.  Also, while I can understand most at the table not seeing Carolyn as more than surface, you would think Carson would at least listen to her.  Time will tell if this is a long-term concern for their alliance.  

Yam Yam, upon hearing that Kane is the alternate target, is relieved.  This lie is what they spin to Josh as well, which is a plausible scenario, and to his credit, Josh does not insist on his way.  He makes it clear he would prefer a Yam Yam exit, but will go with Kane if necessary.  Carson, however, still has that nerd bond with Kane, and so lets him know that he’s the alternate target, even if Josh is preferred.  As Kane has no way to know Josh doesn’t have an idol, he’s naturally a bit spooked, and starts pushing for Yam Yam to be the alternate target instead.  He pushes a bit aggressively in my opinion, but it does get people talking again, and seems to shift the target away from him.  Heck, it even gets Yam Yam and Josh talking about working together again!  Neither of them seems sincere about it, but hey, it’s something.  

We head off to Tribal with good mystery, but what’s the optimal move?  Given that the original Soka seem to be the decision makers here, if I look at it from their perspective, I’d say Josh is probably their best move.  Makes them seem less united than they are, and gets rid of the bridge they’ve burned the most.  No terrible options here, but again, a Josh boot is the ideal play.  He also seems to be the best consensus boot, which Matt notes is important given his lost vote.  He’s done a good job of hiding that from all but Frannie, which is smart, though he isn’t quite on Omar’s level in taking control of the vote on “Survivor 42”.  Still, this means a supermajority is preferable to prevent mix-ups, and Josh seems like the best bet in that regard.  

While not one for the history books, Tribal Council does have good mystery, and a couple of fun moments.  Most enjoyable for me is a slip-up from Probst where he described Tika as being down to “Yam Yam, Carolyn, and Josh.”  Probst, what is Carson, chopped liver?  Yes, that’s what NEW Tika was down to, but Carson was a part of that tribe for a good long while.  Hard to talk about these tribes post-merge in a season with a swap, is what I’m saying.  I also very much enjoyed Carolyn’s distraction in the voting booth.  It seems like she’s spotted some game-changing clue… Only for her to note she had a similar decoration in her room as in the voting booth.  I’m not as on board with Carolyn as a character as some are.  I respect her as a strategist, but she seems a bit “much” for me, and feels like she would be emotionally draining to be around constantly for long periods of time, but this was a fun moment nonetheless.  Still respect her as a strategist, for sure, either way though.  All this is docked points, however, when Heidi needs to make a metaphor about picking up people in a car being like “Survivor”.  Heidi, I know you haven’t had much screen time, but you’re better than this.  

The mystery is kept well, but in the end, the smart thing happens and Josh goes home.  Can’t say I’m overly sorry.  He seemed like a nice-enough guy, but the “Always the target” thing had run its course, and if we had to keep having that conversation every episode, it would have gotten old real fast.  Probably a good time for him to leave, but he’s by no means a bad guy.  

Of more interest to me is the rogue vote for Kane.  He did successfully make Yam Yam the alternate target, but still received one vote.  Looking back, it was from Carolyn, and so I see two possibilities for how this happened: Carolyn, in an attempt to repair her relationship with Yam Yam, might have decided not to vote his way as an olive branch, or it might have been in case Josh somehow had a real idol and Yam Yam successfully played a Shot in the Dark.  Or possibly both.  

Yeah, not as much to say about this episode.  This is the closest the show has come to “boring” for me this season.  A goody mystery kept it from QUITE going there, but it’s borderline, mostly due to how formulaic this “Mergetory” has become.  Time for a change, show!  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.