Idol Speculation: “Survivor 45” Episode 5: Stop Global Worming

KENDRA: Hi everyone!  It’s Kendra!  I hope you don’t mind me taking over the blog today, but I just happened to come across the open word document, and thought “This would be a really great platform to talk about a major issue!”  So that’s what I’m gonna do!  You know when it rains, right, all the worms come up out of the ground and just kind of end up flopping around out there?  Well, that means they get stepped on, or run over!  And that’s terrible!  I mean, worms are a great source of protein we shouldn’t just be letting that go to waste!  Oh, but don’t worry if you can’t get one down.  Everyone’s eating tastes are different…

ME: What are you doing?

KENDRA: Oh, is this your blog?  Sorry, I just happened by, and couldn’t help myself.  Had to talk about the very important issue of Global Worming.  

ME: You mean “Global Warming”?

KENDRA: What you said is bad too, but I meant what I said.  It’s an issue, and I’d like to use your platform to raise awareness.  

ME: Inane as that is, I’m actually not mad.  

KENDRA: Really?

ME: Yeah.  You just happened to wander by and didn’t do structural damage to my house, for once.  More than I can say for a lot of past players I’ve met.  And even if your issue is… Unusual, at least you’re trying to do a good thing in the world.  Use my blog as your soapbox.  Say what you need to say.  

KENDRA: Great!  Then let me talk about aliens, which are definitely real…

ME: Out!  Now!

Ah, even with the aliens talk, still happy that I got my seasonal “Contestant breaks into my house” moment on the blog out of the way in a really harmless manner.  While I bask in that joy, you all can have another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

I really don’t know how I managed it, but I actually somehow forgot to talk about my overall thoughts on last episode.  It was definitely a step down from some of the previous ones, mostly due to quits often being kind of a wet fart, as I said in episode one, and another Lulu member going just being dull at this point.  That said, the misdirection and mystery were still top-notch, and the switch really breathed more life into the season, so overall, still happy.  

Less happy is the new Reba.  Both Dee and Sifu received votes last time, and while I will give Sifu credit that he tries his best to tone down his reaction (the most he says is “That was a surprise”), his tone and his looks make it clear that, as Dee says, he’s not happy.  Though if Sifu’s handling of the whole thing is not idea, Dee’s is even worse.  She just leans back and says she doesn’t want to talk about it, which both makes her look guilty (which, admittedly, she is), and prevents her from controlling the narrative.  Speaking of narration, she narrates that Tribal Council couldn’t have gone worse.  Sean’s effective quit meant that she showed her hand too early in regards to Sifu, while reaping none of the benefit.  Can’t say Dee’s analysis is inaccurate here.  

Conversation about the vote does eventually start up, despite Dee’s objections.  All three women lie and say they voted Sean, claiming Sean himself was the rogue Sifu vote.  It’s what they have to do to save their skins, though one of them needed to claim the Dee vote that was shown, which none of them do.  Turns out, though, that Sifu doesn’t even need that to call out the lie.  Apparently the last thing Sean said on the way out was that the rogue vote wasn’t him.  Julie in particular is upset about this, describing it as Sean throwing “a grenade” on his way out, and rescinds some of the comments about his good vibes.  I’m sure this will in no way add fuel to the fire of vitriolic online discourse directed at Sean.  

Speaking of which, let me get on my own soapbox for a second: I get being mad at Sean.  I get being unhappy about his quit.  I may have my piece with it, but that doesn’t mean I respect the move.  Be mad.  Be unhappy.  That’s the show getting a reaction out of you.  But don’t take it out on the guy personally.  Better he be the forgotten person of the season than to be personally attacked in real life.  Critique the tv characters all you wan’t, but don’t cross the line into real-world attacks.  These people don’t deserve it just because they made moves in a game that you disagree with.  

Morning at the new Belo brings talk about how hungry everyone is.  Austin in particular is fantasizing about food.  Now, I’ve never been one to get on the “These people are wimps; 26 days is nothing!” train.  I fully acknowledge that it’s still tough, particular on someone like Austin who is probably very physically active IRL, and thus has a higher caloric intake.  When it comes to new era changes, yeah I don’t LIKE the move to 26 days, but there’s bigger fish to fry there, if you catch my drift.  But I will say that compared to previous seasons, this level of starvation DOES seem a mite excessive for what they’ve done so far.  Not saying they aren’t hungry, not saying they shouldn’t complain about it or fantasize about food, but suck it up a little, you know?

Luckily for them, Kendra spots another likely food source in a worm, one not eaten by a crab this time!  Kendra kind of already talked about the worm incident when she took over my blog, so I’ll spare you the play-by-play.  My recurring thought during this segment, however, was “Why didn’t you wash the worm?”  Look, you want to eat a worm on “Survivor”?  Fine, I see the logic.  But run a bit of water over it first!  I doubt dirt and/or sand has enough nutritional value to merit putting up with the terrible taste.  Hell, I’d even go so far as to attribute Kendra’s inability to eat the worm to said lack of washing it off.  Clean your worms, kids!  

This segways into people talking about Kendra.  In contrast to what he said about Emily, Dean notes that Kendra is EXACTLy the kind of “kooky yoga mom” he thought she would be, but is at least happy that she and Brando seem not to work well together.  Brando confirms this, noting that he and Kendra were not particularly close on original Belo, but does try to solidifying things with her, in the hope of swaying Emily.  Hope that will be difficult to achieve, since Kendra then talks about astrology and aliens.  Oh, don’t get me wrong, Emily puts on a brave smile, but you can tell inside she’s thinking “Get me away from her right now!”

Things are a bit more serious over at Little Lulu.  Surprising, given that Bruce is continuing his comedy schtick, calling Jake a “lazy ass”.  Things take a much more serious turn when Jake, getting up to go help with camp chores, suddenly collapses like he did a couple episodes ago.  Kellie, the nurse, takes the time to clarify that this is due to a sudden change in blood pressure.  Jake insists he’s ok, and doesn’t want medical, which hey, good for him for toughing it out, though he’s playing a bit risky that way, IMO.  

Jake then takes us to a segment where he talks about his former binge eating issues, and losing a bunch of weight, complete with flashback pictures.  As I’ve said before, I normally don’t mind these segments, as long as they’re done when they’re a natural tie-in to what’s being talked about in the show.  To be fair, this is one of the better-connected flashback segments, so I don’t outright dislike it.  That said, I feel like they’re leaning too hard into making this a feel-good story.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad Jake achieved the goals he personally wanted for himself, and props to him for putting in the work to get there, but I feel like just him talking about it, without the pictures, might have been more effective.  This feels a bit too close to exploitative for my taste.  

After commercial, we actually end up staying at Little Lulu once again.  Everyone else has gone off looking for supplies to Katurah, realizing that she’s kind of on the outs of the group, decides to go idol hunting just to be safe.  I will applaud her skills, as she both knows to look in the significant-looking trees, and is smart enough to poke a stick into holes first.  That said, her bluffing skills leave much to be desired.  Kaleb spots her and calls out, so she quickly throws away her idol-hunting stick.  A bit obvious, and not helped by the fact that when asked what she was doing, she says she was hunting for papaya in the most obvious lying voice I’ve yet heard on the show.  Things are looking bad for Katurah.  At least she shows us a fun new way to wear buffs.  Don’t think I’ve seen anyone use their leg before.  

Much better positioned on this tribe is Kaleb, who manages to stay on Katurah’s good side by saying he was calling out to make sure she wasn’t found out by the idol hunters, rather than to alert them.  Katurah buys it, and admittedly it may be true.  Kaleb is a charmer, and has managed to stay on everyone’s good side, though he notes the one person on new Little Lulu that he hasn’t really connected with deeply is Kellie.  Kaleb sets out to change that by telling her about Sabiyah’s idol.  Can’t really fault that move.  Sharing a secret is a good way to build a bond, and that information doesn’t really hurt Kaleb if it’s out there.  If others find out, they might be pissed Kaleb didn’t tell them, but on a tribe with such a strong Katurah/Bruce divide, I see little chance of that happening.  

Over at Reba, Sifu is, shock of all shocks, still mad about the rogue vote he received!  He’s getting less and less subtle about it, admitting in a confessional that he doesn’t buy the women’s story, and is trying to suss out which of them dared to vote against him.  In service of this, he constructs a pretty decent-looking fake idol.  It’s never going to be confused for Bob’s work on “Survivor Gabon”, but hey, that’s the gold standard of fake idols we’re talking about here.  Sifu’s work is quite good-looking.  I don’t think he sells it the best, but given that the women had already primed themselves to believe he had something, how he pitches it really doesn’t matter that much.  I’d dock the women some points for not recognizing that Austin finding something (which only J. Maya shouldn’t know about at this point) means Sifu probably doesn’t have anything, but with how many advantages the new era hands out, I really can’t blame them.  Dee somehow segways this into talking about the hardships her family had coming over from Cuba.  Again, hardly the worst of these flashback segments we’ve gotten over the past couple seasons, but again, a bit forced.  Probably would have worked better without the photos.  

Nerd is the word over at Belo, as Emily, Brando, and Drew get to discussing Pokemon, in particular shiny hunting.  It makes my little Pokemon-loving heart jump for joy.  It also reveals Drew as the Antichrist, as he admits to hacking his game.  Here, Brando pitches that he’s not as close with Kendra, and is willing to cut her if need be, but also suggests a “Nerd Alliance” for the three.  

Drew says no.  Drew, I may need to revoke your “Smart Card” for that.  

I mean, this is “Survivor” 101: You say yes to every proposed plan!  Having more options is always, ALWAYS better than cutting them off!  If you really don’t think you can commit, just give a vague statement like “That sounds like a plan” without actually agreeing!  It’s simple, basic gameplay!  How is this beyond you?

In Brando’s mind, this just reinforces the Reba/Belo split.  Luckily for him, despite Austin and Drew seeming to get to Emily first, she seems to be more inclined to work with them now.  She says it’s because they seem to have the numbers right now, which I have to tilt my head at a little bit.  Original Belo and original Reba both have equal numbers right now.  As you’ll put it later, from a qualitative standpoint, they’re equal.  This is NOT a reason to want to work with the original Belo.  

That said, to save myself some time later, I’ll discuss here why I think going with original Belo would still be the right move for Emily.  From her perspective, they’re more obviously fractured than original Reba.  Brando, as mentioned, has at least floated the idea of sacrificing Kendra, something neither Drew nor Austin has floated in regards to an original Reba.  This implies there would be cracks Emily could use to move herself up in the pecking order, more so than what Drew and Austin are presenting at this time.  Further, while she doesn’t know the dynamics of the other tribes, she DOES know that Sean left on a tribe with all original Reba.  Granted, he quit, but Emily can’t know that yet, and it reinforces the idea that “Reba Strong” is much more of a thing than “Belo strong”.  Add onto that her presumably wanting to continue to work with Kaleb come the merge, and original Belo are literally everyone else he’s with, and there’s a lot of upsides to her for swinging that way.  

With all those points, however, it should be noted that Emily really has no bad choice here.  She’s the proverbial kingmaker either way, and it’s just her determination of what will set her up better in the long-run.  I’d say Belo is overall the better choice, but there’s a strong argument for Reba.  That said, it can’t be fully discussed until later, so I’ll hold off on that argument for now.  

Bruce’s comedy hour remains ongoing at Little Lulu, but it’s not landing quite as funny as it was at first.  Katurah, not one to shirk an opportunity to put down Bruce, describes this as him brining the crazy after a few days of settling in.  I’d be inclined to just put this down to Katurah having a chip on her shoulder yet again, but we DO see Bruce doing some objectively annoying things.  Notably, he’s a bit rude when Katurah suggests an idea.  Maybe that’s just because it was her idea, and she’s made no secret that she wants him out.  Then again, he’s also a bit rude to Kaleb when he suggests talking through how to do a camp chore before actually doing it, asking if they’re going to talk about doing it, or actually do it.  Hearkens back to the very first episode of “Survivor Borneo”, with Sue shouting at Richard about the corporate world not working out in the bush.  A bit less justified in Bruce’s case.  The conversation hadn’t even started, and Kaleb was just trying to get consensus.  Could take five minutes, tops.  Nothing to get so worked up about.  Kaleb does seem annoyed by this, so perhaps Katurah is not as out of it as she thought.  

The witch hunt of Reba is at an end, as Sifu has made his determination: J. Maya was the vote against him.  Completely wrong, but points for trying.  J. Maya, to her credit, decides that she’s going to use this, playing up to Sifu that this is what she did so that he’ll think she’s on the outs, and won’t play his idol.  Decent plan, if a bit risky.  The flaw in said plan is that J. Maya doesn’t realize she was on the bubble with the women pre-swap, who note that if they lose again, it might be easier to just get rid of J. Maya.  It makes sense.  You keep your challenge strength, plus a high profile target come the merge, while sating the rage of Sifu, and again, I don’t think Drew or Austin are going to be upset about a J. Maya exit.  Not so good for J. Maya, though.  

First, Reba will have to see how they do in our challenge for the episode, which frankly sucks.  You run through an obstacle course to get keys to unlock a pole to get down sandbags to shoot targets.  We’ve seen it all before.  The trapdoor is slightly cool, but that’s about it.  At least each tribe has had good content, so there’s some mystery as to who will win.  In addition to immunity, first place gets 10 fish, and second place 5.  

Despite new Belo being favored to lose, as this challenge is puzzle-less and their strength is in puzzles.  There’s a decent bit of back and forth, but Drew is slow on untangling the rope, so lose they do, with Reba taking first place.  But hey, there’s still about half the episode left, so the buildup to Tribal Council must be pretty interesting!  Or, you know, it could be another damn journey.  Guess which one it is, bearing in mind that one option is interesting interpersonal dynamics, and the other one is a journey.  

At least the dynamic of who goes gives us a hilarious misplay.  As winners, Reba gets to select who will go, one from each tribe.  J. Maya gets randomly selected to go, but also becomes the spokesperson for why, which may not have been the wisest choice.  Kellie is selected to go from Little Lulu, with the justification being that she was visibly frustrated due to sitting out the challenge.  Fair enough, a plausible explanation that keeps your cards close.  No, it’s the selection of Austin from Belo that’s the problem.  Most likely he was selected as an original Reba to help get out information of the tribe dynamics there.  J. Maya justifies his pick by saying exactly that.  You know, the OPPOSITE of keeping your cards close.  Way to not seem “Reba strong” there.  

Before we get to our journey, Belo decides to try “orderly scrambling” with everyone doing what will later be described as a “speed dating” thing to round-robin with everyone.  While Emily and Kendra agree to target Drew (presumably due to smarts but a not-so-great challenge performance today, plus original Reba), Brando takes a play from Emily’s book and offers Drew his shot in the dark in exchange for targeting Kendra instead of him.  He doesn’t do it as well.  Drew refuses him, and notes that it makes him suspicious of Brando, and tells Emily as much when she comes back.  When it’s time for Emily and Brando to talk (Brando and Kendra just re-confirm targeting Drew, and evidently Kendra and Drew had nothing of note to discuss), Brando lies and says Drew brought up targeting Kendra.  Emily, at least for the moment, believes this, giving more credence to the going-with-Belo theory.  

Off to our journey at last, our threesome climb a mountain, and find a choice at the top.  Majority rules by vote: They can either get a sandwich apiece, or they can each get an advantage with a catch: All advantages remaining in the game must be used together.  All three just make an extra vote, two make a steal a vote, and last one standing makes an idol.  If that’s sounding familiar, it’s because the “Advantage Amulet” has made a return, after being last seen on “Survivor 42”.  Like I said there, I’m happy it’s here.  I’d have preferred no journey at all, but if we WERE going to have one, this is a good option to have at the end of it.  It’s not too overpowered, unless you’re the last one standing without anyone else knowing, and it creates a fun duality where you’re both incentivized to work with these people, lest they spill the beans on what you have, but also wanting to get rid of them to gain more power for yourself.  It’s a fun dynamic, and I’m happy to see it back. 

Austin, however, is not happy, just wanting to take the food and be done with it.  J. Maya is all in on the advantage, however, and while Kellie is waffling, Austin can see that she’s leaning advantage, so relents and agrees.  Probably the right decision.  You don’t want to rock the boat, and however hungry you are, one sandwich isn’t going to provide that much of an edge, particularly with no challenge imminent.  

Don’t think that Austin will forget this, however.  He agrees to the partnership same as the others, but privately feels like the advantage is nothing worthwhile, and swears to get the other two off.  

Good thing he has something to talk about, as things are not looking good for him and Drew.  Between her trying to be nicer, and her conflicted feelings about having so much power, she admits to Drew that she thinks he lied about his conversation with Brando.  You know, Emily, there is such a thing as being TOO honest.  Luckily for her Drew doesn’t hold a grudge and try to get her out a la what Rob Cesternino did to Christy Smith on “Survivor The Amazon”.  Instead, when Austin returns and spins a tale about them needing to haul coconuts up and down a mountain to get something and failing (a plausible lie, assuming J. Maya or Kellie don’t call him on it), he comes clean to Drew about what he has.  Sensing he’s potentially in trouble, Drew tells him to tell Emily, which he does.  Emily admits this changes her equation slightly, and also admits that while she finds Drew a bit sketch, she does feel really close with Austin.  

I said we would talk about the argument for going with Reba, and now we have all the facts, to let’s dive in.  From Emily’s perspective, the reason to go with Reba is twofold: Firstly, they’ve offered her more blatant power than Belo has, with them letting her pick the target in the last episode.  While Belo has been making it a conversation about who should go, rather than a decree, there’s a difference between that and offering someone that much power.  Granted, Belo could easily have made the same offer and we just didn’t see it, but by that same token, Drew and/or Austin could have let her know about the Sifu split, proving to her that Reba is fractious as well, and getting us back to square one.  Even the “Kaleb bond” thing evens out, since he presumably told Emily about linking with Drew on his raid in episode 3.  

Secondly, Reba has all the advantages, while we’ve never seen Belo find anything.  This makes them more threatening, but also makes taking them out with lower number difficult.  Austin revealing this advantage in particular is helpful, as it proves to Emily that Austin will have an incentive to cut at least J. Maya, and now she has leverage she can use against him if need be down the line.  A more even decision overall, and like I said, there really is no bad choice.  I think on the whole I’d still say it’s better to side with Belo, since they have more known quantities for her at this point, but again, won’t fault any decision.  

Good thing there’s mystery as to who Emily will choose, because Tribal is a snooze fest!  All the worst excesses of the new era are back, even the metaphors!  Emily talks about using quantitative versus qualitative reasoning.  Not the worst one of these I’ve heard, but I just have an aversion to them on principle at this point just due to their overuse.  Other than that, it’s posturing from old Reba and old Belo about who Emily should go with.  If I’m looking for something nice to say about it, Emily being literally smack dab in the middle was some nice, if obvious, cinematography.  

Like I said, really no bad decision here, though in my view, Emily makes the slightly worse one.  Brando goes home, and while the dude seemed nice, and I loved the Pokemon talk, I’m not overly sorry.  Dude just didn’t pop on screen, and didn’t seem like that innovative of a strategic force.  Then again, apart from Emily (and Austin, a bit), I’m not a huge fan of anyone on this tribe, so I wasn’t going to be upset since neither of them were in real danger.  Also, while he and Drew managed to spare most of their advantages, Austin did end up using Kaleb’s goodwill advantage to get his vote back while increasing his idol’s lifespan.  Understandable, given how close the vote was.  

Despite the tense vote, this episode is the first true “dud” of the season in my view.  There’s nothing terrible about it, but most of the tribe dynamics gave us nothing new to look at, and the forced backstories and journey ate up time that could have been spent on just regular camp life.  Look, this is hardly a bottom-tier episode, and I’m still loving this season overall, but this is a lull in quality.  

Hopefully the “mergeatory” gets us back on track, but since I just had to type out that stupid name for the stupid twist, somehow I doubt it.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 45” Episode 4: Quiplash

Welcome to “Quiplash”, I mean, “Idol Speculation”!  I’m your host, Schmatty, the Baron of Blogs!  I’m going to get to know far too much about you in the comments section, and I’m at peace with that.  

If you don’t get the reference, stop reading and go find a game of Quiplash to join.  It’s fun, and a joke later on will make much more sense if you do.  The blog will be here when you get back.  

Speaking of getting back, Little Lulu has just gotten back from Tribal Council, and Sean is surprisingly happy.  I know I’m always harping on about “Don’t let how pissed you are show” when you’re on the wrong side of a blindside, but there is such a thing as TOO much.  More reasonable is Kaleb’s happiness, who rightly pats himself on the back for building up that relationship with Emily.  It has definitely borne fruit.  

In confessional, Sean admits that he’s aware that he’s now on the bottom, and wasn’t aware of how close Kaleb and Emily are.  Smart reaction, though again, dude, you’re a bit over-the-top in saying how happy you are to still be there.  Sure enough, Emily is rightly suspicious of his attitude, though showing how much development she’s had this season, keeps it for confessional rather than saying it directly to his face.  The above are all valid thoughts, though I’ll admit that I’m a bit distracted by the fact that they clearly stole music from “Quiplash”, or at least a sound-alike, for this scene.  

Sean also takes the time to tell us how he hopes for a tribe swap, proving that even though they haven’t been seen since “Survivor Winners at War”, the show just can’t resist their obvious foreshadowing confessionals.  

Out swap comes upon us, though not before we get major shocked reactions from Reba and Belo.  More justified than when Brandon left, at least.  Drew correctly points out that Sabiyah was a competitor, which the other tribes reinforce.  Knowing where to go to get a good sound-byte, Probst then asks Emily if there’s a perverse pleasure in the other teams not knowing how their games are playing out.  Emily admits there is, but also notes, truthfully, that being the team that constantly loses also sucks.  Probst then asks Brando (who, with Brandon from Little Lulu gone, gets promoted to full “Brandon” this one time when Probst speaks) what this means.  He acknowledges that Little Lulu has had to play the game more, but he’s happy with the tribe right now.  

Naturally, this is the perfect segway for a tribe swap, Probst’s own admitted perverse pleasure.  Also, as he correctly identifies, the first proper one in the “new era”.  Even production realizes the one-person rotation from last season shouldn’t count.  It’s been so long since we’ve had this, it’s quite refreshing.  I’m not even mad that it’s just a random buff draw, instead of something more exciting!  

Further emphasizing Brando’s point from earlier, while Belo and Reba show at least a bit of reverence toward their buffs, with Dee even kissing hers goodbye, those from Little Lulu are all too eager to go somewhere new, and quickly take off their buffs.  Kaleb even spits on his, which I’d say MIGHT be going too far, but then again I haven’t been on a losing streak on “Survivor”.  

Our new tribes shake out with each Little Lulu member going to a different tribe.  Kaleb stays on Little Lulu, joined by Bruce, Jake, Katurah, and Kellie, all from the original Belo.  Sean, in contrast, is sent to Reba with all original Reba, specifically Dee, Julie, Sifu, and J. Maya.  Only Emily gets a taste of both tribes, joining Brando and Kendra on Belo, with Dean and Austin from Reba joining them.  

Honestly, an interesting shake-out overall.  I wouldn’t say these tribes are particularly “Even”, since Little Lulu got most of the physical “big guns”, while most of the puzzle pros went to Belo.  That said, apart from MAYBE Julie, there’s no obvious “challenge sink” on new Reba, and while Sifu is really their only “big gun” physically, he’s a VERY big gun.  The original members of Little Lulu all being split up also opens some good possibilities, especially since I wouldn’t say any of them are particularly screwed.  Emily is probably in the best position, both short-term and long-term.  Short-term, the obvious thing is for the two pairs to try and swing her, and long-term, if she plays her cards write, she can get some info on the dynamics of both other tribes.  Sean also kind of landed in the middle, since J. Maya and Sifu were outside the main Reba alliance, and could be easy sacrifices if he plays his cards right.  And Kaleb got SUPER lucky that he ended up on a tribe with both Katurah and Bruce.  With those two together, and how much Katurah has been on the warpath against Bruce, no WAY they go to Tribal Council in the unlikely event they lose.  

Speaking of Kaleb, we DO check in on Little Lulu first, but not so much with him.  Everyone goes in for a big group hug upon returning to camp… All except Bruce, who kind of sits there with a weird look on this face.  I’m half-convinced that he’s suddenly turned into the ultimate killjoy, before he reveals that this is the old Tika camp from “Survivor 44”.  He may have spent less than 12 hours there, but there’s still a bond, and it makes him pretty emotional.  Honestly, it’s a raw, impactful scene that really works, and is about the only time I’m happy the show keeps reusing the same locations these days.  If they kept moving around, we wouldn’t have got this moment from Bruce.  I’d still prefer they move, mind you, at least every other season, but this is still a nice consolation if we can’t have that.  The rest of the tribe is supportive, and once he has his really impactful moment, he joins in on the hug, so no harm done there.  

What IS harmful to his is Katurah’s line of questioning.  Specifically, she wants to hear from Kaleb, not Bruce, what happened on the journey that Brandon went on earlier in the season.  Kaleb tells her the truth, which doesn’t contradict anything Bruce said.  However, the way she silenced Bruce when he tried to interject turns this from a one-sided feud into a two-sided feud.  Bruce is now on the warpath against Katurah, and it seems he may have an edge up on her in winning over Kaleb.  Jake and Kaleb talk about their conversation from the “Sweat or Savvy” challenge, about how they wanted to work together come the merge.  

What’s that?  You don’t remember that conversation?  NEITHER DOES ANYONE ELSE, BECAUSE IT WAS NEVER SHOWN!  Ok, I’ve not had a lot to complain about this season, and in the grand scheme of things, this is hardly a bad way to show it, but really?  90-minute episodes, and you STILL couldn’t have shown even a SNIPPET of that conversation?  Oh well, point is Kaleb may now be more inclined to work against Katurah, unfortunately for her.  

Moving over to Belo, Emily sees this as a fresh start for her.  She may have made a bad first impression, but she can try and make up for it, having learned her lesson from early on.  It does seem to work, as Drew notes that while they had thought of Emily as “mean”, in talking to her she’s more “normal”.  Emily’s excited reaction on seeing Kendra start the fire definitely helps as well.  I might be a bit worried about her former tribe members painting a bad picture of her on the other tribes, but really, who’s left that’s going to do it?  Probably not Kaleb, since they’re aligned, and Sean seems too nice to throw her under the bus that much.  Sabiyah would have been the one to be worried about, and she’s gone now.  

Not to say that Emily doesn’t talk ANY strategy, as she does fill the rest of the tribe in on how last Tribal Council went down.  I’d normally complain about being too open, but in this case, Emily doesn’t really give much away.  Basically all she says is Sabiyah went home with an idol, which is all true information that doesn’t hurt Emily’s game per se, and could even help her.  Both in the stated “seeming honest” that she brings up, but also in that she mentions the method of revealing the idol.  While this season may have a different method for each tribe to get their idol, Emily can’t possibly know that, and by mentioning it, might raise suspicion in the ranks she can use to her advantage.  At least from her perspective, but even in reality, it doesn’t particularly harm her game.  

Reba, unfortunately for Sean, seems determined to remain “Reba Strong”.  All admit that they like his energy, but worry about cutting one of their team too soon.  Frankly, I wouldn’t in their shoes.  With the original Little Lulu so far down in numbers, you’re unlikely to come in with a true minority, at worst the middle of the pack in terms of members left.  This, then, would leave Belo as the obvious target, allowing you to play the role of kingmaker for yourselves come the merge.  It’d be one thing to stay “Reba Strong” if it was all the majority alliance plus Sean, but I don’t think Drew or Austin are going to be too upset if you cut Sifu or J Maya at this stage.  

Luckily for Sean, he might have an “in” as well.  “Reba Strong” might be the phrase that pays today, but those factions are still there.  J Maya in particular gets along with Sean well, and we FINALLY get a scene of her strategizing, and not just about trying to decipher the sign code.  She lets Sean in on Sifu’s idol-hunting ways, potentially giving him a crack he can exploit.  And if nothing else, it’s nice to get more J Maya content.  I may be rooting for Emily, but I still like her a lot.  

Going back to Little Lulu, Kellie tells us she was happy to see the tribe she was on, both for their physical prowess, and for her safety.  Still, since she’s closer with Bruce and Jake than she is with Katurah currently, she doesn’t seem inclined to work with her, instead going off for a walk with both Kaleb and Bruce.  Katurah, not being an idiot, realizes what’s going on, and so walks Kaleb to the well one-on-one to spill the ENTIRE can of beans regarding Bruce.  This isn’t information Kaleb couldn’t have picked up on himself, so really, the main point of the scene is to get the hilarious montage of Katurah ranting about all of Bruce’s flaws in her eyes.  Kaleb notes that between the information and the water, he’s no longer thirsty.  Nice line, my guy.  

Back at Belo, Emily notes that while she THINKS she’s the swing between the two pairs, they could all easily decide to turn against her.  Thankfully, we immediately see this WON’T be the case.  While Drew and Austin admit they could “Take over the tribe” with all the advantages they have (which is perhaps overselling it since two of those advantages are “Safety Without Power” and the “Goodwill Advantage”, though I cannot deny that the idol could be a game-maker, especially when no one else has one), they’d rather do it though social play.  As such, they want Emily along to also go “Reba Strong” come the merge, which I have to admit is pretty strong language for someone you really only JUST MET a day ago.  The pair do strike first, from what we see, and Emily is naturally amenable to any plan that doesn’t involve her going.  That said, given how much “Reba Strong” is brought up, I’m not sure they’d be her best choice.  Original Belo seems more fractured, so going with them might be better for the long-term game, though not sure there’s a good way for Emily to realize that at this juncture.  

Can Belo sway Emily to their side?  We don’t see them attempt that this episode, but if they talk with her, I’d say there’s at least some chance.  Best to have Brando do the talking, though.  From what we’ve seen, I feel like Kendra’s zodiac talk is more likely to turn Emily off than anything.  

Checking in at Reba again, while targeting Sean is all well and good, the idol is still a possibility.  Sean did say he didn’t have it, but of course he’d say that whether he had the idol or not.  Of course, not saying it would also seem suspicious.  Point is, Sean can’t win for losing.  While he’s off for a chat with J Maya, Dee, Julie, and Sifu all go through his bag, taking care to make sure they know how to re-tie the very specific knot he used on his bag.  Good attention to detail, you three.  They don’t find anything, though of course this leads to speculation that it’s on Sean’s person.  When J Maya comes back, however, she’s more on the “Get Sifu Out” train, which raises Julie’s hackles a bit for her being so quick to get rid of “Reba Strong”.  Foreshadowing?  Only time will tell.  

Time also tells us that we’re due for an awesome immunity challenge!  True, it’s mostly reused elements, but they’re combined in some new ways.  Tribes swim out to a cage, where they must untie two poles.  In the most epic part of the challenge, they then use said poles to CARRY THE FREAKING CAGE up the beach to a designated spot.  Once there, one tribe member digs UNDER the cage to be a ball retriever, while the rest of the tribe shoots baskets from inside the cage, first two tribes to finish winning immunity.  Like I said, we’ve seen most of these elements before, but something about carrying the cage adds good visual spectacle.  I also like how it isn’t just for one phase.  Digging under a part of the challenge you transported is somehow sadistic, and I love it.  And hey, we even have good content from all three tribes, so who wins is somewhat a mystery!

While the foreshadowing may have been even, new Belo is doubtless unhappy to see this challenge.  Apart from maybe Austin, they don’t really have a good physical counter to either tribe.  Their strength is in puzzle, so a puzzle-less challenge is a poor sight for them.  Sure enough, the new Little Lulu frankly dominates this one, to Kaleb’s delight.  That said, while Sifu does carry the new Reba (in some cases literally with the cage), new Belo hold their own.  A combination of Austin being good at tossing, and Julie being a bad ball retriever for new Reba net them a narrow win.  This also means Little Lulu finally gets flint, much to Kaleb’s delight.  A dejected Reba heads out, J Maya commenting that Sifu needs to go now, which will doubtless come true and is not misdirection whatsoever.  

Before we can get to the scheming, however, Kaleb’s joy now that he has fire must be fully enjoyed.  Kaleb invokes the spirt of “Survivor Ghost Island”, in saying the curse is reversed.  I’d say not the most auspicious season to invoke, but hey, I like it more than most, so you do you, Kaleb.  Bruce fakes having lost the flint long enough that I worry he might ACTUALLY have done it, but thankfully he just kept it in a zipper pocket.  Ok, Bruce, that will be funny in HINDSIGHT, but seems kind of cruel to the guy who’s gone nine days without fire.  After that, however, there’s really not much more to it than that.  Kaleb makes fire, the tribe celebrates, it’s nice.  Moving on…

After joking that Sean might be bad luck (which Sean takes with a surprising amount of grace), the tribe gets down to their discussions.  Despite the foreshadowing earlier, J Maya is not brought up, and indeed seems like an equal partner with Dee and Julie (who Sean has taken to calling “Mama J” like the rest of the tribe, despite having one day with her at most).  The trio discuss whether to get rid of Sifu or Sean, seeming to settle on the former, as they tell Sean that all the “Reba Strong” talk at Tribal will be just for show.  Sean smartly doesn’t fully trust that, but also has very little choice here.  

In the debate of “Sean vs. Sifu”, the correct answer is J Maya.  Look, for all that we see her strategizing with the other women on the tribe, from what we saw before, she was on the outs at the original Reba.  Dean and Austin notably didn’t want her told about the idol, whereas they did let Julie and Dee in on it (not that they had much choice, but still, didn’t even look like they considered it).  As I said, you probably want to sacrifice at least ONE tribe member pre-merge so you don’t seem like too big of a threat when you DO merge, but no more people than necessary.  If we assume that the merge will not come for another three Tribal Councils, including this one (admittedly predicting the merge is a tricky business, but it seems like a reasonable possibility), then losing Sifu is bad, even if it makes your tribe seem less threatening in the long run.  Sifu is basically the ONLY reason you were in the immunity challenge, so losing him now turns you into Little Lulu 2.0.  Yes, you have Sean as a buffer, as you mention, but that’s still getting rid of one more Reba member than necessary, assuming three more Tribals before the merge.  Sean keeps you better in challenges, but again, you lose the “Reba seems less threatening” upside.  

J Maya, however?  Keeps the challenge strength while also having the “Reba seems less threatening” upside.  Plus, you’d be getting rid of someone from outside the main alliance who is really showing themselves to be a strategic threat as of this episode.  The only risk is that Drew and Austin might be mad, but again, given what we’ve seen, I don’t think that’s going to be the case.  

If it MUST be Sifu vs. Sean, however, with no J Maya in contention, Sean is the correct choice.  Better to have a shot at winning challenges than to sacrifice a member of the tribe, and possibly of the core alliance, depending on how things shake out.  

For all the good drama and misdirection leading up to it, Tribal is sadly a rather boring affair.  Metaphors are back, people!  I did get a kick of out Sifu bringing up the good vibes Sean brings, but in the process he also calls out his occupation, including the meaning of his nickname.  I thought he said pre-season he was going to keep that under wraps, or at least downplay it, but maybe I’m just misremembering that.  Not a major blunder, but something I found noteworthy.  

If people remember anything about this Tribal Council, they’ll remember Sean’s speech.  He starts off with a bold, if controversial, move: Referencing “Survivor Island of the Idols”.  Yes, he talks about the influence his first-grade teacher had on him.  Sadly I don’t think “Teaching Time with Sean” will catch on, even to the very little that “Teaching Time with Tommy” did.  Alliteration matters.  

Ah, but I shouldn’t mock what comes across as a touching moment.  Sean talks about the difficulties growing up gay in a conservative Mormon area, admits that he misses his husband, and thinks he’s gotten what he needs out of the game.  As such, he tells the rest of Reba to write him down so they can go on; he’s happy with his fate.  There’s tears and confusion about, and I… Don’t buy this.  

Oh, I buy the emotion, 100%  Sean is a very heart-on-his-sleeve social guy from what little we’ve seen of him, so I totally think he’s genuine in what he says.  Except for the “quit” part.  My read, based purely on feeling, is that Sean saw the writing on the wall for his fate, and was simply letting them do what they were going to do anyway with a guilt-free conscience.  Sort of a “Rafe Freeing Danni” moment like on “Survivor Guatemala”: You know it’s coming, so might as well try and have everyone go ahead with no hard feelings.  

That said, I will freely admit that the evidence in the episode does not bear this out.  Dee and Julie go into a panic about what to do, Dee insisting they stick to voting out Sifu.  Sean also writes down Dee’s name, someone he HAD to know wasn’t going home, which seems like throwing his vote as someone who genuinely wants out might, rather than someone just giving people permission if that’s what they intend to do.  So yeah, my feeling may be completely off on this one, and I accept that if it is.  Just how it felt to me watching it.  

Whether a true quit or just a guy being nice, Sean gets his wish.  While not the most exciting from a character standpoint, I am sorry to see him go.  Dude seemed like a genuinely nice guy with some good social play (if occasionally over the top), and so might have been able to make a deep run under different circumstances.  The bigger characters stayed, but we lost a darn nice guy in the process.  

Those big characters may make big waves, however.  In the worst of all possible worlds, Dee still voted for Sifu, something he noticed and is unlikely to take lying down.  Perhaps Reba should lose another challenge after all…

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 45” Episode 3: Chain Gang

Writing a blog about the latest episode of “Survivor 45” here, boss!

What, not every introduction is going to be some long diatribe.  Brevity is the soul of wit, you know.  

Once again, we start off with what is basically a “Previously On..” segment, even if we don’t get Probst narration telling us that.  Unlike last weeks, which was a time-sink but otherwise unobtrusive, this one is bad in that it spoils the outcome of the episode.  While we’ve had a bit of the alliance dynamics of each tribe, ONLY Belo’s is highlighted.  Sure, we get what we need to understand Little Lulu’s move last episode, but nothing deeper than that, and Reba only gets Austin’s idol hunt, not any of the alliance-forming that went with it.  The only logical conclusion is that Belo must lose, so they’re reminding us of their dynamics in advance.  I mean, I SUPPOSE they could be pulling a fast-one, and this is a fake-out, but what are the odds of that?

Getting into the new content, everyone is, of course, relieved to have survived another Tribal Council.  Sabiyah notes how different the game mentality is from the Marines, where Brandon was just too much of a liability to keep around, where in the Marines “No One Gets Left Behind”.  A good bit a character we don’t see as much in the modern day, but relief quickly gives way to strategy.  

Emily couldn’t help but notice that Brandon was voted out with only two votes, something mathematically abnormal if there were four votes as she thought (Brandon’s inability to vote being a known quantity).  She correctly pegs Sabiyah as the one most likely to have an advantage, and asks if this is the case.  Sabiyah denies this, and Kaleb comments that while Emily is getting better, she’s still going and picking fights with the one person she SHOULDN’T be doing that with.  While I take his overall point, I have to admit Kaleb’s being a little harsh here.  Yeah, Emily’s still a bit blunt, but she’s asking rather than declaring, and doesn’t make a big issue out of it.  She’s allowed to ask questions, and she was not particularly abrasive in doing so in this case, at least compared to previous instances.  

Hell, even Sabiyah is not particularly put-out by Emily doing so.  She admits that she and Emily are from different worlds and have different ways of thinking, but also says it isn’t personal.  Honestly, a good, mature way to go about it, and a way to have conflict remain in the show without it becoming uncomfortable for a modern viewing audience.  Well done, show/casting.  

This leads to Sabiyah giving Emily back her shot in the dark, and the pair saying that trust has been built.  Given that it’s now clarified that the shot in the dark IS transferrable, I’m kind of amazed Emily wasn’t the boot, but if she’s going to stay, better to give it back and avoid those fireworks.  All that said, I’m sure this grudging respect from Sabiyah is just misdirection, and will have NO bearing on the episode whatsoever.  Unlike the preview saying Belo will lose.  No way that’s wrong.  

Morning over at Belo, and we see Jake’s promised collapse.  This ultimately comes to little physically.  Dude basically had happen to him what happened to [redacted] on “Survivor The Australian Outback”: Deprivation plus exhaustion combined with smoke in the face equals a faint.  Thankfully he manages to not do so directly into the fire, so he’s fine.  

It does give Kendra, the one all about girl-power, an excuse to talk to him, and the pair admit that they haven’t really talked much, something Jake takes on himself.  They seem to be simpatico personality-wise, and this leads Kendra to tell him about their targeting of him.  Ok, even leaving aside whether this is a wise idea, it’s a BIG load of hypocrisy coming from Kendra to tell Jake “I’m coming here with an open mind.” when she has been the single biggest proponent of “The women are sticking together no matter what” on this tribe.  Go ahead, expand your options, but maybe don’t do so quite so blatantly and hypocritically, Kendra.  

Over at Reba, they discover that two worms they had been saving in a pot have been eaten by a crab.  They are, for some reason, disappointed by this.  Eat the damn crab.  I guarantee it’s tastier, and has at least as much meat on it as two worms, if not more.  Ok, maybe they were saving the worms to fish, but then either A: Get more worms; they can’t be THAT hard to find, or B: Use the crab meat as bait.  It should work better, if anything.  

As a side note, this blog was very nearly titled “Eat the Damn Crab”.

Talk quickly turns to idols, however, as Austin and Drew think they’ve found the “palm tree x” they need, and idol fever has taken over their minds.  They want to find it so badly, but they just can’t wait until the opportune time.  They agree to keep watch over each other while the other digs, but frankly they do a poor job of it.  Dee and Julie happen to be walking by and notice Drew digging.  Not being idiots, they quickly realize that Drew is keeping something from them.  This gets Dee’s hackles in particular up, but they do their best to play it cool as they pass by, asking if he’s looking for coconuts.  Drew, also not being an idiot, doesn’t try to deny that he was digging, and instead plays it off as him digging where he saw Sifu dig.  About the best lie he can come up with, and while the foursome are still working together, Dee and Julie definitely are keeping their eyes open.  

We then cut to… A reward challenge?  In this era?  Indeed, it’s the “Heather Aldret” challenge from back in “Survivor 41”, just starting in the water this time, and with a slightly different ending.  Tribes run from the water to shore, where they have to one at a time toss a ball onto a chute.  They then run under the chute, which has trip-wires, to try and catch the ball at the other end.  Once four balls have been caught, one by each player, they toss a ball to lower a ring target, where they must then land three rings to win reward.  Both first and second place win a certain amount of fruit, with first place also getting to loot one item from another tribe’s camp.  This is definitely a smaller-scale challenge, but it’s got some nasty bits here and there, leads to some good faceplants from the trip-wires, and I did get a weird joy out of the lowering mechanism for the ring target, so I’ll give this a pass.  

Some people from Reba and Belo are shocked to see Brandon gone from Little Lulu.  Um, did they watch the same challenges we did?  Like, I get that teams are competing, but surely SOME of them saw Brandon’s epic fails, and would have passed that along to the rest of the team.  

It seems it really WAS Brandon holding them back in challenges, however, since Little Lulu pretty easily cruises to a first place win here.  And that when presumably dehydrated from the lack of fire.  Kudos to them.  Really, the only one who remotely does badly is Emily, who gets at least one faceplant and seems to take a few tries, and even she was no worse than, say, Katurah on Belo, and no one’s saying it’s her fault they lost.  Really, the only reason Belo does lose is not because they’re bad, but because Kaleb and Austin are good rind tossers that they don’t have any competition.  

With their win, Little Lulu does NOT, for some reason, get flint.  I guess the idea is that you have to win an IMMUNITY challenge, but in my view, a challenge is a challenge.  They win when they don’t have flint, they get it.  Save the taking away of flint for immunity, that I get, but these people have been beaten down enough, Probst.  Throw them a bone!

That said, Little Lulu does have an opportunity to get flint.  After all, they’re going on a camp raid, and as far as I know, there’s no rule that says they couldn’t take the flint of another tribe?  True, that tribe could win it back at the next immunity challenge, but without fire, you’re setting yourself up to be more likely to lose the challenge yourself!  Dehydration is no joke in the tropics!  Better to strengthen yourself, rather than weaken the other team, especially now you’ve proven you CAN win a challenge.  Plus, the other team is less likely to be mad at you for taking something they can get back.  

While we don’t see who Little Lulu decides to steal from yet, this means that the correct choice would be Reba.  They’ve won more than Belo, so taking from Belo would be more of a kick in the teeth, especially something this essential to survival.  What we DO see for certain from Little Lulu is who they’re sending, as they’re unanimous in Kaleb being the one to go.  All a fair choice.  While it’s a shame to miss out on the comedy of Emily interacting with the other tribes, Kaleb is, as they say, the diplomat of the group, and therefore the smart person to send to get as much information as possible, while losing as little in the process.  

We hear a bit of speculation from both Reba and Belo about who is going to get raided, with Belo being the most vehement that they should not get raided, as they’ve lost enough.  Luckily for them, Little Lulu is of the same mind, as Kaleb shows up at Reba.  Rather than go for the flint, however, he quickly makes clear his intention is the fishing gear, though he plans to leave them the spear.  Ok, I won’t criticize leaving the spear too much, since that’s a good diplomatic way to do things, but if you weren’t going to take the flint, I would say it’s actually smarter to steal from Belo than Reba.  If you aren’t going to strengthen your own team with fire, then you REALLY need to weaken another team.  Given that Belo has won less, better to keep them on the back foot as much as possible, if you’re not going to strengthen yourself.  

Kaleb, of course, is not just there for fishing gear, but to gather info.  He gets everyone into casual conversation, convincing Sifu and J. Maya to do a duet with her singing and his air guitar, with the soundtrack obligingly adding real electric guitar sounds over Sifu.  From there, he moves to one-on-one chats.  He does well at this, but also does it pretty blatantly.  Julie in particular calls out how good of a player he is.  Kaleb is charming, sure, but he’s not exactly subtle in his charm.  

What Kaleb does have, however, is the “Goodwill Advantage”.  This allows someone who has lost their vote due to, say, a Beware Advantage, to regain it.  I must admit, I’m pretty on board with this one.  It’s building in a logical way on the game mechanics we’ve already established, while also favoring social play (it’s one of those “Give this to someone else” sort of advantages).  Not overpowered, social in use.  Yeah, this is definitely a new twist I can get behind.  Kaleb, probably to try and build trust with who he perceives as the power broker on Reba, gives it to Drew, effectively giving it to Austin, so it will be put to some use.  That’s the one advantage to going and raiding Reba: The Goodwill Advantage can also have some power, as opposed to on Belo, where it would be a flop.  

Hey, remember when I said that Kaleb was good socially, but also kind of obvious about it?  Yeah, that doesn’t just apply to the other tribes.   Little Lulu has noticed as well, and this has led Sabiyah and Sean to consider turning on Kaleb should they lose again.  They deem him too big a social threat to let go to the merge.  His threat level is fair, but as I said last episode, trusting Emily long-term is likely a mistake.  Plus, Kaleb is the ONLY reason you’ve been having a chance in these challenges.  Better to keep the loyal and strong player over the on-the-bottom, not as strong player.  Still, with no vote on the horizon for Sabiyah, they loop in Emily, who’s naturally suspicious.  She wants to believe she has a shot to make it through without playing her shot in the dark, but also notes that Kaleb is her closest ally at this point, and this could all be a ploy to make her feel safe before blindsiding her.  Kaleb comes back before much more can be discussed, so I’m sure it was just foreshadowing for future episodes, and will have no bearing whatsoever on this episode in particular.  

As a side note, Little Lulu also mentions in this scene that fishing gear is useless without fire, which I have to question.  Sashimi is a thing, guys.  You can still get food that way.  

After commercial we’re back at Belo, where the men have gone out on the raft.  This leaves the women time to talk, and with Kendra and Jake’s newfound connection, coupled with Bruce grating on everyone’s nerves more and more as time goes by, they talk about switching the initial target should they lose from Jake to Bruce.  Katurah in particular is in on this, noting how hard it’s been to get the others to talk bad about Bruce.  Kendra seems convinced, but Kellie is still unwilling to make a move without consulting Brando just yet.  Still, she seems to be leaning that way, noting that they further they go, the less they need Bruce.  We don’t really hear Brando’s reaction, but Bruce does seem to be the main target moving forward.  

It’s so obvious that Belo is going to Tribal Council, it’s not even funny.  

Reba, meanwhile, is less about the alliances, and more about the idols.  Deciding not to keep up the charade any longer, Drew and Austin reveal his Beware Advantage to Dee and Julie, who agree to help the pair dig.  Drew and Austin only change up the timeline slightly as to when they found it, so it looks like they didn’t lie.  You’d think the “I saw Sifu digging” thing would clue them in, but Drew passes it off as not wanting to give the game away in case J. Maya and Sifu were nearby.  If I were Julie and Dee, I wouldn’t buy it, but they seem to let it go for now.  

Their plan is this: One person stays behind at camp to occupy J. Maya and Sifu, while the other three look for that thing buried beneath the “palm tree x”.  Just as they (and I) get the idea they might be digging in the wrong place, Dee and Julie find a rope, eventually leading them to a hammer, whose handle informs them that they must join a chain gang, and smash a rock by the water well.  Despite their suspicious, they decide to hand it off to Austin to do, presumably realizing that even if they’re suspicious, it’s better not to burn bridges just yet.  It goes unsaid, but I suspect they also realize that Austin would know they’d found something even if they did keep it a secret, since he’d have his vote back.  Thus, better to take the social route for now.  

The only wrinkle is J. Maya, who comes upon them at about the same time..  Luckily for them, Dee and Julie are better actors than Drew, and manage to pass it off as nothing, then pass off the hammer to Austin.  After Austin channels his inner quarrier and smashes a few rocks, he finds his idol.  There is much rejoicing, but this idol has a wrinkle to it: It can only be used at Austin’s next Tribal Council.  If, however, Austin forgoes his vote (a la shot in the dark), its life extends until “all tribes are together on one beach”.  If he forgoes his vote a second time, it’s good until the final five.  Again, I quite like this wrinkle.  Adds a decent dilemma to the idol, prevents it from being TOO powerful, even considering the previous risk, and again, rewards those players who can use their social acumen to avoid the need to vote with more power.  This could go horribly wrong, but I’m in favor.  

Dee ends by telling us that while there’s still some suspicion there, the foursome of Reba have reaffirmed their bond for now.  Yep, quite the boring tribe, dynamics-wise.  I’d complain, if I didn’t already know for certain that Belo was going to lose the challenge.  

Said challenge that Belo will lose is basically “Dragging the Dragons” from “Survivor Cagayan”, save for the puzzle, which is the 3-D cube one we’ve seen a bunch of times.  Decent enough challenge to reuse.  Little Lulu starts off behind, with Belo being ahead up until the puzzle.  We all know this is where they’ll choke.  It always comes down to the puzzles on these ones.  Sure enough, there goes Reba taking first place, and there goes… Belo… taking second.  

Ok, my apologies if I confused anyone, or made them question my sanity, but I was SO thoroughly convinced that Belo would lose from the first minute of the show, and this was the best way I knew to demonstrate it to you all.  

Yes, Little Lulu continues to LuLose.  Perhaps it’s less Brandon and more puzzles that are their problem.  Proving her diplomacy has improved, Emily does not throw a fit.  She admits that she’s angry, but manages to express it constructively.  Too bad I still think she’s likely to go.  She would be the smart choice for basically everyone, as the worst challenge performer we’ve seen left on this tribe, and the least loyal.  Hell, Kaleb even said she would have been gone last episode had she not tried to make improvements before then, which shouldn’t make her comfortable with her position, and give others more reason to vote her off.  

After the expected commiserating, this initially seems like what will happen.  Sabiyah makes it clear, however, that her targeting Kaleb was not just idle chit-chat for the future.  She means it, but, in a clever move has a way to let Kaleb believe she doesn’t mean it.  Making like she’s dead-set on Emily, she says she’ll tell her to vote Kaleb.  Thus if Emily, the only person with a reason to keep Kaleb outside of general challenge strength, lets on, Kaleb will just assume it’s the fake plan.  Quite a smart move, and as Kaleb doesn’t believe he can save Emily despite all his work, quite a good one.  

Sabiyah also decides to let Emily in on her trust circle further, revealing the wax idol to help explain why Emily’s vote is so vital.  Not that Sabiyah plans for that to be necessary.  She states that she intends to throw the wax idol into the Tribal Council fire and let it melt, getting it that way.  This then begs the question of why she didn’t do that LAST time if it was allowed, but whatever.  Not a bad plan, if you have no hope of getting fire any other way.  

Not a bad plan, save that Emily doesn’t like the idea.  While I get Sabiyah’s intent, Emily takes it as “You didn’t trust me until now”, as opposed to Kaleb, who demonstrated trust beforehand.  To her credit, Emily manages to NOT blurt this out the second she thinks it, and bluffs Sabiyah well.  She does go to Kaleb before Tribal Council, however, and let him know, suggesting they vote Sabiyah instead, and agrees to go to rocks if necessary.  While Sabiyah’s “decoy” lie comes back here, Kaleb is smart enough to at least consider.  

Yes, somehow the debate has come around to “Kaleb or Sabiyah?”, in which the correct answer remains “Emily”, for the reasons I stated previously.  If, however, Emily is off the table for some miraculous reason, Sabiyah is the correct answer for all involved.  Yes, Kaleb is a threat.  This makes him a great shield for the merge, where he can easily be picked off before you.  On top of that, if you do get rid of him, you’re losing the next challenge pretty much guaranteed, as he’s your strongest player.  1/3 odds of going home are not ones I would take, personally.  Kaleb needs to be let go at some point, that much is true.  But early merge is where he can go, not now.  

This is, bar none, the most exciting pre-merge Tribal Council of the modern era, and it’s entirely due to all the pageantry around Sabiyah’s idol.  The rest of the talk is pretty standard, everyone playing their cards close to their chest, and talking about the obvious tribe dynamics so as to give nothing away.  But we always have to cut back to Sabiyah checking on the idol, maneuvering it with sticks she brought, getting Sean to pour water to cool it off.  It’s really engaging stuff.  Artificial, perhaps, but certainly more memorable than anything else that’s happened recently.  The Jenny boot in “Survivor 42” maybe comes close, but I like this one better as it’s just one interaction rather than several things interacting at once.  

Unfortunately for Sabiyah, she should have read the idol instructions earlier.  While she does succeed in getting it, only in the booth does she read the part about holding off her vote to make it last longer, since her idol works the same as Austin’s.  She ultimately decides not to, trusting Emily to save her own neck.  This was a mistake, as Emily does the smart thing, and with Kaleb, sends Sabiyah home.  Little Lulu gives her a good send-off, and there seem to be no hard feelings.  Save from myself, who is sorry to see Sabiyah go.  She was a character archetype we hadn’t seen in a while, had pretty good game sense up until this episode (and even then was hardly playing the worst game I’ve ever seen), and while Kaleb seems nicer in general, Sabiyah was more engaging as a character.  The smart decision, but a sad one from a character perspective.  

This season continues to deliver, and this time, I’m not sure how much of that was the 90-minute format.  It certainly helped, and I’m happy we got the intro again, but what made this work was the character interactions and the misdirection.  The twists added were pretty simple but innovative, just how I like them.  Maybe it would have been too rushed in 60 minutes, but it could still have worked.  

Icing on the cake?  A proper swap next episode, for the first time since “Survivor Winners at War”.  Finally!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 45” Episode 2: Praise Be

My brothers and sisters in “Survivor”, this is a glorious day!  The blessings of Burnett be upon us!  Long have we wandered through the desert of non-musicality!  Long have we be mistreated at the hands of the editors, denying us even the barest on montages!  I will admit, even my own faith began to falter that we would ever see the promised land again.  But I come before you, my faith restored!  Praise be upon us, the intro is back!

But before I can commence the sermon… Erm, “Blog”, we must start with another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

With an increased watch-time comes an increased chance for missing stuff, I suppose, though these are really two minor points more for jokes than anything.  Firstly, fans of his might have noted that I neglected to mention Drew at all last episode.  That’s because he’s largely forgettable in my eyes (at least in the first episode), though I do try and cover everything relevant.  Drew was part of the opening confessional montage, but was kind of generic there, so I don’t fault myself there.  More egregious, however, is my neglecting to mention the confessional he gets in the middle of the episode.  There he talks about the different sides of his personality, specifically the nerdy introvert side, and the partying frat boy side.  He hopes he can meet somewhere in the middle and find success.  All pretty standard, and again, almost would not be worth mentioning.  However, rather that describe them as “sides” or “aspects”, despite that being what he means, he refers to them as separate personalities altogether, bringing to mind Cydney Gillon of “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, who said much the same thing.  I’d laugh at Drew for this slip-up, but it’s pretty obvious what he actually means, and hey, Cydney is hardly a bad player to model oneself after.  

The other was merely me not mentioning Hannah’s parting words as she walked away from Probst, noting that if there was an “Edge of Extinction” twist, she would not be going.  This proves that, even as a quitter, we can respect Hannah.  Hating on “Edge of Extinction”, both the season and the twist, are by now a time-honored tradition of this blog.  

After a “Previously On” segment that I’m surprised they brought back, but doesn’t really impact things, Hannah’s quit is the talk of Little Lulu, Sean (yes, I’m sure there’s a “Sean” on this team) in particular being blindsided by the move.  This leaves everyone a little shaken up, and all respectfully take the appropriate time to mourn her.  

Once the mourning period is over, however?  Talk then turns to the fallout from the tribe now being who it is.  Hannah was clearly not going to be the one to go, so it must have been someone else.  The editing, as well as exit interviews, indicates that it would have been Emily, and this episode itself will later confirm this would be the case.  Now, Emily may lack many, MANY social graces, but even she could see that writing on the wall, and beings an apology tour.  She attempts to justify herself as saying whatever she could since she was the target, which given the evidence MAY be true, though to be fair that doesn’t explain her actions towards Bruce, or trying to throw Kaleb and Sabiyah under the bus when they were away doing Sweat or Savvy, but for specifically her words at Tribal Council, it may be true.  

Unfortunately for Emily, basically no one is buying it.  Least of all Sabiyah, the person most offended by Emily’s words at Tribal Council.  Emily then makes the classic mistake of compounding her bungled apology by getting defensive when Sabiyah tries to end it early, basically saying “We each feel how we feel.”  An understandable gut reaction, but by no means the smart move for Emily here.  She eventually gets a clue, though she needs to check in with the rest of her tribe for confirmation.  Sabiyah, for her part, stews on the beach, and doesn’t know how she and Emily can continue to coexist.  I’m sure there’s no ironic outcome based around that confessional coming up whatsoever.  

Then we get the intro.  The glorious, glorious intro.  Maybe it’s because it’s been gone for so long, but this one felt better than a lot of modern ones.  More dynamic shots, and while the theme is a remix of old ones (Amazon being prominent in the score), it’s some more unusual choices, and really made the show come alive again.  My feeble words cannot do it justice.  Go watch it, then come back here when you’re done.  

Intro watched?  Good.  Rather than cut to commercial, we check in on Belo, where Bruce is the life of the party.  As if to provide proof that bringing back the intro was a good idea, Bruce and company even sing a few snippets of it while at work.  Bear in mind, the intro hasn’t been a part of the show since “Survivor Winners at War”, three years ago at this point.  Yet it remains so iconic that players even now sing it when in the game.  See why you should never have gotten rid of it, even as just an online exclusive that only airs once in the show proper?

Ok, ok, enough gushing about the intro.  Really, this segment can be called “The Two Perspectives on Bruce”  Fittingly, our two attorneys, Jake and Katurah, provide the opposing sides in this debate.  Jake, in the “Bruce is a fun guy” camp, cites Bruce’s weird noises, funny faces, and all around good work ethic.  Sure, Bruce would prefer that more work be done around the camp, but he’s nice about it.  Katurah, in contrast, feels that Bruce is too bossy with the workload.  Jake may have called him “Uncle Bruce”, but in Katurah’s mind, he’s the dad, and she doesn’t like it.  This is not helped by him name-dropping the players he’s close with from his past season, implying that he may have a bit more game-knowledge that he wants to let on.  Frankly, the latter point at least is an objectively bad move for Bruce.  He already comes in with a lot of sympathy, but that will only last so long.  Making himself seem more like a returnee rather than a guy getting a do-over, only makes himself look like more of a threat, and run out said goodwill faster.  

Next stop is Reba, where Sifu is making his fun by showing Austin how he can punch a tree with his left hand, and not feel any pain.  Kind of an odd pastime, but hey, different strokes for different folks.  More identifiable to me is J. Maya’s idea of fun.  Channeling her inner Dipper Pines, she examines the tribe flag, trying to decipher what she’s certain is a code to some idol or advantage on there.  To her credit, she’s not technically wrong, she just doesn’t have all the pieces.  I’m also really impressed that she gives a good, yet succinct, summary of how to decode a message.  She looks for patterns that might indicate word or sentence structure, she tries to figure out some known vowels as a place to start from, based on standing alone.  It’s honestly all a very valid approach, just one that happens to be wrong.  J. Maya might not have gotten a lot of screen time so far, but for this scene alone, I like her.  

Austin, in contrast, does have the full clue, but waits patiently for his tribe to be away before jumping on it.  He figures out the message pretty easily, telling him to dig by “Palm Tree X”.  Whether this is a pair of palm trees that make an “X” or a palm tree with an “X” carved on it, only time will tell.  

Back at Little Lulu, a new day dawns with Emily idol-hunting, very blatantly so.  Given her position, I’d normally decry this in favor of trying to make bonds with the players left, but frankly, we saw how well that went last night.  I can’t really fault Emily for this.  That said, the trouble with blatant idol-hunting when everyone’s against you is that they’ll do everything in their power to stop you.  Thus, they all scatter to find her, Brandon admitting he’d rather find an idol for himself.  Sabiyah is eventually the one that finds Emily.  You know, the two who get along so well.  Sabiyah spins a yarn about everyone looking in pairs to ensure tribe cohesion, which Emily bluntly calls out as them attempting to keep her from an idol.  She stops short of saying “Fuck You”, but the tone is there  Again, you can’t fault Emily for her logic here.  That is blatantly what the tribe is doing, and she might as well try to counteract it.  The issue is tone and delivery.  You can beg off without dissing Sabiyah like that.  

Emily admits that she’s having trouble being alone to idol hunt, even with sending off Sabiyah as she did, and this spells her doom.  Brandon initially seems to get his wish, finding parchment to lead to an idol.  The trouble is, as one would expect, it’s a Beware Advantage.  Brandon, realizing how his luck in the game has been so far, makes the wise decision to let Sabiyah be the one to handle this, since she was around at the time.  Sabiyah, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth (and whose vote is much less valuable, since she’s unlikely to be targeted), agrees, and we see that, again, the show is making a smart change.  While all Beware Advantages will be multiple-stage idol hunts, the exact mechanics of each hunt will vary.  Rather than hold the parchment up to the tribe flag, Sabiyah must match a hole in her parchment over top of her tribe map to determine WHICH significant-looking tree she uses.  She gets this pretty quickly, but is stumped (pun intended) at the tree itself.  Partly this is due to Brandon being zero help, but in fairness, this is a tricky one.  It basically requires that you notice that a tree that does not normally bear coconuts, has a coconut in it, and go from there.  They leave it for now, Sabiyah still without a vote.  

We need a pallet cleanser after that heavy focus on strategy.  Dee is there to provide, as the conversation at Reba deals entirely with her having an abnormally long big toe.  There is a half-assed effort to tie this into the game, with Dee saying this will help her in balance challenges later on.  I’ll admit, I’m not sure if this is her joking, or if there is actually some reason why a longer big toe helps with balance.  Either seems plausible to me.  Really, though, it doesn’t matter.  This scene exists purely to show us the players hanging around and bonding.  Just being themselves and having fun.  And I am here for it..  This is the sort of content modern “Survivor” has been missing, at least within the actual show.  Just stuff to let us bond with the castaways, and not be “All strategy/advantages, all the time!”  The show is putting it’s 90 minutes to extremely good use, despite some stuff we’ll see later.  

Not to say that Reba is devoid of strategy, of course.  No, we see that Julie has made herself the team Mom, and has particularly bonded with Drew.  The pair agree to work together, mutually agreeing to bring in Dee and Austin.  Drew then talks about how everything is going exactly as he planned, and how he’s running the game, stopping just short at declaring that everything the light touches is his kingdom.  Might this be a set-up for hubris?  Only time will tell.  

We return to an unexpected scene at Little Lulu: Someone actually talking to Emily!  Specifically, Kaleb is giving her a shoulder to lean on, along with friendly advice about not being so blunt or playing so fast.  Awfully big for the guy she was literally targeting last episode.  It’s such that one almost suspects it might be him lulling her into a false sense of security, but no, from what we see, Kaleb is being genuine, at least on some level.  His logic is basically that of Terry befriending Abi-Maria on “Survivor Cambodia”: If someone has no ally, why not make them an asset?  And yeah, it’s good strategy.  I don’t think this means Kaleb doesn’t still want Emily out next, but why make an enemy?  Why limit the cards in your hand?

All in all, a very good scene… That I wish had been set up at all!  For all that I praised the use of extra time in this season so far, this is the one time I’d say they dropped the ball a little.  Not terribly, since we’ve had less-foreshadowed moments before, but this bond REALLY comes out of nowhere.  One scene, they’re mortal enemies, the next, friendly allies.  Just kind of a jarring shift, is all.  

Emily is a bit more receptive to the feedback this time, particularly as Kaleb makes sure to highlight her strengths and make clear that he understands her perspective, while also showing what needs to happen to get back in good with everyone.  Emily tears up a bit in confessional, noting that she’s surprised she’s this emotional, and that this isn’t how she is in everyday life.  A bit trite at this point, but it comes across as honest.  I did appreciate her metaphor of her bringing a bazooka to a tea party in terms of how she plays the game versus the rest of her tribe.  And to her credit, she does seem to be trying to take the feedback to heart.  She goes on another apology tour, this one much more effective.  She’s shown bonding a bit with everybody, and even Sabiyah seems slightly less mad at here.  

However, it’s while making up with Brandon that the game comes back in full force once again.  Boats arrive, and by now, pretty much every tribe knows it’s journey time.  Reba and Belo both decide things by rock-paper-scissors, resulting in Drew being sent for Reba, and Bruce for Belo.  The latter is to the chagrin of Katurah, his opponent, who notes that this will give the guy she doesn’t like more ammunition, potentially.  Only Little Lulu does things differently, coming to a “consensus” we don’t see of Brandon going.  Again, we’re missing some important context here, as we see no discussion about this.  And lest you think her emotional confessional earlier meant “Mean Emily” was gone, she does raise a public objection, saying that she feels like she’s being kept away from any advantages again.  Really, the best that can be said for her here is she’s marginally more diplomatic about it, and that “marginally” is doing a lot of heavy-lifting.  

The three arrive to the usual “Take time to get to know one another” note, a discussion that Drew takes charge of, thereby avoiding giving any information himself.  Bruce just talks about his feelings about camp work ethic, while Brandon spills the beans on basically everything, confirming that Emily made a bad first impression with everybody.  Drew notes that Bruce gave nothing away, and thus is probably a bad person to work with, while Brandon was the opposite.  All a reasonable conclusion, except that Drew then says that Bruce is bad at playing the game as a result.  Um, did the definition of a “good game” change unexpectedly?  Because to me, it looks like Bruce kept his cards close to his chest, while Brandon proved he had zero poker face.  Granted, if you’re Drew, you probably want to work with Brandon over Bruce, but that’s because Bruce IS playing well in that scenario (not subtly, but well), where Brandon is not.  

After this discussion, they end up taking separate paths, though all lead to the same dilemma, which I’m calling “schmuck bait”.  They basically took part of a challenge from “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, matching tile patterns to find the three unique ones to make a combination out of to open a lock, and made it a challenge in and of itself.  The “schmuck” part is that they only have three minutes, and even if you don’t make a mistake in matching the tile patterns, it’s still largely down to luck how quickly you find the right combination.  With the risk of a vote, for an unknown advantage, which could come down to luck as to whether you get it or not?  Yeah, only a schmuck would take that deal.  

Naturally Brandon goes for it  Drew does as well, to be fair, but I’ll be easier on Drew since his vote isn’t as valuable.  Brandon knows (as does the rest of his tribe, save Emily) that Sabiyah has no vote, and he’s on thin ice as is.  Plus, given his challenge performance, he can’t expect good luck.  Drew, by contrast, has been at least average in challenges, and is safely ensconced in the majority, meaning a worst-case scenario is not that bad for him.  Bruce chooses not to play, as befits his game style.  

For all that I knock Brandon, I do like the guy.  He does bring the Superman energy one wants to see.  And while playing was a dumb decision for him, I’m happy he did, as we get to hear his manic commentary while he tries to make the combination work, which is a joy.  Unfortunately for Brandon, he failed in matching up his tiles, so he runs out of time and loses his vote.  Really, this is a challenge, so what did he expect.  He comes clean to his tribe, much to their exasperation, with Sean wondering if Brandon can actually do ANYTHING challenge-wise?  A fair question, given the evidence we have so far.  

Contrast with Drew, who DID match correctly, and DID eventually guess right, earning himself safety without power.  This advantage needs no introduction in and of itself, though I will note this one is a bit underpowered.  It can only be used up until the final 10, or another 7 rounds.  Not nothing, but that advantage has more power the later it’s used, meaning it’s pretty heavily nerfed, in my opinion.  

This nerf is why I don’t really blame Drew for sharing it with the tribe.  It can help build trust, and with his position, is likely to have little value directly to him, since he’s in a good position for his tribe.  And it can’t be said it doesn’t pay dividends, since Austin trusts him with that his Beware Advantage says.  Even if I wanted to, can’t argue with results.  Point Drew.  

Since Bruce didn’t play at all, we instead spend time with Brando, who attempts to wear his buff as a tube top.  Speaking as another cisgender male, I feel for him.  I myself have tried that once or twice, and it’s A) Painful and B) ineffective without something up top to hold it on.  

This and his demeanor do endear him to the women of Belo, however, whom Kendra assures us are sticking together.  They want Brando as their fourth, which he readily agrees to.  Jake and Bruce, however, can’t help but notice they’re kind of on the outs, so Bruce starts making inroads with Brando.  He gives a casual “Open communication” agreement with him, and springboards off of this to make a four-person alliance.  Himself and Jake, along with Brando and Kellie.  Thus, we see the true nature of Belo.  Rather than a gender split, it’s really three pairs.  Despite Kendra’s assurances, Kellie is tighter with Brando than anyone, and the pair are the swings between the pair of Katurah and Kendra and Bruce and Jake.  Standard tribe dynamic, but a good one.  

Whatever knocks you may have for this episode, it cannot be denied that this episode did a much better job of making it a mystery as to which tribe loses.  We have a good understanding of tribe dynamics and alliances, such that anyone going would make sense.  Here we also see that the show has FINALLY made a change long-overdue: No sitting out back-to-back challenges now means what it says, rather than resetting after a Tribal Council.  Given the lack of reward challenges in recent seasons, all I can say is “About time”.  

Really, the only clue we have as to the outcome is that Little Lulu is favored to lose every challenge, just because of how their tribe is stacked.  And even that seems like it might not be the case on our standard “Obstacle course to puzzle” challenge.  Yeah, they make a big deal about how the coral puzzle is “new”, but let’s be real, the pieces are so similar to those of the “tree puzzle” and the “fire puzzle” that it might as well be the same.  

Point being, however, Little Lulu does not have the blowout loss one might expect.  They actually hold their own pretty well, and are even ahead of Belo in getting to the puzzle.  But then, they just HAD to put Brandon on the puzzle.  Dude panics and falls apart, while Sabiyah insists she can’t do it on her own.  Thus, Little Lulu loses in a blowout, keeping Reba and Belo immune, while also getting them varying amounts of fishing gear.  All while Little Lulu still has no fire.  Remember that.  

Emily makes no bones about the situation once they’re back, noting that it’s going to be her or Brandon, given her rubbing people the wrong way, and his general challenge suckiness.  Thus, Kaleb, Sabiyah, and Sean all go off to talk, though they are not spared Emily’s sarcasm to Brandon about how it must be nice to be in the majority.  Said majority quickly agree that Emily should probably go, which much as I like her is the correct move.  Yes, Brandon is a challenge liability, but if he costs you another one, you can vote him off again.  Emily might make it easier for you to win, since she at least is not a challenge sink from what we’ve seen, but is winning with Emily really a win?  Wanting her around would be conditional upon her being loyal, something neither I nor Sabiyah seems to believe, despite her valiant efforts to turn her game around.  Thus, she is the better choice.  Loyalty is going to be more important long-term than a potential challenge win.  Really, neither are a terrible choice, but I would say Emily is the smarter move overall.  

The issues is that Brandon has no vote, and therefore no Shot in the Dark, while Emily does.  Combine that with Sabiyah still not having a vote as well, and things look pretty shaky.  As such, the hunt for the idol resumes in earnest, and after a montage of people coming so close yet missing it, the three finally notice the coconut and get it down.  They’re overjoyed to be able to have Sabiyah claim her idol and get her vote back!… Only to discover that the idol is encased in WAX, which must specifically be BURNED away, rather than chiseled.  You know, a tough task for the tribe with no fire.  

Thankfully for them, Emily gives up her Shot in the Dark for Sabiyah to hold for the evening as a show of loyalty.  I’m of two minds about this, and it depends entirely on whether the Shot in the Dark is transferrable or not.  If it isn’t, and this is just Emily trying to show trust, I love it.  Helps build the social bonds she’s been working on for little sacrifice (yes, she gives up a potential chance to save herself, but a 1/6 shot is not much.  Better to go for the social move).  If it IS transferrable, however, this is a terrible idea, as it’s just one more incentive to vote you off.  Think Shan and J.D. on “Survivor 41”.  

There’s still decent mystery as we head off to Tribal Council.  Good, because that’s about all it has going for it.  It’s honestly not bad, but with how obvious the targets are, there’s no intriguing double-talk, and mostly a rehash of what we already know.  The one bad part is how Probst tries to tie Brandon’s challenge struggles back to his own life.  Probst, the metaphors are bad enough.  Don’t make Tribal Council about you in the bargain as well.  Both Brandon and Emily give the “Here’s what my life is like, and what this show means to me” moment, so we at least keep the mystery going up to the end.  

Going against what I said was smart, Brandon goes home.  I’m honestly not sure how I feel about his exit.  It was definitely earned, and Brandon wasn’t my favorite, but I still liked the guy.  I’m happy Emily is still around, as she remains my favorite, but I didn’t want Brandon to go either.  Really, I suppose I didn’t want anyone from Little Lulu to go, though, so I would probably never be satisfied.  I can say with confidence, however, that I love how Brandon goes out.  Still as enthusiastic in getting his torch snuffed and giving his final words as ever.  That’s a lot of class, and his joy at just being there shines through.  Glad it was a good experience, man.  Sorry it didn’t go the way you wanted.  

One or two nitpicks aside, I truly enjoyed this episode!  Good mix of strategy and character, good mystery, good development.  Challenges were a bit on the weak side, and Probst was mildly annoying, but if that’s the worst I can say, I’m extremely happy.  And hey, if nothing else, we got the intro back!  Huzzah!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.