Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Finale: Got Me Saying It

You all know I like my running gags around here.  I mean, there’s a reason the “Matthew Grinstead-Mayle Injury Rock (TM)” kept getting mentioned several episodes after it had any relevance this season.  And one of my other ones has been at the expense of Ben, or at least his catchphrase.  This is partly in fun, partly out of how basic it is, and partly out of me just not connecting with Ben (nothing against the guy; we just have little in common).  And yet, for all that I mock, I must now eat my words, as there is simply no other way to say it:

This season rocks.  

To find out exactly why, we go back to the beginning, with everyone getting back to camp.  And I do mean, CAMP.  Yes, for the first time in the new era, we’re NOT stuck going to some new beach for the final five for some reason!  I assumed they just neglected to mention it since we’d assume it was coming last episode, but nope!  They’re just doing away with it entirely.  Hope that stays.  It was a pointless, annoying twist that just ate up time.  

Instead, we focus on more important things, like how exactly Maria plans to save her skin after being blindsided.  The answer, it seems, is running back to Charlie tail between her proverbial legs.  She’s clearly emotional about the whole thing, and in confessional admits that being in this position really hurts and frustrates her (rather defeatist, if I’m being honest.  Not a good look on her), but does her level best to try and claw something back.  She spins a tale to Charlie about Liz and Kenzie insisting that it would be him, only to blindside her.  A lie Charlie sees right through, but at least his “Keep my options open” strategy is bearing fruit.  For his part, Charlie admits to feeling a mite betrayed by the whole thing, but also acknowledges that he can’t really complain when he’d have done the same to her were she not immune.  All in all, Maria is still on extremely thin ice, but she’s doing what she can to give herself a proverbial lifeline.  

But this has not been a season solely focussed on strategy.  No, more so than any season in the new era, this one is about the DRAMA!  Naturally, the eviction of one such as Q cannot be left alone, and we get our gloating in the form of Liz, happy that her game has taken off.  Really gives me “Survivor Vanuatu” vibes.  The person you voted off it may not have been smart to do, but MAN are you happy about it and going to tell the world about it.  This is the modern version of Scout’s “No Eliza Noises” confessional, basically.  

Morning comes, and we get another nice surprise: NO stupid challenge advantage scavenger hunt!  No, we instead just get a reaffirmation of the need to beat Maria today, and we head off to our challenge.  Simple, effective, nothing in excess.  Maybe the show is learning after all.  

Our challenge… Well I would call it another standard obstacle course, but this one has a few fun beats that, if not original, at least help it stand out.  In particular, an early mud net crawl (for which Liz has to take off her glasses, only to put them on.  Personally I’d leave my glasses off for the entirety of the challenge, if possible), using a rope ball on a string to pull down a bridge, and a puzzle giving clues of what to count for a combination lock.  Fun elements that you don’t see in your standard obstacle course, and so I’ll give this one a pass.  

Maria and Charlie are initially the frontrunners on this challenge, though Kenzie manages to get even with them on the puzzle.  That’s where things get funky.  As mentioned, the puzzle, when solved, reveals a clue of things to count to open a combination lock.  One of these things are the number of holes in a plank that was used RIGHT after the mud crawl on the challenge, basically necessitating a re-running of the obstacle course for our contestants.  Sadistic, but this portion actually ends up being a bit broken.  You see, Liz and Ben are both pretty much out of it.  Liz, however, realizing that she’s unlikely to win, sets out to help Kenzie.  She goes to retrieve Kenzie’s plank, thereby leaving Kenzie free to count the two other things, which are readily available to her.  Maria, conversely, has to run the whole thing once she solves the puzzle, costing her valuable time.  Kenzie does make a mistake in her own counting, but still manages to pull out a win.  

This may come as a surprise to some, since I panned Sophie suggesting that Albert do exactly this back in the infancy days of my blog, aka “Survivor South Pacific”, but I actually like this move for Liz.  The difference here is that in the challenge with Sophie and Albert, there was the possibility, however remote, that Ozzy could mess up, thereby opening the door for everyone else.  In an individual game, Albert has no need to help Sophie.  Yes, the want to beat Ozzy, but he could possibly fail on his own in that scenario.  This is a “First past the post” race, with no real way to fall behind (save for Liz herself forgetting her key at one point, which was a good laugh), so helping someone else gain ground is much smarter.  Moreover, by winning immunity, Kenzie can come across as being the person to “vanquish” the main threat of the season, that being Maria.  By helping her, you steal some of that credit for yourself.  If Liz had a real chance to win that challenge, I’d be more critical, but if you can’t win, then at least influence the outcome.  Besides, Adam Klein did this on “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”, and it helped him win the whole game.  Hmm, I wonder if that particular challenge will be relevant later this episode…

In addition to Immunity, Kenzie also gets to take one person to “The Sanctuary” for a meal, since  Probst just needs to annoy me with that slogan ONE MORE TIME!  Kenzie chooses Ben, which is the logical choice.  Apart from the pair being close, Kenzie probably wants to solidify strategy talk with him.  They do so on the reward, with Ben talking about how nice it is to have a true friend out here, not just someone to talk game with.  Solidifying once and for all that Ben is a genuine, nice guy without a strategic bone in his body.  

Thankfully we have some real strategy talk back at camp.  Were I in Maria’s position, I would be gunning hard for Charlie.  He’s proved willing to vote against your own interests, and is easier to talk up as a threat than basically anyone else left.  I am NOT Maria, however, as evidenced by the fact that she tries to target BEN instead.  Look, I get not wanting to burn your bridge with Charlie, but for Maria at this point, the philosophy should be “Anyone but me.” And again, Charlie is the easiest to target.  Hell, even if you DO want to work with him, there’s not reason to include him on your idol hunt!  You really think he’s going to let you know if he finds it?  Get real.  

To Maria’s credit, however, I will say she is an excellent salesperson.  As mentioned, she targets Ben, spinning a lie about how Ben’s Kenzie vote WASN’T a mistake, but a game move, and he can pull this sort of stunt with a bunch of things at the end.  Her tone and word choice almost make it believable, until you hear Ben say “That rocks” for the umpteenth time.  More compelling, and more realistic, is her point that Ben has many friends on the jury, and is well-liked.  For some juries, that’s all it takes.  It’s enough to get Liz and Charlie thinking, and is decent enough misdirection, but I’m not buying it.  Maria’s target is just too big.  You do not help someone else win a challenge just to keep the person you were trying to beat around.  

Evidently the editing team feels the same way, as any chance of misdirection goes out the window at Tribal Council, with Kenzie even flat-out admitting she’s voting Maria.  Thus, this Tribal turns into Maria’s farewell tour, which is definitely earned, but not that compelling.  Her talk of growing up with Lebanese immigrant parents is nice enough, but it doesn’t leave as much of an impact as it perhaps might have had at other times.  

So confident is the show that we don’t buy its own misdirection that they show all the votes.  A rare misstep in editing for this episode.  I’ll talk about it more throughout the blog, but the editing on this episode in particular had a lot of little funny moments I really enjoyed, and ranged from highly competent to masterful in most dramatic moments.  Here, however?  I get that the misdirection was weak, but if you’re going to drop it halfway through, why have it at all?  Just let this be one big swan song for Maria.  I will say, however, that I did enjoy Kenzie’s voting confession.  Her saying she “Wants to be [Maria] when [she] grows up”, coming from a woman who was 29 at the time of filming, is hilarious.  

I presume the Shot in the Dark has expired by now (I care about it so little, I honestly can’t remember), since Maria does not play it, and unsurprisingly goes.  I am sorry to see her go.  Maria is the most competent strategist I’d have been ok with winning this season (I’ll get more into that at the end), since she did make some mistakes, and as demonstrated this episode, could get a bit emotional.  It would have been a fitting win for the season, and we’re also badly in need of an older female winner by now.  You shall be missed, Maria.  

Also, while this in no way impacted boot order that we can tell, it IS a bit depressing that we’ve got four white people at the end, Maria being the last person of color left.  That said, clearly the diversity initiative is still doing its job properly, since this is the first season in the new era while the final three won’t contain at least one person of color.  This was just kind of a fluke in how this particular game played out, not any sort of commentary on how these players perceive that aspect.  

We should be preparing for our final Immunity Challenge, but before we can get to that, we need to add something ELSE to Liz’s ongoing list of ailments!  On top of all the allergies, she tells us she has weak joints that frequently don’t work properly.  Again I ask: And you came on “Survivor” WHY?  Liz is going to be sorry about that as well, given what our final challenge is that…

YOU’RE GOING TO PLAY “PLINKO” FOR UP TO $50,000!

Ok, ok, it’s not that, but given that CBS owns both franchises, it would have been funny if Probst had said that.  No, our players just have to assemble a puzzle of the logo of the season.  Simple, right?  Well, before they can begin, they have to toss a ball to the top of basically a giant pegboard, and catch it before it hits a metal ramp as it comes down.  Fail, and they can’t keep working on their puzzle until the ball goes ALL the way down the ramp, in an agonizing slow fashion.  This must be done continuously throughout the challenge.  

Plinko aside, there are probably two challenges that come to mind when you hear this description.  An immunity challenge from “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X” is the more 1-1 comparison, particularly as I alluded to earlier.  That was a scaled-down version of this very challenge, memorable since that was when Adam stopped his own challenge to help Ken win, in order to get out a preferred target.  The giant pegboard itself, however?  Well, sad to say that’s now a DEEP cut in “Survivor” history, but for those of you who remember “Survivor Nicaragua” (and frankly I don’t blame anyone who doesn’t want to remember that season), pegboards of this size were used in a tribal immunity challenge.  Did not expect a Nicaragua throwback here, but I’m cool with it.  

Slow and steady really does win the race here.  Charlie and Liz both cut it too close, and drop their ball.  This is one of the funny editing bits, where we cut from the dramatic music of the challenge for everyone else, to “Dodo Music” as Charlie can only sit there and watch his ball.  Kenzie is better at catching her ball, but occasionally has trouble hurling it all the way up to the top of the pegboard (a problem Liz also shares).  Then there’s the time she hurls it TOO hard, and it flies off so she has to retrieve it.  In the end it’s Ben, the one guy to never make such a mistake, who takes the victory.  Quite impressive for the guy who said he was “Operating on two hours of sleep” pre-challenge.  He tries to make an emotional moment out of it, talking about how he was doubted by his peers in his young life, and it honestly feels forced.  I appreciate his struggle, but this late in the game, we don’t need a moment like this.  It isn’t QUITE as melodramatic as Xander’s flashback on “Survivor 41”, but it feels like it’s in the same ballpark.  

This, of course, means the non-strategic Ben must now make a strategic decision.  I’d say every possibility is on the table, given that I think Ben is someone dumb enough to put himself in fire.  After talking about how winning immunity “rocks” (of course), we get another good editing bit.  Charlie rises up in the background over Ben’s shoulder, and the music switches to somber really naturally.  Ben talks about how hard it is to send one of Kenzie or Charlie to the end, given his early bond with Charlie and how nice Kenzie’s been to him this game.  For all my snark, that emotion does hit home really well.  

Less emotional is his decision with Liz!  He flat out tells Liz she’s going in because her game is too strong, showing exactly how in-tune Ben is with the strategy this season.  Liz breaks down, complaining about how everyone is seeing her game, which I only bring up because earlier this season, she was complaining about how no one was seeing her game.  There’s just no satisfying some people.  Liz does quickly buck up and go off to practice fire, however.  She does poorly, but Kenzie and Charlie don’t seem to be doing that much better.  Ben leaves it up in the air which of them he’s going to put in fire to take down Liz, though my money’s on Kenzie, since she seemed more willing to go as a resume building opportunity than Charlie is.  

Of course, ideally Ben should put Charlie in fire, and then whoever he thinks can beat Charlie, in an effort to get out what could be perceived as his biggest threat at the end, but we all know Ben doesn’t think like that.  Instead, at Tribal Council, he picks Kenzie and Liz to go in.  The fire-making itself is pretty standard, but Probst makes it worse by inserting himself into the narrative.  He mentions how the show did not provide test kits this season.  He notes that Kenzie’s issues are due to pressure.  He describes the fire triangle to the players.  Look, Probst, I enjoy your commentary more than most, but this is REALLY unnecessary.  Also yes, we get it, you were in Scouts as a kid, you don’t need to emphasize that.  

Unsurprisingly, given her various ailments, Liz looses to Kenzie, something the jury is very obvious about preferring.  Proving once and for all that Liz has absolutely zero self-knowledge, she talks about how she played the best game of anyone left, and was 100% going to win at the end, even continuing the rant into her final words.  In case it wasn’t clear, I’m not sorry to see Liz go.  With Ben at the end as well, the outcome would have been obvious, in that whoever wasn’t Liz or Ben was going to win. Now, with both Charlie and Kenzie there, there is some mystery.  Don’t misunderstand, Liz was an INCREDIBLY fun character.  She could just be a little much at times.  

Our Day 26 breakfast is interspersed both with the players practicing their opening speeches (pretty cool to see them not be 100% confident), and our jurors trying to misdirect us on who they’ll vote for.  Honestly, the juror’s answers here are mostly generic stuff that tells us very little.  Like with “Survivor 45”, some of it seems legit (Tiffany favoring Kenzie, for example), while some of it is clearly them trying to follow production’s instruction to create doubt they might vote for someone they have no intention of voting for (Q implying that Ben has a shot, for example).  Nothing offensive, but not worth deep commentary on, especially when we have a good Final Tribal Council to get to.  

Ben starts off our opening speeches, and we quickly see just how out of the running he is.  He talks about how he didn’t play strategically and was out of the loop, TRYING to tie it back into his social game.  Kenzie does a much better job, highlighting her bonds with everyone while also noting that she was willing to make moves as needed.  Charlie lands in the middle, focussing more on the strategy side of things, but not selling the emotion.  Fair enough, though I’m surprised Charlie didn’t bring up his “Always have options” philosophy, since I’d argue it’s one of the stronger points of his gameplay this season.  

Then we come to the jury, and this is normally where I’d complain about the new jury format.  Not so this time because, well, the new jury format kind of died out this season.  Yeah, Probst introduces the jury to start things off, but then only really speaks to them in order to ask who wants to speak next.  Acting as a moderator, not interjecting his own philosophy into the game, which was my main critique of that format.  The other issue I had was that a lack of individual questions made the jury itself kind of mush together, but again, not so this season.  With the exception of Liz (and I might just have missed hers) everyone DID ask one question.  Really the only difference between this and the original jury format is that people don’t stand up to ask their question, and can interject on other’s questions.  Granted I still prefer the original jury format, rather than the fact-checking we have here, but if this was to be the compromise between jury formats, I’m 100% ok with it.  

All that said, while I enjoyed this jury, people talking during other’s questions did make some of them blend together, so I’m going to be hitting the jury highlights and lowlights rather than giving a blow-by-blow of each question.  First off, major props to Tiffany for starting us off, and cutting off ANY Taylor Swift references before they start, as well as the phrase” That rocks/does not rock”.  Nice to see the jury knows how to get on my good side, at least.  

We also learn that even being on the jury cannot stop Q (who I must point out is STILL wearing the “Q-Skirt”) from trying to rewrite reality.  Asked to name a move they themselves made in the game, Ben falters by, well, not having a move.  Kenzie tries to argue that she successfully navigated the split vote after the merge, citing Q and Tiffany’s competing interests as something difficult to navigate.  This, of course, leads Q to deny ever doing this (objectively false), and starts another min-riot before Tiffany gets it back under control.  Not to say Charlie fares much better.  In fact, you could argue he did more for Kenzie than she did for herself!  Charlie tries to claim credit for the Hunter vote.  Reasonable enough, but unfortunately, Hunter is on the jury, and confirms that it was Kenzie that made him feel comfortable, thereby giving her credit for his ouster.  

Tevin asks how everyone used someone else on the jury to further their game.  Kenzie names Q once again, while Charlie gives a masterful answer in saying he used Tevin himself, noting the rift between him and Soda made him a good shield.  Normally a solid answer, but it looks like Tevin’s not buying it.  Still better than Ben who, again, doesn’t really have any sort of good answer.  The question he does best on is Q’s, who wants to know how the million dollars will change their lives.  Ben notes all the communities he’d like to help in South Florida, a nice sentiment that comes across as genuine from him.  Kenzie notes that she’ll be using the money for herself, giving her security as a small business owner.  Charlie’s is the weakest, giving some blather about “family”.  Not terrible, but Ben and Kenzie are hard acts to follow on this question.  For the final highlight, Soda asks everyone to summarize their game in 30 seconds or less, something only Kenzie is able to do successfully.  Charlie starts making some good points, but comes in a bit over the 30 second mark, preventing him from tying everything together.  And Ben’s still warming up when his 30 seconds are up.  

We do hear closing arguments from everyone this time, and it’s here where Charlie finally bring up his “Keep options open” argument I think he should have emphasized more.  And, right at the end, Ben breaks Tiffany’s “rocks” moratorium.  A funny note to cap the season on.  

Charlie’s argument was good, but it was too little, too late.  Like “Survivor 45” it was a close 5-3 vote, but once again, the woman pulls it out.  Kenzie is our victor, and I personally am THRILLED!  All due respect to Charlie, he played a good game, and arguably was more in the strategic driver’s seat than Kenzie.  He may have been perceived as Maria’s lapdog, but at lest he was making decisions.  Very few of Kenzie’s plans got carried out, and if they were, it was sometimes without her knowledge, like the Tiffany blindside.  But that said, he almost played TOO good of a game.  I’ve compared this to “Survivor Gabon” a number of times, and I stand by that comparison.  Charlie played a neat, normal game, which would contrast horribly with the overall chaotic season this ended up being.  It would be like if Charlie Herschel had won “Survivor Gabon”.  You could understand why and respect the win, but on a season like that, it wouldn’t be satisfying.  

Not to say that Kenzie was un-strategic, far from it.  She made excellent use of her relationships in the game, and schemed enough that, even if she didn’t succeed, she was perceived as a player worthy of respect.  Bhanu building her up on his journey probably helped.  As to how she fits the chaos of the season?  Well, while she usually played with her head, she could be petty and vindictive when slighted (see how she treated Q after he turned on her).  Granted, she kept that mostly in confessional, but that’s to her credit as a player.  And hey, the player dubbed “Mermaid-Dragon” is a fitting type of person to win an out-there season like this.  

All that said, I actually want to make a different comparison.  The season as a whole may be the New Era “Survivor Gabon”, but this Final Tribal, to me, is “Survivor Kaoh Rong” done right.  The final three was effectively a duel between our more strategic player who as the narrator of the season (Aubry/Charlie) versus the person who may not have had as much control, but had a simple narrative the jury could believe, and was well-connected with them socially (Michele/Kenzie).  And once again, the social player wins, re-emphasizing the social game as being paramount on this show.  Where I think this season succeeds, where Kaoh Rong fails, is that it does a better job balancing these two finalists.  Unlike Aubry, Charlie isn’t seen as the MAIN strategic driving force of the season, merely a very good player who happened to control votes near the end, so his game doesn’t come across quite as unbeatable.  Conversely, we got more emphasis on Kenzie’s relationships, making her seem more of an equal in that regard than Michele seemed to Aubry.  Granted, we probably didn’t need MULTIPLE scenes of Kenzie comforting Ben following his night terrors, but the point still stands.  Plus, this season didn’t hide key relationships Kenzie made that impacted the end of the season.  Contrast with Michele, where you’d be forgiven for thinking she and Cydney didn’t speak until the merge, despite that ACTUALLY being the driving force later on, rather than the Cydney/Aubry relationship.  

So yes, this season does a lot of good, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The same cannot be said for the after show, which is easily one of, if not the, worst of the New Era.  With the possible exception of Mike Turner (“Survivor 42”) no contestant has ever looked more defeated at the end than Charlie, a fact Probst notes, and talks about how rough it must be.  If you know it’s going to be hard on him, Probst, THEN WHY DON’T YOU GIVE THEM SOME TIME TO PROCESS BEFORE JUMPING STRAIGHT INTO A REUNION?!  LET THEM GRIEVE, FOR CORN’S SAKE!  

Apart from that gripe, most of the rest of the after show is fine, though a bit rushed.  We hit most of the points you’d expect.  Who voted for who, everyone going out with idols in their pockets, that sort of thing.  The one good bit I’d say was in there was Probst talking about how several terms have entered the “Survivor” lexicon from this season alone, leading to montage of key quotes past.  And there’s some deep cuts, like Sandra’s “I can get loud too!” from “Survivor Pearl Islands”, and Sue’s “Rats and Snakes” speech all the way back from “Survivor Borneo”.  Famous, to be sure, but that was over 20 years ago now.  I’m impressed the show was willing to make that callback.  About the only major ommission is “She died, dude.” from the Dead Grandma Lie, in my view.

And make no mistake, there are several things from this season that will already be sticking around for years to come in this community.  “Several”.  “BIG MISTAKE”. “Christmas is Cancelled”.  To a lesser extent, even “Q-Skirt”, “That does/does not rock”, and a reinvigoration of Applebee’s memes.  And that’s really the thing about this season: In an era known for everything blending together due to a similar format, this season stands out.  Lots of contestants who weren’t self-aware.  Things getting really personal without turning full-on ugly.  Random, crazy tangents.  You can’t mistake this for any other season, and that’s why it’s one of the greats.  Low end of greats for me (again, just below “Survivor Gabon”) due to it not going quite as far as it could, but still a really fun ride.  Yes, it cannot be denied that this season had an INCREDIBLY slow start, but given what came more towards the end, I’d say it was worth it.  

Will “Survivor 47” be the same level of fun?  Eh, I hope so, but it’s kind of hard to tell.  The cast didn’t seem bad from what we saw, just kind of generic.  Though I will admit a fondness for the guy who said his only camping experience was once in Cub Scouts, which he left early due to throwing up.  I sympathize.  

Well, with discussion of the season out of the way, let’s look back at my pre-season predictions, and see where I went right and I went wrong.  

Jem-Wrong.  Did not see her overplaying that much at all.  

Ben-Wrong.  Much more sociable, and much more longer-lived than I would have anticipated.  

Jess-She was a little more socially awkward than I predicted, but I did say she’d be out pre-merge for costing a challenge, so I’ll give myself this one.  

Bhanu-Not exactly the first out, and a messier player than I’d have guessed.  Still, I’d say I was at least somewhat close here.  Not a full on “right”, but closer to right than wrong.  

Kenzie-I’ll give myself Kenzie.  I said she was close to being a winner pick and, well, she won.  

Charlie-Wrong.  Much less nerdy and much more longer-lived than I guessed.  

Liz-Wrong.  Somehow even bigger of a personality than I anticipated, yet also much longer lived.  Blame Hunter.  

Jelinsky-Wrong, but in all fairness, who could predict Jelinsky?  

Maria-Spot on, for once.  Nailed her placement, and the reason why she’d go.  

Hunter-Wrong.  His physical game was much better than it looked, and the rest of his game, much worse.  

Moriah-She left a bit earlier than I anticipated, but I think I got her personality pretty well.  

Q-Wrong, but again, like with Jelinsky, who could have predicted anything about this guy?  Attempting to do so is a fool’s errand.  

Soda-Wrong.  I was somewhat close on her time in the game, but she was much more of a force to be reckoned with than I gave her credit for.  

Randen-Wrong, but then again, evacuations are much harder to anticipate.  

Tiffany-Wrong.  She had much more game than I thought she would.  And I’m all the happier for it.  

Tevin-Wrong.  This is the one I feel worst about.  Dude ended up being a favorite of mine this season, with a distinctive style and charm out the wazoo.  He may have lasted about as long as I thought he would, but I still give myself the loss on this one.  Not sure why I thought he’d be annoying.  It think it was his laugh in the preview.  I like everything about Tevin but his laugh.  

Venus-Right on personality, wrong on time in the game.  

Tim-Eh, kind of right.  I think I was a bit down on his chances, but he lasted about the length I thought he would, and certainly wasn’t a strategic powerhouse.  

And that about wraps up this season.  Like I said, definitely one of the greats.  Between this and my love for “Survivor 45”, we’re on a good trajectory I hope the show can keep up.  In the meantime, as we enter the off-season, keep on the lookout for more content from me.  We’ll certainly see the return of “Survivor What-Ifs?” and maybe a few other old series if I feel up to it.  

Final thing to say about this season: I’ll be driving near Charlotte NC tomorrow.  I’d better see a billboard celebrating Kenzie as I pass by.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 6: Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

Tribal Council is the place to make a “Hail Mary” play on “Survivor”, for a variety of reasons.  Yet it’s rarely the SMART place to make that type of play.  It can work on occasion, and nearly always produces spectacular fireworks, but by the time we get to Tribal, most people want to follow the advice of the late, great Keith Sale (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”, RIP), and “Stick to the Plan.”  Much as the show wants to paint Tribals as “Live”, they very rarely are, and half the time it’s editing.  Still, with these softball Tribals, we have to take what little drama we can get.  

Before I get into our “mergatory” (still hate that name), however, it’s time for another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Brief one here, but so caught up was I in making fun of Hunter for failing the logo-ordering journey last episode, that I forgot to talk about something I liked about it, namely the callbacks to “Survivor” history.  So much of the “New Era” has come at the expense of the old, to the point where the show minimized these types of references before.  Granted, that policy has been relaxed as we’ve gone on, but still, it’s nice to see the show be willing to admit it had seasons pre-COVID.  

Even so, our focus should be on the season in front of us, so let’s get back to that.  Having been on the wrong side of the vote, Moriah admits to being a bit uncomfortable.  Still, she tries to keep an optimistic view, saying she’d rather be “A living idiot than a dead Know-It-All”.  Decent attitude to have, while also throwing shade at Rob Cesternino (“Survivor The Amazon”) and Stephen Fishbach (“Survivor Tocantins”), despite neither of them being dead.  She admits discomfort to the tribe, but seems to re-integrate decently well, largely thanks to Ben smoothing things over.  Nevertheless, Tim admits in confessional that while they want to be “Siga Strong”, if push comes to shove, Moriah is on the bottom.  

Moving up from the bottom is Yanu, who get mail the next morning telling them to drop their buffs, and that they have 10 minutes to gather their things.  We get one last look at the Matthew Grinstead-Mayle Injury Rock (TM) as they celebrate being on the upswing.  Nothing much going on here, though I will say I find it weird that they refer to this as “Tree Mail”, when it clearly came from a boat.  Should have gone the “Survivor Pearl Islands” route and called it “Sea Mail”, at least. 

There are a couple of funny bits here, though.  Q tries to give his camp a nice send-off, only for Tiffany to say that the came sucked and gave them basically nothing, but in a humorous way.  Because Tiffany keeps it real.  Tiffany also reveals that she has named her idol “Idolecia”.  This has no bearing on anything, but is pretty cute.  Good pun.  

Yanu may not have had much to say, but they get more of a reaction than Siga, which just boils down to Moriah being happy to have options.  No, despite being the camp everyone will move to, it’s Nami that has the big reaction.  Everyone passes the note around, with Hunter giving it to Venus, and I’m surprised Soda didn’t snatch that note away instantaneously.  

Now, we have more game-important reactions to discuss.  More specifically Hunter, since now his Beware Advantage clue comes in.  Gotta say, this result feels lame.  I don’t want Hunter to lose his vote in perpetuity, obviously, but I figured not going to Tribal would mean some extra-difficult task to get the key to get his idol.  Instead he’s asked to solve a “riddle” that basically says “Dig by your tribe’s steps”, which he does, getting the key with seemingly little effort, despite what the show tries desperately to imply.  

From there, things proceed much as you’d expect.  Everyone celebrates coming together, but we quickly get to strategy talk.  When questioned about the Jem boot, Siga all toe the line on it being unanimous.  Good for Moriah, since it makes it clear the others do still want to work with her, but I’d say bad for the tribe as a whole.  Yanu is no threat, and in comparison, Nami is much freer with their targets.  As such, if Yanu ends up being the swing between the two tribes (which seems at least semi-likely), they’re much more inclined to want to break up the one with no visible cracks.  

We get out usual honeymoon phase for the new tribe, but it’s a particularly short one.  Unsurprisingly, Venus is the one to kick things off, showing just how salty she is with her tribe by talking about wanting to flip to Yanu.  You know, the tribe with limited power based on numbers alone?  Granted, this would put them on par with Nami, and they could at least temporarily band together against Siga, but still, on paper, you’d think she’d go to Siga with this info.  

Q just files all this away, eager to rekindle the alliance of six that was made on the journey last episode.  His check-in with Hunter and Tevin goes well, but less so his one with Maria.  She does mention Tim talking to her, but in more vague terms about the whole thing than specifics.  Confessionals indicate that Maria DOES know about this alliance, but isn’t sure she wants to go with it.  In a hilarious bit, just because it shows a bad misread, she admit’s she’s flattered by Tim considering her his number one, but has him in her top three at best.  Something about that disconnect is funny.  Anyway, Q goes to Tim, who says he’ll talk to Maria more firmly.  Privately, he says he does want the alliance to work out, but isn’t as eager to firm things up as Q.  Shoes the difference in priorities when one’s tribe has attended most Tribal Councils, and one hasn’t.  Good dynamic exploration here.  

The next day sees Venus continuing to put out feelers to multiple people, trying to swing people against Tevin in particular.  She moved on from Hunter, I guess.  Unfortunately, she’s so blunt about it, Charlie calling her “Wicked Smart”.  Charlie, quit trying to be Jake (“Survivor 45”).  You’re not pulling it off.  More intriguingly, we see Tim actually talk to Maria about the six alliance.  Unsurprisingly, Maria is unenthused, though she seems to do a good job hiding this from Tim.  She does say in confessional that she likes it as an option, but is so far wanting to stay Siga strong.  Understandable from her perspective, but bad for basically everyone else in that alliance, lending yet more credence to the vibes that it’s not sustainable.  

This is not the only strategy conversation we have.  Wanting to get more information on Saga’s dynamics, Q speaks one-on-one with Moriah.  She toes the line, but notes that Q is a bit more forceful with her than others have been, making her a bit suspicious that he’s sussed things out.  In reality this just seems to be Q’s style, very blunt and up front, but it’s easy to see why she feels that way, so I don’t blame her in the slightest.  Hell, she even toes the Siga line, so she’s not intentionally blowing up her game.  Despite this, Q doesn’t trust her.  Why?  Well, she names Aubry Bracco (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”) as her favorite player.  

On a completely unrelated note, Moriah just became my favorite player this season.  

Anyway, why does this turn off Q?  Well, as he notes, Aubry is a great strategist, executing excellent move after excellent move.  The snarky part of me wants to point out that “Survivor Game Changers” and ESPECIALLY “Survivor Edge of Extinction” beg to disagree on this description of Aubry, but as the self-appointed head of the “Aubry Lobby”, I’m going to let it slide.  Any and all pro-Aubry propaganda is welcome on my “Survivor”.  

This brings us to our challenge, which works basically the same as all the others.  Go through mud obstacles, stack sandbags to make stairs, climb a giant ball, puzzle is the first one from “Survivor Cagayan”.  It’s so standard at this point, and I’m so over the same thing happening at this point in the season.  Please, show, variety is all I ask!  Granted, this group seems oddly confused by how this part of the game works, but that’s more a mark against them than a mark in the format’s favor.  

There’s not even any drama of who will win!  It’s going to be the purple team, consisting of Kenzie, Q, Ben, Tim, Hunter, and Tevin.  Not only did they get ALL the challenge beasts of the season (particularly Hunter), but even if they didn’t we KNOW they win thanks to the “Next Time On…” segment from last episode.  That mentioned Liz and Soda being against one another, a scene we haven’t seen yet, meaning they along with Venus, Charlie, Maria, and Moriah must lose.  Otherwise there would be no point in those players targeting one another, since they’d be immune.  Even Tiffany sees the writing on the wall, and after a humorous half-second seeming to consider her options, hitches herself the purple team.  Even factoring out challenge ability, smart choice.  All her allies are there.  

I’ll give the orange team this: They put up a good fight.  Hell, they’re actually ahead for the first leg of the challenge, only falling behind when it comes to loading and pushing sandbags, due to that being all brute strength.  They even make up a good bit of time on the puzzle.  The one good thing I’ll say about this challenge is that EVERYONE, in sections, has to do the puzzle.  You can’t rely on one puzzle whiz to do the whole thing.  You’re only as fast as your slowest solver.  Unfortunately for orange, purple saved Hunter for the end, and since this challenge has nothing to do with past season logos, he naturally wins it for them.  Tevin notes this, and I’m SURE it won’t matter for later for Hunter.  Our winning several get their very nice deep red buffs, while the losers go to wash off the dirt.  

There’s tension in the air, though in a nice moment, Venus looks on the bright side.  They might not have won, but they did come close.  No small feat, given how uneven these teams were.  Granted she undercuts the niceness by wishing the winners to choke on the food, but hey, it’s something.  

Speaking of said winners, they quickly get to discussing who to vote out.  Initially, Venus is very much the target, thrown out emphatically by Tevin.  Most everyone seems ok with this, but in the interest of parity, Yanu wants Siga to throw out a name as well.  Ben continues to toe the party line of them being unified, which Tiffany FINALLY calls out in confessional.  As I mentioned before, she rightly notes that this is not a good reason to want to work with Siga.  As a result, when Tim finally cracks and reluctantly throws out Moriah as an option, she quickly becomes the consensus boot.  

So, with it being down to Moriah or Venus, I would say the choice is clear: Moriah must go.  I get the reasons for wanting to get rid of Venus, but she’s SUCH an outsider that she can be gotten rid of anytime, while Moriah could slip under the radar if you let her by.  True, Venus could slip under the radar as well, but at this point she’s SO disliked I have difficulty seeing her winning over a jury.  So if she gets to the end, hey, easy victory against her.  For Yanu and Nami, it makes a crack in the seemingly unified Siga, and for Siga, it lowers their threat level without actually sacrificing that much.  As such, in an ideal world, voting out one of the other Siga might truly be Yanu/Nami’s smartest move, but I don’t see it happening, and a Moriah exit is still a victory for them, on at least some level.  

Despite this, we need to add SOME evidence for a Venus boot, which Venus gladly provides.  Rather than just being happy to hear she’s been spared, she’s concerned that a woman is going, when they have the numbers.  She tries to swing the vote to Charlie, which as I say COULD be a good move for Nami/Yanu, but they’re not biting.  Understandable, given that she explicitly framed it as a move against the men, so Hunter, Tevin, and Q at least would have a reason to be opposed.  Q in particular is mad about this, calling Venus “ungrateful” after “he saved her.”  Not sure how much agency Q had in that, and this is really not a good look on Q.  I could kind of understand it with Jelinsky, but dude gets really absolutist and morally righteous when he thinks things should go a certain way.  That’s his right, of course, but not good in the game of “Survivor”, and in cases like this, can come off as having sexist overtones.  I don’t think Q IS sexist, to be clear.  At worst, he’s a southern gentleman taking things to their logical conclusion from that (for example, Tiffany apparently wanted to do the Sweat task with Q, but he refused to “let a lady do that”), which is not going to fly with everyone.  Even with all this, I still lean towards a Moriah exit, particularly given her increased screen time this episode.  

Thank goodness for Moriah finding out about her boot, since otherwise they Tribal Council would have nothing beyond standard double-talk.  Even as it is, what we get isn’t great.  Things break when Moriah admits there IS a crack in Siga, and it’s her.  A decent enough move as a desperation play, but probably too late.  Further, as Q points out, it makes her look bad, since she lied to cover it up.  I ragged on Q for some of how he came off this episode, but credit where it’s due, the man shines here.  He calmly and plainly explains why, while he’s happy to know that, it doesn’t change must from a trust scenario.  Moriah for her part handles things with a similar grace, emphasizing her pitch without seeming desperate.  

Even with these “fireworks”, the needle doesn’t seem to move, and Moriah understandably plays her Shot in the Dark.  Not everyone is Kaleb (“Survivor 45”) sadly, and Moriah is not safe.  She therefore goes, Venus receiving exactly one vote from Charlie, presumably to protect in case Moriah’s Shot in the Dark was successful.  Tevin also wisely saved his extra vote, though I will note I did love his little dance when he received it.  

Jokes about Aubry love aside, I’m overall not sad to see Moriah go.  Venus brought much more drama, and it’s always nice to see people make the smart move.  And hey, Moriah handles her exit with a ton of class, which is always nice to see.  

Actually, that sums up this episode pretty well: It was nice to see.  It’s not going down in the annals of “Survivor” greatness, but it executed everything competently, had some good humorous moments, and was overall just an solid, but unremarkable episode of the show.  If Q really does go down the dark path and show his worst qualities next episode, however, this may be the high point of the season…

-Matt 

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 5: Rekindled Drive

Like most “Survivor” fans, I have at some point got it into my head that “Hey, I know so much about the game, why don’t I do this show?”  Like a smaller subset of those fans, I applied.  Several times.  Never got on, and eventually that drive dwindled, for a variety of factors I won’t get into here.  Suffice to say, I haven’t applied since pre-COVID, and have had no strong desire to try again.  Until tonight.  If they’re going to do a challenge LITERALLY tailor-made for me, a challenge I could definitely beat Hunter at, then maybe I should apply again.  

Eh, probably not, since they’ll probably never use this one again now they’ve done it once.  Still, would have been fun to try on my own.  

Less fun is another practice revived this episode, specifically the “Previously On…” segment spoiling what’s to come in the episode.  So far this season, these segments have stuck to recapping the events of the previous episode.  You know, the thing one would expect them to do?  This one?  Feels the need to go all the way back to episode 1, and remind us that Maria and Tevin both have extra votes.  They also go slightly less further back to remind us that Ben has no vote.  This ensures that these things will have relevance in this episode, all but guaranteeing that Yanu doesn’t lose today.  Way to spoil things, episode!

Admittedly, you could spoil them for Yanu themselves, a bit, just to get them off this whining train.  Look, I get that their situation sucks, but man does it feel like they go overboard with the self-pity this episode.  Kenzie refers to them as “The tiniest tribe that ever was.”  Ulong shouts “Am I joke to you?” From far away at this.  Look, I get that things kind of suck for Yanu right now.  A little moping is to be expected.  But man, Yanu’s being too hyperbolic about this for my taste.  You’re not going down in the annals of history as one of the all-time great tribes, but you’re hardly a disaster on par with some of the other tribes in the show’s history.  Get over yourselves.  

Ok, is the weather just WAY worse than we’re being shown?  Now SIGA is getting in on the complaining, and they’ve been doing well!  And have a tarp!  The only thing I can figure at this point is that there’s something about the weather this season that’s just driving everyone to misery.  Though since this is Ben complaining, there’s a silver lining to be found, and that is his bond with Charlie.  Or “Sir Ben” and “Sir Charlie” as they refer to themselves, since evidently Kane from “Survivor 44” is back on the island somehow.  Still, they’re buds, and we see their music naming competition is a regular thing, not just a one-off

Unfortunately for them, this bond and chipperness does not go unnoticed by others.  Specifically the women, who are debating who to target between him and Tim.  They admit Tim is better to get rid of in the short term, but state that Ben is more of a threat in the long-term, due to his humor landing well, and potentially earning him allies.  Can’t argue with that logic.  There’s also that the women (sans Jem, obviously) are convinced that Tim has the idol, so Ben becomes the safer bet.  I COULD argue with this logic, but their targeting is still correct, so despite the somewhat presumptive reasoning, I can’t disagree with the results.  

Over at Nami, the order of the day is idol hunting, and man, the editors are really not putting in any effort here any more, are they?  We get the usual schtick of someone, in this case Hunter, narrating how they must have just missed the idol, and there’ll be a zoom-in and flash on it, which they naturally do, and… It just feels lazy.  I don’t know, maybe this joke has been overdone at this point, but it just doesn’t have the joy it used to at this point.  

Thankfully Venus is there to provide us something different.  Having evidently given up on finding the idol herself, she instead guards Hunter extremely blatantly.  Given that she wants to target him, it makes sense she wouldn’t want him getting something that powerful.  Honestly, I’m not going to criticize this move.  True, she has all the subtlety of a foghorn in doing so, but she’s on the outs, and is unlikely to find the idol when basically everyone else on the tribe, except Liz, is out looking for it.  As such, better to make sure your target doesn’t get a safety net.  It could be done with more finesse, especially as it pisses off Hunter something fierce, but at this point, he’s against her anyway, so why not?  

What I WILL criticize Venus for is backing off this strategy.  If you’re going to do that, go all-out!  Make it so Hunter has NO alone time to idol-hunt.  But no, she does, and of course, Hunter finds it.  He’s a bit bummed reading the rules, since Nami is, you know, unlikely to lose anytime soon.  Granted, Hunter is the reason Nami wins so much, so he could probably just throw if he really wanted to, but that would A) raise suspicion and B) be pointless, since we know the idol has new rules some the merge.  Might as well wait it out.  

Enough of the interesting stuff!  Let’s go back to Yanu for, you guessed it, MORE WHINING!  Each person mopes in their own special way, though Kenzie is the one with her head still the most in the game.  She is the one looking at the angles, trying to figure how how to turn Q seeming to be on the verge of quitting to her advantage.  Credit the show this: They’re giving us a villain again, and not backing down on it either.  

Just as I’m about to read Q the riot act for talking about quitting, aka the very thing he went on the warpath against Jelinsky for, Q reveals that it was actually an act on his part.  Resigned to going to Tribal Council again, he wants to make sure Kenzie doesn’t do the Shot in the Dark, so makes it seem like he’s given up.  When he and Tiffany talk, however, he points out to her that Kenzie always asks “What were you talking about?”  I actually want to give major props to this bit of persuasion.  The best persuasion is a subtle one, where you let the person come to the conclusion naturally.  That’s just what Q does here.  He casts no aspersions on Kenzie, merely makes an observation that he knows Tiffany will interpret in a way that benefits himself.  Sure enough, Tiffany notes that Kenzie always has her head in the game, and we get a pretty funny montage of Kenzie asking that every question multiple times.  This may not be as persuasive as Q wanted however, since Tiffany never says she’ll definitively go one way or the other.  Instead, she claims to be equally close with both Q and Kenzie, and doesn’t want either of them to go.  Bad news, Tiffany: With how much Q is against Kenzie at this point, even if you avoid Tribal Council tonight, you’re gonna have to make that choice eventually.  

Back over at Siga, we see JUST how good Jem’s plan to send people off for the Beware Advantage she has has been going!   While she got lucky that people were convinced Tim had it at the start, now there has been some question.  From Tim specifically, who now feels convinced that Jem has the idol.  Way to inadvertently throw suspicion on yourself!  Tim confronts her about the women’s alliance, which she denies, and congratulates herself for lying so well.  Seems a bit much, to me.  Don’t get me wrong, she does a decent enough job at it, and I get her point that she hid her tell of giggling, but it’s not like this was some master stroke.  You gave a basic denial, not some cunning 4-D chess move.  And again, there is now suspicion on you in relation to the idol where there was none before, especially now the tribe has given up looking for it.  

All is not serious at Siga, however.  Maria gives everyone salsa lessons!  Admittedly Charlie does try and tie them back into the game, but really, it’s just a fun little glimpse at tribe life.  Part of the reason I enjoy the 90-minute episodes; I get the feeling this scene would have been cut if it were only an hour-long episode.  

Our challenge today is literally a carbon-copy of one from last season, presumably so they can re-use the multi-level obstacle course.  Lazy and uninteresting, at this point.  At least every tribe has had a bit of a target thrown around; Nami less so than the others, but when you’ve got Hunter on your team, that’s understandable.  Then you remember what the “Previously On…” segment was like, and you realize you’re set up for a Siga loss.  Happy that we won’t have to see more of Yanu whining again, but bummed that it’s that predictable.  

Oh, and there’s zero surprise from the other tribes that Bhanu went home.  In case that was a question.  

The show does everything in its power to convince us Yanu may yet lose.  Probst highlights the new-era records they set, having never won immunity and going without flint the longest.  I maintain they should have got flint for winning the reward challenge, but hey, what do I know?  Probst also suggests Yanu use this as inspiration.  Hey Probst?  You know what might really inspire Yanu?  LETTING THEM HAVE SOME FREAKING SUPPLIES!  Honestly, if a season highlights why the show needs to drop the deprevation angle, at least to some degree, it’s this.  I get that you don’t want seasons to seem too easy, but when the initially-losing tribe just gets steamrolled, the game gets a lot less fun.  

Back to the challenge, however.  It helps that Yanu falls decently behind early on.  The slingshot at the end is the great equalizer, however, especially since everyone has to make a shot, meaning Hunter can’t carry everyone in this challenge.  Nami still wins, earning immunity and many fruits and pastries, but Siga sucking at this portion allows Yanu to catch up.  It comes down the last target, Ben comparing it to the “tightest playoffs” (evidently that rocks), with Yanu taking the win.  And they MILK that sucker.  The slow-mo.  The dramatic music.  Even though we know it’s coming, it’s emotionally satisfying.  The testimonials from Yanu help as well.  

But, of course, we’re only a third of the way through the episode; there must be a twist!  Yes, it’s another journey, and as the winners, Nami gets to decide who goes from each tribe.  Magnanimously, they let the other tribes pick who gets sent along with Hunter, leading to Q going for Yanu, and Tim for Siga.  Honestly, Hunter is the one I’m most surprised by.  I would have thought he wouldn’t want to go, given the target on his back already, but I suppose he’s well liked that no one on the tribe would object.  Well, Venus would, but she has now power at this point already.  

Interesting thing to note is that both Q and Hunter said in pre-season interviews that they had sussed each other out as fellow residents of Mississippi, the first on the show since Darrah of “Survivor Pearl Islands”.  As such, they had mentioned wanting to work together.  That being the case, I could see that being a factor in those two in particular volunteering to go.  Happy coincidence, or planned strategy?  You make the call!

Speculation aside, what is clear is that the relative “big gun” in terms of challenges from each tribe has now gotten together.  With the merge looming (again, thanks predictable season schedule!  Please note the sarcasm!), each realizes they’re going to be targeted, and vowed to stick together.  Simple strategy, and one I’m not sure they’re all sincere about, but I can’t fault the logic of it.  Q even does a good job turning it to his advantage. Rather than try to downplay his relationship with Tiffany, doubtless realizing that this is a lost cause, he owns up to it under the guise of “each gets one person they’re tight with to bring along”, thus getting Tim to admit he’s tightest with Maria, and Hunter with Tevin.  Decent information gained at very little cost.  Well-played, Q.  

As to our journey test itself?  Well, after two misfires, the show finally hits the sweet spot!  Rather than forcing anyone to do anything, the threesome have to come to a consensus for one person to do a challenge related to “Survivor” History.  Tim admits that he’s a superfan, but also doesn’t want to risk his vote, this by now being the known penalty for losing.  As such, he backs off, and Q for some reason doesn’t put up a fight, leaving Hunter to be the one to test his knowledge.  

Luckily for Hunter, the producers threw him an easy one.  He gets 20 logos of previous seasons, and has to put them in chronological order.  A fairly strict time limit, but still, for someone of his fan status, this should be no problem… Wait, why is he putting Guatemala before Pearl Islands?  Any fool could tell you that’s wrong!  Hunter, NO!

Yes, it seems we’ve found the one challenge Hunter sucks at: Basic “Survivor” trivia.  Look, one the one hand, I don’t want to seem to harsh.  While I find this easy, even a decent fan might not have season order fully memorized.  That said, you’d expect the guy who loves the show so much he literally BUILT CHALLENGES FROM SCRATCH to have maybe looked up the order of seasons a couple of times in the past!  Plus, it’s funny for Hunter, who has been so good at challenge, to fail so spectacularly in this one.  Even Debbie of “Survivor Kaoh Rong” gets in on the action, berating Hunter with her “And I’m pissed!” speech from “Survivor Game Changers”.  I’d have more sympathy for Hunter if there was some added layer of difficulty.  Maybe if it was pictures of immunity idols he had to put in order, or merge tribe names.  Those add in needing to know what season they’re from, in addition to the order of seasons, making them difficult even for all but the most die-hard superfans.  But this was the LOGOS!  With the exception of Borneo (which Hunter did get right), they all have their names printed on them!  All you have to do is READ and REMEMBER!  You’re less than two weeks in!  It can’t be that hard!

After Hunter’s fan-cried takes some serious hits, we cut to the celebration at Yanu, with Tiffany and Kenzie feasting.  Tiffany also celebrates not needing to cut one of her allies yet.  Soon, though, Tiffany.  Soon.  Still, the pair are kind enough to save Q his portion of the food, and we even get a humorous bit where Q does a ventriloquist routine with the idol.  Funny stuff, and again, could easily have been cut in a shorter episode.  I continue to like this runtime.  

Still, time for strategizing at Siga, and after a suitable eulogy from Ben, Jem insists on a private idol hunt.  The tribe is surprisingly cool about this, giving her time to dig up her clue to the key.  Unfortunately for Jem, she has to do a bit more than Tiffany did on Yanu.  She must measure the permitter of Tree Mail, her tribe boat, and the length of the tribe sign, using lengths of machete as the unit of measurement, then plug these units into a formula to tell her how many lengths of machete from the tree she initially found the Beware Advantage in her key is buried.  Jem agonizes about doing this without getting spotted, but ultimately doesn’t seem to have any trouble.  Really, the point where I was most worried for her was in finding the key itself, since she seemed to eyeball where to put the machete to count out the lengths, rather than flipping it end over end like I’d have done.  Still, it works, and Jem has an idol.  Again, can’t argue with results.  

Now, let the targeting commence!  As hinted earlier, Ben is the preferred target for the women.  Still, to prevent potential idol/shot in the dark usage (remember that no one knows Ben doesn’t have a vote at this point), they agree to split votes between Ben and Tim, with Maria potentially using her extra vote to make this math properly.  Charlie is a little bummed about this, but doesn’t think there’s much he can do, other than potentially persuade Maria.  That said, Jem continues to overplay her hand, grilling Ben about what his plans are that night, ultimately leading to her being firmed up as the target.  With Ben coming clean (as he probably needs to at this point) about not having a vote to Tim, Charlie, and Maria, we now come to the latter two as our swing votes.  

As to who they should go for?  While I understand Maria’s pull towards the women, since she doesn’t have the close bond with Ben that Charlie does, I think the smart move here is to get out Jem.  Ben is definitely a social threat, but he’s a loyal one that’s less likely to move against the tribe, and therefore you.  If Jem’s overplaying, and shenanigans with the Beware Advantage, tell us anything, it’s that she’s in it primarily for herself.  Hardly unusual in this game, but still, not something to keep around if you don’t have to.  Yes, she does have an idol, but again, if she didn’t tell you about it, she’s likely only going to use it for herself.  No reason to keep that around.  

The downside to Siga being the “Vibe Tribe” as they style themselves, is that Tribal Council is very much a nothingburger of a climax.  There’s no sound bytes or interesting conversation whatsoever.  Everyone’s just too happy with one another.  Best I can say is that there is a bit of mystery as to who goes home.  I do think her increased screen time favors Jem, but there’s still at least a decent chance that it’s Ben.  There’s also some fun moments in the voting booth, from Ben being oddly happy about not voting to Moriah talking about she’s “scared and nerding out simultaneously.” The latter is very relatable.

But no, the editing was not a fake-out at this point.  Jem goes home, idol in her pocket, though to her credit she laughs at the whole thing.  Legitimately classy.  While this was the smart move, I can’t deny that it’s not what I wanted to happen.  Jem may have played a messy game, but it was fun to watch.  Nothing against Ben personally; he seems like a nice guy.  Maybe it’s because I’m not a big music person, but I ultimately don’t enjoy his schtick, whereas Jem I found at least somewhat entertaining.  Hard to be too mad at competent gameplay, however.  Really, the most questionable move of the night for me is Maria using her extra vote.  She KNEW Ben had no vote.  There was no need to pile the extra vote on Jem.  My best guess is that she feared she’d be targeted for having the vote come the merge, and so wanted to get rid of it.  I can see SOME logic there, but on the whole, still think she shouldn’t have done that.  

Questionable choice by Maria aside, this was a good episode!  Definitely the best since the premiere.  While it may not have had the biggest mystery, and shot itself in the foot in terms of foreshadowing, it had enough questions to keep me invested throughout.  And, above all, it was FUN.  Outside of Yanu whining, we bonded well with the players, and mixed in strategy with good personal moments.  All in all, a solid recipe for a fun episode of “Survivor”, and that’s enough for me.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 4: Back to 2000

Man, now I’m kind of bummed I wasted all my “Dr Who” jokes on “Survivor 41”, because if this episode wasn’t ever a throwback to the old days.  Obvious boots with no real misdirection!  People being clueless about how to play the game!  Freaking TREE MAIL!  Getting read out loud!  Twice!  Since when do any of those things happen anymore?

We pick up… Literally right where we left off last episode.  Yanu still celebrating their good fortune within Randen’s misfortune.  Kenzie is happy that Yanu finally has a “win” such as it is, and Q talks about how this might be a turning point for Yanu.  Um, Q?  Have you seen your tribe?  Skipping one Tribal does not a turnaround make.  

Even the person who benefits the most from this, Bhanu, is kind of screwed over by it.  There was no harm in him spilling the tribe dynamics when he thought he’d be going home, and had nothing to lose.  Now that he’s been spared and has to work with these people?  Kind of a bad look.  And once again, it’s a look Bhanu can’t keep to himself, though this time I’m a bit more sympathetic to it.  Even if it doesn’t paint him in the best light, if he wants a chance of working with these people, it’s something they need to know.  Unfortunately for Bhanu, he also brings up that in addition to the “Kenzie’s the mastermind” thing, which Q and Tiffany could probably take in stride, he ALSO brings up that he mentioned the two of them were close.  This, rightly, makes them feel like they’ll be targeted come a swap or merge, and so we close on a montage of everyone assuring us that, should they lose again, Bhanu goes home.  

After our awesome intro, we cut to Bhanu praying yet again, since he doesn’t have much recourse.  His prayers are answered with the aforementioned tree mail, which we see both Yanu and Nami read out.  The latter, as is their want, turns it into a jam session.  Much like with the “Shanthem” on “Survivor 41”, the editors do not miss a beat, both figuratively and literally, providing Nami a backing track to go with their singing.  This pleases most everyone… Save Hunter, who puts his head in his hands at more singing, presumably questioning his life choices.  

Siga doesn’t read their tree mail, but we do see them do another “group idol hunt”.  One with more success this time, as Maria finds a clue to a Beware Advantage.  “But how?” You may ask, since we saw Jem find it last episode (even though she ACTUALLY found it a few days prior to last episode).  Well, Jem has done the old “Re-hide the clue to send everyone on a wild goose chase.” Thing.  Normally a strategy I can get behind, but not sure how well it’s going to work here.  The flaw is that it specifically tells you to dig where you found the Beware Advantage.  Between the area just not being good for digging, and the presumed finding of nothing, eventually people are going to figure out it’s a plant.  This isn’t “Holes” where people are just gonna keep digging in the hopes of finding it.  This will, of course, lead to paranoia.  Paranoia that can easily fall back on you, Jem.  Better hope it doesn’t, or this was a terrible, pointless move.  

As to our challenge?  Standard obstacle course, you know the drill by now.  Only two real obstacles worth noting: Untying a key from a floating platform, and throwing hoops up over a pole with a bar on top, to be later thrown onto a similar pole.  

The latter I mention because of recent familiarity, it being the “Carolyn Wiger Memorial Challenge” from the premiere of “Survivor 44”.  But the former?  Well, I didn’t think it was possible to flip those platforms upside-down, but Tim from Siga somehow found a way.  Power to you for finding a new way to break the challenge, I guess.  

What are they playing for?  Fish in varying quantities, which Q insists they’ll need to trade for something else.  Not sure why, exactly.  Even if they don’t get flint for winning the challenge (which they SHOULD.  There’s no reason for it to be tied specifically to immunity; the challenges themselves have no difference.  A win is a win.), food is probably more important than any other reward so far, and it’s not like the fish will be inedible.  Sashimi is a thing.  

But yeah, I’m sure hearing that from Yanu has no bearing on… Yeah, Yanu wins.  They don’t even try to hide it.  Yanu was doing well in general, but I think the reason they beat Nami is that the “throwing the hoops off the pole” part specifically had to be done by everyone playing, so Hunter couldn’t just win the whole thing for them.  Nami still comes in second over Siga, though.  Tim’s error with the platform didn’t help, but the big contributor seems to have been Maria failing hard at the first hoop-throwing segment.  Honestly, don’t blame her.  It’s a tough thing to do, and she DID succeed, eventually.  Just too little, too late, in the end.  Yanu, as predicted, trades their fish for the tarp and tool kit.  I can kind of see it, especially after the reported (but not shown) torrential downpours this season, but I still think they should have earned flint for this, and kept the fish.  

We actually save Yanu celebrating their win in favor of Nami celebrating.  Liz talks about her happiness at being able to eat something she’s NOT allergic to, but that’s not the main focus here.  Tevin insists on being the one to scale and gut the fish.  Rather than being some macho wilderness thing, this is actually a tribute to Tevin’s dad, who taught him how to do this.  The pair were supposed to do it some more; have some fishing trips together.  Sadly, Tevin ended up focussing on his career, to the point where his dad passed away before they got that chance.  

Hey, who put on “Cats in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin?  I do NOT need that right now!  This scene is sad enough as it is!

In all honesty, this is one of the best backstory segments we’ve ever gotten on the show.  It tied in perfectly with the situation, and isn’t a contrived sad moment.  Brings us closer to Tevin, which is what it’s supposed to do.  Bravo, show, and Tevin, if by some weird coincidence you are reading this, I’m sorry for your loss.  

We can’t really top the emotion of Tevin’s moment, but Yanu gives it their best shot.  Naturally, they’re exuberant about their win, and hope it will lead to more.  Hope that is quickly dashed when Bhanu compounds his “Not cut out for this show” credentials by mixing up right and left when putting on the tarp.  While still against him for the whole “inadvertent targeting” thing, Q hopes to bring this team of four to the merge, and wants them to be their best.  To this end, he coaches Bhanu on how to talk to others/answer Probst’s questions as Tribal.  Basically give generic “I’m close with everyone.” answers.  Not terrible advice, and Bhanu certainly needs the role-playing practice Q provides, but MAN does Q seem condescending towards the guy when doing it.  Like, the man’s not cut out for the show.  Fine.  That’s not a failing of character.  No need to put him down for it.  

At least Q is putting in the effort, however.  When Bhanu politely suggests to Kenzie that she practice with him as well, Kenzie gives him the brush-off, understandably upsetting Bhanu.  Look, I’m not gonna say the man’s the easiest to live with.  Nor is he the best player.  But you need to put up at least the PRETENSE of politeness with him.  Apart from it just being the decent thing to do, you’ll need any number you can get come the merge at this point.  Even one as unreliable as Bhanu.  

Bhanu’s not the only one having a moment, however.  Maria is upset at her perceived costing of the tribe the challenge (again, probably a factor, but I feel like Tim flipping the platform was at least somewhat of a factor as well).  Ben notes this, and tries to cheer her up.  This prompts Maria to talk about how hard it is for her to give up.  She explains that her parents, after getting out of Lebanon to come to the US, instilled a work ethic in their kids to keep fighting.  Honestly, a decent enough backstory.  Not the most logical progression I’ve seen, but not the worst.  I think this one falls flat less for being bad on its own, more for Tevin’s being an EXTREMELY tough act to follow.  

Still Ben does point out that Maria found a Beware Advantage, which seems to cheer her up.  Unfortunately for her, as we the audience know, she’s found basically jack squat.  And now, after a decent amount of time digging, the tribe is beginning to suspect something’s up.  Charlie in particular notes that “Jeff will never lie to you.” In relation to the note.  Um, Charlie?  I know it was a while ago, but Danny from “Survivor 41” might disagree with that statement.  

Even if the logic is flawed, the conclusion is correct, and speculation abounds as to who may have the actual idol.  Luckily for Jem, suspicion falls on Tim rather than herself.  Makes the move slightly better, but still too risky, in my opinion.  

Back at Yanu, Kenzie makes a half-hearted attempt to cheer up Bhanu, admitting that tribe cohesion is needed.  She admits in confessional, though, that she hates needing to be emotional support for a man “about 15 years older” than her.  Um, what’s with the “about”?  Did these people not exchange ages yet?  Feel like that would have come up at some point.  In any case, while she’s insincere in confessional, she’s sincere enough to Bhanu to cheer him up, and harmony is momentarily restored.  Though it should be noted that Bhanu bemoans no longer having power in the game, leading me to question when he thought he had power in the game in the first place.  

Quickly becoming less harmonious is Nami.  Soda admits that while it’s nice to keep winning, you get the itch to strategize.  As such, she goes around in a montage to everyone on the tribe, checking in and just reaffirming bonds.  Unfortunately for her, she’s not the most subtle about this, and catches the eye of Tevin.  Naturally, Tevin is a bit suspicious about all this, and so discussed the possibility of voting out Soda with Hunter.  Hunter admits that he’s preferred Soda as a target for a while, and is happy Tevin came to the same conclusion on his own.  After talking with Liz, who’s ok with Soda going as well, they make a majority and the plan seems set.  

As to how I feel about this plan?  It’s pretty much the same as I felt about Sabiyah targeting Kaleb in episode 3 of “Survivor 45”: I see the logic, and I agree that the target needs to go sooner rather than later.  But this is too soon.  The issue for me is how thoroughly Nami has alienated Venus from themselves.  There is practically no chance she sticks with them come the merge.  Soda might be a threat, but at least for now she’s a LOYAL threat.  Take her out now, then if you lose again, you’re fine to eliminate Soda.  

Speaking of eliminations, tree mail for the immunity challenge arrives.  It mentions jumping being necessary, which is a problem for Siga.  They sat out Moriah in the last challenge, meaning she needs to be in this one.  The problem?  Well, turns out she can’t jump, something Ben tells us is kind of unusual.  Um, Ben, you’re not doing your branding right.  I think you mean “That does NOT rock.”  Still, Charlie does his best to coach Moriah before the challenge.  

Luckily for Moriah, she won’t be called to do as much jumping as she thought.  This is basically “Octopus’ Garden” first seen on “Survivor Cagayan”.  The challenge the brawn tribe of that season tried to throw, and failed.  Decent enough challenge, but again, give me something new.  Distance or height jumping will not much be required from Moriah.  

I’ll give this challenge this: I don’t know who’s losing.  Granted, Siga hasn’t had much in the way of “targets” yet, so their loss is less likely, but anything is at least plausible tonight, lending a tension to this episode we’ve not really had since the premiere.  

Sure enough, Siga has the early lead.  Nami is in second, but Yanu isn’t far behind.  That is until Hunter gets to shooting the baskets, whereupon Nami immediately takes first place.  Is anyone surprised at this point?  Honestly, if there’s a mark against Hunter winning at this point, it’s how much of a challenge threat he’ll be come the merge.  

Not that Yanu is completely out of it.  Tim takes a major spill by trying to jump onto the platform he has to shoot from, to the point where I’m thinking we may get another evacuation at this point.  Tim also has some trouble sinking the baskets, and Q’s shooting does tie it up 2-2.  In the end, however, Yanu’s deprivation is their undoing, and Siga wins.  Again.  So we get group we’ve seen the most of going to tribal.  Again.  How exciting.  

Even the episode can’t pretend there’s mystery at this point.  As soon as Bhanu goes over, everyone else talks openly about how it has to be Bhanu at this point.  To his credit, Bhanu at least has the sense to check up on them, and overhears this.  He’s naturally devastated, and sets about looking for an idol.  Given his limited options and knowledge, I can’t really blame him, though no one left thinks there’s an idol.  Tiffany has one, and they doubt a second will get added.  Bhanu, despite not knowing this, eventually reaches the same conclusion.  He’s really out of options at this point.  No idol, and no vote means he can’t use his shot in the dark.  He thus resorts to begging, pretty much the only option he has left. All he has to lose is his dignity.  

However, in a rarity for the show, they don’t even pretend he has a chance.  No one gives him the time of day, and he tells us he’s just going to use Tribal Council to make sure he tells his story.  Yes, the show is going for emotion over strategy, and I’ve got to admit, it works.  Bhanu’s tale is not anything we haven’t heard from him before, but he tells it well, and with a good score behind it, it’s touching nonetheless.  Even his tribe is pretty sincere in their compliments toward him, admitting that while he’s terrible at the game, they still like him as a person.  And without any eye-rolls for once!

About the only misstep is that it’s SUCH a foregone conclusion that we don’t get a vote.  Bhanu may not have been the best player, or even a good player in basically any respect, but dude at least deserves the dignity of a formal vote-off.  Plus, I don’t like how this muddies the waters of whether this is a quit or not.  I say it isn’t, but I could see there being a disagreement in the fanbase.  

As to the outcome, I’m both sorry and not sorry Bhanu is gone.  For all my criticisms of his game, I did genuinely like the guy, and feel bad for him going.  Even if his “honesty isn’t a part of this game” realization should have been something he knew before going out.  At the same time, the three remaining Yanu are definitely the better players, and thus more interesting to me going forward, so in that respect, I’m ok with this.  Sorry, Bhanu.  This just isn’t your game.  

I will admit, despite lacking in mystery post-immunity challenge, this episode was ok.  Not one of the greats, but a pretty good hour and a half of tv.  The emotional notes hit just right, and sometimes that’s all you need.  And hey, if nothing else, we got to hear tree mail again.  That’s a nice touch.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 3: “Things That Don’t Rock” for $300

Catchphrases.  I don’t need to explain to you what they are.  They’ve been a staple of tv since basically tv began.  Yet overall, not that common on “Survivor”.  Fair share of memorable quotes, and a few things from Probst that could be catchphrases (“Got nothing for ya”, “The tribe has spoken.”, etc.), but overall not as much of a thing as in other shows.  As Ben demonstrates tonight, that’s probably because trying to create a catchphrase for yourself on “Survivor” sounds really freaking forced!  Granted, in Ben’s case it’s so forced it comes back around to be funny.  But you get my point, and I’m getting ahead of myself.  

Bhanu is, understandably, a bit shaken up about Tribal Council last time.  After all, Jess wrote his name down, and if her idol had been real, he would have been gone.  Luckily for him it was fake, though he is curious to know how that happened.  He gets let in on the plan, and how the idol was made, but everyone else is largely dismissive of his concerns, saying he should just be happy to be hear.  Bhanu’s unreliability and incapacity to keep secrets are reiterated, he channels the spirit of Jelinsky by quoting “Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em”, and cue intro.  

Following our awesome intro, we go back to Yanu to reiterate just how much they suck!  Why, Kenzie tells us they suck so much that they don’t even sleep in their shelter, opting for a nearby cave instead.  Hey, I guess it worked for Chuay Gahn on “Survivor Thailand”.  I mean, the shelter itself kind of sucked due to the latrine situation, but in terms of tribe success post-merge, not a bad trajectory to be following.  

Kenzie reiterates that they must be one of the most pathetic tribes in recent history.  Well, Kenzie, I’ve got good news for you!  You can’t know this at time of filming, but last season had a tribe that was even MORE pathetic than you!  You all are a hot mess, don’t get me wrong, but at least none of you quit!  Yet!  As such, you look slightly less pathetic in comparison.  Good job!… In timing your season to come after the last one!

Bhanu, still desperate to save himself, tries to talk to Kenzie about getting something going.  Kenzie, while friendly in tone, just asks him to come up with a plan, making it clear that she’s not that interested in working with Bhanu.  She says, rightly, in confessional that while he’s a nice guy, he can’t keep a secret, and so is just not cut out for the game.  A fair assessment, and one Q would not necessarily disagree with.  Still, Q sees some value in Bhanu, so their talk goes somewhat better.  Granted, this talk does involve Q comparing Bhanu to Phillip Sheppard (“Survivor Redemption Island”) and himself to Boston Rob (too many seasons to name at this point, but most relevant here is “Survivor Redemption Island”).  Probably not a comparison one would be flattered by.  

But hey, at least it means someone wants to keep Bhanu around!  Bhanu reacts to this news… with paranoia.  He’s not sure if this is just Q pulling the wool over his eyes to avoid a Shot in the Dark.  Granted, a pretty reasonable concern, but at this point, Bhanu, can’t look the proverbial gift horse in the proverbial mouth.  

As a side note, when Bhanu talks about Kenzie, he compares her to a “Mermaid-Dragon”, meaning beautiful and charming in the front, deadly in the back.  Not sure he quite nailed the metaphor, but I do know I want Bhanu to read me “The Little Mermaid” now.  No text to follow, just him making up the story based on memory alone.  I feel like it would be awesome!

Morning at Siga brings a group idol hunt, something that basically everyone mocks.  Moriah talks about how everyone keeps one eye for an idol, and one eye out for a “bulge”… Meaning an idol in a pocket, get your minds out of the gutter!  Charlie is particularly dismissive of the idea, saying he wants the idol for himself.  Naturally, such arrogance means he must get the “dodo” edit of being right by the idol and not seeing it!  

In fairness to Charlie, this one is particularly deviously hidden.  While plainly visible in a broken stump of a tree branch, it’s only visible from the camera angle we get, which is facing the path.  Looking FROM said path, you’d basically never see it.  As such, props to Jem for both finding it, and for not cluing Charlie in, since he was right beside her!

Jam states that she hopes the Beware Advantage is “A simple process”.  Famous last words.  As you’d expect, Jem’s note is similar to the ones found by Tiffany and Randen before now.  Dig beneath where you found the Beware Advantage, what this actually is.  Jem does so, though credit her for actually WAITING to do so unlike those other two.  Sure enough, she finds a box that says she doesn’t get another clue until her tribe loses, and until then, she has no vote.  Interestingly, however, Jem adds another bit, which says that additional rules would follow if she reaches the merge having never lost immunity. 

Um, WHAT?  I’m assuming that was part of EVERYONE’s rules, so why are we just hearing about it now?  I get not doing it in Tiffany’s, since the premiere had a lot to get through, and Yanu lost anyway almost immediately after, but why not read it with Randen’s?  You’re telling me that in the thinly-stretched two hour episode we had last week, there wasn’t room for Randen to say an extra SENTENCE to clarify this?  

Look, the reason I’m mad is not because of “production lying to us” or anything like that.  Nor am I mad about the rule; it makes sense.  But what this does is imply that it wasn’t RELEVANT UNTIL Jem got the idol, implying Siga never goes to Tribal pre-merge.  Or, in the event of a swap, that Jem never goes.  Way to suck out what little tension this season has so far, show!  Should have just made it something read with all finds, so that it gave nothing away.  

Still, good for Yanu.  More incentive for someone to throw a challenge.  About the only way they’re going to win one at this point.  

Well, I tell a lie.  There IS another plausible way for Yanu to win, but that’s getting a bit ahead.  Still, we do need to go to the tribe that could plausibly lose naturally, Nami.  Not that we see it at the start.  Indeed, things are all good at Nami, with Hunter working on building a bed; Tevin in a funny aside asking him to make a Temperpedic.  Liz dubs Hunter “Survivor MacGyver”, which may just be a coincidence, but I’m choosing to believe it’s an intentional shout to to Stephen Fishbach’s turn on “Survivor Cambodia”, since that season and player are both amongst my favorites.  She’s not alone in praising Hunter, with basically the whole tribe getting in on the act.  

Yes, everyone loves Hunter!  Even Hunter loves Hunter, giving us his backstory on choosing to forego a full ride scholarship to medical school to teach in his hometown.  I’d say this one hits pretty well, but that’s mostly because they mix in a good bit of comedy with the heartfelt-ness of it.  While it’s cool that Hunter decided to take a lesser-paying job that he’s passionate about and all, it’s also funny to see JUST HOW MANY “Survivor” puzzles he has lying around his home.  And not 3-D printed ones that I could tell; dude seems to have carved these himself.  Wouldn’t be too weird, but again, the sheer quantity alone is pretty funny.  

Did I say everyone loves Hunter?  I mean MOST everyone loves Hunter.  To his credit, while the dude is the center of his tribe socially (Soda and Tevin only seem more so because their personalities are louder, and thus they make better narrators), basically no one has caught on, which speaks to his smarts.  No one, with one exception.  

Yes Venus, in a good perceptive moment, has made note of Hunter’s standing, and so goes out to actively target him.  She goes to Randen to warn him of this threat, something Randen seems clueless on.  That said, while Venus HAS definitely made an excellent observation here, she’s really bad at pitching it.  The main thing she says is “Just use your eyes, and you’ll see.”  Um, Venus?  Randen DID use his eyes, and he missed it completely!  You might need some, I don’t know, EVIDENCE to back up your claim, if people can’t see it for themselves?  

Ok, ok, I’m being a bit harsh here.  Venus DOES point out his being central to the tribe dynamics, which IS the sort of evidence she should bring up.  That said, her initial dismissive “pitch” coupled with Randen still not seeming to get it at the end of the scene, is grounds for some light internet mockery nonetheless, in my opinion.  

Enough dilly-dallying, on to why Nami might lose.  Randen has woken up having slept funny on the bamboo, and now he’s got numbness in his right arm and leg, along with some stiffness in his neck.  Medical does end up coming out to take a look, but as no medevac was advertised prior to the season, he’s naturally cleared to stay in the game.  The doctor says it’s most likely a pinched nerve that should go away on his own.  Still, Randen’s not going to be much help in challenges, but hey, if it goes away on its own, then he should be fine down the road.  All he needs is for there not to be a challenge today!

Oh look!  A challenge in the very next scene!  Who could have guessed?

After that obvious yet hilarious joke, we examine the challenge itself, which is not that great.  Tribes race from the water to shore over a series of obstacles, including over a rolling log.  Once on shore, they dig up sandbags which they must then land on a series of disks high in the air.  First two to do so win immunity and varying amounts of shelter-improving equipment.  Standard stuff by this point.  I bring up the description only because you may remember the ending segment of this challenge as the one where JD choked on “Survivor 41”.  If that doesn’t ring a bell, it’s the one where he said “Money”, and then choked.  That fun memory earns the challenge a few points, but overall, otherwise forgettable.  

Randen naturally sits out the challenge, due to his injury, and his contributions to Nami show up FAST!  Despite Yanu still not having fire, and literally having to walk from exhaustion at one point during the challenge, Nami is still in last up to the beach.  Siga has the firm lead up to that point, notably having the innovative strategy of having the rest of the tribe roll the log in the correct direction with the hands to help ease the journey of the person going over it.  Nami is also similarly innovative, even in last, with Hunter grabbing onto Tevin’s legs as he goes over, thus pulling the both of them over.  

That said, tossing sandbags onto small disks is a tricky thing to do, especially since, as Q demonstrates, vibrations can knock them off.  Understandably difficult, but hey, I can’t knock any of these people.  It’s not like any of them have practiced this before…

CRASH!

COACH: I have.  

ME: Coach!  What the hell?  You’re not even on this season!

COACH: Hey, you were talking about tossing things!  How could you do so without my years of expertise in the area of tossing things?

ME: Very easily, and without a hole in my wall?

COACH: Ah, get over it, you wimp.  Besides, you were CLEARLY leading up to a point with that line, and what else could it be, other than me?

ME: Hunter.

COACH: What?

ME: Yeah, Hunter.  When we had his flashback, amongst the items he’d crafted for challenges was a bunch of sandbags, implying he’d done this sort of thing.  It’s actually some pretty subtle foreshadowing, and I wanted to give production their due on that one.  

COACH: But he doesn’t do it better than me, right?

ME: Given that he brought his tribe back from last place to first with seemingly a minimal number of tosses, and your team didn’t even win the equivalent challenge on “Survivor Tocantins”, I’d say he’s objectively better than you.  

COACH:… If you’ll excuse me, I have a dragon to slay.  

(COACH exits, brandishing a katana from nowhere.)

Yep, Hunter pulled it back, thereby sucking most of the tension out of the challenge.  There was no puzzle, and Nami was severely weakened, so Yanu had a shot of beating them.  Siga?  Minimal tribe dynamics, and while there is a CHANCE Jem asked them to throw, we never saw her do it.  

So yeah, Yanu loses, but to their credit, it was closer than any of their previous losses.  Really, the problem seemed to be that they didn’t have an ace on the sandbag throwing.  How the other teams seemed to do it was to find one person who had the right touch, and let them get into a rhythm.  Hunter was that for Nami, and after some false starts, Charlie ended up being that for Siga.  Q and Tiffany both landed their fair share of bags, but both kept switching out, thus preventing either of them for getting into a rhythm.  Not knocking them at all; for all my jokes about Coach and Hunter, this is not something easily prepared for.  You kind of have to learn it in the moment, and Charlie just learned it faster.  

Along with first place, Nami gets to pick who goes on a journey, thus explaining why this episode had a challenge at the 30-minute mark.  They pick Liz from themselves, along with Ben from Siga and Bhanu from Yanu.  I’m a little surprised at the Liz pick, since she seems to have been somewhat on the outside of that tribe, but can’t knock the other two.  

Before checking out our journey, we check in with Yanu.  Everyone’s a bit bummed, but Q is beating himself up, even dancing around asking to be voted out.  He puts most of the blame for the challenge loss on himself, comparing it to his time as a high school athlete where he blew an important game, and had to see it in the headlines of his local paper afterward.  Kind of a flashback, but kind of not.  We get no photos, just some background music implying a large crowd over Q’s narration.  Oddly, somehow more effective.  Yeah, it’s not a tear-jerker, but Q is clearly beat up, and you can sympathize with the guy taking so much of the responsibility for the tribe on his shoulders.  

That said, strategically, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING Q!  Even if the challenge loss was all your fault (and while he was a contributing factor, it being all on him is debatable), you DON’T say that to everyone, especially when they weren’t blaming you!  It’s just bad strategy.  Ugh, maybe we WILL get some quits after all.  

Now, I’m not trying to be too hard on the guy here.  Like I said, I can understand the frustration with the situation.  That said, he does go a bit over-the-top with the anguish (“Why does my life have to be the hardest path?” is a bit much), and this will make some stuff he says very ironic later.  Even Tiffany, his own ally, kind of thinks less of him for not handling the loss well.  

About the only fortunate thing for Q in this situation is that everyone seems dead-set on voting out Bhanu at this point.  They’re especially worried that he’s spilling everything to the other tribes while on the journey.  

Cut to said journey, and yeah, their fears are 100% justified.  Bhanu breaks down, and Liz and Ben do their best to provide some comfort.  It’s a genuinely nice scene, and when Bhanu talks about being accused of being too emotional, Ben is sure to tell that “That Does Not Rock”.  And yeah, emotions have a place in the game, but Bhanu clearly can’t control them even when the situation demands it, as evidenced by the aforementioned spilling of all tribe dynamics.  

To be fair to Bhanu, however, even if he weren’t being emotional, spilling the tea right now is kind of a smart move for him.  You already think you’re going to be voted out, and with good reason, so why not take revenge on those planning to vote you out anyway?  In the unlikely event you DO survive the night, you’ll come across as more open to the remaining players, and thus they’ll want to work with you more.  Granted, you’d probably piss off those on your remaining tribe, but again, they’re against you anyway, this won’t change your fate in and of itself.  

Speaking of fate and rocks, that’s the deal with today’s journey!  Everyone draws a rock from a bag.  Blue rock means you go on to risk your vote in a challenge, white rock means you go back empty-handed.  No lost vote, thankfully, but nothing extra either.  Much as I said I didn’t like the little game in the premiere, I don’t like full randomness either.  Players need SOME agency beyond challenge ability on these journeys, and this takes it away from them.  At the very least, those who draw the blue rock should be able to walk away after seeing the challenge.  

Bhanu actually wants the white rock, not trusting his challenge ability and preferring to rely on his Shot in the Dark.  Given what we’ve seen, I can’t blame him.  Unfortunately, Bhanu’s bad luck continues, as it’s Liz who draws the white rock.  Then, he and Ben are faced with building a cube puzzle in a tight time limit, something neither of them is particularly keen on.  Ben even informs us that puzzles fall into the category of “Things That Do Not Rock”.  Keep saying that Ben; I’m sure it’ll catch on.  

Both lose the challenge, and everyone heads back to camp.  The word of the day at both Nami and Siga is Bhanu’s intel on the inner workings of Yanu, which everyone praises Liz and Ben for getting, despite the fact neither of them did much beyond just let Bhanu talk.  Ben, however, lies a little bit, saying he won’t find out if he won the game or not until Tribal Council.  Frankly, this lie seems pointless to me.  I get not wanting to give away that you’ve lost your vote, since Ben think’s it’s a 3-3 split between men and women right now.  Probably want to let your allies know that in private so they can prepare for one less vote on their side.  But this lie seems oddly suspicious.  The reason not to tell people about losing your vote, as Ben says, is because it makes you a target.  However, acting suspicious about something this simple… Also makes you a target.  Not seeing the upside to this lie over just saying you gained nothing and didn’t lose your vote, is what I’m saying.  That’s plausible.  It’s what happened to Liz, after all.  

As to Bhanu… Well, give him credit, the man learned not to say everything at once!  He gives a brief overview of everything, but doesn’t admit to losing his vote, nor how much information he gave the other tribe.  Granted, he does admit to losing his vote to Q, but that makes sense, since Q is the one guy who’s seemed to want to work with him left, and hey, might as well try everything to save yourself.  

Q, however, is not convinced Bhanu should go.  Yep, the reasonable suspicion of Kenzie is still around.  Q says that Bhanu, while a nice guy, needs someone to lead him in this game.  You know, the guy who was talking about falling on his sword for a minor setback earlier!  Yeah, that’s definitely the guy I want coaching me through this game!  Look, I get it, Q overall is a team player, and most of the time, yeah, I’d want him in my corner building me up.  But for him to say THIS about himself, in literally the same episode he was effectively talking about QUITTING?  That’s so hypocritical, it wraps back around to being kind of hilarious.  

Whatever, Q’s hypocrisy aside, he goes and pitches the idea to Tiffany, bringing up that Bhanu will be a number for them that they can control, whereas Kenzie has a mind of her own.  As Tiffany says, this is a valid point, and is much better misdirection than the “Q falls on his sword” stuff from earlier.  Why did we need that, again?  That said, Tiffany admits she’s still leaning Bhanu for his overall messy gameplay, which I’d say is the sensible choice.  Look, Kenzie is a threat, no doubt about it, but Bhanu, while he can be lead, is messy in gameplay.  He’s shown time and again he has little to no filter, and that’s just too big a liability to drag to the end, even as a goat.  Moreover, although neither of them know this, there will be an ample target on Kenzie later.  You see, when Bhanu talked about the tribe dynamics to Liz and Ben, he built up Kenzie in particular as the “mastermind”, meaning there will be PLENTY of people willing to take out Kenzie come a swap or a merge.  Not knocking them for not bringing this up; just saying in the aggregate, it’s another point in the “Vote off Bhanu” column.  

But all of that stuff?  Doesn’t matter!  With about 10 minutes left in the episode, we cut over to Nami, which can only mean one thing.  Yes, sadly, Randen’s side has not gotten better, and after consulting with a neurological specialist, it’s been decided that he needs to be pulled from the game.  An understandable decision, but I am sorry to see Randen go.  I won’t act like he was my favorite or anything, but he was either going to upend the whole tribe dynamic, or overplay and go out in a blaze of glory.  Either way, would have been fun to watch.  

And he didn’t even get to pass along his beware advantage to Venus, as it’s non-transferrable.  I get not being able to do that in-game (since that would render losing one’s vote somewhat moot), but I feel like there should be an exception if you’re pulled from the game.  After all, then you’re doing it to have one final lasting impact on the game, not to save your own skin.  Have a heart, production.  Thankfully Randen is confirmed to be ok in his final words, and hopefully he’ll get to fulfill his wish to play again someday.

After there’s commiseration at Nami, there’s cheering at Yanu.  Kind of insensitive cheering, to be honest.  Kenzie does pay lip service to Randen, but mostly they’re just happy they don’t have to go to Tribal Council.  Similar to Rupert being somewhat insensitive to Jenna’s quit on “Survivor All-Stars”, it’s not a good look, but you get where he’s coming from.  

And thus, Bhanu’s episode arc of trying everything and getting basically nowhere, only to be saved at the last minute by something out of his control, is complete.  A decent arc, but still kind of a disappointing episode.  In fairness to the show, however, there wasn’t much they could do this time.  I appreciate them not making it obvious that Randen was going until the very end, but at the same time, it made everything before seem kind of pointless.  There were good moments in this episode, but Randen needing to leave when he did just took the proverbial fire out of everything.  Comparisons will doubtless be made to Matthew’s exit on “Survivor 44”, but there it was the culmination of the pre-merge arc following his invention of the Matthew Grinstead-Mayle Injury Rock (TM).  As such, it felt a lot more satisfying, despite being the obvious outcome.  Here, it’s just kind of a thing that happened in this episode that derailed all the other drama.  Again, not that production could have done anything about that.  They worked with what they have, and to be fair, the emotional beats generally did hit home, Q’s hypocrisy aside.  Sadly, however, no matter how hard you try, sometimes you just can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 2: I Wanna Dance With Somebody…

If you’re at all familiar with the song referenced in the title, you doubtless sung the title in tune.  And that song is now stuck inside your head for the foreseeable future!  My grand master evil plan is now complete!  MWAHAHAHA!

More unpleasant than an earworm, however, is this!  Yes, it’s time for another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

For once, just a small thing, and in a two-hour premiere, it’s understandable.  However, as it will have bearing on something else this episode, it bears mentioning.  We joke in the community about how Probst is so overdramatic about taking the flint, and how it doesn’t really matter that much if you get fire early.  Partly this is us being snarky, but it’s also partly because deprivation doesn’t come across well on-screen.  Last episode, however, gave us a brief, but poignant, demonstration of that deprivation.  No matter how tired, most tribes give their all in a challenge, right?  Well, it’s brief, but in the overhead shot at the start of the first immunity challenge, while most people run, we see some of Yanu, specifically Jess, WALK!  Sure, she eventually runs, but it really does take away from the epicness of this first challenge to get off to a walking start.  And, as I say, it will have some bearing on my opinion on how this episode goes.  

Speaking of this episode, given that we had a unified vote against the first boot, there is no drama, and thus no scene of Yanu getting back to camp.  Instead, we cut to the next day, with Bhanu chanting and meditating to re-center himself.  He admits that voting people out is stressful, and needs his tribe to come together and win, especially since he perceives himself (not incorrectly) to be on the outs.  The rest of the tribe, while open to Bhanu, is more realistic about their situation.  They’re not downers per se, but they give a realistic assessment that they’re in tough shape, particularly after Bhanu and Kenzie fail to make fire.  Gotta admit, it’s a nice change of pace from the sometimes forced positivity of the modern era of “Survivor”.  Had they gone full Debbie Downer, that probably would have been annoying as well, but a nice, human reaction is good to see.  Kenzie even goes and has a cry at an archway just past the Matthew Grinstead-Mayle Injury Rock (TM).  She consoles herself that at least her eyes look really blue after she cries, which… Yeah, they do.  Good on her for finding the bright side in all this.  

Life is much happier over at Nami, with Tevin busting out his best Jeff Probst impression, describing difficult challenges (such as finding a screw in an underwater stack of nails, purely by touch) for disappointing rewards (such as “air”).  It’s fine.  Look, I’m probably being too harsh.  The impression is at least decent, if not good.  I just feel like Rob Cesternino (“Survivor The Amazon”) has set the bar for Probst impressions so high no one can compete, no matter how talented.  The over-the-top challenges and underwhelming rewards were hilarious, though.  

Tevin reminds us that he’s relying on his social game, even getting along with Randen, who if you’ll recall from last episode was not doing so great socially.  Tevin actually says that Venus is the one person he can’t stand.  This is a sentiment Soda agrees with too his face, though privately she admits she has a bond with Venus.  That said, the numbers aren’t there to save Venus, so Soda admits to distancing herself, something we see when she puts off having a strategic meeting with Venus.  

Venus, not being blind, recognizes this.  She’ll do something about it later, but for now, uses the situation to talk about the story of her parents immigrating from Iran, and how she won’t give up, since they gave so much to get her a better life.  These “flashback” scenes are divisive amongst the fandom, and I’ve been more lenient on them than most.  That said, for me, for a flashback to work, the drama has to be A) Real drama, and not just the show trying to force drama, and B) Relevant to what’s being talked about on screen.  So, where does Venus’ fall?  Eh, kind of average, to ge honest.  It’s a decently dramatic story, and a tough emotional time is KIND OF a connection to it, but it’s not the strongest tie or the strongest story, since Venus herself was a young child when it happened.  Nice to know more about her beyond people thinking she’s a “princess”, however.  

Here we get our intro for the season, and I’m happy to see it back.  I was worried about its absence the first episode, but evidently they just wanted to give us time to bond with the new cast, and needed the extra minute or so, which I can understand.  And hey, even though it’s a remix of old themes, the music’s pretty good too!

Fire is on the agenda over at Siga, with Ben in particular insisting on being the one to make it.  He does so and everyone gives a cheer.  This cues Ben to talk about HIS backstory, overcoming a lisp and general shyness to become a musician.  Yeah, this one works less than Venus’.  I can sympathize with overcoming bullying, but the triumph of that and the triumph of making fire with flint is a tenuous connection under the best of circumstances. Ben gives his tribemates some nicknames, which are decent, but not as iconic as, say, the “Stealth ‘R Us” ones from “Survivor Caramoan”.  “Jungle Jem” is about the only one that stands out, and that’s mostly due to Ben’s over-explaining the pun.  

Not to say that there isn’t ANYTHING of value to be gleaned at Siga.  Charlie takes us through the alliances again, noting that he’s in the middle between the “Men’s Alliance” and “Charlie’s Angels” (Charlie+the women of the tribe).  The former alliance wants to bring in Maria as their fourth, due to her extra vote (also probably because of her thing with Tim from the previous episode), and Charlie’s generally on board with that.  While he’s still playing the middle unimpeded, he notes (correctly) that he’d be on the bottom of the women if he went with them, but has more room to maneuver sticking with the men, which seems like a fair assessment.  He explains that he doesn’t want to be led, but wants to get into a “waltz” with someone, thereby making titling this blog incredibly easy.  That someone turns out to be Maria, as the presumed other swing vote between these two groups.  The pair agree to go “Malcolm and Denise” (“Survivor Philippines”) together, which I suppose is a decent comparison, since it’s an older woman (by the standards of this show) and a younger guy working together, though Charlie is no Malcolm in terms of challenge ability.  Still, he’s a better fit that Adam Klein was when he made the comparison on “Survivor Winners at War”, and that was with the ACTUAL Denise.  Our NEW Malcolm and Denise seem to be leaning towards the men for their strength, but for now, where they’ll vote is still up in the air.  

After commercial, we’re back at Nami.  After Liz talks about money again, and how it makes it difficult to find a new husband, we get to actual strategy.  Venus has decided to do something about her situation, and that something is a renewed idol hunt.  I will push back a little bit on Venus doing this in lieu of trying to forge one new social bonds, but given some stuff we’ll see later, it seems like that door is largely closed at this point.  Unfortunately for her, she’s not the only one hunting.  Hunter reminds us that he’s in this game too, and is furiously searching while looking for firewood.  He even uses the correct meta of poking around significant-looking trees!  

Meta does not win the day, however.  It’s Randen, our third hunter, who ends up picking up the Beware Advantage.  It is indeed in a tree, though credit where’s it due, it was tough to find.  No colored string to give it away (or if there was, very close to tree color), so it blended it well with the trunk.  Similar to Tiffany’s last episode, it tells him to dig beneath where he found it.  He finds a box, only to be told, again like Tiffany, that his tribe needs to lose a challenge to get his next clue.  Unlike Tiffany, this is actually an issue for Randen.  Contrary to my pre-season predictions, Nami is quickly turning out to be the tribe that succeeds the most, so if he wants that idol, he’s probably going to have to convince his tribe to throw a challenge.  

In order to do that, Randen is going to need some allies.  People with influence.  People with power.  People who can shift the tribe dynamics in his favor, while still being subtle about it.  

Randen talks to Venus, with the pair agreeing to work together.  I have no idea why.  Venus frankly seems like the LAST person you’d want to share this information with, since she can leverage it against you easily, and can’t really help you much at all, but that’s what he does.  For her part, Venus takes the alliance, but in fairness, it’s pretty much the only one she’s been offered, so I don’t really blame her.  

With Yanu, well, we’ve seen that Bhanu’s emotions are a bit off-putting for his tribe, time to see what JESS is doing to keep her on the outs.  In this case, it’s eating some ants crawling up a palm frond.  Honestly, don’t get why her team is giving her such a hard time about this?  Yeah, it’s not MUCH protein, but it’s something, and given the minimal effort she needs to acquire it.  Granted, cooking a worm is a bit of a weird suggestion, but more so for the “cooking” part than the “eating the worm” part.  Worms are so small, cooking one doesn’t seem worth it.  

Jess does, however, realize she needs to open up a bit more, and so socializes with Bhanu.  She talks about how she met her husband, and teaches the group a bit of Chinese, Q chiming in that he knows it from “Rush Hour”, which gets a laugh out of most present.  This socializing leads Kenzie to further socialize as well, this time with Jess and Bhanu.  After taking them out to visit the archway past the Matthew Grinstead-Mayle Injury Rock (TM), she floats the idea of taking out Q to them, due to being a threat down the road.  The pair give fairly standard responses, though Jess is more wishy-washy, saying she needs to figure out what she thinks.  Kenzie correctly reads that the two are not really open to working with her right now, and so reaffirms her commitment to getting rid of Jess.  Behind her back, however, in a clever bit of sign language, Jess signals to Bhanu that they should try to target Kenzie.  

This may be an easier sell than they think.  Q has also noticed Kenzie’s socialization, and begins to worry, not unfairly, that Kenzie wants to be Tiffany’s tight ally, when he and Tiffany are already tight, thus putting him at risk.  Will he actually act on this?  Time will tell.   

Before our challenge, there’s a brief interlude at Siga again.  Charlie notes that he’s not the most social guy, so any nerdy interest he can use as a connection is welcome.  Today, that interest is music, as he and Ben get into a battle of who can name the most songs from a given artist/band.  Ben chooses Metallica, while Charlie, naturally, goes Taylor Swift.  Somewhere, Hunter just got really uncomfortable, and doesn’t know why.  It’s a decently fun back and forth, with the editors kindly keeping a tally as each names a song.  Charlie emerges victorious at 107, though the number of songs both could name was impressive.  A decently fun scene, but not one really necessary to the show.  I’m generally in favor of those, but when you make your episode two hours long, and it isn’t the premiere, I expect you to have something useful to fill that time.  This was entertaining, but not much else, and the highlight was less the duel itself, and Tim’s confessional about it.  I don’t know, it amused me.  Gave off strong “How do you do, fellow kids?” vibes based off his tone.  

Our challenge today is a combination of “Dragging the Dragons” from “Survivor Cagayan”, and that word/arch puzzle from “Survivor 45”, scaled up.  One tribe member unties a machete and cuts down wheels for a cart.  Tribes then dig up boxes containing puzzle pieces which they transport to the end, then solve said puzzle.  First two tribes to finish win immunity and varying amounts of fishing gear.  Nothing much else to write home about; bog-standard challenge.  

More interesting in the pre-challenge banter.  Everyone else seems shocked to see Jelinsky voted out, which, given that most of his failings were in personal interactions, I can understand their shock.  Only Maria and Tevin should maybe not be shocked, since they got to see him fold so quickly, but since we don’t see them specifically react, maybe they didn’t.  There’s also some good trash talk between Q and Soda, which does a nice job straddling the line between fun and mean.  It helps that both give as well as they receive, implying they understand it’s all just talk.  Then, to top it all off, Probst busts out the knife from “Survivor 45” again, using it to cut off a fake Buff Nami added to their idol.  Nice touch.  Glad to see the knife come back.  

Sadly, this is where the good points here end.  This episode, I’m sad to say, has done a poor job implying anyone but Yanu will be going to Tribal Council tonight.  We’ve had at least a BIT of strategy form all sides, but Yanu very clearly got the bulk of it, as well as the most targets.  Randen finding the idol, and thereby being incentivized to throw the challenge.  However, if there was any chance that would happen, it would be played up more.  No, Yanu has lost this, no matter what happens.  

Instead, let us focus on our sit-outs.  Liz for Nami, Moriah for Siga.  Both logical choices, and they don’t take their time on the benches to strategize.  They do make small talk however, and, in  Liz’s case, annoying cheer on her tribe.  I get that you want to pump up your team and all, but do it in a less obnoxious way, ok?  

Sure enough, Yanu loses, though to their credit, they keep it close, and there’s a lot of back and forth.  All tribes have trouble getting the archway built, and while they still come in first, Nami has a false finish when they get their arch set up, only to discover that they misspelled the puzzle solution (“persistence”).  Tiffany is so mad about this that she can’t even talk, lest others potentially look at her sideways.  

Since she needs some time, let’s check in with Nami.  Yep, still riding the high after that win, trying out their new fishing gear.  Tevin even brings us a Rupert Boneham (“Survivor Pearl Islands”) reference, which I’m kind of surprised we’re still getting in 2024.  Dude’s still iconic, I guess.  

The only real downer here is Venus, though this time, I’d say she has good reason.  During the challenge, she asked the team to turn the cart a bit, since it was going to run over her foot.  They did not, and now her toe is hurt.  Everyone we see, from Tevin to Soda, dismisses this as whining.  Look, I get that you don’t like Venus, but that doesn’t mean EVERYTHING she does is to be annoying!  I’m 100% on her side here!  That’s not cool to just ignore your tribunate to the point they get injured!  Frankly, I’m amazed Venus is a collected as she is about it.  Another brush-off from Soda even gets Venus to realize she’s against her, also noting that Soda keeps grabbing the idol from her after Probst hands it over.  Nothing she can do about it now, since no one here is a dumb as the men’s Manono tribe from “Survivor One World”, but, as Telltale Games would say, “Venus will remember that…”

Evidently we didn’t give Tiffany enough time, since she’s still upset once we check back in with Yanu.  She worries about how she’ll be seen, not so much by her own tribe, but by the other tribes.  She notes the perils of showing frustration as a black woman in society, not wanting to come across as the “angry black woman”, but also understandably stressed at needing to keep an eye on herself every day as a result.  It’s honestly really open and touching, and I applaud Tiffany for being so vulnerable.  See, show?  THIS is how you get us to connect with your players as people!  And you’ll note you didn’t even need a flashback for it.  

Kenzie, seeming to not quite read the room, tries to redirect Tiffany to talk about strategy.  The pair do settle on Jess as the target for weakness in challenges.  I’d say it’s lack of cohesion that cost you this last challenge, but for the first one?  Yeah, between walking at the start and being on the puzzle, you could argue Jess is the weak link challenge-wise.  Plus, outside the alliance, not giving you much in terms of strategy, her target makes sense.  

Still, Jess has the possibility of using her Shot in the Dark, and Kenzie and Tiffany would like to prevent that.  As such, they’ve made a fake idol, and hidden it where the real idol was.  Tiffany, in some of the worst acting this episode, coaxes Jess into an idol hunt.  She and Kenzie then get frustrated when Jess walks right past the idol, instead following the interesting-looking-trees meta.  They verbally berate her over and over in confessional for this, which is not a good look for them.  I may enjoy Tiffany and Kenzie more as strategists, but they’re REALLY laying into Jess here for stuff that I’d say is fairly reasonable.  Criticize her for being slow to start playing, but missing an idol?  Your bad acting job would be enough to kill her enthusiasm (since she could suspect a plant), and trees are a perfectly valid place to hunt for idols.  You may be the better players, but Jess comes out looking nicer than the two of you in this scene.  

Plan B, since they need Jess to have the idol, is to have Q give it to her.  He does so, urging her to vote Kenzie with him and Bhanu.  Yes, this is our misdirection for the episode.  Q notes that while he is lying to Jess, she and Bhanu would be votes for him, while Kenzie might not be.  And it would be SO EASY to just really flip the vote on Kenzie instead.  Hmm…

Our next scene is… MORE OF THE SAME!  Yeah, this is where the two hour run time starts to feel stretched.  The majority of this scene is just reiterating the strategy I just described, and could easily have been condensed.  Don’t get me wrong, more “Survivor” is usually a good thing, and I think 90 minutes is the sweet spot for a regular episode like this.  But two hours?  If you don’t have enough things to fill those two hours, make some hard cuts and go back to 90 minutes.  I like the song battle at Siga, but we didn’t need it, and we could have condensed these two strategic scenes to one.  Trim some stuff here and there, and this episode could easily fit a 90 minute run time.  

That said, there are two new bits added here.  Could have just had them in the last scene to save time, but they’re good stuff nonetheless.  Say what you will about Jess, she actually has the brains to CONSIDER that the idol being given might be a fake, noting its similarity to the items on their torches.  Granted, most idols look like that nowadays, but still, a good train of thought to follow.  I feel like the plan might be rumbled when Q gets oddly defensive about the idol, but partly because she has little other choice, she seems satisfied.  

The other new bit comes when Bhanu begins to get paranoid, and he, Q, and Jess discuss the Kenzie plan.  We learn that Q doing this plan is conditional upon Tiffany coming with him.  This makes sense.  There’s pros and cons to getting out both Jess and Kenzie for Q, and no real bad option for him.  Either way, to prevent potentially being blindsided next episode, his best bet is to keep Tiffany as tight as possible, as she’d likely be needed for any next move.  Voting out Kenzie without her would piss her off, and so he’d either have to sacrifice her as well (a tough call this early in the game), or end up voted out himself if Bhanu and Jess were to flip.  He floats the idea of getting rid of Kenzie to her, and she seems at least open to the possibility, but privately says she wants Jess gone, since she wanted her gone last episode anyway.  As such, sticking with Jess is probably Q’s best plan.  Plus, even if Jess isn’t more of a challenge sink than Kenzie (and to be fair, while we haven’t seen Kenzie struggle, she doesn’t seem to be a challenge beast either), Kenzie at least seems motivated, something you’ll need to win given the resources of the other tribes, and that alone is a reason to keep her over Jess.  

While not one for the history books, Tribal Council is a fun, above-average affair, at least by the standards of the modern era.  Jess tries and fails to double-talk miserably, leading Kenzie to call out that she intentionally didn’t talk strategy with Jess that day.  Bhanu, however, is the star of the show.  He goes off on a rant about his emotions in the game, leading to a great wide-eyed expression from Q.  Probst then points out that Bhanu has a hard time hiding the target, something Q also calls him out on, and says would be a liability come the merge.  Bhanu defends himself, but poorly, leading to him asking basically everyone but Kenzie what to do.  Q is the only one to give him a straight answer, telling him to “Stick to the plan”, a la Keith Sale (RIP) of “Survivor San Juan del Sur”.  Then, to top it off, we find that the theme of this season is “People telling Jeff ‘It’s time to vote’” since Q says it where Bhanu said it last time.  All set to pretty epic music.  Good stuff all around.  

There’s decent mystery as to where the vote will go, at least at first.  As soon as Jess plays the fake idol, however, we know she’s done.  If Q really wanted to use her vote, he would have told her not to play it.  After all, Probst will have to confirm it’s a fake, meaning he loses her trust, at least partially, if she stays.  Wisely, he lets her go, and I can’t say I’m too sorry.  Jess seems like a nice person, but she was too slow in playing the game (which she herself admits in her final words), and just didn’t pop on screen.  Sadly probably going to be the forgotten player of this season.  Still, she’s a good sport, slapping Q playfully on the knee when Probst declares the idol a fake.  We respect good sportsmanship around here.  

Yeah, sad to say, this episode was a downgrade.  Not terrible, but it really felt like it stretched to meet the time.  While entertaining, the strategy was simpler than last episode, and misdirection weak at best.  A fine enough episode, but this show can do much better as well.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 1: Fold in the Wolf

In the pantheon of “Survivor”, there are several epic episode 1 flameouts.  Zane Knight’s weird overplaying on “Survivor Philippines” is a prime example, but he’s hardly alone on Olympus here.  Let us not forget Jacob Derwin’s nerdy and obvious strategic flubs on “Survivor Ghost Island”.  And of course, there’s Garrett Adelstein of “Survivor Cagayan”, the man who played so poorly he was voted out over the person WHO OPENLY AND ACTIVELY SABOTAGED THE TRIBE!  And tonight, another joins their ranks.  Yes, it does make for an obvious first boot, but it was entertaining, so who cares?

We open up our episode proper to find that CBS has found yet ANOTHER cost-cutting measure!  Not enough for them to stay in Fiji until the heat death of the universe.  Not enough for them to stick with 26 day games.  No, now they’ve even outsourced the opening narration!  Instead of Probst (whom you have to pay) our intro into the dangers of the game is done by Tevin, one of the players (who presumably does it for free).  Will the cut corners never cease?  

I kid, I kid.  Probst does come in at the end, and to his credit, Tevin does an excellent job at the narration.  His fellow competitors even all get good moments leading up to the opening challenge.  We get a good look at Bhanu’s enthusiasm, and he’s even so kind as to throw in a “Slumdog Millionaire” joke.  Jess gets out a good line about being a twin and thus has been “competing for nutrients since the womb”.  Hunter gives us a bit about coming from a small town, and will thus have trouble connecting specifically with people who like Taylor Swift.  Not one to miss a chance at an obvious joke, we immediately cut to a confessional from Charlie gushing about how much he likes Taylor Swift.  Lucky for Hunter they’re not on the same tribe.  The joke is obvious, but no less hilarious for it.  Honestly probably the only weak link in these early introductions, if there is one, is Tiffany, who mostly talks about her job as an artist, and her accomplishments.  Not bad, but pretty standard for these sorts of confessionals.  What elevates her to “funny”, at least for me, is that she refers to art, and by extension herself, as a “Hustler”, making me think she got confused about what season she was on.  I kid, I kid.  Probably just an expression, but always funny to hearken back to the goofy themes of yesteryear.  

We get onto our opening challenge beach, with basically no mat chat this time.  Unless you count Soda bouncing around in excitement and going on about said excitement, which I do not.  Probst, however, does give a little speech about how there’s someone here who can’t win, just due to the composition of the cast, who thinks they can.  I kind of get what he’s going for here, but don’t entirely agree.  I’d say everyone might have an uphill battle, since the casting might not favor them, but everyone has SOME way to maneuver things to their advantage.  Still, the point stands that some people will have a worse hand, there’s no denying that.  

Probst then describes our challenge, which is… Kind of underwhelming, to be honest.  It’s like a scaled down version of the challenge Bruce injured himself on during “Survivor 44”, though without the cross-pieces, so less room for concussions.  Tribe members go two at a time under obstacles to retrieve puzzle pieces.  Three members then use said puzzle pieces to build a platform for one person to get a key off of a pole.  First tribe to finish gets a pot, machete, and flint.  For the other two tribes, we’re back to “Survivor 44” rules about “Sweat vs. Savvy”, in that second place picks which one of those tasks to do, leaving the last place tribe to their fate.  Frankly the superior way to do it, so I’m not complaining.  The challenge itself is fine, and I know that first challenges are not the biggest spectacles, but still this one just feels small-scale.  Not the epic contest I was thinking of.  At least the puzzle leading to a platform rather than a cube is different.  

Out of the gate, we see that it’s not physical strength that’s going to divide these tribes, but puzzle ability.  All get through the physical portion at roughly the same pace.  There’s a few stand-outs who carry puzzle pieces on their own, specifically Hunter, Tiffany, and Maria, but apart from maybe Hunter, no one who’s going to blow the competition out of the water physically.  But ooh, the puzzle.  Only Nami, the orange tribe, seems to know what they’re doing, with both Yanu, the purple tribe, and Siga, the green tribe, seeming confused by a puzzle that shouldn’t be THAT complex.  The race for second SEEMS like it might be tight, but then Siga eventually gets their act together, while Yanu still seems lost even AFTER Jelinsky jogs over to copy Nami’s completed puzzle.  In fairness, Yanu was farther away from Nami’s puzzle than Siga was, but still, not that complicated guys.  

So Siga must pick whether to do Savvy or Sweat, sight unseen of what it is.  Now, if I’m Siga, I’m thinking that it’s best to force Yanu to do “Savvy”, since we just saw them choke pretty hard on the puzzle.  However, they decide they want Yanu to be more physically worn out, and so elect to do “Savvy” themselves.  I guess I see the logic, but I still think I’d have gone the other way for the reason mentioned previously, though I suppose Siga was the team that was slightly behind on the physical portion of the challenge.  

From here we’d leave to go do our tasks, but there is the note leading us to commercial that bears mentioning.  We hear from Jem, about the only time we hear from her this episode, apart from when we’re detailing the alliances at Siga.  She talks about how, while others are here for the experience, and that’s fine, she’s here for the money.  That, to me, is a winner quote.  If so, I’m very happy, since I called her win pre-season.  Then again, I also thought Emily had a winner quote last season, and we see how well that turned out.  

Yanu finds that their task is a bit of a repeat for “Sweat”: Two tribe members must haul water from the ocean up around the timer to a pair of buckets, which they must fill in a four hour time limit.  To add insult to injury, they quickly learn the buckets have holes in them, though lucky for both there’s no rule against covering the hole as they run, which they quickly do.  Q and Jelinsky, being the two physically strongest, set about doing the task, as Q gives inspirational talks about this being a team, and him “quarterbacking” the game.  Time will tell if he’s able to do that.  

As for our “Savvy” task, it’s less “Puzzle” and more “Riddle” granted there’s a combination lock for the end, but the clue makes a specific reference to “What you’ve overlooked.”  Our puzzle-solvers, Ben and Charlie, do eventually pick up on this, but they instead think it means to look under the table the lock is on, instead of the actual answer.  They had a word search where they found numbers (too many to work in the combination lock), but instead had to look at what letters weren’t used, which would have told them to dig under the lock to find the combination.  A pretty easy puzzle, in my opinion, but I can also see their logic, so I won’t fault them too much this mistake.  A tight time limit combined with this error leads to their failure, though both bond over it (Ben joking about them getting “Rocked Out”), and their tribe seems to take it in stride, so individually they’re probably safe.  

Nami is, naturally, a lot more happy-go-lucky due to winning.  Despite this, they are also the first tribe to have a visible crack.  Liz mentions that she’s bought and sold companies in her work, strongly implying that she has money.  This is something Tevin quickly picks up on, though it’s mostly filed away for now.  

Less happy is Jelinsky, who feels ripped off by the note for the “Sweat” task.  It says “several” hours, which in Jelinsky’s world means “seven”.  Not sure what world that is, but as we’ll soon see, Jelinsky is often an island unto himself.  Now, Jelinsky does have Q, who is quickly becoming a candidate for “Best Team Player Ever”.  Q is clearly feeling the strain of the task, but continues to persevere.  He sticks with Jelinsky, giving him words of encouragement… Only for Jelinsky to have them call it off not even halfway through the challenge.  Look, closer to the end I would get it, but at least put in more of an effort so the rest of the team isn’t pissed at you!  

Jelinsky does end up forcing the quit, dramatically throwing the hourglass away.  Nice cinematography, but a bad look for your tribe.  Still, Jelinsky says it doesn’t matter because he gained a new ally in his bond with Q.  This is immediately undercut by Q rightly pointing out that Jelinsky is someone who’ll give up, and thereby is probably an unreliable ally.  Quite the brain trust, our Jelinsky.  

From here we get the usual introduction to some of our key players, as well as an overview of tribe dynamics.  These are intercut with each other, jumping from tribe to tribe, but for brevity’s sake, since the exact order of these events doesn’t really matter, I’m just going to go tribe by tribe, only mentioning scene breaks where relevant.  

Yanu actually ends up the simplest here, since we got a good look at some of the dynamics with Jelinsky giving up, and Q’s reaction to it.  Kenzie talks about how being a hairstylist helps her to read people, and we see she’s quickly become the focal point of the tribe, pulling in Q, Jelinsky, and Tiffany to make a majority.  Not sure how stable a majority that includes both Q and Jelinsky will be after that last scene of them, but hey, stranger things have happened.  Bhanu is not explicitly brought into the alliance, but seems to get along okay with everyone, gleefully helping them open coconuts sans machete.  

No, Tiffany makes it clear that Jess is going to be their first target.  Both she and Kenzie try to talk to Jess, who comes off decently friendly, but much more closed than the otherwise very open tribe.  Jess admit’s she’s introverted, and that combined with recently diagnosed ADHD is making it harder to connect.  Neither an insurmountable obstacle, but Jess is clearly in trouble early on.  She needs to hope Jelinsky or someone else (but really, from what we’ve seen, is there even a CHANCE it’s anyone else?) royally screws up to give her time to come out of her shell.  

While not relevant to strategy, I should mention that Jelinsky tries to nickname the alliance of himself and Kenzie “Shaggy and Daphne”, based on looks alone.  All I can say is I’m glad that name didn’t catch on.  I like a good “Scooby-Doo” reference as much as the next guy, but that was WAY too forced.  

Siga has more content than Yanu, but probably the most simplistic of the three in terms of tribe dynamics.  It’s your classic “three pairs of two” mixed with a gender division.  Initially we get people paired up, with Ben and Charlie being the obvious one due to their bond over attempting the “Savvy” task.  Tim and Maria bond over being parents, though Maria does admit she doesn’t want to be the “mom” of the group, due to the potential negative connotations that can bring.  That just leaves Jem and Moriah, who thankfully are not just spares, but do bond over their neediness.  Moriah in particular talks about being a D&D fanatic, and how she needs to work to open up to people.  A nice little scene, but we don’t really know which twosomes will become a foursome to dominate.  

It soon seems like the answer will be “None of them”, as Moriah and Jem pitch a women’s alliance to Maria, which she seems decently on board with.  The three discuss which man to pull in to make a majority, and while you’d expect Maria to pitch Tim, they actually decide on Charlie, since he seems like a nice guy who might be easily led.  Paired with his confessional about living in the bubble that is small-town Massachusetts, they might seem to be right.  Charlie, however, expertly plays both sides; going along with the women while also tipping off the men, setting Tim on the warpath against the women.  The same old “Fear of a Black Widow Brigade” we’ve seen before, though at least more founded in this case, since Tim was at least WARNED of such an alliance possibly coming together, rather than just assuming it would and going off half-cocked.  

Nami doesn’t have as many “formal” alliances, more good vibes and bad vibes.  Tevin bonds with Soda over their love of singing, and gets in a good Shakespeare reference in the bargain, endearing me to the guy all the more.  This would seem not to bond Hunter, who admits that when he worked as a camp counselor, the one thing he hated the most about camp was the songs.  However, Hunter does an excellent maneuver here, admitting this division to Tevin, but turning it into a bonding opportunity, asking him to teach Hunter to sing.  When the pair discover both love “The Andy Griffith Show”, the alliance of the same name is set.  Fittingly, and hilariously, “Survivor” then turns black and white, goes to an old tv aspect ratio, and plays the whistle from the beginning of the theme song from Andy Griffith.  These guys just don’t miss an opportunity, and I again must praise Hunter for turning a weakness into a strength.  That takes a lot of good maneuvering, but it seems Hunter has what it takes.  

Not all is sunshine and rainbows for Nami, though.  We already saw the issues Tevin had with Liz, but she is not the only target of ire.  Venus is next, taking offense (not unfairly) to being described as a “princess”.  Rather than try and prove herself around camp, or using social bonds to counter this perception, she goes idol hunting.  Because that never ends badly for anyone!  Sure enough, she’s quickly caught by Randen.  Both do a bit of “I know you know I know” side eye before Randen comes and spills the beans to Soda.  He’s only honest with her, but this is “Survivor” where people absolutely shoot the messenger!  And on the tribe all about vibes, unsurprisingly the person whose only family said he gave off “First Boot Vibes” is not gelling well.  Soda decides she mistrusts Randen more than Venus, and so tells the latter about the former.  Not as clear dynamics as the other tribes, but at least it’s something.  

It’s also Nami who leads us into our journey.  Liz makes her case for being a good tribunate slightly worse by listing off foods she’s allergic to (which basically amounts to “everything”.  Geez, and my parents thought MY eating habits were tough to deal with growing up), but is interrupted by a boat coming to take someone on a journey.  Nami decides randomly, leading to Tevin going.  Siga decides via rock-paper-scissors, leading to Maria going.  As for Yanu, Jelinsky basically volunteers, and despite evidence indicating he is NOT the person you want interacting with other tribes, and Bhanu clearly wanting to go as well, they pretty much just let him.  As we’ll soon see, this was indeed a poor choice.  

Our threesome get to a sand spit, where’s there’s a new game in town.  There are three wooden tiles, one with a torch, one with a vote, and one with a skull.  These get shuffled and randomly dealt to each player.  The one who gets the torch reveals it, then must figure out based on reads which of the other two got the vote tile.  Guess right, both of them get an extra vote, while the person with the skull loses their vote.  Guess wrong, the person with the skull gets an extra vote, while the other two lose their vote.  

Now, at first glance, this doesn’t seem to bad.  Different from the journey’s we’ve seen before, and a simple, easy to explain ruleset.  Sadly, if you think about it a bit more, this journey kind of sucks.  The issue is that it kind of ends up boiling down to luck, since whoever gets dealt the skull tile is screwed.  If they tell the truth, well, you’ve lost your vote, and your tribe will probably be mad at you for giving up power to the other teams.  If they lie, even in a best case scenario in which they fool the other players there, congratulations!  You’ve now pissed off people on the other tribe and exposed yourself as untrustworthy!  Better outcome in the short-term, but probably trouble in the long-term.  

Now, some might argue that potentially pissing off other people is a known risk to these journeys.  That’s true, but the difference here for me is that that potential pissed-off-ness is based on one’s DECISIONS in those other instances.  You CHOSE to lie when you didn’t need to.  You CHOSE to risk your vote, or take something else that others didn’t want.  Here, as I’ve explained, you can just be dealt a bad hand and have no good outcome.  No matter what, someone’s going to be pissed.  

Given that Jelinsky is the one who gets the skull tile, he actually manages to somehow find the WORST of both worlds!  He initially lies, only to come clean under the slightest bit of grilling from Maria (who got the torch).  Congratulations!  You’ve now shown you’re untrustworthy, AND lost your vote, AND given the opposing teams more voting power down the line!  Aren’t you proud of yourself, Jelinsky?

After a brief interlude where we see that Maria came clean about everything to her tribe, thereby pissing off Tim since the women’s alliance now technically has the numbers (no word on what Tevin said to Nami), we see that, sure enough, Jelinsky’s tribe hates him to.  This again reinforces the narrative that he just can’t commit.  Bhanu, however, is still optimistic.  Fitting for a guy whose shirt reads “Be Kind”.  A nice sentiment, but is that really what you want on “Survivor”?  In either case, Bhanu’s excitement boils over into an idol hunt, though not a very good one.  Dude doesn’t look much off the beaten path, even just picking up a large, hard-to-miss rock to try and find the thing!

Ok, to be fair, the idol IS under a rock, just a more inconspicuous one.  Tiffany manages to find it under a large rock outcropping, running off to read the note only to be told to dig where she found the note.  She does so, and finds a box with an idol in it that needs a key to open.  Where is the key?  She only gets that information if she goes to Tribal Council.  Gotta say, this is an interesting wrinkle that I kind of love.  It weirdly incentivizes someone to throw a tribal challenge, lest they be swapped away without a vote.  Sacrificing the group good for the individual good.  It’s a sadistic dilemma, even if it doesn’t reach its full potential here.  

See, Tiffany doesn’t really need to do anything, since Yanu is most likely to lose this challenge anyway.  Apart from them being visibly the worst at puzzles this season (with puzzles so often the deciding factor in challenge wins or losses), Yanu has by far the most obvious targets.  We know a little bit about each tribe, a strength of this season opener, but Yanu has the clearest divisions and the most bluntly stated targets.  A loss is all but assured.  

Tiffany lets Q and Kenzie know (the latter having been present when she initially found the idol box), so they can muster their votes before the inevitable loss.  This bring us to said challenge, which is decent in scale, but still feels off.  Tribes transport a 500 lb. Gecko over a series of obstacles, then solve a puzzle.  Standard, but does have the scale (pun intended) one would associate with the first immunity challenge of the season.  That said, the Gecko itself looks kind of goofy, and throws off the whole feeling of grandeur for me.  Look, it’s not like the “Transport heavy, awkward object” challenge is a new thing for the show.  Its first iteration was on “Survivor Thailand”.  But other times it’s been done, it’s been later in the season since, for all the difficulty, the image of transporting a giant, heavy thing is kind of goofy.  That works for other challenges, but here, it feels like it undercuts the gravity of the situation.  A fine enough challenge, just not one I’d want as the first challenge.  

I will say that our immunity idols are cool this season.  Little Japanese-style statues.  Unique in design, and have just the right feel of what you’d expect from an idol.  About my only complaint is that they once again have an idol and a smaller idol, rather than one idol that can split in two, and even that’s a very minor complaint from me.  

Unsurprisingly, Yanu loses.  Nami gets out to such a lead they practically finish before the others get there, and when Siga pulls ahead prior to the puzzle, you know Yanu’s done.  Granted they do better than Luvu last season, since they at least make it to the puzzle, but again, this is very clearly not Yanu’s strong suit.  To make matters worse, they put Jelinsky on the puzzle, and this after he admitted to quitting the “Sweat” task in front of the other tribe.  You’d think they’d have learned by now.  Yanu commiserates after the challenge, but notably Q does not get in on the group hug initiated by Bhanu.  Doesn’t seem like anything now, but it’s a subtle clue I’m keeping an eye on for future episodes.  

About the only person not unhappy is Tiffany, who now gets the next clue to her idol.  She gets a note written in a simple symbol code.  Where’s J Maya (“Survivor 45”) when you need her?  No, Tiffany solves it very easily herself, and it tells her to go to the Matthew Grinstead-Mayle Injury Rock (TM) from “Survivor 44” and find a key under a rock in the shallows.  She does, and gets and idol, as well as her vote back.  Good for her.  

This brings us to the discussion of who to target.  Tiffany is very on board with voting Jess out, citing her as the weakest in challenges.  Kenzie is sort of passively on board, and Bhanu just likes everyone, and doesn’t know what to do.  Only Q is really pushing for a Jelinsky boot, citing his repeated giving up on things.  

In this case, I would say Q is right, and not just because I like the guy.  Look, I’ve never been a subscriber to the idea that voting someone out makes your tribe stronger.  “Addition by subtraction” just doesn’t make sense.  That said, I can at least see a bit of the logic from the stance where some challenges are “Only as fast as your slowest member”.  That, however, refers to purely physical competitions, not mental ones.  Physically, Yanu can at least keep up, even without Jelinsky.  Where they struggle is the puzzle, and no one seems to be good at those on this tribe.  Sadly for them, that’s not a problem they can really solve, so all they can do is hope for a swap and/or challenges without puzzles.  Given these factors, better to get out the guy who seems wishy-washy, and stick with those you can trust.  Even if they haven’t been the most open to you.   

Because this episode just hasn’t shit on Jelinsky enough (and were it not a spoiler, this blog would absolutely have been titled “Everyone Shits on Jelinsky), we are also treated to a scene where he seems to have an accurate read of the situation, telling Jess it’s one of the two of them due to both being on the puzzle they lost.  In confessional?  Jelinsky says it’s Jess 100%, and he was just trying to prevent her playing a shot in the dark.  Delusion, thy name is Jelinsky.  

Keeping with the Japanese theme of the idols, our Tribal Council set is a bunch of pagodas.  Very grand and epic; I approve.  I could complain about how that has nothing to do with Fiji, but at this point, that’s not a battle worth fighting.  

Less impressive is the performances at Tribal Council.  They’re not bad, but nothing to write home about.  Jelinsky gets in some good deprecating humor, Jess’ ADHD is on full display to the point where she forgets how to spell her own name, and the tribe gets several moments of correcting people’s accounts of events.  Bhanu probably gets the highlight, dodging Jeff’s question about whether Jelinsky is going by saying “It’s time to vote?”, but still, nothing that rocks my socks off.  

While the edit does favor a Jelinsky exit, there’s enough misdirection here that. Jess boot is plausible.  Still, it does end up being Jelinsky, and I’m not too sorry.  Look, he seems like a nice kid, but out of his league in this game, plain and simple.  His storyline about giving up on everything was funny, but could have gotten old in longer doses.  Better to just keep him a one-episode-wonder, along the lines of the aforementioned Zane Knight.  

As Jelinsky said, when in Vegas, you gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.  For Jelinsky, it seems the latter is “all the time”.  

This episode started out just ok, but really grew on me as it went along.  The “Jelinsky fails at everything” narrative was a good one-episode story arc, and this cast really popped.  Odd considering I wasn’t wild about them pre-season, but I think this is a case where they just didn’t do well on paper.  On my tv?  A lot of fun personalities without being too over the top, and I look forward to seeing where they go from here!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Cast Assessment

Folks, I have an important announcement to make: Not only do we have the newly-officially-released cast of “Survivor 46” to discuss today, but the production team have also given us a rare peak behind the curtain.  A glimpse at the inner workings.  We now know the key factor it takes to get cast on this show.  The answer is: Be a gutsy idiot.  

Yes, do you value stability in your life?  Do you feel like taking the safe route when it comes to your personal finances?  Good for you, but get out of the applicant pool!  We only want people who throw away something they’ve worked toward on a wing and a prayer here!

I mock, I mock, but I do so out of love.  Honestly, good for all the people on the cast who did this.  Clearly if worked out for them, and if they’re happy (and not harming anyone in the process), then power to them, I say.  And certainly “Survivor” is no stranger to casting people like this; the list of people who’d taken major risks like this in their personal lives is innumerable for this show.  But this season really feels like they amped that up, or at least put emphasis on it.  Nearly everyone in their bio talks about changing their job to follow their passion.  Again, fair enough for them, but a bit on-the-nose as far as casting goes. Now then, snark out of the way, onto the assessment itself, starting with:

Jemila “Jem” Hussain-Adams (32, International Brand Mentor, Chicago, IL, Siga Tribe): I personally am not a fan of doing such things myself, but were I to ask an AI to write me up a “Generic Survivor Contestant Biography”, I feel like Jem’s is what it would give me.  Someone fun-loving and social.  Says they’re not interested in something if it’s not risky.  Did a fair number of extreme outdoor activities.  Lists as similar players “Boston Rob, Tony Vlachos, Kelley Wentworth”, aka “The relatively famous players most people will know by now.”  Very much gives the impression of someone semi-familiar with the show, but not a superfan.  I know this is making out Jem as someone who’s kind of bland and can’t hack it, but sometimes this stuff is all you need.  Hence, we are getting my first winner pick of the season out of the way early.  Jem does have a few specific things going for her related to her bio/photo.  She grew up in Berbice, Guyana, and her discussion of it implies that she spent at least part of her adult life there. Thus, she might be more used to the tropical climate of Fiji than we might otherwise credit her.  Based on the photo, she doesn’t look like she’ll be a challenge liability, which is always a plus.  But really, I’d say her biggest upside is that she doesn’t seem to have a major weakness.  For all the comparisons she makes, I’d compare her to “Survivor Kaoh Rong” winner Michele Fitzgerald the most.  Specifically, it’s not that she stands out, or does anything spectacularly well, but that she does nothing badly.  She’s not a challenge beast, but not weak enough to be taken out specifically for that.  She’s not a shy introvert, but not a loud, over-the-top personality either.  This season doesn’t skew quite as young as other recent ones, but has a lot of people in their “late 20’s, early 30’s”, and Jem slots right in that demographic nicely.  She’s not a game-bot, but she knows the strategy well enough to get by.  And sometimes, getting by is all you need.  Honestly, the biggest weakness of this type of game is that it can falter if the team goes to a lot of early Tribal Councils, but while there is no “disaster tribe” this season, based on the rumored divisions, there is a “strong tribe” of the season, and I see Siga rarely, if ever, going to Tribal Council pre-merge.  This gives Jem all the time she needs to integrate, and by the time of the merge, there’s bigger fish to fry.  Expect her to unexpectedly sneak to the end, only to give a banger performance at Final Tribal Council, and then sweep up far more votes than those with her would have expected.  

Ben Katzman (31, Musician, Miami, FL, Siga Tribe): Ben compares himself to Nick Wilson (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”) and Cody Assenmacher (“Survivor 43”), but like with Jem, I think he misses the mark on the true comparison.  If there is a second coming of Vince Sly of “Survivor World’s Apart”, it’s this guy.  You all remember Vince, right?  The “Coconut Vendor who Seeks Truth”.  Yeah, that over-the-top character.  The beachy guy who quit a job (in this case, more professional music production) to follow his dream (in this case, just making the music he wants). Transplant Vince from the west coast to the east, and you’ve basically got Ben.  Luckily for Ben, he seems like enough of a challenge asset that, in the unlikely event that his tribe goes to Tribal Council pre-merge, he won’t be a target despite his potentially grating personality.  That said, don’t expect him to get too far.  That personality can get old fast, and while he might survive mergeatory, don’t expect him to get much past that.  An early-merge boot due to just being difficult to live with, and if there’s another “split tribal right after the merge”, I’d say that’s where his game runs out.  

Jessica “Jess” Chong (37, Software Engineer, San Francisco, CA, Yanu Tribe): I feel for Jess, I really do.  She seems very nice, and not quite as over-the-top in the whole “career change” thing as others this season (yes, she did change jobs, but she stayed in her field, just working for herself rather than a corporation).  She even has good self knowledge, comparing herself to Tai (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”), Gabby (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”), and Maryanne (“Survivor 42”).  All players I quite like.  However, despite all their good track records, they are not necessarily the formula for success on “Survivor”.  Aside from there only being one winner out of the three, this is a personality than can be hard to live with, particularly on small tribes, and unfortunately, Jess doesn’t have the luxury of being on the tribe unlikely to go to Tribal Council.  Honestly, I think her time in the game is largely going to depend on how well she individually does at challenges.  I don’t think she’s first out of her tribe either way, but if they go on a losing streak, she’s an easy pre-merge casualty.  If she only attends one or two pre-merge Tribal Councils, and doesn’t cost her tribe any challenges, then she probably makes a deep late-merge run.  Kind of a wishy-washy answer, I know.  If you put my feet to the fire, and force me to pick one, I’d sadly have to say that Jess is probably a pre-merge boot, though less due to her own faults, and more due to some people just needing to go there, and there not being a lot of obvious pre-merge fodder amongst this cast compared to some other recent ones I could name.  

Bhanu Gopal (41, IT Quality Analyst, Acton, MA, Yanu Tribe): So remember how I just said it was difficult to figure out who the pre-merge boots were this season?  Well, that goes double for predicting the first boot.  Seriously, this is the hardest time I’ve had selecting someone to be the first boot in these predictions.  Usually SOMEONE jumps out, or gives off that vibe, but this season?  I can only rely on the data, and sadly, Bhanu has a lot of data points working against him, in my view.  I’ll credit him that he’s one of the few who DOESN’T mention upending his career in his biography, which I would say would lead to more stable, consistent gameplay, normally a good thing.  But this career upending is SO pervasive this season, that I’m not sure that style of play is going to work.  In fact, it might work against Bhanu here, since his philosophy on life is so different from most of the rest of the cast.  Again, it could work given time, but time is not something I feel comfortable saying this tribe has.  Add on him comparing himself to Cochran of “Survivor South Pacific” and “Survivor Caramoan” (someone most vulnerable in the early game), and describing himself as an introvert (thus needing more time to build the relationships he’d need to survive), and there’s just a lot working against the guy.  While this is a slightly older cast on average than previous ones, 41 is still a bit outside the average.  I don’t think age will be a major factor, but if his age shows in his challenge performance, then he’s an easy early pick to go.  To me, he doesn’t look like he’ll be a challenge liability, but then again, I thought Brandon on “Survivor 45” would be good in challenges, so we see how good I am at eyeballing that particular game aspect.  Reluctantly, I must make Bhanu my pick for first boot, as he just has too much against him.  I hope I’m wrong, however.  

Kenzie Petty (29, Salon Owner, Charlotte, NC, Yanu Tribe): Kenzie quickly won her way into my heart by being an avowed “Settlers of Catan” fan.  Now, winning your way to my heart won’t necessarily make me give you good odds at going deep in the game, but even taking my feelings out of it as much as possible, I give Kenzie decent odds.  Again, bearing in mind my previous comments about me not being good at picking who’s going to be good in challenges, Kenzie seems like she at least won’t be a liability.  While she is loud and a stand-out, both in personality and looks, it’s not so much so that it would strike me as grating, and I see there being more valuable targets to take out on Yanu.  Unless they go full disaster (which, despite my earlier comments, I have my doubts), Kenzie probably sticks around for a good bit.  Kenzie also does a good job balancing the free-spiritedness of the cast as a whole with practicality, since her “job story” is less about leaving a job for another one than it is not doing as much pre-planning when seizing an opportunity presented.  Like I said before, I’d normally consider such a jump a liability, but with this cast, it should vibe well, and comes across to me as less inherently risky.  As long as she has some good game sense, Kenzie should stick around until the mid-to-late merge.  Honestly, the fact that she DOES stand out in a couple of aspects is the only thing stopping me from making her a winner pick.  

Charlie Davis (26, Law Student, Boston, MA, Siga Tribe): Charlie is a nerd through-and-through, and wears it on his sleeve.  Don’t believe me?  He compares himself to Spencer Bledsoe (“Survivor Cagayan”) and Christian Hubicki (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”).  If only he had thrown in Cochran, he’d have hit the “nerd” trifecta.  Self-knowledge is a good thing for sure, and the upside for Charlie is that he’s on the tribe I don’t see visiting Tribal Council much, if at all.  Prove yourself in a puzzle or two, and you’re probably set for the merge.  The downside for Charlie is that, with his nerd-dom on his sleeve, everyone else can see it too.  With “Survivor 44” and Carson being particularly fresh in everyone’s minds for this season, I doubt anyone is going to let him get super-close to the end.  Hence, Charlie is probably an easy target in the early-merge, and goes somewhere in there.  Not much more to say about him than that.  Nice guy, but an archetype we know well, and fairly predictable in how he’ll do as a result.  

Liz Wilcox (35, Marketing Strategist, Orlando, FL, Nami Tribe): Yes, lest you thought “Survivor” was going to shake things up, there are still three tribes this season.  It just took us until Liz to actually talk about someone from Nami.  And as the first representative of her tribe… Liz isn’t the best.  She looks like another fun nerd, though she compares herself to Russell (presumably Hantz of “Survivor Samoa”) and Sandra (“Survivor Pearl Islands”), neither of which seem like a fit for her from how she describes herself.  Neither of them strike me as “Fun-seeking” or “Growth-minded”.  Also don’t know if she’s just not a big fan of the show and has thus only heard of some of the bigger names, or just really loves “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”.  Either is plausible, quite frankly.  Liz has a great story about overcoming a fear of public speaking and general social awkwardness.  Great for her, and while it means she probably has good social skills that she’s learned, one tends to revert to one’s personal habits in a deprivation situation, so I could see those not being as honed as Liz normally has them.  If she does do that, she’s in trouble.  Any sort of social awkwardness is a reason to get someone out, and Liz is also one of the few challenge sinks I see on this season, so I don’t see much reason to keep her around if they attend Tribal Council at all.  I don’t think she’s the very first boot, but definitely another pre-merger.  And we will be all the sadder for it.  

David “Jelinsky” Jelinsky (22, Slot Machine Salesman, Las Vegas, NV, Yanu Tribe): In the contest of “Who did the craziest/riskiest thing with their life this season”, I think I have to give the award to Jelinsky here.  While lots of other people changed careers, or up-sticks and moved without much of a plan, Jelinsky outright dropped out of high school.  Folks who wanted non-college-educated people on the show, you got your wish.  Jelinsky does have several things working in his favor this season.  Chief amongst them is that he’s a young, athletic guy on a season without a lot of those.  Pre-merge, at least, that makes him valuable, especially since he’s on a tribe with a bit of a dearth of strength.  A career in sales, as we’ve seen with several recent contestants, can be good preparation for the show.  And amongst his contestant comparisons, he lists a number of players who saw success with “playing dumb”, something that, between the looks he has and the skill set he has, is a pretty good strategy for him to take up.  That said, Jelinsky does also have a few red flags that seriously hurt his chances in the game.  The big one is age.  Like I said, this season skews slightly older than more recent seasons have.  Now, early 20’s isn’t that far off from late 20’s, but it’s still a gap Jelinsky will have to bridge, and if he’s perceived as too much of a “kid”, a la Xander of “Survivor 41”, it may not matter how good of a game he plays, as no one on the jury will respect it.  Secondly, and this may be me reading too much into things, but Jelinsky strikes me as having a bit of an ego.  Maybe it’s his asking to be referred to by his last name, maybe it’s how he talks about himself in the third person, but this strikes me as a guy who won’t be quiet, and thus rub others the wrong way.  His strength being a necessary asset, plus his salesman skills, probably carry him through to the merge, but expect him to be the mergeatory or early merge boot, due to these red flags.  

Maria Shrime Gonzales (48, Parent Coach, Dallas, TX, Siga Tribe): Right away, the thing that stands out about Maria is her age.  This cast may not skew as young as more recent casts do, but even then, Maria is a bit without peer.  There’s a couple of other players in their 40’s, but it’s EARLY 40’s for them, meaning Maria’s closest peers in this game, by age, are still seven years apart.  Not an insurmountable gap, but one she’ll have to overcome.  On top of that, she seems less “free-spirited” than the rest of the cast, as she’s notably one of the few who didn’t mention upending their life to follow their dream.  She’s still driven and has values, of course, but she seems a bit more circumspect about going through it rather than just winging it and seeing what happens.  Add onto that her very much exuding the “mom” archetype, which has traditionally been a very “all or nothing” type in terms of how they do, and you’ve got a recipe for a player with high risk in the early game.  Luckily for Maria, she’s placed on Siga, the tribe I would say is least likely to attend a pre-merge Tribal Council.  IF they do, look for Maria to be in trouble, but I don’t see that happening. Historically, once the mom archetype makes the merge, they tend to do quite well, and I don’t anticipate Maria being an exception to that.  She seems to have enough game acumen and enough of a level head to play well.  As we saw last season, however, the finally hurdle for this archetype is getting past the “being too likable” issue, and I don’t see Maria avoiding that.  She’ll be taken out either in the finale or just before it as a jury threat, but still, expect a deep post-merge run from Maria.  Sometimes a good hand is all you need.  

Hunter McKnight (28, Science Teacher, French Camp, MS, Nami Tribe): I went back and forth between two people for whom I would give my second winner pick two, but ultimately, after much agonizing, I have settled on it being Hunter.  I don’t know, the dude reminds me of Tommy Sheehan (“Survivor Island of the Idols”), and that means “winner energy” for me.  I don’t know, maybe it’s just them both being teachers, maybe it’s the reddish hair, but I have to keep reminding myself that Hunter is not Tommy.  Hey, if you’re gonna remind me of a previous player, a skilled winner is hardly a bad one.  Not that Hunter’s personal pick for comparison is bad either.  He went with Hayden (“Survivor Blood vs. Water”), which I appreciate for being a bit of a deep cut into “Survivor” history at this point, but one with a decent strategic record (albeit no victory).  Hunter is also another one I’d say is more reasonable in dropping something in life to pursue a passion, since in Hunter’s case he dropped further study to go back and teach in his hometown.  Dropping out for an established, stable career, even one not as well-paying, speaks to a good bit of common sense that can serve him well in the game.  That said, it’s enough “free-spirited-ness” that it won’t be off-putting to the rest of his cast.  All in all, Hunter is a very well-rounded player, and thus one I expect to do quite well.  Granted, between my two picks, I would go with Jem over Hunter, only because I had to agonize more over his pick where Jem felt quite natural, but again, not knocking Hunter.  Dude’s got skills.  

Moriah Gaynor (28, Program Coordinator, San Diego, CA, Siga Tribe): Every tribe these days has to have their designated “nerd”, and Moriah is that for Siga (guess Saga gets two, since Charlie is also here).  That said, I Weill give her credit that she doesn’t wear it as much on her sleeve as the likes of, say, Liz or Charlie this season.  The neediness is there, but more subdued, only coming out in things like the occasional D&D reference.  Being low-key is hardly bad with such small numbers, and couple that with Moriah being on a tribe likely to win a lot of early challenges, she should be sticking around for quite a while, barring an epic challenge fail.  That said, there’s also not a lot to recommend Moriah overall.  Again, nothing bad, nothing detrimental.  But there just doesn’t seem to be that spark, that zest, that drive to go the extra mile to win that the truly spectacular players have.  This to my mind lends Moriah to a solid, but nondescript mid-merge finish.  A solid alliance member, but not a leader, and her exit will not be majorly mourned by most of the community.  

Q Burdette (29, Real Estate Agent, Memphis, TN, Yanu Tribe): Fun fact, this is the first given name in US “Survivor” to start with a Q.  This is also the other guy I was considering for my second winner pick.  In Q’s case, it’s less data based than Hunter’s was, and more about the vibes.  I dunno, some pictures just scream “charming” to me, and Q did just that.  He’s my personal favorite of the season, and despite a relatively bare-bones bio, I quite like him.  I can’t quite say it’s “generic” as there’s a few turns of phrase and bits of info here and there that catch the eye, but the dude seems to have put the minimum effort into what he wrote.  He also gave the lame answer of “Bits and pieces from a lot of players” when asked who he was most like.  That may very well be true, but still, a cop out in my book.  I could talk about the real estate skills being helpful on the show, but that has a bit less impressive a track record than regular sales that I talked about a bit ago, so I’m not sure how much it applies.  Still, Q is a dark horse to win based on charm alone, and I expect him to stick around until the late merge, if not making the finale.  Really, only his lack of concrete data to back up the vibes keeps him out of a proper winner pick.  

Soda Thompson (27, Special Ed. Teacher, Lake Hopatcong, NJ, Nami Tribe): Everyone, we now have a real-life Disney Princess on our season.  Seriously, her risk-taking moment is marrying a guy she hadn’t known for very long; the quintessential Disney Princess move!  Ok, in fairness to Soda, she knew this guy for a much more reasonable six months, and it appears to have worked out, so hey, power to them.  While Q just before may have had the lamest answer to “Which former player are you most like?”, Soda probably wins the award for the weirdest.  Her answer?  “Survivor 42”.  No player, just the season.  What, so you’re like the entire cast rolled into one?  Those are some pretty disparate personalities you’re combining, then.  My take on this is that Soda, more so than anyone this season, doesn’t really know the show that well, and just conjured up a recent bit that she remembered.  This makes me question if she really knows the game at all, and if she can apply her skills where needed.  Look, I’m not going to act like foreknowledge of the game is a REQUIREMENT to do well.  The likes of Yul (“Survivor Cook Islands”) and Earl (“Survivor Fiji”) are a testament that it’s not.  But couple that with Soda just seeming generally “nice” (she lists her hobbies as “Singing, taking walks, and doing random crafts”), and I have to think she doesn’t have the cutthroat hard core needed to make a deep run.  Add on her not looking like she’ll be great in challenges, and you’ve got a recipe for a pre-merge boot.  Sorry, Soda.  You seem nice, but I don’t think the game is for you.  

Randen Montalvo (41, Aerospace Tech, Orlando, FL, Nami Tribe): I strongly, STRONGLY suggest that Randen focus on his military career when discussing what he does with his tribe, rather than mentioning the aerospace thing.  Again, this cast played fresh off the finale of “Survivor 44”, so they saw Carson dominate in puzzles, and nearly win, were it not for fire-making.  He mentions the word “aerospace” to this cast, and he’ll be out faster than a supersonic jet.  Luckily, I think Randen is smart enough to keep that under wraps.  Dude does not look like the sort of guy you’d expect to be an engineer, but if he’s smart enough to be one, he’s smart enough to downplay those smarts, if that makes sense.  Add in some good physicality on a tribe that’s probably going to badly need some physical power for the challenges, and you’ve got a recipe for a decent length run.  Randen probably goes out somewhere in the mid-merge area, since I see enough fellow smart people on this season to suss him out, but early on, at least, he should be fine.  

Tiffany Nicole Ervin (33, Artist, Elizabeth, NJ, Yanu Tribe): Hoo boy.  Some people, their bio just SCREAMS “early boot”.  I can see why Tiffany was cast, though.  She’s a bright, bubbly personality, but that’s where the trouble starts.  Tiffany explains that her friends describe her as “living in a land of rainbows and unicorns”, though she disagrees.  Given her tone in her writing, however, I’m inclined to agree with her friends.  The sort of personality that pops on tv, but probably not the best fit for a treacherous game like “Survivor”.  On top of that, Tiffany admits she likes to play things risky, playing the lottery often in real life.  Again, understandable why that would do well on tv (big moves and all that), but probably not the smartest in terms of overall gameplay.  Unless her tribe has some MAJOR challenge sinks who need to go before her, expect her to go somewhere in the pre-merge.  Again, sorry Tiffany.  You seem nice, but “nice” doesn’t win “Survivor”.  

Tevin Davis (24, Actor, Richmond, VA, Nami Tribe): Fun fact about theater kids: We can sense each other a mile away.  You probably remember Tevin from the season preview.  He was the guy with long hair who screamed upon being given his buff.  I took one look at him and thought “theater kid”.  Sure enough, his bio comes out a few weeks later and confirms it.  Tevin is definitely a loud personality, which on a small tribe can be a problem.  That said, he’s also a young, fit guy on a season where, as mentioned previously, those are in short supply.  His tribe is going to need that, so expect Tevin to stick around for a decent length of time, barring that his tribe goes into being a complete disaster.  Tevin’s acting skills (as in toning down his loud personality) combined with his strength probably get him through to the merge, but there’s only so long you can tone down your personality. Once Tevin opens up, probably during the early merge, he’s going to get grating fast.  Combine that with the threat of an individual immunity run, and Tevin is probably out in the early-to-mid merge, due to being too threatening and too grating.  He will definitely stand out on our screens the whole time, however.  Also, this has literally no bearing on how he’ll do in the game, but I wanted to mention that while he’s currently from Richmond, VA, his hometown is listed as “Goochland, VA”, and childishly, I find that incredibly amusing.  

Venus Vafa (24, Data Analyst, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Nami Tribe): Just when you thought that “Survivor” would learn the threat that Canadian players pose, here comes Venus.  And as if there already wasn’t an uphill battle for Canadians on this show after multiple successful performances, you put on a Canadian who looks woefully unprepared for the game ahead!  Venus seems very worldly, aka “not going to do well in the outdoors”.  She seems like a city girl through and through, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it does call into question how well she can hack it in the wilderness.  On top of that, when you compare yourself to a character from “Mean Girls”, that implies the starting of much drama.  Good for tv, bad for chances in the game, particularly with the smaller tribe size of the modern era.  That said, I will give Venus two points in her favor.  One is good self-knowledge, since she lists the players she’s most like as being Parvati (“Survivor Cook Islands”) and Cirie (“Survivor Exile island”), who if you’re someone who’s not going to be the greatest in the outdoors, well, they pretty much wrote the playbook on how to do well in spite of that.  Assuming the comparison is apt 9which I get the sense it is) Venus does have some good social skills to call upon.  Also in her favor is that, while she’s by no means a challenge beast, she seems competent enough that I don’t see her costing her tribe a challenge, or being the first target if/when they do lose.  Unless she really makes a stink about how hard the elements are for her, I’d expect her to be a late pre-merge, early post-merge boot, depending on how much they do go to Tribal Council.  Not good enough to hack it long term, but at least good enough to survive a few votes.  

Tim Spicer (31, College Coach, Atlanta, GA, Siga Tribe): Rounding out our cast is Tim, who I would argue gives the most questionable answer to any of the bio questions in the entire cast.  Who does he say he’s most like as a player?  Shamar from “Survivor Caramoan”.  Now, as a super fan, I applaud the deep cut from “Survivor” history, and that may be the first time Shamar has gotten a mention since he initially played.  But, Tim, do you REMEMBER Shamar’s game?  Is that REALLY who you want to emulate?  Not exactly setting yourself up for success.  Now, in fairness to Tim, knowledge of game history is generally a good thing, and it MAY just be a bit of an inside joke, given that his previous answer involved an anecdote about gluing his eye shut.  But if it’s not, and Tim emulates his game style, then the only reason he isn’t a pre-merge boot is because his tribe seems unlikely to attend Tribal council in the pre-merge. Dude’s largely unremarkable outside of that one answer, and if the Shamar thing is just a joke, he’s a late-merge boot.  If it ISN’T a joke, he’s an early-merge boot.  Thus, in the spirit of compromise, I’ll split the difference and declare Tim a likely mid-merge boot.  

And that about wraps it up for this cast!  For all my jokes, honestly, this one seems kind of underwhelming.  Hardly an unlikeable cast, and with only one or two exceptions, I had something of substance to say about all of them.  But while I vibed with a couple of people, none of them also really grabbed me like other seasons have.  I doubt it’ll be a BAD season, and there’s always room for me to be proven wrong, but if you’re looking for this to be a legendary season, I’m not holding my breath.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 45” Finale: Bad at Math

There are many skills one needs to be able to win “Survivor”.  Social skills, obviously.  Strategic skills never go amiss.  Skill at finding small objects in the woods is becoming more and more of a valuable tool.  And even basic survival skills still matter, at least a bit.  But one underrated skill is being good at math.  And if you don’t believe that helps on “Survivor”, go back and watch the trials and tribulations of Brad Culpepper on “Survivor Blood vs. Water”.  Man literally leaves because of math.  

After our requisite “ooh”-ing and “aah”-ing at the new camp, we get down to business.  Austin is, of course, rather stunned at Dee leaving him out of the vote, and it’s here we see that Austin’s math skills are a bit wanting.  He talks about having “two number ones”, something that is mathematically impossible in this context.  Still, the dude takes it all in stride.  Perhaps a little TOO in stride.  He acknowledges the “Dee lied to me” portion, but chooses to focus more on the “Dee is still here” portion.  Is he lovesick, or just that chill?  Either way, his chances in the game plummet with each frame.  All is well between the lovers, though, who share a long cuddle on the beach.  

Such a cuddle does not go unnoticed by the others, with Julie joking about sending out a party to let them know they won’t sleep until they come back.  Katurah is a bit sharper in her criticism, noting correctly that a duo is bad for her game, and needs one of them to go.  Probably Dee for being a big jury threat.  Hey, Katurah is finally channeling that anti-Bruce energy into a more strategical-sound place!  Only took all season!

Morning, of course, brings a scramble for a challenge advantage.  Honestly, this scavenger hunt is kind of lame, basically being a repeat of the “Waambulance” challenge from “Survivor Exile Island”.  Run out, find and count the things, use them to solve a combination lock, if you’re wrong you have to go back out for another look.  Take away the ropes course part, and this is a scaled-down copy.  Not the worst challenge, but hardly exciting.  

Everyone talks about the scramble for finding the things, and Dee and Austin collude with one another, but it’s Jake’s slow and steady approach that wins the day, and consequently gets the most focus.  It helps that the mnemonic device was on the editors could have fun with, since Jake associated the number with the winners of the respective season.  Hence, the combination was JT (“Survivor Tocantins”), Gabler (“Survivor 43”), Denise (“Survivor Philippines”), with appropriate clips being shown in the background for each.  As such, he wins the challenge advantage.  

Seems this episode has a thing for combination locks, because they come back in our immunity challenge as well!  They’re also Jake’s advantage, since the numbers are revealed by hurling sandbags into baskets, and Jake starts with two revealed (everyone has a different combination, so peeking off Jake won’t help).  It’s otherwise your standard obstacle course, with the only other point of note being the puzzle at the end.  It’s the Michele Fitzgerald puzzle, first seen on “Survivor Kaoh Rong”.  You know the one.  It always gets kicked down upon completion.  

This season upholds that tradition.  Austin narrowly wins over Jake, in part due to the latter missing a puzzle piece.  Probst, of course, rubs salt in this proverbial wound, though Austin makes up for it by taking Jake along for the “reward” portion of the challenge, a steak meal at The Sanctuary.  Frankly I’m surprised.  The move certainly makes strategic sense (keep your number one ally with two likely boots to make sure you get the scoop on all discussions), but so lovestruck is Austin, I fully expect him to pick Dee.  

Good for Jake getting some food in him, though.  Like I said at the end of last blog, the man is not completely out of it for winning, but really needs things to go right for him.  And that starts with him playing his idol correctly in order to idol out a threat, preferably Dee.  In order to do this, it’s best if no one (save possibly Katurah) knows about it… And then Jake starts spilling his guts about it to Austin.  Yeah, see why I don’t give this guy great odds?  Worse still is his stated intention to target Julie.  Not a bad one, but again, I think Dee might be the better bet, at least in terms of jury clout.  

Luckily for Jake, Katurah is there to talk him out of it.  She makes a good argument for targeting Dee, and Jake agrees to switch his vote.  After telling Katurah about his idol, the pair agree to draw votes onto Jake, then have their two be a majority with Jake’s negated votes.  

Unluckily for the pair, Austin immediately spills to Dee about Jake’s idol.  Again, great move, dude!  About the only bright spot is that Julie doesn’t believe that Jake’s idol is real, and so is going to stick voting him.  Dee plans to stick on Katurah, the backup plan, leaving Austin in the air.  With votes split this way, even if Austin votes with one of Dee or Julie, you can still get a majority with the idol played correctly.  As long as nothing else goes wrong for Jake.  

But no!  Even Jake’s professed allies cannot be counted upon!  Worried about Jake being flaky (which Jake has many faults in this game, but flakiness is not among them, from what we’ve seen), Katurah makes him swear on his grandmother to vote for Dee.  Because nothing bad has ever happened on “Survivor” when people swear on their grandmother.  

If I haven’t made it clear already, voting out Dee is the correct move for basically everybody.  Gets rid of a jury threat, and while Julie and Austin would lose a close ally, numbers are small enough now that it doesn’t really matter.  Do I think it will happen?  Not with a vote this fractured, but we’ll see.  

Tribal Council is sadly a boring affair pre-vote.  Standard double talk, and not even an honorable mention for fun moment.  That is, until we vote.  The vote is genuinely up in the air, plus there is Jake’s idol to consider.  Say what you will about Jake, but the dude is a showman through and through.  He makes a big deal about his idol play, busting out a Tony Vlachos (“Survivor Cagayan”) impression along the way.  Gotta say, it was a spot-on impression.  Confusingly, he plays it for Katurah.  At this point in the game, I’d have played it for myself, but I guess Jake’s reading the room that votes are going for Katurah?  

If so, he’s reading them badly.  Katurah does get one vote from Dee, eliciting a fun happy reaction from Jake.  Then Jake gets a vote, eliciting a pissed reaction from Jake.  The next two votes, going for Dee and Julie, just elicit confusion, with the final vote going for Julie.  I am sorry to see her go.  She was surprisingly strategic, and brought a certain charm to the proceedings as a whole.  You will be missed, Julie.  

Because having Emily be confrontational right out the gate wasn’t enough fights for the season, we have to squeeze one more in right before the Final Immunity Challenge.  Really, Jake and Katurah need to unite to hope to take out Dee or Austin.  Granted, that just amounts to “Win Final Immunity” at this point, but still, unity would be nice.  Instead, the two start throwing the blame around for why that vote didn’t go the way they wanted.  Jake is upset at swearing on his grandmother and Katurah backing out of it anyway, while Katurah is upset at Jake playing his idol incorrectly, leading to her not voting out the person she wanted gone anyway.  Frankly, both of them come off looking bad here.  Jake, you’re a superfan, you should know what swearing on a loved one means in this game (read, not much).  Yeah Katurah kind of burned you, but this reaction seems over-the-top, and disproportionate to the situation.  Don’t think you’re getting off though, Katurah.  Yes, Jake could have communicated more with you, but that’s a two-way street, so you’re not blameless.  Moreover, you’re in control of your own vote, and if you thought you were going regardless, why not throw a vote on Dee on the way out, just to say you tried.  It’s true you didn’t MAKE Jake do anything (applied a lot of pressure, certainly, but never forced), but by the same token, Jake did not make you do anything either.  Don’t throw your bad moves onto him.  He has enough of his own.  

Really, all this scene does is show the audience more clearly why an anti-Reba movement never really fostered at Belo.  Too much infighting and mistrust for them to work together.  

Our final immunity challenge, like the first immunity challenge, is nothing to write home about.  Stack seventeen bowls, which can be knocked over by wobbling a frame you step through.  Pretty standard challenge at this point, but at least it isn’t “Simmotion” again, so I’ll take it.  

The only major thing of note in this challenge relates, unsurprisingly, to Jake.  He and Dee are the two frontrunners in the challenge, with Austin and Katurah knocking their stack over often.  Jake, however, slips up, leading to the need to recollect his pots.  So many pots that it takes multiple trips.  Jake then gets the idea to walk atop the frame, rather than through it, for a faster time when jostling doesn’t matter.  

What DOES matter is structural integrity, since Probst warns Jake that if he breaks the challenge, he’s out.  Sure enough, a few moments later, the structure snaps, all but assuring Dee’s victory.  Jake’s salty in the moment, but that warning seemed pretty clear, and it looked like Jake had the chance to correct what he was doing.  Would have been best if this had been said before the challenge, but even so, this loss is squarely on Jake.  Probst doesn’t call this out as a “Survivor” first… and rightly so.  Yeah, this is the most blatant it’s been, but there’s been at least one time someone “broke” a challenge, leading to their disqualification.  The final 8 of “Survivor Africa” had an immunity challenge where you had to build a fire to burn a rope.  If you hit the rope with your supplies, you were disqualified.  Brandon did so, and got disqualified.  Good on Probst for remembering at least some of the show’s history, even if he didn’t talk about about.  

Dee wins, in case it wasn’t clear.  Wonder how the long toe helped in this one?  In any case, Dee and her toe must now decide who goes into fire.  There’s not much mystery, since she quickly settles on taking Austin to the end based on their relationship.  Annoyingly, the meta of fire-making being part of one’s “resume” comes up, with both Jake and Austin asking to go into fire.  Katurah’s the only one who resists, perhaps explaining why I like her in spite of some poor strategic moves on her part.  It’s to no avail, however, as Dee is worried about Katurah being a social threat on the jury, the one type of threat I would say Katurah is.  Thus, she wants her out, and believes Jake best-equipped to do it.  

But didn’t Jake almost faint into the fire early on this season?  Not sure he’s the best in fire.  Neither is Austin, who pitches to be put in as being better equipped to take out Katurah. This idea seems to have a bit of merit, as when Austin checks on Jake, the man has no fire, and seems checked out of continuing to try.  A decent-enough misdirect, but Dee’s too smart for that.  With how they’ve been able to get basically nothing going, this would not be enough to put either Katurah or Jake over the top for some jury votes.  Austin is more well-liked and had more agency, so it MIGHT be bad to have him do fire.  

Sure enough, that’s what happens.  Yeah, there’s discussion at Tribal Council, but once again, nothing of merit.  Katurah and Jake go into fire, and while not a blowout victory, Katurah’s repeated smothering of her fire means Jake eventually wins.  Once again, the methodical approach takes off.  Jake finally got his “W”, and he and Probst take a moment to bask in it.  Jake talks about how far he’s come since he was an underconfident 15-year-old.  We then go to Katurah, leading to this conversation:

PROBST: Katurah, what does this game mean to you?

KATURAH: Well Jeff, to me it means I never told anyone I was a lawyer.  

I’m kidding, but only slightly.  It DOES turn into Katurah using this as the lawyer reveal, we get our shocked reactions, and we move on.  

Continuing on the efficiency kick this episode has been doing, we cut between our final three breakfast and “jury speaks” videos.  Our contestants themselves don’t lay out the arguments, instead talking about their relationship with each juror.  Instead, the jurors make the arguments.  Jake overcame the greatest odds to be there, as the only non-Reba to make finals.  Dee was well-liked, and able to maneuver behind the scenes, and Austin was generally the most overtly social of the three.  Which will win out will likely come down to their arguments.  That said, Jake still seems on the outs.  I have to make note that he said “I took myself here.”  Sure, Jake.  Sure you did.

Weirdly, we don’t get opening statements this time.  Perhaps they were filmed but not shown?  Doesn’t really matter this time, as we get some good arguments from all parties this time around, and I’d dare to say the “New Jury Format” is the best it’s ever been!  Sure, it’s still more of a group discussion, and no one’s called up to speak, but every juror asks basically one question, and Probst doesn’t really contribute to the proceedings.  It’s the original jury format without all the showmanship, and a bit less equal speaking time (Emily speaks a bit more than once, and Bruce says basically nothing).  If this is the compromise needed, I’ll gladly take it!

Unfortunately, for all I like this new, balanced format, none of the questions really stand out.  Like I say, it all comes down to the arguments.  Jake gets built up by the jury initially, and really pushes the narrative of him lasting this long.  It’s his best card, and he does a good job arguing it.  

Sadly for him, it’s clear the jury largely see Dee and Austin as the power-players of the season.  Weirdly, the two remain cordial for a good chunk of the Tribal.  Dee gives Austin co-credit on most moves, and Austin argues for Dee better than Dee herself, being the first one to bring up her not bringing him in on the Drew vote.  Austin’s advantages get praised, but so do Dee’s social skills.  When they DO start going after each other, however, it’s tit for tat.  Austin puts a feather in his cap about strengthening the Reba alliance with Emily, Dee brings up bringing in Katurah.  Dee talks about orchestrating Kendra’s ouster, Austin brings up orchestrating Kellie’s ouster.  Back and forth the two go, though Dee does seem to claim a slight edge by noting that Austin told her about the Julie plan the night Emily went home, while she did not do the same for Austin on the Drew boot.  Seems like a close debate between the two, but given this better line of argument coming out at the end, I’d give the edge to Dee.  

The votes reflect this.  Kaleb gives Jake some false hope by calling out “J!” In the voting booth, a la Jonathan Penner’s “DENISE!” On “Survivor Philippines”, but ends up being a Dee vote.  A decently fun call back for the audience, but I’ve gotta imagine a bit hurtful to Jake in the moment.  Credit to this season: It’s not a 7-1 slam-dunk this time.  Indeed, it almost looks like a tie, but it ends up being 5-3 in favor of Dee.  Probably the right call.  Both had their strategic gems, but with how lovesick Austin became toward the end, Dee was clearly the superior choice.  The votes for Austin come from Drew (presumably for being his close ally), Kendra (for being more social/simpatico with Austin), and Bruce (there is no fathoming how Bruce’s mind works, particularly when we don’t hear from him on the jury basically at all).  A solid outcome on what ends up being a great season.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  We still have a couple of things to cover before my summation.  

Our reunion show, despite my preference for the old format, is decently solid.  We hit on most of the topics one would hope to hear about.  Dee and Austin’s relationship.  Emily’s growth.  Kaleb’s shot in the dark play.  All that sort of thing.  One interesting bit is Probst bringing up the fact that Austin was an alternate this season, getting called in last-minute.  A bit of trivia common-knowledge amongst the superfans, but probably not as well-known to the casual audience.  Moreover, Probst talks about some other contestants who were also alternates, bringing up Tina Wesson (“Survivor The Australian Outback”) and Davie Rickenbacker (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”).  He notes that there seems to be something successful about being an alternate.  He of course fails to mention that Amy O’Hara (“Survivor Guatemala”) and Spencer Duhm (“Survivor Tocantins”) were ALSO alternates, and had much less success, but I suppose that doesn’t fit his narrative, and Probst wants to forget that Guatemala exists.  Still, fun trivia for the uninformed.  

Also, next season looks ok.  Seeing the audition video clips is fun, but otherwise nothing to write home about.  I’m not concerned about “Survivor 46”, but I’m not jumping out of my seat to get to it either.  

Really, there’s only two major omissions in terms of what we discuss.  One would be asking about why Little Lulu was such a disaster of a tribe, presumably omitted for the lack of Lulu left, apart from Emily and Kaleb, and another knock against the new reunion format.  The other, which I’m surprised they didn’t talk about, or at least didn’t show, was how Jake would have voted if it HAD been a tie.  He himself seemed a bit unsure, but if I were to speculate, I’d say he’d go Austin.  He seemed closer to working with him than he did with Dee at times.  Still, who knows?

We end off this episode, much like it began, with a whimper.  I’ll save my season thoughts overall for after we check back on my pre-season cast assessment.  As for this episode, it was just ok.  I was never bored or angry at it, but I was never particularly thrilled either.  It came in, did its job adequately and efficiently, and then left.  Not bad for your standard episode, but kind of ho-hum for your big finale.  As such, let us more to the more exciting cast assessment comparison!

Austin: Wrong initially, though I became more right as the season progressed.  He WAS good at using his appearance and demeanor to hide how devious he could be, until his lovesickness got the better of him, and he became the mask, as it were.  

Brandon: My wish came true, even if my prediction didn’t.  In my defense, I didn’t think Brandon would be THAT bad at challenges, and had I known, I’d have given him much worse odds.  Still, unequivocally wrong here.  

Emily: Wrong, and thankfully so.  Her personal growth was a highlight of the season.  

Brando: The closest yet to being right.  His tribe was not the disaster I predicted (though once they started going to Tribal, they kind of ended up that way anyway), but he placed about exactly where I thought he would.  

Hannah: Mostly right, though I didn’t call the quit.  Though really, who could?

Bruce: I nailed his personality, and the reasons he would have an issue with the other players, but partly due to avoiding Tribal Council so long, he lasted much longer than I expected.  

J. Maya: She left for basically the reasons I expected, but earlier than I anticipated.  Partially right on this one.  

Drew: Sort of the opposite sibling to J. Maya.  I again nailed the personality, but Drew lasted longer than I anticipated in spite of that.  

Julie: Flat out wrong.  She had much more game, and was much more tempered in her confessionals, than I had anticipated.  

Jake: Well, I did call him a dark horse to win, and he DID make it to the end.  He had no shot at said end, but even so, I’ll give myself this one.  

Katurah: Wrong, though it would be hard to anticipate the single-minded anti-Bruce focus that arguably tanked her game.  

Kaleb: Dead right, for once this season.  

Kellie: Completely wrong.  Much more of a presence than I expected, and much longer-lasting.  

Sifu: He couldn’t adjust his personality to the others, and was out earlier than I thought as a result.  Another wrong assessment for me.  

Kendra: Yet another for the “right on personality, wrong on time in the game” pile.  

Sean: He may not be the WORST winner pick of “Idol Speculation”, but he’s definitely a top contender.  Again, if I’d known he’d be THAT bad in challenges, I’d probably have changed my rankings.  And again, hard to anticipate a quit.  

Sabiyah: Another of my few right calls this time around.  

Dee: Wrong.  Girl had the skills to back up her talk that I simply did not call.  

And there you have it.  Ranking this season on the heels of “Survivor 44” is a bit interesting, since I would say they have the same flaw.  Namely, one power alliance goes through to nearly the end basically unopposed.  Yet, I found it frustrating then, but don’t mind it here.  A lot of that, I think, boils down to the 90-minute format.  This allowed time for building more decoy winners, and giving us a larger sense of who the cast was and why they did what they did, than 44 could have allowed.  Yes, the last few episodes were a bit of a slog, and knowing the outcome does drag the season down, but everything up through the final seven boot was overall so great that I’d still call this a top-tier season!  That said, it’s the lower end of top-tier due to the Reba 4 never being stopped.  They had more plausible opportunity to be stopped, and their gameplay more subtle, which I think makes the outcome a bit easier to swallow than on 44.  

If you’re curious as to where exactly I’d rank this, I’d put it around the same level as “Survivor 42”, the other “New Era” season I’d consider top-tier.  Frankly I could see arguments for putting one over the other for both sides, and I think it comes down to whether you prefer a season with more developed players all around, but a more predictable outcome, or a more mysterious outcome at the cost of some characters being forgettable.  As someone who puts a lot of emphasis on rewatch value, I’d favor the latter, giving “Survivor 42” the edge, but I would not argue with anyone who prefers the reverse.  

In any case, feel free to let me know what you thought of this season below, as we await “Survivor 46”.  I’ll be taking my break for now, but look for me when the new cast is announced, and the discussion resumes!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 45” Episode 12: The Babysitter’s Club

Yeah.  I went there.  Bet you never thought you’d be seeing me reference THAT franchise in this blog, did you?  Unfortunately I don’t know much about it beyond the fact that it exists, so don’t expect any deep-cut jokes about it here.  Instead, expect another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Evidently all it takes for me to start messing up repeatedly is to mention how I haven’t been doing just that.  Thankfully these two are quick and relatively minor.  Opposed as their edits might be, it seems that Katurah, despite having little to no chance at winning, speaks for the fans, since she based Final Four Fire-Making last episode.  Conversely, Dee sucked up to the producers, talking about how long the game felt in relation to her budding romance with Austin.  Listen to Katurah, production.  

Our return from the unfortunate ouster of Emily is appropriately enough a somber one.  Eventually the mood is broken by a sarcastic outburst from Julie, the best kind of outburst, and as we’ll see throughout the episode, the best kind of Julie.  Sarcasm does not beget good strategy, however, as it seems last Tribal was where Reba brain cells went to die.  Despite pretty much everyone knowing that Dee must have tipped Julie off, with Drew even saying this is what would happen if Austin let her in on the plan, which they know he did, they still think they can hide being a pair.  Their acting is terrible, which even Dee cops to, but even with brilliant acting, which no one should be buying.  

Shock of all shocks, Austin buys this.  Man really has just become, in the words of Malcolm Freberg (“Survivor Philippines”), “Booty Blind” hasn’t he?  Seriously, Austin, I get wanting to believe the best of Dee, but you have to look at the game objectively at SOME POINT, you know.  Drew looks to have lost the fewest brain cells, as his “mistake” in my eyes is more subjective.  When Julie interrupts the group with a hug and asking for the Reba 4 to come back, he just says that’s a pipe dream.  Fair enough, but he should make at least SOME pretense of considering it, if only to blindside Julie more easily.  

Old Reba may have lost their brain cells, but old Belo hasn’t.  Their stock was low to begin with, but hey, they’re trying.  After an awesome transition from the logo at the end of the intro to the logo of the tribe flag, Katurah gets up early to go idol-hunting, on the grounds that Julie’s idol is likely re-hidden.  Fair enough, but Dee and Austin wake up shortly after.  Realizing what must be going on, they go off after her… Because they don’t want Julie finding the idol.  Um, how does THIS prevent Julie finding the idol?  Granted it’s a good thing to do, and you don’t want Katurah finding it either, but the stated logic and what actually plays out doesn’t make sense.  We then get a repeat of the tension as to whether Katurah will find something before getting found out or not, and in this case it’s not.  She and Austin have a cute-yet-awkward moment, and we move on.  

Drew, being more calm in the morning, talks to Julie about how the Reba 4 are very much still a possibility, which Julie seems to eat up.  Privately, neither of them really believe this, particularly since Julie has the receipts to prove she was turned on first.  When she talks to Dee about going after Drew as “The Mastermind”, Dee is on board.  Good news for Jake and Katurah, as they would likely be swing votes in that scenario.  

Our reward challenge, while unoriginal in being a five-piece slide puzzle, is still fun to watch.  This is mostly just for the middle leg, where we get to see everyone comedically balancing on a barrel in order to grab keys.  Always good for a bit of physical comedy.  Austin ends up crushing this challenge, winning a picnic NOT at The Sanctuary for once, but The Sand Spit.  Probst asks if he’s ever been, which how could he have, and then has Austin pick people to come with.  Austin, still thinking with his crotch, takes Dee, and then ends up taking Katurah so that he leaves behind the people he wants to leave behind.  Real subtle there Austin.  

Ok, joking aside, I actually don’t hate this for Austin at all.  It’s.a bit blatant how close he and Dee are getting, but the logic makes sense.  Take a close ally for strategy, then leave people who won’t strategize behind.  Not to say that Drew and Julie in particular aren’t bitter about it, but in the end they’re more against each other than mad at Austin.  

Thus begins Drew’s stint as babysitter… And BOY does he suck at it!  While it is funny how blatantly everyone talks about this being his job, he then fails by immediately letting Julie and Jake go off together, watching each other.  Perhaps he thinks Julie is still too much on the warpath against Jake for them to strategize, but he’d be wrong.  The two talk about idol hunting, and idol hunting they go.  Jake has a humorous bit where he talks about them “Hunting for Peppers”, only to admit they’re definitely looking for idols.  They don’t find anything, but the scene is at least mildly amusing.  Not hiring Drew as my babysitter anytime soon, though.  

Keeping up the “Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud” theme for this episode, the helicopter taking Austin, Dee, and Katurah to reward (yes, that WAS all the helicopter in the preview was building up to) does the “screw you” flyby, which the group on the beach comments on.  Those in the helicopter do get back at them, by noting how, even at a distance, Drew was obviously pissed.  

You’d hope for some strategy talk on reward, but Katurah quickly realizes she’s the third wheel.  She talks about how she’ll keep her eye in the game, and then we never hear from her again until after the challenge.  Instead, we get a long scene about how Austin and Dee are falling for each other in spite of themselves.  It’s schmaltzy, and I just can’t get into it.  I think the big problem is that, prior to now, the romance was never brought up or emphasized.  Look, Boston Rob and Amber had their fair share of schmaltz on “Survivor All-Stars”, and I wasn’t huge on it there either, but at least it felt EARNED.  By the time we got to this level of open affection, we’d seen them bonding and flirting for a good long while now.  Here?  Two episodes.  Just not the same.  

Not helping matters is that this ends with a contender for worst flashback backstory to date.  Austin talks about overcoming being awkward and not good-looking as a kid.  It barely ties in to what they were talking about, and for me, isn’t on the level of emotion it seems to feel it merits, particularly following on the heels of the heart-rending one from Katurah last week.  Look, everyone has their own struggles, and I don’t want to minimize anyone’s personal journey, but this one just didn’t do it for me.  

Back from commercial, and Jake decides he needs to do something to take the game into his own hands.  To that end, he resumes his idol hunt, using his knowledge of where Bruce found the re-hidden Lulu idol to his advantage.  He finds a clue telling him the idol is in a secret compartment in the raft, a la “Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers”.  Jake strips down to his underwear, telling us he doesn’t mind since he had to be on his underwear onstage in a college production.  Not sure why Jake feels the need to do this, but I suppose he could have a cover story about preparing to launch the raft, and it gives us a reason to see his goofy print boxer shorts, so I’m not complaining.  

From where the audience sits, the “secret compartment” is very obviously a false end to a bamboo shoot, but to be fair, I feel like it would be tougher to spot on the island itself, and Jake finds it fairly quickly.  Good for him.  I still don’t think it will get him the win overall, since his “goat” status just seems baked in whatever he does, but it’s something to hang his hat on.  A hidden idol helped Maryanne to victory on “Survivor 42”; maybe it can get Jake at least a bit closer.  Probably vaults him above Katurah in my rankings, anyway.  

Probst calls our immunity challenge “original”, but honestly, he’s exaggerating.  This is basically the challenge where you balance a vase on the end of a board with your foot, just replacing the vase with a ball and adding some barriers to the board so the challenge doesn’t end super quickly.  Kind of a “meh” challenge overall.  Not helping matters is that Julie, the de facto target, is out first.  Our challenge comes down to the lovers, Austin and Dee, and I’m honestly surprised Austin doesn’t forfeit for Dee at this point.  Given his amulet to keep him safe, and how lovesick he is, I was sure he’d drop out.  Ultimately a moot consideration, though, since Dee wins anyway.  I blame the toe.  

With Julie not being immune, and receiving every vote at the last Tribal Council, she is naturally the default target.  Jake, however, wants to take the game into his own hands, and pitches to Julie voting out Drew.  She’s on board, and Jake is able to get Katurah on board.  Still, when Katurah suggests looking in Dee as well, Jake shuts her down, going back to his “Force a tie, convince Austin or Dee to flip” plan.  As he himself notes, it’s basically a carbon-copy of his plan to save Kaleb, and that didn’t exactly end too well for him.  Worse still, it’s pointless.  As Julie mentions, Dee was already on board to vote for Drew, and Katurah confirms this independently later.  

Let me be clear: This is the wrong move for Jake and Katurah.  I’m looking at this purely from their perspectives as the swing vote, since obviously Drew and Austin don’t want someone taken out of their pair, and Dee and Julie the same, so they’re obviously going to vote for the person outside their pair, as well they should.  Now, in-game, I get where Jake in particular is coming from.  You want Reba to break up, but you want it to be in the way you orchestrate, not how they choose to do it themselves.  Not just go with the flow.  I get that.  The flaw in this is that, since Dee would be in on it anyway, even voting out Drew won’t come off as a move you orchestrated, but one Julie and Dee orchestrated.  Thus, it comes down to which person to vote off is more of a jury threat, and while Drew is no goat at the end, he’s easier to beat than Julie.  Not to mention that Drew has been more open to work with you, so it keeps more options open for the future.  

Still, Jake and Katurah’s determination, combined with SEVERAL arrogant confessionals from Drew (I wonder if players realize how these will make them look when giving them?), all but guarantees his exit.  So, what could possibly make us doubt?  The same dilemma as last episode, but in reverse!  Now DEE needs to consider whether or not to let AUSTIN in on a plan, especially since Austin has an amulet that could keep Drew safe if he’s clued in.  While this misdirection is as lame as it was last episode, the parallel shots and confessionals when compared to that episode are a nice touch.  

Sadly, not even this is enough to provide good mystery, since unlike with Austin, we never actually see Dee tell him.  Combine this with her being the more openly strategic/less lovestruck of the pair, and there’s no way she told him.  Thus, Drew will go.  At least we get some fun Tribal Council bits out of it.  The babysitting thing is brought up again, along with the return of Sarcastic Julie, the BEST Julie, about how the “Mom” is now getting babysat.  To his credit, Jake also gets in some good snark as well.  But the winner for entertainment has to be Emily, over on the jury.  Overall, this has been a pretty happy-go-lucky jury, always excited to see what happens.  Emily?  Nothing but a death glare the entire time.  Hilarious.  

Austin chooses to play his amulet, which I can’t blame him for.  He plays it for himself, which given his information, I can’t blame him for either.  Unfortunately for him, it was Drew who was targeted, and goes.  Can’t say I’m overly sorry.  Drew wasn’t the worst guy by any means, but his arrogance at times rubbed me the wrong way, and even if it was predictable, it still felt like a deserved exit.  

Probst them informs the group of the move to a new camp, which they seem shocked about for some reason.  Not sure why.  This is a known thing to happen at this point.  “Survivor 44” proved that.

Yeah, sad to say, this episode is not up to this season’s standards.  Nothing but romance and the occasional good bit of sarcasm to recommend it, and the former in particular just didn’t do it for me.  Nearly nonexistent misdirection and overall bad play just mean this episode falls flat in a way not a lot of other episodes this season, outside the quits, really have.  Shame.  Hopefully the finale can do better.  

Before we get there, however, time for my usual “Likely Winnerhood” rankings.  As a reminder, this is where I list the remaining players from most-likely to least-likely to win, based on the game itself.  This is not how likely they ARE to get to the end, but how easily they win in the end, regardless of who they’re up against.  

1. Dee-This spot is usually reserved for the “If they get to the end, they win” person, and this season that can be no one but Dee.  What she has said has gone in terms of boots, and she hasn’t really made enemies.  She was called out as a threat early on, and in spite of this, has managed to largely avoid getting targeted through effective management of relationships.  As long as she doesn’t completely botch her Final Tribal Council answers, she has this in the bag.  

2. Julie-The main thing holding Julie back from the number one spot for me is the “Mama” label.  Much as everyone talks about her as a major jury threat, and much as what we see indicates that’s true, people labeled “Mama” on this show have historically not done well.  Still, if anyone can buck the trend, Julie can.  Nickname aside, she seems genuinely well-liked, and has the Emily boot to her name.  I think she’s in the best spot if she gets rid of Dee, so Julie alone can claim credit for strategic moves the pair made, but we’ll see if she’s willing/able to do that at the end.  

3. Austin-The last few episodes have really made Austin’s end-game stock plummet.  Dude had some strategy to his name, and trinket plays to put on his resume.  But man, he just comes across as a love-struck moron of late.  He still seems fairly well-liked, which is why I don’t have him lower, but he probably wants to sit next to old Belo at the end to have a real shot at this.  Maybe this vote will be a wake-up call for him, but I doubt it.  

4. Jake-Prior to this episode, Jake would have been at the very bottom.  Dude was being dragged along as a goat very clearly, and never had much agency at any vote he was involved in.  He could hold up surviving being the default boot at a number of merge Tribal Councils, but you could say the same for Romeo on “Survivor 42”, and look how well that went for him.  Finding the idol this episode does raise Jake’s stock a bit, and if he can play the end-game perfectly (and I mean Chris-Underwood on “Survivor Edge of Extinction” level perfectly), he MIGHT be able to pull it out, particularly if there’s a lot of anti-Reba sentiment on the jury.  Sadly, this is a tall order, the goat impression is hard to shake off, and I don’t see this jury being particularly bitter.  Not impossible for Jake, but an extremely uphill battle.  Things will have to go exactly right for him to pull this out.  

5. Katurah-The only person I don’t see any scenario to win at this point.  A shame, really, as I probably like Katurah best out of all those left (Julie is a close second).  But when you’re a one-track-mind against Bruce, then do basically nothing to contribute to his ouster?  Unless you’re up against clones of Russell Hantz (“Survivor Samoa”), that’s not enough to win, and no one here is that despised.  Sorry, Katurah.  Just not your time.  

Will these predictions be right, or will I look like an idiot once again?  Find out next week in the finale!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.