Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 8: HUBRIS!

In the spirit of this episode, I’m going to be skipping over any fancy, clever introductory paragraphs. I’m even going to be skipping over my usual banal, humorless introductory paragraphs, and instead get straight to the action. We pick up… right where we left off. No, literally, we see the boat with Neal on it going off into the sunset, and everyone reacts to the dramatic turn of events. Everyone, particularly the old Chan Loh, are all a bit cut up about it, so Scot tries to brighten everyone’s mood with a pretty spot on impression of the “Previous On..” narration we get at the top of each episode. Damn, the man’s actually pretty funny. Still, at this point with one ally gone and most everyone else defecting to the old To Tang, we need to pile on the “royally screwed” confessionals from the old Chan Loh. Joe, surprisingly, is the first one to speak up, acknowledging that they’re on the outs, and that he’ll do what he needs to to stay as long as possible. That doesn’t seem likely, though, as not long after, our solid seven talk about how this changes things. Jason sums it up nicely, saying that Neal is who they mainly wanted out anyway, and he probably took his idol with him. Just to be safe, though, they’re going to split the votes, the four old Gondol going for Debbie, the three old To Tang going for Aubry. Bog-standard at this point, but still good strategy. If sticking together is a good idea (which it is for all the old To Tang), then you want to quash any intelligent dissenters. Joe is pretty obviously not the mover and shaker of the alliance, and is unlikely to win immunities due to his age, so Debbie and Aubry are the clearer choices, and given that Debbie is the one causing more ruckus than anyone else (plus the fact that, as we’ll see, Aubry has friends on the inside of the alliance), she’s the better choice to leave at this point. While Aubry was going to be the safety target last episode, never forget that she was chosen because she WAS an unlikely choice, and thus less likely to win immunity. If you’ve got a majority to the extent that this alliance does, and are afraid of an idol play, you may as well use that to your advantage. Some might argue, given what happens later on, that the flip risk is too great, but that argument doesn’t hold up even in this particular instance. If you look at the total number of votes tonight, the result would have been the same regardless of a split vote or not. So yeah, I stand behind my assertion there. Rounding off our opening is an actual instance of people on this show doing a spot check. Crazy, I know! Nick spots Aubry coming up the beach, and talk of the alliance is immediately quelled. Still, Aubry is not a moron, and realizes what’s going on. She too piles on the “royally screwed”, using the cliched metaphor comparing “Survivor” to High School. Somewhat unusually, though, she takes it a step further, noting that in the long term, it’s the “nerds” on the edge who have a better success rate. This leads into her noting that eventually the alliance will crack, and she hopes to find an opening. Pretty standard determination quote, but nice to hear nonetheless.

This, my friends, is how you open an episode. True, as I said, a lot of the confessionals are bog-standard, but it quickly and in some cases humorously gives us everything we need to know, and gets us excited to see where the episode goes. Nothing feels unlikeable or unnecessary, but neither does any confessional feel overused. We get a bit of humor to offset the darkness of last episode, and we get our setup for the two competing storylines this episode. Nice and quick, but still entertaining.

As if all that wasn’t enough, we kick off the next day with the humanizing of our contestants. Specifically, Jason gets to talking about his daughters, starting out pretty soft with anecdotes about how one will put makeup on him when he’s sleeping, before segwaying into a serious discussion about autism, due to one of his daughters being autistic. Since this is bullying, relatively cutthroat Jason, you’d think that he’s doing this at least in part to gain him jury votes in the end, and it very well may be that it’s part of it. If it is, though, he hides it well. If he were using the story of his daughter, at least on some level, to manipulate, that he’d tell us all about it in confessional. Instead, he uses that time to open up to the audience about his home life, and to raise awareness about an important issue. Very classy, good sir. It’s also a good reminder that no matter how despicable a person, no matter how awful they may seen on screen, pretty much everyone has some redeeming quality. It may be incredibly difficult to find (Russell Hantz of “Survivor Samoa”, I’m looking at you!), but it is, presumably, there. Not that Jason is on a deep level of horribleness, by any stretch, he’s just a good case study of such phenomena. Even if you find Jason to be a horrible bully, you have to at least like him a little bit for this scene.

Humanizing comes at a price, though. The balancing act of “Survivor” is making yourself likable enough to win, but not so likable that you become a threat. Case in point, while Cydney acknowledges the warm fuzzies that scene produces, she also admits that it makes Jason harder to beat, and that she’ll need to watch out for him down the line. That’s about the best reaction one can have to a scene like that. Noting the niceness of such a scene makes you a decent human being. Unfortunately, decent human beings do not win “Survivor”, so you also need to acknowledge that you need to put said feelings aside for the game. Being able to do so doesn’t make you a bad human being, it just means you’re able to adapt to the situation. In many ways, that’s what “Survivor” is all about.

But enough heartwarming, we’re off to our reward challenge, which is, of course, both a team one and a rehash. This is the “Transport people across the water on small platforms and then all get up on a tower” challenge, last seen in some form on “Survivor Caramoan”. If you’re going to reuse challenges, this one is not a bad one to do, since it’s fairly exciting, difficult, and can lead to some good strategy. That said, no one seemed to think to just use one pole and carry it across this time, when it probably would have been easier for everyone involved. Don’t know if it was banned offscreen, or just that these people didn’t think of it, but shame either way. Plus, it’s a team challenge, which with rare exception, SHOULD NOT BE DONE AFTER THE MERGE! I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but there’s little point to merging from a challenge perspective if you’re just going to keep on with the same sort of challenges!

Julia and Aubry are chosen as captains, meaning they get to pick our teams for this challenge. Our yellow team ends up consisting of Julia, Debbie, Scot, Nick, and Tai, while our blue team consists of Aubry, Michele, Cydney, Jason, and Joe. Right away, you can see that yellow’s probably going to win this thing. For all that Probst tries to tell us it’s just different strategies coming into play, Aubry made some poor choices here. You want strong people carrying the poles, but those people tend to be big. Therefore, you also want them to be on the taller side, since then the widest part of them (the shoulders) are above everybody else, helping everyone stay on the tower. Thus, Nick and Scot are going to be more valuable than Jason and Cydney. Sure enough, despite repeatedly switching out players as to who’s crossing the balance beams, yellow wins in a landslide. Aubry is pretty upset about this, blaming herself for the loss and feeling pretty hopeless with regards to her situation. An understandable reaction, but Aubry needs to pull herself together. Since she kept the tears for confessional, and she did eventually come back from this, no harm done, but something to watch.

Rubbing salt in the woulds of the losers, the reward for this challenge was ice cream. Or rather, ice cream delivered to the Dara camp. Usually, on rewards, one at least doesn’t have to WATCH everyone else enjoying themselves, as well as get a chance to strategize while others are away. Those upside are not here for this particular reward. Very cruel, but very delicious, in a schadenfreude sort of way. Oh, and since I mentioned the tribe’s name, it’s since come out that the name “Dara” was Joe’s idea, as it’s apparently the K’hmer word for “star”. That makes it slightly better than it was, but it’s just not as impressive as “Orkun”, and if you don’t want your audience confused by a name, put it on the show, CBS!

Just in case we didn’t get enough heartwarming from Jason talking about his daughters, it’s time to start humanizing Scot as well. He gets to talking about his family bonds, and what he had to give up to play in the NBA. Not quite as heartwarming as Jason’s stories, but it does the job well, and Jason was a tough acto to follow. Julia in particular is smitten with Scot, calling him “Someone she can work with” down the road. Um, Julia, while that totally makes you a decent human being, you need to take a leaf out of Cydney’s book. The correct response here is to admit that the story is nice, but acknowledge the threat it poses later on. No wonder you’ve largely been ignored this game.

Back from our break, Cydney, Julia, Michele, and tai all go off in a boat for some fish, Cydney having fashioned herself a pretty effective if somewhat silly-looking hat from the top of a jar. Remembering once again to do a spot check, after figuring out that a nearby Joe can’t hear their conversation without hearing aids, Jason, Scot, and Nick once again reaffirm their plan of splitting the vote. However, Jason acknowledges that the women might talk of an alliance against the men, which both Scot and Nick outwardly agree to. Privately, though, Nick admits that he thinks there’s no real chance of the women coming together. If you don’t see this confessional as setting Nick up as a proverbial bowling pin to be knocked down, then clearly you haven’t watched enough of this show. Still, Nick is not a moron in this instance, and takes his time to interrogate Julia about the possibility of a women’s alliance just to be safe. Well, I say “interrogate”, but in reality he basically asks Julia “Is there talk of a women’s alliance?” She says “No.”, and we move on with our lives.

Or, rather, we would, but it seems Nick failed to do a third spot check. Sydney was close enough, if not to hear what they were saying, than to at least guess, and it rubs her the wrong way. She sees this as her allies Jason and Scot not having faith, and she seems to get disproportionately mad at this. Not that she blows her top or anything. Indeed, apart from a raised voice a couple of times, Cydney actually keeps relatively cool. The trouble is that this really is nothing. Julia is only a loose ally at this point; you need to keep her in check. The alliance didn’t feel the need to check on Cydney, and that should be good enough, since at this point she’s well placed to make top three. Granted, the threesome were behaving a bit arrogantly, but that alone is no reason to break ties with them. Had Cydney said “I can’t beat them, time to stir up some trouble.”, I’d understand her reaction a bit more. As it stands, though, I think her ire was misplaced.

In a nice move, Jason suggests taking a walk to the well with Cydney, and uses this time to calm her down away from camp. Sydney’s still a little riled up, but Jason’s move works, and is very much the right thing to do here. The last thing you need is allies going off the handle, particularly in front of the outsiders, so you want to make those discussions private. Plus, by playing the “Yes, I understand.” method of apologizing to Cydney, Jason handles the whole thing incredibly well. Kudos.

So, we head off to our immunity challenge. You going to make THAT ONE a team challenge as well? No? Well, you at least made it a rehash, I see. It’s from “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, and involves people standing on a perch with their arms behind their head, last one standing wins. Like with the ball immunity challenge last episode, it’s certainly a difficult one, but very uninteresting to watch. This one is dragged down further due to the fact that we’ve seen it on pretty much EVERY SINGLE SEASON since it was first introduced. “Survivor Worlds Apart” may have been skipped, but that’s it! Fortunately, things are brought back up to level by the usual “Food Offer.” from Probst. This time, though, there’s a twist. Instead of a bunch of little food rewards, there will only be one BIG food reward, so everyone who feels safe has to drop immediately. I both like, and don’t like this twist. On the bad side, I feel like it gets all the excitement out in one go, and gives us less tantalizing Probst food description, which is often a highlight of such challenges. On the good side, it is changing things up, and does make such drops rely more on confidence than on tiredness. Ultimately, a pretty good idea, but I wouldn’t want to see it become the new norm for such challenges.

After a funny moment where Julia drops mere SECONDS before the food comes out, we find out who’s confident. Jason, Scot, Joe, and Michele all drop for food. Jason and Scot are no surprise. They’re in the majority, and given their size, they probably weren’t winning this particular challenge anyway. Joe might seem odd, since he’s potentially on the chopping block, but I also get where he’s coming from. He probably doesn’t want to seem a target, so dropping for food is a good idea, and given that Aubry and Debbie are the targets tonight, it’s probably in his best interest. Truthfully, I find Michele’s drop to be the most perplexing, since of those four, she seemed best placed to win it all, but since she’s also in the majority, I can’t fault her too much. Debbie and Aubry drop out soon afterward, which leads Nick to just step off of his perch. When questioned about it, he admits that the just stood up to avoid one of the old Chan Loh winning immunity, and now that that’s off the table there was no need to keep going, and dude the target on your back cannot get any bigger, stop painting new circles! Seriously, if there was evidence this show’s faked, it’s just how often people set up their own downfall! HUBRIS!

It comes down to a pretty touching showdown between Tai and Cydney. Tai’s been struggling this whole time, while Cydney remains rock-solid. Tai starts praying to Buddha, and it evidently works, since Cydney collapses not long after. It’s a nice little scene, and even though I’m still in the Aubry-camp, it’s nice to see Tai win something.

So we head back to camp, and Jason and Nick talk about how they have the plan locked down, which naturally means they DON’T actually have the plan locked down. And the source of their downfall is, unsurprisingly, Nick’s arrogance. For all that the guy talks about being a “robot on the inside”, and always making the smartest move, he really seems to have a soft spot for Aubry. Not that I blame the guy, but he wants to keep her around, informs Aubry of the split vote, and urges her to vote for Debbie instead. I get what he’s going for here: save a number for himself down the road should things get rocky. However, revealing your plan to the enemy is always risky, and it backfires big time here.

Case in point, Cydney is now tired of Nick’s arrogance, as well as his loose lips. She pulls Aubry and Debbie aside, getting them on board with voting out Nick. We clearly see that Nick’s desire to work with Aubry is not reciprocated, as both she and Debbie immediately agree to the plan. As well they should, since they’re on the outs. Hell, it’s DEBBIE who seems the most cut up about voting out Nick, presumably because having her eye candy on the jury isn’t good enough. Still, she does the sensible thing and go along with it. What is NOT sensible is who is suggesting this. Jumping ahead a bit, this new “women’s alliance” ultimately consists of Debbie, Aubry, Cydney, Julia, Michele, and Joe (evidently grandfathered in somehow). Of these people, the only one for whom it DOESN’T make sense to vote out Nick is Cydney. Debbie, Aubry, and Joe are on the outs, so of course any foothold they can get, they need to take. While it’s a bit hard to gauge the totem pole dynamics of the old merge alliance, given how tight Tai was with the old To Tang, as well as To Tang being fire-forged allies, those four were probably going to the end, meaning Michele and Julia were likely on the bottom of the alliance. Barring an old Gondol coalition, they didn’t really have any power, and now that Jason and Scot are making themselves look nicer, one of the main incentives to stick with that alliance (that they’d be easier to beat) is now gone. Cydney, however, had a pretty much guaranteed finale spot, and loses that and becomes a flipper by targeting Nick. Point being, there’s very little upside to this for Cydney. It shows you, though, how one’s social prowess matters in this game. Nick was so arrogant, so annoying, that people would put themselves in a disadvantageous position just to get him out. Take note, future players.

I’ve already effectively spoiled the outcome, but for the sake of argument, let me admit that the misdirection here was pretty good. Granted, after all of that built up arrogance, there was no way anyone other than Nick was going tonight, but Michele does a good bit of waffling here (Julia waffles by proxy). Michele, while she doesn’t trust Nick, thinks he might be good to hang onto for a while, so we head off to Tribal Council with about as much uncertainty about the vote as you’d expect.

Note for note, this is basically a repeat of the Chan Loh Tribal Council back in episode 3, but that hardly makes it boring. We get a lot of good sound-bytes, the two notable ones being Aubry referring to herself as “John Cochran’s dream girl.”, and Debbie paraphrasing “Star Wars” when voting for Nick. Credit where credit is due, Debbie, Aubry, and Joe play their parts well, acting very down about being outnumbered, but not so much that they’ve given up hope. Just what you’d expect from people in their situation. Following in the footsteps of Peter, though we get some major slip-ups at Tribal Council. Two, actually. The first, as you’d expect, comes from Nick, Jason, and Scot talking about how they’re in control, and that there will be no blindside at all tonight. Look, guys, even if you think you’re in control, telling those out of the loop that they’re being targeted is not a good thing. At best, it engenders ill will towards you, and at worst, it reveals your hand and lets people flip the script on you. Our second mistake, oddly, comes from Tai, who usually carries himself very well at these Tribal Council. Prost gets him talking about the idol, which is fine, but tai then slips up and reveals the “super idol” twist for the season, currently known only to himself, Scot, Jason, and juror Neal. That, Tai, is a pretty big secret you’ve kept from everyone. Revealing it now only makes people mistrust you, and be afraid of your power. Sure enough, Julia and Michele look askance at that bit of information. Tai does his best to backtrack, making up a fairly convincing lie about how that information might have been a lie in and of itself, but the damage is done.

I can’t say that Tai’s lie was a factor in the ultimate flip of Michele and Julia, since that decision could easily have been made Pre-Tribal Council, but it certainly didn’t help matters. As I’ve made no pains to hide, Nick leaves, and I am THRILLED! Sure, we could see it coming, but it’s always nice to watch a well-paid-off switch of alliance. Plus, while Nick did have more strategic moments than I thought he would, he was just so arrogant most of the time that it’s a pretty satisfying exit. Especially with how it was built up. While the bulk of the strategizing happened after the immunity challenge, as you’d expect, the editors did an excellent job sprinkling bits of info to help us see both sides of the decision. Cydney commenting on Jason’s likeability, Julia commenting on Scot’s endearing qualities, Michele talking about not liking Nick. Point being, while subtle, we were being led in this direction from the very beginning, and that makes for a great episode! Predictable, yes, but fun to watch and well-edited. Sometimes, that’s all you need.

Before leaving, though, there’s one other point of chaos that needs to be addressed. The votes ultimately came down six for Nick (hence why splitting the votes made no difference), two for Aubry, courtesy of Scot and Jason, one for Debbie, courtesy of Nick, and a vote for Jason. That Jason vote seemed out of left field to me, and I questioned who it was that cast that particular vote. In the end, it turned out to be Tai, which seemed odd to me. I get that it was a chaotic Tribal Council to a certain degree, and Tai may have sensed the way the wind was blowing, but if you think your alliance is on the bottom, why vote for the guy who can help with the super idol? Seems strange to me. My guess is that Tai jumped ship, but badly. He guessed that Jason would be the target, and rather than end up in the minority, he chose to save himself by trying to get in good with the new dominant alliance. Still, I’m not committed to the idea. Other options include Tai simply being confused (an unlikely scenario, from what we’ve seen of Tai), and Tai being crazy like a fox, and throwing out a mystery vote just to shake things up, and hopefully save himself down the road. None of these makes it the smart move for Tai, but it should make next episode very interesting.

-Matt

Title credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 7: The Return of the Knee

Why must the things I love always get stupid knee infections that require being pulled from the game? Yes, just when you’d thought we’d seen the end of the four-peats on “Survivor”, Jonathan Penner (“Survivor Cook Islands”) comes back with a vengeance, and takes it out on poor Neal. Penner at least had the decency to wait until Neal would end up on the jury to wreak havoc, but it’s still not very nice. Shame on you, Penner.

But first, time for another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Yes, I’m really on a roll here! Two episodes in a row where I made a mistake in my blog! Rather than a mistake of omission this time, it’s a mistake of misremembering, so at least there’s some variety there. When talking about Debbie’s “Women’s alliance” move with Michele, I say that they agree to go against Nick. Who they actually target is Jason. I wonder how I could possibly have made that mistake, given that Nick’s been getting the “douchbag” portrayal, and apart from some bullying, Jason’s been getting a pretty good edit thus far. Plus, Michele has personal conflict with Nick. Why would I EVER assume that Nick would be targeted before Jason. But now, once again, it’s Penner Time.

Yes, Penner ultimately does a number on the old Chan Loh, but he’s not the only one. Chaos reigns at the new Gondol post-Tribal Council, as you’d expect given how chaotic it was. Scot in particular is unhappy with the outcome, which makes sense given his “No Nonsense” sort of personality. However, he first takes his rage out on Joe for voting against the plan, which is odd, since Joe never seemed to be IN on that plan. These are the sort of things we ought to SEE, producers! Fortunately for Joe, he’s not the only one to be on the receiving end of a Scot rant. No, despite the fact that Aubry ultimately DID WHAT YOU WANTED, Scot thinks her waffling is too much to bear. A bit of an overreaction, but I can at least see his logic. As I said, Scot is not a complicated guy, and wants everything to stay simple. This move of Aubry’s is anything but simple. In her defense, I will say that she might legitimately have been confused, given the chaos of Tribal Council, but I do get Scot’s idea. Still, he’s being harsh, and starts earning that “bully” title that he and Jason have been wearing of late. He’s particularly mean in saying that, come next Tribal Council, he’ll be writing down “Aubry” and “Joe” alternately, and then crossing out all but his actual vote. That’s just harsh. Aubry and Joe both realize the predicament they’re in, lamenting that now they don’t have the numbers. Yep, if we didn’t know the merge was coming, this would be particularly bad!

Just to pile on the “royally screwed” for the old Chan Loh, we see a scene of Neal “fishing” with a saw. This in and of itself is nothing special, but Cydney breaks her silence to have a keen observation. There’s a noticeable bulge in Neal’s pocket, and given that we see that he’s not mad keen on working with the old To Tang, I doubt he’s happy to see you. She and Jason correctly conclude that it’s an idol. Since they plan on working against the old Chan Loh, blindsiding Neal becomes a top priority. While Neal didn’t hide the idol somewhere other than his person will forever remain a mystery.

In a stunning twist, however, the whole of the new Chan Loh is blindsided! A strange boat approaches shore, and a note tells them to gather their things in five minutes, since a merge is nigh! Just as we were told! Remember back in the old days, when the merge would come up in really unexpected and exciting ways, where each one was unique? Well, those days are gone, and the merge is just a ho-hum event now. Granted, the edition of a time limit in gathering things is nice, but we’ve seen it before, and we don’t get any real chaos from this one, so what was the point?

Evidently the two beaches are just a commercial break away, as everyone gathers on the Gondol Beach for the merge, Aubry celebrating her new life in this game. During the usual “How nice! The merge!” confessionals, we learn that the tribe’s name is Dara. Evidently we only get one good name every now and again, because after the triumph of a name that was “Orkun”, we now get something as simple and lame as “Dara”. Wow, that’s REALLY lazy and unmemorable. Come on, make your new tribe name something UNIQUE already! What’s worse, we don’t even get any sort of logic behind this new name! Is it the name of someone’s loved one? An actual word in K’hmer? Nonsense made up because it sounds funny? Was someone just a really big fan of Darrah Johnson from “Survivor Pearl Islands”, and just couldn’t spell her name right? Give me some answers here!

Sigh… Well, at least their flag looks cool when we see it.

As is now the norm with this cast, everything seems cordial at the merge feast. Flirtation abounds, as Debbie confesses her feelings towards Nick, and more humorously, Scot and Jason get in a joking fight over the affections of Tai. Ok, I’m going to be giving this episode a REALLY hard time later, so let me say for the record that this particular scene is great and hilarious. Definitely the highlight of the episode.

Sadly, as it always must, the bliss of the new merge ends. Unsurprisingly, resident douchebag Nick is the one to bring us back to our senses by being a douchebag and talking about how awesome and observant he is. Unlike last episode, at least at first, his observations seem to be a bit off the mark. He talks about the arrogance of the old To Tang, and while we do see a BIT of that later, we initially get that confessional over the comedic “Tai flirtation” scene, which doesn’t really seem arrogant at all.

The next scene doesn’t really give us arrogance either! Stupidity, perhaps, but not arrogance. Up until this point, while perhaps a bit blunt and unforgiving, Scot could be said to be playing a smart game, making the moves he needs to make and keeping everything on the down-low. Here, after being informed by Jason of the “Neal has an idol!” thing, Scot spills the beans to Nick AFTER BARELY KNOWING HIM! Sure, Nick’s made it pretty clear that he wants to go with them, but Scot can’t really know that, and that’s a BIG secret to share with someone who’s loyalty has yet to be tested, guy! Surely, though, Jason is better than this, and won’t be spilling even more beans to to Nick…

Oh wait, scratch that, Jason wants on the stupid train as well! He gets Scot talking about Tai’s idol, and the power they have. So now, you’re giving Nick even more power! Great work there, brain trust! Between that and your asshole-y “Shoving geeks in lockers.” comment later on, you guys are really dropping every ball this evening. First the strategy ball, and now the likability ball.

Sure enough, while he plays everything close to the chest, Nick DOES go and talk to the old Chan Loh, considering the fact that, as Neal points out, the old To Tang members are more likely to win individual challenges, and as Aubry later points out, are a tight threesome, whereas the old Chan Loh has more room to maneuver into. It’s actually a pretty decent dilemma, though it would at first seem odd that it’s the old Gondol that’s being wooed by both sides. Logic dictates that when you have two foursomes and a threesome, that you try and woo the threesome to get a majority. In this case, however, it makes sense that the old Gondol, rather than the old To Tang, would be the swing votes. After all, while the old Gondol is tied for most original tribe members left, they’re a fractious bunch, whereas the old To Tang and the old Chan Loh are both pretty united fronts. Thus, not only do you not need to swing all of them, but they’re overall an easier bunch to swing. It’s pretty standard gameplay, but as I’ve said before, after blogging seasons like “Survivor One World”, it’s nice to see groups of people collectively doing the sensible thing.

But enough with Nick, where does Michele stand on this? After all, she’s the other swing vote. You’d think, especially given how tight they were before the swap, that Michele and Julia would stick as swing votes together, but Julia for this entire episode is counted as a number for To Tang, and we never hear anything to the contrary. I guess one vote buys eternal loyalty now. Jason tries to woo Michele and Julia, and it’s here that we get the aforementioned “Geeks in lockers.” comment. Now Jason’s being somewhat arrogant, but Nick’s confessionals are nowhere to be found. Now, it’s sounding like Jason thinks his side is the obvious one, and he’s got the game all figured out. Not as much arrogance as we’ll be seeing later, but it’s enough to get Michele questioning her loyalties. As she puts it “She’s not married to Brawn and Beauty just yet.”

Meanwhile, back in Nick-land (yes, sadly we spend the majority of our time here this episode. Curse you swing vote!), we actually get some stuff that’s only TANGENTIALLY related to Nick, instead of directly. Basically, Debbie wants to make sure that her group stays in the majority, and this means finding allies wherever she can. Rather than be fully confident in Nick, she tries to gain other allies, which is good. But then she goes about it in a moronic way, which as you might guess, isn’t good at all. She basically ambushes Tai, and effectively tells him “We’re in an alliance now.” Tai, naturally, is put off by this, thereby ruining any chance he had of flipping. Granted, those chances were minimal to begin with, since he and Scot seem to have something going, but still, nice work, Debbie. She calls it “Aggressive Play”. Pretty much everyone else calls it “Horrible Play” And Debbie had been doing so well, too! Look, it’s not that looking for allies is bad, but you want to keep it on the down-low, and have it be by mutual consent. By strong-arming people, you turn them off to working with you. By being blatant about making new allies, you turn your old ones against you. Silent backup plans are one thing, but blatant fraternizing with the enemy only serves to weaken your position.

Oh, but Debbie isn’t done! She must COMPOUND the stupidity by basically doing the same thing to Nick, a guy you were masterfully stringing along one episode ago! WHY?!

Yes folks, after a long hiatus, we’ve returned to genuinely stupid gameplay. I’ve resisted “Coach” (“Survivor Tocantins”) comparisons a lot on this blog, in large part because everyone has already made them, but also because I haven’t felt them appropriate. Yes, they’re both people sort of on the fringe of sanity with some decent gameplay in them, but Debbie doesn’t seem as publicly self-aggrandizing as Coach ever did, and her stories, while still a bit ludicrous, are much more plausible than Coach’s. Here, though, Debbie goes full Coach. There’s no other comparison. Talking about how no one is playing on the level you are? Strong-arming people who don’t need to be strongarmed? Find me a better fit than Coach.

Still, one good thing does come of Debbie’s return to madness: Aubry comes into her own!

Yep, someone needs to do damage control, and that someone is Aubry. Taking her own initiative, she talks to Nick on her own, vainly trying to convince him that Debbie can be controlled, and that he and Michele would be way up in the alliance. Nick’s certainly willing to listen, and even seems to respect the pitch, but isn’t biting overall. Aubry relays this info to her ally Neal, now that the two have reconnected. All seems lost, until Neal reveals his idol to Aubry. At this point, given how much of a mess Debbie’s made, it’s highly unlikely that Nick and Michele can be pulled back into the fold, so while I’m never a fan of “idol play” as the main plan, I can see why it would be attractive and a good idea here.

We could move on to the challenge, but I want to spend another paragraph talking about Aubry. I know, I know, it’s blatant favoritism for my favorite player from this season, but it’s my blog, I get to do that. Plus, I think it merits mentioning. I’ve seen a number of people online saying that Aubry has no chance, that she’s just a wallflower who hasn’t really done anything. And it’s true, we haven’t seen as much of her as some others, because she’s not as big a character, but she’s far from done nothing, and I use this particular interaction with Nick as evidence. While it sadly seems to take a lot to get Aubry moving into more of a “game mode”, when the chips are down, this girl gets stuff done! Give her a tough situation, and she steps up to the plate and does everything in her power to swing things in her favor. In many ways, that’s harder to do than creating a blindside when you’re in power, since you have despair to contend with along with everything else. We haven’t seen as much of it beyond this episode (apart from her performance at the first immunity challenge), but you can tell it’s there, and that’s what makes me like her. She tackles adversity head-on, and won’t give up until she’s won or lost firmly, and that, above all else, is to be admired. And while she did act aloof when in power, and maybe could have handled the Peter boot slightly better, this shows that she can be quite an excellent social player when she wants to be.

Well, if I’m going to have MY indulgence, I’d better give Probst one as well. Hence, before we get to our immunity challenge, we get the “Infection Hour”, where Probst out of pretty much nowhere gets everyone talking about their infections. Tai, Scot, and Aubry all have infections on the inner thigh, while Neal has “Mount St. Neal” on his knee, which looks pretty bleak. Thank you, Probst, for showing us these out-of-the-blue injuries that weren’t built up at all and are pretty horrible to look at.

Oh, and we should also talk about this season’s individual immunity idol. Not as good as the tribal immunity idol, but that was a tough act to follow. This one does a pretty good job, being a circle of woven bands of tribe-colored string, but with some shrunken heads added for effect. A bit out there, and not the most stand-our idol ever, but it gets the job done pretty well. It sort of combines the best elements of the individual immunity idols from “Survivor Africa” and “Survivor Philippines” with the tribal immunity idol from “Survivor Exile Island”.

Ok, ok, so I’m stalling because I don’t want to talk about the immunity challenge! It’s SO BORING! It’s the damn “balance the balls on the disc” challenge that originated on “Survivor Redemption Island”. Already a bad sign, and made worse by the fact that it doesn’t look interesting the slightest, and is overused to the point of nausea. I get that it’s easy to make, challenging, and a nice endurance challenge, but REALLY, come up with something better.

At least we get a nice surprise in this one. With a challenge being about balance, you expect larger, top-heavy men to be first out of this one, and it somewhat holds true with Joe being the first casualty. But the Debbie falls, being outlasted by both Jason and Scot. Granted, they’re not far behind, but I had Debbie as a potential winner of this challenge. Guess those years of waitressing didn’t help out too much after all. And, in the end, Nick wins the whole thing, beating out Tai and Julia in the final round. Whodathunkit? Personally, I’d have picked either of those two over Nick.

Since Nick was a swing vote, his winning immunity doesn’t change anything, so it seems like the old To Tang will take it all this time around. And let me tell you, they REALLY kick it into high gear with the arrogance now, talking about how their plan can’t possibly fail, and they’re going to pick off the old Chan Loh one by one. Yeah, suffice to say that Jason and Scot really don’t look too good this episode, and if I didn’t have a HUGE dislike for them before, I do now.

That’s not to say, of course, that they aren’t somewhat justified in that arrogance. They do seem to be in the dominant position. Nick’s pretty much already declared his loyalty, such as it is, but Debbie and Aubry make another attempt to sway the opinion of Michele. Unfortunately, in a rare misstep for Aubry this episode, she lets Debbie do the talking. While Debbie doesn’t do QUITE as badly as she did with Tai and Nick, and Aubry does bring up a good point about the tightness of the old To Tang, they still come off looking wishy-washy, not helped when they can’t even decide whether to target Scot or Jason. Come on, Aubry, you can do better than this!

In one really good move for Nick, he and Michele discuss their strategy. Last time this happened, you’ll recall that Nick dismissed Michele’s thoughts out of hand, and alienated a potential ally. Neither of these things is really a good idea. Evidently, Nick can travel through time, somehow read this blog in the time between episodes, and took it to heart, because he plays this PERFECTLY! He politely asks Michele what she wants, agrees with her, and makes it like a discussion. And thus, the deal is set to send Aubry home, since the alliance doesn’t yet have the numbers to split the votes, and they’re certain that Aubry won’t have the idol. Pretty good misdirection as to whether or not Aubry will end up with idol, should make for a fun Tribal Council. Sad to see such a definitive answer to where Nick and Michele would go, but I can’t fault them for that decision. The old Chan Loh has not been presenting themselves well this episode, and it’s just smarter to go with the old To Tang. They may be united, but you can outthink them, and if you can unite, you’re four over three, which are pretty good odds. Plus, you’re sticking with your old tribemates, which is generally safer than going into the unknown.

But wait! We see Probst coming in with one Dr. Rupert (yeah, yeah, “He’s Rupert from ‘Survivor Pearl Islands’!”, everyone’s made that joke already), and right away, you can see where this episode is going. We were promised three medical evacuations, and we’ve only had one. Someone’s getting carted away, thus paving the way for a repeat of “Survivor Philippines”, with the returnees being exclusively from “Survivor Kaoh Rong”. And this, my friends, is where the episode dies. It hadn’t been the best before, with a lot of cocky arrogance making it hard to watch. While the dilemma of which side would win was a good one, it’s about to get neutered, making this episode pretty much pointless. On top of that, there was pretty much NO foreshadowing for this! And granted, I don’t like when they telegraph a boot, but I feel like medical evacuations are the place where we NEED some warning. Build up the spectacle through the entire episode. Don’t just mention it before the challenge, and then suddenly have it be the defining factor. This came out of the blue, and I don’t like it one bit. It renders most of the episode pointless, and delays the interesting conflict.

Everyone with an infection gets examined, with differing results. Tai’s look ok, so he’s safe. Scot’s is worse, but not too bad, so he just gets away with close monitoring. Aubry’s is like Scot’s but, bigger, so she gets put on antibiotics. With one medical evacuation still on the way, that’s pretty worrying, but she’s not leaving the game. The problem is Neal. Despite not feeling any pain, the infection is near the joint, which worries Dr. Rupert. To his credit, Neal does pretty much everything he can to avoid being pulled from the game. He protests, insists it’s fine, and only caves in when the doctor insists he has to leave. Thankfully, Probst largely leaves the proceedings alone for everyone, just making a clarifying comment after each examination. That’s the role he really needs to play here, and he does it well.

But yes, this means the loss of Neal, which is a sad one. We sadly didn’t see too much of Neal, and I get the feeling he’ll go down as a poorly-remembered player of the season, but I got the idea that he had more in him than we saw, and I hope we get the chance to develop it later.

Neal has a tearful goodbye with everyone, though he pulls a Colton Cumbie (“Survivor One World”), and opts to keep the idol for himself. I’d say that he did it because giving his alliance the idol would make them targets, but if J.T. can slip an idol into a freaking SHOE on “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains” without it being seen, then surely Neal can find a way to drop it in Aubry’s bag or something. Come on, dude, you know they’re in trouble! Find a way to help them out!

So basically, we had an unforeshadowed exit of a good player by unsatisfying means, thereby delaying all the good stuff for next episode. You see why this one doesn’t really work. Apart from the “good person leaving” part, this is pretty much a carbon-copy of the merge episode of “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, which, need I remind you, is NOT the season to copy! We have someone getting a non-gameplay elimination, thus delaying an interesting conflict in both. Is this one as bad as the one on “Survivor San Juan del Sur”? Thankfully no. There, we had a quit rather than a medevac, which is harder to watch, and the arrogance here wasn’t AS painful, so points there. That does not, however, a good episode make.

Fortunately, there are two good points this time around. First off, the rise of Aubry is fun to watch, and will hopefully continue to be fun to watch! I’d like to think she can find a way out of this, but I don’t see one at the moment. Second, though, the debate of which side to go with can now continue into next episode, and as we saw in “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, that can make all the difference.

But, since it’s merge time, it’s time for another:

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5!

Since they’re what the episode SHOULD have been about, let’s talk medevacs. Hardly the most pleasant part of the show, and things that should be avoided at all costs, they can nevertheless make for the occasional spectacle that reminds us of the seriousness of the environment. While I don’t wish harm on anyone, in a perverse way, they can be entertaining. Therefore, I’ll be judging these medevacs based on entertainment value. For me, that comes down to a combination of the spectacle of their injury, plus the person it’s happening to and their reaction to it. Again, it’s perverse, but it’s human nature. Like a car crash, you can’t look away. Also, if this person appeared on multiple seasons, I’ll be listing the one they were on when they got evacuated for them. Let’s get started with…

TOP 5

5. Bruce Kanegai (“Survivor Exile Island”): People tend to forget that medevacs were rare back in the day, let alone seeing medical. When Bruce’s colon became blocked, it was the first time in five years that medical had to come out and look at someone. That alone made it stand out, but the fact that it happened to Bruce made it rougher. Like the guy for his quirkiness or hate him for how entitled and bossy he could be, you had to agree that Bruce was pretty stoic. The man got his lip chopped in half and brushed it off! So, when he was keeling over in pain, you knew it was serious. Not as serious as the other stuff that’ll be on this list, since this one was harder to see for the audience, but still pretty serious. What really lands it on this list, though, is the reaction of everyone else upon Bruce’s leaving. As I said, Bruce was a real love-or-hate character, and he was definitely not universally popular amongst his fellow contestants. In a case of not speaking ill of the proverbially dead, though, everyone gave nice, touching thoughts on Bruce, and even cleaned his rock garden for him. How sweet.

4. Russell Swan (“Survivor Samoa”): A member of my alma mater, and member of the dominant tribe of the season (at least pre-merge), Russell was a hard guy to hate. He was tough, and while he made mistakes, he was generally a good leader. When we heard someone would nearly DIE on the show, no one expected him. But a combination of unending rain and an undying work ethic dehydrated Russell to the point of collapse, and that shocked pretty much everyone, even ultimately ending a reward challenge due to the seriousness of it. We’d never really seen anyone that close to death on the show before, and it therefore becomes seared into one’s brain, earning it this spot on the list. It was creepy enough seeing Russell pass out when medical was there, but seeing it the first time, when you didn’t know what was going on, that was real terror. And, in many ways on this list, that’s actually kind of a good thing.

3. Caleb Reynolds (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”): This one’s pretty simple: Caleb took what happened with Russell and upped the drama immensely. True, Russell in some ways did seem closer to death than Caleb, by being still rather than convulsing, but Caleb still seemed pretty near death, and in this case, misery loves company. Things got serious for Russell, but with Caleb, Cydney, and Debbie all going down, everyone had to be on duty. As I said in my episode 4 blog, this was a great show of professionalism by the production team, and it was neat to see them come together like this. I’m glad Caleb’s ok, and that his spectacle was enough to put him up here on the list.

2. Jonathan Penner (“Survivor Micronesia”): What this one lacks in the seriousness of others, it makes up for in foreshadowing and emotion. Unlike most other medical evacuations, we had pretty much an episode and a half of buildup for this one, so we really got to take in the story. But the real kicker, though, is the emotion. They pull out the sad music, the tearful interviews, the breakdowns from his tribe. For whatever reason, production pulled out all the stops in the tear-jerker that is the exit of Jonathan Penner. And it WORKS! Man, you really feel like this is a huge loss, even though Penner probably would have been voted out sooner rather than later. With the possible exception of the number one spot, Penner being pulled for a hole in his knee is the most emotional of medical evacuations, and earns the right to be on this list.

1. Michael Skupin (“Survivor The Australian Outback”): Sometimes less is more, and the only thing production could do to make Mike’s fall in the fire more dramatic than putting music over it was, oddly enough, to do nothing. Alone on this list, this one just lets the drama play out. All the game is put on hold, all attempts to hide production gone, the seriousness just gets to play out for a good long time. And then, even when Mike gets away safely on a helicopter, we get more tear-jerking scenes of everyone on the Kucha tribe crying/rallying at the loss of Mike. Hell, even the Ogakor tribe, the ENEMY of Mike Skupin, gets in on the action, that’s just how serious and heart-rending it is! It stands out, was extremely serious, and has a lot of heart. There’s good reason this is one of the most-remembered moments in the history of the show, as well as top of this list.

Honorable Mention: Shamar Thomas (“Survivor Caramoan”): Yeah, this one may be hard to remember, but Shamar was taken out, not for being annoying, but for a sore eye that was somehow deathly serious. Low stakes and barely foreshadowed, this one by rights should be on the “Bottom 5” list. However, it’s happening to Shamar, who pretty much everyone universally wanted to see suffer, so I’ll give it an honorable mention for schadenfreude.

BOTTOM 5

5. Joe Dowdle (“Survivor Tocantins”): I’m probably being a bit harsh here, since this one WAS adequately foreshadowed, and was at least as serious as the aforementioned Penner evacuation. In fact, it was EXACTLY as serious, being an infection near the knee. So, what makes this one different? Well, apart from the editing team not giving us as many tear-jerking moments as Penner got, do you honestly remember Joe as a contestant, let alone his manner of leaving? I thought so. This one isn’t bad by any standards, but just so forgettable that it has to go on the list.

4. Neal Gottlieb (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”): It seems that those who follow in the footsteps of Penner are doomed to mediocrity. A lack of foreshadowing puts this knee infection higher than Joe’s, and the loss of a great character really hits me personally. At least we get to see Neal on the jury.

3. Gary “Papa Smurf” Stritesky (“Survivor Fiji”): Up until this point, medevacs were treated with a lot of reverence. They took up a whole episode, and honored the memory of the fallen contestant. This one basically said “Screw it, we’re moving on anyway!” Gary left with very little fanfare, which is a shame, since he was a likable guy, and the only non-recruit in the cast. On top of that, his reason for leaving turned out to be incredibly lame. It was general shortness of breath, which turned out to be caused by an allergic reaction to bug bites. BUG BITES! When you have had people downed by third-degree burns and blocked intestines, this one just seems lame by comparison. The fact that it’s basically an afterthought for the show itself is the icing on this awful cake, and a real sad ending for one of the few likable elements of the season.

2. Dana Lambert (“Survivor Philippines”): Interesting fact: Dana is the only woman to be medevaced in the history of the show. Perhaps they’re not as foolhardy as others. Sad to say, Dana does not do her gender justice. Dana was downed by some sort of jungle illness, already not the most dramatic way to go out of the game. What’s frustrating about this one, though, is the fact that Dana didn’t NEED to go then! Of all the medical evacuations, she was the only one who insisted medical take her when they said she could stay. I try not to be too judgmental of people who dare to do this show, but that’s just an insult! Were it not for the number one spot being so horrible, this show of unemotional weakness would take it!

1. Colton Cumbie (“Survivor One World”): Since the tragic and unfortunate death of Caleb Bankstown (“Survivor Blood vs. Water”), I’ve tried to leave Colton alone, since I feel like the poor guy has suffered enough, and doesn’t need some asshole on the internet tearing him down further. Unfortunately, I just can’t find a reason NOT to put Colton’s “Medical Evacuation” on this list. I use quotation marks since there’s debate about whether or not Colton faked appendicitis to leave the game, thinking he couldn’t win. I tend to discount this, since Colton was in a good position anyway, and didn’t really have a reason to want to leave the game, but I feel the controversy should be acknowledged. This one being the worst really centers around the person it happened to. Essentially, Colton annoyingly tantrummed his way into power, ran the game, and then left in an unsatisfying manner. There’s no emotion there because pretty much no one liked Colton at this point. We wanted him gone, sure, but we wanted him voted off in a satisfying manner, not this! This really was just the final insult in a season full of insults. Colton, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry for the harsh words. I’m trying to be nice to you, since I feel like you’ve had to endure a lot because of this show, but I have to call them like I see them, and your leaving the season was just the worst.

Honorable Mention: James Clement (“Survivor Micronesia”): This one has emotion and some foreshadowing, and really should be on the “Top 5” list. Unfortunately, it has the problem of coming after Penner’s exit on the same season, and without all the bells and whistles that Penner’s exit got, just feels like a second-rate rehash of a better plot. Not so bad that it needs to be on the “Bottom 5” list proper, but must still be acknowledged.

As I say, this wasn’t a good episode for the season, but hopefully, good things will come, and it doesn’t ruin the season by any stretch. Keep your glasses raised for next week!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 6: Bi-Winning

Hoo baby! Five for six excellent episodes, and you could even argue for a clean sweep! Not quite as good as the record of “Survivor Cambodia”, but given that that season was effectively an “All-Star” season, and therefore more likely to have crazy gameplay, that’s quite a record. Seasons that come after seasons with many returnees tend to be seen as, at best, “Not as good.” by the fanbase. Look at “Survivor Vanuatu”, “Survivor Gabon”, and “Survivor Nicaragua” for examples of this. However, while I would not yet go so far as to say that “Survivor Kaoh Rong” is in that echelon yet (currently I’m putting it around the “Survivor Philippines” level of “above average”), it’s still holding its own very well, and is definitely a good season. Much better than how it was advertised pre-season anyway. As you’d expect, this episode keeps that pattern running, with yet another winner. But before we can delve into the awesomeness that is this episode, we must linger a little longer in the awesomeness that was last episode. Yes, after a long absence, it is time once again for…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Yes, I neglected to mention two points last episode, both good ones. One was just a small humorous moment I neglected to acknowledge. Upon entering the immunity challenge, Michele attempts to stop on the Gondol mat, since it was her original tribe, and has to be corrected by Nate. A small, but funny moment. Not a huge loss in the grand scheme of things, but still worth pointing out. More importantly, though, I neglected to compliment the editing team on a nice bit of work last episode. You’ll recall that one of the main mysteries was whether or not Tai would play his idol. Naturally, this needed to be built up, and man did they ever at Tribal Council! They held on Tai for so long, played the dramatic music, and really made it seem like he would play it, making the surprise when he did it all the better! It occurs to me that, second only to the quality of the cast, the quality of the editing may be a major determining factor in the quality of a season. After all, you keep the mystery alive, and the show becomes all the more intriguing. This is just one major example of it, but the editing team overall has given us a very unpredictable season, and it only serves to improve things!

But enough dwelling in the past, let’s talk about how great this episode opener is! Rather than engage in the usual boot-bashing upon returning from Tribal Council, everyone hugs Tai and bonds over their liking of each other. Some may see this as a weakness of this season, but I really like the fact that despite how conniving these people can be, very few seem to take it personally, and all seem to get along very well. They aren’t mean, and it makes things a lot easier to watch, as well as to root for this group of people.

Save, perhaps, for arrogant, flip-flop-y Peter. Yes, now that Tribal Council is over, he thinks “Hey, I’m on the bottom of the old Chan Loh. Perhaps I ought to do something about that!” Why he didn’t do this last episode when it would have been much easier for him to get the numbers is beyond me, but hey, better late than never. He pulls Tai aside under the pretext of further congratulations, and slips in his plan to vote out Joe. Ok, Peter, it’s bad enough that you’re thinking of the correct plan for you literally one day late, but now you’re also targeting the wrong person! Don’t get me wrong, as an Aubry fan, I applaud you not targeting her, but she’s the smarter move. Joe is weaker in general, and seems to have the LEAST power out of anyone in the alliance. If you’re trying to weaken the old Chan Loh, Aubry is clearly the correct choice. You even figure this out later! How can you not see it now! Tai seems to go along with it, and we store that bit of insanity away for later.

Meanwhile, over at Chan Loh, we get what is quickly becoming our standard “Nick talks about how well he plays the game.” confessional, though to his credit, this one is less arrogant than most of his. Basically, he talks about how he pitches himself to the level of the person he’s interacting with to get results, which is fair enough strategy. As an example, he talks about Debbie, and how, since she thinks of herself as the greatest thing since sliced bread, all he has to do is play along with that. Not a bad example, since Debbie does seem to have an ego, but careful there, Nick! As the audience found out the hard way, Debbie is not to be underestimated. For all that ego, she may snake you yet.

For her part, though, Debbie isn’t looking at Nick too closely. At least, not in the right way. Debbie thinks Nick is attractive, which personally I don’t see. Maybe it’s because he comes across as obviously a scuzball in person as he does on screen, but I don’t see it. He’s got a strong chin I suppose, but something about him just looks off. But hey, don’t take my word for it! After all, Debbie knows what good looks are, since she did some modeling in the past. And, right on cue, up comes the Debbie caption, now with “part-time model” listed as an occupation. Once again: Editors. You’re doing it right!

Nick plays into Debbie’s attraction to him, and we find our tree-mail, which indicates that the challenge this time will be something basketball-related. Not being idiots, Chan Loh realizes they’re going up against Scot, and this puts them at a bit of a disadvantage. Nick, however, takes the positive view. He’s going to be the basket-shooter for Chan Loh, and by going up against Scot, the pressure’s off for him. If he loses, no big deal. He was against an NBA player, of course he’d lose. If he WINS, though, it’s a big freaking deal. That’s… actually exactly the right attitude to have. Yeah, I’ve been giving Nick a hard time, but he actually plays really well in this particular segment. Credit where credit is due, he actually hits all the right notes this one time. Don’t worry, though, douchebag Nick is not far off!

We get to the challenge, which is an interesting combination of challenges from “Survivor Micronesia” and “Survivor Cagayan”. One tribe member dives to untie a series of knots to release 30 buoys from the ocean floor. They and three other tribe members must then herd the buoys to shore and place them on shelves. Afterwards, the remaining two tribe members try to shoot those buoys into a basket, first tribe to 10 winning a nice picnic. It is a combination challenge, and I admit the basketball part feels lackluster and unfair, due to Scot’s presence. Then again, since when did “fairness” enter “Survivor”? Besides, they did the same thing on “Survivor Cagayan” with Cliff Robinson, and the buoy herding part is pretty neat. Plus, if you’re going to combine challenges from two seasons, it’s hard to find a better combination than “Survivor Micronesia” and “Survivor Cagayan”.

Julia rejoins the game at this juncture, heading back to Gondol. This does become important a bit later, but for now there’s no reaction, so it’s not important. What IS important is that, once again, this is a very close race between the tribes. After many seasons where, post-swap, one tribe utterly dominates the other, it’s nice to see an even competition at this point. Gondol takes an early lead due to Aubry’s diving skills, and keeps it up the beach. However, Scot proves to not be as good as you’d think, as Nick catches and ultimately surpasses him. Scot eventually gets his mojo back, though, and eventually manages to clinch this tense challenge, becoming Charlie Sheen in the process and yelling out “Winning!” at the end. Ugh! As if we needed to be reminded of THAT bit of unpleasantness!

We join the ever-jubilant Gondol on reward, and it’s NOW that we get to hear from Julia. She’s happy to be going back to the familiar, not too surprisingly, but she’s also not an idiot. With Anna gone, she realizes that she’s probably in trouble. Worse, she’s been out of the loop, with no obvious way in. After all, Tai’s her only original tribemate left, and he wasn’t exactly tight with her. Luckily for her, Peter the Uncertain is there to make it all better! He pulls her out into the water, and informs her of his plan to turn against the old Chan Loh. What’s more, he NOW figures out that, despite his personal feelings towards Joe, Aubry might be the smart one to take out. Julia, for her part, seems happy not to be the only target available, and with Scot seemingly in with Tai, things seem set in motion.

Not that Aubry and Joe are blind, of course. After all, they seem socially more adept than Peter. However, in their security, they seem to be making an error. Often, during the first part of this episode, we see them going off and conversing by themselves, separating from the tribe. Even if you’re in power, this is a big no-no. It separates you socially and strategically from where you need to be, and can easily set a coup in motion, like it seems to be doing now. Seeing Peter converse with a whole bunch of people, Aubry and Joe are suspicious, but for now, Aubry thinks that keeping the numbers is more important, and agrees that Julia needs to leave. Things are not looking good for the pair.

As he predicted, Nick is hailed as a hero back at Chan Loh, despite his not winning the challenge. He came close against the pro NBA player, and that’s enough. Unfortunately, he’s not the only one at fault. Michele struggled on the knots, and that crucial bit of time might have been the learning curve Nick needed. On top of that, while Nick was on the bottom of the old Gondol, and thus is relatively unaffected by the loss of Anna, Michele was closely allied with her, so her exit means Michele just lost a lot of stock in the game. Naturally, this combination of events puts Michele in a bit of a funk, and at first it seems like that might be her undoing. She goes out into the water and sulks for a bit. Debbie sees this, and makes a comment about making sure she doesn’t kill herself. WHOA! Dick move there, Debbie! That’s really not the sort of thing you joke about! Fortunately, Michele pulls herself together, and starts playing this game strategically. Seemingly abandoning the whole “Old Gondol” thing, she talks to Debbie about not liking Nick, and wanting to stick together. Debbie agrees, noting that she wants a woman to win this thing. She’s been saying this a lot, and it actually makes sense. Apart from the women overall being much better players than the men this time around, it’s a way of feeling out potential alliance mates, and even setting up a pseudo-alliance, without actually betraying anybody. After all, if she gets caught, she didn’t technically make any promises.

But enough of the interesting stuff! Are you ready for DOUCHEBAG NICK! Yes, introducing Douchebag Nick is the lovely and talented Michele Fitzgerald. She’s going up to him like an equal, offering him the possibility of sticking with the old Chan Loh. Ah, but here’s a trademark move of Douchebag Nick: Being dismissive of others! Yes, Douchebag Nick is not considering her opinion at all! Not even a little! He’s flat-out telling her that they’re going with the old To Tang! Granted, that’s the smart move at this point, since the old Chan Loh is much more united, but that’s not the way you win friends and influence people, Douchebag Nick! Yep, there’s Michele making a face at it. Seems like she’ll go along with it for now, but she doesn’t really need Nick at this point, and might turn on him. Now, THERE’s an interesting storyline developing! After all, while all sides at the new Chan Loh are brokering for each other, Debbie’s really the only one going for both the women and the men on each side. Could that mean the difference down the line? Only time will tell.

You may have noticed that the promised blow-up of Joe at Peter seen the last “Next time on…” preview hasn’t been seen yet. Well, wait not longer! After Peter goes off to obviously talk with yet ANOTHER person outside the old Chan Loh, Joe loses it. We’ve seen that Peter has a problem with Joe, so Joe suspects that Peter is up to something. Thus, Joe goes to have a conversation to try and figure out if Peter’s flipping or not. This is actually a good idea. If Peter’s not going to be loyal, than it’s worth considering getting him out. What’s NOT a good idea is how Joe goes about it. Namely, he gets very angry at Peter, becomes very confrontational, and ultimately forms a pretty big rift between the two. Granted, this method does get the results desired, since it becomes clear from Peter’s waffling on the question that he’s disloyal, but now you’ve lost some social points, and Peter knows you’re on to him. Better to go about these things subtly, Joe.

Anyway, we move on to our challenge, which once again seems set up to favor Scot, this time because of an emphasis on the height department. It’s an interesting take on your standard obstacle course. Tribes run over a spinning log before getting hurled up onto a net ramp. Then, they must untie poles to knock blocks off an overhead net (somewhat similar to “Survivor Blood vs. Water”, before stacking said blocks on a tiny platform, like on “Survivor Samoa”. First tribe to have all blocks stacked and standing free for three seconds wins immunity, which looks much less cool without its base. Not as good as the reward challenge, and combining elements from “Survivor Blood vs. Water” and “Survivor Samoa” is not as good as the aforementioned “Survivor Micronesia” and “Survivor Cagayan”. However, it’s original enough, and is once again very tense. What ultimately makes me pass it, though, is that the shade of blue they used brings back memories of “Survivor Guatemala”, and I really like “Survivor Guatemala”.

Despite having gained a lead on the block-pushing section, Peter’s insane “Put the small blocks on first!” idea ultimately leads to a narrow loss for Gondol. Fortunately, this is a situation where both tribes had good strategizing scenes, so it came as a surprise, and doesn’t feel disappointing. As if Peter’s constant flip-flopping wasn’t bad enough, after an Aubry-incited reconciliation from Joe, Peter now thinks that sticking with the old Chan Loh is a good idea. WHY? Peter, they’re not going to let you get too far in this game! Flip now while you have the chance! Let there be no firm alliances come the merge so you can have the swing vote! Be sensible! But no, Peter tells Scot what the deal is, and so Scot confers with Julia and Tai. Like they should have done LAST episode with Anna, the three try to figure out a way to get Peter off, since he’s annoying everyone, and is therefore likely to be wanted out by the other Chan Loh. Despite their earlier confrontation, Joe is ruled out due to being to loyal. That leaves Aubry. Since Peter targeted Aubry with Julia, they think she might be their swing vote. Accordingly, Tai and Julia take a walk with Aubry, and fill her in. Aubry takes the information to heart, which makes everyone else believe that she won’t go for it, and that Julia’s gone. Privately, Aubry’s considering it, since Peter’s targeting her makes him more of a threat. Joe, however, is having none of it, saying he’s tired of this wishy-washy-ness. Um, Joe? Correct me if I’m wrong, but WHO was it who, not two commercial breaks ago, was wanting Peter out with every fiber of their being? Oh, that’s right, YOU! I really don’t get where he’s coming from. He’s had beef with Peter, but it’s not ok when Aubry does? Seems a bit hypocritical there, buddy.

So of course, heading off to Tribal Council, the question is whether or not Aubry will flip, and whether it’s a smart move. Time will tell on both. While I’d normally give my two cents on what the smart move is here, I’m going to save it for the end of the blog, because it’s a bit complicated.

While some may sing it’s praises, I found Tribal Council tonight to be a pretty standard affair, vote results notwithstanding. Some would argue this, since we got last minute open strategy talk at Tribal Council, but that seems to have become par for the course on “Survivor” at this point. Still, it’s always pretty interesting to watch in and of itself, and it’s not as though this Tribal Council was BAD. Really, it’s more that, save the results, we didn’t really have a lot of stand-out moments.

But oh, those results! Of course, the big question mark here was Aubry, especially since Scot, Julia, and Tai made it clear they were voting for Peter. Thus, it was a bit odd to see that Aubry had written down Julia. Since Joe made it clear he wasn’t flipping, and Peter can’t vote for himself, that means it’s a tie, right? Well no. Peter goes home, good riddance to him, but how do you explain that Aubry vote? Why, she changed her mind in the booth, of course! The last vote read has “Julia” crossed out, and “Peter”, written under it, thus changing the vote. Excellent fake-out engineered by Aubry and the editing team! Like I said, the editing this season has been above-average, and I can’t sing its praises enough. As to Peter’s ouster, I’m not sorry to see him go. The guy was arrogant and not really that smart. Certainly Julia showed herself to be better than him this evening, doing a very good job of keeping her head up and helping herself out of a tough situation. On top of that, we’d really already seen how this story-arc was going, so it was nice to get that concluded and not have it hanging over our heads going into the merge. And Peter, don’t worry. It wasn’t JUST your challenge performance that got you the axe. It was your arrogance and horrible strategic play as well.

But enough chit-chat! I’m sure you want to know whether Aubry’s flip was the right move! That’s a bit of a complicated question for me. You see, the answer is yes… but with a caveat. the answer is yes, KNOWING WHAT WE, AS THE AUDIENCE, KNOW. We know that next episode is the merge, and that changes everything. Once the merge hits, Peter becomes much more of a threat, by showing that you aren’t a united front, and being a swing vote. The old Gondol is already fractured, so getting out one more of them won’t make much of a difference. Plus, in an odd way, by lowering your numbers, you make yourself a more attractive prospect for an alliance come the merge, since your numbers wouldn’t be so dominating. The argument could be made that this pisses off Joe, but given that Aubry evidently gave him some warning, and that Peter was a threat whom Joe didn’t like, I doubt he’ll be too put out over the whole thing. If you know the merge is coming, then Peter is the biggest threat to your alliance, and therefore it is a good idea to get him out. But that’s the thing: Aubry DOESN’T know the merge is coming. She predicted correctly, I’ll grant you, but my philosophy with strategy is always go with what you know. Since the date of the merge is technically unpredictable, it’s smarter to go with what you know, and what you know is that if you vote out Peter, you’re down in numbers on the new Gondol. you might outlast Joe, but since he’s in your alliance, you don’t want him gone either. From Aubry’s perspective, probably would’ve been smarter to stick with voting out Julia. That said, she predicted correctly, and ultimately I think this move works to the benefit of her and her alliance. There’s just no way she could have known it.

Man alive, what an episode! Excellent strategy all around, good misdirection, hilarious editing, and a deserving boot! For once, the merge has its work cut out for it!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 5: Dr. Peter, Headache Inducer

Ooh, Peter. Peter, Peter, Peter. You’ve got the vestiges of a good “Survivor” player in you. When you’re knocked out of the power position, you clearly know what you’re doing, and go note-for-note in the direction you need to. But give you an ounce of power, give you a glimmer of hope, and you become nigh-on insufferable.

Don’t believe me? We get a prime example of “good player” Peter at the start of the episode. We begin at Chan Loh, since the vote off of Alecia was SO inconsequential that we don’t need to see any of To Tang’s reaction to it. Joe seems to have some trouble with his finger, and so with much fanfare, Dr. Peter is brought over to examine it. The whole thing doesn’t seem severe, but Peter admits in confessional that, while he’s still out to get the rest of his tribe, he needs to keep that on the down-low. He’s the obvious next target, and to get out of that position, he’s going to need to make himself useful. Playing up his “doctor” role might just help endear him to his tribe, especially as evidenced by Debbie asking what they’d do without him. When you’re in the position Peter’s in, the best way to play is to keep your head down, make yourself useful, and hope you don’t go to Tribal Council. It worked out for Ethan Zohn on “Survivor All-Stars”. In other words, in at least this one instance, Peter is playing things exactly as he should.

Neal, however, is playing like a decision-maker in the head alliance should, and not believing a word of whatever Peter says. Debbie may be swayed, but Neal refers to Peter as a cancer, and thankfully not in the zodiac sign way. No, Neal decides that, if Peter is the main threat to the alliance right now, then Peter needs to not have the hidden immunity idol. Neal, therefore, concludes that he should have the idol, and starts looking around significant looking trees. It’s not long before he happens on a not-very-well-hidden clue. Maybe it’s just that the blue wrapping for the clue made it stand out more than red or yellow, but it seemed like, where the other clues were hidden deep in their respective trees, this one was just kind of lightly shoved in there. In any case, the clue leads Neal to digging up the box, which leads to him discovering the need for a key, which leads to him finding said key, which leads to him getting the idol. Pretty much the same story as at the other camps, though this one isn’t dragged out nearly as long. Neal has little to no reaction to the new twist with the idol, other than to say that this means he’ll have to look extra-hard for an idol, or at least someone else who’ll play it with him. Though he does get in some words about how this gives him a certain amount of power, compared to the arrogance often shown on this show, it’s quite mild.

It seems even MILD talking about being in a power position is enough to trigger a switch, however, as that’s exactly what happens. As advertised, everyone drops their buffs. It’s always nice for a switch to happen, since it helps prevent dull Pagongings later on, but at this point the switch methodology itself isn’t very interesting. They’ve at least dispensed with the damn show-offy colored eggs originating from “Survivor Cook Islands”, but now it’s just “Pick a random buff.” every time. Come on, guys, give me a school-yard pick for once! Make things interesting and different! Are you just turned off by “Survivor Gabon” that much?

“But surely,” you say, “this one will have SOME intrigue to it! After all, there’s an uneven number of people, and no Exile Island to send them to. Probst admitted as much to everyone there. No doubt this will lead to an epic twist of awesome proportions!” Well yes, not having an Exile Island, and not wanting to have uneven tribes does make for a lot of creative scenario possibilities. Of the myriad of solutions before production, they go with… Adding in what is basically an Exile Island, and just playing it the same old way. Yes, there is one To Tang buff hidden amongst the Chan Loh and Gondol buffs, and whoever draws that must go the way of Stephenie LaGrossa (“Survivor Palau”), and live at the crappy camp by themselves. Unlike Stephenie, however, the person at To Tang will get to avoid Tribal Council. They will not compete in the immunity challenge, and they’ll instead rejoin the losing tribe from this episode. Basically exactly how it worked on “Survivor Exile Island”, “Survivor Fiji”, and “Survivor Gabon” when they did their switch-ups. How original. I know, in all fairness, that it’s not a bad way of doing things, and the fact that Exile Island wasn’t a part of this season before now means that it comes as a sadistic twist to the players this time, but I was hoping they’d go a different direction. Give us a switch-up like we’ve never seen before! Instead, while such a switch-up has been absent for a while, we still got something repeated. I’m probably alone on this, but it felt like a bit of a letdown.

If the method of switch-up is disappointing, though, the results certainly aren’t! We’ve got a fairly even switch-up this time around, with both tribes being fairly evenly matched in both challenge ability and strategy potential. The new Chan Loh keeps things very even, retaining Neal and Debbie, and gaining Jason and Cydney from To Tang, and Michele and Nick from the old Gondol. Meanwhile, the new Gondol has kept Tai and Anna, while gaining Peter, Aubry, and Joe from the old Chan Loh, leaving Scot as the only old To Tang member on Gondol. As I say, fairly evenly matched all around. Chan Loh may have a SLIGHT strength advantage, but even that’s negligible to a large degree. Still, both tribes are intriguing. There’s a clear 2-2-2 split at Chan Loh, making it impossible to shake out who’s on top, but should make for some interesting politicking. More unbalanced is Gondol, where the old Chan Loh would seem to have an advantage, having the largest single block of any original tribe. However, that block includes Peter, who’s stated in no uncertain terms that he wants to undo his tribe, and could very easily flip away to get rid of Aubry and Joe. Meanwhile, you’ve got Scot, who’s on his own, and while you do still have two original Gondol, Tai and Anna weren’t exactly paired up in any way. So, you’ve got a lot of different dynamics that could happen here. My guess would be that Peter would play the smart game, and use this time to exact his revenge on his former tribe, since he’s at the bottom there regardless, and probably pull in Scot as another swing vote. Tai and Anna would probably stick together, since they don’t want the old Chan Loh to overtake them, and get either Aubry or Joe voted out. As we’ll see, though, that may not necessarily be the case.

Before we continue our intrigue, you may notice that I’ve neglected to mention someone. Or maybe not. She hasn’t had much screen time. Fair Julia is nowhere to be seen on either tribe. by process of elimination, she drew the unlucky To Tang buff. Yep, the youngest person out here is the one who has to live on their own. Tough breaks. It also means, as Michele notes, that the women’s alliance of Gondol, which had seemed poised to run this game, has now been completely split up, making them easy pickings no matter who loses. Will they be good enough to weasel their way back together, or is the luck of the buff against them? Time will tell.

One positive to say about this season is that, apart from some bullying of Alecia on the parts of Jason and Scot, this is a very jovial season. Despite the new Gondol probably being the more fractious of the new tribes, things start out copacetic, with everyone admiring their new camp, and all seem to be bonding well. Tai, having evidently gotten over the loss of Caleb, now sets his sights on Scot as his new boy toy, under the guise of lifting him up to a high tree to get mangoes. Scot initially doesn’t seem too keen on the idea, but since he goes for it later, it all seems pretty good. Speaking of Scot, he once again proves his “Not a brain” thing by thinking that he’s going to be on the bottom of this tribe, just because he has no ally there. Dude, have you watched ANY “Survivor”? In these situations, the person with no ally is ALWAYS the swing vote! Between that and your strength, you’re the safest out of anyone on this tribe!

Dissension begins with Peter, who, now that’s he’s in a position of power, has slipped BACK into “Bad Strategy Mode”. Specifically, he’s the one rallying for the former Chan Loh to stick together and target the old Gondol members, particularly since if they lose, Julia, another old Gondol member will be coming back into the fold. Not a bad concern, but this ISN’T the smartest strategy for you, Peter. By making it a tribe vs. tribe thing, and giving your old tribe an advantage, you pretty much guarantee getting picked off at 5, if not sooner, and give yourself less room to play by not trying to form a multi-tribe coalition. He floats the idea of voting off Anna to Scot, who seems on board, but Aubry is a bit concerned. She sees Peter’s point, and certainly doesn’t want the old Gondol becoming a rival to her and Joe, since the pair would then become targets, but Peter also can’t be trusted. He needs to be gotten rid of at some point. That said, she doesn’t say too much about it, and I think the smart move is to stick with Peter for at least this vote. Peter does need to be gotten rid of at some point, but now might be a bit premature, since Scot could then just go to the old Gondol and pick off you and Joe, should you next lose. NEXT vote, it might be good to consider getting rid of Peter, but better to keep it simple for this first vote. Still, you have to admit, intriguing dynamics! Damn, this switch gave us some exciting new talk!

Things are pretty happy-go-lucky at the new Chan Loh as well, with Debbie showing off all the amenities their camp has, like… a chin-up bar. Ok, not what I’D consider the biggest positive of their camp, but if that’s what you want to focus on, Debbie, far be it from me to judge you. Once again, though, Debbie proves why it’s best not to assume she’s just crazy, by quickly setting out to keep herself and Neal safe. Since it’s likely that the old To Tang and Gondol members will stick to whom they know, she needs to court one side. She chooses To Tang, which makes sense, since they already have fewer options. Debbie starts out by courting Cydney, in a way you wouldn’t expect. Debbie admits that she can tell that Cydney is more than just a pack of muscles, which Cydney ultimately does not deny, despite keeping that side of her under wraps for most of the game so far. After checking in with Jason, Debbie seems to have done her duty in keeping herself and Neal safe. Excellent work.

After a quick scene at Gondol where Tai gets his wish in getting Scot to help him get mangoes, we see that Anna is no slouch in the social department either. Not being an idiot, she realizes that she and Tai are the obvious targets, given that Julia’s eventual return to the game is a big threat should Gondol lose this next immunity challenge. Therefore, Anna commences throwing Tai under the bus, spilling the beans about his idol-hunting first to Aubry and then to Joe. For the time being, it seems to work. Not a bad play on Anna’s part.

For a brief time, we also check in with Julia at To Tang, who’s not doing too well. With no one there to help take care of things, she’s become severely dehydrated, wheezing and trembling under the shelter. Normally, I’d brush this off, but since last episode, it’s clear that dehydration is nothing to sneeze at. Julia does eventually pull herself together, but also says that she feels like she needs the older people in this game to take care of her. For what’s effectively our first real Julia scene, it doesn’t make her look all that good. The woman’s obviously tough, and pulls herself together pretty well, but also come across like she needs someone to take care of her, showing the negatives of her age in this game. It remains to be seen, but I think Julia might just be toast.

Back at Chan Loh, it’s now Nick’s turn to once again egotistically profess how good he is at the social game. This time, tough, he actually backs it up, going to talk to Jason about the pair forming an alliance, bringing along Michele and Cydney to make a majority. Jason certainly entertains the idea, and it’s not a bad plan, just kind of standard. While the dynamics on Chan Loh aren’t QUITE as interesting, given that, as Nick says, it’s a simple 2-2-2 split, there’s still debates to be had about which side is better and who Jason and Cydney will go with. On the one hand, as I’ll discuss at the end of the episode, it seems like To Tang and Gondol teaming up would be the smart move for both of them, but on the other hand, Cydney was basically left out of Nick’s conversation. That personal bond with Debbie might swing things.

After the obvious confessional of Jason talking about how good it is to be in the power position, it’s time for our challenge, which, in a first for this season, isn’t all that exciting. Two members from each tribe swim out to untie a fishing net with 14 wooden fish puzzle pieces in it. Once the net is back to shore, two other tribe members untie the fish from the net, hook them onto a pole, and carry it up the beach, where the remaining two tribe members try to solve a fairly complex puzzle with the fish. First puzzle solved wins immunity. Not to say that this challenge is bad, since that puzzle is really cool, and it is largely original, but it just doesn’t feel all that big or interesting to watch. It does remind me somewhat of the fishing challenge from “Survivor Samoa”, particularly in the puzzle, but I can’t say it really copies any previous challenge, so points there.

Once again, this episode does a fantastic job of giving us evidence for both sides going to Tribal Council. Admittedly, with all this talk of the threat of Julia coming back to Gondol, the smart money is on Gondol losing, but that doesn’t mean that one can’t see Chan Loh losing this one. It helps that this is a very back and forth challenge, keeping one on the edge of their seat the entire time. Ultimately, though, Peter and Anna can’t figure out the puzzle for Gondol, and lose the whole thing, despite the impressive performance of Scot carrying the entire fishing net by himself.
When we return to Gondol, the team as a whole is dejected, but overall keeps a stiff upper lip. Unsurprisingly, Peter, Aubry, and Joe are debating who needs to go. Aubry and Joe seem to be more for getting rid of Tai, having bonded with Anna. Peter, however, sticks in his opinion that Tai is valuable as a provider, and thus Anna should go. Normally I’d say that Peter, being a possible target himself, should just keep his mouth shut and go with what Aubry and Joe want, but he states his opinion in a pretty modest way, doesn’t force the point too much, and Aubry and Joe seem willing to listen, so I guess it was ok. It’s certainly enough to sway Joe and Aubry agrees, making Anna the target.

But of course, the good stuff from Peter can’t last. Sitting by the fire with Tai and Anna, he flat-out ADMITS that the old Chan Loh are sticking together, and that either Anna or Tai is going home. Peter, did you learn NOTHING from your previous Tribal Council? YOU DO NOT LET THE PEOPLE YOU’RE VOTING OUT KNOW YOU’RE AGAINST THEM! Is that REALLY that hard of a lesson to learn?

Sure enough, Peter’s blabbermouth once again comes back to bite him in the butt, as Tai comes to the conclusion that the rest of the audience has: Peter is an arrogant prick. Partly out of wanting Peter gone, partly out of not wanting to leave with the idol in his pocket, Tai pulls it out for Anna and the newly arrived Scot to see after Peter leaves. He says he’ll play it that evening, and that then if the three vote for Peter, he can be gone. Not a bad strategy, all things considered, and I admire Tai’s willingness to play to idol, but I’m not sure it’s Tai’s best move at this point. Like with Peter, it would get his old tribe in the majority, but that means that he’s still on the bottom of their group. Furthermore, you should never play the idol if you don’t need to, and I don’t think he has to this time, and not just because he’s not the target of the alliance. If Tai thought about it a bit longer, he might have realized that this arrogance of Peter’s probably annoyed Aubry and Joe as well, and that the pair might be willing to vote him instead, especially if he and Anna swear to vote out Scot afterward. They don’t necessarily have to keep that promise, but since Peter is a threat to them, Aubry and Joe might be tempted. Then you get the majority, and you keep your idol. All good!

While it seems set that Peter’s going home, Aubry throws another monkey wrench into the equation by telling Scot that Anna is the target. Having bonded with Tai, and knowing the idol rules thanks to Jason, Scot concludes that the idol might be more useful down the road. Hence, he goes to tai and encourages him not to play it, since he’s not the target tonight. This is where the new twist with idols is really fun to see. Now we’re getting new dimensions to strategy that we’ve never seen before, and it’s great to watch. Admittedly, I don’t know how Scot can promise anything, since he himself does not have an idol, but it’s fun to see conversations we haven’t seen before on “Survivor”. That said, because Scot can’t promise anything, it doesn’t help Tai as much as it seems, but the fact that he’s supposedly not the target does make Tai question his decision regarding the idol. Smartly, he decides to bring it to Tribal Council, and see whether or not it seems right to play it. this means that we’ve got a fair bit of mystery on our hands, so this won’t be the most predictable Tribal Council ever, but signs still point to Peter going.

We start off with Aubry making the same mistake as Peter, and revealing that it would be wise for the three old Chan Loh to stick together. She at least says it in a more subtle and not as arrogant way as Peter might have, and no one seems to mind, but watch yourself, Aubry. you’ve been playing a good, subtle game thus far. Don’t screw it up now.

Next, we get Anna and Tai pleading for their lives, Anna taking the more logical, strategic route, while tai plays up to people’s emotions, highlighting his status as provider and even tearing up a little bit at how hard he works. Nothing really spectacular there, just always nice to see dynamics play out in this manner.

Beyond this, it’s usual Tribal Council banter, but the mystery of the vote holds one’s interest. But what comment could Tai possible use to swing his use of the idol? Enter Joe, who’s decided to speak up for the first time in a while. And after hearing him speak, it’s clear that Joe really shouldn’t have. Joe puts forth the theory that, since he hasn’t really seen anyone looking for an idol, perhaps the twist this season is that there are no idols to be found! Joe, please don’t speak up again. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not as crazy an idea as it sounds. Fans have floated the idea of that very twist for years. But, it would never logically happen. Production gets too much drama from idols for them NOT to be in place. This is the “women’s alliance” assumption from “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains” all over again. It’s quite easy to see why one could think that, but it’s completely the wrong conclusion, and that assumption could lead to disastrous results later on. Granted, this isn’t quite as bad, since once Joe gets back together with Neal it will become clear that there ARE idols in the game, but still, it’s just the clue Tai needs. Deciding that this ignorance is an opportunity not be missed, Tai opts to let Anna go, which I think is his smartest move. If you’re not the target, unless NOT playing the idol spells certain doom for your game overall, it’s best to hang onto the idol. Further, since Anna and the women’s alliance wanted Tai gone anyway, it’s not like he was particularly beholden to them. If he can make it to the merge with Scot, Tai’s in great shape. Not sure how Jason will feel about forming the super-idol, but it’s an interesting possibility, and gives everyone some room to play.

That said, as a fan, I am sorry to see Anna gone. We didn’t get a whole lot of her, but what we got seemed to be at least decent at the game. Conversely, Peter is repetitive and annoying on all accounts, and it’s be nice to see him gone. Next episode, it might be the smart move, but for now, we will simply miss Anna.

This, though, brings me back to Chan Loh, and the debate of which side Jason and Cydney should take. This episode makes it clear that they should go with Michele and Nick. The major threat of siding with Michele and Nick was the women’s alliance making it impossible to get a foothold. With founding member Anna gone, though, the old Gondol become fractured, and much less of a threat. Conversely, the old Chan Loh now becomes the major united front, which needs to be gotten rid of. Whether or not Jason and Cydney see this or get a chance to act on it, I don’t know, but if they’re smart, that’s what they’ll do.

Overall, this episode was a pretty good one. Oddly, the least interesting part was Tribal Council. I don’t know, while they did a good job of hiding who was going, it not being Peter felt anticlimactic. Still, there was excellent personal dynamics and good strategy on both sides, so no complaints about that. I look forward to what the next episode brings!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 4: Everything the Light Touches

What? If Tai can quote “The Lion King” in relation to “Survivor”, why can’t I? Figured I might as well jump on the “Tai Trang Train”. The “Tai Traing”, if you will.

Bad puns aside, let us leap into the episode proper, as we’ve got some heavy subject matter to cover. Or rather, let us leap into the “Previously On..” segment, as it deserves commenting on. Now, don’t get me wrong, this one is largely a good recap, as for once it pretty much confines itself to what happened in the IMMEDIATE episode prior, rather than calling out certain plot points from way back in the season, thereby telling us what to look out for. Had it just confined itself to that, I would have no need to mention the recap, save perhaps to praise it for its humility. But no, it just had to give us some hyperbole about how “This is the toughest season of ‘Survivor’ ever.”, and give us contestant testimony to support this. Once again, I must voice my disagreement on this point. Yes, we’ve had some contestant complaints about the environment this time, but by and large they’ve been sort of the standard stuff you get in the first few episodes of a season. The upcoming challenge is tough, I grant you, but the season as a whole? I have yet to be convinced. Perhaps I’m just stubborn, but I feel like you need to save hyperbole like that for the end of the season, when you accumulate more evidence.

You’d think, with the obvious emphasis on the harshness of the environment and medical evacuations, that this episode might be devoid of strategy, but you’d be wrong. Granted, what we see is largely devoid of strategy, but we do get one interesting nugget early on. As you’d expect, it comes from Chan Loh, where Peter is reeling from the past Tribal Council. Debbie is being self-congratulatory about the whole affair, but not overly so. She admits that she played her part well, and Tribal Council went exactly as she planned. This bragging doesn’t bother me, since it pretty accurately captures what happened, and is done in private, rather than to the tribe. To help her go up in my estimation, she plays off the whole thing to Peter very well. She tells him that she wanted to save him, how he’s needed in the tribe, which is exactly the right way to play it. The major danger now is that Peter defects and blows your whole game up. Making him as comfortable as possible limits that dangerous possibility. Peter, while frustrated, also plays the whole thing off well, openly expressing mainly shock that it was Liz and not him. He does keep his true feelings pretty well under wraps, but it’s still somewhat clear that he’s not fully on board the whole “Chan Loh” thing anymore. He makes this quite clear in his confessional, swearing to take his revenge on the tribe when he can. Like I say, he plays this all well, and I can’t fault him for how he’s playing this. Yes, he’s been burned by the tribe, but rather than go off and rant, he simply decides to no longer trust them and bide his time, while giving a fairly convincing outward appearance of loyalty. What I CAN fault him for is saying that this vote “Weakens our tribe physically and mentally.” Technically he’s right, but then again, you could say that about EVERY vote. You see, losing a member never ADDS strength to your team, and therefore every vote loses you strength. If he’s saying that Liz was a big contributor… I just don’t see it. I could see the vote severely weakening the tribe if it was PETER voted out. I could even see Peter’s point if the other target of the night was Debbie or Joe, as it could be argued that Liz was physically and/or mentally stronger than they were. But Peter, your targets were Neal and Aubry, arguably the two people most equivalent to Liz. This vote was the wrong decision only because it hurts you not because it particularly weakens the tribe more than any other option you had last episode. Get over it.

Wow, reward challenge time already. They must be getting it out of the way early so we have plenty of time to deal with the medical emergencies at the immunity challenge. And yet, that challenge looks very much like the one with the promised emergencies. And that’s because… it is. Yep, I’ll be talking about it more at the end of the blog, but this episode has shot its bolt early, getting all the exciting stuff out of the way early. Not much the producers can do about it, since there’s not enough material there to make up a whole episode, but not the most auspicious way of doing things.

But what is this challenge of challenges, so tough that it takes down three of our competitors? An obstacle course. Yep, just a pretty basic, pretty dull obstacle course. The tribes climb over a few hurdles, dig under a log, dig up three bags of balls, and then try and get those balls into holes via Skee-Ball. Yeah, not exactly an exciting challenge, not helped by the presence of Skee-Ball, which I maintain is an incredibly LAME element in a challenge. Yeah, the streak is broken. This one just sucks.

So, if the challenge itself is not that challenging, what takes our competitors down? The environment. Yep, this challenge is being played in 110 degree heat, the temperature at which everything has evidently been operating for the past few days this season. Not to say that challenges haven’t been played in heat like this before. Notably, the “Court-Ball” challenge from “Survivor Guatemala” was played in similar heat. What makes this one different is the continuousness of it. The “Court-Ball” challenge was run in rounds, giving people a chance to recover and drink some water. And even THEN, people were still beat from the challenge. This challenge runs nonstop. It’s a race, not a points game.

Oh, and duration. Duration plays a big role in this challenge. To Tang gets out to an early lead, followed closely by Gondol, with Chan Loh bringing up the rear. Not that it matters. Digging up the balls proves harder than anyone else expects, and while To Tang is up two bags to the other teams one apiece, that doesn’t stop things from going on for 45 minutes. I don’t think anyone anticipated that those balls would be that hard to find, and it’s definitely a contributing factor to how this challenge turns out.

And then… a breakthrough! Due to stick-to-it-iveness, Chan Loh finds bags two and three in oddly rapid succession, and moves on to (shudder) Skee-Ball. Rather than let one person run that portion of the challenge, they divvy it up so that Aubry, Debbie, and Peter all get some balls in holes, netting them an easy victory. Not too long after, Caleb finds bags two and three for Gondol, and starts doing that Skee-Ball thing. Things look bad for To Tang, especially since they’re so worn out that they’re kicking the sand rather than really digging. Scot and Jason seem to have stopped altogether. Not that Alecia gives up, though, as she keeps encouraging the tribe to keep digging. While I’m no Alecia fan, I do admire her tenacity. Regardless of the situation, she doesn’t just lie down and die, which is not always easy to do on a losing tribe. That said, her manner in going about all this is a bit overdone. Not that she shouldn’t be saying what she’s saying, but she just keeps repeating it, and that combined with the heat makes it all very annoying. And I’m not even out there! Scot, who is out there, gets fed up with her, telling her to dig rather than cheerlead. Frankly, this isn’t a clear-cut “One side is right” thing. Keeping morale up is essential, and Scot effectively killing that morale is not a good thing. But I could see how it would get annoying, so yeah, I feel him. Though his “How many bags have you found?” argument holds no water, as finding them is largely luck-based, not effort-based.

Oh, I’m sorry, did I just ignore Debbie collapsing from heat stroke? Yeah, I did. Sorry about that, I don’t mean to take away from the gravity of the situation. Only, compared to what we’re GOING to see, it looks very minor (though no less serious), and the Alecia stuff matters more in the long-run anyway. But yes, despite her protests, Joe calls for medical, who don’t respond as quickly as they usually do. I guess they’re just not used to coming out while a challenge is still running. They get there quickly, though, and get to work. They put an umbrella over Debbie, hook her up to vital reading machines, and pour cool water on her, the usual treatment for heat stroke. Despite that fact that we know three people collapse but only one gets evacuated, and Debbie’s early collapse makes her likely to stay, it does get a big heart-wrenching. I think it’s because you can’t see her eyes. Maybe it just gives me flashbacks to Russell Swan’s collapse on “Survivor Samoa”, but that makes things seem serious.

Of course, we can’t have the doctor come in without Probst buddying over and talking to him. I’ll admit I probably exaggerate how bad this is, but I would point that the medical evacuations of Mike Skupin (“Survivor The Australian Outback”) and Bruce Kanegai (“Survivor Exile Island”) both had gravitas and were easy to understand, and there was NO NEED for Probst in either case. Just seems like he’s bothering the doctor and pandering to the audience unnecessarily. Oh, but this time is particularly egregious, since he needs to be WATCHING THE CHALLENGE! I know, they’ve got other people there to watch the challenge, but we don’t need Probst bothering the doctor. Time would’ve been better spent watching the challenge.

Speaking of which, after it’s revealed that Debbie’s going to be ok, we turn back to said challenge, which has become something of a cliffhanger. Gondol is having trouble getting their last ball in the hole, most likely due to the fact that they worked front-to-back, rather than back-to-front. Meanwhile To Tang has FINALLY found their bags, and sends Jason on to test his Skee-Ball skills. He does manage to get three balls in, but it’s not enough, as Caleb eventually sinks their last balls to win reward.

The drama is not passed, though, as both Caleb and Cydney are down. Cydney basically can’t move, while Caleb wanders over to the shade, and then flops down on the ground. Thankfully, both having caring tribemates to care for them, but medical is quickly called for both. And while I may have given Probst a lot of flak earlier for bothering the doctor, this is where he really shines. He wastes no time, calling in all available personelle to handle the situation. He even gets Cydney looked at, despite the fact that no one had called out specifically for her. Now, when the situation is really serious, he leaves the doctors alone, and even pitches in wherever he can, mainly talking to Caleb, trying to bring him around. I cannot give Probst high enough praise, as well as the whole “Survivor” crew. they handle everything swiftly, professionally, and most likely saved someone’s life. Because this is bad. Russell Swan bad. Yet their grace under fire needs to be commended. If there was one positive to come out of this horrible, horrible situation, it is getting to see these guys perform really well.

It’s a little more unclear between Caleb and Cydney who’s going to get the axe medically. Both seem semi-conscious, and are convulsing pretty badly. In the end, though, when Caleb stops even nodding, it’s clear he’s going to be taken away. I’ve said before, and I’ll say again, that it’s always sad when someone has to be medically pulled from the game. Everyone deserves a respectful exit, and the right to finish their game on their terms. Even if that person is Colton Cumbie (“Survivor One World”). That not happening is very depressing in and of itself, and anyone going that way would be a loss. And don’t get me wrong, I am sorry to see Caleb go, if only for the death of a beautiful bromance. That’s just it, though. That’s all he brought. Of the three people who get heat stroke this challenge, Caleb ultimately brought the least to the table. Debbie and Cydney are both bigger characters and better strategists than him. I wish no one had to go, but if someone had to go of those three, Caleb is the least of all evils.

Whoo-wee, what an emotional roller-coaster! An action-packed first-half of the episode! Other drama cliches! Still, the game continues, with Tai transitioning us back to the game by pointing out that girl power is still a thing on Gondol, and with Caleb gone, they now have full control. Tai swears he won’t go out with an idol in his pocket, which is exactly how you want to play the game.

Some of you may be asking “Well, what was the reward?” Kitchen supplies, and some coffee. that’s it. All that pain, all that loss, for cookwear. Not worth it. Oh, but it gets worse! All this might have been avoided, but for one simple change in the challenge! You see, I watch those “Challenge Previews” on CBS.com. The ones where the Dream Team runs the challenge to see if it works. In that iteration, there were bamboo chutes placed over where the bags of balls were, so that people could find them faster. From a design perspective, I get why they were removed. The challenge becomes less of a straightforward race without them, and gives us potential for come-from-behind victories, like we got. But that also likely added the 45-minute search part to the challenge, which I’m sure was a contributing factor to the evacuations. Was it worth it? Probably not.

It seems the emotional moments are not quite over, as Debbie gets in some words about what she was feeling while being looked at by medical. It’s nice, but it doesn’t really amount to anything, and after that nice transition back into game mode we had with Tai, I think it might have been better served if we’d gone without.

Here, we get a title card letting us know that Caleb is ok, and wants to play again. It feels like a bit of a weird placement, but it’s good to get that info out of the way quickly, and assure the children watching that no, Caleb isn’t dead. While he wasn’t the most exciting character, I wouldn’t mind seeing him back at some point, if only to let him finish the game properly.

Shifting back to gameplay mode, we get Alecia and Scot arguing again. Oh goodie, we haven’t seen this before! Alecia is, understandably, upset at how Scot treated her during the challenge, and Scot and Jason are once again dismissive of Alecia, outright telling her that she’s going next. Again, like with the challenge, the guy’s treatment isn’t cool, but I understand it. Alecia may be in the right, but she won’t shut up, and can’t argue her case very well. It’s like we’re waiting for her to get voted off.

We might have to wait a while, though, because it’s challenge time! Gee, I wonder who’ll lose this time? I mean, we’ve had SO MUCH strategy talk from Gondol and Chan Loh, it could be either one of them! Who would have guessed?

Still, if the result of the challenge is predictable, the challenge itself is semi-cool. It’s a fairly standard “Run through the jungle and dive in the ocean to retrieve puzzle pieces, then solve the puzzle.” challenge. Not directly copying anything, but it does bear a close resemblance to the first immunity challenge from “Survivor Philippines”, which, as this is not the first immunity challenge, I’m ok with. That puzzle, though, is really cool! It’s your basic snake puzzle, but rather than having traditional puzzle pieces the tribes just have different lengths of rope they have to put in a frame. None of the ropes can cross, though. It’s a tricky puzzle to solve, and a really creative concept. For that, I’ll give this challenge a pass.

When To Tan predictably loses, Alecia tries to salvage the situation by saying “I did my best.” Giving her no quarter, To Tang leaps on her not saying “WE did our best”, since Cydney was working on the puzzle as well. Again, I’m in sympathy with Alecia here, since she’s fighting for her life, but her defenses of herself are just SO ANNOYING, that you can sympathize with To Tang. In fact, they’re so fed up with her that they freely admit that she’s the one leaving, and ask to go to Tribal Council then and there. Probst says it’s ok with him, but Alecia has to agree to it as well. Alecia does the smart thing and says no. While the situation certainly seems hopeless, it’s better to go out bargaining and trying to weasel something up than to just roll over and die. Good for you, Alecia. Also, it just feels right to not do Tribal Council immediately. That needs to be saved for special occasions. As I’ll get into shortly, this is kind of the opposite of a special occasion.

Sad fact: The fact that Alecia opted not to go immediately to Tribal Council makes her smarter than the entire Manono Tribe of “Survivor One World”. Weep for that season my friends.

Killing ANY pretext of misdirection, we cut immediately to Tribal Council, which for the first time this season is completely boring. We know Alecia’s going, everyone there knows Alecia’s going, so the whole thing is just an exercise in futility. Much though I have sympathy for her situation, I’m not sorry to see her go. Alecia really didn’t bring anything new to the table, and this has been building for a while. This was not the sort of grand exit that deserved an impromptu Tribal Council, this is one that needed to be shoved at the back of a two-parter, which this effectively was.

As to the episode as a whole, it’s tough to call. I can’t in good conscience say it’s a BAD episode, but definitely the weakest thus far. It’s not really it’s fault, though. The first half, the half with the medical drama, is great! While it’s never good to see people go down like that, it does make for compelling tv, in a perverse sort of way. I may malign medical evacuations as taking away from the strategy of the season, but used sparingly, they can really enhance things. Plus, what I’m realizing is that, every so often, we need one of those real life-threatening situations to remind us of the gravitas of the game. Would I be happier without them? Yes. I don’t like people coming that close to death, but in a game like this, it’s bound to happen. It showcases the professionalism of the show in general, and Probst in particular, and is quite the eye-catcher. Had that been the whole episode, it would have been fantastic. But it wasn’t. We had to tack on an obvious, telegraphed exit to the whole thing, and that really did the episode no favors. I’m happy we got that exit out of the way, plus having an impromptu double-elimination means that we’re more likely to have a final two at the end, which I enjoy, but the second half of the episode just can’t compete, and that REALLY drags things down. You know how little we care about Alecia? She didn’t even get the final words of the episode. Caleb did.

Before we go, though, there are two points that I feel need to be addressed. First off, this season has REALLY copied “Survivor Cagayan”, and I don’t just mean in terms of twists. The tribes this season are shaking out like they did on that season! Think about it: We’ve got a tribe that is a complete disaster, voting out the strong in the first two votes only to lose their weak player in the third vote (Luzon and To Tang), the tribe that largely wins, but loses one immunity challenge, and seems to be more fractured (Solana and Chan Loh), and the tribe that, while it has alliances, never loses and stays relatively unified (Appari and Gondol). The challenge wins and losses even exactly line up! Admittedly, I feel like these tribes are more deeply divided than the ones on “Survivor Cagayan”, but the similarities in how the three tribes shake out are freaky. Why do I bring this up? Well, mainly because it’s an odd coincidence, but also because something weird happens with it: I don’t mind. Seriously, with how blatantly and closely this season is copying “Survivor Cagayan”, one of the best seasons ever you think it’d be nothing but downward comparisons, but it’s not. True, I still think “Survivor Cagayan” is the better of the two, but we’re only four episodes in! “Survivor Kaoh Rong” could very well usurp that position over the course of the season, and is doing a very good job. Why? Well, they copied the element that worked the best from “Survivor Cagayan” as well: getting a great cast. Again, they’re not to “Survivor Cagayan” goodness levels yet, but we’ve got a lot of great characters, some nice strategy, and often found in the same person. That makes the show good, and makes it not matter how much the show is repeating itself. If the cast is good, then the season can stand on this own.

My second note has to do with some actual speculation. I know, speculation on a blog called “Idol Speculation”, who would have guessed? But, as we saw in the preview, a tribe swap is nigh. I’m sure this was planned for the time, as we’d be down to 14 players, making for a nice, even tribe shrinking, but with Caleb’s unfortunate evacuation, we’re down to 13. How will they make up for this uneven distribution. I don’t know, but here’s a thought: make them a reward. Divide up the tribes so you have two teams of six, rather than seven. Schoolyard pick is probably best for this, but random division could work as well. With no Exile Island this season, what do you do with the seventh person? Make them the reward. Go straight to a challenge, and the prize is not a feast or easier camp life, but a number, an extra number to play around with. Perhaps a bit demeaning to the person being used as reward, but wouldn’t that be exciting? Make it happen, producers!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 3: Rise of the Eyebrow

Do not be fooled by the lameness of this opening paragraph. This was a fantastic episode, and I intend to do it justice. However, the best way to open talk about this episode involves spoiling who goes to Tribal Council, and while I’m not shy about referencing the outcome of an episode in my blog, I do try and keep it from the opening paragraph, so that those who want spoiler-free blogs can realize their error and look elsewhere. With that said, I shall now start a new paragraph, that shall hopefully be more on-point than this one.

It’s a good thing Chan Loh didn’t vote off the ER Doctor. I think Neal needs to have that eyebrow looked at. It there was ever any proof that the old adage of “If you keep making that face, it’ll freeze like that!” was true, Neal is it. That eyebrow didn’t come down ONCE during Tribal Council, and that can’t be comfortable.

But I’m jumping ahead to the slightly more mockable parts of this episode. Instead I ought to start off, like the episode, over at the To Tang tribe. Newly returned from Tribal Council, they’re not at all sure that voting off Jennifer was the right decision, due to keeping in relative challenge weakness. Scot in particular voices concern, in the process proving his “I don’t have brains.” comment from episode 1 by telling Alecia that he was the second vote for her, out of loyalty to Jennifer. Thankfully, once Alecia walks off, he’s at least smart enough to realize that Alecia now has him at the top of her hit list. He and Jason just shake their heads, showing how much they consider her worth in the game.

Sure enough, Alecia is off bashing Scot to Cydney, in the process bringing up the “He was a pro ball player, so he has plenty of money!” argument. Just when you thought we could avoid THAT old type of scene! Fortunately, though, Cydney is there to provide us with some welcome relief. Yes, Cydeny has finally taken a break from either having terrible bedside manner (episode 1) or just being at best mildly snarky (episode 2), and given us something to actually enjoy watching. Cydney admits that Alecia thinks of her as an ally. How this came about, she’s not sure, but she lets us know that she’s playing Alecia, and intends to stick with the guys. We’ll see this better later on, but Cydney really plays this off very well, such that Alecia doesn’t suspect a thing. Props to you, girl!

We head off to Gondol, so we can conclude our three-part miniseries of “Tai’s Hunt for the Idol”. Somehow, Tai once again sneaks off without the tribe seeming to notice (someone really needs to set a watch on him), and considers the problem of retrieving the key. Rather than bark up the wrong tree again (my resistance lasts only one blog), Tai decides to try the pole-building method indicated in the note. Because nothing can be easy for the man, though, the tool specifically given to help retrieve the idol has gone missing. Taken for firewood and burned, presumably. Undeterred, Tai does the logical thing of stripping down a stick to be thin enough to push the key out of the tube, all while giving an inspirational talk about how much he’s had to overcome in life. If this doesn’t clue you in to his eventual success, the obvious dramatic music should.

Key in hand, Tai retrieves the idol. Funnily enough, it’s in the box conveniently marked “Idol”. Ok, I get that CBS thinks we’re all idiots who need these things labeled for us, but, CBS, the fact is we simply don’t. Plus, having a box marked “Idol” makes it all that much easier for people to cotton onto the fact that someone else has found the idol. Makes it all the more conspicuous, I say. For once, though, the idol itself it not conspicuous, and I quite like it. Just a simple half of a yin-yang symbol with the tribe animal mascot on it (a snake for Gondol, a tiger for To Tang, and a crocodile for Chan Loh). Definitely idol-like, but small enough that it can be feasibly hidden. Excellent work, props department. Props to the props, as it were.

But that yin-yang symbol is more than just for looks, as we find out when Tai reads the rules of the idol. Initially he dismisses them, saying “I know this stuff.”, but must then pause when the new twist to the idol is revealed. Basically, idols this season work as they have since “Survivor Fiji” onward: you play them after the votes are cast, but before they are revealed, and any votes cast for you are nullified. However, because of their shapes, these idols can be combined. When connected, they form one “Super Idol” which works like it did on “Survivor Exile Island” and “Survivor Cook Islands” where it can be played after the vote. This twist has been much publicized before the season, and now I have a chance to talk about my opinion on it. Much like this season, I remain undecided. Unlike past “Super Idols”, this one is a bit less overpowered, as there is an incentive to not playing two idols together. After all, if you’re in a tight spot, they only save you one Tribal Council, whereas separately they could save you two. Additionally, it’s potentially not just rewarding idol hunting but also the social game, as you’ll most likely have to work together with someone to agree to play a “Super Idol” on one person. A tricky prospect, making the “Super Idol” potentially less overpowered. It’s the “potentially” here that worries me. The flaw in the “Super Idol” is that it works well as a twist, assuming no one ever has more than one idol. If someone has two, there’s nothing stopping them from letting everyone know that they can’t be voted out, and then running to the end of the game. Why do you think the “Super Idol” was gotten rid of after “Survivor Cook Islands”? It essentially gave Terry Deitz and Yul Kwan free passes to the end, and arguably gave Yul the win on “Survivor Cook Islands”! It was overpowered as all get out. Still, as long as no one ever has more than one idol, I’m ok.

As an aside, I find the name “Super Idol” to be lame. I think it’s the same problem I had with the name “Medallion of Power” from “Survivor Nicaragua”. It’s descriptive, but it feels very un-“Survivor”. I can’t come up with anything better, though, and it’s still a better moniker than “Tyler Perry Idol”, so I’ll let it slide.

And that was all before our lack of opening titles. Yeah, this episode is one of the good ones.

We continue our story progression at Chan Loh, where Liz and Peter are out in the water discussing how they want things to go, should they go to Tribal Council. After making the obvious point that Joe is far more Brawn than Brain, Peter and Liz agree that they need to keep the goats, in this case Debbie and Joe, around a bit longer. Neal is their main target, due to being “A snake.”, and talking more game than Aubry. Just in case he has an idol, though, the pair plan to split their votes. They’ll tell Debbie and Joe to vote for Neal, which they think the pair will do if only to save their own skins, while they vote for Aubry as a safety measure. Not a bad plan for the pair all things considered. They do a lot of insulting of the other people on their tribe, which rubs me a bit the wrong way, but it’s not too bad. Yet. It’s also interesting to see how the power in this tribe has switched from the beginning of the game. In episode 1, it seemed like Neal and Liz were calling the shots, bringing together the “Young People” alliance. In episode 2, we started to get a bit more independent thought from Peter, and Liz seemed to be getting her finger in multiple pies. Now, we see a complete flip, with three pairs of people squaring off, and it seeming like the relative oddballs of the group are now the safest ones. It’s frankly a fascinating progression, and I’m glad we were shown it so clearly.

Liz, however, seems to have forgotten her “Sound travels well over water.” advice from episode 1, and Debbie hears every word. Realizing this would only make her a pawn in the game, Debbie takes action. Ok, what she SAYS is she’s fed up with Liz’s “self-entitled attitude”, which in my opinion really only showed up this episode, but the point is there. For all the crazy talk, for all the socially unaware moments she’s had, Debbie is not to be underestimated. She is a PLAYER this episode, and quite a good one too! She correctly assesses that, unless an upset of power is enacted, she and Joe will be on the bottom. Since she and Aubry have something of a connection, she turns to her first. Admittedly Debbie keeps the talk somewhat low-key, framing it as an emotional connection between he pair, and making certain that Neal is connected with Aubry, but with how this tribe’s been winning, a slow burn is not necessarily a bad way to play it.

Back over at Gondol, because we haven’t hit the main points of Tai’s personality enough in the first two episodes, we need to yet AGAIN hear about his love for all living things. Gondol feels like chicken tonight, and so one of their two chickens is about to be sacrificed. Tai is upset about this. Look , I like Tai a LOT, the guy’s really grown on me. But after three episodes, the repetition of Tai’s confessionals is getting old. Thankfully, Tai keeps this one low key. He jokes with Caleb about freeing the chickens, and certainly has a good cry about it, but admits that the guys need their protein, and comforts himself by quoting one of the best Disney movies ever! To show his support, he even helps with the killing of the chicken. He cries about it afterward, but it’s not overblown or anything.

Actually, something new does happen in this scene, or rather as a result of this scene. Nick’s true sociopath colors start to shine through. And before anyone cries “Slander!”, Nick’s confessional about needing to only have the appearance of emotions rather than actually feeling those emotions is textbook sociopathy. Plus, he’s wrong. While one certain needs to be able to control their emotions on “Survivor”, one cannot separate them from the game. Like it or not, they’re a part of the game, and must be addressed as such. Nick uses his “appearance of emotion” to bash Tai for his emotion, which does not sit well with Anna, who more and more appears to be emerging as the leader of the women of Gondol. They’ve been needing a fourth for a while, and the debate seems to have finally given us a nominee. She talks with Caleb, who seems to be on board, finding this to be a strong alliance. Specifically, she wants to target Nick, since she correctly sees him as untrustworthy. Tai’s idol suspicion probably hasn’t gone away, but Nick is overall the more pressing threat. Good call on all their parts, except Nick’s.

Speaking of idols, it’s time for To Tang to actually have success on their particular idol hunt. It seems that, despite time spent actively looking, the way for Alecia to find anything is to stumble upon it accidentally. Like with Gondol’s idol, there’s a clue hidden in a knot of a tree, saying to dig at its base. So, Cydney and Alecia start digging. Who then should show up but Jason, out for a leisurely stroll, if he’s to be believed. He ses the pair digging and goes off. Having seeming found nothing, Cydney sends Alecia back to get a hoe to better dig with. Here, though, we see the newfound cunning of Cydney shine through. In actual fact, Cydney had dug up the box and the tool with the clue on it, and simply didn’t want Alecia to know. Once she’s gone, Cydney reads the clue, only then to rebury it so Alecia can’t find it. The pair head back to camp, seemingly in defeat, only for Cydney to spill the beans about the clue as soon as Alecia is out of earshot. Everyone springs into action, with Alecia hot on their trail. The only problem now, though, is that the tool cannot be found again. Cydney had to rebury it, and now it can’t be found. After quite an impressive footrace, Jason has found the key to the box, but can’t seem to get it. He and Scot hit upon the same idea as Tai, and find a stick thin enough to do the job, Jason thanking his lucky stars that he has a tall NBA player on his side in this case. But now they have a new problem. Basically, at this point, whoever gets the key gets the idol. And who should be right there but Alecia, waiting to grab the key as soon as it falls. As if it wants to add to the dramatic tension, the cylinder the key is on teeters for a moment before falling. After a truly epic scuffle, in which I’m amazed no one got hurt, Jason comes up with the idol, and Alecia falls into despair. I have to admit, this was a fun scene to do. While I prefer more strategic play to physical play on “Survivor”, the occasional bit of physical play is welcome, and this was spectacular by those standards. Plus, we got to see more of strategic, deceptive Cydney, and though I kind of brushed over it, she did a really good job hiding her motives, staying good with Alecia by telling her that Jason figured out the key location by watching them, rather than her giving it away. Evidently she really shouldn’t be messed with.

Scot and Jason read about the new “Super Idol” twist, and Scot makes a reference to the “Wonder Twins”. Ok Scot, one point for making a nerd reference, but one demerit because that reference was to the “Wonder Twins”.

Before we come to our challenge, let us once again appreciate what an excellent job of balancing various storylines this episode has done. Every tribe has had something interesting going on, and there’s real mystery as to who’s going to go to Tribal Council this evening. Barring, of course, that you read the second paragraph of this blog, in which case you know that Chan Loh loses, but in the challenge itself, it’s really tense.

And speaking of the challenge itself, chalk another one up to this season! Not only did they come up with a great challenge this time, they actually make it pretty original. Basically, each tribe will carry three sacks of rice through the water to a wall with a tiny hole in it. After stuffing the three bags through, the tribe must then carry them over a balance beam to a table, where they must use a knife to rip open the bags to find three balls. Once all the balls are found, one tribe member at a time must race to get a ball into a notch by maneuvering it through a swiss cheese board. First two tribes to get all three balls though successfully wins immunity. Granted, the swiss cheese part is taken directly from “Survivor Worlds Apart”, but since we therefore haven’t seen it to death, and it’s pretty challenging, I’ll give it a pass. The rest of the challenge is just AWESOME! Simple, but difficult, and very fitting for “Survivor”. They’ve worked with rice and knives before, but very rarely, and never in this way, so it’s cool to watch.

Ah, but the challenge gets even better from there. As you’d expect, reward is also at stake in this challenge, but it’s a bit different this time. Instead of the two winning tribes getting the same reward with various degrees of completeness, the winning tribe gets to choose between camp comfort in the form of pillows and blankets, or their luxury items. Not only is it refreshing to see luxury items on “Survivor” again, but having a choice of reward can often make for some good drama. Remember Russell Sawn overruling logic to “Take care of the ladies.” on “Survivor Samoa”? More of that, please! Also, Jason’s luxury item appears to be a Care Bear. It’s so oxymoronic, and I love it!

If the editing wasn’t enough to make the challenge tense, the actual challenge itself adds to the tension. It’s a very close one overall, with Chan Loh losing only by seconds. Granted, Gondol is ahead pretty much the entire time, so their win is no surprise, but Chan Loh and To Tang stay very close the entire time. To Tang has a slight lead carrying the bags of rice, but fall behind on the ball portion, a fact that Probst gleefully points out. Then, under the guidance of Jason, Cydney comes back to race against Debbie, and ultimately manages to get the ball in the hole mere seconds beforehand. It’s a real heart-ponding race. THAT, my friends, is how you do a challenge! Plus, since Gondol wisely chooses stuff that’s actually helpful to survival rather than luxury items, we will get more of the hilarity that is Jason’s Care Bear, the unofficial 19th contestant on this season.

Heading to the break, Peter makes a comment about how this loss is nothing big, and now he and Liz’s plan can be put into action, getting Neal out. I’m sure this in no way sets up a dramatic downfall for Peter and/or Liz!

Were I a lazy person (which I am), I would say that the scene of Chan Loh preparing for Tribal Council is pretty much exactly the same scene as we had with them earlier in the episode, only amped up. This is true, but I feel compelled to go into more detail about it. In case we didn’t get the message about their split-vote strategy, Peter and Liz yet again talk about their split vote strategy. To make sure no one is sorry for them, we get real intense scenes of them talking about how stupid the other players are compared to them, and how this consolidates their power. Frankly, it works. Even though the outcome is entirely obvious at this point, I really do want to see them get their comeuppance.

When the pair put their plan into action, Debbie puts her plan into action. Being a bit more aggressive this time, she fills in first Aubry and then Neal about Peter and Liz’s plans for the evening, which gets both of them on their side. Aubry criticizes both Peter and Liz for not being very good at emotionally connecting, a fact which is then reinforced by a scene of Peter being condescending towards Aubry, effectively ordering her how to vote.

Now, when I say that the outcome of this episode is predictable, in that it has been HEAVILY foreshadowed that either Peter or Liz will go, I mean it. You would think, then, that there would be no tension left for Tribal Council. Oh, but there is! You see, Aubry does not take Peter’s attitude very well. Up until this point, Liz had been the target, mainly because Debbie and Joe didn’t like her very much. Now, however, Aubry would rather have Peter go. Normally, I’d hate this since it is an emotional argument with regards to “Survivor” strategy. However, I’m ok with it for three reasons. First, it gives us much-needed tension for Tribal Council. Before, it was very clear that Liz would go. Now, there’s question of Peter or Liz. Second, and most important, Aubry DOES have strategic reasoning to back it up, pointing out that Peter would be more likely to flip come the merge. Third, I’m rooting for Aubry, so I’m inclined to support her decision. That said, I think sticking with Liz for the boot is the better choice. Frankly, worries about Peter flipping could just as easily be put on Liz, and in terms of their flip, Liz is more likely to be successful at it. Liz looks non-threatening, and is therefore more likely to be put in an alliance against you. Conversely, Peter looks like a threat to everyone, and so would have a harder time finding safe harbor in which to flip. Plus, assuming there’s no swap anytime soon, Peter is definitely more helpful in challenges.

Thankfully Tribal Council has an air of mystery about it, because for the first two thirds of it, it’s all pretty standard. The trouble is that Chan Loh is actually pretty smart, and plays their cards close to the chest, which does not a stand-out moment make. However, hilarity first ensues that you realize that Neal’s standard answer to every question lobbed at him amounts to “Enigmatic pontificating about the nature of the game with left eyebrow knowingly raised.” Not to say that these aren’t good answers. They get Probst off your case, but keep your cards close to the chest. When you realize he’s saying his answers with the EXACT same inflection and the EXACT same expression on his face, the same-y-ness of it all just makes me crack up! Go back and watch for it again, it’s great. Seriously, Neal, get that thing looked at.

On about the third try, though, Neal’s raising of the eyebrow gets some results. After making a pretty good comment about “Whose plan is going to get stuck to.”, Peter can take it no longer, and openly admits that he’s not sticking to Neal’s plan, pretty obviously telling him that he’s getting voted out. I thought, Peter, that you were supposed to be the smart one. I guess he feels confident enough to reveal his plan out in the open at Tribal Council, but even if you’re SURE things are on lock, that’s never a good idea. It make you seem arrogant, and makes it that much easier for others to turn the plan against you.

Case in point, as you’d expect, the vote goes against Peter and Liz. Which one, though? Even the episode doesn’t seem sure, as it comes down to a tie between those two and Aubry. Is this just going to be a “thing” with this season now? All first votes for a tribe result in a tie? Some would probably argue that this was a way to prevent idol mishaps screwing with the vote, and it may very well be that way. My take, however, is that this really was a case of three twosomes each voting independently. Neal and Aubry really wanted Peter out, but Debbie and Joe wouldn’t go along with it, so they forced a tie to get Neal to cooperate. I may be wrong, but that would be my suspicion, and it shows where the real power is in this tribe, since Liz is ultimately sent home. As a consolation prize, she gets her torch snuffed by… Joe Anglim of “Survivor Worlds Apart”! Or at least his scalp, anyway. Seriously, I’ve been meaning to comment on it for a while, but the snuffer this season has a magnificent man-bun. Clearly, someone as fabulous as Joe had to be scalped to make such a snuffer.

While Liz is definitely the smarter choice, for the reasons I outlined earlier, it is a shame to see her go as a fan. She was overall better at the game and more likable than Peter seems to be. True, this makes her more of a threat, but it also makes her more fun to watch. And while I don’t normally mention final words on this blog, I must take issue with Liz’s “The numbers didn’t lie to me, the people did.” comment. Liz, on “Survivor”, they’re basically the same thing. You got outwitted, just admit it.

Sad exit or no, as I said at the top of this blog, this was a FANTASTIC episode! Once again, we get an awesome challenge, real development on storylines across the board, fun action, and really smart gameplay! What more can you ask for from a season of “Survivor”?

According to the “Next Time On…” preview, you can ask for the much-publicized medical evacuation episode. think I saw a blue buff under the torso shown lying down in the previews. Here’s hoping it’s not Aubry that collapses!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 2: Fire Begins at Conception

You may recall that on last season, “Survivor Cambodia”, Stephen Fishbach kept commenting on how the “voting blocs” of that season were a new and unprecedented thing, indicative of that season. I’ve made it clear that, while this is an elevated form of gameplay very rarely seen, it’s not unique to that season, nor do I believe it marks an overall shift in gameplay. I bring this up because, for comparison, I’d like to bring up an incident that I believe HAS represented a shift in gameplay. Think back for a minute to “Survivor Blood vs. Water” episode 4, or as it may be better remembered, “The Timely and Much-Desired Exit of Brad Culpepper”. This is where Caleb, having heard that Brad wanted to keep the other tribe happy by voting off people whose loved ones were no longer there, realized he was an eventual target and campaigned, at Tribal Council, for Brad’s ouster. Now, talking strategy at Tribal Council is nothing new, nor was pleading for your life, but the crazy thing was, it worked. Up until that point, barring exceptions like Malcolm Freberg’s “Three Idol” play on “Survivor Caramoan”, strategy was done exclusively before Tribal Council. You had your plan in place going in, and you don’t deviate from it. Oh sure, there were exceptions to this rule. I’ve mentioned one of them just now. But by and large, conventional wisdom said that such pleas fall on deaf ears. That Caleb was able to work that situation out, I believe, has shaken things up. Not to say that people don’t go into Tribal Council with plans in place or anything, but it seems to me that since then, there’s been much more of a willingness to shake up plans at Tribal Council, immunity idol or no. Personally, I’m a big fan of this development. From a fan standpoint, it helps with unpredictability, which is definitely a plus, and since it’s really a new and more complex form of strategy, I see very little downside to this.

But at this rate, my introduction’s going to be longer than the blog itself, better hop right in. Our post-Tribal Council talk from last episode is less bashing of Darnell and more bashing of Alecia. True, she may have survived her first Tribal Council, but it was a very near-miss thing, which Jason makes no secret about. Despite presumably having learned her name, Jason still refers to Alecia as “Blondie”, which is sounding more and more derogatory each time I hear it. It’s pretty much the same complaints you heard last time: she’s weak, she does nothing around camp, blah blah blah. Not that Alecia helps her case a lot. To Tang has flint now, but can’t seem to get fire started even so. Jennifer seems to be the main contributor in this department, but Alecia is trying to help, looking for the “embryo” of the fire, which is only slightly less funny than John Palyok going on about “Hot Amber!” on “Survivor Vanuatu”.

In a somewhat unusual move, we actually get two camp scenes before our lack of an intro. Rather than build on, well, the alliance building at Gondol, we need more time devoted to Tai’s idol-hunting exploits. Not the worst plot line they could have followed, and given who goes to Tribal Council this episode, I can’t fault the show too much, but idol hunting exploits can get repetitive.

Fortunately, Tai is just pure fun. While the other five members of Gondol go for a swim, Tai stays on the beach, wondering if he should look for the idol or not. Learning from his mistake last episode, he’s worried about taking too long and being caught. However, in this situation, the clear choice is to go for the idol. The upside to Tai NOT looking for the idol would be that he had a chance to bond with his tribe, but seeing as he’s left on the beach all alone, I’d say that ship has sailed.

Getting good vibes from the place (or maybe just liking the feel of the trees), Tai returns to his old idol hunting grounds, trying out different trees this time around. I will resist making a “barking up the wrong tree” joke here, in particular because Tai actually barks up the RIGHT tree. He notices a semi-inconspicuous clue hidden in a knot of a tree, which tells him the idol is buried at the base of said tree. Tai gets to digging, only to discover that the note is a freaking LIAR! Well, at least it tells half-truths. The idol IS there, but locked in a small box. To open that box requires a key. Luckily, said key is nearby. Unfortunately, “nearby” in this case means “atop a 50-foot black palm tree”, and will require building a long pole to knock it off. This, in a sense, hearkens back to the old days when finding an idol was something like a scavenger hunt, leading you from clue to clue. I’m happy to see it back, though the building of the pole thing bothers me slightly. I think the issue I have is that, while the scavenger hunt could be a hard thing to hide, it was hideable. 50-foot poles are harder to hide.

Tai, however, takes what we might call the Ozzy Option (“Survivor Cook Islands”), and tries to just climb the tree. Sadly for him, being one with nature and respecting all living things does not grant you super tree-climbing powers, and so he’s forced to halt his idol-hunting efforts for the moment. Still, he does reference Ozzy, so the scene DID have the effect of making me like him more.

In order to keep parity, we head over to Chan Loh, which wastes no time in getting our promised “Debbie is crazy” scenes out of the way. Peter’s “Crazy Cat Lady” comment? Check. Debbie’s “We have the biggest frontal lobes!” cheer? Check. Oh, but we get added craziness, what with Debbie claiming to be an expert on everything yet continually showing no aptitude towards it. Yep, we’re definitely in full-on Coach (“Survivor Tocantins”) territory now. But, not content with mixing in just ONE older, crazier “Survivor” player, Debbie also has to drink the water without boiling it, insisting it’s safe. Ah yes, following the performances of Rudy Boesch and Sue Hawk on “Survivor All-Stars”. Truly, Debbie draws only from the finest of players. There’s not much more that can be said about Debbie’s craziness, so I will turn my focus to the first real shot of the water source we get. HOLY CRAP! That is a HUGE freaking water source! I know it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, but that water source is just so large and out-there that I think the image of it is permanently lodged in my brain.

Oh, but out of the cloud of nuttiness that is Debbie, a silver lining emerges. It actually produces some strategy talk. The way it was built up, it seemed like this would be a set-up for a “Debbie annoys everyone, she needs to go.” storyline. Certainly that seems to be how Liz is thinking. Peter, however, has a different take, noting that Debbie’s craziness likely means that she’s unintelligent/easily lead, and a good person to keep around. Not bad logic from Peter. After all, that’s pretty much what I’d be thinking were I out there. However, I look at her more as “Easy to beat in the end.” rather than “Mentally weak.” Crazy she might be, but that doesn’t mean she’s dumb. After all, Cao Boi Bui (“Survivor Cook Islands”) was one of the craziest contestants ever, yet he still independently came up with a vote splitting strategy to flush the idol.

Heading back to Gondol, it seems that, a mere two seasons after my mini-essay on homosexuality and “Survivor”, we have the beginnings of a bona-fide bromance on “Survivor”. Despite Tai having a boyfriend, he flirts with Caleb, even getting to the point of trying to kiss him to get some food off of his lip. The impression isn’t helped by the fact that the two have arguments that you’d expect an old married couple to have. Tai’s “Love of all living things.” comes into play again when Caleb wants to kill a monster of a hornet, but Tai doesn’t want him to. Of course, in reality, it’s not realistically leading to a real romance between the two. Caleb has no interest in getting into anything with Tai that way, and as he himself says “We don’t have people like Tai where I live.” To his credit, though, the guy takes it all in very good stride. This could very easily have turned into another “Brandon and Frank” (“Survivor Africa”) situation, where the two people from different worldviews just can’t see eye to eye, and we laugh at how funny it is. Here, we have two people who do have different worldviews, but instead work with each other, teach each other, and even get along in a sweet way. That’s really nice to see, particularly from Caleb’s end. Rather than conflict, we have growth, and it makes for a nice change.

Oh, and the impetus for all this? Tai saying that he wants to bond socially with his tribe, since getting the idol is out for now. Yeah, it looks sweet and all, but this is still a REALLY strange way of bonding with one’s tribe. For all intents and purposes, I’d say it works, but it’s unorthodox to say the least.

Turning to the social outcasts at Chan Loh, we see Debbie complaining to Joe about the lack of discipline at the camp, which Joe agrees with. Wow, she’s REALLY pulling hard from the Rudy playbook this time! Unfortunately for Debbie, though, she seems to have missed the one good part of the Rudy playbook. Specifically, that quote I always come back to, “I’ve gotta fit in. Me. Not them.” Rather than go this route, Debbie and Joe simply complain that camp isn’t run the way they want, and further isolate themselves as a result.

Speaking of which, now it’s JOE’S turn to complain about everything. Somehow, Chan Loh has managed to get their wood wet, their matches wet, and lost a bunch of their kerosene in the three days they’ve had their fire-making kit. I know there’s a limit to what you can do about the keeping stuff dry situation out there, but the kerosene thing? That’s just pathetic. Neal, for his part, is quick to blame Joe for this, saying that Joe poured about a third of it on the fire that first day, and then let it evaporate. Since Joe never provides an explanation for how to do things better, and merely complains, I’m forced to accept that no, Joe, you really DON’T know how to do things. You want to complain about how things are run? Fine. But then you need to either put up or shut at at things being done better. Joe, so far, has done none of that, and his complaining only serves to ostracize him further from the tribe. Given that Peter wants to keep Debbie around, I’d say that makes Joe target A-1 for elimination from Chan Loh.

Joe also seems to have joined Debbie in drinking the Kool-Aid. And by Kool-Aid, I mean unboiled water. Liz is pretty squeamish about it, which sets Joe off on a confessional rant about how worthless Liz’s “book smarts” are out on “Survivor”. Again, I would have no problem with this IF JOE ACTUALLY DEMONSTRATED GOOD SURVIVAL SKILLS! But no, he just complains about how everyone else is doing it wrong. Plus, again, I’m on Liz’s side for this one. Water out there has a lot of really bad stuff in it. Best to boil it before drinking.

Dehydrated, Liz goes into the water to take a moment to herself, and… WHOA! When did Liz and Aubry do a body swap? We don’t hear a peep from Aubry this episode, but Liz breaks down about the water situation. A reasonable thing to break down about, I’ll grant you, but Liz came across as stronger than that. Hope she’ll be ok. She does seem to pull herself together by the end of it all.

Speaking of the elements, we cut back to To Tang, who are quickly becoming out go-to people for confessionals about elemental harshness. Once again, Jason is our narrator, talking about how bad the sunburn is, and how he needs to rest. Oh come on, Jason, it can’t be that bad… OH MY GOD! Emergency! Emergency! We have reached John Cochran levels of sunburn! Repeat! John Cochran levels!

Yeah, Jason’s shoulder’s look pretty bad, but I shouldn’t single him out too much. After all, the rest of To tang doesn’t seem to be doing much work either. Oh, except for Alecia, but that’s because she needs to prove herself. She goes off to make fire and… wait, they STILL don’t have their fire started! Ok, there’s been some talk about whether or not To Tang was going to be a “train wreck tribe” for the season, and I was inclined to disagree. Now, however, I’m a convert. I know that if you haven’t practiced, starting fire with flint isn’t the easiest thing, but I’d expect pure random chance to give you SOMETHING by now! And that’s not the worst of it! Alecia works on the fire for FIVE HOURS before she gets anything! And even then, it’s only with Jason helping at the last minute that the fire gets started at all. That’s pretty pathetic, guys.

Out of this patheticness comes some good stuff, though. First off, Alecia. I wasn’t her biggest fan after her first episode, and I’m still not very big on her now, but I must give credit to her determination and her unwillingness to accept her fate. In harsh conditions like these, it can take a lot to keep that going, especially when you’re so obviously on the bottom. Second, it further shows Jennifer’s emotional side, as she has a newfound respect for Alecia for doing that for the tribe. Doesn’t make Jennifer the best “Survivor” player ever, but it’s nice to see. Third, and most important, it makes To Tang seem like one big happy family, and indicates that Alecia may NOT actually be on the bottom.

That newfound teamwork should really help To Tang since it’s CHALLENGE TIME! Like with the first immunity challenge, this one borrows from some previous challenges, but not in full concept, and after 32 seasons of this show, I’d imagine coming up with purely original elements is a bit difficult. The challenge this most borrows from is the first reward challenge of “Survivor Africa”, where the tribes transported long poles through a course, later assembling those poles to get to the top of a structure. This means that not only are we seeing a challenge element that, while reused, is rarely used today, but also that we’re borrowing from a season known for great challenges, and it’s hard to fault that. The gist of this challenge is that the tribes must carry a long log through a series of obstacles to get in in a finish space. Once there, they must untie a ball and rope on the log to get said ball to a slingshot, where the ball must be launched to knock over two targets. First two teams to knock over both targets win immunity and various amounts of fishing gear. This one is a really big challenge, and relatively unique as well. It’s a bit simpler than last episode’s challenge, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s grueling and epic-looking, and that counts for a lot.

One major disadvantage this challenge DOES have, though, is predictability. Last episode did a FANTASTIC job of giving us strategy from all sides, meaning anyone could lose. This time, the only real strategy development came from Chan Loh, pretty much guaranteeing that they’re going to Tribal Council this time.

At first, the challenge seems convinced that this is the case as well. Between Chan Loh being slightly behind Gondol and To Tang from the outset, and Debbie further cementing her “crazy” status by cheering like a madman from the sidelines awkwardly. Gondol manages to keep their lead, but a fumble by To Tang puts Chan Loh back in it at the untying portion of the challenge. It’s a very close race, but after Gondol takes first place, some sharp shooting by Peter sends To Tang back to Tribal Council again. Ok, points for unpredictability, show, but we got the LEAST from To Tang strategy wise this episode. Perhaps you’re setting stuff up for later, and I’m certainly not saying that what we got pre-challenge was BAD, but it feels like none of it mattered, and now you have to cram in all that strategizing after the challenge.

Yeah, I know that there may simply not have been much strategizing to show at To Tang, but these editors are clever. I’m sure they could come up with something.

As we leave the challenge, Jason complains about how they’re set to be the worst tribe in “Survivor” History. Ah, that old and tried hyperbole. Don’t worry Jason, you’ve still got two episodes to go before you hit Matsing levels.

Back at To Tang camp we get, what else, more complaining about Alecia from Jason and Scot. Ok, I’ve reached my boiling point on this. Again, I’m no fan of Alecia’s but these guys just keep making the same points over and over again, and some of them don’t even make sense! I mean “Alecia doesn’t pull her weight around camp?” She made the fire!

(The door to Matt’s house breaks down)

MATT: What the… wait why am I surprised by this any more? It’ll be Jason this time won’t it?

(Enter Jason)

JASON: Well, technically, I made the fire, you know. So yeah, she’s not pulling her weight.

MATT: Overall, yes, Alecia could be doing more. But YOU did not make the fire. You showed up in the last five minutes to lend a hand. Effectively, you kill-stole a fire.

JASON: That’s my bounty-hunter skills, man!

MATT: Look, bounty-hunter skills or not, you’re just plain being rude. We get it. You’ve got an alliance. Alecia’s not a part of it. Stop driving that point into the ground.

JASON: What else is there to talk about?

MATT: Oh, I don’t know, ANYTHING else?

JASON: Ok, well then, let’s hear some more about my sunburn.

(Matt exits in a hurry).

Well, after that interruption, we get confirmation of what I said all along: that To Tang would be the no-nonsense tribe. Sure, they got an alliance together, but there’s a LOT of pressure from each other to stick with it, and very little tolerance for lying. Alecia provides the best evidence for that. When asked by Jennifer “What’s the best thing to do on ‘Survivor’?”, Alecia’s initial answer is “Be honest.” Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I doubt someone so shadily hiding whether or not they have the idol (as we saw last episode) would say that honesty is best on “Survivor”. Unlike Debbie and Joe, Alecia is adapting to her situation. Scheming won’t work on To Tang, so she’s changing up her perception.

Scheming, however, may be the order of the day. Further being ruled by her emotions, Jennifer is not happy about voting Alecia off. Like me, she’s both impressed at her determination, and fed up with the guys attitude towards her. With Darnell gone, the women have a majority, and conspire to vote off Jason. Actually, not a bad plan for any of them. At the moment, it’s pretty clear that Scot and Jason have all the power on this team. Those two are most likely sticking together. True, they’re easily the two strongest people left on the team, but the strength part of challenges really hasn’t been their problem, and now’s pretty much the last chance until a swap for anyone else to seize power. Yeah, you might lose some more, but again, tribe swap. Anything can happen.

Despite stumbling onto a good strategy, Jennifer starts to have third thoughts after talking with Scot. While she wasn’t happy with either of the boy’s attitudes towards Alecia, she was more angry at Jason (hence his being the target), and thinks that perhaps risking offending Scot isn’t such a good idea. She floats this to Cydney, who at this point is just fed up with all the flip-flopping.

Well, for the short time-frame given, we’ve got some good misdirection heading into Tribal Council. And oh boy, what a Tribal Council it is!

Probst wastes no time in jumping on the strategy of voting, noting that Alecia, as the other vote-getter from last time, is the obvious choice. On the other hand, he floats the possibility of a women’s alliance straight to Jennifer, further lending credence to the idea that Probst has some knowledge of what happens at camp. Now, Jennifer could play this off with a coy half-truth, hinting at what she wants to do without drawing suspicion anymore. For the sake of drama, she doesn’t. Instead, she admits that she’s up in the air, not sure of how she wants to vote. Since she told Jason and Scot that she was firmly in the “Vote for Alecia” camp, this causes some FANTASTIC fireworks! Suddenly, nobody knows where they stand, and they start to scramble. To her credit, Jennifer does try and talk her way out of it, mainly by lying through her teeth. She claims that the women’s alliance was all Alecia’s idea, despite this not being the case, as it’s the only way to get the cloud of suspicion off of her. Alecia, though, also capitalizes on this opportunity, denying Jennifer’s lies and trying to cast aspersions of disloyalty. Jennifer counters with a plea for strength in the tribe, saying she’s always stood behind that value. The tribe, however, remains unconvinced. Scot in particular says she needs to make him trust her again. Jennifer somehow accomplishes this by standing up on her seat. Not sure what good that does, but it looks cool. Also, since we don’t have enough classic “Survivor” comparisons, the mistrust and pleading from Jennifer reminds me of the situation Ami was in for her boot episode on “Survivor Micronesia”.

The votes are in, and in another parallel to the aforementioned Ami situation, Jennifer’s pleas fall on deaf ears. She managed to convince Scot, but as he himself admits, he’s not known for being smart. She goes home, and while I did find her likable and will miss her, I think that was the right decision. She was just too volatile for this tribe, and wasn’t particularly necessary. Still, when she wasn’t being overly emotional, she had some game, and I’ve definitely got a soft spot for her. Credit also to To Tang as a whole: While they do value honesty and sticking to the plan (further evidence why Jennifer needed to be voted off: she didn’t follow that), they are, at least willing to change it up at Tribal Council. Not only is that a smart way to play, but it makes for a more interesting game.

This episode was still really good, but mostly for the back half. Not that the stuff we got pre-challenge was bad, but since we spent the least substantive time with the tribe going to Tribal Council, it felt a bit pointless, especially when last episode did such a good job of balancing good screentime for every tribe. Still, what an exciting back half, man! Say what you will about To Tang, they do make for a fun Tribal Council. Since I suspect they’ll be going to a lot more of them in future, look forward to more excitement next week!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Cast Assessment

The new cast of “Survivor Kaoh Rong” has been released? Well, it’s about bloody time! Under a month to go now until the premier.

In all seriousness, welcome back to “Idol Speculation”, my knee-jerk opinion that everyone is entitled to! As is now tradition with the blog, with the announcing of a new cast, and very little information to go on, it’s of course time to make predictions about how these people will play and what position they’ll end up in. Because that’s what the internet is for. We’ve got another “Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty” twist in what looks to be a season rehashing a LOT from previous seasons. Still, as I’ve been noting in my “‘Survivor’ Retrospectives” series, a good cast can often make up for a bad everything else. Will this cast be good enough to overcome my doubts pre-season? Read on and find out!

Chan Loh Tribe (Brains):

Peter Baggenstos (34, ER Doctor, Minneapolis, MN): Barack Obama? Who put YOU on “Survivor”? And no, I’m not just making this up out of whole cloth to illustrate the “repetition” this season, he really does look like Barack Obama. Hell, he even comments on it in his video on CBS.com. But the comparisons don’t end with looks. Peter seems to be a natural alpha-male, leader type, which normally I’d count against him, but looking at the makeup of the tribe overall, not very many of them, apart from Peter, are willing or able to carry the mantle of the overt leader. Early game, at least, you need an overt leader, and if Peter is willing to fill that role, I see no reason these people won’t let him. I am a little concerned about how well he’ll bond with his tribe, since he is one of SEVERAL Tribe choices I’ll be questioning in this blog. Don’t get me wrong, it takes a LOT of smarts to become a doctor, and the guy doesn’t seem stupid to me. The trouble is that I don’t feel that’s his greatest asset. His muscles are. While he doesn’t like “Bros”, he seems like very much that type of guy, if a little more serious-minded than the stereotype usually is, but as I say, this team is going to need to be led early on, and Peter will definitely fill that role. This bodes well for his time in the game, but not his overall winning. As said overt leader, he’ll definitely be kept around until the merge, but once the merge hits, he’s doomed. The trouble is that then he becomes a threat, and the covert leader (or leaders) start to take over, which will spell his doom. Now, I don’t get the sense that Peter know’s what he’s doing in the outdoors, which may bode ill if this season is as rough as everyone claims, but I try not to make guesses as to who’s going to get medevaced or not. Taking that out of the equation, Peter’s probably out sometime around the mid-merge, end of story.

Aubry Bracco (29, Social Media Marketer, Cambridge, MA): Oh boy, this is going to be another Julia Landauer (“Survivor Caramoan”) situation, isn’t it? Yes, though I rarely get crushes from “Survivor”, and I don’t find Aubry as physically attractive as Julia, I have to admit, I’m smitten. What can I say, I have a thing for nerds. And, at first, this was fine. It seemed, from reading her bio, like Aubry could actually do pretty well. She’s definitely a “younger” contestant, but on the older end of that, and seemed mature for her age, which would allow her to bond well with both major groups of contestants. While she did think and act a bit outside of the box, she does work in a field that requires you to be very social, and seemed to be able to get things to go her way, against all probability (writing a children’s book instead of a thesis, for instance), all stuff that could make her a real threat to win. And then I saw her video, and yeah, my confidence dropped considerably. She’s not just a “little” nerdy as she claimed, she’s a LOT nerdy. While I admire that, it’s not very good on “Survivor”. In that stressful an environment, such people/behavior can get really old, really fast, and though this particular brains tribe seems to be one that would be amenable to letting one’s freak flag fly, even that has limits. From what I’ve seen of her, Aubry passes those limits by a mile. I think it’s her talking about zodiac signs that pushed me over the edge. After getting burned by my hopes for Max Dawson on “Survivor Worlds Apart”, I guess I just consider talking about zodiac signs to be the “Survivor” equivalent of kryptonite. Too weird even for this show. And while I could see her initial tribe putting up with that sort of behavior, especially if Aubry is smart enough to find a good alliance (which I believe she is), I REALLY can’t see anyone on the other tribes letting that stick around. Hence, my prediction is that Aubry goes shortly after the swap, if not sooner. I hope I’m wrong. For all her quirks, Aubry does seem like a nice person who’s got some smarts underneath, which is a good combination for the show. As it stands, though, I just don’t see her being worth the trouble to most people.

Joseph Del Campo (72, Former FBI Agent, Vero Beach, FL): If Peter seemed like a kind of weird choice to put on the “Brains” tribe, then Joseph is a completely INSANE choice! Did you just not have enough people to fit the “Brains” group, CBS? Well, then maybe you shouldn’t have done the “Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty” twist this time! While it is cool to see a contestant this old on the show, a rarity in itself, I’m not wild about Joseph. He mainly just talks about how cool being an FBI Agent was, which is fine, it just gets old after a while. Also, like Peter he seems more physically inclined than mentally inclined, and again, I think would have fit much better on the “Brawn” side of things. As such, between that and his age, I don’t see him lasting long, probably not even making the tribe swap. While I do question some of the “Brains” choices here, most of them do seem to value smarts in some capacity. Not so much Joseph. Unless he can really prove himself in an early challenge or two, this guy is going to be off very quickly, just for being different.

Neal Gottleib (37, Ice Cream Entrepreneur, Sausalito, CA): Here we have the reverse Aubry. Neal was someone I initially looked at and thought he was a goner. The main thing was just that he was weird. An entrepreneur, sure, and definitely with enough education to qualify as a “Brain”, but he was just so bohemian, so new age, that I thought for sure he wouldn’t be able to fit in, and would be a quick target for his unorthodox lifestyle. What first turned me around on him was the realization that a lot of the “Brains” people had their own quirks or foibles, and so probably would be a bit more accepting of other people’s quirks and foibles, making him less of an early target. But it was his video that really turned me around on him. His quirks, which seemed extreme on paper, are much more subdued than you’d expect in person. On top of that, his talk about pitching himself to people and how he prepared for the show completely turned me around. This is a guy who knows what he’s doing; how to be an influence from the shadows without really leading. This turnaround was so spectacular that I’m actually making him my male pick to win this whole season! Now, I’ll say up front that that’s not a very high bar he passed, since I’m not impressed with most of these guys in terms of game skills, but Neal was just too good to pass up. I don’t really see him being seen as a threat or a liability at any point, and he’s got the brains to make the game go where he wants it to, and so I can’t really justify giving the male pick to win to anyone other than him.

Elisabeth “Lis” Markham (27, Quantitative Strategist, Brooklyn, NY): Lis is a tough one for me to get a read on. She definitely belongs on the “Brains” tribe, with her occupation being “Quantitative Strategist”, and she likes counting cards in blackjack, so she’s got the edge she may need to win. As with pro poker players, though, I question how well skills at card games transfer over to “Survivor”, and while she uses a lot of big words, she doesn’t stand out from the crowd to much. Not to say that she’s just another pretty face, though. She definitely strikes me as intelligent, which is a plus, and I don’t see her being boring or anything, she just doesn’t really make a huge impression. Part of that is that this is the first time I’m seeing the cast, so it may take me a bit to really get to know all of them, but Lis didn’t really pull me one way or the other. She could be fabulous at the game, or she could be a complete wreck. For my prediction, I’ll give her the benefit of a doubt and say that she’ll go far. I think it’s the fact that she’s studied game theory, something that I’ll say DOES apply between the real world and “Survivor”. I don’t see her being the leader of an alliance, but I suspect she’ll weasel her way into a second-in-command position. A lieutenant if you will. As for position, I doubt she’ll be out early, but with little to make her stand out of others, I’m guessing she’s gone in the early merge area.

Debbie Wanner (49, Chemist, Reading, PA): Ah yes, one of the people I called out as looking like a favorite of mine pre-season, and the new information I’ve gotten on her has done little to sway my thinking. I’m not AS big a fan of her as I thought, mostly due to the Aubry factor, but she’s got a lot going for her. Here, we have a tough older woman who’s got a lot of hidden depth, and a lot of varied interests. This can make her relatable, and a real threat should she make the switch, since I could see her bonding with anyone on any tribe. That said, she also talks a lot about her army training, which definitely makes her pretty strong for her age, but also, to me, drives a wedge between her and the rest of her tribe, save perhaps Joseph. While the “Brains” this time around are fairly accepting, I feel they’re more in for free-spiritedness than army regimentation. Thus, the first few days for Debbie will be a struggle. Again, like Joseph, she’s going to have to prove herself early on or she’ll be out quickly, but her younger age and more relatable experiences give her a better chance, I’d say. The real kicker, though, is that I don’t think she’s there to win. She talked a lot about proving something to herself/her kids, which says to me that she may not be willing to do what it takes to win “Survivor”. If she can find that competitive drive, she’s a force to be reckoned with, but without it, I say she’a a pre-swap boot. If she makes the swap, though, I like her chances much better. Press releases describe her as a “Renaissance Woman”, and I have no reason to doubt that label. She’ll definitely be enjoyable; I just hope she sticks around long enough for us to see a lot of it.

To Tang Tribe (Brawn):

Cydney Gillon (23, Bodybuilder, Douglasville, GA): When you’ve been a “Survivor” fan for as long as I have, you start to notice certain character types that the show likes to have. One of these is that of the “sassy black woman”, who’s usually loud, opinionated, and unwilling to back down. Now, it’s easy to see why the show likes to cast such people. After all, “Survivor” is best when it has at least one or two bigs characters, and this character type is usually pretty big. As to the track record of such characters, it varies. Sometimes they can be brought along in a position of power, like Crystal Cox on “Survivor Gabon”, or they can be out incredibly early for being irritating like Jolanda Jones of “Survivor Palau”. I bring this up because Cydney is this season’s requisite “sassy black woman”, and I can’t help but let the past performance of similar characters influence my opinion of how she’ll do. Hence Cydney’s a question mark for me. She could get really irritating really fast, or she could be a nice balance of a character. She could crash and burn early, or she could make it deep. If I were to bet on one side, though, it’d be the “crash and burn” side of things. As I say, this is a character that can get really irritating, both for the viewer and the player, and I see little to nothing in Cydney to balance this out. The fact that she says she has a hard time relating to certain types of people, particularly other women, says to me that Cydney is not long for this world. Since she is strong, I see her making the swap at least, but once she’s on a new tribe, I don’t really see her being able to hack it. Out after the swap, but before the merge.

Darnell Hamilton (27, Postal Worker, Chicago, IL): Darnell is just a nice guy, plain and simple. He’s not overcomplicated, seems to tell it like it is, and just has this sense of charm and amenability about him. If he had a few more smarts, I’d have made him my male pick to win it all. Again, I can’t stress enough that this guy just exudes likability. Add onto that his strength, and there’s little to no reason for him not to make the merge, at least. I’m even going to go a bit farther, and give him a “mid-to-late merge” boot prediction. I want this guy to do well, but I just don’t see him having the strategic smarts he needs to save himself when the time comes. He’ll probably get into an alliance easy, but once that alliance fails, or turns on him, I don’t see how he can come back.

Alecia Holden (24, Real Estate Agent, Dallas, TX): Usually, when we have self-described “tomboys” who look like the young, attractive blonde that Alecia is, I just roll my eyes and mark them for early elimination. Alecia, however, seems to have some credit to back up what she says. Once again, it’s hard to put a finger on exactly why this is, other that the fact that she doesn’t like lying and scheming, whereas most young, attractive people would use their looks to scheme their way to more time in the game. Now, it would be easy to say this makes her more of the fool, but on a tribe noted for “Brawn”, that’s probably a good thing, to keep it uncomplicated. Not saying she’ll win, by any means, but I could see Alecia doing decently well. She seems tough enough, and causes little drama, so she’ll probably be an early merge boot.

Kyle Jason (31, Bounty Hunter, Detroit, MI): Unfortunately for Kyle, he’s probably the first one out of the “Brawns” group when the lose. The name of the game, on this particular tribe, is “uncomplicated”. What we’ve got here is a group of people not so much interested in the strategic part of the game, and instead wanting to keep things simple and drama-free. Kyle, being a bounty hunter, is in a profession where drama is the order of the day. While being a dramatic person might not be a required skill for being a bounty hunter, it’s often perceived by the general public that you have to be that way. On top of that, from how he talks and describes himself, I’d say Kyle is someone unlikely to hold anything back, which again, is not a good trait to have on a tribe that values not rocking the boat. Since I’d say this tribe has a good chance of winning a number of challenges, he might stick around until the swap, but not much beyond that, and I’m calling him a pre-merge boot for sure.

Jennifer Lanzetti (38, Contractor, Salt Lake City, UT): Agent Melinda May from “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”? When did you get here? You’re not even on the right network! Actually, for once, the comparisons end at looks. Jennifer is definitely a tough, strong, no-nonsense older lady, which will serve her well on this particular tribe. Like a lot of people in this group, she doesn’t seem to like lying or deception, so I’m not sure she can really win this game, but I see her doing well. She’s not so forceful as to get kicked out early, but she does seem to have SOME force behind her, so unlike some on this tribe, I don’t see her going down without a fight when things inevitably go south. Add onto that her possibly being a closeted challenge threat, and I’d put her boot sometime in the mid-merge area. Definitely going to last a while, and probably fun to watch as well.

Scot Pollard (40, Former NBA Champion, Carmel, IN): So, as if it wasn’t COMPLETELY obvious that the show was trying to recapture the zeitgeist of “Survivor Cagayan”, they also cast yet ANOTHER NBA player on this season. They have to be TRYING to be unoriginal at this point. There’s not a lot to say about Scot, since he’s a pretty uncomplicated guy. Strong, but not a lot upstairs, pretty much your quintessential “Brawn”. Unless he gets really sick or something, I can’t see him being a target early on, but once the merge hits, he’ll be too big of a threat for his own good. As physical threats are wont to do, he’ll probably be out in the early merge, and the show will be none the worse for wear for it.

Gondol Tribe (Beauty):

Michele Fitzgerald (24, Bartender, Freehold, NJ): Oh boy, I’m going to have a hard time with this name. I’m used to “Michele” being spelled with two L’s. And, if I’m right, I’m going to be writing this name a lot. You see, Michele is my female pick to win the entire game. While I’d normally be inclined to write off someone who is put under the label of “Beauty”, this tribe in general, and Michele in particular, has a lot of depth to her, which is good. Michele’s not just another pretty face, she’s cutthroat, and really knows her way around this game. She’s got the analysis, she’s got excellent social skills; I really don’t see what can stop her from winning. She’s definitely cunning enough to control the game early, and from what I’ve seen, she’ll be able to influence others post-swap and late-game. Basically, she’s got more base knowledge of manipulation and “Survivor” than most anyone else on this list. Oh, and she’s a “Harry Potter” fan. Yes, my loyalty can be so cheaply bought.

Anna Khait (26, Pro Poker Player, Brooklyn, NY): And so, we return to the realm of “Why was this person on this tribe”? Anna is another very smart, very deep woman, which again, the “Beauty” tribe desperately needs, considering how everyone other than Brice and LJ were boring on “Survivor Cagayan”, but isn’t the pro poker player slot usually on the “Brains” tribe? Just doesn’t make sense to me. Still, I give Anna good odds in this game. True, my hatred for the “Pro Poker Player” type is well known, but Anna plays it down, emphasizing more her social skills, and not her occupational background. Hence, I suspect she’s got a good handle on her abilities, and which of those will ACTUALLY be useful out on the show. On top of that, she’s more overtly determined to win than most of the people on this season (not that others AREN’T determined, they’re just less open about it), which means she’ll probably fight hard to stay in. Not sure she quite has the killer instinct to win, but I’d still make her a post-merge boot, probably sometime in the late merge.

Nick Maiorano (30, Personal Trainer, Redondo Beach, CA): I’m not going to mince matters. This guy is the first one out, no question. And I don’t mean first one out of his tribe, I mean first one out PERIOD! The guy looks strong, sure, but he’s SO full of himself, SO convinced of his superiority to everyone else, that it’ll get beyond irritating after five minutes, and better strategists than him will take him out just to put him in his place. Don’t believe me? Allow me to quote from his “Entertainment Weekly”, bio, specifically his “Personal Claim to Fame”:
“I’ll always be a better listener than you. Meaning, I listen to people better than you do, I’m more interested in people than you are, and I accept people more than you do. And yes, sometimes I pretend to do these things, but at least I pretend, whereas you just check out and are narcissistic.”
Hypocritical much? I see NOTHING narcissistic about calling yourself better than everybody else at all! Face facts: this guy has NO IDEA how he comes across, what his abilities really are, and he’s doomed as a result.

Caleb Reynolds (28, Army Veteran/Former “Big Brother” Contestant, Hopkinsville, KY): As if it wasn’t enough to copy the premise of “Survivor Cagayan”, we now also have to copy “Survivor Blood vs. Water” and have a former “Big Brother” contestant on the show. Actually, it’s pretty easy to see why Caleb was made famous on “Big Brother”. He’s a fairly likable guy, but a bit simple and one-note, talking a lot about the same subjects over and over. I don’t see his as being that smart, but his is strong, which this tribe needs, and less irritating, which will definitely keep him around until the merge. Like I said, I don;t see this guy having a lot going for him other than being likable and strong, so he’s probably an early merge boot, but I also see him being a semi-enjoyable watch that never gets too irritating.

Julia Sokolowski (19, Student, Boston, MA): One good thing I’ll say about this cast is that, with rare exception, no one out here is just here to be a “pretty reality contestant”. Everyone has some edge, some maturity, some depth, something that makes them unique, which can’t be said of every season. Julia isn’t an exception to this, but out of everyone here, I’d say she some the closest. Oh, she has spunk, superfan status, and some life experience, what with her having taught English in Tanzania and all. The problem is that, despite all this, Julia still come off as somewhat immature. Not in the whiny, no-self control sense, but just not a full grown-up yet. This wouldn’t normally be much of a problem, but this is what I would describe as a very mature season of “Survivor”. however old they are, everyone comes off as an adult in some capacity, and while she’s further along than a lot of 19 year olds, Julia is just not there quite yet. This makes her stand out, and I’d argue puts her game at a lesser caliber than anyone else on this season, and dooms her chances. She’s definitely out before the merge, and probably even before the swap. A nice enough person, but this is a season that does not suffer children gladly.

Tai Trang (51, Gardener, San Francisco, CA): Yau-Man 2.0 So, we’re even copying “Survivor Fiji”, now? Actually, I’d say Tai is like a combination of Yau-Man and Bob Crowley (“Survivor Gabon”), in that he’s not as book-smart as Yau-Man, but he is crafty and seems to be good outdoors. As you’d expect from someone older and fairly quirky, Tai stands out, and I definitely don’t see him winning. He isn’t as bad as some of the others on his tribe, though, and if he can find the right group of people, he’ll probably go far. As it stands, I’m saying Tai goes out around the tribe swap. He might be able to find a niche with time, but the swap doesn’t really allow for that.

So, there we have our new cast. Does it make up for the repetitiveness of this season, or does it just augment the failure? Sad to say, but it’s too soon to tell. A bit of a cop-out, I know, but it’s the best I can do. I will say that in this cast’s favor, there’s almost no one there who seems like a non-entity. Everyone has some interesting potential story, something going for them that makes me want to watch them. And, for all that I kvetched about repetitive casting, I will say it’s not as bad as I expected, and a lot of it was just for the sake of humor. My problem, though, is that while these characters seem interesting, sometimes people who are interesting on paper are actually quite boring on camera. Alternatively, they could be irritating, and you wish they’d just get voted out sooner. My point is that while there’s very little on this cast that strikes me as BAD, there’s also nothing on it that gets me super-excited, that I’m absolutely SURE is going to be a great watch. Hopefully the cast will turn out better than even I expect, since this season has some stuff working against it from the beginning. If you want that judgement, though, you’ll have to read on Feb. 17th, when I blog about the premier!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.