Idol Speculation: “Survivor Winners at War” Episode 6: Get the Girls Some Chocolate and Peanut Butter

Happy though I am with most of the show’s developments tonight, I must express one big disappointment. While I’m not one of those people who thinks only the first 10 seasons or so of “Survivor” were the only good ones, nor would I profess the automatic superiority of “old school” players, I must admit I enjoy watching them play and adapt to a game very different from the one they originally played on, and I always like how it proves they aren’t as “bad” at the game as “new school” fans seem to believe. Thus, it is disappointing to me that, not counting the Edge of Extinction, Yul is the ONLY person left who played prior to season 20. Conversely, Natalie is the only person voted out so far who DIDN’T play prior to season 20. Come on, you all, you can do better than this!

I start off with this drama because it’s more than we’ll get at Yara. With Rob gone, everyone is all happy smiles. I particularly like Adam’s quip asking Sarah, arguably the most famous cop on “Survivor”, not to call the cops. This cheerfulness even leaks into strategy, with Ben talking about how happy he is to have found people that he connects with in Sarah and Sophie. He even speculates about working with them more down the line. Adam, however, is somewhat less optimistic. Since this is an even-numbered episode, we’ve got smart Adam this time around, and as a smart guy, Adam doesn’t fail to notice how chummy Ben is with Sarah and Sophie. Conversely, Ben has been much less chatty with Adam than normal. Adam naturally realizes that he’s in deep bantha poodoo, to put it in nerdspeak, and may be in trouble should we come to Tribal Council. Gee, I wonder which tribe is going to Tribal Council this week?

Over at the Edge of Extinction, Tyson brings over a log, triggering PTSD flashbacks for Natalie, Amber, Danni, and Ethan. Fortunately, this one does not indicate a need to hike up a hill, though Rob will do so anyway. It indicates that a chance for a fire token is hidden under a rock, though it also mentions being in “the right place at the right time”. I must admit, I’m disappointed. So far, the clues have actually been pretty tricky in terms of what happens on the Edge of Extinction (when they aren’t just straight-up physically brutal), but this one was obvious, at least to me. Tides are the only thing that time really affects on an island with no clocks, so clearly whatever it is is hidden under a rock near the tide line. However, only Tyson is smart enough to think on it. Continuing his smartness, Tyson buys himself some alone time by pretending to use the bathroom. He then picks up the idol nullifier, which he can sell at the price of one fire token to anyone still in the game. Since we’re currently in not-idiot Tyson mode, he sells it to Parvati, since she probably has fire tokens to spare, and will be desperate for any advantage, since I’m guessing Rob revealed the new tribe divisions. Granted, no one on Sele HAS an idol, nor any easy way to obtain an idol, so it’s not much use to Parvati at the moment, but neither of them know that, so I can’t fault either of them.

Parvati wisely decides to buy, so Tyson now has himself a fire token. Given that one can reasonably guess that a challenge to re-enter the game is near, Tyson needs to consider how best to spend his token. The sad thing is that not-idiot Tyson and idiot-Tyson change places on a dime. Despite making nothing but smart moves so far in the episode, Tyson, rather than get an advantage in a challenge he already has a leg up in anyway, decides to go for a jar of peanut butter. Why? Because he likes to mess with people, that’s why. Look, humor is subjective, and if you like it, good for you. For me, however, Tyson’s attitude of “I’m smarter than everyone and love to show it off.” just rubs me the wrong way. To pull that attitude off, you really need to indicate a good amount of self-knowledge, and temper it with some self-deprecating humor, neither of which Tyson seems to have in my opinion. Now, to be fair, Tyson DOES make the more logical argument of “having more food, and thus more strength for the challenge.” This is actually quite reasonable, though I then question why Tyson is eating his peanut butter NOW. The challenge is clearly not going to be happening the same day, and your body will get rid of those nutrients quickly. You want to cause mischief? Hide your peanut butter, and save it for when you think the challenge is near. That’ll cause some chaos.

Speaking of challenges, it’s time for our immunity challenge, once Dakal and Sele get their jaws off the floor from Rob’s exit. I’m disappointed that we don’t focus much on Sandra’s reaction here. I can just imagine the look on her face telegraphing “Damn, I didn’t get to write his name down.” For immunity and PB&J (man peanut butter is the unintentional theme of this episode, isn’t it?), tribes must transport three bags of rice from the water to the land, punching them through a small hole in the wall, slice said bags open, then maneuver three balls through a table maze. This mainly mirrors a challenge from “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, though the table maze in this form was first seen on “Survivor South Pacific”. The table maze is a bit standard, but the rice part of the challenge is rarely used, but memorable, particularly with the knife part. I’ll give this one a pass.

Ah, but now for the twist. You see, as Probst mentions, only one tribe gets to win. Two tribes will go to Tribal Council tonight. That means, since the unintentional theme of this season is “Taking a cool possibility and doing the worst possible thing with it.”, that naturally we will have the dumb “Combined Tribal Council” with no inter-tribe strategizing, like from “Survivor Game Changers” and “Survivor Edge of Extinction”. So come on, Probst. Give us the bad news. I’m ready.

PROBST: Two tribes will go to Tribal Council separately, and each vote someone off.

… Excuse me a moment.

SOMEWHERE IN L.A

CRASH!

PROBST: What the…

ME: Hey Probst! Long time, no see! What was it, “Survivor One World”? You crashed into my dorm room to tell me useless facts about Kansas?

PROBST: How did you find me?

ME: All true “Survivor” fans have a Probst-radar. It wasn’t hard. Hey, is this the “Survivor Pearl Islands” snuffer? Cool. Though really, why didn’t you chop a torch in half with the axe end? Would have been cooler.

PROBST: Look, I’ve got the cops on the way, so want to tell me what you’re doing here so you can get your story straight?

ME: Well, players are always breaking into MY house about once a season, but this is the 20th anniversary. Though I’d do something special and shake things up a bit by breaking into someone else’s house instead.

PROBST: But why me, specifically? Here to strangle me with your latest buff because of the continued existence of “Edge of Extinction”?

ME: Actually, no. I’m here to thank you.

PROBST: Thank me?

ME: I’ll rage against bad production decisions time and again. It needs to be done to prevent a relapse, plus it reads as funnier online. But that means I should also acknowledge good decisions along with bad. In an era where you guys seem to zig everywhere you should zag, and had an easy opportunity to do a hated twist here, you did the smart thing and went with the better option. We hadn’t seen it in a while, and it’s fairer for all involved. My kudos to you. Even fire tokens do some good this episode.

PROBST: Glad you think so. I’ll be sure to let the police know not to be TOO harsh when they arrest you for breaking quarantine.

(Matt exits in a hurry).

Really, my only complaint for this challenge is how obvious it is that Yara is going to lose. True, we’re barely past the 15-minute mark at the start of the challenge, so most strategizing was going to happen afterward anyway, but Adam’s little confessional makes it clear. Admittedly, having lost their arguable big gun in Boston Rob, they were likely to lose anyway, but still, a bit of mystery would have been nice. Dakal, having the second most challenge sinks (even though Sandra is sitting this one out), is likely to lose as well, but I honestly don’t mind. With Yul, Wendell, and Nick a firm threesome on Sele, they’re the least interesting tribe in terms of dynamics for voting. Granted, Dakal has an issue where 4 out of 5 people can be immune, but there’s something to be said for the intrigue as to who will and won’t play their various advantages this time around.

Sure enough, when the challenge starts, Sele is in a firm lead, with Dakal and Yara merely going back and forth in vying for second. Yara actually starts out in second on the carrying portion, but loses it to Dakal when it comes to stuffing the bags through the hole. Then Dakal loses it again when trying to carry the bags up to the table, and some wicked slicing by Ben keeps Yara in a tight second. Occasionally a player just has a random skill that makes them wicked good in a challenge, like Brandon cutting ropes with a rock on “Survivor Guatemala”? Yeah, Ben is like that with the bags. I chalk it up to military training.

Amazingly enough, the show gets me. Ben is able to keep Yara relatively even with Sele up to the maze, where brute strength, Sele’s greatest asset at this point, doesn’t really help. With Dakal completely out of it, Yara pulls out a victory, concluding Adam’s story arc with him talking about his relief at not being at risk to go home tonight.

So, now the question becomes how to make the obvious outcome of Sele (the ouster of Parvati), less obvious. The answer, apparently, is not very well. Nick admits that he’s bummed about having to vote out his high school crush, and Michele and Parvati do debate trying to flip him, though Michele admits quickly that it’s a non-starter. As such, she tries to cut her losses and make nice with Wendell, which Wendell sees as threatening for some reason. It’s not quite clear why, but given how fraught their relationship so far has been, I can’t really blame the show too much for this one. Where I can clearly place blame is on Wendell’s next move, where he offers overtures to Parvati regarding selling his vote for Fire Tokens. Before I get into why this is a bad idea, I should say that I’m THRILLED that players still in the game are FINALLY negotiating with their fire tokens. This is the sort of social strategizing and capital manipulation I was hoping for when the twist was announced, so I’m ecstatic that it’s finally come to fruition. Plus, it gives us something we haven’t seen with the fire tokens thus far. Now, as to why it’s a bad idea in this particular instance, bear in mind this is PARVATI Wendell’s trying to swindle. You don’t swindle Parvati. Her BS detector is too good. The best you can hope for is to not get swindled by her, and not give her ammunition for later use against you. Wendell avoids the former, and falls victim to the latter. Parvati, enraged at Wendell’s arrogance, spreads around his attempt at being bribed, causing Nick to question whether Wendell’s in tight with him. Ok, show, valiant effort at misdirection, but I’m just not buying it. We’ve spent most of the season building up how tight Yul, Wendell, and Nick are, and you’re telling me it will be thrown away by one instance of overplaying? Should have stuck with a “Will it be Parvati or Michele?” narrative. True, it’s still likely Parvati in this case, but I could buy a small chance at Michele being voted out over her past with Wendell than Wendell’s alliance turning on him relatively out of the blue.

More interesting is the misdirection at Dakal, though at first it seems this may not be the case. You would think, given last episode, that the mystery was whether or not Kim would stick with Tony and Sandra, or flip with Denise and Jeremy. Kim, however, seems to have made her decision, and is sticking with Tony and Sandra. Having read a lot of strategy online between last episode and this one, I know almost everyone thinks Kim should flip, but I politely disagree. Now, while Kim really has no BAD options here, she does have something going with Yul and Sophie on the down-low, and she’s been with them longer than Denise and Jeremy. Why rock the boat by voting out one of Yul’s allies over a perceived enemy. So no, I’m not going to knock Kim’s move. She made a logical decision, given the game so far.

Thus, Denise and Jeremy must turn on one another, and both do it similarly. In conversations with them, both individually admit that while they don’t WANT to vote out the other, they’re willing to do so if needed. Jeremy talks with all but Denise about the need to keep threats around as shields, not surprising, since he’s the guy who arguably INVENTED that strategy. Denise, meanwhile, talks exclusively with Kim and Sandra, playing “humble” as she calls it, and arguing that she’s more willing to build a coalition than Jeremy is. Not a bad pitch, and Denise does play herself well, but given how strategy usually plays out, I’d say advantage Jeremy.

But where was Tony during the latter conversation, you may ask? Why, his spy shack, of course! Yes, old habits die hard for Tony, and he’s once again built himself what’s actually a decent hiding spot by the water hole. The flaw in this plan, ironically, was pointed out by Tony himself earlier in the season. Old habits get you voted out, and Tony is following old habits. Thus, not only is everyone mad at him, everyone predicts what he’s doing as well. Unlike on “Survivor Cagayan”, where his spy shack was actually useful, everyone knows not to talk around the water hole, with Sandra in particular calling Tony out on it. More to the point, it makes Tony seem like an inconsistent ally, a fact both Kim and Sandra call out in confessional. Sandra in particular wants to keep her options open, and does have an idol she has to use that evening. Now, this moment genuinely shocked me. One thing consistent about Sandra is that she always looks out for Sandra. She can be fiercely loyal to close allies, but at the end of the day, as it should be, she is her number one ally. As such, I would have pegged Sandra as the LAST person to consider using their idol for someone else. Yet, Sandra has gotten work about selling things for fire tokens, and decides to help out Denise. She offers to sell Denise her idol for two fire tokens, leaving Denise to vote out whoever she wants, as Sandra says she’ll have no part in the vote. This is a godsend for Denise. She can hide her own idol, saving it for later, and get all the credit for making a move to save herself. Plus, with Jeremy and Kim presumably at her side to save her for the next Tribal Council afterward, there’s really little downside to Denise buying this. True, she does lose fire tokens this way, but with only Adam likely to will her any more, and not much you can buy otherwise, what’s the point in holding on to them? Yeah, you could use them later, but when you’re in such a dire strait as now, having them later does no good if you’re voted out. Of course, there’s also the argument that Sandra may be giving Denise a fake, and just trying to divest her of her fire tokens, but Denise counters that with a “half up front” proposal which Sandra accepts. In theory, it’s not a bad move on Sandra’s part, since it gets rid of something she wouldn’t have much use for anyway, gets her a desired outcome without much blood on her hands, and more fire tokens to play with later. Still, though, I’d say advantage Denise here.

Our first Tribal Council, the one with Sele, proves that Wendell truly is his own worst enemy. We all know his alliance is likely to stick together. If he can shut up and play it cool, he should make it through. Yet, with only the slightest provocation from Parvati and Michele, he gets into a debate with them, a debate in which he comes off as two-faced and untrustworthy. Not helping himself, when he gets the out of saying his offer to sell his vote is off the table, he says it’s still there, getting even Yul to raise his eyebrows. We culminate with a cut to commercial as our players cast their votes, resulting in a thrilling… anticlimax. Yeah, I can’t blame production too much, since they doubtless didn’t have a lot to work with here, but it was pretty clear Parvati was going. She’s sort of in a similar position to Boston Rob’s exit last week. It’s tough to see a legend go, and I didn’t DISLIKE her, but she wasn’t one of my all-time favorites, and it was going to happen at some point. Better to get it out of the way so we can tackle new storylines. Of course, this means Parvati needs to will her fire token, and she of course gives it to… MICHELE!

That’s not a joke this time. She really gives it to Michele.

Not helping things is our second Tribal Council, which blows the first out of the water. Both the tension and the doublespeak are on point this time. It seems like it’s four against Denise but Denise makes good overtures (with pointed looks at Sandra) about building lasting bonds. Couple that with mystery as to who Denise will eliminate, and you’ve got the makings of a great Tribal Council. Sandra’s confessional about her confidence in Denise’s ability to survive is icing on the cake. Jeremy doesn’t play his advantage, but Denise does. Wisely, since she doubtless suspects Sandra of giving her a fake, plays the idol she bought from Sandra first, and waits to Jeff to confirm it. He does, but then, strangely, Denise plays her Sele idol for Jeremy. This might, at first, seem odd, but all will become clear momentarily. You see, in the great debate of Jeremy vs. Tony, Denise voted for Sandra.

Now, I’m sure a lot of you are expecting me to complain about how this has “Ethan Zohn” downside. After all, we saw not ONE bit of talk as to Sandra going home. Surely this makes her exit unsatisfying, right? Well, no, thanks to a few key differences. First off, unlike Ethan’s boot, which was a majority flip we barely got any hints about, this was a rare unilateral decision on “Survivor”. When the only person you can consult about the vote is yourself, there’s not really a way to indicate that this will be the vote, short of showing a confessional saying “I’m going to vote for Sandra”, which would kind of give the game away. Second, even if we don’t hear it, this vote has much clearer reasoning than the vote for Ethan. While we know that Ethan was voted out to weaken Boston Rob, we got no explicit reasoning why him over Parvati, or why not go for Boston Rob outright. Conversely, even though they aren’t spelled out for us, the reasons to get rid of Sandra are clear without needing to consult outside resources to find out the why of it. As the only two-time winner, Sandra is the biggest fish in the pond, the equivalent of Richard Hatch on “Survivor All-Stars”. Sandra can’t be trusted, as demonstrated by all the precautions Denise took in the deal. Speaking of which, voting out Sandra allows Denise to keep a fire token for herself, putting her in the “Dreamz” position from “Survivor Fiji” of getting the best of a deal without following up on it, but without the whole “looking like scum” thing. Plus, whether a merge is nigh or no, Sandra’s a smart move to eliminate. If the next episode ISN’T a merge, you’ve just gotten rid of your biggest challenge sink. If a merge IS coming, then you need to get rid of Sandra NOW, before she can hide in bigger numbers. Thus, a satisfying boot with little foreshadowing, and a genuinely shocking highlight to end the episode on.

Of course, Sandra still needs to give her fire token to someone, since Denise DID pay half up front. She of course chooses… MICHELE! No, she chooses Yul, which I suppose is reasonable since she voted with him before.

this episode has a lot of high highs, but I feel like it was trying too hard in places. The Adam confessionals and the Sele Tribal Council in particular felt like they were trying to build tension where there was none. That said, the misdirection was otherwise good, and while the episode as a whole may not be legendary, that Sandra boot was, the first truly legendary moment of the season. Let us hope for more.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

“Survivor” Retrospectives-Guatemala

How do I do it?  How can I be expected to review “Survivor Guatemala”?  It’s a season near and dear to my heart, the first season I saw that I realized what the show was, the season that got me hooked, my version of “Survivor Borneo”.  Without Guatemala, my life would be drastically different.  How can I review it with any sense of fairness?

Well, with no new “Survivor Philippines” cast to save me this time, I have no choice but to look back on the season that started this 8-year obsession, and decide whether or not it still holds up today.  Go figure, my first real “Survivor” blog back from Australia, and I get one of the toughest retrospectives I’ll have to do.  No sense beating about the bush, I suppose, except to remind everyone, due to the long absence, that “Survivor Retrospectives” will contain spoilers.  Those wanting to know my general take on the season and its watchability, without knowing the outcome, can scroll to the bottom of the page, where I will have an “Abstract” section, that will be spoiler-free.  I will also remind everyone that this type of blog works by my scoring each season out of 10 on its cast, challenges, twists, and overall effect, leading to a total score of 40 given at the end of the “Overall” section.  With all that kerfluffle out of the way, let’s take a critical look at “Survivor Guatemala”.

 

CAST

On paper, you could say this is objectively the worst cast that “Survivor” has ever produced, and back up that argument reasonably well.  This is one of only TWO seasons that were not at least half-returnee that have never had a returnee originally from their season (and if the rumored “Survivor Blood vs. Water” cast is correct, Guatemala will soon be the ONLY season with this distinction).  Another distinction of this cast is that it’s the first to have the “2 returnees, one for each tribe” twist that has become so reviled recently.  I’ll be discussing the implications of this twist in the “Twist” section, as well as a mention in the “Overall” section, but the bulk of it really needs to be addressed here, as the returnees are some of the better-remembered people from this season.  In this case, the returnees were from the previous season, “Survivor Palau”, and were two members of the ill-fated Ulong tribe, specifically Stephenie LaGrossa and Bobby Jon Drinkard.  Both were well-remembered, at least, Stephenie for being America’s sweetheart, the last woman standing, and Bobby Jon for having the work-ethic that wouldn’t quit.  Stephenie got a good portion of screen-time, and I’ll talk about the impact of that screen-time in the “Overall” section, but suffice to say her character was not as well-received this time around.  Determined to make up for her mistakes from Palau, Stephenie was much more cutthroat, much more sarcastic, and overall just much more unpleasant to watch than previously, and is remembered as something of the villain of the season.  Bobby Jon, in contrast, kept his character pretty well from Palau, though he did bring a better social game, and was much more humble than he had been previously.  He’s less well-remembered, but was received about the same as he was on Palau.

And then we come to the original characters, one of whom was defined by his interactions with the returnees.  I’m speaking of the hotheaded Jamie Newton, who made a big deal of the fact that he was from Georgia, whereas Bobby Jon was from Alabama, and therefore the two HAD to rivals.  It didn’t help that they were on opposing teams until the merge, and therefore had many chances to butt heads (literally, in one case) and take potshots at each other verbally.  Jamie’s also well known for being excessively paranoid, even by “Survivor” standards, and accordingly got a very early comeuppance.  Combine this with the fact that he wasn’t a fan of Stephenie from the beginning, and you have a character the audience found really unpleasant.  Sure, I’ll admit that his interactions with Bobby Jon were a bit unpleasant, but they were intense enough to hold my interest.  He dropped the “Stephenie must go.” strategy very quickly, and the paranoia was quite fascinating to watch.  Now the person who ORGANIZED the realization of Jamie’s paranoia was a fan and personal favorite: young gay Mormon Rafe Judkins, this season’s moral compass.  Rafe played a very quiet strategic game early on, and seemed to come into a good alliance with Stephenie later in the game, but Rafe did make good moves on his own, breaking away from Stephenie at times, and almost always finding favor with the jury, such that had he made the finals, he probably would have won (but that’ll get a bit of talk in the “Twist” section).  Rafe, though, also struggled with his role in the game, famously asking later on if he was a part of the “Axis of Evil”.  The crowds loved his moral compass and his quirky nature, as well as his seeming lack of caring about the game as a whole.  Not that he wasn’t invested in doing well, of course, just that he didn’t care as much if he won or not, and was happy wherever he landed.  As Rafe is one of the people who got me interested in “Survivor”, I have to say, I agree with the crowd.

But of course, for every person the crowd loves, there has to be someone the crowd hates, and that someone is Judd Sergeant, the very New York Doorman who CLAIMED to be the moral guardian of the season.  Looking at Judd, just based on size you’d guess he’d be something of a big, forceful personality, and even this wouldn’t begin to show just the extent of Judd’s personality.  The man did pretty much whatever he wanted, got very loud and defensive, played favorites, and all while spitting out a few good one-liners (upon being voted out, he wished every remaining member of the tribe had their heads bitten off by a crocodile, before muttering “Scumbags.”).  People just thought he was rude as all-get-out, and couldn’t wait to see him go, making his continued time in the game (Judd finished in 6^th overall) a real eyesore to some people, but again, I have to disagree.  While Judd was not the most pleasant character to be around, we’d had some people who were worse (Brian Heidik of “Survivor Thailand” come to mind, and to use a more recent example, Russell Hantz of “Survivor Samoa”), and Judd at least brought a bit of humor to the season.  I’ll admit the hypocrisy of claiming to be a “moral guardian” of “Survivor” wore thin very quickly, but on the other hand, as a student of psychology, I quite enjoyed seeing how self-centered our perceptions could be.  Judd wasn’t full of himself, he was just interpreting events in such a way that they made him out to be better than he was.  Nothing criminal about that.  I suggested he be brought back for “Survivor Caramoan” as I recall, so obviously I find him to be a better character than most do.

Now, Judd argued with a lot of people, but probably one of the most famous was the “Hidden Immunity Idol” argument (which will be discussed in the “Twist” section) with ex-NFL Quarterback Gary Hogeboom.  Gary is best known for pioneering the “Lie about your profession” strategy (even though Willard of “Survivor Palau” had done it before), as he thought that being a former quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys (most famously) might work against him, due to the perception that he’d have a lot of money.  Gary’s hidden job was the subject of many early episodes, as it was quite elaborate.  Gary even went so far as to create a fake identity for himself (as Gary Hawkins), and claimed to own a landscaping business.  Not a bad lie, I must say, and while many, including myself, decried it as unnecessary at the time, it was still good fodder for some interesting storylines, and looking back at the season, Gary actually wasn’t a half-bad strategist, all things considered.  I wouldn’t mind seeing him come back either.

Another somewhat controversial character would be Lydia Morales.  Not that she was particularly dynamic, far from it.  She was, if anything, a PG version of Sandra Diaz-Twine of “Survivor Pearl Islands”.  However, like Sandra before her, she was able to get by one what few skills she had (in this case being nice and fishing ability) to make it well beyond what her physically weak body should have been able to handle.  A good underdog story, but I’ll admit it wasn’t played very well, to the point that I’m ashamed to say even I don’t think about her amongst the greats, which is too bad, as she does have potential.

Surprisingly, three of the most talked about people from this season did not even make the merge, usually a requirement for “Survivor” greatness.  Those people would be Margaret Bobonich, the nurse who was essential to the Nakum tribe in the early days, Amy O’Hara, the cop with the twisted ankle, and probably most well-remembered today, my fellow “Survivor” nerd Brian Corridan.  I’ll admit, I came in late to the season, and so I missed all three of these people on my first viewing, but even in re-viewings, I still managed to like them a lot.  Margaret won her way into the hearts of viewers and contestants alike (save for Judd) by using her nursing skills to nurse the Nakum tribe back to health after nearly killing themselves on the first challenge, and for having a generally sunny disposition.  Now, I don’t normally go in for such people, but with a number of sour attitudes due to the harsh environment (the worst “Survivor” has ever done, in my opinion), it was a refreshing breeze.  Amy O’Hara is one that I’m surprised has never come back.  She’s best remembered for having a mouth on her (always a small treat), and for injuring her ankle fairly seriously in the 3^rd episode, yet still carrying on for quite some time, even doing excessively well in the challenges in a few cases.  There’s something about that fighting spirit that I and the viewing public both seem to like, and even though she wasn’t top notch at strategy, I still couldn’t help but root for her.  The one TRUE strategist of the season, you might say, was Brian, who, despite his short time in the game, made a few important moves, notably leading a drive to save Lydia, a close ally of his, and even more impressively, saving his own skin from elimination when in the minority on the flipped Yaxha (might I also add, these are some of the coolest tribe names EVER) via the game of “Bait Blake” he enacted against “Golden Boy” Blake Towsley.  Besides this, he’s alos one of the more active former contestants on the internet from ANY season, which may help keep him in the minds of the fan community.  Although I found him a bit annoying at first, I grew to like and respect him for his moves, and I was sad to see him go.  Maybe the season would have been better in the eyes of the public if this guy had been the major strategic force of the season, instead of Stephenie.

While these are all very good characters, and the start to a solid season, sadly most of the others, particularly the early boots were duds, just overall uninteresting characters.  While those who made it late into the game were generally better characters, the few who did sneak through really dragged the season down.  Hell, eventual winner Danni Boatwright is not talked about today at all in either a good or a bad capacity, and you KNOW that’s a bad sign when your WINNER doesn’t elicit strong emotions from the fanbase.  Still, for reasons I’ll get into in the “Overall” section, I think people give this season a hard time, and it’s cast, while not stellar, is still remarkably solid, with many gems in there.

Score: 8 out of 10

 

CHALLENGES

The challenges of Guatemala are a bit of an odd duck.  Aside from the first challenge (an 11 mile trek through the jungle, which is commonly considered the hardest challenge ever on the show, which I would agree with), not many of them every really get talked about.  None became staples of the series, but 11 seasons in, I admit that becomes harder.  What I will give the challenges is that they were epic in scale.  I’ll talk more about it in the “Twist” section, but they really pulled out all the stops with the size and artwork on this season.  There were a lot of large courses and big objects in these challenges, which made things look very impressive and fun.  Hell, one of my favorite challenges ever, the mine cart pull, comes from this season.  Sadly, a lot of what I’m talking about comes from the pre-merge challenges.  While this season had a thing for ropes, even pre-merge, a lot of the challenges post-merge felt repetitive and weak, particularly in terms of scale.  So yeah, a very mixed bag on this one, and while I’m not a huge fan of the post-merge challenges (aside from aesthetically), the pre-merge makes up for it pretty well.  Not a stellar season for challenges, but still quite impressive.

Score: 6 out of 10

 

TWISTS

Of course, one can’t talk about the twists of “Survivor Guatemala” without talking about the elephant in the room, that being the return of Stephenie and Bobby Jon from “Survivor Palau”.  Due to its overuse in recent seasons, a lot of people have complained about this twist, but I think maybe a bit overmuch.  True, I, like most others, think it is not a perfect twist, and certainly much overused since “Survivor Redemption Island”.  Still, I think this iteration of it was ok.  While Stephenie did hog the screentime a little bit, she also was a major player this season, so it’s understandable.  You’ll note that Bobby Jon, who was also a returnee, got considerably less screentime than many of the new players, because he didn’t do as much.  So yeah, I let this twist slide because of that, because it was the first time this twist was done, and because, well, Stephenie and Bobby Jon kind of DID deserve to come back after the performance of the Ulong tribe.

Also of note is another “immediate challenge” twist.  This would be the aforementioned 11-mile hike at the beginning of the season, the toughest challenge ever given.  The reward, which was kind of a twist, was bragging rights and a slightly better campsite (though not much better, THAT twist wouldn’t come until “Survivor Fiji”).  Not bad stakes, and helped by the tribes having to decide what to carry to camp, a la “Survivor Africa”.  Pretty good way to start the season.

Things then calmed down until episode 4.  During a very unique challenge in which tribes had to vote on which members of their own tribes got rewards (everything from a shower to a picnic lunch), the tribes were divided in a new, albeit perhaps unfair, way.  Brian put it best at the reunion show: “Who has the most tribe pride?  Oh, it’s you?  Well SCREW YOU, you’re in the minority!”  While I can see why some might see this twist as unfair, I look on it as a new and interesting way of divvying up the tribes, and give kudos to the production team.

Once again, things settled into an equilibrium for several episodes, the only real twists being the former Nakum flipping a vote to eliminate Blake, and Judd flipping sides on the new Nakum to take out Brooke Struck.  There was also a double-elimination with a challenge for individual immunity, but still, pretty standard stuff for “Survivor”  Rafe was allowed to give individual immunity to someone on the other tribe as a result of winning the challenge, but the person he gave it to (Gary) was in no danger, and so nothing really came of that twist.

No, the flurry of twists did not start happening until the merge, beginning with the first immunity challenge, which introduced the “choose between food and competing twist”.  This is probably the one enduring legacy of Guatemala, and I quite like it.  It’s a twist that can upset alliances and reveal the pecking order, as well as just give insight into the contestant’s psychology. In the next episode, it also introduced the hidden immunity idol, another staple of the series these days.  In this case, the idol was not on Exile Island, but out in the jungle just waiting to be found.  While it’s become standard and a bit boring these days, back then it was crazy, and opened up lots of new drama at camp.

Next came the flipping.  Oh dear GOD, the flipping.  First Jamie’s alliance boots him out. then Judd gets booted, then Cindy, then Lydia.  All in all, surprise votes everywhere.  Certainly made the game exciting.  In the middle of it all, we get the introduction of the immunity advantage, adding an exciting NEW layer to the game, just making things all the more intriguing.  Not to mention the possibility for the winner of the car challenge (Cindy Hall) to give up the car so everyone else could have one, which probably cemented her doom, given that she didn’t give it up.

I’ll give this season credit, even up to the final episode it kept the twists coming.  Rafe and Danni, in an earlier episode had allied to the end, and promised to take each other to the finals should the other one win immunity.  However, Stephenie, the third member of the final 3, was so heartbroken that Rafe, having fallen out early, released Danni from her promise unexpectedly.  This cemented Rafe’s place in the public’s heart, as well as his place on the jury, as Danni, for all her sweet southern personality, was hungry for the win, and was going to take the easy victory.

I can’t quite give this season a 10 for twists due to a few dry spots early on, but overall a lot of really good, influential twists that keep one engaged.

Score: 9 out of 10

 

OVERALL

Aesthetically, this season combines the best of “Survivor Africa” and “Survivor Palau”.  A very distinctive theme that hasn’t been repeated since, that can be put on a grand scale.  Since this season was subtitled “The Maya Empire”, it had to be big and epic, and I have to say, the art department really rose to the occasion.

If the aesthetic aspect of the “Overall” section was a strong point, everything coming together is, in my opinion, what did this season in.  While it was fairly twist-heavy, that aspect of the season was received pretty well, save for the “main” twist of the return of Stephenie and Bobby Jon.  I speak particularly of Stephenie, because she is the main criticism I hear about the season.  Stephenie, as I said, played a more cutthroat game this season.  True, she was also more whiny, but she was a lot more aggressive, and we got to see her strategic side, which I enjoyed.  However, the reason the PUBLIC generally liked her was her underdog story on “Survivor Palau”, and how she overcame adversity to win.  When that was taken away, and Stephenie was no longer the poor picked on Ulong Survivor, suddenly she seemed a lot worse.  My thought was “Get over it, these aspects were hinted at on ‘Survivor Palau’.”, but most people disagreed, and were devastated that Stephenie wasn’t what she’d been made out to be.

This speaks, to me, to the main reason Guatemala was poorly received: timing, once again.  While it did some things really well, it was following “Survivor Palau” the series marked by firsts and over the top, memorable characters.  It would be hard for any season to stand up to it, and when a decent number of characters are unpleasant, it just makes the problem worse.  It didn’t help that a lot of the characters, like with “Survivor Africa”, could be seen as rehashes of earlier characters.  I’ve already made the Lydia/Sandra comparison, and Rafe was often seen as a more neutral version of Ian Rosenberger from “Survivor Palau”.  All these combined to make a pretty solid season seem much worse.  Still, looking at it out of context, while it’s not an AMAZING season, I’d say it holds up pretty well.

Score: 31 out of 40.

 

ABSTRACT

Guatemala is not a bad starter season, though I would recommend seeing “Survivor Palau” first.  The characters are not the best the series has ever had, but the challenges and aesthetic are good, the twists are phenomenal, and there’s just a lot to like in this solid season.