Idol Speculation: “Survivor 41” Episode 10: Mirror Neurons

For those not familiar with psychology terms “Mirror Neurons” refer not to specific neurons themselves, but to the propensity of the brain to fire off in response to external emotional stimuli.  In other words, your brain activates when you see someone conveying a strong emotion.  Monkey see, Monkey feel, to put it crudely.  Interestingly, the effect even works for a simulated emotion, such as from a drawing or, more on the nose for tonight, on your tv screen.  This is something that, as we’ll see, the music uses to great effect.  

We pick up immediately after Tribal, where we see that there are surprisingly few hard feelings about getting out Naseer.  Danny in particular is ok with the whole mess, which makes sense given his earlier vendetta against Naseer.  As we’ll see, Danny has a hard time letting go of his old, earlier targets.  To be fair, Ricard actually does a good job of spinning the whole thing, describing Naseer as a “consensus boot”.  Where I can’t get behind Ricard is in his noting that Shan used her extra vote to do so.  Not only does this reveal to Heather that Shan voted for her, it also reminds everyone that Shan has advantages.  I get what Ricard is trying to do: Reduce the threat level of his ally by noting she has fewer weapons now.  But it also primes everyone to remember “Oh yeah, idols are dangerous.  We should eliminate the people who have them.”  Not good if your number one ally is someone who has one of these.  As we’ll see, though, Shan may not actually be Ricard’s number one ally.  

Sure enough, Erika goes to Deshawn to suggest voting out Shan to get rid of her idol.  Way to go, Ricard.  Shan sure is lucky to have you as an ally.  

You could be forgiven for thinking you accidentally skipped back to last episode when morning comes, but no, we are getting what at first seems a repeat scene.  Deshawn and Shan are making amends, though this time it seems to stick a bit more.  Both are wary of the other for various moves they’ve discussed, but at the end of the day still want to come together, and this time things seem to stick more.  There’s no IMMEDIATE confessional of one of them wanting to target the other, or someone close to the other, at least.  

What there is is an explanation for why they keep coming together in spite of these disagreements.  Things have been hard for the Black community as a whole in North America this past year.  They’re hard in general, but the past year has been particularly hard.  There’s no denying that just by looking at the news.  As such, despite their disagreements, Shan and Deshawn want this alliance to stick together as a “win” for the Black community.  And I can applaud that.  I respect that.  I like to think I understand it, but then again, I’m white, so I’m not sure I truly do, or ever fully can.  And I certainly don’t pretend that I have a right to have my opinion have any weight in this matter.  But that being said, if you want to know my opinion… Eh, I’m largely happy, but not fully.  

Part of me believes that “Survivor” is at its best when the self-interest of everyone comes up against the group dynamic.  Having people play for a greater goal than their own self-interest makes for a heartwarming game, but not necessarily an interesting one.  On the whole, though, I’m very happy with this development.  If “Survivor” is to truly be a “social experiment” as Probst likes to claim, this sort of subject and reasoning is going to come up, and should be embraced, not avoided.  And I also can’t deny that the first 40 seasons could be largely argued to the story of “White people ganging up”.  There are exceptions, of course, but it happens often enough that the show got flak for it, helping lead to the “Minimum 50% BIPOC” mandate in casting now.  Turnabout is fair play, is what I’m saying.  And, if nothing else, it is really heartwarming to see the group come together in this way.  I just wish the strategy lined up as well.  But strategy or not, I can’t deny the truth of what Shan and Deshawn are saying.  

I also can’t deny that this scene is emotionally effective.  The pair genuinely tear up when talking about the hardships of the past year, and it gets those mirror neurons firing full speed.  A genuinely touching moment to help kick off the show.  It would be a shame if something happened later on to undermine this.  

CHALLENGE TIME!  Yeah, been a while since I’ve used all caps to describe a challenge, but this reward challenge makes me happy.  Each individual works their way along a rope their tethered to, only to solve a star puzzle at the end.  The winner goes to “Survivor Sanctuary”, which is thankfully NOT a twist where 8 zillion more advantages get added to the game, but basically just a reward cabin with pizza.  Probst calls it “a break from the game”, but we all know, until that final vote is cast, the game never really “breaks”.  Longtime readers may remember that I find ropes courses overplayed.  While I admit their long absence has made me more tolerant of them, I’m still not the biggest fan.  Why am I so happy, then?  The operative word in that first sentence was “Individual”.  Yes, the show has FINALLY deigned to give us an individual challenge post-merge, as I have BEGGED for, so that we can have the drama of deciding who to take on reward.  

We see this drama on full display, as Ricard wins after a fairly back-and-forth challenge.  His first pick, Shan, is reasonable.  While tight, the two have had rocky moments.  Better to shore up that ally, and Ricard makes a good case, pointing out that Shan hasn’t been on any rewards yet.  His next pick, Heather, is still a little eyebrow-raising, but reasonable.  Heather’s someone you don’t mind strengthening for a challenge, and Ricard can make the excuse that she hasn’t been on a reward yet.  But Xander?  Ricard does a decent job justifying himself, referring to it as payback for him sitting out to get the tribe rice (I notice that didn’t stop you from voting out Naseer last episode, though).  Decent enough justification, but Xander is your main immunity threat competition, and on the outs with pretty much everyone else.  Why strengthen him?  Especially when you could take a non-challenge threat (like Erika), or someone closer to your alliance (like Liana), and still be all right?  

Jury management, according to Danny.  Danny is certain he knows what Ricard’s up to, and it’s making nice with future jury members to ensure that he wins in the end.  Unsurprisingly, this puts Ricard at the top of his and Deshawn’s hit list.  They’re certain Erika and Heather will vote with them, but they need a fifth.  Why they don’t think to go to Xander in this situation is beyond me (admittedly, he’s off on reward, but they could ask when he gets back, yet from what we see, never do).  Still, they talk to Liana, who’s all about loyalty to Shan at this point, but is willing to cut Ricard for the sake of the alliance.  Really, worry about Shan’s reaction is the only thing making the alliance hesitant to turn on Ricard at this point, but Deshawn and Danny both admit that while they want the alliance as a whole to succeed, they don’t want to go against Shan at the end, and so flimsily justify it to themselves.  

They may not need to, however.  Rather than focus on the reward (presumably because “Treasure Island” isn’t playing), we get more clarity on Shan and Ricard’s relationship.  While the two are very close, and are working as a pair, Ricard notes that they never actually made a deal to go to the end together, and each plan to snake the other at some point.  Shan never explicitly confirms this is the deal, but does briefly agree when Ricard brings it up to her face, before suggesting they enjoy the reward.  Shan is thinking it over, as evidenced by her humming her “evil music” once again.  Hilariously, someone other than Shan makes note of it for the first time, with Heather asking her what she’s doing.  

Despite having been all-in on the plan earlier, Liana decides she’s closer to Shan than to Danny and Deshawn, and thus, by extension, closer to Shan’s allies.  She breaks down about how close she feels to Shan after their trip to Prisoner’s Dilemma Island, and spills the beans.  A level of devotion not seen since Brendan wanted JT to win over him on “Survivor Tocantins”.  This scene feels a bit more forced than the emotion we got earlier, but it still gets the old mirror neurons firing just the same.  

Since Shan does not believe it’s time to snake Ricard yet, she lets him know about the plot.  Ricard takes it well, and for once, that’s not sarcasm on my part.  Shan seems dumbfounded at Ricard just wanting to “process the news” rather than make anything happen, but I’d say it’s a perfectly reasonable reaction.  The two do suggest getting rid of Deshawn, since he’s starting to strategize more, though.  

Off to our immunity challenge, which involves balancing a ball on an increasingly long pole while standing on an increasingly thin sloped balance beam.  We’ve seen it a bunch of times before, nothing to write home about.  Given the trends of this season, we know that one of our targets will win immunity, but we have MULTIPLE targets now, with both Deshawn and Ricard being thrown out.  That is, until Deshawn drops, and any tension between our remaining contenders (Ricard and Xander) is gone, as Ricard handily wins immunity.  Honestly, the best thing to come out of this challenge was Erika’s quip about Probst retracting her and Xander’s “Friendship Bracelets”.  

With Ricard out, the plan defaults back to Erika, being considered the best schemer outside the alliance.  Decent plan, though you’d think they’d be more worried about Xander’s idol.  Shan’s solution to this is to not name a target to Xander, in the hopes that he spooks and plays his idol.  Decent plan.  Certainly better than Ricard’s attempt by just telling Xander to play the idol at Tribal with no evidence.  

Ricard, however, has a different plan. While Shan does not believe it’s the right time to get him, he disagrees, and says it’s the right time to get her.  As such, he kills any hope of Xander playing the idol by telling him, Heather, and Erika about the plan.  Of course, this is only four, and with no split vote, they need a fifth.  This comes in the form of Deshawn, who despite earlier wanting Ricard out, is willing to work with him to get Shan out.  Deshawn’s flimsy justification for this is that Shan betrayed the alliance by telling Ricard about the plan.  Certainly a true statement, but that, Deshawn, could be argued to be in response to you breaking the alliance to target her other ally (rather than one of the others on the outs), and given that you’ve said you don’t want her in the end, I’d say you broke the alliance first, at least in spirit.  

Also gee, sure glad that alliance that was so empowering at the beginning of the episode remained tight, and the strategy didn’t retroactively kill that moment.  

What’s interesting about this plan is that it makes sense for pretty much everyone involved… EXCEPT RICARD!  You know, the guy who suggested it in the first place?  Erika, Heather, and Xander should all just be happy it’s not them, while Deshawn takes out a threat without hopefully taking flak for masterminding the plan.  This admittedly means he’ll have to take out the true masterminds to get credit, but he’s got time to do that.  For Ricard, however, it’s too soon.  I won’t deny he needs to take out Shan in order to get credit for making moves on his own, but when someone LITERALLY TELLS ALL ABOUT THE FIRST HINT OF A MOVE AGAINST YOU, YOU MIGHT WANT TO KEEP THEM AROUND!  Plus, while tonight clearly shows that Ricard has more social capital than previously thought, it’s still unclear who he would be tight with moving forward.  Xander perhaps, but I feel like Xander’s enough of a threat that Ricard will want him out soon as well.  

This plan is mana from heaven for those on the bottom, but Erika is not content, rightly noting that if Shan DOES play her idol, then she has full control over who goes.  Given that it’s likely to be Erika, Erika is naturally unwilling to go to this.  A split vote would be ideal with these numbers, but it’s not feasible with five.  Thus, she goes to Danny to make a sixth, which Danny’s initially on board with.  Again, reasonable for him for the same reasons it’s reasonable for Deshawn.  What gets me, however, is Danny saying that formulating this plan makes ERIKA a threat.  Don’t misunderstand, Erika did a great job in approaching Danny, and persuading him to come along with the plan, but the plan itself?  A split vote is pretty simple at this point.  Erika is definitely smart, but this plan does not a strategic mastermind make.  Really, this comes across more like Danny is bringing up his and Deshawn’s grudge from Luvu once again.  

Probst claims that Tribal is one of the best in terms of people giving answers that aren’t really answers, and honestly, I’m kind of inclined to agree.  For once, Probst hyperbole is not present.  Sadly, a cagey Tribal means there’s not a lot to talk about in terms of the Tribal itself.  Thankfully, the music makes up for it.  For all of this episode’s strengths, one drawback is that there’s little mystery.  With all this buildup, there’s no way Shan doesn’t go home.  Her not playing her idol is just the final nail in the coffin.  The music, rather than try to build tension where there is none, instead gives us a sad, haunting, somber piece, for the death of such a great player.  Capping it off is Ricard’s voting confessional after the split vote ties between Shan and Liana, telling her that he respects her, but one of them had to snake the other.  It’s a touching vote that reminds me positively of the vote out of Dan “Fuego” Barry from “Survivor Exile Island”.  Granted, that one was even more touching, since the tribe was so reluctant and unified, but they give off the same vibes of a true player taken out before their time, and the moment just comes together nicely.  

In case it wasn’t clearly, I am IMMENSELY sorry to see Shan go.  A villain, to be sure, but an interesting and likable one, who largely played the season well.  She made some mistakes, but that showed she was human.  She had charm, she had charisma, she even had a fun little jingle!  Shan was a fantastic addition to the show, and I eagerly await her return.  

If this is not the best episode of the season, it’s a close contender.  Yes, there was little tension.  Yes, some of the strategy undermined the earlier emotion.  But it had both the heart and the strategy of some of the best episodes of the show, and for all my complaints, deserves to be talked about among the best of the best!  That said, if the rumors about what’s coming next week are true, like Shan I may soon be singing a very different tune.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor HvHvH” Episode 10: Fruit Salad

Granted, the “Coco-Nuts” is hardly the coolest name for an alliance ever, and is only slightly less derivative than “The Round Table”, since it follows in the footsteps of the “Coconut Bandits” of “Survivor Blood vs. Water”. Still, I like how the combo name came up, and it’s a better way to differentiate these alliances than just saying “the dominant alliance” like I’ve been doing.

We get our expected cockiness from Chrissy post-Tribal Council, in which she notes the coup de grace of the night was Dr. Mike needlessly playing his idol, thus taking away what little advantage he and Joe might have had. Fair enough, but anyone schooled in the realm of “Survivor” will tell you that Chrissy and company are now set up for a downfall. But, of course, the real question on everyone’s mind is Dr. Mike, and why he played his idol last episode. Hell, even JOE thinks it’s a crazy idea, and when JOE is telling you that you’re crazy, something must be seriously wrong here. Dr. Mike ultimately gives two pieces of justification for his idol play. Firstly, he didn’t want to be “That guy who goes home with an idol in his pocket.”, which is a hard statement to argue with. For all my snark about how bad the move was, the fact is that it’s easy to say when I can see what the show is setting up with confessionals and whatnot. On top of that, Dr. Mike has the handicap of operating on less food, water, or sleep than any of the rest of us. Point being, even if it was objectively the wrong move, I can at least sympathize with the desire. Harder to pull off is Dr. Mike’s second point. He basically argues that Joe was in his corner like Cole never was, and since Joe was in danger of going, Dr. Mike needed to do what he could to pull votes onto himself, and then negate them for Joe’s safety. Apart from relying too much on this being a “Live” Tribal Council, there’s also the fact that this contradicts what we’ve seen from the show so far. From the beginning, Joe and Dr. Mike were at odds, and it’s only really out of necessity that they’re allied now. If there was a reconciliation, we never saw it. On top of that, COLE is the one who went along with flipping with Dr. Mike two episodes ago, while Joe continues to be left in the dark. I guess my basic question is this: When did these two become such close allies?

Speaking of out-of-practically-nowhere alliances, the Round Table alliance is now starting to develop some cracks. Specifically, the “New Soko Three” of JP, Chrissy, and Ryan seem to be the power players here, determining to get rid of Ben once it gets down to the seven. Not a bad plan, but Ryan makes a cocky comment about him and Chrissy being the only ones really playing this game, once again cementing the fact that one of these three will be going home in this first two-hour block of episodes.

Now, I normally save my overall thoughts and analysis for the end of the blog, but I’m putting it here because this pair of scenes (Dr. Mike explaining his idol play and Ryan being arrogant) really set up what I’m realizing the problem with this season is. Put simply, there’s payoff, but no buildup. Better than buildup with no payoff, but it lends this season a choppy air, such that it feels like things are only really starting up now. To put it another way, what we’ve seen building this season doesn’t jibe with what happens in this episode. To use these two scenes as an example, this is really the first time we’re seeing ANYTHING to indicate that Joe and Dr. Mike are more than an alliance of convenience. First they were at each others throats, and now all of a sudden they’re thick as thieves. The JP-Chrissy-Ryan power trio is a bit better set up, since we got some foreshadowing of it after the swap, but this is really the first time we’ve heard that this trio is the power. Up until now, it was “Hero/Hustler” power team up, with no real cracks appearing, apart from Ben’s “steamrollering” last episode. I’m aware that “Survivor”, while technically a “reality show”, still spins things to get the best looking story out of it, and are under no obligation to present us with objective truth. But it should be a story that MAKES SENSE, not one that just changes gears out of nowhere! The argument could be made that perhaps those storylines mentioned earlier WERE actually how things were playing out at that time. If that’s the case, I have no problem with them being presented early on, but SHOW US WHEN AND HOW THEY CHANGE! “Survivor Tocantins” is perhaps the greatest example of what this season needed to do. For the first six episode, the “Secret, Cross-Tribe Alliance” of Sierra, Brendan, Taj, and Stephen is built up as this big force in the game, and it dominates most of the strategy for the first half of the season or so. How much impact does this alliance have on the end game? Virtually nothing! The best you can say is that it had a hand in uniting the “Jalapao Three”, but even then, you could argue that their going into the merge down in numbers would have done the same thing. Yet, on that season, that major paradigm shift works. Why? Because we see other dynamics develop, and devote several episodes to showing when and how it shifted. Is this episode as exciting as the major shift episode of “Survivor Tocantins”? Yes, but that season was more coherent, and therefore more enjoyable. Don’t get me wrong: this is a great episode, probably the best of the season, and much-needed shot in the arm for kind of a humdrum season. But it feels like the start of a story, rather than a natural progression, and that’s a big problem ten episodes in.

Man, that took up a lot of writing time. At least I can rest easy by skipping over the humdrum reused team reward challenge… Wait, are those individual stations I see?

Sorry for the pause there, I had to find several different versions of the “Hallelujah Chorus” to play. Saints be praised, individual rewards are back! Granted, we still get a reused challenge, but even that’s a pretty cool one. Hailing originally from “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, contestants stacks blocks into a three-high circular wall, and stick a flag in the middle. The catch? They must use only their feet. That’s a nice, clever wrinkle that works well on “Survivor”, and makes for an exciting challenge. Again, still would prefer originality, but having it be individual, and forcing someone to have to pick people to go on reward with them, more than makes up for it.

My lousy track record of figuring out who will do well in a challenge continues, as I assume that the tall people with more flexible legs will prevail, meaning that I would call a Devon or Ashley victory here. Ashley does do pretty well, but the real race is between Dr. Mike and Lauren, both of who I thought would do poorly. It’s a nice, tense, narrow run, but Lauren scrapes a victory after Dr. Mike knocks over a block right at the end. This gives Lauren the “Honor” of choosing three people to join her on an aerial tour of Fiji, and cheeseburgers. Lauren picks, in order, Devon, Ben, and Ashley, which in general I’d say are good choices. Lauren’s going to want to talk strategy, so bringing Devon, an original tribe member with a potential grudge against Ryan is a good way to go. Ben’s probably her closest ally, and not with the Coco-Nuts at this point, so he makes sense. Ashley is a little weird to me, though. As presented at this point, she seems to be a loyal Chrissy soldier. From what we’ve been presented this season, it seemed like bringing Ryan or Chrissy might have been a good bet, to help pit the power players of the Round Table against each other instead of having them work together. This, though, assumes that they DON’T throw out the first nine episodes of continuity, and if what we’re going for is the “Chrissy and Ryan power trio” being the major threat, then Ashley makes perfect sense.

Before leaving, Ryan comments on how Lauren’s picks were for enjoyment, not strategy, just in case some of you in the back missed the memo that Ryan’s group would hit a major downfall this episode.

Of course, even if Lauren talks strategy, that doesn’t mean the people back at camp are going to. After the now-traditional mooning of the people on reward, Joe and Dr. Mike decide to keep up their asshole schtick, rambling on and on about how on the outs they are, and giving themselves the aforementioned Coco-Nuts nickname, with Dr. Mike being the nuts. No argument there. Naturally, this doesn’t endear them to the people currently in power, but as has been thoroughly hinted at by now, they won’t be in power much longer, so aside from angering potential jurors, who cares.

Sure enough, Lauren brings up the fact that Chrissy and Ryan have too much power, and need to go down. Everyone’s on board with this idea and… Yeah, I can’t really think of an argument why they should be. Lauren, Devon, and Ashley all need to show they’ve done SOMETHING to deserve a vote at the end, and riding out the alliance is generally not a good way to do that. Arguably the only person with no reason to flip is Ben, since he seems to be close with Chrissy, and the whole “Marine” thing might win him some votes in the end. That said, we know Chrissy is at least considering taking him out, so Ben has some incentive there as well. They can, at least temporarily, use Joe and Dr. Mike, then when they get down to the final seven, they’re home free. True, Ryan does have an idol to contend with, but blindside him tonight, and that worry goes away. I can’t even fault the reveal of Lauren’s advantage to the others, since with a group as disparate as this, you need some kind of common knowledge bond to bring them together, and this serves quite nicely. Plus, and this is a big plus, it gets rid of my complaint that some people aren’t really doing much this season. With Ashley and Devon now willing to make a move, only JP seems to bring nothing to the table.

All that is at least temporarily put aside, though, as letters for the winners are found beneath the burger buns. Everyone gets emotional, as you’d expect, but not a lot of emphasis is put on this scene. Partly that’s because we’ll be getting the full loved-ones visit next episode, so they’re saving up their store of emotion for that, and partly because we’ve got idol hunting to get to. After taking some time in the morning to reread his letters, Ben goes on an idol hunt, managing to spot a marked rock. Underneath said rock is a clue, informing him that the idol can be found in a pot up a tree. Hardly easy to spot, and we do get some good shots of Ben walking right past the aforementioned tree. In the end, though, Bun succeeds, and I have to say, good for him.

I guess if our reward challenge was cool, it’s only fair that our immunity challenge be lame. This challenge has players standing on a triangular prism in the water. Going up this prism are narrow strips of wood, which get narrower as you progress, until you find yourself atop the prism, last one standing wins. This first originated on “Survivor Caramoan”, and it’s about as boring and generic now as it was then. Still, at least this gives us the good, old fashioned “Eat or Compete” twist, as players can opt out for an obscene amount of chocolate and peanut butter. Evidently CBS is not intent on expunging ALL references to Jenna Morasca (“Survivor The Amazon”).

Lauren, Ben, and Devon all choose to sit out, and out challenge gets underway… on the second rung for some reason. Just going to skip that first step entirely, eh, Probst? Dr. Mike is in rare form today, being both humorous and heartfelt. When asked what his kids will think, Dr. Mike notes that so long as they don’t think he’s crazy, he’s ok. Ashley takes the easy bait, and notes that it’s too late for that. More heartwarmingly, Dr. Mike notes that winning immunity is a fan’s dream come true to win immunity, when it nicely comes down to a duel between himself and Ashley. Dr. Mike actually takes a good strategy here, facing AWAY from Ashley so as not to get distracted by how she’s doing. In a rare misstep, Dr. Mike does not win immunity, but Ashley still did a good job, and Dr. Mike deserves praise for how much he tried.

This is another one of those “Journey, not the destination” episodes, so naturally we have little to no misdirection. There’s some debate from the Round Table as to who to go for (they both drive Chrissy “bananas”), with Dr. Mike seeming to be the decision, which makes sense given how he’s been acting, and how badly Joe has been doing in these challenges. Our new alliance, however, is not going to let that sit. For all my kvetching, this episode has done a great job of showing this alliance come together, and the next move seals the deal. Devon comes up with a plan to have Ben play the part of a loyalist to Chrissy, Ryan, and JP. This is a brilliant move for two reasons. One: it gives the group insight into what the remaining members of the trio will do. After all, if they feel they can confide in Ben, then it’ll be harder for them to get a counter plan together, since they have a mole. Second, it lulls Joe and Dr. Mike into a false sense of security. If they think they’re in the top five, they’re more likely to stay in line than if they think they’re only top six. And this is coming from DEVON of all people! I’ve given Devon credit where it’s due, but up until now, I was never fully on the “Devon is a secret genius” train, but I am now! This move is brilliant on so many levels, that the only flaw I can find in it is that it may give Ben too much power. Devon could have suggested himself, and the plan could have worked as well, but even that’s a minor nitpick. This is what I mean by trimming the fat of the season.

While the overall outcome of Tribal Council itself is certain, specifically who will go is a mystery. Ryan has an idol, Chrissy is the ringleader, and JP… well, he MIGHT win a challenge if it’s all strength and no puzzles, but that’s kind of a longshot. Either Chrissy or Ryan would be a good move, but JP, not so much. Myself, I’d probably go for Chrissy. Ryan’s idol can be countered with Ben’s spying, and without Chrissy, JP is a non-entity.

The one drawback to this type of episode is the lack of mystery. Tribal Council itself is fairly tame, save for Ryan commenting on people always strategizing, and others just not seeing it. Oh, sweet, sweet irony. Thankfully for Ryan, the irony does not totally fall on him, but instead on JP. As I’ve indicated, this is the wrong move strategically, but from an entertainment perspective, it’s absolutely correct. With Ashley and Devon now growing brains, JP was the only person left who brought absolutely NOTHING to this season, so I’m not at all sorry to see him go. Also, props to Ben for having a very convincing “What the hell is happening?” face.

Ben’s good acting continues into the second half of the episode. He puts on a good show of being indignant with the others, but he’s got nothing on Chrissy. She throws a bit of a hissy fit in confessional because the others are “Rubbing it in her face.” that they got one over on her. She admits it’s a good move, but feels they’re being obnoxious about it, though here I have to disagree. JOE is being obnoxious about it (big surprise), but everyone else is just refusing to share their strategy, which makes sense. After all, Chrissy and Ryan are both smart. They don’t owe you more ammunition to be used against them.

Where Ben does slip up is in going off to talk with Lauren and Ashley about the blindside, but since no one sees him, I guess it works. Devon and Ryan also talk, with Ryan trying to make nice, and Devon clearly not buying it. A nice enough scene, and it’s good to see Ryan begin to realize his mistakes in the game. I still like the guy a lot (he had a good comment about some of the strong people sitting out the immunity challenge while little stick-figure him competes), but he’s not as good as he thinks he is, so it’s nice to see him acknowledge that.

Sigh… We just CAN’T get two individual reward challenges in a row, can we? Nope, this is a generic team obstacle course with a puzzle at the end. There’s not even mystery as to who will win. Our teams our Lauren, Chrissy, Ryan, and Dr. Mike against Ben, Joe, Devon, and Ashley. Even with a puzzle involved, guess who will win? To be fair, the strong team does screw up at one point, so things stay relatively even, but yeah, they win. At least Probst got in good snark about how the bags they were picking up weighed more than Ryan.

Our winners enjoy their spa day, Ben continues his good acting, and Joe continues to be obnoxious. What a surprise. We heard earlier that Joe is a potential target, along with Chrissy, and it’s clear why. After tonight, Joe and Dr. Mike are no longer needed, as four plus Lauren’s advantage will be enough to swing things, so why not get rid of the annoying guy with friends on the jury?

We get to see more of the flaws in Ryan’s and Chrissy’s games as both try to work their counterparts left back at camp. Ryan really wants to work with Dr. Mike, but Dr. Mike just throws it right back at him, noting that HE had talked to Ryan about such an alliance, and when Ryan was in power, he had been rebuffed. Dr. Mike now turns the tables, and justifiably so. Lauren basically says the same thing to Chrissy, if a bit more bluntly, though Chrissy was also being more transparent than Ryan I’d say. Like I said, this exposes a flaw in their games: namely that they do a poor job of managing their relationships. They don’t talk much to people they don’t need, so it comes across as incredibly fake when they DO talk to these people. Granted, it could be argued that such talking would seem suspicious, but there’s ways to build relationships without seeming sneaky. Chrissy and Ryan seem to have trouble doing that, and it’s costing them here.

Our first individual immunity challenge that isn’t endurance! It’s a variation on the “Machete Balancing” challenge from “Survivor Worlds Apart”. Basically, tribe members will use a stripped-down wheelbarrow to transport a pot and key across two balance beams, use that to unlock puzzle pieces, and then transport said puzzle pieces in the same way. Once all pieces reach the end, they must be made to spell “Invulnerable”, with the first person to do so getting immunity. All in all a pretty standard challenge, though I do like the puzzle word. Difficult, but related to the show enough that it can be gotten. I also like the idea of putting speed bumps on the balance beam, though I admit the wheel contraption feels a little too modern for me. At least the machete felt appropriate for the show.

Devon seems poised to win when he figures out a clever way to balance his pieces and go fast, but he’s stumped on the puzzle. Chrissy, the puzzle expert, is the first to get “Vuln”, and while this clues people in and they copy her, Chrissy still wins immunity. Good for her, but bad for the viewer, as it seals Joe’s fate. With how built up this new alliance was, there’s no way they crumble. Sadly, the misdirection counter plan this time is not nearly as good as last time. The story to Dr. Mike and Joe is a split vote using Lauren’s advantage, guy for Ryan, girls for Ben, hoping to flush Ryan’s idol. I suppose it’s a PLAUSIBLE story, but I find it hard to believe that people buy Lauren using her advantage. And even if they do, it should become obvious something is going wrong when she doesn’t use it at Tribal Council. Granted, there’s little Dr. Mike or Joe can do about it, but if they were to have an idol or something, it could shake things up.

Not content with ONE bad bit of misdirection, the show gives us two, with Ashley and Lauren seeming to seriously consider getting rid of Ben. Not a bad idea in general, since Ben could still get a lot of votes at the end, but there’s one problem: in order to work, Lauren would most likely need to use her advantage, given how the number are. Ben’s a threat, but that advantage is more valuable down the line, and therefore worth keeping, even if it means keeping Ben.

Thankfully, Tribal Council is somewhat more exciting, as we get some good back-and-forth between Joe, Dr. Mike, and Ben. Joe, ever cocky, is confident that his alliance will stick together, which Ryan calls out for the hypocritical BS that it is. After all, that’s EXACTLY what Joe and Dr. Mike accused the Round Table of doing. Dr. Mike, however, brings up the point of alliance management, and that this is where the difference is. As mentioned when talking about the flaws in the games of Chrissy and Ryan, I have to agree. Also, Ryan gets in a good crack about not going to prom. Better than his “Sad birthday party” schtick, to say the least.

Sure enough, Joe goes home, and I’m not too sorry. I feel like we got just enough of Joe to be entertaining, but no so much that he overstayed his welcome. Plus, as mentioned, probably the right move, due to his friends on the jury. To Joe’s credit, though, he congratulates everyone on the blindside, and goes out with a lot of class. Good for him.

Like I said, this was the shot in the arm that this season needed. It developed good characters, was entertaining, and in general shook things up to keep the season fresh. I just wish the previous episodes didn’t feel wasted up until this point. Still, if the season keeps going, it can redeem itself yet!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Cambodia” Episode 8: First We Kill All The Lawyers

Let me take you back, at the beginning of this blog, to another time. A time specifically one year ago. A simpler time. A time when “entertainment” meant slack-jawed yokels mispronounced foreign words for your amusement. A time when the audience was blindsided along with the cast. A time when we had to wait several episodes to get a competent strategist to root for. Yes, it’s the oh so “Meh, it was ok, I guess”-ed season known as “Survivor San Juan del Sur”. History repeats itself here, in almost exactly the same episode, but for once I’m not going to rage and storm about it like I did then. Does this show incredible bias and favoritism on my part? Yes. But I’m on the internet, so what do you expect?

Before we hop into our TARDIS and begin our voyage through history in the present day, it’s time for another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Two in a row! Truly, we are setting a great trend for this part of the season! Through all of my “Kass is Gone” tears, I completely forgot to talk about the individual immunity idol this season, which is a real shame, because it is premium-grade, heavy-metal AWESOME! While it could be argued that it’s similar to a few other individual immunity idols (the one from “Survivor Nicaragua” springs to mind), this one manages to be unique in a good way. We’ve never really seen red as a primary color in an individual immunity idol, and it plays really well with the gold bits to give it a distinctive look that feels “idol-ish” if that makes any sense. Bottom line, you BELIEVE that this idol really grants someone immunity, and that kick-ass look makes it a nice addition to the season.

Entering the episode proper, now, I’ll admit I was worried about the probable Kass-bashing that was going to happen, presumably courtesy of Tasha and maybe Savage. While I’m sure it still happened, we are fortunately spared that unpleasantness, and instead go to Savage and Jeremy congratulating each other on an alliance well-brought-together, which admittedly they’ve earned. I’m unhappy with the outcome, of course, but to get a majority in this large a tribe, and in fact a plurality? They deserve much praise. In particular, I’d say Savage deserves props for bringing everything together, as he seems to be the binding agent for the alliance. Take careful note of this praise, Savage, you’re going to be getting very little of it tonight.

The two then discuss who they want to get out next, and agree that the “three girls”, being Ciera, Abi-Maria, and Kelley need to go next, presumably in that order. I’d normally be against voting out unthreatening swing votes at this phase of the game, but for this pair, I’d say it actually makes a lot of sense. I’ll be talking about this in a bit more detail later, but for people who could be considered physical threats like Savage or Jeremy, a “Bro-Down” is actually a pretty good move. Plus, since those women are on the bottom, they’re likely going to stir up trouble.

Sure enough, the women (or at least Ciera) are at the center of oncoming trouble, though they may not be the cause. No, after lying dormant for an episode, Stephen’s Protestant Reformation against St. Joe continues, as he talks to Ciera about the possibility of voting Joe out. And, like for Jeremy and Savage, what Stephen is saying makes sense for him. He’s weaseled his way into the Bro-Down somewhat, but he’s still probably low man on the totem pole there, particularly given Savage’s earlier crusade against him. True, I’d argue it’s a bit early, since betraying an alliance now means more people on the jury who hate your guts, but Stephen’s correct in that, if he wants to win this time around, he needs to correct his mistakes last time around of not being seen as enough of a mover and shaker and going to the end with an alpha male. Since I’m rooting for Stephen at this point (even if the edit indicates that he has no chance at all of winning this time around), I gladly accept this turn of events.

Today’s reward challenge involves two teams of six rowing out in a criss-cross pattern to pick up colored crates, which they must then bring to shore and stack so that no color repeats on any side to win a trip to a cafe. While the puzzle hails from “Survivor Samoa” originally, the crate-pulling and criss-cross rowing comes courtesy of “Survivor Blood vs. Water”. Naturally, since Ciera was on “Survivor Blood vs. Water”, and her tribe lost that challenge, we chalk this up as a second chance for… KELLY! It’s just so logical, right? I mean, how ELSE are we going to get her any screen-time? In all seriousness, while the call-back to her being beaten by Gervase on “Survivor Borneo” was hilarious, I personally feel like it was a little bit forced. It’s common knowledge by now that Kelly wasn’t at all interested in giving the producers good sound-bytes, or really playing anything resembling an interesting game, and so she’s been getting the shaft. I also understand that, as the player from arguably the most popular season of “Survivor” ever, you’d want to play her up as much as possible. But when you just sort of haphazardly shove her in there, it just feels forced. Mostly because it is. The only similarity the challenges have is that they involve rowing. A better connection than some, but kind of flimsy, in my opinion.

As to the challenge itself, it’s pretty good. A bit basic, and we once again have a team challenge post-merge, but it’s definitely a tough one, has a good balance of physical and mental components, it makes for an ok competition. It helps a lot that the teams are pretty even at this point. The purple team has Kelley, Kelly, Ciera, Kimmi, Joe, and Keith, while the green team has Stephen, Jeremy, Savage, Spencer, Abi-Maria, and Tasha. All have their physical strength and their dead weight, and all have their puzzle-solvers. Plus, this is the sort of challenge where come-from-behind victories are easier, due to the puzzle. It seems like we’ll get that, when green falls behind due to paddling trouble. Then, however, Stephen FINALLY steps up and does a puzzle, calling the shots and sending green team to the mat first. Then you remember that this is “Survivor Cambodia”, where Stephen seemingly cannot do anything right, and so he has the puzzle wrong, meaning purple team wins anyway. Probst plays up Kelly’s supposed “redemption”, and Stephen curses the fact that the main people he wanted to swing to his Protestant Reformation are all off on reward, while he’s stuck at camp.

Also, I quickly wan to bring up here that Probst, in hyperbolically describing the reward, says the winners will “Overdose on caffeine”. Um, Probst? You do know that can kill you, right? Not a good thing to say there, man.

We get our requisite “This reward is so awesome” sound-bytes from Kelley and Kimmi this time around, Kimmi in particular complaining about getting no food rewards from her season. Actually, Kimmi, as I recall, your tribe DID get food rewards. It’s just that said rewards were chickens, and you’re a vegetarian.

The cheery atmosphere doesn’t last long, as talk quickly turns to strategy. Ciera apologizes to everyone there for potentially implying that they weren’t playing at the last Tribal Council, diplomatically stating that she was merely trying to say that they should make a move while they still have the numbers, avoiding her mistake on “Survivor Blood vs. Water”. Of all people to chime in that they agree with her philosophy, it’s St. Joe, which strikes me as very odd. You see, I’m normally in favor of people questioning the status quo, but of all people present, St. Joe has the LEAST reason to question the Bro-Down. For St. Joe, as well as for the other strong alpha-males, a Bro-Down is really their best chance at survival. It’s been established for a while now that alpha males become the targets post-merge, if not sooner. The trouble for the alpha male is that, barring that they’re really charming (see J.T. of “Survivor Tocantins”) or the people around them are idiots (see Tom Westman of “Survivor Palau”), they’re too obvious a target, and there’s no incentive for them to be kept around. With a Bro-Down, however, there is a SLIGHT incentive to be kept around. There’s always going to be a “Top alpha male”, like St. Joe is in this scenario, who’s a target above the rest, but each alpha male beneath him knows that if he’s gotten rid of, the target moves to THEIR back potentially. Thus, a Bro-Down is a form of mutually-assured destruction. Every alpha knows that taking out another alpha only increases the target on their back, and thus they don’t do it. Does it make for boring, predictable tv? Sure. But it’s smart.

But enough with the engaging strategy talk, let’s all watch Keith mispronounce foreign words, and generally be stupid and ignorant! Seriously, this isn’t as bad as some other times I’ve seen him, with Keith simply riding the Tau-Tau used to bring them to the cafe, and calling it a “Toto”, but I don’t see what’s funny about this. Stupid people aren’t funny. They’re just stupid.

We head back on over to Orkun, following a shot of their frankly BEAUTIFUL tribe flag, where Stephen is still upset. Trying to have another breakdown moment like he had two episodes ago, he talks to those remaining about how he partially lost his last game due to not going on a reward, specifically the river rafting reward that J.T., Brendan, and Debbie went on. Stephen does have something of a legitimate point here (after all, this is the reward where Brendan declared “J.T. winning this game is like me winning this game.”), it just comes off as a bit flat to me, particularly compared to Stephen’s other breakdown, which was bigger and much more heartfelt. And of course, Abi-Maria brings her usual charm to this scene by telling Stephen to just “Get over it.”

Not wanting to waste an opportunity, Stephen decides to talk with some people about his Protestant Reformation plan. While most of the people he wanted to bond with are off on reward, there are still a few people at camp Stephen can talk to. He starts off by making his pitch to Spencer. Pretty good choice. Spencer admitted himself last episode that he was something of a free agent this time around, and he seems receptive. Next, Stephen talks to Jeremy about the idea. Ok, a bit riskier, since Jeremy wants to use Joe as a shield, and is just generally close with Joe, but Jeremy seems to be on board, admitting that Joe needs to go at some point. Then Stephen talks to… Tasha? Ok, what’s your deal here, Stephen? The other two were at least semi-logical, but Tasha’s in tight with Joe. Why would you think she’d be at all into your plan?

It is this chat that does Stephen in, but not due to Tasha spilling the beans, but rather due to the stealth skills of Savage. Savage overhears their conversation, and immediately returns to his anti-Stephen plans, basically calling Stephen a deceptive scumbag, and saying that he has no time for liars in this game. I’m REALLY starting to question whether Savage knew what he was getting into when he applied for “Survivor”. You don’t like liars, Savage? On “Survivor”? Have you ever SEEN the show? I’m really not sure, at this point.

And here’s where we get into why Savage rubs me the wrong way. The man expects people to play the game in a “fair” way, or rather a way that gives him an easy victory, and then gets mad when they act in their own self-interest, which is a PART OF THE GAME I might add. Worse then that, when someone even TALKS about voting apart from him, he goes on an all-out character assassination of that person. You DARE to go against the great Andrew Savage? You, my foe, are the scum of the earth! I sort of have a similar problem with Tasha, since she seems to get mad when people don’t do thing exactly like she wants them to, but Tasha at least keeps the personal attacks to a minimum (that we see on screen). Savage, on the other hand? He insults people for playing the game of “Survivor”, a game he purports to respect. Get a life Savage. And, while you’re at it, get over yourself.

Following the reward, Savage continues his anti-Stephen plans, informing St. Joe of the forming Protestant Reformation. Joe is naturally worried about this, since people are coming after him sooner than expected, but that has to wait as we head to our immunity challenge. Coming courtesy of “Survivor San Juan del Sur” (told you we’d be seeing weird parallels before too long), this challenge has people balancing a ball on a disk that is suspended between two ropes. Last person with a ball left on the disk wins. I wasn’t a fan of it then, and I’m not a fan of it now. It’s another boring ball-and-disk endurance challenge, and not even a tough one. Where other endurance challenges go out of their way to make things uncomfortable, this is just standing there, keeping tension on ropes. Not remotely exciting, and not a good challenge.

To this challenge’s credit, though, it does have some fun moments. Props must be given to Kimmi for a number of spectacular saves she has, before falling out in the second phase. Also, when Savage drops out, he shows himself to be the epitome of maturity by giving the ball the finger. Keith won this challenge when it was last played, and appropriately enough it comes down to a battle between himself and challenge wizard St. Joe. In the end, even Keith cannot overcome the will of the lord, and St. Joe makes himself immune once again. And now I quake in my pants, since the only other target we’re presented with is Stephen, and his going after Kass would be a 1-2 punch for me. Similar to “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, when Josh and Jeremy left one right after the other. Granted, this season has other people I actually like, unlike “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, but it would still hurt.

Back at camp, Joe sets the “Vote out Stephen” plan into full swing, even informing Kelley (who by extension informs Abi-Maria and Ciera) that the plan is to go against Stephen tonight. Naturally, the women just accept this gracefully, since it means they aren’t going tonight. To seal the deal, Savage gathers his minions around him, and discusses with them the possibility of getting Stephen out. It seems, though, that Stephen is not as much of a goober as this season has led us to believe, as both Spencer and Jeremy come to Stephen’s defense, saying that he’s just talking, and that the women are bigger threats right now. To his credit, Savage says that while he doesn’t trust Stephen, he’ll go with the group consensus, which seems to be get rid of one of the women, presumably Ciera. Joe goes back and informs said women, and Kelley starts talking about potentially playing her idol, though I don’t see why. Granted, I’m not privy to everything that goes on out there, but due to how the vote was split last time, I’d say Ciera is more likely to go before you. Still, just to be safe, the three agree to vote together, debating whether to go for Stephen or Savage. This is really a no-brainer. You go for Savage. Stephen doesn’t have nearly as much stock with everyone else, and is much less of a threat overall. Plus, no Savage might send the dominant alliance into chaos. It’s not going to happen, though. Savage hasn’t had NEARLY enough screen time to merit getting voted for, and while there’s been some decent misdirection, it feels like Stephen is still the way to go.

A predictable vote doesn’t mean a boring Tribal Council, though! Getting rid of all pretense this time around, Kelley and Ciera throw out who the top four are (Savage, Jeremy, Tasha, and either Stephen or Joe), and rightly point out that that solid four leaves five other people on the bottom, who therefore have a reason to vote one of them out. Not to say that there aren’t good counters to this. Joe has a line about perception being reality on “Survivor”, which is apt, and Stephen points out that the frequency of tribe swaps this season, coupled with relationships from other seasons, means that the dynamics are different. All that said, though, their point is still valid. Regardless of how crazy the bonds are this season, there’s still going to be a top three or four or whatever number you choose. That needs to be broken for anyone else to win. Add to this a lot of eye-rolling, snarking, and a flipping of the bird from Kass (hopefully a tribute to her actions on “Survivor Cagayan” and not actually a mean-spirited gesture), and you’ve got a pretty great Tribal Council. Doesn’t quite match the enjoyment of the Jeff Varner Tribal Council, but it’s up there.

So we got to vote, and Kelley plays her idol. Well, that was somewhat unexpected. While it was brought up this episode, it wasn’t something that was emphasized, like idols usually are. I get it, though. You want to hide an idol play to make it all the more surprising for the audience, and the inevitable Stephen boot implied that such a thing might happen. Also, it’s good that Kelley did that because, well, everyone voted for her. Not Abi-Maria or Ciera, of course, but everyone else.

Now we get the departure of… SAVAGE? Don’t get me wrong, I’m ecstatic, but much like the Jeremy boot on “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, it feels a bit out of left field. Savage’s name came up once, and most of the episode was the Stephen-Joe-Three Women show. Unlike Jeremy’s boot, however, I’m more ok with the Savage boot being kept in the dark for the audience for a few reasons. First off, while Jeremy’s boot was due to organizing an alliance we didn’t see, Savage’s boot was due to an idol play. This means foreshadowing has to be limited somewhat, to keep the idol play a secret, and also that we didn’t miss out on vital strategy conversations. The other reason is that, where Jeremy was the one bastion of strategy left of “Survivor San Juan del Sur” when he was evicted, here there are other people to like, and Savage was a pretty poor player.

In case you can’t tell, I’m not sorry at all to see Savage go. He pretty well deserved it, in my mind. Apart form my problems with his philosophy towards playing the game, he really wasn’t playing it well for me. For your second chance, you have to be willing to change up SOMETHING about your game to make sure you can win. Savage really didn’t. You look at “Survivor Pearl Islands” and he played pretty much exactly the same game, only there he was an underdog and so more sympathetic. Plus, maybe this eviction will take his ego down a few notches and show him that being the overt leader is NOT a good way to win “Survivor”, nor that he in any way “deserves” it.

And how does Savage go out? The classiest way possible, of course! He gives everyone the finger. Not since Jonny Fairplay (“Survivor Pearl Islands”) have we had so many middle fingers shown in an episode.

Definitely an exciting last third, but sad to say this breaks the streak of good episodes. Not that this one was awful, but at best, I can only call it “ok”. the trouble is that when you pack all the best stuff into the last third of the episode, the first two thirds just feels wasted, devoted more to Keith being his usual “charming” self and similar matters rather than anything of substance.

Exciting finish, but the beginning needs work. Perhaps next week can do better.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

“Survivor” Retrospectives: Tocantins

Tocantins continues the fine “’Survivor’ Retrospectives” tradition of covering two seasons back-to-back with opposite stories. Not like “Survivor Vanuatu” and “Survivor Palau” though, and certainly not to the extreme of those two seasons. Quite the contrary, I actually have very little negative to say about either Tocantins or “Survivor Gabon”. No, the opposite stories come from my own take on the seasons over the years. As I mentioned last week, “Survivor Gabon” was one of my favorites at the time of airing, but has lost some of its appeal as time has passed. Conversely, while I never hated Tocantins by any stretch of the imagination, I always sort of lumped it into the “pretty ok” category along with “Survivor China”. However, five years on, I find that I may have underappreciated Tocantins in its heyday, and perhaps the good elements it had hold more water than I gave credit for, and the bad elements don’t matter as much as they did in the moment. Admittedly, this intro is fairly detailed, and probably means you already know my opinion, but for those interested, let’s take a deeper look into what makes this season good, and why I thought it average at the time of its airing.
Beforehand, though, I should once again like to remind my readers that this review will contain spoilers for the Tocantins season of “Survivor”. Those who don’t feel that my intro is enough, but also don’t want to be spoiled on the season, can scroll to the bottom of the page, where I’ve added an “Abstract” section. This will give my general thoughts on the strengths of the season without spoilers for the events therein, and is a good overview on how watchable the season is. Now then, with that bit of business out of the way, lets get to the in-depth analysis.

CAST
As I’ve said about many a season before, the cast of Tocantins is a polarizing one. However, I usually mean that in the sense that people either love it or hate it. In this case, however, I mean that the cast itself contained a lot of people who were and are much beloved, and a lot of people who were and are much disliked. For your guide to who’s who, let’s start off with by far the most famous player to come out of the season, James “J.T.” Thomas Jr. The ultimate winner of the show, J.T. was beloved both for his good-old southern boy charm (as he himself said, “It’s something in the accent.”), and for his actually exceptional gameplay. J.T. holds the distinction to ever play a “perfect” game of “Survivor”, which is usually defined as receiving no votes against you before the Final Tribal Council, and sweeping all of the votes at the Final Tribal Council. This is definitely an impressive feat, and while a lot of the people at the time decried J.T. for seeming to have little mental game, leaving it to his alliance-mates, the fact is that, while not necessarily his STRONGEST asset, J.T. did play a great mental game, and an exceptional social game. To have won over the entire jury, and make no mistake, his opponent was no goat, J.T. HAD to have been planning this, and this planning shows in certain moves of his, such as going against his alliance and refusing to vote off Benjamin “Coach” Wade. Don’t tell me that didn’t influence Coach’s decision to vote for J.T. in the end. To be fair, J.T. has lost some fan adoration for a particular action of his on “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”, but even to this day, he has a pretty decent fan following, his name is still occasionally brought up in “Great ‘Survivor’ Players” conversations, and people still seem to like him. While J.T. wasn’t my absolute favorite on the season (we’ll get to him shortly), I certainly liked him a lot then, and I still like him quite a lot now. His gameplay was good, he got off a lot of nice one-liners, and there was some sort of charm to him that infected even me. I’m glad he was on this season, and I’d be happy to see him again!
Still, whatever J.T. said to the contrary, he could not have gotten to the end on his own. That’s where his main alliance-mate, Stephen Fishbach, comes into play. In a sort of buddy comedy move, Stephen and J.T. became the closest alliance in Tocantins, despite their seeming to have little in common. As mentioned, J.T. portrayed himself as the good-old Southerner, very athletic and socially confident. Stephen, in contrast, was almost your stereotypical East-Coaster. A longtime resident of New York City, Stephen was lanky, awkward, and by his own admission, not very good in challenge. Stephen was a hard worker, to be sure, but he just didn’t quite have the same natural ability as J.T. when it came to survival. To make sure the irony was incredibly thick, Stephen was quoted in the first episode of saying words to the effect that the Southerner (nobody knew each other’s names yet) and himself would probably have little in common, and that he was accordingly afraid. Not to say that Stephen was entirely defined by his relationship to J.T., of course, just that it played the biggest role in the season. On his own, Stephen was still a great character. A little lanky and awkward, but very determined and quite the good schemer. Put it this way: he managed to obtain an idol despite not having been to Exile Island, but instead by making a close relationship with the person who HAD been to Exile Island. That takes some doing. On top of this, Stephen made a good “Fish out of Water” (pun totally intended) story, due to his being very brainy but lacking in outdoor skills. This gave him almost an underdog quality, and it was a joy to watch his machinations keep him in the game longer and longer. And to guild the lily, Stephen could be counted upon for both insightful and funny confessionals. In case it wasn’t clear, Stephen is my favorite castaway from Tocantins. I identified a lot with his brainy aspects, and he made a lot of the same moves I made. While in some ways he was overshadowed by J.T., Stephen still made a great impact on the fandom, and when talking about the smartest “Survivor”-players ever, he’s usually way up there. It helps that he has a regular role on “Rob Has A Podcast”, reality tv podcasts done by Rob Cesternino of “Survivor The Amazon”, which keep him in the public consciousness somewhat. Personally, I’m very disappointed that Stephen has not been brought back for a season yet, and hope that, in future, Stephen will get the second chance he so richly deserves As a final note, I’ll say that at the time of the airing of Tocantins, Stephen was the second closest I’d ever come to rooting for the winner, and even as of the time of this writing, he’s still the third closest. Given how the people I like USUALLY fare, that’s pretty impressive.
Tamara “Taj” Johnson-George makes up the third member of the three-person alliance J.T. and Stephen were the key members of. While regrettably not as well-remembered as J.T. and Stephen are today, Taj was much talked about at the time, and I would argue is criminally underrated. Like Stephen, Taj was not very comfortable in the outdoors, and perhaps even beat out Stephen in this regard. Larger than the average contestant, and not in a good way, Taj was also used to a fairly nice lifestyle, having been a famous singer with the “Sisters with Voices” group, and married to pro-football player Eddie George. Needless to say, most people had her pegged as an early boot, but Taj became a pleasant surprise to most with very impressive strategic chops. Sent to Exile Island very early on, Taj managed to make a cross tribal alliance with Timbira member Brendan Synnott (who, while a perfectly fine person, did not leave much impact, and as such will not be talked about much in this blog), and even wormed her way into the good graces of her tribe, mostly through her never-give-up attitude and her warm, bubbly personality. Although down in numbers come the merge, Taj, along with J.T. and Stephen, managed to make a majority out of a minority. While J.T. and Stephen tend to get the credit for turning around the fortunes of the Jalapao tribe come the merge, Taj played her part as well, and by the end was respected as a nice person and a good strategist. Her popularity has died out, mostly due to being overshadowed by J.T. and Stephen, which is unfortunate. Similar to Lisa Whelchel of “Survivor Philippines” Taj was an out-of-place woman expected to be gone early, but had surprising strategic chops, and lasted quite a long time. While she could be a bit over-the-top for my tastes at times, I still enjoyed her story a lot, and wouldn’t mind seeing her come back either.
But, having gone over the good of the “Survivor Tocantins” cast, we must now discuss the bad of the “Survivor Tocantins” cast. Far and away, the big name in all this was the aforementioned “Coach”. The self-proclaimed “Dragonslayer” and leader of the Timbira tribe, Coach was the one promoted the most for this season. He was crazy. He had outlandish stories. He wanted to restore “honor” to the game. It was this last part that really turned me off to Coach. No one, and I mean no one, plays the game “honorably”. Some may play it COMPARATIVELY honorably, but Coach doesn’t even fall into THAT category. He lied and betrayed almost as much as everyone else on the show, professed to wanting to keep the strong, but then voted out Brendan, just became all-around very hypocritical, and hypocrisy really bugs me on this show. What was worse, he seemed to have no self-knowledge, and didn’t realize just how these stories and grandiose statements were making him sound. The reaction of his fellow cast members pretty much mirrors what other people thought of him. Some, like Tyson Apostol, found him highly entertaining and a good guy, while others life Erinn Lobdell and Taj couldn’t stand him and his bragging. Erinn herself put it best, simply by saying “Who IS this jackass?” The audience pretty much fell into the same two camps, and it’s pretty obvious that I put in more with the Erinn and Taj camp. Admittedly, I may be being a bit hard on Coach, as he did get much less annoying in his later appearances, but at the time, particularly because he was the most hyped contestant of the season, I was ready to see him gone.
Following the patter seen with J.T., Stephen, and Taj, where all the well-liked people aligned, all the people I like less seemed to align. In this case, Coach’s ally Tyson was also a character I didn’t particularly care for. Unlike Coach, however, I seem to be alone on this, as audiences loved Tyson. He was fairly good looking, and had a very snarky sense of humor. Honestly, I think it was the humor that made me not very fond of Tyson. His brand of snark often involved making very derogatory comments towards his fellow contestants. Now that’s all well and good, it can be funny, except that with Tyson, I got the feeling he really meant them, hyperbole and all. On top of that, I never really saw him make fun of himself, which to me is the mark of a good comedian, and would have served as a nice balance to his snark towards others. As it stood at the time, I saw him as a very mean-spirited narcissist, with not a lot of strategic game. People talk up Tyson’s strategic mind, but taking this season on it’s own, Tyson really didn’t do anything. He was out fairly quickly at the merge, most of the blindsides on his tribe were orchestrated by Coach, and while he did win a few immunities, which is always a nice touch, I just don’t get what made Tyson so special. What I did see, I didn’t like, so I, for one, am not a fan of Tyson.
That really sums up the cast of Tocantins who made a lasting impact, but there are a few who were popular at the time who bear mentioning. One, Sierra Reed, was often the target of Tyson’s humor, and was considered one of the more “outdoors-challenged” people to make it far. A lot followed Tyson’s lead with the snark, but some had sympathy for her. I tended to be neutral on Sierra. I liked her ok, but she wasn’t one of my favorites, and I wasn’t sorry she left. She was fairly nice, though. Overcoming similar odds was Sandy Burgin, a tough older lady whom many thought left too soon. I was one of those people. Sandy was a lot of fun, and as we don’t get enough tough older ladies on the show, I enjoyed her tenure. Also fun to watch was Sydney Wheeler, who is often called one of the better looking women to have appeared on the show. While I do agree, and she was one of my first “Survivor” crushes (though only lightly, as our ages were still a bit far apart to be feasible), I’m not one of those people who watches “Survivor” to look at young women in swimsuits. Thankfully, Sydney had more going for her than that. One of the more socially apt women, she tried to play a Parvati Shallow-esque (“Survivor Cook Islands”) game, and flirt her way to the top. While it didn’t work, it was fun to watch, and I enjoyed Sydney.
All that said, however, Tocantins must be acknowledged to having a lot of flops, and a lot of flops who made it deep on top of that. Most egregious is the aforementioned Erinn, who made final three despite being fairly boring, the occasional one-liner notwithstanding. Debra “Debbie” Beebee, Brendan, Joe Dowdle, and others not mentioned, seemed like perfectly nice people, but just left no impact on the game, and as such people make up a large portion of the cast, and those who were memorable being a fairly even split between good and bad characters, my score might seem high. All I can say is that more will be revealed in the “Overall” section.

Score: 9 out of 10.

CHALLENGES
They’re not often talked about, but a lot of the challenges from Tocantins became staples of the series, and are counted amongst the greats. The rolling of giant crates, and using said crates to build a set of stairs comes from Tocantins, as does the now overused Water-Basketball challenge. It’s rare that a season not only reuses very few challenges, but also sets the standard and creates the ideas that form the basis of later challenges, so Tocantins must be commended for that. While unable to do quite as much as “Survivor Gabon” in terms of scale, Tocantins was still very impressive, and more importantly, managed to keep that scale in later challenges after the merge, something that very few seasons get right. On top of that, Tocantins did a great job balancing its challenges. Nothing felt too repetitive, nothing felt like it had been done before in the same season, every challenge seemed fairly designed. However, for all these good points, Tocantins did have a few “odd duck” challenges that just felt very un-“Survivor”. For example, there was an immunity challenge that involved memorizing math symbols. Alright, memorizing numbers is one thing, but ARITHMATIC signs? That just doesn’t seem to fit to me. On top of this, it was GLARINGLY obvious when the season reused challenges, and while the original ones tended to be pretty good, it’s also worth noting that a lot of them have faded from consciousness over the years. For these reasons, I can’t score the season as high on challenges as I’d like to, but let it be said that when the season nailed the challenges, it REALLY nailed them, and that cannot be taken away from it.

Score: 7 out of 10.

TWISTS
Contrary to a lot of past seasons, Tocantins’ twists were few and far between. What WERE there were good, to be sure, but compared to the past couple seasons, this was very light. This in itself was a twist: a return to old-school “Survivor”. Sure there was Exile Island and the hidden immunity idol, but there were only 16 contestants, two tribes, no shakeup, and a merge at 10. Pretty standard fare, but it was nice to see a return to basics after so long.
Not that you’d know this was a return to basics by the leadup. While there were virtually no producer-implemented twists this season, what few producer-implemented twists there were got frontloaded into the season. Exile Island was back, of course, reusing the twist from “Survivor Micronesia” that sent two people of Exile Island each time pre-merge. A slight change up was that whomever was sent from the losing tribe picked someone from the winning tribe, rather than the winning tribe picking both people. Once again as well, the hidden immunity idol was hidden back at the camp, this time in the back of a statue by tree mail. Not the most original of twists, but another way to prevent Exile Island from getting too repetitive. It helped that there was some strategy changeup due to this twist, as this was how Taj and Brendan were able to form their cross-tribal alliance early in the game, and the intrigue of how to keep it up and who to send to Exile Island made for a lot of interesting episodes.
Probably the one twist that flopped was the mutiny. With two people at Exile Island, each had the option of switching tribes, a similar offer to the ones made in “Survivor Thailand” and “Survivor Cook Islands”, but without the time limit. As with “Survivor Thailand”, no one was dumb enough to take it, nothing came of it, and while it wasn’t bad, it was pretty pointless.
Rounding out the producer-implemented twists was the “first impressions” twist. After another salvage operation opening, each tribe was asked to select one member to not make the hike to camp with them. Presuming they were voting someone out, each tribe selected their weakest member. Jalapao selected Sandy for her age, and Timbira selected Sierra due to her sickness. It was then revealed that these people would instead be flown to camp, and have a chance to redeem themselves. While calling it the “first impressions” twist was a bit corny, it was an effective fake out for the contestants, and fun to watch for everyone else. It helped that Sandy and Sierra, once they reached the camps, had a choice to either search for a special hidden immunity idol that was good at the first tribal council, or try to improve their impression by building a shelter. Sandy looked for the idol, while Sierra built a shelter. Neither method was very effective, but both avoided being first out, which was nice to see. Both overcame their impressions well, though to varying degrees of success, as Sandy didn’t last more than one tribal council beyond the first. Still, good to see that preconceptions could be shattered.
After this we entered a dry spell. The trouble is that threesomes on each tribe (J.T., Stephen, and Taj for Jalapao, Coach, Tyson, and Debbie for Timbira) controlled the vote pretty well, meaning that there were almost no blindsides pre-merge. The exception might be Spencer Duhm, at the time the youngest contestant ever, but even he had some inkling of what was happening.
No, nothing much really happened until we got to the merge, where we once again had a twist overload. First, we got another evacuee in Joe, whose knee became too infected for him to continue in the game. It was a nice reminder that the game was real, and while it’s always disappointing to see someone leave without being voted out, Joe made very little impact on the game, so from a viewer’s perspective, not a huge loss. But THEN! First Brendan is blindsided, due to Coach’s delusions of grandeur, then Stephen, J.T., and Taj manage to pull in Erinn and change the course, blindsiding a no longer immune Tyson in place of Sierra. Then, to appease Coach and Debbie, Sierra is voted out anyway. This upset is the highlight of the season, and deservedly so. It helped cement the underdog story of Jalapao, and created excitement where there was none. Best twist of the season.
Sadly, this led to a dry spell of twists. There was a minor producer-implemented one at the reward auction, when Taj, having bought a visit from her husband, sent herself and her husband to Exile Island, and in return getting everyone else’s loved ones out, which was nice, but similar to twists before it.
The finals were also a bit chaotic, as J.T. and Stephen turned on longtime ally Taj as a jury threat, but even then, the obvious final two of Stephen and J.T. came to be. It DID give us an interesting, if landslide, Tribal Council in which Stephen, despite being fairly well-liked, was lambasted compared to the comparatively loyal J.T., particularly after Stephen honestly admitted that he would not have taken J.T. to the finals, and J.T. put up a great show (of pure B.S.) about how put out he was, and how this ruined the friendship. Finally, J.T.’s perfect run was pretty cool to see, and went to a deserving guy.
While I admit most of the twists were good, they were just too infrequent to really give this section a good score. However, I will give it credit that there was barely a stinker amongst the twists.

Score: 5 out of 10.

OVERALL
Theme-wise, Tocantins didn’t have a lot to work with. True, it was better than “Generic South Pacific Island”, but somehow the culture just didn’t feel that distinctive, particularly after “Survivor The Amazon”, which was filmed in the same country. Still, it made up for this with a dramatic and evocative landscape, so I give it a pass.
Looking back, I think I can see why I had a harder time liking Tocantins at first, along with a lot of others. It was a slow start of a season with overall fewer characters. Compared to, for example, “Survivor Gabon”, not a lot happened in the early episode. Granted, once the merge came and things started happening, it was exceptional, but it just seemed like a case of “too little, too late.” Further, for people like me who were more recent fans, and not accustomed to the “twist lite” attitude of early seasons, this one felt lazy. Now that I have more appreciation for “twist lite” seasons, I can respect Tocantins a lot more for what it did. I should add that it was a very well-executed season, where applicable.
I think the big thing that time gives us, though, is perspective, and that also makes this season go up in my estimation. As I said before, at the time Tyson and particularly Coach were the most heavily-promoted aspects of the season. I didn’t like them, and so thought negatively of the season. Five years hence, however, I find that what I remember most is the relationship between J.T. and Stephen, which I really loved, and so I look on the season more fondly. Stretching a bit further, one could argue that camaraderie was the theme of the season, and due to the cast, it fit very well. While each individual aspect of the season may not have performed as well as others, combined, they made for a great season.

SCORE: 31 out of 40.

ABSTRACT
Fans of the more modern, producer-twist-heavy “Survivor” may have a hard time getting into this one, and will certainly be taken aback by the sparseness of it. If you can get past a slow pre-merge, however, you’ll find an engaging and (mostly) likeable cast that’s a nice throwback to the early days of “Survivor”. Given the chance, I’d say watch this one if you can.