Idol Speculation: “Survivor David vs. Goliath” Episode 6: Well Well Well

Yeah, you know you’re stretching for a title when all you do is mention one element of a challenge three times over. No “This episode is deep like a well” comparison for us. That would imply this episode has anything to give us.

We kick things off at Jabeni, where it is confirmed that Angelina was in on the plan to oust Natalie, and only voted for Lyrsa in order to hopefully get Natalie’s jacket by staying on her good side, thus retroactively justifying Natalie’s jacket snub last episode. Still, this talk does not go unnoticed from a strategic perspective. Most note it warily, and Lyrsa in particular points out that if Angelina is willing to be that deceptive for a jacket, imagine what she’d do for higher stakes. Point Lyrsa.

Then we find out that Lyrsa has those toe socks. Two points Lyrsa.

Over at Tiva, it seems that it’s time for our daily physics lesson, as Christian hilariously describes how to turn potential energy into kinetic energy for the purpose of spearing a fish. While a funny diversion, this scene does little, other than to set up that Christian is not a good provider of food. Especially when compared to, say, this episode’s reward challenge, which offers the top two tribes varying amounts of kebabs. The challenge itself is little more than your generic obstacle course, with the caveat that one tribe member is attached to a bag of coconuts, which must be maneuvered with them and held up so that said tribe member can cross a balance beam. Not a bad way to shake things up, but it feels a bit simplistic. We’ve seen challenges where a tribe member must be maneuvered in some way (which this challenge resembles), and those were all more physical, and therefore more interesting. This concept can work, but it needs to be something like that team ropes course on “Survivor Vanuatu”, where the team member and what they’re attached to are thrown over, under, around and through obstacles.

There’s little reaction from Natalie’s eviction. The former Davids likely don’t care, and the former Goliaths can probably understand why she went home. Jonny Mundo seems to be the only dissenter, staring long and hard at Jabeni, though even then he doesn’t look particularly angry. Remember this stare, though. It will be important later.

Jabeni is favored to lose this challenge, mostly because Jabeni is favored to lose all challenges. For once, they seem to live up to that claim initially. Also, we finally see Lyrsa ACTUALLY be a detriment at a challenge, taking her time to go over a ladder, and then to go back and untangle herself. While we wait for her to do that, I have to question Tiva’s sit-out here a bit. Vuku does fine, sitting out Kara who would be in no way useful to the tribe, but Tiva? They sit out Alison. Now don’t get me wrong, I can see what they’re going for here. Save the sit out you really need for the immunity challenge. But given that there’s no puzzle in this challenge, chances are there’ll be a puzzle in the next challenge. With that in mind, why not sit out, say, Christian in this challenge, where he will be of no use, and save him for a probable puzzle? Given their results, I suppose I can’t fault them too much, but it seems an unnecessary risk. Even if your immunity challenge has no puzzle, you can still sit out Gabby and be none the worse for wear.

The end of this challenge is the great equalizer, being a ring toss. With no Malcolm Freberg (“Survivor Philippines”) on to guarantee a win, we’re left with these other people trying. This leads to Vuku bowing a decent-sized lead, giving Tiva victory and Jabenin the consolation prize. Even this is not enough to satisfy Mike, however. Formerly firmly int he “Vote out Angelina” camp, he too noticed Johnny Mundo’s stare, and is now thinking he may not want to rock the boat any more.

Tiva happily enjoys the reward, with the “Brochachos” (and you don’t know how much it pains me to have to write that alliance name) getting all flirty with each other. And no, that’s not me adding homoerotic subtext for the sake of “humor”. Christian literally hand-feeds Johnny Mundo as if the pair were dating. I am well within my rights to make that particular comparison. Dan laments his lack of Kara on this tribe (did you remember they were a thing? Neither did I!), and uses this as another example of how Gabby is on the outs. Gabby, however, has had enough of this, and finally, six episodes into the season, does something proactive about her position. Pulling Alison aside, she talks about how Dan’s a huge threat who needs to be taken out. True, she still gets emotional when talking strategy, but I think that can be forgiven here, partly because it’s minimal, partly because Gabby is in on the “emotional” jokes at this point (seriously, when your mom dresses up as “you” for Halloween, and paints teardrops under her eyes, you know you’re in on the joke), but mostly because it could be construed as good strategy. Alison, as she informs us, is an empathetic person, and so Gabby’s emotional appeal gets to her in a way that a purely intellectual one might not have. Plus, while at first it might seem like Alison aligning with Gabby against Dan would be detrimental, if you think about it, it’s actually a good move for Alison. Recall that Alsion was left out of the “Core six” of the original Goliath tribe, and while she probably wasn’t going to be an early target of theirs, she still has no reason to be loyal to them, and Dan is more of an overt threat, having at least one idol they know of. True, I’d argue Johnny Mundo is the greater threat, but part of what makes him threatening is how covert he is. Regardless, I still say this is a win on Alison’s part.

Vuku, meanwhile, finally does what I’m surprised so few other tribes have done on this show, and splits their bamboo in order to make for fewer lumps on the bed. Or at least, Elizabeth starts to. To hear her tell it, this is a project that’s been percolating for a while, but no one has pulled the trigger. Thus, she and Kara start splitting bamboo, though to my dismay they do not use the better method shown on “Survivor Vanuatu” (evidently this is just the blog where I reference “Survivor Vanuatu” at lot), but it should serve at least somewhat better than whole bamboo. Davie, however, is our voice of dissent, with Carl backing him up. Davie claims that this project is too big to take on this late in day, and so sets about removing said bamboo, pissing off Elizabeth to no end. I have to admit, my sympathies overall are with Elizabeth here, even if she is kind of inconsiderate, nearly pushing Carl in the fire when hauling back a large bamboo log. The activity might take a while, but I don’t see it as needing a whole lot of sunlight, and if it’s been around for that long to do, just do it! Elizabeth, however, has ulterior motives as well. She talks about having had back problems prior to the show, and as you can imagine, a bed of bamboo is not exactly conducive to a comfortable back. The tribe initially seems sympathetic, until Elizabeth has to go and pull the “It should be a group effort” card, as to why Davie shouldn’t have undone here work. Here, I have to side with Davie. Elizabeth, you yourself undertook a project without consulting the group. Don’t get mad just because people didn’t agree with your pet project. Kara, meanwhile, is just happy that there is now a crack she can exploit.

Today’s immunity challenge is better than our reward challenge, though not by much. Working together, tribes take a giant saucer to and from a water tower, with the idea being to dump said water into a well, eventually releasing puzzle pieces, which must then be solved inside the saucer. This challenge has enough scale to fit the epicness needed for an immunity challenge, and as I find it fun when multiple parts of a challenge fit together, I like using the saucer to solve the puzzle. It loses points, however, as it draws from “Survivor One World”. One should really not reference “Survivor One World”.

Jabeni is favored to lose this challenge, as Jabeni is favored to lose all challenges at this point. Can’t lie, there’s really no hope for them this time. The puzzle is not particularly complicated, so it’s less of an equalizer, and that saucer is HEAVY! Even the buff tribes have a tough time with it, so between Mike’s cramps and Angelina’s bleeding, we know there’s no way they can win, even though the episode has done a good job of keeping the losing tribe a mystery. That said, I will give them credit. Until it becomes an absolute certainty that they’ll lose, they keep on fighting. They push to the very end, making the most of their experience, as anything less would be an insult to the game all of them play and respect. It’s a really touching, emotional moment…

Too bad Probst has to ruin it! Look, I will defend Probst in a lot of things, and unlike some fans, his challenge narrations are one of them. I can understand the people who say that Probst’s commentary is condescending and detracts from the drama of a challenge, but in general, I find that’s being unfair. More often than not, Probst narration helps keep a confusing challenge coherent for the audience, and I’d even say he can get in a funny quip here or there. Some moments just stand better on their own, though, and this is one of them. We don’t need Probst to tell us how hard Jabeni is fighting, we can see it in their actions. While this may not be as forced an emotion moment as the Cirie/balance beam thing was on “Survivor Game Changers”, but what it lack is that area, it makes up for in quantity. If Probst had made one or two comments, it wouldn’t be that bad. But no, he just talks nonstop throughout this portion of the challenge. Probst, I love your work, but sometimes you need to step back and just let a moment be.

Following the challenge, Mike gets emotional about having to vote someone out. Thankfully this does not devolve into him quitting, as I would have lost a lot of respect for the guy had he done that. Instead, he talks about not wanting to end anyone’s dream, which is a human reaction I can respect. Talk then quickly turns to strategy, and while I have almost nothing but love for Lyrsa, I do have to point out that she handles this poorly. Mike and Angelina go up and ask her what she wants to do, blatantly opening up the strategy talks to her. Lyrsa, who has a golden opportunity here to ensure her safety, instead inflames tribal loyalties, and suggests that things will go to rocks. Look, I can understand Lyrsa’s confidence. From what we’re seeing, most everyone wants Angelina gone. Certainly you don’t want to talk strategy with Angelina. But you could let things down gently. Subtly hint you might talk strategy without outright saying “yes”. Plus, while Lyrsa and Nick did vote together at previous Tribal Councils, they aren’t going at the hip. Lyrsa has a chance to consolidate power around herself, and just throws it away. Not good, Lyrsa.

After conferring with Nick, and agreeing that Angelina should be the target, Lyrsa goes and makes nice with Mike, somewhat making up for her earlier gaffe. Nick, meanwhile, whispers what he terms “sweet nothings” to Angelina about voting out Lyrsa. Clearly the decision is coming down to Nick and Mike, with Mike in particular controlling who goes home. As such, the answer is obvious: vote out Angelina. Admittedly, it seems weird to say an answer is “obvious” on such a low-stakes vote, and yet it’s all I can think of. I get that Mike doesn’t want to burn more bridges with his original tribe, but even if the merge were to happen next episode (which it will, to my dismay), it’s not all that bad to be down in numbers at the merge. True, Pagongings are a thing for a reason, but as often as not, the tribe with fewer numbers has an advantage, especially is the majority is fractured, like the Davids obviously would be. Look at how Jalapao dismantled Timbira on “Survivor Tocantins”, or how Foa Foa dismantled Galu on “Survivor Samoa”. If Mike has in-roads with the former Davids, as he clearly does, this might be just the situation he wants. As to the idea of “Goliath Strong”, I say, what reason does Mike have to want that? This was a group that clearly put him on the bottom, and with no Natalie as a shield, Mike would be vulnerable to them. Might as well screw them over. True, keeping Angelina does have its advantages. In the event of no merge, it gives Mike, rather than Nick, the valuable swing vote position should Jabeni lose again, and makes it less likely they’ll lose, as while I still deny Lyrsa is a challenge sink, Angelina is still a better competitor. As this is such a low-stakes vote, I can’t fault Mike too much for whatever decision he makes, but keeping Lyrsa still seems like the clear choice.

This episode has decent misdirection, but the vote itself is just so low-stakes that I really can’t be invested. Add to that a by-the-numbers Tribal Council, and I see no reason not to just skip to the elimination. Mike does a dumb, and Lyrsa goes home. As I’ve made clear, I think this is the wrong decision for Mike, though again, I don’t think it’s a game-breaking one. I’m also sorry to see Lyrsa go. She was a great character throughout the show, and particularly those first few episodes. She had a certain amount of wit, a lot of grit, and a tenacity that made her a fun watch. Wish we could see how she handles the merge. To her credit, though, she handles her exit with grace, quipping about how the worst part will be sitting next to Natalie at the reunion show. Oh, you poor dear, Lyrsa! You think people are actually respected at the reunion show anymore! Now it’s just an excuse to preview the next season, tout Probst’s favorites, and plug other tv shows! Take comfort, at least, that you enter the annals of “Great Pre-Merge” characters. You join the likes of Travis “Bubba” Sampson (“Survivor Vanuatu”), and Cao Boi Bui (“Survivor Cook Islands”). Prestigious company, I assure you.

What’s interesting to me about this episode is that I find it similar to the previous few from this season: Not great, but still pretty standard stuff. However, I would say that this episode succeeds in the opposite way that the past couple have. Whereas the last couple had fairly exciting premises that weren’t fully capitalized on, this episode was boring and by-the-numbers, yet every bit of interest was eked out of it. Can’t fault the editors for trying, but given what they had to work with, nothing better could have come of this episode.

Still, with the loss of such a character as Lyrsa, I think we need a tribute. A tribute in the form of a…

TOP 10!

I know I usually do “Top 5 and Bottom 5”, but as our subject matter this week is “Pre-Merge Characters”, it would be rude to do the “Worst Characters”. Plus, it would just a list of the most forgettable people to be early boots. I suppose I could do “Overrated Merge Characters” for the bottom 5, but then again, I feel that this merits its own list. So, we do top 10; no honorable mentions. Which people were a lot of fun, but then left us too soon? We’ll be looking at the top one of those today. A couple of points to note: If you make the merge, regardless of whether or not you make the jury, you do not count. More importantly, this list looks at first appearances ONLY! Yes, Jonathan Penner might be a great character who went out pre-merge on “Survivor Micronesia”, but a lot of that was due to his fame from “Survivor Cook Islands”. This list is about people standing on their own with a limited amount of episodes. On a related note, people who were boring the first time around, but fascinating their second, will also not be on this list, since they weren’t exciting enough to stand on their own in their first appearance. Looking at you, Kelley Wentworth of “Survivor San Juan del Sur”.

10. Jennifer Lanzetti (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”): A bit of an odd choice, since she did a good job getting herself voted out, but I think there’s something to be said for Ming-Na Wen.. I mean Jennifer. Though she only lasted two episodes, Jennifer made her mark, and not just by standing up at Tribal Council. She tried to have guile and cunning, and failed at it, despite having seemingly competent strategy. Jennifer was her own worst enemy, but that’s nothing if not fascinating.

9. Bobby “Bobdawg” Mason (“Survivor Exile Island”): I can already hear the complaints, but I think, while Bobdawg definitely deserves a spot on this list, I can’t really justify putting him higher. Yes, his boot episode was memorable and fun. The man got drunk, slept in the outhouse, and was unapologetic about it. You can’t make this stuff up if you try. But really, that’s about it. For all his outsize personality we would see after the show, Bobdawg really had little impact outside of his boot episode. Which is a shame, as the combination lawyer/gangster could have made for really interesting gameplay. Shame we didn’t get to see too much of it.

8. Lyrsa Velez (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”): I said Lyrsa was deserving of being in this company. I never said she deserved a particularly high spot. Even as someone who really likes watching Lyrsa on tv, I can’t deny that there was a lot of the time where she just wasn’t there, and the best pre-merge characters tend to have a big presence. Like I said, though, her wit, tenacity, and unwillingness to take bs make her a lot of fun when she is on screen. Hope she gets a second chance somewhere down the line.

7. Travis “Bubba” Sampson (“Survivor Vanuatu”):This is going to sound weird, but I find Bubba to be similar to the aforementioned Bobdawg. Not in terms of personality, but in terms of contradictions. Whereas Bobdawg sounded like a gangster, but was incredibly smart, Bubba sounded like a redneck, but had a lot of smarts for it. The man was a good social player, and a key member of his initial majority alliance, but then got screwed by a swap and being too blatant about his old allies on his other tribe. Still, had he made the merge, I’d be interested to see how he’d navigate the alliances there. He might have been a stealth threat from what we saw, which to me makes him interesting. Plus, the guy likes Bob Barker. You can’t fully hate someone who likes Bob Barker.

6. Ace Gordon (“Survivor Gabon”): It speaks to the competition of this list that a guy who’s the closest thing we have to a living James Bond villain only comes in at number six. Seriously, though, between his accent and his delusions about how good he was at the game, Ace made a good act one villain, whose antics helped make the admittedly slow pre-merge of “Survivor Gabon” tolerable. Plus, that man could give a good confessional. “Legless chickens against sleek weasels” is still a persona favorite of mine.

5. Angie Jakusz (“Survivor Palau”): To me, this is what Lyrsa could have been if she’d gotten more screen time. Angie was bound to make a mark based on appearance alone, but that’s not all she had going for her. The woman could give you a good quip, whether intentional (talking up her construction skills), or unintentional (“We’re not going back to immunity”), she had a lot of memorable lines. Plus, even in her limited time, she had an arc. Initially perceived as the weakest, and struggling to fit in on her tribe, Angie rallied to become a strong member of an ultimately self-destructing tribe, but valuable nonetheless.

4. Amy O’Hara (“Survivor Guatemala”): Another tough lady, but with a longer arc. Amy is probably best remembered for playing on a broken ankle for most of the game, and that’s a touching story to watch. But the lady had a mouth on her as well. She told it like it was, and had a tendency to nickname people. Recall that “Golden Boy” was her doing. Yeah, between that and my overall love of “Survivor Guatemala”, you knew Amy had to be on here.

3. Robb Zbacnik (“Survivor Thailand”): Sometimes, appearance is all you need. The heavily pierced skater-dude made a mark early on by skateboarding through the streets of Thailand, but even that wasn’t enough. He too had to have an arc, and actually it was one of the more touching ones in the show. In case his appearance didn’t make it clear, Robb had a lot of growing up to do. He was pulling pranks, cracking jokes, and throwing fits whenever something didn’t go his way. If the status had remained quo, this would not have been interesting. But we got to see Robb start to grow out of this, actively maturing as he saw the consequences of his actions, and ultimately parting on good terms with his tribe. A fun little arc for a very fun character.

2. Cao Boi Bui (“Survivor Cook Islands”): What my top two players have in common on this list is that both had potential not just in terms of character, but in terms of strategy. True, Cao Boi is most remembered for his folk remedies and off-color humor, but the man actually had some chops. Recall that he was the architect behind “Plan Voodoo”, one of the first “Split the Vote” plans which only failed due to misreading of who had the idol. Props for thinking of it, though, and it works to make Cao Boi more than just a walking caricature. Cao Boi misses out on the top spot only because the racial humor can be a bit uncomfortable.

1. Brian Corridan (“Survivor Guatemala”): Out of all the people on this list, I think we lost out the most by having Brian not make the merge. The man invented “Bait Blake”. Who knows what else he could have come up with if given the opportunity. But the man got screwed by a swap, so we’ll just have to enjoy his cheerful demeanor and his sarcastic confessionals. You’re good people, Brian.

A few notes about the merge next episode: While I usually do a “Top 5 and Bottom 5” list, this one probably takes the place of it, simply so I don’t burn myself out. On a happier note, I’m excited to see blue merge buffs. Apart from having been absent as a merge color for a while (last used for the merge on “Survivor Samoa”), it’s a really pretty lighter shade of blue we don’t often get. Even though I’m not wild about this season, I just might have to get that buff.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Cambodia” Episode 3: The Lost Tribe of Angkor

For my frequent readers, I have a special treat: NO KASS! That’s right, apart from obviously mentioning where she ends up in the advertised tribe swap tonight, and mentioning if she’s involved in group conversations, I will not be talking about Kass disproportionately to her confessional time! The Kass fancying will not be present in this blog. Except obviously for this intro.

Unsurprisingly, we start off our new episode at Ta Keo, playing the game I like to call “Who’s setting themselves up!” You see, we as the audience know that a swap is coming, but others do not. Therefore, the “Survivor” editing team likes to set up a swap by having people give confessionals about how they’re either on the bottom and need a miracle, or are on the top and sitting pretty. Our big winners from Ta Keo are Spencer and Terry. Spencer, unsurprisingly, talks about how he wants to play a better game, but as he’s on the chopping block after Shirin, he’s not sure he’ll have that chance. Terry confirms this, while simultaneously also talking about how elated he is to be on top. Efficient man, that Terry.

At first, it seems like we won’t get a round of “Who’s setting themselves up?” for Bayon, since we cut straight to the area of tribe swap, and get our requisite clips about how the tribes are doing. However, we do hear in confessional from both Stephen and Savage about how elated they are and pissed off they are about the tribe swap, respectively. Savage in particular complains that a switch is what screwed him over on “Survivor Pearl Islands”, basically saying that everything was going great until the game cheated him. And here, I must pause to rag on Savage again. I can forgo gushing about how well my favorites are doing, but ragging on Savage is by now an “Idol Speculation” tradition of this season. My problem here is that what Savage is basically saying is “Twists suck, they ruin my game”. Now, in fairness to Savage, I get it. It’s frustrating to have a plan all laid out and then have the rug pulled out from under you for no reason at all. Savage has every right to be frustrated. Where I draw the line is where people say that twists are “unfair” and “ruin their game”. This is the point of twists. Apart from perhaps “Survivor Borneo”, “Survivor The Australian Outback”, and maybe even “Survivor Africa”, one goes into the game of “Survivor” knowing their are going to be twists. Therefore, you have no right to call them “unfair” when they mess you up. They’re part of the game. Deal with it. As Probst says, a large part of “Survivor” is adapting to changing situations. If you can’t handle that, then, well, maybe you’re not all that great a “Survivor” player.

And, for those Andrew Savage fans out there, don’t worry, I’ll be giving Savage a fair amount of praise later. Yes, really.

Anyway, back to the swap itself. Probst reveals, to no surprise for the audience, that, for the first time, “Survivor” is subdividing the tribes, rather than switching or combining the tribes. We now add the gold Angkor tribe to the mix, and I’m psyched. I’ve been advocating a variant of this twist for a while (de-merging a merged tribe, sure, but the principle of “create more tribes” is the same), and it does create some drama. That said, I do think this twist is a little bit unfair for those going to the Angkor tribe. Not so much in that they don’t have the rewards of either tribe (the extra-large bag of rice for Ta Keo and the fire-starting kit and tarp/comfort of Bayon), or even the fact that Angkor doesn’t get to loot the ship. But both Bayon and Ta Keo have pre-built shelters, whereas Angkor has to expend energy building a new shelter, which the other tribes don’t have to do. Frankly, this is unfair, and seeds Angkor for failure. Then again, as I have often said, “Survivor” isn’t about fairness. As we’ll see in this episode, this type of switch-up keeps everybody on their toes, and leads for interesting and unpredictable strategizing. This twist would get the “Idol Speculation” Seal of Approval, if such a thing existed.

The manner of switching would not get an “Idol Speculation” Seal of Approval, though. Once again, it’s a “draw random buffs” type of switch, and it just isn’t interesting to watch. I’ve complained about such basic switches before, but it really irks me here. This is a season with all returning players. The game should be amped up a notch. If you’re not going to give us a schoolyard pick, give us something innovative, something new.

Here’s an idea: Have everyone run an individual reward challenge, let’s say for a feast. Everyone gets to eat, but what meal you get is determined by how well you place in the challenge. After the feast, have everyone look under their plates. Under each plate is a new buff. Bam. A dynamic, new way of switching up the tribes, which could lead to a lot of new strategy (people getting to talk before the tribes are divided). You could even randomize the buffs under the plates, so that those who finished first are not all necessarily together.

One good thing I will say about this way of tribe division: it’s maybe the first time, outside of schoolyard picks, is that it’s maybe the first time the players have some agency in where they go. If you noticed, the little boxes they had people pick were color-coded. Some were Bayon pink, some were Ta Keo green, and some were Angkor gold. I may be wrong here, but as far as I could tell, buff color matched up with box color. Savvier players might have picked up on this, and used it to their advantage. Don’t ge me wrong, this way of dividing the tribes is still boring, but it’s a nice touch, making the color of the boxes more than just an aesthetic choice.

But enough stalling, time for the tribe breakdown. The new Bayon tribe consists of Stephen, Jeremy, Monica, Kimmi, Spencer, and Kelly. The new Ta Keo tribe consists of Keith, Joe, Kass, Ciera, Terry, and Kelley. And the new Royally Screwed tribe… I mean, Angkor tribe consists of Jeff, Woo, Abi-Maria, Peih-Gee, Savage, and Tasha. A decently even tribe division, in my eyes, though everyone goes on about how the new Ta Keo is the strongest tribe challenge-wise, which I can kind of see, since they’ve got challenge gods Terry and Joe, and nobody really drags the tribe down much (Keith and Kelley both being good physically for their size, and Kass and Ciera being puzzle beasts), but I’d say Angkor got most of the challenge beasts. True, they do have dead weight… I mean, Abi-Maria, but they’ve got Peih-Gee and Tasha as individual challenge dominators, and while Jeff isn’t the strongest, he’s still pretty good, plus Savage and Woo. Bayon physically is the weakest I’d say, with only Jeremy and Kelly standing out (though I think Kimmi does a fair job as well). Mentally, they’ve got a better shot since they have Stephen and Spencer on their side, with Monica as a backup. On the surface, it would seem that the old Bayon is set to dominate overall, having a 4-2 majority out of the three tribes. Only Angkor is good for Ta Keo, meaning once again, Savage is on the losing end of a twist, a fact that Probst is all to happy to point out. However, I’d say the only tribe where the old Bayon has an advantage is Ta Keo. Don’t really see any cracks there, but you’ve got a dissatisfied Stephen on the new Bayon, who could easily flip either Monica or Kimmi (or both), to join up with Kelly and Spencer, thus meaning Ta Keo has an advantage there. And, as mentioned, the Angkor tribe has a natural advantage for Ta Keo, with Jeff there to crack down on any dissension. Also, as a final note for the tribe division, I’m amazed that random chance gave each team three guys and three girls. I can’t even think of HOW to calculate the odds on that, but they must be astronomical.

In case we didn’t get that the Angkor tribe was screwed from the beginning, we get a lot of confessionals from said tribe about just how screwed they are. The camp sucks, it has no resources, and in the case of Savage and Tasha, they’re on the bottom. Tasha talk about not going down without a fight, which is what I like about her. Tasha keeps playing, never gives up, and often does a good job, which I really love. Sadly, at this point, I don’t think she has a chance. Already, Jeff is laying the seeds of their destruction, talking about how Savage is going to annoy him and is too much of a threat. Pretty much what you’d expect.

Speaking of expected confessionals, we cut over to Ta Keo, where we see that, after working his hammock voodoo again, the former Bayon who are now on Ta Keo continue to talk about just how good they are. Cairo of all people talks about how comfortable she is in her alliance, which must be a first in her “Survivor” experience. Kelley, like Tasha, is not willing to go down without a fight. Out of all the people returning for a second chance, with the exception of maybe Jeff Varner, I’d say she’s the one trying her hardest not to go out like she did last time. Rather than work with her tribemate like Tasha does, however, Kelley takes a different tactic. First she tries to win over Joe, but Joe’s having none of it, confident in his “Alpha Male” shields. Then, desperate to ingratiate herself with the old Bayon, she chats with Kass and Ciera about who of the old Ta Keo will go first, should they lose (which no one thinks likely). Kass and Ciera mention being afraid that Terry may have an idol, and therefore needing him to go, which Kelley latches on, throwing her tribemate under the bus. An understandable reaction, and she pulls it off well, but I’m not sure this is Kelley’s best move. I’m normally against sharing one’s idol, but in this case, Kelley might be justified in sharing it. The trouble is, on this small a tribe, throwing someone else under the bus only saves you for one vote, two in Kelley’s case, since she has the idol itself. But forming an alliance using the idol as a threat can keep you longer in the game, and give you more options come another tribe swap and/or merge. Still, since the new Ta Keo seems to have a challenge edge, one vote may be all Kelley needs to save herself.

Over at the new Bayon, there’s a bit of a surprise for me. Despite my earlier prediction that the former Bayon on the new Bayon might fracture, they seem to be holding together well. Stephen in particular talks about how this is saving him from elimination. Again, I’m a little bit surprised. Certainly, not wanting to rock the boat is a good thing, and bonding with one’s tribe, as Stephen seems to be doing with Jeremy, is recommended, but should the merge come with a Bayon majority, you’re probably still on the bottom, Stephen. Might be better to try and form a counter-alliance to take out some of the “Alpha-Male” alliance. To reiterate: I can’t fault Stephen’s gameplay at this point. Not rocking the boat is desirable. I just think he might be able to play a bit better even than just “ok”.

The real story, however, is with Spencer the Vulcan, who wants to understand this thing humans have called “emotion” He starts with Jeremy, opening up about his inability to say “I Love You” to a girlfriend, due to overthinking it. Jeremy, for his part, gives Spencer some sage romantic advice. It’s a cute little scene, and does show that Spencer is learning, and trying to correct his past mistakes. My only problem here is that Jeremy also says he wants to work with Spencer. I reiterate: WHY DOES EVERYONE WANT TO WORK WITH SPENCER?! This guys is a pretty decent strategist woodiest didn’t get to show it by always being on the bottom. He is dangerous! I agree with Jeff; you should be trying to vote him off.

Also, please note that “Spencer the Vulcan” was an alternate title of this blog.

Jeff Varner, in a hilarious scene, flips the weather the bird the next day at Angkor. Everyone else huddles in their miserable shelter, with once again Savage and Tasha being doubly miserable, since they’re on the bottom of the majority in a miserable shelter. Not for nothing, though, is Tasha’s determination. She talks with Abi-Maria whilst weaving some more palm fronds, building an emotional bond with her. Tasha noted earlier, after a weird minor altercation in the shelter, that Abi-Maria and Peih-Gee were not on the best terms with each other. Leaping on this, Tasha is able to win Abi-Maria over to her side, promising her revenge and protection at the merge. Ok, having changed alliances three times in three episodes, Abi-Maria is officially easy. Say a few nice things to her, and she’ll join your alliance. She’s good to have around because she can’t win, plus she’s an extra vote, so why not? Even with how easily Abi-Maria is swayed, props to Tasha for masterfully swinging her around. I KNEW there was a reason I had her as my female pick to win it all. With Vytas gone, I need her stick around to retain SOME credibility as somebody who knows stuff about “Survivor”

This plot won’t succeed if Jeff has anything to say about it, though. In an attempt to defuse any plans that Savage and Tasha may have, Jeff spins them a sob story about just wanting to make the jury, having barely missed out on it during his first season. This story is pure B.S., of course. Most anybody can see that Jeff is playing to win. Accept no substitutes. But Jeff’s main focus is just to make sure that Savage and Tasha don’t pull something with anyone else, and to that end, he’s checking in with his alliance to make sure they’re still solid. Jeff’s an obstacle that Tasha and Savage will have to overcome, if they’re to get anything going. Fortunately, Jeff will do their work for them in this area, but we’ll get to that in a bit.

Continuing to build tribal buddy-ness (if that’s even a word) with Jeremy, Kimmi, and Monica, Stephen tries a different tactic with his idol hunting, in what overall is his smartest move of the season. Despite his overall better position, Stephen still wants the idol for better security. However, idol hunting is part of what got him in trouble last time. So, Stephen tries a new tactic, framing finding the idol as a way to ensure Bayon victory, and as a good tribe bonding activity. Accordingly, all four of the new Bayon go searching for an immunity idol, purportedly for the tribe. Unfortunately for them all, particularly Stephen, it’s Jeremy who finds the clue, which says that the idol this time is hidden on the underside of a platform holding the third box for the challenge. The reason Jeremy finding the idol clue is a bad thing for old Bayon is that, despite Jeremy trying to change up his game, old habits die hard. Jeremy still wants to be top dog, and this time his way of doing it is by finding an idol. Jeremy makes it very clear that he has no intention of sharing the idol with his tribe, meaning that Stephen is now out an idol. However, Jeremy now has the problem, which he complains about, of trying to find the idol in the middle of a challenge without being seen.

Thankfully for Jeremy, this challenge happens to be particularly chaotic. It’s “Draggin’ the Dragons”, the first immunity challenge from “Survivor Cagayan”. If you’ll recall, this challenge has tribes retrieving keys from poles to unlock three chests of puzzle pieces, one at a time, and load them onto a cart. At one point, the cart must be disassembled, moved through a wall, and then reassembled. After moving the cart over a series of obstacles, the tribes must then open the chests to solve a puzzle, the first two tribes to do so winning immunity. I was pretty positive about this challenge when I talked about it on “Survivor Cagayan”, but I’m even more wild about it here. While it was a fun challenge, in retrospect it seems a bit too small for a “first immunity challenge”. As a third immunity challenge, though? It’s great! It’s a tough challenge with a cool-looking puzzle (the hole in the middle is nice) where it’s easy to tell who’s in first, second, and third. A lot of good action, just a nice challenge to see again.

Before getting to the challenge itself, we have the matter of immunity idols to take care of. With three tribes, we now need two immunity idols. While I do prefer it that, in such cases, you have one idol that splits into multiple idols, I do like here that the idols aren’t identical, but are actually mirror images of each other. That’s actually a pretty cool idea, as well as a clever reference to the previous immunity challenge.

The challenge gets underway, and as I’ve made no secret of before now, it’s pretty clear that Angkor is going to lose. Apart from having the worst camp of the three, they’re also the ones we’ve really heard strategy from. To their credit, though, Angkor puts up a pretty good fight, keeping pace with Bayon for most of the challenge. Ta Keo wins by a decent margin at the end, but the battle for second is close enough, plus Jeremy’s excellently-executed idol grab making for some potential drama, that I could see Bayon losing. Sure enough, though, Angkor ends up losing as expected. I’ll give the episode credit for still managing to build tension, though. But now we come to the fall of Jeff Varner.

Jeff’s fall comes not from the playbook of Jonathan Penner (“Survivor Cook Islands”), as I had speculated it might, but rather from the playbook of Travis “Bubba” Sampson of “Survivor Vanuatu”. Yeah, remember him? The guy who was safe until he tried to signal the other tribe, and got an early boot as a result? The guy whose game you would NEVER want to emulate? Well, for whatever insane reason, Jeff decides that this is EXACTLY what he wants to do, and so mouths some words towards Kelly over on Bayon. No idea what he was saying (he was annoyingly NOT subtitled), but his mouth movements are so obvious that Tasha calls him out on it. Probst has the tribe discuss this after the challenge, which leads to Savage and Tasha asking Jeff how their alliances with him stand, which leads everyone ELSE to question where Jeff’s alliance with them stands. BUSTED! Jeff’s going to need to do some serious scheming to pull himself out of this one.

Or, since he’s on a tribe with Abi-Maria, he could just wait five minutes. Seriously, for all that I’ve praised Jeff this season thus far, I’m disappointed that it’s really only due to a change in interpersonal dynamics, which Jeff had no influence on, that saved him. Granted, it could be argued that had Jeff schemed, it would only have put him in a worse position, but it seems like a real step backward for the guy who always seems to have the answer this season.

How did this miraculous change of fortune come about? Well, it starts with a brilliant bit of gameplay from Andrew Savage. Yes, Savage-fans, this is the praise I was talking about. Tasha’s already swayed Abi-Maria pretty firmly (Abi-Maria will later swear undying loyalty to Tasha and Savage. Like I said: Abi-Maria=Easy), but that still only means a 3-3 tie, and Peih-Gee and Woo are both pretty tight with Varner. So Savage pretty masterfully capitalizes on Jeff’s slip up after the challenge, and talks up how untrustworthy Jeff is to Peih-Gee and Woo, saying that they could easily vote him out tonight 5-1. And the pair actually consider it! Give the man credit, it takes some doing, even with a gaffe of Jeff’s caliber, to convince firm allies to even CONSIDER flipping on someone they’re so close to, particularly when they have an easy majority this way. Savage, for all that I’ve bashed you this season, and may potentially bash you in the future, this was a really good strategic moment for you. My compliments.

Abi-Maria, Peih-Gee, and Woo all congregate, as the swing votes, to decide whether to vote out Jeff or to flip back to Jeff and vote out either Savage or Tasha. Things go south, however, because of Peih-Gee’s handling of Abi-Maria. The latter is still upset that Peih-Gee voted for her, and admits that she’s sworn loyalty to Savage and Tasha. This pretty much makes up the minds of Peih-Gee and Woo, since they’re smart enough to always stick in the majority, but the pari are naturally not happy that Abi-Maria doesn’t want to work with them, and so campaign to get Abi-Maria off first, still giving Savage and Tasha a majority. Abi-Maria, for her part, campaigns to get Peih-Gee off, pulling Jeff into the mix. And so, through no fault of his own, Jeff is saved. Again, an odd parallel to “Survivor Vanuatu”, since this is pretty much what saved Chris Daugherty when he played. Granted, I feel like Chris had a BIT more agency in his saving, but perhaps that’s personal bias.

At Tribal Council, Jeff actually DOES have to answer for his attempt to contact Kelly. He claims it was an emotional reaction after losing a challenge, and that it doesn’t mean anything. And I must ask, what fresh BULLSHIT is this? I can’t BELIEVE that people seem to be buying this story. It’s such an implausible story that I’m surprised people don’t just rally to vote Jeff off then and there. that would be the smart thing to do, but it does seem to boil down to Peih-Gee or Abi-Maria. Guess having a hyphenated first name on the Angkor tribe dooms you. The rest of Tribal Council is fairly standard, with a description of how crazy it is that Savage and Tasha, the people who should be on the outs, are now on the top. Props to both of them, by the way, that’s amazing gameplay. Especially from Tasha, in my opinion, since she REALLY swung Abi-Maria masterfully, but Savage deserves credit as well. Abi-Maria and Peih-Gee both give their cases as to why they should stay, which seem to center around being hard workers at camp, and being fully on board with the new tribe.

Thankfully, a somewhat standard Tribal Council isn’t too important, as for once going into the vote, I have no idea who’s going home. Ok, it’s probably either Peih-Gee or Abi-Maria, but I could still see scenarios where Jeff, Tasha, or even Savage goes home! Heck, Woo is the only person I’m 100% certain is safe tonight! But even if it really is down to either Peih-Gee or Abi-Maria, I’m not sure who it is. Between the two, Abi-Maria has had more screentime, so the editing suggests she goes, but Savage and Tasha are not idiots, and between those two, getting rid of Penh-Gee is the smarter vote. She’s much more likely to go back to Jeff than Abi-Maria is, and even if she does go back, Abi-Maria is easily swayed. I still say the best overall move is to get rid of Jeff, and it’d be possible as well. With Jeff and Abi-Maria voting Peih-Gee, and Peih-Gee and Woo voting Abi-Maria, Tasha and Savage could vote for Jeff. Then, on a re-vote, only Savage, Tasha, and Woo would be allowed to vote, meaning the two “Jeff” votes of Savage and Tasha would win the day. Granted, this gives them less of a clear majority, but I feel like the resentment between Abi-Maria and Peih-Gee would be exploitable enough to keep Tasha and Savage safe anyway. Still, if it must be Abi-Maria or Peih-Gee, it’s much smarter to vote off Peih-Gee.

Like I said, Tasha and Savage are not idiots, and so they make the smart choice in this scenario. Peih-Gee goes home (with everyone writing her name as “P.G.” for some stupid reason), and while it was smart for Tasha and Savage, I must admit, I’m sorry to see people go. Peih-Gee is a decent strategist who got overshadowed during her first run (not unlike Tasha, now I think of it), and it would have been interesting to see how she did a second time around. Granted, her interpersonal skills are not the best. She’s prone to getting into fights, and I’d say it’s what did her in this time around. But still, I can’t help but like Peih-Gee, at least on a certain level.

Three episodes in, and they’ve all been great so far. Apart from possibly the cheapness of the twist this time around, this was a dynamic episode where we saw new strategies form, new moves and gaffes be made, and new players rise to the top. A pretty fun watch. Let’s keep that momentum going!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

“Survivor” Retrospectives: Vanuatu

Well, following “Survivor All-Stars”, the show seemed to be on a streak.  “Survivor The Amazon” and “Survivor Pearl Islands” were both very well received, and “Survivor All-Stars”, while not the greatest season ever, was very much a tribute to the past, and so was still pretty well liked.  But going into the 9th season (Vanuatu), the big question was “How do you top returning castaways?”  The short answer is that you can’t, but unfortunately, it is part of what led to Vanuatu being seen as a poor season overall.  However, is it really deserved, or was it just bad timing?  Does the season whose best review calls it “forgettable” really fall at the bottom of the barrel?  Read on and find out.

First, though, a quick reminder that this review does contain spoilers. If you just want an opinion on how watchable the season is, scroll down to the bottom of the page, where I will have an “Abstract” section that will answer this question, while only talking about this season in the broadest of strokes.  But let’s waste no more time, and plunge into the review.

CAST

In my cast preview for “Survivor One World”, I listed off 4 types of seasons, and cited Vanuatu as an example of a strategy-dominated season.  You can read my full description of the implications in my blog, the link for which I have provided (

https://idolspeculation.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/idol-speculation-survivor-one-world-cast-assessment/), but suffice to say that seasons dominated by strategists usually are not received well, and that’s certainly true of this season.  A boring cast is one of the things most often cited as why Vanuatu was a bad season.  Here, though, I have to disagree.  While I do admit that Vanuatu had fewer “characters” than previous seasons, it was also one of the few seasons where nearly everybody was good at playing the game, and almost nobody shirked away from strategy.  The few exceptions (such as Dolly Neely) were quickly disposed of, leaving us with an intriguing, unpredictable game.  Seriously, looking at the season as a whole, without knowing the outcome, would you guess that Chris Daugherty would walk away with the million?  The man lost the first immunity challenge for his tribe, and was the last man standing against a strong, six woman alliance that had systematically picked off his allies!  I wouldn’t have given him any odds to win, and yet he did.  While I won’t go into much detail on the others, you certainly can’t deny that everyone who made the merge, at least, went in for strategic thinking with few qualms.  This, to my mind, made the season very intriguing.

Another major criticism of the season, which goes along with it having fewer characters, is that there were no villains to hate.  You couldn’t root against anybody, couldn’t hunger to see someone gloriously voted off, because, even when being strategic, these people were nice, or else working out of desparation.  Chris might have been good villain material, and he certainly had the one-liners for it, but having a villain win was considered bad P.R.  This led to Ami Cusack (who my dog is named after) being classed as a viallian, which, to a degree, she deserved.  I’m sorry, Eliza Orlins, but Ami snuffing out Travis “Bubba” Sampson’s and Lisa Keiffer’s torches after only the slightest HINT that they might vote you off, counts as villainous.  Does this mean that she’s a bad person?  No, none of the contestants are, they just played strategically.  A lot of people don’t like the moral conflict, being unable to outright hate someone, but I personally find it fascinating.  Pushing the limits of morals, seeing the duality of people’s personalities and actions, for me, that’s a thrill ride, and a big part of what I like about this cast.

While I will admit that this season did not have the biggest characters, I also wouldn’t say that it didn’t have ANY characters, it’s just that they’re not talked aobut very much.  Lea “Sarge” Masters is the prime example, portraying the stereotype of the drill sergeant, barking orders around his tribe, and getting fed up with more lackluster members like Rory Freeman.  Also a character was Twila Tanner, who portrayed the southern, hard working, no nonsense mom to the point where it cost her a million dollars. The problem was that these people were strategists as well as characters, and even then weren’t the most extreme characters ever, they still had some of the characteristics.  Two other people I should note, even though they aren’t “characters” are Chad Crittenden and Julie Berry, the former being the first contestant with a prosthesis (which, in a sense, is all he is remembered for, as he had the approximate personality of white bread), and the latter dating Jeff Probst for a significant period of time.  Both were ok strategists, who weren’t the greatest characters (although Julie’s attempt at nude sunbathing was a valiant effort), but got remembered for things unrelated to the game.

In short, I’ll say that what other’s see as weaknesses in this cast, I see as strengths.  A cast doesn’t need to be polarized characters to be exciting, and it was refreshing to see a majority of strategists at the merge.  It made for interesting psychology, and for my money, made this one of the better casts.

Score: 9 out of 10.

CHALLENGES

The best way I can describe the Vanuatu challenges is “meh”.  This is not to say they’re bad by any stretch of the imagination, oh no!  When they want to be awesome and epic, they take it to the extreme.  For instance, the Final 4 Immunity Challenge, a Vertical Maze, was truly exciting and new, making it one of my favorites (not quite top 5, just due to the number of amazing challenges, but easilly top 10).  The problem is that the inverse is also true: when the challenges aren’t amazing, they’re boring and forgettable.  Seriously, although the challenges aren’t awful or cringe-inducing, everything just seems toned-down and phoned in this season.  I think it was hindered by a few problems. First of all, the location is once again “Generic South Pacific Island”, so it didn’t have a distinctive culture to draw on.  Scratch that, it DID, but aside from a few Tamtams (and a hilarious incident with a pig that I’ll discuss in the “Twist” section), they didn’t do anyting with it, and this was the nation that invented BUNGEE JUMPING!  Seriously, you couldn’t come up with ANY good bungee jumping challenges?  The other big problem, though, is the main twist of the season, which I’ll here reveal is the return of the battle of the sexes.  As I mentioned in my review of “Survivor The Amazon”, when a season is “battle of the sexes”, you have to make the challenges fair for both men and women, which means generally toning down the intensity of the challenges.  This is fine, as long as you make the challenges interesting and clever, as they did in “Survivor The Amazon”.  However, the challenges in Vanuatu are simplistic and held back, which just doesn’t do it for me.  It did give us one staple challenge, which is to line tribe members on a balance beam, and have them navigate around each other, but this was the exent of it.  Again, the challenges aren’t bad, and when they’re good, they’re REALLY good, but for the most part, a weak season challenge-wise.

Score: 5 out of 10.

TWISTS

If people don’t complain about the cast of Vanuatu, the twist is usually their target, and with good reason.  As I mentioned before, the main twist of this season was a redo of “battle of the sexes”, which in and of itself was a good idea.  The problem is that it had been done not even two years ago, so it still seemed fresh in people’s minds, and it seemed like a cheap cop-out on twists.  Now, the show was no stranger to reusing twists (the tribe swap being a prime example), but this was the first time a main twist was completely rehashed, so again, it seemed like a cheap move on the part of CBS.  I would agree that reusing a twist so soon would be a bad idea, except for two reasons.  The first is that it was somewhat forced on the producers, rather than a concious decision to reuse the twist.  The DVD of Vanuatu (which I highly recommend) explains it better, but basically, the season’s opener (one of the best ever, I might add, with the natives attacking the boat, and a very violent welcome ritual) separated the men and the women, as part of the custom of the natives.  The trouble is that when this happens, people talk, and once people talk, you have to put them on the same tribe, to prevent pre-game alliances from forming.  The second reason I don’t mind a redo of the sexes is that the outcome was different.  I don’t mean just the ultimate winner (although that was a change between seasons), but just in how the tribes played things.  For one thing, while tribes did divide along age lines (so there were SOME similarities to the first battle of the sexes), this time the older group came out on top, as opposed to the younger group of “Survivor The Amazon”, which made for some interesting gameplay.  Also, this time, gender loyalties stuck beyond the merge. Bottom line, same twist, different game, makes it ok in my eyes.

Part of the battle of the sexes twist was the opening ritual, in particular one aspect.  The men were offered a chance to climb a tall pole greased with pig fat to retrieve a spiritual stone, rumored to bring good luck.  However, were they to fail, the women would get it.  Lots of superstition sprung up around the stone, so it made for good tv, and I’m glad it was in the game, and the challenge had a lot of potential as well, with lots of men falling flat on their faces in the offing.  The problem is that the man the natives picked to go first was an FBI agent, who scaled the thing on his first try, with almost no effort.  This really depleted the tension and the interest in the twist.

I suppose what could be considered the next “twist” was the “Fat Five” alliance of Chris, Chad, “Bubba”, “Sarge”, and Rory.  Not so much in that the alliance existed, that was old hat, but that it was the first time someone (Chris) failed so miserably in the first immunity challenge, completely costing the men victory, and lived to tell about it.

Our next twist is a first, one not brought on by contestants or by the producers, but by nature itself.  An earthquake shook the island, which was at least interesting to see.  It was followed by natives coming to each camp, asking for a leader.  “Sarge” was chosen for the men, and Scout Cloud Lee for the women.  They were then designated to change up the tribes, with a “One cuts and the other chooses” deal.  This was a fairly unique way to change up the tribes, and one that I rather enjoyed.

Coupled with this twist is another player-supplied one.  Rory, who along with “Bubba” had been exiled to the women’s tribe, at a 5-2 disadvantage, somehow made the merge, “Bubba” having gotten the axe for trying to signal the men’s tribe to throw the challenge.  The thing is, Rory was a throughly disagreeable individual.  Loud, abrasive, and prone to tantrums, virtually everyone wanted Rory off.  Given that he was the man who threatened to invoke the “slash, burn, and salt the earth” policy, this is hardly surprising.  Yet he showed remarkable amounts of cunning and resourcefulness and made it through, much to everyone’s amazement.

One minor twist came a few days after the merge.  At tree mail, rather than a challenge, a pig showed up, leading to hilarity and intrigue.  No one knew what the pig was for, only that he could not be eaten, much to the dismay of “Sarge” and Twila.  It was also funny trying to see Eliza haul in an entire pig by herself.  So, a lot of fun and mystery with this twist.  The one drawback was that it only lasted one episode, and the reveal was simply that it was a gift for a tribe that 4 people would visit for a reward, so a bit lackluster there.

The only other major twist to speak of has already been talked about, namely that Chris managed to survive 6 women who wanted his blood.  This, for me, rocks my socks, and makes up for all the so-so parts of the season.

So looking at the season, one can see why others don’t like it.  They reused a lot of twists, what few there were, and a lot of the twists were lackluster.  While I admit this isn’t the greatest season twist-wise, I think a lot of the twists were underrated, particularly Chris’ feat.  Also, a lot of the twists came from the people, which I liked, so I think this season is respectable on twists.

Score: 8 out of 10.

OVERALL

So I say there’s a lot to like about this season, so why is it so disliked?  A lot of it, I think, has to do with timing.  It came right after a run of really great seasons, not to mention the meta “Survivor All-Stars”, which would be hard to top in epicness without getting returning castaways.  This made an alright season seem less good by comparisson.  Also, the generic location worked against the season, hard though the producers tried to combat it.  This, plus the reused twists, make a lot of people neglect this season.  For my money, though, one thing saves it: the gameplay.  As I said, nearly everyone this season came to play, and it shows with some really great gameplay, not to mention a lot of unpredictability.  Bottom line, that’s enough for me, and I like this season a lot.  It’s not the strongest season ever, but there’s a lot of things to love.

Score: 30 out of 40.

ABSTRACT

Vanuatu is a great season to watch for any fan of good gameplay.  Nerely everyone brings their “A” game, and it shows, making for a delightful, unpredictable season.  While this is not the best season for those who like big characters, or those who love watching challenges, it is still a very good season, and well worth a watch.