Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 8: Inside Voices

Well, this was certainly an unusual night for “Survivor”. Oh, not because of the crazy Tribal Council, no, no. This episode we got a sneak preview for the next season, including its theme! Usually these are saved for the finale, but I guess CBS has given up on this season already, and just decided to promise us bigger and better things to come. With that in mind, who’s excited for “Survivor: Kindergarten”? Yes, what “Survivor” needs more than anything is drama, and what group of humans is more melodramatic than kindergarteners? Not to mention loud! Yes, no more mystery, just drama, as our new contestants scream their strategy at the top of their lungs! What’s that? You say kindergarteners are way too young to be on “Survivor”? Screw you! We’re CBS! We do what we want, and we’ve got stage moms to exploit!

Getting into our episode proper, we find that evidently CBS DOES read this blog, as our “Previously On…” segment is back once again in its full glory. I don’t have much to say about the segment itself; it’s pretty much just your standard “Previously On…” segment. However, if CBS really is listening and taking my advice, this is an opportunity not to be missed. Here are some ideas for you, CBS: Change up locations every other season, rather than just sticking in Fiji all the time. A De-Merge in the middle of a merge. Hide Hidden Immunity Idols at Tribal Council. Put the full intro into the episodes with original theme music. And, most importantly, put me on the next season! I’ll just wait outside for you to come get me while you implement the rest of my brilliant ideas.

Dammit.

Ok, well, if I’m not going on the show I can at least blog about it. Our first order of the day is consoling the blindsided people. Specifically Ron, in this case, which may come back to bite people later, as we’ll see. As the main person pulling for the move to oust Eric, Gavin is the one called upon to justify himself. Surprisingly, it’s actually Ron who instigates the conversation. He holds up pretty well initially, listening to Gavin’s arguments, but his body language betrays him, and he quickly falls apart.

Now, Gavin so far has handled the whole “betrayal” thing pretty well. Not spectacularly, but he hasn’t done anything to truly alienate anyone yet. All he needs to do to cement his position is make sure he doesn’t tie himself too much to one side. Being the swing vote plays to his strengths, and keeps him in power in shat is now a fairly chaotic group. Naturally, Gavin’s next move is to swear undying loyalty to Kelley and company. Because, you know, moving from an enviable swing-vote position to being on the bottom of the most solid group left in the game makes PERFECT sense!

Gavin’s not the only one with repairs to do. David, happy he dodged a proverbial bullet, now can only complain about the schism between himself and Rick. David states that the split would be a lot easier if there weren’t a custody battle of the half-idol he shares with Rick. Luckilly, divorce lawyer Aurora is here to help!

No, no, that doesn’t happen. Would have been a nice, natural career tie-in though. Instead, Rick and David patch things up, making that whole conflict from last episode pretty much pointless. David does declare that his was the right side as well, and yeah, despite my equivocating last episode, if you had put a gun to my head and forced me to declare one player over another, I’d have said that David had the better plan. I still say both sides had points, though.

Our mandatory Edge of Extinction check-in exists to inform us that yes, it sucks for Eric as well. But, with no advantage to look for this week, it’s not enough to just briefly mention this and move on. No, we have to dwell on the same shit we’ve heard from EVERYONE who’s come to Edge of Extinction! Yes, they do a lot better at balancing the time between Edge of Extinction and NOT Edge of Extinction this time around, but this only highlights another problem of the twist: repetitiveness. With not a lot to do out there, you’re going to hear the same confessionals over and over and over again. It’s got the point where it just feels like a waste of time. To add insult to injury, we actually DO get a new and interesting confessional during Eric’s. We see Reem talking to Aubry and Eric about how different it is coming to Edge of Extinction when no one else is there, and how hard it is. That’s an interesting new dynamic that hasn’t been explored yet, so of COURSE we don’t dwell on it and go back to Eric having a rough time here. Look, I get what they’re trying to do. With Eric talking about the temptation of leaving, they’re building up that he may quit. The trouble is that it’s fairly obvious EVERYONE goes through this debate when they first get there, and so we can pretty much know (even if you didn’t see the episode preview where Eric is present at Tribal Council) that it’ll come to nothing. It just makes the whole thing seem like a waste of time, even when it’s only one short scene. Chris does catch a stingray, though. Yay.

Back with strategy we actually care about, we get a fascinating look into how the strategy dynamics are shaking out after that blindside. Julie in particular is more than a little on edge, which is understandable when you think about the circumstances. This has been a game of ups for Julie overall. No Tribal Council until the merge, and when she does go, it’s with a supermajority that she has a position of some power in. This last vote is the first time something goes wrong for her. It’s understandable that she’d be a bit upset, and right of her to show concern. She WILL go too far later in the episode, but that’s for later. For now, she can be content that she has some options. David and Rick, not willing to simply roll over and let Kelley run the game, decide they want some power for themselves, and so discuss with Ron and Julie the possibility of a tight core foursome. Gotta admit, that would be a pretty cool alliance. The funny people and the older people banding together. Could be a good counter to what’s now being called the “Lesu Three”, being Kelley, Lauren, and Wardog. Of course, this group can do math, and realize that they need two more people to gain a majority. Aurora is thrown out as a possibility, but Julie is skeptical. Understandable, since Aurora mainly had beef with Ron and Eric, and so is less likely to join an alliance with Ron. In fact, the group would have to work hard to find someone LESS likely to join than Aurora.

Wardog is then thrown out as a possibility. I stand corrected.

Meanwhile, of course, the Lesu Three can also do math, and recognize the need for others. Gavin’s already on board, so they work on securing Julia and Victoria, wanting to target either Ron or David first. The Lesu Three naturally prefer to keep David over Ron, as the former is a potential number for them should things go sideways. Gavin, however, masterfully maneuvers them into a position where they can’t really deny David as a better target. Rather than play on loyalties, which could give his game away, Gavin argues that David is a challenge threat. Yes, really. Pointing out that your proposed target has done well in all individual challenges so far is a good way to put a target on someone without seeming like you have ulterior motives. The Lesu Three clearly aren’t happy about it, but have no choice but to go along with it for now.

So we come to our immunity challenge. Yes, really. Only a quarter of the way into the episode, and we’e got immunity. No, this is not two episodes crammed into one. This is just how weird this episode will get. Not our immunity challenge, though. This is “Bow-Diddly”, first seen on “Survivor South Pacific”, though with David Wright on this season, Probst of course likens it to “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”. This is the challenge balancing a ball on a bow while on a balance beam while baking brownies in the shape of bowling balls in the black forest. Not exciting, another endurance challenge, you know how it goes. Hell, they even cut out the first section of balance beam, since evidently no one fell on those.

After some intense competition, it comes down to a duel between Gavin, a man who was in no way targeted tonight, and David, a man who was often talked about as a potential target. Naturally, Gavin wins. To his credit, though, he EARNED that win, having several near misses with his ball throughout the challenge. He recovers well, is what I’m saying. His prowess ends when he leads us to commercial, talking about how David needed to be beaten, and is certainly going home tonight, ensuring that David will last at least past this episode.

Tribe dynamics were still very much up in the air prior to the challenge, and little changes due to the outcome, though we do start to see where the shift comes. Having wisely abandoned the “Wardog” plan, Rick sets about sweet-talking Julia, Gavin, and Victoria. They’re willing to lend an ear, but also talk things over with the Lesu Three. As Lauren points out, David winning immunity makes Ron a harder pitch for them. Still, they try, pointing out how many connections Ron has by virtue of being an original Kama. Not a bad pitch, but as mentioned, these people aren’t stupid. Julia sees right through the pitch, and so now feels it imperative that the Lesu three be broken up. She gathers the old Kama, sans Gavin, and discusses the merits of getting rid of Kelley versus getting rid of David, the other target. Victoria, however, sums up the debate the best, saying that a group of three is more dangerous than a group of two, and thus Kelley needs to go. Sound logic. Now if only everyone can get on board. Ron is skittish, with Julie right there with him, forcing a lot of hand-holding and comforting in the plan. Now if only it were as solid as they though. Gavin, as mentioned, was not included in the decision making, and is naturally upset about this. In confessional, he states that he would rather go with the Lesu Three, since he’s bonded well with them. We see nothing about him upsetting their plans, though, presumably because Gavin is smart enough no to push for something the majority doesn’t want, but it’s a fracture nonetheless, which will become very important tonight.

Remember how sly these people were? How good they were at pulling the wool over Aubry’s eyes to vote her out? Yeah, evidently they must have used up all their subtlety on that vote. Kelley notes that she’s getting the silent treatment, as well as funny looks from Julia, indicating that she’s possibly a target. And she’s not the only one. David says that his Spider-Sense is tingling once again. You’re getting lazy, David. Reusing metaphors. Up your game. In any case, Rick gets the same vibe, and so it seems like the idol use is in the offing, as we head off to Tribal Council.

Now we come to Tribal Council. Our main selling point. The thing that takes up just about half of the episode. For all this buildup, it’s… ok.

Things start out normal enough. Some good banter. David tries out a cliche metaphor about sharks and minnows that everyone will try to hitch to at some point. But our first crack towards chaos starts with Julie, once again harping on about being left out of the vote last time. No, no. She’s still within the bounds of reason at this point. The full blow-up is yet to come. For now, Ron does damage control, more diplomatically stating their shared position. Aurora is the next to make a slip-up, pointing out that the Lesu group is united, and therefore a threat. Wardog counters that they’re a fractured bunch, and therefore not a threat. Kelley looks to Julia for reassurance, and Julia, giggling, swears that things are ok. Probst latches onto this, claiming Julia giggled at Aurora, which Julia denies. Sensing an opening, Rick preys on Julie’s mistrust of the old Kama, pointing out that there are fractures in Kama, and them coming with Lesu could make seven. Aurora rightly calls out that a minute ago they were saying they were divided. And thus begins the whispering. Wardog, Ron, Julie, and Lauren talk about getting rid of Aurora for some reason. Kelley once again looks to Julie for reassurance before talking to David. Victoria wanders over to Wardog’s group to see what’s going on. This also begins the reactions from the jury. Now, at first, these seem to be overreactions. After all, we’ve had chaotic Tribal Councils before. But it seems this is no mere posturing, nor even a frank, secretive, exchange of ideas. No, this is a real conflict of interest, as soon the whispering is thrown out the window for full outdoor voices to hear. Definitely something different than we usually see. Do I think the reactions of the jury were played up? Yes. Do I think the excitement of this Tribal Council was oversold? Absolutely. But it’s still a great moment of tv nonetheless.

Things culminate with Julie stating that she’s “out”, declaring herself a free agent, and going to sit with most of the rest of the Lesu group. Here’s where my sympathy for Julie’s position ends. It’s right to be suspicious when you’re on the wrong side of the vote. It’s another thing to completely throw your game away for it. Let me repeat: this is the FIRST thing that hasn’t gone Julie’s way this entire game, and she’s basically thrown away her entire game for it, agreeing to whatever out of sheer paranoia. One should listen to fear on “Survivor”, but shouldn’t let it control their game. Right now, Julie is letting it control her game, and I see it costing her dearly.

What really makes this scene interesting for me, though, is how it highlights how good or bad people are at interacting with others. In high-stress situations like this, there’s no pretense. Some people are just naturally calm and collected, others show their true colors as jerks. Two who come off well here are Ron and Wardog, particularly the latter. Ron does a good job remaining diplomatic throughout. Wardog, despite how bombastic he can be, calmly suggests ideas to others, and presents himself, somehow, as a calm port of stability in a sea of chaos. Coming off less well is Julia, who dismisses multiple people throughout the course of the chaos. She claims Rick is a “passenger” in the game, and bluntly tells Wardog to shut up when he suggests voting. Not the best look for her.

After all that chaos, I’d be surprised if we didn’t see at least one idol play just for safety’s sake. Rick obliges, playing his idol for David. Seems even when new players do get an idol, they still end up using it on returnees anyway. David does get a vote, as does Kelley, but as always on “Survivor” things come down to who do people get along with. As we saw, Julia is not easy to get along with in such situations, and goes home. I can’t say I’m too sorry. She seems like a nice enough person, but was boring tv, and up until recently, really did nothing to earn her spot. Still, she’ll get another shot on Edge of Extinction.

This season continues to move in the right direction, pulling out another pretty good episode. Despite how rushed it felt at times, we got a good look at shifting dynamics, before those dynamics were brutally ripped apart at Tribal Council. Maybe a bit overhyped, but a good episode nonetheless.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 7: Cain and Abel

It’s often said that your melodramatic, over-the-top moments are the ones that stand out in “Survivor” history. Not necessarily in a good or a bad way, but just stand out. Think Brandon Hantz dumping the rice on “Survivor Caramoan”. Kass’ flip on “Survivor Cagayan”. Basically anything Rupert did. These are the moments that generally stand out and make you think. Sometimes, though, a moment comes along that’s quiet and nuanced, yet impacts you and sticks out just as much. To quote Chris Daugherty (“Survivor Vanuatu”), “That’s what’s happened this time.”

Starting things off, we see that the elimination of the “Previously On…” segment was not just a one-time thing for the merge, since it happens here as well. I get the suspicion that this is like the elimination of the Fallen Comrades portion of the game, where they’re taking it out and seeing if anyone complains. If not, then they’ll just keep it out. So let me say, right now, I’m here, and I’m complaining! For this season, I get the necessity. With so much to go over in each episode (a consequence of having 8/9ths OF YOUR PLAYERS STILL IN THE GAME HALFWAY THROUGH THE SEASON!), something has to give, and this is arguably the least-essential part of episodes nowadays. However, that only works for hardcore fans like me, who won’t be missing episodes if they can help it. What getting rid of the “Previously On…” segment DOES do is make the show inaccessible to new fans. Given the hardcore fanbase “Survivor” has, this would seem inconsequential, but I’d argue that part of the reason the show has lasted as long as it has it that it gains new fans at about the same rate as it loses them. Hell, I can speak from experience here: My “Survivor” fandom started most of the way through “Survivor Guatemala”, so I had no idea what was going on most of the time, and would have been completely lost without the recap. If I was completely lost, I might not have evolved into the “Survivor” Nerd I am today. So, for the sake of new fans, please bring back the “Previously On…” segment.

Getting into the actual episode, we for once do get fallout from the previous Tribal Council. Specifically, the main drawback to voting out Joe: Aurora. While formerly a loyal ex-Kama, she had to be left out of this vote for being too close to Joe. Logical, but naturally leaves her pissed off following the vote. As the leaders of the alliance, it falls to Eric and Ron to try and bring her back into the fold. And try they do, framing their argument as an emotional one. Specifically, they claim that they did it to protect her from having to vote out her friend. Aurora is still naturally upset, but outwardly seems somewhat calmed by this explanation. Inwardly, though, she recognizes where this puts her in the alliance. Still, she’s not willing to fully abandon them just yet, realizing where the numbers lie. Thus, she decides to go full Sandra Diaz-Twine (“Survivor Pearl Islands”), and go for the “As long as it ain’t me.” strategy. Again, logical.

Happier to have survived the vote are David and Rick, since both received votes previously. As such, both are currently happy to stick with the current Kama. The current Kama are pretty happy about this as well, as it means the fracturing of the “old Lesu” as they put it. They say that unless the old Lesu unite and pull in Aurora, they’re dead in the water.

We cut to Kelley, Lauren, and Wardog talking about how they got played, and need to pull in a sixth to have a shot. They correctly deduce that Aurora is the person to target for flipping here. Wow, that was a fast undermining of the confidence of the main alliance.

After a brief check-in on Edge of Extinction just to confirm that yes, even Joey Amazing finds it miserable, we cut over to our reward challenge. And I have to tell you guys, I’ve never seen a challenge more innovative! More exciting! More spectacularly eye-catching than this challenge! This will go down in the annals of “Survivor” history as the greatest challenge of all time! Screw any future “Top 5 and Bottom 5” lists, this one is all of it! The alpha and the omega.

Just kidding, it’s another generic obstacle course. And a team one at that, thus giving me basically no reason to care. I can at least say that our teams are fairly evenly divided. The blue team consists of Rick, Wardog, Eric, Aurora, Victoria, and Julia, while the yellow team consists of David, Ron, Gavin, Kelley, Lauren, and Julie. I’d say blue has a slight edge physically, but yellow has an edge mentally. Normally on a challenge ending in a puzzle (because at this point, it’s now a staple of the generic obstacle course challenge) this would give the yellow team the edge. However, these particular puzzle pieces require a good amount of physical strength to lift, and this combined with blue team’s slight lead going into the puzzle nets them the reward of Chinese food. Ron is initially dejected about this, but comforts himself with schadenfreude. Namely, this way Kelley and Lauren don’t get anything to eat, thus keeping them weaker.

What Ron neglects to consider is strategizing. As our winning group generically enjoys their food, Kelley takes the opportunity of having fewer people at camp to strategize with David. After token apologies from the pair for targeting the other, they get down to brass tacks. Kelley notes that the previous vote puts David and Rick solely at the mercy of the Kama majority, but with Aurora potentially on their side, they could have six to force a tie. Not the most attractive of propositions, but remember that Aurora is pissed, and that the “Lesu” based side would have a monopoly on hidden immunity idols, thus giving them the edge. David, preferring to be in control of his own destiny, rapidly agrees that this is a good idea, and states that he’ll bring it to Rick later. Now, David was an easy sell, but Rick will definitely be harder, since he was more actively targeted at the previous Tribal Council, and is understandably a little resentful of having been voted out in the first place. Point being, Rick will require a delicate touch to be brought back into the fold, a move that should only be attempted by the most subtle and nuanced of players.

So, the next scene features Wardog trying to convince Rick to join back up with Lesu. You can imagine how well this goes.

Actually, to give Wardog his due, I don’t think his initial pitch was that bad. He brought up the numbers problem, and emphasized Rick needing to control his own destiny. The problem is that Wardog, logical or not, is the WRONG person to bring this up to Rick. Even if his delivery is on point, like his start of the conversation here, Rick isn’t going to want to listed. Wardog was the swing vote who ended Rick’s time in the game. Rick isn’t going to be too happy to hear anything he has to say. When Rick then summarily dismisses Wardog’s offer, Wardog then loses the high ground, chastising Rick for “playing emotionally”. You know, because insulting the person you want to ally with always works!

This, however, leads to our most interesting discussion of the night. Yes, for the first time in the game, Rick and David are at odds, the former adamant about sticking with Kama, the latter wanting to hook back up with Lesu. David is a bit incredulous about the whole thing, insisting that one of them must be drunk right now. I, however, would argue that both of them are playing perfectly logically for themselves right now, and that’s what makes it so fascinating. Rick has a point when he says that Lesu targeted him post-merge, and thus he has no reason to trust people who wanted him gone literally yesterday. David, though, also has a point when he says he would have no power on Kama. There’s no yelling, no screaming, just a measured and peaceful parting of the ways. And I love it. Unlike many, MANY other things this season, we have a clear understanding of how we got here, and why this is happening. The alliance we’ve arguably been following the longest is now crumbling apart, and it is beautiful.

Shame it happens so early in the episode. There will still be good moments, but it’s all downhill from here.

By the by, this also eliminates the one upside to giving David the half-idol, as David doesn’t give it back as a safety measure, lest Rick use it for Kama. Yep. REALLY should have given it to Julie.

We check back in at Edge of Extinction. A message in a bottle heralds, you guessed it, ANOTHER ADVANTAGE! Seriously, this is what, one per episode at this point? Look, “Survivor”, I was willing to give you a pass on “Survivor Game Changers” since people saved their advantages absurdly long on that season. But now, I must echo the audience cry: YOU’RE PUTTING IN TOO MANY! I don’t go the route of the purists and say get rid of them entirely, but seriously, you need to cut WAY back.

All pretense of working together is out the window at this point, especially as Reem seems to have just given up searching at this point. Everyone puts on their shoes, and the race is on. As the clue talks about rocks and “Stepping back”, pretty much everyone identifies the general area as being around the steps up to the rice. Only our beloved Aubry, however, has the intellect to realize that one actually needs to DO the second part of the clue, rather than hunt on the underside of the steps themselves. Doing so has her spot a suspicious hole in the rock face, in which she finds a key to her advantage. Good for Aubry. Her advantage, probably the best one to get, as I said for Chris, is a chance to practice the challenge to get back in the game early. Good for Aubry, though I’m slightly saddened that this means our challenge will be another ropes course, which is both overdone and not an endurance challenge, as I’d hoped.

Aubry states her intention to keep the practice site to herself, but it’s a little unclear how she’d do that. While I doubt starving people are doing regular laps around the island, they still know there’s an advantage out there, and with Aubry being gone for a while, will put two and two together, and figure she’s practicing for the challenge. The answer to her alibi comes in the second part of the advantage. Since Aubry squandered her extra vote, karma dictates she now will said extra vote to someone still in the game. Thus, Aubry can reveal THIS advantage to the others on Edge of Extinction, stopping people looking, and hiding her more valuable practice advantage. The only question now is who gets the extra vote advantage. If Rick told Aubry he willed her the advantage, my money’s on him getting it, since there’s reciprocity and possible alliance building there, plus there was probably some bonding going on on Edge of Extinction. If not, I’d say Aurora, Aubry’s one ally left in the game, will get it. Either way, it could shake up the solid majority, which Aubry will need if she hopes to have a chance, assuming she gets back in the game.

Our immunity challenge today comes circa “Survivor Cagayan”. Tribe members will stand on tiptoe, holding a wooden block to the top of a frame. Should they or the block fall, they’re out. Not a bad challenge, but unexciting overall, save for our promised medical emergency later on.

In a challenge like this, the unworthy are weeded out fairly quickly. Thus, we come down to our foursome of David, Victoria, Aurora, and Lauren. Unsurprising, as the skinniest tend to do best in this challenge, though I don’t get Aurora’s derisive comment about “Young, Skinny Girls”. Yes, Aurora, they’re younger than you, but don’t sell yourself short. You’re about the same size as them.

Prior to the episode, I’d bet on Ron being our medical emergency here, but his early dropout precludes this possibility. Instead, talk from Lauren earlier about starving and not winning reward gives us our answer. Shortly after David falls, she talks of being dizzy and having trouble seeing. Normally, this would be the point where I’d suggest stepping out of the challenge, but either Lauren is not me, or she just didn’t have the energy to do even that. Either way, she falls suddenly to the ground. Probst, ever the professional, handles the situation with his usual grace and charm, making sure she’s well taken care of, and focussing primarily on Lauren’s struggle until she’s cleared by medical. Shades of the fall of Russell Swan (“Survivor Samoa”) flash before our eyes, but really, we all knew she’d be fine. There was still a half-hour left in the episode. I will still give this scene credit, though. It kept the drama high, pulled no punches, and portrayed things realistically, but not fantastically. My only editing note here is that the “dizzy” effect as Lauren fell was unnecessary. The fall on its own was scary enough.

That said just because the editors made few gaffes doesn’t mean that no one else did either. Specifically, Aurora takes the time as soon as Lauren falls to ask that Victoria steps down, and give her immunity Aurora points out that she was left out of the last vote, and needs comfort. A solid argument, and I’d argue the smart thing to do would be for Victoria to step down, to prevent Aurora feeling like she needs to flip. However, Aurora, NOW IS NOT THE TIME! While you definitely should have this conversation, wait until Lauren is either cleared or evacuated. The trouble with talking about it now is that you come off both as an attention-hog, and indifferent to the suffering of others. You may win immunity tonight, but you suffer on the jury for it. Julie in particular is indignant at how Aurora goes on about this. Again, definitely a conversation that needed to be had. Just not right that second.

Aurora does end up winning immunity, and so our Kama members now talk of splitting the vote. Victoria and Aurora argue for going all-in on Kelley, but Eric and Ron insist that the vote split happen, confident as they are in Rick and David. While Rick I can considering solid, I don’t get how David is considered solid at this point. Add onto that the possibility of Aurora flipping, which is made all the more likely given that Aubry gives her the extra vote, and I’d say the numbers are too much in flux for a vote split to be wise at this stage. Yes, it does make it easier for Kelley and Lauren to save themselves via idol, but the numbers just don’t add up right now. Kelley and Lauren do talk about using their idols, but also say they don’t want to use both. I can understand the sentiment, but really, I think at this point they should be spent. They’re a valuable tool, but doing so now all but guarantees you a majority, which is more valuable than any idol any day.

That said, Wardog is not content with only that as misdirection. He wants to try and get those perceived to be on the bottom of Kama moving, and plants the idea in Julia and Gavin’s heads that Eric and Ron are keeping Rick and David around so that, come time for the so-called “Civil War”, they’ll have numbers. Which is true. Given how close Gavin and Eric have been shown to be, I don’t see Gavin biting. Julia’s another matter, though, and she at least takes the time to go to Eric, casually floating the idea of getting rid of David as a safe vote. Eric shoots this idea down, and reminds Julia that this is the safe path to the family visit. The family visit is something he and Ron have been using throughout the episode to ensure loyalty, and while by no means a new strategy, and definitely a smart one, it sickens me nonetheless. The trouble is that this strategy promotes less active gameplay. People aren’t playing to win, they’re playing to see their family. Again, good if you’re one of the few strategists in that group, bad if you’re a viewer. This talk leads Julia and Gavin to consider flipping and voting out Eric or Ron tonight, which I don’t buy one bit. As mentioned earlier, we’re more than halfway through the season, and NOW you’re going to start thinking for yourselves, with this many numbers left? Nuh-uh. Not happening. Victoria shooting the idea down is just the confirmation we need. At least we still have the idol play misdirection to keep us interested.

Tribal Council is a well-played affair, but a bit generic for all that. It basically boils down to both sides trying to get someone to flip, Lesu for dominance, Kama for security. I do have to laugh, though, at Ron stating that there are “Limited spaces available” in his alliance, to which Wardog retorts that he hasn’t been offered a space. While this ended here, and it would have been horrible from a strategy perspective, I do wish Ron had come back with “Some restrictions may apply”. Would have been hilarious.

Following a good bit of tension, neither Lauren nor Kelley play their idols. Clearly, they are braver than I. That said, it turns out to be unnecessary, as the insurrection was more imminent than I thought. Eric ends up getting the boot, and while I’m not sure it was the smartest move from a strategy perspective, as the Lesu foursome (I’m discounting Rick at this point) are now the most solid group left, I can’t deny I’m happy. Between Eric, Kelley, and Lauren, Eric brought the least from an entertainment perspective. Plus, as mentioned, this does shake up the strategy. This, in turn, makes the season less predictable than it was shaping up to be, something it DESPERATELY needs if it has any hope of redeeming itself.

Before we get to my overall thoughts, though, I think we’re long overdue for a…

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5!

Today we’re talking about season logos, a topic I really wanted to cover last episode, due to Rick’s pointing out that the season logo revealed the “Edge of Extinction” twist in a subtle, but clever, way. However, I felt like I didn’t have enough time then, and so held off. I do now, though, and it’s only one episode late, so let us talk about the best and worst logos this show’s ever done. Only rule here is that I’m excluding the logo from “Survivor Borneo”, since, as the original template logo, it’s both the most basic, but also necessary, logo when compared to the others. Beyond that, let’s rank these suckers!

TOP 5

5. “Survivor Edge of Extinction”: Where better to start than the logo that inspired this list? Unlike the other logos you’ll see tonight, this one took a while to grow on me. I thought the coloration was too light, and it just looked generic to me. I didn’t really warm to it until I realized that the logo was asymmetrical. Oh, not in that the figure at the top is off-center, but that the sticks on either side are different. One is a torch, for in the game, and another is a sail, for out of the game. As Rick himself said, a clever way of hinting at the twist. That I can get behind.

4. “Survivor Ghost Island”: This logo is in many ways the same and the opposite of the previous logo at once. It’s dark in coloration, but also subtle in its way. At first glance, it’s just a figure on some rocks, silhouetted by the moon Then, when you look closer, you realize that the figure and the moon make a skull shape. Now that’s just clever. It does lose points, though, for being a bit too dark. I like me some colorful logos.

3. “Survivor Africa”: This logo is an early one, but I’d argue it’s the exemplar for the “Animal Outline” logo the show is fond of. It was a staple of most early seasons, but I think this one did it best. It kept things simple, yet colorful. It was interesting to look at, and immediately brought “Africa” to mind. Just as a good logo should.

2. “Survivor Exile Island”: Part of the reason “Survivor Ghost Island” is lower on the list here is that, while skulls are cool, skulls and sharks are cooler. True, Ghost Island wins on subtlety, but unlike in strategy, when it comes to aesthetics on “Survivor”, you don’t want subtlety: you want over-the-top awesome. This season logo does that well, while simultaneously highlighting the theme of the season as a whole. It misses out on the top spot, though, for the unnecessary “Panama” cluttering up the bottom of the logo. Just have “Exile Island”. That’s how we’ll remember it anyway.

1. “Survivor China”: This is probably the logo that dives most into the aesthetic of the location, to the point where even the traditional “Outwit, Outplay, Outlast” words are replaced with Chinese characters. What I like about this logo the most, though, is how intricate it is. You can stare at it for a long time, and still find little details you missed on first glance, such as the unique touch of having no border but the outer one. Normally this would make the logo cluttered, but the bright colors against the black and gray make this logo work in generalities as well. For something so intricately designed, only the top spot will do.

Honorable Mention: “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”: This is the logo I so badly wanted to put in the top spot, as it most fits the theme of the season. There are silhouettes, sure, but they’re not centered. Rather, each team has outlines of the players on each side, done in such a way that you can even identify who’s who if you look hard enough (Colby, Rupert, and Russell all particularly stand out). This makes the logo a fun little game, as well as appropriate to the season. But sadly, this was not the only logo the season had. It also, unfortunately, had a generic logo with generic silhouettes. As I’m not sure which is the official logo, and the latter is so lazy, I can’t put this season on the list proper. But I can acknowledge it here.

BOTTOM 5

5. “Survivor Redemption Island”: This logo tries to do the “asymmetrical” thing, and up top it works. Granted, it’s still just generic silhouettes, but it still kind of works. What irks me, though, is the crocodile at the bottom. It covers up part of the word “Outlast”, and that just rubs me the wrong way. Get creative, but don’t block out your own logo in the process. That’s just disrespectful.

4. “Survivor Fiji”: Again, this one was close to good, were it not for a couple of details. The primary color on this logo is brown, which is kind of ugly, but could be forgiven. Less forgivable is some of the lazier elements here. Fijian war clubs feature prominently on the logo, and had the been left alone, I would probably like it ok. Ominous and appropriate to the season, after all. But instead there’s some sort of clip art that always reminded me of a tv remote over them, and it just feels lazy and distraction. The unappealing color is just icing on the cake.

3. “Survivor Guatemala”: How well the elements of your logo are integrated matters a great deal. This season starts off ok in that department, with the font matching the season well, and the temples rising from the jungle featuring pretty naturally with the logo. But then they just stick that random head on the logo, and it just doesn’t mesh at all, ruining an otherwise perfectly serviceable logo.

2. “Survivor Caramoan”: This was the point where you could tell the show was running out of ideas. You’d think the move to the Philippines would have given them new aesthetic ideas to work with, but nope! We get generic tikis again! Worse, these tikis aren’t even well-drawn, looking more cartoony than anything. Needless to say, not a good look for “Survivor”.

1. “Survivor Gabon”: If it’s possible for a logo to fall into the “Uncanny Valley”, then this logo does it. It follows the standard logo formula: Animal against an appropriate background. But, rather than go the dignified silhouette route, they instead made the gorilla in this case photo-realistic, which just felt wrong. It was too close to a regular logo to be its own thing, but not close enough to be accepted. I get wanting to highlight to move to HD, but this was a major misstep in doing so.

Honorable Mention: “Survivor Cook Islands”: Honestly, this one is not that bad a logo, just kind of generic. People rowing to shore from a ship. Fits the season, but not all that exciting. Really, though, the big sin is just that “Survivor Pearl Islands” did this idea already, and did it better. As a consequence, this season and logo don’t stand out, though really, there’s nothing wrong with either of them.

This episode is the best we’ve had in a while, despite some major flaws. Most of the good moments were loaded in the front half, and the back half was almost too chaotic to follow. Still, the good moments at the beginning were really good, and with the promise of unpredictable votes going forward, this season is, at last, taking the right steps to salvage itself.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 6: A Matter of Time

Oh goodie. Another merge at the start of episode 6. You all know how much I LOVE those.

As the title of this blog would indicate, time is not something this episode has a lot of. Fortunately, I have a way to make more. Yes, this far into this blog’s life, I’d like to introduce a new segment. My working title is…

MATT’S TIME MACHINE!

Yes, there is a topic form last episode I missed and need to cover, but I’ll do that in the blog proper, since it comes up in the episode itself. No, this segment is a bit different. It is something from the last episode that I want to discuss, but it’s not something I would have wanted to discuss at the time, and thus does not necessitate a “Matt’s Mess-Up”. Rather, this is something I think the AUDIENCE has wrong, but has no place in the blog proper to be talked about. Hence, I’m sticking it here. Once I was able to get people’s takes on the previous episode, one thing I saw that bugged me was that Rick made a terrible move in sharing the solution to the map with the rest of the people on the island, and should have kept it for himself. I think this is horse lucky for a few reasons. Firstly, I don’t think there was a way logistically that Rick could have kept it to himself. Everyone got their maps at the same time, and from what we saw, they all solved them together. I suppose Rick could have gone off on his own to solve it, but this would have just made him look suspicious in the same way Keith looked suspicious. Even if they didn’t solve the puzzle, someone would have gone looking for Rick, spoiling his plans. Secondly, though, I don’t think Rick should have snuck off even if he could. Bear in mind that Rick isn’t just on the island with his competition. He’s on the island with potential future jurors. As I talked about when discussing Joey Amazing back during my cast assessment, Edge of Extinction is great in terms of jury management. You get one-on-one time with likely jurors, setting them up to like you. What Rick does here is throw his fellow players a bone that doesn’t hurt him much, and makes them grateful to him at the end, should he get there, and as any bona fide “Survivor” fan should be able to tell you, social capital trumps advantage any day. Some might argue that Rick doesn’t know that these people will be on the jury, but to that I’d counter that he also doesn’t know that the “Chance to get back in the game” isn’t a vote a la the Outcast twist from “Survivor Pearl Islands”. Point here being, Rick did the right thing by doing the thing that made people like him more.

Want to know how bad this episode’s time management is? Not only do we not have time to go into any depth with anything in this episode, we don’t even have time for a “Previously On…” segment! Nope, it’s straight to the merge, after a pat comment from Wardog about the original Manu disadvantage. Then Probst, who evidently realized that this twist would be controversial, builds it up by decreeing that it will become a legendary moment the instant it happens. Gee, Probst, that’s not transparent at all, and totally not going to turn us off of this twist altogether! Hell, to further emphasize the bad time management, Kelley makes a comment about how she “knew it” when our voted out players return. You know, a scene that would have been nice to see, IF WE’D HAD THE TIME TO!

Ok, ok, getting on to the challenge proper. It’s your pretty standard obstacle course ending in the snake table maze seen last season, “Survivor David vs. Goliath”. Not really worth commenting on beyond that. Probst then has Chris and Keith reveal their advantage and disadvantage, respectively. Keith, as promised, gives his disadvantage to Chris, which makes sense, as the biggest challenge threat on the island not named Joey Amazing.

Now, I was initially prepared to HATE this challenge. Not so much for the challenge itself, but for the editing. You see, while all players are highlighted somewhat, they highlight Aubry a LOT, cutting back to her repeatedly during group shots, and giving her a lot of comments from the other players. Notably people talking about her coming for blood when she takes the lead after the “prison break” portion of the challenge. All this, to me, made it seem obvious that Aubry was going to be our winner, and while I’d be happy as an Aubry fan, I’d be annoyed in general due to how clearly it was telegraphed. But no, she chokes on the maze. Not even Chris, our next most likely to win, pulls it out. Instead, Rick shows heretofore unknown maze skills, and comes back to win the whole thing. Gotta admit, I like this outcome. Yeah, I’d have preferred Aubry go back in, but if she wasn’t going to win, Rick was the next best bet, being funny without the irritation that comes with Wendy and the chickens (especially since the merge tribe will go to Manu beach, since, you know, nothing bad has been happening on that beach), and it was an unexpected victory.

Our merge tribe heads off to their feast, and Probst talk with the losers. For all my snark, this is the one part of the episode that really works, because of the raw emotion on screen, and our mirror neurons working against us, to make us feel sad as well. Pretty much all the speeches are good, but particular mention goes to the ladies, who all knock it out of the park in one way or another. Aubry and Reem get personal, talking about how “Survivor” has helped them grow and bond with their family, respectively. But Wendy, for me, takes the cake, actually seeming happy with her placement, and pointing out that even being selected is an honor. A very good note to end on. Unless you’re a blogger, like me, in which case you accentuate the negative. For all the good speeches, I must once again point out that Chris is STILL harping on about not getting his perfect game. Oh no, poor you! Get over yourself.

After Wendy’s speech, Probst tells everyone that they can once again return to the Edge of Extinction for another shot at returning. Aubry swears she will. Literally. Everyone else pretty much raises their hand instantly, though after that speech by Wendy, what did you expect? To be fair though, I don’t think it will last. Between that speech and the endorphins still pumping from the challenge, of course everyone would accept in the moment. Once that wears off? I doubt all of them will think it worth the trouble.

And no, this is not hindsight. I literally thought that at the time.

So, the merge feast. For once, finding an advantage is not our focus, but rather the social bonds. Now, Rick coming back in the game should be good for everyone from the original Manu, since they need every number they can get. True, they did vote him out, but that was more out of necessity than true want. Rick voted with all of them at at least one point, so why would anyone be unhappy to see him? Because Kelley Wentworth doesn’t know a good thing when it hits her square in the face. Seriously, she immediately starts dissing Rick, and says she wants him gone. Again, why? Rick voted WITH YOU more often than not, and with “Kama Strong” unfortunately still a thing, every number is a good number. But no, Kelley has to just play nice with Rick, and then scheme behind his back.

Speaking of Rick, though, he does form some bonds of his own. Specifically, he and Julie get to talking and form something of a friendship, with Julie even saying she doesn’t want him gone, and will clue him in on future plans. Now, this is actually a smart move for Julie. Despite the whole “Kama Strong” thing going on, not everyone will be on board with that. Recall that Joey Amazing and Aurora were on the outs of that original Kama. They have no reason to be loyal to you now, and with five original Manu back in the game, they could easily jump ship and get a majority against you. By figuratively romancing Rick, you both fracture the original Manu still further, and add in two potential numbers (with David presumably coming with Rick) to help keep your majority solid. Does Julie justify it this way? Of course not! That would be the smart thing! Instead, she talks about Rick winning the challenge was a “hero moment” for him, and it made her like him. Julie, that “hero moment” is exactly why you DON’T want Rick around He’s just had a big victory in front of everybody, and unless this is a jury that REALLY doesn’t respect time on the Edge of Extinction, Rick now has a good shot to win.

Then again, perhaps Julie’s just a kind soul, since she says she wouldn’t with Edge of Extinction on anybody. This, of course, is our perfect transition to the Edge of Extinction, where a gorgeous overhead shot reveals two people walking to the sail and raising it, leaving the game, and not making the jury as a result. To no one’s surprise, one of the people leaving is Keith. He’s been out there nearly the longest, has taken a lot of hits both personal and physical, and as I said, has enough life ahead of him that this doesn’t have to define him. But our other exiter? That would be Wendy. This boggles me. Wendy spent barely any time on the Edge of Extinction, yet she wouldn’t even TRY for a second chance, however far in the future? Loss of respect points.

Aubry takes us out by talking about how the Edge of Extinction weeds out the weak, and how she’s tough enough to survive. Ok, this HAS to mean that she’s coming back on the second round, right? There’s no way they aren’t building up to that after all of this.

We rejoin our boringly named Vata tribe to see that throwing Rick under the bus is not Kelley’s only play. After complaining about how Joe is once again in a super majority come the merge, a la “Survivor Cambodia”, she decides to pick his brain as a fellow returnee, citing Aubry’s ouster as a reason to be concerned. Joe folds under this intense interrogation, but Kelley does very little with the info. She COULD try and pull the old Manu back together, and bring in Joe and Aurora, but instead, she’s too stuck on the Rick plan. Speaking of Rick, despite Probst saying he has to start from scratch after earning his way into the game again, Rick looks through his bag and finds that he HAS been given something to help him along: an immunity idol! Who would have guessed? Though admittedly, this idol has a caveat. It has no power now, and won’t until the Tribal Council after the upcoming one. Instead, Rick just give half the idol to someone else prior to the upcoming Tribal Council, and both must survive for the idol to remain intact. You know, because that worked out so well for Lauren Rimmer on “Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers”. To be fair, though, I like how this iteration of the idol emphasizes social bonds, and the sharing of information, rather than the newbie just being given something so he doesn’t pull a Matt Elrod (“Survivor Redemption Island”) and leave as soon as he gets back. Now, the smart thing for Rick to do here would be to share his idol with Julie. While she showed something of a bond with Rick earlier, his safety is still not guaranteed. Sharing this information with Julie gives her more incentive to trust Rick and keep him around, especially if Rick emphasized how the idol can be used for their mutual benefit. Instead, Rick shares his idol with David. Good, I guess, if Rick’s confident he won’t go this evening, since David is unlikely to screw him over, but still, waste of a possibility, says I.

Off to our challenge, which is the damn sound guy one again. Whoopee. Since there’s no point in commenting on the challenge, let me instead comment on our individual immunity idol for the season. It’s ok. Basically a lot of big coins strung together into a necklace. Cool looking enough, but not something that’s going to wow us for seasons to come.

Surprisingly for an individual challenge containing Joey Amazing, and not containing a puzzle, Joey Amazing doesn’t win. Julie does, and i give her credit for an impressive showing. This takes us back to camp, where Kelley puts her anti-Rick plan into action. Although most agree to her face, as they should no one’s buying it in confessional. Julie in particular is adamant about Rick staying in the game, and thus now wants to target Kelley. What she is unaware of, however, is that Kelley has an idol. How do we know? A graphic on the screen tells us so. And it was shown last episode, which was the aforementioned mess-up I alluded to earlier. In fairness, the idol Kelley found had no consequence until now, so I don’t mind bringing it up here, except to say that given the green string it had on originally, it was well-hidden. As to how I feel about the graphics now saying who does and doesn’t have an idol/advantage? On the one hand, I feel it’s insulting to the audience, and only encourages the adding of more idols/advantages since they’re now easier to keep track of. That said, since I forgot about Kelley’s idol until I saw the graphic, it’s kind of NECESSARY, now isn’t it?

Idols alone are not enough misdirection, however (yeah, I never really though Rick was in danger this episode). Instead, as one would expect when he doesn’t have immunity, the target falls on Joey Amazing, though in kind of a weird way. Ron asks Joe who he wants gone. Joe, quite diplomatically, says he’ll go with the flow. This, to Ron, seems noncommittal, and thus he now wants to target Joe. His reasoning’s off initially, but eventually brings up the point that “If you can get rid of Joey Amazing”, you should. Victoria disses the idea, but the debate of eliminating Kelley versus eliminating Joey Amazing, I think I side with the latter group. Don’t get me wrong, there’s not really a “wrong move” between these two for the majority. Either you eliminate an idol and a strategic player, or you eliminate a challenge and social threat. But what makes Joe the better choice from my perspective is the fact that these players now know about Edge of Extinction, as Probst had mentioned it prior to the merge. This throws a wrench in the game, as they people you vote out may not stay that way. Thus, from my perspective, you WANT Joe on the Edge of Extinction. There’s little deterrent to going there, especially since Rick won the challenge, showing that truly anyone can make it back. But if Joey Amazing is there? Are you really going to stick it out only to compete against Joey Amazing in a CHALLENGE? Get real. More people will leave on the spot, making it better for your overall game if he’s gone.

We head off to Tribal Council with a goody mystery as a result of this debate. One that is quickly solved is how those still on Edge of Extinction will work as the jury. Evidently they are taken every three days to watch the Tribal Councils, which I like. If they’re going to influence the final vote, they should be there for what’s going on. Our Tribal Council itself gets in some good sou bytes as well, though Ron takes the cake by being super cocky and obviously in charge. He does make a major error, implying they’re not going for Rick that night, but it’s so fun to watch I don’t care. Victoria also makes a blunder here, stating that she’s targeting threats. This gets Joe’s hackles up, believing this refers to himself. Victoria justifies it by talking about multiple types of threats, which Joe hypocritically dismisses. Joe, you yourself were talking about other types of threats just last episode! Don’t change your tune now!

After a tense vote, the smart thing is done, and Joey Amazing is sent to the Edge of Extinction. Ok, technically he CHOSE to go there, but we all knew that was coming. Of the three possible targets, I’m the least sorry to see him go. He’s nice enough, but he brought nothing new to the table, and wasn’t witty enough to be entertaining. Hope you enjoy your easy waltz to victory on Edge of Extinction, Joe!

This episode tried to be good, it really did. It gave us new dynamics, fun editing, and good misdirection. Sadly, time management has become a big problem for the show this season. 13-person merges are hard enough to handle on their own, and adding in the Edge of Extinction stuff now only stretches the show thin, to the point where interpersonal dynamics can’t be fully explored, and everything feels rushed. Once again, this season continues to be its own worst enemy.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 5: Friend or Idol?

Frankly, I’m not sure whether or not it’s a good thing I had to wait so long to write this blog. On the one hand, that was a hard episode to get through, both on an objective and subjective level, and I’m glad I had time to emotionally process it. On the other hand, having time to emotionally process this episode means my reactions will not be as over-the-top as they would have been fresh off the episode, which may make for a less interesting blog. I guess only the result will tell us true.

Before we get to those results, however, it’s time for another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Yes, not only do we need to talk about an episode that is nearly a week old at this point, but we also need to talk about the episode BEFORE that, because it wasn’t confusing enough. There are two points from episode four that I neglected in the blog for that episode, but fortunately, both a fairly short. Firstly, while I mentioned Aubry expressing relief at having Wendy on the team, since it would get someone out before her, I neglected to mention her other reaction: regret. It seems Aubry has a soft spot for Wendy, and hoped to ally with her. Given that Aubry can be kind of “weird” herself, this is not surprising, but worth mentioning.

As to my second point, we must return to the Edge of Extinction, and talk about Chris. Chris, you see, articulates the Edge of Extinction as being a journey for him, realizing that he can’t do everything as well as he thought. In particular, he mentions that his hope for a “perfect game” has been shot. Some might see this as a nice arc from an inoffensive guy. I see it as an arrogant man thinking he can get a perfect game on his first try, and just roll my eyes. Then again, I’m a cynical critic on the internet, so that probably colors my view a bit.

We join Rick on the Edge of Extinction (who had basically no reaction beyond just quickly and quietly taking the torch to the camp), who basically reiterates how much it sucks, especially since people are more pissed at him than even Chris. Given how big a role he had in their exits (in each case, you could argue that he was the swing vote), I can’t blame them too much.

Oh, you thought we might get some fallout from that vote? Silly viewer! That’s from seasons where the people who get voted out actually leave! Instead, given our lack of time, we jump straight to an obstacle course for varying amounts of peanut butter and jelly. Frankly, this challenge is so generic that the individual elements are not worth talking about, save for the first. One tribe member must stand on another’s shoulders to untie a bolo from a high arch. I bring this up because, while Lesu is favored to lose pretty much every single challenge at this point, this is an obstacle that they should do fairly well on. They have Wardog, who’s basically a rock, and David, a skinny guy with good challenge experience, but Wardog keeps dropping, with everyone kvetching at him for his failure. Pretty funny, if sad at the same time.

As Kama was our ultimate victor in this challenge, we start off at their camp. Unsurprisingly, since Joey Amazing is on this tribe, talk centers around Joey Amazing. Specifically, talk centers around getting him off. Julie and Julia in particular are keen to get him off, even quietly suggesting throwing a challenge to spell his elimination. Ron, on the other hand, is less keen, due to Joey Amazing being amazing at camp life, as well as challenges. He fears that with him gone, everyone on Kama will starve. Julie rightly counters that while yes, life will suck more without Joey Amazing, it will also be manageable. And yeah, I kind of agree with her and Julia on this one. Joey Amazing is great in the challenges. Hell, he’s probably the only reason you guys are undefeated at this point. But being undefeated does you no good if you have enemies on your tribe. Given that he overheard your conversation about eliminating him and Aubry, it’s pretty safe to say that Joey Amazing is an enemy at this point. It would be one thing to get rid of him if he was the only enemy on your tribe, but even if you lose the next challenge due to his absence, you also have a nice Aurora ripe for the picking off. No need to worry. Might as well eliminate a threat when you have complete control.

Over on Manu, we see that sadly, my prediction about this episode was correct. Victoria, Eric, and Gavin all meet to discuss their continued Anti-Aubry pact. In fact, they even discuss getting her out before Wendy. That said, they decide they need to concoct a plan to fool Aubry into thinking she’s safe, lest Aubry potentially play an idol. As such, they decide that Victoria will go to Aubry and suggest a women’s alliance. Not a bad plan normally, but guys, need I remind you AGAIN that you were overheard plotting to eliminate Aubry NOT SIX DAYS AGO? What on Earth makes you think that Aubry will buy this?

Perhaps the fact that Aubry’s desperate? Yes, despite now having perpetual target Wendy on her tribe, thus hopefully saving her, Aubry has gotten greedy, and wants more. She hopes to break off a member of the group to use for herself, so Victoria’s offer is music to her ears. She even misses the obvious tell of Victoria being unable to maintain eye contact during the conversation. Again, I cannot get over the fact that this plan WORKS! Not only is it somewhat poorly executed (at this stage), but I’d say it was unnecessary. Aubry would probably buy the “Wendy is annoying and released the chickens, so we’re targeting her” line, and it would be more plausible than Victoria suddenly and drastically changing her opinion on Aubry. Unnecessary, but cool. Think everything Tony Vlachos did on “Survivor Cagayan”.

Speaking of Tony, that’s the comparison we’re about to get at Lesu. After confirming once again that yes, Lauren is still having trouble eating, we see that Wardog’s had about all he can stand of it. He pulls Kelley aside, talks about how buddy-buddy they are, and suggests eliminating Lauren next when they’re almost guaranteed to lose. Not a bad idea in and of itself, but Wardog’s justification here is somewhat lacking. See, Wardog tells Kelley that he wants Lauren gone because if it came down to him, Kelley, and Lauren, he thinks Kelley and Lauren would stick together. With is a great reason for Wardog to want to eliminate Lauren. But what’s the incentive from that pitch for Kelley to eliminate Lauren? None whatsoever. Kelley says as much, and now considers eliminating Wardog for his gall. Surprised it took this long to come up.

What’s that? One scene on Edge of Extinction was enough? Too bad, you get even more of it! Actually, they give the people on Edge of Extinction something to do. Everyone is brought a map with a riddle telling them to follow the stars. As the map has an inconsistent border of stars, they quickly figure out that folding the map to line up the stars points them to two trees, and agree to look at those trees after lunch. Keith, however, is a greedy SOB, and so fakes a bathroom break, only to run off to look for the advantages. Everyone quickly guesses what he’s up to, however, and so race after him. Keith may have a head start, but despite no swimming being involved, Keith still sucks in challenges. Chris beats him to the first advantage, a set of bamboo and rope with the note “Practice”, indicating that our returning challenge will be the “Prison Break” challenge first seen on “Survivor Thailand”. Fitting, given that this was also the challenge that went with the “Outcast” twist on “Survivor Pearl Islands”, which this twist most resembles. Rick finds the second advantage, which is an extra vote he can send to someone going to the next Tribal Council. Interesting enough, and I like that it does give the players on Edge of Extinction a BIT more say in the game, but given that it’s unlikely whoever gets it gets back in the game to reap the social capital they would gain, I’m inclined to say that the first one is the better advantage. Apart from practicing the challenge at all, having an idea of what the challenge is gives you a possibly insurmountable psychological edge.

We come to our best challenge of the evening… and it STILL SUCKS! Basically, teams of four swim to retrieve two clumps of buoys to bring via pulley boat to two other clumps of buoys to attempt to build a pyramid. The diving part of the challenge is nice, but the puzzle’s been done before. Not that you’d know it by how long it takes the teams to figure out, but done before nonetheless. Honestly, watching this back, it seems like the hardest part was unclipping the buoys, which I don’t get. Maybe I didn’t understand the mechanism, but it seemed like it was just a matter of pulling it out of the chains, and shouldn’t have been that tough. Unoriginal, not all that exciting, and yet this is the best we can do. Joy.

I will give credit here that the editors do a good job of fooling us on this one. Lesu falls behind early on, due to the aforementioned trouble with the buoy pulleys. This might seem like a comeback of Kass McQuillen (“Survivor Cagayan”) proportions, and it does end up being so, but by giving Lesu the dodo music here, they cast doubt, making their eventual triumph all the better.

It comes down to the puzzle, which Kama is the first to get. Aurora tries to help out Aubry by telling her to put “Four on the bottom”. Unfortunately, Aubry mishears this as “Four in the back”, and so Manu ends up losing. A great moment for Lesu, but a hard moment for us Aubry fans, as the writing is on the wall at this point.

Don’t believe me? Soon after, everyone tries to get Aubry in on the “Wendy’s annoying, so we should vote her out.” plan. You know, the plan they should have gone with from the start? They sell it well, though I question their decision to let Wendy know, since she’s likely the type to spill the beans to Aubry. You know, basically her only alliance at this point? But then again, maybe not Aubry, trying to decide what to believe, floats the idea of a women’s alliance to Wendy, who remains noncommittal. Here’s the point where I would normally debate whether Aubry should trust in the noncommittal Wendy or stick with Kama, ultimately siding with the idea that since Kama was against her early on, she shouldn’t trust them now, but that would be pointless, because it’s clear at this point that Aubry’s going. No other viable target has been presented, and on a tribe with Wendy, that’s saying something. Now, Aubry does have an idol, and if she bothered to remember what the team was saying about her LESS THAN A WEEK AGO she might play it. But no, she sees this as a new lease on life in the game, and decides to play it safe. Piling on the “royally screwed”, Aubry gets given the extra vote by Rick. Because of course the superfan was going to give the advantage to the returnee.

One point on which I can at least cut Aubry some slack: Catching no signs at Tribal Council. Credit where it’s due, Gavin, Victoria, and Eric play this off VERY well. Even with musical cues and edited footage, I saw no signs that would make me play an idol if I had one. That’s a high caliber of play, and I can’t really blame Aubry for being fooled at this point. Special mention goes to Gavin’s comment talking about Aubry not being seen as a returnee at this point. Just what she wants to hear, and delivered in a believable way. No wonder she was fooled.

Yes, if it wasn’t obvious enough at this point, Aubry goes out. Of course I’m disappointed! Aubry is my favorite player of all time, so of course I want her in the game as long as possible. True, these players did a very skillful snow job on her, and apart from her idol, she had little way to avoid this situation, but it still hurts that she will no longer grace our screens as a main player in this game this season. At least we get a good “shocked” face out of her for it. We can also take solace in the fact that she was voted out for being a threat, not for any particular mistake or bad play.

That said, I think this vote cements for me that this season would have been better without returnees present. True, even without them this still wouldn’t be one of the all time great casts of the show, but here’s the thing. These three players, in particular Victoria, just pulled off a spectacular move. They played things masterfully, particularly at Tribal Council. Yet, we resent them, because they usurped our favorites. Had they pulled this move against another player, they’d be among the greats. Instead, we only see them as usurpers. Plus, there’s the fact that ALL their strategy talk has been centered around returnees, and as such gets repetitive. Just not a good look for what could have been new stars of the show.

Aubry of course, chooses to go to the Edge of Extinction, and laments being voted off in such a “humiliating” way, comparing herself to JT Thomas (“Survivor Tocantins”). Definitely not the most dignified elimination, but I think Aubry sells herself short here. As far as we know, Aubry at least brought her idol to Tribal Council. She at least acknowledged the possibility of elimination. JT did not.

After we see all the remaining returnees shit their pants at Aubry’s elimination, since it spells doom for them in the long run, we cut to our reward challenge. You may remember it as “That challenge where Chris Nobel kicked butt #85” from “Survivor Ghost Island”. Now, it will also be remembered as “Challenge where Wardog sucked #32”. Seriously, the man’s built like a tank, but can’t hurl a sandbag to save his life. Naturally, Lesu loses this one.

Seeing Aubry eliminated has sparked a new drive in Joe, since she was, as he puts it “his only ally”. Aurora somewhere just randomly started crying, and doesn’t know why. Still, Joe decides to try a different tactic: convince everyone to join a threat’s alliance. Now, who on Kama besides Joe would qualify as a threat? No one, but that doesn’t stop Joe from trying to convince them they are. He tries the trick out on Julia, which seems to work. No word on whether it worked on the other members of his tribe or not.

Manu has nothing interesting to do, so we head straight to Lesu, where David is going idol hunting. He comes up empty-handed, so this scene is pointless. Having slightly more of a point is our scene on Edge of Extinction. Yes, really. Another riddle map comes along, this one harder to figure out. Indeed, no one really does, and everyone just starts wandering around. Given that there were holes in the map, I figured you had to hold the map up to the “Welcome to Edge of Extinction” note, and the holes would reveal letters pointing the way to whatever advantage comes next. Instead, Reem just spots something in the shallows, which Keith grabs. It turns out to be extra knots for someone, and Keith lets us know in no uncertain terms that Chris will be getting them, in revenge for voting Keith out.

All is not well on the Edge of Extinction, though. Chris got wind of what Reem did, and lays into her for what he calls “Giving up an advantage”. Reem, who views this as a simple mistake anyone could make, and not exactly good at taking slights at the best of times, lashes out at Chris. This leaves Aubry to do what she does best: comment on the madness. For all that Aubry’s strategic game is lacking so far this season, I will say her confessionals have been up to par. Certainly better than her efforts on “Survivor Game Changers”.

Speaking of which, guess which season we’re emulating? Yep, it’s time for the combined Tribal Council Twist! Because THAT went over so well last time! Let’s take the twist that was only saved from causing the worst episode of the season by Jeff Varner deciding to be complete trash a few episodes later! Great idea, everyone! Is our challenge cool at least? It’s another obstacle course with a puzzle at the end? Joy.

Kama naturally wins, and here’s where I’d usually spend my time talking about the strategies of each tribe, but really, each boils down to “Force a tie and vote for someone you think the other team would be willing to sacrifice”, with one person on each tribe stating they refuse to go for rocks (Victoria and Lauren), so instead, let me talk about this twist. Yes, I hate it, but like the “One World” twist, I don’t think it’s a bad idea, just bad execution. With minor tweaks, it could be a lot of fun. In the case of “One World” you need to keep it around all the time, and trust that we can differentiate tribes without a forced tribe division. In the case of this combined Tribal Council, we REALLY need the tribes to be able to negotiate pre-Tribal Council. This would add intrigue and new drama instead of forced whispering and the loss of anything new that we get with the current formula.

Since there’s really nothing to talk about at this Tribal Council, let’s talk about who ends up targeted. Manu goes for Lauren, which is not bad given her sickness. Lesu, however, correctly guesses that the annoyance of Wendy, coupled with her not being original Kama, leads to her being flipped on and eliminated. Once again, show, you’re eliminating all the fun and interesting people too fast. Of course I’m sorry to see Wendy go. She was truly unique as a character, and made for a lot of fun zingers, even if her strategy wasn’t the best. That said, she does get Probst to call her “Big Wendy” before she goes, which I respect.

Oh, and of course Wendy goes to the Edge of Extinction. I don’t think she even read the whole sign. I think she just went with the option that wasn’t “go home”.

This episode really continues to sink this season lower and lower. All the players we care about go home early, the time management is miserable, and thanks to the returnees, we don’t care too much about the new players. Perhaps more pre-merge episodes can help.

What’s that? You say next episode is the merge? Another merge with 13 players, after a return from the Edge of Extinction? Yay.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 4: Sailor Wendy

Freeing chickens by moonlight/Spilling secrets by daylight/Busted ankle and she’ll still fight/She is the one named Big Wendy!

Yes, this introduction is corny, but it’s better than what we get on the show these days. Not only do we lack the awesomeness that is the “Survivor” theme song, but now we don’t even get Post-Tribal Council fallout. Why? Edge of Extinction, of course! Everyone’s favorite twist that just gets worse and worse with each passing episode! To its credit, though, we do at least get something different this time around. Reem and Keith were both allied, so their subsequent vote-outs were to be expected, and their bond largely intact. Chris, though? He is amongst those responsible for their evictions, and so you can expect initial conversations to be, well, awkward. What you don’t expect is for Reem and Keith to be so vindictive. Granted, I’d expect lack of food to do that to anyone, but they really lay into Chris as though he’s the scum of the earth, gaining schadenfreude from his blindside. Ok, Keith I can kind of get. Chris was his play to stay in the game, and it didn’t work. But Reem? Yes, Chris voted against her as well, but he was just a number among many, and was by no means the orchestrator of her demise. Someone like Kelley, Lauren, or Wardog I could understand, but Chris was just someone on your tribe who didn’t vote with you. Guess what? SO WAS KEITH! Oh well. I feel bad for Chris here, but at least his judgement day gives us something different to watch.

Moving onto the players ACTUALLY in the game (I still refuse to consider those on the Edge of Extinction fully “in the game”), we see that Wendy’s chicken crusade continues. Trying a different tack, she returns the flint, now ready to enact her own version of “Chicken Run”. Here we see that Wendy’s TRUE flaw in the game is her inability to keep a secret, well, secret. We saw her earlier talk to Rick about her chicken-freeing plans, and now she nearly does the same with David. Some might be inclined to blame this on her Tourette’s, and I can’t rule out that possibility. However, given that she’s been shown to be high-energy regardless, and she didn’t talk about her Tourette’s making it hard for her to keep secrets, I’m inclined to say that has nothing to do with it. Wendy’s just really bad at keeping secrets.

Not helping Wendy’s case is the fact that people (Kelley in particular) have finally caught on that she STOLE THE FLINT! Better late than never, I suppose. Since this only adds to Wendy’s already substantial pile of “Royally Screwed”, she’ll need a big shift in order for things to work out for her. Cue the tribe swap!

Actually, that’s about our only cue. We forgo our usual foreshadowing confessionals (the person on the bottom talking about needing a miracle, the person on top talking about how safe they are, etc.), which I like. Shake up the formula once in a while, I say. Sadly, what we replace it with is arguably worse. Yes folks, it’s time for PROBST HYPERBOLE! Watch as Jeff Probst tries desperately to interest you in what has so far been a pretty lackluster season by making out that your average shocked tribe expression is the BIGGEST the show has ever had! Look, Probst, I get what you’re trying to do, but this was just way too obvious. Yeah, this was probably the biggest reaction so far of the season, but of the whole show? Whether you want to admit it or not, “Survivor Gabon” exits, and was a good season. If nothing else, it gave us the over-the-top reaction to the exit of Marcus Lehman, which is the REAL “Biggest reaction of all time”.

Thus comes our promised tribe switch, this time to three tribes. Now, I get why this is done these days. It helps prevent supermajorities, and shakes things up from your regular switch. But at this point, it’s become so predictable, I think it needs to be retired, at least for a little while. People are starting to guess a switch to three tribes is coming, and planning accordingly. Shake things up! Keep people guessing! Make for a more exciting game WITHOUT being really predictable. Hell, you even know what the buff color will be before the reveal. It’s green. Because with the exception of Angkor on “Survivor Cambodia”, it’s ALWAYS green! Look, as green is my favorite color, I’m happy to see it used more often, but give us some variety for goodness sake!

Well, at least the breakdown of our switch gives us some variety, in the form of a rare fall-out. This is not really a “switch” so much as a “dissolution”, as there are very few new interactions to be had. Joe, Aurora, Julie, Julia, and Ron all stay on Kama. Aubry, Victoria, Eric, and Gavin remain together as well, joining Wendy on Manu. This means that our big five alliance, the one that’s voted together at every Tribal Council so far, makes up the new Lesu tribe. A fun concept on paper, being effectively a swap that’s not really a swap, but then, when you think about it more, it’s really lame. Here’s where I’d normally describe the new dynamics this creates, but there are practically none! Everybody stays with everybody else! The only new interaction is on Manu, and even then, basically all it does is help Aubry stay in the game longer. Granted, I’m in favor of this outcome, but it doesn’t really add anything to the season. Ultimately, this just makes the swap seem like a pointless waste of what could instead have been a challenge.

That said, I must now nerd-out “Survivor” style, and call Gavin for saying that there’s never been a swap like this before. Yes, Gavin, there has. “Survivor All-Stars”? Second swap? Chapera and Mogo Mogo just switched camps, with only Amber ending up with new people? Granted, that was two tribes to two tribes, and the camps at least changed, but still, pretty similar situation, no? Some might argue that “Survivor All-Stars” goes into the same category as “Survivor Game Changers”, but I think “Survivor All-Stars” deserves more credit than that. Yeah, it’s by no means a top-tier season, but it had some fun moments, so big emotions involved, and if you look at it as less of a season in and of itself and more a love letter to past seasons, it actually works really well. Yes, I would argue that it’s better than “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains” in that regard. Bite me. If nothing else, “Survivor All-Stars” is a guilty pleasure for me, and I think it needs more love.

Tirade over, we now go deeper into the dynamics of Lesu. Not since Angkor have we quite got a tribe that seems so screwed to be at the new camp. Post Angkor, it seems like the newly created tribe gets some advantage, whether it be an extra person (“Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”), getting a challenge beast on the tribe (“Survivor Game Changers”), or just getting someone who can make camp life extremely easy (“Survivor Ghost Island”), something seems to compensate the new tribe for their inherent disadvantage. This time, however, there’s nothing. True, no one with the possible exception of David seems to suck in challenges (and even then, David does usually have a knack for puzzles), but there’s no big guns either. No, Wardog does not count as a big gun, given his track record in challenges so far. Add onto that having to build a new shelter and start with no ship supplies, I’d say Lesu is in trouble.

Such tensions will usually get one person to crack, and this time that person is Lauren. She’s been having trouble eating, and the extra physical labor involved in the new camp is getting to her. I can’t say I don’t sympathize with her, but I must counter her claim that “‘Survivor would be fun.” Dear, I may not agree with Keith Nale (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”) a lot of the time, but this bit of wisdom from him rings true: “‘Survivor’ ain’t fun. Going on a cruise is fun.” I’m all for fans playing the game, but don’t have any illusions about what you’re getting into.

Moving over to Manu, Wendy is giving everyone the grand tour. Aubry should know the camp quite well, as it’s clearly the old Mana camp she spent the majority of “Survivor Game Changers” at, but evidently she’s being polite. Speaking of Aubry, her new lease on life is confirmed when Wendy begins spilling the secrets of Manu to her new tribe, which I can’t really blame her for. With no knowledge of the Edge of Extinction, she has no reason not to burn the people who perpetually kept her out of the loop, and since the old Kama seem set up to run the game, might as well ingratiate yourself now. Aubry goes full Boston Rob from “Survivor Redemption Island”, and laughs at the “ametures” (his words, not hers) giving up info so easily.

All well and good, but bear in mind that Aubry is with arguably three of the people most dead-set against working with a returnee from her old tribe. Why should she think Wendy will go before her, old Manu or not? Well, the answer to that is our old friends, the chickens! Yes, while Manu camp doesn’t have quite the amenities of Kama camp, it does have chickens, which Eric in particular is very keen on eating. Wendy once again sticks up for the chickens, and while Eric has a more sympathetic ear that most of the old Manu, he’s still pretty dead-set on killing a chicken.

Checking in with Kama, Joe now decides to turn on his “charm”, so that he doesn’t just have to rely on physical strength to carry him through the game. Not a bad idea in theory, but we quickly see that Joe doesn’t really know how to pull it off. The man was allied with Aurora and Aubry. Aubry is now gone, but he at least has Aurora on his side. This means all he needs is one more. Does he try to pull in Julie, the lady who has seemed most on the outs, and closer in age to Aurora, thus meaning a possible connection. No, that would be the SMART thing to do! Instead, he decides to try and convert Ron. You know, the guy Joe caught plotting against him LITERALLY TWO DAYS AGO! Look, a tribe swap can shake things up, but when all your tribe does is shrink, it’s probably not going to change things that much. Sure enough, Ron quickly reveals that his talk to Joe was all a ploy so that Julia could go through his belongings, checking for an idol. When no idol is found, Ron is willing to accelerate Joe’s demise, even at the cost of his tribe. I can understand the impulse, but I’m not sure it’s wise. Kama seems to be the overall weakest tribe, with their only saving graces being Ron’s puzzle ability and Joey Amazing. Get rid of half of that, and you can expect many a Tribal Council visit. With only original tribe members to vote out after that, there’s not a lot going your way.

Back at Manu, Wendy decides to enact Opertaion: Fly the Coop, sneaking in and releasing the chickens. It makes for a fun scene, and Wendy gives us Stereotypical Anime Girl Pose #5, which is something you rarely see on “Survivor”, so I enjoy it. What’s more, Wendy actually pulls the move off with SUBTLETY this time, waiting until everyone’s asleep, thus giving her plausible deniability. Good in theory, at least, but plausible deniability only carries one so far. Wendy, unfortunately, has been too vocal about the chickens, and so everyone can tell that she’s been planning this anyway. Things get worse when the chickens, territorial creatures, keep trying to come back to camp, forcing Wendy to shoo them away. Honestly, who can blame them for coming back? That was a sweep coop they had, with a net giving them a wide-open area. Shame we couldn’t have seen THAT being built. Maybe in place of, say, Edge of Extinction?

Eric in particular is mad about the chickens, stating that the first one he catches goes straight into the pot. This confessional is interrupted by the clucking of a nearby chicken. I have to admit, that’s good. It got a chuckle out of me.

Say, since we’ve got nothing by rehashed tribe dynamics for those IN the game, why no have some rehashed tribe dynamics for those out of the game? Yes, it’s back to the Edge of Extinction. Keith gives us a confessional about the temptation of the sail. What it means to him. How much easier than living on this island it is. Wow. A really touching confessional that brings something we haven’t heard before to the game. Almost makes this twist worth it. Too bad we have to the segway into more bashing of Chris for little reason. Chris, for his part, tries to redeem himself, and so takes out the fishing spear and brings back… wait, FISHING SPEAR! Dammit, “Survivor”, you can’t even stick to your own premise now! I thought “Edge of Extinction” players were supposed to get nothing, and now, not only do you give them rice, but you give them a fishing spear too? How is this in any way worse conditions than the regular camps? You’ve officially lost the right to say this twist in any way tests the metal of the contestants.

Chris comes back with fish, finally earning him some love from Keith and Reem. Talking about Reem for another minute, I’ll give credit that she’s at least toughening up during her time out there. When Chris and Keith complain about the conditions, she points out that this isn’t the Holiday Inn, and they can’t expect comfort. It’s fun to see from Reem, if only because it makes me see her as the second coming of Twila Tanner (“Survivor Vanuatu”) and it is glorious.

Our challenge today technically originates on “Survivor Samoa”, but is more directly copied from the second immunity challenge of “Survivor Cambodia”. Tribes first race up a pair of A-Frames, then tie rope to pull a crate. Then, of course, you solve a puzzle, with the first two solved puzzles winning immunity. A reused challenge, to be sure, but a cool and infrequent one, so I’m willing to let it slide.

I’ve talked briefly about the challenge abilities of Lesu and Kama, but let’s talk Manu for a second. Since most challenges are “only as fast as your slowest member”, I’d say they have an edge. They have puzzle ability in Aubry (and, as we’ll later see, Wendy), and probably the only guy comparable to Joey Amazing in Eric. With no real challenge sinks, I have a hard time seeing them lose a challenge. Kama has some of the physically weaker members, and Lesu just a lack of big guns, but Manu has no real weak suit. Give them any time of challenge, they’ll probably do well. That said, I feel like Manu is the most likely to lose based on targeting. They’ve had a lot of talk about taking out Wendy, and the vendetta against returnees may still stand for Aubry. True, we’ve had some talk on both other tribes about vote-related topics (Ron’s plan against Joe, Lauren being ill), but nothing that coalesces very well. Hell, despite Lesu being favored to lose based on strength, I’d say they’re least likely to lose based on screentime.

However, that all goes downhill pretty quickly, so let’s talk idols for a moment. I always favor the split idol when multiple tribes need immunity, but what they go with here is pretty cool as well. Probst pulls out a wooden phoenix to pair with the dragon, looking to be at war with each other. The idols have a theme and feel like they fit together, yet aren’t identical. It’s a cool and different way of having multiple idols. I still prefer having one idol that splits apart, but I like this better than either having a mini-idol or multiple copies of an idol, and I could see some creative idols coming out in the future as a result.

Dodo music heralds the demise of Lesu, as even a favorable amount of confessionals can’t spare them a trip to Tribal Council. Back at camp, everyone is devastated. As well they should be. This is the group that voted together every single time this season. The group that, as a result, has had the chance to form the tightest bond. And now they have to turn on each other, much sooner than expected. This should be touching. This should be the highlight of the season. This Tribal Council, on paper, should be the emotional equivalent of the Dan Barry boot on “Survivor Exile Island”. It should be that heart-wrenching. And yet… I don’t care.

You are, perhaps, wondering why I don’t care. The answer is simple. The vote out at the aforementioned Dan Tribal Council was impactful because of the time we spent getting to know the La Mina Tribe. While perhaps not as interesting as the clashing personalities on Casaya, we still knew who these people were. We still met them. We still cared about them. Who can we care about on this tribe, based on what we’ve seen? David and Rick? Ok, fair, they’re a funny and smart pair, but they still have yet to truly stand out. Everyone else? Lauren found an idol, good for her. Doesn’t make her a memorable player we’ve bonded with. Wardog? Fun for how he always ends up in charge of the boot, but still yet to carve a name for himself, and seems like he’s trying to hard when he does. Even Kelley, taken on her own merits this season, hasn’t done much to earn investment. As a returnee, she has an advantage in that department. And even THEN, we’ve seen more of people geeking out over her than we have anything from her properly. I love Kelley Wentworth as much as the next guy, but she needs to step it up. Bring out that charm and grit we saw on “Survivor Cambodia”.

Moving on to the strategizing, David and Rick quickly nix the “Vote out Kelley” plan, on the basis that “The time isn’t right.” according to David. Translation: Wardog won’t go for the plan, and we need him as a swing vote. As such, they decide to target Lauren due to her illness. This makes sense, as Wardog has seemed to favor that type of strategy so far. Plus, David suspects that Kelley has an idol at this point, and thus Lauren is the “safe” vote. Ok, this episode will completely redeem itself if David’s proclamation there is what ends up biting him in the butt on this vote.

Kelley and Lauren, as you’d expect, are our other pair, and quickly decide to target Rick as being more likely to flip in the event of the merge. I can kind of see that, but if I was Lauren, I’d push harder for David. Bigger threat, not great in challenges so far, and getting rid of him gives you power over the returnees left. Perhaps Kelley wouldn’t go for it? In any case, Wardog once again finds himself the swing vote, and at this point I think we have to assume that it’s his maneuvering that’s got him in this position. Given that he’s the swing vote at pretty much EVERY vote so far, it has to be intentional. He claims to be unsure of what to do as we head off to Tribal Council, but really, the outcome is obvious. Lauren will go home tonight. She’s fun and all, but Rick has been built up as a big character for the season, if not the overall breakout character of the season. No way we lose him now. That said, it will be the wrong move for Wardog. The debate here is down to strength versus loyalty, and given that the old Manu will almost certainly be down in numbers come the merge, loyalty is needed. Plus, Wardog as an in with at least Kelley, whereas Rick and David seem inseparably tight. Then again, who said Wardog always makes the smart move?

Rick kicks off our festivities tonight with a fun fake broadcast for the “Lesu News Network”. Frankly I’m surprised it took him this long to make a joke like that. The wait was worth it, though, as it is quite funny. Sadly, the rest of Tribal Council does not live up to it. Again, it SHOULD be really emotional. Everyone hits all the right beats, talking about how bonded they are, and how they don’t want anyone to go. But because we just don’t care about the people experiencing it, we don’t care about the experience.

Even the shock that Wardog did the smart thing and send Rick home isn’t enough to save it. Granted, it’s better than a predictable vote, but now I’m just sad we lost one of the biggest characters of the season. It was the smart move, but Rick brought much-needed levity to the season. With him gone, not only does Kama’s dominance seem assured, but now it will be all the more hollow without our funny man.

This episode needed to help a season that has been struggling overall, but did not deliver. There were one or two bright spots of humor, but apart from that, again, we just don’t care. It’s still salvageable, but we need to connect more with this case, and we need to do it now. Can it be done with Edge of Extinction taking up more and more time each episode? Possibly, but it’s an uphill battle. Still, I’ve been wrong before. Perhaps this is one of those times.

As a final note before I sign off, I want to talk briefly about our “Next Time On…” preview. I normally don’t mention these, as doing so would be pointless, but I feel so strongly about something that I need to call BS. Much as it pains me to say it, I don’t see an Aubry/Wendy/Victoria alliance coming to fruition. Victoria was too set against returnees. My guess is that, like Ron with Joe, it’s just another diversion. You heard it here first!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol-Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 3: Into the Spider-Verse

Yes, someone like Gavin fits the role of Spider-Man more than someone like David, but at this point, if we’ll accept a talking cartoon pig as Spider-Man, I think we can accept a 44 year old comedy writer as Spider-Man.

Our episode formally takes off at resolving Keith’s dilemma for us. After a suitable amount of misdirection, we see that Keith did indeed decide to head off and give the island a try. For all that I said I would understand if Keith chose not to, I’m glad that he did, and not just because I like the kid. It means that the editors kind of know what they’re doing here. Now, if anyone does say “No” to returning, they can pull a Keith, and there’ll be actual doubt as to what they just did. For all that I’m still not sold on the “Edge of Extinction” twist (and I’ll get more into why later on), I’ll admit that the editing around it has been very good so far.

Keith’s arrival breaths new life into Reem as well. Despite still not wanting to play the “mother” role, she can’t help but baby the guy a little, giving him the lowdown on the island, offering to keep watch while he naps, wiping dirt off of his face, and asking him to tuck in that shirt for goodness’ sake… Ok, may have gone a little overboard there, but for someone who was trying to change her game, Reem seems to just be playing the same game. Still, she talks about how she might have quit from the loneliness were it not for Keith showing up, and it’s actually kind of touching, as well as selling how rough this twist is. Had this been all we got for the “Edge of Extinction”, I’d have been happy.

But no, still MORE time must be devoted to this twist no one but Probst wants. Reem had mentioned the lack of food being an issue, and as dead contestants tend not to be entertaining, CBS has seen fit to bequeath the pair rice. But not that easy, though. They have to hike for it, and then only get about a day’s ration, with Reem complaining that they’ll have to hike “Mt. Everest” for it every day now. I missed the part where it says it was a daily thing, but it would make sense if so. After all, we don’t want a “Survivor The Australian Outback” situation where the contestants are technically alive, but not really doing anything. This is our last scene at the “Edge of Extinction” for the episode, and you might wonder what’s so objectionable about it. Please join me in the next scene.

Fallout after Tribal Council? Readjusting of alliances? No time for that! It’s challenge time! Shame we had to wast time on the “Edge of Extinction” when we could have gotten insight into the dynamics of those people STILL IN THE GAME! At least we get a pretty cool challenge in return. Three tribe members work to assemble a wheelbarrow, which they roll through a maze, collecting sandbags along the way. They then dump the sandbags in a bin, disassemble the wheelbarrow, and use it to build a slingshot, which uses the sandbags to knock down four targets. First tribe to four gets their choice of either comfort in the form of furniture and tarp or chickens. This is a reused challenge, in this case from “Survivor South Pacific”, but one that I’m ok with. It’s an underrated challenge from an underrated season, and it hasn’t been done to death. I certainly wouldn’t want to see it EVERY season, but once in a while is ok. I’m also glad that choice returns, as it always adds a nice dimension to a reward. Plus, this choice is actually kind of difficult. A tarp and chickens are both useful in the long-run, and so make for more of a dilemma. On the whole, though, I favor taking the chickens. You can win the game while wet. It’s a lot harder to win the game while hungry.

Kama gets to sit out two people, and I say they make the wise decisions here, going with Aubry and Ron. With a low-stakes reward challenge, you don’t want to put your best in all the time. Granted you don’t want to sit out your best either (I’d have given them heavy criticism if they sat out Joey Amazing), but sitting out those who will not be an asset in this challenge, while not being your weakest, is the wise move. Aubry and Ron are by no means challenge sinks, but neither are they challenge gods, especially in a challenge like this with no puzzle. This also means, though, that Manu has a better chance to come back at this challenge. Indeed, things stay pretty even throughout. The editors even pull a clever trick on us by giving Manu the “dodo” music at one point, implying a blowout. Yet, in a fun surprise, Manu comes back to win, after Kama has trouble assembling their slingshot, and can’t compete with Chris at shooting out targets. Chalk up another point for the editors.

Guess this is when Ron should use his reward steal. After all, his advantage is no good for anything after this episode. No? Just going to let it sit there and rot? Ok, Ron. Your loss.

Manu makes the smart choice and goes for the chickens, though they are not without cost. In disassembling the wheelbarrow, the wheel component landed on Wendy’s foot, hurting it to the point where she can’t put weight on it. She needs to be helped back to camp, but it seems it is not so bad that medical is called. Later on, we’ll see Wendy walk back to camp under her own steam, albeit with a limp, so she’s probably just got a bad sprain.

Enough about that, though. Let’s get to the chickens! Yeah, I make this out to be more callous than it is, since Manu DOES try to comfort Wendy in her pain, makes sure she’s ok, and get ASKED by her to leave before going to ogle the chickens, but since they’re about six feet away, it still feels cruel somehow. The usual “Eat them or let them lay eggs” debate is pretty much out, since Wardog needs meat.

Now, Wendy is in a VERY precarious position here. Not only has she been on the losing side of every vote so far, but now she’s injured. The only way the target on her back could be bigger is if she went the Gervase Peterson (“Survivor Borneo”) route, and painted an actual target on her back. Point being, Wendy needs to lay low at this point, and not make waves, hoping the anti-Kelley sentiment will kick in. Naturally, Wendy makes a stir about the chickens. No, she is not a vegetarian. She is very open about the fact that she eats meat in her regular life. But something about a chicken getting killed squicks her out. Granted, it would probably squick anyone out, but Wendy doesn’t need to put up the fuss that she does, going so far as to threaten to go all “Chicken Run” on them and bust them out. She unwisely tries to get Rick on board with this plan as a co-conspirator. Rick, not being a moron, washes his hands of this plan, and warns his tribe of the possibility. Wendy will then pointlessly get into an argument with Wardog over the matter. Openly admitting her hypocrisy in this matter. Wendy, look. I like you. I really, really do. But admitting that you’re a hypocrite DOES NOT EXCUSE YOUR HYPOCRISY! Christ, I thought we got all the chicken talk out in season two, but evidently no. Wendy just has to bring us back to this cliche plotline again.

Over at Kama, it seems we don’t have enough repeat plotlines, as we once again have to point out how the returnees are royally screwed. This time, however, we get a bit more insight into the dynamics. With little to go on (since Manu, as the disaster tribe, gets the bulk of the screentime in all episodes), it’d been assumed that Kama had a 7-2 split. Basically Joe and Aubry vs. the World (incidentally, I’d read the hell out of that graphic novel). But no, it seems that it’s actually 6-3, meaning one new player actually LIKES the returnees. It’s Aurora, and I have to ask, when did this come up? Look, I’m all for a surprise, but we should at least get a HINT of how they dynamics are developing. But nope, suddenly it’s just “Aurora is with Aubry and Joe now”. Shame we didn’t have more time to devote to this. Time taken up by, for example, a lame “Edge of Extinction” twist?

Look, I may be being a bit harsh on how much of a screen-hog the twist is being so far, but it’s only going to get worse. With so few people likely to forgo the “Edge of Extinction”, we’ll get to a point where it dominates the game, because more and more time needs to be devoted to it. One or two people work ok, but more than that, and it’s too much of its fair share. Already we’re seeing some unforeshadowed plots as a result, and it’s only going to get worse from here.

Victoria and Ron converse by the water, reaffirming once again that they’re anti-returnee. I’d complain that there’s no NEED for them to do this, but they’ve been out there a week, and conversation topics are scarce. They’re also dangerous, though, as it turns out that despite being a supposed “superfan”, Victoria has never heard of the idea of a simple 180. Joey Amazing was right behind her, and heard exactly what she said. Bringing this information back to Aubry and Aurora, this now means it’s desperate measures time. Aubry goes running off to look for the idol, which I can’t really fault her for. I’m usually one to advocate for winning over the game socially instead of relying solely on idols, and I often cite Aubry’s game on “Survivor Kaoh Rong” as an example of that. But in this case, Aubry tried that. It didn’t work. Besides, there’s precedent that a returnee getting an idol can change how they’re viewed in the game. Jonathan Penner was in a similar position to Aubry and Joe on “Survivor Philippines”. The minute he got an idol? Everyone wanted to work with him. He went from underdog to top dog. Thus, Aubry’s move is correct here.

Aubry talks about how while winning is the main thing on her “Survivor” bucket list, finding an idol is a close second. This is intercut with a montage of Aubry’s idol hunts on “Survivor Kaoh Rong” and “Survivor Game Changers”. Again, guys, if you want us to LIKE this season, don’t go showing us footage of better seasons we could be watching instead. So yeah, keep showing that “Survivor Game Changers” footage. This season may be in a precarious position, but we have yet to get to “Jeff Varner outs Zeke” levels of uncomfortable yet.

After a good bit of search, Aubry finds an admittedly well-hidden idol. This leads to Aubry doing what she does best: Cry…

You know what? Screw it. I’m sick and tired of Aubry being given crap because she can be a bit emotional. Guess what? PEOPLE HAVE EMOTIONS! Acknowledging or expressing them does not make one weak! Hell, one could argue that a lot of Aubry’s power COMES from her emotions, specifically her emotional intelligence. On top of that, as a superfan, don’t tell me you wouldn’t shed at LEAST a tear upon finding an idol, especially one you desperately needed. So no, I will not tease Aubry for this cry. She’s freaking EARNED IT! Aubry has once again overcome great odds, and while she’s not out of the woods yet, she has a map now. The Aubry Lobby is pleased, and this is the highlight of the episode. I will fight you on this. You want to complain about her emotions? Take it somewhere else.

Probst claims our Immunity Challenge today is an original one, but I have to disagree. While the boat-pulling portion is technically new, it’s only a third of the challenge, and the other parts are all reused. Plus, pulling a boat was technically done as a cheat on “Survivor Samoa”, so I say even that part’s not original. Our other parts involve leaping off of a platform to grab keys (“Survivor Cook Islands”), and solving a puzzle in the shape of a ship’s wheel (“Survivor Blood vs. Water”). Not the most original challenge, nor the most exciting, though I am amazed Probst resisted the urge to point out how Aubry had done the puzzle portion before (or at least seen it) on “Survivor Game Changers”.

For all my praise for the editors, they really dropped the ball on this one. We barely saw any of Kama, and while it did talk about Tribe dynamics, no real targets were thrown out. Even when Manu gets a slight lead on the swimming portion (Wendy giving an impressive showing on her ankle), you know Kama will win, since these challenges almost always come down to the puzzle.

Sure enough, Manu chokes, Kelley in particular getting frustrated, as Ron (it seemed like he took the lead on puzzle solving this time) leads his tribe to victory. Again. Yep. Manu has definitely earned the title of “Disaster Tribe” at this point. David, however, sees this as an opportunity, as do I. His “Spider-Sense” tells him the time is ripe to vote off Kelley, and my Title-Sense tells me I have an appropriate and timely nerd-reference to use for my blog.

Back at camp, Wendy leaves everyone alone as they prepare to kill one of the chickens. Seems like she couldn’t effect her escape plan after all. But wait! Their flint seems to be missing! And there’s no Drew “Badass” Christy (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”) to blame! What could possibly have happened? Could the person who said they wanted to save the chickens have reasoned that without fire, there can be no killing of chickens? This would be the logical conclusion, and they do mention it, before immediately dismissing it. MORONS! As it to underline their stupidity, we then cut IMMEDIATELY to Wendy bargain that she stole the flint to prevent them cooking the chickens. I’ve tried to be fair to Manu. My “Disaster Tribe” comments are mostly in fun, and refer more to challenge performance than anything. By and large, when it comes to Tribal Council, they make the logical decision. But this? How could you believe the explanation is anything BUT Wendy doing her best Sandra Diaz-Twine (“Survivor Pearl Islands”), and stealing things to cause chaos around camp, in the hope of saving herself?

Oh, but Wendy, don’t think you’re getting off scot-free either! For all that this move worked in your favor, that’s only because your tribemates are MORONS! What Sandra has that you lack is SUBTLETY. Almost anyone else would have called you out on that, and tonight would have gone very differently. You got lucky this time, but I wouldn’t bank on that luck forever.

Fortunately for Wendy, David is still on the “Get out Kelley” plan, which is objectively the worse plan. Apart from, again, Kelley being a good shield for David, there still seems to be momentum against Kelley, meaning you can wait to take her out. And when the alternative is someone who is not only injured and annoying, but ACTIVELY SABOTAGING THE CAMP, the choice is clear, loyalty be damned.

Ah, but we’ve had one bad plan so far, let’s see if we can find a worse one! David goes to Chris about getting out Kelley. Chris is all for it, but wants to clue Wardog in, as the pair have a bond. I understand the desire, but I have to agree with David’s point that Wardog hasn’t seemed to be open to this plan so far. And is tight with Kelley. And is not easily persuaded. And goes by the name “Wardog”. Such guys are usually not amenable to this sort of thing. Chris, however, can’t resist being the nice guy, and so clues in Wardog on the plan. Wardog takes it well, deciding that if Chris is the ringleader, and targeting a close ally of his, then Chris may need to go. He brings the plan to Rick, who seems to actively consider the plan.

Ok, props to David first off for effectively hiding that HE’S the one targeting Kelley, but I have to ask, why are they even considering this? Kelley may not be the best plan, but I can at least see SOME incentive to vote her off. As a returnee, she’s automatically a huge threat, and her core three does not seem to contain you. But Chris? A guy who’s firmly in your corner, strong in challenges, inoffensive, no threat whatsoever until the merge… Where’s the incentive to boot this guy, again? I suppose it gives us good misdirection, but not good strategic choices. How is it on a tribe with very few “wrong” moves, we’ve managed to find not one, but two, IN THE SPACE OF ONE EPISODE?

At least Tribal Council is somewhat fun. We start off with the missing flint and Wendy being her usual, loud self. All that’s missing here is Sandra coming in to say the flint “Grew legs and walked away.” We then move on to the “Gaffe” portion of tonight’s Tribal Council, with everyone failing at their doublespeak. Special mention goes to David, who talks about eliminating social threats, which gets Kelley’s hackles up. Entertaining, but not good for misdirection.

Perhaps it’s Kelley’s nervousness that leads to the move of the night. Chris goes home, and I still can’t figure out the incentive for David and Rick. What good does it do them to have a loyal, strong soldier gone? Please, if you have some insight, let me know. It’s going to drive me crazy.

That said, as a viewer, Chris was the best outcome of the three. Wendy is nothing if not entertaining (though again the hypocrisy this episode is detracting from that), and Kelley, while ultimately doing little besides organize a tight threesome so far, at least has returnee upside. Chris, while a nice guy, brought little from an entertainment perspective. It may be, though, that this was just because the opportunity had not presented itself. Chris’ reaction to finding out about “Edge of Extinction” is understated, but good. After calmly considering it for a minute, he says “Screw those guys. I’m getting back in the game.”, and walks off with his torch. Classy, yet snarky. Chris may grow on me yet.

I should hate this episode. I really should. Plotlines that come out of nowhere. Misdirection that’s fair at best. Too much time devoted to stuff we don’t care about. On the other hand, Aubry found an immunity idol. I guess that averages out to an “ok” episode for me. Let us hope the shake-up gives us still more insight!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 2: The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Everyone, I have an announcement to make: The cliche joke of “Christmas in July” has been cancelled. This is not, as one might expect, due to people getting tired of a joke that wasn’t really funny to begin with, but because we are now so impatient that waiting until July is now too much for us. Christmas will now take place again in February. Late February, admittedly, but February nonetheless. It will then repeat every other month ad infinitum. This is barring, of course, that Aubry manages to win this season somehow. Then it will become a daily occurrence.

For all my stealing of yet another comedy writer’s joke, this is hardly an exaggerated opening. I’m not normally a fan of shifting things around in editing unnecessarily, but if there was a way to somehow make this the first episode, I would do it. Frankly, this episode blows the premiere out of the water in nearly every category. What does it do so well? Let’s find out, after our opening feature…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

It seems not even having a short premiere lets me escape the bane of forgetting important points from the previous episode. And yes, I said “points” as in plural. Admittedly, one thing I missed was just a minor joke opportunity. When her tribemates go to talk to her about her behavior, Reem happens to be holding a machete, which they awkwardly ask her to put down. Funny enough on its own, but it also makes a nice callback to an early season. Clearly Reem is somehow channeling the spirit of the still-alive machete fanatic Matthew Von Ertfelda (“Survivor The Amazon”).

The other missed point, though, is somewhat more serious. In talking about our new players, I neglected to mention Julie. Not to be confused with Julia, Julie is an older player on the Kama tribe. The toymaker, if that helps you remember her. Her confessional of the premiere is talking about her lack of outdoor experience, having lived in New York City all her life. A pretty standard confessional that wouldn’t bear much mention were it not for the fact that, since the show’s focus has shifted away from actual survival, such confessionals are a rarity these days. It’s kind of nice to see this type of confessional return in a retro way, and while it doesn’t do much to make Julie stand out, it’s still nice to see. And don’t worry. Julie will begin to stand out in the next episode.

Moving on to our episode proper, we start things off at the Edge of Extinction, which is apparently what “Extinction Island” is actually called. A little on the nose there, production. Rem gives us some shots of her wondering around for a bit, then goes to read the placard of the Edge of Extinction, giving her a bit more info on what’s expected of her while she’s here. It’s all information that we’ve gotten before, so I’ll spare you a summary. Suffice to say, Reem is not pleased, though mainly due to the lack of a time frame for the Edge of Extinction being mentioned. She then sets about making life there livable. True, she does have the husk of a ship’s hull for a rudimentary shelter, but that won’t be enough when the torrential rains come. Weaving palm fronds, Reem sets about considering how she ended up here, and to her credit, comes to the hard conclusion that she presented herself poorly. It shows good self-knowledge on her part, and makes me intrigued for her chances should she come back in the game. Isolation is tough on the best of us, and Reem breaks down a little, talking about leaving her kids for so long only to be voted out first, before sucking it up and getting on with life. We transition away with a pensive shot of her looking out at the ocean. A nice, short scene, but one that shows a lot of character growth for Reem, and is pretty nice to look at as well. If we’re going to have an “Edge of Extinction” in the game, it’s been handled nicely so far. It’s there and it adds character, but doesn’t take up more time than is necessary. That said, I’m still not sold on this twist, if only because I feel a lot of why this worked is the isolation. As soon as Reem gets company, a lot of the interest goes away.

Transitioning to the Manu camp, we come upon the tribe playing the favorite game of all “Survivor” Contestants: Who most resembles a zombie? Seriously, I feel like every couple of seasons we get a shot of people comparing the gray and wrinkled-ness of their hands. Nice to see that some traditions survive.

As for our fallout from the past Tribal Council, I’m pleased to report that Wendy falls on the good side of how to handle the wrong side of the vote. Nearly perfect in fact. Rather than frame her siding with Reem as an emotional decision, Wendy highlights to Rick (I refuse to follow Probst’s lead and call him “Devans”) the danger of keeping Kelley Wentworth in the game. Not only does Wendy express few if any sour grapes, but by presenting her argument so logically, she paints a target on someone other than herself, and leaves people open to working with her, which she’ll need if she hopes to survive in this game. It also helps a lot that Wendy reins in some of her excesses a little bit.

Sounds like a textbook way to work back into the fold after picking the wrong side. So, why do I say “nearly perfect”? Well, as a new player, Rick is likely to want to take out a returnee. After all, they’re objectively the largest threat to his game. Other returnees, however, are less like. And guess who else happens to be in on this conversation but David, the other returnee of the tribe. Sure enough, he gently indicates to Wendy that things aren’t probably going to go that way.

This conversation does not go unnoticed by Kelley Wentworth and co. Sensing a blindside brewing in the wind, she, Wardog, and Lauren agree that an eye must be kept on Wendy, lest she find an idol. More on that plotline in a bit.

Over at Kama, Ron livens things up by helping the tribe coe up with a tribe dance. Wonder where that is in his school curriculum? It’s a nice scene of everybody bonding, but soon, we get the intrigue that goes on behind the scenes. Aubry complains about not going to Tribal Council first, which seems a bit weird to me. Aubry, as a player, works best when she has a bit of time before the strategizing starts. She’s a social player, and so needs time to work her way into people’s good graces, especially on a season where she’s seen as a big target like this one. Given how Eric and Gavin in particular were targeting her last episode, I think she’d be thrilled. Now, I do understand her argument that it’s harder to see where the strategic lines are drawn without a Tribal Council, but again, Aubry’s best strategy is built up slowly over time, and it’s hard to observe battle lines if you’re, you know, voted out.

Then again, perhaps we’ve been slightly overselling Aubry’s social prowess here. She starts putting some feelers out to people, in particular asking a clearly disinterested Victoria and Julia about how they feel about returnees. Aubry is at least bright enough to read the room, seeing that this is getting her nowhere, and compares herself and Joe to ants under a magnifying glass, in danger of being fried by the sun. A funny metaphor. A worthy successor to her original “Oregon Trail” confessional. But possibly not enough to save her. Not helping her case is that she’s been having one-on-one conversations with people, and using some similar phrasing in them. This is hilariously edited into a montage, where we see Aubry saying similar things over and over to different people. Now, the awkwardness of these conversations may just be editing, as Victoria does say that Aubry does a good job of socializing with people, but the fact remains that people talk, and it kind of undercuts Aubry if people are seeing this. We go to commercial with Aubry being in just as bad, if not worse, of a position than she was before.

Back at Manu, we see that Rick and David are bonding over a shared sense of humor. David, the guy who wrote for “Family Guy” even calling Rick “hilarious”. Though, given that David wrote for “Family Guy” this may not be a compliment. That said, Rick did get a couple of zingers in there, both intentional and unintentional. Rick is a proponent of the “shields” strategy, wanting to keep people who will be voted out before him. To this end, David makes sense to ally with and keep around, as unless your returnee is “Purple” Kelly Shinn (“Survivor Nicaragua”), they will always be a bigger target than you. What’s funny is that Rick doesn’t say “bigger threat” than him. He just says “bigger” than him. We then immediately cut to a shot of David, who, to use another cliche, probably weighs about 90 pounds soaking wet. Ok, ok, we should also acknowledge Rick’s intentional humor, and I did like his line about promising “to blindside David at the Final Four”.

This, of course, leads the pair to talk about Wendy’s proposal against Kelley, and David now seems more on board with it than ever. He says that Kelley probably won’t keep him around too long, and he may need to make a move on her first. Here, I have to raise my eyebrow. True, Kelley isn’t likely to want threats around, as except perhaps for Joey Amazing, she’s the biggest fish in the entire pond this season, but I don’t see her wanting to vote out David too early. The trouble is, it sets a bad precedent. It’s like the winners going first in “Survivor All-Stars”. The pattern of “Get out returnees” is made, and now there’s nothing to be done to stop it. If Kelley takes out David, it eliminates a threat, but makes it more likely she goes after him. Since the same works in reverse for David (and is arguably even worse for him, since Kelley makes a good threat shield for him), I’m going to come out here and say that, for David and Rick, any plan to get out Kelley is not a good one, at least so early. Not helping things is when they ask Wendy how she would get the numbers to get rid of Kelley. There’s the three of them, obviously, and Wendy says Keith will be a fourth. But then, for the fifth, she says Wardog will come on board. Um, excuse me? Wardog? The man who seems to be in the power trio with Kelley and Lauren? The man who seems almost as stubborn in changing his mind as Wendy herself? Yeah, not buying that. Don’t see how that could happen. Thus, the plan is tabled for now, and with that pitch, I can understand why. Now, if I were them, I would go for Chris as the fifth. He’s part of the majority, but doesn’t seem intimately tied with them, and might not want to risk a tie so early. If you were looking to get a solid fivesome together, I’d look to him as your fifth.

And no, I assure you I’m not saying this with the benefit if hindsight. Those were my exact thoughts at the time.

It seems Manu is not the only tribe that can get idol paranoia. Eric and Gavin, worried about Aubry or Joe finding an idol, agree to amp up their idol search. Thus, all of the guys at camp (even Joe, according to the edit) go out on the hunt, searching through every conspicuous-looking tree, which as Gavin points out, is all of them. This leads Victoria, Julia, and Julie to come together and channel the spirit of Angelina Keeley (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”), talking about how blatant the guys are being with their idol hunt, and asking why THEY can’t find an idol. All great questions! An intriguing way to shake up your usual idol search! Now, if only they would DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! Seriously, they talk on and on about how they need to be a part of the search, and there’s no reason why they can’t find an idol. A perfect set up for them to turn the tables on our usual idol narrative. Yet all they do is talk about how they should do something, instead of, you know, ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING! I’m all for good buildup, but we need at least some payoff.

To be fair, we do get a bit of payoff in the form of getting to know Julie a bit more. She talks about how this idol moment has told her she’s maybe playing the game wrong, and may need to step up a bit more. A great growth arc that really makes Julie stand out to me, which as I’ve said is something this season sorely needs. I’ll be watching Julie with great interest now. But there’s also an ulterior motive here. Julie was mostly talking about changing herself, but she also had a few comments about not letting others, particularly the guys, run her game. Might this be the beginning of a women’s alliance on the tribe with a female majority? The Aubry Lobby hopes so, and fully supports any efforts in this direction!

Not to have their plotline taken away from them, Manu sets about their own full-scale idol hunt. This is mainly spurred by Kelley, who doesn’t like having her name in the wind, noting that it can flare up at any time. I understand her concern, but I think she needs to get used to it. As I say, she’s arguably the biggest target of the whole season. Her name coming ups not something she can really avoid. She can only hope to contain it as it comes. Luckily for Kelley, the idol is found by her close ally Lauren. It’s deep in a dead tree, but I still feel it was too easy to find. Even that deep, the bright blue packaging really stood out. Good for Lauren, though I do have to dock points for her using the idol find to talk about her fangirl crush on Kelley again. Understandable, but this means the show feels the need to give us a “Survivor Cambodia” highlight reel. Show, you’re doing fine this episode. Don’t ruin it by reminding us of a better season. To Lauren’s credit, she does keep the idol secret from everyone, so that’s one mark in her favor.

Off to our immunity challenge, which is a repeat of the second immunity challenge from “Survivor Game Changers”, involving carrying a giant snake from the water to the shore, finding numbers for a combination lock in it, and tossing rings onto oars to spell “Immunity”. Poor Aubry probably gets PTSD flashbacks from seeing this challenge, and in case you think she doesn’t, don’t worry, Probst is there to remind you of it! Sensing the pain he has caused, Probst quickly shifts talk to the reward to go with the challenge, which offers a choice. The winning tribe can take either spices, knives, and a cutting board, or fishing gear. I’m all for choice, but make it a tough one. No question, fishing gear, the thing that can actually sustain you in the game, is the superior choice.

As we let Julie wisely take her spot on the sit-out bench, I have to applaud the editing this episode. Apart fro giving us the few hilarious moments and pretty shots I’ve previously mentioned, they’ve done a good job of balancing the tribes this episode. All have had some strategy talk, and while Manu has more coherent targets than Kama, there’s no clear favorite in terms of the edit as to who wins and who loses. Kama has maybe a slight edge, due to only Aubry’s name being thrown out, and thus lacking misdirection should they lose, plus Manu already being down a member, and not having Joey Amazing, but it’s decently even if you don’t watch anything other than what’s on the show proper.

Too bad I do watch more than just what’s on the show proper! As I say, Aubry is the only real coherent target from Kama this episode, and when one of her intro shots hasn’t been seen yet, you can bet this is a loss for Manu. Don’t believe me? Watch as Probst goes out of his way to point out just how bad at swimming Keith is! Yes, Keith was favored by the first immunity challenge playing to his strengths, but this one shows off his weaknesses. For all my ribbing of Probst, I’m not sure his narration really did Keith in. Keith did a fine job of that himself. This challenge is designed to show off the weakest link, and Keith was clearly that in multiple legs of the challenge. Like the Mana tribe before them, Manu do make it closer than it seems at the outset, but also like Mana, they can’t pull it off, as between the tossing skills of Eric and Joey Amazing, Kama wins immunity. Guess this is what Joe meant by “holding back”: Only winning HALF the challenge for his tribe.

Kama does the smart thing and takes the fishing gear reward so nothing to comment on there. Wardog, meanwhile, is on the warpath. Yes, folks, I waited all of two episodes to use that joke. It’s just the kind of restraint I have. In any case, Wardog, ever the subtle one, is big on “tribe strength” at the moment, meaning we now have a third target in Keith. True, we’re about halfway through the episode, but I can forgive hiding Keith as a target until now, since he really didn’t become a target until now.

Back at camp, while Kelley is resistant to the idea of not targeting Wendy, she also realizes that Wardog is not easily swayed, and thus Keith seems to be the consensus. Keith, trying anything to save himself, talks to Chris about how much Chris has helped him out, and swears undying loyalty to him. This gets Chris thinking. Undying loyalty is not something to turn away lightly, and so Chris gets to thinking maybe the target shouldn’t be Keith. You’d think he’d just go back to Wendy as the target, but Chris begins thinking bigger. He approaches Rick and David with a plan to get out, you guessed it, Kelley. This is basically gift-wrapped for Rick and David. They can get their five, but don’t seem to be scheming, as everyone else thinks it was their own idea. That said, it’s still probably best for them to go with Keith as the boot this episode. Why? Well, as they stated earlier, they want to keep Wendy around for her loyalty, so she’s not a good option. But getting rid of Kelley removes a great shield very early in the game. Keith is a third option that keeps the two biggest targets around, thereby protecting you and keeping your options open. True, Keith was supposed to be a part of the plan to oust Kelley, but even if he leaves, as Chris has shown, there’s still support for a coup against Kelley. Plus, it does keep the tribe stronger, and unless you have a swap in the offing, you need all the strength you can get.

Still, things seem perfectly in place. How could this plan possibly fail? Chris goes to Wardog. You know, the guy everyone talks about being unpersuadable? Yeah, smooth move their, Chris. Wardog, unsurprisingly, is not open to the idea, but he and Chris go away from the conversation with no clear winner, thus keeping the suspense in the air before Tribal Council. Yet another thing this episode does much better than the first one.

As a side note before Tribal Council: Props to Wendy! She did a fantastic job of staying just out of the spotlight enough for other people to become targets. She seemed poised to go after Reem, and yet she didn’t. That takes some skill, and she deserves much praise for it.

That said, the one thing the first episode has over this one is a more exciting Tribal Council. This one has better misdirection, as I’m really not sure who between Keith and Kelley is going, but that also means that everyone plays their cards close to their chest. Kelley herself probably gives the best performance, arguing well why keeping around a returnee might be in the other’s best interest. But it’s mostly good strategic double-talk, and while it keeps the mystery alive, and shows that these players are smart, it does not make for the stuff of legends.

Keith ends up on the losing side of the coin this time, which as I hope I’ve indicated, is the smart move for most involved. It’s not smart for Wendy, and Chris is a bit of a toss-up, but smart for everyone else. I’m a bit mixed on how I feel about Keith. On the one hand, I quite like the guy. Yeah, he kind of sucked at swimming, but he put up every effort, and within the game, did everything he could to stay alive. I enjoyed his spirit, and hoped to see more of it as the season went along. He’s one of the few new player’s I’ve connected with as of episode one. That said, I’m not sure I could in fairness say I’d rather he stayed over Kelley. That’s not knocking him, it’s just that few people are Kelley Wentworth. I guess what I’m saying is there was no good choice this episode, but he was the least bad choice.

“But,” I hear you ask, “What of Edge of Extinction? Surely Keith chose to go there?” Well, he might, but I suspect not. The producers, in one more clever move this evening, keep it hidden whether or not Keith choses to try again in the game. They even get in a good fake-out shot where Keith moves towards the torch and they pan to a close up of it, making it seem like Keith is going, only to show him pulling away and asking God for advice. We end with no clear answer as to where he goes. If this is just a fake-out so we suspect people might not go to Edge of Extinction, I’m thrilled. It’s well-done, and adds variety to the exits, instead of just seeing basically the same scene over and over again. That said, I suspect this is just their way of making people who choose to leave for good “exciting”. If so, that’s disappointing, but I could at least understand why Keith would choose not to. The kid’s 19. He has his whole life ahead of him. With his challenge performance so far, I’d say any chance of winning, even if he were to return, is most likely shot. Given that, he might just want to pack up and move on. I’d be disappointed, but I’d understand.

Like I said before, great episode! The editing is top-notch, the misdirection well-done, and now we’re starting to connect more with the cast! Admittedly, Kama is still largely a blank slate, save for our returnees, Ron, and Julie, but they’re becoming a likable bunch, and Manu now nearly all have some depth to them. Chris is kind of “blah”, but at least he thinks for himself. Keep up this trend, and this season may save itself from itself yet.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 1: Oedipus Complex

Ja, ‘allo. Velcome back to ze blog about your seelly leetle island game show. Now zen, let us get straight to ze point: Tell me about your mazur. Vat’s dat? You wish to talk about ze aesthetics? Ze alliances? Ze returning players? No, no, no. Everything comes back to ze mazur. Zis is ze case in all cases. Ah, she eez ze nag, ja? As I thought. Hence your desire to keel her, ja? Vat’s dat? You wish to, how you say, “vote zer off?” Zis makes no difference. Death, castration with ze phallic symbol, eet ees all ze same thing.

Hoo boy, it’s time like these when I wish I did vlogs rather than blogs. Accents are hard to remember to keep consistent, and even harder to convey in writing. Still, I need to do SOMETHING with that Psych. Degree. And so, I welcome you back to “Idol Speculation”, my knee-jerk opinion that everyone is entitled to. With a one-hour premiere, I’m able to blog as needed, so let us get started.

Our Probst narration is nothing special, as is the vehicle porn, though admittedly CBS just couldn’t resist giving us TWO boats instead of one. Somebody hold me, I may faint from excitement.

We get our requisite commentary from the new players, though even with the premiere being only an hour, they seem like an afterthought. We only hear from three people, and all on the same tribe I might add, and of those, one third of them were just talking about how awesome the returnees were. Hence, we spend most of our time extolling the virtues of these returnees, and how great they are. And yeah, as I talked about in my cast assessment, they’re good people to bring back. Just wish they didn’t overshadow the new players so much. That said, I wouldn’t trade David’s asking Jeff not to highlight his early weakness on “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X” for anything

Since this season wants to do nothing original beyond the whole “Edge of Extinction” thing, we of course must start off with a scramble for supplies on said boat. A bit of fun chaos to start off a season; just wish it wasn’t so overdone at this point. But of course, a scramble for supplies means the presence of a “Secret” Advantage. Really, though, at this point it should just be called “Advantage #572”, since it can’t really be “Secret” if EVERYONE EXPECTS IT TO BE THERE! Our big winner this time around is Ron. Good for him. We’ll get more into his advantage later.

Subtlety? Pah! That’s for seasons NOT completely dictated by what Probst wants! Not ONLY will we make it clear that the Kama Tribe (the one with Joe and Aubry) are the clear winners in terms of the scavenge, but we’re going to take time out to highlight in great detail Keith’s mediocre attempts at “swimming”! Guess which tribe will be the royally screwed tribe this season?

In all seriousness, I have a big bone to pick in particular with the highlighting of Keith, and not just because it’s another sign that the Manu tribe is doomed. No, while I didn’t highlight the Probst narration much, he did talk about the idea of “Edge of Extinction”. This, of course, meant showing footage of someone walking along the beach of the island bootees are sent to, which happened to be a young black man. Now, when I first saw this, I figured this was just a member of the dream team (the people production keeps on hand to test challenges) they drafted to shoot this scene, and I proved to be correct. However, with the highlight of Keith’s failure, I was convinced throughout the majority of the episode that the show had given away the first boot just to screw with us. If so, I would have been pissed. That’s just too demeaning, too insulting for me to take. Thankfully it didn’t happen. You escape my wrath, show. For now.

Since there’s nowhere else particularly good to put it, I’ll mention here that I really like the design of the tribe “Flags” this season. Instead of being pieces of canvas, as has been the norm, these are painted on bits of flotsam, and hung that way. It’s a unique touch to the season that fits with the aesthetic and gives it character. Too bad this is one of the best things I can say about this episode, but good points should be acknowledged nonetheless.

Heading off to our camps, we first check in with Manu. After establishing that yes, Rick is really excited to be here, we put the focus where the show tells us it’s SUPPOSED to be, the returnees. David is up first, being asked for advice on shelter-building. He seems shocked by this, and frankly I don’t blame him. Little experience is better than no experience, I suppose, but remember, the “survival” aspect of “Survivor” is not where David’s strengths lie. He’s a major social and strategic player, but shelter-building? Let us not forget the struggle this guy had to break kindling for firewood. Put it this way: If he were in a stick-breaking contest against Stephen Fishbach (“Survivor Tocantins”), my money’s going on Stephen to win that one.

Kelley, meanwhile, is here to give us our strategic confessional for the tribe. Kelley, if you’ll recall, played from the bottom both times she’s been on the show. Yes, she was technically in the majority on the original Hunahpu tribe on “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, but if no one remembers you on that tribe, it doesn’t count. In any case, like someone who’s only played from the bottom, Kelley is bound and determined not to have this happen again. Hence, she sets out to create bonds with the new players, wisely starting with Lauren, the lady who seemed to orgasm at the presence of the great Kelley Wentworth on her season. Good choice, Kelley, good choice. Now, I’ll be saving my thoughts on the returnee strategy for the end of the episode, since it’s one of the more fascinating things to come out of the episode, but suffice to say, I think that Kelley’s strategy shakes out to be the correct one, at least for now.

Deciding that MAYBE if they want this season to be a success, they should let us bond with the new players, and not just the old, CBS deigns to give us some scenes of the newbies. Specifically, we get a scene of Wendy, Reem, and Rick weaving palm fronds together. Wendy makes kind of a funny noise during it, leading Reem to wonder what’s going on. Here, Wendy reveals that she has Tourette’s (there’s some disagreement on whether the proper term is “Tourette’s” or “Tourette’s Syndrome”, but since Wendy refers to it as the former, and it’s easier to type, I’ll be sticking with that), and talks about it in an open and honest way. Wow. I’m proud of both Wendy for being willing to talk about it like that, and the show for not hyping it into oblivion. Like the whole “Zeke is transgender” thing on “Survivor Game Changers”, I’m glad the show didn’t use it as a cheap marketing gimmick, but instead showed us naturally how that conversation came about, and let us in on the real, serious discussion the contestants have regarding it. This is the first time I really connected with this cast, outside of the returnees. How nice of them to do this A QUARTER OF THE WAY THROUGH THE EPISODE!

Enough with Manu, let’s check in at Kama. What’s that? Joey Amazing is doing his Joey Amazing thing, building a kick-ass shelter and starting a fire with a couple of sticks? I never would have guessed! We do first attempt to develop a bond with Victoria, talking about her superfan status and asking for a Buff for Christmas. This might have worked, but we spend all of about five seconds before we cut over to Joey Amazing being Joey Amazing. True, Joey Amazing says he’s trying to dial back the whole “Joey Amazing” thing, but frankly, I say that ship has sailed. That’s not the sort of thing you can put back in the box once it’s out there. Maybe on “Survivor Worlds Apart” he could have pulled that off, but frankly, no one would buy it at this point. Better for Joe to lean into the mythos. Make himself indispensable to the tribe, and make it seem as though daring to go against him is certain challenge death.

Kama is willing to give us a little more with our newbies, but that’s mainly because of Ron’s “secret” advantage. For once, he has to work for it a little more than just being at the right part of the ship at the right time. He’s told to dig three feet from his tree mail, and naturally rushes off to do that, finally revealing what his “secret” advantage is.

You know, with all the criticism of “Survivor Ghost Island”, and a lot of said criticism about the oversaturation of twists, you’d think production would have cut back on them a little bit. Of course, if you think that, you’d reveal yourself to be a complete ignoramus when it comes to “Survivor”. Now we’re not just content to give people one advantage, we’re giving them THREE! At least, that’s what I worried about (or Ron getting an insider’s guide to all the upcoming twists of the season), but actually, Ron’s “Twist Menu” as it’s called is something I can get behind. Similar to Debbie Wanner on “Survivor Game Changers”, Ron gets to choose between three possible advantages: a tribal reward steal, an extra vote, or an immunity idol. The catch is that Ron must make his choice prior to the third Tribal Council of the season, which I like. Time limits help make twists feel less like they’re bogging down the season (as well as reduce the chances of “Advantagegeddon” happening again), and choice is often the bread and butter of a good episode of “Survivor”. Ron holds off making a choice for now, which is correct, since he’ll want more time to suss out where he stands in the tribe. As to which advantage he should take, for me it really depends. What’s not clarified is if Ron’s CHOICE only has to be made by the end of episode three, or if the advantage has to be used by the end of episode three. If it’s the latter, I say go for the reward steal. True, it seems the least useful out of the three, and does make you unnecessary enemies from the opposing team, but it’s also the one most likely to be useful. Remember, Kama has been set up as the successful tribe of the season. They’re probably not going to Tribal Council for a bit. If the twist itself expires then, Ron might need to just use it or lose it. If, however, the thing he picks lasts indefinitely, I would say go for the individual immunity idol. Both it and the extra vote give you more power in the game, but the idol is flashier, and useful in more situations. Plus, since we and the players both know the idol nullifier is on this season, an idol you have but no one sees you look for would be a Godsend.

Ron earns my respect for being one of the few people we see mess up a dig site so it looks like no one was there, though I do have to ask: Did no one comment on Ron’s pants when he got back? Those were pure white, and the dirt stains were fairly noticeable to me. Granted, most people would get a lot of dirt on their clothes on “Survivor”, but those pants seemed fairly clean when Ron left. I think people would have questions about how they got so dirty on a simple walk.

Following our commercial break, we rejoin Kama again, because hey, we haven’t heard enough from the returnees, let’s get Aubry in on the action! She stays around just long enough to comment that she’s laying low, due to the returnee target, but we soon see that that matters little. After some humor from Gavin about him using his potential winnings to invest in a fourth stoplight for his town, talk between him and Eric turns to strategy. Sure enough, it’s our “The returnees need to go.” confessional, ultimately settling on Aubry as the target for tonight. As Head of the Aubry Lobby, it pains me to say this, but I have to agree with Eric that it’s the smart move. As a returnee, Aubry is like Cirie Fields (“Survivor Exile Island”). As a viewer, she’s a lot of fun to watch, but as a player, you don’t want her around. Aubry is no challenge sink, but she doesn’t bring much to the tribe, except for social and strategic prowess that can only be used to destroy your chances at winning the game. Granted, she’s not quite to the level of Russell Hantz (“Survivor Samoa”) where it’s worth throwing a challenge just to get rid of her, as Eric jokingly suggests, but should you go to Tribal Council, she’s probably who you want to get rid of.

Cut over to Manu, who don’t want to be left out of the strategizing. Manu, however, focusses more on annoyances than on threats. Sadly, our annoying one this time around is Reem, who despite being a fun character, doesn’t come across well here. Despite trying to hide her motherhood, she’s very motherly, trying to keep people’s clothes dry by moving them around periodically. Unsurprisingly, this does not sit will with the adult members of the tribe. Only Keith, the 19-year-old self-proclaimed “Mama’s Boy”, seems ok with Reem, and tries to warn her about how she’s coming across. Reem takes this advice, and shoves it back in Keith’s face, flatly rejecting any sort of change in how she interacts with the tribe, though at least she doesn’t hold it against Keith. I have to admit, Keith has grown on me this episode. True, I can’t say he’s the best at a number of aspects of the game, but at least he’s got a wide-eyed idealism that makes him fun to watch, and dammit, he tries to correct his mistakes, and that gets a lot of points from me. Specifically, he tries to practice his swimming, taking Reem and Wendy out into the ocean to spot him and give him tips.

Aww, how nice! The new players we’ve bonded with the most this season are out working together and helping each other! It’d be a shame if they were targeted right off the bat!

Oh look! There’s Rick now talking about how the swimming threesome are on the outs! Look, I get why each of them are being targeted. There are legitimate reasons. Keith can’t swim well, Reem’s annoying and motherly, and Wendy can be a bit high-energy. All legitimate reasons to be voted off. It’s just that, as I say, these are the only INTERESTING people out there, apart from the returnees. These are the only people we care about. Them being on the outs just furthers the downward slope this season seems to be going on.

Our immunity challenge today is our bog-standard team obstacle course, though with a few things to recommend it. The crow’s nest is a nice touch that fits with the aesthetic of the season. As the slide has no water, it gets my seal of approval. And adding balance beams ON TOP of balance beams? Diabolical! Shame all of this is outweighed by the fact that so many parts of this challenge are individual. One person rings the bell. One person crosses the beam (though more can come later at least). One person in the crow’s nest. For a challenge that should really be about team unity, this one misses the mark greatly.

That said, there are a few good things to talk about here. Firstly, that immunity idol. I wasn’t a fan when I first saw it, but it’s grown on me. Weird to say, but I like the fact that it’s default position has it facing sideways relative to the tribes. We don’t see that often in immunity idols, and it makes for a nice touch. Second, though I was put off at first by the amount of open space in it, I kind of like the holes in this idol. Again, they help it stand out, but not seem too weird. More importantly, though, by giving us relatively equal strategizing from both tribes, there is a good mystery as to who goes home. Granted, I’d say Manu is favored to lose, both due to not having Joey Amazing on their team, and due to having more targets than Kama (Reem, Keith, and to a lesser extent Wendy were all brought up, as opposed to just Aubry on Kama), but there’s some suspense here. Indeed, our tribes start out fairly even. But then, ooh the balance beam. The dreaded balance beam. If Chris Daugherty (“Survivor Vanuatu”) is watching, I’d say his PTSD just got triggered. One tribe does well on said balance beam, one tribe does not. Unsurprisingly, it is the tribe with Joey Amazing that does better. They go on to win the challenge, despite a decent fake-out on the puzzle, thus earning Kama fire as well as immunity.

Consensus quickly comes onto Reem as the boot, due to her being worse in challenges than Wendy. Of course, for all their quirks, Wendy, Keith, and Reem are not stupid. They realize their position, and set out to do something about it. They decide to try and break up the pair of Lauren and Kelley, since they seem too tight. Not a bad strategy, but with the Kelley-mania that seems endemic to Manu, putting that plan into motion is going to take poise. Finesse. A deft hand. Subtlety is key here.

Reem takes a page out of the playbook of Debbie Wanner circa “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, and starts strong-arming people into the plan, not even giving poor Rick time to answer that question. Safe to say that did not go well.

Keith certainly sees the writing on the wall, as he quite literally abandons Reem and Wendy to inform on their plans. I’d normally criticize Keith for abandoning the only people who seem willing to give him the time of day for an alliance where he’s seventh out at best, but then again, this is clearly a sinking ship, and Keith seems charming enough to weasel his way into a better position, given a couple of votes. Between this and the first challenge lacking any swimming component, I’d say Keith is off the hook for at least this Tribal Council.

Less safe is Wendy. Trying to feel her out to see how she is as an ally, Wardog decides to go spill the plan to oust Reem to see how she reacts to the plan. Wendy, naturally, wants to stay loyal to her friend, and pushes for the anti-Kelley plan. This in and of itself would not be the end of the world, but when Wardog gives increasingly blatant hints that Wendy should try to work with him, and Wendy just stays on her same track, it does not look good on her. Wardog now thinks he can’t work with her, and thus wants to target her even before Reem. An understandable strategy, and a Wendy exit would not be the end of the world for this tribe, but I say it would be the incorrect decision, and it’s precisely because Wendy is a more divisive element than Reem is. Both are relatively equal in annoyance level, but Wendy’s annoying traits are likely to stay annoying with time, where’s Reem’s mothering could decrease/be adjusted to with ease. This would make it seem like Reem is the better choice, but this early in the game, you want your alliance to cohere for the long haul. With Reem in the game, dissent is possible. With Wendy in the game, you have a common enemy, thus keeping things stable for you. Better to get out Reem in this round. Even so, this is an interesting debate, and leads to real tension going into Tribal Council.

Speaking of Tribal Council, it is GORGEOUS! They’ve done the whole “shipwreck” aesthetic before, but with the heavy Chinese influence, and the sheer amount of bits and baubles they have around, this Tribal Council just stands out in a good way. I particularly like that voting booth this time around. Granted, it’s a bit cramped, but I love that you have to go UP to get there, since you so rarely see that. The last instance I can think of where the voting booth was higher up than Tribal Council itself was on “Survivor Guatemala”, and pretty much anything that reminds me of that season gets my seal of approval. Hell, even the snuffer we’ll see later is great, having a unique “claw” design to it.

Good thing this Tribal Council is fun to look at, because all the tension gets sucked out of it INSTANTLY. There may have been other topics of conversation at this Tribal Council, but all we see is Reem, Reem, Reem. Rick brings up the divide pretty much instantly, with Reem in particular being singled out as on the outs. This sets Reem off to defend herself. Now, being the focus of Tribal Council is not a death sentence. After all, you could argue that Natalie Cole was the focus of the Goliath tribe’s first Tribal Council on “Survivor David vs. Goliath”, and she acquitted herself well. Sadly, Reem is no Natalie. She comes across as defensive, easily offended, and desperate to find any argument to cling to. Some make sense, like her “ageism” argument, but others, like the “targeting you is a compliment” directed a Kelley Wentworth just reek of desperation. With alternate target Wendy not even being mentioned, you can bet that Reem gets her torch snuffed this go-round. With the exception of Lauren, who was never really in danger of leaving anyway, any of the targets at this first boot would have been a loss. That said, I think Reem is the least loss of those targets. She brought a lot of personality to the table, but her unwillingness to change means she could have gotten old fast, and she was probably the smartest boot from a strategic perspective. Still, that doesn’t mean she wasn’t entertaining. Reem, you will be missed.

Fortunately for us, we get a bit more of Reem on our televisions for the foreseeable future. Rem comes upon the “Edge of Extinction” choice to some appropriately dramatic music. As one would hope, we see her consider her choice for about two seconds, before heading off to the “Edge of Extinction” torch in hand. I wouldn’t have it any other way, and Reem really sells the moment. Hell, even the arrival at the camp is quite dramatic, with Reem wandering around trying to assess her surroundings with no real clues to go on. A good way to introduce the twist, but I’m still not sold on it. Basically, while it’s cool to see someone try and figure out what’s going on with no guide, the minute someone goes to the “Edge of Extinction” when someone else is already there, that drama is gone. Maybe they’ll turn it around, but we’ll see.

This episode, it should be said, gets a lot of things right. In particular, a lot of the little aesthetic touches really sell the season. Too bad what it gets right is NOT the important stuff. The two major elements to help us bond with a season, an intriguing cast and good misdirection, are both missing from this episode. New cast members are passed over in favor of focussing on the returnees, and good misdirection gets squandered with obvious outcomes. Then, what few new cast members we DO bond with become the early targets. Look, the latter point is something out of the show’s control, but it’s another mark against the season as a whole. This episode is like someone writing out a romantic valentine, and spending all their time making sure the calligraphy on it is beautiful and perfect, yet only writing gibberish. It LOOKS nice, but there’s nothing of substance there, and there’s no reason to consider it beyond the initial look. This season NEEDED a strong start, and it really didn’t get it here. It can pick up, and I’ll have my fingers crossed, but the outlook is bleak at this point.

That said, I do want to end off by talking about one particularly interesting bit of strategy dichotomy amongst the returnees. The strategy of our returning players seems to evenly divide by tribe: David and Kelley on Manu own their celebrity status, and work openly to build alliances. Aubry and Joe and Kama, meanwhile, work to minimize their targets, keeping themselves on the down-low. So, which strategy is the correct one? Oddly, both. You see, the ideal strategy for a returnee varies depending on what type of tribe they’re on. If you’re on a tribe that’s likely to stick around and win challenges for a while, keeping your head down is the best move. It gives people time to get to know you as people, not celebrities, and eventually come around to how you may be helpful. Jonathan Penner most blatantly utilized this strategy on “Survivor Philippines”, but Mike Skupin also did so on the same season, and even Bobby Jon Drinkard on “Survivor Guatemala” to a degree. Conversely, if you’re on a disaster tribe, you need to take control, since returnees are big targets early. Stephanie LaGrossa on “Survivor Guatemala” is probably the best example of this, though one could argue that Russell Swan did a similar thing on “Survivor Philippines”. True, he didn’t last until the swap, but he avoided being first boot, which was something of an accomplishment for him. Time will tell which strategy wins out, though I fear Manu is being set up as such a disaster tribe that it won’t matter much. I predict Kama will steamroller this game, which would be a shame, as aside from Aubry, all the interesting people so far are on Manu.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Cast Assessment

Greetings and salutations, loyal readers! Welcome back to “Idol Speculation” my knee-jerk opinion that everyone is entitled to! As you might expect from the re-emergence of this blog, the case for “Survivor Edge of Extinction” has been announced! Is this a cast that will bring us to the edge our seats, or the edge of our tolerance? Let’s find out!

Before we begin, though, a quick note. There’s not a lot to say pre-thoughts this time, since there’s no themed division of the tribes, and I’ll be saving my overall thoughts on the theme for the end of the blog. However, my now recurring point about going off of very little information (due to no full videos apart from a generic season preview on the CBS website) aside, yes, I am aware that there are returnees on this season, but I won’t be talking about them with their tribes, instead mentioning them at the end. My reasons why will become clear momentarily.

Manu Tribe (Man, will it be easy to get them confused with the Mana Tribe from “Survivor Game Changers”)

Dan “The Wardog” DaSilva (38, Law Student/Former Military, Los Angeles, CA): Despite not being one of the people featured in the season preview at the end of “Survivor David vs. Goliath”, Dan is clearly one of the stand-out contestants of this season. He’s a big, brash military type with a distinctive silhouette and strong opinions. Makes for fun tv. The trouble is that Dan doesn’t just stand out to the audience. He stands out to his fellow contestants. And as you should know by now: STANDING OUT EARLY ON DOES NOT BODE WELL ON “SURVIVOR”! It doesn’t help his case that Dan joins a long list of people whose pet peeves seem to directly clash with the show they’ve been placed on. Dan specifically lists weak people and complainers as his two biggest pet peeves. Two types of people that I’m sure have NEVER appeared on this show before. The tried and tested voting strategy of eliminating the brash one still holds up even 38 seasons in, and I see no reason that Dan will not follow this trend. Given his physical strength, I doubt he’ll be the very first boot, and probably survive his initial tribe just fine. As soon as a swap happens, though, Dan will be too much to bear, so expect him out right then. He’ll definitely be a fun watch, just one of those great pre-merge boots in the vein of Brian Corridan (“Survivor Guatemala”), though purely from an entertainment perspective, not a gameplay perspective.

Reem Daly (46, Sales, Ashburn, VA): This is overall a very verbose cast, at least in terms of their biographies, so having Reem be so succinct is refreshing from the start. Reem’s your typical mother type, but seems to have more smarts (she lists chess as a hobby) than one would expect from her. Not as big a splash character-wise, but not the sort of person we see as often on the show, and if she plays it right, could be the next Lauren Rimmer (“Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers”). Sadly, I don’t think Reem is going to get much of a chance to show us her stuff. Reed just does not seem like the type to me to fight tooth and nail should she need to. And she’ll need to do that, as this character type is usually an early target, due to being an easy, not-as-strong-in-challenges vote. As such, Reem will be a pre-merge boot, and I will be sad for an episode, and then move on.

Rick Devans (33, Morning News Anchor, Macon, GA): Must resist “The Walking Dead” jokes… Must resist “The Walking Dead” jokes… Ok, ok, for all my snark, I actually give Rick good odds in this game. Not to say I think he’ll win, but he’s got a long shelf-life. One qualification all news anchors need is to be personable and inoffensive to the people at home. In some cases that’s a put-on, but that’s not the vibe I get from Rick. He seems to be a fun, easygoing, slightly goofy guy, which usually portends a long life in the game, assuming there’s no major reason to eliminate you, i.e. challenge ability. While Rick is no Adonis, he doesn’t seem to be much of a slouch either, so expect him to be out when his charm can no longer carry him far. Probably making the final episode, but being an early boot on said episode. I’ll give him credit that I find his character intriguing, which is more than I can say for some of this case. While Rick has some similarities to previous contestants, his brand of charm seems like nothing else before it, and I say we’ll enjoy watching it play out.

Wendy Diaz (25, Small Business Owner, Bell, CA): Wendy is a bit of a wild card for me. She’s either going really deep in this game, or she’ll be out incredibly early. Most would say her inclusion in the pre-season preview, along with Rick, would bode well for her. To those people, I would point out that Mari Takahashi was featured in the preview for “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X.”, and look at the good that did her. That being said, I still ere on the side of her doing well on this season. Wendy is clearly a smart cookie, but apart from a cutting wit, you wouldn’t know it from her. Wendy’s big obstacle is going to be her need to take charge. Leading a business at such a young age, I’m sure she’s used to being in charge all the time. If she can lead subtly and diplomatically, as I suspect she can, she’ll do well. If she needs to take charge no matter what, that probably spells her doom, as that’s even LESS tolerated on “Survivor” than it is in the real world. Wendy’s another one who also has risky pet peeves, listing off people who don’t carry their weight and quitters. Again, two types of people I’m sure have NEVER appeared on this show before. I’m probably painting too negative a picture of her here, though, as like I say, Wendy’s a smart cookie. She’s probably out in the mid-to-late merge area, and with that cutting wit, we’ll be enjoying her all the way. Plus, she wants to bring a beloved stuffed animal to the island. I just love that.

Lauren O’Connell (21, Student, Waco, TX): You will note that CBS just had to cast someone who compared herself to Kelley Wentworth (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”) on the season that featured the return of Kelley Wentworth. And, you know, put her on the same tribe as Kelley Wentworth as well, just for shits and giggles. Actually, it’s a good thing Lauren has this distinction, as otherwise she doesn’t stand out in any way. She’s nice, inoffensive, good looking. Someone who makes for a good alliance member, but will neither be a leader nor a big character on this season. Lauren is just there, filling a spot, waiting for her time to come. Given the caliber of player this season, I suspect that time will be the early merge. There’s no reason to get rid of her before then, but with how big the merges are these days, she could be an easy consensus boot who is unlikely to have an idol used on her. Thus, gone.

Keith Sowell (19, Pre-Med Student, Durham, NC): While maybe not as over-the-top as Davie Rickenbacker (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”), Keith does remind me of Davie. They’re both just nice, instantly likable people with a bit of nerd flare to them. The kind of person who won’t necessarily be the center of attention, but will be charming and cut a good confessional, this is just the sort of person I can get behind. However, I don’t give Keith quite as good odds as I gave Davie, despite my liking of him. Davie made it clear that he knew his charm was a weapon, and intended to use it. Keith just seems nice for the sake of being nice. That’ll get you far, even on “Survivor”, but to really succeed on the show, you’ve got to temper that with a killer instinct. I don’t know if it’s his relative youth or his personality, but Keith just doesn’t strike me as having that killer instinct. It’ll definitely take him to the mid-to-late merge area, but I don’t see it carrying him father than that.

Chris Underwood (25, District Sales Manager, Greenville, SC): While not ALL of his pet peeves fall under the category of “doom” this time around, as I doubt many political Facebook posts will abound on “Survivor”, Chris is yet another of our “dooming pet peeves” group. You see, in addition to said Facebook posts, Chris is also not a fan of laziness, and people who can’t back up what they say. GEE, I’VE NEVER HEARD OF PEOPLE LIKE THAT ON “SURVIVOR” BEFORE! All that said, Chris seems fairly laid-back, so I don’t think his pet peeves will actually be Chris’ undoing. No, rather his personality will be Chris’ undoing. Don’t misunderstand me: the dude seems likable and easygoing, with enough athleticism to make him worth keeping around. Now, if only he were here to play the game! Chris strikes me as kind of the “surfer dude” archetype, and unless that’s backed up with a LOT of brains, it usually doesn’t serve one well on “Survivor”. Chris is no moron, but he’s no brain trust either, and so I expect him out where nearly all young, athletic males leave: the early merge.

Kama Tribe

Victoria Baamonde (23, Waitress, Bronx, NY): At first glance, Victoria would seem to fall into the same category as the previously mentioned Lauren: another bland beauty who’s there for, well, her beauty and nothing else. Reading into her biography, however, Victoria’s got a lot going on beneath the surface. For one thing, amongst her pet peeves, she lists her Guinea Pig. Now, this would at first glance merely make her seem like a horrible pet owner, until you learn that her pet is actually named “Peeve”. That’s just the sort of pun I can get behind. Further, she is the rare breed of contestant to compare herself to a previous contestant of the opposite gender, going for Malcolm Freberg (“Survivor Philippines”). Not the most apt comparison in my opinion (she strikes me as a less flirty Brenda Lowe from “Survivor Nicaragua”), but I admire her willingness to think outside the box on this one. She also was valedictorian of her high school. A worthy achievement, although I do have to express my concerns about her claiming she lets everyone know this. Such braggartry can quickly become annoying on “Survivor”. Still, I’ll be watching her career with great interest. Assuming she tempers the need to brag about her GPA, I suspect she’ll do pretty well, lasting to the early-to-mid merge portion of the game, and giving us a lot of insightful commentary along the way.

Ron Clark (46, Teacher at the Ron Clark Academy, Atlanta GA): You’ll notice that I didn’t just list Ron’s occupation as “Teacher”. That’s intentional. Short of naming your children after yourself, naming your school after yourself is about the height of ego. Now, you might be thinking that Ron doesn’t have an ego, just a lot of money. To this, I refer you to him referencing HIMSELF as a sore loser, even at a simple game of “Monopoly”. Yeah, have fun on “Survivor”, guy. Every vibe I get from him is that he’s just irritating and full on himself. Add onto that him being an older player on a season that skews VERY young, along with having no obvious challenge ability (unless they suddenly combine “Survivor” with “The Price is Right” again), and you’ve got a recipe for first boot. Sad to say, but there’s just nothing about Ron to recommend him, and thus his fate is sealed.

Julia Carter (24, Medical Assistant, Bethesda, MD): As a Maryland native, let me state for the record that Bethesda DOES NOT COUNT AS MARYLAND! It’s basically just a colony of DC. With that out of the way, let’s talk about Julia as a person. If ever there was a master of the “humble brag”, Julia would be it. She has a lot of accomplishments in her relatively short life so far, and she’ll certainly mention them, but this does not mean that she’s irritating about them. She won’t be the biggest character out there, but this skill should certainly serve her well on “Survivor”. Should she get to the end of the game, should could pull out a win with a fantastic Final Tribal Council performance. She’s a dark horse to make it there, but has at least a shot at it. With a decent bit of athleticism, I see Julia securing a position as a lieutenant in the dominant alliance, and thus will probably be out in the mid-to-late merge area, though again, with enough guile, I could see her scraping a win on this one.

Eric Hafemann (34, Firefighter, Livermore, CA): I’ll admit, I had to read through the bios a couple of times to differentiate between Eric and the aforementioned Chris. Similar in silhouette and role on their respective tribes, the two do at least differentiate on personality. Both are fairly laid-back, bur Eric seems to be a bit more in the game. I don’t think he’s got the smarts to win the game, but at least he’s putting forth the effort. Eric’s game will be more intentional, but I don’t think he can overcome the stigma of the athletic male, and will thus be another early merge boot. Plus, Eric is another one with “pet peeve downside”. Sure, Eric. Hate on people who take themselves too seriously. On “Survivor”. See how far that gets you. Again, as a character, he doesn’t stand out much, but is at least inoffensive.

Aurora McCreary (32, Divorce Lawyer, Orlando, FL): Hoo boy. I’ve been complaining a lot about the pet peeves of this new group of contestants, but Aurora may be the worst of the bunch. Not to say that all of her pet peeves are likely to be on the show, but that’s mostly due to the sheer NUMBER of pet peeves she has. Let’s list them, shall we? “Know-It-Alls, ignorance, playing the ‘victim card’, any noise coming from the mouth, the easily offended, slow walkers, and people who are homophobic.” Apart from maybe those last two, Aurora can easily expect to encounter these things on the island. Add onto that the number of pet peeves listed, and the whole thing screams to me “high maintenance”, which is not a good look on “Survivor”. Don’t get me wrong: she’ll make for great drama, but she’s another pre-merge boot if I ever saw one. Will probably go out with some fireworks, but go out early nonetheless.

Julie Rosenberg (46, Toymaker, New York, NY): Julie is an intellectual with a fun-loving side. In other words, the sort of character I adore. Julie won’t be forgotten on this season, but that doesn’t necessarily bode well for her time in the game. As an older lady with a lot of ideas, I expect her to be domineering, which usually doesn’t bode well, again, particularly as this season skews young. That said, I get the sense that if anyone can overcome this obstacle, it’s Julie. She strikes me as being self-aware enough to back off and tone it down when she sees this isn’t working. But sadly, these aren’t Julie’s only obstacles. While no weakling, she doesn’t strike me as being very good in challenges, and so despite my best wishes, I suspect Julie will be a pre-merge boot. Probably a late pre-merge boot, and if she can really utilize that wit she might just make it deep, but most likely a pre-merge boot nonetheless.

Gavin Whitson (23, YMCA Programming Director, Erwin, TN): The thing that strikes me the most about Gavin is his tattoo. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a fun character as well, but that tattoo has stuck with me more than a good chunk of this cast. It’s so colorful, which admittedly probably means it’s a recent acquisition, but it’s also got a fun design. Ok, ok, on to Gavin as a character. Gavin often gets compared to a kid, or at least so he says in his bio, and I can understand why. Apart from his looks, this guy has a lot of “juvenile” interests. That said, as someone else with “juvenile” interests, I can relate. With his hidden intelligence, I think Gavin has a decent shot in this game. Where I think he might falter is in his need to not been seen as a kid. He can probably hold it in for a while, but I think eventually he’ll see that he’s not seen as a force in the game, despite probably being a power player in an alliance. Thus, he will do something drastic to get himself noticed. It will work, and he will promptly be voted off for it, since on “Survivor”, you don’t want to noticed quite that much. Still, Gavin will make for a fun ride, until he goes out in the mid-merge area.

Now onto our returnees. Since we’ve got people with multiple appearances and long season names, I’ll be forgoing most of the usual biography information, instead just listing their names, current tribes and previous seasons, in ascending order of first appearance. Thus we start with:

Kelley Wentworth (Manu Tribe, “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, “Survivor Cambodia”): Breaking the trend of everyone on “Survivor” named Kelly being, as I once put it “As bland as beige wallpaper” (perhaps the extra “e” gives her her power?), Kelley is certainly not one to be ignored. Look no further, where she lists her proudest accomplishment as “‘Wentworth, does not count’ X9”. ON a more subtle note, she also lists amongst her pet peeves people who are “basically badasses”. But lest you think Kelley’s sense of humor excludes herself, allow me to again quote her, this time on the player she is most similar to: “Kelley Wentworth from ‘Survivor Cambodia’, and I think she was also on ‘Survivor San Juan del Sur’?” In case it wasn’t clear, I am THRILLED to have Kelley back. Anyone who can bring that much humor is ok in my book. Plus, as we saw on the aforementioned “Survivor Cambodia”, Kelley brings decent strategy to the game as well. Given the crop of newbies she’s up against, I expect Kelley to do quite well. She’s well above their league, and will play circles around them. That said, Kelley is just shy of being my female winner pick for the season. Why? Well, Kelley has the downside of being the most memorable of our returnees, despite being tied for the longest gap between her last season and now. Kelley just made too big of a splash last time, and everyone’s been clamoring to have her back. Amongst the community, her name is on everyone’s lips, and while this is hardly a season of superfans, I expect that to spill over nonetheless. Kelley will have a good run initially, but falter in the mid-to-late merge area, just due to the size of her target.

Joe Anglim (Kama Tribe, “Survivor Worlds Apart”, “Survivor Cambodia”): Ah yes, for all the complaints about the addition of returnees on this season, I will give credit that for the most part, CBS picked people who would be interesting to bring back. Joe is the one exception to this rule. Now, don’t misunderstand me, I quite like Joey Amazing. Who couldn’t like Joey Amazing? He’s too nice to dislike. But unfortunately while every other returnee has the potential to bring a new dynamic to their season, Joe gives no indication that he’ll bring anything other than what he’s brought to previous seasons. Joe is Joe: A likable challenge beast who just can’t conceal his threat level or form a solid meat shield strategy well enough. There’s nothing offensive about him, but we’ve seen this before, but it’s getting old. So, what would make his strategy a winner this time, when it wasn’t the two times beforehand? Edge of Extinction. You see, Joe can now just sit around, wait, be nice to people, and win challenges to get himself to the end, having offended no one. Yes, Joe is my male pick to win the whole shebang. Much as I try to keep an open mind about this twist, I can’t help but feel that it’s an ideal set-up for Joe to win. Hence, I say Joe will win. As a side note, Joe is also the only returnee to list someone different as the player he is most like, going for Kim Spradlin (“Survivor One World”). Oh Joe. Joe, Joe, Joe. Kim Spradlin you ain’t. If it’s any consolation, you’re most Joe Anglim-esque player I know.

Aubry Bracco (Kama Tribe, “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, “Survivor Game Changers”): Do you even have to ask whether I’m excited to see Aubry back or not? As the head of the Aubry Lobby (trademark), I should hope not! That said, how do I think she’ll do this time? By process of elimination you should already know, but just in case, let me spell it out: She’s my female winner pick. My first ever two-time winner pick, in fact. It’s almost hilarious how opposite this is to the perception of Aubry coming into “Survivor Game Changers”. There she was considered a major threat, on par with the previous winners, and thus given no real chance to play the game. Thus, she got very little edit, and that plus a longer gap between the end of her last season and the beginning of this one puts Aubry in the ideal position to do well again. Granted, another season or two in between wouldn’t hurt, but it’s still a decent gap for Aubry. Add onto that a group of not-really superfans, and Aubry is poised to work her magic and take it all. Plus, again, the twist favors determination, and if there’s one thing Aubry has, it’s determination.

David Wright (Manu Tribe, “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X.”): David, in many ways is the opposite of Joe. I’m happy to see him back, but sadly he’s the one returnee I don’t see making the merge. David may not be the most talked about contestant these days, especially given the gap between his original season and now, but he’s hardly forgotten. This could be resolved with a bit of challenge ability, but sadly, David still does not have that. Being a long-term threat with no benefit in the short-term, David will be a pre-merge boot, which is a real shame, since I do like his self-deprecating humor. While he lists himself as the contestant he’s most like, he refers to himself needing a hug. David’s time will be short, but humorous. Sorry David, but you’re the sacrificial lamb of the returnees.

And there you have it! Before I talk about the cast overall, let me talk briefly about the “Edge of Extinction” twist. As I stated at the end of last season, I was skeptical of the idea, being similar to the “Redemption Island” twist on steroids, but was willing to give it a shot. With little new information about the twist coming with the cast release, my position is largely unchanged, though I will say what little new information we did get is not encouraging. Chiefly, it seems contestants will not be informed of the twist prior to the season starting. This is so that we can get reaction shots of people finding out post-Tribal Council, and to make it more likely that fewer will take the twist, being unknown and all. From a dramatic standpoint, I get this, as it does make for more dramatic post-vote-out moments, and definitely helps keep the drama of the vote-out itself, but just feels unfair. I know “Survivor” is not a game of perfect information, but it feels like this could screw up someone’s strategy through no fault of their own, and is just a wrinkle for wrinkle’s sake. Probst claims the idea is to see “how far people will go” to stay in the game, but he gives no evidence for how this new island will be any tougher than the regular island the show is shot on. This leads me to believe that it will be no different, and this is just a marketing gimmick. This is a shame, as seeing how far people would go in terms of deprivation IS an interesting psychological question. I just don’t think it will be answered here. If I’m looking for positives, I’m glad we don’t have a theme of the tribes this time on top off the “Edge of Extinction”, and it’s refreshing to see an 18-person season with only two tribes. The last time that happened was “Survivor South Pacific”, 15 seasons ago. Even I’ll admit, though, that’s stretching for positives.

Speaking of things negative, let’s talk about this cast overall. I’m not a fan. Now, I’m not saying these people are annoying or irritating. They all seem like perfectly nice, likable people, with a few exceptions. The problem here is that, despite making up the majority of the cast, these people seem to have the downside of the “Fans” on a “Fans vs. Favorites” season. Namely, they might be good players in their own right, but they just don’t stand out. They’re nice to have, but we want to see the returnees. We think they’re nice, but we click through their bios quickly to get to the people we already care about. For a new player to stand out on such a season, they have to be REALLY over-the-top. You’ll note that Natalie Bolton and Erik Reichenbach (both “Survivor Micronesia”) are the only fans really seriously talked about these days, and that, again, for how over-the-top they were. These newbies are all right, but no one really stands out as over-the-top. That said, I’m not sure eliminating the returnees here is the answer. It might make a couple of the interesting players (Victoria, Rick), stand out a little more, but without the draw of the returnees, I just see no hype for this cast. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t, basically. Not the most auspicious of previews, but I’ve been wrong before. We’ll see how things stack up in just under three weeks with the premiere of “Survivor Edge of Extinction”!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.