Idol Speculation: “Survivor 43” Episode 9: Wibbly-Wobbly, Timey-Wimey

Look, the “Survivor” editing team may be geniuses.  Their flashback format may have done wonders for revitalizing the show.  They may have given us the legendary chyron gags.  But they are not miracle workers.  Time travel is beyond their skill set.  Which is a shame, because MAN this episode needed it.  Look, solid episode overall, but when you’ve got two Tribal Councils in one episode, you NEED to have the second one be the more exciting one.  This?  Not so much.  

Before we can talk about those Tribal Councils, we need to talk about the past one.  Despite it being a straightforward boot of Jeanine. one person was still left out.  That person being Owen.  This is a problem for Sami, since he sort of needs Owen for a number moving forward.  Luckily for Sami, Owen is more mad at James than anything, since Owen asked him at the water well to tell him if Jeanine was going out, and James still lied.  Understandable on James’ part, given that he has basically no reason to trust Owen, his vote is unnecessary, and either he or Jeanine could have some advantage that could shake things up if tipped off.  But that doesn’t mean Owen needs to be happy about it.  

Still, James remains unhappy with Owen.  When he tries his turn at talking to Owen, the latter gets a bit snippy with him and shuts him down.  James is upset at the lack of civility, and while it’s definitely not a good game move for Owen, I can’t blame him for how he’s feeling.  The point of all this is to set up an Owen/James conflict, meaning they’re guaranteed to be on the same team come the immunity challenge.  

What?  They showed in the preview that it was going to be a team challenge.  I’m not spoiling anything!  Also, the tribe sign still says “Baka”.  What the hell?  Why hasn’t that been taken away by now?

Sure enough, James and Owen are on the same team, specifically the blue team.  Rounding them out are Noelle, Karla, and Sami.  This makes the other team, the red team, consist of Cassidy, Ryan, Jesse, Cody, and Gabler.  They’ll compete within their teams for individual immunity, and compete as a whole as well.  Last person standing wins PB&J for their team, as well as the right to go to Tribal Council second (and presumably get a higher payout for their boot, having technically placed higher), thus seeing who was voted out first.  As we saw last season, that can have a major impact.  And yeah, we saw this exact twist on “Survivor 42”.  And “Survivor 41”.  Anyone else notice the seasons are getting a mite repetitive?

Our specific challenge is largely your generic “Hold the ball against the pole” challenge, though I will give credit that the method for holding up said ball involves underarm curls, which is an unusual mechanism in such a challenge.  

Really, though, most credit goes to Karla, who wins immunity for herself on the blue team.  Yeah, probably the most obvious challenge beasts were on the other team, but it’s not like Owen and Sami are bad at challenge, and she beat them too.  And she did it all in obvious discomfort, given the busted finger.  Yes, it would have been hilarious to see her win outright, but even only losing out to Cody and Ryan is quite impressive.  You’ll notice, as well, that Probst didn’t need to make a “moment” out of it.  He mentioned it briefly once, when relevant, but then let Karla’s face and actions show the strain, rather than narrating it.  Learn from this example, show!

Cody comes out on top for the other team, and so it’s time to have them discuss their targets.  Having won immunity previously, and given that he’s the only person on this team outside the majority seven alliance, you would assume that Gabler is the target.  Old feuds die hard, though, and Gabler isn’t even discussed.  All he does is form a stronger bond with Cody and Jesse, then just votes with the majority.  No, it’s the old Coco feud that finally comes to a head.  Cassidy and Ryan are targeting each other, mostly because the other has targeted them.  

With such a simple narrative, we even have time for a flashback!  Cassidy talks about how much of a fan she is, and we see a cute picture of a young Cassidy wearing what appears to be a homemade immunity necklace.  It would all be pretty adorable, and a good change from the melodrama, but it turns out Cassidy has a tragedy that connects to “Survivor” as well.  It seems she lost her sister at a relatively young age, and now talks to her when struggling on the show.  She even keeps some of her ashes in a necklace, and gives it kisses for luck in trying times.  Very sweet stuff, and not particularly forced.  My complaints are more with the show than with Cassidy.  I get that his one is relevant, but can we have ONE personal flashback that isn’t tied to tragedy or struggle in one’s life?  Just for some variety?

Not to be left out of the target-setting, our blue team (sequestered at the old Vesi camp with no food, save the odd papaya) sets about agreeing on who should go.  And by that, I of course mean we get a rehash of the James/Owen conflict from earlier.  Consensus initially seems to be that Owen should go, but Sami is still on the warpath to break up the seven he’s likely on the bottom of.  Since Owen is a number in that, he’s more keen to vote off James, which is honestly the correct move.  As previously noted, Sami has the least connections in the seven, and therefore has little reason for them to stay strong.  Add on his bonds with Owen, Gabler, and Noelle, and he needs them broken up to have any power.  With Karla immune, James is the only choice.  As a side note, this means this may be the first time this twist actually BENEFITS the minority.  Most of the time it just hastens the doom of the minority, and the few times they HAVE had majority on a team, they screw it up.  Looking at you, “Island of the Idols”.  

James will not go without drama, however.  Back at the water well, because that’s been so good to them, Owen and James try to hash things out.  Both explain their positions, but Owen feels condescended to.  This makes him short with James, who in turn gets short with him.  Neither goes below the belt, I would say.  Just a classic case of two styles of interaction that don’t gel together.  James believes you should have an air of civility, and not question why someone would lie to you if they don’t trust you.  Owen feels you should respect people, even if they’re on the bottom, and not put up pretenses.  Really, there’s a case to be made for either side in this argument.  

The big loser in the end, though, is James.  The argument at the water well didn’t get out of hand, but James needs to drag it back to camp.  Not a good look for either of them, and everyone is clearly uncomfortable.  James, however, has much more to lose here.  It’s understandable for Owen to be upset.  By basically all metrics, he’s on the bottom.  James, however, is on top, and thus his behavior seems much more uncalled-for on paper.  When Owen gets frustrated with James, he’s the little guy, taking on the person with power.  “Punching Up”, in comedy turn.  James, conversely, is “Punching Down”, and going after someone lower than him in the pecking order.  Just not a good look overall.  

And to make matters worse, James even interrupts Noelle’s papaya time!  How dare he?

But back to our first team.  We have two options, so which way will they go?  After securing Gabler’s vote, Cody and Jesse are in the driver’s seat.  They admit they’re leaning Cassidy, seeing her as a bigger threat, but also don’t want to offend Karla, and so feel Ryan might be the safer option.  Fortunately, they have the advantage of seeing who got voted out before making their decision.  From my point of view, however, they should know how to vote already.  Ryan is clearly the correct boot.  Cody and Jesse are sitting pretty in the seven, probably the tightest two there are in it.  If they can keep that strong, they set themselves up brilliantly once the seven need to eat each other.  Now, both Ryan and Cassidy are in the seven, but of those two, Cassidy will create bigger fractures.  Ryan was considered a target last episode, after all.  Thus, if you want to avoid drama, which Cody and Jesse should want right now, Ryan is the boot.  

For all the debate on our red team, blue needs some misdirection as well.  At first, it seems like Noelle would have a bad case on Inflammation of the BIG MOVE™.  That vote steal is burning a hole in her pocket, and she wants to use it to make James comfortable.  Rather than just steal his vote and be done with it, her idea is to instead steal OWEN’S vote to convince James everything’s fine, then use both votes, along with Sami’s, on James.  Seems kind of pointless, but hey, I can’t fault an overabundance of caution too much, and it IS a good bluff.  Really, the biggest risk is that Owen would freak out.  And despite the initial pitch being effectively “Hey, I want to steal your vote!”, Owen is all on board once he hears the full plan.  He would have been well within his rights to freak out upon initially hearing it, but dude keeps his cool this time.  

No, our TRUE misdirection comes from Sami.  You see, while he wants to break up the seven, he has ANOTHER tight bond with Karla that was in no way hinted at before this episode, and doesn’t want to offend her.  Is that just the theme of this season?  Karla makes these amazing bonds with people, and we just never see them happen?  Really, I should just add Sami to the “Sudden Close Bond with Karla” list.  If we include Cody’s conversation with Jesse earlier to mean he has one too, I think the only people not on the list at this point are Gabler, Noelle, and Owen.  And based on the next episode preview, it looks like Gabler and Karla will have one soon.  

Karla is, naturally, not super keen on getting rid of a close ally, but doesn’t outright dismiss the idea either.  For her, getting rid of James is a bad move, though I wouldn’t suggest her using her idol on him.  Close they may be, but she has other bonds to lean on, and an idol is valuable (especially one that, if the show’s narrative is to be believed, no one else knows about yet).  Sami also is at least smart enough not to spill Noelle’s plan to Karla, so no chance of her tipping off James prior to Tribal, since he could steal it with Knowledge is Power.  

When I said this first Tribal Council is the stronger of the two, I didn’t just mean in terms of misdirection.  No, all the fun stuff happens at this Tribal!  James and Owen get into a rehash of their argument.  Noelle plays referee once again.  And all throughout, no one (save presumably Jeanine) notices Karla and Sami’s significant looks, as they sit in the back row this time around.  Karla’s immunity win is given some lip service as well, but really, with all the highlights of this Tribal Council, it falls to the background.  

Noelle does indeed steal Owen’s vote, though Owen does a poor job of looking distraught.  James is not tipped off, however, and it seems Karla decided that staying with the majority vote was the better part of valor.  He goes home 4-1, in what I have to say was a smart decision (yes, Karla probably benefits if he sticks around, but since she didn’t have the numbers to do so anyway, better to stick with the majority and not make enemies unnecessarily).  Not the most entertaining one for me, though.  Don’t misunderstand, Owen seems like a perfectly nice guy, and his meta jokes were funny.  James has been more strategically involved, though, and brings more conflict than Owen.  I’m not too upset at either of them going, but if you ask who I prefer to watch, the answer is James.  Or maybe I just want to see Owen lose to bask in the schadenfreude of all the people online who made him their pre-season winner pick.  

James does not go quietly, however.  Gone is the trend of people being gracious in defeat.  James is, to put it mildly, salty, claiming there were bigger targets and calling the group stupid for voting him out.  Classy.  This from the guy who said he wanted to play like a Chess Queen.  I suppose it doesn’t help that nearly everyone has a grin on their face, and openly admit that they duped him.  Only Karla has the decency to look disappointed, probably to pander for James’ jury vote.  Fair enough, but will James buy it?  The man is mad, but not stupid.  He’s going to math it out and realize you voted him, most likely.  

Yeah, sorry red team, but that’s a tough act to follow.  There’s some commiseration about James’ boot, but this is mostly just filler talk before the vote.  With the James boot, Cody and Jesse suddenly get more concerned about breaking up the alliance too much.  Thus, they make the smart decision and boot Ryan, who I am sorry to see go.  Cassidy is definitely the more competent player, but Ryan popped more on screen, and was just an all-around nice dude, gracious in defeat.  Not a major loss, but a bummer.  And hey, there goes my winner foreshadowing theory from episode one!  Another “Idol Speculation” call that has aged super-well!

Honestly, this episode is still pretty good, in spite of my gripes.  Its only real flaw is the order of the Tribal Councils, and as stated before, it couldn’t help that.  Misdirection was good, we got some genuine conflict without going below the belt, and some fun, stand-out moments.  Seriously, though, enough with the Final 10 split group vote already, show.  

-Matt 

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 41” Episode 7: Doctor CasWHOpanan

Zygon Tribe, getting your first look at the new Dalek Tribe.  Sek voted out at the last Tribal Council.  Now then, let’s get to today’s reward challenge.  For today’s challenge you will swim out into the North Sea, retrieving bags of puzzle pieces.  You will then assemble them into a functional TARDIS.  First person to assemble their TARDIS and travel five minutes into the future wins reward.  Want to know what you’re playing for?  Of course you do.  The winning tribe will FEAST on sweets.  The things your body has been CRAVING since you got out here.  Fish sticks and custard.  Jammy Dodgers.  Jelly Babies.  In addition, for one lucky member of the winning tribe, a clue to the Sonic Immunity Idol.  Worth playing for?  Good, then decide who’s swimming, and we’ll get started.  

Sorry, but this is the world we live in now.  The time stream has been messed with, and we’re stuck with his.  Hopefully a mashup of “Survivor” and “Doctor Who” won’t be as twist heavy as regular “Survivor”, and I can’t even finish typing that sentence without cracking up.  Of COURSE twists will abound in a mashup of these two shows.  

Also, Erika wears a fez now.  Fezzes are cool.  

Getting into the episode proper, we get something we haven’t seen in a while: The “Previously On” segment!  Yes, Probst doesn’t actually narrate the thing, but it keeps the spirit of it.  Unfortunately, that spirit is just as advantage-obsessed as the rest of the show, since reminding us who has what takes up nearly all the time, with the only other bit being the alliance between Shan, Liana, Deshawn, and Danny.  That bit is good, but do you think, if you need a minute-long recap to remember what your advantages are and who has them, you have maybe, I don’t know, TOO MANY ADVANTAGES?

Anyway, we get through that painful but necessary bit, only to come to a painful and unnecessary bit.  Erika talks about finding the strength within herself to keep going after her time on Exile Island, yada, yada, yada.  Look, I like Erika, and I’m glad we’re getting more content from her.  But we got this content just as well last episode, and it worked better there.  It doesn’t help matters that they try and build up Erika’s decision about rewriting history when we all know what she’s going to pick.  Erika may have been relatively invisible up to this point, but she’s not a moron.  We know she’s going to make the smart decision here.  No need to spend 4 minutes building it up.  Honestly, you could cut out the first segment of this episode, and nothing would really be missed.  

I was going to give Probst flak for revealing Erika’s decision to the tribe, but then there wouldn’t really be any way for Erika to hide what she’d done plausibly, so I suppose he’s not cutting off her lying options.  With her and the yellow team now immune, our challenge is now played by Naseer, Deshawn, Danny, Sydney, Ricard, and Evvie.  The challenge itself is a solid one.  Hailing originally from “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, this challenge as people stack blocks three high, then place a flag in the center.  The catch?  You can only use your feet.  Tricky, visually interesting, hard to have an inherent advantage in, and most important, not another bloody endurance challenge?  Yeah, I can get behind this one.  

We find that this is one of the few challenges Naseer CAN’T solo, as we mostly have a four-way-race between Sydney, Evvie, Ricard, and Deshawn.  After a couple of close calls from Evvie and Sydney, Ricard pulls it out, leaving very few singletons left available to vote for.  Unsurprisingly, with Luvu wanting to stick together and everyone else immune, the target quickly falls on Evvie.  Most everyone is on board with this.  Even Deshawn, despite their bond on “Shipwheel Island”, is willing to make the sacrifice.  

The only one who shows any reluctance is Liana.  Understandable, since the pair were aligned, and the old Yase has a strong bond.  Oddly, though, the bond of the new alliance with Danny, Deshawn, and Shan, and in particular her bond with Shan are overpowering, and Liana is willing to sacrifice Evvie for her own game.  Everyone tries to soften the blow by saying she can take vengeance on Xander by stealing his idol to do so.  

But will Xander still have his idol?  In a twist of irony, the “Knowledge is Power” advantage is being undone by too much knowledge of it.  The “Beware Advantage” pretty much had to be made public, but Shan’s slip-up in front of Tiffany has been her undoing.  Tiffany, mad, tells Evvie about the advantage and how it works.  Evvie, in turn, tells Xander, meaning now they can plan to counteract it.  Sure enough, they plan to let someone else hold onto the idol, so that Liana can’t ask the right person to steal it from.  A pretty brilliant plan, and a great way to counteract the advantage.  If only the plan stays under wraps…

And there goes Xander spilling the beans to Danny.  Sigh.  Even when you’re smart, Xander, you’re dumb.  

Fortunately, there’s still hope.  Sure enough, this information gets back to Liana, and she goes to confront her old tribe.  She’s ODDLY INSISTENT on knowing who’s going to be holding the idol, which they assure her will be Xander.  Way to not be obvious, Xander.  Still, alternate targets are needed, and we settle on two.  The old Yase would prefer Deshawn, seeing as he’s a threat.  Meanwhile, the old Luvu would prefer Sydney, since she’s outside the alliance of four highlighted at the beginning.  Never saw that coming.  

And of course the two alternates are the only two people left on my draft team.  Of course they are.

We have a 25 minute Tribal tonight, and I’ll grant that it’s needed, but I’ll also grant that, as we’ll soon see, production really are to blame for the length of this Tribal.  There’s little need to talk about the maneuvering at Tribal, since it’s not really the focus, though I must hold special ire for PROBST, of all people, having the gall to say that the game is still ultimately about relationships.  I mean, it is.  Look at the Shan/Liana connection if you need evidence of that.  But for PROBST, the man who seems to be doing EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER to make the game less about relationships, and more about advantages, is beyond the pale for me.  

But now, we come to the part of Tribal Council that sends everyone scrambling.  At first, Xander seems to have, once again, made a major gaffe, declaring that he has an idol, and therefore Evvie is safe.  Liana, believing him to truly be that stupid, uses her “Knowledge is Power” advantage for his idol.  Unfortunately for her, Xander is not that stupid (or, at a minimum, backed up by and willing to listen to people who aren’t that stupid).  His idol?  Fake.  In another effective use of flashbacks, we see them plan to give Xander’s advantages to Tiffany, since she’s least likely to be advantage’d by Liana.  The plan works, and everyone gets to scrambling, which takes the form of whispering, but only serves to reaffirm that Deshawn and Sydney are the alternate targets.  

Before I get into what I’m about to say, let me preface it by saying this was great tv.  Most of this episode, Tribal Council included, is a long-winded way to get to a pretty simple point, but man, does this Tribal deliver!  Mystery!  Intrigue!  Excitement!  Smart gameplay and dumb gameplay in just the right amounts to provide balance and character!  The makings of a great episode ending!  

And yet… I come back to the point I made during “Survivor Game Changers” about the inherent folly of manufacturing drama with advantages.  It feels hollow.  Yes, this episode was exciting, and yes, the advantages were used effectively by the players to create drama.  But it feels manufactured, rather than organic, and it’s just always going to be inferior to the real thing.  Granted, this is a bit harsh, as things like the fake idol bluff have little to nothing to do with the advantages, but overall, while I did enjoy this part of the episode, it just felt, well, hollow.  Fun, but not an organic fun.  

The whispering in particular really comes to nothing, since again it’s just reiterating what the dynamics at camp showed in particular.  But then, the votes come, and we get a few more surprises.  All throughout the episode, Probst has been reminding us how the “Shot in the Dark” works, not at all subtle foreshadowing for the fact that someone would take the shot.  That someone is Sydney, and understandably so.  She’s the one person targeted who has no sort of other idol or advantage for protection, so worth it to take the shot.  All for naught, as she’s not safe, but still, a worthy move.  

More head-scratching, however, is Xander insisting that Evvie not have an idol played on her, as she’s now safe due to the scrambling.  Evvie, being smarter, is not so sure, and rightly so.  For all the scrambling, it’s still fair to assume that the opposing alliance enacted the “Erik Reichenbach Plan”.  No, not giving up individual immunity to Natalie, the one from “Survivor Caramoan”!  Flushing the idols of the minority alliance by still voting for the initial target.  Evvie, in fact, nearly goes home, and it would all have been due to Xander’s stupidity.  I repeat: Even when you’re smart, Xander, you’re dumb.  

But what of our third target, Mr. Deshawn?  He’s not dumb.  Surely he has a plan to keep himself safe!  He does, in fact.  If you think WAAAY back to Episode 2, you’ll remember Deshawn earned an extra vote.  He just hasn’t got it yet because he’s only now going to Tribal Council.  Deshawn, ever loyal, casts a vote on Evvie, but also throws one on Sydney, in case Evvie plays her idol.  She doesn’t get an idol play, but unfortunately, no one counted on Sydney giving up her vote for the Shot in the Dark.  Thus, between the Yase votes, the rogue votes, and Deshawn, Sydney goes home 5-4-3.  While this does mean my draft team is down to one person, I’m still overall not that sorry to see Sydney go.  She was arrogant, full of herself, and while that’s all fine and good, it’s just not a character type I really like having on my screen for long periods of time.  See also, Hantz, Russell.

I can’t deny the episode was fun.  Definitely one of the better episodes of the season.  And with wanting to show all the twists and turns, I get why they needed two hours on one vote.  Then again, there’s little reason they couldn’t have made a two-hour episode instead (or even an hour and a half, and cut down a bit of the redundant strategizing), or better yet, forego the Time Travel Advantage and simplify things that way.  Again, fun, but manufactured fun.  Fine enough, but I know this season can do better.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.