Idol Speculation: “Survivor 42 Cast Assessment”

Ah, the sweet, sweet feeling of NOT needing to wait over a year to talk about new “Survivor” content.  Sure, the bios are still noticeably lacking in information, but hey, at least we actually GET the tribe divisions pre-season this time.  Already a leg up on the previous season, and for once that’s actually a compliment, and not meant as a dig at a bad season.  

Ladies, gentlemen, non-binary individuals, it is my esteemed pleasure to welcome you back to “Idol Speculation”, my knee-jerk opinion that everyone is entitled to!  With the announcement of a new cast a month out from the show’s premiere, that mean’s it’s naturally time for me to make snap judgments about each of them that will inevitably be wrong, and then be mercilessly mocked for my ignorance later!  I’m sure you’ve all got your mocking sticks ready, so let’s waste no more time, and jump right into this cast assessment!

Jonathan Young (29, Beach Service Company Owner, Gulf Shores, AL, Taku Tribe): A fun fact about Jonathan is that he was a contest on the Discovery Kids show “Endurance”, a fact that he slyly references by using “Endurance”, with the capital “E” to describe himself.  Nice bit of subtlety there, Jonathan.  For those who don’t know, “Endurance” was kind of like “Survivor”, but for kids.  A group gets put in some wilderness (usually in the US for travel purposes), then compete against each other in a series of challenges, both physical and interpersonal, to become the last pair remaining and win the grand prize.  Will this help him on “Survivor”?  Eh, probably not much.  There’s worse training you can do, but “Endurance” was effectively catered cabin camping, as compared to the more brutal nature of “Survivor”, and the interpersonal politics only took one so far when elimination came down to effectively a game of “Rock, Paper, Scissors”.  Honestly, I think the thing that’s most helpful about Jonathan’s time on “Endurance” is the fact that his season was one of the few that went international.  They filmed in Fiji; in fact on the same island “Survivor” uses today.  Far-fetched as it may be, I could see Jonathan’s familiarity with the land being helpful in terms of finding idols and advantages in the game.  Tempting as it might be to look at Jonathan’s gameplay on “Endurance” for clues to how he’ll do here, the fact is that was 15 years ago, and a person changes a lot in that time.  As to how Jonathan is now?  He’s basically the most quintessential “Florida Man” I’ve ever seen, which is impressive for someone who doesn’t actually live in Florida.  The dude is all about athleticism and a good time, but not much else.  He compares himself to Ozzy, which seems apt given his strengths and weaknesses.  It speaks poorly of his chances of winning, but bear in mind the only time Ozzy went out pre-merge was because he ASKED to as a strategy.  As such, I’d put Jonathan in the same category: Coasts along on his strength early on, only to be picked off as a threat in the early-to-mid merge.  

Marya Sherron (47, Stay-At-Home Mom, Noblesville, IN, Taku Tribe): Normally I’d be down on the chances of the “Mom” archetype that Marya seems to play into, but as we saw with Tiffany and Heather last season, that can work to one’s advantage.  That said, there are some red flags I’m noticing for Marya.  The pet peeves rear their ugly head, as while one is relatively harmless to her chances (people who don’t cover their sneezes, which unless Bobby Jon Drinkard from “Survivor Palau” is secretly coming back this season, she probably doesn’t need to worry too much), but “meanness” is a bit harder to stomach.  Granted, it’s not as bad as one’s pet peeve being, say, “Liars”, but it’s not a particularly good sign in my book either.  She also talks about wanting to be a leader, and to play like Angelina (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”) and Tony (“Survivor Cagayan”), which at best seems like a weird, slightly chaotic combination in my book.  Unfortunately, the real nail in the coffin for Marya is the tribe she’s on.  It’s probably the strongest of the three challenge-wise, which means she won’t be vulnerable for a few tribal councils most likely, but that’s partly because this tribe skews younger, making her stand out, which is particularly bad in the early days of “Survivor”.  They also skew fairly quirky, which again, not a word I would use to describe Marya.  She may not be the first target on their minds, unless she costs them a challenge, but I’d still expect Marya to be a pre-merge boot, though later rather than earlier within that category.  

Romeo Escobar (37, Pageant Coach, Norwalk, CA, Ika Tribe): You know, sometimes it’s really hard to pick a first boot out of a cast.  Perhaps because everyone seems relatively even in terms of tribe challenge ability, perhaps because everyone presents themselves really well, perhaps because people outright lie in their bio.  Then sometimes you get a Semhar Tadesse (“Survivor South Pacific”) whose very presence screams “First Boot”.  Unfortunately for Romeo, he falls into the latter category for me.  Right off the bat, he strikes me as the type who will bring a lot of drama.  Great for television, bad for sticking around, especially when tribes are this small.  When even he describes himself as “impatient”, you know you’ve got an issue.  Plus, while this is more of a personal annoyance, he’s about the only person on this cast who says “No player has been like me before.”  Now, as a pageant coach, Romeo must be used to dealing with big personalities, so if he had the opportunity to stick around a few days, and let others start drama of their own, I could see him having a decent run.  Unfortunately, he’s on what looks set to be the “disaster tribe” of this season, and by sticking out so much, he’s just doomed to an early exit should his tribe attend Tribal Council early, which they likely will.  Please prove me wrong man, but my gut says you’re doomed.  

Tori Meehan (25, Therapist, Rogers, AR, Ika Tribe): Hoo boy, here we go.  We need to talk about Tori.  Let’s go through her bio shall we?  Her pet peeves are “When people lack self-awareness, are emotionally reactive, immature, or petty.”  She brags about how easy it was to get through college debt-free.  She’s ultra-religious, literally listing Jesus as her hero, and referencing the importance of her faith over and over.  She DARES to compare herself to Kim Spradlin, arguably the greatest player of the game of all time.  She goes and has a degree similar to my own, thereby putting her in far too close proximity to myself for my liking.  And then, if what I’ve seen about her social media is to be believed, she’s a vaccine denier (though I’ll admit I don’t have firsthand information on this one).  All this combines to make Tori very likely to win the game.  That game of course being “Which Contestant Can Make Matt Despise Them The Quickest?”  The game of “Survivor”?  Not so much.  If she annoys me, chances are she’s going to annoy at least SOME other people out there, who are likely to end up on her tribe at some point.  And while I’m TRYING to not see overt religion as a red flag (as Shan proved last season, one can still play a competent game with overt religion as well), this feels too excessive even for me.  Her pet peeves, as should be obvious, do her no favors either.  So, with all these marks against her, why do I not say she’ll be the first boot over Romeo, whom I might actually ENJOY watching, given that she’s also on the likely “disaster tribe”?  Well… Much as I might WANT Tori to be sent packing super early, and much as I will enjoy the moment when it inevitably comes, we have a season preview to go off of, and that season preview gave us the bad news that Tori finds some advantage, presumably an idol based on her reading about the phrases to activate said idol.  For all my negative talk about Tori, she doesn’t seem to be an idiot, and so I think can be trusted to strategically play her idol to her advantage.  I suspect she leverages it with her tribe to get herself father in the game than her personality might otherwise indicate.  That said, she’s doomed at the merge, idol or no idol.  The problem is that with the larger merges these days, the merge bootee tends to be the person who can most easily bring the group to a consensus. and no one screams “Will annoy most people.” on this cast more than Tori.  As such, expect her to be gone right at the merge.  And oh, what a happy, happy merge it will be.  

Jackson Fox (48, Healthcare Worker, Houston, TX, Taku Tribe): Ah, this is the palate cleanser I needed.  While I have my favorites from spoiled cast previews, there’s a few that, when I read about them, surprise me pleasantly.  Jackson is that one this time, such that I nearly made him my pick to win it all.  Dude reminds me of a modern-day Lex Van Den Berghe (“Survivor Africa”) in that while first impression might lead to him seeming kind of freaky, he’s a real softie underneath, with good emotional awareness.  His comparison to Elaine from “Island of the Idols” seems both apt and in his favor in this case.  Sadly, there’s a couple of bits that stop me short of calling him my winner pick.  He’s the other “older person” on a younger-skewing tribe, though given his own quirks, I think this is less an issue for him than for Marya a few bios back.  More concerning is his pet peeve of “people who don’t get to the point” since “Survivor” LOVES to cast long-winded talkers.  Still, I’ve seen people with more concerning pet peeves do well, and I certainly don’t see Jackson being much vulnerable until the merge, as he seems to be on the tribe least likely to lose.  I’d say he probably leaves in the late merge for being too much of a threat, and if he can imitate Lex’s game without all the gut problems (both in terms of read and in terms of parasites), I’d say he has a decent shot to win it all.  Plus, the dude likes dogs.  How can you not root at least a little for someone who likes dogs?

Chanelle Howell (29, Executive Recruiter, New York, NY, Vati Tribe): Our first look at the “middle of the road” tribe.  More likely to win a challenge than Ika, less so than Taku.  Much like her tribe, Chanelle is kind of middle of the road for me.  Her bio is very guarded, without much to recommend her one way or the other.  There are a couple of red flags; notably she’s another one who dares to set a high bar by comparing herself to Kim Spradlin, and given how much she talks about analysis and numbers, I worry she may focus too much on the strategic side of the game, and not enough on the interpersonal one.  Even so, barring that she costs Vati a challenge (which I don’t see happening, but then I didn’t see Sara last season doing so either), there’s little reason to get rid of Chanelle, as she’s fairly inoffensive.  I’d expect her to be a mid-merge boot, possibly a decoy to flush an idol.  Either way, will be a decent player, around for a decent amount of time.  

Omar Zaheer (31, Exotic Animal Veterinarian, Whitby, Ontario, Canada, Taku Tribe): Ah, now HERE we’re getting to the good stuff.  Omar stood out to me for name alone, and the more I read his bio, the more I fell in love, and not just because he listed “Settlers of Catan” as a hobby.  The dude just exudes “fun” and “humor” from every orifice, and I am here for every minute of it.  Now, on paper, Omar’s got some issues.  While only one of his pet peeves (rudeness) is likely to come up frequently in the game (I don’t see many vet bills coming on the island, and I don’t think pigeons are indigenous to Fiji), the sheer number of them is concerning.  Plus, he makes the opposite mistake when comparing himself to past players, trying to hybridize too many than to few (including, yet again, Kim Spradlin).  However, one must not only consider the charm that comes through a mere photo of the guy, but also his instance on the motto of “They must learn to adapt, or they’ll be voted out of the tribe.”  The very core of the game, yet one not overtly emphasized by most players these days.  Very refreshing to see, and speaks well of his chances, in my opinion.  So, is he my winner pick?  Yeah… No…  While I do expect him to do well, probably making the finale, he’s out at five or four for certain.  No one wants to let charm like that get to the end, and while decent at challenges, I don’t see him immunitying his way to a win.  Despite his charm, given his quirks I would actually have him out fairly early were it not again for the season preview, which shows him aligning with another smart person (yet to be talked about) on his tribe, and I think the pair of them can take control.  Rest assured, he’d be a goner if he wasn’t on what’s likely to be the dominant tribe.  As is, he’ll definitely do well, but much as I’d like to say he kicks everyone’s butt with his airbending prowess, even with his advantaged position he just doesn’t have the prowess to clinch the win.  Also, kudos to the five of you who understand why I made that specific reference in relation to Omar.  

Swati Goel (19, Ivy League Student, Palo Alto, CA, Ika Tribe): Sadly, Swati is our major case of “Someone who would probably do ok were they on a different tribe for the season.”  True, Swati has a couple of red flags even given her tribe, notably complaining about people who are “emotionally manipulative”,  and admiring human scum Elon Musk.  That said, it’s hard for me to diss a fellow theater kid, and I applaud her comparing herself favorably to the underrated players of Victoria Baamonde (“Survivor Edge of Extinction”) and Kass McQuillen (“Survivor Cagayan”).  Honestly, the good and bad kind of balance out, and given how drama filled this tribe is, they’d have bigger fish to fry, and she can coast by for a while.  That’s what I would be saying were it not for the presence of Tori and her advantage/idol, where Swati I think is likely going to be the victim.  She may not be the top of everyone’s hit list, but when those on the bottom swing into power, she suddenly drops in stock, and unfortunately goes pre-merge.  Again, a shame for a fellow theater kid, but I call them as I see them.  

Hai Giang (29, Data Scientist, New Orleans, LA, Vati Tribe): Hai is another one I was kind of “meh” on at first glance, but grew to love the more I read about him.  While the dude is another one who tends more towards the strategic side of the game, rather than the interpersonal, he has a sense of justice and humanity that I think helps balance it out.  More concerning are, again, his pet peeves, which include judgmental people and patronizing people, both of which are likely to show up on “Survivor”.  The best I can say is he probably doesn’t have to worry about people wearing shoes indoors here.  That said, I have a hard time poo-pooing someone who identifies with the great Aubry Bracco (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”), and given that he’s a likely challenge anchor on a tribe that will need to keep strength around to have a chance, Hai will still around until at least the early merge, if not the mid-merge.  Really, he’s going to be his own undoing, as I see his sense of justice leading to him potentially falling on his sword (or torch) for someone else he’s allied with.  Overall nice guy who will stick around at least a decent amount of time.  Always good to see.  

Lindsay Dolashewich (31, Dietitian, Asbury Park, NJ, Taku Tribe): Lindsay better hope that the Taku Tribe is truly dominant, as in going to Tribal Council no more than once pre-merge.  Otherwise, she’s going to have an issue.  Age-wise, Lindsay is a good fit for her tribe, but she seems very stiff-backed and set in her ways based on her bio.  Add on her self-describing as “loud”, and she can get on one’s nerves very easily.  That said, this is a fairly quirky tribe, and one unlikely to have a lot of early boots, which probably saves Lindsay’s bacon for a bit.  Marya stands out more, and so will go first, but Lindsay probably goes somewhere in the early merge.  That said, she does compare herself to the underrated Lauren Beck (“Survivor Island of the Idols”), and recognizes that social game is paramount.  If she can channel that strategic acumen and social grace, and manage to avoid being as sound as she normally is, she could have a deep run.  

Mike Turner (58, Retired Firefighter, Hoboken, NJ, Vati Tribe): How nice of CBS to let Eric Abraham from last season chance his name and get a second shot.  Seriously, older retired African-American dude, big on loyalty and playing the long game?  I could pretty much just copy/past Eric’s bio from last season, and it would take a minute to notice the difference.  Dude seems likable enough, but as Eric demonstrated last season, such a long, basic game doesn’t work on a shortened season with a ton of twists.  Mike does SLIGHTLY better than Eric given that his tribe is more competent, and there are more obvious early targets, but like his counterpart, I just don’t see Mike making the merge in this group.  

Lydia Meredith (22, Waitress, Santa Monica, CA, Vati Tribe): Some players are here for strategy, some players are here for entertainment, some players are here for both.  Time will tell Lydia’s strategic capabilities, but from her bio alone, she will be entertaining.  The name of the game is comedy, folks.  Lydia is an aspiring comedian, and first describes herself as “funny” before all else.  How will that translate to the island?  Frankly, it depends upon how good the comedy is, which I have no way of assessing just from her bio.  Save for her player comparisons.  In addition to the odd choice of Tom Westman (“Survivor Palau”), she mentions Cirie (“Survivor Exile Island”) and Debbie Wanner (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”).  One intentionally funny and good at the social game, one unintentionally funny and bad at the social game.  I leave it to the fans to figure out which is which.  Lydia’s got a shot at making it deep if she channels the former, but even if she channels the latter, unless her comedy REALLY bombs, I see her making at least the merge.  She’s lucky that she’s not on the disaster tribe, and that there are other more obvious targets before her.  I have a hard time seeing her winning, but I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t at least make the early merge, and could even go mid-merge if she’s more Cirie than Debbie.  

Rocksroy Bailey (44, Stay-At-Home Dad, Las Vegas, NV, Ika Tribe): No matter how disastrous a tribe may be, there’s always at least one person from it who makes it deep.  Such is the case with Rocksroy here, who is my male pick to win the whole shebang!  On a tribe that’s going to need challenge strength, Rocksroy is clearly their big gun, and likely in no danger early on as a result.  His pet peeve being drivers not using their turn signal also helps endear me to the guy, though I will say that “someone who thinks they know everything” is a bit more concerning game-wise.  The guy is brief in his bio. so there’s not a lot to go on, but enough that you feel like you know him.  What can I say, playing one’s cards close to the chest is a good thing on “Survivor”.  Plus, I feel like the dude is good at compartmentalizing and keeping secrets.  My evidence?  Like I said, this case got spoiled early, and spoilers come with pictures.  The one exception?  Rocksroy.  If the dude is good enough to keep his online presence such a secret there’s no good quality photos of him around, the dude is good enough to keep secrets on “Survivor”.  And once again, even the photo, dude exudes charm, and that charm alone is enough to make him my first winner pick of the season.  

Jenny Kim (43, Creative Director, New York, NY, Vati Tribe): Remember how I said there were some obvious targets should Vati go to Tribal Council?  Yeah, Jenny is definitely the big one here.  Being outspoken and in a leadership role works well in business, but on “Survivor”, particularly on small tribes that might not gel with your leadership style, they only make you a target.  jenny has a good shot if she can quietly lead from the sidelines, but I don’t see someone who describes themselves as “direct” doing very well with that.  Add onto that a concerning pet peeve (“Arrogant people and those with a sense of entitlement.”), along with less-obvious challenge prowess (though by no means a challenge sink), and Jenny becomes the obvious first pick for a boot should she attend an early Tribal.  As she’s not on the likely dominant tribe, I fear her fate is to be another robbed goddess, another pre-merge boot.  

Daniel Strunk (30, Law Clerk, New Haven, CT, Vati Tribe): Ah, our resident nerd archetype for the season, as well as the second person we confirmed to find an idol/advantage based on the season preview.  Daniel early on worms his way into my heart with his love of Legos, and fortunately I think he’ll be around for a while for this love to grow.  No real red flags apart from one of his pet peeves being “people so convinced they’re right they foreclose debate”, though I suppose the show could disguise some oatmeal raisin cookies as chocolate chip cookies to throw him off his game.  He also talked about admiring Supreme Court Justices of vastly different ideologies.  Perhaps a bit of a stretch, but I feel like this might indicate that he’s good at reaching across the aisle and work with pretty much anyone.  Always a useful skill on “Survivor”.  Sadly, the time of nerds being 100% dominant has passed, and so Daniel will not be our winner.  That said, just because nerds often do well and now getting targeted doesn’t mean Daniel can’t match that level of success.  His social acumen, coupled with his idol, to me makes him a mid-to-late merge boot, particularly since there’s often bigger targets than him no matter if he’s in the Tribal phase or the Merge phase.  

Maryanne Oketch (24, Seminary Student, Ajax, Ontario, Canada, Taku Tribe): Seems we’re just getting all the guaranteed idol/advantage finds out of the way here.  Yes, Omar may have REACTED to her find, but Maryanne is the one who actually FINDS the thing on the Taku Tribe.  Maryanne is… Well, the best word I have is “quirky”, but again, a lot of this tribe is quirky.  I’d say she’s in danger early, but she’s on the tribe least likely to lose on paper, and we know she finds something powerful, and I expect her and Omar to leverage that to become the power couple on the tribe.  Unlike Omar, however, I expect Maryanne to leverage her advantage to a win.  Yes, Maryanne is my female pick to win the whole thing.  This might come as a surprise, given her occupation, but again, Shan has made me see that as less of a red flag, and that’s really the only mention of her religion we get from Maryanne, so I think she’ll be able to compartmentalize well.  Granted, her pet peeves have ALL the red flags, and between her and Rocksroy, I’d say she’s my less-comfortable winner pick, but given that she has time to adjust, I think she can probably overcome these issues.  Besides, if Danny McCray can overcome “liars” as a pet peeve last season, Maryanne can overcome “People who don’t listen to me… hypocrites, and people who don’t apologize.”  If she can sleep well, she’ll do fairly well.  It’ll also help is she takes her cues from her previous contestant comparison.  Davie Rickenbacker (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”) had charm coming out his ears, and I feel like Maryanne might as well.  Plus, she’s a fan of tabletop games.  How can I not root for her?

Zach Wurtenberger (22, Student, St. Louis, MO, Ika Tribe): Oh dear, guess I spoke too soon with Swati.  Look, Zach seems like a nice kid,  Not much to recommend him one way or the other, though I will say his particularly young age (second youngest in the group) is a bit of a mark against, and unlike Lydia, I HAVE seen his comedy.  It’s… Not CRINGE-WORTHY, but not exactly good either.  None of this would really be a death knell, but he’s unfortunately on what’s likely to be the disaster tribe, and thus probably another pre-merge boot.  Sorry, man.  Hope for another “Second Chances” season where you get a better tribe draw.  

Drea Wheeler (35, Fitness Consultant, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Ika Tribe): Rounding out our cast, we have the person who, at first glance, I THOUGHT was going to be my main winner pick for the season.  True, she’s on the likely disaster tribe, but like I said, SOME on the disaster tribe have to make it through, and as Drea is a likely challenge beast, she was not likely to be a target on such a tribe.  Then, as I read into the bio, my hopes were dashed.  I’ve tried to be kinder to the pet peeves this season, and give people the benefit of a doubt where they can overcome them, but when your SOLE one is “Dishonest people”?  Yeah, kind of an issue on “Survivor”.  Granted, she’s still going to be around a while given the Kelley Wentworth (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”) comparison, if she can pull it off, and the need for athleticism on her tribe means she’s likely to stick around a while, just not a winner pick anymore.  Still, look for her out no earlier than the mid-merge, probably with an immunity run in their somewhere.  

Well, there we go!  With one major exception, pretty likable cast, and for once, firmer predictions than usual!  Overall I’m very satisfied, though not satisfied enough to sit and wait for the season to start to begin blogging.  Be on the lookout for something old, and something new, before the new season begins March 9th!  

-Matt 

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 41” Finale: Predictably Predictable

Say what you will about this season of “Survivor”.  For all its ups and downs, for all the experiments it never took its eye off the fact that it needed to tell a story.  Particularly in the latter half of the season, the story took precedence, rather than the experimentation, and for that I am grateful.  If nothing else, it made the finale a fun watch.  Bear in mind, though, that a good story is not necessarily an unpredictable story, as this finale, for all of its strong points, may be one of the most predictable ones in recent memory.  

But before I can tell you THAT story, I have to tell you THIS story!  Yes, it wouldn’t be a finale blog without one final edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Pretty brief one this time, but a mess-up nonetheless.  You see, last episode I neglected to mention Deshawn living out one of my dreams, which is to snark back at a Probst catchphrase.  Specifically, when Probst offers the “Candy or Chicken” reward, he asks, as per usual, “Worth playing for?”  Deshawn says “No”, and says he wants family letters instead.  I know he got made fun of for this, but I’d say it was pretty understandable and sympathetic.  Granted, I’ve always wanted to snark more at “Wanna know what you’re playing for?” and “Once again, immunity, back up for grabs”, but that’s just me.  

We start off the true finale with Probst once again talking directly to the audience, though for once, I’m actually ok with it.  It feels like a substitute for the old “season recap with Probst narration”, and therefore more appropriate.  We also replace the “Reason why everyone will win” bit with the contestants building themselves up, which is more natural and does a better job of hiding the true contenders than the former option.  Even the clips of the season being projected on flotsam I can get behind, as it’s just the kind of hokiness I expect from “Survivor”.  I do get a little nervous when Probst talks about “One new twist”, but it turns out he’s just referring to reading the votes and doing a “season recap” on the island instead of live.  Unfortunately, but a necessity due to COVID restrictions, so it’s all good.  

That said, I do have to question the wisdom of removing the recap ENTIRELY.  True, it takes up a lot of time, but for people just tuning in for the finale… Oh, who am I kidding.  No one does that anymore.  No one channel surfs anymore.  Streaming media has not only taken away my best argument for why “Survivor” should leave Fiji once in a while, but now it’s also taken away the need for recaps at the top of episodes.  

Getting back from Tribal, Deshawn is of course in hot water over his “truth bomb”.  In an effort to show what he’s learned, he DOES act humble about the whole thing and admit it wasn’t very good, but the damage is done.  Though the pair make nice the next morning, neither trusts the other.  Contrast with the relationship between Erika and Ricard, which has only strengthened, and Ricard is going to make sure it stays that way.  Recognizing that he’s the biggest threat, Ricard wants to keep someone else on everyone’s mind, and with Deshawn blowing up his game last episode, he is that someone.  Ricard does this, but awkwardly using Deshawn’s proper name as often as possible.  Look, the PRINCIPLE for Ricard is sound, but man is it awkward to see him put it into practice.  

Sadly, my hope for no more advantages, especially in the finale, is dashed, as one final note is given to the contestants.  They must unscramble letters into words, then those words into a sentence, before going off to find said advantage, with the first one to do so getting it.  It’s a decent puzzle, and nice that they put it on screen for everyone at home to play along… IS WHAT I WOULD BE SAYING IF THEY LEFT IT UP THERE FOR MORE THAN 5 SECONDS AT A TIME/  REALLY, WHAT WAS THE POINT?  I will credit it, though, that it did tie into the “Game within the game” aspect.  If you didn’t play along on the website, basically every puzzle you solved, in addition to a question about the next episode, gave you a few letters, which would unscramble to a phrase.  The phrase in this episode, in fact, which is a nice touch.  

Once decoded, the phrase says the advantage is in “dancing trees”.  Erika is the last to solve the phrase, but it matters not, as she finds her advantage in a tree that frankly looks like several other trees out there.  Distinctive in its own way, I guess, but there were trees in the background that looked more like they were “dancing” to me.  Erika’s advantage for once comes with no downside, and is just a challenge advantage at the next immunity challenge.  As it’s not the final challenge, I’m ok with this.  Good for Erika!  

Speaking of said challenge, there’s sadly not much to speak about.  Your usual obstacle course with two puzzle ladders, and a 70+ piece logo puzzle at the end.  Bog standard fare, but it does come with the Joe Del Campo (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”) Memorial Reward of kebabs for two.  Erika’s advantage also turns out to be a bit OP, since half of her ladders are solved already.  This gives her a major lead into the puzzle, one she’s able to keep throughout the challenge.  Yeah, there’s no competition.  In a rare editing misstep, Probst tells us Ricard is close behind, but when we see Ricard, Erika’s puzzle (next to his) is clearly more complete than we just saw at a second ago.  Manipulative editing, folks.  

So Erika’s immune, breaking this season’s streak of those in danger winning immunity.  This spells doom for Ricard, though oddly he doesn’t seem to think so.  When Erika talks to him about how tough the decision is, Ricard starts off saying how it looks like it should be a no-brainer, which sounds like he’s going to show good self-knowledge about his threat level… And then he talks about how Erika hates Deshawn and should vote him out.  Way to go, Ricard.  

Erika does talk about the conflict of her heart, which wants to vote out Deshawn, and her head, which says Ricard must go.  Erika sadly can’t sell it like Shan can, and this is a no-brainer.  Ricard NEEDS to go.  He is, far and away, the biggest jury threat left.  You CANNOT, under any circumstances, keep him in the game, and the show itself is only making a half-hearted attempt to say he might stay.  We need something else to make Tribal more exciting.  

Enter Xander.  For all those saying I was too hard on Xander, and not giving him credit where his credit was due… Well, you’re probably right overall, but this episode does its best to vindicate me in my feelings.  Xander tanks HARD this episode, and while he actually DOES avoid doing a dumb here, he teeters dangerously close.  This being the last night his idol can be played, Xander wants to play his idol, and wants it to matter.  Sadly, he does not have the brains of goddess Angelina of “Survivor David vs. Goliath”, and rather than come up with a convoluted way for him to play his idol correctly, he just wants to play it on Ricard.  Which yes, would be playing an idol correctly, but this is somewhat offset by the fact that YOU KEPT THE BIGGEST JURY THREAT AROUND!  A CORRECT IDOL PLAY DOESN’T MATTER IF THE OUTCOME HURTS YOU IN THE LONG RUN!

But really, this is a feeble attempt at misdirection.  Even I, on my most anti-Xander day, would not accuse him of being that dumb.  Tribal Council doesn’t even try to hide it, with the whole thing just being a Ricard love-fest.  Ricard goes over his life status, and it pulls at the heartstrings, not going to lie.  Ricard even goes full Jeremy Collins on “Survivor Cambodia” in an attempt to stay, talking about how he and his husband are having a second child soon.  Everyone is emotional, but are ultimately ruled by their heads.  

Yes, if the emotional buildup didn’t clue you in, Ricard is gone.  Xander does play his idol, but wisely pays it for himself, just to be safe.  I am, of course, sorry to see Ricard go, as he was one of my favorites the entire season, but for there to be any tension at Final Tribal, he needed to go.  At least he’s a good sport of the way out.  

Back at camp, Xander continues his hot streak of bad ideas, talking about how a little drizzle doesn’t matter to them, even without a shelter on their new beach.  Xander evidently never watched cartoons, as a downpour now commences, and everyone runs for the cover of trees.  Trust me, compared to what we’re going to see later on, this is hardly Xander’s worst mistake.  

First, though, we have to get a GOOD bit of Xander content up in here.  Yes, out of everyone left, Xander is the only one not to yet get some sort of inspirational moment/flashback, and this must be corrected.  Him talking about proving to himself what he could do, coupled with photos of young Xander becoming more athletic, is nice, but it’s too little, too late.  I was willing to spot Danny his moment a few episodes ago, but your in the finale  Too late to do your work now.  

Plus, it kills any chance of anyone but Xander winning final immunity, and deciding who goes to Final Four firemaking, which is regrettably still around.  Also regrettable, our immunity challenge, where players have to spell “Final 3” in blocks while walking on effectively a large bow, and needing to keep everything balanced.  Not because the challenge is bad in and of itself, but because it comes from “Survivor Edge of Extinction”.  If you’re somehow new to the blog, suffice to say that in my opinion, every aspect of that season, save for Rick Devans and Big Wendy, should be expunged from the history of the show.  

Sure enough, Xander wins, and though he makes an effort to talk to everyone left regarding his decision, he doesn’t make a big secret about what he wants to do.  Deciding that he can’t give Erika the “victory” of winning the firemaking challenge (another point against “Survivor Edge of Extinction”: That becoming the meta), Xander is going to send Heather and Deshawn against each other, foreshadowed earlier by Deshawn talking about not wanting to do it.  Of the pair, Heather is set up as the better fire maker, thereby all but ensuring her defeat.  

Honestly, her best chance is Xander doing a dumb, and when Xander sees Erika having trouble starting fire (which I have to assume, given what we’ve seen of her fire-making abilities, was her trying to lower her threat level in that area), he gets just such an idea.  Because we haven’t drawn ENOUGH from “Survivor Edge of Extinction” lately, Xander contemplates giving up immunity to beat Erika in firemaking.  Going full Chris Underwood up in here.  And look, taking out a threat is a big move you can hang your hat on at the end.  Plus, it gives you publicity at arguably the most crucial time.  But the fact remains that you have to give up safety in the game to do so, and YOU SHOULD NEVER GIVE UP SAFETY IN THE GAME OF “SURVIVOR”!  The real thing to remember here, though, is that Xander is acknowledging in this scene that Erika is his biggest competition, a fact that Heather emphasizes. So it makes sense that Xander doesn’t want to give her glory, but guaranteeing her an end spot feels little better.  I can see the logic of Xander wanting to go full Underwood, but it’s flawed.  

Thankfully, even Xander wouldn’t do that.  No, he does something arguably even dumber.  You see, he sticks with his original plan to take Erika to the end with a free pass, and force Heather and Deshawn to fire making.  The flaw?  To lower Erika’s threat, he talks about how he doesn’t think her game is that threatening.  No evidence, no logic, just his opinion.  The flaw here is that the jury clearly is not buying this, and as a result, Xander appears to be either A) Out of Touch, or B) Blatantly Trying to Spin a Lie.  In either case, he’s failing miserably, and tanking his own chances as a result.  

Is there any upside to this Tribal Council?  Yes there is!  We get the awesome music from “Survivor Island of the Idols” back once again!  Hooray!

Credit where it is due, while I still despite forced fire making at Final Four, this is one of the more exciting duels.  It’s not funny, like the super-long one in “Survivor Cook Island”, nor emotional like Aubry vs. Cydney in “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, but it is an actual nail-biter of a challenge.  Heather has the early lead, but while her fire burns a bit of the rope, it doesn’t go through, giving Deshawn just enough time to win by three seconds.  Good for him!  Heather, while nice as a person is probably the least interesting person left, and the biggest finale goat, so better to have her out of the way for our finalists.  

This is all evidenced by our finalists all having good “Why I should win” summaries during the final day montage.  Xander talks about finding his advantages and using them effectively, Erika talks about building up her game from the background to the foreground, and Deshawn… Gives us the “I’ve grown so much” narrative.  Ok, Deshawn’s is a bit weaker, but he was hardly a load in this game, and has something he can at least argue.  

This point is emphasized all the more when Evvie, truly the best jury foreperson, says that everyone there has a shot at some votes, and it’s a tough choice.  And I will say, while I still prefer the old jury format, this is probably the best iteration of the new one yet.  I think it’s the fact that it’s just the jury talking, and Probst doesn’t interject into the proceedings.  It feels more pure, though again, I still prefer the questions, if only for the hilarious ones we get sometimes.  Danny TRIES to go there with his sports “Divide the game into quarters” analogy, which really doesn’t work.  

Sadly, Evvie’s pronouncement does not seem too founded, as the jury clearly favors Erika.  They RIP into Deshawn when he talks up his “social game” and direct most of their specific questions at the other two.  Xander they seem to at least give a chance to persuade them, and a few seem to be in his corner.  Tiffany and Liana seem to ask questions trying to get Xander to talk about his moves in the game, seemingly to give him a chance to prove himself to the jury.  

Here, however, Xander once again falls flat.  When asked to talk about his social game, he says “Um” about a half-dozen times before coming up with a half-baked answer that seems to satisfy pretty much no one on the jury.  Going into this, I had Xander as my number two for win potential.  Had I known that he had the Final Tribal Council skills of Amanda Kimmel (“Survivor China”), I would, of course, have had him lower.  

Unsurprisingly, Erika wins, but we get a definitive second place in Deshawn, who somehow snagged one vote despite largely being shut out of the proceedings.  Presumably Danny voted for him, but I can’t be sure.  In any case, everyone is shocked that the vote is read live, and is then followed immediately by what is effectively our reunion show.  Lights are brought up on the Tribal Council set, and the contestants are given champagne and pizza, the latter of which they must compliment, presumably on threat of losing their prize money.  I imagine the dream team just of camera, checks in one hand, lighters in the other.  

Not much to talk about at our Reunion.  The setting is cool.  They talk with most everyone.  The absence of the pre-jury is felt, though I can understand why they’re not allowed to be there.  Naseer talks about learning English from “Survivor” for the umpteenth time.  We get a lot of emotional beats from the likes of Ricard and Danny.  Plus, there’s no awkward audience participation.  Good stuff.  Loses points, though, for playing “Ancient Voices” during it, which serves only to remind us what we could have been having.  Bring back the intro, CBS!

Season 42 looks fun, though they’re clearly borrowing a lot from this season.  Understandable, but as I’ll get to later, a concern.  First, time for the old “Idol Speculation” staple: Looking back at my pre-season cast assessment and seeing just how off my predictions were!

Sydney-Wrong.  Took after Russell Hantz (“Survivor Samoa”) far more than I thought, and rightfully lasted much shorter as a result.  

Danny-Wrong.  Much more flexible and savvier than I had predicted.  

Liana-Pretty much right.  Mid-merge boot, not super memorable.  The feud with Xander was fun, though.  

Brad-Not out QUITE as early as I predicted, but still pretty much right.  

JD-Wrong.  Turns out the dude is only good if he’s got a script to work off of.  

Evvie-Wrong.  They were much better at taking control than I gave them credit for.  

Ricard-Right overall.  He was a threat to win, though somewhat less charming on screen than I expected.  

Shan-Wrong.  Much less religious, and much more game-savvy than I had anticipated.  She lasted longer than I thought, obviously.

Naseer-Right about boot time, wrong about personality.  While he DID talk about overcoming adversity as much as I thought, the dude had the charm to pull it off without getting annoying, which I did not foresee.  

Genie-Sadly right.  

Xander-Wrong.  Despite what this last episode might indicate, the dude was much more game-savvy than I gave him credit for.  

Sara-Wrong, though in fairness, I couldn’t anticipate such a dumb challenge mistake, nor that she would pay the price for it.  

Voce-Wrong.  Much more socially palatable, though oddly much shorter-lived as well.  

Deshawn-Pretty much right, though like Ricard, less charming than I would have thought.  

Tiffany-Wrong, flat out.  

Eric-Wrong.  He just wasn’t made for a faster-paced season like this.  

Heather-Wrong, though had I known tribe makeup beforehand, I would have been closer.  Being on the super-winning all the time tribe will do that.  

Erika-RIGHT!  HAHA!  CHALK UP ANOTHER CORRECT PRE-SEASON PICK FOR “IDOL SPECULATION”, Y’ALL!  

In terms of this season as a whole, the best way I can sum it up is that it succeeds in spite of itself.  For once, I don’t mean it’s a good season with a bad theme (see “Survivor David vs. Goliath”), but rather, production seemed hell-bent on trying to make this season bad, adding twist after poorly-conceived twist after poorly-implemented twist.  While I don’t have data to back this up, but if you were to chart relative enjoyment of each episode by the fanbase with the number of twists and advantages added in a given episode, I suspect you would find an inverse correlation.  To put it another way, the more random shit they crammed into an episode, the less enjoyable the episode.  

Now, I’ve made my opinions on these twist clear, and I’ve made my opinions of the number of them in the season clear.  Equally, production has made their views on these issues clear.  Thus, if production by some miracle happens to be reading this blog, I’m not going to get into a debate with you about whether or how many or what advantages should be in the game.  Clearly you’ve made up your minds, and for the foreseeable future, they’re here to stay.  So, instead, let me make a point about all these advantages and your show, one that even production will have to concede has some validity:

You.  Do.  Not.  Have.  Time.  

Leave aside whether advantages are good for the game, the fact is you simply do not have enough time for all these advantages, and still have a good game.  That inverse correlation I speculated about?  Should it exist, I would hypothesize that it is due not necessarily to the quality of the twist themselves, but to all the time they take up.  Time to introduce the twist.  Time to explain the twist.  Time for someone to find/use the twist.  Other players talking about the twist.  It just eats up precious screen time the show does not have.  As Probst himself used to say, “Ultimately, it is a SOCIAL game”  The show lives and dies on the audience connecting with the cast, and for that, they need time to get to KNOW the cast.  Time you are taking away with all these idols and advantages.  

Now, to be fair, there are two solutions to this.  Reduce the number of advantages in the game, particularly new ones that require in-depth explanation, or have longer episodes.  I would be fine with either option, but let’s be real: While “Survivor” is a consistent show from a ratings perspective, and has gone up due to renewed exposure via online streaming/quarantine, the fact is it is not the ratings juggernaut the early seasons were, and it would need those kind of numbers to justify going to 90 minutes or 2 hours as the standard episode.  I’d enjoy that, but it’s just not realistic.  Realistically, the only solution is to reduce the number of advantages in the game, and while 42 is out the window already, I can hold out hope for 43 and beyond.  Also, NEVER do the “Do or Die” again.  I’ll spot you 42, but after that?  NEVER AGAIN!

So, if time is such a big problem, why does this season still succeed?  Because they had a stellar cast, who managed to shine in SPITE of their reduced time in which to do so  This was overall a very even edit (save for some outliers like Heather being invisible most of the game, and Erika, while she had an obvious winner edit in the second half, being invisible pre-merge), where everyone got at least a bit of content, and we felt like we got to know most of the people on this season.  Credit where it’s due, production did there part as well, as this connection was aided by the “flashbacks” to real life, which I still thoroughly enjoyed.  Still, this cast succeeded DESPITE the obstacles in their path, not because of them.  Consider what would have happened if this cast had been replaced with the cast from a season that’s not great, but not terrible.  You know, just kind of “average”.  Say, for instance, the cast of “Survivor San Juan del Sur” or “Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers” had played on this season.  Wouldn’t have stood out nearly as much.  And this is the disaster you court, “Survivor”.  Unless you can have a home-run cast every season, you had best consider cutting back the number of advantages.  

In terms of overall ranking, this season definitely falls in the “good” category.  The twists drag it down, but the cast and some editing choices elevate it.  I would probably put it smack-dab in the middle of my rankings, just below “Survivor The Australian Outback”.  A solid, enjoyable season, but not quite good enough to be one of the all-time greats.  That ranking is nothing to sneeze at, though, and it’s been great getting back into “Survivor” with you all!  As usual we’ll be on hiatus until next season’s cast is announced, so I look forward to hearing from you all then! 

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 41” Episode 12: Erika and DeBeanshawn

This may be the most I’ve ever stretched for a blog title, and for me, that’s saying something.  But so help me, Deshawn’s “seed” confessional was about the only title-fodder I had to work with, and this seemed more appropriate than my alternate, “Little Deshawn of Horrors”, only because the latter implied Deshawn did something horrible.  He may make some less-than-optimal moves tonight, to be sure, but “horrible” would be far too strong a word for tonight.  

Speaking of tonight, for once we have a decent episode, so I don’t have to recoil in horror at the thought of recapping it tonight.  Besides, our players choose to focus on the GOOD parts of last episode, so I will as well.  Deshawn and Danny are naturally unhappy at the way things went down last episode, a feeling hyped up by how emotional things were.  Deshawn does a better job recapping the emotional beats than I do, but suffice to say, they’re still just as effective, even a week later.  

When they DO get back to the “We’re in the minority now” problem, however, they handle that pretty well as well.  Deshawn, being a bit more expressive, saves his rantings for Danny, which won’t really affect his standing in the tribe.  Danny, being more of the diplomat, is the one to reach out to those who voted with the majority.  Specifically, he reaches out to Xander (the person he feels most betrayed by, since he and Deshawn had a sense that Erika and Heather were not with them), and discusses the decision with him.  Xander continues his “shield” argument in confessional, and I maintain Rob Cesternino’s “You have to use your shield at some point” rebuttal, and we move on.  While trust has been lost, all agree that Ricard should be the next to go.  Xander says that the only way Ricard survives is by winning immunity, thereby ensuring that Ricard will do just that.  

The morning light brings a horrible travesty to light.  Something we all should have known, but did not until now.  THEY NEVER GOT RID OF THE “LUVU” SIGN ON THE TRIBE LOGO!  Seriously, go back and look!  There’s some clothes hanging off of it, but beneath the “Viakana” sign you can clearly see “Luvu”.  Does that make the tribe name officially “Viakana Luvu”?  What next, dogs and cats living together?  Mass hysteria, I say!

Ok, ok, the real headline next morning is a continuation of the tribal conversation surrounding race, and specifically just how much Heather still has to learn.  She and Deshawn talk about it, and Heather again reaffirms just how little she’s thought about it, and how far she still has to go to even try to understand.  Good on her for being willing to admit that, and even better for her starting to educate herself.  As she says, she still has a long way to go, and it’s kind of a late start, but hey, every step of progress deserves to be celebrated, IMO.  And I can’t even complain about the show forcing a white perspective on an issue for people of color this time.  This isn’t Probst taking a race conversation and directing it toward the white people.  This is the people out there having a conversation, and that does deserve to be highlighted.  Kudos on learning, show.  

It also helps that we actually get ERIKA’S perspective on the matter.  About damn time.  That said, Erika doesn’t add much to the conversation that we wouldn’t have expected, but it’s still nice to hear.  Plus, we learn that Erika is clairvoyant, as she reads the comments section on any “Survivor” forum from several months after filming, talking about how a woman needs to win after such a long dry spell.  The conversation as a whole does seem to reaffirm the bond between Erika and Deshawn, and definitely gets Erika back on the “Oust Ricard” train, though Deshawn privately admits that he doesn’t fully trust Erika.  Reasonable, but for now, as they say, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”.  

We head to our reward challenge which, disappointingly, is yet another team challenge post-merge.  Even worse, we have a REUSED team challenge, as “Octopus’ Garden” from “Survivor Cagayan” makes a return.  Look, show, I like The Beatles as much as the next guy, but this challenge just isn’t that exciting.  If you don’t have a tribe trying and failing to throw a challenge, you just don’t have a lot going on.  

Our randomly divided teams, consisting of Xander, Deshawn, and Erika versus Ricard, Danny, and Heather, are playing for the choice of two rewards: Either grilled chicken and veggies or cookies and cake.  After a decently tense match, all things considered, it turns out that even the combined might of Danny and Ricard cannot overcome the challenge sink that is Heather.  Since no one on the other team is Angie from “Survivor Philippines”, they pick the sensible option of the chicken and veggies.  Xander and Deshawn talk about how this is fuel for them, and the three, once again, bond over a mutual need to get Ricard out.  

Back at camp, the three left behind discuss getting food, though Danny quickly goes off to hunt for an idol.  And hunt he does, being gone so long that Heather and Ricard take notice.  In a smart move, the show does not actually REVEAL as yet whether or not Danny has an idol.  You might think the chyron might give it away, but once again, the show does a clever move.  When we next hear Danny talk, his chyron lists “Immunity Idol?”, reminiscent of “Former Federal Agent?” from “Survivor Redemption Island”, aka “The One Fun Thing About ‘Survivor Redemption Island’”.  Funny, and it keeps the mystery going.  I maintain that needing to list idols and advantages in the chyron is a sign that you have too many idols and advantages, but even I must admit, it might have been worth it just for this joke.  

Still, the presence of a possible Danny idol means alternate plans must be made.  For Ricard and Heather, who are ostensibly aligned, they just need to split the vote, but this puts Deshawn in danger.  Therefore, he leans on his relationship with Erika, getting her to talk about her need to have her game be seen as separate from Heather’s.  She talks about needing to make a move for herself, which might need to be voting Heather out.  Any fool can tell you this is a bad idea.  With how much Erika is talked up as a threat, she, over Heather, would probably be seen as the one making moves between the two, and voting out such a close ally/likely jury goat would only be to her detriment.  Still, Erika explicitly never goes so far as to say she SHOULD oust Heather, but Deshawn is pacified with her entertaining the possibility for now.  Deshawn then goes down several notches in my book by saying he’s planted a seed in her mind, bringing him far too close to my least-favorite player, Russell Hantz (“Survivor Samoa”) for my liking.  

Off to our immunity challenge, it is, say it with me now, a combo challenge where contestants go through an obstacle course then solve a puzzle, the first to do so winning immunity.  Standard fare by now, but I like that it draws from some more obscure, underappreciated seasons.  In particular, I liked the “Untying Puzzle Pieces on the Balance Beam” aspect, as it reminds me fondly of what I consider my first season, “Survivor Guatemala”.  Sadly, as much as I like the challenge, Ricard wins.  A few people, Deshawn in particular, come close on the puzzle, but in the end, the guy obviously foreshadowed to win immunity won immunity.  Who would have guessed?  

After privately getting their “I told you so’s” on, Danny and Deshawn then proceed to do their best to suck all the remaining tension out of the episode.  You see, the stuff about getting out Heather would have been good misdirection.  See if perhaps the alliance implodes on itself, particularly after Ricard talks about seeing the pair of Heather and Erika as a big threat.  But no, it quickly becomes apparent that either Deshawn or Danny will be going home tonight.  Quick though the tension was sucked out, I can’t fault the episode for at least trying.  What I CAN fault them for is eliminating the tension generated by Danny’s idol hunt.  It’s now revealed that, despite the show highlighting him coming close, Danny found jack squat.  His demeanor after his hunt was a bluff, akin to Rupert’s “Rock in the Pocket” from “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”.  Fair enough, it’s a good play, but why reveal it now?  The one bit of organic tension you have, and you up and reveal it now?  Save it for Tribal Council!  Keep that going until the very last minute!  It would be a brilliant editing ploy that fits organically with the events of the game, and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats!  Where is the downside here?

At least we get a good heartwarming moment, with Danny coming clean to Deshawn about his NFL past.  Good on him for keeping it hidden this long, and good on the show for not repeating the same story we see with every pro sports player on “Survivor”.  

Deshawn will not let “the feels” stop him from saving his butt, though.  He wagers that he’s made better connections with the likes of Erika , and so tries to talk them into letting him stay.  And really, he is the better choice to keep over Danny.  Deshawn may have been more of the strategic head of their alliance, but Danny, as the last few episodes have demonstrated, is a charmer, and thus much more of a jury threat.  It’s in pretty much everyone’s best interests to get out Danny over Deshawn, with only Ricard slightly dissenting, given how close Deshawn was to him on the puzzle.  Why no one talks about Xander possibly beating out Ricard in a challenge is beyond me.  Even more beyond me WHY IS STILL NO ONE TRYING TO FLUSH THE IDOL THEY ALL KNOW XANDER HAS?

Sigh.  Our Tribal Council, being devoid of tension, starts off somberly.  Not bad, but not exciting.    Initially, the most noteworthy thing is that Ricard sits to Xander’s left.  Then, Deshawn decides to try an 11th hour play, fabricating his conversation with Erika into Erika full-on wanting Heather out.  The man’s on the ropes, and I can understand his plan.  Try and sew dissent in the ranks of the majority in the hopes that you seem a stabler option.  The flaw in the plan is that Deshawn executes it poorly.  His performance is decent enough, but it comes so out-of-left-field that it looks like what it is: A ploy to get the majority to turn on one another.  Say what you will about this cast, but they’re not idiots, and so see through the ploy, putting Deshawn in perhaps more trouble, as Xander’s vote for him is one of the few we see.  It’s also one of the few voting confessionals we here, where Xander gives the “Truth Kamikaze” line that gives the episode its proper title.  As a side note, it’s weird that we’ve gotten very few voting confessionals this season.  Is it the show trying to create tension, or is this another sacrifice to the God of 8 Zillion Advantages?

In the end, even Deshawn and Danny didn’t believe Deshawn’s ploy, as the pair ended up voting for each other.  The majority wisely split the vote, leading to the smart play of Danny going on the revote.  While it may be the smart play, I am sorry to see Danny go home.  A few episodes ago, not so much, as the man was just kind of “there”, but now?  Late though it was, the show did a good job humanizing him, and highlighting his diplomatic skills.  They will be missed.  

And our remaining players will miss their creature comforts, as Probst tells them they’re going to a new camp and starting over with minimal supplies.  Whoopee.  

Even when taking into account the low bar set by last episode, this was a good one.  A mix of heart and strategy, with some funny editing jokes to lighten the mood this close to the end.  Yes, a couple of things could have been done better, but “sub-optimal” does not mean “bad”, and this did get my hyped for the finale, as well it should.  Speaking of the finale, it’s time for my seasonal ranking of who’s most likely to win in a Final Tribal Council.  As a reminder, this just takes into account who has the best shot of WINNING at the end, not who’s most likely to MAKE it to the end.  So, without further ado:

RICARD-I do think about these rankings pre-episode, and I usually have a general idea at least of my top and bottom picks prior to the show.  That said, this season was tough, as I wasn’t sure whether to put Xander or Ricard in this spot.  This episode solidified it as Ricard.  Apart from Shan’s narrative benefiting him vote-wise should he reach the end, the dude just keeps winning and prevailing against high odds, and I don’t see him losing to basically anyone he goes up against.  That said, like most in this position, his issue is him getting to the end, since pretty much everyone can see it, and will try to stop him.  Better hope for that immunity tear, dude.  

XANDER-Perhaps the only person who can give Ricard a run for his money.  I’ll admit, I underestimated Xander.  Dude has more strategic chops than I thought, and guts of titanium for having held onto a very public idol this long.  Assuming that gets him through final five, he’s got a decent shot to win final four firemaking, if not the challenge beforehand, and in either case, without Ricard, he waltzes to an easy victory.  A smart underdog who should not have survived this long.  If people lose to him, it’s their own fault at this point.  

ERIKA-She may not be as flashy as our top two contenders, but I do think Erika has a decent shot.  She’s helped by the fact that everyone has wanted her out, and views her as a threat.  While players were clearly upset about the “Time Travel Twist”, it was more at production than at Erika.  She may not have a “BIG MOVE” to her name, but she did squirrel her way into a majority, and survived despite an oddly large target.  Well-liked and well-spoken, if she can get out the obvious threats, she probably wins easily.  

DESHAWN-While low on this list, Deshawn is not entirely out of the running, in my opinion.  The key for him is going to be a jury that cares more about gameplay than it does about social bonds.  Deshawn has clearly rubbed people the wrong way, and has an uphill battle against most everyone left, but if he can somehow parlay his game moves to his advantage, he might have a shot.  That will be tougher after tonight, as I think no one took kindly to his attempt to create a live Tribal, but hey, you never know.  

HEATHER-As there must always be someone all but guaranteed to win in the end, so there must always be someone all but guaranteed to lose at the end.  While not disliked, Heather has just been seen as a follower in this game.  Against a truly hated combination of finalists, she might do well, but I would say Deshawn is the only person she even has a chance against.  She’s persevered, it’s true, but that’s just not going to be enough for her this season.  

Well, I’m hyped, are you?  On to the finale!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 41” Episode 11: Nothing Really Matters

Every season has a zenith, and so every season must have a nadir.  I just didn’t expect them to come one right after the other.  For context, this is now the second time in two seasons that, had things gone slightly differently, you would not have gotten a recap blog.  Instead, you would have gotten a thousand-word rant about how nothing really matters, and everything is pointless.  Even though you won’t be getting that rant today, we came dangerously close, and as such, it gets to be the title of the blog.  

To save us from having to talk about the awfulness just yet, I am, for once, happy to welcome you to another edition of… 

MATT’S MESS-UP!

I felt like I gave Shan a pretty good send-off last blog.  Talked her up, sung her praises.  But no, while I talked a fair game about the impact of her exit, I did not talk nearly enough about her exit proper.  On a positive note, she left the game with a lot of class.  True, she did call Deshawn a “snake”, which will get talked about a lot in the episode coming up, but she didn’t seem to have much venom (pun intended) behind it, and did have kind words for her Ua buddy Ricard.  Her farewell confessional focussed on berating herself, and I respect her for that.  All that said, I also have to note a cruel irony.  All season long, Shan’s debate has been “heart vs head”.  Her deciding whether to vote out the smart person for her game, or the person who would hurt the most to vote out.  And, all season long, Shan’s head has won that conflict.  This past episode was the first time she gave in and acted emotionally.  What did it get her?  Voted out.  Fitting for “Survivor”, but rough nonetheless.  

Sigh.  I really can’t put it off anymore, can I?  No?  Great.  On to the episode, I guess.  

As one would expect from such an explosive vote-out, there’s a fair bit of fallout.  Danny opens matters, but unfortunately it’s not him running the conversation, but Liana and Deshawn.  You know, two of the more volatile people in terms of feeling betrayed by votes left?  Yeah, it goes about as well as you’d expect.  Liana is upset that, after all their talk about the POC alliance sticking together, she gets blindsided and the alliance falls apart.  Deshawn, meanwhile, is unhappy about the “snake” comment mentioned earlier, especially when Ricard, who had at least a similar level of betrayal in the whole maneuver, gets off scot-free.  Not an unfair criticism, but Deshawn complaining about it doesn’t do much to help his matter.  

Deshawn’s complaining does also not go unnoticed by Ricard, Xander, Erika, and Heather, who it seems are in an alliance now?  I guess it makes sense, since they weren’t explicitly in the POC alliance (despite Ricard and Erika both ALSO being POCs), but this still feels out of the blue.  It’s nice for Erika and Heather to be on the top once in a while, but unfortunately I think it also screws any of their chances of winning.  Ricard and Xander are probably the top two biggest jury threats (Ricard is well-liked, and Xander has been playing a flashier game, and is one of two remaining Yase at this point, giving him a good underdog story), and they probably need to go sooner rather than later, particularly given that Xander, somehow, still has his idol on him.  

The next morning, it’s diplomacy time, as well as emotional time.  Seems we didn’t use up quite all the emotion we had stored up from last episode, and hey, Danny hasn’t had his backstory moment yet.  We get a truly touching bit from Danny about losing his father at a young age in a car accident, and how that impacted him growing up.  Once again, flashbacks to life outside the game are used effectively, and it is a really touching scene.  Nothing much else to say on it.  

We then awkwardly segway into Deshawn dealing with the fallout from his rant the previous night, as Ricard kind of felt attacked by being called out as the one Shan was cool with.  In a moment of humility, Deshawn admits Ricard may have a point, and wishes he could go back in time and just be quiet after Tribal Council.  Sadly, Deshawn is not Time Lord Casupanan, and has no hourglass to smash.  He does doe his best to repair the damage, putting on his diplomat hat and apologizing to Liana, hoping they’ll work together.  Liana does a good job selling that she buys it to his face, but admits privately that “She’s open to revenge.”

So, so far the events of this episode have ranged from “standard fare” to “actually pretty heartwarming.  Even in this, the nadir of the season, there are positives to be found.  So, what’s so wrong?  What could case this rage of enormous proportions?

My friends, let me introduce you to the “Do or Die” twist.  You see, it’s immunity challenge time, and our challenge is the Final Immunity Challenge from “Survivor Micronesia”.  Holding cylindrical blocks together at various lengths, keeping a ball balanced in the middle, last one standing wins.  “Cirie’s Bane”, “Malcolm’s Bane”, “Wendell’s Bane”, take your pick for the nickname.  Standard challenge fare at this point, so what’s so bad about that?  You see, as Jeff Probst feels inclined to tell us “Blues Clues” style once again, there’s now a CONSEQUENCE to losing this challenge!  You see, the first person out has to take a penalty.  What is that penalty, you may ask?  

To quote as much as I can remember amongst my rage from the show, the consequence is “A game of chance” played at Tribal Council, where “If you win, you’re safe, and we vote as normal with you immune.  Lose, and you go home immediately, there is no vote.”  

Are they trying to kill the show at this point?  Does Probst just want to retire, but doesn’t want to admit it, so is tanking the show on purpose?  Seriously, I want to know what the hell is going through the minds of these idiots when they think something like this is ok?  A game of CHANCE?  Pure luck, sending someone home.  Guess there’s a reason that “Ultimately, it is a social game.” was cut from the opening narration.  Nothing much social about a game of luck.  

Ok, ok, for all my ranting and raving, let me be completely fair to the producers.  They could have done this twist MUCH worse than how they implemented it.  They let everyone know up front that it’s coming, and give them the option to sit out the challenge.  Had they not done this, and sprung it on the players as a surprise after the challenge began, it would have been BS to everyone, not just the person who lost the challenge.  And, as we’ll see at Tribal Council, it’s not quite AS random as something like a coin flip, but still pretty luck-based.  

I will also concede that I can see where they’re coming from.  It’s the same principle as taking away the flint from the losing teams pre-merge.  Wanting there to be consequences for outright losing.  A stick of punishment to accompany the immunity carrot of reward.  

The flaw is that the consequences are too harsh for a simple challenge loss, especially on a challenge like this that has no obvious skill set, meaning several people could have a reasonable belief that they could win this challenge.  But no, just because you happen to suddenly find out you’re not good at this ONE PARTICULAR CHALLENGE, your time in the game is now at risk.  And hey, why stop there?  Why not make EVERY vote out a game of chance?  I mean, after all you’ve taken all the social maneuvering out of the social game already, why not just go whole hog?  Use those dice for something: Every Tribal everyone rolls their die, lowest number goes home!  It makes about as much sense as eliminating someone this way!  

Seriously, I cannot emphasize it enough: Fair warning or not, it goes against the core of the game to have an elimination based on a luck-based game, rather than social dynamics or interpersonal strategizing.  Fuck this twist.  Fuck it hard.  

Despite these dire consequences, only two people (Liana and Heather) sit out the challenge.  There’s also little tension as to who will have to face this BS twist, since Deshawn adds his name to the “Bane” list, and falls out after 3 seconds on the first round.  Relieving for everyone else, but rough for the poor guy.  Our final battle is a three-way duel between Ricard, Xander, and Danny, and surprisingly, it’s the one of the three who doesn’t need immunity, and hasn’t yet won immunity, who takes the prize.  Good for Danny.  

Between Ricard having won multiple immunities at this point, and Shan calling him out as a good player at the last Tribal Council, naturally Ricard is target number one for most everyone there.  Why no one wants to try and flush Xander’s idol is a question that still eludes me.  Regardless, it’s the smart move for pretty much everybody.  Even Xander, who warns Ricard of the impending trouble, should really just be letting him go at this point.  Xander makes the argument that Ricard is a shield for him, which is fair, since Ricard’s name is coming up more than Xander’s.  But, to quote from “Rob Has a Podcast” from last week, “You eventually need to USE your shield/“  There’s fewer and fewer votes left, and while I think Xander does well if he gets to the end, I don’t think he beats Ricard, and so needs him out.  There’s also an argument to be made that Ricard is needed as a number against the threesome of Deshawn, Danny, and Liana, since Liana seems back in the fold for this vote.  Given her desire for revenge, and how long she’s held onto the grudge against Xander, however, I feel like she could be swayed to your side as a number, at least for one vote, and again, Ricard is too big a threat to be brought to the end.  

With our targets cemented, and Erika positioned as the swing vote, we head off to Tribal tonight.  It starts off pretty standard, with more talk about the fallout from Shan’s comments and Ricard and Deshawn trying to come to an understanding.  Where this Tribal REALLY gets good, though, is when the discussion turns to race.  Deshawn breaks down about what this means to the community, and him personally, citing his sister in the conversation.  Danny and Liana chime in with their own experiences, Liana in particular noting how important it is that the show is now casting 50% BIPOC minimum moving forward.  All good, honest stuff.  Once again, it gets the mirror neurons a-firing.  

Pity, then that the conversation has to turn to the TWO WHITE PEOPLE left in the game!  Look, I’m not saying they can’t or shouldn’t have an opinion on this, but the voices of members of a community, when having a discussion about said community, should always, ALWAYS come first.  Granted, they did come first as mentioned, and Xander at least was brought into the discussion by a member of the community in Danny, but when Probst has to decide who to get an opinion from, who does he go to?  Heather.  When Ricard and Erika are sitting RIGHT THERE, and probably have experiences they can relate to.  Not to belittle Heather’s “I know so little about this.” comments either, since I’m certain their genuine, but to a degree, it’s showing off her privilege, and again, is her’s REALLY the opinion Probst needed to hear right now?  It’s the Sarah Lacina moment during the Varner/Zeke Incident on “Game Changers” all over again, only less natural.  The discussion overall is still good but it clearly shows there’s still room for improvement on the show.  

Oh, and Probst also drops that this is the last night to use one’s “Shot in the Dark”, as Liana had discussed doing earlier.  Gee, so nice to know that, Probst!  Hope they players knew that before Tribal, or else that’s MORE BS you’re dropping on this episode.  Perhaps that’s why it’s starting to stink.  

Ok, ok, enough stalling.  We have to, once again, talk about the God-Awful “Do or Die” twist.  This time, however, we’re talking about one of the few things that makes it SLIGHTLY less awful.  When Probst said “Game of chance”, I was envisioning a coin flip or something similar.  It starts off that way, with Deshawn given the choice of three boxes, one of which keeps him safe, the other two of which send him home.  After picking one, Probst then goes full “Monty Hall Problem” on Deshawn, eliminating one of the unpicked bad boxes, and allowing him to switch if he wants.  This slightly mitigates the “game of chance” thing, since any basic stats student will tell you that switching gives you a better than average chance at surviving, meaning as long as Deshawn knows his stats, he can up his odds to be the best they can be, making it SLIGHTLY more skill-based as to whether he goes or not.  

Ultimately, though, it is STILL a game of chance, as Deshawn demonstrates by sticking with his original box and being safe.  I’d complain about him going against statistics, but I did the same thing with my stats teacher when presented with the exact same problem.  Read their body language to determine I had picked correctly, and stuck with my first choice.  Point being, who am I to judge?  

One more awful thing about this twist?  The tension of the choice is gone.  There were still a good five minutes left in the episode when Deshawn made his choice.  We could tell he would be safe.  

In another rarity for this season, the dumb decision is made in regards to who to vote out.  Granted, Xander does well by SOMEHOW saving his idol yet again, but he does spend his extra vote, and no one spent their shot in the dark.  Gee, that twist sure was consequential this game.  In any case, Liana goes home, and while I don’t think it makes strategic sense, I can’t say I’m to sorry.  Not that Liana was by any means a BAD character.  Her vendettas were oddly fun to watch, and she played competently enough.  But up against Ricard, she was just less interesting, so if one had to go, better her than Ricard.  

So, what do I think of the episode overall?  Eh, it was decent…

Just kidding.  If you couldn’t tell by now, in my opinion, it SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!

Do I really need to spell out why at this point?  While this episode is not devoid of good moments, they are all overruled by the awful, awful, AWFUL “Do or Die” twist that goes against the very core of what the show is about.  They narrowly avoided disaster this time, since it was relatively inconsequential, and given that season 42 has already filmed, I can’t be mad if it gets reused there.  But after that, never again, “Survivor”.  NEVER AGAIN!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 41” Episode 9: No More Heroes

Say what you will about this episode.  It has its good points.  It has its bad points. But no one can deny one thing: It was aesthetically pleasing.  From more focus on Evvie’s awesome rainbow shorts to the frankly beautiful merge tribe “Flag”, this was a gorgeous episode to look at.  In a visual medium, that’s hardly nothing.  Granted, the immunity idol is kind of “blah”, but you can’t have everything.

Fortunately, “Survivor” usually delivers more than a generally good aesthetic, and this episode is no exception.  We start off intense, with post-Tribal arguments.  As previewed, the feud between Deshawn and Shan has not cooled down one bit.  Shan, understandably, is upset at the target being changed, and ultimately falling one someone who wasn’t much of a threat, and had no advantages.  Deshawn, meanwhile… Is still unhappy at being told what to do.  Look, a Live Tribal is definitely a stressful situation, but this one was pretty clearly Heather’s fault, not Shan’s.  Yes, Shan did suggest switching the vote as a result, but so did several other people

All this, of course, is happening in front of Evvie, who we see has a terrible poker face, as they cannot keep from grinning at this implosion.  Sadly, their happiness may be short-lived, as Deshawn and Shan seem to make up in the morning.  Deshawn apologizes for going so hard on her about the vote, and Shan agrees to try and listen more.  This then devolves into strategy talk, where Shan suggests Erika be the next to go.  This, for some reason, pisses Deshawn off, and he goes off in confessional again about how Shan doesn’t listen and just wants her way.  Again, I’m not denying that Shan HAS done this sort of thing in the past.  Ricard knows this all too well.  But in this case, it just seemed like normal strategy talk; Shan throwing out a possible name to go next.  A name, I might add, you attempted to THROW A CHALLENGE to get rid of!  Yes, Shan makes dumb moves sometimes.  She makes one here, blatantly calling “The four” to talk, RIGHT IN FRONT OF TARGETS XANDER AND ERIKA!  But how she handles Deshawn here?  Not one of them.  

It’s clear at this point that Deshawn just can’t handle not being in charge of the vote.  Shan wanting to share power is a trigger for him.  To Evvie’s happiness, he goes back to them to rant about it, increasing their chances down the line.  

Ah, but we haven’t had enough negativity yet for the episode!  After all, Deshawn and Shan were not the ONLY ones affected by the last vote.  They weren’t even the people most affected by that vote.  No, that would probably be Naseer, who was targeted in the chaos, and Heather, who initiated the chaos.  Not coincidentally, our scene takes place between Naseer and Heather.  Naseer, ever the diplomat, says that while he’s not happy about the vote, he won’t hold it against Heather.  Heather denies voting for Naseer, which, if you look back at the votes IS true, but even so, initiating a Live Tribal and naming you as the target?  I still wouldn’t trust that person, and neither does Naseer.  The whole thing devolves into an argument, with Naseer now wanting Heather gone yesterday.  

But all this negativity is too much.  Let us get some more heartwarming content.  Ricard gets asked about his deafness in one ear, and goes on to explain how it makes things like his job challenging for him, since there’s a lot of ambient noise in an airplane.  Touching enough, but then the show takes full advantage of the medium it uses, and adjusts the sound so that the conversation becomes blurred.  The content of said conversation doesn’t matter so much, but that little peek into even a loose facsimile of Ricard’s world.  Genius move.  Ricard’s emotional confession about what he’s proving out here is just the cherry on top.  

Challenge time already?  Well, that’s because we’re doing the mini-de-merge, first seen in “Survivor Ghost Island”.  We’ll split into two groups of five, each competing for separate immunity, with the individual lasting the longest winning stew for their group, as well as a higher placement for their boot by going to Tribal Council second.  The challenge itself pulls from San Juan del Sur (man, this season loves to pull from that season for challenges, it seems).  Contestants stand on a narrow perch, holding their hands on two bars behind their head.  Last one standing wins.  You may remember this as the challenge where Natalie Anderson accidentally spat on herself, or, if you’ve just discovered “Survivor David vs. Goliath” on Netflix, the one where Christian talked Probst’s ear off for several hours.  

Much as the challenge is decent, and as much as I longed for a “De-Merge” twist back in the day, I’ve since grown off of it.  Mostly it just serves to try, and fail, to shake up the dynamics, and having to watch two groups strategize separately just ends up taking up more time.  It’s ultimately a failed twist.  

Save in this instance, for a couple of reasons.  First, while previously teams would strategize separately, but at the same camp post merge, this time the teams will be separated after the challenge, the losers going back to the old Ua camp.  While this does make it hard for some strategies (such as convincing an ally on the other team to give you an advantage), it does force more self-reliance, and second-guessing of what the other team will do.  Second, and more important, is that this season continues to buck the previous trend of the person who needs it not getting immunity.  Erika and Xander were our named targets, and when they end up on opposite teams, there’s the chance that both easy targets are immune.  Sure enough, they do, with Xander winning the whole thing for himself, Danny, Deshawn, Liana, and Evvie, thus sending an immune Erika, with Ricard, Shan, Naseer, and Heather back to Ua.  

Xander is rightfully happy at his win, but should be even more happy about his maneuvering this episode.  With Danny, Deshawn, and Liana all aligned at this point, and Xander immune, Evvie is the obvious target.  About all that could be done to save them is for Xander to give up his idol, a prospect that probably does more harm than good, given how big his target is right now, and how tenuous the Evvie relationship is.  Still, they must work together, and agree to try and maneuver against Liana, referring to her as Shan’s “Right Hand Man”.  Liana even tries to invoke this, by first naming Danny and Deshawn as the real threats in a one-on-one with Xander, but then asking to hold his idol as a sign of trust.  Unsurprisingly, this is because Liana is actually with Danny and Deshawn, and just wants to make sure Xander doesn’t play his idol on Evvie.  But unfortunately for Liana, she doesn’t have quite the same charisma or push that Shan does, and even if he were as dumb as his voice makes him sound, Xander is not that dumb.  He plays nice to Liana, since he needs any leads he can get, but makes no bones about not giving her his idol in confessional.  

So we’re back on Evvie, right  Not exactly.  Realizing that Liana’s gambit failed, Danny talks to Xander one on one as well, and the pair discuss going for Liana, especially after hearing their names might have been out there.  Xander pitches it well, selling himself and Evvie as solid votes for Liana that Danny can count on.  Credit where it’s due: Xander has done a great job positioning himself to get all the information, and is manipulating that as best he can to position himself down the road.  Being immune helps, of course, but that still takes some skill.  I’m willing to admit he’s a better strategist than I gave him credit for. 

The team wondering about the other team transitions us to well, the other team.  That was the clearest sentence I ever wrote.  Once again, with the main target immune, they switch to the next target, the one most closely allied with the immune person.  Unlike our first group, however, this alternate target is not a major strategic threat, like Evvie, but instead, Heather, the person who up until last episode was barely known by the show at large.  Naseer, being loosely allied with Shan and Ricard, is fully on board when the pair say they’re too tight to vote another way.  Granted, Naseer was never formally allied with Shan’s four, but he has tended to vote with them, and there’s little reason to stop now.  That said he does go to Erika and Heather and say that tempting as it is to play his idol, he wants to hang onto it.  Um, WHY?  Oh, not “Why does he want to hang onto his idol?”  That’s understandable.  But WHY ARE YOU TELLING THE PEOPLE YOU”RE VOTING AGAINST THIS?  IT CAN ONLY BACKFIRE ON YOU!

Oh look, there goes Ricard channeling the spirit of Tiffany, and wanting to vote out Naseer to flush his idol.  Yes, I know that has nothing to do with Naseer saying he won’t play his idol to Erika and Heather, but still, it feels like karma.  Shan, however, is a harder sell, and this somehow devolves into arguing about who gets to hold what advantage, and who gets to use what advantage.  Reprise of song for the pre-merge for these two at this point.  What is the smarter move?  Get rid of Heather, of course!  While Naseer is a bigger threat overall, he has at least shown a willingness to work with you that Heather has not.  Plus, if you’re Shan who has the MOST idols and advantages at this point (or is at least tied with Xander), you want the people with idols around AS LONG AS POSSIBLE to shield yourself.  Given Shan’s overall popularity with the group, she can easily maneuver that into a longer time in the game than her idoled counterparts.  It just seems like such a no-brainer, and Naseer is totally doomed, isn’t he?  This is why we can’t have nice things!

In an odd twist, our first Tribal tonight will be the more exciting of the two.  Granted, it does have Probst trying to force “This is a new type of gameplay!” on us once again, but it’s made up for with Heather.  Her lack of overall screen time at camp is made up for with lively Tribals, in her case.  From praying for an idol from the sky at the beginning, to a very touching “This is what being on the show means to me” at the end, it’s just a nice sentiment all around.  It also helps to build up that Heather may go, since it’s the same sort of content we got from Voce at his exit.  That said, the editors are probably smart enough not to try the same trick twice.  

Our vote ends up being a tie. Shan using the extra vote to ensure a split.  I was initially confused as to the purpose of this, but the thought then occurred that it helped nullify any power Erika and Heather might have to control the outcome of the vote, should Naseer indicate an idol play to them.  It make more sense that way, but still seems like a needless waste of an advantage.  You could pretty much tell Erika and Heather would vote Naseer, and an extra vote gets more powerful as you go along, due to fewer players.  

A revote sends Naseer home unanimously, and I am disappointed, though not for my usual reasons.  Naseer, while by no means BAD at the game, was not the sort of mastermind I usually gravitate toward.  However, in a season of complex characters, Naseer was one of our few out and out heroes.  Everything about him screamed that he loved being in the game, and even when things didn’t go his way, I never got the sense that he was down on himself, or unhappy.  That speaks volumes about his character, and I loved that vibe on this season.  That is Naseer!

Our second Tribal, while no less sad, is not worth talking about in detail.  Despite his best efforts, Xander’s maneuvering is for not, and the vote predictably goes for Evvie.  Unsurprising, and probably the smartest move the group could make.  Evvie was too big a threat to be kept around.  That said, I am sorry to see them go.  They were a real underdog strategist on this season, which is probably the archetype I like the most.  They take it with good grace, but MAN is it a painful watch.  

This season really just does not want to have purely rootable characters, do they?  Well, apart from the pain of losing two nice people, this episode did it’s job well.  Decent intrigue, great strategy, and a few heartwarming moments sprinkled throughout.  Just another great hour of “Survivor”.  Let’s get villainous next week, folks!  We’ve shooed out the heroes, time for the “All-Villains”!  

-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.  

Idol Speculation: Survivor 41 Episode 6: Ish

Kind of a bland title, I know.  To be sure, not as eloquent or punny as I usually am.  But really, it’s the only word that comes to mind when I think of this episode.  Was it fun?  Ish.  Was there good mystery?  Ish.  Are the new twists cool?  Ish.  Just Ish all around.  Perhaps you should call me Ish-mael (Ha!  Knew I could work in a pun somehow!)

We start off the episode proper (after the logo of this season is shown burning in a fire, where it belongs) at Ua, where we get a little more insight from Shan into why she chose to keep Ricard over Shan.  Basically, while she did like Genie, she felt her heart was “too open”, and wanted Ricard around to ring in her nicer tendencies.  From what we’ve seen, I’m not sure she really needed anyone to help her play a cutthroat game, but hey, she knows herself better than I do.  

Unfortunately, Shan soon begins to realize that keeping Ricard may have been a mistake as well.  Ricard is STILL making a big deal out of holding onto the extra vote, even into the night after the Tribal Council he was concerned about.  Look, I sympathized with Ricard last episode, but he’s really wearing that argument thin.  I can understand him being wary after JD’s exit, but what else can Shan do to prove she’s with you at this point?  Besides, you did promise to give it back.  You really going to risk alienating your closest ally over a simple extra vote?  Ricard tries to argue that if they’re a pair, it shouldn’t matter who has what advantage, but that argument could be turned right back on him, and Shan, I would say, has more “right” to hold the advantage, given that she did the legwork of getting it.  Even when Ricard does cave and give it back, he keeps bringing it up like a sore spot, and only making Shan question, more and more, whether she made the right decision.  

Over at Yase, they get tree mail confirming that a merge is coming, telling them their rewards and personal belongings will be coming with them.  Way to bury the lead, show.  You spend all your “Next Time On…” segment from last episode building up whether or not this is a merge, and just drop that news on us in the first five minutes.  

And yes, I know press releases spoiled it as well.  Those press releases were dumb as well, but this blog is about the episode, not the hype surrounding it.  

Luvu gets the same message, and we head to our challenge… Hi Probst!  Haven’t seen you talking directly to the camera in a while!  Haven’t missed it either.  Eh, for all that I complain, this Probst interlude is pretty harmless.  Hyping us up for this “merge twist” without going into too many details.  It was cool to see a bit of the camera in the shot, I will admit, and Probst did take the time to say “Come on in!” this time.  Just unnecessary, not cringe-y.  

Thus, we get to our big twist: This is a merge, but first you’ll divide into two teams of five, with two people sitting out.  My heart sinks, as I fear we’re going back to the well that is “Survivor Fiji”, and doing the “Divided Merge Tribal Council Twist” from that season.  Longtime readers of mine know this already, but this twist is one of my most hated ever, and pretty much the main reason Fiji remained at the bottom of my season ranking list for so long.  A patently unfair twist that, combined with leading questions from Probst, screwed over Michelle Yi.  Something that should never be repeated, like most of “Survivor Fiji”.  Except for the diversity of the cast, and also Yau-Man.  Those things can repeat.  

Thankfully, despite many dumb decisions even in this season, the show is not THAT dumb.  No, instead, the winners get a merge feast, and are immune at the first Tribal Council.  The losers go back to camp with nothing but rice, and are vulnerable.  We’ll get to what happens with the sit-outs later, as Probst himself does not tell us until later.  This I can get behind a bit more.  Perhaps a bit of a pointless shuffle, but at least the show is trying something different, and something not as unfair as the aforementioned hated twist.  

The challenge itself?  Actually pretty decent.  Teams work to dig up a giant ball, which they roll across obstacles to retrieve keys.  Climb up a few walls to a slide puzzle for the phrase “Merge Feast”.  Gets a bit generic once the ball is removed, but giant balls are a “Survivor” staple I can get behind, and digging them up makes for a nice change of pace beyond just rolling them or holding them steady.  That said, I was disappointed neither tribe hit upon the hack of just digging up one side of the ball to make a ramp.  

Our teams, as mentioned, are randomly divided, with our sitouts being Naseer and Erika.  Our Yellow Team consists of Xander, Liana, Tiffany, Heather, and Shan, while our Blue Team consists of Danny, Deshawn, Ricard, Sydney, and Evvie.  Think those might be just a BIT lopsided there.  

Sure enough, our Blue Team wins it, but not before Probst gets his moment of inspiration.  The Yellow Team, exhausted, is barely able to get up the last wall, but manages it.  We see the determination in Liana’s eyes, hear their encouragement to one another, and it is inspiring.  Shame Probst has to ruin it by talking over the whole damn thing.  WE GET IT!  THEY’RE TOUGH!  WE CAN SEE THAT!  SHOW, DON’T TELL!

Next, we get a couple of reveals.  First, this merge is a lovely red color buff, which I can get behind!  Moreover, however, the winning team gets to bring one person to the “merge” with them (I use quotes because, although everyone has made the merge, only those who won get the buff now), and they are also immune.  The Blue Team makes a show of picking someone, with Danny commenting that they ended up doing Rock-Paper-Scissors.  Nice call back to the first episode.  That said, even though he insists it was true later, I’m not sure I buy that.  You see, they pick Naseer, which is the best move for the team that is majority Luvu, and wants Erika out.  Best not to give the person you want out immunity.  Granted, Erika now KNOWS she’s on the bottom, being sent to Exile Island for two days to fend for herself.  Plus, as we’ll see, this move may ultimately screw those people, but they have no way of knowing that at the time.  

At our feast, everyone expresses their excitement to have made the merge, Evvie in particular.  That said, game talk soon resumes, courtesy of who else but Ricard?  He asks Deshawn if they liked Erika, which Deshawn confirms, though this quickly leads Danny into his old saw about a “women’s alliance”.  Yeah, we’re DEFINITELY in a new era of “Survivor” if that tired, sexist old line is coming back.  

Erika, meanwhile, finally gets her day in the limelight.  She notes that she’s not particularly good in the outdoors, and so does not want to be on Exile Island.  Still, she puts a brave face on it, and uses her time trying to build a fire talking about the hardships her family had when she was growing up in Canada.  As with most of these flashbacks, it’s a nice and touching moment that really helps us connect with the cast.  Nothing more or less to it than that.  Just a nice little scene.

Our losing team confers after the challenge, with Shan making her first true mistake of the season.  True, she’s made some questionable moves this season. I’ve disagreed with a few of them myself.  But this is the first one that’s truly, blatantly “What were you thinking?” territory, that to me takes it from “bad move” to full-blown “mistake”.  Shan asks about Liana’s advantage (which she thinks is just an extra vote) RIGHT IN FRONT OF TIFFANY!  HOW IS THIS IN ANY WAY A GOOD IDEA?  Look, Shan has been amazing so far this season.  I criticize because I want to see her do well.  On this season that has been filmed and over for several months now.  

Anyway, Liana fills Shan in on the advantage, but then has to fill in Tiffany as well.  Tiffany, understandably, is not happy about being left out, now questioning where she stands in the alliance.  She does a bad job hiding it as well, since Liana is now uncertain as well.  Adding to the complexity, the winning team now rejoins the losing team, and more discussions take place.  Xander buddies up to Naseer, wanting the challenge threats to stick together.  Xander says this new merge is an opportunity for his team to band together, and take out everyone else.  This is immediately undercut by his own team wanting him gone, with Liana and Shan debating whether to steal his idol or Naseer’s idol.  Cross-tribe alliances also begin to form, as Shan, Liana, Danny, and Deshawn all agree to stick together over their shared racial background.  Interesting options.  We’ll see where they land.  

Meanwhile, Erika talks about how the isolation and depravation may be making her hallucinate.  No, she is not setting up for yet ANOTHER idol activation phrase, but merely expressing surprise at Probst showing up on Exile Island to greet her.  Yes, this is the heralding of yet ANOTHER new twist.  Basically, Erika has been made a Time Lord, or whatever time-travel reference you would care to make.  She is now effectively a part of the yellow team, and can either keep them (and by extension herself) vulnerable, or else change the outcome to make her and her team safe.  This has the potential to be an interesting dilemma, and I like that Erika wins by effectively being left out.  Sort of like how the first challenge on “King of the Nerds” would play out, and as I like that show, I’m ok with that part of it.  

Unfortunately, this twist ultimately falls a bit flat for me.  The best dilemmas are true, well, dilemmas, with no one option being the obvious correct choice.  Here, Erika has the choice between leaving herself vulnerable, while keeping the people who rejected her safe, or saving her safe and leaving those who rejected her vulnerable.  Not really much of a choice.  Really, for this to be an intriguing debate, Erika needed to be vulnerable either way, and basically pick which group she thought would be more likely to keep her safe.  

Evidently the show thinks this is a major debate, though, as this is where we end.  Yep, it’s the rare “Survivor” cliffhanger, not often seen these days!  It’s shown up a few times in the past, such as before the Outcast Tribal Council on “Survivor Pearl Islands”, and at the fire-making challenge on “Survivor Exile Island”.  Both events more tense than this one, but hey, the episode needs to be split somewhere.  And I am glad they’re splitting this episode.  All this would have been too much to take in in just a single episode.  

Perhaps that’s why this episode is so hard to judge: It does feel like half an episode.  Again, not sure what they could have done different, but it feels like this episode was the instruction manual to the next episode, when exciting things happen.  Still, nothing happened to piss me off, so I guess this one becomes a win in my book.  Hopefully next week can build on the decent foundation.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 41” Episode 5: The Little Mermaid

Exciting new tribe dynamics!  Engaging strategy and misdirection!  Clarification on rules!  A new advantage that doesn’t suck!  And of course, I choose to focus on one throwaway line that had absolutely no bearing on the episode for my title!  Just the kind of focus you’d expect from “Idol Speculation”, my knee-jerk opinion that everyone is entitled to!  

We start off with the Poor Unfortunate Souls at Ua, who are making the best of a bad situation.  Though down to three, they remain upbeat in the bond of surviving so many Tribals together.  That said, Genie has no bones about where she is, recognizing that Ricard and Shan are probably aligned, and so seeks to find the idol that Brad had with him when he was voted out.  At first, she makes what seems the questionable choice to tell Ricard and Shan about this, but considering her situation, it makes sense.  After all, if she finds it and it doesn’t get activated, she’s gone like she would have been without it.  But, if it DOES get activated, letting the tribe know means that you can still engender some loyalty from your fellow contestants, and keep everyone happy, rather than burning your idol to save yourself.  

Yes, it all seems to make sense.  Less sensible is Genie, rather than taking the idol and letting Ricard and Shan know afterward, finding it, putting it back, and then running to tell them about it.  The party all agree to wait until they hear someone from Luvu say the phrase before getting their idol for the next challenge, to use for the tribe.  Not a bad plan, if everyone sticks to it.  

The flaw in the plan is that there’s a lot of incentive for people not to stick to it.  Case in point, after Genie heads into the water to search for Les Poissons, Shan decides that having the extra vote is not enough.  As such, she and Ricard concoct a plan to have Shan take the idol, and replace it with a bracelet to fool Genie.  As for getting around saying the phrase without arousing suspicion, they’ll tell Genie they just plan to say it to test if Luvu has theirs or not.  Get the ball rolling.  Reasonable plan, though it does come with the risk of Ricard and Genie teaming up against Shan, or even forcing a tie.  The latter is forestalled by Shan pulling a JD, and giving Ricard the extra vote to hold, to maintain their majority, though at least Shan has a better reason for doing so than JD.  As to the former, only time will tell.  

Oh, by the way, this scene gives us a more thorough read-through of the note, where they FINALLY clarify that the idol expires at the merge if not activated, but you get your vote back.  Sure would have been nice to know when we FIRST found the idol!  You know your idols are too complicated when…

Happy music transitions us to Luvu.  We get our requisite arrogance from Sydney, as she claims to be one of the Daughters of Triton.  On land, however, the men are plotting.  While still wary of Naseer, Danny and Deshawn are becoming concerned about the lack of women being voted out this season.  They suggest to Naseer that they ought to throw a challenge to get rid of one of the women as a result.  Gee, never heard this storyline before.  And still just as problematic as ever!  However, while Naseer is on board with the alliance as a whole (having evidently let go of his early idol hunting grudge), he’s not in favor of throwing a challenge, not wanting to lose the tribe flint.  Understandable.  Unfortunately, while Danny and Deshawn agree to not throw the challenge, both are not happy with Naseer’s reluctance.  Surprisingly, it’s Danny, the challenge thrower from last episode most unhappy with doing so, that is upset at Naseer for this.  Naseer, unfortunately, doesn’t seem to notice the warning signs, though as we’ll soon see, he just may not care.  

Meanwhile, at Yase, Xander is desperate to be Part of Your World, Evvie!  He takes her to the water well, begging to be let in, and pitching a Liana boot.  Evvie does an excellent job of playing along, but of course, we know it’s BS.  Evvie is too close to Liana to be truly considering this.  Sure enough, part of Evvie’s playing along was to lure Xander away so that Liana and Tiffany could enact the tried and true bonding activity of going through Xander’s bag, finding his idol and extra vote, getting the chance to read the instructions for both.  Xander, still attempting to build trust, reveals these things to Tiffany on his own, but makes the mistake of trying to play off when he found certain advantages, which Tiffany of course knows to be a lie.  Xander is named a target, and as such he REALLY needs that idol activated.  

As our challenge is a boring obstacle course ending in a slingshot, it’s really not worth discussing beyond that.  Even our reward (tarps of varying sizes) is not worth discussing, and as per usual, two tribes win immunity.  No, the real show here is the phrases that people need to say to activate their idol.  Ricard gives Shan a softball, describing her as “a vegan going crazy”, which leads her into the broccoli line, which she then compares to an (I’m assuming intentionally) misquoted Xander, who uses the pretense of correcting her to get in his quote.  Unfortunately, Luvu still hasn’t found their idol, so we’ll just have to wait and watch them squirm…

CRASH!  

ME: Oh Christ almighty, this again?!  You know, I ENJOYED not having the wall of my house destroyed twice a year by some random contestant breaking in.  I was really hoping to keep that going.  

NASEER: I’m as confused as a goat on AstroTurf!  

ME: Look, Naseer, brilliant as it was for the editors to hide that you found the idol, surprising us with you answering that, did you REALLY need to come all the way from California, just to say it again?

NASEER: That is Naseer!  

ME: Ok, not dealing with this anymore.  Where’s my nice new Peih-Gee Plays buff?  

(NASEER Exits)

In all seriousness, this is a brilliant bit by the editors, reminiscent of not revealing Gary Hawkins’ idol on “Survivor Guatemala” until the vote.  I applaud this move, and welcome more of it in the future.  So yep, idols are active now.  Congratulations on not voting out Xander when you had the chance, Yase.  Hope that doesn’t come back to bite you in the butt.  

It may very well have a chance to tonight, though.  While this episode was light on pre-challenge content, what it DID give us was quite balanced.  All tribes got some strategy talk, and at least one target named.  Naseer having the idol makes it less likely Luvu goes, in my mind, but it’s still enough to create some tension here.  No tribe’s chances are Under the Sea as yet.  

Fortunately for Yase, Xander’s sharpshooting puts them in first (despite being behind Luvu, and neck and neck with Ua most of the way).  Naseer proves once again to be the anchor for Luvu, as despite Danny actually putting some effort into using the slingshot, only Naseer hits anything.  Ua, meanwhile, feels the pain of getting rid of Brad, and JD not living up to his challenge promise, and Ricard is now left to be the anchor of his tribe.  He gives it a valiant effort.  He even gets the slow-mo of success.  But he just can’t pull it out, and Ua goes back to Tribal Council.  

Not for nothing is this challenge so early in the episode, though!  As the first place finishers, Yase gets to pick one person from Ua, and one from either their tribe or Luvu, to go to “Advantage Island” (I know it’s not named that, but it might as well be called that at this point).  Shan is truly the Belle of the Ball, as she is selected to go, with little reasoning given.  Yes, I know Belle is from “Beauty and the Beast”, but hey, it’s still all Disney in the eyes of pop culture.  Besides, there’s no showmance on this season, so I don’t have a good way to work in every song reference from “The Little Mermaid”.  Don’t see anyone wanting to Kiss the Girl on this season.  

Liana is sent as the other person, as Yase obviously doesn’t want to give Luvu more advantages, making the possibility of sending one of them moot.  Evidently something about the island makes great strategists want to spill their guts, as Shan lays out her entire game plan to Liana as they hike for three hours above the Fathoms Below.  This seems like a poor strategic move…  And it is, but it says something about the bond a shared background can send.  Shan and Liana are both women of color, and while Genie is a woman (and is a woman of color, but ultimately of a different background to Shan), and Ricard is of color, as Shan says there’s something different about having the full shared background that makes one feel secure.  It’s actually a raw, honest scene, and I quite enjoyed it.  Shan also shared more about her background.  Mostly she related the “foster care” story, though she gave us a bit more background this time.  Basically, her mother was a drug user, and they only reconnected in the last five years or so of Shan’s mom’s life.  Again, they use real-life photos to great effect, and the scene tugs at the heart strings.  Dammit, show, you got me again!

Getting back to strategy talk, with so few numbers, and having only just earned her vote back, Shan is reluctant to risk it, and strengthens the bond with Liana by telling her so.  Reasonable move.  Can’t fault it.  As such, Liana gets her advantage, but oddly gets it back at camp, rather than at the next Tribal Council.  Yes, this means we’re NOT playing for an extra vote, but something far more powerful and exciting!  Liana has a new advantage, which allows her, one time, to ask a player if they have an idol or advantage, and they must answer honestly.  If they do, they must give it to her.  If they don’t, Liana is SOL.  

In general, I LOVE this advantage!   Like the best advantages of the past, it relies on social deduction to be the most useful, as you have to have an idea that someone has something, but you have to be REALLY sure.  Plus, you could also use it just to gain information, rather than a full idol or advantage, so it’s got some versatility.  That said, I’m not sure this is the season to implement it.  It’s weird to me to say, but this twist works better with LESS tribe interaction.  Because we’ve had so much chatting between the tribes, it’s a lot easier to know who has an advantage (partly just from gossip, partly from the “three phrases to activate the idol” thing now being common knowledge), and thus requires less deduction.  I think production was relying on people being cagier with their information, but if so, it backfired.  There’s also a lack of clarity on if someone would need to ask about a specific advantage, in the event someone had more than one advantage, but hey, there’s a lot of rules, and this one is clearer than, say, the rules of the hidden immunity idol of this season.  

Before leaving the island, Shan tells Liana that if she’s voted out, it’s because Ricard snaked her, indicating there might be some mistrust in the family.  That said, it seems misplaced, and we soon confirm that Shan is truly in the best seat here.  Ricard DOES talk to Genie about blindsiding Shan, but mostly because he has no other choice.  Ricard even tells us that he’s just doing it keep Genie in the dark.  Genie, like Ricard, is convinced Shan is her number one, and so spills the entire can of beans (shoutout to Clarence Black of “Survivor Africa”) when she and Shan have their one-on-one.  Shan, paranoid, goes to Ricard, and asks for her extra vote back, now that the idol is active.  Ricard, however, has learned from the mistakes of JD, and refuses.  Tensions increase between him and Shan, though Ricard does a good job remaining calm throughout.  He doesn’t give back the advantage, instead promising to give it back post-Tribal, but it leads to at least some tension prior to Tribal.  

Honestly, it’s a good debate.  Both players have been pretty much loyal to Shan throughout, so there’s little leverage there.  Ricard makes a better shield, but also has the potential to betray Shan.  Genie is more loyal, but come the merge, Shan is the more likely target.  Once again, Shan finds herself in a position with no bad options.  On the whole, though, since Ua is destined to be down in numbers come the merge anyway, coupled with Shan being so good at forming bonds, I’m not sure she needs a shield.  Thus, keeping Genie is probably slightly better for her game, though neither move is truly bad.  

We have a very intimate Tribal tonight, in part because of how few people there are, and partly because of how bonded they are.  For all the flaws of this season, it has done a good job, through both text and subtext, of showing us how tight our groupings are, and that works to the season’s strength.  Genie reiterates her loyal, while Ricard, despite mentioning his “strategic prowess”, which could be a threat, reiterates his bond with Shan by noting that they voted together every Tribal so far, while Genie, for all her strengths, has not.  

The whole question for Ua was always “Who was Shan really tight with?”  Everyone seemed to feel Shan was their number one, but who did Shan feel that way about?  Ricard.  The answer is Ricard.  

Genie goes home, and I am sad, though more for the potential than anything.  Genie was a nice character, but sadly not the most memorable in the “Survivor” Pantheon.  Plus, Ricard can be something of a buzzkill at times, so I would have overall preferred he go.  Still like the guy overall, but he’s not living up to my hopes.  

This season, however, continues to make strides.  While lacking in more camp life/social bonding moments, the strategy talk was good, and we ultimately had another well-balanced episode.  Good mystery throughout, intriguing new advantages, an overall satisfying product.  Let us see if the “Not Exactly” Merge next episode can keep things going.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 41” Episode 4: Put Your Behind in Your Past

Boy, for a show that claims to like redemption arcs, this season sure is snuffing them out faster than Probst literally snuffing torches.  Voce turning out to be likable?  Poof!  Gone!  Brad actually learning to play more new-school style?  Poof!  Gone!  And now we have the case of JD,  who actually played semi-decently this episode (at least compared to his previous ones), seeming to finally be learning from his mistakes?  Poof!  Gone!

Well, now that I’ve spoiled the episode for you, let us get to discussing it properly.  We actually start immediately following Tribal Council, meaning that there’s probably some drama to be had.  Sure enough, Genie does not take the blindside well, threatening to stop working around camp due to the other players betraying her.  She’s well within her rights to do so, but it’s not a good look.  That said, the other players aren’t much better.  Despite Genie saying she doesn’t want to talk, she basically gets forced into it, always a bad move from the majority.  Shan is really the only one who tries to comfort her or justify things, revealing Brad’s vote steal advantage in the process, pointing out to Genie that this meant Genie was not Brad’s number one.  A reasonable move, but not one that makes what YOU did much better.  Moreover, JD points out, in confessional, the hypocrisy of Shan getting mad at him for keeping a secret advantage when Brad did the same thing.  Shan tries to say that it was “Brad’s thing”, but JD rightly counters that the same was true of his extra vote, which he wants back.  Shan complies, because she probably has very little choice, and JD vows not to make the same mistake again.  

We cut to… A reward challenge?  No, no show.  You’re supposed to give us a new convoluted advantage that we spend all our time explaining instead of getting to what actually interests us in the show!

I kid, I kid.  Yes, it could be argued the reward challenge takes up just as much time as getting a new advantage but A: The reward challenge is simpler and easier to understand, meaning it doesn’t confuse the game like a new advantage, and B: Doesn’t add more advantages to the game, apart from the reward itself.  Speaking of the reward, it’s the return of an oldie but a goodie: The local who comes by and teaches you how to live at camp.  A fun reward from past seasons.  Whether it was Da the Ni-Vanuatu, Paul and Joe of Palau, or everyone’s favorite, Tata the Bushman of “Survivor Caramoan”, it’s always fun to see the locals school the American rubes, and a very important reward on a season like this, with limited supplies.  Second place?  A fish.  Fair enough.  

And the challenge itself?  A returning one, but unusual and fun.  Hailing I believe from “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”, one at a time each member of a team of four hurls a ball onto a rail, then runs through trip wires to try and catch it.  Once all four do, they dig under a beam to an end course, where players must get all balls to land on a narrow platform.  Tricky, and with some fun elements.  Glad to see this return.  

Teams of four mean Luvu must sit two people, meaning for the first time, they must deal with the “Cannot sit out the same people in back to back challenges” debacle.  Fortunately, their picks are sound.  Erika and Naseer are our sit outs.  Sitting out your puzzle person on a challenge without a puzzle, and one of your stronger members, but not your strongest.  All logical.  Unfortunately, this means that your challenge sink plays, and that challenge sink is Heather.  She has trouble even getting the ball into the rail, and Ua and Ease all finish up digging before she even gets through.  It’s back and forth between those two, but between JD not showboating his basketball throws and Genie coming in with a clutch first shot score, Ua wins the island native, while Yase gets the fish.  Heather is the star, though, with Probst once again milking an opportunity for a hero story, with Heather continuing to try in spite of her repeated failure.  And it IS an inspiring moment, but the Probst narration was not necessary.  Again, show, don’t tell.  Also, while the inspirational music was called for, it was cued too early.  While Heather’s perseverance was inspiring, the REAL star moment was after the challenge.  Heather, understandably, breaks down a little about leading her tribe to their first loss.  And yeah, this is a challenge performance that merits some fear.  It’s a reasonable reaction.  How does her tribe respond?  Every single one of them, even the sit outs, comes up, hugs her, and tells her how well she did.  Not a single one gets upset at the loss.  Heather’s name is NEVER brought up in anything other than a positive manner.  THAT is inspiring.  THAT is heartwarming.  And THAT is the true highlight of this challenge.  Though Tiffany admitting she’s uncertain of the fish’s gender is a close second purely for its humor.  

We stick with Yase as they prepare to cook their fish, and make a fun joke where Evvie makes a “Previously on… ‘Survivor’” for their tribe, and the editors edit it in.  This is interrupted, however, when Tiffany calls the tribe over to look at something.  On the other side of their island, we find that baby sea turtles have hatched, and are making their adorable way to the ocean.  So much effort, so little forward motion.  Evvie does take a moment to compare it to the stick-to-it-iveness of Yase, but really, it’s just a nice moment at camp, and a real bonding moment for both cast and audience.  See what nice things we can have when new advantages aren’t shoved down our throats every five minutes.  

We don’t look in too much on Ua, though we do meet their local, Nathan.  He’s quite skilled, climbing up a coconut tree, and somehow descending face-first, but we sadly don’t spend much time with him.  One thing I appreciate, though, is his dress.  Usually on these rewards, the local is dressed in “local attire”, but Nathan here is wearing a T-shirt and shorts.  Not that the other locals from other rewards SHOULDN’T have been wearing their native garb, by any means, but it did serve to set them apart from the cast.  The cast were the identifiable “Americans”, and the native the “other”.  Here?  Nathan blends with the cast, and seems just like a regular guy, which in my opinion is a good thing.  It’s so easy to demonize the “other”, that seeing someone from a different part of the world from the average American, with a different skill set from the Average American, look like the rest of the cast, serves to help bring a small bit of unity.  There are differences, but ultimately, we’re all people, with similar wants and desires.  

The rest of the tribe finds this heartwarming as well.  So, leave it to Ricard to bring it back around to the game, as he tells us that now Genie’s threat is irrelevant, as they don’t need her.  Way to be a buzzkill, Ricard.  I still like his strategic game, but man, he can harsh the mellow of the season, sometimes, and be needlessly vindictive.  

We head over to Luvu.  Let me guess, now the tribe thinks they need Naseer again?  No, actually, Naseer is probably the LEAST involved member of the tribe this episode, if you count Heather’s moment at the challenge earlier.  Erika, you see, is being bit by the bug of “Big Move-Itis”, or inflammation of the Big Move.  After Sydney throws a little hissy fit at not being able to make fire with a flint, Erika sees this emotional volatility as a liability, and goes to Deshawn to suggest voting her out.  Deshawn plays along quite well, but if you remember anything about Luvu, apart from Naseer, then it’s the fact that Deshawn and Sydney seem to be aligned, as all strategy talk goes through them.  Sure enough, Deshawn clues Sydney into what Erika is saying.  Or at least, he tries to, but given that Erika is literally the LAST person on the tribe Sydney guesses threw her name out, I’m not sure she gets it.  As if doubling down, Sydney doesn’t really react like someone who heard their name get thrown out.  She doesn’t throw a fit.  She doesn’t swear revenge.  She doesn’t break down.  She doesn’t scheme behind Erika’s back.  No, she states that Erika’s right to do so, because Sydney is just THAT GOOD at the game.  Way to be humble, Sydney.  That’s sure to endear you to the audience!

Coming back from commercial, we see that Luvu is STILL on this train, with Deshawn informing Danny of the plan, and talking about how it might not be the worst thing for the tribe to lose a challenge here.  He’s not saying they SHOULD, but just saying it wouldn’t be the end of the world.  Reading between the obvious lines, Deshawn wants to throw a challenge to get out Erika.  Now, throwing a challenge is risky, and should really be done only under ideal circumstances.  Think Boran throwing the first post-swap immunity on “Survivor Africa”.  As the old Boran could get a majority that way, and protect their unsafe allies on Samburu, it made sense.  Here?  Not so much.  

Now, Deshawn does make a sound argument.  Historically, on three-tribe seasons, a tribe that never goes to Tribal Council pre-merge becomes a target, and usually caves to infighting.  This would be a valid reason to perhaps throw a challenge.  The flaw in this plan is that you’re planning to BLINDSIDE someone.  Blindsides, for all their positives, do not increase tribe unity.  Ua noticed this right after the last Tribal Council.  You throw the challenge, vote out a consensus boot like Heather or Naseer?  Fine.  Risky, but a logical play based on history.  But blindsiding Erika at this juncture is only going to divide your tribe, and wreck your chances come the merge.  

Thankfully for Deshawn’s game, the universe refuses to let him make this dumb move.  This challenge is one that is nigh-unthrowable.  Teams of four swim out to retrieve bags of blocks, which they then untie to open and use the blocks to push other blocks out the end.  Inside one of the blocks is a key to unlock three rings, which must be landed on posts to win immunity.  Two immunities up for grabs once again, in a decent challenge.  Pretty standard obstacle course stuff, but the block-using was a fun set piece, and I like the way the key was hidden in this one.  Still, not the sort of challenge you can throw.  Really, the only choke point is the ring toss, unless your whole tribe is on board.  Unfortunately, Erika and Naseer, two people who aren’t on board, have to be in this challenge.  

Not for want of trying on the parts of Danny and Deshawn, though.  Deshawn narrates the whole thing, about how he walks slowly to shore, ties MORE knots in their bags, and prays to get the key to the rings to hide it (Erika finds it first).  Deshawn does his best to sandbag the ring toss, but Naseer eventually subs in.  Presumably Deshawn could refuse, but that would only paint a bigger target on his back.  This way, if they lose, he can claim he just had an off-day.  Naseer is quite the ring tosser, but even he loses to the skills of Yase, who come from being even behind the intentionally slow Luvu.  Yes, if you can’t tell, this is another case of Luzon losing to a tribe throwing the challenge in “Survivor Cagayan”.  Ua is the victim in this case, and like with a tribe getting decimated in the game, it doesn’t land well.  This sort of thing is fun to see once, but loses a lot of the fun on rewatch when you know it’s coming, and even more when you’ve seen something like it before.  It doesn’t help that, while the throw in “Cagayan” served to emphasize how much Luzon sucked at challenges, this one just serves to emphasize how this challenge really couldn’t be thrown.  It’s circumstances rather than ability that lead to this moment, and it’s lesser for it.  

Shan knows just who to blame, though.  JD, of course.  He was Ua’s only ring tosser, and managed to blow a lead.  Reasonable enough evidence and conclusion, but I’m not sure anyone on Ua would have been a BETTER ring-tosser, in which case there’s no point in blaming much of anybody.  

Someone has to go, though, and it looks like Genie.  Realizing this, Genie tells JD she intends to use her shot in the dark, and asks JD to throw a vote on Ricard just in case.  Despite this being a decent thing to do to save his own skin, JD refuses.  I did say he does better in this episode, right?  

Instead, our drama comes from Shan, as you might expect.  She’s REALLY not ok with JD having an extra vote, and so conspires to get it from him.  She spins a story about how she’s paranoid, and needs to “hold” his vote for “security”.  JD, in a departure from his past gameplay, responds calmly and rationally to this, but when Shan insists, he caves.  Despite what he said earlier.  Look, I’m not gonna lie, JD is still an incredibly inconsistent player, but he’s at least learned to keep his calm.  I could read him the riot act for giving up his advantage in the same episode he said he would never do so again, but when your supposed number one is pushing that hard, I think you have to.  An ally is more valuable in the game overall than one extra vote.  For once, he’s not flying all over the place like he has in past episodes.  

Of course, now that Shan has the parchment, her evil humming recommences, and she considers voting out JD for his vote (presumably it’s transferrable).  One on many good reasons to vote JD out, but ultimately, I’d say Genie is still the smarter move here tonight.  Whatever JD’s flaws, you haven’t burned him yet, so he’s likely to be loyal.  Genie literally threatened to stop working because of one vote she was left out of.  As you dwindle in numbers, loyalty becomes ever more important, thus making JD the slightly more valuable ally.  

Tribal is a somber, subdued affair.  Whatever flaws may be said about this season, the camaraderie amongst the cast is a highlight.  They really do seem like family, and you feel the emotion at each eviction.  That said, there’s no real highlights, so let’s get to the vote whose outcome you already know if you read the top of this blog.  JD goes home, and I am sorry.  Apart from him being in my draft team (I’m down to just Deshawn and, God help me, Sydney.  Only shot I have now is if Deshawn wins this whole thing), the dude brought a lot of chaos, and for all his bad play, was always happy to be there, and that counts for a lot.  That said, I would have been sorry to see Genie go too, so this episode was really just a lose-lose for me no matter what.  

Outcome and (relative) lack of mystery aside, this episode returns to the form set by the original episode.  Amazingly, when you let your good cast just be a good cast, and not bog everything down with 87 new advantages which all have to be explained, you can really connect with people.  All the emotional moments hit home, and while I may personally dislike the outcome, it was still a fun ride.  Hopefully next episode can keep up the momentum!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.