Idol Speculation: “Survivor Ghost Island” Episode 7: Everybody Knew

HALLELUJAH! PRAISE JESUS! A savior has been found! A savior to deliver us from the greatest evil in the game of “Survivor”! Oh, not entitlement or reading the room completely wrong! No, no, the greatest evil in “Survivor” is horrible rap that no one acknowledges is horrible. But now, our lord and savior Wendell has brought us salvation! Praise be!

Ok, ok, enough with the gushing. Time for a “Survivor” history lesson: Back in the day, believe it or not, the merge was a big deal. The exact date it would happen was kept a secret, and the tribes were brought together in varied and unexpected ways. Unfortunately, the producers preyed on the apathy of the viewing audience, and so now all we get is people by boats arriving at camp. Hell, we’ve even dispensed with tree mail at this point. No foreshadowing, just opening on people on boats heading to the new camp. Hell, we don’t even get much in the way of pre-merge confessionals, mostly just Kellyn being happy that she gets to show off her social prowess, and Mike being happy at his new lease on life. I guess I can see the argument that one’s time can be better spent on other aspects of the episode, but it does make the whole thing lose some of its grandeur.

Evidently whoever’s voted out last before the merge gets to pick the merge camp, as everyone is moving to Naviti’s old beach. Domenick is of course happy to see Wendell, but his hackles go up at the sight of Chris. Did I mention that Domenick and Chris don’t like each other? Yes? I just wanted to make sure. It was pretty easy to miss. I mean, they only mentioned it EVERY GODDAMN EPISODE! Seriously, if that storyline hadn’t come to an end this episode, I would have been incredibly pissed off.

The contestants are told to go to the other side of the island for a surprise. I’m guessing the tree mails at the camps indicated that this was a merge, as the note for the feast does not use the term “merge”, yet everyone seems to feel it’s a merge. Mike takes this time to comment on wanting to be the “Youngest Player Ever”. I’m guessing he actually means “Youngest Winner Ever”, since while he is 18, there was no press hype about Mike being younger than Will Wahl. You remember Will Wahl? He was the guy who couldn’t drink alcohol on “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”.

Sure enough, it’s a merge, with black buffs for everyone. And thus begins the speechifying, mainly by Domenick, trying to extend an olive branch of unity to the tribe, while still harboring some resentment towards Chris. Not to be outdone, Chris also starts speechifying on a similar topic, before devolving into “rappifying”. And I’ll give him credit, it’s better than his first attempt at rapping, though this is less due to his technique, and more due to the fact that he doesn’t misuse the phrase “diamond in the rough”.

Kellyn, prior to the feast, had made a comment about deciding where to sit socially. I, for one, would have been inclined to decide where to sit based on where an advantage is most likely hidden. Come on, with a setup this typical, there’s no way that the producers wouldn’t hide an idol or advantage, or a clue to one of these, in that feast. Inevitably, they do so, and Chris is our big winner this time. It seems that production thought the Chris/Domenick/Wendell battle was too one-sided in terms of advantages, and so throw Chris a bone. He’s told to go to tree mail, where he finds a note that says a boat will take him to Ghost Island tonight if he can sneak out of camp, and that he can find an idol there. This is an idol twist I can get behind. Apart from changing things up from you basic idol hunt or Ghost Island game that we’ve become accustomed to, it’s a much more high-risk way to get the idol than we’ve seen. We had something similar on “Survivor Cambodia”, but there, Jeremy didn’t have to hike too far from camp. He could leave without arousing suspicion. Here, Chris is likely to be gone for much longer, thus increasing the risk. Plus, and idol hunt amongst “Survivor” lore? Chris will doubtless have to use his in-depth knowledge of “Survivor” to find the correct thing that is an idol amongst a bunch of other, powerless idols, and this in no way is a setup for profound disappointment from this “Survivor” fan.

As has been demonstrated many times in the past, however, good old-fashioned social maneuvering can sometimes overcome advantages. Wendell, being the sensible one caught in this conflict, decides to try and bridge the gap between Chris and Domenick. After all, while the original Naviti enjoys an 8-5 majority over the original Malolo, infighting can make that majority go away quickly. Working together, even temporarily, can make the infighting much safer. So Wendell gets the pair of them to sit down. Domenick, putting on his diplomat hat, makes the offer to Chris to work together, at least for one vote, to avoid an original Malolo comeback. Chris takes this generous offer, and considers what to do with it. He could say “Yes”, even if he doesn’t trust it, in the hope that Domenick and Wendell will then not gun for him, and if nothing else, he’s no worse off. Instead, Chris goes full Jonathan Penner (“Survivor Cook Islands”) by taking this generous offer, shoving it back in the faces of those that made it, and giving them the proverbial finger just for good measure. Ok, even as someone hoping for the success of Domenick’s side, due to it including Wendell, I’m not a huge fan of Domenick. The guy really started this whole petty conflict when he could have just let it go at several opportunities, and digs himself into more holes than he needs to. Chris, despite a certain amount of arrogance, is at least not the primary aggressor in this conflict. But here? There’s no downside to Chris saying yes, even if he doesn’t mean it. It possibly helps get a target off of your back, and gives you more options down the road. And yet Chris says no? At this point he deserves to lose, even if just for the stupidity.

Oh, and just to add to the “Chris is a moron.” counter? He mispronounces “suave”. Ok, “beneficiary” I can kind of understand, at least that was a polysyllable, but “suave”. How did you even mess that up?

Night falls, meaning it’s time for Chris to make like Kelley Wentworth (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”), and be “Sneaky, Sneaky” and get out of camp. This he does, and is whisked off to Ghost Island, lit up in flame. All right, now THIS is where Ghost Island can be ominous in its full effect! Creepy shots of idols! Creepy shots of snuffers! A mad hunt as Chris walks up the stairs and finds the idol sitting out on a table just waiting for him. Wait, what?

Yeah, I must admit, I’m disappointed. Ghost Island, being so full of “Survivor” relics, would have been a fantastic location for a proverbial Easter Egg hunt, and I was excited to see what they do with it. Having the idol literally served up to Chris on a platter is a big letdown.

Thankfully, the show does make up for it somewhat. Chris has specifically found JT’s idol from “Survivor Game Changers”, aka an idol that was so badly misplayed that it loses power, and is only good at the upcoming Tribal Council. Not that this should matter much to Chris, since really this upcoming Tribal Council, with the merge having happened and physical threats now the major targets, there’s really no reason he shouldn’t play it at this upcoming Tribal Council, and thus it still fulfills its purpose to Chris.

Fortunately for the viewer, it doesn’t stop there, as Ghost Island has updated its game slightly. Chris can add to the number of Tribal Councils the idol can be used at by playing the 50/50 guessing game we’ve seen so far. However, there are now five rounds, with each consecutive win increasing the number of Tribal Councils the idol can be played at. Of course, the whole “Lost Vote” thing still applies. A bit of a debate for Chris, but on the whole, I’d say the smartest move is not to play. True, if Chris IS in the majority, it’s a solid one where his lack of a vote won’t really matter. However, with alliances so up in the air, it’s a risk, and one that Chris doesn’t really need to take. As I said earlier, there’s no reason Chris SHOULDN’T play this idol at the first available opportunity, and thus no reason to take the risk. It’s a decently large risk for a fairly small reward. Odds like that get Chris Noble’s blood a-pounding, and so he plays. To his credit, he does manage to win the first guess, gaining him TWO Tribal Councils to use the idol. Gambler’s fallacy does Chris in, though, as he switches sides for the second guess, and finds a “No Vote” parchment, thus screwing him potentially and assuaging everyone’s fear that the show was just bluffing about the “No Vote” thing.

We head back to the newly christened Lavita Tribe (whose name is neither good nor bad enough to comment on beyond this moment). What we have left before our immunity challenge is really just more of Chris and Domenick bickering. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, and with one exception, none of it bears analysis. However, I will first applaud the editing here, as they show Domenick complaining about Chris’ arrogance, only to interrupt it with Chris comparing himself to Dwayne Wade. They even made it look like Domenick was somehow sitting in on Chris’ confessional. Priceless.

Somewhat more interesting is how this all turns to strategy. Since the old Malolo will likely be the swing votes here, Wendell sets out to court Libby and Jenna, evidently because Domenick would do more harm than good in this scenario. Wendell gives a good pitch, and Libby and Jenna consider it. However, while Jenna’s dislike of Chris is known, and Chris may be strong in the challenges, Libby makes the good point that Chris is kind of bad at the whole “lying” thing, and thus might be better to work with. A fair point. So fair, in fact, that I’ll call it here and say that it would be much better for the original Malolo to side with Chris in this scenario. Don’t get me wrong, Chris isn’t quite as much of a moron at strategy as these ladies make him out to be, but he’s still pretty bad. Add onto that the fact that, if the old Malolo can exploit this fracture, their only real threat is a bunch of advantages, then Chris is far and away the smart move. Chris has one idol that works at two Tribal Councils. Between them, Wendell and Domenick have two idols that can work at any time, plus a legacy advantage. Much more threatening.

As is standard at this point, our first individual challenge is an endurance one. Contestants will hold a pole over their head horizontally, with a totem balanced on one end, while standing on an increasingly smaller balance beam. Last one standing with their idol wins. I applaud the show for trying something new (again, wish they’d do that with the MERGE), but this challenge just falls flat. Like me, you may think that the players look like they’re holding boom mikes. That’s because this challenge was inspired by the people on the crew who hold the boom mikes. The trouble is, it kind of breaks the illusion of this being “reality” if you’re drawing from television culture rather than local culture. That doesn’t make this the worst first individual immunity challenge, and I don’t want to squash the creativity of the crew, but I expect better.

This challenge also gives us our first look at the new individual immunity idol, which I have mixed feelings on. On the one had, it does a lot that’s different from your usual idol. The centerpiece of the necklace, which usually points away from the neck, is now angled towards the neck of the wearer, giving this idol a distinctive silhouette. Plus, they’ve managed to recreate the season logo (at least the shadow part) on the idol which is wicked cool. That said, something about this idol just feels off to me. I don’t know, maybe it’s just too big, but despite the cool features previously listed, it just doesn’t sit right with me somehow.

One would expect an endurance challenge involving balance to come down to the ladies, and indeed it does, with Kellyn and Libby duking it out for the win. This creates an interesting dichotomy in what could happen. Kellyn is not really a target here, but Libby’s name was thrown around as a possible target should things go Naviti strong. Granted, nothing’s given us any indication that the vote would go for anyone but Chris or Domenick, but still. It’s a winner of no consequence versus a winner of possible consequence. The winner of no consequence wins out, as Kellyn takes the victory. Good for her.

Chris is the one to strike first back at camp, pulling in literally everyone back at camp save Wendell and Domenick on a trip to the well to discuss splitting the vote between the pair, so as to flush out the idol. To Chris’ credit, he does make a good pitch. An idol’s a threat, and it gives Domenick and Wendell a good amount of power that virtually no one else has. Plus, splitting the vote is a great way for Chris to hide his “No Vote” without looking suspicious. The problem here is that Chris is about as subtle as a Mack Truck (copyright Malcolm Freberg, “Survivor Philippines”), and everyone, including Wendell and Domenick, notice. Apart from alienating some people by Chris seeming to think they’re that stupid, this gives Wendell and Domenick time to confer. Wendell tells Domenick about his idol, which given the situation, I can’t hate. From the outside, things look pretty desperate for the pair, and the more information they have about what’s going on, the better to plot their move. The pair again pitch their plan to the others, but we don’t really get any word on how people feel about it. Frankly, it’s chaos back at camp, so much so that LIBBY’S name comes up just for simplicity. Seriously. The original Naviti women (Kellyn, Angela, Desi, and Chelsea) all say that voting for Libby might be the best strategy for now. An idea that seems ludicrous at first, as four is hard to make a majority out of 12, but between the split vote and idols it could happen.

Despite the confusion, things become clear when Domenick, Wendell, and Chris all talk about playing their idols tonight. This will effectively be a lesser version of Advantagegeddon. Domenick will rightly play his idol, which will lead Chris to play HIS idol just to be safe, which will lead Wendell to play HIS idol just to be safe, which will leave Libby in the crosshairs. Not quite as bad as Advantagegeddon, since it doesn’t make for an elimination by default, but still out there. I wouldn’t fault any of these guys for playing their idol. Given what we’ve seen between Domenick and Chris, it’s the smart move for both of them, and since the vote is likely to be split, both of them playing idols makes it smart for Wendell to play his idol.

As you’d expect, Tribal Council is an over-the-top fun debate between Domenick and Chris about who started what and when. We get some more attempts at diplomacy from Wendell, and color commentary from Libby about how good this is for the original Malolo, but frankly it’s SO crazy it all blends together. Thankfully, it’s an enjoyable crazy, since Chris and Domenick don’t seem to ACTUALLY hate each other, and are more in-game rivals than actually feuding. This means that we get good mystery at Tribal Council, rather than annoying blustering.

But, of course, the real highlight is the voting confessionals for this episode. We see three, and of those, only Chris’ falls flat. For the good ones, Domenick starts us off, following in the grand tradition of yelling your vote for all to hear, goes off on Chris yet again. An entertaining move, but not a smart one. Do you WANT the guy you’re trying to blindside to know your vote? Granted, Domenick doesn’t know about Chris’s idol, but still, seems like an unnecessary risk. The real highlight, as mentioned at the top of the blog, is Wendell. The normally calm and collected peacemaker starts off simple enough. He praises Chris’ strength, but then rightly gives him some criticism on being entitled and socially unaware. Had it stopped here, there’d really be no need to comment on it. Some justified criticism explaining a vote from someone whose vote we already knew. But then, Wendell goes off. We see his dark side. It seems that what gets under Wendell’s skin is what gets under all our skins. Poor quality rapping. And seriously, Wendell just goes OFF on the guy. He starts off with a harsh “Your rapping sucks. You suck at rapping.” But then it just keeps going. And going. And going! And it turns into a thirty-second diatribe against Chris’ rapping. You can’t write this stuff! Comedy gold! While I find “Survivor” funny, rarely does it make me laugh audibly. Yet I was busting my gut over this. One of the most entertaining things I’ve seen from this show for quite a while!

Now onto the playing of idols/advantages. After a decently long suspense-building pause, Domenick breaks first. He’s been wearing his fake idol around his neck pretty much all Tribal, but wisely decides to play his Legacy Advantage instead, which is a wise move. As I’ve said, Domenick needs to protect himself, and it’s better to use the thing that’s time-limited than the thing that can be used at any time. This, of course, leads to a cascade where Chris, and then Wendell, play their idols…

Wait, why is Jeff reading the votes?

Ok, I’ll admit it, they got me. This episode was pretty good about keeping things mysterious, but I was CONVINCED we’d get a triple idol play. It made sense both narratively and strategically. These guys have cajones of steel for not doing anything.

Of course, in Chris’ case, he SHOULD have done something. Maybe his brain is steel as well. I think I’ve made clear that his is the wrong move strategically for everyone but Domenick and Wendell (and, if the next episode preview is to be believed, it has a downside even for them), but as a viewer, I’m ELATED! Chris, while definitely a three-dimensional character, was still on the whole arrogant, condescending, and taking up too much time with the pointless feud. Now we can get on with the narrative. This felt like just the right amount of time for this feud to brew, and now we get a satisfying conclusion. Good job, show.

Oh, and Chris can’t rap. That’s another good reason to vote him out.

Interesting factoid: Chris now gets to join an elite group of players who exited the game without ever ONCE getting to cast a legitimate vote themselves. Surprisingly he is not the first, but he joins a small group nonetheless. His only companions in this area are Wanda Shirk and Jonathan Libby of “Survivor Palau”, Gary Stritesky of “Survivor Fiji”, Kourtney Moon of “Survivor One World”, Dana Lambert of “Survivor Philippines”, and Caleb Reynolds of “Survivor Kaoh Rong”. And of these people, Chris is the only one attend Tribal Council (no, the schoolyard pick on “Survivor Palau” doesn’t count). Plus, for all you Chris fans out there, he gets to be on the jury, so don’t feel too sad for him.

Now, why do I say this move could be bad for Domenick and Wendell? Well, while Chris was a big threat to them, he was an annoyance and a distraction. Now, who are the biggest threats left in the game? Why, Domenick and Wendell of course! Granted, Wendell’s good socially, and both have idols, so they’re hardly in the worst shape ever, but I’m concerned for them next episode. Still, I’ve seen people come out of worse scrapes, so I’m not counting them out just yet.

But we’re talking about this episode, and while I was concerned for a bit, it ended up great! Things at the merge seemed fine enough, but very standard and even confusing at times. That Tribal Council redeems the whole thing, though. Exciting, mysterious, and an engaging climax! Who could ask for more? Well, you could ask for a…

TOP 5 AND… TOP 5?

Yes, it’s time once again for a list at the merge. Given my love for Wendell’s voting confessional, that means it’s doubtless time to talk about the best voting confessionals of all time. Since this list doesn’t lend itself well to the “Worst” ones, since it would just be me saying “they’re boring” over and over again, I’ll make this effectively a top ten. This category is pretty self-explanatory, so the only rule worth mentioning is that the limit is one per season. Apart from that, let’s get started!

10. “The ‘Outwit’ Part” (“Survivor Guatemala”): If I were doing “Honorable Mentions” on this list, this confessional would go there, but I’m not, so I’ll settle for putting it on the bottom. Brian Corridan was one of the wittier people on “Survivor Guatemala”, so it’s no surprise that his voting confessionals tended to be good as well. People may remember his “Golden Boy” vote a bit better, and I NEARLY put it on the list, but it seemed a bit forced to me. Brian, the self-proclaimed smart person of the season, saying to Bobby Jon, condescendingly “This would be the ‘Outwit’ part of ‘Outwit, Outplay, Outlast’” is more spontaneous and subsequently more funny to me. The problem? Despite Brian’s boasting, Bobby Jon wins out, since Brian goes home. Vastly detracts from the confessional, but funny nonetheless.

9. “You have made my life HELL!” (“Survivor Gabon”): There’s something inherently funny about people taking the “secret” vote and throwing the idea out the window. Crystal Cox’s vote for Randy Bailey does just that, and is funny enough to earn a spot on this list. That said, it DOES come across as fairly mean-spirited, and so I can’t give it too high a spot, but it’s too funny not to include here.

8. “Dragon Slayed” (“Survivor Tocantins”): Sometimes, simple is better. I’m in the camp that Coach’s whole “Dragonslayer” thing was forced and went on too long to really be entertaining. Still, if it had to last, this was a satisfying conclusion. Erinn Lobdell, someone looked down upon by the titular Coach, delivers the greatest comeback to the whole thing as she enacts her final vengeance. Granted, I’m not a huge fan of Erinn either, so this one doesn’t do it for me quite like it does for some other people, but like I say, it’s still quite good. Sometimes, the simple things in life are the best.

7. “This vote is a total bummer, dude.” (“Survivor Cagayan”): In keeping with the theme of “confessionals from people I’m not a huge fan of.”, we have a gem from Spencer of “Survivor Cagayan”. While I did fine Spencer enjoyable for humor, it was mostly humor directed at him rather than humor from him. What can I say, it’s funny to see a guy try and fail time and again. But credit where credit is due, Spencer did make me laugh at his vote-out with his impression of Woo. This is kind of an odd choice, since it has elements I said I didn’t like from previous entries. Specifically, it’s an unsuccessful, mean-spirited vote. What saves it is that I don’t feel like Spencer really thought he would be spared this vote, and so just wanted to go all out, and despite how mean it is, the impression is spot on. Plus, it adds to my theory that Spencer might have voted for Kass in the end had she been up against Woo, so there’s that.

6. “DENISE.” (“Survivor Philippines”): Like I said before, loud is good. Few people get louder than Jonathan Penner, and he even went so far as to turn around to make sure it was heard. Penner’s usually good for a laugh, and this time is no exception. Short, sweet, and incredibly funny.

5. “You can’t rap.” (“Survivor Ghost Island”): Need I say more about Wendell’s incredible voting confessional? While funny, it doesn’t quite measure up to the gems of yore in my opinion, but still comes pretty close. What it might lack in intensity in some places it makes up for in length. When you think it’s done, it just keeps going. And going. And going. And…

4. “You’ll still give me the money.” (“Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”): What list of quips would be complete without the great Sandra Diaz-Twine weighing in? In my opinion, this is the greatest Sandra badass moment there is. Rupert, having stupidly rejected an alliance with her, is voted out for his troubles. Sandra, to rub it in, notes that Rupert will vote for her regardless. Badass enough, but what makes it funny is that it comes to pass exactly as she says. Rupert realizes his mistake, and pays for it by voting for Sandra. That, my friends, is karma.

3. “You can always beat ‘em with these.” (“Survivor Micronesia”): Frankly, any confessional from the Erik Reichenbach boot would have worked, and if I didn’t have the one-per-season limit, Parvati’s would definitely be on here. As it stands, though, I have to give Cirie the edge for out-badassing Sandra. Cirie’s “Momma always said you can’t beat ‘em with these all the time, but you can always beat ‘em with these.” while first pointing to her muscles and then her brain was a good summation of Cirie’s character, and a badass callout. And bear in mind, these are compliments from someone who’s NOT a fan of Cirie, so that tells you how good it was, that it could break through the veneer of a non-fan.

2. “Checkmate, bruh!” (“Survivor Marquesas”): This confessional right here is why I say Sean Rector is funnier than Boston Rob. John Carroll’s downfall was a satisfying one, but this was just the cherry on top. Sean cockily (but not with bad sportsmanship) declaring his victory of John, while making references to both Vegas and Chicken and Waffles in one bizarre yet fascinating confessional. What could top it?

1. Casey Kasem (“Survivor The Amazon”): Kind of a cliche one to pick, but it’s a fan favorite for a reason. Rob Cesternino doing a spot on impression of a disc jockey to dis Roger Sexton on his way out is that one-of-a-kind comedy (and the rare non-sex-based comedy of this season), that will likely never be repeated. Mostly because of copyright reasons, but also because of Rob’s nearly unparalleled impression skills. He well earns the number one spot on this list.

Hoo, and there you have it. See you next week! May Chris’ rapping soon be forgotten!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

“Survivor” Retrospectives: Tocantins

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

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

Score: 9 out of 10.

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

Score: 7 out of 10.

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

Score: 5 out of 10.

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

SCORE: 31 out of 40.

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