Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” “Finale”: Rise of the Quotation Marks

Well, “Survivor”, credit where credit is due: You did it. You managed to give us another first. Many would have thought it impossible after 38 seasons of the show, but they managed it. Yes, I can definitely say without a doubt, this season…

IS THE WORST THING THIS SHOW HAS EVER DONE IN THE ENTIRETY OF ITS EXISTENCE! Look, I’ve tried to be as fair as possible to this season. I tried not to go in hating it on the twist alone. I gave it credit where it earned it. Hell, I would even say some of the merge episodes were pretty good. Not legendary, mind you, but entertaining and worthy of the “Survivor” brand. But that ending. Good Lord, that ending! I had prepared myself for this possibility. I thought I was ok with it, but the more and more I think about it, the more and more it just pisses me off. Yes, “Survivor Fiji” can now rest easy. It has stopped being the general punching bag of bad “Survivor” seasons for me. Be prepared for a number of “Survivor Edge of Extinction” jokes in the future. What could make a season so bad that even the presence of my beloved Aubry cannot earn it any credit?

Well, before we find out, we have to delay talking about this awful “finale” with another round of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

I’ll keep this one brief, but I feel it’s important to touch on. For all that I give Rick credit for what he was able to do, and how he’s able to win over the jury, I wasn’t impressed with his performance at the previous Tribal Council. The whole “righteous indignation” thing worked at the Ron boot, because Rick had actually been tricked in what could be interpreted as a mean-spirited way. This time, however? He’s just mocking their inability to vote him out. Kind of giving back the whole “mean-spirited” thing, and losing the high ground, Rick.

Moving on to our episode proper, you’d think we’d start out at the fallout of the previous Tribal Council. HA HA! You fool! That’s for seasons that DON’T have 8/9ths of the contestants left in the final episode! Because heaven forbid a great character become an early martyr! Yes, we’re going straight to our “Edge of Extinction” challenge, which is your standard ropes course with a table maze at the end, though with a few cool elements. One is the maze itself, which is distinguishable by having the holes for the balls in separate spots, at the midpoint and the end, rather than side-by-side. The big draw, here, is the bridge to the table maze. Rather than your standard plank puzzle bridge, players use the ropes they’ve been navigating through to build the bridge, which is a new idea that works on “Survivor”, and is pretty challenging. Shame it has to be wasted on as overall lackluster a challenge as this.

Now, with 16 people competing in arguably their most important challenge of their game, we of course need some idea of who’s in it to win it. The smart thing to do would have been to build story arcs for those on the Edge of Extinction, like you would do in a NORMAL season, and then let this challenge be the culmination of said story arcs. This being “Survivor Edge of Extinction” they instead do the dumb thing of giving us little to nothing of most of our players, and instead just have the frontrunners get out early in the challenge. Thus, we quickly learn that only Aurora, Eric, Joey Amazing, and Chris are really in contention. Aubry, despite my hopes and predictions, chokes. Even worse, she chokes on the part of the challenge SHE HAD PRACTICED! No, it does not diminish my love for her, and no, it does not contribute to my newfound hatred for this season. Even if Aubry’s loss could be counted as a “sin”, believe me, it would be the LEAST of the sins here.

Out of these four, Chris is our winner. I suppose of those four, he had the closest thing to a story arc, though I lump his “I didn’t get my perfect game.” storyline with Andrew Savage’s “I’m missing my perfect supermodel wife from my life where everything except ‘Survivor’ is perfect!” storyline: It exists, but is pointless and whiny, serving only to turn me against the character. We get our teary farewell confessionals from our remaining contestants who are now, mercifully out of the game. I suppose it’s decently emotional, but more due to the mirror neurons firing than due to the confessionals themselves actually being emotional.

This leads to our first forced Probst segment, where he talks to Joe about losing the game again. After getting an assurance from Joe that Joe thinks he himself can win, Probst nearly has a heart attack when Joe is noncommittal about returning. Trying to salvage the situation, Probst goes for what I describe as “comedy” only in the loosest sense of the term, going on about Joe’s hair being his weakness. Probst, might I suggest you look up the story of “Samson and Delilah”? You might learn a few things about suggest haircuts.

Getting back to camp, Chris now has the daunting task of integrating himself into a group that has every reason to want him gone, and half of whom he hasn’t even played with prior to this day. To his credit, I think he plays it off as best he can here. He talks about the harshness of Edge of Extinction, and how exhausted he is from playing on it. However, he also highlights the insights he has to the jury, and how he’s willing to talk about them with anyone. This simultaneously diminishes Chris’ threat level, while also giving him a bargaining chip in any conversation. His salesman’s skills mean that to the untrained eye, this comes off as genuine. Fortunately for us, Victoria is highly intelligent, as well as having a good bullshit detector. She notes that OF COURSE this is what Chris is going to say, and affirms that he and Rick are targets A and B.

Chris, of course, still needs allies, and so speaks with Rick, the one person who might have his back. Indeed, Rick notes the irony of the situation: How he had helped vote Chris out, only to be voted out himself, and now the two need to work together if they hope to survive. Rick admits to some mistrust, but the guy with no allies to speak of takes what he can get.

Obstacle course number one is nothing to speak of, though I’ll give credit that the circular puzzle is better this time, in and of that you can’t simply look at the logo to get the design. You’d have to examine the immunity idol, which is harder to see at a distance and less frequently examined closely. Julie ends up the victor, which would be uneventful were it not for the way she wins. Oh, I’m not talking about her mistake in building the border first rather than building vertically to help prevent puzzle collapse. No, Chris, recognizing his own inevitable loss of the challenge, stops what he’s doing to help Julie. This, understandably, gets the attention of Rick, who was decently close in the challenge, and is naturally unhappy about a supposed ally helping to ensure his defeat. This is played up as a big deal, and I think it SHOULD have been a big deal, but for two guys with few alliance prospects, I doubt they can let this come between them.

Julie also wins steak dinner, with the choice to bring two people along with her. Hoo boy, does Julie drop the ball here. Chris is her first choice, and I get where she’s coming from in the “he hasn’t had anything to eat since he got voted out” thing, plus the whole “helped her win the challenge” thing, but Julie, it’s the end of the game. Time to be cutthroat. Need I remind you that you are STRENGTHENING ARGUABLY THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE THREAT LEFT IN THE GAME WHO YOU AREN’T EVEN ALLIED WITH? Sigh. At least her second pick, Lauren, makes a little more sense, since they did work together and all before, but despite this, it still alienates her allies. Specifically Victoria, which even RICK calls out as a dumb move on her part. Need I remind you that the only times Victoria HASN’T voted correctly has been when she’s helping out with a split vote? She seems like a person you don’t want to piss off.

Over dinner, our castaways discuss their vote-out options. Rick is of course the primary target, and Chris proves his loyalty by covering for Rick’s idol, which Rick had revealed to him in their previous talk. This then leads to who the backup should be, with the idea floated out that Victoria be the next one to go. Makes sense. She seems popular, and I think has been a low-key major decision maker this entire time. Rick is, of course, planning to use his idol tonight, though whether he’ll go against Chris or not is up in the air. After all, if he were to sway Gavin and Victoria to his side, he’d be able to at least tie, and then rely on everyone else’s self-preservation instinct to break that tie. Despite saving Chris being the clear obvious choice, this is actually some interesting misdirection.

Too bad it goes nowhere! We find out that, like Rick, Chris was given an idol good for the next Tribal Council, but only if half is temporarily given to another player. Chris, recognizing the need to build trust, gives it to Rick, who now trusts Chris 100%, and cements the loss of Victoria. I’ll explain why that’s a shame in a bit, but first, let’s talk about the substitute intrigue for a bit. Rick is hardly the only person Chris has been talking to, and Lauren, at least, is willing to give him the time of day. Chris knows from Kelley that she has an idol, but has been keeping it under wraps for her. Chris tells her that what the jury is looking for is for idols to be played, and played correctly. A plausible lie told in a convincing way. So, now the question is: Will Lauren play her idol for Chris?

Yes. The answer is yes. After a throughly “nothing” Tribal Council, we find that both Lauren and Rick blow their idols. Rick needed to, but as Lauren laments, she wasted hers, with Victoria going out 2 to nothing, against the one vote Chris would have had. Victoria is a major loss for the season, in more ways than one. This gets into the first two problems this season has: who gets booted, and how they’re presented. There were some great new characters and strategists this season, and Victoria, for me, was definitely one of them. More so the latter than the former, but still intriguing, particularly given her young age. Thus, losing her loses the person I was most rooting for at this point, and while it’s a smart move to take out the smart people at this point in the game, it’s not as fun from an audience perspective. More to the point, however, is that while all these things about Victoria are true, you need to look REALLY deep to find them. For all that Victoria was a major force this season, post Aubry-boot she was pretty much nonexistent. Probst even commented at the Reunion show (which is spared quotation marks due to actually being decent this season) that Victoria played a good under-the-radar game that doesn’t get the credit it deserves. Nice sentiment, Probst, but here’s an idea: If you want people to get credit for their work, THEN ACTUALLY SHOW THEIR WORK! My God, the wasted potential here is staggering. Victoria, you deserved a much better season than the one we got.

On a positive note, I will say I admire Eric’s decision to NOT clean himself up at Ponderosa. Helps him stand out, and is a nice, respectful touch.

So, this means we get a segment with Probst detailing Victoria’s game, and hopes for the future, right? Silly viewer! Those are for who PRODUCTION cares about, not who you care about!

Getting back to camp, Rick of course foolishly sets out to look for an idol. I say “foolishly” because of course, after the backlash that the fire-making final four twist from “Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers” received, they have moved back when regular idols work to the final six, leaving only Chris’ as a legitimate idol left. Then you remember that this is “Survivor Edge of Extinction” where everything you love goes to die! Instead, Rick finds yet ANOTHER idol, thus guaranteeing himself the final four. If, at this point, you think there’s an overabundance of idols for so late in the game, you’re right! Look, I give the producers more slack on the “Advantagegeddon” even on “Survivor Game Changers” than most. While I agree that season overall was too twist-heavy, that particular event I say was more due to the contestants then having balls of steel to hold their idols and advantages so long. But putting in new idols when there’s only one legitimate vote left in the game? That’s just too much. I will never be a fan of the fire-making final four happening automatically, but if you give us one vote with no possible idols, it becomes much more tolerable.

Not content with having TWO hidden immunity idols in the game, Rick now decides he needs FAKE idols in the game as well. He hides a pair of them (with notes from his previous idols for legitimacy), which Lauren and Julie, having learned from their previous efforts of NOT following Rick, find. Rick proves just how much of the high ground he’s taking by laughing obnoxiously behind their backs as they make these efforts. Our hero, everybody.

Our second immunity challenge is your standard ropes obstacle course with little fanfare, though putting it over water was a nice touch. Rick wins, rendering his idol DOUBLY pointless, but making for an interesting situation back at camp. You see, everyone BUT Gavin thinks they’re safe. Preying on this, Rick suggest that he’ll play his idol on Gavin if Gavin votes with them. Gavin, not being a moron, jumps at the chance. But who should they target. The debate, by default, is between Julie and Lauren. Lauren’s played a more dominant game in their eyes, while Julie might have more friends on the jury. The answer, however, is quite obvious to me. Julie must go. Yes, Lauren has a stronger game overall, but it’s not one necessarily respected by the jury. Who the jury wants to win is the biggest factor at this point, making Julie a threat. Moreover, Lauren, being original Manu, is more likely to help one or both of you out at the final four, whereas Julie is not likely to at all. Better to get rid of her.

Our second Tribal Council is just as “nothing” as the first, save for that for once people make the stupid decision. After Lauren and Julie get needlessly humiliated with the fake idols (not that I don’t think Rick shouldn’t have made them, as they did help throw the scent off of him, but the laughter was needless), Lauren gets sent home. Again, I’m sorry to see her go. While not the same level as Victoria, she had a determination I liked, and again, was probably the best non-Rick strategist left in the game. Losing her loses a lot of investment in the season, and another good player to boot.

Our final immunity challenge is the now standard “Stack blocks to make a phrase” challenge, though this one does up the game a bit by having contestants walk along an arced board while still holding the platform steady. Much as I despise this challenge for being repetitive at this point, that is a pretty clever way to shake things up. Gavin and Rick make basically no headway, so our battle comes down to Julie and Chris. Julie is overall faster, but also messes up, handing Chris an easy victory. Meaning yes, someone who was voted out of the game just over a week in, and who will have played less than two weeks total, just made the finals. I’m sure this will in no way backfire on the show whatsoever!

Chris, of course, now has to choose who will be going to fire making. He tries to play things cool with Rick, but Rick pretty quickly picks up on the fact that Chris doesn’t want him in the finals, and so goes to make fire. The debate for Chris really comes down to who he thinks can beat Rick in fire making, and he tells as much to Julie and Gavin. He coaches each of them on fire making, but no real conclusion is reached as we head off to Tribal Council.

Soon enough, we see exactly WHY no conclusion was reached: because Chris chose to take a third option. A stupid option, to be sure, but an option nonetheless. You see, Chris has decided to go full Domenick Abbate (“Survivor Ghost Island”), and give up immunity to Julie, allowing him to battle Rick for the right to remain in the game. For some reason, despite giving up immunity, Chris is allowed to choose who goes to fire making. Granted, I don’t think Julie would have chosen differently, but still, you’d think it’d be her choice, given that she now has immunity. Look, I can see the logic here. Like Domenick, Chris doesn’t want to lose votes to another worthy competitor, and so moves to eliminate that chance, at great risk to himself. It is this last part that I take issue with. No matter how much of a jury threat someone is, IT IS NEVER WORTH RISKING YOUR OWN SPOT IN THE GAME FOR THEM! This was Chris’ worst move of the night, and he’s lucky it didn’t backfire on him. Rick goes home, and again, I’m disappointed. A Rick win would have been predictable from the edit, and certainly would have had an asterisk next to it for the whole “Edge of Extinction” twist, but we at least got to see his gameplay, and he would have been an entertaining winner, if nothing else. Instead, we’re left with decent enough players and nice people, but whose stories were weak (Julie, Chris) or nonexistent (Gavin). Joy.

Between segments, we get another Probst interlude, as Rick is popular enough to warrant an interview. It’s less cringe-worthy than Joe’s segment, as really all Probst tries to do is to get Rick to follow in the footsteps of John Cochran (“Survivor South Pacific”), and come work for CBS. Pointless, but nothing annoying about it.

To their credit, all our contestants actually give themselves pretty good arguments about why they should win on this particular day 39. Julie cites her willingness to change up the game, Gavin leans on his social bonds, and Chris notes the effort it took to return from Edge of Extinction. For all my complaints, this is one part the episode actually does well. For a moment, it seems like everyone has a shot.

That is, until we get to Final Tribal Council. Then, Julie at least is shut out. Frankly, of the finalists, she’s probably the one I most wanted to win, due to her arguably actually having an arc. The trouble is, said arc involves Julie acting on her emotions, and while an emotional argument can be powerful, Julie doesn’t demonstrate good control over them, thus making her gameplay come off as erratic and reactionary, rather than controlled and calculated. She’s out, but Chris does himself few favors as well. When Gavin makes a point about his own game at the expense of Chris’, Chris interrupts him to rebut the argument. The jury gets on his case for this, though, citing it as disrespectful. And yet, Chris keeps doing it. True, he does get in good arguments about his social manipulation in the time he had, using Lauren playing her idol as an example of this. Still, that doesn’t mean his interactions with the other finalists come off well. The only person who comes off decently here is Gavin, who manages to articulate his social game nicely, and provide some good, concrete examples. Like with previous uses of this jury format, we do lose those great, defining moments a jury question can provide. The overall Final Tribal Council is sound.

The conclusion, however, is not, and now it is time. We must discuss the sin that ruins the season retroactively. The sin that makes this the worst season of “Survivor” there ever was, purely by default. Our winner, as one might expect, is Chris Underwood.

Where to start with the problems this causes? Well, for one thing, CHRIS WAS VOTED OUT OF THE GAME ON DAY 8! Yes, our winner is a man who so badly bungled a situation, that he was voted out pre-merge. Also bear in mind that he was a physical challenge beast on a tribe that desperately needed challenge strength. For him to be voted out in spite of this speaks volumes about just how badly he bungled his situation. Not only did he bungle his situation, but this also means Chris didn’t need to work nearly as hard as everyone else. While Gavin, Julie, and the other finalists (yes, even Rick to some degree), all had to put themselves at risk, and navigating the social quagmire that is betraying people but still having them like you, all Chris had to do was sit, wait, win one crucial challenge, and not be an asshole. It’s not NOTHING, but compared to what everyone else had to go through, it seems like a lot less, and ought to have disqualified him outright from his victory. This, of course, begs the question of how I would have felt about a Rick victory. I can’t say I would have been fully on board with it, but I wouldn’t have felt like disqualifying Rick quite as much as I do Chris. Rick did get voted out of the game, but unlike Chris, it was less due to his game play, and more due to having the bad luck to end up on a tribe with few options. Rick’s loss was largely due to luck, Chris’ to skill. See the difference? Plus, Rick was in the game the majority of the time, and had to navigate difficult situations, while Chris faced few, if any. Did Chris do nothing? Of course not! His gameplay this episode was masterful, and he’s definitely charming enough to earn a few votes. But think about how this would have looked in previous seasons. Let’s take the case of Hunter Ellis from “Survivor Marquesas”, and man who fills the same roll as Chris, and was voted out at the same point in the game. People loved Hunter at the time, and were shocked at his vote out. Many even advocate for his return. But would you really still love him if, having made no enemies, he was just randomly put back in the game at the end? No. No you wouldn’t. You’d feel production was giving him a leg up because heaven forbid we produce an unsatisfying winner! Ironically, by doing all this, I say production made what could have been a future satisfying winner unsatisfying. I’m glad Chris got the chance to show what he could do, and as I say, he did it well, and there’s nothing offensive about him as a person. But we should have gotten to see these things on a “Second Chances” type season, rather than shoehorning Chris in in the last episode.

But, to be fair, pretty much all of what I’ve vilified is stuff that’s out of Chris’ control. He didn’t ask to be put on an Edge of Extinction season, and made the best of what he had. Besides, however unfair it might be, any twist in the game is legitimate, and you can only play the hand you’re dealt, right? That is correct, and so all of the above, I’m willing to at least consider a counter-argument to. However, even if you were to take away all these problems, one major one still reigns. One question that has no satisfying answer, and is what, by default, makes this the worst season the show has ever put out:

What was the point of having all the episodes this season?

Here’s what I mean: “Survivor”, at its core, is about the journey to the finals. How do our finalists get there, and how do they beat out the other finalists? Some seasons do this better than others. Some seasons make the outcome super obvious. Some seasons subtly manipulate the audience, leading us on a good mystery hunt. Regardless, though, however dominant or just pain good at the game a player is, they still have to go through it. They still have to jump through to hoops so that we can see the progress of their journey. But Chris’ journey largely played out of Edge of Extinction, where even if we DID get footage of it, screen time needed to be divided between everyone else there. Thus, Chris got lost in the shuffle, and we the audience feel like we only really got to know him in this last episode. Again, he played well in that episode, but it still begs the question: If all we needed was this episode, why did we watch all the others?

There was really no season recap this time, nor was there Probst talking about why each remaining player could win. Frankly, I’m happy the latter is gone, since it was kind of forced anyway, but the former can be necessary. After all, more people tend to tune in to the finale of a show, rather than a random episode in the middle. Thus, the recap is needed to understand the journey that brought us to this point. Even the most boring seasons like “Survivor Fiji”, or the most predictable seasons like “Survivor Redemption Island”, there was at least a reason why we needed that journey. Even if we already knew or didn’t care about the outcome, we still needed the guidance of the rest of the season to understand that outcome. Here, someone tuning in for just this episode, even without a season recap, would lose nothing. They could watch it, and get just as much out of it as someone who had followed the entire season. And if 12/13 episodes of your season don’t need to be watched, what was the point of having the season at all?

Now, I hear the counterargument to this already: “Chris did have a story. It was just all on Edge of Extinction. And weren’t you, Matt, one of the ones praising the show for not spending so much time on Edge of Extinction?” You’re right about that, but it doesn’t change the fact that it retroactively makes the season pointless. Of course, we wouldn’t want the show to devote more time to the Edge of Extinction than to people still in the game, but then, if one of those people wins, it feels hollow. The only solution I can really think of to satisfy both worlds would be to have made the segments of “Edge of Extinction” its own show. Have it air right after “Survivor”, and be all about the social dynamics of the Edge of Extinction, with the finale being a kind of crossover between those two shows. Then we might have had time to develop everyone as needed to make a satisfying finale. Now, this would never happen. While “Survivor” has an impressive longevity, it must be said that the heyday of the show is passed, and so CBS is not logically going to devote an entire timeslot to a companion show no one is guaranteed to watch. However, if we’re trying to find a way for this twist to work, this is the only way I can think of. As it stands, this twist is a terrible idea that moves “Survivor” to a point where it isn’t recognizable as “Survivor” any more. Because it is such a different animal, and renders the vast majority of the season as being pointless, there is no logical place for this season to go other than the very bottom of the rankings.

Probably the biggest disappointment of all here, though, is that the season did not have to be this way. Not even close. It’s not like something like the aforementioned “Survivor Fiji”, where the cast mean the season was doomed before they even started filming. This cast had potential. As I said, there were a lot of intriguing new players this time around. But with so much time devoted to returning players, advantages, and the Edge of Extinction itself, they just get shunted aside. Thus, we cannot bond with them, or the season. Really, ALL the players on this season deserved a better season than what they got, and shame on CBS for taking something good and doing everything in their power to ruin it.

Ok, ok, let’s talk about something that actually goes WELL this season: The Reunion show. Still too little time devoted to it, but we talk with most of the important people, get a comment on most everyone, and most importantly, fewer pointless Probst segments. No audience interviews, no kid guessing the obvious winner. Hell, the only former player we see is a brief glimpse of Cochran, and then it’s at a relevant time to mention him. Yeah, I really don’t have any complaints about this particular reunion show, again apart from the length.

As to the upcoming season, it can only be an improvement. If you’re going to bring back returning players with new players, I think keeping the new players out of the competition is the way to do it. They can add flavor to the season this way, but also are less likely to dominate screen time as a result. It’s not a guarantee, so I’m holding my judgment until the season proper, and I am concerned about the lack of new player confessionals in the preview. Plus, getting advice from old players might encourage new players to ape their style, rather than going their own way. Still, there’s potential for good here, and those giant heads are just the kind of cheesy I can get behind, so I’ll give this season a fair shake. Now, onto discussing how my pre-season opinions matched up to reality, starting with:

Dan-Right on personality, wrong on time in the game. He made himself more necessary than I thought he would, and was smarter than I gave him credit for. That said, I count this one as a loss for me.

Reem-Overall right, though she was definitely feistier than I gave her credit for.

Rick-Pretty much right here, though I didn’t call his ending up on Edge of Extinction.

Wendy-Again, pretty well nailed the personality, though she was out earlier than I expected.

Lauren-Despite my saying she had more game than she gets credit for, I still say her personality was on point. Name one thing about her that wasn’t related to Kelley Wentworth. I’ll wait. Oh, and she lasted longer than I would have thought.

Keith-I’m seeing a trend here. Keith is yet another one where I called his personality, but was vastly wrong on his time in the game.

Chris-Wrong. Out earlier than I expected, but also had more game than I expected as well.

Victoria-She made it longer than I guessed, but I’d say I was right overall.

Ron-Wrong. Much more socially aware, and as a result longer-lived, than I ever anticipated.

Julia-Probably the only one on this list where I hit the nail on the head for both personality and time in the game.

Eric-Pretty much right, though I think I gave him too much credit in the “smarts” department.

Aurora-She made herself overall more low-key, at least pre-merge, and so lasted longer than I expert suspected she would. Good for her.

Julie-Wrong. Much less domineering, and much longer-lived than I gave her credit for.

Gavin-A little bit longer-lived than I expected, but Gavin fell pretty close to what I thought otherwise.

Kelley-Right, though as returnees are easier to predict, having seen their previous gameplay, I only consider this a half-win at best.

Joe-Right on vote-out time, wrong on his coming back to win the whole thing.

Aubry-Wrong. I’m not sure how much time is needed for people to think of her more as “Survivor Game Changers” Aubry rather than “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Aubry, but clearly, it’s not enough.

David-Wrong. Dude managed to hang in there better than I expected. How is it people remember Aubry’s (earlier) performance better than David’s?

This would normally be the point where I end the blog. However, loathe though I am to admit it, and however little this season deserves it, it’s time for another:

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5

Let’s talk about moves. They need to be made on “Survivor”. Even choosing to not make a move is, in and of itself, making a move. As such, one can usually point to a winner’s moves to explain how they won the game. We’ll be talking about the best actions winners have taken, while also acknowledging those moves that SHOULD have ruined winners games, but they were able to come back from. A couple of ground rules: The move has to be from the season the winner won on. I could vilify Cochran’s flip on “Survivor South Pacific”, but that has no bearing on his win on “Survivor Caramoan”. Second ground rule: It has to be one specific move. Something a winner did overall, such as their social game, isn’t the subject of this list. That said, let’s start with the best of the best, with…

TOP 5

5. Boran Throws the Challenge (“Survivor Africa”): Technically cheating a bit here, since this was a move by a tribe, not just by the winner. However, Ethan seemed to be the one spearheading this move, and it’s my list, so I’ll count it. It was definitely a risk, and I’m normally the first to come out against throwing a challenge, but it cannot be denied that this worked out well for Ethan. It kept his allies on Samburu safe, built trust with T-Bird and Frank, and pretty much decimated any hope of the old Samburu coming back together as a unified whole. Maybe not Ethan’s move alone, but definitely one that helps ensure his victory.

4. Tom Mind-Screws Ian (“Survivor Palau”): At this point in the game, Tom’s only competition was Ian. True, he probably wins the game no matter who he’s against, but it’s much more up in the air against Ian than anyone else. When the plan to oust Ian at the final four goes awry, Tom now has little choice but to duke it out against a younger competitor at an endurance challenge. No mean feat to win. So Tom, to ensure his victory, preys on Ian’s guilt, and gets in his head to the point where Ian gives up, handing Tom victory on that season, and a spot on this list. Again, I keep him low because I think he had it won regardless, but it was a good bit of insurance, just in case.

3. “Please, take this risk.” (“Survivor Vanuatu”): This, frankly, is the reason why Chris Daugherty is a winner. The man had tried and failed multiple times to break up the women, usually at the expense of Eliza. It was only when he had the brainwave to USE Eliza, rather than target her, that finally got him success, and overcome a 6-1 deficit to win. Admittedly, the idea was Scout’s, which is why Chris doesn’t land higher on this list, but without Chris’ salesmanship, it wouldn’t have worked, so he deserves some credit. Also, this means that Chris from this season now hold the distinction of being the second person to win who shares a first name with a previous winner (Natalie White of “Survivor Samoa” and Natalie Anderson of “Survivor San Juan del Sur” being the first pair to do so).

2. “Coach is gunning for you.” (“Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”): Aw yeah, now we get to talk about the awesomeness that is Sandra! For those who say her game was all about doing nothing, this is my counter-argument. She and Courtney Yates, her only ally, were dead in the water. But one simple conversation with Russell Hantz, and suddenly that paranoia makes neither of them a major target. As Sandra doesn’t even make the merge without this move, it’s safe to say it won her the game, as well as a spot on this list.

1. The Buddy System (“Survivor Redemption Island”): Look, I never said this season had no redeeming features. I just said they were drowned in a sea of mediocrity. That said, it cannot be denied that Boston Rob had a good strategy here. By isolating everyone so that his sycophants would never think of flipping, he managed to maintain his iron grip on the tribe, even when up against players better than what he had in the pre-merge. It made the season boring and predictable, but it cannot be denied it was good strategy.

Honorable Mention: J.T.’s Crocodile Tears (“Survivor Tocantins”): You may remember that J.T. gave quite the performance at the “Survivor Tocantins” final tribal council. Acting indignant and hurt at Stephen’s supposed “betrayal”. I even saw some tears there. There’s a reason J.T. was the second shut-out victory in the history of the show, but I keep this off the list proper because I can guarantee that J.T. wins the game even without this. Stephen was respected by the jury, but wasn’t worshipped like J.T. was, so all J.T. did was humiliate Stephen still further. Unnecessary, J.T. “Survivor Cambodia” would do that well enough.

BOTTOM 5

5. Jenna’s Emotional Breakdown (“Survivor The Amazon”): I’ll admit, I’m a bit reluctant to mark someone down for showing emotion on “Survivor”. That said, the fact remains that Jenna’s breakdown at the final five did her no favors. When it’s kind of a coin toss between you and your ally as to who goes home, telling people you’re ready to go is not a good look. I keep it this low on the list because I don’t think Jenna made this as a “move” per se, but not having as good control on the emotions is a mark against a potential winner, as we saw with Julie this season.

4. Sandra Throws Out the Fish (“Survivor Pearl Islands”): Yes, for all that we must praise Sandra for her awesomeness, we must also point out where she messed up. Sabotaging the tribe, especially in the early seasons of the show, was often a death sentence. Moreover, Sandra was doing this out of petty revenge for the betrayal of Rupert, rather than any strategic reasoning. It would be one thing if Sandra had intentionally tried to cover her tracks, but she just got lucky that Christa took the fall. If she hadn’t, Sandra might well have been gone out of sheer frustration from the tribe. Sandra is still awesome, but she’s lucky this move didn’t backfire on her.

3. Final 6 Rock Draw (“Survivor Blood vs. Water”): I keep this one from higher on the list because I see little Tyson could have done in this situation to prevent this, save keep a tighter grip on Ciera. That said, not having your allies in check is a sin even Tyson is not exempt from. This move really could have cost him the game had he drawn the wrong rock. True, the risk was greater for the other alliance (two members drawing rocks as opposed to one), but still, if Tyson draws the wrong rock, that season is never the same. Too much of a risk, so it earns a spot on this list.

2. Mike and the Auction (“Survivor Worlds Apart”): While Tyson’s move had the CHANCE of him going home, I’m AMAZED this didn’t send Mike home. For starters, the idea itself is bad. Going back on a deal YOU YOURSELF suggested makes you look like a dick, especially since it involves messages from home, which are always emotionally charged. No advantage is worth that in a social game like “Survivor”. But then Mike doubles down on the idiocy by then following through on the deal, meaning he gets no upside. People hate you for trying to backstab them publicly, and you don’t even get the advantage you were going for in the first place. It’s only through the grace of immunity that Mike won. This really should have cost him the game.

1. Chris Trusts Wardog (“Survivor Edge of Extinction”): This one’s a no-brainer. The only thing worse than a winner making a move that could POTENTIALLY get them voted off is them making a move that ACTUALLY votes them off. A person who wins despite their mistake costing them their spot in the game is the type of winner I just can’t get behind, if I haven’t already made that clear.

Honorable Mention: MAD (“Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”): I keep this one off the list proper because the idea was good. Take someone you want as an ally, and share secrets so you both have an incentive to stay aligned. This is what Adam did with Taylor regarding their various advantages (a reward steal for Adam, plus hidden food for Taylor). The flaw here is that Taylor is not exactly playing what we might call a “strategic” game, and thus has no incentive to worry about messing up his own game. Thus, he outs Adam’s deception, and Adam comes off looking the worse for it. I even wrote at the time that Adam had torpedoed his own chances of winning with this move, so it must be talked about here.

At long last, we come to the end of this season, and good riddance. I’ll say it before, and I’ll say it again: everyone involved deserved a better season. We had a cast that, while not the stuff of legend, was definitely solid and could have developed good future returnees. However, a combination of too much focus on the returnees, too many advantages, time taken away for the Edge of Extinction, and a winner who only really showed up in the last episode, means this season doesn’t really even count as “Survivor”. If it must, though, it’s the very bottom of the “Survivor” pile. At least we get a nice long break before the next season. That’ll give us time to get invested again.

But what of this blog during the off-season? Don’t worry, content will still come, but don’t expect the return of “Survivor Retrospectives” yet. Don’t worry, I still intend to finish, but they take a lot of work, and I’m just burnt out on them at the moment. That said, I’ve had a couple of ideas for new blog topics, including one feature I hope to make a regular thing, that I’ll be rolling out over the summer, and I hope you enjoy them.

Let’s end this on a high note. One positive I can say for the season: NO PLAYERS BREAKING INTO MY HOUSE! Yes, the tradition of “Idol Speculation” is finally broken, and no players have busted down my wall insisting on an audience, and closing me a lot in repairs. At last, I can go one season without calling a contractor…

CRASH!

RICK: DUN-DUN-DA-DA-DAH! DUN-DUN-DUN-DUN!

MATT: GAAAAAAAAAAH!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 12: Toy Story

I’ve got idols with me/I’ve got idols with me
Advantages/I’ve got ‘em too
‘Cause Production/Likes me more than you.
When I win/You’ll all be feeling blue
‘Cause I’ve got idols with me!

Well, I’ll give the episode this: It at least gave me the chance to make another song parody. That very few people will get, as I doubt the overlap between “Survivor” fans and “Toy Story” fans is particularly large. Still, it’s a positive, and the episode should take what it can get. It won’t be getting very many compliments for this particular one.

We start off back at camp, with everyone discussing the previous vote-out. Gavin gets a bit of character development talking about his conflict in voting out Ron, but steels himself for future votes. He talks about how Rick is now the big threat who needs to go under any circumstances, thereby ensuring that Rick will stay this episode. He also mentions that Rick gets “All the best toys”, thereby at least giving me title fodder for this blog. Rick tells what at first seems like a pointless lie, claiming that his idol came from someone on the Edge of Extinction, rather than just being one he found. As soon as I wonder about the point of it all, though, Rick justifies himself in confessional, stating that this makes people think idols aren’t hidden around camp, thus preventing others from looking for the re-hidden immunity idol. Pretty good justification, but I’d point out that at least Lauren should be aware that this is bull, since she HAS found idols at camp previously. I’m pretty sure Rick isn’t aware of it, though, and Lauren could be justified in keeping quiet due to not wanting to reveal her idol, so not a bad play on his part.

Rick naturally gets up early and starts idol hunting. Not being quick enough, everyone notes his absence. Aurora talks about wanting Rick out, and rejoices in the fact that she finally has an alliance that seems solid. And with that, we know the outcome of the episode with absolute certainty! Good night, everybody!

Look, I know I rail against too little foreshadowing all the time, but too much can be just as bad. By setting up these obvious storylines SO EARLY in the episode, it just took the tension out of it. This could have been rectified by an interesting journey as to how we got to the outcome, or good character moments, but the journey itself just isn’t interesting. They TRY to give us the latter, but for some reason, with so many people left, it just doesn’t work. Huh. It’s almost like THE GAME ISN’T DESIGNED TO HAVE NEARLY EVERYBODY LEFT AT THE END! MAYBE THIS WAS A HORRIBLE IDEA FROM THE START!

Ok, ok, rant over. I evidently didn’t give Lauren enough credit, as she does call Rick out on his bluff, both to him and everyone else left. She frames it as a “gut feeling”, thus keeping her hidden immunity idol, well, hidden, but it’s well-done nonetheless. I’m all ready to praise Lauren for keeping a good tail on Rick thus preventing him from finding his hidden immunity idol… And then she just up and leaves. Loss of smart-person points, Lauren. Sure enough, the dramatic music tells us Rick finds an idol. At least the episode was QUICK to point out how things wouldn’t go as planned. Rick tries to do his news anchor schtick again, but his giddy enthusiasm boils over, and it just comes across as forced this time. Patience, Rick, patience.

It’s saying something when the best aspect of this episode is the challenge, and not just the challenge, but the REWARD CHALLENGE! My God, we actually get something original in it! True, it’s our same generic obstacle course with digging under a pole and tossing balls onto an arch, but the first leg has players throwing a ball into a ramp, which they must run through some ropes to the other end of. If they catch the ball, it’s good. If not, try again. It’s creative, it works well in the challenge, it keeps things individual! By this season’s standards, it’s gold!

After a four-way race between Gavin, Rick, Aurora, and Victoria, Gavin “wins”. I put this in quotation marks because, although technically victorious, he now has to decide who to offend by not taking them on reward. True, it’s not as bad as when the same thing is done on the family challenge, but still decently bad. Gavin first picks Victoria to take on the picnic with him, which is solid. She’s both his ally, and someone shown to hold a grudge over not being picked, at least according to last episode. But then, Gavin fumbles it with his second pick: Lauren. The others are astounded that Aurora wasn’t picked, and frankly so am I. Both are in Gavin’s alliance at the moment, so it’s not the most illogical pick, but let’s consider the choices. Gavin can take Lauren, the person who’s the only non-Rick original Manu left, and therefore has little option BUT to stick with you, or Aurora, who’s been pretty much a free agent this season, and is KNOWN to hold grudges based on her feelings. Who needs to be coddled more?

After the requisite “Ha Ha, screw you!” helicopter fly-by of camp, we cut to our feast, where Gavin broaches the possibility of Rick being immune. He suggests, should this happen, that Julie get the votes, which makes a certain amount of sense. She’s not much of a threat in any regard at this point, but might have a couple of friends on the jury (Eric, Ron), and was the other person left out. Thus, easy consensus vote. I’m not sure she’s the SMARTEST choice at this juncture, but we’ll get to that. Lauren, however, is again one step ahead, saying privately that she has a bond with Julie (that we’ve never seen before this episode), and might want to try and find another plan. Yep. Same amount of subtlety we’ve come to expect from this episode.

Getting back to camp, Rick does what EVERYONE who finds an idol should do: Make like you’re still searching so no one catches on that you’ve found it. Rick again takes childlike glee in giving everyone the slip, and it’s here we learn the TRUE lesson of the episode: Lauren is Satan. Yes, you heard me right, Satan. Only the Lord of Darkness himself could dislike the game of “Hide and Seek”. It’s the best childhood game ever. Shame on you for disliking it, Lauren!

Oh good, the Edge of Extinction. So nice to see you after missing you last episode. It wasn’t long enough.

Ok, ok, I’ll be fair to the Edge of Extinction. It actually had kind of a fun idea this time around. Rather than looking for an advantage, those on the Edge of Extinction get to read notes they wrote to themselves prior to the beginning of the game. This is something we’ve never seen before, but it fits really well here, giving everyone a chance to look back on their journey, reflect on how far they still have to go, and talk about how they’ve grown as people. At least, that’s what SHOULD have happened, but it seems the overcrowding from the Edge of Extinction is now affecting even those on the Edge of Extinction. Rather than hearing excerpts from each person’s note, we get a montage. In some cases, where we get a bit of content from the person in question, it really works. Julia and Reem are prime examples of this. But most everyone else? It goes by too fast to build an emotional connection, and we’re just left wondering why we had to have this at all, if it’s relatively pointless?

Moving on to our immunity challenge, which is that “Slide tiles and carry them over balance things to solve a word puzzle” challenge, first seen on “Survivor Worlds Apart”. Probst claims it’s a common backyard game. I don’t know what backyards are like in Texas, but I’ve never seen a game even CLOSE to this anywhere but “Survivor”. If there’s something I’m missing, please enlighten me. It’s your standard dull, reused challenge, and yes, I realize that statement is redundant. I can at least say that the puzzle solution is good. “Not Living on the Edge tonight”. Fits with the season, but not completely obvious.

Surprising no one with a functioning brain, Rick wins, after Probst gives a fairly subtle hint to get people to the word “Tonight”. Julie, recognizing that she’s probably in trouble, makes a show about going off to talk with Rick. The pair decide to target Aurora, because as mentioned, she’s kind of the default target at this point for any alliance. Speculating on who they can get to help them out, Julie mentions her “bond” with Lauren that, as mentioned previously, was not brought up prior to this episode. Still, Lauren is open to the idea, and discusses with Gavin the possibility. Gavin is less closed off than he was to getting out Ron last episode, indicating that he’ll probably go along with the plan, but he wants Victoria in on it. In case Lauren wasn’t obvious enough, she keeps hinting how she’s willing to go with just Gavin, and they don’t need Victoria. Victoria, not being an idiot, realizes this means Lauren probably wants to go to the end with Julie, and thus getting out Julie might be a better bet. Victoria keeps herself open to the possibilities, though, as she should. As to which one she should go for, the answer right now is clearly Aurora. As mentioned, she’s more of a challenge threat, but also think about the Edge of Extinction. Whoever comes back next episode, they’re likely to have an uphill battle, since almost no one left would want to work with them. Aurora, as a relatively free agent, is a godsend to them. Thus, you get her out, whoever comes back has little foothold, barring another game-breaking advantage. This is only the right move for now, though, as we shall see soon at Tribal Council.

Talk at Tribal Council is pretty much all about how Rick is the one everyone wants out, and it sucks that he won. This leads Rick to try and get back at everyone, pulling out his hidden immunity idol and saying he’ll play it for Julie. I’m not buying it. Unless the idol expires at this Tribal Council (which, admittedly, it might), there’s no reason for Rick to risk it when in all likelihood Julie joins in voting him out should he not win the next immunity. What this DOES do is incentivize others to vote for Julie. Yeah, for all the good points voting for Aurora has, a chance to flush an idol trumps them. Rick, unfortunately, finds himself in the position of the “Three Amigos” on “Survivor Caramoan”, as by unveiling an idol, he now has to play it, or risk losing an ally. It’s too easy a bluff to call.

Evidently calling an easy bluff is too much for this cast. Aurora is predictably sent home, and I’m kind of sorry. Both she and Julie would be losses to this season, but Aurora was the slightly bigger character, and more intriguing, as she rarely had a formal alliance. She goes out with class, though still swearing vengeance against Rick. Vengeance she might get as she, like everyone else, heads to the Edge of Extinction. Ok, while I’m HAPPY no one just gave up on the game, it’s still annoying that we had to see the non-dilemma every time. After Keith, nothing could compare.

In case it wasn’t clear, I am not partial to this episode. It was predictable, and gave us nothing in return. Thus boring, lame, and with little to do but write song parodies about it. Let’s hope this downward trend doesn’t continue into the finale.

Speaking of which, this is normally where I’d talk about those who are left, and their odds of winning the game, should they get to the end. Well, I’m not doing that this season, mainly because we don’t know who all is coming back from the Edge of Extinction. To give you my general thoughts, those coming back from the Edge of Extinction have the best chance of winning in the end, but the hardest time getting there. Then there’s everyone else, who seem like nice enough people, but cluster in their ball of blandness to not stand out at all. Instead, let’s live up to the “Speculation” part of this blog’s name, as I give you:

MATT’S TOP 5 PEOPLE WHO MIGHT COME BACK FROM THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION!

Yes, this will not be a proper “Top 5 and Bottom 5” but will follow the format of one. Now that we’ve finalized who all has a shot to come back, let’s discuss the people I think have the best odds, based both of edit and on challenge performance. We begin with…

5. Chris-Maybe a bit of a stretch, but Chris has been presented as a challenge beast from the beginning, and he nails the editing part of it as well. We’ve seen a fair amount of Chris after his exit, which is partly due to his length of time on the Edge of Extinction, but he’s gotten a lot of confessionals about his “Perfect Game” failure, which seems like a story to be set up for the finale. However, Chris only gets number five, because I would have put him much higher before tonight. The trouble is that I feel like his note scene may have wrapped up his story arc, and may spell doom for the man come the challenge.

4. Joe-Yeah, it wasn’t going to be a list about challenges without Joey Amazing showing up SOMEWHERE. If this list were based purely on challenge ability, he wins hands down. Joe is favored to win most challenges, and things like a ropes course, which we know will be in the challenge, are right up his alley. So, why is he only number four? Well, as I said before, I’m counting edit here as well, and have we heard from Joe at all since his boot episode? That’s what I thought. That severely decreases his odds, though challenge performance alone is enough to keep him on the list.

3. David-Out of all the returnees, David’s is the only one whose exit didn’t feel satisfying. Aubry and Kelley both got done in by their hubris, and Joe just underestimated his opponents. All flaws that we can understand. David? Just bad luck with the numbers, and that just feels unsatisfying for a returnee. Add onto that returnees being favored in most challenges due to greater familiarity, and this challenge favoring the tiny, and I think David’s got a decent shot at returning. If we’d heard from him more after his boot, he’d probably be number one.

2. Aurora-Aurora has what we might call “Andrea Boehlke Upside” from “Survivor Redemption Island”. A tough challenge competitor voted out close enough to the end that she has more energy than most of her opponents, and again, coming into a challenge that plays to her strengths. Her comment about getting Rick out also strikes me as potentially prophetic, so I’d give her pretty good odds of returning overall.

1. Aubry-Perhaps this is just wishful thinking on my part, since I love Aubry as a player and want her to do well on this season, but I keep coming back to a couple of things that make me see her as the returnee from the twist. She has returning player upside, to be sure, but we also saw a decent amount of her well beyond her boot episode. Granted, we’ve seen pretty much nothing of her these last few episodes, but since most of our time is just devoted to the newest person on the island, that’s unsurprising. Two things come back to me that make me favor Aubry. One is the chance to practice the challenge. It not only gives her an edge physically, but an edge psychologically, as she won’t be as shocked as the others by the challenge itself. The other is the “Aubry is out for blood” comment from the first “Back from Edge of Extinction” challenge. While Aubry’s story FELT like it concluded with her exit, this opened it back up again, and I feel it needs to be resolved, which it can only do if Aubry comes back.

Honorable Mention: Reem-Going purely on confessionals, Reem would be the person to re-enter the game. She’s been the most consistent narrator of the Edge of Extinction, and on a certain level, it would be poetic justice for the first boot to re-enter the game. That said, this challenge doesn’t particularly favor Reem, and her confessional count seems more due to her giving a great confessional than hinting at a return. Still would be fun, though.

So, what do you all think? Who’s going to come back from Edge of Extinction? Let me know your GUESS in the comments below. Spoilers will not be approved, and will be afforded a special level of hell, along with those people who talk in the theater.

That said, you’re going to have to wait for your weekly dose of “Idol Speculation” next week. As previously mentioned, I have a new job, meaning I don’t have vacation yet, and can’t call off of work following the finale. This means I can’t stay up to write the blog and still go to work, so it will have to wait for the afternoon after. I swear to not read any blogs or take in any new opinions until I get mine down on data. See you when that happens!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 11: The Wild Devans in its Natural Habitat

On tonight’s episode of “Survivor”, we will be forgoing the game to bring you more educational content. Our subject for this evening: Rick Devans. Formerly a species on the edge of extinction, a difficult breeding program has allowed it to be reintroduced into the environment. Despite many threats from predators, it now thrives, using its unique talents to save itself from destruction.

Skipping out on the “Previously On…” segment once again, we jump straight to damage control. Specifically, damage control on Rick, since he’s about the only person left out of the loop after the previous vote. You can tell that Rick is ANGRY in the confessionals, but his anger is directed specifically at Ron, who has now lied to Rick twice. Naturally, this makes Ron the BEST possible choice to calm down Rick. To be fair, Rick actually does a spectacular job of hiding his anger outside of confessional, and Ron does have one advantage in winning back Rick. Specifically, he has the expired advantage menu, which he gives to Rick as a sign of trust. Presumably he cut off the expiration date so that Rick can’t tell that it’s a fake from just looking at it, but the suspiciousness of the scenario alone, coupled with Rick needing to state what advantage he uses pre Tribal Council (or at least, so I assumed at the time), should clue Rick in instantly. Rick, however, seems to overall fall for it, calling it his bargaining chip. That said, Rick doesn’t immediately fully trust Ron or the advantage, however, so point for him in that respect.

Moving right along, we get our loved one’s challenge, but more importantly we get an ACTUAL INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE POST-MERGE! STARS BE PRAISED, WE MAY ACTUALLY SEE SOME TOUGH CHOICES BEING MADE, AND AN EXCITING CHALLENGE THAT CAN ONLY BE DONE IN THIS PHASE OF THE GAME! Since the challenge is clearly the most important part here, let me briefly address how it works. One member of a player/loved one pair will run to the water, collecting it in a bucket. They will then toss that water at another bucket, held by their loved one, who dump it into yet another bucket, trying to weigh it down enough to raise a flag, the first one to do so winning a picnic lunch at camp, because you know, this challenge didn’t piss people off enough if they don’t win. You just had to rub it in their faces afterward as well. As Probst correctly mentions, this specific challenge hails from “Survivor Heroes vs Villains”. You may remember it as that one challenge where Colby (“Survivor The Australian Outback”) went apeshit on his brother, despite Colby himself not exactly being a challenge god that season. That moment will be hard to top, but I will say that I overall like this version of the challenge better, due to one simple change: The players now do the running instead of the loved ones. While I do like that this challenge hinges less on strength and more on throwing technique, it’s better to have the players we’ve spent time bonding with (or at least SHOULD have been bonding with were it not for pointless, time-wasting twists) doing the more active part of the challenge. Keeps us more invested.

The majority of our loved ones here are nothing more than your mildly touching reunion, but there are a few worth commenting on. First off, we have Ron’s husband, Lloyd. Ron, my man, you have done well for yourself. I’m straight, but that is a damn handsome man! Second of all, this is the first time I believe Ron’s sexuality has actually been brought up on the show. Don’t misunderstand me here: Long gone are the days when “The Gay Guy” was used as a marketing technique for the show, but not bringing it up at all until it becomes relevant (as opposed to someone like Aurora, whose sexuality WAS brought up before now, if not emphasized) shows a maturity that makes me still like the show, even to this day. It’s also nice to see that non-straight sexualities are being more and more normalized in mainstream media, especially since it’s come to my attention that BOTH kisses between Ami, Scout, and their partners were censored from “Survivor Vanuatu”. Particularly hypocritical when you consider they showed Rupert and Laura Boneham trying to eat each other on the previous season. Second is Victoria’s father, Troyzan (“Survivor One World”). Wow, really? Four returnees just wasn’t enough? Seriously, give that guy longer hair, and he’s Troyzan, no questions asked. But of course, the real show stopper here is Gavin, where we’re reminded yet again that he left his wife TWO FREAKING DAYS after marriage to go play “Survivor”. If there isn’t a medal for what this woman’s going through, there should be. Few things take precedence over “Survivor” in my book, but a new marriage is definitely one of them. Predictable, since this story was well-publicized pre-season, but still emotionally impactful nonetheless.

Oh, and I was also pleased to see so many married couples on this time, since “Survivor” especially in recent seasons, loves to cast singles in the hope of a showmance. This is hardly the most married players we’ve had left in the game at this point. I believe “Survivor Thailand” still holds that honor, with 6 out of 7 players being married, but still, this season is no slouch in that department.

Ron wins, and is of course faced with the choice of who to take with him on reward, and by extension, who to leave pissed off back at camp. Ron chooses to take Julie and Gavin with him on reward, which I can’t fault, despite what we’ll see later. Ron is in the power position, but unlike some other seasons, it’s pretty clear who he’s with and who he’s not with. His core foursome is himself, Julie, Gavin, and Victoria, with Rick as a side thing, but he doesn’t want to make that too obvious. Lauren and Aurora. Not needed, and given that display Gavin pulled, I think Ron has a pretty well built-in excuse for why he chose Gavin over someone else. I don’t even buy it when Victoria talks about how this was a mistake for Ron. She says the words but her heart’s just not in it. Clearly she’s ok, and is just playing it up for the show.

We get sweet moments between Gavin, Julie, and their loved ones at the picnic, but the one that takes the cake here is Ron. He does what all us fans would do in his position: Brag to the loved one about all the awesome stuff we’ve done in the game so far. Ron of course rhapsodizes about his strategic accomplishments, and how he’s been able to play both sides, and have everyone wrapped around his fingers, and good lord, the hubris is so thick you could cut it with a knife here! Why, Ron even talks about how taking Gavin was pure strategy, and no emotion. Just when you thought we might actually have a nuanced character here!

Finishing up, we return to camp, where Devans is conspicuous by his absence, being out looking for an idol instead. Intent on flushing such a possible idol, those at the camp, and Aurora in particular, set to looking through Rick’s bag. A sudden return and call-out by Rick puts their plan on hold, but Rick is not one to let this lie. He continues to comment about how awkward the whole situation is, hoping the shame and awkwardness will sway the camp against Aurora. This was a solid plan… 35 seasons ago. The trouble for Rick is that searching through someone else’s bag has lost what little stigma it once had, and now is just “You were dumb enough to leave something important in your bag, so shame on you.”. Thus, Aurora has every right to feel fine with having done so. Rick projects awkwardness onto her simply because awkwardness is Rick’s natural state of being.

Still, there is some good to be said for Rick here. After putting a bug in Ron’s ear about Aurora’s behavior, which is about as consequential as you’d expect, he decides to lean into the narrative written for him, and be brazen in his search for an idol. He eventually finds a clue, telling him the idol is hidden in the rafters of the shelter. I will give credit that at least THIS idol takes more than just getting people out of camp to get. Something like the idol Kelley Wentworth found (the second one) on “Survivor Cambodia” was easily grabbed in 30 seconds, and only needed patience for the opportune moment. Here, you have to climb a tree for the idol thus taking up more time and effort than some other idols. Rick initially wants to go full Mike Holloway (“Survivor Worlds Apart”), and just go for it out in the open, but his better instincts take over, and he waits for the cover of darkness. Surprisingly, no one bothers to check on the loud sounds of Rick Devans climbing a tree in the dead of night, and thus he gets away with it. Good for him.

Actually, for all my snark, Rick really is playing the “Mike Holloway” game at this point. Everyone’s out to get him, no one’s making it a secret, and so he’s just being blatantly funny and crazy because why not at that point?

Naturally, with two great challenges in a row, counting the immunity challenge from last episode, our fun exponentially increases with the greatest challenge yet! A spectacular contest, to be immortalized in the annals of “Survivor” History as… Yeah, it’s yet another bland endurance challenge. Specifically, it’s the one about supporting yourself in a box from “Survivor Fiji”. We don’t even get any mystery that the challenge will matter, with Rick being the first one out. Gavin ultimately wins, but it matters little in the grand scheme of things. No one will talk to Rick prior to Tribal Council, with Ron and Julie only making what could be best described as a token effort at doing so. As such, it is pretty much guaranteed that Rick is safe tonight. Thus, we need alternate plans. Ron and Julie discuss actually going for Aurora, but again, not buying it. Too little enthusiasm, and too predictable a plotline. However, it seems Victoria was indeed a bit more pissed that she initially let on. With both her and Lauren correctly predicting that Rick might play an idol, they decide they don’t want anyone else dictating who goes home. They decide on Ron, which by and large makes sense, since Ron’s the power player, and arguably the frontrunner to win at this point, outside of Rick. Less good is their idea to float this to Gavin. Apart from feeling indebted to Ron after the reward challenge, Gavin is not sure getting Ron out at this juncture is a good idea. And for him, it isn’t. Gavin is clearly a member of the majority at this point, and one with some influence, but not so much as to be the main target when insurrection comes. Almost the ideal position: To be seen as helping with moves, while not taking blame for the fallout. A sweet deal, to be sure, and one not to be given up lightly.

Aurora, therefore, tries to sweeten the pot. Wanting her extra vote to be used, as this is the last night it can be used, she gives it to Gavin, since, as he’s immune, he could use it on the revote as well. Ok, that logic I get, but Aurora, you act like you’ll get credit for this. You won’t. Gavin will. Yes, it’s good to avoid being voted out with an unused advantage, but how is this in ANY WAY helping your game. At least it does a good job making things more exciting as we head off to Tribal Council, good gameplay or not.

It is quickly topped, however, by Rick leading us into Tribal Council with a fake news headline about his impending fate. I would give you a blow-by-blow of what he says, but I’m too busy being pissed that this could have been the lead-in to EVERY Tribal Council, and we haven’t got it yet. For shame, CBS!

Without a doubt, this is one of the most blunt Tribal Councils I’ve seen in quite some time. Everyone makes no secret of Rick going, and while it looses some of the intrigue as a result, it does make up for it in sheer gumption. You can’t help but watch fascinated as everyone makes it clear who they intend to vote for. Unsurprisingly, this causes Rick to play first the expired advantage menu. Not one to let an opportunity like this lie, Rick calls out Ron and Julie on this, thus making them look bad, and giving Rick options for his future. How does he stick around? Well, despite my thought that playing a fake advantage might prevent playing real ones at the same Tribal Council, to prevent the flushing of fake advantages, Rick is allowed to play his actual immunity idol. Even THEN, though, Rick cannot be on the proper side of the vote. His vote for Aurora pales in comparison to the three votes Ron gets (one from Lauren, two from Gavin, using Aurora’s advantage), thus sealing his fate. He takes it with good grace, but I’ve got mixed feelings on Ron leaving. I never connected with him much as a character before this episode, and with all that hubris, he did kind of deserve it. That said, Ron was a major driver of strategy this season, and I feel the caliber may go down as a result of his exit.

That said, the caliber of the season continues to go up. Despite the poor misdirection, this episode did a fantastic job of showing us the ins and outs of this group of contestants, the loved ones brought needed emotion, and overall we got some really good gameplay from pretty much all of our parties. Say, you know what was missing in this episode? Why the Edge of Extinction of course! When we stop spending our time with the people who already lost, we can actually LIKE and BOND WITH this group of players! Who would have guessed?

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 10: Twist on the Outcasts

With the returnees out of the game proper (Edge of Extinction notwithstanding), now is the time for our new players to establish themselves as characters in their own right. That said, Gavin, while I enjoyed the “Pokemon” reference with “Smell ‘ya later!”, that’s not the way to do it. It just makes you seem like a derivative, lukewarm Gary Oak. I applaud the effort, but for now, the most interesting thing about you remains your pineapple shirt.

Speaking of Gavin, he’s first on our list of “Damage Control” tonight. Gavin is rightly pissed about being left out of the vote, but manages to keep his temper under control. The worst you can say is that he was slightly whiny when telling Wardog he just wanted to be included in the majority. Now, will Wardog continue his character development, or will he regress and be an ass about all of this? Well, you tell me: Which one’s funnier? Yes, the enigma that is Wardog continues, as despite handling previous situations well, here he’s fairly dismissive of Gavin, and doesn’t really address his concerns or do anything to bring Gavin back into the fold. Wardog’s done worse jobs, but the damage is done overall. Gavin now is out for blood. Wardog blood.

Our next damage control, predictably, comes from Ron towards Julie. However, despite Ron being so worried last episode about Julie’s reaction, she’s actually quite chill about the whole thing. Dare I say, she was downright pleasant about the whole thing! She assures Ron that everything’s ok, and that she understands why she did it. The pair reaffirm the need to move forward, and we pick up our jaws off the floor after Julie, she of the emotional reaction, controlling her emotions. Hmm. Character development for Julie, or simply reacting based on her mood? You decide!

The next morning, the time comes to sort some order from this chaos. We need a new majority alliance, and Rick and Wardog come to deliver. The pair talk with Ron about how the women will see them all as threats, and vote them out to build their resumes. They say the only way the threesome can have a chance at getting to the end is to stick together, voting out Aurora next since at this point she’s just the default target of any new alliance. Slightly sexist, and I think these guys are underestimating the skills of some of the women (Victoria and Julie in particular), but there’s a logic to their pitch, and at least some evidence to support it. Ron brags to the came about how he’s in the middle of all alliances and can go any way, and the fact that no one but his has caught onto this speaks volumes about his skill in the game.

Why, is that a reward challenge post-merge? It must be a team challenge! Yes, our teams of four break up into pairs. Two do the “Keel-Haul” challenge first seen on “Survivor Pearl Islands”, retrieving rings along the way. Our other pair then hurl said rings into posts to win a spa day. It’s as generic as they come, and not at all exciting. For one thing, they toned down the difficulty considerably. In previous iterations of the “Keel-Haul” challenge, coming up in the middle of the structure either disqualified you, or required you to go back to start. Here, it’s just a “You’re taking time catching your breath.” thing, and it’s not nearly as exciting. Secondly, our teams our very uneven, to the point that there’s no mystery about the challenge. Our blue team consists of Wardog, Lauren, Julie, and Rick, while our yellow team consists of Ron, Gavin, Aurora, and Victoria. Not only did yellow get all the challenge beasts, with Aurora’s performance in the challenge being highlighted by Probst, but the blue team got Wardog. With no puzzle to balance things out, since Rick is probably the best puzzle solver left, they’re pretty much doomed.

Or not, it would seem. Evidently Rick moonlights as one of those jerks at carnivals who make those rigged games look easy, as he almost effortlessly hits three rings to win reward for his team. Rather than celebrate, however, we cut over to Edge of Extinction. Kelley is of course the focus, but for once she’s not talking about how Edge of Extinction sucks. Rather, she’s talking about her personal “journey”, of accepting mistakes and failing to build connections. A confessional that would be particularly touching IF WE HAD FOLLOWED THIS JOURNEY FROM THE GET-GO! Yes, it got pain lip service to once in a blue moon, but overall, Kelley’s journey hasn’t been clear, and this kills any emotional connection this might have built. Chalk up another opportunity lost to this godforsaken twist.

Say, you know what we haven’t had in a while? Reem getting mad at people! Showing once again that she fails to comprehend why she was voted out, much less make any changes to correct it, Reem goes into Kelley, sending her off to the mast to have a good cry. This whole scene manages to hit the sweet spot of being mean enough to be uncomfortable, but not being so mean that it’s entertainingly uncomfortable. The result is that nothing much comes of it, and Edge of Extinction wastes our time once again.

Ron is making the best out of losing by saying it gives him a chance to talk to Gavin, Victoria, and Aurora about strategy. I’d point out that you could do this just as easily on reward, but who am I to harsh his mellow? Despite earlier being against Wardog, the foursome now identify Rick as the next biggest target, and swear to get him out. Now, how is Rick a target, you may ask? Initially they make him out as a challenge threat, but again, while I’d argue he’s a puzzle threat, he’s not as much a challenge threat overall. However, they then argue that he’s a jury threat whom everyone loves, which is more up Rick’s alley. This, however, brings up an interesting comparison. To all but the most uncultured, Edge of Extinction is obviously just the “Outcast” twist from “Survivor Pearl Islands” on steroids. There are some differences, but they’re overall minor. Thus, you expect this season to go down much the way that twist did. One big difference, though, is that the outcasts were vilified on their season, being seen as having “not played the game”, and being inherently less deserving of winning than those who had never been voted out. Here, Rick is not only not vilified, but his return from Edge of Extinction is even seen as something of a positive in terms of winning the game. So, why might we get two separate reactions from the same twist. Gut instinct might point to us knowing this time that the returning player from vote oblivion actually did suffer and starve like everyone else. That doesn’t hold, however, as apart from Rick’s word, which is worth just as much as Burton’s and Lill’s were on “Survivor Pearl Islands”, the contestants have no way of knowing this. As such, it must be something else. Rick’s charm is definitely a factor, but I don’t think that alone is enough to overcome this twist. Thus, I see two possibilities as to why the twist seems better received by the players this time. One is pretty straightforward: It’s season 38. A greater emphasis on resume building, coupled with people in general playing less overtly-emotional games, means people are less likely to be personally hurt by someone coming back, and thus less likely to hold it against them. The other, more intriguing possibility, is that people DO resent the person coming back, and think them less deserving, but just aren’t showing it. You see, the one big difference between this and the “Outcast” twist is that the outcasts only had one opportunity to get back in the game. Everyone else afterward was just voted out as normal. Here, however, people voted out KNOW they can get a second chance at the game. Therefore, to vilify the person returning from the Edge of Extinction, is to vilify themselves should they get back in the game after being voted out. No one wants to take that risk, so they keep their real thoughts to themselves. In the end, though, they’ll be forced to show those feelings. Really, the only way we’ll know for sure how they feel is Final Tribal Council, if there’s a player who went to Edge of Extinction there. If the reason is the former, they’ll be praised for overcoming obstacles. If it’s the latter, they’ll be asked “Why should I vote for you when you got outwitted?” or some variation therein. Doubtful we’ll get that specific of a scenario, but it’ll be interesting if it does happen.

Ah, rice. Ubiquitous to “Survivor” at this point, it is so often the subject of contention, due to being so central to camp life. Thus is the case here. Especially with such a large group of people, rationing is essential. That said, no one really wants to be in charge of the rationing, since it can lead you to seem bossy and controlling. Aurora, naturally, is in charge of the rice distribution, and verbally slaps Ron down for wanting to make a large portion while everyone’s away. Without knowing how much rice they have, it’s hard to make a call here, but the rice itself is not really important. What is important is Ron first giving back Aurora’s advantage, he says to buy her loyalty, but also implies that he’d look like a jerk to a potential juror if he didn’t, the second that while Aurora trusts him, he’s not sure he can work with her long-term, thus setting up some misdirection for the episode.

Meanwhile, our winners are having good fun at the reward. I would say “clean fun”, but they’re slathering themselves in mud, so yeah. Rick and Wardog just seem to be having a good time, but Julie and Lauren talk some strategy. Lauren is, of course, upset over the blindside of Kelley last episode, but also is now adrift and needs an ally. Thankfully, Julie is on the market to bring someone into the “Herself and Ron” fold. She and Lauren talk girl talk, by which I mean they discuss which guy they want out first. Julie favors Wardog, while Lauren favors rick, presumably because she has more connections to Wardog than to Rick. No agreement is reached, but the two do seem to want to work together, so another cog is in place.

Our immunity challenge today is NOT an endurance challenge, thereby making it the best individual immunity challenge thus far. As to the specifics, it’s mostly your bog-standard obstacle course, with contestants picking up pointless buoys along the way, leading to a 3-D star puzzle. I do like how you can’t necessarily tell is a piece is right or not in the puzzle, but apart from that, nothing much to recommend this challenge.

As this challenge has a puzzle, Rick is favored to win it. Win he does, though the editing gets clever and shows us one of his failures before we get into his success. Normally, the taking out of one major target could be a problem, but as both Aurora and Wardog were targeted before it makes a good bit of sense here.

Wardog, of course, sets out to rally the troops to his side. Even he admits that he’s a better choice to vote out than Aurora (debatable, as I’ll get to), but that he’s banking on everyone being “stupid” tonight. This honestly is the first thing we’ve seen that makes me think Wardog will go. Bland though this season might be, by and large people have made the smart decision each and every time. This implies that, if Wardog is the smart decision, then he’ll go, since that’s what’s been happening. Plus he’s underestimating his opponents, and that’s never good.

But is Wardog the smart decision? Depends on who you ask. Ron is one of our swing votes tonight, framing the debate as going between the group of Gavin, Aurora, and Victoria versus the group of Wardog and Rick. Between those two groups, it is smarter for Ron to stick with the former. Yes, the threat argument is there, but Ron’s proven that he can control the former group, and overall has greater influence and more options that way. With the latter? Fewer options and a hard time influencing anything. The debate is a bit more of a gray area for our second swing vote, Lauren. She indicates that she’s leaning towards Aurora, which is the correct move for her. Similar to Ron, keeping Wardog in the game gives her more options, where she doesn’t have much of a relationship with Aurora.

Who do I think is going home? Aurora. While Wardog is something of a threat, the momentum to get him out doesn’t seem to be there. Conversely, Aurora’s been the target for a while now, and eventually there’s just a frustration that the one target never goes home, and you get them out just to scratch that itch. Plus, all swing votes talk about her ouster with a lot more enthusiasm than Wardog’s. “Stupid” comment aside, Aurora seems the clear target. Good attempt at misdirection, show, but it’s not working this time.

Tribal Council at first seems like it’s going to be another exciting fireworks show, with Gavin once again going off on Wardog for how he talks to people. Wardog brushes it off, however, and we settle in to poker faces once again, keeping everything reliant on the previously mentioned poor misdirection. Instead, I want to draw attention to the jury, and not just because it was mentioned that people are playing to it tonight. While we only see from a select few people, those we do see are not happy with Wardog. This, to me, implies his jury threat to be overstated. True, he’s made moves, but he hasn’t made them in the nicest way, and I don’t think the jury can respect his moves without respecting him as a person, which they clearly don’t. This makes Aurora, with her potential underdog story, much more threatening in the long term than the abrasive, challenge-poor Wardog. Ron’s best move is still to vote him out, as the reason I outline above has nothing to do with these factors, but Wardog’s threat level just went down several notches, says I.

Not says the tribe, however. It seems the seemingly poor misdirection was itself a misdirection, as once again the smart move is made, and Wardog goes home. Despite not caring much for Wardog, I’m still sorry to see him go over Aurora. Don’t get me wrong, I like Aurora much better as a person, but Wardog was a far more fascinating character. The man could be a savvy player one minute, and a complete lunatic the next. That’s a fascinating dichotomy that Aurora, for all her pluckiness, just can’t match.

This episode is a solid episode of “Survivor”. Not much to make it stand out, but it develops the story of the season, and does its job well with solid misdirection and editing. That said, I do worry that the “Original Kama” thing is taking hold again, as only Lauren and Rick remain of the original Manu, and so this season may be boring yet.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Edge of Extinction” Episode 9: Meta-Forced

I get it, “Survivor” contestants. Really, I do. People have many goals in coming on the show, and for all, being remembered is one major goal. A good way to do that? Make a clever metaphor for the current state of the game. By all means, take your shots in this regard. But if a metaphor isn’t working, let it die! First we had the pilot/passenger thing that unfortunately carried over into this episode, and then the “pushing vs. letting up on the pedal” at the end. They’re not working. Let them die, and try something else. A good metaphor enhances the show, but a forced one, just makes us cringe.

And since I know people are complaining about how “fake”, she is, no, I do not count Aubry comparing the Edge of Extinction to things in this category. Those are similes.

Seems our “Previously On…” segment was just on a short furlough back to the game, as it is conspicuously absent tonight, though I suppose a succinct summary of that last Tribal Council would be hard even for Jeff Probst. Instead, we jump right into the fallout. Ward is pissed; there’s a shock. He blames Aurora for starting the whole thing, and while her comment did start off the debate, I’d be more inclined to blame Julie for fanning the flames. Still, it gets Wardog what he wants, which is a solidified whole. He talks to Ron and Julie about joining up with himself, Lauren, and Kelley, with Gavin brought in as a sixth to make a majority. Wardog, however, has lost some of his sales-pitch mojo. For a group of people needing security after a crazy vote, a solid majority seems appealing. So you frame it as “I’ve got Kelley and Lauren in my pocket, so we can make a six.” Instead, Wardog talks about how loyal he, Kelley, and Lauren are; how they’ve never voted against each other once. Yes, Wardog, please remind us how tight and unbreakable your bond is! I’m sure that’s in now way threatening in a game that is quite chaotic now! It seems hatred of Aurora now outweighs logic, though, as the other three quickly agree to this plan, with Julie in particular being in favor of it.

It seems Wardog sold Aurora short, however, as she’s not as unaware of her position as he claims. True, she still has no idea what happened at that last Tribal Council, but frankly none of us do. She is aware that she’s on the bottom, though, as no one is pulling her aside. She tells us she’ll need to win immunity in order to survive this next vote.

Speaking of which, this brings us to our immunity challenge! Rather early in the episode once again. Rather than herald a crazy Tribal Council, however, it instead heralds the boots of two episodes crammed into one. Because even LESS time to understand what’s going on or bond with the characters is EXACTLY what this season needed! Once again, I don’t understand why they’ve stopped doing this at the tribe phase of the game. It fits better in the overall episode, and can make for some great interpersonal dynamics. Here, it just feels cramped.

Our immunity challenge today is generic endurance challenge number 85. You know it’s reused. You know it’s from a past season. But you’re so numb to them by this point you don’t even care to remember what season it was originally on, because you’re too busy being pissed, since it looked like the raising fire challenge from “Survivor The Australian Outback” come back from the dead. The only true thing of note here is the return of the “eat or compete” twist. Always nice to see back, but even that gets little fanfare. No drama comes of it, we don’t get any dramatic reveal of who chose what, and even the food seems lackluster this time around. I thought you couldn’t make “Survivor” pizza look any more unappealing, but they found a way! Yep, we’re just going to pile it on top of itself so it all mushes together in a big, greasy, disgusting pile. Only starving people would eat that. It seems that Kelley, Lauren, Victoria, and Ron are starving. Makes sense for all of them. Kelley and Lauren have idols, and neither Ron nor Victoria have any reason to believe themselves a target.

At first, it seems like our eaters might not get much of a chance, as people drop out quickly. It comes down to David, Aurora, and Rick. Rick is out first, but gets in a good bit of newsman comedy about how much the challenge sucks. I will say that Rick’s humor is one of the saving graces of this season. It’s sparing, but it’s good when we get it, and I like how the music complimented it in this particular instance. Speaking of the music, it does a good job of building tension once it comes down to David and Aurora, swelling in such a way that it looks like each might fall at some point. Both are targets of some form at this vote, being outside the main alliance we saw form earlier, but for once, our more direct target wins.

Back at camp, our alliance of six reconvenes, where Lauren does a better job than Wardog at selling Ron, Julie, and Gavin on the alliance, talking about how everyone needs a say to come to a consensus, now that Aurora is immune. They quickly focus on David, as an endurance challenge threat and a returnee, and therefore just threatening in general. A logical choice, and for once, Kelley and Lauren don’t ruin it by unsubtly going against it.

Of course, one can’t expect a returnee to go down without a fight. David and Rick decide to target Wardog, on the theory that the “Lesu Three” are a threatening group that need to be broken up, and Wardog is not known for his good bedside manner in general. True, he’s gotten better as time goes by, but still, perhaps an easier sell than Kelley or Lauren at this point. Aurora and Victoria, left out of the majority are of course on board, but Ron and Julie will be a harder sell, particularly Ron, since he was burned a couple of votes ago. Wisely, they decide to talk just to Julie first, presumably playing up her bond with Rick from earlier in the merge. The pair at least give the idea due consideration, admitting that the “Lesu Three” are a threat. Ron is the more concerned of the pair, though, feeling they would have less power if allied with David and Rick, which is also a fair point. For all that the “Lesu Three” are a threat, they have at least done well at giving you the impression that you have a say, even if you actually don’t. On the other hand, with four original Kama in with David and Rick, you could argue that it would be easier to instigate a coup if something goes sideways in that group. Pros and cons to both, and I don’t think there’s really a “bad” choice for Julie and Ron here. Either way, they break up a tight group (the “Lesu Three” or David/Rick), and have some path to save themselves from the group they got with (pulling in outside if they stick with the “Lesu Three” or an original Kama majority if they go with David/Rick). Thus, for me, the better decision comes down to exactly who each side is targeting, and who would be better sent out. As such, I’m going to say that getting rid of David is the better choice here. Apart from having the advantage of experience in the game, thus making him dangerous, he comes across as a challenge threat, at least in terms of endurance. Conversely, the belief that Wardog is a challenge threat of any kind went out the window weeks ago.

Sensing this, David and Rick push the hard sell at Tribal Council tonight. Leaving aside the forced plane metaphors mentioned earlier, Rick starts in by pointing out the threat of the “Lesu Three”. Wardog points out that he’s pushing the hard sell, and Ron concurs that the hard sell doesn’t work. David does a deft job of pushing said claim back onto Wardog, and again leans on his experience, encouraging people to act on “The one conversation they’ll regret” if they don’t follow. A good pitch, and it does leave the good mystery up in the air until the end. Unfortunately, sometimes salesmanship isn’t enough. David goes home, and while I am sorry, I’m also glad. I enjoy David, and don’t like that he never really was able to get his game started. That said, one fewer returnees in the game means we FINALLY have a chance to bond with some new players instead. Now, if only we could get rid of Kelley…

Surprising no one, David heads to the Edge of Extinction. We were spared the “This sucks” confessionals from both himself and Julia this time around, though I suspect this is more due to time constraints than anything. Because when you’ve got extra time on your show, you want to spend it showing the same confessional we’ve seen many times before at this point.

Speaking of things we’ve seen before, it’s message-in-a-bottle time for everyone, telling of an advantage hidden someplace “jagged and smooth” when “you’re feeling hollow”. Some don’t even try to find anything, being too exhausted at this point, but those that do should have an easy time. The clue is obviously referring to a hollow in the rocks. It seems that Eric is even worse than a fool, as he somehow concludes that the clue leads to the rice getting area of the island. Joe and Chris also fall into this category, insisting that the advantage must be around the mast on the beach. Nope. It’s the rocks. Surprisingly, it’s David, the man who knows the island the LEAST well, who finds it. Unfortunately for him, it’s not that great an advantage. Just a challenge boost for someone still in the game. David talks about how this is a chance to curry favor with someone left in the game, and we just roll our eyes, since we all know it’s going to Rick, someone David definitely does NOT need to curry favor with.

Our immunity challenge is actually NOT technically endurance challenge, thus bears talking about. Tribe members roll small balls down to the flat end of a paddle, where they must land them in what Probst refers to as “dimples”. I personally would call them “indents” or “slots” but I guess Probst was feeling insecure, and needed to remind us that he has dimples. Probst, don’t worry. We know they’re there. They’re kind of hard to miss. In any case, the first person to land five balls wins immunity. This is definitely a reused challenge, hailing originally from “Survivor Philippines”, but again, it’s not endurance, so I’ll take it.

Rick reveals the advantage we all knew he had, and Probst tells us that Rick must only land four instead of five of his balls. I do actually like this advantage. It definitely helps, and if you’ve got skill in this challenge, it can be a major benefit to your victory. However, if you outright suck in this challenge, and previous challenge beasts like Kelley and Gavin do this time around, it might not matter. That said, Rick falls into the “Not Sucky” category, and so his victory is all but assured at this point, despite knocking his falls out of their “dimples” a couple of times.

Back at camp, everyone seems on the warpath for Aurora, so we need someone to shake things up. Somewhat surprisingly, given how calm he’s been over the past couple of episodes, Wardog comes to our rescue. His target? Of all people, Kelley. Evidently that anti-returnee bug is back, though again, given that it will help us bond with the cast, I’m not complaining too much. That said, I’m baffled here. Wardog had set himself up in a pretty cushy position here. A swing vote in the main alliance, and not as obvious a threat as others. Yet he’s willing to cut himself off at the legs. When was Kelley going to go against him? There’s little to no logic to Wardog’s decision here. Yet it’s RON, the person who should be chomping at the bit to get rid of Kelley, who’s hesitant. Ron, listen to me: Getting rid of Kelley is GODSEND for you. It keeps you in the majority, but gets rid of a major threat, as well as keep you in control of said minority. I hear your point about Julie not wanting Aurora around, but you didn’t go directly against her. Assuming you give her fair warning, I doubt she’ll be too mad. In case it wasn’t obvious, Kelley is the correct move for Ron and the other swing votes in this case (I don’t really count Wardog as a swing in this scenario). Gets rid of a major threat, and keeps the overall majority intact while still maintaining power within that alliance. The downside? Unless Kelley plays her idol, none that I can think of. Go for it!

The only wrinkle in this idea is Aurora, who has a good idea, but executes it poorly. While she’s happy there’s a target other than her, given that the news is coming from a man who goes by the name “Wardog” she’s suspicious. As such, she decides to get some insurance using her extra vote. Now, playing it here would be pointless, since with an odd number, there’s no risk of a tie. Instead, to help convince our swing vote Ron to keep her around, she ought to tell him about it, and say they’ll use it together if she stays. Instead, she gives it to Ron as collateral for keeping her around. This is an incredibly dumb idea since, as Ron points out, he can just get rid of Aurora and have an advantage for himself. Now there’s a slight incentive to get rid of Aurora, though since this means Aurora is also open to being a future number, I say still go for Kelley.

While no less mysterious, our second Tribal Council just doesn’t have the pizzaz the first one had. This is understandable, given that the first Tribal Council was about a battle between two sides, while the second is about subtlety and intrigue, lest an idol be played. This means that Ron and company needs to act like everything’s going down for a normal, boring vote. They do this well, and so I don’t blame Kelley for not playing her idol. That said, it does make things less interesting to watch, even with a second good bit of misdirection. As foreshadowed, Kelley goes home, and again, I’m not overly sorry. Kelley had returnee upside, but she didn’t bring as much snark as she did on “Survivor Cambodia”, and again, as it means we’re finally unshackling this season from being all about the returnees, I’m in favor of it.

This season continues it’s upward swing, again only hampered by the lack of time. There’s just too much to get through in each episode, and it leaves things feeling cramped and rushed. However, we’re now at the point of exciting Tribal Council, good camp intrigue, and a cast now able to forge their own path, rather than one related to returnees. If the season can keep up this trend, it just might move up a few slots in my rankings. It would take a miracle to put this season in the “Best of the Best” category at this point, but we just might avoid mediocrity as well.

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

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

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

Dammit.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5!

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

TOP 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

BOTTOM 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

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

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

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

MATT’S TIME MACHINE!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

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

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

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

MATT’S MESS-UP!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.