Idol Speculation: “Survivor 45” Episode 2: Praise Be

My brothers and sisters in “Survivor”, this is a glorious day!  The blessings of Burnett be upon us!  Long have we wandered through the desert of non-musicality!  Long have we be mistreated at the hands of the editors, denying us even the barest on montages!  I will admit, even my own faith began to falter that we would ever see the promised land again.  But I come before you, my faith restored!  Praise be upon us, the intro is back!

But before I can commence the sermon… Erm, “Blog”, we must start with another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

With an increased watch-time comes an increased chance for missing stuff, I suppose, though these are really two minor points more for jokes than anything.  Firstly, fans of his might have noted that I neglected to mention Drew at all last episode.  That’s because he’s largely forgettable in my eyes (at least in the first episode), though I do try and cover everything relevant.  Drew was part of the opening confessional montage, but was kind of generic there, so I don’t fault myself there.  More egregious, however, is my neglecting to mention the confessional he gets in the middle of the episode.  There he talks about the different sides of his personality, specifically the nerdy introvert side, and the partying frat boy side.  He hopes he can meet somewhere in the middle and find success.  All pretty standard, and again, almost would not be worth mentioning.  However, rather that describe them as “sides” or “aspects”, despite that being what he means, he refers to them as separate personalities altogether, bringing to mind Cydney Gillon of “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, who said much the same thing.  I’d laugh at Drew for this slip-up, but it’s pretty obvious what he actually means, and hey, Cydney is hardly a bad player to model oneself after.  

The other was merely me not mentioning Hannah’s parting words as she walked away from Probst, noting that if there was an “Edge of Extinction” twist, she would not be going.  This proves that, even as a quitter, we can respect Hannah.  Hating on “Edge of Extinction”, both the season and the twist, are by now a time-honored tradition of this blog.  

After a “Previously On” segment that I’m surprised they brought back, but doesn’t really impact things, Hannah’s quit is the talk of Little Lulu, Sean (yes, I’m sure there’s a “Sean” on this team) in particular being blindsided by the move.  This leaves everyone a little shaken up, and all respectfully take the appropriate time to mourn her.  

Once the mourning period is over, however?  Talk then turns to the fallout from the tribe now being who it is.  Hannah was clearly not going to be the one to go, so it must have been someone else.  The editing, as well as exit interviews, indicates that it would have been Emily, and this episode itself will later confirm this would be the case.  Now, Emily may lack many, MANY social graces, but even she could see that writing on the wall, and beings an apology tour.  She attempts to justify herself as saying whatever she could since she was the target, which given the evidence MAY be true, though to be fair that doesn’t explain her actions towards Bruce, or trying to throw Kaleb and Sabiyah under the bus when they were away doing Sweat or Savvy, but for specifically her words at Tribal Council, it may be true.  

Unfortunately for Emily, basically no one is buying it.  Least of all Sabiyah, the person most offended by Emily’s words at Tribal Council.  Emily then makes the classic mistake of compounding her bungled apology by getting defensive when Sabiyah tries to end it early, basically saying “We each feel how we feel.”  An understandable gut reaction, but by no means the smart move for Emily here.  She eventually gets a clue, though she needs to check in with the rest of her tribe for confirmation.  Sabiyah, for her part, stews on the beach, and doesn’t know how she and Emily can continue to coexist.  I’m sure there’s no ironic outcome based around that confessional coming up whatsoever.  

Then we get the intro.  The glorious, glorious intro.  Maybe it’s because it’s been gone for so long, but this one felt better than a lot of modern ones.  More dynamic shots, and while the theme is a remix of old ones (Amazon being prominent in the score), it’s some more unusual choices, and really made the show come alive again.  My feeble words cannot do it justice.  Go watch it, then come back here when you’re done.  

Intro watched?  Good.  Rather than cut to commercial, we check in on Belo, where Bruce is the life of the party.  As if to provide proof that bringing back the intro was a good idea, Bruce and company even sing a few snippets of it while at work.  Bear in mind, the intro hasn’t been a part of the show since “Survivor Winners at War”, three years ago at this point.  Yet it remains so iconic that players even now sing it when in the game.  See why you should never have gotten rid of it, even as just an online exclusive that only airs once in the show proper?

Ok, ok, enough gushing about the intro.  Really, this segment can be called “The Two Perspectives on Bruce”  Fittingly, our two attorneys, Jake and Katurah, provide the opposing sides in this debate.  Jake, in the “Bruce is a fun guy” camp, cites Bruce’s weird noises, funny faces, and all around good work ethic.  Sure, Bruce would prefer that more work be done around the camp, but he’s nice about it.  Katurah, in contrast, feels that Bruce is too bossy with the workload.  Jake may have called him “Uncle Bruce”, but in Katurah’s mind, he’s the dad, and she doesn’t like it.  This is not helped by him name-dropping the players he’s close with from his past season, implying that he may have a bit more game-knowledge that he wants to let on.  Frankly, the latter point at least is an objectively bad move for Bruce.  He already comes in with a lot of sympathy, but that will only last so long.  Making himself seem more like a returnee rather than a guy getting a do-over, only makes himself look like more of a threat, and run out said goodwill faster.  

Next stop is Reba, where Sifu is making his fun by showing Austin how he can punch a tree with his left hand, and not feel any pain.  Kind of an odd pastime, but hey, different strokes for different folks.  More identifiable to me is J. Maya’s idea of fun.  Channeling her inner Dipper Pines, she examines the tribe flag, trying to decipher what she’s certain is a code to some idol or advantage on there.  To her credit, she’s not technically wrong, she just doesn’t have all the pieces.  I’m also really impressed that she gives a good, yet succinct, summary of how to decode a message.  She looks for patterns that might indicate word or sentence structure, she tries to figure out some known vowels as a place to start from, based on standing alone.  It’s honestly all a very valid approach, just one that happens to be wrong.  J. Maya might not have gotten a lot of screen time so far, but for this scene alone, I like her.  

Austin, in contrast, does have the full clue, but waits patiently for his tribe to be away before jumping on it.  He figures out the message pretty easily, telling him to dig by “Palm Tree X”.  Whether this is a pair of palm trees that make an “X” or a palm tree with an “X” carved on it, only time will tell.  

Back at Little Lulu, a new day dawns with Emily idol-hunting, very blatantly so.  Given her position, I’d normally decry this in favor of trying to make bonds with the players left, but frankly, we saw how well that went last night.  I can’t really fault Emily for this.  That said, the trouble with blatant idol-hunting when everyone’s against you is that they’ll do everything in their power to stop you.  Thus, they all scatter to find her, Brandon admitting he’d rather find an idol for himself.  Sabiyah is eventually the one that finds Emily.  You know, the two who get along so well.  Sabiyah spins a yarn about everyone looking in pairs to ensure tribe cohesion, which Emily bluntly calls out as them attempting to keep her from an idol.  She stops short of saying “Fuck You”, but the tone is there  Again, you can’t fault Emily for her logic here.  That is blatantly what the tribe is doing, and she might as well try to counteract it.  The issue is tone and delivery.  You can beg off without dissing Sabiyah like that.  

Emily admits that she’s having trouble being alone to idol hunt, even with sending off Sabiyah as she did, and this spells her doom.  Brandon initially seems to get his wish, finding parchment to lead to an idol.  The trouble is, as one would expect, it’s a Beware Advantage.  Brandon, realizing how his luck in the game has been so far, makes the wise decision to let Sabiyah be the one to handle this, since she was around at the time.  Sabiyah, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth (and whose vote is much less valuable, since she’s unlikely to be targeted), agrees, and we see that, again, the show is making a smart change.  While all Beware Advantages will be multiple-stage idol hunts, the exact mechanics of each hunt will vary.  Rather than hold the parchment up to the tribe flag, Sabiyah must match a hole in her parchment over top of her tribe map to determine WHICH significant-looking tree she uses.  She gets this pretty quickly, but is stumped (pun intended) at the tree itself.  Partly this is due to Brandon being zero help, but in fairness, this is a tricky one.  It basically requires that you notice that a tree that does not normally bear coconuts, has a coconut in it, and go from there.  They leave it for now, Sabiyah still without a vote.  

We need a pallet cleanser after that heavy focus on strategy.  Dee is there to provide, as the conversation at Reba deals entirely with her having an abnormally long big toe.  There is a half-assed effort to tie this into the game, with Dee saying this will help her in balance challenges later on.  I’ll admit, I’m not sure if this is her joking, or if there is actually some reason why a longer big toe helps with balance.  Either seems plausible to me.  Really, though, it doesn’t matter.  This scene exists purely to show us the players hanging around and bonding.  Just being themselves and having fun.  And I am here for it..  This is the sort of content modern “Survivor” has been missing, at least within the actual show.  Just stuff to let us bond with the castaways, and not be “All strategy/advantages, all the time!”  The show is putting it’s 90 minutes to extremely good use, despite some stuff we’ll see later.  

Not to say that Reba is devoid of strategy, of course.  No, we see that Julie has made herself the team Mom, and has particularly bonded with Drew.  The pair agree to work together, mutually agreeing to bring in Dee and Austin.  Drew then talks about how everything is going exactly as he planned, and how he’s running the game, stopping just short at declaring that everything the light touches is his kingdom.  Might this be a set-up for hubris?  Only time will tell.  

We return to an unexpected scene at Little Lulu: Someone actually talking to Emily!  Specifically, Kaleb is giving her a shoulder to lean on, along with friendly advice about not being so blunt or playing so fast.  Awfully big for the guy she was literally targeting last episode.  It’s such that one almost suspects it might be him lulling her into a false sense of security, but no, from what we see, Kaleb is being genuine, at least on some level.  His logic is basically that of Terry befriending Abi-Maria on “Survivor Cambodia”: If someone has no ally, why not make them an asset?  And yeah, it’s good strategy.  I don’t think this means Kaleb doesn’t still want Emily out next, but why make an enemy?  Why limit the cards in your hand?

All in all, a very good scene… That I wish had been set up at all!  For all that I praised the use of extra time in this season so far, this is the one time I’d say they dropped the ball a little.  Not terribly, since we’ve had less-foreshadowed moments before, but this bond REALLY comes out of nowhere.  One scene, they’re mortal enemies, the next, friendly allies.  Just kind of a jarring shift, is all.  

Emily is a bit more receptive to the feedback this time, particularly as Kaleb makes sure to highlight her strengths and make clear that he understands her perspective, while also showing what needs to happen to get back in good with everyone.  Emily tears up a bit in confessional, noting that she’s surprised she’s this emotional, and that this isn’t how she is in everyday life.  A bit trite at this point, but it comes across as honest.  I did appreciate her metaphor of her bringing a bazooka to a tea party in terms of how she plays the game versus the rest of her tribe.  And to her credit, she does seem to be trying to take the feedback to heart.  She goes on another apology tour, this one much more effective.  She’s shown bonding a bit with everybody, and even Sabiyah seems slightly less mad at here.  

However, it’s while making up with Brandon that the game comes back in full force once again.  Boats arrive, and by now, pretty much every tribe knows it’s journey time.  Reba and Belo both decide things by rock-paper-scissors, resulting in Drew being sent for Reba, and Bruce for Belo.  The latter is to the chagrin of Katurah, his opponent, who notes that this will give the guy she doesn’t like more ammunition, potentially.  Only Little Lulu does things differently, coming to a “consensus” we don’t see of Brandon going.  Again, we’re missing some important context here, as we see no discussion about this.  And lest you think her emotional confessional earlier meant “Mean Emily” was gone, she does raise a public objection, saying that she feels like she’s being kept away from any advantages again.  Really, the best that can be said for her here is she’s marginally more diplomatic about it, and that “marginally” is doing a lot of heavy-lifting.  

The three arrive to the usual “Take time to get to know one another” note, a discussion that Drew takes charge of, thereby avoiding giving any information himself.  Bruce just talks about his feelings about camp work ethic, while Brandon spills the beans on basically everything, confirming that Emily made a bad first impression with everybody.  Drew notes that Bruce gave nothing away, and thus is probably a bad person to work with, while Brandon was the opposite.  All a reasonable conclusion, except that Drew then says that Bruce is bad at playing the game as a result.  Um, did the definition of a “good game” change unexpectedly?  Because to me, it looks like Bruce kept his cards close to his chest, while Brandon proved he had zero poker face.  Granted, if you’re Drew, you probably want to work with Brandon over Bruce, but that’s because Bruce IS playing well in that scenario (not subtly, but well), where Brandon is not.  

After this discussion, they end up taking separate paths, though all lead to the same dilemma, which I’m calling “schmuck bait”.  They basically took part of a challenge from “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, matching tile patterns to find the three unique ones to make a combination out of to open a lock, and made it a challenge in and of itself.  The “schmuck” part is that they only have three minutes, and even if you don’t make a mistake in matching the tile patterns, it’s still largely down to luck how quickly you find the right combination.  With the risk of a vote, for an unknown advantage, which could come down to luck as to whether you get it or not?  Yeah, only a schmuck would take that deal.  

Naturally Brandon goes for it  Drew does as well, to be fair, but I’ll be easier on Drew since his vote isn’t as valuable.  Brandon knows (as does the rest of his tribe, save Emily) that Sabiyah has no vote, and he’s on thin ice as is.  Plus, given his challenge performance, he can’t expect good luck.  Drew, by contrast, has been at least average in challenges, and is safely ensconced in the majority, meaning a worst-case scenario is not that bad for him.  Bruce chooses not to play, as befits his game style.  

For all that I knock Brandon, I do like the guy.  He does bring the Superman energy one wants to see.  And while playing was a dumb decision for him, I’m happy he did, as we get to hear his manic commentary while he tries to make the combination work, which is a joy.  Unfortunately for Brandon, he failed in matching up his tiles, so he runs out of time and loses his vote.  Really, this is a challenge, so what did he expect.  He comes clean to his tribe, much to their exasperation, with Sean wondering if Brandon can actually do ANYTHING challenge-wise?  A fair question, given the evidence we have so far.  

Contrast with Drew, who DID match correctly, and DID eventually guess right, earning himself safety without power.  This advantage needs no introduction in and of itself, though I will note this one is a bit underpowered.  It can only be used up until the final 10, or another 7 rounds.  Not nothing, but that advantage has more power the later it’s used, meaning it’s pretty heavily nerfed, in my opinion.  

This nerf is why I don’t really blame Drew for sharing it with the tribe.  It can help build trust, and with his position, is likely to have little value directly to him, since he’s in a good position for his tribe.  And it can’t be said it doesn’t pay dividends, since Austin trusts him with that his Beware Advantage says.  Even if I wanted to, can’t argue with results.  Point Drew.  

Since Bruce didn’t play at all, we instead spend time with Brando, who attempts to wear his buff as a tube top.  Speaking as another cisgender male, I feel for him.  I myself have tried that once or twice, and it’s A) Painful and B) ineffective without something up top to hold it on.  

This and his demeanor do endear him to the women of Belo, however, whom Kendra assures us are sticking together.  They want Brando as their fourth, which he readily agrees to.  Jake and Bruce, however, can’t help but notice they’re kind of on the outs, so Bruce starts making inroads with Brando.  He gives a casual “Open communication” agreement with him, and springboards off of this to make a four-person alliance.  Himself and Jake, along with Brando and Kellie.  Thus, we see the true nature of Belo.  Rather than a gender split, it’s really three pairs.  Despite Kendra’s assurances, Kellie is tighter with Brando than anyone, and the pair are the swings between the pair of Katurah and Kendra and Bruce and Jake.  Standard tribe dynamic, but a good one.  

Whatever knocks you may have for this episode, it cannot be denied that this episode did a much better job of making it a mystery as to which tribe loses.  We have a good understanding of tribe dynamics and alliances, such that anyone going would make sense.  Here we also see that the show has FINALLY made a change long-overdue: No sitting out back-to-back challenges now means what it says, rather than resetting after a Tribal Council.  Given the lack of reward challenges in recent seasons, all I can say is “About time”.  

Really, the only clue we have as to the outcome is that Little Lulu is favored to lose every challenge, just because of how their tribe is stacked.  And even that seems like it might not be the case on our standard “Obstacle course to puzzle” challenge.  Yeah, they make a big deal about how the coral puzzle is “new”, but let’s be real, the pieces are so similar to those of the “tree puzzle” and the “fire puzzle” that it might as well be the same.  

Point being, however, Little Lulu does not have the blowout loss one might expect.  They actually hold their own pretty well, and are even ahead of Belo in getting to the puzzle.  But then, they just HAD to put Brandon on the puzzle.  Dude panics and falls apart, while Sabiyah insists she can’t do it on her own.  Thus, Little Lulu loses in a blowout, keeping Reba and Belo immune, while also getting them varying amounts of fishing gear.  All while Little Lulu still has no fire.  Remember that.  

Emily makes no bones about the situation once they’re back, noting that it’s going to be her or Brandon, given her rubbing people the wrong way, and his general challenge suckiness.  Thus, Kaleb, Sabiyah, and Sean all go off to talk, though they are not spared Emily’s sarcasm to Brandon about how it must be nice to be in the majority.  Said majority quickly agree that Emily should probably go, which much as I like her is the correct move.  Yes, Brandon is a challenge liability, but if he costs you another one, you can vote him off again.  Emily might make it easier for you to win, since she at least is not a challenge sink from what we’ve seen, but is winning with Emily really a win?  Wanting her around would be conditional upon her being loyal, something neither I nor Sabiyah seems to believe, despite her valiant efforts to turn her game around.  Thus, she is the better choice.  Loyalty is going to be more important long-term than a potential challenge win.  Really, neither are a terrible choice, but I would say Emily is the smarter move overall.  

The issues is that Brandon has no vote, and therefore no Shot in the Dark, while Emily does.  Combine that with Sabiyah still not having a vote as well, and things look pretty shaky.  As such, the hunt for the idol resumes in earnest, and after a montage of people coming so close yet missing it, the three finally notice the coconut and get it down.  They’re overjoyed to be able to have Sabiyah claim her idol and get her vote back!… Only to discover that the idol is encased in WAX, which must specifically be BURNED away, rather than chiseled.  You know, a tough task for the tribe with no fire.  

Thankfully for them, Emily gives up her Shot in the Dark for Sabiyah to hold for the evening as a show of loyalty.  I’m of two minds about this, and it depends entirely on whether the Shot in the Dark is transferrable or not.  If it isn’t, and this is just Emily trying to show trust, I love it.  Helps build the social bonds she’s been working on for little sacrifice (yes, she gives up a potential chance to save herself, but a 1/6 shot is not much.  Better to go for the social move).  If it IS transferrable, however, this is a terrible idea, as it’s just one more incentive to vote you off.  Think Shan and J.D. on “Survivor 41”.  

There’s still decent mystery as we head off to Tribal Council.  Good, because that’s about all it has going for it.  It’s honestly not bad, but with how obvious the targets are, there’s no intriguing double-talk, and mostly a rehash of what we already know.  The one bad part is how Probst tries to tie Brandon’s challenge struggles back to his own life.  Probst, the metaphors are bad enough.  Don’t make Tribal Council about you in the bargain as well.  Both Brandon and Emily give the “Here’s what my life is like, and what this show means to me” moment, so we at least keep the mystery going up to the end.  

Going against what I said was smart, Brandon goes home.  I’m honestly not sure how I feel about his exit.  It was definitely earned, and Brandon wasn’t my favorite, but I still liked the guy.  I’m happy Emily is still around, as she remains my favorite, but I didn’t want Brandon to go either.  Really, I suppose I didn’t want anyone from Little Lulu to go, though, so I would probably never be satisfied.  I can say with confidence, however, that I love how Brandon goes out.  Still as enthusiastic in getting his torch snuffed and giving his final words as ever.  That’s a lot of class, and his joy at just being there shines through.  Glad it was a good experience, man.  Sorry it didn’t go the way you wanted.  

One or two nitpicks aside, I truly enjoyed this episode!  Good mix of strategy and character, good mystery, good development.  Challenges were a bit on the weak side, and Probst was mildly annoying, but if that’s the worst I can say, I’m extremely happy.  And hey, if nothing else, we got the intro back!  Huzzah!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 45” Episode 1: Monty Python and the Holy Idol

You know, it really is a shame they didn’t cast Brandon on “Survivor 44”.  Thanks to him I can make Monty Python references, but they would have been so much more appropriate last season.  All the “It’s just a flesh wound!” jokes I could have made…

My readers, it is my esteemed pleasure to welcome you to the return of “Idol Speculation”, my knee-jerk opinion that everyone is entitled to.  We’ve got a new season to cover with routinely longer episodes, so let us not waste any more time and dive right in.  

As is the norm nowadays, we open with everyone on a boat talking about the game a bit.  Mostly bog-standard stuff at this point, but we do get a couple of fun sound bytes from some players.  The most notable for me and Emily and Sifu.  The former is technically one we’ve heard before, the “I’m here for the money and nothing else.” confessional, but this is something of a rarity in the modern era, where it’s all about the “experience”.  I’m not as down on the whole “inspirational stories” thing as some other fans, but even I’ll admit this makes for a refreshing change.  Sifu’s confessional is notable less for its content and more for the energy he brings.  Dude is all smiles and air guitar, and that charm is just infectious as far as I’m concerned.  I could see him being divisive given what we’ll see later, but for now, I’m on the “Love it” side for him.  

Everyone hauls themselves up on the boat.  Normally Probst would address the elephant on the boat, namely Bruce returning from “Survivor 44”.  Brandon, however, makes such a show of emotion that it overshadows even Probst’s happiness at Bruce’s return.  Brandon gives the “relatable fan” confessional about how he’s feeling just being here, and Probst is satisfied.  

But even blatant fanboying cannot keep Probst away from Bruce for long.  Bruce talks about how he’s just happy to be here.  Really emphasizing how he’s a normal player, just like everybody else.  Probably what he needs to do to avoid the stigma of a returning player, and too his credit, he does it pretty subtly.  Not invisibly, however, as Emily calls him out on doing this exact thing, pointing out that while he may not know the game overall better than everyone else here (I mean, he was only in it for 12 hours, most of that concussed), he does have a psychological edge from having been through at least this part of the game before.  Bruce deflects again pretty well, saying that everyone has skills they specifically bring to the game, but again, Emily calls him out on doing just this.  

I’m of two minds on this.  On the one hand, I can’t argue Emily isn’t speaking the truth.  Not a dig against Bruce here; the man really did pull it off as well as he could.  It’s just that someone caught on despite this, and it’s perfectly good to call it out, lest we end up with another “Survivor Redemption Island” situation where the returnee just does what they want and everyone else agrees.  On the other hand, a public forum where you’re making your first impression is MAYBE not the smartest place to put all this out?  You show your intelligence far too early, and since you’re calling out the guy everyone remembers as “the concussed one”, you seem like you’re “punching down” to use comedy terms.  Really, the only firm conclusion I can draw from this is that I’m glad I picked Emily as my favorite.  Is she a great “Survivor” player?  No, not based on this and stuff we’ll see later, but I love it when someone uses their intelligence to call out others.  

Probst goes on to name our tribes (I guess red team doesn’t get a mat confessional this season?), and we need to talk about these.  Not just because I accidentally misnamed one of them in my case assessment (if you would just RELEASE that information with the cast, CBS, we wouldn’t have this issue), but also because of what they are.  While all these names, like most of the non-merge tribe names in the new era, are pretty pathetic (I feel like a tribe name needs five letters minimum to work well), one of them lends itself to far too obvious a joke.  Like Baka on “Survivor 43” before them, it’s all anyone can see, and the humor cannot be ignored.  

We have a tribe that feels like it’s named after the comic “Little Lulu”.  Thus shall they henceforth be called.  This is the only source of humor from tribe names this season.  There are absolutely, 100% no obvious jokes relating to names that I’m ignoring.  

Keeping the parallel to Baka, Little Lulu is the yellow tribe.  Our red tribe is Reba and our blue tribe is Belo.  So named, Probst describes their challenge.  Sadly not a raid of the ship (never thought I’d see the day when I missed that), it’s basically a 3-stage obstacle course.  First stage has two people hauling stuff from one box to another, the second has two more people swim out to a raft with a key, which they paddle back, then climb onto the boat again.  Remaining two then use the key to unlock poles to maneuver flint off a spring, the first team to do so getting supplies, and not having to do “Sweat or Savvy”.  Again, like the confessionals on the boat, pretty bog-standard.  

In fairness, while the challenge itself is not that exciting, there is good back and forth to help MAKE it seem exciting.  Reba takes the initial lead, with Little Lulu not far behind and Belo trailing.  Belo for some reason decided to put Bruce on the portion involving lifting heavy objects over one’s head, which seems a great risk, but perhaps that’s why they’re a bit slow at it.  Little Lulu actually turns out to be the best group of swimmers and paddlers, only for it to turn out that Brandon, one of said paddlers, is the worst ladder climber.  Belo is actually the first to move onto the third portion, and Reba takes back second due to this performance.  In fairness to Brandon, I will say that said ladder did look difficult to climb up, and Brandon proves to be overall a lot less athletic than he looks.  That said, panicking and giving up?  That’s entirely on him.  

Little Lulu is not out of it yet, as Hannah and Emily seem overall the most competent at maneuvering the flint, by which I mean they’re the only ones we don’t see whacking at it like a piñata.  To be fair, though, Reba also eventually uses the more chopsticks-like method, and that plus their being ahead of Little Lulu otherwise makes them the winners.  

Since we need to vary up the “Sweat or Savvy” lest it be COMPLETE repetition, our losing teams now have to have people volunteer BEFORE they know the exact nature of the competition, and go off to a separate beach to do it instead of the tribe camp.  Brando (in what I THINK counts as an opening mat confessional) and Jake end up going for Belo, while Sabiyah and Kaleb go for Little Lulu.  Everyone else heads off to their camps, save for Brandon who stays behind to get checked out by medical.  Given how exhausted he looks, I can understand it, but I have to ask, why send the rest of his tribe away?  Let them hang around, so they don’t have to wait to find out his fate.  Plus, that way you can get a “Survivor” Moment™ out of their reaction.  I guess there’s the “Other tribes would have more shelter-building time” argument, but as we’ll soon see, without materials there’s not much they could do anyway.  Let them stay until he’s evacuated or cleared.  

We check in with our winners first.  Riding the high of their victory, J. Maya calls her tribe “stacked”, saying they have the “Brains, Brawn, and Morale” over the other tribes.  I’d point out that challenge was decently close, all things considered, but hey, hard to argue with results.  The tribe also notices some weird writing above and below the name on the tribe flag, but we’ll save that for later.  In the meantime, everyone does the standard “name, occupation” style introduction.  Only thing of note here is Julie lying about her occupation, not wanting to reveal her status as an attorney (a common theme this season).  Reasonable enough to do, but she does so with one of the worst poker faces I’ve ever seen.  No one calls her out on it, but to me, that was obviously a fib.  

Cementing the “Maybe a public call-out of Bruce wasn’t the best idea” line of thinking, Emily is all that Belo can talk about initially.  Bruce calls her out for calling him out, and it looks like most of his tribemates present are on his side, and now have a dislike of Emily.  Way to make a good first impression, Emily.  Though to be fair, with how great Bruce’s facial expressions are in this scene, it’d be hard not to side with him in any case.  

Talk then turns to setting up camp, and Bruce reassures everyone that he is not there to be the leader.  If you remember Russell Swan’s performance on “Survivor Philippines”, you can imagine how this goes.  Look, I’ll cut Bruce some slack.  Saying he knows how to weave palm fronds when volunteers are asked for is not really being a “leader”.  But as his tribe will rightly point out, he still has big opinions on how everything should go, and kind of steps into the role in spite of himself.  Only time will tell how much a detriment that is long-term.  

Little Lulu, having only three people while Brandon gets looked at, is kind of at a loss.  The three who remain, Sean, Emily, and Hannah, kind of vaguely agree to work together (with Emily explicitly expressing concern that Kaleb and Sabiyah were quick to volunteer to leave for the challenge) and try to get something going shelter-wise, but are stymied by the lack of tools.  There’s also concern about whether they’ll EVER get them, based on the “Savvy or Sweat”.  This, then, gives us a segue into looking at said challenge.  It’s largely standard.  The “Sweat” is hauling a bunch of logs across the beach, while “Savvy” is untangling a rope from around a much of towers, freeing a flint to win.  There’s two catches that previous iterations of this do not have.  First is that despite the name, it’s not an “or” but an “and”, as in both portions of the challenge need to be completed before the timer runs out, not just one.  Makes who to pick a bit trickier overall.  The other is that, rather than just being a race against time, it’s a race against EACH OTHER.  Yes, evidently the producers are tired of everyone winning this challenge no problem, so now they’re going to force at least one tribe to lose no matter what.  And on that “Dun-Dun-DUN!” moment, we cut to commercial.  Editing gold.  

We check in briefly with Little Lulu here again, mostly to see that Brandon’s look from medical was so inconsequential, it didn’t even warrant us seeing it.  Brandon comes back to camp to inform us that he’s not dead, and that he feels fine and feeeeeeeeeels happyyyyyyyyyy!  With the obligatory reference out of the way, they try once again to get some sort of shelter going minus tools, leading to Brandon and Hannah bonding over how anxious they’re getting.  Brandon for the obvious “I screwed up a challenge” reason, while Hannah has a more general “The elements are tough” moment, though she admits nicotine withdrawal is a factor.  The pair have a good human bonding moment, before hauling back a large stick of bamboo.  Not much, but it’s something.  

Emily, continuing to make arguably the worst first-impression possible, expresses skepticism about how the “Savvy or Sweat” will go.  This gives us all the reason we need to cut back to it.  With the rules set, both tribes give it their go.  Sabiyah starts off as our narrator, talking about how tough the challenge was.  She notes that she even started talking to herself.  She presents this as a weird coping mechanism, but from what little I know of physically-exhausting activities, it seems pretty normal.  In this case, it’s pretty effective too, as she and Kaleb get a slight lead on the puzzle portion.  Jake tells us not to worry, that he and Brando have the smarts to beat them on the puzzle.  This is immediately followed up by Brando admitting he has no idea how to do this kind of puzzle.  Again, the comedy is pretty good this episode, if nothing else.  

We cut away without finding out if there was a winner, as well as the realization that Belo is having just as much trouble sans tools as Little Lulu is.  They express hope that Jake and Brando return victorious, which naturally means we immediately get them coming back in defeat.  They say that both teams lost, which at first I think is them lying.  After all, why not show us the end of the challenge, if not to set up a fake out?  But no, Sabiyah and Kaleb come back empty-handed as well, though as we’ll see, in overall a slightly better position than their counterparts on Belo.  Sean informs Sabiyah of Emily’s comments, which I’m sure will in NO WAY impact later conversations!

Back at Belo, we get the first hint of alliances forming there, as the women all discover they have September birthdays.  Between that and the sad recent trend of women leaving pre-merge, they agree to stick together, which I can’t fault them for.  I will fault them for bringing it back to zodiac signs, since people talking about that is one of MY pet peeves (hence why I haven’t really been mentioning Kendra, the main person bringing them up.  It’s all spite here.), but hey, I’ve heard of worse reasons to make an alliance.  Power to them.  

They discuss targets, with it landing on Jake for being an attorney, and therefore smart/untrustworthy.  The irony, of course, is that Katurah, also an attorney, is part of this conversation.  She, however, is wise enough to keep her mouth shut, saying she’s an office manager instead.  As she has a better poker face than Julie, I won’t fault anyone for not catching on to this.  In a funny scene, Katurah even doubles-down by playing dumb with Jake and asking him basic questions regarding his profession.  Point Katurah.  Not much else to say here.  

Over at Little Lulu, Emily continues to anti-ingratiate herself.  Despite the lack of tools, they’ve manage to use their ingenuity to get a halfway decent shelter going.  Ok, “halfway decent” is maybe too much credit, but we’ve seen worse shelters on this show.  This is not Rupert’s Deathtrap from “Survivor All-Stars”, nor the Younger Men’s “Two Sticks and a Palm Frond” from “Survivor Exile Island”.  And these guys at least have the “No tools” excuse.  Point Little Lulu, if we’re pitting these shelters against each other.  

So how does Emily factor into this.  Well as Sabiyah lets us know, and we hear from Emily’s own mouth in a second, she’s kind of negative about the whole thing.  While the rest of the tribe tries to figure out ways to make something work, Emily is the one pointing out that it CAN’T work, for various reasons.  The legitimacy of these reasons varies, but whether they’re legitimate or not is irrelevant.  The smartest point made in an obnoxious way does not win friends and influence people, which is, you know, kind of the point of the game.  It’s less important to be right and more important to be inoffensive in how you make your point, and right now, Emily seems pretty incapable of doing that.  Which, to be fair, she did promise us would be the case before the game started, but that doesn’t make it any less a bad move.  

The counterpoint, however, is that it seems like living with these particular people might already be straining Emily’s limited patience.  She might not be playing the game well, but the look on her face when everyone else on her tribe immediately jumps to “aliens” as the builders of the pyramids says it all.  And I’m right there with her.  I would have an EXCEEDINGLY hard time not calling them out on this.  While strained, Emily is polite enough to their faces, but I can sympathize with what she’s having to deal with.  Still, it’s not good for her game that she’s having this much trouble this early.  

Reba is doing too well for them to be in any real contention of losing the immunity challenge, and thus we don’t get to see any sort of alliance form.  We do, however, get a crack in the form of Sifu.  That infectious energy sadly is not limited to confessional, and when you openly compare yourself to Tony Vlachos (“Survivor Cagayan”), that’s not necessarily a good thing.  Sifu is openly and blatantly looking for idols, a fact people comment on and that ostracizes him from the tribe a fair amount.  It’s overall a boon to Austin, however, who can go and more subtly look for an idol or advantage without arousing much suspicion.  He does eventually find something, but takes it without reading.  He’s a bit put-out that it’s another Beware Advantage, but after a bit of deliberation, decides it’s worth the risk.  Probably the right call for him.  His tribe seems unlikely to lose in the immediate future, so he probably has some time.  Even if they do, Sifu can be made an easy target.  Good play by him here.  

The Beware Advantage this time around is largely as it has been.  There’s an idol you can get, but must complete some task before doing so, no voting until it’s complete.  The major difference here is that it’s now a SERIES of tasks, not just one.  First is that Austin must use a piece of parchment with half-letters on it, combined with the random symbols on the tribe flag, to figure out his next clue.  Told you they’d be relevant.  I admit, I’m torn on how I feel about this method for the Beware Advantage.  I think on the whole I come down on the side of liking it ok.  The fact that it’s less public than past Beware Advantage tasks alone is a plus in my book, and this very much feels like a treasure hunt.  As I mentioned with Tai’s hunt back in “Survivor Game Changers”, it feels very much like something out of “Indiana Jones”, and I’m all in favor of that.  Really, my only gripe is that this method is, by its nature more time-consuming, and I fear that moving forward, episodes will be bloated with more complicated advantages instead of giving us more time to get to know these new players.  

Off to our challenge.  Gee, I wonder if Reba will lose?  After all, apart from Austin finding the Beware Advantage, we’ve had all of about zero content from them!  No, this is clearly going to be a two-way race for last between Bero and Little Lulu, with the latter being favored to lose due to having had more content overall.  Instead, let’s look at our immunity idol.  This season it’s the bust of a notorious “Survivor” Villain: Pelican Pete, Osten’s arch-nemesis on “Survivor Pearl Islands”.  First finishers get the bust itself, second place gets the base.  Not the best idol, not the worst.  Fits with the logo of the season, decently cool-looking.  Do wish the second half was something other than the base, but at least it’s not two separate idols.  

Our challenge itself largely comes courtesy of the first immunity challenge of “Survivor South Pacific”.  Tribes race through some obstacles, then toss coconuts into a net to get it heavy enough to drop. This iteration, of course, adds a climbing wall and a puzzle at the end.  Because in the modern era, you can’t have a tribal challenge without a puzzle at the end.  First two tribes to finish win immunity, losers have Tribal Council and lose their flint.  Because you know, that’s still a thing.  Pretty small-scale for a first immunity challenge, but I do have a fondness for “Survivor South Pacific” since it was the first season I blogged.  I feel like that buoys this one up into an “ok” in my book.  

There might have been some mystery before the challenge as to who would lose, but hoo boy, do they not even bother trying to hide it once the challenge gets started.  Little Lulu is behind pretty much the entire time.  There was a slow start from basically everyone except Kaleb on the mud-crawl portion, but it’s the climbing wall where they really struggle.  Multiple falls from multiple people.  I’ll give them credit for ingenuity in using their buffs to create hand-holds for those running up, but that alone is not enough.  They do eventually scale the wall, but as Probst says, it’s largely a moral victory by then.  For once the puzzle was irrelevant, and Belo and Reba win immunity, in that order.  

Being one of the people who fell off the wall multiple times means Brandon has now arguably cost his tribe two challenges (jury’s still out on how much his individual performance affected the outcome in the immunity challenge vs. Little Lulu just generally not doing well in that challenge), and he thinks himself very much in danger.  Feeling emotional about the whole thing, he goes full Gabler (“Survivor 43”) and threatens to use his Shot in the Dark round one.  Between this, the mat confessional, and being on the yellow tribe on an odd-numbered season, Brandon is guaranteed to win now.  

Spoiled ending aside (just joking, all you nitpickers), Brandon is not the only one feeling down.  Hannah admits that the elements are getting to her, and her heart just isn’t in it anymore.  She talks about just leaving, but Brandon talks her out of it.  He exaggerates, to be sure, telling her she “has” to keep going when no, objectively she does not.  She can choose not to.  It seems to work, though, and the pair discuss how to stay alive.  Unsurprisingly, their decision is to target Emily for being the outlier of the tribe, and while she hasn’t outright cost the tribe a challenge yet, she’s not a physical strength.  She struggled in the mud crawl, and everything we’ve seen makes it clear that Kaleb and Sabiyah are physically carrying the tribe.  

Naturally, this means to save herself, Emily starts targeting the pair, citing their bond.  Now, if I’m going to be completely fair, I can see some logic in this.  On tribes this size, a tight pair needs to be nipped in the bud, and while there’s been nothing explicit, Kaleb and Sabiyah have been together in a lot of stuff.  While definitely not the best in terms of keeping the tribe strong for challenges, especially since Emily explicitly prefers to target Kaleb, who is the only one without a weak performance in a challenge yet (even Sabiyah struggled on the mud crawl), there is a logic to it, especially if you think your tribe won’t win challenges regardless.  It’s a go big or go home strategy.  If it works, you’re set up really well in the long-term.  If it doesn’t, you’re likely out super early.  Fitting with Emily’s earlier confessional about preferring to be out first if she doesn’t win.  That said, it can’t be denied that this is probably not the optimal strategy for Emily in this moment.  Based on what we’ve seen, she’s the outside; lucky to not be receiving a major target (Kaleb wanting Brandon out for his challenge performance), so best to just keep her head down and throw Brandon and/or Hannah under the bus.  

I would also be remiss if I didn’t point out what may be a worrying trend with Emily.  While she has called her tribe in general “idiots” most of her targeted ire this episode has been towards Bruce, Kaleb, and Sabiyah.  While each of these individually has their own justification (how much you buy each justification may vary), one can’t help but notice that all three are African-American, and thus, one can’t help but wonder if there’s a bias, unconscious or otherwise.  This may very well not be the case, but notably, when Emily DOES turn her ire on Hannah later on, her tone is noticeably kinder.  Again, I want to make no assumptions about Emily, and it is also worth noting that the context in which that ire came out was different.  My hope is that Emily is more equanimous in her ire moving forward, and I still enjoy her calling stuff out, but yeah, if this pattern continues, it certainly tints my enjoyment of her character.  

Shock of all shocks, word of this gets back to Kaleb!  Brandon spills the beans in an attempt to save himself.  Despite this obvious reason to mistrust Emily, Kaleb still would prefer to vote out Brandon for “Tribe Strength” as we head off to Tribal Council.  If that’s really his only criterion, it makes sense, but on the whole, I think Emily would be the smarter decision.  She may not have directly cost the tribe a challenge thus far, but she’s not seen to be contributing much at this point either.  If she’s someone you can’t trust, and just generally grating on the tribe, no reason to get rid of her.  

Man alive this Tribal Council set is boring.  Seriously, I just finished watching the episode and I barely remember it!  Completely nondescript.  Hey, maybe if we moved out of Fiji every once in a while, we wouldn’t have this problem!

Initially, the events of Tribal Council are barely more memorable than Tribal Council itself.  Mostly just everyone talking about Tribe dynamics.  Not even an annoying metaphor to make fun of.  Thankfully, Emily is there to stir up more drama, first doing the smart thing of pointing out Brandon’s weakness in challenges, before being explicit about the threat the pair of Kaleb and Sabiyah are.  Hardly one to take things lying down, Sabiyah employs the Sean Rector defense of “Survivor Marquesas”, pointing out that people are assuming there’s something there when there’s no formal agreement.  Emily sticks to her guns, and a good bit of chaos starts to erupt…

And then Hannah derails the whole thing, telling us that this Tribal Council will be a non-starter.  Despite Brandon’s pep talk with her earlier, she’s stating she just can’t take it, and her heart isn’t in it.  Hoping for a good sound-byte, Probst asks Emily if this changes her mind, and she says it does.  This is where the Hannah ire I mentioned earlier comes in, as she does say that Hannah doesn’t deserve to be there.  Still, the tone is a lot less condescending than it has been, though again, that could just be her reacting to the somber mood of the situation.  Everyone follows suit in saying they would honor Hannah’s wishes, and so Probst forgoes the vote, and Hannah is gone.  

I must admit, this ending of the episode is a bit of a mixed-bag.  Ultimately a quit rather than a proper vote is kind of a wet fart of an ending, and not at all befitting the start to a season.  Really, this ends up feeling more like the first half of a two-part episode, where we’re introduced to the characters, but don’t really get the dramatic climax we’d expect.  That said, in terms of character, it IS nice that the person leaving was probably the least-interesting of those up on the dock.  Certainly another episode of Emily grating on everyone will make for some fun tv that we haven’t seen in a while from this show.  Really, my only complaint about Hannah’s exit is that it’s ANOTHER therapist doing poorly in the game, and this one from my hometown!  There really isn’t going to be another Denise Stapely (“Survivor Philippines”) is there?

How one ranks this episode would depend on what one’s looking for in said episode.  Most elements, from the challenge to the misdirection to the strategizing, were just ok.  Where this one really excels is in the character department.  This cast hits you full in the face with personality, and we get legitimate conflict for the first time in a while.  On the whole, while maybe not the strongest as a standalone episode, it does promise good things to come, and I hope it delivers on that promise.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 43” Episode 2: Wife Swap

Not the next show I was expecting to cross over with “Survivor”, but hey, we’re no stranger to cross-promotion in this fandom.  “Amazing Race”, “Big Brother”, there’s a good bit of reality tv crossover.  Even non-reality tv crossover if you want to count Lisa Welchel’s appearance on “Survivor Philippines” as one for “The Facts of Life”.  And hey, trashy as it is, I’ve watched the show once or twice.  I can give this a chance.  

Despite a unified vote, there is a bit of… I hesitate to say “drama”, so perhaps “tension” is the proper word, after Tribal Council.  Owen, it seems, was not fully prepared for his name being thrown out.  I assume he thought Morriah would target Gabler or something?  Owen discusses nearly pooping his pants, but manages to avoid doing so, meaning Stephen Fishbach’s “poop pants” crown, as bestowed upon him by Abi-Maria during “Survivor Cambodia”, remains his.  Much to his chagrin, I’m sure.  In any case, Owen handles the tension fairly well, referring to Tribal Council as a trust exercise, which Gabler concurs with after his challenge performance the previous episode.  Everyone agrees to try and work together again, and all go to bed happy.  

Waking up, the tribe is less happy.  There was a fairly harsh storm, and it seems their roof is not quite up to scratch, leaving them soaked.  Hard for anyone, but Owen tells us it seems to be hardest on Gabler, who is starting to flag health-wise.  Given how tough the guy looks in general, I’d feel like this wouldn’t hurt him that bad.  Gabler shares my sentiment, but admits that Owen is right.  It seems like they’re leaning into medevac territory, but after a few hours’ rest, Gabler gets back up, and we move on with a reminder of the toughness of the “Survivor” elements.  

Enough feel-good moments, it’s time for strategy!  And Vesi can bring that strategy, as we now take the time to get clarification on what we had speculated about last time.  Justine and Noelle had come up as a firm pair, with Cody, Nneka, and Jesse forming the “anti-salesperson” alliance.  No one seemed to be talking to Dwight, which Jesse confirms.  However Jesse, not being an idiot, realizes this puts him in the middle of two pairs, making him third no matter what.  A person to become part of a pair with him would be ideal, and Dwight’s the only person left.  The pair agree to work together, with Jesse even comparing Dwight to his wife, in a person he can trust and confide in wholesale.  This leads Dwight into giving his backstory, talking about interviewing various politicians at a young age.  It’s the first of a few backstories we’ll be getting tonight, and probably the weakest out of all of them.  The segue is less natural, basically a case of “Dwight is talking strategy, so I guess we’ll talk about his backstory now.”  While a nice moment, it doesn’t hit as hard as the other moments we’ll be getting this episode.  That said, the pictures of little kid Dwight are adorable, so I’ll still say this was a net positive.  

Back to strategy talk, Dwight is big on the “Get Cody out” idea.  Dwight’s reasoning is that Cody is an unpredictable element, as evidenced by his desire to jump from various rocks into the ocean, despite said rocks appearing to be a decent distance from the shoreline.  Jesse, however, is less keen on this plan, reasoning that Cody’s “unpredictability” is related to him having fun, rather than anything directly game-related.  This is back up by the fact that, when we DO see Cody jump off a rock, it’s not the ones he seemed initially to be pointing to, but one more clearly jutting out over the water, and thereby being much safer.  Between the two, I’m inclined to agree with Jesse’s logic here.  Much as I’m normally the first person to say “Vote out the chaotic player!”, Jesse’s point that Cody’s chaos is unrelated to his strategic game is correct, at least for the moment.  Granted, either choice keeps the pair in a good position, as long as they’re united, but Jesse has more of an “in” with this foursome, and thus more room to maneuver things to the pair’s advantage.  If Dwight had a similar “in” with Noelle and Justine, I could see it, but as it stands, going with the Cody/Nneka pair seems smarter for now.  

There’s also the fact that Justine annoys Jesse.  I’m sure this is true, but the show doesn’t do the greatest job of backing this up with evidence.  Granted, annoyance is a subjective thing, but the “annoying thing” Justine does mostly consists of her being on the lookout for, and freaking out about, spiders.  Not the best thing to be creeped out by when on an otherwise deserted island, but also a pretty common and natural fear, and it’s not like Justine goes into a panic at the drop of a hat.  It’s more of a hyper-vigilance than anything that seems like an overreaction.  That said, her comments about the shelter make Jesse’s feelings more understandable, mostly due to how they’re presented.  Justine has a suggestion for making the shelter more comfortable, which on paper sounds fine.  Crucially, though, she doesn’t offer to HELP make said improvements, and spends the time combing her hair.  Comes off looking a bit selfish on her part, but again, we’ve seen worse.  Makes more sense than the spider thing, though.  

Karla gives us our Coco tribe strategy recap.  She notes the girl’s alliance, plus James, going against the duo of Ryan and Geo.  Despite her seeming conflict last time, she comes right out and says she’s leaning towards the former alliance, due to the bond Ryan and Geo seem to have.  Gone is the bond with her and Geo, I guess?  This does lead to a feel-good moment between the latter pair, as they find an almond tree, and start trying to break into the nuts.  This is somewhat more difficult than with the store-bought ones, but it does give Geo the opportunity to talk about the hardship’s he’s overcome in life.  We got hints of it last episode, but this is a full-blown backstory/flashback.  

Basically, Geo became homeless at age 18, after coming out to his parents.  The details of his struggle aren’t known, but he made it through, and says he’s in a good place right now.  We even get a cute shot of him and who I presume is the husband he mentioned together on a pier.  A well-transitioned scene, and one that tugs well at the heartstrings.  What I particularly like is how Geo talks about his struggles mentally.  After quoting statistics about suicide rates amongst the LGBTQ+ community he admits, almost clinically, that he did consider committing suicide himself.  He also talks about how he worked through by looking for the good in his life.  One might argue his way of discussing it lacked emotion, but I thought it still came across, yet did not descend into melodrama, as something like this easily could, and I appreciate that.  An open, honest discussion of these issues without needing to “milk” them for extra drama can only help, and I am very glad the show included this particular scene.  

Backstories abound over at Vesi as well.  We first get some detail into the struggles of having a prosthesis on the island, as Noelle struggles to get a good seal on it when putting it on in the morning.  This leads to Cody asking about the inner workings it has, which Noelle obliges.  Cody is not just interested in the leg for the novelty, though.  He tells us that he lost a good friend (who gets nicely memorialized in flashback) to a cancer that started in the leg in high school.  This, Cody tells us, is why he’s so focussed on having a good time all the time.  Sweet stuff, only slightly pampered by the slightly awkward transition to it.  Yeah, bot stories are about a leg, but there’s a difference between an amputee and a death.  Both tragic in their own way, but not the same thing.  

Rather than flash back to his own backstory, Owen on the Dumbass tribe flashes back to previous seasons.  After referring to himself as a “lovable curmudgeon” (which is the official title of this episode, but NOT who I thought would be getting it), Owen then adds to himself the title of “Junior Deputy Water Boy”, which I’m willing to be is an intentional call back to Rob Cesternino calling himself “Junior Deputy Firewood Bitch” on “Survivor The Amazon”.  Fun moment, but not much else comes of it in and of itself.  

Dumbass tribe is not without strategy, however.  While Owen is off getting the water, Jeanine and Elie are off looking for advantages.  They come up empty, but waste little time, talking strategy instead.  They debate which guy to pull in as their third.  I thought they had settled on Sami at this point but hey, keep the options open, I guess.  They do still settle on Sami, in the end.  Gabler is left out of the discussion entirely, and they find Owen too “needy” to have along.  I’d say Sami is better in challenges, and younger and thereby more easily led, but hey, hard to argue with results.  

That said, the results don’t look the greatest for them.  Giving some more insight into why they were willing to cut Morriah last episode, the women talk about how the men don’t seem to be playing the game very well, and aren’t really talking strategy with one another.  Indeed, this seems to be the case at first, as we get Sami and Gabler chatting about impressions and hurling coconuts as Owen returns from gathering water.  However, we then see that the women have underestimated the men.  With Owen back, they indeed agree to stick together against a possible women’s alliance.  Sami admits feeling kind of scummy about it.  Normally I’d agree, since a “women’s alliance” is a boogeyman that has unfairly tanked the games of many a good player, but in this case, since there actually IS such an alliance that’s fairly obvious to all, it’s less scummy in this case.  

No beating around the bush.  Out immunity challenge is one copied wholesale from “Survivor Game Changers”, save for a logo puzzle replacing the ring toss ending.  Tribes will untie a snake from a cage in the water, then bring it ashore, dragon it through some obstacles until it’s on a platform.  They will then release the numbers for a combination lock, which will unlock puzzle pieces for two tribe members to solve.  First two tribes to finish win immunity, as well as various amounts of fishing gear, with first place naturally getting more.  Dumbass tribe, as one would expect, is also playing to earn their flint back.  Honestly, as bad as the season it comes from was, this is a decent challenge, and while it doesn’t change anything about it, the amount of detail on the snake is a nice touch.  

Our sit outs bear some mentioning, since both strike me as a bit odd.  Karla is the sit-out for Coco, and while she’s by no means the challenge beast of her tribe, it certainly seems like she’d be helpful in hauling the snake around.  Granted, this would take Lindsay or Cassidy, the other presumed sit-out options, off the puzzle, and maybe Karla’s not great at puzzle, but no one said Karla HAD to do the puzzle.  Keep the one of Lindsay or Cassidy on the puzzle, and put James in!  I’m sure that chess master brain could come in handy.  

Noelle at first blush also seems an odd choice, as she appears on the more athletic end of Vesi, but as she will later explain, the prosthesis she happened to have on was not good for the water, so her sit-out makes more sense.  That said, I still mention her because she may be one of the most animated sit-outs we’ve yet had on the show.  Assuming there’s no advantage to be found, most sit outs just sit there quietly.  A few sulk, like Michaela on “Survivor Game Changers”.  A few give worried looks, like Cirie’s memorable one on this very challenge of “Survivor Game Changers”.  Cheerleaders about, perhaps most memorably of late Tony on “Survivor Winners at War”.  But Noelle is one of the few to actively look pissed.  Seems odd, given that she agreed to sit out, but a fun change of pace nonetheless.  

Going into this challenge, there’s actually quite good mystery as to who goes!  All three tribes have had some strategy content (Coco perhaps less so with the lack of multiple targets, but it’s not like they got zero content), and all seem at least somewhat plausible.  Always a good thing, this mystery is particularly necessary this episode, as despite Probst’s exhortations about comebacks, the tribes stay in the same position the whole challenge.  Dumbass tribe has the lead, proving their name to be non-indicative by performing well on the puzzle, with Coco in second.  Despite Vesi having the bring idea to take off their buffs as reference for the logo puzzle, a seeming dip in energy by Dwight and Nneka on the puzzle, and Nneka missing a piece in a bag, lead to their loss.  They forfeit their flint, and we get an angry confessional about how Nneka in particular needs to go for messing up the puzzle, thereby ensuring that Nneka will stay.  

Cody plays the diplomat back at camp, assuring the tribe that it’s no one person’s fault that they lost.  Noelle and Justine are quick to throw that out the window, insisting that it was Nneka’s fault.  Seems like Dwight could share at least some of the blame, but they focus on the missing piece in the bag, which did fall squarely on Nneka, who opened said bag.  Plus, they probably want to work with Dwight down the line.  Cody and Nneka, of course, are not up for this, and with Jesse agree to target Justine, for being on the weaker side, plus the aforementioned annoyance.  Thus, the battle lines are drawn.  

This was an extra-long episode, however, and we’re going to use that time for foreshadowing and strategizing for those who DIDN’T lose this challenge.  Dumbass tribe is, of course, very happy to have a victory under their belts.  Elie in particular gloats about how smart this makes her feel, since she struggled in school due to an ADHD diagnosis.  All well and good, and certainly apropos of the moment, but this DID get a bit into the melodrama for me.  Don’t get me wrong, Elie has every right to be happy with her performance on the puzzle, but to say it was more impressive than earning one’s doctorate?  No.  

The tribe is also very happy to have their fishing gear, though most admit they don’t know how to use it.  Gabler claims to have spear-fused before, but upon later questioning states that he’s never specifically used a Hawaiian sling before.  Calling two things right now: Gabler will lose the spear at some point, and in the same episode, Rupert Boneham (“Survivor Pearl Islands”) will swim all the way from Indiana to berate Gabler for “killing his spear”.  

As to the “strategizing” part of this, we here get confirmation that Gabler is on the outs, as Jeanine and Elie celebrate his idol no longer being good, believing that it was only for two Tribal Councils, whether Gabler attended or not.  This was not how I interpreted the clue, and the pair wisely decide to double-check.  With Gabler out fishing, and with Owen to run deflection when he comes back, Jeanine searches through Gabler’s bag.  Finding the clue, she confirms that indeed, it’s the next two Tribals Gabler ATTENDS for which the idol’s active, meaning he’s still technically safe.  Of course, Dumbass tribe is immune, so this gets tabled for now, but will likely be a wrench in their plans down the road.  

Back on Vesi, it’s down to Dwight and Jesse to determine which side to go with.  Dwight still wants to stick with the ladies, and get out Nneka for her challenge performance, while Jesse advocates for getting out Justine, citing her as a “good actor”, which we see she did tell him in flashback.  Not helping matters is Justine straight up TELLING Jesse she doesn’t want to get “hoodwinked” by him, indicating the lack of trust.  I gave my thoughts on this debate before, and at this point, nothing’s changed.  As a pair, it’s better to go with the Cody/Nneka pair, since you have slightly more agency and flexibility from what we’ve seen.  That said, despite going to what Jesse calls his and his wife’s “Pineapple Room” (evidently Jesse’s family loves “Spongebob Squarepants”), they can’t come to an agreement.  Dwight, of course, can’t vote, so Jesse says he’ll go his own way if he must.  Only something incredibly stupid could screw up this plan now.  

Oh look, there goes Cody doing something stupid.  Maybe Dwight had a point about his unpredictability…

To be more specific, Cody goes looking for an idol or advantage, and finds the “Beware Advantage”.  Now, he knows what this is.  The man admits to having seen the past two seasons.  Even if he doesn’t think it’ll be EXACTLY the same, he should recognize the potential pitfall here.  But no, Cody does the (admittedly in-character) thing of opening it without thinking.  Shock of all shocks, he loses his vote!  Gee, that’s not crucial at all with the numbers this low!

If the Beware Advantage worked exactly the same way it did the past two seasons, Cody would be screwed.  Since the mechanism for unlocking the idol would happen at challenges, with the challenge over, he would have no way to get it back before Tribal Council.  Luckily for Cody, the team has changed things up.  This time, he must get six specific beads, one from the bag of each member of the tribe (including himself), willingly given to him in order to get his vote back and activate his idol.  I’m of two minds about this.  On the one hand, I applaud the show for changing it up, and getting rid of the hokey phrases I never personally bought into.  I also like the mechanic of gaining the beads, in principle.  Collecting small items to power up a bigger one feels very “Indiana Jones”-esque, which I always enjoy seeing brought into the show.  What holds me back from a full-throated endorsement is how limiting this feels.  And don’t get me wrong, the phrases were limiting as well, but pulling that off had to do with one’s acting ability.  In this case, about the only plausible lie is some sort of arts-and-crafts project, so if you’re not the sort of person who normally does that, it’s going to look VERY suspicious if you suddenly start doing so.  

Here’s an idea: Keep the bead mechanic, but have it POWER UP the idol instead.  Say, each bead you get makes the thing good for one extra Tribal Council.  You start with your own, making it good for one Tribal, but each subsequent bead adds a Tribal.  Keeps the social element, but prevents you from having to talk to EVERYONE, potentially giving away what you’re doing.  You can still have them lose their vote, but make the mechanism for getting the vote back separate from the bead mechanic.  

Luckily for Cody, he IS the sort of person who can pull off the “arts and crafts” gambit, since we saw that he weaved hats from palm fronds earlier.  On top of that, Cody also pulls off a really good, but subtle pressure campaign on the rest of the tribe, with the help of Nneka and Jesse, whom he’d informed of the problem earlier.  Cody starts weaving his beads into his hat around the campfire with everyone present.  He starts by asking Jesse and Nneka for their beads, who of course give them.  The smart thing about this is that it puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the tribe to follow the example.  If you refuse as the first person asked, no one’s going to look askance.  If others have already given theirs first, you look like more of an asshole, and are thus more inclined to agree to fit in.  It’s a brilliant bit of psychology of Cody’s part, to be honest.  

About the only hitch is Noelle, who likes the idea of making stuff with the beads, and wants to keep hers for a bracelet.  Thus, we’re not sure of the outcome for Cody as we head off to Tribal, and get a better look at our torches for the season.  They have hand bones on the sconces, which is a nice touch.  While not going down in history as one of the best ever to happen, there’s a lot of solid strategy talk, and even some humor.  Nneka talks about the emotional expressiveness of Nigerians, warning Probst away from being near them when watching “Survivor”.  Bringing the “wife” thing back up, Jesse fake proposes to Dwight, even getting down on one knee.  Cody is the one to merge the humor and the strategy, talking about his funky hat, but then noting that one person won’t be around to get one after tonight.  He is a nice guy, though, so he promises to make one for whoever is voted off anyway.  

Most of our tension is centered around whether Cody has a vote or not, such that we even cut to commercial after the votes are cast, but before Probst gets them.  Then we find out that Cody was successful, a good play undercut only slightly by the fact that his vote actually wouldn’t have mattered.  Fearing a successful Shot in the Dark play, Justine threw a vote on Cody.  Normally a good strategic move, but one that meant her pairing with Noelle had no shot at winning.  Even if Cody was unsuccessful, Nneka’s and Jesse’s votes would have been enough.  

The big loser move of the night, however, goes to Jesse.  For all the praise I’ve given the guy, for all the smart moves he’s made, he made a huge mistake here.  Why did he not TELL Dwight what he was going to do.  Look, I get he wanted it to be a joint effort, and I get that Dwight was not on board with keeping Nneka, but why have him be blindsided by the outcome?  Frame it as “Look man, I know what you want, but this is better for us long-term, trust me.”  That way you KEEP your tight pairing, rather than risk it for… Basically no reason.  

All this to say that I’m not sorry to see Justine go.  She didn’t have a whole lot that made her interesting, and while probably not as annoying as Jesse made out, she didn’t bring much to the table.  For Jesse, as detailed previous, she’s also probably the smart move, so can’t really fault that.  Even if I can fault blindsiding Dwight.  

On the whole, very good episode!  There’s a few bits I could nitpick, in particular that based on timing it was decently easy to predict the outcome of Tribal Council, but the show worked with what it had to deliver an entertaining product with good strategy and humor throughout.  May not be one of the greats, but I’ll happily consume a solid “Survivor” episode any day!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 42” Episode 7: Mistakes Were Made

2-hour episode or not, this is just embarassing.  Yes, folks, we have not one, not two, but THREE things last episode that I forgot to mention.  Dear readers, we have a trifecta, meaning it’s time once again for another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

To give credit to myself, at least one of the things was relatively minor.  While on Exile, while I talked about Rocksroy’s arc overall, I neglected to mention his penchant for firewood collection, even going so far as to state “when you think you have enough, you don’t have enough.”  Minor enough moon its own, but clearly Rocksroy is being controlled by Butch Lockley of “Survivor The Amazon”.  Evidently Butch has taken up voodoo in order to control Rocksroy from a distance.  Not what I expected of him, but power to him.  

Speaking of Rocksroy, while I mentioned his smashing of the hourglass, I neglected to mention the fallout from it.  We oddly didn’t see a lot of people complaining about this.  I assume that it happened, like it did last season, but just wasn’t shown by and large.  What’s funny to me is that the one pissed-off person we see is Tori, narratively implying that she was the ONLY person who had an issue with Rocksroy’s choice.  What’s rich is that Tori had the LEAST reason to be mad at Rocksroy’s choice.  Does it screw up her game?  Absolutely, but she was the one throwing Rocksroy under the bus earlier that episode.  Not to mention the argument they had earlier as well.  Tori, you can hardly blame the man for looking out for himself rather than you.  

Finally, but to me most importantly, I neglected to mention a strategy employed by the teams at the “immunity” challenge last episode, and I’m talking the team one, not the individual one.  I did mention it was the same challenge as last season, but the players here started it off SLIGHTLY differently.  In this case, rather than dig up their entire ball, they dug a ramp in the direction the ball needed to go, and just rolled it up that way.  A smart bit of challenge strategy, and one that, you’ll recall, I advocated for last season.  Given that this was filmed WAY before that blog was written, you’d think this was just a coincidence.  What you don’t realize is that Dr. CasWHOpanan from last season has taken up a new companion in her TARDIS, and it’s MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Silliness aside, we dive into our episode proper with damage control needing to be done on those left out of the vote.  Chanelle is naturally pissed, and does a bad job of hiding it.  She goes OFF on Hai, who really has no defense.  If Chanelle didn’t know she was on the bottom before, she does now.  Little better off is Romeo, who while not as overtly pissed, is also well aware of where he stands.  Understandably, Drea is the main target of his ire, as he wonders why she couldn’t clue him in.  Drea tries to pass the buck to Mike, but Romeo rightly points out that as his main ally, it was really up to her to make sure he was informed.  While the bridge may not be as burned as thoroughly as Chanelle’s at this point, it’s very tense at a minimum.  Despite being included in the last vote, Maryanne is consoled as well, with Lindsay coming clean about her whole plans and why.  Maryanne, as per usual, gets emotional about it, and gives the schpiel about being excluded from the “cool kids”.  We’ve seen this a million times before on this show by now, but what gets me is that, while some like Jonathan and Mike this season are your typical “cool kids”, this “cool kids” includes the likes of OMAR.  And don’t get me wrong, I love Omar!  He is awesome, both as a human being and as a player, but “cool kid” is not a word I would use to describe him.  

We also learn, via chyron, that the merge tribe is to be named Kula Kula.  Decent enough name, but kind of confusing when we had a “Kalokalo” on “Survivor David vs Goliath”.  Kind of a problem when you stay in a place, and thus names are often drawn from the same linguistic group, over and over.  Why they waited until now to reveal the name, I can’t say.  Perhaps it’s because they didn’t get the flag and paints until tree mail for the reward challenge came?  Hell, when was the last time we had tree mail shown on this show?

To emphasize how great a guy Omar is, we see that Mike has taken up Omar offer to answer questions about Islam, as he quietly watches to the side while Omar conducts his prayers and gives a play-by-play.  It’s respectful and nice on both ends, a fun little humanizing scene that doesn’t advance the game, but does connect us to the players.  Enjoy this moment.  There will be few compliments to be had for this episode.  

Complaints, on the other hand, will about.  You remember last episode?  How I was complimenting the show for reducing Probst’s asides to the audience to the absolute bare minimum?  Yeah, they took that and spit it back in our faces.  Probst talks MULTIPLE times this episode, but the first is the worst, since not only is he still treating the audience like a pack of kindergarteners, but it’s to hype up ANOTHER twist, labeled a “beware advantage”.  This one is the one Xander missed last season, or at least another one hidden under the bench.  Probst tells us that if this one doesn’t get found, they’ll keep trying.  Perhaps neon signs will be put pointing to it at that point.  Joy.  

Our challenge is “Octopus’ Garden” first seen on “Survivor Cagayan”.  A decent challenge, but overplayed at this point.  Of course, with a sit-out bench, we need a sit-out.  Maryanne draws the bad rock, but then Drea, on the pretense of disliking the reward of PB&J offers to switch.  An odd parallel to when Xander also switched last season.  I’d say again that it’s just a weird coincidence, but again, Dr. CasWHOpanan strikes.  

Our teams consist of Omar, Hai, Maryanne, Lindsay and Romeo, against Jonathan, Rocksroy, Mike, Tori and Chanelle.  As there is no puzzle in this challenge, the latter team is favored to win, and they do, but more narrowly than one would expect.  Inexplicably, Jonathan is not, at first, put on the basketball portion of this challenge, and this combined with Omar having a surprising amount of skill in this area, puts the former team ahead, in spite of being slower to get their buoys to the platform.  Then they come to their senses, and Jonathan of course crushes it.  They win, and while it was a comeback, Probst is more than a bit hyperbolic when he calls it “One of the biggest comebacks in ‘Survivor’ history!”

Both teams actually kind of celebrate after the challenge.  The winners celebrate having food, obviously, with Jonathan once again going on about his caloric intake.  Eh, it was funnier when he was going full Gaston.  But the losers still express joy in how hard they fought, with Omar’s performance in particular being impressive.  It’s here that we get insight into Omar’s game, with him talking about creating “options”.  He uses not having had a vote at the last Tribal Council to his advantage, making it seem like he’s on the outs, so that he’s getting information from pretty much everyone, even if he’s not explicitly allied with some of them.  Good smart play.  We love to see it.  

Drea, of course, is also happy, in this case because of her advantage.  After reading it, it turns out it’s the return of the “Knowledge is Power” advantage.  You know, because Drea didn’t have enough stuff.  Now she needs an advantage that gets her even MORE stuff!  I know I praised this advantage last season, so let me clarify my position here: This is a brilliant idea for an advantage, placed on the worst possible season for it to be on.  This sort of twist works best when things like idols and advantages are kept secret, and not, you know, incredibly public like they have been.  Between needing to say phrases to activate idols and sending people to Shipwheel Island, this advantage takes little skill to play, and therefor loses any good it possibly has.  I’d like to see it come back on a different season, but for this one, it’s OP, please nerf.  

But what of the “Beware” part of this advantage?  Well, the advantage is hidden under a coconut near the water well, and so Drea has to make an excuse in order to obtain it.  To paraphrase Devon Pinto on “Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers”, “That is not a disadvantage”.  Look, I get that it’s harder than just being given the thing outright, but this isn’t even like when they hide it in the campsite proper, and you need to wait for good timing, or manipulate events to get the good timing, a la Yau Man on “Survivor Fiji”.  Literally all you have to do is say you’re going to get water for the group, and BOOM!  Done.  Suspicion averted, provided you don’t take too long.  

To be completely fair, though, there IS a bit more “Beware” to this advantage than explicitly stated in the note.  It mentioned needing to avoid being caught “red handed”, and it seems this was meant to be taken literally.  The advantage was sealed in a container at the bottom of a tube of red paint, which Drea had to stick her whole forearm in to reach.  I’ll give it points for cleverness, with the subtle foreshadowing in the note, and it does have kind of an “Indiana Jones” vibe with the “stick your hand in this unknown hole” thing.  As mentioned on previous seasons, I like a good “Indiana Jones” shout out.  And it DOES create a dilemma.  I mean, how’s Drea going to get this red paint off?  If only she had some water to wash it away!  Oh, wait, SHE DOES!  IT’S LITERALLY FIVE FEET AWAY!  What kind of consequence is this?  

Well again, to be fair, there ARE repercussions.  Tori notes some leftover red paint, at first thinking that Drea is bleeding.  Drea claims she was painting, but no paint on the still unmade tribe flag makes Tori think otherwise.  That, plus a lump in Drea’s pants when Tori KNOWS she’s not happy to see her clues her in to Drea having an advantage.  Much as I hate to say it, props to Tori for good deductive reasoning.  Still, with all that said, these consequences do feel quite tame for a “Beware Advantage”.  They’re not NOTHING, but compared to losing one’s vote for likely an extended period of time, it’s kind of a letdown.  

Probst once again has an aside as we come to the challenge, noting that he’s offering another deal for rice to the tribes, as he did last season.  Really, there’s little bad about this one apart from the “monster” metaphor when he talks about bargaining being harder on future seasons, but with so much emphasis on “stuff” coupled with my dislike of these Probst asides in general, I’m in no mood to give it points.  Kula Kula is a lot more stingy than Viakana last season, since it takes Maryanne begging to get four people to sit out, with her, Lindsay, Omar, and Drea ultimately making the sacrifice.  Jonathan says he owes them, once again grateful for food.  More on that later.  Maryanne uses this to tout how she uses her emotions to manipulate others, which is doubtless true, but not sure this was the best example.  Not a hard situation, and hardly the first time we’ve seen someone plead to give up immunity.  Really, Maryanne here is being a nicer version of Colton Cumbie in episode 4 of “Survivor One World”.  I feel disgusting even putting those two in the same sentence, but it was the first thought that came to mind when I saw this.  

Our challenge is the lame endurance one where you hold up a buoy with two sticks, and barely worth mentioning, save that I thought for sure they would bring back the “Do or Die” twist just to hit the awfulness trifecta.  In the end, it comes down to challenge beast Jonathan versus previous challenge winner Tori.  Sadly, Tori wins, and so we must endure her presence for another episode.  

Without immunity, Chanelle is now once again the target.  Pretty much no one has a good relationship with her, and she’s an easy consensus boot.  Such boots need obvious misdirection, and Romeo is there to provide.  He’s checking and double-checking with everyone about his plans, and like Jamie Newton on “Survivor Guatemala”, it’s getting on everyone’s nerves.  Even the relatively chill Omar is talking about booting him.  What’s interesting is, despite Romeo being an obvious decoy, he would actually be the smarter choice, apart from Drea.  While Drea has some relationships in the majority alliance, Romeo is someone she can use to help flip numbers if needed, when he has few relationships in the majority beyond her.  Vati gets to keep their numbers up, Taku weakens another potential upstart tribe, and perhaps most important, you keep a consensus boot around to help unite your supermajority.  Yes, Chanelle needs to go at some point, and she’s hardly a BAD choice at this juncture, but Romeo still keeps the alliance intact, while eliminating a potential numbers flip down the road.  Plus, Romeo is just better at the game than Chanelle, from what we’ve seen.  She may have said she was playing chess while the others played checkers at the top of the episode, but that metaphor seems more apt to be flipped around, from what we’ve seen on the show.  

Tribal tonight is a mostly standard affair, though with two stand-out moments worth commenting on.  The first is when Probst checks in with Jonathan as to whether he’ll vote for any of the challenge sit-outs, which he denies on the grounds of “owing them one.”  I want to point out that it’s easy for Jonathan to say when 3/4 of them were on his starting tribe, and he’s at least to some degree allied with all of them.  Good excuse to hide still holding to tribe loyalty, is what I’m saying.  The second is something that should be a bad thing, but turned out good.  Sensing that we don’t have enough forced metaphors this season, Probst injects one about how playing “Survivor” is like riding in a car.  Of all the metaphors I’ve heard on this show, this one is definitely on the “More Cringey” end of the scale, but damn if this cast doesn’t kind of make it work.  Maryanne makes a joke about getting a new car, adding much-needed hilarity, while Lindsay and Hai actually manage to tie the metaphor into the game in a good way, noting the need to not be in the driver’s seat 100% of the time, or at least have protection if you do.  

Unsurprisingly, Chanelle goes home, and I’m not too sorry to see her go.  Nothing against her; she seems nice enough.  Just not as exciting a character as some others here, and I felt like we’d seen all the strategy we could from her.  Not that she didn’t have more game in her, but she just had no options at this point.  Credit where it’s due, though, she was totally right in rejecting the “We love you” from the group, particularly Hai.  Since they just voted her out, she was justified.  Also happy she gets to serve on the jury.  She’s earned that right, if nothing else.  

After so many steps forward, this episode really felt like a step backward in a lot of ways.  Having largely shed the worst excesses of last season, this episode largely fell back into the bad habits of “Survivor 41”.  More Probst talking to the audience, and adding in new advantages that ate up a lot of screen time.  The editing was still good, and the cast overall still likable, with a few good moments even shining through.  Not the worst episode, but a worrying trend, should it continue.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Game Changers” Episode 5: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Hidden Immunity Idol

Ok, for all the criticism thrown at this cast, they aren’t idiots. Second stringers? Perhaps. Unworthy of the mantle of “Game Changers”? You could argue that. But by and large, they aren’t idiots. Oh sure, you had some pockets of idiocy. Caleb. Arguably Debbie. Even J.T. would probably fall into that category after the events of the episode prior. On the whole, though, these people didn’t seem like they were morons, and would probably at least give us halfway decent gameplay.

That said, as Sandra survived Tribal Council after Tribal Council, people began to question even this assertion. On statistics alone, Sandra is the biggest target of the season, even when we have a full 20 players, and about the only metric in which she ISN’T a huge target is challenge ability. So, when she kept on staying, oftentimes not even being an ALTERNATE boot, it just seemed ludicrous. I, however, am willing to forgive a lot of it up to this point. Let us not forget that, for the two votes where Sandra was potentially a target (I’d argue that the combined Tribal Council doesn’t count, even though she was an alternate target, due to the whole “unable to strategize outside of Tribal Council” thing, but that the previous one does count, due to Sandra being the likely target if she doesn’t fuel the beef between Michaela and J.T.), there were adequate reasons for the targets that were hit to be hit. Tony and J.T. are both strong former winners, who are going against Sandra’s alliance. Even with Malcolm, since he’s such an all-around threat, it could be argued that he’s a worthier target. Tonight, though, would have been different. I don’t think Tai is QUITE as bad a strategist as some claim (though he does have the bad habit of putting his foot in his mouth), but when compared to Sandra Diaz-Twine, it’s no contest. And yet Sandra and the editing team are SO GOOD, they even had me convinced that I would have to rescind this “smart” qualification for everyone else.

Thankfully, these people are NOT that stupid, even if they do a good job looking it. And it definitely made for an exciting episode. But before I can tell you THAT story, I have to tell you THIS story. Yes, after a decent length hiatus, it is time once again for…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

There’s actually two this week, but I’ll only address one omission here, since the other once actually comes up in this episode as an important plot point. In all the craziness of that last Tribal Council, I forgot to mention the ending crowner. Sandra comes clean on her sugar-stealing, causing the tribe to “Wow”, which really should only come as a surprise to Aubry and Michaela. A lot of people say this would come back to bite her in the butt, but I’m actually all for it. The only one who might possibly be offended is Michaela, and on a tribe this small, it’s not like she has many other options. On top of this, it helps build Sandra’s resume, should she make it to the end. Sure, it could be argued that Sandra normally plays a game where she doesn’t need to do overt resume building. I say Sandra’s game this time, while containing many elements found in her winning games, is different from before, so why not change things up to have overt resume building? At worst, I say it’s neutral, at best, a positive. Definitely a fun way to end off a crazy Tribal Council.

On this blog, you might notice how often I rail against people handling coming back from Tribal Council on the losing side of the vote. No matter what, it seems like I’m able to find fault with whatever they do. This may lead some to the suspicion that I can never be pleased; that no matter what I will never be satisfied with a return-from-Tribal-Council performance. To them I say:

THIS. THIS is sort of post-Tribal performance I’m looking for. And of course, it came from Aubry. The Aubry Lobby is most pleased.

Yes, Aubry comes back and congratulates them sincerely on their move. She doesn’t make any bones about where her position is, but asks general questions about why J.T. over her. She caps it off talking in confessional about not having a leg to stand on, as those legs keep getting chopped off by Sandra, leading to a slow death. Not exactly on a level with her “Oregon Trail” metaphor from “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, but it’s a close one. She finishes off by saying that she needs to learn from Sandra. Now, as head of the Aubry Lobby, I should be offended that Aubry is saying she needs to learn from ANYONE, but as Aubry rightly points out, Sandra has been cutting off her game time and again, and so, yeah, fair statement from Aubry. It implies determination to do better, but also honestly acknowledges one’s situation, and what more can you ask for in a post-Tribal Council wrap-up?

Oh, Aubry also mentions something about having difficulty forming relationships with the three people still on Nuku. She really needs someone new to play with. Almost like a switch?

Surprisingly, the editors do NOT take the easy bait, and instead continue a storyline I neglected last episode. It seems the pattern of last episode was “Crazy shenanigans obscure actual gameplay”, as the craziness of Debbie over at Mana obscured Tai’s renewed attempts to look for an idol. He does eventually find a clue, his old friends the trees coming to his aid once again. In a new twist, though, Tai must pour water on a board somewhere at camp, and look for a tribe symbol to be revealed. I’ve got to say, this may be my favorite way of hiding the hidden immunity idol EVER! I’m not kidding. It’s not something that would be intuitive, but it fits in with the game show mentality. Plus, as a lover of the “Indiana Jones” movies, I love how this just seems like a pseudo-archaeological adventure.

We join Tai in a renewed night hunt for the idol, having been unsuccessful last episode. Thinking about places where there are a lot of wooden boards around camp, Tai goes and starts pouring water on the water hole. Not a bad plan, but since the clue specifically stated that the idol would be BURIED under the board, I have my doubts. Plus, why is Tai searching at night? Surely a subtle symbol like the one he’s looking for would be easier to see in the daylight. And it’s idiotic thoughts like these that keep you coming back to “Idol Speculation”. Not only DOES Tai find the idol, but he does so in the dark. Hey, good for him. He may not be the best strategist, he may not have the best English, but DAMN if he can’t find those idols!

Now we come to the actual swap, which is done in about as exciting a way as the first one, by which I mean they do it EXACTLY the same way as the first one, save with going from three tribes down to two, with our usual happy reactions shots from those on the bottom of their respective tribes (Aubry and Debbie, though oddly not Troyzan). We do at least get some good banter from Sandra about Probst doing her a solid, and Jeff Varner complaining that he got the one no one wanted.

As it shakes out, the new-new Mana consists of Hali, Aubry, Troyzan, Michaela, Brad, Sierra, and Cirie, and new-new Nuku consists of Zeke, Ozzy, Andrea, Sarah, Tai, Sandra, and Jeff Varner. As Tai points out, this puts all three gay men on the same tribe. Little to no chance of a showmance developing, sadly, because at least two out of the three of them (Tai and Jeff) currently have partners, but it’s nice to see nonetheless. Physically, we’re pretty even overall. Nuku may have gotten the two biggest challenge sinks (Sandra and Jeff), but they also got Ozzy. Apart from Michaela and Brad, no one on new Mana really stands out as a poor challenge performer, but neither does anyone stand out as a challenge sink. I might give the edge to Mana in the challenges, since often challenges come down to a sort of “Only as strong as the weakest link.” factor, in which case even Challenge Jesus himself may not be enough to compensate. Still, it should make for interesting competitions. And if you’re looking for a swap that saved the butts of those on the bottom, this one sure as heck did it. Aubry is obviously the biggest recipient, getting away from her foil Sandra, but also having many new faces (and Michaela) that she can build those necessary bonds with. Troyzan also benefits from now technically being in the majority of his tribe again.

But what of our third bottom-of-the-totem-poller, Mrs. Debbie? Well, as you might have noticed, we have two tribes, but fifteen people left. One person did not get a buff, and that person was Debbie. She’s told that she’ll be going to “Exile”, will sit in on the Tribal Council of the losing tribe, and join them following tonight’s vote. While I’m sad that we’re not getting a full return of “Exile”, since it’s a twist I’m rather fond of, Debbie is a good choice to go there. A fresh breath of life in the game for her, and one of the things that can make “Exile” interesting, even to non-fans of the twist, is someone overdramatic going there. If you don’t think Debbie fits that overdramatic mold, I remind you that she somehow connected “Exile” to riding horses in her youth. She’s upset, naturally, but it should be a fun ride.

We head off to our respective camps with Jeff Varner doing what he does best: Complain. We’re spared that for a bit, though, as we first check in with Mana. Everyone seems pretty happy, and those who had been away from the camp are happy to see the improvements made. Brad, however, brings us back to the realm of strategy. As those on the bottom got a new lease on life, so did those on the top get screwed over. Case in point: Brad. Barring Debbie actually being able to get a rebellion together, Brad was firmly in control. Now, as Brad points out, his only real ally is Sierra. Hali was tenuous at best, he and Cirie were never really aligned on the original Nuku, and he hasn’t had a chance to play with Aubry, Michaela, or Troyzan. Still, he tries. God bless him, he tries. Realizing that there’s a big bit of “girl power” potential, Brad cozies up to Troyzan as the only other guy on his tribe. Yeah Brad, because the whole “Guy Power” thing worked SO WELL the last time. For his part, Troyzan gets on my bad side by comparing this to his stint on “Survivor One World”. While an apt comparison, it reminds me of “Survivor One World”, which I hate. To give credit, though, Brad has evidently been tutored in math, such that he realizes that three is less than four, meaning he needs one more person. We never see him make a move on anyone else, but it makes for an interesting plot thread, and spreads some idea that Mana may actually lose the next immunity challenge. As to who Brad SHOULD go for, it’s kind of a toss-up between Aubry and Michaela. We can pretty much assume that Hali and Cirie are out, since Brad’s indicated that he’s tried that road and it doesn’t work. Of the other two, Aubry would seem to be the obvious choice, since she’s on the outs with the other original Mana. Plus, given how often we saw them hug this past episode, it seems like Aubry and Troyzan may be pretty comfortable with each other, which would further cement her position in that alliance. On the other hand, Brad has been shown to be wary of the “Kaoh Rong Three” as they’re now being called, which would endear him to Michaela. Plus, with Sandra gone, the original Mana should be fragmented anyway. If I had to guess, since Brad doesn’t seem to make his move this episode, I would guess he goes for Michaela ultimately, but I could still see it going either way.

Now we head over to Nuku, where Zeke wastes no time cementing his non-moron status by targeting Sandra with Ozzy. Do I even need to spell out the reasons why? The longer Sandra lasts, the less threatening she becomes, and the more she takes up a spot that you yourself could need. On top of that, for everyone on this tribe but Jeff, she is the leader of the opposition, the uniting force that is the only real threat to the victory of one of you! But of course, a decoy target is needed. Do they agree to say Ozzy, in the vein of “getting out threats”, and thus get someone to AGREE to be a target, rather than simply naming a target and pissing that person off. No, that would be the LOGICAL thing to do!

For all my snark, the alternate plan is a good one: Say the target is on Tai, due to his general wishy-washy-ness. And, presumably, heavy love of the chickens, but this is left unsaid. This is not to say that Tai isn’t proactive. Recognizing that his main skill lies in finding hidden immunity idols, and having found the last one by pouring water on the water well, Tai naturally tries this strategy again. Logical, but of course, we know that this season twisted things around so that idols are hidden differently each time, and so there’d be NO WAY that this plan would work again.

Of course, we forget that the purpose of hiding the idols in different ways was set up pretty much to ensure that the idol ended up in the hands of whomever production wanted. Since Tai is a favorite amongst both hardcore and casual viewers, of course they want it to end up in his hands. This gives Tai a couple of records here. He is now one of a very select group to hold two idols at one time, that group consisting of Tony Vlachos (“Survivor Cagayan”), and Jeremy Collins’ run on “Survivor Cambodia”. Winners all, which would seem to bode well for Tai. Then you remember that this group also includes James Clement (“Survivor China”), and since Tai’s gameplay is closer to James’ than Tony’s or Jeremy’s, I’d say this doesn’t help Tai as much as it might seem. Oh, it helps, but the thing with idols is that you need to know when to play them, and I’m not sure Tai does know that. More impressive, to me, is that Tai is now tied for the record for most hidden immunity idols found in a single season. Again, this record matches Tony Vlachos’, but also puts him in the same boat as Russell Hantz (“Survivor Samoa”).

CRASH!

ME: Oh Christ, not this again! Part of why I moved was to STOP you assholes crashing big holes in my living space.

RUSSELL: Not just ANY asshole, fool! THE asshole! I’m Russell Hantz, and how DARE you say that Tai is in my league?

ME: True, how foolish of me. Tai is MILES better than you.

RUSSELL: But don’t you know who I am? I’m the greatest of all TIIIIIME!

ME: No, you’re a three time loser who can’t seem to learn from his mistakes, and then whines and complains whenever things don’t go his way. Yes, Tai may have mismanaged the jury, but it was more due to negligence on his part than ACTIVELY ANTAGONIZING the jury like you do. Plus, Tai learns from his mistakes. You do not.

RUSSELL: What do you mean? I don’t need to learn from my mistakes. I’m RUSSELL HANTZ!

ME: And now you’re Russell No-Pants (Pants’ Russell. Russell exits in a hurry).

Back to non-annoying contestants, we cut over to Debbie on “Exile”. It’s here that we reveal why I’ve been using quote marks this time around. “Exile” is not an island, but a fully-stocked boat full of goodies, such that Debbie can live in luxury until her return to the game. I’m sure some people will get mad, but I do like how it throws EVERYONE, audience included, for a loop. We expect “Survivor” to be all about suffering, so having a twist NOT royally screw over the odd person out makes for a nice change of pace.

But if you’re someone who watches “Survivor” for actual wilderness “Survival”, then you’re going to hate what comes next. It’s time for our former player to return to the game. Like I and many others predicted, it’s a reward for the Exile. However, the person who actually came back was not Rupert Boneham (“Survivor Pearls Islands”) or Boston Rob (“Survivor Marquesas”), or one of the other survivalists out there. No, we get Probst’s second-favorite contestant to talk up ad nauseum, John Cochran (“Survivor South Pacific”). I’m sure this segment is a turn-off for many people. It goes on for a long time, and many people find both Cochran and Debbie annoying. Personally, though, I’m ok with it. I find Debbie tolerable at her worst (when she isn’t yelling at Brad Culpepper). As to Cochran, he’s my second-favorite player of all time, so damn straight I’m happy to see him back. He’s relatively successful as a “Survivor” player, and is fairly witty. Between him, Rupert, or Boston Rob making a cameo, I’m glad he’s back. Really, the one sour point is Debbie basically saying she’s happier to meet Cochran than she was to meet various Presidents and Prime Ministers. Debbie, stop over inflating Cochran’s ego. That’s Probst’s job.

Frankly, about the only way this scene could have been better is if Aubry had gone to “Exile” instead of Debbie. My two favorite contestants of all time playing together. I would have died! Of course, then you would have been unable to get more “Idol Speculation”, so your lives would have been worse as well.

Apart from one line about burning his clothes post-Debbie hug, Cochran mostly confines himself to strategy talk. He goes all Luke Skywalker on us, point out to Debbie that “Overconfidence is your weakness.”, and gets her to fess up about the beef between her and Brad. To the chagrin of the producers, but the delight of everyone else, Cochran encourages Debbie to mend fences with Brad, which she agrees to do. Cochran also leaves Debbie with a parting gift: To help fend off the “royally screwed”, Debbie can pick one of three advantages. Really, though, it’s only two advantages, since the “Supplies for a fake idol” one pales in comparison to the other two. Basically, Debbie can choose between an extra vote at Tribal Council and an advantage for whichever team she ends up on. It really is a tough call. Ultimately, for me, it boils down to a “short-term gain vs. long-term gain” choice. The vote doubler is better for the long haul, but coming into a tribe that’s had a chance to bond, it may not matter. Conversely, the challenge advantage may help you get through to the merge, but that’s it. I couldn’t really fault either call, but if I had to make a decision, I’d go with the vote doubler. It’s risky, but since no one but Sierra can guess that a merge is coming after next episode, there’s less advantage to the challenge advantage. Debbie, in one of her smart moments, takes the vote doubler, and we move on to strategy.

Simply throwing out a possible target isn’t enough; you have to make the other side buy it. Zeke, in the first real gameplay we’ve seen from him all season, lounges with Jeff on a beach. The talk turns to strategy, and Zeke casually throws out that Tai’s on the outs for the aforementioned wishy-washyness. Jeff is thrilled, and while he seems to take the whole thing with a grain of salt, he still seems on board. He lets Sandra know, giving us that classic “Anyone but me!” confessional from Sandra, but she’s more openly suspicious, as well she should be.

To go with our kick-ass episode, we have a kick-ass challenge. Sure, it’s a combo, but one of rarely-used elements from more than two seasons. After a short swim, tribes cross monkey bars and a balance beam. Then they load a cart with puzzle pieces, which they then drag across a platform and up a sandy hill (using logs on the latter part). Once there, three people solve the puzzle from the first episode of “Survivor San Juan del Sur” to win immunity. Not the biggest challenge, but the cart-dragging part (reminiscent of both “Survivor Guatemala” and “Survivor Caramoan”) was epic enough, and that is a tough puzzle. Add onto that at least a modicum of strategy from both tribes, and you’ve got yourself arguably the best challenge of the season so far.
For all that the challenge is epic, the misdirection, while still good, is less so. Both tribes had SOME strategizing, but Nuku had the bulk of it. Add onto that Mana getting and holding the lead early on (despite Probst’s narration trying to convince us otherwise), and them putting the stellar team of Cirie, Aubry, and Sierra on the puzzle, and yeah, Mana wins hands down, solving the puzzle surprisingly quickly.

Our conflict at Nuku is exactly what you’d expect, with everyone wanting Sandra out, and telling her it’s Tai. Sandra is still suspicious of that story, though, and so doubles down on reminding people why Tai needs to go. She cites the “Kaoh Rong Three” angle, but also brings up a strategy she had talked about a lot prior to the start of the season. She appeals to the big threats like Ozzy that she won’t go against them, and that since they’re such big targets, they NEED someone like her to survive. As I said before, these people have brains, so they’re not buying it, but as they will acknowledge, she’s GOOD! In a Kaa the Python way, Sandra is able to pitch things just right that even though you know she’s tricking you, you’re still kind of buying it anyway. And even if Ozzy and co. don’t buy the whole “Sandra will stick with us” thing, they are at least giving consideration to the “Kaoh Rong Three” angle, which admittedly is something for them to watch out for. Tai doesn’t help himself much when he gets properly paranoid about no one talking much to him pre-Tribal Council. Pretty good misdirection, but like with J.T. last episode, I’m not buying that Tai goes home. He has TWO idols! He has even LESS of a reason to not play one than J.T. did.

If the misdirection at camp was kind of lackluster, though, it was made up for at the Tribal Council, where everything all but literally turned on it head. For the first time, we heard Sandra betray some concern for her position, citing being down in the numbers. Fair enough. But then all Sandra had to do was sit back and wait for Tai. While most everyone else expressed confidence in the way the vote would go, Tai again expressed his concern about not getting talked to, not helped when Sarah chimed in that she HAD been talked to. Tai naturally started getting paranoid, and so this is where Sandra jumped in and did what she does best. She threw out to Tai the option that if he was willing to tell her who to vote for, she would go with him. And that simple strategy, right there, is truly why “The Queen Stays Queen”. It’s not complicated, it’s not even that hard to pull off. But Sandra knows just how much to push to get people to do themselves in. Even with Tai’s nervousness, it should have been clear even to him that between his idols and Sandra’s concern, he should be safe. All he has to do is say “Why would I do that? You’re going home tonight.” and everything is smooth sailing for Tai. Yet Tai, for reasons I’m STILL having difficulty fathoming, starts whispering in her ear, eventually revealing to the group as a whole that he threw out Ozzy’s name, due to the whole “threat” thing. This, of course, gets everybody whispering, giving us chaos equal to (and I would argue surpassing) that of the “combo Tribal Council” we had two episodes ago. It was tighter and more furious in pace, and best of all, it came about ORGANICALLY! Take note, producers: we do not need you to give us awful twists that eliminate Malcolm to make for an exciting Tribal Council. Everyone starts throwing Tai’s name out, culminating in Zeke rightly asking Tai how anyone can trust him when no one knows who Tai trusts, as well as pointing out that his idol hunting is suspicious.

It’s this second point, as well as the whispering behind Tai, that tells me that Tai should play his idol. True, it would confirm people’s suspicions that Tai had been idol hunting, but Tai could also play it off as him getting rid of the idol to show that he had no secrets. He could stop his hunt so as to build trust, yet still KEEP an idol for his own personal use. 

Yet he doesn’t, and given the edit, I’m ready to get out my “MORONS!” megaphone, since trustworthy or not, it’s ALWAYS smarter from a gameplay perspective to keep Tai over Sandra. As I said at the top of this blog, though, these people are not morons, and vote out Sandra. As the icing on the cake, Sandra gets in a good line, asking Probst not to snuff her torch. Everyone, even Probst, is super respectful, with Probst noting her record of days, and everyone giving polite applause. Sandra seems content, probably because she defended her title. I’m both sorry and not sorry to see her go. Sandra is always entertaining, and definitely would have led to a higher caliber of gameplay than Tai if kept in the game, but we got a LOT of Sandra these first five episodes, such that I’m satisfied. She remains the only two time winner, and results aside, I say this may be Sandra’s best showing yet. Even WITH a target on her back (something she never really contended with her first two seasons), she lasted a good long time, and had a showier game than usual. Her place in the “Survivor” Annals of History is well-earned.

Just when you thought last episode was as good as the season would get, this episode blows it out of the water. We had those crazy moments, as well as good strategy, but by and large, they came from the PLAYERS, not the TWISTS, which elevates this one to a whole new level. The exit of Sandra is sad, but really, it was inevitable, and if she did have to go, this is a great way to go out.

Episodes such as this deserve a celebration, meaning it’s time once again for…

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5!

In honor of the coolest way to hide the hidden immunity idol, we’ll be talking about, well, ways to hide the hidden immunity idol. I refer both to location and gimmicks for finding it, in this case. Other than that, anything goes!

TOP 5

5. Pictographs: In an attempt to make the idols “Russell Proof” (i.e. unable to be found without a clue), “Survivor Nicaragua”, in one of its rare good moves, changed things up so that instead of a written clue, tribe members had to decipher a picture puzzle to figure out where and how far to walk for the idol. I’m not sure why they never did this again, other than the fact that it led to fewer idols being found. It was creative, and it let people play along at home (the pictures were released on CBS.com for people to try and decipher), so I fail to see what is wrong with it.

4. “Back Across the Ocean”: For the most part, since the introduction of the hidden immunity idol, clues have been fairly straightforward. One or multiple quatrains hinting at where to look for the idol But “Survivor Micronesia” took it to a new level. Rather than one clue leading to an idol, now one clue led to the next, to the next, to the next, and so on. This made the hunt more of an adventure than it had been before, which would have been fun in and of itself, but it was made better by Cirie’s commentary upon it’s trial run. The repeated talk of “Back across the ocean” is one of the few times I really found myself enjoying Cirie on “Survivor”, and this method deserves credit for that, if nothing else.

3. “Stupid Bats”: Idols that are hidden in plain sight were BOUND to come up on the list, so this entry really comes down to all of them. However, if I had to pick the best one, I’d have to go with the original on “Survivor China”. Apart from Todd’s funny “stupid bats on the freaking thing” confessional, this felt more innocuous than the lid of the rice from “Survivor Philippines”. the latter felt more central to camp life, and more easily pegged for an idol (being the tribe symbol and all). The Chinese calligraphy on the archway seemed more innocuous, and thus it takes the position of representative of this entry.

2. Pouring Water: Like I said, looking for the idol should be an adventure, and trying to decipher hidden clues like we saw in this episode is one HELL of an adventure. That being said, it’s less risky than our number one entry, which is why it just BARELY misses the top spot.

1. At Challenges: So help me, this is a great way to hide the idol. It’s harder for people to find randomly, but requires a lot of skill to get, and adds a strategic element to challenges that might not otherwise be there. Kelley Wentworth, Troyzan, pretty much anyone who goes for one of these idols gives us a good scene in some way or another.

Honorable Mention: “Why” You Fell Behind: I’m a sucker for a bad pun, and the clue to the hidden immunity idol on “Survivor Exile Island” gives us a great one. “Why” and it’s buried by a y-shaped tree? Great! Only misses out on the list proper due to the written clue emphasizing the word “Why” with quotes, making it a bit too easy to go on the list proper. Fun, but not exactly difficult.

BOTTOM 5

5. “A”: It was fun on “Survivor Exile Island”, but when “Survivor Cook Islands” used naturally occurring letters in nature, it just felt derivative. Add onto that a clue that’s more on-the-nose and less exciting than its predecessor, and this one, ironically enough, does NOT make the grade.

4. Tree Mail: “Survivor Tocantins”, we did not need an upskirt shot of the Tree Mail Guy. That is all.

3. Picture: Pictographs are one thing, but giving someone a reward that flat out SHOWS them were the idol is, as Malcolm was given on “Survivor Caramoan”? That just ruins the fun. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it eliminates pretty much all work in finding the idol. Good for the player, I’m sure, but for the audience? Not so much.

2. Mechanism: I’ll give the producers credit for trying to change things up on “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, and ask the players to make a tool to get the key to the idol. And admittedly, it was fun to see these people find workarounds for that problem. But it just felt a little too tricky and fiddly to make us fall in love with the adventure, and made the hunt take up more time in the episode. Probably not the worst (and frankly, with the exception of Number One on this list), none of the methods on the “Bottom 5” are horrible, but compared to others, this one falls flat.

1. No Clue: Like I said earlier, playing along with the clue can be fun. No clue=no fun. I get that this was the super-special “Tyler Perry Idol”, but everyone agrees that was the low point of “Survivor Cagayan”, and everything associated with it is tarnished, including the method for hiding it. You can protest all you want about how you “Didn’t want ANYONE to find it”, but we all know this was just a lazy excuse for jumping the shark, and therefore the worst idol clue of them all.

Honorable Mention: “Definitely on the Ground”: Not technically an actual clue to the idol, but a lie by Judd Sergeant (“Survivor Guatemala”) to everyone but Stephenie. Given that this is Judd we’re talking about, it should come as no surprise that it’s a weak clue, but it’s a HILARIOUSLY weak clue. Plus, since it’s not a proper clue, I can’t put it on the list proper, but that half-assed lie must at least be acknowledged.

PHEW! When “Survivor” gets great, it gets REALLY great. Like I said, best episode of the season so far! Yet I get a sneaking suspicion that the upcoming episode can top it.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Cambodia” Episode 12: Outwit, Outplay, Outlast, OutFox’d

The only way this blog can really start off is with an apology. As you might expect, it’s for the unexpected lateness of this blog. As my frequent readers will know, I pride myself on my punctuality with these posts, so this one being later than usual is somewhat starting. Sad to say, I’m feeling a bit under the weather, and so don’t think I can really do the blog in full at my usual time. I’ll admit, it’s pretty pathetic to say “I’m feeling too ill to do a blog.”, but it does take a lot of brainpower, and I just don’t have that right now. I’ll write as much as I can before I have to crash, and I’ll be sure to make a note of where I have to break for the evening, to give you an idea of where my thoughts may be slightly skewed. I also need to apologize for something else that’s quickly become a staple of the blog this season:

MATT’S MESS-UP!

A couple of pretty obvious ones this time. When describing the puzzle of last episode, I mentioned that it was tricky because one had to spell the word “Nutrition” backwards. I was wrong. You had to spell “Nourishment” backwards, which I would say is even harder and more obscure than “Nutrition”, so kudos there. just a slip of synapses, I guess. My other fault is in how fast I went through the last Tribal Council. Not to say that I really skipped over the strategic points, but I failed to acknowledge the awesomeness that was the shot of Spencer’s silhouette when voting. That shot sent chills down my spine. They need to do shots like that more often.

Certainly Orkun wishes they had some shots as they return from Tribal Council. There’s been very little celebrating at the expense of others this season (one of the reasons I think it’s a cut above most other seasons), but here things go a bit in that direction. Nothing overly much, but the return to camp seems more jovial than usual. Though that may be because, as Kelley correctly points out, they now all have a decent shot at winning immunity.

Not all is at peace, though. Tasha got a mystery vote last night, and it’s quickly figured out that it was Keith. Speculation from the outside was that Keith knew about the vote, but didn’t want to vote out his friend St. Joe, and so threw a vote Tasha’s way. At worst, just a sentimental move, but at best, a pretty subtle way to win over jury votes. I’ll admit, even I bought into this. I’m not the biggest Keith fan in the world, but I’d say he’s capable of at least THAT much strategic thought. I mean, he’s not Ralph Kaiser (“Survivor Redemption Island”) or anything. Yep, I was all prepared to give Keith credit here. Too bad he completely throws that out the window, wondering why he wasn’t let into the loop. He doesn’t seem too hurt about it, but it’s a shame to see that no, Keith really is that out of it.

Though, perhaps Keith’s lack of hurt is because Tasha is siphoning it all. Tasha is EXTREMELY upset that Keith voted for her, to the point of wanting to vote Keith out next. I can’t criticize this move too much, since it DOES fit in with the women’s alliance, which I said before is probably the better way for Tasha to go at this point. However, Tasha, despite arguably being better at challenges than anyone left (as far as track record goes), Keith is nowhere near as big of a threat as Jeremy or Spencer are, by virtue of not being able to really put a coherent strategy together. I’m not saying Tasha should take a throwaway vote lying down, but this seems a bit extreme. This is what I mean when I say she’s kind of Andrew Savage (“Survivor Pearl Islands”) lite. She doesn’t go in for personal attacks against people who DARE to move against her, but she’s not very quiet about it. Better to play things subtly and close to the chest in these scenarios, rather than go on the warpath against your betrayer. Take a lesson from the book of Natalie Anderson (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”), and wait for the proper time for your revenge, rather than seek it immediately.

Speaking of “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, all three people voted on from that season are still around! Remember that? Jeremy, Kelley, and Keith sure do! In fact, they’re shouting it in front of everybody! If that doesn’t pile on the “Royally Screwed” for one of the three (presumably Keith), I don’t know what does. Still, even if it amounts to nothing (which is what will happen), it does bring up a good point. I’m normally not one for talking about preseason talk from the contestants outside of my “Cast Assessment” blogs, but it bears mentioning here. One of the big themes a lot of people talked about preseason was “Splitting up the ‘Survivor Cagayan’ group.” After all, while fractious, they did have four people, more than any other season, and could form a secret voting block. However, in targeting the “Cagayan 4”, people may have neglected the “San Juan del Sur 3” Almost as many people, and with less bad blood between them than those from “Survivor Cagayan”. Given Jeremy’s “Anti-Girl Alliance” talk, I doubt that’s what’s actually happening, but it’s something to consider.

After more of the aforementioned “Anti-Girl Alliance” talk between Jeremy and Spencer, we head to our reward challenge, courtesy of “Survivor San Juan del Sur”. Everyone has to unwind some rope from a frame, being tied to the end of said rope. Once they believe they’ve unwound enough rope, they must construct and cross a bridge before using beanbags to knock blocks off of a table. The first person to clear their table wins a trip to the temple where we had our show opener, as well as a blessing from the monks, and a feast. Pretty sweet reward, all things considered, and not a half-bad challenge to boot. Sure, I think the block-knocking thing is pretty lame, and I do wish the bridge was a puzzle bridge rather than sticking generic sticks in generic slots, but I like the mental element with unspooling the rope. Not to say that it’s a particularly hard thing to do (unless you’re Abi-Maria), but there’s an element of timing to it. You want to leave as quickly as you can, so as to get a lead on your opponents, but not so early that you don’t have enough rope, and lose time needing to unspool more. It’s an interesting element, and one that saves this challenge for me.

Keith won the challenge on “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, and history repeats here as he wins it again. Unlike some, however, I don’t think this is a result of Keith’s impressive physical strength. Keith’s pretty decent in that area, to be sure, and he was one of the frontrunners, but it’s not as though he had a commanding lead the entire time. Keith was just the only one who made absolutely sure he had enough rope before heading out. Still impressive, just in a different way than you might think.

Keith gets to take two people with him on his reward, and he picks Kelley and Spencer, which I really can’t argue with. Keith’s not really in a position to curry favor with one alliance or another, so might as well take a key player in both and remove suspicion of alliance forming. Not that this strategy works, but the theory behind it is good. Keith’s justification, however, is that Kelley took him on reward last time, so he’s returning the favor (fair), and that, somehow, Spencer’s loved one gave him less that Jeremy’s or Tasha’s, which I would say isn’t fair. I’m not a huge fan of putting value judgements on how important a loved one is, nor am I a fan of it here, though I cut Keith a bit of slack since unlike some, I don’t think it comes from a place of malice. Kelley passes it off as an example of “Keith Logic”, and frankly I’m surprised that doesn’t become a hashtag.

Despite Keith picking people you’d think would get rid of alliance-forming suspicion, their names still get thrown around back at camp, mostly because Tasha is still on the warpath. The fair point is also brought up that with St. Joe out of the mix, Keith is now a threat to win challenges. Tasha’s the ringleader, of course, and Kimmi and Abi-Maria are definitely on board, Abi-Maria relishing in the villainousness of it all. Jeremy’s definitely open to the idea, but everyone can tell he’s a little reluctant. Jeremy thinks, not unfairly, that Keith may be a number in his corner, and he’s still scared of a women’s alliance. Not an unreasonable fear, especially since I’d say Keith might be a good asset for Jeremy, but Jeremy goes a bit far in saying that he wishes he HADN’T voted St. Joe out last time. I get that the women’s alliance is a threat, but that’s too big a sacrifice to cripple a potential counter-alliance. Tasha, for her part, is bound and determined that Keith go, saying that it’s her time to make a move, and that if Jeremy won’t go, she’ll find others to go with instead. You know, I’m starting to see a pattern developing on this season. Everyone wants to make “their move”, something they can point to and say that they and only they engineered. Granted, that’s true on every season, but it seems really pronounced here. This fixed focus on one’s move, though, is also setting up the downfall of a lot of people. People need to make moves for themselves, sure, but they need to wait for the right time for it to happen organically. Those who try and force a move on a situation where it’s not needed often meet their downfall as a result, or have their time game significantly shorted because of it, Stephen’s feud against St. Joe being a prime example. Granted, time’s running out to make a move, and while Tasha doesn’t exactly have NO resume, she doesn’t really have anything that stands out (unless you count voting Kass out).

At first, it looks like we won’t get any strategy on this reward, but just a lot of nice, non-gameplay scenes. True, Spencer’s talk about how far he’s come is a bit forced, but it’s a lot of fun just to watch the ceremony, and hear Keith make “Indiana Jones” quips. But eventually, the game must come again. Sure enough, the three discuss a final three possibility, which again, isn’t terrible. Keith probably can’t win in that scenario, but then again, I have a hard time imagining a scenario this season in which Keith CAN win, so I suppose it’s as good as any. I don’t see Spencer or Kelley wanting to go up against the other, since I’d say those two have the strongest resumes out of anyone there, but on the other hand, they talk about adding Abi-Maria as the fourth, and since she’s the only person less likely to win than Keith, it’s possible either Spencer or Kelley plans to betray the other. One could argue that Spencer’s choice means very little, since he’s in a similar situation if he goes with Jeremy, Tasha, and Kimmi, with Jeremy being someone Spencer probably doesn’t want to face, but each could betray the other and take Tasha and Kimmi to the end, except that I’d say Tasha and Kimmi overall have better resumes than either Keith or Abi-Maria, so there’s still some incentive for the reward final three scenario. The three debate who to get out first, Jeremy being their primary target, but all agree that that’s what will be expected, in terms of idol playing. Guess Jeremy wasn’t so good at hiding that idol after all. The three correctly surmise that, after Jeremy, Tasha is the biggest threat, and so agree to go for her first. Not a bad move, except for the fact that after getting rid of Tasha, Jeremy still has a Tribal Council in which he can play his idol, and now he’s tipped off to the fact that you’re against him. Better to take the risk and blindside him now, I say. Can’t fault their logic, though. Much though I hate to make positive comparisons to “Survivor Fiji”, it’s very reminiscent of the brilliant move of getting out Edgardo of the four horsemen, since no one would see it coming.

Remember all that single-mindedness I was talking about from Tasha earlier? Yeah, that’s out the window. Tasha realizes that Abi-Maria might not be the strongest ally, and so perhaps it’s in their best interest to get her out, since she’s a potential swing vote. I’m all for flexibility in the game, and I’m certainly grateful that Tasha’s confessionals aren’t going to be super repetitive this episode, but her choices make no sense. She swings from the second worst person to vote out to the worst person to vote out, targeting people who really shouldn’t be targets. I’ll go into her logic later, as it DOES have consistence, but suffice to say, it’s not what I would call a good strategy to win the game. It makes for exciting tv, and I’m happy to see it, but in addition to voting out goats, Tasha is now destroying the possibility of a women’s alliance, which, need I reiterate, is her best option.

We WOULD head over to the immunity challenge, but I’m tired, and need to head over to bed. Here endeth the part of the blog written immediately after the episode. See you guys tomorrow (or today, as the case may be).

So, as I was saying, we head off to our promised immunity challenge. It’s a pretty standard water obstacle course, with people running across various platforms and beams to retrieve something (in this case a key), out in the water, then swim back and solve a puzzle, with the first puzzle solved winning immunity. The idea of a water obstacle course is pretty old by “Survivor” standards. Elements of it can be traced all the way back to “Survivor Borneo”. Personally, though, I consider “Survivor Vanuatu” the birthplace of this particular variation on the challenge, since that was the season to have climbing over local boats as the obstacle. This seems strange, as no one from “Survivor Vanuatu” was on this season, or even eligible to be on this season. So, how does this relate to “Second Chances”? the answer comes in the puzzle. During the first episode of “Survivor Worlds Apart”, each tribe had a choice to solve one of three puzzles. The one with the fewest pieces, basically a tangram puzzle that would make a square when solved, was not chosen. It gets reused here, giving IT its second chance, as Probst puts it. Cheesy? Yes, absolutely, but cheesy in that good, “Survivor” kind of way. If you’re going to bring back something that never got used or finished (like the blindfolded ball-rolling challenge on “Survivor Samoa” that got finished only on “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”), it’s best to do it on one of these all-star type seasons. It just feels right that “Survivor” history should be rounded out with “Survivor” alums.

It becomes clear pretty quickly that this isn’t going to be much of a contest for immunity, at least for the most. Jeremy and Spencer are far and away the heads of the pack, and really the only ones in the running for immunity. Spencer is slightly faster than Jeremy, but also a bit more reckless, and so takes a couple of pretty hard falls that are painful just to watch. Jeremy, in contrast, takes things very steadily, and never slips up once. As a result, he gets back to his puzzle station with a slight lead over Spencer, not that it matters. Jeremy’s a great guy in many ways, but he’s never shown himself as a puzzle champ. Spencer, while maybe not a puzzle CHAMP, is still pretty damn good at the things, and solves his puzzle in about 15 seconds, according to Probst. I still like this challenge, but I’ll admit a lot of the tension was gone from it. Part of that was due to just how far ahead Jeremy and Spencer were, but I also suspect that the producers were counting on the puzzle to make things exciting. When Spencer just whizzes through it, it loses a little something. Props to Spencer, as it’s not an easy puzzle, but it kind of leaves the challenge feeling a back lacking. Maybe if they’d had to run the course multiple times and retrieves multiple keys, it might have been something greater. Then again, given what we’re about to discuss, it’s probably for the best that they DIDN’T do that.

Everybody was behind Jeremy and Spencer to some degree, but Tasha was WAY behind. If this strikes you as odd, since she’s usually something of a force in challenges, well, you’d be correct. My read on the situation is that after 35 days out there, Tasha is tired, and not the best swimmer even at full strength, and this challenge required a lot of swimming. When she had FINALLY retrieved her key, and started backstroking back, she didn’t have the energy to keep her head fully above the water. Heck, in the show itself, you could SEE water lapping into her open mouth. It’s not the sort of thing that bothers me, but even I’LL admit that I’m inhumanly comfortable with feeling like I’m drowning. Tasha, for all her strengths, is only human, and so quite logically panics. For the second episode in a row, props must be given to the “Survivor” medical team, specifically their diving team. 31 seasons in, and we’ve never actually had to see the diving team rescue somebody, or even glimpsed them in the background of a challenge. They must have been there, since they got out to Tasha very quickly, but you never see them. The hid well, and performed their job to perfection. Once Tasha is out of the water, though, the tension leaves. Unlike Joe’s medical issues last episode, where it wasn’t 100% certain what was going on, leaving the possibility of an evacuation open. In Tasha’s case, it was very clear that she was just weakened and panicked. Once she was up on a platform, out of the water, it was pretty clear that she was out of danger, leaving Probst’s serious line of questioning a bit pointless. Everyone rallies around Tasha, and Probst sends them back to camp, leaving Keith to quip about how good it is that they’re sending Tasha home that night, since she’s so weak.

Back at camp, Tasha tries to walk it off, and gets some encouragement from Jeremy. Her absence allows Spencer, Keith, and Kelley to come together again, though, and try and bring Abi-Maria on board with them. As Spencer puts it, he’d be confident in this alliance if their fourth member was someone stable. Their fourth member is Abi-Maria. Enough said. Abi-Maria, for her part, does seem interested in this alliance, particularly since she and Kelley have been tight for a lot of the time in this game, but she herself talks about how she’s the swing vote, and might do something different just to shake things up.

Let us not forget that Abi-Maria is delusional, though. Just when it seems she might be the swing vote, we find out that the swing vote is actually Spencer, a role he should be used to by now. Tasha reasons to him that this season “Deserves a strong final 3” as a thank-you to the fans, as a reasoning why he should stick with the himself-Jeremy-Tasha final three. Now, as a viewer, I very much like this idea. A final three where most everyone has an equal or close-to-equal chance of winning is much more exciting to watch than someone going to the end with a goat or two. That said, speaking as someone who likes this show for the strategy more than anything, this is a STUPID IDEA! Spencer, you’re in one of the best positions to win the game! Don’t potentially jeopardize it for the sake of us! I get that this season honors the fans almost as much as it does the returnees, but that’s no reason to sacrifice your game for us!

Fortunately, as we head off to Tribal Council, I doubt that’ll happen, and I’m now pretty sure that Tasha is going. It just makes more sense strategically, and Spencer is nothing if not strategic. Admittedly, Abi-Maria’s comment about her being in power might be setting up some hubris for her exit, but the storyline of Tasha wanting to make a move and having it backfire on her has pervaded the episode. It makes more sense from both a strategic standpoint and an editing standpoint.

Gone are the early days of this season, when every Tribal Council was exciting. Again, I have to say, this was not the WORST Tribal Council ever, but it just doesn’t stand out. There is a bit where it seems like Keith might make another “Stick to the plan.” gaffe by saying “I think my ‘We’ is gonna win out.”, but this just gets everyone talking about their various “We’s”, and the five-year-old part of me is laughing his butt off. It’s entertaining, but it’s about the only strong part of Tribal Council, and when it’s based on juvenile penis humor, that’s not a good thing. If only we had an unpredictable vote to get to…

Say what you will about this season, but it’s very good at hiding who’s actually going home. I should have followed the hubris, as Abi-Maria leaves the game. She oddly DOES follow through with her threat of breaking away, and votes for Keith. Not the MOST illogical vote, since his name was tossed around earlier in the episode, but it seems weird to me that she’d break away from Kelley like that. The two seemed to be pretty well in cahoots. I’ve made it pretty clear that getting rid of Abi-Maria was a dumb move, so kudos to Tasha for convincing people that it was a good move to make. That woman can SELL a poor argument. As to whether I’m sorry to see Abi-Maria go, the answer is NOT AT ALL! Granted, she was the center of drama early on, but a decent amount of that drama was cringe-inducing. Even if you liked it, she quieted down after the merge, with the exception of dubbing Stephen “Poop-pants” for very little reason, so really, not much of a loss. Exciting for the viewers, but a dumb move for pretty much everyone involved.

This episode is a tough nut to crack. I can hardly call it a BAD episode, since we did get a decent amount of strategic talk and an unpredictable sendoff. Yet I still feel lukewarm about it. I guess because a lot of episodes this season have been MAJORLY exciting, one that’s only just standard exciting at best seems like a bit of a letdown. I will say, while this is still an excellent season, I feel like it might have peaked too early. Again, not that the episodes haven’t been good in their own right, just that all the most amazing stuff happened early on in the season. It can still make a comeback, especially since the finale looks exciting. A six-person final episode. Never seen that before. Presumably they’ll add in an extra Tribal Council, or just have a double Tribal Council, to get us down to a final three. But who can win in any final three scenario? time for my ordering of people from easiest win to toughest win. Usually I go from “guaranteed win if they make the end” to “no chance at winning”, but with Abi-Maria gone, I’d say everyone has some chance of winning. A slim chance, maybe, but a chance. And who’s the top of the heap?

KELLEY: Should she get to the end, I’m pretty sure she wins. It’s a tough call between her and the person I’d say is second most likely to win, but I think Kelley has the edge in this case. Of all the people left, her game has been the most up-front, and she’s got a great underdog story. She was in the minority a lot of the time, yet lasted a good long while. She never made the merge on her original season, yet she beat out people who did. Maybe I’m just biased since she’s a Kelley who’s not, as I once put it, “Bland as beige wallpaper”, but I feel like she could be a good winner, and has a great shot at it if she gets to the end. Her getting to the end is the biggest obstacle, but if she gets there, watch out!

SPENCER: If this list factored in who is most LIKELY to get to the end, Spencer is on top, no question. He’s got connections with everybody, is constantly the swing vote for alliances, there’s really no reason why he can’t make the end. And, unless he’s up against Kelley, he probably wins. He’s also got something of an underdog story with the “No firm alliance” thing and early votes against him. I give Kelley the edge because I feel like Spencer’s game is more subtle. Not that that’s a bad thing, but it means there’s less he can point to that was exclusively his move. Against anyone else, he’s fine. Against Kelley, it might cost him.

JEREMY: While his win is maybe not as assured as either Spencers or Kelleys in the final three, Jeremy still has a decent shot. He led a lot of big votes, can point to his “human shields” strategy as a way he improved his game, and has a decent sob story for the end. It’s probably best for him if he DOESN’T take Spencer or Kelley to the end, but even then, he still has a slim chance.

TASHA: I feel bad putting Tasha this low, since I don’t think she’s played a bad game (vindictiveness against Kass aside). The trouble is that, while Tasha has done an excellent job of making herself a part of every conversation, she, like Spencer, really has no moves she can point to as her own, and that may cost her. Not that her resume is bad, just that it’s a lot weaker that most everybody else’s.

KEITH: Like the order of the top two people, the order of the bottom two people are kind of a toss-up. Neither of them can really say they’ve done much of ANYTHING in this game, and so probably will have a hard time winning. I give Keith the edge because, unlike some people I could name, I could see him playing the “I was playing stupid.” card and actually have it be believed. Plus, he has a couple challenge wins to his name, which may count for something.

KIMMI: Kimmi has played a pretty fantastic social game overall, but like Tasha and Spencer, I think it may be too subtle to give her an easy win. I doubt she’s out of the running entirely, but she’s a long-shot. She really has no moves to her name, and can only hope for a bitter jury to give the win to her over someone else. I almost put her above Keith, since I really don’t see either of them winning. I only put her lower because of the edit. With how little screen time she’s gotten overall this season, she’s not winning it. Shame, because I do like her.

Well, the finale’s being built up big, and it’s not too late for the end game to be as exciting as the early game. Here’s hoping!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.