“Survivor” Retrospectives: Kaoh Rong

Having gone through a controversial opinion on a season with our last blog, let’s now talk about a season that was, in and of itself, controversial. Yes, the time has come for us to discuss “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, a season that I’m confident in saying has been the most divisive amongst the fanbase since “Survivor Samoa”, at least in terms of outcome. But did it have to be that way? And does that controversy come from a good place, or a bad one? Hopefully, by dissecting this season, we can uncover the answer.

A quick word of warning before we begin: This season will be providing an objective summary of, and subjective critique of, the entire season of Kaoh Rong. This means there will be SPOILERS, as we’ll be talking about the season from the standpoint of someone who has seen the whole thing. If you are not one such person, you do not want to read the entirety of this blog. If you still wish to hear my subjective opinion on this season, without worrying about spoilers, simply scroll to the bottom of this page. There is a section labeled “Abstract”, where I give just such an opinion. For those of you who do want the details, read on.

CAST

This cast gave us Aubry Bracco. Aubry Bracco is the most perfect contestant the show has ever had.

Score: 10 out of 10

Ok, ok, let’s actually talk about the cast now. In all seriousness, Aubry is easily the biggest name to come out of the cast of this entire season. It’s actually fairly easy to detail why, as Aubry’s whole story was laid out in a microcosm during the first episode. As such, we’ll summarize Aubry’s episode 1 story arc, and use that to explain her overall story arc. Initially, Aubry was not doing so well. Heat was a big problem this season, and it hit Aubry hard in the first two days. She got severely dehydrated, and even talked about quitting. She was talked out of it by her fellow contestants (Debbie in particular), but was still on thin ice going into the immunity challenge. Said challenge involved a lot of individual phases, including diving down to retrieve paddles, pulling a heavy boat up on shore, and of course, solving a puzzle. All physically and mentally demanding tasks, yet Aubry did them all for her tribe. Sure, she had help on the puzzle and pulling the boat, but it’s still no easy feat. Plus, as Probst pointed out, Aubry retrieved all the paddles for her tribe, when the other tribes had to switch out at some point. This, on a season wherein one tribe was explicitly labeled “Brawn”. The nerdy kid schools everyone, shows hidden depths, and overcomes great adversity. This shows us Aubry in episode 1, and shows us her throughout the season. While not quite to the degree of Spencer (“Survivor Cagayan”), Aubry was plagued by bad luck, often not of her own making, yet somehow managed to not only hang on, but become a dominant strategic force as the season progressed. Through it all, she was a charming and likable narrator, with a lot of good metaphors for the game (I’m particularly fond of the “Oregon Trail” one). Admittedly, Aubry did occasionally shoot herself in the foot (note that a large part of what she had to prove in the end during that first challenge was because of her own collapse), and had some good luck as well. However, the former is rarer than people give her credit for, and the latter could be said of just about every winner. Not that Aubry wins. Oh, we’ll be getting to that, I assure you. But the perception definitely comes across, and Aubry both benefits and suffers for it in future seasons. For now, though, Aubry is the narrator and driving force of the season, coming in an unexpected package, and making her my personal favorite player of all time. Definitely a benefit to the season.

Not to say that Aubry was or is the most universally beloved of the cast. No, that honor could only go to one Tai Trang. A diminutive Vietnamese man, Tai was going to be a bit of an odd duck from the beginning. Placed on the “Beauty” tribe despite not being conventionally attractive, Tai further stood out by being a staunch vegetarian and general friend of the environment. He looked for an idol early on, but dug up entire saplings so as not to damage them in the process. When the tribe won chickens, Tai made sure they were able to roam relatively free, and even saved one (Mark) from overall execution. Further, Tai developed a close bond with Caleb Reynolds. Caleb would fall into the category of “Memorable at the time, but now forgotten”, but since he’s so closely tied in to Tai, we’ll talk about him here. Caleb was already well-known coming into the season, having previously been a player on “Big Brother”. Caleb was also well known for being fairly socially conservative, particularly when it came to homosexuality. This could easily have put him in conflict with Tai, who’s gay. However, echoing the Richard/Rudy dynamic of “Survivor Borneo”, the pair seemed to move past that obstacle, and formed a tight bond during their mutual time on the island. True, they didn’t have the same cutthroatness that Richard and Rudy had, but they made up for it with more heart than the former pair. True, Rudy did come to accept Richard, sexuality and all, but Caleb was even willing to let Tai playfully kiss him, the sort of open embrace I’m not sure Rudy would ever have been capable of. That helped Caleb and Tai stand out, and made everyone like them all the more. We’ll have to save the thoughts on Caleb (and why he’s now largely forgotten) for the “Twist” section as a lot of it relates to the manner of his exit. Getting back to Tai, though, the fact is we’d really never seen anyone quite like Tai, and he was nothing if not unapologetically himself. Many of his stances, particularly regarding the chickens, should have got him voted out. We’d seen it in previous seasons (see Kappenberg, Kimmi). Yet, thanks in part to avoiding early Tribal Councils, Tai survived, and came to be accepted, quirks and all. Always an uplifting story, and one that made Tai, for my part, a rightly beloved part of the season.

If you were to ask about the biggest character of the season, and another unapologetic personality, one could only look to Debbie Wanner. How to describe Debbie? I’m not sure there’s a way, since even the show couldn’t. Debbie had a running gag, having listed off her many careers in the first episode, of having her career change in every chyron for every interview she gave. They even had it change MID-INTERVIEW once, when she mentioned a career that she had previously forgotten. Debbie was also a cheerleader, though, and so could often be heard yelling such gems as “We have the biggest frontal lobes!” in the background of scenes, even if she wasn’t the focus. Debbie was there, and much like Tai, always herself. If someone makes it deep, this is endearing. Debbie did make it deep, and so she is endearing.

But for all this talk, we’ve yet to actually talk about our winner of the season. Michele Fitzgerald falls into the odd category of “Memorable for Not Being Memorable”, kind of similar to Purple Kelly from “Survivor Nicaragua”. Michele had her moments, to be sure. A few key challenge victories, and some snarky comments helped keep her in the public eye. Yet, it’s the fact that she won, up against steep competition, that people remember her for. In my opinion, despite this relative lack of screentime, Michele is still a good addition to the season. She’s not the main draw, but what she does bring is good, and you see enough of her game to make her a solid winner in her own right. Of course, she doesn’t exist in a vacuum, but we’ll talk about THAT controversy in the “Overall” section. For now, Michele may not be the biggest character to come out of the season, but she’s certainly a sound player.

Rounding out our players who are still memorable to this day would be Cydney Gillon. Our only “Brawn” representative in this category, Cydney actually started out a bit low-key. Despite promising confrontation and drama (she mentioned having “split personalities” in her cast bio), she got herself into the majority alliance on her tribe and just kind of sat there. We saw her make a few sub alliances, and play both sides of the fence, so we knew she was a player, but she didn’t really come into her own until after the merge. Cydney was once again in a solid majority there, but due to some miscommunication and suspicion, Cydney flipped on her alliance to become what was shown as a power couple with the aforementioned Aubry, effectively running the game from that point on. What works best about Cydney for me is that she defies expectations. You hear “brawn” as a designation, and you think of them as being the “dumb jocks”, the effective opposite of a “brain”. And yes, Cydney definitely has physical skills, but what really made her stand out was her social and strategic prowess. She may not have made the smartest move in flipping the game when she did, but damn if she didn’t do a good job of keeping control once she had it. A fascinating arc, meaning all the memorable characters from this season are still memorable for a good reason.

Moving on to the players who were remembered at the time, but now seem to be lost to “Survivor” history as a whole, this is where the bulk of the “Brawn” tribe ends up. Chief amongst these would be our villains for the season, Scot Pollard and Kyle Jason, who went by his last name. Scot and Jason were the aforementioned dominant alliance on the “Brawn” tribe, and, to put it mildly, were not the nicest people around. Bossy, arrogant, and hypocritical, the pair effectively used their might as a reason to keep them around, and felt they could behave however they wanted. Post-merge, this led to a lot of camp sabotage once it was clear they were no longer in the majority, but pre-merge, this led to the bullying of one Alecia Holden. Alecia was a bit of an oddity on the “Brawn” tribe, having no obvious physical strength, and making few contributions to anything survival-wise or challenge-wise. Despite this, she continued to stand up for herself, and even survived a few votes (admittedly mostly due to other members of her tribe self-destructing, but survived nonetheless). I have to admire her for refusing to kowtow even in the face of scathing attacks, even if she wasn’t my favorite, and brought little to the table besides. Our first boot is really not memorable as first boots go, so rounding out our “Brawn” tribe is Jennifer Lanzetti, a Ming-Na Wen lookalike who did little in the game, but did have to have a bug floated out of her ear, and stood up during her exit Tribal Council to protest the way the vote seemed to be headed. Not the biggest character, but deserves some respect for being willing to shake things up. That said, I can’t fault most of these players for being forgotten. They made for some interesting pre-merge drama, but even Scot and Jason, the only two to make it deep, were, well, villains, and so not the most pleasant. I will say it’s a bit of a shame that Jason has fallen by the wayside, since he does seem to be open to criticism and change in post-game interviews, and could make for a decently interesting returnee.

In contrast to the “Brawn” tribe, there’s really only one person each from the “Brains” and the “Beauty” that’s been forgotten post-season. From the “Brains”, we get our pre-merge “Villain” of Peter Baggenstos. I say “villain” because while Peter was portrayed negatively, he didn’t really do much that was evil. Apart from conspiring to betray Aubry, this Barack Obama look-alike had sort of a mini-Spencer arc from “Survivor Cagayan” in and of that everything he tried to do blew up in his face. He had no traction, and was unceremoniously voted out pre-merge. He helped keep that part of the game interesting, but as he had no impact beyond that, I can’t fault his being forgotten. More upsetting is the vanishing of Julia Sokolowski of the “Beauty” tribe. Julia was a teenager playing “Survivor”, at this point a rarity but no unheard of. What separated Julia from previous teenage players, however, was her skill at the game. She successfully lied about her age, was considered a “threat” by the other big threats, and even managed to sneak in an immunity win at a crucial time. Maybe not as huge in the character department, but for such a youngster, that’s some serious skill! It’s a real crime that she hasn’t been invited back at this point.

This begs the question, though: Why were these people forgotten? Well, apart from there being such stiff competition (I really can’t overemphasize how big Aubry, Michele, Tai, Cydney, and Debbie are), the big problem will actually come up in the “Overall” section. As I’ve hinted at, there’s a controversy about this season we’ll talk about there, and that controversy kind of colored people’s perception of the season as a whole. Suffice to say, it was a negative effect, and people don’t like negativity (shocking, I know). Given that, it’s frankly astonishing we’ve had as many returnees as we’ve had, and speaks to the strength of the cast as a whole. True, we got a few duds, but we also got a good helping of being characters and strategists, most of whom made it fairly deep. Maybe not the best cast the show has ever had, but an above-average one to be sure.

Score: 8 out of 10.

CHALLENGES

Kaoh Rong continued the trend of newbie seasons not really caring about getting creative or innovative with the challenges at all. Not to say that the challenges were boring or uninteresting. Indeed, one thing I will credit this season with is making the individual challenges as big and epic as the tribal challenges. There was really no weak link, but few challenges from this season went on to become staples in later seasons, but the challenges are not this season’s main selling point. They hold their own, but do little more than that. I will make this score slightly higher than this summary might seem, for reasons that will become clear shortly in the “twist” section.

Score: 7 out of 10.

TWISTS

As I’ve hinted at before, the theme this time around was a rehash of “Survivor Cagayan”. This was “Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty 2”, and on paper, this seems like a very poor choice. However good Kaoh Rong ended up being, it was going to be compared to “Survivor Cagayan”, which was and is widely considered one of the best seasons ever, and of the “modern” era in particular. It’s sort of the same pitfall “Survivor Caramoan” had by being “Fans vs. Favorites 2”: However good you are, you most likely will be looked down upon for not being as good as the first. It’s true that Kaoh Rong does not live up to the standards of “Survivor Cagayan”, but oddly this choice doesn’t have as much of an impact as one might think. The theme is brought up less than it was on “Survivor Cagayan”, allowing the cast of Kaoh Rong to stand more on their own merits, and it is interesting to see the same twist play out differently with different casts. For instance, the “Brains” were the disaster tribe on “Survivor Cagayan”, while for Kaoh Rong, the disaster tribe were the “Brawn”. Also, if you HAVE to divide three tribes by some theme, “Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty” feels more natural a divide than any other one the show has tried, so I can’t fault them too much.

Our announced pre-season gimmick this time around was the essential return of the “Super idol”, which could be played after the votes were read. Unlike previous ones, however, it wasn’t just one idol to be found. Instead, individual hidden immunity idols could be locked together to form a super idol, thus necessitating cooperative play. I do like the increased emphasis on social play as facilitated by this twist, but that’s really about it. Super idols, as the name would imply, are just too overpowered, and while they ultimately didn’t factor in too much to this season, it’s more an absence of bad than the presence of good with this twist. Plus, if someone had managed to get their hands on two hidden immunity idols, they would have had basically a free super idol with no social play needed, a possibility too horrible to consider.

The other pre-season gimmick, though far less prevalent and less hyped, was the presence of choices at challenges. I’m not just talking about choosing between types of reward, though there was a certain amount of that in the season as well. Starting with the first immunity challenge, and used a few times throughout, people could choose how they wanted to do the challenge. For example, after a certain race, one could choose to either solve a puzzle or complete a balance portion. This was a brilliant move with the only flaw being that it wasn’t utilized more throughout the season. When it did show up, it led to greater strategizing regarding the challenges, and fun dilemmas you could debate with fellow fans. The downside? None I can think of.

Episode one actually played out in a pretty straightforward manner, after our usual “Grab supplies off the boat” opener, with our first blindside coming in episode two. The Brawn tribe had an initial majority of four, being Cydney, Jennifer, Jason, and Scot. However, when Jennifer got caught trying to form a women’s alliance against Jason and Scot, the tables were turned on her, despite Jennifer not ultimately going through with the plan. This also was our first hint at the beauty of Cydney’s game, since she used the opportunity to get close to Alecia, and then get Jason and Scot to grab the idol from Alecia, despite Alecia having found the clue first. The Brains tribe followed a similar blindside pattern in Episode three. The majority had originally been the pairs of Peter and Liz, plus Aubry and Neal, joining up against Debbie and Joe, the latter of whom is really only notable for being the second-oldest person to ever play, behind Rudy Boesch of “Survivor Borneo”. This plan got derailed when Peter and Liz planned to split the vote to blindside Aubry. Debbie, however, got wind of the plan, informed Aubry and Neal, and used that information to flip the vote against Liz, explaining why she didn’t get mentioned earlier. While none of these blindsides are earth-shattering, they did set the stage for the majority alliance never being quite safe this season, which is always good in terms of mystery and unpredictability. Maybe not spectacular, but still a solid start to the season, setting up for good things to come.

Episode four is infamous, but not for any blindsides. Rather than market the challenge choices pre-season, one thing the show DID hype up was a record number of medical evacuations, the first of which occurred in this episode. Players competed in a challenge that involved digging in the sand. The trouble was, they had the hottest weather yet, and the challenge took longer than expected, leading to three players (one from each tribe) getting heat stroke. Debbie got it for the Brains, and Cydney for the Brawn, but it was Caleb, so determined to get his tribe even a second-place finish, who pushed himself too far and needed to be evacuated, the first beauty loss. Frankly, a painful thing to watch, and not helped by the lackluster back-half of the episode. Alecia was predictably booted, and while I respect her refusal to hold Tribal Council immediately after the challenge, as suggested by Jason, it did lead to a forgettable exit. This is also pretty much the only reason Caleb was remembered, as he brought little else to the season. He was determined, and wanted his second chance. He got it, and so now there’s no real further need for him in “Survivor”.

The usual tribe swap comes in episode 5, though with an odd number of people, we have someone getting left out. That someone was Julia, who got sent to live at the Brawn camp, renamed “Exile Island”, to rejoin the losing tribe later. While unplanned, this did make the shake-up more memorable than most of the recent tribe swaps, and gave us a good chance to see the inner strength of Julia, which was always a plus. Chan Loh (the former Brains tribe), had a 2-2-2 split of all original tribes, while Gondol (the former Beauty tribe) had 3-2-1 in Brains, Beauty, and Brawn. The former never went to Tribal Council, so the only thing of note there was that this was where Michele and Cydney low-key aligned themselves, and where Michele’s most snarky confessionals come from, as her fellow “Beauty” Nick was more than a little condescending to her. The latter was a little more complicated, however. As one would expect, Aubry, Peter, and Joe of the Brains agreed to work with Scot of the Brawn to get rid of a Beauty, in this case the heretofore unmentioned Anna Khait. However, Scot bonded with Tai, the other Beauty on the tribe, and once he found out that Tai had the Beauty idol, informed him of Jason’s idol, forming a Power Trio despite being on opposite tribes. When Julia returned to Gondol in episode six, this led to Scot wanting to turn the tables on the Brains. This was done through manipulation on Julia and Tai’s part, whispering to Aubry about Peter’s planned insurrection for the blindside of Liz a few episodes back. As Aubry had never trusted Peter since then, and Joe was able to get out of Peter that he had made these plans, Aubry went along with the plan, but did so in a way that just plain wasn’t smart. She made her decision AT Tribal Council. Normally not a major misstep, the issue here is that Aubry initially voted for Julia, then crossed out her name and wrote Peter, such that Julia knew she had voted against her. Unsurprisingly, this would sully their relationship for the rest of the game, and put Aubry in hot water in the immediate future. For all that it’s painful to watch as an Aubry fan, it must be said that this is one of the more memorable moments of the season, and again, prevents us from having a solid majority that just steamrolls the entire game through.

Then, the merge, and to pile on the “Royally Screwed”, we get our second evacuation of the season. Neal has a bad enough infection to need to be sent away, taking with him the Brains’ idol, and thus giving the former Brawn and Beauty complete control. While this is probably the least emotional of the medical evacuations, it’s probably the one that hurts the most, because it makes the entire merge feel pointless. We’re setting up dynamics already established by previous episodes, ending with no actual vote out, but the elimination of the player with the most ability to shake things up. This should set up for a predictable post-merge. Thankfully, this is Kaoh Rong, where the majority never stays the majority for very long. In the next episode, Cydney gets paranoid about a men’s alliance, and so counters with an alliance of the remaining women+Joe, leading to a blindside of Nick. I can’t overstate how awesome this move is. While it feels semi-foreshadowed, as we had seen Cydney make side deals before, it still shakes things up in an unexpected way, and the cocky and arrogant are usurped by the smart and likable, which is always nice to see (take note “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”). A brilliant move that breathes new life into the post-merge.

Say it with me now: This is Kaoh Rong, so the majority doesn’t last. With Scot, Tai, and Jason on the outs, they start sabotaging the camp, confident in the protection of their super idol. Julia starts playing both sides, with Aubry being the main one to take notice. Unfortunately with Julia immune in the next episode, and wanting to flush the idols, a new target is needed. Debbie is the decided victim, due to being a bit too dictatorial in her conversations with the alliance. Again, a good shakeup, though not as good a move, as it give a threesome with inordinate power for their size even more power. Plus, there’s a super idol to flush. Granted, the alliance can’t possibly know about that (Scot and Jason had shown off the idols at Tribal Council, but did not mention the Super Idol twist), but still, objectively a bad move in that regard.

Our next reward challenge brings a twist, and I’m not just talking about the reward choice again. The extra-vote advantage is back from “Survivor Worlds Apart”, won in this case by Tai. Not a bad twist to bring back, but unneeded in this environment. What IS needed is another power dynamic shakeup. With seven people left, and no idols flushed, plus the Super Idol, Scot, Jason, Julia, and Tai seem set to control the rest of the game. Aubry, however, has other plans. Noting that Scot and Jason in particular come across as bullies, Aubry talks to Tai and gets him to side with herself, Cydney, Michele, and Joe. Thus, when Scot gets the majority of votes, Tai refuses to join up and make the Super Idol, leading to Scot’s elimination with the idol in his pocket. If you’re wondering why Cydney’s women’s alliance wasn’t the greatest move of the season, it’s only because this flip was. Not only were the twists of the season beaten, they were beaten purely though social manipulation, the core of what “Survivor” is about. Plus, it’s always nice to see the villains and bullies get so thoroughly beaten in such an ironic way.

The next two votes actually remain fairly predictable, in a rarity for the season. Michele does agree to vote out Julia, despite being allied with her, and Tai wastes his extra vote against Michele, but really not much happens until the final five. This comes in the form of our third medical evacuation, and probably the most pathetic yet. Joe, going on a reward, ate too much red meat, got his colon blocked, and needed to be evacuated. Rough to see, and yet another obstacle going into the finals.

Good manipulation of Cydney by Aubry puts Michele on the chopping block. When Michele wins immunity, and gets Cydney back on her side, Aubry uses her connection with Tai to get it to fire making, which she wins. An exciting start to the finale, and a good demonstration of why, despite being an excellent strategist, Cydney still had some flaws in her game. It was clear from their chatter that the jury HATED her, and wanted her to lose. In a shock to the audience, but not, for some reason, the players, we don’t have a final two, despite the numbers being right for one. I guess the show didn’t want to copy “Survivor Cagayan” too much. Instead, our final three challenge lets a player eliminate a juror of their choosing. They get immediately sequestered, and get no vote at Final Tribal Council. This twist gets a lot of hate, but on paper, I actually like it. It can be a good safety net, and requires some knowledge of both self and others to use properly. It’s never come back, probably because of its use this season, but I think it could actually have some potential. At the very least, it would cut down on the massive juries we’re having to deal with nowadays. That said, its use here does reek of both desperation and cruelty. It’s become obvious at this point that production wants Aubry to win, and it feels like they put in this twist just to ensure that she made finals. On top of that, Michele wins the advantage and uses it against Neal. A wise choice, given that Neal was a solid Aubry vote, and gave Michele a very vindictive speech upon leaving, but it felt cruel to Neal. I mean, the guy got to cast one vote the entire season, made the merge, and doesn’t even get to hang around that long? That feels wrong.

Not so much a “twist”, but it is worth noting that this season brought back closing speeches by our finalists, probably in an attempt to help them side with Aubry. It doesn’t work, as our real twist comes in the form of Michele winning 5-2. Why? Well, join me in the next section, as we’ll discuss it.

For now, though, let us summarize the overall twists of the season. Kaoh Rong is a rarity in the 30’s in and of that there’s very few twists from production, but a bunch implemented by the players. This, I think, is to the season’s advantage. It helps the season stand out, while still maintaining unpredictability, and feels very “real” to the audience, for want of a better term. Granted, pretty much every production twist at best had no impact, but with cast twists this good, less is more. Most every episode had something exciting in it, and good triumphed in the end, and so we get what is probably the strongest overall category of the season.

Score: 9 out of 10.

OVERALL

On the aesthetic side of things, the show really shot itself in the foot by leaning too heavily into the traditional architecture of Cambodia during the previous season. This one felt much more generic by comparison, and just looking at it, you couldn’t tell it from one of many other seasons. It’s easy to forget that it IS in Cambodia at times. I’ll give credit that we got nice popping colors (the buff designs are some of my all-time favorites), but the season just doesn’t seem to have a cohesive theme, and when it does try, it’s reused from another, better season.

But of course, we’re all here to talk about the big flaw in the season. Forgive me for repeating myself from the last blog, but Kaoh Rong is another season where the whole is not equal to the sum of its parts. Most every element in Kaoh Rong is at least ok, and the gameplay this season is some of the best we’ve ever had. There was a great story here, so why didn’t it equate to a great season? The answer, my friends, is in the edit.

As I said, there’s a great story to be told for this season, but it’s not the one the editors were interested in telling us. Rather than the story of Michele Fitzgerald, Social Queen, they wanted to emphasize Aubry Bracco, Robbed Goddess. As an Aubry fan, I’m not COMPLAINING, per se, about her being presented positively, but doing so when she doesn’t win sets the season up for failure. Look at it this way: Kaoh Rong had a very likable final four. Possibly the most likable final four the show has ever had. There was pretty much no outcome viewers would not find satisfying. Yet you managed to find one! I’m not sure that was possible! While it would be unfair to say Michele was INVISIBLE, Aubry was clearly the dominating force of the season. Again, not a dealbreaker on a good season, but you need to show why that dominating force lost. What was their fatal flaw that kept them from winning in the end? Weird though it is to say, the show needed to take a cue from “Survivor All-Stars”. On that season, we had another dominating force in Boston Rob who ended up losing. People can argue about whether or not Rob should have won, but even the most ardent Boston Rob fans can still see the flaws in his game that led to his loss. Even if you don’t agree with the outcome, you still understand why it happened.

This is not the case with Kaoh Rong. Aubry’s flaws, if shown at all, were very much downplayed, to the point where they weren’t talked about much beyond the episode they appeared in. Rather than a brilliant, but flawed, strategist, Aubry got presented as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Even her enemies were shown as liking her, with Scot and Jason complimenting her game at Tribal Council in what turned out to be Scot’s boot. From what we, the audience, saw, Aubry had most of the jury (save Julia and Debbie) wrapped around her finger, guaranteed to win pretty much no matter who she was up against. Michele? She played well, certainly, and was known to be liked, but the common consensus at the time was that Michele’s win was predicated on Aubry being voted out. Cydney and Tai had both had social gaffes, to the point where Michele was commonly seen as more likable than them, but Aubry? Again, apart from Julia and Debbie, we were never shown any dislike of Aubry by the jury, or even why the rest of the jury’s liking of Michele was greater than their liking of Aubry. Put simply, the editors tried to make their own story out of the season, instead of the actual story of the season, and it left us feeling wanting.

Case in point, what should have been a well-received season led to one of the biggest blowups in the fan community since the outcome of “Survivor Samoa”. If “Survivor” were still a cultural touchstone, there would have been rioting in the streets. The Aubry fans argued loudly for her win, leading Michele fans to fire back in anger. There was hatred and nastiness on both sides. It was a rough time to be a fan.

In the end, that is the tragedy and the failure of Kaoh Rong. It was never going to be perfect. No season is. But it could easily have been one of the greats. Instead, by trying to make the season that pleased themselves, production made a season that pleased no one else. The good elements do still shine through, but the damage is done by this point.

Score: 30 out of 40.

ABSTRACT

“Survivor Kaoh Rong” is definitely a necessary season if you’re planning to view future seasons. It has a lot of impact, both in returnees and twists, down the road. “Survivor Kaoh Rong” feels like a very back-to-basics season, with most of the best elements springing forth from the cast themselves, rather than production. That said, when production DOES stick its hand in the show, it always makes it worse, or at best has no impact. This season is definitely worth a watch, but be prepared to be disappointed by what could have been.

-Matt

Idol Speculation: “Survivor David vs. Goliath” Episode 6: Well Well Well

Yeah, you know you’re stretching for a title when all you do is mention one element of a challenge three times over. No “This episode is deep like a well” comparison for us. That would imply this episode has anything to give us.

We kick things off at Jabeni, where it is confirmed that Angelina was in on the plan to oust Natalie, and only voted for Lyrsa in order to hopefully get Natalie’s jacket by staying on her good side, thus retroactively justifying Natalie’s jacket snub last episode. Still, this talk does not go unnoticed from a strategic perspective. Most note it warily, and Lyrsa in particular points out that if Angelina is willing to be that deceptive for a jacket, imagine what she’d do for higher stakes. Point Lyrsa.

Then we find out that Lyrsa has those toe socks. Two points Lyrsa.

Over at Tiva, it seems that it’s time for our daily physics lesson, as Christian hilariously describes how to turn potential energy into kinetic energy for the purpose of spearing a fish. While a funny diversion, this scene does little, other than to set up that Christian is not a good provider of food. Especially when compared to, say, this episode’s reward challenge, which offers the top two tribes varying amounts of kebabs. The challenge itself is little more than your generic obstacle course, with the caveat that one tribe member is attached to a bag of coconuts, which must be maneuvered with them and held up so that said tribe member can cross a balance beam. Not a bad way to shake things up, but it feels a bit simplistic. We’ve seen challenges where a tribe member must be maneuvered in some way (which this challenge resembles), and those were all more physical, and therefore more interesting. This concept can work, but it needs to be something like that team ropes course on “Survivor Vanuatu”, where the team member and what they’re attached to are thrown over, under, around and through obstacles.

There’s little reaction from Natalie’s eviction. The former Davids likely don’t care, and the former Goliaths can probably understand why she went home. Jonny Mundo seems to be the only dissenter, staring long and hard at Jabeni, though even then he doesn’t look particularly angry. Remember this stare, though. It will be important later.

Jabeni is favored to lose this challenge, mostly because Jabeni is favored to lose all challenges. For once, they seem to live up to that claim initially. Also, we finally see Lyrsa ACTUALLY be a detriment at a challenge, taking her time to go over a ladder, and then to go back and untangle herself. While we wait for her to do that, I have to question Tiva’s sit-out here a bit. Vuku does fine, sitting out Kara who would be in no way useful to the tribe, but Tiva? They sit out Alison. Now don’t get me wrong, I can see what they’re going for here. Save the sit out you really need for the immunity challenge. But given that there’s no puzzle in this challenge, chances are there’ll be a puzzle in the next challenge. With that in mind, why not sit out, say, Christian in this challenge, where he will be of no use, and save him for a probable puzzle? Given their results, I suppose I can’t fault them too much, but it seems an unnecessary risk. Even if your immunity challenge has no puzzle, you can still sit out Gabby and be none the worse for wear.

The end of this challenge is the great equalizer, being a ring toss. With no Malcolm Freberg (“Survivor Philippines”) on to guarantee a win, we’re left with these other people trying. This leads to Vuku bowing a decent-sized lead, giving Tiva victory and Jabenin the consolation prize. Even this is not enough to satisfy Mike, however. Formerly firmly int he “Vote out Angelina” camp, he too noticed Johnny Mundo’s stare, and is now thinking he may not want to rock the boat any more.

Tiva happily enjoys the reward, with the “Brochachos” (and you don’t know how much it pains me to have to write that alliance name) getting all flirty with each other. And no, that’s not me adding homoerotic subtext for the sake of “humor”. Christian literally hand-feeds Johnny Mundo as if the pair were dating. I am well within my rights to make that particular comparison. Dan laments his lack of Kara on this tribe (did you remember they were a thing? Neither did I!), and uses this as another example of how Gabby is on the outs. Gabby, however, has had enough of this, and finally, six episodes into the season, does something proactive about her position. Pulling Alison aside, she talks about how Dan’s a huge threat who needs to be taken out. True, she still gets emotional when talking strategy, but I think that can be forgiven here, partly because it’s minimal, partly because Gabby is in on the “emotional” jokes at this point (seriously, when your mom dresses up as “you” for Halloween, and paints teardrops under her eyes, you know you’re in on the joke), but mostly because it could be construed as good strategy. Alison, as she informs us, is an empathetic person, and so Gabby’s emotional appeal gets to her in a way that a purely intellectual one might not have. Plus, while at first it might seem like Alison aligning with Gabby against Dan would be detrimental, if you think about it, it’s actually a good move for Alison. Recall that Alsion was left out of the “Core six” of the original Goliath tribe, and while she probably wasn’t going to be an early target of theirs, she still has no reason to be loyal to them, and Dan is more of an overt threat, having at least one idol they know of. True, I’d argue Johnny Mundo is the greater threat, but part of what makes him threatening is how covert he is. Regardless, I still say this is a win on Alison’s part.

Vuku, meanwhile, finally does what I’m surprised so few other tribes have done on this show, and splits their bamboo in order to make for fewer lumps on the bed. Or at least, Elizabeth starts to. To hear her tell it, this is a project that’s been percolating for a while, but no one has pulled the trigger. Thus, she and Kara start splitting bamboo, though to my dismay they do not use the better method shown on “Survivor Vanuatu” (evidently this is just the blog where I reference “Survivor Vanuatu” at lot), but it should serve at least somewhat better than whole bamboo. Davie, however, is our voice of dissent, with Carl backing him up. Davie claims that this project is too big to take on this late in day, and so sets about removing said bamboo, pissing off Elizabeth to no end. I have to admit, my sympathies overall are with Elizabeth here, even if she is kind of inconsiderate, nearly pushing Carl in the fire when hauling back a large bamboo log. The activity might take a while, but I don’t see it as needing a whole lot of sunlight, and if it’s been around for that long to do, just do it! Elizabeth, however, has ulterior motives as well. She talks about having had back problems prior to the show, and as you can imagine, a bed of bamboo is not exactly conducive to a comfortable back. The tribe initially seems sympathetic, until Elizabeth has to go and pull the “It should be a group effort” card, as to why Davie shouldn’t have undone here work. Here, I have to side with Davie. Elizabeth, you yourself undertook a project without consulting the group. Don’t get mad just because people didn’t agree with your pet project. Kara, meanwhile, is just happy that there is now a crack she can exploit.

Today’s immunity challenge is better than our reward challenge, though not by much. Working together, tribes take a giant saucer to and from a water tower, with the idea being to dump said water into a well, eventually releasing puzzle pieces, which must then be solved inside the saucer. This challenge has enough scale to fit the epicness needed for an immunity challenge, and as I find it fun when multiple parts of a challenge fit together, I like using the saucer to solve the puzzle. It loses points, however, as it draws from “Survivor One World”. One should really not reference “Survivor One World”.

Jabeni is favored to lose this challenge, as Jabeni is favored to lose all challenges at this point. Can’t lie, there’s really no hope for them this time. The puzzle is not particularly complicated, so it’s less of an equalizer, and that saucer is HEAVY! Even the buff tribes have a tough time with it, so between Mike’s cramps and Angelina’s bleeding, we know there’s no way they can win, even though the episode has done a good job of keeping the losing tribe a mystery. That said, I will give them credit. Until it becomes an absolute certainty that they’ll lose, they keep on fighting. They push to the very end, making the most of their experience, as anything less would be an insult to the game all of them play and respect. It’s a really touching, emotional moment…

Too bad Probst has to ruin it! Look, I will defend Probst in a lot of things, and unlike some fans, his challenge narrations are one of them. I can understand the people who say that Probst’s commentary is condescending and detracts from the drama of a challenge, but in general, I find that’s being unfair. More often than not, Probst narration helps keep a confusing challenge coherent for the audience, and I’d even say he can get in a funny quip here or there. Some moments just stand better on their own, though, and this is one of them. We don’t need Probst to tell us how hard Jabeni is fighting, we can see it in their actions. While this may not be as forced an emotion moment as the Cirie/balance beam thing was on “Survivor Game Changers”, but what it lack is that area, it makes up for in quantity. If Probst had made one or two comments, it wouldn’t be that bad. But no, he just talks nonstop throughout this portion of the challenge. Probst, I love your work, but sometimes you need to step back and just let a moment be.

Following the challenge, Mike gets emotional about having to vote someone out. Thankfully this does not devolve into him quitting, as I would have lost a lot of respect for the guy had he done that. Instead, he talks about not wanting to end anyone’s dream, which is a human reaction I can respect. Talk then quickly turns to strategy, and while I have almost nothing but love for Lyrsa, I do have to point out that she handles this poorly. Mike and Angelina go up and ask her what she wants to do, blatantly opening up the strategy talks to her. Lyrsa, who has a golden opportunity here to ensure her safety, instead inflames tribal loyalties, and suggests that things will go to rocks. Look, I can understand Lyrsa’s confidence. From what we’re seeing, most everyone wants Angelina gone. Certainly you don’t want to talk strategy with Angelina. But you could let things down gently. Subtly hint you might talk strategy without outright saying “yes”. Plus, while Lyrsa and Nick did vote together at previous Tribal Councils, they aren’t going at the hip. Lyrsa has a chance to consolidate power around herself, and just throws it away. Not good, Lyrsa.

After conferring with Nick, and agreeing that Angelina should be the target, Lyrsa goes and makes nice with Mike, somewhat making up for her earlier gaffe. Nick, meanwhile, whispers what he terms “sweet nothings” to Angelina about voting out Lyrsa. Clearly the decision is coming down to Nick and Mike, with Mike in particular controlling who goes home. As such, the answer is obvious: vote out Angelina. Admittedly, it seems weird to say an answer is “obvious” on such a low-stakes vote, and yet it’s all I can think of. I get that Mike doesn’t want to burn more bridges with his original tribe, but even if the merge were to happen next episode (which it will, to my dismay), it’s not all that bad to be down in numbers at the merge. True, Pagongings are a thing for a reason, but as often as not, the tribe with fewer numbers has an advantage, especially is the majority is fractured, like the Davids obviously would be. Look at how Jalapao dismantled Timbira on “Survivor Tocantins”, or how Foa Foa dismantled Galu on “Survivor Samoa”. If Mike has in-roads with the former Davids, as he clearly does, this might be just the situation he wants. As to the idea of “Goliath Strong”, I say, what reason does Mike have to want that? This was a group that clearly put him on the bottom, and with no Natalie as a shield, Mike would be vulnerable to them. Might as well screw them over. True, keeping Angelina does have its advantages. In the event of no merge, it gives Mike, rather than Nick, the valuable swing vote position should Jabeni lose again, and makes it less likely they’ll lose, as while I still deny Lyrsa is a challenge sink, Angelina is still a better competitor. As this is such a low-stakes vote, I can’t fault Mike too much for whatever decision he makes, but keeping Lyrsa still seems like the clear choice.

This episode has decent misdirection, but the vote itself is just so low-stakes that I really can’t be invested. Add to that a by-the-numbers Tribal Council, and I see no reason not to just skip to the elimination. Mike does a dumb, and Lyrsa goes home. As I’ve made clear, I think this is the wrong decision for Mike, though again, I don’t think it’s a game-breaking one. I’m also sorry to see Lyrsa go. She was a great character throughout the show, and particularly those first few episodes. She had a certain amount of wit, a lot of grit, and a tenacity that made her a fun watch. Wish we could see how she handles the merge. To her credit, though, she handles her exit with grace, quipping about how the worst part will be sitting next to Natalie at the reunion show. Oh, you poor dear, Lyrsa! You think people are actually respected at the reunion show anymore! Now it’s just an excuse to preview the next season, tout Probst’s favorites, and plug other tv shows! Take comfort, at least, that you enter the annals of “Great Pre-Merge” characters. You join the likes of Travis “Bubba” Sampson (“Survivor Vanuatu”), and Cao Boi Bui (“Survivor Cook Islands”). Prestigious company, I assure you.

What’s interesting to me about this episode is that I find it similar to the previous few from this season: Not great, but still pretty standard stuff. However, I would say that this episode succeeds in the opposite way that the past couple have. Whereas the last couple had fairly exciting premises that weren’t fully capitalized on, this episode was boring and by-the-numbers, yet every bit of interest was eked out of it. Can’t fault the editors for trying, but given what they had to work with, nothing better could have come of this episode.

Still, with the loss of such a character as Lyrsa, I think we need a tribute. A tribute in the form of a…

TOP 10!

I know I usually do “Top 5 and Bottom 5”, but as our subject matter this week is “Pre-Merge Characters”, it would be rude to do the “Worst Characters”. Plus, it would just a list of the most forgettable people to be early boots. I suppose I could do “Overrated Merge Characters” for the bottom 5, but then again, I feel that this merits its own list. So, we do top 10; no honorable mentions. Which people were a lot of fun, but then left us too soon? We’ll be looking at the top one of those today. A couple of points to note: If you make the merge, regardless of whether or not you make the jury, you do not count. More importantly, this list looks at first appearances ONLY! Yes, Jonathan Penner might be a great character who went out pre-merge on “Survivor Micronesia”, but a lot of that was due to his fame from “Survivor Cook Islands”. This list is about people standing on their own with a limited amount of episodes. On a related note, people who were boring the first time around, but fascinating their second, will also not be on this list, since they weren’t exciting enough to stand on their own in their first appearance. Looking at you, Kelley Wentworth of “Survivor San Juan del Sur”.

10. Jennifer Lanzetti (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”): A bit of an odd choice, since she did a good job getting herself voted out, but I think there’s something to be said for Ming-Na Wen.. I mean Jennifer. Though she only lasted two episodes, Jennifer made her mark, and not just by standing up at Tribal Council. She tried to have guile and cunning, and failed at it, despite having seemingly competent strategy. Jennifer was her own worst enemy, but that’s nothing if not fascinating.

9. Bobby “Bobdawg” Mason (“Survivor Exile Island”): I can already hear the complaints, but I think, while Bobdawg definitely deserves a spot on this list, I can’t really justify putting him higher. Yes, his boot episode was memorable and fun. The man got drunk, slept in the outhouse, and was unapologetic about it. You can’t make this stuff up if you try. But really, that’s about it. For all his outsize personality we would see after the show, Bobdawg really had little impact outside of his boot episode. Which is a shame, as the combination lawyer/gangster could have made for really interesting gameplay. Shame we didn’t get to see too much of it.

8. Lyrsa Velez (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”): I said Lyrsa was deserving of being in this company. I never said she deserved a particularly high spot. Even as someone who really likes watching Lyrsa on tv, I can’t deny that there was a lot of the time where she just wasn’t there, and the best pre-merge characters tend to have a big presence. Like I said, though, her wit, tenacity, and unwillingness to take bs make her a lot of fun when she is on screen. Hope she gets a second chance somewhere down the line.

7. Travis “Bubba” Sampson (“Survivor Vanuatu”):This is going to sound weird, but I find Bubba to be similar to the aforementioned Bobdawg. Not in terms of personality, but in terms of contradictions. Whereas Bobdawg sounded like a gangster, but was incredibly smart, Bubba sounded like a redneck, but had a lot of smarts for it. The man was a good social player, and a key member of his initial majority alliance, but then got screwed by a swap and being too blatant about his old allies on his other tribe. Still, had he made the merge, I’d be interested to see how he’d navigate the alliances there. He might have been a stealth threat from what we saw, which to me makes him interesting. Plus, the guy likes Bob Barker. You can’t fully hate someone who likes Bob Barker.

6. Ace Gordon (“Survivor Gabon”): It speaks to the competition of this list that a guy who’s the closest thing we have to a living James Bond villain only comes in at number six. Seriously, though, between his accent and his delusions about how good he was at the game, Ace made a good act one villain, whose antics helped make the admittedly slow pre-merge of “Survivor Gabon” tolerable. Plus, that man could give a good confessional. “Legless chickens against sleek weasels” is still a persona favorite of mine.

5. Angie Jakusz (“Survivor Palau”): To me, this is what Lyrsa could have been if she’d gotten more screen time. Angie was bound to make a mark based on appearance alone, but that’s not all she had going for her. The woman could give you a good quip, whether intentional (talking up her construction skills), or unintentional (“We’re not going back to immunity”), she had a lot of memorable lines. Plus, even in her limited time, she had an arc. Initially perceived as the weakest, and struggling to fit in on her tribe, Angie rallied to become a strong member of an ultimately self-destructing tribe, but valuable nonetheless.

4. Amy O’Hara (“Survivor Guatemala”): Another tough lady, but with a longer arc. Amy is probably best remembered for playing on a broken ankle for most of the game, and that’s a touching story to watch. But the lady had a mouth on her as well. She told it like it was, and had a tendency to nickname people. Recall that “Golden Boy” was her doing. Yeah, between that and my overall love of “Survivor Guatemala”, you knew Amy had to be on here.

3. Robb Zbacnik (“Survivor Thailand”): Sometimes, appearance is all you need. The heavily pierced skater-dude made a mark early on by skateboarding through the streets of Thailand, but even that wasn’t enough. He too had to have an arc, and actually it was one of the more touching ones in the show. In case his appearance didn’t make it clear, Robb had a lot of growing up to do. He was pulling pranks, cracking jokes, and throwing fits whenever something didn’t go his way. If the status had remained quo, this would not have been interesting. But we got to see Robb start to grow out of this, actively maturing as he saw the consequences of his actions, and ultimately parting on good terms with his tribe. A fun little arc for a very fun character.

2. Cao Boi Bui (“Survivor Cook Islands”): What my top two players have in common on this list is that both had potential not just in terms of character, but in terms of strategy. True, Cao Boi is most remembered for his folk remedies and off-color humor, but the man actually had some chops. Recall that he was the architect behind “Plan Voodoo”, one of the first “Split the Vote” plans which only failed due to misreading of who had the idol. Props for thinking of it, though, and it works to make Cao Boi more than just a walking caricature. Cao Boi misses out on the top spot only because the racial humor can be a bit uncomfortable.

1. Brian Corridan (“Survivor Guatemala”): Out of all the people on this list, I think we lost out the most by having Brian not make the merge. The man invented “Bait Blake”. Who knows what else he could have come up with if given the opportunity. But the man got screwed by a swap, so we’ll just have to enjoy his cheerful demeanor and his sarcastic confessionals. You’re good people, Brian.

A few notes about the merge next episode: While I usually do a “Top 5 and Bottom 5” list, this one probably takes the place of it, simply so I don’t burn myself out. On a happier note, I’m excited to see blue merge buffs. Apart from having been absent as a merge color for a while (last used for the merge on “Survivor Samoa”), it’s a really pretty lighter shade of blue we don’t often get. Even though I’m not wild about this season, I just might have to get that buff.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor David vs. Goliath” Episode 3: It Builds Character

Tonight, “Survivor” takes on a guest producer. Rare, I know, but it happens. You can usually tell because the episode takes on a distinctive theme. In this case, that theme is “Suffering builds character”, which you may recall was the creed of Calvin’s dad from “Calvin and Hobbes”. Yep, that’s our guest producer, ladies and gentleman. Bring on the rain!

First, though, we have to bring on the pain, as we see how the three from the David tribe on the wrong side of the vote weather things. All are quiet, but Davie probably takes it the best, pulling Christian aside and asking what happened. Christian claims that he and Nick were brought in last minute, hence why Davie was left out. This seems to satisfy Davie, although his hidden immunity idol probably helps with that. Carl is also quiet, but doesn’t really talk to anybody. Instead, he gets emotional about it, stating that Jessica was like a daughter to him. “Emotion” in this case takes the form of a quavering in his voice and a few tears, which might not seem like much, but for a tough guy from Texas, that’s basically curling up into a ball and sobbing. Still, he rallies, and certainly doesn’t do anything to hurt his game.

Before we get to our last outsider, let us check in with the Mason-Dixon alliance. They wisely wait until they’re out of eyesight and earshot before celebrating, and then plotting their next move. As we saw with Christian earlier, they decide to throw Gabby under the bus as a ringleader, which I have to laugh at a little bit. Not that Gabby is blameless in this vote-off, but of the five who voted for Jessica, I’d say she had the LEAST agency in that vote-off. True, she did bring in Christian and Nick, but they were the ones who decided to pull the trigger, and it was Lyrsa and Elizabeth who targeted Jessica in the first place. Still, putting the blame on Gabby is a good move, at least in the short-term. It’s clear that the Mason-Dixon alliance is trying to be the swing vote between the two sides, so making as few enemies as possible can’t be a bad thing for that. That being said, it also means you need to eliminate Gabby before Final Tribal Council, lest she be given credit for moves she didn’t really make. Look at the Final Tribal Council of “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X” for your evidence. Ultimately, it was Hannah who convinced Ken to vote off David, but who got the credit for it? Adam. Why? Because he was the one seeming to be making moves against David, so everyone thought he must be behind it. Narrative is important here, people.

Still, the best-laid plans are worthless without good execution, but evidently Mason-Dixon have that covered. We check in with Bi and see that, after initially blaming Davie for no apparent reason, she switches to Gabby. Bi then goes full Abi-Maria (“Survivor Philippines”) and effectively declares Gabby dead to her. More on that in a bit.

We check in with Goliath next, where Johnny Mundo is still trying to convince us that he is not his wrestling persona, and failing miserably due to mentioning his nicknames every five sentences. I kid, I kid. Johnny Mundo actually does a pretty good job here of showing what a good reader he is of the people around him, before using this to give us the same “Natalie is on the outs” confessional we’ve heard a few dozen times over the course of this season already. Instead, let us focus on something different: hermit crabs. Yes, of all things, I want to draw attention to a brief scene of a hermit crab race we see the Goliath tribe running during their down time. As this blog is primarily focussed on strategy, I normally wouldn’t mention something like this. However, it is very worth mentioning from an entertainment perspective. You see, this season has definitely been good so far, but from a strategy perspective, it’s not been that great. Not awful, by any means, but nothing special either. Normally this would bring a season down, but decent strategy can be offset by an influx of charm and character, which is what we get here. Watching the show, it’s easy to forget that these are real people living out their day-to-day, 24 hour lives, needing to meet their every need, including entertainment. It’s just so charming and, for want of a better term, real, that it just endears me to the season. More, please!

For all my snark, there is a method to Johnny Mundo giving us what at this point is the standard Natalie confessional. Johnny Mundo, you see, is one of those who agrees that Natalie might be a good person to have at the end, due to her rubbing people the wrong way. Fair enough, but how do you plan to get her there? The answer is foreshadowed in the next scene, as we see a new bond at Goliath. Mike and Jeremy are bonding over a shared love of the game, enough so that Jeremy shares his backstory: he and his dad didn’t always see eye-to-eye, but Jeremy feels his dad would be proud of where he’s at in life. Sadly, Jeremy’s dad has Alzheimer’s, and is thus not really in a position to notice these things. It’s a sad story, and we’re thankfully spared the “this makes Jeremy a Final Tribal threat” confessional, so we can just take it at surface value.

Johnny Mundo may not want people to think of him as a wrestler, but if the other tribe is bringing it up as a topic of conversation, then I’d say it’s a lost cause. While playing in the sand, thus fulfilling the prophecy from last episode, Gabby and Christian debate the logistics of Slamtown, which is another funny and charming scene. If nothing else, you can say this episode does of good job of building up its characters and getting us to bond with them. Sadly, we must get the low, repeat point of the episode, out of the way instead, as Bi, Nick, and Davie all sit out on the raft during a fishing expedition. Bi again expresses a desire to see Gabby go, which Nick fervently agrees to. Since we’ve seen this all before, let’s take a moment to seriously debate where the Mason-Dixon alliance should go. As with any good debate, there’s positives to both sides. Getting out Bi strengthens the majority you currently have, and ruffles no new feathers. Getting out Gabby keeps the tribe stronger overall, and keeps your status as swing votes more secure. As to which side they should go with, well, it depends. For Nick, there’s no answer but to vote out Gabby. To someone with few allies, playing a swing vote is probably the best move, and getting out Gabby strengthens that. Christian, on the other hand? While Nick is being played up as his ride-or-die currently, he still has an alliance with Gabby as well. Having more allies is always better than having fewer, but this in turns gives Nick more incentive to get Gabby out, thus leaving Christian with him as his main option. It’s an intriguing turn: What happens when two member of an alliance have diametrically opposing interests? No answer is yet given, so we’ll have to wait for a swap to decide.

Back at Goliath, since we need a viable alternative to Natalie going home this episode, we put Jeremy up to bat. Oh, don’t worry, this isn’t the show manufacturing drama out of nowhere. Rest assured, Jeremy will be making plenty of mistakes this time around. First comes the time when he takes a leaf out of the playbook of Garrett Adelstein (“Survivor Cagayan”). In case you’ve forgotten who he is, Garrett is the guy who decided it was a bright idea to FORCE his tribe not to strategize, leading to his eviction as the second player of the season. All this, WHILE HOLDING A HIDDEN IMMUNITY IDOL! Yeah, to say that this is not a good place to draw from is an understatement. To give Jeremy his due, his reason for making this bone-headed move is solid. He sees people pairing off and talking, but not to him. Given that he’s a physical threat on a tribe that can afford to lose a physical player or two and still be good, that’s reason enough to be concerned. I have no quarrel with Jeremy wanting to do something about this. What I do have a problem with is that, rather than take the initiative and pull people over himself, Jeremy instead pulls the tribe together and effectively tells them to knock it off. As Natalie has demonstrated, bossing adults around does not generally go over well. Such is the case here, especially when Jeremy proves himself a hypocrite, and starts talking with individuals anyway, trying to throw Dan under the bus for his idol. Excellent job there, player. Excellent!

Man, these challenges just get worse and worse, don’t they? Now we’re just upsizing individual challenges, with a total of four players (in groups of one and three) completing a ropes course, and then two pulling a sled of puzzle pieces for two to solve. While upsizing a challenge is better than downsizing, it still doesn’t change the fact that this feels like three individual challenges Frankensteined into one. The puzzle is at least complex, being a four-piece pyramid, probably most remembered as being solved by Wendell on “Survivor Ghost Island”, but actually making its first appearance on “Survivor One World”. Yeah, I prefer to remember Wendell too.

Probst taunts the contestants by making sure the reward portion of the challenge (pillows, blankets, and chairs) is thoroughly soaked via showing it off, and we get to set things up. While the challenge itself may be lackluster, the one thing going for it is decent misdirection. True, we’ve heard more specific targets from the David tribe, so they likely lose, but both tribes have a least a shot at losing. However, that good will goes out the window when we see the Goliath tribe strategizing, and Natalie forcing herself onto the puzzle portion. Granted, if you’re going to use Natalie in a challenge, this is where you use her, but the fact that we see only them strategizing guarantees they lose. And while this did not ultimately play a factor (this challenge was pretty neck and neck throughout, and won on the puzzle, expertly solved by Christian and Gabby), I feel like the David tribe may have had an advantage here. Part of the ropes portion of the challenge involved three players untangling from each other. Naturally, the ropes were all made different colors, but even on my HDTV, the colors for the David tribe seemed more distinct than the colors for the Goliath tribe, making them easier to untangle. Not tarnishing David’s victory, though. They earned this, though at what cost?

Bi ran the first leg of this challenge, the solo ropes course, and Probst made a point of describing her as “hobbling back to the mat” afterward. Couple that with repeated cuts to Bi saying her knee was injured, and you’ve got a recipe for medevac. Thankfully, this is just a well-executed fake-out from the producers, as while medical does look at Bi’s knee, both they and she say she’ll be fine, and bandage her knee up.

Following that fake-out, time to see who the Goliath tribe tries to fake us into going rather than Natalie. To no one’s surprise, it’s Jeremy, due to the whole “big threat” thing he mentioned earlier. Surprisingly, rather than Natalie, Angelina is the one pushing for this. She’s really gung-ho about the whole thing, which tells me that she’s got a case of “big-move-itis”. You see, while it is true that the Goliath tribe could lose someone as strong as Jeremy and still be ok challenge-wise (they have no way of knowing a swap is next episode), that doesn’t make it a good idea. I’d tell you why, but I don’t have to: Natalia does it for me. She rightly points out that Natalie feels more on the outs the Jeremy, and is thus more likely to flip. Angelina argues that Jeremy is more of a charmer, and thus could better flip, but I disagree. Yes, Jeremy is charming, but he’s charming in an obvious way. He seems like the type who would fit in well on the Goliath tribe. Conversely, Natalie seems like the odd one out who you would logically expect to flip. Plus, remember that Natalie’s big issue is being to bossy. If she so badly wants to be in charge, where better to find followers than on a tribe supposedly full of followers? Not saying that the David tribe are all followers, but that seems to be what Natalie believes, and I think the David tribe is smart enough to play into that to gain an edge.

Jeremy’s biggest obstacle to staying, though, is Jeremy. In his third boneheaded move of the evening, he had encouraged Natalie to do what she needed to save herself, but also said it was an uphill battle. A bit tactless, but not bad in and of itself. However, when Natalie tries to talk strategy, and asks Jeremy not to be there, Jeremy turns it into an argument that makes everyone involved, but especially himself, look bad. I understand that if you think someone might be talking about you, you shouldn’t let them, but when you make a big deal out of it, you hit a point of diminishing returns on how much trouble you’re saving yourself. Jeremy goes WAY past that point here. Smart thing to do would be to put up a mild protest, then pretend to acquiesce, and listen in from the bushes somewhere. Instead, this argument drags on to commercial break, though I have to give the editors credit for cutting to commercial right when Natalie talks about cutting things off.

Then we come to Tribal Council. To jump ahead to my thoughts a bit, I think this is one situation where we were duped. This was made out to be a “Live” Tribal Council, where the decision was up in the air, and what happened at Tribal decided the outcome. For reasons I’ll get into shortly, I believe everyone knew the decision, and was playing up the discussion for the cameras. That said, if you were to tell me that Natalie was saved by her performance at Tribal Council alone, I would believe it. Seriously, this is some top-tier performing here! Gone is bossy, seemingly uncaring Natalie. Instead she’s calm, logical, and is open to criticism, even putting up what she says she will and taking Dan’s point about “The delivery of the message, not just the content” to heart. Compared to what we see Jeremy do (oh, we’ll get to him in a moment), she comes off as the much more logical choice to keep, despite what I said earlier in the blog. Seriously, I am agape. This is top-level play right here, and it came out of one on the people I would least expect from what we’ve seen so far.

Jeremy’s performance is why I say I think everyone knew the outcome of this Tribal Council beforehand. Natalie should have been the obvious target. It should have been easy. When someone is that annoying, you just gently remind people of what’s happened, and let that person self-destruct to prove your point. What Jeremy does here, going on a full-on, unprovoked attack on Natalie and her game is the work of someone trying desperately to save themselves. Jeremy is enough of a fan that I’m sure he knows this, and thus is only doing this because he knows it is his only chance. Unsurprisingly, it does not work. On a tribe looking for order, whatever the first nine days may have shown, tonight Jeremy showed chaos, and Natalie order. If Jeremy can take some solace he has two rare achievements to his name: He is both a male inductee and a pre-merge inductee into the Order of Sue Hawkabies, each a rare achievement.

I’ve got mixed feelings about Jeremy leaving. He definitely earned it this episode, but I think he was a more interesting and varied character than Natalie. The story about his dad really got to me, and while Natalie is a bigger character from an entertainment perspective, Jeremy had more facets to him, and I would have like to see those develop. To Natalie’s credit, though, she has a lot of class when voting for Jeremy. Complimenting his skin? Love it.

While not top-tier material yet, this season is doing a good job so far. True, a lot of the mystery was gone tonight, but it makes up for it in the characters. Not only is this season doing a good job developing a variety of people, but it does a good job making us care about them; no easy feat. I think it comes back to what I was saying about the hermit crab race earlier: We see them as people, which develops them as characters, which makes this season greater.

Of course, Natalie’s Tribal Council performance also goes a long way there, and as you can probably guess, that means it’s once again time for…

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5!

As you’d expect, we’ll be talking about Tribal Council performances. Excluding Final Tribal Council performances (those get their own list someday), what feats of arguing and theatre are the most memorable and most effective? Conversely, which ones backfire the most? Success and failure is no guarantee for either list, though they help. With those very minimal ground rules out of the way, let’s get started with:

TOP 5

5. Russell Hantz (“Survivor Samoa”): Much though I hate to give him any credit, it takes a lot to hide an idol ace up your sleeve, and if there’s one thing Russell IS good at (or at least was in his first two appearances), it was finding and utilizing idols correctly. Not perfectly, you understand, but good in an above-average way. His crowning achievement was the second post-merge vote of “Survivor Samoa”, where he kept it so perfectly hidden that he attracted votes to himself. Plus, we got his iconic “I ain’t finished playing just yet.” quote here, and to a lesser extent, “Keep hope alive”. Not as flashy as Parvati’s similar move on “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”, yet all the more iconic for it.

4. Malcolm Freberg (“Survivor Caramoan”): Yeah, you all knew this was coming. The guy who basically created a “Live” Tribal Council by making sure he and his allies were immune had to make the list for the chaos he caused alone. Malcolm loses some points because in the long-term, his move wasn’t successful, but even so, it did change the course of that vote, and was flashy enough to get a song made out of it, so it definitely earns a spot on this list.

3. Natalie Cole (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”): Seriously, if you want an example of keeping cool under pressure, this is it. Natalie dominated this Tribal Council by showing just WHY she could be a better tribunate than her competition, but without going over the top. True, this list has favored the flashy, but the finesse of this performance is just too good not to award.

2. Vytas Baskauskas (“Survivor Blood vs. Water”): Someone down in numbers on a swap tribe needs to have a damn good performance in order to make it through to the merge, and Vytas does just that with his “And we will be strong” performance. Natalie had finesse, but even so, she had to capitalize on an existing argument. Vytas used a natural breakdown of Laura Boneham to his expert advantage, thus being kept around until the merge. And all while appearing calm and collected, never once getting sucked into the argument. Well played, good sir.

1. Gary Hogeboom (“Survivor Guatemala”): What’s better than a performance that blindsides the players? A performance that blindsides the audience. Granted, this is partly due to editing, but Gary pulled off the blindside idol play in a textbook perfect manner here. Even if we had seen him find the idol, nothing in his demeanor would suggest he would play it. I mean, we’d probably FIGURE he would play it, since he would go home otherwise, but still, keeping a secret that big that under wraps? Masterful. Plus, “Survivor Guatemala” deserves more respect, and this is one area where it definitely earns it.

Honorable Mention: Stacy Kimball (“Survivor Fiji”): This is an odd one, as it’s a move I’ve yet to acknowledge, and really need to. Stacy was the first person to truly pioneer the idea of “Place votes on the person not likely to have an idol played on them”, which resulted in Edgardo’s exit, and is a move still used to this day. Stacy and the rest of her alliance do a great job of hiding the target here, hence the shocked looks on the faces of the Four Horsemen. Unfortunately, this one had camp strategizing as a big factor, and no theatrics at Tribal Council. True, that was kind of the point, but it still technically bars the move from the list proper, hence only being an honorable mention.

BOTTOM 5

5. Jennifer Lanzetti (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”): Ah, Jennifer and her iconic bird pose. She wasn’t the first to stand up at Tribal Council, but she was the first to do it at a Tribal Council other than the final one. Not sure that it alone was what doomed her, but it didn’t help. Jennifer’s big failing here was really just in being too open about her plans and scheming. Easy enough to do, but no matter what, she just kept digging herself deeper and deeper, flip-flopping on stories and giving into pure, emotional protests, which led to a rightful exit. Still not as much of a mess as we’ll be seeing, though.

4. Ami Cusack (“Survivor Micronesia”): Similar to Jennifer, though dialed up to eleven. Ami also had an emotional breakdown at an insurmountable wall that exposed her scheming. Ami’s breakdown was bigger, which makes it in a way more entertaining, but also sadder, especially since we knew Ami better as a strategist than we did Jennifer. That said, because this breakdown seemed bigger, Ami gets the higher spot on this list. However understandable, it was a shame to see a great strategist sink to this level of argument.

3. John Cochran (“Survivor South Pacific”): This one is more anecdotal than evidence based, but even given what we saw in the episode, Cochran really did himself no favors at this Tribal Council. Like Jeremy, he kept talking and protesting where he really didn’t seem to need to. Unlike Jeremy, Cochran ACTUALLY didn’t need to, and if Dalton Ross is to be believed, nearly cost himself the game right there from overscheming. Thankfully he didn’t, but such a near miss definitely earns a spot on this list.

2. Gervase Peterson (“Survivor Blood vs. Water”): Cochran’s move nearly cost him the game, but you could argue Gervase here did more direct damage. When someone at Tribal Council is playing for your ally, you DON’T want to antagonize them and encourage them to just go for it. That’s what Gervase did here, and it led to the first rock draw in 23 seasons. Not a good look, and definitely not a good Tribal Council performance.

1. Jeff Varner (“Survivor Game Changers”): You all knew this was coming. I know Varner was desperate, but this was a depraved, desperate move that had (thankfully only) the potential to ruin someone’s life, all for a game he wasn’t likely to win anyway. Varner felt like scum afterward, and well he should, given the lengths he went to. But even taking out the moral perspective here for a moment, it was bad game wise. If people weren’t planning to vote for you before, they sure are now! Look at the tongue-lashing he got from his tribe. Well-deserved, I say. If Probst has you voted out verbally, you know you’ve royally screwed up your game with a single performance.

Honorable Mention: Hali Ford (“Survivor Game Changers”): It didn’t really impact things one way or the other, but Hali’s “I didn’t consent” bit gets such a chuckle out of me that I had to include it somewhere. Given that it didn’t help, but also didn’t make much difference in the outcome of things, this seemed the best spot for it.

Well, despite some of my criticisms, we’re three for three on good episodes so far this season. We’ll see if that holds, though, as I feel the swap is a bit too early this time around.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Finale: Everybody Hates Cydney

Say what you will about the finale of “Survivor Kaoh Rong”, but in my opinion, it was entertaining. Sure, it was pretty bog-standard at times, and sure, where it DID deviate from the norm were areas that would be pretty controversial. But it was still hilarious. And, as the title may indicate, our highlight of the night was once again the result of a fire-making challenge at the final four.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, and start back at the beginning, where Mark the Chicken threatens his own life in the game by waking everybody up at oh-dark-thirty in the morning. Tai, no fan of the snooze button, takes Mark out for a cuddle session by the beach, where he talks about his drive to win the game, and while it’s a confessional we’ve seen a million times before, it’s still kind of sweet. Around this time, we also get more of a “Michele is determined” confessional, which is unsurprising and uninteresting.

Once dawn has actually broken, we get to hear some strategy from Aubry and Tai. The pair agree to stick together (smart for both of them, since Aubry needs a solid ally, and Tai needs the girls not to stick together and get him out), and correctly decide to target Michele. The grounds for this, rather than Michele being the biggest jury threat after Aubry, is that Cydney’s the person most likely to be swayed to their side. Not the only logic I’d expect from this crew, but I can definitely see their point in this matter. Either way, the pair come up with the best option for both of them.

At our reward challenge, we get our first misstep: Copying “Survivor Worlds Apart”. Granted, if you’re going to copy an element from “Survivor Worlds Apart”, this challenge is one to do it on. Each contestant slides tiles with numbers on one side, line patterns on the other, into a hole, hitting a pan. Once all their tiles are slid, they must carry as many as possible on the flat of a machete to a finish table. There, they pair up matching line patterns, using the numbers from the three unique tiles to open a combination lock, winning reward. While I do wish we got an original challenge, as always, this one is a pretty good one to do, bringing in a nice “do it yourself” aesthetic, but having several fun stages to watch. I’ll let it slide this time.

While our challenge comes from “Survivor Worlds Apart”, our reward comes circa “Survivor Exile Island”. It’s a full-course meal with a protein bar added on for somewhat of a comedic effect. A pretty good reward to have (though not the best we’ll see tonight), and it’s not a game-breaker like a challenge advantage, so I’m happy there. I’m also happy that we get a pretty even challenge overall, though Aubry ends up taking the lead to win. While she does lose a lot of it, due to a mistake in the pattern matching, she ends up winning the challenge overall, good for her. And, of course, Probst offers her the chance to bring somebody along for the ride. After a bit of thought, Aubry chooses Cydney, which, contrary to what Michele will say later, I say is the correct decision. She and Tai were talking about needing to bring Michele into the fold, and what better way to do so than by sharing a feast with her? On top of this, if the goal is for Michele not to win immunity, then you want to maximize those chances by bringing someone along, and in terms of challenge ability, Cydney is the clear choice.

The food works its magic, and Cydney hops right on board with Aubry. She admits she’s playing in the middle, which frankly is what she should be doing, but she also says her “ideal” final three would be herself, Aubry, and Tai, so that seems pretty definitive to me. As I said last week, and will continue to say this episode, Cydney has played an excellent game overall, having a very good read on people, and always making sure she has a backup plan to stay in power. But if I WERE to find a flaw in it, apart from perhaps moving away from the old To Tang when she would have been pretty well guaranteed final three against less-likable players, it would be this here. Aubry and Tai should NOT be Cydney’s idea final three. Michele and Aubry should be. At this point, with how many days there are left, we have to assume that there’s going to be a final two at this point. Whether Cydney can win against anybody left, I don’t know, but your primary goal going into a final three should be to have people who will take you to the end on either side of you, thus lowering the pressure on that final immunity challenge. Going with Aubry and Tai means that you’re stuck with at least one person who won’t take you regardless (Tai), and one person who sees you as a threat (Aubry). Going with Aubry and Michele means that you have your biggest competition angling to get each other out, rather than yourself. BOOM! Guaranteed spot at Final Tribal Council. Keep that in mind. The food is working its magic.

Back at the camp, we’re in reruns, as Michele points out to Tai that they’re on the bottom, and that perhaps they ought to work together to oust Aubry. This is also where Michele criticizes Aubry’s taking of Cydney on reward, and again, I have to disagree. You’re pissing off two people regardless, and since there’s no way Aubry is taking you, she’s going to be leaving someone behind to plot with you regardless. Better to leave Tai behind, since he’s more firmly on her side. Just like last episode, Tai talks about it being an individual game, and how he may need to flip on Aubry for his own benefit, but this time I don’t buy it. Once bitten, twice shy, but if Tai wasn’t going to flip on Aubry when he was pissed off and it was in his best interest, no way he does so now.

Not done with our repetition of “Survivor Worlds Apart”, the immunity challenge is ALSO a repeat of a challenge from that season. Running to a platform in the water, contestants take a key back to shore and unlock a ladder, which leads to second key, which unlocks a ball and rope, which they use to pull down a ladder, which leads to a third key, which unlocks a pole with which to push off a bag of puzzle pieces, which then must be used to solve a puzzle to win immunity. An overly complicated challenge, and overall just kind of dull, though I’ll admit that the puzzle is nicely different, and the stairs and ladder unfolding was kind of cool to watch.

As with a lot of boring challenges, it’s saved with a good bit of back-and-forth. Aubry once again takes an early lead, but stumbles on the puzzle, while Tai and Cydney trade places a lot, and Michele oddly slows down on the physical portions of the challenge. That doesn’t matter as much, though, as Michele comes back to win immunity! A nice win on her part, but probably the worst possible outcome for Aubry. Now that her primary target is gone, she herself is likely to become a target, and at the very least, she’ll have to vote out someone who’d likely take her to the final two.

Sure enough, as soon as we get back to camp, the wheels start turning. True to her word about keeping her options open, when Michele broaches the subject of getting rid of Aubry, Cydney jumps right on board. We don’t see her advocate for getting rid of Tai, which at this point would probably be her best move, but since it seems like Michele wouldn’t go for that anyway, it’s probably not that big of a deal. And Aubry is a real threat, so might as well get her out anyway.

Tai, on the other hand, is not so easily swayed. We get some lip service to the fact that he MAY decide to just keep it simple and vote for Aubry, but with the way he and Aubry talk, plus the history they’ve had together, you can tell it’s not going to happen, and a tie (or a Tai, if you will), is going to be forced. If you needed any big evidence for it, look no further than the notable conversation where Cydney asks Michele if she ought to practice making fire, and Michele says no. If that wasn’t epic foreshadowing for a fire-making challenge, as well as for the outcome, I don’t know what is.

That particular Tribal Council, in a rarity for the season, is pretty ho-hum, though to be fair, we all know it’s just window-dressing for the main event. Sure enough, we get our promised tie, and Cydney and Aubry, the two allies, just duke it out in a fire-making challenge. And let me tell you, this is the highlight of the episode. Oh, not because it’s incredibly close like the battle between Bobby Jon and Stephenie on “Survivor”, nor is it hilariously bad like the one on “Survivor Cook Islands”, but for the jury’s reaction. The whole “Jury may not interact with players.” rule has varied in how strictly it’s enforced, and this is by no means the most emotive jury we’ve ever seen, but this was really lopsided in how the jurors wanted it to go. I mean, I know Cydney made some enemies on the jury, but she was just REVILED by most of them. Granted, it was kind of funny that Cydney’s fire never really even got off the ground, but this was really a case of “Burn the witch!” level of ill will towards Cydney.

In the end, the jury gets their wish, and Cydney gets the axe. Especially after that trashing she took from the jury, I have to say it’s a loss. As I said, Cydney’s game may not have been the strongest out of everyone left, but that’s more of a testament to the strength of the others games than to any weakness in Cydney’s game. She played hard, and by and large she played well, and so will be missed. That said, if someone had to go at this time, she was probably the least interesting person left, and the least likely to win, so from that perspective, it’s the least of all evils. As I say, though, no disrespect there for Cydney. She has well earned a good spot in “Survivor” history.

Michele, naturally, is upset back at the camp, given that people are only NOW starting to realize that this season is going to be a final two rather than a final three. The three try and console each other, repeating over and over that there CAN’T be any more votes, and that they’re at the end. Frankly, I’m sick of it! Look, wishful thinking is one thing, but this is just denying the facts! Sometimes the game doesn’t work out the way you want it to, and that can be frustrating, but there’s no sense in denying it!

See? There’s tree-mail right now telling you to go for your final challenge, and now you’ll have to do the hard work of deciding who to go to the end with. Probst is taking off the necklace, once and for all confirming that… they’re the final three and will go on to plead their case at Final Tribal Council?

Please hold for a moment while the blogger goes and puts his brain back in. It fell out due to being improperly secured during that sharp turn.

POP! Ok, so yes, the optimists were right, and this is a final three. Have to admit, I didn’t see that coming. They got me. Good one. Granted, I generally prefer final twos over final threes, and so am a bit frustrated in that regard, but, due to how impressed I am at the producers pulling the wool over our eyes so, I have a hard time being frustrated at it. Plus, what we get instead is also really cool.

Yes, for once Probst’s grandstanding about “A ‘Survivor’ First!” was not, in fact, grandstanding, but the real deal. Rather than play for immunity, our players instead play for the right to kick one member off the jury. They’ll leave Tribal Council, be sequestered so they can’t unduly influence the votes, and get no say at the Final Tribal Council. Now, I know for a fact that this twist has some backlash, and I can’t pretend it’s not without merit. Something just seems unfair about putting some poor schmo on the jury only to have his or her last moment in the sun ripped away on the whim of one player. It goes against what seems to be at the core of normal “Survivor”. I, on the other hand, really like this twist! True, it does seem to fundamentally change “Survivor” from what we knew, but frankly, a good twist will do that. Personally, I see this as merely adding a new layer of jury management, and like it better than, say, a “challenge advantage”, because it’s less of a guarantee, and requires brains to be used smartly. So yeah, I think this is a cool idea! Wouldn’t want to see it used EVERY season, but if they brought it back, I wouldn’t complain.

The challenge itself? Well, in a fitting parallel to the beginning of the season, the past has come back to haunt our contestants. You remember how the first immunity challenge had a choice of a puzzle or a stacking end, and nobody did stacking? Well, not being ones to waste an opportunity, that horrible stacking option is now the final challenge of this season. You could avoid it temporarily, but not entirely, if you made it to the end. Even though it’s not an immunity challenge, and it’s visually boring, this is probably my favorite final challenge in a while. Though not exactly endurance, it’s not a strength challenge, and seems tough enough to be worthy of coming last in a season. Plus, as I said, the parallels to the beginning of the season are a nice touch.

Once again, we get a good back and forth challenge, and once again Michele edges out the competition, leaving her with the decision of who to vote off. Talking with Tai, Michele reveals to no one’s surprise that her primary target is Joe, due to being an unpersuadable Aubry vote, which makes perfect logical sense. Michele also considers taking out Neal, since he’s also a likely Aubry vote, but with more persuasive skills than Joe. Not bad logic, and Tai certainly pushes evicting Neal, but I’m inclined to say that Joe is still the better option. Not that Neal is a BAD option, since he is probably an Aubry vote, but I feel like Neal would be more open to persuasive arguments than Joe would. I hear the argument about Neal being able to persuade others, but, much as the show would have us believe that Final Tribal Council votes can be swayed, I feel like, with maybe a few jurors as exceptions, everyone’s vote is locked in by the time we get to Tribal Council. So, I say go with the least-persuadable sure vote against you.

Aubry being Aubry, of course, does not let one of her jury advocates go so easily. She attempts to switch the vote on to Scot, since he’s deemed “Most likely to give a bitter speech.”, which Michele seems to consider, but I’m not buying it. Michele has played logically pretty much the entire game, and logic dictates that Aubry, being Michele’s biggest threat, needs to have any sure votes for her taken away.

With fewer stakes, and a more predictable outcome, this Tribal Council is also little to write home about, though again, the vocalizations of the jury are a joy to watch, and we do get a bit of a spat near the end. Unsurprisingly, Michele goes for Neal, who was far more of an Aubry advocate than I though, REALLY tearing Michele apart as he leaves, comparing her to a suckling puppy. I get that Neal was an Aubry fan, and that he didn’t really get to see Michele’s game, but that was HARSH, man! For all that I am an Aubry fan, and think that of those remaining, her game was the best, Michele is still not to be disrespected. She played both sides of the fence masterfully from behind the scenes, and was incredibly flexible. She makes an excellent winner for the season. Maybe not the BEST possible winner, but excellent nonetheless.

Since it’s nigh-on impossible to find new things to talk about on Day 39, Tai, Aubry, and Michele pretty much just give us the standard confessionals you’d expect at this point in the game. Michele has the “I’ve played a good game.” confessional, Tai the “I love the game so much.” confessional, and Aubry the “I’ve learned so much!” confessional, mixed with a little bit of “Good game” confessional as well. Hopefully Tribal Council will be more interesting.

Sad to say, but it’s not. While by no means the worst we’ve ever seen, I don’t feel it really merits a blow-by-blow, especially since we’re going to have a lot to cover following the end of the episode itself. So, without further ado, here are some highlights:

-Even though he had perhaps the least to say out of anybody, Nick arrogance still managed to shine through. His “question” basically amounted to a preschooler’s guide to Final Tribal Council, with a little bit of personal advice thrown in for the players. Frankly, I wouldn’t have bothered noting it were it not for the fact that the image of Nick teaching preschoolers about “Survivor” makes me laugh.

-I’ll admit, the show got me one more time tonight. Julia’s question had me fooled. What everyone (including myself) saw as a locked “Michele” vote starts lambasting Michele in her question, talking about her early-game weakness. She turned it around of course, but it was still a well-done fake-out.

-With regards to that, actually, Michele’s answer to that was pretty bad, I thought. She and Aubry both gave pretty good Final Tribal Council performances overall, but while Aubry was maybe less exciting overall, she was more consistent. Rather than try and say that she wasn’t as weak as she seemed early game, Michele owned up to it and used it instead. This lead to the emotionally punctuating moments that Aubry didn’t have that may have clinched Michele’s win, but still, it seemed like Michele was admitting that she was kind of pathetic early on, and not in a good way. Just an odd choice to me.

-So, for all that worry about Scot being a bitter juror who might shake things up, he ends with… a hula dance. Oooh-kayyyy…

-And yeah, sending off Mark the Chicken was a nice farewell to the season. Good for you, show.

As I’ve been hinting at, Michele ends up winning in a 5-2 vote, and I have thoughts on that, believe me, but first, let us talk briefly about the reunion show, which, while not as bad as the reunion show of “Survivor Caramoan”, is still pretty bad. Too much time spent on celebrities, and not enough time with the contestants. So many unanswered questions. Who voted for whom? What do the pre-merge boots think about everything? What would Neal have asked at Final Tribal Council? And what did Cydney have to think about everything? Seriously, I can kind of get the logic in ignoring the pre-merge boots, even if I think it’s a douchey move, but ignoring CYDNEY? The lady who was a MAJOR influence on the course of the game, and even made the final episode, doesn’t even get a QUESTION at the reunion show? I’m so angry at this, I’m going to switch to text-speak. WTF, MAN?

Oh, and of course we also get our preview for next season. It’s going to be called “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen X”.

Ha ha! No seriously, what’s it going to be called! This can’t be the actual title! It sounds like a MAD TV parody?

This isn’t a joke? It’s the actual title and theme of next season Hoo boy, where to begin?

Well, I suppose to start off, THIS IS A STUPID TITLE! We’ve had “versus” titles before, but those have been succinct and roll off the tongue. This title lolls around like it’s on a bunch of painkillers. Secondly, the theme is stupid. Apart from seeming more gimmicky than other tribe divisions, it basically amounts to diving the tribes by age. Which you already did. “Survivor Nicaragua.” Yeah, remember how that went? Granted, I’ve always said the concept could be done better, and maybe this season will give us that, but still, if you were going to reuse an idea, why this one? And, thirdly, THIS IS A STUPID TITLE! Seriously, even “Survivor Worlds Apart” knew not to call itself “Survivor White Collar vs. Blue Collar vs. No Collar”! It’s not even like finding a good title was hard. Here, I’ll give you one right now: “Survivor Generations” Is it lame? Sure. But it’s still better than “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen X”! Hell, from now on, I’m referring to it as “Survivor MGX”. I am NOT typing out that title week after week!

Ah, but that’s a rant to have next season, and a long way off in the future, so for now, we’ll just pretend it doesn’t exist. For now, it’s time to talk about the big issue of this season: the winner. Well, I say “issue”, but really, “controversy” would be a better word, because surprisingly enough, I don’t have much of an issue with Michele winning. As I have said before, and will say again, Michele played a great, if subtle, game. She never gave, up, was able to adequately play the middle without taking flak for it, and took risks. Is she the person I think SHOULD have won? No, of course not. As an avowed Aubry fan, I stand behind the fact that Aubry played the best game of the three. Aubry faced setback after setback, yet still came into positions of power, and was the driving force behind a number of flips and votes in the game. Had she won, she would have earned it. But Michele earned her win as well, I don’t begrudge her that. In my mind, this is not a case of the jury getting anything “wrong”, or of an “undeserving winner”, partly because in the case of the latter, I don’t take “deserving” into account, because I don’t think it’s a thing that should really come into play on “Survivor”. Both Aubry and Michele played great games, and while I think Aubry’s was better, Michele did not “steal” the game from Aubry, as some have claimed. She played a good game as well, and it earned her a win.

Still, the question remains: Why Michele over Aubry? We can only speculate, but there are some reasons being touted that I have to just dismiss. Some argue that Neal’s elimination cost Aubry the win, which I think is absurd. he would have been one more Aubry vote, but that’s still only three for her, so Michele wins either way. Contrary to what the show says, I DON’T buy the indecisiveness on the part of people like Jason, so I don’t think Neal’s presence would have drastically changed the outcome. Nor do I buy the conspiracy that the producers implemented the “remove a juror” twist last-minute to prevent a tie. Maybe I’m naive, but I tend to give the producers the benefit of a doubt on things like this, and attribute it to “Survivor” luck that they tend to work out well. Look at the mutiny twist from “Survivor Thailand” as an example of implementing a twist and having it go wrong. Did Aubry put the wrong people on the jury? Again, I have to say I don’t think so. Recall that even some of the people who voted against Aubry, like Jason and Scot, were complimenting her right before they were voted out. That seems like the sort of person you’d want on the jury, so how was Aubry supposed to have known? Was this a “bitter jury”? What evidence is there for it? There was no ranting about people’s games being ruined, nor any tirades from anyone but Neal, who wasn’t even there. That, to me, says no bitterness, especially since there IS a case for Michele’s game. No, I think it was a combination of two factors that did Aubry in this time, both of which were, to a degree, out of her control. The first was the tightness of Jason, Julia, and Scot. I’ll admit this was a failing on my part, but while I knew that Julia was definitely in Michele’s corner, I counted on Jason and Scot being free agents come Final Tribal Council. I should have realized that tight in-game usually means tight on-jury. I think wherever Julia went, Jason and Scot would follow, so that’s three Michele votes right off the bat. A hard hill to overcome. Had Aubry voted out Michele post-merge, or Julia pre-merge, things might have been different, but in the case of the latter, there’s no telling how things would have unfolded from there, and I can see why Aubry didn’t consider Michele a threat, since her game was so on the down-low. Second, and I think most important, is timing. Both Aubry and Michele had a “rising from underdogdom” narrative to work with, and I’d say both used it to great effect. I would say that Aubry’s story overcame greater odds and had greater successes, but that’s just me. The advantage that did Aubry is is when her story peaked. Aubry showed her true self right around the Scot vote, fairly late in the game, but it made the back half of her game seems somewhat weaker. In comparison, Michele’s big moments mostly came at the end, what with getting Neal off the jury and surviving Tai’s double-vote. This makes Michele’s successes more recent, and therefore more prescient in the minds of the jury. Again, not saying that that’s ALL Michele had going for her, but I think it ultimately tipped the scales.

Even without the ideal outcome, though, this was still a great season! While maybe not as big in terms of characters as its predecessor, “Survivor Cambodia”, it still gave us a lot of likable people with really excellent strategy and fun blindsides! What more could you ask for in a season of “Survivor”? I know some complain that the players weren’t as over the top or as likable this season as others, but I’d counter that you can’t expect every season to top the previous one. It’s just not realistic. As it stands, what we got, while admittedly probably not the stuff of “Survivor” legend, is still upper-echelon “Survivor”, and I look forward to seeing many of these players back in the future!

But, before we leave these players for a while, let us reflect back on my stupidity in my rankings pre-season, and find out where I went wrong.

Peter: I may have given him too much credit, and slightly overestimated his time in the game, but I nailed him otherwise.

Aubry: Her personality I got, but I should have gone with my heart rather than my head on her time in the game. She lived up to, and often surpassed, my greatest expectations.

Joe: Wrong, but in my defense, those biographies and introduction videos make everyone seem more exciting. How was I to know he’d be the new Julia Landauer (“Survivor Caramoan”)?

Neal: Wrong, obviously. I think he had what it takes, but he never really got the chance to show it off, and so went a lot earlier than expected.

Liz: She seemed to have what I thought she would, but was a target much earlier than I guessed.

Debbie: Definitely kookier than I would have thought, but she still acquitted herself very well. Better than I thought, anyway.

Cydney: Dead wrong. There were ASPECTS of her character, particularly early on, that lined up with how I thought she’d play, but she was WAY smarter and made it WAY farther than I would have said. Still, if I’m going to be wrong, this is a good way to be wrong!

Darnell: Wrong. Much less socially aware, and much shorter lived than I thought.

Alecia: She did give me a reason for that “tough” description, but I was still wrong about how long she’d last.

Jason: Wrong. He was dramatic, but in a way that gelled with his tribe, and so made it much farther than I predicted.

Jennifer: I predicted neither her neuroticism nor her early exit. Wrong, but fun.

Scot: He was MAYBE a bit smarter than I predicted, but I’m giving myself this one overall. He left about when I though, and played about how I thought.

Anna: I try and give the “pro poker player” occupation the benefit of a doubt, and look what happens! Wrong!

Nick: Well, he was an arrogant douchebag and left the first time he was vulnerable, so TECHNICALLY, I was right.

Caleb: Right on personality, wrong on time in the game. Then again, how could I have predicted his medevac?

Julia: Wrong. While I can’t say she was any more interesting than I thought, she did make it very far, and was pretty good strategically.

Tai: Wrong. He was far more flexible than I would have thought, and lasted longer for it.

Michele: If there’s one consolation to Michele’s win, it’s that I CALLED IT! NEENER NEENER NEENER!

As I said before, good cast, good season. My feeling overall is that people like this season less than I do, and the success of Aubry probably has something to do with my inflated score, but even taking that into account, I think this season stands on its own. It has a lot of strategy right from the get-go, has generally likable heroes who end up succeeding in the end, and even if it’s not ground-breaking, it’s still solid. This season was under-hyped before it began, and I think now I understand why the medevacs were emphasized over the gameplay. While quite good, the gameplay still wasn’t groundbreaking, whereas the medevacs were something we don’t see every season, and for good reason (though Probst attributing all of them to heat was an error on his part). Thus, you want to emphasize the most unique aspect of your season, to make it stand out. Granted, I think they still could have talked about a season of “heroes and villains, and epic blindsides” along with the medevacs, but I can definitely see from a marketing standpoint why they might not be what you want to emphasize.

If nothing else, this season has given me one thing that I love, and therefore it’s time for another…

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5!

Today, we’re talking about my personal favorite contestants of all time. Not the best ones, just the ones I enjoy watching the most and least. Guess who ends up on the list from this season.

TOP 5

5. Rupert Boneham (“Survivor Pearl Islands”): Like I said, this list is for the people I enjoy watching the most, not the people I think played the best games overall. In fact, Rupert is maybe the best exemplar there is of how good gameplay does not automatically equate to entertainment value for me. Despite having next to no strategy, and generally getting carried along for being an easy vote, Rupert is still a fun guy to watch. You can tell that he’s trying to live every minute he can to the best that he can, is over the top and hilarious, and I admire his stick-to-it spirit. He’s one of the guys who got me into “Survivor”, and I owe him for that, plus I can identify with the “fat little picked-on kid” thing. That said, Rupert does fall low on the list because of his overall poor gameplay, and the fact that we’ve seen too much of him overall. Three times was all he needed. Still, he’s so over-the-top and crazy fun that you can understand why he got brought back so often.

4. Stephen Fishbach (“Survivor Tocantins”): Stephen perhaps best exemplifies what I generally like in an entertaining “Survivor” character. He’s smart, but a little neurotic. Witty, but can take jokes and potshots at himself as easily as others. Stephen played a really fascinating game, making alliances with people you wouldn’t expect him to bond with, and showing himself to be tougher than even he thought, making him intensely compelling. His second showing wasn’t as good as I had hoped, but he was still a lot of fun to watch, even if it was at the expense of his misery.

3. Kass McQuillen (“Survivor Cagayan”): Put down the hate sticks, this is my list! What can I say, I think “older” ladies (within the context of the show old, not actually old) who can still be strategic are incredibly compelling. They, in general, are the ultimate contradiction in terms, the supreme underdog. Many like Kass simply for her snarky comments and seemingly no sense of social grace, but for me, I like that she has hidden depths. Look a little deeper and you’ll see a woman who knows a lot more than she lets on, and is able to at times fool even the audience. That means that, no matter what you watch her for, you’ll always get a surprise. Plus, she had that incredible come-from-behind victory on the puzzle. That, in my book, helps make a great character.

2. John Cochran (“Survivor South Pacific”): Pretty much the previous contestant I identify most with. Cochran exemplifies all things that are “nerdy”, at least within the context of “Survivor”. he could reference just as well, if not better, than the rest of the audience, and as seen in his second outing, the guy really did know his way around the game. Granted, his antics did sometimes descend into self-parody, and that keeps him from the top spot of this list, but even keeping that in mind, he’s still a character like no other, and in many ways, a really good one.

1. Aubry Bracco (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”): Yes, she of the numerous “Survivor” comparisons has won me over. It’s fitting that they showed the tweet of her cosplaying as Cochran at the reunion show, since that’s what ultimately won me over. No, I don’t want to have sex with Cochran, but it did bring home to me that Aubry, in many ways, was Cochran, but with more social graces and less of a stereotype. She made references, but didn’t go overboard with them overall. More than that, though, Aubry was once again a good underdog story. Someone who had arguably some of the worst luck “Survivor” could shower upon you, yet kept digging and somehow would up in the end. Sure, she didn’t win, but that’s how the game goes sometimes. For what it’s worth, I really enjoyed her, and look forward to seeing her in the future.

Honorable Mention: Kathy Vavrick-O’Brien (“Survivor Marquesas”): If Aubry is Cochran with more social graces, then in many ways, Kathy is Kass with more social graces. Another “older” lady who didn’t seem to belong out there, yet somehow weaseled her way into the end with some solid gameplay moments along the way. Kathy also has a good underdog story arc, being one of the best examples of people learning to play as they go, and being very likable on top of that. Two things keep her from the list proper. Partly, she’s not as intellectual as someone like Kass, and it’s a personal preference, but I prefer watching intellect to outdoor skills. Second, and more important, she falls outside my “nostalgia zone”. I watched “Survivor Marquesas” many years after it had aired, so I don’t hold much special attachment to the season. If I did, Kathy might have supplanted Rupert on the list, but Rupert has that nostalgia factor, and just edges her out. She’s still awesome, though.

BOTTOM 5

5. Roger Sexton (“Survivor The Amazon”): This is a case where my rage would probably be much higher if I had a nostalgic attachment to this season. As it stands, though, sexism will not be rewarded, except with a spot on the “Bottom 5”. “Battle of the Sexes” seasons seem to bring out the worst tendencies in male “Survivor” contestants, but Roger exemplifies that, in a sense, by being the least extreme about it. Rather than be an affected, over-the-top sexism, Roger just seems casually sexist in general, pretty much ignoring the women come the merge. In some ways, though, this is worse, since it makes it seem as though this is how Roger really is, rather than an exaggerated character. This, in my eyes, makes him an awful human being, and hard to watch as a result.

4. Kat Edorsson (“Survivor One World”): I’ve had many a rant about this young lady, so I’ll be brief here. While there are exceptions to this rule, I generally like my characters intellectually stimulating and witty. Kat is the opposite of this. She, as a character, exemplifies every stereotype associated with the valley girl. She is stupid, vapid, and unfunny, which is perhaps the worst indictment of all. She’s not an awful human being, like some on this list are, but she’s no fun to watch either.

3. “Purple Kelly” (“Survivor Nicaragua”): Technically, she’s a stand in for everyone who gives up on “Survivor”, but still justified in that Kelly Shinn, aka “Purple Kelly”, exemplifies my problem with this type of character. People quitting, at this point in the series, was nothing new, but people who brought nothing, and gave up under the lamest of circumstances, are wasted space. You can’t help but think “that spot could have gone to someone worthy!”, and it’s pretty hard to like someone when you’re thinking that.

2. Phillip Sheppard (“Survivor Redemption Island”): My problem with Phillip may not be his fault, but, to paraphrase the man himself, “He annoys me greatly.” The man took time away from actual interesting people to go off and act crazy, and I don’t mean that in the racist way. Phillip, rather than talk strategy, garbled crazy philosophy, and THOUGHT he was talking strategy. Especially in his first outing, the man did NOTHING to merit being cast on the season, yet the marketing department kept coming back to him as this “hilarious” ball of comedy. Which he wasn’t. I hope I’ve made that clear.

1. Russell Hantz (“Survivor Samoa”): And so, we come to the ultimate delusion of grandeur. Like with Kat, I feel as though I’ve talked about this a number of times, so I’ll be brief. Russell is basically a grown up whiny little kid who grossly overestimates himself, then bitches and moans when things don’t go his way. He has no respect for the game, is misogynistic, simplistic, and a leech on our viewing time. May he be gone from our screens forever.

Honorable Mention: Colton Cumbie (“Survivor One World”): Colton was basically another Russell Hantz, although he focussed more on racism than sexism, and amped the whininess up to a whole new level. I leave him off the list because, after the tragic and unfortunate death of his fiancee, Caleb Bankstown (“Survivor Blood vs. Water”), I feel like the poor guy has had enough hard times, and doesn’t need me putting him down. The least I can do is keep him off the list proper.

PHEW! I’m just about beat. After a satisfactory end to a great season, I’m about ready for a short break! I may be away for a couple weeks, but don’t worry, you’ll still get your off-season content. I’ve got a special blog I’ve been wanting to do since the season began, so keep your eyes peeled. And, of course, “Survivor Retrospectives” will be up and running again before you know it!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 13: What Could Possibly Kaoh Rong?

Well, after several delays, I can FINALLY blog about this episode! And it was definitely a good one! Not as great as some of the others, but unlike last week, stuff of importance actually HAPPENED! Let’s see what it was.

Unsurprisingly, we start off with Tai being stunned by the blindside of Jason from the previous episode. Somewhat surprisingly, it’s JOE who goes and comforts Tai, pointing out that it was just the will of the group. You’d think, with how hard she was working him, that it’d be Aubry who was trying her damnedest to get Tai back on the good side, but no, we need SOMETHING for Joe to do. Tai, while understanding of the situation, is hurt that he wasn’t let in on the plan. He brings up a good point, actually. If Jason would have gone home either way, why NOT let Tai know what was going on? It saves the trouble of a disgruntled alliance member later, and doesn’t negatively impact your plans in any way.

So, at the moment, Tai is handling himself well. Where he loses me is when he gets back on the “Michele isn’t part of the alliance.” track. Michele mentions being hurt by those comments at the past Tribal Council (understandably so), but Tai could have just apologized and let it drop. Instead, he continues to try and justify himself, in so doing only widening the gap between himself and Michele.

But Michele is not the only person out on Tai at this point! No, since Tai was the most hurt by Aubry not voting for Michele, she’s the one he goes to for comfort. Now, this is a great opportunity for Aubry to mend the bridge with Tai, bring a strong ally back into the fold, and cement her position as the power player of Dara. Naturally, being the excellent strategist she is, she… gets wishy-washy with Tai and just tries to justify herself, which Tai isn’t buying. I get wanting to distance herself from Tai, but doing so so blatantly makes him more likely to move against her. Granted, it may soften the blow if she plans to vote him off, but he’d still be offended anyway. May as well lull him into a false sense of security to keep him from going off on his own and betraying you. He’s not going to be significantly more butthurt anyway.

We head to our one challenge of the episode (which should tell you something about how the episode goes), which is a decent one, all things considered. Everyone runs up a jungle path to a set of ladder rungs with bags of sandbags tied to them. One at a time, you untie said sandbags, and bring them back to the start, where you try and throw them into five separate holes. The first person with a sandbag in each hole wins a massage night and feast. Pretty good reward for this late in the game, and a simple, but effective, challenge. What I particularly like is the possibility that someone may not need to get all the bags to win. It’s just the first person to make the five holes wins. With more sandbags than you need, and no collecting old bags until everyone’s out, it’s very possible for someone to win without getting all their bags. It doesn’t happen that way, but it’s still an interesting idea.

Our early frontrunners seems to be Cydney and Aubry (Michele surprisingly has a pretty poor performance this challenge), with Aubry pulling into a 4-bag lead before running out of sandbags. Since everyone must throw before a reset, though, we have to wait as Joe slowly makes his way back for the remaining bags. The dramatic music tells us we’ve got an underdog victory on our hands, though, and with his last two sandbags, Joe manages to win a reward challenge. For all the hard time I’ve given him, and will continue to give him, this is a pretty cool moment to see, and a high point for Joe. Strategically, he’s still made no impact beyond being a solid Debbie/Aubry number, but still, this is a good moment for him, and fun to watch.

Naturally, Joe gets to take someone along on his reward, and no surprise, he picks Aubry. Joe is then given the option to take a SECOND person on the reward, but his intellectual reserves are exhausted by that Aubry decision, so Aubry chooses Cydney, which is smart. An argument COULD be made for Tai, but it’s pretty clear that Aubry is hitching herself to the Cydney train, so it’s good to strengthen that bond if you can.

But the first order of business on any reward is food, and Joe is certainly living it up. There are steak kebabs, and despite Joe not being a major steak person, he eats about eight of the damn things. Sydney gives us a double dose of “Survivor” references here, giving Dawn’s warning about reward food from “Survivor Caramoan”, combined with Stephen Fishbach’s “gastro-intestinal distress” from “Survivor Cambodia”. If you don’t think this is prophetic, then you don’t know how this show works.

We do eventually get to the alliance building portion of the reward, and it starts off about as typical as you’d expect, with one side (Aubry) talking about wanting to go to the end, and the other (Cydney) assenting to this, with a nice confessional from the latter about liking the idea, but keeping their options open. I roll my eyes a little bit at Cydney saying that she’s a big threat to win this, since out of everyone left at the end of this episode, I’d say she has the LEAST chance of winning at Final Tribal Council. Still, can’t fault her wanting to downplay how big of a threat she is, and her low chances of winning are due more to the players left than herself overall.

Oh, but this is not a standard strategy talk, because Joe actually opens his mouth! And we’re reminded once again of why Joe SHOULDN’T be opening his mouth for the sake of his alliance. For whatever reason, he seems to see Aubry as the major threat to flip against the threesome, and talks about how handily she can beat himself and Cydney in the finals. I’ll give Joe credit, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more convincing argument… of why CYDNEY should go AGAINST the alliance! Seriously, man, your closest ally and you’re throwing her under the bus like this? Not intentionally, I know, but the effect is the same. If Cydney wasn’t considering flipping, she surely is now.

Aubry, being the subject of this assassination, is quick to comment on this in confessional. Naturally, her conclusion from Joe’s “Aubry will win.” bit is that… Cydney’s a threat. What? Look, I’m not saying Cydney is non-threatening, but compared to Michele or even Tai, she’s low on the totem pole in that regard, particularly given that she seems to be your main strategy buddy. And, more to the point, HOW DOES JOE TALKING ABOUT YOU BEING A THREAT MEAN THAT CYDNEY’S A THREAT? Seriously, did we just miss a confessional here? I have no idea how one of these things follows from the other. A non-sequitur if ever there was one. On the plus side, Aubry’s SOLUTION to the perceived threat of Cydney is to bring Tai back into the fold. The right conclusion for the wrong reasons.

Bringing Tai back into the fold may be tougher than she thinks, though. With how Tai was insulting Michele all through the past two episodes, you’d think things would be really awkward with the two of them back at camp. And it is, at least at first. Eventually, Michele and Tai go out to the water to have a talk, where the insulting of Michele continues with Tai calling her “Closed off” Surely, no strategy can come from this! Michele returns in kind, pointing out that Tai kind of picks who he wants to work with, and ignores the rest, which Tai admits may be true about him. The pair bond a little closer, and it’s sweet to see. Michele even gets a Tai Massage, making Mark the Chicken jealous. It’s a cute scene, but unlike most of last episode, it has some purpose. With the two now on better speaking terms, and each correctly concluding that they’re on the bottom of the totem pole, Tai proposes potentially using his idol to blindside someone, probably Aubry due to feeling betrayed by her.

Day 35 has Tai being a bit emotional, which is quite understandable for that time in the game. Doing pretty much ANYTHING 35 days straight is tough, and “Survivor” is no picnic, to use the cliche. But there is no resting for top strategists like Aubry. Pretty much right away, she gets to work on bringing Tai back to her side, using the same sorts of arguments she used before, mixing the emotion of the game, and asking about what he wants, with a proposed play (final 3 with herself and Joe). This is something she should have started doing EARLIER, but better late than never, I suppose. It certainly seems to work for Tai, who breaks down crying on Aubry’s shoulder, and then agrees to work with the pair. Perhaps it’s the emotions of this time in the game, perhaps Aubry’s really just that good at persuading Tai, but whatever the reason, he comes back REALLY easily.

But, of course, nothing on “Survivor” is quite that easy. Unless this was “Survivor Redemption Island”, but thankfully, this is far away from that season. No, as Aubry and Tai happily walk back from the well, Cydney gets suspicious that they’ve been talking “alliance”, which naturally supplants her. I personally didn’t see anything to indicate it was anything other than a water run, so I’ll chalk that up to Cydney’s observation skills. Whatever else I say about her, I will give her credit that she’s able to read situations with little info with spooky accuracy, and that’s quite an asset on “Survivor”. In this case, Cydney uses that information to reaffirm her bond with Michele. Once again, Cydney is hedging her bets, not being totally firm on who she’s with in her confessionals, but keeping her options open in case Aubry does something screwy. Frankly, that’s how Cydney should be playing, and she’s doing it quite well. Not much else to say.

The pair try to pick a person to target, but that quickly becomes irrelevant. As Cydney predicted, Joe is suffering ill effects from eating all that beef on reward. He’s going the route of Bruce Kanegai (“Survivor Exile Island”), wherein nothing is moving in his bowels. He even goes one step further than Bruce, and has his blockage also extend to the urinary tract. You can tell that the poor guy is toughing it out through a lot of pain, and puts up with it for about as long as he possibly can. Medical does eventually come out, and we get a hope spot when they decide to start him on medication rather than pull him from the game. When they come back later in the evening, though, everyone knows it’s over. The death knell of Jeff Probst coming to camp has sounded. Sure enough, no one, not even Joe, is surprised at the verdict of his needing to leave the game. The guy just says he’s proud of how far he made it at his age, and frankly, it’s hard to get too mad at him. He had a real moment in the sun with that reward challenge, and he’s just so upbeat about the exit that you have to like him at least a little. Still, not too sorry to see him go. Like it’s spiritual ancestor “Survivor Cagayan”, this season has a real strength in that most people came to play, and for good or for ill, they did. Also like “Survivor Cagayan”, though, there were exceptions to this rule, and Joe was one of those. You can’t really dislike the guy, but you can’t say her really contributed to the game. If someone had to go before the final episode, he’s probably the best choice.

And what a final four we’re left with! I would say this is the most universally likable and, for want of a better term, “worthy of winning” final four we’ve had since “Survivor Philippines”, and that’s saying something! With Joe gone, everyone left has at least a couple of likable qualities and reasons why they could logically be crowned the winner! It’s going to be hard to have a “bad” outcome to the season. Plus, with Joe gone, we now ostensibly have two groups of two (Michele and Cydney vs. Tai and Aubry), which is always tough, but there’s play within those groups. The smart money probably says that Tai flips back with Michele and Cydney, given what we saw this episode, leaving Aubry to go at this next Tribal Council. I wouldn’t count Aubry out yet, though. As she noted, this is an exact parallel to how Neal left (minus the idol), and we see how THAT turned out for her. Things aren’t looking good for my favorite player, but I’m not counting her out just yet!

Speaking of counting, though, it’s time to rank the players based on how likely they are to win at Final Tribal Council, a tradition here at “Idol Speculation”.

1. Aubry: Perhaps a controversial call, but I think if Aubry makes the end, she wins. She’s played a really visible game, but a really smart one, having come back from several strategic deficits, and has managed to avoid taking the negative blame for most of her moves. Hell, even her enemies like her! Remember Jason and Scot talking about how worthy a competitor she was? And these are people she was responsible for voting out! You couldn’t wish for better jurors! Also, I have a hard time thinking of people who WOULDN’T vote for Aubry, save perhaps Debbie and Julia, and I only say those because I watch the “Ponderosa” videos. Now, if this list were factoring in likelihood to make it to the Final Tribal Council, Aubry would fall much, much lower than she is. But if you ask me who has the best case at Final Tribal Council, it’d be her.

2. Michele: Were I to factor in likelihood to make it to the end, Michele would top this list hands down. Like Aubry, Michele really has no enemies on the jury, which is a good start. On top of this, Michele has played a very strong game, and as we’ve seen, is quite the debater at Tribal Council, making her a serious contender. I say that she’s more likely to make it to the end, only because her game has been played more behind proverbial closed doors, meaning she’s less likely to be seen as a threat, and thereby eliminated. However, it’s that very lack of visibility that makes it harder for her to beat Aubry in the end. I have no doubt it’s possible, but Aubry’s moves have been more public, and therefore easier to see. Michele could very easily win this game, though.

3. Tai: This was a tough call for me, deciding who to put higher: Tai or Cydney. Both have a number of strategic moves under their belt, and both have had a measure of power, but both has also taken a lot of the negative flak for their moves, which could put them in a bad spot depending on who they go up against. I put Tai slightly above Cydney only because he has more of an underdog story going for him. If he pulls out the “Vietnam refugee” storyline again, and points out how much he doesn’t resemble the prototypical “Survivor” contestant, he might just snag a win.

4. Cydney: As I say, this is a tough call, and Cydney is by no means out of the running. She’s made a number of visible power plays, and her observational abilities alone might be worthy of a win. But, unlike some others, her moves could be seen as detrimental to her, particularly the decision to flip on Nick, Jason, and Scot. She arguably put herself in a worse position, and probably bears the brunt of ill-will from the jury. Again, she’s by no means a goat, and she could very well surprise me, but I feel like out of everyone here, Cydney is the weakest link.

And there you have it! Am I the oracle of Kaoh Rong, or just some guy on the internet talking out of his ass? This Wednesday will tell, and you’ll know well before me! As I mentioned in my last blog, I have a meeting this week that bleeds into the “Survivor” finale (curse it not being on Sunday anymore), so I will have to wait. The gap should not be this long this time, and I thank you for your patience with me. Here’s to a great finale for a great season!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 12: Cute Cat Video

Remember how I praised last episode for how, despite the fact that the end result was a boring vote along alliance lines, it still managed to be interesting? Yeah, sad to say that streak lasts all of one episode. While this episode as a whole isn’t BAD per se, it is definitely on the weaker end for this season. Ah well, at least this will make this particular blog a fairly short one.

On night 29, things are fairly subdued for once. Neither major complaining nor major gloating, so it’s a bit hard to figure out what to do here. Fortunately, Tai saves us by providing his one good move of the evening. He, like most everyone else watching, has figured out that it’s in his best interest to use his extra vote at the upcoming Tribal Council (since it would make an odd number, helping prevent ties), and then his hidden immunity idol at the Tribal Council after that, thereby effectively guaranteeing him a spot in the final episode, making both the audience and the producers giddy with joy. After all, despite what we see this episode, Tai is still pretty well a fan favorite, so having him in the final episode is pretty much a win-win for all involved. To add to the intelligence of Tai’s move here, he actually doesn’t tell EVERYBODY. He tells Aubry and Joe, which is probably for the best. Were everyone to know, it would probably make him too big of a threat, and thus make him a potential target. By letting just Aubry and Joe know, he strengthens the bond with his current closest ally (Aubry), and makes it more likely that they’ll see HIS advantage as THEIR advantage, and thereby not want to vote Tai out.

Less successful in his ploy to stay in the game is Jason, who thankfully has learned something from his sabotage tactics. Once again, he doesn’t go into a raging storm about the whole situation, though he does waste no time in throwing Tai under the bus. That’s fine, it’s his prerogative, and he doesn’t do it in a malicious way. Nor does his plea fall on deaf ears. Michele is certainly receptive, once again citing Jason being beatable at Final Tribal as a reason to keep him around. The only thing I don’t get here is that Michele also highlights her willingness to build trust with her alliance by getting rid of her closest ally as a positive here. Um, Michele, what’s the point of building trust with your alliance IF YOU’RE PLANNING TO FLIP ON THEM ANYWAY! Plus, as we see in this episode, Michele now has very little leverage within the alliance due to that vote. Not that she could have done much to change it, but let’s be real, it’s only by the grace of Cydney that she’s spared tonight.

Ah, I see it’s time for the traditional “Gross Food Challenge” of the season. We start out with a classic: Giant, live grubs, which… Oh, sorry, Tai just found a random creepy-crawley in camp. Actually, that’s kind of a cool tidbit. Granted, there doesn’t seem to be a gross-food challenge this season (unless they’re saving it for the next episode), but when they do happen, you always hear the phrase “local delicacy” applied to the various food items. However, you never actually SEE said items locally. To have one come and invade the camp adds to the authenticity of the show, and is kind of nice to see. Sadly, this instead seaways into shenanigans with Mark the chicken, as they get him to eat the grub, and he goes berserk. A fun enough scene, but now the “Mark the Chicken” stuff is starting to feel a little forced. Put bluntly, this scene does not mesh well with the episode, and serves no purpose other than slight amusement. It’s like cute cat videos on the internet: Technically they’re harmless and there’s nothing wrong with them, but they can be annoying in large quantities, and there’s probably a better use of your time out there.

Sadly, what we cut to next is not one of them. Lest you think that “Jason is determined.” confessionals were confined to last episode, well, you’d be WRONG on that score! We get another one, and it’s about as generic as they come. Hmm, now what could we possibly add to spice this scene up a little bit? JOE! Of course! Because nothing adds to a reused confessional like the take of a guy who’s screen time tonight equals his total screen time in the first 12 episodes of this season. Joe offers us very little insight into Jason’s situation, beyond telling us that Jason is frustrated and lashing out. A fair enough assessment, but we could already have told you that, thanks Joe. Actually, Jason tries to sell Joe on the “Anti-Tai allegiance” thing, which goes about as well as you’d expect. Apart from Joe not being enough of a player to do anything about his status in the game, Jason really doesn’t sell this one well. For the most part, he’s been good about hiding his anger to the faces of his tribemates (or at least, hiding it better than Scot), but here he lets it leak through in a pretty big way, and that’s not good for him.

Getting on to the actual reward challenge this episode, we find that I should hate it because it’s largely a simple water obstacle course, and a team challenge after the merge. However, I don’t hate it, for one key reason: that maze! Now, mazes on “Survivor” are nothing new. They go all the way back to “Survivor The Australian Outback”. Even tilt mazes are nothing new for “Survivor”, appearing as early as “Survivor Marquesas”. But having one on the water has never really been seen before, and even seeing it as a team challenge is somewhat uncommon. But really, the water’s the big factor here. It’s usually pulleys that move the maze, and that’s all well and good, but this really adds a new teamwork dynamic to the challenge, and makes things more difficult. Now, to be fair, that difficult increase is offset by the decrease of not having holes for the balls to fall through in the maze, which is a change I’m not for. Not that I think the challenge was easy or anything, but having those holes made for come-from-behind victories, or at least near victories. With no real way to LOSE time on that portion of the challenge, it makes the results a lot more predictable, which is never a plus. Still, the awesomeness of a water maze is just too good to resist, so I’ll give this challenge a pass.

What I said about predictability holds true, though, as Jason, Tai, and Michele get an early lead and hold it throughout the challenge. Whoop-de-doo. They get to have themselves another picnic and go see an animal rescue habitat. Again, I refer you to my “cute cat videos” comment to get my opinion on scenes like this. Now, I’m being harsh, in that this one turns out to be more unique, and a bit more touching, but still, it feels a bit like time was spent poorly. Plus, we get Michele trying her best to win the “Amber Brkich Award” from “Survivor The Australian Outback” by uttering the most inane exclamations about her relative enjoyment of the reward.

Ok, ok, perhaps I’m being overly snarky because of my relative lack of enjoyment of this episode, since we DO get some strategy at the reward. Basically, Tai realizes that, due to being something of a challenge threat and a likable person, Michele is more dangerous in the end than Jason, and decides to get her out. Michele, for her part, now says she wants Jason out because… Well, I’m not really sure. Michele, didn’t you WANT to go the end with Jason earlier in this episode? Make up your mind! I get wanting to save your credit with your new alliance, but Jason is the only person left who might give you some POWER in this game. Ah, but don’t worry, this isn’t the ONLY inconsistency we’ll be seeing tonight.

As for Jason? Well, since it’s his death-knell episode, we just get a cute scene of him talking about how his autistic daughter loves animals, and will be so happy to see her dad asking for monkey hugs. And, of course, Michele has to talk about how Jason’s using these stories to wedge his way into people’s hearts. Which he is. But we don’t need it spelled out for us, Michele, and you look like kind of a jerk talking bad about a guy being nice for his autistic daughter.

Well, let’s go back to the camp. Both Tai and the previews for this week foreshadowed that the alliance would crumble from within, so lets get to the crumbling! No, instead we get Joe being a bit bossy and controlling over Cydney and Aubry. Ah, these types of scenes are always hard to blog about. On the one hand, you can’t help but sympathize a bit with the guy who seems to be actually trying to survive out there. On the other hand, that’s not really what this game’s all about, and there’s no contesting the fact that Joe is definitely handling these two people the wrong way. But we’ve seen it so many times before, and it just leads to nothing. Granted, this scene plus Joe’s increased screen time could indicate a boot for him, but since he’s never even brought up as a target outside of this scene, I really don’t count it as such.

Oh, and I take delight in the fact that what Joe’s being anal about is firewood. Evidently he should have been cast on “Survivor The Amazon”. Maybe then he could have taken Rob Cesternino’s place as “Junior Deputy Firewood Bitch”.

Off to our immunity challenge, and even though it’s reused, I still like it a lot. It’s the “Balance the platform of cards” challenge from “Survivor Blood vs. Water”, though it has its roots in the card-stacking challenge from “Survivor Gabon”. While technically a reused challenge, it’s a very difficult one, and since we haven’t seen it in a while, I’ll give it a pass. One nice change is that, instead of stacking generic blocks, the players are now trying to spell “Immunity” backwards one block at a time. It’s a small change, but it helps the challenge stand out somewhat. Plus, it’s hilarious to see Joe keep spelling it wrong.

Cydney takes a lot of flak early on for moving incredibly slowly, but a loud “boom” right after this tells us all we need to know, and sure enough, Cydney wins immunity. This means that no one person has had immunity twice this season. Not that it makes much of a difference overall, since rarely has the actual target of an episode had immunity, but it’s still a pretty uncommon occurrence. Only “Survivor Fiji” can boast the same record, and this season is INFINITELY better than that one! You could argue that “Survivor The Amazon” also had the same record at this point on that season (Final Six/Day 32), but Jenna Morass did technically win two immunities, she just gave one of them to Heidi.

In any case, we move on to our crowning moment of hypocrisy for the episode, as Tai, the guy who flipped on his alliance due to not being given a fair say and not discussing things democratically, marches down to the water, and tells everyone to just vote for Michele. No justification, he’s just going for Michele. Ok, so he does tell Aubry later on why he thinks Michele should go, but why couldn’t he do that earlier And besides that, his manner, while not as callous as Scot and Jason’s, is basically the same here. Ugh, I thought we were DONE with hypocrisy for a while in this game.

If you’ll recall, Cydney does not like to be bossed around, even by Tai. She lets Michele in on what’s going on, which for her is not a bad plan. Don’t get me wrong: Tai is correct when he says Michele is a big threat who needs to go at some point. But Michele is also a strong number for Cydney, in a game where strong numbers for her are rapidly dwindling. With Julia gone, Michele has no one to turn to, and pretty much every chat we’ve seen Michele have privately has been with Cydney. Safe to say, the two are pretty close allies at this point, especially since someone needs to counter the Aubry-Joe dynamic. Naturally, since Tai is their biggest threat, and they need to keep Jason around for numbers, their plan is to… Get rid of Jason? Not sure I follow the logic here. Granted, it’s better than one of the two of them going home, and it’d be harder to pitch getting rid of Tai to Joe and/or Aubry, but that still leaves you down 3-2 at the end of the day. Go for the power play!

Ah, but Tai is not the only passenger on the hypocrisy train today! No, there’s Aubry bringing up the caboose. After a fairly civilized talk between Aubry and Cydney about how the vote should go, Aubry breaks down and cries about how hard the game is. This, from the woman who criticized Jason and Scot for “playing emotionally”. How is this any different?

Man, I must really be grumpy tonight, making something out of very little. Yeah, Aubry does have a bit of a breakdown, and it’s kind of pointless, but it’s subdued as breakdowns go, and on Day 32, I think you’re entitled to be a little emotionally stressed. Though, I still must point out, this decision shouldn’t be that stressful to Aubry. Either way it goes out, the results are basically the same. She and Joe will have one person firmly on their side (either Tai or Cydney), giving them an advantage to ride to the end with, and they’ll have at least one enemy on the jury. Either way, Aubry comes out on top. If I had to favor one over the other, I’d say that getting rid of Jason is probably slightly better than getting rid of Michele. While Michele is a bigger jury threat, getting rid of her pisses off two people (Michele and Cydney), while getting rid of Jason only pisses off Tai. Plus, Tai has nowhere to go, even if he is pissed off. He’ll make it through next episode, sure, but he’d do that in either case. You think he’s going to ally himself with Michele and Cydney? The pair have admitted they don’t want him around! Plus, just explain to Tai how you’re voting before Tribal Council, and hope that he understands. It’s that simple. Again, I’m not sure there’s a “Wrong” decision here, but that one is slightly better.

For all the crap I’ve given this episode, I will say that it has a really good Tribal Council, mostly due to Tai repeatedly putting his foot in his mouth. Michele said she was going to air dirty laundry before Tribal Council, but she couldn’t have predicted as great a lead-in as Tai. Man, when he’s in power, he’s COCKY! And no, that’s not a reference to Mark the Chicken. Put away that hashtag! No, Tai talks about how democratic he’s being, which Michele rightly calls out, which leads to an aggressive back-and-forth between them, culminating in Tai telling Michele that he doesn’t consider her part of the alliance, and that she’s “temporary”. And all without one word said about Jason, the guy who should be the main topic on conversation tonight. Give Probst a lot of credit, he OWNED that moment of transferring over to Jason. And that’s why Jeff Probst is awesome. I give him a hard time, but really, the man’s a good guy (albeit with some favoritism issues) who really knows how to host this show. He deserves all of the awards.

Also in favor for this Tribal Council is that I’m not sure who’s going. As I said, this vote isn’t exactly crucial for Aubry, and both Jason and Michele have decent screentime, so I could see this one going both ways. In the end, though, the predictable result happens, and Jason is sent packing. He goes out with a lot of dignity, and deserves respect as such. That said, I can’t say I’m too sorry. While he seemed not as bad as Scot overall, he was an unpleasant figure a lot of the time, and just such a non-entity that his leaving doesn’t impact too much. Hell, due to how tight he and Aubry are, even JOE’S leaving would have had more of an impact on the game.

Perhaps I was a bit harsh on this episode in my intro. There’s nothing OFFENSIVE about it, and there are a lot of cute, enjoyable scenes. But for how exciting, how dynamic this season has been, this felt like a step backward, particularly with all the annoying hypocrisy from at least half the cast. Now, you have to work with what you’re given, but last episode showed that, even in just a standard “Survivor” episode, you can find good nuggets. Let’s hope that THIS trend isn’t a streak.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 11: Island-Ception

Please note: the following introduction is meant to be comedically hyperbolic satire. Because it was either that, or a song parody. Seriously, with Jason repeatedly calling himself an “island”, I’m going to have the lyric “I am a rock/I am an island” running through my head for the foreseeable future.

Presenting: “Survivor UN”! Because “Survivor Cook Islands” wasn’t controversial enough, we’re now giving you CULTURAL stereotypes that divide the tribes! Watch the fat, stupid Americans crumble from within! See the Europeans be snooty and high-maintainence! Gaze in wonder as the Latin Americans illegally cross into other tribe camps and produce many babies! And, of course, watch the Australians kick everybody’s ass, because they’re Australians.

Ok, ok, so this was a hard one to introduce. Give me a break; when you’re titling your blog about islands playing “Survivor”, there’s not much choice but to go for representatives of various nations in the game.

There’s no way for me to dig myself out of this one, is there? Let’s just get to the episode.

So, we get back to camp, and as you’d imagine, Aubry and Tai are overjoyed at their blindside, Tai once again reaffirming how he hated being shut out by Scot and Jason. The pair in particular take much time congratulating each other on a blindside well put-together, and frankly, the adorable factor here is just too much to bear. Let’s get a splash of cold water to bring us back to the game, shall we?

Ah yes, Tai is talking about how he’s now worried about being a threat, given his idol and advantage and his likability. This is a perfect segway to Jason, who’s clearly pissed off, but holding it in fairly well. Granted, it’s pretty clear to everyone watching that he’s incredibly pissed off, but he’s mainly congratulating people on a job well done, and NOT sabotaging the camp as I feared he might. No, he instead takes the smart route of highlighting how big a threat Tai is to everyone in the immediate vicinity. In particular, he highlights this to Cydney, who seems open to the idea of getting out Tai. She admits she’ll swing wherever she needs to to make it to the end, nicely setting up our misdirection for the episode.

The next morning, Tai becomes determined to prove how nice of a guy he is. And to make sure that he has as few bitter jurors as possible. In either case, he goes up to Jason, and tries to explain his reasoning for betraying Scot, pointing to how tight he and Jason were as being too big of a threat. Not a terrible apology, but as Jason says, it’s a bit half-assed. To make matters worse, Tai says that there was the possibility that Scot and Jason weren’t going to snake him at some point. We know they were planning on it, but it makes Tai seem like a paranoid player, which is not a good way to come off. Jason, once again, is able to keep his temper, though he still makes vague threats against Tai’s game, noting that “You can make all the right moves and still lose.” That’s one thing I really like about this season: You can tell what everyone’s really saying, but it’s hidden under a lot of politeness. Teeth-clenched politeness, you might say. It makes most of the interactions really fun to watch.

Also, I should point out one negative point for the alliance of Aubry, Cydney, Joe, and Tai: They tend to exclude the other three, particularly Jason. Not to say that they should bring him in on all their conversations or anything, but they really separate themselves a lot early in the episode, almost lording it over everyone else that they’re in the majority. They do get better later on, and I am exaggerating a fair amount, but still, watch it you guys.

After another “Jason is determined” confessional (which there are so many of tonight that I’m not going to go into detail on any of them, and merely mention their existence), we get to our reward challenge, which I am very unenthused about. Divided into two teams of three, players make their way across an obstacle course collecting rings, which they must then throw onto a hook to win a picnic away from camp. As boring and generic as they come, and yet another team reward challenge post-merge, so you can guess that I’m not happy. Add onto that a random division of teams rather than a schoolyard pick, and you can guess why it is that I’m not happy. I mean, come on, after the drama that ensued by the pick two episodes ago, you just drop it here? LAME!

Our teams come out as Joe and Tai, Julia and Aubry, and Michele and Cydney. If there’s one silver lining to this challenge, it’s that Jason sits out, which is just hilarious icing on the cake. To add insult to injury for the guy, not only is he on the bottom with no seeable way out, but now he doesn’t even get to COMPETE in the reward challenge. Man, that’s really harsh.

While the challenge itself is close, one team is clearly the favorites to win it, given that it’s entirely physical ability. Sure enough, Michele and Cydney are the victors, also earning them the right to take along one other person, including Jason. The “twist”, such as it is, is that they have to agree on who to take. Sadly, this amounts to very little, as the pair quickly agree on Aubry to go, stating that she’s the only person left who hasn’t been on reward yet, which makes sense. Michele, however, admits that there’s an ulterior motive here. While she and Julia are tight, she sees the way the wind is blowing, and wants to become tighter with the dominant alliance. Very good play there, Michele.

We get our usual squealing from Aubry, Cydney, and Michele as we head off to the picnic, though oddly interrupted at one point by an impromptu chicken dance. Ok…

Fortunately, the exclaiming over the reward doesn’t overstay its welcome, and Michele breaches the idea of working with Aubry and Cydney down the line. Both admit that they trust her, since she’s never voted any way other than how she said she would, which is about as good evidence as any. Granted, Michele is probably more strategic than either give her credit for, but that’s because Michele actually has a very subtle game going for her. It’s there, but you really have to be seeing her confessionals to see it. If she’s good at Final Tribal Council, she could steal a stealth victory, depending on who she’s with. Once Michele has left, Aubry and Cydney get to talking, agreeing that they want to work with Michele. This, then, leads into the subject of whether or not tai should be voted out. In yet another instance of agreement, both say they don’t want to go up against Tai in the end. There is a slight difference between them, as they debate when to go for Tai. Cydney seems gung-ho on doing it now, but Aubry wants to be sure it’s the right time. Still, good strategizing for all. Isn’t this just a happy season?

As to which philosophy of when to get out Tai is correct, well, that depends on Michele. Basically, the idea here is to replace Tai in the alliance with Michele, thereby keeping the numbers but getting rid of the bigger threat overall. The trouble is that Michele also has ties with Julia, who has ties with Jason, and flipping now might give them the power they need to run to the finals. So, the question then becomes, is Michele loyal? If she is, then Tai is the perfect target tonight. He’ll never see it coming, and it reduces the unknowns of his idol and advantage in the game. Plus, as I’ve said before, major jury threat. However, if Michele is still loyal to Julia, then it’s best to stick with Tai at least one more vote, to ensure your numbers. Therefore, right now it’s in Aubry and Cydney’s best interests to get rid of Tai this episode. Though, just like last episode, remember the “right now” part, since, again like last episode, it changes.

Unsurprisingly, similar discussions are being had back at camp, between Jason and Julia. After another “Jason is determined.” confessional, he and Julia discuss their battle strategy, coming to the conclusion that Tai needs to be targeted. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot for them to do, since there’s no one there to strategize with. Tai’s the person they want to target, so no sense talking to him, and Joe… Well, do you honestly think Joe has had an independent thought yet in this game? In the meantime, Julia and Jason settle for fantasizing about killing Mark the chicken after Tai leaves. BLASPHEMY! NO ONE DISPRESPECTS MARK THE CHICKEN!

So yeah, nothing happens until Cydney gets back, where they once again pitch getting rid of Tai to her, and Cydney admits she’s considering it, blah, blah, blah, heard it before!

For once, going off to our immunity challenge is not a bad thing! While technically a combination repeat, this challenge is really interesting and sadistic! Each contestant runs out into the water, crosses over an obstacle, and then ends up in front of a giant wooden octagon. On said octagon, there are many animal-number pairs with no rhyme or reason. Memorize as many as you can, and head back. Once back you use five specific animals symbols unique to everyone’s board (and they’re presumably not allowed to look at their board before heading out, adding to the difficulty) to figure out how to turn a large wheel with keys on it. When a key is found, see if it’s right. If so, it will open a chest of puzzle letters, which should ultimately spell “Blindsided”. first person to get the correct word wins. This challenge most resembles the memorization challenge seen at the final six of “Survivor Tocantins”, and memorably won by Stephen Fishbach due to his memorizing all the symbols in one go, though it also contains the “spin the wheel to find the right key” element first seen on “Survivor Exile Island”. This challenge is interesting in that it has both a difficulty increase and a difficulty decrease from the “Survivor Tocantins” version. The obstacle in this challenge is relatively simple, just basically an A-Frame with rungs out in the ocean. Conversely, the “Survivor Tocantins” version had a number of difficult obstacles to get through before getting to the memorization part. On the other hand, the memorization aspect on the “Survivor Tocantins” version was much easier. There were only four distinct symbols, and they could easily be memorized like a phone number (which is how Stephen eventually won it). Here, there’s a lot more to memorize, as well as the fact that, by not needing every symbol for your board, you could more easily take in misinformation and make mistakes. It would be pretty difficult to memorize all of them in one go, making it all the more impressive that not one but TWO separate people manage it! Both Michele and Julia manage it all in one go, with Michele edging out Julia on the word puzzle for the win. Still, I give credit to both of them. If I may flatter myself for a moment, I think I’ve got a pretty amazing memory, and even being fully hydrated and fed, I’m not sure I could have memorized everything in one go. I bow in humble awe, you memorization masters!

Oh, and Joe pretty nearly gets lapped this competition, and gives up after one go-around. Not since Scout Cloud Lee (“Survivor Vanuatu”) have we seen this level of competition.

Naturally, we lead out with another “Jason is determined” confessional since he’s the one who really needed immunity. Michele was never a target this episode, and while her victory was impressive, it doesn’t really impact the outcome of the episode in any manner. After the usual congratulations for Michele, she and everyone who’s not Julia or Jason go off and confer about who to vote out. Unsurprisingly, they quickly realize that, while perhaps a challenge threat, voting out Jason, the guy most of the jury can’t stand, is probably not the smartest idea. Naturally, the target then falls on Julia, who’s admittedly also a fair choice. For the safety of the overall alliance, you want either Julia or Jason gone, and while Jason might be a bigger challenge threat, Julia is probably a bit more wily than he is. Plus, although it’s never stated, I feel like there’s incentive for Aubry and Cydney, as the heads of this alliance, to want Julia gone over Jason. As I said earlier, the main concern right now should be how loyal Michele is to their alliance, since that dictates how tonight ought to be played. What’s testing Michele’s loyalty right now is Julia. With her out, Michele pretty much has no choice but your side. Her closest ally is gone, so who would she team up with? In that vein, it DOES make sense to target Julia over Jason.

And, sure enough, Michele’s loyalties are conflicted. She has no loyalty to Jason, but with the vote switch, she’d much rather get out Tai than Julia. And this becomes the point where it’s best for Cydney to get rid of Julia rather than Tai (it’s also the best move for Aubry, but since she’s not the swing vote tonight, I’ll leave her out of this one). While Michele is undeniably a better ally than Tai, since she’s less of a threat in the end and has not idols/advantages, you need her firmly on your side. This shows that, with Julia still there, Michele is not going to be loyal to Cydney. For the sake of argument, let’s say that Cydney did decide to go for Tai with the other three. True, she probably makes the final four in that scenario, since she, Michele, Julia, and Jason all team up and get rid of Aubry and Joe, especially after how the latter get outed as a tight pair at tonights Tribal Council. But then, with Michele and Julia being tight, and Jason being considered cannon fodder, as well as out for revenge, who do you think goes in that scenario? By sticking with her original alliance, Cydney keeps herself in a power position, making it much more likely she’ll get to the final three. Granted, if there’s a final two this season (which I suspect there will be), Cydney’s screwed either way, but just in case there’s a final three, better to get rid of Julia and ensure Michele’s loyalty.

Not to say that Michele and Julia don’t give Cydney a hell of a sales pitch. This episode really is where the pair of them shine. Heck, it even continues into Tribal Council, with Jason getting in on the action. Pretty much every word out of their mouths is encouraging the alliance to turn on itself and make a move to better themselves. There were two arguments I particularly liked here. First, when asked who she thinks is on the bottom, Julia lists off Michele (understandably so), but also lists off Cydney. Now, we as the audience can tell that this isn’t true, but it’s a subtle, brilliant play to try and get Cydney to move. Imply that she’s on the bottom in a casual way like that, and it seems much more likely to be the truth. The other point was a new argument that came out at Tribal Council, when Jason, after Tai’s repeats his stance on the tightness of Scot and Jason, points out that Aubry and Joe are an even tighter twosome, and therefore just as much of a threat. Actually a pretty good argument. Why didn’t you use that one sooner, Jason.

While this Tribal Council lacks in laughs overall, it’s still a really great one to watch. Seriously, if you want a textbook example of how to fight to the bitter end on “Survivor”, watch what Jason and Julia do. I highlighted their best arguments here, but they went pretty much nonstop, and gave us a lot of good material here. If I had a hat, I would doff it to them.

Once again, this episode does a good job of keeping the mystery of the vote alive. We’ve seen evidence for both Tai and Julia going home, and the implied Tai boot edit has been overstated, while Julia’s is perhaps understated, plus the possibility of Tai playing his idol. All is possibility as we get the one funny bit of Tribal Council, when Aubry writes Julia’s name down and comments that she won’t cross it out this time around. And oh, they milk the mystery for all it’s worth. Tai and Aubry have a conversation about whether Tai should use the idol or not. Aubry thinks he’s safe, but still leaves the agency with him, telling him to follow his gut. Frankly, given the Tribal Council I’ve witnessed, I’d have played it if I were Tai.

It looks like he’s going to, it looks like he’s going to… and he doesn’t! Wow, that takes a lot of guts on Tai’s part!

It’s nice to see people making the smart decisions on “Survivor” for a change. Cydney sticks with the Julia vote, and Michele even shows loyalty by tearfully writing down her ally’s name. Excellent work there, Michele! Yes, Julia goes home, and I can’t say I’m too sorry. As a character, she was pretty bland, and we’d kind of seen all she had in the way of unsubtle strategy. To her credit, though, I think I’ve been a bit hard on her these past few blogs. True, her strategy had all the subtlety of Abi-Maria Gomes (“Survivor Philippines”), but she was always playing, always fighting up until the last possible moment. She did everything she could think to do to stay in the game, and that always deserves praise in my book.

Actually, this all wound up being a pretty good episode, which is saying a lot. For an episode where the majority alliance stuck together and voted out one of the minority, there was a lot to like here. The suspense of who would go was really kept alive well, and despite some repetitive scenes, we got a really good look into the inner workings of individual strategies, and still had a lot of fun. Man, if this is how they do potentially boring episodes, it’s no wonder that the interesting episodes are spectacular. Let us hope that this trend doesn’t die out near the end!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 10: The “Survivor” Holiday Special

Ok, I’m not one to promote “Survivor” conspiracy theories. I won’t go so far as to say that the show is as purely “real” as we’ve been led to believe, but I don’t buy anything about the locations being faked, or the outcome being fixed beyond producer “suggestions”. But I’m putting my foot down here. They knew. THEY KNEW! They had it all figured out, realized this set of challenges would be in a episode that aired April 20th, and made SURE that every challenge involved pots. Well played, “Survivor”.

No, this will not be a blog done in the style of me being “high”. I’ve never been high, nor do I particularly care for this “holiday”. I just can’t resist low-hanging fruit like this. What I DO care about is “Survivor”, so let’s get started!

So we get back to camp, and Joe is rightfully pissed off at being left out, as well as his closest ally Debbie going home, and is therefore thinking about… No, wait, sorry, I was channeling the universe where Joe actually wanted to CONTRIBUTE to the game! No, instead we get Jason, Scot, and Tai gloating over their victory at the previous Tribal Council, which, since they do it by themselves, I really can’t begrudge them that much. What I DO begrudge them, however, is the idea that their “psychological warfare” was their salvation. Guys, the best it did was piss off Debbie, who’s now gone. It was your IDOLS, and the fear thereof, that saved you.

Speaking of idols, Tai takes this time to return Jason’s idol to him, which I’m a bit disappointed about. Not to say that Tai SHOULDN’T have returned that idol to Jason, but in this case, having two idols is very much better than having just one, and unless he asks for it back, you could pull the “There was no need, since it’s the super idol.” gambit.

Oh, and their one disappointment? That it was Debbie, and not Cydney, who went home. Truly, Cydney’s flop on them was a great move! Geez, it really seems to go back and forth whether or not this was a good move for her, doesn’t it? The first week, she was giving up a safe spot. Last week, it seemed like she’d gotten herself in a swing vote position. Now, while she’s still in power, we can see that she’s irredeemably pissed off Scot and Jason, thereby meaning that’s at least two jury votes she’s lost, with the possibility of those two influencing others on the jury. I get that to win “Survivor”, you need to build your resume, but that doesn’t mean that the practice of voting AGAINST the person you don’t like has gone away. It’s still something to consider, and right now, it looks like it may come back for Cydney.

Dawn at Dara, and Tai’s conscience once again rears up. He asks Scot if, now they’ve made it through one Tribal Council they shouldn’t have, if they can ease up on the sabotage. in a surprisingly mature move, Scot agrees, admitting that he doesn’t want to play like Russell Hantz (“Survivor Samoa”). This earns him one iota of respect from me. Scot won’t stop for free, though. Needing a fifth person on his side, he elects to talk to Aubry about wanting her to come with him, couching his tactics as a result of his frustration at providing for the tribe being worth nothing. A very diplomatic play. Aubry returns the diplomacy by being polite back to Scot, but remaining fairly noncommittal. Fortunately, Aubry is a smart cookie, and sees through what’s said on the surface to realize that Scot is effectively engaging in blackmail. Unsurprisingly, this makes Aubry want him and/or Jason gone, but in the short term, all seems well at camp. Certainly there’s no sabotage, so I’d call that a net gain. Some would argue that it would actually be in Aubry’s best interest to KEEP the sabotage going, providing a disincentive to people to join up with them, but I’d argue that, first of all, that damage is already done, and secondly, when the game is more predictable, it’s easier to influence. Eliminating a chaotic element that you yourself are not generating is good in this regard.

On to the reward challenge, which is not interesting in and of itself. It’s the “Balance the Pot on a Log with your Leg” challenge, first seen as a redemption duel on “Survivor Redemption Island”. A decent endurance challenge, but never one of the most exciting. Oh, but THIS time it’s different! Now you have TWO pots stacked instead of ONE! Oh, the humanity! In all seriousness, I’ll admit that this probably does increase the difficulty of the challenge somewhat, but it still doesn’t change the fact that the challenge itself is kind of underwhelming.

Fortunately, what the challenge itself lacks in interest, it gets made up for in the twist with the challenge. Yes, we’ve seen choices of reward on the tribal level before, but, for the first time, we’re getting a reward choice (outside of an auction) in an INDIVIDUAL challenge! What’s more, it’s not a case of “Winner gets their pick.” Oh no, it’s not NEARLY that simple. Before the challenge, every individual picks what they’re playing for (food, letters from home, or an advantage in the game). Then, they compete ONLY to beat the other people who selected the same reward as they did. If I wasn’t being abundantly clear, I LOVE this twist to death. It elevates the game, reveals some Tribal Dynamics, and feels very fitting for “Survivor”. Above all, though, it’s a complex and many-layered twist. Probst himself, in a really good moment tonight, puts it the most clearly, pointing out that in choosing what reward to pick, you have to balance what you need versus what you think other people will want versus who you think you can beat. It’s not an easy decision for anybody, and that’s what’s great.

Well, I say it’s not an easy decision for anybody, but that’s not true. It’s an easy decision for Scot and Jason. Contrary to what they keep insisting on, Scot and Jason are still in trouble, and need to compete for the advantage, so naturally… No, wait, that’s what they’d do if they were SMART! No, instead they opt to compete for the food against Michele. It’s a battle between Julia and Joe for the letter from home, leaving Aubry, Cydney, and Tai to compete for the advantage. Clearly, this shows us who has their head in the game.

Unsurprisingly, since she’s up against Joe, Julia wins her letters from home. The other two are a bit more of a contest, though Michele ends up pulling victory fairly quickly from Scot and Jason. I would say I’m surprised, but history has shown us that endurance challenges tend to favor women, so it’s not too big of a deal. The real war, though, is the fight for the advantage, which unsurprisingly takes the longest. Cydney ends up dropping out first, leading to a sweet duel between Aubry and Tai. Evidently realizing the “Seeing how long I can go” tactic worked for Tai two episodes ago, Aubry tries to utilize it herself. Unfortunately, Buddha favors Tai, and so he summons a gust of wind to undo Aubry, leading Tai to win reward, and for Scot to comment on how good it is for his alliance that that happened, and how they’re now unstoppable.

Goodbye, Scot, we knew too much of ye!

After a bit of well-deserved bragging from Michele about beating the two burly guys, we get to see what Tai’s advantage is. Sadly, unlike the twist at the reward challenge, it’s not innovative and new, but instead the “extra vote” twist won by Dan Foley on “Survivor Worlds Apart”. I feel pretty much the same about it now as I did then: not a terrible idea, but too easy to overcome, so not as exciting. Still, perhaps it’ll actually make a DIFFERENCE this time around.

Oh, and we also get Julia gushing over her letters from home. It’s nice in and of itself, but then she has to use to talk about how badass and tough she is, which, given what we’ve seen, is really not the truth here. Perhaps I’m being harsh here. After all, it’s important to remember that on “Survivor”, everyone is the protagonist of their own story. In Julia’s mind, she really HAS been a major driving force this season. We, as the audience, see something different. As it stands, though, to us it comes across as a little bit flat and forced. The bits that are purely emotional are sweet, though.

Not to say, of course, that Julia doesn’t TRY and earn that badass title she thinks she has. Walking with Michele and Aubry, she admits that she’s worried about idols, and wants them gone. As a result, she comes up with a plan pile all the votes on Tai, figuring that either he’ll go out with an idol in his pocket, or he’ll play it, Cydney will go, and they’ll still be in power. Actually a pretty good plan. It flushes the idol, keeps Julia’s potential flip allies in check, and it has plusses for Michele and Aubry, making them more likely to go along with it. Why would Michele and Aubry be inclined to go for Tai over Jason and Scot? Well, it’s a bit of a stretch, but they don’t know how the super idol works, and they didn’t SEE Tai give Jason back his half, so theoretically he’s the only one they know has an idol, making him an ideal target. Michele buys the whole thing hook, line, and sinker, and even Aubry admits that it’s definitely a good plan on Julia’s part. Aubry isn’t fully on board, though, mostly owing to still being on the Anti-Julia warpath. Watch out Aubry! You’re getting dangerously close to Stephen Fishbach’s “Joe Vote” level of determination from “Survivor Cambodia”!

So, if she’s really Anti-Julia, what’s Aubry to do? Join up with Scot, Jason, and Tai? Of course not! She’d move from a position of much power to a position of no power, and would still have to work with Julia in any case. No, Aubry instead tries to flip the script entirely, by buddying up with Tai. In a smart move, compared to Scot and Jason’s strongarming, Aubry is very low key, philosophizing about the game with Tai, and throwing out the offer that she’s a free agent who’s willing to work with him. What she means is that she wants Tai on her side, but Tai reads it as her volunteering to work with himself, Jason, and Scot. Intrigued, and friendly with Aubry, Tai goes to Jason and Scot, and proposes the idea of Aubry working with them. Scot responds by suggesting they vote Aubry out. What great people skills this pair has!

Actually, like with Julia, this is another area where I can’t actually give these two a hard time. Not to say that the way they phrased things to Tai was a good move, but there was a cut between Tai’s comment and Scot’s response, implying that there might have been other conversation between the two that may have been politer. Unlike, say, Nick’s conversation with Michele in episode 6, which was one clear, solid take of him disrespecting her, this may be a case of manipulative editing. Plus, to be fair, the move makes sense. Targeting Cydney is a pure revenge move, they’ve admitted that. Aubry, however, is emerging more and more as the real brains behind the majority alliance, and, as we’ve seen this episode, a bit of a challenge threat. She’s the smart person to target at this point. Plus, as they’ve noted, they’ve been so vocal about targeting Cydney that the opposition would never see it coming. Good logic, all around! Just maybe don’t be so unilateral about it.

Sure enough, Tai is upset about Scot and Jason not including him in their decisions so much, and debates leaving. While I get that it’s upsetting for Tai, at this point, the smart move is for him to stick with Scot and Jason. He’s pretty much guaranteed a final 3 spot against two guys who don’t look the best in front of a jury, and there’s the benefit of the super idol. Note, however, that I say his best move is to stay with Scot and Jason FOR NOW. That will change.

It’s time for the immunity challenge. They wanted to do the “Hold bars vertically against a plank.” challenge from “Survivor Gabon”, but realizing it wouldn’t fit with the holiday theme, they turned it 90 degrees and made it so that you were holding disks with pots attached to them instead. Not a bad twist, and more original that most of the challenges we’ve been seeing post-merge. Still, I feel like we can do better.

For all the lack of originality, DAMN if this isn’t a fun challenge. Unlike a lot of other endurance challenges we’ve had this season, we get a lot of good reactions and facial expressions this time around. I think there are two stand-outs, though, even amongst this cast. The first is Tai’s look when his left hand starts slipping. His head just SNAPS to the left, as if he’s saying “What are you doing? Stop that!” like some sort of drill sergeant. It’s pretty hilarious. Also, for whatever reason, this is one endurance challenge that Tai doesn’t do well at. Odd. The other great moment has to be when we get down to our final two combatants. Good versus evil. One alliance versus another. Aubry versus Jason. Jason, uncultured as he is, spits. This would be disgusting, but then Aubry decides to return the favor. Not to say that the “disgusting” factor goes away, but it is hilarious to see petit, likable Aubry copy move for move the behavior of a ruffian like Jason.

Sadly, good does not always win on “Survivor”, and despite seeming strong for most of the challenge, Aubry falls, leaving Jason to have his victory. Hearty congratulations are in order for the both of them, though in Aubry’s case they’re tinged with “Oh, sorry, you’re going home!”

With everything seemingly set in place, Julia comes over to inform the guys of the plan to vote for Tai. She encourages them to use the super idol on Tai, thereby transparently showing how what she really wants is the idol gone, but her two new allies still in the game. Ok, I think people have been a little harsh about how un-subtle Julia is, but this is one time where I will agree with the consensus. It’s so clear what Julia’s trying to do here, it’s not even funny. Scot and Jason agree with her plan, and give her assurances that, since they can’t beat Tai in the end, that as long as she complies with them, she’s final three.

And this, my friends, is the moment where it becomes the right move for Tai to flip. Super-idol aside, the main advantage of Tai sticking with Scot and Jason was a guaranteed final three spot, and therefore a likely win. With that option now off the table, even if it’s unlikely that Aubry and Cydney’s alliance will let him near the end either, the odds are still better with them, especially since he’ll have a lot more decision making power there than with Scot and Jason. Granted, having the possibility of a super-idol still makes them a semi-appealing prospect, but between his own idol and his advantage, Tai can probably make it at least a vote or two past when the other alliance would vote for him.

Aubry and Cydney talk it over, and decide Scot and Jason need to be split up. Naturally, this means switching the vote to Scot, since Jason has immunity. Plus, Scot annoys them. The tricky part is getting the votes. Julia can’t be trusted, and right now Michele’s with her, so they’re out. Joe can probably be persuaded to vote for Scot, but that’s still only three. Ergo, Aubry gets to work on Tai, trying to persuade him to vote for Scot. It’s worth noting the stark difference in how Aubry handles Tai to how Scot and Jason handle Tai. Aubry never actually throws a name out, instead simply telling Tai that he can make a move and he has three other people behind him. This gives Tai at least the feeling of agency (given how the vote ultimately goes for Scot, I’m guessing that the pair later came together and agreed on that target), and comes across well socially to him. Compare this to Scot and Jason basically telling him how to vote. It may not be the smart move from Tai’s perspective, since as far as we know he doesn’t know about Julia being promised final three, but it’s easy to see why it’s an appealing prospect for Tai.

Before we leave for Tribal Council, though, let us take a minute to note that, since he’s immune, Jason gives Scot his hidden immunity idol for safekeeping. Remember this. It will be the icing on the cake later.

Even though the editing dictates that Scot will go home, logic dictates that Aubry’s number is up. That’s a large part of why this episode is awesome, and also a large part of why this Tribal Council is awesome! Seriously, this may very well be the best Tribal Council of the season. Everyone is on point with their comments. From Michele talking about how balsy Jason and Scot’s idol move is, to Julia talking about shifting dynamics, to Aubry’s “deranged llama” comment with regards to the immunity challenge, this one was a blast. Oh but don’t think there weren’t good moments of strategy insight either. Aubry, when asked about what she thinks Jason and Scot are doing, says she’s run up against a wall with them, and can’t know what they’re doing. Scot jumps in here, pointing out that they offered her a chance to be in on the plan, and she was noncommittal. Yet another demonstration of the way Scot and Jason play, since Jason then backs him up. they bully and strong-arm people who dare go against them. And it doesn’t sit well with Tai. You can tell by the look on his face during the whole thing.

Ah, but perhaps the most telling comment of the night comes to us courtesy of Jason. Further elaborating on the “Aubry should have gone with us.” tack, he talks about how the momentum of the game has shifted, and you either need to jump on his train or get left behind. Actually, a pretty good metaphor in this case. Narrative and momentum are both important on “Survivor”, and at this point, individual survival is key. You want to win, but at the very least, you want to make it as far as possible. This means going with the flow. However, that flow might lead to someone else’s victory. In this case, Jason is setting up a narrative of “Go with us or perish.”, a narrative that could very easily get him to the end.

So what do you do? You change the narrative. And that’s exactly what Aubry has done tonight. If she hasn’t cemented her place in with the “Survivor” greats by now, this episode should do it. Rather than try to figure out a way around the Jason, Scot, and Tai threesome like everybody else, Aubry decided to flip the script entirely, take a known from their side, and convert him. It’s brilliant, masterful gameplay, and it makes me love Aubry all the more.

And it works! Yes, I haven’t been too subtle about it, but Scot gets voted for by Tai, and then Tai refuses him the super idol. Actually, props to the editing team on that one; they really upped the tension here of whether or not Tai would use his idol for Scot. Incidentally, I’ve been a fair-weather fan of the super idl, but I’d say this episode made it worth it. The drama from that one moment alone was worth the possibility of a super idol getting played at some point. Scot goes home and I am not sorry at all! While he had a few tender moments, Scot was by and large a bully whom I didn’t like watching, and we’d already seen what we needed from his character. Plus, after his treatment of Tai this episode, his eviction felt deserved.

Just to be abundantly clear, this was an EXCELLENT move on all parts. As I said, Tai has more agency with this new alliance, and as Scot and Jason had kicked him out of the finals anyway, most incentives to stay with them are gone. As for Aubry, Cydney, and Joe, they gain another potential ally, save a founding member from elimination, and regain power over the vote. All around, a gain for them, but especially Aubry. And, to top it all off, the hidden immunity idol is now gone! Scot never played it, and had to take it out of the game with him, eliminating another major threat to their alliance. They can’t have planned it that way, but it’s still a plus! It just occurred to me: that means that Jason winning immunity was arguably the BETTER outcome than Aubry winning immunity. Had Aubry won, I doubt Jason would have given his idol to Scot, and unless the vote would have gone for Jason instead, the idol would still be in the game, making things harder for the alliance. So, excellent loss, Aubry!

In case it wasn’t obvious, this was a FANTASTIC episode! Lots of funny character moments, good misdirection, and excellent strategy from all corners! And what better way to end off a fantastic episode than with another…

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5

Yes, I think we’re well past due for another one of these. Tonight’s topic is a bit hard to put into words. The best way I can describe it is as a list of “persuasive arguments”. Rarely is flipping by itself just a case of numbers. There needs to be some passionate reason behind it, like tonight with Aubry convincing Tai to vote out Scot. They’re a staple of “Survivor”, and we’re going to be counting down the best and the worst of them. There are two limitations here. One, to make the “Top 5” the argument has to have actually worked, and actually flipped somebody. Anything goes on “Bottom 5”, but something can only really bet “Top 5” material if it works. Two, only one argument per season. With all that said, let’s get started with…

TOP 5

5. Aubry’s Social Prowess (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”): Yes, let’s get the obvious choice for the list out of the way early. As I said earlier, Aubry’s persuasion of Tai was masterfully done, well deserving of a spot on this list. As I also said, though, it deprives us of any really stand-out quote or moment where she really got to Tai. In terms of gameplay, the perfect move, since what Tai seemed to want was autonomy in the alliance. In terms of viewership, however, the lack of one stand-out moment in this persuasion makes it pale in comparison to the other ones on this list. Still, well executed, and hardly a bad move at all.

4. Yul’s Super-Idol (“Survivor Cook Islands”): Ah, the moment that made “Survivor Cook Islands” what it was. If you remember anything from “Survivor Cook Islands”, except for the racial divide and the mutiny, it’s this moment here. The Aitu 4 were down in numbers come the merge, and things looked pretty bad. Fortunately, Yul Kwon was there to save him with his super-idol, as this was back int he day when ALL hidden immunity idols were super idols. Revealing it to Jonathan Penner, Yul effectively threatened Penner with eviction if he didn’t flip back over to join Aitu. Granted, that move was kind of a gimme which didn’t take much effort on Yul’s part, hence why it’s not higher on the list. What it lacks in effort, though, it makes up for in style. This is where Yul’s reputation as a “Survivor” “Godfather” got cemented, and the fact that it remains in the minds of the fans to this day makes it worthy of this list.

3. “If you could get rid of anyone, who would it be?” (“Survivor Cagayan”): Trish Hegarty is not really remembered amongst the players of “Survivor Cagayan”, and not unfairly so. Not to say that Trish was bad, just that she wasn’t as much of a character, and wasn’t really a strategic driving force overall, hence the focus on other characters. Still, she is not to be ignored entirely, and this one vote is her shining moment. With the new Solana alliance having lost Sarah to the new Appari alliance, it looked pretty bad for them as a whole. Then, however, Trish noticed that Sarah and Kass were not getting along very well. This led to her striking up a conversation with Kass in which she got Kass to admit that she’d like to see Sarah go. From there, Trish made a real 11th-hour play to switch the vote to Sarah, a move that ultimately saved her alliance and changed the course of the game, arguably even making Kass act against her own self-interest. It combines the prowess of Aubry’s move the memorableness of Yul’s move. Excellent work, Trish.

2. “Ace wants the idol.” (“Survivor Gabon”): No, I am NOT getting over my love for “Survivor Gabon”! My “Gaboner”, if you will. Granted, I will concede that the season starts out slow, and the first five or six episodes are nothing to write home about. But that back half, though! It’s got some amazing confessionals and strategy, and it all starts here, with Ken Hoang turning Sugar against her closest ally. With his allies turing on him, and Fang continually losing, Ken was in a bit of a spot here, quickly losing power on his tribe. What’s the solution? Why, turn the closest ally of your enemy, of course! Knowing that Sugar had the idol, Ken planted the thought in her head that Ace would ask her for the idol, since he was plotting against her. This was a bold-faced lie, but it was well-executed, and made all the more believable when Ace actually DID ask Sugar for the idol. Frankly, this move is reminiscent of Gollum’s actions in the movie version of “The Return of the King”, and that’s what makes in hilarious. That, and the mastery of this little guy turning the closest ally of his biggest enemy. Bravo, good sir!

1. “What’s your story?” (“Survivor Philippines”): I commented on it then, so it feels only right that I comment on it now. We once again get Jonathan Penner on the list, though this time in his third outing on the show. Penner, as seems to be the case with him, was down in numbers at the merge, and desperately trying to flip someone to his side. Since they both worked in show business, he opted to target Lisa Welchel. Not a bad idea in general, but it’s Penner’s brand of argument that seals the deal here. Rather than come at her from a numbers or a personality perspective, Penner takes the unique perspective of asking her how she wants the narrative of the game to unfold. Ok, maybe it’s a stretch to say that this mode of talking is UNIQUE to him, but at the time, it was the first of that type of argument that we’d seen, and it was fascinating to watch. A new take on strategy that is memorable and plays with the notions of the game? How could that not be number one?

Honorable Mention: “Jon is just, like, a girll!” (“Survivor Pearl Islands”): By my own rules, I can’t put this one on the list, since it didn’t work out as a flip. However, Sandra’s line here to Darrah about the physical prowess of Jonny Fairplay was too hilarious to not give a mention to. A very unique argument, to say the least!

BOTTOM 5

5. “The guys are sexist.” (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”): A bit of a cheat here, since morally speaking this is a perfectly legitimate reason to flip on one’s alliance. However, this list is largely about strategy, and guys being dicks to you is not enough to merit a flip back, Jaclyn. Granted, it could be argued that this was still a good move regardless, but the reasons behind it seem so lackluster on this season, that I can’t help but think badly of it. But oh, compared to what we’re GOING to be seeing on this list, it’s positively Vulcan!

4. Coach Taunts Sierra (“Survivor Tocantins”): If you want a textbook example of how NOT to persuade people to join your side, look no further than how Benjamin “Coach” Wade handles Sierra. After it was made clear that the old Jalapao were sticking together, Coach began to have second thoughts about going with them to the end. Naturally, this meant getting Sierra, someone he’d pretty much openly despised, on board with him. Sierra, a little bitter, asked that Coach admit how he’d treated her. Coach, rather than smartly aquiess to her demand, instead insisted that he’d done no such thing, and taunted her for it. To no one’s surprise, the old Timbira did not stick together for this vote. Yep, nothing more to say here except that this one was pretty bad.

3. “You take care of her, I’ll take care of you.” (“Survivor All-Stars”): Frankly, I’m still baffled this one worked. Sheer stupidity on the part of Lex Van Den Berghe earns this one a spot on this list. Lex had been working so damn hard to get his alliance at least half the tribe come the merge, and now he had a member of the enemy right in his hand. And he didn’t take the shot! Boston Rob’s supposed “favor” never came to pass, and Lex was rewarded as stupidity deserves. It was memorable, but only because of its ludicrousness.

2. Tyson Votes Himself Out (“Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”): Speaking of stupid moves, lets see a guy flip for literally NO REASON! Russell Hantz got into the head of Tyson Apostol that he could curry favor and power by changing his vote to Parvati, thereby undoing the split vote Boston Rob had planned out. Some creative idol play, and Tyson has effectively voted himself out! The manner in which Russell did it is unmemorable, hence why it doesn’t quite land on the top of this list, but stupidity of this caliber deserves at least some acknowledgement.

1. “12 Worry-Free Days” (“Survivor Exile Island”): I don’t really blame Terry Deitz for this one. Guy was trying to make the best of a bad situation, and didn’t have a whole lot of cards to play. But even considering that, this attempt at getting some of the old Casaya to flip was just a pathetic attempt. I can’t put it any better than Cirie did, so I’’ll just let her speak: “What does he have to offer me?”

Honorable Mention: “Please take this risk.” (“Survivor Vanuatu”): Probably one of the most memorable flips of “Survivor”, but also one of the least exciting in terms of argument. After being given the idea to flip Eliza by Twila and Scout, Chris went to go recruit her. No small feat, since Eliza didn’t like either Twila or Scout, and certainly the move is impressive in terms of results. But I don’t know, there’s just something lame about your signature line being “Please, take this risk.” Just doesn’t stand out as much as some others. What it does speak to is Chris’ social prowess, and for that alone, I can’t put this one on the list proper.

Well, there you have it. Great episode, great list, great blog (I hope)! This season has been excellent so far, and it shows no signs of slowing.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 9: Freberg v. Nale

Ok, editing team, I’ve praised you for a lot this season, and doubtless I’ll praise you in the future, but you’re going off the rails here. It’s not that I DON’T want to see dynamic characters who are neither straight heroes nor villains, but you’re really starting to confuse me here. First, you make out that Jason and Scot are bullies. Then, you have them conquer adversity and find good alliances. THEN, you go out of your way to make us like them with children and mothers, but NOW you go and make them cocky assholes. I’m not saying someone portrayed as an asshole needs to stay that way the entire time, but at least TRY to make it a progression from one to the other, don’t flip-flop back and forth.

But now it’s time for me to flip-flop, specifically back to last episode. Yep, it’s time for another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Actually a very brief one this time. I made mention that this past episode’s reward was particularly harsh since it was delivered to camp, thereby really rubbing it in for everyone else. What I NEGLECTED to mention was that the group actually stayed very civil about the whole thing, and that one of the things that caused Michele’s turn was Jason hollering over to them to live it up a little. It was a nice gesture of them to do, and I’m on Michele’s side on this one. Pretty much as simple as that.

Just when you thought the days of getting straight to the point were gone, we get our sabotage scenes nearly right off the bat. Scot gives a token confessional about being blindsided, but to his credit, he’s actually pretty respectful, calling it a good move on their parts. About the worst thing he says is that the old To Tang alliance is dead, which is fair, and also brings up my point again about why this move was bad for Cydney. While it certainly helps build her a resume for the Final Tribal Council, it also most likely puts two people on the jury who now despise her. Because, as we see now and later in the episode, it’s her that Scot and Jason are particularly pissed at, which is never a good thing on “Survivor”.

The niceness is not to last, though. The pair get together with Tai and agree to sabotage the camp for daring to betray them. Stop getting food, hide the tools, things like that. What? You say that Jason feels that Russell Hantz (“Survivor Samoa”) is the guy who really knew how to play the game? I never would have guessed! Yes, the three are blatantly emulation the Russell Hantz game now, though Tai is admittedly reluctant in this regard. Their justification is that they need to create psychological tension in the alliance, so that cracks will form that they can use to save themselves. Now, in terms of pure logic, this strategy does make sense. Deprivation would cause tempers to rise, which would logically lead to the fracturing of alliances. Unfortunately for Scot, Jason, and Tai, this effect is counteracted by the fact that EVERYONE KNOWS IT’S THEM! The other times this strategy has been pulled off successfully, the perpetrator was able to hide their identity well enough to reap the benefits of tension without the cost of everyone blaming the saboteur. In Russell’s case, he did it so early and secretly that no one could guess that it was him. They had nine other people to blame, since no one was clearly on the outs. On “Survivor Pearl Islands”, Sandra was successfully able to push blame for throwing out fish onto her ally Christa, though admittedly this was more of a happy accident than actual skill on Sandra’s part. Still, the point being, when everyone knows it’s you, it makes you a target. No one likes a saboteur, so in reality, all you’re doing is painting targets on yourselves.

The three put their plan into action next morning, Scot and Jason spiriting away a hatchet and a machete while Joe tends the fire. To prove my point about why this is stupid, everybody correctly blames them for this maneuver, with even DEBBIE (who really goes off the rails this episode) correctly blaming them. They have no evidence to support this, but really, who else would it be? Still, our stalwart castaways are not to be deterred, and come up with a new way of opening coconuts, by throwing them in the fire and then hitting them with a saw. Why they don’t just saw through the coconut without doing the fire is beyond me, but it seems to work nicely. Cydney in particular can’t help commenting on their impressive outside-the-box thinking, and it irritates Scot, who thereby graduates from doing something REALLY stupid to something INCREDIBLY stupid. With the hiding of the things, you could argue that they were at least doing their sabotage at night, when no one could firmly blame the act on them. Now, however, Scot just goes and dumps (presumably fresh) water on the fire, in full view of everybody. Now, not only is there CLEAR evidence of who’s committing the sabotage, but it really doesn’t accomplish much in the way of psychological warfare. Unlike the machete and hatchet, a fire can be restarted, and water can be boiled again. All you do is make people hate you for inconveniencing them. Not even an arguable negative for this one. Following this, Scot and Jason talk about how they need to escalate their sabotage, which REALLY gets on Tai’s conscience, even asking the pari why they need to do what they do on that scale. Jason argues that they’re going to be voted out anyway, so why not do it? The answer, Jason, is that until your torch is snuffed, there’s not GUARANTEE that will happen. This episode is evidence enough of that. All you do by openly antagonizing them is making it MORE likely that they’ll vote you off, because now you’re a liability. Well done.

Off to the reward challenge, and for a change of pace, we get a COMBINATION of reused challenges instead of a single reused challenge. Divided into two teams of four, the members will have to untangle themselves from four sets of ropes and race back to start. Once unclipped, they must throw sand bags at bamboo chutes, knocking them off a platform. First team with all chutes knocked off wins Chinese food delivered to camp for them. I’m tired of the damn bamboo chute and sandbags thing! It’s been around, at least in wide concept, since “Survivor Philippines”, and while I get that’s it’s probably easy to make and set up, it’s a lame concept that’s never really worked as a “challenge”. The rope untwisting is pretty cool, though. Reminds me of the first part of the second immunity challenge from “Survivor South Pacific”.

In his pre-challenge banter, Probst brings out the division in the tribe, as evidenced by last Tribal Council, and it comes out that it’s Scot, Jason, and Tai versus the girls (and Joe). With that in mind, Probst offers them the opportunity to forgo the usual schoolyard-pick, and offers to let them divide themselves into even teams naturally. One person has to sit out, and Joe immediately volunteers. Fortunately, “Survivor Nicaragua” rears it’s head, though in a good way this time. After many seasons of being absent, the person left out of the reward challenge now gets to bet on a team to win, and shares in the reward if they bet correctly. I’ve always really liked this twist. It keeps the sit-out involved, albeit in a very tangential way, but it can also reveal where one’s loyalties truly lie. In this case, Joe isn’t an idiot, and sides with the women of his alliance. Good move, Joe.

However, since Scot, Jason, and Tai are only three, someone from the majority alliance has to go with them. After a brief pause, Julia volunteers as tribute. Unlike “The Hunger Games”, however, this doesn’t make her a little hero. Even though it seemed to me that she left plenty of time before volunteering, she still makes both Cydney and Aubry suspicious of her motives. And, sure enough, we hear from Julia that she volunteered on purpose, wanting to be close to Scot, Jason, and Tai to be a potential swing vote. A pretty good strategy for her in theory, but the problem is, everyone knows it. This is the sort of thing that needs to be played out subtly, behind everyone’s back. When people KNOW you’re the swing vote, it often makes you a target. More on that in a second.

You would think, with the first part of the challenge, that bulky people like Jason and Scot would be a detriment to their team. Surprisingly, though, their team gets through that portion with a slight lead over the others, and while a valiant effort is made by the other team on the sandbag portion, that foursome win the Chinese food reward. Once again it’s back at camp, but this time it seems a bit farther away. Far away, at least, for the four to talk strategy. Showing no subtlety whatsoever, Julia flat out admits that she’d like to work with the three, and once again opines that she’s the swing vote. Ok, she is in a private conversation with people she wants to gain trust with, but with how much people are saying that she’s untrustworthy as a swing vote, it feels like she’s doing it wrong. She DOES make a major error I can point to in a bit, but for now, she’s playing ok, but for the fact that everyone knows what she’s doing. It’s basically another Kelly Goldsmith (“Survivor Africa”) type situation. Julia clearly knows what she’s supposed to do, and doesn’t seem to be doing anything suspicious, but since people ARE so suspicious of her, it implies that she must be doing something wrong, even if I can’t pinpoint to exactly what it is.

As a side note, while I gave a hard time for the flip-flopping edits of Scot and Jason, Julia’s edit, such as it is, is an offender as well in this regard. We pretty much hear NOTHING from her until the swap. Then she gets a bit of screen time during episode six when it seems like she might be going, and she comes across as a pretty smart, determined young lady. Then she disappears again, and now we’re supposed to buy that she’s a naive flipper. Once again, editors, MAKE UP YOUR MINDS!

Sure enough, a meeting of the minds between Cydney and Aubry comes to the conclusion that Julia needs to be blindsided, preferably now. While I can see the logic, since she’s not being loyal, I can’t really get behind this move. Even if you can’t count Julia as a number, what’s important is that one of the four reward winners leaves. If you go with Julia rather than Scot, Tai, or Jason, you risk fracturing your alliance beyond repair. At this point, Scot, Jason, and Tai can be counted a solid threesome, and you’ve only had one vote to earn trust. A fracture now could be disastrous later on. Plus, you’ve got a super idol to flush. Stuck to their plan, though, Aubry approaches Debbie about said plan. Debbie, however, is too pissed about the sabotage, and thinks the vote ought to be split. Debbie, what happened? You seemed to have good strategic moments there, but now you’re stongarming people, not listening to sense, and just being rude and unstrategic! Bring back the old Debbie!

Oh, but Aubry, don’t think you’re getting off scott-free (or would that be Scot-free?) in this exchange either! While I do like you, and I sympathize with Debbie being unreasonable, accusing Debbie of “playing emotionally” is a bit hypocritical. Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t you want PETER gone at your first Tribal Council, because he annoyed you more than Liz? What do you call that?

To cement that he’s in with the threesome, Tai overcomes his conscience and pours some water on the fire during the night. It doesn’t cause much of a reaction from anyone, but since Tai was smart enough to wait until everyone was ASLEEP to do it, so it doesn’t reflect negatively on him, and I can’t complain too much. Our challenge, though, is another matter. A relic of “Survivor Gabon”, this challenge has people stacking blocks one at a time along a board, while having to avoid trip pipes that can knock over said blocks. First person to get their blocks to all knock over to the end wins immunity. Now, this is definitely a trick and exciting challenge that’s not TOO overused, so why am I upset? Because every time they do this challenge, they make it easier and easier. In its initial iteration, the trip ups were a net of ropes at odd angles, not a grid you had to step over. On top of that, the board you had to place the blocks on was hilly, not flat, and the blocks had odd-shaped bottoms, making it a puzzle to figure out where they went. Now? It’s basically a game of dominoes with a precision component thrown in. LAME!

At the very least, this challenge gives us a lot of good back and forth, plus a great tracking shot following the ultimate winner’s stack of blocks all the way to the end. Incidentally, Julia wins. Aubry is upset, to say the least.

To make matters worse, when everyone gets back to camp, the women’s alliance (and Joe) convene to decide how to do the votes, since Julia’s immune. Debbie, coming to the conclusion that the sabotage on Jason’s end means he’s trying to attract votes, suggests they split between Scot and Tai, as a move they’ll never see coming. Not a bad plan, all things considered. It even counters the super idol, since it could only make either Scot or Tai immune, leaving it up to the one of them who didn’t get it. However, Debbie spills the beans RIGHT IN FRONT OF JULIA! Understandable, since Debbie’s been the steadfast defender of Julia in the alliance, but bad because Julia’s playing both sides. Accordingly, Julia spills the beans to Scot and Jason, no questions asked. And, here’s where the criticism of Julia comes in. While it’s one thing to play the swing vote, giving up vital information so easily, especially when you’re not sure if anyone else would come with you, is risky. Julia needed to firm up things with her other potential flipper before making this move. True, as Scot says, the split vote means only Julia need flip for this vote, but even then, it’s still a 4-4 tie after tonight, and with the super idol gone, that’s no the best of situations. It’s one thing to play the swing vote, it’s another to do it badly.

With the old To Tang going for Cydney (told you she made herself a target), it looks to be a question of whether or not Julia will flip, meaning either Scot or Cydney is probably going. It seems, however, that the urge to make a move has bitten Aubry. Debbie’s lack of logic is getting to her, so she and Cydney concoct a plan to blindside Debbie. Oddly this is a better move for Cydney, but a horrible move for everyone else. Once again, like with Julia, it fractures an already fragile alliance, and in the case of Aubry and Joe, it loses them a valuable ally which basically guaranteed them final three. It’s good for Cydney because it puts her in the middle of two twosomes come final five, and because she’s a target tonight, so staying the course is not good. Apart form that, though, bad idea.

This might not be happening, though. Aubry is confident that Joe will be on her side, but she forgets that Joe’s goal this season is evidently to not be involved in any strategy whatsoever. He point blank refuses to vote for Debbie. Undeterred, Cydney goes to Julia, the defector, and tries to get her on board with the plan, a further risky maneuver. At least Julia doesn’t go off and tell Scot and Jason about this one, though.

At first, Tribal Council seems like a tense, but relatively cut-and-paste affair. But then, downfield, I do believe we have the Malcolm Freberg-Maneuver! Yes, yes, there are the idols out in the open. Ah, for those who don’t know, the Malcolm Freberg-Maneuver was invented on “Survivor Caramoan”. It works on the logic that, since hidden immunity idols theoretically save you only one vote, it is better to reveal that you have them at Tribal Council, throwing everyone else into chaos, and potentially taking votes off of you without playing said idols. While we’ve seen this done before, this does bring an air of uncertainty to Tribal Council, as well as a lot of whispering in ears. While a bit theatrical, the move is largely played well, except for one bit. With only two immunity idols to split between the three of them, and no individual immunity, Jason and Scot say they’ll do rock-paper-scissors to see who gets the idol. This should be the clue to everyone else that they aren’t actually planning to play said idols. No one would be THAT stupid to decide who gets an idol that way. Still, now it’s all the more reason not to blindside Debbie. The only counter to the Malcolm Freberg-Maneuver is to go with the “Keith Nale Defense” developed on “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, and “Stick to the Plan.” This forces the idols to be played, removing their threat. Worst case scenario, you lose a member, and the idols are out of the game.

If I’ll give the editors credit for anything this episode, they DO do a good job of faking us out with regards to Scot and Jason. They actually do play for the idol, and for one moment, you think they may in fact be that stupid. But no, they give it to Tai as a super idol, to be played for any of them. Well guys, now’s your chance to flush it.

Sadly, as I’ve implied, the Malcolm Freberg-Maneuver is not performed. Debbie ends up going home, and Tai ends up with the super idol. Whether or not he’ll give it back remains to be seen, but that’s for next episode. For now, we mourn Debbie. I can’t say she didn’t EARN her exit. For all that I gave Aubry a hard time this episode for her dismissal of Debbie, and for all that I think it was ultimately the wrong move, I will concede that I understand the thinking. Debbie was being illogical, alienating people, and becoming more trouble than she was worth. She wasn’t playing well, and for that she deserves to go. For all that, I like Debbie, and am sad we don’t get more of her. She was crazy, in a Coach Wade (“Survivor Tocantins”) sort of way, but she didn’t have his hypocrisy, and played better overall. Debbie will be missed, and I look forward to seeing her on the jury/on future seasons.

One thing the move DOES do, though, is make me think better of Cydney’s flip last episode. It’s clear now that she’s the real power of this alliance, being the in with both Michele and Julia, and effectively co-calling the shots with Aubry. Much more power than she had in her old alliance. Plus, my main gripe with the move was that she went from a guaranteed final three to begin fourth at best against the old Chan Loh. With Debbie gone, she’s got more even odds in that alliance, and is therefore much more likely to make it to the final three, possibly against people she can beat. Perhaps this will work out for her after all.

While I am a bit annoyed that we had so much time on the Julia subplot when it amounted to nothing, this was still a pretty good episode. The misdirection wasn’t as good as it has been, but it was still good enough, and while the plotline of this episode was clearly broadcast from the get-go, it was still a roller-coaster ride of entertainment that I thoroughly enjoyed! I don’t want to get off, so you can be sure I’m looking forward to next week!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 8: HUBRIS!

In the spirit of this episode, I’m going to be skipping over any fancy, clever introductory paragraphs. I’m even going to be skipping over my usual banal, humorless introductory paragraphs, and instead get straight to the action. We pick up… right where we left off. No, literally, we see the boat with Neal on it going off into the sunset, and everyone reacts to the dramatic turn of events. Everyone, particularly the old Chan Loh, are all a bit cut up about it, so Scot tries to brighten everyone’s mood with a pretty spot on impression of the “Previous On..” narration we get at the top of each episode. Damn, the man’s actually pretty funny. Still, at this point with one ally gone and most everyone else defecting to the old To Tang, we need to pile on the “royally screwed” confessionals from the old Chan Loh. Joe, surprisingly, is the first one to speak up, acknowledging that they’re on the outs, and that he’ll do what he needs to to stay as long as possible. That doesn’t seem likely, though, as not long after, our solid seven talk about how this changes things. Jason sums it up nicely, saying that Neal is who they mainly wanted out anyway, and he probably took his idol with him. Just to be safe, though, they’re going to split the votes, the four old Gondol going for Debbie, the three old To Tang going for Aubry. Bog-standard at this point, but still good strategy. If sticking together is a good idea (which it is for all the old To Tang), then you want to quash any intelligent dissenters. Joe is pretty obviously not the mover and shaker of the alliance, and is unlikely to win immunities due to his age, so Debbie and Aubry are the clearer choices, and given that Debbie is the one causing more ruckus than anyone else (plus the fact that, as we’ll see, Aubry has friends on the inside of the alliance), she’s the better choice to leave at this point. While Aubry was going to be the safety target last episode, never forget that she was chosen because she WAS an unlikely choice, and thus less likely to win immunity. If you’ve got a majority to the extent that this alliance does, and are afraid of an idol play, you may as well use that to your advantage. Some might argue, given what happens later on, that the flip risk is too great, but that argument doesn’t hold up even in this particular instance. If you look at the total number of votes tonight, the result would have been the same regardless of a split vote or not. So yeah, I stand behind my assertion there. Rounding off our opening is an actual instance of people on this show doing a spot check. Crazy, I know! Nick spots Aubry coming up the beach, and talk of the alliance is immediately quelled. Still, Aubry is not a moron, and realizes what’s going on. She too piles on the “royally screwed”, using the cliched metaphor comparing “Survivor” to High School. Somewhat unusually, though, she takes it a step further, noting that in the long term, it’s the “nerds” on the edge who have a better success rate. This leads into her noting that eventually the alliance will crack, and she hopes to find an opening. Pretty standard determination quote, but nice to hear nonetheless.

This, my friends, is how you open an episode. True, as I said, a lot of the confessionals are bog-standard, but it quickly and in some cases humorously gives us everything we need to know, and gets us excited to see where the episode goes. Nothing feels unlikeable or unnecessary, but neither does any confessional feel overused. We get a bit of humor to offset the darkness of last episode, and we get our setup for the two competing storylines this episode. Nice and quick, but still entertaining.

As if all that wasn’t enough, we kick off the next day with the humanizing of our contestants. Specifically, Jason gets to talking about his daughters, starting out pretty soft with anecdotes about how one will put makeup on him when he’s sleeping, before segwaying into a serious discussion about autism, due to one of his daughters being autistic. Since this is bullying, relatively cutthroat Jason, you’d think that he’s doing this at least in part to gain him jury votes in the end, and it very well may be that it’s part of it. If it is, though, he hides it well. If he were using the story of his daughter, at least on some level, to manipulate, that he’d tell us all about it in confessional. Instead, he uses that time to open up to the audience about his home life, and to raise awareness about an important issue. Very classy, good sir. It’s also a good reminder that no matter how despicable a person, no matter how awful they may seen on screen, pretty much everyone has some redeeming quality. It may be incredibly difficult to find (Russell Hantz of “Survivor Samoa”, I’m looking at you!), but it is, presumably, there. Not that Jason is on a deep level of horribleness, by any stretch, he’s just a good case study of such phenomena. Even if you find Jason to be a horrible bully, you have to at least like him a little bit for this scene.

Humanizing comes at a price, though. The balancing act of “Survivor” is making yourself likable enough to win, but not so likable that you become a threat. Case in point, while Cydney acknowledges the warm fuzzies that scene produces, she also admits that it makes Jason harder to beat, and that she’ll need to watch out for him down the line. That’s about the best reaction one can have to a scene like that. Noting the niceness of such a scene makes you a decent human being. Unfortunately, decent human beings do not win “Survivor”, so you also need to acknowledge that you need to put said feelings aside for the game. Being able to do so doesn’t make you a bad human being, it just means you’re able to adapt to the situation. In many ways, that’s what “Survivor” is all about.

But enough heartwarming, we’re off to our reward challenge, which is, of course, both a team one and a rehash. This is the “Transport people across the water on small platforms and then all get up on a tower” challenge, last seen in some form on “Survivor Caramoan”. If you’re going to reuse challenges, this one is not a bad one to do, since it’s fairly exciting, difficult, and can lead to some good strategy. That said, no one seemed to think to just use one pole and carry it across this time, when it probably would have been easier for everyone involved. Don’t know if it was banned offscreen, or just that these people didn’t think of it, but shame either way. Plus, it’s a team challenge, which with rare exception, SHOULD NOT BE DONE AFTER THE MERGE! I don’t know how many times I have to say this, but there’s little point to merging from a challenge perspective if you’re just going to keep on with the same sort of challenges!

Julia and Aubry are chosen as captains, meaning they get to pick our teams for this challenge. Our yellow team ends up consisting of Julia, Debbie, Scot, Nick, and Tai, while our blue team consists of Aubry, Michele, Cydney, Jason, and Joe. Right away, you can see that yellow’s probably going to win this thing. For all that Probst tries to tell us it’s just different strategies coming into play, Aubry made some poor choices here. You want strong people carrying the poles, but those people tend to be big. Therefore, you also want them to be on the taller side, since then the widest part of them (the shoulders) are above everybody else, helping everyone stay on the tower. Thus, Nick and Scot are going to be more valuable than Jason and Cydney. Sure enough, despite repeatedly switching out players as to who’s crossing the balance beams, yellow wins in a landslide. Aubry is pretty upset about this, blaming herself for the loss and feeling pretty hopeless with regards to her situation. An understandable reaction, but Aubry needs to pull herself together. Since she kept the tears for confessional, and she did eventually come back from this, no harm done, but something to watch.

Rubbing salt in the woulds of the losers, the reward for this challenge was ice cream. Or rather, ice cream delivered to the Dara camp. Usually, on rewards, one at least doesn’t have to WATCH everyone else enjoying themselves, as well as get a chance to strategize while others are away. Those upside are not here for this particular reward. Very cruel, but very delicious, in a schadenfreude sort of way. Oh, and since I mentioned the tribe’s name, it’s since come out that the name “Dara” was Joe’s idea, as it’s apparently the K’hmer word for “star”. That makes it slightly better than it was, but it’s just not as impressive as “Orkun”, and if you don’t want your audience confused by a name, put it on the show, CBS!

Just in case we didn’t get enough heartwarming from Jason talking about his daughters, it’s time to start humanizing Scot as well. He gets to talking about his family bonds, and what he had to give up to play in the NBA. Not quite as heartwarming as Jason’s stories, but it does the job well, and Jason was a tough acto to follow. Julia in particular is smitten with Scot, calling him “Someone she can work with” down the road. Um, Julia, while that totally makes you a decent human being, you need to take a leaf out of Cydney’s book. The correct response here is to admit that the story is nice, but acknowledge the threat it poses later on. No wonder you’ve largely been ignored this game.

Back from our break, Cydney, Julia, Michele, and tai all go off in a boat for some fish, Cydney having fashioned herself a pretty effective if somewhat silly-looking hat from the top of a jar. Remembering once again to do a spot check, after figuring out that a nearby Joe can’t hear their conversation without hearing aids, Jason, Scot, and Nick once again reaffirm their plan of splitting the vote. However, Jason acknowledges that the women might talk of an alliance against the men, which both Scot and Nick outwardly agree to. Privately, though, Nick admits that he thinks there’s no real chance of the women coming together. If you don’t see this confessional as setting Nick up as a proverbial bowling pin to be knocked down, then clearly you haven’t watched enough of this show. Still, Nick is not a moron in this instance, and takes his time to interrogate Julia about the possibility of a women’s alliance just to be safe. Well, I say “interrogate”, but in reality he basically asks Julia “Is there talk of a women’s alliance?” She says “No.”, and we move on with our lives.

Or, rather, we would, but it seems Nick failed to do a third spot check. Sydney was close enough, if not to hear what they were saying, than to at least guess, and it rubs her the wrong way. She sees this as her allies Jason and Scot not having faith, and she seems to get disproportionately mad at this. Not that she blows her top or anything. Indeed, apart from a raised voice a couple of times, Cydney actually keeps relatively cool. The trouble is that this really is nothing. Julia is only a loose ally at this point; you need to keep her in check. The alliance didn’t feel the need to check on Cydney, and that should be good enough, since at this point she’s well placed to make top three. Granted, the threesome were behaving a bit arrogantly, but that alone is no reason to break ties with them. Had Cydney said “I can’t beat them, time to stir up some trouble.”, I’d understand her reaction a bit more. As it stands, though, I think her ire was misplaced.

In a nice move, Jason suggests taking a walk to the well with Cydney, and uses this time to calm her down away from camp. Sydney’s still a little riled up, but Jason’s move works, and is very much the right thing to do here. The last thing you need is allies going off the handle, particularly in front of the outsiders, so you want to make those discussions private. Plus, by playing the “Yes, I understand.” method of apologizing to Cydney, Jason handles the whole thing incredibly well. Kudos.

So, we head off to our immunity challenge. You going to make THAT ONE a team challenge as well? No? Well, you at least made it a rehash, I see. It’s from “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, and involves people standing on a perch with their arms behind their head, last one standing wins. Like with the ball immunity challenge last episode, it’s certainly a difficult one, but very uninteresting to watch. This one is dragged down further due to the fact that we’ve seen it on pretty much EVERY SINGLE SEASON since it was first introduced. “Survivor Worlds Apart” may have been skipped, but that’s it! Fortunately, things are brought back up to level by the usual “Food Offer.” from Probst. This time, though, there’s a twist. Instead of a bunch of little food rewards, there will only be one BIG food reward, so everyone who feels safe has to drop immediately. I both like, and don’t like this twist. On the bad side, I feel like it gets all the excitement out in one go, and gives us less tantalizing Probst food description, which is often a highlight of such challenges. On the good side, it is changing things up, and does make such drops rely more on confidence than on tiredness. Ultimately, a pretty good idea, but I wouldn’t want to see it become the new norm for such challenges.

After a funny moment where Julia drops mere SECONDS before the food comes out, we find out who’s confident. Jason, Scot, Joe, and Michele all drop for food. Jason and Scot are no surprise. They’re in the majority, and given their size, they probably weren’t winning this particular challenge anyway. Joe might seem odd, since he’s potentially on the chopping block, but I also get where he’s coming from. He probably doesn’t want to seem a target, so dropping for food is a good idea, and given that Aubry and Debbie are the targets tonight, it’s probably in his best interest. Truthfully, I find Michele’s drop to be the most perplexing, since of those four, she seemed best placed to win it all, but since she’s also in the majority, I can’t fault her too much. Debbie and Aubry drop out soon afterward, which leads Nick to just step off of his perch. When questioned about it, he admits that the just stood up to avoid one of the old Chan Loh winning immunity, and now that that’s off the table there was no need to keep going, and dude the target on your back cannot get any bigger, stop painting new circles! Seriously, if there was evidence this show’s faked, it’s just how often people set up their own downfall! HUBRIS!

It comes down to a pretty touching showdown between Tai and Cydney. Tai’s been struggling this whole time, while Cydney remains rock-solid. Tai starts praying to Buddha, and it evidently works, since Cydney collapses not long after. It’s a nice little scene, and even though I’m still in the Aubry-camp, it’s nice to see Tai win something.

So we head back to camp, and Jason and Nick talk about how they have the plan locked down, which naturally means they DON’T actually have the plan locked down. And the source of their downfall is, unsurprisingly, Nick’s arrogance. For all that the guy talks about being a “robot on the inside”, and always making the smartest move, he really seems to have a soft spot for Aubry. Not that I blame the guy, but he wants to keep her around, informs Aubry of the split vote, and urges her to vote for Debbie instead. I get what he’s going for here: save a number for himself down the road should things get rocky. However, revealing your plan to the enemy is always risky, and it backfires big time here.

Case in point, Cydney is now tired of Nick’s arrogance, as well as his loose lips. She pulls Aubry and Debbie aside, getting them on board with voting out Nick. We clearly see that Nick’s desire to work with Aubry is not reciprocated, as both she and Debbie immediately agree to the plan. As well they should, since they’re on the outs. Hell, it’s DEBBIE who seems the most cut up about voting out Nick, presumably because having her eye candy on the jury isn’t good enough. Still, she does the sensible thing and go along with it. What is NOT sensible is who is suggesting this. Jumping ahead a bit, this new “women’s alliance” ultimately consists of Debbie, Aubry, Cydney, Julia, Michele, and Joe (evidently grandfathered in somehow). Of these people, the only one for whom it DOESN’T make sense to vote out Nick is Cydney. Debbie, Aubry, and Joe are on the outs, so of course any foothold they can get, they need to take. While it’s a bit hard to gauge the totem pole dynamics of the old merge alliance, given how tight Tai was with the old To Tang, as well as To Tang being fire-forged allies, those four were probably going to the end, meaning Michele and Julia were likely on the bottom of the alliance. Barring an old Gondol coalition, they didn’t really have any power, and now that Jason and Scot are making themselves look nicer, one of the main incentives to stick with that alliance (that they’d be easier to beat) is now gone. Cydney, however, had a pretty much guaranteed finale spot, and loses that and becomes a flipper by targeting Nick. Point being, there’s very little upside to this for Cydney. It shows you, though, how one’s social prowess matters in this game. Nick was so arrogant, so annoying, that people would put themselves in a disadvantageous position just to get him out. Take note, future players.

I’ve already effectively spoiled the outcome, but for the sake of argument, let me admit that the misdirection here was pretty good. Granted, after all of that built up arrogance, there was no way anyone other than Nick was going tonight, but Michele does a good bit of waffling here (Julia waffles by proxy). Michele, while she doesn’t trust Nick, thinks he might be good to hang onto for a while, so we head off to Tribal Council with about as much uncertainty about the vote as you’d expect.

Note for note, this is basically a repeat of the Chan Loh Tribal Council back in episode 3, but that hardly makes it boring. We get a lot of good sound-bytes, the two notable ones being Aubry referring to herself as “John Cochran’s dream girl.”, and Debbie paraphrasing “Star Wars” when voting for Nick. Credit where credit is due, Debbie, Aubry, and Joe play their parts well, acting very down about being outnumbered, but not so much that they’ve given up hope. Just what you’d expect from people in their situation. Following in the footsteps of Peter, though we get some major slip-ups at Tribal Council. Two, actually. The first, as you’d expect, comes from Nick, Jason, and Scot talking about how they’re in control, and that there will be no blindside at all tonight. Look, guys, even if you think you’re in control, telling those out of the loop that they’re being targeted is not a good thing. At best, it engenders ill will towards you, and at worst, it reveals your hand and lets people flip the script on you. Our second mistake, oddly, comes from Tai, who usually carries himself very well at these Tribal Council. Prost gets him talking about the idol, which is fine, but tai then slips up and reveals the “super idol” twist for the season, currently known only to himself, Scot, Jason, and juror Neal. That, Tai, is a pretty big secret you’ve kept from everyone. Revealing it now only makes people mistrust you, and be afraid of your power. Sure enough, Julia and Michele look askance at that bit of information. Tai does his best to backtrack, making up a fairly convincing lie about how that information might have been a lie in and of itself, but the damage is done.

I can’t say that Tai’s lie was a factor in the ultimate flip of Michele and Julia, since that decision could easily have been made Pre-Tribal Council, but it certainly didn’t help matters. As I’ve made no pains to hide, Nick leaves, and I am THRILLED! Sure, we could see it coming, but it’s always nice to watch a well-paid-off switch of alliance. Plus, while Nick did have more strategic moments than I thought he would, he was just so arrogant most of the time that it’s a pretty satisfying exit. Especially with how it was built up. While the bulk of the strategizing happened after the immunity challenge, as you’d expect, the editors did an excellent job sprinkling bits of info to help us see both sides of the decision. Cydney commenting on Jason’s likeability, Julia commenting on Scot’s endearing qualities, Michele talking about not liking Nick. Point being, while subtle, we were being led in this direction from the very beginning, and that makes for a great episode! Predictable, yes, but fun to watch and well-edited. Sometimes, that’s all you need.

Before leaving, though, there’s one other point of chaos that needs to be addressed. The votes ultimately came down six for Nick (hence why splitting the votes made no difference), two for Aubry, courtesy of Scot and Jason, one for Debbie, courtesy of Nick, and a vote for Jason. That Jason vote seemed out of left field to me, and I questioned who it was that cast that particular vote. In the end, it turned out to be Tai, which seemed odd to me. I get that it was a chaotic Tribal Council to a certain degree, and Tai may have sensed the way the wind was blowing, but if you think your alliance is on the bottom, why vote for the guy who can help with the super idol? Seems strange to me. My guess is that Tai jumped ship, but badly. He guessed that Jason would be the target, and rather than end up in the minority, he chose to save himself by trying to get in good with the new dominant alliance. Still, I’m not committed to the idea. Other options include Tai simply being confused (an unlikely scenario, from what we’ve seen of Tai), and Tai being crazy like a fox, and throwing out a mystery vote just to shake things up, and hopefully save himself down the road. None of these makes it the smart move for Tai, but it should make next episode very interesting.

-Matt

Title credit to Jean Storrs.