Idol Speculation: “Survivor 44” Episode 8: Live by the Idol, Die by the Idol

If there’s any episode that should prove to production that it’s the QUALITY of an advantage used, rather than how many there are, it’s this episode.  Skipping ahead to my overall thoughts, this was a snooze-fest of an episode right up until the last five minutes, which had a poetic beauty that elevated it to “Pretty Good, Actually” territory.  One that was caused by advantage playing but simple ones with a good parallel, not a bunch being thrown at our face a la Advantagegeddon of “Survivor Game Changers”.  But before we can start on that journey, we have to do some cleanup on the previous one, as it’s time once again for another…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Pretty simple one this time.  When talking of Yam Yam naming the tribe, I discussed the name he actually gave it, and my thoughts therein.  I failed, however, to discuss his first, mostly sarcastic, attempted naming.  Yam Yam, hilariously, tried to convince the other contestants that “Yam Yam”, as in his name, was Fijian for “Survivor”.  A good, humorous moment, and not just because I once tried to convince a draft pool I was in that “Mattrox” was Fijian for “Triumph”.  

For the record, Google says the Fijian word for “Triumph” is actually “Qaqa”.  

Heidi starts off our episode proper by giving us more insight into why she played her “Control a Vote” advantage the way she did.  As suspected, she didn’t want anyone mad at her for using it, and so “Played the middle” by indicating the outcome she wanted without making moves that would outright change the outcome unless the remaining players were willing.  I can see the logic, Heidi, but must ask: If not offending people was your goal, why play the advantage at all?  Frannie would probably be mad at inaction in saving Matt, I suppose, but that’s one person mad versus at least two I’d feel like you piss off in this scenario: Lauren for effectively having a vote stolen, and Yam Yam, whom you directed her to vote for.  

Then again, Yam Yam seems oddly chill about the whole situation.  For all that this guy has not been the best at dealing with the aftermath of a Tribal Council, I will give Yam Yam credit that he handles this one excellently.  What with him receiving votes, one directed by someone outside the group of five he was with, I’d expect him to be incredibly upset.  Perhaps because he knows how tight the old Ratu were, however, Yam Yam is mostly just thankful to still be around.  When Heidi makes overtures to him about teaming up with the old Soka against old Ratu, Yam Yam and the rest of old Tika seem pretty on-board, and this is the woman who effectively voted for him last episode.  Yam Yam, you’re learning!  Kudos!

Yam Yam even comforts the person TRULY upset by the outcome of last episode, Frannie.  Yes, only now is Frannie realizing the consequences of not “accidentally” losing the previous challenge.  Surprisingly, Frannie’s mood is more due to the emotion of the thing than the loss of a good strategic partner.  True, Frannie’s hardly a game-bot, but she was the less obviously love-struck of our pair, and so I expected her to lean more on the game angle.  If not that, then the relationship angle.  But no, it’s the mirror neurons that are getting Frannie.  She empathizes with Matt so much that seeing him voted out is like getting herself voted out.  You think that’s bad, Frannie, try sharing a name with someone being voted out.  It’s a gut punch, every time.  Most everyone, including her own tribe, isn’t too happy with this attitude, but admit they have bigger fish to fry than Frannie right now.  

Up comes the sun, and with it, up comes Carson’s reward.  Yes, Carson is our over-indulger of the season, later telling us he awoke no less than 8 times the previous night to vomit up his peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  This was played up to be another Joe del Campo moment from “Survivor Kaoh Rong” in the preview, but given Carson’s young age, he’s naturally fine, just not very happy with his body right now.  He calls it “The worst night of his life”, which I would normally dismiss as hyperbole.  However, given how young Carson is, and how much it sucks being sick in a strange place… Yeah, he might not be exaggerating there.  

Tree Mail arrives, with what for our players is a strange note, but for us the audience seems quite familiar.  They’re told to divide themselves into pairs, meaning we’re getting the same twist as last season, only at the final 10 instead of the final 12.  This, retroactively, makes me more ok with the tribe division twist last episode, since we’re getting a normal merge vote now (and presumably a normal one at the final 9, which we haven’t had in a while).  I’d still prefer they just not do the tribe division twist post-merge altogether, but hey, take what I can get.  The good news is that, unlike last season, the group does not just do a random draw to determine teams!  The bad news is that this cast is just so lovey-dovey that absolutely zero drama comes from it!  Even with Carson, whom you’d think would be fought over in some way (either as the top pick if they think they’re going up against one another, or the bottom pick if they think they need him to win), is given fair consideration, with Carolyn ultimately volunteering to pair up with him.  

The other pairs highlighted are the two “older ladies” Jaime and Heidi agreeing to team up, along with Danny and Lauren.  The latter is especially noteworthy, as Danny had been on the warpath against Lauren earlier due to her extra vote.  Lauren acknowledges that Danny might not have wanted her with him, but she definitely wanted to be with him, and I’m sure this is in NO WAY foreshadowing what will come this episode.  

Not only is the twist copied from last season, but the challenge largely is as well.  Apart from only one elimination in leg one (due to the lessened number of players), only the last leg is different, being the “Stand in the frame” challenge first seen on “Survivor Fiji” rather than the “Hod the rope bar” one that Gabler used as an excuse to thank everyone and their mothers.  The first leg is going through that twisted, muddy net, then digging up a pair of planks, while the second is crossing a rope bridge using said planks; top two teams move on to an individual round of four.  If you’re going to bring back a challenge from last season, this is probably the one to do, though again, I would still wish for original challenges.  

Ironically, it is not Carson that costs him and Carolyn this leg, but Carolyn herself.  Partly that’s because she goes first, but she was WAY behind everyone else.  Shock of all shocks, her usual challenge M.O. of “Panicked Enthusiasm” was not very effective against a twisty net that requires a certain amount of finesse.  Though kudos to the show for not making a “Moment” out of everyone coming to help Carson out of the net.  

Round two sees Jaime and Heidi eliminated alongside Yam Yam and Frannie, though a special shout-out is deserved for the team of Brandon and Kane, whom I gave basically zero odds to get through the rope bridge segment.  A lower center of gravity is better for this sort of challenge, meaning tall guys like Kane and Brandon are inherently going to have a harder time.  Yet, frankly, they crushed this leg; good for them.  

Unfortunately for them, as Yul explained on “Survivor Cook Islands” mass goes up faster than surface area, so all the guys are pretty well screwed on this particular final leg.  Sure enough, Lauren’s our winner, though Danny does put up a good fight.  He forces Lauren to have to go all the way to the final, small nub for her feet, which I would not have predicted.  Still, she wins, so that way we have at least some drama this episode.  

I’m sure some people want me to talk about Danny calling for Probst during the challenge only to fart, but…  Look, while I give credit to Danny for timing that so well, and to the editing team for cutting it together perfectly, I just don’t like fart jokes.  A good execution does not make up for crude humor.  To each their own, but I thought Kane’s sarcastic “Thanks for getting us all muddy first” line was funnier, personally.  

Targets may need to be switched, but don’t think that Ratu isn’t still on the outs.  Brandon tries to target the down Frannie, and is even confident enough to suggest as much to Soka, but Danny is still on the “Hurt Ratu” train.  A strategy I can’t fault, given that Ratu technically has the most remaining members of any original tribe at this point.  What I CAN fault is the choice of target.  Lauren’s immune, obviously, and given how Jaime vibes with the old Soka (plus has what everyone believes is a real idol), I can see not going for her.  But in the great debate of Brandon vs. Kane, Danny targets… Brandon.  Now, don’t misunderstand, I can see the logic.  Brandon, on paper, is the better challenge competitor, and has even proven able to win challenges outside his natural skill-set, such as in last episode.  But Brandon is also just plain BAD at the strategy game, literally giving his enemy information he doesn’t need to.  That’s the sort of person you want to keep in the game.  The move is doubly-baffling for Danny, who has literally talked about wanting Brandon around as a meat shield.  A perfectly good strategy, thrown out for reasons still unclear.  

Just to be safe, however, Danny wants to play his idol.  Guess it was burning a hole in his pocket.  He tells Heidi this, for reasons still unclear.  I get not wanting to blindside your tribe, but I doubt they’re going to be too pissed at a selfless play like that, and telling people about your idol has the devastating potential of making you a target, hint hint.  

Danny may have reason to fear, however, as while the old Tika does fear Ratu, they fear making enemies even more.  With Frannie now kind of on the outs after Matt’s exit, they discuss just going with the flow to keep their (admittedly valuable) swing position.  Decent enough misdirection, but I’m not buying it.  There’s been too much talk about Ratu being a threat for them not to go that way.  Besides, even if Ratu is pissed at you, unless they’re willing to team up with Soka, they have little choice BUT to work with you moving forward.  Keeping things relatively even keeps your swing position more secure.  

Hearing this, however, Heidi decides to comfort them by… Telling them about Danny’s idol plan.  Again, I can see what she’s going for here: Make them think voting Frannie is not safe.  The flaw in that plan is that it now makes Danny look like a VERY tempting target, and sure enough, they discuss getting Ratu to pull such a move.  Carson does at least inform Danny of the possibility, leading Danny to be mad at Heidi.  Don’t misunderstand, the move from her was not great, and she IS objectively the one that let slip the information.  Danny, I’m afraid I’ll have to disagree on the ultimately blame here, though.  Much as Heidi had little reason to tell about you idol, YOU had little reason to tell HER about your idol.  Ultimately, in my view, this comes back on you.  If you were worried about this happening, best not to talk about the idol in the first place.  

All this does lead Danny to suggest he might play his idol on himself to be safe, misdirection I might actually believe in this case.  Good thing we have SOME mystery here, since this Tribal Council is a snooze fest, largely due to everyone just getting along so well.  With no arguments, and pretty typical strategy, it’s analogy city up in here.  I’ve never been one to subscribe to the “Nice people can’t have compelling conflict” idea that some of the fanbase has, but this season in general, and this episode in particular, is starting to make me see their point.  I like this case, but apart from a bit of humor and general niceness, they’re giving us NOTHING!  The moments just go by as a blur, not standing out in any way, and for a season I’m enjoying overall, that’s just depressing.  

This changes, however, when Danny plays his idol.  Correctly reading the room, he plays it for Frannie, as promised.  Good thing, too, since she actually had the majority of the votes.  The old Tika split their votes, two going to Frannie, one to Brandon, which is presumably how they keep everyone happy, as was their stated goal.  Thus, in a bit of poetic justice, Brandon, who avoided being first voted out by an idol play, now goes out himself due to an idol play.  I am not sorry.  Brandon was not a BAD guy, but he was not good at the game, and never showed us enough layers to be interesting.  

Like I said at the top, the ending of this episode makes all the difference.  It wouldn’t have been “Bad”, just boring, before that idol play.  But the poetry of how it went down really elevates it.  The narrative was simple, but as a result easy to understand.  Things were, perhaps, a mite predictable, but where it went had good thematic parallels to the season.  Parallels that could have easily been missed if they had a dozen different advantages all vying to be played.  Take note, show: When it comes to idols and advantages, less is more.  

-Matt 

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

“Survivor” What-Ifs?: Kaoh Rong

Once again, if CBS will not fill the void in our fandom when this goes up by officially announcing the cast of the new season, then it falls to me to fill the void with needless speculation about “What Might Have Been”.  And oh, what a treat we have today.  “Survivor Kaoh Rong” is a personal favorite season of mine, largely due to giving us Aubry Bracco, my all-time favorite player at the time of this writing.  I acknowledge that the season has some flaws, mainly in the editing department, and this keeps if out of the “Great” category of seasons, but I still love it.  Definite room for improvement, though, so let’s see if one tiny change is enough.  

Before discussing said change, though, the usual reminder that there are SPOILERS ahead.  It’s difficult to talk about changing a season without comparing it to how the season actually went down in reality, so I can’t guarantee that this and future seasons won’t be spoiled in this blog.  Past seasons may also be mentioned as well.  Hence, read at your own risk.  

THE IMPACT

Like with Africa, which we talked about earlier this off-season, Kaoh Rong is something of a Holy Grail for “What-If?” scenarios.  Between the medical evacuations and the number of lucky coincidences that happen, there’s just a trove to go through.  Most of these center around Aubry in particular, since while you may say what you want about her in hindsight, she is presented as the main character of this season, so of course most story beats will seem to center around her.  In particular, it’s common for the Michele fans/Aubry detractors to point out that she was saved by luck (had Neal not been medevaced, she almost certainly goes at the merge), while the Aubry fans/Michele detractors will counter that Aubry was also screwed by luck (if Joe doesn’t eat a ton of meat at the final five, Michele almost certainly goes then, leading to an inevitable Aubry victory).  The point I’m making here is twofold: Luck is a factor in “Survivor”, for good or for ill, and these scenarios have been gone over to death by the fanbase, are both equally true, and thus not interesting enough to talk about in this blog on their own.  

Now that I’ve hopefully dodged THAT bullet, and also hopefully avoided reigniting a dead debate that was very cruel and unnecessary, we can talk about the actual change we’re going to make.  Rather than change the outcome of luck, we’re going to change someone else’s mind.  That someone is, of course, Aubry, and that time is going to be at the Final 6.  In our timeline, Tai pushed for ejecting Michele here, something Aubry could have gone along with.  She had Joe’s vote on lock, and Jason, the intended target of Michele and Cydney, would doubtless have gone along with the plan if only to save his own skin.  In our timeline, of course, Aubry sides with Michele and Cydney, citing Cydney as someone she’s tight with, and Jason goes home here.  

That said, what if Aubry decided to take more of an interest in Tai’s plan?  What if Aubry became concerned about the tight twosome that Michele and Cydney form?  We know from post-show interviews that the two were tight from the swapped Chan Loh (and thank you, by the way, show, for COMPLETELY leaving out that particular storyline, only adding to the confusion your ending brought).  It’s not impossible that Aubry becomes concerned about this, and decides to go along with Tai’s plan.  The immediate outcome, of course, is that Michele goes while Jason stays, but what about how the rest of the season (all two remaining episodes of it at least) plays out?  

THE FALLOUT

Aubry choosing to keep Jason is, of course, a controversial move.  I suspect Aubry justifies it to the cameras by emphasizing the Cydney/Michele bond, and also stating that Jason is not good at puzzles, or looks that good to the jury.  Even so, I’m sure this is seen by the fanbase as a possible game-ruining move at the time, and Jason probably brags to confessional about how he just saved himself, even though it was really Tai and Aubry’s doing.  Apart from this, though, our penultimate episode doesn’t change much.  Joe probably still wins reward, and while he may take Tai rather than Cydney with him (and even that’s not guaranteed), this does not change him eating too much meat on reward, and getting evacuated as a result.  Really, all that we can guarantee changes is that Aubry looks an even bigger fool going into the finale, noting in confessional that not voting out Jason may have been her biggest mistake, now that he’s guaranteed a spot in the final four.  

Now, there is one possible change that could shape how things go, which is the aforementioned who Joe chooses to take on reward.  Nothing really changes if he takes Cydney, and she and Aubry patch things up on reward.  If Joe is still in the mindset of “No trust with Cydney” from the last vote, though, I could see him taking Tai.  If so, this raises the possibility that Cydney, burned from the last vote, makes amends with Jason.  In the Aubry/Michele debate in our timeline, Cydney often gets left by the wayside, despite being an excellent strategist and key player in the dominant alliance.  True, she wasn’t beating either of our two heroines, given how many bridges she burned, but still, she deserves respect.  I could see her trying to worm her way back in with Jason, especially if she believed that Aubry had fully turned against her, and not just wanted to break up her bond with Michele.  Whether it would work is another matter.  Jason strikes me as the type to hold a grudge, and I’m not sure he’d be open to anything Cydney had to say.  True, you could argue he has few options, but I could see him believing he could just immunity his way to the end from here.  

All this to say that while I acknowledge another possibility is available, I suspect Cydney tries to work her way back in with Aubry, having little choice otherwise.  Fortunately for her, Jason is still considered the bigger target, and is in for a round of bad luck.  I don’t see him winning the final four immunity, given how tricky that puzzle was, meaning Tai is the most likely winner.  Sadly, we do miss out on Michele’s kicking of the puzzle, so that’s one downgrade.  I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Jason, without immunity, goes at final four.  Given that he’s the villain of the season, even in this timeline, there is much rejoicing from the audience.  

Of course, this leads us to the challenge at the final three.  It’s certainly possible that, unless Cydney wins, Aubry goes to the end, so I could see the season following “Survivor Cagayan” even more closely, and going for a final two here.  On the other hand, I don’t think production wants to risk even that, so we probably still have our “Juror Removal” twist and a final three there.  Fittingly, this final three is one “Brain”, one “Brawn”, and one “Beauty”, a fun bit of symmetry.  

Given how close Aubry came in that challenge, coupled with it not playing to Sydney’s strengths, I’d say Aubry is probably the winner of the challenge.  It would be easy to say she just votes Scot off the jury, since that’s what she wanted in our timeline, but in this timeline, I think she goes for Julia.  Also a person guaranteed not to vote for her, but more so than Scot in this timeline.  Scot doesn’t like anybody on this final three.  He doesn’t want to vote for any of them.  Yet, since Aubry burned him the least directly out of those left, I could see her thinking she has a shot at his vote.  And if she doesn’t, well, Julia was never going to vote for her either, so it all evens out anyway.  

Perhaps controversial these days, but I’m inclined to say that Aubry wins in this final three regardless of who she gets rid of.  She has three votes guaranteed on this jury (Neal, Nick, and Joe), and while she definitely has two votes guaranteed against her (Michele and Debbie), I think she has a chance at at least Jason’s vote.  After all, if he and Cydney didn’t mend their relationship, then we know from our timeline that Jason was rooting against Cydney, and Tai directly betrayed him on the Scot boot.  Jason may not care for Aubry, but she’s the least objectionable out of the three.  Add onto that Michele’s excellent Final Tribal performance not being there, and Aubry’s average Final Tribal performance looks a lot better.  It may only be 4-3 (depending on who our final jury member is, and how persuadable they actually are), but Aubry comes out on top here.  

THE LEGACY

Before we get into how this impacts the view of the season as a whole, let’s talk about future seasons, since really, this changes little.  While Jason and Cydney are both bigger, more respected characters, there’s not really a good chance for them to come back.  “Survivor Game Changers” is the only full returnee season since then, and I don’t see them nixing any of the Kaoh Rong players we got in our timeline.  And I don’t see them having more than four from a single season, so that is shot.  Aubry’s win doesn’t preclude her coming back, either, since winners were ok that season.  

That said, her win DOES torpedo her chances, and I’d say Aubry is maybe even first out of this season in this timeline.  One of the reasons I will defend Aubry’s game on Game Changers is that, while she never had any real power, the fact that she even MADE IT that far is impressive.  Game Changers, like “Survivor All-Stars” before it, had an anti-winner bias.  Less because “They already got money”, and more because “They’re the biggest threats.”  This justification led to Aubry being lumped in this group in our timeline, with no less than the Queen herself, Sandra Diaz-Twine, wanting her gone.  After all, the prevailing wisdom at the time was “Aubry should have won.”  Partly by good swap luck, and partly by her own guile, Aubry making it as far as she did, power or no, was nothing short of a miracle, and her game that season deserves respect.  But with an actual win under her belt?  Aubry has no chance of making it far this season.  

Of course, this does preclude her from coming back for Edge of Extinction, so she’ll need a replacement.  This would seem the place to include Cydney, but it’s only in the last year or two that Cydney has said she’s willing to return.  She’s doubtless asked, but I think she declines, for the understandable reason of her body deteriorating from the show not being good for her bodybuilding career.  My next thought for who to put in Aubry’s spot was someone cast after her to match her archetype.  Hannah Shapiro of “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X” and Gabby Pascuzzi of “Survivor David vs. Goliath” would probably be the top candidates in that regard.  However, I ended up deciding that neither would go, as the former has stated she won’t play again, while the latter, having just come from the same filming cycle, would be unfamiliar to the fans that season.  She would basically get the same reaction from the players as Amanda on “Survivor Micronesia”, and I don’t think production wants that again.  

No, I think Aubry’s open spot here gives Chrissy Hoffbeck (“Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers”) her second shot.  While not the “nerd” archetype that Aubry has, Chrissy still gets the “offbeat choice” niche, while still being a favorite who is known to the fans.  Does this change the season drastically?  Eh, probably not.  While Chrissy might make it farther than Aubry does in our timeline, if only by virtue of actually playing an idol if she finds it, the anti-returnee sentiment on this season was too strong, and we still probably get our unsatisfying Chris win here.  The one upside is that there is no “Drive Aubry away from the fanbase by personally attacking her for a bad game decision”, meaning we have a more active online Aubry in this timeline, for which I, for one, am eternally grateful.  Seriously, fanbase, shame on you for how you acted toward her.  Agree or disagree with her, what you did is not ok.  

While Aubry’s win precludes her from appearing on Edge of Extinction, it puts her in the running for Winners at War.  Given that she’s a relatively recent, popular winner at this point, I don’t see her not coming back.  We don’t even have to speculate about who she replaces, since she just takes the spot Michele had in our timeline.  Does Aubry mimic Michele’s placement this season?  Probably not.  While I am an Aubry fan, I will admit that Michele’s game, while not as fun to watch, is overall smarter in terms of making a deep run.  Both play fantastic games that can be winning ones, but run their seasons a hundred times randomized, and Michele’s strategy wins out more often than Aubry’s.  Aubry probably goes either after the swap, depending on if she gets a bad draw, or early-ish in the merge if not.  Probably around where Adam goes in our timeline is her ceiling, just due to her threat level.  

But what of Kaoh Rong as a whole?  Well, for what I believe is the first time in the history of these blogs, we actually have a timeline change that RETROACTIVELY changes a season, or at least how it’s presented.  Specifically, Aubry’s decision at final six will FORCE the edit to highlight the Cydney/Michele bond a lot more to justify Aubry’s action, which is criticized at the time but in hindsight is seen as a brilliant move.  This paints the pair in a different light.  For want of a better term, a villainous light.  Don’t misunderstand, the pair aren’t the villains of the season; Scot and Jason claimed that title pretty definitively when they started sabotaging the camp.  But the pair are presented in a similar way to Ami on “Survivor Vanuatu”.  Not bad as people, but shrewd players who are an obstacle to our underdog hero.  Thereby de-facto antagonists, if not necessarily villainous.  This is why Cydney gets elevated to a higher status in the fandom, though conversely, Michele kind of becomes a footnote.  

Of course an Aubry win makes Kaoh Rong work much better as a season, and elevates it to at least near-greatness.  I hesitate to give it full greatness, partly taking into account my pro-Aubry bias, and partly because I could see her win being seen as “predictable”, which is often a mark against a season.  The main problem with the season in our timeline is that everything in the narrative tells us that Aubry SHOULD win against anyone.  I know edgic set up Michele as the winner fairly early, but as someone who was firmly watching at the time, I can tell you the assumption was that Michele won because Aubry got eliminated before the finals.  Thus, it still felt wrong when Aubry made finals but lost anyway.  There’s a conflict between what we think SHOULD happen narratively, and what ACTUALLY happens.  An Aubry win avoids that conflict, and at least for me, makes a much better season as a whole.  

Ok, so maybe this was an excuse to give my favorite player a win.  I admit to more bias in this blog than perhaps any other.  Still, I hope the scenario has been at least semi-plausible and fun for everyone, though!  Let me know what scenarios you’d like covered in the future!  I’ll happily give credit to anyone who gives me an idea I use.  Just post it in the comments section of this blog, or wherever you happened to find this blog.  Guidelines for submissions are listed below.  

1. One Change Only: This can’t be a whole bunch of things or multiple things going another way to alter the course of a season.  This must be one singular event that alters the season in some way.  Cascade effects, where one change naturally leads to another, are ok, but they have to be natural and logical.  As an example, Shii-Ann not flipping and Chuay Gahn losing the final 10 immunity challenge on “Survivor Thailand” would definitely change things, but those are two independent changes that need to happen, and therefore not appropriate for this blog.  I should also mention that the change has to be an EVENT, not a play style.  Yes, “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains” probably goes much differently if Russell Hantz (“Survivor Samoa”) isn’t an asshole to everyone, but apart from that never happening, it’s a change in overall play style, not a single moment.  It’s also, as I say, implausible, which leads to my next ground rule…

2. The Change Must Be Realistic: An unlikely change is ok, but it has to be something that COULD have happened, or it’s not worth writing about.  Yes, Fang winning the first immunity challenge on “Survivor Gabon” would drastically change the season.  Would it ever happen?  No.  So there’s no point in writing about it.  

3. The Change Must Have An Impact: By this, I mean the change has to actually alter the season in some significant way.  Simply changing up the boot order is not enough.  Someone new has to win, the perception of the season has to change, or both.  As an example, I originally planned to do a blog on “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”, with a timeline where Candice didn’t flip at the final 9.  I thought this could lead to a Heroes victory.  Then I remembered that Russell Hantz plays his idol in that same episode, meaning the flip most likely doesn’t matter, and apart from a slight boot order change, the season as a whole remains untouched.  Uninteresting, and therefore not worth talking about.  

In addition to these hard-and-fast guidelines, there are also what I call “Flexible Guidelines”.  As the name would imply, these can be bent with a compelling arguments, but they are things that should be borne in mind when suggesting new situations to examine:

4. US Seasons Only: This is nothing against international seasons of “Survivor”.  From what I’ve heard through the grapevine, they can be quite good.  The trouble is, as a citizen on the US, the US version of “Survivor” is the one I’m most familiar with, know the most about, and have seen the most of.  I haven’t even seen a full international season of “Survivor”, just the occasional clip.  Nothing knocking them, of course.  I just haven’t gotten around to viewing them.  So, while I won’t outright ban the suggesting of changes from non-US seasons of “Survivor”, bear in mind that I’m unlikely to pick them due to a lack of knowledge and lack of time to catch up on the seasons.  

5. I Will Not Do Brandon Flipping At The Africa Final 9: A flip by Brandon Quinton at the Final 9 of “Survivor Africa”, voting out Lex instead of Kelly, would indeed fit all the criteria mentioned above.  I’m refusing this particular scenario, not because it isn’t interesting or worth talking about, but because it was already covered by Mario Lanza in his book “When it Was Worth Playing For”.  He covered it so well and so thoroughly that I don’t think I would have anything to add.  I’m willing to consider this scenario if someone can give me a compelling reason that Mario is wrong, or there’s some aspect he didn’t consider, but until that time, this scenario is out.  Other “Survivor Africa” scenarios are ok, though.

6. Try Not To Repeat Seasons: This is by far the most flexible of the flexible guidelines, particularly as many seasons have multiple inflection points with a fascinating change to dissect.  However, to prevent a lot of repetition, I try and prioritize scenarios from a season I haven’t done a “What-If?” on yet, over ones that I’ve already covered one scenario on.  You can feel free to submit scenarios for seasons I’ve already looked at, but bear in mind that I’m unlikely to cover them until I’m out of ideas for “What-Ifs?” on seasons I haven’t done yet.  For reference, at the time of this writing, I have done scenarios from the following seasons: Africa, Marquesas, Pearl Islands, All-Stars, Palau, Guatemala, Exile Island, Micronesia, Gabon, Samoa, Heroes vs. Villains, Redemption Island, One World, Philippines, Blood vs. Water, Kaoh Rong, Game Changers, Island of the Idols.

As always, our suggestions and feedback are much appreciated.  Take care out there, everyone!

-Matt

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 42” Episode 8: Return of the Lex

You know, of all the players I invoke on a semi-regular basis, Lex van den Berghe of “Survivor Africa” may be the most out-there one.  Now granted, he’s a classic character; hardly the worst person to call out.  But he’s neither someone whose game I despise, and thus bring up as a negative example, or one of my favorite whom I praise at every opportunity.  Granted, I like Lex overall as a character.  Dude is complex, and definitely funny.  Seriously, his commentary on “Survivor All-Stars” is worth a watch if you want to laugh your ass off, if you’ve never done so.  But he doesn’t exactly break my “Top 10 players of all time” list or anything.  He’s maybe in the Top 50, but not much beyond that.  Yet, he gives such specific material to work with, that I can’t help myself.  

Such is the case tonight.  Evidently Lex took some voodoo lessons from Butch, and has made one of Hai, channeling his spirit through the doll so that Hai reacts similarly to how he does at the top of the episode.  Romeo, you see, was on the outs of that last vote, and so took a leaf out of T-Bird’s book (also “Survivor Africa”) and threw a vote on the person he perceived to be in charge, in this case Hai.  Hai, understandably, does not take it well, going around interrogating everyone as to who it was, when Romeo gives a decent denial.  The only real differences are that Hai does not go to quite the extremes that Lex did on Africa, and he’s actually right in who voted for him.  

All that said, props to Romeo for overall playing this well.  Apart from one or two kind of awkward acting moments, does a good job saying the right things to prevent any more flak from falling in him, while at the same time recognizing his position and what needs to be done for his game.  The comparison to T-Bird is 100% a compliment.  And yes, I am still bitter at the fan base for not putting T-Bird on “Survivor Cambodia.”  I voted for her every day; I have the right to say “Ya done goofed.” You put on Monica Padilla (“Survivor Samoa”) when we could have had T-Bird.  

The next morning, we keep going old school, and no surprise, it’s Rocksroy who gets that ball rolling.  He gets frustrated over the larger lack of work ethic in the camp, citing himself, Mike, and Jonathan as the three biggest workers around the camp.  The three meet at the water well, and agree that with Hai and Omar on board, they can make an overall majority to run the game.  Fair enough plan for them, but two problems: One, this is framed as a “Guys Alliance”, which is about as painful as every time a “Women’s Alliance” is brought up, though this has the added negativity of it seeming like the “strong” pick on the “weak”, not to mention making for boring tv.  Two, and perhaps more immediately concerning, Omar and Hai have basically no reason to join such an alliance.  They recognize that they would be on the bottom, and unlikely to immunity their way to the end in order to save themselves.  Thus, they have little incentive to comply with the plan, and both openly mock it in confessional.  What little chance the plan had is further torpedoed by having ROCKSROY, the man who openly admitted that he has a terrible social game, pitch this plan to them.  I suppose this is technically a third “problem” with the plan, but one that was avoidable even with the strategy, unlike the first two.  All this really does is make Rocksroy a target.  Good going, man!

Speaking of targets, it’s time for our challenge, where two people will win immunity, and two will be voted out.  Look, this is normally where I get hyped for them having a double-elimination with all 10 people left voting in one big group, but we all know this won’t be the case.  “Survivor” is committed to their “Split into 2 groups of 5” at the Final 10, and on paper I can understand why.  It is a truth universally acknowledged that Pagongings are boring, or at least create a boring stretch of episodes.  Granted, more recent seasons, due to smaller tribes and sometimes multiple tribe shake-ups, tend to not be straight tribe Pagongings, but rather a supermajority Pagonging the minority, so the point still stands.  Thus, the show hopes that such a shake-up will put the minority in power on one tribe, and/or force the majority to eat each other early.  On paper, this makes sense.  But, after SEVERAL seasons of this, it needs to be acknowledge that it has NEVER worked!  Partly  this is just due to luck, but EVERY SINGLE TIME, the majority just gets, well, the majority on both teams, and it has ALMOST never led to any shake-ups.  Again, I get the temptation, and it was worth a shot.  At some point, however, you need to acknowledge it isn’t working, and try something different.  That is the case with this twist at Final 10.  A worthy attempt, but it has failed.  TRY SOMETHING ELSE!  

Our teams are Hai, Omar, Mike, Romeo, and Rocksroy against Jonathan, Lindsay, Maryanne, Tori, and Drea, playing in the “Pyramid Balance” challenge first seen on “Survivor Caramoan”.  It remains unchanged, save for the waters once again being rough.  Nearly snapping Rocksroy’s neck not being enough, now it needs to throw contestants in the air like it just does not care.  Which it probably doesn’t.  Thus, it becomes less about “Who wants it more?” and more about “Who has the best sea legs?”  Hai quickly wins on his side, but stays in since the overall winner between both teams gets kebabs for their team, as well as the right to go second to Tribal Council.  Jonathan and Lindsay are our combatants on the other side, with Jonathan ultimately winning out, both immunity and the food.  Gotta admit, despite the guy’s challenge prowess, this one surprised me.  Men are traditionally worse at challenges that involve balance, as their center of gravity is higher up (in the shoulders, compared to women’s, which is in the hips), and Jonathan being so top-heavy, I would have thought he would be out early  Good on him proving me wrong, though.  

Hai and his team get sent to Taku beach to strategize.  They talk like it’s a step down from the merge beach, which it may be, but the shelter looks decent enough, all things considered.  It’s not Rupert’s hole in the ground from “Survivor All-Stars”, or the Younger Men’s “Four Fronds on a Tepee” from “Survivor Exile Island”.  Strategy, unsurprisingly, quickly coalesces around Romeo being the one to go home, with even Romeo seeming to accept it, saying he just doesn’t fit in with the machismo around camp.  Fortunately for him, Omar in particular still has a chip on his shoulder about Rocksroy, though he also brings up the fair point that Romeo is a possible ally for him down the line, while Rocksroy is, to put it mildly, inflexible.  We haven’t seen this much reluctance to change the plan since Joe Del Campo (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”).  As such, he, Romeo, and Hai hatch a firm plan against Rocksroy, which is honestly probably the smarter of the two options.  Their analysis of their position in the “Guys Alliance” is correct, so they have no reason to stick to it.  Keeping Romeo around keeps their options open, and while the current overall majority might not be happy with the move, Rocksroy is not so integral or so well-liked that they’ll have hell to pay for making such a move.  

Really, the biggest drawback is that Mike would be left out in this scenario, and we’ve seen how he feels about being left out.  Hai corrects this problem by, well, talking with Mike about the plan.  Mike is unhappy about it, and talks about possibly not doing it, but we all know that’s BS.  Mike will stick with the numbers in the end, as well he should, and Rocksroy is obviously going to be the boot of this group.  

Our other group, however, is a bit more of an interesting story.  Like Romeo, Tori would seem the obvious choice, but also like Romeo, there is incentive for the others to not follow said plan.  Drea’s pile of stuff has grown so large that even Jonathan, whom Lindsay will later describe as “Not very strategic.”, takes notice.  As such, he decides to organize everyone else to blindside her.  Which, much as I want Tori to finally be gone, is a move that makes sense for them all.  Having stuff on your side is one thing, but Drea just has SO MUCH STUFF that it can’t be ignored.  Plus, you still have Maryanne to be your “Stuff Supplier.”

Like with the “Guys Alliance” earlier, however, the flaw in the plan is in the messenger.  Jonathan tells us that he’s trying not to be “That big guy” who just bosses everyone around and acts like he owns the game just because of his strength.  Which is true.  We’ve seen shades of it here and there, but for the most part he’s kept his cool.  Now, whether due to immunity or just dwindling patience, Jonathan snaps, and starts talking down to people in regards to his plans, which rubs Maryanne the wrong way, such that she chats more openly with Tori than perhaps might be advised.  

But wait, there’s more!  It’s not just those who personally annoy him that he’s unreasonable with!  Lindsay, whom we’ve only seen be close to Jonathan at this point, brings up the “Hey, what if Drea plays her idol?” scenario to Jonathan.  She points out, correctly, that Maryanne might go at that point, which would get rid of a lot of their edge at the moment.  As such, splitting between Drea and Tori might be wise at this juncture.  Jonathan takes this reasonable idea, and throws it away entirely, evidently on the basis that he “Doesn’t trust Tori.”  Fine.  Don’t trust Tori.  You can still split the votes!  It’s not like Tori and Drea are going to work together at this point!  Seriously, Jonathan is not as bad as many men in his archetype, but loss of respect points this episode.  

Even though we get two Tribal Councils tonight, it really just feels like one.  The first Tribal Council, with Hai’s group, can pretty much just be “Yadda Yadda’d” away.  Absolutely zero mystery, and not even any fun banter.  When the highlight of your Tribal is Hai commenting on his lack of body fat, you’ve got issues.  Rocksroy does go, and while I’d say it was the smarter move overall, I am sorry to see Rocksroy go.  Granted, keeping Romeo around probably keeps things more interesting strategically, and I hardly dislike the guy, but I just connected with Rocksroy a bit more.  Possibly because his archetype is so much rarer in this age of “Survivor”, but I find him more intriguing than Romeo, despite the simplicity of his strategy.  No disrespect to Romeo meant, though.  He’s awesome as well, and I look forward to seeing his strategy play out moving forward.  

What we lose in intrigue in the first Tribal, however, we make up for in the second.  You see, since Rocksroy was voted out first, he gets to sit in on the jury, along with Chanelle.  Thus, this group KNOWS he was the boot, and they can’t help but notice a pattern developing, even if it’s just a subconscious one.  Yep, two black people are the first two members of the jury, and if blindsides go as planned, it’ll be three in a row.  Fortunately, Drea is quick to inform us this will not be the case, as she will be playing her idol to prevent this.  Honestly can’t blame her.  With all the stuff she has, might as well use some of it, both to lower threat level and buy yourself more time.  Drea then talks about the problems of implicit bias and how it affects people, both in day to day life and on “Survivor”, which at first might seem like unintentional guilt-slinging at the attempt to blindside her, but it’s not.  She was aware of the plan.  It was intentional guilt-slinging.  

Maryanne, also being black, chimes in to talk about how she notices the same issues, and thus will also be playing her idol tonight.  With Drea’s proclamation, can’t really blame her, since she would be a viable alternate target.  Our group whispers to come to a Tori consensus, though why they need to whisper I can’t say, since I would assume, with Maryanne, Drea, and Jonathan immune, Tori would be the logical boot.  Only potential misstep here is that Maryanne says the quiet part out loud, outright saying she’s voting for Tori, but since there’s little that Tori can do about it, it’s a minor thing at best.  And hey, while we have had individual discussions about diversity this season, this is the first time this season we’ve seen a community come together to talk about their lived experience, one of the few things “Survivor 41” had going for it over this season.  Good to see this one can hold its own in that territory as well.  Maryanne and Drea manage to marry emotion and articulation, explaining their points well while also making us, the audience, FEEL their pain.  One of the best discussions I’ve seen about this issue in a long time, including “Survivor 41”

TOO BAD JONATHAN’S HERE!  Just when the conversations winding down, Jonathan HAS to butt in with “Hey, I’m not a racist!”  News flash, bud: If you have to say you’re not racist, YOU’RE MOST LIKELY AT LEAST SLIGHTLY RACIST!  Look, Jonathan may be telling the truth when he says that consciously, race has nothing to do with his targets, but that’s not the issue here.  It could be implicit bias (which is in most people, and something we as a society need to work on), or it could just be coincidence.  Overall, though, the point is that you are stepping on these women’s lived experience, telling them, in effect, that what they see and feel is not true.  I don’t care if you’re hurt or offended by that; that is not your place.  Sit down, let them have their platform, then show through your actions, not your words, that you are not, as an individual racist.  It doesn’t help that after the conversation dies down again that Probst goes BACK to Jonathan for his thoughts, though Jonathan does at least have the grace to apologize, and leave the door open for some discussion.  Maryanne and Drea clarify they don’t hate him, but need to talk about their experience.  Could have gone a lot worse, but MAN did Jonathan not come out of this looking good.  

With all the emotion in the air, Probst smells an opportunity for a drama moment, and offers to let everyone skip the formal vote, and just come to a consensus.  Naturally, that consensus is Tori, and we now see her one recourse: The Shot in the Dark.  Yes, this is the one way Maryanne’s proclamation could backfire.  Fortunately for Maryanne, and us as a viewing audience, Tori continues the trend of the shot being useless, and goes home.  I am THRILLED!  Of the choices available at this Tribal Council, definitely the smarter choice, and while she played better than I would have guessed, her arrogance, coupled with her outside-the-game actions, left her the one person remaining I just didn’t care for.  As such, very happy to see her go.  

A jam-packed episode, but one that overall did pretty well.  They made the most of having one straightforward vote by focussing on the less straightforward vote, and hit those mirror neurons very well with Tribal Council #2.  Granted, time is still an issue, with them packing too much into too short a time frame, but with less people and less “stuff” hopefully the upward trend can continue!

-Matt 

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 41” Finale: Predictably Predictable

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

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

MATT’S MESS-UP!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Genie-Sadly right.  

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

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

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

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

Tiffany-Wrong, flat out.  

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

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

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

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

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

You.  Do.  Not.  Have.  Time.  

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

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

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

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

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

“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 Ghost Island” Cast Assessment

Greetings and salutations, readers! With the new cast announced, it is time to go to Ghost Island, and resurrect “Idol Speculation”, my knee-jerk opinion that everyone is entitled to! It’s time once again to delve into a new “Survivor” cast, though this one is special for a couple of reasons. For the first time in my “Survivor” blogging career, I have neither returnees nor a themed division to talk about. Huzzah! On the other hand, this is also probably the cast I’m doing with the least amount of information. Usually, when EW.com and CBS.com release their cast bios, I write, which is what I’m doing now. However, EW.com, for whatever reason, is a bit scant on the information. No quotes, and short of a video on why they’ll win, plus the usual photos, hometown, age, and occupation, but nothing much about their strategies, favorite past contestants, pet peeves, or anything to make my job easier. So, I guess this will be a good experiment as to whether such information is actually helpful, or if it just confused me into making bad guesses. Let’s start off with…

MALOLO TRIBE

Brendan Shapiro (41, Physical Education Teacher, Herndon, VA): I hate to start off this way, but this is the order I have our new cast in, and unfortunately, we’re starting off with kind of a negative one. On the surface, Brendan seems like a nice enough guy. Reasonably fit, very affable, the sort of person you’d expect to have at least a decent shelf life on any other season. And were this any other season, Brendan might possibly be my winner pick. Unfortunately for him, this is not any other season, and one facet of this season in particular dooms Brendan. This is a season that skews INCREDIBLY young. Don’t get me wrong, “Survivor” isn’t exactly known for casting exclusively middle-aged people, but this season in particular seems to favor the young and carefree. Think “Millennials vs. Gen-X” without the Gen-X. This means that, at the ripe young age of 41, Brendan is actually the SECOND OLDEST PLAYER ON THE SEASON! BY ONLY ONE YEAR! Yeah, let that sink in. Just two years ago we had Joe “Getting it Done at 71” Del Campo competing on the island, and now the best we can do is someone 30 years his junior. But age alone does not doom Brendan. Hell, there are a couple of mid-30’s players I’ll have nothing but praise for. But out of all the players this season, Brendan is the one who strikes me as the most “paternal” and “take charge” (save perhaps one guy on the latter category, but we’ll get to him later), and on a season of the young and carefree, this is not good. Young people, especially young adults, bridle at someone trying to take control. Add onto that Brendan admitting to having a temper if provoked, and you’ve got a recipe for a pre-merge boot no doubt about it.

Donathan Hurley (26, Caretaker, Kimper, KY): Moving on to a slightly more positive bio, we have our stock gay character for the season. Well, I say stock because “Survivor” seems to have an unwritten rule about casting no more than one LGBT character on a season (with some exceptions like “Survivor Vanuatu” and “Survivor Game Changers”, but the overall pattern remains one a season), but Donathan is actually a fairly intriguing character. As an openly gay man from a very conservative area, it would be easy for him to be grumpy and talk a lot about the hardships he’s had to endure (see Cumbie, Colton of “Survivor One World”), but he’s actually a pretty upbeat and optimistic, all things considered. Hell, that enthusiam’s so contagious that it had me in a humongous grin throughout his video. I’m not sure he’s got a lot of smarts, but that could just be his accent. At the very least he seems like he at least understands the basics of the game, and that could serve him well. As I’ll be reiterating a lot in this blog, this season is very much a “Go with the flow” type season. Overt strategists will not do well. Those who can fit with the vibe of the others while still strategizing in the background are the ones who will do well this season. While I’m not sure Donathan will strategize in the background, his enthusiasm at least spares him early elimination. I’d put him as a mid-merge boot, since his background and likability could make him a jury threat, but no earlier than that.

Jacob Derwin (22, Music Teacher, Brooklyn, NY): My doppelgänger in more than just looks, I was predisposed to like Jacob early on. Awkward “Survivor” nerds are my kind of people, and Jacob admits to fitting in that category. Truth be told, while I like the guy, I was initially writing him off. By his own admission, he’s not that great in terms of physical challenges, and I could still see this being a pitfall for him. However, this is a season with no shortage of physical threats, and so this may actually make it easier for a challenge sink like Jacob to hide. You can afford to lose a couple of strong people per tribe, and still be in decent shape. As such, given that he seems to have a good self-deprecating sense of humor, and enough smarts to be a background strategist while appearing to go with the flow, I predict Jacob to be a late-merge boot of the season. I’m not sure he’s quite got the killer instinct to take it all the way, but it also wouldn’t entirely surprise me if he won.

James Lim (24, Business Analyst, New York, NY): I’ve gone back and forth throughout the cast bios in regards to James. My initial instinct was that he was in trouble. It seemed like he’d lived a lot of life in those first 24 years, moving fairly frequently and knowing little but success. All well and good, but such a life seems counter to “Survivor”, where one has to expect things to not go your way. When I saw his video, he then seemed humble and self-aware, and I thought perhaps I was underestimating him. Then he mentioned not being entirely comfortable in the outdoors, and it put me at a loss. James is one of only a couple people this season I just can’t seem to get a read on, no matter what I do. If I had to put my chips somewhere, I’d give him the benefit of a doubt, and make him an early merge boot. People uncomfortable in the outdoors tend to be pre-mergers, but if James can overcome that, he should do pretty well.

Jenna Bowman (23, Advertising Account Executive, Venice Beach, CA): There’s usually a couple of warning signs that someone is doomed for an early boot. Talking about having a temper. Talking about not liking the outdoors. Talking about how modeling somehow prepares you for “Survivor”. Jenna, however, has added a new topic to the “doomed” lexicon: Talking about how you will DEFINITELY have enemies on the jury. Just when I was thinking we might have a season without an obvious first boot, Jenna gives us the gem that if she doesn’t have have e”at least five people on the jury who hate her, then she’s “playing the game wrong.” Actually, Jenna, I would say having such people on the jury MEANS you’re playing the game wrong. This may come as a shock, particularly to fans of Russell Hantz (“Survivor Samoa”), but to win the game, PEOPLE NEED TO LIKE YOU! If you’re coming into the game planning to be that antagonistic, then you deserve your ultimate fate, which is to be the first boot of the season. If you’re going to play that aggressive socially, then there’s no way you fit on, on this season in particular, but on any season in general.

Laurel Johnson (29, Financial Consultant, Minneapolis, MN): Laurel is a dark horse for me this season. She gives off a “Sophie Clarke” (“Survivor South Pacific”) vibe to me, which is normally a good thing. Sophie is an underrated winner, and quite skilled at the game. On a happy-go-lucky season like this, though, those skills may not be an asset. What makes me uncertain about Laurel is her insecurity about her physical prowess (though again, I’m not sure that will be a big detriment to her this season), and whether or not she’s able to adapt to the attitude of the season. My gut says she will, so I’d mark her as a sleeper strategist, probably a mid-to-late merge boot. She could even pull off a victory, if she plays her skills right.

Libby Vincek (24, Social Media Strategist, Houston, TX): Libby’s not going to be an immediate target, but she is definitely a pre-merge boot. Interestingly, though, it’s not for the reasons I’ll usually be saying that about people in this case. Libby’s issue is NOT that she’s a hardcore strategist. She knows enough to get by, but not so much that she clashes. Nor does she go against the “take it easy” tone of the rest of the cast. No, Libby’s problem is a much more common one, and that is the problem of religion. Religion, in and of itself, is not horrible on “Survivor”, but if you’re going to get by being a super-religious person, you either need to leave your religion at Ponderosa, or you need to have a lot of other religious people on the cast. Neither is going to be the case for Libby, and she’ll suffer for it. I doubt she’s the very first boot of the season, but I’d be a bit surprised to see her make the merge.

Michael Yerger (18, Real Estate Agent, Los Angeles, CA): Being well-established so young is an accomplishment Michael can be proud of. That said, I don’t see it translating very well to success on “Survivor”. The dude’s young, and seems determined to prove himself because of it. That could backfire easily. The feeling I get from this guy is that he’s the second coming of Silas Gaither (“Survivor Africa”), and that’s not a good thing. Michael is a young buck out to prove himself as a leader. This is hard to stomach on the more strategic of season, and with a season like this, where overt strategy is likely to be shunned, Michael is to be shunned along with it. His age probably keeps him around until the swap, but once that happens, his mouth and his strength will make him a goner.

Stephanie Gonzales (26, Graphic Sales, Ocala, FL): If you’re looking for someone who fits the vibe of this season almost perfectly, the Stephanie may just be the one for you. Generally cheerful, but with enough backbone and knowledge to make the right moves and get along with anyone, Stephanie is my female pick to win the whole season. This was a tough one, as I was overall unimpressed with most of the women this season, but Stephanie stood out to me for being both socially affable, but inwardly tough. This is a rare combination to find, but it’s probably the sort that can win a season like this. Stephanie will never be considered a threat, but with her background, she could easily pull out a win by talking about how much she’s overcome. Against this crowd, I think she will.

Stephanie Johnson (34, Yoga Instructor, Chicago, IL): In this Stephanie, we have the second coming of Shirin Oskooi (“Survivor Worlds Apart”), and unfortunately, I don’t mean that in a good way. Don’t get me wrong, Shirin had some strategic chops, and I think Stephanie does as well. The trouble is that it’s immensely overshadowed by her kookiness. Don’t get me wrong, Stephanie is a lot of fun. I love her wanting to wear a lot of bright colors on the show just for the fun of it! And, if there was a season where kookiness might be embraced, strategy be damned, this would be that season. Where Stephanie runs into trouble is that such kookiness makes her stand out, and can be irritating in large doses. If Stephanie can live through the first couple of votes, she probably makes it deep. If she just can’t tame herself for a bit, as I suspect she can’t, she’s out pre-merge, and the show will be the worse for it.

NAVITI TRIBE

Angela Perkins (42, Army Veteran, Cincinnati, OH): It’s a bit awkward talking about Angela first on this tribe, but that’s what alphabetical order by first name will do to you. CURSE YOU, SEAN KENNIFF (“Survivor Borneo”)! The oldest person on this season, and the only one with a military background, Angela would seem to be dead on arrival this season. After all, what clashes more with a happy-go-lucky group than an older military type? And Angela very nearly fell into this category. Looking over everything, though, there are a few factors that save her. For one, while the season as a whole is very young, this tribe has more of the older end of that set, making Naviti less of a proverbial death sentence for “older” players. Second, and more important, watching Angela’s video, she does not have the sort of “drill sergeant nasty” personality one can often associate with military types. She and her tribe aren’t going to see eye-to-eye, but she’s not going to be in-your-face about it either. Couple that with a couple of other people more in-your-face annoying than she is, and Angela in my estimation makes the mid-merge. I don’t think she gets in a solid alliance, at least on her starting tribe, and probably gets voted out for being a swing vote, but she does make the mid-merge, at least.

Bradley Kleihege (26, Law Student, Los Angeles, CA): If the name of the game is fitting in, Bradley does not. I was initially pretty positive where Bradley was concerned, or at a minimum neutral. However, like Jenna, his interview had a quote that portends doom. Specifically, he mentioned only really getting along with other smart people/law students. Socially skills such as these rarely get you anywhere on “Survivor”, and with a season that seems particularly geared towards rewarding social prowess, I can’t see Bradley as anything other than a pre-merger, though given that this tribe has bigger fish to fry, I can see him making the swap.

Chelsea Townsend (24, EMT/Pro Cheerleader, Los Angeles, CA): Like James before her, Chelsea is another one I just can’t get a good read on. I had initially written her off as another preppy cheerleader, but something about he just seems tougher than that. Granted, she still tries in vain to make me believe cheerleading is somehow relevant to “Survivor”, but she doesn’t overly dwell on it, so perhaps she at least won’t be ungodly annoying. She’s another one I’m unsure about in terms of survival skills, but she proved me wrong on toughness, so maybe she’ll prove me wrong here as well. Like James, I’ll give her the benefit of a doubt. Since I get better vibes from her than from James, I’ll call her a mid-to-late merge boot.

Chris Noble (27, Male Model, Brooklyn, NY): Chris is the first of many people on this season going through a major transition and “finding themselves”. As such, let me take this time to state that such people DO NOT WIN “SURVIVOR”! “Survivor” is very much a game dominated by those who already know who they are, what they want, and how to get at it. They can plan ahead the best, and therefore they tend to do the best. That said, given the unthreatening nature of someone who can’t plan ahead that well, coupled with Chris fitting in well with the feel of this season as a whole, I’d say he’s got a long shelf life. Probably and early-merge boot, like most such people.

Desiree Afuye (21, Student, Brooklyn, NY): While on the younger side of things this season, Desiree is one of those “strong personalities” I mentioned earlier that may keep Angela safe. I had the feeling reading about her that Desiree might have a temper. Sure enough, there it is in her video. Desiree at least seems aware of her faults, and so will probably be able to keep them under enough control to avoid first-boot status. Plus, having lived outside the US for a significant period of time (and in a less-developed country no less), Desiree may hold up better under hardship than I first thought. However, time on the island wears on you, no matter how much experience you may have. Desiree’s temper will come out, and when it does, it will cost her. Going off a timeline, I’d say Desiree is set as yet another pre-merge boot.

Domenick Abbate (38, Construction Supervisor, Nesconset, NY): Strong personalities just go together, I guess. Were I to wager on who from Naviti would go first, Domenick would get my bet. The poor man has the bad combination of being both an older guy and a strong, abrasive, take-charge personality on a season that favors neither of these factors. I had thought maybe he could control it, but everything in his video says otherwise. Expect this guy to be a pre-merge boot, no doubt.

Kellyn Bechtold (31, Career Counselor, Denver, CO): Another oddball in this group, Kellyn finds herself in the older category, while also being one of the many people on this season going through a major transition and “finding themselves”. The latter point, and her general attitude save her from the pitfall of age, but need I remind you, such people DO NOT WIN “SURVIVOR”. That being said, of all the people in this category, Kellyn may have the best chance of any of them. Her professional life shows that she can be a dedicated leader and worker when needed, and hidden behind the guise of being carefree, could make Kellyn dangerous. That said, there is a danger that he desire for control could overwhelm this attitude, in which case Kellyn’s in trouble. However, I suspect that she’ll initially parlay this into being a lieutenant in the majority alliance, thus allaying some of her desire for control without sinking her social game. That said, this makes her the merge boot. We’ve seen a trend lately of the first boot at the merge being the lieutenant of an alliance who’s unlikely to get a hidden immunity idol of any sort. Kellyn fits that description to a “T”, and so will go in that spot.

Morgan Ricke (29, Marine Animal Trainer, Orlando, FL): Morgan is a lot of fun, and fortunately I think she’ll go deep. In many ways, she exemplifies the attitude of this season, being upbeat and slightly quirky, but still having at least a basic understanding of “Survivor”. She seems strong enough to not be a liability, but not so strong as to be a threat. A good combination and while I don’t see her being much of a leader, look to her as a mid-to-late merge boot. She’s here for a while.

Sebastian Noel (22, Fishing Guide, Satellite Beach, FL): Sebastian completes the triad of people going through a major transition in life and “finding themselves” on the show. Say it with me now: SUCH PEOPLE DO NOT WIN “SURVIVOR”. Much like his more muscular counterpart, Chris, though, I suspect Sebastian will be spared an early elimination. He’s strong, affable, and won’t rock the boat, so he’ll be brought along in the majority alliance. Once again, as a major physical threat, he’ll be an early merge boot. Too dangerous in challenges to keep longer than that, but useful up until that point.

Wendell Holland (33, Furniture Company Owner, Philadelphia, PA): If balance is the key to winning this game, then Wendell Holland is going to be the winner. I say this because he’s my winner pick for the men this season. Now, this might seem odd, as Wendell is ALSO on the “older” end of the spectrum on a season that skews young. Note, though, that especially on Naviti, it’s attitude more than age that matters. Despite Kellyn being “older”, I give her better odds than the younger Desiree, since the former’s attitude matches more closely with the season than the latter’s. Wendell falls into the same boat, but more so. He is 33, but he PLAYS young, and looks young enough to pull it off. The guy’s smart and driven enough to take charge of his destiny, but not so overt that he rocks the boat. He’s strong, but not so strong as to be an overt threat. And, most of all, he’s cheerful, so he’ll fit right in on personality. When it comes to strategy, though, he’ll play circles around these people, and that should take him all the way to the bank. I worry a bit that he doesn’t quite have the killer instinct needed to win, as he seemed a bit TOO happy-go-lucky in his videos, but I get the feeling that, as a super-fan, he’ll pick it up once the game actually starts.

And there you have it! Must admit, kind of an interesting bunch we have this season. There’s a very clear attitude, and it screams “non-strategic, character season”. Point being, with so many people more concerned about personality than overt gameplay, this will be a fun season to watch, but won’t bring much new to the table strategically. Better than being a season with nothing to offer, and should be a fun ride, to say the least. Put another way, this cast doesn’t break the season for me, but it doesn’t scream “Top 10 material” either just due to the cast. They can prove me wrong, but they’ll have to work for it.

As to Ghost Island itself, I’m still excited about the idea, as it pays good homage to “Survivor” history, and is basically the return of Exile Island, a twist I’m rather fond of. That said, I’m not sure this was the best cast to do it with. Not to say that they should have saved this twist for a returnee season (though that would have been a smart idea), but this twist needs a lot of people with intense knowledge of “Survivor” history. For all the claims that this is a season of “superfans”; and it should be noted that most people on this season have at least a basic understanding of gameplay; really only Wendell and Jacob seem overt in this area. Again, this cast could prove me wrong, so I’ll hold off on condemning the producers for this one just yet, but hopefully they prove me wrong come the start of this season.

Speaking of which, I would like to issue a disclaimer in advance: blogs may be very late this season. No, my cable no longer seems to be acting up, but I am currently taking care of the family dog, who needs to be walked as soon as I get home. Read: “15-10 minutes before ‘Survivor’ starts.” I will try to make the show on time each week I can, but her bathroom needs come first, and in that case I’ll just get the blog to you all ASAP. I solemnly swear that I will not read spoilers or other opinions until I see the episode, so you still get that patented “Idol Speculation” effect.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor HvHvH” Episode 7: My Fair Coley

35 seasons into the show, one of the hardest challenges to be faced is how to keep things fresh and original. No matter how complex a character, no matter how intriguing a plotline, the fact is that if it hasn’t been done before, most likely something similar has been done before. Therefore, it’s very refreshing that this “Survivor” merge has actually managed to bring us something fresh and original, something to keep this old concept alive in it’s old age: Cole actually says something intelligent!

We’ve still got plenty of stupid to get through, though. After our “Previously On…” segment reminds us of the plotlines of every single tribe thus far, we start off at Yawa, where Cole informs us of the “Yawa strong” pact. Yes, I DID say that Cole said intelligent things tonight. Don’t worry, they come later. Not to say that “Yawa strong” isn’t a good plan for Cole, but is assumes that people on his tribe not named Jessica can stand his presence. This is not the case, showing just how out of touch he is. Ben and Lauren do a good job playing up that they’re with Cole, but Ben in particular privately admits that he can’t STAND Cole, and therefore isn’t fully on board. Soko does little but reaffirm that the threesome there are tight, so they will only get this sentence of a mention.

Things at Levu aren’t looking too good either. They may yet be the disaster switched tribe, as Ashley informs us that they’re basically down to eating sugar. Now, I’m not going to act like “Survivor” is a cushy game show. There’s nothing cushy about it, and starving certainly isn’t fun. With that said, I feel like Ashley is exaggerating just a little. Like I said, I’m sure they’re not in good shape, but this plotline came right out of nowhere. No confessionals in previous episodes talking about their food supply. No previous complaints of malnutrition. Devon is just suddenly barely able to walk (though in his defense, he did have very little body fat to begin with). Again, I could understand a normal level of starvation plot with little buildup, but Ashley makes it sound like the second coming of Hunahpu (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”) or Barramundi (“Survivor The Australian Outback”).

Fortunately for them, product placement is right around the corner. Probst announces the merge, which is purple this time! I am a fan of this, as it both is a change from the usual black, and marks the first time since the duo of “Survivor Caramoan” and “Survivor Blood vs. Water” that we’ve gone two consecutive seasons without a black merge buff. Thank God! There’s really no fake-out as to this not being a merge, but there IS a fake-out as to the merge feast. Probst teases a twist they’ve never done before, only to reveal the aforementioned product placement. Outback Steakhouse, a long-time sponsor of the show, is catering this particular merge feast. Evidently this is the cue for everyone in the cast to start gushing about Outback Steakhouse, which makes sense, as only starving people would be eager to eat at Outback Steakhouse. Joe extols the virtues of the Chocolate Lava Cake. Dr. Mike cheers at the thought of personalized steaks. Ben literally levitates upon hearing the word “Rib Eye”. Even those who AREN’T as enthused must gush when the food actually arrives. Not that Joe will be gushing for long, as he follows in the steps of Joe Del Campo (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”), and orders a lot of meat. Two whole steaks, to be precise, and I find it miraculous that the pair did not share the same fate. But back to the main point, that being the blatant product placement. I understand that it’s a necessary evil on the show a lot of the time, but my God, this is over the top for a product that’s OK at best. I mean, the only way they could have pushed the product harder is is they….

CRASH!

SANDRA DIAZ-TWINE: Did someone say “Outback Steakhouse”?

ME: Oh, for Christ’s sake…

SANDRA: You know where there’s Outback Steakhouse, there’s gonna be Sandra.

ME: NO! NO! I don’t CARE if you’re one of the most awesome players ever, you can’t be here! You’re not even on this season!

SANDRA: Well, how else am I supposed to remind everyone that the queen of schilling for Outback Steakhouse stays queen of schilling for Outback Steakhouse?

ME: I don’t know, but don’t do it in MY house! I just had that wall fixed, and we’ve got a cold front coming!

SANDRA: You know what? I’ma vote you out, and if I’m in that finals, you’ll STILL vote for me to win.

ME: Most likely, but first I need to get on the show, something I can’t do with you in here. Now, please sign my buff collection and beat it.

(SANDRA exits to find a Sharpie).

Well, now that my day has been made much better, let’s get back to blogging. There’s no idol clue hidden in a napkin this time around, but there is strategy talk. You’d think it’d be hard to do with everyone gathered around a relatively small table, but thankfully the conversation is loud enough that Chrissy and Ben are able to touch base. They don’t say too much, as Ben makes it clear that he’s not comfortable talking around so many people, but they do agree to meet back up, reaffirming their old bonds.

Ok, Cole, enough with the dilly-dallying! Time for that intelligent commenting to start. As previously mentioned, there was no clue hidden at the feast, so it stands to reason that, when the new camp comes with a bunch of tools, that there is a clue hidden in one of these. Cole recognizes this, and sets about searching for it. He doesn’t FIND the clue (we the audience see it hidden in amongst the nails), but hey, baby steps.

Moving on to the strategizing, things quickly shake out to be an Old Healers/New Yawa group versus… not them. Ok, so the name thing kind of needs work. Desi and Joe are pulled back into the fold, and along with Ben and Lauren from the former Yawa, they appear to have seven. Ryan, meanwhile, recognizes that the original Healers have five people left, against the Heroes’ four and the Hustler’s three, putting his “underdog” strategy into greater prominence. Thus, it seems logical to him that these two groups band together against a supermajority. This makes Lauren and Ben the swing votes, unsurprisingly. One might argue that Dr. Mike is a swing vote as well, since he was no great friend of the Healers, while being more in bed with Ben and Lauren (proverbially speaking). However, for Mike it is clear which side he should go with. His connection with Ben and Lauren will remain probably no matter what, but going against his original tribe, even with Joe back in the fold, would have what we might call “John Cochran Downside”. Hailing from “Survivor South Pacific”, this is a phenomenon where someone flips too early, thereby pissing off most the jury, even if the move was strategically smart. Mike DOES need to move against his original tribe at some point, but this would put too many of the them on the jury too soon, even though the jury actually doesn’t start tonight. Since I know I’m going to get called out on praising Cochran’s move, while saying the same move for Dr. Mike would be a flaw, let me explain the difference. Cochran was between Savaii and Upolu, two tribes that, due to be a “returning captains” season and the lack of a swap, were relatively ironclad, with no cracks in the alliance, and very few major divisive characters to break up an alliance. Plus, Cochran had known the Upolu’s for a relatively short time, and had no firm allies on that side. Contrast with this season, where we HAVE had a tribe swap (thus making original tribe alliances shakier), and a VERY divisive character in the form of Joe (Chrissy wants him gone, and even his original tribe seems to view him as little more than a necessary evil). Even if Dr. Mike sticks with his original tribe, he has room to maneuver, whereas Cochran really did not. Hence why the move is appropriate for one, but not the other.

Point being, the decision falls to Lauren and Ben. Lauren quickly shows which side her bread is buttered on by firming things up with Dr. Mike, which I can kind of understand. As mentioned, Lauren was kind of the “oddball” amongst her tribe, with only Ali as anything resembling an “ally”. If Dr. Mike’s offering her a power couple pact, she has little reason not to take it, and thereby want to keep the people Dr. Mike wants around, around. Ben, however, has more ties to his old tribe, and an intense dislike of Cole. Cole doesn’t do himself any favors by continuing to gorge on food, this time cinnamon sticks. Ben makes his disgust about this known, a boon to the opposition. Dr. Mike does his best to talk Ben around, agreeing with his assessment of Cole’s character, but noting that it’s too soon, as they would lose their majority. Ben is civil about this, and Dr. Mike comments that he’s surprised at how crazy things are at the merge. Come on, Dr. Mike, I thought you were our superfan of the season? If you’ve seen ANY “Survivor”, you know that the merge is a major shakeup time.

In all honesty, despite my praise of Lauren joining with Dr. Mike, Ben IS making the smart move in wanting to go back to his original allies. The key, once again, is options. By sticking with Dr. Mike, they make Dr. Mike their ONLY connection. If he can’t swing some more people, when you get down to the last seven people, you’re most likely done. It’s true that that alliance has fewer people overall, and more hidden immunity idols, which are both attractive features. The other alliance, though, has many connections with Ben, and while Lauren didn’t bond with her original tribe, she can still potentially do something. Plus, Dr. Mike’s rocky history with the original Healers means he probably won’t shed too many tears at their loss, and would probably still be willing to work with you down the line, meaning you keep even more power.

Not to say that the old Healers don’t sense danger though. Realizing that Cole’s leash needs to be tightened AGAIN, Jessica calls him over and urges him to stop eating so much, which Cole seems dumbfounded by. Look, Jessica, I know he’s cute, but you’re smart, and might actually have a shot were it not for the lead weight of Cole around your neck. At some point, you really need to just cut him loose.

Oh, and the new tribe name is Solewa. It sucks, because it’s a combo tribe name. That said, the flag is cool-looking, with the name printed on a strip underneath the flag rather than on the flag itself. Plus, they used the last part of “Yawa” rather than the first part, and the last four letters give me “Bionicle” flashbacks, so I’ll just let this one slide, rather than rant about it.

Speaking of sliding, our immunity challenge is a new twist on the “ball endurance challenge”. We have people moving down an increasingly small balance beam, but this time instead of balancing a ball on a plate, they must spin it around the inside of a hoop. If the ball or you fall off, you’re out, last one standing wins. The small scale and repetitive nature of ball endurance challenges annoys me, but this one does change up enough for me to give it a pass. Our individual immunity idol is ok. It’s basically a big metal plate necklace with some gears and seashell designs on it. It’s a bit garish to me, but it stands out, and it’s hardly the worst thing. Oddly, though, the STAND for the idol is actually really cool looking. Part of it resembles a set of scales, which has a nice “judgement” tone to it appropriate for immunity.

Probst is in fine form with his challenge commentary today. He trashes Ryan for failing two seconds into the challenge, which later gives Chrissy a chance to show off her math skills, calculating how many times beyond Ryan our finalists have gone. He also attempts to hypnotize the players by pointing out how relaxing spinning the ball can be. And, of course, he has to throw some shade. He points out that you can’t really practice for this particular challenge, and he’s right. After all, who on earth has done THIS in their backyard?

CRASH!

COACH: (raising hand) I have.

ME: NO! NO! TWICE IN ONE EPISODE IS TOO MUCH! I DON’T EVEN WANT YOUR AUTOGRAPH! OUT! OUT!

(Coach leaves, pelted by Buffs).

I would fault the music for giving us basically no mystery as to when someone will lose this challenge, but as this was a balance and endurance challenge, we knew from the beginning that the women would dominate. Sure enough, it comes down to a battle between Desi and Ashley, which Desi ends up winning. Good for her!

As you’d expect, talk quickly turns to where Ben and Lauren will go. Cole, having evidently learned from Jessica’s etiquette lessons, goes up and gives what’s actually a really good apology to Ben, talking about what a scumbag he was for hogging the food, and promises to do better. Ben, not being an idiot, sees right through the play, but that’s not to say it wasn’t as good an effort as could be expected from anyone. Sadly, just when Cole is turning things around, it’s time for his demise. You see, while this episode does a fair job, in and of itself, of masking who will win out tonight, it’s soon made clear that Ben and Lauren will make the smart move and go against the old Healers, despite Lauren’s protests. You see, we soon learn our targets for tonight are Chrissy, the lady built up as a hero, smart cookie, and fan favorite, and Cole, who apart from this episode has been shown to be brainless, rude, and little more than a living prop for Jessica. I wonder which of these two has more to lose?

Of course, with idols in the offing, Chrissy and co. discuss who their backup target should be. Joe’s name is thrown out, as he annoys everyone, but is quickly dismissed on the grounds that, as he found one idol, he may have more, thus lending credence to the complaints of every fan who hates that idols are being hidden the same way at separate camps (for my two cents, I look on it as a necessary evil. I get that it makes it easier for the same person to find multiple idols, but it just wouldn’t be fair if idols were hidden differently at different camps. Based on camp, someone might have an easier time idol hunting than someone else). Jessica is therefore thrown out as a backup option, which is a smart plan, since she’s a good, unexpected player unlikely to have an idol played on her. But, with so little screen time so far, and all of it good, what are the odds of that happening? We wouldn’t want another Jeremy Collins (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”) incident on our hands, NOW WOULD WE?

Joe, for his part, has some sense of which way the wind is blowing, as he criticizes Cole for bringing in Ben. I can see his point, since Ben has a number of ties to other people, but I have to give the point to Cole on this one. Ben may not be the most solid ally, but he at least brought SOMEONE! I don’t see YOU making any friends on your tribe, Joe.

Merge Tribal Councils are usually fairly exciting, and this one does not disappoint. Dr. Mike and Ryan set up our main conflict, and Cole actually makes a good, JP-esque point about how solid he is. Once again, though, Joe steals the show. He makes a big show about his loyalty to his original tribe, shortly followed by Dr. Mike doing a pretty accurate impression of him, and pointing out that while he and Joe are cool now, they weren’t before. Apart from further cementing my “Voting against Dr. Mike isn’t a death sentence to that alliance” point from earlier, this sends Joe into a frenzy, ultimately pulling out his second idol. I can KIND of understanding this move, being a sort of “Put fear in the other alliance to make the scramble” tactic, but I feel like there’s too many numbers here for that tactic to be effective. Better to hold onto it, and pull a move like he did at Levu: Be annoying to attract votes to yourself, THEN bust out an idol with no warning after the votes are cast to ensure victory. Instead, all Joe ensures is that people will NOT vote for him. Good for Joe, bad for his alliance.

Sure enough, Chrissy’s alliance wins out, but unfortunately, it’s not Cole who gets a heroic death, but Jessica. While I prefer that Chrissy stay over her, I am sorry to see Jessica go. She had a lot of bite for being one of the “generic pretty girls” cast on the season, and might have become an interesting strategic force given more time. Plus, her exit falls prey to the “Jeremy Collins” effect, where her exit was foreshadowed SO little that it feels unearned. This one got a BIT more traction, and Jessica wasn’t as major a character as Jeremy was, so this doesn’t sting quite as much, but it’s a blemish on an otherwise fascinating episode. We got a good look into the dynamics of everything, and Joe’s antics made for some fun moments. In fact, I don’t want the fun to end, meaning it’s time once again for…

TOP 5 and BOTTOM 5!

In honor of the contestants shilling for Outback Steakhouse, this list will look at the best and worst attempts at product placement the show has ever had. For once, there’s no special rules, so let’s get started with…

TOP 5

5. Visa (“Survivor Africa”): I suppose there is ONE rule worth mentioning: Should a product appear in multiple seasons, I’ll be putting the time I feel it is most memorable/worth talking about, not the first instance. Such is the case here. Yes, it was understated, but for a couple of those early seasons, on certain rewards contestants would pay with “Jeff Probst’s Personal Visa”. Most likely a card made up with a dummy name, this one stuck around from “Survivor The Australian Outback” through “Survivor Marquesas”, and was usually an understated part of the reward, not the reward itself, hence why it ranks low. This is more of a personal choice than any on this list, but I love the idea, even though it’s unrealistic, that Probst DID fork over his actual credit card, and was forced to watch as Lex, Big Tom, and others spent his hard-earned cash on third-world frivolities. I also like to imagine the contestants splurging on the most ridiculous items just to rack up Probst’s bill.

4. Pringles (“Survivor Palau”): Doritos may be the ORIGINAL “Survivor” chip of choice, but it was Pringles that went one step further, and landed itself on the list. Not content with merely being shown on the show, Pringles decided to do special “print” chips that had trivia from the show’s history up to that point on them. As a hard-core “Survivor” fan, this pleases me, and earns the chip a spot on this list.

3. Sprint (“Survivor Gabon”): One of the longer-running sponsors of the show, most of you probably remember Sprint. Not only did the sponsor a “fan-favorite” prize at the end of the seasons, but they usually heralded the loved-one’s challenge by giving people video previews from home. This was a nice touch, more sweet than clever, but still fun. Gabon gets the edge here for having the trick of the reward seeming to just be the video, before having the loved one walk off-camera and reappear on the show. A bit hokey, and very predictable, but usually a fun part of the season, and therefore a worthy bit of product placement.

2. Casa de Charmin (“Survivor Exile Island”): Like most kindergarteners, we want to know how the contestants go to the bathroom out there. Exile Island decided to answer that question with the hilariously named “Casa de Charmin”. Actually an outhouse, and probably more famous for Bruce and BobDawg’s wild night in it, there’s something that’s just hokey enough for this reward to be a nice bit of product placement for the show.

1. Home Depot (“Survivor Palau”): The ultimate product placement trick is, of course, to get your product in a challenge somehow. This is easier said than done, but one of the few seamless integrations, that earns this company the top spot, comes from Home Depot. Challenges involving building something at camp are nothing new, and while some may miss the ingenuity brought on by contestants having to make do with islands supplies, it must be said that by giving them better tools, cooler products were made. The specific winner was a close call between Palau’s bathroom-build and All-Stars’ shelter build, but Palau wins out for two things. First, it gave more choice. All-Stars got a full tool kit, while Palau forced one tribe member to choose just six tools to use. Second, for whatever reason, the bathroom builds got more creative, making for a more fun watch, and more memorable product placement.

Honorable Mention: Febreze (“Survivor Guatemala”): You’d think a product designed to make things smell nice would be out of place on “Survivor”. You would be right. That’s why Febreze was never used on “Survivor” itself, but rather in the end slates. For a couple of seasons, starting I believe with Guatemala, following the vote you would get the “Survivor Family Moment” sponsored by Febreze. Basically a short clip of the eliminated contestant’s family congratulating them, it made for a nice touch, and misses out on the list because the product TECHNICALLY wasn’t on the show itself, but in the commercials. But it was really sweet, so I’ll mention it here.

BOTTOM 5

5. Outback Steakhouse (“Survivor Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers”): For all my grief, this one nearly made the “Top 5” list, since Sandra’s love of Outback actually made the whole thing seem sincere. This episode just took it way too far, though, and thus the food must earn my ire.

4. 7-Up (“Survivor One World”): Maybe this one annoyed just me, but after name-brand soda had been absent from “Survivor” for a while, we didn’t really need to see it again. Thus the presence of 7-Up in the “Survivor” Dark Age was really unnecessary. I’ll concede that they did a good job making the crate look authentic, but once again, the plugging was a bit too much. Probst just used the phrase “Cool. Crisp. Refreshing” one time too many for my liking.

3. Craftsman Tools (“Survivor Redemption Island”): Remember how I said that the holy grail of product placement was to use it in a challenge, but how it was very rarely done right? Yeah, this is a case of it going horribly wrong. Taking apart a challenge and then putting it back together is not a bad idea in and of itself, but the use of modern tools just felt very un-“Survivor”. Do any of you remember this challenge? Of course not! If you do, it’s for how out of place it was, and I for one would like to see it buried by history.

2. “Gulliver’s Travels” (“Survivor Nicaragua”): If the Craftsman Tolls plug felt like forced integration, this one really pushed the envelope. Movies were nothing new for a reward on “Survivor”, but they were usually classics that related to life on the show. For example, “Survivor Africa” had a showing of the film “Out of Africa”. It’s hard to make a Jack Black comedy relevant too “Survivor”, and even carrying around a giant dummy didn’t help things. Only two things spare this atrocity from the top spot: One, the image of Dan sitting on a chair designed to make him seem small. This is hilarious. And two, for all that the attempt at integration failed, at least there was an ATTEMPT!

1. “Jack and Jill” (“Survivor South Pacific”): Yeah, you all knew this was coming. If “Gulliver’s Travels” was AT BEST tangentially related to the show, then the Adam Sandler vehicle “Jack and Jill” was in another solar system. No integration to the challenge or the theme, just dropped randomly as the last reward before the merge. How underwhelming. This in and of itself would have been bad enough, but the producers REALLY pushed people to praise the film, when anyone with taste could tell this was going to be an abomination to the art of filmmaking. Thus, we get forced Coach philosophizing, which is tolerable at best when it ISN’T related to Adam Sandler. I know for a lot of people this falls into “So bad, it’s good.” territory, but for me, it was just too cringe-worthy to be fun even in that respect.

Honorable Mention: Dr. Scholl’s (“Survivor Borneo”): While over-inserting the product may be the cardinal sin of product placement, under-inserting the product comes close. You may not remember this one, and for good reason. It was shilled precisely once, on “Survivor Borneo”, and never heard from again. It wasn’t even the focus of the challenge, instead given out as a bonus after an immunity win by Kelly Wiglesworth. Admittedly the challenge did involve balance, hence the foot connection, but when your product is overshadowed by a cheap tiki head on a string, you’re probably not getting what you’re paying for.

Overall, this episode averages out to “pretty good”. The strategizing was excellent, there were some fun moments, and taken in isolation, the misdirection was good. Taken in the context of the season, though, the winning side was obvious, and the exit unearned, which is why this isn’t yet one of the greats. There’s still time, though.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Game Changers” Episode 8: Yet Another Twist

Seems that we now can’t even have ONE episode to let the status quo be status quo. No, now we have to have a twist EVERY SINGLE EPISODE! And I’m not talking about the blindside, I’m talking about the producer-implemented twist. An extra vote just wasn’t enough for you, huh? You HAD to go and add the vote steal. You’re just bound and determined for someone to play it correctly, right?

Ah, I kid, I kid. True, this episode was not the stuff of “Survivor” legend, but especially compared to the borefest that was the last double-length episode, it did a decent job. Let’s take a look and see what went right, as well as what went wrong.

Gloating is the order of the night back at the new Maku Maku camp, which I’ve since come to realize IS in fact a combination name of “Mana” and “Nuku”, but since the doubling of the term was enough to fool me, I shall spare it the ire of other combination names. Debbie, naturally is a big offender, stating to confessional that the majority six of herself, Tai, Sarah, Troyzan, Brad, and Sierra will stick together, confirming for us that there is not a line in the sand, but, as we get for the episode title, “A Line in the Concrete”. Now, this episode title led many, including myself, to believe that we were in for a predictable episode of the majority alliance sticking together, but of course this was not the case. And the fact that the quote, as it turned out, came from Debbie should have clued everyone into that fact. I’m not saying that Debbie is out of touch with reality, but hyperbole on “Survivor” should be taken with a grain of salt, and in Debbie’s case, it should be taken with an entire saltshaker.

Our past two episodes with someone on the outs (Hali’s vote-off having gotten no after-Tribal breakdown) gave us arguably two of the best handlings of post-Tribal blindsides from Aubry and Varner. Will Andrea continue this trend, or will she ask Zeke to explain himself, only then to interrupt his explanations and get annoyed with him? Given the specificity, you can guess which way it goes. Zeke, understandably, says that while he didn’t vote with the majority himself, he’s ok to go with them to save his own skin, and because he no longer trusts Andrea. A wise move. While it was foolish for him to mistrust Andrea in the first place, now that ship has pretty much sailed, and Zeke has little choice but to jump on the winning train.

Remember Debbie’s concrete line? Yeah, it seems Sarah is an alchemist, and has transmuted that concrete into sand, stating to both herself and Zeke that while now might not be the right time, she’s not bonded to that majority alliance, and will flip if she feels it necessary. I hope you enjoyed that confessional, because you’re going to be hearing about it at regular intervals throughout the episode!

Today’s reward challenge is boring, reused, boring, basic, boring, a team challenge, and did I mention it’s boring? As such, we will not talk about it, but we will talk about several things around it. First and foremost, that location! I’m normally not one to gush at pretty nature shots on “Survivor”, but every once in a while, they hit you with a good one. That arial shot of the challenge, wherein we saw it nestled between bits of coral reef, was breathtaking, at least for me. Coherence be damned, I’d have liked it if the entire challenge had been filmed from that angle. Second, Michaela. With 11 people left, and our contestants divided into teams of five, one person must sit out with no shot at reward, and that person ends up being Michaela. Demonstrating the social poise and grace she is known for, Michaela explains that she understands where people are coming from, and quietly cheers for Cirie. Of course not, she lets everyone within a 50-mile radius know that they did a stupid again. As Michaela says, I’m sure everyone has figured out that the teams were picked based on alliances, rather than challenge ability, but I do have to ask, why HAVEN’T people been commenting on Michaela’s challenge ability? It’s not like she’s been quiet about it. Admittedly, her boasting could be seen as just that, since she hasn’t had those spectacular victories we saw from her on “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”, but she’s had some moments this season as well, and we’ve SEEN Zeke confirming her challenge prowess. Clearly, someone should be recognizing her ability. Oh, and we also see a tube labeled “secret advantage” tied to one of the legs of her bench. In case you didn’t see it, don’t worry, we’ll cut back to it about five or six times before the challenge is over. I’m sure people will give Michaela a hard time for not noticing it, but I would remind you that she’s sitting on the bench itself, and generally disinclined to look at its legs. Maybe if she’d seen it from far away, but even with my HDtv, I could barely make it out in the long shots. If you didn’t KNOW it was there, it would be easy to pass over it by mistake. Prost will also make a big deal out of the fact that Michaela still cheers for some people despite her not getting picked for a team, which he makes out to be a real shock. Gee, I don’t know, Probst, maybe it just means that Michaela is a DECENT HUMAN BEING?! EVER CONSIDER THAT?

It seems this challenge was specifically designed to show how the remaining few who could be described as “fan favorites” such at challenges. Once again, the balance beam is our culprit. Several people have trouble with it, but it’s Zeke and Aubry who most openly suck initially, each losing the lead for their team. Tai also had difficulty, but at least Tai made it across in one go, whereas both Zeke and Aubry take multiple tries. But, of course, our real story is Cirie, who can’t even make it up onto the platform to cross the beam unaided. I’m sure many would be inclined to say that this is a real mark against Cirie, but like with Michaela and the secret advantage, I can’t be too hard on her. This isn’t like some pool lip that’s an inch or two above the water, this was clearly at least a 6-inch jump one had to make, and I doubt Cirie could touch the bottom to give her a lift. Still, while Cirie may have slimmed down and toned up prior to this season, she’s not a challenge force, meaning her side loses. But wait! Probst can make a forced moment out of this, providing unnecessary commentary for Cirie crossing the beam, just to prove she could, with everybody on her team (and even, in the end, some from the other teams) coming to help her up. For all my snark, it is actually a really sweet moment, mainly because you can tell from the look on Cirie’s face that this is something she needed to prove, and would have done without Probst’s gloating. It’s also nice how everyone came together in support of Cirie. In a game that can be really cutthroat, it’s nice to see some genuine tenderness. That being said, there are other moments this season with a similar impact, and the fact that Probst felt the need to narrate the moment, PLUS his seeming goading of Cirie to do so, makes the moment feel at least somewhat manufactured. The good parts of it shine through, but this is one situation where the host with the most should have been the host with the least. At least he has the decency to call in a boat rather than force everyone to swim back.

Evidently Sarah has better eyesight than I do, as she spots the secret advantage, citing her cop observance skills as the basis for this. I’m not one to go for forced confessionals on how one’s occupation relates to the game, but this one actually seems apt. It’s an area where being a cop might actually be an advantage. Point being, it doesn’t surprise me very much at all that Sarah noticed it. What DOES surprise me is no one NOTICING Sarah untying the advantage. I mean, this isn’t even like finding an idol at a challenge, where subtlety is the order of the day, she had to swim out of her way to get there, was obviously doing something for several seconds while on there. And don’t tell me she was helping Michaela. Michaela was CLEARLY off the platform by the time Sarah got there. Maybe this season really IS full of idiots.

After our standard comforting of Cirie, Sarah unwraps her advantage, finding out that it’s a vote steal. As I’ve already discussed both my thoughts on the implementing of this advantage (to recap: it reeks of desperation, but isn’t all that bad all things considered) and of the standard “Sarah is tied to no alliance” confessional, I see no need to dwell on this. Therefore, we head on over to our reward picnic via sea plane, where everyone pigs out on a variety of foods, including the meme-worthy coleslaw for Aubry, as Brad expounds in confessional on what everyone already knew: that he picked his team specifically so as to include part of, but not all of, his alliance, so that he had eyes and ears on both teams. Actually a good strategy, but I must point out the folly of not taking Sarah with you, Brad. It’s obvious from last episode that everyone in your alliance knows that Sarah is on the outs, so you wanted her to be on a team with either yourself or Sierra such that one of the leaders could keep her in the fold. Troyzan and Tai may be loyal to the alliance, but persuasive they ain’t. Can’t fault the concept, though.

Talk turns to the Andrea/Zeke feud, with Andrea once again getting over-the-top angry with Zeke. Look, Andrea, I completely get the emotion, but as someone with more than a basic understanding of strategy, you should know that wearing your heart on your sleeve is a bad idea. Sierra takes this time to mock Andrea in particular, and the minority in general, over their lack of cohesiveness. Fair enough for her to do, if a bit mean spirited. But then Sierra goes on to demonstrate her LACK of knowledge of how “Survivor” works, by stating in confessional that this makes her alliance invincible. Anyone with half a brain should realize that a blindside for them is now planned.

Off to our immunity challenge, which is also reused, but not as bad. Hailing originally from “Survivor Blood vs. Water”, this particular version of the challenge comes courtesy of “Survivor Kaoh Rong”. Players will take letters, spelling “Immunity”, and place them on a wobbly board, while they back away, balancing the board with a rope. First person to spell “Immunity” and get back to the start, wins. As with most reused challenges, it cannot get my seal of approval, but at least it wasn’t an overdone one, and fairly difficult. Sadly, this is also possibly the leas-exciting version of this challenge. A lot of the appeal comes from the back-and-forth this challenge can bring. Do not forget Cydney’s come from behind victory on “Survivor Kaoh Rong”.

We also, sadly, have no Joe Del Campo (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”) to hilariously misspell “Immunity”, though Tai tries valiantly to take his place, being unable to even spell the word on his starting barrel. Actually, I thought Tai was just trying to stack his letters backwards first, making them easier to grab when doing the rest of the challenge, but no, seems he just had difficulty spelling the word. As I said, we have our two frontrunners who rule the challenge, these being Andrea and Troyzan. The former winning would send plans into chaos, making for an exciting pre-Tribal experience. The latter winning would have no impact whatsover. Guess who wins?

Plans are quickly set in place for Andrea’s ouster, with Debbie, Brad, and Sierra coming together to talk about who to vote out. It seems Michaela cannot escape the “annoying” stigma, even with Cirie’s help, as she is once again put up as a target. Debbie suggests her, as she can’t stand her any longer, but Brad correctly points out that Andrea is the biggest threat. I suppose I could see her as being the biggest threat based on a combination of both smarts and challenge performance, but I’d argue that Aubry or Cirie is a bigger threat. Still, I’d imagine peace at camp is also a factor, and I can’t argue with Debbie’s response. Deferring to Brad’s argument, she agrees to go along with what the camp wants. Can’t say I fault that move. It might even lead some to believe that Debbie has actually LEARNED from her experience on “Survivor Kaoh Rong”. As we’ll see in a few scenes, you would be sorely mistaken.

For now, the rest of the alliance convenes to go over the plan. Sarah, however, is miffed that she was the last one to know about all this, and correctly points out that it probably indicates that she’s on the bottom of the alliance. Again, good observation skills and reasoning! After that abysmal performance at the merge on “Survivor Cagayan”, I’m not sure I will ever be fully on board the Sarah-train, but she’s trying her hardest this episode. Of course, she also mistakenly says her error on “Survivor Cagayan” was taking the easy path, when it was actually her being stubborn and unwilling to compromise that did her in, but hey, desire for change is at least something.

Put out by the alliance’s treatment of her, Sarah talks first to Zeke and then Andrea about making a move. Zeke salivates at the thought, and Andrea seems on board as well. Both are wary about working with the other, as one would expect, but say they’re willing to temporarily trust one another for the sake of getting further, which is how it should be. I, however, don’t buy this flip for one moment. They’ve been building it up too much, and it seems like misdirection. On top of that, while the current majority alliance has a clear target in Andrea, we haven’t heard of a target from the other side. We’ve heard whispers of Sierra’s name, but nothing concrete, and if we don’t have that, I don’t buy a flip.

It’s tough to say whether or not Sarah should flip, since there’s no target yet given within the majority, and therefore no obvious upsides or downsides to the targeting. I agree with Sarah’s assessment that she’s on the outs with the majority alliance, and therefore her playing the swing vote would probably be her smartest game. This would imply that flipping, regardless of target, is a good idea, since the numbers say that if she doesn’t do it now, it would be difficult to stop the Pagonging. However, with just over half the people left, plus her steal-a-vote advantage, Sarah can wait at least one more Tribal Council before making her move, and flipping can make you a target. Plus, there’s always the “gather the disgruntled from the majority alliance plus those on the outside” gambit, and so I think Sarah sticking with her side is probably the right move.

After a conversation with Sierra, in which Sierra promises Sarah final three with herself and Debbie, Sarah seems to be reconsidering it as well. The promise seemed kind of half-assed to me, but it is another factor to think about.

Remember all that goodwill about Debbie seeming to learn from her game the last time? Yeah, take that all away. Cockiness has once again gotten the better of Debbie, and she has flown too close to the sun. And by “the sun”, I of course mean our beloved fan-favorite Aubry. Yes, of all the pre-game relationships that seemed the most interesting, and most cringe-worthy, the Debbie/Aubry relationship topped the bunch. This is mostly due to the fact that this was the only relationship that seemed to have open tension, though even then, the tension was mostly one-sided. Debbie was understandably still somewhat upset about Aubry blindsiding her, while Aubry seemed indifferent to Debbie, stating only that she could easily tell when Debbie was lying to her. Debbie, though she said she might try and play nice with Aubry, had no intention of seriously working with her. And for all Debbie’s protestations that she doesn’t trust Aubry, given that she wanted to use Aubry as a number down the road, that doesn’t seem likely to me. I find it more likely that Debbie, having done a good job of manipulating pretty much everyone else, decides to try in on her perceived greatest foe not named Brad Culpepper. To Debbie’s credit, she actually comes up with a pretty good lie. She feeds Aubry the party line of Michaela as the decoy vote, but also feeds her a bit about how Sarah doesn’t trust her. If it works, this last bit is particularly useful, since Sarah is the swing vote here, and getting the alliance to mistrust her would be a stroke of genius.

Of course, this assumes that it works. Given that our next scene is Aubry telling everyone in her alliance about how much of a liar Debbie is, going so far as to flip the bird in double for her (not cool, Aubry!), I think it’s safe to say that Aubry’s claim of being able to easily tell when Debbie’s lying holds more water. Now, had Aubry confined herself to talking to her alliance, Debbie might still have been safe, but Aubry also confides this to Sarah, who is now back to saying she wants to flip. Seriously, this woman changes whichever way the wind blows. One thing makes it seem like she’s on the outs? Flipping on the alliance! One conversation indicating she’s in the final three? Back with the alliance!

Debbie does emerge as a coherent target, though, and up against Andrea, I still say that sticking with the majority is right for Sarah. True, Debbie is fairly smart, and hides it easier than Andrea, but Andrea is overall the bigger threat. Moreover, if you’re going to move against the alliance, you want to take out one of the main power players. Were the target Sierra or Brad, I could get behind a Sarah flip. While Debbie is clearly one of the decision makers, what she doesn’t have that Sierra and Brad do is connections. This alliance runs across a few tribal lines, and it’s clear that what’s holding it together is Sierra and Brad. Debbie helps make the decisions, but no one’s staying in the alliance because of Debbie. Take one of the other two out, and they crumble. Fail to do so, and you’ve still got a strong foursome with three idols between them. Granted, Sarah doesn’t know about that, but on “Survivor” it’s probably safe to assume they have at least one idol. Better to stick with the surefire thing, especially with the steal a vote advantage to help you out.

While I can’t say that tonight’s Tribal Council is bad, I can say that it’s forgettable. Not that every Tribal needs a standout moment, but they help. This one just felt like a lot of grandstanding, with the odd ironic quip from Debbie to lighten the mood.

From my perspective, we don’t even have that great of misdirection. I just can’t see anyone in their right mind keeping Andrea over Debbie.

I always suspected Sarah was crazy. Debbie goes home, and I’m an odd combination of both sorry and not sorry. Debbie is definitely a fun character, but like sugar, too much of it can kill you. In that sense, I’m happy. We got just the right amount of Debbie, both good and bad. That being said, our alternate target was Andrea, and while she’s an ok strategist, she’s just BORING. Compared to who we could have gotten rid of, this is a loss. And, as I hope I’ve articulated, the wrong strategic move.

That being said, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy this episode. Much like the Tribal Council, very little stood out, and at times it reeked of desperation, but it was mostly a fun experience, with some good strategizing to go along with it. “Survivor” bread and butter if ever there was some. Let us hope that next episode can build on this solid foundation.

-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.