Let’s be real here: Coming in, no one expected much of anything from this season. People were upset about a number of the casting choices, and predicted that this season would go down unfortunate avenues with regards to everyone’s favorites. Matters weren’t helped when the season often DID go down those avenues, with only Cirie and Aubry remaining out of those that people really wanted to see again. Plus, then we had unexpected upheavals that left bad tastes in our mouths, notably the bullshit twist that eliminated Malcolm, and the unpleasantness that was Jeff Varner’s exit. Even though the last few episodes post-merge have been alright, they’re definitely not the stuff of “Survivor” legend. I bring this up, not because this episode was spectacular in and of itself, but because this episode did show that even a season that’s as much of a misfire as this one is can still show some skill. This episode did what few can do: It took a boring and predictable plotline that most everyone saw coming, and managed to make it engaging and unpredictable. Before we can get to that, though, it’s time for another…
MATT’S MESS-UP!
I think this might be a record. We have not one, not two, but THREE points from last episode that I neglected to discuss. Two of them are kind of understandable, for reasons I’ll get to shortly, but one of them there’s really no excuse for. During the strategy talk of last episode, there was a brief scene in which Tai and Troyzan agreed to look out for each other. Nothing much would come of this, were it not for the irony that Tai and Troyzan, between them, have THREE idols, meaning that if they were willing to trust one another, they could easily take control. Sadly, the pair do not. I understand why. Without knowing about the other’s idol, and thereby having the potential protection of mutually-assured destruction, it’s a big risk, but as a backseat quarterback, they’d ultimately be more successful, if only they could trust. And THIS is the sort of insight that keeps “Survivor” interesting after all these years.
As to how I justify missing the two other points? Well, I normally stop talking about the episode after the vote happens, and so it would make sense to end my blog there. Barring, of course, that some reaction after the episode merits talking about, and this past episode had just that. Firstly, there was an exchange from the jury wherein Hali referred to those perpetrating the Zeke blindside as “Game Changers”, while Debbie instead preferred to call them “idiots”. There’s much debate as to which interpretation is correct, but only time will tell. Despite Aubry being included in that decision, I’m inclined to go more with Debbie’s interpretation, for the reasons I gave last blog about Zeke’s blindside potentially being a vote too soon. What I find more interesting, though, is the differing philosophies between the twosome that this shows. Hali fully buys into the hype for this season, and probably believes in shouting “BIG MOVES!” as well. She’s looking more at the strategic game. Debbie, on the other hand, takes things more than a little personally, and gets very caught up in that aspect of the game, hence her comments here. I can’t even BEGIN to speculate on how this may play out later in the game, but suffice to say, it provides some fun insight.
Our big story, though, is Michaela, who openly cried after voting off of Zeke. At this point, the reasons behind it have been speculated and analyzed to death, so I feel no inclination to put my oar in the water on this subject. What this DOES do is support my theory that Michaela was MADE to play “Survivor”… in the pre-Rob Cesternino era. I mentioned during “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X.” that Michaela represented a return to older character archetypes, when loyalty, wilderness survival, and challenge ability were what mattered most. Wilderness survival may not be exactly her thing, but I defy you to tell me Michaela isn’t focussed on the other two. In a lot of ways, she’s a female Rupert (“Survivor Pearl Islands”), and so would have fit in during the early days. The trouble is Michaela was simply born too late. Almost 15 years have passed since “Survivor The Amazon”, and the game has moved away from favoring people with that character type. Hence, Michaela’s doom, despite what this episode would indicate. Wearing her emotions on her sleeve, and being upset at voting out a friend? Common in the early days of the show, and not unheard of in this era, but much less common.
Now that we can finally discuss the episode proper, we see that talking is NOT the order of the day here. Tai is probably the most shell-shocked, since not only was he on the wrong side of the numbers, but most of his own ALLIANCE voted against him. He quite politely and calmly asks if they can talk about the reasoning behind the vote, a kind and diplomatic gesture that Andrea basically returns with a big “Eff you!” and shuts down. Tai being Tai, he’s not overly upset about this, but it seems like an unnecessary bridge burn from Andrea.
We then see that Andrea is not opposed to talking to people, just Tai. Astutely realizing that Michaela is probably the person most in need of a pick-me-up after the vote, Andrea tries to console her and bring her back into the alliance. Michaela PLAYS like she’s ok with it, but this being Michaela, she’s not ok with it. You can tell by the glare she shoots over Andrea’s shoulder in one of the better shots of the episode. Yeah, maybe should have considered THAT aspect of the Zeke vote, guys!
The next morning, we get Sierra still scrambling, trying to rebuild that bond with Sarah. To this end, Sierra tells Sarah about the legacy advantage, describing it as an immunity idol that can only be used at the final six. Now, I’m not normally one to advocate telling huge whoppers about the power of an advantage, since they’re so easily seen through, but here, I don’t see why Sierra DIDN’T play it up, make it out to be a Super-Idol or something. Zeke, the ONLY person who could contradict your story, is gone, so there’s really no way for anyone left in the game to call your bluff! That being said, how Sierra frames it still makes it powerful, and sharing secrets like this CAN be a good way to build a bond, especially since Sierra implies that she’ll share the benefits of the advantage with Sarah without ever actually PROMISING anything. Had Sierra stopped there, she would have at worst done nothing and at best gained a potentially ally on the inside to help her flip the numbers. This being Sierra, however, she goes and screws it up by also mentioning the “Will” part of the legacy advantage. No, not the part where Will Wahl (“Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X.”) takes over as host from Probst, but the part where if she’s voted out with the advantage she gets to give it to someone. If there was ever an incentive to blindside you, Sierra, you’ve just given it to Sarah. Of course, Sarah could be a moron and assume that this ALSO builds trust with Sierra, and you see where I’m going with this.
In the course of the conversation, Sierra mentions a willingness to blindside Brad, which leads to Cirie and Andrea talking about eliminating Brad, culminating in Andrea swearing that Brad will be the one to go. For those with the betting still open, you can safely stake the farm on the fact that Brad Culpepper will NOT be the latest evictee.
As promised, we now get to our loved one’s challenge. It’s sweet, it’s sappy, it’s the human element to the show that I have so defended over the years, and this one is saccharine, but no different from most other ones. So, time to break with tradition and be snarky and cynical about this particular loved ones challenge. As I’ve said before, I’m in that section of people who feel that showing emotion on “Survivor” is not a sign of weakness, particularly at the loved one’s challenge. I’m also particularly inclined to forgive it in cases where people really have missed major life events; stuff they can’t get back, like Cirie missing her son’s graduation. All that being said, I feel like Sarah falling to her knees even BEFORE meeting her loved one is a bit much. When you see them, fine, and I do understand that Sarah is also missing out on important stuff, in this case the early years of parenthood, or as it is also known, hell. But that display was so over the top, and so early on, that I can’t help but feel that it IS a bit of a weak spot for her.
To add onto the weirdness, Probst for some reason this time around gets into the habit of asking the contestants who they think came to visit them. Gee, Probst, it’s not like they filled out an application where they LISTED who they wanted to come. There’s NO WAY they’d have any idea who’d be there for them! Actually, having all the loved ones be previous contestants would have been kind of fun, but imagine if someone had guessed wrong. What would Probst have said? “No, sorry, your loved one couldn’t make it, so instead, we decided to bring back Russell Hantz from ‘Survivor Samoa’, because we haven’t pissed off enough of the fans.
Pontificating aside, we get introduced to Sarah’s husband, who assures her that their kid, Knox, is doing fine. Andrea comes next, meeting up with her mom… Scout from “Survivor Vanuatu”! No, no, but I thought it was for a second. Andrea and her mom get a nice little moment reminiscing about the unfortunate loss of Andrea’s sister, which is emotional, but would have been more so if we had heard anything about her BEFORE this. Aubry then reunites with her sister, who I swear is the result of a weird transporter accident involving Aubry and Debbie Wanner. Sierra gets to see her dad again, which amounts to nothing, and then we get to meet Michaela’s mom. Ok, I’m a casual fan of Michaela, but I LOVE her mom! She’s so charming in her demeanor, and yet she’s got some bark to her. Note how she snapped Michaela back into place when she was getting frustrated. Hot damn, why couldn’t SHE have been on the show? This is followed by the uneventful reunion between Troyzan and his brother, and then Tai and his partner, Mark the Chicken! No, actually it’s just Mark, and I’ve got to say, Tai’s done really well for himself. Granted, Mark is no Adonis, but he’s pretty good-looking. Consider yourself lucky, Tai! Then we come to Brad, and honestly, I can’t remember who he brought in. She seemed like a neat lady, though. Last is the aforementioned Cirie reunion with her son, which was probably the most genuinely emotion, save possibly for Sarah’s.
We find out that the contestants are playing for barbecue time with their loved ones. Naturally, with stakes (and steaks) like that, production has pulled out all the stops in creation a no-holds-barred beat-down of a one-of-a-kind individual challenge, ensuring the maximum level of competition and drama. Or, you know, they could do ANOTHER damn team obstacle course. I’m sure THAT would in no way be disappointing.
We don’t even get exciting misdirection as to who’s going to win. One team consists of Brad, Andrea, and Aubry, in terms of physical challenges, arguably the best threesome left in the game. You could argue for Michaela or Sierra in one of those spots, probably over Aubry, but those three are still formidable, and when Cirie is on one other team, and Tai on the third, you know you’re sunk.
Thankfully, the team DOES get to pick two pairs of loved ones to come with them, and here’s where there might be interesting drama. Since Aubry and Andrea appear to be allies, I’ll be analyzing the choices from their perspective. Gotta say, I can’t really fault them. When it comes to choosing people for the family reward challenge, you want to take people who are in your alliance, either as swing votes or as power players, but also people who had the biggest emotional moments, both as an alibi for why you picked them, and so you don’t look like a heartless bastard. Aubry and Andrea choose wisely under these criteria, picking first Cirie, a power player, and Sarah, a potential swing vote, and both of whom had the biggest emotional moments. Some might argue that, given how visibly pissed Michaela was at losing the challenge, she ought to have been taken to keep the other swing vote happy, but I’d argue that Cirie is also a potential defect danger is she isn’t pandered too somewhat. Plus, while I like Michaela’s mom a lot, there wasn’t as much emotion there as there was with Cirie, making Cirie a safe play. If I were to nitpick, I might have picked Sarah first, just in case Probst didn’t say to take the second pair, on the grounds that Sarah and her vote steal most need to be kept happy at this point, but I can’t really complain.
That neat lady that Brad brought with him also notes Michaela’s frustration, and as Brad’s currently out of the numbers, she encourages him to go and make friends with her, to hopefully get back the numbers. Brad may not be necessary, however, as Michaela and Tai find THEIR missing Craigslist connection, much as Aubry and Tai did this time last year. Michaela notes that she and Tai are on the bottom of their respective alliances, the former due to not getting picked, the latter due to getting votes, and agree to stick together. They bring in our other losers, Troyzan and Sierra, with Brad as a presumed proxy. They unsurprisingly agree that Andrea is too much of a threat, and decide to go for her. This is the point in the episode where I start to question if Michaela is quite as old-school as she lets on. True, the past evidence still stands, but this is upper class thinking. Michaela correctly realizes she’s on the bottom of her current alliance, and decides to flip the script, hoping for something better. Tai isn’t flipping the script as much, but at this point, any ally is a good ally for him. Unfortunately, I don’t see either of them faring any better under the Brad-Sierra regime than the Andrea-Cirie-Aubry regime, but with that said, fragmenting as many alliances as possible is good if you’re on the bottom, since it means people may need to take you to the end out of sheer necessity of numbers if you do it enough times.
For all Probst’s protestations that this is an original challenge, I see it as a variation on the final immunity challenge from “Survivor Micronesia”. Basically everyone will use pole to hold up a buoy, with the last person holding their buoy as the winner. It’s scaled up from the “Survivor Micronesia” challenge, though it does lose the “ever-lengthening pole” aspect. Since bigger does not always mean better, I’m inclined to prefer the original.
In a nice twist, someone who was targeted actually wins. Brad pulls out his victory, which is only hampered by the obvious foreshadowing of Andrea targeting him at the top of the episode. The majority quickly regroups and unsurprisingly decides to target Sierra, with the need to break up the Brad-Sierra pairing still tantamount. Michaela busts out her acting chops again, agreeing to go with the alliance to their faces. After conferring with Tai, however, they agree that Andrea must go, which as stated before is a good move. Things seem set in stone, but when Sarah grows brain cells, all bets are off. Sarah, rather than be upset at the possibility of a potentially ally being voted off, realizes that this is a chance to get HER hands on the legacy advantage. You know, that thing that she should have thought of initially? The tricky part, though, is how to do it without pissing off Sierra. Frankly, I don’t see how it can happen. Either Sarah is going to have to use her vote steal, in which case Sierra will KNOW something’s up, or Sarah will have to convince Michaela to flip. True, this might make Sierra more mad at Michaela than Sarah, but Sarah would still be implicated, and unless Sierra is BLIND, she’d know that Sarah probably betrayed her, since the only way for this to work as a blindside is for Sarah to swear that she’s with Sierra. Better to stick with the Andrea vote now, and wait for a more opportune moment. Plus, this is potentially the last chance to break up that threesome.
While I can’t say this is the most memorable Tribal Council overall, I CAN say that it’s probably the best one from this season that doesn’t have some unpleasant connotation attached to it. There’s a lot of sound strategic talk, with Andrea articulating the decision of who to bring on reward, Aubry talking about the buildup of little annoyances versus big annoyances, and both Andrea and Sierra subtly politicking for the other by talking generally about who they talked to, and pleading for loyalty. As per usual, though, Michaela gets the zinger, talking about being loyal to the “we” until it becomes a “me”. Why wasn’t THIS the episode title?
There’s also the unpredictability here, and once again, I’d say the wrong decision is made. Sierra goes home, thereby further solidifying the power of the overall more dangerous Andrea-Cirie-Aubry threesome. Still, can’t say I’m too sorry to see Sierra go. Out of all the people case, she was one of the ones I most considered an insult to actual good returnees, and she seemed like she was getting poised for a potential win, so I’m glad that didn’t come to pass. We got some decent strategy out of her, but she’s not one of the greats, and I don’t think we’re missing much from her absence. Of course, at this point, the only people I WOULD be upset to see go would be Aubry, Michaela, and possibly Cirie.
Not one for the record books and maybe not as good as the other merge episodes, but still a decent one nonetheless. With a double-boot episode looming, we’re in for some chaos, Cirie or no Cirie.
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
idolspeculation 