“Survivor” Retrospectives: South Pacific

And so we come to South Pacific. No, not the musical, the “Survivor” season. I have to admit, when I started doing “‘Survivor’ Retrospectives”, I wasn’t at all sure I was going to do this season. Not so much because it’s a hard season to analyze or anything. In fact, this one might be one of the easier seasons to get through in terms of all that goes on. No, I wasn’t sure I was going to do this one because this is where I come in. “Idol Speculation” stated with South Pacific. “Survivor Redemption Island” was just that bad that it caused me to start blogging about the show before anyone had any reason to give a damn about my opinion. But this also meant that I’d kind of already given my thoughts on the season, why go over it again? I’m doing it now, partly because I’m so obsessed that I need to finish EVERY season, regardless of whether or not I have much of anything to say about it, and partly because when I blog about a season, I talk about it on an episode-by-episode basis. True, I try to give some overall thoughts in my final blog of the season, but that’s still my knee-jerk reaction. Time and space let you see things you couldn’t before, and so, since I might have something different to say about it. So here we are, South Pacific. Was my first blogging season good? Bad? A little of both? An obvious “Guardians of the Galaxy” reference? Perhaps all of the above. Read on to find out.

Before commencing the reading on and finding out, though, I should give fair warning about spoilers. From this point forward, I write these blogs as if talking to someone who was already familiar with the outcome of the season, or at least didn’t care about knowing the major plot points of said season. If you just want to know what I generally think of the season, without any of these spoilers, scroll IMMEDIATELY to the bottom of this web page, where I have a section labeled “Abstract” that will give you just what you’re looking for. For everyone else, who wants to know what I think about this season in nauseating detail, it’s time.

CAST

Surprisingly for a season with returning contestants (a fact that will be talked about a LOT in later sections), the big star of this season is not one of said returning contestants, but the little red-haired nerd himself, John Cochran. Much like David Murphy on “Survivor Redemption Island”, Cochran (as he annoyingly insisted on being called) was built up BIG TIME pre-season. Not so much for his smarts, although that was a factor (Harvard-educated lawyer and all that), but for his superfan status. He was pitched as the uber-“Survivor” nerd, the one who actually got off the couch to play the game he loved. And, to some degree, he did not disappoint. He certainly had an encyclopedic knowledge of “Survivor”, certainly showed how happy he was to be in the game, and did, in my book, have a few moments of good strategy (which will be talked about in the “Twist” section). But what Cochran was most definitely was a character. While David Murphy seemed to fail to deliver in many ways, Cochran made sure he would not be forgotten. He was a caricature of a nerd, pathetic at challenges (even puzzle-based ones), cracking self-deprecating jokes about using the tribe machete, and falling victim to amusing injuries. He sort of floundered through most of the game, but did flounder in such a way that he would not be forgotten. Note that I say “not forgotten” instead of “liked”. This will amaze people who did not join “Survivor” fandom until “Survivor Caramoan” or later, but Cochran was not universally loved or respected like he pretty much is now. We’ll talk about the changing perceptions of Cochran when we come to that season, but for now, let’s focus on South Pacific. While it would be unfair to say that Cochran was universally hated or disrespected back in the day, and it would be fair to say that he was the big name people remembered from this season even then, Cochran was considered the “villain” of the piece. The trouble with Cochran being a caricature of the “Survivor” fanbase was that Cochran did not get shown in a positive light, largely. He did very little strategically, at least compared to what people expected of him, and there were many confessionals in which the Savaii tribe relentlessly berated Cochran and how pathetic he was. Given Cochran’s general performance, these could not be refuted, so he seemed like an insult to the “Survivor” fanbase. When he finally DID make a move that was purely his own (which will be gone over in the “Twist” section), it was seen as being so poorly executed and stupid that the fanbase grew even more insulted, and while he had a few supporters even then, the rallying cry was largely “Cochran sucks!” This softened somewhat by season’s end, due to the clip show “Survivor” used to do. Lest you think that what’s shown in the clip show never has an impact on the show, let South Pacific stand as the counterargument. Remember all those confessionals about how pathetic Cochran was? The clip show gave us how the tribe was treating Cochran to his face. Suffice to say, it wasn’t very nice. This gave Cochran a lot of sympathy, and while many still didn’t agree with his move, they could better understand why, and so Cochran became somewhat more popular. He still wasn’t particularly beloved, that wouldn’t come until “Survivor Caramoan”. At the very least, though, Cochran was acknowledged as being the big character of the season, and seen as somewhat put upon. For my part? I loved Cochran! While the whole “caricature” thing did get a bit old, I identified with how put-upon Cochran was by his tribe a lot. It seemed to me like he had some brains that he didn’t really get to show, since Savaii kind of cut him off at the knees before he had a chance to shine. He was somewhat funny, and had a lot of potential. Did he let me down from what I expected? Sure. Was he more annoying than I would have liked? Kind of? But was he still enjoyable, and did I like watching him? Yes. If you were going to have a flagship character for South Pacific, you could do worse than John Cochran.

But, of course, Cochran wasn’t the ONLY big name to come out of South Pacific. No, for all that we got the pretty cool John Cochran this season, we also had endure yet ANOTHER Hantz this time around! The producers obviously realized that they couldn’t use Russell again, after this last performance, but they couldn’t let that gold-mine die. So, we had a season where we had to endure his nephew, Brandon Hantz. While maybe not as hated as on his return on “Survivor Caramoan”, Brandon was still seen as annoying and hypocritical on his season. He was one of the annoying “moral crusaders” who wanted to play the game honestly, which we were sadly getting a LOT of at this point. On top of that, Brandon went back and forth on how he wanted to play. First he said he would hide his heritage from his tribe (something I thought would be difficult to do, given that the name “Hantz” was tattooed on his arm), but then goes out and reveals it in a big, cheesy confession that ate up valuable strategy time. He said he was going to take care of people, but then went on an attack against Mikayla Wingle for no apparent reason, only getting her voted out. I’ve been more of a Mikayla fan than most, but even I will admit that apart from being “the girl pursued for no reason by crazy Brandon Hantz”, she’s not memorable, and didn’t contribute much to the season. But back to Brandon. While we hadn’t seen the worst of him at this point, the audience still wasn’t big on him. He was preachy and stupid, and I completely agree with the audience here. Though not nearly as bad as Russell Hantz (“Survior Samoa”), in that he was somewhat more polite overall, Brandon’s schtick of morality and stupidity just got old really fast, and while he was remembered after the season, it wasn’t much fun to watch, and he’s part of what drags down the season.

Fortunately for “South Pacific”, for every Brandon-type character we had to endure, we had a good character to love, like Dawn Meehan. Once again, this is a case where the character became more well-known after a future appearance, but even during and after South Pacific, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who disliked Dawn, and many people remembered her fondly. Somewhat similar to how I viewed Cochran, Dawn was seen as someone who could potentially have good strategy, but got cut off in their prime. She also drew a lot of comparisons to Holly Hoffman (“Survivor Nicaragua”) as an older lady whose emotions got the better of her early game, but came back to do well. These comparisons are nor surprising, since Dawn was actually supposed to be on “Survivor Nicaragua”, but got cut for Holly instead, meaning the characters are so similar that CBS didn’t want two on one season. Still, Dawn was a great addition. You could tell that she had gumption. She was likeable, and for my part, it’s always fun to see an older lady on “Survivor”. I, like a lot of the audience, tend to feel they’re more interesting than the generic good-looking bikini babes “Survivor” likes to give us, and so Dawn was a great addition to the cast, and another part of what makes it stand out.

Before we delve into the returnees for this season, as well as those popular at the time that seasons since have made us forget, we must discuss someone who, while not HUGELY popular at the time, did make a big splash afterward. I’m talking about our winner for the season, Sophie Clarke. Sophie played a very quiet, snarky game. She was noticed on the season, giving a fair number of scathing confessionals about her fellow tribemates, but also showing a bit of personal growth, opening up more as the season went along. “Survivor” very rarely does story arcs with character development, at least over the course of a single season, but when they do happen, they usually show people developing strategically. Watch Kathy Vavrick-O’Brien on “Survivor Marquesas” if you want an example of a season-long story arc. But Sophie was a very rare case, since she developed socially. For a lot of fans, including myself, this was kind of fun to watch, with her snark keeping us entertained over the more boring parts. On top of this, Sophie was also always involved in strategy. Whenever you had a plan to flip, or a discussion of who to vote out, Sophie was there, which sort of quietly showed her intelligence. Oddly, though, Sophie is respected as a strategist, even though she never made an overt move. And here in lies the conundrum that is Sophie: she never actually made a move in the game, apart from getting into the winning alliance and giving a good Final Tribal Council Performance (one of the best of all time, in my opinion). And yet, unlike other winners who basically made no moves in the game, Sophie is generally respected as a good winner. Part of this, of course, is due to the fact that she wasn’t another returning contestant winner. Beyond that, however, one could see that by her not making a move, she actually dictated the course of the game. By her not flipping, others didn’t flip, and while this made for a fairly predictable game (which I’ll discuss the drawbacks of in the “Overall” section), it also meant that Sophie knew not to look a gift horse in the mouth. She knew that, if she stayed the course, she’d go to the end with people who were easy to beat, and so stopped those people from flipping, and potentially screwing her game up. One has to look closely to see (explaining why Sophie’s game is really only visible on rewatch), but Sophie did play the game really well, and this combined with her growth and wit made her a fairly good winner. Certainly better than her two predecessors. And she won the final immunity challenge against Ozzy Lusth (“Survivor Cook Islands”). That’s pretty cool. One thing that I also personally like about Sophie is that fact that she was a young woman on the show (22 at the time), yet clearly was not a dumb lady who looked good in a bikini. She was cast because she was a good character. Don’t get me wrong, Sophie is hardly unattractive, but she’s not the stereotypical model of feminine beauty that “Survivor” loves in their young women. I love that fact that arguably the most respected young winner of the show is the one who isn’t just a brainless beauty. Just goes to show that casting CHARACTERS rather than MODELS usually yields better season results.

Who, exactly, was this goat that Sophie wanted to take to the end. None other than the Dragon-Slayer himself. Benjamin “Coach” Wade was on this season, this time rambling on about both Christianity and Greek Mythology! While there was a certain amount of “Coach fatigue” by this point, Coach had been spaced out a little better than Russell Hantz, and so people were generally accepting of him. Coach played a better strategic game this time around, which people liked, and was arguably somewhat less irritating with the preachiness, but like Brandon Hantz, he contributed largely to the negative feelings most people have about this season. I won’t say that I liked Coach, but then I’ve never been a big Coach fan. Personally, I was more a fan of him on “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains”, where he seemed to have some personal growth and was better than Russell Hantz, but while not the highlight of the season, he was still memorable. But even Coach pales in comparison to Challenge Jesus himself, the aforementioned Ozzy. Unlike other recent returnees, Ozzy had had a long hiatus from the show, making people happy to see him back. And Ozzy delivered exactly what people wanted to see. He was good outdoors. He was good in challenges. He was an overall nice guy. He brought a bit more strategy than in his previous incarnations, and as I’ll be discussing later, he was a nice monkey wrench in a season that was ultimately pretty predictable. Even so, I actually found Ozzy to be a bit preachy in a different direction, and I wasn’t a big Ozzy fan to begin with, so while I acknowledge his importance as a character, I don’t consider him a highlight of the season.

That’s where the currently notable characters end, but there are a couple more people who were semi-popular at the time that are worth talking about now. The first of these is supposed strategist Jim Rice. Similar to Dawn, Jim was seen as someone who had a lot of potential as a strategist (and even showed it by deposing Ozzy in a pretty fun manner, which I do give him points for), but got cut off at the knees by Cochran’s twist. He was also one of the people on the receiving end of Cochran’s move, and did not take it well. He got a lot of love as the voice of the audience when Cochran was hated. As Cochran became more popular, Jim Rice became less popular, due to his being rightly seen as a major bully of Cochran, and taking his vote-off too hard. I quite agree with the latter take on Jim Rice. I certainly respect that he had some strategic potential, particularly for his taking Ozzy down a peg, but the bitterness he had towards Cochran for a fair game move was one of the more unpleasant aspects of the season, and therefore, I think it’s only too right that he’s largely forgotten. He could have been great, but his actions made things uncomfortable, so good riddance. In a similar vain, Whitney Duncan was another potential strategist who fell from grace at least in part due to her treatment of Cochran. She had a few subtle strategy moments that both I and the audience rather liked, but again, once she was on the receiving end of Cochran’s move, she became pretty hard to listen to for how hard she was on Cochran. I did admire that, despite being another one of the “hot girls” of the season, she seemed to have a few brains, but like with Jim Rice, I can’t get beyond her treatment of Cochran. As if Whitney didn’t have enough of a hard time for this, her reputation was further tarnished by a scandal after the game. During her time, she had formed an alliance with fellow contestant Keith Tollefson (who isn’t remembered at all) via flirting. Most viewers assumed this was strategy on Whitney’s part, but afterwards, the two became engaged. This would be fine, another romance from the show, if it weren’t for the fact that Whitney was TECHNICALLY married at the time. This didn’t look good, and a subsequent appearance on “The Amazing Race” made her and Keith look like desperate reality-whores, the final nail in the coffin. It’s a bit of a shame. While I was never a big fan of Whitney’s she had some potential (more even than Jim, I’d say, since she was more subtle), and even though I don’t like her personally, she could have been a good all-star.

Most of the rest of the cast is pretty forgettable, and it’s a majority, unfortunately. Still, credit where credit is due, this season produced a LOT of good, memorable characters. Some you wish you could forget, and I do have to detract points for those people, but this season had many standouts who were good, and a decent amount of strategy besides. Is it one of the best casts the show has ever had. No, but it’s pretty decent, with a lot of excellent standouts, so I’d say this is one aspect of the season that does a good job.

Score: 7 out of 10.

CHALLENGES

Usually when I say a season is not beloved by the audience as a whole, I can at least say the challenges are good. This is not the case here. The challenges are complete crap. When they aren’t reused, they either fail to stand out or are just lame overall. Shall I remind you of the “Jack and Jill” challenge of matching masks, or the “Hold the coconut in ropes” challenge? Yeah, not the stuff of “Survivor” legend, or are just stupid and poor to look at in the case of the latter. This season had a couple of good challenges. One involved dismantling a cart to use it as a slingshot, and another had the “building a house of cards” challenge, but with an added balance component. But for every one of these, there’s a “toss the coconut in the hole” challenge. Yeah, this season wins virtually no points in the challenge department. Bland, forgettable, and often not that challenging.

Score: 2 out of 10.

TWISTS

I know I made the joke “A Tale of Two Twinnies” about the finale of “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, but I’m sorely tempted to reuse a similar pun her. “A Tale of Two Twists” this really is, since nearly every player-implemented twist does an incredible job, while the producer implemented twists suck hard. Want to know how bad the producer twists suck? Put it this way: THEY’RE THE SAME AS LAST SEASON! Yep, we’ve got two returning players, Redemption Island still in effect, merge at 12 after the Redemption Island duel, someone comes back at the final five, end of story. Now, if you thought these didn’t work last time, if you think people thought they were a bad idea at the time, imagine how bad they seemed done back to back. This season therefore got off to a bad start in the twist department, since it seemed like a lame rehash of “Survivor Redemption Island”, a season that, to put it mildly, did not go over well with the audience. While Coach and Ozzy were probably ok choices to bring back, people didn’t need to see them, and Redemption Island still had the same problems as it had on its inaugural season. Literally, only two things were done differently. First, only two people were in duels post merge, rather than the three of “Survivor Redemption Island”. Technically an improvement, but that’s like saying a shit sandwich is made slightly better with the addition of ketchup. You’re correct, but you’re still eating a shit sandwich. The other change was that, rather than combine reward and immunity challenges post-merge, the winner of Redemption Island Duels (or occasionally the immunity challenge) chose a member (or members) of the merged tribe to get reward. This is actually not a bad concept, adding a new layer of politics to the game, and, in the case of the duel winner dispensing reward, kept the people on Redemption Island more involved in the game. Sadly, nothing much ever came of this use of politics, and it hasn’t been tried again. A good idea, but one lacking in execution. Also, while a good idea, Redemption Island was not needed to execute it, so suffice to say, the negatives of reusing twists, and particularly THESE twists, greatly outweigh the positives. Oh, and if you thought the Redemption Island twist was stacked in favor of Boston Rob (“Survivor Marquesas”) it was not nearly as bad as being in favor of Ozzy. After all, which contestant holds the record for most individual immunity wins? Ozzy.

But that’s only one half of the coin. We got some good contestant twists, but they were a while coming. Actually, most of the vote-offs were predictable, and the only real surprise, such as it was, was the revelation of Brandon Hantz’ true identity to his tribe, something the audience had known about since before the season, and was so over-the-top that it was hard to take seriously. As you can tell, this was not a season with an auspicious start. Our first real twist comes in episode 5, when Jim and Cochran conspire to overthrow Ozzy, and do so. This is where Jim shines as a strategist, and Cochran starts to come out of his shell. We also get some really good, subtle gameplay from Whitney here. A pretty standard twist in the game, but still a good one.

In episode 7, things really start to get crazy. Basically, the first woman voted out of Upolu, Christine Shields-Markoski, had been winning Redemption duel after Redemption duel (inadvertently showing how broken the Redemption Island twist often is: winner of the first duel usually has a streak of wins), which made Savaii scared. They feared she would go back to Upolu if she won one more challenge, and so they hatched one of the craziest plans ever. They INTENTIONALLY voted Ozzy out at this juncture, after he hands his hidden immunity idol to Cochran to ensure it stays in the game, so he can beat Christine. Let me state here and now that this is a STUPID plan! Sure, it worked out perfectly, and so goes down as brilliant, but imagine, just for a moment, if the winner of the duel HADN’T gotten to go back into the game. Savaii would have been SCREWED! I like Cochran, but he’s no good in challenges (this season) versus Ozzy, the challenge beast. Not to mention that if you DO merge, you’ve offended the guy with the hidden immunity idol, and the most likely swing vote, by berating him for his challenge performance. Not a good position. All this on top of the plan being pointless. Anyone who could listen to and understand English, and read body language, could tell that Christine was NOT happy with Upolu, even going so far as to call Coach “Benjamin” just to piss him off. CLEARLY she would have been on your side. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy Cochran stayed in the game, but this plan could easily have backfired, and it’s pretty much a miracle that it didn’t. While a stupid plan, I will admit that it’s fun to watch the stupid chaos ensue in hindsight. A highlight of the season, but nothing compared to what would happen next.

Episode 8. After a double immunity challenge in which Ozzy and Dawn both won immunity, and with a hidden immunity idol in play, Savaii seemed set to dominate after an even merge between the tribes. Cochran was to play the role of the swing vote to find out what Upolu was up to. Except that he was ACTUALLY a swing vote, and turned on his aggressors. Yes. The biggest moment of South Pacific is Cochran betraying his tribe on a re-vote and getting rid of Keith, after planting false information that Upolu was targeting Whitney. And it is glorious. This is also where the Cochran hate came from, as this was seen as a stupid and cowardly move, done primarily to avoid drawing rocks. I maintain that this was the smartest move Cochran could have made at the time, given the information he was getting from his tribe. Generally, one should not trust the people who were just saying earlier that you should have been voted out. I see waiting for the re-vote to flip not as an avoiding of the purple rock, but a misguided attempt to make the betrayal sting less. It didn’t work, obviously, either for the tribe or for the audience, but an attempt nonetheless. As I said, when it came out how badly Cochran was bullied, he was eased up on, but Jim’s repeating of the word “coward” and Whitney’s “You disgust me.” speeches really took their toll. Still, whether you agree with Cochran’s move or not , it set the tone for the rest of the season. Coach’s alliance was not able to run the table for the rest of the game. There was a surprise double Tribal Council in there, but for the most part the season from there on was predictable.

Well, mostly predictable. There were enough crazy people in the game for random things to happen. The big game-changer was Brandon giving immunity to Albert Destrade, a contestant of absolutely no note, and getting voted out for it. It’s the crowning moment of stupid for Brandon, and while we’d seen this sort of stupidity from Erik Reichenbach (“Survivor Micronesia”) before, and it lost some impact, it was still kind of funny, and a fitting end to Brandon.

Oh, and Ozzy, there was the monkey wrench of Ozzy.

Yes, Redemption Island did its job this time, keeping Ozzy in the game long enough to come back twice (making him the only person voted out three times in one season), and give us a possible foil to Upolu’s plans. After all, if Ozzy makes it to the end, he wins, no question. Quite a bit of drama for the end there. Drama only topped by Ozzy making the final immunity challenge, only to lose on the puzzle to the lovely Sophie, thus explaining part of why she’s beloved. Again, while I’m not a big Ozzy fan, it was nice to see this possibility play out, but not to the obvious conclusion of Ozzy winning.

Not sure if this should count as a twist, but I love the moment, on the aforementioned “house of cards” challenge, where Sophie screws up, and then demands that Albert come over and help her win to beat Ozzy. Didn’t come to fruition, but a fun idea, and a great bit of humor for the final episode.

I’ll talk more about this in a minute, but also a twist is that, although this season played out much like “Survivor Redemption Island”, with a Pagonging by an unsinkable alliance led by a returnee, it did not conclude with a returnee win. Sophie won. She was the best player of the final three, I’d argue. Good twist.

While maybe not jam-packed with contestant twists, South Pacific had a lot more hits than misses in that department. Most contestant twists were good game-changers, and even those that weren’t as good were usually fun to watch. Long dry spells, and predictable Pagonging, and the reusing of twists no one wanted to see again really drag this season’s twists down, though. The degree of goodness of the contestant twists keeps this one above average in the twist department, but just barely.

Score: 6 out of 10.

OVERALL

In terms of theme, you couldn’t be more screwed than being named “South Pacific”. I’ve talked about the problem “Survivor” has with seasons with a theme of “Generic South Pacific Island”, but when your season is actually NAMED “Survivor South Pacific”, you’ve got problems. As if this wasn’t bad enough, the reusing of twists hurt the season in terms of theme as well. As bad an idea as it was to bring back Boston Rob and Russell, you could at least argue that they were connected in some way, tied into the “redemption” idea of Redemption Island. What unified Coach and Ozzy? Nothing. Add that onto the fact that the blatant twist reuse made it seem like the show was out of ideas, and you’ve got a season that’s seeded for failure. And yet it didn’t fail. True, it’s not a beloved season, but it had some good characters and moments that stand out. Maybe not as much as other seasons, and I’d never say this is “Survivor” at it’s best, but on it’s own? Pretty good season. Low end of average I’d say.

So, what are the bad points, apart from the inauspicious start? Well, first off, over time this season did develop a theme. It was a theme about the “morality” of the game, and how to play within those morals. This is not a good theme. It’s preachy and annoying. No one liked it. Having no theme would have been better than this. Additionally while this season had a lot of stand-out characters, it also had a lot of duds, and that can really drag. Remember Rick Nelson? Of course you don’t, he’s almost as forgettable as “Purple Kelly” (“Survivor Nicaragua”), and he was the “Fan Favorite” voted on again! Yeah, no wonder they stopped doing that after Rick. Now, you might say that the number of good characters who made it far is a good thing, since everybody who was memorable made the merge at least. The problem is that by the time you get to the final six, apart from Ozzy, who’s on Redemption Island at this point, the only people who are memorable are Coach, Sophie, and Brandon. This seems fine until you consider that the only LIKEABLE person of these people is Sophie. Not a very auspicious final few. Thank goodness Ozzy was there to give people someone to root for.

Which brings us to possibly the largest weight on the season after the reused twists: the Pagonging. We really needed an unpredictable season, and Cochran’s move was one in the right direction, but the boot order was predetermined after that move. Upolu was the tribe that had one rock solid alliance that would not budge, while Savaii was a lot more willing to cannibalize it’s ranks, thus making for a more interesting end of the season. But Upolu dominated, and so the rest of the season became relatively predictable, especially in hindsight.

With that said, it’s worth noting that this season did a good job of keeping us guessing with the Pagonging. If you’re going to have a Pagonging, play up how likely it is for a flip to happen. And there was talk of flipping, and there was Ozzy the monkey wrench, so while the season ended up a boring Pagonging with a highly unlikeable final 6, it did the best with what it had.

That’s really the best way to sum up South Pacific as a season. It had a lot working against it. Reused twists. An unlikeable ending group. A boring Pagonging. Yet it took those things, used good marketing techniques, mixed in some good characters and contestant twists, and made a season that was perfectly ok. With a few more good characters and less reused twists, this could have been a great season. As it stands, it’s definitely in the lower end of “Survivor”, but I say it’s still a pretty good season.

Score: 22 out of 40.

ABSTRACT

South Pacific is not one of your great seasons, but it does a pretty good job. You’ve got some stand-out moments and people to root for. It is one of your more predictable seasons, but it does a good job covering that up. While not essential to understanding “Survivor” history, I still recommend watching it a couple of times. It’s entertaining enough for the first watch, and there’s some subtle pleasures upon rewatch. If you’ve got the time, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Blood vs. Water” Episode 10: The Long Goodbye

Obvious outcome is obvious.  However, this is one of those rare episodes where I don’t actually mind that you could tell before the lack of an intro exactly who it was who would be going.  Yes, there was barely any suspense, but it had great editing, great clips, and even a good bit of strategy here and there.  Definitely the first good episode we’ve had since the merge, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

Fresh from Tribal Council, we get Katie lamenting her situation.  Strategize though she might, she just can’t seem to break the block set up by Tyson.  Still, she soldiers on, realizing that the next obvious recourse is to hunt like crazy for the hidden immunity idol.  The fact that Tyson has it means that this plan is pretty much worthless, but given the information Katie has at this point, it’s understandable.

Thankfully keeping a discreet distance, Ciera and Laura celebrate being the last pair in the game, despite the fact that Laura should have been gone about 12 days ago.  They keep it small and intimate, which is nice.  However, while Laura continues the nice sentiment in her private interview, Ciera is not so optimistic.  She correctly realizes that A: Her Mom is not very popular, B: Her Mom is something of a physical and mental threat, and therefore C: Her Mom is likely to be voted off sooner rather than later.  While Ciera understandably wants to work with her mother (it’s an extra vote that you have, essentially, and probably the closest you can come in the game to actual trust with someone else), she realizes that this is an individual game, and she has an actual shot to win, and therefore it might be in her best interest to vote Laura off.  This is one of the good things about this season: it brings out these sort of ethical dilemmas.  It’s true, they come up in other seasons, but the genetic link just makes it all that more personal, as well as more compelling.  I respect Ciera, even if I’m not the hugest fan of her, but tonight I was riveted by her confessionals, which was probably a good thing, as they made up approximately half of the episode.

Sweeping over to Redemption Island we see that Aras, Vytas, and Tina will be facing a repeat of a repeat.  It’s the Redemption Island challenge in which Cochran nearly beat Challenge Jesus (my heart quivers with joy at the memory) from “Survivor South Pacific”:  After using a grappling hook to retrieve 3 bags, the duelists must take a small ball from one of the bags, and navigate it through a maze to an end slot.  First to finish gets to give away a clue to the hidden immunity idol, last place becomes the first member of the jury.  I must say, although this challenge is very derivative (notably, it’s very similar to a couple challenges from “Survivor Marquesas”), it hasn’t been done in a while, and I give it a pass just for the good Cochran memories.

So, it looks like we’ll have a jury of 8 and a final 3 once again this season.  Joy.

Normally, I’d give good odds that Tina would lose a Redemption Island duel against Aras and Vytas.  This is not to dis her challenge skills by any means, far from it.  Tina, while not a physical force, does hold her own very well in the challenges, particularly when factoring in her age.  So, it’s not that she’s bad, by any stretch, but just that Aras and Vytas are EXTREMELY good.  This challenge, though, is not one where physical strength is necessarily an asset.  It’s more about dexterity and balance, which could go either way.  My only concern for Tina is the grappling hook leg of the challenge, and if she can survive that, she might just have a shot at this challenge.

And survive she does, somehow edging out Aras and Vytas on the grappling hook.  After a funny moment in which Aras encourages Laura to encourage him as well (she’d previously encouraged Tina and Vytas), things end up fairly even on the maze.  A mistake by Tina means that Vytas gets first place, and I start to feel sorry for Tina, given that she was doing so well.  It seems that mazes and Aras don’t agree, however, as Tina still manages to survive, and given all her effort, I’m happy for her.  Plus, it’s Aras, in my opinion the most boring of the three, who leaves.  Can’t say I’m too sorry over all.  While he did surpass my expectations strategically, he was still pretty boring in interviews, and made some pretty dumb moves.  And to all you Aras fans out there, don’t worry, he’s still on the jury, you can see him.

Before he leaves, however, Probst tries to make Aras and Vytas epically recount their life story, as well as give contrived platitudes about how their relationship has changed and will continue to change.  Vytas gains respect in my eyes by cheekily saying that he doesn’t think their relationship has changed very much.  Since no one questions Probst, though, Vytas is forced to give the platitude anyway.  Bummer.  I liked his first answer better.

Vytas decides to give his clue to Katie, who, wisely realizing that she can’t get much more on the chopping block than she already is, keeps the clue.  Back at the camp, Katie publicly announces her bathroom break.  Everyone at camp wisely realizes that either Katie is something of an odd duck, or she’s going idol hunting.  As it’s the latter, everyone hilariously lampshades it, while Laura suggests, not unreasonably, hiding all their digging tools to make like harder for Katie.  It doesn’t matter, though, as we see that for the time being Katie has absolutely no success in finding the idol.

Meanwhile, Laura goes in for another counseling session with Ciera, where we once again reaffirm that Ciera is more than willing to vote off her mother, while Laura remains perfectly naïve about the threat that she poses.  The one interesting bit is Ciera’s current advice to her mother, which is to not go around strategizing, and to wait for Tyson to make the first move.  On the surface, this could be seen as legitimate advice to prevent people getting paranoid about Laura, but it could also be read as a self-serving move by Ciera.  If her mom isn’t strategizing, it’s all that much easier for Ciera to control things.  You go, girl!

Speaking of Tyson making moves, he decides it’s time to have an interview or two, and comes to the same conclusion that Ciera has.  He admits that Laura’s a threat, both as an individual and as part of a pair, and therefore needs to go.  Thinking at first that he can do it without Ciera, he approaches Hayden and Caleb with the proposal to eliminate Laura rather than Monica should Katie win immunity.  This serves only to give Hayden another generic interview, but it is good strategy on Tyson’s part, save for one caveat.  He admits that it’s another betrayal, which makes him look more like a villain, at a point where jury management becomes a big factor.  Look, Tyson, I appreciate the improved strategic game, but you need to consider not being the messenger for once.  Try and NOT make people feel betrayed by you.

Enough about that, though, as we’ve come to it, the emotional heart of the episode, the thing that makes it just so great.  Ciera, unable to contain herself any longer, takes her Mom down the beach, and admits that she’s probably going to have to vote her off fairly soon, probably at the next Tribal Council.  Laura, naturally, protests, pointing out that it might be short-sighted of Ciera, as the guys probably won’t take her to the end, anyway.  Still, she’s not mean about it, Ciera seems appropriately embarrassed, and Laura goes so far as to admit that despite this being a game, she’s able to separate out being proud of her daughter for coming into her own.  Ciera, for her part, puts things gently, explaining via sand diagram exactly why things will come down to Laura being voted out.  I LOVE this scene.  Not only was it handled well by the players, but it was shot and edited impeccably.  The action felt intimate, we heard just enough to understand the situation, while at the same time not seeing so much as to make it repetitive, and it was just gorgeously done!  On top of that, the music was impeccable!  Music, in my opinion, is an underappreciated aspect of “Survivor”.  As you might expect, we don’t think about it very much, but you notice its absence.  This time, those absences were used perfectly.  The music added to the emotion, while not being overpowering, and particularly emotional moments were underscored by silence.  My hat’s off to the composers on this one, they were really on the ball.

Katie mentioning that she needs immunity leads us to today’s challenge, hailing this time from “Survivor Nicaragua”.  Castaways hold on to a rope while standing on an angled platform.  Overtime, they inch down the rope, until they fall into the drink.  Last person standing wins.  As repeat challenges go, this one isn’t bad.  It’s only been done on “Survivor Nicaragua”, it’s a good endurance challenge, and is a solid idea all things considered.  I do take issue with it being a repeat challenge, as well as the fact that it’s neither big nor epic, but I’ll let it live.

This challenge is good news for Katie, as being about balance and holding your weight, it favors the small and the skinny.  Katie, however, is out somewhat early, leaving Monica, who was not even a target this time around, with immunity, and the extra reward of a cheeseburger feast.  Yeah, did I mention that I HATE REDEMPTION ISLAND FOR ELIMINATING REWARD CHALLENGES?  BECAUSE I DO!  Still, Monica handles it all with grace, giving up her feast for the losers (which I’m somewhat surprised Probst allowed, as it lowers the drama somewhat).  Probst questions Caleb as to whether this was a personal or strategic move, because lord knows Caleb needs SOMETHING to talk about.  Caleb wisely points out that the move can be both, and everyone save Monica enjoys their burgers.  I would point out that this is kind of a double-edged sword for Monica, as it makes her more of a jury threat, but since she has immunity, it’s not as much of a concern.

Hey!  Who left the transition snake on the Kasama camp set?  You know that the castaways and the transition animals must NEVER been seen in the same shot.  Oh, great, there goes the meta-meter.  The episode is ruined.

Not to be deterred by errant transition animals, Katie attempts to seize the day with another idol hunt.  Laura, desperate to save her own skin, does the smart thing of tailing Katie and digging where she digs, so as to keep Katie from finding the idol.  What do you know, a move from Laura that actually makes sense!  Never thought I’d see the day.

Tyson, however, still wants his screen time.  He decides that Ciera ought to be approached, so as not to offend her by blindsiding both her and her mother.  Ciera, however, is one step ahead of him, anticipates the move, and smartly agrees to go along with it.  Man, Ciera has really upped her game this episode.  Tyson also seems to have learned from his earlier errors, as he pins the blame for the idea on Hayden and Caleb, rather than himself.

So, the plan seems set, but Tyson still won’t tell people he has the idol (good man), so what’re they going to do about Katie.  In yet ANOTHER brilliant strategic move, Ciera bluffs Katie into giving up that she didn’t find the idol, by saying that she (Ciera) did.  It’s two people bluffing each other, and although it seemed comedic at first, it became very serious and game-changing.  Katie’s falling first makes her lose power, and doesn’t give her much of a position in the tribe.  It does, however, boost Ciera’s position, as she’s now the one with a link to Katie, and therefore potentially another vote in an emergency situation.

The one department in which Ciera falters is in not bragging.  She admits her scheming ways after the fact to Tyson, who clearly sees this as a threat.  This not only cements Laura’s doom, but also makes Ciera more of an obvious threat, where one of her great strengths originally was her ability to blend in and not be considered a threat.  It wouldn’t surprise me if Tyson was on the warpath for her in the next few episodes.

Probst wisely just lets things run at Tribal Council, as we get Laura giving saving herself the old college try.  She has a few compelling arguments, pointing out that a pair in the game is two votes for the price of one, and that one of a pair on the jury and one in the finals is a vote everyone but the loved one won’t get, but unsurprisingly, that doesn’t work too well.  So Laura is gone, and while I still don’t like her and am happy to see the back of her, she did leave in such a manner that I at least respect her more now.

This episode was not particularly surprising, but it didn’t have to be.  It used pathos effectively, it kept me interested (if not fooled), and it showcased some good strategic thinking, so I’m quite fond of it.  It’s not earth-shattering, but still quite good.

Still, this blog feels short, and this was such an emotional episode that it merits a:

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5!

Today’s subject is emotional boots.  Every Tribal has a tone to it, and while most are fairly average, some are really respectful, and some are downright bitter.  As such, the Top 5 list will be happy/respectful boots, while the bottom 5 bitter boots.  With that, I present to you:

TOP 5

5. Christina Cha (“Survivor One World”): Kind of a stretch, as the vote off itself wasn’t really respectful, but I did like the fact that, whatever Probst made out, Christina really didn’t defend herself against the at that point inevitable, and just enjoyed her last day.  However stupid it may have been, she went out on her own terms, and that’s respectable, at the very least.

4. Laura Morett (“Survivor Blood vs. Water): As I said before, beautifully edited, easy to watch, and overall just made for a good episode.  Only loses its higher spot on the list because most of the emotion happened before Tribal Council, not at it.

3. Rudy Boesch (“Survivor All-Stars”): A bit of an odd choice, as it was a blindside of a poor old guy doing the best that he could.  What puts this on the list is a genuine, heartfelt speech by Probst after Rudy left. It felt right, it showed respect, and made the blindside much more pleasant.  See there, Probst, I don’t hate EVERYTHING you do!

2. Ian Rosenberger (“Survivor Palau”): Yes, “Survivor’s” first ever impromptu Tribal Council was also one of the most touching.  We’d seen Ian struggle, both physically and mentally, over the last several episode, but it climaxed at the final 3 immunity challenge, where after 10 hours on a buoy, Ian stepped down after getting Tom to promise that he WOULDN’T take Ian to the finals.  I didn’t put it in the top spot on the list, because it was kind of a stupid move on Ian’s part, but still a very sweet moment nonetheless.

1. Dan “Dan Fuego” Barry (“Survivor Exile Island”): Without a doubt the most respectful Tribal Council I’ve ever seen.  La Mina didn’t want to vote out what was effectively their patriarch, nor did they like kicking an old man when he was down.  But they had to, and so they agreed, not only to tell Dan, but to defend him on a united front at Tribal Council.  Dan scrambled, to be sure, but he accepted his fate with good grace, and this Tribal Council just felt right for him.

Honorable Mention: Russell Hantz (“Survivor Redemption Island”): Not a particularly respectful vote, but one that makes me happy nonetheless.

 

BOTTOM 5

5. Benjamin “Coach” Wade (“Survivor Tocantins”): This one might have seemed respectful, and Coach really wanted to make it grand and epic.  And in part, he succeeded.  However, some of the voting confessionals (not undeservedly) trashed Coach, perhaps to the point of excess.  I’m no big Coach fan, so I didn’t mind that much, but it still felt a bit mean-spirited.

4. Keith Tollefson (“Survivor South Pacific”): While I side with Cochran on this issue, and admit that Keith didn’t have that bad of a time at Tribal Council, he still bore the brunt of the blame for being horrible to Cochran, when I’d say Ozzy and Jim Rice were both more to blame for that.  Kind of a bland character, but I still have a soft spot for the guy.  He didn’t quite deserve the trashing he got.

3. Jane Bright (“Survivor Nicaragua”): Much like with Laura Morett’s boot tonight, this one was mainly unpleasant before Tribal Council.  Tribal, however, was not easy for Jane either.  I liked Jane ok, so to see her be fairly unceremoniously booted off was a bit disappointing, but I understood its necessity.  Her complaining and haranguing of people just strategizing like they were supposed to really just made everything worse.

2. Randy Bailey (“Survivor Gabon”): Like Russell Hantz, this was someone I was glad to see voted out.  However that does not excuse the wasting of an excellent quality fake idol on a practical joke, that was meant merely to humiliate a man on national tv.  Shame on you, Sugar.

1. Lex van den Berghe (“Survivor All-Stars”): This was a fairly heated Tribal Council, but nothing special on the surface.  Dig deeper, however, and you find a barrel of unpleasantness that was the way Boston Rob (“Survivor Marquesas”) handled it.  On top of that, the All-Star season just felt more personal, making this vote most painful to watch of all.

Honorable Mention: Gretchen Cordy (“Survivor Borneo”): At the time, this was the height of dishonor, as it went against what people thought the game should be.  However, interviews after the fact reveal that people really loved Gretchen, and hated doing that vote.  For this reason, it needs mentioning, even if it can’t be on the list proper.

So there you have it!  See you all for what is hopefully an even better episode next week!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.