Congratulations to user “AubreyDeservedToLoseKaohRong” for correctly identifying last episode’s title as a quote from Brian Heidik of “Survivor Thailand”! Let’s see if we can keep the streak going.
Unfortunately for us, a major win must be followed by a major loss. Yes, it’s time once again for another edition of…
MATT’S MESS-UP!
Appropriately enough for a chaotic Tribal Council, a couple of points got lost in the shuffle. First and foremost, I forgot to properly eulogize Adam. While I did an adequate job defending his play of the podium, if I do say so myself, Adam as a player kind of fell by the wayside. His departure really brings up mixed feelings in me. While Adam is a skilled player, and very much earned his win on his first season, he was clearly here to represent the “Superfan” first, and represent a winner second. In that sense, his boot was well-deserved. It was a long time coming, being brought up as early as the first episode. And again, while I mean no disrespect to Adam as a player, as a result of coming across more as a superfan, he just didn’t feel as “legendary” as the other players on this season. That said, having what was basically a representation of those of us watching at home on the show was nice, and in that sense, he will be missed. If nothing else, Adam can hold up his head with dignity.
Secondly, I want to bring up the music of last episode again before we get into the music of this episode. I, like most everyone else, gave the show flak for having music with English lyrics for no discernible reason in the immunity challenge. However, I forgot to call out a bit where the music was actually helpful. During that chaotic Tribal Council, Adam at one point asked for a response to his question about being targeted. Up until this point, the music had been building in intensity, doing a perfect job of underscoring the chaos. As soon as Adam asks his question? Dead silence, except for some crickets chirping. Genius. Well played, music department. I still haven’t forgiven you for that earlier song, but it’s a start.
Yes, Adam is a player deserving of a long period of mourning. As such, let’s completely ignore the fallout from his exit, and cut straight to the loved-one’s reward challenge! Well, I say “challenge”, but as a bit of a treat for these legendary players, everyone just gets to take their loved-ones back for a feast. A bit of a cop-out? Sure, but the moment has a lot of warm fuzzies, and it would have been kind of cruel to the young kids to get so close to their parents only to be torn away again. Oh yeah, that’s the other special thing about this reward. With so many players having young children, the show (and Fiji Airways, as Jeff goes out of his way to tell us in a segway that in NO WAY detracts from the moment) sends out loved ones, and children, where applicable. It’s a cuteness overload not seen on “Survivor” since the baby monkeys of “Survivor Cambodia”, and I am all for it. Plus, in a weird, roundabout way, it helps to honor the legacy of the show, by showing how long it’s been going on in the progeny produced even by more recent winners.
With that said, I do have to say that having so many loved ones out there for most did make it odd for the people who DIDN’T have children to come out as well, those being Sophie, Nick, and Michele. It’s no mark against them, of course, but it did make them stand out in a bad way, and almost seem like an afterthought at their own reward. So, how could you balance the scales? For my part, I would have thought they’d get basically a second loved-one, kind of like what they did on “Survivor Caramoan”. They don’t have kids, so they get a second person to help balance the love scales. Hell, they could even have tied it into the theme of the season, and brought back friends/allies from a previous season for each of them. Think about it. We could have gotten Probst’s Cochran cameo out of the way with Sophie here. We could have seen the return of Christian or Angelina for Nick. AUBRY-FREAKING-BRACCO COULD HAVE GRACED OUR TV SCREENS ONCE AGAIN FOR MICHELE! WHY ARE YOU NOT MAKING THIS A REALITY, CBS?
Even amongst those with children, however, there are a few standouts. While I’m sure this will be a point of contention for some, for me, the most heartwarming reunion was Tony, simply because this is a side of him we hadn’t seen before on the show. The man started out as the wild and crazy guy on “Survivor Cagayan”, and basically maintained that through “Survivor Game Changers”. We’d seen his more patient, more overtly strategic side come out this season, and now we get to see his emotional, fatherly side. It adds depth that, in my opinion, Tony desperately needs, and he’s the only one left who hadn’t gotten it yet. True, some other people didn’t get it until this season, but even so, Tony is still the last, and it was gratifying to see. Speaking of people getting new sides to them, while Tyson’s reunion touched on the family beats we’d seen from him before, we did get to see him interact with his daughter, which I have to say was adorable. Plus, Tyson FINALLY got in some self-deprecating humor, which if you’ve read me for a while, you know has been a major hangup of mine for Tyson as a character. This isn’t enough to make me love Tyson or anything, but it does start me on the road to liking him more than I had previously. Finally, I want to touch on Jeremy’s reunion, not to talk about the reunion itself, but the music with it. In keeping with the throwback to older seasons, Jeremy’s music cue is a sort of soaring choral piece that hearkens back to the very earliest days of the show. I can’t say off the top of my head that it was used in “Survivor Borneo”, but I know for a fact it was at least as early as “Survivor Africa”. For reference, it’s the music cue that plays during Tom Buchanan’s Hot-Air Balloon reward when he talks about having his horizons broadened by the experience. If you’re looking for another place to find the music cue to hear what I’m talking about, it also plays during the “Rites of Passage” for “Survivor Pearl Islands”. I do very much enjoy most of the new music on the show. Note my love for the new voting theme used on “Survivor Island of the Idols”. But even with that, I still hold a fondness for the old music cues, and wish they would come back more often. On the scale of things I would want brought back to “Survivor”, it’s pretty low. Final Twos, the old jury format, intros that actually PLAY before the episode, rites of passage, gross food challenges, food auctions, and individual character introductions in the first episode, are all things I would take over getting the old music back. That said, I’m not going to complain about us getting the old music back.
So yeah, Probst spills that this is just a reward, no challenge, and everyone goes off and is happy. They laugh. They party. Tyson’s daughter makes “sand soup”, and their interaction around that is just adorable. Time for some mood whiplash on the Edge of Extinction. A boat arrives. Ethan, in an uncharacteristic display of pessimism, says that something bad is coming. Ethan, man, this does not become you. Fortunately, Ethan is wrong, as the people on the Edge of Extinction get their loved ones as well! Ok, I may sound heartless and cruel, but I’m not happy about this. That is to say, I’m happy that the players on the Edge of Extinction are happy, but I feel like this is too much. Apart from the fact that we’re nearly halfway through the episode and aside from some warm fuzzies nothing has happened, this feels like an insult to the players still in the game. Yes, the players on Edge of Extinction are technically “still in the game” by the show’s definition, but they’re clearly not fully “in the game” either. Why do they deserve the special treatment? Because they’re legends? Perhaps, but wasn’t the point of the Edge of Extinction to test people’s limits? To see how much pain and suffering they were willing to endure, just for a SHOT at returning? Kind of undermines your point, doesn’t it? How is this suffering?
Like with the loved ones of the players still in the game, few specific reunions are worth mentioning. All are nice and heartwarming in their own way, and it’s always nice to see that even the most despicable of players are still people who have other people who love them. One tiny detail I find hilarious, though, is that this reunion underlines just how little CBS cares about people from “Survivor Samoa” not named Russell Hantz. Parvati’s husband, John Fincher, was a contestant on that season, but did he get a mention as a previous player? No! And it’s not like no one else who played before didn’t either! Rachel, Tyson’s wife, got a specific call-out, and she didn’t even make the merge! She’s undateable! Hell, I don’t think they even showed us a full shot of John’s face. Every shot was him snogging Parvati. Way to respect your previous players, show!
Ok, we’ve had our touchy-feeley stuff, on to actual strategy, right? Nope, challenge time! Our immunity challenge today comes courtesy of “Survivor Blood vs. Water”, though as Probst notes, this specific iteration resembles the one used on “Survivor Kaoh Rong”. Players stack blocks to spell “Immunity” with the catch being that they must balance the board said blocks are on while moving back and forth to collect their subsequent blocks. Not a bad challenge, but a bit overdone at this point, especially since it hasn’t really innovated since “Survivor Kaoh Rong”. Still, we’ve had worse, it’s not REALLY an endurance challenge, and it can work really well if there’s a lot of back and forth. Sadly, there ISN’T a lot of back and forth. There’s a few close competitors, but Tony does well in the challenge from beginning to end, and it’s mostly a matter of just seeing who comes close before Tony gets his first individual immunity victory, and two fire tokens to boot. Congratulations, Tony. You are now tied with Kass McQuillen (“Survivor Cagayan”) in terms of number of immunity wins. May you one day be as awesome as she is.
While I may gripe about the immunity challenge, Tony is kind of an odd one to win this one. After all, this sort of challenge favors those with patience and finesse, neither of which are qualities Tony is particularly known for. Even he is surprised, but he isn’t complaining. After all, he is the belle of the ball. First to come up to him his Jeremy, who pitches voting out Sarah, on the grounds that he wants to break up the Sarah/Sophie bond. Not a bad idea in general, but why, Jeremy, are you pitching this idea to TONY? And if you must pitch the idea to Tony, why say Sarah. Even if you don’t know the two are allied, you can guess that they have something of a bond, given that they played two seasons together. If you must go for one of them, go for Sophie. Tony clearly isn’t happy about it, but lets it slide to Jeremy’s face. All is not well with Tony and Sarah, however. Tony, who had been so patient so far this episode, loses it with Sarah when they can’t agree on their target. Both make logical points. Sarah wants to target Kim since she’s the type who can fly under the radar and snake you before you know it, while Tony wants to target Tyson. The reasons aren’t given, but Tyson is a challenge threat, and these people have seen “Survivor Edge of Extinction”. They know not to let any returnees from there near the finals. Thus, to paraphrase an old Klingon Proverb, any day is a good day to vote out Tyson.
Sarah seems to win the initial struggle, with Tony caving, but Tony isn’t done yet, as indicted by the hornets swarming overhead. When Jeremy gets up from a pow-wow with Nick and Tony to go talk to Kim, Tony calls over Sophie and uses the time to talk about going against Jeremy. Again, another good target. Jeremy has bonds with a lot of people left, and is a challenge threat, combining to make him dangerous. The trouble is, they only seem to have five, and need to pull over a sixth. This may be difficult, though, as Kim, Jeremy, and Tyson commiserate about no one wanting to talk to them. Then they get the bright idea of “Hey, why don’t we talk with each other!”, and agree to pull in Denise and Michele (presumably through their ties to Jeremy) to vote out Sophie, on the logical grounds of “she’s unlikely to see it coming”. Yes, the strategy is rushed, and pointless crammed into all of about 10 minutes, but it is logical strategy, if nothing else. One interesting point about these groups is that we’ve still very much got an original Dakal/original Sele split here, just with a few disaffected people switching sides. Most Dakal still in the game are with Tony (Sarah, Nick, and Sophie). Ben is original Sele, but was the swing vote there with no truly firm alliances. Most original Sele, meanwhile, are with Jeremy (Denise and Michele), along with Kim, who had no real alliance, and Tyson, who got voted out by Dakal, and thus has no reason to be loyal to them. Funny. Despite the tribe shake-up, we still end up with an original tribe split, effectively. Whodathunkit?
If you can do math, though, you’ll notice that this leaves us at a 5-5 tie, with no way to break the deadlock using social play. This also means, once again, we must forgo the “Which person is better to vote out?” discussion, since there’s no swing vote. Plus, again, this is a situation where all the targets are logical ones, and so there’s really no wrong answer. With no other recourse, we turn to the discussion of advantages. First is Kim’s idol, which she considers playing, though she tells Denise she wants to play it on someone else, rather than herself. I just have to ask: WHY? Kim, maybe you haven’t been keeping up with the show as much as you should have, but it’s not WHO you play the idol on, but HOW. Playing it correctly, for yourself or someone else, is all that matters. With this much potential risk, best to play it on yourself if you play it at all, and hope for the best. Potentially more impactful is Jeremy’s “Safety without Power”, since tonight is the last night he can play it. With so much chaos, it might seem a wise move, but when Jeremy pitches it to Tyson, it’s pointed out that this basically screws his alliance, and Jeremy’s firefighter “help other people” instincts fight with his self-preservation instinct as we head off to Tribal Council.
For those who say that idols and advantages should be gotten rid of entirely, let this Tribal Council be the counterargument. This was a SNOOZEFEST of a Tribal Council until the advantages came out. We cut straight to the whispering, with no inciting incident. It adds an air of mystery, I suppose, but that’s what the strategic buildup pre-Tribal Council is for. We get no drama until Jeremy and Sarah talk over each other to play their advantages, only to each insist the other go first, get into a standoff, and nearly get to voting AGAIN before finally something gives. That something is Jeremy, who goes for self-preservation and plays his safety without power on himself. I can’t really fault the decision too much. While this does all but guarantee that a member of Jeremy’s alliance will be voted out, all this does is make his way forward more difficult. Better a difficult way forward than a near impossible way forward from getting voted out. Jeremy leaves, and our groups, called out by Sophie in a very Boston Rob-esque move, convene to decide on their targets. You would think Jeremy’s advantage would be it, but NO! Despite having a numerical advantage, Sarah still plays her vote steal. I’ll admit, my gut reaction was that Sarah jumped the gun, but then it occurred to me that this makes mathematical sense. By stealing a vote, and turning a probable 5-4 vote into a probably 6-3 vote, Sarah’s alliance can split the votes and virtually guarantee themselves success. After all, the one thing that can upset their alliance is a correct idol play. Given that Sarah knows the location of the Yara idol, and that the Sele one was played by Denise, it’s unlikely the other alliance has more than one idol. Thus, by splitting the votes 3-3-3, even if one person from the other alliance is safe, the other goes home on revote. It’s genius…
Or at least it WOULD be if the group had done it correctly! Seriously, how did you screw such a simple plan up? Tyson isn’t even involved this time! Ok, he is involved, but on the other side, so that’s no excuse. Kim plays her idol on a vote-stolen Denise, which given how obvious a target it made her, I’m surprised Kim went for her. I can only assume it was more emotional than strategic. To be fair, from what we see, Denise does receive two votes, but Tyson gets the remaining four. This implies the majority did a 4-2 split AGAINST A GROUP OF THREE PEOPLE! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? If Kim had played her idol correctly, Sophie would have been gone, and you would have been SOL. You ever think of that?
Sigh. Ok, ok, let’s talk about Tyson’s exit. As I said before, it was earned, and I’m happy to see the ruling alliance make a smart decision. Of course, I also said I was warming up to Tyson and his humor a lot more this episode, so am I sorry to see him go? Yeah… no. Look, I’m liking the guy more than I have, but he’s still not one of my favorites, even of those left. Plus, if nothing else, it’s gratifying to see people in the game FINALLY not let the returnee from Edge of Extinction get a foothold. Having no fire tokens, Tyson merely gives the boxes the finger, and we close on a group hug from the jury to Probst. Aww.
This is a tough episode of “Survivor” to critique, mainly because it’s really only half an episode of “Survivor”. The first half was just Hallmark-Channel sweetness, which is nice enough, and I do like to see the show shake up their own formula. But it just didn’t feel like “Survivor” as we know it. What we did get was rushed, due to loved ones and the Edge of Extinction, continuing the major issue of this season. While the characters and strategy are good, there’s just too much left, and there isn’t enough time to properly digest everything before we move on, making it all feel rushed, which should not happen in a legends season. Still, it’s by no means bad overall. Just room for improvement.
Speaking of improvement, we’ve got a tricky title to identify today, so get cracking. Let me know in the comments who said the quote that provided tonight’s blog title, as well as what season it was said on! First person to get it correct gets their name at the top of the next blog!
-Matt
Title Credit to Jean Storrs.
idolspeculation 