Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Finale: Got Me Saying It

You all know I like my running gags around here.  I mean, there’s a reason the “Matthew Grinstead-Mayle Injury Rock (TM)” kept getting mentioned several episodes after it had any relevance this season.  And one of my other ones has been at the expense of Ben, or at least his catchphrase.  This is partly in fun, partly out of how basic it is, and partly out of me just not connecting with Ben (nothing against the guy; we just have little in common).  And yet, for all that I mock, I must now eat my words, as there is simply no other way to say it:

This season rocks.  

To find out exactly why, we go back to the beginning, with everyone getting back to camp.  And I do mean, CAMP.  Yes, for the first time in the new era, we’re NOT stuck going to some new beach for the final five for some reason!  I assumed they just neglected to mention it since we’d assume it was coming last episode, but nope!  They’re just doing away with it entirely.  Hope that stays.  It was a pointless, annoying twist that just ate up time.  

Instead, we focus on more important things, like how exactly Maria plans to save her skin after being blindsided.  The answer, it seems, is running back to Charlie tail between her proverbial legs.  She’s clearly emotional about the whole thing, and in confessional admits that being in this position really hurts and frustrates her (rather defeatist, if I’m being honest.  Not a good look on her), but does her level best to try and claw something back.  She spins a tale to Charlie about Liz and Kenzie insisting that it would be him, only to blindside her.  A lie Charlie sees right through, but at least his “Keep my options open” strategy is bearing fruit.  For his part, Charlie admits to feeling a mite betrayed by the whole thing, but also acknowledges that he can’t really complain when he’d have done the same to her were she not immune.  All in all, Maria is still on extremely thin ice, but she’s doing what she can to give herself a proverbial lifeline.  

But this has not been a season solely focussed on strategy.  No, more so than any season in the new era, this one is about the DRAMA!  Naturally, the eviction of one such as Q cannot be left alone, and we get our gloating in the form of Liz, happy that her game has taken off.  Really gives me “Survivor Vanuatu” vibes.  The person you voted off it may not have been smart to do, but MAN are you happy about it and going to tell the world about it.  This is the modern version of Scout’s “No Eliza Noises” confessional, basically.  

Morning comes, and we get another nice surprise: NO stupid challenge advantage scavenger hunt!  No, we instead just get a reaffirmation of the need to beat Maria today, and we head off to our challenge.  Simple, effective, nothing in excess.  Maybe the show is learning after all.  

Our challenge… Well I would call it another standard obstacle course, but this one has a few fun beats that, if not original, at least help it stand out.  In particular, an early mud net crawl (for which Liz has to take off her glasses, only to put them on.  Personally I’d leave my glasses off for the entirety of the challenge, if possible), using a rope ball on a string to pull down a bridge, and a puzzle giving clues of what to count for a combination lock.  Fun elements that you don’t see in your standard obstacle course, and so I’ll give this one a pass.  

Maria and Charlie are initially the frontrunners on this challenge, though Kenzie manages to get even with them on the puzzle.  That’s where things get funky.  As mentioned, the puzzle, when solved, reveals a clue of things to count to open a combination lock.  One of these things are the number of holes in a plank that was used RIGHT after the mud crawl on the challenge, basically necessitating a re-running of the obstacle course for our contestants.  Sadistic, but this portion actually ends up being a bit broken.  You see, Liz and Ben are both pretty much out of it.  Liz, however, realizing that she’s unlikely to win, sets out to help Kenzie.  She goes to retrieve Kenzie’s plank, thereby leaving Kenzie free to count the two other things, which are readily available to her.  Maria, conversely, has to run the whole thing once she solves the puzzle, costing her valuable time.  Kenzie does make a mistake in her own counting, but still manages to pull out a win.  

This may come as a surprise to some, since I panned Sophie suggesting that Albert do exactly this back in the infancy days of my blog, aka “Survivor South Pacific”, but I actually like this move for Liz.  The difference here is that in the challenge with Sophie and Albert, there was the possibility, however remote, that Ozzy could mess up, thereby opening the door for everyone else.  In an individual game, Albert has no need to help Sophie.  Yes, the want to beat Ozzy, but he could possibly fail on his own in that scenario.  This is a “First past the post” race, with no real way to fall behind (save for Liz herself forgetting her key at one point, which was a good laugh), so helping someone else gain ground is much smarter.  Moreover, by winning immunity, Kenzie can come across as being the person to “vanquish” the main threat of the season, that being Maria.  By helping her, you steal some of that credit for yourself.  If Liz had a real chance to win that challenge, I’d be more critical, but if you can’t win, then at least influence the outcome.  Besides, Adam Klein did this on “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X”, and it helped him win the whole game.  Hmm, I wonder if that particular challenge will be relevant later this episode…

In addition to Immunity, Kenzie also gets to take one person to “The Sanctuary” for a meal, since  Probst just needs to annoy me with that slogan ONE MORE TIME!  Kenzie chooses Ben, which is the logical choice.  Apart from the pair being close, Kenzie probably wants to solidify strategy talk with him.  They do so on the reward, with Ben talking about how nice it is to have a true friend out here, not just someone to talk game with.  Solidifying once and for all that Ben is a genuine, nice guy without a strategic bone in his body.  

Thankfully we have some real strategy talk back at camp.  Were I in Maria’s position, I would be gunning hard for Charlie.  He’s proved willing to vote against your own interests, and is easier to talk up as a threat than basically anyone else left.  I am NOT Maria, however, as evidenced by the fact that she tries to target BEN instead.  Look, I get not wanting to burn your bridge with Charlie, but for Maria at this point, the philosophy should be “Anyone but me.” And again, Charlie is the easiest to target.  Hell, even if you DO want to work with him, there’s not reason to include him on your idol hunt!  You really think he’s going to let you know if he finds it?  Get real.  

To Maria’s credit, however, I will say she is an excellent salesperson.  As mentioned, she targets Ben, spinning a lie about how Ben’s Kenzie vote WASN’T a mistake, but a game move, and he can pull this sort of stunt with a bunch of things at the end.  Her tone and word choice almost make it believable, until you hear Ben say “That rocks” for the umpteenth time.  More compelling, and more realistic, is her point that Ben has many friends on the jury, and is well-liked.  For some juries, that’s all it takes.  It’s enough to get Liz and Charlie thinking, and is decent enough misdirection, but I’m not buying it.  Maria’s target is just too big.  You do not help someone else win a challenge just to keep the person you were trying to beat around.  

Evidently the editing team feels the same way, as any chance of misdirection goes out the window at Tribal Council, with Kenzie even flat-out admitting she’s voting Maria.  Thus, this Tribal turns into Maria’s farewell tour, which is definitely earned, but not that compelling.  Her talk of growing up with Lebanese immigrant parents is nice enough, but it doesn’t leave as much of an impact as it perhaps might have had at other times.  

So confident is the show that we don’t buy its own misdirection that they show all the votes.  A rare misstep in editing for this episode.  I’ll talk about it more throughout the blog, but the editing on this episode in particular had a lot of little funny moments I really enjoyed, and ranged from highly competent to masterful in most dramatic moments.  Here, however?  I get that the misdirection was weak, but if you’re going to drop it halfway through, why have it at all?  Just let this be one big swan song for Maria.  I will say, however, that I did enjoy Kenzie’s voting confession.  Her saying she “Wants to be [Maria] when [she] grows up”, coming from a woman who was 29 at the time of filming, is hilarious.  

I presume the Shot in the Dark has expired by now (I care about it so little, I honestly can’t remember), since Maria does not play it, and unsurprisingly goes.  I am sorry to see her go.  Maria is the most competent strategist I’d have been ok with winning this season (I’ll get more into that at the end), since she did make some mistakes, and as demonstrated this episode, could get a bit emotional.  It would have been a fitting win for the season, and we’re also badly in need of an older female winner by now.  You shall be missed, Maria.  

Also, while this in no way impacted boot order that we can tell, it IS a bit depressing that we’ve got four white people at the end, Maria being the last person of color left.  That said, clearly the diversity initiative is still doing its job properly, since this is the first season in the new era while the final three won’t contain at least one person of color.  This was just kind of a fluke in how this particular game played out, not any sort of commentary on how these players perceive that aspect.  

We should be preparing for our final Immunity Challenge, but before we can get to that, we need to add something ELSE to Liz’s ongoing list of ailments!  On top of all the allergies, she tells us she has weak joints that frequently don’t work properly.  Again I ask: And you came on “Survivor” WHY?  Liz is going to be sorry about that as well, given what our final challenge is that…

YOU’RE GOING TO PLAY “PLINKO” FOR UP TO $50,000!

Ok, ok, it’s not that, but given that CBS owns both franchises, it would have been funny if Probst had said that.  No, our players just have to assemble a puzzle of the logo of the season.  Simple, right?  Well, before they can begin, they have to toss a ball to the top of basically a giant pegboard, and catch it before it hits a metal ramp as it comes down.  Fail, and they can’t keep working on their puzzle until the ball goes ALL the way down the ramp, in an agonizing slow fashion.  This must be done continuously throughout the challenge.  

Plinko aside, there are probably two challenges that come to mind when you hear this description.  An immunity challenge from “Survivor Millennials vs. Gen-X” is the more 1-1 comparison, particularly as I alluded to earlier.  That was a scaled-down version of this very challenge, memorable since that was when Adam stopped his own challenge to help Ken win, in order to get out a preferred target.  The giant pegboard itself, however?  Well, sad to say that’s now a DEEP cut in “Survivor” history, but for those of you who remember “Survivor Nicaragua” (and frankly I don’t blame anyone who doesn’t want to remember that season), pegboards of this size were used in a tribal immunity challenge.  Did not expect a Nicaragua throwback here, but I’m cool with it.  

Slow and steady really does win the race here.  Charlie and Liz both cut it too close, and drop their ball.  This is one of the funny editing bits, where we cut from the dramatic music of the challenge for everyone else, to “Dodo Music” as Charlie can only sit there and watch his ball.  Kenzie is better at catching her ball, but occasionally has trouble hurling it all the way up to the top of the pegboard (a problem Liz also shares).  Then there’s the time she hurls it TOO hard, and it flies off so she has to retrieve it.  In the end it’s Ben, the one guy to never make such a mistake, who takes the victory.  Quite impressive for the guy who said he was “Operating on two hours of sleep” pre-challenge.  He tries to make an emotional moment out of it, talking about how he was doubted by his peers in his young life, and it honestly feels forced.  I appreciate his struggle, but this late in the game, we don’t need a moment like this.  It isn’t QUITE as melodramatic as Xander’s flashback on “Survivor 41”, but it feels like it’s in the same ballpark.  

This, of course, means the non-strategic Ben must now make a strategic decision.  I’d say every possibility is on the table, given that I think Ben is someone dumb enough to put himself in fire.  After talking about how winning immunity “rocks” (of course), we get another good editing bit.  Charlie rises up in the background over Ben’s shoulder, and the music switches to somber really naturally.  Ben talks about how hard it is to send one of Kenzie or Charlie to the end, given his early bond with Charlie and how nice Kenzie’s been to him this game.  For all my snark, that emotion does hit home really well.  

Less emotional is his decision with Liz!  He flat out tells Liz she’s going in because her game is too strong, showing exactly how in-tune Ben is with the strategy this season.  Liz breaks down, complaining about how everyone is seeing her game, which I only bring up because earlier this season, she was complaining about how no one was seeing her game.  There’s just no satisfying some people.  Liz does quickly buck up and go off to practice fire, however.  She does poorly, but Kenzie and Charlie don’t seem to be doing that much better.  Ben leaves it up in the air which of them he’s going to put in fire to take down Liz, though my money’s on Kenzie, since she seemed more willing to go as a resume building opportunity than Charlie is.  

Of course, ideally Ben should put Charlie in fire, and then whoever he thinks can beat Charlie, in an effort to get out what could be perceived as his biggest threat at the end, but we all know Ben doesn’t think like that.  Instead, at Tribal Council, he picks Kenzie and Liz to go in.  The fire-making itself is pretty standard, but Probst makes it worse by inserting himself into the narrative.  He mentions how the show did not provide test kits this season.  He notes that Kenzie’s issues are due to pressure.  He describes the fire triangle to the players.  Look, Probst, I enjoy your commentary more than most, but this is REALLY unnecessary.  Also yes, we get it, you were in Scouts as a kid, you don’t need to emphasize that.  

Unsurprisingly, given her various ailments, Liz looses to Kenzie, something the jury is very obvious about preferring.  Proving once and for all that Liz has absolutely zero self-knowledge, she talks about how she played the best game of anyone left, and was 100% going to win at the end, even continuing the rant into her final words.  In case it wasn’t clear, I’m not sorry to see Liz go.  With Ben at the end as well, the outcome would have been obvious, in that whoever wasn’t Liz or Ben was going to win. Now, with both Charlie and Kenzie there, there is some mystery.  Don’t misunderstand, Liz was an INCREDIBLY fun character.  She could just be a little much at times.  

Our Day 26 breakfast is interspersed both with the players practicing their opening speeches (pretty cool to see them not be 100% confident), and our jurors trying to misdirect us on who they’ll vote for.  Honestly, the juror’s answers here are mostly generic stuff that tells us very little.  Like with “Survivor 45”, some of it seems legit (Tiffany favoring Kenzie, for example), while some of it is clearly them trying to follow production’s instruction to create doubt they might vote for someone they have no intention of voting for (Q implying that Ben has a shot, for example).  Nothing offensive, but not worth deep commentary on, especially when we have a good Final Tribal Council to get to.  

Ben starts off our opening speeches, and we quickly see just how out of the running he is.  He talks about how he didn’t play strategically and was out of the loop, TRYING to tie it back into his social game.  Kenzie does a much better job, highlighting her bonds with everyone while also noting that she was willing to make moves as needed.  Charlie lands in the middle, focussing more on the strategy side of things, but not selling the emotion.  Fair enough, though I’m surprised Charlie didn’t bring up his “Always have options” philosophy, since I’d argue it’s one of the stronger points of his gameplay this season.  

Then we come to the jury, and this is normally where I’d complain about the new jury format.  Not so this time because, well, the new jury format kind of died out this season.  Yeah, Probst introduces the jury to start things off, but then only really speaks to them in order to ask who wants to speak next.  Acting as a moderator, not interjecting his own philosophy into the game, which was my main critique of that format.  The other issue I had was that a lack of individual questions made the jury itself kind of mush together, but again, not so this season.  With the exception of Liz (and I might just have missed hers) everyone DID ask one question.  Really the only difference between this and the original jury format is that people don’t stand up to ask their question, and can interject on other’s questions.  Granted I still prefer the original jury format, rather than the fact-checking we have here, but if this was to be the compromise between jury formats, I’m 100% ok with it.  

All that said, while I enjoyed this jury, people talking during other’s questions did make some of them blend together, so I’m going to be hitting the jury highlights and lowlights rather than giving a blow-by-blow of each question.  First off, major props to Tiffany for starting us off, and cutting off ANY Taylor Swift references before they start, as well as the phrase” That rocks/does not rock”.  Nice to see the jury knows how to get on my good side, at least.  

We also learn that even being on the jury cannot stop Q (who I must point out is STILL wearing the “Q-Skirt”) from trying to rewrite reality.  Asked to name a move they themselves made in the game, Ben falters by, well, not having a move.  Kenzie tries to argue that she successfully navigated the split vote after the merge, citing Q and Tiffany’s competing interests as something difficult to navigate.  This, of course, leads Q to deny ever doing this (objectively false), and starts another min-riot before Tiffany gets it back under control.  Not to say Charlie fares much better.  In fact, you could argue he did more for Kenzie than she did for herself!  Charlie tries to claim credit for the Hunter vote.  Reasonable enough, but unfortunately, Hunter is on the jury, and confirms that it was Kenzie that made him feel comfortable, thereby giving her credit for his ouster.  

Tevin asks how everyone used someone else on the jury to further their game.  Kenzie names Q once again, while Charlie gives a masterful answer in saying he used Tevin himself, noting the rift between him and Soda made him a good shield.  Normally a solid answer, but it looks like Tevin’s not buying it.  Still better than Ben who, again, doesn’t really have any sort of good answer.  The question he does best on is Q’s, who wants to know how the million dollars will change their lives.  Ben notes all the communities he’d like to help in South Florida, a nice sentiment that comes across as genuine from him.  Kenzie notes that she’ll be using the money for herself, giving her security as a small business owner.  Charlie’s is the weakest, giving some blather about “family”.  Not terrible, but Ben and Kenzie are hard acts to follow on this question.  For the final highlight, Soda asks everyone to summarize their game in 30 seconds or less, something only Kenzie is able to do successfully.  Charlie starts making some good points, but comes in a bit over the 30 second mark, preventing him from tying everything together.  And Ben’s still warming up when his 30 seconds are up.  

We do hear closing arguments from everyone this time, and it’s here where Charlie finally bring up his “Keep options open” argument I think he should have emphasized more.  And, right at the end, Ben breaks Tiffany’s “rocks” moratorium.  A funny note to cap the season on.  

Charlie’s argument was good, but it was too little, too late.  Like “Survivor 45” it was a close 5-3 vote, but once again, the woman pulls it out.  Kenzie is our victor, and I personally am THRILLED!  All due respect to Charlie, he played a good game, and arguably was more in the strategic driver’s seat than Kenzie.  He may have been perceived as Maria’s lapdog, but at lest he was making decisions.  Very few of Kenzie’s plans got carried out, and if they were, it was sometimes without her knowledge, like the Tiffany blindside.  But that said, he almost played TOO good of a game.  I’ve compared this to “Survivor Gabon” a number of times, and I stand by that comparison.  Charlie played a neat, normal game, which would contrast horribly with the overall chaotic season this ended up being.  It would be like if Charlie Herschel had won “Survivor Gabon”.  You could understand why and respect the win, but on a season like that, it wouldn’t be satisfying.  

Not to say that Kenzie was un-strategic, far from it.  She made excellent use of her relationships in the game, and schemed enough that, even if she didn’t succeed, she was perceived as a player worthy of respect.  Bhanu building her up on his journey probably helped.  As to how she fits the chaos of the season?  Well, while she usually played with her head, she could be petty and vindictive when slighted (see how she treated Q after he turned on her).  Granted, she kept that mostly in confessional, but that’s to her credit as a player.  And hey, the player dubbed “Mermaid-Dragon” is a fitting type of person to win an out-there season like this.  

All that said, I actually want to make a different comparison.  The season as a whole may be the New Era “Survivor Gabon”, but this Final Tribal, to me, is “Survivor Kaoh Rong” done right.  The final three was effectively a duel between our more strategic player who as the narrator of the season (Aubry/Charlie) versus the person who may not have had as much control, but had a simple narrative the jury could believe, and was well-connected with them socially (Michele/Kenzie).  And once again, the social player wins, re-emphasizing the social game as being paramount on this show.  Where I think this season succeeds, where Kaoh Rong fails, is that it does a better job balancing these two finalists.  Unlike Aubry, Charlie isn’t seen as the MAIN strategic driving force of the season, merely a very good player who happened to control votes near the end, so his game doesn’t come across quite as unbeatable.  Conversely, we got more emphasis on Kenzie’s relationships, making her seem more of an equal in that regard than Michele seemed to Aubry.  Granted, we probably didn’t need MULTIPLE scenes of Kenzie comforting Ben following his night terrors, but the point still stands.  Plus, this season didn’t hide key relationships Kenzie made that impacted the end of the season.  Contrast with Michele, where you’d be forgiven for thinking she and Cydney didn’t speak until the merge, despite that ACTUALLY being the driving force later on, rather than the Cydney/Aubry relationship.  

So yes, this season does a lot of good, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The same cannot be said for the after show, which is easily one of, if not the, worst of the New Era.  With the possible exception of Mike Turner (“Survivor 42”) no contestant has ever looked more defeated at the end than Charlie, a fact Probst notes, and talks about how rough it must be.  If you know it’s going to be hard on him, Probst, THEN WHY DON’T YOU GIVE THEM SOME TIME TO PROCESS BEFORE JUMPING STRAIGHT INTO A REUNION?!  LET THEM GRIEVE, FOR CORN’S SAKE!  

Apart from that gripe, most of the rest of the after show is fine, though a bit rushed.  We hit most of the points you’d expect.  Who voted for who, everyone going out with idols in their pockets, that sort of thing.  The one good bit I’d say was in there was Probst talking about how several terms have entered the “Survivor” lexicon from this season alone, leading to montage of key quotes past.  And there’s some deep cuts, like Sandra’s “I can get loud too!” from “Survivor Pearl Islands”, and Sue’s “Rats and Snakes” speech all the way back from “Survivor Borneo”.  Famous, to be sure, but that was over 20 years ago now.  I’m impressed the show was willing to make that callback.  About the only major ommission is “She died, dude.” from the Dead Grandma Lie, in my view.

And make no mistake, there are several things from this season that will already be sticking around for years to come in this community.  “Several”.  “BIG MISTAKE”. “Christmas is Cancelled”.  To a lesser extent, even “Q-Skirt”, “That does/does not rock”, and a reinvigoration of Applebee’s memes.  And that’s really the thing about this season: In an era known for everything blending together due to a similar format, this season stands out.  Lots of contestants who weren’t self-aware.  Things getting really personal without turning full-on ugly.  Random, crazy tangents.  You can’t mistake this for any other season, and that’s why it’s one of the greats.  Low end of greats for me (again, just below “Survivor Gabon”) due to it not going quite as far as it could, but still a really fun ride.  Yes, it cannot be denied that this season had an INCREDIBLY slow start, but given what came more towards the end, I’d say it was worth it.  

Will “Survivor 47” be the same level of fun?  Eh, I hope so, but it’s kind of hard to tell.  The cast didn’t seem bad from what we saw, just kind of generic.  Though I will admit a fondness for the guy who said his only camping experience was once in Cub Scouts, which he left early due to throwing up.  I sympathize.  

Well, with discussion of the season out of the way, let’s look back at my pre-season predictions, and see where I went right and I went wrong.  

Jem-Wrong.  Did not see her overplaying that much at all.  

Ben-Wrong.  Much more sociable, and much more longer-lived than I would have anticipated.  

Jess-She was a little more socially awkward than I predicted, but I did say she’d be out pre-merge for costing a challenge, so I’ll give myself this one.  

Bhanu-Not exactly the first out, and a messier player than I’d have guessed.  Still, I’d say I was at least somewhat close here.  Not a full on “right”, but closer to right than wrong.  

Kenzie-I’ll give myself Kenzie.  I said she was close to being a winner pick and, well, she won.  

Charlie-Wrong.  Much less nerdy and much more longer-lived than I guessed.  

Liz-Wrong.  Somehow even bigger of a personality than I anticipated, yet also much longer lived.  Blame Hunter.  

Jelinsky-Wrong, but in all fairness, who could predict Jelinsky?  

Maria-Spot on, for once.  Nailed her placement, and the reason why she’d go.  

Hunter-Wrong.  His physical game was much better than it looked, and the rest of his game, much worse.  

Moriah-She left a bit earlier than I anticipated, but I think I got her personality pretty well.  

Q-Wrong, but again, like with Jelinsky, who could have predicted anything about this guy?  Attempting to do so is a fool’s errand.  

Soda-Wrong.  I was somewhat close on her time in the game, but she was much more of a force to be reckoned with than I gave her credit for.  

Randen-Wrong, but then again, evacuations are much harder to anticipate.  

Tiffany-Wrong.  She had much more game than I thought she would.  And I’m all the happier for it.  

Tevin-Wrong.  This is the one I feel worst about.  Dude ended up being a favorite of mine this season, with a distinctive style and charm out the wazoo.  He may have lasted about as long as I thought he would, but I still give myself the loss on this one.  Not sure why I thought he’d be annoying.  It think it was his laugh in the preview.  I like everything about Tevin but his laugh.  

Venus-Right on personality, wrong on time in the game.  

Tim-Eh, kind of right.  I think I was a bit down on his chances, but he lasted about the length I thought he would, and certainly wasn’t a strategic powerhouse.  

And that about wraps up this season.  Like I said, definitely one of the greats.  Between this and my love for “Survivor 45”, we’re on a good trajectory I hope the show can keep up.  In the meantime, as we enter the off-season, keep on the lookout for more content from me.  We’ll certainly see the return of “Survivor What-Ifs?” and maybe a few other old series if I feel up to it.  

Final thing to say about this season: I’ll be driving near Charlotte NC tomorrow.  I’d better see a billboard celebrating Kenzie as I pass by.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 6: Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

Tribal Council is the place to make a “Hail Mary” play on “Survivor”, for a variety of reasons.  Yet it’s rarely the SMART place to make that type of play.  It can work on occasion, and nearly always produces spectacular fireworks, but by the time we get to Tribal, most people want to follow the advice of the late, great Keith Sale (“Survivor San Juan del Sur”, RIP), and “Stick to the Plan.”  Much as the show wants to paint Tribals as “Live”, they very rarely are, and half the time it’s editing.  Still, with these softball Tribals, we have to take what little drama we can get.  

Before I get into our “mergatory” (still hate that name), however, it’s time for another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Brief one here, but so caught up was I in making fun of Hunter for failing the logo-ordering journey last episode, that I forgot to talk about something I liked about it, namely the callbacks to “Survivor” history.  So much of the “New Era” has come at the expense of the old, to the point where the show minimized these types of references before.  Granted, that policy has been relaxed as we’ve gone on, but still, it’s nice to see the show be willing to admit it had seasons pre-COVID.  

Even so, our focus should be on the season in front of us, so let’s get back to that.  Having been on the wrong side of the vote, Moriah admits to being a bit uncomfortable.  Still, she tries to keep an optimistic view, saying she’d rather be “A living idiot than a dead Know-It-All”.  Decent attitude to have, while also throwing shade at Rob Cesternino (“Survivor The Amazon”) and Stephen Fishbach (“Survivor Tocantins”), despite neither of them being dead.  She admits discomfort to the tribe, but seems to re-integrate decently well, largely thanks to Ben smoothing things over.  Nevertheless, Tim admits in confessional that while they want to be “Siga Strong”, if push comes to shove, Moriah is on the bottom.  

Moving up from the bottom is Yanu, who get mail the next morning telling them to drop their buffs, and that they have 10 minutes to gather their things.  We get one last look at the Matthew Grinstead-Mayle Injury Rock (TM) as they celebrate being on the upswing.  Nothing much going on here, though I will say I find it weird that they refer to this as “Tree Mail”, when it clearly came from a boat.  Should have gone the “Survivor Pearl Islands” route and called it “Sea Mail”, at least. 

There are a couple of funny bits here, though.  Q tries to give his camp a nice send-off, only for Tiffany to say that the came sucked and gave them basically nothing, but in a humorous way.  Because Tiffany keeps it real.  Tiffany also reveals that she has named her idol “Idolecia”.  This has no bearing on anything, but is pretty cute.  Good pun.  

Yanu may not have had much to say, but they get more of a reaction than Siga, which just boils down to Moriah being happy to have options.  No, despite being the camp everyone will move to, it’s Nami that has the big reaction.  Everyone passes the note around, with Hunter giving it to Venus, and I’m surprised Soda didn’t snatch that note away instantaneously.  

Now, we have more game-important reactions to discuss.  More specifically Hunter, since now his Beware Advantage clue comes in.  Gotta say, this result feels lame.  I don’t want Hunter to lose his vote in perpetuity, obviously, but I figured not going to Tribal would mean some extra-difficult task to get the key to get his idol.  Instead he’s asked to solve a “riddle” that basically says “Dig by your tribe’s steps”, which he does, getting the key with seemingly little effort, despite what the show tries desperately to imply.  

From there, things proceed much as you’d expect.  Everyone celebrates coming together, but we quickly get to strategy talk.  When questioned about the Jem boot, Siga all toe the line on it being unanimous.  Good for Moriah, since it makes it clear the others do still want to work with her, but I’d say bad for the tribe as a whole.  Yanu is no threat, and in comparison, Nami is much freer with their targets.  As such, if Yanu ends up being the swing between the two tribes (which seems at least semi-likely), they’re much more inclined to want to break up the one with no visible cracks.  

We get out usual honeymoon phase for the new tribe, but it’s a particularly short one.  Unsurprisingly, Venus is the one to kick things off, showing just how salty she is with her tribe by talking about wanting to flip to Yanu.  You know, the tribe with limited power based on numbers alone?  Granted, this would put them on par with Nami, and they could at least temporarily band together against Siga, but still, on paper, you’d think she’d go to Siga with this info.  

Q just files all this away, eager to rekindle the alliance of six that was made on the journey last episode.  His check-in with Hunter and Tevin goes well, but less so his one with Maria.  She does mention Tim talking to her, but in more vague terms about the whole thing than specifics.  Confessionals indicate that Maria DOES know about this alliance, but isn’t sure she wants to go with it.  In a hilarious bit, just because it shows a bad misread, she admit’s she’s flattered by Tim considering her his number one, but has him in her top three at best.  Something about that disconnect is funny.  Anyway, Q goes to Tim, who says he’ll talk to Maria more firmly.  Privately, he says he does want the alliance to work out, but isn’t as eager to firm things up as Q.  Shoes the difference in priorities when one’s tribe has attended most Tribal Councils, and one hasn’t.  Good dynamic exploration here.  

The next day sees Venus continuing to put out feelers to multiple people, trying to swing people against Tevin in particular.  She moved on from Hunter, I guess.  Unfortunately, she’s so blunt about it, Charlie calling her “Wicked Smart”.  Charlie, quit trying to be Jake (“Survivor 45”).  You’re not pulling it off.  More intriguingly, we see Tim actually talk to Maria about the six alliance.  Unsurprisingly, Maria is unenthused, though she seems to do a good job hiding this from Tim.  She does say in confessional that she likes it as an option, but is so far wanting to stay Siga strong.  Understandable from her perspective, but bad for basically everyone else in that alliance, lending yet more credence to the vibes that it’s not sustainable.  

This is not the only strategy conversation we have.  Wanting to get more information on Saga’s dynamics, Q speaks one-on-one with Moriah.  She toes the line, but notes that Q is a bit more forceful with her than others have been, making her a bit suspicious that he’s sussed things out.  In reality this just seems to be Q’s style, very blunt and up front, but it’s easy to see why she feels that way, so I don’t blame her in the slightest.  Hell, she even toes the Siga line, so she’s not intentionally blowing up her game.  Despite this, Q doesn’t trust her.  Why?  Well, she names Aubry Bracco (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”) as her favorite player.  

On a completely unrelated note, Moriah just became my favorite player this season.  

Anyway, why does this turn off Q?  Well, as he notes, Aubry is a great strategist, executing excellent move after excellent move.  The snarky part of me wants to point out that “Survivor Game Changers” and ESPECIALLY “Survivor Edge of Extinction” beg to disagree on this description of Aubry, but as the self-appointed head of the “Aubry Lobby”, I’m going to let it slide.  Any and all pro-Aubry propaganda is welcome on my “Survivor”.  

This brings us to our challenge, which works basically the same as all the others.  Go through mud obstacles, stack sandbags to make stairs, climb a giant ball, puzzle is the first one from “Survivor Cagayan”.  It’s so standard at this point, and I’m so over the same thing happening at this point in the season.  Please, show, variety is all I ask!  Granted, this group seems oddly confused by how this part of the game works, but that’s more a mark against them than a mark in the format’s favor.  

There’s not even any drama of who will win!  It’s going to be the purple team, consisting of Kenzie, Q, Ben, Tim, Hunter, and Tevin.  Not only did they get ALL the challenge beasts of the season (particularly Hunter), but even if they didn’t we KNOW they win thanks to the “Next Time On…” segment from last episode.  That mentioned Liz and Soda being against one another, a scene we haven’t seen yet, meaning they along with Venus, Charlie, Maria, and Moriah must lose.  Otherwise there would be no point in those players targeting one another, since they’d be immune.  Even Tiffany sees the writing on the wall, and after a humorous half-second seeming to consider her options, hitches herself the purple team.  Even factoring out challenge ability, smart choice.  All her allies are there.  

I’ll give the orange team this: They put up a good fight.  Hell, they’re actually ahead for the first leg of the challenge, only falling behind when it comes to loading and pushing sandbags, due to that being all brute strength.  They even make up a good bit of time on the puzzle.  The one good thing I’ll say about this challenge is that EVERYONE, in sections, has to do the puzzle.  You can’t rely on one puzzle whiz to do the whole thing.  You’re only as fast as your slowest solver.  Unfortunately for orange, purple saved Hunter for the end, and since this challenge has nothing to do with past season logos, he naturally wins it for them.  Tevin notes this, and I’m SURE it won’t matter for later for Hunter.  Our winning several get their very nice deep red buffs, while the losers go to wash off the dirt.  

There’s tension in the air, though in a nice moment, Venus looks on the bright side.  They might not have won, but they did come close.  No small feat, given how uneven these teams were.  Granted she undercuts the niceness by wishing the winners to choke on the food, but hey, it’s something.  

Speaking of said winners, they quickly get to discussing who to vote out.  Initially, Venus is very much the target, thrown out emphatically by Tevin.  Most everyone seems ok with this, but in the interest of parity, Yanu wants Siga to throw out a name as well.  Ben continues to toe the party line of them being unified, which Tiffany FINALLY calls out in confessional.  As I mentioned before, she rightly notes that this is not a good reason to want to work with Siga.  As a result, when Tim finally cracks and reluctantly throws out Moriah as an option, she quickly becomes the consensus boot.  

So, with it being down to Moriah or Venus, I would say the choice is clear: Moriah must go.  I get the reasons for wanting to get rid of Venus, but she’s SUCH an outsider that she can be gotten rid of anytime, while Moriah could slip under the radar if you let her by.  True, Venus could slip under the radar as well, but at this point she’s SO disliked I have difficulty seeing her winning over a jury.  So if she gets to the end, hey, easy victory against her.  For Yanu and Nami, it makes a crack in the seemingly unified Siga, and for Siga, it lowers their threat level without actually sacrificing that much.  As such, in an ideal world, voting out one of the other Siga might truly be Yanu/Nami’s smartest move, but I don’t see it happening, and a Moriah exit is still a victory for them, on at least some level.  

Despite this, we need to add SOME evidence for a Venus boot, which Venus gladly provides.  Rather than just being happy to hear she’s been spared, she’s concerned that a woman is going, when they have the numbers.  She tries to swing the vote to Charlie, which as I say COULD be a good move for Nami/Yanu, but they’re not biting.  Understandable, given that she explicitly framed it as a move against the men, so Hunter, Tevin, and Q at least would have a reason to be opposed.  Q in particular is mad about this, calling Venus “ungrateful” after “he saved her.”  Not sure how much agency Q had in that, and this is really not a good look on Q.  I could kind of understand it with Jelinsky, but dude gets really absolutist and morally righteous when he thinks things should go a certain way.  That’s his right, of course, but not good in the game of “Survivor”, and in cases like this, can come off as having sexist overtones.  I don’t think Q IS sexist, to be clear.  At worst, he’s a southern gentleman taking things to their logical conclusion from that (for example, Tiffany apparently wanted to do the Sweat task with Q, but he refused to “let a lady do that”), which is not going to fly with everyone.  Even with all this, I still lean towards a Moriah exit, particularly given her increased screen time this episode.  

Thank goodness for Moriah finding out about her boot, since otherwise they Tribal Council would have nothing beyond standard double-talk.  Even as it is, what we get isn’t great.  Things break when Moriah admits there IS a crack in Siga, and it’s her.  A decent enough move as a desperation play, but probably too late.  Further, as Q points out, it makes her look bad, since she lied to cover it up.  I ragged on Q for some of how he came off this episode, but credit where it’s due, the man shines here.  He calmly and plainly explains why, while he’s happy to know that, it doesn’t change must from a trust scenario.  Moriah for her part handles things with a similar grace, emphasizing her pitch without seeming desperate.  

Even with these “fireworks”, the needle doesn’t seem to move, and Moriah understandably plays her Shot in the Dark.  Not everyone is Kaleb (“Survivor 45”) sadly, and Moriah is not safe.  She therefore goes, Venus receiving exactly one vote from Charlie, presumably to protect in case Moriah’s Shot in the Dark was successful.  Tevin also wisely saved his extra vote, though I will note I did love his little dance when he received it.  

Jokes about Aubry love aside, I’m overall not sad to see Moriah go.  Venus brought much more drama, and it’s always nice to see people make the smart move.  And hey, Moriah handles her exit with a ton of class, which is always nice to see.  

Actually, that sums up this episode pretty well: It was nice to see.  It’s not going down in the annals of “Survivor” greatness, but it executed everything competently, had some good humorous moments, and was overall just an solid, but unremarkable episode of the show.  If Q really does go down the dark path and show his worst qualities next episode, however, this may be the high point of the season…

-Matt 

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 3: “Things That Don’t Rock” for $300

Catchphrases.  I don’t need to explain to you what they are.  They’ve been a staple of tv since basically tv began.  Yet overall, not that common on “Survivor”.  Fair share of memorable quotes, and a few things from Probst that could be catchphrases (“Got nothing for ya”, “The tribe has spoken.”, etc.), but overall not as much of a thing as in other shows.  As Ben demonstrates tonight, that’s probably because trying to create a catchphrase for yourself on “Survivor” sounds really freaking forced!  Granted, in Ben’s case it’s so forced it comes back around to be funny.  But you get my point, and I’m getting ahead of myself.  

Bhanu is, understandably, a bit shaken up about Tribal Council last time.  After all, Jess wrote his name down, and if her idol had been real, he would have been gone.  Luckily for him it was fake, though he is curious to know how that happened.  He gets let in on the plan, and how the idol was made, but everyone else is largely dismissive of his concerns, saying he should just be happy to be hear.  Bhanu’s unreliability and incapacity to keep secrets are reiterated, he channels the spirit of Jelinsky by quoting “Know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em”, and cue intro.  

Following our awesome intro, we go back to Yanu to reiterate just how much they suck!  Why, Kenzie tells us they suck so much that they don’t even sleep in their shelter, opting for a nearby cave instead.  Hey, I guess it worked for Chuay Gahn on “Survivor Thailand”.  I mean, the shelter itself kind of sucked due to the latrine situation, but in terms of tribe success post-merge, not a bad trajectory to be following.  

Kenzie reiterates that they must be one of the most pathetic tribes in recent history.  Well, Kenzie, I’ve got good news for you!  You can’t know this at time of filming, but last season had a tribe that was even MORE pathetic than you!  You all are a hot mess, don’t get me wrong, but at least none of you quit!  Yet!  As such, you look slightly less pathetic in comparison.  Good job!… In timing your season to come after the last one!

Bhanu, still desperate to save himself, tries to talk to Kenzie about getting something going.  Kenzie, while friendly in tone, just asks him to come up with a plan, making it clear that she’s not that interested in working with Bhanu.  She says, rightly, in confessional that while he’s a nice guy, he can’t keep a secret, and so is just not cut out for the game.  A fair assessment, and one Q would not necessarily disagree with.  Still, Q sees some value in Bhanu, so their talk goes somewhat better.  Granted, this talk does involve Q comparing Bhanu to Phillip Sheppard (“Survivor Redemption Island”) and himself to Boston Rob (too many seasons to name at this point, but most relevant here is “Survivor Redemption Island”).  Probably not a comparison one would be flattered by.  

But hey, at least it means someone wants to keep Bhanu around!  Bhanu reacts to this news… with paranoia.  He’s not sure if this is just Q pulling the wool over his eyes to avoid a Shot in the Dark.  Granted, a pretty reasonable concern, but at this point, Bhanu, can’t look the proverbial gift horse in the proverbial mouth.  

As a side note, when Bhanu talks about Kenzie, he compares her to a “Mermaid-Dragon”, meaning beautiful and charming in the front, deadly in the back.  Not sure he quite nailed the metaphor, but I do know I want Bhanu to read me “The Little Mermaid” now.  No text to follow, just him making up the story based on memory alone.  I feel like it would be awesome!

Morning at Siga brings a group idol hunt, something that basically everyone mocks.  Moriah talks about how everyone keeps one eye for an idol, and one eye out for a “bulge”… Meaning an idol in a pocket, get your minds out of the gutter!  Charlie is particularly dismissive of the idea, saying he wants the idol for himself.  Naturally, such arrogance means he must get the “dodo” edit of being right by the idol and not seeing it!  

In fairness to Charlie, this one is particularly deviously hidden.  While plainly visible in a broken stump of a tree branch, it’s only visible from the camera angle we get, which is facing the path.  Looking FROM said path, you’d basically never see it.  As such, props to Jem for both finding it, and for not cluing Charlie in, since he was right beside her!

Jam states that she hopes the Beware Advantage is “A simple process”.  Famous last words.  As you’d expect, Jem’s note is similar to the ones found by Tiffany and Randen before now.  Dig beneath where you found the Beware Advantage, what this actually is.  Jem does so, though credit her for actually WAITING to do so unlike those other two.  Sure enough, she finds a box that says she doesn’t get another clue until her tribe loses, and until then, she has no vote.  Interestingly, however, Jem adds another bit, which says that additional rules would follow if she reaches the merge having never lost immunity. 

Um, WHAT?  I’m assuming that was part of EVERYONE’s rules, so why are we just hearing about it now?  I get not doing it in Tiffany’s, since the premiere had a lot to get through, and Yanu lost anyway almost immediately after, but why not read it with Randen’s?  You’re telling me that in the thinly-stretched two hour episode we had last week, there wasn’t room for Randen to say an extra SENTENCE to clarify this?  

Look, the reason I’m mad is not because of “production lying to us” or anything like that.  Nor am I mad about the rule; it makes sense.  But what this does is imply that it wasn’t RELEVANT UNTIL Jem got the idol, implying Siga never goes to Tribal pre-merge.  Or, in the event of a swap, that Jem never goes.  Way to suck out what little tension this season has so far, show!  Should have just made it something read with all finds, so that it gave nothing away.  

Still, good for Yanu.  More incentive for someone to throw a challenge.  About the only way they’re going to win one at this point.  

Well, I tell a lie.  There IS another plausible way for Yanu to win, but that’s getting a bit ahead.  Still, we do need to go to the tribe that could plausibly lose naturally, Nami.  Not that we see it at the start.  Indeed, things are all good at Nami, with Hunter working on building a bed; Tevin in a funny aside asking him to make a Temperpedic.  Liz dubs Hunter “Survivor MacGyver”, which may just be a coincidence, but I’m choosing to believe it’s an intentional shout to to Stephen Fishbach’s turn on “Survivor Cambodia”, since that season and player are both amongst my favorites.  She’s not alone in praising Hunter, with basically the whole tribe getting in on the act.  

Yes, everyone loves Hunter!  Even Hunter loves Hunter, giving us his backstory on choosing to forego a full ride scholarship to medical school to teach in his hometown.  I’d say this one hits pretty well, but that’s mostly because they mix in a good bit of comedy with the heartfelt-ness of it.  While it’s cool that Hunter decided to take a lesser-paying job that he’s passionate about and all, it’s also funny to see JUST HOW MANY “Survivor” puzzles he has lying around his home.  And not 3-D printed ones that I could tell; dude seems to have carved these himself.  Wouldn’t be too weird, but again, the sheer quantity alone is pretty funny.  

Did I say everyone loves Hunter?  I mean MOST everyone loves Hunter.  To his credit, while the dude is the center of his tribe socially (Soda and Tevin only seem more so because their personalities are louder, and thus they make better narrators), basically no one has caught on, which speaks to his smarts.  No one, with one exception.  

Yes Venus, in a good perceptive moment, has made note of Hunter’s standing, and so goes out to actively target him.  She goes to Randen to warn him of this threat, something Randen seems clueless on.  That said, while Venus HAS definitely made an excellent observation here, she’s really bad at pitching it.  The main thing she says is “Just use your eyes, and you’ll see.”  Um, Venus?  Randen DID use his eyes, and he missed it completely!  You might need some, I don’t know, EVIDENCE to back up your claim, if people can’t see it for themselves?  

Ok, ok, I’m being a bit harsh here.  Venus DOES point out his being central to the tribe dynamics, which IS the sort of evidence she should bring up.  That said, her initial dismissive “pitch” coupled with Randen still not seeming to get it at the end of the scene, is grounds for some light internet mockery nonetheless, in my opinion.  

Enough dilly-dallying, on to why Nami might lose.  Randen has woken up having slept funny on the bamboo, and now he’s got numbness in his right arm and leg, along with some stiffness in his neck.  Medical does end up coming out to take a look, but as no medevac was advertised prior to the season, he’s naturally cleared to stay in the game.  The doctor says it’s most likely a pinched nerve that should go away on his own.  Still, Randen’s not going to be much help in challenges, but hey, if it goes away on its own, then he should be fine down the road.  All he needs is for there not to be a challenge today!

Oh look!  A challenge in the very next scene!  Who could have guessed?

After that obvious yet hilarious joke, we examine the challenge itself, which is not that great.  Tribes race from the water to shore over a series of obstacles, including over a rolling log.  Once on shore, they dig up sandbags which they must then land on a series of disks high in the air.  First two to do so win immunity and varying amounts of shelter-improving equipment.  Standard stuff by this point.  I bring up the description only because you may remember the ending segment of this challenge as the one where JD choked on “Survivor 41”.  If that doesn’t ring a bell, it’s the one where he said “Money”, and then choked.  That fun memory earns the challenge a few points, but overall, otherwise forgettable.  

Randen naturally sits out the challenge, due to his injury, and his contributions to Nami show up FAST!  Despite Yanu still not having fire, and literally having to walk from exhaustion at one point during the challenge, Nami is still in last up to the beach.  Siga has the firm lead up to that point, notably having the innovative strategy of having the rest of the tribe roll the log in the correct direction with the hands to help ease the journey of the person going over it.  Nami is also similarly innovative, even in last, with Hunter grabbing onto Tevin’s legs as he goes over, thus pulling the both of them over.  

That said, tossing sandbags onto small disks is a tricky thing to do, especially since, as Q demonstrates, vibrations can knock them off.  Understandably difficult, but hey, I can’t knock any of these people.  It’s not like any of them have practiced this before…

CRASH!

COACH: I have.  

ME: Coach!  What the hell?  You’re not even on this season!

COACH: Hey, you were talking about tossing things!  How could you do so without my years of expertise in the area of tossing things?

ME: Very easily, and without a hole in my wall?

COACH: Ah, get over it, you wimp.  Besides, you were CLEARLY leading up to a point with that line, and what else could it be, other than me?

ME: Hunter.

COACH: What?

ME: Yeah, Hunter.  When we had his flashback, amongst the items he’d crafted for challenges was a bunch of sandbags, implying he’d done this sort of thing.  It’s actually some pretty subtle foreshadowing, and I wanted to give production their due on that one.  

COACH: But he doesn’t do it better than me, right?

ME: Given that he brought his tribe back from last place to first with seemingly a minimal number of tosses, and your team didn’t even win the equivalent challenge on “Survivor Tocantins”, I’d say he’s objectively better than you.  

COACH:… If you’ll excuse me, I have a dragon to slay.  

(COACH exits, brandishing a katana from nowhere.)

Yep, Hunter pulled it back, thereby sucking most of the tension out of the challenge.  There was no puzzle, and Nami was severely weakened, so Yanu had a shot of beating them.  Siga?  Minimal tribe dynamics, and while there is a CHANCE Jem asked them to throw, we never saw her do it.  

So yeah, Yanu loses, but to their credit, it was closer than any of their previous losses.  Really, the problem seemed to be that they didn’t have an ace on the sandbag throwing.  How the other teams seemed to do it was to find one person who had the right touch, and let them get into a rhythm.  Hunter was that for Nami, and after some false starts, Charlie ended up being that for Siga.  Q and Tiffany both landed their fair share of bags, but both kept switching out, thus preventing either of them for getting into a rhythm.  Not knocking them at all; for all my jokes about Coach and Hunter, this is not something easily prepared for.  You kind of have to learn it in the moment, and Charlie just learned it faster.  

Along with first place, Nami gets to pick who goes on a journey, thus explaining why this episode had a challenge at the 30-minute mark.  They pick Liz from themselves, along with Ben from Siga and Bhanu from Yanu.  I’m a little surprised at the Liz pick, since she seems to have been somewhat on the outside of that tribe, but can’t knock the other two.  

Before checking out our journey, we check in with Yanu.  Everyone’s a bit bummed, but Q is beating himself up, even dancing around asking to be voted out.  He puts most of the blame for the challenge loss on himself, comparing it to his time as a high school athlete where he blew an important game, and had to see it in the headlines of his local paper afterward.  Kind of a flashback, but kind of not.  We get no photos, just some background music implying a large crowd over Q’s narration.  Oddly, somehow more effective.  Yeah, it’s not a tear-jerker, but Q is clearly beat up, and you can sympathize with the guy taking so much of the responsibility for the tribe on his shoulders.  

That said, strategically, WHAT ARE YOU THINKING Q!  Even if the challenge loss was all your fault (and while he was a contributing factor, it being all on him is debatable), you DON’T say that to everyone, especially when they weren’t blaming you!  It’s just bad strategy.  Ugh, maybe we WILL get some quits after all.  

Now, I’m not trying to be too hard on the guy here.  Like I said, I can understand the frustration with the situation.  That said, he does go a bit over-the-top with the anguish (“Why does my life have to be the hardest path?” is a bit much), and this will make some stuff he says very ironic later.  Even Tiffany, his own ally, kind of thinks less of him for not handling the loss well.  

About the only fortunate thing for Q in this situation is that everyone seems dead-set on voting out Bhanu at this point.  They’re especially worried that he’s spilling everything to the other tribes while on the journey.  

Cut to said journey, and yeah, their fears are 100% justified.  Bhanu breaks down, and Liz and Ben do their best to provide some comfort.  It’s a genuinely nice scene, and when Bhanu talks about being accused of being too emotional, Ben is sure to tell that “That Does Not Rock”.  And yeah, emotions have a place in the game, but Bhanu clearly can’t control them even when the situation demands it, as evidenced by the aforementioned spilling of all tribe dynamics.  

To be fair to Bhanu, however, even if he weren’t being emotional, spilling the tea right now is kind of a smart move for him.  You already think you’re going to be voted out, and with good reason, so why not take revenge on those planning to vote you out anyway?  In the unlikely event you DO survive the night, you’ll come across as more open to the remaining players, and thus they’ll want to work with you more.  Granted, you’d probably piss off those on your remaining tribe, but again, they’re against you anyway, this won’t change your fate in and of itself.  

Speaking of fate and rocks, that’s the deal with today’s journey!  Everyone draws a rock from a bag.  Blue rock means you go on to risk your vote in a challenge, white rock means you go back empty-handed.  No lost vote, thankfully, but nothing extra either.  Much as I said I didn’t like the little game in the premiere, I don’t like full randomness either.  Players need SOME agency beyond challenge ability on these journeys, and this takes it away from them.  At the very least, those who draw the blue rock should be able to walk away after seeing the challenge.  

Bhanu actually wants the white rock, not trusting his challenge ability and preferring to rely on his Shot in the Dark.  Given what we’ve seen, I can’t blame him.  Unfortunately, Bhanu’s bad luck continues, as it’s Liz who draws the white rock.  Then, he and Ben are faced with building a cube puzzle in a tight time limit, something neither of them is particularly keen on.  Ben even informs us that puzzles fall into the category of “Things That Do Not Rock”.  Keep saying that Ben; I’m sure it’ll catch on.  

Both lose the challenge, and everyone heads back to camp.  The word of the day at both Nami and Siga is Bhanu’s intel on the inner workings of Yanu, which everyone praises Liz and Ben for getting, despite the fact neither of them did much beyond just let Bhanu talk.  Ben, however, lies a little bit, saying he won’t find out if he won the game or not until Tribal Council.  Frankly, this lie seems pointless to me.  I get not wanting to give away that you’ve lost your vote, since Ben think’s it’s a 3-3 split between men and women right now.  Probably want to let your allies know that in private so they can prepare for one less vote on their side.  But this lie seems oddly suspicious.  The reason not to tell people about losing your vote, as Ben says, is because it makes you a target.  However, acting suspicious about something this simple… Also makes you a target.  Not seeing the upside to this lie over just saying you gained nothing and didn’t lose your vote, is what I’m saying.  That’s plausible.  It’s what happened to Liz, after all.  

As to Bhanu… Well, give him credit, the man learned not to say everything at once!  He gives a brief overview of everything, but doesn’t admit to losing his vote, nor how much information he gave the other tribe.  Granted, he does admit to losing his vote to Q, but that makes sense, since Q is the one guy who’s seemed to want to work with him left, and hey, might as well try everything to save yourself.  

Q, however, is not convinced Bhanu should go.  Yep, the reasonable suspicion of Kenzie is still around.  Q says that Bhanu, while a nice guy, needs someone to lead him in this game.  You know, the guy who was talking about falling on his sword for a minor setback earlier!  Yeah, that’s definitely the guy I want coaching me through this game!  Look, I get it, Q overall is a team player, and most of the time, yeah, I’d want him in my corner building me up.  But for him to say THIS about himself, in literally the same episode he was effectively talking about QUITTING?  That’s so hypocritical, it wraps back around to being kind of hilarious.  

Whatever, Q’s hypocrisy aside, he goes and pitches the idea to Tiffany, bringing up that Bhanu will be a number for them that they can control, whereas Kenzie has a mind of her own.  As Tiffany says, this is a valid point, and is much better misdirection than the “Q falls on his sword” stuff from earlier.  Why did we need that, again?  That said, Tiffany admits she’s still leaning Bhanu for his overall messy gameplay, which I’d say is the sensible choice.  Look, Kenzie is a threat, no doubt about it, but Bhanu, while he can be lead, is messy in gameplay.  He’s shown time and again he has little to no filter, and that’s just too big a liability to drag to the end, even as a goat.  Moreover, although neither of them know this, there will be an ample target on Kenzie later.  You see, when Bhanu talked about the tribe dynamics to Liz and Ben, he built up Kenzie in particular as the “mastermind”, meaning there will be PLENTY of people willing to take out Kenzie come a swap or a merge.  Not knocking them for not bringing this up; just saying in the aggregate, it’s another point in the “Vote off Bhanu” column.  

But all of that stuff?  Doesn’t matter!  With about 10 minutes left in the episode, we cut over to Nami, which can only mean one thing.  Yes, sadly, Randen’s side has not gotten better, and after consulting with a neurological specialist, it’s been decided that he needs to be pulled from the game.  An understandable decision, but I am sorry to see Randen go.  I won’t act like he was my favorite or anything, but he was either going to upend the whole tribe dynamic, or overplay and go out in a blaze of glory.  Either way, would have been fun to watch.  

And he didn’t even get to pass along his beware advantage to Venus, as it’s non-transferrable.  I get not being able to do that in-game (since that would render losing one’s vote somewhat moot), but I feel like there should be an exception if you’re pulled from the game.  After all, then you’re doing it to have one final lasting impact on the game, not to save your own skin.  Have a heart, production.  Thankfully Randen is confirmed to be ok in his final words, and hopefully he’ll get to fulfill his wish to play again someday.

After there’s commiseration at Nami, there’s cheering at Yanu.  Kind of insensitive cheering, to be honest.  Kenzie does pay lip service to Randen, but mostly they’re just happy they don’t have to go to Tribal Council.  Similar to Rupert being somewhat insensitive to Jenna’s quit on “Survivor All-Stars”, it’s not a good look, but you get where he’s coming from.  

And thus, Bhanu’s episode arc of trying everything and getting basically nowhere, only to be saved at the last minute by something out of his control, is complete.  A decent arc, but still kind of a disappointing episode.  In fairness to the show, however, there wasn’t much they could do this time.  I appreciate them not making it obvious that Randen was going until the very end, but at the same time, it made everything before seem kind of pointless.  There were good moments in this episode, but Randen needing to leave when he did just took the proverbial fire out of everything.  Comparisons will doubtless be made to Matthew’s exit on “Survivor 44”, but there it was the culmination of the pre-merge arc following his invention of the Matthew Grinstead-Mayle Injury Rock (TM).  As such, it felt a lot more satisfying, despite being the obvious outcome.  Here, it’s just kind of a thing that happened in this episode that derailed all the other drama.  Again, not that production could have done anything about that.  They worked with what they have, and to be fair, the emotional beats generally did hit home, Q’s hypocrisy aside.  Sadly, however, no matter how hard you try, sometimes you just can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 2: I Wanna Dance With Somebody…

If you’re at all familiar with the song referenced in the title, you doubtless sung the title in tune.  And that song is now stuck inside your head for the foreseeable future!  My grand master evil plan is now complete!  MWAHAHAHA!

More unpleasant than an earworm, however, is this!  Yes, it’s time for another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

For once, just a small thing, and in a two-hour premiere, it’s understandable.  However, as it will have bearing on something else this episode, it bears mentioning.  We joke in the community about how Probst is so overdramatic about taking the flint, and how it doesn’t really matter that much if you get fire early.  Partly this is us being snarky, but it’s also partly because deprivation doesn’t come across well on-screen.  Last episode, however, gave us a brief, but poignant, demonstration of that deprivation.  No matter how tired, most tribes give their all in a challenge, right?  Well, it’s brief, but in the overhead shot at the start of the first immunity challenge, while most people run, we see some of Yanu, specifically Jess, WALK!  Sure, she eventually runs, but it really does take away from the epicness of this first challenge to get off to a walking start.  And, as I say, it will have some bearing on my opinion on how this episode goes.  

Speaking of this episode, given that we had a unified vote against the first boot, there is no drama, and thus no scene of Yanu getting back to camp.  Instead, we cut to the next day, with Bhanu chanting and meditating to re-center himself.  He admits that voting people out is stressful, and needs his tribe to come together and win, especially since he perceives himself (not incorrectly) to be on the outs.  The rest of the tribe, while open to Bhanu, is more realistic about their situation.  They’re not downers per se, but they give a realistic assessment that they’re in tough shape, particularly after Bhanu and Kenzie fail to make fire.  Gotta admit, it’s a nice change of pace from the sometimes forced positivity of the modern era of “Survivor”.  Had they gone full Debbie Downer, that probably would have been annoying as well, but a nice, human reaction is good to see.  Kenzie even goes and has a cry at an archway just past the Matthew Grinstead-Mayle Injury Rock (TM).  She consoles herself that at least her eyes look really blue after she cries, which… Yeah, they do.  Good on her for finding the bright side in all this.  

Life is much happier over at Nami, with Tevin busting out his best Jeff Probst impression, describing difficult challenges (such as finding a screw in an underwater stack of nails, purely by touch) for disappointing rewards (such as “air”).  It’s fine.  Look, I’m probably being too harsh.  The impression is at least decent, if not good.  I just feel like Rob Cesternino (“Survivor The Amazon”) has set the bar for Probst impressions so high no one can compete, no matter how talented.  The over-the-top challenges and underwhelming rewards were hilarious, though.  

Tevin reminds us that he’s relying on his social game, even getting along with Randen, who if you’ll recall from last episode was not doing so great socially.  Tevin actually says that Venus is the one person he can’t stand.  This is a sentiment Soda agrees with too his face, though privately she admits she has a bond with Venus.  That said, the numbers aren’t there to save Venus, so Soda admits to distancing herself, something we see when she puts off having a strategic meeting with Venus.  

Venus, not being blind, recognizes this.  She’ll do something about it later, but for now, uses the situation to talk about the story of her parents immigrating from Iran, and how she won’t give up, since they gave so much to get her a better life.  These “flashback” scenes are divisive amongst the fandom, and I’ve been more lenient on them than most.  That said, for me, for a flashback to work, the drama has to be A) Real drama, and not just the show trying to force drama, and B) Relevant to what’s being talked about on screen.  So, where does Venus’ fall?  Eh, kind of average, to ge honest.  It’s a decently dramatic story, and a tough emotional time is KIND OF a connection to it, but it’s not the strongest tie or the strongest story, since Venus herself was a young child when it happened.  Nice to know more about her beyond people thinking she’s a “princess”, however.  

Here we get our intro for the season, and I’m happy to see it back.  I was worried about its absence the first episode, but evidently they just wanted to give us time to bond with the new cast, and needed the extra minute or so, which I can understand.  And hey, even though it’s a remix of old themes, the music’s pretty good too!

Fire is on the agenda over at Siga, with Ben in particular insisting on being the one to make it.  He does so and everyone gives a cheer.  This cues Ben to talk about HIS backstory, overcoming a lisp and general shyness to become a musician.  Yeah, this one works less than Venus’.  I can sympathize with overcoming bullying, but the triumph of that and the triumph of making fire with flint is a tenuous connection under the best of circumstances. Ben gives his tribemates some nicknames, which are decent, but not as iconic as, say, the “Stealth ‘R Us” ones from “Survivor Caramoan”.  “Jungle Jem” is about the only one that stands out, and that’s mostly due to Ben’s over-explaining the pun.  

Not to say that there isn’t ANYTHING of value to be gleaned at Siga.  Charlie takes us through the alliances again, noting that he’s in the middle between the “Men’s Alliance” and “Charlie’s Angels” (Charlie+the women of the tribe).  The former alliance wants to bring in Maria as their fourth, due to her extra vote (also probably because of her thing with Tim from the previous episode), and Charlie’s generally on board with that.  While he’s still playing the middle unimpeded, he notes (correctly) that he’d be on the bottom of the women if he went with them, but has more room to maneuver sticking with the men, which seems like a fair assessment.  He explains that he doesn’t want to be led, but wants to get into a “waltz” with someone, thereby making titling this blog incredibly easy.  That someone turns out to be Maria, as the presumed other swing vote between these two groups.  The pair agree to go “Malcolm and Denise” (“Survivor Philippines”) together, which I suppose is a decent comparison, since it’s an older woman (by the standards of this show) and a younger guy working together, though Charlie is no Malcolm in terms of challenge ability.  Still, he’s a better fit that Adam Klein was when he made the comparison on “Survivor Winners at War”, and that was with the ACTUAL Denise.  Our NEW Malcolm and Denise seem to be leaning towards the men for their strength, but for now, where they’ll vote is still up in the air.  

After commercial, we’re back at Nami.  After Liz talks about money again, and how it makes it difficult to find a new husband, we get to actual strategy.  Venus has decided to do something about her situation, and that something is a renewed idol hunt.  I will push back a little bit on Venus doing this in lieu of trying to forge one new social bonds, but given some stuff we’ll see later, it seems like that door is largely closed at this point.  Unfortunately for her, she’s not the only one hunting.  Hunter reminds us that he’s in this game too, and is furiously searching while looking for firewood.  He even uses the correct meta of poking around significant-looking trees!  

Meta does not win the day, however.  It’s Randen, our third hunter, who ends up picking up the Beware Advantage.  It is indeed in a tree, though credit where’s it due, it was tough to find.  No colored string to give it away (or if there was, very close to tree color), so it blended it well with the trunk.  Similar to Tiffany’s last episode, it tells him to dig beneath where he found it.  He finds a box, only to be told, again like Tiffany, that his tribe needs to lose a challenge to get his next clue.  Unlike Tiffany, this is actually an issue for Randen.  Contrary to my pre-season predictions, Nami is quickly turning out to be the tribe that succeeds the most, so if he wants that idol, he’s probably going to have to convince his tribe to throw a challenge.  

In order to do that, Randen is going to need some allies.  People with influence.  People with power.  People who can shift the tribe dynamics in his favor, while still being subtle about it.  

Randen talks to Venus, with the pair agreeing to work together.  I have no idea why.  Venus frankly seems like the LAST person you’d want to share this information with, since she can leverage it against you easily, and can’t really help you much at all, but that’s what he does.  For her part, Venus takes the alliance, but in fairness, it’s pretty much the only one she’s been offered, so I don’t really blame her.  

With Yanu, well, we’ve seen that Bhanu’s emotions are a bit off-putting for his tribe, time to see what JESS is doing to keep her on the outs.  In this case, it’s eating some ants crawling up a palm frond.  Honestly, don’t get why her team is giving her such a hard time about this?  Yeah, it’s not MUCH protein, but it’s something, and given the minimal effort she needs to acquire it.  Granted, cooking a worm is a bit of a weird suggestion, but more so for the “cooking” part than the “eating the worm” part.  Worms are so small, cooking one doesn’t seem worth it.  

Jess does, however, realize she needs to open up a bit more, and so socializes with Bhanu.  She talks about how she met her husband, and teaches the group a bit of Chinese, Q chiming in that he knows it from “Rush Hour”, which gets a laugh out of most present.  This socializing leads Kenzie to further socialize as well, this time with Jess and Bhanu.  After taking them out to visit the archway past the Matthew Grinstead-Mayle Injury Rock (TM), she floats the idea of taking out Q to them, due to being a threat down the road.  The pair give fairly standard responses, though Jess is more wishy-washy, saying she needs to figure out what she thinks.  Kenzie correctly reads that the two are not really open to working with her right now, and so reaffirms her commitment to getting rid of Jess.  Behind her back, however, in a clever bit of sign language, Jess signals to Bhanu that they should try to target Kenzie.  

This may be an easier sell than they think.  Q has also noticed Kenzie’s socialization, and begins to worry, not unfairly, that Kenzie wants to be Tiffany’s tight ally, when he and Tiffany are already tight, thus putting him at risk.  Will he actually act on this?  Time will tell.   

Before our challenge, there’s a brief interlude at Siga again.  Charlie notes that he’s not the most social guy, so any nerdy interest he can use as a connection is welcome.  Today, that interest is music, as he and Ben get into a battle of who can name the most songs from a given artist/band.  Ben chooses Metallica, while Charlie, naturally, goes Taylor Swift.  Somewhere, Hunter just got really uncomfortable, and doesn’t know why.  It’s a decently fun back and forth, with the editors kindly keeping a tally as each names a song.  Charlie emerges victorious at 107, though the number of songs both could name was impressive.  A decently fun scene, but not one really necessary to the show.  I’m generally in favor of those, but when you make your episode two hours long, and it isn’t the premiere, I expect you to have something useful to fill that time.  This was entertaining, but not much else, and the highlight was less the duel itself, and Tim’s confessional about it.  I don’t know, it amused me.  Gave off strong “How do you do, fellow kids?” vibes based off his tone.  

Our challenge today is a combination of “Dragging the Dragons” from “Survivor Cagayan”, and that word/arch puzzle from “Survivor 45”, scaled up.  One tribe member unties a machete and cuts down wheels for a cart.  Tribes then dig up boxes containing puzzle pieces which they transport to the end, then solve said puzzle.  First two tribes to finish win immunity and varying amounts of fishing gear.  Nothing much else to write home about; bog-standard challenge.  

More interesting in the pre-challenge banter.  Everyone else seems shocked to see Jelinsky voted out, which, given that most of his failings were in personal interactions, I can understand their shock.  Only Maria and Tevin should maybe not be shocked, since they got to see him fold so quickly, but since we don’t see them specifically react, maybe they didn’t.  There’s also some good trash talk between Q and Soda, which does a nice job straddling the line between fun and mean.  It helps that both give as well as they receive, implying they understand it’s all just talk.  Then, to top it all off, Probst busts out the knife from “Survivor 45” again, using it to cut off a fake Buff Nami added to their idol.  Nice touch.  Glad to see the knife come back.  

Sadly, this is where the good points here end.  This episode, I’m sad to say, has done a poor job implying anyone but Yanu will be going to Tribal Council tonight.  We’ve had at least a BIT of strategy form all sides, but Yanu very clearly got the bulk of it, as well as the most targets.  Randen finding the idol, and thereby being incentivized to throw the challenge.  However, if there was any chance that would happen, it would be played up more.  No, Yanu has lost this, no matter what happens.  

Instead, let us focus on our sit-outs.  Liz for Nami, Moriah for Siga.  Both logical choices, and they don’t take their time on the benches to strategize.  They do make small talk however, and, in  Liz’s case, annoying cheer on her tribe.  I get that you want to pump up your team and all, but do it in a less obnoxious way, ok?  

Sure enough, Yanu loses, though to their credit, they keep it close, and there’s a lot of back and forth.  All tribes have trouble getting the archway built, and while they still come in first, Nami has a false finish when they get their arch set up, only to discover that they misspelled the puzzle solution (“persistence”).  Tiffany is so mad about this that she can’t even talk, lest others potentially look at her sideways.  

Since she needs some time, let’s check in with Nami.  Yep, still riding the high after that win, trying out their new fishing gear.  Tevin even brings us a Rupert Boneham (“Survivor Pearl Islands”) reference, which I’m kind of surprised we’re still getting in 2024.  Dude’s still iconic, I guess.  

The only real downer here is Venus, though this time, I’d say she has good reason.  During the challenge, she asked the team to turn the cart a bit, since it was going to run over her foot.  They did not, and now her toe is hurt.  Everyone we see, from Tevin to Soda, dismisses this as whining.  Look, I get that you don’t like Venus, but that doesn’t mean EVERYTHING she does is to be annoying!  I’m 100% on her side here!  That’s not cool to just ignore your tribunate to the point they get injured!  Frankly, I’m amazed Venus is a collected as she is about it.  Another brush-off from Soda even gets Venus to realize she’s against her, also noting that Soda keeps grabbing the idol from her after Probst hands it over.  Nothing she can do about it now, since no one here is a dumb as the men’s Manono tribe from “Survivor One World”, but, as Telltale Games would say, “Venus will remember that…”

Evidently we didn’t give Tiffany enough time, since she’s still upset once we check back in with Yanu.  She worries about how she’ll be seen, not so much by her own tribe, but by the other tribes.  She notes the perils of showing frustration as a black woman in society, not wanting to come across as the “angry black woman”, but also understandably stressed at needing to keep an eye on herself every day as a result.  It’s honestly really open and touching, and I applaud Tiffany for being so vulnerable.  See, show?  THIS is how you get us to connect with your players as people!  And you’ll note you didn’t even need a flashback for it.  

Kenzie, seeming to not quite read the room, tries to redirect Tiffany to talk about strategy.  The pair do settle on Jess as the target for weakness in challenges.  I’d say it’s lack of cohesion that cost you this last challenge, but for the first one?  Yeah, between walking at the start and being on the puzzle, you could argue Jess is the weak link challenge-wise.  Plus, outside the alliance, not giving you much in terms of strategy, her target makes sense.  

Still, Jess has the possibility of using her Shot in the Dark, and Kenzie and Tiffany would like to prevent that.  As such, they’ve made a fake idol, and hidden it where the real idol was.  Tiffany, in some of the worst acting this episode, coaxes Jess into an idol hunt.  She and Kenzie then get frustrated when Jess walks right past the idol, instead following the interesting-looking-trees meta.  They verbally berate her over and over in confessional for this, which is not a good look for them.  I may enjoy Tiffany and Kenzie more as strategists, but they’re REALLY laying into Jess here for stuff that I’d say is fairly reasonable.  Criticize her for being slow to start playing, but missing an idol?  Your bad acting job would be enough to kill her enthusiasm (since she could suspect a plant), and trees are a perfectly valid place to hunt for idols.  You may be the better players, but Jess comes out looking nicer than the two of you in this scene.  

Plan B, since they need Jess to have the idol, is to have Q give it to her.  He does so, urging her to vote Kenzie with him and Bhanu.  Yes, this is our misdirection for the episode.  Q notes that while he is lying to Jess, she and Bhanu would be votes for him, while Kenzie might not be.  And it would be SO EASY to just really flip the vote on Kenzie instead.  Hmm…

Our next scene is… MORE OF THE SAME!  Yeah, this is where the two hour run time starts to feel stretched.  The majority of this scene is just reiterating the strategy I just described, and could easily have been condensed.  Don’t get me wrong, more “Survivor” is usually a good thing, and I think 90 minutes is the sweet spot for a regular episode like this.  But two hours?  If you don’t have enough things to fill those two hours, make some hard cuts and go back to 90 minutes.  I like the song battle at Siga, but we didn’t need it, and we could have condensed these two strategic scenes to one.  Trim some stuff here and there, and this episode could easily fit a 90 minute run time.  

That said, there are two new bits added here.  Could have just had them in the last scene to save time, but they’re good stuff nonetheless.  Say what you will about Jess, she actually has the brains to CONSIDER that the idol being given might be a fake, noting its similarity to the items on their torches.  Granted, most idols look like that nowadays, but still, a good train of thought to follow.  I feel like the plan might be rumbled when Q gets oddly defensive about the idol, but partly because she has little other choice, she seems satisfied.  

The other new bit comes when Bhanu begins to get paranoid, and he, Q, and Jess discuss the Kenzie plan.  We learn that Q doing this plan is conditional upon Tiffany coming with him.  This makes sense.  There’s pros and cons to getting out both Jess and Kenzie for Q, and no real bad option for him.  Either way, to prevent potentially being blindsided next episode, his best bet is to keep Tiffany as tight as possible, as she’d likely be needed for any next move.  Voting out Kenzie without her would piss her off, and so he’d either have to sacrifice her as well (a tough call this early in the game), or end up voted out himself if Bhanu and Jess were to flip.  He floats the idea of getting rid of Kenzie to her, and she seems at least open to the possibility, but privately says she wants Jess gone, since she wanted her gone last episode anyway.  As such, sticking with Jess is probably Q’s best plan.  Plus, even if Jess isn’t more of a challenge sink than Kenzie (and to be fair, while we haven’t seen Kenzie struggle, she doesn’t seem to be a challenge beast either), Kenzie at least seems motivated, something you’ll need to win given the resources of the other tribes, and that alone is a reason to keep her over Jess.  

While not one for the history books, Tribal Council is a fun, above-average affair, at least by the standards of the modern era.  Jess tries and fails to double-talk miserably, leading Kenzie to call out that she intentionally didn’t talk strategy with Jess that day.  Bhanu, however, is the star of the show.  He goes off on a rant about his emotions in the game, leading to a great wide-eyed expression from Q.  Probst then points out that Bhanu has a hard time hiding the target, something Q also calls him out on, and says would be a liability come the merge.  Bhanu defends himself, but poorly, leading to him asking basically everyone but Kenzie what to do.  Q is the only one to give him a straight answer, telling him to “Stick to the plan”, a la Keith Sale (RIP) of “Survivor San Juan del Sur”.  Then, to top it off, we find that the theme of this season is “People telling Jeff ‘It’s time to vote’” since Q says it where Bhanu said it last time.  All set to pretty epic music.  Good stuff all around.  

There’s decent mystery as to where the vote will go, at least at first.  As soon as Jess plays the fake idol, however, we know she’s done.  If Q really wanted to use her vote, he would have told her not to play it.  After all, Probst will have to confirm it’s a fake, meaning he loses her trust, at least partially, if she stays.  Wisely, he lets her go, and I can’t say I’m too sorry.  Jess seems like a nice person, but she was too slow in playing the game (which she herself admits in her final words), and just didn’t pop on screen.  Sadly probably going to be the forgotten player of this season.  Still, she’s a good sport, slapping Q playfully on the knee when Probst declares the idol a fake.  We respect good sportsmanship around here.  

Yeah, sad to say, this episode was a downgrade.  Not terrible, but it really felt like it stretched to meet the time.  While entertaining, the strategy was simpler than last episode, and misdirection weak at best.  A fine enough episode, but this show can do much better as well.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 46” Episode 1: Fold in the Wolf

In the pantheon of “Survivor”, there are several epic episode 1 flameouts.  Zane Knight’s weird overplaying on “Survivor Philippines” is a prime example, but he’s hardly alone on Olympus here.  Let us not forget Jacob Derwin’s nerdy and obvious strategic flubs on “Survivor Ghost Island”.  And of course, there’s Garrett Adelstein of “Survivor Cagayan”, the man who played so poorly he was voted out over the person WHO OPENLY AND ACTIVELY SABOTAGED THE TRIBE!  And tonight, another joins their ranks.  Yes, it does make for an obvious first boot, but it was entertaining, so who cares?

We open up our episode proper to find that CBS has found yet ANOTHER cost-cutting measure!  Not enough for them to stay in Fiji until the heat death of the universe.  Not enough for them to stick with 26 day games.  No, now they’ve even outsourced the opening narration!  Instead of Probst (whom you have to pay) our intro into the dangers of the game is done by Tevin, one of the players (who presumably does it for free).  Will the cut corners never cease?  

I kid, I kid.  Probst does come in at the end, and to his credit, Tevin does an excellent job at the narration.  His fellow competitors even all get good moments leading up to the opening challenge.  We get a good look at Bhanu’s enthusiasm, and he’s even so kind as to throw in a “Slumdog Millionaire” joke.  Jess gets out a good line about being a twin and thus has been “competing for nutrients since the womb”.  Hunter gives us a bit about coming from a small town, and will thus have trouble connecting specifically with people who like Taylor Swift.  Not one to miss a chance at an obvious joke, we immediately cut to a confessional from Charlie gushing about how much he likes Taylor Swift.  Lucky for Hunter they’re not on the same tribe.  The joke is obvious, but no less hilarious for it.  Honestly probably the only weak link in these early introductions, if there is one, is Tiffany, who mostly talks about her job as an artist, and her accomplishments.  Not bad, but pretty standard for these sorts of confessionals.  What elevates her to “funny”, at least for me, is that she refers to art, and by extension herself, as a “Hustler”, making me think she got confused about what season she was on.  I kid, I kid.  Probably just an expression, but always funny to hearken back to the goofy themes of yesteryear.  

We get onto our opening challenge beach, with basically no mat chat this time.  Unless you count Soda bouncing around in excitement and going on about said excitement, which I do not.  Probst, however, does give a little speech about how there’s someone here who can’t win, just due to the composition of the cast, who thinks they can.  I kind of get what he’s going for here, but don’t entirely agree.  I’d say everyone might have an uphill battle, since the casting might not favor them, but everyone has SOME way to maneuver things to their advantage.  Still, the point stands that some people will have a worse hand, there’s no denying that.  

Probst then describes our challenge, which is… Kind of underwhelming, to be honest.  It’s like a scaled down version of the challenge Bruce injured himself on during “Survivor 44”, though without the cross-pieces, so less room for concussions.  Tribe members go two at a time under obstacles to retrieve puzzle pieces.  Three members then use said puzzle pieces to build a platform for one person to get a key off of a pole.  First tribe to finish gets a pot, machete, and flint.  For the other two tribes, we’re back to “Survivor 44” rules about “Sweat vs. Savvy”, in that second place picks which one of those tasks to do, leaving the last place tribe to their fate.  Frankly the superior way to do it, so I’m not complaining.  The challenge itself is fine, and I know that first challenges are not the biggest spectacles, but still this one just feels small-scale.  Not the epic contest I was thinking of.  At least the puzzle leading to a platform rather than a cube is different.  

Out of the gate, we see that it’s not physical strength that’s going to divide these tribes, but puzzle ability.  All get through the physical portion at roughly the same pace.  There’s a few stand-outs who carry puzzle pieces on their own, specifically Hunter, Tiffany, and Maria, but apart from maybe Hunter, no one who’s going to blow the competition out of the water physically.  But ooh, the puzzle.  Only Nami, the orange tribe, seems to know what they’re doing, with both Yanu, the purple tribe, and Siga, the green tribe, seeming confused by a puzzle that shouldn’t be THAT complex.  The race for second SEEMS like it might be tight, but then Siga eventually gets their act together, while Yanu still seems lost even AFTER Jelinsky jogs over to copy Nami’s completed puzzle.  In fairness, Yanu was farther away from Nami’s puzzle than Siga was, but still, not that complicated guys.  

So Siga must pick whether to do Savvy or Sweat, sight unseen of what it is.  Now, if I’m Siga, I’m thinking that it’s best to force Yanu to do “Savvy”, since we just saw them choke pretty hard on the puzzle.  However, they decide they want Yanu to be more physically worn out, and so elect to do “Savvy” themselves.  I guess I see the logic, but I still think I’d have gone the other way for the reason mentioned previously, though I suppose Siga was the team that was slightly behind on the physical portion of the challenge.  

From here we’d leave to go do our tasks, but there is the note leading us to commercial that bears mentioning.  We hear from Jem, about the only time we hear from her this episode, apart from when we’re detailing the alliances at Siga.  She talks about how, while others are here for the experience, and that’s fine, she’s here for the money.  That, to me, is a winner quote.  If so, I’m very happy, since I called her win pre-season.  Then again, I also thought Emily had a winner quote last season, and we see how well that turned out.  

Yanu finds that their task is a bit of a repeat for “Sweat”: Two tribe members must haul water from the ocean up around the timer to a pair of buckets, which they must fill in a four hour time limit.  To add insult to injury, they quickly learn the buckets have holes in them, though lucky for both there’s no rule against covering the hole as they run, which they quickly do.  Q and Jelinsky, being the two physically strongest, set about doing the task, as Q gives inspirational talks about this being a team, and him “quarterbacking” the game.  Time will tell if he’s able to do that.  

As for our “Savvy” task, it’s less “Puzzle” and more “Riddle” granted there’s a combination lock for the end, but the clue makes a specific reference to “What you’ve overlooked.”  Our puzzle-solvers, Ben and Charlie, do eventually pick up on this, but they instead think it means to look under the table the lock is on, instead of the actual answer.  They had a word search where they found numbers (too many to work in the combination lock), but instead had to look at what letters weren’t used, which would have told them to dig under the lock to find the combination.  A pretty easy puzzle, in my opinion, but I can also see their logic, so I won’t fault them too much this mistake.  A tight time limit combined with this error leads to their failure, though both bond over it (Ben joking about them getting “Rocked Out”), and their tribe seems to take it in stride, so individually they’re probably safe.  

Nami is, naturally, a lot more happy-go-lucky due to winning.  Despite this, they are also the first tribe to have a visible crack.  Liz mentions that she’s bought and sold companies in her work, strongly implying that she has money.  This is something Tevin quickly picks up on, though it’s mostly filed away for now.  

Less happy is Jelinsky, who feels ripped off by the note for the “Sweat” task.  It says “several” hours, which in Jelinsky’s world means “seven”.  Not sure what world that is, but as we’ll soon see, Jelinsky is often an island unto himself.  Now, Jelinsky does have Q, who is quickly becoming a candidate for “Best Team Player Ever”.  Q is clearly feeling the strain of the task, but continues to persevere.  He sticks with Jelinsky, giving him words of encouragement… Only for Jelinsky to have them call it off not even halfway through the challenge.  Look, closer to the end I would get it, but at least put in more of an effort so the rest of the team isn’t pissed at you!  

Jelinsky does end up forcing the quit, dramatically throwing the hourglass away.  Nice cinematography, but a bad look for your tribe.  Still, Jelinsky says it doesn’t matter because he gained a new ally in his bond with Q.  This is immediately undercut by Q rightly pointing out that Jelinsky is someone who’ll give up, and thereby is probably an unreliable ally.  Quite the brain trust, our Jelinsky.  

From here we get the usual introduction to some of our key players, as well as an overview of tribe dynamics.  These are intercut with each other, jumping from tribe to tribe, but for brevity’s sake, since the exact order of these events doesn’t really matter, I’m just going to go tribe by tribe, only mentioning scene breaks where relevant.  

Yanu actually ends up the simplest here, since we got a good look at some of the dynamics with Jelinsky giving up, and Q’s reaction to it.  Kenzie talks about how being a hairstylist helps her to read people, and we see she’s quickly become the focal point of the tribe, pulling in Q, Jelinsky, and Tiffany to make a majority.  Not sure how stable a majority that includes both Q and Jelinsky will be after that last scene of them, but hey, stranger things have happened.  Bhanu is not explicitly brought into the alliance, but seems to get along okay with everyone, gleefully helping them open coconuts sans machete.  

No, Tiffany makes it clear that Jess is going to be their first target.  Both she and Kenzie try to talk to Jess, who comes off decently friendly, but much more closed than the otherwise very open tribe.  Jess admit’s she’s introverted, and that combined with recently diagnosed ADHD is making it harder to connect.  Neither an insurmountable obstacle, but Jess is clearly in trouble early on.  She needs to hope Jelinsky or someone else (but really, from what we’ve seen, is there even a CHANCE it’s anyone else?) royally screws up to give her time to come out of her shell.  

While not relevant to strategy, I should mention that Jelinsky tries to nickname the alliance of himself and Kenzie “Shaggy and Daphne”, based on looks alone.  All I can say is I’m glad that name didn’t catch on.  I like a good “Scooby-Doo” reference as much as the next guy, but that was WAY too forced.  

Siga has more content than Yanu, but probably the most simplistic of the three in terms of tribe dynamics.  It’s your classic “three pairs of two” mixed with a gender division.  Initially we get people paired up, with Ben and Charlie being the obvious one due to their bond over attempting the “Savvy” task.  Tim and Maria bond over being parents, though Maria does admit she doesn’t want to be the “mom” of the group, due to the potential negative connotations that can bring.  That just leaves Jem and Moriah, who thankfully are not just spares, but do bond over their neediness.  Moriah in particular talks about being a D&D fanatic, and how she needs to work to open up to people.  A nice little scene, but we don’t really know which twosomes will become a foursome to dominate.  

It soon seems like the answer will be “None of them”, as Moriah and Jem pitch a women’s alliance to Maria, which she seems decently on board with.  The three discuss which man to pull in to make a majority, and while you’d expect Maria to pitch Tim, they actually decide on Charlie, since he seems like a nice guy who might be easily led.  Paired with his confessional about living in the bubble that is small-town Massachusetts, they might seem to be right.  Charlie, however, expertly plays both sides; going along with the women while also tipping off the men, setting Tim on the warpath against the women.  The same old “Fear of a Black Widow Brigade” we’ve seen before, though at least more founded in this case, since Tim was at least WARNED of such an alliance possibly coming together, rather than just assuming it would and going off half-cocked.  

Nami doesn’t have as many “formal” alliances, more good vibes and bad vibes.  Tevin bonds with Soda over their love of singing, and gets in a good Shakespeare reference in the bargain, endearing me to the guy all the more.  This would seem not to bond Hunter, who admits that when he worked as a camp counselor, the one thing he hated the most about camp was the songs.  However, Hunter does an excellent maneuver here, admitting this division to Tevin, but turning it into a bonding opportunity, asking him to teach Hunter to sing.  When the pair discover both love “The Andy Griffith Show”, the alliance of the same name is set.  Fittingly, and hilariously, “Survivor” then turns black and white, goes to an old tv aspect ratio, and plays the whistle from the beginning of the theme song from Andy Griffith.  These guys just don’t miss an opportunity, and I again must praise Hunter for turning a weakness into a strength.  That takes a lot of good maneuvering, but it seems Hunter has what it takes.  

Not all is sunshine and rainbows for Nami, though.  We already saw the issues Tevin had with Liz, but she is not the only target of ire.  Venus is next, taking offense (not unfairly) to being described as a “princess”.  Rather than try and prove herself around camp, or using social bonds to counter this perception, she goes idol hunting.  Because that never ends badly for anyone!  Sure enough, she’s quickly caught by Randen.  Both do a bit of “I know you know I know” side eye before Randen comes and spills the beans to Soda.  He’s only honest with her, but this is “Survivor” where people absolutely shoot the messenger!  And on the tribe all about vibes, unsurprisingly the person whose only family said he gave off “First Boot Vibes” is not gelling well.  Soda decides she mistrusts Randen more than Venus, and so tells the latter about the former.  Not as clear dynamics as the other tribes, but at least it’s something.  

It’s also Nami who leads us into our journey.  Liz makes her case for being a good tribunate slightly worse by listing off foods she’s allergic to (which basically amounts to “everything”.  Geez, and my parents thought MY eating habits were tough to deal with growing up), but is interrupted by a boat coming to take someone on a journey.  Nami decides randomly, leading to Tevin going.  Siga decides via rock-paper-scissors, leading to Maria going.  As for Yanu, Jelinsky basically volunteers, and despite evidence indicating he is NOT the person you want interacting with other tribes, and Bhanu clearly wanting to go as well, they pretty much just let him.  As we’ll soon see, this was indeed a poor choice.  

Our threesome get to a sand spit, where’s there’s a new game in town.  There are three wooden tiles, one with a torch, one with a vote, and one with a skull.  These get shuffled and randomly dealt to each player.  The one who gets the torch reveals it, then must figure out based on reads which of the other two got the vote tile.  Guess right, both of them get an extra vote, while the person with the skull loses their vote.  Guess wrong, the person with the skull gets an extra vote, while the other two lose their vote.  

Now, at first glance, this doesn’t seem to bad.  Different from the journey’s we’ve seen before, and a simple, easy to explain ruleset.  Sadly, if you think about it a bit more, this journey kind of sucks.  The issue is that it kind of ends up boiling down to luck, since whoever gets dealt the skull tile is screwed.  If they tell the truth, well, you’ve lost your vote, and your tribe will probably be mad at you for giving up power to the other teams.  If they lie, even in a best case scenario in which they fool the other players there, congratulations!  You’ve now pissed off people on the other tribe and exposed yourself as untrustworthy!  Better outcome in the short-term, but probably trouble in the long-term.  

Now, some might argue that potentially pissing off other people is a known risk to these journeys.  That’s true, but the difference here for me is that that potential pissed-off-ness is based on one’s DECISIONS in those other instances.  You CHOSE to lie when you didn’t need to.  You CHOSE to risk your vote, or take something else that others didn’t want.  Here, as I’ve explained, you can just be dealt a bad hand and have no good outcome.  No matter what, someone’s going to be pissed.  

Given that Jelinsky is the one who gets the skull tile, he actually manages to somehow find the WORST of both worlds!  He initially lies, only to come clean under the slightest bit of grilling from Maria (who got the torch).  Congratulations!  You’ve now shown you’re untrustworthy, AND lost your vote, AND given the opposing teams more voting power down the line!  Aren’t you proud of yourself, Jelinsky?

After a brief interlude where we see that Maria came clean about everything to her tribe, thereby pissing off Tim since the women’s alliance now technically has the numbers (no word on what Tevin said to Nami), we see that, sure enough, Jelinsky’s tribe hates him to.  This again reinforces the narrative that he just can’t commit.  Bhanu, however, is still optimistic.  Fitting for a guy whose shirt reads “Be Kind”.  A nice sentiment, but is that really what you want on “Survivor”?  In either case, Bhanu’s excitement boils over into an idol hunt, though not a very good one.  Dude doesn’t look much off the beaten path, even just picking up a large, hard-to-miss rock to try and find the thing!

Ok, to be fair, the idol IS under a rock, just a more inconspicuous one.  Tiffany manages to find it under a large rock outcropping, running off to read the note only to be told to dig where she found the note.  She does so, and finds a box with an idol in it that needs a key to open.  Where is the key?  She only gets that information if she goes to Tribal Council.  Gotta say, this is an interesting wrinkle that I kind of love.  It weirdly incentivizes someone to throw a tribal challenge, lest they be swapped away without a vote.  Sacrificing the group good for the individual good.  It’s a sadistic dilemma, even if it doesn’t reach its full potential here.  

See, Tiffany doesn’t really need to do anything, since Yanu is most likely to lose this challenge anyway.  Apart from them being visibly the worst at puzzles this season (with puzzles so often the deciding factor in challenge wins or losses), Yanu has by far the most obvious targets.  We know a little bit about each tribe, a strength of this season opener, but Yanu has the clearest divisions and the most bluntly stated targets.  A loss is all but assured.  

Tiffany lets Q and Kenzie know (the latter having been present when she initially found the idol box), so they can muster their votes before the inevitable loss.  This bring us to said challenge, which is decent in scale, but still feels off.  Tribes transport a 500 lb. Gecko over a series of obstacles, then solve a puzzle.  Standard, but does have the scale (pun intended) one would associate with the first immunity challenge of the season.  That said, the Gecko itself looks kind of goofy, and throws off the whole feeling of grandeur for me.  Look, it’s not like the “Transport heavy, awkward object” challenge is a new thing for the show.  Its first iteration was on “Survivor Thailand”.  But other times it’s been done, it’s been later in the season since, for all the difficulty, the image of transporting a giant, heavy thing is kind of goofy.  That works for other challenges, but here, it feels like it undercuts the gravity of the situation.  A fine enough challenge, just not one I’d want as the first challenge.  

I will say that our immunity idols are cool this season.  Little Japanese-style statues.  Unique in design, and have just the right feel of what you’d expect from an idol.  About my only complaint is that they once again have an idol and a smaller idol, rather than one idol that can split in two, and even that’s a very minor complaint from me.  

Unsurprisingly, Yanu loses.  Nami gets out to such a lead they practically finish before the others get there, and when Siga pulls ahead prior to the puzzle, you know Yanu’s done.  Granted they do better than Luvu last season, since they at least make it to the puzzle, but again, this is very clearly not Yanu’s strong suit.  To make matters worse, they put Jelinsky on the puzzle, and this after he admitted to quitting the “Sweat” task in front of the other tribe.  You’d think they’d have learned by now.  Yanu commiserates after the challenge, but notably Q does not get in on the group hug initiated by Bhanu.  Doesn’t seem like anything now, but it’s a subtle clue I’m keeping an eye on for future episodes.  

About the only person not unhappy is Tiffany, who now gets the next clue to her idol.  She gets a note written in a simple symbol code.  Where’s J Maya (“Survivor 45”) when you need her?  No, Tiffany solves it very easily herself, and it tells her to go to the Matthew Grinstead-Mayle Injury Rock (TM) from “Survivor 44” and find a key under a rock in the shallows.  She does, and gets and idol, as well as her vote back.  Good for her.  

This brings us to the discussion of who to target.  Tiffany is very on board with voting Jess out, citing her as the weakest in challenges.  Kenzie is sort of passively on board, and Bhanu just likes everyone, and doesn’t know what to do.  Only Q is really pushing for a Jelinsky boot, citing his repeated giving up on things.  

In this case, I would say Q is right, and not just because I like the guy.  Look, I’ve never been a subscriber to the idea that voting someone out makes your tribe stronger.  “Addition by subtraction” just doesn’t make sense.  That said, I can at least see a bit of the logic from the stance where some challenges are “Only as fast as your slowest member”.  That, however, refers to purely physical competitions, not mental ones.  Physically, Yanu can at least keep up, even without Jelinsky.  Where they struggle is the puzzle, and no one seems to be good at those on this tribe.  Sadly for them, that’s not a problem they can really solve, so all they can do is hope for a swap and/or challenges without puzzles.  Given these factors, better to get out the guy who seems wishy-washy, and stick with those you can trust.  Even if they haven’t been the most open to you.   

Because this episode just hasn’t shit on Jelinsky enough (and were it not a spoiler, this blog would absolutely have been titled “Everyone Shits on Jelinsky), we are also treated to a scene where he seems to have an accurate read of the situation, telling Jess it’s one of the two of them due to both being on the puzzle they lost.  In confessional?  Jelinsky says it’s Jess 100%, and he was just trying to prevent her playing a shot in the dark.  Delusion, thy name is Jelinsky.  

Keeping with the Japanese theme of the idols, our Tribal Council set is a bunch of pagodas.  Very grand and epic; I approve.  I could complain about how that has nothing to do with Fiji, but at this point, that’s not a battle worth fighting.  

Less impressive is the performances at Tribal Council.  They’re not bad, but nothing to write home about.  Jelinsky gets in some good deprecating humor, Jess’ ADHD is on full display to the point where she forgets how to spell her own name, and the tribe gets several moments of correcting people’s accounts of events.  Bhanu probably gets the highlight, dodging Jeff’s question about whether Jelinsky is going by saying “It’s time to vote?”, but still, nothing that rocks my socks off.  

While the edit does favor a Jelinsky exit, there’s enough misdirection here that. Jess boot is plausible.  Still, it does end up being Jelinsky, and I’m not too sorry.  Look, he seems like a nice kid, but out of his league in this game, plain and simple.  His storyline about giving up on everything was funny, but could have gotten old in longer doses.  Better to just keep him a one-episode-wonder, along the lines of the aforementioned Zane Knight.  

As Jelinsky said, when in Vegas, you gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.  For Jelinsky, it seems the latter is “all the time”.  

This episode started out just ok, but really grew on me as it went along.  The “Jelinsky fails at everything” narrative was a good one-episode story arc, and this cast really popped.  Odd considering I wasn’t wild about them pre-season, but I think this is a case where they just didn’t do well on paper.  On my tv?  A lot of fun personalities without being too over the top, and I look forward to seeing where they go from here!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 44” Finale: Host with the Too Much

Look, I’ve been pretty clear on my stance on Probst in the past.  I think he is terrible as executive producer, and have criticized his decisions relentlessly.  But when it comes to the argument that he’s become a bad host, whether because he talks too much during challenges, or forces metaphors, or because he plays up the schmaltzy moments too much, I tend to disagree.  The man has his flaws as a host, certainly; no host is perfect.  When he’s on, however, he’s ON, lending dignity and gravitas that the show needs at vital moments.  What few excesses he does have tend to really be minor annoyances rather than any overall hosting problem.  Thus, when people have called for him to resign and let someone else take over, I tend to poo-poo the suggestion.  

After tonight, I’m open to it.  

Jumping ahead a bit, this is not one of the overall great finales.  Precious little happens, and while there’s no particularly BAD moments, there’s nothing that stands out as much either.  Still a solid product I’m glad I watched, but not one I’ll be chomping at the bit to go back to anytime soon.  Yet, with rare exception, the true NEGATIVES of this episode all came from Probst, and if your presences is a net negative, then yeah, replacing you is a valid consideration.  Let’s get into why, shall we?

Having realized that the “new camp” thing adds exactly zero drama, especially when it’s so anticipated the cast brings their entire camp with them, we don’t even try and play it up as a big thing.  Instead, we get everyone making their cases as to why they should win.  Heidi brings up being the last surviving Soka member, finding and playing an idol, and just in general outliving her allies.  All fair points.  I still say she has no chance, but that’s more due to the strength of other’s games making hers look relatively weak in comparison than her having zero argument here.  Yam Yam talks about his social bonds.  Carson notes how he’s been a driving force behind maneuvering Tika to the end game.  Admittedly Lauren and Carolyn don’t get as much of an argument here, the former talking about her determination in being the last surviving Ratu, and the latter talking about her growth and her emotions, but it’s something at least.  They may not make the argument directly, but you can see how it would be parlayed as such.  

In another nice change, there’s no puzzle leading to a challenge advantage this time.  Then again, perhaps that’s because they’ve hidden another idol for these people to go find instead.  Because heaven forbid we have a vote with no idol!  We get the usual hunting montage, but with no find.  We do however, get a lot of mileage out of the “Ironic confessional talking about idol hunting interposed over footage of said contestant being right next to the idol”.  That’s largely because this idol is particularly well-hidden.  The wrappings are not particularly flashy, and the tree it’s hidden in is not particularly significant-looking.  It’s also tied to a branch, forcing people to look up, rather than in a nook or knot-hole.  Point being, I’m not gonna give these players too much flak for missing this one.  Also, it may have taken the entire damn season, but these people have FINALLY learned to poke in with a stick first when idol hunting.  Better late than never, I guess.

Lauren, however, is not just hoping for an idol to keep her safe.  She determines that the Tika 3 need to be broken up, and so goes about building up how much of a threat Carson is, an argument both Yam Yam and Carolyn seem to buy.  Good for her.  

We come to our challenge, and it’s one that I’m actually a little excited for this time.  It’s your standard obstacle course leading into a puzzle, but the structure they have to climb through for the first let is actually fairly intricate, even requiring backtracking at times.  Granted, by the standards of older seasons it’s nothing impressive, but given that the new era can be described as “The Place Where Challenge Grandeur and Originality Go To Die”, I’ll take what I can get.  

While not a thing that particularly annoys me, I will say Probst was a bit nice to Carolyn in this challenge.  He tells her she’s still in it, despite basically everyone else being a leg ahead of her.  Granted, she does get to the puzzle in the end, so this is not as egregious as other instances of false Probst-hope, but still, a tad on the optimistic side.  Carson, who did well in pretty much all the legs, ends up winning, thereby making all that buildup to a possible Tika breakup entirely pointless.  

Carson also gets to go to “The Sanctuary” for spaghetti and various forms of cake.  Here is where we learn that Carson is the only non-heathen amongst the group, as the only one who correctly identifies chocolate cake as being superior to carrot cake.  Carson also gets to take one person with him, and chooses Yam Yam, which I really can’t fault.  He’s a good ally, and good person to strategize with.  Plus, if there’s any need to hide that he and Yam Yam are tight at this point (which I would say there isn’t, but hey, good to cover your bases), Carson can always fall back on “He’s received the fewest rewards this season” excuse.  

Of course, food is not the only order of business at “The Sanctuary”.  Carson winning immunity might have made the breakup of the Tika 3 unlikely, but still something to be considered.  Carson wants them to hold strong, and fears the narrative building around Lauren if she’s allowed to stay in.  Privately, Carson is also worried that breaking up the Tika 3 makes him more vulnerable, which is fair.  Yam Yam, on the other hand, is still on the “Carolyn’s a threat” train, and thinks they should get her out as a result.  Interestingly, both take stances on Carolyn that mirror the two perspectives of her from the fandom as a whole.  Carson notes that, while she did find an idol, her use of it, when looked at in a vacuum, didn’t matter.  She comes across as emotional and untethered; not the sort of person you vote for to win.   Yam Yam notes that because of how she comes across, the fact that she even kept a secret for so long comes across as impressive, and she can argue her game well.  Only time will tell which narrative the jury favors, but it’s interesting how close that conversation works.  

For Lauren, obviously, this outcome is about the worst for her.  Let it not be said she rolls over and dies, however.  Naturally, with herself, Carolyn, and Heidi left alone at camp, they talk strategy.  None of them want to go home, and Carson’s immune, so Yam Yam is naturally the name put out there.  Carolyn would seem to be the most reluctant, but Lauren rightly spills the beans on his throwing out Carolyn’s name.  Carolyn is, naturally, now rather mistrustful and upset with Yam Yam, something that shows on her face and body language when he returns from reward.  For all that Yam Yam has good emotional and interpersonal intelligence, he really seemed to initially misread the room on his return.  Then again, his asking “Are you mad at me?” to the woman whose body language clearly conveys just that was hilarious, and he does quickly pick up what happened, so I’ll let it slide.  

Carson and Yam Yam confer.  Carson’s not a fan of Tika splitting up just yet, but if it does, it seems he’d prefer Yam Yam stay over Carolyn.  Thus, Yam Yam goes and tries to pitch that Carson’s on his side to vote out Carolyn.  Lauren and Heidi seem receptive, but aren’t the most enthused, mostly due to mistrust.  They admit they’d prefer that Tika break themselves up, but don’t believe Carson would actually go for it.  Yam Yam does float out the possibility of voting for Heidi, but this is quickly dismissed, thereby hopefully preventing her from actually going, and me having to give the FINALE of a season the disgrace of an “Ethan Zohn Downside”.  

In the debate of Carolyn, Yam Yam, or Lauren, that’s the descending order I would say to get rid of them in.  Carolyn is established to be good at fire, and is building a narrative of how her perception let her sneak through.  Dangerous in the end.  Yam Yam has been good socially, more so than Lauren, who never really had power.  Granted, her narrative of surviving despite an early target is a threat, but Yam Yam had the same target several times in the early merge area, so I still give him the slight edge.  Really, the only advantages to going Lauren over Yam Yam are that keeping the Tika 3 intact is a shield for Carson (which is only an upside for Carson), and Lauren’s challenge prowess.  I wouldn’t say any of these is a terrible decision, but that would be my rankings.  And hey, we get good mystery between all three, helped along by Lauren going on another idol hunt before we head off to Tribal Council.  

Sorry, I misspoke.  I should rather say we HAD good mystery, until the Tribal Council itself started up.  Lauren becomes incredibly emotional about her time in the game, and all the obstacles she’s overcome.  One does not get this dramatic unless they’re gone and they know if.  Either Lauren is truly dead in the water, or she’s a terrible actor.  

Now, on its own, this could be a good emotional moment.  A woman who fought so hard, pushed to brink by circumstances beyond her control.  It’s good stuff, and for all my jokes about her “terrible acting”, if it’s not acting, it’s raw and compelling.  Too bad Probst has to make it a MOMENT!  Rather than just letting the scene play out, maybe ask a few probing questions to help facility more from Lauren, Probst has to talk about how “This is what ‘Survivor’ is all about!”, and how much it means to Lauren to be here, rather than letting her do it herself.  It’s like Probst doesn’t trust the cast to narrate their own season, and it’s one of my major gripes with him tonight.  The moment was fine without you, Probst.  Add yourself when needed, but you were NOT needed, except to read the votes, at this Tribal Council.  

About the only point in this Tribal Council’s favor is how the editing tricks do make Lauren’s idol bluff plausible.  Compared to, say, Max’s joke on “Survivor Worlds Apart”, given how flashback idols are now a “thing”, and the sort of editing tricks the new era brings, we entirely buy that Lauren might have found an idol without us seeing it.  It’s the one time the whole Tribal Council I thought there was any chance Lauren might not go.  

Sadly for Lauren, she does not, though she does give the remaining four a good heart attack on her way out by doing so, which I have to give some respect to.  That said, I’m not too displeased to see Lauren go here.  She was fine for what she was as a tv character, but didn’t stand out much, either as a strategist or as a visual spectacle, compared to the remaining players.  Her hair was always on point, though.  Still, if that’s the best I can say about you?  Yeah, I’d rather let the more exciting people go to finals.  

Guess nothing interesting happened at camp, as we move directly on to our immunity challenge.  Let’s see, what do we have here?  Oh, it’s Simmotion again.  Ok, time to break out “Standard Matt Complaint #12”.  It reads: “This challenge is fine, but should never be the Final Immunity Challenge.  It lacks the grandeur needed, and is not physically demanding enough.  Bring back Hand on a Hard Idol.”  

We all got that?  Good, moving on.  

Unsurprisingly, Carolyn is out first in the challenge that requires “focus”, though Yam Yam being out second is a bit of a surprise.  He was shown taking the most care in when he dropped in extra balls, and somehow, this challenge seemed like it would fit his skill set, kind of like how the water torture one was a few episodes back.  But now, it’s a showdown between Carson and Heidi, with Heidi ultimately taking the victory, her first individual win of the season.  A big accomplishment for her, only to be undercut by her telling Probst IMMEDIATELY that she’s considering putting herself in fire.  

Look, it’s not that I don’t understand where Heidi is coming from.  As she notes, she doesn’t have a ton of accomplishments.  I even brought up myself that her resume is not as strong as those remaining.  A victory in fire is a big accomplishment.  But a victory in immunity should be bigger.  Not only did you beat four people instead of one, but you didn’t do it by making yourself vulnerable.  I know the show is pushing the narrative of “You need to take risks to win.” since it makes for better tv, but call me crazy, I find more impressive the person who MINIMIZED their risks rather than actively sought them out.  When Erik gave up immunity, we lambasted it as a bad move.  When Brandon Hantz gave up immunity, we lambasted it as a bad move.  When the entire Manono Tribe gave up immunity on “Survivor One World”, we lambasted it as a bad move.  So why not here?

I was never a big fan of forced Final Four Fire Making to begin with, but as the seasons have gone on, I’ve come to loathe it with every fibre of my being, and it’s mostly to do with the culture that’s grown up around it.  This idea that, if you win immunity, you HAVE to put yourself in fire making to have a shot.  That you have to ACTIVELY take yourself out of safety to be considered as a worthy winner.  That a move that, in a vacuum, is objectively bad, is somehow the thing you HAVE to do.  It’s incentivizing bad gameplay, and it’s not what I want to see.  

About the only time I can see such a move making sense is if the person you want out is good at fire making, and ONLY you have a shot at beating them.  And even then, I think it’s still a move that’s debatable at best, as perceived skill at fire making is subjective.  If you aren’t the best at fire, don’t put yourself in fire if you won immunity.  You still maneuvered the pieces where you want them.  That should be respected just as much, if not more, as winning in fire.  But no, as the show presents it, it isn’t, and I am pissed.  I am tired of people like Natalie on “Survivor Winners at War”, or Cassidy last season, being lambasted by the jury for NOT doing so, despite it being actively bad for their games to do so.  Granted, both had other reasons they shouldn’t have won (Natalie for being voted out first and only saved due to the Edge of Extinction, another twist I hate; Cassidy for burning too many jury bridges late in the game), but instead of these reasons, we get the fire-making problem trotted out, and frankly, I’m sick of it.  

Now, there is one major difference between Heidi and some of the examples I’ve provided.  Namely, Heidi is actually SHOWN to be good at fire.  Hell, in a nice bit of foreshadowing, it’s literally the first thing we saw her doing all season.  But it’s not like other people are slouches either.  Carolyn and Yam Yam are both shown to be decent at it as well.  Only Carson, the guy Heidi most wants out, is shown to be actively bad at it, in which case, good.  Let someone else take the risk, and you still get the outcome you want.  You maneuvered the pieces to the outcome you desired.  How is that any less respectable, or less good gameplay, than putting yourself in fire?

Also, I can only conclude that Carson’s 3-D printed fire does not translate to the island.  I kid, I kid.  Carson did indeed practice this, but the old-fashioned way, and again, can’t really fault him in that, even if it’s not bearing fruit here.  

For all my griping, I will say this does lead to ONE good scene.  Yam Yam, seeing Carson struggle, gives him tips on how to make fire.  This is a move that, as Yam Yam admits, might not be the best, since he could very well be put against Carson in fire, and be giving tips to the guy he loses to.  Once again, however, Yam Yam’s heart outweighs his logic, and helps anyway, just as a kind human being.  The pair bond, there’s a lot of hugs and nice words.  It’s a powerful moment, probably the stand-out one of the episode.  

Hey, Probst?  Notice how that moment DIDN’T need you commenting on how touching it was, and in fact stood up all the better without it?  Take notes.  

Our Tribal Council is really just an excuse for Heidi to reveal who’s going into fire, and to her credit, she is showy about it.  She first reveals that Carolyn is NOT going into fire, to which Carolyn is visibly relieved.  And, for all my complaints about Probst this episode, I will say this is one moment where he hits it perfectly in terms of hosting.  He does probe Carolyn with a few questions to get her to go more deeply into what she’s feeling, but doesn’t try to force the moment to be more than it is.  It’s good stuff, and if he goes back to more of this hosting style, I will retract my statement at the top of this blog.  

To no one’s surprise, Heidi reveals that Carson will be in fire, before doing the dumb and going in herself.  For all my complaints about this move in a vacuum, however, it’s hard to argue with the results.  Not only does Heidi decisively win against Carson, she even cracks Gabler’s record from last season, something Probst is quick to note.  Good for her on that front.  I still say it’s an unnecessary move, and not one that’s truly “smart”, but it cannot be denied that Heidi has an unassailable victory after this.  

Our finalists repeat their arguments for why they should win during the day 26 breakfast.  It’s mostly stuff we’ve heard before.  Heidi’s being the last Soka standing/taking out Carson, Yam Yam’s social game, Carolyn playing up the perception of herself to maneuver in the shadows.  That said, in another nice bookend to the season, Carolyn talks to the same producer she did to open the season, and again, we hear from him.  That’s a fun note to go off to Tribal Council on.  

The lack of individual jury questions has really made modern Final Tribal Councils all blend together, and this one is largely no different.  Carson’s expressions on the jury, particularly his indicating to Carolyn what the jury wanted to hear, are pretty much gold, but that’s about the only thing of note.  The jury is nice, but pretty toothless.  Nor do the arguments from our finalists really bear much mention.  All actually do a pretty good job arguing their case, using the tools and viewpoints we’ve seen before.  Heidi strongly advocates for herself, Yam Yam turns on the charm, and Carolyn brings up the emotion/gameplay divide, and articulates how she use her perception by others to her advantage.  Really, the worst gaffe any of them has is Yam Yam at one point saying “Emotions.  I have them.”, and even this gets played off as a joke.  

No, the real thing of note at this Tribal Council is, once again, Probst, who WAY oversteps his bounds.  When the new jury format was first rolled out on “Survivor Game Changers”, one of my main complaints was how Probst was too involved in the discussion, basically giving the criteria for what the jury should discuss in regards to a winner.  Felt too much like production interference in the jury’s decision making.  As time has gone on, Probst has backed of majorly in this area, limiting himself to ensuring the discussion goes on at a good pace, at most giving extremely broad categories the jury can define how they want.  Here, while he didn’t go full “Game Changers”, it did feel like he was more involved in what went into the categories than he did in recent seasons, and again brings up the stink of production having too much influence on the jury.  

But oh no, this is not Probst’s worst sin on the night.  No, that comes when Carolyn breaks down a bit when discussion turns to challenge performance, and she talks about how she kind of failed, since, you know, challenge performance was a weakness.  This COULD have been a gaffe, but Probst instead has to give us the perspective that her coming out and trying mean that she succeeded, rather than failed.  

Probst.  Buddy.  I like you.  I even respect a lot of your talents.  We have our disagreements, but overall, I think you’re a pretty cool dude.  So understand, it comes from my love of the show and the game, not anything against you personally, when I say the following:  

SHUT UP!  FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, THIS IS THE JURY’S TIME TO SPEAK, NOT YOURS!  THAT PERSPECTIVE YOU BRING IS VALID, BUT IT IS NOT YOUR TIME TO GIVE PERSPECTIVE ON THE PROCEEDINGS.  IF THE JURY AGRESS WITH YOU, GREAT!  LET THEM BRING IT UP!  IF THEY DON’T, THEN IT IS NOT YOUR PLACE TO DO SO!  IN INJECTING YOURSELF WHERE YOU DON’T NEED TO BE, YOU RUIN WHAT WOULD OTHERWISE BE A SOLID MOMENT FOR YOUR SEASON, AND COMPROMISE THE INTEGRITY OF THE GAME YOU CLAIM TO LOVE.  IF THERE IS TRULY ANY IOTA OF RESPECT FOR THE GAME, OR THE ART OF THE SHOW, LEFT WITHIN YOU, THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN!  

Hoo, I feel better now.  Anyway, rant done, it’s all downhill from here.  We get yet another 7-1-0 vote, our fourth in a row.  Not sure what it is about the new era that brings that particular voting combination out, but it’s definitely progressed to the point of “pattern” by now.  Somewhat to my surprise, our victor is Yam Yam.  I’d have given Carolyn the best odds, given how well she articulated weaponizing the perception of herself, but she didn’t even make second.  Heidi earns the vote of her ally Danny, which I can understand.  Guess he respected her using him as a shield.  

And this is not to take away from Yam Yam’s win.  His social game was better shown than many, and he did make a very compelling argument about how he read the emotions of others to inform his game.  Not who I would have voted for our of the three, but given how late Heidi’s game picked up, and I guess how baked-in the early perceptions of Carolyn were, I can understand why things ended up the way they did.  Kudos to him; a win well-earned.  

I will say this: This season made the first compelling argument for the immediate after-show, rather than the live reunions of the past.  We mostly hit the highlights of the season one would expect (talking to our finalists, Matt and Frannie, all the early medical issues, etc.), and it’s all pretty standard in general.  But, not willing to let that plot point go un-exploited, Probst and production reveal that Jaime’s idol was a fake planted by Matthew, of course after going through all the steps and drama said idol caused.  Everyone’s reactions are delightfully raw and over-the-top; something you wouldn’t get at a live reunion where everyone knew already.  Now, does this mean I’m done with wanting live reunions back?  Of course not!  There’s ways you could have kept that live reaction in there even in the old format.  Say, film Jaime watching the episode where she finds the idol for the first time, then playing that.  Plus, then you could have Matthew himself talk about that play, rather than just name-dropping him and giving him a well-deserved toast.  So help me, I want to hear from the pre-jury, dammit.  

Our preview for “Survivor 45” is pretty standard.  Cast looks ok.  Not much to write home about.  The dude talking about his great-grandfather robbing the bank seems cool.  The young guy living with his grandmother might make for some fun confessionals.  But nothing that gets me hyped for the season.  Nothing that warns me off of it either, but maybe a bit sub-par compared to recent previews.  That said, I LOVE the logo for the season.  Colorful, but simple in design.  It stands out without being too busy.  Plus, it has an ominous air about it, mostly due to the logo featuring Osten’s nemesis from “Survivor Pearl Islands”, Pelican Pete.  

Before we get into looking back over my pre-season predictions, and seeing how accurate they were, I do want to touch briefly on the predictions I made in the last blog.  This is mostly because, contrary to what some might say, I think I was pretty spot on.  Nearly everything proceeded as I had foreseen it.  Really, there were only two things one could say I “missed”.  Heidi won final immunity, rather than my prediction of Yam Yam.  That said, I still kind of count this given that Heidi went into fire anyway, and that was more overall was the point I was trying to make.  Then I called Carolyn winning this final three, and… Yeah, ok, I take the loss on that one.  I was completely off on how the jury would see things.  Still, one inaccuracy in an otherwise pretty spot-on description?  I’ll take it.  Now, on to the individual predictions, and how they held up.  

Claire-Wrong.  In my defense, I DID say she could be vulnerable if her tribe went to early Tribal Councils.  I just didn’t think they would do so.  

Matt-Wrong, just straight up.  I didn’t overestimate his game sense TOO much, but regardless, he still hung on longer than expected.  

Carolyn-Wrong.  Far more game sense than I had anticipated.  

Lauren-Hung on a bit longer than expected, but I think I nailed how she would play the game overall.  

Danny-I could just copy and paste Lauren’s description.  I was maybe a bit too down on his game sense, but still fairly close overall.  Dude just stuck around slightly longer than expected.  

Heidi-Wrong.  Much quieter, and as a result much longer-lived, than I anticipated.  

Carson-Wrong.  Much better socially, and thus had a longer time in the game, than I anticipated.  

Maddy-Wrong, though for once on this list, someone I overestimated rather than underestimated.  

Bruce-Hard to say whether I nailed his gameplay or not, since we never really got to see it, but I did say he could be a medevac, so I’ll give myself this one.  Lord knows I need all the wins I can get this season.  

Sarah-Wrong, though in my defense, I couldn’t have predicted quite how much her tribe would implode.  

Matthew-I probably undersold his gameplay, but pretty much nailed his time in the game, and again, gave him as a medevac possibility.  I’ll give myself this one.  

Helen-Wrong.  Much worse at managing her threat level than I thought, and out early because of it.  

Josh-Not as wrong as some others, but shorter-lived and less good socially than I had thought.  

Jaime-Wrong on time in the game, but I would say dead on for personality.  

Kane-Wrong.  Just longer lived in general than I thought.  

Frannie-Apart from being an unexpected individual challenge beast, I’d say I got Frannie pretty well in my description.  

Brandon-Maybe a little underestimated, but I’ll call this one “right” for me.  

Yam Yam-In a season where my predictions range from “Kind of similar to how it went, if you squint” to “Completely, 100% off-base”, I’m pleased to say this is my one prediction that was absolutely right.  Weird how my early bet was actually better than AFTER I started watching the season.  

Speaking of, there’s been a lot of praise for this season, and rightly so.  A good mix of character and strategy, generally likable people throughout, and a post-merge relatively free of twists are all good selling points.  Alongside a strong aesthetic theme, this is definitely a good season.  A step up from “Survivor 43” in my opinion.  That said, I’d stop short of calling it “great”, as some are already doing.  This is definitely a season with more positive than negative about it, but there’s a couple of things that stop it from going that far for me.  A few, admittedly, are just nitpicks and/or extremely subjective points.  More gross-out humor than some other seasons.  My personal favorites going out pre-merge, leaving me with a back half that, while I didn’t DISLIKE anyone there, left me with no one I was particularly strongly rooting for.  

However, there are two big points that keep this out of the “Great” category for me.  One is that, while I appreciated the relatively twist-free post-merge, the slog between the mergeatory and probably the Frannie boot was confusing and frustrating.  Take the lesson, show: No major twists post-merge period.  The other, and probably the biggest issue, is predictability.  Individual episodes did ok with mystery, but the narrative made it pretty clear early on, or at least once we got down to three original Tika left, that one of them was going to win.  Not knowing exactly WHO, and those three playing a masterful game that was well-shown keep it out of the “bad” category, but it’s missing the uncertainty I feel it needed to be truly “Great”.  Hardly a bad season, though.  

Now we enter the long off-season, but don’t think you won’t be hearing from me at all!  Keep an eye out for more of the off-season content I so enjoy bringing.  More “‘Survivor’ What-Ifs?” are certainly on the horizon, and if the mood strikes, perhaps something more…

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 44” Episode 12: Illumination

Contrary to what you might expect, this week’s title does NOT refer to our spotlight-stealing-squad that is Carolyn.  No, this refers to Illumination Entertainment, the animation studio responsible for giving us everyone’s favorite annoying, walking memes, the Minions.  And specifically, I’m referring to said studio’s propensity for gross-out humor, something I personally didn’t want on “Survivor”, but this seasons is giving us in spades regardless of what I want, from Danny’s fart to Carolyn asking for a chocolate burp from Yam Yam this episode.   

Despite Heidi being in a position to be left out and upset, our post-Tribal discussion centers around Carolyn.  With the reveal that she had the Tika idol, which no one called (Yam Yam claims to have, but if he did, we never saw it.), everyone sings her praises.  She of course gets asked about the “Red X” thing from WAY back in the season, and she can’t help but tell the whole story.  She spins a good yarn about it, too, helping to assuage fears that she might not be able to sell herself/her game well at Final Tribal Council.  Perhaps realizing how big a target this makes her, though, she tries to downplay it, saying it was just her being crazy.  Absolutely zero people buy this.  About the person still the most skeptical is Lauren, and even she more says Carolyn has strategy under a crazy appearance than actually dismissing her strategy.  

While Heidi doesn’t outwardly say she’s concerned about her position, she is the first one up to look for an idol, assuming Carolyn’s was re-planted.  She’s not stealthy enough for Carson, however, and he alerts everyone else, leading to a mass idol-hunt.  While Heidi does have her own idol, she wants two to ensure she’s safe up until Final Four Fire-Making.  Fair enough.  She doesn’t find it; indeed no one finds it, at least that we see.  All we get is more confirmation that these people do not know proper idol-hunting technique.  So many hands blindly plunged into trees.  Poke in with a stick first, people!  Snakes are still a thing!  

Without idols, talk turns to strategy.  Having evidently realized their error in not breaking up the Tika Three before, Jaime and Lauren set out to do so now, hyping up to Carson and Yam Yam how much of a threat Carolyn has turned out to be.  They subtly hint that Carolyn should go, and Carson and Yam Yam agree to their faces.  Unfortunately, our narrator for this strategy is Jaime, and as the pattern of the season goes, Jaime must be wrong.  Thus, this plan is doomed to failure before it even begins.  

Sure enough, Carson admits in confessional that he wants to keep Carolyn around, which makes sense for him.  While Carolyn is a bigger threat, Carson is probably the one person left who can still beat her, and thus his concern is less “Who do I get to the end with?” and more “How do I get to the end?”  Keeping around Carolyn, who’s shown amazing loyalty to him thus far, and is an eye-catching target he can shield himself with, is thereby a smart move.  

Notice I only talked about Carson’s perspective there.  We’ll come back to Yam Yam.  

Our reward challenge is the Russell Swan Memorial Ball Roll, commemorating the man’s near-death in “Survivor Samoa”.  Not sure why we want that commemorated, since I know for a fact it turned at least one person off “Survivor” permanently, but since this challenge was also used last season, I’m guessing budget is a factor.  Honestly, the only noticeable change is a few branches tied to the top of each ball, which seems kind of pointless.  I guess it’s to make it look like the ball picked up debris in later shots, but it’s so obvious early on, that it seems more trouble than it’s worth.  

Our random division of teams this time gives the orange team, that being Lauren, Carson, and Yam Yam, an edge.  They have the best puzzle-solvers on their side.  They have the strongest people left in the game on their side.  And, perhaps their biggest advantage of all, they DON’T have Carolyn, who somehow managed to lose the ball when she should have had a fairly good grip on it, or at least a decent spatial sense of where it was throughout.  While the purple team does get to the table maze at the end (both Jaime and Carson, the callers for their respective teams, being ok being placed in a “Superman” horizontal pose rather than being rotated upright for some reason), orange easily beats them, earning a day at The Sanctuary, foot massages, and sandwiches.  And people say the rewards aren’t great in the modern era.  Please note the sarcasm.  

Yam Yam is happy to have basically anything, but Jaime is happy too.  Evidently Carson’s relative disinterest in getting rid of Carolyn did not go unnoticed, and so Jaime pitches to Carolyn getting rid of Carson.  She meets with basically the same result.  Carolyn says to her face it’s a good idea, but privately notes that while she does need to get rid of Carson, it’s too soon.  Again, can’t fault the logic here.  Carson is probably the only person left Carolyn DOESN’T beat, but as she’s such a big target, she probably does need a shield around.  If Tika breaks up now, even assuming Carson goes, Carolyn is probably gone next.  Hence, she should probably wait a vote or two before striking (I’m assuming Carolyn has a way to get Carson out at Final Four Firemaking).  

To help prevent any sort of counter-alliance, Carolyn offers Heidi a spot to split up the remaining old Ratu, which Heidi agrees with, partly because they voted against her last time, and partly because it would let her save her idol.  I’d say Heidi’s best interest is still probably to break up Tika, since she NEEDS to strike out on her own if she’s going to have a chance at the end of showing she had agency, but I can see her points here.  

All this is not to say those at The Sanctuary DON’T strategize.  Indeed, Lauren pitches them again the idea of getting rid of Carolyn.  It’s here that we get Yam Yam’s perspective.  Of the Tika Three, he’s the most receptive to breaking up the group now.  Which, again, makes sense.  What works in Yam Yam’s favor in the end is that he’s very sociable.  The show has done a good job of demonstrating that Yam Yam is well-liked, and he does have the argument of “Everyone who voted for me is on the jury.”  Working against Yam Yam is that, as the default decoy boot, you’re often seen as not having enough agency in your own game to be worthy of winning in the end.  Again, look at the case of Romeo on “Survivor 42”: It’s not that the man DIDN’T have any sort of argument he could make, and it’s not that he didn’t acquit himself well at Final Tribal Council.  It’s that by the time he got there, he was considered such a non-factor in the strategy of the game that no one was really willing to give him the time of day.  Yam Yam needs to prevent this at all costs, and breaking up the Tika Three shows that he had agency, and takes the people who might be considered to have “dragged him to the end” out of the equation.  It is risky, given that he would be an easy target at four in that case, but then again, with how many people say they want him in the end, he’s in as good a position there as he can hope for regardless.  Besides, better to go out at four with a shot to win than to make the finals against people you’re hopeless against.  

Upon his return to camp, Carolyn and Carson compare notes.  The pair mock the non-Tika for trying to break up Tika, saying they’re being too obvious about it.  I get where they’re coming from, but I think they’re a bit mean here.  I mean, what do you expect, everyone else to just roll over and let your tribe dominate?  I suppose that’s what they’ve been doing so far since the merge, but these players aren’t that stupid.  They might as well throw everything against the wall to form a crack.  At this point, what choice do they have?  

I know the individual immunity challenges have been nothing to write home about, but MAN this one is lame.  It’s the “Balance a ball on a plate between two ropes” challenge we’ve seen too much of by now, and it just not interesting.  To make matters worse, this group really stinks at this particular challenge.  Lauren and Heidi are the only two who make it through the first (10-minute) round, and Heidi drops pretty quickly into round two.  Lauren’s curtsey upon getting the necklace put on is nice, at least.  

Lauren winning immunity is a slight wrinkle in things, since Tika’s plan was to break up Ratu by sending her home.  That wrinkle is quickly ironed out by switching the target to Jaime.  Probably the least-strategic player left in the game at this point, but hey, it’s the one Heidi will accept, so we’re going with that.  Heidi for her part says she’d like to hold on to her idol, but will play it if she feels threatened.  This is also known as “Bog Standard Idol Confessional #5”.  

Thus it falls to Yam Yam to do the heavy lifting for misdirection this episode, ramping up his anti-Carolyn dialogue.  Yam Yam frames this as a duel between his heart and his head.  Do the strategically smart thing and get out a threat to better his own position, or keep a friend around at the cost of his game.  An old dilemma, but a solid one.  Basically the bread and butter of “Survivor”.  

Recognizing that with Heidi on board, he needs Carson to vote with him, he pitches the idea to Carson.  In addition to the “threat” argument already made, Yam Yam notes that Carolyn will be tough to take on in fire, stating that she practiced so much she was “bleeding”.  If this were about anyone else, I would dismiss it as hyperbole, but in Carolyn’s case that may be true.  With Yam Yam pitching the idea, Carson is considering it, as Carolyn’s a threat, but remains reluctant.  What’s interesting here is that Yam Yam and Carson NEED to vote together for either side to have a majority, but their interests are diametrically opposed, as I’ve already said Carson’s smartest move is to keep Carolyn, while Yam Yam’s is to vote her out.  I’d say if we’re trying to find the best compromise between the two, getting rid of Carolyn is probably slightly better, as Carson’s then eliminating his one true threat at Final Tribal, but again, I can see why he’d want to keep Carolyn around.  

In a rarity for misdirection this season, I don’t buy it for a second.  Yeah, sorry, this episode is about the only one this season where I would say the outcome is entirely predictable.  Perhaps they had no choice with who said what in confessional, but the big flaw here is making Jaime the driving force behind wanting Carolyn out.  You can’t spend all season building up how everything she says is wrong, only then to turn around and expect me to believe that one of her plans will actually work.  

It seems the quality of Tribal Council is inversely proportional to how much of a mystery the vote is.  To contrast with our completely obvious vote, we have a Tribal Council that’s actually exciting, emotional, and metaphor-free!  We start off with the reveal that, in anticipation of moving to a new camp for the last few days, they brought everything from their old camp, even the paintbrushes.  Lauren did most of the schlepping, due to her being immune.  Probst is amused, but I’m just sitting here smugly, waiting for him to tell me again how “unpredictable” this new era of the show is.  

A comedic amount of supplies is not the only good bit, however.  There’s come decent banter for once, and most of the talk centers around emotion vs. strategy.  Carolyn gives the thesis that one can play with emotion, while still being strategic, again subtly setting up her argument for the jury beforehand.  Smart move on her part.  Yam Yam then talks about the heart/head debate again, and even tears up a bit over it.  It tugs at the heartstrings, even predicting the outcome.  It may not be a legendary Tribal Council, but after they’ve ranged from “Blah” to “Extremely Blah” this season, I’ll take it.  

I can’t say that I blame Heidi too much for playing her idol.  With Lauren immune, and no faith on her end that the Tika Three would break apart, Heidi had a 50/50 chance of going.  Better to play an idol than to go out with one in your pocket.  Sadly, I do think this torpedos any chance she has of winning the game.  Heidi really needed to demonstrate here that she could make smart moves on her own.  While understandable, and getting some good reactions from the jury, Heidi didn’t negate a single vote, and has made herself more vulnerable at Final Five.  Plus, she needed all of Tika to leave before finals for her to have good people to argue against, and with this outcome, that mathematically can’t happen now.  

Yep, the predictable thing happened.  Yam Yam stuck with his heart, and Jaime is gone.  Overall, I can’t say I’m too sorry.  She was by no means annoying or anything, but the “Jaime is always wrong” storyline only has so much mileage.  Plus, she was the only one going into this episode who I would say had no winning finals combination (I would say Heidi is there as well now, but that’s as a result of this episode, not before it), so we keep the “best” players in the game, for want of a better word.  Really, the biggest downside to Jaime leaving is how predictable it makes the finale, something I’ll get into in a bit.  

Speaking about just this episode, I will say it’s very efficient.  Hits the strategic points, emotional moments, and challenges in a flowing manner, one logically leading to the next.  With the exception of the banter at Tribal Council itself, which I maintain is the best of the season to date, nothing really stands out about this episode.  It does what it needs to adequately, but not spectacularly.  An enjoyable episode, but not a legendary one.  

That said, it’s time for my traditional penultimate-episode PLAYER RANKINGS!  For the unfamiliar, I list out the players who are left, in descending order of who I think has the best shot at winning should they get to the end.  A reminder that this is assuming they GET to the end, not a ranking of how LIKELY they are to get there.  With all that said, this should come with few surprises, starting with my number one pick…

1. CARSON-As always, this spot is reserved for the person who wins outright assuming they get to the end, and this season, that person can only be Carson.  I can see arguments for Carolyn, but Carson, like her, has strategic accomplishments he can lean on (particularly in how he helped play Ratu against Soka), but doesn’t have the baggage of how he was perceived early on to overcome.  Everyone loves Carson, so he doesn’t have to worry about being beaten socially by basically anyone.  Should he get to the end, I see no downside that should prevent his winning.  

2. CAROLYN-Carolyn has really moved up in the rankings these past two weeks.  Her perception as “crazy” and “emotional” was the big problem initially, but Carolyn has been really proactive countering this narrative to the jury.  Playing an idol no one else knew about, seeding them that being emotional does not include playing strategically.  If Carolyn wants a shot at the end, she’s made all the right moves to do so, hence why she claims the number two spot.  It’s only the concern that that first impression may linger in some jurors that keeps her out of the top spot, but as long as she’s not up against Carson, I don’t believe it will be a deal-breaker.  

3. YAM YAM-Yep, the Tika Three take the top three spots.  We’ll get into that more in a bit.  For now, Yam Yam’s biggest strength, as I said, is that he’s well-liked.  He’s someone the jury would WANT to vote for in several situations.  What Yam Yam lacks is a strategic justification for that popularity vote, and while the social game is still king, you need to give the jury at least SOMETHING to justify it.  “Everyone who voted for me is on the jury” isn’t nothing, but pales in comparison to what Carolyn and Carson each have.  Thus, Yam Yam’s best hope is to go to the end with Lauren and Heidi, since they don’t really have any more strategic accomplishments than he does, and his social game would therefore stand out a bit more.  

4. LAUREN-Despite being fourth, I don’t see Lauren having NO shot at the end, but things will have to go exactly right for her.  She can make the “I was repeatedly targeted as a threat and still made it” argument, since many on the jury (particularly Danny) wanted her out at several points.  There’s also nothing to suggest any of the jury particularly dislike her.  Her main issue is that her strategic game pales in comparison to Carolyn and Carson, and her social game pales in comparison to all of Tika.  She needs Carolyn and Carson out, then needs to REALLY lay into Yam Yam at finals to have a shot.  Impossible?  No.  Unlikely?  Yes.

5. HEIDI-In contrast to Carolyn, Heidi has fallen the most in these rankings.  It’s a shame, too, as her game has been quiet, but when she’s not trying to make a move in the open, it’s decent.  She’s staying alive, and remains well-liked, so that’s something.  But she really needed to not face the Tika Three, and be seen as a driving force behind getting them out, to have a shot.  Without that, and with the blundered idol play (even if it was understandable) this episode, I just don’t see that happening.  

And that, really, is the one problem I have with this season.  We’ll see how the finale goes, but so far it’s been a solid season.  Likable characters, with a focus ON those characters, rather than twists.  Good theming, good mystery in general.  There’s a lot to like.  But, fascinating as it is to watch the Tika Three masterfully play both sides against each other, it does lead to a fairly predictable outcome where you know one of that group is going to win.  Granted, it’s still better than seasons like “Survivor One World” or “Survivor Redemption Island” where it was obvious from early on exactly WHO was going to win.  But still, marching to the end with almost no pushback does not an interesting finale make.  

I think the problem we face here is that the show is overcorrecting for the outcome of “Survivor 43”.  Recall that Gabler’s win was… controversial, shall we say.  Many people said his win came out of nowhere, and they didn’t understand it.  Probst, I believe, has even acknowledged that they may have hid his win too well, and took that into consideration for “Survivor 44”.  And in general, I think that was good feedback to take.  I know a lot of people have gone back over “Survivor 43”, and said they understand Gabler’s win better, but I disagree.  The flaw, to me, is twofold.  First, there’s the violation of “Show, Don’t Tell”.  I concede the win of Gabler was foreshadowed.  All his talk about being the “Alli-Gabler”, and “Hiding in plain sight” certainly hinted at that.  But while we’re told he COULD win, we’re not told WHY.  True, it was probably his social game, and Gabler would hardly be the first social-winner to be under-edited, but again, we’re just TOLD that part of his game is good, not SHOWN how it’s good.  The few times he does make a social bond, such as the “Ride or Die” alliance, it’s underplayed to the point that we forget it even happened.  What we remember is his over the top, messy public gameplay, not the little private stuff.  

That ties into the second problem in showing Gabler’s win: His early narrative was never countered.  The few times Gabler DID take strategic prominence in his season, it was threatening to use his Shot in the Dark unnecessarily, and being blunt about wanting Elie out.  While he did get his way, the way this move was executed did not scream “Subtle strategist”, and thus we the audience dismiss him in terms of winner contention.  That’s partly on us, but again, when half the show feeds us the narrative of “Gabler is a messy player”, it’s understandable why the perception from the viewing audience might be different than that of the jury.  Thus, the show wants to correct this, particularly if Carolyn ends up being the winner, since she could also be described as “Messy” in some of her early gameplay.  The winner was too subtle last time?  Make it obvious which group is dominant?  Winner makes some controversial moves?  Make sure we get insight into their strategic thinking as well to counteract that narrative.  Yes, particularly in Carolyn wins, this will all make sense, but again, I feel like perhaps a bit TOO much sense.  Perhaps I’m impossible to please, and certainly if push comes to shove, I will say this season is better than the last.  But it feels like they went from making the winner not visible enough to too obvious.  Somewhere in here there’s a middle ground, and I hope the editors can find it.  

I say IF Carolyn wins, but personally, I think it’s going to happen.  Hell, I’ll even predict how the finale goes once again: Lauren is out at 5.  She loses the immunity challenge, is feared for her challenge wins and respected strategy (as the assumed head of Ratu), and Heidi, happy it’s not her, jumps on board.  At Final Four, Yam Yam wins an unexpected immunity, and not wanting Carolyn to win any glory, sends Heidi and Carson to fire.  This has been foreshadowed for both, as Heidi started the fire for Soka back in episode 1, and Carson keeps getting shots of fire reflected in his glasses.  Carson completes his “Fallen Angel” arc by losing just shy of Finals, and we have a Heidi, Yam Yam, Carolyn final three.  As my rankings showed, Carolyn wins.  Possibly unanimously, though Yam Yam could pick up a vote or two with charm and a good performance.  

Hoo boy, for a pretty standard episode, this ended up being a long blog.  Let’s see how much the finale tops the length by.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 44” Episode 11: Island Cosplay Tutorial

We’ve all seen more and more nerdy things enter “Survivor”.  Statistical analyses.  3-D printed puzzles.  The mere existence of Christian Hubicki (“Survivor David vs. Goliath”).  Heck, this season alone with have Kane referencing D&D and “Star Wars” pretty much every other sentence.  Making clothes has also been a “thing” more frequently than you might think.  Sure we all remember Cody’s idol hat from “Survivor 43”, but let us not forget the trials and tribulations of Rupert’s skirt on “Survivor Pearl Islands:.  Yet somehow, despite all these factors, I never thought cosplay would enter into the show.  But here comes Carolyn, proving me wrong, providing an excellent tutorial on how to use random beach items to give yourself a headpiece and claws.  Bravo.  

Before we can delve into Carolyn’s “12 Secrets to Creating the Best Island Cosplay” tutorial, however, we have to have a brief announcement from our old friend…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Just a brief bit of irony that I forgot to touch on last time.  Frannie, while somewhat bummed at not being immune from the vote again, was still also excited to “Test her social game”, and see how it stacked up.  Trying to put a bright side on being vulnerable.  Admirable, but we now see how much her game was actually worth.  

Last episode, I mentioned that a downside to getting rid of Frannie is that you piss off Carolyn in doing so.  This week, we see precisely WHY this is a bad idea.  To say Carolyn does not take it well is an understatement.  Not good at hiding her emotions at the best of times, Carolyn makes it abundantly clear how hurt she is by the vote, particularly since her allies Carson and Yam Yam did not clue her in on it.  Yam Yam tries to get her to calm down, asking that she not do this in front of everyone, lest the Tika hand be revealed.  All true, but pretty rich coming from Yam Yam, the man who, admittedly to a slightly lower extreme, did the exact same thing when HE was blindsided in a vote from his allies.  Add another one to the “Irony” counter.  Trust me, it’s going to be going up a LOT this episode.  

After justifying his vote as him paying back Carolyn in kind for the Sarah vote earlier in the season, we see that Carolyn is not the only one with a chip on their shoulder for the past vote.  Danny received a mystery vote, and the suggestion that it may be Frannie does not placate him.  He is convinced someone threw a vote his way, and is bound and determined to ferret out who that might be.  To that end, he (admittedly in a pretty cordial way all things considered) questions everyone as to who threw a vote his way.  The once exception to this is Heidi who, as his ride-or-die, he is certain would never have voted for him.  Since the most ironic thing must happen in any given situation this episode, naturally Heidi was the stray vote for him.  She’s upset since she thought for sure he was going home (indicating Heidi may not have quite the strategic grasp on tribe dynamics that we thought), but also wisely decides to NEVER admit to Danny that she voted for him.  

Oddly, this is an exact parallel of the Lex van den Berghe and T-Bird Cooper situation from “Survivor Africa”, which is admittedly a fun storyline to go back to.  That said, man, I never thought I’d be talking about Lex so much when I started this blog.  Don’t get me wrong, he’s a decently fun character, but he’s not one of my all-time favorites, nor quite as significant to “Survivor” history as some others, so it’s surprising I keep finding reasons to bring him up.  

Morning brings calmer vibes, largely due to group meditation led by Jaime.  Everyone reflects on what they’ve gotten out here, leading Heidi to talk about her own past in flashback.  It’s a decent transition, but much as I hate to say it, Heidi doesn’t have much in the way of “tragic backstory”.  She does mention moving to the US from Puerto Rico, speaking no English, but apart from that, it’s pretty generic “I showed how tough I am in life.” sentiment.  Admirable, but not the most unique by a long shot.  

More notable from all this is that Carolyn has calmed down enough to make amends with Carson and Yam Yam.  Guess she really did just need some time after all.  Granted, she doesn’t have a ton of options, but still, good on her for burying the hatchet.  All that said, she still doesn’t trust them completely, as when asked directly, she denies having the Tika idol.  While she probably has more reason to trust these two than anyone else out there, but with how long you’ve kept it from them, best not to upset the apple cart.  Not unless there are very specific circumstances, which may or may not come up later this episode.  

The Tika Three, after kind of making a commitment to the Final Three together (they don’t say it out loud, but indicate they do want to stick together), debate how to make it through this round.  After all, this is the last round they’re outnumbered, assuming they stay tight together.  Yam Yam hits upon the idea of letting Danny know about Heidi’s vote for him, thereby breaking up the pair and creating a rift the tribe can exploit.  So Yam Yam does just that.  A good plan, assuming Danny believes him.  In the other trend of this season, that of “The Truth Not being Believed”, Danny doesn’t believe Yam Yam.  Admittedly, given how close Danny and Heidi have been thus far, I can understand it.  Far more plausible that Yam Yam is trying to break up that pair with lies, from Danny’s perspective.  Heidi lying her butt off only convinces him more, and gets him to realize “Hey, maybe we’ve been giving Tika too much power.”  You know, that thing Frannie said two episodes ago.  Oh well, better late than never I suppose.  

After the aforementioned cosplay tutorial, Carolyn has a bit in the water reenacting “The Little Mermaid” (her words, not mine), using that time to bond with Yam Yam as well.  They talk again about who they want in the finals, but really, nothing new comes of it.  The exception is Yam Yam giving us a fun little bit where he proposes three of his “multiple personalities” take up the spots.  Oh, Yam Yam.  You may not be strategically as good as you think, but damn if you aren’t hilarious!

Hilarious, but vulnerable.  Danny, in his newfound anti-Tika crusade, needs allies, and so goes to Lauren, being another regularly-targeted person to get on his side.  While Lauren admits in confessional that she doesn’t fully trust Danny, she recognizes that what he says makes sense.  The pair agree to go for Yam Yam for being too “nice”, and thereby difficult to beat in the end, which is logic I can’t fault.  I’d say Carolyn and Carson are even better targets (Carolyn to flush the idol, Carson because he’s good socially and also has puzzle skills for an immunity run), but hey, Yam Yam also makes sense, and the larger goal is just “Weaken Tika”, which this targeting does.  

Off to our immunity challenge, which, unsurprisingly, is “Last Gasp”, aka “The Drowning Simulator” first seen on “Survivor Palau”.  I say “Unsurprisingly” since the show now LOVES reusing major structures, and hey, if it was on last season, why not do so again?  Beats most of the repeat challenges, and at least there’s no puzzle, but I stand by this one not doing it for me as much as for others.  Once again, it’s largely down to me being very comfortable in the water, and thus not finding this quite as creepy.  That said, if there’s someone for whom the creep factor is very visceral, it’s Lauren.  Understandable, given that she’s been shown to not be the best in water challenges, and part of that is keeping your cool underwater.  She’s out relatively quickly.  Not as fast as Janu in the first iteration of this challenge, but pretty quick.  

Our two Puerto Ricans, Yam Yam and Heidi, end up duking it out.  Somewhat to my surprise, Yam Yam wins, leading to Danny comically jumping in the water to let him know when he can’t hear Probst.  Given the size of his face, I would have given Heidi the edge, just because she can stick her face through the bars further.  Still, good for him, and Yam Yam gets a nice moment to celebrate being athletic, a trait he evidently doesn’t share with his family at large.  It’s honestly a nice, effective scene.  I would have preferred we explore the discrimination against the overweight, and how that can affect people a bit more, but hey, the scene still works.  Plus, now we have drama with the main target immune.  

The Tika Three, correctly realizing that they were not successful in dividing Danny and Heidi, switch to a split between Jaime and Lauren.  However, everyone else is ALSO aware that this is the plan, with Danny saying that will be the decoy plan given to the Tika Three so they don’t get suspicious.  I WOULD get on Danny’s case for appearing to order it without consultation once again, but given that neither Jaime nor Lauren seem particularly mad when he says this, I’m going to assume this was a group decision he was just reiterating.  

Enough word of this gets back to Tika that they go to Jaime and Lauren offering to split between Danny and Heidi themselves.  This puts Jaime and Lauren as the swing votes, between Carson (the actual target of Danny with Yam Yam immune) and Danny.  For once, there is a clear “Right” and “Wrong” choice.  Carson is the correct person to vote out.  Don’t get me wrong, Danny will need to go at some point.  You don’t want him in the end with you, since he’s a likable guy who can say he made it despite a target on his back, and hasn’t made any real enemies (maybe Frannie, but even that’s a stretch).  But there are so many reasons to go for Carson instead.  I would list them all, but I don’t have to.  Jaime does it for me.  She says the Tika Three need to be broken up, and Carson is more of an immunity threat, given his prowess with puzzles, and the fact that he’s, you know, WON individual immunity, unlike Danny.  

Yes, take it in, folks.  Jaime said something that was 100% correct, with no caveats.  

Lauren does bring up trusting Carson more than Danny, which I can understand.  They’ve lived together longer, and actually voted together.  Even so, Jaime’s points are salient, and ultimately the better move, at least for this vote.  

Misdirection effectively neutered, we need something new.  Enter Carolyn and her idol.  Give the woman credit: She quickly recognizes that something is up, and sets about interrogating Danny.  Danny, in my view, actually does a pretty good acting job in denying it, but Carolyn smells trouble.  As such, wanting to keep Carson around (sensibly, since sticking with the Tika Three for now gives Carolyn a better spot in the game), she decides to play her idol on him.  NOW she tells Carson about her idol, and again, I can understand why.  By doing it now, she skips the “Oh, you kept something from me.” phase that would put her at risk, and have it be overridden by the “Thank you so much for saving me!” phase.  

Carolyn’s real dilemma, though, is who to vote for between Heidi and Danny.  Her fear is that if Danny plays an idol (and for all that I knocked her game earlier, it must be said that Heidi IS really good at keeping secrets, both with her idol and her vote against Danny), then the vote might bounce back against herself, and thus throwing a vote on Heidi might be smart, despite really preferring Danny.  Frankly, this should not be a dilemma.  Heidi should get Carolyn’s vote.  Either Jaime and Lauren are with you, in which case your throwaway vote won’t matter (save for possibly making Heidi angry, but at this point, a worthy safety risk), or they aren’t, in which case a safety vote is a wise decision.  Yet Carolyn is somehow conflicted as we head off to Tribal.  

Look, this has been a stellar episode.  Pretty standard in some ways, but we get a deep dive into the “Why” of each strategic move, and a good amount of time to just sit and let the players be people (something we’ll hopefully get more of now that 90-minute episodes will be the norm come next season).  All very good stuff, and all well-put together.  But the Tribal Council, while by no means the WORST, even by general standards, is just weak.  We are, blessedly, largely devoid of metaphors this time, but it’s mostly just generic strategic talk with little fun thrown in.  Admittedly there is one good moment wherein Carolyn gets rather aggravated after mishearing something that Lauren said, and then at Danny’s attempts to clarify the situation.  It doesn’t get inflamed, but DOES lead to her staring intensely at Probst, which freaks him out.  That’s always good for a chuckle.  

Carolyn agonizes in the voting booth, which, again, I don’t think she should be doing.  At first, it seems like she might have been agonizing over whether or not she needed to actually play her idol, since she waits until Probst gets to the “Okay” part of “Okay, I’ll read the votes” to do so.  Play it she does, though, and despite what the numbers will tell us momentarily, I don’t blame her.  That Carson was a likely target was a good read, and while this may show her hand a bit early as a strategic threat, given how long she kept her idol secret, it needed to be done, I feel.  Yes, she could have done a Maryanne (“Survivor 42”) and just revealed it at the end, but consider just HOW kooky Carolyn is perceived here.  The ONE reason there were any second thoughts on voting out Yam Yam or Carson was that Carolyn would be tough to deal with in the aftermath.  Not the look of a player well-respected strategically.  Unless you’re an orator at godly levels, you need to start changing that perception a bit earlier, and by the looks of the jury and the remaining players when Carolyn comes up to player her idol, she’s starting to do that.  It’s a risk, as again, she now seems a more appealing target than before, but one I think she needs to take to stand a chance at winning.  

So no, despite Carson not actually receiving a majority of the votes, I will not fault Carolyn this idol play.  I WILL, however, fault her for pulling an Aubry (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”).  Given my well-documented love for Aubry, you would think this would mean a good thing, and most of the time you’d be right.  Despite the fact that she remains my all-time favorite player, however, that does not mean I think she is flawless.  In particular, probably her biggest mistake was crossing out Julia very bluntly to write down Peter’s name instead right before the merge; a move so infamous most people avoid even the remotest possibility of doing so like the plague.  Those people are not Carolyn, however.  Admittedly, her idol play probably overshadows that particular reveal, so I don’t think the consequences will be as devastating for her as they ended up being for Aubry (and even Aubry’s I think were not played up enough in the moment given the outcome of the season, but that’s neither here nor there right now), but still, not the move of Aubry’s game to be copying, Carolyn.  

In the end, as mentioned, the idol play actually WASN’T needed mathematically, as Lauren and Jaime decided to vote for Heidi, meaning Danny would have gone home anyway (unless Carolyn had voted for Heidi, but if Carolyn had known they were voting that way anyway, she would have known not to play her idol, so I stand behind my logic for her not needing to agonize over this).  Danny TRIES to be memorable on his way out, giving some spiel to Probst about snuffing his torch.  Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t get it.  From what I’ve gathered asking around, he’s doing a Robert De Niro impression, but having never watched any of his films, I can’t say.  Doesn’t do it for me either way.  I’m mixed about Danny leaving.  He was definitely the bigger character of the targets tonight, but also not the most interesting strategically, and I can’t deny his character didn’t really “do it” for me.  All that said, it does leave Tika firmly in control, barring some break-up and/or idol shenanigans from Heidi, which is not that great.  

Possibly predictable season outcome aside, this was still a fantastic episode.  All the reasons I said earlier still apply: Good insight into strategy, good character moments, excellent humor.  The worst I could say is that the misdirection wasn’t the best (Carson got too little content for this to be his boot episode), and the Tribal Council was a bit dull.  The rest of the factors very much make up for that, though, and I hope this season can finish as strong as its buildup!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 44” Episode 10: Jedi of the Sea

I know that “Star Wars” day is not technically until tomorrow (and thus, in advance, May the Fourth be with you all, dear readers), and it does feel wrong to make this the title AFTER Kane left the game.  But hey, Carolyn’s son gave us a drawing of a narwhal.  That’s almost as good, right?  

Naturally, we start off on getting everyone’s reaction to the blindside of Kane.  Oddly, we start off with Frannie. Despite not being close to Kane, she’s not happy at being left out.  She notes, not unfairly, that she’s not particularly close with anyone left, and thus needs to start changing up her game fast.  Time will tell how well this actually goes for her.  

More circumspect is Lauren.  While naturally upset that the old Ratu is down to 2 players, the least of any original tribe, and that her extra vote is now gone, she mostly keeps it to herself.  She saves her irritation for confessionals, and resolves to try and make things turn around for herself and Jaime.  

Speaking of whom, Jaime is the one person Carson feels compelled to talk to about the vote.  And by “Talk to”, I of course mean “Lie through his teeth.”  Carson does a good job spinning to Jaime that the Kane vote was necessary, as he was spreading that she had an idol.  The truth, Carson notes privately, is that HE was the one telling everyone that Jaime had an idol.  Kudos to Carson for doing the smart thing, though, and throwing under the bus someone no longer in the game, thus meaning they can’t contradict you.  Jaime falls for this hook, line, and sinker, but is more upset about the loss of her “idol”, leading to the hilarious moment of seeing the “fake idol” part of her chyron slowly fade away.  Whatever flaws there are with the modern era, the editing jokes remain on point.  

Jaime tells us that now she’ll have to either come clean or find another idol fast, no doubt leading to fascinating maneuvering, and TOO BAD, CHALLENGE TIME!  Your standard obstacle course, this is the “Maryanne Oketch” tribute challenge, courtesy of “Survivor 42”, so named because it includes the obstacle to make you dizzy, which Maryanne memorably attempted to counteract by spinning in the opposite direction.  Honestly a pretty boring and forgettable challenge.  The reward is a trip to “The Sanctuary” for tacos and margaritas, both alcoholic and virgin, along with letters from home.  Way to bury the lead on that one, Probst.  Sure, who cares about surprise?  

It says something about how much interest I have at this point that rather than focus on the challenge itself, I wonder about a hypothetical scenario: Non-alcoholic drinks had to be offered because the show started allowing people 18 and up to compete.  This was done because contestants must obey both US law and Fijian law, with the stricter standard taking priority.  However, what about a Canadian who was younger than 21?  There are several provinces (notably Ontario, where the majority of Canadian contestants have come from thus far) that have a lower drinking age than the US’ 21, and they’re not on US soil.  Do they have to follow the US standard despite 2 out of the 3 relevant countries saying it’s ok for them to drink?  Seems like kind of a raw deal for the Canadian, should they want to imbibe.  

Frannie wins, her third individual win, as Probst is keen to remind us.  I’m sure this will in no way bite Frannie in the butt.  Frannie is also given the task of picking three players to come with her on reward.  Citing wanting the “moms” to get the letters from home, Frannie picks Carolyn, Lauren, and Heidi.  Not bad picks overall.  All have a good excuse outside of “strategy” as to being picked, and all have at least some potential to be allies of Frannie.  I would say that Carolyn is a bit weird, since Frannie last episode seemed to be anti-Tika, and she could have picked Jaime as well with little suspicion.  However, as we see that going against Tika is NOT Frannie’s long-term plan later, I’ll let it slide.  

Rather than follow those on reward, we first check back in at the Va Va camp.  Yam Yam is the most cut up about missing the reward, noting that he’s the only person left yet to go on one.  However, he’s more upset at missing the letters from home.  This gives the show and excuse to give us more flashbacks to Yam Yam’s life outside the game.  Not the most forced I’ve ever seen, but still pretty forced.  That said, I’m willing to let it slide since we get to see Yam Yam’s husband as a result, and dammit, they’re really cute together!  

The bigger story at camp is Jaime, though, how has evidently settled on the “Come clean” route.  I’d have gone for a bluff myself, but I can understand her logic.  With how often the idol makes you a target, there is a good reason to just admit to not having one.  Unfortunately for Jaime, however, she can’t win for losing, as despite the fact that she’s literally telling the truth, no one buys it.  They applaud her acting, noting that she’s out looking for an idol, but Danny in particular is dismissive of the idea.  I’m of two minds about this whole scene.  On the one hand, it is kind of funny that Jaime just keeps being so catastrophically wrong no matter what she does.  On the other hand, does she deserve it?  She’s by no means the best player, but she seems nice, and again, this sort of comedy works best on someone you want to see fail, which is not necessarily the case with Jaime.  

Over on reward, after Carolyn partakes in her virgin margarita (sobriety and all, understandable.  To clarify my thought experiment from earlier: It’s not that I don’t WANT there to be virgin options on alcoholic rewards, I just don’t want someone FORCED to take that option if it’s legal for them to choose otherwise), we get our letters from home.  We actually don’t see what Frannie and Heidi got, all our time being devoted to Lauren and Carolyn.  The former is the emotional moment, with Lauren getting a renewed drive to win for her kids, complete with flashback photos.  Again, kind of forced, but there’s been worse and the kids are pretty damn cute, so I’ll let it slide.  Carolyn’s is more for the comedy.  Rather than be in tears over her letters, she notes how tough it is to get her son to write, with the note he sent her being “The most he’s ever written” according to her.  Hey, kid’s got a career as an artist ahead of him, though.  That’s a pretty sweet narwhal drawing.  

Strategy talk does eventually return, with Frannie putting out the idea of getting out Danny.  Not a bad one, considering he’s the most active player left in the game, and yet also seems very set in his alliances.  Not his insistence on going against Ratu when it may not have been wisest to do so last episode.  Thus, if you’re not with him, you have little incentive to keep him around.  Lauren is, of course, right on board, mostly because any name that isn’t hers sounds good right now.  Heidi would seem like the least-inclined to go for this plan, since she and Danny have been seen to be close, but Heidi tells us that she and Danny have never made any commitment.  Carolyn’s also been working with Danny, but it does behoove Carolyn to keep the Soka/Ratu feud going, to strengthen the position of her and her fellow Tika members.  Plus, as she tells us, she likes Frannie, and thus was to work with her even if it’s not strategically the wisest move.  

We touch base back at camp, basically just to see Jaime come clean to those who were on the reward about her “idol” being gone.  They don’t believe her either.  Poor Jaime.  Can’t win for losing.  This brings us to our challenge, another repeat obstacle course drawing heavily from “Survivor Edge of Extinction”, and thus earning my ire.  People being forced to crawl in the sand with hands and legs bound is at least more unusual that what we normally get, but still, nothing much to write home about.  Danny does do an excellent job on the obstacle course part, but as this ends in a puzzle, he’s stumped.  Yam Yam makes a decent comeback to get to the puzzle, though to me watching, it looked like Probst okayed him to undo his shackles despite not hitting the mat.  Carson, who admittedly also did pretty well on the physical part, ends up taking the win here.  Good for him.  

With Frannie being available to target, and so much conversation centering around her as a challenge threat, naturally Frannie is targeted.  Even Lauren, a supposed ally, is willing to go along with the plan, since again, she’s justifiably in “anyone but me” mode at this point.  This would then seem to be a simple “Danny vs. Frannie” debate, but no!  Paranoia about Jaime’s “idol” reaches an all-time high, with Carson in particular wanting to split votes between Jaime and Frannie, preferring Jaime as the target should no idol be played.  But even THIS is not enough!  We at first get what seems to be a pat “Maybe I’ll play my idol” confessional from Heidi.  Hardly anything to write home about, both because we’ve heard it before, and both because she doesn’t seem to be in danger.  But then Danny engages in frankly kind of a dick move for someone who’s supposed to be his ally.  He lets Heidi in on the “Get Frannie” plan, which is all well and good in and of itself.  However, rather than have it be a conversation, he just tells her that’s where the numbers are without, you know, telling her who those numbers are.  Strongarming someone is never a good look, and serves only to put a target on your back.  When that person is you ALLY?  Time to look for a new ally.  Heidi relays this information to Carolyn and Frannie, but since she doesn’t have the details, they come to the conclusion that Heidi is just snowing them, and intends to vote Frannie.  This galvanizes the pair to try and rally votes against Heidi, nominally roping in Jaime and Carolyn’s Tika allies to add in this cause.  

This, then, puts Yam Yam and Carson in the “swing vote” position, this time between four different options.  As always, let’s consider what the smartest move is here.  First things first, the only truly “Bad” move for these two from what I see here is getting rid of Jaime.  The last thing you want is to risk a tie with the remaining three Soka members down the line, and getting rid of one of them now should definitely be a priority.  Plus, the only reason Jaime is a target is because of an “idol” she does not have.  Can’t fault the players for not realizing that, but in a vacuum, there’s no reason to boot her.  Thus, Jaime is the only truly “bad” option here.  Speaking of things the players don’t know, the idol of Heidi’s that no one knows about makes her really the best target to go for at this juncture.  Even leaving that aside, there’s reasons to go for Heidi anyway.  She’s playing a smart, but subtle, game, and thus a threat down the line.  She’s friends with a lot of people, especially compared to Danny and Frannie, giving her more options, and thus making her a greater threat to your power.  Just below her is Frannie.  I’m not one to advocate a vote purely based on “challenge strength”, but Frannie has shown herself to be a good competitor in a variety of types of challenges, so for once it might be warranted.  Moreover, with Matt being the first jury member, you can bet that she’s being talked up to the jury, and thus may be hard to beat at the end.  The reasons to keep Frannie are that A: She has basically no firm allies at this point, and is therefore less threatening in that regard, and B: It will piss off Carolyn.  In the case of the latter, though, where is she going to go?  She won’t be happy with you, certainly, but with this group left, with a fair number of people with dug-in battle lines, it’s going to be hard for her to move against you anyway.  As for Danny, well, like I said, the main reason to boot him is his inflexibility.  You’re either allied with him, or not.  As Carson and Yam Yam fall into the “allied” category in his mind, well, no reason not to keep the super-loyal guy around.  Admittedly he does need to go at some point, given his frantic idol hunting and being a hog for the face of strategy, making him tough to beat in the end, but another round or two should be fine.  

For all my griping about how lame Tribal Councils have become, the last few episodes have actually been decent.  Sadly this one breaks that streak, being a bunch of meaningless nothing talks.  The only thing even REMOTELY noteworthy is that Jaime tells the truth about her idol again, leading to some pretty good exasperated reactions from the rest of the players.  Also notable that Kane manages to keep a good poker face about this, as he should as a juror.  

Yam Yam and Carson don’t ultimately make the smartest move here, but avoid a super dumb one as well.  Frannie goes home, and I am kind of sorry.  Not that she was my favorite player or the biggest character.  Indeed, it’s kind of unfortunate that most of her screen time got taken up by her relationship with Matt, only for her to relatively fade into the background until this episode.  But she seemed nice enough, and had decent strategic chops.  Really, the big reason I’m sorry for her loss would be because of the poetry of her making the end, given that she was a contributing factor to Matt’s ouster.  The star-crossed lovers, one the first juror, one potentially the winner, would have made for a great story, and it’s a shame that we’re deprived of that!  

I won’t say this episode was bad, but that’s because that would imply this episode made me feel any strong emotion.  Everything was done competently enough, but this was just BORING!  Good mystery, at least, but nothing we haven’t really seen before, and very by-the-numbers logic.  Not the worst, but I expect better from you, season!  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.  

Idol Speculation: “Survivor 44” Episode 9: You Only Win Twice

The name’s Arocho.  Yam Yam Arocho.  I’ll have a bottle of well water.  Boiled, not fresh.  Brain parasites, you know.  

Honestly, the idea of Yam Yam as James Bond is oddly hilarious to me.  Not sure why, but it is.  Best guess is how it would match on as a parody.  Like, who would be the “Bond Girl”, or I guess, “Bond Boy” in this case?  Josh, maybe?  He’s an Act One one, at least.  But now I’m getting way off track, and avoiding the episode proper.  

As to that episode proper, here we learn that there is such a thing as being TOO nice about being blindsided.  Jaime, energetic as ever, is quick to congratulate Danny and the rest of Soka on a successful idol play.  All well and good, but she goes on and on about how amazing it is.  She’s making it out like it’s this big move that’s never been done before, when cancelling votes with an idol is literally a move as old as “Survivor Fiji”.  Hell, even if you want to say she was talking about the number of votes cancelled, she’s still beat out by at least Kelley Wentworth’s idol play on “Survivor Cambodia”.  More recent than Fiji, obviously, but still… 8 years ago…  Man, I suddenly feel old.  

For his part, Danny is more pleased than I would be if I was him about how things went down.  Sure, everything all went according to plan, which as Danny correctly notes is a rarity on “Survivor”, but you still burned an idol when it was arguably not necessary (yes, Frannie received the majority of the votes, but they could also have engaged in a split vote to achieve the same effect.  Slightly riskier, perhaps, but possible).  Still, a blindside well-executed whatever else happened, and Danny can be proud of that.  

Lauren and Kane both do better jobs handling the blindside.  Kane is generally pleasant, but publicly doesn’t say much.  Lauren is vocal, but limits it more to what she and the rest of Ratu could have done better, rather than how she’s feeling.  Lauren’s conclusion is that they should have split the votes, which I’m not so sure about.  Splitting the votes only works if Tika is with you, and while they did largely vote with you, basic math says that at least one Tika member must have voted for Brandon.  As such, you have to assume that Tika was at least partially in on the plan to blindside Brandon, and thus not trustworthy with a split vote.  

But no, the old Ratu is convinced that Tika is with them, for some reason.  This of course pleases the old Tika, who admit they’re now firmly in the driver’s seat.  Yam Yam even gives me good title fodder by comparing himself to James Bond, whom he misnames as “Double-Oh Cero” (000 to the non-Spanish speakers among us).  Time will tell how well they can capitalize on this.  

With his game face now on, Kane notes that an idol being played means there’s likely a new one hidden somewhere.  Thus, everyone starts setting off to hunt.  Danny is the most blatant of all, only making token “Getting firewood” excuses.  Everyone sees him doing this, and it makes him a target, so Danny had better hope he’s the one to find an idol.  Danny is confident in himself, however, noting that he’s working harder than anyone in this hunt.  Naturally, such a bold statement can only lead to an ironic fate, and we almost immediately cut to Heidi finding the idol.  Good for her.  

Our next segment is something of a rarity for the new era of “Survivor”: A scene of pure camp life.  Yep, no advantages, no challenges, and practically no strategy talk.  Everyone is gathered around the flag they’re painting, and I have to say, while the name “Va Va” for the merge tribe is ok at best, that flag is killer!  The shield look fits with the more medieval theme of the season, and the things that look like runes down at the bottom are a nice accent.  Yam Yam then gets the tribe onto a round of “Eye Spy”, teaching us the Spanish name for it the meantime.  Yam Yam also shows us how he is too pure for this sinful Earth.  When Frannie spies something beginning with “F”, he first guesses “Frannie”, which is just innocent, and then “Family”, which is really sweet regarding people he’s known for at most 17 days at this point.  For the record, the correct answer was “Firewood”, as Lauren figures out.  

We then get Carolyn giving everyone her backstory regarding addiction, celebrating 13 years sober out on the island.  Speaking as someone who has worked, and still does sometimes work, with drug-addicted populations, that is damn impressive, Carolyn!  You rock, assuming you’re reading this, which I admittedly doubt.  Everyone feels closer to Carolyn as a result, and in the one bit of strategy talk, Carolyn articulates how she’s moved from someone whom no one thought they could work with to someone whom no one suspects strategically.  A really good, accurate assessment, and all with a well-done backstory that felt like a natural progression in the show, rather than forced in for the sake of “feels”.  Honestly a well-done scene that both brings us closer to the characters, and gives us insight into Carolyn’s game and strategy.  Just a highlight of the episode.  I have no notes.  

Ok, that’s not exactly true.  I do have one note.  Carolyn, why are you climbing a giant rock for no reason?  Have you learned nothing from Matthew’s example earlier this season?  You too, Yam Yam, don’t think I didn’t see you on that rock as well!

But what of our third Tika member, Carson?  Yeah, he’s still not doing so hot.  He admits his nausea has gotten better, but he’s just plain feeling out of energy.  One episode of this sort of talk I could dismiss, but with two, I’m getting concerned.  True, he does seem to get better after a substantial meal, but this is now two episodes in a row where Carson’s health has been the focus; rarely a good sign.  We did hear before the season that there would be two medical evacuations, and it could be argued that Bruce and Matthew fit the bill.  Matthew technically quit, however (for justifiable reasons, but still a quit rather than a medevac), leaving us with room for one more potential medical evacuation.  Carson seems cool, so I hope that isn’t the case, but needs to be brought up as a possibility.  

How is Carson going to get access to the aforementioned food?  Why, by negotiation, of course!  We get the reading of Tree Mail, which at first seems unusual at this point in the show’s history, until you realize that the note basically says “There’s a rice negotiation today; better prepare!”  All parties talk it over, with Carson volunteering to sit out due to, you know, illness.  There’s some talk about wanting to split sit-outs relatively evenly between the tribes (it’s stated in the note that four people need to give up a shot at immunity, which does not evenly divide into three tribes), but really, the planning is notable more for how it breaks down.  Some, like Frannie, are reluctant to go along with sit-out plans due to not trusting the other tribes.  Fair enough.  Frannie did technically receive the majority of the votes last episode, so she has a reason to be mistrustful.  Moreover, it leads to a dynamic we’ve not seen before in these negotiations, which makes it more fun to watch than usual.  

Danny, however, has his own reasons for why negotiations break down.  He feels that sitting out for food, since everyone came out here to play.  A sentiment I myself have expressed and agreed with… WHEN YOU WERE SITTING OUT FOR A MEAL JUST FOR YOURSELF!  If it’s a “Gorge yourself on burgers or whatever while watching everyone else play”, I 100% agree with Danny.  You look like a jerk for eating on your own, and you have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to do these challenges.  What do you gain?  Feeling full for a few hours.  Suck it up and do the challenge.  But the rice negotiation is a different animal.  You’re sitting out for tribe gain, which could be done strategically to curry favor, and you’re getting no more benefit from doing so than anyone else.  It’s not a matter of “You came here to play”, it’s a matter of “Doing what’s best for your game”, and in this particular context, sitting out might actually be the best thing for your game.  

All this time spent on the buildup made me think Jeff was going to pull some sort of shenanigans at the auction, but it’s actually more to set up how reluctant everyone was to sit out.  With the rain, Heidi asks if anyone has changed their mind from the plan of not doing so earlier.  Lauren is the first volunteer, and while I’m not surprised she sat out overall, I AM surprised she sat out that quickly.  Don’t get me wrong, given where Lauren thinks she is in the game, and her personality, it makes sense that she would sit out.  However, given how the votes ended up last Tribal Council, and given that she was not targeted partly due to having immunity, I would have thought she’d wait for others to jump first.  Carson joins right in, but everyone else needs some promises.  Most everyone there guarantees the sit-outs safety, Danny even saying “Scout’s Honor”.  These guarantees are, of course, about as genuine as the ones Jason Siska got on “Survivor Micronesia”, but they’re enough to get Kane to jump.  Frannie tries to convince Jaime she’s safe, which initially works, though Jaime backs out of backing out at the last minute.  Heidi ultimately steps in, meaning that for all that craziness, things ultimately went the way they were planned.  Still fun to watch the process, though.  

Our challenge is, of course, a reused endurance challenge, specifically holding a ball on a post with a rolling pin while standing on a block of wood.  That said, for all that this is old hat (and looks kind of goofy, if I may be honest), I will give them credit that they upped the challenge difficulty in a couple of ways.  For one thing, they made the block you stand on smaller, as well as enacted a rule that you had to stand one foot on top of the other.  The other is that, as Probst notes, it’s raining, making the ball slick and harder to support.  So yeah, if we’re going to redo this challenge, better to make it harder.  Even if some of the difficulty was not something the show could have planned for. 

After a close battle, Frannie wins her second immunity.  Now all she has to do is never win immunity again, and my title for this blog will remain true.  

Unsurprisingly, most of our post-challenge strategizing falls along the Soka vs. Ratu battle lines.  Ratu wants to split the vote between Heidi and Danny, with Danny being the preferred target.  Makes sense.  Probably the two most strategically competent players on that side, plus the person who’s won the most individual immunities and the guy who on paper is a challenge threat.  Soka, meanwhile, is all in on getting out Kane, which I have to say is more strategically questionable.  Ok, not going for Jaime I get.  She’s not that great a player, threat of an idol, has been ok working with you in the past; there’s reasons to let Jaime be for the time being.  But Kane?  Guy has barely got his legs under him all season (as he himself admits, he’s never successfully voted anyone off), and has no advantages or idols to his name.  Lauren you know has an extra vote, has proven to be tough in challenges, and is strategically at least competent, if not above-average.  As such, she seems the much greater threat in this scenario.  

Before we discuss Tika’s position in the middle of all this, there’s a couple of shenanigans we need to discuss.  One is Ratu’s movement of idols and advantages.  To plan for a possible Knowledge is Power shake-up (now I think on it, it IS kind of weird the show didn’t try putting it in again after trying twice on “Survivor 43”; not that I’m complaining), they switch everything around, Jaime holding Lauren’s banked vote, and Kane holding what he thinks is an idol, but is actually Jaime’s fake one.  Oh, poor Kane.  Even when he thinks he has some power, the chyron has to mock him by choosing that moment in the confessional to add “One Fake Idol” to it.  For all that I mock, this is honestly decent strategic planning, and I can’t fault them for it.  

The other thing of note is a plan floated by Frannie to potentially flip the vote, working with Ratu to get out Yam Yam.  She correctly notes that Tika is by far the tightest three, with strategically the most power, and thus weakening them is something to consider.  I’d say Carson or Carolyn make more sense to target, but given that Carson’s sick and Carolyn has done a good job obfuscating how smart she is, I can’t fault Frannie too much for this.  Who I CAN fault is Danny, who dismisses the idea out of hand, despite the fact that everything Frannie has said is factually correct.  Danny is dead-set against ever working with Ratu, saying that doing so is like being “Under the Wing of a Dragon”, giving us an episode title I’m still having a hard time believing did not come from Kane.  

This is important to bring up first since it leads into my thoughts about the debate Tika has about which side to choose.  Yam Yam is all for sticking with Soka, wanting Kane gone for writing his name down.  Carolyn and Carson, however, peg Danny as the bigger threat, and thus want him gone instead.  Now, in terms of threat level, I would say Carolyn and Carson have the more accurate view, and thus I was inclined to side with them in this debate when it first came up.  Thinking more about it, however, I’m actually inclined to side with Yam Yam, and it’s 100% due to seeing that conversation Frannie had about flipping on Tika.  This is the first, and so far only, time someone has seriously talked about targeting that particular tribe (Yam Yam being the default decoy notwithstanding), and is the one major threat to their position of power.  You get rid of Danny, and it’s very possible Frannie and Heidi rally with Ratu to start targeting, say, Carolyn or Carson.  Get rid of Kane, however, and I don’t think Ratu does the same thing, with how laser-focussed they are on Soka.  Thus, you remain the swing vote, and keep your power.  Of course we have no idea of Tika KNOWS Frannie has proposed this plan, and as I say, Danny is threatening for a number of reasons, so it’s hardly a bad move to get him out tonight.  Getting out Kane just seems slightly more optimal.  

Our Tribal Council starts out pretty promising.  A forced metaphor here or there, but some good banter and funny moments.  As I called to my friends when I was watching the episode, Danny reveals he was never a scout, hence his earlier “Scout’s Honor” meant nothing.  I will also give props once again to the editors.  Yam Yam talks about wanting subtitles, and sure enough, the editors give him some.  There’s even good mystery throughout, as I can see arguments for either Kane or Danny going.  Where things go downhill is when Probst inserts himself too much into the conversation.  Because humor is boring, I guess, he insists that this cast is full of people ready to have a “Live Tribal” every episode.  Dutifully, our players get up and start whispering to one another.  Decently fun chaos, but I preferred what we had before.  

Chaotic also is a good descriptor for the vote.  No idols played, despite Heidi explicitly bringing hers and receiving votes, but Jaime does burn Lauren’s extra vote.  All to no avail, however, as Kane ends up being the victim.  I’m not overly sorry to see him go.  I would probably get along well with him in real life, and I did enjoy his D&D references, but ultimately, just not that great a player, and so I’ll take the more competent and energetic player staying in the game any day.  I do feel bad for Kane, since he never got his feet under him, but sometimes that’s just how “Survivor” is.  

That said, so much for the fake idol.  Glad we spent so much time on THAT Chekov’s gun, only to never fire it.  

This season continues the upward trajectory it’s been on since roughly the merge.  While it still hasn’t reached the highs of the early season, the moments to just let the characters “be” were a breath of fresh air, we had good strategy to chew on, and even a bit of chaos to keep things interesting.  Minor nitpicks aside, I’m quite happy.   Let’s hope the trajectory continues.  

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.