Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 12: Cute Cat Video

Remember how I praised last episode for how, despite the fact that the end result was a boring vote along alliance lines, it still managed to be interesting? Yeah, sad to say that streak lasts all of one episode. While this episode as a whole isn’t BAD per se, it is definitely on the weaker end for this season. Ah well, at least this will make this particular blog a fairly short one.

On night 29, things are fairly subdued for once. Neither major complaining nor major gloating, so it’s a bit hard to figure out what to do here. Fortunately, Tai saves us by providing his one good move of the evening. He, like most everyone else watching, has figured out that it’s in his best interest to use his extra vote at the upcoming Tribal Council (since it would make an odd number, helping prevent ties), and then his hidden immunity idol at the Tribal Council after that, thereby effectively guaranteeing him a spot in the final episode, making both the audience and the producers giddy with joy. After all, despite what we see this episode, Tai is still pretty well a fan favorite, so having him in the final episode is pretty much a win-win for all involved. To add to the intelligence of Tai’s move here, he actually doesn’t tell EVERYBODY. He tells Aubry and Joe, which is probably for the best. Were everyone to know, it would probably make him too big of a threat, and thus make him a potential target. By letting just Aubry and Joe know, he strengthens the bond with his current closest ally (Aubry), and makes it more likely that they’ll see HIS advantage as THEIR advantage, and thereby not want to vote Tai out.

Less successful in his ploy to stay in the game is Jason, who thankfully has learned something from his sabotage tactics. Once again, he doesn’t go into a raging storm about the whole situation, though he does waste no time in throwing Tai under the bus. That’s fine, it’s his prerogative, and he doesn’t do it in a malicious way. Nor does his plea fall on deaf ears. Michele is certainly receptive, once again citing Jason being beatable at Final Tribal as a reason to keep him around. The only thing I don’t get here is that Michele also highlights her willingness to build trust with her alliance by getting rid of her closest ally as a positive here. Um, Michele, what’s the point of building trust with your alliance IF YOU’RE PLANNING TO FLIP ON THEM ANYWAY! Plus, as we see in this episode, Michele now has very little leverage within the alliance due to that vote. Not that she could have done much to change it, but let’s be real, it’s only by the grace of Cydney that she’s spared tonight.

Ah, I see it’s time for the traditional “Gross Food Challenge” of the season. We start out with a classic: Giant, live grubs, which… Oh, sorry, Tai just found a random creepy-crawley in camp. Actually, that’s kind of a cool tidbit. Granted, there doesn’t seem to be a gross-food challenge this season (unless they’re saving it for the next episode), but when they do happen, you always hear the phrase “local delicacy” applied to the various food items. However, you never actually SEE said items locally. To have one come and invade the camp adds to the authenticity of the show, and is kind of nice to see. Sadly, this instead seaways into shenanigans with Mark the chicken, as they get him to eat the grub, and he goes berserk. A fun enough scene, but now the “Mark the Chicken” stuff is starting to feel a little forced. Put bluntly, this scene does not mesh well with the episode, and serves no purpose other than slight amusement. It’s like cute cat videos on the internet: Technically they’re harmless and there’s nothing wrong with them, but they can be annoying in large quantities, and there’s probably a better use of your time out there.

Sadly, what we cut to next is not one of them. Lest you think that “Jason is determined.” confessionals were confined to last episode, well, you’d be WRONG on that score! We get another one, and it’s about as generic as they come. Hmm, now what could we possibly add to spice this scene up a little bit? JOE! Of course! Because nothing adds to a reused confessional like the take of a guy who’s screen time tonight equals his total screen time in the first 12 episodes of this season. Joe offers us very little insight into Jason’s situation, beyond telling us that Jason is frustrated and lashing out. A fair enough assessment, but we could already have told you that, thanks Joe. Actually, Jason tries to sell Joe on the “Anti-Tai allegiance” thing, which goes about as well as you’d expect. Apart from Joe not being enough of a player to do anything about his status in the game, Jason really doesn’t sell this one well. For the most part, he’s been good about hiding his anger to the faces of his tribemates (or at least, hiding it better than Scot), but here he lets it leak through in a pretty big way, and that’s not good for him.

Getting on to the actual reward challenge this episode, we find that I should hate it because it’s largely a simple water obstacle course, and a team challenge after the merge. However, I don’t hate it, for one key reason: that maze! Now, mazes on “Survivor” are nothing new. They go all the way back to “Survivor The Australian Outback”. Even tilt mazes are nothing new for “Survivor”, appearing as early as “Survivor Marquesas”. But having one on the water has never really been seen before, and even seeing it as a team challenge is somewhat uncommon. But really, the water’s the big factor here. It’s usually pulleys that move the maze, and that’s all well and good, but this really adds a new teamwork dynamic to the challenge, and makes things more difficult. Now, to be fair, that difficult increase is offset by the decrease of not having holes for the balls to fall through in the maze, which is a change I’m not for. Not that I think the challenge was easy or anything, but having those holes made for come-from-behind victories, or at least near victories. With no real way to LOSE time on that portion of the challenge, it makes the results a lot more predictable, which is never a plus. Still, the awesomeness of a water maze is just too good to resist, so I’ll give this challenge a pass.

What I said about predictability holds true, though, as Jason, Tai, and Michele get an early lead and hold it throughout the challenge. Whoop-de-doo. They get to have themselves another picnic and go see an animal rescue habitat. Again, I refer you to my “cute cat videos” comment to get my opinion on scenes like this. Now, I’m being harsh, in that this one turns out to be more unique, and a bit more touching, but still, it feels a bit like time was spent poorly. Plus, we get Michele trying her best to win the “Amber Brkich Award” from “Survivor The Australian Outback” by uttering the most inane exclamations about her relative enjoyment of the reward.

Ok, ok, perhaps I’m being overly snarky because of my relative lack of enjoyment of this episode, since we DO get some strategy at the reward. Basically, Tai realizes that, due to being something of a challenge threat and a likable person, Michele is more dangerous in the end than Jason, and decides to get her out. Michele, for her part, now says she wants Jason out because… Well, I’m not really sure. Michele, didn’t you WANT to go the end with Jason earlier in this episode? Make up your mind! I get wanting to save your credit with your new alliance, but Jason is the only person left who might give you some POWER in this game. Ah, but don’t worry, this isn’t the ONLY inconsistency we’ll be seeing tonight.

As for Jason? Well, since it’s his death-knell episode, we just get a cute scene of him talking about how his autistic daughter loves animals, and will be so happy to see her dad asking for monkey hugs. And, of course, Michele has to talk about how Jason’s using these stories to wedge his way into people’s hearts. Which he is. But we don’t need it spelled out for us, Michele, and you look like kind of a jerk talking bad about a guy being nice for his autistic daughter.

Well, let’s go back to the camp. Both Tai and the previews for this week foreshadowed that the alliance would crumble from within, so lets get to the crumbling! No, instead we get Joe being a bit bossy and controlling over Cydney and Aubry. Ah, these types of scenes are always hard to blog about. On the one hand, you can’t help but sympathize a bit with the guy who seems to be actually trying to survive out there. On the other hand, that’s not really what this game’s all about, and there’s no contesting the fact that Joe is definitely handling these two people the wrong way. But we’ve seen it so many times before, and it just leads to nothing. Granted, this scene plus Joe’s increased screen time could indicate a boot for him, but since he’s never even brought up as a target outside of this scene, I really don’t count it as such.

Oh, and I take delight in the fact that what Joe’s being anal about is firewood. Evidently he should have been cast on “Survivor The Amazon”. Maybe then he could have taken Rob Cesternino’s place as “Junior Deputy Firewood Bitch”.

Off to our immunity challenge, and even though it’s reused, I still like it a lot. It’s the “Balance the platform of cards” challenge from “Survivor Blood vs. Water”, though it has its roots in the card-stacking challenge from “Survivor Gabon”. While technically a reused challenge, it’s a very difficult one, and since we haven’t seen it in a while, I’ll give it a pass. One nice change is that, instead of stacking generic blocks, the players are now trying to spell “Immunity” backwards one block at a time. It’s a small change, but it helps the challenge stand out somewhat. Plus, it’s hilarious to see Joe keep spelling it wrong.

Cydney takes a lot of flak early on for moving incredibly slowly, but a loud “boom” right after this tells us all we need to know, and sure enough, Cydney wins immunity. This means that no one person has had immunity twice this season. Not that it makes much of a difference overall, since rarely has the actual target of an episode had immunity, but it’s still a pretty uncommon occurrence. Only “Survivor Fiji” can boast the same record, and this season is INFINITELY better than that one! You could argue that “Survivor The Amazon” also had the same record at this point on that season (Final Six/Day 32), but Jenna Morass did technically win two immunities, she just gave one of them to Heidi.

In any case, we move on to our crowning moment of hypocrisy for the episode, as Tai, the guy who flipped on his alliance due to not being given a fair say and not discussing things democratically, marches down to the water, and tells everyone to just vote for Michele. No justification, he’s just going for Michele. Ok, so he does tell Aubry later on why he thinks Michele should go, but why couldn’t he do that earlier And besides that, his manner, while not as callous as Scot and Jason’s, is basically the same here. Ugh, I thought we were DONE with hypocrisy for a while in this game.

If you’ll recall, Cydney does not like to be bossed around, even by Tai. She lets Michele in on what’s going on, which for her is not a bad plan. Don’t get me wrong: Tai is correct when he says Michele is a big threat who needs to go at some point. But Michele is also a strong number for Cydney, in a game where strong numbers for her are rapidly dwindling. With Julia gone, Michele has no one to turn to, and pretty much every chat we’ve seen Michele have privately has been with Cydney. Safe to say, the two are pretty close allies at this point, especially since someone needs to counter the Aubry-Joe dynamic. Naturally, since Tai is their biggest threat, and they need to keep Jason around for numbers, their plan is to… Get rid of Jason? Not sure I follow the logic here. Granted, it’s better than one of the two of them going home, and it’d be harder to pitch getting rid of Tai to Joe and/or Aubry, but that still leaves you down 3-2 at the end of the day. Go for the power play!

Ah, but Tai is not the only passenger on the hypocrisy train today! No, there’s Aubry bringing up the caboose. After a fairly civilized talk between Aubry and Cydney about how the vote should go, Aubry breaks down and cries about how hard the game is. This, from the woman who criticized Jason and Scot for “playing emotionally”. How is this any different?

Man, I must really be grumpy tonight, making something out of very little. Yeah, Aubry does have a bit of a breakdown, and it’s kind of pointless, but it’s subdued as breakdowns go, and on Day 32, I think you’re entitled to be a little emotionally stressed. Though, I still must point out, this decision shouldn’t be that stressful to Aubry. Either way it goes out, the results are basically the same. She and Joe will have one person firmly on their side (either Tai or Cydney), giving them an advantage to ride to the end with, and they’ll have at least one enemy on the jury. Either way, Aubry comes out on top. If I had to favor one over the other, I’d say that getting rid of Jason is probably slightly better than getting rid of Michele. While Michele is a bigger jury threat, getting rid of her pisses off two people (Michele and Cydney), while getting rid of Jason only pisses off Tai. Plus, Tai has nowhere to go, even if he is pissed off. He’ll make it through next episode, sure, but he’d do that in either case. You think he’s going to ally himself with Michele and Cydney? The pair have admitted they don’t want him around! Plus, just explain to Tai how you’re voting before Tribal Council, and hope that he understands. It’s that simple. Again, I’m not sure there’s a “Wrong” decision here, but that one is slightly better.

For all the crap I’ve given this episode, I will say that it has a really good Tribal Council, mostly due to Tai repeatedly putting his foot in his mouth. Michele said she was going to air dirty laundry before Tribal Council, but she couldn’t have predicted as great a lead-in as Tai. Man, when he’s in power, he’s COCKY! And no, that’s not a reference to Mark the Chicken. Put away that hashtag! No, Tai talks about how democratic he’s being, which Michele rightly calls out, which leads to an aggressive back-and-forth between them, culminating in Tai telling Michele that he doesn’t consider her part of the alliance, and that she’s “temporary”. And all without one word said about Jason, the guy who should be the main topic on conversation tonight. Give Probst a lot of credit, he OWNED that moment of transferring over to Jason. And that’s why Jeff Probst is awesome. I give him a hard time, but really, the man’s a good guy (albeit with some favoritism issues) who really knows how to host this show. He deserves all of the awards.

Also in favor for this Tribal Council is that I’m not sure who’s going. As I said, this vote isn’t exactly crucial for Aubry, and both Jason and Michele have decent screentime, so I could see this one going both ways. In the end, though, the predictable result happens, and Jason is sent packing. He goes out with a lot of dignity, and deserves respect as such. That said, I can’t say I’m too sorry. While he seemed not as bad as Scot overall, he was an unpleasant figure a lot of the time, and just such a non-entity that his leaving doesn’t impact too much. Hell, due to how tight he and Aubry are, even JOE’S leaving would have had more of an impact on the game.

Perhaps I was a bit harsh on this episode in my intro. There’s nothing OFFENSIVE about it, and there are a lot of cute, enjoyable scenes. But for how exciting, how dynamic this season has been, this felt like a step backward, particularly with all the annoying hypocrisy from at least half the cast. Now, you have to work with what you’re given, but last episode showed that, even in just a standard “Survivor” episode, you can find good nuggets. Let’s hope that THIS trend isn’t a streak.

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 7: The Return of the Knee

Why must the things I love always get stupid knee infections that require being pulled from the game? Yes, just when you’d thought we’d seen the end of the four-peats on “Survivor”, Jonathan Penner (“Survivor Cook Islands”) comes back with a vengeance, and takes it out on poor Neal. Penner at least had the decency to wait until Neal would end up on the jury to wreak havoc, but it’s still not very nice. Shame on you, Penner.

But first, time for another edition of…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Yes, I’m really on a roll here! Two episodes in a row where I made a mistake in my blog! Rather than a mistake of omission this time, it’s a mistake of misremembering, so at least there’s some variety there. When talking about Debbie’s “Women’s alliance” move with Michele, I say that they agree to go against Nick. Who they actually target is Jason. I wonder how I could possibly have made that mistake, given that Nick’s been getting the “douchbag” portrayal, and apart from some bullying, Jason’s been getting a pretty good edit thus far. Plus, Michele has personal conflict with Nick. Why would I EVER assume that Nick would be targeted before Jason. But now, once again, it’s Penner Time.

Yes, Penner ultimately does a number on the old Chan Loh, but he’s not the only one. Chaos reigns at the new Gondol post-Tribal Council, as you’d expect given how chaotic it was. Scot in particular is unhappy with the outcome, which makes sense given his “No Nonsense” sort of personality. However, he first takes his rage out on Joe for voting against the plan, which is odd, since Joe never seemed to be IN on that plan. These are the sort of things we ought to SEE, producers! Fortunately for Joe, he’s not the only one to be on the receiving end of a Scot rant. No, despite the fact that Aubry ultimately DID WHAT YOU WANTED, Scot thinks her waffling is too much to bear. A bit of an overreaction, but I can at least see his logic. As I said, Scot is not a complicated guy, and wants everything to stay simple. This move of Aubry’s is anything but simple. In her defense, I will say that she might legitimately have been confused, given the chaos of Tribal Council, but I do get Scot’s idea. Still, he’s being harsh, and starts earning that “bully” title that he and Jason have been wearing of late. He’s particularly mean in saying that, come next Tribal Council, he’ll be writing down “Aubry” and “Joe” alternately, and then crossing out all but his actual vote. That’s just harsh. Aubry and Joe both realize the predicament they’re in, lamenting that now they don’t have the numbers. Yep, if we didn’t know the merge was coming, this would be particularly bad!

Just to pile on the “royally screwed” for the old Chan Loh, we see a scene of Neal “fishing” with a saw. This in and of itself is nothing special, but Cydney breaks her silence to have a keen observation. There’s a noticeable bulge in Neal’s pocket, and given that we see that he’s not mad keen on working with the old To Tang, I doubt he’s happy to see you. She and Jason correctly conclude that it’s an idol. Since they plan on working against the old Chan Loh, blindsiding Neal becomes a top priority. While Neal didn’t hide the idol somewhere other than his person will forever remain a mystery.

In a stunning twist, however, the whole of the new Chan Loh is blindsided! A strange boat approaches shore, and a note tells them to gather their things in five minutes, since a merge is nigh! Just as we were told! Remember back in the old days, when the merge would come up in really unexpected and exciting ways, where each one was unique? Well, those days are gone, and the merge is just a ho-hum event now. Granted, the edition of a time limit in gathering things is nice, but we’ve seen it before, and we don’t get any real chaos from this one, so what was the point?

Evidently the two beaches are just a commercial break away, as everyone gathers on the Gondol Beach for the merge, Aubry celebrating her new life in this game. During the usual “How nice! The merge!” confessionals, we learn that the tribe’s name is Dara. Evidently we only get one good name every now and again, because after the triumph of a name that was “Orkun”, we now get something as simple and lame as “Dara”. Wow, that’s REALLY lazy and unmemorable. Come on, make your new tribe name something UNIQUE already! What’s worse, we don’t even get any sort of logic behind this new name! Is it the name of someone’s loved one? An actual word in K’hmer? Nonsense made up because it sounds funny? Was someone just a really big fan of Darrah Johnson from “Survivor Pearl Islands”, and just couldn’t spell her name right? Give me some answers here!

Sigh… Well, at least their flag looks cool when we see it.

As is now the norm with this cast, everything seems cordial at the merge feast. Flirtation abounds, as Debbie confesses her feelings towards Nick, and more humorously, Scot and Jason get in a joking fight over the affections of Tai. Ok, I’m going to be giving this episode a REALLY hard time later, so let me say for the record that this particular scene is great and hilarious. Definitely the highlight of the episode.

Sadly, as it always must, the bliss of the new merge ends. Unsurprisingly, resident douchebag Nick is the one to bring us back to our senses by being a douchebag and talking about how awesome and observant he is. Unlike last episode, at least at first, his observations seem to be a bit off the mark. He talks about the arrogance of the old To Tang, and while we do see a BIT of that later, we initially get that confessional over the comedic “Tai flirtation” scene, which doesn’t really seem arrogant at all.

The next scene doesn’t really give us arrogance either! Stupidity, perhaps, but not arrogance. Up until this point, while perhaps a bit blunt and unforgiving, Scot could be said to be playing a smart game, making the moves he needs to make and keeping everything on the down-low. Here, after being informed by Jason of the “Neal has an idol!” thing, Scot spills the beans to Nick AFTER BARELY KNOWING HIM! Sure, Nick’s made it pretty clear that he wants to go with them, but Scot can’t really know that, and that’s a BIG secret to share with someone who’s loyalty has yet to be tested, guy! Surely, though, Jason is better than this, and won’t be spilling even more beans to to Nick…

Oh wait, scratch that, Jason wants on the stupid train as well! He gets Scot talking about Tai’s idol, and the power they have. So now, you’re giving Nick even more power! Great work there, brain trust! Between that and your asshole-y “Shoving geeks in lockers.” comment later on, you guys are really dropping every ball this evening. First the strategy ball, and now the likability ball.

Sure enough, while he plays everything close to the chest, Nick DOES go and talk to the old Chan Loh, considering the fact that, as Neal points out, the old To Tang members are more likely to win individual challenges, and as Aubry later points out, are a tight threesome, whereas the old Chan Loh has more room to maneuver into. It’s actually a pretty decent dilemma, though it would at first seem odd that it’s the old Gondol that’s being wooed by both sides. Logic dictates that when you have two foursomes and a threesome, that you try and woo the threesome to get a majority. In this case, however, it makes sense that the old Gondol, rather than the old To Tang, would be the swing votes. After all, while the old Gondol is tied for most original tribe members left, they’re a fractious bunch, whereas the old To Tang and the old Chan Loh are both pretty united fronts. Thus, not only do you not need to swing all of them, but they’re overall an easier bunch to swing. It’s pretty standard gameplay, but as I’ve said before, after blogging seasons like “Survivor One World”, it’s nice to see groups of people collectively doing the sensible thing.

But enough with Nick, where does Michele stand on this? After all, she’s the other swing vote. You’d think, especially given how tight they were before the swap, that Michele and Julia would stick as swing votes together, but Julia for this entire episode is counted as a number for To Tang, and we never hear anything to the contrary. I guess one vote buys eternal loyalty now. Jason tries to woo Michele and Julia, and it’s here that we get the aforementioned “Geeks in lockers.” comment. Now Jason’s being somewhat arrogant, but Nick’s confessionals are nowhere to be found. Now, it’s sounding like Jason thinks his side is the obvious one, and he’s got the game all figured out. Not as much arrogance as we’ll be seeing later, but it’s enough to get Michele questioning her loyalties. As she puts it “She’s not married to Brawn and Beauty just yet.”

Meanwhile, back in Nick-land (yes, sadly we spend the majority of our time here this episode. Curse you swing vote!), we actually get some stuff that’s only TANGENTIALLY related to Nick, instead of directly. Basically, Debbie wants to make sure that her group stays in the majority, and this means finding allies wherever she can. Rather than be fully confident in Nick, she tries to gain other allies, which is good. But then she goes about it in a moronic way, which as you might guess, isn’t good at all. She basically ambushes Tai, and effectively tells him “We’re in an alliance now.” Tai, naturally, is put off by this, thereby ruining any chance he had of flipping. Granted, those chances were minimal to begin with, since he and Scot seem to have something going, but still, nice work, Debbie. She calls it “Aggressive Play”. Pretty much everyone else calls it “Horrible Play” And Debbie had been doing so well, too! Look, it’s not that looking for allies is bad, but you want to keep it on the down-low, and have it be by mutual consent. By strong-arming people, you turn them off to working with you. By being blatant about making new allies, you turn your old ones against you. Silent backup plans are one thing, but blatant fraternizing with the enemy only serves to weaken your position.

Oh, but Debbie isn’t done! She must COMPOUND the stupidity by basically doing the same thing to Nick, a guy you were masterfully stringing along one episode ago! WHY?!

Yes folks, after a long hiatus, we’ve returned to genuinely stupid gameplay. I’ve resisted “Coach” (“Survivor Tocantins”) comparisons a lot on this blog, in large part because everyone has already made them, but also because I haven’t felt them appropriate. Yes, they’re both people sort of on the fringe of sanity with some decent gameplay in them, but Debbie doesn’t seem as publicly self-aggrandizing as Coach ever did, and her stories, while still a bit ludicrous, are much more plausible than Coach’s. Here, though, Debbie goes full Coach. There’s no other comparison. Talking about how no one is playing on the level you are? Strong-arming people who don’t need to be strongarmed? Find me a better fit than Coach.

Still, one good thing does come of Debbie’s return to madness: Aubry comes into her own!

Yep, someone needs to do damage control, and that someone is Aubry. Taking her own initiative, she talks to Nick on her own, vainly trying to convince him that Debbie can be controlled, and that he and Michele would be way up in the alliance. Nick’s certainly willing to listen, and even seems to respect the pitch, but isn’t biting overall. Aubry relays this info to her ally Neal, now that the two have reconnected. All seems lost, until Neal reveals his idol to Aubry. At this point, given how much of a mess Debbie’s made, it’s highly unlikely that Nick and Michele can be pulled back into the fold, so while I’m never a fan of “idol play” as the main plan, I can see why it would be attractive and a good idea here.

We could move on to the challenge, but I want to spend another paragraph talking about Aubry. I know, I know, it’s blatant favoritism for my favorite player from this season, but it’s my blog, I get to do that. Plus, I think it merits mentioning. I’ve seen a number of people online saying that Aubry has no chance, that she’s just a wallflower who hasn’t really done anything. And it’s true, we haven’t seen as much of her as some others, because she’s not as big a character, but she’s far from done nothing, and I use this particular interaction with Nick as evidence. While it sadly seems to take a lot to get Aubry moving into more of a “game mode”, when the chips are down, this girl gets stuff done! Give her a tough situation, and she steps up to the plate and does everything in her power to swing things in her favor. In many ways, that’s harder to do than creating a blindside when you’re in power, since you have despair to contend with along with everything else. We haven’t seen as much of it beyond this episode (apart from her performance at the first immunity challenge), but you can tell it’s there, and that’s what makes me like her. She tackles adversity head-on, and won’t give up until she’s won or lost firmly, and that, above all else, is to be admired. And while she did act aloof when in power, and maybe could have handled the Peter boot slightly better, this shows that she can be quite an excellent social player when she wants to be.

Well, if I’m going to have MY indulgence, I’d better give Probst one as well. Hence, before we get to our immunity challenge, we get the “Infection Hour”, where Probst out of pretty much nowhere gets everyone talking about their infections. Tai, Scot, and Aubry all have infections on the inner thigh, while Neal has “Mount St. Neal” on his knee, which looks pretty bleak. Thank you, Probst, for showing us these out-of-the-blue injuries that weren’t built up at all and are pretty horrible to look at.

Oh, and we should also talk about this season’s individual immunity idol. Not as good as the tribal immunity idol, but that was a tough act to follow. This one does a pretty good job, being a circle of woven bands of tribe-colored string, but with some shrunken heads added for effect. A bit out there, and not the most stand-our idol ever, but it gets the job done pretty well. It sort of combines the best elements of the individual immunity idols from “Survivor Africa” and “Survivor Philippines” with the tribal immunity idol from “Survivor Exile Island”.

Ok, ok, so I’m stalling because I don’t want to talk about the immunity challenge! It’s SO BORING! It’s the damn “balance the balls on the disc” challenge that originated on “Survivor Redemption Island”. Already a bad sign, and made worse by the fact that it doesn’t look interesting the slightest, and is overused to the point of nausea. I get that it’s easy to make, challenging, and a nice endurance challenge, but REALLY, come up with something better.

At least we get a nice surprise in this one. With a challenge being about balance, you expect larger, top-heavy men to be first out of this one, and it somewhat holds true with Joe being the first casualty. But the Debbie falls, being outlasted by both Jason and Scot. Granted, they’re not far behind, but I had Debbie as a potential winner of this challenge. Guess those years of waitressing didn’t help out too much after all. And, in the end, Nick wins the whole thing, beating out Tai and Julia in the final round. Whodathunkit? Personally, I’d have picked either of those two over Nick.

Since Nick was a swing vote, his winning immunity doesn’t change anything, so it seems like the old To Tang will take it all this time around. And let me tell you, they REALLY kick it into high gear with the arrogance now, talking about how their plan can’t possibly fail, and they’re going to pick off the old Chan Loh one by one. Yeah, suffice to say that Jason and Scot really don’t look too good this episode, and if I didn’t have a HUGE dislike for them before, I do now.

That’s not to say, of course, that they aren’t somewhat justified in that arrogance. They do seem to be in the dominant position. Nick’s pretty much already declared his loyalty, such as it is, but Debbie and Aubry make another attempt to sway the opinion of Michele. Unfortunately, in a rare misstep for Aubry this episode, she lets Debbie do the talking. While Debbie doesn’t do QUITE as badly as she did with Tai and Nick, and Aubry does bring up a good point about the tightness of the old To Tang, they still come off looking wishy-washy, not helped when they can’t even decide whether to target Scot or Jason. Come on, Aubry, you can do better than this!

In one really good move for Nick, he and Michele discuss their strategy. Last time this happened, you’ll recall that Nick dismissed Michele’s thoughts out of hand, and alienated a potential ally. Neither of these things is really a good idea. Evidently, Nick can travel through time, somehow read this blog in the time between episodes, and took it to heart, because he plays this PERFECTLY! He politely asks Michele what she wants, agrees with her, and makes it like a discussion. And thus, the deal is set to send Aubry home, since the alliance doesn’t yet have the numbers to split the votes, and they’re certain that Aubry won’t have the idol. Pretty good misdirection as to whether or not Aubry will end up with idol, should make for a fun Tribal Council. Sad to see such a definitive answer to where Nick and Michele would go, but I can’t fault them for that decision. The old Chan Loh has not been presenting themselves well this episode, and it’s just smarter to go with the old To Tang. They may be united, but you can outthink them, and if you can unite, you’re four over three, which are pretty good odds. Plus, you’re sticking with your old tribemates, which is generally safer than going into the unknown.

But wait! We see Probst coming in with one Dr. Rupert (yeah, yeah, “He’s Rupert from ‘Survivor Pearl Islands’!”, everyone’s made that joke already), and right away, you can see where this episode is going. We were promised three medical evacuations, and we’ve only had one. Someone’s getting carted away, thus paving the way for a repeat of “Survivor Philippines”, with the returnees being exclusively from “Survivor Kaoh Rong”. And this, my friends, is where the episode dies. It hadn’t been the best before, with a lot of cocky arrogance making it hard to watch. While the dilemma of which side would win was a good one, it’s about to get neutered, making this episode pretty much pointless. On top of that, there was pretty much NO foreshadowing for this! And granted, I don’t like when they telegraph a boot, but I feel like medical evacuations are the place where we NEED some warning. Build up the spectacle through the entire episode. Don’t just mention it before the challenge, and then suddenly have it be the defining factor. This came out of the blue, and I don’t like it one bit. It renders most of the episode pointless, and delays the interesting conflict.

Everyone with an infection gets examined, with differing results. Tai’s look ok, so he’s safe. Scot’s is worse, but not too bad, so he just gets away with close monitoring. Aubry’s is like Scot’s but, bigger, so she gets put on antibiotics. With one medical evacuation still on the way, that’s pretty worrying, but she’s not leaving the game. The problem is Neal. Despite not feeling any pain, the infection is near the joint, which worries Dr. Rupert. To his credit, Neal does pretty much everything he can to avoid being pulled from the game. He protests, insists it’s fine, and only caves in when the doctor insists he has to leave. Thankfully, Probst largely leaves the proceedings alone for everyone, just making a clarifying comment after each examination. That’s the role he really needs to play here, and he does it well.

But yes, this means the loss of Neal, which is a sad one. We sadly didn’t see too much of Neal, and I get the feeling he’ll go down as a poorly-remembered player of the season, but I got the idea that he had more in him than we saw, and I hope we get the chance to develop it later.

Neal has a tearful goodbye with everyone, though he pulls a Colton Cumbie (“Survivor One World”), and opts to keep the idol for himself. I’d say that he did it because giving his alliance the idol would make them targets, but if J.T. can slip an idol into a freaking SHOE on “Survivor Heroes vs. Villains” without it being seen, then surely Neal can find a way to drop it in Aubry’s bag or something. Come on, dude, you know they’re in trouble! Find a way to help them out!

So basically, we had an unforeshadowed exit of a good player by unsatisfying means, thereby delaying all the good stuff for next episode. You see why this one doesn’t really work. Apart from the “good person leaving” part, this is pretty much a carbon-copy of the merge episode of “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, which, need I remind you, is NOT the season to copy! We have someone getting a non-gameplay elimination, thus delaying an interesting conflict in both. Is this one as bad as the one on “Survivor San Juan del Sur”? Thankfully no. There, we had a quit rather than a medevac, which is harder to watch, and the arrogance here wasn’t AS painful, so points there. That does not, however, a good episode make.

Fortunately, there are two good points this time around. First off, the rise of Aubry is fun to watch, and will hopefully continue to be fun to watch! I’d like to think she can find a way out of this, but I don’t see one at the moment. Second, though, the debate of which side to go with can now continue into next episode, and as we saw in “Survivor San Juan del Sur”, that can make all the difference.

But, since it’s merge time, it’s time for another:

TOP 5 AND BOTTOM 5!

Since they’re what the episode SHOULD have been about, let’s talk medevacs. Hardly the most pleasant part of the show, and things that should be avoided at all costs, they can nevertheless make for the occasional spectacle that reminds us of the seriousness of the environment. While I don’t wish harm on anyone, in a perverse way, they can be entertaining. Therefore, I’ll be judging these medevacs based on entertainment value. For me, that comes down to a combination of the spectacle of their injury, plus the person it’s happening to and their reaction to it. Again, it’s perverse, but it’s human nature. Like a car crash, you can’t look away. Also, if this person appeared on multiple seasons, I’ll be listing the one they were on when they got evacuated for them. Let’s get started with…

TOP 5

5. Bruce Kanegai (“Survivor Exile Island”): People tend to forget that medevacs were rare back in the day, let alone seeing medical. When Bruce’s colon became blocked, it was the first time in five years that medical had to come out and look at someone. That alone made it stand out, but the fact that it happened to Bruce made it rougher. Like the guy for his quirkiness or hate him for how entitled and bossy he could be, you had to agree that Bruce was pretty stoic. The man got his lip chopped in half and brushed it off! So, when he was keeling over in pain, you knew it was serious. Not as serious as the other stuff that’ll be on this list, since this one was harder to see for the audience, but still pretty serious. What really lands it on this list, though, is the reaction of everyone else upon Bruce’s leaving. As I said, Bruce was a real love-or-hate character, and he was definitely not universally popular amongst his fellow contestants. In a case of not speaking ill of the proverbially dead, though, everyone gave nice, touching thoughts on Bruce, and even cleaned his rock garden for him. How sweet.

4. Russell Swan (“Survivor Samoa”): A member of my alma mater, and member of the dominant tribe of the season (at least pre-merge), Russell was a hard guy to hate. He was tough, and while he made mistakes, he was generally a good leader. When we heard someone would nearly DIE on the show, no one expected him. But a combination of unending rain and an undying work ethic dehydrated Russell to the point of collapse, and that shocked pretty much everyone, even ultimately ending a reward challenge due to the seriousness of it. We’d never really seen anyone that close to death on the show before, and it therefore becomes seared into one’s brain, earning it this spot on the list. It was creepy enough seeing Russell pass out when medical was there, but seeing it the first time, when you didn’t know what was going on, that was real terror. And, in many ways on this list, that’s actually kind of a good thing.

3. Caleb Reynolds (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”): This one’s pretty simple: Caleb took what happened with Russell and upped the drama immensely. True, Russell in some ways did seem closer to death than Caleb, by being still rather than convulsing, but Caleb still seemed pretty near death, and in this case, misery loves company. Things got serious for Russell, but with Caleb, Cydney, and Debbie all going down, everyone had to be on duty. As I said in my episode 4 blog, this was a great show of professionalism by the production team, and it was neat to see them come together like this. I’m glad Caleb’s ok, and that his spectacle was enough to put him up here on the list.

2. Jonathan Penner (“Survivor Micronesia”): What this one lacks in the seriousness of others, it makes up for in foreshadowing and emotion. Unlike most other medical evacuations, we had pretty much an episode and a half of buildup for this one, so we really got to take in the story. But the real kicker, though, is the emotion. They pull out the sad music, the tearful interviews, the breakdowns from his tribe. For whatever reason, production pulled out all the stops in the tear-jerker that is the exit of Jonathan Penner. And it WORKS! Man, you really feel like this is a huge loss, even though Penner probably would have been voted out sooner rather than later. With the possible exception of the number one spot, Penner being pulled for a hole in his knee is the most emotional of medical evacuations, and earns the right to be on this list.

1. Michael Skupin (“Survivor The Australian Outback”): Sometimes less is more, and the only thing production could do to make Mike’s fall in the fire more dramatic than putting music over it was, oddly enough, to do nothing. Alone on this list, this one just lets the drama play out. All the game is put on hold, all attempts to hide production gone, the seriousness just gets to play out for a good long time. And then, even when Mike gets away safely on a helicopter, we get more tear-jerking scenes of everyone on the Kucha tribe crying/rallying at the loss of Mike. Hell, even the Ogakor tribe, the ENEMY of Mike Skupin, gets in on the action, that’s just how serious and heart-rending it is! It stands out, was extremely serious, and has a lot of heart. There’s good reason this is one of the most-remembered moments in the history of the show, as well as top of this list.

Honorable Mention: Shamar Thomas (“Survivor Caramoan”): Yeah, this one may be hard to remember, but Shamar was taken out, not for being annoying, but for a sore eye that was somehow deathly serious. Low stakes and barely foreshadowed, this one by rights should be on the “Bottom 5” list. However, it’s happening to Shamar, who pretty much everyone universally wanted to see suffer, so I’ll give it an honorable mention for schadenfreude.

BOTTOM 5

5. Joe Dowdle (“Survivor Tocantins”): I’m probably being a bit harsh here, since this one WAS adequately foreshadowed, and was at least as serious as the aforementioned Penner evacuation. In fact, it was EXACTLY as serious, being an infection near the knee. So, what makes this one different? Well, apart from the editing team not giving us as many tear-jerking moments as Penner got, do you honestly remember Joe as a contestant, let alone his manner of leaving? I thought so. This one isn’t bad by any standards, but just so forgettable that it has to go on the list.

4. Neal Gottlieb (“Survivor Kaoh Rong”): It seems that those who follow in the footsteps of Penner are doomed to mediocrity. A lack of foreshadowing puts this knee infection higher than Joe’s, and the loss of a great character really hits me personally. At least we get to see Neal on the jury.

3. Gary “Papa Smurf” Stritesky (“Survivor Fiji”): Up until this point, medevacs were treated with a lot of reverence. They took up a whole episode, and honored the memory of the fallen contestant. This one basically said “Screw it, we’re moving on anyway!” Gary left with very little fanfare, which is a shame, since he was a likable guy, and the only non-recruit in the cast. On top of that, his reason for leaving turned out to be incredibly lame. It was general shortness of breath, which turned out to be caused by an allergic reaction to bug bites. BUG BITES! When you have had people downed by third-degree burns and blocked intestines, this one just seems lame by comparison. The fact that it’s basically an afterthought for the show itself is the icing on this awful cake, and a real sad ending for one of the few likable elements of the season.

2. Dana Lambert (“Survivor Philippines”): Interesting fact: Dana is the only woman to be medevaced in the history of the show. Perhaps they’re not as foolhardy as others. Sad to say, Dana does not do her gender justice. Dana was downed by some sort of jungle illness, already not the most dramatic way to go out of the game. What’s frustrating about this one, though, is the fact that Dana didn’t NEED to go then! Of all the medical evacuations, she was the only one who insisted medical take her when they said she could stay. I try not to be too judgmental of people who dare to do this show, but that’s just an insult! Were it not for the number one spot being so horrible, this show of unemotional weakness would take it!

1. Colton Cumbie (“Survivor One World”): Since the tragic and unfortunate death of Caleb Bankstown (“Survivor Blood vs. Water”), I’ve tried to leave Colton alone, since I feel like the poor guy has suffered enough, and doesn’t need some asshole on the internet tearing him down further. Unfortunately, I just can’t find a reason NOT to put Colton’s “Medical Evacuation” on this list. I use quotation marks since there’s debate about whether or not Colton faked appendicitis to leave the game, thinking he couldn’t win. I tend to discount this, since Colton was in a good position anyway, and didn’t really have a reason to want to leave the game, but I feel the controversy should be acknowledged. This one being the worst really centers around the person it happened to. Essentially, Colton annoyingly tantrummed his way into power, ran the game, and then left in an unsatisfying manner. There’s no emotion there because pretty much no one liked Colton at this point. We wanted him gone, sure, but we wanted him voted off in a satisfying manner, not this! This really was just the final insult in a season full of insults. Colton, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry for the harsh words. I’m trying to be nice to you, since I feel like you’ve had to endure a lot because of this show, but I have to call them like I see them, and your leaving the season was just the worst.

Honorable Mention: James Clement (“Survivor Micronesia”): This one has emotion and some foreshadowing, and really should be on the “Top 5” list. Unfortunately, it has the problem of coming after Penner’s exit on the same season, and without all the bells and whistles that Penner’s exit got, just feels like a second-rate rehash of a better plot. Not so bad that it needs to be on the “Bottom 5” list proper, but must still be acknowledged.

As I say, this wasn’t a good episode for the season, but hopefully, good things will come, and it doesn’t ruin the season by any stretch. Keep your glasses raised for next week!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.

Idol Speculation: “Survivor Kaoh Rong” Episode 6: Bi-Winning

Hoo baby! Five for six excellent episodes, and you could even argue for a clean sweep! Not quite as good as the record of “Survivor Cambodia”, but given that that season was effectively an “All-Star” season, and therefore more likely to have crazy gameplay, that’s quite a record. Seasons that come after seasons with many returnees tend to be seen as, at best, “Not as good.” by the fanbase. Look at “Survivor Vanuatu”, “Survivor Gabon”, and “Survivor Nicaragua” for examples of this. However, while I would not yet go so far as to say that “Survivor Kaoh Rong” is in that echelon yet (currently I’m putting it around the “Survivor Philippines” level of “above average”), it’s still holding its own very well, and is definitely a good season. Much better than how it was advertised pre-season anyway. As you’d expect, this episode keeps that pattern running, with yet another winner. But before we can delve into the awesomeness that is this episode, we must linger a little longer in the awesomeness that was last episode. Yes, after a long absence, it is time once again for…

MATT’S MESS-UP!

Yes, I neglected to mention two points last episode, both good ones. One was just a small humorous moment I neglected to acknowledge. Upon entering the immunity challenge, Michele attempts to stop on the Gondol mat, since it was her original tribe, and has to be corrected by Nate. A small, but funny moment. Not a huge loss in the grand scheme of things, but still worth pointing out. More importantly, though, I neglected to compliment the editing team on a nice bit of work last episode. You’ll recall that one of the main mysteries was whether or not Tai would play his idol. Naturally, this needed to be built up, and man did they ever at Tribal Council! They held on Tai for so long, played the dramatic music, and really made it seem like he would play it, making the surprise when he did it all the better! It occurs to me that, second only to the quality of the cast, the quality of the editing may be a major determining factor in the quality of a season. After all, you keep the mystery alive, and the show becomes all the more intriguing. This is just one major example of it, but the editing team overall has given us a very unpredictable season, and it only serves to improve things!

But enough dwelling in the past, let’s talk about how great this episode opener is! Rather than engage in the usual boot-bashing upon returning from Tribal Council, everyone hugs Tai and bonds over their liking of each other. Some may see this as a weakness of this season, but I really like the fact that despite how conniving these people can be, very few seem to take it personally, and all seem to get along very well. They aren’t mean, and it makes things a lot easier to watch, as well as to root for this group of people.

Save, perhaps, for arrogant, flip-flop-y Peter. Yes, now that Tribal Council is over, he thinks “Hey, I’m on the bottom of the old Chan Loh. Perhaps I ought to do something about that!” Why he didn’t do this last episode when it would have been much easier for him to get the numbers is beyond me, but hey, better late than never. He pulls Tai aside under the pretext of further congratulations, and slips in his plan to vote out Joe. Ok, Peter, it’s bad enough that you’re thinking of the correct plan for you literally one day late, but now you’re also targeting the wrong person! Don’t get me wrong, as an Aubry fan, I applaud you not targeting her, but she’s the smarter move. Joe is weaker in general, and seems to have the LEAST power out of anyone in the alliance. If you’re trying to weaken the old Chan Loh, Aubry is clearly the correct choice. You even figure this out later! How can you not see it now! Tai seems to go along with it, and we store that bit of insanity away for later.

Meanwhile, over at Chan Loh, we get what is quickly becoming our standard “Nick talks about how well he plays the game.” confessional, though to his credit, this one is less arrogant than most of his. Basically, he talks about how he pitches himself to the level of the person he’s interacting with to get results, which is fair enough strategy. As an example, he talks about Debbie, and how, since she thinks of herself as the greatest thing since sliced bread, all he has to do is play along with that. Not a bad example, since Debbie does seem to have an ego, but careful there, Nick! As the audience found out the hard way, Debbie is not to be underestimated. For all that ego, she may snake you yet.

For her part, though, Debbie isn’t looking at Nick too closely. At least, not in the right way. Debbie thinks Nick is attractive, which personally I don’t see. Maybe it’s because he comes across as obviously a scuzball in person as he does on screen, but I don’t see it. He’s got a strong chin I suppose, but something about him just looks off. But hey, don’t take my word for it! After all, Debbie knows what good looks are, since she did some modeling in the past. And, right on cue, up comes the Debbie caption, now with “part-time model” listed as an occupation. Once again: Editors. You’re doing it right!

Nick plays into Debbie’s attraction to him, and we find our tree-mail, which indicates that the challenge this time will be something basketball-related. Not being idiots, Chan Loh realizes they’re going up against Scot, and this puts them at a bit of a disadvantage. Nick, however, takes the positive view. He’s going to be the basket-shooter for Chan Loh, and by going up against Scot, the pressure’s off for him. If he loses, no big deal. He was against an NBA player, of course he’d lose. If he WINS, though, it’s a big freaking deal. That’s… actually exactly the right attitude to have. Yeah, I’ve been giving Nick a hard time, but he actually plays really well in this particular segment. Credit where credit is due, he actually hits all the right notes this one time. Don’t worry, though, douchebag Nick is not far off!

We get to the challenge, which is an interesting combination of challenges from “Survivor Micronesia” and “Survivor Cagayan”. One tribe member dives to untie a series of knots to release 30 buoys from the ocean floor. They and three other tribe members must then herd the buoys to shore and place them on shelves. Afterwards, the remaining two tribe members try to shoot those buoys into a basket, first tribe to 10 winning a nice picnic. It is a combination challenge, and I admit the basketball part feels lackluster and unfair, due to Scot’s presence. Then again, since when did “fairness” enter “Survivor”? Besides, they did the same thing on “Survivor Cagayan” with Cliff Robinson, and the buoy herding part is pretty neat. Plus, if you’re going to combine challenges from two seasons, it’s hard to find a better combination than “Survivor Micronesia” and “Survivor Cagayan”.

Julia rejoins the game at this juncture, heading back to Gondol. This does become important a bit later, but for now there’s no reaction, so it’s not important. What IS important is that, once again, this is a very close race between the tribes. After many seasons where, post-swap, one tribe utterly dominates the other, it’s nice to see an even competition at this point. Gondol takes an early lead due to Aubry’s diving skills, and keeps it up the beach. However, Scot proves to not be as good as you’d think, as Nick catches and ultimately surpasses him. Scot eventually gets his mojo back, though, and eventually manages to clinch this tense challenge, becoming Charlie Sheen in the process and yelling out “Winning!” at the end. Ugh! As if we needed to be reminded of THAT bit of unpleasantness!

We join the ever-jubilant Gondol on reward, and it’s NOW that we get to hear from Julia. She’s happy to be going back to the familiar, not too surprisingly, but she’s also not an idiot. With Anna gone, she realizes that she’s probably in trouble. Worse, she’s been out of the loop, with no obvious way in. After all, Tai’s her only original tribemate left, and he wasn’t exactly tight with her. Luckily for her, Peter the Uncertain is there to make it all better! He pulls her out into the water, and informs her of his plan to turn against the old Chan Loh. What’s more, he NOW figures out that, despite his personal feelings towards Joe, Aubry might be the smart one to take out. Julia, for her part, seems happy not to be the only target available, and with Scot seemingly in with Tai, things seem set in motion.

Not that Aubry and Joe are blind, of course. After all, they seem socially more adept than Peter. However, in their security, they seem to be making an error. Often, during the first part of this episode, we see them going off and conversing by themselves, separating from the tribe. Even if you’re in power, this is a big no-no. It separates you socially and strategically from where you need to be, and can easily set a coup in motion, like it seems to be doing now. Seeing Peter converse with a whole bunch of people, Aubry and Joe are suspicious, but for now, Aubry thinks that keeping the numbers is more important, and agrees that Julia needs to leave. Things are not looking good for the pair.

As he predicted, Nick is hailed as a hero back at Chan Loh, despite his not winning the challenge. He came close against the pro NBA player, and that’s enough. Unfortunately, he’s not the only one at fault. Michele struggled on the knots, and that crucial bit of time might have been the learning curve Nick needed. On top of that, while Nick was on the bottom of the old Gondol, and thus is relatively unaffected by the loss of Anna, Michele was closely allied with her, so her exit means Michele just lost a lot of stock in the game. Naturally, this combination of events puts Michele in a bit of a funk, and at first it seems like that might be her undoing. She goes out into the water and sulks for a bit. Debbie sees this, and makes a comment about making sure she doesn’t kill herself. WHOA! Dick move there, Debbie! That’s really not the sort of thing you joke about! Fortunately, Michele pulls herself together, and starts playing this game strategically. Seemingly abandoning the whole “Old Gondol” thing, she talks to Debbie about not liking Nick, and wanting to stick together. Debbie agrees, noting that she wants a woman to win this thing. She’s been saying this a lot, and it actually makes sense. Apart from the women overall being much better players than the men this time around, it’s a way of feeling out potential alliance mates, and even setting up a pseudo-alliance, without actually betraying anybody. After all, if she gets caught, she didn’t technically make any promises.

But enough of the interesting stuff! Are you ready for DOUCHEBAG NICK! Yes, introducing Douchebag Nick is the lovely and talented Michele Fitzgerald. She’s going up to him like an equal, offering him the possibility of sticking with the old Chan Loh. Ah, but here’s a trademark move of Douchebag Nick: Being dismissive of others! Yes, Douchebag Nick is not considering her opinion at all! Not even a little! He’s flat-out telling her that they’re going with the old To Tang! Granted, that’s the smart move at this point, since the old Chan Loh is much more united, but that’s not the way you win friends and influence people, Douchebag Nick! Yep, there’s Michele making a face at it. Seems like she’ll go along with it for now, but she doesn’t really need Nick at this point, and might turn on him. Now, THERE’s an interesting storyline developing! After all, while all sides at the new Chan Loh are brokering for each other, Debbie’s really the only one going for both the women and the men on each side. Could that mean the difference down the line? Only time will tell.

You may have noticed that the promised blow-up of Joe at Peter seen the last “Next time on…” preview hasn’t been seen yet. Well, wait not longer! After Peter goes off to obviously talk with yet ANOTHER person outside the old Chan Loh, Joe loses it. We’ve seen that Peter has a problem with Joe, so Joe suspects that Peter is up to something. Thus, Joe goes to have a conversation to try and figure out if Peter’s flipping or not. This is actually a good idea. If Peter’s not going to be loyal, than it’s worth considering getting him out. What’s NOT a good idea is how Joe goes about it. Namely, he gets very angry at Peter, becomes very confrontational, and ultimately forms a pretty big rift between the two. Granted, this method does get the results desired, since it becomes clear from Peter’s waffling on the question that he’s disloyal, but now you’ve lost some social points, and Peter knows you’re on to him. Better to go about these things subtly, Joe.

Anyway, we move on to our challenge, which once again seems set up to favor Scot, this time because of an emphasis on the height department. It’s an interesting take on your standard obstacle course. Tribes run over a spinning log before getting hurled up onto a net ramp. Then, they must untie poles to knock blocks off an overhead net (somewhat similar to “Survivor Blood vs. Water”, before stacking said blocks on a tiny platform, like on “Survivor Samoa”. First tribe to have all blocks stacked and standing free for three seconds wins immunity, which looks much less cool without its base. Not as good as the reward challenge, and combining elements from “Survivor Blood vs. Water” and “Survivor Samoa” is not as good as the aforementioned “Survivor Micronesia” and “Survivor Cagayan”. However, it’s original enough, and is once again very tense. What ultimately makes me pass it, though, is that the shade of blue they used brings back memories of “Survivor Guatemala”, and I really like “Survivor Guatemala”.

Despite having gained a lead on the block-pushing section, Peter’s insane “Put the small blocks on first!” idea ultimately leads to a narrow loss for Gondol. Fortunately, this is a situation where both tribes had good strategizing scenes, so it came as a surprise, and doesn’t feel disappointing. As if Peter’s constant flip-flopping wasn’t bad enough, after an Aubry-incited reconciliation from Joe, Peter now thinks that sticking with the old Chan Loh is a good idea. WHY? Peter, they’re not going to let you get too far in this game! Flip now while you have the chance! Let there be no firm alliances come the merge so you can have the swing vote! Be sensible! But no, Peter tells Scot what the deal is, and so Scot confers with Julia and Tai. Like they should have done LAST episode with Anna, the three try to figure out a way to get Peter off, since he’s annoying everyone, and is therefore likely to be wanted out by the other Chan Loh. Despite their earlier confrontation, Joe is ruled out due to being to loyal. That leaves Aubry. Since Peter targeted Aubry with Julia, they think she might be their swing vote. Accordingly, Tai and Julia take a walk with Aubry, and fill her in. Aubry takes the information to heart, which makes everyone else believe that she won’t go for it, and that Julia’s gone. Privately, Aubry’s considering it, since Peter’s targeting her makes him more of a threat. Joe, however, is having none of it, saying he’s tired of this wishy-washy-ness. Um, Joe? Correct me if I’m wrong, but WHO was it who, not two commercial breaks ago, was wanting Peter out with every fiber of their being? Oh, that’s right, YOU! I really don’t get where he’s coming from. He’s had beef with Peter, but it’s not ok when Aubry does? Seems a bit hypocritical there, buddy.

So of course, heading off to Tribal Council, the question is whether or not Aubry will flip, and whether it’s a smart move. Time will tell on both. While I’d normally give my two cents on what the smart move is here, I’m going to save it for the end of the blog, because it’s a bit complicated.

While some may sing it’s praises, I found Tribal Council tonight to be a pretty standard affair, vote results notwithstanding. Some would argue this, since we got last minute open strategy talk at Tribal Council, but that seems to have become par for the course on “Survivor” at this point. Still, it’s always pretty interesting to watch in and of itself, and it’s not as though this Tribal Council was BAD. Really, it’s more that, save the results, we didn’t really have a lot of stand-out moments.

But oh, those results! Of course, the big question mark here was Aubry, especially since Scot, Julia, and Tai made it clear they were voting for Peter. Thus, it was a bit odd to see that Aubry had written down Julia. Since Joe made it clear he wasn’t flipping, and Peter can’t vote for himself, that means it’s a tie, right? Well no. Peter goes home, good riddance to him, but how do you explain that Aubry vote? Why, she changed her mind in the booth, of course! The last vote read has “Julia” crossed out, and “Peter”, written under it, thus changing the vote. Excellent fake-out engineered by Aubry and the editing team! Like I said, the editing this season has been above-average, and I can’t sing its praises enough. As to Peter’s ouster, I’m not sorry to see him go. The guy was arrogant and not really that smart. Certainly Julia showed herself to be better than him this evening, doing a very good job of keeping her head up and helping herself out of a tough situation. On top of that, we’d really already seen how this story-arc was going, so it was nice to get that concluded and not have it hanging over our heads going into the merge. And Peter, don’t worry. It wasn’t JUST your challenge performance that got you the axe. It was your arrogance and horrible strategic play as well.

But enough chit-chat! I’m sure you want to know whether Aubry’s flip was the right move! That’s a bit of a complicated question for me. You see, the answer is yes… but with a caveat. the answer is yes, KNOWING WHAT WE, AS THE AUDIENCE, KNOW. We know that next episode is the merge, and that changes everything. Once the merge hits, Peter becomes much more of a threat, by showing that you aren’t a united front, and being a swing vote. The old Gondol is already fractured, so getting out one more of them won’t make much of a difference. Plus, in an odd way, by lowering your numbers, you make yourself a more attractive prospect for an alliance come the merge, since your numbers wouldn’t be so dominating. The argument could be made that this pisses off Joe, but given that Aubry evidently gave him some warning, and that Peter was a threat whom Joe didn’t like, I doubt he’ll be too put out over the whole thing. If you know the merge is coming, then Peter is the biggest threat to your alliance, and therefore it is a good idea to get him out. But that’s the thing: Aubry DOESN’T know the merge is coming. She predicted correctly, I’ll grant you, but my philosophy with strategy is always go with what you know. Since the date of the merge is technically unpredictable, it’s smarter to go with what you know, and what you know is that if you vote out Peter, you’re down in numbers on the new Gondol. you might outlast Joe, but since he’s in your alliance, you don’t want him gone either. From Aubry’s perspective, probably would’ve been smarter to stick with voting out Julia. That said, she predicted correctly, and ultimately I think this move works to the benefit of her and her alliance. There’s just no way she could have known it.

Man alive, what an episode! Excellent strategy all around, good misdirection, hilarious editing, and a deserving boot! For once, the merge has its work cut out for it!

-Matt

Title Credit to Jean Storrs.